Microsoft throws up its hands, Houseparty gets shut down, and the food-delivery giants take on New York

DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber's Uber Eats division just sued New York City over its law permanently capping the amount of commissions the apps can charge restaurants to use their services, the latest move in a growing clash between the platforms and local regulators.

Microsoft is pretty much giving up on trying to predict when its U.S. offices will reopen.

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Earlier today, as part of a private event, we talked with some of the biggest names in the world of private equity, including Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein; Bain Capital co-chair Steve Pagliuca; Jean Salata, the CEO and founding partner of Baring Private Equity Asia; and Sheila Patel, the vice chairman of B Capital Group AGM and formerly the chair of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

We covered a lot of ground, from how interested Carlyle and the other firms are in blockchain technologies (the feedback here was a little mixed), to how focused they are on sustainable and socially responsible investing. On this front, Rubenstein claimed that “private equity people are very focused on it,” and predicted that when a financial metric emerges to better assess companies on this front “within the next five years,” it will become a routine factor in evaluating companies.

Patel — who previously served on Goldman’s inclusion and diversity committee — agreed, noting upward of one-third of investors right now find it impossible to measure so-called ESG criteria (though she expects this to change quickly).

Naturally, too, we discussed the current market, including how the investors differentiate their firms’ offerings when everyone these days has a money cannon — and how long they expect to be operating at hyperspeed. In feedback that might surprise some readers and will seem obvious to others, the PE execs suggested that this go-go market could easily continue into 2023 if not beyond.

Only attendees of the event will have access to the full interview, but some notes from this last part of our discussion follow.

More here.

Affinity, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based business intelligence platform that aims to help users understand who in their organization has the best chance of getting a meeting or closing a deal, has raised $80 million in Series C funding. Menlo Ventures led the round, joined by Advance Venture Partners, Sprints Capital, Pear Ventures, Sway Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Teamworthy and ECT Capital Partners’ Brian Sheth. The company has now raised $120 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. 

Attralus, a two-year-old, South San Francisco-based biotech focused on systemic amyloidosis, has raised $116 million in Series B funding. Logos Capital led the round, joined by Janus Henderson Investors, Redmile Group, Samsara BioCapital, Sarissa Capital Management, Surveyor Capital, Vivo Capital and venBio Partners. FierceBiotech has more here.

InBrace, a six-year-old, L.A.-based company that sells a teeth-straightening technology, has raised $102 million in Series D funding led by Farallon Capital Management and Marshall Wace. FierceBiotech has more here.

Mammoth Biosciences, the 4.5-year-old, Brisbane, Ca.-based CRISPR-based biotech startup that counts Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna as a cofounder, has raised $150 million in Series D funding. Redmile Group, led the round, joined by a mix of new and previous investors, including Foresite Capital, Senator Investment Group, Sixth Street, Greenspring Associates, Mayfield, Decheng Capital, Plum Alley and NFX. Combined with a late 2020 Series C round of $45 million (which included participation from Amazon), the funding brings the company’s total financing to date to $195 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Orchid, a four-year-old, New York-based company that fronts home equity to homeowners, has raised $100 million in Series D funding that brings its total funding to date to $255 million. Earlier backer Accomplice led the round, joined by fellow early investors FirstMark, Revolution, First American and Juxtapose. The Real Deal has more here.

Scalapay, a 2.5-year-old, Milan, Italy-based buy-now-pay-later tech provider that has reportedly made significant headway with retailers and consumers in Europe, has raised $155 million in new funding led by Tiger Global. Other participants in the round include Baleen Capital, Woodson Capital, and earlier backers Fasanara Capital and Ithaca Investments. The company, which was just assigned a post-money valuation of $700 million, has now raised $203 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Snyk, a six-year-old, London-based developer security platform, has raised $530 million in Series F funding co-led by Sands Capital and Tiger Global. A half a dozen new investors also participated in the round, including Baillie Gifford, Koch Strategic Platforms, Lone Pine Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Whale Rock Capital Management. Many of the company's earlier backers, including Boldstart Ventures and Accel, participated, too. Snyk has now raised $775 million altogether and is reportedly now valued at $8.5 billion -- more than triple where it was valued at the start of this year. Tech.eu has more here. 

Solugen, a 5.5-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based startup that's making chemicals from custom enzymes and renewable feedstock and not petroleum, has raised $357 million in funding co-led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, and Baillie Gifford. Other participants in the round, which values the company at $1.8 billion, include Temasek Holdings, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Carbon Direct Capital Management, Refactor Capital, Lowercarbon, and Fifty Years. CNBC has more here.

Varo Bank, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit that last year became the first U.S. neobank to be granted a national bank charter, says it has raised $510 million in Series E funding at a $2.5 billion valuation. Lone Pine Capital led the round, along with “dozens” of additional new backers, including Declaration Partners, Eldridge, Marshall Wace, Berkshire Partners/Stockbridge and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. They joined earlier investors Warburg Pincus, The Rise Fund, Gallatin Point Capital and HarbourVest Partners. The company has now raised $992.4 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. 

Whatnot, a nearly two-year-old, L.A.-based startup that hosts live-streamed video sales and auctions of Pokemon cards and other collectibles, is reportedly raising new capital at a valuation of $1.5 billion following two earlier rounds of funding this year. Earlier investor Andreessen Horowitz is also involved in the new round, says The Information; it has the scoop here.

Batmaid, a six-year-old, Switzerland-based platform that invites users to hire preselected home cleaners, has raised a $27 million Series B from Aevis Victoria, a Swiss investment firm with a focus on healthcare, lifestyle and infrastructure. Tech.eu has more here. 

CookUnity, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based, high-end, small-batch meal delivery startup, has raised $47 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners. Other participants in the round, which brings the company's total funding to $70 million, include Endeavor Capital and earlier backer IDCV, Fuel Ventures and Gaingels. TechCrunch has more here.

DotCom Therapy, a six-year-old, Arvada, Co.-based pediatric teletherapy company, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by New Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

GoFormz, a nine-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based business productivity platform centered around mobile forms, has closed on $20 million in Series A funding led by Shasta Ventures. More here.

Juno, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based prop-tech startup that aims to build more sustainable and affordable apartment buildings, has raised $20 million in Series A funding co-led by Comcast Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Real Estate Technology Ventures. Other backers in the round included JLL Spark, Vertex Ventures, Anim, K50, Foundamental and Green D Alumni Ventures. The company has now raised $32 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Supabase, a year-old, Singapore-based startup behind a developer tools' suite that's intended to handle repetitive workflow, has raised $30 million in Series A funding. Coatue led the round, joined by some notable individual investors, including GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-Werner, PagerDuty co-founder Alex Solomon and Docker co-founder Solomon Hykes. TechCrunch has more here. 

Wisetack, a three-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that brings buy now, pay later to in-person services (think contractors and plumbers), has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners. Earlier backers Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $64 million. TechCrunch has more here.

SaaStr Annual 2021, the world's largest non-vendor B2B software event, is almost at capacity! Don't miss this year's Annual on Sept 27-29 at the San Mateo County Event Center. The three-day conference will bring together more than 10,000 global SaaS founders, executives, and venture capitalists for a series of high-quality content sessions and networking opportunities. Across five stages more than 300 SaaS leaders will share their hard-earned learnings and actionable insights to help you scale up and grow your company faster. Readers can grab 20% off tickets with code StrictlyVC.

Billionaire financier and 2020 presidential candidate Tom Steyer says he's launching a climate investment fund called Galvanize Climate Solutions that will invest billions of dollars in decarbonization efforts, from seed-stage start-ups to major investments in business expansions. Axios has more here.

Scout Ventures, a 12-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based early-stage venture firm with a particular focus on veterans of the military, intelligence agencies and national labs, has closed its third fund with $55 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Crowberry Capital, a four-year-old, Reykjavík, Iceland-based early-stage venture firm that is focused on Nordic tech startups, including by women entrepreneurs (the firm is female-led), has raised $90 million in capital commitments, including from the European Investment Fund. Bloomberg has more here.

Houseparty, the social video chat app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games for a reported $35 million back in 2019, is shutting down. The company says Houseparty will be discontinued in October when the app will stop functioning for its existing users; it will be pulled from the app stores today, however. TechCrunch takes a look at what's going on here.

More than five years being acquired by a private equity firm, personal finance software company Quicken says it's being acquired by another private equity firm. In April 2016, an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital acquired Quicken from Intuit for an undisclosed amount; today, Menlo Park, Ca.-based Quicken announced that Aquiline Capital Partners will be acquiring a majority stake in the company, also for an undisclosed amount. TechCrunch has more here.

Apple has fired senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik for allegedly violating the company’s rules against leaking confidential information. 

The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was delayed until next week after a juror was potentially exposed to Covid.

"I was as shocked as everybody else." Anthony Levandowski gives his first interview following his surprising pardon on Donald Trump's last day in office.

Andreessen Horowitz has recruited former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Brian Quintenz as an advisory partner on its crypto team. Quintenz stepped down from the agency last month. Meanwhile, one of the three remaining members of the CFTC said today that he also plans to resign.

An Illinois venture capitalist named Jesse Sullivan officially entered the Republican race for governor today, casting himself as an outsider and saying in a video announcing his bid that: "I want to make Illinois a 'shining city on a hill' that Lincoln would be proud of." Sullivan becomes the fourth declared candidate in the June 28 Republican primary that's looking to challenge first-term Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker. WSILTV.com has more here.

A battle between Box and its majority shareholder Starboard Value over control of the board ended today when the company’s slate of directors easily defeated Starboard’s. It followed months of maneuvering on both sides as they battled for control of the company. TechCrunch has more here.

The U.S. just had its hottest summer on record.

Facebook has partnered with Ray-Ban to make a pair of video-capturing Wayfarers. They’re everything you hoped for and feared in smart glasses. 

NFTs are booming, but buyers should beware of big and complex tax implications when trading digital art, according to a legal expert.

In a fight for U.S. workers, Amazon is offering more than 750,000 U.S. hourly employees the chance to enroll in a fully paid bachelor’s degree program after 90 days of employment. Amazon hasn't yet identified the schools. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed a bill regulating how social media companies moderate content. The new law prohibits banning content based on “the viewpoint of the user or another person,” but the rule's future is uncertain, says The Verge, noting that a judge blocked Florida’s social media law in June, saying it “compels providers to host speech that violates their standards.” 

Unpacking "The Matrix Resurrections" trailer. 

The Roe baby.

RIP, B&Bs.

A blue-chip art bonanza.

Leggings by . . . Peloton.

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