Didi's drop, Discord doubles its valuation, a lil' insider trading lights up the Twittersphere

Hello! Quick mention: We're interviewing some dynamic personalities on behalf of TechCrunch next week. If you have any *non-obvious* questions for Chamath Palihapitiya, Stewart Butterfield, Bret Taylor, Marcelo Claure, or SEC Regional Director Erin Schneider, let us know; we genuinely welcome your input.

Yesterday, the head of product at the NFT platform OpenSea was accused on Twitter of purchasing pieces from NFT collections before they were featured on the homepage of the platform, then selling them shortly after they were featured and funneling the profits back to his main account. OpenSea is "conducting a thorough review" in response, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer said in response today. It isn't the first time OpenSea's head of product has been called out for getting the "jump on everyone else." After someone else flagged his behavior in early August, he tweeted: "I just wanted to secure one of these before they all disappeared tbh." According to TechCrunch, OpenSea, "which did a record $3.4 billion in transaction volume last month, appears not to have had any rules in places preventing employees from using confidential information to buy or sell NFTs on its own platform to its own users." (Yes, we're asking Schneider about this one.) More here.

Pry Financials just raised $4.2 million to make startup finances more approachable. Founders use Pry to review their finances, monitor cash runway, and build their fundraising plan. See why over 100 YC Founders and 200 companies use Pry instead of spreadsheets for their three-year forecast.

Inspired Capital, the New York-based early-stage venture firm that was founded in 2019 by entrepreneurs Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker, is today announcing the close of their second fund with $281 million in capital commitments, an amount that brings the firm’s total assets under management to nearly half a billion dollars. (Inspired raised $200 million for its debut fund.)

We talked earlier this week with von Tobel about the portfolio of 25 companies that her firm — which also counts as co-founders partner Lucy Deland and COO Mark Batsiyan — helped to fund with its first vehicle. We also talked, of course, about Inspired’s new fund, which, like its predecessor, will be used to invest in a wide range of companies, mostly, but not exclusively, in the U.S.

Excerpts from that conversation follow.

You have a larger fund — will the strategy remain the same?

We’re the same team, same strategy, same everything, so [writing] seed to Series A [checks]. We can go from early, early seed — truly, like a napkin idea — all the way to writing $15 million checks. We’re still really collaborative, so we both lead and co-lead deals. We’re a generalist fund investing around the country, so our first fund was equally weighted on East and West Coasts by companies that ranged across many categories.

[Editor’s note: Some of these include the business banking startup Rho, a LatAm real estate company called Habi, the embedded payments startup Finix and an autonomous landscaping startup called Scythe that makes all-electric mowers and employs a robots-as-a-service revenue model.]

More here.

Abra, a seven-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based crypto wealth management startup, has raised $55 million in funding co-led by Ignia and Blockchain Capital. Other participants in the round include Kingsway Capital, AmEx Ventures, and CMT Digital Ventures; the company has now raised $85 million altogether. Fortune has more here.

Apna, a 22-month-old, Bengaluru, India-based platform helping millions of blue- and gray-collar workers in India learn new skills and find jobs, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by earlier investor Tiger Global. Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Ventures and GSV Ventures also participated in the new round, which is the third investment secured by Apna this year.  TechCrunch has more here.

Arcadia, an eight-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based startup that provides people avenues to access renewable energy without having to change power companies, has raised $100 million to fuel its expansion. Tiger Global Management and the Drawdown Fund led the Series D round, joined by Wellington Management, Reimagined Ventures, and earlier investors Energy Impact Partners and G2 Venture Partners. The company has now raised $180 million altogether. Axios has more here.

Carousell, a nine-year-old, Singapore-based online classifieds business focused on Southeast Asia, has raised $100 million in fresh funds that value the company at $1.1 billion led by the South Korean private equity firm STIC Investments. CNBC has more here.

Constructor, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose tech powers search and product discovery tools for enterprise e-commerce businesses, has raised $55 million in Series A funding led by Silversmith Capital Partners. A long list of notable individual investors also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Discord, the nine-year-old, San Francisco-based digital chat company, has raised $500 million in a new funding at a post-money valuation of $15 billion, according to Bloomberg. That’s more than double the $7 billion price tag investors gave the company during a funding round last year. Dragoneer Investment Group led the round. Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management, Fidelity Management & Research Co. and Franklin Templeton also participated, alongside earlier investors. The new capital brings the company's total funding to date to an estimated $1.1 billion. More here.

Glean, a 2.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based enterprise search company that was cofounded by CEO Arvind Jain (he's a former Google engineer who is credited with helping to build Google's core search product and later cofounded the cloud data management company Rubrik), has raised $55 million in funding. General Catalyst led the round, joined by Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Forbes has more here.

Matillion, a 10-year-old, Cheshire, England-based "low-code" company that helps enterprises accelerate their cloud data integration, has raised $150 million in Series D funding. General Atlantic is leading the funding, joined by earlier backers Battery Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Neo Financial, a two-year-old, Calgary, Alberta-based, so-called challenger bank that's focused on Canadians from "coast to coast," has raised $64 million in Series B funding led by Valar Ventures, which had also led the company's Series A financing. Other participants in the round include Greenoaks Capital and Altos Ventures. More here.

Persona, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based identity infrastructure company built to manage customer identities, has raised $150 million in Series C funding less than six months after closing a $50 million Series B round. Founders Fund led the new financing, joined by Meritech Capital Partners, BOND, and earlier investors Index Ventures and Coatue Management. The company has now raised $217.5 million altogether and is valued at $1.5 billion. Bloomberg has more here. 

Rebellion Defense, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based developer of AI solutions for U.S. defense (which isn't sharing much more than publicly right now), has raised $150 million in funding co-led by Insight Partners and Venrock, with participation from Innovation Endeavors, Declaration Partners and Lupa Systems. Axios has more here.

Sendcloud, a nine-year-old, Eindhoven, Netherlands-based all-in-one shipping platform for online retailers, has raised $177 million in Series C funding led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from L Catterton and HPE Growth. The company had previously raised just $23 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

SmartNews, a nine-year-old, Tokyo-headquartered news aggregation website and app that’s grown in popularity despite hefty competition from built-in aggregators like Apple News, has raised $230 million in Series F funding. Backers in the deal included Princeville Capital, Woodline Partners, JIC Venture Growth Investments, Green Co-Invest Investment, and Yamauchi No. 10 Family Office in Japan (which manages the wealth of the family behind Nintendo). Earlier backers ACA Investments and SMBC Venture Capital also joined the round, which brings SmartNews’s total funding to date to more than $400 million and values the business at $2 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

StrongDM, a six-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based company that looks to simplify infrastructure access and audit controls across databases, servers, clusters, and web apps, today announced it closed a $54 million Series B funding round led by Tiger Global, with participation from new investor GV and earlier investors Sequoia Capital, True Ventures, HearstLab, Bloomberg Beta, and former Splunk CEO Godfrey Sullivan. VentureBeat has more here.

Mutiny, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that says it lets B2B brands personalize their websites in real time for dozens of audiences, has raised $18.5 million in Series A funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by Cowboy Ventures and Uncork Capital. Forbes has more here.

Relyance AI, a 17-month-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup that is helping companies stay in compliance with privacy laws at the code level, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures and earlier backer Unusual Ventures, which earlier provided the company with $5 million in seed funding. TechCrunch has more here.

Who Gives A Crap, a nine-year-old, Melbourne, Australia based direct-to-consumer maker of forest friendly toilet paper, paper towels and tissues, has raised $30.7 million (in U.S. dollars) in Series A funding led by Verlinvest. Business Insider has more here.

Ascend, an eight-month-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that has developed payments APIs to automate insurance payments and also to offer a buy-now-pay-later option for the distribution of commissions and carrier payables, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding. First Round Capital led the round, joined by Susa Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Box Group, and a series of strategic angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Chaldal, an eight-year-old, Dhaka, Bangladesh-based grocery delivery outfit that now operates 27 warehouses in four cities, has raised $10 million in Series C funding led by Wise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus, Topia chief product officer Sten Tamkivi, and Xploration Capital, with participation from Mir Group. TechCrunch has more here.

CoderSchool, a six-year-old, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based online coding school startup, has raised $2.6 million in pre-Series A funding. Monk’s Hill Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backers Iterative, XA Network and iSeed Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Cured, a three-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based digital marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) platform for healthcare organizations, has closed on $10 million in Series A funding led by DNA Capital. Other investors in the round include CU Healthcare Innovation Fund, UCHealth and earlier backers High Alpha, Waterline Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, and Headwater Ventures. More here.

DeepHow, a three-year-old, Detroit, Mi.-based learning platform for skilled trades that's centered around "smart" how-to videos, has raised $9 million in pre-Series A funding led by Sierra Ventures. More here.

Find Your Grind, a three-year-old, L.A.-based digital learning platform for high school students that's focused on career readiness, has raised $1 million seed funding from a long list of investors, including Animal Capital and music artist will.i.am. More here.

Private AI, a four-year-old, Toronto-based developer of privacy-preserving machine learning and natural language processing tools, is pleased to announce that it has secured $3.15 million in seed funding co-led by M12 and Forum Ventures. Other participants in the round include Shasta Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, and Parliament Angels, a group of early Twilio employees, and Ajay Agrawa, the founder of Creative Destruction Lab.BetaKit has more here.

Releaf, a four-year-old, Nigeria-based agritech startup that's trying to industrialize food processing in Africa, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding led by Samurai Incubate Africa, Future Africa, and Consonance Investment Managers, with participation from Bain Capital chairman Stephen Pagliuca and Twitch cofounder Justin Kan. TechCrunch has more here.

Replay, a 15-month-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based time travel debugger for web developers, has raised $5.7 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from IA Ventures and Version One Ventures. More here. 

TomoCredit, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based fintech startup that's marketing a credit card which is focused on building a credit history for first-time borrowers, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Kapor Capital and earlier investor KB Investment, a subsidiary of a South Korea consumer bank, co-led the round. The outfit separately raised $7 million in seed funding back in February. TechCrunch has more here.

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Lightstone Ventures, a nine-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based life sciences-focused venture firm, has closed a new fund with $375 million in capital commitments. FierceBiotech has more here.

TJ Mahoney, a Boston-based entrepreneur-turned-VC who spent the last six years affiliated with Accomplice (as a venture partner, then partner), has struck out on his own with Vinyl, a seed-stage venture fund that quietly closed a $40 million debut fund in late spring. Accomplice is its anchor investor. More here.

Genius, the music-annotating startup that drew attention in part for outsized funding from venture capitalists, has sold its assets to a Santa Monica, California-based media holding company for $80 million (less than it raised collectively, says Bloomberg). The buyer is MediaLab.Ai, which will cut some jobs as part of the process. “We are restructuring the way in which original content is produced at Genius, and as part of that some very talented individuals on the content and production teams were let go,” MediaLab said in a statement. More here.

Hong Kong Covid-19 testing laboratory Prenetics has agreed to merge with tycoon Adrian Cheng’s U.S.-listed blank-check company Artisan Acquisition Corp. Prenetics has an enterprise value of $1.25 billion in the deal to take it public, according to a statement. Backed by Alibaba Group Holding and Ping An Insurance Group Co., Prenetics was founded as a genetics and DNA testing company but pivoted to Covid-19 testing when the pandemic began last year. Bloomberg has the story here.

Truecaller, which operates a caller-identification service, says it's looking to raise $116 million in an IPO on Nasdaq Stockholm. The 12-year-old Stockholm, Sweden-based firm, which counts India as its biggest market by users, is aiming for a valuation of about $3 billion, according to local media reports. The company said it plans to do its listing by fourth quarter of this year. TechCrunch has more here.

Hyde Park Venture Partners of Chicago has brought abroad two associates: Dawn Nguyen and Carlos Covarrubias. More here.

"It's good to be wealthy." Investor-entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale talks with the new outlet Puck.

From the Financial Times: "China’s leading ride-hailing app, Didi Chuxing, has seen its number of daily users fall 30% since its initial public offering in New York in June triggered a fierce backlash by Beijing. In the days after Didi’s IPO, Chinese regulators banned the company from signing up new customers while they carried out a data security investigation that is continuing. Regulators also ordered app stores to remove 25 of Didi’s other apps, including those that register new drivers. Didi shares have fallen more than 40% since the IPO and its rivals have begun to lure its customers with promotions." More here.

Internal memos show how a big 2018 change rewarded outrage on Facebook -- and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed fixes. The WSJ has more here as part of a continuing series.

"The Meryl Streep of mathematics."

Murder mystery movies to watch right now.

Your "moment" (23 minutes) of Zen.

Experiential wedding gifts.

A Mallorca villa with an underground nightclub and a rooftop cinema and three pools, and a glass elevator. (They had us at "Mallorca.")

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