Two important news items: first, TechCrunch and StrictlyVC have a new owner in Regent, a Beverly Hills-based investment firm whose varied portfolio is filled with attractive, long-term holdings, including other media. We're excited to get started with the team there.

Also! As promised, we have one last surprise for our upcoming StrictlyVC event, and that is a visit by SF Mayor David Lurie, who will be sitting down with TechCrunch reporter Maxwell Zeff for an interview. Lurie has also offered to take audience questions, so if you're coming, you're in luck. 

The event is now sold out, but you can sign up for the waitlist here and we'll let you know when we open up sales for our next StrictlyVC evening in the Bay Area, taking place Wednesday, June 18 in Menlo Park. 

Huge thanks to Forerunner, Citizens Private Bank, and Finstrat Management for making our April 3 event possible. See you there.🤩 -- CL

Section 230, a legislative provision that restricts the liability of social media platforms for user-generated content, is on the chopping block thanks to a bipartisan bill that apparently has wide Congressional support. The Information has the scoop here. 

Find out why your firm might need a new approach to due diligence in Affinity’s upcoming webinar with Vanessa Larco, a former Partner at NEA. Register for the webinar on April 3 to learn how due diligence is evolving, ways to combine investor instinct with AI-driven tools, and tips to help your firm strengthen its diligence practices. Don’t miss out on insights from a seasoned investor who is applying a new way of thinking to her new fund! Register today.

By Tim De Chant

Chinese auto maker BYD made waves this week when it announced its new Han L sedan could add as much as 248 miles of range in as little as five minutes.

Unfortunately, the company was light on details, and it did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for clarification. So instead, we’ve scoured the web for information, filling in the gaps to determine exactly how BYD was able to make an EV that apparently can recharge as quickly as it takes to refill a gas car.

What we found mostly supports the auto makers claims, with a few caveats.

Battery pack

Central to the Han L’s fast charging is its internal electrical infrastructure. It starts with the battery, which according to CarNewsChina citing regulatory documents, is an 83.2 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) pack that operates at 945 volts. (In its marketing materials, the company appears to have rounded up and lists it at 1,000 volts).

The battery chemistry is likely central to the car’s fast-charging capability. LFP batteries have long been regarded for their stability and safety; they don’t catch fire nearly as readily as other types like nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). They can also charge faster because of some electrochemical quirks inherent in the cathode-anode design of an LFP cell. (There’s a great slide deck from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that explains why in more detail.)

More here.

BuildOps, a seven-year-old Los Angeles startup that provides an all-in-one management platform specifically designed for commercial contractors in industries such as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, raised a $127 million Series C round at $1 billion post-money valuation, more than double the valuation of its last round less than two years ago. The deal was led by Meritech Capital, with Bond Capital and SE Ventures as well as previous investors Fika Ventures, Next47, StepStone Group, and Titanium Ventures also piling on. The company has raised a total of $250+ million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Inspiren, a nine-year-old New York startup that aims to enhance care in senior living communities by integrating care planning, resident safety, workforce optimization, and emergency call systems into a unified platform, raised a $35 million Series A round led by Avenir, with additional participation from Primary Venture Partners, Story Ventures, Third Prime, and Studio VC. Modern Healthcare has more here.

SkySpecs, a 13-year-old company based in Ann Arbor, MI, that helps wind farm operators monitor turbine health, optimize maintenance, and improve performance via autonomous drone inspections and data analytics, raised a $20 million round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with Statkraft and Equinor Ventures also participating. More here.

C1 Green Chemicals, a three-year-old Berlin startup that specializes in the development of ultra-efficient catalysis technology for the mass production of green methanol, raised a $16.2 million round led by Denkapparat and including Planet A Ventures, Maersk Growth, and SquareOne. ESG Today has more here.

Leta, a four-year-old Nairobi startup that helps African businesses plan delivery routes, track shipments, and manage logistics payments more efficiently using AI, raised a $5 million seed round led by Speedinvest, with Google's Africa Investment Fund and Equator VC also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Noble Gas Systems, an eight-year-old startup based in Wixom, MI, that develops and manufactures high-pressure gas storage and delivery systems for compressed gases like hydrogen, natural gas, air, oxygen, and nitrogen, raised a $4.2 million Series B round. The deal was led by AP Ventures, with support from Aliad and Saint-Gobain. More here.

Qlarifi, a two-year-old London startup that provides a real-time consumer credit database for BNPL services, raised $1.8 million pre-seed round. Investors included HoneyComb Asset Management and Carthona Capital. More here.

Resilco, a six-year-old Italian startup that processes industrial waste like fly ash and steel slag into materials suitable for products such as mortars and concrete, raised $5.4 million Series A round led by 360 Capital, with CDP Venture Capital and Lombardia Venture also contributing. EU-Startups has more here.

Uranium Digital, a one-year-old New York startup that is building a blockchain-based trading platform that allows energy companies, financial institutions, and other entities to buy and sell physical uranium, raised a $6.1 million seed round led by Framework Ventures, with Mirana Ventures, Karatage, Rubik Ventures, and Knollwood Investment Advisory also taking part. CoinDesk has more here.

Affinity spoke to Lauren MacDonald, Principal at Sozo Ventures, about the firm’s successful CRM implementation. The outcome? This comprehensive yet simple-to-follow checklist, covering every step from pre-implementation planning to ways you can maximize CRM adoption and business impact. With MacDonald’s best practices spread throughout the checklist, this is your essential companion to launching a new CRM in your firm. Download the checklist now.

Haun Ventures, a four-year-old Menlo Park VC firm that invests in crypto deals, is raising $1 billion across two new funds. Fortune has more here. 

Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) is allegedly negotiating to buy Deribit, a nine-year-old cryptocurrency derivatives exchange based in Dubai. Deribit, which has raised a total of $140 million from investors like Akuna Capital, QCP Capital, and 10T Holdings, has been valued at $4 billion to $5 billion, according to Bloomberg, which has more here. 

A group of previous Bytedance investors (Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and KKR) has emerged as the leading contender to purchase TikTok in talks brokered by the White House. Bloomberg has the scoop here. 

Perplexity, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that has built an AI-powered search engine and answer engine using natural language processing, has thrown its hat in the ring as a possible purchaser of TikTok. The Verge has more here. 

StubHub, a 25-year-old online ticket marketplace based in New York, has filed to go public. Madrone Partners, WestCap Management, and Bessemer Venture Partners still hold big stakes in the company. Bloomberg has more here. 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is admitting he was wrong about comments he made in January that cast shade on the quantum computing industry. CNBC has more here. 

Teen Vogue interviewed Elon Musk's daughter, Vivian Wilson. “I do not actually know how many siblings I have," she tells the pub. The New York Times has more here. 

Wired digs into Google's race to catch up with OpenAI. More here. 

Lyft is about to enter the robotaxi market. NBC News has more here. 

The Atlantic details how Meta pirated of millions of books to train its AI model, Llama 3. More here. 

North Korea has launched a new hacking unit that is focused on infiltrating AI systems. TechCrunch has more here. 

Meta is testing a feature that would allow users to reply to posts with AI-generated copy. TechCrunch has more here. 

Niche romance novel microtropes.

Visual tricks that Severance uses to portray the drudgery of innie life.

A $3,600 custom-made keyboard.