The company behind Pokémon Go, Niantic lays off 8% of staff and cancels 4 projects
Pokémon Go developer Niantic is running into trouble as it builds “the real-world metaverse.” Like so many other tech companies facing...
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Cryptoys banks a16z funding to build NFTs for kids
The past several months haven’t been entirely kind to the NFT market — while transaction volume hasn’t stuttered too significantly,...
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Four-month-old Doppel is helping some of the biggest NFT projects spot scams
The web3 startup raised $5 million in seed funding led by FTX Ventures and counts Yuga Labs and Dapper Labs as its biggest customers
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Gopuff, the instant delivery upstart, taps ex-Disney head Bob Iger as its newest investor and advisor
Gopuff, the instant delivery giant valued at $15 billion (and filing for financing in December 2021 at a valuation of up to $40 billion), made a name...
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Luxus wants the crown jewel of your portfolio to be an actual diamond
Female-founded investment platform Luxus hopes investors will bet on diamonds in a downturn by buying fractionalized shares of gems
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Faye hopes to do for travel insurance what Lemonade did for general insurance
While (former) startups like Lemonade came along to attack the tired world of insurance, the travel insurance market is now coming in for the same...
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a16z, Coatue, USV invest in $725M developer fund for Dapper’s Flow blockchain
The web3 world is continuing to discover that it’s a lot harder to build a developer ecosystem than it is to build a platform. The Flow...
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Avatar startup Genies hits $1 billion valuation in latest raise
Only in the current market can one wonder how a celebrity avatar startup that sells NFT accessories took so long to hit a unicorn valuation. Genies,...
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Spotify brings live audio shows to its main app, rebrands companion app Greenroom as ‘Spotify Live’
As an earlier report had suggested, Spotify today announced it will integrate the live audio capabilities from its companion app, Spotify Greenroom,...
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Lucky is bringing brands, retailers together with its take on product merchandising
Lucky's plug-and-play API gives e-commerce brands visibility of its products on retailer store shelves to offer local fulfillment options.
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‘NFT’ app Sticky kicked out of Apple’s App Store after operating for months
Apple’s approach to NFT apps is still something of a gray area. The company permitted NFT marketplace OpenSea to launch an app, but only for...
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Streaming deals ramp up for sports as MLB Opening Day and Masters Tournament begin
In light of all the recent complex streaming sports licensing deals, it becomes more evident each day that streaming platforms are beginning to...
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Russia’s App Store lost nearly 7K apps since its invasion of Ukraine, but some Big Tech apps remain
The Russian App Store has lost 6,982 mobile apps since the start of the Ukraine invasion, as numerous companies have now pulled their apps and games...
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TikTok launches a music distribution platform, SoundOn
TikTok has already achieved massive influence in today’s music industry, sending songs that find popularity on the app to the top of the...
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Masters, an app for training with celeb athletes, closes a $2.7M seed funding round
It’s now 2022 and there are many, many apps out there that allow you to do cardio or build muscle by taking classes inside smartphone apps. We are...
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Crypto gaming giant Dapper Labs takes its next shot with Genies NFT platform ‘The Warehouse’
As they near the end of a blockbuster year for NFTs that saw more than $10 billion in transaction volume, today’s NFT project developers are...
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Irish virtual sports giant’s new startup bets big on rugby in bid for US market share
A fantasy sports exchange founded by Irish betting veteran Paddy Power is bringing NFT-enabled live trading to rugby fans in a bid to expand...
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Studio behind ‘early access’ crypto game Blankos Block Party banks monster $1.25B valuation from a16z
A16z Crypto has been minting plenty of NFT unicorns this year. In July, they backed NFT marketplace OpenSea at a $1.5 billion valuation. They...
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Bring on the low-cost NFTs
The market is speaking with activity numbers that lower-priced, more-useful NFTs connected to an interactive world can generate not only lots of...
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A nine-figure fund for JPGs?
The NFT craze of the past year has triggered an avalanche of crypto capital flowing into art, trading card games, luxury avatars and digital objects,...
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Variant debuts a new $110M fund for crypto startups, announces Li Jin has joined as a general partner
While investors continue to question whether crypto will swallow up more traditional VC opportunities down the road, it certainly appears that today...
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Does the NFT craze actually matter?
Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review! Last week, we talked about Apple’s subscription addiction. This week, I’m diving deep...
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NFT startup Dapper Labs acquires virtual influencer startup Brud
Dapper Labs, the NFT startup behind NBA Top Shot, which was recently valued above $7.5 billion, made an interesting acquisition this morning, telling...
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Mark Cuban and Coinbase back Eternal, an NFT marketplace for trading Twitch streamer clips
The NFT world collectively seems to be trying to turn internet memories into one big game — with a lot of cash involved, of course. The...
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NBA Top Shot creator on the NFT craze and why Ethereum still isn’t consumer friendly
We caught up with the Dapper Labs CEO at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 last week to discuss the challenges facing the crypto space, the future of Ethereum,...
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Dapper Labs backs art hardware startup Infinite Objects in $6 million seed raise
The NFT world is all about reshaping the idea of digital ownership, but art hardware startup Infinite Objects sees a big opportunity in making...
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Women-led sports media startup The GIST raises $1M to challenge sports reporting norms
The three co-founders of The GIST are all themselves sports fans, but realized in 2018 that sports media in general left a lot to be desired when it...
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Sequoia Games looks to capitalize on NBA Top Shot fever with an AR tabletop game
It’s the golden age of collectibles and legacy institutions are looking to move beyond trading cards, embracing new tech that brings the fandom...
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