Household wealth shrinks in the U.S., a change to drive subscriptions on X, and a longtime partner returns to IVP

Elon Musk's social network, X, formerly Twitter, has made X Pro — which was previously known as TweetDeck — a subscriber-only product. X announced last month that the popular tool for organizing content on the platform would become a paid service, though users were clearly hoping Musk might forget to throw the switch. TechCrunch has more here.

SOC 2? Too easy. With a pre-mapped SOC 2 framework, native integrations to automate evidence collection, and auditor-approved policy templates, Drata gives you everything you need to get and stay SOC 2 compliant. And now, StrictlyVC readers get 10% off Drata and waived implementation fees.

ClassWallet, a nine-year-old, Miami-based automated accounts payable platform for federal, state and district education, has raised $95 million in funding led by Guidepost Growth Equity. Education Growth Partners and Lazard Family Office Partners also joined the round. Pymnts has more here.

Voiceflow, a four-year-old Toronto startup that is developing conversational agents for automating particular customer service use cases, raised a $15 million round at a $105 million post-money valuation. OpenView Venture Partners led the deal. The company has raised a total of $35 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Zeelo, a seven-year-old London startup that helps organizations operate and optimize their transportation programs, raised a $14 million Series A extension round led by FlatzHoffmann, with IREON Ventures also investing. The company has raised a total of $19.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Clean Food Group, a one-year-old London startup that produces fermentation-derived palm oil, raised a $2.9 million seed round. Investors included Agronomics, Doehler Group, and Alianza Team. The company has raised a total of $4.9 million. Vegconomist has more here.

Configu, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose platform allows developers to store and orchestrate their configuration data across environments and systems, raised a $3 million pre-seed round. Cardumen Capital was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Grit, a one-year-old New York startup whose AI-powered product automates software maintenance, raised a $7 million round co-led by Founders Fund and Abstract Ventures, with Quiet Capital, 8VC, A* Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, SV Angel, Operator Partners, CoFound Partners, and Uncorrelated Ventures also taking part. Reuters has more here.

Helio Protocol, a one-year-old startup whose liquid staking platform allows participants to earn a yield while ensuring their token liquidity remains intact, raised a $10 million round. Binance Labs led the transaction. FinTech Global has more here.

In-Seam, a three-year-old New York startup that has built a sourcing platform for personal shoppers, stylists, and fashion sales personnel, raised a $2 million pre-seed round. Far Out VC was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $7.8 million. WWD has more here.

Olis Robotics, a ten-year-old Seattle company that helps operators monitor and manage robots remotely from anywhere via any browser-capable device, raised a $4.1 million round led by PSL Ventures, with Tectronic Ventures and Ubiquity Ventures also joining in. The company has raised a total of $4.4 million. GeekWire has more here.

SureIn, a one-year-old Berlin startup that provides insurance for SMBs, raised a $4.4 million seed round. PactVC was the deal lead, with xDeck also chipping in. Tech.eu has more here.

Billionaires wanted it, but 54,578 everyday investors got it first. When incredibly valuable assets come up for sale, it's typically the wealthiest people that end up with an amazing investment. But Masterworks is taking on the billionaires at their own game, buying and securitizing prized blue-chip artworks for its investors. Its investors have realized annualized net returns of 17.8%, 21.5%, 35% and more from these opportunities.Offerings can sell out in minutes, but you can skip the waitlist here.

Michael Brackett, the founder of a data analytics firm called Centricity that purportedly used AI, was indicted in Manhattan federal court for allegedly attempting to defraud his investors by manipulating his bank statements and revenue numbers to give the false impression of success, prosecutors said today. CNBC has more here.

William Cramsie has joined Embedded Ventures as partner. The LA-based venture firm primarily funds startups whose applications can serve the DoD. Cramsie most recently spent a year sourcing venture investments for a Los Angeles-based family office; previously, he worked in business development at Forge Global, the private securities marketplace that went public via SPAC in 2021. More here.

Jeffrey Epstein was advising Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2007 on setting up a tax-saving trust for his children, according to new court documents seen by the WSJ that shed light on the late convicted sex offender's activities. Brin was one of several JPMorgan clients subpoenaed by the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this year to gather information. Brin reportedly first became a JPMorgan client in 2004 after a referral from Epstein, eventually becoming one of the bank’s biggest clients, with over $4 billion in accounts at the time, according to court documents. More here.

The head of a New York venture capital firm has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud investors with false promises of pre-IPO shares. Last year, the SEC charged Vika Ventures and its CEO and co-founder, George Iakovou, for fraudulently selling more than $6 million of securities to investors, purportedly to invest in shares of private companies ahead of their IPOs. More here.

IVP, the Bay Area-based venture firm, hired Alex Lim as general partner in its London office. It's a coming home of sorts for Lim, who spent six years with IVP in San Francisco and who left in the fall of 2021 to join the London-based venture firm Blossom Capital as a managing director. (Lim left this most recent role in May, becoming the fourth partner to leave Blossom in five years. Founding parter Ophelia Brown told the outlet Sifted at the time: “We spent two years together and it’s been a great run, and we’ve put in a lot of effort together, professionally, personally trying to make the partnership work, and we’ve concluded as adults that it’s just not the best fit for either of us.")

By the numbers: inside America's cleantech project boom. (The Financial Times shows who is winning investment and where.)

Television accounts for less than half of U.S. viewing time for the first time, according to new Nielsen data.

For the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, household wealth across the globe dropped, by a total of 2.4%, Bloomberg reported today. About $11.3 trillion was lost from assets, bringing total net private wealth to $454.4 trillion, according to Credit Suisse’s annual global wealth report. In contrast, global wealth in 2021 soared to a record-high $530 trillion, a Boston Consulting Group report from last year found. Robb Report has more here.

X (the company formerly known as Twitter) has reportedly been slowing the speed with which users can access links to the New York Times, Facebook and other news organizations and online outfits. The Washington Post as more here.

OpenAI says its technology is capable of moderating content, highlighting a possible use case for the outfit and its rivals. Andrea Vallone, who works on policy at OpenAI, tells Bloomberg that the company has determined that GPT-4 does an efficient job of moderation, a role that often falls to small armies of human workers (who are sometimes traumatized by these jobs). More here.

When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups, it found, to the surprise of just about everyone, that men were paid less money than women for doing similar work. The NYTimes has the story.

The Brooklyn Public Library's flash of genius.

Christopher Nolan on "Fresh Air."

"After Hours": The oral history of a cult classic.

What happens to all the stuff we return?

Some vintage Ford Broncos, including this black 1968 U13 Roadster (one of just 212 made that year), are coming up for auction later this week.

Printable blueprints for your own backyard office/shed, by Den Outdoors.

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