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Krafton, the developer of popular gaming title PUBG Mobile, has invested $22.4 million in Indian esports firm Nodwin Gaming, the two firms said Tuesday as the South Korean firm looks to maintain some presence in what was once its key overseas market.

Nodwin Gaming, a subsidiary of local gaming giant Nazara, has established itself as one of the largest esports firms in India.

The Gurgaon-headquartered firm today works with several firms including Blizzard Entertainment, Valve, Riot Games, ESL to help them host events, provide commentary, produce and license content, and amass brands and sponsors.

Nodwin, which recently expanded to Africa, will deploy the fresh capital to accelerate its growth in international markets, it said.

Krafton and Nodwin have been engaging with one another for some time. The two firms last week announced that they will be collaborating to hold two PUBG Mobile events in Asia.

“Esports will be a key pillar to the growth of sports entertainment in the future. It sits at a wonderful intersection of sports, entertainment and technology where nations such as India can pave the path. With Krafton coming on board, we have an endorsement from the mecca of gaming and esports — South Korea — on what we are building from India for the world based on our competence in mobile first markets,” said Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of Nodwin Gaming, in a statement.

India banned PUBG Mobile and hundreds of other apps with affiliation to China last year citing cybersecurity concerns. Krafton has been attempting to bring PUBG Mobile back in India, but hasn’t had any luck yet.

To assuage New Delhi’s concerns about users’ security, Krafton said it had cut ties with Chinese publisher Tencent. (It also inked a global cloud deal with Microsoft.) Sean Hyunil Sohn, the head of Corporate Development at Krafton, said earlier this month at a gaming conference that the firm “will work hard” to bring PUBG Mobile back in India, but didn’t elaborate.

“Krafton is excited to partner with Nodwin Gaming to help foster the promising esports ecosystem and engage with our fans and players in India,” said Changhan Kim, chief executive of Krafton in a statement.

“Taking the momentum from this partnership, we will explore additional investment opportunities in the region to uphold our commitment and dedication in cultivating the local video game, esports, entertainment, and tech industries.”

Apple has released a set of security updates for iPhones, iPads, Macs and Watches. There are no new features — but these are updates you will still want to install.

As part of these security fixes, iPhones and iPads will update to iOS and iPadOS 14.4.1, watchOS users will update to 7.3.2 and macOS Big Sur will update to 11.2.3. Those on older versions of macOS can install the latest version of Safari, bumping the version to 14.0.3.

Apple says these are “important” security updates and are “recommended for all users.”

These patches fix the same vulnerability — a memory corruption bug in WebKit, the engine that powers Apple’s Safari browser. The bug can be triggered by visiting a malicious web page containing code that can exploit the vulnerability. Once exploited, an attacker can run malicious code on the affected Apple device.

The bugs were reported by Google and Microsoft, but are not believed to be actively exploited by malicious hackers unlike recent security flaws.

Last month, Apple pushed out iOS 14.4 to fix three WebKit vulnerabilities that were being “actively exploited.” The vulnerabilities were chained together to break into the underlying iPhone software.

If you haven’t already, update today.

PayPal acquires a cryptocurrency startup, Apple discontinues the iMac Pro and McAfee sells its enterprise business. This is your Daily Crunch for March 8, 2021.

The big story: PayPal acquires Curv

This deal will grow PayPal’s cryptocurrency team by bringing on Curv, a startup working with exchanges, brokers and over-the-counter desks to help their users store crypto assets securely and access their wallets without requiring additional hardware.

The larger company already supports the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, and it says it plans to launch new crypto-related products in other countries and in Venmo. Calcalist was the first to report the acquisition, and it said that the deal price was between $200 and $300 million, while another source tells TechCrunch that the price was less than $200 million.

The tech giants

The iMac Pro is being discontinued — Apple will stop selling the all-in-one once the current stock is depleted.

McAfee sells enterprise biz to Symphony Technology Group for $4B — McAfee President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Leav said the company has decided to direct its resources to the consumer side of the business.

Google unveils $25M in grants aimed at empowering women and girls — Google.org’s new Impact Challenge, unveiled on International Women’s Day, is aimed at addressing systemic barriers and inequities.

Startups, funding and venture capital

UK challenger bank Starling raises $376M, now valued at $1.9B — Starling, which competes against incumbent banks, as well as other challengers like Monzo and Revolut, says it’s already profitable.

Cosi raises €20M for its ‘full-stack’ approach to short-term rentals — The company signs long-term leases with property owners, then furnishes those apartments itself to “control” the interior design experience.

Swiss maker of meat alternatives Planted will expand and diversify with $18M Series A — With new kebabs and pulled-style faux meats available and steak-like cuts in the (literal) pipeline, Planted has begun to set its sights outside central Europe.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

From electric charging to supply chain management, InMotion Ventures preps Jaguar for a sustainable future — A look at InMotion Ventures, the independent investment and incubation initiative set up by Jaguar Land Rover.

Olo’s IPO could value the company north of $3B as Toast waits in the wings — Olo, the New York-based fintech startup that provides order processing software to restaurants, shared its initial IPO price range this morning.

White-label voice assistants will win the battle for podcast discovery — Listeners have never had so many choices for smart and compelling podcast content, with new exciting shows emerging daily.

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

Everything else

Announcing the agenda for TC Early Stage — Operations & Fundraising — You’ve got questions. TechCrunch Early Stage will have answers for you on April 1 and 2.

A glimpse inside the minds of tech’s DEI leaders — We spoke with Uber Chief Diversity Officer Bo Young Lee and Netflix VP of Inclusion Strategy for Product Wade Davis about the work that still needs to be done.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

Zapier, a well-known no-code automation tool, has purchased Makerpad, a no-code education service and community. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

TechCrunch has covered Zapier often during its life, including its first, and only fundraising event, a $1.2 million round back in 2012 that tapped Bessemer, DFJ, and others. Since then company has added more expensive tiers to its service, built out team-focused features, and recently talked to Extra Crunch about how it scaled its remote-only team.

In an interview Monday with Zapier CEO Wade Foster told TechCrunch that his company now has 400 workers, and crossed the $100 million ARR mark last summer.

The Makerpad deal is its first acquisition. TechCrunch asked Makerpad founder Ben Tossell about the structure of the deal, who said via email that his company will operate as a “stand-alone” entity from its new parent company.

The deal doesn’t seem prepped to upend what the smaller startup was working on before it was signed. “Ultimately,” Tossell wrote, “Makerpad’s vision is to educate as many people as possible on the possibilities of building without writing code.”

Foster seems content with that focus, describing to TechCrunch how he intends to let Makerpad operate largely independently, albeit inside a set of editorial guidelines.

TechCrunch asked the Makerpad founder why this was the right time to sell his business. He said that the pairing would help his team take the no-code world further than it could alone, also noting that the deal was a “no-brainer” over “alternative routes such as VC funding.”

The acquisition was partially driven by a single tweet. This one, in fact. According to Tossell, the CEO of Zapier reached out after reading it, leading to conversations and a deal. Foster expanded on the story during a call, saying that he had long followed Tossell’s work and that the two had met previously at dinners. The tweet wound up in his Slack, he said, so he reached out to the Makerpad founder, and from there it was a pretty quick ramp to a deal.

The two companies have seen rapid growth in recent quarters. Foster detailed to TechCrunch how small businesses have become increasingly reliant on his company’s service in the post-COVID world, with Zapier seeing strong SMB adoption after the pandemic hit. Given the digital transformation’s acceleration, that’s a trend that likely won’t slow soon. And Tossell told TechCrunch that no-code has already “grown bigger than [he] had imagined it could,” with his company seeing users expanding 4x in just under the last year.

Zapier, perhaps one of the largest success stories in the broad swath of technology products that we might call the no-code world, now has an attached community that could help directly add users to its service, and perhaps indirectly by making the aggregate pool of no-coders larger over time.

The no-code space has been active in recent months, as has its sibling niche, the low-code market. The latter has seen recent rounds in the nine-figures, as some corporations turn to low-code tools to help the more quickly build internal software. The no-code world has its own successes, like Zapier’s nine-figure revenues.

Foster was neutral on more acquisitions, neither closing the door on them when TechCrunch asked, but not opening it any wider at the same time. On the SPAC question, however, the CEO was a bit clearer. That’s a no.

After having spoken to a grip of no-code, and low-code founders and investors in recent months, it seems clear that the broader business market is coming around to low-code services, and that smaller companies have been quick adopters of no-code tooling. As low-code tools become increasingly abstracted from coding, and no-code tools add functionality, perhaps we’ll see the two related categories merge.

As an early-stage founder, how do you identify the right investors? Or know how to hire the best possible team to set up your company for growth? Should you bootstrap, and if so, how do you do it successfully? How do you nail virtual pitch meetings? What about product market fit? Board construction and good governance? How do you make sound financial decisions both for your company and yourself?

You’ve got questions. TechCrunch Early Stage will have answers for you on April 1 & 2.

At the virtual event, we’re bringing together some of the most seasoned operators in the fields of legal, recruiting, product, data security, and sales to help you find your way through a tactical quagmire to the bright light of success at the end of the tunnel.

Of course, the show will cover more than operational challenges. We also have many, many sessions around fundraising, from how to think about raising your Series A to how to get an investors attention.
If you’re in the midst of building a company, this show is worth making time for. Plus, audience members will be able to ask their own questions to our expert speakers in each and every breakout session.

Finding Your Product Market Fit with Sean Lane (Olive AI)

Olive AI founder and CEO is no stranger to the pivot. Hear how he practiced patience in the search for product market fit, how he knew it when he finally found it, and tactics he used to build on it.

Sponsored by Perkins Coie: Creating and Protecting IP Value in Connection with VC Financings

How do venture capital investors value formal Intellectual Property (IP) rights in connection with a decision to fund a technology or life sciences start-up? How do they conduct IP due diligence? How do investors and founders, post-funding, ensure their start-ups are pursuing an IP strategy that optimizes exit valuation for all? Perkins Coie partners Michael Glenn (Patent Prosecution) and Matt Oshinsky (Emerging Companies Venture Capital) will be joined alongside a seasoned venture capitalist to discuss these and other questions regarding safeguarding IP rights and maximizing the value of all technology development activities.

How to Get an Investor’s Attention with Marlon Nichols (MacVenture Partners)

Marlon Nichols is an expert in early-stage investments, having invested in countless successful ventures such as Gimlet Media, MongoDB, Thrive Market, PlayVS, Fair, Wonderschool and Finesse. Right now, there is more seed stage fundraising than ever before, and Marlon will speak on how to get noticed by investors, how to grow your business and how to survive in the crowded, competitive space of tech startups. He will provide insights on how to network, craft a great pitch and target the best investors for your success.

Sponsored by Mayfield: Scientist Entrepreneurs – Scaling Breakout Engineering Biology Companies

Biology as technology will re-invent trillion dollar industries and enhance human and planetary evolution. In this session, two early-stage investors and company builders, Arvind Gupta and Ursheet Parikh, will be in conversation with a leading author and seed investor Po Bronson, Managing Director of IndieBio. They will share their playbook on scaling start-ups touching upon three seminal areas which influence trajectory – fundraising, hiring, and product design. Their insights will draw on their experience with companies including ingredients-as-service leader Geltor which raised a $91 million Series B in 2020, CRISPR platform Mammoth Biosciences whose dream team includes co-founder Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, and Endpoint Health, started by the founding team of GeneWEAVE (acquired by Roche) and former YC Bio Partner Diego Rey, which is designing a new class of therapeutic products that focus on hospital conditions that kill as many people as cancer.

How to Nail Your Virtual Pitch Meeting with Melissa Bradley (Ureeka)

The rules of the pitch meeting have changed. Instead of traveling across the country, wasting time in planes, trains and automobiles, founders can take upwards of 30 meetings in a day from the comfort of their home. Entrepreneur and VC Melissa Bradley will outline how to make the most of that half hour on Zoom and lock in the next one.

Sponsored by Merus Capital: An M&A Playbook for Startup Founders: Lessons from Google and Microsoft

One of the most important decisions a founding team can make is when to consider selling the company to a strategic buyer. In this session, learn the tactics for approaching acquirors, avoiding common pitfalls and maximizing the likelihood of achieving an eye-popping valuation. Hear from Sean Dempsey, founding partner of Merus Capital who spent 10 years leading acquisitions for Google and Microsoft, and Dave Sobota, VP of Corporate Development at Instacart and former M&A leader at Google.

10 Things NOT To Do When You Are Starting a Company with Leah Solivan (Fuel Capital)

With voices across the internet giving their two-cents on how to run a great business. Fuel Capital’s Leah Solivan, who was CEO at TaskRabbit for 8 years, will share a list of things that a founder should NOT do. Avoid the pitfalls that could break your momentum, or worst case, your company and ask Solivan your own questions.

Sponsored by Dell for Entrepreneurs: Why Founders should adopt OKRs now?

Execution is key to a start-up’s survival and growth especially when it comes to fast-moving software and technology products. Being in the tricky intersection of investors, customers and employees, a founder needs to balance priorities, align teams and create a visionary product that works. Moreover, in this age of hyper feedback loops and changing business models, the founder has to be agile enough to absorb and quickly react to changes in the product roadmap and consumer needs. OKRs – a toolkit used majorly by engineering and product teams is more than relevant now for founders of all kinds to embrace. Join the session to learn the history of OKRs, what they are about, and witness case studies of successful real-life adoption.

How To Get Into An Accelerator with Neal Sales-Griffin (Techstars)

Accelerators provide an incredible launch pad for early stage startups, offering a built-in network, accessible advisors, and of course, capital. But first, you’ve got to be accepted. Hear Techstars Neal Sales-Griffin outline how to get into an accelerator and make the most of the experience.

Sponsored by Brainbase: Naming & Protecting Your Company’s Intellectual Property with Brainbase

You have an idea for a game-changing product or service – what do you call it? Once you’ve picked a name, how do you make sure nobody else is using it? Is the domain and Twitter handle available? Brainbase makes it easy for anyone to file a trademark without a lawyer, and instantly own your brand across all channels. In this session, Brainbase co-founder and CEO Nate Cavanaugh will explain the importance of owning your company’s trademark, both for brand protection and for fundraising due diligence.

4 Things To Think About Before Raising a Series A with Bucky Moore (Kleiner Perkins)

Founders looking to raise Series A capital know that it’s an entirely different ball game than seed stage funding. Hear Kleiner Perkins partner Bucky Moore outline the most important ways to mentally prepare for heading into Series A fundraising.

Sponsored by B Capital Group: Nailing the little things: How startups can achieve operational excellence from “Day one”

The early days of launching a company can be a whirlwind for founding teams as unexpected challenges and opportunities require flexibility, agility and speed. But implementing a few key operating best practices and processes early can be a crucial part of a startup’s success or failure when it prepares for rapid growth. Join partners from B Capital Group, a multi-stage global investor, to learn about the most important things you can do to set your startup up for success early in your journey, and what will be most important to investors as you raise your Seed, A and B funding rounds. Speakers include Howard Morgan, Chairman of B Capital Group and co-founder of First Round Capital, and Partners Karen Page (formerly of Box) and Gabe Greenbaum (formerly of Pritzker Group).

How to Build Your Early Team for Future Growth with Sarah Smith (Bain Capital Ventures)

More than your investors, or even you as a founder, your early employees will have a tremendous influence on the trajectory of your company. You hire them, and often times, they hire everyone else. Hear Bain Capital Ventures partner Sarah Smith talk through how to recruit a top-notch early team that sets your startup up for future growth.

Contracts, Cap Tables and other Legal Questions with Dawn Belt (Fenwick)

No matter the industry, your startup requires legal help. Whether it’s building out the cap table, writing up contracts, understanding the laws around hiring or simply feeling secure with a TOS. Whatever the question, Fenwick & West partner Dawn Belt has the answer.

Finance for Founders with Alexa von Tobel (Inspired Capital)

As a founder, you not only have to master your company’s finances, you also have to tackle your own personal finances. Managing your money as a founder comes with a unique set of questions (see: QSBS). Leveraging her expertise from LearnVest and as a Certified Financial Planner, Alexa will share financial planning best practices so founders can remove this layer of stress from the pressure of building a business.

Leadership Culture and Good Governance with David Easton (Generation Investment Management)

David Easton is a growth-stage partner at Generation Investment Management with portfolio companies that include Asana, Andela, Gusto, and Docusign, among others. Easton will talk through how to choose your board and foster a leadership culture that keeps sustainable, good governance top of mind.

Building and Leading a Sales Team with Ryan Azus (Zoom)

Contrary to popular opinion, even the very best products don’t sell themselves. Salespeople do. Hear from Zoom’s Chief Revenue Officer, at the helm of the company’s sales team during the biggest period of growth of any software company ever, lay out how to build a stellar sales team.

The All-22 View with Eghosa Omoigui (EchoVC Partners)

Improving line of sight and dynamic field of play aperture is rarely discussed but hugely important. Great founders, operators and investors have an understanding of playbooks on both sides of the ball. We’ll talk through learnings and some ideas on how to build muscle memory and skillsets so that founders never lose perspective when it’s time to make a big decision.

And we’ll also have some great sessions from our partners too!

Creating and Protecting IP Value in Connection with VC Financings brought to you by Perkins Coie

How do venture capital investors value formal Intellectual Property (IP) rights in connection with a decision to fund a technology or life sciences start-up? How do they conduct IP due diligence? How do investors and founders, post-funding, ensure their start-ups are pursuing an IP strategy that optimizes exit valuation for all? Perkins Coie partners Michael Glenn (Patent Prosecution) and Matt Oshinsky (Emerging Companies Venture Capital) will be joined alongside a seasoned venture capitalist to discuss these and other questions regarding safeguarding IP rights and maximizing the value of all technology development activities.

Scientist Entrepreneurs – Scaling Breakout Engineering Biology Companies brought to you by Mayfield

Biology as technology will re-invent trillion dollar industries and enhance human and planetary evolution. In this session, two early-stage investors and company builders, Arvind Gupta and Ursheet Parikh, will be in conversation with a leading author and seed investor Po Bronson, Managing Director of IndieBio. They will share their playbook on scaling start-ups touching upon three seminal areas which influence trajectory – fundraising, hiring, and product design. Their insights will draw on their experience with companies including ingredients-as-service leader Geltor which raised a $91 million Series B in 2020, CRISPR platform Mammoth Biosciences whose dream team includes co-founder Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, and Endpoint Health, started by the founding team of GeneWEAVE (acquired by Roche) and former YC Bio Partner Diego Rey, which is designing a new class of therapeutic products that focus on hospital conditions that kill as many people as cancer.

Using Fast Feedback to Make Higher-Confidence Decisions and Accelerate the Dev Process brought to you by UserTesting

We’ll discuss how to use fast feedback methodologies to make high-confidence product decisions based on objective customer data in real time, without slowing the dev process. Quickly diagnose problems, settle disputes, reduce the risk of rework, and iterate faster. This session will include real-world case studies.

An M&A Playbook for Startup Founders: Lessons from Google and Microsoft brought to you by Merus Capital

One of the most important decisions a founding team can make is when to consider selling the company to a strategic buyer. In this session, learn the tactics for approaching acquirors, avoiding common pitfalls and maximizing the likelihood of achieving an eye-popping valuation. Hear from Sean Dempsey, founding partner of Merus Capital who spent 10 years leading acquisitions for Google and Microsoft, and Dave Sobota, VP of Corporate Development at Instacart and former M&A leader at Google.

Why Founders should adopt OKRs now? brought to you by Dell for Entrepreneurs

Execution is key to a start-up’s survival and growth especially when it comes to fast-moving software and technology products. Being in the tricky intersection of investors, customers and employees, a founder needs to balance priorities, align teams and create a visionary product that works. Moreover, in this age of hyper feedback loops and changing business models, the founder has to be agile enough to absorb and quickly react to changes in the product roadmap and consumer needs. OKRs – a toolkit used majorly by engineering and product teams is more than relevant now for founders of all kinds to embrace. Join the session to learn the history of OKRs, what they are about, and witness case studies of successful real-life adoption.

Naming & Protecting Your Company’s Intellectual Property brought to you by Brainbase

You have an idea for a game-changing product or service – what do you call it? Once you’ve picked a name, how do you make sure nobody else is using it? Is the domain and Twitter handle available? Brainbase makes it easy for anyone to file a trademark without a lawyer, and instantly own your brand across all channels. In this session, Brainbase co-founder and CEO Nate Cavanaugh will explain the importance of owning your company’s trademark, both for brand protection and for fundraising due diligence.

Nailing the little things: How startups can achieve operational excellence from “Day one” brought to you by B Capital Group

The early days of launching a company can be a whirlwind for founding teams as unexpected challenges and opportunities require flexibility, agility and speed. But implementing a few key operating best practices and processes early can be a crucial part of a startup’s success or failure when it prepares for rapid growth. Join partners from B Capital Group, a multi-stage global investor, to learn about the most important things you can do to set your startup up for success early in your journey, and what will be most important to investors as you raise your Seed, A and B funding rounds. Speakers include Howard Morgan, Chairman of B Capital Group and co-founder of First Round Capital, and Partners Karen Page (formerly of Box) and Gabe Greenbaum (formerly of Pritzker Group).

This year, we’ve added a pitch-off on day 2 of TC Early Stage, showcasing interesting startups from a variety of sectors. All-star judges will give their feedback live. You don’t want to miss it! And if you’re interested in pitching, you can still apply to pitch by tomorrow, March 9.

Of course, TC Early Stage dual event ticket holders will get access to both events (April 1-2 and July 8-9) and have access to 2x the content that comes out of the event live or on demand. Plus, you can take advantage of additional savings with Early Bird pricing on dual event tickets until March 26!

Mercenary CEOs know all too well that this is about the most bang you can get for your buck. Period. Grab get your ticket now and save up to $100!