Startups that are Ramp-ing up, and startups that are full of sh**

• Nvidia blew the doors off with its earnings report. We talked through some of the high-level numbers and marveled at the company’s growth. TechCrunch has more on the matter here.
• Ramp raises $300M: In this market, a multi-billion-dollar valuation is a win for a fintech, even if Ramp’s new price tag is a bit lower than it was previously. So, while Ramp likely doesn’t love that it raised a down-round, it does have fresh capital and is worth $5.8 billion. That’s simply not that bad.
• Lex raised $2.75M: Alex covered AI-powered writing tool’s Lex seed round. Kirsten got to give the app a try, and we all had nice things to say about the nascent startup.
• Northvolt is bringing its volts to North America: The global battery-building boom includes Swedish company Northvolt building a new facility in the United States. The company raised $1.2 billion from BlackRock.
• Better.com went public: Mary Ann interviewed the company’s CEO ahead of its SPAC-led public market listing, which got panned.
• In the transit world, Cruise got its wings clipped in San Francisco after an accident involving a fire truck. Alex is annoyed. Mary Ann is not.
• This year’s TechCrunch Battlefield 200 companies feature a lot of startups focused on excrement. We’re not kidding.