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Things are looking up over at Meta. The company beat revenue expectations, reporting an increase in year-over-year revenue for the first time in three quarters. But this "ray of light for the company formerly known as Facebook comes amid harsh restructuring, resulting in more than 10,000 jobs eliminated this year," notes TechCrunch. In one particularly positive piece of news for the company, suggested CEO Mark Zuckerberg, time spent on Instagram has grown more than 24% since the company launched its TikTok clone Reels. More here and here.
British antitrust regulators dealt a major setback today to Microsoft’s plans to acquire the video game giant Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, blocking the proposed deal and handing a notable win to government enforcers around the world who want to rein in Big Tech. The New York Times has more here.
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Q1 was quite the start to the year for the venture capital community with the unexpected banking crisis adding to the woes of 2022 that ended the decade-long bull market. Juniper Square’s latest market update looks back on Q1 2023 and explains why—even though VC hit a new low in March with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank—the worst-case scenarios have been avoided. Read The State of Venture Capital for Q2 2023.
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| Elizabeth Holmes Isn't Heading to Prison Tomorrow After All |
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Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will not be heading off to prison tomorrow to begin serving an 11-year sentence, as first reported by the WSJ. Though earlier this month U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila denied her
request to remain free while she appeals her conviction, this week she asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directly if she could stay out of prison while her case makes its way through the appeals process; the request automatically puts her reporting date on hold while the court considers her request, says the Journal.
It's just the latest twist in a Silicon Valley story that has captivated the broader business world and even led to an Emmy-award-winning limited series called "The Dropout" on Hulu.
In January 2022, following a nearly four-month trial, Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy related to Theranos, her failed blood-testing startup. At her sentencing hearing in November of last year, Judge Davila ordered her to "surrender" on April 27, 2023.
In denying Holmes's earlier request to remain free while she appeals her conviction, Judge Davila wrote that while Holmes presented "clear and convincing evidence that she would not flee," he did not believe she raised a “substantial question of law or fact” likely to result in "reversal or an order for a new trial of all counts.”
Theranos' former president and COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani -- who was also found guilty last year of defrauding the company's investors and its patients -- had similarly asked the Ninth Circuit if he could remain free while he contests his conviction. His bid was rejected three weeks later, but the move enabled him to push his own surrender to a low-security prison facility in San Pedro, California, from mid-March to last Thursday, April 20.
It isn't clear whether it will have any impact, but on Monday, an association for criminal defense lawyers urged the Ninth Circuit to order a new trial for Holmes.
More here.
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Ohmium International, a four-year-old, Fremont, Ca.-based company that says it designs, makes and deploys modular, scalable proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer systems with the aim of enabling cost-competitive green hydrogen production, has raised $250 million in Series C funding. TPG Rise Climate led the round, joined by Hanover Technology Investment Management, Energy Transition Ventures, and Fenice Investment Group. Reuters has more
here.
Vedanta Biosciences, a Cambridge, Ma.-based clinical-stage company that is developing a potential new category of oral therapies based on defined bacterial consortia, today announced that it has raised $106.5 million, co-led by new investors AXA IM Alts and The AMR Action Fund. A long line of other investors also chipped into the round, including earlier backers the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Skyviews Life Science, Reimagined Ventures, Fiscus Ventures, PEAK6, and Atlantic Neptune. Pharmaceutical Technology has more here.
Vinfast, a six-year-old, Hanoi, Vietnam-based EV automaker, is "getting a $2.5 billion injection of capital as it pursues an ambitious plan to woo U.S. consumers with a slate of electric SUVs and crossovers," reports TechCrunch. Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, who founded Vinfast’s parent company Vingroup, said he's investing $1 billion of his personal wealth via a grant in the EV outfit; Vingroup, now the country’s largest conglomerate, will separately invest $500 million and has further agreed to loan Vinfast an additional $1 billion with a maturity of up to five years. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Axoni, a six-year-old, New York-based company whose software synchronizes data across enterprises like hedge funds and banks, raised $20 million in new funding led by EJF Ventures, with participation from Laurion Capital Management, Communitas Capital, and earlier backers. The company says it has now raised $110 million altogether. More here.
TympaHealth, a six-year-old, London startup that has developed handheld hardware built around streamlined iPhone and Android devices and corresponding software to run hearing tests, has raised $23 million in funding. Octopus Ventures led the round, joined by Dara Capital, Rezayat Investments, serial entrepreneurs Bob Davis and Jeff Leerink, and previous backers. TechCrunch has more here.
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AiXplain, a nearly three-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based low code/no-code platform for the "quick development" of AI projects, says it has raised $8 million in seed funding led by Calibrate Ventures and Transform VC. SiliconAngle has more here.
Ansa, a 15-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that builds digital wallet infrastructure for merchants, raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures. Other backers in the round included Box Group, Wischoff Ventures, Cambrian Ventures, The Fintech Fund, and Susa Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Credora, a four-year-old, San Rafael, Ca.-based lending infrastructure startup, has raised $6 million in funding from S&P Global and Coinbase Ventures. CoinDesk has more here.
Kluster, a seven-year-old, London-based B2B SaaS revenue forecasting platform, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Foresight Group, with participation from SuperSeed and other angels. More here.
Operant, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based first runtime application protection platform for the cloud-native world, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Felicis, alongside several additional funds at the forefront of cloud-native technologies. TechCrunch has more here.
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Discover strategies to get ahead in today’s changing investment environment from MassMutual Ventures and Affinity. They shared trends across key dealmaking activities as well as tips on nurturing your network to maximize deal sourcing and fundraising opportunities. Watch the webinar today.
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Greycroft, the 17-year-old, Los Angeles- and New York-based early-stage venture firm focused on both consumer and enterprise deals, has garnered $980 million in capital commitments for two new funds: Greycroft Partners VII and Greycroft Growth IV. The firm has now raised more than $3 billion altogether; it last raised $678 million across two funds in 2020. More here.
TPG, the San Francisco- and Fort Worth, Texas-based PE giant, has closed its Tech Adjacencies II fund with $3.4 billion in capital commitments. The fund aims to invest in tech companies that are opting to stay private longer, which is pretty much everyone in tech right now, notes Fortune. More here and here.
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The man accused of fatally stabbing Silicon Valley executive Bob Lee will plead not guilty to murder, his lawyer said yesterday. Bloomberg has more here.
Tech billionaire and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, an early backer of former President Donald Trump who later broke with him, has told associates he is not planning to donate to any political candidates in 2024, reports Reuters. According to one of its sources, Thiel is unhappy with the Republican Party's focus on hot-button U.S. cultural issues. More here.
Elon Musk said he met today with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and other members of Congress to discuss artificial intelligence regulation, as Washington policymakers increasingly debate oversight of the quickly emerging technology. The Washington Post has more here.
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Spotify would “like to raise prices in 2023,” when the "timing is right," CEO Daniel Ek said during the company’s earnings yesterday, when the company reported a first quarter loss of about $248 million compared with a profit a year ago. The company's subscription service has cost $9.99 since launching in the U.S. in 2011, notes The Information. Meanwhile, last month at a Morgan Stanley conference, new Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl -- who was formerly head of business for YouTube at an Netflix -- suggested that streaming services should raise their prices, noting that if the price of an individual monthly streaming subscription were adjusted for inflation, it would cost $13.25 instead of $10. More here.
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Should we trust Apple with mental health data?
DraftKings is planning to launch its own streaming video service, the latest evidence that sports betting and media are converging. Bloomberg has more here.
Inside the struggle to make lab-grown meat.
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Burnout retreats for white-collar wipeout.
Attention ardent Queen fans: Sotheby's is selling Freddie Mercury's estate of 1,500 pieces -- including some of Mercury's iconic costumes and his tiny Tiffany mustache comb -- during a weeklong series of sales starting Sept. 6. More here.
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