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Oh hey, and welcome to Thursday! It’s another intense day with a lot of news happening. We chose the cream of the crop for you. Oh! And if you want to be a part of Disrupt your startup, don’t forget to apply to Startup Battlefield 200!

On July 21, we had an incredible lineup for our event at TC Robotics-and there was something wrong with the marketing people, because they decided to make the event free. Get your ticket now in case they change their mind … – Christine at Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• On the Air tonight: Brian gives us an internal look at the new Apple MacBook Air M2. Let the pluses and minuses begin!
• Loss of some drawings: Anita, Natasha M at Mary Ann collaborated to deal with Stripe’s news that it was the latest to cut its internal appreciation. For those like, “What?” they explained that this means that the pricing of preferred shares to be sold is chosen by a third party against startups or venture capital investors. Interestingly this is not uncommon for a company to do.
• In the looking mirror: We enjoyed it Dominic-MadoriTechCrunch +’s deep dive into some predictions of what Black VCs and founders can expect from the investment community in the second half of this year.

  Photo Credits: Yuichiro Chino / Getty Images

Startups and VCs

“We can take money from crypto funds, but it’s stronger to take it from the game industry and believers,” said Raz Friedman, co-founder of UnCaged, Jacquelyn in an interview about the company’s $ 24 million fundraise. “We’re a gaming company first that uses and brings web3 to games, rather than being a web3-first company.”

“We think You.com will be a search platform that is open and allows others to build on top of all the search technology we’ve created,” said Richard Socher Kyle for his story about You’s $ 25 million fundraise. “Data transparency, user customization, summarization, privacy and innovative search are the foundation of our platform, and we beat Google in the long run by empowering the world to build the next search experience together . “

⁇ More, more, give me more (What an amazing tone).

• And how do you feel, |*FNAME*|: Therapist chatbots continue to rise in popularity, and Wysa has raised $ 20 million to further expand its services, as Jagmeet reports.
• A star, buy for the mortal enemy: Customer reviews are a well -known and efficient way to influence consumers. Okendo wants to turn your customers into consumers by using them, Christine reports.
• AI caramba: AssemblyAI expands its AI-as-a-service business, as it raised $ 30 million in a Series B round, reports Kyle.
• Is this seat taken?: The world is moving to hybrid work, and offices are scratching their heads to figure out how to allocate office space to reflect that. Robin raised $ 30 million for its office booking software to help figure that out, Kyle reports.
• Are you still up bro: At-home fitness startup Tonal-last worth $ 1.6 billion-has poured more than a third of its staff to help it become a “self-sustaining and profitable business,” Natasha M reports.

Five investors explained why Latin America is ready to face the crypto winter

Although a group of crypto companies are continuing their disastrous collapse, investors supporting DeFi startups in Latin America are “positioning themselves for a rebound,” Anna Heim reports.

He surveyed five investors who have staked companies in the region’s crypto and DeFi sectors to learn more about how their ethos has changed since winter began and why consumer use is stronger in LatAm than other markets:

• Matias Nisenson, co-founder, DeFi Wonderland
• Christine Chang, head of corporate development and ventures, Tribal
• Patricio Jutard, co-founder and general partner, Newtopia VC
• Claire Diaz-Ortiz, chair of the startups committee, VC3; scout, Kleiner Perkins
• Andy Areitio, general partner, TheVentureCity

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, helping founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Big Tech Inc.

Before diving into today’s big tech stories, we wanted to point out a few stories from late yesterday that continued to grab our attention on the second day.

The first is KirstenThe report answers the question of whether Tesla’s top AI executive will return for its Autopilot vision team. We can now confirm that it is negative. For all DoorDash enthusiasts out there in the US, subtotal minimums are likely to rise in your area, Rebecca writes. Meanwhile, Sarah relying on a report that TikTok surpassed YouTube as the place where all children and young people spend their time. And Rebecca also covered how Uber was sued by more than 550 women over allegations of sexual assault by drivers.

All right, now on to the show. Our colleagues did so well for the second day that there was a lot to study. By now, you know that Twitter went down this morning for users around the world, Amanda reports. Alex was not happy. During the turmoil, Twitter began testing several new features. Amanda also wrote about users being reminded to add alt text descriptions for photos, while Ivan described its new custom test in the timeline.

In financial news, Kyle Plaid reports adding read-only support for cryptocurrency exchanges. Finally, Manish covers the Internet and Mobile Association of India, a technology advocacy group that has decided to stop cryptocurrency due to regulatory uncertainty.

• So you want to play a game?: Non -game app revenue lost to US Apple App Store games for first time, Sarah reports. Meanwhile, Lauren writes about Nintendo’s new acquisition of the CG animation space and Sony’s new loyalty program for the PlayStation.
• Plugged: Panasonic starts a $ 4 billion electric car battery plant in Kansas that Jaclyn the writers may be the greatest in the world. Commercial EV company Arrival is making some tough financial and workforce decisions, if you know what we mean, to meet its van product target, Kirsten reports. Kirsten also reported that the ink on Walmart’s deal with Canoo was almost dry, and Rebecca writes about one of the caveats – that it doesn’t want Canoo to sell EVs on Amazon.
• Brrrr, it’s cold here: In another hit for cryptocurrency, one of the sector’s largest lenders, Celsius, has filed for bankruptcy, claiming the need to stabilize its business. Manish more.
• Trust, more like antitrust: Natasha L has a couple of compelling stories today. One is about Google facing several new antitrust investigations in Italy for claiming that the search engine giant may have “abused a dominant position by obstructing the data transmission rights provided to individuals under the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union. ” Another is about how Amazon is in talks with the EU to try and adjust its antitrust investigation into the use of merchant data.