Thrive takes another bite of Stripe, Baidu focuses on its own ChatGPT, and the insanity of slap fighting

China’s Baidu is diving into the race to commercialize the next generation of AI technologies like ChatGPT that could transform the internet, reports the WSJ. It adds that Baidu is set to be the first to bring the technology to consumers in China, where ChatGPT is blocked. More here.

Twitter has begun applying for regulatory licenses across the U.S. and designing the software required to introduce payments across the social media platform, reports the FT. Musk, according to the FT's sources, has said he wants the system to be fiat, first and foremost, but built so that crypto functionality could potentially be added at a later point. More here.

All eyes will be on Meta, Snap, Alphabet and Amazon this week and they report their earnings -- revealing much in the process about the state of digital advertising.

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Despite continuing talk about a possible recession, slumping tech stocks and a slowdown in the world of startup investing, the business of funding was positively humming last week. After slowing way down last spring, venture outfits disclosed a stunning $8 billion in new capital commitments in the span of just five days.

Consider the following: NEA revealed that it closed its two newest funds adding up to $6.2 billion; Cowboy Ventures announced two funds totaling $260 million; and FJ Labs also disclosed two funds totaling $260 million. Then there’s Sapphire Sport (it closed a second fund of $181 million), Volition Capital (it announced $675 million for its fifth fund), Kearny Jackson ($14 million) and Dimension ($350 million). Even non-U.S. outfits got into the act, including Highland Europe, which announced a new €1 billion fund, and a Japanese chemical giant that revealed a $100 million fund.

So what’s going on exactly? Are we already through this downturn? While impossible to know, the flurry of activity likely owes itself instead to a few unsurprising things.

For starters, a lot of “new” funds were actually closed last year but not announced for one reason or another. Defy.vc, for example, an early-stage venture outfit based in Woodside, California, said it is now investing out of a $300 million third fund (compared with a $151 million debut fund and a $262 million sophomore fund that it closed in 2019).

Defy actually closed the fund in the middle of last year but didn’t say anything until now because it was actively investing its previous fund until a few months ago, co-founder Neil Sequeira said. At the time, he said, the moment didn’t seem right.

“It was an interesting time in the NASDAQ and [regarding] world geopolitical issues,” he said, referring to the confluence of events that made 2022 a year that many would sooner forget, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and disrupted supply chains to surging inflation around the world.

More here.

Raylo, a four-year-old London startup that allows consumers to lease phones, tablets, laptops, and (soon) e-bikes, raised a $136 million round mainly in the form of debt. NatWest and Quilam Capital are providing the debt portion, while unnamed previous investors are providing the equity. (Raylo's previous investors include Telefonica, Octopus Ventures, and Macquarie Capital.) TechCrunch has more here.

Alto Neuroscience, a four-year-old startup based in Los Altos, Ca., that is developing drugs targeting depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health conditions, raised a $25 million Series B extension round led by Alpha Wave Ventures and a $35 million credit facility from K2 HealthVentures. The company has raised a total of $100 million in equity. EndpointsNews has more here.

Q-CTRL, a six-year-old Sydney startup that has built quantum-sensing software that helps reduce errors on quantum computers, raised a $27.4 million Series B extension from Salesforce Ventures, Alumni Ventures, ICM Allectus, and Mindrock Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Hypernative, a one-year-old startup that focuses on crypto security for asset managers, hedge funds, traders, and market makers, raised a $9 million seed round co-led by Boldstart Ventures and IBI Tech Fund, with strategic investments from Blockdaemon, Alchemy, Borderless, CMT Digital, and Nexo. TechCrunch has more here.

Secai Marche, a 4.5-year-old farm-to-table fulfillment platform serving farmers in Japan and Southeast Asia, announced today it has raised 210 million Japanese yen (about $1.6 million) in Series A funding. The round included participation from venture capital firm The Agribusiness Investment and Consultation Co., Spiral Ventures Asia Fund I and Beyond Next Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Sovereign Labs, a crypto project whose software development kit enables developers to enhance the security of their applications, raised a $7.4 million seed round at an eight-figure valuation, according to the company. Haun Ventures was the deal lead, while Maven 11, 1KX, Robot Ventures, and Plaintext Capital also participated. CoinDesk has more here.

TigerBeetle, a five-month-old, distributed financial accounting database, has raised $6.4 million in funding from Amplify Partners and Coil. More here.

VitaDAO, a two-year-old decentralized science community that is conducting longevity research, raised a $4.1 million round from former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and Pfizer Ventures. Forbes has more here.

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Radical Ventures, a nearly four-year-old, Toronto-based venture firm focused on AI startups, says it has raised more than $350 million in capital commitments for a second fund that is targeting $550 million altogether. According to The Globe and Mail, its backers include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which don’t typically back domestic VC funds, Toronto-Dominion Bank TD, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek, the billionaire Newhouse family’s Advance Publications, and leading AI researchers Geoffrey Hinton of University of Toronto and Fei-Fei Li, co-director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute. More here.

Marqeta, a 13-year-old publicly traded card issuing platform, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the credit card program management platform Power Finance -- its first acquisition ever. Marqueta is paying $223 million in cash. TechCrunch has more here.

The English Premier League has struck a multimillion-pound deal with Sorare, the venture-backed blockchain-based fantasy sports game, as the world’s most popular football league bets that trading in digital collectibles will survive beyond the current crypto slump. The FT has more here.

Federal prosecutors today doubled down on their request for a judge to impose new bail conditions banning FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s use of encrypted messaging apps. The government also wants to restrict the 30-year-old from contacting former and current FTX employees, excluding his father. Bloomberg has more here.

DoorDash's three cofounders will sell millions of shares in the company beginning next month, it disclosed today; the three have unexercised options that expire on June 25, 2024 so will sell up to 6.6 million shares collectively, reports MarketWatch. 

PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada apologized for quoting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in an email last week that announced she was cutting 7% of its workforce. Her email had sparked a backlash from critics, with one expert calling it a "new low bar for a layoff announcement." More here.

Impossible Foods, the maker of meatless burgers and sausages, is preparing to cut about 20% of its staff, according to Bloomberg. The company had previously cut 6% of its workforce in October. It's a problem of waning interest in the broader category, suggests Bloomberg, which notes that per third-party data, supermarket sales of refrigerated meat alternatives fell 15% by volume for the 52 weeks ended Jan. 1, and that at restaurants and food-service outlets, orders of plant-based burgers dropped 9% in the 12 months ended in November. More here.

Thrive Capital, the investment firm founded by Joshua Kushner, is leading a potential investment in the payments provider Stripe at a valuation of $55 billion to $60 billion, down sharply from two years ago, reports the New York Times. Its sources say Stripe aims to raise roughly $2.5 billion and that Thrive has committed $1 billion. (Thrive also led the company's Series C round back in 2014.)  More here.

As the cryptocurrency market imploded last year, Gemini Earn customers repeatedly asked the company if their assets were safe. Some of Gemini’s responses, reviewed by Axios, emphasized connections to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which led customers to believe their accounts were insured by the government agency. They weren’t and now the New York State agency that regulates Gemini is investigating the firm.

Twitter made its first interest payment of an estimated $300 million on the $12.5 billion in debt that Elon Musk used to take the social media giant private last year. The company paid a group of seven banks, led by Morgan Stanley, which became stuck with the debt after they were unable to sell it to outside investors. Bloomberg has more here.

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