DJI gets blacklisted, Spotify launches ratings, and the CFPB looks into buy-now-pay-later products

* The Biden administration today added dozens of Chinese companies and research institutes to blacklists restricting access to U.S. investment and technology for their alleged support for China’s military and the mass surveillance of mainly Muslim ethnic groups. Among them is world’s largest commercial drone-maker, DJI. The WSJ has more here.

* The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today said it has launched an inquiry into the buy-now-pay-later offerings of Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna and others of their rivals. It is the first regulatory action focused on the companies. The bureau wants information from the outfits to help it examine concerns such as the kind of role their plans play in increasing consumers’ debt and how the companies use consumer data, the agency said. (We can think of some home refinancing startups it might want to talk with next.)  More here.

* Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, disclosed today that it has banned seven "surveillance-for-hire" firms that it says used its platforms to spy on some 50,000 unsuspecting targets, including government critics, celebrities, journalists and ordinary people in more than 100 countries. NPR has more here.

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* BandLab, a 6.5-year-old, Singapore-based social music platform that says it has developed pro-quality creator tools for music makers, just raised $53 million in funding led by Vulcan Capital. Other investors in the round include K3 Ventures and earlier backer Caldecott Music Group. More here.

* Cockroach Labs, a nearly seven-year-old, New York-based distributed SQL database, has raised $278 million in Series F funding. Earlier backer Greenoaks led round, joined by a mix of other earlier and new investors, including Altimeter, Bond, Benchmark, Coatue Management, FirstMark, GV, Index Ventures, JPMorgan, Lone Pine Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Tiger Global. The company reports it has raised a total of $633 million to date and that it's valued at $5 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

* Found, a year-old, Bay Area-based weight care management startup, has raised $100 million in a Series B funding round just months after emerging from steals. WestCap led the investment, with participation from IVP, The Chernin Group, G9 Ventures and Able Partners, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

* Gopuff, an eight-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based "instant grocery" company that has gotten really big, really fast, is reportedly raising up to $1.5 billion in fresh funding at a $40 billion valuation. According to TechCrunch, the funding is being structured as a “Series X” convertible note from Guggenheim Partners, and likely ahead of a 2022 IPO for the company. Other investors are not being disclosed. More here.

* Gtmhub, a 6.5-year-old, Denver-based maker of OKRs (objectives and key results) software, has raised $120 million in Series C funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Visionaries Club and returning investors Insight Partners, Singular and CRV. TechCrunch has more here.

* Infarm, an 8.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based vertical farming firm, has raised $200 million in Series D funding led by the Qatar Investment Authority. The deal pushes the company’s total funding to north of $600 million, while placing its valuation “well” north of $1 billion, says the company. TechCrunch has more here.

* Mavrck, a 7.5-year-old, Boston-based company that has built a platform for brands and media companies to source and engage with influencers for marketing campaigns, just raised $120 million in growth equity from a single backer, Summit Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

* Nansen, a 1.5-year-old, Singapore-based blockchain analytics startup, has $75 million in funding led by Accel, with participation from Tiger Global and earlier backer Andreessen Horowitz, which led the company's $12 million Series A round less than six months ago. Reuters has more here.

* Re:cap, an 11-month-old, Berlin, Germany-based startup that, like Pipe, is a revenue-based financing platform, has raised $111.5 million in funding, including from Felix Capital, Project A Ventures, and earlier investors Entrée Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

* Rokt, a nine-year-old, New York-based maker of e-commerce marketing software, has raised $325 million in Series E funding led by Tiger Global. Other participants in the round included Wellington Management, Whale Rock Capital Management, Pavilion Capital and earlier shareholder Square Peg. The company closed on $80 million in Series D funding a year ago and says it's preparing to go public. The WSJ has more here.

* Tasso, a 7.5-year-old, Seattle-based maker of simplified at-home blood collection devices, has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by RA Capital Management. Other backers in the round include D.E. Shaw group, Senvest, InCube, and SVB Innovation Fund, Foresite Capital, Hambrecht Ducera Growth Ventures, J2V, Cedars-Sinai, and Merck GHIF. The company has raised $131 altogether. FierceBiotech has more here.

* Taxdoo, a 5.5-year-old, Hamburg, Germany-based startup whose API-based tools help e-commerce companies with tax compliance and other accounting needs, has raised $64 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global. Earlier backers Accel, Visionaries Club, and 20VC also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $84 million. TechCrunch has more here.

• Bureau, a one-year-old, San Francisco and Bangalore, India-based platform that protects merchants and consumers from fraud and underwrites fraud prevention, has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Quona Capital, with participation from Commerce Ventures, Okta Identity, Sweat Equity Ventures, XYZ, Blume Ventures, EMVC, and Village Global, as well as individual investors. The Economic Times has more here.

* Conta Simples, a 3.5-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based financial platform that offers business accounts, corporate cards and spend management software to digital businesses, has raised $24 million in Series A funding. Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund and Valor Capital co-led the round, joined by Base10 Partners and earlier backers Y Combinator, Quartz and Big Bets. More here.

* CreditBook, a year-old, Pakistan-based fintech whose first product is a simple digital digital ledger that small businesses can use to track credit and expenses, has raised $11 million in pre-Series A funding. Backers in the round include Tiger Global, Firstminute Capital, Banana Capital, VentureSouq, Ratio Ventures and i2i Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Elementary, a 4.5-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based industrial automation company that's developing manufacturing quality and inspection tools, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by earlier investors Threshold Ventures, Fika Ventures, Fathom Capital, Riot VC and Toyota Ventures. The company has now raised $47.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

* La Belle Vie, a six-year-old, Paris-based online grocery delivery service, has raised a $28.2 million (€25 million) in Series B funding led by Left Lane and Quadrille Capital, with earlier investor Capagro also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

* Noname Security, a year-old, Israel-based startup focused on API security, has raised $135 million in Series C funding. Georgian and Lightspeed Venture Partners co-led the round, joined by Insight Partners, Cyberstarts, Next47, Forgepoint Capital, and The Syndicate Group. The company has raised $220 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.

* Runway, a three-year-old New York-based startup that creates video editing software, has raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Coatue Management, with participation from earlier investors Amplify Partners, Lux Capital, and Compound. More here.

* Silverflow, a 2.5-year-old, Amsterdam-based maker of payment processing software, has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Coatue Management, with participation from Global Paytech Ventures and earlier backers Crane Venture Partners and INKEF Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

* Sustaera, a months-old, Cary, N.C.-based startup that intends to suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by climate funds backed by Bill Gates and billionaire investor Jeremy Grantham. Bloomberg has more here.

* Zing Health, a two-year-old, Chicago-based Medicare Advantage insurance company focused on serving vulnerable populations underserved by traditional insurance models, has raised $25 million in "substantial minority" funding from Town Hall Ventures and Leavitt Equity Partners. More here.

* Continual, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to bring operational AI to the modern data warehouse-centric data stack, has raised a $4 million in seed funding led by Amplify Partners, with Illuminate Ventures, Essence, Wayfinder and Data Community Fund also participating in the round. The company's cofounders each sold their own previous companies. TechCrunch has more here.

* Phytoform, a 4.5-year-old, London- and Boston-based biotech startup whose genome editing technology is aimed at improving crops, just raised $5.7 million in funding led by Eniac Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

* Sperta, a year-old, San Francisco-based risk decision platform aiming to help fintech and other tech companies automate decisions and manage fraud, credit, and compliance risks, says it raised $3 million in seed funding earlier this year co-led by Kindred Ventures and Uncork Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

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Alitheia IDF (AIF), a women-focused private equity fund in Africa, has raised $100 million to invest in gender-diverse businesses across the continent. The fund is looking to bridge the financing gap for women-led or owned businesses in Africa – where women-only founding team have received less than 1% of the nearly $5 billion that has been raised by startups across Africa so far this year. The fund’s investors include the African Development Bank, Bank of Industry Nigeria, FinDev Canada, Dutch Good Growth Fund and the European Investment Bank, which committed $24.6 million as the closing investor. TechCrunch has more here.

Anthemis Group, an 11-year-old, New York-based women-led investment platform that says it's committed to cultivating change in the financial system, just closed multiple funds that total $700 million in capital commitments and bring the firm’s assets under management to $1.2 billion. The firm has already backed 150 companies, including a handful of unicorns, such such as the recurring revenue stream trading platform Pipe. Forbes has more here.

* Alphabet’s smart city project is winding down and Google will take over its products. Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff announced the news in a letter, in which he noted he is stepping down for health-related reasons and that, specifically, he believes he likely has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. More here.

* Oracle is in talks to buy electronic-medical-records company Cerner Corp., according to WSJ sources, a deal that could be worth around $30 billion and push the enterprise-software giant further into healthcare. Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner designs software that hospitals and doctors use to store and analyze medical records and other healthcare data. It has a market value of around $23 billion. More here.

* Spotify has acquired another podcast technology company: Whooshkaa, an Australia-based all-in-one platform for hosting, managing, distributing, promoting, monetizing and measuring podcasts. TechCrunch has the story here. In separate but related news, Spotify is also launching Apple-like ratings for podcasts.

Waste and recycling platform Rubicon Technologies is merging with the special-purpose acquisition company Founder SPAC to go public at a valuation of roughly $2 billion, the companies said. Rubicon investors include Leo DeCaprio, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, KKR co-founder Henry Kravis and billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones. The WSJ has more here.

* H&R Block is suing Block, the fintech company formerly known as Square, for trademark infringement. 

* AI just argued for -- and against -- itself in an Oxford Union debate.

* How Covid threatens the brain.

* How to hang a gallery wall.

* Apple's "Ted Lasso" Christmas special.

* And just like that, Peloton's viral new ad is gone, likely with actor Chris Noth's career (though US Weekly appears to have narrowly missed this development).

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