China's crypto crackdown, a TikTok video destroys weeks of data, and the crazy surveillance apparatus that surrounded Brittany Spears

Friday! 

Hope you have a terrific weekend, everyone. We ran out of time to write much today, but if you're looking for a new podcast, this week's just-made StrictlyVC Download stars special guest Max Chafkin, a features editor at Bloomberg Businessweek whose new book about investor Peter Thiel, "The Contrarian," is on everyone's reading list right now. Chafkin is that rare reporter who is both a great storyteller in print and in person, and we thoroughly enjoyed talking with him about this new work; we hope you'll enjoy it, too.

Giant thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Tegus, which says it offers instant access to 20,000+ investor-led expert calls on public and private companies. (A lot of VCs use it.) Check out www.tegus.co/strictlyvc to scale up your own research.

China’s central bank said today that all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal in the country and they must be banned, citing concerns around national security and “safety of people’s assets.” The world’s most populated nation also said that foreign exchanges are banned from providing services to users in the country.

The Biden administration is considering invoking a Cold War-era national security law to force companies in the semiconductor supply chain to provide information on inventory and sales of chips, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The goal, says Bloomberg. is to alleviate bottlenecks that have idled U.S. car production and caused shortages of consumer electronics and to identify possible hoarding, she said in an interview. More here.

The U.S. Justice Department has agreed to allow Huawei Technologies finance chief Meng Wanzhou to return to her home in China nearly three years after she was detained in Canada on behalf of the U.S., "removing one irritant in a deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and China," notes the WSJ. More here.

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Devoted Health, a four-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based health insurer focused on Medicare Advantage plans, is raising up to $1.2 billion in Series D funding at around an $11.5 billion pre-money valuation, per a Delaware stock authorization filing found by Axios. The company, founded by former U.S. CTO Todd Park, has raised around $820 million in funding to date, says the outlet, most recently last year at a $3.65 billion post-money valuation. More here.

Xpansiv, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace for ESG commodities, raised $100 million from Clean Energy Finance Corp., Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Hartree Partners, Wilson Asset Management. Financial Review has more here.

GeneEdit, a five-year-old, South San Francisco-based gene therapy delivery startup, has raised $26 million in Series A funding from Eli Lilly, KTB Network, Company K Partners, Korea Investment Partners, DCVC Bio, Sequoia Capital, and half a dozen other investors. FierceBiotech has more here. 

Grow Therapy, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based startup that helps therapists launch private practices covered by insurance, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by SignalFire. TechCrunch has more here.

Sternum, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based IoT security and observability startup, has raised $27 million in Series B funding. Spark Capital led the round, joined by Square Peg, btov and Hinrich Foundaton. More here.

Awning, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based platform designed to allow individuals to invest in single-family rental homes, has raised $9.3 million in funding led by Global Founders Capital, with participation from MassMutual Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Pronto, a three-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based partner ecosystem management startup, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Work-Bench, with participation from Vertex Ventures US, Firebolt Ventures and Tau Ventures. More here.

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Drive Capital, the eight-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based venture firm cofounded by former Sequoia Capital investors Mark Kvamme and Chris Olsen, is looking to raise a combined $950 million across two new funds, according to SEC filings (here and here). We talked with the pair earlier this year. More here.

Udemy, a San Francisco–based startup that sells online courses to individuals and businesses, is preparing to file paperwork for an IPO whose listing could come as soon as next month, according to The Information. The company, which raised $50 million at a $3.3 billion valuation in November, is targeting an initial valuation of between $6 billion and $8 billion, according to one of the outlet's sources. More here.

Procore, a cloud-based construction management software company, announced on Wednesday that it has inked a deal to acquire software firm Levelset for $500 million in mostly cash and some stock. The deal gives the publicly traded Procore, a dominant player in construction software, the tools it needs to solve one of the biggest problems facing the construction industry, notes Business Inside: getting paid.

How Elizabeth Holmes sidelined the real scientists at Theranos (according to one of those real scientists in testimony today).

Elon Musk and Grimes have split up after three years. Musk tells Page Six: “We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms." 

Musk also said today that the ongoing semiconductor crisis will be over by next year. “There’s a lot of chip fabrication plants that are being built and I think we will have good capacity by next year,” Musk said at an Italian tech event that was streamed online today.

TPG is promoting a group of longtime partners to leadership roles as the private-equity firm prepares to launch an initial public offering of its shares.

New documents revealed in a lawsuit allegedly show internal conversations between Robinhood executives during the height of January’s meme-stock chaos. In one instance, Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Howard acknowledges that the start-up was facing a “major liquidity crisis,” according to the suit. Publicly, the company’s chief executive was saying the opposite. CNBC has the story here.

Fall getaways for art lovers.

How roller skates are made.

In 56 seconds, a teenager on TikTok disrupted thousands of scientific studies.

The surveillance apparatus that surrounded Brittany Spears. (This one is bananas.)

The season's must-have accessory, insists GQ: the fashion blanket.

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