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The U.S. Senate today confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to become a justice on the country's top court. The vote put her in line to replace Justice Stephen Breyer when he retires at the end of the court’s session this summer.
A digital dollar could become a "trusted money comparable to physical cash," U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said today in her first speech about digital assets. More here and here.
Twitter plans to host Elon Musk for a question-and-answer session with employees after a week of internal outcries over his appointment to its board of directors, according to company messages obtained by The Washington Post. CEO Parag Agrawal is reportedly trying to assuage worries that Musk could inflict damage to the company’s culture, as well as make it harder for people to do their jobs. More here.
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Avi Medical, a two-year-old, Munich, Germany-based startup behind a patient-facing app that it says allows people to monitor their health in part by integrating physical interactions, blood work, digital therapeutics and nutrition plans, has raised €50 million in Series B funding led by Balderton Capital. Other participants in the round included Heal Capital, Addition, Picus Capital, Vorwerk Ventures, Eurazeo and 3VC. MobiHealth News has more here.
Binance.US, the U.S. affiliate of cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance, has raised $200 million from investors that values the arm at $4.5 billion, reports the FT, including from VanEck and stablecoin group Circle’s venture capital arm. VanEck also put money into FTX as part of a fundraising last summer. The FT notes that the U.S affiliate of rival FTX (FTX.US) was valued at $8 billion by investors recently, or twice as much as Binance.US, and cites the "storm of censures by global financial regulators" that Binance faced last year, as well as turnover at the top of Binance.US, as two reasons it isn't valued as highly right now. More here.
CertiK, a four-year-old, New York-based web3 and blockchain security company, has raised $88 million in extended Series B funding from Insight Partners, Tiger Global, Advent International, Goldman Sachs and earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company has now raised $230 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
EDO, a seven-year-old, New York-based data, measurement and analytics software company co-founded by actor Edward Norton and Daniel Nadler, who sold his last data science company, Kensho Technologies, to S&P Global in 2018, has raised $80 million in funding. Shamrock Capital provided the capital at a pre-money valuation north of $200 million, the company tells the WSJ. It previously raised $12 million in 2018. More here.
Fetch Rewards, a nine-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based shopping rewards app, raised $240 million in funding led by Hamilton Lane, with participation from earlier backers SoftBank, Iconiq and DST Global. The company has now raised at least $580 million altogether, per Crunchbase data, and says it is now valued at $2.5 billion. Reuters has more here.
Improbable, the 10-year-old, U.K.-based virtual worlds games company, has raised $150 million in fresh funding co-led by earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank, with participation from Mirana, DCG, CMT, SIG and Ethereal Ventures. The company has now raised $750 million altogether. SiliconAngle has more here.
Jüsto, a three-year-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based online grocer for Latin America with operations in Mexico, Brazil and Peru, has raised $152 million in Series B funding led by General Atlantic. New and existing investors Tarsadia Capital, Citius, Arago Capital, Foundation Capital and Quiet Capital also participated in the round, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
Lightening Labs, a nine-year-old Bitcoin developer trying to speed the ability to send the cryptocurrency, has raised $70 million in Series B funding co-led by Valor Equity Partners and Baillie Gifford. Other participants include Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev (who also joined a $10 million round for the company in early 2020), NYDIG, and Silvergate CEO Alan Lane. Lightening Labs is led by a pioneer in blockchain technology, Elizabeth Stark; one of its very first backers was Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey. Forbes has more here.
Lilt, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based provider of AI-powered language translation software for businesses, has raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Four Rivers, with participation from new investors Sorenson Capital, CLEAR Ventures and Wipro Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Better Origin, a three-year-old, Cambridge, England-based developer of insect mini-farms, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital led the round, joined by earlier backers Fly Ventures and Metavallon VC. More here.
Brilliant Planet, a nine-year-old, London-based carbon capture startup that uses algae, has raised $12 million in funding co-led by USV and Toyota Ventures, with additional participation from Future Positive Capital, AiiM Partners, S2G Ventures, Hatch and Pegasus Tech Ventures. Axios has more here.
Coin Metrics, a five-year-old, Boston-based crypto financial intelligence startup, has raised $35 million in Series C funding co-led by Acrew Capital and BNY Mellon. Earlier backers Goldman Sachs, and Fidelity Investments also joined the round, among others. More here.
Dyte, a two-year-old, fully remote, developer friendly live video and audio SDK outfit, has raised $11.6 million backed by Unbound, Sequoia Capital India, Nexus Venture Partners, and a handful of angels including Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover and Postman founder Abhinav Asthana. TechCrunch has more here.
Evernow, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based, subscription-based telehealth company that supports women going through perimenopause and menopause with hormone therapies and 24-hour support, has raised $28.5 million in Series A funding led by NEA. Other investors in the round include celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. FierceBiotech has more here.
Groups360, an eight-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based platform for booking group travel, has raised $35 million in funding led by Zigg Capital, with participation from Blackstone Innovations Investments and Fir Tree Partners. More here.
Hivemapper, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based decentralized mapping network that says its data comes from users of its dashcams (who soon will mine its cryptocurrency), has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Multicoin Capital led the round, joined by Craft Ventures, Solana Capital, Shine Capital, 75 and Sunny Ventures and earlier investors Spark Capital, Founder Collective and Homebrew. The Block has more here.
KarmaCheck, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based employee background check startup serial entrepreneur Eric Ly, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Velvet Sea Ventures led, and was joined by Parameter Ventures, One Way Ventures, NextView Ventures and Dash Fund. More here.
Kumo, a months-old San Francisco-based startup developing software for AI prediction in the “modern data stack,” a set of cloud computing tools to store and harness large quantities of data, has raised $18.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital. SV Angel and A Capital also joined the round. Founder Vanja Josifovski was previously the CTO of Pinterest and the CTO of Airbnb's core "homes" business. Forbes has more here.
OpenPhone, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that provides a business line and related phone services to employees by way of a smartphone app, has raised $40 million in Series B funding. Tiger Global led the round, joined by earlier backers Craft Ventures, Slow Ventures, Garage Capital and Worklife Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
The Parentinc, a 12-year-old, Singapore-based online parenting community and DTC product line called Mama’s Choice that makes and sells pregnancy, nursing and baby care products, has raised $22 million in equity and debt funding. East Ventures led the round, joined by Central Retail Corp and earlier backer WHG Holdings. Lender DBS provided the debt funding. TechCrunch has more here.
Trunk, a year-old, San Francisco-based platform that helps developers fix their code earlier in their workflow, has raised $25 million in Series A funding co-led by Initialized Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Other backers in the round include Haystack Ventures, Garage VC and the GitHub cofounder Tom Preston-Werner. VentureBeat has more here.
Vested Finance, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based SEC-registered RIA whose app invites Indian investors to participate in zero-commission trades of U.S. stocks, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. Ayon Capital led and was joined by Tenoneten, Ovo Fund, Wedbush Ventures, IPV and Upscale. More here.
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Conceive, a year-old, New York-based community and expert network for women's health, starting with fertility, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Great Oaks and Founder Collective. TechCrunch has more here.
Landed, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based recruitment startup for the restaurant and hospitality industries, has raised $7 million in seed funding. Javelin Venture Partners and Blockchain Capital co-led, joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, ThinkFoods Group and Good Friends. TechCrunch has more here.
Liminal, a seven-year-old, Emeryville, Ca-based diagnostics company that says it uses ultrasound and machine learning analytics for advanced EV battery inspection throughout the manufacturing stages, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Good Growth Capital and The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners co-led the round. More here.
Novel, a year-old, New York-based startup that helps retailers, brands and content creators mint and sell NFTs, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from VaynerFund, Costanoa Ventures, Roth Martin and Sugar Capital. The WSJ has more here.
Songfinch, a five-year-old, Chicago-based personalized music creation startup, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Corazon Capital. More here.
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Venture capitalist and political strategist Bradley Tusk hosts Firewall, a twice-weekly podcast covering the intersection of tech and politics. Check out our recent episode with journalist, Sebastian Mallaby on his latest book 'The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future,' where he and Bradley discuss the early days of venture capital and how it's transformed over the years.
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Elevation Capital, a 20-year-old, Bangalore- and Mumbai, India-based early-stage venture firm previously known as SAIF Partners, has closed its eighth fund with $670 million in capital commitments to plug into seed and Series A-stage startups in India. The firm's past bets include Swiggy and Paytm. The Economic Times has more here.
LionBird, a 10-year-old, U.S. and Israel-based seed-stage digital health venture capital firm, says it has closed its third and newest fund with $85 million in capital commitments, money it will use to fund 15 to 18 health tech startups. Axios has more here.
WestWave Capital, a five-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based, seed-stage, enterprise-focused venture firm, has raised $52 million for its second fund, per SEC filings. More here.
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Bolt, the payments-focused checkout tech company whose founder, Ryan Breslow, was much in the spotlight earlier this year, has acquired the crypto-services startup Wyre Payments for around $1.5 billion, according to the WSJ. It notes the deal would mark the largest merger in the crypto sector to date that hasn't involved a blank-check company. Bolt, which, like the startup Fast (which is abruptly shutting down), is competing against some very entrenched and deep-pocked companies in the check-out space, including PayPal and Apple Pay, and Breslow says it will now pursue a "one-click crypto experience," with Wyre, which offers services for retail and business customers to exchange national currencies and cryptocurrencies between banks and cryptowallets, as well as trading cryptocurrencies. Wyre also has money-transmitter licenses in 27 U.S. states. More here and here.
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Walmart's Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has internally raised its IPO valuation target by around a third to $60 billion to $70 billion, and now plans a U.S. listing in 2023 instead of this year, reports Reuters. More here.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk said tonight the company plans to roll out this year its ‘full self-driving’ beta software to all customers in North America who have plunked down as much as $12,000 for the controversial version of its driver assistance system. He made lots of other promises, too.
At a bitcoin conference today, billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel said Warren Buffett tops an “enemies list” of people who are trying to stop the cryptocurrency. “Enemy number one,” Thiel said to a booing Miami crowd, is “the sociopathic grandpa from Omaha.” He also called out JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, presenting graphics with images of the two executives and their bearish comments about bitcoin and the word “gerontocracy." CNBC has more here.
Last year, Palo Alto-based investor Oren Zeev, whose limited partners include Peter Thiel and top university endowments, invested $683 million and backed 10 new startups across two new funds, he tells The Information, a pace that exceeds that of more established VC firms. Zeev has been investing on his own since 2007; he previously spent 12 years with Apax Partners, helping found an office in Israel and relocating to Silicon Valley. More here.
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Twitter announced today that it's testing a new way for users to remove themselves from conversations they don’t want to be a part of. The company calls this “unmentioning."
Meanwhile, the edit button that many would like Twitter to adopt isn't a simple fix and could be a mistake, argue some users.
Coinbase's trading launch in India today hit a snag fast. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the organization that oversees retail payments and settlement systems in India, said it is "not aware of any crypto exchange" using UPI, a popular payments system in the country. "With reference to some recent media reports around the purchase of Cryptocurrencies using UPI, National Payments Corporation of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI," it tweeted.
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