Tiger Global's woes, SBF's newsletter, and the case that could "upend the internet"

It's late, but the reviews are in: tonight's StrictlyVC event was spectacular. Special thanks to Sam Altman of OpenAI, Alfred Lin of Sequoia Capital, and our amazing panel of fintech investors (Mercedes Bent of Lightspeed Venture Partners, Victoria Treyger of Felicis, and Jillian Williams of Cowboy Ventures) as well as Semafor's Reed Albergotti for helping me quiz our guests. Also due for appreciation - CBRE, which hosted us in its glass-lined space atop Salesforce Tower. However, none of this would have been possible without the exclusive sponsorship of the global early-stage firm Felicis, which has always been so supportive. Thank you so much, everyone. 

We'll have lots of coverage in coming days. In the meantime, here is one early piece out of Reuters about our chat with Lin, who confirmed that Sequoia has cut fees on two of its more recent funds after an LP recently told us about the gesture.

The SEC has charged both the Cameron Winklevoss-led outfit Gemini and Genesis (which is part of the Digital Currency Group) with the unregistered offering and sale of securities to retail investors. The Block has more here. 

Google said in a court filing today that a new case before the Supreme Court could "upend the internet" by sharply restricting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a liability shield that protects sites like Facebook and YouTube from being responsible for offensive content posted by their users. The WSJ has more here.

Despite its promising stake in OpenAI, Tiger Global is having trouble raising its latest venture fund, according to a report in today's Semafor. Investors are reportedly turned off not just by the firm's performance (the portfolio was internally marked down 24% last year) but a lawsuit from a former employee alleging that Tiger has a toxic culture. Semafor has more here.

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Kakao Entertainment, a one-year-old subsidiary of South Korean internet giant Kakao that operates storytelling platforms (web novels and webtoons), music streaming, K-pop artists management, and other media (movie and TV series) businesses at home and abroad, raised a $966 million round. Investors included sovereign wealth funds such as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Singapore-based PWARP Investment. TechCrunch has more here.

OutSystems, a 21-year-old Boston company that sells low-code app development tools, raised approximately $228 million from KKR last fall at a $4.3 billion valuation according to Forbes, a valuation that is 55% lower than its prior February 2021 fundraise led by Tiger Global and Abdiel Capital. The company has raised a total of $572.1 million. Forbes has more here.

Xpansiv, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that has built a marketplace for trading environmental commodities such as carbon, raised a $125 million round. Investors included Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, as well as previous backers BP Ventures, S&P Ventures, Aware Super, Atlas Merchant Capital, and Vitruvian Partners. The company has raised a total of $703.5 million. Financial Review has more here.

Butter, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that works with the existing payments infrastructure of its clients in order to reduce churn, raised a $22 million Series A round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with Atomic, Transpose Platform, and Spring Tide Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $28.8 million. Forbes has more here.

Digitail, a six-year-old Palo Alto startup that automates the administrative tasks of veterinarians, raised an $11 million Series A round led by Atomico, with Gradient, by Founders, and Partech also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $14.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Mondu, a one-year-old Berlin startup that operates a buy-now-pay-later service for B2B providers, raised a $13 million Series A extension round, increasing the size of the round to $56 million. The lead investor was Valar Ventures, with FinTech Collective also joining in. The company has raised a total of $90 million. Tech.eu has more here.

No Meat Factory, a Canadian startup that produces alternative proteins for third-party customers, raised a $42 million Series B round led by Tenglemann Growth Partners and including previous investor Emil Capital Partners. The company has raised a total of $60 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Oula, a three-year-old Brooklyn startup that operates a maternity clinic and remote care platform, raised a $19 million Series A round led by 8VC, with additional participation from Metrodora (Chelsea Clinton's fund), the Female Founders Fund, Collaborative Fund, and Alumni Ventures. The company has raised a total of $22.3 million. Axios has more here.

Rapid Silicon, a one-year-old silicon startup based in Los Gatos, Ca., that provides domain-specific integrated circuits for using a combination of open-source software and proprietary AI technology, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Cambium Capital. The company, which told TechCrunch that it expects to close a $15 million extension of its Series A within the next few months at an $80 million pre-money valuation, has raised a total of $30 million. More here.

Welcome Homes, a New York startup that offers consumers the ability to design and build new homes online, announced today that it raised a $29 million Series A round this past September of 2022. Era Ventures was the deal lead; additional investors included Parker89, Montage Ventures, Foundamental, Global Founders Capital, Activant Capital, Gaingels, Elefund, and Arkin Holdings. The company has raised a total of approximately $35 million. Its founders previously cofounded the cloud computing company DigitalOcean. TechCrunch has more here.

Alkimiya, a one-year-old crypto startup that provides a protocol for miners and staking validators to lock in upfront revenue to fund future production, raised a $7.2 million round led by Castle Island Ventures and 1kx and including Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Dragonfly Capital Partners. CoinDesk has more here.

Coho AI, a one-year-old New York startup that develops customer insights in order to increase sales growth, raised an $8.5 million seed round led by Eight Roads and TechAviv. TechCrunch has more here.

Quasar Finance, a startup that plans to offer structured investment products for DeFi across different blockchains, raised a $5.4 million round led by Shima Capital at a $70 million valuation. Other investors in the round included Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, HASH Capital, and CIB. CoinDesk has more here.

T2, a startup that aims to create an alternative to Twitter, raised a $1.1 million round from a group of angels that includes Bradley Horowitz, Rich Miner, and former Wikipedia CEO Katherine Maher. TechCrunch has more here.

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Axios reports today that Social Capital's next fund will be approximately $1 billion and focus on early stage companies, a departure from founder Chamath Palihapitiya's previous plan to raise a much larger amount of money and focus on growth stage companies and special opportunities. Palihapitiya will commit 20% of the new fund's capital versus 100% for the firm's previous fund. More here. 

Citizen, a crime reporting app originally called "Vigilante" that uses radio antennas installed in major cities to monitor 911 communications, laid off "dozens of employees," according to a report in Vice, which has more here. 

Crypto exchange Crypto exchange Crypto.com says it's cutting its global workforce by as it navigates ongoing economic headwinds and “unforeseeable” industry events. This is the second major layoff at the Singapore-headquartered outfit, which cut 250 jobs as of mid-last year. More here.

Alphabet is letting 40 people go from Intrinsic, its robotics division. TechCrunch has more here.

Greenlight, which provides parents with debit cards that they can give to their kids, laid off 104 employees or over 21% of its total headcount of 485. TechCrunch has more here.

SmartNews, a Tokyo-headquartered news aggregation website and app valued at $2 billion as of 2021, today announced a 40% reduction of its U.S. and China workforce, or around 120 people, according to TechCrunch. More here.

Elon Musk wants to move a trial with Tesla shareholders from California to Texas because of negative press coverage in the Golden State, but attorneys for the other side don't think a new venue will do Musk much good: Musk has a "knack for attracting 'negative' coverage," they say.

Sam Bankman-Fried has a new blog. On Substack, he wrote today that he didn't "stash billions away. Nearly all of my assets were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers."  He also stated that he hadn’t run Alameda “for the past few years” and wasn't up-to-speed on its finances, directly contradicting the reports of regulators and prosecutors who said he was intimately familiar with the firm's finances. 

China is moving to take “golden shares” in local units of Alibaba and Tencent as Beijng formalizes a greater role in overseeing the country’s powerful tech groups.

A comprehensive summary of Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI in today's NYT.

More bad news for the gig economy: in New York City, Uber and Lyft drivers now earn less in fares and tips than taxi drivers.

The team behind the Formula One documentary series Drive to Survive recently took an up close and personal look at the world of championship tennis. Now comes word that they are doing the same for golf. Check out the trailer for Full Swing, scheduled to be released by Netflix on February 15th.

A programmer recently broke up with and killed off a girlfriend he created using ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion because his real girlfriend thought his "waifu" was ruining his health.

El Salvador is issuing cryptocurrency-backed "volcano bonds" in order to build a tax-free "Bitcoin City" on the country's coast that would use geothermal energy from a nearby volcano.

The gas stove culture wars have begun.

How to avoid getting trapped in a "textationship."

The private Greek island compound in The Glass Onion is for sale for $450 million. Well, not really, but you'll still want to check out the fake Zillow listing posted by Netflix. (Always be marketing!)

This $68 million modernist mansion comes complete with its own collection of candles, mists, and diffusers that were made exclusively for the estate.

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