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Hello! And it’s Thursday! We’re all waiting with bated breath for the latest episode of Will Elon Actually Buy Twitter or Will the Squirrel Get Out — a short series of indeterminate length and too many twists and turns to count. Apparently we’ll learn more tomorrow, but who knows. Also, what is time? And if we all leave Twitter en masse, where will we discuss all this drama?
It was our favorite little story today RomainIt covers adorable house plants that can be used as air purifiers.
Hajeh is out tomorrow, so a very happy weekend from him, and Christine will take care of all of Tomorrow’s crunchy needs. Adios! – Christian And Haji
TechCrunch Top 3
- Ixnay in the drivay itself: Darrell has it I had it With all the speculation and it reads: “Truly autonomous cars are not happening. The evidence pointing to this has been mounting for years, if not decades, but has now tipped the balance to a point where it’s too much for a rational observer—even one like me, who used to be very optimistic about the future of self-driving cars—to ignore. it’s hard. he writes. Darrell, we love you, and hope you’ve never been so wrong.
- Closing the barn after the horse is bolted: We also have the latest on Elon Musk after the now-famous Twitter office sink video: amanda In his open letter to Twitter advertisers, he reports that people are confused about why he’s buying the social media giant, but also that Twitter can’t become a “free-for-all hellscape.” Rebecca It writes that Musk now says he will not fire 75% of Twitter employees.
- Avoiding that seller’s tax: Jagmeet It writes that sellers on Amazon must meet certain conditions to sell on the platform, but a startup called Mason plans to change that. The India-California-based startup received $7.5 million in new funding led by Accel and Ideaspring Capital to deliver an Amazon-like selling experience, but without the “Amazon tax.”
Startups and VC
It seems like a thousand new capitals happen all at once. Christian Olas Naik-led StreamLind Ventures has reportedly secured $140 million in new capital commitments for two new funds. Haji Human Impact Capital is a new $50 million fund investing in social impact startups, reports Mike notes that Paris-based VC Satgana completes the first close of its €30m fund to support climate tech startups.
Meanwhile, there were a number of big rounds that put real mutual funds to shame. It’s a strange world when you can’t look at the headline numbers to find out if it’s a company raising a round or a new fund closing. We collect some of them below.
5 Tips for Launching in the Crowded Web Game Market 3
Image credit: Chelsea Sampson (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Every online product needs a network effect, but the game is unique: without a large, loyal and enthusiastic customer base, there is no way to make products that make money.
Play-to-monetize (P2E) games are particularly prone to this problem, says co-founder Cory Wilton, which is why “building a successful game over the long term means developing monetization strategies that can handle the ups and downs.” The market will fight back. CEO of Mirai Labs, the game studio behind Pegaxy.
In this primer for P2E founders, Wilton shares suggestions for how to approach investors, explains why tokens are not a reliable fundraising vehicle, and discusses the “recent shift toward Web 2.0 monetization.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ It’s our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the curve. You can register here. Use code “DC” for 15% off annual subscription!
Big technology company
The New York Post was forced to take down the newspaper’s website and Twitter account today after it discovered someone had hacked into it. Zack reports. The headlines of the article in question were racist and sexually violent in nature, and the newspaper told TechCrunch that an employee was to blame for the incident, but did not elaborate on how that conclusion was reached.
Also, our team took care of revenue so you didn’t have to. Rebecca Here’s a look at Ford’s third-quarter earnings, which it reported took a $2.7 billion hit related to Argo AI, which we reported yesterday was shutting down. Meanwhile, in Meta, amanda It writes that Meta had another drop in its third quarter revenue.
And now we have three more for you:
- Googling: Google Cloud has entered Web 3 territory with a managed blockchain node service doing the heavy lifting for developers to do their work. thigh reports. in the meantime, Manish It has details on the search engine giant’s $100 million purchase of Alter, an artificial intelligence avatar startup.
- In an acquisition roll: thigh He also announced another purchase from Toma Bravo. This time, it and Sunstone Partners announced an offer to buy UserTesting for $1.3 billion. The company plans to combine it with UserZoom, another company Thoma Bravo acquired in 2021.
- Get your health advice here: YouTube says it will begin issuing certifications to licensed health professionals, such as doctors, nurses or therapists, who produce health-related content. Porch is writing.
