The trouble with ByteDance, the latest from Matt Rogers, and a video model is in the works at OpenAI

Microsoft, which employs more than 220,000 people, including 6,000 in the UK, is said to be contemplating cutting roughly 5% of its workforce, Sky News reported earlier today. More here.

Collapsed crypto exchange FTX said today that it has identified $5.5 billion of liquid assets but that based on current estimates, both the international and U.S. based exchange still face a "substantial shortfall" from what the trading venues owe customers. Yahoo Finance has more here.

British legislators are set to approve a draft of an extensive new social-media bill that could see the chief executives of major tech firms held criminally liable if they don’t protect children from certain content online. More in the WSJ.

Venture capital firms and their investors have realized that a fund administrator without best-in-class technology is no longer acceptable. But experienced firms also know that when it’s crunch time and that capital call needs to go out now, no technology can replace the need for an expert, highly responsive fund accountant working with you. Meet Juniper Square: the first technology-driven fund admin built for sophisticated venture capital firms.

OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman sat down for a wide-ranging interview with this editor late last week, answering questions about some of his most ambitious personal investments, as well as about the future of OpenAI.

There was much to discuss. The now eight-year-old outfit has dominated the national conversation in the two months since it released ChatGPT, a chatbot that answers questions like a person. OpenAI’s products haven’t just astonished users; the company is reportedly in talks to oversee the sale of existing shares to new investors at a $29 billion valuation despite its comparatively nominal revenue. 

Altman declined to talk about the company’s current business dealings, firing a bit of a warning shot when asked a related question during our sit-down. 

He did reveal a bit about the company’s plans going forward, however. For one thing, in addition to ChatGPT and the outfit’s popular digital art generator, DALL-E, Altman confirmed that a video model is also coming, though he said that he “wouldn’t want to make a competent prediction about when,” adding that “it could be pretty soon; it’s a legitimate research project. It could take a while.”

Altman made clear that OpenAI’s evolving partnership with Microsoft — which first invested in OpenA in 2019 and earlier today confirmed it plans to incorporate AI tools like ChatGPT into all of its products — is not an exclusive pact.

Further, Altman confirmed that OpenAI can build its own software products and services, in addition to licensing its technology to other companies. That’s notable to industry watchers who’ve wondered whether OpenAI might one day compete directly with Google via its own search engine. (Asked about this scenario, Altman said: “Whenever someone talks about a technology being the end of some other giant company, it’s usually wrong. People forget they get to make a counter move here, and they’re pretty smart, pretty competent.”)

More here.

Tabby, a nearly four-year-old, Dubai-based buy-now-pay-later outfit, has raised $58 million in funding led by earlier backers Sequoia Capital India and STV, which also co-led the fintech’s Series B extension round last June. TechCrunch says the company has so far raised $410 million in debt and equity funding. More here.

Amberflo.io, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup built by ex-AWS engineers to help any company get started with usage-based pricing, says it has raised $15 million in Series A funding by Norwest Venture Partners. The company previously raised a $5 million seed round led by Homebrew. TechCrunch has more here.

Authenticx, a five-year-old Indianapolis startup whose software allows customers in the health care and insurance industries to analyze millions of client interactions such as phone calls, texts, online chats, or emails, raised a $20 million Series B round led by Blue Heron Capital. Other participants in the deal included Beringea, Mutual Capital Partners, Signal Peak Ventures, M25, the Indiana Next Level Fund/50 South Capital Advisors, Elevate Ventures, High Alpha, and Allos Ventures. The company has raised a total of $29 million. Inside Indiana Business has more here.

Forum Mobility, a two-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based outfit that wants to replace tens of thousands of “drayage” trucks that shuttle shipping containers from ports to warehouses with electric trucks and charging stations (access to which it will charge drayage operators a monthly subscription fee), is emerging from stealth with $15 million in Series A funding. Investors in the round include CBRE Investment Management, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Homecoming Capital, Elemental Excelerator, Obvious Ventures, Edison International, and Overture. The startup has also signed a $400 million joint venture deal with CBRE Investment Management to install electric truck depots in the ground at several California ports, including Long Beach and Oakland. Bloomberg has more here.

Living Carbon, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup seeking to create fast-growing trees that can rapidly soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide, has raised $21 million in Series A funding led by the Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek.

Sollum, an eight-year-old Montreal startup that develops LED lighting products for greenhouses, raised a $22.4 million round led by Idealist Capital, with additional participation from Fondaction. More here.

Splitero, a two-year-old San Diego startup that offers home equity loans to consumers, raised an $11.7 million Series A round led by Fiat Ventures, with Gemini Ventures, Joint Effects, PBJ Capital, Permit Ventures, Dream Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Spark Growth Ventures, and Oyster Fund also piling on. HousingWire has more here.

Cumul.io, an eight-year-old startup based in Leuven, Belgium, that has built a a low-code business intelligence analytics platform for SaaS companies, raised a $10.8 million Series A round led by Hi Inov-Dentressangle, with Axeleo Capital, LRM, and SmartFin also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $14.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Darwinbox, an eight-year-old startup based in Hyderabad, India, whose platform helps companies manage HR issues, raised an undisclosed Series D extension round from Microsoft. (The round originally closed last year at a billion-dollar-plus valuation.) Bloomberg has more here.

The Edit LDN, a three-year-old London startup that The Edit LDN, a London sneaker resale marketplace, raised a $4.8 million seed round. Regah Ventures was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Grounded People, a two-year-old, Vancouver-based "100% vegan" footwear brand, raised a $2.5 million round from Right Season Investments Corp. Fashion Network has more here.

Komunal, a five-year-old Indonesian startup that digitizes rural banks, raised a $8.5 million round led by East Ventures Growth Fund, with Sustainable Technology Fund, Skystar Capital, Sovereign’s Capital, Ozora, and Gobi Partners also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Posterity Health, a two-year-old, Denver-based, only-digital male fertility startup that says it offers personalized advice, educational resources, and male fertility treatments, including sperm preservation, has raised $7.5 million in funding led by Distributed Ventures. FCA Venture Partners and WVV Capital also joined the round. Axios has more here.

SafKan Health, a 6.5-year-old, Seattle-based behind the ear-cleaning device that removes earwax and aims to supplant current clinical approaches to removing built up gunk, has raised $8 million in funding led by Unorthodox Ventures. GeekWire has more here.

Syky, a 10-month-old, New York-based startup whose aim is to serve as an incubator, marketplace, and social community for the next generation of fashion designers and consumers, raised a $9.5 million Series A round led by Seven Seven Six, with additional investors including Brevan Howard Digital, Leadout Capital, First Light Capital Group, and Polygon Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Stell, a startup based in Bethlehem, Pa., that automates parts ordering in aerospace and defense manufacturing, raised a $3.1 million pre-seed round. Wischoff Ventures and Third Prime VC were the co-leads. TechCrunch has more here.

What three best practices should your firm adopt to improve its deal sourcing this year? Affinity has the answers. Download this guide for tips that cover turning data into insights to guide your sourcing decisions, accessing data-driven intelligence in your everyday tools, and maximizing relationships to make data more valuable.

ICI Fund, a six-year-old Fort Collins, Co.-based venture firm that backs Israeli startups looking to expand into the U.S., is raising $50 million for its second fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.

The messaging platform Discord says it has acquired Gas, an app whose users sign up with their school, add friends, and answer polls about their classmates that are intended to boost users' confidence. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Nextracker, a 10-year-old Fremont, Ca.-based solar tracking systems designer and manufacturer that spun out of Flex and has raised more than half a billion dollars from investors, including DBL Partners and TPG Rise Climate Fund,  has filed for an IPO. More here.

Haley Daiber Brannan has joined Operator Collective, a San Francisco-based venture firm, as an investing partner based in Austin. Formerly, she was the VP of business operations at the software development outfit data.world.

The former tech entrepreneur, “Razzlekhan” rapper and accused cryptocurrency thief Heather Morgan has a new job. According to Bloomberg: "Morgan, who dubbed herself on social media and in music videos as “The Crocodile of Wall Street,” was hired by an unspecified technology company even though she’s under 24-hour house arrest, according to a court filing. She and her husband are accused of trying to launder $4.5 billion of Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex currency exchange."

Elon Musk says he isn't at Davos because it's "boring af." Organizers say they haven't invited him since 2015.

Irem Rami has joined Norwest as a principal on its healthcare investment team. Prior to Norwest, she worked at Summit Partners and McKesson Ventures.

Matt Rogers, co-founder of Nest Labs, maker of smart home thermostats, has developed a new kitchen bin that dehydrates food waste overnight, turning it into an odorless, coffee ground-like material that can be fed to chickens.

CEO Barry Silbert of Digital Currency Group now is fighting to keep the brokerage firm out of bankruptcy.

Sangeen Zeb has been promoted to general partner at GV. Zeb joined the unit of Alphabet in 2021 and has a long track record of investing in enterprise and fintech companies. His deals at GV include Chronosphere, Courier, Lacework, and Medallion, among others. He was previously a partner with Founders Circle Capital.

Twitter is planning to run content sponsorship deals with more than three dozen news outlets, media companies and sports leagues in the first half of this year, according to Axios. 

Twitter will need those deals, suggests a separate story in The Information. Per the piece,  a senior manager today told employees that Twitter's daily revenue is 40% lower than the same day a year ago; it further reports that Siddharth Rao, an engineering manager overseeing the engineers working on Twitter’s ad business, told employees in a presentation that more than 500 of Twitter’s top advertisers have paused spending on the platform since Elon Musk took over in October. More here.

Investors like Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna International Group, Coatue Management and Tiger Global have poured $8 billion into TikTok owner ByteDance over the years, money that is largely locked up at the moment as regulators in the U.S. and China tighten the screws on the company. The Information has more here.

Getty Images is suing Stability AI, creators of popular AI art tool Stable Diffusion, over alleged copyright violation. In a press statement shared with The Verge, the stock photo company said it believes that Stability AI “unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright” to train its software. More here.

Students can carry guns at the University of Texas — but they can’t use TikTok.

"This song sucks": Nick Cave responds to ChatGPT song written in style of Nick Cave.

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