Bad ideas, shirt vests, and New York is roaring back -- why isn’t San Francisco?

We've got to tell you, it's a little slow out there at the moment.

Facebook said today that it will test end-to-end encryption as the default setting in Messenger; the move follows a backlash against the company for turning over chats to Nebraska police who were investigating an alleged illegal abortion. Business Insider has more here.

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Modern Life, a one-year-old startup based in New York that helps insurance advisors manages client coverages, raised a $15 million seed round led by Thrive Capital. Coverager has more here.

Orange EV, a seven-year-old, Kansas City, Mo.-based maker of heavy-duty electric trucks, has raised $35 million in new funding led by S2G Ventures and CCI. TechCrunch has more here.

Patchwork Health, a six-year-old London startup that aims to enable healthcare teams to manage their permanent and temporary workforces through one fully-integrated platform, raised a $24.5 million Series B round led by Perwyn, with Praetura Ventures and KHP Ventures also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $34.6 million. EU-Startups has more here.

Properly, a 4.5-year-old, Toronto-based, tech-enabled real estate brokerage, has raised $36 million CAD ($28.2 million USD) in new funding from earlier backers, including Parker89, Bain Capital Ventures, Prudence, FJ Labs, Golden Ventures, and Intact Ventures, among others. The outfit has now raised $192 million CAD ($150 million USD) altogether. More here.

Salvo Health, a one-year-old New York startup that offers a virtual clinic geared toward people with chronic gut problems, raised a $10.5 million seed round led by Threshold Ventures, with Torch Capital and Felicis also contributing. The company has raised a total of $10.5 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Superblocks, an 18-month-old, New York-based platform that provides building blocks to create custom internal apps, workflows and scheduled jobs, has raised $37 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks, Spark Capital and Meritech, along with numerous notable individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Auddy, a two-year-old London startup that produces podcasts; buys and sells ad inventory across the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; and offers a "private podcasting" service for organizations that want to privately share audio content directly with a targeted community, raised $3 million in funding led by Pembroke VCT, with additional participation from Haatch Ventures and Brick Capital Ventures. The company has raised a total of $9.9 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Cupixel, a five-year-old startup based in Boston whose app uses AR and AI technologies in conjunction with content, art materials, interactive tools, and live or on-demand artist-led experiences, enabling people to create striking works of art, raised a $5 million seed round led by JOANN Fabric & Crafts. The company has raised a total of $7.5 million. More here.

Interaxon, a 12-year-old, Toronto-based maker of a brain-sensing headband called the Muse that's aimed at helping its users meditate, just raised $9.5 million in Series C funding led by BDC Capital, Alabaster, and Export Development Canada. TechCrunch has more here.

Mesh Security, a Tel Aviv startup that helps clients identify security vulnerabilities in SaaS applications and cloud infrastructures, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Booster Ventures. Calcalist has more here.

Schmooze, a meme-based dating app that we told you about last year, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Inventus Capital and Silicon Valley Quad, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Graph Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Stark, a four-year-old startup based in Sao Paulo that helps designers craft more accessible designs by integrating with different software platforms, raised a $6 million seed round led by Uncork Capital; Darling Ventures and Indicator Ventures also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

Stimulus, a five-year-old, Philadelphia-based SaaS startup whose tools and data help its customers choose, compare and form relationships with product suppliers and vendors, has raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Black Ops Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Lockheed Martin Ventures says it plans to double investments in tech startups from $200 million to $400 million. Space News has more here.

Despite, or because of, the crypto downturn, investors are continuing to provide capital to the crypto-focused fund Polychain Capital. So suggests this new SEC filing and this one. 

The Urban Innovation Fund, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm that says it looks to back startups shaping the future of cities, has raised $121 million in capital commitments for its newest fund. TechCrunch has more here.

VMG Catalyst, the venture capital arm of the consumer-brand-focused private equity firm VMG Partners, has closed a new, $400 million fund that brings its assets under management to $650 million. WWD has more here.

Ben Chestnut is stepping down as CEO of Mailchimp 21 years after cofounding the company, and moving into a founder-advisor role. Intuit agreed to buy the company last year.

A group of Voyager Digital customers have filed a class-action suit in Florida federal court against billionaire Mark Cuban, as well as the basketball team he owns, the Dallas Mavericks, alleging their promotion of the crypto platform resulted in more than 3.5 million investors losing $5 billion collectively. Voyager Digital’s CEO, Stephen Ehrlich, was also named as a defendant in the suit. TechCrunch has more here.

Marqeta shares fell about 25% today after the company -- which provides payment infrastructure technology to bigger companies -- revealed a weak outlook and founder Jason Gardner said he would step down (he said chief operating officer Vidya Peters is also leaving). Marqeta, which was founded in 2010 and staged a traditional IPO last year, does not have a successor in place yet. Protocol has the story here.

Activist investor ValueAct Capital Management has built a new position in the New York Times Co., contending it could improve digital sales and margins through an aggressive rollout of its subscriber-only bundles. The Times is controlled by the Sulzberger family, which owns a majority of the company’s Class B shares. Bloomberg has more here.

Recently, several cottages along Nantucket Harbor were assessed at more than $10,000 a square foot. 👀

BlackRock today announced the launch of a spot bitcoin private trust, deepening a push into digital assets as the crypto industry is recovering from a rough few months. The world’s largest asset manager said in a blog post that the private trust would be available only to institutional clients in the US. The FT has more here.

Missfresh, which pioneered rapid delivery in China and was once valued at $3 billion, has gone bust; here's what that may mean for China's tech sector.

Rivian said today that it lost $1.7 billion in the second quarter. The EV company said it was continuing to struggle to get enough components to ramp up production to higher levels, but it affirmed its expectation that it would make 25,000 vehicles by the end of the year.

New York is roaring back from the worst of the pandemic. Why isn’t San Francisco?

The death of stick shift.

A terrible idea.

What should an electric vehicle sound like?

If the history of shirt vests is any indication, you have one more month to wear yours.

Aman New York. 🦋

Fiat Classico. 

Kevin Comolli, a founding partner of Accel London, is selling his "Butterfly House" in coastal Carmel, Ca., for $40 million. (The views are something else.)

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