The very first day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, Judge Lewis Kaplan told Sam Bankman-Fried that—despite what his lawyers suggested—it was his criminal trial. If he wanted to take the stand and testify for the defense, that was ultimately his decision.
And he appears to have made up his mind.
Mark Cohen, SBF’s attorney, confirmed with the judge in a court hearing yesterday that SBF would testify. There are three other witnesses who will go before him—but he is still expected to take the stand later today.
This is week 4 of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial—the most significant criminal trial for the startup world since Theranos—and it’s been hard to pull away for too long.
As for SBF’s testimony, defendants typically choose not to testify at their own trial, as it poses the risk of self-incrimination. But this is SBF we are talking about. Ever since FTX blew up, SBF has made a series of attempts to talk his way out of things and explain what happened. (Maybe you recall the now infamous “I fucked up” thread) It’s very possible that SBF could end up being rather convincing to jurors. After all, he has a history of being able to captivate an audience. He raised, in total, a whopping $1.8 billion with a balance sheet that looked like this.
The alternative is that he puts his foot in his mouth, which could easily happen on cross-examination.
I guess we’ll find out today.
Carta blasts a note to clients…Yesterday clients of equity management startup Carta received an email from Carta CEO Henry Ward encouraging them to read the memo he published in response to my story from earlier this month as well as the Business Insider story published earlier this week. In his piece, Ward doesn’t contest the accuracy of my story, so I don’t feel the need to respond. Although I would like to point out that John Carreyrou was not the first journalist to investigate a startup. He did win two Pulitzers, but not for his reporting on Theranos.
See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- Oxide Computer Company, an Emeryville, Calif.-based developer of cloud computing technology, raised $44 million in Series A funding. Eclipse led the round and was joined by Intel Capital, Riot Ventures, Counterpart Ventures, and Rally Ventures.
- CentML, a Toronto, Canada-based platform for building and training AI models, raised $27 million in seed funding. Gradient Ventures led the round and was joined by Radical Ventures, NVIDIA, Deloitte Ventures, and Thomson Reuters Ventures.
- Cranium, a Short Hills, N.J.-based security and governance risk services provider for AI models, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Telstra Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors KPMG LLP and SYN Ventures.
- Cosmos Innovation, a Singapore-based developer of solar cell technology, raised $19.7 million in funding. Xora Innovation led the round and was joined by Innovation Endeavors, Two Sigma Ventures, and others.
- LegalMation, a Los Angeles, Calid.-based developer of AI models designed to automate aspects of the legal process, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Aquiline Technology Growth led the round and was joined by existing investors Motley Fool Ventures, REV Venture Partners, Key Venture Partners, Quick Set LLC, and Brentwood Investments.
- Eve, a remote-based developer of an AI legal assistant, raised $14 million in seed funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures led the round.
- OnsiteIQ, a New York City-based platform to monitor and track real estate construction projects, raised $14 million in Series B funding. Vertical Venture Partners led the round and was joined by RET Ventures.
- FounderSix, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based beauty brand incubator, raised $12 million in funding from KD Capital.
- Threedium, a London, U.K.-based provider of 3D and augmented reality technology, raised $11 million in Series A funding. Interpublic Group and Olma Partners led the round and was joined by Mesh Consensys, Reflexive Capital, Nirvana Family Office, Lyra Ventures, and others.
- FlyGuys, a Lafayette, La.-based provider of drone services for aerial imaging data acquisition, raised $10 million in Series A funding from Mitchell Capital, Advantage Capital, and others.
- Rymedi, a Greenville, S.C.-based platform for transferring health care data, raised $9 million in Series A funding. White Star Capital and RW3 led the round and were joined by Blockchange Ventures and others.
- Kota, a Dublin, Ireland-based employee insurance and retirement benefits platform, raised €5 million ($5.3 million) in seed funding. EQT Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors Northzone, Frontline Ventures, and others.
- Chkk, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based fortification platform for Kubernetes, an open source system that makes managing containerized applications easier, raised $5.2 million in seed funding. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by others.
- RadiantGraph, a San Francisco-based AI platform designed to increase customer engagement for health care companies, raised $5 million in seed funding. True Ventures and XYZ Ventures led the round and were joined by Remus Capital.
- Direqt, a Seattle, Wash.-based AI chatbot that directly interacts with readers on a publication’s website, raised $4.5 million in funding from Todd Parker, Dan Marino, Peter Callahan, and others.
- Klu, a London, U.K. and San Francisco-based platform for building and evaluating AI apps, raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding. Firstminute Capital led the round and was joined by others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- GCM Grosvenor acquired a minority stake in Excolere Equity Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Invafresh, backed by Tailwind Capital, acquired Whywaste, a Gothenburg, Sweden-based provider of markdowns and food waste management solutions for retail grocery stores. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Isto Biologics, a portfolio company of Thompson Street Capital Partners, merged with Advanced Biologics/Biologica Technologies, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based developer of biologic solutions across different medical specialties. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Pearl Street Equity acquired Famous Brands Franchising, a Salt Lake City, Utah.-based franchise business of Famous Brands and operator of the Mrs. Fields and TCBY brands. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Ridgemont Equity Partners recapitalized National Power, a Raleigh, N.C.-based service provider of value-added services related to the distribution, installation, upgrading, repair, and maintenance of AC and DC power systems, power solutions, cooling/ventilation equipment, and related infrastructure. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- RMA Companies, backed by OceanSound Partners, acquired Big Apple Group, a Hicksville, N.Y.-based testing and inspection services provider for public infrastructure projects. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- Mach Natural Resources, an Oklahoma City, Okla.-based oil and gas production company, raised $190 million in an offering of 10 million shares priced at $19. Bayou City Energy Management backs the company.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Revelation Partners, a Sausalito, Calif.-based venture capital firm, raised $608 million for its fourth fund focused on later-stage private health care companies.
PEOPLE
- SparkLabs Korea, a Seoul, South Korea-based venture capital firm, hired Daniel Kim as a venture partner for their new deeptech fund. Currently, he is also an engineering director at Meta.
Correction, Oct. 26, 2023: A previous version of this newsletter misstated that Daniel Kim had departed Meta. He is still with the company.
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