Daily Crunch: Citing data storage violations, India blocks Mastercard from onboarding new customers

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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for July 14, 2021. We have a jam-packed newsletter for you today, so we’re getting something out of the way up top. We’ve covered India’s technology regulatory market often in recent weeks. Why? Because the Indian startup scene is crazy busy. How India’s government handles the boom is going to be critical for a host of founders, investors and workers.

In that vein, the latest chapter in the story involves Mastercard, which just got blocked from onboarding new users. Why? Per our reporting, “noncompliance with local data storage rules.” Data rules, you will recall, are a big part of the changing regulatory world for Chinese startups as well. Something to keep an eye on! — Alex

The TechCrunch Top 3

Today’s Top 3 are all about social networks. Yes, the massive companies that we share our lives with, day in and day out. Let’s start with Facebook.

• Facebook, like Amazon, is not thrilled with the new U.S. antitrust boss: Lina Khan’s appointment as the head of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is causing waves among the largest tech companies in the world. Amazon demanded that she recuse herself from regulating its business. Facebook is now making similar noises. In short, the tech giants think that her prior criticism of their business practices is disqualifying. This is at once risible and notable; that a regulator has a perspective about, well, regulation seems more like a qualification than a disqualifying fact.
• Facebook is also willing to buy creator love: Sticking to the Facebook world for a moment, the company announced a $1 billion fund that will be paid out to digital creators who produce work that lives on its platforms. The dollar amount is what we should pay attention to here; Facebook is willing to pay up for the sort of attention that TikTok has managed to accrue for free.
• Twitter is killing Fleets: The final bit of Hot New Social Media News is that Twitter is killing off its little-loved stories feature called Fleets. First, read the TechCrunch story, then enjoy this fine tweet and this utterly perfect subheadline.

Really though, are you going to miss Fleets? No.

Startups/VC

We have a lot to get into from the startup world today, starting with two pieces looking at the subject from a more meta level. Then we have a grip of neat new rounds for your enjoyment:

• How to make today’s high-flying startup valuations work: I wrote this earlier today to distill some conversations I’ve had with investors and founders about today’s startup valuations, and how the high prices being paid may work out for both founders and venture capitalists. They may not! But here’s a bullish take.
• Billions for battery tech: LG Chem is planning on spending some $5.2 billion on battery tech in the next four years. That’s more than $1 billion per year. This move details just how hot this sector is. Hell, it’s even minting SPACs for companies with revenue still years in the future.
• a16z not done investing in crypto: That’s the news today, with the venture firm leading a $9 million Series A into Phantom, which Lucas describes as a “crypto wallet startup.” Recall that a16z has reloaded its venture cannon with fresh crypto-focused funds.
• $21M for virtual concerts: One nice thing about the pandemic was musical acts putting on neat virtual shows. Here’s an example. Now FlyMachine has lots of money to “capture some of the magic of live concerts and performances in a livestreamed setting.” Yes, please — that sounds amazing.
• More money for cybersecurity: Life has three absolutes: death, taxes and huge new cybersecurity rounds. Today’s is a $275 million Series F for Cybereason, which works in the extended detection and response (XDR) space.
• Meet the newest Midwest unicorn: It’s M1 Finance, a startup that TechCrunch has covered extensively in the last year. Why? Because the company built a finance superapp that has proven very attractive to users. The company now has $150 million more under its belt — the new funds come just four months after it raised $75 million! — and $4.5 billion in assets under management.
• Finally, more money for fake meat: Raising animals is a pretty inefficient way to generate calories for consumption, and it’s hell on the environment. That’s why investors are pouring capital into fake meat companies. Next Gen Foods announced today that it has raised a $20 million seed extension (yep) for its “plant-based chicken alternative,” TechCrunch reports.

How to navigate an acquisition without alienating your current employees

Now that COVID-19 vaccines are encouraging the world to reopen, two trends are underway:

In the first half of 2021, mergers and acquisitions increased by more than 150% YOY to $2.4 trillion; in several surveys, an overwhelming majority of workers said they intend to seek employment elsewhere.

If your startup is angling toward an exit, the promise of a big payday may not be enough to retain employees who feel burned out or dissatisfied.

Many founders don’t have prior management experience, and, frankly, the uncertainty associated with an exit makes it a poor time for on-the-job learning. With that in mind, here are several communication strategies that can help you keep your winning team intact.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Big Tech Inc.

Sure, we covered a lot of Big Tech news up top, but there’s even more to get to:

• Remember Kindle? Amazon has put together a new Kindle service to allow for serialized fiction. Which is super cool. Even better, the service is now live. It’s called Kindle Vella. Anything that gives authors more creative room is good by me.
• Twilio wants to help you add audio, video to your app: API-delivered service trendsetter Twilio has announced Twilio Live, a service that will help developers embed live audio and video into their apps. Details are a bit scarce so far, but there are startups working on related products, so it will be interesting to see how this market shares out.
• Microsoft built cloud Windows while no one was looking: Redmond has a new service out called Windows 365 — which is not Microsoft 365, the rebrand of its Office 365 service. Windows 365 will allow companies to stream Windows to devices. Frederic reports that “Windows 365 has been long expected and is really just an evolution of existing remote desktop services.” We still think it’s neat, however.

TechCrunch Experts: Growth Marketing

Are you all caught up on last week’s coverage of growth marketing? If not, read it here.

As usual, if you have a recommendation of a growth marketer we should know about, fill out the survey here.

Read one of the testimonials we received below!

Marketer: Mitch Causey, Demandwell

Recommended by: Drew Beechler, High Alpha

Testimonial: “Mitch and the Demandwell team are some of the smartest content, SEO and digital marketers I’ve ever met, and their results speak for themselves. Their process, proprietary software and expertise around organic search and content is some of the best out there in helping companies think about organic search as a repeatable, proven method for growth and demand gen. Mitch and the Demandwell playbook worked so well that after being a client for two years and recommending to many in our portfolio, High Alpha ended up bringing Demandwell into the portfolio to turn their playbook into a scalable software platform.”