SpaceX strikes back, the coin that could wreck crypto, and U.S. authorities may need to see the ticktock on TikTok

It's Friday and we are outta here. No podcast today as we're en route home from a week out of state (one of our 'workations').

Before we go, we want to wish the many dads reading a most happy Father's Day. Thank you for all that you do! 💖

Also, we will be observing Juneteenth on Monday, but due to poor planning and our overly aggressive sales force, we will be sending out a short missive.:)

TikTok said today it has completed moving U.S. users’ data to Oracle servers stored in the U.S., though as TechCrunch notes,  the announcement was overshadowed by a damning report that came out soon after in  BuzzFeed that asserts TikTok staff in China had access to its U.S. users’ data as recently as this January. BuzzFeed cites recordings from 80 TikTok internal meetings it obtained, wherein U.S. employees of TikTok repeatedly consulted with their colleagues in China to understand how U.S. user data flowed because they did not have the “permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own.” “Everything is seen in China,” the report said

SpaceX has reportedly fired employees who helped write and distribute that open letter criticizing the behavior of its chief executive, Elon Musk. In a message to staff obtained by the New York Times, SpaceX COO and president Gwynne Shotwell wrote that: “Blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable . . .Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars.” According to The Verge, more than 400 employees signed the open letter before it was taken offline.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average today wrapped up their worst weeks since 2020. (Oof.)

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.

Aidoc, a six-year-old, Israeli developer of radiology software, has raised $110 million in Series D funding co-led by TCV and Alpha Intelligence Capital. The company has now raised $250 million altogether. The WSJ has more here.

Rohlik, an eight-year-old, same-day food delivery startup based in Prague, has raised €220 million in Series D funding led Sofina, with participation from Index Ventures and founder Tomáš Čupr. TechCrunch has more here.

C-Zero, a 3.5-year-old, Goleta, Ca.-based company that's developing a tech for decarbonizing natural gas (methane) into hydrogen and solid carbon, has raised $34 million in funding led by SK Gas, with participation from Engie New Ventures, Trafigura, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Eni Next, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and AP Ventures. More here.

Indoor Robotics, a four-year-old, Tel Aviv-based autonomous robot platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Pitango, with participation from Target Global, European Innovation Council Fund, and Spider Capital. The Robot Report has more here.

Transfr, a five-year-old, New York-based company using virtual reality to simulate on-the-job training, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. Lumos Capital Group led the round, joined by earlier investors Firework Ventures and Album VC and new investor Spring Tide Capital. More here.

Ahana, a two-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based data analytics platform, has raised an additional $7.2 million in funding from Liberty Global Ventures and GV, among others. The company has now raised $32 million altogether. More here.

DAOLens, a months-old, Bangalore-based DAO onboarding and management platform, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, Better Ventures and iSeed II. The Economic Times has more here.

Green Badger, a nine-year-old, Savannah, Ga.-based SaaS developer that caters to the green building construction market, has raised $1.125 million in seed funding. Shadow Ventures led the round, joined by GroundBreak Ventures, Hamilton Ventures, and others. More here.

Kairos, an eight-month-old San Francisco-based NFT creation tools maker headed by a former designer at both Slack and Airbnb, raised $2.6 million in pre-seed funding. Worklife Ventures and Seven Seven Six co-led the round. More here.

Flexpa, an 18-month-old, San Francisco-based medical data sharing startup, has raised $8.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst. Axios has more here. 

Mono, a two-year-old, Colombia-based fintech company that provides corporate or business accounts for regional startups, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from Soma Capital and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.

SKNUPS, a two-year-old, London-based digital collectibles platform for fashion and beauty creators, raised $3.5 million from Redrice Ventures, Blue Wire Capital and Adelpha. VentureBeat has more here.

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.

Immutable, an Australia-based web3 gaming firm, has launched a $500 million developer and venture investment fund, Robbie Ferguson, president and co-founder of Immutable, tells TechCrunch. He says the money has already been committed from a "mixture of places." More here.

Reddit said yesterday that it is buying Spell, a platform for running machine learning experiments, for an undisclosed amount. As reports TechCrunch, Spell was founded by former Facebook engineer Serkan Piantino in 2016 to provide a cloud computing solution to allow anyone to run resource-intensive ML experiments without the high end hardware that would normally be necessary. Reddit currently uses machine learning for personalized recommendations and the Discover Tab, which the app introduced this year. The company also leverages the technology for its safety work and targeted advertising. 

Most top executives say they think a recession is looming or already here, according to a new survey, reflecting a rapid deterioration of the economic outlook among business leaders. More than 60% of CEOs expect a recession in their geographic region in the next 12 to 18 months, according to a survey of 750 CEOs and other C-suite executives released today by the Conference Board, a business research firm. An additional 15% think the region of the world where their company operates is already in a recession. The WSJ has the story.

The coin that could wreck crypto.

How founders decide what they should get paid.

Amazon could run out of people to hire in its US warehouses by 2024, according to Amazon internal research from mid-2021. If that happens, the online retailer’s service quality and growth plans could be at risk, and its e-commerce dominance along with it. Recode has the story.

TechCrunch talks with Brex CEO Henrique Dubugras about the company's decision to dump some of its smaller business customers (he also sheds more light on who is being impacted).

The battle over gender therapy.

A "superworm" that eats only Styrofoam. 🤮

The brilliance of "Barry."

Twenty-five last-minute Father's Day gifts. (Sure, you could also buy a mug that reads "I ❤️ Farts," but we would not recommend this.)

Discover the platform that has secured successful raises for innovative startups like NowRx, Virtuix and Death&Co. Explore the benefits of joining SeedInvest’s community of over 600,000
investors and diversify your portfolio by investing in early stage companies with the potential for growth. Browse startups. *View important disclosures and risks associated with equity crowdfunding investing.