Substack scraps its Series C, Emily Weiss steps down at Glossier, and Tesla maps out its own Hollywood diner

A bipartisan legislative effort to rein in the nation’s largest tech companies is facing fresh resistance from a faction of Senate Democrats over complaints the measure could threaten their chances of holding their slim majority, 10 people familiar with the matter tell Politico. More here.

Twitter shareholders are suing Elon Musk, and Twitter itself, over their handling of a chaotic acquisition process that is still underway and that has contributed to volatile price swings in the company’s stock price. CNBC has more here.

The Warriors are heading to the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight years. 🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

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Substack, the five-year-old newsletter platform that has aggressively positioned itself as a disruptive force in media, has abandoned efforts to raise a Series C round, the New York Times is reporting today.  According to its sources, Substack held discussions with potential investors in recent months about raising $75 million to $100 million at a valuation of between $750 million and $1 billion.

Substack, based in San Francisco, was most recently valued at $650 million after closing a $65 million Series B round in March of last year led by earlier investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). It had earlier raised a $15.3 million Series A round led by a16z in 2019.

Substack originally launched as a way to turn newsletters into a paid subscription business, inviting anyone with an interest to hop on the platform and start writing for however much they want to charge their readers. Writers were -- and still are -- encouraged to write for free; those who charge a subscription pay 10% of what they collect to Substack, with Stripe, its payment processor, collecting another 3%.

The company later added support for podcasts and just this month, it rolled out its own podcast player, along with new moderation tools, leaderboard categories and more. As CEO Chris Best told TechCrunch several years ago, Substack's goal has always been to allow its users to create their own “personal media empire.”

While that ambition has made Substack a point of fascination for traditional media companies -- in addition to the Times, Substack has attracted extensive coverage in Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and many others over the couple of years -- investors may be wondering whether the business is capable of generating meaningful revenue.

Substack told Axios late last year that the top 10 writers on the platform collectively generate $20 million in annual revenue. According to the Times, Substack separately told investors that it saw revenue of just $9 million last year. (It told the Times in a story last month that it has hundreds of thousands of paid newsletters now on the platform.)

That's not a lot of revenue for a company boasting a $650 million valuation. Substack also faces churn, with some writers leaving the platform owing to Substack's hands-off content moderation policy or for competing platforms that take a smaller cut. Other writers discover the economics aren't compelling or simply burn out.

The Times notes that Substack is one of many outfits right now facing new headwinds as investors snap their checkbooks shut amid rising interest rates that have severely dented tech stocks and slowed growth in the U.S. and global economies.

Still, if Substack's broader fortunes should change, it would be the second, high-flying consumer company in a16z's recent portfolio to have truly captured the public's imagination, then lost momentum.

More here.

Assembled, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that attempts to predict and prepare for influxes of customer calls, texts and emails through a range of forecasting and scheduling techniques, raised a $51 million Series B round led by NEA. Emergence Capital and Basis Set Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $70.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Bloom, a two-year-old London startup that lends businesses capital based on their revenue, raised a $377 million round. The deal was co-led by Credo Capital and Fortress Investment Group. Bloom has raised a total of $379.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Booster, a seven-year-old startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that provides mobile fuel delivery for fleet vehicles, raised a $125 million Series D round led by Rose Park Advisors; Chaac Ventures, Equinor Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation, Thayer Ventures, Renewable Energy Group, Cercano Management, Conversion Capital, Enterprise Holding Ventures, Invus Opportunities, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron Ventures, Perot Jain, and Version One Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $213.6 million. Axios Pro has more here.

Clozd, a five-year-old startup based in Lehi, Ut., that delivers win/loss insights based on feedback from recent sales prospects, highlighting the actions a company might take to increase its win rates, raised $52 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft. Madrona Venture Group and Album VC also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $56.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Motive, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that enables fleet managers to track fleet operations, including tracking unsafe driving behavior via an AI dashcam, has raised a $150 million round at a $2.85 billion valuation. The co-leads were Insight Partners and Kleiner Perkins. The company, previously known as KeepTruckin, has raised a total of $567.3 million. FreightWaves has more here.

Astroforge, a months-old, Huntington Beach, Ca.-based startup that aims to be the first company to mine an asteroid and bring the material back to Earth, raised $13 million in seed funding led by Initialized Capital, with additional participation from Seven Seven Six, EarthRise, Aera VC, Liquid 2, and Soma. TechCrunch has more here.

CodeOcean, a six-year-old New York startup that has developed a SaaS-based computational-research laboratory platform that enables scientists to standardize workflows and track and reproduce computations and discoveries, raised $16.5 million. The deal was co-led by Battery Ventures and M12. CodeOcean has raised a total of $36.6 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Common, a four-year-old San Francisco crypto startup that allows DAOs to easily deploy governance contracts, crowdfund new initiatives, and offer a chat feature to their members, raised a $20 million round from Spark Capital, Polychain, Jump, Wintermute, and Mirana Ventures. The company has raised a total of $25.2 million. Decrypt has more here.

Jabu, a six-year-old startup based in Windhoek, Namibia, that helps small businesses in Africa deal with last-mile logistics, raised a $15 million Series A led by Tiger Global, with additional participation from Box Group, Knollwood, and D Global Ventures as well as previous investors Afore Capital, Oldslip, and FJ Labs. The company has raised a total of $18.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Jadu, a two-year-old crypto startup based in Los Angeles that has built an augmented reality game-world built around virtual items owned by its community of players, raised a $36 million Series A round led by Bain Capital Crypto. The company has raised a total of $45 million. More here.

Manta, a seven-year-old data observability startup based in Tampa Bay, Fl., that automatically scans an organization’s data sources to build a map of data flows, raised a $35 million Series B round. The lead was Forestay Capital; Bessemer Venture Partners, SAP.io, Senovo VC, Credo Ventures, Dan Fougere, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development also participated. The company has raised a total of $53 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Marvin, a seven-year-old startup based in São Paulo, Brazil, that uses the credit generated in credit card transaction payment terminals as collateral that clients can use for working capital and short-term loans, raised a $15 million Series A round. The deal lead was Canaan, with additional capital supplied by Canary and Maúa Capital. Beyond the Law has more here.

Nomagic, a five-year-old, Warsaw, Poland-based startup that has built a robotic arm that can identify and pick out an item from an unordered selection (say, from objects in a box) and move or pack it into another place, has raised $22 million. Khosla Ventures and Almaz Capital co-led the round with the European Investment Bank, with past backers Hoxton Ventures, Capnamic Ventures, DN Capital and Manta Ray also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Pleno, a San Diego startup that uses signal processing techniques derived from the telecom industry to deliver ultra-high plexity targeted biological information (e.g. DNA, RNA, methylation, and proteomic content), raised a $15 million seed round co-led by Medical Excellence Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments. More here.

SiMa.ai, a four-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that is developing a system-on-chip platform for artificial intelligence applications such as computer vision, raised $30 million in additional Series B funding. Fidelity Management & Research Company led the deal, with additional participation from Adage Capital Management, Amplify Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Wing Venture Capital, Alter Venture Partners, +ND Capital, and Walden International founder and chairman Lip-Bu Tan. The company has raised a total of $110 million. TechCrunch has more here.

TARGAN an eleven-year-old startup based in Morrisville, N.C., that uses high-speed imaging, feature recognition, artificial intelligence, robotics, and microfluidics to vaccinate up to 100,000 chicks per hour against diseases such as coccidiosis, infectious bronchitis, and Newcastle disease, raised a $35 million Series C co-led by Mountain Group Partners and NovaQuest Capital Management, with Merck Animal Health and Oval Park Capital also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $51.6 million. AIThority has more here.

uMotif, a ten-year-old London startup whose platform powers different research modalities (site-based to fully decentralized clinical, real-world, and post-marketing research), raised $25.5 million from Athyrium Capital Management, with additional participation from AlbionVC and DNV. The company has raised a total of $36.1 million. More here.

Bold Metrics, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that connects customers to clothes that fit according to their body measurements, shape, and personal preference data, has raised an $8 million Series A. Bessemer Venture Partners was the deal lead, while Lytical Ventures, ValueStream Ventures, and Nanban Ventures also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $12.3 million. Axios Pro has more here.

Friendly Apps, a new, Bay Area-based startup with the goal of helping people connect in ways that are friendly to their mental health and physical well-being (its founder joined Facebook at age 17), has raised $3 million in seed funding. Among the many backers in the round are Weekend Fund, BoxGroup, Shrug Capital, Day One Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, SRB Ventures, 305 Ventures and CoreVentures. TechCrunch has more here.

How.fm, a three-year-old startup based in Cologne, Germany, that enables warehouse operators to onboard, upskill, and support their workers on a daily basis, raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Join Capital; previous investors Kindred Capital and Capnamic Ventures also pitched in. EU-Startups has more here.

Idiomatic, a four-year-old startup based in Palo Alto, Ca,, that analyzes customer support tickets, satisfaction surveys, reviews, and queries through social media in order to assess customer feedback, raised a $4 million seed round. Freestyle led the deal, while Gaingels, Hyphen Capital, and Xoogler Ventures also contributed. VentureBeat has more here.

LivingCities, a new web3 startup that describes itself as a “social layer” for consumers based around interacting with virtual spaces that capture the “spirit” of real-life geographies and cities, has raised $4 million in early funding led by DCVC, with participation from Eniac Ventures, Anorak and Matthew Ball. Very notably, FourSquare cofounder Dennis Crowley is a cofounder of the company, along with Matt Miesnieks, who sold his most recent startup 6D.ai to Niantic for an undisclosed sum, and designer John Gaeta, best known for his work on the Matrix film trilogy. TechCrunch has more here.

OlaClick, a two-year-old, Lima, Peru-based startup helping restaurants to sell online and collect money digitally, has raised $4.4 million in seed funding led by Gradient Ventures. Meta, Delivery Hero, Tribe Capital, Caffeinated Capital and Graph Ventures also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Planet FWD, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that sells software and services to help brands assess and improve their climate impact, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Acre Venture Partners and Congruent Ventures co-led the round, joined by earlier backers BBG Ventures, Precursor, Concrete Rose, January Ventures, Elemental Excelerator, Cleo Capital and Rethink Food. To date, Planet FWD has raised $16.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

STAN, a Mumbai startup that has built a fan engagement platform for Web3 games, raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst with additional capital provided by Better Capital and Eximius Ventures, as well as Aadil Mamujee from Opensea and Nakul Gupta from Coinbase. The Economic Times has more here.

Switch Bioworks, a startup based in San Carlos, Ca., that aims to create environmentally safe fertilizer from patented microbes, raised a $4.3 million round co-led by Anthos Capital and Acre Venture Partners. Axios Pro has more here.

UKIO, a two-year-old Barcelona startup that has created a platform for renting fully furnished apartments in a number of European cities (e.g. Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and Berlin), raised a $2.67 million in debt financing led by Expansion Fund. The company has raised a total of $11.7 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

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1Sharpe Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by Roofstock co-founder Gregor Watson and real estate investor Rob Bloemker, has closed an inaugural fund with $90 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Broadcom said today it will acquire cloud computing company VMware in a $61 billion cash-and stock deal, the chipmaker's biggest and boldest bid to diversify its business into enterprise software. More here and here and here.

Founder's Den, 12-year-old invite-only co-working and networking hub for startups in San Francisco, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with nearly half a million dollars in total liabilities, reports Bay Area Inno, The outfit, launched in 2010, was created by Jonathan Abrams (founder of Friendster and Nuzzle and now venture firm 8-Bit Capital), Jason Johnson (founder of August Home), Michael Levit (a repeat founder and investor) and Zachary Bogue (cofounder of DCVC and famously spouse to former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer). We're trying to find out what happened here and hope to have more for you tomorrow; in the meantime, we're remembering that Johnson once joked to us of operating Founder's Den: "It's a terrible business."

A well-funded startup in the cybersecurity industry, Lacework, has become the latest tech firm to disclose a major round of layoffs amid fears of a broader economic slowdown. In a statement provided to Protocol, Lacework confirmed that the layoffs impacted 20% of its employees, in connection with what it called a "decision to restructure our business."

Emily Weiss, the founder of Glossier, is stepping down as CEO of the beauty business she built, with Kyle Leahy, who joined Glossier in November as the brand’s first chief commercial officer, taking over immediately. Weiss, who is preparing to go on maternity leave, tells Bloomberg she will continue to lead the Glossier board as executive chairwoman.

OnlyFans founder Tim Stokley is getting into the web3 game with a new NFT startup, Zoop, launching this summer. TechCrunch has more here.

A look at the nine teams that presented at Pear's invite-only demo day last week in Menlo Park, Ca. 

A face search engine that anyone can use is alarmingly accurate.

A Hollywood diner by Tesla.

The 21 best places to travel this summer.

The US Navy lent Tom Cruise some F/A-18 Super Hornets for the new “Top Gun” movie. The only catches: they cost $11,374 an hour to use -- and Cruise couldn’t touch the controls.

Slotted System bookcase.

The Hackney hatmaker who can't be topped.

NowRx, which aims to deliver medications in hours for free, has reportedly raised more than $29 million through SeedInvest, the securities crowdfunding platform. Raise your next round with SeedInvest, and plug into a network of over 600,000 accredited and retail investors. A few could become your next big brand evangelists. Submit your deck here.