Technology

Facebook has launched Messenger Kids in India with additional parental controls so that it can get more children under the age of 13 on to the platform.The messaging app, launched originally in December 2017, is now available across 75 countries worldwide. 

The social media platform, which has over 400 million users in India making it the second

While some U.S. investors might have taken comfort from Chinarebound, we still find ourselves in the early innings of this period of uncertainty.

Some epidemiologists have estimated that COVID-19 cases will peak in April, but PitchBook reports that dealmaking was down -26% in March, compared to Februaryweekly average. The decline is likely to continue in coming weeks — many of the deals that closed last month were initiated before the pandemic, and there is a lag between when deals are made and when they are announced.

However, therestill hope. A recent report concluded that because valuations are lower and thereless competition for deals, &the best-performing vintages tend to be those that invest at the nadir of a downturn and into the early stage of recovery.& There are countless examples from the 2008 recession, including many highly valued VC-backed businesses such as WhatsApp, Venmo, Groupon, Uber, Slack and Square. Other early-stage VCs seem to have arrived at a similar conclusion.

Also, early-stage investing seems more resilient. During the last recession, angel and seed activity increased 34% as interest in the stage boomed during a period of prolonged growth.

Image Credits: PitchBook (opens in a new window)

Furthermore, there is still capital to be deployed in categories that interested investors before the pandemic, which may set the new order in a post-COVID-19 world. According to data provider Preqin Ltd., VC dry powder rose for a seventh consecutive year to roughly $276 billionin 2019, and another $21 billionwere raised last quarter. And looking at the deals on the early-stage side that were made year to date, especially in March, the vertical categories that garnered the most funding were enterprise SaaS, fintech, life sciences, healthcare IT, edtech and cybersecurity.

Image Credits: PitchBook

That said, if VCs have the capital to deploy and are able to overcome the obstacle of &having never met in person,& here are six investment trends that could emerge when the pandemic is over.

1. Future of work: promoting intimacy and trust

Going after the title of the phone with the biggest battery can be fraught with danger - ask the guys at Energizer responsible for the Power Max P18K Pop, an 18,000mAh behemoth. It attracted plenty of interest, but almost no commitment to buy.

We're expecting the iPhone 12 announcement to take place in September, however there are claims the handset's release date might be as late as 2021, and a new iPhone 12 leak is giving us another possible release window.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is perhaps the most reliable source regarding information on upcoming Apple products, has said (as

Winter is coming in many Aussie states and we’re starting to feel it – mornings are colder, the tracksuits, oversized ‘boyfriend’ jumpers (that have been indefinitely borrowed) and UGG boots are starting to make their way out of our closets and become part of our daily isolation wardrobe. If you're feeling the cold, then now might be the perfect ti