Tiger Global's expectations, SoFi's founder reportedly wants to help restart FTX, and evidence of a space-time "murmur"

A quick mention for readers who might have missed the news earlier this week: we're launching our annual, two-week-long Kick Back and Relax™ event beginning this coming Monday, which means we will not be sending out the newsletter during this time. We'll be back up and running again on Monday, July 17. 😎

Tiger Global Management isn't accepting lowball offers for its startup stakes, thank you very much. According to Bloomberg, the New York investment firm has turned down "hundreds of bids for its private assets in recent months because it felt the offers were too low, according to people familiar with the matter." Some assets it looked to unload were bought in recent years at significantly higher valuations, observes the outlet. More here.

Tiger Global isn't the only one to halt the sale of a stake. Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has also abruptly halted the sale of one of its most sought-after assets: a stake in the AI startup Anthropic. More here.

Nvidia CFO Colette Kress downplayed the effect of the potential export restrictions at a financial conference today, saying that they would not have an “immediate financial impact” but that further restrictions could hurt the company’s growth in the future. CNBC has more here.

Research: the state of venture capital in 2023. While the slowdown began in 2022, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March shook the venture industry and shined a brighter-than-ever light on the space. To go beyond the headlines, Juniper Square surveyed nearly 100 venture capital investors about their concerns, plans, and focus areas for the rest of the year. See what they had to say about the state of the industry. Download The State of Venture Capital: 2023 Benchmark Survey now.

Celestial AI, a Los Gatos, Ca.-based company that says its mission is to transform data parallel computing with a proprietary platform that uses light for data movement both within chip and between chips, just raised $100 million in Series B funding led by IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund. The tranche, which brings Celestial AI’s total raised to more than $165 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Cyera, a San Mateo, Ca.-based data security posture management (DSPM) company -- it attempts to abstract away and automate common data detection and protection practices, particularly in the cloud --  raised $100 million in Series B funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, and Redpoint Ventures. The company has now raised $160 million altogether.TechCrunch has more here.

Fly.io, a cloud infrastructure company that runs app servers and databases close to end users, says it has raised $70 million in Series C funding led by EQT Ventures, with participation from earlier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Dell Capital and Intel Capital. SiliconAngle has more here.

Flywheel, a Minneapolis-based medical imaging data platform, has raised $54 million in Series D funding co-led by Novalis LifeSciences and Nvidia. Earlier backers Invenshure, 8VC, Beringea, HP Enterprise, Intuitive Ventures, iSelect, Gundersen Health System, Seraph and Great North Ventures also chipped into the round. More here.

Nothing, the London-based hardware startup from OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, has raised $96 million in new funding led by Highland Europe, with participation from earlier backers GV, EQT Ventures and C Capital. CNBC has more here.

Redpanda Data, a 4.5-year-old San Francisco-based streaming data platform for developers, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, joined by GV and Haystack. TechCrunch has more here.

Astrix Security, a two-year-old, Israel-based platform that helps companies manage and secure third-party app integrations, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by CRV, with participation from earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners and F2 Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Betr, a Miami-based media and sports micro-betting platform, has raised $35 million in extended Series A funding co-led by longtime VC Roger Ehrenberg (via two of his funds) and Fuel Venture Capital. Refresh Miami has more here.

Bluu Seafood, a three-year-old, Berlin-based startup that's making fish from fish cells, says it has raised €16 million in Series A funding that Sparkfood and LBBW VC co-led. Other backers in the round include Delivery Hero, SeaX Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Norrsken VC, and Hamburgische Investitions- und Förderbank. TechCrunch has more here.

Datapeople, an eight-year-old, New York-based recruitment analytics platform, has raised $13 million in Series A funding co-led by GreatPoint Ventures and New Markets Venture Partners. More here.

Gleamer, a six-year-old, Paris-based developer of AI software for radiology, raised $29.5 million in Series B funding co-led by Supernova Invest and Heal Capital. Other backers in the round included XAnge, Elaia, Bpifrance, F3A, MACSF, Crista Galli Ventures and UI Investissement. TechCrunch has more here.

Nuvocargo, a four-year-old, New York-based provider of U.S.-Mexico cross-border freight services, raised $36.5 million in Series B funding led by QED Investors, with participation from Tresalia Capital, Amador Holdings and previous investors NFX, Tiger Global and ALLVP. Reuters has more here.

Slang.ai, an AI-powered phone answering product for the restaurant industry founded by two former Spotify data scientists, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Homebrew, with additional backing from other VCs and celebrity restauranteur Tom Colicchio of "Top Chef" fame. VentureBeat has more here.

Gradient Health, a five-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based medical AI data-sharing company, has raised $2.75 million in seed funding led by ReMY Investors & Consultants.It has raised $5.7 million to date. Radiology Business has more here.  

Gradient Comfort, a San Francisco-based company that says it makes a modern and energy efficient window AC that cools, heats, and never blocks the view (see below), has raised $9 million in extended Series A funding that brings the round to $27.5 million altogether. Climate Investment led the new tranche. More here.

iMotorbike, a Kuala Lumpur-based e-commerce platform for buying and selling pre-owned motorcycles, raised $2.6 million in Series A funding co-led by Gobi Partners and Ondine Capital. TechNode Global has more here.

Rubber Ducky Labs, a San Francisco-based operational analytics platform for recommender systems, says it has raised $1.5 million in funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the seed round, joined by Cadenza and Y Combinator. More here.

SnapCalorie, a startup whose tech attempts to get an accurate calorie count and macronutrient breakdown of a meal from a single photo taken with a smartphone (its founder previously cofounded Google Lens), has raised $2 million in funding from Accel, Index Ventures, Y Combinator and former CrossFit CEO Eric Roza. TechCrunch has more here.

Unaric, a London-based startup with a plan to acquire and consolidate startups within the Salesforce ecosystem, has raised $10 million in seed funding from LocalGlobe, Concentric, FJ Labs and angel investors; it also secured $25 million in debt from Atempo Growth. TechCrunch has more here.

Psst: Here are other companies also racing to build a better air conditioner.

As the market evolves, so must your portfolio management strategy. Affinity's latest video provides practical tips and insights to help you navigate change and steer portfolio companies toward growth.

Startup accelerator Techstars is raising $150 million for its new fund, SEC filings show. The accelerator is seeking new capital ahead of the end of the deployment period of its most recent fund, Techstars Accelerator 2021, reports TechCrunch. More here.

Credit card giant Visa is acquiring Brazilian payments infrastructure startup Pismo for $1 billion in cash in one of the largest fintech M&A deals in 2023. Founded in 2016, São Paulo–based Pismo has quietly racked up a list of big-name customers, including Citi, Itaú (one of Brazil’s largest banks), Revolut, N26, Nubank and Cora. The startup processes almost 50 billion API calls and $40 billion in transaction volumes annually, and powers almost 80 million accounts and over 40 million issued cards, it says. TechCrunch has more here.

The Seattle-based venture firm Madrona today announced that it has brought three venture partners into the fold: Loren Alhadeff, Mark Nelson, and Ted Kummert. More here.

U.S. venture capital firms are expected to raise between $120 billion and $130 billion this year, compared with $168.3 billion raised in 2022, per PitchBook data. (We're surprised the drop-off isn't steeper. U.S. VCs raised roughly the same amount -- $128.3 billion --in 2021.) So far this year, U.S. venture capital firms have raised a combined $27.6 billion as of June 13. Pensions & Investments has more here.

It's a cat. 

In a major discovery, scientists say space-time waves churn like a choppy sea.

FTX is moving ahead with plans to restart its flagship international cryptocurrency exchange, an effort that will face major challenges as regulators ratchet up their oversight of the industry and the company works its way through bankruptcy proceedings, reports the WSJ. Blockchain tech company Figure -- founded by the controversial founder of SoFi, Michael Cagney -- has indicated its interest in helping back a restart of FTX; other parties must submit indications of interest this week, says the WSJ.

How Shazam makes unique audio fingerprints of songs.

"Brokeback Mountain." (From the archives.)

"Nothing Personal" with David Spade (also from the archives if 2022 is the archives?).

The return of the messy celebrity divorce.

Eric Clapton: "The Definitive 24 Nights" box set.

Sports memorabilia.

This is an ad for photography…but you’ll have to imagine that, because there are no photographs in StrictlyVC ads. Bart Nagel has been photographing Silicon Valley legends and up-and-comers since before the dot-com boom—and through crypto. From high-flying adventurers Larry Ellison and Richard Branson, then-n00bs Larry and Sergey, and the PayPal gang, to newer unicorns like Discord and Oculus, he’s the guy who CMOs trust to photograph their VIPs. Have your people contact his… er, him at bart@bartnagel.com.