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X, as Twitter is now known, erected an X sign atop its San Francisco headquarters Friday night, only to have to take it down after complaints from residents over its blinding brightness. (It also did not have a permit for the work.)
An SBA overhaul going into effect tomorrow will make it easier for fintechs and other nonbank lenders to issue loans, prompting worries about defaults. The WSJ has more here.
According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, before the SEC launched legal action against the company last month for failing to register as a broker, it asked Coinbase to halt trading everything other than bitcoin, meaning more than 200 other tokens. To Armstrong -- he tells the Financial Times -- the only option was war. “We really didn’t have a choice at that point, delisting every asset other than bitcoin, which by the way is not what the law says, would have essentially meant the end of the crypto industry
in the U.S. . . It kind of made it an easy choice . . . let’s go to court and find out what the court says.”
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Bobbie, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of organic European-style infant formula, made up entirely of lactose with no corn syrup or maltodextrin, has raised $70 million in extended Series C funding led by PowerPlant Partners that brings the round total to $142 million. Part of the round was used to acquire an infant formula manufacturing facility in Ohio called Nature's One. Axios has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a nine-year-old Calgary startup that claims it can reduce the amount of cement used in concrete production by up to 50%, raised a $26 million Series A round co-led by Climate Investment and BDC Capital, with additional funds provided by Clean Energy Ventures, Amplify Capital, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, CRH Ventures, and Cemex Ventures. The company has raised a total of $32.2 million. BetaKit has more here.
Cyble, a four-year-old startup based in Alpharetta, Ga., that monitors both dark web and internet threats for its business clients, raised a $24 million Series B round co-led by Blackbird Ventures and King River Capital, with additional participation from Spider Capital, January Capital, and Summit Peak Ventures. The company has raised a total of $38.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.
HerMD, a four-year-old Cincinnati startup that offers comprehensive women’s healthcare, either in-person or virtually, raised an $18 million Series A extension led by JAZZ, with B-Flexion and Amboy Street Ventures also investing. The company has raised a total of $28.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Octave Bioscience, a nine-year-old startup based in Menlo Park, Ca., that is focused on delivering precision medicine for neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis, raised a $30 million Series B extension round. Investors included Hikma Ventures, Novartis' dRx Capital, and Intermountain Ventures as well as previous investors Echo Health Ventures, Deerfield Management, Section 32, Blue Venture Fund, Casdin Capital, Northpond Ventures, and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. The company has raised a total of $78.5 million. MobiHealthNews has more here.
Plotlogic, a five-year-old Australian startup that is using AI to scan terrain and enable miners to more precisely extract critical minerals and metals, raised a $28 million Series B round co-led by Galvanize Climate Solutions and SE Ventures, with Main Sequence Ventures and previous investors Innovation Endeavors, DCVC, Bentley iTwin Ventures, and Grids Capital also piling on. Business News Australia has more here.
Topline Pro, a two-year-old New York startup that uses generative AI to help businesses such as general contractors and landscapers build an online presence via websites, social media, and advertisements, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Forerunner Ventures, with Bonfire Ventures, TMV, and BBG Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $17 million. (Topline would seem to fit into this theme over at Forerunner.) TechCrunch has more here.
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GlassPoint, a company that today sells solar-generated steam for industrial uses after it was found in 2009, liquidated in 2020, and relaunched in 2021, has raised $8 million in a Series A round led by new investor 300PPM. Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull participated in the round, along with Tomas Sigurdsson, former chief operating officer of Alcoa. The WSJ has more here.
Plerion, a two-year-old Sydney startup that says that it can proactively identify, prioritize, and mitigate security risks within a client's cloud operating environment, raised a $10 million seed round led by Prosus Ventures, with Cercano and Atlassian Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $14.7 million. Tech Funding News has more here.
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Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an initiative to help the planet reach zero carbon emissions through innovation, is raising its third fund, per an SEC filing. No target is listed but the outfit has twice raised $1 billion in capital commitments previously. Founded by Bill Gates in 2016, the outfit's second and and most recent fund closed in early 2021, backed by tech and business heavyweights, including Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Alibaba’s Jack
Ma, and Michael Bloomberg. More here.
Coatue Management has so far raised $331 million for its third fund focused on early-stage startups, according to an SEC filing first flagged by The Information. The outfit's second stage fund had closed with $475 million in 2021; it is reportedly still fundraising.
Greenoaks, a San Francisco-based venture firm that reportedly warned its startup founders of potential problems at Silicon Valley Bank in 2022, months before it collapsed following a bank run, has raised $2.1 billion for its fifth fund, reports Axios. More here.
Precursor Ventures, a San Francisco-based pre-seed-stage venture firm, is raising up to $120 million for its fifth fund, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. More here.
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DoubleVerify, a publicly-listed ad verification company, has entered into an agreement to acquire AI-powered adtech firm Scibids in a cash and stock deal valued at $125 million. DoubleVerify helps marketers avoid having their ads appear next to objectionable content and lets them verify that those ads were viewable to real people. Scibids technology uses the data generated by a marketer's advertising stack to automate bidding in ad auctions and how much budget to devote to each campaign. Business Insider has more here.
In recent days, Walmart reportedly bought the remaining shares of the India e-commerce giant Flipkart that were owned by Tiger Global. The transaction valued Flipkart at $35 billion, down from nearly $38 billion when it sold shares to Japan’s SoftBank, Walmart and other investors in 2021. The WSJ has more here.
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The private equity owners of German sandal maker Birkenstock are considering an IPO of the company that could take place as soon as September, according to the Financial Times. If L Catterton decides to go ahead with the listing, Birkenstock could be valued at more than $8 billion, say its sources. More here.
Figure Technologies laid off 90 employees this week, or about 20% of its staff, according to Bloomberg. It says the company is also starting to interview bankers in advance of a planned IPO for its lending business next year. Figure was founded by Mike Cagney, who previously was CEO of SoFi. More here.
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YouTube personality MrBeast is suing the company responsible for his branded line of fast food including the MrBeast Burger, citing “inedible” food delivered to customers. The company, Virtual Dining Concepts, partnered with James Donaldson, aka MrBeast, in 2020. (Per one fan, "likely the worst burger [they] have ever had.") The Verge has more here.
Felicis, the Bay Area-based early-stage venture firm that invests globally, announced several promotions today, including; CFO Teresa Chan is now CFO and co-COO, Dasha Maggio is now co-COO, and Katie Riester is now Managing Director and GP of Felicis's fund-of-funds investing program.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp is a big fan of AI weapons. "We must not grow complacent."
It continues: The SEC says it is now suing Richard Schueler, known online as Richard Heart, and his three crypto projects, Hex, PulseChain and PulseX, for conducting unregistered offerings of “crypto asset securities.” The ]offerings raised more than $1 billion in crypto from investors, the agency states. TechCrunch has more here.
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A new study finds that an Ivy League degree doesn't meaningfully increase a graduate's future income compared to a good state school.
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MIT engineers have developed a way to turn roads into EV chargers.
Pearson is offering new AI study tools in time for the upcoming academic year. Pearson initially outlined its plans to integrate AI into its operations in May -- right after rival Chegg warned that AI chatbots were threatening its homework-help services.
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SaaStr Annual 2023, the world's largest SaaS and Cloud event, is almost here! Don't miss this three-day event, Sept. 6-8 in SF that will bring together 12,000 global SaaS founders, executives, and investors for a series of high-quality content sessions and networking opportunities, including Founder and VC matchmaking. The leaders of companies like Asana to Zoom will take the stage to share their actionable insights on scaling. Readers can grab 20% off tickets with code strictlyvc (until tickets sell out.)
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