Facebook's Twitter rival, YouTube's online game plans, and on TikTok, posting about disasters is great for business

We were in meetings most of the day so have to keep this one short and sweet (well, short). 

Before we part ways, we have a new podcast for you, featuring journalist and author Jason Del Rey, who chatted with us earlier this week about his new book, Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets. We ran some excerpts of that chat online earlier a couple of days ago, but this longer conversation touches on the strengths and weaknesses of Marc Lore, the serial entrepreneur who once sold his company, Quidsi, to Amazon (which stole it from the clutches of Walmart). It also addresses some of the moves Amazon has made to keep customers paying for its Amazon Prime service and delves into a handful of companies that are as well-poised as any to some day steal the mantle from Amazon as the world's biggest everything store.

Massive thanks to Finley Technologies, a debt capital management platform for startups, for supporting this week's episode. Finley's software aims to help startups manage their borrowing bases, financial covenants, and other debt capital must-haves. It's also offering free debt capital consultations (and it's hard to beat free).

Google’s YouTube is testing an online-games offering.

Boeing would just like everyone to know that the company had no role in working with OceanGate on the submersible. “Boeing was not a partner on the Titan and did not design or build it,” a spokesperson told the Washington Post earlier today. The spokesperson also said that “Boeing has found no record of any sale of composite material to OceanGate or its CEO.” OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush reportedly told the editor of Travel Weekly he had gotten the carbon fiber used to make the Titan “at a big discount from Boeing.” Rush reportedly added that he was able to get the carbon fiber at a good rate “because it was past its shelf life for use in airplanes.” More here.

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Limble, an eight-year-old startup based in Lehi, Ut., whose platform tracks unconnected physical assets for businesses, raised a $58 million Series B round, giving the company a $450 million post-money valuation. Goldman Sachs Growth Equity was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $76.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Acryl Data, a three-year-old startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that is providing tools to help companies organize and manage their data, raised a $21 million Series A round led by 8VC, with Sherpalo Ventures also chipping in. (We haven't seen the Sherpalo brand in a while; this is the firm of OG angel Ram Shriram, who wrote one of the first checks to Google and remains on its board.) Acryl Data has raised a total of $30 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Captions, a New York startup whose video editing app is specifically designed for editing talking videos, raised a $25 million Series B round led by Kleiner Perkins, with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel also taking part. Forbes has more here.

Focused Energy, a two-year-old Austin startup that aims to produce clean energy through laser-based nuclear fusion, raised an $11 million Series A extension led by Prime Movers, with previous investor VCP Capital also taking part. The company has raised a total of $82 million. More here.

Heard, a four-year-old Seattle startup that has designed software to streamline back-end office work for therapists, raised a $15 million Series A extension round led by Headline, with participation from GGV Capital as well as previous investors Footwork, Founders’ Co-Op, Act One, and Heron Rock. The company has raised a total of $26.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Kanvas Biosciences, a three-year-old startup based in Princeton, N.J., that is constructing a microbiome data resource for future drug development, raised a $12 million round led by DCVC, with Lions Capital, Cooke LLC, Uncommon Denominator, and Triple Impact Capital also anteing up. More here.

SlamBall, a 24-year-old Los Angeles company that operates a league where basketball players use trampolines to elevate their game, raised an $11 million Series A round co-led by IA Sports Ventures and Eberg Capital. ProTalk has more here.

TreasurySpring, a seven-year-old London startup that allows companies to manage their cash by making short-term cash investments, such as single secured bank loans or single investment-grade corporate loans, raised a $19 million Series B round. Investors included Balderton and Black Lion as well as previous investors ETFS Capital, Anthemis, and MMC Ventures. The company has raised a total of $33.5 million. Sifted has more here.

AvoMD, a five-year-old New York startup that has created an AI-enabled, no-code application builder that lets clinicians and hospitals build their own applications for any specialty, raised a $5 million seed round led by AlleyCorp, with Las Olas, Epsilon Health, and MedMountain Ventures also stepping up. More here.

C-Combinator, a Puerto Rico startup whose mission is to develop regenerative advanced biomaterials from seaweed, raised up to $6 million from Pegasus Capital Advisors and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs. More here.

Continuum Space Systems, a two-year-old startup based in Pasadena, Ca., that is developing workflow software for space missions, raised a $3 million seed round led by Prophetic Capital Partners, with Mandala Space Ventures, Explorer 1 Fund, Freeflow Ventures, and Unlock Venture Partners also participating. The company has raised a total of $6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Crux, a New York startup that is building an ecosystem for developers, tax credit buyers, and financial institutions to manage transferable tax credits, raised a $4.25 million seed extension round. Ardent Venture Partners led the investment. The company has raised a total of $8.85 million. More here.

Earn Network, a one-year-old Singapore startup that says it provides secure and audited templates to allow any individual to create their own custom financial products, such as staking or borrowing pools, raised a $2.7 million seed round led by Shima Capital, with DFG, Jsquare, LD Capital, Cronos Labs, GTS Ventures, Bixin Ventures, ViaBTC Capital, Mars DAO, and Mirana Ventures also piling on. More here.

FundMiner, a one-year-old startup based in El Paso, Tex., whose platform aims to automate fundraising for universities and community foundations, raised a $1.7 million round led by Sonoran Founders Fund, with Techstars and Cascade Seed Fund also contributing. More here.

Hyfé, a two-year-old Chicago startup that is transforming food processing wastewater into feedstocks for biomanufacturing and clean water, raised a $9 million seed round led by Synthesis Capital, with additional participation from The Engine, Refactor Capital, Supply Change Capital, Overwater Ventures, X Factor Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. The company has raised a total of $11 million. AgFunder News has more here.

Metal, a New York startup founded this year whose platform helps developers build AI apps for the enterprise, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Swift Ventures, with Y Combinator and Chapter One also taking part. The company has raised a total of $3 million. VentureBeat has more here.

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IBM is in talks to buy the 16-year-old software company Apptio as part of a deeper push into automation technology, according to Bloomberg, which says the parties are discussing a price in the range of $4.5 billion to $5 billion. Publicly traded Apptio sells online services that help manage information-technology budgets, forecasting and analysis. Bloomberg has more here.

Nearly two decades after founding Alibaba with Jack Ma and 16 others, 48-year-old Eddie Wu is set to preside over the break-up of the tech empire they built. The Financial Times looks at the trajectory of Wu, who takes over as CEO this fall, here.

Amazon plans to more than double its investment in India in the next seven years, the e-commerce group said, joining a roster of other high-profile American giants ramping up commitment to the South Asian market after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week. The e-commerce group has invested about $11 billion in India to date and plans to pour $15 billion more by 2030, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said today. TechCrunch has more here.

SpaceX is said to be offering to sell insider shares at a price that would raise the closely held company’s valuation to about $150 billion. That would compare with $137 billion reported in January when SpaceX raised $750 million from investors. Bloomberg has more here.

Meta is planning to release its Twitter competitor in mid-July and is pitching big-name celebrities to join a platform that will be "sanely" run, according to The Verge.

Social media startup IRL is shutting down after an investigation by its board concluded that 95% of its claimed 20 million monthly active users were "automated or from bots," per The Information.

Dumb Money (the movie).

Why thousands of board games are buried in Minnesota.

On TikTok, posting about a major disaster can be great for business.

A yacht . . . with a pool . . . that turns into a dance floor. 🤯

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