The Okta Breach Grows Bigger, Elon Musk Sets X on Fire (Again), and a Roomba for Leaves

We're en route to Slush! It's not clear how much free time we'll have --  among other things, we're very much looking forward to talking with four of Benchmark's six general partners at the event, along with former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin -- but if you'll be there, too, send up a flare! We'd love to see some of you.

Holy sh*te. Okta has discovered that hackers who breached its network two months ago stole information on all users of its customer support system — a scope far greater than the 1% of customers the company had previously said were affected, notes Bloomberg.

The Information is reporting that tentative plans for OpenAI's new board do not include a seat for any of the company's investors. 

Allied Advisers updated our Q4 2022 report on SMB SaaS, a growing sector with notable successes such as the IPOs of Freshworks ($1.03B), Digital Ocean ($780M) and Klaviyo ($576M), and exits such as Mailchimp ($12B+). 99.9% of all US businesses are in the SMB segment. With rising SaaS adoption by SMBs for enhancing productivity, we remain optimistic on the long term view of this sector. Our report covers nuances of SMB SaaS, and we believe that this sector will continue to offer compelling opportunities for investors and buyers.

Naarea, a three-year-old French startup that is developing a nuclear reactor that uses molten salt as a coolant and a fuel carrier, which it claims is safer, more efficient, and more affordable than traditional nuclear reactors, is reportedly in the market to raise a Series A of approximately $165 million, says Bloomberg, which has more here.

Pika Labs, a Palo Alto startup founded this year that is building AI tools to generate and edit videos, raised a $55 million round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Homebrew, Conviction Capital, SV Angel, Ben's Bites, Quora founder Adam D’Angelo, ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and Giphy co-founder Alex Chung also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

ZeroAvia, a six-year-old startup based in Hollister, Ca., that is developing hydrogen-electric airplane engines, raised a $116 million Series C round co-led by the UK Infrastructure Bank, Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, and NEOM Investment Fund. More here.

Candex, a 12-year-old New York company that claims its platform automates and streamlines the vendor management and payment process, raised a $45 million Series B round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with World Innovation Lab and previous investors Altos, NFX, Craft, JP Morgan, American Express, and Edenred also taking part. The company has raised a total of $85 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Hexa, a 12-year-old Paris company that incubates B2B software startups, raised a $22 million round from family offices and angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Hololight, an eight-year-old startup based in Innsbruck, Austria, that claims its platform allows companies like BMW to stream Extended Reality (XR) applications to their employees regardless of their location or device, raised a $12 million round led by Flatz Hoffman, with EnBW New Ventures, Bayern Kapital, and Future Energy Ventures also investing. The company has raised a total of $27 million. EU-Startups has more here.

Lassie, a three-year-old Stockholm startup that publishes a pet health app and offers pet insurance, raised a $25.3 million Series B round led by Balderton Capital, with additional participation from previous investors Felix Capital, Inventure, Passion Capital, and Philian. The company has raised a total of $40.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.

One Click LCA, a 22-year-old Helsinki company whose platform helps customers like Skanska calculate and reduce the environmental impact of buildings and infrastructure projects, raised a $44 million round. PSG Equity and InfraVia co-led the deal. Tech Funding News has more here.

Scapia, a one-year-old Bengaluru startup that offers Indian consumers a travel platform and co-branded credit card with no foreign exchange mark-up, raised a $23 million Series A round co-led by Elevation Capital and 3State Ventures, with Matrix Partners India and Tanglin Venture Partners also pitching in. TNGlobal has more here.

Second Front Systems, a startup based in Wilmington, De., that claims its platform enables software providers to quickly and securely deploy their applications to government customers, raised a $40 million Series B round led by NEA, with previous investors Moore Strategic Ventures and AE Industrial Partners HorizonX also contributing. The company has raised a total of $80.1 million. More here.

Augment, a one-year-old New York startup that offers an MBA program that is entirely online and delivered through a mix of videos from business leaders, real-world case studies, interactive quizzes, written assignments, and downloadable handbooks, raised a $6 million seed round led by RTP Global, with additional funds provided by Motier Ventures, Origins Fund, Kima Ventures, Bpifrance, and Financière Saint James. TechCrunch has more here.

Birdseye, a two-year-old Toronto startup that uses AI to help retailers match potential customers with products they are likely to be interested in, raised a $3 million round. Drive Capital led the transaction. The company has raised a total of $3.5 million. BetaKit has more here.

ClimateAlpha, a four-year-old Singapore startup whose AI-based platform helps real estate owners and investors analyze the impact of climate change on their portfolios, raised a $5 million seed round. Jungle Ventures was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

CoordinateHQ, a startup based in Redwood City, Ca., that is developing project management software for client service organizations, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Initialized, with Webb Investment Network also chipping in. More here.

Vimcal, a five-year-old New York startup whose calendar app lets users create meetings with natural language sentences, schedule meetings with others, and find free time for all members of a team, raised a $4.5 million round led by Altos Ventures. The company has raised a total of $6.9 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Wind, a one-year-old Singapore startup whose crypto wallet is designed for the average consumer and lets users send and receive payments, store their crypto, and exchange crypto for regular money, raised a $3.8 million pre-seed round co-led by Global Founders Capital and Spartan Group, with Saison Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Tiny VC also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Vivek Ramaswami, Partner at Madrona Venture Group, recently told Affinity: “You can feel the shift happening of seeing more deals in series B+ stages. It's getting people excited, there’s an element that things are coming back.” He's just one contributor to Affinity's new deal sourcing guide. Get the guide to ensure your team is ready with deal sourcing strategies designed for 2024. Download now.

Is Reddit's long-planned IPO finally going to happen? 

RIP Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway and a legendary investor in his own right. “We think so much alike that it’s spooky,” Buffett once said. “He’s as smart and as high-grade a guy as I’ve ever run into.” More here, here, and here. 

Mark Cuban says he is leaving Shark Tank to spend more time with his kids. "Phew," said his pocketbook.

If X were a house, one might reasonably suspect that Elon Musk was trying to burn it to the ground in order to collect the insurance. The billionaire tweeted today in support of Pizzagate, a debunked QAnon conspiracy theory. He deleted the post in less than an hour.

German scooter startup Tier has laid off 22% of its staff in an effort to reach profitability, the company claims. The company has raised over $600 million in equity and debt from investors like SoftBank and sported a $2 billion valuation way back in October of 2021.

A group of prominent female tech luminaries spoke to Wired about why they would never want to join OpenAI's all-male, all-white board.

Make sure your Google accounts are active, or they might soon be deleted.

A video of a mom desperately trying to stop her son from throwing out food past its expiration date is taking TikTok by storm.

Sports Illustrated is trying to deflect charges that it ran articles by fake writers with AI-generated profile pictures, but it's not going so well. 

A Christmas ad from Apple worth watching.

"Please buy Tesla’s Cybertruck, which is cool, not stupid."

La Dune is da bomb. Check out this epic Southampton beachfront spread, marked down from its original $150 million asking price.

Avoid the scowls and bleeding eardrums of your neighbors with this robot leaf blower, which can vanquish your leaves without your ever having to leave the house. 

Dealmakers are feeling optimistic about the year ahead, but do you have the right strategies in place to maintain your competitive edge? Download Affinity's new deal sourcing guide and get insights from firms like Fifty Years, 01 Advisors, and 8VC about how they're thinking about sourcing deals in 2024. Get your copy of the guide today.