Good day. Last week, we asked about the conversations that venture investors should be having with limited partners about rising interest rates.

• Vishal Jain, managing partner at healthcare venture firm Eckuity, said some of the effects of rising rates have already been baked into dealmaking given the Federal Reserve’s guidance. While early-stage deals could feel some pressure, rising rates will offer LPs the opportunity to invest at better prices given the anticipated tempered valuation expectations. Mr. Jain said he’s not worried that LPs will shift capital allocation away from venture, which has been the historical norm, because there is currently excess liquidity and they have seen innovative companies built in the past five years.
   
• David Blumberg, founder and managing partner of Blumberg Capital, said: “Tech startups are relatively resilient to higher inflation and rising interest rates since they are capital efficient and utilize equity, but very little debt. In contrast, later-stage leveraged buyouts, real estate investments and public companies face greater negative impact from rising rates—especially capital-intensive companies dependent on debt financing.”

This week’s question: How have venture investors adjusted their capital and exit-market outlook for the rest of the year?

Please email responses to marc.vartabedian@wsj.com.

And now on to the news...

The IPO market has frozen over. When it thaws, it could look much different, WSJ reports. So far this year, just 22 companies have gone public in traditional initial public offerings, raising a combined $2.3 billion through Tuesday, according to Dealogic. That is a huge downshift from last year, when 79 companies had raised nearly $36 billion by this point.

Some companies, including Chobani Inc., are pushing out their IPOs to at least late 2022. Many that have already filed IPO paperwork confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Reddit Inc., are in a holding pattern, planning on updating their paperwork even if there are no plans to launch offerings soon, according to people familiar with the offerings.

Danish container shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is electrifying its North American businesses through a five-year agreement with Swedish freight technology company Einride AB that includes the use of 300 electric heavy-duty trucks, The Wall Street Journal reports. Einride will provide digital and electric freight shipping support and the use of its operating system for the trucks to electrify Maersk’s North American warehousing, distribution and transportation business. The agreement will launch in Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, N.J., and Savannah, Ga. Maersk Growth, the company’s venture arm, is an investor in Einride, having participated in a $110 million funding round last year.

European lawmakers reached agreement late Thursday on the main points of a new digital-competition law focused on the world’s biggest tech companies, setting the stage for one of the most sweeping pieces of technology-regulation legislation to go into effect next year, WSJ reports. The new law, known as the Digital Markets Act, is part of the biggest proposed expansion of global-tech regulation in decades. It seeks to impose new obligations and prohibitions on a small cadre of digital giants the European Union defines as gatekeepers—backed by fines for noncompliance that, based on early drafts of the legislation, could rise into the tens of billions of dollars.

The first GIF he created was unspectacular—a picture of an airplane. Only much later was the technology adapted for the brief, looping animations that jazz up social-media postings. Mr. Wilhite, who died March 14 of Covid-19 at the age of 74, “never got 1 cent” out of his invention, said his wife, Kathaleen Wilhite. Nor, she said, did he complain about not making a fortune: “He was just so proud that he had done that.” Read the WSJ obituary for Mr. Wilhite.

Funds

Growth investor FTV Capital closed its seventh fund at its hard cap of $2.3 billion to continue focusing on the enterprise technology, financial services and payments sectors. The firm initially set a $1.75 billion target for the fund, according to a January regulatory filing. With the close of FTV VII LP, the firm has raised $6.2 billion since it was founded in 1998.

Swiss startup investor Redalpine Venture Partners is raising an evergreen fund with a target of 1 billion Swiss francs (about $1.1 billion). The Zurich-based firm plans to make roughly 100 investments through the new Summit Fund.

Cryptocurrency exchange service Nexo launched a $150 million Web3-focused investment and acquisition arm. Nexo Ventures will be led by Tatiana Metodieva, Nexo’s head of corporate finance and investments.

Abu Dhabi-based Shorooq Partners is raising a second seed-stage fund focused on fintech, software, platform verticals and digital asset startups across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. Bedaya Fund II has a target of $150 million.

Real estate firm Tishman Speyer secured $100 million in commitments for its inaugural proptech venture fund, which has a target of $150 million. Anchor investors in the fund include the National Pension Service of Korea and Investment Management Corporation of Ontario.

People

Cervin appointed its first female partner with the addition of Mila Ferrell to the firm. She was previously a founding member of Zoom’s product team.

SignalFire said Jim Stoneham joined the firm as an operating partner. He was previously CMO at Stripe.

strongDM appointed Karan Bhople as chief financial officer and Michaline Todd as chief marketing officer. Mr. Bhople was previously vice president of finance at SentinelOne. Ms. Todd formerly held marketing executive roles at companies including Palo Alto Networks, Evident.io, MarkLogic and Veritas. Last year, Burlingame, Calif.-based strongDM closed a $54 million Series B round from Tiger Global Management, GV, Sequoia Capital, True Ventures, Hearstlab and Bloomberg Beta.

Virtual-care startup LetsGetChecked named Nigel Clerkin to the post of chief financial officer. He was previously at UDG Healthcare, ConvaTec and Elan Corp. LetsGetChecked is co-headquartered in Dublin and New York, and is backed by Casdin Capital, Illumina Ventures, Optum Ventures, Transformation Capital, HLM Venture Partners and others.

Exits

Netcore Cloud, a customer communication, engagement and retention company based in Mumbai, invested $100 million to acquire a majority stake in e-commerce product discovery platform Unbxd Inc. San Francisco-based Unbxd counts Eight Roads, Inventus Capital Partners and Nirvana Venture Advisors as investors.

Snap acquired neurotechnology startup NextMind to help drive augmented reality research efforts at the company. Terms weren’t disclosed. Paris-based NextMind is listed in the portfolios of Nordic Makers and Sisu Game Ventures.

Lightricks, creator of photo and video editing apps, acquired influencer marketing startup Popular Pays for an undisclosed amount. Lightricks is backed by investors including Insight Partners, Greycroft, ClalTech, Viola Ventures and Hanaco Venture Capital. Popular Pays’ investors included ICCP SBI Venture Partners, Beringea, GoAhead Ventures and Hyde Park Angels.

Astronomer, a data orchestration platform with hubs in Cincinnati, New York, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., landed $213 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners led the round, which included contributions from Meritech Capital, Salesforce Ventures, J.P. Morgan, K5 Global, Sutter Hill Ventures, Venrock and Sierra Ventures.

Tarana Wireless Inc., a Milpitas, Calif.-based wireless broadband technology provider, picked up a $170 million investment at a $1 billion valuation. Co-led by Axon Capital, Khosla Ventures and Prime Movers Lab, the round included participation from Michigan State Pension Fund, I Squared Capital and others.

RapidAPI, a San Francisco-based application programming interface marketplace, fetched $150 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $1 billion. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, with contributions from Citibank, Qumra Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, M12, Viola Growth, Green Bay Ventures, Grove Ventures and Stripes.

Island, a Dallas-based developer of an enterprise browser, scored $115 million in Series B funding at a $1.3 billion valuation. Insight Partners led the round, which included participation from Stripes and Sequoia Capital.

TokenEx, a London- and Edmond, Okla.-based cloud tokenization provider, secured $100 million in Series B financing from K1 Investment Management.

Span.IO Inc., a San Francisco-based creator of a smart home electrical panel and smart electric vehicle charger, completed a $90 million Series B round. Fifth Wall and Wellington Management led the investment, which included additional support from Angeleno Group, FootPrint Coalition, Obsidian Investment Partners, A/O PropTech and others.

Celsius Therapeutics Inc., Cambridge, Mass.-based startup working on a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, snagged $83 million in Series A extension and Series B financing. Casdin Capital led the Series B round, which included participation from Alexandria Venture Investments, Amgen Ventures, Amplitude Ventures, Catalio Capital, Co-Win Ventures, Fast Track Initiative, GV, Heritage Provider Network, Section 32 and Third Rock Ventures. Suzanne Jung Angell from Casdin Capital joined the company’s board.

Osso VR, virtual reality surgical training and assessment platform, grabbed a $66 million Series C round. Lead investor Oak HC/FT was joined by SignalFire, GSR Ventures, Tiger Global Management and Kaiser Permanente Ventures in the funding.

Digits, a real-time finance and accounting platform for small businesses, closed a $65 million Series C round, valuing the company at $565 million. SoftBank led the investment, which saw participation from 20VC Growth, GV and Benchmark.

Nasuni Corp., a Boston-based provider of cloud file services, nabbed a $60 million investment from Sixth Street Growth.

Theta Lake Inc., a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based compliance and security platform, secured $50 million in Series B funding. Lead investor Battery Ventures was joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Neotribe Ventures, Cisco Investments, RingCentral Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and Zoom Video Communications in the round. Dharmesh Thakker, general partner at Battery Ventures, will join the company’s board.

MixMode Inc., a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based startup utilizing a self-supervised learning model to detect cyberattacks in real time, obtained a $45 million Series B round. PSG led the funding, with additional participation from Entrada Ventures.

• Uber reaches deal to list all New York City taxis on its app
   
• Elon Musk’s SpaceX boosts prices for internet service, rocket launches
   
• Mayo Clinic assessing Google AI tool as it seeks more insights from patient records
   
• Wall Street has been betting billions on crypto. Here’s why. [WSJ Video]

• Savvy founders are raising money to ride out a downturn through a method called 'extension rounds' (Insider)
   
• VCs move into public equities (Axios)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier 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 and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc, @ychernova, @BrianPGormley, @marcvarta.