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It's official: we're all going to have to buy new cables. Apple has officially ditched the the Lightning connector. (More Apple Fall Event 2023 coverage here.)
In opening arguments today, the DOJ hammered Google for paying $10 billion a year to Apple and others to be the default search provider on smartphones; for hiding information from the government, citing in one instance CEO Sundar Pichai's request to turn off the chat history in a particularly delicate conversation; and for making it difficult for consumers to switch search engines.
Lyft launched a new feature that enables female and non-binary passengers to book trips with female and non-binary drivers.
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Arialys Therapeutics, a one-year-old startup based in La Jolla, Ca., that aims to create neuropsychiatry drugs, raised a $58 million seed round. Investors included Avalon BioVentures, Catalys Pacific, MPM BioImpact, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and Alexandria Venture Investments. BioPharma Dive has more here.
Enfabrica, a three-year-old startup based in Mountain View, Ca., that is building networking chips designed to handle AI and machine learning workloads, raised a $125 million Series B round led by Atreides Management, with Sutter Hill Ventures, Nvidia, IAG Capital Partners, Liberty Global Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Infinitum Partners, and Alumni Ventures also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.
Lyten, an eight-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that is developing lithium-sulfur battery technology for a variety of applications in the automotive, aerospace, and defense industries, raised a $200 million Series B round led by Prime Movers Lab, with additional participation from Stellantis, FedEx, Honeywell, and The Walbridge Group. The company has raised a total of $410+ million. Reuters has more here.
Mighty Buildings, a six-year-old startup based in Oakland, Ca., that uses 3D printing technology to create materials for prefabricated homes, raised a $52 million round co-led by Waed Ventures and Bold Capital, with Khosla Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $153.8 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Binalyze, a five-year-old startup based in Tallinn, Estonia, that provides digital forensics and incident response for companies that experience cyberattacks, raised a $19 million Series A round led by Molten Ventures, with additional capital provided by Earlybird Digital East, OpenOcean, Cisco Investments, Citi Ventures, and Deutsche Bank Corporate Venture Capital. Security Week has more here.
Bold, a Los Angeles startup that provides personalized virtual exercise plans for older adults, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Rethink Impact, with Samsung Next and previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, GingerBread Capital, and Primetime Partners also contributing. More here.
CertifID, a six-year-old Austin startup that focuses on protecting real estate transactions against wire fraud, raised a $20 million Series B round. Arthur Ventures was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $36.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Elsa, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that has built an English language learning platform that leverages speech recognition and generative AI, raised a $22.5 million Series C round led by UOB Venture Management, with UniPresident, Aozora Bank, Vietnam Investments Group, and Development Bank of Japan as well as previous investors Gradient Ventures, Monk's Hill Ventures, and Global Ventures also piling on. The company has raised a total of $60 million. TechCrunch has more here.
floLive, an eight-year-old London startup that claims to have developed the world's first and largest hyperlocal global cellular network, raised a $47 million Series C round co-led by Greenfield Partners and previous investor 83North, with Qualcomm Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Saban Ventures, and Hazelnut Partners also participating. The company has raised a total of $88.2 million. CTech has more here.
Optera, a 17-year-old company based in Boulder, Co., whose platform helps clients track and reduce the climate impact of their business operations, global supply chains, and products, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Next Frontier Capital, with Blackhorn Ventures, Mucker Capital, Overture, Engage, Massive, SaaS Ventures, Valo Ventures, AngelList, and Stout Street Capital also joining in. The company has raised a total of $27.5 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.
Proven, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that develops skincare products, raised a $12.2 million Series A round. NewH2 Ventures was the deal lead. Beauty Packaging has more here.
Sonera, a startup based in Berkeley, Ca., that aims to measure brain activity via magnetic fields, raised an $11 million seed round. Amplify Partners led the transaction, with additional funds supplied by Abstract Ventures and previous investors Spark Capital and Material Impact. The company has raised a total of $20 million. More here.
The Sporting News, a 137-year-old sports publisher based in Charlotte, N.C., raised a $15 million round led by online gambling software company PlayTech (LON: PTEC) and invested in SuperDraft, an online daily fantasy sports platform. More here.
SQream, a 13-year-old Tel Aviv company whose platform enables clients to analyze huge data sets, raised a $45 million Series C round led by World Trade Ventures, with Schusterman Investments, George Kaiser Foundation, Icon Continuity Fund, Blumberg Capital, and Freddy & Helen Holdings also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $163 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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Alix, a one-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform is designed to streamline estate transfers, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Initialized Capital, with Magnify, Scribble, American Family Ventures, and Alumni Ventures also investing. Forbes has more here.
Ascento Robotics, a five-year-old Zurich startup that builds wheeled security robots for repetitive tasks like perimeter checks, raised a $4.3 million pre-seed round co-led by Wingman Ventures and Playfair. TechCrunch has more here.
AuthMind, a three-year-old startup based in Bethesda, Md., that aims to help businesses protect themselves from identity-related cyberattacks, raised an $8.5 million seed round led by Ballistic Ventures, with IBM Ventures also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.
Common Trust, a San Francisco startup that is building a platform to offer small business owners an employee ownership buyout option, raised a $2.6 million seed round led by Crossbeam Venture Partners, with Schmidt Futures also participating. TechCrunch has more here.
DeLorean AI, a four-year-old Palm Beach startup that uses AI to provide medical providers and insurance companies with cost-saving and live-saving insights into their patients’ health, raised a $7.55 million Series A round led by Sopris VC and including Pinta Capital Partners and James Chow. The company has raised a total of $10.5 million. Refresh Miami has more here.
GamePhilos Studio, a Singapore startup that is developing a free-to-play mobile/PC strategy game called Age of Dino, raised an $8 million seed round. Investors included Xterio, Animoca Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Chain Hill Capital, Hashkey Capital, Sanctor Capital, Game7, Bas1s, GSR Markets, and GSG Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.
Glass Health, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that is building an AI tool and LLM that can suggest medical diagnoses, raised a $5 million seed round led by Initialized Capital, with additional funds provided by OneMedical founder Tom Lee, Epocrates, and Galileo Health. TechCrunch has more here.
Hadrius, a New York startup founded this year whose goal is to enable RIAs and broker-dealers to automate SEC compliance, raised a $2 million seed round from Y Combinator, Lynett Capital, Singularity Capital, Dorm Room Fund, and Unpopular Ventures. The company has raised a total of $2.5 million. More here.
OpenCover, a two-year-old London startup that offers crypto investors insurance against protocol failures, raised a $4 million seed round. NFX and Jump Crypto co-led the deal. CoinDesk has more here.
Prewitt Ridge, a four-year-old Los Angeles startup that helps engineers organize and manage software requirements, raised a $4.1 million seed round led by Squadra Ventures; additional investors included Stage Venture Partners, Aurelia Foundry, Wonder Ventures, Haystack, Acequia, TechStars, and GC&H. Payload has more here.
Roseman Labs, a three-year-old startup based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, that enables parties to link and analyze data without sharing sensitive source data, raised a $4.3 million seed round. Investors included Matterwave Ventures, Spacewalk VC, and NP-Hard Ventures. EU-Startups has more here.
Scala Biodesign, a Tel Aviv startup that is focused on making drugs more practical by tweaking them at the molecular level, raised a $5.5 million seed round from TLV Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Thirona, a nine-year-old Dutch startup that says it uses AI to analyze thoracic CT images, raised an $8 million round. Heran Partners and the Borski Fund invested in the deal. More here.
Trident Digital Group, a startup founded this year based in Stamford, Ct., that provides structured staking products for institutional investors with digital assets, raised an $8 million seed round co-led by New Form and White Star Capital, with CMT Digital, Joint Effects, and Permit Ventures also anteing up. More here.
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TKO Group Holdings, a publicly traded company formed by ubër-agent Ari Emanuel's (also publicly traded) Endeavor Group that combines MMA's UFC with pro wrestling's WWE, went public today and ended the day with a whopping $21 billion valuation.
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As Boeing figures out its back-to-work strategy, its fleet of private jets have made more than 400 trips to or from airports near CEO David Calhoun’s homes in the past three years, according to the WSJ, which reports Calhoun himself rarely visits the company's Arlington, Va., headquarters.
Another day, another serious crypto sentence. Today, Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the founder of the cryptocurrency OneCoin, received 20 years in prison for spending investors' money on five-star resorts, a private plane, and a yacht.
We can only dream that some day someone will look at us the way Vladimir Putin looks at Elon Musk.
Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder has left the crypto trading platform and been replaced on an interim basis by Chief Legal Officer Norman Reed, according to a company spokesperson. The departure comes as the company controlled by entrepreneur Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is eliminating about one third of its workforce, or more than 100 positions, amid a regulatory crackdown.
Tim Cook in his acting debut.
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Hong Kong has the most ultra-wealthy people in the world, according to a new report by Wealth-X.
BlueSky, one of the buzziest post-Twitter apps, has reportedly surpassed 1 million users.
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Nearly 30 investment banks are working on chip designer Arm’s $50 billion IPO, but the headliner is the small advisory group The Raine Group, and that's no accident, reports the Financial Times. The tech-focused boutique has reportedly become a go-to advisor for SoftBank, with Raine cofounder Jeff Sine appointed to Arm’s board last year, and SoftBank owns less than a tenth of Raine, according to the FT's sources. More here.
TikTok is beginning to introduce TikTok Shop to all of the app’s users in the U.S., hoping to add a major new revenue stream.
How long it took different companies to find product-market fit.
Dozens of unreleased Harry Styles songs have appeared on Discord this summer, but fans can't figure out if they are real or AI clones.
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Is it ethical to travel to places like Morocco and Hawaii that have been hard-hit by natural disasters?
All the hot red carpet looks from tonight's VMA Awards.
A PowerBall winner powers through his winnings.
Sorry, Jets fans. You really are cursed.
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