SBF's assets, Paul Singer's stunning 2022, and Google cuts 6.4% of the company (but largely spares its AI lab)

Hello! We're realizing we forgot to share pictures of last week's event. Apologies again for not being able to accommodate more of you; when you're 46 floors from the street, the safety concerns are on another level (pun intended). 

We hope you've caught some of our coverage since, including here, here, here, and here. Meanwhile, for readers who might have missed it or would like to hear our conversation with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, check out this week's StrictlyVC Download for the full audio. (Note that we spent the first 20 minutes or so talking about his investments as these are highly atypical; the rest of the time, we talked about how the world could look very different very soon.)

Relatedly, if one more person sends us a pitch -- or entire book -- that was explicitly written by ChatGPT, we are going to drive off a cliff "Thelma & Louise" style. Our blood. Your hands.

Thank you, and huge thanks to the sustainability software outfit Sustain Life for sponsoring this week's episode. If you want to get a handle on your carbon footprint, Sustain's team suggests that you check out Sustain Life’s complete carbon accounting and ESG platform. More here. 

In the wee hours of the morning, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email sent to the company’s staff that the firm will lay off 12,000 employees or 6% of its workforce. TechCrunch has more context here, including the amount of severance being offered to those getting cut. Meanwhile, The Information notes that laid-off employees include those who had previously received high performance reviews or held managerial positions with annual compensation packages of $500,000 to $1 million, per its sources. More here.

Last month, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin held several meetings with company executives, reports the New York Times. The topic: OpenAI's ChatGPT product, which looks as if it could be the first notable threat in decades to Google’s $149 billion search business. "The re-engagement of Google’s founders, at the invitation of the company’s current chief executive, Sundar Pichai, emphasized the urgency felt among many Google executives about artificial intelligence and that chatbot, ChatGPT," says the Times, adding that Google is preparing its own next moves. ("Google now intends to unveil more than 20 new products and demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features this year, according to a slide presentation reviewed by The New York Times . . .") More here.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s assets -- valued at almost $700 million -- will be subject to forfeiture if he’s found guilty of fraud, according to federal prosecutors leading the case against the FTX founder. In a court filing today, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, outlined 10 accounts, with a mix of shares, cash and cryptocurrency subject to forfeiture. (Most of SBF's wealth owes to his 55 million shares of Robinhood, valued at $526 million.) CNBC has more here.

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aiOla, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that has developed voice and image recognition combined with AI models that it claims can digitize, automate, and streamline inspection processes, raised a $25 million round led by New Era, with Hamilton Lane also participating. The company has raised a total of $33 million. Calcalist has more here.

Dreamscape Learn, a startup based in Culver City, Ca., that develops immersive learning experiences that blend innovative pedagogy with cinematic storytelling, raised a $20 million Series A round. Investors included Bold Capital Partners, GSV Ventures, Verizon Ventures, and Cengage Group. One of the startup's cofounders, Walter Parkes, was the former head of DreamWorks Motion Pictures. Business insider has more here.

Exodigo, a two-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides subsurface mapping for customers in industries such as energy, utilities, and transportation, raised an additional $12 million, bringing its total funding to date to $41 million. Zeev Ventures and 10D Ventures were the co-leads, while SquarePeg Capital, JIBE Ventures, Tidhar Construction, Israel Canada, and WXG also took part. More here.

Flashbots, a three-year-old Cayman Islands startup that aims to mitigate the issues associated with centralized Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) on the Ethereum blockchain, is reportedly in the market to raise $30 to $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion, according to The Block, with previous investor Paradigm supposedly committed to lead the round.  More here.

iLife Technologies, a four-year-old Los Angeles startup whose software helps insurance agents identify strong qualified leads and find suitable policies for prospects, raised a $17 million round co-led by Foundation Capital, Brewer Lane Ventures, and SCOR Ventures, with GTMFund and OpenView Partners also contributing. The company has raised a total of $21 million. FinTech Global has more here.

Oro, a three-year-old Los Angeles startup that has built an open source e-commerce platform targeted at manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and wholesalers, raised a $13 million round led by Zubr Capital, with Highland Europe also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Akia, a four-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform is designed to streamline operations for service businesses, such as automating the hotel check-in process, raised a $6 million Series A round led by Altos Ventures, with previous investor GSR Ventures also pitching in. More here.

Core10, a seven-year-old startup based in Franklin, Tn., that has built a configurable lending and onboarding banking application designed to be used by community banks and credit unions, raised a $6.5 million Series B finding. Patriot Financial Partners was the deal lead; JAM Fintop and the Independent Community Bankers of America also participated The company has raised a total of $12.5 million. More here.

Cypher, a three-year-old Palo Alto startup that has developed a non-custodial crypto wallet that allows users to bridge assets across EVM and Cosmos chains and provides proprietary support to on-ramp fiat into crypto, announced that it closed a $4.3 million seed round led by Y Combinator last June. Additional participants included OrangeDAO, Samsung Next, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. The Block has more here.

Cypris, a four-year-old New York startup that offers a market intelligence platform built for research and development and innovation teams, raised a $4 million Series A round led by York IE and including Activate VP, K20 Fund, and BlueTree Capital. The company has raised a total of $5.7 million. More here.

GoodOnes, a San Francisco startup that claims its app can help users quickly find their best photos, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by TLV Partners and including Liquid2 Ventures and Android co-founder Rich Miner. Fortune has more here.

Kinspire, a three-year-old Denver startup that has built a pediatric occupational therapy platform designed to pair expert therapists with parents, raised a $3.6 million seed round co-led by Corazon Capital and Looking Glass Capital, with VC Bradley Tusk, Difference Partners, Great Oaks VC, Service Provider Capital, The Fund, and Copper Wire Ventures also pitching in. More here.

Presso, a five-year-old Atlanta startup that builds robotic dry-cleaning kiosks for hospitality/hotel companies and real estate firms, raised an $8 million seed round. Investors included Uncork Capital, 1517 Fund, AME Cloud Ventures, HAX, SOSV, Pathbreaker Ventures, VSC Ventures, and YETI Capital. The company has raised a total of $9.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

SphereOne, a two-year-old Austin startup that has developed a crypto payment platform that allows users to make purchases with any cryptocurrency across any blockchain, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Distributed Global; Newark Venture Partners and Zero Knowledge also invested. VentureBeat has more here.

Thirteen lune, a six-year-old Los Angeles startup that whose beauty site features an array of cosmetic products from brands founded by people of color, raised an $8 million "seed-plus" round from The BrainTrust Fund. The company has raised a total of $11 million. BuiltinLA has more here. 

Tiny Digital Factory, a three-year-old French mobile games studio specializing in racing games, raised a $3.25 million from Sandsoft Games, a Saudi games publisher. Tech.eu  has more here.

Wristcheck, a three-year-old Hong Kong startup that acts as a consignment platform for the sale of secondhand watches, raised an $8 million seed round led by Gobi Partners, with K3 Ventures also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

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It happened. Genesis Global Trading, a subsidiary of the crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), filed for bankruptcy last night, and the filing shows the outfit owes more than $3.6 billion to its top 50 creditors, including $900 million to the Winklevoss twins' Gemini Trust Company. Cameron Winklevoss said in a tweet after the filing that “unless [DCG CEO] Barry [Silbert] and DCG come to their senses and make a fair offer to creditors, we will be filing a lawsuit against Barry and DCG imminently.” Bloomberg has more here.

Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX.US, is back with a new venture for crypto traders and has already landed support from key players. Architect, the name of Harrison’s new software company (it's building web3 trading infrastructure), has raised $5 million in funding from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and crypto investor Anthony Scaramucci, among others. Decrypt has more here.

Elon Musk couldn't resist making a dig at Tesla short sellers while testifying in a shareholder lawsuit today, notes Business Insider. During his testimony, Musk called short selling "a means for, in my opinion, bad people on Wall Street to steal money from small investors" and later called the practice "evil."

Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management raised a stunning $13 billion last year in its biggest-ever capital haul. The firm gathered the cash commitments over two fundraising rounds that closed in 2022, according to an investor letter seen by Bloomberg. More here.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes bought a one-way ticket to Mexico last year for a flight schedule to take off three weeks after she was convicted of defrauding investors. Prosecutors describe it as an "attempt to flee the country," according to a Thursday filing covered by Business Insider. More here.*

*Random aside, this 2014 New Yorker profile of Holmes is worth reading/re-reading.

Twitter is down to fewer than 550 full-time engineers. CNBC also reports that CEO Elon Musk has authorized about 130 people from his other companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Co., to work for the social media business.

All told, some 55,300 employees from more than 154 tech companies have been affected this year. More here.

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A ($13.6 million) Spanish Colonial above the Sunset Strip.

Nobu Hotel Marrakech.

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