Founders, VCs, and others are boycotting Web Summit, Europe's biggest tech conference, following founder's remarks

SEC head Gary Gensler is warning that a financial crisis is "nearly unavoidable" if financial institutions don't pay more attention to their use of AI models.

Former FTX executive Nishad Singh testified today that FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried used hundreds of millions of dollars of customer deposits to buy lavish real estate, invest in startups, and sign celebrities and sports stars like Tom Brady, Steph Curry, and Larry David. 

Founders, VCs, and others are boycotting Web Summit, Europe's biggest tech conference, after the event's founder accused Israel of war crimes. Dozens of other companies are also pulling out, claims Dov Shapira, Israel's ambassador to Portugal.

Fintech startup Solid is pushing back against investor FTV Capital's fraud lawsuit, countersuing the private equity firm for "resorting to made-up claims of fraud, threats and strong-armed tactics" as soon as its investment "was no longer profitable."

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Skeleton Technologies, a 14-year-old company based in Tallinn, Estonia, that manufactures supercapacitors and superbatteries, raised a $113.9 million round consisting of both debt and equity. Siemens Financial Services and Marubeni Corp. were the co-leads. The company has raised more than $300 million. Sifted has more here.

Agnikul, an Indian space tech startup developing small-lift launch vehicles, has raised $26.7 million in Series B funding as it looks to begin commercial launches using its customizable satellite rocket. Backers in the round included Celesta Capital, Rocketship.vc and Artha Select Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Matic, a nine-year-old startup based in Columbus, Oh., that operates an insurance agency and an insurance marketplace, raised a $17 million Series B extension round co-led by IA Capital Group, and Cultivation Capital, with additional participation from Intuit Ventures, TruStage Ventures, Assurity Ventures, Venice Investments, and Bayshore Capital as well as previous investors Fenway Summer, MTech Capital, Nationwide Ventures, and Allstate Strategic Ventures. More here.

Membrane Labs, a four-year-old New York startup that has built a cryptocurrency-focused trading and lending platform, raised a $20 million Series A round. Brevan Howard, Point 72, and Jane Street co-led the transaction, while Flow Traders, QCP Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Electric Capital, Jump Crypto, QCP Capital, GSR Markets, Belvedere Trading, and Framework Ventures also participated. CoinDesk has more here.

Pantomath, a one-year-old startup based in Cincinnati, Oh., whose software helps clients detect and resolve data quality issues, raised a $14 million Series A round. Sierra Ventures was the deal lead, while Bowery Capital and Epic Ventures also took part. The company has raised a total of $18 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Account Labs, a Singapore startup that has developed a self-custodial wallet, raised a $7.7 million round. Investors included Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, and Qiming Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Arctop, a seven-year-old Los Angeles startup that is developing software to measure brain activity, raised a $10 million Series A round. Fifth Growth Fund and Supermoon Capital co-led the deal. More here.

ergo, a New York startup whose platform will help online retailers clear out inventory by repricing it rather than putting it on sale, raised a $1.5 million pre-seed round. Anthemis and Wischoff Ventures co-led the deal. TechCrunch has more here.

Hook, a two-year-old New York startup that helps consumers remix songs via AI, raised a $3 million seed round led by Waverley Capital, with Three Six Zero and Avex also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.

Jam & Tea Studios, a Los Angeles startup founded this year that is building a remote-first multi-player game studio, raised a $3.2 million seed round led by London Venture Partners, with participation from Sisu Game Ventures and 1Up Ventures. More here.

Leucine, a four-year-old New York startup that aims to make compliance less burdensome for drug manufacturers by creating an audit trail of the production process and using AI to identify deviations, raised a $7 million Series A round led by Ecolab and including Pravega Ventures, Axilor Ventures, and Techstars. TechCrunch has more here.

Meolaa, a one-year-old Bengaluru startup that has built a sustainable consumer products e-commerce platform, raised a $2 million seed round led by Turbostart. ET Retail has more here.

Morty, a Los Angeles startup whose app helps consumers find, book, and review escape rooms, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Protagonist, with Animo VC, Marketplace Capital, Wedbush, and Unpopular Ventures as well as previous investors General Catalyst and Wedbush also stepping up. More here.

PickNik, a startup based in Boulder, Co., whose platform enables developers to create robot applications, raised a $2 million pre-seed round co-led by Stellar Ventures and Cypress Growth Capital. Robotics Robotics 247 has more here.

Xpanceo, a two-year-old Dubai startup that aims to develop a smart contact lens, raised a $40 million round from sole investor Opportunity Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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SYN Ventures has closed a $75 million fund to focus on seed-stage cybersecurity deals. The new fund will complement a $300 million early-stage fund it raised last year. SYN, which is based in West Palm Beach, Fl., now has over $600 million under management. 

The Information is reporting that SMB neobank Rho Technologies may be interested in acquiring Creative Juice, a startup that provides a suite of products and services to help creators manage their income, expenses, taxes, and invoices. Creative Juice is perhaps best known for its partnership with YouTube superstar MrBeast, who is also an investor.

General Catalyst is expanding in Europe, merging with the Berlin-based firm La Famiglia, which has invested in a number of high-profile early-stage European start-ups, including generative AI company Mistral and defense group Helsing. General Catalyst has $25 billion in assets under management, compared with around $360 million managed by La Famiglia. The FT has the story here.

Marc Andreessen just published a 5,200-word "techno-optimist manifesto" arguing that technology should not be limited in any way. “Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realization of our potential,” he opines. Of AI, he writes, “Any deceleration of AI will cost lives. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder.” 

Roblox CEO David Baszucki today said the gaming company is trying to tread carefully when it comes to training AI models and that Roblox has decided not to use creative work generated by developers on its platform without their permission. "We have started with an opt-in rather than an opt-out."

Palmer Luckey, founder of defense-technology company Anduril Industries, today said U.S. corporate chiefs should be more vocal in their support for Israel and prioritize that over their companies bottom lines. “It reflects very poorly on our billionaire class that you aren’t seeing a whole-of-country effort to become involved and to speak up about these issues," Luckey said at a WSJ event. "That you are seeing hedging on the condemnation of Hamas [owes to] fear of saying the wrong thing either in the court of public opinion or because it hurts their business interests,” Luckey said.

Fugees star Pras Michel, who was convicted in April on charges of conspiring to make straw campaign donations, witness tampering and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, appears to be breaking new legal ground by calling for a new trial by claiming his defense attorneys allegedly relied on AI to compile their final argument for the jury.

Teens spend more that four-and-a-half hours per day on social media and more horrifying facts about adolescent phone use.

LinkedIn is laying off 700 employees, with most of the cuts coming somewhat surprisingly from its engineering group. 

Stack Overflow is cutting 28% of its staff in order to break even. A little over a year ago, it doubled in size to 500 employees.

Last month, Songtradr, a a B2B music licensing platform, bought Bandcamp, a startup that promotes independent musicians, from video game powerhouse Epic Games, and it turns out that Songtradr is only retaining half of Bandcamp's employees. 

Netflix intends to take on Sony and Microsoft by developing PC- and TV-based video games based on its hit shows. 

Palestine's growing tech economy has been literally blown apart.

A fourth woman has come forward with claims of mistreatment, gender discrimination, or retaliation at Carta, an equity management software platform that was an industry unicorn darling before coming under fire by an employee first in 2020. Fortune has more here.

Good news for our Miami peeps: Ferrari is now accepting crypto as a payment method.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been making the rounds to talk about his new book, Be Useful, and his YouTube/podcast interviews with Conan O'Brien and Rob Lowe are nothing short of wunderbar. 

The 24 best podcasts of 2023.

Wallpaper and shower curtains based on The Big Lebowski.

Cricket crisps.