Musk intervenes in Ukraine, Dave Clark's last days at Flexport, and another former FTX exec pleads guilty

Wow. Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt adapted from Walter Isaacson’s new biography, Elon Musk. CNN has more here. 

Despite earning the enmity of San Francisco and Austin officials for blocking emergency vehicles with its cars, Cruise is on the verge of winning approval to mass-produce robotaxis with no steering wheel or pedals.

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Apollo Therapeutics, a seven-year-old UK startup that is trying to leverage medical research to develop treatments for cancer, major inflammatory disorders, and rare diseases, raised a $226.5 million Series C round led by Patient Square Capital, with M&G, Rock Springs Capital, and two unnamed pension plans also participating. The company has raised a total of $421.5 million. Pharmaceutical Technology has more here.

Boston Metal, an 11-year-old Boston company that uses electricity to convert iron ore directly into molten iron, bypassing the need for coke and other fossil fuels, raised a $262 million Series C round. Investors included Aramco Ventures, M&G Investments, Goehring & Rozencwajg, and Baillie Gifford as well as previous investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, BHP Ventures, and Prelude Ventures.The company has raised a total of $332.7 million. Mining Technology has more here.

Ibex Medical Analytics, a seven-year-old Tel Aviv startup that develops AI-powered cancer diagnostics, raised a $55 million Series C round. 83North was the deal lead, with additional participation from Sienna Venture Capital as well as previous investors Octopus Ventures, aMoon, Planven Entrepreneur Ventures, and Dell Technologies Capital. The company has raised a total of $118.5 million. CTech has more here.

Imbue, a year-old, San Francisco-based AI research lab formerly known as Generally Intelligent, has raised $200 million in a Series B funding round that values the company at over $1 billion. Among those participating are the Astera Institute, Nvidia, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt and Notion co-founder Simon Last. The new tranche takes Imbue’s total raised to $220 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Brine Fi, a startup founded this year that is building a decentralized exchange for trading cryptocurrencies, raised a $16.5 million Series A round at a $100 million valuation. The deal was led by Pantera Capital, with Elevation Capital, Starkware, Spartan Group, Goodwater Capital, Upsparks Ventures, and Protofund Ventures also contributing. Forbes has more here.

Certa, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that has built a compliance, governance, and risk management platform for enterprises, raised a $35 million Series B round co-led by Fin Capital Vertex Ventures, with Tru Arrow Partners, BDMI, Aglae Ventures, Mantis VC, and GOAT Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $51.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Clara Analytics, a seven-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, Ca., that uses AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of claims management for commercial insurance carriers and self-insured organizations, raised a $24 million Series C round led by Spring Lake Equity Partners, with previous investors Aspen Capital Group, Oak HC/FT, and QBE Ventures also joining in. The company has raised a total of $60 million. More here.

Ello, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses speech recognition and AI to teach children critical reading skills, raised a Series A round led by Goodwater Capital, with additional funds provided by Homebrew, Reed Hastings, Common Sense Growth, and Ravensburger. More here.

MyZoi, a one-year-old Abu Dhabi startup that provides a digital payroll platform for businesses in the UAE, raised a $14 million round. SC Ventures and SBI Holdings co-led the investment. The National has more here.

Noetik, a San Francisco startup that says it has built a multimodal tissue profiling platform that combines self-supervised learning with spatial biology to tackle fundamental problems in cancer immunology, raised a $14 million seed round led by DCVC, with Zetta Venture Partners, 11.2 Capital, Catalio Capital Management, Epic Ventures, Intermountain Ventures, North South Ventures, CJNV BioVentures, and Hummingbird Nomads Fund also piling on. EndPoints News has more here.

Spiritus, a two-year-old startup based in Zagreb, Croatia, that captures carbon dioxide through a series of filters and uses the captured carbon dioxide to create products such as fuels and plastics, raised an $11 million round led by Khosla Ventures, with Page One Ventures also chipping in. More here.

Automat, a San Francisco startup that has created a no-code platform to help businesses automate their workflows, raised a $3.75 million seed round led by Initialized, with additional capital supplied by Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Schox, and Goodwater Capital. FinTech Global has more here.

Bandana, a one-year-old Brooklyn startup that is building a platform to help hourly wage workers find better jobs, raised a $3.8 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Craft Ventures, with Triple Impact Capital and Sarah Smith Fund also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Kotani Pay, a three-year-old Nairobi startup whose mission is to enable African workers to send money home via crypto without using the internet, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by P1 Ventures and including DCG/Luno and Flori Ventures. The company has raised a total of $4.2 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Ostrom, a two-year-old Berlin startup that provides a digital platform for German consumers to switch, track, and reduce their electricity consumption, raised an $8 million Series A extension, increasing the total size of the round to $18 million. SE Ventures was the deal lead, while previous investors Union Square Ventures, Adjacent, J12, and Übermorgen also participated. The company has raised a total of $23.2 million. More here.

Socket, a crypto startup that has developed a protocol aimed at enhancing communication between blockchains, raised a $5 million round co-led by Coinbase Ventures and Framework Ventures. CoinDesk has more here.

Treyd, a two-year-old Swedish startup that enables retail businesses to sell first and pay suppliers later, raised a $12 million Series A extension round led by previous investor Nineyards Equity, Antler, Zenith VC, and J12 Ventures. The company has raised a total of $25 million. Tech.eu has more here.

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It's official; CAA has a new majority owner. The talent agency giant has sold a majority stake to Artémis, the investment firm controlled by François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of fashion firm Kering and the billionaire scion of a French luxury goods fortune. The Hollywood Reporter has more here.

SAP announced today that it is acquiring German startup LeanIX, a software service that helps companies map out their architecture. The purchase is expected to complement the 2021 Signavio acquisition, a German business process automation company that SAP bought for a reported price of $1.2 billion. While the companies did not share the purchase price, TechCrunch's sources say that today’s acquisition price is in the same neighborhood but a bit higher. More here.

AI startup Brand Engagement Network (BEN) today agreed to go public through a merger with a blank check acquisition company in a deal valuing the combined company at $358 million. The deal with DHC Acquisition Corp. will provide BEN with about $40 million in gross proceeds, the company said,. Headquartered in Jackson, Wyoming, five-year-old BEN provides AI-powered chatbots and conversational AI tech to companies in industries like automotive, healthcare, and customer service. Reuters has the story here.

Dave Clark's last days at Flexport. It's a bloodbath, as reports the Information. After pushing out Clark yesterday, Flexport is also moving swiftly to remove many of Clark’s handpicked hires from his former employer, Amazon, today firing at least five top Flexport executives Clark had helped to bring in on.

The FCC finally has a new commissioner in Anna Gomez, breaking the deadlock at the agency and giving the FCC a 3-2 Democratic majority.

Insiders are reviving the old rumor that Bob Iger's end game is to sell Disney to Apple.

Former top FTX exec Ryan Salame pleaded guilty today to charges linked to the fraud case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Salame, whose socks reportedly sported Bitcoin logos, said he had made millions in political contributions at the direction of Bankman-Fried. The contributions were labeled loans from FTX’s sister company, the crypto hedge fund Alameda Research. “I understood that the loans would eventually be forgiven, and that I would never have to repay them,” Salame said, per the New York Times. Asked whether he was pleading guilty to the counts, he said, “Yes, Your Honor.”

Elyana Thierry, the head of brand safety at X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has already left the company. She was elevated to the role months ago after the previous head of brand safety resigned earlier this summer. Thierry has started a new role as a brand safety marketing manager at Spotify, according to her LinkedIn, which The Information had been tracking. More here.

A subscription model run amok.

eBay is rolling out a new AI tool for marketplace sellers that can generate a product listing from a single photo.

Apple has reportedly paid $5 million for the rights to Michael Lewis’s forthcoming book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon about Sam Bankman-Fried. Quoting its sources, The Ankler newsletter reports that Lewis declined to provide Apple executives or any potential screenwriters access to his notes or a peek at an early draft of his book, even with several other competing scripted projects about the FTX implosion in the works. More here.

The first rule of Fishers Island? Don't talk about Fishers Island.

Planes are gross.

How the changing nature of gambling has corrupted the formerly genteel sport of tennis.

Where to stay when visiting Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve.

Caffeinated cup noodles for gamers.

The Ferrari Superamerica. Che bello!

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