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(United's social media team is kind of asking for it.)
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It always seems to bounce back, but SoftBank is definitely in some trouble right now, suggests the Financial Times, which says SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has told top execs to slow down investments amid falling tech stocks and the regulatory crackdown in China. The estimated write-down at the Japanese group for this quarter stood at $30 billion, and according to the FT's sources, during the sell-off, Son became alarmed over his personal borrowings against SoftBank shares. More here.
Boy, the SEC is busy! Cryptocurrency exchanges will soon have to report the digital tokens they hold for customers on their balance sheets, according to accounting guidelines released by the agency today. The guidelines reflect Chairman Gary Gensler’s warning that investors who own cryptocurrency through platforms like Coinbase are effectively making unsecured loans to those companies. The WSJ has more here.
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Noom uses psychology to help you lose weight. They have a support system with people trained in psychology, fitness, and nutrition available whenever you need them. You’ll also be partnered with a personal goal specialist to help keep you on track. With Noom, you’ll see lasting results in no time.
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Chief, a three-year-old, New York-based social network for professional women in senior leadership positions, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by CapitalG. Earlier investors also joined the round, including GGV Capital, Inspired Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners and BoxGroup. TechCrunch has more here.
Collectors Holdings, a 35-year-old, Santa Ana, Ca.-based sports card appraiser and marketplace that was taken private last year by a syndicate led by serial entrepreneur Nat Turner, has raised $100 million in funding from earlier backers, including Turner (who is now running the company), D1 Capital Partners, Cohen Private Ventures (a Steven Cohen production), and TCG Capital Management. LA Inno has more here.
Deepki, an eight-year-old, Paris-based ESG data intelligence platform that also sells advisory services to real estate players looking to reduce their carbon emissions, has raised €150 million ($166 million) in Series C funding. One Peak and Highland Europe co-led the round, joined by Revaia, Hi Inov and Statkraft Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
LayerZero Labs, a year-old, Vancouver, British Columbia-based outfit whose protocol aims to connect decentralized apps across multiple blockchains, raised $135 million in funding co-led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Other participants it the round are also heavy hitters, including Coinbase Ventures, PayPal Ventures, Tiger Global and Uniswap Labs. Cointelegraph has more here.
Modern Treasury, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that makes software to help companies manage cash flow and bank payment, has raised $50 million in extended Series C funding from SVP Capital and Salesforce Ventures. The company originally closed its Series C round with $85 million back in October. Forbes has more here.
Pine Labs, a 24-year-old, Noida, India-based digital payments company, has raised $50 million in new funding at a valuation north of $5 billion led by Vitruvian Partners. Pine Labs, which filed for a confidential IPO filing here in the U.S. in January, had to postpone its IPO plans to the second half of the current year owing to the rout in global markets, notes the Economic Times. More here.
Yami, a nine-year-old, Eastvale, Ca.-based online marketplace for Asian groceries, has raised $50 million in Series B funding co-led by Altos Ventures and Balsam Bay Partners, with participation from JPMorgan and GGV Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Altoida, a six-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based diagnostics app for Alzheimer's disease, has raised $13.7 million in extended Series A funding. Whitecap Venture Partners and M Ventures co-led the newest tranche, which brings the round's total to $20 million. FierceBiotech has more here.
Antimatter, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that says it provides SaaS companies with the cryptographic infrastructure that can provably guarantee that a service meets their residency, governance and tenancy requirements, has raised $12 million Series A round led by NEA. Other participants included General Catalyst and UNION Labs, along with numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Apploi, an eight-year-old, New York-based healthcare recruiting company, has raised $25 million in Series B funding. m]x[v Capital led, and was joined by Defy VC and Underscore. TechCrunch has more here.
BeamUP, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv- and London-based AI platform that says it designs and manages enterprise building systems, just launched with $15 million in seed funding co-led by StageOne Ventures and Ibex Investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Black Crow AI, an 18-month-old, New York-based no-code ML infrastructure startup, has raised $25 million in Series A funding. Imaginary Ventures led the round, joined by Left Lane, Good Friends, Interplay and Red Antler. TechCrunch has more here.
Card91, a 1.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based payment infrastructure startup, has raised $13 million in funding from Infinity Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Sabre Partners, EMVC and Commerce Ventures. Inc42 has more here.
Cyberpion, a five-year-old, Kirkland, Wa.-based external attack surface management platform, has raised $27 million in Series A funding. USVP led the round, joined by earlier backers Team8 Capital and Hyperwise Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Flight Schedule Pro, a 22-year-old, Overland Park, Ks.-based maker of management software for flight schools, has raised $31 million from Mainsail Partners. More here.
Flux Marine, a five-year-old, Providence, R.I.-based outfit that builds electric marine propulsion systems, has raised $15.5 million in funding led by Ocean Zero, with participation from Boost VC and Winklevoss Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Incyclix Bio, a two-year-old, Durham, N.C.-based cell cycle control startup, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Boxer Capital led the round, joined by RA Capital and earlier backer Eshelman Ventures. More here.
Khazna, a three-year-old, Cairo, Egypt-based mobile savings and payment app, has raised $38 million in Series A equity and debt funding led by Quona Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Sales Impact Academy, a three-year-old, Seattle-based go-to-market learning platform, has raised $22 million from HubSpot Ventures, MIT Investment Management Co., Stage 2 Capital and Emerge Education. More here.
TransFICC, a six-year-old, London-based electronic trading startup, has raised $17 million in funding led by AlbionVC. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Citi, HSBC, Illuminate Financial, ING Ventures and Main Incubator. Tech.eu has more here.
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Archie, a 14-month-old, New York-based fintech focused helping companies to manage and pay freelancer who they hire, has raised $4.5 million in funding in from a long list of investors, including B Capital Group, Mac Ventures, and Worklife Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Bods, a nearly two-year-old, L.A.-based digital fashion startup with garment-fitting technology, raised $5.6 million in seed funding. Stellation Capital led, and was joined by Long Journey Ventures and Third Kind VC. Fashion United has more here.
Datanomik, a months-old, Montevideo, Uruguay-based startup whose goal is to connect financial institutions across LatAm through its B2B open finance API, which gathers a company’s banking information on one platform, has raised $6 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, joined by LatAm-focused venture firms Canary, Nazca and Latitud, among other investors in the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Glean, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based data insights dashboard startup whose founder was a VP at Flatiron Health and early systems engineer at Kiva Systems, has raised $7 million in seed funding led by Matrix Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Inner Cosmos, a three-year-old, Scotts Valley, Ca.-based company that's developing a machine that would send tiny electrical currents into the far reaches of the brain to target imbalanced networks that contribute to depression, has raised $10 million in seed funding. Lool Ventures led the round, joined by KittyHawk VC and Loup Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.
January, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based debt resolution platform, raised $10 million. Brewer Lane Ventures led the round, joined by IA Ventures, Third Prime Capital, Tribe Capital and Reciprocal Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Jeenie, a four-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based mobile platform that connects users to a community of language experts to help them with any communication needs, has raised $9.3 million in Series A funding led by Transformation Capital. More here.
Lucra Sports, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer sports betting platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Raptor Group and was joined SeventySix Capital, Victress Capital, Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, tennis player John Isner, and NFL Wide Receiver Emmanuel Sanders. More here.
Out Of Office, a two-year-old, Chicago-based recommendation-based travel app that aims to give users personalized recommendations from their inner circle, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Hyde Park Venture Partners. More here.
Pursuit, an 11-year-old, New York-based startup helps train adults with the most need to join tech companies (those partners also hire the company to retrain their blue-collar workers, says the company), has raised $10 million in funding led by Blue Earth Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Quintar, a two-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based AR platform for live sports and entertainment, has raised a second seed round of $3 million. SeventySix Capital led, and was joined by Nreal and SharpLink Gaming. VentureBeat has more here.
Sona, a year-old, London-based management platform for deskless workers, has raised $7 million in seed funding led by Gradient Ventures. RTIH has more here.
Sprout, a three-year-old, Hong Kong-based maker of cap table software, raised $3 million led by Sequoia Capital India. TechCrunch has more here.
SudShare, a four-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based on-demand laundry marketplace (gig workers come and whisk away your dirty laundry, is the pitch), has raised $10 million in seed funding from a long list of backers. Headline, Origin Ventures, Starting Line VC, Ludlow Ventures, and Clean Ventures were part of the syndicate. More here.
Tushop, a year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based community commerce startup that enables group buying of consumer goods, has raised $3 million led by 4DX Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Wert, a two-year-old, Tallinn, Estonia-based startup that says it makes a built-in software module that allows seamless fiat-to-crypto conversion inside its partners' websites and apps, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Tagus Capital, with participation from Digital Horizon. More here.
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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. Read the report.
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AIX Ventures has raised $50 million for its debut fund, it told the WSJ earlier this week. Co-founder Richard Socher, who is also chief executive of search-engine startup You.com and former chief scientist at Salesforce.com, is leading the team, which also includes: Pieter Abbeel, co-founder of robotics AI startup Covariant; Anthony Goldbloom, co-founder of machine-learning competitions startup Kaggle, now a subsidiary of Google; and Christopher Manning, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. More here.
Freestyle, a 12-year-old, Bay Area-based, early-stage venture capital firm co-run by equal partners Jenny Lefcourt and Dave Samuel (cofounder Josh Felser left last year to focus more narrowly on climate-related initiatives), has closed its sixth and newest fund with $130 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.
A new, early-stage venture capital firm targeting climate and sustainability-related investments announced its debut $45 million fund on Monday, with backing from the likes of Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Silicon Valley’s Tribe Capital. Beverly Hills-based Regeneration.VC said it aims to invest in “circular economy” consumer startups developing regenerative materials—an area it described as a “$4.5 trillion opportunity to ensure the prosperity of our species and planet” in a press release. Dot.LA has more here.
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Signaling its ambitions in the process automation market, Microsoft has acquired Minit, a Bratislava, Slovakia-originated process mining technology vendor, for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced today. Microsoft says that the purchase will “further empower” it to “help … customers digitally transform” by creating a more complete picture of their processes — and identifying which of those processes are ripe for automation. Seven-year-old, Minit had raised €10.3 million from investors. TechCrunch has more here.
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Volkswagen has reportedly chosen Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup as the lead banks for its listing of iconic sports-car maker Porsche. The listing could value Porsche at as much as 90 billion euros ($100 billion), according to some of Bloomberg's sources, who asked not to be identified because the information is private and also they are trying to influence the market. More here.
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Nate Chastain, the former product head at OpenSea who left the company after allegations surfaced that he engaged in insider trading of NFTs, is trying to raise money for a new NFT platform called Oval. Coindesk has more here.
Several executives at EV company Faraday Future have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of an investigation into inaccurate statements made to investors, according to a securities filing issued this morning.
Maitree Mervana Parekh has been promoted to principal at Acrew Capital, where she leads much the firm's work in web3. Parekh was previously an investor with Touchdown Ventures. More here.
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Yat Siu, cofounder of Animoca Brands, says that as an investor in Sky Mavis, Animoca is in discussions with the Sky Mavis team about reimbursing players who lost funds in that recent $600 million hack of the software underpinning its popular "Axie Infinity" game. Siu declined to comment further on how that might be done but says that VC firms investing in crypto will have to be prepared to help portfolio companies in the event of a hack. (You can almost hear the insurance products being developed.) Bloomberg has the story.
Russia’s tech workers are looking for safer and more secure professional pastures, reports the Associated Press. It says that by one estimate, up to 70,000 computer specialists, spooked by the war, have already bolted the country since Russia invaded Ukraine five weeks ago. Putin has noticed, this week approving legislation to eliminate income taxes between now and 2024 for individuals who work for tech outfits. Meanwhile, other countries see Russia’s loss as their potential gain. More here.
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Meteorologist pauses weather report on live TV to call family about a tornado warning.
Interior designers identify the worst missteps. “Everyone wants to insist they live in a spa. Well, you don’t.”
Brandon Sanderson asked Kickstarter fans for $1 million to self-publish four novels he wrote during the pandemic. Thirty days later, his campaign has topped $41.7 million.
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