Steve's case, a Bond yacht, and a Strava founder zeroes in on a very different market

COME. ON. How much can tennis fans be expected to handle in one month?!

Before we ponder this question further, we leave you with this week's StrictlyVC Download with special guest Steve Case. The investor, philanthropist and before all of that, the cofounder of America Online, has a new book in which he argues that Covid was a "shake the globe" moment for entrepreneurship, and that power will never again reside as it once did in cities like San Francisco and New York and Boston. We talked today with Case about the book and much more. (You can also check out excerpts below.)

Hope you enjoy the conversation, and giant thanks to Morgan Stanley for sponsoring this week's episode. Morgan Stanley at Work says it has already helped more than 3,000 companies build a culture of ownership by focusing on employees' financial wellness. To learn how it all works, visit morganstanley.com/strictlyvc.

Stock markets continued their weeklong plunge today, with all three major indices falling more than 1%, as investors who are losing faith in the global economy rushed for the exits. NPR has more here.

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Steve Case, the cofounder of America Online, the investment firm Revolution, and its offshoot seed-stage arm Rise of the Rest, has a new book out called Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream. In it, Case argues that Covid was a “shake the globe” moment for entrepreneurship, and that power will never again reside as it once did in cities like San Francisco and New York and Boston.

We spoke earlier today with Case about the book; we also chatted with him about the mentality of coastal investors, whether he harbors any political aspirations, and the status of his relationship with Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, who worked closely with Case at one point (they appeared together at our TechCrunch Disrupt event in 2018).

Case also talked up a number of his bets, which have, perhaps to the surprise of skeptics, taken off since he began investing across the country. He relatedly suggested that one major piece of advice that he tries to impart when speaking with founders is the art of storytelling itself. (A powerful narrative can go a long way, particularly when you’re out of the sightline of some of the most powerful investors in the country.)

More from our conversation follows. These excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.

More here.

Deep Instinct, a seven-year-old Israeli startup that claims it can use deep learning technology to predict, prevent, and analyze cyberattacks, raised a $62.5 million round led by BlackRock, with additional investment from Chrysalis Investments, Millennium, and Unbound. The company has raised a total of $321.6 million. CTech has more here.

MicroTransponder, a fifteen-year-old startup based in Austin, Tex., that has developed a device that helps with post-stroke rehabilitation, raised a $73 million Series E round. US Venture Partners led the financing that also included GPG Ventures, Exceller Hunt Ventures, Osage University Partners, Action Potential Venture Capital, and the Vertical Group. The company has raised a total of $115.1 million. Fierce Biotech has more here.

Rivus, a three-year-old startup based in Charlottesville, Va., that is developing treatments for cardio-metabolic diseases, raised a $132 million Series B round led by RA Capital Management, with participation from Bain Capital Life Sciences, BB Biotech AG, Longitude Capital, Medicxi, and RxCapital. The company has raised a total of $167 million. Fierce Biotech has more here.

SpinLaunch, an eight-year-old Long Beach, Ca., startup that has developed a new satellite launch system, raised a $71 million Series B equity and debt round led by ATW Partners, with Kleiner Perkins also contributing. The company has raised a total of $146 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Theorycraft Games, a two-year-old Los Angeles startup that is developing its first game, called Loki, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Makers Fund, with NEA and Andreessen Horowitz also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $87.5 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Bicycle Health, a five-year-old, Boston-based virtual treatment startup for opioid addiction, raised $5 million in Series B extension funding led by Cobalt Ventures, bringing the round total to $55 million (and the company's total funding to $88 million). The round's initial investors included InterAlpen Partners, Questa Capital, Frist Cressey Ventures and City Light Capital. HIT Consultant has more here.

Brightflow AI, a three-year-old startup based in Walnut, Ca., that uses AI and machine learning to help SMBs forecast sales and automate cash flow management, raised a $15 million Series A and $100 million in debt. Haymaker Ventures led the equity piece, while 180 Group supplied the debt. The company has raised a total of $119.2 million. PYMNTS has more here.

Carats & Cake, a nine-year-old New York startup that has built what it claims to be a financial operating system for the events industry, raised a $10.6 million Series A round led by 1Sharpe Ventures, with additional funds supplied by Founders Fund, Acrew Capital, Moore Specialty Credit, Correlation Ventures, GMO VenturePartners, Argosy Capital, and SilverCircle. The company has raised a total of $29.9 million. PYMNTS has more here.

Hadean, a seven-year-old London startup that uses distributed computing techniques to help game developers scale their audiences, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Molten Ventures; additional investors included Epic Games,Tencent, 2050 Capital, Alumni Ventures, Aster Capital, Entrepreneur First, and In-Q-tel. The company has raised a total of $65.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Inclined, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that lends against whole life insurance policies (which is not something we have heard a startup tackle; further, its cofounder is Strava cofounder Mark Shaw), raised a $15 million Series A. Hudson Structured Ventures led it, with Anthemis Group also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.

Remofirst, a one-year-old startup that allows companies to hire people in more than 150 countries without having to set up their own entities, raised a $14.1 million seed round co-led by Mouro Capital and QED Investors; Counterpart Ventures also joined in. TechCrunch has more here.

Seoul Robotics, a five-year-old Seoul startup that is developing infrastructure to enable autonomous driving, raised a $25 million Series B round led by KB Investment. TechCrunch has more here.

Bitgreen, a New York startup that has built a blockchain platform to enable backers to finance critical sustainability projects, raised a $5 million round through Republic, a crowdfunding platform. TFN has more here.

Boddle Learning, a four-year-old Tulsa startup that develops educational games, raised a $3 million seed round, Fortune reports. The lead investor was Alpine Ventures, while KCRiseFund, Atento Capital, Lightship Capital, Cortado Ventures, and Rise of the Rest also participated. More here.

Dopt, a one-year-old Oakland startup that helps teams create better user onboarding and engagement flows, raised a $5.1 million round. Unusual Ventures and Designer Fund were the co-leads. More here.

Nibiru, a crypto startup co-founded by Tribe Capital GP Arjun Sethi that has developed a new crypto derivatives protocol, raised a $7.5 million seed round at a $100 million valuation. Investors included Tribe Capital, Republic Crypto, and Kraken. TechCrunch has more here.

Sintra, a San Francisco startup whose NFT investment app seeks to connect like-minded investors, raised a $2 million seed round led by Lemniscap, with FTX Ventures, Chorus One Ventures, CMCC Global, Big Brain Holdings, and Two Ape VC also piling on. More here.

Surge, a three-year-old French startup that uses innovative machine learning algorithms to decode a patient’s immune system in order to predict the risk of postoperative complications, raised a $2.6 million million pre-seed round. HCVC and Boutique Venture Partners were the co-leads. Tech.EU has more here.

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Rob Freelen has joined Sozo Ventures as a managing director following a long career with Silicon Valley Bank. More here.

Elon Musk believes patents are for the weak, and that SpaceX doesn't really have them.

VC-entrepreneur Keith Rabois got into a heated debate today with CNBC's Dee Bosa over whether Opendoor, the home-buying company he cofounded and helped take public through a blank-check company in late 2020 is profitable. The company's shares are down roughly 80% this year.

The luxury home market just posted its biggest decline in a decade. "It’s like crickets."

Netflix is reducing payments for comedy specials in some new deals.

A Danish city built Google into its schools -- then banned it.

Citigroup is dramatically scaling back the amount it lends to asset managers, including private equity firms, as the US bank races to meet tough new capital rules, according to the FT. More here.

The glaring disconnect between what American drivers want and what they actually need.

How to handle totally normal marital hatred.

And this year's Oscar for best performance goes to . . .

A Bond-inspired superyacht charter, replete with real special ops agents.

Nubeluz Cocktail Bar, opening this weekend on West 28th Street in New York.

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