A criminal investigation into Tesla, a massive round for a cashierless store startup, and the latest on Ye

It's looking like we'll be in Lisbon for Web Summit next week, including to interview the founders of Yuga Labs -- the team behind Bored Ape Yacht Club -- along with outgoing YC president Geoff Ralston. If you're around, let us know -- maybe we can grab a galão.

Speaking of needing more coffee, yesterday we mentioned an Atlanta startup -- Arnica --  that just announced $7 million in seed funding. We said it was founded 10 years ago; we were off by nine years. (It was founded last year.) 

Banks have started to send $13 billion in cash backing Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, reports the WSJ, the latest sign the $44 billion deal for the social-media company is on track to close by the end of the week after months of twists and turns.

Mark Zuckerberg plans to spend billions of dollars more on the metaverse next year, despite burning a whopping $4 billion on it this quarter.

Tesla is under criminal investigation in the United States over claims that the company’s electric vehicles can drive themselves, Reuters reported today. The outlet says the U.S. Department of Justice launched the previously undisclosed probe last year following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Tesla’s driver assistance system Autopilot, which was activated during the accidents. As early as 2016, Reuters notes that Tesla’s marketing materials have touted Autopilot’s capabilities. 

TikTok isn’t liable for the death of a 10-year-old girl who watched a so-called Blackout Challenge video that encouraged people to choke themselves, a judge ruled today, citing Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act. Bloomberg has more here.

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Ascend Elements, a seven-year-old startup based in Westborough, Ma., that is looking to build a closed-loop, EV battery materials supply chain in North America, raised $200 million in equity and $100 million in debt. The equity round was led by Fifth Wall Climate and joined by SK ecoplant (the environmental unit of South Korean conglomerate SK Group), Oman Investment Authority, Lithium Americas Corporation, GLy Capital Management's New Mobility Fund, Mirae Asset Capital & LS, and Shinhan GIB as well as previous investors. (These include Hitachi Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover's InMotion Ventures, TDK Ventures, Orbia Ventures, At One Ventures, TRUMPF Venture, and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures.) Recycling Today has more here.

Floryn, a six-year-old Dutch startup that claims it uses AI and machine learning to make loans to small- and medium-size businesses, raised $65 million from NatWest. The company has raised a total of $151.6 million. PYMNTS has more here.

Trigo, a four-year-old, Tel Aviv startup that builds technology for stores to operate cashier-free, “just walk out” experiences similar to those you might find in Amazon Go stores, raised a $100 million round co-led by Temasek and 83North, with SAP and previous investors Hetz Ventures, Red Dot Capital Partners, Vertex Ventures, and Viola also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Vesttoo, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides institutional investors with access to insurance investments, raised an $80 million Series C round at a $1 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by Mauro Ventures and an unidentified private equity firm, with additional participation from Goldman Sachs, Gramercy Ventures, Black River Ventures, and Hanaco Ventures. The company has raised a total of $103 million. Calcalist has more here.

AgroSphere, a six-year-old startup based in Charlottesville, Va., is developing biological pesticides that it claims have a multi-year shelf-life and high efficacy in the field, raised a $22 million Series B round co-led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood and Ospraie Ag Science; Bidra Innovation Ventures and previous investor Cavallo Ventures also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $38.1 million. CityBiz has more here.

Alto Neuroscience, a three-year-old startup based in Los Altos, Ca., that is designing drugs to combat depression, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Lightswitch Capital, with additional capital provided by Alkeon Capital, Sobrato Capital, Novartis Pharma AG, Valor Equity Partners, Korify Capital, Vine Ventures, and Gaingels. The company has raised a total of $75 million. More here.

AM Batteries, a six-year-old startup based in Acton, Ma., that is developing dry-electrode manufacturing methods for lithium-ion batteries, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Anzu Partners, with TDK Ventures, Foothill Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Zeon Ventures, SAIC Capital, VinFast, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, and Creative Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $30.3 million. Axios has more here.

Finexio, a seven-year-old, Orlando, Fla.-based B2B accounts payable payments-as-a-service company, says it has closed on $35 million in Series B funding led by J.P. Morgan. Earlier backer Patriot Financial Partners also joined the round, along with new investors Discover Financial Services, Valley Bank and Trogg Hawley Capital. Pymnts has more here.

LatticeFlow, a two-year-old Zurich startup that says it helps machine learning teams improve their AI vision models by automatically diagnosing issues and improving both the data and the models themselves, raised a $12 million Series A round co-led by Atlantic Bridge and OpenOcean; FPV Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $14.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Moneyhub, an eight-year-old UK startup whose platform helps businesses offer personalized payment products for their customers, raised a $39.5 million round. Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group co-led the round, with an additional $5.8 million debt facility provided by Shawbrook. The company has raised a total of $63.1 million. Fintech Finance News has more here.

Resonai, a nine-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose platform uses AI and augmented reality technology to convert physical spaces into digital environments capable of hosting immersive, real-world experiences, raised a $20 million Series A extension round co-led by Meitav-Dash, Blue Square Israel, and Irani Ventures, with previous investors SBI, Vive Nevo, and Redds Capital also anteing up. SiliconANGLE has more here.

The New Statement, a new digital news property founded by media entrepreneur Jimmy Finkelstein, has reportedly raised $40 million from investors. Semafor (itself a new, venture-backed digital news property) has more.

Unito, a seven-year-old Montreal startup that offers a service to bring together disparate software-as-a-service platforms such as Jira and Trello, raised $14.5 million Series B round led by CDPQ; previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Rainfall Ventures also participated. The company has raised a total of $32.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Valence Security, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose platform attempts to detect all of a company’s SaaS apps and contextualize them with vendor risk assessments, offering tools to spot improperly configured security controls and drifts from established policies, raised a $25 million Series A round led by M12; additional investors included YL Ventures, Porsche Ventures, Akamai Technologies, Alumni Ventures, and Michael Fey. The company has raised a total of $32 million. TechCrunch has more here.

WATI, a two-year-old Hong Kong startup that has built customer sales and engagement tools built on WhatsApp, raised a $23 million Series B round led by Tiger Global, with DST Global Partners and Shopify also participating. The company has raised a total of $31.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Yoom, a six-year-old Israeli startup whose volumetric technology allows the creation of photorealistic digital content and experiences for the metaverse and web3, raised a $15 million round. Investors included Jimmy Iovine, co-founder of Interscope Records and Beats Electronics. The company has raised a total of $39 million. Calcalist has more here.

Bearer, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that says it develops open source code analysis engines that combine with proprietary heuristics to detect sensitive data flow and data security risks, raised a $4 million seed round led by Alven, with additional investment from Kima Ventures, Partech, and Point Nine. The company has raised a total of $7.6 million. Tech.eu has more here.

flyp, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed a platform to help property owners and agents sell their properties more efficiently, raised a $5.7 million seed round led by Outward VC. Forbes has more here.

Forsea Foods, a one-year-old Israeli startup that claims it is growing eel meat ex vivo as a three-dimensional tissue structure without requiring the scaffolding stage, raised a $5.2 million seed round led by Target Global, with The Kitchen FoodTech Hub, PeakBridge VC, Zora Ventures, FoodHack, and Milk & Honey Ventures also pitching in. Vegconomist has more here.

Memorable, a one-year-old Boston startup that uses AI to test the efficacy of ads, raised a $2.75 million pre-seed round led by LDV Capital, with TenOneTen Ventures, BDMI, and AperiamVentures also taking part. Fortune has more here.

Perygee, a two-year-old Boston startup that has developed a security platform for smart devices, raised a $4.75 million seed round led by Ballistic Ventures. The company has raised a total of $6.4 million. More here.

Surfe, a Paris startup that claims it integrates a suite of sales and productivity tools to help teams find and contact leads more efficiently, raised a $4 million seed round led by 360 Capital and joined by TS Ventures. EU-Startups has more here.

Syso Technologies, a three-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that manages renewable energy and storage project operations for developers and independent power producers, raised a $10 million Series A round. Lacuna Sustainable Investments was the deal lead. More here.

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Satgana, a two-year-old, Luxembourg-based venture firm that's focused on climate investing (it also has a “diversity and inclusion” lens), says it has held a first close for a debut fund that it hopes with reach €30 million in capital commitments. According to TechCrunch, the fund will invest up to €500,000 at the pre-seed and seed stages across Europe and Africa and has already invested the capital it's raising in several startups. More here.

Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle startup that burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment, is shutting down — its parts being absorbed into its two main backers: Ford and VW, according to TechCrunch. During an all-hands meeting today, it reports, Argo AI employees were told that some people would receive offers from the two automakers, though it isn't yet clear how many will be hired into Ford or VW and which companies will get Argo’s technology. More here.

Self-driving car tech company Mobileye saw its shares close up more than 37% in their stock market debut today after the outfit was spun out of Intel. Mobileye was publicly traded before Intel bought the Israeli company in 2017 for $15.3 billion. At its IPO price of $21, Mobileye was valued at just $17 billion, resulting in minimal gains for Intel thus far. CNBC has more here.

Evan Neu has joined Venrock as a partner and its general counsel. Prior to Venrock, he was a managing director and deputy general counsel at TPG. More here.

At an Axios event today, billionaire investor and so-called SPAC King Chamath Palihapitiya said the zero interest rates the Federal Reserve allowed to persist for years created the “perverted” market conditions he benefited from at the height of the Covid pandemic. “We are learning what went wrong, which is that we had a decade-plus of zero interest rates,” Palihapitiya said of the market. “That is what fundamentally was wrong. It perverted the market. It distorted reality. It allowed manias and asset bubbles to build in every single part of the economy.”

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was today escorted out of the Los Angeles office of shoemaker Skechers after showing up unannounced. “Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech,” the company said in a statement. Forbes reported yesterday that Ye lost his billionaire status when Adidas cut ties with him, adding that his net worth dropped to $400 million, which comes from his music catalog, real estate and his 5% stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s shapewear company, Skims. Forbes said his Adidas deal added $1.5 billion to his net worth.

Zillow has laid off about 300 employees as it is shifting focus toward technology-related positions in the company, TechCrunch learned from sources and confirmed with the company over e-mail, though Zillow wouldn't say what percentage of its workforce the laid-off staffers represent.

Holy. When Alabama’s “permitless carry” law goes into effect in January, half of the states in the U.S. from Maine to Arizona -- half! -- will not require a license to carry a handgun.

“According to our research, younger generations are three times more likely to inspire one another to give than older generations,” says Dianne Chipps Bailey, a philanthropic strategy executive at Bank of America Private Bank. More here.

Andreessen Horowitz's flagship crypto fund shed around 40% of its value in the first half of this year, according to the WSJ. That decline, fund investors tell the outlet, is much larger than the 10% to 20% drops recorded by other venture funds that have largely avoided the risky practice of purchasing volatile cryptocurrencies. More here.

The stranger is in the house. ☠️

Related: Elon Musk reportedly told Twitter employees today that he doesn’t plan to cut 75% of the staff when he takes over the company. Bloomberg has more here.

A possible convergence of flu, RSV and Covid-19 has doctors worried.

The best books of 2022 so far.

Geesh. What does Matthew Perry have against Keanu Reeves?

FightCamp. It's better than getting punched in the face.

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