The Wing shuts down, Michael Saylor gets sued for tax evasion, and Peter Thiel's game of chicken

We thought she was toast. Everyone thought she was toast. But oh, no, no, no. "I'm just Serena," she said afterward. 

Klarna today reported a dramatic jump in losses in the first half, adding to a deluge of negative news for the Sequoia and Silver Lake-backed “buy now, pay later” pioneer. CNBC has more here.

The Wing, the women’s-only social club and co-working space that opened in New York in 2016 and went on to raise $117 million from investors -- Sequoia Capital, NEA and WeWork -- has been shut down by its parent company. The New York Times has the story here, with more on members' fixation with The Wing's furniture here, in Jezebel.

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Two weeks ago, longtime venture capitalist Chris Olsen, a general partner and cofounder of Drive Capital in Columbus, Oh., settled into his seat for a portfolio company's board meeting. It turned out to be a maddening exercise.

"Two of the board members didn't show up, and the company had a resolution on the agenda to pass the budget," recalls an exasperated Olsen. A "junior person was there for the venture firm" -- a co-investor in the startup -- but that individual was "not allowed to vote because they're not the board member. And so we had this dynamic where all of a sudden, the founder is like, 'Well, wait a minute, so I can't my budget approved because people aren't showing up to my board meeting?'"

Olsen calls the whole thing "super, super frustrating." He also says that it isn't the first time a board meeting hasn't happened as planned lately. Asked whether he is routinely seeing co-investors showing up less frequently or canceling board meetings altogether, he says "I've definitely seen that. For sure I've seen other venture firms where participation is definitely reduced."

Why are startup board meetings happening less and less? There are a whole host of reasons, suggest industry players, and they say the trend is an alarming one for both founders and the institutions whose money VCs invest.

Jason Lemkin, a serial founder and the force behind SaaStr, a community and early-stage venture fund that both focus on software-as-a-service outfits, is among the worried. Lemkin says he has to plead with founders he knows to schedule board meetings because no one else is asking them to do this.

Lemkin says the issue ties to the early days of the pandemic, when after a brief pause in the action in April 2020, startup investing -- done virtually for the first time -- shifted into overdrive.

"A little bit of math that people missed is that between the latter half of 2020 and the first quarter of this year, not only did valuations go way up, but VCs. . . would deploy these funds in a year instead of three years. So two years go by, and you may have invested in three or four times more companies than you did before the pandemic, and it's too many."

Indeed, according to Lemkin, overcommitted VCs began to focus solely on portfolio companies whose valuations were soaring, and they began to ignore -- because they thought they could afford to -- startups in their portfolio that were not enjoying as much velocity on the valuation front. "Until the market crashed a bit a quarter or so ago, valuations were crazy and everyone was a little drunk on their 'decacorns,'" Lemkin says. "So if you're a VC, and your top deal is now worth $20 billion instead of $2 billion, and you have a $1 billion or $2 billion position in that company, you don't care anymore if you lose $5 million or $10 million" on some other startups here and there.

More here.

Bitlevex, a three-year-old startup based in Tallinn, Estonia, that is developing an NFT marketplace, a wallet service, merchant payment solutions, and its own crypto debit cards, raised $50 million from Gem Digital. Silicon Canals has more here.

SeatGeek, the 12-year-old, New York-based ticketing platform, says it haw raised $238 million a part of a Series E round led by Accel, with participation from Wellington Management, Arctos Sports Partners, and Qualtrics cofounder Ryan Smith. The news comes after the company terminated a SPAC (special-purpose acquisition company) deal with blank-check company RedBall Acquisition Corp that would have taken SeatGeek public. TechCrunch has more here.

Ambassador Labs, an eight-year-old Boston startup that helps clients code, ship and run their Kubernetes services, raised a $20 million round. Insight Partners was the deal lead. More here.

Blue World Technologies, a four-year-old startup based in Aalborg, Denmark, that develops methanol fuel cells as an alternative to non-renewable fuels, raised a $37 million Series B round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with additional participation from Vaekstfonden and DEUTZ AG. Silicon Canals has more here.

Fairmatic, a five-year-old insuretech startup co-founded by Israeli entrepreneur Jonathan Matus, has raised $42 million in Series A funding led by Foundation Capital and Aquiline Capital Partners. Fairmatic, says Calcalist, has developed AI-powered risk and pricing models that have been trained with nearly 200 billion miles of driving data. Matus previously cofounded the analytics company Zendrive. More here.

Iantrek, a three-year-old startup based in White Plains, NY, that makes devices to treat glaucoma, raised a $23 million Series B round. Visionary Ventures and Sectoral Asset Management co-led the deal. The company has raised a total of $28.2 million. BioSpace has more here.

Landa, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based real estate app looking to match users with fractional real estate investment opportunities, has launched with $33 million in combined Series A + seed funding from NFX, 83North, and Viola. TechCrunch has more here.

Oxwash, a four-year-old London startup that claims to use high tech processes to shrink the environmental cost of dry cleaning and commercial laundry, raised an $11.6 million Series A round led by Untitled VC; other investors included Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Indeed founder Paul Forster, and Holly and Sam Branson. TechCrunch has more here.

Populus, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based transportation data startup that aims to help cities to manage new mobility and fleet services, has closed on $11 million in Series A funding round co-led by Zero Infinity Partners and Climactic, with participation from Comcast Ventures and Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition Venture. TechCrunch has more here.

Propseller, a four-year-old Singapore startup that enables consumers in Southeast Asia to sell their homes at only a 1% commission, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, with additional participation from Hustle Fund, Iterative, Rapzo Capital, Partech, ICCP SBI, Vulpes Ventures, and Redbadge Pacific. The company has raised a total of $16.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Stacked, a Los Angeles startup that aims to create a video streaming platform for web3 gaming content, raised a $12.9 million Series A round. Pantera Capital was the deal lead; other investors included Z Venture Capital, YJ Capital, and GFR Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

28, a one-year-old Miami startup that has developed a patch that aims it says can help women better track their menstrual cycle so they better capitalize on its different phases, raised a $3.2 million seed round led by Thiel Capital; Learn Capital and Steel Perlot also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

Duplo, a one-year-old Nigerian startup that enables enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa to collect payments from their clients and partners and make payments to their suppliers and vendors, raised a $4.3 million seed round; investors included Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, Tribe Capital, Commerce Ventures, Basecamp Fund, Y Combinator, and Oui Capital. The company has raised a total of $5.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Evorra, a two-year-old London startup that is building a SaaS marketplace for brands and agencies to build audiences, raised $1 million in pre-seed capital from York IE. Tech.EU has more here.

Healee, a six-year-old startup based in Sofia, Bulgaria, that enables healthcare organizations to launch telehealth, digital check-in, and scheduling features that are configured to their own custom workflows and branding, raised a $2 million seed round led by Nina Capital, with additional capital provided by Calm/Storm Ventures, KAYA VC, and previous investor Eleven Ventures. The company has raised a total of $2.9 million. More here.

Justhome, a Berlin startup that says it provides aspiring homebuyers with the ability to receive pre-approved mortgage options delivered in minutes from more than 700 lenders, raised a €3.3 million round. Target Global led the transaction. TechFundingNews has more here.

Koop, a startup that has developed a protocol that helps creators and communities launch NFT-based membership passes to raise funds for projects, raised a $5 million round co-led by 1confirmation and Variant Fund, with Palm Tree Crew, Day One Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, DeFi Alliance, Volt Capital, PearVC, DCF God, 0xmons, Cooper Turley, and Balaji Srinivasan also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Mermade Seafoods, a one-year-old Jerusalem startup that aims to manufacture cell-based scallops, raised a $3.3 million seed round. Investors included OurCrowd and Fall Line. The company has raised a total of $4.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Neurofenix, a six-year-old London startup that has developed a device to help patients recover from strokes, raised a $7 million Series A led by AlbionVC, with additional funds provided by HTH and InHealth Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Sei Labs, a New York startup at work on a protocol that aims to feature a built-in order book allowing DeFi projects and institutional market makers to process transactions and access liquidity at faster speeds, raised a $5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital, with Coinbase Ventures and GSR also pitching in. Bloomberg has more here.

Pixxel, a three-year-old, Bengaluru startup that is building a constellation of low-Earth satellites that can help assess threats to endangered marine ecosystems or prevent forest fires, has announced an undisclosed strategic investment from Accenture Ventures. ExploreBit has more here.

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Time Inc. has bought Brandcast, a company that licenses software for easy-to-build marketing websites, Time's editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal tells Axios. The deal marks Time's first acquisition since Marc and Lynne Benioff bought the publication in 2018. With the purchase, which closed earlier this month, all of Brandcast's 14 employees moved over to Time as a part of a new division called Time Sites. More here.

Famed investor Jeremy Grantham says the “super bubble” he previously warned about has yet to pop, even after this year’s turbulence in the U.S. stock market. Bloomberg has more here.

The District of Columbia is suing MicroStrategy founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, alleging that Saylor has failed to pay any income tax in the district despite living there for more than 10 years. The office is suing MicroStrategy, too. CNBC has more here.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has apparently been playing a game of chicken with billionaire VC Peter Thiel over who should subsidize former Thiel Capital COO Blake Masters in his run for Senate. The Washington Post takes a look here.

Netflix is looking to charge brands premium prices to advertise on its coming ad-supported platform, according to some ad buyers who spoke with the WSJ. The outlet calls it a sign that the streaming giant is expecting strong interest from companies that have long looked to reach its audience. More here.

Starbucks is rethinking almost everything.

A TriBeCa farm stand where celebrities and tomatoes mingle.

Anti-aging ambassador Leo diCaprio breaks up with girlfriend.

Is the internet killing nude beaches?

And that, boys and girls, is why no one in Memphis ever wanted another bowl of fettuccine Alfredo.

A Park City home inspired by the James Bond movie "Spectre." 

A lucite backgammon set to die for. (Sorry, we have Bond brain now. "Live and Let Die." "No Time to Time." "Die Another Day." "Tomorrow Never Dies" . . .)

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