{"id":241491,"date":"2026-05-20T21:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/you-dont-need-to-be-an-ai-startup-to-raise-lucra-has-20m-to-prove-it-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:21:22","slug":"you-dont-need-to-be-an-ai-startup-to-raise-lucra-has-20m-to-prove-it-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/you-dont-need-to-be-an-ai-startup-to-raise-lucra-has-20m-to-prove-it-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u00a0don&#8217;t\u00a0need\u00a0to be\u00a0an AI\u00a0startup\u00a0to\u00a0raise. Lucra has $20M to prove it.\u00a0 | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Slapping \u201cAI\u201d on your\u00a0startup\u2019s\u00a0pitch deck is\u00a0basically table\u00a0stakes right now. When a founder\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/04\/22\/cathie-woods-ark-makes-its-first-lead-investment-in-startup-lucra-and-it-isnt-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raised $20 million from Cathie Wood\u2019s ARK Invest<\/a>\u00a0for an eSports\u00a0gamification\u00a0loyalty startup without those two letters in the spotlight, it got us wondering how the conversation even started\u00a0\u2014\u00a0especially\u00a0when ARK had already been burned by a company\u00a0operating\u00a0in the same space.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On this episode of TechCrunch\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/podcasts\/equity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Equity<\/a>\u00a0podcast, Julie Bort sits down with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/dylan-robbins-56338b63\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Dylan Robbins<\/a>, founder and CEO of Lucra, the white-label platform turning friendly competitions\u00a0into loyalty programs for brands like golf courses, arcades, and pickleball clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Subscribe to Equity on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@TechCrunch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/id1215439780\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/overcast.fm\/itunes1215439780\/equity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0Overcast<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul_g94iCRgpQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0and all the casts. You\u00a0also can\u00a0follow Equity on<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EquityPod\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0X<\/a>\u00a0and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@equitypod\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0Threads<\/a>, at @EquityPod.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/video\/you-dont-need-to-be-an-ai-startup-to-raise-lucra-has-20m-to-prove-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Slapping \u201cAI\u201d on your\u00a0startup\u2019s\u00a0pitch deck is\u00a0basically table\u00a0stakes right now. When a founder\u00a0raised $20 million from Cathie Wood\u2019s ARK Invest\u00a0for an eSports\u00a0gamification\u00a0loyalty startup without those two letters in the spotlight, it got us wondering how the conversation even started\u00a0\u2014\u00a0especially\u00a0when ARK had already been burned by a company\u00a0operating\u00a0in the same space.\u00a0 On this episode of TechCrunch\u2019s\u00a0Equity\u00a0podcast, Julie [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-241491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}