Good day. Antibiotics startups are tapping various funding sources to overcome tepid venture-capital interest in drugs to combat bacterial infections.

Each year more than 35,000 Americans die from antibiotic-resistant infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a November report. But drugmakers seeking to fight these infections often struggle to draw investors, partly because reimbursement practices encourage hospitals to choose generics over new and higher-priced antibiotics, experts say.

Startups like Malvern, Pa.-based VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. are compensating by combining venture capital with government and nonprofit money. VenatoRx, which recently secured new funds from the nonprofit CARB-X, has capital to support clinical trials that could lead to regulatory approval of its first antibiotic, Chief Executive Christopher Burns said.

A mosaic of capital sources has gotten VenatoRx this far. If it wins regulatory approval, it will need fresh capital or a partner to finance the launch of its drug, Dr. Burns said. “This mosaic doesn’t last forever,” he said.

And now on to the news...

Cattle ranchers battle fake meat. Beef producers and their allies are marshalling food scientists and lobbyists as they defend their turf against meatless burgers, The Wall Street Journal’s Jacob Bunge and Heather Haddon report.

• Plant-based alternatives amount to the equivalent of just 1% of the total volume of meat sold in the U.S., according to Nielsen. But some beef producers see an existential threat in the growth of meat-alternative makers like Beyond Meat Inc. and Impossible Foods Inc.
   
• For restaurants and grocery stores, growth is coming not from the real thing, but from a new generation of meatless products that combine proteins from soy or yellow peas with potato starch, beet juice and other ingredients to more closely mimic beef’s sizzle and juiciness.
   
• Over the past two years, the beef industry has pushed legislation that restricts terms like “beef” and “meat” to the kind raised on the hoof, not products derived from plants or future ones developed using animal cells in labs. Various labeling laws now are on the books in 12 states and were considered this year in 15 others, with a federal bill introduced in October.

Cooling trend. After a strong early part of the year, the size of venture funding rounds across all rounds dropped in the third quarter, according to a report by law firm Wilson Sonsini. The change was most pronounced for Series C and later deals—with sizes dropping by more than half to $15.3 million in the third quarter from $41.8 million in the second quarter. Valuations also fell in the third quarter from record levels in the second quarter. Again, late-stage deals had the largest drop, with Series C and later deals dropping to $200 million from $270 million, while Series B deals dropped to $62.7 million from a historic high of $80 million.

European health-tech taking off. Although the U.S. is still top dog when it comes to health-tech investments, Europe is catching up. The amount spent by venture-capital funds on health-tech companies in the region grew 10 times in the past five years, from $153 million to $1.6 billion as of September 2019, according to data provider PitchBook, Private Equity News's Elisângela Mendonça reports.

Valor Equity Partners is targeting $1.25 billion for its latest growth-equity fund, Valor Equity Partners V LP and its parallel vehicles, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The new fund’s target is only slightly higher than the $1.05 billion that the firm raised for Valor Equity Partners IV LP, which closed last year.

Peter Thiel- and Marc Andreessen-backed Atomic Labs seeks to raise $250 million for its third fund, according to a regulatory filing. The San Francisco firm has launched several companies, including men’s health startup Hims.

Storm Ventures raised $130.4 million for its sixth fund, according a filing. The firm’s recent investments include enterprise automation platform Workato Inc., debugging tool provider Honeycomb.io and e-commerce technology startup Syte.

Why entrepreneurs don’t learn from their mistakes. ‘Fail fast,” see what didn’t work and try again is the conventional wisdom. But research shows failed founders aren’t any better the next time.

Uber's 'dirty little secret': shared driver accounts. London's decision to revoke Uber's operating license opens a window into what drivers say has been a relatively common practice of sharing or renting out driver accounts at a number of ride-hailing apps.

U.S. ends probe into wireless carriers’ influence on rules for switching providers. The U.S. ended an antitrust probe, without filing charges, into whether wireless carriers steered technical standards to make it harder for customers to switch providers.

Why our electrical system needs to get ready for a lower-carbon future. Recent blackouts leaving millions of Californians in the dark demonstrate the rising risks of climate change, but they are also a reminder that policy makers need to boost electricity system reliability and resilience to support the transition to a low-carbon and more electrified economy.

Venture capitalists' new favorite term. (NYTimes)

Overfunding, bloated valuations destabilize India's startups. (Nikkei) 

Robinhood pulls bank charter application. (CNBC)

Roger McNamee is now one of Silicon Valley's most fervent critics. (New Yorker) 

The death of a Canadian blockchain whiz revealed he may not have been who he purported to be. (Vanity Fair)

Facebook buys the VR studio behind Beat Saber. (TechCrunch)

Loom Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of work communication video technology, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and others.

Trouva, a London-based marketplace for independent homeware and lifestyle brick-and-mortar boutiques, secured £17 million ($22 million) in new funding. Octopus Ventures led the round, and was joined by C4 Ventures, Downing Ventures, BGF and LocalGlobe. The company also appointed Juliet Warkentin as chief marketing officer. She was previously director of marketing at Amazon Fashion Europe.

Shuttl, an Indian bus ride-planning and booking app, added $18 million in Series C funding, bringing the round total to $36 million. Sparx Group’s Mirai Creation Fund II and Toyota Tsusho Corp. provided the new tranche. Earlier investors in the company include Proof.VC, Amazon.com and Dentsu Ventures.

Forest Admin, a San Francisco- and Paris-based provider of a tool for developers to build admin panels for web applications, collected $7 million in Series A funding from Notion Capital and Runa Capital.

Rossum, a data-extraction tool provider with offices in London, San Francisco and Prague, picked up a $4.5 million investment. LocalGlobe led the round, which included participation from Seedcamp, Miton and StartupYard.

Julia Collins, a co-founder of SoftBank-backed robotic pizza-making company Zume Inc., has joined early-stage firm Cleo Capital as an entrepreneur in residence, according to Cleo founder Sarah Kunst. Axios earlier reported the news.

On-demand dog walking app Wag Labs Inc. promoted Garrett Smallwood to chief executive from vice president of product, partnerships and corporate development. He replaces Hilary Schneider, who is leaving to become president and CEO of Shutterfly Inc. Before joining Wag three years ago, Mr. Smallwood was co-founder and CEO of Finrise and Vetary.com. Wag is backed by investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Freestyle Capital, General Catalyst and Sherpa Capital. 

Kleiner Perkins co-founder and Partner Frank Caufield has died. A few of his notable investments over the years included AOL, Caremark, Quantum Corp. and Sybase. Mr. Caufield, along with Brook Byers, Eugene Kleiner and Tom Perkins, founded the venture firm, then known as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, in 1977.

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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