Stocks rebound, Bret Taylor steps down, and a curious appearance by Sam Bankman-Fried

Stocks rallied today after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled a potential slowdown in interest-rate increases, powering the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 700 points higher and into a new bull market. The WSJ has more here. 💰💰💰

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried talked from an undisclosed location in the Bahamas today with reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin for a DealBook event, a discussion that his legal team "very much" did not approve of, he told Sorkin with a boyish grin.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman tweeted afterward that he felt "SBF" was "telling the truth." But we're not so sure. In fact, having watched the live-stream, we're still wrestling with whether he was credible.

Throughout the back-and-forth, Bankman-Fried sounded almost studiously amateurish, insisting he didn't knowingly commingle funds between FTX and the trading firm he controlled, Alameda Research, where it has since been discovered that the exchange had funneled $10 billion in customer assets to Alameda for use in trading, lending and investing activities.

Though between $1 billion and $2 billion appears to be missing, and though company executives reportedly set up a bookkeeping "back door" to circumnavigate red flags, when Sorkin asked about the outfits' reliance on one another, Bankman-Fried said that he was "frankly surprised by how big Alameda’s position was, which points to another failure of oversight on my part, and a failure to appoint someone to be chiefly in charge of that."

Notably, Bankman-Fried ultimately used “oversight” nine times, even as he appeared to blame others. Asked if he should have taken money from FTX’s users’ accounts at all, he pointed the finger at Alameda, saying, “I wasn’t running [it], I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I didn’t know the size of their position. A lot of these are things that I’ve learned over the last month that I learned as I was sort of frantically digging into this.” Obviously, he added, “that’s a pretty big mistake. I mark that as a pretty big oversight that I wasn’t more aware of.”

At many points during his back and forth with Sorkin, Bankman came across, too, as delusional. He said that before FTX filed for bankruptcy — a move he authorized grudgingly four days after it was first proposed — “There had been a lot of interest in financing [FTX]. A lot of fairly strong interest, you know, many billions of dollars’ worth.”

More here.

DeHaat, a 10-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based company that offers a wide-range of agricultural services to farmers in India, has raised $60 million in Series E funding round co-led by Sofina Ventures and Temasek, with participation from RTP Global Partners, Prosus Ventures and Lightrock India. TechCrunch has more here.

iECure, a ten-year-old Philadelphia startup that is using gene editing to design new drugs, raised a $65 million Series A-1 round co-led by Novo Holdings and Lyfe Capital; previous investors Versant Ventures and OrbiMed Advisors also took part. The company has raised a total of $115 million. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Joy, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that has built a wedding planning and universal registry platform, raised a $60 million Series B round led by General Catalyst. Axios has more here.

Rgenta Therapeutics, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that says it's developing a pipeline of oral, small-molecule RNA-targeting medicines with an initial focus on oncology and neurological disorders, has raised $52 million in Series A funding. AZ-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund led the round, joined by current and new investors Korean Investment Partners and Delos Capital. More here.

Vial, a two-year-old San Francisco startup whose technology and services are designed to help biotechnology companies run faster and more-efficient clinical trials, raised a $67 million Series B round led by General Catalyst, with additional participation from Byers Capital and BoxGroup. The WSJ has more here.

FrankieOne, a three-year-old Melbourne startup that provides an API platform for identity verification and fraud detection, raised a $15.55 million "Series A+" round co-led by previous investors Greycroft and AirTree Ventures, with Reinventure, Tidal Ventures, Apex Capital Partners, and new investors Binance Labs, and Kraken Ventures also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $30.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Giraffe360, a six-year-old London startup that has developed an HDR camera that lets developers quickly film 360-degree virtual tour of a property while also digitizing its floor plan, raised a $16 million Series A round. Founders Fund was the deal lead; previous investors LAUNCHub Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, HCVC, and Change Ventures also contributed. The company has raised a total of $6.3 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Greenwood, a two-year-old Atlanta startup that has created a digital banking platform for Black and Latino individuals and businesses, raised a $45 million round led by Pendulum, with Cercano Management, Cohen Circle, The George Kaiser Family Foundation, NextEra Energy, Bank of America, Citi Ventures, PNC, Popular, Truist Ventures, TTV Capital, and Wells Fargo also piling on. The company has raised a total of $88 million. More here.

OneRail, a four-year-old startup based in Orlando, Fl., that provides last-mile delivery services, raised a $33 million Series B round co-led by Piva Capital and Arsenal Growth Equity, with American Tire Distributors, Trimble Ventures, Ironspring Ventures, Las Olas Venture Capital, Bullpen Capital, Triphammer Ventures/Alumni Ventures Group, Gaingels, and Mana Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $54.5 million. FreightWaves has more here.

Prismforce, a one-year-old Mumbai startup that provides IT and tech services companies with tools to build better talent supply chains, raised a $13.6 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India. The company has raised a total of $15.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

ResortPass, a six-year-old, Carlsbad, Ca., company that gives people the option to purchase day passes to more than 900 hotels and resorts around the world, including the Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, and Westin hotels, has raised $26 million in Series B funding. Declaration Partners and 14W co-led the round, which brings the outfit's total funding to $37 million. Early backer CRV also participated, along with new investors such as William Morris Endeavor, Adam Grant, celebrity entrepreneurs Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba, and Brian Kelly, also known as The Points Guy. TechCrunch has more here.

Roboto Games, a startup based in San Mateo, Ca., whose new game studio aims to bridge web2 game experiences with web3 in-game elements, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Animoca Brands also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $19.4 million. CoinDesk has more here.

Sphere, a startup based in Newark, N.J. , that helps clients prevent ransomware attacks by managing permissions to critical software and data assets, raised a $31 million Series B round led by Edison Ventures and including Forgepoint Capital. More here.

Treecard, a two-year-old London startup that offers consumers a wooden debit card that guarantees that trees are planted as users spend, raised a $23 million Series A round led by Valar Ventures, with World Fund and previous investors EQT Ventures, Seedcamp, and Episode 1 also anteing up. EU-Startups has more here.

Burn Ghost, a one-year-old Boston startup that is building easy-to-play games that reward winners with NFT collectibles, raised a $3.1 million round co-led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Drive by DraftKings, with Pillar VC also chipping in. Decrypt has more here.

FigBytes, an eight-year-old Ottawa-based maker of an environmental, social, governance (ESG) platform for strategy, data, reporting and stakeholder engagement, has raised $10 million in funding from earlier backer Quantum Innovation Fund, along with a $4.5 million debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank. More here.

RailVision Analytics, a three-year-old Montréal startup whose tablet-based app helps railway operators reduce diesel consumption, raised a $4 million seed round led by Trucks Venture Capital, with MUUS Climate Partners, Blackhorn Ventures, Incite.org, Measured Ventures, and Active Impact Investments also taking part. The company has raised a total of $4.5 million. BetaKit has more here.

Rouvia, a one-year-old Berlin startup that helps logistics companies reduce emissions linked to truck deliveries by suggesting rail or barge transport alternatives that might be greener, raised $3 million co-led by Cavalry Ventures and Dynamo Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

Saasguru, a one-year-old Sydney startup that has built an edtech platform designed to help new graduates and tech workers become more adept at using cloud platforms like Salesforce or AWS, raised a $2.7 million seed round led by Square Peg Capital along with returning investors Black Nova and Antler. The company has raised a total of $3.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

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John Curtius, a former Tiger Global Management partner who left two months ago, hopes to raise $1 billion for his debut fund, reports The Information. His firm, Cedar Investment Partners, will focus on early-stage enterprise software investments.

Almost a year to the day after becoming co-CEO of Salesforce, Bret Taylor has stepped down as co-CEO in a stunning announcement that appeared to come out of the blue. “After a lot of reflection, I’ve decided to return to my entrepreneurial roots. Salesforce has never been more relevant to customers, and with its best-in-class management team and the company executing on all cylinders, now is the right time for me to step away,” Taylor said in a statement announcing his resignation. Taylor isn't the first co-CEO of Salesforce to throw in the towel for one reason or another. In 2018, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff named Keith Block co-CEO. Block lasted in the position slightly longer than Taylor, stepping down in 2020. Salesforce shares fell on the news of Taylor's departure, exacerbating an already lousy performance this year. As of yesterday, the company's shares were down 40% in 2022, making Salesforce the second-worst performer in the Dow. TechCrunch has more here.

Kraken, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is laying off about 30% of its headcount, or 1,100 people, “in order to adapt to current market conditions,” co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell said today. More here.

Sam Bankman-Fried answered the question today of how much money he has left. His answer: "one working credit card" and what he estimated might be "$100,000 or something like that in that bank account." 

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A potential battle between Apple and Twitter appears to have been averted after a meeting between Elon Musk and Tim Cook. Musk said in a set of tweets today that he had met with the Apple chief executive. “Good conversation,” Musk wrote. “Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.” The WSJ has more here.

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