Layoffs at Airtable, evaporating demand for NFTs, and Sam Bankman-Fried's parents step away from Stanford

The Federal Trade Commission today sued Microsoft to block its planned $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As notes the WSJ, the  lawsuit sets the stage for a court challenge over the deal, as Microsoft had agreed during its negotiations with the “Call of Duty” publisher to defend the deal against a government lawsuit. The FTC says the acquisition is illegal because it would give Microsoft the ability to control how consumers beyond users of its own Xbox consoles and subscription services access Activision’s games. Microsoft meanwhile said it continues to believe in the deal, which it values at $68.7 billion after adjusting for Activision’s net cash.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking public companies to detail their exposure to distressed crypto entities following the collapse of trading platform FTX and its affiliates. 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.

Customcells, a nine-year-old German startup that develops and recycles high-performance lithium-ion batteries for products like cars and medical equipment, raised a $63 million Series A round led by World Fund and including Abacon Capital, Porsche, and Vsquared Ventures. The company has raised a total of $63 million. TechCrunch has more here.

​​GoBolt, a five-year-old startup that ​​is building a fleet of electric delivery vehicles, raised a $55 million round co-led by Yaletown Venture Partners and Export Development Canada, with additional participation from BDC Capital, Northleaf Capital Partners, Whitecap Venture Partners, MIG Group, BMO Capital Partners, and Ingka Investments. FreightWaves has more here.

9fin, a six-year-old, New York-based analytics platform for debt capital markets, has closed on $23 million in Series A+ funding led by Spark Capital. Earlier backers Redalpine, AI Seed, Seedcamp, 500 Startups, and Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital also chipped into the round, which brings the outfit's total funding to $37 million. More here.

Black Sheep Foods, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing plant-based meat products, raised a $12.3 million Series A round led by Unovis; Bessemer Venture Partners, AgFunder, and KBW Ventures also anted up. The company has raised a total of $17.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Dantari, a four-year-old startup based in Thousand Oaks, Ca., that is developing targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancers and other diseases, raised a $47 million Series A round led by Westlake Village BioPartners, with Corner Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, and Caltech also pitching in. More here.

Elastic Path, a 22-year-old, Vancouver-based startup that develops online commerce software components for brands, raised $30 million (in U.S. dollars) led by Sageview Capital. More here.

Hunt Club, an eight-year-old Chicago startup that operates an AI-powered senior talent recruiting platform, raised a $40 million Series B round co-led by WestCap and Sator Grove. The company has raised a total of $51.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Juno Medical, a two-year-old, New York startup that is creating what it calls a "modern doctor's office that's designed for the 99%," raised a $12 million led by co-led by Next Ventures and Serena Ventures, with New York Ventures, TXV Partners, Genius Guild, Gaingels, and previous investors Vast Ventures, Atento Capital, and Humbition also piling on. More here.

Lokavant, a two-year-old, New York startup that provides a data analytics platform for clinical trials, raised a $21 million round. Edison Partners was the deal lead; Roivant Sciences, which incubated the company, also participated. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Maergo, a two-year-old Austin startup whose platform uses excess commercial aircraft inventory to ship parcels for retailers, raised a $20 million seed round led by Deep Lake Capital, Neel Shah, and ACR Strategic Credit, with RyderVentures also throwing in. TechCrunch has more here.

Pactum, a three-year-old Mountain View, Ca., startup whose AI-powered software aims to help big companies like Walmart automate routine supplier negotiations, raised a $20 million round led by 3VC; additional investors included NordicNinja VC, Maersk Growth, and previous investors Atomico, Project A, Metaplanet, and Taavet+Sten. The company has raised a total of $35.2 million. Bloomberg has more here.

Pebble, a year-old, Seattle startup that offers AI-enabled curated health benefit plans for small businesses, with a focus on startups, raised a $17 million seed round. XYZ Venture Capital led the deal; Founders' Co-op also participated. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Second Front Systems, an eight-year-old startup based in Wilmington, De., that screens software applications for use in national security missions, raised a $32 million Series A round co-led by Moore Strategic Ventures and AEI HorizonX, with ARTIS Ventures, 8VC, Gula Tech Adventures, Abstract Ventures, Pallas Ventures, Gaingels, and Kleiner Perkins taking up the slack. The company has raised a total of $40.1 million. More here.

UnaBiz, a six-year-old Singapore startup that develops hardware and software for IoT networks, raised a $25 million in additional Series B funding led by Sparx Group, with fellow previous investors G K Goh Holdings and Optimal Investment also contributing. The company has raised a total of $64.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Vaultree, a two-year-old startup based in Cork, Ireland, that has developed software that lets companies work with fully encrypted data without first needing to decrypt it, raised a $12.8 million Series A round led by Molten Ventures, with Ten Eleven Ventures, SentinelOne, Elkstone Partners, CircleRock Capital, and Cyber Club London also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $16.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Wasabi Technologies, a seven-year-old Boston startup that says it provides cloud storage to over 40,000 customers, including the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club, raised $15 milion in funding to close a $140 million Series D round. Participants in the financing included Azura, SiS Cloud Global Tech Fund 8, and Prosperity7 Ventures. The company has raised of $500 million and says it is now valued at $1.1 billion. TechFundingNews has more here.

Akros Technologies, a year-old, Seoul-based AI-powered asset management platform, has raised $2.3 million from Z Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital wholly owned by Z Holdings, which also owns the Japanese messaging app Line and internet portal Yahoo Japan. TechCrunch has more here.

Arena Club, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup co-founded by baseball legend Derek Jeter whose sports trading card platform uses computer vision and machine learning to grade and authenticate cards, raised a $10 million Series A round; investors included M13, defy.vc, Lightspeed Ventures, Elysian Park Ventures, and BAM Ventures. dot.LA has more here.

Cabana, a three-year-old, Seattle startup aiming to build a rentable fleet of high quality, high-tech camper vans, has raised $3 million in funding led by TechNexus Venture Collaborative. More here.

Dae Hair, a Phoenix startup founded by influencer Amber Fillerup Clark that has developed a premium hair care brand, raised an $8 million Series A round led by Verity Venture Partners, with additional participation from Digital Brand Architects (Clark's management company) and previous investor Willow Growth Partners. The company has raised a total of $10.6 million. Glossy has more here.

GigFinesse, a three-year-old New York startup that connects live music venues of all sizes with thousands of artists from across the country, allowing them to curate shows that are suited to their music preferences, raised a $3.6 million seed round. Investors included Bessemer Ventures Partners, and Cosmic Venture Partners. More here.

Gridless, a startup founded this year based in Accra, Ghana, that designs, builds, and operates bitcoin mining sites alongside small-scale renewable energy producers in rural Africa where excess energy is unused, raised a $2 million seed round co-led by Stillmark and payments company Block. CoinDesk has more here.

Makers, a ten-year-old London startup that operates a software development boot camp, raised an $8.6 million round led by BGF, with Forward Partners and Educapital also contributing. Tech.eu has more here.

Metagood, a one-year-old startup whose NFT collection gives members the chance to promote and fund social good projects through its DAO, raised a $5 million pre-seed round from investors such as Animoca Brands. TechCrunch has more here.

Mezo, a two-year-old Chicago startup whose platform helps renters submit maintenance requests to building management, raised a $6 million seed round co-led by Chicago Ventures and Building Ventures, with The 81 Collection also pitching in. BuiltinChicago has more here.

Ocho, a four-month-old, Brooklyn-based startup that wants to make it easier for business owners to set up and manage their own 401(k) retirement accounts, and was founded by serial entrepreneur Ankur NagPal, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Nagpal’s own two-year-old venture firm, Vibe Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

SaVia Health, a startup founded this year based in Salt Lake City, Ut., that claims to provides clinicians and administrators with a software tool that transforms paper-based care processes into digital workflows, raised an $8.5 million seed round led by Intel Capital, with participation from Kickstart and Peterson Ventures. More here.

SION, a four-year-old startup based in Oceanport, NJ, whose platform tracks commissions and payment reconciliations for travel agents, raised a $3.2 million seed round led by TIA Ventures and joined by SmartFlyer and Virtuoso. More here.

​​XFactor, a San Francisco startup founded this year that helps sales teams and business leaders monitor go-to-market planning and activities, raised a $10 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. More here.

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Cavalry Ventures, a six-year-old, Berlin-based early-stage, enterprise-focused venture firm, has closed its third fund with €160 million in capital commitments. Over the next five years, it tells Tech.eu, it plans to make 30 investments. More here.

Tacora Capital, an Austin-based venture debt firm that in March announced it had held a first close of $250 million its debut fund, has raised at least $350 million for that same vehicle -- most of it ($250 million) from billionaire investor Peter Thiel, says firm founder Keri Findley, a former partner at Third Point. Tacora targets private companies in the proptech and fintech industries with predictable cash flow and assets that Tacora can use to underwrite risk. Bloomberg has the story here.

Union Square Ventures, the New York-based venture outfit, has closed a second fund focused on climate investments with $200 million in capital commitments. It closed its first dedicated climate fund last year with $162 million. The Information has more here.

Almost a year after the nonfungible token (NFT) frenzy crested, demand for the digital certificates of ownership has evaporated. Sales have dropped to the lowest level since July 2021 — back when OpenSea was the only trading venue among the top five to have opened. Bloomberg has the chart here.

Joseph Bankman, a Stanford Law professor and father to Sam Bankman-Fried, has canceled the one class he was slated to teach this winter, reports the Stanford Daily, which adds the FTX founder's mother, Barbara Fried, also a law professor at Stanford, is not listed as the instructor for any of the courses in her course catalog next year. (She tells the outlet she had “long-planned” to retire.) Bankman-Fried’s parents became embroiled in the scandal after Reuters reported a $16.4 million Bahamas property was registered under their names; they have said they're seeking to return the deed to FTX.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has increased his ownership stake in the Tokyo-listed juggernaut, up from 32.2% at the end of September, according to Bloomberg. That's meaningful, notes the outlet, as "[u]nder Japanese law, Son gains additional rights after breaching one-third ownership. The 65-year-old wields more control over asset sales, some buybacks, mergers and corporate bylaws by having the power to veto any special resolution put before shareholders by activist investors. Son is also closer to the point where he could mount an effort to take SoftBank private, an idea he has repeatedly discussed internally." More here.

Airtable, a no-code platform for building collaborative applications that was last valued by its private investors at $11 billion, laid off 20% of its staff today, or roughly 250 employees, across business development, engineering and other teams. TechCrunch sources say that those impacted by Airtable’s layoffs will receive at least 16 weeks of severance pay, accelerated equity vesting and, for those on a visa, support from an immigration counsel. Meanwhile, TechCrunch notes it's not merely the rank-and-file who are leaving the company; three executives are also reportedly “parting ways” with the company: its chief revenue officer, chief people officer and chief product officer. More here.

While Elon Musk is busy overhauling newly acquired Twitter, Tesla is facing increasingly urgent issues and testing the faith of some of its chief executive’s biggest fans, reports Bloomberg.
Weakening demand in China is forcing the EV maker to slow production at its Shanghai factory. Its top executive for that market has been called in to help out at its newest plant, in Texas, which isn’t ramping up as planned. Meanwhile Tesla’s stock, which has lost more than $500 billion in market value this year, is under renewed pressure as Musk’s advisers weigh using the billionaire’s shares as collateral for new loans to replace Twitter debt.

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Eat alongside billionaire investor Bill Ackman for an annual charity auction. You have 3.5 days to make your move, and you need to bid more than $41,000 for a shot at this New York City meeting.