Sequoia's new funds, Bird's management switch, and Bitcoin is poised for its biggest quarterly drop since 2011

No column today (we're on the road this week so a little shorter on time than usual.)

Bitcoin briefly fell below $20,000 again today as a number of factors from macroeconomic worries to issues with cryptocurrency companies continue to weigh on the market. It's now on track for its worst quarter in more than a decade.

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DataArt, a 25-year-old New York-based IT consultancy company, raised a $75 million round from FTV Capital. The company has raised a total of $88.5 million. HedgeWeek has more here.

Entrepreneur First, an 11-year-old early-stage tech investment fund based in London that raises rounds of funding instead of discrete funds, just announced $158 million in Series C financing at a $560 million valuation from Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and many other angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Kaiko, an eight-year-old Paris-based crypto data firm, has raised $53 million in Series B funding led by Eight Roads, with participation from Revaia, Alven and Point9. More here.

PolySign, a four-year-old crypto startup based in Oakland, Ca., that offers custody, trading, and administration infrastructure for institutions, raised a $53 million Series C round. Investors included Cowen Digital, Brevan Howard, and GSR. The company has raised a total of $158.2 million. The Block has more here.

Tomorrow Health, a five-year-old home-based care company out of New York, raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Bond, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Obvious Ventures, BoxGroup and Sound Ventures. Axios has more here.

Zilch, a four-year-old, London-based buy-now-pay-later startup, has raised a further $50 million, upping the total raise for its Series C fundraising to $160 million and its overall funding to $460 million. Zilch’s investors include Ventura Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Gauss Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.

AlgiKnit , a five-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based outfit that says it's developing durable yet rapidly degradable yarns from kelp, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Collaborative Fund, with participation from H&M, Starlight Ventures, Third Nature Ventures, and previous backers Horizons Ventures and SOSV. TechCrunch has more here.

Audience, a three-year-old startup based in Miami that uses robots to write "handwritten" notes for direct marketers, raised a $10 million in Series A round. Next Coast Ventures was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $10.5 million. Refresh Miami has more here.

Cordio Medical, a nine-year-old Tel Aviv startup that says its app can detect the onset of congestive heart failure, raised an $18 million round co-led by Ceros Financial Services and Peregrine Ventures. The company has raised a total of $22.2 million. Calcalist has more here.

Konnecto, a four-year-old marketing and sales optimization startup based in Tel Aviv whose clients include Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, and Lego, raised a $21 million Series A led by PeakSpan Capital, with TPY Capital, Mindset Ventures, Differential Ventures, SeedIL Ventures, and Magna Capital Partners also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $24.5 million. Calcalist has more here.

Nautical Commerce, a two-year-old New York startup that helps small companies build marketplaces, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Drive Capital, with additional capital provided by Accomplice Ventures and Golden Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Normalyze, a San Francisco startup that uses machine learning to help businesses pinpoint security risks in multi-cloud environments, raised a $22.2 million Series A. Battery Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners co-led the round. SecurityWeek has more here.

Regard, a 5.5-year-old, L.A.-based outfit behind a platform that aims to help diagnose common medical conditions, like heart failure, COVID-19 and anxiety and depression, has raised $15.3 million in Series A funding led by Calibrate Ventures and Foundry Group. Earlier investors TenOneTen Ventures and Susa Ventures also participated, along with new backers Brook Byers of Byers Capital and Drew Houston. TechCrunch has more here.

Ria Health, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that provides tele-health care for patients with alcohol use disorder, raised a $18 million in Series A round led by SV Health Investors, with additional funds provided by BPEA Private Equity and SOSV. Behavioral Health Business has more here.

Visby Medical, a ten-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that develops PCR diagnostic technology designed to detect infectious diseases such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas, raised a $35 million Series E extension. Lightrock led the round, joining existing Series E investors including John Doerr, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, ND Capital, Artiman Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Blue Water Life Science Advisors, and J Ventures. The company has raised a total of $288.3 million. Mass Device has more here.

Zigazoo, a two-year-old, Miami-based company that views itself as an educator about web3 and NFTs for children (it also recently launched an NFT collection), has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Liberty City Ventures. Other participants in the round include Causeway, The NBA, Dapper Labs, OneFootball, Medici VC, Animoca Brands, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Core Ventures, Spartan Group, and TikTok celebrities Charli and Dixie D’Amelio. The company has raised a total of $25 million. CoinDesk has more here.

Bit Odd, a three-year-old mobile gaming studio based in Helsinki, raised a $5.3 million round led by Index Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Hank, a two-year-old, New York-based app that connects people aged 55 and older with others in their community and provides events geared specifically for them, has raised $7 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst and Resolute Ventures. Other participants in the funding included Canaan Partners, The Fund and Tau Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Screenloop, a one-year-old tech recruiting platform based in London, raised a $7 million seed round led by Stride VC, with additional participation from Ludlow Ventures, All Iron Ventures, Passion Capital, and Indeed founder Paul Forster. The company has raised a total of $9.5 million. More here.

Strive, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed a program to optimize muscle development that is used by 215 professional and collegiate athletes and teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, EPL and NCAA, raised a $6 million Series A round. Future Communities Capital led the transaction. More here.

Zing Data, a three-month-old, Bay Area-based startup selling collaborative business intelligence to companies via an app that makes "asking questions of data and visualizing answers easy for everybody in your organization," has raised $2.4 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Sequoia Capital is reportedly in the market, raising $2.25 billion across two U.S.-focused funds: a $1.5 billion growth fund and a $750 million fund focused on early-stage deals. According to The Information, the firm expects the new funds to close next month. More here.

MassMutual Ventures, the eight-year-old, Boston-based venture firm backed solely by the financial services company MassMutual, has collected $100 million for a new fund to back early and growth-stage companies in the financial technology, cybersecurity, enterprise SaaS, and digital health sectors. More here.

A British Virgin Islands court ordered the liquidation of Three Arrows Capital after creditors sued the cryptocurrency hedge fund for failure to repay debts. A spokesperson for Three Arrows Capital says the outfit is considering its options and seeking legal advice in the British Virgin Islands. The WSJ has more here.

"I've called founders [to say], 'I think you should sell.'"

Electric scooter company Bird has appointed Shane Torchiana as president, replacing the company’s CEO and founder Travis VanderZanden, who held both titles. Torchiana will now lead the company's day-to-day operations. Torchiana has held a variety of roles at Bird since 2019, joining the firm from Boston Consulting Group. The promotion of Torchiana comes a few days after Bird received a warning from the New York Stock Exchange concerning its stock price, which is now so low that the outfit is facing the possibility of being de-listed. TechCrunch has more here.

Byju’s, India’s most valuable startup, has eliminated hundreds of jobs in recent days and pushed back on payments for a $1 billion acquisition it announced last year. TechCrunch has more here.

Jamil Nazarali, Citadel Securities' global head of business development, is leaving to head up a recently unveiled crypto marketplace backed by some of the biggest names in finance and venture capital, including Virtu Financial, Charles Schwab, Sequoia Capital, and Citadel itself. Bloomberg has more here.

NEA has promoted Tiffany Le and Jess Ou to principal, and Zak Burns, Henry Magun, Alex Sharata, and Emily Zhen to senior associate. More here.

Pokémon GO developer Niantic is running into trouble as it builds “the real-world metaverse.” Like so many other tech companies facing turbulent economic times, the company decided to let go of 8% of its staff, affecting about 85 to 90 people. TechCrunch has more here.

The newsletter platform Substack laid off 13 employees today to extend its runway. The New York Times reported last month that amid changing market conditions this spring, the startup had to abandon plans for a Series C round that would have assigned it an even higher valuation than the $650 million that earlier investors decided it was worth last year.

John Visentin, the CEO Xerox, died yesterday at age 59. Visentin became CEO in May 2018 and was also the vice chairman; he died of “complications from an ongoing illness,” the company said in a statement.

The amount of money it takes to be considered “wealthy” in the Bay Area remains millions of dollars higher than in other big metropolitan regions — and has increased substantially from last year, according to the latest edition of Charles Schwab’s survey on wealth.

European Union lawmakers are proposing to ban flavored heated tobacco products — a category that covers vaping — in a move they say is intended to protect the health of young people after a “significant” rise in sales of novel heated tobacco products.

Shein’s rise was nearly overnight. The backlash came just as fast.

Snapchat officially launched a paid subscription plan today called Snapchat+ that for $3.99 per month will offer features like the ability to change the app icon and to see which people have rewatched your Stories.

A member of the FCC is renewing calls for Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing national security concerns. Yet whether the plea -- in the form of a letter to the CEOs of both companies -- will work is uncertain. The FCC plays no role in regulating internet-based services such as app stores, notes CNN, and prior efforts by the U.S. government to ban TikTok from US app stores have faltered amid court challenges.

The accidental media critics of YouTube.

The extremely large life of a suntan lotion mogul.

"D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?!"

"Bladder Botox." (No. Really?)

Culinary excursions led by world-renowned chefs.

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