Amazon's iRobot deal is in danger, a Donkey Kong dispute is resolved, and the real cost of those Old Skool Vans

According to a report in the WSJ, the EU is gearing up to block Amazon's planned acquisition of iRobot, which makes the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner. After the report came out, iRobot shares sank almost 40% in after-hours trading.

It's not just you, Amazon. The EU is also taking crypto firms to task by requiring that they conduct "customer due diligence measures when carrying out transactions amounting to €1,000 ($1,090) or more."

Eek. Vans and Supreme owner VF Corp says hackers stole the personal data of 35 million customers.

Renowned VC Aileen Lee and her Cowboy Ventures' colleagues take a look at "papercorns," "superunicorns," and everything in between in this deep dive into the venture industry's last decade.

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Digital Onboarding, an eight-year-old Boston startup whose platform helps banks and credit unions improve their engagement with customers through creating microsites and targeted communications, raised a $58 million round. Volition Capital led the transaction. TechCrunch has more here.

Everphone, a seven-year-old Berlin startup that manages smartphones and tablets for businesses, raised a $293.2 million Series D round. Investors included Citigroup, Phoenix Insurance, KfW, and Capnor as well as previous investors Cadence Growth Capital, Calista, signal ventures, and Alleycorp. Silicon Canals has more here.

Flowdesk, a three-year-old Paris startup that provides trading and liquidity for clients interested in buying and selling cryptocurrencies, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Cathay Innovation, with additional participation from Cathay Ledger Fund, Eurazeo, ISAI, Speedinvest, BPI, and Ripple. CoinDesk has more here.

Forta, an AI-enabled, family-powered autism therapy company, says it just closed on $55 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. Alumni Ventures and Exor Ventures also participated in the round, as well as numerous founders. MobiHealth News has more here.

Myrealtrip, a Seoul-based startup that partners with thousands of travel agencies, hotel platforms, and airfare comparison service providers like Expedia, Agoda, and Viator to help travelers book services tours, activities, restaurants, local transportation, and accommodations, says it has raised $56.7 million in Series F funding. Returning investors BlueRun Ventures Korea and IMM Investment co-led the round, which brings its total raised to approximately $113 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Kashable, a 10-year-old New York company that provides loans to employees through their workplaces which are then repaid through payroll deductions, raised a $25.6 million Series B round co-led by Revolution Ventures and Moneta Ventures, with EJF Capital and Krillion Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $220 million in debt and equity. TechCrunch has more here.

Kiln, a five-year-old Paris startup whose platform is designed to make it easier for consumers and businesses to stake their crypto assets, raised a $17 million led by 1kx and including Crypto.com, IOSG, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC, and LBank. The company has raised a total of $35 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Lightship, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that is designing and manufacturing an electric RV, raised a $34 million Series B round co-led by Obvious Ventures and Prelude Ventures, with participation from Allegis Capital, Thor Industries, TechNexus Venture Collaborative and previous investors Congruent Ventures, HyperGuap, and Alumni Ventures. More here.

Oleria, a two-year-old Seattle startup whose software is designed to prevent and respond to security breaches by automating security tasks and simplifying the management of internal access to systems, raised a $33.1 million Series A round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with additional funds supplied by Salesforce Ventures, Tapestry VC, and Zscaler. The company has raised a total of $40 million. GeekWire has more here.

Pomelo, a three-year-old Buenos Aires startup whose software enables businesses to manage and process payments from customers, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Kaszek, with Monashees, Index Ventures, S32, TQ Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst also participating. The company has raised a total of $103 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Prota Therapeutics, a seven-year-old Melbourne startup that will shortly conduct a Phase 3 clinical trial for its oral therapy treatment for peanut allergy, raised a $21 million round in equity and debt. SGI was the deal lead. StartupDaily has more here.

Recraft, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that has built an AI graphic design generator designed for professionals, raised a $12 million Series A round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Nat Friedman, with participation from RTP Global, Abstract VC, Basis Set Ventures, and Elad Gil. TechCrunch has more here.

SeeTree, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup that uses AI to help growers track the health and productivity of their trees, raised a $17.5 million Series C round co-led by HSBC Asset Management and EBRD, with OurCrowd, SmartAgro, Hanaco Ventures, Mindest Ventures, the Kitchen Fund, Orbia Ventures, and Citrosuco also piling on. CTech has more here.

TrusTrace, a seven-year-old Stockholm startup that helps fashion brands like Adidas track and manage the sustainability and ethical aspects of their supply chains, raised a $24 million led by Circularity Capital, with previous investors Industrifonden and Fairpoint Capital also anteing up. JustStyle has more here.

ZymoChem, a 10-year-old company based in San Leandro, Ca., that uses a special fermentation process to produce materials that are biodegradable and have minimal carbon dioxide emissions, raised a $21 million Series A round round. Breakout Ventures was the deal lead, with additional capital provided by from lululemon and Toyota Ventures. More here.

Briq, whose platform allows construcution companies to automate their financial workflows, raised an $8 million extension round at a $150 million valuation. MetaProp, Blackhorn, and Eniac co-led the investment, with Nemetschek as well as previous investor Tiger Global also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Element Zero, a two-year-old Perth startup that says it has developed a way to cost-effectively convert metal ores such as iron and nickel to pure metals with zero carbon emissions, raised a $10 million seed round led by Playground Global. TechNode Global has more here.

Kusari, a one-year-old startup based in Ridgefield, CT, that helps businesses identify and fix vulnerabilities in their software supply chains, raised an $8 million round. J2 Ventures, Glasswing Ventures, and Unusual Ventures invested in the deal. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Lative, a one-year-old Dublin startup that helps companies gain a better understanding of their their sales performance, cost efficiency, and return on investment, raised a $3 million seed round. Elkstone Ventures was the deal lead, while Enterprise Ireland, Handshake Ventures, 1Qbit, and SteamElements as well as previous investors WestWave Capital, and Future Five also invested. The Irish Times has more here.

TEMO, a six-year-old French startup that makes electric propulsion engines for small boats and dinghies, raised a $6.5 million Series A round. Investors included At One Ventures and Bpifrance. Marine Industry News has more here.

Upswing Financial Technologies, a two-year-old Indian startup that provide loans and other financial services to micro, small, and medium-sized businesses in India, raised a $4.2 million pre-Series A round led by Quona Capital, with QED Investors also chipping in. The Economic Times has more here.

WOO, a four-year-old Taipei startup that operates a crypto exchange, raised a $9 million round. Investors included Wintermute, Selini Capital, Time Research, Presto Labs, Pulsar, AlphaLab Capital, Efficient Frontier, Amber, and Riverside Hedge. The Block has more here.

Act One Ventures, a Los Angeles venture firm, says it has raised $73 million in capital commitments for a third fund focused on business software companies.

Mirae Asset Capital Life Science has announced its existence -- along with $50 million that it's committed to investing in certain U.S. biotechs. The venture unit is the only U.S. arm dedicated to biotech within the Mirae Asset Financial Group, a global organization headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, notes FierceBiotech.

General Catalyst, one of the largest U.S. venture capital firms, is in talks to acquire an India-focused VC as part of efforts to expand its presence in the fast-growing South Asian startup market, three sources familiar with the matter tell TechCrunch.

And there's more! General Catalyst yesterday announced plans to buy the Akron, Ohio, health system Summa Health, which it will convert into a for-profit. Axios notes the move is "unprecedented" for a venture firm and "could position General Catalyst as the industry's most formidable developer and seller of health care technology."

Reuters is reporting that San Francisco-based Reddit is planning on going public in March. The company's last funding round in 2021 valued it at $10 billion. 

Meta CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg announced today on Facebook that he is revamping his company's AI approach by reorganizing the company's research teams and “building massive compute infrastructure to support our future roadmap.”

Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of Google DeepMind, predicted that an AI will be able to create and run its own business within the next five years. 

In a discussion yesterday with OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Altman tried to allay fears about AI. “We are making a tool that is impressive," he said, "but humans are going to do their human things.” Altman also dismissed the possibility that OpenAI's board might disrupt the company's partnership with Microsoft. To the evident amusement of the audience, he said, “I believe in learning lessons early, when the stakes are relatively low.”

Postmates founder Bastian Lehmann is back with an app that wants to help you sell your used electronics, and soon, essentially lease new electronics, too.

The Magnificent Seven (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and Tesla) were responsible for more than 60% of the S&P 500's 25% gain last year (and Goldman Sachs' David Kostin expects this to continue).

Tech billionaires Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff, and Patrick Soon-Shiong are 0-3 in their bid to save the news industry.

Chinese crypto traders are doing business out of laundromats in order to get around strict government regulations banning the practice.

Bing's ChatGPT feature has barely moved the needle for the browser, which increased its market share by less than 1% in 2023. 

Inside Twitch's demise.

The Apple Vision Pro has a secret Apple doesn't want you to see.

A man whom The New York Times called “a pretentious, manipulative swine” has reached a settlement with the company that makes the video game Donkey Kong that will forever enshrine his Donkey Kong scores in a "historical database."

Would you pay $100 million for a NYC penthouse? Somebody did.

Check out the winners of The Nature Photography Contest. (Sign of the times: it's hard to believe they weren't created by an AI.) 

Will the real Stanley Cup please stand up?

A Cartier Crash watch owned by Sir Elton John. Bids start at $70,000.