Crypto billionaires get socked, Google unveils a smartwatch, and Apollo is now in the Twitter buyout mix, too

Costa Rica has declared a state of emergency after ransomware hackers crippled computer networks across multiple government agencies, including the Ministry of Finance. The official declaration, published to a government website today, called the attack “unprecedented in the country” and said that it interrupted the country’s tax collection and exposed citizens’ personal information. NBC News has more here.

Coinbase shareholders are reeling, with its shares down another 30% today, after the company posted earnings yesterday that widely missed analysts' expectations. (It was ugly across the board in the crypto market again today.)  Decrypt has more here.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco today surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable firm. As CNBC notes, energy stocks and prices have been rising as investors sell off equities in tech and other industries on fears of a deteriorating economic environment.

Apollo Global Management is in talks to lead a preferred financing for Elon Musk’s proposed buyout of Twitter, according to Bloomberg's sources. Bloomberg adds that it remains unclear how the preferred equity might change the existing financing proposal, which requires Musk and his partners to contribute $27.25 billion in equity to fund the $44 billion purchase, with the rest coming from junk-rated debt and a margin loan tied to Musk’s Tesla stock. 

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It used to be that venture capitalists couldn’t sell their stake in a portfolio company before it sold or went public without raising questions about the outfit’s prospects. As startups began staying private longer, VCs and management teams grew more comfortable with selling some of their holdings to new investors, but many VCs are likely right now wishing they’d sold even more over the last year or so.

One firm that’s happy it pulled the trigger on two of its own deals is YL Ventures, a now 15-year-old, U.S.-Israeli venture firm that specializes in seed-stage cybersecurity investments and that just closed its newest and biggest fund to date with $400 million in capital commitments.

In March 2021, when the now five-year-old cybersecurity asset management startup Axonius was raising a $100 million round at a $1.2 billion valuation, YL Ventures — the outfit’s first investor — sold its stake for $270 million to ICONIQ Growth, Alkeon Capital, DTCP, and Harmony Partners.

The amount was more than three times the size of YL Ventures’s $75 million debut fund, which had backed the outfit and through which YL Ventures wound up investing $15 million in Axonius altogether, including through several special purpose vehicles.

“Multiples were so high a year ago that we felt like, in normal conditions, we’d need [more time] to get to that same outcome,” says YL Ventures founder Yoav Leitersdorf, who is based in Mill Valley, Calif. “There was a lot of demand for Axonius shares and looking back today, with this current market . . . ” he trails off.

YL Ventures similarly sold much of its stake in the four-year-old cloud security company Orca Security to new buyers when Orca extended its Series C round last fall, a $550 million tranche that boosted the startup’s valuation by 50% in just seven months to $1.8 billion.

“We didn’t sell our full position,” Leitersdorf says, but his firm wrung a whopping $250 million out of the deal nevertheless.

More here.

Carbon Clean, a 13-year-old startup based in London that is focused on capturing harmful factory emissions before they enter the atmosphere, raised Series C funds of $150 million led by Chevron, with additional participation from AXA Investment Managers, Samsung Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, TC Energy as well as previous investors CEMEX Ventures, Marubeni Corp. and WAVE Equity Partners. The company has raised a total of $214.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Habi, a three-year-old Bogotá, Colombia-based startup that uses an algorithm to value homes that it then helps homeowners buy (and sell), has raised a $200 million Series C round. Homebrew and SoftBank co-led the deal, while Banco Mercantil del Norte, Grupo Financiero Banorte, Tiger Global, Inspired Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and Henry Kravis rounded out the financing. The company has raised a total of $315.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

MARA, a year-old Nairobi, Kenya-based pan-African crypto exchange platform that wants to “increase the number of Africans who can participate in the crypto economy.” Today, the startup is announcing that it has completed a seed round of $23 million in equity and token sale from multiple investors. They include high-profile crypto and web3 investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and Distributed Global. TechCrunch has more here.

Mothership, a five-year-old Austin, Tex.-based on-demand freight marketplace,  raised a $76 million round from Benchmark, WestCap, and Bow Capital. Sourcing Journal has more here.

Nexite, a five-year-old startup based in Tel Aviv that has developed a radio-powered system to track and analyze inventory for physical retailers, raised a $67 million Series C at a valuation approaching $500 million, according to TechCrunch. The leads were Pitango Growth and Saban Ventures, with additional capital from Battery Ventures, Intel Capital, Pitango First, and Vertex Ventures. The company has raised a total of $100 million. More here.

Observe, a five-year-old startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that helps companies understand why an app misbehaved or suffered an outage, raised a $70 million Series A-2 from Sutter Hill Ventures, Capital One Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group. The company has raised a total of $112 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Rippling, the six-year-old San Francisco startup run by serial entrepreneur Parker Conrad to help companies onboard employees (we sat down with him at our StrictlyVC event late last year to discuss the company's broader ambitions), raised a $250 million round at an $11.25 billion valuation. Bedrock and Kleiner Perkins co-led the financing, while previous investors Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital also participated. The company has raised a total of $697 million. Forbes has more here. 

SirionLabs, a 10-year-old startup based in Seattle that makes contract lifecycle management software, raised an $85 million Series D round led by Partners Group; previous investors Avatar Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Tiger Global also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $146 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Talos, a four-year-old startup based in New York whose tech supports digital asset trading for financial institutions, raised $105 million in Series B funding at a $1.25 billion valuation. The lead was General Atlantic, with Citigroup, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, BNY Mellon, DRW, SCB 10x, Stripes, Voyager, Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, and Fidelity also contributing. The company has raised a total of $145 million, per Crunchbase data. CoinDesk has more here.

Artax Biopharma, a nine-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is focused on transforming T Cell-mediated disease treatment by developing small molecules that modulate the immune system, raised a $26 million round from Eli Lilly and Company, Sound Bioventures, Advent Life Sciences, Columbus Venture Partners, and Belinda Termeer. The company has raised a total of $54.7 million. More here.

Concentric, a four-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that uses natural language processing to identify and categorize sensitive information, assess risk, and resolve security issues, raised a $14.5 million Series A. Ballistic Ventures led the round; Citi Ventures, Core Ventures Group, Engineering Capital, and Clear Ventures also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $22 million. VentureBeat has more here.

MARA, a year-old Nairobi, Kenya-based pan-African crypto exchange platform, has raised $23 million in an equity and token sale from multiple investors, including Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and Distributed Global. TechCrunch has more here.

Ness, a one-year-old New York startup that allows consumers to earn credit card points on health-related purchases, raised a seed round of $15.5 million led by Will Ventures. Core Innovation Capital, Accomplice, Digitalis, GFC, Portage, Refactor Capital, Atypical, and RiverPark Ventures also participated in the round. Coverager has more here.

OncoHost, a five-year-old startup based in Binyamina, Israel, that helps doctors assess non-small cell lung cancers, raised $35 million in Series C funds. Investors included ALIVE, Leumi Partners, Menora Mivtachim, OurCrowd, and others. The company has raised a total of $51 million. Forbes has more here.

OtterTune, a two-year-old Pittsburgh, Pa., startup that uses AI to optimize the performance of databases, raised a $12 million Series A co-led by Intel Capital and Raise Capital, with Accel also contributing. The company has raised a total of $17 million. TechCrunch has more here.

ProteanTecs, a five-year-old startup based in Haifa, Israel, that uses AI to analyze and improve chip design, raised $45 million led by Lee Fixel's Addition. The company has raised a total of $192 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Turquoise Health, a two-year-old San Diego startup that focuses on helping patients know prices for healthcare services before they show up for treatment, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with additional participation from Tiger Global and previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Box Group. The company has raised a total of $25.3 million. FierceHealthCare has more here.

Voxel, a 20-month-old, San Francisco-based workplace safety company that uses computer vision and AI to identify hazards, risky behaviors and operational inefficiencies across workplaces, has $15 million in new funding led by Eclipse Ventures. MTech and World Innovation Labs also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $18 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Boomerang, an eight-month-old startup based in El Segundo, Ca., that says it connects people with their lost items (but isn't sharing much more than that for now), raised a $2.8 million seed round from GGV Capital, Relay Ventures, Animal Capital, Unanimous Capital, MVC, BevPac, 305 Ventures, Kalyon Ventures, Gaingels, and Flamingo Capital, according to Crunchbase. More here.

Dirt, a one-year-old entertainment and culture newsletter that has raised money in the past through selling NFTs, raised a $1.2 million seed round led by Collab+Currency, with additional participation from Offline Adventures, Flamingo DAO, Spice Capital, and Unicorn DAO, among others. Axios has more here.

Faye, a three-year-old Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that hopes to do for travel insurance what Lemonade did for general insurance, raised an $8 million seed round co-led by Viola Ventures and F2 VC. Portage Ventures, GFC, and former NBA player Omri Casspi also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

GetHenry, a four-year-old Berlin-based startup that provides electric last-mile delivery bikes to couriers and logistics companies, raised a €10 million seed round (plus €6.5 million in debt). The lead was LocalGlobe; Visionaries Club, Founder Collective, EnBW New Ventures, GreenPoint Partners, SpeedUp Ventures, and Third Sphere also contributed. The company has raised a total of $18.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Graft, a five-year-old startup based in San Francisco that is focused on giving smaller companies the ability to access and put to use pre-trained machine learning models for specific tasks, raised a $4.5 million pre-seed. The lead was GV, with additional participation from NEA, Essence VC, Formulate Ventures, and SV Angel. TechCrunch has more here.

Identitypass, a one-year-old startup based in Lagos, Nigeria, that has developed a SaaS system to help its clients comply with "Know Your Customer" (KYC) regulations, raised a seed round of $2.8 million from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, True Capital Fund, and Sherwani Capital. The company has raised a total of $3.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Luxus, an 11-month-old, New York-based startup trying to fractionalize ownership of luxury gems like diamonds, has raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding from investors including fashion entrepreneur Veronica M. Beard and current and former senior executives at Blackstone. TechCrunch has more here.

Meld, a one-year-old startup that helps customers manage fintech integrations through a single API, raised an $8 million seed round from Coatue. TechCrunch has more here.

Mylerz, a three-year-old startup based in Cairo whose platform allows its customers to track the orders sent out for delivery, change destination or delivery time, and (it says) generate business insights like consumer behavior and demographics, raised a $9.6 million seed round from lead investor Lorax Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Paper, a months-old, San Francisco-based crypto-focused payments processing startup working to make buying, using and holding NFTs easier for the everyday customer, raised a seed round of $7.3 million co-led by Electric Capital and Initialized Capital, with additional participation from Polygon, FalconX, Long Journey Ventures, ThirdWeb, and Night Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Pico MES, a three-year-old startup based in Redwood City, Ca,. that builds manufacturing software for small factories, has raised $6.75 million in seed funding. Congruent Ventures led the round, joined by Union Labs, Lemnos Labs, SE Ventures, and Schneider Electric. The company has raised a total of $12.95 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Socket, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based cybersecurity platform that aims to audit and catch malicious open source code, has raised $4.6 million in seed funding from Unusual Ventures, Village Global and South Park Commons, along with some notable individuals, including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. TechCrunch has more here.

Stix Golf, a nearly three-year-old, Chicago-based company that says it makes "modern" golf clubs at a "fair price," has raised $10 million in Series A funding from new and earlier backers, including Verance Capital, 2.0 Ventures, and Spacestation Investments. More here.

Tripolygon, a 3.5-year-old, Seoul, South Korea-based 3D modeling software developer that enables metaverse creators to make their own 3D assets, has raised $5.2 million in Series A funding. KB Investment and We Ventures co-led the round, joined by Naver Z and Strong Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Educapital, a five-year-old, French edtech-focused venture firm, has closed on €100 million in capital commitments for a second fund that could raise a total of €150 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Fasanara, an 11-year-old, London-based asset management firm, says it has launched a $350 million web3 and fintech VC fund. “Chaos brings opportunities to long-term oriented investors,” CEO Francesco Filia tells The Block.

Good Startup, a year-old, Singapore-based venture capital firm focused on alternative protein startups, has closed its latest fund. Consisting of $34 million, the new fund, called Good Protein Fund I, included participation from Vinmar International founder and chairman Vijay Goradia; former head of finance and strategy for Fidelity Investments Harris Komishane; and INSEAD professor of entrepreneurship Bala Vissa. TechCrunch has more here.

Crackle owner Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, an ad-supported video-on-demand streaming company, has acquired Redbox Entertainment, a dot-com-era company known for its bright-red DVD-dispensing rental kiosks, for $375 million, comprised of $50 million in Chicken Soup stock and the assumption of $325 million in Redbox’s debt. The company is betting on Redbox’s streaming offering to propel it forward in the overly saturated streaming market. Redbox went public last fall in a $693 million SPAC merger with Seaport Global Acquisition Corp. The stock initially rose past $15 a share but has since dipped as low as $1.61. More here and here.

The 22-year-old, British software firm Ideagen has agreed to a £1.09 billion takeover by the London-based private equity firm Hg Capital. Nottingham-based Ideagen sells business and risk management software. Some of its clients include British Airways, Heineken, and the Bank of New York. UK Tech has more here.

Soylent, the nine-year-old, L.A.-based maker of plant-based protein drinks and other meal replacement products, is seeking a buyer, per Bloomberg. The company -- backed by investors including GV, Andreessen Horowitz, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures -- is working with an adviser to solicit interest from strategic buyers and private equity firms, reports the outlet. More here.

Instacart, the largest online grocery delivery platform in the U.S., said it confidentially filed documents for an IPO. The San Francisco-based company didn’t disclose details of its IPO plans in a statement. Bloomberg has more here.

Crypto billionaires like Coinbase's Brian Armstrong are feeling the pinch, reports Bloomberg. Armstrong had a personal fortune of $13.7 billion as recently as November and about $8 billion at the end of March. That’s now just $2.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Michael Novogratz, CEO of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, has meanwhile seen his fortune plummet to $2.5 billion, from $8.5 billion in early November. (It could be worse, right?) More here.

Clay Siegall, the CEO, president, and chairman of Bothell, Wash.-based biotech giant Seagen, is taking a leave of absence as the company investigates allegations of domestic violence. Endpoints News has much more here.

NBCUniversal is looking to hire a VP of corporate strategy and development. The job is in New York.

NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, which for a while outperformed the rest of the crypto market, are being hit harder than cryptocurrencies by a deep rout that is souring sentiment across the sector, reports Bloomberg. BAYC’s average sales price plummeted 29% over the last seven days in US dollar terms, while transactions have tanked by 21% and user numbers are down 27%, according to NFT watchers Price Floor and DappRadar.

U.S. TikTok users will spend more time with the social media platform this year than YouTube users will spend on YouTube. eMarketer has more here. 

Google is taking on the Apple Watch with its own smartwatch. (It also just launched Google Wallet.)

San Francisco police are reportedly using driverless cars as mobile surveillance cameras.

Countries are taking more steps to compel social-media platforms to shield users from material they deem harmful. The WSJ has more here.

Not the hill we would die on, but . . .

How affluence pulls people away from their families.

How TikTok humor became Hollywood’s indispensable tool for reaching Gen Z.

"I've got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane."

Architect and designer Thierry W. Despont lists his personal Hamptons estate for $23.5 million.

After a massive renovation, the first-ever hotel on the island of Capri relaunches in July.

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