Daily Crunch: London-based spatial computing startup Hadean closes $30M Series A

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It’s Friday, and that means… Actually, we don’t even know exactly what that means anymore, except that we’re going to be sitting in the sun and basking in the very last few warm days before we get jealous of the antipodes for the next six months . — Christine and hey

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Fashionably late: Epic Games loved distributed computing startup Hadean so much that they didn’t want to miss a chance to support it. Paul learned more about how Epic got involved in the $30M Series A investment and why.

• From boring to bling: Life insurance isn’t often an exciting topic, but Strava co-founder Mark Shaw thinks he’s found a way to “protect” it with Inclined, a company that lends against whole life insurance policies. Maria Ann writes. The company is now flush with a $15 million Series A.

• Shopping for healthcare: Healthcare is an intricate web of doctors, labs and payers that rarely seems connected. Kenyan startup Ponea Health wants to change that with its healthcare marketplace offering that brings everyone together. annie reports.

Startups and VCs

The crypto market is awash with centralized (Binance, FTX) and decentralized ETH-based perpetuals and options trading platforms (Dydx, Opyn, Perpetual Protocol). Nibiru is attempting to build the first mainstream decentralized multichain solution. The company was co-founded by Tribe Capital GP Arjun Sethi and has just raised $7.5 million in seed funding with a valuation of $100 million. Manic reports.

A cloud kitchen — also known as a ghost kitchen or community kitchen — offers restaurant owners and food business operators a commercial kitchen space at reduced delivery and takeout costs. A Manila-based startup called CloudEats, which operates cloud kitchens in the Philippines and Vietnam, has just raised a $7 million Series A expansion to accelerate the digitization of hospitality in Southeast Asia. Kate reports.

The story goes on

Here are a few more…

8 investors discuss the future of reproductive health startups in a post-Roe world

Photo credit: Alexander Ryabintsev/Getty Images

Dominic-Madori Davis interviewed eight investors about the role venture capital could play in this new era in which Americans no longer have a legal right to an abortion.

The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision affected more than just healthcare and privacy: Will capital and talent flee US states that restrict reproductive rights? Will investors support more startups that expand access to healthcare?

Given “the tenuous relationship between risk money and ethics,” Dominic-Madori asked the group how they plan to make an impact — and how they prefer to be approached by entrepreneurs:

• Hessie Jones, Partner, MATR Ventures

• Lisa Calhoun, Gary Peat, and William Leonard, Valor Ventures

• Mecca Tartt, CEO, Startup Runway

• Ed Zimmerman, founding partner of First Close Partners

• Theodora Lau, Founder of Unconventional Ventures

• McKeever Conwell, founder of RareBreed Ventures

Recently on TechCrunch+:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams stay ahead of the competition. Here you can sign up. Use code “DC” for 15% off an annual subscription!

BigTech Inc.

Who knew a baseball simulation game would take off so well at the height of a pandemic? The Game Band certainly did. amanda talks to the creators of Blaseball about how they’re building the game for the future.

• Breaking into a new show: If you’re a fan of ‘Breaking Bad’, the show’s creator has announced a new show for Apple TV+, Ivan writes.

• clap back: The California Department of Civil Rights is now considering a counterclaim from Tesla after a judge refused to dismiss a racial bias case against the electric-car giant. Rebekah has more.

• new boss: Former Google ad executive Allan Thygesen has a new role: he will serve as the new CEO of DocuSign, Ron reports.

• There are no supply bottlenecks here: jaclyn reports on GM Ventures’ new investment in Lithion Recycling, a Canadian battery recycler, to help power GM’s electric vehicle fleet.

• urgent message: Italy has elections on Sunday and the country is nervous about election interference measures, so it has fired a message to Meta asking for information on how Facebook plans to handle this. Natasha L writes.