To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here.
Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Thursday, March 10, 2022! Am writing to you after coming off a live taping of Equity, which means I am still full of adrenaline. Doing stuff live is really good fun, which is why I am pleased to bring you a raft of news about our upcoming live events! TC Sessions Climate is coming; OpenView Ventures’ Kyle Poyar is coming to Early Stage to talk software pricing; and we just announced that Luminar’s Austin Russell is coming to our upcoming mobility-focused event. TechCrunch is going to have a busy darn year. We can’t wait to see you! – Alex
The TechCrunch Top 3
- The latest tech response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion: Today’s headlines are much the same as they have been, with major tech companies making moves to isolate the Russian government and economy. This time ‘round it’s Amazon, Microsoft, and Google suspending cloud sales in Russia, Google adding air raid alerts to Android devices in Ukraine, and Google Play and YouTube pausing payments in Russia.
- What NFT downturn? Today TechCrunch took a look at a number of data points that appear to indicate at least a near-term slowdown in NFT trading activity. On the other hand, two major investors are backing a $30 million fund that wants to invest in NFT art. So, a little Column A, a little Column B.
- Colombian payment startup Yuno raises $10M: Reader demand for this piece was super strong, so we’re highlighting it today. Mary Ann Azevedo reports that as the Latin American startup market matures, more folks are cycling out of unicorns to build new companies. Yuno is one such company, founded by former Rappi denizens.
Startups and VC
Much is going on as always, but let’s flip the script and start with some venture news before we delve into startups, yeah? TechCrunch wrote about Antler East Africa, which just put together a $13.5 million fund for early-stage startups. The company is a blend of venture fund and accelerator, we report.
Moving on, let’s knock out the day’s huge rounds: Up first is Lunar, a Nordic neobank. It just raised a $77 million round at a $2 billion valuation. As part of the news, Lunar also released crypto trading and a B2B payments service. And people said that neobank fundraising was dead! Also out today was news from Stilt, which raised $114 million in equity and debt for its credit API. Furthermore, Typeform raised nine figures. The company reached $70 million ARR last year.
Now, the rest of the news:
- Zeta raises for surgical imaging tech: Boston-based with the requisite Harvard pedigree, Zeta Surgical came out of stealth this week with $5.2 million in funding and a goal of “delivering precise surgical imaging guidance for non-invasive surgeries performed outside the operating room,” we write.
- Curacel wants to help tech companies offer insurance: Speaking of startup niches that you might have thought were done raising capital for a bit, insurtech, like neobanks, is also not dead! Curacel offers an API that allows other firms – fintech, e-commerce, etc. – to offer insurance products.
- Sure, Mobileye is going public, but Autobrains is like bring it: Israel-based Autobrains has raised a $19 million round at a $120 million valuation to keep working in making self-driving cars work. Sure, Mobileye could be worth $50 billion. That isn’t stopping smaller firms from claiming their bite on the apple.
- Don’t reinvent Excel, just amend it? That appears to be the pitch that DataRails is making to finance types who live in the well-known Microsoft spreadsheeting app. Many startups are building stuff to get folks out of spreadsheets. It’s neat to see a company not take that approach.
And to close us out, Instacart is building out features for its in-store shoppers. Our growth questions about the company remain.
How to calculate your startup’s TAM, SAM and SOM
Image Credits: A. Martin UW Photography (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
For many first-time founders, calculating the size of the market in which they hope to compete is one of their biggest challenges.
Calculating TAM, SAM and SOM sounds like an existential exercise, but there’s no need to dread it “if you approach market sizing methodically,” says Marjorie Radlo-Zandi, a veteran investor and entrepreneur.
In a comprehensive article for TechCrunch+, she breaks down the steps required to capture these key metrics that “show prospective investors how they stand to gain from investing in your company, and put yourself in the best possible position to achieve your goals.”
(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
Big Tech Inc.
- Twitter makes it easy to swap modes: One thing I love about Twitter is the fact that I can get my tweets in time-series format. It’s the only way that I want to interact with the service. But some folks prefer to have Twitter’s overlord robot (read: algorithm) do the sorting for them. Now you can swap between the two more easily in its app.
- Hey Google, pay for my parking: Sadly, Google won’t lend you its debit card, but the company’s mobile OS will now work with ParkMobile to let users pay for parking more easily. If this works, let it spread.
- DoorDash wants to help you return packages: The market for food delivery is not infinite. And with multiple competitors in nearly every market you can name, it’s competitive to boot. And with public-market growth expectations thrown in, you can’t be shocked that DoorDash is looking for TAM boosters.
- Google to work on data portability: Major platforms don’t want your data to leave their domain. After all, data is power and companies want more power, not less. But Google is working on the matter after tech has scuffled with the EU over data issues in recent years, we report.