Spam bots find Threads, a rift in the Middle East, and new funds keep a' closin' 💰💰💰💰

Hello, babies. We just arrived in the Bay Area following a whirlwind trip around the world. (We'll be eating ramen until Columbus Day to pay for the adventure but it was worth it.)

It's late; there are some sections missing. More tomorrow after we get some needed zzzzs. 🫠

Tesla’s directors will return $735 million to the company to settle claims from shareholders that they excessively overpaid themselves, according to a new court filing. TechCrunch has more here.

Pick a side, we guess? A rift has reportedly opened up between 37-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and his onetime mentor, U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, that reflects a competition for geopolitical and economic power in the Middle East.

The spam bots have found Instagram Threads, and Elon Musk is delighted, given that as Instagram -- like Twitter before it -- will now have to turn to rate limits to curb the problem.

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CarePredict, a 10-year-old company based in Plantation, Fl., that has built an AI-enabled platform for senior care -- it combine wearable tech, indoor location tracking, deep machine learning, and predictive analytics --  raised a $29 million Series A-3 round. SV Health Investors’ Medtech Convergence Fund and Aspire Healthtech Partners co-led the deal, with previous investors Las Olas Venture Capital and Secocha Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $48.7 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.

CurvaFix, a six-year-old Seattle startup that makes implants to repair fractures in curved bones, raised a $39 million round led by MVM Partners, with additional participation from Sectoral Asset Management. The company has raised a total of $60.2 million. GeekWire has more here.

Embrace, a seven-year-old startup based in Culver City, Ca., whose suite of tools is designed to enable mobile developers to build better games and apps, raised a $20 million round led by NEA and including Greycroft, AV8 (Allianz), and Eniac. The company has raised a total of $77 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Herself Health, a one-year-old startup based in St. Paul, Mn., that provides personalized health care services for women, raised a $26 million Series A round led by Accretive, with Juxtapose also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $33 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Isometric, a 20-month-old, U.K.-based carbon removal registry and science platform, has raised $25 million in seed funding co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Plural. Other backers in the round included Niklas Zennström (Skype’s co-founder and founder of the VC Atomico), David Helgason (founder of Unity Technologies), Ross Mason (founder of MuleSoft) and Ilkka Paananen (founder of Supercell). TechCrunch takes a look here.

Runway, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides financial planning tools for startups, raised a $27.5 million round led by Initialized Capital, with participation from Elad Gil and Jason Tan. TechCrunch has more here.

Thunes, a seven-year-old Singapore startup that is creating a mobile payments platform for businesses, raised a $12 million Series C round at a $900+ million valuation, according to TechCrunch. Investors in the deal included Visa, EDBI, and Endeavor Catalyst. The company has raised a total of $202 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Xterio, a one-year-old startup based in Zug, Switzerland, that operates as both a web3 game platform and publisher, raised a $15 million round from Binance Labs. The company has raised a total of $55 million. CoinDesk has more here.

Efficient Capital Labs, a one-year-old New York startup that lends money to B2B SaaS businesses, raised a $7 million pre-Series A round led by QED Investors, with additional capital provided by 645 Ventures, The Fund, Lorimer Ventures, Riverside Ventures, and Generalist. PYMNTS has more here.

Ethena, a Portuguese startup that is developing an "internet savings bond" as well as a new Ethereum-based stablecoin secured by derivatives, raised a $6 million seed round. Dragonfly led the transaction, while Deribit, Bybit, OKX, Gemini, Huobi, and Maelstrom also chimed in. CoinDesk has more here.

Figure, a one-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, Ca., that is building a humanoid robot, raised a $9 million round from Intel Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Flash, a two-year-old Egyptian startup that provides cashless payment solutions for consumers and businesses through a scan-and-pay service, raised a $6 million seed round. Addition was the deal lead, while Flourish Ventures also joined in. TechCrunch has more here.

Leverage, a nearly three-year-old, New York-based supply chain visibility platform, has raised $7 million in funding led by Chicago Ventures. Las Olas Venture Capital, Remarkable Ventures, Tensility and Florida Funders also joined the round. More here.

Passes, a Miami-based membership service for creators and their superfans that was founded by Lucy Guo (she also cofounded the AI outfit Scale AI), recently announced $9 million in seed funding led by Multicoin Capital. It also snapped up a similar company called Fanhouse, though some creators are apprehensive about the acquisition. TechCrunch has more here.

Resemble AI, a Toronto-based startup that uses generative AI to clone voices, raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Craft Ventures and Ubiquity Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Rice Robotics, a five-year-old, Hong Kong-based maker of delivery robots, has raised $7 million pre-Series A funding round from Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund, Soul Capital, Audacy Ventures, Sun Hung Kai & Company, and Cyberport HK. TechCrunch has more here.

SpeedyBrand, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that uses generative AI to create SEO-optimized content, raised a $2.5 million seed round. Y Combinator and GV were the co-leads. TechCrunch has more here.

Tangibly, a two-year-old, Seattle-based startup that helps customers secure and manage their IP assets, has raised $6.5 million led by Madrona Venture Group. GeekWire has more here.

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Temasek, Singapore's state-owned investment firm, has raised over $900 million via its venture capital unit — Vertex Venture Holdings — for its latest fund, as first reported by Nikkei Asia. Vertex, which oversees six funds focusing on early-stage investments and one for growth-stage support, is expected to reach its total fundraising goal of $1 billion in the coming months, according to CEO Chua Kee Lock. Benzinga has more here.

Westlake Village BioPartners, the L.A.-based venture firm cofounded five years ago by former Kleiner Perkins general partner Beth Seidenberg, today announced the launch of its third fund of $450 million to incubate and fund early stage biotech startups in Southern California and beyond. The new fund will be managed by Seidenberg; managing director Mira Chaurushiya; and David Allison, who was recently appointed managing director. The outfit is now managing $1.3 billion in assets. More here.

Wing VC, the early-stage venture firm cofounded by industry veterans Peter Wagner and Gaurav Garg back in 2014, has garnered $600 million in capital commitments for its fourth fund, the firm tells us. Some of the outfit's savviest bets to date include Snowflake (biggest ever software IPO at $70 billion), Pinecone ($75 million valuation); Seer ($3 billion IPO), Shape Security (acquired for $1 billion), and Gong ($7 billion valuation). The firm says the majority of its new fund was raised from existing LPs and will be dedicated to startups building the "AI-first tech stack." More here.

Edison Partners, the growth equity investment firm, last week flagged for us the sale of its portfolio company Northpass to Gainsight, the customer success platform and a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. More here.

Flexport founder Ryan Peterson has joined Founders Fund as a general partner. Forbes has more here.

The EU’s justice chief, Didier Reynders, would like less jibber-jabber and more action on the AI front, telling WIRED the U.S. must deliver on talk of tighter regulation: “Enforcement is of the essence.”

Isn't "Silicon Valley money men" maybe overstating it at this point? (Across numerous similar stories, we just keep seeing the same three notable names associated with RFK Jr.: Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, and Jack Dorsey.)

Meet the $4 billion AI superstars that Google lost. 😭

Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management has written down its stake in Twitter by 47% since Elon Musk took the social-media company private last year, Wood tells the WSJ. “We take fair valuation very seriously and absolutely have had to write that [Twitter] down . . .The write-down is not representative of our fundamental outlook and belief in the long-term return on investment we believe that it will have for our shareholders." 

As Tesla finally begins production of its Cybertruck, Ford is cutting prices of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks by almost $10,000 in what analysts describe as an aggressive attempt to gain market share. The WSJ has more here.

Insider the white-hot center of AI doomerism. 

This new tool can create entire websites from prompts.

Researchers are learning that loss of smell may be an early sign of brain diseases.

A camping trip with young kids, as imagined before having young kids.

Tiny delusional love stories.

Getting leg cramps? Try pickle juice.

The 50 greatest luxury hotels on earth.

Mr. P’s place cards.

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