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We have to skip a few sections tonight as we're just back from seeing Chris Rock's show in San Francisco, where, by chance, we were sitting directly in front of SF Mayor London Breed, and 'Da Mayor,' Willie Brown, at the Masonic. If you haven't yet caught Rock's new act and you're local, go -- it's great -- and he's in the Bay Area for a few more performances through the weekend.
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In a rare joint appearance today at the headquarters of Britain's domestic security service MI5, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, and Ken McCallum, director-general of MI5, urged business leaders not to underestimate the threats posed by Chinese espionage, especially spying aimed at stealing Western tech companies’ intellectual property. The WSJ has more here.
Voyager Digital has filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection, the "latest casualty of the sharp downturn in cryptocurrency prices that has triggered a crisis in the digital assets market," observes the Financial Times. The broker and lender, which is listed in Toronto, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Tuesday in federal court in New York after suffering losses of more than $650 million on a loan to Three Arrows Capital, the failed Singapore-based crypto investor. (Last week, a court in the British Virgin Islands
ordered the hedge fund to liquidate after it suffered heavy losses from the collapse of Luna and other cryptocurrencies since May.) Voyager's collapse comes less than a week after it suspended trading and prevented customers from withdrawing funds. The collapse also has the unintended outcome of turning what a
centralized platform into a decentralized one, notes Bloomberg's Matt Levine.
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| Things Get Messy for Musk Amid Report He Has Fathered Twins with Neuralink Exec |
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Last month, Insider published an explosive report about a former SpaceX flight attendant who accused SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk of propositioning her for sex in 2016 and to whom the company paid $250,000 to keep quiet. Musk called the story "a politically motivated hit piece," while SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell came to Musk's defense in a company-wide email, writing: “Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations."
Alas, a new and far more damaging Insider report is putting Shotwell — and every other executive insider Musk's various companies — in an even more uncomfortable position.
According to the story, published late this afternoon, “court documents obtained by Insider show that the tech mogul Elon Musk quietly had twins last November with one of his top executives, Shivon Zilis. In April, Musk, 51, and Zilis, 36, filed a petition to change the twins’ names in order to ‘have their father’s last name and contain their mother’s last name as part of their middle name.'” The order was approved by a judge in Austin in May, adds the report, and the “twins were born weeks before Musk and Claire Boucher, the musician who performs as Grimes, had their second child via surrogate in December.”
Zilis (or someone acting on her behalf) has already removed any mention of Neuralink from a website about her background, as well as dismantled her LinkedIn page.
Until recently, that same page stated that the work experience of Zilis — a Yale graduate who began her career at IBM, then invested on behalf of the Bloomberg-backed venture outfit Bloomberg Beta until early 2016 — included Neuralink, Tesla and OpenAI.
All three, of course, have deep ties to Musk, who founded Neuralink, cofounded OpenAI and assumed leadership of Tesla back in 2008.
Specifically, says Insider, Zilis first met Musk in 2016 while a director at OpenAI, where she is now the youngest member on its board of directors.
In 2017, she reportedly joined Tesla as a project director.
Today, Zilis holds the title of director of operations and special projects for Neuralink, where Musk is a co-CEO.
The outlet also says that Zilis has recently been floated as one of the people Musk could tap to run Twitter if his proposed $44 billion acquisition of the company goes forward as expected.
We have not independently verified Insider’s account. Musk, who is typically highly active on Twitter and who did not respond to requests for comment from Insider (neither did Zilis), is meanwhile remaining mum for now, though he last month tweeted that falling birth rates in the U.S. are a “demographic disaster,” adding, “I mean, I’m doing my part haha.”
The biggest question the story raises, beyond how many children Musk plans to father — it’s looking like he has at least nine with various partners — is whether any of these companies have fraternization policies that prohibit romantic relationships between a manager and a reporting staff member.
More here.
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ClinChoice, a five-year-old Philadelphia startup that provides outsourced lab service to major pharmaceutical companies, raised a $150 million Series E round led by Legend Capital; Taikang Life Insurance, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, and previous investors Lilly Asia Ventures and Apricot Capital also participated. The company signaled that its next stop might be an IPO. FierceBiotech has more here.
Flexe, a nine-year-old Seattle startup that offers on-demand warehousing space to online retailers, raised a $119 million Series D round at a $1+ billion post-money valuation. BlackRock led the transaction, while previous investors Activate Capital, Madrona Ventures, Prologis Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, and Tiger Global also participated. The company has raised a total of $263 million. GeekWire has more here.
Swimlane, an eight-year-old startup based in Louisville, Co., that develops low code software designed to automate security processes, raised a $70 million round led by Activate Capital; previous investors Energy Impact Partners and 3Lines VC also participated. The company has raised a total of $154.9 million. VentureBeat has more here.
WeDoctor, a 12-year-old online healthcare platform based in Xiaoshan, China, raised more than $150 million from an undisclosed state-owned industry investment fund in eastern China's Shandong Province, following setbacks in its attempts to go public. Previous investors Sequoia China, CIC Capital, AIA Group, and Tencent also participated. The company has raised over $1.5 billion. Nikkei Asia has more here.
YuLife, a six-year-old, London-based insurtech company that combines life insurance, employee well-being programs, and rewards, has raised $120 million in Series C funding led by Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, with participation from previous investors Creandum, LocalGlobe, Target Global, Latitude, Anthemis, OurCrowd, Notion, MMC and Eurazeo. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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BKN301, a one-year-old startup based in San Marino, Italy, that provides digital banking services to emerging markets across Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, raised a €15 million Series A led by Abalone Group, with additional participation from PayU, Azimut Digitech Fund, CRIF, and GNB Swiss Investments. The company has raised a total of $28.7 million. FinTech has more here.
CELUS, a four-year-old Munich startup that uses AI to automate circuit board design, raised a $25.6 million Series A led by Earlybird Venture Capital; additional investors included DI Capital, Speedinvest, and Plug and Play. The company has raised a total of $31.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Finalis, a two-year-old New York startup that aims to provide a “brokerage-in-a-box” experience for the 150 investment banks and placement agencies that are its clients, raised a $10.7 million seed round; investors included ANIMO Ventures, Chaac Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Tribe Capital, and The Fund. Finextra has more here.
Planetarium Labs, a Singapore-based community-driven web3 game company, has raised a $32 million Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands, with participation from Krust Universe, Wemade, and Samsung Next. More here.
Sharebite, a seven-year-old New York startup that partners with restaurants to deliver food to corporate clients, raised a $39 million Series B round led by Prosus, with Fiserv and Contour Venture Partners also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $62.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.
YAP, a four-year-old Dubai startup that has developed a digital banking app for the EMEA region, raised a $41 million round; investors included Aljazira Capital, Abu Dawood Group, Astra Group, and Audacia Capital. The company has raised a total of $41 million. Reuters has more here.
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APFusion, a four-year-old startup based in Champaign, Il., that provides a B2B marketplace connecting new aftermarket parts providers with salvage yards, giving salvage yards that primarily sold used inventory access to new inventory, raised a $6.5 million seed round. Left Lane Capital and Bedrock Capital co-led the round; previous investor M25 also participated. The company has raised a total of $7 million. More here.
Cauldron, a two-year-old London-based web3 gaming startup, raised a $6.6 million seed round led by Cherry Ventures, with Cassius, Seedcamp, and Playfair also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $8 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Orus, a one-year-old Paris startup that provides insurance for small businesses such as restaurants, raised a $5.1 million round from Frst, Partech, and Portage Ventures. EU-Startups has more here.
SymTerra, a London startup that aims to develop a Slack-like product for the construction industry in order to reduce miscommunication and reduce delays, raised a $1.7 million seed round led by Samaipata, with additional capital provided by Nemetschek, Pi Labs, and Accel. Tech.EU has more here.
TakeProfit, a one-year-old startup based in San Francisco that is building a trading platform designed to be used by communities, raised a $3 million seed round led by Admitad founder Alexander Bachmann, with additional funds provided by Lime Financial and other angels. VentureBeat has more here.
Xelix, a four-year-old startup based in London that uses AI and machine learning to help accounts payable departments to prevent over-payments and reduce fraud while improving overall productivity, raised a $5 million Series A led by Fintop Capital, with Passion Capital and Localglobe also chipping in. PYMNTS.com has more here.
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F2 Venture Capital, a six-year-old, Tel Aviv venture firm, says it has closed its third seed fund with $150 million in capital commitments to invest in Israeli founders; it says it has also raised a separate $100 million fund to continue backing its existing portfolio companies. The vehicles bring F2’s total assets under management to a little more than $400 million. F2’s areas of focus include fintech, big data, cloud ops and cyber. Calcalist has more here.
Fabian and Ferry Heilemann, cofounders of the six-year-old, Berlin-based digital freight forwarder and shipping management platform Forto (as well as an earlier, daily deals company), are expanding their family office into an impact venture firm called Aenu and announcing they've already pulled together €100 million in capital commitments -- including from investor-entrepreneur Niklas Zennström -- to get started. Business Insider has more here.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, head of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, says he and his company still have a “few billion” on hand to shore up struggling firms that could further destabilize the digital asset industry, but that the worst of the liquidity crunch has likely passed. “We’re starting to get a few more companies reaching out to us,” Bankman-Fried said in an interview with Reuters. Those firms are generally not in dire situations, though some smaller crypto exchanges may still fail, he said, adding that the
industry has moved beyond “other big shoes that have to drop.”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the crypto company will move to another country if it loses in its legal battle with the SEC. (Which would be fine?)
Microsoft Corp. cloud Vice President Tom Keane said today that he’s leaving the software giant, where he’s spent 21 years. His departure comes after a report in May by Insider that accused
Keane of verbally abusing staff.
Joe Rogan, Spotify's highest-paid podcaster, says he has several times declined to host Donald Trump on his influential and oft-controversial program. “I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once. I’ve said no every time,” Rogan said on Lex Fridman’s podcast on Monday. “I don’t want to help him," said Rogan of Trump, calling him an “existential threat to democracy.”
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Apple today announced a new feature for iPhones called Lockdown Mode to protect high-profile users against state-sponsored hackers. Lockdown Mode turns off several features on the iPhone in order to make it less vulnerable to spyware by significantly reducing the number of features that attackers can access and potentially hack. CNBC has more here.
How a fake job offer took down the world’s most popular crypto game.
Why Wall Street escaped the crypto meltdown.
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The shrinking of the middle class neighborhood.
A neurologist's tips to protect your memory.
Sun Valley "style," which seems like stretching the definition of the word here, WSJ.
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