Good day. MetaVC, a venture fund that launched in 2021 to back startups commercializing metamaterials, a budding area of materials science, has closed its debut fund with $62 million to invest in hard-tech startups.

The fund is backed by limited partners—including Bill Gates and Corning Inc.—hoping that some of the world’s big technical challenges can be solved through the use of metamaterials, manmade materials expected to improve the performance and reduce the size and weight of devices such as lenses and sensors.

MetaVC was founded by managing partners Conrad Burke and Chris Alliegro. Mr. Burke said MetaVC closed its fund just above a $60 million target, after looking to raise as much as $100 million as an original stretch goal.

While its portfolio companies span industries from healthcare to communications, they are all developing products that are smaller, cheaper, faster and use less energy than what’s currently available, Mr. Burke said.

Neurophos, a startup backed by MetaVC, is building optical processors that could be a hundred times as fast and energy efficient than today’s semiconductor-based processors. Such progress is likely to prove useful as large-language models used in artificial-intelligence algorithms strain available resources of computing power and energy.

The venture fund's portfolio also includes Lumotive, which develops sensors for anti-collision systems and consumer electronics; satellite company Mangata Networks; and flat-optical lens technology developer Imagia.

MetaVC has just six limited partners, in addition to its managing partners. LPs include materials company Corning, Mr. Gates’s firm Gates Frontier, Japanese conglomerate JSR Corp., and Nathan Myhrvold, formerly chief technology officer at Microsoft and founder of intellectual-property firm Intellectual Ventures. There are two MetaVC LPs that weren’t named. Messrs. Alliegro and Burke were previously executives at Invention Science Fund, a startup incubator at Intellectual Ventures.

Since MetaVC formed, fundraising for startups has gotten tougher. Mr. Burke said that when he was chief executive of Innovalight, a solar-energy company he founded that was later sold to DuPont, he also had to navigate a difficult market.

“It was cash management, pivoting where required, being nimble and listening to the market. And both Chris and I implore this type of thinking in our portfolio,” Mr. Burke said.

And now on to the news...

While First Citizens Bancshares Inc. may not have the record of Silicon Valley Bank in serving the startup ecosystem, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who are familiar with the Raleigh, N.C.-based bank say its emphasis on customer relations fits well with SVB’s flexible approach to serving clients, WSJ Pro's Marc Vartabedian reports.

• Venture and startup players had wondered about the fate of SVB since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took ownership of it in March and put it up for auction. First Citizens has since taken on most of the assets and liabilities previously held by SVB, including loans the bank once held.
   
• “This is going to be pretty new territory for First Citizens,” said John Osborne, a managing partner at Charleston, S.C.-based venture firm Good Growth Capital. “But they place a big emphasis on relationships and customer service and they have a real opportunity to bring SVB into their culture.” Mr. Osborne previously worked at First Citizens in customer service and remains familiar with the bank as part of the local business community.
   
• First Citizens President Peter Bristow said in an interview that he intends to preserve the way that SVB has done business to allow it to remain a cog in the startup and venture ecosystem.

A federal jury convicted three former executives of the once-highflying startup Outcome Health on several charges that they ran a billion-dollar scheme that defrauded customers including major pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk A/S as well as investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., The Wall Street Journal reports.

• The verdict caps the fall of an executive team led by Rishi Shah, who was close to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and a budding star in Democratic circles before fraud was revealed in a Wall Street Journal article in 2017. Chicago’s then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared at a company press conference “as Outcome goes, so goes Chicago.”

Tim Mayopoulos was squashed into a middle seat in coach on his flight to San Francisco, the only one available when he booked that afternoon, according to a WSJ report. The Wi-Fi wasn’t working, so he pulled out a notepad to jot down what he would say to employees when he started his new job as chief executive of the failed Silicon Valley Bank the next morning.

• Around the same time that Sunday evening, Greg Carmichael walked into Signature Bank’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters. The employees on site had just learned the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seizing the bank and booting its chief executive. Mr. Carmichael was in charge now.
   
• “I walked in, put my briefcase down, and the FDIC asked me if I would address the group,” Mr. Carmichael said.

Funds

Eclipse raised $1.23 billion across two new funds, bringing the Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm’s total assets under management to about $4 billion. Eclipse Fund V LP, with $720 million, will focus on early-stage investments across sectors including manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, healthcare infrastructure, semiconductor and energy. Eclipse Early Growth Fund II LP’s $510 million will back breakout portfolio companies and will seek new opportunities at the Series B and C level.

Bitget, a crypto derivatives and copy trading platform, launched its Bitget Web3 Fund with an initial investment of $100 million. The new fund will focus on Web3-friendly venture capital and next-generation crypto projects in Asia.

People

MassMutual Ventures appointed Timothy Krysiek as managing partner and co-head of MMV’s Climate Tech Fund. He joins the firm from Equinor Ventures.

Software-as-a-service platform Liongard named Michelle Accardi as chief executive. She succeeds Joe Alapat, who will transition to chief technology officer. Ms. Accardi most recently served as CEO of Logically.

Very Good Security, a payment security and compliance technology provider, appointed Chuck Yu to the post of chief executive. He previously held leadership roles at Visa Inc., Point Digital Finance and TrialPay.

Zennify, a Salesforce and nCino consultancy, named Chris Conant as the company’s new chief executive. He was most recently senior vice president of customer success at Salesforce.

Sevco Security, an IT asset inventory provider, appointed Brian Contos as chief strategy officer. He previously worked at Verodin (acquired by Mandiant), Imperva and ArcSight.

Clear Street, a New York-based startup building modern infrastructure for capital markets, scored a $270 million investment from Prysm Capital. The new funding brings the company’s Series B total to $435 million at a $2 billion valuation.

AlphaSense Inc., a New York-based market intelligence and search platform, added $100 million in Series D extension financing led by CapitalG, giving the company a valuation of $1.8 billion.

Infogrid, a smart building technology startup with headquarters in London and New York, secured $90 million in Series B funding from Northzone and others. The company partners with IoT tech and sensor providers to equip buildings with smart technologies for data collection and analysis.

Energy Exploration Technologies Inc., an Austin, Texas-based provider of lithium extraction and refinery technologies, along with more effective battery and energy storage capabilities, said GM Ventures is leading a $50 million Series B financing round in the company.

AutoLeap, a Toronto-based provider of auto repair shop management software, landed $30 million in Series B funding. Advance Venture Partners led the round, with David ibnAle joining the company’s board.

Fivecast, an Australian open-source intelligence software company, closed a $20 million Series A round led by Ten Eleven.

Noya PBC, a San Francisco-based climate tech startup whose technology removes excess CO2 from the atmosphere, snagged $11 million in Series A financing from Collaborative Fund and others.

Renew, a New York-based startup that automates the resident renewal and retention process for the rental housing industry, launched with $8.3 million in seed funding from investors including Upfront Ventures and Walkabout Ventures.

• China moves to censor AI
   
• New spyware firm said to have helped hack iPhones around the globe
   
• Elon Musk says Twitter finances were boosted by overhaul
   
• Digital archive aims to preserve a threatened Russian independent media
   
• AI-created images are so good even AI has trouble spotting some
   
• Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’s bid to stay out of prison is denied
   
• NYPD plans to deploy robotic dogs
   
• New normal for PCs looks worse than the old one
   
• The Pentagon’s purported classified-document leak: the biggest takeaways and questions so far

• Garry Tan’s first big move as Y Combinator CEO roils founders (The Information)
   
• A two-minute burnout checkup (Harvard Business Review)
   
• Southeastern U.S. seas are rising at triple the global average (Scientific American)

This newsletter was compiled by Yuliya Chernova and Zachary Cole.

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

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten, and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc