Lyft's office plans, a crypto CEO's endless publicity, and a whistleblower tries to tank Twitter

In a whistleblower complaint obtained by The Washington Post, former Twitter security chief Peiter "Mudge" Zatko alleges the company misled regulators about lax security and spam. The complaint from Zatko, a widely admired hacker who was hired in late 2020 by then-CEO Jack Dorsey, depicts Twitter as a "chaotic and rudderless company beset by infighting, unable to properly protect its 238 million daily users including government agencies, heads of state and other influential public figures," reports The Post. The complaint could be really good news for Elon Musk, who (perhaps you've heard?) is trying to get out of a $44 billion contract to buy the social media platform.

Speaking of that Twitter deal, Musk today was ordered to hand over information about potential investors in the buyout he's now working so hard to cancel. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McComick today overruled his objections to Twitter's demands that he turn over information about parties that may have been involved in an equity raise of more than $7 billion for the $54.20-per-share acquisition. Fortune has more here.

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Julian Robertson's hedge fund investors didn’t want to listen to him when, in 1999, he questioned the sanity of the prices being paid for shares in nascent internet companies. So months after being berated for 15 minutes at an annual shareholders meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York in October 1999, he began the process of closing up his shop. “There is no point in subjecting our investors to risk in a market which I frankly do not understand,” Robertson reportedly wrote to them in March of 2000. “After thorough consideration, I have decided to return all capital to our investors, effectively bringing down the curtain on the Tiger funds.”

In April 2000, the tech market began to implode.

His good timing only cemented the legend of Robertson, who just passed away at age 90 of cardiac complications, according to his spokesman, but who, until he was 67, led Tiger Management, one of the best-known funds in the 70-year-old hedge fund industry.

One needn’t look far to appreciate his lasting impact. While Tiger Management reportedly boasted average annual gains of more than 25% for the 20 years it was up and running, the wide spate of investment managers who cut their teeth as part of Robertson’s 200-person team has become nearly as legendary. Among the many hedge funds run by people who worked with Robertson — they’re famously known as “Tiger Cubs” — are Tiger Global, Lone Pine, Coatue Management, Viking Global, and Pantera Capital, and that’s just a sampling.

“In a weird way, Julian Robertson touches trillions of dollars of assets under management because there are so many people who worked for him directly [or] indirectly,” Daniel Strachman, author of Julian Robertson: A Tiger in the Land of Bulls and Bears, told the Financial Times last year.

Unsurprisingly, Robertson’s mentees speak glowingly of him as an investor, as well as a philanthropist, including Coatue founder Philippe Laffont.

More here.

Celonis, a eleven-year-old Munich startup that detects inefficiencies in an organization’s business operations by collecting and analyzing data from internal applications, raised an additional $400 million to increase the total size of the Series D round to $1.4 billion at a $13 billion valuation. The company also secured a new $600 million credit facility. The deal lead was Qatar Investment Authority, while Activant Capital, Commonfund Capital and previous investors Arena Holdings, T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton, Durable Capital Partners, TCV, 83North, Accel Partners, and Sator Grove also participated. Including debt, Celonis has raised a total of $2.4 billion. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Digital Diagnostics (fka IDx), a startup based in Coralville, Ia, that uses AI to detect diabetic retinopathy as well as skin cancer, raised a $75 million Series B round led by KKR, with Cedar Pine, Kinderhook, 8VC, Optum Ventures, OSF Ventures, Gundersen Lutheran, Edward-Elmhurst Health VC, and the University of Iowa also contributing. The company has raised a total of $173.4 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Fervo Energy, a five-year-old Houston startup that uses oil and gas techniques such as horizontal drilling and distributed fiber optic sensing to mine geothermal energy, raised a $138 million Series C round led by DCVC, with additional participation from CPPIB, Liberty Energy, Macquarie, Grantham Foundation, Impact Science Ventures, Prelude Ventures and insiders Capricorn, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Helmerich & Payne, 3x5 Partners, and Elemental Excelerator. The company has raised a total of $177 million. Renewable Energy World has more here.

FinAccel, a seven-year-old Jakarta company that owns Indonesian credit app Kredivo, is reportedly in the market to raise approximately $100 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, per Bloomberg, which has more here.

Inworld AI, a one-year-old startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that uses AI to generate virtual characters primarily for games and marketing campaigns, raised a $50 million Series A co-led by Section 32 and Intel Capital, with Founders Fund, Accelerator Investments, First Spark Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, BITKRAFT Ventures, CRV, M12, Micron Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, SK Telecom VC, NTT Docomo Ventures, and The Venture Reality Fund also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $69.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Ready Player Me, an eight-year-old startup based in Tallinn, Estonia, that has built a popular platform for creating dynamic, animated avatars to use across virtual worlds built and operated by others, raised $56 million in Series B. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz. Ready Player Me has now raised a total of $85.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Hazeltree, a thirteen-year-old startup based in New York that provides treasury and liquidity management technology for the alternative asset and investment management industries, raised a $14 million round led by Fintop Capital, with additional investment from Hamilton Lane. More here.

Oliver Space, a four-year-old startup based in San Francisco that allows consumers to order new and refurbished furniture in a variety of conditions and and receive it in as soon as three days, raised a $36 million Series B round led by Union Grove Venture Partners, with Mayfield, USVP, Expa Capital, and LG Technologies also contributing. The company has raised a total of $55.8 million. Retail Bum has more here.

PeakData, a five-year-old startup based in Zug, Switzerland, whose platform helps drug companies finding the right therapeutic experts and healthcare professionals for their medicines, raised a $12 million Series A led by AlbionVC, with additional funds provided by Octopus Ventures and Heal Capital. The company has raised a total of $12.9 million. PYMNTS.com has more here.

SmartMoving, a four-year-old Dallas startup whose platform helps moving companies automate estimates, dispatching crews, storage, sales marketing, payroll, communications, and collecting payments, raised a $41.5 million round from Mainsail Partners. More here.

Worldfavor, a twelve-year-old Stockholm startup that helps clients comply with ESG requirements in their supply chains, raised a $10.1 million Series A funding led by SEB Private Equity, with additional participation from Brightly Ventures and Spintop Ventures. The company has raised a total of $14.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

ConverseNow, a four-year-old, Austin startup using AI inside quick-serve restaurants to automate the order-taking process and free up staff to focus on fulfillment and in-person customer service, has raised $10 million in additional Series A funding (it's tacking the capital on to a $15 million Series A that it announced last year). Leading the round is Enlightened Hospitality Investments, the growth equity fund co-founded by Danny Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack. TechCrunch has more here.

dPRIME Asset Modules Finance, a Shanghai startup founded this year that has developed a protocol for creating purchasing power from cross-chain token portfolios through dPRIME, a Dotsama stablecoin on Moonbeam, raised a $1.8 million pre-seed round. Digital Finance Group and Jsquare led the transaction. More here.

EeroQ, a five-year-old, Chicago-based quantum computer chip design company, has raised $7.25 million in funding led by B Capital. Other participants in the round include V Capital, Calibrate Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Unbound Ventures, and Red Cedar Ventures. More here. TechCrunch has more here.

Mahaana Wealth, a Karachi, Pakistan-based fintech that will invest user funds in stocks and bonds and plans to launch operations next month, has raised $2.1 million from venture capital firms VEF AB and SparkLabs Group, as well as local insurer IGI Holdings. Bloomberg has more here.

Mantel, a Boston startup founded this year that uses molten salts to selectively absorb CO2 and regenerate a pure stream of CO2 that can be either stored or utilized, raised a $2 million round led by The Engine, with New Climate Ventures also pitching in. More here.

ModernLoop, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that helps HR professionals schedule remote interviews, raised a $9 million Series A round led by Accel, with Web Investment and Quiet Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $12.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

The Good Face Project, a four-year-old startup based in San Diego whose mission is to provide chemical product innovators with real-time scientific data so that they can create formulas that deliver performance while safeguarding human health and the environment, raised a $5.7 million seed round. The deal lead was VMG Catalyst, while Spark Growth Ventures, REDO Ventures, and Capsum also participated. TechFundingNews has more here.

Zywa, a one-year-old Dubai startup whose as social banking app and prepaid card helps Gen Z MENA consumers receive money, manage it, and make payments, raised a $3 million seed round. Investors included Goodwater Capital, Dubai Future District Fund, Rebel Fund, Trampoline Venture Partners, and Zemu VC. TechCrunch has more here.

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Medical Excellence Capital, a life-sciences investing firm, today announced the closing of its inaugural $145 million venture fund, saying it will target early-stage startups developing technology in areas such as cell therapy, gene therapy, drug discovery, synthetic biology and regenerative medicine. Nearly all of the capital, says the WSJ, came from roughly a dozen families. More here.

Sam Bankman-Fried says his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, has a few billion in cash that it could use for to acquire more companies in the crypto space—money that it perhaps tellingly keeps in dollars, not crypto.

Billionaire VC John Doerr still regrets turning down "slightly crazy" Elon Musk.

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin on why he spent $43 million to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Erin Schneider, who headed up the always busy San Francisco office of the SEC for several years (we interviewed her last year), has joined Dragoneer Investment Group as its chief compliance officer. Schneider has been succeeded in her role by Monique Winkler. More here. 

Molly Welch has joined the investment team of Radical Ventures, a venture firm headquartered in Toronto (though Welch is based in the bay Area). Welch worked part-time as a venture investor with Playground Global while attenting HBS. She has also worked in public policy and marketing at Lyft and Google. More here.

VC and private equity investors are becoming concerned over the exit environment, and the majority believe the asset class is overvalued, a new survey from Preqin shows. A total of 80% of surveyed investors believe that venture capital is overvalued, with either considerable room or some room for price reduction, according to Preqin's Investor Outlook: Alternative Assets H2 2022 report released today. Pensions & Investments has more here.

In the wake of major crypto firms Celsius and Voyager freezing assets and filing for bankruptcy, SEC Chair Gary Gensler took to the WSJ's op-ed pages to reiterate that securities laws still apply to new technologies like digital assets. But some in the crypto industry have expressed frustration with the piece, calling for stronger guidelines rather than repetitions of familiar arguments. TechCrunch has more here.

Lyft plans to reduce its physical office space in the U.S. as the company increasingly shifts to remote work; as a result, it will sublease approximately 44% of its 615,000-square-foot office real estate in San Francisco, New York, Seattle and Nashville, reports Bloomberg. More here.

Your doppelgänger is out there and you probably share DNA with them.

Google research AI image noise reduction is out of this world.

Where people are living the longest in the U.S.

“No Orange Line service, have your limousine driver pick you up early.”

An "ultra luxurious" dog bag pochette. 

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