Discord explores a direct listing, Paradigm hedges its bets, and Pete Davidson heads to space next week 🌙

The Russia-Ukraine war: What happened today (March 14)

Come. On. A wastewater network that monitors for Covid-19 trends is warning that cases are once again rising in many parts of the U.S., according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by Bloomberg. Meanwhile, a surge of largely Omicron infections is prompting lockdowns anew in China. 😭

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When Forerunner Ventures was founded in 2012, traditional brands still reigned supreme, and most of us shopped in physical spaces. Firm founder Kirsten Green, who was earlier an equity research analyst at Banc of America Securities, was maybe more aware than most that this picture was about to dramatically change; over the years, Forerunner invested in a company that delivered cheap razors to people’s doorsteps, a beauty company built atop a devoted community, and a marketplace that matches bewildered shoppers with people who are “expert” in their fields.

Forerunner’s bets have been so prescient in some cases that the young outfit is now managing roughly $2 billion in assets after quietly closing its sixth fund with a whopping $1 billion in capital commitments last month.

Given the team’s success in funding what’s up and coming, we talked with Green last week for a podcast interview about the trends Forerunner is tracking closely right now. Some of what we discussed follows, edited for length and clarity. You can also listen to that chat in its entirety here.

In recent years, per a post you authored recently, Forerunner has become more focused on this trend of creators on Instagram and Substack and other platforms who are reaching audiences directly. Where do you think we are in terms of that trend?

A lot of that thinking, if not most of it, still feels very relevant and active for us today. Thinking about powering the one-to-one opportunity and what it takes to make that viable is multilayered. You start with this idea that anyone who’s got something to say can now be a publisher and put [out content] and charge for it. But the difference between that idea and its execution is a lot, because it’s a lot to do and it’s hard to do. So we try thinking: what are the tools and services and software and community that needs to support the person who is becoming the single entrepreneur, the ‘solopreneur’? There’s a whole ecosystem of efforts that need to be built and trialed and tested and moved forward. I think we’re still early on in the innings of organizing all of that and [producing] the really big, breakout companies.

More here.

Genies, a nearly five-year-old, L.A.-based, 100-person startup that celebrities and others are using to create avatars for the much-hyped metaverse, has raised $100 million from Bond Capital, Breyer Capital, NEA, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who has joined the company's board. The WSJ has more here.

Hermeus, a four-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based aircraft startup that's trying to develop hypersonic aircraft to travel at five times the speed of sound, has raised $100 million in fresh funding led by Sam Altman, with participation from new investors Founders Fund and In-Q-Tel and a handful of earlier backers. Worth noting: Altman was previously very involved with a rival company, Boom Supersonic, even sitting on Boom's board when he was president of Y Combinator. (We asked him for comment earlier today but didn't hear back.) More here.

Licious, a seven-year-old, India-based startup that sells fresh meat, seafood and other fresh animal protein online, says it has raised $150 million in fresh funding led by Amansa Capital, Kotak PE and Axis Growth Avenues AIF – I. TechCrunch has more here.

Moove, a three-year-old, Nigeria-based fintech that provides vehicle financing to drivers of ride-hailing platforms like Uber and other gig networks, has raised $65 million in new Series A2 financing. Earlier backers Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital and thelatest.ventures co-led the round, joined by new investors AfricInvest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude and Kreos Capital. Moove separately secured $40 million in debt funding. TechCrunch has more here.

RefleXion Medical, a 12-year-old, Hayward, Ca.-based medical equipment manufacturing company centered around a radiotherapy system for cancer, has raised $80 million from Ascension Ventures, Catalio Capital Management, Sixty Degree Capital and Hillenbrand Capital Partners. FierceBiotech has more here.

Socotra, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud platform for insurtech companies, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Insight Partners. Other backers in the round include 8VC, Portage Ventures, Brewer Lane, MS&AD Ventures, and Nationwide Ventures. More here.

ArchiPro, an eight-year-old, Auckland, New Zealand-based online building marketplace that connects projects, products, and professionals, just raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global, with participation from Icehouse Ventures and Liger Trading. The New Zealand Herald has more here.

Encompass Corporation, a 10-year-old, London-based due diligence platform that automates gathering, processing and collation of primary and premium information and news discovery for KYC purposes, has raised $33 million in funding led by Perennial Partners. Finextra has more here.

inFeedo, a six-year-old, New York-based employee experience platform that works primarily with companies in Southeast Asia and India, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from Tiger Global and returning investors like Bling Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Magic Eden, a six-month-old, San Francisco-based NFT marketplace that uses the Solana blockchain to authenticate the NFTs on its market (unlike OpenSea, which uses the Ethereum blockchain), has raised $27 million in funding led by Paradigm, which is also an investor in OpenSea. 👀 Sequoia Capital and Greylock also participated in the round. Cofounder Zhuoxun Yin was most recently a senior product manager at Coinbase; his fellow cofounder, Jack Lu, meanwhile spent less than a year with FTX, focused on partnerships and corporate development. Bloomberg has more here.

Rumble Network Discovery, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.- based cybersecurity company that helps companies discover users, devices, and cloud resources in their company, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Decibel Partners. More here.

Vira Health, a two-year-old, U.K.-based startup that offers personalized digital therapeutics for women going through the menopause, has raised $12 million in second-round funding led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Optum Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Cake Equity, a three-year-old, Queensland, Australia-based maker of equity management software, raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by LAUNCH, TheSyndicate.com, and Rampersand, with participation from individual investors Jonathan Lui and Guy Pearson. More here.

Freightpay, a year-old, L.A.-based payment platform for global logistics, 3PLs, and freight forwarders, has raised $2 million in initial funding. Defy.vc led the round, joined by Better Tomorrow Ventures, BAM Ventures, Flexport and Socially Financed. More here.

Justpoint, a four-year-old, New York-based company connecting plaintiffs to attorneys using artificial intelligence, has raised $6.9 million in seed funding. Divergent Capital and Charge Ventures led the round, joined by Crossbeam Venture Partners, Honeystone Ventures, Interplay.vc, and Weekend Fund, among others. More here.

Omnia Fishing, a four-year-old, Golden Valley, Mn.-based online tackle store for the fishing industry, just raised $4 million co-led by Dundee Venture Capital and Founder Collective. More here.

Trellis Datas, a five-year-old, Canberra, Australia-based machine learning platform, just raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Ultratech Capital Partners, with participation from Main Sequence Ventures. More here.

Join Affinity's webinar, Sourcing the Best Deals Like Bessemer Ventures, on March 17th as they discuss the best channels, tactics, and stories where top firms such as Bessemer Ventures find their most successful investments, including how to source deals, their deal flow process, and how they’ve adapted to a changing investing landscape. Register here.

Former Felicis Ventures managing director Wesley Chan has teamed up with former Morgan Stanley tech banker Pegah Ebrahimi to launch a new venture capital firm that is raising up to $350 million in capital commitments, says Axios. The pair, who met as MIT students, are reportedly receiving backing from Felicia, among other LPs. More here.

Cake DeFi, a three-year-old, Singapore-based crypto fintech platform that claims to have more than a $1 billion in managed customer assets, has invested $100 million of its own money to form the new Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV) investment arm, according to a press release provided to CoinDesk. CDV will be led by Cake DeFi CEO Julian Hosp and CTO U-Zyn Chua, who co-founded the firm. More here.

Portage Ventures, the six-year-old, Toronto Ontario-based fintech-focused venture capital arm of investment firm Sagard, has closed held a sixth(!) close on it newest fund with $616 million in capital commitments from both institutional and retail investors. (Most firms do not announce six closes, if you are wondering why we are astonished by this news.) The outfit says the new capital, including from limited partners HarbourVest Partners and Kensington Capital Partners, bring its assets under management to $3.3 billion. BetaKit has more here.

Battery Ventures, the now 38-year-old venture firm, is looking to raise up to $3.5 billion for its 14th flagship fund and $600 million for its second "select" fund, per SEC filings first flagged by Axios. More here.

Tristan Walker is raising $15 million for an Atlanta, Ga.-based venture effort called Heirloom Fund, per an SEC filing flagged by Axios. Walker is the founder of Walker & Co., which sold to P&G in 2018. He also sits on the boards of Foot Locker and Shake Shack and was briefly an investor with Andreessen Horowitz in the firm's earlier days.

Moneta Ventures, a nearly eight-year-old, Folsom, Ca., early-stage venture firm is raising its third fund, per an SEC filing. More here.

Arm, the SoftBank Group unit preparing for an IPO, will cut as much as 15% of its workforce -- an estimated 1,000 jobs -- as part of an effort to rein in spending and focus on fewer projects. Bloomberg has more here.

Discord, the social communications platform that's particularly popular with gamers (and web3 investors), is interviewing investment bankers about going public as soon as this year, says Bloomberg. Because Discord has the brand recognition needed to bypass traditional investment pitches, it’s considering a direct listing, say the outlet's sources. More here.

Sachin Bansal, the 40-year-old cofounder of e-commerce giant Flipkart, has registered plans to take public his newer company, Navi Technologies, a fintech startup that offers customers insurance and loan products. TechCrunch has more here.

Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding have lost more than $1 trillion in combined market value since the selloff in Hong Kong stocks began 13 months ago.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space venture has confirmed that SNL comedian Pete Davidson will be going to space next week, less than a year after he portrayed a Mars astronaut (as the hilariously clueless "Chad") on the sketch show. GeekWire has more here.

Kakao Group founder Brian Kim has stepped down from the board, relinquishing the reins after a series of scandals rocked the South Korean social media and fintech giant, including allegations that Kim evaded nearly $740 million in taxes in 2014. Bloomberg has more here.

Google’s annual employee surveys, internally called “Googlegeist,” show that a growing number of staffers don’t view their pay packages as fair or competitive with what they could make in a similar role elsewhere. They are also questioning their employer’s ability to execute.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has vocally supported Ukraine since Russia began its brutal invasion. But Tesla, like most other large automakers, has ties to at least one Russian supplier, and it's not yet clear what the company can, or plans to, do.

Amazon has taken out ads in several large newspapers in India to air its grievances with the country's most valuable firm by market cap, Future Group, and with Reliance Retail, which runs the nation's second-largest retail chain (and which is currently taking over Future Group). The ads, which accuse both Indian companies of engaging in fraudulent practices, follow a two-year effort by Amazon to halt a $3.4 billion deal with Reliance. More here.

Foxconn, the biggest assembler of iPhones, is in talks with Saudi Arabia about jointly building a $9 billion multipurpose facility that could make microchips, electric-vehicle components and other electronics like displays, according to the WSJ. The Saudi government is reportedly reviewing an offer from the company to build a dual-line foundry for surface-mount technology and wafer fabrication in Neom, a tech-focused city-state the kingdom is developing in the desert.

Nightmare on Nantucket: "How are people going to get their Hermès outfits?"

Amazon Go.

Bravery.

Manolos are getting the Birkenstock treatment.

The Atlantic’s event In Pursuit of Happiness comes to the West Coast this May, and we’re inviting StrictlyVC members to this sold-out experience. Convening experts and researchers, we’ll strive to help business leaders actualize the lessons of Arthur C. Brooks’s “How to Build a Life” column and podcast for themselves and their teams. Join us to do the work to build a more meaningful life. Use this link to purchase a ticket by March 27, while supplies last.