Musk's machinations, professional-athlete podcasts, and a superyacht built for Bezos gets marooned

Hope you have a great weekend wherever you end up.:)

Oh, that Elon Musk! According to a new regulatory filing, Musk is looking to terminate his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, saying the company hasn’t provided the necessary data and information he needs to assess the prevalence of fake or spam accounts. Twitter “is in material breach of multiple provisions of that agreement” and appears to have made “false and misleading representations” when entering into the agreement, according to a letter from Musk’s lawyer filed with securities regulators. 

Twitter's board, which earlier accommodated Musk's demands for more data, has pretty much had it, with its chair, Bret Taylor, tweeting this afternoon that it plans to pursue legal action to enforce the deal at the originally agreed-upon terms. The WSJ notes that Musk’s decision to "try to abandon a deal that he initiated—citing an issue he knew about before agreeing to the transaction—reinforces the billionaire’s reputation for unpredictability."

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Aurora Labs, a six-year-old, Tel Aviv company whose vehicle software helps car companies, Tier-1 suppliers, silicon vendors, and enterprises to conduct over-the-air updates and to develop, certify, and diagnose software, has raised $63 million in Series C funding. Moore Strategic Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backer Porsche Automobil Holdings and Colmobil Corp., Israel’s leading automotive importer and distributor. Calcalist has more here.

Coalition, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company that sells insurance coverage against cyberthreats, has raised $250 million in Series F funding from Allianz X, Valor Equity Partners and Kinetic Partners. VentureBeat has more here.

011h, a two-year-old, Barcelona-based sustainable construction tech startup, has raised €25 million in Series A funding. Redalpine led the round, joined by Seaya Andromeda, Breega and Aldea Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Calyxo, a six-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca-based maker of a vacuum-assisted medical device that removes kidney stone fragments, has raised $32.7 million in funding co-led by Questa Capital and CRG. FierceBiotech has more here.

DEUNA, a 1.5-year-old, Silicon Valley-based one-click checkout commerce startup, has raised $30 million in Series A funding. Activant Capital led the round, joined by Valor Capital, Abstract Ventures, Acrew Capital, Upload Ventures and a group of individual founder investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Fyto, a three-year-old, Petaluma, Ca.-based ag-tech startup focused on aquatic "superplants," has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by GV, with participation from AgFunder, Refactor Capital, First Star Ventures and Bolt. AgFunder News has more here.

Ganymed Robotics, a four-year-old, Paris-based developer of computer vision software and robotics technologies for orthopedic surgeons, has raised €21 million in Series B funding. Cathay Health led the round, joined by Credit Mutuel Innovation, Kurma Partners, BNP Paribas Développement and individual investors. More here.

Kernal Biologics, a six-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based developer of oncology mRNA tech, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Hummingbird Ventures. Other investors in the round included Amgen Ventures, HBM Genomics and Civilization Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.

Logiwa, a nearly-five-year-old, Chicago-based warehouse and inventory management system, has raised $16.4 million in Series B funding. NewRoad Capital Partners led the round, joined by Valor Siren Ventures, Runway Venture Partners, Spider Capital, and Launch Capital. More here.

Lucinity, a four-year-old, Reykjavík, Iceland-based banking compliance startup, has raised $17 million in Series B funding led by Keen Venture Partners. Experian, Crowberry Capital, Karma Ventures and byFounders also joined the round. Tech.eu has more here.

Moving Analytics, a six-year-old, Los Angeles-based virtual at-home intervention program for high-risk cardiac patients, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Wellington Access Ventures and Seae Ventures, with participation from Philips Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Nuclera, a nine-year-old. Cambridge, U.K.- and Boston-based biotech company developing bench-top protein printing technologies, raised $42.5 million in the first close of its Series B financing. Backers included M&G, Amadeus Capital Partners, E Ink, RT Partners, and Future Planet Capital, among others. More here.

Traba, a year-old, Miami, Fla.-based jobs board for warehouse and event venue shifts, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, joined by Founders Fund, General Catalyst, SciFi VC and Atomic. TechCrunch has more here.

UnDosTres, a seven-year-old, Mexico City-based digital payments company that says it's building a "super payments app," just raised $30 million in Series B funding. IDC Ventures led the round, joined by Telegraph Hill Capital, AI8 Ventures, Benber and earlier investors IGNIA and Dalus Capital. More here.

Blue Wire, a four-year-old, Las Vegas-based podcasting company that focuses primarily on sports, has raised $2.5 million of funding via a convertible note. East Carolina Angels and the Pirate Entrepreneurship Fund, both affiliated with East Carolina University, invested a combined $945,000. Dot Capital, a New York venture capital firm, invested $750,000, while a group of angel investors also participated. Forbes has more here.

Tenderize, a 16-month-old, Antwerp, Belgium-based outfit developing a staking derivatives protocol, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Eden Block led the round, joined by Figment, Daedalus and TRGC. The Block has more here.

Thalex, a two-year-old crypto derivatives exchange based in Gibraltar, has raised €7.5 million in Series A funding from Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Flow Traders, IMC, QCP and Wintermute. More here.

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The publicly traded restaurant tech supplier Toast has acquired Sling, an eight-year-old New York-based maker of employee scheduling and management software. Terms aren't being disclosed; according to Crunchbase, Sling hadn't raised much outside funding. Restaurant Business has more here.

General Atlantic, the New York-based investment firm with $79 billion in assets under management, is exploring an IPO, according to Bloomberg. It would join a slew of alternative asset managers to pursue IPOs in the past 12 months, including TPG. More here.

Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle technology startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen, has laid off about 150 people and slowed the pace of hiring, making it the latest tech company to reduce its workforce as recession fears grow. TechCrunch has more here.

A more than 400-foot-long superyacht reportedly being built for Jeff Bezos won’t be able to sail through the waterways of the Dutch port city of Rotterdam after the company making the vessel withdrew a request to dismantle a historic bridge amid public outcry. (It would have had to dismantle a bridge to accommodate the vessel's masts.) Notes the WSJ, it isn't clear how the yacht will now leave the Netherlands.

Today, Elon Musk said that he plans to "significantly" increase child-care benefits at his companies, which include Tesla and SpaceX. The pledge (a word we hesitate to use where Musk is involved) comes as Musk has "moved to cut staff at Tesla and the company faces legal battles over workplace issues," notes the WSJ. Further, it adds, "When some SpaceX employees raised concerns about the actions of their boss, the company fired them." Musk didn't offer any specifics, tweeting of his promise to improve benefits: "Hopefully, details to be announced next month."

Oracle recently considered cost reductions of up to $1 billion that could result in thousands of layoffs as soon as August, according to a new report in The Information. The proposed job cuts could disproportionately impact U.S.- and Europe-based workers in units such as marketing for software applications that automate customer service and ecommerce functions, says the outlet. 

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