Happy Halloween!!

Tether has generated more than $10 billion in profit through the first three quarters of this year as it minted $17 billion in additional USDT, highlighting the stablecoin giant’s continuing financial dominance even amid rising competition. The Block has more here.

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By Anna Heim

Bending Spoons’ four cofounders this week joined the billionaire ranks.

CEO Luca Ferrari’s stake in the Milan-based tech conglomerate is now reportedly worth $1.4 billion, while cofounders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Francesco Patarnello each hold stakes worth $1.3 billion, according to Forbes estimates based on shareholder data published by the Italian Business Register.

The valuations come on the heels of Bending Spoons’ latest funding round: $270 million from investors including T. Rowe Price and earlier backers Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, and Fidelity, plus a $440 million secondary share sale by existing shareholders. It’s unclear whether any of the cofounders sold stock in the secondary transaction. Bending Spoons has declined to comment on its cofounders’ stakes.

Despite its catchy name, Bending Spoons has stayed remarkably under the radar. The 12-year-old outfit typically makes headlines only when it adds another recognizable brand to its growing portfolio — most recently this past week, when it agreed to acquire AOL. for an undisclosed amount.

But Bending Spoons isn’t a traditional private equity firm or a pure financial investment vehicle. Its focus is on acquiring underperforming but popular tech brands, then transforming them to serve millions of users more efficiently. 

The company tends to make news when it restructures these acquired companies, often through significant layoffs, or makes controversial changes to beloved products — or both in the case of Evernote and WeTransfer.

Still, Bending Spoons itself remains largely unknown, even though its roster of products has served more than a billion people

Human Interest, a 10-year-old San Francisco company that helps small businesses offer 401(k) plans, raised a $100 million+ round at a $3 billion post-money valuation. Investors included previous investors Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, Marshall Wace, Morgan Stanley, and TPG. (This is the same company that is suing rival Guideline, accusing it of racketeering.) Axios has more here.

Humans&, a startup founded this year by ex-xAI researcher Eric Zelikman that aims to train AI models to collaborate better with humans, is reportedly in the market to raise up to $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation. Forbes has the scoop here.

Archy, a four-year-old startup based in San Jose, CA, that provides an AI-powered practice management system for dental offices, raised a $20 million Series B round led by TCV and including Bessemer Venture Partners, CRV, and Entrée Capital. The company has raised a total of $47 million. Crunchbase News has more here.

Indomo, a four-year-old Boston startup that provides at-home prescription dermatology treatments for acne, raised a $25 million round co-led by Atomic, Foresite Capital, and Polaris Partners, with Myelin VC, StoryHouse Ventures, FORM Life Ventures, Gaingels, and Mana Ventures also taking part. Modern Healthcare has more here.

Lettuce Financial, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that provides accounting, payroll, benefits, and tax compliance tools for solopreneurs, raised a $28 million round led by Zeev Ventures. Forbes has more here.

PACT, a six-year-old startup based in Cambridge, England, that develops collagen-based biomaterials to replace plastic textiles, raised a $20 million Series A round co-led by Forbion and HV Capital. Silicon Canals has more here.

Adam, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that enables creators to generate 3D models from text prompts, raised a $4.1 million seed round. TQ Ventures was the deal lead, with 468 Capital, Pioneer, Script Capital, and Transpose Platform also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Altrove, a one-year-old Paris startup that develops rare-earth-free and cobalt-free magnetic materials using AI, raised a $10 million seed round led by Alven, with Bpifrance, Contrarian Ventures, and Emblem also participating. The startup has raised a total of $14 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Catalyx Space, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that is building hardware and software for orbital reentry and recovery, raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Outlander VC, with Arka Venture Labs, Lex Reddy, KDX Management LLC, Together Fund, Higher Life Ventures, Nivesha Ventures, Prana Tech Ventures, Bria, HF0 Residency, and Techstars also pitching in. More here.

Voltaic Marine, a two-year-old startup based in Traverse City, MI, that designs and manufactures electric boats for consumer, commercial, and defense markets, raised a $3 million pre-seed round led by Antler, with South Loop Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, Cobra Capital, Michigan Rise, and Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund also contributing. More here.

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Core Scientific, an eight-year-old Austin crypto miner, may have rejected a $9 billion bid from CoreWeave, but not so Marimo: the open-source startup that builds a Jupyter Notebook competitor for interactive Python development has agreed to be acquired by the data center giant. TechCrunch has more here.

Gloo, a 12-year-old Boulder, CO company that provides technology tools for churches and other faith-based groups and which recently hired former Intel chief Pat Gelsinger, filed yesterday to raise roughly $109 million in an IPO valuing it at up to $873 million. Reuters has more here.

In the last two years Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sergey Brin have splurged on 100-meter floating palaces outfitted with features like helipads, spas, and private cinemas. Business Insider has more here.

On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk said Jeff Bezos “went from pencil-necked geek to looking like The Rock.” “Like his neck got bigger than his head,” Musk added. The Daily Beast has more here.

Companies from Walmart to Salesforce and KPMG are rolling out new AI-era roles like knowledge architects, orchestration engineers, and human-AI collaboration leads as generative tech reshapes workflows. The Washington Post has more here.

The New York Times examines how OpenAI is using circular financing arrangements with Microsoft, SoftBank, Oracle, Nvidia, AMD, and others to fund vast data center expansion by looping billions back to its partners while still losing billions. The New York Times has more here.

Travelers are increasingly paying for concierge-style airport services such as curb-to-gate escorts, expedited security, and even private terminal experiences.

Vail’s CEO has transformed skiing, whether you like it or not.

A new trailer just dropped for Santacon, a documentary about “the most hated event on the planet.”

For potential purchasers of this 23,000-square foot compound, we're looking at a Venn diagram with three very small circles: (1) “Lord of the Rings” superfans who (2) have $43 million lying around and (3) dream of living in Provo, UT. It’s also much (!) more expensive than it was seven years ago ($13.5 million).

A $12 chocolate bar made from 70% single estate Ecuadorian cocoa and infused with sun-dried tomato. This is what you hand out on Halloween when you want to guarantee no children ever ring your doorbell again.

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