Allbirds surges, another Facebook outage raises questions, and Scottie Pippen unloads

The messaging functions on Facebook and Instagram suffered an hours-long outage this afternoon before appearing to come back online. It's the third disruption to Meta's products in a month, beginning with that roughly six-hour outage on Oct. 4 that was the largest disruption in the company’s history.

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* Future Farm, a two-year-old, Brazil-based alt-meat startup, raised $58 million in Series C funding led by BTG. Other investors in the round, which brings the company's total funding to $89 million, include XP Inc, Rage Capital and earlier backers Monashees, Go4It Capital, Turim MFO and Enfini Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Gather, a 19-month-old virtual communication platform creating an accessible, open, and decentralized "metaverse" (it employs gaming world graphics combined with text and video chat to create a navigable world), has raised $50 million in Series B funding co-led by Index Ventures and earlier backer Sequoia Capital. Other investors include a mix of new and previous backers, among them Dylan Field, former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, entrepreneur-investor Elad Gil, the YC Continuity Fund, Haystack, Neo, and investor Lachy Groom. The round follows a $26 million Series A round that closed in March. More here.

* Honeybook, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based client and financial management platform for freelancers and solo entrepreneurs, just raised $250 million in Series E funding at a $2.4 billion valuation. Tiger Global led the round, joined by earlier backers Durable Capital Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Citi Ventures and OurCrowd. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Lever, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of recruiting software, has completed a $50 million Series D funding round from the Apax Digital Fund. More here.

* Moonfare, a five-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based private equity investment platform for individual investors, has raised $125 million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners. Moonfare says it offers individual investors access to select private market funds that were previously only available for institutions. More here. 

* Notable, a 4.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based software company that uses automation to simplify administrative healthcare tasks, has raised $100 million in its Series B funding round. The round was led by ICONIQ Growth and included participation by Greylock, F-Prime Capital and Oak HC/FT. To date, Notable, which is now valued at $600 million by its backers, has raised $119 million. FierceHealthcare has more here.

* Aktiia, a 3.5-year-old, Switzerland-based maker of a wearable blood pressure monitoring system, has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding led by Draper Esprit, with participation from Redalpine, 415 Capital, Verve Ventures and Translink Capital. MobiHealth News has more here. 

* Breadfast, a four-year-old, Egypt-based online grocery delivery company that wants to become a regional leader in the sector has raised $26 million in Series A funding co-led by Vostok New Ventures and Endure Capital. Other backers in the round include JAM Fund (led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen), YC Continuity Fund, a large unnamed Saudi-based fund, Shorooq Partners, 4DX Ventures and logistics giant Flexport. TechCrunch has more here.

* Contra, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based professional network for independent workers with a new payment model that lets users accept payments for their services on Contra without paying any commission fees, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. NEA led the round, joined by earlier backers Unusual Ventures and Cowboy Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* FingerprintJS, a 2.5-year-old, Chicago-based open-source browser fingerprinting service with an eye on establishing the most accurate identification rate on the web, has raised $32 million in Series B funding led by Craft Ventures. Earlier backers Nexus Venture Partners and Uncorrelated Ventures also joined the round, which brings the company's total funding to $44 million. VentureBeat has more here. 

* Fintual, a three-year-old Chilean asset manager that provides savings and investment options through an online platform, has raised $39 million from investors led by Sequoia Capital. Bloomberg says it is Sequoia's first deal in the country, even while it has invested in numerous regional startups. More here.

* Hallow, a three-year-old, Chicago-based Catholic prayer and meditation app, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Drive Capital, with participation from Peter Thiel, Teamworthy Ventures, Narya VC, Contrary Capital, Uncork Capital, Susa Ventures, and Scott Malpass, who is the chief investment officer at the University of Notre Dame. The round follows a $12 million Series A round in April, led by General Catalyst. Chicago Inno has more here. 

* Laika, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based compliance-as-a-service startup, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners led the round,  joined by PayPal Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Canapi, Dashfund, Nyca and ThirdPrime. VentureBeat has more here.

* Medallion, year-old, San Francisco-based provider network management platform that says it empowers healthcare organizations to credential, license and monitor their network fast, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital. Other participants in the round include Oscar CEO Mario Schlosser; Stripe's chief product officer, Will Gaybrick; and earlier backers Optum Ventures, Spark Capital and Elad Gil. Forbes has more here.

* Merge, an 18-month-old, San Francisco-based integrations platform that focuses on B2B use cases, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Addition, with participation from earlier investor NEA, which led the company’s $4.5 million seed round, and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

* Microshare, an eight-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based sensing-as-a-service startup that sells "smart" building data to multinationals and public institutions to improve their efficiency and safety, has raised $15 million in financing from the Avenue Sustainable Solutions Fund. More here.

* Mimik Technology, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based company at work on hybrid edge cloud tech, has raised $14.3 million in Series A funding led by Pier 88 Investment Partners. Other participants include ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood and earlier backers Primera Capital and NLabs. More here.

* Valon, a two-year-old, New York-based tech-enabled residential mortgage servicer, has raised $43.9 million in funding from affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, an affiliate of Freedom Mortgage, Human Capital Management, and CEO of SoftBank Group International, Marcelo Claure, along with earlier backers. The deal follows a $50 million Series A round, closed in February 2021. Coverager has more here.

* Wellinks, a 7.5-year-old, New Haven, Ct.-based virtual care management solution COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), has raised $25 million in funding led by Morningside Ventures, with participation from earlier backers HighCape Capital, Connecticut Innovations, Benslie, and Stonehenge Capital. FierceHealthcare has more here. 

* Yotta Energy, a five-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based modular solar storage company, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by WIND Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, Riverstone Ventures, and earlier investors EDP Ventures and SWAN Impact Network. Solar Builder has more here.

* Afterparty, a new, L.A.-based platform that enables creators to generate direct income through NFT and social tokens, just raised $3 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Acrew Capital and TenOneTen Ventures, with participation from strategic creator-led funds and talent management companies, including Palm Tree Crew, Act One Ventures, Hex Capital, and Red Light Management. VentureBeat has more here.

* Collective Benefits, a two-year-old, London-based, insurance and benefits marketplace for independent workers, has raised $10 million in funding from Prosus Ventures. More here. 

* Emerge, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based startup that's building tools that help to keep apps small — monitoring changes from build to build and recommending actions that can trim the required storage space -- has raised $1.7 million in seed funding from Haystack, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, Liquid2 Ventures and a handful of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

* Ethyca, a three-year-old, New York- based startup that has built a unique set of APIs, detection tools and analytics to make it easier for organizations to adhere to data privacy policies like GDPR, has raised $7.5 million in extended Series A funding from Lee Fixel, IA Ventures, investor Lachy Groom, and Table Management, among others. The company, whose Series A originally stood at $13.5 million, has now raised $27.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Payhippo, a two-year-old, Nigeria-based lending startup that extends credit to small and medium-size enterprises, has raised $3 million in seed funding from array of angel investors, including the co-founders of the African cross-border payments company Chipper Cash. TechCrunch has more here.

* Picker, a 3.5-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based ad-free online marketplace where users share, discover, and buy products based exclusively on other user recommendations, has raised €2.1 million in extended seed funding a year after closing an initial €1.3 million in funding. Luxor Capital led the new tranche, joined by earlier backer btov Partners. EU Startups has more here.

* Thirteen Lune, a 1.5-year-old, L.A.-based e-commerce platform featuring 100 direct-to-consumer 100 brands -- 90% are them founded by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and 10% ally brands -- has raised $3 million in funding led by Fearless Fund, a venture capital firm by women of color, for women of color. Interestingly, the startup is already scaling a brick-and-mortar footprint, too, through a partnership with JCPenney, where it already has 10 "shop in shop" locations open with plans to expand into 600 locations by the end of 2023. (We talked today with cofounder Nyakio Grieco; we'll have more from that chat tomorrow.)

* Vaultree, a year-old, Ireland-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding led by Ten Eleven Ventures, with participation from Enterprise Ireland, Unpopular Ventures, and HBAN, among others. More here.

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* Nauta, a 16-year-old, London-based pan-European venture capital firm that's focused on B2B software, has raised €190 million for its fifth fund. Reuters has more here.

* The European Investment Bank and the Portuguese government have expanded a joint investment program in a bid to help raise €250 million (about $290 million) for Portuguese startups through fund commitments. Pitchbook has more here.

Walmart is further investing in technology that will enable shopping via voice and chat. The retail giant says it’s acquiring “select technology assets” from a five-year-old startup called Botmock that had developed a set of tools for designing, prototyping, testing and deploying conversational applications across platforms. Exact terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

* Shoe maker Allbirds’ shares surged 90% in their market debut on Wednesday, as the company nabbed a valuation of roughly $4.1 billion. CNBC has more here.

* Robinhood said today it will allow companies issuing shares through its IPO Access platform to set aside some stock for members of the public with ties to the issuers. Directed Share Programs (DSPs), which Robinhood refers to as its "friends and family" offering, allows employees, customers, vendors, or others who have a relationship with the issuing company an opportunity to buy shares at the IPO price. Reuters has more here.

Global venture capital funding into cryptocurrency and blockchain reached an all-time high of $6.5 billion in the third quarter of 2021, surpassing the updated second-quarter total of $5.2 billion, according to a new report from market intelligence firm CB Insights and its subsidiary Blockdata.

GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down from his role on November 15 to become the Chairman Emeritus of the Microsoft-owned service. Thomas Dohmke, who only recently became GitHub’s chief product officer, will step into the CEO role.

* Tom Hanks said Jeff Bezos offered him a seat on a spaceflight before William Shatner, provided that he pay. On "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Hanks told Kimmel, "And, you know, it cost 28 million bucks or something like that. And I'm doing good, Jimmy. I'm doing good. But I ain't paying" $28 million.

* What is wrong with Charlie Munger and also what is wrong with the University of Michigan that it actually went along with this soul-sucking arrangement?

* An eccentric approach to compensation is reportedly partly responsible for a stream of defections at SoftBank Vision Fund, where seven managing partners have left since March of last year, and the only senior managing partner, Deep Nishar, will depart by yearend.

* A potential “magic mushroom” cure for depression could give stagnating psychedelic stocks a leg up if the results of a study expected before year end are encouraging.

What becoming a parent really does to your happiness.

Scottie Pippen takes aim at Michael Jordan in a new book.

The secret to stronger buildings could be sneaker foam.

Seventy classic French cars are coming up for auction.

Step inside Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment, now on Airbnb.

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