Technology

A new kids’ show will come with a crypto wallet when it debuts this fall

A new animated kids’ series expected to premiere this year won’t be headed for a TV network. Or a streaming service. Instead, the founders of production studio We Ghosted Media plan to launch on a decentralized web platform that uses blockchain technology.

And yes, a crypto wallet will be involved.

We Ghosted Media — founded by Chris Jammal, an assistant director for “Bob’s Burgers,” and Jaclynn Demas, producer of hit children’s show “Peg + Cat” — is a TV production studio abandoning traditional show release methods in favor of a decentralized approach, commonly referred to as web3.

The studio announced Friday it was teaming up with Lamina1 to launch the new animated kids’ series entitled “Owen Nowhere.”

Lamina1 was founded by “Snow Crash” author Neal Stephenson and launched in 2022 as a Layer 1 blockchain platform designed to give creators an environment to protect, control, and monetize their intellectual property. Lamina1’s overarching mission, however, is to build an open metaverse. Stephenson’s vision of the metaverse — a concept he coined in his 1992 acclaimed novel — consists of a virtual world where users get their own lifelike 3D avatar.

Blockchain technology and the metaverse are buzzwords in the tech world and they have been slow to achieve mass adoption. Introducing a kids’ show in this space is particularly bold, considering the production studio will have to figure out how kids will navigate a platform that requires a crypto wallet.

But Jammal and Demas are banking on the freedom of a decentralized platform, which allows the audience to interact and even participate, as a selling point that will win over users.

Owen Nowhere2 — **Image Credits:**We Ghosted Media

The new show centers around Owen B. Gloom, a preteen aspiring content creator on a family road trip, documenting their visits to unusual tourist attractions. The family’s dynamic is funny, sweet, and slightly dysfunctional, featuring Owen’s adoptive vampire parents, a magical transforming vehicle, a pet cat, and a fish in a stroller.

But as Jammal and Demas told TechCrunch, this is more than a show. It’s really about their mission to set a “new standard for the future of children’s entertainment in the decentralized era.”

The project will be developed and viewable on Lamina1’s yet-to-be-launched Spaces, an offering that enables creators to create their own virtual worlds. In these worlds, creators can build interactive experiences, digital items, and content in various formats, including 2D, 3D, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).

Jammal and Demas envision “Owen Nowhere” as an immersive experience that allows fans to engage with the world and contribute their ideas for the series.

The virtual space will also include exclusive behind-the-scenes content, collectible digital assets, and online community-driven experiences like voting. The studio believes that the most attractive feature is the opportunity for viewers to make key decisions for the story, such as suggesting destinations for the family’s adventures.

“We were thinking [fans could] vote for where the Glooms can travel next. Do you want them to come to your hometown? Maybe they want to buy that souvenir that Owen picked up at the Grand Canyon [as] their own digital asset. Maybe they want to change his outfit. There are so many possibilities of how this can go,” Jammal said.

OwenNowhere3 — **Image Credits:**We Ghosted Media

While it’s clear that this show has all the ingredients to resonate with viewers and hold their attention, there will be challenges, including convincing parents to manage a crypto wallet for their child.

Parents may worry that introducing kids to this ecosystem, even indirectly, could expose them to financial manipulation or loss, even if the parents are the ones in control of the wallet.

However, some parents are more open to the idea, with some sending their five-year-olds to crypto summer camps. In 2022, Zigazoo introduced NFTs for several IPs, including CoComelon.

“It’s a big topic of discussion. It’s like, ‘What permissions do we need in place around it?’” Lamina1 CEO Rebecca Barkin said, adding, “I won’t tell you that we have the perfect answer right now…we’re going to learn real fast as this develops, what protections need to be put in place.”

Owen Nowhere’s digital assets are positioned as a way for fans to be involved in the show and enable them to contribute financially to the show’s production by owning digital collectibles — including artwork, characters, and outfits — fostering a community of supporters who are invested in its success.

“That token can be used as a loyalty token, it doesn’t have to be about cash and trading and the traditional crypto stuff. It’s about token-gated access and rewarding those who are sharing things, who are making really creative contributions to the community,” Barkin explained.

While the new series is primarily aimed at kids and preteens, it’s also designed to appeal to adults. This is similar to how “Bob’s Burgers” attracts many adult fans through its hilarious storylines about parenting.

“We’re not going after that super young demographic,” said Barkin.

Nonetheless, they may need to approach this with transparency and possibly even parental controls to appeal to their entire audience.

Lamina1’s Spaces product is slated to launch in the fall. Another virtual world launching on Spaces is “Artefact,” a project by visual effects company Wētā, known for its work on the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy.

Lamina1 has raised $9 million to date from notable investors and angels, such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Bloq co-founder Matthew Roszak.

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Technology

Amazon rolls out short-form AI-powered audio product summaries for select items

Amazon is testing short-form AI-powered audio product summaries on select product pages, the company announced on Wednesday. The audio summaries are voiced by what Amazon calls “AI-powered shopping experts” that discuss key product features, customer reviews, and information from across the web.

The new AI product summaries can be accessed by tapping the “Hear the highlights” button in the Amazon Shopping app. Amazon will test the feature on products that typically require consideration before purchase, the company says.

The idea behind the feature is to help Amazon customers save time while shopping and get important information through a conversational, discussion-style format.

“The feature makes product research fun and convenient — it’s like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier, even if you’re multitasking or on the go,” the company wrote in their blog post.

amazon audio product summaries — **Image Credits:**Amazon

The summaries are currently available on select products to some U.S. customers. Amazon plans to roll out the feature to more products and to additional U.S. customers in the coming months.

The company explains that the feature uses large language models (LLMs) to generate scripts by pulling from customer reviews and information from the web, and then transforms this content into short-form audio clips.

Amazon says the new feature joins its current suite of AI-powered shopping features, which includes Rufus, its generative AI shopping assistant, and Interests, an AI feature that monitors new products that match your interests.

Amazon isn’t the only tech giant that’s leveraging short-form AI-powered audio to help users get informed in a quick, efficient way. Last year, Google’s NotebookLM rolled out Audio Overviews, a feature that gives users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents they have shared with the AI research assistant, such as course readings or legal briefs.

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Technology

Luminar kicks off another round of layoffs amid CEO’s sudden resignation

Luminar, the lidar company founded by recently replaced CEO Austin Russell, is going through another restructuring, according to a recent regulatory filing.

This new round of layoffs, which the company did not provide figures for, follows extensive cuts to the workforce in 2024. Luminar cut about 30% of its workforce in 2024, a reduction that was expected to cost $4 million to $6 million in additional cash charges. Some of those layoffs spilled into the first quarter of 2025. A total of 212 employees were laid off.

In its latest regulatory filing, the company said it began additional layoffs May 15. These new layoffs are expected to cost $4 million to $5 million in cash charges. These costs are expected to be incurred in the second and third quarters of this year.

The layoffs are the latest complication for Luminar. Earlier this month, the company’s board replaced Russell as CEO and board chair. The board issued a press release saying he resigned as the result of an ethics inquiry without providing any additional information. Luminar’s board replaced Russell and appointed Paul Ricci to the role. Ricci is the former chairman and CEO of Nuance.

A day after the leadership change was announced, board member Jun Hong Heng also resigned, according to a regulatory filing, which stated his decision was not due to any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies, or practices.

The company has not responded to requests for comment.

Russell became a billionaire after his lidar startup Luminar went public in 2021 after the company merged with special purpose acquisition company Gores Metropoulos Inc., with a post-deal market valuation of $3.4 billion. Luminar raised $250 million prior to the SPAC announcement.

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Technology

In a good sign for consumer internet startups, Creator Ventures raises $45M

“I’ve got a pretty wild story to tell you,” the early YouTube star Caspar Lee says in a TikTok.

He goes on to tell the story of how a startup founder slid into his LinkedIn DMs with a pitch about an eco-friendly deodorant called Wild. He ignored the message at first, but his cousin Sasha Kaletsky, then a Bridgepoint investor, asked Lee if he and some other creators wanted to get in on the seed round. This April, about five and a half years later, Wild sold to Unilever for £233 million, or around $286 million.

Wild would be just the tip of the iceberg for Kaletsky and Lee. In 2019, they formed Creator Ventures, a seed and pre-seed venture capital fund focused on consumer internet companies. Now, Creator Ventures is launching its second fund with $45 million, more than double its previous $20 million fund.

Creator Ventures already has a track record of making some solid bets on seed-stage startups. Eleven Labs, an AI audio company now valued at over $3.3 billion, was part of Creator Ventures’ Fund I. Soon after Unilever acquired Wild, another Creator Ventures-backed company, Runna, exited to running app Strava. The firm has also invested in buzzy newsletter platform Beehiiv, and it led AI language learning app Praktika‘s seed round.

After six years working with its first fund, the Creator Ventures Fund II will continue investing in consumer-facing companies, but with a closer eye on AI — that’s not a surprise to hear in 2025.

“There’s a trillion dollars of spend that goes through the iOS and Android app stores every year, and if even a small proportion of that becomes taken by consumer AI apps, that’s going to be a whole lot of unicorns,” Kaletsky told TechCrunch.

Aside from the interest in AI, Kaletsky sees some other burgeoning trends in the consumer internet space. He’s particularly interested in microdrama streaming apps, which have long been popular in Asian markets, but have started making a real dent in the U.S.

“The crazy part about ReelShort, which is fascinating, is the pricing,” Kaletsky said. “People sometimes don’t realize they’re charging $20 a week… it’s far more expensive than Netflix.”

So far this year, according to app store data provider Appfigures, the microdrama apps DramaBox and ReelShort have made $99 million and $152 million from in-app purchases in the U.S., respectively. Those figures reflect a 203% and a 233% year-over-year growth from the same time frame in 2024.

Some of Creator Ventures’ bets are a bit more speculative. Kaletsky and Lee are also excited about an app in their portfolio called Status, a social network-like app where users post updates to an audience of AI bots, meaning that no one actually sees what they post. The bots might love your posts or cancel you. The company markets itself as “Sims but social media.”

These AI bot-filled social network startups have been cropping up over the last year, though to a skeptic, the appeal of AI-only social experiences may seem dubious. But according to Creator Ventures, Status has over 1 million global users after launching earlier this year.

Though Creator Ventures isn’t necessarily a creator economy fund, the entrepreneurial parallels between startup founders and content creators like Lee remain at the center of the firm’s vision.

“A lot of consumer internet founders find that the real exciting go-to-market strategy is around social,” Lee said. “A lot of these founders are becoming creators in their own right… and that’s something I love to get involved in as someone who comes from that world.”

Fund II is propped up by Level, Cendana, Vintage, Isomer Capital, Sequoia, and other partners. Kaletsky said that some of the Fund II backers hadn’t invested in consumer-dedicated funds in over ten years.

“I think, hopefully, people are starting to see the potential of consumer in this era,” Kaletsky said.

Lee added, “It’s nice for us to be able to invest in things that our friends and family can come across.”