Elon Musk gets an extension, Tiger Global seeks out more capital, and Yale shares some surprising performance data

Thursday! Quick mention: If you are based in San Francisco and are interested in hearing renowned investor Ron Conway and Salon founder David Talbot discuss the future of our fair city on Tuesday evening, October 25, let me know; I'm moderating and apparently have a few passes to hand out. 🎟️ I will, of course, ask about the new dog restaurant with the $75 tasting menu that has ignited debate across the country and perhaps the world. As wrote one concerned SF resident on Instagram: "This signals the collapse." 

Having agreed to buy Twitter after all, Elon Musk today motioned for the court to cancel his upcoming trial with Twitter. But the trial can't be called off until both parties agree, and Twitter isn't doing diddly-squat until Musk produces the $44 billion owed to the company (fool me once, shame on you, food me twice, etc). Luckily for Musk, he was able to persuade the judge presiding over the trial to give him 11 extra days to close the transaction. Now, he has until October 28; otherwise, it's back to court next month.

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In recent years, assets under management at the investment firm Tiger Global have exploded. Now the firm is taking stock and winnowing down its operations, per a new investor letter first seen by Axios and that we obtained subsequently.

Most significantly, whether for lack of other options or — just as likely — in reaction to the changing market landscape, the firm just let its limited partners know it plans to raise $6 billion for its newest fund, for which it expects to hold a “first close” at least by mid-January. (As an added sweetener, investors in the first close will receive a discounted management fee of 1.75%, states the letter.)

While still a lot of moolah, $6 billion is less than half the $12.7 billion that Tiger Global secured from investors back in March of this year, money it began investing last fall and tore through quickly. (A source familiar with the firm says it is still investing out of that vehicle.)

Also shrinking is the capital that Tiger Global employees will be committing to the new fund. Whereas employees contributed $1.5 billion to Tiger’s $12.7 billion fund, or 12% of the total amount, this time they are committing to invest a minimum of $500 million to the $6 billion effort, or a little less than 9% of the total amount. (This could rise.)

What isn’t getting smaller is the size of Tiger Global’s bench, suggests the firm. While much was made on Monday of the departure of John Curtius, a software investor who joined Tiger Global in 2017, Tiger Global has a slightly larger team than it did at the beginning of this year, says a source familiar with the firm. Indeed, in an investor letter that also came out Monday, Tiger Global stated it has recently hired five new investors, including two individuals from Blackstone, two recent Harvard graduates, and a fifth investor, Evan Stanleigh, who joined the firm after a seven-year stint as a partner with the New York hedge fund Cadian Capital.

Either way, low-flying Tiger Global apparently didn’t like the attention that Curtius attracted as he segued out the door.

More here.

Nested Therapeutics, a startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is targeting “overlooked” clusters of mutations in order to develop better cancer drugs, raised a $90 million Series A round led by Goldman Sachs, with additional participation from Foresite Capital, Avidity Partners, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Section 32, and previous investor Versant Ventures. The company has raised a total of $125 million. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Clearspeed, a six-year-old San Diego startup that provides voice analytics technology in order to assess security and fraud risk, raised a $27 million Series C round co-led by Sanida Holdings and PilotRock; King Philanthropies also pitched in. More here.

EcoCart, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that performs product life cycle audits for its customers to help them calculate, analyze and offset their carbon emissions, raised a $14.5 million Series A round led by Fifth Wall Climate, with additional investors including Capital One Ventures, SVB Capital, and Ryder Ventures. The company has raised a total of $17.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Gamurs, a seven-year-old Sydney startup that claims to have 55 million monthly active users across its portfolio of 16 digital publications covering esports, gaming, and entertainment, raised a $12 million Series A round. The deal was co-led by Elysian Park Ventures (the investment arm of the Los Angeles Dodgers) and Cerro Capital. Gamurs has raised a total of $17.5 million. Sports Pro has more here.

Jiko, a six-year-old Oakland startup that aims to provide companies with “low-cost access” to Treasury bills, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Red River West; additional investors included Trousdale Ventures, Owen Van Natta, Temaris & Associates, La Maison Partners, BPI France, Airbus Ventures, Anthem Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Radicle Impact. TechCrunch has more here.

Korea Credit Data, a six-year-old Seoul startup that provides financial services to small- and medium-size businesses in Korea, raised a $24.7 million Series D extension. Fiserv and LG Uplus were the deal leads. The company has raised a total of $111.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Oort, a three-year-old Boston startup that aims to detect and respond to identity threats (e.g. social engineering, phishing, and malware) at “enterprise scale,” raised an $11.5 million Series A round co-led by .406 Ventures and Energy Impact Partners, with Cisco Investments, 645 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and First Star Ventures also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

The Rounds, a three-year-old Philadelphia startup that provides a subscription delivery service for household goods and picks up and recycles its packaging for future use, raised a $38 million Series A round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint Ventures, with Construct Capital and First Round Capital also joining in. The company has raised a total of $8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Typhur Technology, a startup based in San Jose, Ca., that is developing a sous vide cooking device, raised a $20 million seed round. Jiupai Capital and Bright Future Technology Holdings were the co-leads. TechCrunch has more here.

Lightdash, a one-year-old San Francisco startup whose open source business intelligence platform is designed to challenge proprietary incumbents such as Looker, raised an $8.4 million seed round led by Accel, with Moonfire and Y Combinator also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

LoudCrowd, a three-year-old Austin startup that is creating an automated platform for scaling brand ambassador programs, raised a $5 million Series A round led by Mucker Capital, with additional investment from LiveOak and Active Capital. The company has raised a total of $9.2 million. More here.

PropHero, a one-year-old Sydney startup that is building a digital property investment platform that includes investment strategy consultations and support from personal property coaches, raised a $5.2 million seed round. The deal co-leads were Fifth Wall and Samaipata, while Jelix Ventures and AfterWork Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $6.7 million. TechinAsia has more here.

Pulp Culture, a three-year-old Los Angeles startup that has built a brand around naturally alcoholic and certified probiotic beverages, raised a $7 million Series A round. The Kale Fund was the deal lead. The Los Angeles Business Journal has more here.

Xalts, a Hong Kong-based digital-asset management firm that was was co-founded by a former trader at HSBC Holdings and a former executive at Meta Platforms, has raised $6 million in funding co-led by Citi Ventures and Accel. Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and other hedge fund managers were also investors. Bloomberg has more here.

Yummers, a Los Angeles startup based in that has developed food mix-ins for both dogs and cats, raised a $6.3 million seed round led by L Catterton, with Caravan, FS Investors, C&S Family Capital, Platinum Mile Ventures, and Louis Kreisburg also taking part. More here.

Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, launches 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.

Amazon says it's launching a $150 million fund-of-funds that will invest in venture firms, accelerators or incubators that are headed up by underrepresented founders. The announcement marks the first time that Amazon has invested in venture funds. Reuters has more here.

CRV, the 52-year-old, venture firm, announced today that it has closed its 14th early-stage fund with $1 billion, and has closed its second growth-stage fund with $500 million. The firm's biggest successes in recent years include early bets on Zendesk and DoorDash. CRV is also investor in Airtable, valued at $11.7 billion last December. Fortune has more here.

Similar to Amazon, MassMutual said it will invest another $100 million in first-time funds led by Black, Latinx and Indigenous managers. It earlier committed through its impact investing initiative to plug $50 million into related funds. More here.

Matrix Partners, the 45-year-old venture firm with offices in Boston and San Francisco (and that works with teams that share the Matrix brand in China and India), recently closed its newest fund with $800 million in capital commitments. We'll have more on this one tomorrow, having talked with longtime general partner Antonio Rodriguez this week. More here.

RoadRunner Recycling, an eight-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based sustainable waste management startup, has acquired Compology, a waste and recycling smart metering technology company based in San Francisco. According to RoadRunner, the move bolsters its sustainability offerings through enhanced data collection, AI, and environmental, social governance (ESG) reporting capabilities. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed, but RoadRunner has raised $130 millionish to date from investors, compared with the $39 million that Complogy reportedly raised. Waste Dive has more here.

Sen. Lindsey Graham yesterday feuded with Elon Musk over Musk's "peace plan" Twitter thread that proposed capitulating to Russia to avoid an even worse outcome. “If you want peace in Ukraine — which we ALL do — simply demand Russian honor the boundaries they agreed to in 1994 and withdraw their forces,” Graham tweeted. “To do otherwise is to legitimize a bait and switch by Russia and a signal to other bad actors to take what you want – by force!" The Hill has more here.

Peter McGuiness, who took over as CEO of Impossible Foods back in April (from founder Patrick Brown), is dismissing about 6% of the company's 800-person workforce as the plant-based meats company tries to position itself for faster growth. Bloomberg has more here.

Yale's endowment yesterday reported an investment gain of .08% for the 2022 fiscal year, its lowest return since the Great Recession, when the endowment tanked by nearly 25%. Last year, Yale posted a staggering 40.2% return that drove total assets to a new height of $42.3 billion. The Yale Daily News has more here. 

Amazon said today it is hiring 150,000 employees in the U.S. to help manage the holiday rush.

Meta’s Horizon Worlds has so many quality issues that even the team building it isn’t using it very much, reports The Verge.

Amazon is shutting down tests of its home delivery robot, the latest sign that the e-commerce giant is starting to wind down experimental projects amid slowing sales growth, says Bloomberg.

TikTok parent ByteDance saw its operating losses more than triple last year to above $7 billion as it spent heavily to continue its torrid growth; it also produced an operating profit in the first quarter of 2022, the WSJ says, "indicating one of the world’s most valuable startups could be turning a corner after years of incurring large losses." More here.

"Long term, I think we will have autonomous vehicles that you and I can buy,” Mike Ramsey, a Gartner researcher, tells Bloomberg. “But we’re going to be old.”

Christian Bale breaks down his characters.

F1 racing often comes down to the tires.

Inside the search for America's best mullet.

Pigeon clutches and rat bags, apparently. (Carrie Bradshaw carries them, if you need further convincing to either take these seriously or run in the opposite direction.)