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Quick mention: TechCrunch Disrupt is less than two weeks away, suddenly! It's going to amazing to see so many people gathered for TC's signature event once more after going entirely virtual the last two years. We'll be leading some of the VC discussions (natch), but as always, a lot of great speakers will be in the mix throughout the three-day affair, including Marc Lore, Serena Williams, Chris Dixon, Kevin Hart, and RJ Scaringe of Rivian, among many others. (We're hoping Draymond Green will be there, too, though he landed
in the soup today.) You can still nab tickets here.
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Before it was discovered on Monday that Elon Musk's original bid to own Twitter is back on the table, his representatives spoke with Twitter several times about redoing the deal at a lower price, reports the New York Times. Its sources say Musk first sought a discount of as much as 30%, a proposal that would have valued the company at roughly $31 billion. After Twitter leaned back in its chair and laughed about this, Musk's representatives then unsuccessfully inquired about a 10% discount (why not), before throwing up their hands and proposing in a new letter that he will close the transaction at the $44 billion price agreed upon back in April.
As for why he's moving forward, only Musk and his closest peeps really know, but it's widely believed he circled back to avoid further embarrassing his powerful friends and himself in the discovery process, and also because it looked like he was going to lose the lawsuit that Twitter launched to force the deal through. (No one thinks he fell in love with Twitter all over again.)
And there are questions (still), like how Wall Street banks that agreed back in April to a $12.5 billion package to help finance Musk's deal are now going to be able to sell all that debt to wary institutional investors -- they also definitely read the many disparaging things Musk said about Twitter -- and what happens if the banks fail. They could provide a bridge loan (and hope they get that money back later from institutions); otherwise, Musk would have to cough up much more money himself, which would mean liquidating more of his Tesla shares, which could have its own, potentially catastrophic (for Musk) ripple effects.
Of course, after what Twitter has endured, it's not super concerned with what happens to Musk or his other holdings. On the contrary, the New York Times adds that Twitter is considering a "range of options" to ensure there are no more last-minute shenanigans, including "court supervision of the closing process to ensure that Mr. Musk follows through on his commitment, and requesting that Mr. Musk pay an interest fee to compensate for the delays in the closing process."
Meanwhile, the wider world is wondering, and worrying about, and also curious to see, what happens if Musk does actually follow through. It could be exciting! It might be harrowing! It’s all we’re going to collectively hear about for some time to come, so settle in.:)
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Form Energy, a Somerville, Ma.-based developer of long-duration battery storage using iron, raised $450 million in Series E funding led by TPG Rise. Other investors include GIC, CPP Investments, ArcelorMittal and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The company previously raised over $350 million, including from Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. (Some of you might remember that CEO and cofounder Mateo Jaramillo spoke at our
StrictlyVC event late last year to explain his storage tech -- as well as spill what it was like working for Elon Musk for seven-plus years before launching Form Energy with other Tesla escapees.)
NetSPI, a 21-year-old Minneapolis startup that helps companies test and maintain the security of their network infrastructure, raised $410 million in a growth equity round from KKR. Crunchbase News has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Amplify Life Insurance, a three-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform is focused on helping customers build wealth through permanent life insurance, raised a $10 million round led by Munich Re Ventures, with Crosslink Capital, Greycroft, and Conversion Capital also chipping in. More here.
Araris Biotech, a three-year-old Zurich startup that is developing antibody-drug conjugates, raised a $24 million round co-led by 4BIO Capital and Pureos Bioventures, with additional funds provided by Wille AG and the Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation. The company has raised a total of $43.4 million. More here.
DocSpera, an eight-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, Ca., whose platform enables real-time surgical coordination between surgeons, care team, and medical device companies, raised a $10 million Series B round co-led by Pier 70 Ventures and JJDC Inc. (Johnson & Johnson's VC arm). HealthIT Media has more here.
Gourmey, a three-year-old Paris startup that is developing a lab-grown foie gras product, raised a $48 million Series A. Earlybird VC was the deal lead, with additional investment from Keen Venture Partners, Omnes Capital, Discovery, Thia Ventures, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, Heartcore Capital, Point Nine Capital, Air Street Capital, Partech, and Beyond Investing. TechCrunch has more here.
Horizon Blockchain Games, a five-year-old Toronto startup whose online game "Skyweaver" allows players to battle each other using fantasy-based trading cards in the form of NFTs, raised a $40 million Series A round. Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital co-led the deal; other investors included Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive, Polygon, Bitkraft Ventures, CMT Digital, Quantstamp, Round13 Capital, Xchange, and Everyrealm, as well as Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget, and Axie Infinity co-founder Aleksander Larsen The company has raised a total of $53.3 million. CoinDesk has more here.
LineVision, a four-year-old startup based in Somerville, Ma., whose sensors provide utilities with information about additional capacity on existing lines, conductor health, and anomalies and risks, raised a $33 million Series C round. Climate Innovation Capital and S2G Ventures co-led the deal, while Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Marubeni, and previous investors UP Partners, National Grid Partners, Clean Energy Ventures, and Zoma Capital also participated. The company has raised a total of $49.8 million. More here.
Patronus, a one-year-old Berlin startup that offers seniors a smartwatch that they can use in case of emergency, raised a $27 million Series A co-led by Singular and Adjacent, with Burda Principal Investments, Calvary Ventures, and UVC Partners also contributing. EU Startups has more here.
QorusDocs, a 10-year-old Bellevue, Wa., startup that helps companies create and manage sales proposals, raised a $10 million in additional round led by WestRiver Group, which also led the previous round. The company has raised a total of $18 million. GeekWire has more here.
WorkSpan, a seven-year-old startup based in Foster City, Ca., whose mission is to make it easier to offer co-sales opportunities to partners, raised a $30 million round. Insight Partners was the deal lead; Mayfield and M12 also pitched in. More here.
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Halo.Car, a six-year-old startup based in Portland, Or., that says it delivers rental cars to customers via remote piloting software, raised a $5 million seed round led by At One Ventures, with T-Mobile Ventures, Earthshot Ventures, and Boost VC also participating. More here.
Hume AI, a one-year-old New York startup that has developed a tool for use in a clinical setting that can measure vocal expressions like laughs, speech impediments, and interjections, along with facial expressions, raised a $3 million round from Northwell Health's VC arm. The company has raised a total of $8 million. FierceHealthcare has more here.
Lasso Labs, a startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that provides NFT holders with better tools to track their digital assets and the perks that come with owning them, raised a $4.2 million round led by Electric Capital, with Ethereal Ventures, OpenSea, Village Global, and Page One Ventures also chipping in. NFT News Prime has more here.
Spexi Geospatial, a four-year-old Vancouver startup that is using blockchain technology to incentivize drone owners to help it build a database of aerial images, raised a $5.5 million seed round. The deal lead was Blockchange Ventures; Protocol Labs, Alliance DAO, FJ Labs, Dapper Labs, CyLon Ventures, and Fort Capital also invested. DroneDJ has more here.
Tidal Cyber, a startup based in Clifton, Va., that helps clients defend against cyberattacks, raised a $4 million round, led by Ultratech Capital Partners, with Access Ventures, Task Force X Fund, Virginia Innovation Partners, First In, BlueWing, and SaaS Ventures also participating. More here.
Tumble, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that aims to develop hardware and software for communal laundry facilities, raised a $7 million seed round led by Hivers and Strivers, with additional participation from Array Ventures, WTI, PenFed Foundation, and Zag Capital. Crunchbase has more here.
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| Not-Saying-How-Much Fundings |
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ZenQMS, a startup based in Ardmore, Pa., that builds quality management (QMS) software for early-stage life sciences companies, raised an undisclosed but "significant" round of financing from Susquehanna Growth Equity. More here.
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Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, has launched a report analyzing investment trends that point toward future unicorn status. While the impact of an economic downturn can’t easily be predicted, deal activity trends can help us better understand current conditions and future outlooks. In this U.S. vs. European Unicorn report, Affinity takes a comparative look at global investment data to understand how the landscape for investors and hopeful unicorns has evolved against economic challenges and the
role relationship intelligence plays in these transactions. Read the report.
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Audio-streaming service Spotify today said it had acquired Kinzen, a Dublin, Ireland firm that has helped it identify harmful content on the platform. The acquisition, says Reuters, is part of Spotify’s efforts to deal with harmful content on its service after a backlash earlier this year over “The Joe Rogan Experience,” in which the podcaster was accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Deal terms were not disclosed.
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong yesterday announced on Twitter a new film titled "Coin: A Founder’s Story" that will be available to stream on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and elsewhere as of Friday. Armstrong is calling the film a "documentary" about his company, but as Fortune notes, most documentary subjects don't finance films about themselves, which is the case here. As notes The Information separately, watching doesn't come cheap, either: it costs $6.99 to stream what is presumably is a very flashy marketing
piece.
Karolina Mrozkova has joined Credo Ventures as a venture partner, based in New York. She was previously a principal with White Star Capital.
Joe Sullivan, the former Uber security chief, was found guilty today by a jury in federal court on charges that he did not disclose a breach of customer and driver records to government regulators. The case — believed to be the first time a company executive faced criminal prosecution over a hack — could change how security professionals handle data breaches, observes the New York Times.
Do Kwon, the co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency operator Terraform Labs, today denied that South Korean prosecutors have frozen about $67 million of his cryptocurrency assets in two exchanges (OKX and KuCoin), while South Korean authorities begin the process to revoke his passport. The Financial Times has more here.
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SpaceX launched another quartet of astronauts to the International Space Station on Wednesday, sending off a crew that includes a Russian cosmonaut as part of a partnership between the United States and Russia that endures despite tensions over the war in Ukraine. The Washington Post has more here.
For the first time, toxic air pollution particles have been found in the lungs, livers and brains of unborn babies, long before they have taken their first breath. The Guardian has more here.
Why the climate economy is about to explode.
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