VC pay soars, EY explores an IPO, and Bitcoin breaks from stocks (and keeps falling)

Friday! In observance of Memorial Day (though we should say it more often): Thank you to our military families, now and past, for sacrificing so much for this country.

We hope you have a terrific long weekend, everyone. As for us, we're going to take the highway to the danger zone. Yes, we said it! But really, in observance of the holiday, we won't be publishing on Monday.

Before we hop on our Kawasaki and ride off into the sunset,  we leave you with this week's StrictlyVC Download, featuring Ed Sim of Boldstart Ventures, who talks with Alex about why "concept deals" may be fewer and farther between right now; dishes about some of the more surprising deal terms he is seeing; and much more. Hope you enjoy it.

Major thanks to SeedInvest, a crowdfunding platform with a huge base of investors, for sponsoring this week's episode. 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.

Crypto had another bad week, and it may only get weirder, says Bloomberg. Even while stocks rebounded slightly, Bitcoin led a decline in digital assets across the whole crypto spectrum in its eighth straight weekly loss. (It was trading at $28,700 as of 5 p.m. EST.) Altogether, the crypto market has lost some $500 billion in market value so far in May, notes the outlet -- a 29% plunge.

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Stable, a six-year-old New York startup based in New York that helps to protect businesses from volatile commodity prices, raised a $60 million Series B round led by Acrew, with additional participation from Greycroft, Notion Capital, Syngenta, and Continental Grain Co. The company has raised a total of $112.5 million. AltFi has more here.

Converge, an eight-year-old London startup that reduces carbon emissions by monitoring the use of concrete on construction sites, raised a £15 million Series A round led OGCI Climate Investments, with additional capital provided by TO Ventures. Build in Digital has more here.

Gametime, a nine-year-old San Francisco mobile ticket marketplace, raised a $30 million Series C round led by Nimble Ventures, with additional participation from Maven Ventures, Accel, GV, Jeff Mallett, Palapa Ventures, Bolt Ventures, Tenere Capital, Blitzscaling Ventures, Next Play Capital, Alumni Ventures, and University Growth Fund. The company has raised a total of $71.5 million. Sports Business Journal has more here.

Hyperpay, a twelve-year-old startup based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that operates an online payment gateway for the MENA region, raised a $40 million round from Mastercard. The company has raised a total of $53.7 million. More here.

Jar, a one-year-old Bangalore startup that operates an eponymous investing and savings app for Indian consumers, is reportedly raising $50 million in Series B funding at a $350 million valuation. TechCrunch says Tiger Global is leading the deal, which will also include capital from Folius Ventures and Paramark. Jar has raised a total of $36.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Joywell Foods, an eight-year-old startup based in Davis, Ca., that creates food and drinks using sweet proteins rather than sugar, raised a $25 million Series B led by Piva Capital; B37 Ventures, Global Brain Corporation and previous investors Khosla Ventures, Evolv Ventures, SOSV’s IndieBio, and Alumni Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $31.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

NatureMetrics, an eight-year-old ESG startup based in Egham, United Kingdom, that uses DNA to monitor biodiversity and advise businesses on their OPEX planning decisions, raised a $15 million round. The investment syndicate included 2150VC, Ananda Impact Ventures, BNP Paribas, and SWEN Capital Partners’ Blue Ocean as well as previous investor Systemiq Capital. The company has raised a total of $27.3 million. EU-Startups has more here.

Redbud Brands, a two-year-old holding company based in Austin, Tex., that partners with entrepreneurs to create, fund, and scale consumer brands, raised $46 million led by Satori Capital, with additional funds provided by Sands Capital and VMG Partners. The company has raised a total of $66.5 million. More here.

Upflex, a four-year-old New York startup that helps employers efficiently source short-term space, raised a $30 million Series A round led by WeWork, with additional capital provided by Newmark, Cushman & Wakefield, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, GPO Fund, Coelius Capital, Industry Ventures, Inertia Ventures, Perennial Private Investments, and Silicon Valley Bank. The deal values the company at nearly $100 million. Upflex has raised a total of $34.1 million. The Real Deal has more here.

Basetwo, a Toronto startup founded this year that aims to build a a no-code artificial intelligence platform that will enabale pharmaceutical labs to improve their efficiency by building digital mockups of their manufacturing plants, raised a $3.8 million seed round co-led by Glasswing Ventures and Argon Ventures; Caffeinated Capital, Graphite Ventures, MaRs IAF Pareto Holdings, Plug and Play, and Quiet Capital also particpiated. Silicon ANGLE has more here.

Copyleaks, a seven-year-old startup based in Stamford, CT, that has built a platform that tracks plagiarism for its business and sducation clients, raised a $6 million Series A round. JAL Ventures led the deal. Copyleaks has raised a total of $7.75 million. More here.

Dedoco, a two-year-old, Singapore based startup that uses blockchain for document management privacy and security, has raised $3 million in funding from True Global Ventures in a round that brings its total funding to $7.5 million. Technode Global has more here.

Juno, a two-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based software-as-a-service platform for digital engagement activities, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. More here.

Jupiter Exchange, a New York NFT marketplace that enables fractional ownerhsip of objects, raised a $5 million seed round led by White Hilt Capital. More here.

Kapaga, a two-year-old London startup based in London, that has built a cross-border payment platform that works with over 190 countries, raised $1.9 million led by Target Global. More here.

RepVue, a four-year-old startup based in Chapel Hill, NC, that helps sales professionals evaluate companies that they are considering joining, raised a $5 million seed round. S3 Ventures was the deal lead, with TDF Ventures, Knoll Ventures, Alerion Ventures, GTMfund, and Triangle Tweener Fund also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $6 million. GrepBeat has more here.

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Vista Equity Partners, admirer (and acquirer) of growing software companies, is almost halfway to raising the $20 billion target it set for its flagship fund, according to Bloomberg. Led by billionaire Robert Smith, the eighth iteration of the private equity firm’s main fund has garnered more than $9 billion in investor commitments, says one of the outlet's sources. More here.

Volt Capital, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based venture fund that's focused on the crypto sector and closed its debut fund with $10 million in capital commitments a little more than a year ago, has closed its second fund with $50 million in capital commitments. Limited partners in the fund include Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of a16z, investor-entrepreneur Elad Gil, angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, and longtime USV partner Albert Wegner. Volt is let by Soona Amhaz, who studied engineering at the University of Michigan before cofounding a crypto-focused website, Token Daily, in 2017. TechCrunch has more here.  

EY is exploring a public listing or partial sale of its global advisory business and a stake sale or listing would raise the prospect of a massive windfall for EY’s existing partners who own and run the firm, reports the Financial Times. A break-up would also free EY’s advisory business to win work from companies audited by EY, opening up a swath of potential new clients that are currently off-limits under independence rules, notes the outlet. 

Electric Last Mile Solutions, a two-year-old Troy, Michigan-based electric vehicle startup that went public last year after merging with a blank-check company, warned it may run out of cash in June unless it can raise additional capital. Bloomberg has raised more here.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel says he plans to donate the bulk of his family wealth, focusing his philanthropy on issues such as health care and global food security. “We’ve told the kids that they get a good education, we take care of that,” Bancel said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “They’ll get the family house, you know. But the rest we’re going to give away." Bloomberg, which estimates his fortune at $4.1 billion, has the story here.

Egon Durban, the co-CEO Silver Lake, will remain on Twitter's board, despite not receiving enough votes for re-election at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday. The advisory firm Institutional Shareholders Services had recommended against Durban's re-election, noting he's already stretched thin, but the board sees him as a "highly effective member," it said in a filing today with the SEC. In the meantime, Durban, who sits on the boards of 17 organizations, including six publicly traded companies -- Qualtrics, Carbon Black, VMware, Dell, Unity Software and Twitter -- has agreed to reduce his public board appointments to five by this time next year. Bloomberg has more here.

Box CEO Aaron Levie still refuses to swallow the crypto red pill. "The worst case scenario is that I look like an idiot."

The SEC today confirmed it is looking into the timing of when Elon Musk notified the market that he had bought 5% of Twitter's stock. The agency, in a filing, published a letter sent to Musk dated April 4, asking why he didn’t make the required filing within 10 days of crossing the 5% threshold. The WSJ has more here.

Thanks to big funds and thus big management fees, median cash pay for a partner at a VC firm, including base salaries and bonuses, rose 10% to $928,000 in 2021, according to Holt Private Equity Consultants, which publishes an annual report on compensation in the private investment sector. Partners are typically in the middle tier of venture firms in terms of compensation, below managing general partners and above associates and other staff. Holt's figures don't incorporate carried interest, or the typically 20% of a venture firm's profits that are divided up among its partners. The Information takes a detailed look at VC compensation here.

Sharply higher mortgage rates have prompted a pullback in home sales, and now sellers are rushing to get in before the red-hot market cools off dramatically. The supply of homes for sale jumped 9% last week compared with the same period a year ago, according to Realtor.com. That is the biggest annual gain the company has recorded since it began tracking the metric in 2017. CNBC has more here.

Tech layoffs are starting to add up. Protocol and TechCrunch have more here and here. 

Uber and Lyft’s new path: Fewer drivers, thrifty riders and jittery investors.

An unsettling glimpse at the digitization of education.

Matrix Partners China, one of China’s most prolific early-stage VC firms and an early backer of household names including ride-hailing app Didi Global and food-delivery app Ele.me, is struggling to meet its target of at least $1.5 billion for a new fund from institutional investors in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to The Information. The outlet cites fundraising difficulties that reflect growing concerns about geopolitical risks as well as China’s weakening economy amid Covid-19 lockdowns. The outlet also notes that Matrix Partners China's current fund, a $1.2 billion fund raised in 2020 has a total value that's just 10% more than the capital it raised, which is also apparently a problem.

Where to rent a vacation home this summer.

Die-hard Tesla owners are in a heated race with no end in sight.

This is pretty great.

Ooni pizza oven.

Manhattan's oldest home just hit the market. 

SeedInvest takes the pain out of the fundraising process, so founders can spend less time pitching investors and more time building. SeedInvest has a community of more than 600,000 individual investors, who combined have played a role in successful raises for more than 250 startups. Whether you’re raising Seed to Series B, SeedInvest is ready to help you get there. Learn more and apply to raise.