Massive layoffs at OpenSea, a strike averted at Klarna, and Musk teases the newest new thing

Friday.

Swedish BNPL fintech Klarna has narrowly dodged a strike. 

Elon Musk just tweeted that his AI company, xAI, will release its first product tomorrow. xAI hasn't revealed a lot about what it's up to other than to state that its mission is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”

A security researcher has discovered that a $200 Flipper device billed as a “portable multi-tool for pentesters and geeks” can launch denial of service attacks against any iPhone using iOS 17.

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Accelex, a five-year-old London startup that helps investment firms, asset managers, and hedge funds automate data-intensive tasks, such as data collection, data cleaning, and data analysis, raised a $15 million Series A round led by FactSet, with previous investors Illuminate Financial, AlbionVC, SixThirty Ventures, and Expon Capital also pitching in. FinTech Global has more here.

Covera Health, a six-year-old New York startup that uses AI and data analytics to help radiologists improve their accuracy and reduce misdiagnosis, raised a $25 million Series C extension led by previous investor Insight Partners. The company also acquired CoRead, which uses AI to flag medical errors on radiology examinations. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Gynesonics, a startup based in Redwood City, Ca., that is focused on developing minimally invasive ablation procedures for symptomatic uterine fibroids, raised a $42.5 million round co-led by previous investors Amzak Health, Endeavour Vision, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Runway Growth Capital, and Bain Capital, with new investor MVM Partners also participating. More here.

Memo Therapeutics, an 11-year-old Zurich company that's investigating a treatment for BK polyomavirus infection in kidney transplant recipients, raised a $27.7 million Series C round led by Pureos Bioventures, with additional participation from previous investors Swisscanto, Vesalius Biocapital, Adjuvant Capital, Verve Ventures, and Schroders Capital. Pharmaceutical Technology has more here.

Radius Agent, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup whose virtual real estate brokerage provides agents access to software tools as well as stock ownership, raised a $13 million Series B round led by AXA Venture Partners, with previous investors NFX and Cota Capital also stepping up. More here.

AirLoom Energy, a nine-year-old startup based in Laramie, Wy., that is developing a new type of wind turbine that uses a design that consists of a series of small, interconnected sails, raised a $4 million seed round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with Lowercarbon Capital and MCJ Collective also writing checks. TechCrunch has more here.

Carepatron, a two-year-old New Zealand startup that provides physicians with a platform to manage appointments, telehealth consultations, patient records, payments, and communications with other providers, raised a $4 million seed round. Blackbird and TQ Ventures were the co-leads. TechCrunch has more here.

Sprout.ai, a five-year-old London startup that says it uses AI to streamline and accelerate the insurance claims process, raised a $6.6 million round co-led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Praetura Ventures, with additional investors including Capricorn Capital Partners, Forefront Venture Partners, Verstra Ventures, and Portfolio Ventures Angel Fund as well as previous investors Octopus Ventures, Playfair, and Techstars. Reinsurance News has more here.

Verqor, a six-year-old Mexican startup that claims it can provide loans to farmers in “48 hours or less”, raised a $7.5 million pre-Series A round. Yara Growth Ventures was the deal lead, with Accion Venture Lab, SP Ventures, GLOCAL, and Amplifica Capital also anteing up. AgFunderNews has more here.

Wraithwatch, a startup founded this year based in Bozeman, Mt., that uses generative AI to generate realistic and sophisticated cyber threats that can then be used to train and test security systems, raised an $8 million seed round led by Founders Fund, with XYZ Capital and Human Capital also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Financial health isn’t just about the numbers. Meet Cleo, the AI assistant that’s defining a new category, one that goes beyond saving and budgets to actually changing how we feel about our finances. In fact, 84% of users feel better about their money after using Cleo for just 30 days. Recently named a Forbes 2023 Next Billion-Dollar startup with 100% YoY growth and $72m ARR, discover how Cleo is changing the world’s relationship to money.

Sheryl Sandberg, the longtime former COO at Meta Platforms, and her husband Tom Bernthal have started an investment firm to fund businesses in various sectors, as first reported yesterday by The Information. The new firm, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, uses the couple’s personal capital for “investing, supporting and scaling alongside great entrepreneurs,” according to its LinkedIn account.

Elon Musk's favorite writer - Stephen King - isn't the only person who prefers "Twitter" to"X." ("This X shit's got to go.")

According to a new report in The Information, X CEO Linda Yaccarino last weekend ordered her staff to remove a post supporting Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust after advertisers threatened to pull their accounts. 

If you're still clinging to the hope that Elon Musk will take on Mark Zuckerberg in a cage match, let it go: Zuck just tore his ACL.

Former President Barack Obama has been advising the Biden Administration on its approach to AI. “He helped really set the frame of mind that companies can innovate while also being responsible and that companies need to be accountable,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said.

OpenSea has laid off approximately half of its staff. In January 2022, the NFT marketplace raised a $300 million Series C round co-led by Paradigm and Coatue at a $13.3 billion valuation. 

Faire, a six-year-old startup whose marketplace connects independently owned businesses with brands and suppliers, has cut 20% of its staff. In May of last year, Faire closed a $416 million Series G extension at a $12.6 billion valuation. Investors in the company include Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Three former employees of the defense tech company Anduril who went on to raise $4 million in seed funding to build their aerospace hardware and supply chain software startup, are now being sued by Anduril. The 2,200-person outfit says in a lawsuit filed in September that one of those former employees purposefully wrote “substandard” code for Anduril and saved better versions of the code to use in the new startup. 

Can a "fediverse" of decentralized social networking applications compete against Meta, Snap, et. al.? Mozilla says yes.

Snap Maps have become an important tool for people looking for firsthand perspectives of the Israel-Hamas war.

The New Yorker asks, "Will the SBF verdict change anything?" The Atlantic says no: "The tech industry is designed for people like Sam Bankman-Fried."

Cruise believed in moving fast and breaking things. It didn't end well.

New software is giving artists the ability to confuse AI models and prevent them from scraping artists' work.

If you want to be a Sudoku champion, be prepared to take some "wild bifurcations."

You know the real estate market is in the dumps when Hamptons homeowners looking to sell agree to "massive price cuts."

Aston Martin's "hypercar on two wheels."

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