Amazon's stock split, a battle over bidets, and a look at Marc Lore's newest bet

Conditions continue to worsen in Ukraine, with Russian forces increasingly focused on civilian targets. A mother and her children died on a bridge, trying to flee Irpin, outside Kyiv; separately, a Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Ukrainian Tesla employees who are asked to return to defend their country will receive pay for at least three months, according to an email the company sent on Monday to employees in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. CNBC notes it wasn’t clear from the email whether the benefit would be extended to employees in North America and elsewhere, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called up reservists to fight last month, ahead of the anticipated invasion.

Federal regulators are considering a requirement that publicly traded companies disclose data breaches and other significant cybersecurity incidents within four days as they work to strengthen financial markets’ resilience to online attacks. “Cybersecurity incidents, unfortunately, happen a lot,” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in prepared remarks. The WSJ has more here.

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Mojo, a seven-month-old, New York-based company, says it's looking to build a new sports stock market that lets fans bet on athletes just like stocks. Though the plan is to launch this fall, the young outfit has already raised $75 million in Series A funding led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Tiger Global, renowned entrepreneur Marc Lore, and MLB great Alex Rodriguez.

The investors are betting on more than the idea. Mojo's cofounder and CEO is Vinit ("Vinny") Bharara, a childhood friend of Lore who previously cofounded a trading card company with Lore that sold to Topps, cofounded Diapers.com with Lore (which sold to Amazon), and more recently sold two more companies. One of these was a publisher that sold to Bustle Digital Group last year; the other was Cafe, a podcast company that Bharara founded with his brother Preet Bharara (the former United States attorney) and sold last year to Vox.

Even with that kind of track record, Mojo seems ambitious. Note that our understanding derives from conversations with gaming and financial industry veterans, a short Bloomberg story about Mojo, and a LinkedIn post published earlier today by Bharara, who writes that he and Lore have been dreaming of this company since knocking around elementary school together. (The company declined to answer our questions today, saying it's "too early" in its trajectory.)

Here's what we think is happening with this company, which already has 40 employees: Unlike other platforms that let you bet on a team or whether your favorite player will have an off day, Mojo will invite users to buy futures derivatives (contracts essentially) that assign each athlete the kind of stat you might see in Major League Baseball, one that measures a player's value in all areas of the game by trying to determine how many more wins he is worth than a replacement.

We have no idea exactly how Mojo will determine these values, but in his post, Bharara uses phrasing like "objective statistics" and "intrinsic value" and "price integrity," to suggest that Mojo won't just be pulling numbers out of its figurative behind.

More here.

Acorns, a 10-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based savings and investing app, raised $300 million in Series F funding at nearly a $1.9 billion valuation after earlier scrapping plans for a SPAC merger at an implied $2.2 billion valuation. TPG led the new round,  joined by BlackRock, Greycroft, and Owl Rock, among more than half a dozen other investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Ardoq, a nine-year-old, Oslo, Norway-based maker of enterprise architecture tools, just raised $125 million in Series D funding led by EQT Growth, with participation from One Peak. TechCrunch has more here.

Branch, a nearly seven-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based platform that aims to power faster payments to contract workers with its tech, just raised $75 million in Series C funding led by Addition (which, notably, also led the company's Series B round six months ago). Other backers in the round included General Atlantic and earlier backers Drive Capital and Crosscut Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Jiffy.ai, a 10-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.- and Mumbai, India-based low-code/no-code automation platform, says it has raised $53 million in Series B funding led by Eight Roads Ventures. Other backers in the round included Iron Pillar, R-Squared and earlier investors Nexus Venture Partners, Reaction Capital and Rebright Partners. The Economic Times has more here.

Menlo Micro, a six-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based electronic switch company -- its smart device components can divert an electrical circuit from one conductor to another and be used in everything from lights and computer keyboards to fans and thermostats -- has raised $150 million in Series C funding co-led by Vertical Venture Partners and Future Shape. Dot.LA has more here.

Mojo, a seven-month-old, New York-based company that's says it's looking to build a new sports stock market that lets fans bet on athletes just like stocks, has raised $75 million Series A led by Thrive Capital, with participation from entrepreneur Marc Lore, MLB great Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Global. Bloomberg has more here.

Sherlock Biosciences, a three-year-old, Boston-based CRISPR diagnostics startup, has raised $80 million in Series B funding led by Novalis LifeSciences. Other investors in the round include Illumina Ventures, Albany Capital, Catalio Capital Management and earlier backers Northpond Ventures and Good Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.

Alice&Bob, a two-year-old, Paris-based startup that's building what it says are fault-tolerant quantum processors — has raised €27 million in Series A funding to develop chips and computers and a business model based around quantum-computing-as-a-service. Elaia, Bpifrance and Supernova Invest co-led the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Apollo Neuro, a six-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based maker of a vibrating wearable wristband for stress reduction, has raised $15 milliona ina Series A funding led by Noetic Fund. More here.

Blink, a year-old, Israel-based, self-described no-code/low-code platform for cloud operations so  teams can (ostensibly) automate  cloud and security tasks with minimal effort, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round. Other backers in the financing, which brings the company's total funding to $26 million, include Entrée Capital, Hetz Ventures and individual tech industry investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Canal, a year-old, San Francisco-based connected commerce startup that invites brands to sell each other's products, just raised $22.5 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures. More here.

Forma, a five-year-old,Fremont, Ca.-based discretionary benefits management platform, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital. Earlier investors also participated in the round, including Emergence Capital, Stripe, Designer Fund, Upside Partnership and AngelPad. FierceHealthcare has more here.

Loco, an India-baed game streaming startup, has raised $42 million in Series A funding it looks to build the “Twitch for India" as it has told its investors. Backers in the round include Hashed, Makers Fund, Catamaran Ventures, Krafton, Lumikai, Korea Investment Partners and Hiro Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Lynx, a year-old, Boston-based e-commerce platform for health care payments, has raised $15 million in Series A funding co-led by Obvious Ventures and .406 Ventures, Other backers in the round included Frist Cressey Ventures, Winter Street Ventures, Shields Capital and Huntington Avenue Ventures. More here.

Upstream, a two-year-old, New York-based no-code DAO platform that says it enables anyone to start and run their own decentralized autonomous organization, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $15.75 million. The funding was led by Boldstart Ventures, with participation from Tiger Global, Ibex Partners, and Vayner Fund, among numerous other backers. Upstream's founders sold their last company, SocialRank, in early 2020.) Forbes has more here.

Vivante Health, a six-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based developer of virtual tools for digestive care, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by 7wireVentures. Axios has more here.

Atlantic Money, a year-old, London-based foreign exchange startup that's promising even cheaper international money transfers, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding co-led by Amplo and Ribbit Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

CoFi, a four-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based construction financing startup, just raised $7 million co-led by Blackhorn Ventures, Metaprop and Tenacity. FinLedger has more here.

Glean AI, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based accounts payable startup, just raised $10.8 million in seed funding from Contour Venture Partners, Infinity Ventures, B Capital Group, Portage Ventures and Amex Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Kolleno, a 20-month-old, London-based accounts receivable management startup for small and midsize businesses, just raised £4 million in seed funding co-led by Eurazeo and Stride.VC. More here.

Hopscotch, a 15-month-old, New York-based payments platform that says it helps businesses process their accounts payable and receivable without charging them fees, has raised $6.1 million in extended seed funding co-led by Shine Capital and Stellation Capital. More here.

Kicks Crew, a 14-year-old, L.A.-based sneaker and apparel e-commerce platform, has raised $6 million in Series A funding from Gobi Partners, Pacific Century Group and Complex China. TechCrunch has more here.

Mara, a six-month-old, São Paulo-based startup that aims to “reinvent” the grocery shopping experience for the underserved in Latin America, has raised $6 million in a funding round co-led by Canary and Caffeinated Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Proof Technology, a five-year-old, Denver, Co.-based legal document filing and processing startup, has raised $7 million in Series A funding. Blue Heron Capital led the round, joined by Clio Ventures and earlier investors Forward VC and Crossbeam Venture Partners. More here.

Workbounce, a 15-month-old, London-based maker of sales team enablement software, has raised $2.7 million led by Index Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Antler East Africa, the nearly three-year-old, Nairobi-based office of the venture firm Antler, has closed a $13.5 million fund to invest in early-stage tech startups in the region. Limited partners in the fund include Baillie Gifford, family offices such as Canica, and institutional investors like the IFC. TechCrunch has more here.

S3 Ventures, a 17-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based venture firm that’s backed by a single "philanthropic family with a multibillion-dollar foundation" that prefers not to be known (though we would like to know if you know!), has raised $250 million for a seventh fund. The capital, like that of its predecessor funds, will focus on funding Texas-based startups, says TechCrunch.

Tacora, a year-old, Austin, Tex.-based outfit that is providing asset-baed lending to venture-backed company, has held a first close of $250 million for a debut fund that's targeting $300 million. One of the firm's limited partners is investor Peter Thiel. More here.

Continuous integration and delivery platform CircleCI today announced that it has acquired Ponicode, a nearly three-year-old, Paris, France-based startup that helps developers automate their unit tests and track their overall test coverage. Ponicode had raised $4.6 million in funding and will continue to operate as a standalone business for now. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Elizabeth Holmes’s ex-boyfriend, Sunny Balwani, hopes to escape the verdict she didn't.

Warren Buffett is once again one of the five richest people in the world, bolstered by the losses of others in the club.

Bitcoin’s price rose today after President Biden announced an executive order to study digital currencies, a move the industry welcomed and skeptics decried as delaying needed regulation. Most of the proposed areas of study are straightforward enough; one -- to explore a U.S. central bank digital currency -- has crypto enthusiasts a little concerned, however.

Amazon announced its first stock split since the dot-com boom, telling investors today that they’ll receive 20 shares for each share they currently own. The stock soared 6% in extended trading. As CNBC notes, Amazon is the latest highly valued tech company to try making its shares more accessible by pulling down their price through a split. Alphabet announced a 20-for-one split last month. In mid-2020, Apple disclosed plans for a four-for-one split, and Tesla told investors it was instituting a five-for-one split.

Another European privacy watchdog has sanctioned the controversial facial recognition firm Clearview AI, which has scraped pictures of more than 10 billion faces off the internet to power an identity-matching service it sells to law enforcement. Italy’s data protection agency today announced a €20 million penalty for breaches of EU law, as well as ordered the controversial company to delete any data on Italians it holds and banned it from any further processing of citizens’ facial biometrics.

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