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TechCrunch+ roundup: VCs rate pitch decks, IPO analysis, Techstars’ expansion plans

TechCrunch

Don’t be afraid to just go for the teeth of the dragon, so to speak,” said Berdichevsky, who led the development of the Tesla Roadster’s battery pack. Stephanie Zhan walks through the Rec Room pitch deck that won Sequoia’s investment. Stephanie Zhan walks through the Rec Room pitch deck that won Sequoia’s investment.

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Metaverse Magna raises $3.2M at a $30M valuation to build Africa’s largest gaming DAO

TechCrunch

Emerging markets, including Africa, account for 30% of this number; platforms like MVM see games as one way to introduce these millions of users to web3. The gaming DAO publishes mobile games in frontier markets and creates developer tools for game creators to utilize emerging business models in Web3 gaming.

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The Last Gameboard raises $4M to ship its digital tabletop gaming platform

TechCrunch

As the company’s CEO and co-founder Shail Mehta explained in a TC Early Stage pitch-off earlier this year, The Last Gameboard is a 16-inch square touchscreen device with a custom OS and a sophisticated method of tracking game pieces and hand movements. ” 8 investors discuss social gaming’s biggest opportunities.

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Kodland, which teaches kids digital skills, grabs $9M to scale its online coding school

TechCrunch

It says it will also be spending on product development. Where kids are concerned, a giant of the category remains Roblox — which leverages social gaming to get children interested in learning programming and potentially earning money off of their creations.

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Skate Where the Puck is Going

Both Sides of the Table

Anyone who works in the venture business or frankly just lives in Silicon Valley will be used to hearing a buzz word rise up out of nowhere to capture the technology zeitgeist and find its way into every entrepreneur’s product development plan or every aspiring entrepreneur’s pitch deck.

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Reflections on YCombinator Demo Day: How the Seed Market Has Changed

Tomasz Tunguz

As I listened to the pitches, I wondered if the types of startups founders decide to build at YC has changed over time and whether those trends are lagging or leading indicators of the market as a whole. At each Demo Day, the YC team provides investors a list of all the companies pitching and I’ve kept a few.

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The Big VC Thaw – Why The Market is Moving Again (part 2 of 3)

Both Sides of the Table

The growth of Facebook and social gaming led by Zynga – Another obvious trend is Facebook. Notice that I didn’t say “social networking.” Much like iPhone is the only mobile platform in town, Facebook is the only “closed network” social networking platform in town. We’re only in the second inning on mobile.

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