ChatGPT for business, more pressure on TikTok, and the rise and fall of an honors student turned crypto criminal

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted today along party lines to give President Joe Biden the power to ban Chinese-owned TikTok, in what would be the most far-reaching U.S. restriction on any social media app, reports Reuters. It says lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure to grant the administration new powers to ban the app - which is used by over 100 million Americans - as well as other apps considered security risks.

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Former Facebook exec turned VC Chamath Palihapitiya has long been a controversial figure in the investing world. Both brilliant and combative, Palihapitiya came to be known most widely by ushering in the era of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, beginning in the fall of 2019, when he helped Virgin Galactic become a publicly traded company through a SPAC he formed.

Palihapitiya went on to take five more companies public via SPACs before the boom ended abruptly last year, and while investors who followed him into some of his SPACs lost money — as did investors in many hundreds of others SPACs that materialized in 2020, 2021 and last year — Palihapitiya reportedly doubled the roughly $750 million he invested.

Many blame him for aggressively promoting his own interests — including during numerous CNBC appearances — at the expense of less-sophisticated investors. Others continue to heed his investing advice, considering that Palihapitiya seems adept at identifying investing opportunities early. (This editor recalls his appearance in 2014 at a packed Bitcoin conference in San Francisco where he argued that everyone should have 1% of their assets in Bitcoin. At the time, each Bitcoin was valued at $520.)

Both camps might be interested in a recent appearance by Palihapitiya at an investing conference in Miami where he said he thinks up to seven years of high interest rates would be good for the venture industry, that America’s deteriorating relationship with China is a boon for the country and where he was asked about generative AI. His comments have been condensed for length and clarity.

More here.

Croma Medicine, a 1.5-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is developing single-dose epigenetic editing therapeutics, raised a $135 million Series B round led by GV, with additional participation from Arch Venture Partners, DCVC Bio, Mubadala Capital, and Sixth Street as well as previous investors Alexandria Venture Investments, Atlas Venture, Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, Newpath Partners, Omega Funds, Osage University Partners, Sofinnova Partners, T. Rowe Price, and Wellington Management. More here.

Divert, a 16-year-old company based in Concord, Ma., that works with grocery store chains like Albertsons and Safeway to reduce food waste (it donates it or sends it to an anaerobic digester machine that replicates what happens in a landfill), raised a $100 million round led by Enbridge, the Canada-based oil and gas pipeline company, and previous investor Ara Partners. Enbridge is also providing $1 billion in structured finance to the outfit. TechCrunch has more here.

Equisoft, a 29-year-old Montreal company that develops back office and policy administration tools for life insurance companies, raised a $91.8 million round. Investissement Québec and the government of Québec contributed $70 million of this total, with the remainder coming from Export Development Canada and Fondaction. The company has raised a total of $138 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Headway, a five-year-old New York startup that works with insurers such as Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Oxford, UnitedHealthcare, and Oscar to provide mental health care at what it says are affordable prices, is reportedly in the market to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, a 30% jump over its 2021 valuation. Potential suitors include Spark Capital and previous investors Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Accel. Bloomberg has more here.

Industrial Sun, an Austin startup that develops renewable energy and storage systems for industrial customers such as refineries, pumping and compression stations, and manufacturing plants, raised a $90 million round. Investors include EIG and Modern Energy. Fortune has more here.

Nowcoder Technology, a Beijing-based campus recruitment platform also known as Niuke, has raised $50 million  in Series B funding from Sequoia Capital China, Shunwei Capital, 5Y Capital, Tiger Global Management, and Pegasus Capital. AVCJ has more here.

Shef, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides tools for aspiring chefs to promote themselves and run their businesses, raised a $73.5 million Series B round (including $7 million of venture debt). CRV was the deal lead, while Andreessen Horowitz and Amex Ventures also participated. The company has raised more than $100 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Archway, a Seattle startup that provides a platform to enable banks to offer digital applications to their customers, raised a $15 million Series A round. Madrona and WaFd Bank were the co-leads. More here.

BetterNight, a 28-year-old San Diego startup that provides treatment and long-term coaching to patients with sleep disorders, raised a $33 million round led by NewSpring, with HCAP Partners and Hamilton Lane also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $52.6 million. More here.

Circ, a startup based in Danville, Va., that breaks down polymers used in textiles and separates individual fibers that can be reused in new clothing, raised a $25 million Series B extension round from Zalando, Avery Dennison, and Youngone, as well as previous investors 8090 Industries, Circulate Capital, Vodia Capital, and City Light Capital. The company has raised a total of $260 million. EcoTextile has more here.

Hexa, a five-year-old Tel Aviv startup that transforms 2D images of products like furniture and fashion into 3D models that can be deployed on websites, social media, and in AR applications, raised a $20.5 million Series A round. Investors included Point72 Ventures, Samurai Incubate, Sarona Partners, and HTC. The company has raised a total of $26.9 million. Forbes has more here.

Jump, a startup co-founded by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore that aims to take on Ticketmaster with services across the ticketing experience, including e-commerce and dynamic ticketing, which would allow fans to pay to move to a better open seat in the middle of a game, has raised a $20 million round led by Forerunner Ventures. Additional funds were provided by Courtside Ventures, Will Venture, Mastry Ventures, Drive by DraftKings, and MetaLab. The company has raised a total of $30 million. Bloomberg has more here.

Quantifind, a 15-year-old Palo Alto, Ca. startup that claims its AI-powered platform can uncover risk signals from disparate and unstructured data, raised a $23 million round led by DNS Capital and including Citi Ventures, USVP, Valor Equity Partners, and S&P Global. More here.

Qwak, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose platform helps companies build machine learning applications, raised a $12 million Series A1 round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with additional participation from previous investors Leaders Fund, StageOne Ventures, and Amiti. The company has raised a total of $27 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Really, an Austin startup that is is launching a wireless phone service and a decentralized mobile network, raised an $18 million seed round. Investors included Polychain and Mike Maples. More here.

Savant Labs, a two-year-old startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that's aiming to provide "analytics automation to every analyst," has raised an $11 million seed round. Cota Capital was the deal lead, and WestWave Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Handshake Ventures also anted up. TechCrunch has more here.

Anonym, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup founded by two longtime Facebook execs who say their first product is a privacy-focused data-attribution tool that helps advertisers better measure the ads that led users to install an app or make a purchase, has raised $8 million in seed funding from undisclosed backers. The WSJ has more here.

Archetype, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup whose platform enables companies to charge third party developers who access their API gateways, announced that it raised a $3.1 million seed round in May of last year. MaC Venture Capital was the deal lead; Hustle Fund, Magic Fund, NOMO Ventures, and Soma Capital also contributed. TechCrunch has more here.

Deus Robotics, a five-year-old Ukranian startup that specializes in warehouse robotics engineering and software development, raised a $1.5 million seed round from SMRK VC. Robotics247 has more here.

DEVYCE, a three-year-old London startup that aims to create a global mobile network strictly for business use, raised a $2.7 million seed round. Y Combinator, FoundersX Ventures, and Garage Capital were the co-leads. Tech.eu has more here.

​​Mangrove, a French startup whose decentralized finance platform executes smart contracts between DeFi liquidity providers and buyers, raised a $7.4 million Series A. Cumberland and Greenfield Capital were the co-leads, while CMT and gumi Cryptos Capital also chipped in. Tech.eu has more here.

PteroDynamics, a six-year-old startup based in Colorado Springs, Co., that develops vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, raised a $7.5 million seed round from Kairos Ventures, Lavrock Ventures, and CS Venture Opportunities Fund. More here.

Thymmune Therapeutics, a startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is developing scalable thymic cell therapies to restore immune function in aging and disease, raised a $7 million seed round led by Pillar VC, with NYBC Ventures also pitching in. The Boston Globe has more here.

Velotric, a startup based in Carson, Ca., that makes commuter and off-road electric bicycles for less than $2,000, raised a $7.4 million Series A round. Investors included Redpoint China Ventures Capital, Fosun RZ Capital, and Uphonest. TechCrunch has more here.

Verismo Therapeutics, a three-year-old Philadelphia startup that develops therapeutics to fight aggressive solid tumors, raised a $7 million pre-Series A round led by BRV Capital Management and including Ignite Innovation. The company has raised a total of $33 million. Technical.ly has more here.

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B Capital, the venture firm cofounded by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin, has closed its first healthcare fund with $500 million in capital commitments, per a press release. Robert Mittendorf, an emergency physician who previously spent nine years with Norwest Venture Partners and who joined B Capital as a general partner in 2021, will lead the effort. More here.

Blockchain Founders Fund, an early-stage web3 venture fund based in Singapore, says it has held a final close of $75 million in capital commitments for its second fund. The money will be used to fund pre-seed and seed-stage web3 and blockchain startups and the LPs providing it reportedly include Polygon, Ripple, Octava, NEO Global Capital, GSR, LD Capital, Metavest Capital, and more. Asia Tech Daily has more here.

TTV Capital, a 23-year-old, Atlanta-based venture firm that focuses exclusively on fintech companies, has closed its sixth fund with $250 million in capital commitments, making the vehicle the outfit's largest to date. It says it invests across the fintech landscape, including startups focused on payments, banking, cybersecurity, web3, and embedded fintech; it also says its average initial check size is $2 million to $7 million. The Atlanta Business Chronicle has more here.

Celebrity talent manager and startup investor Scooter Braun has purchased a building in Santa Monica, Ca, for $25.9 million, according to the WSJ, which calls it a cross between a private residence, an office and an art studio. More here.

How FTX’s Nishad Singh, once an honors student, turned to crypto crime. 

TikTok has so far earned $205 million more than Facebook, Twitter, Snap and Instagram combined on in-app purchased this year, according to the mobile metrics company Apptopia. Forbes has more here.

According to a Pew Research Center analysis using Census Bureau data, half of Americans ages 18 to 29 were living with their parents in July.

OpenAI had to monetize ChatGPT somehow and took a step toward addressing the issue with the launch of a premium service, ChatGPT Plus, last month. Today, in an even bigger move, it introduced an API that will allow any business to build ChatGPT tech into their apps, websites, products and services. TechCrunch has more here.

ChatGPT jailbreak prompts.

"Made to fade" tattoos stick around.

Why South Sea pearls are so expensive.

Tesla's Model Y is a “work of art,” says Toyota exec.

Formidable, a "multiracial, inclusive timeline of the struggles and triumphs of both Black and white women in America." 

A French villa where Alfred Hitchcock famously shot scenes for his 1955 movie "To Catch a Thief." (Price: $3.8 million.)

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