Mason raises $7.5M seed round to scale its no-code commerce engine

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Thursday, October 27, 2022

Hello! And it's Thursday! We are all waiting with bated breath for the latest installment of “Will Elon Actually Buy Twitter or Will He Squirrel Out of It” — the miniseries of indeterminate length and too many twists and turns to enumerate. Supposedly we'll learn more tomorrow, but who knows. Also, what is time? And if we all leave Twitter in droves, where will we discuss all of this drama? Our fave little story today was Romain's, covering these adorable houseplants that can be used as air purifiers. Haje is out tomorrow, so a very happy weekend from him, and Christine will look after all your crunchy needs tomorrow. Adios! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Mason

The TechCrunch Top 3 Ixnay on the self-drivay: Darrell has had it 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 now, if not decades, but it's now tipped the balance to where it's hard to ignore for a reasoned observer — even one like myself who has previously been very optimistic about self-driving prospects," he writes. Darrell, we love you, and we hope you've never been more wrong. Closing the barn after the horse has bolted: We also have the latest on Elon Musk after his now-famous Twitter office sink video: Amanda reports on his open letter to Twitter advertisers that people have it all wrong about why he is buying the social media giant, but also that Twitter cannot become "a free-for-all hellscape." Rebecca writes that Musk now says he won't fire 75% of Twitter's staff. Avoiding that seller’s tax: Jagmeet writes that sellers on Amazon have to meet certain requirements to sell on the platform, but a startup called Mason is out to change that. The India- and California-based startup secured $7.5 million in fresh funding, led by Accel and Ideaspring Capital, to offer an Amazon-like selling experience but without requiring that "Amazon tax."

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Startups and VC There's a ton of new funds happening all at once, seemingly. Christine reports that Streamlined Ventures, led by Ullas Naik, secured $140 million in new capital commitments for its two newest funds. Haje 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 back climate tech startups. Meanwhile, there were a bunch of mega-rounds that put the actual investment funds to shame; it's a weird world when you can't skim the headline numbers to figure out whether it's a company raising a round or a new fund closing. We're collecting a handful of 'em below. 🎵 I wanna be sedated: HealthJoy raises $60 million to make benefits easier to navigate, Catherine reports. 🎵 I’ll take the force of the blow: Kyle reports that Versa raises $120 million for its software-defined networking and security stack. 🎵 I just want to tell you that I’ve had enough: Mary Ann reports that Uber alum rakes in $9.7 million to curb finance-related fights between co-parents. 🎵 Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?: Navina secures $22 million to process and summarize medical data for clinicians, Kyle writes. 🎵 Do away with air pollution, and then I’ll save the whales: Tim reports that personal carbon-cutting app Joro raises $10 million Series A from Sequoia, Jay-Z's Arrive. 🎵The boy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right: Lightspeed-backed Indian commerce Udaan raises $120 million, writes Manish.

5 tips for launching in a crowded web3 gaming market Every online product requires some network effect, but gaming is unique: Without large, loyal and enthusiastic customers, there’s no way to build products that can be monetized. Play-to-earn games (P2E) are particularly susceptible to this problem, which is why “building a game that succeeds in the long term means developing monetization strategies that can weather market ebbs and flows,” says Corey Wilton, co-founder and CEO of Mirai Labs, the gaming 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: A test of the times: The UserTesting sale to private equity is bad news for unicorns, by Alex. Cue the horse and pony show: 3 VCs explain how founders can stand out when pitching, by Becca. So you cut your SaaS bill…Now what's next?: Beyond cost control: Where cloud management is going next, by Anna. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Chelsea Sampson / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. The New York Post had to do some deleting today after it was discovered that someone hacked into both the newspaper's website and its Twitter account, Zack reports. The article headlines 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 details on how it came to that conclusion. Also, our team paid attention to earnings so you didn't have to. Rebecca has a look into Ford's third-quarter earnings, which she reports took a $2.7 billion hit related to Argo AI, which we reported yesterday was being shut down. Meanwhile, over at Meta, Amanda writes that Meta had yet another decline in its third-quarter revenue. And now we have three more for you: Googling: Google Cloud has entered web3 territory with a managed blockchain node service by taking on the heavy lifting there so that developers can do their thing, Ron reports. Meanwhile, Manish has details on a $100 million acquisition the search engine giant made in Alter, an AI avatar startup. On an acquisition roll: Ron also reported on yet another Thoma Bravo acquisition. 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 advice here: YouTube says it will begin certifying channels for licensed health professionals, like doctors, nurses or therapists, who produce health-related content, Ivan writes.

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After buying Twitter, will Musk bite back at Apple's in-app purchase fees?

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Wednesday, and we're excited to bring you another round of our esteemed Daily Crunch newsletter. There's a wide variety of morsels, nuggets, and other bite-sized delights, so let's go! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

The TechCrunch Top 3 99 Twitter problems, and Apple might have one: It's no secret that Elon Musk thinks Apple's 30% IAP ("inventor assistance program" to those of us not up on tech lingo) transaction charge to developers is "a lot." But as Darrell writes, "Musk has little stake in this fight" — that is, until Friday when he becomes Twitter's new owner and "his zealous troll army" becomes further enabled. Rhymes with pillow: Zillow made another dent in its workforce. Jagmeet writes that the online real estate marketplace wants to "shift focus toward technology-related positions," so it reduced its employee headcount by another 300 employees. The company already let go of about 2,000 people last November. On a clear day, you can see forever: Frederic reports on LatticeFlow's latest funding round, $12 million, that it will use to eliminate computer vision blind spots.

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Startups and VC Asset management firm Stone Ridge has launched a startup accelerator, Wolf, that will be dedicated to growing Bitcoin-focused applications. The program will bring four cohorts per year, each consisting of about eight to 12 teams, or about 30 to 50 founders, to New York City from around the world for eight weeks at a time to focus on building on the Bitcoin-centric Lightning Network and Taro protocol, Kelly Brewster, CEO of Wolf, told Jacquelyn. Today, for a series of climate-related conversations organized by the global venture firm SOSV, Connie interviewed famed investor Chris Sacca. In their chat, Sacca dismissed questions around whether efforts like carbon capture can work at scale. ("The naysayers kind of fuel me, actually.") He also said — naturally — that he has "no doubt we will have multiple companies worth trillions of dollars that emerge from our portfolio." It wound up being a fairly wide-ranging conversation. Moar? Moar! Notch for nothing: Ingrid wonders if it's time to say goodbye to the notch? OTI raises $55 million for technology to remove screen obstructions. Square peg, Southeast Asia–shaped hole: Square Peg Capital closes $550 million fund for Southeast Asia, Australia and Israel, Catherine reports. Startup launches earbuds like it's Nothing: Brian — no doubt bored of the Daily Crunch team's terrible Nothing puns by now — reports that Nothing's third device is a pair of pared-down earbuds. In the haystack, looking for a…: Ivan reports that Needl wants to become the search engine for your accounts. A beast of a valuation: Amanda wonders if content creator MrBeast is actually worth $1.5 billion.

Investors are sitting on mountains of cash: Where will it be deployed? No matter what’s happening in the public markets, bees make honey and venture capitalists raise money: It’s just what they do. But since the “extreme valuation recalibration” in the public markets, VCs are amassing more and more dry powder, write Jeremy Abelson and Jacob Sonnenberg of Irving Investors. More frustrating news for founders: Investor fundraising “is on pace to finish the year at $172 billion,” but capital deployment is way down. “Dollars are flowing and will continue to flow, but it will be more capital to fewer companies,” they write. Now that "traditional SaaS has become too expensive and secondarily saturated," sectors like web3, life sciences and agtech will attract more investors, they predict. Three more from the TC+ team: Stretch, drink some water, then hit these items to survive due diligence: A prep checklist for startups about to undergo technical due diligence, by Matt Van Itallie. Nutanix! Get yer Nutanix! Who's most likely to buy Nutanix?, by Ron and Alex. I promise you two things, you promise me two, too: Make 4 promises to hire better staff for your startup team, by Haje. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: H-Gall / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Kirsten has some late-breaking news that Ford's and VW's autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI will be shut down and parts of it will be absorbed by the two companies. This story is still developing, so keep going back to it for more, particularly a comment from the companies in question. Who doesn't like a good fraction yelled at them? Duolingo certainly does not. Natasha M writes that Duolingo's owl will now shout all the fractions you want at you as part of its new math app that is now public after spending some months in beta. And we have five more for you: Spy game: Zack tells us a true story about a stalkerware network that includes TheTruthSpy, and how they spied on us and then leaked a bunch of our data it collected. Good times! Drone on: As someone who had a drone interrupt the enjoyment of an Alabama beach, we share Devin's view that maybe drones in cities are a bad idea. Think of the birds. Implicated: The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a Ukrainian national with allegedly being part of the Raccoon Infostealer malware operation, Carly reports. Getting testy: Manish writes that Singapore's central bank proposed a test for retail investors to take before they are able to trade cryptocurrency. We've got a ticket to ride: Chinese robotaxi operator WeRide and car maker Hyundai are coming together to fuel self-driving cars with hydrogen in China, Rita reports.

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