Layoffs at Plaid, a green light for "Breaking Twitter," and a gloomy sentence for "Sunny" Balwani

Quick update! We're thrilled to announce that fintech VCs Mercedes Bent of Lightspeed Venture Partners, Victoria Treyger of Felicis, and Jillian Williams of Cowboy Ventures have agreed to join us at our January 12 event in San Francisco to address some of the questions that many of us are right now asking (like when will that long-overdue wave of consolidation will hit). Interviewing them is Semafor Tech Editor Reed Albergotti, who co-authors a great newsletter and whose work at the Washington Post, The Information, and the WSJ you've undoubtedly seen previously.

Giant thanks again to Felicis for partnering with us in the evening and making the whole thing possible; we're also very appreciative of the team at CBRE, which is generously handing over its space inside Salesforce Tower for the night. ✨✨

Fintech decacorn Plaid is laying off 260 employees, or about 20% of its workforce, the company announced today. While specific details around who exactly was affected remain unknown, says TechCrunch, its sources in recent months had said the San Francisco-based startup’s engineering team was likely to take a big hit. In March, Plaid CTO Jean-Denis Greze told TechCrunch that he grew his engineering team 17.5x in just four years, from 20 engineers to 350 people. Today’s cut likely reverses some of that hyper-growth, it notes. More here.

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the former chief operating officer of failed blood testing startup Theranos, was sentenced today to nearly 13 years in prison for fraud. “There is an unfortunate saying in Silicon Valley: ‘Fake it ‘til you make it.’ Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani stretched this idea to a place much farther than the law allows and in so doing put vast amounts of investor dollars at risk,” said Stephanie Hinds, US Attorney for the Northern District of California, in a statement. CNN has more here.

Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, recently 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.

Until last year, healthcare funding continued to shatter previous records. But there remains at least one very big hole in the industry. No one has yet created a broad, leading women’s healthcare brand, and that spells opportunity.

Dina Radenkovic is among those who see it, and at her company, Gameto, she specifically wants to build a massive healthcare business that redefines reproductive health. A bioinformatics researcher who has a medical degree from the University College of London, Radenkovic is primarily focused right now on using cell engineering to make IVF cycles shorter. But the bigger company she has in mind would one day enable young women to so easily and affordably freeze their eggs that there would be little reason not to do this. Later, if some of these same women turned to IVF, Gameto would help improve their odds of success at a price that doesn’t break the bank. Even later still, these same customers might turn to Gameto to extend the life of their ovaries. Radenkovic’s thinking: women are living longer; their ovaries could and should be functioning longer, too.

It’s early days for the New York-based startup, which has just one biologic in pre-clinical trials right now. There’s a good chance that none of what she is imagining will come to fruition. Still, investors like Insight Partners and Future Ventures like her vision and her credentials.

They also like her New York- and Spain-based team, including co-founder and chairman Martin Varsavsky, who has previously launched numerous companies, including a WiFi connectivity company called FON, and Prelude, a chain of fertility clinics that is among roughly a handful of similar outfits that are now enrolling patients in Gameto’s trials.

More here.

Apogee, a startup based in Waltham, Ma., that is developing medications designed to improve the treatment of common inflammatory and immunological diseases, raised a $149 million Series B round co-led by Deep Track Capital and RTW Investments, with previous investors Fairmount and Venrock Healthcare Capital also contributing. The company was spun out of Paragon Therapeutics. The WSJ has more here.

CoreWeave, a five-year-old startup based in Roseland, N.J., that provides cloud storage for large-scale, GPU-accelerated workloads in areas such as visual effects and rendering and machine learning/AI, raised a $100 million from Magnetar Capital. The company has raised a total of $155.5 million. More here.

Drata, a two-year-old San Diego startup that helps companies adhere to frameworks such as SOC 2 and GDPR, raised a $200 million Series C round at a $2 billion post-money valuation. Iconiq Growth and GGV Capital were the co-leads. The company has raised a total of $328.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Einride, a six-year-old Stockholm startup that builds autonomous and electric trucks, raised a $200 million Series C round from Northzone, EQT Ventures, Temasek, AMF (a Swedish pension fund), Polar Structure, and Norrsken VC and $300 million in debt from Barclays Europe. The company has raised a total of $652.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

ZincFive, a seven-year-old startup based in Tualatin, Or., that develops nickel-zinc batteries, raised a $54 million Series D round led by Helios Climate Ventures, with OGCI Climate Investments, Japan Energy Fund, and previous investors Senator Investment Group and Standard Industries also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $139 million, it says. More here.

GameOn Technology, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that provides chat technology for major league sports teams such as the NBA, NFL, NHL, PGA Tour, FIFA, and ATP, raised a $35 million Series B. Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mighty Capital, and B3 Capital were the co-leads; Quest Venture Partners and Great Point Ventures also took part. The company has raised a total of $54 million. Sports Business Journal has more here.

Infinimmune, a San Francisco startup founded this year that is creating a platform to deliver antibody drugs derived directly from the human immune system, raised a $12 million seed round led by Playground Global, with Pear VC, Civilization Ventures, and Axial VC also anteing up. More here.

MarginEdge, a seven-year-old startup based in Arlington, Va., that has built a restaurant management and bill payment platform, raised a $45 million Series C round led by Ten Coves Capital, with additional capital provided by Fiserv and Derive Ventures. The company has raised a total of $80.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

OMNY Health, a four-year-old Atlanta startup that helps cancer centers, children’s hospitals, community hospitals, specialty practices, and infusion centers profit from patient data in a legally compliant manner, raised a $17 million Series B round led by Chicago Pacific Founders. More here.

Setpoint, an Austin startup that aims to be the "Stripe for credit" by helping clients like OpenDoor close loan transactions faster, raised a $43 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz; Stonecroft, 75andSunny, Fifth Wall, 645 Ventures, NextView Ventures, LiveOak Venture Partners, Vesta Ventures, and ATX Venture Partners also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Uolo, a Gurugram, India-based startup that develops and provides learning programs in coding and English speaking, has raised $22.5 million in a funding round led by UAE-headquartered VC fund Winter Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Accacia, an India-based startup founded this year that aims to provide real estate developers, asset managers, and financial institutions with the metrics they need to decarbonize their portfolios, raised a $2.5 million seed round co-led by Accel and B Capital, with Blume Ventures, Good Capital, Rainmatter Fund, and Loyal VC also participating. Business Insider India has more here.

AltScore, a one-year-old Mexico City startup that provides the infrastructure to allow clients to offer various lending products, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Far Out VC, with participation from Caffeinated Capital, Techstars, Unpopular Ventures, Kamay Ventures, BuenTrip Ventures, Lorimer Ventures, and CompuSoluciones Ventures. The company has raised a total of $3.9 million. More here.

Enthea, a three-year-old Boston startup that claims to be the first provider of insurance plans for psychedelic healthcare, raised a $2 million seed round led by Tabula Rasa Ventures. More here.

Flow Engineering, a six-year-old London startup that aims to be hardware engineering's answer to "GitHub" by designing a platform to enable agile collaboration methods for hardware engineering teams, raised a $8.5 million seed round led by EQT Ventures, with Backed VC also chipping in. Tech.eu has more here.

Gaia AI, a two-year-old Somerville, Ma.-based developer of forestry management software, raised a $3 million in pre-seed round. E14 led, and was joined by Ubiquity Ventures, Space Capital and SOSV. TechCrunch has more here.

Harbor Lab, a two-year-old Athens startup that has developed a SaaS platform to help shipping companies reduce port call expenses and associated administrative costs, raised a $6.4 million seed round co-led by VentureFriends and Speedinvest, with additional investment from The Dock, Signal Ocean, Motion Ventures, TecPier, Innoport, and Charge VC. TechCrunch has more here.

ImVitro, a three-year-old Paris startup that is applying computer vision and AI technologies to the IVF fertility imaging process in order to evaluate embryos over time, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by LDV Capital, with MMC Ventures, Tiny VC, Fly Ventures, and Compound VC taking part. Tech.eu has more here.

The Mirror, a Miami startup that is developing a platform for indie game developers and 3D modelers to speed up the rollout of common features such as multiplayer networking, raised a $2.3 million in pre-seed round led by Founders Fund. VentureBeat has more here.

MoveEasy, a nine-year-old startup based in Columbus, Oh., that helps real estate agents and brokers provide home management and concierge services to their clients, raised a $7 million Series A round led by Moderne Ventures; The Travelers Companies also participated. The company has raised a total of $10.5 million. More here.

Phlux Technology, a two-year-old startup based in Sheffield, UK, that is using new materials to drive down the cost of LIDAR devices, raised a $4.9 million seed round led by Octopus Ventures; additional investors included Northern Gritstone, the Foresight Williams Technology Funds, and the Innovation Fund. Tech.eu has more here.

RepAir Carbon, a two-year-old Israeli startup that has created a device that it claims can capture carbon dioxide from the air at a gigaton scale by utilizing renewable electricity to separate CO2, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Extantia Capital, with additional participation from Equinor Ventures, Shell Ventures, and Zero Carbon Capital. The company has raised a total of $11.5 million. More here.

Turtle Health, a three-year-old Boston startup that is building what it claims to be fertility assessment virtual clinics that enable patients to access reproductive endocrinologists without ever leaving their homes, raised a $5.4 million round led by Switch Ventures, with participation from Blue Seed Collective, NextGen Venture Partners, Everlywell, Maven, Mayo Clinic Ventures, and US Fertility. The company has raised a total of $10.6 million. Femtech Insider has more here.

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Holy. Thoma Bravo, the 14-year-old software investment firm, today announced the completion of fundraising for its buyout funds totaling more than $32.4 billion in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Elon Musk said one of Twitter’s top lawyers “was exited,” part of the fallout from Musk's efforts to release internal communications to criticize prior practices at the company he bought almost six weeks ago. Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker had been with the company since 2020. The initial batch of documents -- made public Friday after much build-up by Musk -- revealed the names of rank-and-file employees involved in content moderation, which Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, warned “puts them in harm’s way and is a fundamentally unacceptable thing to do.” The WSJ has more here.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee wants Sam Bankman-Fried to testify on the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX and linked trading firm, Alameda Research, next week, and says it is prepared to issue a subpoena to compel his testimony. The House Financial Services Committee, which also wants to hear from Bankman-Fried next week, is already weighing a subpoena of him, though it's reportedly holding out hope for now that he might agree to voluntarily testify. The Block has more here.

Author Ben Mezrich, whose book was the basis for the movie "The Social Network," has already struck a deal with Grand Central Publishing to publish “Breaking Twitter,” which is expected to be published next fall. “If the whole world is excited by something, you want to be a part of the conversation," Mezrich tells the WSJ of Elon Musk's unceasingly turbulent ownership of Twitter.

More from that Atomico report: According to its findings, more than $400 billion in market value has been wiped from European tech companies since the peak of the 2021 boom, as venture capital dealmaking hit a wall at the end of the summer. As the FT notes, fueled by a funding frenzy last year, the continent saw 100 so-called unicorns created, but that figure has fallen to 31 so far this year, while more than than 14,000 European tech workers have been laid off. More here.

Enjoy your motorcycle, but also: in the regions where the seven largest motorcycle rallies were held throughout the United States between 2005 and 2021, there were 21% more organ donors per day, on average, and 26% more transplant recipients per day, on average, during these events, compared with days just before and after the rallies. Harvard Medical School has more here.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX reached the late stages of negotiating a sponsorship deal worth more than $100 million with Taylor Swift, but talks fizzled last spring, reports the Financial Times. It says Bankman-Fried initially favored the deal, in part because he’s “a fan of Tay Tay," one employee told the outlet. It reports that the deal was opposed by several members of the marketing team, however. “No one really liked the deal. It was too expensive from the beginning,” said one person familiar with the negotiations to the FT, adding that the price was “very high . . . really fucking high. That’s front of the soccer jersey level prices." More here.

Twitter is changing its pricing following a spat with Twitter, according to The Information. It says owner Elon Musk has informed some employees that it plans to change the pricing of its Twitter Blue subscription product to $7 if users pay for it through the web and $11 if they do so through its app for iPhones, revised from its original plans to charge $7.99 for Twitter Blue, which was then only available for purchase through Apple’s App Store.

Alphabet's Google plans to combine the team working on the mapping service Waze with the group overseeing the company’s Maps product, as the search giant faces pressure to streamline operations and cut costs. The WSJ has more here.

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