Investors eye OpenSea, Elon Musk unloads his last house, and DIY Apple repair is coming

* Apple says it's launching a self-service repair program next year, which sounds great if you have any clue what you're doing (and dangerous for everyone else). As the WSJ notes, this didn't come from out of the blue: In July, as part of an executive order addressing consumer affairs, the Biden administration encouraged the Federal Trade Commission to issue rules barring electronics makers from restricting the use of independent repair shops—or people repairing their own devices.

* A decentralized autonomous organization formed last week to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution at auction (ConstitutionDAO), has now raised more than $30 million, well over the price at which the document is valued. Decrypt has more here.

* At a Bloomberg event in Singapore today, Bill Gates speculated that Covid deaths and infection rates may dip below seasonal flu levels by the middle of next year, assuming new dangerous variants don’t emerge in the meantime.

Pilot, a San Francisco-based startup, recently raised $100 million in funding led by Bezos Expeditions, Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Whale Rock to help 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.

In a world of copycat companies and investment firms that also increasingly operate in similar ways, Jack Abraham stands out a bit.

His venture firm, Atomic, only writes checks to startups it spins up itself. It’s launching a lot of startups, too. Since founding and selling a company called Milo to eBay in 2010 at the age of 24, Abraham has cofounded dozens of companies with Atomic in recent years. Among them: the tele-health company Hims & Hers, which went public last year through a blank-check company; Bungalow, a online marketplace for residential real estate that closed on $75 million in funding at a post-money valuation of $600 million in August; and OpenStore, an eight-month-old startup that acquires e-commerce businesses that sell on Shopify and which just today announced $75 million in fresh funding in a deal that reportedly values the company at $750 million.

Altogether, Atomic has produced 14 companies over the last 12 months, and that’s on top of nine that it formed the year earlier. Notably, it has done this with not enormous amounts of funding (it closed a $260 million fund earlier this year). Atomic doesn’t have a sprawling team, either, though it has made some key hires recently that bring its headcount to 50. (It was previously run by roughly 15 people.)

Little wonder that traditional venture firms are starting to wonder if Abraham might be on to something. To get insight into his playbook for their benefit — and our own — we sat down with him late last week while he was in town from Miami, where he relocated from the Bay Area last year. Excerpts from our conversation, edited for length and clarity follow.

More here.

* Airwallex, a six-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based company that provides business banking services directly to businesses, as well as via a set of APIs that power other companies’ fintech products, has tacked on $100 million in funding to a $200 million Series E round that was announced in September, bringing the round total to $300 million. The newest tranche was led by Lone Pine Capital, which also led the last tranche. TechCrunch has more here.

* AllTrails, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose app helps people explore the outdoors with hand-curated trail maps, photos, reviews, and user recordings, has raised $150 million from Permira. Prior investor Spectrum Equity continues to be the company’s largest shareholder following the transaction, says TechCrunch. More here.

* Anchorage, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based cryptocurrency custodian that promises investors the ability to safely hold and use digital assets, is raising a Series D round that's being led by KKR at a $3 billion valuation, including the investment, according to The Information. Anchorage had announced $80 million in Series C funding back in February led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC. More here.

* Aptihealth, a 4.5-year-old, Boston-based behavioral health engagement company, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Investors in the round, which brings the company's total funding to $65 million, include Takeda Digital Ventures, Pivotal Life Sciences, Vista Credit Partners, Olive Tree Ventures, Claritas Capital and What If Ventures. FierceHealthcare has more here. 

* ConsenSys, the seven-year-old, New York-based blockchain software company that develops and invests in the ethereum blockchain, has raised $200 million from investors including HSBC, Coinbase Ventures and the London-based hedge fund firm Marshall Wace. The Block has more here.

* Grammarly, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes writing assistance software, has raised $200 million in funding at a $13 billion valuation from new investors including Baillie Gifford and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, among others. The company has now raised $400 million altogether. It closed its previous round of funding in 2019. TechCrunch has more here. 

* InsurMedix, a months-old, Israel-based AI-powered insurance platform that plans to begin providing coverage for fertility treatments next year, has raised $65 million in funding led by A-Labs Advisory & Finance. FierceHealthcare has more here.

* Netlify, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that offers hosting and backend services for web apps and websites, has raised $105 million in Series D funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners that values the company at $2 billion post-money. (The company has raised $212 million altogether to date.) Alongside the funding, Netlify announced the acquisition of OneGraph, a tool for building integrations with third-party services, for an undisclosed sum. VentureBeat has more here.

* OpenSea, the four-year-old, New York-based marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is reportedly fielding new investment offers that could increase its valuation roughly six times to $10 billion. Just four months ago, it raised $100 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The Information has more here.

* Overwolf, an 11-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based platform that today enables creators to build, share and monetize items inside games (and has seen its ups and downs over the years), just raised a $75 million Series D funding round. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. Previous investors, including Griffin Gaming Partners, Insight Partners, Intel Capital, Liberty Technology Venture Capital and Marker, also participated. The company has now raised more than $150 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* Practice Ignition, an eight-year-old, Australia-based client engagement and commerce platform for professional service businesses, has raised $50 million (65 million AUD) in  Series C funding led by JMI Equity. Tiger Global and EVP also joined the round, among others. TechCrunch has more here. 

* Settle, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based cashflow management platform for e-commerce brands, has raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Caffeinated Capital, Activant Capital, Stripes, and others. More here.

* Stellar Cyber, a four-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based security operations platform, has raised $38 million in Series B funding led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from earlier backers. The company has now raised more than $68 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.

* Trusted, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-base labor marketplace for healthcare professionals, has raised $94 million in Series C funding led by led by Greenspring Associates. The round brings the company's total funding, including from earlier backers Felicis Ventures and Craft Ventures, to $175 million. The WSJ has more here.

* BetDEX, a months-old, Scotland-based outfit that's trying to create a decentralized global sports betting protocol, has raised $21 million in funding co-led by the exchange FTX and the crypto fund Paradigm, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sino Global Capital and Solana Ventures. Coindesk has more here.

* Bit, a six-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that provides open source tools and a cloud platform to help frontend developers collaborate and build component-driven software, has raised $25 million in a series B round of funding led by Insight Partners. VentureBeat has more here.

* Cohesion, a three-year-old, Chicago-based startup that says it helps commercial buildings better integrate disparate systems into a smart building SaaS platform, has raised $15 million in Series A funding co-led by Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund and Hyde Park Angels. More here. 

* Fleet Space, a six-year-old, Beverley, Australia-based startup that's establishing an internet-of-things satellite constellation, has raised $26.4 million in Series B funding. Earlier backers Artesian Venture Partners, Blackbird Ventures, Grok, and Horizons Ventures led the round, joined by new backers Alumni Ventures, Hostplus, the South Australian Venture Capital Fund and In-Q-Tel. Space News has more here.

* Hightouch, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based data platform that helps its customers sync their customer data from their data warehouse to their CRM, marketing, and support tools, has raised $40 million in Series B funding. ICONIQ Growth led the round, joined by earlier backers Amplify Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Y Combinator and Afore Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

* Machina Labs, a two-year-old, L.A.-based advanced manufacturing company, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Innovation Endeavors, with participation from Congruent Ventures and Embark Ventures. The company has now raised $16.3 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

* Netomi, a six-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based maker of customer-service chatbots, has raised $30 million in Series B funding at a $210 million valuation. New investors include WndrCo; earlier investors that participated in the round include Eldridge Industries and Fin Venture Capital. Netomi has raised a total of $52 million. The WSJ has more here.

* Ribbon Health, a five-year-old, New York-based startup that says it offers a health data API platform that delivers data across providers, insurance, conditions and procedures treated, as well as cost and quality metrics, has raised $43.5 million in Series B funding. General Catalyst led the round, joined by new and earlier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, BoxGroup, Rock Health, and a 'doctorpreneur,' Sachin Jain. Ribbon has raised now raised $55 million to date. FierceHealthcare has more here.

* UNest, a 3.5-year-old, L.A.-based startup that provides financial planning tools to parents saving on behalf of their children, has raised $26 million in Series B funding led by The Artemis Fund. Earlier investor Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures also joined the round, alongside new backers Franklin Templeton, Launchpad Capital, AltaIR Capital, OneWay Ventures, Unlock Venture Partners and Square co-founder Jim McKelvey. The company has now raised $40 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* Charco Neurotech, a 2.5-year-old, Cambridge, England-based company whose wearable device delivers peripheral nerve stimulation to alleviate motor symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Amadeus Capital Partners and Parkwalk Advisors co-led the round, joined by University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, MINT Venture Partners, and existing investors. More here.

* DiviGas, a two-year-old, Singapore-based startup that says it has developed a new process for isolating and storing hydrogen that involves separating the H2 and CO2 gases, has raised $3.6 million in funding led by Mann + Hummel, a German industrial filter company. TechCrunch has more here.

Eddi — this veteran and female founding team is innovating the way we clean. Leading with beautiful design, Eddi’s approach of combining style and sustainability to minimize waste has been celebrated in Forbes, Domino, FastCo, and Architectural Digest. Try their hand soap starter set, complete with a premium metal dispenser and three natural liquid soaps in plastic-free bottles.

LiveOak Venture Partners, a nine-year-old, Austin-based venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage tech startups across Texas, just officially closed its third fund with $210 million in capital commitments. The outfit is now managing almost $500 million altogether. (If this sounds familiar,  it could be because we mentioned a related SEC filing from last month that showed LiveOak was targeting $150 million; it wound up oversubscribed, says the firm now.) TechCrunch has more here. 

Shares of UserTesting, which provides a customer feedback platform for enterprises, fell below its IPO price in a trading debut on the NYSE today. Shortly after the start of trading, the stock dropped as low as $13.31, erasing about $98 million in market value. Shares of UserTesting, which is trading under USER, closed at $14.01, valuing the company at approximately $1.98 billion. Business Insider has more here.

Yikes. More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the yearlong period ending in April, government researchers said today. That's more than the toll of car crashes and gun fatalities combined. Overdose deaths have more than doubled since 2015, according to the New York Times.

* In news we did not see coming, Jeff Housenbold, formerly of Shutterfly and SoftBank, has joined a Hudson, Ohio-based company called Leaf Home as its president and CEO. More here (since we assume some of you are about to become more much interested in this outfit).

* WNBA champion Renee Montgomery, who has written angel checks to underrepresented entrepreneurs. has a new position: venture capitalist. Specifically, reports Forbes, she has joined the Atlanta-based venture firm Valor Ventures, which focuses on financial inclusion and investing in underrepresented founders and is currently investing out of a $25 million fund. More here.

* Miramax, the production company, is taking legal action against writer-director Quentin Tarantino over his plans to auction off script pages for seven scenes that didn’t make the final cut and other artifacts from the cult classic “Pulp Fiction” as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

* What went wrong with Zillow? 

* Meta showed off a new prototype haptic feedback glove yesterdaym, saying it could bring a new generation of AR/VR users closer than they’ve ever been to digital content. Today, a VR startup with that same mission called HaptX accused Meta of showing off a prototype that was “substantively identical” to its own patented technology.

* The U.S. Justice Department will sell off $56 million worth of cryptocurrency it seized as part of a massive Ponzi scheme case against a man who promoted the crypto lending program BitConnect. The BitConnect scam is alleged to have swindled thousands of people in the U.S. and abroad out of more than $2 billion worth of bitcoin. CNBC has the story here.

* The last home in Elon Musk's portfolio just sold for $32 million.

* The making of Black Ivy style.

* A killer "Ozark" trailer.

* A "fully stocked" Malibu compound (down to the toothbrushes).

* Ugly Xmas sneakers.

Interested in learning more about investment opportunities in space? Thanks to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, space tech has been front page news, but much has been going on in quieter quarters of the industry. Linqto, a secondaries platform for pre-IPO unicorn companies, is hosting a complimentary fireside chat with Victor Aguero (CTO of Cambrian Works, a space infrastructure company) tomorrow November 18th at 9am PST to discuss some of these billion dollar opportunities. Sign up today to reserve your spot!