Didi is delisting, Google preps a smartwatch, and Omicron is here -- should you cancel your trip?

* The Federal Trade Commission today sued to block Nvidia’s $40 billion acquisition of a fellow chip company, Arm, halting what would be the biggest semiconductor industry deal in history. The FTC said the deal between Nvidia, which makes chips, and Arm, which licenses chip technology, would stifle competition and harm consumers. Arm was acquired in 2016 by SoftBank for just less than $32 billion and it struck a deal to sell the company in the fall of last year to raise much-needed cash. The New York Times has more here.

* Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi will delist from the New York Stock Exchange and pursue a listing in Hong Kong, it said today, after it ran afoul of Chinese regulators by pushing ahead with its $4.4 billion U.S. IPO in July. The company made the announcement first on its Twitter-like Weibo account. Reuters has more here.

* The U.S. government is inching further on efforts to boot Chinese companies from American stock exchanges for not complying with Washington’s disclosure requirements. As Bloomberg reported earlier, the SEC today announced its final plan for putting in place a new law that mandates foreign companies open their books to U.S. scrutiny or risk being kicked off the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq within three years.

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Religion-based apps, tools and communities aren’t brand new, including to investors. Pray.com, for example, an LA-based app for daily prayer and bedtime Bible stories that was founded in 2016, has raised at least $34 million from investors, including Kleiner Perkins. Ministry Brands, a nine-year-old, Knoxville, Tennessee-based outfit that now includes dozens of software and payments brands tailored to faith-based organizations, was acquired by Insight Partners in 2016 for $1.4 billion (which is reportedly now looking to flip it).

Still, fueled by a pandemic that drove churches to close, faith-based apps and communities are growing faster than ever — the most popular, Bible app, is now on more than 400 million devices worldwide — and they're getting more notice as a result.

The newest of these is Glorify, a two-year-old, 60-person, subscription-based “well-being” app that offers users guided meditation, along with audio bible passages and Christian music. The London-based outfit just raised $40 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from SoftBank Latin America Fund, K5 Global and a long string of famous individuals, including Kris Jenner, Corey Gamble, Michael Ovitz, Jason Derulo and Michael Bublé.

We talked yesterday with its 22-year-old co-founder and co-CEO, Ed Beccle, who says he spends up to a third of his time in São Paulo, and who recently sold his previous company for what he describes as a “multimillion-dollar” exit. (Indeed, he says he dropped out of high school at age 16 to work on startups.)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, during our conversation, he laid out a vision that extends well beyond meditation and Bible readings. He also offered a peek into how wealthy celebrities and startup entrepreneurs are being brought together. Excerpts of that chat follow, edited lightly for length.

More here.

* 100 Thieves, a four-year-old, L.A.-based esports company, just closed on $60 million in Series C funding led by Green Bay Ventures. A mix or new and earlier backers also joined the round, including Breyer Capital, Aglae Ventures, Tao Capital, Willoughby Capital, and Artist Capital Management. The company has now raised $100 million altogether and is valued at $460 million, it says. Bloomberg has more here.

* CloudTrucks, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company looking to help trucking entrepreneurs operate their business, has raised  $115 million in Series B funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by Menlo Ventures, Flexport, and individual investors Michael Ovitz and Opendoor CEO Eric Wu. The company has now raised $141.6 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* Hotel Engine, a six-year-old, Denver-based booking platform that aims to provide companies access to better lodging rates and tools and insights designed to optimize their travel programs, raised $65 million in Series B funding at a $1.3 billion valuation. (The company has raised just $81 million altogether after being bootstrapped for its first four years.) Earlier investor Telescope Partners led the round, joined by Blackstone. TechCrunch has more here.

* Jokr, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based company that aims to bring consumers fresh groceries and other consumer goods in 15 minutes from urban micro-fulfillment centers, has raised $260 million in new funding from mix of new and existing backers, including Tiger Global, Balderton, GGV Capital and Activant Capital. The company last raised $170 million in July and is reportedly now valued at $1.2 billion. Bloomberg has the story here.

* Kueski, a nine-year-old, Mexico City-based “buy now, pay later” consumer lender, says it has secured $202 million in equity and debt funding. StepStone Group (which recently acquired Greenspring Capital) led the $102 million equity round, while Victory Park Capital led the $100 million debt financing. TechCrunch has more here.

* LingoAce, a 4.5-year-old, Singapore-based ed tech company focused around Mandarin Chinese language learning, has raised $105 million in Series C funding led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Owl Ventures, Shunwei Capital and SWC Global. The outfit has now raised $180 million altogether. More here.

* Panther Labs, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-based security analytics platform that's said to detect and respond to suspicious activity in real time, has raised $120 million in Series B funding led by Coatue. Other investors in the round include ICONIQ Growth, Snowflake Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, S28 Capital and Innovation Endeavors, according to a statement seen by Reuters ahead of the announcement. The deal values the company, which has raised $140 million altogether. More here.

* Shiftsmart, a 6.5-year-old, New York-based marketplace that matches shift workers with employers, has raised $95 million in funding led by D1 Capital, with participation from Imaginary Ventures, Spieker Partners, Oakridge Management Group and S12F, among others. The company has now raised $117 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* 24 Exchange, a three-year-old, Bermuda-based exchange that's seeking SEC approval to enable investors to trade stocks 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has raised $14.25 million in funding led by Steve Cohen's Point72 Ventures. The WSJ has more here.

* Pepper, a two-year-old, New York-based food supply chain tech company, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Greylock, Imaginary Ventures, BoxGroup, Moving Capital, and food industry entrepreneur Brett Schulman. TechCrunch has more here.

* SafelyYou, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that says its AI-driven fall detection and prevention tech for senior living empowers care staff and reduces ER visits, just raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Omega Healthcare, which also prepaid $10 million to install SafelyYou’s tech across close to 1,000 healthcare facilities. Other participants in the round include Eclipse Ventures, SCAN Group, Foundation Capital, Founders Fund and DCVC. The company has now raised roughly $70 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* AdeptID, a 1.5-year-old, Boston-based talent matching software looks to help companies in high-growth industries find talent among Americans without a college degree, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Zeal Capital Partners. Built in Boston has more here.

* Ignite Tournaments, a months-old, Panama-based mobile play-to-earn tournament infrastructure outfit, just raised $3 million in seed funding co-led by Ascensive Assets and Yield Guild Games, a young lending startup that itself recently raised seed funding from a16z's crypto fund. More here.

* NuBrakes, a 2.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based mobile auto maintenance platform, has raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Canvas Ventures, with participation from Contrary Capital, Bling Capital, and Automotive Ventures. Forbes has more here.

* Outfit, a four-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based content creator platform, raised $2.1 million in seed funding from LAUNCH Syndicate, KM Capital, and Patina Brands. MarTech Series has more here.

Join hundreds of military veteran entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who are building the future at the Military Veteran Startup Conference hosted by Context Ventures on Feb 4th, 2022 (Friday) in San Francisco. Conference panels will cover the following topics: 1) Women Veteran Entrepreneurs; 2) Veteran Entrepreneurs who survived Shark Tank; 3) Veterans in Venture Capital; 4) Veteran Entrepreneurs building consumer brands; 5) Dual use startups. The event is free for military veteran (spouses &) entrepreneurs. Enlist here.

* Falcon Edge Capital, a nine-year-old, New York-based global investor that founds former Tiger investor Richard Gerson as among its cofounders and which currently manages $5.5 billion in assets across private and public market, is in talks to raise a fund with more than $10 billion in capital commitments. More here.

* Hashed, a four-year-old San Francisco- and South Korea-based crypto venture firm, says it has closed on $200 million in capital commitments for a fund dedicated to Web3. More here.

* Maven 11 Capital, a six-year-old, Amsterdam-based blockchain and crypto asset investment firm, has closed its second fund with $ 120 million in capital commitments, the firm says. The idea it to continue backing founders who look to build "novel infrastructure protocols, DeFi primitives and Web 3.0 applications in the crypto industry." More here.

Picsart, a Sequoia- and SoftBank-backed digital creation platform that recently hit unicorn status, said today that it’s acquiring the research and development company DeepCraft. The deal is a combination of both cash and stock and is in the seven-figure range, but the exact terms aren’t being disclosed. Founded in 2017, Armenia-based DeepCraft specializes in video and image processing. TechCrunch has more here.

* Holy smokes. BuzzFeed will just roughly $16 million from its public listing, after the blank-check company it is merging with suffered a wave of investor withdrawals, according to a securities filing and WSJ sources. BuzzFeed in June announced plans to go public through a merger with 890 5th Avenue Partners, but roughly 94% of the $287.5 million the SPAC raised has been withdrawn by investors, leaving the digital-media outlet with the remainder, according to the securities filing. In the meantime, BuzzFeed News employees participated today in a 24-hour walkout to push for better wages.

* WeWork said today in a securities filing that it will restate several quarters of its results, including its latest one, and that management has concluded there was a material weakness in its internal control. The WSJ has more here.

* KKR has brought aboard Mukul Chawla as partner and head of growth equity in Asia Pacific. Chawla, who is based in Hong Kong, joins KKR from Temasek, where he was managing director.

* Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates say they will still work with the Giving Pledge, the campaign they co-founded with Warren Buffett in 2010 to encourage billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth through philanthropy. But following their divorce earlier this year, the two will do it separately and in their own ways.

* Timnit Gebru, one of the leaders of Google’s ethics in AI team and one of the foremost experts in that topic, was fired after sending an email of concern to her team. Now she has set up shop herself with a brand new research institute, DAIR, focused on the topics she felt were being sidelined at Google.

* A Google smartwatch is in the works.

* Apple's hourly frontline workers say conditions are untenable.

* Blockchain.com says that, like other cryptocurrency exchanges, it's also charging into NFTs.  

* A DeFi protocol called BadgerDAO was exploited earlier today for $120 million after its front end was apparently compromised and users were tricked into making unwanted transactions. The Block has more here. (Psst, here is a DeFi explainer.)

* Omicron is here. Should you cancel your trip?

* The science of mind reading.

* The best music of 2021.

It's no Cybertruck, but it is an ATV for kids

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