Google's foldable smartphone, Microsoft's bet on Helion Energy, and Miami's about-face on crypto

At Google's developer conference earlier today, the company announced that it was removing most waitlist restrictions and making Bard, the company’s generative AI chatbot more widely available, starting today in English. It also introduced a $1,799 foldable smartphone, a new entry-level Pixel phone, and a tablet for the home. Here's what else it announced. (You can also re-watch the video.)

In a deal that is believed to be the first commercial agreement for fusion power, Microsoft has agreed to purchase electricity from startup Helion Energy within about five years. Helion -- which is backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who earlier hitched OpenAI's wagon to Microsoft -- says it is committed to start producing electricity through fusion by 2028 and target power generation for Microsoft of at least 50 megawatts after a year or pay financial penalties, according to the WSJ. The outlet calls the commitment a "bold one given that neither Helion nor anyone else in the world has yet produced electricity from fusion." Altman has been investing in Helion for years and in late 2021 wrote the company a $375 million check. At our event in January, we asked Altman if Helion has proven its thesis yet. His answer? "We’ll have more to share there shortly."

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Ecorobotix, a nine-year-old Swiss startup, raised a $52 million Series B round. Aqton PE and Cibus Capital were the co-leads, while Swisscanto Invest/Swisscanto Growth Fund I, Yara Growth Ventures, and Flexstone Partners as well as previous investors Swisscom Ventures, BASF Venture Capital, 4FOX Ventures, and Verve Ventures also took part. The company has raised a total of $83.1 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Petal, a seven-year-old New York startup that offers three Visa credit card products aimed at underserved consumers, raised a $35 million round. Valar Ventures led the deal and was joined by Core Innovation Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Synchrony Bank, Samsung Next, and previous investor Story Ventures. The company has raised a total of nearly $300 million in equity and more than $450 million in debt. TechCrunch has more here.

Triumph, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that has built an engine and accompanying SDK to power real-money tournaments, today announced $10.2 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst. Box Group, Heroic Ventures, Nostalgic Modern, Raven One Ventures, Steel Perlot, Strike and Valhalla Ventures also joined the round, which brings the outfit's total funding to $14.1 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

AudioShake, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to deconstruct music tracks into stems that can be used for remixes, sampling, and other applications, raised a $2.7 million seed round led by Indicator Ventures, with Precursor Ventures, and Side Door Ventures also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $4.7 million. Music Business Worldwide has more here.

Autonomize AI, a two-year-old Austin startup whose platform helps health organizations analyze patient information in order to provide better outcomes, raised a $4 million seed round led by Asset Management Ventures and including ATX Venture Partners, Loop Ventures, and The Next Practices Group. CityBiz has more here.

Charlie, a seven-year-old Los Angeles startup that aims to provide banking services for the 62+-year-old community, raised a $7.5 in round from Better Tomorrow Ventures, Expa, and Gokul Rajaram. TechCrunch has more here.

Hygieia, the 15-year-old company based in Livonia, Mi. whose FDA-cleared tech autonomously adjusts insulin dose recommendations to correspond to a patient's changing insulin needs, raised a $5 million Series B extension from Firstime Ventures and two unnamed strategic investors, increasing the total size of the round to $22 million. The company has raised a total of $35.3 million. More here.

Micron Biomedical, a nine-year-old Atlanta startup that makes dissolvable, microarray-based products in order to bring needle-free drugs and vaccines to market, raised a $3 million Series A extension from J2 Ventures, increasing the total size of the round to $17 million. More here.

Mycocycle, a five-year-old Chicago startup that is using fungi to transform industrial waste into reusable materials, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Anthropocene Ventures, with TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Alumni Ventures, and Telescopic Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $3.7 million. More here.

Salsa, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that provides APIs for developers to add revenue-generating payroll solutions inside their own software products, raised a $10 million round. Investors included Greycroft, Better Tomorrow Ventures, and Definition. TechCrunch has more here.

SquareX, a three-year-old Singapore startup that integrates with browsers as an extension and lets users open links and files in disposable browsers that serve as temporary container sandboxes, raised a $6 million seed round. Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Voltfang, a two-year-old startup based in Aachen, Germany, that recycles dead EV batteries, raised a $5.5 million round led by PropTech1 Ventures and including Helen Ventures, Aurum Impact, and Eviny as well as existing investor AENU. Tech.eu has more here.

Werewool, a five-year-old Brooklyn startup that produces biodegradable fibers for the fashion industry, raised a $3.7 million seed round. Material Impact and Sofinnova Partners were the co-leads. More here.

Ola, a 13-year-old Indian ride-sharing company, has seen its valuation cut by one of its investors. In its semi-annual report to investors, Vanguard marked down its stake in the company by 35% to $4.8 billion from its 2021 high of $7.3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

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Andreessen Horowitz, whose cofounder Marc Andreessen wrote two years ago of the sorry state of the U.S. in widely read essay,  announced this week that it is allocating $500 million to invest expressly in "American dynamism," which here means early-stage startups that support American national interests, such as reshoring manufacturing, public safety, global defense, and clean energy. The capital will come out of the $9 billion in capital commitments that a16z garnered early last year and more specifically, a $5 billion growth fund that was established at the time. More here.

Early-stage venture capital firm AnD Ventures says it recently closed its first fund with $70 million in capital commitments. The fund supports Israeli-based founders. Calcalist has more here.

Ascend, a Seattle-based pre-seed venture capital firm led by startup veteran Kirby Winfield, has closed its second fund with $25 million in capital commitments. Its debut fund closed with $15 million in 2019. GeekWire has more here.

Months of protracted talks to sell SoftBank Group-owned asset manager Fortress Investment Group to Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala have reached a late stage, with the parties close to a deal for as much as $3 billion, reports the FT. SoftBank acquired control of Fortress for $3.3 billion in 2017 as its founder, Masayoshi Son, worked to build an asset management arm using its Vision funds. More here.

Oura, a venture-backed Finnish maker of sleep-tracking wearables, is acquiring Proxy, a San Francisco-based digital identity signal startup, in an all-equity deal valued at $165 million. According to Pitchbook, Proxy -- whose backers include Scale Venture Partners, SVB, West Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Y Combinator -- was last valued at closer to $300 million in 2020. Bloomberg has the story here.

RIP, Heather Armstrong, "Queen of the Mommy Bloggers." 😔

Facing a federal probe over practices at his investment company, activist investor Carl Icahn has gone on the attack against Hindenburg Research, the short seller that likely spurred the inquiry, accusing it of “wantonly destroying property and harming innocent civilians.” The WSJ has more here.

Don Wood, a former managing director at DFJ, has joined B Capital Group as a venture partner focused on climate tech. More here.

The venture-backed pediatric virtual behavioral health company Brightline announced a second round of layoffs in less than a year, again affecting 20% of its workforce. The Ca.-based company let go of 20% of its workforce in November, months after announcing an additional $10 million raise, bringing its total Series C funding to $115 million. MobiHealth News has more here.

Expensive energy may have killed more Europeans than Covid-19 last winter, per the Economist, which says its modeling estimates show high energy prices claimed 68,000 lives. Offers the outlet, "High energy prices can cost lives. They discourage people from heating their homes properly, and living in cold conditions raises the risk of cardiac and respiratory problems." More here.

Uber has launched flight bookings to its UK app as part of the ride-booking giant’s push to become a travel “super app," allowing customers to book a complete journey across multiple forms of transport. The company last month announced its plans to integrate with services offering trains, buses, planes and car rentals in the UK. The FT has more here.

The race to build a successor to the aging International Space Station is on and features some of the biggest names in aerospace, from Northrop Grumman to Blue Origin. Now, a relatively unknown new entrant hopes to beat all of them by lofting a station to orbit that could host its first crew by late 2025. The Washington Post has more here.

Probably nowhere has the U.S.'s about-face on crypto been more pronounced than in Miami. The WSJ has more here.

Microsoft employees are hooked on the company's training videos. “Current status: #Sobbing while watching #Microsoft standards of business conduct,” tweeted one. (More here.)

A small study has found that certain soaps can make people less attractive to mosquitoes.

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Supreme + . . .Clarks Originals? ✔️

The 15 best gin brands right now (says Esquire).

The number of new unicorns is down across the board—but that's no the full story. In this short video, Affinity uncovers unicorn trends across geographies and industries. Find out where is really in retreat, and where opportunities still lie.