Coinbase cutbacks, a rare acquisition by Fidelity, and Carta files suit against its former CTO

Coinbase is cutting about a fifth of its workforce as it looks to preserve cash during the crypto market downturn. The exchange plans to cut 950 jobs, according to a blog post published this morning. Coinbase, which had roughly 4,700 employees as of the end of September, already slashed 18% of its workforce in June citing a need to manage costs and growing “too quickly” during the bull market. CNBC has more here.

Meta Platforms is removing gender as an option for advertisers to target teens on Facebook and Instagram, part of a broader overhaul aimed at tightening the company’s advertising policy for young users. The WSJ has more here.

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Carta, the 11-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit whose core business is selling software to investors to track their portfolios, has sued its former CTO, Jerry Talton, who the company says was fired "for cause" almost three weeks ago, on Friday, December 23.

In its lawsuit, Carta is suing Talton for damages, citing "his wrongful and illegal acts as an executive of Carta" and suggesting he both betrayed the company and sexually harassed its employees despite being given a role that came with "hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and benefits, and substantial equity awards."

On first read, it sounds like a company throwing the kitchen sink at a would-be whistleblower whose tactics were ham-handed (and illegal, says Carta).

Specifically, according to the complaint, Talton was put on administrative leave in October of last year after submitting a letter to Carta’s board of directors, flagging various “problems” with the company's culture.

Carta says Talton's leave was meant to enable the board to "facilitate" an "independent" investigation, but that during that period, the company discovered that Talton had preserved audio recordings of workplace-video meetings with Carta's general counsel without her knowledge. How? According to the complaint: "[D]uring a confidential mediation involving a female former Carta employee (a mediation to which Talton was not a party), on November 8, 2022, Carta’s General Counsel April Lindauer was copied on an email from Talton to that former employee and her counsel, seemingly by mistake, stating 'I think you should read the whole thing' and including a transcript of an audio recording between Talton and Lindauer from September 27, 2022. The email also included an indication that the audio recording was uploaded to the file-sharing platform, DropBox."

Oops.

The company says it subsequently demanded that Talton return all recordings and transcripts and other Carta property to Carta and that he also provide copies of all recordings and transcripts to "company-authorized investigators."

Talton, who Carta believes "also surreptitiously recorded at least two members of Carta’s Board of Directors, as well as Carta’s Founder and CEO, and other Carta executives and employees," said no.

We reached out to both Carta and Talton earlier this evening for comment; neither had responded as of our publication time.

More here.

Carbon Health, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup whose software connects patients and healthcare providers, allowing for digital monitoring and management of care, raised a $100 million round from CVS Health Ventures, which will run a pilot of Carbon Health clinics in CVS stores. This financing comes only days after revealing its second round of layoffs in the past year. The company has raised a total of $622.5 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Chronosphere, a three-year-old startup based in Issaquah, Wa., that has built a data observability platform used by clients such as DoorDash, Zillow, and Visa, raised a $115 million Series C extension round at a $1.6 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by GV and Geodesic Capital; previous investors Addition, Founders Fund, General Atlantic, Greylock, Glynn Capital, and Lux Capital also participated. The company has raised a total of $342.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Enpal, a five-year-old Berlin startup that rents out solar-power systems to homeowners, is reportedly in the market to raise around $230 million at a $2.4 billion valuation, according to The Wall Street Journal. The prospective lead is TPG, while Westly Group and Activate Capital are also supposedly interested in participating. The Journal has more here.

Monogram Health, a three-year-old Nashville, Tn. startup that partners with health plans to offer their members a range of renal care services, raised a $375 million round from CVS Health, Cigna Ventures, Humana, Memorial Hermann Health System, SCAN, TPG Capital, Frist Cressey Ventures, Heritage Group, Pura Vida Investments, and Norwest Venture Partners. The company has raised a total of $555 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

NextPoint Therapeutics, a two-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that aims to deliver monotherapies for cancer patients without viable treatment options, raised an $80 million Series B round co-led by Leaps by Bayer and Sanofi Ventures, with Invus, Catalio Capital Management, Sixty Degree Capital, PagodaTree Partners, and previous investors MPM Capital, and Binney Street Capital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute also taking part. More here.

Oxbotica, an eight-year-old outfit out of England that develops customized software to power autonomous vehicles, has closed a Series C round of $140 million. Japan’s Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co. and ENEOS Innovation Partners, the corporate VC of the mining conglomerate Eneos, are among its new investors. The company has now raised $225 million altogether, says TechCrunch. More here.

The Easy Co., a San Francisco startup that is building a “social” crypto wallet to help onboard more mainstream audiences, raised a $14.2 million seed round. Investors included Lobby Capital, Relay Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Tapestry VC, Upside Partnership, and Scribble Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Jetstream Africa, a four-year-old startup based in Accra, Ghana, that has built an online logistics platform for Africa's B2B importers and exporters, raised a $13 million debt-and-equity round. Investors included Octerra, Wuri Ventures, Seed9, The MBA Fund, Proparco, ASCVC, and Cauris. TechCrunch has more here.

Paytient, a four-year-old startup based in Columbia, Mo., that provides employers with a way to help their employees pay out-of-pocket healthcare costs, raised a $33 million Series B round led by Mercato Partners, with additional investors including Bertelsmann Investments and previous investors Lightbank, Felicis Ventures, Box Group, Lachy Groom, Left Lane Capital, Commerce Bank, Crossbeam Ventures, Cultivation Capital, and Inspired Capital. In addition, SVB provided $7.5 million in debt. Paytient has raised a total of $62.9 million. MobiHealth News has more here.

Peppy, a nearly five-year-old, London-based digital health startup, has raised a $45 million in Series B funding led by AlbionVC to bring its employee benefits platform to the U.S. The outfit says it offers personalized care for employees through its in-app consultations and resources, with a special focus on gender-based health issues, such as menopause, fertility, parenthood, and men's health. Business Insider has more here.

Apperio, a seven-year-old London startup that provides in-house counsel with a comprehensive view of its legal spending on a single dashboard, raised a $7 million debt and equity round led by Molten Ventures, with additional participation from Notion Capital, IQ Capital, Nextlaw Ventures, Volution, and Hambro Perks. The company has raised a total of $12.9 million. More here.

Brick&Bolt, a five-year-old Bengaluru startup that has built an e-commerce platform for the construction industry, raised a $10 million round. Accel and Celesta Capital were the co-leads. The company has raised a total of $10.6 million. More here.

C14, a New York startup that has developed what it believes to be a particularly seamless fiat-to-crypto payment flow for developers to embed in their applications, raised a $2.5 million in round led by General Catalyst. Crowdfund Insider has more here.

The most successful VCs don’t just have more resources or money to invest—they’re experts at managing their data and relationships. Learn more from three top dealmakers in this recent Affinity webinar featuring Bessemer Ventures, Alpha Partners, and SOSV’s IndieBio. Happening this Thursday, Jan. 12, at 10 a.m PST.

Fidelity just made its first acquisition in seven years, snapping up a nearly nine-year-old, Boston-based, 40-person fintech called Shoobx that provides automated equity management operations and financing software to private companies “at all growth stages,” up to and including an IPO. The outfit has called itself a "Carta on steroids" but it has raised far less capital than Carta from investors. Crunchbase shows just $10 million in backing for Shoobx, including from Austin-based Scout Ventures and Steve Papa. Atlas Ventures is also a backer, according to the WSJ. More here.

Voyager Digital, which was founded in 2018 as a crypto trading platform and reached a peak of 3.5 million users and more than $5.9 billion of cryptocurrency assets, according to court records, has won court approval to sell its crypto platform to Binance.US for $20 million as part of Voyager’s plan to liquidate in bankruptcy. The company originally had a deal to sell its platform to FTX that would have brought Voyager about $51 million in cash, before FTX filed its own bankruptcy amid fraud allegations. Bloomberg has more here.

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss today called on the Digital Currency Group’s board to remove Barry Silbert as CEO, saying Silbert had lied about DCG’s financial position and was unfit to run the company. Gemini works with Genesis, a DCG subsidiary, on its lending product, Gemini Earn, whose 340,000 users have more than $900 million stuck on Genesis. The Information has more here.

Several top executives at Rivian Automotive, including the vice president overseeing body engineering and its head of supply chain, have left the EV startup in recent months, as the company exits a year in which it fell short of its production targets. The WSJ has more here.

Scale AI, the 6.5-year-old San Francisco–based company that uses software and people to label image, text, voice and video data for companies building machine learning algorithms, laid off 20% of its workforce this week. The decision, announced by founder and CEO Alexandr Wang via a blog post, follows rapid hiring in 2021 and 2022, notes TechCrunch. The company did not say how many people work at Scale AI, but a year ago, the company told TC it employed about 450 people. More here.

Parlement Technologies, the parent company of “censorship-free” social media platform Parler, has laid off a majority of its staff and most of its chief executives over the last few weeks, reports the Verge.

App Store developers have earned $320 billion to date, says Apple.

Bosses give workers bullshit "manager" titles to avoid paying overtime: study.

Major US office markets were already struggling with empty buildings as flexible work becomes the norm. Now, mounting layoffs and corporate cost cuts threaten to worsen the glut, particularly in New York and San Francisco.

Golden Globe winners, 2023. (Here are the red carpet looks, too.)

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Forrest Crossing House.

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