Potentially bad news for Nvidia, bad news for Lordstown, and psychedelics to get ahead? More give them a shot

The Biden administration is reportedly considering new restrictions on exports of AI chips to China; according to the WSJ, the Commerce Department could move as soon as early next month to stop the shipments of chips made by Nvidia and other chip makers to customers in China and other countries of concern without first obtaining a license. Already, restrictions last year cut off the most advanced AI chips made by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, notes the outlet. Nvidia responded by making a version of its AI chips for the Chinese market called the A800 that fall below the performance thresholds outlined by the Commerce Department. But the new restrictions being discussed would ban the sale of even A800 chips without a license, say the Journal's sources. More here.

Silicon Valley is really letting down its hair! "Elon Musk takes ketamine. Sergey Brin sometimes enjoys magic mushrooms. Executives at venture-capital firm Founders Fund . . . have thrown parties that include psychedelics. Routine drug use has moved from an after-hours activity squarely into corporate culture," reports the WSJ.

Oof. Lordstown Motors, the troubled electric vehicle company that bought a shuttered General Motors factory in Ohio with the stated goal of creating the Tesla of pickup trucks, filed for bankruptcy protection today. The company was valued at more than $5 billion two years ago. The filing came after talks fell through on a plan for Lordstown’s investment partner, Taiwan-based contract-manufacturing company Foxconn Technology, to buy $170 million in shares of the electric-truck maker, Lordstown said. Now it's suing Foxconn.

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Sandwich, an L.A.-based, 17-person outfit, has produced many commercials on behalf of tech companies over its 14-year history, including Square, Slack and Figma. Sometimes, it has taken equity in exchange for some of its work, too. For example, nine years ago, Sandwich founder Adam Lisagor starred in an ad that Sandwich made for a then-nascent Robinhood. The concept centered around an '80s style Wall Street office; the equity in the brokerage outfit would later prove Sandwich's biggest exit to date.

More so-called liquidity events could be coming. Lisagor says Sandwich has amassed 60 stakes altogether. Still, the outfit is looking to amass even more. Indeed, its newest pitch centers on working with undiscovered startups via what it describes as a new fellowship program where Sandwich plans to offer know-how about storytelling and production muscle in exchange for (in part) equity.

Certainly, it's a clever way to drum up business in a downturn. We caught up with Lisagor over the weekend to learn more. You can also learn a bit more about the fellowship in the video embedded below.

We haven't talked in a while; catch us up on your client base.

Our client base has been really interesting over these past couple of years because we always kind of adapt to where the tech trends are. There were a few years where D2C was king, and that was not my favorite, to be honest, because we weren’t telling stories of innovation and helping people understand brand new revolutionary ideas that will change how the world works. We were telling people about consumer products they can buy on the internet instead of in stores.

My favorite part of what I do is talking to founders of revolutionary companies, because I see them light up when they convey their vision . . . and I don’t imagine it’s every day that these founders get to talk to filmmakers who understand what they’re building on a technical and strategic level like I do. I work with some serial founders, Andrew Mason and Suhail Doshi, for instance, who I can get on calls with and just talk for days about what they’re building, and they trust me to tell the stories. That means the world to me.

It's easy to imagine that Sandwich is aided by generative AI but also threatened by it as companies look to scale back their expenses in this downturn. Is that the case?

The simple fact of the matter, as you know, is that the tech world is very different right now than it was a year ago, and everybody is in build mode, which means that there aren’t enormous marketing budgets floating around late-stage companies.

More here.

Augmedics, a nine-year-old startup based in Arlington Heights, Il., that uses AR to help surgeons perform spinal surgeries, raised a $82.5 million Series D round led by CPMG, with Evidity Health Capital and previous investors H.I.G. Capital, Revival Healthcare Capital, and Almeda Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $143.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Cart.com, a three-year-old Austin startup that provides end-to-end e-commerce services, raised a $60 million Series C round at a $1.2 billion valuation. Investors included B. Riley Venture Capital, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, Snowflake Ventures, Prosperity7 Ventures, and Legacy Knight. The company has raised a total of $443 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Cyera, an Israeli startup that uses an OpenAI API to help companies classify and manage their data, raised a $100 million Series B round led by previous investor Accel and including Cyberstarts, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Faraday Future has managed to raise $90 million from existing investors to help it get its much-delayed FF 91 luxury electric SUV to production and delivery. TechCrunch has more here.

Redpanda, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that helps companies like Cisco, Akamai, Lacework and Vodafone stream data, raised a $100 million Series C round co-led by previous investors GV, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Haystack. The company has raised a total of $165.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Algorithmiq, a three-year-old Finnish startup that is developing noise-resilient quantum algorithms specifically attuned to the drug discovery and development market, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Inventure VC, with Tesi, Presidio Ventures and Thames Trust also taking part. The company has raised a total of $19.3 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Anzu, an in-game ad company, has raised $48 million in Series B funding in a round that brings its total funding to $65 million. Emmis Corporation, a media holding company founded by former Seattle Mariners owner Jeff Smulyan, led the round, joined by PayPal Ventures, Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund and private equity firms Evolution VC Partners and Simon Equity Partners. AdExchanger has more here.

BeeKeeperAI, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that enables AI developers to pass their algorithms to owners of sensitive data in a privacy-compliant manner, raised a $12.1 million Series A round led by Sante Ventures and also including the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, AIX Ventures, Continuum Health Ventures, TA Group Holdings, and UCSF. SecurityWeek has more here.

CalypsoAI, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing software to test, validate, and monitor internally developed as well as third-party AI apps prior to their deployment, raised a $23 million Series A-1 round led by Paladin Capital Group, with Lockheed Martin Ventures, Hakluy Capital, Expeditions Fund, Auren Hoffman, and Anne and Susan Wojcicki also investing. The company has raised a total of $38.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

DePoly, a three-year-old Swiss startup that claims its process can transform complex plastics into their main raw chemical components without affecting quality, raised a $13.8 million seed round co-led by BASF VC and Wingman Ventures, with Beiersdorf, Infinity Recycling, CIECH Ventures, and Angel Invest also partaking. The company has raised a total of $18.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Dexory, an eight-year-old London startup that serves warehouses with real-time inventory management data using AI software and autonomous robots, raised a $19 million Series A round. Atomico was the deal lead, while Lakestar, Maersk, Kindred Capital, and Capnamic also contributed. The company has raised a total of $38 million. TechCrunch has more here.

JuliaHub, an eight-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that provides collaboration, private package development, parallel and GPU computing, reproducibility, and governance features for Julia developers, raised a $13 million round. AEI HorizonX was the deal lead. More here.

Luminopia, a seven-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that is developing treatments for neuro-visual disorders, raised $16 million Series A extension round led by U.S. Venture Partners, with additional capital provided by Broadfin Advisors, ShangBay Capital, and Vertical Group. More here.

NoTraffic, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose hardware-software platform improves traffic flow through installing sensors at traffic intersections, raised a $50 million Series B round led by M&G Investments, with VNV Global, UMC Capital, Grove Ventures, Vektor Partners, Next Gear Ventures, North First Ventures, Meitav Investment House, Alchimia Investments, and TMG also piling on. The company has raised a total of $75.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Picket, a three-year-old Seattle startup whose platform helps investors analyze, purchase, and manage single-family rental properties, raised a $20 million Series B round led by LL Funds, with RET Ventures also joining in. GeekWire has more here.

Resistant AI, a four-year-old Prague startup that claims to use AI to prevent cyberattacks, raised an $11 million Series A extension led by Notion Capital. The company has raised a total of $30.4 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Slang.ai, a four-year-old New York startup that has developed an AI-powered phone answering product for the restaurant industry, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Homebrew, with additional participation from Stage 2 Capital, Wing VC, Underscore VC, Active Capital, and Collide Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

Zenarate, a five-year-old startup that sells training software for customer service agents, who it immerses in life-like conversation, screen and chat simulations, raised a $15 million. Volition Capital led the transaction. TechCrunch has more here.

0pass, a San Francisco startup that aims to make it easier for companies to replace usernames and passwords with biometrics like Touch ID and Face ID, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Initialized Capital, with Box Group, 645 Ventures, and Y Combinator also writing checks. TechCrunch has more here.

Baskit, a one-year-old Jakarta startup that helps businesses manage their supply chains, raised a $3.3 million seed round. Investors included Betatron, Forge, 1982, Investible, DS/X, and Orvel. The company has raised a total of $4.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

BentoML, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a high-level API that abstracts away the details of the infrastructure needed for running AI models on the cloud, raised a $9 million seed round. DCM was the deal lead, while Bow Capital also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

Clearstory, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that helps contractors manage change orders, raised a $5.5 million led by GS Future, with previous investors Jackson Square Ventures, Building Ventures, and Cloud App Capital Partners also chipping in. More here.

Honey Homes, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup promising handymen on demand, has raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures. Khosla and Pear VC had earlier written a seed check to the outfit TechCrunch has more here.

Loora, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose generative AI app uses an audio interface to help users learn English, raised a $9.25 million seed round led by Emerge, with Two Lanterns Venture Partners and Kaedan Capital also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $9.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Patented.ai, a San Francisco startup founded this year whose goal is to help organizations protect sensitive information from artificial intelligence, raised a $4 million pre-seed round co-led by Baseline Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, Accomplice, Naval Ravikant, and Cooley LLP. SecurityWeek has more here.

Realtime Robotics, a seven-year-old Boston startup whose software  helps manufacturers deploy robots in an industrial setting, raised a $9.5 million Series A extension. Investors included Shinhan GIB and Kyobo Life Insurance. The company has raised a total of $71.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

ShopZetu, a two-year-old Nairobi startup that is building an online fashion marketplace, raised a $1 million pre-seed round led by Chui Ventures, with participation from Launch Africa, Roselake Ventures, and Logos Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

SuperScale, an eight-year-old Bratislava startup that helps gaming companies grow their revenue, raised a $5.5 million Series A round led by Venture to Future Fund, with Across Private Investments and Zero One Hundred also joining in. Tech.eu has more here.

Upfront Diagnostics, a London startup that is developing a rapid blood test to detect a stroke in minutes, raised a $2 million seed round. Apex Ventures was the deal lead. Tech Funding News has more here.

The number of new unicorns is down across the board—but that's not 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 are bubbling up.

Uncork Capital, the Bay Area-based seed- and early-stage venture firm, has raised $400 million across two new funds: Uncork VII, a $200 million seed fund, and Uncork Plus III, a $200 million growth fund dedicated to follow-on support for Uncork companies when they break out. General Partner Andy McLoughlin has more here.

Unshackled Ventures, a San Francisco-based pre-seed venture capital fund focused on enabling immigrant founders to start companies in the U.S., has closed its third fund with $35 million in capital commitments. Limited partners in the fund include Cambridge Associates, Cendana, Emerson Collective, California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, and Sorenson Impact Advisory. TechCrunch has more here.

Oddity, the five-year-old, investor-backed beauty and tech company behind the Il Makiage and Spoiled Child brands, has filed to go public in New York, as the Israeli firm looks to make further inroads in the U.S. market. Fashion Network has more here.

The SEC today announced that it "obtained a preliminary injunction, asset freeze, and other emergency relief against Legend Venture Partners, a New York -based unregistered broker-dealer, in connection with a fraudulent scheme involving the sale of interests in private companies that had the potential for a public offering." Last year, says the agency, it shut down a similar scheme by StraightPath Venture Partners, which was staffed by many of the same sales agents who went on to work for Legend. The whole thing sounds audacious. The SEC alleges that from February of last year through October, Legend's employees sold securities in the firm's own funds, which invested in shares of pre-IPO companies, but the employees were a.) unregistered sales agents whose cold calls enabled Legend to round up $35 million from more than 300 investors. Per the SEC, these agents also b.) told their clients that they didn't receive upfront fees or commissions and only made money if the investor made a profit from an IPO, but Legend actually marked up the prices that it was paying for pre-IPO shares by almost 60% on average as as high as 105% per share. More here.

Yikes. UBS is planning to cut more than half of Credit Suisse’s 45,000-strong workforce starting next month as a result of the bank’s emergency takeover, reports Bloomberg. Bankers, traders and support staff in Credit Suisse’s investment bank in London, New York, and in some parts of Asia are expected to bear the brunt of the cuts, with almost all activities at risk, says the outlet.

KPMG plans to lay off 5% of its U.S. employees. The accounting giant, which had 39,000 workers in the United States last year, cited “economic headwinds." It separately cut 2% of its workforce in February. Reuters has more here.

According to a new research report by UBS analysts, anywhere from $250 million to $500 million in medical spending could be due to pickleball injuries this year. That includes surgeries like joint replacements. Quartz has more here.

Google's Pixel Fold is not long for this world, judging by this review.

How Shein's influencer trip to a Chinese factory backfired.

Meta announced new parental control tools across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger today. This includes a new parental supervision hub in Messenger -- a feature that preemptively blocks unwanted DMs on Messenger and Instagram and nudges teens to periodically take a  break.

TikTok is discontinuing TikTok Now, an in-app feature and standalone app that mimics BeReal. 

The strange origins of American birthday celebrations.

The people who review bomb books on Goodreads.

Human or not?

Intermittent fasting actually works, maybe. More here.

Not In Paris hoodie.

Mesh shoes.

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