Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is reportedly running out of patience with employees who refuse to return to the office

In an enforcement action announced today, the SEC charged Los Angeles–based entertainment company Impact Theory with conducting an unregistered offering of securities via non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. As the SEC expands its definition of which types of crypto assets qualify as securities, the case breaks new ground by determining that NFTs fall under the agency’s jurisdiction, observes Fortune. As TechCrunch notes, many other NFT projects have used language that’s similar to how Impact Theory marketed its digital assets.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is reportedly running out of patience with employees who refuse to return to the office. According to Insider, he recently said during an internal "fireside" chat: "It's past the time to disagree and commit . . .And if you can't disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it's probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week, and it's not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so." More here.

🎯 Meet the 50 most promising AI companies this month! Dive into our exclusive report revealing the hottest AI investments! Meticulously curated using 100+ distinct performance metrics from the Synaptic platform, we've handpicked the trailblazers in AI tech, spanning infrastructure, foundational models, data operations, and various business applications like data analytics, customer service, and marketing tech. Don't miss out – secure your complimentary report today!

Intenseye, a five-year-old New York startup that uses artificial intelligence to analyze workplace images and videos to identify safety issues, is reportedly in the market to raise a $65 million Series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $300 million valuation. Forbes has more here. 

Aditude, a four-year-old Ottawa startup that provides adtech auction technology, raised a $15 million Series A round. Volition Capital was the sole investor. AdExchanger has more here.

Databricks, a 10-year-old San Francisco company that provides an analytics platform designed to help organizations process, analyze, and visualize large volumes of data, is in the market to raise a round at a whopping $43 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg. Reuters says the potential lead is T. Rowe Price. This past June, Databricks purchased MosaicML - an OpenAI competitor - for $1.3 billion. It has raised a total of $3.5 billion. PYMNTS has more here.

Ideogram, a nine-month-old, Toronto-based text-to-image start-up trying to make its mark in a sector dominated by AI models such as DALL-E and Midjourney, has raised $16.5 million in seed funding co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures. Other backers include AIX Ventures, Golden Ventures and Two Small Fish Ventures, along with various industry experts. Silicon Republic has more here.

Moxie, a New York startup that provides entrepreneur who are interested in launching medspas with marketing, financial planning, and operational support, raised a $15.7 million round. SignalFire and Boulton & Watt were the co-leads. TechCrunch has more here.

Arcion, a seven-year-old startup based in San Mateo, Ca., that tracks changes to data in real time, raised a $1.8 million round. Hewlett Packard Enterprise led the financing. The company has raised a total of $18.2 million. More here.

Devolut, a Mexico City startup founded this year that aims to provide an end-to-end returns solution for e-commerce sellers in Latin America, raised a $600,000 pre-seed round from Seedstars International Ventures, FJ Labs, Far Out Ventures, Pareto 20, and Forum Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Jitty, a UK startup founded this year that is building an AI-powered property search engine that can read floor plans and understand photos and descriptions of homes, raised a $2 million pre-seed round. Gradient Ventures was the deal lead, with Sequoia Capita, Atomico, True Global, Angel Invest, and Tiny VC also taking part. Tech.eu has more here.

Kiki, a three-year-old, New York-based subletting startup that matches listers with people looking to rent for up to six months, says it recently closed a $6 million seed round. Blackbird Ventures led the financing with a $4.5 million check, making it the second biggest seed check the VC firm has written. TechCrunch has more here.

Markato, a months-old, Hong Kong-based startup behind a cross-border marketplace that's focused on independent brands and lets them manage their Asia wholesale operations in one place, has raised $5 million in seed funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which is reportedly the firm's first investment in Hong Kong. TechCrunch has more here.

Qualiti.ai, a two-year-old startup based in Lehi, Ut., whose platform uses generative AI to help developers spin up a full testing suite for any software program or application, raised a $6.5 million seed round led by Sierra Ventures, with Epic Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $10.6 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Starcart, a three-year-old Helsinki startup that searches for the best price and delivery costs for items across multiple sites and then adds the best buys to just one shopping cart, raised a $3.8 million round led by Inventure, with additional participation from Business Finland. The company has raised a total of $5 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Dealmakers are in a market where LPs are hesitant to double down on venture and portcos are seeing fewer paths to IPOs and exits. The result? The impact that investors create on both sides of the deal has never been more crucial to the firm’s future. Join Affinity and Teamworthy Ventures for a webinar on September 6 and learn how you can maximize post-investment value creation, including advice on using technology to efficiently generate and report on fund value. Register now.

Elephant Partners, an eight-year-old Boston-based venture capital firm started by one of the co-founders of Warby Parker (Andrew Hunt) and longtime VC Jeremiah Daly, has garnered $791.5 million in capital commitments for its fifth fund, per an SEC filing that lists a total of 178 investors. In 2010, Hunt started Warby Parker with three friends and fellow MBA students from Wharton School of Business. Boston Business Journal has more here.

FinTech Collective, an 11-year-old, New York venture firm that says it invests globally, is raising up to $300 million for its sixth fund, per an SEC filing flagged by Axios. More here.

Geek Ventures, a two New York-based firm that says it funds "immigrant founders," has garnered $23 million in capital commitments for its debut fund. Ihar Mahaniok founded the firm in 2021 after working for more than 20 years as a software engineer for companies, including Google, Facebook, WeWork and Lightning AI. TechCrunch has more here.

Social Capital, the investment firm led by venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, tried to sell stakes in hundreds of young companies in June of this year, according to The Information. It says the stakes for sale were worth $312 million in total based on the valuations at which the companies last raised money, and that while it's unclear what prompted Social Capital to want to sell its stakes in the 258 companies, it couldn’t be learned whether the firm completed the sales. More here.

Goldman Sachs said today that it agreed to sell its personal financial management unit to a competitor named Creative Planning. Goldman acquired a team of about 220 financial advisors managing $25 billion in assets in May 2019, when it announced the $750 million acquisition of United Capital Financial Partners. At the time, CEO David Solomon heralded the deal as a way to broaden Goldman’s reach beyond the ultra-rich clientele that is its main strength to those who are merely wealthy, with perhaps a few million dollars to invest. The business was later deemed too small. CNBC has the story here.

Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders in the tech industry will gather at the Capitol next month for the first in a series of policy forums to discuss ways to regulate AI, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said today. In addition to Musk and Zuckerberg, other confirmed chief executives include Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, as well as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. CNBC has more here.

Ongoing polling by Pew Research shows that although ChatGPT is gaining mindshare, only about 18% of Americans have ever actually used it. TechCrunch has more here.

China’s worsening economic slowdown is rippling across the globe.

From the WSJ: "India has been trying to lure some of the world’s biggest companies to set up new factories after repeated lockdowns under Beijing’s zero-Covid policy and rising geopolitical tensions with the West prompted many firms to look for alternatives to China. . . .Venture capital in India has taken note. Investors such as Peak XV, which was Sequoia Capital India until in June it announced a split from the U.S. firm, and Lightspeed are increasingly trying to back founders whose businesses involve boosting India’s global exports. Previously, they had focused on generations of Indian startups that primarily targeted the Indian consumer market."

OpenAI is competing more directly by the day with Microsoft, its key business partner; it has no choice, suggests TechCrunch. More here.

Connections is now The New York Times’ most played game after Wordle.

Google Flights just unveiled a new feature to help travelers save money and reveal the most-searched winter holiday spots

Screens and lack of sun are causing an epidemic of myopia.

The Tribal Chef.

Katalyst suit.

The best cheap sunglasses.

Disrupt — the original startup conference — stays fresh, relevant and focused on founders, investors, and the future of tech year after year. Don't miss this year's show, with Kevin Systrom, Dario Amodei, Katie Haun, Shaquille O'Neal, Meredith Whittaker, and Reed Jobs, among others. It's coming up fast. Grab your ticket here!