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Hello! And it’s Thursday! We’re all waiting with bated breath for the latest episode of “Will Elon Really Buy Twitter or Will He Squirrel Out of It” – the unspecified length miniseries and too many twists and turns to list. We’ll probably hear more tomorrow, but who knows. Besides, what is time? And if we all leave Twitter en masse, where will we be discussing all this drama?

Our favorite story today was RomainPhotos, covering these adorable houseplants that can be used as air purifiers.

Haje is away tomorrow so have a great weekend from him, and Christine will take care of all your crunchy needs tomorrow. goodbye! — Christine and hi

The australiabusinessblog.com Top 3

• Ixnay on the self-driving car: darrell has have had it with all the speculation and mentions it: “Truly autonomous vehicles just aren’t going to happen. The evidence to this effect has been piling up for years, if not decades, but it has now tipped the balance to where it would be hard to ignore for any discerning observer – even someone like me who was previously very optimistic about the prospects for self-driving cars,” he writes. Darrell, we love you and we hope you’ve never been wrong again.
• Closing the stable after the horse has stalled: We also have the latest on Elon Musk after his now famous Twitter office gutter video: Amanda reports in his open letter to Twitter advertisers that people are completely wrong about why he is buying the social media giant, but also that Twitter cannot become “a free hellscape”. Rebecca writes that Musk now says he will not fire 75% of the Twitter staff.
• Avoiding That Seller Tax: Jagmeet writes that sellers on Amazon must meet certain requirements to sell on the platform, but a startup called Mason wants to change that. The India-California-based startup has secured $7.5 million in new funding, led by Accel and Ideaspring Capital, to deliver an Amazon-like sales experience, but without that “Amazon tax.”

Startups and VC

There is seemingly a lot of new funds happening at once. Christine reports that Streamlined Ventures, led by Ullas Naik, has secured $140 million in new capital commitments for its two newest funds. hi reports that Human Impact Capital is a new $50 million fund investing in social impact startups, and Mike notes that Paris-based VC Satgana is completing the first close of its €30 million fund to support climate technology startups.

Meanwhile, there were a number of mega rounds that put the actual investment funds to shame; it’s a weird world when you can’t watch the headlines trying to figure out whether it’s a company raising a round or a new fund close. We collect a handful of them below.

5 tips to get started in a crowded web3 gaming market

Image Credits: Chelsea Samson (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

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

Play-to-Earn (P2E) games are particularly prone to this problem. Therefore, “building a game that has long-term success means developing monetization strategies that can withstand the ebb and flow of the market,” said Corey Wilton, co-founder and CEO of Mirai Labs, the gaming studio behind Pegaxy.

In this introduction to P2E founders, Wilton shares suggestions for approaching investors, explains why tokens are not a reliable fundraising tool, and discusses the recent “shift to monetization through Web 2.0.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

australiabusinessblog.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams stay ahead of the curve. You can register here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

The New York Post had to take down some today after it was discovered that someone had hacked into both the newspaper’s website and Twitter account, Bag reports. The headlines of the article in question were racist and sexually violent in nature, and the paper told australiabusinessblog.com that an employee was responsible for the incident, but did not elaborate on how it arrived at that conclusion.

Our team also paid attention to revenue so you didn’t have to. Rebecca took a look at Ford’s third-quarter earnings, which it reports took a $2.7 billion hit in connection with Argo AI, which we reported yesterday was being discontinued. Meanwhile, at Meta, Amanda writes that Meta had another drop in sales in the third quarter.

And now we have three more for you:

• google: Google Cloud has entered web3 territory with a managed blockchain node service by doing the heavy lifting there so developers can do their thing, Ron reports. In the meantime, manish has details of a $100 million acquisition the search engine giant made in Alter, an AI avatar startup.
• On an acquisition role: Ron also reported on yet another acquisition of Thoma Bravo. This time, along with Sunstone Partners, it announced the proposed acquisition of UserTesting for $1.3 billion. The company plans to combine it with its UserZoom, another company Thoma Bravo acquired in 2021.
• Request your health advice hereYouTube says it will begin certifying channels for licensed health professionals, such as doctors, nurses, or therapists, that produce health-related content, Ivan writes.