Bessemer's haul, Jeter's new job, and Tim Cook's plan to address the Android-iOS text mess? Leave it to users

RIP, Queen Elizabeth, the world's longest-reigning monarch. Said one visitor outside the gates of Buckingham Palace to the New York Times, “It’s hard to know how we feel. I think we’re all in shock."

A new White House report encourages a broad policy push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urges the use of clean energy by U.S. crypto mining companies — and potentially more restrictive measures should such efforts fail to reduce the industry's environmental impact. The Block has more here.

Twitter agreed in June to pay roughly $7 million to the whistleblower whose allegations will be part of Elon Musk’s case against the company, according to a WSJ exclusive. The settlement, related to Peiter Zatko's lost compensation, was completed days before he filed his whistleblower complaint, reports the Journal. More here.

The signs are there – confidence in stocks and real estate at historic lows, rampant inflation, and cross-asset correlations reaching levels unseen since 2005. But avoiding the “decade of lost wealth” might be easier than you think. There’s a once-exclusive $2 trillion alternative asset class, now available to you, that has historically outperformed public equities in down economic cycles. Masterworks is the one investment platform where you can get access to this opportunity. Strictly VC subscribers can skip the waitlist. See important Regulation A disclosures.

L.A.-based entrepreneur Brian Lee, who previously co-founded and ran The Honest Company, ShoeDazzle.com, and LegalZoom, has launched a new sports card collecting platform that's likely to make a splash, not least because his cofounder in the endeavor is Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.

Backed by $9 million in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Defy.vc and BAM Ventures (also cofounded by Lee), the outfit launched today with a somewhat unique and digitally-enabled approach to helping collectors sell, store, and verify their sports trading cards.

First, what it's not is an NFT play (shockingly), though you could see a future where digital trading cards are on the table, so to speak. Instead the pair are looking to bridge the physical and digital worlds of sports collecting by creating online showrooms where users on the platform can buy, sell, trade and display their cards, while the physical cards are locked in a "state of the art" vault controlled by the company, which is called Arena Club.

If a collector wants their cards close at hand after they've been authenticated by Arena Club, the startup will send the cards back in protective "slabs," it says. Which brings us to another facet of the business. According to the outfit, it will provide users with a faster and more transparent authentication and grading process through computer vision and machine learning. (They've brought on as advisor a big name in AI, too: Jia Li, an AI Fellow at Stanford and formerly the head of R&D at Google Cloud, head of research at Snap, and head of visual computing at Yahoo! Labs.)

According to Arena Club, for every card graded on the platform, it will release a transparent grading report to collectors that explains in detail a justification for the grade.

As for how Arena Club will make money, Sports Collectors Daily notes the new outfit has a few cards up its sleeve (sorry).

More here.

Mesh Payments, a four-year-old New York startup that aims to help companies manage their spend through automation, raised a $60 million round led by Alpha Wave, with Tiger Global, TLV Partners, Entreé Capital, and Meron Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $123 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Photys Therapeutics, a startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is developing medicines that direct and repair protein phosphorylation to treat a range of diseases including cancer, immune, metabolic, and rare diseases, raised a $75 million Series A round led by MPM Capital, with additional participation from Omega Funds, Longwood, 8VC, Arkin Bio, Mass General Brigham Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Heritage Medical Systems. More here.

Albedo, a two-year-old startup based in Austin, Tex., that takes photos of Earth from very low-Earth orbit satellites for clients in areas such as agriculture, forestry management, defense, and intelligence, raised a $48 million Series A round co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Shield Capital, with additional participation from Republic Capital, Giant Step Capital, C16 Ventures, Initialized Capital, Liquid 2, and Kevin Mahaffey. The company has raised a total of $58 million. Fast Company has more here.

Arize AI, a three-year-old startup based in Berkeley, Ca., that helps companies deploy and maintain machine learning models, raised a $38 million Series B round led by TCV, with Battery Ventures and Foundation Capital also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

ELISE, a four-year-old startup based in Bremen, Germany, that aims to make product development more accessible for teams via a low code platform, raised a $14.8 million Series A round. The deal lead was Spark Capital; additional investors included BMW i Ventures, Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners, and Venture Stars. The company has raised a total of $18.1 million. TechFundingNews has more here.

FocalPoint, a seven-year-old startup based in Cambridge, UK, that is developing software to improve operation, accuracy and security of GPS, added $17 million to a Series C that it expects to reach $26 million when fully complete. The deal was co-led by Gresham House and previous investor Molten Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Isovalent, a five-year-old startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that is the creator of the Cilium project and is working to ensure secure and observable cloud networking for enterprises, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Thomvest Ventures. The company has raised a total of $69 million. More here.

Koala Health, a one-year-old Boston startup that operates an online pet pharmacy and was founded by PillPack alums, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures, with additional capital provided by First Round Capital, Box Group, and Operator Partners. Axios has more here.

NowNow, a four-year-old startup based in Ilupeju, Nigeria, that provides financial services to the unbanked and underbanked in rural and semi-urban areas, raised a $13 million seed round. Investors included NeoVision Ventures, DLF Family Office, and Shadi Abdulhadi. TechCrunch has more here.

Open Raven, a three-year-old startup based in Los Angeles that helps companies inventory data stores, classify data, and identify sensitive and regulated data to pinpoint security and compliance risks, raised a $20 million Series B round led by Pelion Ventures; additional investors included Kleiner Perkins and Upfront Ventures. The company has raised a total of $40 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Pathway Power, a San Diego startup that is focused on developing solar batteries for utilities, raised a $36 million round from Forest Road Renewables. More here.

QA Wolf, a three-year-old Seattle startup that has developed a cloud-based platform designed to detect bugs in software, raised a $20 million round led by Inspired Capital; Notation Capital, CoFound, Sahil Lavingia, Peter Thiel, Naval Ravikant, and Austen Allred also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

SaaS Alerts, a two-year-old startup based in Wilmington, N.C., that says it enables host companies to safeguard SaaS applications provisioned to their clients, raised a $22 million round from Insight Partners. More here.

SteelEye, a five-year-old London startup that works with banks, hedge funds, brokers, and asset managers to help them comply with regulatory procedures and requirements in their respective industries, raised $21 million Series B round led by Ten Coves Capital, with additional investment from Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, Illuminate Financial, and Beacon Equity Partners. The company has raised a total of $38.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

TigerEye, a San Francisco startup that is developing a sales software tool and very notably was cofounded by Tracy Young (she previously cofounded, then sold, the construction software company PlanGrid for $875 million) raised a $30 million Series A round led by Initialized Capital and Next47. The company has raised a total of $35 million. Axios has more here.

AnaOno, a nine-year-old Philadelphia bra manufacturer, raised a $1 million seed round led by Golden Seeds. Fortune has more here.

CashFlo, a four-year-old startup based in Mumbai that helps small- to medium-size businesses manage the working capital requirements, raised an $8.7 million round led by General Catalyst, with Elevation Capital also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $12.1 million. PYMNTS has more here.

EnviroSpark, an eight-year-old Atlanta startup that has installed more than 5,000 electric vehicle chargers across the United States and Canada, raised a $5.25 million Series A round led by Ultra Capital. More here.

Harmonic Discovery, a New York startup that is building an integrated computational and experimental platform for kinase drug discovery and targeted polypharmacology, raised an $8 million seed round led by Innovation Endeavors, with Fifty Years, Y Combinator, Boom Capital, and Caffeinated Capital also chipping in. Endpoints News has more here.

HotStreak, a startup that has developed a web3 platform for daily fantasy sports contests, raised a $9 million Series A round. The deal was led by Polychain Capital. The company has raised a total of $10.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Nexford University, a four-year-old online university based in Washington, DC, that provides learners with a U.S.-accredited higher education and lets them study at their own pace, raised an $8 million Series A round co-led by New Markets Venture Partners and Learn Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Odyssey Energy Solutions, a 5.5-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based investment and asset management platform that aims to enable the financing of distributed energy projects at scale, has raised $5.34 million in a seed round led by Equal Ventures. Other backers in the round included Twelve Below, Abstract Ventures, Founder Collective and MCJ Collective participating. TechCrunch has more here.

R2, a two-year-old startup based in Mexico City that enables B2B platforms used by small Latin American businesses to offer credit to these customers, raised a $15 million Series A round at a $100 million valuation. The deal was led by Google's Gradient Ventures; Femsa Ventures and PayU and previous investors General Catalyst, 166 2nd, and Magma Partners also participated. The company has raised a total of $20.9 million. PYMNTS has more here.

Scan.com, a London startup that aims to speed up the process of booking and receiving results for medical imaging scans, raised a $2.5 million round led by Triple Point Ventures, with StartUp Health, Plug and Play Ventures, and YZR Capital also opting in. Tech.eu has more here.

Shipmates, a one-year-old startup based in Manila that allows online sellers to book couriers through its app, raised a $2.2 million seed round. Investors included Cathexis Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Taurus Ventures, Capital X, and Sketchnote Partners. The company has raised a total of $2.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Stack, a year-old, Seattle-based startup that calls itself the "first crypto education and trading app for teens and their parents," has raised $2.7 million in seed funding from Madrona, The Venture Collective, Santa Clara Ventures and a group of individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Trek Health, a one-year-old startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that wants to enable mental health providers to manage all insurance workflows in a single online platform, raised a $2.7 million seed round led by Lionheart Ventures. Axios has more here.

SaaStr Annual 2022, the world's largest SaaS and Cloud community event is coming up fast, Sept 13-15! The three-day event will bring together 10,000 global SaaS founders, executives, and venture capitalists for a series of high-quality content sessions and networking opportunities, including founder and VC matchmaking. 300 SaaS leaders from top companies will take the stage to share actionable insights on scaling. Readers can grab 20% off tickets with code StrictlyVC (until tickets sell out).

Bessemer Venture Partners, the global venture capital firm, today announced the close of $3.85 billion for its 12th flagship fund, BVP XII. The Information talked separately with partner Jeremy Levine, who spills that the firm actually closed on $4.6 billion(!) altogether in August and that it's now structured as a registered investment advisor. More here.

Panache Ventures, a four-year-old, pre-seed fund that has quickly become one of Canada’s most active early-stage investors, says it has closed its second-hand with $100 million CAD. BetaKit has more here.

Headspace, the Los Angeles-based meditation app, has acquired Shine, a six-year-old personalized self-care and wellness startup that's focused on "closing the equity gap in mental health" and that had raised more than $11 million in funding from Eniac Ventures and Tech Square Ventures, among others. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. Axios has more here. 

On-demand delivery giant Instacart has agreed to buy Rosie, a nine-year-old Ithaca, N.Y.-based e-commerce platform for local grocers that had raised $11.9 million from investors. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

After the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, Vice Media joined many other American companies in publicly distancing itself from the Saudi Arabian government. Now, Vice is in talks to expand its business in the kingdom, reports the New York Times, which says the digital media company is exploring a deal with MBC, a media giant partly owned by the Saudi government, to start a new content partnership in the region. More here.

Vista Equity Partners’s proposed $8.4 billion deal to acquire the 18-year-old automated tax compliance company Avalara has hit a bump in the road. One of Avalara’s biggest shareholders revealed that it’s voting against the transaction, as it “significantly undervalues” the company. TechCrunch has more here.

Susie Bihler has joined Lead Edge Capital, a New York- and Santa Barbara, Ca.-based investment firm, after spending more than a dozen years with Catalyst Investors. More on Lead Edge here.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said today at a Vox event that Apple doesn’t spend a lot of effort improving the texting experience between iPhones and Android devices because its users haven’t been asking for it. Pressed by interviewer LiQuan Hunt of Vox, who said he can’t send videos to his mom because of the limitations of SMS messaging, Cook responded: “Buy your mom an iPhone."

Shopify is shuffling its C-suite as the outfit struggles to regain momentum post pandemic. BetaKit has more here.

In the four weeks through Sept. 4, the median single-family home price in San Francisco fell 7% from same period a year earlier, to $1.4 million, according to a report by the brokerage Redfin cited by Bloomberg. The decline was "more severe than in other high-priced communities in the Bay Area, and the mirror image of a 7% gain in the nationwide median price," notes the outlet.

According to the bedding brand Parachute, 40% of Americans don't sleep with a top sheet.

SEC chief Gary Gensler wants to regulate crypto.

It took Byju’s 10 years to become India’s most valuable startup, expanding its empire of online learning apps to many markets, including the U.S. Yet as it moves toward the public market, Byju’s is finding it ever more difficult to keep its story straight.

The woman changing on-court sneaker culture.

Frances Tiafoe is more than a good story.

Why the chess world is suddenly in chaos.

How to figure out which new Apple Watch you want. (You could also flip a coin.)

Ella: An American Miracle chronicles the inspiring life of Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song, from winning Apollo Amateur Night at 14 to her foundational role in jazz bringing social justice through song. Written by Tony nominee and MacArthur Fellow Anna Deavere Smith and starring four-time Grammy and Tony award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater. (Ella’s songs had 1.9 billion downloads last year.) This is not an offer to invest. To learn more, please reach out to ella@evamere.com.