EA shops for a buyer, a Coinbase cofounder buys the dip, and next-level bodysurfing 🌊 🌊 🌊

Friday! Byeee! Miss you already!

Before we go, we're dropping the newest StrictlyVC Download podcast in here, featuring Sam Rosenblum of the crypto-focused firm Haun Ventures, which managed to close its debut fund with a whopping $1.5 billion in capital commitments. Rosenblum -- a personable SoCal native who worked previously for both Coinbase and Polychain Capital -- was the first deal lead that firm founder Katie Haun recruited; given the broader crypto meltdown, we wanted to check in for both a look at how the nascent firm works and Rosenblum's POV on how long the crypto industry might face headwinds.

Giant thanks to SeedInvest for sponsoring this episode (along with the newsletter). A crowdfunding platform with a huge base of investors, SeedInvest's timing could hardly be better in reaching out to this audience. Founders, take note when you're looking to raise that first or second (or even third) round of funding. You can learn more and apply here.

The Nasdaq dropped 3.8% this week, notching its seventh straight weekly drop. It’s the index’s longest weekly losing streak since 2001 during the dot-com bust. The Nasdaq is 29% off its record reached in November, while the S&P 500 briefly fell into bear market territory on Friday, down 20% from its high. CNBC has more here.

“Are we going to have a recession? It’s pretty likely,” says Larry Harris, the Fred V. Keenan Chair in Finance at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and former chief economist of the SEC. “It’s very hard to stop inflation without a recession," he tells CNBC.

Can your portfolio survive the 2022 bear attack? With inflation at a 40 year-high… market volatility spiking… and the upcoming rate hike from the Feds… Stocks could be in for a rough ride. That’s why everyone and their wealth manager is pouring money into safe-haven assets like fine art. And there’s one app that's handed investors over 30% annualized returns. Masterworks. But don’t wait. Their offerings sell out quickly. Their recent offering, a $7.4M Banksy painting sold out in less than three hours. Click here for a private concierge. See important Reg A disclosures.

Founders have gotten the memo that the ground is shifting under their feet right now. What to do about it is the question. Already, teams are making plans to scale back their spending to preserve capital. They're making painful staff cuts toward that same end -- or else instituting hiring freezes.

But they should also be thinking a lot harder about building relationships with bankers and the larger companies that might conceivably be interested in acquiring their startup, says two attorneys who work on both the 'buy' and 'sell' side of transactions, with both large companies and venture-backed outfits, and who both have more than 20 years of experience.

Indeed, to better understand some of the options founders may have, we talked earlier today with Denny Kwon and Scott Anthony, both of whom represent the white shoe law firm Covington & Burling (where former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is also an attorney). They answered a range of questions that we thought startups might be wondering about right now. Our chat has been edited lightly for length.

How much has the world changed in the last few weeks?

DK: There is certainly a feeling of more pressure on sellers to get deals done as quickly as possible in light of the fact that there’s a lot of market volatility right now and they don’t know how buyers may be reacting to a significant decline in their stock price. Smaller companies are also facing the prospect of a slightly more challenging fundraising market, so alternatives for them are narrowing.

Given that public shares are so volatile right now, are acquirers more or less inclined to offer equity as a component of a deal?

DK: It's much more challenging to price deals with a significant stock component in this market. With any volatility, you don’t get a clear sense of the inherent value of a share, so all-cash deals are much more favorable to targets.

Are targets in a position right now to make demands? How much leverage does a startup with dwindling options really have?

DK: Whenever we see volatile markets, where valuations were incredibly high [and are] being reset, it always takes time for sellers expectations to reset as well, so although they may be a temporary [lull in activity] because of the market, if there’s a 'normalization' that’s to come, we’ll probably see M&A activity, especially where valuation expectations are reduced on both the buyer's and the seller's side.

My sense [right now] is that buyers may view the market correction as being potentially opportunistic but sellers may not have the same expectations because they may hope for a rebound in the near future. Once seller expectations come down and they continue to hear from VCs that funding may not be as available as it was 6 to 12 months ago, they’ll be even harder pressed to turn away acquisition offers that come in.

More here.

Caribou, a three-year-old startup based in Washington, D.C., that helps consumers refinance their car loans, raised a $115 million Series C round. Goldman Sachs Asset Management led the deal, with additional participation from Innovius Capital, Harmonic, Accomplice, CMFG Ventures, Curql Fund, Firebolt Ventures, Gaingels, Moderne Ventures, and Motley Fool Ventures. PYMNTS has more here.

In3, a four-year-old buy-now-pay-later platform based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, t raised a $83.5 Series B consisting of both debt and equity from Force Over Mass, Waterfall Asset Management, and Finch Capital. The company has raised a total of $96.3 million. More here.

Recurrent, a four-year-old Miami startup that owns publications such as Popular Science and Outdoor Life, raised a $300 million round led by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. The company has raised a total of $375 million. The WSJ has more here.

Dig, a five-year-old Tel Aviv startup that has built a SaaS platform to respond to security threats from data stored in the cloud, raised an $11 million seed round led by Team8. CrowdStrike, CyberArk, and Merlin Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $11.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

DoraHacks, an eight-year-old, San Francisco startup that hosts hackathons, offers bounties to developers, and invests in crypto projects, raised a $20 million Series B1 round co-led by FTX Ventures and Liberty City Ventures, with additional participation from Circle Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, Sky9 Capital, Crypto.com Capital, and Amber Group. The company has raised a total of $28 million. The Block has more here.

Fetcher, a seven-year-old New York talent-acquisition startup that helps enterprises find more diverse candidates, raised a $20 million Series B round by Tola Capital; G20 Ventures, KFund, and Accomplice also participated. The company, which was previously known as Scout, also just secured $7 million in debt. TechCrunch has more here.

Heartex, a three-year-old, San Francisco startup that bills itself as an “open source” platform for data labeling, today announced that it landed $25 million in a Series A funding round led by Redpoint. Unusual Ventures, Bow Capital and Swift Ventures also participated, bringing Heartex’s total capital raised to $30 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Homethrive, a four-year-old startup based in Northbrook, Il., that provides support to unpaid caregivers such as family members, raised a $20 million Series B. The deal lead was Human Capital, while Allianz, 7wireVentures, and Pitango HealthTech also chipped in. Axios Pro has more here.

Nikola Labs, an eight-year-old startup based in Westerville, Oh., that uses sensors and machine learning to increase machinery uptime, raised a $20 million Series A led by G2 Venture Partners, with additional funds provided by Triangle Peak Partners. The company has raised a total of $30.1 million. Columbus Inno has more here.

Noyo, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an API that helps health insurance companies connect with their client companies, raised a $45 million Series B round. Norwest Venture Partners led the deal; Workday Ventures, Gusto, Cap Table Coalition, Costanoa Ventures, Spark Capital, Homebrew, Operator Collective, Fika Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Garuda Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, and Webb Investment Network also participated. The company has raised a total of $57.5 million. Business Insider has more here.

ChargeFUZE, a three-year-old startup based in Los Angeles that allows consumers to charge their phones via the company's network of kiosks, raised a $5 million seed round. The deal was led by Beverly Pacific, TR Ventures, VA2, Carro co-founder and president Jason Goldberg, and former Walt Disney Parks and Resorts president of worldwide operations Al Weiss. More here.

Peek, a ten-year-old San Francisco startup that helps property managers create virtual tours, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by GFA Venture Partners. More here.

Polygon, a five-year-old startup based in Bengaluru, India, that offers remote assessments for conditions like ADHD and dyslexia, raised a $3.6 million financing led by Spark Capital. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Seabound, an eight-month-old, London-based  startup that is currently prototyping carbon capture equipment that connects to ships’ smokestacks to cut carbon emissions, has raised $4.4 million in seed funding. Lowercarbon Capital led the round, joined by Eastern Pacific Shipping, Emles Venture Partners, Hawktail, Rebel Fund and Soma Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

ZincSearch, a San Francisco startup founded this year that helps companies sift through log data, raised a $3.6 million seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners. Other participants in the deal included Dell Technologies Capital, Secure Octane, and Cardinia Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Raising a round? Raise it with SeedInvest and plug into a network of over 600,000 accredited and retail investors. A few could become your next big brand evangelists. More than 250 founders across SaaS, healthtech, CPG, and more have found fundraising success on SeedInvest. Find out if your company has what it takes to raise a community round. Submit your deck and connect with our team.

Revolut founder Nik Storonsky is launching his own venture fund. Silicon Republic has more here.

Pear, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm that we’ve been tracking since its outset in 2012, is raising up to $410 million for its fourth fund, shows a new SEC filing. It would be a big step up from Pear’s first three funds, which closed progressively with $50 million in 2013, $75 million in 2016, and $160 million in capital commitments in 2019, including from a longtime limited partner, the University of Chicago. (Reached for comment, cofounder Pejman Nozad emailed back, “I can’t comment!”) Nozad and cofounder Mar Hershenson have long been first stop for prominent early-stage investors that are looking to fund nascent teams, given the firm has been among the earliest backers in a notable number of companies that have gone to raise ever-bigger rounds and higher valuations, including the now publicly traded companies DoorDash and Guardant Health. We wrote more here.

The video game market is consolidating like never before, and Electronic Arts is scrambling like everyone else. According to a new report by Puck, the games maker recently pursued a merger with NBCUniversal, and also held potential acquisition talks with Disney, Apple, and other companies. More here.

Over the past week, Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam purchased more than one million shares of Coinbase worth roughly $75 million, stepping in as the crypto exchange's stock price plunged following the company’s weak earnings report. The purchase, reports Coindesk, was made through Paradigm, the crypto fund that Ehrsam cofounded after leaving Coinbase.

Even among corporate raiders, Elon Musk is a pirate.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who became a major political power broker during the Trump administration, reportedly joined a call that focused on strategies for contesting the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. A participant in the call tells the Washington Post that Ellison may have been enlisted to assess claims about voting machines made by Sidney Powell, a onetime member of Trump’s legal team.

Russell Weiner, the creator of Rockstar Energy Drink, has purchased a $39.6 million spec home in Park City, Utah The deal reportedly sets a record for the most expensive home sale in the state,

Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, Boston, approved commitments and investments totaling up to $838 million at its meeting this week, a spokesman tells Pensions & Investments. The board approved a commitment of up to $200 million to TCV XII, a growth equity fund managed by Technology Crossover Ventures. The board approved commitments of up to $62 million each to Sequoia Capital China Growth VII and Sequoia Capital China Expansion I; up to $19 million to Sequoia Capital China Venture IX; and up to $8 million to Sequoia Capital China Seed III. The board also approved commitments of up to $50 million to early-stage venture capital fund Insight Partners Vision Capital II, and up to $20 million to growth equity fund Insight Partners Fund XI Follow-On Fund. Last, it approved €40 million ($42 million) to Medicxi IV, a venture capital fund managed by Medicxi Ventures.

Tesla’s shares have declined more than 40 percent since April 4 — a much steeper fall than the broad market, vaporizing more than $400 billion in stock market value. And the tumble has called attention to the risks that the company faces.

A bipartisan group of senators led by Utah Republican Mike Lee introduced legislation yesterday that would take aim at conflicts of interest in the advertising technology industry and force Google to break up its dominant online-ad business.

Behind the Apple design decisions that bogged down its mixed-reality headset.

A half-built factory becomes a metaphor for Peloton.

Riding the world's biggest waves -- without a surfboard.

Harry Styles explains his new album.

“I don’t think people should be freaking out at this stage,” Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington tells The Atlantic about monkeypox, “but I don’t trust my own gut feelings anymore, because I’m so sick of all this shit that I tend to be optimistic.”

A "Painted Lady" just hit the market.

This is cracked.

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