Execs and early investors in companies that went public via SPACS cleared $22B before their prices collapsed 🫠

Elizabeth Holmes reported to a minimum-security prison in Texas today, beginning a 135-month sentence for defrauding investors. (More here on her partner, Billy Evans.)

More than 350 executives and AI scientists are sounding the alarm about AI, saying in a joint statement released today by the Center for AI Safety that the technology poses an extinction risk and that mitigating that risk should be a "global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." Signatories include Sam Altman and Mira Murati of OpenAI and Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott. Some observers are wondering about the point of a statement (i.e., shouldn't these brainy scientist types be creating solutions instead of freaking everyone out?). Others are wondering whether more attention shouldn't be paid to more immediate harms, like misinformation and copyright infringement. Others still wonder if this isn't like the early days of the pandemic, when those in the know warned the rest of us what was coming and were deemed hysterical. Meanwhile, notes the WSJ, cybersecurity chiefs have said there are clear benefits from AI, but the promises and risks of early generative AI are overblown. More here.

Allied Advisers has released an updated Rule of 40 report for 1H2023, revealing that software companies exceeding the rule continue to trade at premium valuations compared to those that fall below it. Meeting or exceeding the Rule of 40 with profitability or close to profitability can result in multiple bids at higher valuation multiples than peers who do not. In today's challenging market conditions, the Rule of 40 is becoming more popular as a tool for founders, management, and investors to keep in mind for optimal financing and exit valuation.

Altigreen Propulsion Lab, a 10-year-old Bengaluru outfit that makes electric cargo vehicles, is reportedly in the market to raise $85 million at a $350 million valuation, says Bloomberg. It has more here.

Carmot Therapeutics, a 15-year-old company based in Berkeley, Ca., that is developing new drugs to treat obesity and diabetes, raised a $150 million Series E round led by Deep Track Capital, with 5AM Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Frazier Life Sciences, Janus Henderson Investors, Millennium Management, TCGX, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, RA Capital Management, The Column Group, and Willett Advisors also piling on. The company has raised a total of $384.8 million. More here.

Beem, a five-year-old startup based in Nantes, France, that has developed a DIY connected solar panel kit for consumers, raised a $13.9 million Series A extension from Cathay Innovation, capping the round at $21.4 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Carrum Health, a nine-year-old startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that provides members with surgical and cancer treatment guidance and coordination, raised a $45 million Series C round led by OMERS Growth Equity, with Revelation Partners and previous investors Tiger Global Management, Wildcat Venture Partners, Cross Creek, and SpringRock Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $96 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Pluton Biosciences, a six-year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based startup working toward identifying beneficial microorganisms and putting them to work in agriculture, just raised a $16.5 million Series A round to commercialize some of its finds. Illumina Ventures and RA Capital led the round, joined by Fall Line Capital, the Grantham Foundation, First In Ventures, Wollemi, Radicle Growth, and iSelect. TechCrunch has more here.

Vectara, a three-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, Ca., that has built a cloud-based conversational generative large language model that allows businesses to query their own data, raised a $28.5 million seed round led by Race Capital. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Antimatter, a two-year-old Oakland startup that (interestingly) helps students create memes out of their study materials in order to reinforce their understanding of the subject matter, raised a $2 million round led by Version One. TechCrunch has more here.

CUR8, a one-year-old London startup whose platform buys carbon removal credits for its clients, raised a $6.5 million pre-seed round led by GV, with CapitalT also pitching in. EU-Startups has more here.

Proxima Fusion, a one-year-old Munich startup that is developing a high-performance stellarator in anticipation of building a fusion power plant by the end of the next decade, raised a $7.5 million round co-led by Plural Platform and UVC Partners, with additional participation from High-Tech Gründerfonds and the Wilbe Group. Tech.eu has more here.

QFlow, a five-year-old London startup that helps contractors and suppliers to manage their materials, raised a $9.1 million Series A round. Systemiq Capital led the transaction, while Ascension Ventures, Bridge Investment Group, Gravel Rd, Greensoil Proptech Ventures, Grosvenor, MMC, and Suffolk Tech also participated. The company has raised a total of $12.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

UpCodes, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that is launching an AI-based tool to provide folks in the building trade information about building codes, raised a $3.5 million round led by Building Ventures, with CapitalX and Bragiel Bros. also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $7.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Wellplaece, a San Francisco startup that is building an automated, multi-vendor product purchasing platform for dental offices, raised a $3.5 million seed round. Eniac Ventures and Bee Partners co-led the deal. TechCrunch has more here.

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Khosla Ventures has raised $1 billion for an "Excelsior Fund," per an SEC filing.

Pear VC, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based seed-stage venture firm with close ties to Stanford University, has closed its fourth fund with $432 million in capital commitments. The firm, whose deals include Gusto and Guardant Health, will continue to write seed checks as well as “pre-seed” checks. We wrote more about the firm last May, when we first spied an SEC filing for this fund. Pear raised $160 million fund for its last fund in 2019. Bloomberg has more here.

Swift Ventures, a firm co-led by TubeMogul vets Brett Wilson and John Hughes, just set out to raise $35 million for its second fund, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios.

Talis Capital, a London-based generalist venture firm, has held a first close of its third early-stage fund. So far it has garnered $100 million in capital commitments for a planned $175 million fund — which would be its largest yet. The firm's past deals include the cybersecurity company Darktrace, French insect farming startup Ynsect, and the UK fintech Onfido. Sifted has more here.

Ownership of the Seattle e-commerce retail company Zulily is changing hands again. Qurate, which paid $2.4 billion to acquire Zulily in 2015, said last week it sold the retailer to Los Angeles-based private equity firm Regent. The companies did not disclose a purchase price. GeekWire has more here.

Now that Twitter’s API access is locked behind a steep paywall,  third-party apps are shutting down. The latest to bite the dust is Block Party, an anti-harassment tool that helped people stay safe from targeted harassment on Twitter. TechCrunch has the story here.

The SEC has settled charges with a former Coinbase product manager and his brother for engaging in insider trading, the agency announced today. Ishan Wahi, the former Coinbase employee, and brother Nikhil Wahi, engaged in “a scheme to trade ahead of multiple announcements regarding at least nine crypto asset securities that would be made available for trading on the Coinbase platform,” the SEC stated. TechCrunch has more here.

Twitter is now worth just one-third of what Elon Musk paid for the social-media platform, according to Fidelity, which recently marked down the value of its equity stake in the company. Bloomberg has more here.

Crypto and blockchain startups raised just $900 million in the first quarter, according to PitchBook data on announced deals, down 87% from the same period in 2022 and the smallest haul since the fourth quarter of 2020, when crypto fundraising came in at $800 million. The number of deals fell by roughly two-thirds to 136. The Information has more here.

In 1980, 84% of 25-year-olds were living on their own, 63% were married and 39% had a child. It's a stark contrast with 2021, when just 68% of 25-year-olds were living outside their parents’ home, 22% were married and 17% had a child. Bloomberg has more here.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is looking to bring aboard an associate, a mid-level job that spans multiple asset classes and would require meeting, evaluating and monitoring fund managers for the portfolio. The job is in Los Gatos, Ca. 

The SPAC boom cost retail investors billions of dollars, but the executives and private company investors in companies that went public via special-purpose acquisition companies sold shares worth $22 billion through well-timed trades, profiting before share prices collapsed, per a WSJ analysis. How bad has that fall-out been? According to the outlet, companies that went public via SPACs have lost more than $100 billion in market value. At least 12 have filed for bankruptcy and more than 100 are running low on cash, battered by higher interest rates and rising costs.

New York attorney Steven Schwartz has thrown himself on the mercy of the court after submitting a brief with half a dozen court decisions that were completely made up by ChatGPT, saying in an affidavit that he recently used the artificial intelligence to do his legal research — “a source that has revealed itself to be unreliable.” Brantley Starr, a U.S. district judge in Texas, is taking steps to ensure a similar debacle isn’t repeated in his courtroom. He just added a requirement that any lawyer appearing in his court must attest that “no portion of the filing was drafted by generative artificial intelligence,” or if it was, that it was checked “by a human being.”

Papa, a kind of TaskRabbit for eldercare that is backed by SoftBank and Tiger Global, doesn't protect its customers or its contractors, suggests a new Bloomberg investigation that features one lewd story after another.

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What to watch after you finish "Succession."

Traverse the globe like the Roys in this step-by-step guide.

Bill Koch's Cape Cod lots.

SimpleWater water quality test kit (for those of you who read the water filter "Detour").

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