Rivian's new vans plan, Google Bard's new feature, and Coatue reportedly slashes the value of its OpenSea bet by 90%

A former Facebook engineering director testified today before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Meta's top executives (including CEO Mark Zuckerberg) ignored his warnings about the danger that platforms like Instagram posed for teens.

Some coincidence, huh? A coalition of tech companies (Discord, Google, Mega, Meta, Quora, Roblox, Snap, and Twitch) announced today that it has agreed to share signals about potential child predators.  

Both parties gave opening statements on the first day of Epic Games' long-delayed lawsuit against Google for allegedly exerting a monopolistic degree of control over game developers. 

According to The Information, Coatue has cut the value of its stake in OpenSea from $120 million to $13 million, implying that OpenSea's valuation has plummeted from $13.3 billion in January, 2022, to less than $1.4 billion today. 📉

The State of Venture Capital - a look back at Q3 2023. While Q2 saw a promising upswing in capital raised by venture funds, new data puts Q3 at a nearly decade-long low. In Juniper Square’s latest update, Eugene Tetlow, Head of Strategy for Private Equity and Venture Capital, breaks down Q3’s VC fundraising trends, surprising exit values, and average fund sizes. Get the insights.

You might imagine that if two former Twitter chieftains and a longtime C-suite Facebook exec agreed to build a venture firm together, they would chase after nascent social networks.

You’d be wrong. 01 Advisors, an outfit founded in 2018 by former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and former Twitter COO and president Adam Bain, tells TechCrunch exclusively that it just locked down $395 million in capital commitments for a third fund based on the traction the team has enjoyed by investing primarily in Series B-stage startups that sell business software and fintech services.

Some of their most valuable stakes tie to Tipalti, a finance automation platform that was valued at $8.3 billion during the heady days of 2021; SpotOn, which focuses on restaurant and small business payment processing (valued at $3.6 billion last year); HoneyBook, which helps small businesses book clients, manage projects and get paid (it was valued at $2.4 billion in 2021); and Linear, a project management platform that was reportedly valued at $400 million in September, when Accel led its newest round.

Bringing on David Fischer — an 11-year veteran of Facebook who began as its VP of marketing and left as its chief revenue officer — surely helped the effort, given his own extensive network. Indeed, though Fischer joined 01 Advisors last year as an operating partner, he becomes its third general partner with this new vehicle, which brings the firm’s total assets under management to $920 million.

More than two years after writing about the outfit’s last fund, we talked with the three last week to learn more about this newest effort and what they’re building with their other colleagues; why Fischer didn’t start a firm of his own; and yes, what they think of the craziest social media story of the year. We’re publishing our longer conversation via podcast later this week; in the meantime, excerpts from that chat follow, edited lightly for length and clarity.

You don’t take board seats. Why not?

DC: We don’t. Part of that was Bill Campbell-ism. When [the legendary business coach] was helping us at Twitter, he had been asked to take the independent board seat and Campbell said, ‘I don’t want to be on the board because I want to know what’s going on in the company.’ There are just a bunch of times where you want someone you can talk to who’s not on the board but who maybe has some of the same stakes in the game and who you can also bounce things off. Like, ‘Hey, can you sit in an all-hands meeting and see if my message is resonating with the team?’ You don’t really necessarily want a board member sitting in the back of the room on that.

David, how did you enter into the picture?

DF: I’ve known Dick and Adam for a bunch of years. Dick and I overlapped back at Google more years ago than I care to admit or think about and Adam and I had similar roles and we were in a lot of the same places and had a lot of the same clients and may even have competed more than a few times out in the business world.

Did you think about launching your own fund?

DF: It’s funny you ask that. I was actually going through a process of thinking about doing exactly that. I actually said to [Dick and Adam], sitting with them in the same room they’re sitting in right now in San Francisco, ‘Wow, this is exactly what I’ve been thinking about.’ And to be honest, I’ve always loved being part of a team and being collaborative. I wasn’t so sure I really wanted to do it on my own. I was trying to figure it out and it just kind of clicked as I talked to them.

01 Advisors invested its first two funds — around $525 million — into pretty frothy markets by sheer dint of when you founded the firm . . .

More here.

Black Ore Technologies, an Austin startup whose platform is designed to streamline tasks for accountants and other financial services professionals, raised a $60 million round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Oak HC/FT, with additional participation from General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin. Bloomberg has more here.

Enable, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform helps companies keep track of B2B rebates, raised a $120 million Series D round at a $1 billion pre-money valuation. The deal was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with additional participation from previous investors Menlo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Insight Partners, and Sierra Ventures. The company has raised a total of $276 million. TechCrunch has more here.

May Mobility, a six-year-old startup based in Ann Arbor, MI, that is developing self-driving systems for municipal and business customers, raised a $105 million Series D round led by NTT Group, with Toyota Ventures, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., State Farm Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Cyrus Capital, and Trucks VC also participating. The company has raised a total of $300 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Refurbed, a six-year-old Vienna startup that operates a marketplace for refurbished and upgraded electronics, raised a $57 million Series C round co-led by previous investors Evli Growth Partners and C4 Group, with All Iron Venture and Speedinvest also pitching in. Forbes has more here.

Volante Technologies, a 22-year-old company based in Jersey City, NJ, that provides low-code cloud payments services to 150 banks and other organizations providing financial services, raised a $66 million round in both equity and debt led by Sixth Street Growth, with Wavecrest Growth Partners and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Xpressbees, an eight-year-old Indian startup that provides logistics support for financial firms and e-commerce companies, raised an $80 million led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. TechCrunch has more here.

Cast AI, a four-year-old Miami startup that helps companies optimize their cloud spend, raised a $35 million Series B round led by Vintage Investment Partners, with Creandum and Uncorrelated Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $73 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Curious, a Seattle-based startup that seeks to pay roughly $1 million to $15 million for software companies that generate from $500,000 to $5 million in annual recurring revenue, raised a $16 million round from TTCER Partners, Granite Point Partners, Endurance Search Partners, The Nashton Company, and the Westerly Group. (Presumably, it will also be using debt to fund these deals.) The WSJ has more here. 

Finkargo, a two-year-old Bogotá startup whose platform provides SMBs with trade financing and other trade-related services, raised a $20 million Series A round led by QED Investors, with Nazca as well as previous investors Quona, Flybridge, Maya, and ONEVC also contributing. FinTech Global has more here.

Frenetic, an eight-year-old Madrid startup that says it designs and produces high-frequency magnetic components for any device that requires power, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Kibo Ventures, with previous investors 42Cap, Join Capital, Bankinter, Bonsai, and Big Sur also joining in. Tech.eu has more here.

L-Nutra, a 14-year-old Los Angeles company that develops nutritional programs to counter the aging process, raised a $47 million first tranche of its Series D round. Brentwood Associates and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel co-led the deal. More here.

Needed, a six-year-old Los Angeles startup that sells perinatal supplements for women, raised a $14 million round led by The Craftory, with previous investors Seae Ventures and Crescent Ridge Partners also anteing up. More here.

Qomodo, an Italian startup that provides BNPL services to retailers, raised a $36.8 million pre-seed round led by Fasanara Capital, with Exor Ventures, Proximity Capital, Ithaca Investment, Lumen Ventures, The Techshop, Primo Ventures, Notion Capital, Octopus Ventures, and Plug&Play also piling on. (What even is a $36.8 million pre-seed round?!) Silicon Canals has more here.

Talus Renewables, a two-year-old Austin startup that develops sustainably produced ammonia for commercial use, raised a $22 million Series A round co-led by Material Impact and Xora Innovation, with Cavallo Ventures and Rice Investment Group also stepping up. Renewables Now has more here.

Bioomix, a two-year-old Danish startup that develops all-natural microbial products that it claims can help farmers achieve a better yield with fewer chemicals and emissions, raised a $6.7 million round led by West Hill Capital, with previous investors PreSeed Ventures, Planetary Impact Ventures, and HBL Invest also opting in. ArcticStartup has more here.

BioPhy, a four-year-old Philadelphia startup that uses AI to provide quantitative metrics regarding the success of drugs and clinical trials, raised a $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Metodora Ventures, with Audere Capital and TRCM also participating. Technical.ly has more here.

Daytona, a New York startup that aims to provide an easy way for developers to spin up standardized development environments on their company's cloud infrastructure, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by 500, with Tiny.vc, Silicon Gardens, Darkmode VC, and Firestreak Ventures also dealing in. More here.

Due, a London startup that is building an international payment platform using blockchain protocols, raised a $3.3 million round co-led by Semantic and Fabric Ventures and including BlockTower, Speedinvest, Polymorphic Capital, and Discovery Ventures. The Block has more here.

Fibmold, a one-year-old Indian startup that creates eco-friendly, molded fiber packaging products that mimic the functionality of rigid plastics, raised a $10 million round. Omnivore and Accel co-led the deal. Outlook Startup has more here.

Redex, a five-year-old Singapore startup that provides a trading platform for renewable energy certificates, raised a $10 million Series A. Aramco Ventures was the lead investor. Reuters has more here.

ReturnGO, a three-year-old Tel Aviv startup that helps e-commerce clients like merchants selling on Amazon, raised a $4.8 million round. Trestle Partners was the deal lead. The company has raised a total of $11.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Risk Ledger, a three-year-old London startup that helps customers monitor the security of their supply chains, raised a $7.8 million Series A round led by Mercia Ventures, with additional funds provided by Seedcamp, Firstminute Capital, Episode 1, Village Global, and Lifeline Ventures. The company has raised a total of $12 million. Forbes has more here.

Sift, a one-year-old Los Angeles startup whose telemetry software helps companies collect, store, analyze, and visualize machine data, raised a $7.5 million round co-led by Riot Ventures and Fika Ventures, with First Resonance, Datum, and Duro also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Sock, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that has created a mobile investing app for casual crypto investors, raised a $2.8 million seed round led by Haven Ventures, with additional capital supplied by Designer Fund, Expansion, Spacecadet Ventures, Sunflower Fund, and Olive Capital. More here.

Superhog, a four-year-old British startup that helps property managers minimize risk and disruptions in short-term rentals, raised a $6.7 million Series A round co-led by 6 Degrees Capital, Hambro Perks, and Solano Partners. PhocusWire has more here.

Tvarit, a four-year-old Frankfurt startup that is focused on improving the sustainability of metal manufacturing, raised a $6.9 million Series A round led by Momenta, Futury Capital, and 4impact capital, with participation from previous investor Matterwave Ventures. Carbon Herald has more here.

Harmonic AI is the startup discovery tool trusted by VCs and sales teams like Accel, YC, Brex and hundreds more. With Harmonic, you can: (1) Discover new startups in any sector, geography, or stage including stealth. (2) Track companies’ performance with insights on fundraising, hiring, web traffic, and more. (3) Monitor people in your network for the next generation of founders. Create your first search today.

IBM has launched a new $500 million fund called the Enterprise AI Venture Fund that will be focused on investing in enterprise AI startups across all stages.

There's a new venture fund focused on Southern Europe. Founded by Glovo founders Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud, along with former Atomico investor Adam Lasri, Yellow is launching with €30 million in capital commitments to write pre-seed checks. TechCrunch has more here.

KKR, the private equity giant, says it has raised $2.8 billion for its second global impact fund. (This is separate from the multibillion-dollar KKR fund we told you about last month.)

Bloomberg is reporting that stablecoin issuer Circle Internet is considering going public. Last year, it tried and failed to go public via a blank-check deal. Circle's investors include Goldman Sachs, General Catalyst, and BlackRock. 

Barack Obama on the future of AI, free speech, and the Internet. 

Apparently, a lot of people are willing to let Elon Musk's Neuralink chip live rent-free in their brain.

According to Puck, OpenAI chief Sam Altman is at least a little intrigued by Dean Philips, the Minnesota congressman who last week kicked off a long-shot challenge to President Joe Biden. Altman reportedly met with Philips for an hour last week at Altman's home in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood, and he's reportedly "intrigued. . . .Sam is very worried that Trump is going to get elected. That’s where he’s coming from," says this Puck source.

Has WeWork's demise permanently ruined Masayoshi Son's reputation as an investor? Aswath Damodaran, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, tells Bloomberg, “You can recover from mistakes, but how do you recover from the perception that you don’t know what you’re doing?” 

Rivian vans are no longer an Amazon exclusive.

Google Bard has introduced a new feature -- "human review" --   sparking privacy concerns over conversation monitoring.

The actors' union and the major studios may have finally reached an agreement on AI and the way that the studios use scans of actors. (Studios may no longer use scans of deceased performers without the consent of their estate or SAG-AFTRA.)

Orcas sink another yacht. All in good fun, say experts.

If you're thinking about getting a Tesla Cybertruck, you might want to think again.

Antidepressants or Tolkien?

An AI toothbrush from Oral-B.

Book a room on Necker Island. 

A 1970 Chevy Suburban that runs seven figures.

Affinity's annual guide to VC deal sourcing is here! This year’s edition is packed full of actionable advice and insights from top dealmakers. See what they had to share, and discover the strategies that will help your firm source more high-quality deals in the year ahead. Get your copy.