More top reads Money, money, money: Lots of funding news today. ShopMy, a marketing platform for content creators to connect with brands and monetize their content, raised $18.5 million; WarpStream grabbed $20 million to build a cheaper cloud-native streaming service; and Fluent Metal added $3.2 million to its pocket on a quest to innovate in the metal 3D-printing market. And can we say NFTs are making a comeback? Pallet Exchange, an NFT marketplace, got some investor love in the form of $2.5 million. Venture capital returns: Initial public offerings continue to be scarce, so it might not be a surprise that venture capital liquidity is going to come from the secondary market in 2024, not IPOs. Meanwhile, Ted Schlein's two-year-old Ballistic Ventures firm raised a second $360 million fund. The Digital Services Act is gonna get ya: LinkedIn is the latest social media company to get a formal request for information from the European Union's oversight commission about its use of user data for ad targeting. And Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap, TikTok and X got requests for information about how they're handling risks regarding the use of generative AI as it relates to elections. In social media news: TikTok was fined €10 million (almost $11 million) by Italy's government after the country's competition and consumer authority opened an investigation into the "French scar" challenge in which users were reported to have shared videos of marks on their faces made by pinching their skin. Shaking my head. Meanwhile, Reddit has a new ad format and Instagram is working on a "Spins" feature for its Reels short-form video product. Paytm secures license: While this doesn't sound that interesting, it actually is a "Hail Mary" pass for the Indian company, whose banking unit is poised to be shut down Friday. Now with this third-party application license, Paytm can offer payments through the UPI network. Go with your gut: Microbiome has become the word du jour in healthcare. Everything seems to be driven by how well you are maintaining your gut health. But a report in Science alleges that companies providing products and services in the microbiome space lack scientific rigor and meaningful regulation. Devin gets some startup takes on this criticism and what they are doing to achieve legitimacy. Humanoid skepticism: While Figure's recent $675 million raise sent shock waves across the robotics industry, it also raised the question of just how sustainable the humanoid market is. Brian got the scoop at this week's Modex supply chain show in Atlanta — one populated by very few humanoids. | 
