Alibaba's shakeup, a missing billionaire, and more trouble for SVB's clients in China, Singapore and other parts of Asia

It's Juneteenth, so we're just publishing a quick one today. More tomorrow.:)

Silicon Valley Bank’s customers in Asia whose deposits were recently seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp are now in a bind for an additional reason, say the WSJ: they have to repay loans to First Citizens Bank. As reported by the outlet, when SVB failed in March, the FDIC stepped in to protect all of the bank’s U.S. deposits and arranged the sale of its U.S. customer accounts, branches and loans to First Citizens Bancshares. Not part of that package? SVB’s branch in the Cayman Islands, which apparently held deposits from SVB's clients in China, Singapore and other parts of Asia, including VC and PE firms with funds that are domiciled in the British overseas territory. Not only were their deposits not protected, but the FDIC—acting as SVB’s receiver—drained their bank accounts, per the WSJ. More here.

Alibaba Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang will be replaced in September, the company just disclosed. Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai will take over as chair; Eddie Yongming Wu, who heads the Taobao and Tmall domestic e-commerce business, will succeed Zhang as CEO and replace him on the board. Observes the WSJ: "The changes . . . come as Alibaba undergoes a major reorganization that effectively dismantles the business empire that co-founder Jack Ma built over two decades. Alibaba is in the process of splitting itself into six independently run companies that could seek separate IPOs." More here.

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Tomorrow.io, a seven-year-old Israeli startup that collects weather information through a network of satellites, raised an $87 million round led by Activate Capital, with additional capital provided by RTX Ventures, Seraphim Space, and Chemonics as well as previous investors SquarePeg Capital, Canaan, ClearVision, JetBlue Ventures, and Pitango. The company has raised a total of $270.9 million. CTech has more here.

Soundtrack Your Brand, a 10-year-old Stockholm startup that provides streaming music in commercial settings including stores, hotels, restaurants, and other establishments, raised a $15 million round led by MUSIC, with additional participation from Liontree, JS Capital Management, Schusterman Family Investments, and Dundee Partners as well as earlier investors Balderton Capital, Fuel Venture Capital, Industrifonden, Telia, and DIG. The company has raised a total of $64 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Yellow, a five-year-old Malawi startup that sells and finances small home solar systems to consumers and small businesses in Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and Madagascar, raised a $14 million round led by Convergence Partners with participation from the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund and previous investor Platform Investment Partners. The company has raised a total of $45 million in debt and equity. TechCrunch has more here.

Deeploy, a four-year-old startup based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, that claims to provide transparency and accountability for a company's machine learning models, raised a $2.7 million round from once more joined the round which includes SI3, Bonsai Partners, Emilia Capital, and previous investor Curiosity. The company has raised a total of $3.8 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Rever, a one-year-old reverse logisitics startup that aims to automate label generation and refunds for retailers while also providing analytics on customer behavior and purchasing trends, raised a $9.3 million round led by GFC and Oscar Pierre. TechCrunch has more here.

Shoppable Business, a year-old, B2B e-commerce marketplace that aims to make it easier for businesses in the Philippines to source and procure branded products and other inventory, has raised $1.15 million in pre-seed funding co-led by Foxmont Capital Partners and Seedstars International Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Affinity's analysis of 2022 activity data revealed that top VCs on their platform booked 15% more meetings than across all firms. See how your firm compares with these five venture-focused benchmarks.

Brighteye Ventures, a nearly six-year-old, Luxembourg-based edtech-focused venture firm, said today it has closed its second fund with €100 million, which is double the size of the first fund. New investors in the fund include the European Investment Fund, Jacobs Foundation, and Partners in Equity, and Family offices from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Silicon Canals has more here.

Informatica, a publicly traded, Redwood City, Ca.-based company whose tools help enterprises to analyze, manage and share data across their organizations, is acquiring Privitar, a nine-year-old, U.K. startup that focuses on building and providing data access controls. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Privitar raised over $150 million in funding, from investors that included Accel and Warburg Pincus as well as strategics like Salesforce, HSBC and Citigroup. TechCrunch has more here.

Hamish Harding, a British businessman who went to space last year with Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin company, is among those aboard a submarine that has gone missing near the wreckage of the Titanic. More here and here.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has given his first lecture as a visiting professor to the University of Tokyo, as the high-profile Chinese entrepreneur retreats further from his business empire following a crackdown by Beijing. CNN has more here.

Rana Creek Ranch, a 14,100-acre property in Carmel Valley, is being sold by Apple co-founder Mike Markkula to The Wildlands Conservancy, an environmental land trust, for $35 million in a deal that closes next month to create a new public nature preserve. In 1977, Markkula gave Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak $250,000 to help turn their young partnership into a new company. He become their third employee at Apple, served as its CEO and chairman of the board, and at one time owned 26% of the company. The Mercury News has the story here.

Masayoshi Son is due to make his first public appearance in seven months at SoftBank Group’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday. The Japanese conglomerate is hosting the meeting in person for the first time in four years. Son, SoftBank's founder and CEO, is scheduled to break a months-long silence after bidding adieu to earnings calls amid mounting losses to focus on taking the chip design company Arm -- acquired by SoftBank in 2016 -- public. Bloomberg has more here.

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A Twitter video app for smart TVs is in the social media company's plans, Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet on Saturday, a move that would be in line with the company's new plans to focus on growing video content on the platform. In response to someone else's tweet suggesting that a Twitter video app is needed, Musk replied, "It's coming." As mentioned in Friday's newsletter, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino and Musk outlined Twitter's plans to focus on video, creator and commerce partnerships in a presentation to investors last Thursday. Reuters has the story here.

Tech stocks are on a tear. But investors can’t agree on whether their recent run looks like the prelude to an eventual bust—like that of the dot-com era—or the start of a more durable rally.

Celebrities, including aging athletes, are beginning to use AI to take control of their own images, even while determining legal ownership of AI-generated likenesses is one of many concerns. 

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