Bard misses the boat, Worldcoin seeks a lead, and why everyone feels like they're faking it

No column today; we have a few things cooking but it's been one of those days. We'll have more on Monday, when -- get this --  18.8 million people are already anticipated to take a sick day owing to their Super Bowl festivities on Sunday. That's . . so many people! We will say that if the Cleveland Browns were in the Super Bowl -- they've never made it that far - we'd take all of February off to celebrate this small miracle. 🏈

China has cut its participation in an internet cable project to link Asia with Europe, as tensions grow between Washington and Beijing over control of the physical infrastructure that transmits the world’s online traffic. The FT has more here.

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Arrcus, a San Jose, Ca.-based hyperscale networking software company, raised $50 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Prosperity7 Ventures, with participation from Clear Ventures, General Catalyst, Liberty Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners, as well as Silicon Valley Bank. More here.

Worldcoin, the nearly three-year-old, eyeball-scanning crypto startup co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is reportedly seeking a lead investor for its latest round of financing. According to The Block, the startup is in discussions with sovereign wealth funds among others and looking to raise up to $120 million at a valuation of $3 billion — the same valuation that was established when it raised a round last year. We talked last month with Altman about Worldcoin; he said the company fits into a broader scheme of where he sees the world headed, where a retina scan can make voting on an issue -- perhaps relating to AI, for example -- relatively seamless as a means of authenticating someone's identity. "So I'm very glad this experiment is running," he'd said. "I'd like to see many more. To me personally .  . .  the amount of privacy you give up to use Facebook or something versus the amount of privacy you give up for a scan of your retina and nothing else -- I'd much rather have the latter."

Cirba Solutions, a Charlotte, N.C.-based startup that handles battery management and materials processing for end-of-life batteries and gigafactory manufacturing scrap, raised $50 million in strategic investment from Marubeni Corporation. The company has raised over $375 million. More here.

Tazapay, a three-year-old Singapore startup that gives businesses the ability to offer cross-border payments in more than 170 markets, raised a $16.9 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, a Singapore-based offshoot of the storied firm and announced its first Southeast Asia-dedicated fund (with $850 million in capital commitments) last June. TechCrunch has more here.

Blobr, a three-year-old Paris startup that helps companies sell access to their APIs, raised a $5.3 million round. 10x Founders led the transaction; additional investors included FJ Labs, another.vc, and previous investors New Wave and Seedcamp. The company has raised a total of $6.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

BoxPower, a seven-year-old startup based in Grass Valley, Ca., that builds tiny power stations or "microgrids" that promise to reduce the incidence of wildfire by diminishing the need for long power lines, raised a $5 million Series A round. Aligned Climate Capital was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $6.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Growblocks, a two-year-old Copenhagen startup whose software helps SaaS companies forecast revenue, raised a $6.4 million seed round from Project A Ventures and including previous investor VC Headline. The company has raised a total of $8.9 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Kasheesh, a one-year-old New York startup that allows anyone to split payment for online purchases across multiple combinations of debit and credit cards, raised a $3.5 million round. Investors included rapper Lil Baby, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, actor Robin Wright, and football star Odell Beckham Jr. The company has raised a total of $8.5 million. More here.

Replo, a San Francisco startup whose low-code web platform and marketplace allows businesses to build customizable websites on platforms such as Shopify, raised a $4.2 million seed round. Investors included Y Combinator, Infinity Ventures, La Famiglia, and Figma Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Snapser, a startup based in Foster City, Ca., that has built a customizable backend engine for game developers, raised a $2.6 million seed round. Andreessen Horowitz was the deal lead. VentureBeat has more here.

VRRB, a Miami startup that is building a "developer-friendly" Layer 1 blockchain network, raised a $1.4 million pre-seed round from Jump Crypto, Taureon, and Big Brain Holdings at a $20 million valuation. The Block has more here.

VulnCheck, a startup based in Lexington, Ma., that is designing software to help businesses guard against malicious hacker attacks, raised a $3.2 million seed round led by Sorenson Ventures, with In-Q-Tel, Lux Capital, and Aviso Ventures also contributing. SecurityWeek has more here.

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Actor Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures is discussing raising a fund dedicated to artificial intelligence investments, according to Bloomberg, whose source says the venture firm may target around $200 million for the vehicle. More here.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman threw some shade at Google this week in discussing his company's partnership with Microsoft, including its AI-powered search engine Bing: “If I were sitting on a lethargic search monopoly and had to think about a world where there was going to be a real challenge to the way that monetization of this works and new ad units, and maybe even a temporary downward pressure, I would not feel great about that,” Altman said.

Surojit Chatterjee, who served as the chief product officer for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has joined venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as an executive in residence for its crypto unit, he announced in a tweet. CoinDesk has more here.

Improvements in AI are the “most important” innovation at the moment, Bill Gates said in an interview published today. “The progress over the next couple of years to make these things even better will be profound," he said in a podcast conversation with the German-language business paper, Handelsblatt.

Ross Gerber, a vocal Tesla shareholder, said he will pursue a board seat at the carmaker, with a goal of reining in CEO Elon Musk. Gerber, who is co-founder and chief executive of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, confirmed his intentions during a Twitter Spaces audio conference hosted by Bloomberg today. He said he will formally announce his plans next week.

Google employees are criticizing leadership, most notably CEO Sundar Pichai, for the way the company handled the announcement this week of its ChatGPT competitor called Bard. CNBC has  more here.

When the Philadelphia Eagles play the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, legal sportsbooks are projected to take in over $1.1 billion in bets, a 16% increase from last year’s total. That would make it the most bet-upon sporting event in U.S. history, observes Bloomberg. More here.

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Did Bard miss the boat?

“We don’t let the New York Stock Exchange also run a hedge fund and trade on the exchange; why would we do it here?”

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Why everyone feels like they're faking it.

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