Russia turns to hypersonic missiles, questions arise around Abramovich's reach, and why less is Miu Miu

The U.S. is sending some of the Soviet-made air defense equipment it secretly acquired decades ago to bolster the Ukrainian military as it seeks to fend off Russian air and missile attacks, U.S. officials said today. The systems are decades old and were obtained by the U.S. so it could examine the technology used by the Russian military and which Moscow has exported around the world, reports the WSJ. Meanwhile, Russia has used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, President Biden confirmed today, a move he suggested was in response to Moscow’s stalled ground campaign. The missiles travel faster than five times the speed of sound, according to the Washington Post.

Using a network of banks, law firms and advisers in multiple countries, Roman Abramovich invested billions in American hedge funds and private equity funds, reports the New York Times. Did he also invest billions in American venture funds? Should you, our wonderful, most helpful readers --  who have far more insight into the LP composition of certain funds than we ever will -- want to share any insights on this front, we would welcome these. ❤️ (So you're aware, we're also reachable on Signal.)

Venture capital firms, angel investors, and corporate development teams alike rely on Tegus’s proprietary content to find new companies with just a click. The Tegus platform provides instant access to interviews with hundreds of practitioners in a given space. These conversations offer insights on buyer pain points and favorite solutions you’ve never heard of, so that you can uncover new companies and why their users love them. Discover companies through the eyes of their users. Start your free trial today.

Rob Leclerc has the kind of pedigree that investors tend to like. He has a masters degree in computer science from the University of Calgary and a PhD in computational biology from Yale. In fact, ten years ago, what he really wanted to do with his degrees was to find and fund agriculture-related projects that tackle climate change.

But ten years ago, “agtech” wasn’t yet a category, and that was problematic when it came to pitching investors on the concept of an investment fund that Leclerc would run with partner Michael Dean, with whom Leclerc had previously operated an agribusiness in West Africa for several years.

At the time, “there were a handful of businesses” relating to agtech that investors were aware of, says Leclerc. Think Climate Corp and Impossible Foods and the smart machinery company Blue River. But Climate Corp hadn’t yet sold to Monsanto for $1 billion. Impossible Foods wasn’t valued in the billions of dollars, as it is today. And Blue River was still years away from its $305 million sale to John Deere. “The overarching problem was narrative,” Leclerc says. “People didn’t care about it.”

He and Dean might have just given up; instead, they started a San Francisco-based content company called AgFunder News. “We thought if we could get people excited about food and [agriculture], maybe we’d be in a position to [raise a fund later],” says Leclerc. It was a smart bet. Fast forward and after posting more than 4,000 articles to the site and garnering 90,000 subscribers to the site’s weekly newsletter, Leclerc says AgFunder’s investment team – which now features four partners – just closed on $60 million in capital commitments for a new fund that they expect will reach $100 million over the next couple of months if things go their way.

It’s a huge step up from previous funds that Leclerc and company began raising several years ago – beginning with their newsletter readers. “We first raised a $2.5 million friends-and-family fund,” he says, “but then five months later, we needed more money, so we raised $2 million, then six months later, we raised $5 million.” And so on. It wasn’t the most conventional way to raise money, but AgFunder had this “massive subscriber base” to which it could talk directly about its fundraising efforts, says Leclerc, “and the belief that we know what we’re doing and can spot companies started a lot of conversations that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. It became a structural advantage.”

The strategy isn’t unprecedented. More here.

CommerceIQ, a nearly 10-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that aims to optimizes brands’ e-commerce sales, marketing and supply chain operations, has raised $115 million in Series D funding. SoftBank led the round, joined by earlier investors Insight Partners (which led the company's $60 million Series C round last year), Trinity Ventures, Shasta Ventures and Madrona Venture Group. TechCrunch has more here. 

Grafana Labs, an eight-year-old, New York-based company behind open source projects including Grafana and Loki, is in talks to raise between $250 million and $275 million in Series D funding at a $5 billion valuation, up from the $3 billion it secured last year, according to Bloomberg. Earlier backer GIC is reportedly in discussions to lead the round. More here.

Apollo Agriculture, a 5.5-year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based startup that uses satellite imagery data to rate farmer creditworthiness, has raised $40 million in funding led by SoftBank. Other participants in the round include Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC, and earlier investors including Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, SBI, Breyer Capital and TO Ventures Food. TechCrunch has more here

Cascade, an eight-year-old, Portland, Or.-based strategy execution platform (its platform incorporates project management, key performance indicators and outcome tracking), just raised $29 million in Series A funding. Telescope Partners led the round,  joined by Five V and Carthona. VentureBeat has more here.

CoinRoutes, a nearly five-year-old, Miami-based maker of crypto trading software, has raised $16 million in Series B funding. Ayon Capital led the round. Finextra has more here.

Finally, a four-year-old, Miami-based startup focused on lending to small businesses, has raised $11 million in equity funding led by PeakSpan, with participation from Active Capital, 500 FinTech, and GTMfund. The company also secured an $85 million debt facility from Clear Haven Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Glia, an 11-year-old, New York- and Tallinn, Estonia-based customer service platform, has raised $45 million in Series D funding led by earlier investor Insight Partners, with participation from Wildcat Capital Management (another earlier backer) and the unified business communications giant RingCentral. TechCrunch has more here.

Plotlogic, a four-year-old, Brisbane, Australia-based startup that uses hyperspectral imaging, a technique generally found in labs and satellites, to add a new layer of data and automation to mining operations, has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Innovation Endeavors led the round, joined by BHP Ventures and Touchdown Ventures — both venture arms of major mining groups — as well as DCVC, Baidu Ventures, and Grids Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Ponto, a year-old, New York-based blockchain payments startup, has raised $20 million in seed funding co-led by General Catalyst, Polychain and NOMO VC. More here.

Azalio, a five-month-old, Washington, D.C.-based workforce management software that says it's "designed to keep frontline employees happy," just raised $2 million in pre-seed funding led by the Urban Innovation Fund. More here.

Enzymit, a two-year-old, Ness Ziona, Israel- based biochemical startup that's creating new enzymes and setting out to improve existing enzymes, just raised $5 million in seed funding. First Star Ventures led the round, joined by earlier backer Sapir Venture Partners. More here

Gama, a 17-month-old, Paris-based aerospace startup hoping to develop a low-cost solar sail that can use light to propel spacecraft between the stars, has raised $2 million in funding from Bpifrance, the National Centre for Space Studies and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Gensyn, a two-year-old, London-based decentralized compute network for training AI models, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Eden Block, with participation from Galaxy Digital, Maven 11, and Coinfund, among others. EU Startups has more here.

Lune, a year-old, London-based startup that offers an API to online businesses wanting to help their customers understand the different CO2 emissions associated with their products, has raised $4 million led by Crane. TechCrunch has more here.

Prime Protocol, a four-month-old,. decentralized prime brokerage that will work on multiple blockchains at once (its founder logged five months as a trader at Citadel most recently), has raised $2.75 million in funding co-led by Arrington Capital, Jump and Framework. Axios has more here.  

Powered by People, a nearly three-year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based wholesale e-commerce platform, has raised $5 million in seed funding co-led by Susa Ventures and Golden Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Zestworld, a year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based startup aiming to bring together every aspect of the comic creator business and community into one centralized platform (from fan engagement to helping creators monetize their IP rights), has raised $9.3 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.

After raising its Series B in 2021 from Revolution and others, Bright Cellars is investing more resources into its member experience and wine education. Founded by two MIT grads, Bright Cellars uses an algorithm to recommend personalized wine matches and deliver them straight to your door. Try it today - here's 50% off!

Advent International, the 37-year-old, Boston-based private equity giant (that makes occasional venture bets), plans to hold a $23 billion final close on its 10th flagship fund next month, says Buyouts. More here. 

Collider Ventures, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel -based venture firm, has secured $53 million in capital commitments for a fund that is targeting up to $100 million per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios.  More here.

Magnetic Ventures, a nearly four-year-old, San Francisco-based health tech venture firm led by Christine Aylward, who was previously a managing director at Foresite Capital, is raising $100m for its second fund, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. More here.

Spider Capital, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm that is focused on seed-stage enterprise startups, is looking to raise up to $100 million for its third fund, per an SEC filing. Spider was founded by Michael Neril, who says he previously co-founded and led all investment activities at Webb Investment Network, the early-stage investment vehicle of Maynard Webb. More here.

China's EV startups are building their own investment powerhouses.

The private equity firm Thoma Bravo announced over the weekend that it is acquiring Anaplan, a SaaS financial planning tool, for a cool $10.7 billion. Anaplan, which went public in 2018, closed on Friday with a market cap of $7.4 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

India's retail chain giant Reliance Retail said over the weekend that it is acquiring a majority stake of 89% in direct-to-consumer brand Clovia for $125 million as it looks to expand into apparel and lingerie. Clovia had raised about $25.8 million from investors, according to insight platform Tracxn.
TechCrunch has more here.

Forge Global, an online marketplace for buying and selling shares of private firms, will begin trading as a public company tomorrow, after its merger with special-purpose acquisition company Motive Capital was approved. The transaction makes Forge the first dedicated trading platform for private shares to become a public company. The companies announced plans to merge in September, with the deal valuing the proposed combined company at around $2 billion. More here.

Tiger Global Management has garnered $12.7 billion in capital for a new fund to back early-stage tech companies, reports the WSJ. The firm reportedly raked in more than $11 billion for its latest growth-investment fund, Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XV LP, in less than four months; the firm added more than $1.5 billion from employees, according to a document sent to investors that was viewed by the outlet.

Elon Musk’s business ties to China are creating unease in Washington.

The Justice Department has asked the judge overseeing its antitrust case against Google to sanction the company for allegedly training employees to "camouflage" business documents from being revealed by legal disputes, per a brief filed today. Axios has more here.

Goldman Sachs is pushing further into the nascent market for derivatives tied to digital assets. Goldman traded a bitcoin-linked instrument called a non-deliverable option with crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, the two firms said today. The move makes Goldman the first major U.S. bank to trade crypto over the counter, says CNBC.

The talent agency WME has just signed the Bored Ape Yacht Club DJ duo ESCAPΞPLAN. The pseudonymous duo’s identities are represented by their Bored Ape NFTs. (We're still unpacking what all of this means, but clearly talent agencies don't want to be left in the dust and see electronic artists + NFTs as $$$.)

What happened to the gilded mansions of New York City.

"I did have this feeling that it would work out somehow."

The ‘Miu Miu set' filters down to high-schoolers and DIY-ers.

We officially give up. (We could maybe learn to love the Chiefs.)

Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964). It once belonged to publisher S.I. Newhouse; now it can be yours for [choke-coughs] $200 million or so.