StockX preps its IPO, Consensys sues a former employee, and a look at San Juan's "crypto colonizers"

Thursday! This week is flying by. (But really, it kind of is, for us.)

Shares of private equity firm TPG rose in their stock-market debut today, securing a valuation of roughly $10.4 billion and "marking a positive sign for the IPO market," observed the WSJ. The stock rose 15% from its IPO price to close at $34 a share. More here.

Navient, once one of the country’s largest student loan servicing companies, reached a $1.85 billion deal with 39 states to settle claims that it had made predatory loans that saddled borrowers with crushing debts they were unlikely to repay.

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In a tight labor market, so-called vertical labor marketplaces that zoom in on one industry, like nursing or hospitality, are drawing funding. Trusted Health, a healthcare staffing platform, raised $149 million in funding in November, for example. Seasoned, a hiring platform for restaurant workers, closed on nearly $19 million at roughly the same time.

Investors are similarly betting there is plenty of upside in a hiring platform focused entirely on the fast-growing cannabis industry, in which an estimated 320,000 people were already working as of last fall, a 32% increase from the year earlier.

Indeed, an investor syndicate led by Level One Fund just plugged $19 million in Series B funding into Vangst, a six-year-old, Denver-based outfit that pairs both short-term workers and full-time employees with job openings at cannabis companies around the U.S. It’s no surprise, given the traction the outfit is seeing, along with the variety of revenue streams it has built.

According to founder and CEO Karson Humiston — who launched the company while an undergraduate student at St. Lawrence University — Vangst currently features 500 “gigs” per week that the platform takes on average 48 hours to fill. (Vangst treats these individuals as W-2 employees, and pays them through its own payroll.) It also right now features nearly 2,000 full-time positions that represent $85 million in gross salaries.

It can start to add up financially. Vangst charges its customers 50% more than it pays its part-time employees, so paying $15 per hour, it might charge a client $22.50 for that employee’s time. As for full-time roles, in exchange for vetting talent that it connects with companies, Vangst takes a percentage of each candidate’s first-year salary.

Vangst also charges employers both monthly and yearly subscriptions for the privilege of posting as many openings as they need to fill and, more recently, it began to build out a content business that includes modules about retail roles and other positions in the cannabis industry that those new to the industry might not understand. (Not everyone knows what a trimmer does.)

More here.

Highspot, 10-year-old, Seattle-based a maker of sales engagement software, has raised $248 million in Series F funding co-led by B Capital Group and D1 Capital Partners. GeekWire has more here.

Lead School, a 10-year-old, Mumbai, India-based company that makes admissions and marketing software for private schools, has raised $95 million in Series E funding led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from GSV Ventures. The Economic Times has more here.

MycoWorks, a nine-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based developer of fungi-based biomaterials that can be used a a leather alternative, raised $125 million in Series C funding. Prime Movers Lab led the round, joined by SK Capital Partners and Mirabaud. TechCrunch has more here.

Novo, a six-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based small business banking platform, said this week it has raised $90 million in Series B funding at a $700 million valuation. Stripes led the round, joined by earlier backers Valar Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Rainfall Ventures, and BoxGroup. This latest round brings Novo’s total funding to more than $135 million. More here.

SoSafe, a four-year-old, Cologne, Germany-based cybersecurity awareness and testing platform, has raised $73 million in Series B funding led by Highland Europe. Earlier backers Acton Capital and Global Founders Capital also joined the round, along with some notable individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Yahaha Studios, a 1.5-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based metaverse platform that's dedicated to user-generated content and plans to launch early this year (it was founded by veterans of Unity), says it has raised $50 million in previous unannounced funding. Among its backers is 5Y Capital, HillHouse, Coatue, ZhenFund, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, BiliBili and Xiaomi. TechCrunch has more here.

Accrue Savings, a months-old, New York-based startup that aims to help brands provide shoppers with cash rewards when they save up for big purchases (it's at the opposite end of the buy-now-pay-later spectrum), has raised $25 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by Aglaé Ventures, Maple VC, and numerous other firms and individual investors. including Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin. TechCrunch has more here.

Conduit, a seven-month-old, Boston area startup that helps streamline access to high-yield decentralized finance accounts, raised $17 million in funding. Portage Ventures led the round, joined by Diagram Ventures, FinVC, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gradient Ventures and Jump Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Gr4vy, a 1.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based payment orchestration platform, has raised $15 million in extended Series A funding that takes the company's total funding to $27.2 million. March Capital led the latest tranche. Others of its investors include Nyca Partners, Activant Capital and Plug and Play Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Laika, a 3.5-year-old, Colombia-based pet commerce company that likens itself to Chewy, has raised $48 million in Series B funding led by SoftBank. Other participants in the round -- which brings the company's total funding to $65 million -- include JAM Fund, Delivery Hero, FJ Labs, former Uber exec Emil Michael, and Kavak cofounder and CEO Carlos Garcia. Bloomberg has more here.

Rooter, a five-year-old, New Delhi, India-based game-streaming and e-sports platform, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Lightbox, March Gaming and Duane Park Ventures. More here.

Seel, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that's focused on underwriting e-commerce returns, has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Earlier investors participating include Foundation Capital, Afore Capital and West Loop Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Shield, a five-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup whose compliance surveillance platform aims to help organizations mitigate risks from electronic communications, like inside dealing, unlawful behavior, and privacy matters, just raised $15 million in Series A funding. Macquarie Capital and OurCrowd co-led the round, joined by Mindset Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Swell, a six-year-old, Bay Area-based back-end e-commerce platform, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by VMG Catalyst and Headline. Other participants in the round include Bonfire Ventures, Willow Growth, Commerce Ventures, Red Antler and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

UBITS, a 3.5-year-old, Bogota, Colombia-based B2B online learning platform for 'upskilling' employees in Latin America, has raised $25 million in funding led by Riverwood Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Allbridge, a months-old, Kiev, Ukraine-based platform focused on transferring digital assets between different blockchains, raised $2 million in funding from investors led by Race Capital. Coindesk has more here.

Fable, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based startup that sells pet accessories, including a hands-free leash, has raised $9 million in Series A funding led by 14W, with participation from Female Founders Fund and Slow Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Heat, a 2.5-year-old, London-based startup that says it sells luxury streetwear mystery boxes that are "dropped" monthly and shipped out to customers, has raised $5 million from backers like Antler and LVMH. More here.

HeyCharge, a nearly two-year-old, Munich, Germany-based startup that's retrofitting apartment buildings across Europe so they can feature electric vehicle charging stations, has raised $4.7 million in seed funding led by BMW I Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Seashell, a months-old, Seattle-based company that's promising customers the ability to earn high-yield returns through decentralized finance (it's launching its investment app later this year), has raised $6 million in funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Kindred Ventures. Other investors in the round include Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures and the Avalanche Foundation. The Block has more here. 

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Owl Ventures, an eight-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm focused entirely on the ed-tech market, is announcing $640 million in capital commitments for its fifth flagship fund, $270 million for an opportunities-style fund (its second), and, interestingly, $100 million expressly for SPVs, though it says the latter has already been deployed. (We haven't seen a firm break out its SPV tally like this before.) Crunchbase News has more here.

StockX, the 5.5-year-old, Detroit, Mi.-based sneaker and streetwear brand online marketplace, is already working with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs on its planned IPO, says Bloomberg. The outlet's sources say the company could go public in the first half of this year. 

A blank-check company that has former Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson as its CEO has completed a $287.5 million initial public offering, furthering its plans to link up with ventures focusing on space, cybersecurity and energy innovation. In a new release, the SPAC, called C5 Acquisition Corp. said it would look in particular for deals related to national security concerns. GeekWire has more here.

Amplify Partners, a now 10-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm that's focused on enterprise startups, has promoted three of its members: Sarah Catanzaro is now a general partner, Renee Shah is now a partner, and Natasha Katoni has been named the firm's operating partner. More here.

ConsenSys Mesh, the crypto investor and incubator launched by the ethereum cofounder Joseph Lubin, has accused a former partner of lying about her credentials, abusing her fellow employees, and trying to "shake down" the company. In a lawsuit filed this week, ConsenSys Mesh alleged Kavita Gupta lied about having gone to Harvard Business School and forged records, including a letter from the president of the MIT, to backstop her résumé. It said that some employees quit because of Gupta's "toxic and abusive personality." She says ConsenSys owes her money. Business Insider has the skinny here.

Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life, one of the earliest digital-reality worlds, is returning for a second stint, reports the WSJ. He says he's bringing a cadre of developers, numerous patents and an unspecified financial investment with him.

These TikTok stars made more money last year than many of America's top CEOs.

David Colombo, a 19-year-old cyber prodigy, stumbled onto a flaw that let him hijack Teslas --  a discovery he published on Twitter this week. “I’m not sure I would send that tweet again,”  Colombo, who began programming when he was 10, tells Bloomberg. “The response was crazy. Somewhere in the comments I have pro- and anti-Tesla arguing very heatedly. It just got blown up so much.”

Crypto "colonizers" have been moving to Puerto Rico in recent years to circumvent taxes, and they're driving up prices, as well as captivating, and irritating, the locals.

Faced with the Omicron wave of infections, Amazon will pay its U.S. warehouse workers $40 to get the vaccine booster shot. (Because it's Amazon, they're also allowed one unpaid day off to recover if they choose to take it.)

Starting this month, users selling goods and services through such popular sites as Venmo, Etsy and Airbnb will begin receiving tax forms if they take a payment of more than $600. One by one in recent months, tech giants have been warning users of the coming changes and asking them to provide tax information. Bloomberg has more here.

How game theory changed poker.

The history of the turtleneck.

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The world's 'first NFT restaurant' is opening in New York. (As a starter, you eat a membership fee.)

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