Strictly VC - America is having a week

It's been quite a week here in the U.S.. Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down a 108-year-old New York law limiting who can obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun in public, a ruling New York Governor Kathy Hochul calls "reprehensible." ("To think that someone would be able to do this on a subway, in a crowded, you know, tense situation during rush hour, no, no.")

Today, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. As the New Yorker notes, the ruling is "expected to create a stark divide within the country, with residents of more liberal states retaining the right to abortion and those in conservative states largely losing it. Abortion will be immediately illegal or severely restricted in as many as twenty states, affecting an estimated twenty-five million women of childbearing age. Twenty states—along with the District of Columbia—where roughly twenty-six million women of reproductive age reside, will continue to protect abortion rights." 

Already, corporate America is speaking up about the ruling. Google sent a companywide email today, explaining employees in affected states can apply for relocation without explaining why. 

JPMorgan Chase told workers today that it will pay for travel to states that allow legal abortions. 

The CEO of DICKS'S Sporting Goods, similarly announced today that "in response to today's ruling, we are announcing that if a state one of our teammates lives in restricts access to abortion, DICK'S Sporting Goods will provide up to $4,000 in travel expense reimbursement to travel to the nearest location where that care is legally available." The benefit, says the company, will be provided to any employees, spouse or dependent enrolled in its medical plan, along with one support person.

The technology industry is meanwhile bracing for the uncomfortable possibility of having to hand over pregnancy-related data to law enforcement, reports Reuters.

It's all a lot to process. 

If you're looking for a brief distraction, we have a piping-hot episode of StrictlyVC Download for you, featuring longtime VC Frederic Court of London-based Felix Capital, which closed its newest fund with $600 million in capital commitments a couple of weeks ago. 

We spoke with Court recently about a wide range of things, from how Amazon roll-ups survive this market (Felix has a big bet on Berlin-based SellerX), to how European venture firms keep U.S. VCs from poaching their people as they expand their own footprint across the continent. Court always has interesting insights to share; we hope you enjoy it.

In the meantime, major thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Tegus, which helps VCs like Benchmark and Thrive Capital get up to speed on startups with what it says is the largest database of proprietary content on private companies. Sign up for a free trial today.

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Dem BioPharma, a months-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is focused on developing treatments based on the signaling between cancer cells and macrophages, raised a $70 million round co-led by Longwood Fund and Alta Partners; additional investors included Insight Partners, Pfizer Ventures, Astellas Venture Management, Emerson Collective, UTokyo Innovation Platform, and Alexandria Venture Investments. FierceBiotech has more here.

Amogy, a two-year-old Brooklyn startup that has developed a carbon-neutral method to power heavy-duty and long-distance vehicles such as ocean cargo ships and 18-wheel tractor trailers with ammonia, raised a $46 million round. The lead was SK Innovation, with additional participation from Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and previous investor Amazon. The company has raised a total of $68.3 million. Canary Media has more here.

Apptronik, a six-year-old startup based in Austin, Tex., that is developing robots to replace human workers in the manufacturing, automotive, and supply chain sectors, raised a $14.6 million seed round from Capital Factory, Grit Ventures, and Perot Jain, among others. The company has raised a total of $22.8 million. Built in Austin has more here.

August Health, a 20-year-old startup based in San Francisco whose SaaS platform manages care and compliance for thousands for senior living residents, including tele-health visits with physicians, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Matrix Partners, with previous investor General Catalyst also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $17.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Designstripe, a two-year-old startup based in Montreal that offers a combination of customizable content and intuitive tools for non-designers across consumer and enterprise clients, raised a $10 million round led by Insight Partners, with Silicon Valley Bank also pitching in. More here.

ESG Book, a company founded in 2018, built a cloud-based platform backed by AI-powered analysis that provides its customer base of financial institutions — like Bridgewater, J.P. Morgan, Citi and Robinhood — with sustainability and ESG data of more than 25,000 public companies. ESG Book is fresh off a newly announced $35 million series B round led by Energy Impact Partners along with Meridiam and Allianz X.

Finhay, a five-year-old startup based in Hanoi that has built an investment platform for Vietnamese consumers, raised a $25 million Series B round co-led by Openspace Ventures and VIG, with Insignia, TVS, Headline, TNBAura, and IVC also contributing. The company has raised a total of $26.1 million. TechNode Global has more here.

Hadrian, a one-year-old “hacker-led” cybersecurity startup based in Amsterdam whose SaaS platform can simulate attacks, just raised a €10.5 million seed round led by HV Capital, with additional capital provided by Picus Capital and Slimmer AI. The company has raised a total of $13.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Synop, a one-year-old startup based in New York that is developing fleet management software for electric vehicles, raised a $10.1 million seed round led by Obvious Ventures, with Wireframe Ventures, Congruent, and Better Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $10 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Vibrant Planet, a two-year-old startup based in Incline Village, Nev., whose mission is to develop a SaaS platform for forest management, raised a $17 million seed round. Ecosystem Integrity Fund and The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust co-led the deal. The company has raised a total of $32.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

E-Mission Control, a three-year-old startup based in Sacramento, Ca., that designs, builds, and manages electricity consumption data platforms and services for electric vehicle fleet operators, raised a $3 million Series A. Skyview Ventures was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $3.8 million. More here.

Kins, a one-year-old New York startup that is developing a hybrid-care physical therapy platform, raised a $4 million seed round led by W Health Ventures. More here.

Laka, a five-year-old startup based in London that provides bicycle insurance policies, raised a $1.5 million Series A extension from Porsche Ventures, increasing the total size of the round to $13.5 million. The company has raised a total of $22.9 million. Coverager has more here.

Octane11, a four-year-old startup based in New York whose platform attempts to normalize data from many different software tools in order to produce industry insights, granular benchmarks, and AI-driven recommendations, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Javelin Venture Partners; additional investors included BDMI, Honeystone Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Base Ventures, Circadian Ventures, and Aperiam Ventures. More here.

Rerun, a Stockholm startup founded this year that aims to create an open source toolbox to help developers build powerful visualizations of their computer vision software in the physical world, raised a $3.2 million round led by Costanoa Ventures with additional funds from Seedcamp. More here.

Symbrosia, a four-year-old startup based in Kailua Kona, HI, that aims to reduce livestock methane emissions through its seaweed feed additive, raised a $7 million Series A round led by Danone Manifesto Ventures; Pacific6, HATCH, Presidio Ventures, Kamehameha Schools, and Mana Up also ponied up. The company has raised a total of $8.6 million. Reuters has more here.

Virtual Facility, a four-year-old startup based in New York, whose platform unites disparate alarm data uses machine learning to screen out irrelevant alarms, raised a $9 million seed round from Camber Creek. More here.

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British venture fund Presto Ventures has wrapped a €30 million ($36.8 million) fund to help early-stage B2B startups in Central and Eastern Europe. As Private Equity Wire reported today, the new funding will help support as many as 40 B2B tech startups at the seed and pre-seed stages. More here.

It's all happening. The crypto exchange, FTX, is in talks to acquire a stake in BlockFi, a crypto lender that FTX gave a $250 million credit line this week, reports the WSJ. As the outlet notes, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has become a lender of last resort to his beleaguered crypto industry, but he may end up owning large chunks of it as well. More here.

Zendesk, the customer experience software company that went public in 2014, is being taken private again, announcing today it is being acquired by an investor group in an all-cash transaction valuing it at around $10.2 billion. The deal, led by investment firms Permira and Hellman & Friedman, will give shareholders $77.50 per share, a premium of about 34% over the company’s closing stock price Thursday, according to a release. CNBC has more here.

Zomato has acquired Blinkit, a struggling 10-minute grocery delivery startup, in a $568.1 million all-stock deal as the loss-making food delivery firm looks to broaden its offerings at a time when its shares are trading far below last year’s debut price. TechCrunch has more here.

Recession fears and record inflation numbers are pointing to the slowest second quarter for IPOs since the recession of 2009, says Renaissance Capital. Thus far, there have been 21 IPOs raising $2.1 billion for the period that ends June 30. Only six of those raised more than $100 million, led by eye-care spinoff Bausch and Lomb; meanwhile, the median deal size shrank to $22 million, a multi-decade low. Investor's Business Daily has more here.

Khaby Lame, a 22-year-old from Senegal who rose to fame by stitching and dueting other TikToks, just eclipsed longtime leading TikTok creator Charli D’Amelio to take the number one spot. More here.

Retail analytics company Trax will lay off over 100 employees, around 50 of them in Israel. The layoffs account for approximately 12% of the company’s total workforce, which is around 950 employees. Trax secured $640 million in a Series E financing round at a valuation of $2.25 billion in April 2021, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and technology-focused funds managed by existing investor BlackRock. Calcalist has more here.

Twitter has given Elon Musk more user data after he complained last week that the large historical database he had received wasn't enough, Insider reports. This new batch reportedly includes real-time data, and likely represents the last hurdle for Musk as he seeks to find an overabundance of "bots" and potentially renegotiate his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.

A federal appeals court froze the FDA’s ban on Juul products today after the company sought an emergency administrative stay, meaning Juul can continue selling its vaping products in the U.S. for now. The temporary stay will be in place essentially to buy time until the case can properly be heard by the court, though it “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits,” according to the court documents. TechCrunch has more here.

The NYSE has told the micromobility company Bird that it may have to delist the company unless it can get its stock price up. TechCrunch has more here.

The surprising reason your Amazon searches are returning more confusing results than ever.

Where are they now? The players from LeBron James's legendary NBA draft.

How vacations make friendships stronger.

There is a Jon Snow show in development.

Giant wine glass. (We're going to be needing one of these at the rate things are going.)

A Land Rover fit for a prince.

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