Good day. Starting a crypto company isn’t exactly the hot ticket it was a couple years ago, but a new grant program is encouraging founders to do just that. The Nailwal Fellowship said it has selected eight individuals for its program, which offers $50,000 in grant money and mentorship to participants to build crypto-related businesses during the six-month program.

The fellowship was created by Sandeep Nailwal, a co-founder of Web3 company Polygon and venture firm Symbolic Capital. The eight who’ve been accepted include startup founders, former investment professionals and students. Two more program slots are being reserved for female applicants.

"There’s still reluctance from many talented people in Web2 to leave their industries or studies to pursue opportunities in the blockchain space," Nailwal said. “This gives you an umbrella to cover your risk and then you can do something interesting.”

The launch of the fellowship comes as software developers involved in crypto are decamping for new areas. Crypto VC firm Electric Capital, which uses internal software to track monthly active open-source developers writing code for crypto projects, found 27% fewer developers as of Oct. 1 from a year earlier, a 19,300 total. Some, though not all, are entrepreneurs. The declines were largely due to departures of developers who had worked in crypto less than a year.

But investor enthusiasm for crypto will bounce back, Nailwal said, which will help lift the startups in his fellowship down the road.

“I think it’s going to go back to normal and the tide will also shift again,” he said.

And now on to the news...

Venture regulation. California’s new law to make venture-capital firms provide data on the gender and racial makeup of the startups they back could have a far wider reach, legal analysts say, WSJ Pro reports.

• Lawyers say other types of money managers need to take notice—even those that aren’t venture investors and aren’t based in California.
   
• On Oct. 8, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Investing in Equity Act, designed to make venture-capital funds report annually on the race, ethnicity, gender identity and disability status of the founders of their portfolio companies, among other details.

The traditional enterprise software sales process is hitting Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. This fall, Amazon.com’s cloud-computing business Amazon Web Services opened a New York City “Builder Studio,” designed to showcase cloud-based tech and provide a space where companies can build prototypes alongside AWS engineers. CIOs walking through the space can experience prototypes of technologies such as a digital twin—a virtual, real-time rendering of a sensor-studded physical space or other asset. It also boasts a virtual try-on demo where visitors can see renderings of what some shoes sold on Amazon.com would look like on their feet and an advertising mood board creator fueled by generative AI. Read the full story here.

The reopening of the IPO market is, once again, delayed.

For a moment this fall, it looked like the window for initial public offerings would be pushed open. Four big companies, three of them in the technology sector, moved forward with their plans to sell stock in blockbuster IPOs. Chip designer Arm Holdings, grocery-delivery company Instacart and e-commerce marketing company Klaviyo all priced their IPOs at the high end of or above expectations and initially traded higher, WSJ reports.

Funds

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania closed approximately $28 million toward an expected $100 million growth stage fund that will invest in technology-focused enterprises throughout the state. The amount raised so far for Global Opportunity Pennsylvania Fund II exceeds the total $24.3 million raised by Ben Franklin's prior fund, Global Opportunity Philadelphia Fund I.

People

London-based venture-capital firm Plural appointed Eliza Dabney as chief marketing officer. In 2012, she co-founded Sepia Communications, which was acquired by Outcast in 2019.

Firefly Aerospace, a Cedar Park, Texas-based space transportation company, recently closed a third tranche of its Series C round, bringing the amount raised by the company to $300 million since February. Existing investors including AE Industrial Partners led the latest tranche, which values the company at $1.5 billion pre-money.

Roller, a venue management software developer, scored a $50 million investment. Insight Partners led the funding, and Managing Director Rachel Geller will join the company’s board.

Vida Health, a San Francisco-based provider of virtual cardiometabolic care services, closed a $28.5 million investment from General Atlantic, Canvas Ventures and others. The company also appointed Joe Murad as chief executive officer, succeeding Stephanie Tilenius.

Arch, a New York-based private investment management platform, secured $20 million in Series A financing led by Menlo Ventures.

Zuplo, a Seattle-headquartered API management startup, landed $9 million in seed funding led by Trilogy Equity Partners.

Ridepanda, a San Francisco-based startup offering monthly micro-mobility subscriptions to employees, picked up a $7.5 million equity and debt round from investors including Blackhorn Ventures.

Default, a San Francisco-based all-in-one platform for inbound sales, disclosed a previously unannounced $6.6 million seed round led by Craft Ventures.

Jana Care, a Watertown, Mass.-based developer of at-home testing technologies for chronic kidney and heart disease management, held the initial closing of a $6 million Series B round. IAG Capital Partners is leading the investment, with Venture Partner Ehsan Jabbarzadeh joining the board.

Lunar.dev, a platform for managing and optimizing third party API usage, raised $6 million in seed funding led by Uncork Capital.

Cromatic, a digital platform for outsourced life sciences research, completed a $5.3 million seed round co-led by LifeX Ventures and AgFunder.

Tidal Cyber, a Reston, Va.-based startup whose technology enables security operations teams to proactively focus on critical threats, grabbed a $5 million seed round led by Squadra Ventures.

Protecto, a San Jose, Calif.-based data protection startup, closed a $4 million seed round led by Together Fund.

• Nvidia develops new AI chips, again, to keep selling to China
   
• Meta strikes deal to return to China after 14 years
   
• Hack at ICBC targeted the digital underbelly of financial markets
   
• Yelp profit soared with help from IRS guidance on R&D tax deductions

• Why a stampede of startups will try to raise in the first quarter (The Information)
   
• 3 ways startups can improve survival odds in a tough economic landscape (TechCrunch)

This newsletter was compiled by Marc Vartabedian, 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, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

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