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U.S. stocks suffered their biggest decline in two months today, with tech shares falling sharply on worries about the gloomy economic outlook and concerns that members of the Federal Reserve will adopt a hawkish tone at a symposium this week. The FT has more here.
Twitter cofounder and former CEO Jack Dorsey was just dragged further into this Twitter fight with Elon Musk. A notice of subpoena by Musk's attorneys, filed this morning, "came amid a flurry of filings that also included notice of subpoenas served by Musk on Friday on Kayvon Beykpour, former head of consumer product at Twitter, and Bruce Falck, formerly in charge of revenue product," notes Bloomberg. In April, Dorsey tweeted with (alas) great solemnity: "In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness."
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VCs and professional investors spend countless hours understanding the cap table. Smart founders can save themselves massive amounts of time and money by taking a bit more time upfront to understand how their cap table works and how it can affect their business. GoingVC, the venture ecosystem for emerging VCs, has developed a comprehensive cap table 101 guide with step-by-step examples for you to understand the fundamentals of how cap tables work. Grab your copy here!
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Atom Power, an eight-year-old, Huntersville, N.C.-based power delivery and EV charging company, has raised $100 million led by SK, a South Korean conglomerate investing in energy technologies across the globe. Reuters has more here.
Tamara, a two-year-old, buy-now-pay-later startup based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has raised a $100 million Series B led by Sanabil Investments, with additional participation from Coatue, Shorooq Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, and Checkout.com. The company has raised a total of $215.6 million. Reuters has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Mojocare, a two-year-old, Bangalore-based startup that helps consumers address issues including reproductive health and fertility; hair care; and weight loss through an online platform, is closing a $20 million Series A round of funding led by B Capital Group. Earlier investors in the company include Sequoia India, Chiratae Ventures and Better Capital. Bloomberg has more here.
Myplanet, a thirteen-year-old Toronto startup that helps large brands mix, match, and connect various commerce building blocks to suit their individual needs and improve their digital experiences, raised an $11 million round from Tercera. The company has raised a total of $13 million. BetaKit has more here.
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Complete, a startup based in Sacramento, Ca., that aims to help startups implement their compensation strategy, reflective of cash, equity, bonuses and benefits, raised a $4 million seed round led by Accel. TechCrunch has more here.
Dioseve, a 15-month-old, Tokyo-based biotech startup whose ambitious goal is to grow human oocytes, or eggs, from other tissue, has $3 million led by ANRI, with participation from Coral Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Givers, a one-year-old startup based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fl., whose app claims to unearth savings for caregivers through tax credits, state programs, health insurance benefits and more, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by CRV, with additional investment from Able Partners. FastCompany has more here.
Perform, a one-year-old startup based in San Francisco that helps runners reach their goals with a personal running coach and smart training app, raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round led by Defy.vc, with Techstars also chipping in. CityBiz has more here.
Qeepsake, a seven-year-old New York startup whose journaling app sends its users daily questions via text or push notifications to encourage them to reflect on their day, children, parenting and more, raised a $2 million round. LaunchCapital was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $3.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Safeheron, a three-year-old Singapore crypto startup whose goal is to make private keys safer, raised a $7 million round led by Yunqi Partners, with Web3Vision, M77 Ventures, PrimeBlock Ventures, and Waterdrip Capital also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.
Violet Labs, an 11-month-old San Francisco-based cloud-based software integration platform for hardware engineering (founder Lucy Hoag has been a technical program manager at Amazon, Lyft, Waymo and Google, previously), has raised $4 million in seed funding. Space Capital led the round, joined by MaC Venture Capital, Felicis, and V1.VC. TechCrunch has more here.
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Amazon is among the bidders (along with CVS and UnitedHealthGroup) for healthcare company Signify Health in an auction for the home-health-services provider, according to the WSJ. The auction that could reportedly value Signify -- which uses analytics and technology to help employers, health plans, physician groups and health systems with in-home care -- at more than $8 billion. As notes the Journal, a deal would mark Amazon’s latest foray into the healthcare sector -- and the second time in recent months it faced off against CVS. More here.
Showing that the regtech industry remains robust to economic headwinds, private equity firms Centerbridge Partners and Bridgeport Partners today announced plans to acquire the publicly-traded Computer Services, Inc. (CSI), a provider of payments processing and regulatory compliance services, for $1.6 billion in an all-cash deal. TechCrunch has more here.
EBay is acquiring TCGplayer, an online marketplace for collectible trading card games, in a deal valued up to $295 million, the company announced today. Founded in 2008, TCGplayer has grown from Syracuse-based hobby stores into an e-commerce platform that employees more than 600 people (and that will reportedly continue to operate autonomously following the acquisition). TechCrunch has more here.
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Apple employees are again pushing back against the company's return-to-office plans. A group of Apple workers called Apple Together tweeted a petition this morning, arguing that employees have shown over the past two years that they can do "exceptional work" from home. Business Insider has more here.
In an intensifying corporate battle, Black Girls Code filed a lawsuit today alleging its founder, Kimberly Bryant, who was ousted from her role as a board member and chief executive earlier this month, has “hijacked” the nonprofit’s website. TechCrunch has more here.
Ford Motor is preparing to cut 3,000 jobs -- 2,000 of them salaried positions -- as part of a drive to reduce costs and become more competitive amid the auto industry’s transition to electric vehicles.
The Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group is replacing its CEO Shalev Hulio and will lay off 100 employees, the firm said yesterday. The move follows a U.S. decision last year to blacklist NSO over allegations that its surveillance software, called Pegasus, has been used inappropriately. The WSJ has more here.
Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple employee who was accused of stealing computer files with trade secrets about Apple’s secretive car division, pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose today. Zhang was accused of downloading internal Apple files about the company’s car project. Zhang was arrested by federal agents in July 2018 at the San Jose airport where he planned to fly to China. CNBC has more here.
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According to a new LinkedIn survey of nearly 19,000 U.S.-based business professionals, top-level managers are unwilling to share their pay with even with close friends. While most entry-level workers would tell their families about their pay, and 31% say they would tell their close friends, nearly a quarter of company vice-presidents, C-suite executives and business owners say they wouldn't tell a soul. Bloomberg has the story here.
New data show that the share of employers offering paid maternity leave beyond what is required by law dropped to 35% this year, down from 53% in 2020, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, a trade association for HR professionals that surveyed 3,000 employers. Companies including Hulu and some small to midsize firms are trimming weeks off their benefits for new parents as some employers confront inflation, anticipate a recession and try to re-establish prepandemic norms. In the WSJ.
SoftBank has raised as much as $22 billion in cash from deals that would sharply reduce its stake in Alibaba over the coming years. According to the FT, the conglomerate has carried out the sale of about one-third of its Alibaba stake through prepaid forward contracts — a type of derivative to which SoftBank has increasingly turned to raise cash immediately while retaining the possibility of holding on to the shares. More here.
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The IPO market is on pace for its worst year in decades.
Harvard could lose its "richest U.S. college" title to the University of Texas.
France is giving €4,000 to people who trade in their car for an e-bike. 🇫🇷
KKR is looking to expand its lending to venture-backed startups and has considered buying a venture-focused lender or recruiting a team of professionals focused on such deals, according to The Information. Some KKR rivals, including Blackstone, have been making a similar push into venture debt, notes the outlet. More here.
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Did you know that the world's most expensive coffee beans are pooped out by a cat-like creature called a civet? (It's disturbing on many levels.)
Frédéric Fekkai’s essential guide to St Tropez.
How meme king Litquidity is making bank by skewering Wall Street.
Good luck to this man who became his own Tesla key.
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Unafraid of heights? Have $63 million burning a hole in your pocket? Then this New York City condo in the sky could be the place for you!
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