Hi there, 

I know you’re probably sick of the Elon Musk-Twitter drama, but before we jump into the data, we’ve got a 2-step solution for Twitter.

So hear us out.

• Step 1: deactivate Musk’s Twitter account and cite some arbitrary ToS infraction  

• Step 2: charge Musk $10B to $44B to get his account back

The dude loves Twitter and it’s clearly one of his (and Tesla's) biggest marketing channels — so just hit him where it hurts. He seems to play by his own rules, so why shouldn’t Twitter?

People will then complain about Twitter on Twitter and the circle of life will continue.  

Twitter gets to avoid the Delaware Court of Chancery and gets to F with Musk, who has been F’ing with Twitter for months.

For those that know Parag or Bret over at Twitter, feel free to forward this to them.

Note: Before the Musk stans/fanboys get too agitated, here’s some research on the crazy amazing work he is doing to disrupt 8 different industries. He’s no doubt an incredible once-in-a-generation entrepreneur (and entertainer). But this Twitter chicanery is definitely next-level terrible and deserves to be checked.

Alright, let’s get to some isht that matters.

Top dogs slowing their startup investment pace

Funding is slowing down.

What are venture’s top dogs doing?

Surprise, surprise, they’ve also pulled back — 22% from Q1.

Case in point: Tiger Global, while still #1, invested in 86 companies in the second quarter compared to 120 in the first. 

So who’s not slowing down? 

Of those on the leaderboard, VC firm SOSV leapt into third place, backing 63 unique companies (up from 60) — the majority of which were already in its portfolio. a16z also kept financing activity relatively steady QoQ.

Get more details in our latest State of Venture Report. 

Buy now, pay lesser

Klarna’s valuation is down 85% in just over 12 months.

Valued at $45.6B in June 2021, the “buy now, pay later” company just raised $800M at a $6.7B valuation. 

This marks its lowest valuation since August 2019, as you can see from the screenshot below of Klarna’s CB Insights profile.

It also means Klarna is no longer Europe’s most valuable unicorn — an honor that now belongs to the UK's Checkout.com ($40B valuation).

Now’s a good time to assess your startup equity’s value.

Calling it quits

The biggest SPAC ever is returning investors’ money. 

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman raised a record $4B for a SPAC in July 2020.

Now, Ackman is pulling the plug on it after failing to find a target company to take public.

The activist investor’s SPAC already had a turbulent path: it originally announced it would acquire 10% of Universal Music Group for $4B in an unusually engineered deal, but it soon dropped that plan after SEC scrutiny. 

Poor market performance of SPACs, regulatory probes, and the broader market downturn have flipped the “off switch” on SPAC mania.

Completed and announced mergers have slumped, while SPAC filings have also wavered since early 2021. 

Get the rundown on what SPACs are and the trend in 2022 here.

Blockchain scaling solutions 101

Blockchain developers face 3 challenges in what's known as the “blockchain trilemma”: decentralization, security, and speed.

Many layer-1 blockchains such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana have attempted to build a network that doesn't make any trade-offs in these areas, but none currently exist that completely incorporate them all.

However, stable network speeds are necessary for any well-oiled blockchain ecosystem. Many layer-2 scaling projects — which are built on top of layer-1 blockchains — have been developed to tackle this specific problem.

The team at Blockdata dives into what these various scaling solutions are and what to consider when building in the ecosystem.

Drug deals

Amazon has partnered with Fred Hutch to develop cancer vaccines.

The pair recently launched a Phase I trial, with Amazon providing scientific and machine learning support.

This marks another move in the online retail and tech giant’s push into the healthcare market.

Since 2016, Amazon has made inroads by forging dozens of strategic business partnerships, investing in startups, making acquisitions, and launching new business lines.

We mined the data on Amazon’s recent healthcare moves to identify its 5 most important strategic priorities. Clients can see our strategy map here.

TechCrunch. Alex Wilhelm (@alex) uses the CB Insights State of Venture Q2’22 Report to look at mega-round funding trends.

Bloomberg. Prarthana Prakash (@prarthprakash) digs into the CB Insights State of Venture Q2’22 Report.

Axios. Erin Brodwin (@erinbrodwin) covers the fall in digital health funding with CB Insights data.

P.S. Get the latest on startup valuations and exits in our upcoming State of Venture Q2’22 webinar. Save your spot here.