A $900 million round, an Apple unveiling, and that SEC report on meme stock mania is finally out

* Here's everything Apple announced at its "Unleashed" event this morning.

* In a highly anticipated report about the GameStop mania earlier this year, the SEC today said that online brokerages, enticed to increase revenue through the controversial industry practice of payment for order flow, are turning stock-trading into a game in order to encourage activity from retail investors. It simultaneously debunked some related conspiracy theories. However, the agency stopped short of making concrete recommendations.

Pilot, a San Francisco-based startup, which raised a $60 million Series C from Sequoia Capital (then a $100 million Series D led by Bezos Expeditions), helps founders get their finances right. Get the financial expertise to grow with Pilot bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services. StrictlyVC readers get 20% off their first 6 months of bookkeeping.

* Aiven, a six-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based startup that helps companies combine various open source technologies with public cloud infrastructure resources, has raised $60 million in fresh funding, following a $100 million round back in March. World Innovation Labs and IVP co-led the round, joined by Atomico — all existing investors. The company, which has now raised $210 million altogether, says it is now valued at $2 billion by its investors. TechCrunch has more here.

* Bionexo, a 21-year-old, Brazil-based cloud software and data analytics company that connects healthcare suppliers and providers, raised $82.5 million in funding led by Bain Capital. The company has received past funding from Prisma Capital, Apus and Temasek, says Pitchbook. 

* Deel, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that provides payroll, compliance tools, and other services to help businesses hire remotely, has raised $425 million in Series D funding round at a post-money valuation of $5.5 billion. Coatue led the round, joined by a mix of new and earlier backers, including Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Neo, Spark Capital and the YC Continuity Fund. Just six months ago, Deel had raised $156 million at a $1.25 billion valuation. TechCrunch has more here.

* Enpal, a nearly five-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based solar company that uses AI for provisioning and installing services, then employs a subscription-style model for homeowners to pay for it, has raised €150 million ($174 million) in extended Series C funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The round -- which has now reached $290 million altogether --  includes €100 million that Enpal raised earlier this year from HV Capital and SolarCity co-founder Peter Rive, among others. The company has gathered up $360 million in equity and $406 million in debt to date. TechCrunch has more here. 

* N26, the eight-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based digital bank that, like rivals, offers app-based checking accounts and little to no fees, has raised a $900 million(!) round of funding that values the company at $9 billion. The round was co-led by Third Point, the hedge fund led by billionaire investor Dan Loeb, and Coatue, while Dragoneer also participated. CNBC has more here.

* Primer, a 20-month-old, U.K.-based startup that has built a drag-and-drop framework to help merchants more easily build payment stacks to sell online, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. ICONIQ Growth led the round, joined by earlier backers Accel, Balderton Capital, Seedcamp, Speedinvest, and RTP Global. TechCrunch has more here.

* Saildrone, a nine-year-old, Alameda, Ca.-based maker of unmanned surface vehicles that collect ocean data, has raised $100 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Bond, with added participation from XN, Standard Investments, Emerson Collective, Crowley Maritime Corporation, Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Lux Capital, Social Capital, and Tribe Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

* Zopa, a 16-year-old, London-based fintech that provides peer-to-peer lending, savings accounts, credit cards and other services to more than 500,000 users in the U.K., has raised $300 million in fresh funding at a post-money valuation of $1 billion. According to Crunchbase data, the company has now raised roughly $700 million altogether, so investors would seem to own a lot of this one. Softbank Vision Fund 2 led Zopa's latest round, joined by Chimera Capital and earlier backers IAG Silverstripe, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, NorthZone, and Augmentum Fintech. TechCrunch has more here.

* Allplants, a five-year-old, London- and Dublin-based vegan meals startup (it prepares, then delivers the food), has raised £38 million ($52 million) in Series B funding led by Draper Esprit. Other participants in the round include The Craftory, TriplePoint Capital, Felix Capital and numerous individual investors. The Irish Times has more here.

* Builder.io, a nearly five-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that says it's giving its e-commerce customers drag-and-drop tools that make updating their digital storefronts far easier without developer support, has $14 million new funding. Greylock led the round, joined by Imaginary Ventures and a group of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Dance Church, a nearly 11-year-old, Seattle-based outfit that offers an online streaming version of its in-person exercise classes that focus around dancing, has raised $4.7 million from a handful of investors led by MaC Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Geniebook, a four-year-old, Singapore-based startup whose online learning tools rely on both machine learning and actual teachers to personalize every student’s education, has raised $16.6 million in Series A funding co-led by East Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

* Italic, a three-year-old, L.A.-based marketplace that connects consumers with products from "highly vetted manufacturers," has raised $37 million in funding led by Canaan Partners. Canaan was joined by 70 founders and executives, including Figma CEO Dylan Field, SoftBank's Lydia Jett, and Facebook exec Hugo Barra. Glossy has more here.

* Our Next Energy (ONE), a 15-month-old, Michigan-based battery tech startup that says it can double the range of EVs, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Assembly Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Singapore-based Flex and Volta Energy Technologies also participated. TechCrunch explains ONE's tech here.

* SaaS Labs, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.- and Noida, India-based startup that develops products for sales and support teams and contact centers to enhance agent training and automate workflows, has raised $17 million in Series A funding. The capital -- which represents the company's first outside funding -- came from Base10 Partners and Eight Roads Ventures. The Economic Times has more here. 

* Seafair, a year-old, New York-based maritime recruitment platform that uses matching algorithms to fit crew members with the right vessels, has raised $5.7 million led by General Catalyst, with participation from FirstMinute Capital, Signal Ventures, TA Ventures, SV Angel, SpeedInvest and earlier investor FJ Labs. The startup has now raised roughly $7 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* Scribe, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based productivity platform whose software records movement and clicks and converts them into step-by-step guides with screenshots and text that is editable and shareable (to replace traditional tutorials), has raised $22 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global Management. Earlier investors that had provided the outfit with $8 million in seed funding also joined the round, including Amplify Partners, Haystack Ventures, XYZ Ventures, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Morado Ventures, and SEV. TechCrunch has more here.

* StudySmarter, a three-year-old, Munich, Germany-based online education startup that turns text into interactive content, has raised $16 million in extended Series A funding led by Goodwater Capital. The company had initially closed the round with $15 million back in May. Silicon Canals has more here. 

* TripleBlind, a two-year-old, Kansas City, Mo.-based startup that say it has devised a way to encrypt data so that it can be shared without ever being decrypted or even leaving the data owner’s firewall (while also remaining compliant with data protection regulations), has raised $24 million in Series A funding. General Catalyst and the Mayo Clinic co-led the round, joined by more than half a dozen other investors. TechCrunch has more here.

* Crossing Minds, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of purchase recommendation software that doesn't infringe on or jeopardize customer privacy, it says, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Radical Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Index Ventures, Partech and Lerer Hippeau. TechCrunch has more here.

* Insiteflow, a 2.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based cloud-based platform that aims to makes it easier for clinicians to use third-party analytics tools within their EHR, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding. Silverton Partners led the round, joined by Congress Ave Ventures, Alumni Ventures and Service Provider Capital. MedCity News has more here.

* Obsesh, a nearly three-year-old, L.A.-based marketplace platform connecting fans to what it says are top athletes for personalized coaching, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding led by Stadia Ventures. More here.

* Orgnostic, a two-year-old, Belgrade, Serbia-based startup whose software promises to tie together scattered HR and finance data to provide organizations better information about their employees, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Earlybird Digital East. Numerous individual investors also joined the round, including entrepreneur Eric Ries and a former head of corporate strategy at Microsoft, Charlie Songhurst. More here.

* Sendbox, a five-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based company focused on e-commerce fulfillment, has raised $1.8 million in seed funding from 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs, Golden Palm Investments, Flexport and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.

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Alaska Airlines has become the latest major airline to enter corporate investing with the launch of a new venture capital arm, dubbed Alaska Star Ventures, as the aviation industry looks to emerging technologies to help decarbonize air travel. Alaska Star Ventures’ first investment, to the tune of $15 million, is in Los Angeles-based UP.Partners’s inaugural venture fund. The $230 million early-stage fund will focus on mobility technologies and has garnered additional investment from Woven Capital, the investment arm of Toyota Motor’s Woven Planet Group; Standard Industries; Hillwood; and OSM Maritime. TechCrunch has much more here.

IronSource, a platform that helps app developers with their monetization, engagement, and analytics, has announced that it has acquired TapJoy, the U.S-based mobile advertising company. The acquisition is valued at $400 million in cash and is expected to close at the end of the year or early 2022. Calcalist has more here.

* Would-be bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer Invesco is pulling out of the race to issue a bitcoin futures product. The company said today that it would no longer attempt to launch an ETF linked to bitcoin futures, a day before a competing product by fellow issuer ProShares begins trading.

* Backblaze, a company that backs up data on people’s computers and provides cloud-based storage space that companies use to store and retrieve files, filed to go public today. It’s "not a major cloud company, but Backblaze has managed to expand in the shadow of much larger entities, as more organizations become willing to count on data center equipment they don’t own, in part because they can pay based on how much they use," observes CNBC. More here.

* GitLab grew up in GitHub’s shadow, but now it’s worth twice what Microsoft paid for its chief rival, which at the time seemed like a high-price.

* Used cars keep going up (and up) in price, with average transaction prices involving seven-year-old vehicles 38% higher last month than a year earlier.

* How I Built This, with Moderna cofounder Noubar Afeyan. (Audio.)

* Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said today that the U.S. government should take a more active role in policing cyberattacks. “Governments on a multilateral basis…need to put it up higher on the agenda,” he said in a recorded interview for a WSJ event. “If not, you’re going to see more of it because countries would resort to those things.”

* Inside America's broken supply chain.

* Instagram is struggling to retain and engage teenagers, according to internal documents provided to the New York Times.

* Walmart is building a new weapon in its war with Amazon, the WSJ reported late last week. The retail giant is apparently launching a new fintech startup that aims to provide financial services for its millions of customers and workers. The Journal describes the firm as a joint venture with Ribbit Capital and other digital financial businesses. It's reportedly being helmed by former Goldman execs Omer Ismail, who previously headed Goldman’s consumer banking unit, Marcus, and David Stark, a top executive at Marcus. More here.

* Mattress store.

* "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Insecure" are back this Sunday. 

* RIP, Colin Powell. "Don't feel sorry for me.

* The swift return of the low-rise.

* A fully functional Chatter phone. 😍

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