Stripe's valuation gets slashed, Pinterest picks up an activist investor, and cheap dinner ideas to love 💕

Payments giant Stripe, last valued by private investors at $95 billion, cut the internal value of its shares by 28%, the WSJ reported earlier today. Stripe apparently told employees in an email Friday that the internal share price was about $29, compared with $40 in the most previous internal valuation, known as a 409A valuation; the move lowered the implied valuation of those shares to $74 billion. 

Elon Musk is facing scrutiny from securities regulators over whether he promptly disclosed his intention to terminate his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. More here.

Nine years of learnings in 17 seconds. It started with a simple question: how is it possible that a $2 trillion asset class, half the size of the entire private equity universe, has never been made investible? So we became the first firm to securitize this asset by filing it with the SEC. We are on track to achieve more than $1.3 billion in AUM, and have realized a +29% net IRR, 3 years in a row. Join us here.

There's no shortage of headlines about the onset of "crypto winter." Amid a growing pile of bankruptcies, one of the buzziest startups in the business, the NFT marketplace OpenSea, announced a major layoff just today.

Behind the scenes, however, plenty of founders and VCs are doubling down on the promise of largely decentralized, blockchain-based outfits, and toward that end, one of the "more interesting parts of crypto right now" is at the "intersection of social messaging and web3," says renowned entrepreneur and investor Elad Gil. In short, he thinks today's messaging tools don't cut it, and that there will be new opportunities for crypto-native startups to get it right.

Gil has already made an early bet, leading a $4 million seed round in Lines, a startup whose three co-founders studied philosophy at Harvard and whose CEO, Sahil Handa, boasts that the nascent company will become "web3's messaging platform," even while he and his former classmates are still developing its tech.

That it's still a work in progress is apparently just fine with Lines's backers, which also include renowned angel investors Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Gokul Rajaram. What they're backing is a vision. There's a "rapidly increasing number of people using crypto pseudonyms to purchase digital currency, swap NFTs, vote on proposals, and manage treasuries," explains Handa. "But whenever someone tries to communicate with another person in this network, there's no way of knowing whether or not they are talking to the right person."

Lines meanwhile strives to enable users to send messages from wallet to wallet and to join group chats based on token ownership. Indeed, Handa paints a picture of a communication layer that's both ambivalent about underlying blockchains and the particular crypto wallet a person is using, and that, as a result, empowers users in a wide variety of ways. They can find the owner of a particular NFT they'd like to buy, for example, or discover like-minded individuals based on the tokens they've acquired, or reach out to potential new contributors of a DAO (a kind of "group chat with a bank account," as DAOs have been called).

Certainly, Gil thinks the timing is right as more people organize and transact as a group online. In earlier days, he notes, "Your bitcoin or crypto asset and mine were identical, so I would have less reason to ping an anonymous user via their wallet. But with DAOs, there is the need to coordinate with various members beyond just using Discord." In the world of web3, he says, users "want to be able to identify and interact with people for governance, to reward contributions, do airdrops, and so forth." With NFTs and other collectibles, "I may want to be able to ping you to buy or sell or trade, so there are other incentives for a communication layer to be useful," he adds.

The question is whether enough people will agree that Lines is offering the exact right solution. As with every messaging app ever, its value will largely be determined by how many people use it. And how many people use it will determine if the startup is able to strike partnerships with platforms like OpenSea that it needs on its side.

In the interim, Handa and co-founders -- who have yet to decide on a business model -- will soon be in competition with other messaging apps that are trying to take on Twitter, Telegram, or Discord.

More here.

Bishop Fox, a 17-old attack surface management startup based in Tempe, Az., whose platform performs continuous offensive testing of an enterprise's potential security vulnerabilities, raised a $75 million Series B from Carrick Capital Partners. The company has raised a total of $151.1 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Everdrop, a Munich-based sustainability startup whose household and personal care products promise to completely avoid single-use plastics and unnecessary chemicals, has raised tens of millions of dollars in both equity and debt funding. (The company isn't breaking out how much equity it has raised versus debt, but says it has collected $80 million altogether.) The Belgian growth investor Sofina led the round, joined by the Swiss banking group Lombard Odier and the venture lending firm TriplePoint Capital. Earlier backers also pitched in, including Felix Capital, HV Capital, and Vorwerk Ventures. More here.

FPL Technologies, a startup based in Pune, India, that offers credit cards to customers under the brand name OneCard, raised a Series D in excess of $100 million at a $1.4 billion post-money valuation. The lead investor was Temasek; QED, Sequoia Capital India, and Hummingbird Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $225.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Powin, a 12-year-old startup based in Tualatin, Or., whose offering includes energy management software as well as actual battery modules and racks, raised a $135 million round led by GIC; previous investors Trilantic and Energy Impact Partners also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $160 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a 16-year-old San Diego startup that is developing a battery cell that it claims has the potential to deliver 90% improvement in energy density over the best batteries currently available, raised a $90 million Series D round led by Koch Industries, with Eastman Kodak and Fifth Wall Climate also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $160 million. The Economic Times has more here.

Assembly OSM, a four-year-old modular construction startup based in New York that has compared its process to putting together Ikea furniture, raised a $38 million Series A led by Fifth Wall Climate, with additional participation from Jefferies Group, Manta Ray Ventures, FJ Labs, RSE, Signia, Gaingels, Flexport, New Vista Capital, Tectonic, Atento, Etan Fraser, and Moving Capital. The Real Deal has more here.

AssemblyAI, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that develops machine learning models for speech-to-text and text analysis services, raised a $30 million Series B funding led by Insight Partners; previous investors including Accel and Y Combinator also participated. The company has raised a total of $33.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Canvas Medical, an electronic medical records startup based in San Francisco that helps stakeholders keep better track of their patient data through a workflow system that autofills information in documents, raised a $24 million Series B round led by M13, with previous investors Inspired Capital, IA Ventures, and Upfront Capital also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Hang, a nine-month-old Santa Monica, Ca., startup looking to build up a client base of brands and help them leverage NFTs to replace their existing membership and loyalty programs, just banked $16 million in new Series A funding from crypto venture firm Paradigm. Other investors include Tiger Global, Good Friends, Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, MrBeast’s Night Ventures and Shrug Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Hivery, a six-year-old startup based in Surry Hills, Australia, whose SaaS software helps retailers optimize the placement and product mix of products on their store shelves, raised a $30 million Series B funding led by Tiger Global; previous investors Blackbird Ventures, AS1 Partners, and OneVentures also ponied up. TechCrunch has more here.

Lightyear, a two-year-old London startup that promises consumers commission-free trading on U.S. and European stocks, raised a $25 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Virgin Group also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $35.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Manifold Bio, a Boston startup that promises to reduce the cost of drug discovery by verifying a molecule’s function through early in vivo testing, raised a $40 million Series A led by Triatomic Capital; Section 32, FPV Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Tencent, Playground Global, Fifty Years, and GettyLab also contributed. The company has raised a total of $45.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Okendo, a three-year-old, Miami-based customer review platform for e-commerce brands, has raised a $26 million Series A financing round led by Base10 Partners with participation from Craft Ventures and earlier backer Index Ventures. The company has now raised $33.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Pulley, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that makes cap table management software, raised a $40 million Series B led by Founders Fund, with additional participation from Stripe and Elad Gil. The company has raised a total of $50.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Robin, an eight-year-old Boston startup that helps hybrid workers book office space, raised a $30 million Series C round led by Tola Capital led; additional investors included FirstMark, Accomplice, Boldstart, and Allegion Ventures. The company has raised a total of $59.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Stationhead, a six-year-old New York startup that aims to be "a social music platform for artists and fans around the world to connect, listen live, and stream together," raised a $12 million Series A. Buttonwood Group Advisors was the lead investor. The company has raised a total of $25.9 million. Digital Music News has more here.

Terra CO2 Technologies, a 10-year-old startup based in Golden, Co., that has created a low carbon alternative to cement via feedstocks or waste products, raised a $46 million Series A co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and LENx; Creative Ventures and Rio Tinto also contributed. The company has raised a total of $81.4 million. More here.

You.com, a two-year-old startup based in Palo Alto, Ca., whose search engine uses AI to understand search queries, rank the results, and parse the queries into different languages (including programming languages), raised a $25 million Series A round led by Radical Ventures; also participating were Time Ventures, Breyer Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Day One Ventures. The company has raised a total of $45 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Arkive, a crypto startup that admits people from around the world as members, enables them to vote on what art the company should acquire, and then loans these works to museums, raised a $9.7 million round led by Offline and TCG Crypto; additional investors included NFX, Freestyle Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Precursor, Chainforest, and Coil. Fast Company has more here.

Helios, a startup based in Tel Aviv that aims to use space technology to reduce the cost of producing the cost of making green steel, raised a $6 million seed round. At One Ventures and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures co-led the deal. More here.

Here, a seven-year-old MIami startup whose platform lets people become fractional investors in vacation rentals starting with stakes as low as $100, raised a $5 million seed round led by Fiat Ventures, with Liquid 2 Ventures, Mucker Capital, Basecamp Ventures, and Cooley also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Paladin Cloud, a New Jersey startup founded this year that helps developers safeguard their applications and data by monitoring the security of their cloud services and enterprise systems, raised a $3.3 million seed round co-led by Okapi VC and Bowery Capital, with additional participation from SaaS Ventures, Touchdown Ventures, Samsung Next, T-Mobile Ventures, and UST. TechCrunch has more here.

Trend, a three-year-old Miami startup that connects top brands with original photos and videos made by content creators, raised a $3 million pre-seed round led by Flybridge, with Black Ambition (Pharrell Williams’ firm) and Techstars Ventures also anteing up. Refresh Miami has more here.

Walla, a two-year-old San Diego startup that creates studio management software for boutique fitness businesses, raised an $8 million Series A round led by Industry Ventures, with additional participation from TenOneTen Ventures, Keshif Ventures, Social Leverage, and Crescent Ridge Partners. More here.

ZKX, a crypto startup that has built a derivatives protocol built on StarkNet that aims to provide an improved trading experience through gamification and its unique governance structure, raised $4.5 million seed round from StarkWare, Alameda Research, Amber Group, Huobi, and Crypto.com. The Block has more here.

Isn’t it time your fund administrator actually helped you raise your next fund? Juniper Square builds best-in-class tools that link your fund administration data with customizable digital subscriptions, data rooms, and more. More than 1,400 firms including Haun Ventures, GSV Ventures, and more trust Juniper Square to give LPs a unified experience and give GPs real-time access to their fund data. Learn how you can raise more money faster with Juniper Square.

Battery Ventures, the 39-year-old investment firm, today announced a whopping $3.8 billion in fresh capital across two funds: $3.3 billion in capital commitments to its fourteenth early-stage fund and another $530 million for a side vehicle to write bigger checks into existing portfolio companies. The firm also says it expects to see more opportunities to buy out venture-backed companies. “This is a ripe time for exactly that same deal type to happen,” general partner Chelsea Stoner tells Forbes. “We’re already starting to see some companies that are really solid businesses but not able to raise money.” 

Dreamit Ventures, a 14-year-old, New York-based venture firm that says it seeks out health tech and security-related startups with revenue or pilots that are ready to scale, is raising $75 million for its fourth fund, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. More here.

Alibaba is reportedly cutting more than one-third of its deals team after Beijing's sweeping regulatory crackdown sharply slowed the Chinese e-commerce behemoth's dealmaking pace. Reuters has the story here.

OpenSea, the buzzy NFT marketplace, has laid off 20% of its employees, CEO Devin Finzer said today in a message to staff and posted publicly, too. The "reality is that we have entered an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability, and we need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn,” he wrote. TechCrunch has more here.

Laura Connell has joined the global venture firm Atomico as a partner in London focused on growth-stage deals; she was previously an investor with Marcho Partners and Balderton. More here.

Following yesterday’s fund close announcement, Oak HC/FT announced this morning the promotion of Matt Streisfeld to General Partner and Charlotte Smith to Vice President. Streisfeld joined the firm in 2015; Smith came aboard last year. More here.

A new report from blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis says that the largest portion of crypto sent to so-called bitcoin mixers this year has been from cybercriminals and nation states. Bitcoin mixers jumble up bitcoin in private pools before the currency is sent out again to recipients, making it harder (by design) to work out which bitcoin went to whom.

Good lord. The average rent for a Manhattan apartment just reached a record high of more than $5,000.00, according to new report from Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

According to the WSJ, activist investor Elliott Management has taken a big stake in Pinterest as the once-hot social-media company grapples with a decline in users and other challenges. Elliott has told the company that it is the biggest investor in Pinterest, having built a stake of more than 9% in recent months. More here.

Nineteen easy and cheap dinner ideas.

Apple is making a Ferrari drama series written by the creator of ‘Peaky Blinders."

Productivity Blocker (it works, says this reporter).

Well this explains some things.

 A $60(!) shot of espresso from a new London cafe. (It does come with access to Bugatti's new London showroom.)

Allied Advisers' report shows that companies which exceed Rule of 40 trade at significant premium valuations compared to companies that do not. Rule of 40 for SaaS companies is a useful metric for investors and strategic buyers to measure the performance of SaaS companies. In this market downturn for public and private companies, the Rule of 40 is useful for founders, management and investors to keep in mind as they build their companies for optimal valuations.