NPR and PBS give up on Twitter, FTX recovers far more cash and crypto, and super sweet custom sneaks

Whoa. Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has recovered over $7.3 billion in cash and liquid crypto assets, an increase of more than $800 million since January, the company's attorney said today at a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing in Delaware. "The situation has stabilized, and the dumpster fire is out," said FTX attorney Andy Dietderich. Reuters has more here.

EY is slamming the brakes on a proposed overhaul of its businesses that was meant to address regulatory concerns over potential conflicts of interest," the FT reported earlier today. One of the Big Four accounting giants, EY announced  plans for a split in September after regulators voiced concerns that the audit arm would not do its job fairly for its client if it also employed EY as a consultant. 

Public broadcaster National Public Radio announced today it will stop using Twitter, becoming the first big US news organization to go silent on the platform a week after a “state-affiliated media” label was added to its account. “NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” chief executive John Lansing told staff today. (More here and here.) Asked for comment about the move by an NPR reporter, Musk posted a screenshot of the email, then tweeted, "Defund NPR."

The Public Broadcasting Service followed NPR today in quitting Twitter after it, too, was labeled as government-backed media.

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Altruist, a 4.5-year-old Culver City, Ca.-based custodian for registered investment advisors, has raised raised $112 million in Series D funding led by earlier investor Insight Partners; it was joined by new investor Adams Street Partners and numerous individual investors from the financial services industry. Barron's has more here.

EnergyX, a 4.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based lithium extraction startup, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by GM Ventures. Axios Pro has more here.

Teamworks, a nearly 14-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based enterprise SaaS provider for collegiate and professional sports organizations, has raised $65 million in Series E funding led by Dragoneer Investment Group. The company has also acquired ARMS Software, which provides over 400 collegiate athletic departments with tech solutions for compliance, fundraising and recruiting. Sports Business Journal has more here.

Alice Technologies, a 10-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based startup that's developing construction project planning software, has raised $13 million in Series B extension funding from Swire Properties. It also secured debt from Bridge Bank. Alice originally closed on $30 million in Series B funding in June of last year. More here.

EcoSoul Home, a two-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based maker of plant-based home essentials products (think plates, forks, cups trash bags), has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Accel, with participation from Singh Capital Partners. More here.

Hometree, a nearly seven-year-old, London-based residential energy services company, has raised $46 million in Series B funding led by 2150 and Energy Impact Partners. Other backers in the round include Legal & General Capital and previous investors, including Inven Capital. More here.

ImmuneBridge, a 4.5-year-old San Francisco-based developer of immunotherapies for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, raised $12 million in seed funding co-led by Insight Partners and Merck's M Ventures, with participation from One Way Ventures and Gaingels. BioPharmaReporter has more here.

Sei, a layer-1 blockchain focused on trading, has raised $30 million in funding, including from Jump Crypto, Distributed Global, Multicoin Capital, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Flow Traders, Hypersphere Ventures and Bixin Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Brassica, a year-old Houston-based banking and investment infrastructure platform, has raised $8 million in seed funding led by Mercury Fund; other backers in the round included Valor Equity Partners, Long Journey Ventures, NGC Fund, Neowiz, Broadhaven Ventures, VC3DAO, Alpha Asset Management, and others. More here.

CAT Labs, a year-old, Miami-based startup that says it's building digital asset recovery and cybersecurity tools to enable governments to fight crypto crime and to protect investors from hacks, fraud and scams, raised $4.3 million in pre-seed funding. Castle Island Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, CMT Digital, and RW3 Ventures co-led the round. More here.

HUG, a year-old, New York-based discovery platform that wants to help people discover NFT projects and creators (it was cofounded by Randi Zuckerberg), has raised $5 million in seed funding from OKX Ventures, DIGITAL, L’Oreal’s BOLD fund, Venrex, Jae Holdings, Cryptology and Aa Sons. More here.

Martini.ai, a 3.5-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based corporate credit monitoring startup, raised $6 million in seed funding led by Neotribe, with participation from Rocketship.vc. More here.

MedArrive, a nearly three-year-old, New York-based outfit operating a remote care platform (it's building a network of field providers and tech to serve vulnerable populations in their home), raised $8 million led by Cobalt Ventures. MedCity News has more here.

Renew, a two-year-old, New York-based resident renewal process automation platform, raised $8.3 million in seed funding from Upfront Ventures, Goldcrest Capital, Allen & Company, and Walkabout Ventures. More here.

Rupert, a three-year-old, New York-based analytics distribution platform, raised $8 million in seed funding co-led by Cortical Ventures and IA Ventures, with participation from Citi Ventures and Joule Ventures. SiliconANGLE has more here.

TablePointer, a 2.5-month-old, Singapore-based SaaS startup that's focused on helping small and medium-size commercial facilities to optimize their energy efficiency, has raised $3 million in seed funding co-led by Wavemaker Partners, AgFunder and Engie. AgFunder News has more here.

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Overwater Ventures, a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm supporting the next generation of founders in "human and planet health," has closed its debut fund with $20 million in capital commitments. Founded and led by Kristina Simmons, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former chief of staff and investor at Khosla Ventures, Overwater has already backed at least half a dozen companies, including Gameto (which we covered here). More in Forbes.

SoftBank has moved to sell almost all of its remaining shareholding in Alibaba, limiting its exposure to China and raising cash as the market downturn pummels the value of its technology investments, reports the FT. It says the Japanese group, led by founder Masayoshi Son, has sold about $7.2 billion worth of Alibaba shares this year through prepaid forward contracts, after a record $29 billion selldown last year. More here.

SoftBank is also selling its early-stage venture capital arm SoftBank Ventures Asia Corp. after suffering billions of dollars in losses from failed startup bets, reports Bloomberg. The outfit said it plans to sell SoftBank Ventures Asia to an entity led by Singapore-based Mistletoe founder Taizo Son, the younger brother of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son. More here.

Billionaire Ken Griffin has given $300 million to Harvard University, his biggest gift ever to his alma mater, reports Bloomberg. The founder of Citadel and Citadel Securities has now donated more than $500 million to the Ivy League school. More here.

Elon Musk addresses the "painful" side of running Twitter.

Denying wrongdoing, e-cigarette maker Juul has agreed to pay $462 million to settle lawsuits filed by six states and the District of Columbia, resolving nearly all of the pending litigation against it. In September, it agreed to pay at least $438.5 million in a settlement with 33 states and Puerto Rico; in December, Juul separately agreed to pay $1.7 billion in a deal to resolve more than 5,000 lawsuits.

In a world of shifting geopolitical alliances, Saudi Arabia is breaking away from Washington’s orbit.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley investors are touring the Middle East, seeking to build long-term ties with sovereign wealth funds during the worst funding crunch for venture firms in almost a decade. Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global and IVP have jetted teams of executives to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in recent weeks, according to the FT. More here.

Also: OpenAI looks past "diffusion" with "“consistency models" that require far fewer steps.

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Dunkin' dunks.

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