We have analyzed hundreds of funding news stories on TechCrunch from the beginning of 2022 and came up with some important observations about what kind of news attracts their editors. 

Long gone are the days when you could have raised a small round and immediately get covered by most top-tier tech publications. A lot of them stopped covering these completely. VentureBeat is only interested in gaming-related rounds. Forbes does them very rarely. TechCrunch has long been one of the most favored targets for founders, yet their affinities have also changed. 

Here’s what we learned.

Features, not stories

The funding round stopped playing a key role, it turned into a background and a reason to simply consider covering a company. The bar to writing a feature is much higher so you need to have a strong foundation for the story and be able to explain this to the reporter listing all the potential angles.

• Luminovo raises money to reduce waste in electronics manufacturing
• Thirdweb raises $24M at a $160M valuation from Haun Ventures, Shopify and Coinbase for its web3 development kit
• Polygon founder raises $50M for emerging markets-focused web3 venture fund

Details are key

Has anybody told you that you shouldn’t even bother with TechCrunch unless you had raised $10/$20/$50 million? Think again. 

Stories about small funding rounds can still make their way into TechCrunch, but they always contain exciting details that make the story stand out. 

What could that be? Notable founders who have built breakthrough companies or were key executives at important companies in a particular industry. The round might include celebrity investors, either people with a stellar reputation in tech or actual celebrities coming from other industries. Finally, people do actually care about the social aspect, such as companies fighting  climate change, hunger, drinking water availability and so on. 

• Beacon Power Services raises $2.7M to improve electricity access for sub-Saharan African cities
• Fintech Guava raises $2.4M to provide banking services to Black small-business owners
• Kenya's Lami raises $1.8M to scale API insurance platform across Africa

Emerging markets are different

TechCrunch has editors and reporters focused on covering specific emerging markets, such as Africa, Southest Asia, India, LATAM. They often show unusual interest to funding news from startups coming from their respective regions, even if the funding amount is moderate. 

If you aren’t based in Europe or North America you might have better chances with specialized reporters. 

• Nigeria’s Grey raises $2M for cross-border payments play and regional expansion
• Egyptian startup Convertedin raises $3M, caters to e-commerce brands in MENA and Latin America
• Kenyan insurtech Lami raises $3.7M seed extension led by Harlem Capital
• Egyptian fashion e-commerce startup, raises $2.6M in seed funding

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Larger rounds tend to win

We can’t deny that in the fight for attention the larger rounds tend win. Journalists are attracted by ever-increasing amounts because this is what their audience is interested in. If your startup raised $50 million or more you might have an easier road to coverage. Still, that doesn’t mean that someone would write about your project right away and all the aspect we outlined above still apply. 

• Cordial, which personalizes and automates cross-channel messaging campaigns, raises $50M
• Fonoa raises $60M to automate tax compliance for global companies like Uber and Zoom
• Casavo, an Open Door-style proptech from Italy, raises $410M to expand its instant buyer platform
• Powin raises $135M funding from Singapore’s GIC, Trilantic North America and Energy Impact Partners
• Tecton raises $100M, proving that the MLOps market is still hot

Always start with the idea that nobody cares about what you do. This will help you dig deeper into your own company and find interesting story points, unusual angles and deliver this in the best possible way. 

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