"Revenue headwinds" for Netflix, a powerful vote against Buffett, and the cost of fries and lost time at Coachella

Shares of Netflix cratered more than 25% today after the company reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter. It’s the first time the streaming platform has reported a subscriber loss in more than a decade. Netflix blamed increased competition, inflation, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and yes, password sharing. (Netflix said more than 100 million global households use a shared password and suggested it will begin to make accounts that share passwords pay up.) In the meantime, the fall-off is dramatic enough that Netflix is even considering -- gasp-- an ad-supported tier after years of rejecting calls for one, with co-CEO Reed Hastings saying today the company is “quite open to offering even lower prices with advertising as a consumer choice.”

California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest public pension fund in the U.S., said it plans to vote for a shareholder proposal that Berkshire Hathaway replace billionaire Warren Buffett as chairman, a role he holds as well as CEO. The pension fund has more than $450 billion in assets under management and about $2.3 billion in Berkshire shares; then again, Buffett, 91, has a 32% voting interest in the company, and succession questions that have long loomed over Berkshire don't seem to trouble him all that much. More here.

Wimbledon officials plan to bar Russian and Belarusian players from playing in this year’s tournament because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Belarus’ support of the war. (Here's what happened today.)

Is this the hottest market on earth? The global wealth of billionaires has soared by $5 trillion since the pandemic, and they know what they want: art. With some works selling for 15x the asking price, you can see why many billionaires allocate 10%-30% of their portfolios to art. Masterworks, a revolutionary start-up, is unlocking this $65 billion dollar market for you. And it gets better. The company is giving StrictlyVC readers this special offer. (See important Regulation A disclosures.)

Four years ago, a nonprofit collective called Gold House was formed to advance the interests -- and safety -- of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent in the U.S. Given the country's long history of anti-Asian racism, it was overdue, argues Bing Chen, a former Google product manager turned YouTube exec turned founder and investor who cofounded the organization.

He says the operation had two missions to start. First, it aimed to tackle misconceptions in the media, where Asian women have long been "overly sexualized and Asian men are overly emasculated, which can result in really deleterious treatment," including, in some cases, anti-Asian hate crimes, which spiked during the pandemic. Toward that end, says Chen, Gold House now "culturally consults on the accuracy of scenes, products, and characters [associated with] basically every major Asian film and creative project." (Related consulting fees are largely how the organization supports itself.)

Another, oft-overlooked issue Gold House immediately looked to tackle ties to the so-called bamboo ceiling, meaning the difficulty Asian Americans in the corporate world face in breaking through to upper management. While 33% of the tech industry is Asian, for example, Chen notes that only "single digits are in the C-suite," a lopsidedness that he largely attributes to misperceptions about the success of Asian families. "People think we're overly affluent, we overspend, we're all smart or go to good Ivy League schools," he said. The reality is that Asian-Pacific Islanders (APIs) "have the widest income disparity of any community. To pick on the city where I live right now,  New York City, 50% of Asian people under the age of 18 live in abject poverty."

To try and address that imbalance, Gold House has since its outset cultivated an invite-only API founder network and built for them a kind of accelerator program called Gold Rush, wherein founders received advice and mentorship without any dollars or equity exchanged.

Now, to more actively empower founders who can't access the corner office to create their own, Gold House has closed a debut, $30 million venture fund  -- money for which is coming from dozens of heavy hitters, including DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, Olympian Nathan Chen, TV host Padma Lakshmi, and a slew of venture firms (Accel, GGV Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tribe Capital, among them).

More here.

Kinara Capital, an 11-year-old, Bangalore, India-based outfit that provides flexible collateral-free loans to small business entrepreneurs, has raised $50 million in Series E funding led by Nuveen, with participation from Triple Jump. The Economic Times has more here. 

The Sandbox, a 10-year-old, decentralized platform that allows users to trade and monetize virtual assets in the Ethereum blockchain (CEO Arthur Madrid is based in San Francisco), is considering raising fresh funds at a valuation of more than $4 billion, according to Bloomberg. Sandbox is currently majority-owned by blockchain gaming developer Animoca Brands. More here.

Tessera Therapeutics, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that was founded by Flagship Pioneering and is experimenting with a technology called gene writing to fight cancer, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and multiple liver diseases, has raised over $300 million in Series C funding. Backers in the round include ADIA, Alaska Permanent Fund, Artis Ventures, and March Capital, among half a dozen other backers. Bloomberg has more here.

ThreatLocker, a five-year-old, Maitland, Fla.-based cybersecurity platform that prevents malware from running on companies’ information technology infrastructure, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by General Atlantic, with participation from earlier backers Elephant VC and Arthur Ventures. SiliconAngle has more here.

Unlearn.AI, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that's trying to accelerate drug development by pioneering computational clinical trials, has raised $50 million in Series B funding from Insight Partners, Radical Ventures, 8VC, DCVC, DCVC Bio and Mubadala Investment Company. TechCrunch has more here.

Abhi, a year-old, Karachi, Pakistan-based startup offering workers their earned wages faster (with interest), has raised $17 million in Series A funding. Speedinvest led the round, joined by Global Ventures, VentureSouq, VEF, and half a dozen other backers. Bloomberg has more here. 

BlockApps, a seven-year-old, New York-based enterprise blockchain platform, has raised $41 million in funding led by Liberty City Ventures. Other backers in the round include Morgan Creek Digital, Eidetic Ventures, Givic and earlier backers ConsenSys, Bloccelerate, Fitz Gate Ventures, Arab Angels, Kenetic Capital and PropelX. The outfit has now raised $50 million altogether. TechCrunch has the story here.

Blue Spark, a 10.5-year-old, Cleveland, Oh.-based maker of remote patient monitoring wearables, has raised $40 million in funding led by GT Investment Partners. FierceBiotech has more here.

Demostack, a 20-month-old, San Francisco-based startup creating a “demo experience” platform for software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales teams, has raised $34 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures, GTMfund, Operator Collective, and StepStone.  TechCrunch has more here.

Gravity Sketch, an eight-year-old, London-based VR-based design and collaboration platform that allows distributed teams to create, share, and build in 3D, has raised $33 million in Series A funding led by Accel, with participation from GV and earlier backers Kindred Capital, Point Nine and Forward Partners, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

NOICE, a two-year-old, Indonesia-based audio streaming startup focused on podcasts, radio, audiobooks, and live audio, has raised $22 million in Series A funding led by Northstar, with participation from earlier backers Alpha JWC Go-Ventures and Kinesys. TechCrunch has more here.

NovoPayment, a 15-year-old, Miami, Fla.-based full-stack banking API outfit, has raised $19 million in Series A funding co-led by Fuel VC and IDC Ventures, with participation from Visa and Endeavor Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.

NUE Life Health, a two-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based remote mental health platform that incorporates psychedelics, has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Obvious Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Playbook, a 2.5-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that describes itself as a “creative file manager for designers” where “Pinterest meets Dropbox,” has raised $18 million in funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Vetster, a two-year-old, Toronto-based pet care marketplace, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Kensington Capital Partners led the round, joined by X&Y and earlier backers Whitecap Venture Partners and Brightspark Ventures. More here.

Zetaris, a nearly nine-year-old Australia-based data virtualization platform, has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Exto Partners, with participation from In-Q-Tel and Vulpes Ventures. Australia's Financial Review has more here.

Glacier, a three-year-old, L.A.-based recycling robotics company, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by NEA, with participation from former GE CEO Jeff Immelt, former Uber CPO Manik Gupta and Climate Tech VC co-founder Sophie Purdom. TechCrunch has more here.

Meter Feeder, a 7.5-year-old, Braddock, Pa.-based mobile parking and ticket paying platform, has raised $2.6 million in seed extension funding led by Trucks VC, which contributed $2 million to the round and was joined by Precursor Ventures, along with two other (unnamed) venture firms. Pittsburgh Inno has more here.

Vyng, a seven-year-old,  L.A.-based Android app that lets users earn bitcoin when making phone calls (users set videos as ringtones for friends, playing a fresh video on the lockscreen with every call), has raised $5 million from March Capital Partners, Newbound Venture Capital, Alpha Edison and Omidyar Network. More here.

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 Miguel Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Capchase, an alternative finance platform for SaaS businesses. Titled "The Best Reason to Drop Out of Harvard Business School," Miguel and Bradley discuss the startup ecosystem in Spain, and how Capchase works alongside venture capital dollars for startups.

Construct Capital, a two-year-old, New York and Washington, D.C.-based venture firm cofounded by former NEA partner Dayna Grayson and former Uber exec Rachel Holt, has closed its second fund with $225 million in capital commitments, along with a separate, $75 million opportunity-style fund to invest more money in its breakout portfolio companies. The firm focuses largely on manufacturing, supply chain and industrial startups. The Information has more here.

In a bid to position its brand as more tech-forward — and foster more efficiency through innovation — Chipotle Mexican Grill just launched Cultivate Next, a venture fund run by Curt Garner, the restaurant chain’s chief technology officer. Chipotle says that Cultivate Next, which will be financed solely by Chipotle to start, has $50 million to focus on seed- to Series B-stage startups. TechCrunch has more here.

Framework Ventures, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based crypto venture capital firm, raised its third fund totaling $400 million and plans to dedicate one half to blockchain games and one half to startups in Web3 and DeFi. Decrypt has more here.

Conductive Ventures, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm that invests in expansion-stage companies with a focus on enterprise software and hardware, says it has closed its third fund with $200 million in capital commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Mainsail Partners, a 19-year-old, San Francisco- based growth equity firm that opened a second office in Austin, Tex., last year, has raised $915 million in capital commitments for its sixth growth equity fund. Austin Inno has more here.

Square Peg Capital, a 10-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based venture firm, is raising $550 million for its fourth fund. TechCrunch notes that half of the firm’s last $275 million fund was invested in Southeast Asia. Across all its funds, Square Peg has now invested a total of about $250 million in Southeast Asia, across 18 companies in the region. More here.

Brex, the richly valued fintech that provides charge cards and other financial services to startups, has acquired Pry Financials, a three-year-old software platform with tools designed to enable budgeting, bookkeeping and forecasting, for $90 million. Pry Financials had raised $4.2 million in seed funding last year, including from Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital and Pioneer Fund. Brex didn't disclose if the deal included cash or stock or a mix or both. More here.

Publicly traded Robinhood has agreed to buy Ziglu, a four-year-old, London-based fintech app that allows users to trade bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies. (It is one of the few crypto concerns that has managed to register with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, reports CNBC.) The acquisition will help in Robinhood's expansion plans in the U.K. and Europe, said Robinhood, which tried, and later scrapped plans, to launch in Europe in 2020. The companies did not disclose the deal price, but Ziglu was valued at $110 million during its last fundraising round last fall. More here.

Elon Musk has given fresh fuel to speculation he would launch a tender offer for Twitter shares in the event that the board resists his proposal to acquire 100% of the company and take it private. Relatedly, his $43 billion bid to take Twitter private is struggling to draw interest from several large institutions with the financial firepower to pull off such a large leveraged buyout, reports The Financial Times. It says Blackstone Group, Vista Equity Partners and Brookfield Asset Management are among those that have already bowed out over questions regarding how much more profit can be wrung out of Twitter. 

Touchdown Ventures, which manages the corporate venture efforts of a wide number of companies, just announced a bunch of promotions. More here.

The head of advertising-technology company Trade Desk received a pay package last year that the company valued at more than $800 million — and which could leave him holding billions of dollars in additional shares.

Betaworks Ventures, the product-focused, seed-stage venture capital fund, is looking to hire a senior associate/principal. The full-time job is in New York.

The tech bubble that never burst. 

Teachers' Venture Growth, the rebranded venture capital arm of the powerful Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, says it's more interested than ever in late-stage deals as hedge funds like Tiger Global retrench.

Prominent civil rights attorneys are suing Amazon on behalf of five victims of a deadly Amazon warehouse collapse in Edwardsville, Illinois caused by a tornado in December; they say the company failed to let its workers heed tornado warnings and accuse it of negligence in its warehousing construction and maintenance.

The less glamorous side of Coachella.

The Supreme of baby clothes.

The most -- and least -- affordable cities to buy a home.

Glasses made in Murano.

A touch of Miami in Beverly Hills. 💰

Startup founders have enough to worry about without stressing over their company’s next round of financing. Unburden yourself by raising an equity crowdfunding round through SeedInvest, and get instantly connected to the platform’s community of more than 600,000 investors who are ready and willing to back your business. Hundreds of startups have found success on SeedInvest, and yours could be next! Find out more or apply today at go.seedinvest.com/vc.