Daily Crunch: Pet tech startup Digitail fetches $11M Series A led by Atomico

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Hello, dear readers! We’re back once again (like a renegade master) with a wall of great tech news stories. Plug in some headphones and bop your head to that song while you catch up on what’s happening out there in the wider worlds. Remember: There’s no such thing as a standing desk. It’s a dancing desk. Aw yessss. (We may have had a little bit too much coffee this morning. That might explain our ill behavior.) — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Get your woof on: With pet ownership up since the pandemic, veterinarians are being stretched to their limits. Here comes Romania-based Digitail, a company that automates the administrative work for veterinarians so they can focus on our four-legged friends. Mike reports that the company closed on $11 million in new funding to scale its operations in the U.S. and Canada.
• Your move: Amanda writes that proposed changes to Dungeons & Dragons’ Open Gaming License threatens an entire cohort of D&D content creators, and they are fighting to protect their livelihoods.
• SBF starts a Substack: In an effort to explain his side of the FTX debacle, Sam Bankman-Fried took to Substack to say, “I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away.”Mary Ann has more.

Startups and VC

The outlook of investing in China is suddenly brightening as the country gradually phases out its draconian zero-COVID policy, which has caused disruptions in businesses of all kinds and kept the country’s borders shut for the last three years, Rita reports. For venture capitalists, the pandemic has been a tumultuous ride. Tony Wu, a partner at Northern Light Venture Capital, a China-focused VC firm with $4.5 billion assets under management, calls 2022 the “toughest” in his 15 years of investing in Chinese startups.

Another fistful of headlines for your edification:

• That’s a hell of a loot box, y’all:Kakao Entertainment lands $966 million from sovereign wealth funds, including Saudi Arabia’s PIF,Kate reports.
• Irony is not dead:Career Karma’s latest layoffunderscores edtech’s new challenge, Natasha M writes.
• Learning how to make the world a better place: The Logic School wants to teach tech workers activism for free, Haje writes.
• From merger to layoffs: The company created by the Citrix-Tibco merger confirms it has laid off 15% of its staff, Ron reports.
• Gimme all your A/S/L: Carly reports that The Guardian confirms ransomware attacks stole employee data.

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