"My own view is that you take money from the biggest polluters . . . at your peril."

The CDC today cleared long-awaited new COVID vaccines; here's what you need to know.

According to Bloomberg, Caesar's Entertainment paid millions of dollars in ransom to hackers who broke into its network and threatened to release its data.

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Every year for the past seven years, Generation Investment Management, the sustainability-focused public and private equity firm co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, has published a sustainability trends report that aims to become as much a bible to the climate tech industry as Mary Meeker’s famous “internet trends” reports were to so-called dot.com entrepreneurs.

Reading the latest report, it seems conceivable that it will reach its objectives. This year’s survey moves fluidly from transportation to plastics to buildings to land and food, while presenting a clear-eyed view of the vast progress that has been made — and the roadblocks that continue to slow down advancements and sometimes stymie public policies.

The report also raises deserving questions, including about much-hyped hydrogen (and how much of it society will be willing to produce or how large the market will be), and whether rising demand for electric vehicles can be met, given that each EV requires far more metals for its battery. 

To discuss the good, the bad and the ugly, this editor talked yesterday with Gore and Lila Preston, who joined Generation in 2004 and is co-head of the firm’s growth equity strategy. Our conversation has been edited for length; we’ll have the full interview for you on StrictlyVC Download later this week.

I dread looking at reports, but I thoroughly enjoyed yours. I didn’t realize the greenhouse implications of producing dark chocolate fall right behind beef consumption. I wasn’t aware of the number of places in the world that are turning to congestion charging. Who are you trying to educate here and toward what end?

More here.

Actio Biosciences, a two-year-old San Diego startup that is focused on developing drugs that target specific genetic mutations known to cause rare diseases, raised a $55 million Series A round co-led by Canaan and DROIA Ventures, with Deerfield Management, EcoR1, and Euclidean Capital also contributing. More here.

UBQ Materials, an 11-year-old Tel Aviv company that converts household waste into thermoplastic material, raised a $70 million round led by Eden Global Partners, with additional participation from previous investors TPG Rise Climate, TPG Rise Fund, Battery Ventures, and M&G Catalyst. The company has raised a total of $240.1 million. Reuters has more here.

VideoAmp, a nine-year-old Los Angeles startup whose platform helps advertisers and publishers measure the effectiveness of their campaigns across traditional TV, streaming video, and digital media, raised a $150 million Series G round. Vista Credit Partners was the deal lead. Axios has more here.

AMP, a one-year-old Singapore startup that develops ecommerce software for merchants, raised an $18.5 million Series A round. Jungle Ventures and Openspace Ventures invested in the deal. FinTech Global has more here.

Binalyze, a London-based startup building a toolset for digital forensics and incident response, this week announced that it raised $19 million in a Series A round led by Molten Ventures, with participation from Cisco Investments, Citibank Ventures and Deutsche Bank Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Cleafy, a nine-year-old Milan startup whose platform safeguards over 100 million digital users against financial online fraud for clients such as BNP Paribas, ING Bank Romania, and Illimity Bank, raised a $10.75 million round led by United Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

CO2AI, a Paris startup spun out of Boston Consulting Group that helps companies track their CO2 levels, raised a $12 million round. Unusual Ventures, Partech, and BCG invested in the deal. More here.

Druid, a five-year-old Bucharest startup that's looking to automate customer support services by integrating with ChatGPT, raised a $30 million Series B round led by TQ Ventures, with Smedvig Capital, GapMinder, Hoxton Ventures, and Karma Ventures also joining in. The company has raised a total of $50.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Exostellar, a four-year-old, Ithaca, N.Y., startup that helps companies optimize their cloud spend, has closed a $15 million Series A round led by Celesta and Cambium Capital, with participation from Alpha Intelligence Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Heliene, a 13-year-old Canadian company that manufactures solar photovoltaic modules, raised a $20 million round. Investors included Orion Infrastructure Capital, 2Shores Capital, Valta Energy, and Bullrock Renewables. Orion also provided $150 million in debt. Venture Capital Journal has more here.

Kin Insurance, a seven-year-old Chicago startup that sells insurance directly to consumers, raised a $33 million Series D extension round at a $1+ billion valuation, according to Axios Pro. The deal was led by QED, with previous investors Allegis Capital, Alpha Edison, Geodesic Capital, and Hudson Structured Capital Management also investing. The company has raised a total of $265 million in equity. More here.

Pahdo Labs, a two-year-old New York startup whose mission is to create an anime-style role-playing game and user-generated content platform, raised a $15 million Series A round. Andreessen Horowitz was the deal lead, with participation from Pear VC, BoxGroup, Long Journey Ventures, Neo, and Global Founders Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

Prisma Photonics, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose optical fiber sensing technology helps power transmission operators manage their grids, raised a $20 million Series C round led by Insight Partners and including Elements, SE Ventures, Future Energy Ventures, Chione Switzerland, and INcapital.The company has raised a total of $50 million. CTech has more here.

Pulsora, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that helps corporations define and measure their ESG goals, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Galvanize Climate Solutions, with additional funds provided by Carica Sustainable Investments, Sabancı Climate Ventures, Aramco Ventures, and JetBlue Ventures as well as previous investors Fintop Capital, Builders VC, and Sompo Holdings. ESG Today has more here.

Tarana Wireless, a 14-year-old company based in Milpitas, Ca., whose mission is to deliver fiber-class broadband over unlicensed spectrum at a fraction of the cost and complexity of fiber, raised a $50 million round. Digital Alpha Advisors led the transaction. More here.

Treasury4, a three-year-old startup based in Spokane, Wa., that automates workflows for finance and treasury personnel, raised a $20 million Series A round led by WestCap, with Cowles Company, Fortson VC, Voyager Capital, Kick-Start Seed Fund, and W.T.B. Financial Corporation also kicking in. More here.

Zenity, a two-year-old Tel Aviv startup that claims to be the world’s first platform for securing low-code/no-code development, raised a $16.5 million Series A round led by Intel Capital, with Vertex Ventures, Upwest Labs, Gefen Capital Partners, and B5 Capital Partners also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $21.5 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Buyandship, a nine-year-old Hong Kong startup that has built a cross-border e-commerce platform, raised a $10 million Series B round. Cool Japan Fund was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $14.5 million. Retail Insight Network has more here.

Caliza, a two-year-old Miami startup that facilitates cross-border transactions for banks and fintechs through the use of embedded software, raised a $5.3 million seed round co-led by Better Tomorrow Ventures and Abstract Ventures, with Fontes by QED, Quona Capital, and Valor Capital Group also chipping in. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Deduce, a four-year-old New York startup that uses generative AI to detect AI-generated identities, raised a $9 million round led by Freestyle Capital, with Foundry Group and True Ventures also anteing up. SiliconANGLE has more here.

DetraPel, a Boston company that develops protective coatings free of synthetic chemical compounds and plastics, raised a $7.6 million Series A round led by Material Impact; additional investors included INX International, Touchdown Ventures, FitzGate Ventures, Boro Capital, and Icebook Investments. The company has raised a total of $14 million. BuiltinBoston has more here.

Gable.ai, a Seattle startup that styles itself as the "GitHub for data," raised a $7 million seed round. co-led by Zetta Venture Partners, Crane Venture Capital, and Essence Venture Capital, with The New Normal Fund, Monte Carlo, and Hex also contributing. GeekWire has more here.

IMMIX, a London startup that is building a crypto-asset trading platform, raised a $2.7 million seed round led by MassMutual Ventures, with Ripple Ventures also taking part. Tech Funding News has more here.

Parallax, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is working on a cross-border payments system that can be used for stablecoin, crypto, or traditional currencies, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Dragonfly Capital and including Circle Ventures and General Catalyst. The company has raised a total of $19 million. TechCrunch has more here.

ReSeed, a Pittsburgh startup that helps farmers bring their carbon credits to market, raised a $4.6 million seed round led by One Small Planet led, with Thorn Partners also participating. More here.

Science On Call, a three-year-old Chicago startup that provides an AI-powered help desk for restaurants, raised a $2.6 million seed round led by York IE, with Bread & Butter Ventures, Relish Works Capital Investments, Groove Capital, Connetic Ventures, Redstick VC, and Phoenix Club also piling on. The company has raised a total of $4.4 million. More here.

Treefera, a London startup that provides carbon market data for companies looking to purchase carbon credits, raised a $2.2 million pre-seed round led by Concept Ventures, with Twin Path Ventures and January Ventures also pitching on. TechCrunch has more here.

Vaxess Technologies, an 11-year-old company based in Cambridge, Ma., that makes a vaccine patch that could potentially be self-applied, raised a $9 million round. Investors included RA Capital, The Engine, GHIC, and Ulu Ventures. The company has raised a total of $75 million. Drug Delivery Business News has more here.

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Sapphire Partners, the LP arm of enterprise software-focused VC Sapphire Ventures, announced this morning that moving forward, it will be managing five funds with $1.4 billion in assets that are focused on emerging managers on behalf of the giant California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS). In fact, according to CalSTRS, which currently has a whopping $320 billion in assets under management, Sapphire is now exclusively in charge of the pension system’s bets on emerging managers. It’s a big deal about which aspiring and newbie VCs should be aware, even as Sapphire has less fresh capital to invest than it might seem from the news. We talked with Sapphire here.

Arm, the startup that designs chips for companies like Apple and Nvidia, raised $4.87 billion in its IPO today, valuing the company at $54.5 billion. (Softbank may have been hoping for an even higher valuation, but it's still good news for the Japanese conglomerate, which still controls a whopping 90% of Arm's outstanding shares.) 

Birkenstock is going public. (Given the fact that Steve Jobs' Birkenstocks sold at auction last year for $218,000, we'd argue the company has some tech appeal.) 

Bad news for power couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, producers of Stoner Cats, an animated series about five house cats that get high from their owner's medical marijuana. In order to view the show, consumers had to buy a Stoner Cats NFT. However, the SEC has charged Stoner Cats with selling unregistered securities and ordered it to pay a $1 million fine and refund customers' money.

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite-internet division, which relies on a satellite fleet to provide high-speed internet connections and has played a pivotal role in Ukraine, reported $1.4 billion in revenue for 2022 up from $222 million the year before, according to recent documents viewed by The WSJ. Eight years ago, SpaceX reportedly told investors that Starlink would generate almost $12 billion in revenue by 2022, but it hasn't signed up customers as quickly as SpaceX had hoped, says the WSJ.

More and more companies are updating their privacy policies to allow them to use your data to train generative AI models.

Regulators are probing the treatment of millions of AI data label workers who are responsible for making sure that ChatGPT, Bard, and Bing are safe for consumers.

Which state has the worst tippers? (The result may surprise you.) 

Swiss students have built an EV that can go from 0-62 mph in under one second.

Finding the perfect group chat name.

The latest trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon.

A better beer pong cup.

Classic peacoats.

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