Coinbase stages a major layoff, Instagram adds parental controls, and a viral TikTok water brand attracts big bucks

It was just that kind of day.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said today that the company will reduce its workforce by 18% — nearly 1,100 people, which is a lot of people — to “stay healthy during this economic downturn.” The crypto exchange, which went public last year with share prices touching the $350 mark, is currently trading at just less than $52 per share. (You just knew when it bought that Super Bowl ad that it was asking for trouble.) TechCrunch has more here.

The housing market has taken a huge hit this year as mortgage interest rates have surged and homeowners scale back on purchases. The latest casualties in the proptech world are Redfin and Compass, which both announced layoffs today that combined amounted to about 920 people. TechCrunch has more here.

Meta Platforms today expanded its Instagram parental controls and introduced its first virtual-reality supervision tools, part of its effort to make its services safer for teens. The new tools for the photo-sharing social network let parents set limits on what hours their teens can use Instagram, and inside the app, teens who dwell on certain content will be redirected, reports the WSJ.

What’s a smart investment when the Fed raises rates? With a recession on the horizon, smart investors are diversifying with alternative assets like art to prepare for the storm. Experts even called the high-end art market “bulletproof.” Literally, on the same day as Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, the art market began to boom, according to the Financial Times. And now with this award-winning platform, you can diversify your portfolio with art in minutes. Unlock the power of this bulletproof market here. *See important Reg A disclosures.

Cirkul, a four-year-old Tampa, Fla.-based beverage startup that 'went viral' on TikTok -- it sells reusable water bottles along with flavor cartridges and invites users to adjust the taste using an 'intensity dial' -- has raised a $70 million Series C round led by SC Holdings at a pre-money valuation of $1 billion. Bloomberg has more here.

CoachHub, a four-year-old, German digital coaching platform, raised $200 million in Series C funding co-led by Sofina and SoftBank, with participation from Molten Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, HV Capital, Signal Ventures Capital and Speedinvest. The outfit has now raised $330 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

EcoVadis, a 15-year-old, Paris-based provider of business sustainability ratings, has raised $500 million in funding co-led by Astorg and General Atlantic, with participation from GIC and Princeville Capital. The company tells Reuters it has now raised $725 million altogether. More here. 

Proximie, a six-year-old, London-based outfit that uses augmented reality to allow a surgeon to remotely watch an operation and use their hands to demonstrate things to the surgeon conducting the operation, raised $80 million in Series C funding. Advent Life Sciences led the round; other backers included Emerson Collective, SoftBank, British Patient Capital, Mubadala, Minderoo Foundation and earlier investors F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads, Questa Capital, Global Ventures and Maverick Ventures. The company has raised $129 million altogether. Sifted has more here www.proximie.com

Wonder, a seven-month-old, New York-based "cloud kitchen on wheels" company launched by famed entrepreneur Marc Lore, has raised $350 million led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Accel, NEA, General Catalyst and Forerunner Ventures. The company previously raised $400 million in equity funding and around $100 million in debt. The new round values the nascent company at a whopping $3.5 billion valuation (which seems so 2021). The WSJ has more here.

Akestro, a five-year-old, Bay Area-based predictive procurement orchestration platform, has raised $26 million in Series A funding led by NEA, Construct, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Four More Capital. Earlier backers also chipped in, including Cervin, Correlation, El Cap, Forum, Illuminate and Tenacity. TechCrunch has more here.

Cleveland Kitchen, a nine-year-old, Cleveland, Oh.-based brand founded by three bothers that sells probiotic kraut, fermented dressings and marinades, kimchi, and pickles, has raised $19 million in Series A funding led by Amberstone. More here.

Kinly, a two-year-old, Kansas City, Ms.-based education and financial app that says it's focused on helping Black America build generational wealth, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures. Point 72, Anthemis Group and Kapor Capital also joined the round. Axios has more here.

Molecule, a nearly four-year-old, Basel, Switzerland-based platform where medical research projects can receive funding via decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), has raised $13 million in seed funding led by Northpond Ventures. Other investors in the round included Backed VC, Shine Capital, Speedinvest and investor-operator Balaji Srinivasan. The Block has more here.

Next Matter, a four-year-old, Berlin-based workflow automation platform for business operations, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from BlueYard and Crane Venture. TechCrunch has more here.

Platform9, a nine-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based outfit that bills itself as an “open distributed cloud company,” says it just closed a $26 million round led by Celesta Capital with participation from Cota Capital, NGP Capital, and other investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Sesame, a four-year-old, Brooklyn, New York-based startup that claims to offer “complete, longitudinal health care" through its online medical care marketplace, has raised $27 million in a Series B financing round led by GV. TechCrunch takes look here.

Checkin, an almost six-month-old, New York-based 1:1 peer support platform that aims to fight the rising loneliness epidemic, has raised $3 million in funding from Bloomberg Beta, Collaborative Fund, and Betaworks. Other participants in the round include Reid Hoffman, Rony Kahan, Evan Williams, Jason Calacanis, and Scott Belsky. More here.

Clausematch, a 10-year-old, London-based company that makes policy and compliance management automation software for regulated industries, has raised $10.8 million in funding led by Lytical Ventures, which was joined in the round by Flashpoint and Sony Innovation Fund. Tech.eu has more here.

Cara Care, a six-year-old, Berlin-based digital gut health startup whose app helps users track track gut issues like IBS, IBD, GERD, Celiac, and dyspepsia, has raised $7 million in funding. Schär AG led the round, joined by earlier backers Sabadell Asabys and Johnson & Johnson Innovation. More here.

Collaborative Robotics, a months-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based startup led by former Amazon robotics engineer Brad Porter, has raised $10 million in funding led by Neo. Other backers in the round included Khosla Ventures, Calibrate VC and 1984 Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Knit, an Austin, Texas-based consumer insights platform through which brands can upload custom research questions and get 30- to 90-second “selfie” video responses from hundreds of Gen Z consumers in as quickly as a few hours, has raised $3.6 million in seed funding. Silicon Road Ventures led the round, joined by Bread and Butter Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Bootstrappers.mn, Operate Studio and TiE Global Angels. Retail Innovation Hub has more here.

Rayon, a year-old, Paris-based startup that makes space design software. has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding led by Seedcamp, with participation from Foundamental, 20VC, and Kima. More here.

Spendflo, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup aiming to offer the best buying, negotiation, renewal and tracking service for a company's SaaS subscriptions, has raised $4.4 million in seed funding led by Accel India and Together Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Swoop, a five-year-old, London-based software platform that says it helps businesses investigate and access a wide range of funding sources, including equity, grants, loans and tax credits, has raised £5.4 million in Series A funding from Velocity, Arab Bank Ventures, IAG and WeHo Ventures. More here.

Terra.do, a two-year-old, Stanford, Ca.-based climate career platform that says it's on a mission to get 100 million people working in climate by 2030, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Avaana Capital. More here.

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Act Venture Capital, a 28-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based venture firm that invests primarily in Irish tech startups, has closed its sixth fund with €140 million in capital commitments, it says. More here.

DCode Capital, a three-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based venture firm with an unusual twist -- it invests in startups with the goal of helping them secure government contracts -- is raising $50 million for its debut fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Launch Africa Ventures , a two-year-old pan-African venture firm that is based in Mauritius, says it has closed a $36.3 million fund that it has been using to primarily invest in B2B and B2B2C startups across Africa. In an interview with TechCrunch, managing partner Zachariah George said his team has already backed 108 startups across 21 African countries, including the Nigerian neobank Kuda and the Kenyan B2B e-commerce retail platform MarketForce. More here.

Project A Ventures, a 10-year-old, Berlin, Munich, and London-based venture firm, has closed its fourth fund with $375 million in capital commitments, brings its total assets under management to $1 billion. Sifted has more here. 

True Global Ventures 4, a nearly 12-year-old, Singapore-based venture fund, has closed an opportunity-type fund with $146 million in capital commitments -- almost half of it from the firm's 15 general partners, who chipped in $62 million, or $4 million on average. Some of the firm's bets include Animoca Brands, The Sandbox, and Chronicled. More here.

Wavemaker 360, a four-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based health care venture firm, raised $64 million for its second fund. Dot.LA has more here.

Triller, a six-year-old social network with a dwindling number of options, now says it is making plans to stage a U.S. IPO. More here.

Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg have seen their net worths decline by a combined $200 billion this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk has been hit hardest of the three. His net worth peaked in November at over $340 billion and slipped to $201 billion last month, according to Bloomberg. It now stands at $197.1 billion. Bezos and Zuckerberg are currently worth $127 billion and $61.1 billion, respectively, according to the index.

Speaking of multibillionaires, now joining heavy hitters like Laurene Powell Jobs, Marc Andreessen and WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum in Malibu is Google cofounder Sergey Brin, or maybe his estranged second wife Nicole Shanahan; someone connected with the pair has reportedly purchased a mansion once owned by Pink that is in the same area code.

More people may die in Africa than in Ukraine because of the "knock-on effects" of Russia's war on the country, Bill Gates said today at a TechCrunch event in Berkeley, Ca. Much more from that conversation here.

Rivian is pushing back its SUV deliveries again, telling some customers who pre-ordered the trucks in 2018 and 2019 that they are now slated to receive their trucks between October and December.

The Federal Trade Commission has apparently begun an investigation into the heavily venture-backed mental-health startup Cerebral. According to a letter the FTC sent the company dated June 1, the FTC said it was investigating whether Cerebral engaged in deceptive or unfair practices related to advertising or marketing of mental-health services. The WSJ has more here.

Crypto lender Celsius Network has hired restructuring attorneys from law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to advise on possible solutions for its mounting financial problems, according to the WSJ. It reports that last week Celsius told users that it was pausing all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts because of extreme market volatility. 

At Art Basel, soars sale even as economic woes loom.

How James Patterson became the world's best-selling author.

Obstacles to catching a foul ball.

Sun Microsystems cofounder Scott McNealy is, for the second time, trying to sell his 21,000-square-foot Bay Area mansion -- replete with hockey rink and golf course -- for $54 million. If that sounds like a lot, consider that the family once listed the property for $96.8 million to "test the market," as their listing agent at the time told the San Francisco Chronicle.

An East Bay mansion where basketball star Steph Curry and his family spent two years is also on the market. There's no basketball court but it does feature a putting green.  ⛳

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