The end of Plaid-Visa, and Palantir’s growing startup mafia

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week we — Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace — had a lot to get through, as the news volume in early 2021 has been rapid and serious. Sadly this means that some early-stage rounds missed the cut, though we did make sure to have some Series A material in the show.

So, what did the assembled crew get to? Here’s your cheat sheet:

• • The demise of the Plaid-Visa deal, our chat with the CEO of the fintech unicorn and what the failed transaction could mean for startup valuations more broadly.
  • Why the $1.4 billion Nuvia exit to Qualcomm is impressive in scale and puzzling. This topic also gave Danny a chance to talk about chips, his favorite thing.
  • Auto-insurance rates can often depend on highly variable demographic data like marital status, income and education. Loop is a new seed-stage startup that wants to make the process more equitable. It landed millions this week, underscoring a broader insurtech wave.
  • SuperCharger Ventures pivoted its fintech accelerator into an edtech accelerator! We discuss why the shift and its surprising focus on B2B makes a ton of sense.
  • Crypto’s going up and down, ahead of the anticipated Coinbase IPO and the known Bakkt SPAC. More on that here.
  • Sticking to the SPAC front, SoFi joined the list of companies using blank-check companies to approach the public markets.

• As is Talkspace, the tele-therapy startup that you’ve heard of.
• Then there was SoftBank, of course, which has its own SPAC in the market now, confirming earlier reports. Which makes perfect sense.

There are so many SPACs and bits of IPO news and funding rounds to pick through and cover that we’re already straining the time limits of the show to even cover half of the material. This week that meant that we excised a chunk of the show to a forthcoming Saturday episode that is focused on e-commerce.

So, we will talk to you again soon!