Meta is ditching Giphy, Starboard sinks its teeth in Salesforce, and gamers push back on NFTs

Where we spent the day. There are two days left (it's not too late to come if you're in the Bay Area).

Meta said today that it would sell Giphy, the online repository for video clips of pets, facial expressions and other animated GIFs, a major defeat for the social media giant in a long-running dispute with British antitrust regulators. It is the first time Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has been forced by regulators to sell a part of its business. The New York Times has more here.

Hedge fund manager Starboard Value has taken a stake in Salesforce, with founder Jeff Smith saying at an event in New York today that a significant opportunity remains in the enterprise software maker. Faber tells CNBC the stake is significant, but he didn't specify the dollar amount. Shares of Salesforce have fallen nearly 40% this year. In August, the company offered a disappointing forecast for fiscal 2023, partly due to a negative foreign exchange impact. CNBC has more here.

Federal Reserve officials have coalesced around a plan to raise interest rates by three-quarters of a point next month as they grow alarmed by the staying power of rapid price increases — and increasingly worried that inflation is now feeding on itself. More in the New York Times.

Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, recently 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. Find the report here.

Enable, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that helps business-to-business companies manage their rebate programs, raised a $94 million Series C round led by Insight Partners, with Lightspeed Venture Partners, HarbourVest Partners, SE Ventures, PSP Growth, Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Telstra Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $156 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Jasper, a seven-year-old Austin startup that leverages AI to generate content for blog articles, social media posts, and website copy, raised a $125 million Series A round at a $1.5 billion valuation. Insight Partners was the deal lead; Coatue, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Foundation Capital, Founders Circle Capital, and HubSpot Ventures also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

Bolster, a five-year-old startup based in Los Altos, Ca., that uses AI to monitor domains, websites, and app stores for bad behavior such as phishing, brand infringement, scams, and URL hijacking, raised a $15 million Series A extension. Investors included Cervin, Liberty Global, Cheyenne Ventures, and previous investors Thomvest Ventures and Crosslink Capital. The company has raised a total of $32 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Chainsafe, a five-year-old Toronto startup that connects games using the development engine Unity with blockchain technologies, raised an $18.75 million Series A round led by Round13, with additional participation from NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Sfermion, and Jsquare as well as previous investors Digital Finance Group and Fenbushi Capital. CoinDesk has more here.

Cyberdontics, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that aims to provide robot-run root canals, raised a $15 million Series A round. Pacific Dental Services was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $19.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Engaged MD, an eight-year-old startup based in Washington D.C., whose software enables patients and providers to make more informed decisions about fertility treatments,
raised an $11 million round. MonCap was the deal lead. More here.

Eyenuk, a 12-year-old Los Angeles startup that is developing an AI-powered eye-screening technology that enables autonomous detection of diabetic retinopathy during a patient's regular exam, raised a $26 million Series A round led by AXA IM Alts, with T&W Medical A/S, A&C Foelsgaard Alternativer ApS, Kendall Capital Partners, and KOFA Healthcare also contributing. The company has raised a total of $47.4 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Fabric Systems, a one-year-old California City, Ca., startup that is building a liquid-cooled bitcoin miner and a computer processor for advanced cryptographic algorithms such as zero-knowledge proofs, raised a $13 million seed round. The investment syndicate included Metaplanet, Blockchain.com, and 8090 Partners. CoinDesk has more here.

Landis, a four-year-old New York startup that helps consumers qualify for mortgages, raised a $40 million round led by GV, with Sequoia Capital, Arrive, Second Century Ventures, Operator Partners, Signia Ventures, and Team Builder Ventures also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.

Makersite, a four-year-old startup based in Munich, Germany, whose software helps clients like Microsoft and Procter & Gamble make sustainable product and supply chain decisions, raised an $18 million Series A round co-led by Hitachi Ventures and Translink Capital; additional investors included KOMPAS and Planet A. The company has raised a total of $18.1 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Orbex, a seven-year-old startup based in Forres, Scotland, that is developing rockets to take satellites to space, raised a $46.1 million Series C round led by Scottish National Investment Bank, with Jacobs, The Danish Green Future Fund, Verve Ventures, and previous investors BGF, Heartcore Capital, Octopus Ventures, and High-Tech Gründerfonds also taking part. The company has raised a total of $63.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

OutThink, a three-year-old London startup that says it combines human intelligence with data from existing security systems to identify risk patterns across an organization, raised a $10 million seed round led by AlbionVC, with additional capital provided by TriplePoint Capital, Forward Partners, Gapminder, and Innovate UK. The company has raised a total of $13.8 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Prenuvo, a startup based in Redwood City, Ca., that created an AI-powered alternative to traditional magnetic resonance imaging that can be used to screen and diagnose more than 500 medical conditions, including most solid tumors at Stage 1, raised a $40 million Series A round. The deal lead was Felicis Ventures, with additional participation from Nest founder Tony Fadell, 23&Me CEO Anne Wojcicki, and supermodel Cindy Crawford. SiliconANGLE has more here.

RisingWave Labs, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing a platform for data stream processing, raised a $36 million Series A round. Yunqi Partners was the deal lead and was joined by undisclosed corporate investors and angel investors. The company has raised more than $40 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Sensat, a seven-year-old London startup that aims to lead the digital automation of infrastructure projects in the energy, rail, and telecommunications sectors through the use of "digital twins" or simulations, raised an $18.9 million Series B round led by National Grid Partners, the corporate venture capital and innovation arm of National Grid. News Headlines UK has more here.

Shardeum, a nine-month-old layer 1 blockchain co-founded by Nischal Shetty, a Bangalore-based co-founder of WazirX, India's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has raised $18.2 million in a seed funding round from more than 50 investors, including Jane Street, Struck Crypto and the Spartan Group. CoinDesk has more here.

Aryeo, a three-year-old Boston startup that provides software to agents, brokers, and photographers to help them create a complete digital experience for properties, raised a $3.5 million round led by 645 Ventures, with Hyperplane VC also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $7.7 million. More here.

Jua, a startup based in Zurich, Switzerland, whose AI-powered platform gives the meteorological industry customized weather models, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Promus Ventures; Mehdi Ghissassi, head of product for DeepMind, also participated. EU-Startups has more here.

Kenzz, an Egyptian startup founded this year that is building an e-commerce shopping platform targeting consumers in Egypt and MENA, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Outliers VC, with additional investment from HOF Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Samurai Incubate. TechCrunch has more here.

Kubiya, a Palo Alto startup that is developing a conversational AI solution for DevOps teams, raised a $6 million seed round. Hyperwise Ventures was the deal lead; angel investor and former Sequoia partner Pierre Lamond also participated. CTech has more here.

Magic Games, a Turkish startup that is developing community-driven multiplayer puzzle games, raised a $5+ million seed round. Makers Fund led the transaction. VentureBeat has more here.

Pinktada, a two-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based membership-based hotel marketing and reservation platform that allows guests to reserve rooms with transferrable room tokens using blockchain technology, has raised $975,000 in new funding. Backers include Selenean Capital, an Ireland-based fund and individual investors; they join backers True Global Ventures 4 Plus which has invested $2 million to date, and several members of the New York Angels investment group. More here.

PropertyScout, a two-year-old Thai startup that claims to provide an end-to-end real estate platform that connects realtors to buyers, renters, and owners, raised a $5 million Series A round led by Altara Ventures and joined by Partech, Hustle Fund, AngelCentral, and Asymmetry VC. The company has raised a total of $7.8 million. TechinAsia has more here.

MycoWorks, a nine-year-old startup based in Emeryville, CA, that creates imitation leather out of mushroom roots for clients such as Hermès, raised an undisclosed strategic round from GM Ventures, the investment arm of General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM). CNN has more here.

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Digitalis Ventures, a six-year-old New York-based firm, says it has closed its fourth fund with $300 million in capital commitments. The outfit focuses on startups that it thinks are developing breakthrough science at tech with the potential to transform patients' lives. Past bets include Good Therapeutics (acquired by Roche), GRO Biosciences and Cayaba Care. More here.

Venture capital funds focusing on niche sectors are hot, and Will Ventures is here for it. The three-year-old, low-flying, Boston-based venture outfit just tripled the size of its second fund to $150 million thanks to its approach of investing in sports technologies with the help of its community of athlete backers who help promote and grow the portfolio companies. TechCrunch has more here.

Elon Musk could spin Starlink off from SpaceX and carry out an IPO by 2025, tech analyst firm CCS Insight said in a report. CCS Insight said that Starlink would go public to “raise capital to expand its constellation of satellites” to meet growing demand for its services. Earlier this year, Musk told employees that an IPO of Starlink was unlikely until 2025 or later, CNBC previously reported, citing the billionaire’s comments from an all-hands meeting of SpaceX employees. More here.

Early stage crypto fund 1k(x) announced Diana Biggs as its newest partner. Biggs most recently served as the group chief strategy officer of Valour, a Swiss digital asset management firm. CoinDesk has more here.

Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz was asked today at Disrupt about the firm's big, recent check to Wework founder Adam Neumann, who is building up a residential real estate company with a community component. “I know there’s a lot of stuff written about [Neumann] and things we did, but we do our own research," said Dixon of the $350 million check his firm reportedly provided to Neumann. "We just don’t rely on books and movies for our diligence. We do our own research, and we just came to a different conclusion on a lot of what happened." More here.

In 2010, Marc Lore struck a more than half-a-billion dollar deal to sell Quidsi — the company behind Diapers.com and Soap.com — to Amazon. The acquisition helped turn Amazon into “the everything store,” but 12 years later, Lore describes the sale as “upsetting, telling an audience at Disrupt that he and his cofounder headed to a bar immediately the sale, but not to celebrate. More here.

Shervin Pishevar, the controversial VC and operator, has apparently been fired from his relatively recent, self-described role as "vice chairman" of Kanye West's company Yeezy. TMZ has more here.

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $84.5 million to Girl Scouts of the USA and 29 of its local branches, the 110-year-old organization said today. It's the largest donation the Girl Scouts have received from an individual since their founding in 1912. NPR has more here.

Peter Thiel is reportedly pursuing Maltese citizenship now, too. The New York Times has the story.

Shawn Xu has left his role as a with On Deck's venture fund and joined Lowercarbon Capital as a new investor and chief of staff. More here.

The so-called space race has unseen consequences. Since 1980, reports Semafor, at least 24 workers -- mainly technicians -- have been killed while at work, while many more have sustained injuries that were never reported or are not classified as space industry accidents in the data. A SpaceX technician barely escaped with his own life after an accident in January, but after months spent in a coma, it isn't clear what company plans to do about -- or for -- him, adds the new outlet.

Kakao, Korea’s most popular messaging and social media service, suffered a widespread, days-long outage stemming from a blaze at a datacenter in the south of Seoul on Saturday.  Following the chaos that ensued -- disrupting banking, disrupting deliveries --  one of the company's co-CEOs, Whon Namkoong, resigned. Meanwhile, policy makers and consumers are debating whether one company should hold sway over so much of the economy. Bloomberg has more here.

Gamers have largely triumphed against the gaming industry’s efforts to incorporate nonfungible tokens or NFTs, telling Bloomberg that they view NFTs as vehicles for financial speculation, and that layering them into a fantasy world will suck out the fun. Bloomberg takes a look here.

The quiet political rise of David Sacks, Silicon Valley’s prophet of urban doom.

Balthazar, the storied haunt for New York celebrities and power players, briefly banned comedian James Corden, with its owner calling Corden “the most abusive customer" in Balthazar’s history.

Why some people are mosquito magnets.

If you give a mom a cookie.

Audemars Piguet goes crazy with the gems.

Polaroid, the instant camera maker, just unveiled four Bluetooth music players and (bravely?) an internet radio streaming service, Polaroid Radio.