Soylent gets sold, Twitter lays off more employees, and Amazon's One Medical deal gets the go-ahead

Oofta. U.S. stock indexes logged their worst session of the year today, dragged down by worries the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer. The Nasdaq declined 2.5%. More here.

Expensive U.S. equities are flashing a warning sign that could see the S&P 500 sliding as much as 26% in the first half of this year, according to Morgan Stanley strategists.

Amazon will be able to close its $3.9 billion purchase of 1Life Healthcare -- the operator of the One Medical line of primary-care clinics -- without a legal challenge by antitrust enforcers, a spokesman of the Federal Trade Commission said today. The decision clears a path for Amazon to substantially expand its healthcare offerings and operate physical medical clinics, observes the WSJ.

Microsoft says that it is already loosening some caps it introduced late last week on its new Bing search engine to accommodate users and also, presumably, because it needs help training Bing. The initial limits unveiled last week came after testers discovered the search engine, which uses the tech behind the chatbot ChatGPT, sometimes generated disturbing responses (including trying to break up one reporter's marriage). Microsoft said last week that long interactions "confused" its (otherwise perfectly nice!) search engine, so it limited users to five questions per session and a total of 50 questions a day. Now it has upped those numbers to six questions per session and 60 questions a day. More here.

Venture capital firms and their investors have realized that a fund administrator without best-in-class technology is no longer acceptable. But experienced firms also know that when it’s crunch time and that capital call needs to go out now, no technology can replace the need for an expert, highly responsive fund accountant working with you. Meet Juniper Square: the first technology-driven fund admin built for sophisticated venture capital firms.

For most founders, being seen by employees as cheap isn't exactly a badge of honor, but venture investor Chris Farmer doesn't mind. While Farmer's 10-year-old, seed-stage venture firm SignalFire lost frustrated employees who weren't able to compete for deals when the market was at its most frothy, he says, holding the line on price appears poised to pay off at long last. 

For one thing, limited partners just committed a whopping $900 million to the firm across four new funds, doubling in one fell swoop the amount of money that SignalFire has raised previously. Farmer -- who says that SignalFire began "pumping the brakes" in 2018 because it "saw the valuations were decoupling relative to company traction" -- is further being vindicated as valuations continue to plummet and founder expectations get reset.

So what did Farmer see that others looked past? Data and lots of it, he says. We talked last week with Farmer about that data -- which has been a source of pride for SignalFire since its outset -- and why he thinks it continues to give the firm an edge, even while many other venture firms have become similarly data driven over the last decade. Questions and answers below have been edited and condensed for clarity.

You've raised a bunch of money across four funds but you aren't breaking out how much each fund is managing. Why?

We don't really break it out because it doesn't really matter, [but broadly] we have hundreds of millions for seed [stage companies]; we have several hundred million to follow on those companies through a breakout vehicle, which most of the companies are alumni and then there's some net new companies, as well. We've also been doing XIR [experts-in-residence] for a while, pairing operators who have built multibillion dollar businesses with an entrepreneur with whom they have good chemistry and whose company typically has $5 million to $10 million in revenue; they join the board and get involved typically one to three days a week to help scale up the business in sort of like an executive chair mode.

And in return, they receive. . .

They get advisor shares. They write a check themselves concurrently with us. And then they get some upside from the fund.

You've said previously that SignalFire has access to 100 major data sets that your “competitive data nerds” pore over to figure out what’s happening in the world, but it seems like this approach has been copied by other firms, so what is your biggest differentiator today?

I actually think that our competitors have dropped back. It's actually shocking to me how much they've not caught up with us and how we're farther ahead than we've ever been, which is not at all what I expected. There are a lot of funds that are doing something with data, but [that basically means] having a Bloomberg terminal. It's nothing like what we have. Every time we look at a deal or turn it down, the machine learns. We're the only venture firm with a true ML system where it's a closed loop.

What proof do you have that what you've built works?

More here.

FreshToHome, a nearly eight-year-old, India-based company that sells fresh fish and meat to consumers in the South Asian market and the Middle East region, has raised $104 million in Series D funding led by Amazon, through its India-focused Smbhav Venture Fund. The company has now raised more than $250 million altogether. TechCrunch takes a look here.

Hemab Therapeutics, a Boston- and Copenhagen, Denmark-based clinical-stage biotech company with a lead program in development for a rare blood clotting disorder that has no approved therapies, just raised $135 million in Series B funding. Access Biotechnology led the round, joined by Deep Track Capital, Avoro Ventures, Invus, Rock Springs Capital, Maj Invest Equity, Novo Holdings, RA Capital Management, and HealthCap. MedCity News has more here.

AeroCloud, a nearly four-year-old, Chester, U.K.-based cloud-native airport management software startup used by dozens of airports across the world, has raised $12.6 million in a Series A round of funding. Stage 2 Capital, with participation from Triple Point Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures, Praetura Ventures, Playfair Capital and Haatch. TechCrunch has more here.

Quantum Motion, a nearly six-year-old, British quantum computing company, has raised £42 million in new funding led by Bosch Ventures, with participation from Porsche, and  U.K. government's National Security Strategic Investment Fund, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Replicate, a three-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based startup making it easier for software teams to build AI applications, today exited stealth mode and announced that it has secured $17.8 million in funding over two rounds. It received the bulk of the funding, $12.5 million, through a Series A investment that included the participation of Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital and multiple angel investors. It earlier closed a $5.3 million seed round. SiliconAngle has more here.

Axena Health, a two-year-old Newton, Ma.-based medical device outfit offering a prescription digital therapeutic to address women's pelvic health, has raised $25 million in Series A funding from AXA IM Alts. More here.

Carmoola, a two-year-old, London-based car financing platform with a novel marketing approach, raised £8.5 million in Series A funding. QED Investors led the round, joined by InMotion Ventures. More here.

Chronicle, a nearly two-year-old, Sydney, Australia- and San Francisco-based startup aiming to make building presentations as easy as dragging and dropping interactive, pre-designed blocks, has raised $7.5 million in funding co-led by Accel and Square Peg. TechCrunch has more here.

Kaito, a year-old, Seattle-based AI-powered search engine for crypto, has raised $5.3 million in seed funding led by Dragonfly Capital. Participants in the round include Sequoia Capital, Jane Street, Mirana Ventures, Folius Ventures and Alpha Lab Capital, among others, says TechCrunch. Founder Yu Hu previously managed a long/short portfolio of European and U.S. equities for the hedge fund Citadel. More here.

Nestment, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that's building a home co-buying platform so families and friends can acquire properties together, has raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Protofund and IDEA Fund Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Paleo, a 2.5-year-old, Brussels-based precision fermentation company whose food manufacturing customers are looking to improve the taste of their own plant-based meat alternatives, has raised €12 million in Series A funding. DSM Venturing and Planet A Ventures co-led the round, joined by Gimv, SFPIM Relaunch, Beyond Impact, and Siddhi Capital. EU Startups has more here.

Plum, a nearly 11-year-old Kitchener, Canada-based talent assessment platform, says it has raised $6 million in funding led by Pearson Ventures. Other backers in the round include JFF Ventures, Strada Education Network, Export Development Canada, Real Ventures, BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund, EduLab Capital Partners, and Impact Engine.

Scrut Automation, a 19-month-old Milpitas, Ca.-based governance, risk, and compliance automation platform, has raised $7.5 million in funding. MassMutual Ventures led the round, joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Endiya Partners. The Economic Times has more here.

Strive, a 2.5-year-old, Singapore-based online learning platform that teaches kids ages 8 to 16 to code, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding by Y Combinator (Strive is an alum of its accelerator program). Soma Capital, Goodwater Capital and individual investors also chipped into the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Tracksuit, a two-year-old New Zealand-based brand tracking startup, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Blackbird, with participation from Shasta Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, Ascential and brand consultant Mark Ritson. TechCrunch has more here.

​​Transcelestial, a 6.5-year-old Singapore-based outfit aiming to make the internet more accessible by building a network of shoebox-sized devices that send lasers to one another, creating a fiber-like network, raised $7 million in Series A-2 funding. Airbus Ventures led the round, joined by Kickstart Ventures, Genesis Alternative Ventures, Wavemaker, Cap Vista, and SEEDS Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

WorkPay, a Kenyan HR payroll startup that says it will soon roll out its services in 40 countries in Africa, has raised $2.7 million in pre-Series A funding. Backers in the round include Launch Africa, Saviu Ventures, Acadian Ventures, Proparco, Fondation Botnar, Kara Ventures, Axian, P1 Ventures and Norrsken. The outfit has now raised $4.8 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Discover how top investors combine data with relationships to make better decisions faster. In Affinity’s latest webinar, you’ll hear actionable insights from Bessemer Ventures, Alpha Partners, and SOSV’s IndieBio. Watch the webinar here.

Clave Capital, a nearly two-year-old Spanish venture firm, says it has garnered  €50 million in capital commitments for a new fund focused on European health care startups. EU Startups has more here.

Ten-year-old Soylent -- embraced early on by busy Silicon Valley programmers but a running joke to many others --  is joining public company Starco Brands as part of an acquisition that will keep the plant-based food technology company operating as a separate unit under its current CEO Demir Vangelov. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Starry, an ISP that launched in 2016 with a focus on delivering home internet with wireless antennas instead of cables, has declared bankruptcy. A year ago, the outfit completed a merger with the special purpose acquisition company FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp. and went public, but Starry’s share price has since fallen from nearly $11 per share down to pennies. Under its Chapter 11 restructuring agreement, the Boston-based company said it is working with lenders “to move swiftly through the restructuring process.” TechCrunch has more here.

The Houston-based veteran enterprise software firm BMC Software, which KKR acquired in 2018 for $8.3 billion including debt, has confidentially reportedly filed to go public at a valuation up to $15 billion. Reuters has more here.

Bridgetown Holdings, a U.S.-listed blank-check company backed by billionaires Peter Thiel and Richard Li, is considering a merger with financial technology firm Hyphen Group, according to Bloomberg. A transaction could value the combined company at several hundred million dollars, its sources say. More here.

Dida, a nearly nine-year-old Chinese ride-hailing company that is a rival to Didi, is considering raising about $200 million through an IPO offering in Hong Kong, says Bloomberg. More here.

500 Global has named Saemin Ahn, Shahril Ibrahim and Martin Cu as partners in its Southeast Asia operation. More here.

FTX’s former head of engineering, Nishad Singh, is near a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors, says Bloomberg, which notes he is the third senior executive to cooperate with authorities investigating the exchange’s collapse. Two of Bankman-Fried’s other former top associates, Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty last year to charges in connection to their roles at FTX and Alameda Research and are working with prosecutors. 

McKinsey & Co. plans to eliminate about 2,000 jobs, one of the consulting giant’s biggest rounds of cuts ever. The firm known for devising staff-reduction plans for its clients is taking the ax to some of its own, with the move expected to focus on support staff in roles that don’t have direct contact with clients, according to Bloomberg.

It continues. Dozens of Twitter employees across sales and engineering departments were laid off last week, including one of Elon Musk’s direct reports who was managing engineering for Twitter’s ads business, according to company sources and social media posts from affected employees seen by The Verge.

Security researchers have found a class of flaws with the iOS and MacOS that, if exploited, would allow an attacker to access people's messages, photos and call history.

Andy Cohen still loves the "Housewives."

The 100 best restaurants in Washington.

Spy balloon simulator.

In 1970 -- the first year that California permitted so-called vanity plates -- Silicon Valley patent lawyer Claude Arthur Stuart Hamrick beat untold VCs to the punch by registering the license plate CASH. He's hung onto it ever since, but he says he's finally willing to part ways with it . . .for a cool $2 million.

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