Tesla's minority majority, TikTok's timetable, and Europe's ski vacation crackdown

December 4, 2020

Friday! Aaaand that lockdown we were promised in the Bay Area is now upon us. (Get lost, Corona!)

In better news, we greatly enjoyed recording the newest StrictlyVC Download, with guests Ev Williams and James Joaquin. Williams famously cofounded Twitter and the publishing platform Medium; he also founded Obvious Ventures with Joaquin, who led a number of companies before becoming an investor. We talked with the two about everything from Twitter's misinformation policies, to Williams's abandoned effort to live on the East Coast, to the potential opportunity to build health tech giants around hallucinogenics.

Thanks very much to this week's sponsor, Acquity Realty, which develops commercial properties located in Qualified Opportunity Zones among other things; we appreciate the support.

More Monday.:)

Top News

A deadline set by the Trump administration for the forced sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets will come and go today without a final deal, reports Bloomberg. While the deadline has been extended multiple times, TikTok isn’t expected to receive a new one, say its sources, who add that TikTok is still in talks with the U.S. government about a sale that satisfies the administration’s national security concerns, but that today's deadline will be allowed to lapse while the discussions continue.

The Justice Department is discussing a deal that would allow Huawei finance chief Meng Wanzhou to return home to China from Canada, in exchange for admitting wrongdoing in a criminal case that has strained Beijing’s relations with the U.S. Meng has so far resisted the proposed deal, says the WSJ.

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Mike Cagney is Testing the Boundaries of the U.S. Banking System Right Now: Here's Why

Founder Mike Cagney is always pushing the envelope, and investors love him for it. Not long after sexual harassment allegations prompted him to leave SoFi, the personal finance company he cofounded in 2011, he raised $50 million for new lending startup called Figure that has since raised at least $225 million from investors and was valued a year ago at $1.2 billion.

Now, Cagney is trying to do something unprecedented with Figure, which says it uses a blockchain to more quickly facilitate home equity, mortgage refinance, and student and personal loan approvals. The company has applied for a national bank charter in the U.S., wherein it would not take FDIC-insured deposits but it could take uninsured deposits of over $250,000 from accredited investors.

Why does it matter? The approach, as American Banker explains it, would bring regulatory benefits. As it reported earlier this week, “Because Figure Bank would not hold insured deposits, it would not be subject to the FDIC’s oversight. Similarly, the absence of insured deposits would prevent oversight by the Fed under the Bank Holding Company Act. That law imposes restrictions on non-banking activities and is widely thought to be a deal-breaker for tech companies where banking would be a sidelight.”

Indeed, if approved, Figure could pave the way for a lot of fintech startups — and other retail companies that want to wheel and deal in lucrative financial products without the oversight of the Federal Reserve Board or the FDIC — to nab non-traditional bank charters.

As Michelle Alt, whose year-old financial advisory firm helped Figure with its application, tells AB: "This model, if it’s approved, wouldn’t be for everyone. A lot of would-be banks want to be banks specifically to have more resilient funding sources." But if it’s successful, she adds, "a lot of people will be interested.”

More here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Moov Financial, a 3.5-year-old, Iowa-based startup that says its open-source platform allows banks and credit unions, SaaS companies, and fintech providers to embed banking services, has raised $27 million in Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz just four months after securing a $5.5 million seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures. FinLedger has more here.

Pave, a 15-month-old, San Francisco-based compensation benchmarking company, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.

Pockit, a six-year-old, London-based fintech that offers a contactless prepaid Mastercard to underserved customers, has raised £15 million ($20 million) in Series B funding. Investors included Concentric, Jatania Family, Harold Mechleynck, Perscitus and former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

Rubedo Life Sciences, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca-based biopharmaceutical company focused on age-related diseases, has raised $12 million in seed funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, joined by Longevity Fund, Refactor Capital, and Shanda. More here,

Versatile, a nearly five-year-old, Los Altos, Ca.-based construction startup that captures and analyzes data at a construction site, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners and Entree Capital co-led the round, joined by earlier backers Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Root Ventures and Conductive Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Avant, a two-year-old, Hong Kong-based cellular agriculture company that's at work right now on seafood, has raised $3.1 million in seed funding. Investors include China Venture Capital, AngelHub, and ParticleX, as well as Lever VC, CPT Capital, Loyal VC, Artesian, 208 Seed Ventures, and PTG Food. The Spoon has more here.

Fisdom, a five-year-old, Bangalore, India-based app offering personalized financial advice, has raised $7 million in extended Series B funding led by PayU, which was joined by Quona Capital and Saama Capital. More here.

Rheaply, a 5.5-year-old, Chicago-based resource management company that's right now working with universities, companies, and the U.S. government to increase their transparency into and access of personal protective equipment supplies, raised $1 million from Revolution, Opportunity Hub, 100 Black Angels & Allies, and Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab. More here.

People

Elon Musk is reportedly ditching California for Texas, too.

Data

As Facebook, Microsoft and Google invest in Indonesian tech companies, the nation's internet economy has grown to $44 billion in 2020, more than fivefold what it was in 2015, says the Nikkei Asian Review.

Venture investors continue to pour money into freight tech startups, with funding this year expected to be 12% more than 2019, according to CB Insights. Commercial Carrier Journal takes a look here.

Tesla's minority majority, TikTok's timetable, and Europe's ski vacation crackdown

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