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What a way to end the season. Thank you, Warriors. ❤️
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Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees today, calling in to an all-hands meeting from his phone and saying, among other things, that Twitter should allow "pretty outrageous" tweets. Musk was also asked if he plans to take the CEO role at Twitter. He didn’t give a clear answer, saying he’s not hung up on titles but does want to “drive the product in a particular direction.” “There’s a lot of chores if you’re the CEO,” he said. “I don’t really care what the title is, but obviously people do need to listen to me.” Bloomberg has more here.
Meanwhile, in other Musk news: A class action lawsuit was filed today in federal court in Manhattan by a Dogecoin investor who is accusing Musk, Tesla and SpaceX of operating an illegal racketeering enterprise to inflate the price of the cryptocurrency. Musk has frequently referenced the dog-themed cryptocurrency on his Twitter account, mentions that often caused the price of the token to spike. TechCrunch has more here.
Then there's this: Over at SpaceX, an untold number of employees are signing an open to letter to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, asking that the company address Musk's "harmful Twitter behavior," that it "hold all leadership equally accountable" for bad behavior," and that it "clearly define what is exactly is intended by SpaceX's 'no-asshole' and 'zero tolerance' policies and enforce them." Those signing agree that “Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” per the letter. It goes on to state that: “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential
talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.” The Verge has the story here.
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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.
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AirSlate, a 14-year-old, Brookline, Ma.-based document workflow automation platform, has raised $51.5 million in funding led by G Squared, with participation from UiPath. (Indeed, TechCrunch notes that AirSlate is the first portfolio company for UiPath’s newly launched, previously unannounced UiPath Ventures arm.) More here.
Goat Brand Labs, a 14-month-old, Bangalore, India-based Indian direct-to-consumer brand aggregator, has raised $50 million from Winter Capital, Vivriti Capital, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts and Oxyzo. TechCrunch has more here.
Sana, a five-year-old health care insurance company based in Austin, Tex, says it has raised $60 million in Series B funding co-led by Trust Ventures and Gigafund, with participation from earlier investors American Family Ventures, mark vc, Breyer Capital, JAM Fund, and Liquid 2. The company has now raised $107 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Vendr, a four-year-old, Boston-based SaaS buying platform that says it enables the world’s fastest-growing companies to purchase SaaS, without friction and at a fair price, has raised $150 million in Series B funding. Earlier investor Craft Ventures and new investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2 co-led the round, joined by Sozo Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Sound Ventures, Tiger Global and Y Combinator. Bloomberg has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Able, a 19-month-old, Bay Area-based startup that says it built an engine to speed up the processing of documents and other data required for commercial loans that it sells as a service to banks and other lenders, just raised $20 million in Series A funding. Canapi Ventures led the round, joined by Human Capital, which also led the startup’s seed round. TechCrunch has more here.
Chain.io, a five-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based supply chain integration platform, has raised $11 million in Series A funding co-led by Fontinalis Partners and High Alpha, with participation from Grand Ventures, Mercury Fund, Eve Atlas and Waybury Capital. More here.
FanClash, a two-year-old India-based esports fantasy startup, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Alpha Wave Global. Sequoia Capital India, Info Edge and Polygon also participated in the round. FanClash previously raised $10.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Finout, a cloud cost management startup that was founded in 2021 in Tel Aviv, has raised $18.5 million in funding co-led by Team8 Capital and Pitango, with participation from R Squared Ventures, Jibe Ventures and toDay Ventures. More here.
General Radar, a seven-year-old, Belmont, Ca.-based maker of high-resolution 3D radar systems, raised $22 million in Series A funding from Disruptive and Octave Ventures, along with earlier investor Kleiner Perkins. More here.
Lightning AI, the three-year-old, New York-based startup behind the open source PyTorch Lightning framework, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Coatue, with participation from Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Mantis VC and First Minute Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Playermaker, a six-year-old, London-based developer of soccer player development and coaching software built around footwear sensors, has raised $40 million led by Ventura Capital Group, with additional investment by MIG Capital, Pegasus Tech Ventures and others. TechCrunch has more here.
Proscia, an eight-year-old, Philadelphia-based developer of a digital pathology platform, has raised $37 million in Series C funding from Highline Capital Management, Triangle Peak Partners, Alpha Intelligence Capital and earlier backers Scale Venture Partners, Hitachi Ventures, ROBO Global, Emerald Development Managers and Razor’s Edge Ventures. FierceBiotech has more
here.
Tango, a two-year-old workflow intelligence platform that's based in Los Angeles, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global. Other investors in the round included Slack Fund, Atlassian Ventures, Wing VC, General Catalyst, GSV Ventures, Red Sea Ventures and Outsiders Fund. Built in LA has more here.
Upvest, a five-year-old, Berlin-based fintech that allows its enterprise customers to offer investments to their end users via its investment API, has raised $42 million in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, joined by Earlybird and ABN AMRO Ventures and earlier backers Notion Capital, Partech, 10x Group and Speedinvest. More here.
VersusGame, a six-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based mobile gaming platform hosting an online prediction money marketplace, has raised $25 million in Series A funding. Backers in the round included APEX Capital, Brightstone Capital Partners, Feld Ventures, Gaingels and Kombo Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
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Auxilius, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of clinical trial financial management software, has raised $10 million in funding. Renegade Partners led the round, joined by earlier backers Bain Capital Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, and a number of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Canditech, a three-year-old job candidate assessment startup based in Israel, has raised $9 million in seed funding co-led by Insight Partners and StageOne Ventures. Calcalist has more here.
Dynaboard, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that says its low-code web application development tool aims to bring together product managers, designers and developers in a single tool, just raised $6.6 million in seed funding. XYZ Venture Capital led the round, joined by Floodgate, General Catalyst, The General Partnership, The House Fund, Abstract, Mantis and a number of industry angels. TechCrunch has more here.
Kaleidoco, a four-year-old, New York-based web3 entertainment startup specializing in AR, has raised $7 million in seed funding from Animoca Brands, GameFi Ventures, Gemini, and Jane Street, among others. VentureBeat has more here.
Nue, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of revenue ops software, just raised $6 million in seed funding led by Information Venture Partners, with participation from NextWorld Capital, SVTech and Bluefish. IBS Intelligence has more here.
Nume Crypto, an eight-month-old, U.S.-based crypto payments processing startup founded by sisters, has raised $2 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Beenext and Whiteboard Capital. The Block has more here.
Pazcare, a two-year-old, Bangalore-based employee benefits and insurtech startup, has raised $8.2 million in funding led by Jafco Asia, with participation from 3One4 Capital and Beenext. TechCrunch has more here.
RapidFort, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based creator of a so-called software attack surface management platform, has raised $8.5 million in seed funding led by Felicis Ventures. Other investors in the round include ForgePoint Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Global Founders Capital, Plug & Play Ventures, and GIT1K Club, among others. More here.
ScienceMagic.Studios, a months-old, New York-based "digital assets venture studio," has raised $10.3 million in funding from Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and Liberty City Ventures, among others. CoinDesk has more here.
tl;dv, a two-year-old, Aachen, Germany-based virtual meetings startup, has raised €4.3 million in seed funding led by Madrid-based K Fund, with participation from earlier investors Seedcamp, Mustard Seed Maze, and another.vc, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Travertine, a months-old, Boulder, Co.-based carbon dioxide removal and industrial chemical production startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Grantham Environmental Trust and Clean Energy Ventures. More here.
Webio, a six-year-old, Limerick, Ireland-based developer of chatbots for the credit, collections and payments markets, raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Finch Capital. More here.
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Add startups to your portfolio with as little as $1,000 with SeedInvest, the equity crowdfunding platform providing access to highly-vetted investment opportunities across a range of sectors and stages. Explore a curated selection of companies vetted by our Venture Team, review details including terms sheets, team, perks, and start investing. Browse startups. *View important disclosures and risks associated with equity crowdfunding investing.
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Album VC, an eight-year-old Lehi, Ut.-based early-stage venture firm that was previously known as Peak Ventures, says it just closed its fourth fund with $200 million in capital commitments. That's a big jump from the $75 million in capital commitments it secured for its third fund in 2019. The Deseret News has more here.
Titan Capital Partners, a 1.5-year-old, Israel-based investment firm, says it has closed on $100 million in capital commitments for a fund that will make both direct investments and purchase secondary stakes in companies and funds. NoCamels has more here.
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Three Arrows, a massive crypto venture capital and trading fund based in SIngapore, was liquidated by BlockFi and other crypto lending firms after it failed to top up its loan collateral. Three Arrows, which made a “strategic” investment in BlockFi in 2020, had borrowed bitcoin from the lender but was unable to meet a margin call. More here and here.
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Billionaire internet entrepreneur Jim Clark is selling an oceanfront estate near Palm Beach, Fla., for around $175 million, he tells the WSJ. The deal is expected to set a record for Florida, which has yet to see a home sell for more than $130 million, according to real-estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The off-market deal is expected to close this week, says Clark, who bought the estate and a nearby vacant island for just over $94 million in March 2021, according to records.
China has fined a social media influencer $16 million for tax evasion, the latest punishment meted out to one of the country’s top online personalities amid a nationwide crackdown. Xu Guohao, who livestreams on Momo, was ordered to pay the sum in back taxes, late fees, and fines for tax evasion from 2019 to 2020. Bloomberg has more here.
Convicted felon Anna Sorokin is launching an NFT collection. Decrypt has more here.
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Electric vehicles now average more than $60,000, as Tesla, Rivian and Ford raise prices. For its part, Tesla has raised the prices on some of its cars by as much as $6,000, as the car maker grapples with surging costs along its supply chain.
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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s first year on the job: undoing Bezos-led overexpansion.
Brex, the buzzy San Francisco start-up that provides charge cards to other start-ups, says it's ditching its smaller customers, though it isn't offering a whole lot in the way of
detail about who will be impacted.
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