In a first, Amazon plans to give $150M through 2023 to 10+ outside VC funds to invest in underrepresented startup founders at or before the seed stage (Jeffrey Dastin/Reuters)

Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
Palantir signs a three-year, £75M deal with the UK’s defense ministry, providing software to prompt real-time military actions and predict potential results  —  Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR.N) has signed a three-year, 75 million pound ($91.39 million) deal with the United Kingdom’s Ministry …

Wall Street Journal:
Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney from 2005 to 2020, joins VC firm Thrive Capital, founded by Joshua Kushner, as a venture partner  —  As a venture partner, Iger will identify new investments and mentor founders in day-to-day role  —  Netflix Hit a Subscriber Peak, Here’s How It Plans to Keep Growing

Miriam Gottfried / Wall Street Journal:
State Farm will invest $1.2B in ADT for a ~15% stake, and $300M more for product innovation; Google invests $150M toward new products, pledges $150M more  —  Insurer to buy 15% of ADT and make product investment of up to $300 million  —  ADT Inc. ADT 16.37%▲ has secured investments …

Kate Clark / The Information:
Bessemer Venture Partners raised $4.6B for two new funds in August: $3.85B for young startups, the firm’s biggest fund to date, and $780M for PE buyouts  —  Venture capitalists aren’t striking many deals with tech founders these days.  Initial public offerings are nonexistent and public tech stocks …

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based Pillow, which helps users in emerging markets save, spend, and invest in cryptocurrency, raised an $18M Series A led by Accel and Quona Capital  —  Pillow aspires to be an all-in-one platform that helps even newbie users save, spend and invest in crypto currency.

Matthew Townsend / Bloomberg:
Amazon, Shopify, Wayfair, and other big e-commerce sites scale back operations after erroneously betting that pandemic online shopping trends would be permanent  —  Did the pandemic forever change how we shop?  —  The answer seemed obvious in the first half of 2020, when retailers closed …