Bionic clothing, opaque large language models, and a VC who headed to Miami puts his SF manse on the market

Hello! Yesterday, we shared a Forbes report that listed some of the many Silicon Valley venture firms to count Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as one of their limited partners. Included in Forbes's list (and thus ours) was Sequoia Capital, but PIF has never been an investor in Sequoia Capital funds, including its Global Growth Funds or its Sequoia Capital Global Equities or Sequoia Heritage. (So many Sequoia products!) PIF is, however, an investor in Sequoia China, which was more recently renamed HongShan after being spun out entirely from the Sequoia umbrella back in June. 

Speaking of Sequoia Capital: The China committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has asked the firm to provide details about investments in AI and other high-tech sectors in the country made since 2010, including by its former Chinese arm. In a letter, Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Republican and Democrat on the congressional panel, respectively, asked Sequoia to list investments in startups that are developing AI, machine learning, chips and quantum that are based or have “significant operations” in China.

Tesla's stock dipped almost 5% today on news that its Q3 profits fell a whopping 44%. Analysts attribute Tesla's lower margins to its decision to slash prices for its EVs.

In the fraud trial of FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the government asked an accounting professor whom it had hired to examine FTX's books if the company had ever used customer funds. "Oh, yes," he replied. 

It turns out that remote IT worker you hired might just have been working for North Korea.

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KKR, a global investment powerhouse, tells us exclusively that it just held a final close of its third and latest tech growth fund — KKR Next Generation Technology Growth Fund III — with roughly $3 billion in capital commitments, $400 million of which came from KKR’s own employees.

The team, which includes more than 35 investors focused on growth-stage companies in North America, Europe and Israel, with another dozen focused on the APAC region, has been raising the fund since early last year.

According to a regulatory filing, the group’s first tech growth fund, sized at $711 million, boasts an IRR net of the firm’s fees of 26.6% currently, including realized and unrealized gains. It has already returned more to investors than the capital they committed. Its second effort, a $2.2 billion vehicle closed in 2019, has mostly unrealized gains and shows a roughly 18% net IRR.

Some of the outfit’s past bets include Darktrace, the cybersecurity firm that went public in London in 2021; ForgeRock, a digital-identity software company that went public in the U.S. in 2021; and Lyft, which went public in 2019. Another bet, OneStream, which builds software tools and services designed for chief financial officers, reportedly tapped Morgan Stanley in late 2021 to lead preparations for a stock market launch but the company remains privately held.

If the newest fund was a challenge to close from its mix of backers, including sovereign wealth funds, public pension plans, insurance companies, endowments and private wealth platforms, fund head Dave Welsh doesn’t say so explicitly, though in conversation earlier this week, he sounded relieved to be done with this latest fundraise. “Not to be too Pollyanna-ish about our own hand here, but we’re super glad we’ve got a new fund and we’re not out raising right now. I think it’s tough,” he said.

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Baichuan, a Chinese startup that develops generative AI and large language models that compete with products like OpenAI's ChatGPT, raised a $300 million Series A1 round at a $1+ billion valuation. Investors included Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, and Shunwei Capital. The company has raised a total of $350 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Bond Vet, a four-year-old New York startup that operates over 40 clinics across the U.S. that provide veterinary urgent and primary care services, raised a $50 million round. Investors included Warburg Pincus and Talisman Capital Partners. dvm360 has more here.

SecureW2, a Seattle startup that offers a suite of passwordless technologies including a tool to issues certificates, or digital replacements for passwords, raised its first round of $80 million. Insight Partners was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Cionic, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that makes bionic clothing to help people with mobility impairments move more independently, raised a $12 million Series A extension round led by L Catterton, with additional funded provided by THVC. More here.

Darwinium, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that focuses on detecting bot and protecting online users from fraudulent attacks, raised an $18 million Series A round led by USVP, with Blackbird, Airtree Ventures, and Accomplice also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $26 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Fingerprint, a four-year-old Chicago startup that can identify devices connecting to networks without relying on cookies or IP addresses, raised a $33 million Series C round led by Nexus Venture Partners and including Uncorrelated Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Globacap, a six-year-old London startup that automates various processes for investment banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds, such as fundraising, managing investments, and compliance, raised a $21 million Series B round. Backers included Moore Strategic Ventures, Cboe Global Markets, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, GABI Ventures, and QBN Capital. FinTech has more here.

Joor, a 13-year-old New York company whose platform enables brands and buyers to connect, present collections, build assortments, place and manage orders, and process payments, raised $25 million in equity and debt. Brightwood Capital and Tamarix Capital Partners were the co-leads, with participation from existing investors Macquarie Capital, Battery Ventures, and Canaan Partners. PYMNTS has more here.

Lanes & Planes, a six-year-old Munich startup whose platform helps companies manage corporate travel, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Smash Capital, with previous investors Battery Ventures, coparion, DN Capital, and Allron also chipping in. EU-Startups has more here.

Last Country, a startup founded this year by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to develop media programming, raised a $15 million SAFE round from 1789 Capital. The WSJ has more here.

Objective, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that is building a low-code platform that allows developers to build multi-search apps that handle input and output in multiple formats, such as text, images, video, and audio, raised a $13 million round. Matrix Partners and Two Sigma Ventures were among the investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Salted, a nine-year-old Los Angeles startup that builds quick-serve restaurant brands, raised a $14 million Series B round led by previous investor Creadev, with Proof Ventures and B. Riley Financial also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.

Statement, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that helps companies forecast their cash flow as well as automates manual tasks such as reconciliation and balance reporting, raised a $12 million seed round led by Glilot Capital Partners, with Citi, Mensch Capital Partners, Titan Capital, and Operator Partners also opting in. TechCrunch has more here.

VedaBio, a San Diego startup whose platform can detect genetic code without the need for target amplification, raised a $40 million led by OMX Ventures. Medical Device Network has more here.

Aindo, a five-year-old startup based in Trieste, Italy, that creates synthetic or artificial data for use in testing and training machine learning models, raised a $6.3 million Series A round led by United Ventures, with Vertis SGR also taking part. Tech.eu has more here.

Allara, a three-year-old New York startup that provides telehealth services for women with chronic hormonal conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis, raised a $10 million Series A round led by GV, with Great Oaks Venture Capital, Humbition, Vanterra, and Gaingels also participating. The company has raised a total of $17.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Anonybit, a three-year-old New York startup that anonymizes employee biometric data by slicing it up and distributing the pieces through a peer-to-peer network, raised a $3 million round led by Jam Fintop and joined by Connecticut Innovations. The company has raised a total of $8 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Auquan, a five-year-old London startup that says it uses generative AI to scan through reams of financial documents and provide insights to its institutional clients, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Neotribe Ventures, with Episode 1 and Stage 2 Capital also anteing up. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Bluebirds, a one-year-old startup that says it uses AI to target sales prospects, raised a $5 million seed round from Lightspeed Venture Partners. VentureBeat has more here. 

Flanks, a four-year-old Barcelona startup that has built an API to automate wealth management services for financial institutions, family offices, and independent financial advisors, raised an $8 million Series A round led by Earlybird VC, with JME Ventures and 4Founders Capital also weighing in. TechCrunch has more here.

K2 Space, a Los Angeles startup that aims to design and build large satellite buses, raised a $7 million round from investors including Alpine Space Ventures. The company has raised a total of $16 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Plan Forward, a five-year-old Indianapolis startup whose platform helps companies create, manage, and analyze dental membership plans, raised a $2 million seed round led by Elevate Ventures and including IU Ventures and Revere Partners. More here.

Zelus Analytics, a four-year-old Austin startup that helps sports teams gather analytics data, raised a $3.6 million round. Investors included RedBird Capital Partners, Gametime Capital, Teamworthy Ventures, 35V, and Billy Beane. TechCrunch has more here.

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RevRoad Capital, the venture unit of a six-year-old venture services firm for startups in Utah, has garnered $61 million in capital commitments for a debut fund that's focused primarily on local early-stage startups. TechCrunch has more here.

Made Renovation, a venture-backed bathroom remodeling startup that intrigued, then infuriated, its customers, is shutting down two months after we talked with its aggrieved user base. The company had raised at least $31 million from investors.

The CEO of UNest, a college savings app that raised almost $40 million, says the company is insolvent, according to leaked email seen by Business Insider. More here.

The office vacancy rate in San Francisco hit 30% at the end of last month, roughly two and a half times its historical average.

According to a study by the Federal Reserve, the average family's net worth rose 37% between 2019 and 2022, the largest increase the Federal Reserve has ever recorded.

Netflix said today that it plans to immediately raise prices for its basic plan in the U.S., which is no longer available to new customers, to $11.99 from $9.99 and up the cost of its premium plan to $22.99 from $19.99.

In its antitrust trial, Google is arguing that smart employees - not anti-competitive contracts - are the reason behind its remarkable success.

Defining artificial general intelligence (AGI) is proving to be maddeningly difficult. 

The U.S. is looking to "unman unmanned aircraft," such that fewer people are in the mix.

Stanford researchers just unveiled a scoring system known as the Foundation Model Transparency Index that rates 10 large AI language models on how transparent they are. The most transparent model of the 10, according to the researchers, is Meta's LLaMA 2, with a score of 54 percent. OpenAI's GPT-4 received the third-highest transparency score, at 40 percent, the same as Google's PaLM 2.

Nomophobia, the fear of losing your mobile phone.

Corgis floating in rafts.

A new pepper from the creators of the Carolina Reaper delivers 2.693 million Scoville Heat Units, hotter than law enforcement-grade pepper spray.

Ben Ling, a veteran tech investor and founder of Bling Capital, left San Francisco for Miami some time ago; now he's offering up his 9,704-square-foot Glen Park manse for a cool $22 million.