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California's DMV has suspended Cruise's robotaxi permit, effective immediately. The DMV stated in its order that Cruise withheld the full video from an accident in which a pedestrian was killed. Cruise denies the charge.
California's attorney general along with 41 other state AGs are suing Meta for creating products that they claim are designed to be addictive to children and teens.
Snap's stock popped 11% in after-hours trading after revealing an earnings beat and news that over 200 million users have tried My AI, its new AI chatbot product.
According to a report in The Information, The Boring Company recently sold shares owned by employees and investors that value the Elon Musk startup at $7 billion.
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Adlumin, a seven-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that has built a security platform for SMBs, raised a $70 million Series B round led by SYN Ventures, with additional participation from First In Ventures, Washington Harbour Partners, and BankTech Ventures. CRN has more here.
Aiolos Bio, a startup founded this year based in San Francisco and London that is developing a new asthma drug, raised a $245 million Series A round co-led by Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Forbion, and Sofinnova Investments, with additional funds coming from RA Capital Management. BioPharma Dive has more here.
HqO, a five-year-old Boston startup whose software allows building owners to measure how employees use their buildings, raised a $50 million Series D round led by Koch Real Estate Investments, with previous investors Accomplice, Insight Partners, and Related also taking part. The company has raised a total of $200+ million. Forbes has more here.
Rebellions, a three-year-old Seoul startup that is developing AI chips, is reportedly in the market to raise a $100 million Series B round at a $500 million valuation, reports Bloomberg, which has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Aleph, a two-year-old Dubai startup whose platform enables finance and operations teams to reconcile financial data from different systems, raised a $16.7 million led by Bain Capital Ventures, with previous investors Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and Picus Capital also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.
Blockaid, an Israeli startup that offers a security layer that can scan every transaction from a wallet or interact with a decentralized app or a smart contract and is compatible with any blockchain network, raised a $27 million Series A round co-led by Ribbit Capital and Variant, with Cyberstarts, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock also contributing. The company has raised a total of $33 million. CTech has more here.
Daiz, an eight-year-old Japanese startup that is manufacturing plant-based meat, raised a $47.4 million Series C round. Investors included Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Roquette, Miyoshi Oil & Fat, and Kagoshima Bank. The company has raised a total of $87.5 million. Vegconomist has more here.
Husk Power Systems, a 15-year-old company based in Fort Collins, Co., that supplies mini grids to help electrify communities in rural Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, raised a $43 million Series D round co-led by STOA Infra & Energy, US International Development Finance Corporation, and Proparco, with previous investors Shell Ventures, Swedfund, and FMO also participating. It also raised $60 million in debt. TechCrunch has more here.
Noodle Cat Games, a one-year-old startup based in Salt Lake City, Ut., that is developing an action RPG video game, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Hiro Capital and including Makers Fund, KRAFTON, and Sony Innovation Fund. The company has raised a total of $16.1 million. VentureBeat has more here.
Oxolo, a three-year-old Hamburg startup that uses generative AI to create personalized videos for advertising, e-commerce, e-learning, and e-health, raised a $13.8 million Series A round. DN Capital led the transaction. TechCrunch has more here.
PhaseV, an Israeli startup that uses machine learning to optimize clinical trial design and analysis, raised a $15 million round. Viola Ventures and Exor Ventures co-led the deal, with LionBird also pitching in. CTech has more here.
Ternary, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that helps companies manage how much they’re spending on cloud resources across multiple public cloud providers, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Jump Capital, with Fin Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, and Gaingels also anteing up. The company has raised a total of approximately $20 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Zordi, a three-year-old Boston startup that develops autonomous greenhouses that use AI and robotics to optimize crop care, raised a $20 million round led by Khosla Ventures. iGrow News has more here.
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Cube.Exchange, a Melbourne startup that has built a cryptocurrency trading platform, raised a $9 million seed round. Backers included Asymmetry Technologies, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, Everstake, Foundation Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Third Kind Venture Capital, Arche Fund, and WW Ventures. Binance Square has more here.
Finerio Connect, a five-year-old Mexico City startup that provides an open finance platform for personalized financial products and services, raised a $6.5 million round led by Third Prime, with Visa, Bancolombia Ventures, Krealo, Alaya Capital, Gaingels, Plug and Play, and Winklevoss Capital also weighing in. TechCrunch has more here.
Flash Pack, a two-year-old London startup that organizes boutique trips for solo travelers in their 30s and 40s, raised a $6.2 million round led by JamJar Investments, with participation from previous investor PPF Group. PhocusWire has more here.
Prism Data, a New York startup that has developed an underwriting platform for financial institutions and fintechs, raised a $5 million seed round led by Obvious Ventures, with Citi Impact Fund and Core Innovation Capital also joining in. Fintech Finance has more here.
Ternary, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that helps companies manage their cloud software spend, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Jump Capital, with Fin Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, and Gaingels also anteing up. The company has raised a total of approximately $20 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Tofu, a San Francisco startup founded this year that uses generative AI to help B2B marketing teams create campaigns and source leads, raised a $5 million round led by Index Ventures and including SignalFire, Stage 2 Capital, and Liquid 2 Ventures. More here.
Triple-A, a six-year-old, Singapore-based digital currency payments startup, announced today it has raised a $10 million Series A from returning investors Peak XV (former Sequoia India and Southeast Asia) with additional backing from the MENA-focused venture firm Shorooq Partners, alongside undisclosed repeat backers. This round comes about a year after Triple-A’s $4 million seed round, bringing its total raised so far to $14 million. TechCrunch has more here.
Twelve Labs, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that is developing AI models to understand videos, raised a $10 million strategic round. Investors included Nvidia, Intel, and Samsung. The company has raised a total of $27 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Not-Clear-How-Much in Fundings |
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Perplexity, a 15-month-old, San Francisco-based developer of an AI–powered search engine that competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, is reportedly raising a round of funding from the venture firm IVP at a post-money valuation of around $500 milllion, up from a round that valued the company at $150 million post-money in March. The Information, which has the story, says the outfit is only generating $3 million in annual recurring revenue currently. More here.
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OrbiMed Advisors, the New York-based investment firm, has raised more than $4.3 billion to invest in healthcare at a time when many startups are struggling to secure funding. The outfit tells the WSJ it raised roughly $1.86 billion for its ninth venture-capital vehicle, $1.71 billion for its fourth royalties and credit pool, and a $751 million Asia fund, its fifth fund focused on the region.
Wellington Management, the Boston-based investment management firm, yesterday announced the final close of its first early-stage venture fund, Wellington Venture Investments I, with $150 million in capital commitments.
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Auttomatic, the startup behind WordPress, is acquiring Texts, a universal messaging app, for $50 million.
X alternative Pebble is shutting down. “I didn’t think that quite as many people — established organizations and newcomers — would try to do the same thing that we were doing and in very similar ways,” co-founder and CEO Gabor Cselle tells TechCrunch.
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FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will have to decide this week if he is going to testify in his own defense.
FTX cofounder Gary Wang; Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda; and Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at FTX, all pleaded guilty to charges a month after the crypto exchange and sister company’s downfall in November 2022. But they probably won't get jail time; more here.
Trevor Milton, the disgraced founder of the electric truck maker Nikola, has been ordered to pay the company about $165 million in damages. After it was revealed that an infamous Nikola marketing video showing an 18-wheeler truck appearing to drive on its own electric power was, in reality, rolling down a hill, Nikola’s stock price took a hit and investors suffered heavy losses.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is admitting that he made a huge mistake in exiting the mobile phone business and writing off his company's $7.6 billion acquisition of Nokia.
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Per Pitchbook: "While many large VC firms have reduced the values of their portfolios over the past year, Sequoia Capital has marked up 15 of its funds by an average of 9.2%, according to UC Regents' alternative investments report for the fiscal year ending June 30." The piece notes that Sequoia's returns stand in "stark contrast to industrywide performance. IRR across U.S.-based VC funds was -16.8% for the year ended Q1, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor."
Equity contributions to U.S. leveraged buyouts in the syndicated loan market have passed the 50% mark for the first time since PitchBook LCD began tracking such data in 1997, thanks to high interest rates.
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The owner of online women's magazine Jezebel is shopping the website to potential buyers, says Axios.
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Why GOMA may soon replace FAANG.
After a meteoric launch and a subsequent lull, Threads is growing again.
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Extreme ATV. Perfect for a zombie apocalypse.
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