2 weeks after prolonged system outage, Alibaba CEO takes over company’s cloud division • TechCrunch

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We’re almost there, folks. It’s the last Thursday of 2022, and today we have news for you from Alibaba and Spotify, as well as crypto news from India. And as always, we’re giving you the benefits of TC+, our premium membership program. Read on, dear readers, and we’ll be back tomorrow to bring you the final moments of 2022 in tech. — HP

TechCrunch’s top 3

• Alibaba’s Cloud Movement: Alibaba Cloud has a new president, Rita reports. The world’s third-largest public cloud infrastructure provider only after AWS and Microsoft has named company CEO Daniel Zhang as interim president.
• Call it with Spotify: Aisha writes that the platform wants to help you welcome 2023 in style with what it thinks you might enjoy. Playlists such as “Party Hits”, “Floor Fillers”, “Pop Party” and “Rock Party” will keep you going until midnight. The hub also offers you DJ mixes like TT the Artist, Carlita, AMÉMÉ, Coco & Breezy, &ME and Austin Millz. Go down!
• Indian crypto regulations: Under its G20 presidency, India has said it will seek to prioritize the development of a framework for the global regulation of unbacked crypto assets, stablecoins and decentralized finance, writes pot holder.

Startups and VCs

• Remember this: Katherine writes that Recall.ai raised $2.7 million in a seed funding round to help with a unified API that works with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to help customers build apps for a number of use cases.
• Turns down: Mary Ann spoke with GGV’s Hans Tung and Robin Li about the company’s position in a challenging venture capital environment. (Requires a TC+ subscription.)

Redefining “Founder-Friendly” Capital in the Post-FTX Era

Could the FTX debacle have been avoided had investors taken a more active interest in the company’s operations?

Given the chilly climate for late-stage fundraising and widespread economic uncertainty, “it’s time for the startup community to redefine what ‘founder-friendly’ capital means and balance the both the source and the cost of that capital,” writes co-founder Blair Silverberg. and CEO of Hum Capital.

In a TC+ guest post, he assesses the relative advantages of active versus passive investors, breaks down the basics of debt-funding startups, and shares tips “for founders looking for a better balance between capital and external expertise for their businesses”.

Tech Crunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get a head start. You can register here. Use code “DC” to get 15% off an annual subscription!

Look back and look ahead

We’ve rounded up the best of our TC+ coverage of the crypto roller coaster year. Not enough? Jacquie provided us with a few extras in order to extract more pulp from the crypto juice:

Ron looked at the private equity that dominated the top 10 corporate M&A deals this year. Transactions totaled nearly $154 billion. (Requires a TC+ subscription.)

Rebecca has some thoughts on what to expect for the micromobility market in 2023 – after what she called a “tumultuous” year.