Many Tesla owners are fed up with Elon Musk’s political fools and find an modern way to show their dissatisfaction.

Some owners decided to scrape Tesla’s “T” brand on their cars to protest against the controversial CEO activities. Since Musk liked President Donald Trump, and one other place in his administration, the leftist owners of Tesla decided to distance themselves.

Photos of cars that appear to be Teslas with various logos have turn out to be viral. Vehicles with the body of some of its high -class models now have Branding Audi, Honda or Toyota. attached. Even provocative, but popular Cybertrucks gained a brand new name stuck to them.

For some, having Tesla not promotes pride, but more “embarrassing” supporting Muska. Many considered the last straw to use the alleged Nazi salut by Musk during the inauguration of Trump. Especially for European owners Tesla, these “strange” activities They broke their loyalty To Tesla.

“He became more and more strange,” said Mike Schwede, longtime owners of Tesla based in Switzerland. “I felt nothing but complete disgust. And I didn’t like to sit in my Tesla anymore. “

People not only change from Teslas, which they have already got, but they aren’t intended to buy recent ones.

Data obtained by the European Car Manufacturers Association revealed that Tesla sales in Europe fell by 45%in January. Tryget from Texas sold lower than 10,000 cars, 9945 specifically in a month, despite the sale of over 18,000 a yr earlier.

What’s more, Musk’s last branding around the continent associated him with fascist leaders than at a technological innovator focused on the environment. The Tesla Reclon parody in London is now ridiculed by the fascist Salute Muska, also referring to the vehicle in “Swasticar”. In addition, a number of “anti-elon” stickers appeared on EVS, including people who say: “I bought it before Elon went crazy.”

Because Musk supports the far -right politicians and movements in the United States and a number of other European countries, the liberal database of consumers of his company takes matters in his hand. While Musk stays aware of the decreasing sales, he encouraged his employees that we were a “epic” yr before us.

Despite the clouds of uncertainty approaching the economy and geopolitics, people still wish to travel. To satisfy this demand, MewsRecognized as Amsterdam “Unicorn” constructing the SaaS platform for hotel management, he collected a brand new $ 75 million.

Financing appears at a crossroads within the tourism industry. On the one hand, they’re positive signals. Analysts in Oxford Economics It forecasts that the industry will increase by 12% this 12 months, working to 1.75 billion “arrivals”.

And the travel budget corresponds to money for travel startups. Travelperk collected $ 200 million in January with a valuation of $ 2.7 billion; Hostaway raised $ 365 million in December 2024; And Tourlane in Germany raised $ 26 million from Sequoia in November 2024. Prosus also raised his despense from Latin American America for $ 1.7 billion.

But that is not all pink. It shouldn’t be clear how tariffs and other economic maneuvers will affect people’s travel budgets, not to say uncertainty about geopolitics. It can be value noting that Expedia was control of staff -Could or not it’s a one -time move to enhance performance, or is it more to come back?

Mews also has dozens of competitors, including siphouses reminiscent of Oracle, in addition to other startups, reminiscent of cloudbed supported by Softbank.

For now, things appear to hum for Mews.

Tiger Global, a brand new supporter, led this latest round, with the participation of previous Kinnevik investors, batteries and growth capital in Alternaties Goldman Sachs. (The battery led the B MEWS series $ 33 million, while Kinnevik and Goldman Sachs ran the C series of $ 185 million in 2022; Kinnevik also ran a series D 2024 in the quantity of $ 110 million).

This last round is opportunistic, said general director Matt Welle in an interview with TechCrunch. In particular, it appeared after Tiger approached Mews who attempt to cooperate more. Mews doesn’t reveal the present valuation, and Welle as an alternative called it the general round of height, adding that the startup plans to lift a much larger round throughout the 12 months or two.

For a certain context: exactly a 12 months ago, when Mews, who was recognized as Amsterdam, raised his D series, he was valued at $ 1.2 billion.

Mews is growing. Currently, about 6,300 hotels use the platform, in comparison with 5000 a 12 months ago, and said that in 2024 he processed payments value $ 10 billion, twice as much as a 12 months ago. In 2024, his revenues exceeded $ 200 million because he added more customers to the platform. It also extends services on this platform, which also builds greater customer revenues. Some are ecological, and a few in response to mergers and acquisitions, reminiscent of the recent takeover of Atomize to assist users manage revenues. Notes from Pitchbook Mews also raised $ 100 million in debt in September last 12 months to finance acquisitions.

(*75*) a big a part of the MEWS business is in Europe (he says that it now has 20% of the market penetration within the roof region), a big increase comes from lots of pressure through the pond.

Nowadays, the founder (and co-coo) Richard Valt spends most of its time within the US, where the corporate has concentrated very much-it has entered North America within the last 12 months.

When Valt founded the corporate in 2012, he understood many pain points related to conducting hotel activities. He himself was an independent owner of the hotel and realized that there was a most important opportunity to make use of the Internet and increase software as a service to construct something recent.

There are many points on the hotel market, but Mews accepts the “toast” approach to the industry, constructing its product with the concept of being end-to-end. Offers hotel availability and online booking software, directly and via other corporations; Hotel personnel management tools and facilities; Payment and accounting tools; Event management software; Loyalty and guests applications and more.

Perhaps predictably, Welle said that Mews had recently doubled AI. It has an internal team working on various projects-not only agency tools addressed to the client, but additionally algorithms to enhance the operation of MEWS. He said that one example is a brand new option of the client’s profile that adopts all of the actions and preferences of individual individuals who register within the hotel chain to create a summary of “Tweets size”, which could be used by conjers and receptionists to enhance customer support.

“Mews again defines what it means to ensure unique experiences of guests in the hotel and gastronomic sector,” said Sara Eadie in an announcement, who conducted the investment in Tiger Global. (Tiger refused to interview this story).

As he developed, Mews focused on catching larger fish within the space of hospitality. The company claims that the variety of “brands” of hospitality that use its tools has doubled, and a few of its recent customers are Best Western Hotels, Weender and Lark Hotels.

To make it clear, this doesn’t mean that each one Best Westerns now use Mews. As with all contracts with clients who run the franchise model, MEWS is now on the approved list of suppliers, but still must conclude a contract with individual franchises to win a brand new company.

The application signal for sending a privacy -oriented message flew high in Dutch application stores last month, often sitting at the top as the most steadily downloaded free application for iOS and Android in all categories, for data from many application tracking platforms akin to the sensor tower.

The application has experienced popularity over the years, often in response to Changes in politics in rivals akin to WhatsApp Or Geopolitical events. This is because Signal has set a reputation as a more friendly privacy option-it is served by the non-profit foundation (though based in the USA), not a personal company focused on data earning data. In addition, the signal tracks minimal metadata.

In 2025, along with the recent US president, who strengthened the warm Big Tech hug, it is not surprising that digital privacy tools have a moment – especially in Europe, which attracted the anger of President Trump.

But this time, the meaning of the signal in one very specific place-Holandia is particularly eye-catching.

IN Interview with Dutch newspaper de Telelegraaf last week, President signal Meredith Whittaker He noticed that the number of “new registrations” in the Netherlands was 25 this 12 months, even though it is not clear what the exact comparative period for this data is.

Asked why the Netherlands recorded such development, Whittaker pointed to the combination of things: “growing awareness of privacy, distrust of large technology and political reality in which people realize how sensitive digital communication can be,” said Whittaker.

Data provided to TechCrunch from the application intelligence company Appfigures Increase in Signal Signal in the Netherlands. According to its data, the signal was 365. Among the applications apart from the iPhone in the Netherlands on January 1 and didn’t appear on the list of the most significant general applications. Then, from around January 5, he began to climb the rankings, reaching the highest position until February 2.

The signal immersed and comes out of the lead during weeks, spending around mid -February at the top – including every single day from February 22. By digging deeper into the data, the AppFigures estimates that the total download in Apple and Google Applets in total in December 2024 jumped to 99,000 in January and increased to 233,000 to February – 958%.

While a part of this height could be assigned to a lower saturation signal than other markets, a continuing application position at the top in comparison with neighboring markets of comparable size.

“No other markets are approaching the Netherlands in terms of growth between December and February,” said AppFigures Techcrunch.

For comparison, from December in Belgium, download increased by over 250%, Sweden by 153%and dishes by 95%.

So why the signal can experience what one redditor called “The moment of mass adoption“In the Netherlands?

Clear signal

Give ZengerSenior Policy Advisor at Dutch Digital Rights Foundation Fragments of freedomHe said that even though it is difficult to point one specific reason, he is not surprised.

The last changes in the US have seen Large platform suppliers Adapt with the recent Trump administration, and this has retained a major public and media debate. Relying Europe from the technology of big private American corporations has turn out to be the point of interest of this debate.

“The Dutch are, like many others, very dependent on the infrastructure provided by extremely dominant technology companies, mainly from the USA,” said Zenger. “What does this mean, and the risk that results from it has been nicely demonstrated in the last few weeks. As a result, the public debate in the Netherlands was relatively sharp. Where in the past this problem was discussed only at the level “:” I feel that we are now conducting a debate at the higher levels: “.

In this context, society can mix dominance with data protection abuse. Since corporations akin to meta are frequently studied and fined in the field of information privacy practices, the signal could appear to be less evil: it is based on the US, but supported by a non-profit organization, which ensures encryption of each the content of the message and around it.

Vincent BöhreDirector of the Dutch Organization of Privacy Privacy firstHe also pointed to increased media relationships and a wider change of public opinion.

“Since a few months ago he was re-elected in the United States, in the Dutch-and European media, which seem to support Trump, there were many” Elon) Muska. “Articles criticizing X (previously Twitter) and Meta appear everywhere in the Dutch media, which leads to a change in Dutch public opinion: even people who have never really known or cared for privacy and security in social media, suddenly became interested in” friendly privacy “alternative, in particular the signal.”

Signal of intentions

While the Netherlands is only one market of 18 million people in the European population over 700 million, its increase in adoption can signal a wider trend throughout the continent, especially when governments try to cut back privacy barriers.

For example, Apple has recently pulled out comprehensive encryption from iCloud in Great Britain to counteract government efforts to put in a backdoor.

Speech Fr. Rightcon 25 In Taiwan, this week, Whittaker confirmed the unwavering Signal attitude regarding privacy.

“Signal position on this subject is very clear- we will not walk, falsify or otherwise disturb the solid guarantees of privacy and security that people rely on” Said Whittaker. “Regardless of whether this disturbance or backdoor is called scanning on the client’s side or removing the protection of encryption against one or the other, the features similar to what Apple has been forced to do in Great Britain”

Separately, in Interview with Swedish public broadcaster, Whittaker said that Signal wouldn’t follow the proposed Swedish law requiring application to send messages for storage.

“In practice, this means asking us to break encryption, which is the basis of our entire activity,” said Whittaker. “Asking us to store data would undermine all our architecture and we would never do it. We would prefer to completely leave the Swedish market. “

TechCrunch contacted to signal a comment, but he didn’t hear during the publication.