“We sometimes find $50m of assets lying around that we lost track of," and other horrifying communications inside FTX

Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s former CEO; Ned Segal, its onetime chief financial officer; and Vijaya Gadde, who was its head of legal and policy, are suing Twitter for the $1 million that they say they personally spent on legal expenses related to shareholder lawsuits and several government investigations after Elon Musk said he was acquiring the company. Musk fired the executives on the day he took control of the company. They say in their lawsuit that they notified Twitter of the expenses more than two months ago but the company has not paid. The New York Times has more here.

Bitcoin just climbed past $30,000 for the first time in nearly a year. In related news, The New York Times takes a look at 34 bitcoin mining operations in the U.S., saying each uses at least 30,000 times as much power as the average U.S. home.

“We sometimes find $50m of assets lying around that we lost track of; such is life,” Sam Bankman-Fried said in an internal communication, per a new report that paints FTX as essentially a clubhouse and not a venture-backed company. More in the WSJ.

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The market may be be tightening, but not for Eclipse Ventures, a Palo Alto-based venture firm that just raised $1.2 billion across two new funds. One fund, with $720 million in capital commitments, will be invested in early-stage outfits, as well as startups that Eclipse itself incubates. The remaining $510 million will be funneled into growth-stage companies, including outfits that have never before raised outside capital but that also fit into Eclipse's broader themes. The vehicles bring the firm's capital under management to $4 billion.

That's a lot for a venture firm that was founded just eight years ago, but apparently, Eclipse's ongoing pitch -- that legacy industries need to modernize how they operate in order stay competitive -- is resonating with its investors.

As firm founder Lior Susan explains it, “The thing that I always talk about is automation in general because there is just so much opportunity. So you know, 5% of the world’s GDP, or $45 trillion, is blue-collar wages. But there are not enough truck drivers or warehouse workers or agricultural workers or construction workers in the world, and we’ll see even fewer as more people retire. All will be replaced by automation, and we intend to build a lot of those companies in those markets.”

There are many ways to pull traditional industries into the 21st century, judging by Eclipse’s wide-ranging portfolio. One of its biggest bets, for example, is on Bright Machines, a still-private company that looks to ensure that all the different components in a factory are connected to a central control system that can monitor and manage their operations in real-time. Eclipse also backed Enovix, a company that went public through a special-purpose acquisition company last year and is producing lithium-ion batteries for small devices like smart watches, as well as 3D cell technology and batteries for electric vehicles. Eclipse was also an early investor in Lucira, a company focused on developing and commercializing infectious disease test kits. (It staged a traditional IPO in early 2021 when Covid was still rampant.)

To find out a bit more about how Eclipse is looking at the world right now — and how all that fresh capital might be deployed — we hopped on the phone with this morning with Susan, who spend eight years in the Israel Defense Forces before selling a company he helped his brother build, then deciding to launch his own venture firm. Our chat has been edited for length and clarity.

More here.

Kite, a commerce company focused on investing in, acquiring and operating high-potential, digital-first consumer product brands, has launched with $200 million in equity funding from Blackstone and founding partner Juxtapose (also an investment firm). Kite was founded by Rob Solomon, who was most recently GoFundMe's CEO. TechCrunch has more here.

Assis, a new, São Paulo-based startup offering a "virtual assistant for freelancers," has raised $5 million in its first round of funding led by Costanoa Ventures. Other participants in the round included MAYA, Canaan, Latitud, Norte, FJ Labs, 1616, BFF and angel investors. More here.

Axle, a 16-month-old, Atlanta-based startup whose universal API for insurance data aims to make it far easier for fleet managers, lenders, and gig services to quickly verify personal insurance information, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Gradient Ventures. Other backers in the round included Soma Capital, Contrary Capital, Rebel Fund, BLH Ventures, a group of angel investors, and earlier investor Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.

Fire, a browser extension aiming to prevent crypto fraud, has launched with $3.5 million from venture studio Atomic. Axios has more here.

Perfection42, a Vilnius, Lithuania-based AI imagery startup, raised €1.1 million in seed funding from CoInvest Capital, OCC, and Lithuanian Business Angel Network LitBAN syndicate, among others. More here.

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Bitget, a crypto derivatives exchange operator, has launched a $100 million VC fund that will focus primarily on Asia, reports The Block (it's not clear if it has garnered these commitments yet or not, fwiw). More here. 

Reach Capital based in San Francisco, one of the first venture firms to focus exclusively on edtech, has closed its newest fund with $215 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Careem, the Middle East-based ride-hailing company that Uber bought in 2019, is spinning out its super app business into a new startup backed with $400 million from Emirates Telecommunications Group Company, which will now own a 50.03% stake in the new company, called Careem Technologies. Careem Rides will still be fully owned by Uber; Careem Technologies will operate the “super app” along with all other verticals. TechCrunch has more here.

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Jeff Bezos has reportedly been given his new, $485 million sailing yacht, Koru, after it completed its sea trials in the North Sea. It's no ordinary yacht (of course). It's 417-feet long with towering masts that measure more than 230 feet, making it the tallest sailing yacht in the world. It's so tall that Bezos offered to pay for a centuries-old bridge in the port city of Rotterdam to be partially dismantled in order to get it onto the high seas, which made locals furious enough that they threatened to pelt it with eggs; it was later towed through Rotterdam without its mast. Robb Report has more here.

Katie Cotton, a longtime Apple communications chief who served as a steward for the company’s iconic brand during the Steve Jobs era and beyond, has died. Jobs's biographer Walter Isaacson remembered her today as a "formidable figure." Bloomberg has more here.

The founder of Tonal is stepping down as CEO after the at-home fitness company completed its latest funding round at a fraction of its prior valuation. Aly Orady will instead become the company's CTO, while Krystal Zell, Tonal’s current president. becomes Tonal's chief executive. The WSJ has more here.

Billionaires Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss dipped into their own pockets to support their crypto exchange Gemini Trust, Bloomberg reported earlier today. Per its story: "The twins made a $100 million loan to Gemini recently, according to two people familiar with the matter . . . The move came after Gemini had informally sought funding from outside investors in recent months without coming to any agreements . . ." More here.

Driverless cars have "completed thousands of journeys in San Francisco—taking people to work, to school, and to and from dates. They have also proven to be a glitchy nuisance, snarling traffic and creeping into hazardous terrain such as construction zones and downed power lines. Autonomous cars in San Francisco made 92 unplanned stops between May and December 2022—88% of them on streets with transit service, according to city transportation authorities." In Wired.

Alibaba Group Holding will integrate its new AI model in Amazon Echo-like smart speakers as well as office chat software, joining the race to offer a competitor to ChatGPT for the Chinese market, reports Bloomberg. Its large language model — Tongyi Qianwen, roughly translated to “Truth from a Thousand Questions,” says Bloomberg — will be incorporated across all of Alibaba’s products and services in the “near future,” its CEO is quoted as saying at the company’s tech summit in Beijing on Tuesday. More here.

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ARE YOU DOING SOMETHING VERY ORDINARY IN REAL LIFE OR UNRAVELING AT THE BRINK OF A MENTAL BREAKDOWN IN A MOVIE?

A stunning Porsche 911 Turbo heads to auction. Its color? "Speed Yellow." [Sigh.]

Associates spend 40-50% of their week in email. And often that time isn’t used efficiently. Find ways to improve your workflows with best practices from Menlo Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, and Nexa Partners in the dealmaker’s email playbook from Affinity.