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Hello! And it’s Thursday! We’re all waiting with bated breath for the latest installment of Will Elon Really Buy Twitter or Will He Squirrel Out of It — the mini-series of indeterminate length and too many twists and turns to count. We’ll probably learn more tomorrow, but who knows. Also, what is the time? And if we all leave Twitter, where will we discuss all this drama?
Our favorite little story today was Roman‘s, covering these adorable houseplants that can be used as air purifiers.
Haje comes out tomorrow, so have a very happy weekend, and Christine will take care of all your crunchy needs tomorrow. Goodbye! – Kristine AND He came
Top 3 TechCrunch
- Ixnay in self-drivay: Darrell there are had with all the speculation and calls it: “Truly autonomous vehicles just aren’t going to happen. The evidence pointing to this has been mounting for years, if not decades, but has now tipped the balance to where it’s hard to ignore for a reasoned observer – even one like myself, who was previously very optimistic about the outlook. of self-direction.” he writes. Darrell, we love you and hope you are never wrong again.
- Closing the barn after the horse has turned off: We also have the latest on Elon Musk after his now famous office sink video on Twitter: Amanda reports in his open letter to Twitter advertisers that people have it all wrong about why he’s buying the social media giant, but also that Twitter can’t become “a free-for-all hellscape.” Rebekah writes that Musk now says he won’t lay off 75% of Twitter’s staff.
- Avoidance of seller’s tax: Jagmeet writes that sellers on Amazon must meet certain requirements to sell on the platform, but a startup called Mason is about to change that. The India- and California-based startup secured $7.5 million in new funding, led by Accel and Ideaspring Capital, to offer an Amazon-like sales experience, but without requiring that “Amazon tax.”
Startups and VCs
There are a ton of new funds happening all at once, it seems. Kristine reports that Streamlined Ventures, led by Ullas Naik, secured $140 million in new capital commitments for its two newest funds. He came reports that Human Impact Capital is a new $50 million fund investing in social impact startups, and Mike notes that Paris-based VC Satgana completes the first close of its €30 million fund to support climate tech startups.
Meanwhile, there were a slew of mega-rounds that put current investment funds to shame; it’s a strange world when you can’t look past the headline numbers to figure out if it’s a company raising a round or a new fund closing. We’re rounding up a handful of them below.
5 tips for launching in a crowded web3 game market
Image credits: Chelsea Sampson (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Every online product requires a network effect, but games are unique: without large, loyal and enthusiastic customers, there is no way to create products that can be monetized.
Games to win (P2E) are particularly susceptible to this problem, which is why “building a game to succeed over the long term means developing monetization strategies that can withstand the ebbs and flows of market,” says Corey Wilton, co-founder and CEO of Mirai Labs, the game studio behind Pegaxy.
In this primer for P2E founders, Wilton shares tips on how to approach investors, explains why tokens aren’t a reliable fundraising tool, and discusses “the recent shift toward Web 2.0 monetization.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can register here. Use code “DC” for 15% off an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
The New York Post had to do some takedowns today after it was discovered that someone hacked into both the paper’s website and its Twitter account. Zack reports. The headlines of the articles 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 go into further detail about how it came to that conclusion.
Also, our team paid attention to profits, so you didn’t have to. Rebekah has a look at Ford’s third-quarter earnings, which it reports took a $2.7 billion hit related to Argo AI, which we reported yesterday was shutting down. Meanwhile at Meta, Amanda writes that Meta had another decrease in income for the third quarter.
And now we have three more for you:
- Googling: Google Cloud has entered web3 territory with a managed blockchain node service taking on the heavy lifting there so developers can do their thing, Ron reports. Meanwhile, Manisha has details on a $100 million purchase the search engine giant made of Alter, an avatar AI startup.
- On a shopping list: Ron also reported another acquisition of Thoma Bravo. This time, it and Sunstone Partners announced the proposed acquisition of UserTesting for $1.3 billion. The company plans to combine it with its UserZoom, another company Thoma Bravo acquired in 2021.
- Get your health tips here: YouTube says it will begin certifying channels for licensed health professionals, such as doctors, nurses or therapists, who produce health-related content, Ivan write.
