Tootfinder

Multi-stakeholder Workshop Launches Common Good Cyber to Fund Organizations that Secure the Internet
https://commongoodcyber.org/multi-stakeholder-workshop-launches-common-good-cyber-to-fund-organizations-that-secure-the-internet/

Hedge-Fund Tycoon Kyle Bass Mocked for Whining About $85 Room Service Breakfast (Emily Shugerman/The Daily Beast)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hedge-fund-tycoon-kyle-bass-mocked-about-dollar85-room-service-breakfast
http://www.memeorandum.com/240228/p90#a240228p90

CNN: Pentagon considers tapping into remaining $4 billion in Ukraine defense aid fund: https://benborges.xyz/2024/02/28/cnn-pentagon-considers.html

Cry-laugh-cry at this piece on #Ukraine and the comedian auctioning the absurd to raise money.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2…

Billionaires tried to fund $450 million bond before Trump acknowledged lack of money, sought lower amount - National Zero
https://nationalzero.com/2024/03/25/billionaires-tried-to-fund-450…

Source: Cognition, which offers an AI coding assistant, raised $175M led by Founders Fund at a $2B valuation, a month after a Series A at a $350M valuation (Kate Clark/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/si

Six-Month-Old AI Coding Startup Valued at $2 Billion by Founders Fund
The promise of a chatbot that can write and fix code has attracted repeat investments in a six-month-old startup—even after it appeared to flub its product launch. Founders Fund has led a $175 million investment in Cognition, a startup that recently launched an artificial intelligence–powered ...

I think it’s more important than ever that we fund a plurality of implementations of the “twitter-like” Fediverse.
I have a nagging suspicion that Mastodon will fall victim to the embrace, extend, extinguish action of some major corporation or VC money rather soon. It is clearly the most valuable platform with the greatest number of users today, and has obvious points of failure (Eugen’s corporation being the primary one). The best defense is to have multiple strong, popular implementa…

Tomorrow at 11:15, volunteer kickoff for the @…! Get trained to collect signatures so we can tax Uber, Lyft and Waymo to fund Muni. #sfPol

Sources: The Center for Public Integrity is considering merging with a competitor or shutting down, after falling ~$2.5M short of its $6M budget goal for 2023 (Benjamin Mullin/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/busines

Center for Public Integrity Weighs Merger or Shutdown Amid Dire Financial Straits
The nonprofit had a budget shortfall of roughly $2.5 million last year amid a difficult market for fund-raising.

Gov. Moore's proposed budget would slash bus and train service across Maryland. But the legislature can fix it.
If you live in Maryland, tell your state senator to fully fund transit, with no cuts in service. On this web page, you can look up your senator's name and send them an email. https://actfo…

Action Committee for Transit

Judge rules John Eastman should be disbarred over efforts to overturn 2020 election 
“In view of the circumstances surrounding Eastman’s misconduct and balancing the aggravation and mitigation, the court recommends that Eastman be disbarred,” Roland wrote in a 128-page decision.
The judge also recommended that Eastman be ordered to pay $10,000 in monetary sanctions to the State Bar of California Client Security Fund.
Eastman’s legal team said he would appeal Wednesday’s r…

Judge rules John Eastman should be disbarred over efforts to overturn 2020 election 
A California judge recommended disbarring a lawyer at the center of former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election on Wednesday.  State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland found John Eastman culpable on 10 of the 11 counts filed by the California State Bar last year. The state bar sought to strip…

How Trump Moved Money to Pay $100 Million in Legal Bills (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/27/us/politics/trump-cases-legal-fund.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/240327/p38#a240327p38

Game jam: TTRPGs for Palestine
"this game jam will be put together in a bundle to benefit a Palestinian relief charity, either Palestine Children's Relief Fund or Doctors Without Borders."
https://itch.io/jam/ttrpgs-for-palestine

How does Leonard Leo dodge laws while pushing Christian extremism? Follow the money!
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/03/25/leonard-leo-crc-advisors-under-investigation-heritage-foundation-…

Leonard Leo dodge laws while pushing Christian extremism
No one is above the law - even Leonard Leo. Stacking the Supreme Court and scheming to replace American democracy with theocracy through Project 2025

🥵 California in a jam after borrowing billions to pay unemployment benefits
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-04-18/california-borrowed-billions-to-pay-jobless-benefits-but-now-its-come…

State faces mounting pressure to shore up unstable jobless aid fund
California’s massive budget deficit, coupled with the state’s relatively high level of joblessness, has become a major barrier to reducing the billions of dollars of debt it has incurred to pay unemployment benefits.

Zum Glück steht hier ums Eck ein Ein-Mann-Bunker 🚶
https://www.mopo.de/hamburg/polizei/wieder-bombenalarm-in-hamburg-raffinerie-gelaende-in-gefahr/

Celestial AI, which develops optical tech for linking together processors and memory modules, raised a $175M Series C led by US Innovative Technology Fund (Maria Deutscher/SiliconANGLE)
https://siliconangle.com/2024/03/27/op

Optical interconnect developer Celestial AI raises $175M in fresh funding - SiliconANGLE
Optical interconnect developer Celestial AI raises $175M in fresh funding - SiliconANGLE

Withdrawal Success Optimization in a Pooled Annuity Fund
Hayden Brown
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17164 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.171…

Withdrawal Success Optimization in a Pooled Annuity Fund
Consider a closed pooled annuity fund investing in n assets with discrete-time rebalancing. At time 0, each annuitant makes an initial contribution to the fund, committing to a predetermined schedule of withdrawals. Require annuitants to be homogeneous in the sense that their initial contributions and predetermined withdrawal schedules are identical, and their mortality distributions are identical and independent. Under the forementioned setup, the probability for a particular annuitant to comp…

In light of massive public expenditure on the maintenance of infrastructure necessary for personal automobiles, not to mention the climate crisis, I've long thought that free commercial parking in cities is an abomination. If you happen to live in Toronto, you may wish to send a message to your councillor asking that the city implement a commercial parking levy for the support of the TTC.

TAKE ACTION: Tell your City Councillor and the Mayor to fund transit with a Commercial Parking Lot Levy
Act now: tell your Member of Parliament to step up and support a new funding deal for Toronto to help meet our climate goals, and make our city more liveable, affordable, and resilient for all.

Tomorrow at 11:15, volunteer kickoff for the @…! Get trained to collect signatures so we can tax Uber, Lyft and Waymo to fund Muni. #sfPol

European Peace Facility on the Warpath Written by Anton Khimiak, analyst – Hybrid Warfare Analytical Group/UCMC On March 18, the EU Foreign Affairs Council agreed to provide an additional €5 billion i Source : https://uacrisis.org/en/european-peace-facility-on-the-warpath…

This alum pastor won’t stop until he’s raised $1 million to fund scholarship endowment for YDS students.
Read our new "Joy of Giving" interview with California minister John Goldstein '80 M.Div. about the new YDS scholarship fund he started with his wife, Judith.

'The Seattle Police Dept. (SPD) came to City Hall Tuesday to help Council Pres. Nelson shut up her political enemies, which included asylum-seekers & lefty allies. The groups attended the public comment period of the meeting to ask the City once again to fund housing for 100s of refugees who will face homelessness if they do not win more funding.'
Police Arrest Six of Sara Nelson’s Political Enemies After She Refuses to Hear Concerns of Asylum-Seekers - The Stranger
…

Police Arrest Six of Sara Nelson’s Political Enemies After She Refuses to Hear Concerns of Asylum-Seekers
It is becoming more and more clear everyday that Nelson and her cronies are opposed to hearing from the left, even through the so-called appropriate channels.

Celestial AI, which develops optical tech for linking together processors and memory modules, raised a $175M Series C led by US Innovative Technology Fund (Maria Deutscher/SiliconANGLE)
https://siliconangle.com/2024/03/27/op

Optical interconnect developer Celestial AI raises $175M in fresh funding - SiliconANGLE
Optical interconnect developer Celestial AI raises $175M in fresh funding - SiliconANGLE

So the @… is going to be jumping to another instance as they cannot maintain/fund their own server.
Their Mastodon and PeerTube server will close on May 18th.
I'm sure the EU Commission to spend a few euros for a Masto.host instance, no? (Even if it means to have a single user instance... idk)
https://social.network.europa.eu/@EU_Commission/112338626558805977

Hedge Fund Index Rules and Construction
David Xiao
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.15925 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.15925

Hedge Fund Index Rules and Construction
A Hedge Fund Index is very useful for tracking the performance of hedge fund investments, especially the timing of fund redemption. This paper presents a methodology for constructing a hedge fund index that is more like a quantitative fund of fund, rather than a weighted sum of a number of early replicable market indices, which are re-balanced periodically. The constructed index allows hedge funds to directly hedge their exposures to index-linked products. That is important given that hedge fun…

Frau und Tochter tot - Doppelmörder aus Wien richtete sich selbst #News #Nachrichten…

Fund manager indicates Jim Biden was in business with Qatari officials (Ben Schreckinger/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/28/jim-biden-qatar-testimony-00154704
http://www.memeorandum.com/240428/p10#a240428p10

Joe Biden here.
Donald Trump just won the South Carolina GOP primary, and will be his party’s presumptive nominee for president.
Last time we ran against each other, over six million grassroots supporters chipped in to fund a race that could defeat him. You read that right. Six million.
So, I am counting on you to contribute now:

I just gave to Biden Victory Fund!
Show your support with a contribution.

"Farmers" with Soviet flags blocking borders between Poland and Ukraine are almost certainly an example of russian hybrid warfare. This is the standard playbook also used during the cold war. Destabilize where you can, support and fund actors that can help you with that.
#Geopolitics @…

Fondation Mozilla - Mozilla Technology Fund (MTF)
https://foundation.mozilla.org/fr/what-we-fund/awards/mozilla-technology-fund-mtf/

Mozilla Technology Fund (MTF)
Le Mozilla Technology Fund (MTF) soutient des expert·e·s de l’open source dont les travaux favorisent des approches prometteuses pour résoudre des problèmes urgents relatifs à la santé d’Internet.

I'm excited by the idea of going to mars. I always have been.
I've always been excited by SpaceX's plan to go to mars. Nasa will certainly fund something and we will certainly do something wild, I'm sure.
But It's become so clear to me the past several years that after that there is no money. I've not heard one plan that makes sense to make money to fund trips to mars. There seem to be zero plans and it's embarrassing for everyone involved (and me)

Google's charitable wing Google.org launches a generative AI accelerator, to be funded by $20M in grants and include 21 nonprofits to start, including Quill.org (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/28/google-org-…

Google.org launches $20M generative AI accelerator program | TechCrunch
Google.org, Google's charitable wing, is launching a new program to help fund nonprofits developing tech that leverages generative AI. Called Google.org

I think people unfairly attacked #ZachBraff for using #Kickstarter to fund his movie. I think the film industry would be in better shape if that had become a model.
There are many #filmmakers

Join the #SEO for Paws Charity Live Stream on 29th Feb!
Fund-Raising Live Stream for Cats and Dogs Shelters in Ukraine. With some great SEO talks.
https://fajela.com/paws/

In four months, Israel has murdered 100 journalists.
“On Monday 26 February join the special day to #SupportPalestinianJournalists.
The needs of our colleagues working in Gaza have become critical. In the middle of winter, they lack the essentials of clothes, blankets, tents, food and water. Basic goods, where they are available, are no longer affordable.”

International Day for Palestinian Journalists
On Monday 26 February join the special day to #SupportPalestinianJournalists.

Sources: RedBird IMI prepares to withdraw its Telegraph bid as early as next week, triggering an auction expected to draw bids from Rupert Murdoch and others (Financial Times)
https://t.co/4lQ0jpC3CB

Avail, a modular blockchain project spun out of Polygon in 2023 to streamline the rollup experience, raised a $27M seed co-led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly (Yogita Khatri/The Block)
https://www.theblock.co/post/279095/peter-thiel-founders-fund-avail-f…

"What comes after FOSS?"
Not a question you hear discussed very often.
https://infrastructureinsights.fund/projects/what-comes-after-foss/

(What Comes) After FOSS? - Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund
Open Calls & Research Commissions

George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests (Isabel Vincent/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/us-news/george-soros-maoist-fund-columbias-anti-israel-tent-city/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240426/p42#a240426p42

"Solar is about to get a lot more affordable for low-income households"
#US #USA #America #Solar

Solar is about to get a lot more affordable for low-income households
The EPA’s historic, $7B Solar for All program will help every state fund solar projects for lower-income residents. In many states, that will be a first.

George Soros is paying student radicals who are fueling nationwide explosion of Israel-hating protests (Isabel Vincent/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/us-news/george-soros-maoist-fund-columbias-anti-israel-tent-city/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240426/p42#a240426p42

Republican billionaires rally around Trump for April fundraiser as election – and scramble for cash – heats up
Hedge fund founder #John #Paulson is hosting a high-dollar fundraiser next month to benefit Donald Trump’s presidential campaign that is drawing some of the Republican Party’s wealthiest donors, according to …

DemLabs mapped states where Republicans banned abortions and misused tax dollars to fund Anti-Abortion Centers.
These states have the worst prenatal care and no abortion clinics.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/02/16/anti-abortio…

Republicans force women to fund anti-abortion centers
The taxes you pay are meant to improve your life, not for MAGA Republicans to misuse for their political agenda and fund anti abortion centers.

Abbott's donor fund to pay for migrant buses sits at 0.3% of goal - National Zero
https://nationalzero.com/2024/03/16/abbotts-donor-fund-to-pay-for-migrant-buses-sits-at-0-3-of-goal/

Shmyhal: Ukraine receives $880 million from IMF: https://benborges.xyz/2024/03/26/shmyhal-ukraine-receives.html

NY-based Campus, which is building an online alternative to traditional community colleges, raised a $23M Series A extension following a $29M Series A in 2023 (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/23/camp

Campus, a community college startup, receives $23M Series A extension led by Founders Fund | TechCrunch
Although many students in the United States enter community colleges intending to transfer to four-year universities, only 16% of those students receive A year after closing a $29 million Series A, the online community college raised additional capital for fueling growth.

Court filings show that Soros Fund Management could become the biggest shareholder of Audacy when the radio and podcast company emerges from bankruptcy (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-14/sor…

Soros Fund Set to Own Biggest Audacy Stake After Bankruptcy
Soros Fund Management is positioned to become the biggest shareholder of Audacy Inc. when the radio and podcast company emerges from bankruptcy.

🏦 New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech
#finance

New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech | TechCrunch
The EPA awarded $20 billion in grants to kickstart loans and equity investing in climate technologies across the country.

DemLabs mapped states where Republicans banned abortions and misused tax dollars to fund Anti-Abortion Centers.
These states have the worst prenatal care and no abortion clinics.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/02/16/anti-abortio…

Republicans force women to fund anti-abortion centers
The taxes you pay are meant to improve your life, not for MAGA Republicans to misuse for their political agenda and fund anti abortion centers.

Google plans to invest $2B to set up a data center in Indiana and $1B to expand three Virginia sites, and announces a $75M fund to train Americans on AI skills (Yuvraj Malik/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-

Denmark announces additional $633 million in military support to Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2024/04/25/denmark-announces-additional.html

BlackRock and JPMorgan back $15 billion fund to rebuild Ukraine
https://qz.com/blackrock-jpmorgan-private-investors-ukraine-fund-1851334929

BlackRock and JPMorgan are backing a $15 billion investor fund to rebuild Ukraine
It would cost almost half-a-trillion dollars to reconstruct Ukraine

The Senate overwhelmingly gave final approval at 2 AM Saturday morning to a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund more than half of the government, effectively averting a shutdown by sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk just hours after a midnight deadline.
The 74-to-24 vote capped an extraordinary day on Capitol Hill that began with a big bipartisan vote to speed the measure through the House, which set off a conservative revolt and prompted one Republican to threaten a bid …

Congress Passes Spending Bill in Wee Hours to Fend Off Shutdown
After hours of delay, the Senate overwhelmingly voted for the $1.2 trillion bill to fund more than half of the government, sending the measure to President Biden’s desk.

🏦 New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech
#finance

New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech | TechCrunch
The EPA awarded $20 billion in grants to kickstart loans and equity investing in climate technologies across the country.

Rudy Giuliani's defense fund could lose massive donation over new lawsuit - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/rudy-giuliani-s-defense-fund-could-lose-massive-donation-over-new-lawsuit/

Rudy Giuliani's defense fund could lose massive donation over new lawsuit
A lawsuit filed in Georgia seeks to recover a $100,000 donation to Rudy Giuliani's legal defense fund. The donation came from Matthew Martorano, a Donald Trump supporter accused of participating in an online skincare product scam.The lawsuit alleges that the donation should be returned to victims of...

Apollo-backed US investment group Concord increases its bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, to $1.5B, just over the last offer from Blackstone (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)
https://t.co/n2TvO5EPtP

Filings: Sam Altman is the sole owner of the OpenAI Startup Fund, which reported $175M in total commitments in May 2023; Microsoft is an outside limited partner (Dan Primack/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/15/sam-altman-openai-startup-fund

Sam Altman owns OpenAI's venture capital fund
"We now know that we may need to re-examine our governance structure."

Filings: Sam Altman is the sole owner of the OpenAI Startup Fund, which reported $175M in total commitments in May 2023; Microsoft is an outside limited partner (Dan Primack/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/15/sam-altman-openai-startup-fund

Sam Altman owns OpenAI's venture capital fund
"We now know that we may need to re-examine our governance structure."

Planned Parenthood Action Fund backs Gallego in Arizona Senate race (Caroline Vakil/The Hill)
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4544024-planned-parenthood-action-fund-backs-gallego-in-arizona-senate-race/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240320/p22#a240320p22

Nelson Peltz backs Bob Iger, saying his proxy fight is with Disney's board for botching "its most important job, CEO succession, by installing Bob Chapek" (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/disney-nelso…

Nelson Peltz Backs Bob Iger, Says Proxy Fight Is About the Board
Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management says Disney's board, not Bob Iger, is the problem.

Ukraine war latest: EU ambassadors approve $5.5 billion for Ukraine defense fund in 2024: https://benborges.xyz/2024/03/13/ukraine-war-latest.html

Russia has faced a historic slew of penalties from Washington, Brussels and beyond since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
The punishments, chiefly economic sanctions, were designed in large part to drain Russia’s coffers so it would struggle to fund its war.
And more pain has been promised as both the U.S. and EU unveiled new sanctions against Russia this week, some tied to the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Yet, two ye…

Eliyan, which is developing chiplet interconnects to increase AI chips' performance, raised a $60M Series B co-led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and Tiger Global (Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat)
https://venturebeat.com/ai/eliyan-raises-60m…

Eliyan raises $60M for chiplet interconnects that speed up AI chips
Eliyan has raised $60 million in funding for its chiplet interconnect technology that speeds up the processing for AI chips.

Solar for All -- Under the $7 billion Solar for All program, the 60 selected applicants ... (US EPA)
https://www.epa.gov/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund/solar-all
http://www.memeorandum.com/240422/p65#a240422p65

African tech investor TLcom Capital raised $154M for a new fund, attracting US and Europe investment; Africa-focused VCs have raised $655M since November 2023 (Aanu Adeoye/Financial Times)
https://t.co/DIlRCef7e1

FT: EU nears deal on adding $5.5 billion to defense fund for Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2024/03/12/ft-eu-nears.html

Pomelo, a "send now, pay later" startup that lets users in the US send money in the form of credit to people in the Philippines, raised a $35M Series A (Mary Ann Azevedo/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/22/pome

'Send now, pay later' startup Pomelo lands $35M Series A from secretive Vy Capital, Founders Fund | TechCrunch
VY Capital led the raise, which was among Keith Rabois’s last deals before his departure from Founders Fund.

Report for America's head says it is ending support of hedge fund-owned newsrooms to "prioritize partners that will be springboards for the next generation" (Kim Kleman/Poynter)
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/re

Why Report for America will no longer place corps members in hedge fund-owned publications - Poynter
Our program must focus on areas where it has the most impact, RFA executive director Kim Kleman writes

Private equity firm attracts $350 million to support Ukrainian businesses, exceeding target by $100 million: https://benborges.xyz/2024/02/23/private-equity-firm.html

Council of Europe unanimously votes to use seized Russian assets to fund Ukraine reconstruction, compensation (Alice Taylor/Euractiv)
https://www.euractiv.com/section/europe-s-east/news/council-of-europe-unanimously-votes-to-use-seized-russian-assets-to-fund-ukraine-reconstruction-compensation/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240417/p69#a240417p69

The government of Saudi Arabia plans to create a fund of about $40 billion to invest in artificial intelligence, according to three people briefed on the plans — the latest sign of the gold rush toward a technology that has already begun reshaping how people live and work.
In recent weeks, representatives of #Saudi #Arabia

An interview with Pivot Fund CEO Tracie Powell on the organization's work and approach, its US Midwest expansion, news landscape analysis, Press Forward, more (Sophie Culpepper/Nieman Lab)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/with-mid…

With Midwest expansion, the Pivot Fund tries to put grassroots news sources on philanthropy’s radar
“If we really want to serve communities that are increasingly tuning us out, increasingly unsubscribing, increasingly looking the other way — my God, we’ve got to go to the communities directly.”

SoftBank Vision Funds co-CEO Alex Clavel says the fund is "looking very carefully" at generative AI firms, as SoftBank embraces a cautious investment approach (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-…

SoftBank’s Vision Fund Returns to Investing “Timidly”
Once known for bestowing ten-figure valuations, the firm is now embracing a more modest approach

Ukrainian crowdfunding campaign raises $7.8 million for sea drone fleet in record 36 hours: https://benborges.xyz/2024/02/23/ukrainian-crowdfunding-campaign.html

SoftBank Vision Funds co-CEO Alex Clavel says the fund is "looking very carefully" at generative AI firms, as SoftBank embraces a cautious investment approach (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-…

SoftBank’s Vision Fund Returns to Investing “Timidly”
Once known for bestowing ten-figure valuations, the firm is now embracing a more modest approach

Legal Defense Fund For Trump Allies Has Spent $478,000 This Year But Next To Nothing On Attorneys' Fees (Zach Everson/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2024/04/16/trump-patriot-legal-defense-fund-allies-attorney-fees/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240416/p52#a240416p52

Music rights investor Concord agrees to buy Hipgnosis Songs Fund in a deal valuing the song catalog company at ~$1.4B, capping a period of turmoil for Hipgnosis (Amy Thomson/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Concord to Buy Hipgnosis in $1.4 Billion Song Catalog Deal
Concord, a music rights investor, has agreed to buy Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd. in a deal that values the song catalog company at about $1.4 billion.

BlackRock unveils its first tokenized asset fund, BUIDL, built on the Ethereum network and fully backed by cash, US Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements (Krisztian Sandor/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/2<…

Left-Wing Dark Money Behemoth Behind Bail Fund for 'Free Palestine' Bridge Blockers (Jessica Costescu/Washington Free Beacon)
https://freebeacon.com/israel/left-wing-dark-money-behemoth-behind-bail-fund-for-free-palestine-bridge-blockers/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240415/p72#a240415p72

Sources: China is in the process of raising $27B for its largest chip fund ever to counter US curbs, with most of the capital expected from local governments (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024…

China Readies Record $27 Billion Chip Fund To Counter Growing US Tech Curbs
China is in the process of raising more than $27 billion for its largest chip fund to date, accelerating the development of cutting-edge technologies to counter a US campaign to thwart its rise.

Left-Wing Dark Money Behemoth Behind Bail Fund for 'Free Palestine' Bridge Blockers (Jessica Costescu/Washington Free Beacon)
https://freebeacon.com/israel/left-wing-dark-money-behemoth-behind-bail-fund-for-free-palestine-bridge-blockers/
http://www.memeorandum.com/240415/p72#a240415p72

Sources: Tiger raised ~$2.2B for its latest fund, well short of the $6B target and its smallest fundraising haul in about a decade, after raising a $12.7B fund (Hema Parmar/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Tiger Global VC Fund Closes 63% Below Target With $2.2 Billion
Tiger Global Management gathered about $2.2 billion for its latest venture-capital fund, well short of a $6 billion target and its smallest fundraising haul in roughly a decade, according to people familiar with the matter.

Biden Signs Final Bill to Fund the Government, Ending Shutdown Fears (Aishvarya Kavi/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/23/us/politics/biden-signs-spending-bill.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/240323/p33#a240323p33

Filing: Sam Altman no longer controls the OpenAI Startup Fund, which has a $325M gross asset value; Ian Hathaway, who has helped manage the fund, is in charge (Dan Primack/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/01/sam-altman-openai-startup-fund

Sam Altman no longer owns OpenAI Startup Fund
Ian Hathaway is now in charge.

More than 23M US households risk losing internet access by the end of April as Congress fails to fund the Affordable Connectivity Program due to GOP opposition (Brian Fung/CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/23/tech/acp-affordable-connectivity-program/…

More than 23M US households risk losing internet access by the end of April as Congress fails to fund the Affordable Connectivity Program due to GOP opposition (Brian Fung/CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/23/tech/acp-affordable-connectivity-program/…

Foundry Group, an 18-year-old VC firm with nearly $3.5B in assets under management, has quietly decided to wind down and not raise any more funds (Mary Ann Azevedo/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/foundry-group-is-shutting…

Foundry Group is shutting down and won't raise another fund | TechCrunch
Foundry Group, an 18-year-old venture firm with nearly $3.5 B in assets, has quietly decided to shut down and not raise any more funds.

Foundry Group, an 18-year-old VC firm with nearly $3.5B in assets under management, has quietly decided to wind down and not raise any more funds (Mary Ann Azevedo/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/foundry-group-is-shutting…

Foundry Group is shutting down and won't raise another fund | TechCrunch
Foundry Group, an 18-year-old venture firm with nearly $3.5 B in assets, has quietly decided to shut down and not raise any more funds.

Filings from 2023 list Jacob Vespers as OpenAI Startup Fund's manager; OpenAI says "Vespers does not exist" and the docs are "fabricated", without elaborating (Darius Rafieyan/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-run

A seemingly fake person was running OpenAI's $175 million startup fund
Documents filed in California last year named Jacob Thomas Vespers as manager of the OpenAI Startup Fund but the company says he "does not exist."

Nominal, which offers tools for data analysis, testing, and more to startups building advanced hardware like drones, emerges from stealth with $27.5M in funding (Lizette Chapman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Lux, General Catalyst Back Startup Nominal to Aid Defense Tech Boom
Lux Capital, General Catalyst and Founders Fund have been backing a startup that wants to accelerate the creation of hardware used in space, energy and other sectors critical to national security.

Nominal, which offers tools for data analysis, testing, and more to startups building advanced hardware like drones, emerges from stealth with $27.5M in funding (Lizette Chapman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Lux, General Catalyst Back Startup Nominal to Aid Defense Tech Boom
Lux Capital, General Catalyst and Founders Fund have been backing a startup that wants to accelerate the creation of hardware used in space, energy and other sectors critical to national security.

Sources: crypto VC firm Paradigm is in talks to raise $750M to $850M for a new fund, which would be the largest since the crash; a16z raised $4.5B in May 2022 (Hannah Miller/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Crypto VC Paradigm in Talks to Raise Over $750 Million for Fund
More venture capitalists are racing to raise new funds following a crypto comeback.

Filings: SoftBank's stake in Paytm was ~5% in January vs. ~18.5% around Paytm's 2021 IPO; SoftBank says it sold most of its stake due to regulatory scrutiny (Min Jeong Lee/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

SoftBank Vision Fund Sold Paytm Stake Before Shares Plunged
SoftBank Group Corp. sold a majority of its stake in Paytm before regulatory scrutiny caused the once-celebrated Indian fintech firm’s shares to dive, according to the Vision Fund’s executive managing partner.

Sources: a16z expects to raise $6.5B to $7B for a master feeder fund, closing in early April; 50% would go to its fourth growth fund and 10% to its gaming fund (Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/06/andreessen-horowitz-7-billion-fundraise

Scoop: Andreessen Horowitz nears $7 billion fundraise
a16z is a venture capital "have," amidst a growing number of "have-nots."

Google partners with the Environmental Defense Fund to help track and attribute methane emissions observed by the MethaneSAT satellite, set to launch in March (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Google (GOOGL) and EDF Team Up to Track Methane Emissions from Space
The tech company will work with the Environmental Defense Fund to track some of the world’s most devastating and avoidable emissions observed by the nonprofit’s satellite.