John Foley rides off, Apple unveils a 'Square killer,' and a possible upside for Facebook in its smaller market cap

Tuesday! Hello.:)

Peloton is replacing firm founder and CEO John Foley and cutting 2,800 jobs after a slowdown in demand for the outfit's once-hot bikes. Barry McCarthy, the former CFO of Spotify and Netflix, is taking over as CEO and president and joining Peloton’s board. These kinds of massive layoffs are never pleasant, and this was no exception, with many employees learning they'd been let go from the company by losing access to their corporate Slack channels. Foley, who led the company for 10 years, was also eviscerated by a 65-page presentation about his perceived failings published by activist investor Blackwells Capital, which has been calling for Peloton to fire Foley and explore a sale of the company.  (Page 25, below, is a real kick in the pants.) Of course, reports also noted that Foley recently purchased a $55 million estate in the Hamptons, which is a world apart from what his now-former employees will receive (severance, healthcare, and free Peloton classes one year, assuming they own a bike or treadmill and didn't throw it down a staircase earlier). If there is a silver lining at all to this one, it appears to be that none of Peloton's popular fitness instructors are part of the culling.

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Renowned Silicon Valley operator Adam Nash thinks you want to donate much more than you do, and he’s about to make it dead simple for you to give more.

Such is the message we received when talking late last week with Nash, whose most recent full-time roles include as a VP at Dropbox and president and CEO of the financial advisory firm Wealthfront, but who also serves on the boards of the auto e-commerce platform Shift and with Acorns.

In fact, it’s that last role with Acorns, a micro-investing app, that informed what Nash is building now, which is a new financial platform for giving called Daffy. Freshly backed by $17.1 million in Series A funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from XYZ Capital, Coinbase Ventures and more than 50 notable angel investors (Reid Hoffman, Aaron Levie, Amy Chang, the list goes on), the idea is to help people to be more generous, more often.

How, exactly? Daffy provides access to what it claims is the lowest-cost, and lowest-friction, way to set up and use a donor-advised fund (DAF), a kind of 401(k) for charitable giving. With DAFs, one donates some money (or stock, or even cryptocurrencies), receiving a tax break at the time of the contribution, and that donation moves into a managed investment account, where it hopefully grows over time. At some later date, the donor direct the funds to the charity or charities of his or her choice.

DAFs have become hugely popular as a means of avoiding taxes on unrealized capital gains by both the extremely wealthy and those who perhaps aren’t billionaires but aren’t struggling to pay their bills, either. According to the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT), the average donor-advised fund account had $163,000 as of last year, and there is now enough sitting in DAFs (more than $140 billion) that grants from DAFs to qualified charities reached an estimated $34.67 billion in 2021, a 27% increase compared to 2019. The NPT called this a “high-water mark.”

Nash said Daffy intends to open up DAFs so that many more people across the economic spectrum can participate. The first step toward that end is making access to them more affordable.

More here.

Alchemy, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company that describes itself as the backend technology behind the blockchain industry (like Bison Trails, acquired last year Coinbase, it aims to be the "AWS for blockchain,"), has raised $200 million in Series C1 funding at a $10.2 billion valuation. Silver Lake and earlier backer Lightspeed Venture Partners co-led the round, joined by previous backers Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, DFJ Growth, Pantera Capital and Addition. The company has now raised $54 million from investors altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Census, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps businesses sync their customer data from their data warehouses to various business tools like Salesforce and Marketo, has raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global. Other investors in the round include Insight Partners and earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Axios has more here.

Clikalia, a nearly five-year-old, Madrid, Spain-based Opendoor-like property service that's focused primarily on Spain and Mexico, has raised €75 million in funding co-led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Fifth Wall. TechCrunch has more here.

GoCardless, an 11-year-old, London-based fintech that's focused on recurring payments and says it processes more than $25 billion in transactions per year for the likes of Klarna and DocuSign, just raised $312 million in Series G funding. Permira led the round, joined by BlackRock. Bloomberg has more here.

Happy Money, a 12-year-old, Tustin, Ca.-based unsecured lending fintech that partners with credit unions, just raised $50 million in Series D funding from Anthemis Group and CMFG Ventures. Coverager has more here.

Protix, a 12-year-old, Dongen, Netherlands-based manufacturer and supplier of insect ingredients for animal feed and for (derp) human consumption, has raised €50 million in funding. Backers in the round include the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, BNP Paribas, and the Prince Albert II Foundation, among others. Silicon Canals has more here.

Qredo, a nearly four-year-old, U.K.-based outfit that builds decentralized tools to help DeFi operators move assets between blockchains (as well as with settlement and custody), has raised $80 million in Series A funding. 10T Holdings led the round, joined by Coinbase Ventures, Avalanche, Terra, Kingsway Capital, HOF Capital, Raptor Group and GoldenTree Asset Management. The Block has more here.

Radar, a nearly six-year-old, New York-based geofencing platform, has raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from earlier investors Accel, Two Sigma Ventures, and Heavybit. The company has now raised $85.5 million altogether. More here.

Shift5, a three-year-old, Rosslyn, Va.-based cybersecurity company for military platforms and transportation systems, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Watershed, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based carbon emissions tracking company, has raised $70 million in Series B funding co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital. More here.

Airmeet, a three-year-old, Lewes, Del.-based platform for virtual events, summits, meet-ups and workshops, raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Prosus Ventures and Sistema Asia Fund. The Economic Times has more here.

Endgame, a year-old, L.A.-based startup that's developing software to automate product-led marketing, just raised $30 million in Series B funding. EQT Ventures led the round,  joined by investor Lachy Groom, Menlo Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Unusual Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

FOS, a three-year-old, New York-bsaed sports business news publisher formerly known as Front Office Sports, has received a new growth equity funding round from Crain Communications that values the company at around $25 million dollars, the company tells Axios. More here.

HealthCare.com, a nearly eight-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based  comparison and recommendation tool for healthcare consumers looking to buy or switch healthcare insurance, has raised $31.5 million in Series C funding from Hildred Capital Management. More here.

LoanStreet, a nearly nine-year-old, New York-based platform for sharing, managing, and analyzing loans, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Portage Ventures. BetaKit has more here.

Modumetal, a 15-year-old, Snohomish, Wa.-based industrial startup that makes coating technologies, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Atlas Innovate and Rotor Capital. Built in Seattle has more here.

Oloid, a four-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based maker of physical access software, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. Dell Technologies Capital led the round, joined by Honeywell Ventures and Okta Ventures. The Economic Times has more here.

Rewire, a nearly seven-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based banking app designed to enable migrants to conduct basic banking activities like transfer money to their families in foreign countries and deposit checks in their working countries, has raised $25 million in funding from investors including Migdal, Standard Bank of South Africa, BNP Paribas, and Opera Tech Ventures. The company has now raised $62 million altogether. Calcalist has more here.

Rift Finance, a year-old, San Francisco-based decentralized protocol that aims to help DAOs achieve sustainable token liquidity, has raised $18 million in funding led by Pantera Capital. Other backers in the round include Two Sigma Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Group, Defiance Capital, Hashed, Jump Capital, Vessel Capital, and Morningstar Ventures. Blockworks has more here.

Rondo Energy, a two-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based industrial decarbonization technology developer, has raised $22 million in Series A funding co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners. More here.

Taxfyle, a seven-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based online accounting services platform, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Fuel Venture Capital and IDC Ventures. More here.

Azarus, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that's developing a platform to gamify livestreams of titles such as "League of Legends" (it can overlay a trivia game to engage fans, for example), has raised $4 million in extended seed funding. The backing came from earlier investors Galaxy Digital, Animoca Brands, and Kleiner Perkins. VentureBeat has more here.

Empowerly, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup focused on personalized college and career guidance, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Goodwater Capital. Other investors in the round include FJ Labs, Scrum Ventures, Translink Capital, Azure Capital Partners, Spero Ventures, Thinkplus Ventures, and Mentors Fund. Business Insider has more here.

Infina, a three-year-old, Singapore-based retail investing app that calls itself the "Robinhood of Vietnam," has raised $6 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, Saison Capital, Starling Ventures, Alpha JWC, and AppWorks. TechCrunch has more here.

IndyKite, a year-old, San Francisco-based maker of decentralized identity software, has raised $8 million in funding led by Molten Ventures, with participation from Alliance Ventures and SpeedInvest. More here.

Leverage, an 18-month-old, New York-based AI-driven supply chain visibility platform, has raised $5 million in funding led by Las Olas Venture Capital, Mark Cuban, Gaingels, and Great Oaks. More here.

Linguix, a four-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based AI-based online writing assistant company for preliminary English-speaking and non-native professionals, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding co-led by Grishin Robotics and Antler New York. More here.

Revere, an eight-month-old, New York-based online marketplace for capital markets professionals looking to buy or sell a building, finance a project, or expand their network-based capital markets network and deal marketplace, has raised $5 million in funding led by RET Ventures. Commercial Observer has more here.

Sportening, a 2.5-year-old, Amsterdam-based social app for sports fans, has raised £5.3 million in seed funding from Croatian soccer star Luka Modric, Superbet Group founder Sacha Dragic, and former Sequoia Capital Global Equities COO Ralph Ho. Croatia Week has more here.

Wavely Diagnostics, a 3.5-year-old, Seattle-based startup developing a smartphone app to detect ear infections, has raised $2.2 million led by Ambit Health Ventures. The app is tied to virtual care options. GeekWire has more here.

Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, has launched a report analyzing investment trends that point toward future unicorn status. Affinity used its proprietary data to analyze more than 925 unicorns from the last five years. Learn how top venture capital firms use relationship intelligence to spot more unicorns. Read the report.

Envisioning Partners, a year-old, Seoul, South Korea-based venture firm, has closed its newest impact fund with $64 million (76.8 billion KRW) in capital commitments, money it will use to back startups that are combatting climate change. The outfit now has $140 million in assets under management. TechCrunch has more here.

Omega Venture Partners, a two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm that says it's focused on startups that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, data, and automation, has reportedly closed a new fund with $115 million in capital commitments. More here.

Microsoft is in talks to acquire cybersecurity research and incident response company Mandiant, according to Bloomberg, a deal that would bolster efforts to protect customers from hacks and breaches, says the outlet. Mandiant shares surged 18% in New York following the report, bringing its market value to almost $4.3 billion. Microsoft stock gained 1.2%.

The robo-advisory firm Betterment says it's acquiring Makara, a cryptocurrency robo advisor, as it jumps into digital assets. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed; Makara had raised about $6.6 million from investors, according to GeekWire. The 20-person outfit will reportedly continue operating as an independent brand. More here.

Autodesk says it has completed its acquisition of Prodsmart, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based outfit whose software provides a real-time system of record for data collection, management, and analysis and gives production managers insights from order all the way through to shipping. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed. More here.

Two blank-check vehicles backed by venture capital firm Foundry Group have withdrawn plans for a U.S. IPO, according to regulatory filings today and flagged by Reuters. The withdrawal by Crucible Acquisition Corp II and Crucible Acquisition Corp III "comes at a time when volatility in the U.S. markets triggered by rate hike concerns, geopolitical tensions and a selloff in technology stocks dampen investor appetite," notes the outlet.

Kurly, the maker of a Korean mobile app for delivering fresh groceries created by former Goldman Sachs Group banker Sophie Kim, is seeking to raise about $1 billion in its IPO, reports Bloomberg.  The seven-year-old, Seoul-based company could be valued at about $4 billion to $6 billion in a listing, according to the outlet's sources. More here.

Protocol profiles Roelof Botha.

Emails between Elon Musk and the father of a teen who died in a fiery Tesla crash spanned nearly seven weeks four years ago and offer a rare glimpse into Musk’s personal involvement in customer relations around a horrific accident. Bloomberg has more here.

Sam Rosenblum has joined Katie Haun's new crypto-focused firm as its first deal hire. Rosenblum was formerly a general partner at crypto- and blockchain-focused investment firm Polychain Capital and an executive at Coinbase. The Block has more here.

The road to instant groceries is paved with broken bones.

Apple today unveiled its "Square killer," a tap-to-pay feature that will allow businesses and retailers to use an iPhone to accept Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, as well as other digital wallets without any other hardware necessary.

Facebook’s shrinking market cap could, funny enough, help the tech giant skirt new antitrust liability, notes CNBC. The company, recently renamed Meta, closed with a market cap below $600 billion today for the first time since May 2020. The $600 billion market cap figure also happens to be the number House legislators picked as the threshold for a “covered platform” under a package of competition bills designed specifically to target Big Tech.

After a deal that could have been worth $80 billion to his company fell apart, SoftBank Group CEO  Masayoshi Son is playing salesman for Plan B—an IPO of chip designer Arm. The WSJ has more here.

How to spend Sunday if you don't care about the Super Bowl.

This year's Oscar nominees.

The rules of commas.

The best sleep headphones.

A Woodside, Ca. compound across the street from Larry Ellison hits the market for $110 million.

Want to know about using DAOs to develop therapeutic drugs? Drug discovery and development is a very slow and unpredictable process. Sign up to Linqto Learn next week, Feb 15th, to hear from founder and CEO Dr. Gennaro D'Urso and co-founder and Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Leland Hartwell of Genetic Networks about how blockchain can reduce time to market in the pharmaceutical industry. Register now. Learn more about Linqto here.