Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo and Paradigm are now targets of an FTX-related class-action lawsuit

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. No romantic dinners for us tonight  (we're in the driving-one-of-our-interns-back-and-forth-to-basketball-practice stage of things and also had our romantic dinner a few nights ago). We hope those of you who are out for the evening enjoy it.:)

Venture capital and private equity firms including Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo and Paradigm are being accused in a lawsuit of hyping the legitimacy of FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, reports Bloomberg. The firms participated in a marketing campaign in 2021 to tout their own investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX entities, according to the proposed class-action complaint filed today on behalf of investors. The promotion added an “air of legitimacy” to the enterprise, the investors allege. The law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd is representing the plaintiffs; in 2014, the same law firm helped wring a $590 million settlement out of three private equity firms --  Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, The Blackstone Group, and TPG Capital --  after they were accused of colluding with one another to drive down the prices of corporate takeover targets.

Airbnb just reported a record Q4 today, beating its previous benchmark both in terms of revenue and net income.

Wow. Amazon now takes half of each sale from its merchants, according to a new study.

Secureframe makes it fast and easy to get SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI & GDPR compliant. With guided workflows and one-click integrations, the entire process is automated. Get compliant in weeks—not months—so you can focus on growing your business and revenue. Schedule a demo at secureframe.com.

Juniper Square, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that has built an investor portal for GPs and LPs, raised a $133 million round led by Owl Rock; additional investors included Ribbit Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Fifth Wall, and Pappy Capital. The company has raised a total of $241 million. More here.

PhonePe, a seven-year-old Bengaluru startup whose mobile payments network has become the most popular way Indians transact online, raised $100 million from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital. It has now collected $450 million of a $1 billion round that it is raising at a $12 billion valuation. TechCrunch has more here.

MDI Health, a four-year-old Israeli startup whose platform helps health providers manage medication and customize it for each patient, raised a $20 million led by Intel Capital, with additional participation from Maverick Ventures Israel as well as previous investors Hanaco Ventures, Welltech Ventures, Arc Impact, Basad Ventures, Fresh.Fund, and Jumpspeed Ventures. Calcalist has more here.

Monad Labs, a crypto startup that is building the Monad blockchain, raised a $19 million seed round led by Dragonfly Capital, with Placeholder Capital, Lemniscap, Shima Capital, Finality Capital, and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.

Betty, a New York startup that is developing online casino games, raised a $5 million seed round led by Karlani Capital, with additional participation from CEAS Investments, CourtsideVentures, Gaingels, OCA Ventures, Subversive Capital, and 305 Ventures. Yogonet has more here.

Bibak, a French startup that wants to replace single-use plastic food packaging with reusable food containers, announced that it raised a $6.4 million equity and debt Series A round last November. Investors included Founders Future, MAIF Impact, Seed One, Notus Technologies, and SWEN Blue Ocean. TechCrunch has more here.

Complete Solaria, a startup based in San Ramon, Ca., that provides solar equipment and services, secured a $10 million investment from Foris Ventures, which is John Doerr's personal investment arm. CityBiz has more here.

Crew, a three-year-old French startup that aims to build the "HubSpot for recruiting," raised a $2.3 million round co-led by Rebel, Secret, and Kima. More here.

EthonAI, a Swiss startup that says its software helps manufacturers such as Siemens, Roche, and Lindt & Sprüngli detect, monitor, and prevent product defects, raised a $6.8 million seed round co-led by Earlybird Venture Capital and La Famiglia. Tech.eu has more here.

Natural Cycles, a 10-year-old Stockholm startup that has developed a device that uses body temperature and other key fertility indicators to determine a woman’s fertility status, raised a $7 million round. Samsung Ventures was the deal lead, while previous investors Heartcore Capital, Headline, Bonnier Ventures, and EQT Ventures also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $44.5 million. Forbes has more here.

Orb Labs, a New York crypto startup that has created a cross-chain messaging protocol called Earlybird that allows developers to choose a security model that works best for their application based on the cost and speed needs, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto, with Shima Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Aves Lair, Newman Capital, Modular Capital, and SevenX Ventures also participating. CoinDesk has more here.

Ottometric, a nearly four-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based startup that's been developing automated validation software focused on improving advanced driver assistance systems, just raised $4.9 million in funding. Rally Ventures led the round, joined by Goodyear Ventures, Proeza Ventures, Automotive Ventures, and other mobility funds. Autonomous Vehicle International has more here.

Sandbox Banking, a nine-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is building a low-code integration platform for banking, raised a $4.3 million seed round. Investors included Forum Ventures, SixThirty, and Tuesday Capital. More here.

What will the investment landscape look like over the coming months? Affinity surveyed hundreds of dealmakers to find out. See what they said—and discover what Affinity platform data reveals about the state of deal flow this year. Download the Predictions Report today.

Microsoft has confirmed that it’s finally killing off Yammer, the enterprise social network it procured more than a decade ago for $1.2 billion. Yammer was founded nearly 14 years ago in San Francisco, with co-founder David Sacks formally launching the startup at a TechCrunch startup event. The company went on to raise north of $140 million in funding before Microsoft swooped in with its billion-dollar bid four years after its launch. TechCrunch has more here.

Walmart plans to close three of its U.S. technology hubs, require hundreds of workers to relocate, and have its tech employees come to the office twice a week, according to the WSJ. More here.

Google chief evangelist and “father of the internet” Vint Cerf has a message for executives looking to rush business deals on chat artificial intelligence: “Don’t.” Cerf pleaded with attendees at a Mountain View, Ca., conference yesterday not to scramble to invest in conversational AI just because “it’s a hot topic.” CNBC has more here.

Elon Musk donated roughly $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year, according to a regulatory filing made today and uncovered by the WSJ. Musk reported having donated roughly 11.6 million shares last year, fewer than he donated in 2021, adjusted for the 3-for-1 split in the company’s shares that took effect in 2022. The securities filing doesn’t name any recipient for the donations, notes the Journal, adding that Musk's charitable donations in 2021 were valued at the time at $5.7 billion. More here.

Grammy-award winning musician Pharrell Williams, who is also an active startup investor, is taking on yet another new role: he is taking over menswear design at Louis Vuitton following the death of Virgil Abloh. The FT has more here.

Following an historic selldown in Alibaba, UK chip designer Arm now accounts for a bigger percentage of SoftBank’s net asset value than the Chinese e-commerce group. The FT has more here.

Turmoil at the FTC.

Twitter's glitches are hurting Chinese dissidents.

The clever trick that turns ChatGPT into its evil twin.

Get Me Risa Heller!

Valentine generator.

The soothing sounds of the Shipping Forecast.

Bad hair day? Try a teenie weenie beanie.

Aaron Rodgers' darkness retreat. 

Timely Valentine's Day gift suggestions.

Definitely not a good V-Day present, no matter how much you and your significant other might love Breaking Bad.

A perfect gift for lovers ... coffee lovers, that is.

Spaghetti candles.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on pension investments in private credit hitting an eight-year high. But how can individual accredited investors take advantage of this growing alternative asset class? Meet Percent. Its marketplace offers you access to private credit deals (aka non-bank loans) that command higher interest rates (up to 20% APY) and offer largely uncorrelated returns. Earn up to $500 on your first investment with Percent and diversify your portfolio today.