Klarna's valuation crash, Sam Bankman-Fried's domination plans, and a look into Waymo’s worst truck crash

Note that we will not be publishing StrictlyVC this coming Monday in observance of the July 4th holiday. Hope you have a bright weekend.:) More Tuesday when we're back from our current trip.

Klarna is nearing a deal to raise new money at a valuation of around $6.5 billion, according to the WSJ (which, oof). According to the outlet, the Stockholm-based buy-now-pay-later giant is negotiating to raise about $650 million mostly from earlier investors led by Sequoia Capital. (Michael Moritz is chairman of the board.) It's not a done deal, notes the WSJ, but if that changes, it would represent a huge discount to the company’s valuation when investors, led by SoftBank, valued Klarna at a whopping $45.6 billion in June 2021. 

The EU has moved to rein in the “wild west” of crypto assets by agreeing a groundbreaking set of rules for the sector, adding to pressure on the U.K. and U.S. to act too. The Guardian has more here.

Stocks rose today to start the quarter after the S&P 500 closed out its worst first-half performance in decades.

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Evolved By Nature, a nine-year-old startup based in Medford, MA, that has bio-engineered its own silk product, raised a $120 million Series C round led by Teachers’ Venture Growth and Senator Investment Group; additional investors included Mousse Partners, Chanel, Jeff Vinik, The Kraft Group, Roy Disney, and Emerald Development Managers. The company has raised a total of $190 million. Vogue Business has more here.

Avant, a four-year-old startup based in Hong Kong that is cultivating meat from fish cells for food and skin care products, raised a $10.8 million round led by S2G Ventures, with additional participation from Lever VC, Artesian, Thia Ventures, CPT Capital, and the Good Protein Fund as well as previous investor ParticleX. The company has raised a total of $13.9 million. Nikkei Asia has more here.

Black Swan Data, an eleven-year-old London startup that taps into data from conversations on social media and analyzes it to map “growth opportunities” for clients such as PepsiCo, J&J, and Kraft Heinz, raised an $18.5 million round led by Oxx, with AlbionVC also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $27.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Faeth Therapeutics, a three-year-old startup based in Kearny, N.J., that is developing therapies to control nutrients in order to enhance the efficacy of cancer treatments, raised a $47 million Series A led by S2G Ventures, with additional capital provided by Khosla Ventures, Future Ventures, Digitalis, KdT Ventures, AgFunder, and Cantos. The company has raised a total of $67 million. Inside Precision Medicine has more here.

GetVantage, a three-year-old Mumbai startup that loans small businesses equity-free capital between $10,000 to $500,000 based on their revenue, raised a $36 million debt and equity round led by Varanium Nexgen Fintech Fund, with additional participation from DMI Sparkle Fund, Chiratae Ventures, and Dream Incubator Japan. The company has raised a total of $41 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Moon Surgical, a three-year-old Paris startup that is developing a robotic surgery system, raised a $31.3 million Series A round led by GT Healthcare Capital & Partners; additional investors included Cathay Health, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and previous investor Sofinnova Partners. The company has raised a total of $36.8 million. Mass Device has more here.

Mottu, a two-year-old startup based in São Paulo that aims to rent motorcycles to independent couriers that are working for logistics and food delivery apps, raised a $30 million Series B co-led by Base Partners and Crankstart, with additional funding from Tiger Global. It also secured $10 million in debt funding. The company has raised a total of $62 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Sensible Care, a five-year-old startup based in Santa Ana, Ca., that provides telepsychiatry and teletherapy services to California residents, raised a $13 million Series A round led by Volition Capital, with Skyline Investors also chipping in. More here.

Snowplow, a ten-year-old startup based in London that extracts customer data from applications such as Google analytics for use in AI and business intelligence applications, raised a $40 million Series B round. Investors included NEA, Atlantic Bridge, and MMC. The company has raised a total of $55.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Vita Mojo, a six-year-old London startup that develops digital ordering and payment products for restaurants, raised a $30 million round. Battery Ventures was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $34.1 million. More here.

Fitmint, a startup based in Bengaluru that app that tracks users' workouts and rewards them with crypto tokens for each calorie they burn, raised a $1.6 million seed round led by General Catalyst; iSeed, Kearny Jackson, Dweb3, and 1947 Rise also participated. The Economic Times has more here.

Focalpoint, a two-year-old Atlanta startup that is developing procurement software, raised a $3 million seed round; investors included Susa Ventures, Amplo, GoPoint Ventures, Bungalow Capital, and Operator Partners. The company has raised a total of $3.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

H2SITE, a three-year-old startup based in Bilbao, Spain, that is developing technology to enable hydrogen transport using existing natural gas infrastructure, raised a $13 million Series A led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with Equinor Ventures, ENGIE New Ventures, TECNALIA, and Capital Riesgo País Vasco, and Seed Capital Bizkaia also chipping in. Renewables Now has more here.

Oak9, a three-year-old Chicago startup that has developed a platform that can be used by security teams to find, analyze, and remediate security and compliance issues in real-time, raised an $8 million round from Cisco Investments and Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund. The company has raised a total of $14 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

StyleScan, a four-year-old Los Angeles startup that uses AI to allow shoppers to preview garments on models with a wide range of body shapes, sizes, and skin tones, raised a $1 million round from Clearbrook Capital. FashionUnited 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.

It's official: FTX has signed a deal giving it the option to buy crypto lending company BlockFi. The agreement gives FTX the ability to buy BlockFi at a maximum price of $240 million, the company announced today. The deal price is based on certain performance targets. The company it did not give a minimum deal price. CNBC has more here.

Reddit said today that it’s acquiring MeaningCloud, a seven-year-old natural language processing company, for an undisclosed amount. The MeaningCloud team has joined Reddit and will support machine learning projects across its product, safety and ads teams; the acquisition marks Reddit’s first office in Spain. TechCrunch has more here.

Samsung Display has purchased a Bruchsal, Germany-based display company, Cynora, for about $300 million, according to Bloomberg.  The outlet says that as part of the deal, Samsung -- an earlier investor in Cynora --  acquired Cynora’s intellectual property and its technology for so-called OLED screens. Cynora's engineers are reportedly not part of the deal, however. Instead, according to Bloomberg, the company terminated its workforce in recent weeks as part of the transaction. More here.

Walmart is expanding its array of virtual try-on services for shoppers by acquiring Memomi, an AR optical tech company and current Walmart partner that offers a virtual try-on experience for eyewear. Deal terms were not disclosed, but Memomi has enabled digital measurements for all Walmart and Sam’s Club customers since 2019, the retailer said. TechCrunch has more here.

Tencent-backed social media app Soul, a metaverse dating platform popular with young people in China, is vying for a listing in Hong Kong after abruptly pulling a plan to sell shares in the US last year. The Financial Times has more here.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of crypto exchange FTX US who just signed a deal with BlockFi, said he’s open to exploring acquisitions in the battered crypto-mining industry next. The crypto billionaire is considering acquiring troubled crypto firms to stem potential credit contagion amid the prolonged bear market, he says.

Michael Burry, the founder of Scion Asset Management who was made famous by Christian Bale in the movie “The Big Short,” said on Twitter that the first half declines in equity markets this year were “multiple compression” and following this will be earnings compression. "So, maybe halfway there," he tweeted of the market fall.

Technoblade, one of the most popular Minecraft video creators on YouTube, has died following a stage 4 cancer diagnosis, according to his family. He was just 23. "If I had another hundred lives, I think I would choose to be Technoblade again every single time, as those were the happiest years of my life," he wrote in a message to his community about 8 hours before he died. NPR has more here.

Google will start erasing location data for abortion clinic visits.

Behind the scenes of Waymo’s worst automated truck crash.

Labor slowdowns and strikes at the German and Netherland ports are creating a massive pile-up of export containers bound for the U.S. that will take months to clear out.

Vitalik's mom's advice on how to make it in crypto.

Seven ways to enhance your home's curb appeal.

Foods that keep you hydrated.

The best films of 2022, so far.

How brightly colored dials became the watch world's biggest flex.

I'd rather drag your lifeless body from this party than wait here while you go to the bathroom.

A VC is selling his waterfront Nantucket estate for $56 million (it could set a record).

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