Klarna's cuts, Apple's AirPods empire, and why adults still dream about school 💤

Elon Musk can use a $7.8 million severance payment to Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko to argue that he is justified in walking away from his $44 billion buyout of the company, ruled Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick earlier today. She said Musk can amend his counterclaims to Twitter’s lawsuit against him with the payment; Musk claims Twitter failed to get his consent for the severance agreement, thereby violating the terms of the buyout. Bloomberg has more here.

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They say if you're going to cut, cut deeply so you only have to do it once. Alas, a growing number of companies are realizing that despite layoffs earlier in the year, they need to cut back more now.

Klarna, the Stockholm, Sweden-based buy-now-pay-later outfit, finds itself in this camp. According to the outlet Sifted, the 17-year-old company told employees on Monday in a video message from COO Camilla Giesecke that Klarna is reducing staff again to "reflect" its new and "more focused nature."

Around 500 Klarna employees were invited to watch Giesecke deliver the news, including in IT and recruiting, though Klarna tells us in a separate statement that the job cuts will impact fewer than 100 employees globally. Reads the statement:

Klarna, like all other companies, is constantly evaluating and making adjustments to the structure of its organization. Our organization is built on 700 fast-moving teams that are constantly changing, and Klarna employees move between teams and departments every week. However, the adjustments are often small in scale compared to the major change we made this spring, which was prompted by the turbulent environment.

The outfit, which employed 7,000 people at the beginning of this year, now has "around 6,000" employees, the spokesperson tells TechCrunch.

The cuts are part of a broader shift in momentum for Klarna, which long had the wind at its back. In May, the company shrunk its global workforce by 10%; it also raised funds at a $6.7 billion valuation in an $800 million round, down from the somewhat aspirational $45.6 billion valuation that Klarna was assigned by SoftBank when the Japanese conglomerate led a $640 million round in the company in June of last year. (SoftBank is known, of course, for its aggressive markups, a strategy that isn't working out so well for the outfit.)

Unfortunately, the cuts also come three weeks after CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg that the company was done making layoffs.

Klarna isn't the only buy-now-pay-later company to be facing major headwinds.

More here.

AccessFintech, a six-year-old Israeli startup that provides data management services for global financial players, raised a $60 million Series C round led by WestCap, with additional participation from BNY Mellon, Bank of America, Dawn Capital, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup. CTech has more here.

DataGuard, a four-year-old Munich startup that offers privacy, information security, and other data protection services to SMBs, raised a $61 million Series B round led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, with previous investor One Peak also taking part. The company has raised a total of $81.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Champ Titles, a four-year-old Cleveland startup that replaces state DMV title and registration systems with its software, raised a $12.9 million Series B round. Investors in the deal included EOS Ventures and Guidewire Software. The company has raised a total of $31.4 million. More here.

Codacy, a 10-year-old Lisbon startup that provides info on code quality, security, compliance, and performance, raised a $15 million Series B round led by Bright Pixel Capital; additional investors included Armilar Venture Partners, Faber Ventures, Join Capital, Caixa Capital, EQT Ventures, and Iberis Capital. The company has raised a total of $29.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Hume, an L.A.-based web3 entertainment company focused around music in the metaverse (one of its virtual “metastars” is "angelbaby"), has raised $11.7 million Series A funding round led by TCG Crypto (an offshoot of The Chernin Group). Other backers in the round included Collab+Currency, Winklevoss Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gmoney, Flamingo DAO, Noise DAO, LAO DAO, Distributed Global, and individual investors, including early-stage investor Cooper Turley. Forbes has more here.

Hyperlane, a New York crypto startup that helps developers connect applications across blockchains, raised an $18.5 million seed round led by Variant, with Galaxy Ventures, Coinfund, Circle, Figment, Blockdaemon, Kraken, and NFX also piling on. CoinDesk has more here.

Immunefi, a two-year-old Singapore startup that connects web3 projects that need their code checked and secured with whitehat hackers who report vulnerabilities and claim monetary rewards, raised a $24 million Series A round led by Framework Ventures, with Samsung Next, Electric Capital, and Polygon Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $29.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Monos, a four-year-old Vancouver startup that offers suitcases, bags, and accessories, raised a $30 million Series B round led by Venn Growth Partners and joined by Strand Equity and Canadian tech entrepreneur Michele Romanow. The company has raised a total of $40.1 million. RetailDive has more here.

OpenStore, a Miami-based startup cofounded by renowned operator-investors Keith Rabois of Founders Fund and Jack Abraham of Atomic, has raised $32 million in new funding led by Lux Capital. The round is a little surprising given that the company is one of those e-commerce aggregators, and the bloom is currently off the rose where these are concerned. (Instead of Amazon merchants, OpenStore acquires Shopify businesses.) Either way, the round brings OpenStore's total funding to more than $150 million, including from Atomic, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Khosla Ventures (where Rabois worked previously). The outfit is now valued at $970 million, Rabois tells TechCrunch.

Binocs, an Indian crypto startup founded this year whose app allows crypto investors to get a unified view of their holdings and positions and generate tax reports, raised a $4 million round co-led by BEENEXT and Arkam, with Accel, Saison Capital, Premji Invest, Blumeb Better Capital also chipping in. Forbes has more here.

Cello, a Munich startup that aims to give SaaS businesses the ability to rapidly grow word-of-mouth marketing into a valuable acquisition channel, raised $2.3 million led by ByFounders, with additional investment from TinyVC, Possible Ventures, and Notion Capital. Tech.eu has more here.

CHEQ, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose app allows bar patrons to pay for and send drinks to one another, raised an $8 million seed round led by WestRiver Group, with additional capital provided by Yard Ventures and Flamingo Capital. The company has raised a total of $13.4 million. Sports Business Journal has more here.

Civ Robotics, a four-year-old San Francisco startup whose robot performs autonomous surveying tasks for civil engineering and infrastructure projects such as solar farms, roadways, data centers, and power plants, raised a $5 million seed round co-led by ff Venture Capital and Alley Robotics Ventures, with Trimble Ventures also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $7.5 million. The Robot Report has more here.

CloudEats, a three-year-old, Manila, Philippines-based startup that operates cloud kitchens across the Philippines and Vietnam, has raised a $7 million Series A extension round led by Nordstar. TechCrunch has more here.

Future, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that offers consumers a Visa card that pays 6% cash back on greener alternatives to everyday spending across transportation, food, fashion, devices, beauty, and furniture, raised a $5.3 million seed round. Accomplice was the deal lead, with participation from Active Impact Investments, Techstars Ventures, Urban Impact Ventures, and Climate Capital. More here.

Headquarters, a startup founded this year that is developing a back office service that will help web3 teams better manage their financial operations across custodial and non-custodial wallets, raised a $5 million round from Crypto.com Capital, Forge Ventures, and MassMutual Ventures. NFT Gators has more here.

Integral, a startup that builds real-time financial management software for web3 teams, raised an $8.5 million round led by Electric Capital, with Elad Gil, Balaji Srinivasan, Hustle Fund, Mantis, and MapleVC also contributing. CoinDesk has more here.

Kalogon, a two-year-old startup based in Rockledge, Fl., that makes "smart cushions" for wheelchairs designed to prevent any one part of the body from being compressed for too long, raised a $3.3 million seed round from DeepWork Capital, SeedFundersOrlando, and VenVelo. TechCrunch has more here.

Nilos, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that wants to bridge the gap between crypto wallets and traditional business bank accounts, raised a $5.2 million round this past April. Viola Ventures and Fabric Ventures led the round, with Mensch Capital Partners also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Nodal, a New York startup whose platform allows surrogates to connect with intended parents after reviewing their parent profile, raised a $4.7 million round. The deal lead was Amplo, while Great Oaks VC and Interplay Venture Capital also participated. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Skip, a crypto startup that enables companies built in blockchain ecosystems to bid to move their transactions up in validators' queues, raised a $6.5 million round. Investors included Bain Capital Crypto, Jump Crypto, Galaxy Digital, and Robot Ventures. Axios has more here.

Steadybit, a three-year-old, Cologne, Germany-based chaos engineering platform, has raised $7.8 million in seed funding led by Boldstart Ventures. More here.

TULU, a three-year-old Israeli startup whose platform provides building tenants with on-demand access to hundreds of brand-name appliances, grocery staples, micro-mobility solutions, and entertainment devices, raised $5 million in additional Series A financing. The lead investor in this tranche was Regeneration.VC; Proptech VC Trifare, UMTB, and previous investors New Era Capital Partners, Bosch VC, Round Hill Ventures, Tal Ventures, AGP Partners, and Good Company also participated. The company has raised a total of $29.8 million. CTech has more here.

Untitled, a four-year-old startup whose app allows musicians to collaborate, raised a $4.6 million seed round from General Catalyst, Looking Glass Capital, Shine Capital, and Not Boring Capital. Axios has more here.

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Investment giant HarbourVest Partners has closed its 12th flagship fund with $3 billion in capital commitments, including from its own employees. HarbourVest has its tentacles in all kinds of things, including primarily buyouts, venture capital, and growth equity investments. The new fund was supported by more than 78 limited partners, says the firm, including public and private pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, family offices, and ultra-high net worth investors. HarbourVest says it has more than $100 billion in assets under management altogether. More here.

Compute North Holdings, which provides data center services for cryptocurrency miners and blockchain companies, filed for bankruptcy in Texas today. Based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Compute North said it owed as much as $500 million to at least 200 creditors. The company’s assets are worth between $100 million and $500 million, according to its Chapter 11 petition. Bloomberg has more here.

Former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen today announced a new nonprofit with the goal of making social media healthier. “Beyond the Screen” will start by creating an open-source database of ways “Big Tech is failing in its legal and ethical obligations to society,” according to a press release. CNBC has more here.

DocuSign has named Allan Thygesen, a former Google ad exec, its new CEO. TechCrunch has more here.

Home listings slid almost 23% in August from a year earlier, per a new report this week from Zillow Group.

The SEC will stop short of banning payment for order flow -- a controversial way to process retail stock trades -- as it proposes new rules for the $48 trillion American equities market, reports Bloomberg. The decision marks a win for brokerages like Robinhood that get paid for processing rights, though the SEC may still enact other changes that make the practice less profitable, say Bloomberg's sources.

SoftBank has slashed the valuation of Oyo Hotels on its books by more than 20% as the once high-flying Indian startup prepares for an IPO, reports Bloomberg. The lodging firm had reached a valuation of $10 billion in a 2019 funding round. More here.

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