Owning the paycheck is the key to fintech success

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

This week, Natasha and Danny, otherwise known as your two new favorite Book influencers (inside joke, you’ll get if you listen to the show), hopped on the mics to take everyone through the news, with Grace and Chris in the background.

Here’s what we got into:

• Wise announced plans to go public via direct listing, making it the biggest company to use this route to debut on the London Stock Exchange.
• Andreessen Horowitz goes into publishing with Future, so Danny and Natasha took turns fawning over why everyone has hot takes about a blog, and what could be in the future for Future.
• Harry Stebbings turned up the volume on 20VC with new $140M fund. Natasha broke down why it matters for emerging fund managers, and why it might quiet some concerns about the growth potential of micro-funds.
• After we left our usually programmed media and venture conversation, we turned to community. Commsor bought Meetsy to build community tools for all for an undisclosed price.
• Danny found hobby-market fit with BookClub, a startup that just raised $20 million to make reading experiences more engaging with author-led discussions. Then, the edtech convo continued with Formative’s $70 million financing event from this week.
• Danny had the scoop on Gusto’s first-ever acquisition as well as Clair, a tool that is skipping the direct deposit and heading straight for the paycheck. 
• To close out the funding round section, we spoke about Carbyne making emergencies more streamlined, and what Natasha argued is the headline o’ the week: Neo4j raises Neo$325m as graph-based data analysis takes hold in enterprise.
• To close, we spoke to HBCUvc’s $1 million fund to back overlooked founders, and onramp aspiring investors.

Well, as you can tell, it’s been a busy writing and speaking week for your humble hosts. We’re grateful for the opportunity, and will be back in your ears on Monday.

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST and Thursday afternoon as fast as we can get it out, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

P.S. We can’t wait to see you all at our live show next week. If you haven’t grabbed free tickets, GET THEM!