TikTok in trouble, Marc Benioff's "bomb," and an AI-powered obituary (what could go wrong?)

Our favorite weekday once again. Hoping you have a wonderful weekend -- and for those of you who observe the Jewish holidays, shanah tovah. 

Looking forward to seeing some of you at Disrupt next week!  If you're in the market for a new podcast in the meantime, we had a great conversation a couple of days ago with former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston of the sustainability-focused public and private equity firm Generation Investment Management about a report Generation just issued on climate tech trends. If you want to get up to speed quickly on a range of issues, we highly recommend reading it; we think you'll also enjoy our longer discussion. 

Giant thanks to Hiive for sponsoring this week's episode. Hiive says it's disrupting the venture capital secondary market with its direct trading platform for shares of late-stage and pre-IPO companies. It also says there is no charge to access the marketplace, and buyers never pay fees. Check it out.

The Irish Data Protection Commission has fined TikTok €345 million for playing fast and loose with kids' data.

Apple is releasing an update to its iPhone 12 to address charges that its handset is emitting dangerous levels of radiation. (Wait, what?)

Microsoft's MSN news portal published an apparently AI-powered obituary about the unexpected death of former NBA player Brandon Hunter that characterized Hunter as "useless." 

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AWAK Technologies, a 16-year-old Singapore company that makes portable dialysis machines, raised a $20 million Series B round co-led by Lion X Ventures and Vickers Venture Partners, with additional participation from Advanced MedTech and Eckuity Capital. The company has raised a total of $77.2 million. More here.

Beam Benefits, an 11-year-old startup based in Columbus, Oh., that offers benefits administration services, raised a $40 million round at a $200 million valuation, a 25% increase over its previous round in 2021. Georgian, an earlier backer, led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $208.4 million. FinTech Global has more here.

Evolectric, a four-year-old startup based in Long Beach, Ca., that develops technologies to help fleet owners convert their gas-powered vehicles to EVs, raised a $15 million round. Seismic Capital led the deal. More here.

Gooder Foods, a three-year-old startup based in Santa Cruz, Ca., that markets noodle products under the brand name Goodles, raised a $13 million Series A round. L Catterton was the deal lead, with previous investors Springdale, Third Craft Partners, Willow Growth, Alumni Ventures, GingerBread Capital, IMG-Endeavor, Cosmic VC, and Electric Feel Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $23.2 million. More here.

Iomed, a seven-year-old Barcelona startup that uses Natural Language Processing to extract data from medical records, clinical trials, and patient surveys, raised a $10.7 million Series A round co-led by Philips Ventures and XTX Ventures, with Fondo Bolsa Social and Redseed also joining in. The company has raised a total of $14.9 million. More here.

Linear, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a collaborative workspace for software development teams, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Accel, with Sequoia Capital and 01Advisors also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $52.2 million. More here.

Moment, a New York startup whose APIs allow financial institutions to streamline fixed income trading, embed fixed income reference data, and manage risk, raised a $17 million Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz, with additional funds provided by Venrock, Contrary, Neo, and Henry Kravis. The company has raised a total of $20 million. More here.

Revel, a three-year-old Spanish startup that enables consumers to lease cars through what the company describes as a subscription service, raised $16 million in equity and $106.7 million in debt. Investors included KKR and Santander Consumer Finance. TechCrunch has more here.

Databutton, a two-year-old Norwegian startup that claims to use AI to enable non-technical users to easily create interactive web applications, raised a $5.1 million seed round. Skyfall Ventures and Maki.vc were the deal leads. ArcticStartup has more here.

Patronus AI, a three-year-old New York startup that helps companies test their LLMs to make sure they are ready for real-world situations, raised a $3 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Factorial Capital also chipping in. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Range Protocol, a Singapore startup that allows users to invest in a variety of automated DeFi trading strategies that are managed by professional traders, raised a $3.75 million seed round. HashKey Capital and Nomad Capital co-led the deal, while Spark Digital Capital, Mirana Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Asymm Ventures, and Comma3 Ventures also contributing. FinTech Global has more here.

Raylo, a four-year-old London startup that gives customers the opportunity to lease rather than buy their electronics, raised a $6.2 million round consisting of cash and media. Macquarie Group and Channel 4 Ventures co-led the deal. The company has raised a total of $180.6 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Sailes, a five-year-old startup based in Kansas City, Mo., that develops AI-powered chatbots that can be used to automate a variety of sales prospecting tasks, such as finding and qualifying leads, scheduling meetings, and sending follow-up emails, raised a $5.1 million Series A round led by Lewis & Clark Ventures and including Acronym Venture Capital and Tenzing Capital, as well as previous investors KCRise Fund and Valor Ventures. The company has raised a total of $6.5 million. More here.

Series AI, a San Francisco startup that is building game development tools, raised a $7.9 million seed round. Investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Bitkraft, F4 Fund, and the Siqi Chen Access Fund. VentureBeat has more here.

Superorder, a four-year-old New York startup that provides restaurants with websites, menus, photos, and tools for order management, marketing, and financial management, raised a $10 million round led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Y Combinator managing director Michael Seibel, Cruise co-founders Kyle Vogt and Daniel Kan, and I2BF Global Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. 

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Paradigm, the crypto focused venture fund co-founded by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and Matt Huang (formerly of Sequoia Capital), is planning to raise a new fund that could launch later this year or early next year with a potential target of $1 billion, according to The Information. The pair launched closed a $2.5 billion fund in 2021, but it's had a "rough 12 months," notes the outlet, pointing to an FTX investment that went to zero and a website makeover that caused an uproar. More here.

Instacart is raising its IPO price range by almost 10%, targeting a fully diluted valuation of $10 billion.

Softbank- and Amgen-backed Neumorea Therapeutics laid an egg in its public market debut, closing the day with a $2.5 billion market cap.

Marc Benioff drops a bomb after calling Salesforce workers back to their desks: "I don’t work well in an office—it just doesn’t work with my personality."

Google's cofounder Sergey Brin quietly finalized his divorce in May from lawyer and nonprofit founder Nicole Shanahan, which was prompted by allegations of an affair between Shanahan and Brin's longtime friend Elon Musk, according to a WSJ report.

Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world's biggest hedge fund, retired last October, but now he wants back in.

Friends and family remember Jaanhavi Kandula, a 23-year-old software engineering student at Northeastern University who was run over by a Seattle police cruiser while crossing the street. Earlier this week, authorities released bodycam footage in which a cop at the scene could be heard saying, “...[J]ust write a check ... She had limited value.”

Inside Vivek Ramaswamy's intense, high-maintenance, and highly air-conditioned empire.

Housing affordability is about to get worse.

To advance China's AI boom, vocational school students now work as data annotators - for low pay and little future prospects.

The executive trying to make Microsoft smarter about AI.

X continues to throttle links to competitors.

The science of baby babble.

An EV that can travel 1,600 miles on a single charge.

A cockatiel whistling, "I'm a Little Teapot."

URL poetry.

Personal sauna.

Inside Yokai, an ode to Japanese whisky and grilled skewers in San Francisco.

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