Google's AR headset, Peloton's rough ride, and another management shakeup at Twitter

Thursday! (Hello.)

Ahead of the company’s upcoming earnings, Peloton CEO John Foley took a break today from an SEC “quiet period” to address a CNBC report related to poor device sales. He denied that the company is temporarily halting production of its bikes and treadmills as demand for them falls amid gym re-openings. He did, however, say the company is considering jobs cuts to get itself back on track. Peloton's shares dived 24% on the CNBC report (then rose 9% on Foley's comments). In the meantime, the question being asked is when Apple will strike.

Netflix stands to shed nearly $45 billion in market cap after a "borderline catastrophic" forecast, to quote one colorful analyst. MarketWatch has more here.

With the Nasdaq down almost 5% this week and the S&P 500 into its third straight week of losses, you might think, Hey, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum will prove a safe haven. But nope.

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Foundation Capital, an early-stage venture firm with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, has been around for 27 years, in many iterations. It has been sprawling, it has been small, it has thrived, it has teetered.

In 2022, it's in expansion mode once again. Three years after closing its ninth fund with $350 million in capital commitments with three general partners, the firm is announcing that it has secured $500 million for its tenth flagship fund. It now has six general partners, having promoted two of its investors to general partner and hired former founder Angus Davis. And it has a lot of deals in its portfolio that undoubtedly continue to excite its investors.

Among these is the fast-growing NFT marketplace OpenSea, the buzzy public blockchain platform Solana (Foundation was its first institutional investor) and Cohesity, a data management vendor that confidentially filed to go public last month and is reportedly seeking a valuation of between $5 billion and $10 billion. (For context, Cohesity was valued by its private investors last March at $3.7 billion.)

How to explain Foundation's rebound? Strong connections to founders and their various networks would seem to explain part of it. It's a benefit enjoyed by any firm that has been around the block a few times and treated people well en route.

Foundation has also more aggressively embraced the unknown, moving away from metrics and toward individuals who haven’t started a company yet but are on the cusp of making the jump. These might be operators inside big companies, or founders returning to the startup arena, or teams preparing to spin out of academia. As explains Ashu Garg, who joined Foundation in 2008 and is now one of its longest-serving general partners, “Our goal is to have a handshake deal with someone as they're ready to start the company. That's the business that we're in. There is no company. That is our business model.”

It almost sounds comical. But it's no joke.

More here.

Apprentice, an eight-year-old, Jersey City, N.J.-based pharma-compliant remote collaboration platform, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Alkeon Capital Management. Other backers in the round included Silverton Partners, Insight Partners, Pacific Western Bank, and Colorcon Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.

Ambient.ai, a 4.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based computer vision startup focused on building security, has raised $52 million led by Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.

Canalyst, a nearly seven-year-old, New York- and Vancouver-based outfit that sells public company data and analysis, just raised $70 million in Series C funding led by Dragoneer Investment Group. Other backers in the round include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Alta Fox Capital, HighSage Ventures, Vanedge Capital, and ScaleUP Ventures. Fintech Futures has more here.

Curbio, a 4.5-year-old, Potomac, Md.-based startup that oversees home renovations for real estate agents, brokerages and home sellers, and says it collects payment only when the home sells, has raised $65 million in Series B funding. Revolution Growth led the round, joined by Camber Creek, Comcast Ventures, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Second Century Ventures, Kayne Partners, and Masco Ventures. Business Insider has more here.

Factorial Energy, a two-year-old, Woburn, Ma.-based developer of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, has raised $200 million in Series D funding from Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. If this sounds familiar, it's because TechCrunch reported on this deal in early December, though the companies weren't discussing the exact amount involved at the time.

Iterative Scopes, a 4.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based AI company that says its software can help spot the signs of colorectal cancer among other things, has raised $150 million in Series B funding co-led by Insight Partners and Clearlake Capital Group. Other backers in the round include Obvious Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Eli Lilly, and Breyer Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.

M2P Fintech, an eight-year-old, Chennai, India-based payments infrastructure outfit that helps banks and other financial institutions to launch new services, has raised $56 million in funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by MUFG Innovation Partners and earlier backers Tiger Global and Better Capital. The outfit has now raised $107 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. 

Milkrun, a months-old, Sydney, Australia-based grocery delivery startup, has raised $75 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from AirTree Ventures, Skip Capital, and Grok Ventures. Milkrun founder Dany Milham previously launched the direct-to-consumer mattress business Koala. SmartCompany has more here.

ONI, a nearly six-year-old, Oxford, England-based company that makes a benchtop-size super-resolution microscope, has raised $75 million in Series B funding co-led by Arch Venture Partners and Casdin Capital. Other participants in the round include Section 32, ARTIS Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Axon Ventures and earlier investor Oxford Science Enterprises. More here.

PlanRadar, a nearly nine-year-old, Vienna, Austria-based digitization platform for construction and property documents, has raised $70 million in funding co-led by Insight Partners and Quadrille Capital. TechCrunch has more here. 

Wheel, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based tele-health platform developer that helps companies build virtual care services under their own brands, has raised $150 million in Series C funding co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global. Other backers in the round included Coatue, Salesforce Ventures, CRV, Tusk Venture Partners, and Silverton Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Banyan Security, a 6.5-year-old, San Francisco -based company that promises secure, “work from anywhere” access for employees, developers, and third parties without the need for network-centric solutions like VPNs, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Third Point Ventures. Other participants in the funding included SIG, Alter Venture Partners and earlier investors Shasta Ventures and Unusual Ventures. More here.

Flying Embers, a nearly five-year-old, Ventura, Ca.-based kombucha brand, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Beam Suntory. Other backers in the round include Power Plant Ventures, Quadrant Capital, Monogram Cap, and Beechwood Capital. Forbes has more here.

Foresight Group, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based workers compensation and insuretech platform focused on "high hazard clients," raised $39 million in Series B funding led by OMERS Ventures. Other backers in the round, which brings the company's total funding to $59 million, included Digital Garage Ventures, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Brick and Mortar Ventures, and Builders VC. Insurance Innovation Reporter has more here.

Greenlabs, a 4.5-year-old, South Korea-based agricultural supply chain digitization startup, has raised $14 million in Series C funding. BRV Management led the round, joined by Skylake Incuvest and SK Square. TechCrunch has more here.

Inspect Point, an eight-year-old, Troy, N.Y.-based company that makes business management software for the fire inspection industry, just raised $28 million from Mainsail Partners. More here.

Mention Me, a nearly nine-year-old, London-based customer referral platform, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Eight Roads Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Prophecy, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based low-code platform for data engineering, just raised a $25 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. Earlier investors SignalFire and Berkeley Skydeck, as well as new investor Dig Ventures, also participated. The company has now raised $31 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Dropee, a five-year-old, Malaysia-based B2B wholesale platform that also offers financial services like working capital loans, has raised $3 million in equity and $4 million in debt funding. Backers in the deal include Vynn Capital, HCL Capital, Resolution Ventures, LKF Capital, and earlier backer Brama One Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

StaffAny, a four-year-old, Singapore-based shift worker management startup, has raised $3.4 million led by GGV Capital. Other investors in the round included East Ventures, FreakOut Shinsei Fund, Far East Ventures, Farquhar Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here. 

Grind your teeth? Clench your jaw? Remi, a San Francisco-based startup, recently raised an undisclosed funding round by Foundation Capital, G-Squared, and founders/execs from Thrasio, Henry The Dentist, Unilever, and Marcy Venture Partners (Jay-Z's fund). Remi is the leading company in custom night guards and recently launched overnight sensitivity-free teeth whitening. Remi applied the Warby Parker approach of cutting out the middleman to make a better night's sleep cost 80% less than the dentist -- and without the office visit. StrictlyVC readers get 20% off with code remi20.

A* Capital, a year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm cofounded by renowned serial entrepreneur Kevin Hartz; former Uber and Opendoor exec Gautam Gupta; and Bennett Siegel, who previously spent four years as an investor with Coatue, has quietly raised $300 million for its debut fund, says Axios. More here.

Accel-KKR is raising more than $1 billion for a new growth capital fund and is expected to hold a final close for it in the next month, according to WSJ Pro. The Menlo Park, Ca-based firm is poised to raise around $1.25 billion for Accel-KKR Growth Capital Partners IV LP, according to the outlet's sources, who say the firm first targeted $850 million for the fund. More here.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is planning to raise $4.5 billion for cryptocurrency investments, the Financial Times reported today. Of that sum, $3.5 billion will be allocated to its crypto venture fund, while $1 billion will be funneled into seed investments expressly,  says the FT, adding that the plans will be finalized in March. As a reminder, a16z announced its third crypto fund -- a $2.2 billion pool -- just seven months ago. More here.

Cherry Ventures, a 10-year-old, Berlin-based early-stage venture firm has closed its fourth fund with $340 million in capital commitments. Tech.eu has more here.

Inflection, a three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based early-stage crypto VC firm, raised $40.7 million in capital commitments for its second fund. TechCrunch has a bit more here. 

PeakSpan Capital, a seven-year-old,  San Mateo, Ca.-based venture outfit focused on growth-stage software businesses. has raised $567 million for its third growth equity fund. WSJ Pro has more here.

Worklyn Partners, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based growth equity firm, says it has closed its debut fund with $35 million and intends to use the capital to "acquire or execute control investments in IT and cybersecurity services." More here.

Twitter shook up the top ranks of its security team this week with the termination of the head of security and the exit of the chief information security officer, as new CEO Parag Agrawal reorganizes the social media service. The New York Times has more here.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 16-6 today to advance a major tech competition bill that some experts consider legislators’ best shot at making substantial reform to laws that govern the industry. The bill prohibits dominant platforms, defined in part by how many users they have and their market cap, from discriminating against other businesses that rely on their services in what’s sometimes referred to as self-preferencing. CNBC has more here.

Twitter has begun allowing some users to use nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as their profile pictures. The feature is available to users of Twitter’s Blue subscription service and marks the company’s biggest push thus far into tokens that act as vouchers of authenticity for virtual goods that can be tracked and traded along different blockchains. The WSJ has more here.

Google’s Labs division has a team working on an AR headset that it hopes to release in 2024, says The Verge.

TikTok is testing the idea of allowing its creators to charge subscriptions for their content, a spokesperson tells The Information.

Families are going rogue with Covid tests.

"A Christmas Story" sequel is coming.

Photos of the week.

A $85 million Beverly Hills estate with an asterisk (*the murder of Sharon Tate in 1969 took place in a now-demolished home on the property). 

** It also has six aquariums, so we're going to go ahead and say two asterisks.

At the virtual Index Ventures AI Summit: 2022 [and beyond],  participants have heard over the last two days directly from Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, Kevin Scott, Cade Metz, Pieter Abbeel, Alexandr Wang, and many more - on what is shaping AI over the next decade. Still to come: a fireside chat with Fei-Fei Li, the Sequoia Capital Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Check your mailbox soon for more information about this chat, which will be shared as a special on-demand session.