Federal agencies are questioning Snapchat’s role in the spread and sale of fentanyl-laced pills in the U.S.

Elon Musk’s team reportedly held talks with investors in November about raising up to $3 billion to repay some of the $13 billion in debt tacked onto Twitter as part of his buyout of the company. The WSJ, which has the story, says the "state of the fundraising talks couldn't be learned," but it observes that "Fidelity, one of the co-investors that backed Mr. Musk’s takeover of Twitter, wrote down its stake in Twitter by 56% in November" per public filings, suggesting Musk would "face an uphill battle raising funds at the original valuation from outside investors."

Meanwhile, investors concerned about Musk’s impact on the Tesla brand shouldn’t worry, Musk said during Tesla’s quarterly analyst call earlier today, noting he is "reasonably popular" if the size of his Twitter following is any indication. More here.

Federal agencies are questioning Snapchat’s role in the spread and sale of fentanyl-laced pills in the U.S. as part of a broader probe into the deadly counterfeit drugs crisis. In many cases, subpoenaed records show teenagers -- using Snapchat to arrange a purchase -- thought they were buying prescription painkillers but the pill they swallowed was pure fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than morphine. Bloomberg has the story here.

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Fabrice Grinda says he never intended to run a venture firm. He just really (really) enjoyed angel investing. In fact, by late 2013, when he was on the verge of selling the global classifieds marketplace OLX -- his third business -- he says he had already written checks to more than 150 startups with his longtime friend and OLX cofounder Alec Oxenford. “We’d been working together forever. It was really a family office that was angel investing at a massive scale," Grinda recalls.

Given that flurry of checks, potential LPs, including strategic investors, family offices, and founders began to express an interest in investing with them. Oxenford ultimately decided instead to cofound another marketplace, launching Letgo in 2015. (It was later acquired by rival OfferUp.) But Grinda leaned further into investing with another friend and serial entrepreneur, Jose Marin, and by 2016, a Norwegian telecom company Telenor offered to provide exclusive funding to the duo, giving them $50 million to invest toward that end.

Fast forward, and their outfit, FJ Labs, has evolved from a two-man outfit to a sprawling firm with 34 employees, including eight investors and four "full-blown partners." It began to grow in earnest in 2018, when LPs committed to invest $175 million with the outfit. Now, Grinda is announcing that FJ Labs has garnered $260 million in capital commitments across a pre-seed fund and an opportunity-style “Series B and beyond” fund, with backing from family offices, institutional investors, and a wide array of founders, including of LinkedIn, PayPal, Supercell, Transferwise, MongoDB and Wayfair.

Indeed, over time, FJ Labs has come to look less like a "lab" and more like a traditional venture firm, though Grinda rejects the comparison.

"We are a venture fund," he says, but one that does "angel investing at venture scale," he insists. "We don't lead. We don't price. We don't take board seats. We decide after two one-hour meetings over the course of a week whether we'll invest or not because we have extraordinary pattern recognition that allows us to decide extremely quickly."

It sounds high risk, yet FJ Labs has results to show for its approach. Among its many investments, for example, it has bet early on outfits that have ballooned over time, including Alibaba, Coupang, Flexport, and Delivery Hero.

More here.

Angle Health, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based "digital first" fully-licensed health insurance company, has raised $58 million in Series A funding led by Portage. The round also included participation from PruVen Capital, Wing Venture Capital, SixThirty Ventures, Mighty Capital, Wormhole Capital, Mindset Ventures, Crew Capital, Aloft VC, and Pilot founder Waseem Daher. More here.

Osmo, a months-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based digital olfaction company (we covered its earliest days here), has raised $60 million in Series A funding co-led by Lux Capital and GV, both of which are also credited with cofounding the company. Other investors include Arena Holdings, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Moore Strategic Ventures, Exor Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Amazon Alexa Fund, Hugo Barra, Soumith Chintala, Jeff Dean, Henry R. Kravis, Rich Miner, and Thomas Reardon. Wired has more here.

QuickNode, a six-year-old Miami startup that has built a blockchain deployment platform that it hopes will be the "AWS or Azure of blockchain," raised a $60 million Series B round at an $800 million valuation. 10T Holdings was the deal lead; additional participants included Tiger Global, Seven Seven Six, Protocol Labs, and QED. The company has raised a total of $101.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Ampeco, a Sofia, Bulgaria-based startup that has been building out an EV charging management platform startup in Europe and plans to drive into North American, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by BMW iVentures. Other backers in the round include Bulgaria’s LauncHub Ventures (which last year announced a €70 million fund) and Cavalry Ventures of Berlin. TechCrunch has more here.

Atomic AI, a nearly two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based startup that uses deep learning to predict the structure of RNA molecules in order to identify druggable targets, has raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Playground Global, with participation from 8VC, Factory HQ, Greylock, NotBoring, AME Cloud Ventures, as well as angels Nat Friedman, Doug Mohr, Neal Khosla, and Patrick Hsu. The company previously raised $7 million in seed funding. TechCrunch has more here.

AtomicJar, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based integrated testing platform outfit (it's the company behind the open-source library Testcontainers), has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. Other backers in the round include Boldstart Ventures, Tribe Capital, Chalfen Ventures, Irregular Expressions and several individuals. TechCrunch has more here.

Crowdbotics, a nearly six-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based software development platform with a library of prebuilt app architectures, says it raised $40 million in Series B funding led by NEA with participation from Homebrew, JSV, Harrison Metal and Cooley. TechCrunch has more here.

DevZero, a two-year-old Seattle startup that has built a system to enable developers to build and test code in the cloud, raised a $21 million Series A round led by Anthos Capital, with previous investors Foundation Capital, Fika Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $26 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Ecozen, a 13-year-old, Pune, India-based outfit that’s providing solar-powered irrigation and cold chain storage solutions, has raised $25 million in combined equity and debt capital. Nuveen and Dare Ventures led the equity portion, with participation from Export-Import Bank of India and earlier investors. The debt portion was provided by Maanaveeya Development and Finance, Oxyzo, Northern Arc, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. AgFunderNews has more here.

Forward Networks, a ten-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, Ca., that builds digital twin modeling software geared specifically to operating and maintaining enterprise networks, raised a $50 million Series D round led by MSD Partners, with additional participation from Section 32 and Omega Venture Partners as well as previous investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), Threshold Ventures, A. Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. The company has raised a total of $112.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Gemba, a nearly 13-year-old, London-based enterprise-focused virtual reality training company used by some of the world’s biggest companies (it was long called The Leadership Network), has raised $18 million in a Series A round of funding led by Parkway Venture Capital of New York. TechCrunch has more here.

Memfault, a five-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform helps IoT device manufacturers identify issues in their edge products, raised a $24 million Series B round led by Stripes, with additional investors including 5G Open Innovation Lab, Partech Partners, and Uncork Capital. The company has raised a total of $35.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Precision Neuroscience, a two-year-old New York startup that aims to develop implants to restore neurological function, raised a $41 million Series B round. Investors included Forepont Capital Partners. Mubadala Capital, Draper Associates, Alumni Ventures, and re.Mind Capital, as well as previous investors Steadview Capital and B Capital Group. The company has raised a total of $53 million. More here.

Scythe Robotics, a five-year-old startup based in Boulder, Co., that has built a robotic lawnmower for use in commercial landscaping projects, raised a $42 million Series B round led by Energy Impact Partners, with ArcTern Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Alexa Fund, True Ventures, and Inspired Capital also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $70.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Snyk, an eight-year-old Boston startup that helps enterprises secure their software supply chains, raised a $25 million strategic round from ServiceNow. VentureBeat has more here.

Strata Identity, a 3.5-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based identity orchestration company, has raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Telstra Ventures. Menlo Ventures, Forgepoint Capital and Innovating Capital — all previous backers — also joined the round, which brings Strata's total funding to $42.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Terra Drone, a nearly seven-year-old, Japan-based outfit that builds drone software, hardware and unmanned aircraft traffic management software, says it has raised $14 million in Series C funding from Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco (marking Wa’ed’s first investment in Asia). The outfit has now raised $97 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Accord, a three-year-old, Toronto-based collaboration platform designed to support business-to-business sales, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Matrix Partners, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Y Combinator. CEO Ross Rich -- a former partnerships lead at Stripe -- says that the new funds bring Accord’s total funding to $17 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Argilla, a six-year-old Madrid startup whose platform enables enterprises to build apps using natural language processing, raised a $1.6 million seed round. Zetta Venture Partners and Caixa Capital Risc were the co-leads. More here.

Asset Reality, a three-year-old London startup that helps its clients track and recover stolen digital assets, raised a $4.9 million seed round led by Framework Ventures, with TechStars, The Fund, and SGH Capital also contributing. CoinDesk has more here.

ECL, a startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that says it's designing hydrogen-powered data centers that consume no local resources and operate with zero emissions at extremely low noise levels, raised a $7 million seed round. Molex Ventures and Hypewise Ventures co-led the transaction. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Grilla, a year-old, Miami-based startup whose platform enables users to create, manage, and compete in any type of video game or skill-based competition (examples include golf, backgammon, bowling, chess, and basketball), raised a $3 million round. Tusk Venture Partners was the deal lead. VentureBeat has more here.

Hatchfi, a one-year-old startup based in Modesto, Ca., whose platform securely connects users’ crypto accounts to any app in the same manner as one would connect a bank account, raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round. Golden.com CEO Jude Gomila, Delta Blockchain Fund, and OrangeDAO co-led the deal. More here.

House of Blueberry, an 11-year-old company that partners with brands to create digital fashion for games and online worlds, raised a $6 million seed round led by Makers Fund, with Everblue Management also taking part. VentureBeat has more here.

The Ish Company, a three-year-old Delaware startup that is creating plant-based seafood products, raised a $5 million seed round. ACCELR8 was the deal lead, while Stray Dog Capital also anted up. TechCrunch has more here.

Mighty Health, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup offering a daily health program designed for adults ages 50 and up (it says it provides personalized guidance in the form of joint-friendly workouts, chronic condition-specific programs, custom nutrition plans, and one-on-one health coaching), has raised $7.6 million in new financing co-led by Will Ventures and GFT Ventures. More here.

Oneleaf, a Paris startup that has developed self-hypnosis programs to help consumers with issues such as smoking, weight management, and sleeplessness, raised a $4.6 million round led by VC First and including Kima Ventures and Raise Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Parable, an Atlanta startup that is developing all-natural supplements aimed at improving brain health, raised a $2.75 million seed round. M13 and Break Trail Ventures were the co-leads. Forbes has more here.

RapidDeploy, a nearly nine-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based maker of dispatch software for 911 centers, has raised $34 million in new growth capital led by Edison Partners. Earlier backers GreatPoint Ventures, Morpheus Ventures, GM Ventures, Ericsson Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Clearvision Ventures, Tau Ventures, NedBank CIB, and others also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $87 million. More here.

Raise Robotics, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that builds robotic equipment to help workers with challenging tasks on construction sites, raised a $2.2 million pre-seed round. Cyberntetix Ventures, Union Labs VC, and Zacua Ventures all invested in the deal. More here.

Supernormal, an eight-month-old, Stockholm-based generative AI note-taking platform that promises to deliver detailed meeting notes to users without them lifting a finger, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Balderton Capital. Previous investor EQT Ventures participated in the round, joined by Acequia Capital and byFounders. The company has now raised $12 million altogether. More here.

Tyba, an Oakland, Ca.-based startup whose platform helps energy firms model the way they use and store solar power, raised a $2.25 million seed round co-led by Powerhouse Ventures and Wireframe Ventures, with participation from Lorimer Ventures, MKT1 Capital, and Virta Ventures. More here.

Wafeq, a four-year-old Dubai startup that offers online accounting and invoicing services for small- to medium-size businesses, raised a $3 million seed round led by Raed Ventures and including Wamda Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Wasted, a three-year-old startup based in Burlington, VT, that is redesigning porta-potties to ensure that they are more environmentally friendly, raised a $7.5 million round co-led by Collaborative Fund and Divergent Capital, with Day One Ventures, Third Sphere, Pure Ventures, Riverstyx Foundation, Gratitude Railroad, and Susquehanna Foundation also joining in. The company has raised a total of $13.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

WattCarbon, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based energy decarbonization company, has raised a $4.5 million seed round led by True Ventures. More here.

Zurp, a one-year-old New York startup whose credit card allows consumers to support their favorite social media creators, raised a $5 million pre-seed round. Investors included New Form, MAGIC Fund, Launchpad VC, OVO Fund, Darling Ventures, and Animal Capital. More here.

Geocomply, a 12-year-old, Vancouver-based developer of compliance and anti-fraud software (its cybersecurity offerings are used to detect location fraud and verify a user's true digital identity, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in the form of a "minority investment" from Norwest Venture Partners and Arctos Sports Partners. More here.

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Dimension, a new, San Francisco- and New York-based venture fund investing at the intersection of tech and life sciences and founded by three investors from other "brand" VC firms -- Nan Li, who left Obvious Ventures, and Adam Goulburn and Zavain Dar, both of whom were previously with Lux Capital -- has closed a $350 million debut fund. We talked with the trio -- more on that front soon. In the meantime, FierceBiotech has more here.

Injective, a layer-1 blockchain focused on building financial applications, has launched a $150 million fund ecosystem initiative, the platform’s CEO and co-founder, Eric Chen, tells TechCrunch. Injective was incubated by Binance Labs in 2018 and later backed by Jump Crypto, Pantera Capital and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Its new ecosystem fund is backed by previous investors like Pantera and Jump as well as other web3 players, including Kraken Ventures, Kucoin Ventures, Delphi Labs, Flow Traders, Gate Labs and IDG Capital. The $150 million was pooled capital from the consortium and will be deployed over “a few years,” Chen says.

Kearny Jackson, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based pre-seed fund founded by former Spotify executive Sriram Krishnan, said it has closed a $14 million second fund. It has also brought in Sunil Chhaya, formerly an investor at Menlo Ventures, as a co-GP. TechCrunch has more here.

Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that helps corporations invest in startups, said it has set up a $100 million fund with the 107-year-old Japanese chemical and life science company Denka. According to TechCrunch, Denka is looking to invest money into early- to late-stage startups in renewable energy, EV batteries, chips and health tech. More here.

Dell is making an acquisition to beef up its cloud services business, buying Cloudify, an Israeli startup that has built a platform for cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation. Cloudify’s tools are used by cloud architects and DevOps engineers to manage containers, workloads, and more across hybrid environments. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed, but TechCrunch sources peg the sale at around $100 million. More here.

Magnet Forensics, a 13-year-old, Waterloo, Ontario-based company whose customers use its software tools to investigate cyberattacks and digital crimes, says it is being acquired and taken private by PE giant Thoma Bravo in a deal worth about $1.8 billion. The Record has more here.

SAP is reportedly planning to cut about 3,000 jobs this year while exploring a sale of its remaining stake in Qualtrics, as it looks for ways to boost profit. SAP spent $8 billion to acquire the Utah company in 2018. To everyone's surprise, two years later in 2020, SAP decided to spin-off the entity as a separate public unit. (Qualtric's shares, which peaked at around $55 two years ago, are now trading at $11 per share.) Bloomberg has more here.

Meta will reinstate former President Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts "in coming weeks" following a two-year suspension, according to Nick Clegg, the company's president, global affairs. Axios notes that Trump will "be subject to new policies that Meta has created following feedback from its independent Oversight Board that could restrict his accounts — including his ability to run ads — should he violate the company's policies in the future."

SoftBank — which at one point took part in $30 billion worth of financing rounds in more than 90 startups in a single quarter — participated in just eight investment rounds totaling $2.1 billion in the three months ending in December, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. It says that Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Coatue Management have also slowed their roll. More here.

Harrison Metal, the Palo Alto-based seed-stage venture firm led by Michael Dearing, is suing the founder and CEO of portfolio company Mixmax for breach of fiduciary duty. (H/T: Axios.). You can check it out here.

Wealthy Chinese are reportedly leaving behind the country in droves as Covid travel restrictions are dismantled, and that's not great for its economy. Before the pandemic, China faced capital flight of about $150 billion annually from people going overseas, but the amount is likely to be higher than this since they haven’t be able to travel for the last three years, says one economist to Bloomberg.

Precision Neuroscience -- co-founded by Benjamin Rapoport, who also co-founded Elon Musk’s Neuralink -- is creating a brain implant thinner than a human hair. 

Two Supreme Court cases that could break the internet.

The bartender behind the Blue Martini (and its tiny umbrella).

"The Way We Were," 50 years later.

How to become a professional writer.

We here at StrictlyVC would prefer to confirm firsthand how exacting the details are of this Bacalar-inspired Sikorsky S-76 helicopter. (It's the only way we can recommend it.)

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