A former OpenSea exec gets sentenced, Tiger Global takes some money off the table, and the rise of "screen apnea"

The leading association of global chip companies is warning that Huawei is building a collection of secret semiconductor-fabrication facilities across China, a shadow manufacturing network that would let the blacklisted company skirt U.S. sanctions and further the nation’s technology ambitions. Huawei, a controversial telecommunications gear maker at the heart of U.S.-China tensions, moved into chip production last year, notes Bloomberg. It has the story here.

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Axiom Space, a seven-year-old Houston startup that is developing a commercial space station and a lunar spacesuit and has more than $2 billion in customer contracts to date, raised a $350 million round. Saudi-owned Aljazira Capital and Boryung Co., a Korean investment firm, were the co-leads. The company has raised a total of $550 million. CNBC has more here.

Elemental Cognition, an eight-year-old New York startup whose AI platform is focused on answering complex questions via a natural language interface, raised a $60 million Series B round, with $5.75 million in equity remaining to be sold, according to CNBC. Investors included Bridgewater Associates, Breyer Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, and Staged Ventures. The company has raised a total of $108 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Hugging Face, a seven-year-old startup whose service helps companies store and use AI software, is reportedly raising $200 million in fresh funding led by Salesforce at a post-money valuation north of $4 billion. That's more than 100 times its annualized revenue, says The Information, which notes that Salesforce has previously made investments in a number of AI startups through Salesforce Ventures, including in Anthropic and Cohere. It has the story here.

Ramp, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that offers a corporate credit platform that's used by more than 15,000 businesses, it says, has raised $300 million in fresh funding at a post-money valuation of $5.8 billion. Thrive Capital and Sands Capital co-led the round, joined by existing investors Founders Fund and General Catalyst among others. Notably, that new valuation is significantly lower than the $8.1 billion valuation that investors assigned the company when it raised a separate round of funding last year. TechCrunch has more here.

Beamer, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that has built a no-code platform to build tools for measuring and monitoring product engagement for customers like Atlassian, Freshworks, MongoDB, CloudKitchens, and Zenefits, raised a $20 million round led by Camber Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Cerby, a three-year-old startup based in Alameda, Ca., that manages access for business-to-business nonstandard apps, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Two Sigma Ventures, with Ridge Ventures, Founders Fund, Bowery Capital, AV8, Salesforce Ventures, Tau Ventures, Okta Ventures, and Incubate Fund also piling on. The company has raised a total of $32.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Clockworks Analytics, a 15-year-old company based in Somerville, Ma., that says it uses AI to monitor building HVAC systems for customers such as MIT, Kaiser Permanente, Harvard University, and Merck, raised a $16.1 million round. Carom Growth Partners was the lead, while previous investor SE Ventures also chipped in. The company has raised a total of $28 million. CityBiz has more here.

Grip Security, a two-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides businesses with tools to protect their SaaS applications, raised a $41 million Series B round led by Third Point Ventures, with additional participation from YL Ventures, Intel Capital, and The Syndicate Group. The company has raised a total of $66 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Pico MES, a four-year-old startup based in Redwood City, Ca., that analyzes data from machines used by small and midsize manufacturers in order to streamline workflows and troubleshoot productivity and quality problems, raised a $12.4 million round led by Bosch Ventures, with Momenta, Counterpart Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Schneider Electric, Lemnos Labs, and Union Labs Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $18.6 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Yard Stick, a two-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that provides tools to measure carbon levels in soil, raised a $10.6 million Series A round led by Toyota Ventures, with Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Pillar VC also joining in. The company has raised a total of $36 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Accure, a three-year-old German startup that uses AI, field data, and modeling to detect irregular lithium-ion battery cell behavior and provide EV operators with advance warning about impending issues, raised a $7.8 million round co-led by Bear Capital and HSBC Asset Management, with Capnamic Ventures and Riverstone Holdings also investing.The company has raised a total of $18.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Communion, a London startup founded this year that says its app aims to make saving easy for millennials, raised a $3.2 million pre-seed round co-led by Revolut and Target Global. Tech.eu has more here.

Creatively Focused, a seven-year-old startup based in Mendota Heights, Mn., that helps school districts retain special educators, raised a $3 million seed round led by York IE, with Mairs & Power Venture Capital, Groove Capital, and Gopher Angels also taking part. More here.

FlashIntel, a one-year-old Singapore startup whose platform provides sales teams with lead intelligence, sales engagement, email verification, mailbox warmup, and auto-dialing, raised a $10 million seed round. Investors included Celtic House Venture Partners, Uphonest Capital, and Hat-Trick Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Jellatech, a three-year-old startup based in Raleigh, N.C., that uses cellular agriculture to produce complex proteins at scale, including bio-identical bovine, porcine, and human cell-based collagen, raised a $3.5 million seed round. byFounders was the deal lead, with additional investors including Milano Investment Partners, Joyful VC, Siddhi Capital, and Blustein. Vegconomist has more here.

Kombai, a year-old, Pune, India startup that aims to help front-end developers easily convert UI designs to code using AI, has emerged from stealth and announced a $4.5 million in a seed funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners and Foundation Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Koverly, a two-year-old Boston startup that provides underwriting services to import-export businesses, raised a $7.6 million seed round from Accomplice VC, Vinyl Capital, and One Way Ventures. Tech Funding News has more here.

Metabase Q, a four-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform enables businesses to manage and measure their cybersecurity programs, raised a $3 million Series A round. Previous investor SYN Ventures was the deal lead. More here.

Novig, a two-year-old New York startup that is building a peer-to-peer betting exchange that will enable users to bet against each other or against the market instead of the house, raised a $6.4 million seed round led by Lux Capital, with Y Combinator, Joe Montana, Paul Graham, Soma Capital, Innospark Ventures, Rebel Fund, and Bayhouse Capital also anteing up. Sports Business Journal has more here.

ScribeUp, a three-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that helps consumers manage their subscriptions, raised a $3 million seed round. Mucker Capital was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Wootz.work, an Indian startup founded this year that is developing supply chain software for SME manufacturers, raised a $3.4 million seed round co-led by Matrix Partners India and Nexus Venture Partners, with AdvantEdge and Mars Shot Ventures also pitching in. Entrepreneur India has more here.

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According to Axios, Bolt founder Ryan Breslow has been quietly seeking to raise a $40 million fund that's being pitched as the "first explicitly founder first fund since Founders Fund." A prior version of the fund had been looking to raise $140 million last year. More here.

Tiger Global Management is nearing a deal to sell part of its stake in OpenAI rival Cohere at a roughly $3 billion valuation, a markup of more than 40% from Cohere’s last financing round in June, according The Information. Its sources say that Tiger is selling a stake of roughly 2.1% of Cohere for about $63 million, reportedly equal to the dollar amount of Tiger’s initial investment in Cohere, and that Tiger will retain a roughly 5% stake in Cohere after the sale, the outlet added. More here.

Investment firm Francisco Partners has agreed to acquire The Weather Company assets, including the popular Weather.com platform, from International Business Machines for an undisclosed sum. The WSJ has more here.

The bear and bull cases for Arm's IPO. (More on this front here.)

One of Europe’s biggest buyout groups, CVC Capital Partners, has revived plans for a multibillion-euro stock market listing that could come before the end of the year. The FT has more here.

In a hearing in New York today, lawyers for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried expressed concerns over their client’s living conditions at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he’s being housed for alleged witness tampering. They told a federal judge that he's “subsisting on bread and water” and “sometimes peanut butter,” because the jail can’t accommodate his vegan diet. Further, he has not been given his prescribed Adderall and has access only to a "dwindling" supply of transdermal patches to treat depression, they said. CNBC has more here.

Nate Chastain, the former head of product at NFT platform OpenSea, has received a three-month prison sentence for making tens of thousands of dollars worth of insider trades.
Chastain, 33, was convicted of fraud and money laundering in federal court in New York in May. In 2021, Chastain reaped more than $50,000 by buying and selling at least 45 NFTs he knew would be featured on OpenSea's homepage, concealing his purchases using various anonymous wallets and OpenSea accounts, according to the U.S. Justice Department. CoinDesk has more here.

In the second quarter, U.S. businesses signed new leases for an estimated 97.5 million square feet, up from 57.4 million square feet in the second quarter of 2020, the low point of the pandemic, according to data firm CoStar Group. Still, their real estate footprints are shrinking. In the second quarter, the average U.S. office lease size was 3,275 square feet, or 19% less than the average lease size between 2015 and 2019, CoStar said. The WSJ has more here.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is being cautious in its approach to China because of the political blowback it could face, according to Chief Investment Officer Nicole Musicco. “We’re being mindful about our exposure in China right now,” Musicco said during an episode of “Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein” — and she added that the pension giant is taking pains to “avoid having any big losses if we were to be told overnight to divest of China.” More here.

“Subliminals” have been around for several years in secluded corners of YouTube, but they have recently found a whole new audience on TikTok, made up overwhelmingly of teenagers and young women. The Atlantic explains.

Screen apnea (is a made-up name for a real condition!).

Why ugly 1970s colors are back.

Airline close calls are happening a lot, nationwide, owing to staffing shortages.

Don't snuggle your turtle.

Royal Caribbean didn't hold anything back with this one. 🆘

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