A haggard president, oligarchs on the run, and a crypto-crowdfunding effort that's starting to add up

So much for that visit out West. (Thanks a lot, USA Today.)

Behind sandbags, at his office building, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine today hosted his first news conference since the war began, where he said he was particularly proud of ordinary Ukrainians’ resistance to the attack, even as Russian tanks bore down on major cities and the capital. “We have a special people, an extraordinary people.”

Russia’s richest men are on the run amid a global dragnet Western governments have cast to ensnare their pricey toys, though the only confirmed "get" currently is a 280-foot yacht was detained in recent days by French authorities, who say it is owned by a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Another superyacht being restricted from leaving its anchorage by German authorities.) Other oligarch-owned ships have been moving toward the Maldives and Montenegro in recent days. “It is very effective," Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Stockholm Free World Forum and an economist who has advised the governments of Russia and Ukraine, tells the WSJ, of the pressure that world leaders are applying on those close to the Kremlin. "They get very annoyed by these things."

Home rental company Airbnb is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus, CEO Brian Chesky said in a tweet today. Earlier this week, the company said it's offering free, short-term housing for up to 100,000 Ukranian refugees fleeing the attack on their country. 

The list of foreign companies pulling out of Russia keeps growing, too.

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Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that the former head of payments at Instacart recently left the grocery delivery outfit for a new adventure. As it happens, Matthew Birnbaum, Instacart’s head of talent acquisition for the past four years, is also out the door, having quietly joined the venture firm Pear VC last month.

What do the moves suggest of Instacart? Birnbaum, who launched his recruiting career in 2010, insists the moves say less about Instacart and much more about the red-hot job market right now, where employees with options that may be “underwater” are particularly susceptible to being poached.

We had a wide-ranging chat with Birnbaum yesterday morning about why he was himself recruitable, and what other outfits should know about what’s happening in the market. Our conversation has been edited for length.

You just made the leap from a growth-stage company to a venture firm. Why?

I’d met with some top venture firms earlier [before joining Instacart], but some of the interviews were a little discouraging in the sense that some of the partners I was speaking with were really just looking to offload the kind of network conversations they get dragged into, like, ‘My son is a new graduate’ or, ‘My daughter is graduating from XYZ school; can you help her find her first job?’

Yikes.

A lot of the thinking was just how to separate what the partners are being asked to do from a talent perspective so they could focus on more of the partner work. Candidly, too, while if you look around today, almost every venture firm has at least one talent person, their relevance within the firm is something these individuals question a lot. In many cases, [my acquaintances] feel like they were brought in to help the firm stay relevant. If a firm is competing with other venture firms that can roll out a talent function, it becomes harder for the firm that doesn't have that to compete.

More here.

Apollo.io, a 7.5-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of B2B sales intelligence and engagement software, just raised $110 million in Series C funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by earlier investors Tribe Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and NewView Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Fanatics, the 20-year-old, Jacksonville, Fla.-based sports merchandising giant, just raised $1.5 billion in funding from investors including Fidelity, BlackRock, and Michael Dell's family office, MSD Capital. The company says it is now valued by investors at a whopping $27 billion, up from $18 billion in August. The WSJ has more here.

Insider, a 10-year-old, Istanbul, Turkey-based company that connects data across different marketing channels to help predict customers’ behavior, has raised $121 million in Series D funding led by Qatari Investment Authority. Other backers in the round include Sequoia Capital, Riverwood Capital, 212, Wamda Capital, Esas Private Equity, and Endeavor Catalyst. VentureBeat has more here.

Lido, startup that makes money "staking" for blockchain protocols, has raised $70 million in funding entirely from Andreessen Horowitz. More here and here and also here.

Luminous Computing, a four-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based photonic chip developer, has raised $105 million in Series A funding from investors including Gigafund, Bill Gates, 8090 Partners, and Neo, among others. VentureBeat has more here.

NCX, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based carbon marketplace (it connects buyers of carbon offsets with landowners who grow trees on their property), has raised $50 million in Series B led by Energize Ventures, with participation from Scribble Ventures and TIME Ventures. Axios has more here.

OpenSpace, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based construction-tech startup that supplies digital mapping technology to developers and contractors, has raised $102 million in Series D funding led by Penny Pritzker's PSP Growth. Other backers in the round include funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Alpaca VC, Fischer Homes, Harmonic Growth Partners, Mirae Asset, Sino Group, and earlier backers, including Alkeon Capital Management and Lux Capital. (Cofounder and CEO Jeevan Kalanithi logged time as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Lux before OpenSpace got rolling.) Bloomberg has more here.

Reforge, a six-year-old, Bay Area-based career development platform, just raised $60 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by Andreessen Horowitz, True Ventures, NextView Ventures, TCV and Long Journey Ventures. More here.

Sanctuary, a four-year-old, Vancouver-based developer of human-like general-purpose robots, has raised $58.5 million in Series A funding from Bell, Evok Innovations, Export Development Canada, Magna, SE Health, Verizon Ventures and Workday Ventures. SiliconAngle has more here.

Thatgamecompany, a 16-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca-based game publisher whose titles include "Sky: Children of the Light," has raised $160 million in funding from TPG and Sequoia Capital. Dot.LA has more here.

Visby Medical, a 10-year-old, San Jose, Ca-based maker of handheld PCR diagnostic tests, has raised more than $100 million in Series E funding. Ping An Voyager Partners led the round, joined by HOOPP and earlier investors John Doerr, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and Artiman Ventures, among others. FierceBiotech has more here.

Atomic, a three-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based payroll connectivity platform, just raised $40 million in Series B funding five months after announcing its Series A financing. Mercato Partners and Greylock co-led the latest round, which brings the company's total funding to $80 million. TechCrunch has more here.

CardinalOps, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based threat coverage optimization company, has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding led by Viola Ventures, with participation from Battery Ventures, Glilot Capital, and Symbol. The company has now raised $24 million altogether. SiliconAngle has more here.

Faros AI, a three-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based engineering operations platform that says it give engineers a single-pane view of their entire software development lifecycle, has raised $16 million in seed funding co-led by SignalFire, Salesforce Ventures, and Global Founders Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Owner.com, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based restaurant management and ordering platform, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Altman Capital, with participation from Redpoint Ventures, Day One Ventures, SaaStr Fund and Browder Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

ParkourSC, an eight-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based supply chain operations platform, just raised $26 million in funding led by Cota Capital, renowned former operating exec John Chambers, and others. Bloomberg has more here.

RioGrande, a year-old, Mexico City-based platform to build and scale Latin America's next online brands (is the idea), has raised $12 million in seed funding led by Y Combinator and Jaguar Ventures, with additional backing from individual investors Arielle Zuckerberg and Justin Mateen, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Round, a year-old, Seattle-based startup that aims to help senior leaders working at tech companies connect with one another (it was founded by longtime tech execs), has raised $12 million in seed funding led by FUSE, with participation from Primary Ventures and individual investors. GeekWire has more here.

Shares, a year-old, Paris-based social investing app, has raised $40 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Archive, a months-old, Miami-based startup whose tech aims to connect databases and distribution channels so they talk to each other, just raised $8 million in Seed-2 funding co-led by Tiger Global and Human Capital. Other backers in the round include Battery Ventures, Anti Fund (where Archive cofounder Geoffrey Woo was a partner last time we checked), Red Antler, 305 Ventures, and others. TechCrunch has more here.

BastionZero, a nearly two-year-old, Boston-based cybersecurity company focused on building infrastructure remote access, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Dell Technologies Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

Daybase, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based startup that was founded by former WeWork staffers and is building out a hybrid workspace model that will target the suburbs, has raised $9.6 million in seed funding led by True Ventures, with participation from Company Ventures, Good Friends, and Rudin Ventures. Fortune has more here.

Filtered, a four-year-old, Boston-based automated technical interview platform, has raised $10 million in funding led by AI Fund, Silicon Valley Data Capital, and TDF Ventures. More here.

Nifty League, a five-year-old, Mill Valley, Ca.-based NFT gaming platform, raised $5 million in seed funding led by RSE Ventures. More here.

MyPlace, a three-year-old, New York-based house-sharing platform and social network, just raised $5.8 million in seed funding led by Freestyle, with additional participation from Haystack, Oceans, and OnDeck. TechCrunch has more here.

PTO Exchange, an eight-year-old, Woodinville, Wa.-based benefits platform focused on unused paid time off, has raised $5.4 million in seed funding led by TTV Capital. Other backers in the round include Fin Capital, Manifold Ventures, and CFV Ventures, among others. GeekWire has more here.

Quiver Quantitative, a two-year-old, Spring Green, Wi.-based "alternative" investment research platform targeting retail investors, just raised $2 million in funding led by Allos Ventures. More here.

Source.ag, a nearly two-year-old, Amsterdam-based startup that's building AI-powered greenhouses, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Acre Ventures, with participation from E14 Fund and Astanor Ventures. More here.

Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, recently launched a report analyzing 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. Check out the report here.

Founders Fund, the 17-year-old, San Francisco-based firm cofounded by Peter Thiel, tells us the firm has just closed on $5 billion across two funds: its eighth flagship fund and a second growth fund. (It isn't breaking out amounts; the capital brings the firm's assets under management to $11 billion.) A spokesperson notes that some of its top-performing portfolio companies include SpaceX, Palantir, Affirm, Airbnb, Stripe and Anduril. The firm has also promoted two members of its senior team with these new funds: Napoleon Ta is now a general partner (he was previously a partner) and Matias Van Thienen, formerly a principal, is now a partner. One of the newest notable investments by the outfit, which also has an office in Miami, is Ramp, Last month, it reportedly led an investment in the corporate credit card and spend management company at an $8 billion valuation. More here.

NZVC, a year-old fund that's based in New Zealand and intends to fund nascent, regional startups, tells TechCrunch it has held a first close of $10 million on a debut vehicle that it expects will have $15 million to invest when all is said and done. More here.

Peloton co-founder John Foley, who resigned as CEO of the company last month, appears to be seeking liquidity after selling off $50 million in stock and quietly seeking buyers for the $55 million Hamptons compound he purchased just months ago (according to the New York Post). Foley, who remains executive chairman at Peloton, sold the shares in a privately negotiated transaction to an investment firm backed by tech billionaire Michael Dell, per a regulatory filing. The Daily Mail has more here.

In that televised sit-down with CBS today, Melinda French Gates said she was upset with Bill Gates’s past meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and said the two now have a working relationship focused on philanthropy. As for whether there was one or multiple affairs that ultimately doomed their marriage, French Gates told interviewer Gayle King: "I think those are questions Bill needs to answer." As for her own dealing with Epstein, French Gates also said she met Epstein just once and "immediately regretted" it, saying that he was "abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterward."

A Ukrainian crypto crowdfunding effort has now reached $50.9 million, per figures published by blockchain analytics platform Elliptic. The crowdfunding push began last week, when the Ukrainian government’s official Twitter account announced it was “now accepting cryptocurrency donations.” Decrypt has more here.

A group of former employees of the ConsenSys AG is alleging “serious irregularities” at the startup incubator that owns a minority interest in the namesake crypto-related software company.

A coalition of state attorneys general is launching an investigation into TikTok, seeking information about whether and how the video-sharing platform contributes to online harms to children. The move is an extension of an investigation unveiled by the same group of eight state attorneys general into Meta Platforms's Instagram that focuses on similar concerns. The WSJ has more here.

Good variant.

The elephant in the courtroom.

"The dumbest two minutes in Wheel of Fortune history." 

The GOLF le FLEUR* collection for globe-trotters.

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