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We are back with more good news on Tuesday. Today is a lot of startup high-jinx. We picked some of the stories that caught our attention today, so you can check out the site for all of it. Christine and Haje are ready to go.
The TechCrunch Top 3
Say it, forget it, post it, regret it: WhatsApp was at the top of the news food chain today with two stories. The first is something users seem very excited about — more time to delete a message. In fact, users now have 60 hours to delete a message they didn’t like or didn’t mean to send. This is an extension from 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds, Ivan reports. Excuse us while we go look at something…
New feature alert: Now that we got that pesky deleting thing out of the way, WhatsApp also unveiled new privacy options for users that includes screenshot blocking and stealth mode, Taylor writes. The screenshot blocking option, which is a once-viewed message, reads very much like Inspector Gadget’s self-destructing message, minus the explosion.
Gone phishing: Armenian startup EasyDMARC took in $2.3 million to tackle the billion-dollar phishing industry that has reared its ugly head since strangers have been able to get people to click on links. Mike reports that the company has bundled up the DMARC protocol, or ‘Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance’ into something easier for businesses to use.
Startups and VC
We like to watch startup play hardball. A year after going public, an app growth and monetization agency submitted a proposal to buy a game engine for $20 billion. There is a chance that Unity would have to end its merger with iron Source.
Lucas reports that there have never been more firms and more money dedicated to blockchain venture investing, despite the fact that many of the investors have scaled back their rapid pace of startup investing. The $35 million debut fund was closed by portal venture capital.
Real Open has a new product called RealScore, which is a credit scoring system for buyers and sellers of luxury real estate. High-net-worth clients who want to purchase property usingcryptocurrencies are mostly served by the broker.
More, more, more.
Yeah, but what do you really do: Paul reports that Truework, which helps lenders verify borrowers’ income and employment, raises $50 million.
Canoo is up a creek, paddling like mad: Pre-revenue EV startup Canoo shows it is burning cash like there’s no tomorrow, in a race to hit a $1 billion EV sales goal, Rebecca reports.
I didn’t like that one: Returning items from whence they came can be a royal PITA. ReturnLogic bags new money to make that less nightmarish, Christine writes.
First, India. Next, the world!: Accel led a $2.6 million investment into Produze on its mission to help agri-producers in India export globally, reports Jagmeet.
Fifty dune buggies, coming up!: Abigail caused us to get real excited: It looks like the Meyers Manx dune buggy is coming back, this time as an EV.
Well that’ll cause a hangover: VC-backed low-alcohol aperitif startup Haus is up for sale after Series A falls through, writes Natasha M.
To optimize for growth, study your down-funnel metrics
There is a lot of time and energy put into marketing and acquisition by early stage companies. Growth is great for investors.
They like revenue even better in August 2022.
The largest lever for moving users through the funnel isVarying messaging by user cohort. It is imperative to slice users into their buckets so that they can be targeted.
To optimize for growth, study your down-funnel metrics
Techcrunch+ is a membership program that helps startup teams. You can join here.
Big Tech Inc.
If the ban on Battlegrounds Mobile India continues, India game firms won't accept the vibe from the country's prime minister. Some firms are decrying the ban as an unfortunate event and said that it will deny opportunities to an entire generation of youth in India.
Ivan wrote a story about the launch of a website for children to practice reading. The company is trying to get Apple to adopt Rich Communication Service, which is a protocol designed to improve messaging betweenANDROID and ios users.
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which was signed into law by President Biden, has been moving through both houses of Congress. He explains what this bill is about.
You can’t dance here: We were shocked to find out that TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, bought a hospital group in China, Rita writes. The company was already getting into healthcare, but going from acquiring a company that provides healthcare to owning hospitals is a big leap, or tour jeté, if you will.
But you can dance here: Spotify has a pair of new features, with Aisha writing about updates to the home screen that include personalized discovery feeds for both music and podcasts. Meanwhile, Ivan reports on the company’s Soundtrap app for musicians, unveiling live collaboration and autosave features.
Streaming while dancing: Looks like Walmart is getting into streaming services again, Lauren writes.
Don’t dance with that cookie: The European Union is going after some entities it says have largely ignored warnings to bring their cookie consent banners into compliance, Natasha L reports.
ICYMI: Here are some of yesterday’s big stories that spilled over into today: Kyle and Natasha M write about Groupon cutting over 500 staff and Sarah’s report on Snapchat’s new “Family Center” feature.
Convertedin, an Egyptian startup that operates a marketing operating system for e-commerce brands, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Saudi Arabia-headquartered Merak Capital. Other parti...Tesla CEO Elon Musk is at it again selling shares of his electric vehicle company, per regulatory filings. Since Friday, the executive has sold 7.9 million shares, which totals about $6.9 billion. ...The Department of Justice is preparing a second major antitrust suit against Google, according to new reporting by Bloomberg. The DOJ could sue Google “as soon as next month,” according...A former Twitter employee suspected of spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia was found guilty, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The employee, U.S. resident Ahmad Abouammo, was also convicted by a jury of con...SpaceX just got one step closer to the first orbital test flight of its launch system Starship with the successful static fire test of a prototype Super Heavy booster late Tuesday afternoon. That b...Social media marketing firm Hootsuite says it has slashed its workforce by 30%. “We need to refocus our strategies to drive efficiency, growth and financial sustainability,” CEO Tom Kei...Meta provided user information to police in Nebraska that led directly to the prosecution of a 17-year-old girl for alleged crimes relating to an abortion, court documents show. The company could h...You’d be forgiven for missing this bit of news. I fully cop to not seeing it myself amid the buzz of last week’s Amazon acquisition news on Friday (knowing nod to Robot Report for pointing it out)....While onstage at Tesla’s annual shareholder event, CEO Elon Musk hinted that the automaker would choose the location for a new gigafactory by the end of the year. Musk jokingly asked his fans...Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot o...After pulling open roles across its Office and Windows divisions and letting go of a portion of its 180,000-person workforce in July, Microsoft made additional cuts this week. This layoff round was...Ford is raising the price of the F-150 Lightning, with increases ranging from $6,000 to $8,500, depending on the model and trim level. The entry-level “Pro” badged F-150 Lightning will ...TikTok is testing a new feature that enhances the popular short-form video app’s search functions. The new feature highlights keywords in comments and links to search results for the term. Ti...Investors shrug, implying the bad news was priced-in
Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups. This week, Darrell and Jordan talked with Davida Herzl the co-founder and CEO of Aclima. We all have a right to clean air, but c...Fresh off of an expansion to Mexico, Google today previewed the launch of new Google Cloud regions concentrated in Asia-Pacific (APAC), specifically Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand. When they co...Now that equity is getting increasingly expensive as investors are deploying more conservatively after last year’s fever, Upper90’s strategy could become more useful to founders than ev...It’s been just a few weeks since OpenAI began allowing customers to commercially use images created by DALL-E 2, its remarkably powerful AI text-to-image system. But in spite of the current t...Walmart’s membership program Walmart+ may bundle with a streaming service. The report comes from the New York Times and sparks conversation about the strange idea of the retail giant entering the s...
