A win (mostly) for Apple, a new CEO for Yahoo, and men's facelifts turn 'trendy'

Friday! Thank God.

A couple of quick housekeeping notes: As many of you know or may have realized, we switched service providers. We're really happy about it. (Customer service! Analytics! Deliverability!) Still, this template is a little heavier on the code, which might be why the newsletter keeps getting cut off. We're aware that you find this super annoying (we get it). We're also not sure we'll be able to resolve this issue any time soon. 

Also! Please enjoy this week's short-and-sweet StrictlyVC Download podcast, sponsored by TechCrunch, whose TechCrunch Disrupt is coming up, fully virtually, the week after next. Come to see Brian Armstrong, Chamath Palihapitiya, Stewart Butterfield, Katie Haun, Melanie Perkins, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the SEC's Erin Schneider, Ryan Reynolds, Kirsten Green, Seth Rogen and many others. Stay to expand your network. 

Attend for less than $100; learn more at techcrunch.com/disrupt.

More Monday.:)

A federal judge today handed down a decision in a closely watched trial between Apple and Epic Games. She issued an injunction that said Apple will no longer be allowed to prohibit developers from providing links or other communications that direct users away from Apple in-app purchasing. Epic founder Tim Sweeney said afterward the judge didn't go far enough. "Today’s ruling isn't a win for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition among in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers," he tweeted. CNBC has more here.

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Last weekend, a reader wrote to us, politely asking why tech companies should speak up about the abortion law that Texas passed last week.

“What does American Airlines have to do with abortion?” said the reader, suggesting that companies can’t possibly cater to both pro-abortion and anti-abortion advocates and that asking them to take a stand on an issue unrelated to their business would only contribute to the politicization of America.

It’s a widely held point of view, and the decision yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice to challenge the law, which U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has called “clearly unconstitutional,” may well reinforce it. After all, if anyone should be pushing back against what happened in the Lone Star State, it should be other legislators, not companies, right?

Still, there are more reasons than not for technology companies – and particularly Tesla – to step out of the shadows and bat down this law.

More here.

Agile Robots, a three-year-old, Munich, Germany-based robotics startup that spun out of the German Aerospace Center, has raised $220 million in Series C funding. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, joined by Chimera Investments, GL Ventures, Sequoia China, Linear Capital, Xiaomi, Foxconn and Midas. The Robot Report has more here.

Amagi, a 13-year-old, Bangalore-based company that has developed a cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected televisions, just raised $100 million in fresh funding. Accel, Avataar Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners joined earlier investor Premji Invest in the round, which included buying out stakes held by Emerald Media and Mayfield Fund. The company has now raised $150 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Flo, a five-year-old, London-based period-tracking app focused on fertility, raised $50 million in Series B funding co-led by Target Global and VNV Global. The company has now raised $65 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Vouch, a three-year-old, San Francisco insurance platform for startups, just raised $90 million from Redpoint Ventures, SVB Capital, Ribbit Capital, Allegis Group, Sound Ventures and SiriusPoint. TechCrunch has more here.

A-Alpha Bio, a four-year-old, Seattle-based protein discovery platform that spun out of the University of Washington, has raised $20 million in funding led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from Perceptive Advisors and Lux Capital. GeekWire has more here.  

Neat, a two-year-old, Oslo, Norway-based video conferencing device company, has raised $30 million from Zoom, which has backed the company twice previously. The company has now raised $41 million altogether. 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.

AV8 Ventures, a 3.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca-based venture capital firm that says it's focused on emerging technologies in AI-driven health, mobility and enterprise, has launched a $180 million second fund. The outfit's limited partners include Allianz SE; it is led by George Ugras, who previously ran IBM Ventures. More here.

Earthshot Ventures, a new early-stage, climate-focused venture fund that intends to back both hardware and software companies, has reportedly closed its debut fund with $60 million in capital commitments. Backers include Microsoft, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, the Emerson Collective, McKinley Alaska Private Investment, Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr, Hawaii's state pension fund, and Facebook executive Chris Cox. Axios has more here.

Mastercard has agreed to buy the blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace to bolster security around crypto transactions. Mastercard said the move will enable it to better to assist banks, crypto exchanges and other organizations to comply with anti-money-laundering regulations and protect against fraud as blockchain and crypto services expand within the card network’s ecosystem. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed; according to Crunchbase, six-year-old CipherTrace had raised roughly $45 million from investors. CNBC has more here.

JPMorgan Chase agreed to buy The Infatuation, an 11-year-old outfit owns websites and apps that guide diners to eat like locals, including Zagat. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed; JPMorgan plans to give some of its customers, including credit-card holders, special access to the Infatuation’s curated experiences, says the WSJ. More here.

Warby Parker, which sells comparatively low-cost prescription glasses online and in over 145 stores, is expected to begin trading on the NYSE on Wednesday, September 29, It's one of a generation of new companies that's on tap to go public this fall with the message (in their regulatory filings) that it's not about the money; it's also about the "mission."

Yahoo said today it has named Jim Lanzone as its new chief executive. Lanzone, who joins Yahoo after serving as CEO of dating app Tinder, has worked in digital media for 23 years. Lanzone will now be our boss's boss over at TechCrunch, which is part of the same group. The WSJ has more here.

Harvard has announced that it “does not intend” to make any future investments in fossil fuels, and is winding down its legacy investments because, the university’s president, Lawrence Bacow, said in an email to the Harvard community, “climate change is the most consequential threat facing humanity.”

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday put off a long-anticipated ruling on whether Juul Labs and other major e-cigarette companies could continue to sell their products in the United States. By pushing back its decision on the company, the FDA appears to be delaying a larger decision about whether the agency sees these devices as creating more harm than good, reports the NYTimes.

In bananas versus sports drinks, it's a close call.

An uptick in men's facelifts.

Two teenagers, from out of nowhere.

Windy.com.

If Tesla sold a motorbike. . .

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