Bitcoin rappers, unicorn fatigue, and a powerful network of Black execs is forming inside Alphabet

There are now 1,000 so-called unicorn startups valued at more than $1 billion, and roughly two more join the herd daily, notes Bloomberg. (“The goal posts got pushed; you’re playing this constant catch-up.")

Peloton held a virtual all-hands meeting to introduce its new CEO, Barry McCarthy, and both current -- and newly former -- employees weighed in on the conversation, reports CNBC. “I’m selling all my Peloton apparel to pay my bills!!!,” wrote one person who was part of a massive, 2,800-person layoff conducted yesterday. “The company messed up by allowing people who were fired into this chat,” another user wrote. “Too late to mod this.”

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A year ago, inside of the corporate leviathan Alphabet, Black Googlers and other Black Alphabet employees were invited to some informal programming around angel investing during Black History Month. It was organized by employees so that anyone interested could learn a bit more about how startup deals are structured, the typical timeline for a possible exit, and much more.

The idea wasn’t to create a lot of structure around this ad-hoc angel-investing school. It was merely an opportunity for staffers curious to learn more to hear from some of their knowledgable colleagues, including Jessica Verrilli, a general partner with GV who was part of the speaker line-up.

“It was more like, ‘Hey, here are some ideas; you might even want to invest together,'” says Candice Morgan, herself a GV partner who is focused on equity, diversity and inclusion.

Within two weeks, five attendees came together to turn that idea into reality. Then more raised their hands, asking how to participate. Fast forward, and the organization, Black Angel Group, now features 35 Black leaders and operators inside of Alphabet, including from Google, GV, CapitalG, YouTube, and Gradient Ventures.

Alums of the company like Malik Ducard, a former VP at YouTube who recently joined Pinterest as its chief content officer, are also part of the collective.

These are powerful individuals and an even more powerful group, and its members are just beginning to use their collective expertise — from product management to software management to user experience to people operations — to wedge their way into interesting deals.

More here.

Compute North, a five-year-old, Eden Prairie, Mn.-based bitcoin mining infrastructure firm that provides hosting services, has raised $85 million in Series C funding co-led by Mercuria, which is an energy and commodities trading company, and Generate Capital, an infrastructure investment firm, with participation from National Grid Partners. The company separately secured $300 million in debt from Generate Capital. The Block has more here.

EasyKnock, a nearly six-year-old, New York-based residential sale-leaseback platform (i.e, you sell the company your home and remain as a renter), has raised $57.2 million from Blumberg Capital, Gaingels, Moderne Ventures, QED Investors and Viola FinTech. More here.

Scandit, a 12-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based computer vision scanning company whose tech enables users to interact with items by capturing data from barcodes, text, IDs and objects, just raised $150 million in Series D funding led by Warburg Pincus. Earlier backers joined the round, including Atomico, Forestay Capital, G2VP, GV, Kreos, NGP Capital, Schneider Electric, Sony Innovation Fund and Swisscom Ventures. Reuters has more here.

Scopio, a seven-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based imaging company looking to re-imagine a common blood test called a peripheral blood smear, has raised $50 million in Series C funding co-led by OurCrowd and an unnamed strategic investor. The round also included participation from earlier backers Olive Tree Ventures and Aurum Ventures, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Seismic Therapeutic, a new, Watertown, Ma.-based autoimmune biotech led by the founders of Pandion Therapeutics (which sold to Merck for $1.9 billion a year ago), just raised $101 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, joined by Polaris Partners, GV, Boxer Capital, Harvard immunologist Timothy Springer and Samsara BioCapital. FierceBiotech has more here.

Starburst, the 10-year-old, Boston-based company behind the open source Presto-based SQL query engine Trino, has raised $250 million in Series D funding led by Alkeon Capital. Other participants in the round include Altimeter, B Capital Group and earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Index Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Ventus Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based biotech company focused on discovering small-molecule medicines for high value and elusive targets, has raised $140 million in Series C funding. SoftBank and earlier investor RA Capital Management co-led the round, joined by a mix of new and earlier backers, including Qatar Investment Authority, Andreessen Horowitz, BVF Partners, Casdin Capital, Cormorant, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Alexandria Venture Investments, GV and Versant Ventures. More here.

Xpressbees, a nearly seven-year-old, Pune, India-based e-commerce logistics startup, has raised $100 million -- and overseen the sale of $200 million in secondary shares -- at a $1.2 billion valuation. A Series F found, participants in the new funding included Blackstone, TPG and ChrysCapital. Alibaba and an unnamed Chinese investor were among the share sellers. TechCrunch has more here.

BTR, a nearly three-year-old, Boston-based regulatory tech startup serving healthcare, life sciences and software-as-a-medical-device companies, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by LRV Health and NewStack Ventures. More here.

Calamu, a three-year-old, Clinton, N.J.-based developer of virtual data harbors, has raised $16.5 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from earlier backer Dell Technologies Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

Cerebra, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based marketing data analytics startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Notion Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

Cosuno, a 2.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based maker of construction management software, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Avenir Growth, with participation from Spark Capital and Cherry Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Destinus, a months-old, Vaud, Switzerland-based company that's developing liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft, has raised $29 million from Conny & Co, Quiet Capital, One Way Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Cathexis Ventures, and ACE & Co. The company's founder and CEO, Mikhail Kokorich, previously founded the space infrastructure company Momentus (which went public last August by merging into a blank-check company). TechCrunch has more here.

OpenNode, a four-year-old, L.A.-based Bitcoin payment processor and cryptocurrency infrastructure company, has raised $20 million in Series A financing funding led by Kingsway Capital, with participation from Twitter, longtime VC Tim Draper, and the Fidelity Investments venture capital unit Avon Ventures. ZDNet has more here.

Parade, a nearly seven-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of software that enables freight brokerages to find and book trucks online from most trucking companies in North America, has raised $12.7 million in Series A funding. Menlo Ventures led the round, joined by Greenhawk Capital and Jones Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

PopSQL, a nearly five-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of SQL query editing software, just raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from Gradient Ventures, FundersClub and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.

Seyna, a 2.5-year-old, Paris-based insurance platform, has raised €33 million (roughly $38 million) in Series A funding. White Star Capital and Elaia Partners led the round, joined by Global Founders Capital, Allianz and la Financière St James. The outfit has now raised  €47 million altogether. Tech.eu has more here.

Swoogo, a nearly seven-year-old, L.A.-based maker of event management software "for regular humans," has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital. Dot.LA has more here.

Thndr, a two-year-old, Cairo, Egypt-based retail investing app, has raised $20 million in Series A funding from Tiger Global, BECO Capital and Prosus Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Trialjectory, a Stamford, Conn.-based startup that says its AI technology quickly matches patients with personalized advanced treatment options, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. Other investors in the round include JAL Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, Rho Capital and TIA Ventures. MobiHealth News has more here.

Vicarius, a six-year-old, New York-based autonomous vulnerability remediation platform, has raised $24 million in Series A funding co-led by AllegisCyber Capital, JVP and AlleyCorp. TechCrunch has more here.

BasiGo, a year-old, Nairobi, Kenyan-based company working to make and launch a fleet of electric buses, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Novastar Ventures led, and was joined by Moxxie Ventures, Nimble Partners, Spring Ventures, Climate Capital and Third Derivative. TechCrunch has more here.

Canonic Security, a two-year-old, Israel-based cybersecurity startup focused on SaaS, has raised $6 million in seed funding from First Round Capital, Elron Ventures, SV Angel and Operator Partners. SecurityWeek has more here.

ComplYant, a 2.5-year-old, L.A.-based digital tax assistant for small businesses, just raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Craft Ventures led the round, joined by Mucker Capital, Slauson & Co. and Techstars. Dot.LA has more here.

eAgronom, a six-year-old, Tartu, Estonia-based farm management software startup focused on carbon credits, raised $7.4 million in Series A funding. Yolo Investments and ZGI Capital co-led the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Highline, an 18-month-old, Dallas-based payroll-linked bill payment method that enables customers to pay bills directly from ADP, Paychex, Gusto and more, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Foundation Capital and Costanoa Ventures. More here.

Reveri Health, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based self-hypnosis startup ("I am getting sleepy"), has raised $1.8 million in seed funding led by InReach Ventures. More here.

Streetbeat, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based investing app for stocks and cryptocurrencies (it says it offers a "hedge-fund trading experience for the retail trader,") has raised $10 million in seed funding. TTV Capital led the round, joined by Seraph Group and AAF Management. More here.

Table22, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based startup that helps restaurant build subscription membership businesses for their most avid customers, has raised $7 million in seed funding. Footwork led the round, joined by Forerunner Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures, and numerous angel investors, including Li Jin and Jack Altman. More here.

Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform that helps teams manage and grow their networks by unlocking introductions to decision makers, has a new report that's rife with investment trends that point toward future unicorn status. Affinity used its proprietary data to analyze over 925 unicorns from the last five years. Learn how top venture capital firms use relationship intelligence to spot more unicorns. Read the report.

James Murdoch and Uday Shankar have launched a new venture called Bodhi Tree with a $1.5 billion backing from Qatar Investment Authority as the duo looks to double down on their investment in Southeast Asia and India. The two most recently worked at investment firm Lupa Systems after Murdoch’s departure as chief executive of 21st Century Fox. Shankar previously served as the chair and chief executive of Star India, which was owned by Fox prior to the giant’s acquisition by Disney for $71.3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

D-Wave Systems, the Burnaby, British Columbia-based quantum computing company that counts Jeff Bezos among its investors and NASA among its customers, has struck a deal to go public with a $1.2 billion valuation. The deal involves a combination with DPMC Capital, a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company. It’s expected to bring in $300 million in gross proceeds from DPMC’s trust account, plus $40 million in gross proceeds from investors participating in a PIPE arrangement. GeekWire has more here.

SoftBank-backed Oyo Hotels & Homes is planning to substantially reduce the size of its IPO, blaming adverse secondary market conditions and a crash in tech stock prices, according to the Economic Times. The IPO issue size is now expected to be much lower than $1 billion, say its sources. More here.

Initialized Capital is hiring an associate to prepare financial analysis and modeling, to research industries and markets, and to prepare comprehensive investment materials. The job is remote (for now).

Jeremy Kaufmann has been promoted to partner at Scale Venture Partners (which notes to us that, at 31, he's the youngest person to make partner in the outfit's 22-year history). Before joining Scale in 2015, Kaufmann worked at Salesforce; he began his career as a policy researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. More here.

Cameron Peake has joined Financial Venture Studio, a San Francisco-based venture accelerator and firm, as a partner. Peake previously cofounded a free online banking service called Azlo. TechCrunch has more here.

Bloomberg's Matt Levine wins for the best take on the Forbes contributor and rapper and also Bitcoin thief and (mostly) failed money launderer, along with her Bitcoin-stealing, angel investing and also not-very-good-at-money-laundering husband. Writes Levine: "In a sense, turning stolen Bitcoins into physical gold is a money-laundering success. In another sense, giving your driver’s license to a regulated financial institution so that it can ship the gold to your home address is, in hindsight, not."

In fairness, notes Wired, it's really hard to launder crypto, even using technical measures to cover one's tracks.

Luxury larceny is on the rise globally, tied partly to the boom in luxury aftermarket platforms like The RealReal.

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It's your friends who break your heart. 

For this math professor, bias is a "straightforward, discrete math problem."

The Cybercat and Cybercat Foiler, designed to "quickly transform your Cybertruck into an all-electric high performance amphibious catamaran. (Note: in case you were getting excited, this is purely aspirational for now. Under FAQs, the first question is: "What is this? Are you serious?")

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 on 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.