Mason raises $7.5 million to scale its no-code trading engine • TechCrunch

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Hello! And it’s Thursday! We’re all waiting with bated breath for the final installment of Will Elon Actually Buy Twitter or Will He Squirrel Out of It – the mini-series of indefinite length and too many twists and turns to list. We’ll probably learn more tomorrow, but who knows. Also, what is time? And if we all leave Twitter in droves, where are we going to discuss all this drama?

Our favorite little story today was Roman‘s, covering these adorable houseplants that can be used as air purifiers.

Haje is out tomorrow, so a really good weekend from him, and Christine will take care of all your crunchy needs tomorrow. Goodbye! — Christine and Shark

TechCrunch Top 3

• Ixnay on the self drive: Darrell hair had it with all the speculation and calls it: “Truly autonomous vehicles just are not going to happen. The evidence pointing to this has been mounting for years now, if not decades, but it has now tipped the balance to where it is 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’s buying the social media giant, but also that Twitter can’t become “a free-for-all hell.” Rebecca writes that Musk now says he will not fire 75% of Twitter’s employees.
• Avoid that sales tax: Jagmeet writes that sellers on Amazon must meet certain requirements to sell on the platform, but a startup called Mason is looking 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 charging that “Amazon tax.”

Startups and VCs

There’s a ton of new funding happening all at once, apparently. Christine reports that Streamlined Ventures, led by Ullas Naik, secured $140 million in new capital commitments for its two newest funds. Shark 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 technology startups.

Meanwhile, there were a bunch of mega-rounds that put actual mutual funds to shame; it’s a strange world when you can’t skim the headlines to find out if it’s a company raising a round or a new fund closing. We collect a handful of them below.

5 tips for launching in a crowded web3 game market

Image credit: Chelsea Sampson (opens in new window) / Getty Images

Every online product requires a certain network effect, but gaming is unique: without large, loyal and enthusiastic customers, there is no way to build products that can make money.

Play-to-earn (P2E) games are particularly prone to this problem, which is why “building a game that succeeds over the long term means developing monetization strategies that can withstand the ebb and flow of the market,” says Corey Wilton , co-founder and CEO of Mirai Labs, the game studio behind Pegaxy.

In this primer for P2E entrepreneurs, Wilton shares suggestions on 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+ is our membership program that helps entrepreneurs and start-up teams get ahead of the pack. You can register here. Use the code “DC” for 15% off an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

The New York Post had to delete today after it was discovered that someone hacked into both the newspaper’s website and Twitter account, Zack reports. The article headlines in question were racist and sexually abusive, and the newspaper told TechCrunch that an employee was to blame for the incident, but did not elaborate on how it came to that conclusion.

Our team also took into account the revenue so you didn’t have to. Rebecca has a look at Ford’s third-quarter earnings, which she reports took a $2.7 billion hit related to Argo AI, which we reported yesterday was shut down. Meanwhile, over at Meta, Amanda writes that Meta had another decline in turnover 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 by taking on the heavy lifting there so developers can do their part, Ron reports. Meanwhile, Manish has details of a $100 million acquisition the search engine giant made of Alter, an AI avatar startup.
• On acquisition roll: Ron also reported 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 UserZoom, another company Thoma Bravo acquired in 2021.
• Get your health advice here: YouTube says it will begin certifying channels for licensed healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses or therapists, who produce health-related content, Ivan write.