The former star of Silicon Valley has to start his prison sentence despite appeals. Also: First US state bans Tiktok and Ripple buys Swiss startup Metaco.
Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.
The top topics:
Elizabeth Holmesthe disgraced CEO of the failed blood testing company Theranos, must report to prison on May 30. According to a ruling by US District Judge Edward Davila on Wednesday, Holmes must be in the detention center no later than 2 p.m. that day. Holmes will probably first have to go to a low-security prison in Texas.
On Tuesday, an appeals court rejected Holmes’ attempt to stay out of prison while she appealed her conviction. In another ruling on Tuesday, Davila ordered Holmes and former Theranos manager Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to pay the victims $452 million in damages. Last year, a federal jury in California found Holmes guilty of four counts of investor fraud. Davila then received a sentence of 11 years and three months in November. Balwani was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison in July. He has been serving his sentence since April. [Mehr bei CNBC und Techcrunch]
On Founder Scene: A lot of people are dreaming of living in a tiny house right now. But is this really as cool as it sounds? The startup Tramp builds just such miniature houses. Our editor Fiona Mathewson visited the startup in Munich and tried out life in a tiny house – and now she also knows the disadvantages. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
And here are the other headlines of the night:
Tiktok has been banned in the first US state. Montana has a ban on the Chinese company’s social media app Bytedance issued to “protect the personal and private information of the people of Montana from the Chinese Communist Party,” Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte wrote on Twitter Wednesday after the law was signed. The law was passed by Parliament in April. The ban is expected to come into effect next year – provided it survives the expected legal battle. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal und Handelsblatt]
Takeover: The crypto payments company Ripple buys the Swiss-based startup Metaco for $250 million. The Americans want to expand their offer to crypto custody services. Metaco will continue to operate as a separate brand and business unit after the acquisition and will be led by its founder and CEO Adrien Treccani. The current customers of the company are the banks Citi, BNP Paribas and DBS. [Mehr bei The Information]
Wework Receives support: After the shares in the office broker had to accept losses due to the departure of the CEO, the financier Rajeev Misra backed the US company. Misra, who also continues at Softbank has agreed through its new fund to provide a nearly $500 million high-yield mortgage to ailing WeWork. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]
Micron Technology is set to receive around $1.5 billion in funding from the Japanese government, according to a Bloomberg report. This is intended to support the production of next-generation memory chips in the country. The US company will use the money to build new EUV chip manufacturing facilities at its Hiroshima facility ASML to install. [Mehr bei Bloomberg]
Shein has raised two billion US dollars in a new round of financing from investors such as Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and the sovereign wealth fund Exchange collected from the United Arab Emirates. The online fashion retailer, which was once founded in China but now has its headquarters in Singapore, is said to have been valued at 66 billion dollars. This is about a third less than the previous valuation of $100 billion. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]
Our reading tip on Gründerszene: The Heidelberg AI startup Aleph Alpha needs money to be able to score internationally. Funding could be secured soon. Because supposedly is Intel interested in getting started. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
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A nice Thursday!
Your Gründerszene editors