BeReal's Series B round, OpenAI's sky-high valuation, and Musk's ventures raise questions about national security

Lettuce, 1, Liz Truss, 0.

Biden administration officials are discussing whether the U.S. should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews, including the deal for Twitter and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, according to Bloomberg. It reports that U.S. officials have grown uncomfortable over Musk’s recent threat to stop supplying the Starlink satellite service to Ukraine and what they see as his increasingly Russia-friendly stance following a series of tweets that outlined peace proposals favorable to President Vladimir Putin. They are also concerned by his plans to buy Twitter with a group of foreign investors. More here.

Snap, whose earnings report today kicked off what is expected to be a sobering tech earnings period, delivered weaker-than-expected Q3 revenue, sending its shares sinking more than 25% in after-hours trading. Snap had already lost about 77% in value from the start of this year. CNN has more here.

The Texas attorney general sued Google today, alleging the search giant violated state laws by collecting biometric data on face and voice features without seeking the full consent of users. Texas alleges Google’s data-collection practices stretch back to 2015 and have affected millions of the state’s residents, according to a complaint filed in state district court in Midland County, Tex. Google previously agreed to pay $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in Illinois alleging the company’s face-grouping tool violated Illinois privacy laws. The WSJ has more here.

Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, just 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.

Acko, a six-year-old Bangalore insurtech startup that develops and sells auto insurance products, healthcare insurance for employers, as well as consumer device protection, is reportedly looking to raise an inside round of approximately $100 million at a $1.2 billion valuation (flat to prior round). TechCrunch reports that previous investor General Atlantic is leading the deal. Reportedly, Acko had engaged with PayU earlier this year to raise a round of over $200 million at a valuation of $1.8 billion. More here.

H2 Green Steel, a three-year-old Swedish startup that plans to produce steel by replacing coal with green hydrogen produced with fossil-free energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 95% compared with traditional steelmaking, raised a $68.4 million Series B extension, increasing the total size of the round to $256.3 million. Investors in the extension included Hitachi Energy, Kobe Steel, and Kinnevik. The company has raised a total of $364 million. MarketWatch has more here.

Banyan, a six-year-old, New York startup that provides product purchase data to fintechs interested in providing more detail to users of their banking and expense management apps, raised a $40 million Series A round at a valuation in the “mid-$100 million” range, according to TechCrunch. Fin Capital and M13 co-led the deal, with participation from FIS Impact Ventures and TTV Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

GlobalFair, a San Mateo, Ca., startup that aims to simplify the procurement of “ready-to-install” materials such as countertops, quartz countertops, cabinets, and natural stones and tiles with a digital marketplace for U.S. contractors, raised a $12 million Series A and $8 million in debt. The deal lead was Lightspeed Venture Partners; Saama Capital, India Quotient, AUM Ventures, and Stride Ventures also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

Hoxton Farms, a two-year-old startup based in London that is developing lab-grown cultivated fat, raised a $22 million Series A round. The deal lead was Collaborative Fund, an early backer of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat; Fine Structure Ventures; AgFunder; and Sustainable Food Ventures. Vegconomist has more here.

Keebo, an Ann Arbor, Mi.-based data learning platform, has announced a $15 million Series A round. True Ventures was the deal lead; other investors include Neotribe, Pear, 406 Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Ordo, a four-year-old British startup whose "open banking" platform aims to enable businesses to boost their cash flow with the instant receipt of cleared funds, raised an $11.2 million Series A round. Equinox Systems was the deal lead. AltFi has more here.

Puck, a newsletter-powered media company that is approaching 20,000 paid subscribers, has recently held talks with potential investors with a goal of raising about $15 million at a valuation of at least $75 million, according to the New York Times. Puck cofounder Jon Kelly tells the outlet that subscription newsletters are part of a new model for publishing, comparing them to magazines in their heyday.

SubjectWell, a ten-year-old Austin startup whose platform matches patients with chronic health conditions to new care options, raised a $40 million round led by Asset Management Ventures, with additional capital provided by Bertlesmann. More here.

Tellius, a six-year-old startup based in Reston, Va., whose software helps companies analyze business performance, raised a $16 million Series B round led by Baird Capital, with Sands Capital Ventures, Grotech Ventures, and Veraz Investments also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $33 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Voilà!, a seven-year-old Quebec startup that helps companies manage schedules, staff replacements, and attendance tracking, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Walter Ventures, with additional investors including Desjardins Capital and Investissement Quebec. More here.

Cofertility, a four-year-old, Boston-based startup that that wants to make egg freezing more affordable and accessible by linking it to egg donation, raised a $5 million seed round co-led by Initialized Capital and Offline Ventures, with Coalition Partners, Muse Capital, and Arkitekt Ventures also contributing. Fast Company has more here.

HiPeople, a two-year-old Berlin startup that helps recruiters by automating candidate reference checks, from request to analysis, raised a $2.7 million. Previous investors Moonfire, Cherry Ventures, and Capnamic led the transaction. Axios has more here.

Kudos, a startup whose free Chrome extension for a digital wallet that holds all of your cards and recommends the card that will provide the best rewards and benefits for each purchase, raised a $7 million seed round led by Patron, with additional participation from QED Investors, SciFi VC, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, Newtype Ventures, and Chingona Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Otonomi, a two-year-old Brooklyn startup that provides parametric cargo insurance using blockchain technology, raised a $3.4 million seed round led by ATX Ventures; additional investors included GSR Ventures, Greenlight Re Innovations, Punja.VC, Altari Ventures, Soundboard Venture Fund, Blackhorn VC, Bering Waters, and REFASHIOND Ventures. Coverager has more here.

Ottr, a startup that claims its crypto wallet allows users to send USDC instantly and for free without going through the complicated steps of setting up a self-custody wallet and storing seed phrases, raised a $3.1 million round. Race Capital was the deal lead; Circle Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Kamal Ravikant also participated. TokenInsight has more here.

Tensorleap, a two-year-old Tel Aviv startup that helps data scientists understand how a neural network interprets data, raised a $5.2 million seed round. Investors included Angular Ventures, Sozo Ventures, and Industry Ventures. Calcalist has more here.

TuMeke Ergonomics, a three-year-old San Mateo, Ca., startup that helps companies by building 3D models of employees from video in order to screen movement and postures for possible ergonomic risk, raised a $2.5 million seed round. GSR Ventures was the deal lead, with OVO Fund, OneValley Ventures, Reach Ventures, Pirque Ventures, and Metagrove Ventures also pitching in. TFN has more here.

OpenAI, a seven-year-old startup whose text- and image-generating artificial intelligence has become a mainstream hit, is in advanced talks to raise more funding from previous backer Microsoft, reports The Information. It says the talks follow a previously undisclosed sale of OpenAI stock by existing shareholders last year to investors including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Bedrock Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, and that, in that deal, the price of the shares implied a valuation of nearly $20 billion. More here.

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Operator Collective, a three-year-old, Bay Area-based firm comprised of a community of operator investors, has closed its second fund with $92 million in capital commitments from its backers, 90% of whom are women and 40% are people of color. The firm (and community) closed its previous fund with $51 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Instacart, the food delivery company, is pulling its plans to go public in 2022, in the latest sign of turmoil in the public markets, reports the New York Times.

In early August, Ben Chestnut, the billionaire founder and CEO of Mailchimp, announced he was abruptly stepping down. “Over the last 21 years as Mailchimp’s CEO, I’ve developed a strong sense of timing,” he said in a letter to employees. “Now is the right time for me to take a step aside and evolve my role.” That sense of timing may have been informed by a controversy over pronouns that Chestnut had sparked a month earlier. Platformer has more here.

Elon Musk said he and other investors are “obviously overpaying” for Twitter during Tesla's earnings call yesterday.

Twitter’s workforce is likely to be hit with massive cuts in the coming months, no matter who owns the company, interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post show. Elon Musk, who is expected to close the purchase by next Friday, told prospective investors in his deal to buy Twitter that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000. More here.

BeReal, the three-year-old, Paris-based photo-sharing app that has become a huge hit with Gen Z and beyond, quietly raised $60 million in Series B funding earlier this year, TechCrunch reports. The round valued the company at just north of  €600 million, adds the outlet, without disclosing who participated in the round. Earlier backers in BeReal include Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. More here.

Meta’s $10 billion metaverse investment is "not enough," according to Animoca Brands cofounder and chairman Yat Siu. More here.

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