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* Elon Musk said tonight that Tesla has not yet signed that contract with Hertz(!). The tweet from Musk seemingly contradicts a prior announcement and advertisement released by Hertz on Oct. 25. CNBC has more here.
* From the WSJ: "The Biden administration today took the first significant step to impose banklike oversight on the cryptocurrency companies involved in the issuance of stablecoins, outlining a process that could shape the future of that digital money. A Treasury-led panel recommended that Congress impose a new regulatory framework around stablecoins—digital currencies pegged to national currencies like the U.S. dollar—and limit the issuance of such digital assets to banks." The Journal further observes that the "legislative request is a tall order given both chambers of Congress are narrowly divided."
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* Digital Currency Group, a six-year-old, New York-based crypto conglomerate whose holdings include media site CoinDesk and asset manager Grayscale, has raised $700 million in an investment round, the second-largest in the crypto sector. SoftBank led the round, via both its Vision Fund 2 and its Latin America Fund, which values the outfit at $10 billion Other investors include CapitalG, Ribbit Capital, GIC, Tribe Capital and Emory University. DCG’s operating units also include the data firm TradeBlock and mining company Foundry. It has invested in more than 200 other companies, including payments-network Abra, brokerage eToro and the crypto exchange FTX. The WSJ has the story here.
* DNA Script, a seven-year-old, France-based maker of a benchtop DNA printer, has raised $165 million in Series C funding. Coatue and Catalio Capital Management co-led, the round. FierceBiotech has more here.
* Fi, nearly three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based startup that offers digital bank accounts and financial guidance to working professionals, has raised $50 million in Series B funding from co-led by B Capital Group and Falcon Edge. The Economic Times has more here.
* Lever, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based talent acquisition platform, just raised $50 million in Series D funding from Apax Digital Fund. More here.
* OctoML, a two-year-old Seattle-based startup that helps enterprises optimize and deploy their machine learning models, has raised an $85 million Series C round led by Tiger Global Management. Previous investors Addition, Madrona Venture Group and Amplify Partners also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $132 million. TechCrunch has more here.
* Twiga Foods, an eight-year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based B2B food distribution platform, has raised $50 million in Series C funding. Creadev led the round, joined by OP Finnfund Global, Endeavor Catalyst Fund and earlier investors TLcom, IFC Ventures, DOB Equity and Juven. TechCrunch has more here.
* When I Work, an 11-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based maker of shift-based workforce management software, has raised $200 million from Bain Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
* Zepto, a months-old, India-based grocery delivery startup founded last year by two 19-year-old Stanford dropouts, has raised $60 million in funding led by Glade Brook, with participation from Nexus, Y Combinator and Global Founders Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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* Apollo.io, a 6.5-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of B2B sales intelligence and engagement software, has raised $32 million in Series B funding led by Tribe Capital, with participation from NewView Capital and earlier backer Nexus Venture Partners. More here.
*First AML, a four-year-old, New Zealand-based digital ID authentication company that operates in the anti-money laundering space, has raised $21 million in Series B funding. Blackbird Ventures led the round, joined by earlier investors Bedrock Capital and Icehouse Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
* Moka, a six-year-old China-based startup that wants to make human resources management easier with software, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global. Other participants in the round include Blue Lake Capital, GL Ventures (which is the early-stage arm of Hillhouse Capital), GSR Ventures and GGV Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
* Mosaic Building Group, a six-year-old, Phoenix, Az.-based startup that says its software automates the construction planning process to make residential construction more scalable, has raised $44 million in a Series B funding round led by Peak State Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
* Turtletree, a 1.5-year-old, Singapore-based biotech startup that's using cell-based technology in milk production, has raised $30 million led by VERSO Capital in what it says is just its first tranche of Series A funding. More here.
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* Mictic, a three-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based startup that sells a pair of wearable wristbands that, when paired with an app, allows the wearer to interact with the music being streamed from their phone, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from PTK Capital. Musician Moby is also an investor.
* ShipBlu, a 1.5-year-old, Egyptian e-commerce fulfillment startup that uses leased warehouses from which to deliver merchants' products, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding led by Nama Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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* H Capital, a 19-year-old, China-focused venture firm founded by former Tiger Global managing partner Xiaohong Chen, is raising $700 million for it seventh fund, according to an SEC filing. The firm closed its sixth fund with roughly $490 million last year, suggests a separate filing.
* Industry Ventures, a 21-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm that makes primary, secondary, and fund-of-funds type investments, has closed its sixth hybrid fund -- it's focused on seed- and early-stage funds and direct investments -- with $575 million in capital commitments. The firm now has $5 billion in assets under management. More here.
* Vitalize VC, a four-year-old, Chicago-based early-stage B2B software fund and angel community investing in the future of work and the future of learning, is raising $50 million for its second fund, shows a new SEC filing. More here.
* Walden Catalyst Ventures, a new, San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm dedicated to deep-tech investments focused on data and AI across the U.S., Europe and Israel, has closed its inaugural fund with more than $550 million in capital commitments. The outfit's founders are Young Sohn and Lip-Bu Tan. Somewhat famously, Tan is the founder and chairman of Walden International and most recently served concurrently as CEO of Cadence Design Systems. Young was previously corporate president and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics. TechCrunch has more here.
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* Coinbase is acquiring the Bangalore, India-headquartered startup Agara, which operates an AI-powered customer support platform, the two said today, as the cryptocurrency exchange looks to make it easier for users to join the service and seek help. (It has famously struggled with customer service.) The firms didn’t share the financial details of the acquisition, but the size of the deal is between $40 million and $50 million, TechCrunch is told. More here.
* Wisconsin-based Generac Holdings, a decades-old business that largely makes generators, is acquiring the 14-year-old, Toronto-based smart thermostat startup Ecobee for up to $770 million, contingent on the achievement of certain performance targets. Generac is acquiring Ecobee to beef up its position in the connected smart home energy consumer market. At closing and subject to customary adjustments, Generac will pay $200 million in cash along with $450 million in common stock to Ecobee's current equity holders. BetaKit has more here.
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Electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive is targeting a market valuation of as much as $54.6 billion in its upcoming IPO, according to its amended prospectus filed today. The company said it plans to offer 135 million shares priced between $57 and $62, with an option for underwriters to purchase up to 20.25 million additional shares. At the high end of that range, Rivian would bring in roughly $9.6 billion in its market debut, assuming underwriters exercise that option. CNBC has more here.
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Kuaishou CEO Su Hua became the latest founder to step back from a Chinese tech firm after a yearlong campaign by Beijing to rein in excesses in the industry. Bloomberg has more here.
Last week, David Beasley, the director of the UN’s World Food Programme, told CNN that it was time for the ultra-wealthy to “step up now, on a one-time basis” in order to “help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them.” He specifically mentioned Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the two richest men in the world. On Sunday, Musk replied to a Twitter user who pointed out that $6 billion would be just 2% of his more than $300 billion net worth. Musk said that if the WFP could describe “exactly” how the donation would solve world hunger, he would “sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
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Courtesy of Bloomberg: "SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, known for his reluctance to cash in on investments, has shown a new appetite for exits to finance the accelerating pace of deal-making at his Vision Fund investment arm. SoftBank sold roughly $14 billion worth of listed stocks in the June quarter, nearly triple the amount in the previous period. Over the past six months, the selloff included significant portions of its stakes in some of Son’s biggest IPO hits like DoorDash, South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang and Chinese online property platform KE Holdings." Bloomberg adds that SoftBank still owns slightly more than half the stake it held in DoorDash when it went public last December.
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* Zillow is looking to sell about 7,000 homes as it tries to recover from a fumble in its high-tech home-flipping business, reports Bloomberg. The outlet says the company is hoping to wring $2.8 billion from the sale of the houses, which are being pitched to institutional investors and will likely be sold to numerous buyers rather than in one transaction. More here.
* All over the country, hardware from Huawei and ZTE Corp. keeps American telecom networks humming. In the coming months, many of those networks are going to start ripping it all out. Bloomberg has more here.
* Tesla is opening its Supercharger network to other electric vehicles for the first time.
* In what may be a first, a high-profile NFT collection just crashed in price after its creator's racist cartoons were unearthed. Actor Elijah Wood is among those who've sold the artist's NFTs in response. CNET has more here.
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