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Twitter cofounder and and former CEO Jack Dorsey will be questioned under oath tomorrow in the social media company’s lawsuit against his longtime friend Elon Musk, according to court filings.
Investors wiped more than $10 billion off the market value of the main Covid-19 vaccine makers today after U.S. president Joe Biden said “the pandemic is over."
High energy prices are lashing European industry, but no one will be immune soon. “This is going to become a much bigger problem."
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Fujian Deer Technology Corp, an eight-year-old, China-based maker of materials used in integrated circuits, flat-panel displays and optical fibers (its customers include Intel and Samsung), has raised $290.5 million in pre-IPO funding reports DealStreetAsia. Anhui Transportation Zhaoshang Industry Investment Fund led the round. Earlier investors include Sequoia Capital China. More here.
GiveCampus, an eight-year-old startup based in Washington, D.C., that has built a fundraising platform for nonprofit educational institutions, raised a $50 million round. Silversmith Capital Partners was the deal lead. More here.
GRNGrid, a Switzerland-based, environmentally friendly layer 1 blockchain tailored for decentralized finance (environmentally friendly as it allows individuals to use nodes running on renewable energy for transactions), announced a $50 million investment commitment from the digital asset investment firm GEM Digital. CoinDesk has more here.
Swiftly Systems, a 4.5-year-old, Seattle-based startup that says its mission is to bring the advantages of e-commerce to brick and mortar grocery before e-commerce companies figure out how to deliver groceries via e-commerce, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by BRV Capital Management. The company separately raised $100 million in Series B funding not so long ago (in March). TechCrunch has more here.
Zopper, an 11-year-old, New Delhi, India, company that works with insurance providers and personalized products that it then supplies to distribution partners, has raised $75 million in Series C funding co-led Creaegis. ICICI Venture and Bessemer Venture Partners. The company has now raised $96 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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HICX, an 18-year-old, London-based platform for supplier experience management, says it has closed on $30 million in funding from Wavecrest Growth Partners and venture debt provider Espresso Capital. More here.
InnerPlant, a 4.5-year-old, Davis, Ca.-based startup that says it's using plant physiology to gather data and make global farming more efficient and sustainable, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by John Deere. Earlier backers MS&AD Ventures, Bee Partners, UpWest, and TAU Ventures also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Naveris, a five-year-old startup based in Natick, Ma., that's attempting to commercialize NavDx, a blood test used to detect cancers caused by HPV, raised a $34.4 million extension to its Series A round, increasing the total of the round to $51 million. The lead investor was Gurnet Point Capital, while TechU Ventures and BrightEdge (the American Cancer Society's VC arm) also contributed. LabPulse.com has more here.
Sequence, a year-old, London-based start that wants to create what it describes as a new kind of FinOps stack for B2B businesses, using APIs and other tools to create more responsive pricing, billing, and related services — has raised $19 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by Salesforce Ventures, Firstminute Capital, Crew Capital, Passion Capital, Dig Ventures, Fin Capital, and 9Yards, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Sievo, a 19-year-old Helsinki startup based that operates a SaaS platform to help large enterprises manage their procurement processes, raised a $44 million round. The lead investor was Susquehanna Growth Equity. More here.
Sonder, a six-year-old Sydney startup that helps corporations provide mental health and wellness support to their employees, raised a $23.47 million Series B led by Blackbird Ventures, with SEEK Investments and SecondQuarter Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $40.1 million. StartupDaily has more here.
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Alphyn Biologics, a three-year-old, Cincinnati, Oh., startup that is attempting to commercialize a treatment for atopic dermatitis (it's the most common form of eczema), raised a $3.3 million in Series A led by Queen City Angels, with additional participation from Angel Physicians Fund and Serial Stage Venture Partners. The company has raised a total of $5.5 million. More here.
Andgo Systems, an eight-year-old startup based in Saskatoon, Canada, that helps companies manage employee absences, fill vacant shifts, and supervise vacation requests, raised a $4.2 million Series A round co-led by First Ascent Ventures and Waterline Ventures. BetaKit has more here.
Boundless Rider, a months-old, Medford, Ma.- based startup founded specifically to serve riders of motorcycles, e-bikes and power sport vehicles, has raised $4.75 million in seed funding led by American Family Ventures, with participation from The Cross Country Group, SiriusPoint and Belmont Capital. The company previously raised $2 million in pre-seed funding that was never announced publicly. TechCrunch has more here.
CNote, a nearly seven-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based outfit that enables corporations, foundations, and individuals to make investments and deposits into financially underserved communities, has raised $7.25 million in Series A funding. American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact led the round, joined by Astia Fund, BankTech Ventures, Commerce Ventures, CityRock Venture Partners and other investors. More
here.
CoverTree, a two-year-old, Detroit-based outfit selling insurance coverage for manufactured homes (meaning they were made in a factory -- think modular homes, tiny homes, ADUs), has raised $10 million in seed funding AV8 Ventures and Distributed Ventures co-led the round, joined by Detroit Venture Partners, Ludlow Ventures, and Annox Capital. Coverager has more here.
Habito, a seven-year-old London startup that helps consumers buy and finance homes, raised a $5.7 million round. Investors included Augmentum Fintech, SBI Investment, and Volution. The company has raised a total of $77.8 million. More here.
OneLayer, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that helps secure private 5G networks used by companies for such applications as communicating with the growing number of autonomous vehicles operating on factory floors, raised a $6.5 million round. The lead investor was Koch Disruptive Technologies, the VC arm of Koch Industries. OneLayer has raised a total of $14.5 million. SecurityWeek has more here.
Portabl, a nearly two-year-old, Philadelphia-based startup that provides identity management and protection for financial services, banking and consumer apps, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Harlem Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Tuned, a 14-month-old, New York-based startup that has created a hearing health benefit (it offers employees access to specialist audiologists, as well as to vetted hearing health products), has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Idealab NY and Elements Health Ventures. More here.
Zócalo Health, a Seattle startup that plans to launch a virtual healthcare service for Latino patients, raised a $5 million seed round. Animo, Virtue, and Vamos Ventures co-led the transaction. MobiHealthNews has more here.
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Why are UHNW investors flooding this app? Because the near-zero interest rates and sub-2 percent inflation that fueled the bull market of the last decade are gone. In their place, volatility and fear now rule. To prepare, UHNW investors are increasing their exposure to blue-chip art, which has outpaced the S&P by 164% in the last 25 years. Masterworks is the art-focused investment app that's delivered an average 29% net realized return across six exits. Skip the waitlist. See important Regulation A disclosures.
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Former Argentine soccer star Hernan Crespo, Despegar.com founder Roberto Souviron and a slew of Latin American companies are among the latest investors to put money into venture capital fund Alaya Capital, reports Bloomberg. The outfit's third fund has so far raised about $25 million, or 31% of its $80 million goal. More here.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced today that it is accepting applications for two programs that will make approximately $160 million available annually for the next five years for projects that use technology to improve our transportation infrastructure and make communities safer. (Apply here by November 18.)
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Instacart has been meeting with prospective investors in recent weeks about the IPO it is hoping to stage sooner than later; it has reportedly been telling them, too, that it doesn’t intend to raise much capital in the offering but instead plans to have most of the listing come from the sale of employees’ shares. The WSJ has more here.
Rumble, the conservative video network backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, became a publicly traded company today through a deal with a blank-check firm that will value the business at more than $2 billion. The shares rose as much as 40% during the company’s first day of trading. The merger with CF Acquisition Corp. VI, a special purpose acquisition company backed by Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, will deliver $400 million in proceeds to Rumble. Bloomberg has the story here.
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Zeshan Ali, a 32-year-old cofounder of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has reportedly spent $4 million to buy the house of TV writer (and book author) Beth Kalb. Dirt has more here.
Beyond Meat's COO was arrested this past weekend for biting a man's nose in an Arkansas parking garage following a college football game. (He also allegedly punched through the guy's back windshield!) The internet is appropriately offering up no shortage of jokes about the diet of this executive, who long worked for Tyson before joining the plant-based food company. (BeyondMeat's COO apparently needs a little protein in his diet, etc.) Sounds to us like he was snorting bath salts at halftime.
Tom Brady, destroyer of Surface tablets.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in court on Friday that he fired Joe Sullivan, the former Uber security chief who is on trial over a 2016 security breach, because he could no longer trust "his judgment." Said Khosrowshahi of Sullivan, who has been accused of obstructing justice for failing to disclose a breach that impacted the Uber accounts of more than 57 riders and drivers, "I thought the decision not to disclose” the breach “was the wrong decision.”
Jim Messina, a previous close advisor to former President Barack Obama, has become a key advisor on Blockchain.com’s government relations and policy strategy for the crypto company.
Mark Zuckerberg has lost more than half his wealth this year.
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Flying business class has always been beyond the means of most fliers. Now even companies can’t afford them, with flights leaving the U.S. jumping 52% in price between January and August, according to the corporate travel management firm CWT. Bloomberg has more here.
Opendoor which sells thousands of homes in a typical month, lost money on 42% of its transactions in August, according to research from YipitData. Opendoor’s performance — as measured by the prices at which it bought and sold properties — was even worse in key markets such as Los Angeles, where the company lost money on 55% of sales, and Phoenix, where the share was 76%. Bloomberg has more here.
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YouTube remains rife with misogyny and harassment.
Why Ethereum is dropping after the "merge."
Photo-sharing app BeReal is exploring the addition of in-app payments for extra features to avoid Instagram-style advertising.
Better known for billion-dollar buyouts, private-equity firms are now bending over backward to court family businesses.
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The most expensive home in every state currently.
The estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is offering the sale of his 303-foot-long superyacht, Tatoosh, for a cool $90 million. It's reportedly the 60th largest yacht in the world. It also comes with a mosaic-tiled heated swimming pool, two helicopter pads, and a clean title, notes Dirt.
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