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Friday!
Before we go: we mentioned an initiative last week called 1K Project that is raising money for Ukrainian families who are suddenly in desperate need of help. (To all of you who have donated, thank you!)
If you're continuing to look for ways to help, a Ukrainian friend and mother (and Stanford MBA and software entrepreneur) has been sending money with her team to war-affected areas in Ukraine every day where it is needed through the nonprofit she cofounded in 2017 called Hromada ("community" in Ukrainian). All donations are tax-deductible. Learn more here.
If bigger organizations are more up your alley, here are some other great options.
More Monday.:)
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Russian President Vladimir Putin today vowed to press on with his invasion of Ukraine before tens of thousands flag-waving of supporters in a Moscow stadium, defending the assault in a rare public appearance as Russian missiles continued pounding targets across the neighboring country. -- WSJ
Russia’s campaign to restrict access to Twitter, Facebook and other sources of uncensored information on its invasion of Ukraine has skipped one crucial social media platform: Telegram. -- WSJ
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ClearBank, a seven-year-old, U.K.-based fintech that has built a new set of cloud-based financial rails that allows banks and other customers real-time clearance on payment transactions and other financial services, just raised £175 million ($230 million) from a single investor: the PE firm Apax Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Cross River Bank, a 14-year-old, Fort Lee, N.J.-based regional fintech lender whose customers include Coinbase, Affirm and Stripe, among others, plans to raise more than $600 million in funding co-led by Eldridge Industries and earlier backer Andreessen Horowitz. Bloomberg has the story here.
dscout, an 11-year-old, Chicago-based company whose software is used by Salesforce and The North Face among others to get feedback on product design, has raised $70 million in Series C funding led by Guidepost Growth Equity. Crain's Chicago Business has more here.
FanCraze, a 10-month-old, Bay Area-based NFT startup focused around the "greatest moments in cricket history," is reportedly raising $100 million in Series A funding co-led by B Capital Group and Insight Partners, with participation from Cristiano Ronaldo and others. Bloomberg has more here.
The Mina Ecosystem, a largely Bay Area-based gaggle of people tied to an eight-month-old, privacy-focused blockchain protocol Mina, has raised $92 million through a coin sale led by FTX Ventures and Three Arrows Capital. The parties involved will divide the proceeds; the idea (it sounds like?) is to incentivize a broader group of developers to built atop the Mina blockchain. The Block has more here.
Optimism, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum that aims to reduce transaction costs and speed up the network, raised $150 million in Series B funding led by a16z Crypto and Paradigm. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Apptega, a four-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based cybersecurity and compliance management platform, raised $37 million in funding from Mainsail Partners. More here.
Volta Labs, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based genome sequencing bioautomation company, just raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Maverick Ventures and was joined by investors Khosla Ventures, Casdin Capital, E14 Funds, Blindspot Ventures, and others. TechCrunch has more here.
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Big Cabal Media, an eight-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based digital media company focused on a younger audience, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding. MaC VC led the round, joined by Luminate, Unicorn Group and Future Africa. TechCrunch has more here.
Cambium Carbon, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based startup looking to save fallen city trees from landfills, turn them into their best use, and channel revenues into planting projects, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by MaC VC, with participation from Soma Capital, Joe Tsai, Rise of the Rest fund and Blue Ivy Ventures. Technical.ly has more here.
Coinbooks, a months-old, San Francisco-based account platform for crypto companies and DAOs, has raised $3.2 million in funding led by Y Combinator, Multicoin Capital, Lattice Capital, Seed Club Ventures, Orange DAO, and others. The Block has more here.
Retrocasual, a three-year-old, Seattle-based AI-powered platform to help manufacturers train employees and avoid mistakes, has raised $3.4 million in funding co-led by Glasswing Ventures and Differential Ventures. GeekWire has more here.
RSTLSS, a 16-month-old, London-based startup that aims to create and sell multiverse fashion on behalf of brands (while enabling them to control their IP), has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Bitkraft Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.
ShipsKart, a five-year-old, New Delhi, India-based maritime and offshore supply chain e-commerce solution, just raised $2.7 million in Series A funding led by TMV and Hermes Offshore. Inc42 has more here.
Wombat Exchange, a months-old, Hong Kong-based multichain stableswap backed by Binance (a stableswap is an automated market maker that promises fast and efficient stablecoin trading), has raised $5.25 million in Series A funding co-led by Animoca Brands and Hailstone Ventures. More here.
Zitti, a three-month-old, L.A.-based payment and credit platform for food industry management, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Crossbeam Venture Partners. More here.
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Slack, a San Francisco-based business communication platform now owned by Salesforce, says it is setting aside $100 million for a third fund. Slack's venture arm, founded in 2015, had initially pooled together a $25 million fund, then a $50 million fund. More here.
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General Motors has bought out the SoftBank Vision Fund 1’s stake in self-driving startup Cruise for $2.1 billion, ending the Japanese firm’s involvement in the business and giving the Detroit automaker 80% ownership. GM also said today that it will invest another $1.35 billion in Cruise, which makes up for the amount that SoftBank had pledged to invest in the startup once the company deploys vehicles in a ride-sharing business, something it is preparing to do. Bloomberg has more here.
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MaiCoin Group, which operates Taiwan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is considering going public on the Nasdaq stock market within two years, say Bloomberg's sources. Pulling off a first-time share sale in the U.S. would be a rare feat for a Taiwanese company, notes the outlets. In the past five years, only two firms based there have completed U.S. IPOs, and one of them is a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
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Vitalik Buterin, the man behind Ethereum, is worried about crypto's future, he tells Time magazine. He says he's hoping Ethereum becomes a “launchpad for all sorts of sociopolitical experimentation: fairer voting systems, urban planning, universal basic income, public-works projects," and suggests he's less thrilled with some of its current associations, including "$3 million monkeys," and "lots of people that are just buying yachts and Lambos."
SNL's Pete Davidson isn't going to space now. Blue Origin is blaming a scheduling conflict.
Christopher Hanak was just named chief investment officer of the Washington State Investment Board, replacing Allyson Tucker, who held the post for two years, according to her LinkedIn bio. Hanak was previously the board's senior investment officer, leading its risk management and allocation team. Pensions & Investments has more here.
Adam Neumann shares his plans for a comeback with the Financial Times. An excerpt: "At first, Neumann’s publicist suggests that he should approve any quotes from the interview that I intend to use. Told that the FT can’t accept this, he backs down, but says Neumann can see me only for an hour. And we cannot send a photographer; instead, Neumann sends his own image to use. (Editor’s note: we didn’t.) The man whose WeWork stock once carried 20 times the voting rights of other shareholders still seems to like control."
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Andreessen Horowitz is among the investors that received a windfall this week when billions of dollars worth of tokens were issued to the creators, backers and owners of the Bored Ape Yacht Club digital collectibles, reports the FT. Crypto traders rushed in when the consortium debuted “ApeCoin" for use initially as in-game currency for a game the BAYC plans to release later this year. More than $9 billion(!) worth of ApeCoin reportedly changed hands in the first 24 hours of trading. A spokesperson for Yuga tells the FT that a16z received coins in exchange for assisting with “overall DAO governance design." Other members of the ApeCoin consortium include Alexis Ohanian; music industry veteran Guy Oseary; and blockchain developer Horizen Labs.
Beating Japan at its own (video) game.
How Russia’s mistakes and Ukrainian resistance altered Putin’s war.
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