Rivian keeps climbing, another trading platform takes off, and Miami's Mayor Suarez ups the ante

Hello, all! We had such a great time, seeing those of you who came out tonight to our event in San Francisco. (Isn't that garden terrific?) Giant thanks to all of our wonderful speakers, who we know could have been off doing many other things, and to Eclipse Ventures, whose entire team supported this one. We could not have asked for a better partner in the evening; thank you, Lior and company.

We'll very tired at the moment after a busy day (see abbreviated newsletter) but we'll have event-related pictures and content coming out soon, so keep an eye out. 

Thank you to our U.S. veterans for their service, today and every day. 🇺🇸

Shares of electric vehicle start-up Rivian continued to climb today, closing up 22.1%, one day after their public market debut. The Amazon- and Ford-backed company has already surpassed both Ford and General Motors by market cap, reaching a valuation of $104.9 billion.

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Late last month, Rippling, the now five-year-old company founded by serial entrepreneur Parker Conrad, raised $250 million in Series C funding in a round that pushed its valuation to a whopping $6.5 billion.

Now, Conrad is taking the wraps off what had investors so excited about the outfit, which already helps companies manage their employees’ payroll, benefits, devices and apps, but which is adding an almost astonishing number of features to its existing lineup, beginning today.

Indeed, talking with Conrad earlier this week, there was no doubt about his ambition to build a very big company. He even compared its potential to that of Salesforce. Salesforce “is tying together all of the business systems that you use around this idea of a common customer identity,” he said. Rippling is “meanwhile saying, ‘Hey, look, there’s this other way that you need to do this, which is tying all these systems together around a common employee identity and making that the centerpiece of this unified sort of schema across all the different business software you’re using in your business.'”

It’s bold, considering how much HR software and IT software already exists in the world — some of it created previously by Conrad. It’s also compelling when viewed as a whole. (We saw the investor presentation.) In fact, all these new features are getting their own overarching branding; they are now part of Rippling’s “Unity” platform, which is driven by five separate product units, each with bells and whistles that the deepest-pocketed customers are likely to order as a complete package given that they are more powerful together. (Note that right now, pricing for the whole enchilada — “unlimited Unity” — is $25 per person per month.)

More here.

Alt, an eight-year-old, Bay Area-based alternative asset platform — primarily by those looking to research, trade and securely store high-value sports cards, though it's expanding into other types of cards and assets -- has raised $75 million in funding roughly half a year after closing on $31 million in a separate funding round. Spearhead, co-created by investors Jeff Fagnan and Naval Ravikant, led the round, joined by Seven Seven Six, Vibe Capital, Breyer Capital, Shrug Capital, and Apollo Projects, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Hive, a 20-month-old, Berlin-based e-commerce logistics startup, has raised $34 million in funding co-led by Tiger Global Management and Activant. The company has now raised $44 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Payitoff, a four-year-old, New York-based student loan repayment platform whose software enable partners to embed student loan repayment immediately, just raised $8.5 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with support from Sound Ventures, Struck Capital and Social Leverage. Pymnts has more here.

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How four Binance became the world's largest crypto exchange.

The City of Miami will soon give out a “bitcoin yield” from the staking of its cryptocurrency to its citizens, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced this morning. In the long run, Suarez said, the approach could potentially eliminate the need for Miami residents to pay taxes, which would be “revolutionary.”

"TikTok boy hair."

We just can't quit that Crawley family.

Job-hopping on Wall Street ramps up.

"Don't Stop Believin'." The journey behind the Journey song.

Once priced at $75 million, Eli Broad’s Malibu beach home just sold for $52 million to an unidentified buyer.

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