The FTC just sued Walmart, Mukesh Ambani is stepping down, and a look at which new cars are made the worst

The Federal Trade Commission today sued Walmart for allowing its money transfer services to be used by fraudsters, who fleeced consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In its lawsuit, the FTC alleges that for years, Walmart turned a blind eye while scammers took advantage of its failure to properly secure the money transfer services offered at Walmart stores. Walmart described the lawsuit as both “factually flawed and legally baseless.

Social-media companies such Meta Platforms could be sued by government attorneys in California for features that allegedly harm children through addiction under a first-in-the-nation bill that faces an important vote in the state Senate. The measure would permit the state attorney general, local district attorneys and the city attorneys of California’s four largest cities to sue social-media companies including Meta, TikTok and Snap if a prosecutor believes a company employed features it knew or should have known would addict minors. The WSJ has the skinny here.

The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of independent vaccine experts today voted 19 to 2 to recommend new Covid-19 shots that target the omicron variant this fall, when public health officials are expecting a new wave of infections. It is the first time the panel has proposed that vaccine makers modify the shots to target a different variant. CNBC has more here.

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Arzooo, a nearly four-year-old Indian startup that is attempting to bring the “best of e-commerce” to physical stores, has raised $70 million in a new financing led SBI Investment and Trifecta Leaders Fund. Tony Xu, founder of Doordash, Celesta Capital and 3 Lines VC also invested in the new round, which values it at $310 million. The company has now raised $85 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Cyolo, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops enterprise security based on zero trust principles, raised a $60 million Series B round. National Grid Partners led the deal, with previous investors Glilot Capital Partners, Flint Capital, Differential Ventures, and Merlin Ventures also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $85 million. CTech has more here.

Edge Tradeworks, a startup based in Charlotte, N.C., whose platform enables investors to trade whole loans, raised an undisclosed amount of capital from FTX Ventures. More here.

Electrify America, a five-year-old, Reston, Va.-based subsidiary of Volkswagen Group that was formed to build North America's largest ultra-fast EV charging network, said today it has raised $450 million in a deal that includes $100 million from Siemens, the German industrial company, along with funding from VW Group. TechCrunch has more here.

Front, a two-year-old San Francisco CRM startup, raised a $65 million Series D round at a $1.7 billion valuation co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Battery Ventures, with additional participation from PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada and previous investors Sequoia Capital, Threshold Ventures, and Uncork Capital. More here.

Gloat, a seven-year-old talent marketplace based in New York that allows employees in large organizations to match with career opportunities within their businesses, raised a $90 million Series B round led by Generation Investment Management, with Accel, Eight Roads Ventures, Intel Capital, and Lumir Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $192.6 million. Haaretz has more here.

Kaiko, an eight-year-old blockchain analytics startup based in Paris that offers institutions such as Deutsche Borse data from over 100 centralized and decentralized exchanges, including historic information dating back over 10 years, raised a $53 million Series B led by Eight Roads; Revaia and previous investors Alven, Point9, Anthemis, and Underscore also participated. The company has raised a total of $82.5 million. CoinDesk has more here.

Pave, a three-year-old startup based in San Francisco that claims to provide a real-time compensation platform that helps companies effectively plan, communicate, and benchmark compensation, raised a $100 million Series C round led by Index Ventures, with additional capital supplied by Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, LocalGlobe, Craft Ventures, Original Capital, Backend Capital, and Contrary Capital. The company also acquired Morgan Stanley's Advanced-HR human resources platform. The company has raised a total of $163 million. More here.

PicnicHealth, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that gathers and normalizes a patient's health care records across different hospitals and health care systems, raised a $60 million Series C round. The deal lead was B Capital Group. The company has raised a total of $97 million. FierceBiotech has more here.

Shop Circle, a 1.5-year-old, London-based startup that acquires and grows e-commerce software (it wants to be the "Microsoft for e-commerce merchants," it tells TechCrunch), has raised $65 million in funding. NFX and QED Investors co-led the round, joined by 645 Ventures, FirstMinute Capital and Triple Point Capital. More here.

Speechmatics, a sixteen-year-old startup based in Cambridge, UK, that has built AI to translate speech to text, regardless of the accent or how the person speaks, raised a $62 million Series B round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity with additional participation from AlbionVC and IQ Capital. The company has raised a total of $70.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Atomo Coffee, a three-year-old startup based in Seattle that has created an all-natural imitation coffee product that uses (it says) 94% less water and emits 93% less carbon than real coffee, raised a $40 million Series A from S2G Ventures, AgFunder, and Horizons Ventures. The company has raised a total of $51.6 million. FoodDive has more here.

Birdie, a five-year-old, U.K.-based software-as-a-service maker catering to elderly care businesses, has closed a $30 million Series B funding round led by Sofina. Omers Ventures and earlier backer Index Ventures also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Bykea, a six-year-old Karachi, Pakistan, startup whose app offers bike-sharing and on-demand delivery services, raised a $10 million round from previous investors Prosus Ventures, MEVP, Sarmayacar, Tharros, and Ithaca Capital. The company has raised a total of $28.7 million. Techshaw has more here.

Centerline Biomedical, an eight-year-old startup based in Cleveland that has built a GPS-like surgical navigation system to provide real-time 3D guidance for endovascular procedures, raised a $33 million Series B round led by Cleveland Clinic, with additional participation from GE Healthcare, RIK Enterprises, JobsOhio, Jumpstart Ventures, and G2 Group Ventures. The company has raised a total of $47.7 million. FierceBiotech has more here.

Circulor, a five-year-old startup based in London that uses blockchain technology to map supply chains for companies pursuing greener, more sustainable production, raised a $25 million Series B round led by Westly Group; HG Ventures, Volvo Cars Technology Fund, Systemiq Capital, Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures, Future Positive Capital, BHP Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and 24Haymarket also participated. The company has raised a total of $45 million. Reuters has more here.

Eclipse Foods, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops plant-based ice cream products, raised a $40 million debt and equity round led by Sozo Ventures, with additional capital provided by Forerunner Ventures, Initialized Capital, Gaingels, and KBW Ventures. The company has raised a total of $55.7 million. FoodDive has more here.

Keyway, a two-year-old New York startup that claims to use machine learning to simplify sub-$20 million commercial real estate transactions, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Camber Creek, with additional funds provided by Canvas Ventures, Crosscut, Montage Ventures, Thomvest, and Parker89. The company has raised a total of $110 million. FinLedger has more here.

Kogniz, a six-year-old startup based in Berkeley, Ca., that uses computer vision and AI to identify firearms in real time via a client's existing camera infrastructure, raised a $10 million round led by Ulu Ventures, with super{set} Venture Studio, The Indy Fund, K20 Fund, and H. Barton Asset Management also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $13.5 million. RTIH has more here.

Lightbit Labs, a six-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that says it makes high-performance elastic block storage simple and cost-efficient, has raised a $42 million funding round led by Atreides Management, with participation from JPMorgan, Valor Equity Partners, OG Tech and others. TechCrunch has more here.

Onda, a six-year-old startup based in New York that has developed a tequila seltzer brand, raised a $12.5 million round led by previous investors Aria Growth Partners and Clayton Christopher, as well as 25madison. More here.

Opaque Systems, a three-year-old, Athens, Oh., startup developing what it describes as “AI for confidential computing,” has raised $22 million in Series A funding  led by Walden Catalyst Partners, with participation from Storm Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Intel Capital, Race Capital, The House Fund and FactoryHQ. The new cash brings Opaque’s total raised to $31.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Socially Determined, a five-year-old startup based in Washington, D.C., that allows clients like healthcare providers, insurers, life science companies, and nonprofits to visualize the potential social factors behind patients' and populations' health, raised a $26 million Series B led by Questa Capital, with additional funds provided by previous investors LRVHealth, OSF Healthcare, Ziegler Link-Age Funds, and HealthWorx. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Tenet, a New York startup that is offering loans to consumers interested in purchasing electric vehicles, raised an $18 million seed round co-led by Human Capital and Giant Ventures; Breyer Capital, Global Founders Capital, Firstminute Capital, and Michael Ovitz also contributed. TechCrunch has more here.

Workvivo, a five-year-old startup based in Cork, Ireland, that has developed an internal communications platform to increase employee engagement, raised a $22 million Series B round. Tiger Global was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $38.6 million. The Irish Times has more here.

Adwisely, a four-year-old startup based in Wilmington, De., that has built an ad automation platform for e-commerce DTC brands, raised a $1.5 million seed round led by TMT Investments; additional investors included Gaingels, Mana Ventures, Cabra VC, and ICU Ventures. The company has raised a total of $3.9 million. RTIH has more here.

Dynamic.xyz, a six-month-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that says it's creating SDKs to help developers implement multi-chain wallet login flows in minutes, and then add access lists, NFT gating, OFAC wallet blocks, identity and onboarding protocols from their developer dashboards, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other funds that joined the round include First Round Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Solana Ventures, Chapter One, and Circle Ventures. More here.

Givebutter, a six-year-old startup based in Washington, D.C., that has developed a free operating system for nonprofit fundraising, raised a $7 million seed round. Participants in the deal included Ardent Venture Partners and Hyper. More here.

Heydey, a knowledge management based in San Francisco that claims to use AI to automatically search the Web and other sources for relevant information for users, raised a $6.5 million seed round led by Spark Capital, with additional funds provided by Abstract Ventures, Packy McCormick’s Not Boring syndicate, Ride Ventures, and Spacecadet Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

OpenReplay, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit that offers open-source session replay that lets developers see what users do on their web app, helping them troubleshoot issues faster, has raised $4.7 million in a seed funding round led by Runa Capital. Expa, 468 Capital, Rheingau Founders and the co-founders of Tekion also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Salesroom, a one-year-old Boston startup that claims to help salespeople master virtual meetings, run more effective calls, and create deeper connections, raised an $8.5 million seed round led by Craft Ventures; Village Global, Seedcamp, WndrCo, and Asymmetric Capital also chipped in. More here.

Swave Photonics, a months-old Belgian startup that claims to enable holographic images without the need for smart AR/VR headsets or prescription glasses, raised a $7.4 million seed round led by Imec.xpand and Flanders Future Techfund, with QBIC also pitching in. Electronics Weekly has more here.

System 9, a five-year-old blockchain startup based in Los Angeles that provides software-based trading services to token issuers and digital asset exchanges to build liquidity, increase stability, and augment price discovery, raised a $5.7 million round led by Capital6 Eagle, with Kronos Asset Management, C2 Ventures, Gate Ventures, and Ascendex Ventures rounding out the deal. More here.

Veritonic, a seven-year-old startup based in New York that offers advertisers a way to measure the performance of audio assets, including podcast and radio ads, audio logos and sonic branding, raised a $7.5 million Series A round led by Lavrock Ventures; additional investors included Progress Ventures, Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau, and Newark Venture Partners. The company has raised a total of $14.2 million. AdExchanger has more here.

Could stagflation actually be a “tail-wind” for this asset class? What do Ray Dalio and 80% of chief economists have in common? They believe stagflation is about to rear its ugly head. A natural hedge to this economic “one-two punch”? Fine art. Why? In the last stagflationary period from 1973 to 1981, art saw average annual appreciation of 33.2%. And even better, recent performance shows this model is holding true. In fact, Masterworks has returned more than 30% to investors in each of its last 4 exits. Implementing your own “stagflation hedge” starts by clicking this unique link. See important Reg A disclosures.

At a time when U.S. venture dollars are slowing down, the 61-year-old, Toronto-based multinational banking and financial services corporation CIBC Innovation Banking is announcing $1.5 billion in growth capital commitments, dubbed “Unicorn Fuel,” to focus on later-stage companies across software, life sciences, healthcare and clean tech industries. TechCrunch has more here.

Drive Capital has amassed $1 billion in new venture funds, giving the nine-year-old, Columbus, Ohio-based firm over $2 billion in assets under management to invest outside of Silicon Valley. Bloomberg has more here.

Peterson Search Partners, a new vehicle raised by the 19-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based investment firm Peterson Partners, has closed with $100 million in capital commitments to be invested in so-called search funds and micro-cap buyouts, says the firm. Utah Business has more here.

Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani has stepped down from Reliance Jio. Akash Ambani, his eldest son, has been named as the chairman of Reliance’s digital empire Jio in what analysts view as a clear illustration of a leadership transition in one of Asia’s wealthiest families. TechCrunch has more here.

Andrew Formica, the 51-year-old CEO of Jupiter Fund Management, suddenly announced he’s leaving the £55.3 billion ($67.9 billion) asset manager he joined in 2019. “I just want to go sit at the beach and do nothing,” he said in the first candid comment ever made in the history of business journalism.

Newark Venture Partners, a thematic, early-stage B2B software fund, has welcomed Kiswana Browne as a senior associate (formerly of Plug and Play Ventures) and Chika Ogele as an associate(former Goldman Sachs and Eight Sleep). Sean Simons was also promoted to associate. More here.

The phar­ma gi­ant Novartis is con­firm­ing a re­port that it is laying off 8,000 out of its 108,000 glob­al employees. Endpoints News has more here.

Pinterest's longtime CEO, Ben Silbermann, is stepping down from the role 12 years after cofounding the company. He is transitioning to executive chairman of the board, while Bill Ready, who has been president of commerce at Google since 2020, assumes the role. Ready was once operating chief of PayPal and before that CEO of Venmo. The WSJ has more here.

Uber's former security chief must face criminal charges that he defrauded drivers in an alleged coverup of a massive data hack at the ride-hailing company six years ago. U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick’s decision keeps Joe Sullivan’s trial on track for September after prosecutors late last year added fraud charges to the case. Bloomberg has more here.

New car quality declined sharply this year with supply chain problems, says J.D. Power. Electric vehicle newcomer Polestar ranked last on the list with 328 problems reported per 100 newly sold or leased vehicles. CNBC has more here.

Just when battered supply chains looked to be returning to normal, congestion is flaring on rail lines and warehouse docks.

Facebook Groups are being revamped to look like Discord.

Pop. Thwop. Pickleball noises turn neighbors into activists.

The gamer book list.

Missed connections at the Capitol.

A deep dive into some of the best electric bikes on the market.

Open-air hotel suites (and we do mean wide open).

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