Ye's suspension, Lensa AI's viral adoption, and the Twittersphere puts ChatGPT through its paces

OpenAI today released a prototype general purpose chatbot and it had the Twitterverse -- and high schools everywhere -- abuzz. It can debug and write code; it can write sitcom scripts (and homework); it can write a biblical verse in the style of the King James Bible explaining how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR! It's dazzling, but it can also, like other AI chatbots, be tricked, observes The Verge. You can check it out here.

Tesla delivered its first all-electric semitrailer trucks today, marking the company’s long-delayed expansion beyond the passenger vehicle market. The Semi, originally due out in 2019, is the first new model Tesla has released since early 2020, when the company began delivering its Model Y crossover. Tesla didn’t say today how much the vehicle costs or share how many trucks were delivered to PepsiCo, though the company tells the WSJ it will take delivery of 15 trucks by the end of this month. More here.

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Earlier today, we talked with Phil Haslett, the cofounder and now chief strategy officer of EquityZen, a 10-year-old, New York-based secondary marketplace that connects accredited buyers with privately held company shares that their owners -- including founders, employees, and VCs -- are looking to sell.

It's a tough business to be running right now, competing as it is with shares of publicly traded companies that are selling at fire-sale prices compared with a year ago and are far more liquid. Indeed, like a lot of outfits, EquityZen last month conducted a sizable layoff, parting ways with 27% of its then 110-person team.

Still, Haslett believes adamantly that the secondary market will only grow bigger over time . . once it gets over this very big hump. More on what he's seeing on pricing, hot and cold sectors, and more follows below in excerpts from our chat, lightly edited for length.

The market was completely stuck back in June, with tons of demand to sell secondary shares but not a lot of buyers as people sat on the sidelines to figure out how bad things would get. What's happening right now?

The markets were pretty stagnant from April to maybe July or August owing to a combination of factors, the biggest being the pricing expectations sellers had where buyers really wanted to get into names. I've certainly seen an uptick. Mainly, I think what we've seen is reality setting in for selling shareholders on prices and also more buyers coming to the secondary space to find investments in names they like, because primary raises aren't happening at all. If you've got a lot of capital to deploy, and you want to invest in late-stage tech, [and founders aren't prepared to raise primary rounds] at a 40% discount to their last funding round, [investors] cross into the secondary space.

You're competing with publicly traded companies that are also very steeply discounted right now. In terms of transaction volume, how does it compare with a year ago?

I think any secondary platform or market participant would tell you that 2021 was a unique era for secondaries; probably no one is coming close to doing the amount of volume they did last year. [You're right that if] you're an investor, you might say, 'There's a really liquid solution out there where I can buy companies that are five times or even three times revenue in the public markets, so why would I enter into the private space?' But once you've exhausted those opportunities, [the question becomes]: which are the private company names that you really still have a long-term belief in? 

More here.

Frore Systems, a four-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that has developed a microelectromechanical chip that can supposedly remove heat from processors, raised a $116 million round. Investors in the deal included Mayfield, Clear Ventures, Addition, and Qualcomm Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Keyrock, a five-year-old Belgian startup that claims to provide scalable and adaptable liquidity products to crypto marketplaces and asset issuers, including more than 85 trading venues and Ripple, raised a $72 million Series B round led by Ripple, with Six Fintech Ventures and Middlegame Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $78.1 million. CoinDesk has more here.

Lumen, an eight-year-old Tel Aviv startup that has developed a handheld hardware device that measures the level of CO2 produced in order to determine “metabolic fuel usage” (whether the body is burning carbs or fat for fuel), raised a $62 million Series B round led by Pitango, with Hanwha Group, Resolute Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, Unorthodox Ventures, Almeda Capital, and Disruptive VC also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.

Classified Cycling, a three-year-old Belgian startup that is developing new drivetrain technologies for bicycles and e-bikes, raised a $23.1 million round led by Active Partners; previous investor Bridford Investments also took part. Tech.eu has more here.

Cloud Health Systems, a Seattle startup founded by Instacart co-founder Apoorva Mehta that aims to offer consumers medical consultations and other health-related services, raised a $30 million round at a $200 million valuation. Thrive Capital was the deal lead, while Greenoaks Capital also participated. The WSJ says Mehta's goal is for Cloud Health to own multiple consumer brands for different medical conditions, though the plans are still under development. More here.

CommonGround, a startup that has built technology for people to use their smartphones to scan their faces and create responsive, real-time three-dimensional avatars that can be used in video applications, raised a $25 million round led by former CheckPoint Software co-founder Marius Nacht, with Grove Ventures, Matrix Partners, and StageOne Ventures also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Fleek, a New York startup that says it is building an interface and protocol layer to make web3 services such as storage, hosting, and billing accessible to anyone, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Polychain Capital, with Protocol Labs, Arweave, Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, North Island Ventures, Distributed Global, The LAO, and Argonautic Ventures also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Huel, an eight-year-old British startup that has developed a plant-based food brand encompassing protein bars, shakes, and hot lunch options, raised a $24 million at a $560 million valuation. Previous investor Highland Europe was the deal lead; actor Idris Elba also participated. The company has raised a total of $48.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

HYPR, an eight-year-old New York startup that focuses on passwordless authentication, raised a $25 million Series C1 round led by Advent International; additional investors included .406 Ventures, RRE Ventures, Top Tier Capital, and Comcast Ventures. The company has raised a total of $97 million. More here.

OroraTech, a four-year-old Munich startup that says it is using thermal-infrared data intelligence to provide actionable insights into the state of the earth’s climate, raised an additional $15.6 million Series A extension led by Edaphon and joined by previous investors Findus Venture, Ananda Impact Ventures, BayernKapital, ConActivity, APEX Ventures, and SpaceTec Capital. The company has raised a total of $24.4 million. EU-Startups has more here.

Ostro, a three-year-old Miami startup whose software tools guide consumers and clinicians to treatments including medical devices, drugs, diagnostics, and digital therapeutics, raised a $45 million Series B round. Investors included Founders Fund, Byers Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Greycroft, Bling Capital, Trust Ventures, and RRE Ventures. Axios has more here.

Pangea Cyber, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup that is taking an API-driven approach to adding security to applications with the aim of making adding security as easy as inserting a few lines of code, raised a $26 million Series B round led by GV, with Decibel and Okta Ventures also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $51 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Shield, a four-year-old Israeli startup that has built a communication compliance platform for financial institutions, raised a $20 million Series B round led by Macquarie Capital, with UBS Next, Mindset Ventures, and OurCrowd also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

​​Teampay, a six-year-old New York startup whose platform provides workflows for employees to submit and approve spending, raised a $47 million Series B round led by Fin Venture Capital and including Mastercard, Proof Ventures, Trestle, and Espresso Capital. The company has raised a total of $68 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Zoe, a five-year-old startup with offices in Boston and London whose app aims to provide personalized insights to users based on what and how they eat, raised a $30.7 million round led by Accomplice, with L Catterton and previous backers Balderton Capital, Ahren, and Daphni also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Buzz Solutions, a five-year-old Palo Alto startup that uses AI to improve the maintenance of energy infrastructure, raised a $3.3 million round led by GoPoint Ventures, with MaC Venture Capital also contributing. More here.

Certemy, a five-year-old, Van Nuys, Ca., maker of workforce compliance management software for companies that employ licensed and certified professionals, raised $9.7 million in Series B funding. Numeta Capital and Apis Holdings led the round. More here.

Daylight, a New York startup that provides an API that aggregates all web3 perks that users can qualify for based on their wallet address, raised a $3 million seed round co-led by Framework Ventures and Chapter One, with OpenSea, 6th Man Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Tomahawk, Spice Capital, Uncommon Projects, and Very Serious Ventures also piling on. The Block has more here.

Finery Markets, a three-year-old Cyprus startup that serves as a multi-dealer electronic marketplace for institutional participants and a services provider for crypto markets, raised a $5.5 million seed round co-led by G1 Ventures, gumi Cryptos, and Shima Capital. More here.

​​Frame AI, a six-year-old New York startup that is using natural language processing to help companies with customer support, raised a $7.6 million round led by G20 Ventures, with FirstMark, Greycroft, Velvet Sea Ventures, ValueStream Ventures, Twilio, and LiveRamp also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $17.9 million. BuiltinNYC has more here.

Natron Energy, a ten-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, Ca., that says its sodium-ion batteries have the potential to help United Airlines electrify its airport ground equipment and operations at the gate, raised an undisclosed amount from United Airlines Ventures. More here.

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So much for Future. At least everyone else can now shut down their in-house publications. 😉

Ye, the rapper and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West, is no longer buying the social network Parler,  the owner of Parler announced today (shortly after Ye praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during an interview with wackadoo Alex Jones). Parler’s owner and Ye have “mutually” parted ways without closing the deal, the company said via an emailed statement to news organizations, even while the deal was never really formalized beyond at best a memorandum-of-understanding, notes TechCrunch.

Ye's Twitter account was suspended again after -- in addition to his Infowars sit-down -- he tweeted a picture of a swastika merged with a Star of David.

A little over a year after coding bootcamp Lambda School rebranded as Bloom Institute of Technology, the venture-backed startup is conducting massive layoffs, according to TechCrunch. The workforce reduction has reportedly impacted half of the company’s staff across content, product, data and engineering teams. The layoff is expected to impact around 88 employees.

How the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire has disrupted AI.

Lensa AI climbs the App Store charts as its "magic avatars" go viral.

Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup Neuralink should be ready to test its technology on humans in six months, he said yesterday during a live-streamed update, though you might want to hold off before volunteering to try it. During a question-and-answer session, the company said it was working to address concerns from the FDA regarding overheating of the device and also toxic chemicals seeping into the brain from the implant, both of which could cause damage.

Wagyu, Wagyu everywhere (inside this New York restaurant).

Cocaine Bear's back story.

Even more ways to pay!

Soho House Mexico City.

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