Lyft gets a lift, Zillow backs out of home buying entirely, and did Microsoft just change the game?

Happy Tuesday.:)

Wow. Zillow said today that it's backing out entirely of the business of buying and flipping homes, saying the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what the company had anticipated. We're not sure if this is really positive, or positively terrible, news for rival Opendoor, which went public late last year through a merger with a special purpose acquisition vehicle (one headed by investor Chamath Palihapitiya). Given that shares of both companies fell significantly today, it's clearly being interpreted as a not-very-good signal about either outfit right now. CNBC has more here.

Lyft said today that its revenue climbed in the latest quarter, as consumers continue to pay higher prices because of the shortage of drivers and the increase in rider demand. As the WSJ notes, riders have returned quicker than drivers have, leading to soaring prices for Lyft and Uber rides in recent months.

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137 Ventures, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based firm that offers loans to founders, executives, early employees and other large shareholders of private, high-growth tech companies in exchange for the option to convert their debt into equity, has closed its fifth fund with $350 million. It’s the largest fund the outfit has raised to date (its fourth fund initially closed with $210 million in 2019 and later ballooned to $250 million).

It’s certainly no surprise that 137 Ventures — which also makes small investments in primary rounds on occasion — is chugging along. Of the roughly 75 companies it has acquired stakes in over the years, it says that 13 have gone public and that seven of the 13 have gone public over the last 14 months, including Airbnb, Wish and Palantir.

It has some valuable equity in its portfolio, too, including SpaceX, Gusto, Flexport, Workrise and Curology.

The five largest investments by dollars invested since the launch of the firm’s fourth fund in 2019 are Workrise, Wonolo, Thirty Madison, Anduril and Lattice, it says.

We had a quick chat with firm co-founder Justin Fishner-Wolfson yesterday to talk about the go-go market and how it’s impacting his firm. Unsurprisingly, he said that “everything is shockingly faster,” which has accelerated 137 Ventures’s work, too. There are more companies to meet with than ever before, for example, which has meant that that the firm has had to beef up a bit and that it continues to hire.

“There are a lot of conversations to be had,” he said.

With private market valuations soaring so fast, his firm is also facing unprecedented competition, he conceded. 

More here.

* 42dot, a 2.5-year-old, Seoul, South Korea-based autonomous transport-as-a-service startup, has raised $88.5 million in Series A funding from Shinhan Financial Group, Lotte Rental, Lotte Ventures, STIC Ventures, We Ventures and DA Value Investment. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Axios, the five-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based media company, just raised an undisclosed amount of Series D funding from Cox Enterprises that values the company at $430 million, it told employees earlier today. Axios will bring in roughly $85 million in revenue in 2021, it says. In early summer, Axios was in talks with the German publishing giant Axel Springer about an acquisition; Axel later bought Politico in a deal reportedly valued at $1 billion. Axios has more here.

* Autobrains, a 2.5-year-old, Israel-based AI for assisted and autonomous driving, has raised $101 million in Series C funding led by Temasek. Other participants in the round include Knorr-Bremse, Continental AG and earlier backer BMW. NoCamels has more here.

* Cambridge Epigenetix, a nine-year-old, Cambridge, U.K-based genome sequencing company, has raised $88 million in Series D funding. Temasek led the round, joined by Third Point and earlier investors GV, New Science Ventures, Ahren Innovation Capital and Sequoia Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.

* Chipper Cash, as seven-year-old, San Francisco cross-border fintech startup that offers payments services in seven African countries, just raised $150 million in Series C funding, almost exactly a year after closing a $30 million Series B round. FTX led the new financing; earlier backers SVB Capital, Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital, Bezos Expeditions, One Way Ventures and Tribe Capital also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

* Everlaw, an 11-year-old, Oakland-based cloud e-discovery and litigation platform, has raised $202 million in funding at a valuation north of $2 billion. TPG Growth led the Series D round, joined by H.I.G. Growth Partners and earlier investors CapitalG, Menlo Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and K9 Ventures. The company has now raised $305 million altogether and says it is valued at more than $2 billion. Reuters has more here.

* Infusion for Health, a six-year-old, Thousand Oaks, Ca.-based network of ambulatory infusion centers, has raised $50 million in funding led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from earlier backer Cimarron Healthcare Capital. More here.

* LightForce Orthodontics, a six-year-old, Boston-based maker of a 3D-printed bracket system (i.e. braces), has raised $50 million in Series C funding from earlier investors Matrix Partners, Tyche Partners and AM Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Mynt, the six-year-old, Manila, Philippines-based company behind Philippine mobile wallet GCash with 48 million users and a projected 3 trillion pesos ($59 billion) in gross transaction value this year, has raised $300 million at a valuation north of $2 billion. Warburg Pincus led the round; other participants included Insight Partners, Bow Wave Capital, Itai Tsiddon, Amplo Ventures, Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp. Reuters has more here. 

* Nuro, a five-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based robotics company that's focused on autonomous delivery and was founded by two former Google engineers, has raised $600 million in Series D funding led by Tiger Global. Other participants in the round include a mix of new and earlier backers, including Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, Gaorong Capital, Kroger, SoftBank Vision Fund, T. Rowe Price, Woven Capital and Google. The company had closed a $500 million Series C round a year ago. TechCrunch has more here.

* Prepaid Technologies, a 23-year-old, Birmingham, Al.-based company that makes a suite of payment products, including prepaid purchasing, payroll, disbursement, and reward and incentive cards, has raised $96 million. Edison Partners and StepStone Group co-led the round, joined by Stifel and Top Tier Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here. The WSJ has more here.

* The Sandbox, a a Hong Kong-based gaming platform that allows users to build a virtual world using non-fungible tokens and is majority-owned by blockchain gaming developer, just raised $93 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. It also marks Vision Fund 2’s first investment in a company that issues its own cryptocurrency, says Reuters. More here.

* Hone, a three-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based workforce training startup focused on helping leadership with live, online, coach-led classes, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by F-Prime Capital, with participation from a mix of new and earlier backers, including Cowboy Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Slack Fund, Gaingels and SemperVirens. Hone's cofounder, Tom Griffiths is a serial entrepreneur who previously cofounded FanDuel, among other companies. TechCrunch has more here.

* Loam Bio, a two-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based carbon removal startup, has raised A$40 million in Series A funding led by Time Ventures. Other participants in the round include Main Sequence, Horizons Ventures, CEFC, Acre Venture Partners, Grok Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital and Thistledown Capital. Startup Daily has more here. 

* Lumigo, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-native application monitoring and debugging platform, today announced that it has raised a $29 million Series A funding round led by Redline Capital. Other participants in the round include Wing Venture Capital, Vertex Ventures US, and earlier backers investors Meron Capital, Pitango First, and Grove Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Optina Diagnostics, a 10-year-old, Montreal, Quebec-based developer of a retina-based Alzheimer’s test, has raised C$24.8 million in Series A funding. DigitalDx Ventures led the round, joined by Boehringer Ingelheim, Desjardins Capital, Hike Ventures, Advisors Fund, MEDTEQ+ and Biomed Propulsion. FierceBiotech has more here.

* PierianDx, a seven-year-old, Creve Coeur, Mo.-based clinical genomics software-as-a-service startup, has raised $30 million in funding led by OrbiMed. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Health Catalyst Capital, Research Triangle Institute, Inova Health Systems, ATW Partners and SJF Ventures. It also secured a debt facility for up to $17.5 million. More here. 

* Sofar Ocean Technologies, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of instruments for ocean data collection, has raised $39 million in Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and Foundry Group. Axios has more here.

* Una Brands, a year-old, Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator focused on Asia-Pacific brands, has raised $15 million million in Series A funding co-led by White Star Capital and Alpha JWC. TechCrunch has more here.

* Whimsical, a 4.5-year-old, Denver, Co.-based startup that's creating tools for workplace collaboration -- it wants users to create and share flowcharts, wireframes, mind maps, sticky notes and documents without having to open another tab or website -- has raised $30 million in Series A funding by Accel. TechCrunch has more here.

* Activeloop, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that's building a database specifically designed for media-focused artificial intelligence applications, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by 468 Capital and CM Ventures, with participation from Tribe Capital, Shasta Ventures and various tech industry angels. TechCrunch has more here.

* Greenwork, a nine-month-old, San Francisco-based software company that connects workforce training programs to employers in clean energy, transportation, and the trades, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding, including from Defy.vc, GV, Global Founders Capital, Wing and others.

* Magnify, a months-old, Bend, Ore.-based startup that's developing tools to help companies engage with software customers, has raised $6 million in seed funding from Madrona Venture Group and Decibel Partners. GeekWire has more here.

* Opibus, a four-year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based startup that's converting diesel and gasoline vehicles into electric ones, has raised $5 million in equity funding led by At One Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Vivoo, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based wellness tracking startup centered around at-home urine test kits, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Draper Associates. Other investors in the round include ONCE Ventures, Revo Capital, Global Ventures, Halogen Ventures, and earlier investor 500 Startups. TechCrunch has more here.

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* 11.2 Capital, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm, closed a previously unannounced $101 million fund earlier this year. Founded by Shelley Zhuang, a former principal with DFJ (before it evolved into Threshold Ventures), the outfit focuses on biotech, healthcare, space and other research-intensive areas. The firm is now managing roughly $150 million in assets, says Forbes. More here.

* Bold Capital Partners, a six-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based early-stage firm that counts Peter Diamandis as a general partner, is raising $250 million for its third fund, per an SEC filing flagged first by Axios. More here.

* LinkedIn last week launched Service Marketplace, a competitor to freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. Today, Fiverr made its own move; it says it's acquiring Stoke Talent, which lets companies manage their freelance teams, for $95 million. TechCrunch has more here.

* Swedish investment firm Creades said today it has agreed to sell price comparisons company Pricerunner to Klarna, the Stockholm-based buy-now-pay-later giant, for the rough equivalent of $125 million. Klarna will pay 40% of the price in cash and make up the rest of the balance in Klarna shares. Reuters has more here.

* SoftBank is reportedly considering a sale of Fortress Investment Group, the asset manager it bought four years ago for more than $3 billion. According to Bloomberg's sources, the move would be driven in part by the fact that the Japanese conglomerate has been unable to mesh Fortress’s operations with its own. More here.

Shares of Switchback II Corporation, a Dallas-based blank-check company, fell more than 14% in morning trading today, following news that its merger with scooter company Bird has been approved by shareholders. In fact, they fell as much as 20% before not fully recovering, which is strange? (The tie-up was first announced in May.) Was this a case of selling on the news? We welcome your theories! More here.

* Does the SEC come after Elon Musk again for this and relatedly this? 

* ByteDance says CFO Shou Zi Chew will step down to focus on his position as CEO of its popular video-sharing subsidiary TikTok. Chew was appointed to the top finance position at ByteDance in March after the company poached him from Xiaomi, where he served as CFO from 2015 to 2020. He took on the additional role as TikTok CEO about two months later, notes the WSJ.

* Meanwhile, ByteDance’s billionaire founder Zhang Yiming has stepped down as chairman, after announcing he was stepping down as CEO in May. "Other tech founders in China have also retreated from their creations in recent months" amid regulatory changes, notes Bloomberg.

While publicly traded tech giants suffer in China, investors are continuing to rush in, underscores new data. Venture capital and private-equity investment in Chinese startups for the first three quarters of 2021 rose 75% from a year earlier to $165 billion, according to research firm Zero2IPO. That total is higher than for full-year 2020, and is on track to beat the peak, set in 2017.

* Microsoft today rolled out a new Office app for the hybrid work era, and industry watchers seem to think smaller rivals should be afraid.

* Yahoo says it's pulling out of China, citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment. It's the second well-known U.S. tech firm to downsize China operations in less than a month, following the closure of Microsoft’s LinkedIn social-networking site

* Social media giants like Pinterest are sprinting toward the live shopping market that's long been dominated by traditional television networks like QVC and HSN. 

* Zoom is piloting ads for free users.

* Live at La Grenouille: caviar, crystal and crooning. Says a busboy, "You get used to it."

* The new swag: at-home Covid tests. (On-trend Eclipse Ventures is giving these these away next week.)

* Ten albums to listen to before you die tomorrow.

* Talking NFTs.

A Portuguese palace built originally for Bolivia's "King of Tin."

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