Cisco's "Moby Dick," "second moms," and another cross-border venture firm gives up the ghost

Last day of Disrupt! This year's event was bigger than ever before, and somehow more fun, too(?). Now we're finishing a beer, headed out for some karaoke, and planning to sleep through next week.:) You can check out what happened today right here, including an interview with Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom and our own chat at the end of the afternoon with Katie Haun, the famed former federal prosecutor turned founder of Haun Ventures, who is bullish as ever about the future of crypto, and who said of SEC Chief Gary Gensler (when asked if he knows what he's doing): "I think the SEC under his [leadership] has taken a very expansive view of their jurisdiction . . ." Haun added separately: "Regulators need to prove they're the tough cop on the beat, and they're going after whatever they can . . ." 

More tomorrow. 🍻

Networking giant Cisco is acquiring data observability platform Splunk for $28 billion in what a Bloomberg analyst calls "the Moby Dick" of deals.

A federal judge has rejected all of the expert witnesses that Samuel Bankman-Fried intended to call at his trial.

Another cross-border firm that was investing in both the U.S. and China is splitting up owing to increased geopolitical tensions between the two countries. This time its GGV Capital, which announced today that GGV is becoming two separate, independent partnerships. The U.S. partnership will be led by Managing Parters Glenn Solomon, Hans Tung, Jeff Richards and Oren Younger; the Asia partnership will be led by Managing Partners Jenny Lee and Jixun Foo. 

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CMR Surgical, a nine-year-old startup based in Cambridge, UK, that sells robotics systems to hospitals which help surgeons perform operations to treat cancer and bowel disease, raised a $165 million round at the same $3 billion valuation as its last round of $600 million in 2021. Backers include previous investors SoftBank, Tencent, Ally Bridge Group, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Escala Capital, LGT, Lightrock, RPMI Railpen, and Watrium. Sifted has more here.

Curve, an eight-year-old London startup whose app connects a consumer's existing credit and debit cards, raised a $71.3 million Series C extension round. Backers include previous investors Britannia, IDC Ventures, Cercano Management, Cohen Circle, and Outward VC. Tech Funding News has more here.

Openly, a two-year-old Boston startup that distributes home insurance products exclusively through independent agents, raised a $100 million Series D round led by Eden Global Partners, with Gradient Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures, and Trinity Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $238 million. Coverager has more here.

Bolttech, a three-year-old Singapore startup backed by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li that operates as a digital insurance exchange, allowing businesses to purchase insurance coverage for their customers for products ranging from health to gadgets, raised $50 million in additional Series B funds, increasing the total size of the round to $246 million. LeapFrog Investments, a Temasek-backed private equity firm, was the deal lead. The company hjas raised a total of $493 million. Forbes has more here.

Diligent, an Austin-based maker of hospital service robots, is announcing a $25 million raise led by Canaan. True Ventures, DNX Ventures, Next Coast and Northwestern Medicine Innovation also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Fuze, an Abu Dhabi startup founded in December that seeks to enable banks, fintechs, and enterprises to offer regulated digital assets products to customers through native apps, raised a $14 million seed round led by Further Ventures, with Liberty City Ventures also taking part. More here.

KYP.ai, a five-year-old startup based in Cologne, Germany, that claims to use generative AI to improve office productivity, raised an $18.6 million Series A round led by OTB Ventures, with previous investors 42CAP and Tola Capital also pitching in. Tech.eu has more here.

Mesh, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing a service to help customers transfer and manage digital assets like crypto, raised a $22 million Series A round led by Money Forward, with additional participation from Galaxy, Samsung Next, Streamlined Ventures, SNR.VC, Hike VC, Heitner Group, Valon Capital, Florida Funders, Altair Capital, and Network VC. The company has raised a total of $36 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Vivante Health, a seven-year-old Chicago startup that provides a platform for patients with chronic gut conditions to consult with experts, raised a $31 million Series B round led by Mercato Ventures, with Health Catalyst Capital and previous investors 7wireVentures, Intermountain Ventures, Distributed Ventures, Human Capital, and SemperVirens also joining in. FinTech Global has more here.

Authentic, a one-year-old New York startup that helps its clients establish captive insurance programs, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Slow Ventures, with additional funds supplied by Altai Ventures, MGV, Upper90, Clocktower, Commerce Ventures, Mischief Ventures, and Core Innovation Capital. FinTech Global has more here.

CoinScan, a crypto startup that offers traders free analytics, charting, and safety features, raised a $6.3 million round from DraftKings’ top shareholder Shalom MecKenzie and Playtech CEO Mor Weize. InvestingCube has more here.

Estate Media, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup co-founded by Million Dollar Listing's Josh Flagg that intends to produce a digital series and podcasts about the real estate industry, raised a $1.65 million round led by Adam Weitsman, the billionaire CEO of Upstate Shredding. Hollywood Reporter has more here.

Flash.co, an Indian startup that has created a shopping email ID that allows power shoppers to accumulate coupons and apply them regardless of the apps they use, raised a $6.7 million pre-Series A round. Blume Ventures and PeerCapital co-led the deal, with additional capital provided by previous investors White Venture Capital and Emphasis Ventures. The company has raided a total of $12.5 million. Entrepreneur has more here.

HealNow, a five-year-old New York startup whose payment platform enables patients to schedule delivery or curbside pickup of over-the-counter items and pay for prescriptions online, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Bonfire Ventures, with Walkabout Ventures, Remarkable Ventures, Alabama Futures Fund, and Impulsum Ventures also stepping up. Pymnts has more here.

Kayhan Space, a four-year-old Boulder startup that is developing space traffic management software, raised a $7 million seed extension co-led by EVE Atlas and Space Capital and including Initialized Capital, Overline Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. Space News has more here.

LawVu, an eight-year-old New Zealand startup that helps in-house lawyers track their legal spend and workload, raised an $8.9 million round. Movac was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $32.6 million. Caffeine has more here.

Medeloop, a two-year-old Palo Alto startup that says it uses AI to simplify grant applications, data collection, harmonization, biomarker and trend identification, and manuscript submissions, raised an $8 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with Maven Ventures, the Ovo Fund, and NV Investments also chipping in. More here.

Openvolt, a Dublin startup founded this year that has developed an API to make smart meter data more accessible for companies and landlords interested in reducing their carbon footprint, raised a $1.6 million pre-seed round led by Cavalry Ventures, with Übermorgen Ventures also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

qbiq, a five-year-old Tel Aviv startup that uses generative AI to create space plans and 3D virtual tours, raised a $10 million seed round led by JLL Spark Global Ventures, with 10D, Ocean Azul, Randomforest, and M-FUND also anteing up. More here.

Spectarium, a Finnish startup that is developing a cross-platform action RPG, raised a $5.3 million seed round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and including Delphi Digital and Framework Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Vero Technologies, a three-year-old New York startup that has developed a platform to help banks offer wholesale financing, raised a $8.5 million Series A round led by BankTech Ventures, with Sopra Steria Ventures, Arcadia Funds, Antler Global, AAF, and the Independent Community Bankers Association also investing. FinTech has more here.

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The Brazilian pharmaceutical company Eurofarma this week announced the launching of Eurofarma Ventures, a corporate venture capital arm that will invest up to$100 million in biotech startups.

Trailhead Capital, a Boulder, Co.-based venture firm that invests in early-stage startups whose tech helps expand regenerative agriculture practices and products, has closed its inaugural fund with approximately $50 million in capital commitments, according to the Rockefeller Foundation, which is among its backers.

Salesforce has announced plans to acquire Airkit.ai, a low-code platform that helps e-commerce companies build AI-powered customer service agents. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2017, Redwood City, Ca.-based Airkit was created by Adam Evans and Stephen Ehikian, who sold a previous big data startup called RelateIQ to Salesforce for $390 million in 2014. TechCrunch has more here.

Rupert Murdoch is stepping down today from the boards of Fox Corp. and News Corp. and ceding control of his empire to his son, Lachlan. For now, that is. Upon the senior Murdoch's passing, many speculate that his younger son, James, could try to rally his sisters to seize the reins from Lachlan in true Succession style.

Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, reiterated to attendees at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 that Signal would indeed leave the U.K. if the country’s recently passed Online Safety Bill forced Signal to build “backdoors” into its end-to-end encryption.

At this year's Disrupt, Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei said he isn't worried about the fact that some LLMs can't multiply three-digit numbers. “I think those long years of scaling experience have taught me to be very skeptical, but also skeptical of the claim that an LLM can’t do anything ... I’m skeptical of the skeptics," he said.

At $30 per share, which is where Instacart's shares are valued currently post-IPO, Instacart co-founder Apoorva Mehta's holding are worth a whopping $850 million, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Snapchat+ now has five million users, a huge increase from the three million subscribers it had in April.

China has scooped up human DNA from nations around the world, spurring fears of a genetic arms race.

X is planning to shut down Circles, a feature that lets you share posts with a limited group of people instead of all of your followers.

Storied law firm Sullivan & Cromwell is taking heat on all sides for its defense of FTX.

The WSJ reports that some parents of college students are paying $10,000 a year to hire "second moms" to watch over their kids.

Forbes has just released its list of the most expensive zip codes in the U.S. (Atherton retains its number one spot with a median home value of almost $7.5 million.)

Extreme mountain biking, captured by a drone. 

"When did a 6:00 dinner reservation become the new 8:00?" New York restaurateur Danny Meyer wonders.

Charge it to my Billionaire Card.

The seven best "flying surfboards" on the market.

Yesterday, we told you that a company called Afterparty that just secured $5 million in fresh funding, has secured $22 million altogether; a spokesperson tells us its fundraising to date is $12 million.