BlockFi's bankruptcy, Musk's Apple attacks, and a new Twitter alternative raises moolah from a16z

Another one bites the dust: BlockFi has filed for bankruptcy, the latest crypto firm to collapse in the wake of crypto exchange FTX’s rapid downfall. BlockFi said in a statement that it will use the Chapter 11 process to “focus on recovering all obligations owed to BlockFi by its counterparties, including FTX and associated corporate entities,” adding that recoveries are likely to be delayed by FTX’s own bankruptcy. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to continue operating while working out a plan to repay creditors, notes Bloomberg. According to Crunchbase data, over its five years of operations, BlockFi raised at least $1.4 billion from investors, including Valar Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Tiger Global.

Elon Musk attacked Apple today with a flurry of tweets, saying the company had cut its Twitter advertising and threatened to bump Twitter from Apple’s app store. He asked whether Apple hated free speech, criticized its app fees and even pondered whether the tech giant might go after another of his companies, Tesla, observes Bloomberg. It's a pretty high-risk strategy, if it can be called that. While Musk wants to make Twitter less reliant on advertising by steering users toward its Blue subscription service, ads generated nearly 90% of Twitter's $5.1 billion in revenue last year, with a good chunk coming from Apple, notes Bloomberg. Meanwhile, "multiple top advertising agencies and media buyers" tell the Financial Times that nearly all of the big brands they represent have paused spending on the social media platform, citing alarm at Musk’s ad hoc approach to policing content and decision to axe many of its ad sales team. More here.

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Earlier today, renowned VC Bill Gurley put together a list of the many "red flags" that VCs should have paid closer attention to when funding FTX, suggesting in a tweet that this summary of warning signs might help keep VCs "out of the investor hurt locker" going forward. Gurley includes such no-nos as "unique financial data presentations," "aversion to audits," "large secondary transactions," and "lack of a legitimate board."

Yet publishing them now is a little like shouting "fire!" after everyone is already outside the theater, watching its smoldering remains dissolve into the parking lot. Most of the behaviors that Gurley identified today came to a grounding halt when the market abruptly shifted in spring, and by then, the damage was already done. More, if history has shown us anything, it will happen again and not because VCs miss red flags but because they sometimes throw these investing rules out the window.

Gurley asserts, for example, that one reason the startup market cratered was that investors "let the good times roll" (red flag #1). It's pretty hard to argue with this one. Consider how little VCs really knew about Samuel Bankman-Fried, all while he burnished his image as the crypto industry's wunderkind. (Weirdly, Sam Bankman-Fried's smiling visage is still plastered around parts of San Francisco.)

Gurley also cites the "lack of a legitimate board" as a red flag (#2). This was another nod to FTX, which had no board of directors, but barely-there boards have become pervasive. In a story just tonight about Pipe, TechCrunch's Mary Ann Azevedo writes that the three-year-old marketplace has only one outside board member who is not a cofounder of the company, and that individual has been a VC for three years. (Pipe raised more than $300 million from more than a dozen firms.)

More here.

Kiln, a Paris startup that provides cryptocurrency staking services, raised a $17.6 million Series A led by Consensys, GSR, and the VC arm of Kraken. LeadblockPartners, Sparkle Ventures and XBTO also participated in the round, along with earlier investors 3KVC, SV Angel and Alven. CoinDesk has more here.

Locus Robotics, an eight-year-old, Wilmington, Ma.-based maker of autonomous mobile robots that work alongside people in the logistics and fulfillment industries, has raised $117 million in Series F funding led by Goldman Sachs, G2 Venture Partners and Stack, with existing investor Scale Venture Partners also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Matrixport, a three-year-old Singapore startup that provides digital asset custody, trading, lending, and structured products and says it has $10 billion in assets under management and custody, just raised $50 million of a $100 million round at a $1.5 billion valuation, it tells Forbes. More here.

Bionaut Labs, a six-year-old Los Angeles startup that has developed magnetically driven mini-robots that are designed to deliver treatments to the midbrain, raised a $43.2 million round led by Khosla Ventures. Other backers in the round include Deep Insight, OurCrowd, PSPRS, Sixty Degree Capital, Dolby Family Ventures, GISEV Family Ventures, what if ventures, Tintah Grace, and Gaingels. The company has raised a total of $63.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Djamo, a three-year-old startup based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, that provides financial services for the underbanked and unbanked population in French-speaking African markets, raised a $14 million round led by Enza Capital, Oikocredit, and Partech Africa, with Y Combinator, Janngo Capital, P1 ventures, Axian, and Launch Africa also participating. The company has raised a total of $14.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Igloo, a Singapore-based insurtech focused on underserved communities in Southeast Asia, says it has raised a Series B extension of $27 million, bringing the round’s total to $46 million. The first tranche of $19 million was announced in March, led by Cathay innovation with participation from ACA and returning investors OpenSpace. The newest round was led by the InsuResilience Investment Fund II. TechCrunch has more here.

Strand Therapeutics, a five-year-old Boston startup that is developing mRNA therapies for cancer and other diseases, has added an additional $45 million to its Series A, bringing the total round amount to $97 million. FPV led the round, with participation from Eli Lilly and Company, Potentum Partners, and previous investor Playground Global. The company has raised a total of $104.2 million. More here.

TipTip, a one-year-old startup in Jakarta that has built a marketplace for creators to connect with fans and monetize content like videos, documents, and live video sessions, raised a $13 million Series A round led by East Ventures, with participation from previous investors Vertex, SMDV, and B.I.G. Ventures. The company has raised a total of $23 million. TechCrunch has more here.

V7, a four-year-old London startup that has built models to automate the training of AI models used in computer vision applications, raised a $33 million round at a valuation of approximately $200 million. The transaction was led by Radical Ventures and Temasek, with previous investors Air Street Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Partech also participating. The company has raised approximately $36 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Amie, a two-year-old Berlin startup that has created a calendar built around improving productivity, raised a $7 million seed round led by Spark Capital, with Creandum, Guillermo Rauch, Hanno Renner, and Quick Coffee Ventures also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Deepomatic, an eight-year-old Paris startup that has developed computer vision applications for the telecom industry that allow companies to verify that work has been completed, raised a $10.5 million Series B led by EnBW New Ventures and Orbia Ventures, with previous investors Alven, Hi-Inov Dentressangl, and Swisscom Ventures also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Ejara, a three-year-old Cameroonian startup that allows users to buy crypto and save through decentralized wallets, raised an $8 million Series A round co-led by Dragonfly Capital and previous investor Anthemis. Circle Ventures, Moonstake, Emurgo, Hashkey Group, and BPI France as well as existing investors Mercy Corps Ventures, Coinshares Ventures, and Lateral Capital also participated in the round. The company has raised a total of $10 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Nucleo, a one-year-old New York startup that is developing a blockchain-based privacy infrastructure for companies interested in moving to web3, raised a $4 million seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto and 6th Man Ventures, with additional funds provided by Aztec Network, Aleo, and Espresso Systems. NFT Gators has more here.

Pinata, a seven-year-old New York startup that provides task management software for workers, raised a $10 million Series A round. M13 and Bullpen Capital co-led the deal. The company has raised a total of $11.3 million. More here.

Post.News, a seven-month-old, New York-based Twitter alternative with an emphasis on moderation and a plan to let users access news from multiple publishers using micropayments, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Scott Galloway, the NYU professor and tech commentator. TechCrunch has more here.

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Seedstars International Ventures, an investment firm that backs startups around the world, announced today it has launched a platform called Seedstars Capital with Swiss-based investment holding company xMultiplied to help new fund managers around the world launch funds and develop their investment firms. Seedstars Capital is especially interested in sector and industry-specific strategies in regions and countries like Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia and India; it tells TechCrunch it is looking for funds that target pre-seed to Series A companies, since that is where it sees the biggest funding gaps and potential. More here.

Yahoo, which was taken private in a $5 billion deal last year by PE giant Apollo Global, is taking a roughly 25% stake in Taboola, a "purveyor of clickbait ads," per the New York Times. The deal is part of a 30-year exclusive advertising partnership that allows Yahoo to use Taboola’s tech to manage its business in native advertising, meaning ads that appear to viewers like traditional news and entertainment content. Shares of Taboola have fallen nearly 80% since January of last year, when the company struck a deal to go public via a SPAC. The Times has more here.

Justin Zhu, who was fired from Iterable last year, claims in a complaint filed in state court in San Francisco that the company's stated reason for firing him, that he violated company policy by using an illegal drug, was "pretextual and a subterfuge." Bloomberg has the story here.

Former Sequoia Capital partner Michael Goguen (he was booted from the firm in 2016), recently found himself being "conned" yet again, he tells New York Magazine.

Just one staff member remains on a key team dedicated to removing child sexual abuse content from Twitter, reports Wired. More here.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees that he expects them to be in the social media company’s offices in person 80% of the time starting in February.

Elon Musk’s Boring Company has repeatedly teased local officials with a pledge to "solve soul-destroying traffic," only to back out, reports the WSJ.

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