Meta and Qualcomm team up, a private memo gets sent to all staff, and UBS isn't acquiring Wealthfront after all

What a match!

Before we log off, we have a special Labor Day Weekend edition of StrictlyVC Download for you, featuring Chris Olsen of Drive Capital, the Columbus, Oh.-based venture firm that Olsen launched with Mark Kvamme (both former Sequoia Capital partners) back in 2013. Drive announced $1 billion in new capital while we were away this summer and we wanted to catch up with Olsen to talk about how Drive is investing it. We also wanted to ask about a portfolio company that has come under fire lately, and about whether he's seeing more brand-name firms showing up in the Midwest. (As it turns out, he sees VCs "doing the opposite; I see them concentrating their time back in California right now more than ever before.") More from that conversation here.

Major thanks to Morgan Stanley at Work for its support of this week's podcast. Morgan Stanley at Work says it's helping more than 3,000 companies build a culture of ownership (and drive performance), largely through improving employees' financial wellness. To learn how it all works, visit morganstanley.com/strictlyvc.

Hope you have a relaxing long weekend, U.S. readers. More Tuesday. 🌭🌭

President Biden plans to sign an executive order that could dramatically limit U.S. investments in China, according to Semafor, which says the president is expected to sign the order this month. According to the same report, the president is considering at least two other executive orders: One that would target services including TikTok by limiting how Chinese internet companies can collect data on U.S. citizens, and another that would narrow the kinds of technology that can be sold to Chinese customers. More here.

According to the WSJ, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Amazon's $3.9 billion deal to buy 1Life Healthcare, which operates One Medical primary care clinics in 25 U.S. markets. 1Life, which went public in 2020, disclosed the investigation in a securities filing. The disclosure says One Medical and Amazon each received a request today for additional information about the deal from the FTC. More here.

The Federal Trade Commission will also continue to pursue a case personally against Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms, over the acquisition of a virtual reality app, a lawyer for the agency told the FTC’s in-house judge today. The agency has asked its in-house court to force both Meta and Zuckerberg to seek approval from the FTC before engaging in any future deals. The trial has been set for Jan. 19. Bloomberg has more here.

Meanwhile, a Washington state judge ruled today that Facebook repeatedly violated campaign finance rules requiring platforms to release information about political advertisers on their sites. The court said that Facebook repeatedly broke the state’s law requiring that tech platforms make information about political ads available for public inspection in a “timely manner.” The Washington Post has more here.

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Ascend Elements, a seven-year-old startup based in Westborough, Ma., that recycles lithium-ion battery materials, raised a $50 million round led by SK ecoplant, the environmental unit of Korean conglomerate SK Inc. The company has raised a total of $151.3 million. More here.

Apricity, a four-year-old London startup that operates a virtual fertility clinic, raised a $16.91 million round led by MTIP, with Iris Ventures also joining in, Fortune reports. More here.

Draftea, a one-year-old Mexico City startup that bills itself as the first daily fantasy sports company in Spanish-speaking Latin America, raised a $20 million round led by Stepstone Group, with additional participation from Sequoia Capital, Kaszek, Bullpen Capital, Courtside Ventures and professional athletes Cristiano Ronaldo, Travis Kelce, Kevin Durant, and Jorge Mendes. The company has raised a total of $37.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Populus, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that collects data on shared fleets like scooters, e-bikes, and car-sharing and shares it with cities to help planners and regulators understand and manage how streets are used, raised an $11 million Series A. Zero Infinity Partners and Climactic co-led the deal. TechCrunch has more here.

Adwoa Beauty, a five-year-old Dallas startup that has developed a non-toxic, gender-neutral beauty brand catering to multi-cultural hair textures, raised a $4 million round from Pendulum. Forbes has more here.

GoGoPool, a crypto startup that uses a decentralized tokenization system built on Avalanche that enables hardware operators to join the protocol and receive matching funds from liquid stakers, raised a $5 million seed round co-led by Framework Ventures and Coinfund co-led, with additional investors including Avalaunch, Republic Capital, and Flow Traders. Crypto Reporter has more here.

Haru Invest, a three-year-old Singapore-based digital asset management platform, has raised $4 million in funding led by Cocone Corporation. More here.

Warren James, a four-year-old, Los Angeles startup that aims to help creators launch unique merchandise brands, raised a $6 million round led by Crossbeam Venture Partners, with FJ Labs also contributing. TubeFilter has more here.

Wreno, a one-year-old startup based in Scottsdale, Az., that is building a proptech platform that trains and connects workers and trade partners with institutional real estate companies, raised a $5 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau, with additional funds provided by Fifth Wall, Owl Ventures, and NFX. The company has raised a total of $6.1 million. More here.

You may not have noticed, but this $550m+ fintech platform has maintained a 15.3% track record, despite COVID, stock market volatility and the beginning of a recession. How? By cracking the code of a $1.7 trillion asset class that’s outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 2x in the last 25 years. Even more impressive? Through 5 exits, it has delivered an average 28.4% net IRR to investors. Follow this exclusive StrictlyVC referral link to learn more. See important Regulation A disclosures.

CVS is in advanced talks to acquire home-healthcare company Signify Health for around $8 billion, according to the WSJ. Amazon and UnitedHealth Group had also been circling Signify for a deal. More here.

Eight months after UBS Group agreed to buy robo advisor Wealthfront for $1.4 billion, the two firms now say they have “mutually agreed to terminate their merger agreement,” according to a statement. UBS will, however, buy a $69.7 million note that is convertible into Wealthfront shares. ThinkAdvisor has more here.

Apple's car is beloved and it doesn't even exist yet! In Bloomberg.

Aurora Innovation CEO Chris Urmson recently laid out a range of options for the self-driving company to respond to worsening market conditions and partners pushing out timelines, including a possible sale to Apple or Microsoft, according to Bloomberg. In a memo that Urmson inadvertently sent to all staff (ouch), he also outlined cost cuts and floated measures including taking the company private, spinning off or selling assets and pursuing a small capital raise. More here.

Meta and Qualcomm are teaming up to develop custom chipsets for virtual reality products. The two U.S. technology giants have signed a multi-year agreement “to collaborate on a new era of spatial computing,” powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon extended reality platforms. CNBC has more here.

Apple has deliberately turned the Apple Watch into a device that can be attractive for children and their parents, and its strategy is working.

No longer can workers merely come to the office if they so choose; this fall, executives say, attendance is expected and the office resisters will be put on notice. (Probably.) More in the WSJ.

How Armie Hammer, Hollywood’s golden boy, became a pariah.

America's bad bet on sports gambling.

Labor Day versus Memorial Day.

If you want this job, we must interview you forever.

Bay Area pricing in Austin.

Mouse jigglers, the newest innovation in remote work for slackers.

Morgan Stanley at Work can help transform equity compensation plans into a powerful driver of employee motivation, productivity and loyalty. With Shareworks’ modern technology and personalized service, Morgan Stanley at Work can help build a culture of ownership, so everyone feels invested in a company’s success. Learn more at morganstanley.com/StrictlyVC.