Martian lawyers, (new) California cities, and the real story of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover

How this week is going . . .

A federal judge today temporarily blocked an Arkansas law forcing social media companies to verify users’ ages and requiring that minors get parental consent to set up account. The law, which was supposed to take effect tomorrow, marks the latest attempt at the state level to restrict or ban minors’ access to social media over concerns that the platforms exacerbate mental health issues for younger users. The Washington Post has more here.

SoftBank’s listing of the chip designer Arm is set to boost CEO Masayoshi Son’s deal war chest to as much as $65 billion after he vowed to go “on the counteroffensive” in pursuit of expansion. “Arm will become the new Alibaba funding source,” David Gibson, a SoftBank analyst at MST Financial, tells the FT.

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Avatr Technology, a Chinese smart electric vehicle company that's backed by state-run automaker Chongqing Changan Automobile and EV battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology, says it has raised 3 billion yuan ($411.5 million) in Series B funding. The Chongqing-headquartered outfit saw a number of new state-affiliated investors participate in the round, including the Chongqing Industry Investment Fund of Funds; BoCom Financial Asset Investment, the wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Communications; and Guangzhou Development District Holding Group. Nikkei Asia has more here.

Ivy, a two-year-old Munich startup that has built an API to create a global open banking payments gateway, raised a $20 million Series A round. Valar Ventures was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Otto, an eight-year-old Austin startup that provides a customer engagement platform for veterinary clinics, raised a $43 million Series B round. Investors included Hill's Pet Nutrition and previous investors Mercury Fund and Boehringer Ingelheim. The company has raised a total of $50 million. More here.

SatSure, a six-year-old Bangalore startup that plans to launch a fleet of four high resolution optical and multispectral satellites in order to provide Earth observation data and analytics, raised $15 million in equity and debt in a round co-led by Baring PE Partners and Promus Ventures, with Omidyar Network India, xto10X, Force Ventures, Luckbox Ventures, and IndigoEdge Advisors also investing. The company has raised a total of $24.6 million. More here.

Speak, a startup that has created an English language learning platform backed by OpenAI Startup Fund, raised a $16 million Series B2 round. Lachy Groom was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $54 million. The co-founders of Dropbox, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, also participated in Speak’s tranche, which brings the startup’s total raised to $63 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Agave, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that has put together a unified API that connects with more than 30 construction software systems, raised a $2.9 million seed round led by Accel. The company has raised a total of $3.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Clock.bio, a startup based in Cambridge, UK, that says it is developing novel regenerative medicines leveraging the natural ability of human pluripotent stem cells to prevent and treat age-related diseases, raised a $4 million round. Blueyard Capital was the deal lead. More here.

DeForm, a San Francisco startup that aims to give marketers blockchain-based tools to tailor marketing initiatives for web3 users, raised a $4.6 million seed round led by Kindred Ventures, with Elad Gil, Scalar Capital, A.Capital, and Alchemy Ventures also contributing. The Block has more here.

Fianu Labs, a startup based in Fulton, Md., that creates a continuous and immutable audit trail for every code modification in order to minimize conflicts with internal stakeholders in engineering, quality assurance, security, risk, and audit, raised a $2 million seed round. DataTribe was the deal lead. FinTech Global has more here.

Martian Lawyers Club, a startup that wants to use generative AI to personalize games, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Fly Ventures, with System.One, Dhyan Ventures, and Amar Shah also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Mimetrik, a startup based in Leeds, UK, that has developed 3D-scanning technology that uses machine learning to generate fully digitized images of a patient’s dentition and facial structure, raised a $2.5 million seed round. Northern Gritstone led the transaction. Tech.eu has more here.

PatchRx, a five-year-old startup based in Tulsa, OK, that provides personalized support to patients via a patented universal smart pill bottle device, a provider web app, and on-staff nurses, raised an $8 million round led by Atento Capital, with Vast Ventures, Cortado Ventures, Forum Ventures, and Plains VC also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $15 million. More here.

Praso, a Brazilian startup that has fashioned a distribution platform for small retailers, raised a $9.3 million Series A round co-led by Valor Capital Group and NFX, with additional participation from previous investors Base Partners, Formus Capital, Iporanga Ventures, and Endeavor Scale-Up. TechCrunch has more here.

SNERPA Power, a one-year-old Reykjavík startup that enables metals producers and hydrogen producers to monitor and manage their electricity consumption in real-time, raised a $2.4 million round co-led by Crowberry Capital and BackingMinds. 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.

It’s the end of the road for Babylon Health, the London telehealth startup once valued at nearly $2 billion after being backed by the likes of DeepMind. The company’s U.S. shares became worthless and its operation turned insolvent earlier this month; now, the U.K. subsidiary of the business has formally gone into administration, selling a large chunk of the company's assets to eMed Healthcare UK, a new subsidiary of the U.S. company eMed. TechCrunch has the story here.

Deel, a San Francisco-based HR software startup last valued at $12 billion, is interested in acquiring its competitor Papaya Global, according to a letter that was sent from Deel's chairman and CFO, Philippe Bouaziz, and obtained by Insider. More here.

The U.S. should use its leadership in semiconductors as a “chokepoint” to enforce minimum global standards for the use of AI, according to Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Inflection and a co-founder of DeepMind. He tells the Financial Times in an interview that Washington should restrict sales of the Nvidia chips that play a dominant role in training advanced AI systems to buyers who agree to safe and ethical uses of the technology.

Research shows high performing employees are more prone to unethical mistakes.

Where Americans get their news:

How the dream of building a California city from scratch got started.

IBM promised to back off facial recognition — then it signed a $69.8 million contract to provide it.

Some of China’s biggest tech companies announced that their generative AI products would be available to the public after getting approval from Beijing. The rollouts provide an opportunity for Chinese companies including search giant Baidu, AI firm SenseTime. and machine-learning startup Zhipu AI to gain valuable feedback from users. The Information has more here.

The real story of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.

Netfix's next "Squid Game"?

What to know about Covid this fall.

A concert film of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is coming to movie theaters.

This steer rides shotgun and gets treated to ice cream. "“He’s the most spoiled steer in northeast Nebraska."

Smiley Duck sneakers.

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