Arrival's rocky road, a Starlink IPO, and Elon Musk and Jimmy Wales are at it again

Yesterday, we announced that Alex Blania, CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity, the company behind Worldcoin, is joining us for our first StrictlyVC evening of the new year in January, but we also threw in two tidbits that we've since learned are wrong. We referenced local news reports that Blania was detained at an airport in Nairobi back in September; according to the company, the episode was misreported and he was neither detained nor arrested. We also said its iris-scanning orbs aren't in use yet in the Bay Area, but the company updated its website today to show that you actually can get your eyes scanned at one location, in Palo Alto. (WorldCoin is now also bringing some orbs to our San Francisco event, where you'll be able to get registered for a "World ID" or steer clear, depending on your preference!) 

The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta will permit political advertisers on Facebook and Instagram to question the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship rocket has been cleared for launch.

Google is now permitting teens to use Bard. (Said one teen, "What's Google?")

Meet the 30 most promising Digital Health companies this month. Eight companies from our June edition have already raised funds in the last three months! Check out our latest follow-up edition spotlighting the hottest Digital Health investments across diverse verticals like Mental Health, Health IT, Personalized Healthcare, Telehealth, and more. Meticulously curated using 100+ distinct KPIs from Synaptic, we've handpicked bootstrapped, seed, and early-stage funded startups! Don't miss out – secure your complimentary report today!

Blockchain.com, a 12-year-old London company that operates as both a crypto exchange and a wallet provider, raised a $110 million Series E round at less than half of the $14 billion valuation it secured in a 2022 round, according to Bloomberg. The deal was led by Kingsway Capital, with additional participation from Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, LSVP, GV, Access Industries, Moore Capital, Prudence, Freeman Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Pledge Ventures. Cointelegraph has more here.

Petvisor, a San Diego startup that helps veterinarians manage their practices and engage with customers, raised a $100 million round led by Apax Digital, with Frontier Growth and PeakSpan Capital also taking part. More here.

Urbanic, a five-year-old London startup that says it uses AI to generate "fashion, creativity, and content" for its eponymous fashion brand, raised a $150 million Series C round. Investors included Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation Fund, D1 Capital Partners, and JAM Fund. More here.

Vulcan Cyber, a startup that helps enterprises detect security vulnerabilities in their software stacks, raised a $55 million round led by Maor Investments and Ten Eleven Ventures, with  Dawn Capital and Wipro Ventures also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here. 

Kythera Labs, a four-year-old startup based in Franklin, Tn., that claims it can fix, improve, and add new dimensions to healthcare data, raised a $20 million round. BIP Ventures and CIBC co-led the deal. Hospital Management has more here.

OfferFit, a three-year-old Boston startup that says it wants to replace A/B testing for marketers with machine learning personalization, raised a $25 million Series B finding led by Menlo Ventures, with Ridge Ventures and Capital One Ventures as well as previous investors Canvas Ventures, Harmony Partners, Alumni Ventures Group, Carbide Ventures, and Burst Capital also pitching in. VentureBeat has more here.

Puzzle, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that bills itself as "the first generative accounting platform," raised a $30 million round led by S32 and XYZ Capital, with General Catalyst, Felicis, Kapor Capital, Sterling Road, Born Ventures, Soma Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Gaingels also piling on. FinTech Global has more here.

Sunnyside, a three-year-old San Francisco startup whose app promotes healthy drinking habits, raised an $11.5 million Series A round led by Motley Fool Ventures, with Will Ventures, Uncork Capital, Offline Ventures, Joyance Partners, Wisdom Ventures, Eudemian Ventures, Adjacent, and Scribble Ventures also chipping in. The company has raised a total of $14.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Vida Health, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that is focused on treating diabetes and obesity via a mobile app and a network of providers, raised a $28.5 million round led by previous investors including General Atlantic, Ally Bridge, Canvas Ventures, and Hercules Capital. More here.

Virdee, a three-year-old Austin startup that creates apps that hotels can use to enhance their guests' check-in experience and stay, raised a $12.4 million Series A round led by Moneta Ventures, with additional investors including Silverton Partners, Koch Real Estate Investments, Alumni Ventures, DJR Advisors, and Capital Factory. More here.

AllCity Network, a startup that curates sports videos and podcasts for fans in Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Phoenix, raised a $9.4 million Series A round. Mosaic (former NBA star Andre Iguodala's firm) led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $12.4 million. Essentially Sports has more here.

Apiture, a six-year-old startup based in Wilmington, N.C., that helps traditional financial institutions offer digital banking services, raised a $10 million round. T. Rowe Price was the deal lead. FinTech Global has more here.

BeMe Health, a two-year-old Miami startup that is developing software and content dedicated to delivering mental health interventions tailored specifically for teens, raised a $1.5 million round from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. The company has raised a total of $14.7 million. More here.

Fortuna Health, a New York startup that helps consumers navigate the Medicaid eligibility, enrollment, and recertification process, raised a $4 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with BoxGroup and Y Combinator also contributing. More here.

Fractl, a startup based in Cupertino, Ca., that has created a programming language for building generative AI applications, raised a $1 million pre-seed round led by WestWave Capital, with January Capital and Arka Venture Labs also investing. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Inito, an eight-year-old, India-based YC alum that helps women track fertility hormones quickly at home, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Fireside Ventures. The startup’s fertility monitor and kit is designed to give users easy-to-read fertility diagnostic results directly on their phone in just 10 minutes. TechCrunch has more here.

Layer Health, a Boston startup that employs LLMs and natural language processing to help healthcare providers unearth insights from written medical records, raised a $4 million round. The investment syndicate included Google Ventures, General Catalyst, and Inception Health. Voicebot.ai has more here.

Martian, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that has designed a tool that lets users automatically switch to the best LLM for a particular job, raised a $9 million round from investors including NEA, Prosus Ventures, Carya Venture Partners, and General Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.

Morf Health, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is building a data integration platform designed to reduce administrative work for healthcare providers, raised a $3 million round from Kindred Ventures. More here.

Pippin Title, a seven-year-old New York startup that claims to use AI to provide title search services for insurers, banks, and mortgage companies, raised an $8 million round led by Deciens Capital and including Joe Mansueto, Caruso Ventures, NKM Capital, and the University of Chicago Endowment. More here.

Radicl, a two-year-old startup based in Boulder, Co., whose software provides SMBs with cyber threat protection and compliance management tools, raised a $9 million round led by Paladin Capital Group, with additional funds provided by Access Ventures and DA Ventures Seed Fund. More here.

Refilled, a Sydney-based startup that makes refrigerator-size smart drink dispensers meant to be used with reusable bottles, has raised a $1.3 million AUD (about $845,000 USD) seed round led by impact investor Melt Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Resistomap, a five-year-old Helsinki startup that is developing a platform to monitor antimicrobial resistance, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Ananda Impact Ventures, with Gaingel also joining in. Tech.eu has more here.

Retorio, a five-year-old Munich startup that uses video analysis to identify and train successful behaviors of sales, service, and leadership teams, raised a $10 million Series A round led by SquareOne, with Porsche Ventures and Storm Ventures also investing. EU-Startups has more here.

Stockoss, a five-year-old Paris startup that provides digital warehousing and logistics services for customers such as Stellantis and Netflix, raised a $4.4 million seed round led by Pi Labs. EU-Startups has more here.

SuperCircle, a New York startup that helps fashion brands and retailers recycle their old clothes and reduce textile waste, raised a $7 million pre-Series A round co-led by Radicle Impact and Ulu Ventures, with additional investors including Earthshot Ventures, BBG Ventures, Lyra Ventures, and Blueprint Ventures. The Business of Fashion has more here.

Tradespace, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to help organizations manage their intellectual property portfolios, raised a $4.2 million seed round led by Eniac Ventures, with Abstract Ventures, Amplo VC, and Scrum Ventures also anteing up. More here.

This painting sold for $8 million, and everyday investors profited. When the painting by master Claude Monet was bought for $6.8 million and sold for $8 million just 631 days later, investors the offering got a return. All thanks to Masterworks, the award-winning platform for investing in blue-chip art. Masterworks does all of the heavy lifting like buying the painting, storing it, and eventually selling it. All 16 sales out of its portfolio have returned a profit to investors. Now, StrictlyVC readers can skip the waitlist to join.

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Coatue Management recently raised $1.4 billion for a companion fund to its $7.7 billion VC growth fund, and according to The Information, it's not charging existing investors in the growth fund management fees to invest in the companion fund. More here.

Female Founders Fund, a New York-based seed-stage firm, has registered plans with the SEC to start raising $75 million for its fourth fund, which would be its biggest to date. Its third and most recent fund closed with $57 million in capital commitments in 2021, including backing from Goldman Sachs, Pivotal Ventures, and Plexo Capital. TechCrunch has more here. (Pictured above: founding partner Anu Duggal.)

Material Impact, a seven-year-old, Boston-based venture firm, says it has raised a $352 million fund to back companies developing so-called deep technology, which is focused on innovations in science and engineering. More in the WSJ.

Arrival, a once buzzy EV startup that went public via a merger with a blank check company, is in its final death throes, reports TechCrunch. The company has secured a $50 million bridge loan, funds that will keep it afloat long enough to explore a potential sale, according to a regulatory filing. The loan has a term of 120 days and is being provided by Antara Capital and Highbridge Capital Management. 

Bloomberg is reporting that Starlink may spin off from SpaceX and go public as soon as next year, when it could have a whopping $10 billion in sales.

GV has appointed Roni Hiranand as a principal in its London office, where he will focus on investments in early- and late-stage startups across the frontier and enterprise technology sectors. Hiranand was previously with Vectr Ventures in Hong Kong.

In an op ed, Stability AI VP of Audio Ed Newton-Rex explains why he just resigned his position. (Hint: he objects to StabilityAI's practice of training its models on copyrighted material.) 

Sequoia Capital's Michael Moritz, who has lived in San Francisco for four decades, has dedicated more than $336 million since 2020 to social and political causes in the city, reports Bloomberg. Per its piece, he has funded hundreds of nonprofits and advocacy groups; created a civic engagement group; and formed a political action committee and a media outlet, the San Francisco Standard, to help offset diminishing local coverage. His personal foundation, Crankstart, which doles out hundreds of grants each year, is San Francisco’s largest, adds the outlet, with more than $5.1 billion in assets in 2021.

Jimmy Wales and Elon Musk are at it again. The Wikipedia founder told CNBC that X is "overrun by trolls and lunatics," and people are fleeing the platform. 

Sonos, the popular maker of smart speakers and audio gear, is cutting jobs in its product development organization as the company prepares to expand into headphones. Chief Product Officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin reportedly announced the move in an email to employees today. The company already cut back 7% of its staff back in June.

The percentage of TikTok users who say they get their news from the platform has hit 43%, almost double 2020's figure.

Businesses have been working to better manage their cloud budgets. Generative AI, which runs on the cloud, is making that much harder.

The price of Bitcoin is spiking: it's currently approaching almost $38,000, its highest valuation in a year.

NBA star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is trying to back out of his purchase of a $6.1 million Toronto mansion because of the stream of angry visitors looking for the home's previous owner, crypto con man Aiden Pleterski.

An Oscar campaign for Best Stunts.

The winner of January's $1.35 billion Mega Millions lottery is suing the mother of his child for telling his parents that he's a billionaire.

Check out the new trailer for Ridley Scott's Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix. Vive La France!

Show her that you care with these $12 million yellow diamond earrings. 

Tesla's CyberBeer is evidently not worth the wait. (One taste tester called it "hot garbage.")

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