A "mysterious" options trader, a community feature gone very wrong, and Julie Wainwright is back in business

We're thinking of (and worrying about) our East Coast peeps. 

In case it's remotely helpful, here's a quick guide on how to keep your indoor air clean when you don't have an air purifier, and here are instructions for a do-it-yourself air purifier. 

Meta's Instagram helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content, according to investigations by The WSJ and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The researchers found some similar sexually exploitative activity on other, smaller social platforms, but said they found that the problem on Instagram is particularly severe. “The most important platform for these networks of buyers and sellers seems to be Instagram,” they wrote in a report slated for release tomorrow. Much more here.

Google will consider office attendance records in performance reviews and send reminders to employees with frequent absences, Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi wrote in a company-wide email today. The search giant will also consider new requests to work remotely full time as exceptions only. The WSJ has more here.

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Julie Wainwright, founder and former CEO of the publicly traded, luxury online consignment company The RealReal, is back with a new startup.

Called Ahara, the Los Angeles-based outfit describes itself as a personalized nutrition company that provides recommendations to its customers after they first fill out a health questionnaire that asks them about their diet and health history, and their age and location, after which they can take a variety of at-home tests for genetic, epigenetic and biomarkers.

According to Ahara, for example, its tests can tell the company how effectively someone is metabolizing specific nutrients; how healthy his or her cells are; and which tests an individual's blood levels for key nutrients like vitamin D and Omega 3s.

Wainwright isn't a wellness expert, but after leaving The RealReal last June after running the company for 11 years, she has teamed up with celebrity physician-nutritionist Melina Jampolis as cofounder. Jampolis is also the outfit's chief medical doctor. Indeed, in a quiet press release published yesterday, the duo -- who already feature half a dozen other employees on their site -- including a performance marketer -- say they have themselves contributed to a $10.25 million round that was led by Greycroft, with participation from Headline, SHAKTI, and entrepreneur Sandy Sholl.

Ahara is currently in beta and according to its own literature will operate a freemium model that provides special benefits to "premium" members.

That the operation appears to require far fewer resources than The RealReal isn't surprising. Wainwright -- who earlier led the dot.com era company Pets.com -- is coming off of a business that's beloved by its customers but highly challenging from a margins perspective.

In conversation last week with investor Ian Sigalow of Greycroft -- the firm was also an early backer in The RealReal -- he offered his theories about why The RealReal boasts a market cap of just $170 million after reaching a market cap of $2.39 billion the day of its IPO three years ago.

More here.

Digibee, a Weston, Fl.-based low-code integration platform geared toward enterprise organizations, says it has raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Leadwind, Southern Europe, Vivo Ventures, the Brazilian telco Vivo, Kinea and G2D. TechCrunch has more here.

Shift5, a four-year-old startup based in Rosslyn, Va., that provides software to manage fleets of vehicles for the Department of Defense as well as commercial aerospace and rail operators, raised an $83 million Series B round led by Moore Strategic Ventures, with Booz Allen Ventures, JetBlue Ventures, and Teamworthy Ventures also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $108 million. More here.

Upperline Health, a six-year-old Nashville startup that claims to be "the nation’s largest provider network dedicated to specialty value-based care," raised a $58.3 million round. Crestline Investors led the financing, with additional participation from previous investor Silversmith Capital Partners. The company has raised a total of $79 million. The Nashville Post has more here.

Blumira, a five-year-old startup based in Ann Arbor, Mi., that analyzes cybersecurity data for signs of a cyberattack, raised a $15 million Series B round led by Ten Eleven Ventures and including RPS Ventures, Mercury Fund, and HPA. The company has raised a total of $28 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

EliseAI, a six-year-old New York startup whose software automates conversations between potential and current renters and apartment buildings via SMS, email, phone, and webchat, raised a $35 million Series C round led by Point72 Private Investments, with additional funds provided by Koch Real Estate Investments as well as previous investors Golden Seeds, Navitas Capital, JLL Spark, and DivcoWest. The company has raised a total of $66.9 million. More here.

Instabase, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform enables organizations to interpret unstructured data, raised a $45 million Series C round that valued the company at $2 billion, double its previous valuation. Previous investor Tribe Capital was the deal lead, while Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, and NEA also added to their stakes. The company has raised a total of $177 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Keeta, a one-year-old startup based in Santa Monica, Ca., that is working on an instant and secure way to make cross-border payments, raised a $17 million seed round led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. TechCrunch has more here.

Mend, a New York startup that develops "nutrapharma" products for chronic conditions, raised a $15 million Series A round led by S2G Ventures. More here.

Mosaic, an 11-year-old startup based in Oakland, Ca., that provides dashboards, modeling, and data visualization tools geared toward financial planning use cases, raised a $26 million Series C round led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Friends and Family Capital. The company has raised a total of $73 million. TechCrunch has more here.

OXCCU, a two-year-old London startup that has developed a process to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into aviation fuel, raised a $22.7 million Series A round led by Clean Energy Ventures, with additional participation from Kiko Ventures, Eni Next, United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, and Braavos Capital. TFN has more here.

Vertos Medical, an 18-year-old company based in Aliso Viejo, Ca., that is focused on coming up with minimally invasive treatments for lumbar spinal stenosis, raised a $26 million Series C round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with existing investor Pitango Venture Capital also investing. The company has raised a total of $151.8 million. More here.

2045, a New York startup that is launching a digital platform and a physical clubhouse for mid-to-senior level professionals of color, raised a $4.2 million pre-seed round led by Benchstrength. AlleyWatch has more here.

Bonside, a three-year-old Chicago startup that provides capital to brick-and-mortar businesses in exchange for a percentage of the business’s revenue, raised a $4.35 million round led by Floating Point and including 81 Collection, TMV, and Philz Coffee co-founder Jacob Jaber. The company has raised a total of $4.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Builder Prime, a seven-year-old startup based in Staten Island, NY, that has built a CRM system for contractors, raised a $6 million Series A round led by Blueprint Equity, with participation from existing investor TinySeed. More here.

Dew Drops, a startup based in Lexington, Ma., that has created a curated art showcase for NFTs, raised a $1.5 million pre-seed round led by Dream Ventures, with VaynerFund, Polygon Technology Fund, Ruttenberg Gordon Investments, and Slow Ventures also jumping in. Blockster has more here.

MatrixSpace, a four-year-old startup based in Burlington, Ma., that is building small radar systems that use AI to identify objects, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Raptor Group, with Intel Capital also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $20.1 million. More here.

Minoa, a San Francisco startup founded this year whose software is designed to increase the close rates of SaaS vendors, raised a $2.7 million pre-seed round led by 468 Capital, with participation from Mischief, AirAngels, Alumni Ventures, and Fidi Ventures. More here.

Nori, a six-year-old Seattle startup that uses the blockchain to sell carbon credits provided by carbon-conscious farmers, raised a $6.25 million co-led by M13, Toyota Ventures, Placeholder, and Cargill. The company has raised a total of $13.7 million. GeekWire has more here.

Plot, a startup based in Wichita, Ks., that has created a SaaS management platform for construction jobs, raised a $2 million seed round led by GroundBreak Ventures, with additional participation from KCRise Fund, GROWKS Equity Fund, Iron Prairie Ventures, and Suffolk Technologies as well as previous investor Koch Industries. The company has raised a total of $3 million. More here.

What is Affinity? Here's how it works in 58 seconds.

Antler, a nearly six-year-old, Singapore-based, globally-focused early-stage venture firm whose founder, Magnus Grimeland, was formerly a managing director with Rocket Internet, has closed a new fund with $285 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

BuzzFeed is reportedly exploring a potential sale of Complex Networks, a digital media firm it acquired when going public in late 2021 for nearly $300 million. The move, says The Information, follows a decline in Complex’s revenues over the past couple of years. More here.

Former meme stock GameStop fired its CEO Matthew Furlong and appointed its board chairman Ryan Cohen as executive chairman effective immediately, the company said today. Shares of GameStop dropped more than 20% in extended trading after the video game retailer announced the termination. CNBC has more here.

"Father of the iPod" Tony Fadell says Apple has "truly jumped the shark" with its $3,500 virtual reality headset. More here.

Crypto exchange Binance used two U.S. banks to move billions of dollars around the world, the SEC said today in court filings, detailing a tangle of transactions that companies associated with Binance had made through two banks: Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank, both of which failed this year. The filings show that Binance officials, CEO Changpeng Zhao, moved in some cases billions of dollars through the regional banks to accounts associated with companies in places like Kazakhstan, Lithuania and the Seychelles. The New York Times has more here.

In related news, less than a half hour before the SEC announced on Monday that it was cracking down on Binance, an options trader made a short-term bet against Coinbase that may have netted them millions of dollars. The already profitable bet became even more lucrative yesterday after the SEC announced a separate suit again Coinbase itself. Bloomberg takes a look at this "mystery bet" here.

Bard, Google’s AI-powered chatbot, is getting better at tasks involving logic and reasoning, according to the tech giant; citing a technique called “implicit code execution,” it says Bard is now improved specifically in the areas of math and coding. TechCrunch has more here.

Don't speed in Finland.

Helicopter parents show up to the workplace.

Someone is renting a 77-square-foot apartment in Greenwich Village for $2,300 per month. There is no toilet or shower. Amenities include a window.

Formula 1 tickets.

The Passalacqua Villa.

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