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Hello, friends, and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package. Daily Crunch: Stripe responds to report that it seeks to raise $2B with a terse ‘no comment’ by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

You may not have known that space needs tugboats, but now you do — and Atomos Space just closed a $16.2 million Series A investment, which will enable the company to complete its demonstration mission where it will show off its docking and towing capabilities. The company is building a series of Orbital Transfer Vehicles […] Atomos tows a $16M load of funding to create tugboats in space by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

Despite the myth, sharks don’t need to keep swimming to keep breathing. Early-stage startups, on the other hand, are not so fortunate. TechCrunch+ roundup: No-code MVP strategy, hiring under scrutiny, A/B growth testing by Walter Thompson originally published on TechCrunch

When payments giant Stripe raised $600 million at a $95 billion valuation in 2021, it made headlines for raising capital at the highest-ever valuation for a privately-held startup. Defending that valuation appears to be proving challenging. The fintech company has reportedly approached investors about raising more capital — at least $2 billion — at a […] Report: Stripe tried to raise more funding at a $55B-$60B valuation by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

In moving from prototype to MVP, it’s often tempting to focus on achieving perfection — but that is an unachievable goal. 4 practical steps for using no-code to evolve your prototype to an MVP by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

Chroma, a startup working to build a new type of audiovisual entertainment specifically for mobile devices, is now adding a Twitter co-founder to its board. The company announced today that Twitter and Medium co-founder Biz Stone, previously an angel investor in Chroma alongside Pinterest’s founders, will join the company’s board of directors to contribute his […] Twitter co-founder Biz Stone joins board of audiovisual startup Chroma by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Hello, friends, and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package. Daily Crunch: Berlin-based design platform Kittl raises $11.6M Series A to take on Adobe and Canva by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

Conor Burke spent much of his career in the back office of a big bank in Ireland. His team was tasked with digitizing the onboarding process — particularly document-heavy manual review workflows — that were costing the bank millions of dollars every year and not catching fraud. According to him, the biggest challenge was figuring […] Inscribe bags $25M to fight financial fraud with AI by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Orange is taking a different approach to EV charging, and it shared with us the deck it used to raise a $2.5 million seed round. Pitch Deck Teardown: Orange’s $2.5M seed deck by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

Newsletter platform Substack announced today that it’s introducing several new features, including private Substacks. A private Substack is a publication that you can host alone or readers can request to subscribe to read your posts. Writers can choose to approve or decline each subscription request. In a blog post, Substack explained that private Substack accounts […] Substack introduces ‘private Substacks’ that readers can request to subscribe to by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

Meet Renaissance Fusion, a Grenoble-based startup that has been working on nuclear fusion for the past couple of years. The company recently raised $16.4 million (€15 million) in funding in a seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital. Several European investors also participated in the round, such as HCVC, Positron Ventures and Norssken. “We are proud […] Renaissance Fusion raises $16.4 million to build nuclear fusion technology in Europe by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

New Enterprise Associates, known by the acronym NEA, has closed a new pair of early-stage and growth-stage funds, both hovering a little over $3 billion to a total of $6.2 billion. The two-fund structure is a first that begets another first for the 45-year old firm: TechCrunch has learned that NEA has filed to be […] NEA now manages over $25 billion in assets – oh, and it’s looking beyond venture by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch

Method, a startup that aims to make it easier for fintech developers to embed repayment, balance transfers and bill pay automation into their apps, today announced that it closed a $16 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Y Combinator (Method’s a Y Combinator graduate), Abstract Ventures, SV Angel and […] Method raises $16M to power loan repayment, balance transfers and more across fintech apps by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

There’s no doubt that no-code tools are transforming the way apps are made — particularly in the corporate world, where there’s often a premium placed on tech that can cut costs. According to recent Gartner surveys, 70% of new business apps will use low-code/no-code technologies by 2025, and by 2024, 80% of non-IT professionals will develop […] Whalesync wants to simplify the process of syncing data between SaaS apps by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

As VC activity slowed down globally last year, Kenya defied odds to record the strongest growth in funding raised in Africa. Reports show that the deal count and value to the country surpassed 2021 figures owing to increased investor interest. Data from market intelligence firm Briter Bridges, and The Big Deal shows Kenya raised $1.1 […] Kenya’s growth was strongest in Africa’s VC market; Clean tech, E-commerce pulled in most of the funding by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

Learn how to perform A/B tests, prioritize a list of tests, and run them with minimal external interference. Teach yourself growth marketing: How to perform growth experimentation through A/B testing by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

“We’re going to be responsible for catalyzing a completely new generation to be more conscious of their environment; more conscious of how they spend and how they buy," Sandu said. Spatial Labs, a web3 infrastructure and hardware company, closes $10M seed round by Dominic-Madori Davis originally published on TechCrunch

Mega Ranch enables Meati Foods to grow, harvest and process its mycelium and then produce its products under one roof. Mushroom protein company Meati Foods opens ‘mega’ facility; closes $22M in new funding by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

Hawk AI, a German company developing anti-money laundering (AML) and tangential fraud prevention smarts for financial institutions, has raised $17 million in a Series B round of funding. Prior to now, Hawk AI had raised $10 million, and with a fresh $17 million in the bank, the company said that it plans to bolster its […] Hawk AI, an anti-money laundering and fraud prevention platform for banks, raises $17M by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

Smart home energy startup Tado has raised €43 million ($46.9 million) in a round of funding led by Trill Impact Ventures, as the company pursues plans to become profitable in 2023. The raise comes a year after the German company announced plans to go public (“deSPAC”) via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), plans that […] European smart thermostat startup Tado raises $46.9M after IPO plans falter by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

Generative AI is the tech industry’s buzzword of the moment. It’s no wonder — the VC firm Sequoia not long ago predicted that generative AI, which comprises AI that can generate text, art and more from prompts, could yield trillions of dollars in economic value over the long run. Is that simply the optimistic musing […] Supernormal raises $10M to automatically transcribe and summarize meetings by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Hello, friends, and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package. Daily Crunch: ‘Network issue’ causes cloud outage that takes down multiple Microsoft services for 4+ hours by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

For the first time since 2014, venture capital funding to European edtech startups saw a decline year-over-year. 2022 European edtech report: Smaller rounds and fewer deals, but more angel activity by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

Last week, we learned Google’s in-house R&D group, Area 120, had been severely impacted by the broader Google workforce reduction, impacting teams working on some of Google’s more experimental ideas. However, we understand now that at least three Area 120 projects have been spared from these latest cuts, and will go on to “graduate” to […] Google spares three Area 120 R&D projects, including team working on a ‘Gen Z consumer product’ by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

We interviewed investors Momei Qu and AJ Malhotra about the latest tech in property and housing development. Proptech in Review: Investors predict slower growth in 2023 by Karan Bhasin originally published on TechCrunch

Crowdbotics, a software development platform with a library of prebuilt app architectures, today announced that it raised $40 million in a Series B round led by NEA with participation from Homebrew, JSV, Harrison Metal and Cooley. The new cash will be put toward expanding Crowdbotics’ enterprise presence, CEO Anand Kulkarni told TechCrunch in an email […] Crowdbotics raises $40M to help devs build apps from modular code by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

The global app economy slowed for the first time last year, as consumer spending on apps dropped 2% to $167 billion, according to a recent annual report put out by data.ai. At the same time, downloads were up 11% year-over-year — a seemingly positive indication that app adoption was still taking place, driven in particular […] App downloads were stagnant in the fourth quarter, new analysis finds by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Can I change my L-1B visa to an H-1B with a different company? My understanding is that L visas are restricted to working only with the issuing company. Dear Sophie: How do I change my L-1B to an H-1B through the lottery? by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch

Working with, microservices-based development environments presents a unique set of testing challenges. Richard North developed an open source solution called Testcontainers in 2015 to help ease this problem for developers. Today, the open source project is used by companies like Uber, Netflix, Spotify and Capital One. North and co-founder Sergei Egorov (who was a co-maintainer […] AtomicJar opens public beta of Testcontainers Cloud, cloud version of open source testing tool by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

Sequoia Capital and Bain Ventures are among the high-profile investors that have backed the venture firm Kearny Jackson’s second fund, the early-stage focused firm said Wednesday as it gears up to invest in more startups. Kearny Jackson, founded by former Spotify executive Sriram Krishnan, said it has closed $14 million second fund. It has also […] Sequoia, Marc Andreessen back early-stage fund Kearny Jackson by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch