As we enter Diwali, an Indian festival of lights, I’m missing the taste of my mom’s cooking (and honestly, even the itchy feel of traditional Indian attire). So when I learned about , or , I was ecstatic. It’s a departure from what I usually see covering tech, and a reminder that fresh perspectives exist everywhere.

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Anyways, as I defrost some Trader Joe’s butter paneer and hope for the best, let’s get into the news from the past week.

¹ó¾±°ù²õ³Ù,Ìýthe good news: Zonehaven raised fresh capital to use data for wildfire management, and Winnie got $9 million for childcare relief. We also saw the Swiss’s Planted aim at fake meat and Austin’s Literati create a subscription book club for kids. Finally, we covered funding for mental healthcare and a startup looking to free everyone from mortgage woes.

Now, the bad news: Layoffs continued for WeWorkÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýbegan for PAX Labs, reminding us that big companies may have flashy checks but remain vulnerable to failure like other startups. Also, WeWork’s controversial-but-once-darling ex-CEO Adam Neumann left his company in shambles, but still walked away with over a billion.

Wrapping up with some numbers, data shows that Silicon Valley’s funding share is shrinking as a percentage of a global whole. While that may feel a bit surprising, I’ll remind you that a Chicago-based company just filed its S-1, and there’s a soon to be Utah-based unicorn.

Until next week,

±õ±ô±ô³Ü²õ³Ù°ù²¹³Ù¾±´Ç²Ô:Ìý

P.S. I put out a personal newsletter every Monday,  if you’re interested!

Over the past week I read through New York Times’ reporter ’s new book: Super Pumped. I wrote most of my thoughts in a review, but here are the three blurbs I left out:

1. Someone almost body-checked me on Market St. wondering how I got an early copy of the book.
2. I read this book while walking on Market St. It was that good.
3. I finished the book right as Uber set a new record low share price. Take that as you will.

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Speaking of struggling companies, WeWork, soon to debut on the public market, might stop its self-inflicted hype early. The coworking company is reportedly open to cutting its valuation in half ahead of its IPO. WeWork also said it plans to add a woman to its board after its IPO. And as our Editor in Chief  noted, it’s not the first company that will be going public at a discount this cycle.

Behind the IPO march, there’s a unicorn trot. Grove Collaborative raised a $150 million Series D, making it a new unicorn. Other nine-figure rounds include Canadian startup Clio raising $250 million for legal tech and San Francisco’s Getaround raising $200 million for car sharing.

We had a particularly busy M&A week as well. Microsoft scooped up a SaaS startup, Chegg, an edtech company, bought an online coding school for $80 million, and India travel startup OYO acquired a data science company.

Finally, read on Homebrew’s Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌýÌý¾±²ÔÌýthis week’s Seed Series. Learn about where they spend 51 percent of their calendar time, how a password protected video led to an investment (twice), and why they always co-invest.

Thanks for sticking with us this short week, we’ll be back Monday with five days of fresh news ().

Talk soon,
Natasha

P.S. Follow me on Twitter ()

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