An ED drug for the mind, two prominent SPACs get probed, and OpenSea's openly disappointed users

Craig Wright, a computer scientist who claims to be the inventor of bitcoin, prevailed in a civil trial verdict today against the family of a deceased business partner that claimed it was owed half of a cryptocurrency fortune worth $50 billion at today's prices. A Florida jury found that Wright did not owe half of 1.1 million bitcoin to the family of David Kleiman. The jury did award $100 million in intellectual property rights to a joint venture between the two men, a fraction of what Kleiman’s lawyers were asking for at trial. The AP has more here.

The SEC is probing two of the most notable SPAC deals struck this year -- former President Donald Trump’s venture and Lucid Motors --  signaling that regulators are ratcheting up scrutiny of such deals. The WSJ has more here.

Starting Monday, the U.S. is implementing stricter testing requirements for inbound travelers, including U.S. citizens, forcing travelers to make time and to budget for Covid tests closer to their departure date. CNBC outlines what U.S.-bound travelers need to know.

With inflation at 6.2% and Omicron shaking up the markets, demand for alternative assets is surging. Surprisingly, the most sought-after investment by those looking for long-term growth with low correlation is art. While stocks plunged, the art market rocketed to new heights, smashing the record for fall sales with $2.65 billion. And, Contemporary art prices appreciated 14% annually from 1995-2020. A new platform called Masterworks lets you can access one of the hottest markets on Earth in a few clicks. Join 275,000 users today and skip their waitlist here*. (*See important disclosures.)

By today's standards, $10 million isn't a lot of capital to invest. But Iterative, which describes itself as a Y Combinator-style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia, says the $10 million it has raised from a cadre of Silicon Valley bigs -- including investor Andrew Chen of Andreessen Horowitz, Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital, and Qasar Younis, the cofounder of Applied Intuition and former COO of Y Combinator -- is enough to make its mark on the region, where it's been writing checks to nascent startups over the last 18 months.

It's easy to appreciate Iterative's interest in the region. As Iterative cofounder Brian Ma is quick to note, the vast majority of the 676 million people who live in Southeast Asia are now internet users -- and spending their money online. Indeed, according to report by Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Company that was published early last month, the region has added 60 million new internet users since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 440 million. Meanwhile, driven primarily by growth in e-commerce and food delivery, the online industry for Southeast Asia is expected to grow from an estimated $174 billion in gross merchandise volume by the end of this year, to $360 billion by 2025, and $1 trillion by 2030.

With a growing number of startups in the region becoming so-called unicorn companies -- including Grab, the ride-hailing app that just went public by merging with a blank-check company, and GoTo, which was formed this year by merging the ride-hailing company Go-Jek with the popular online shopping portal, Tokopedia (GoTo expects to go public early in 2022) -- it's also probably safe to imagine that competition is heating up and that Iterative won't receive the same favorable terms it has garnered so far for much longer. (Currently, it invests $150,000 per startup in exchange for 10% of the business.)

More here.

* Everphone, a five-year-old, Berlin-based startup that bills its enterprise customers monthly to handle the supply, support, repair, replacement, and recycling of their mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), has raised $65 million in Series C funding and another $135 million in debt financing. The latest tranche was led by the German private equity investor Cadence Growth Capital, which is now Everphone’s biggest shareholder. Deutsche Telekom, AlleyCorp and the Berlin-based firm Signals also participated as returning investors. TechCrunch has more here.

* Forte, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps game developers to integrate blockchain technology, enabling features such as NFTs (it also offers cryptocurrency wallets that blockchain games use to store a players' tokens), raised a whopping $725 million in Series B funding last month (which we'd missed). Sea Capital and Kora Management co-led the round, joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Solana Ventures, Polygon Studios, Cosmos, Animoca Brands, and Warner Music Group. VentureBeat talks with its cofounder, Josh Williams, here.

* Genesys Cloud Services, a 21-year-old, Daly City, Ca.-based call center software company, has raised $580 million at a $21 billion valuation, it announced today. Salesforce Ventures led the round, joined by ServiceNow Ventures and Zoom Video Communications, along with BlackRock and D1 Capital Partners. We aren't sure how much this company has raised altogether, but it sold a "substantial equity stake" in its business to the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman back in 2016  for $900 million at a $3.8 billion valuation. More here.

* Hometap, a five-year-old, Boston-based startup that invites homeowners to “tap” into their home equity by taking on an investor who provides cash in exchange for a share of their home’s future value (Hometap gets paid a percentage on the home's appraised value or its sale price), has raised $60 million in new funding. American Family Ventures led the investment, which brings Hometap’s total funding to $95 million. New and existing backers, including Bain Capital, Iconiq Capital, G20 Ventures, Pillar and General Catalyst, also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

* Nearside, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that offers online banking services to small and mid-size businesses, has raised $58 million in Series B funding. Valar Ventures led the round, joined by Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital, Jim Breyer, Flexport's Ryan Petersen, Mike Ovitz and Eventbrite cofounder Kevin Hartz. TechCrunch has more here.

* Platzi, a nearly 10-year-old, San Francisco-based online education platform that offers classes on marketing, programming, business, and design and is now looking to "reskill" Latin American professionals, has raised $62 million in Series B funding. Prosus led the round, joined by Foundation Capital, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, FJ Labs, FundersClub and others. TechCrunch has more here.

* Smartling, an 11-year-old, New York-based company that says it helps its customers automate, manage and professionally translate their content across devices and platforms, has raised $160 million in funding led by Battery Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

* TradeDepot, a five-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based company that connects consumer goods brands to thousands of retailers and helps with distribution, has raised $110 million in new equity and debt funding (though it isn't breaking out how much of each it just raised). International Finance Corporation led the equity part, with participation from Novastar, Sahel Capital, CDC Group, Endeavor Catalyst and earlier backers Partech and MSA Capital. The debt funding was led by Arcadia Funds. TechCrunch has more here.

* WeLab, an eight-year-old, Hong Kong-based financial services startup backed by billionaire Li Ka-Shing’s TOM Group, has raised $240 million from earlier and new investors. It's using some of that capital to acquire Bank Jasa Jakarta (BJJ), an Indonesian commercial bank. With the deal, says TechCrunch, WeLab is planning to launch a digital bank to capture the country’s enormous unbanked population in the second half of next year. More here.

* YipitData, an 11-year-o New York-based firm that gathers and analyzes alternative data for Wall Street and corporate clients, has raised $475 million in funding from Carlyle Group, an investment that values the company at more than $1 billion. Bloomberg has more here.

* Carma, a 10-month-old, Sydney, Australia-based online used car marketplace, has raised $20 million in seed funding from Tiger Global. TechCrunch has more here.

* Kasada, a nearly seven-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based company that helps to fight online bots using its proprietary anti-bot platform, has raised $23 million Series C funding led by StepStone Group. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Ten Eleven Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Reinventure, Our Innovation Fund, and Turnbull & Partners. The company has now raised $39 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.

* Mysten Labs, a four-month-old, Bay Area-based crypto and blockchain infrastructure technology start-up founded by four former Facebook engineers (including the former director of R&D at Facebook’s Novi financial products unit), just raised $36 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. CNBC has more here.

* Nabla Bio, a 20-month-old, Boston-based biotech that spun out work with the famed Harvard biologist George Church, has raised $11 million in seed funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners. MedCity News has more here.

* Sense, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based automated communication and engagement platform built for enterprise recruiting, has raised $50 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. To date, Sense has now raised $90 million altogether. More here.

* Serve Robotics, a San Francisco-based autonomous sidewalk delivery company that spun out from Uber-owned Postmates in March, has closed an expanded seed round at $13 million. Uber participated in the round as a strategic investor, alongside Delivery Hero-backed DX Ventures, 7-Eleven’s corporate venture arm 7-Ventures and Wavemaker Labs, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

* Stacked, a 2.5-year-old, Chicago-based SEC-registered automated robo-advisor for crypto & digital assets, just raised $35 million in Series A funding. Alameda Research and Mirana Ventures co-led the round, joined by Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, DRW VC, Alumni Ventures and Jump Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

* Universe, a four-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based developer of software that gives small businesses drag-and-drop design tools that it compares to Lego building blocks, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Addition led the round, joined by earlier backers GV, Javelin Venture Partners, Box Group, and more. More here.

* Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, a three-year-old, Ontario-based tech and visual effects startup that says it helpis Hollywood studios deliver feature-film quality VFX on television timelines, has raised CAD$6.5 million ($5 million) in Series A funding. The investment was led by Round13 Capital, which was joined by Rhino Ventures, Harlo Equity Partners, Torinit and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

* Pariti, a 2.5-year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based startup that connects founders in emerging markets to resources, talent and capital, has raised $2.85 million in seed funding. Harlem Capital led the round,  joined by Better Ventures, Accelerated Ventures, Diverse Angels, AVG Basecamp and New General Market Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

* Vinehealth, a 3.5-year-old, London-based data reporting app for cancer patients, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Talis Capital led the round, joined by Playfair Capital and Ascension. TechCrunch has more here.

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* The private-equity unit of family-owned investment firm Edmond de Rothschild Group is in the process of raising a NIS 800 million (approximately $253 million) fund for investments in food tech, reports Calcalist. More here.

* Prytek, a 2.5-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based investment group, has raised $107 million backed by the global investment management company Davidson Kempner, which has $37 billion in assets under management. The firm focuses primarily on on fintech and other banking-related startups. Calcalist has more here.

* Bain Capital Ventures has named Christina Melas-Kyriazi, a former Affirm executive and angel investor, as its newest partner.

* Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who serves as the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, will retire at the end of the year and become CEO of Donald Trump's new media organization.

* Lauren Reeder has joined Sequoia Capital as a partner, she announced on Twitter. Reeder was previously director of product at Segment, a customer data platform that Twilio acquired roughly a year ago. She also spent roughly three years helping to run Graduate Fund, an initiative of First Round Capital.

* Lyft’s long-time CFO, Brian Roberts, who joined the company back in 2014, says he's leaving to take the same role at NFT marketplace OpenSea.

* Yikes. The popular family safety app Life360 is selling precise location data on its tens of millions of users. According to a new report in The Markup, the app is selling data on kids’ and families’ whereabouts to approximately a dozen data brokers who have sold data to virtually anyone who wants to buy it. (As many have noted, Life360 is the company that just bought Tile.)

* A specific ED drug is a promising drug candidate to help prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study out of the Cleveland Clinic.

* DoorDash is diving into the ultra-fast delivery fray, where the only companies poised to win, argues The Information, may be those paid to advertise the services, like PR firms and social media apps.

* Not everyone is thrilled with the prospect of OpenSea staging a traditional IPO, which is the current plan (see our "People" item on Brian Roberts). “Sucks to hear OpenSea is selling out and doing an IPO,” tweeted NFT collector Punk_2070. “Their VCs didn’t get them to where they are today. We did.” Decrypt has the story here.

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