Happy Monday!  

I am super proud and excited for Anyroad for raising $47M Series B led by BlackRock. I met the Yaffe brothers in 2015 in San Francisco.  After many pivots, their hard work is finally paying off! AnyRoad provides an Experience Relationship Management platform enabling global brands like Unilever and Honda to properly measure, scale, and implement their offline and online experiences with customers.

Here's 5 great reads for this week:

• War is ugly - Russia started the biggest war since WWII by invading Ukraine last week. This conflict carries complexities across geopolitics, national security, and financial markets. The tech community is being impacted greatly by this war from Google, Twitter, Meta, Instagram, Patreon, Brex to FTX.  The part that amazed me the most is how advance the Ukrainian government is by accepting donation in Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT. All major crypto platforms will need to respect international sanctions, but Eastern European financials systems will look for alternatives.
• Startup Valuations - Public markets have withered more than 60% from their highs and most expect early stage valuations to decline. But hedge funds which are slowly entering the ecosystem might reverse those expectations.
• Financial Sanctions and SWIFT - Russia has $600+ billion in its foreign reserve (currencies and gold) and it is one of the largest foreign currency reserves in the world after China, Japan, and Switzerland.  The nuance to financial sanctions is that they only would work if Russia is depending on US dollars. Even though Russia ranks sixth globally on SWIFT, the West hesitates to shut Russia from SWIFT as may spur Russia to join up with China and develop alternative payment systems (on the blockchain, for instance) that undermine the dollar.
• Focus on the Right Thing - Many startups have been more focused on raising capital and valuations than the basics of a business (people, product, customers, revenues, profits, etc). The fundamentals need to be in place for a business to succeed. All the money in the world at eye-popping valuations won’t do that for you. I like Fred Wilson's comment on this. 
• Web3 Event at Nasdaq - Global venture capital funding into cryptocurrency and blockchain reached an all-time high of $6.5 billion in the third quarter of 2021. I am partnering with Nasdaq Center and will share my thoughts on State of Web3 and Crypto Investment Landscape 2022. Join us.

I hope that everyone are staying safe.

This week a total of 32 startups raised $904.3 in funding, 4 M&As:

• $394.1M goes to 13 Enterprise startups
• $138.7M goes to 5 FinTech startups
• $22M goes to 1 InsurTech startup
• $24M goes to 2 HRTech startups
• $23M goes to 1 EdTech startup
• $20M goes to 1 E-Commerce startup
• $21M goes to 1 Marketplace startup
• $103.9M goes to 2 FoodTech startups
• $28M goes to 1 Robotics startup
• $46M goes to 1 Telecommunications startup
• $15M goes to 1 Hospitality startup
• $46M goes to 2 Gaming startups
• $22.6M goes to 1 Healthcare startup