GIC puts the brakes on its China dealings, TikTok's newest creator plan, and a blockchain-related bet by Sequoia

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has reportedly put the brakes on private investments in China as it steps up scrutiny of risks in the world’s second-biggest economy. GIC, one of the world’s largest investors in private equity funds, has scaled back commitments to China-focused private equity and venture capital funds over the past year, reports the FT, which says it has also significantly slowed the pace of its direct investments in private Chinese companies

Bing unhinged.

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It’s always nice to have a lot of capital to invest, but managing a large new fund can be even more advantageous right now given that many later-stage companies that put off fundraising last year will likely be in the market come hell or high water in 2023.

No doubt traditional venture firms like NEA, which just closed on $6.2 billion across two new funds, will be waiting for them.

So will the buyout firm Bain Capital, which just closed its second growth Tech Opportunities fund with $2.4 billion, up from the $1.3 billion that the outfit put to work through the first vehicle of its type in 2019.

The 30-person team used its debut fund to fund mid-market buyouts, make cross-platform investments and pursue “tactical opportunities” that could be bolted onto others of its investments. But late-stage venture-backed startups are among the “archetypes” that the group funds, and late-stage startups could prove especially attractive right now given there is less competition to support them at the moment. At least, according to Crunchbase data, late-stage and tech growth funding hovered around $40 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, down 64% year over year, from $110 billion at the end of 2021.

More here.

Aspire, a nearly five-year-old Singapore-based neobank, has raised $100 million in Series C funding from Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital SEA, along with Paypal, Tencent, LGT Capital Partners and returning investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Cervance, a Boston-based biotech focused on developing new therapeutics for central nervous system diseases using its proprietary sequencing platform, has raised $51 million in Series B extension funding. Backers in the round include Gates Frontier, Dementia Discovery Fund, Foresite Capital, Google Ventures, Lightstone Ventures, Takeda Ventures, UPMC Enterprises, and Dolby Family Ventures. The outfit has now raised $116 million altogether. More here.

InfluxData, a two-year-old London startup that enables startups to build databases that can analyze time series data, raised a $51 million Series E round. Princeville Capital and Citi Ventures co-led the deal; other investors included Battery Ventures, Mayfield, and Sapphire Ventures. It also pulled down $30 million in debt financing. TechCrunch has more here.

InsuranceDekho, a 13-year-old, Gurugram, India-based insurance platform, has raised $150 million in equity and debt funding co-led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital. The apparent idea is for the company to launch an M&A blitz in the South Asian nation at a time when the market slump has engulfed many other regional companies and startups. TechCrunch has more here.

Taurus, a Switzerland-based digital asset infrastructure company focused on servicing financial institutions in Europe, has raised $65 million in a Series B funding round. Credit Suisse led the round, with Deutsche Bank, Pictet Group, and Cedar Mundi Ventures, a tech-focused Lebanese investment firm, participating. The Block has more here.

Via, a startup whose software helps public transportation agencies, municipalities, and school districts optimize the use of fixed bus routes, bike lanes, paratransit and school bus services, and on-demand ridesharing services, raised $110 million at a $3.5 billion valuation, the same price as the company’s previous financing in November, 2021. 83North led the round, with participation from Exor N.V., Pitango, Janus Henderson, CF Private Equity, Planven Entrepreneur Ventures, Riverpark Ventures, and ION Crossover Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Highbeam, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that provides banking features, credit and cash flow insights to e-commerce customers, today announced that it raised $10 million in debt from TriplePoint. The outfit had separately closed on $7 million in seed funding roughly six months ago. TechCrunch has more here.

Landytech, a seven-year-old French startup that provides portfolio managers with a suite of automated data, analytics and bookkeeping tools, including analytics and data publishing software, raised a $12 million Series B led by Aquiline Technology Growth, with participation from previous investor Adelie Capital. Tech.eu has more here.

Prokarium, an 11-year-old, London-based biopharmaceutical company leading the oncology field of microbial immunotherapy, has raised $30 million in new funding led by Flerie Invest, an 12-year-old iotech and pharma investor based in Stockholm and London. More here.

C3, a New York crypto startup whose mission is to create a self-custodial, decentralized platform that’s as easy to use as centralized exchanges, raised a $6 million seed round led by Two Sigma Ventures, with Jane Street, Hudson River Trading, Flow Traders, Jump, Cumberland DRW, Golden Tree, CMS Holdings, AlphaLab Capital, and C² Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $9.6 million. CoinDesk has more here.

Caldera, a one-year-old startup that aims to simplify the process of creating app-specific blockchains so that builders can create layer-2 blockchains in the span of hours, as opposed to months or years, raised $9 million across two rounds led by Sequoia Capital and Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Neo, 1kx, and Ethereal Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

CaPow, an Israeli startup that is developing a battery-free, wireless energy delivery system for robots, raised a $7.5 million seed round. IL Ventures was the deal lead, with Mobilion VC, Payton Planar Magnetics, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, and Mobilitech Capital also pitching in. More here.

Fondo, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that markets itself as an all-in-one accounting platform, has raised $1.2 million in equity funding from Y Combinator, Liquid2 Ventures, Transmedia Capital, and GMO Venture Partners. The outfit also raised $1.8 million in debt financing from Capchase. Axios has more here.

Kennek, a five-year-old UK startup aiming to build an operating system for alternative lenders so they can manage borrowers and loans from inception through disbursement, raised a $4.5 million pre-seed round. Dutch Founders Fund, FF Venture Capital, and Plug and Play Ventures were the co-leads. PYMNTS has more here.

LangChain, a months-old startup whose software helps engineers build apps that use a type of machine learning model that powers OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot and that connect to information sources such as a database of customers, is reportedly in talks to raise a seed round worth of "several million dollars" at a valuation of "at least $40 million" led by Benchmark, reports The Information. Founder Harrison Chase was previously an engineer at the machine-learning startup Robust Intelligence. More here.

Qotto, a seven-year-old startup that designs and distributes stand-alone solar kits and lanterns to individuals residing in the least electrified regions of Africa, raised an $8 million Series A debt and equity round. IBL Group was the deal lead; The Off-Grid Energy Access Fund, Cordaid, and Qotto’s existing investors also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

ShareWell, a San Francisco startup that provides peer counseling for mental health issues, raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round. Investors included Quiet Capital as well as Adrian Aoun, CEO and co-founder of Forward; Kyle Vogt, co-founder of Twitch and CEO and co-founder of Cruise; and Russell Simmons, former CTO and co-founder of Yelp. TechCrunch has more here.

Twentyeight Health, a four-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that is building a virtual healthcare platform for underprivileged women, raised an $8.3 million pre-Series A from RH Capital, Seae Ventures, Impact Engine, and more than a dozen other investors. Forbes has more here.

With more firms going after a smaller pool of prospects, deal sourcing is in the spotlight like never before. Make sure your firm is taking advantage of relationship insights and enriched data to see the whole picture, eliminate low-fit candidates earlier in the process, and focus on closing deals that align with your thesis. How? With Affinity’s new guide, 3 Best Practices for VC Deal Sourcing.

Phenomenal Ventures, a firm cofounded by Meena Harris, who is the niece of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, and Helen Min, a former head of marketing at AngelList, Plaid and beyond -- they met as early employees at Facebook -- has closed a debut early-stage fund with $6 million in capital commitments. Their limited partners include 776, Tribe Capital, Slow Ventures and founders from tech companies including Dropbox, Quora and Pinterest. TechCrunch has more here.

Publicly traded lidar makers Ouster and Velodyne said today that they have successfully completed a “merger of equals." The combined company will reportedly have more than 850 current customers, a deep portfolio of patents and about $315 million in cash on hand, based on year-end figures. That cash is "critical in a market that has become much more difficult for not-yet-profitable companies to raise much-needed funds," observes CNBC. The company will retain the Ouster name; more here.

Two years after Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates announced they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage, Gates is reportedly dating Paula Hurd, widow of Mark Hurd, the CEO of software company Oracle and the one-time boss of Hewlett-Packard, who died in 2019. "It's widely known that Bill Gates and Paula Hurd are dating, but she hasn't met his kids yet," a source tells PEOPLE. 

Strava is on the hunt for a new CEO, after cofounder Michael Horvath revealed that he’s stepping down from the role for a second time at the now 14-year-old, fitness app company TechCrunch has more here.

The executive in charge of overseeing Meta Platforms's advertising business is leaving the company this summer and set to step down from her role next week, reports the WSJ. Marne Levine, Meta’s chief business officer, was elevated to the job just two years ago; her exit comes as the company struggles through one of the toughest periods it has faced in its advertising business, notes the Journal.

Elon Musk and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch were spotted sitting next to each other at the Super Bowl last night.

Gemini Trust’s former COO Noah Perlman has started as the chief compliance officer for Binance just as the world’s biggest crypto exchange faces heightened regulatory challenges, reports Bloomberg. It observes that billionaire Changpeng Zhao’s exchange is grappling with a slew of regulatory obstacles following a rout in digital assets and blowups like that of rival FTX. More here.

Twilio said today that it is laying off about 17% of its employees, its second round of job cuts in about five months, and reducing certain employee perks as the cloud-communications company moves to give priority to profit over growth. More here.

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn laid off staff in its recruiting department today, it confirmed to The Information, the latest sign of how Microsoft’s layoffs are rippling through the tech giant.

Rihanna may have put in the work, work, work, work, work at the Super Bowl LVII halftime show, but, as is customary for the mid-game spectacle, she did so for free.

TikTok is planning to let creators charge for content.

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy tells the FT he plans to double down on the company’s struggling grocery store business, saying the e-commerce giant is ready to “go big” on bricks-and-mortar stores and blaming a lack of “normalcy” during the pandemic for a series of stumbles.

Twitter is just showing everyone all of Elon’s tweets now.

The economic outlook is uncertain. Contingency plans are in place. But business investment in technology outside of Silicon Valley remains remarkably resilient.

All the tech industry's Super Bowl ads.

"'Bird brain' should actually be a compliment."

Valentines for guys I've encountered on dating apps.

The curvy condo off Coconut Grove.

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