TikTok heads for a ban

Alex Wilhelm
January 17, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Top News

TikTok ban upheld: This morning, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected an appeal by TikTok with a score of nine to zero. The ruling means that TikTok is racing towards at least removal from app stores on the 19th — and potentially a full shutdown, as has been reported. The TikTok issue, we suspect, is far from over and will spill over into the incoming administration.
$150M for Phantom: What has 15 million monthly active users and a shiny new $3 billion price tag? Phantom, the well-known crypto wallet provider, that’s who. Phantom is best known for its work with the Solana blockchain, but it supports multiple blockchains, staking, and other normal wallet functions. Crypto is enjoying a moment in the sun after yet another cycle out of favor. Expect more nine-figure crypto rounds this year.
Instabase snaps up $100M: Instabase, a startup that helps companies understand and leverage their unstructured data, has raised another nine-figure round. TechCrunch reports that the new cash—led by the Qatar Investment Authority—saw its valuation dip. Down rounds are more common these days, and Instabase proves that raising at a lower price is far from a death sentence. To the contrary, the unicorn is now recapitalized ahead of what is expected to be a busy year for business.

TWiST500

The TWiST500 is an effort to find the private-market companies that will lead to the largest financial outcomes. That means we need to look high, low, and with great breadth to avoid missing potentially massive startup exits down the road.

That’s a long-winded way of saying that we’re a bit light on crypto companies on the TWiST500 today, something at which I shall chip. We added MoonPay to the list recently — stay tuned for them on the podcast in the coming weeks — but I think Phantom has earned a spot as well.

Not because it just raised more money, though attracting capital is no sin to success. No, instead, it’s this line from the company’s own release, stating that Phantom has “15 million monthly active users.” A purely social app with 15 million MAUs would be notable. A financial product with that scale of use? Now we’re really talking.

That’s a lot more than what we’re seeing from Farcaster, a crypto social network that has also earned a spot on the TWiST500

Perhaps a weakness in my thinking has been that crypto needs to be filed under the fintech or social business type and not both.. It may be both. There’s a seemingly neverending supply of folks who want to buy, trade, tinker, create new tokens, and play with those more established. Phantom’s Solana roots matter here, as there have been a great number of meme coins built on that blockchain of late.

By that logic, Phantom is putting the — please excuse me in advance — fun into fintech? — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2073: Alex kicks off the show by diving into the Supreme Court ruling on TikTok and some key market numbers. He also sits down with two CEOs from companies freshly added to the TWIST500. We get a masterclass from Bob van Luijt of Weaviate on vector databases, helping AI and LLMs do what they do. Then, Philip Johnston from Lumen Orbit explains his vision of building data centers in space.

E2072: Jason and Alex interview Aarush Selvan, lead PM at Google Gemini Deep Research, and discuss what's going on with the application and their groundbreaking work. They also take a moment to cover TikTok’s precarious future and geopolitical implications. Plus, the episode features demos of Synthesia's AI video tools and highlights from Jason’s Japan skiing adventure.

E2071: Alex opens the show and dives into Mark Zuckerberg's Joe Rogan interview, OpenAI's economic pitch, and the pending IPO of India’s Groww. Alex interviews two of our TWiST500 members: James Cadwallader (Profound) and Martin Rehak (Resistant AI), who discuss their companies' innovative approaches to SEO and fraud detection. The episode also covers the Biden administration's AI diffusion plan and shifts in the global tech landscape.

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