Snap slips, Adam Neumann resurfaces. and how many users does Facebook have? The company isn't so sure

Hello!

One quick mention before we finally put together an actual event website: We are *thrilled* about two more guests who are joining us Thursday evening, November 11th, in San Francisco: Katie Haun of Andreessen Horowitz, and Parker Conrad of Rippling. 

We talked with Conrad yesterday (see below), yet there's so much more discuss, from his entrepreneurial path to the very big company he believes that Rippling is positioned to become, that we're delighted he can swing by to share some of his war stories, learnings, and also, his (partial) roadmap. 

We're also exceedingly happy that Haun is joining all of us, especially on the heels of a whirlwind trip to Washington last week. As a general partner at a16z and a director on the boards of Coinbase and OpenSea, among others, Haun has had an especially wild ride this year, and we're eager to talk with her about some of the tricky terrain she is right now navigating, as well as to get a sneak peak at her newest investment. 

We're excited!

Massive thanks again to the team at  Eclipse Ventures for hanging in there as this thing comes together. Eclipse reached out long ago to offer its support with this event and it's been reassuring to know they have our back.:)

In an earnings call today, Snap said that it failed to meet revenue expectations for its third quarter, reporting $1.07 billion in revenue compared with Wall Street’s target of $1.1 billion. The company attributed the revenue miss to Apple’s big iOS privacy change, which put new restrictions in place for apps seeking to track user behavior beyond their own borders. TechCrunch has more here.

Pilot, a San Francisco-based startup that raised $60 million in Series C funding led by Sequoia Capital (followed by 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.

Founded by entrepreneur Parker Conrad in 2013, the HR company Zenefits was famously anointed one of the fast-growing companies in Silicon Valley, with a valuation that soared to $4.5 billion within three years. Then it began to fall apart. The company was discovered to face compliance issues. Conrad was forced to resign. And Zenefits's valuation was slashed in half, with more than 60% of the company's employees laid off over numerous rounds afterward.

If Conrad wallowed in self-pity afterward, he didn't do it long. Within months of leaving Zenefits in 2016, he formed Rippling, a company originally focused on the process of onboarding employees but that has since come to manage all aspects of employee data, from payroll and benefits, to the apps employees use, to a device management platform that enables Rippling's customers to retrieve, wipe clean and store employee computers when staffers part ways with a company.

In fact, there are now so many lines of revenue that Rippling just closed on $250 million in fresh funding led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Global Growth, with participation from earlier backers Greenoaks, Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Initialized, YC and Threshold Ventures.

The round brings Rippling's total funding to $450 million. It also values Rippling at $6.5 billion, making it more valuable than Zenefits ever was before it sold a controlling interest earlier this year to a private equity firm.

Conrad thinks it could easily grow from here. Asked if Rippling has received interest from an acquirer like, say Microsoft, he says the "right analog" for Rippling is Microsoft. "Our view is that Rippling is not just going to double in the future, but maybe grow by some much, much larger multiple over time."

More here.

* 360Learning, a 7.5-year-old, Paris, France-based learning engagement platform that helps develop business executives within an organization, has raised $200 million from Sumeru, SoftBank, Silver Lake Waterman and earlier backers Bpifrance, XAnge and Educapital. TechCrunch has more here.

* Bardavon Health Innovations, a seven-year-old, Overland Park, Ks.-based worker's comp and musculoskeletal health company, raised $90 million in Series C funding. Matrix Capital Management led the round,  joined by WestCap. More here. 

* Brex, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that provides credit cards to other startups, just raised $300 million in fresh funding in a deal that assigns it a $12.3 billion post-money valuation, just six months after it was valued at $7.4 billion. The round, which has yet to be officially announced, is being led by Greenoaks, says TechCrunch. More here.

* Candy Digital, a 1.5-year-old NFT unit of the sports e-commerce company Fanatics, has raised $100 million in Series A funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. Insight Partners and SoftBank co-led the round, and were joined by Connect Ventures, Will Ventures, Gaingels, Com2Us, Chaos Ventures and Peyton Manning. CNBC has more here.

* Honeycomb, a nearly seven-year-old, San Francisco-based software observability platform, just raised $50 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round,  joined by Scale Venture Partners, Headline, Storm Ventures, Industry Ventures and NextWorld Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

* Jupiter Intelligence, a 4.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based climate risk analytics company, has raised $54 million in Series C funding co-led by ClearVision Ventures and MPower Partners. Axios has more here.

* Parallel, a sci-fi card game based on the Ethereum blockchain, has raised $50 million in funding at a $500 million valuation from crypto VC firm Paradigm. Previous investors include YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Focus Labs, OSS Capital and Yunt Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

* ReCode Therapeutics, a six-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based genetic medicines developer, has raised $80 million in Series B funding co-led by Pfizer Ventures and EcoR1 Capital. More here.

* AirGarage, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that offers a full-stack software and management service to parking garage owners on whose behalf they handle everything from collecting payments to even providing parking enforcement, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by earlier backers Floodgate, Founders Fund and Abstract Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Anello Photonics, a three-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based optical gyroscope startup, has raised $28 million in Series A funding led by New Legacy Ventures. Other participants in the round include Lockheed Martin Ventures, Catapult Ventures, JS Capital and HCVC. More here.

* B12, a six-year-old, New York-based startup that's focused on helping smaller professional service organizations like law or accounting firms more easily accept online payments and build a digital presence in general, has raised $15.7 million in funding. Tola Capital led the round, joined by Breyer Capital, Naval Ravikant and General Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.

* Embrace, a five-year-old, Culver City, Ca-based maker of mobile data intelligence software, just raised $45 million in Series B funding led by NEA, with added participation from earlier backers AV8, Greycroft and Eniac Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Metrolink.ai, a year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based maker data flow management software, has raised  $22 million in seed funding led by Grove Ventures, with ongoing participation from Eclipse Ventures, a founding stakeholder in the startup. More here.

* Pomelo, a nine-month-old, Buenos Aires-based startup that's aiming to build a fintech-as-a-service platform for Latin America, just raised $35 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by earlier backers Monashees, Index Ventures, QED and others that provided Pomelo with $9 million in seed funding back in May. More here. 

* SkyHive, a 4.5-year-old, Vancouver, Canada- and San Francisco, Ca-based-based workforce re-skilling platform that helps workers recognize and fill their skills gaps, has raised $40 million in Series B funding. Eldridge led the round, with participation from earlier backers Allegis Cyber, Accenture Ventures, Workday Ventures and the Partnership Fund For New York City. VentureBeat has more here.

* Via Separations, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based MIT spinout focused on reducing energy use in manufacturing, has raised $38 million in Series B funding. NGP ETP led the round, joined by 2040 Foundation and earlier investors The Engine, Safar Partners, Prime Impact Fund, Embark Ventures and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. TechCrunch has more here.

* XanPool, a two-year-old open finance infrastructure company that aims to make sending all forms of money across the world faster and cheaper, has raised $27 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures. Other participants in the round include CMT Digital, Wise founder and chairman Taavet Hinrikus and earlier backers Gumi Gryptos and Antler. The company has now raised $32 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* Yummy, a year-old, Venezuelan 'super app' that offers both delivery and ride-sharing services, has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Anthos Capital led the round, joined by JAM Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

* Socratic, a 1.5-year-old, Mountain View, CA-based startup whose data-driven task management system caters to developers, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Unusual Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Investors today piled into shares of the special-purpose acquisition company taking Donald Trump’s new social-media platform public. Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. more than quadrupled to $45.50 in the first trading session following the deal announcement. Trump Media & Technology Group said late yesterday it would combine with the SPAC and soon launch a new social network called Truth Social. The deal values the Trump media company at about $875 million, including debt. The WSJ has more here.

* As WeWork made its debut this morning on the New York Stock Exchange, Adam Neumann wasn't on stage ringing the opening bell but he was 2.5 miles to the north, reportedly celebrating with dozens of former employees and his co-founder, Miguel McKelvey, at The Standard hotel in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.  The WSJ has more here, including about Neumann's apparent interest in building a business around residential real estate for his next act.

* Big-name U.S. tech investors are moving in on Europe in increasing numbers, including, last month, Alex Ferrara of Bessemer Venture Partners. CNBC has more here.

* How many users does Facebook have? The company is struggling to figure it out.

* Consumers around the world are about to get socked with even higher prices on everyday items, companies from food giant Unilever to lubricant maker WD-40 Co. warned this week as they grapple with supply difficulties. Bloomberg has more here.

* What to know about mixing vaccines.

* A newly released Coltrane tape.

* Biden scales down $2 trillion climate plan to single reusable grocery bag.

A "Home Alone" LEGO set, just in time for the holidays.

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