Goldman Sachs pulls out of SPACS, Bitcoin plunges, and the astonishing cost of a nip and tuck 💉🩸🏥

Goldman Sachs is pulling out of working with most SPACs it took public, spooked by new liability guidelines from regulators. The second-biggest underwriter of special purpose acquisition companies last year, the banking giant has been telling sponsors of the vehicles it will be ending its involvement, according to Bloomberg's sources.

Bitcoin dropped below $30,000 today for the first time since July 2021, bringing its decline from a November record high to about 55 percent.

Shares of Rivian Automotive closed today at a new low following a CNBC report that Ford Motor is selling 8 million shares of the electric vehicle start-up. Rivian’s stock ended the day at $22.78 a share, down nearly 21%, adding to significant losses for the year. Today's decline marked the stock’s worst trading day since the company went public through its blockbuster IPO in November. The stock has fallen 78 percent this year.

Rivian isn't alone. Of the 53 tech-related companies tracked by CNBC that went public last year through an IPO or direct listing, all but three are now trading below their offer or opening price.

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Andy Dunn, the cofounder and former CEO of the men’s clothing company Bonobos, has something new to sell: his life story. It might just save another life.

In “Burn Rate,” hitting bookshelves tomorrow, Dunn goes public with a secret he managed to hide from the public for decades despite being a high-profile founder for much of the time, and despite several trips to the hospital tied to psychic breaks, one of which saw him turn violent enough that he was charged with misdemeanor assault and felony assault of a senior citizen.

Dunn, like an estimated 4.4 percent of U.S. adults — and an even higher percentage of entrepreneurs — has bipolar disorder. Specifically, he has Bipolar 1 Disorder, defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as featuring “manic episodes that last at least 7 days,” or “manic symptoms that are so severe that the person needs immediate hospital care” and that also include depressive episodes lasting at least 2 weeks.

Dunn writes in his gripping new book that he was first diagnosed as a 20-year-old Northwestern University student after experiencing a psychotic event (he was talking to birds and thought he was the Messiah, among other things). But the doctor offering the diagnosis also said that if Dunn didn’t have another episode for five years, it could prove a “one-off psychotic event.”

The term “one-off” became a “life raft our family clung to for years,” he writes.

In the ensuing years, Dunn would establish Bonobos as one of the first breakthrough indie men’s brands; battle with his cofounder, Brian Spaly; and bring in a new CEO, then replace her with himself again three months later. His sister Monica worriedly kept tabs on him. Yet no one, Dunn included, foresaw what would happen in early 2016, when he became so fully unglued that a manic episode — his first since college, he says — ended with him howling at the moon in his apartment, naked, and subsequently striking his then-girlfriend and her mother, who were trying to calm him. A weeklong stay at Bellevue Hospital in New York followed, followed by a 12-hour jail stint, and finally, the help he needed in the form of therapy and medication.

At the time of that most extreme episode, Dunn writes, he was consumed with shame and terrified that he would become fodder for Business Insider. But nearly two years after Bonobos was acquired by Walmart for $310 million in the summer of 2017, Dunn himself began putting pen to paper to tell the world his own version of events. In an interview with Dunn earlier today about the book, we talked about its impetus; how he lives now without the hypomania that drove him for so long; and what’s next.

More here.

Bucketplace, an eight-year-old startup based in Seoul, South Korea, that operates a home decorating app called OHouse, raised a $182 million Series B round that values the company at $1.4 billion. SoftBank Ventures Asia, Vertex Growth, BOND, BRV Capital Management, Korea Development Bank, IMM Investment, and Mirae Asset Capital all invested. The company has raised a total of $260.9 million, according to Crunchbase data. TechCrunch has more here.

Paddle, a nearly 10-year-old, London-based payments infrastructure provider for SaaS companies, has raised $200 million in Series D funding led by KKR. Earlier backers FTV Capital, 83North, Notion Capital, and Kindred Capital also joined the round, which further featured debt from Silicon Valley Bank. With this round, the startup has raised $293 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Paymob, a seven-year-old Cairo-based retail and e-commerce payments startup, collected $50 million in Series B frunds from co-leades PayPal Ventures, Kora Capital, and Clay Point as well as Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment, Nclude, and previous investors A15, FMO, and Global Ventures. The company has raised a total of $68.5 million, says Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.

Pyramid Analytics, a fourteen-year-old startup based in Amsterdam that makes software that provides data insights for clients such as Dell, Deloitte, and Volkswagen, raised a $120 million Series E. The co-leads were H.I.G. Growth Partners, Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings, and General Oriental Investments. The company has raised a total of $194 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Imagene, a two-year-old startup based in Tel Aviv that uses AI to read digitized biopsy images and deliver real-time molecular analysis, raised an $18.5 million Series A round. David Agus and Larry Ellison co-led the deal. The company was seeded by Blumberg Capital. The company has raised a total of $21.5 million. FinSMEs has more here.

Irreverent Labs, a year-old, Seattle-based blockchain-based game company whose big title is "MechaFightClub," featuring mechanical-looking (digital) roosters engaged in cockfighting-type games, has raised $40 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other backers in the round include Solana Labs (whose blockchain Irreverent Labs is using); Brian Lu, founder of Infinity Ventures Crypto; Michael Ovitz, founder of Creative Artists Agency; Sonam Kapoor, a Bollywood actress; and Capitoria. VentureBeat has more here.

RGo Robotics, a four-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that uses an AI-powered perception engine to enable mobile robots to understand complex surroundings, raised a $20 million round. MoreTech Ventures led the deal. VentureBeat has more here.

WizeHire, an eight-year-old startup based in Houston, Tex., that has built a hiring platform for small businesses, announced a $30 million Series B round led by Tiger Global; Amplo and Mercury also participated. The company has raised a total of $37.5 million. More here.

Arianee, a four-year-old, Paris-based startup that issues digital ownership and authenticity certificates on behalf of partner brands (it can replace the authenticity card found in a handbag, for example, with a digital certificate), has raised $21 million in Series A round funding led by Tiger Global. TechCrunch has more here.

FutureProof Technologies, a three-year-old startup based in San Diego that uses AI techniques to predict wind and flood losses for insurance companies, raised $6.5 million in funding. The lead was AXIS Digital Ventures; Innovation Endeavors and MS&AD Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $9.5 million, says Crunchbase. InsuranceJournal has more here.

Hannah Life Technologies, a three-year-old, Singapore-based fertility startup, has raised $5.15 million in pre-Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

HireLogic, a startup based in Dallas, Tex., that uses AI to streamline the hiring process, raised a $4 million seed round. Investors included former Motorola CEO Edward Zander, former Razorfish president Mike Pehl, and Ritchie Bros. CEO Ann Fandozzi. More here.

Manara, a nearly two-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based startup that helps its clients flush out tech talent in North Africa and the Middle East, raised a $3 million seed round led by Stripe. TechCrunch has more here.

PocketLaw, a four-year-old startup based in Stockholm that automates the contract process for businesses, raised a €10 million Series A led by Atomico. The company has raised a total of $13.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

QualityClouds, a seven-year-old startup based in London that has developed a suite of development and governance tools for ServiceNow and Salesforce deployments, raised a £5.25 million round led by YFM Equity Partners with additional participation from Aldea and previous investor Adara Ventures. The company has raised a total of $5.6 million. More here.

Southie Autonomy, a five-year-old startup based in Boston that has developed a robot arm for use in warehouses, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by BootstrapLabs, with additional funding from Ocean Azul and Kineo Finance (including $5 million in venture debt). The company has raised a total of $7.6 million. FinSMEs has more here.

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INX International, a 113-year-old, Schaumburg, Il.-based maker of printing inks and coatings, is launching a $50 million corporate venture capital fund that will be managed by TouchDown Ventures. More here.

Rock Health, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm focused on healthcare startups, is looking to raise up to $50 million in capital commitments for a new fund, shows a new SEC filing. More here.

The podcast advertising biz is continuing its upward trajectory — with U.S. ad sales expected to grow 47 percent this year to $2.13 billion, according to a new forecast from trade group IAB and PwC. Still, it's growing slightly more slowly than last year, when the  sector hit $1.45 billion in 2021, representing 72 percent annual growth, according to the report. Variety has more here.

Uber will cut back on spending and focus on becoming a leaner business to address a “seismic shift” in investor sentiment, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees yesterday in an email obtained by CNBC. “After earnings, I spent several days meeting investors in New York and Boston,” Khosrowshahi said in the email, which was sent out late Sunday. “It’s clear that the market is experiencing a seismic shift and we need to react accordingly.”

Psychiatrists and psychologists once ran their own practices. Now the local therapist office could be controlled by a buyout king.

Retail day traders who jumped in when the lockdown began have now given back all of their once-prodigious gains, according to an estimate by Morgan Stanley.

Americans are developing a meat allergy.

Ford goes after Elon Musk in a new ad.

The $200,000 face-lift.

AirHood.

A glass house next to a golf course(?).

A 58-year-old silkscreen by Andy Warhol sold tonight at Christie’s for a record $195 million. As notes Bloomberg, it just became the most expensive 20th century artwork to ever sell at auction; the most expensive American artwork to ever sell at auction; and the second most expensive publicly sold artwork in history.

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