Apple postpones car plans again, Connie Chan backs out of a16z, and giant robot babies hit the runway

Steel yourselves, local readers. Looks like another atmospheric river is headed toward California next week. Bloomberg calls it a "plume of moisture."

Apple has scaled back its plans to make a fully autonomous EV and delayed the vehicle's launch date from 2026 to maybe never. (No, we're just kidding: it plans to release its EV in 2028.) 

After regulators put the kibosh on Adobe's merger with Figma, Figma is reducing its valuation from $20 billion to $10 billion and offering buyout packages to employees who want to bail.

Senior executives at Google apparently just tried Bard, because they are canceling their contract with an AI firm that trained the would-be ChatGPT competitor.  

San Francisco is suing a California state commission for allowing Waymo and Cruise to expand their autonomous car operations in the city despite the "serious problems" that the cars were causing.

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Accent Therapeutics, a six-year-old startup based in Lexington, Ma., that is developing precision therapies to treat various types of cancer, including breast, ovarian, colorectal, endometrial, and gastric cancers, raised a $75 million Series C round led by Mirae Asset Capital Life Science, with Bristol Myers Squibb, J&J Innovation, and previous investors The Column Group, Atlas Venture, Droia Ventures, GV, EcoR1 Capital, AbbVie Ventures, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, and Timefolio Capital also piling on. Precision Medicine Online has more here.

Byju, a 13-year-old Bengaluru company that provides online learning courses, is reportedly looking to raise $100 to $200 million at a valuation of less than $2 billion, a dramatic decrease from its previous $22 billion valuation. TechCrunch has more here. 

Clerk, a startup that fashions embeddable UIs, APIs, and admin dashboards that app developers can use to authenticate and manage users, raised a $30 million Series B round. CRV was the deal lead, while Stripe, Andreessen Horowitz, and Madrona also participated. The company has raised a total of $55.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Instagrid, a five-year-old Stuttgart startup that is focused on creating environmentally friendly portable batteries, raised a $95 million Series C round led by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, with Morgan Stanley and previous investors Energy Impact Partners, SET Ventures, blueworld.group, and Hightech Gründerfond also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Silverfort, a seven-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose security system monitors and manages who is allowed to access various digital resources in a company, such as files, servers, and applications, raised a $116 million Series D round led by Brighton Park Capital, with additional participation from Acrew Capital, Greenfield Partners, Citi Ventures, General Motors Ventures, Maor Investments, Vintage Investment Partners, and Singtel Innov8. TechCrunch has more here.

TravelPerk, an eight-year-old Barcelona startup that provides tools for booking and managing corporate trips, including flights, accommodations, and car rentals, raised a $104 million round at a $1.4 billion valuation. The deal was led by SoftBank, with previous investors Kinnevik and Felix Capital also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Albedo, a three-year-old startup based in Broomfield, Co., that provides very high-resolution satellite imagery from space for applications in sectors like energy, infrastructure, agriculture, urban development, insurance, supply chain, sustainability, and defense, raised a $35 million round led by Standard Investments, with Booz Allen Ventures and Cubit Capital as well as previous investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Shield Capital, YC, Initialized Capital, Giant Step Capital, and Republic Capital. The company has raised a total of $97 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Aniai, a four-year-old startup that has built a burger-grilling robot, raised a $12 million round led by InterVest and joined by SV Investment, Ignite Innovation, and previous investor Capstone Partners. The company has raised a total of $15 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Ansel, a five-year-old New York startup that offers supplemental health insurance for moderate to catastrophic health conditions, raised a $20 million round led by Portage, with Two Sigma Ventures, Brewer Lane Ventures, SixThirty Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Digitalis Ventures, Symphony AI, Operator Partners, and Morgan Creek Capital Management also investing. More here.

Bluewhite, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup that has developed autonomous robots that can be retrofitted to any tractor to operate it autonomously, raised a $39 million Series C round led by Insight Partners, with Alumni Ventures and LIP Ventures also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

GenEdit, a seven-year-old South San Francisco startup that specializes in developing genetic medicines for conditions like neuromuscular diseases, genetic disorders, and neurological disorders, raised a $24 million Series A1 round. Investors included KDB Silicon Valley, Mirae, ACVC, Pathway Partners, LoftyRock Investment, Terra VC, K2 Investment, Dong-A ST, KIMCO, and Huons as well as previous investors Eli Lilly, Sequoia Capital, Korea Investment Partners, Woori Venture Partners, Dayli Partners, KB Investment, IMM Investment, and Timefolio Asset Management. More here.

Kittl, a four-year-old Berlin startup that is working on a browser-based design tool to take on Canva, raised a $36 million Series B round led by IVP. TechCrunch has more here.  

ModernFi, a one-year-old New York startup that provides community and regional banks with end-to-end deposit management capabilities, raised an $18.7 million Series A round led by Canapi Ventures and including Andreessen Horowitz, Remarkable Ventures, Huntington National Bank, First Horizon, and Regions. The company has raised a total of $23.2 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Latitude, a French startup that is building a 62-foot, two-stage rocket capable of delivering up to 100 kilograms of payload to low Earth orbit, raised a $30 million round from Blast.club and Kima Ventures as well as previous investors Crédit Mutuel Innovation, Expansion, Bpifrance, and UI Investissement. The company has raised a total of approximately $55 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Qdrant, a two-year-old Berlin startup that has developed an open source vector search engine and database, raised a $28 million Series A round led by Spark Capital, with Unusual Ventures and 42cap also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Turquoise Health, a three-year-old San Diego startup that had developed a search engine that it hopes will make shopping for healthcare as simple as buying a plane ticket, raised a $30 million Series B round led by Adams Street Partners, with Yosemite and previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and BoxGroup also stepping up. Fierce Healthcare has more here.

Welligence Energy Analytics, a five-year-old Houston startup whose platform provides detailed information about oil and gas fields, including technical specs, valuations, and potential environmental consequences, raised a $41 million Series B round led by Elephant, with Veriten and EDG Group also pitching in. More here.

Better Stack, a three-year-old Prague startup that makes observability tools for software developers at companies like Salesforce and Rakuten, raised a $10 million round. Existing investor KAYA was the deal lead, with Box CEO Aaron Levie also throwing in. EU-Startups has more here.

Bluesheets, a three-year-old Singapore startup that helps businesses process financial data through automated workflows, raised a $6.5 million Series A round led by Illuminate Financial, with Antler Global, Insignia Ventures Partners, and 1982 Ventures also contributing. TechinAsia has more here.

Bulk Exchange, a startup based in San Rafael, Ca., that helps construction sites exchange excess materials, raised a $4.5 million seed round from angel investors in the construction industry. TechCrunch has more here.

Coana, a one-year-old Danish startup that specializes in detecting and prioritizing vulnerabilities in open-source software, raised a $1.6 million round led by Sequoia Capital, with Essence VC also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.

Concrete4Change, a two-year-old UK startup that captures and mineralizes carbon dioxide into concrete, raised a $3.2 million seed round led by Zacua Ventures, with Counteract and Goldbeck also chipping in. Tech.eu has more here.

Eddy Grid, a startup that offers a decentralized network of batteries in order to store green energy, raised a $1.6 million round led by Graduate Entrepreneur, with Rockstart and Volve Capital also ponying up. Silicon Canals has more here.

RagaAI, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that enables AI developers to roadtest their products and services as they are developed and deployed, raised a $4.7 million seed round led by pi Ventures, with Anorak Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, Arka Ventures, Mana Ventures, and Exfinity Venture Partners also partaking. Forbes has more here.

Reel, a Copenhagen startup that matches companies with renewable electricity to reduce emissions and electricity costs, raised a $5.4 million round led by Transition and joined by UVC Partners and the Footprint Firm. Tech.eu has more here.

XGS Energy, a 15-year-old Palo Alto startup that says it has developed a unique heat harvesting system that allows for more efficient and cost-effective extraction of geothermal energy, raised a $9.7 million round led by Constellation Technology Ventures, with additional funds provided by BlueScopeX and Thin Line Capital. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

You Are Accountable, a three-year-old New York startup that offers online support for individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, raised a $2 million from GEHA Ventures. Behavioral Health Business has more here.

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Toronto's ArcTern Ventures has raised a $335 million fund, its third, to back early-stage climate startups and, more specifically, startups focusing on EVs and mobility, the circular economy, sustainable food, agriculture, and industrial decarbonization.

Cardumen Capital, which has offices in Tel Aviv and Madrid, has raised a second fund of $120 million, bringing its total assets under management to $250 million. Cardumen invests in pre-seed and seed-stage startups focused on areas like AI, cybersecurity, and Big Data.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says the company is likely to IPO "quite" soon.

Fast Company profiles Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu, who seemingly came out of nowhere to introduce the Rabbit R1, the most talked about gadget at CES this year. 

Connie Chan, a longtime investor with Andreessen Horowitz who became the firm's second female general partner in 2018, is leaving the outfit as it shifts more of its focus away from consumer deals and more toward opportunities around AI. According to The Information, Chan may raise her own fund.

In a report, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority concludes that 70% of crypto asset communications since November, 2022, have contained misleading claims or misrepresentations.

eBay is cutting 1,000 employees or 9% of the company in order to be "more nimble."

SAP is saying "auf wiedersehen" to 8,000 of its workers or almost 7.5% of its total employees in order to trim costs and focus more on artificial intelligence.

Brex, which specializes in providing startups with credit cards and expense management software, is laying off 282 people or 20% of its staff. TechCrunch has more here.

Netflix is "thrilled" with its crackdown on shared passwords. 

Why LLMs can fall victim to the "butterfly effect."

Cryptocurrency scams truly work in mysterious ways.

Fashionista alert! Giant robot babies are this year's hot new fashion accessory.

Some couples are ditching honeymoons for "buddymoons." We can already see the trailer.

There is a 43-year-long waitlist to savor a Japanese butcher shop's frozen Kobe beef croquettes. (Maybe the concept of price elasticity could be helpful here?)

Rat selfies.

Six ultra-luxe ski destinations. 

These new Nike slip-ons are probably best worn alone inside a dark room.