Stinky cheese, legendary VCs, and Apple (seemingly) takes the hammer to Beeper Mini

Vinod Khosla --  the legendary VC who is lately in the headlines for gambling big on OpenAI when it first transitioned to a for-profit company -- is coming to our StrictlyVC event in San Francisco late next month. We're thrilled, to say the least. If you don't already have a ticket, don't wait too long (really). As a reminder, we'll also be sitting down with Worldcoin, the intriguing and also controversial cryptocurrency project known for its gleaming, iris-scanning orbs -- which it is bringing, by the way.

And we'll have more announcements between now and then. In the meantime, we want to say a hearty thank you to Felicis, the global early-stage venture firm, for its team's ongoing support of these evenings as our anchor partner. 🙏 We also want to thank Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn of Cloudflare for generously providing their space for all of us to gather. Not last, major thanks to Harmonic.AI, the "complete startup database," which has also partnered with us on this one. 

See you back here on Monday! In the meantime, if you're looking for a weekend listen, check out the newest StrictlyVC Download, with investor David Pakman, who spent 13 years with Venrock before joining the crypto and blockchain-focused fund CoinFund in 2021. 

Pakman is a true believer. (He was mining Bitcoin from his Palo Alto home in 2015.) Naturally, he's elated that Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry is having yet another resurgence. We talked with him about what he thinks is going on out there - and how long it might last this time. Hope you enjoy it.

This week's episode comes to you courtesy of Juniper Square, an investment management platform for all the private markets. Learn more here.

The FDA has approved the first Crispr gene-editing drug.

The E.U. has agreed on a new law that will require more transparency from the makers of AI chatbots and other forms of artificial intelligence. Still, the law will not take effect for at least a year, and many doubt whether it will be able to keep pace with the technology's rapid pace of growth.

Bloomberg is reporting that the FTC is examining Microsoft's investment in OpenAI and whether it might violate antitrust laws, but no formal inquiry has been launched. 

That was fast and predictable: the CEO of Beeper Mini claims that Apple has cut off his app, which allows Android users to participate in iMessage chats without the stigma of having their responses appear in a green bubble.

Shortly after a data breach involving 6.9 million consumer profiles, 23andMe changed its terms of service to prevent users from suing it or joining in a class action against the company. 

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ContactMonkey, a twelve-year-old Toronto company that helps companies create, send, and track internal communications from email and other platforms, raised a $55 million Series A round. Updata Partners was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Koho Financial, a nine-year-old Toronto neobank that offers free spending and savings accounts with instant cash back, raised a $63.2 million Series D extension round at a $588.7 million valuation. Investors included Drive Capital, Eldridge Industries, HOOPP, Portage, Round13, BDC, and TTV. Fintech Finance has more here.

Air Space Intelligence, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that has developed machine learning-powered software to help optimize aircraft flight operations, raised a $34 million Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with additional participation from previous investors Bloomberg Beta, Renegade Partners, and Spark Capital. Aviation Week has more here.

AutogenAI, a one-year-old London startup that uses AI to automate the RFP process, raised a $39.5 million Series B round co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Spark Capital, with Blossom Capital also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $65.3 million. VentureBeat has more here.

Opal Security, a three-year-old New York and San Francisco startup that helps companies manage access and identities for their employees, raised a $22 million Series B round led by Battery Ventures, with previous investors Greylock and Box Group also taking part. The company has raised a total of $32 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Rhythms, a startup based in Bellevue, Wa., that says it uses AI to identify the working patterns of top-performing teams, raised a $26 million seed round co-led by Greenoaks and Madrona, with Accel, Cercano, and Founders’ Co-op also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Simply Homes, a three-year-old startup based in Portland, Me., that buys and renovates single-family homes in blighted neighborhoods and rents them out to lower-income families, raised a $22 million round co-led by Gutter Capital and Watchung Capital, with Village Global, Ambush Capital, and RavenOne Ventures also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Atla AI, a startup that is building technology to improve the truthfulness and reliability of generative AI models, raised a $5 million round led by Creandum, with Y Combinator and Rebel Fund also investing. Tech.eu has more here.

DataCebo, a three-year-old Boston startup that claims it can build, deploy, and manage generative AI models for enterprise-grade applications when real data is limited or unavailable, raised an $8.5 million seed round co-led by Link Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners, with Uncorrelated Ventures also chipping in. More here.

Gacha Monsters, a Tokyo startup that publishes a web3 game called Poglin, raised a $3 million seed round from Animoca Brands, Infinity Ventures Crypto, FBG, and Big Time Games. More here.

InpharmD, a five-year-old Atlanta startup that assists hospitals and clinicians with literature searches, raised a $6 million seed round led by 645 Ventures, with additional investors including Atlanta Ventures, Y Combinator, Qlarant Capital, and SF ELC. More here.

Mulberri, a two-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, Ca., that provides insurance products for SMBs, raised a $6.8 million Series A round led by Eos Venture Partners, with previous investors Hanover Technology Management, MS&AD Ventures, and Altamont Capital Partners also stepping up. FinTech Global has more here.

Sindri, a one-year-old Denver startup that helps developers build and deploy zero-knowledge applications, raised a $5 million seed round led by CoinFund. The Block has more here.

Solvento, a two-year-old startup based in Santa Fe, Mexico, that helps businesses in the trucking industry automate and speed up their collections and payments, raised a $3.5 million seed extension led by Quona Capital and joined by Dynamo Ventures, Ironspring Ventures, Proeza Ventures, and Zenda VC. Tech Funding News has more here.

Picasso’s $139 million sale reveals unexpected investment opportunity. Last month, an iconic Picasso shattered expectations when it sold for a whopping $139 million. Impressive, considering it was purchased for around $1 million in the late 1960’s. But there’s a group also celebrating this sale: 61,000 everyday investors. Why? Because they invest with Masterworks, a platform that enables anyone to invest in blue-chip paintings. With 3 recent sales investors saw net annualized returns of +17.6%, +21.5% and +35%. Strictly VC readers can skip the waitlist.

*Investing involves risk and past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures and aggregate advisory performance masterworks.com/cd.

Harpoon Ventures, a five-year-old venture firm that invests in so-called dual use technologies — commercial products that can also be sold to federal agencies -- has garnered $125 million in capital commitments for its fourth fund, including from Andreessen Horowitz veteran Peter Levine and former Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. The outfit's last fund closed in 2021 with $122.5 million. Bloomberg has more here.

Thirteen-year-old Tola Capital, which invests in in AI-enabled enterprise software, is the latest venture capital firm to announce its new fund, securing $230 million in capital commitments for its third vehicle -- its largest fund to date. TechCrunch has more here.

Near Intelligence, a Pasadena, Ca.-based, publicly traded software firm that provides data insights to major companies including Wendy’s Co. and Ford Motor Co., filed for bankruptcy today with plans to sell itself. The outfit, which went public less than a year ago through a SPAC, listed estimated assets of at least $50 million and liabilities of $100 million, according to court papers flagged by Bloomberg.

Elon Musk is not backing down from statement that advertisers who have boycotted X because of his anti-semitic post should "go f--- yourself." He had this to say about Bob Iger.

According to a report in The Washington Post, complaints from senior employees that OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman created "pockets of chaos" played a major role in the board's decision to fire him. 

Ilya Sutskever is a proverbial "dead man walking" at OpenAI. (As noted by the above Post article, on Wednesday, Sutskever shared a cryptic post on X about learning many lessons in the past month. “One such lesson is that the phrase ‘the beatings will continue until morale improves’ applies more often than it has any right to,” he wrote. The Post says the tweet was quickly deleted.)

D2iQ, a 10-year-old San Francisco startup backed by investors like Andreessen Horowitz that helps organizations manage and run Kubernetes implementations, is shutting down. The company had raised approximately $250 million.

Luxury stores are bursting with unsold stuff.

The Verge asks the question: Why is Grok so unfunny?

Alibaba has officially lost its lead in ecommerce thanks in large part to Beijing's regulatory crackdown. 

The world's smelliest cheese sells out.

Peach Fuzz is Pantone's "color of the year."

A gift-wrapping guide for recently divorced dads.

Stavros Halkias knows when you are lying.

Private islands for sale. 

"Monster" diamonds.

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