Bitcoin is religion; web3 is greed – TechCrunch

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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch on December 21, 2021. This is my last Daily Crunch with you for the year. So, let me just thank you for reading since I took charge of writing the news articles for this newsletter. It could have turned out horribly, frankly, given how much people hate change in their inboxes. But, with open rates at an all time high, you’ve all welcomed the New Daily Crunch Crew with open arms, and we are grateful to you. Here’s an even better 2022 – and more jokes. —Alex

PS You should follow Miranda (Experts), Walter (TC +), Annie (editor) and Richard (editor) as they blackmail this newsletter. Richard declined to share a link. He’s a ghost! But friendly.

The TechCrunch Top 3 Bitcoin is religion; web3 is greed: After Jack Dorsey unleashed a firestorm by going after web3 and the current wave of crypto projects, TechCrunch sparked the debate because how could we not. Whether you’re a bitcoin maximalist or a big NFT stan, we’ve got something to bore you! EU clears Microsoft-Nuance deal: The $ 19.7 billion deal in which Redmond’s tech giant will buy the medical transcription company has the green light from the European market. See, not all of the big tech deals get wiped out with regulatory issues and then canceled! Via Shuttles to Public Markets: Transit and shuttle software company Via will go public in early 2022. The company announced today that it has privately filed its IPO. We’ll know a lot more when we actually get the S-1 document, but the company is joining Reddit on our list of public debuts that we expect in the first quarter of next year. Startups / VC

But wait, there is even more news in the public market! Yes, Snapdeal has filed a request to be made public, and our own Manish Singh (follow him, he’s amazing!) Has the details. SoftBank is a New Delhi-based startup funder. According to its prospectus, the company plans to raise around $ 165 million when it debuts on the public market. Recall that Snapdeal “has already competed with Amazon and Flipkart in India [but] has lost considerable market share in recent years, ”we wrote.

And speaking of companies going public, remember the Better.com fiasco in which the CEO of the company went viral for firing a group of employees on Zoom? And then a bunch of crazy company stuff came out? Well, we’re curious as to why Vishal Garg still has a job, so we dug a bit. There is more to come on this story.

Then some new funds:

Array Ventures Raises $ 56 Million to Support Really Tough Enterprise Tech: Shruti Gandhi’s Fund intends to invest its new capital in 30 startups “working on technical, back-end enterprise technology.” Given the size of the fund and the number of checks, we are talking about very early money in the case of Array. Targeting AI automation, Calibrate Ventures raises $ 97 million: with 25% more capital than in its first fund, Calibrate has reloaded its portfolio. The company has previously invested in Built Robotics, Embodied, FarmWise, Soft Robotics, Talage and TruckLabs, reports TechCrunch. The first chapter raises capital to invest in web3: don’t tell Jack, but there is still more money at stake for web3 projects. To the $ 40 million fund will be added a $ 20 million “opportunity” fund, provided that the latter vehicle comes close to the target. Notably, Chapter One’s Jeff Morris Jr. is a solo investor.

And some quick news on startups:

Demand curve: How Ahrefs’ homepage drives prospects to buy

Image credits: PM images (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

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Big Tech Inc. Monitoring Microsoft’s withdrawal from China: It is increasingly difficult to simultaneously keep the Chinese Communist Party happy and your international affairs in order. Microsoft has struggled to get it to work, TechCrunch notes, tracing the history of LinkedIn and Bing in the country. TechCrunch Experts

Image credits: SEAN GLADWELL / Getty Images

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Read one of the testimonials we received below!

Marketing manager: Brent Payne, strong interactive SEO

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