Recession fears grow, more bad news for that Zoom tie-up, and newly ranked: the best colleges in the U.S.

Hello! So we forgot to turn on our microphone at Disrupt today while interviewing Erin Schneider of the SEC (this went on a while), but *otherwise,* it was a good day, filled with illuminating conversations and intriguing startup pitches. Hopefully you caught some of the show or will tomorrow. (There are two more days of programming.) 

More tomorrow.:)

The U.S. could plunge into an immediate recession if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling and the country defaults on its payment obligations this fall, according to one analysis released today by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. His take: a prolonged impasse over the debt ceiling would cost the U.S. economy up to 6 million jobs, wipe out as much as $15 trillion in household wealth, and send the unemployment rate surging to roughly 9% from around 5%. More here.

A Justice Department-led panel is now investigating Zoom's deal to buy the U.S. customer-service software company Five9, citing potential national-security risks posed by the U.S. videoconferencing giant’s China ties. The department said there could be a risk from “the foreign relationships and ownership” associated with the application. In response to questions about the company’s links to China, Zoom has emphasized the U.S. citizenship of its China-born founder and CEO, Eric Yuan. (Yuan tells the story, and told it to us in late 2018, about being so determined to make his way in the U.S. that he ultimately applied for a visa nine times.)

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Battery Resourcers, a six-year-old, Worcester, Ma.-based company that says it both recycles lithium-ion batteries and has also engineered a process to turn that recycled material back into critical battery materials, has raised $70 million in Series C funding. Hitachi Ventures led the round, joined by Orbia Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover, Doral Energy, At One Ventures, TDK Ventures and Trumpf Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

IVX Health, a nine-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based operator of outpatient infusion centers, has raised $100 million in Series F funding from Great Hill Partners. Fierce Healthcare has more here.

Mirakl, a nine-year-old, Paris-based marketplace SaaS platform that enable organizations across B2B and B2C industries to launch marketplaces faster, has raised $555 million in Series E funding. Silver Lake is leading the investment, with participation from earlier investors 83North, Elaia Partners, Felix Capital and Permira. TechCrunch has more here.

Provi, a five-year-old, Chicago-based wholesale alcohol e-commerce platform that serves bars and restaurants, has raised $75 million in Series C funding led by D1 Capital Partners, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners. The fund comes on the heels of a $25 million round a few months ago. Reuters has more here.

Statespace, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that straddles the markets of video games and health training programs, has raised $50 million in funding co-led by insiders Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital. A mix of other earlier and new backers also joined the round, including FirstMark Capital, June Fund, West Ventures, AME, Bessemer Venture Partners, Modern Venture Partners, Mirae Asset, Animal Capital, Riverside and Gaingels. The company has now raised $98 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.

Sunday, an eight-month-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based payment app that let customers pay quickly for their restaurant meals using QR code, has raised $100 million in Series A(!) funding led by Coatue, with participation from partners of DST Global, along with investors from the restaurant, hospitality and tech industries. Cofounder and CEO Christine de Wendel was previously the COO of home goods retail platform ManoMano in France. More here.

Alamanac, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based document editing startup, has raised $34 million in Series A funding led Tiger Global, with participation from General Catalyst, earlier backer Floodgate, and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Alpha Medical, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based telemedicine company focused on women’s healthcare, has raised $24 million in Series B funding, including from: SpringRock Ventures, former Ancestry.com CEO Margo Georgiadis, Outcomes Collective Growth Capital, FMZ Ventures, Samsung Next, Chamaeleon, AV8 Ventures and GSR Ventures. The company has now raised $35 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Cloudsmith, a five-year-old, Belfast, Ireland-based supply chain management software startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round,  joined by Shasta Ventures, Amaranthine, Sorenson and Leadout Capital. The Irish Times has more here.

DeepFactor, a three-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based maker of continuous AppSec observability tools, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by earlier backers Tricentis, Emergent Ventures and Security Leadership Capital. The company has now raised $18.4 million altogether. More here. 

Evermos, a nearly three-year-old, Indonesia-based social commerce startup, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by UOB Venture Management’s Asia Impact Investment Fund II. Other participants in the round included IFC, MDI Ventures, Telkomsel Mitra Innovation and Future Shape, along with earlier investors Jungle Ventures and Shunwei Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Intenseye, a three-year-old, New York- and Istanbul-based startup whose software captures workplace safety incidents without (it says) compromising workers' anonymity and privacy, just raised $25 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round, and was joined by earlier backers Point Nine and Air Street Capital. More here. 

Metrika, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based blockchain monitoring startup, has raised $14 million in Series A funding. Neotribe Ventures led the round, joined by Coinbase Ventures, Samsung NEXT, Nyca Partners and SCB 10X. More here.

Propel, a six-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based product lifecycle management platform, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Ankona Capital and earlier backers Norwest Venture Partners, Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Green D Ventures and TIFF. SiliconAngle has more here.

Stairwell, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based cybersecurity startup, just raised $20 million co-led by Accel and Sequoia Capital. (Its founder CEO spent more than 13 years with Google previously, including as an engineer focused on threat analysis.) TechCrunch has more here.

Blackbird.ai, a four-year-old, New York-based disinformation intelligence platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Dorilton Ventures led the round, joined by NetX, Generation Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, StartFast Ventures and Richard Clarke. More here.

Cartona, a two-year-old, Giza, Egypt-based platform for connecting retailers and manufacturers, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Global Ventures, with participation from Kepple Africa and T5 Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Gardyn, a three-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based startup that has developed vertical hydroponic system that takes up two square feet of space and whose 30-plant system can ostensibly yield the same amount of produce as a 1,300-square-foot outdoor garden, just raised $5 million from JAB Ventures. More here.

Sophie’s Kitchen, an 11-year-old, Sebastopol, Ca.-based company that makes vegan seafood from plants, including to mimic crab meat, shrimp, scallops, tuna and salmon, has raised $5.6 million in funding from Billy Goat Brands. More here.

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Blue Bear Capital, a five-year-old fully distributed venture firm focused on energy, infrastructure and climate, has closed its second fund with $150 million in capital commitments, including from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the McKnight Foundation. More here.

Greylock Partners, the now 56-year-old venture firm, has raised $500 million to focus exclusively on seed deals. The capital is part of an expansion of a $1.1 billion fund that Greylock announced last year and brings the fund size to $1.6 billion. The Information has the story here.

Heartcore Capital, a 14-year-old, Copenhagen-based consumer-tech-focused venture firm, has raised $200 million for its fourth flagship fund and $50 million for an opportunity fund. Sifted has more here.

Transfix, an eight-year-old, New York-based digital freight marketplace that connect shippers to a national network of carriers, agreed to go public at an implied $1.1 billion valuation via G Squared Ascend, a blank-check company formed by G Squared Capital. Transfix had raised more than $140 million from investors, including G Squared, Canvas Ventures, NEA, TriplePoint Venture Growth, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Charge Ventures and Corigin Ventures. The WSJ has more here.

The latest crop of Saudi Arabia’s market newcomers is proving just as frugal when it comes to paying investment bankers, reports Bloomberg. Despite attracting $125 billion in orders from investors for an IPO of Saudi Telecom’s internet-services unit, banks including Morgan Stanley and HSBC Holdings are set to share just about $12 million in fees -- and that's apparently more typical than not.

Singapore’s move to launch new funds to support startups will help companies seeking IPOs, though it could take years before Singapore Exchange might become a center for regional tech listings, according to market players interviewed by Reuters. More here.

Google says it is buying a 1.3 million-square-foot waterfront Manhattan office building for $2.1 billion. The deal for the new building on Manhattan’s West Side is the most expensive sale of a single U.S. office building since the start of the pandemic—and one of the priciest in U.S. history, according to data company Real Capital Analytics.

Mark Zuckerberg reportedly signed off last month on a new initiative code-named Project Amplify. It purpose: to use Facebook's New Feed to burnish its own reputation. “They’re realizing that no one else is going to come to their defense, so they need to do it and say it themselves,” Katie Harbath, a former Facebook public policy director, tells the New York Times.

Using an array of sensor data, Apple is working on technology to help diagnose depression and cognitive decline, aiming for tools that could expand the scope of its burgeoning health portfolio, reports the WSJ. More here.

Cereal box dominoes.

Do you remember?

The best colleges in the U.S., 2022 edition.

Beginning Friday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is auctioning off more than 200 prints and photographs from its collection.

More than 200 emerging fund managers applied to present at the RAISE Global Summit October 19-20, and we’ve selected 30 of the best to present their funds. If you’re an LP and want to be among the first to meet with tomorrow’s breakout VC stars, sign up today for the RAISE conference. The program won't be recorded. You just gotta be there! Click here to request an invite.