It’s Thursday, woo-hoo! Hope it’s off to a good start.

It’s been a busy week; be on the lookout for the inside scoop about Crosslink, GGV Capital, Next World Capital and Polaris. (Who will make a mint off Alibaba? Who’s hiring? And, crucially, who has the best roof deck?) Meanwhile, today StrictlyVC is following up on last week’s promise to feature Mike Volpi on Bitcoin mania.

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Top News in the A.M.

Citibank plans to reissue all customer debit cards involved in the data breach at Target, making it the second major bank to do so since the attack was disclosed last month.

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Mike Volpi: If You Don’t Own Bitcoin Yet, Buy It

Last Thursday, I sat down with Mike Volpi of Index Ventures at his San Francisco office, where we discussed a wide range of things. Here are his thoughts on Bitcoin, lightly edited for length.

If you were to start your own company in 2014, what would it be?

If I were to do something [on my own], I’d definitely do something with Bitcoin.

Has Index made any bets on the currency yet, directly or through a startup?

I’ve heard a number of VC firms have bought Bitcoin as part of their portfolio. But we don’t have an investment in Bitcoin yet. We’re looking at a lot of different things and trying to break it down a little. It’s very early so it’s kind of hard to tell, but we do love the international component of it, so one of the angles we’re exploring is what does it mean from an international perspective, rather than merely a domestic speculation perspective.

Do you think we talk too much about Bitcoin in the context of the U.S.?

Much of the coverage here tries to think of it in the context of an American phenomenon, and where I think it [has received too little coverage] is its global importance. We all have bank accounts and credit cards and all that good stuff, but if you think of some person in South Africa or Ecuador or Argentina or Malaysia, it has a whole different meaning to that world, where currencies are volatile and you don’t have access to dollars and just 10 percent of people have credit.

I often hear that, but how or when will it become useful to people in developing countries, given its volatility and soaring value?

Currency is a multidimensional thing. First, it has stored value, like gold. You don’t really use it every day, but you have it there for safekeeping and it increases in value over time. Another aspect of currency is what we use for transactions: You buy a product from me and I give you money. The last aspect is the transactional plumbing – not that we exchanged value but that there’s a pipe underneath it all that allowed us to do that. Bitcoin is all of that smashed into one.

Because it’s so volatile, people treat it like stored value. You’d be crazy to use it right now – or, at least, it would be very unusual –particularly if you can use other currencies to buy stuff. But you have to think past the point of all that volatility. No one knows what it’s worth, but at some point, people will figure it out, more or less.

What then?

Then, if you’re using your favorite Argentine currency and yesterday it was worth this and today it’s worth half that because your government had a coup d’état or something crazy like that, would you rather be transacting in a Bitcoin currency, which will eventually get more stable because of its global nature, or your currency, which is far less [stable]? Or, if you want to buy products and you don’t have access to dollars because your government decided that it needed to keep all the dollars — that’s where it starts mattering more.

How long until we get there?

I think it will take five years – maybe even 10 years — to stabilize.

In the meantime, are you personally buying Bitcoin?

I have a few personally. I think the best strategy is to own them right now, and if you don’t, I would recommend it!

New Fundings

Bookacoach, a three-year-old, Indianpolis-based online marketplace for sports lessons in the U.S., has raised $250,000 co-led by Elevate Ventures of Indianapolis alongside earlier investors. Elevate Ventures’ investment was made through the Indiana Angel Network Fund, a seed and early-stage co-investment program under the U.S. Department of Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative in partnership with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Bookacoach has now raised $450,000 altogether.

ClearSky Data, a stealthy, Waltham, Ma.-based startup, has raised $12 million from General Catalyst and Highland Capital Partners, which is hosting the company in its offices. The company says it’s working to solve enterprise infrastructure problems for medium and large companies.

Confer, a year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based security software company that allows companies to collect and share threat intelligence, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.

Contently, a three-year-old, New York-based company that helps brands and journalists tell engaging stories, has raised $9 million in Series B funding from Sigma Prime, Sigma West, Lightbank,Contour Ventures, and David Lerner. The round brings the company’s total funding to $11 million.

FRX Polymers, a six-year-old, Chelmsford, Ma.-based maker of environmentally friendly, flame-retardant plastics, has raised $12 million in Series C funding led by Evonik Venture Capital GMBH. Previous investors Capricorn Venture Partners, DB Masdar Cleantech Fund, SAM Private Equity, BASF Venture Capital, Israel Cleantech Ventures, Triton Systems and many of the company’s founders and employees, also participated.

LiveIntent, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based startup that provides tools for advertising in email newsletters and alerts, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Bullpen Capital, with additional money from Alpha Capital, Valor Capital, and a Brazilian outfit. The company has raised roughly $32 million to date.

Meet You, a year-old Xiamen, China-based mobile health application, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Matrix Partners. Previous investor K2 Ventures; Meet You’s founder, Chen Fangyi; and his team, also participated.

Pingboard, a year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that’s making a software platform targeted at office managers, has closed a $1.25 million seed round of funding led by Silverton Partners.

Venga, a three-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based company whose software uses point-of-sale and other data to help restaurants better understand their customers, has raised $1 million in Series A funding led by Militello Capital. Other investors include Jose Andres’s Think Food Group, Cornell University’s Big Red Ventures, and Brad Zions, the cofounder of L.A.-based Lemonade Restaurant Group.

Wandoujia, a four-year-old, Beijing-based Android mobile app distribution platform, has raised $120 million in Series B funding, according to Chinese media reports. SoftBank led the round, with previous investors DCM and Innovation Works Development Fundparticipating. The company has raised at least $200 million to date, including an $80 million Series A round led by DCM in 2012.

WePay, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Calif.-based payments company for online platform businesses like Care.com, has closed a $15 million Series C funding, led by Phil Purcell of Continental Investors, who cofounded Discover Card was once CEO of Morgan Stanley. Other investors in the round include Max Levchin, Webb Investment Network, Raymond Tonsing, Highland Capital Partners, August Capital and Ignition Partners. The company has raised $35 million to date.

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New Funds

Acton Capital Partners, a 5.5-year-old, Munich-based late-stage venture firm, has held a first close of its second venture fund, the Heureka Growth Fund. So far, Acton as gathered $110 million from mostly existing LPs, including European Investment Fund; the firm is targeting $200 million. Its last fund closed with €150 million in 2010.

Amplify, an L.A.-based accelerator, has raised its second fund, at “just over” $8 million, reports TechCrunch. The outfit, originally backed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, reality TV mogul Mark Burnett and Accel Partners, has drawn a long number of high-wattage investors for its second effort, including Real Networks founder Rob Glaser and billionaire Ron Burkle. As TechCrunch reports, the accelerator backed 26 companies with its first fund; three have exited so far.

Blume Ventures, a two-year-old, Mumbai-based seed-stage fund, is looking to raise its second fund, reports the Economic Times. The firm, which closed its first fund with around $16 million, is now targeting $50 million. It saw its first exit last November, when the San Francisco-based mobile payments firm Boku acquired Qubecell, India’s largest carrier billing company, for an undisclosed amount.

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People

Yahoo COO Henrique De Castro has been “essentially fired,” reports Re/code, which reported last week that De Castro was noticeably absent from Yahoo’s major CES events in Las Vegas. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer‘s letter to employees about De Castro, who Mayer felt “should leave the company,” is here. Re/code cofounder Kara Swisher cites clashes with Mayer as one reason for De Castro’s ouster (despite that Mayer recruited him from Google, where they once worked together). A bigger issue, says Swisher: Yahoo is set to announce its quarterly results later this month and they’re expected to dramatically lag Yahoo’s peers. Either way, don’t cry for De Castro; stunningly, it looks like he leaves Yahoo after 15 months with somewhere between $20 million and $60 million.

Singer Kanye West has shut down the anonymous founders of the digital currency Coinye by papering them with legal threats. “With each day that passes, Mr. West’s reputation is irreparably harmed by the continued use of the COINYE WEST, COINYE and/or COYE marks in connection with Defendants’ goods and services,” stated a trademark infringement lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, during a sit-down with Stanford’s president John Hennessy, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “hinted that a little Mark Junior could be coming in the not-so-distant future,” reports Xconomy. (Move over, Prince George!) Here’s much more from that talk, which focused largely on privacy.

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IPOs

Concert Pharmaceuticals, a six-year-old, Lexington, Ma.-based biopharmaceutical company focused on developing small molecule drugs, is planning to raise roughly $75 million in an IPO, according to an SEC filing. The company’s shareholders include Three Arch Partners, which owns 12.8 percent; TVM Capital (12.4 percent),GlaxoSmithKline (11.8 percent); Brookside Capital Partners Fund(10.2 percent); Skyline Venture Partners (9.4 percent); Fidelity Investments (6.6 percent); Greylock Partners (6.3 percent); andFlagship Ventures (5.9 percent).

Microlin Bio, an 18-month-old, New York-based diagnostic and drug developer, hopes to raise $25 million in an IPO, shows an SEC filing. The company’s biggest outside shareholder is the nearly two-year-oldOhio State Innovation Foundation fund, a $35 million partnership between Ohio State University and Ohio University that provides venture funding to tech companies; it owns 7 percent of the fledgling startup.

Zendesk, the six-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of online help-desk software for businesses, has hired Goldman Sachs Group to lead its IPO, and Morgan Stanley to help with underwriting duties, sources tell the WSJ.

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Exits

Ador, the four-year-old, Seattle-based company formerly known as Lockerz, has been sold to the Beijing-based publicly traded online retailer LightInTheBox Holding Co. The terms of the sale aren’t being disclosed. The social commerce company had raised north of $56 million over the years, including from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures and Liberty Media.

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Job Listings

Sands Capital, a Washington, D.C.-area investment firm, is looking for a venture analyst with an undergraduate degree in business, engineering or other relevant major. Candidates should also have up to two years of experience, either in investment banking, venture capital or private equity. Learn more here.

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Data

Pitchbook publishes a look at 2008 vintage U.S. venture funds in the range of $100 million and $250 million and finds 28 of them. They’re doing pretty well, too. According to the firm, the funds have a median IRR of 16 percent and the top quartile have an IRR right now of 18.43 percent. The top performers, as of this writing: Aberdare Ventures IV,True Ventures II, and Union Square Ventures 2008.

Although 2013 was the best for venture-backed IPOs since 2007, things have been a little less exciting comes to acquisitions. There were 436 mergers and acquisitions of venture-backed companies in 2013, an 11% drop from 2012, according to VentureSource. More here.

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Essential Reads

The San Francisco Cab Drivers Associations says that one-third of San Franciso’s taxi drivers have ditched their registered cabs over the last year to drive for a private transportation startups like Uber, Lyft or Sidecar.

How much do founders pay themselves? A lot less than you might imagine.

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Detours

How information flows during emergencies. (H/T: MediaREDEF)

Bright lights, big emotions. For a calmer office, says a new study, dim the lights.

The 100 greatest sports photos of all time, as curated by Sports Illustrated.

The collateral damage of a teenager: What adolescence does to adolescents is nowhere near as brutal as what it does to their parents, writes author Jennifer Senior.

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Retail Therapy

Inflatable snowshoes!

3D chocolate molds — of your face!

Dogs in fine Italian menswear.

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Sign up for our morning missive, StrictlyVC, featuring all the venture-related news you need to start you day.

 

Good Wednesday morning! We have some good stuff coming up later this week so stay tuned. Also, a quick reminder that you can reach out anytime; I’m at connie@strictlyvc.com or @cookie.

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Top News in the A.M.

About 60,000 Silicon Valley workers have won court clearance to pursue a lawsuit that accuses Apple, Google, and other tech giants of conspiring to drive down pay by not poaching each other’s staff.

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For This Startup, The Hunt Is On

The hunt for new funding is on for community-driven shopping startup The Hunt, whose users seek out items like clothing with the help of other users.

The concept was inspired by the personal experience of founder and CEO Tim Weingarten, a former venture capitalist with Worldview Technology Partners. As Weingarten tells it, a few years ago, while surfing around Tumblr, he “happened to see pictures of a bunch of guys at a wedding wearing a really slick tux with a narrow cut and peaked lapels. I wanted one, but if you start looking for a tux, a billion options come up. It struck me that there was no good way to solve this problem.”

Investors apparently agreed it was a pain point in the market. In November, the now 17-person company closed on $5.5 million in funding from Javelin Partners, along with Ashton Kutcher, Tyra Banks, and other celebrity investors. Now, as Weingarten resumes talks with VCs — he says the company has “plenty of cash,” citing its “momentum” as a reason to reengage with investors – the question is whether The Hunt is growing fast enough.

Weingarten says that one million people have registered since the service launched last January and that 300,000 of them – 90 percent of them women between the ages of 15 and 30—actively use it.

Unlike platforms such as Pinterest, users’ “hunts” also demonstrate a stronger intent to purchase, says Weingarten, who compares the conversion rates to those of Google’s search results. “We don’t have to worry about proxies or guessing your intent based on what pages you’ve visited; we know what you want to buy, which puts us in a strong position.”

Indeed, Weingarten says the startup has already been approached by a number of brands looking to pay for greater visibility, with some, including clothiers Lulu’s and 22Singer.com, already actively jumping in to answer users’ searches. (Says Weingarten, “We encourage brands to solve hunts, though I let them know not to spam our users. I don’t want them posting 10 products in response to a user who’s looking for a certain kind of dress with stripes.”)

Naturally, the Hunt has plenty of challenges, including competition from other question-and-answer platforms. Just last week, Twitter cofounder Biz Stone launched a social search app called Jelly that invites users to ask their friends for help in finding information. The Hunt’s young demographic, while attractive to brands and advertisers, also tends to be fickle.

Perhaps most importantly, it still hasn’t established the kind of critical mass that is, in itself, a kind of defensibility.

Still, attempting from the outset to build a bridge between photo sharing and e-commerce is likely refreshing to some VCs. Knowing that a former investor is at the helm may also hold special appeal.

I ask Weingarten whether The Hunt is spending on marketing, for example, and he tells me that it’s “much more interesting to have less growth and for that growth to be purely organic. As an investor,” he adds, “if I thought that a startup was buying a bunch of ads, I’d look at it differently.”

New Fundings

BankBazaar.com, a five-year-old, Chennai, India-based loan processing and information platform, has raised more than $13 million (Rs 80 crore) in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital, reports theTimes of India. Previous investor Walden International, which provided the company with $6 million in early 2011, also participated in the funding.

Eyefreight, a six-year-old, Netherlands-based company that makes transportation management software, has raised €9 million (US$11.8 million) in a funding round led by existing investors De Hoge Dennen Capital and Global Cleantech Capital.

FarmLogs, a two-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based startup that helps farmers digitally manage their farm to increase yield and profitability, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Drive Capital. Existing investors, who’d earlier given the company $1 million in seed funding, also participated in the round, including Huron River Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Hyde Park Angels.

First Opinion, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose app makes it easy to text doctors, as well as track milestones and health concerns, has raised $1.2 million in funding from Greylock Partners,Yuri Milner, Felicis Ventures, and 500 Startups. TechCrunch hasmore here.

GetOne Rewards, a three-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company that automates the marketing, relationship, and management programs of its enterprise customers, has raised more than $2.5 million in Series B funding. The round was co-led by Fulcrum Growth Fund andMilestone Venture Partners, with participation from Atlanta Technology Angels and other investors. Silicon Valley Bankmeanwhile provided the company with a growth capital term loan.

Juno Therapeutics, a new Seattle-based startup that’s trying to eliminate cancer from the human body and last month closed on $120 million in Series A funding, has added $25 million to the round from two prominent investors, reports GeekWire. Bezos Expeditions, the investment arm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is now a backer, as is Venrock.

Main Street Hub, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company manages social media communications for small to medium-sized businesses in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland and Hong Kong, has raised $14 million led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with previous investors, including Harrison Metal Capital, participating in the round. The company has raised $20 million to date.

Media Gobbler, a three-year-old, L.A.-based company that backs up, transfers and organizes high-bandwidth media files like music, videos and photos, has raised $3.3 million as part of a $5 million fundraise, according to an SEC filing. The company had previously raised just north of $3 million. Its investors include ff Venture Capital, Black Ocean Group, and a long line of prominent individual investors, including Sky Dayton, Aber Whitcomb, Dan Rose, Jeremy Wenokur,Mike Jones and Matt Coffin.

Nextbit, a new, San Francisco-based startup operating in stealth mode, has raised $18 million in funding from Accel Partners and Google Ventures, reports TechCrunch. The startup’s founders were both formerly entrepreneurs-in-residence at Accel; one sold his last company to Motorola Mobility, later acquired by Google. You can learn more about the team here.

OpenSesame, a 2.5-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based online training company that’s trying to simplify the process of buying and selling eLearning content, has raised $8 million led by Partech Ventures. The company has raised $10 million to date.

Quench, a King of Prussia, Pa.-based outfit that’s among the country’s largest bottleless, filtered drinking water companies, has raised $38.5 million in equity and debt financing from new investor T. Rowe Priceand previous investors Element Partners, Virgin Green Fund, Douglas Brown, ORIX Ventures, Advent-Morro Equity Partners, Potomac Energy Fund and The Pohlad Companies. Quench has raised roughly $108 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

SiteMinder, an eight-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based company that helps major hotel chains book and record guest stays, has raised $30 million from Technology Crossover Ventures. The company, whose customers include Marriott, Hyatt, and Best Western, had previously raised $5 million in Series A funding in May 2012, reports the outlet Tnooz.

SuVolta, a seven-year-old, Los Gatos, Calif.-based semiconductor company focused on producing low-power chips, has raised $10.6 million in Series F funding from Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd., Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, August Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Northgate Capital and DAG Ventures. SuVolta has raised about $73 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Visual.ly, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based infographic platform company, has raised $8.1 million in Series A financing. Crosslink Ventures led the round with participation from Correlation Ventures,SoftTechVC, 500 Startups, Giza Ventures, Quest Ventures andKapor Capital.

WP Engine, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based hosting company that specializes in running WordPress sites, has raised $15 million in funding from North Bridge Growth Equity. The company’s CEO, Heather Brunner, tells TechCrunch that the round brings the company’s total funding to $18.2 million. (Silverton Partners and a long line of individuals, including Eric Ries, are among is earlier investors.)

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New Funds

Mayfield Fund has raised $86 million for its second Indian fund, Mayfield India II, according to a new SEC filing. The Sand Hill Road firm began marketing the fund one year ago. It closed its first India-focused fund, a $111 million pool called Mayfield India I, in 2008. Four partners are listed on the regulatory filing: James Beck, Navin Chaddha,Couldiplall Lala, and Zoubeir Khatib. Last month, StrictlyVC interviewed Nikhil Khattau, a venture partner who cofounded Mayfield India in Mumbai, about where the firm is seeing the most opportunity.

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People

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla sends a scathing letter to the producers of “60 Minutes” in the wake of its grim report on cleantech, which featured Khosla along with one of his struggling portfolio companies. Writes Khosla, “The pontificators at 60 Minutes, with their agenda-driven bastardization of news reporting, failed to do the most elementary fact checking and source qualification, as was the case with your Benghazi reporting. No wonder one major media outlet wrote that you have been ‘widely criticized for leaving out crucial information about the state of the clean tech sector.’ Is this the new CBS standard?”

New York magazine has dinner with Ken and Ben Lerer in the West Village, where father and son share how they came to run their increasingly high-profile venture firm together. Says the elder Lerer: “I was at the Huffington Post, and I was doing investment for the family. Then Foursquare raised money. I called Benjamin, and I was like, ‘This sucks, I wish I had known about this.’ He said, ‘You’re an idiot, I know those guys, why didn’t you call me?’”

Summit Partners announced a heap of promotions late last week that we’d missed. In case you did, too: Leonard Ferrington, who joined Summit’s West Coast office in 2006 as an associate, has just been promoted from principal to managing director. Meanwhile, Andrew Collins, Matthew Hamilton and Jay Pauley were promoted to principal. Collins joined Summit’s West Coast office as an associate in 2008, and became a VP in 2011; Pauley was joined Summit’s Boston office in 2010 as a VP and moved to Menlo Park last year; Hamilton joined Summit’s Boston office in 2005 as an associate and had served as a VP since 2009.

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IPOs

The re-opening of China’s mainland IPO market is off to a bad start, with five Chinese companies announcing they will halt their IPOs in the wake of an unexpected announcement from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Sunday. THE CSRC had promised a more hands-off approach to IPOs after resuming them earlier this month; it has since announced it will make random inspections on the procedures of book-building and roadshows.

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Exits

MyEdu, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company whose online platform helps students to create a personalized graduation plan, as well as find job and internship opportunities, has been acquired by the education software giant Blackboard. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. MyEdu had raised $18.7 million, including from Bain Capital Ventures and the Baylor Angel Network.

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Jobs

Apple is looking for a corporate development analyst to join its corp dev group in Santa Clara, Calif., a team that’s responsible for evaluating and executing Apple’s acquisitions, as well as for conducting other complex financial analysis. To apply, you’ll need at least two years of experience in investment banking, venture capital or management consulting.

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Data

Venture funding in the healthcare IT sector almost doubled in 2013, growing to $2.2 billion across 571 deals, from $1.2 billion across 163 deals in 2012, says the research and consultancy Mercom Capital Group.

Israeli venture capital funds raised 28 percent less capital in 2013 than in 2012, says a new report from the IVC Research Center and KPMG Somekh Chaiken Israel. Specifically, 13 funds raising $526 million in 2013, compared with the $725 million raised by 14 funds in 2012. IVC attributes the drop to the creation of more micro VC funds, noting that only two funds last year raised more than $100 million. You can learn more here.

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Essential Reads

Some ideas about what we should do about net neutrality, now that a federal appeals court has rejected equal access rules for Internet providers.

Quartz on why Nest will be even bigger for Google than Android.

As the world turns: Fast-growing Practice Fusion is taking over San Francisco office space from fast-shrinking Zynga, reports Xconomy.

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Detours

A pair of Stanford students has developed an attractive, functional, and affordable brace that can help cure club foot for $20.

From the New Yorker: “There is, I think, a trace of shame in the veryenterprise of tweeting, a certain low-level ignominy to asking a question that receives no response, to offering up a witticism that fails to make its way in the world, that never receives the blessing of being retweeted or favorited.”

Living the dream: Ah, the life of a senior search engine marketing specialist.

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Retail Therapy

The Dark Motorcycle Helmet, made for the “not-quite-average guy.” (Shark-Repellent Bat Spray and grappling gun sold separately.)

No. Sorry. Nope.

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Sign up for our morning missive, StrictlyVC, featuring all the venture-related news you need to start you day.

Happy Tuesday!

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Top News in the A.M.

Shooting for the moon: A quick look at just a handful of Google’s recent acquisitions and what they mean.

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For Nest Investor Shasta Ventures, Persistence Pays

Google’s plans to acquire the smart home appliance maker Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash should translate into a tidy return for the half dozen firms that invested $80 million in the three-year-old company. Kleiner Perkins may have the most reason to kick up its heels, having led Nest’s $4 million Series A round in early 2011. (The deal, rumored to give Kleiner a 20x gross return, might well convince its limited partners that Kleiner has recovered its mojo.)

But the deal is also a personal victory for venture capitalist Rob Coneybeer of 10-year-old Shasta Ventures, who was introduced to Nest founder Tony Fadell eight years ago by fellow VC Stewart Alsop. (“He thought we’d like each other,” explains Coneybeer, who is a mechanical engineer by training and shares Fadell’s love of gadgets.)

Once acquainted with Fadell, Coneybeer spent as much time with him as he could in the hope that one day they could work together. Last night, I talked with a clearly elated Coneybeer about his relationship with Fadell and his subsequent investment in Nest; what follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Where does your story with Fadell start?

I’ve been interested in mobile and hardware and investing in the Internet of things for a while, and when Tony left Apple, I kept in touch with him as he was investigating different ideas, including devices that use batteries to get recharged and what happens to those devices if you connect them to the Internet. So he’d been thinking about things, and we’d get together every two to four weeks to talk.

When did it turn into more than that?

Tony had gotten to know myself and some of my partners, and he’d developed relationships with a couple of different firms … When Tony became difficult to reach, I realized he might be starting something, and I basically pursued him and said, “I’d love to find out what you’re up to,” and I offered to sign an NDA. And he said, “You’d do that?” And I said, “Yeah, I never sign NDAs, but to learn what you’re up to, I would, absolutely.” A week or two later, he walked me through what he was up to, and I met the core team he’d pulled together.

He went with us and with Kleiner [for Nest’s A round]. He’d known [Kleiner partner] Randy [Komisar] for a long time, and Randy has great experience in bringing consumer electronics to market [including as a founding director at Tivo].

What was Shasta’s value-add to the company?

It was a good personal fit. And having built [Shasta] around consumer and expertise around hardware companies, we were able to make great introductions, including to Best Buy and Lowe’s and other channel partners. We also helped with recruiting, in closing key candidates. Beyond that, it’s hard to provide a laundry list; Nest has such an accomplished team.

Kleiner led the Series A round, but you say Shasta was a “significant participant.” Can you talk about what kind of return you’ll see from Nest’s sale? TechCrunch sources say it will return “almost all” of your second, $250 million fund, closed in 2008.

I can only tell you that [the return will be] very, very, significant. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but you can write “very” three times.

Is Nest your biggest exit personally? I recall that before Shasta, as a partner at New Enterprise Associates, you led an investment in the fiber optic switching company Xros, acquired by Nortel.

That was $3.25 billion, so this is my second three-billion-dollar outcome. It does feel really good to build something from scratch [Shasta] and work really hard for 10 years to build a brand and to [be a part of] a product and outcome that people are really excited about. It feels like things are finally coming together.

Are you even a teeny bit disappointed? I know you thought Nest could become a formidable standalone hardware business.

I’ll just say that Google is acquiring the best hardware team on the planet. In terms of designing high-quality, durable, consumer hardware, you can’t name a better team.

New Fundings

Certain, a 20-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of event management software, has raised $17.8 million in funding, according to an SEC filing. The company previously raised $11 million, in 2011, says VentureBeat.

ChargeBee, a three-year-old, Chennai, India-based startup that helps companies manage their subscription billings, has raised roughly $800,000 in a Series A funding from Accel Partners. The company has raised $1.17 million altogether, including a $ 370,000 seed round closed in 2012.

Chrome River Technologies, a six-year-old, L.A.-based company that makes expense management and supplier invoice processing software, has raised $17 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures and included existing investors First Analysis and Argentum. The company has now raised $20 million to date.

Elastifile, a young, Herzliya, Israel-based solid-stage storage company, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Battery Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. (GigaOm notes that Elastifile’s cofounder Shahar Frank was cofounder of XtremIO, a solid-state storage player purchased by EMC in 2012 for $430 million.)

Evaneos, a four-year-old, Paris-based online platform that helps design their travel and book their trips, has closed $6 million in funding led by XAnge Private Equity, with participation from ISAI. The company had previous raised $1 million in funding from ISAI.

Iceotope, a two-year-old, Yorkshire, England-based IT cooling specialist, has raised more than $10 million in Series A financing, the company disclosed yesterday. Aster Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in clean tech, led the round, along with the high-tech investment firm Ombu Group in the U.K.

Invoca, a six-year-old, Santa Barbara, Calif.-based call marketing company formerly known as RingRevenue, has raised $20 million in Series C funding from Accel Partners, Upfront Ventures and Rincon Venture Partners. The company has now raised more than $30 million.

Ivantis, a six-year-old, Irvine, Calif.-base maker of stents that are used to lower eye pressure for glaucoma patients, has added $14 million to its Series B round, which now totals $46.5 million. Investors include Vertex Ventures, GBS Ventures, Ascension Ventures,EDBI, MemorialCare Innovation Fund, New Enterprise Associates and Delphi Ventures. The company has raised more than $63 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

Kontagent, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile analytics firm that caters to game developers, has raised a fresh $4.8 million in funding, shows an SEC filing. The company has now raised roughly $17 million to date, including from Maverick Capital, Battery Ventures, and Altos Ventures.

Madison Vaccines, a 1.5-year-old, Madison, Wisconsin-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on treating prostate cancer, has raised $8 million in Series A financing from Madison-based Venture Investors, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Madison-based Venture Management and others.

Nutanix, a four-year-old, San Jose, Calif.-based converged infrastructure market player, has raised $101 million in financing co-led by Riverwood Capital and SAP Ventures. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and Greenspring Associates also participated in the round, alongside existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners,Khosla Ventures and Battery Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $172.2 million.

Oyster, a two-year-old, New York-based company that provides customers access to more than 100,000 books for $10 a month, has raised $14 million in a new round of financing led by Highland Capital Partners. Existing investor Founders Fund also participated in the financing, which brings Oyster’s total funding to $17 million. The New York Times has more on the company here.

Sonian, a six-year-old, Newton, Mass.-based that manages a hosted information archive program, has raised $8 million in Series C funding from existing investors OpenView Venture Partners, Summerhill Venture Partners and Prism Venture Partners. The round brings Sonian’s total funding to $21.6 million.

Turn, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based advertising platform company, has raised $80 million in Series E funding led byBlackRock and Fidelity Investments, reports TechCrunch. Other investors in the deal included new backers ClearBridge Investments,Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Northport Investments, andPine River Capital Management and previous investors Norwest Venture Partners, Trident Capital, Shasta Ventures, and Focus Ventures. The company has raised a grand total of more than $135 million.

uTest, a six-year-old, Framingham, Mass.-based mobile app testing service, has raised $43 million in Series E round of funding led by Goldman Sachs. Previous investors also participated, includingQuestMark Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Mass Ventures, Egan-Managed Capital and Mesco Ltd. The company has now raised 80 million to date.

Volusion, a 14-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that helps merchants create e-commerce stores online, has raised $35 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, says TechCrunch. It’s the company’s first outside funding.

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Top News in the A.M.

Taxi drivers, up in arms over the Uber car service, have grown violent in Paris, with Uber confirming at least a dozen incidents in Paris and Lyon this morning, including “flat tires, eggs, broken windows.” As Rude Baguette reports, one of the first victims today was Eventbrite CTO Renaud Visage, who was being driven from the Paris airport. The Uber in which he was riding was “attacked by multiple assailants, who allegedly, after smashing one window and slashing two tires[…]as well as defacing one side of the car with glue, attempted to enter the vehicle.” Visage’s companion in the car told the outlet that their Uber driver maneuvered the two out of the situation, then dropped them on the shoulder of the freeway.

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