Grammarly writes off 25% of its employees, Musk moves Neuralink out of Delaware, and SoHo House is imploding

Our event in Hollywood is less than three weeks away! Excited to see a bunch of you there.:) (Thanks again to Lightspeed Venture Partners for co-hosting this one.)

New York's Attorney General is now accusing Digital Currency Group and Gemini Trust of defrauding investors of more than $3 billion, triple the amount her office had originally claimed. 

According to a report in the FT, OpenAI hit a $2 billion run rate this past December, making it one of the fastest growing startups ever.

The S&P 500 hit 5,000 today for the first time ever, driven in no small part by the performance of tech's Magnificent Seven. 

AI, automation, data enrichment – 2024 brings a whole slew of new technologies and innovation to drive private capital success. Join Affinity and Future Planet Capital on February 15 on the tech stack they have built to unlock the power of their data driven investment approach.

By Sean O'Kane

On a typically sunny day in Los Angeles last June, Henrik Fisker choked up as he handed over his company’s first all-electric SUVs in the United States. “I’m really kind of emotional about it, because we’ve been waiting two and a half years for this, and everyone here has done a tremendous job,” the founder and CEO said.

The day had started on a celebratory note. Fisker, donning a graphic tee depicting the electric Ocean SUV, hugged and posed for photos with the company’s first customers — at one point even signing one of the vehicles.

What happened next was a harbinger for Fisker and what his eponymous company continues to grapple with: Shortly after Fisker board member Wendy Greuel took delivery, her Ocean SUV lost power on a public road, according to two employees familiar with the matter. The company has confirmed the incident occurred, and said the issue with her vehicle was fixed.

Two months later, Geeta Gupta Fisker — the company’s chief financial officer, chief operating officer and Henrik’s wife — took an Ocean out for a drive, only to have it suffer a similar fate, according to a cache of internal documents viewed by TechCrunch. Fisker also confirmed her vehicle lost power, blaming it on a compatibility issue with a special engineering data logger that is not in customer cars.

In the months since, Fisker Ocean SUV customers have reported more than 100 separate loss-of-power incidents, the internal documents show.

More here.

Koloma, a 10-year-old Denver startup that locates and produces geologic hydrogen, raised a $245 million Series B round led by Khosla Ventures, with additional participation from United Airlines Ventures and Amazon Climate Pledge Fund. Axios has more here.

Neurona Therapeutics, a 16-year-old San Francisco company that is developing cell therapies to repair the nervous system for chronic neurological disorders, raised a $120 million round co-led by Viking Global and Cormorant, with The Column Group, LYFE Capital, Schroders Capital, Willett Advisors, Ysios Capital Partners, Euclidean Capital, SymBiosis, Alexandria Venture Investments, Berkeley Frontier Fund, Sphera Biotech Master Fund, Spur Capital Partners, UCB Ventures, and UC Investments also piling on. The company has raised a total of $285 million. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Aizon, an 11-year-old San Francisco company that says it uses AI to enhance pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, raised a $20 million Series C round led by NewVale Capital, with previous investors Atlantic Bridge, Crosslink Capital, and Uncork Capital also participating. More here.

Headlight, a four-year-old San Diego startup that provides in-person and virtual mental health therapy and medication management, raised an $18 million round. Matrix and EPIC Ventures were the deal leads. Behavioral Health Business has more here.

Xensam, an eight-year-old Stockholm startup that helps businesses track their software assets, identify security gaps, and eliminate wasteful spending on underutilized applications, raised a $40 million round. Expedition Growth Capital was the sole investor. TechCrunch has more here.

Axiology, a six-year-old startup based in Vilnius, Lithuania, whose mission is to use blockchain technology to make trading and settling financial securities like government bonds more efficient and cost-effective, raised a $2.2 million round. Baltic Sandbox Ventures and Coinvest Capital were the co-leads. EU-Startups has more here.

Cashinvoice, a six-year-old Mumbai startup that helps businesses get paid faster by providing a platform where they can finance their invoices, raised a $3.4 million Series A round. Pravega Ventures, HDFC Bank, and previous investor Accion Venture Lab invested in the deal. The Economic Times has more here.

DeepLook Medical, a six-year-old startup based in New Haven, CT, that automates the measurement and segmentation of images from various medical imaging platform in order to provide a clearer view of tumors, raised a $1.7 million seed round. Investors included Connecticut Innovations, Tidal River, Angel Investor Forum, OKG Capital, and Werth Ventures. Femtech Insider has more here.

First Bite, a startup based in Redwood City, Ca., whose database helps food manufacturers find and connect with restaurants across the U.S. that might want to buy their products, raised a $2 million seed round led by Bread and Butter Ventures, with Leadout Capital and Pathbreaker Ventures also partaking. AgFunderNews has more here.

MediConCen, a six-year-old Hong Kong startup that claims to leverage blockchain technology to streamline the insurance claim process, raised a $6.9 million Series A round led by HSBC Asset Management, with G&M Capital, ParticleX, and Wings Capital Ventures also participating. FinTech Global has more here.

Neatleaf, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that designs AI robots to assess plant health and identify any potential issues early on, raised a $4 million round. AgFunder was the deal lead. Green Market Report has more here.

Omega, a Miami startup whose platform is designed to aims to facilitate the decentralized use of Bitcoin in DeFi applications, raised a $6 million round. Investors included Lightspeed Faction, Borderless Capital, Bankless Ventures, Wave Digital, Blockchain.com, Blockchain Founders Fund, Kronos Ventures, XBTO Humla, Cadenza, Psalion Ventures, AlphaLab Capital, Side Door Ventures, and MH Ventures. Refresh Miami has more here.

Perigon, a two-year-old Austin startup that provides tools that help businesses monitor media, track trends, detect threats, and enhance their AI applications with contextual intelligence, raised a $5 million seed round from LiveOak Ventures. More here.

Pluto.markets, a three-year-old Copenhagen startup whose investment app allows users to invest in fractional shares without minimum commissions, raised a $2.6 million round. Magnetic was the deal lead, with Y Combinator and Nordic Makers also pitching in. EU-Startups has more here.

Vocode, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that offers an API to help developers create and deploy conversational AI applications, raised a $3.3 million seed round. Investors included Base10 Partners, Google Ventures, Gradient, Accel, and Liquid2. Tech Funding News has more here.

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Notion, an 11-year-old outfit behind a popular productivity suite, has acquired Skiff, a three-year-old platform that offers end-to-end encrypted file storage, docs, calendar events, and email and that had raised $14.2 million in funding over two rounds from investors such as Sequoia Capital, Alphabet chairman John Hennessy, and Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang. TechCrunch has more here.

IVP, the 43-year-old venture firm known for its late-stage investing focus, is reportedly raising between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion in capital for its eighteenth fund. The Information -- which notes that IVP completed just six investments last year, according to PitchBook -- has more here.

After a Delaware judge threw out his $55 billion Tesla pay package, Elon Musk tweeted, "Never incorporate in Delaware." Now comes the news that Neuralink has ditched Delaware and reincorporated in Nevada. We wonder if we can expect similar news from Tesla and SpaceX in the days and weeks to come. 

Grammarly is editing its staff, laying off 230 employees or almost 25% of its total headcount. The 15-year-old San Francisco company, which offers a digital writing tool that checks for various types of grammatical errors, raised a $200 million round in 2021 at a $13 billion valuation. TechCrunch has more here. 

Holy Toledo. There were more than 54,000 venture-backed U.S. startups at the end of last year, compared with 12,522 startups at the end of 2010.

How Ukraine has become an "AI war lab" for tech companies like Palantir.

Meet Goody-2, a fake AI so "ethical" that it can't discuss anything. 

The New York Times digs into what happens now for Figma, which saw a $20 billion acquisition offer go up in smoke.

How Super Bowl footballs are made.

Taylor Swift could generate 90 tons of carbon emissions if she flies on her private jet to see her boyfriend play in the Super Bowl. (Time to buy some carbon offsets?)

Soho House may be going belly up soon.

"I am a Boomer’s iPhone, and I will not be silenced."

Legendary producer and musician Brian Eno's turntable is as mesmerizing as his music.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Timex and seconde/seconde/ have teamed up to offer a watch that is made for breakups.