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Ukrainian troops have reported outages of their SpaceX Starlink communication devices on the frontline, hindering efforts to liberate territory from Russian forces, according to the Financial Times. Roman Sinicyn, coordinator of a foundation that donates Starlink systems to the Ukrainian armed forces, tells the FT the problem may be occurring because SpaceX was trying to prevent their misuse by Russian forces. The blackouts were being experienced in areas so recently regained that their liberations had
“not been made public yet," he said. Some of the outages have led to a “catastrophic” loss of communication in recent weeks, one senior Ukrainian government official tells the FT.
Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed today that $570 million had been stolen in a hack of a blockchain it runs that serves as a bridge for asset transfers between networks. The attack on the Binance Smart Chain network, notes the New York Times, highlighted weaknesses in decentralized finance, or DeFi, where transactions are controlled by code. CEO Changpeng Zhao breaks down what happened.
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Altana, a four-year-old New York startup that uses AI to sift through data points across the supply chain to spot anomalies and identify potential risks and bad actors, raised a $100 million Series B round led by Activate Capital, with additional investors including OMERS Ventures, Prologis Ventures, Reefknot Investments, Four More Capital, GV, Amadeus Capital, Floating Point, and Ridgeline Partners. The company has raised a total of $123 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Blackbird, a New York startup founded this year that is developing a web3 way for restaurants to connect with guests through loyalty programs and membership, raised an $11 million seed round. Investors in the deal included Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital, Multicoin Capital, Variant, Circle Ventures, and IAC. CoinDesk has more here.
Elpha Secure Technology, a four-year-old New York startup that provides cyber insurance as well as software to prevent cyberattacks, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Canapi Ventures, with Stone Point Ventures, AXIS Capital, State Farm Ventures, The Hartford STAG Ventures, Fermat Capital Management, and EOS Venture Partners also pitching in. VentureBeat has more here.
Gather AI, a five-year-old Pittsburgh startup that uses drones to inventory items in warehouses, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Tribeca Venture Partners, with Xplorer Capital, Dundee Venture Capital, Expa, Bling Capital, XRC Labs, and 99 Tartans also participating. The company has raised a total of $17.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Revelio Labs, a four-year-old New York startup that is developing analytics software for HR teams, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Elephant Partners, with additional capital provided by Alumni Ventures, BDMI, K20 Ventures, Techstars, and Barclays. The company has raised a total of $19 million. TechCrunch has more here.
The Rounds, a three-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based sustainability-minded home restocking service, has raised $38 million in Series A funding. Redpoint Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz led the startup’s latest round, which included seed investors Construct Capital and First Round Capital. To date, The Rounds has raised $42 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Tidal Financial Group, an eight-year-old Chicago startup that facilitates the creation, operation, and growth of ETFs for third parties, raised a $32 million round. The investor was FTV Capital. More here.
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Fintor, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup whose platform allows users to buy and sell fractional shares of real estate properties for as little as $5, raised a $6.2 million round from Public.com, Hustle Fund, 500 Global, VU Ventures, and Graphene Ventures. The company has raised a total of $9 million (and competes with a very similar outfit called Landa that also recently raised Series A funding). TechCrunch has more here.
Index Health, a two-year-old startup that develops personalized telemedicine treatments for patients suffering from chronic conditions that is based on the reams of data that it collects, raised a $6 million seed round. LaunchHub Ventures and Inovo Venture Partners co-led the deal. TechCrunch has more here.
Klikit, a one-year-old Singapore startup that is developing software for delivery restaurants and cloud kitchens, raised a $2 million round. Global Founders Capital and Wavemaker Partners co-led the deal, with participation from Gentree Fund, AfterWork Ventures, Reshape Ventures, Nordstar, Pentas Ventures, and Moving Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Lawhive, a two-year-old London startup that has developed a platform to match consumers with appropriate UK solicitors, raised a $2 million seed round led by Episode 1 Ventures, with Tiny VC also anteing up. Sifted has more here.
Lightdash, a 20-month-old, London-based open source business intelligence platform that’s setting out to challenge proprietary incumbents such as Looker, has raised $8.4 million in funding. The seed round was led by Accel, with participation from Moonfire, Y Combinator, Snyk founder Guy Podjarny and Gitlab CMO Ashley Kramer. TechCrunch has more here.
Outmind, a three-year-old Paris startup that has developed a workplace search engine that uses AI to determine the context of users' queries and route them to the right person to contact for further information, raised a $2 million round led by Win Equity; additional investors included Super Capital VC, Mustard Seed Maze, and Myrtus Venture. Station F has more here.
Reneum Institute, a London startup that is building a blockchain marketplace for renewable projects seeking funding, raised a $4.1 million led by Ajeej Capital, with Outlier Ventures also chipping in. EQ has more here.
Solvento, a five-year-old Mexican startup that handles payments, invoice financing, and credit issues for trucking companies, raised a $5 million seed round led by Ironspring Ventures, with additional funds provided by Quona Capital, Proeza Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, Zenda Capital, Susa Ventures, 9Yards Capital, and Supply Chain Collective. The company has raised a total of $9.5 million. Contxto has more here.
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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.
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Atman Capital, a year-old early-stage venture firm partially backed by about 20 founders, has raised $9 million for a debut fund that the firm hopes to close with $30 million in capital commitments. It is funding startups in both the U.S. and Latin America and is promising to give credit to any individual LP who refers a successful deal to the firm in the form of some of its own profits, or carried interest. TechCrunch has more here.
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Crypto exchange Huobi Global, one of the biggest token trading outposts in the Asia markets, said late today that it has agreed to be purchased by Hong Kong-based investment company About Capital Management. In a blog post, Huobi Global, a top-10 exchange by trading volume, said About will “control the majority stake” of Huobi once the deal closes. CoinDesk has more here.
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The exodus continues from the late-stage money cannons of the last couple of years. Coatue Management general partners Luca Schmid and Sebastian Duesterhoeft, who helped lead its private tech investments, have left the New York-based firm, reports The Information. It says that Duesterhoeft is joining Lightspeed Venture Partners as a partner. Schmid plans to work with Guillaume Pousaz, founder and CEO of online payments processor Checkout.com to start a family office. More here.
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Tesla shares dropped nearly 16% between last Friday and today, trading this afternoon at $223.07 down from $265.25. It was the worst week for the stock since March 2020, says CNBC, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to grip the U.S., shutting down businesses and public life.
Musk's Twitter deal could cost Morgan Stanley and the other Wall Street banks that agreed to help him a stunning $500 million in losses, and there's no way to back out unless Musk backs out. Bloomberg has more here.
SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 made just one investment in August 2022 and one in September 2022, according to CB Insights. Nikkei Asia has more here.
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Tesla challenger Rivian will recall nearly all of its vehicles after a structural manufacturing error was discovered in seven cars, the company announced in emails to customers and staff. Rivian produced a little more than 14,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of this year.
Meta Platforms said today it would notify roughly 1 million Facebook users that their account credentials may have been compromised due to security issues with apps downloaded from Apple and Alphabet software stores.
The FT grabs lunch with Elon Musk. "Aren't you entertained?"
The GIF is on its deathbed.
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