Good day. In 2013, Rob Rhinehart created Soylent, a meal-replacement drink, to do away with the inconvenience of, and time required for, preparing and eating food. The moment was immortalized in his blog post entitled, "How I Stopped Eating Food." 

Reviewers weren't always so enthusiastic about the product. There were also product recalls in 2016. Still, his startup went on to raise some $71.5 million from Andreessen Horowitz, GV and others.

Now Mr. Rhinehart, who stepped down as CEO of Soylent in 2017, is back raising a venture fund, MarsBio, focused on bioscience companies. More below in today's newsletter. 

And now on to the news...

From Soylent to VC. Rob Rhinehart, the biohacker known for co-founding meal-replacement drink startup Soylent Nutrition Inc., is raising a venture-capital fund to back early-stage bioscience companies, WSJ Pro's Heather Mack reports exclusively.

• Mr. Rhinehart said his firm, MarsBio, is seeking to raise up to $50 million to back Los Angeles-area startups working broadly across bioscience and biotechnology.
   
• MarsBio has invested in six startups to date, Mr. Rhinehart said. Portfolio companies include Karma Biotechnologies, a developer of drugs to treat autoimmune diseases that has raised nearly $3 million from investors including Khosla Ventures.
   
• Mr. Rhinehart has been a well-known figure in biotech circles since he co-founded Soylent in 2013. The nutrition drink was first marketed to engineers and other tech workers as a food replacement, and it attracted investors including GV and Andreessen Horowitz.

New fund alert. Venture-capital firm 83North, which targets Europe and Israel, has raised a new $300 million fund, WSJ Pro's Marc Vartabedian reports. The investment vehicle is 83North’s fifth fund targeting consumer and technology companies. The firm's total capital under management is roughly $1.1 billion. 83North targets startups in enterprise software, data and cloud, and financial technology.

RNA editing. An entrepreneur who previously led gene-editing company Intellia Therapeutics Inc. has now co-founded Korro Bio Inc., a startup pursuing drugs in the new field of RNA editing, WSJ Pro's Brian Gormley reports. Atlas Venture founded Korro last year and has joined with New Enterprise Associates to finance the company.

Media deal. Discovery Inc.-backed digital publisher Group Nine Media Inc. has agreed to acquire women-focused publisher PopSugar, the Journal's Benjamin Mullin and Lukas I. Alpert report. The all-stock deal values PopSugar at more than $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter, and will give its shareholders more than 30% ownership of the combined company. PopSugar's investors included Sequoia Capital and IVP.

Honda R&D acquired Drivemode Inc., which develops smartphone apps for car drivers, for an undisclosed amount. The Redwood City, Calif.- and Tokyo-based company was backed by investors including Incubate Fund.

Growth investor Winslow Capital Management has set its sights on raising $400 million for its second growth investment vehicle, Winslow Growth Capital Fund II LP, a securities filing shows. The goal doubles the firm’s first growth fund target of $200 million, which was set in 2013. The strategy invests in late-stage startups as well as more seasoned businesses, and has no performance benchmark, Winslow said in an August regulatory filing. Winslow is owned by Nuveen LLC, the asset management arm of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. Nuveen had about $226 billion in alternative assets under management at the end of June, according to its website.

Jump Capital closed a new $200 million fund. The Chicago- and New York-based firm makes Series A and B investments of $4 million to $10 million per company focused on the fintech, media, information technology/data infrastructure and business-to-business software-as-a-service sectors.

Dubai-based BECO Capital closed its second fund at $20 million above its initial $80 million target to make early-stage investments in technology startups in the Middle East and North African region. Limited partners in BECO Fund II included Rimco Investment, International Financial Corp., Al Waha Venture Capital Fund of Funds, Warba Bank, Watar Partners and KAAF Investments.

Accelmed is seeking to raise $100 million for its Accelmed Ventures II fund. The firm is based in Israel and invests in Israeli medical-device and digital-health startups. Last week, AngioDynamics Inc. purchased Accelmed portfolio company Eximo Medical Ltd. for $46 million upfront, with $20 million dependent on the achievement of milestones.

How Tim Cook won Donald Trump’s ear. The Apple CEO advocates for his company’s interests while avoiding a backlash from either employees or the president.

Meat, milk groups seek to defend supermarket turf. Dairy, beef products fight for shelf space with plant-based alternatives.

Bitcoin slumps as launch of Bakkt futures market disappoints. Cryptocurrency’s sales pitch has been hijacked by its own risks—from extreme volatility to market manipulations, fraud and theft.

How to support the widespread adoption of AI. Grow comfortable with being agile. 

Smaller medical providers get burned by ransomware. Cyberattacks are pummeling doctors, dentists and community hospitals around the U.S., causing some to turn away patients and others to shut down.

Doctors limit what to tell patients about their DNA test. Should They? Genetic scans provide lots of information, but only a fraction is returned to patients.

Teens ignored vaping warnings for years. Now, some are scared. At one high school outside Minneapolis, a principal says he’s finally starting to get through as students hear news of rising deaths and illnesses.

SoftBank founder is “embarrassed” by his investing record. (Fortune)

We’s banks are still worried. (Bloomberg)

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs make their own direct-listing pitches. (Bloomberg)

The backlash against Big Tech is on track to escalate in 2020. (Axios)

The challenge of AI in agriculture. (IEEE Spectrum)

AI increasingly calls the shots in financial markets. (The Economist)

Artificial blood developed for patients of any blood type. (Asahi Shimbun)

Tier Mobility, a Berlin-based electric scooter startup, raised $60 million in Series B funding led by Mubadala Capital and Goodwater Capital. New investors AXA Germany and Evli Growth Partners also participated, along with existing backers including White Star Capital, Northzone, Speedinvest, Kibo Ventures and Market One Capital.

DeepRoute, a China- and Fremont, Calif.-based autonomous driving startup, secured $50 million in pre-Series A funding. Fosun RZ Capital led the round, which included participation from GoldenSand Capital, Yunqi Partners, Ventech China and Green Pine Capital Partners.

AI Medical Service Inc., a Tokyo-based startup developing endoscopic artificial intelligence, picked up $42.9 million in Series B financing from Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab and Sony Innovation Fund.

Tend, a New York-based dental startup, scored more than $36 million in seed and Series A funding. Redpoint Ventures led the Series A.

Contentstack, a San Francisco-based content management startup, snagged a $31.5 million Series A investment. Insight Partners led the round, and was joined by Illuminate Ventures and GingerBread Capital. Teddie Wardi, managing director at Insight, will join the company’s board of managers.

CityLift Parking, an Oakland, Calif.-based provider of automated parking lifts, closed a $22.5 million Series C round from Dundon Capital Partners. John Zutter, Jason Kulas and Jeff Vanderbilt of Dundon will join the company's board.

Celigo Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of scalable and easy-to-implement integrations that connect cloud-based applications, landed $20 million in Series B funding. NewSpring Capital led the investment, with participation from Blossom Street Ventures and TVC Capital.

Viola, a Denver-based cannabis startup, completed a $16 million Series A funding round led by Gotham Green Partners.

Tenfold, an Austin, Texas-based customer relationship management and voice integration platform, collected $7.5 million in Series C funding. Next Coast Ventures led the round, with contributions from Andreessen Horowitz, Geekdom Fund and Salesforce Ventures.

Talenya Inc., an Israel- and Hoboken, N.J.-based recruitment technology startup, raised $6.5 million in new funding. Ibex Investors led the investment, with participation from Lool Ventures, Gal Ventures, East Wind Capital, Arc NY and others.

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., a Vancouver-based company that recovers nutrients from water treatment facilities and transforms them into fertilizer, closed the initial $5 million tranche of a Series B round that is targeting up to $16.5 million. Wheatsheaf Group Ltd. and VantagePoint Capital Partners are leading the funding.

We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Tomio Geron, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Heather Mack, Katie Roof and Marc Vartabedian.

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