A GoPuff IPO, Meta's unraveling crypto initiative, and cats on road trips -- cases for and against

Yikes. U.S. manufacturers and other companies that use semiconductors are down to less than five days of inventory for key chips, the Commerce Department said today. 

U.S stock indexes tumbled, partly recovered and then retreated again in a second straight day of tumultuous trading.

If you bought the dip yesterday, today was . . . not great. “In past times you buy the dips, so [shareholders] keep doing it like Pavlov’s dog because they are trained to buy dips," Matthew Tuttle, CEO at Tuttle Capital Management, tells Bloomberg. "n this new environment, dips keep dipping and rips are bull traps.”

Venture capital firms face a number of threats and challenges in today’s environment. From SEC investigations to mismanagement lawsuits, how do you identify all of the major risks for your firm and portfolio companies? And how should you implement strategies to mitigate these risks? Find out in Founder Shield’s VC Risk Management Guide.

While certain titans of tech argue over how different or not decentralized "web3" outfits will be compared to their unabashedly centralized predecessors, an ecosystem of companies is fast emerging with ties to each other, including backing from the same investors.

Consider that late last summer, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) invested in an outfit, Yield Guild Games (YGG), that invests in NFTs from blockchain-based games, then loans them out to people who use them and generate revenue as they play. Among the fastest growing of these games is "Axie Infinity," where creatures can be bred to battle and ultimately, if they battle well, sold for a decent price.

By October, a16z was leading a massive investment into the parent company of "Axie," which is Sky Mavis. Now, it's funding yet another building block: BreederDAO, a months-old, Philippines-based "specialist manufacturer" of digital assets for use in blockchain-based games and virtual worlds, including "Axie Infinity." 

Founded by a team of young founders, one of whom was an early advisor to YGG, the 23-person outfit just closed on $10 million in Series A funding via a token sale that was co-led by a16z and Delphi Digital, with participation from Hashed, com2us, Morningstar Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Sfermion, The LAO, Emfarsis and others.

Why fund an outfit that's solely focused on producing digital assets, as if they were widgets on a factory line? According to Arianna Simpson, the general partner at a16z who is leading many of these related efforts, it's simple; demand for NFTs is beginning to outstrip supply.

More here.

Celino Biotech, a 4.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based startup looking to automate the process we use to create pluripotent stem cells, has raised $80 million in Series A funding co-led by Bayer, 8VC and Humboldt Fund. Other backers in the round include Felicis Ventures, Khosla Ventures and The Engine. TechCrunch has more here.

Creditas, a nearly 10-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based lender, has raised $260 million in a Series F round that brings its total funding to date to $830 million and its valuation to $4.8 billion. Fidelity Management & Research led the newest round, joined by Actyus, Greentrail Capital, and numerous earlier backers, including QED Investors, VEF, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, SoftBank Latin America Fund, and Kaszek Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Distalmotion, an 8.5-year-old, Lausanne, Switzerland-based surgical robot maker, has raised $90 million in Series E funding led by Revival Healthcare Capital, with participation from 415 Capital and earlier investors. Mass Device has more here.

Dremio, a nearly seven-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca-based SQL lakehouse company, has raised $160 million in Series E funding led by Adams Street Partners. Other backers in the round -- which brings the company's total funding to roughly $420 million, per Crunchbase data, and its valuation to $2 billion (says the company) --  included StepStone Group, DTCP and earlier investors Sapphire Ventures, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Cisco Investments. TechCrunch has more here.

Humu, the 4.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based talent retention platform founded by renowned former Google exec Lazlo Block, has raised $60 million in Series C funding. TCV led the round, joined by GFC, Blue Ivy Ventures and earlier backers Index Ventures, IVP, and SVB Capital. Forbes has more here.

Hunters, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $68 million in Series C funding. Stripes led the round, joined by DTCP, Cisco Investments, Databricks and earlier backers YL Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, M12, USVP, Blumberg Capital and Snowflake Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

InstaDeep, an eight-year-old, Tunis- and London-based AI decision-making startup, has raised $100 million in funding from Google, BioNTech, Chimera Abu Dhabi, DB Digital Ventures, G42 and Synergie. TechCrunch has more here.

Jebbit, a ten-year-old, Boston-based marketing tech company, has raised $70 million from Vista Equity Partners. More here.

May Mobility, a 10-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based self-driving shuttle startup backed by the venture arms of Toyota Motor Corp. and BMW AG, raised $83 million in its largest funding round to date. Mirai Creation Fund II led the round, joined by Sparx Group, Tokio Marine Holdings, and Toyota Tsusho Corp., the trading arm of Toyota. The company has raised $166 million in total. Bloomberg has more here.

Qraft, a six-year-old, Seoul, South Korea-based startup that says the deep learning-based algorithms it has developed that provide portfolio weight signals that can be "alpha-generative," has raised $146 million from SoftBank Group Corp. which includes primary growth capital and secondary capital that will be used to fund share purchases from investors. More here.

SavvyMoney, a nearly 12-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based consumer credit score startup, has raised $45 million from the growth equity firm Spectrum Equity, with participation from earlier backer TransUnion. More here.

Sibros, a 3.5-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based connected vehicle platform that makes it possible for an automaker to provide over the air (OTA) software updates to all of vehicle’s systems, has raised $70 million in Series B funding. Energy Impact Partners led the round, joined by Fontinalis Partners, Google, Iron Pillar, Qualcomm Ventures and earlier backers Nexus Venture Partners and Moneta Ventures. Forbes has more here.

SparkCognition, an 8.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company whose machine-learning tech predicts when a customer's systems might fail or be hacked (the company says it works by modeling physical and virtual assets and continuously learning from the data), has raised $123 million in Series D funding. Investors in the round include March Capital, Doha VC, B. Riley VC, AEI Horizon X, Temasek, and individual investors. The Austin American-Statesman has more here.

Starship Technologies, an eight-year-old, L.A.-based maker of autonomous delivery robots that was founded by Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, has raised €50 million in equity and debt funding from the European Investment Bank. (The company is being vague about the equity-to-debt ratio involved, calling it a describing this as a “quasi-equity facility." TechCrunch has more here.

Bokksu, a nearly seven-year-old, New York- and Toyko-based Japanese snack subscription service and online grocery, has raised $22 million in Series A funding. Valor Siren Ventures led the round, joined by Company Ventures, St. Cousair, World Innovation Lab (WiL), Headline Asia and Gaingels. TechCrunch has more here.

Domain Money, a new New York-based stocks and crypto investment platform headed by Adam Dell, the former head of product at Marcus by Goldman Sachs Group, has raised $33 million from investors including Bessemer Ventures and Marc Benioff. A product for retail investors, it differentiates from similar products by offering actively managed investment strategies, curated by an investment team that counts former employees from Goldman and Bridgewater Associates among its members. Users pay 1% annual management fee for their active strategies. Bloomberg has more here.

Electric Sheep, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit that makes off-the-shelf lawnmowers run autonomously, has raises $21.5 million in Series A funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by earlier backer Foundation Capital. The company has now raised $25.7 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

GrowSari, a nearly six-year-old, Manila, Philippines-based startup that helps small shops grow and digitize their offerings, is raising $45 million in Series C funding led by the private equity giant KKR. TechCrunch has more here.

Infermedica, a 10-year-old, Poland-founded digital health company that aims to make it easier for doctors to diagnose and direct their patients to the appropriate medical service, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. The round was led by One Peak and included participation from previous investors Karma Ventures, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Heal Capital and Inovo Venture Partners. The company has now raised $45 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Klarity, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that's looking to replace humans for tasks that require large-scale document review, including accounting order forms and purchase orders and agreements, has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Tola Capital led the round, joined by Invus Opportunities, 8×8, Koupa, investor-entrepreneur Elad Gil and Picus Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Otta, a 2,5-year-old, London-based job search platform, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from earlier backers LocalGlobe, Founder Collective and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Scratchpad, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based company that has built a modern productivity workspace on top of Salesforce, just raised $33 million in Series B funding from earlier backers, including Craft Ventures and Accel. The outfit has now raised roughly $50 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.

Sylvera, a 1,5-year-old, London-based carbon offset ratings outfit that grades forestry projects by how effectively they keep carbon out of the atmosphere, has raised $32.6 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures. Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures and LocalGlobe also participated in the round. The WSJ has more here.

Tekever, a 21-year-old, Lisbon, Portugal-based maker of industrial drones for maritime surveillance, has raised €20 million in funding led by Ventura Capital, with participation from Iberis Capital and unnamed strategic investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Verusen, a nearly six-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based platform that helps manage supply chain risk and aiming to improve the economies of scale for its customers’ operations, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners. Other backers in the round, which brings the company's total funding to $40 million, include Glasswing Ventures, Flyover Capital, Zetta Venture Partners, Forte Ventures, BMW i Ventures, and Kubera VC. VentureBeat has more here.

ArmorCode, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup whose platform brings together different application security solutions and integrations into a unified offering, has raised $8 million in seed funding. Cervin Ventures led the round,  joined by Sierra Ventures and Tau Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Fathom, a 17-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that is building an AI notetaker for Zoom, has raised $4.7 million in seed funding from Zoom Apps Fund, Maven Ventures, Active Capital, GFC, Rackhouse.vc and Soma Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here. 

Kencko, a five-year-old, Lewes, Del.-based maker of plant-based organic food products like smoothies, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Previous investor Siddhi Capital led the round, joined by Next View Ventures, Riverside Ventures, Silas Capital, Cheyenne Ventures, Shilling Capital, Indico Capital, Mission Point, Gather Ventures and Nextblue Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Decasonic, led by Paul Hsu, has closed its debut fund with $48.8 million in capital commitments. Called the Disruptive Innovation Venture and Digital Assets Fund, the four-year-old, Chicago-based outfit will invest in blockchain, decentralized finance, gaming, metaverse, NFTs, DAOs and other web3 startups. Hsu was previously the COO of startups Homepolish and Fancy.com and previously spent six years in business operations at Zynga. Chicago Inno has more here.

Consulting firm Deloitte says it has launched a C$150-million ($118.64 million) venture capital fund to back early-stage Canadian companies, following numerous Canadian corporations that did the same last fall, including Thomson Reuters, Constellation Software, Spin Master and Quebecor. Talia Abramowitz, managing partner of Deloitte Ventures, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail that her group will invest two-thirds of the money, which comes from the partnership’s balance sheet, in sectors that Deloitte “is uniquely positioned to assess and also accelerate," including cybersecurity, financial services, health, consumer products and government risk compliance.

Eleven Ventures, an 11-year-old, Sofia, Bulgaria-based pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm that says it has made more than 150 investments over the years, just closed its newest fund with €70 million in capital commitments. The outfit plans to invest the money in Southeastern European startups. TechCrunch has more here.

Delivery startup Gopuff is working with banks including Goldman Sachs for an IPO that it’s planning for the second half of the year, according to Bloomberg. Founded in 2013 by college students in Philadelphia who wanted to make it easier to get convenience items delivered, Gopuff now delivers thousands of products, from ice cream to cleaning sprays, for a flat fee. It has raised several billion dollars over the years, including from Accel, Blackstone, Baillie Gifford, D1 Capital Partners and SoftBank’s Vision Fund.

Chinese fashion retailer SHEIN is reviving plans to list in New York this year and its founder is considering a citizenship change to bypass proposed tougher rules for offshore IPOs in China, two people familiar tell Reuters. The IPO, if completed, would be the first major equity deal by a Chinese company in the U.S. since Chinese regulators stepped in to tighten oversight of such listings in July. SHEIN, founded by Chinese entrepreneur Chris Xu in 2008, first started preparing for a U.S. IPO about two years ago, but shelved the plan amid rising U.S.-China tensions, says Reuters. A SHEIN spokesperson tells the outlet it has no plans to go public. More here.

Neil Young is threatening to pull his music from Spotify over concerns that the company’s exclusive deal with podcaster Joe Rogan is helping fuel the anti-vaccine movement. In an open letter that he has since deleted, Young writes: “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” 

The controversial cryptocurrency project that Mark Zuckerberg once defended in front of Congress is unraveling after regulatory pressure.

Maybe creator funds are bad.

Minting your first NFT; a beginner's guide.

Cats on road trips.

Why designers want you to bare it all.

The nine months of pregnancy, ranked.

Fifteen books you won't regret rereading.

Luxe hotel packages.

More than 1,000 books from late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal library are up for auction at Bonham's. (The auction ends midday Thursday.)