Hi, everyone, hope your Wednesday is off to a great start.

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Top News in the A.M.

The FCC has extended a deadline for comments on proposed rules governing the future of the Internet, after its site crashed under the pressure of the tens of thousands of comments.

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks for Time Warner and was rebuffed, reports Dealbook.

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VC: Opportunity for New E-Commerce Brands is “Endless”

In recent years, a seemingly unending procession of direct-to-consumer companies that make and sell everything from men’s pants to eyeglasses to snack foods has sprung up and nabbed venture capital. Think Bonobos, Warby Parker, and HelloFresh, among many others.

In fact, based on venture cycles, one might be inclined to think that it’s time for investors to move on to the next thing. But Neil Sequeira, a managing director at General Catalyst Partners, heartily disagrees. Sequeira, who sits on the boards of NatureBox (healthy snacks) and the Honest Company (environmentally friendly products), cites startups’ ability to reach customers more quickly, easily, and cheaply as just a few reasons why he thinks the trend of new brands selling directly to shoppers is “endless.”

Sequeira told us more last week at General Catalyst’s new Palo Alto office, a traditional pale yellow home that features whiteboard walls and polished concrete floors (a “home away from home” for founders, says the firm).

You’re very bullish on so-called alternative commerce. What does that mean exactly?

Historically, e-commerce has been defined by the Amazons of the world, where they take a product and resell it via the Web to a consumer. But the reality is that commerce – through online, mobile, and multichannel – is changing. It’s no longer about selling a product and taking a thin margin. It’s about creating your own products and brands and selling them on a subscription basis via [multiple] channels, so you’re mobile, you’re online, [and] you’re opening stores.

Wasn’t the idea to not open stores to keep costs down? And is there a danger that consumers can only absorb so many new brands?

These are multichannel businesses. The stores of Warby Parker [which General Catalyst has backed] do incredibly well. The company started online and created a brand. Now, its stores probably perform better than any optical store in the world.

[As for your second question], I think historical big box retailers are in a heap of trouble. Their infrastructure and distribution systems can’t keep up with what consumers want. They have to make deals with manufacturers, their products go through a distribution facility, then to a store. If the products don’t sell, they have to be sent back. They have to do big-brand advertising and marketing. That’s why you’re seeing a lot of these places struggle. Consumers want their specific needs addressed, versus [the old model of] Proctor & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark and those companies doing things on a macro basis. There’s a lot that incumbents can’t do because of their legacy infrastructure.

How big do you think the opportunity is?

I think the trend is endless. It’s a trillion dollar industry. Of course, it means you have to do things differently – acquire customers differently, market differently, build brand differently – but that’s what great companies will do.

How do you, as an investor, sort through what’s great in a market that’s attracting so many startups?

It has to start with a mission — that can’t be manufactured. NatureBox’s CEO was an obese young man who started eating healthier and who wanted to create something to help kids like him. When [actress] Jessica [Alba] started Honest Company, she had already campaigned on Washington for three years to try to change what goes into kids’ clothing and food. Nobody listened . . .so she started a company. I think consumers hear authenticity.

You also have to find creative acquisition channels. Banner ads and Google clicks aren’t going to work. If [my colleague] tells me to buy something, that’s how you sell it. Beyond social, I think mobile is the next real killer. Having that [purchasing power] in [a consumer’s] pocket and figuring out what they really want will be [increasingly powerful].

How so, outside of a retailers’ ability to send a customer information or a discount based on their location?

There are just so many more applications and data on mobile, and those will continue to proliferate, whereas online [retailers are limited to] a certain amount of traditional marketing channels. Then there’s ease and convenience; you don’t have to sit in front of a computer; you can just “one click” from your mobile. So there’s traditional, there’s social, there’s mobile, there’s on-demand. Meanwhile, the incumbents have to go to buy pre-roll on TV. They aren’t going to be able to change fast enough.

Are there any businesses or segments you might avoid at this point because they seem saturated?

Is there a lot of room for another Warby Parker? I don’t think so. But consumer products that are serving niches? Probably. Maybe you don’t want to compete with Google on last-mile delivery. When you have folks who have unending resources and they’re going after a market hard, it can be a challenge. But I don’t worry about the retailers. I don’t think there are that many areas that are shut off.

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New Fundings

IIX, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based network peering company, has raised $10.4 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates. The company has now raised $16.2 million in equity and debt, shows Crunchbase.

Bay Dynamics, a 13-year-old, San Francisco-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Comcast Ventures.

Captricity, a three-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based cloud-based service that converts information on paper to digital data, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Atlas Venture, with Social+Capital also participating. The company has raised $14 million altogether, including from SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffmann and Lotus Software founder Mitch Kapor.

ClusterFlunk, a three-year-old, Iowa City, Ia,-based startup whose app allows students to talk to the other students that are specifically in their classes, has raised $1 million from Lightbank. The company had raised $100,000 in seed funding last year.

Fangdd, a three-year-old Shenzhen, China-based online real-estate platform that connects buys and sellers and eases transactions between them, has raised $80 million in Series B funding from CDH Investments‘ venture capital arm, Vision Knight Capital, and Lightspeed China Partners.

JFrog, a six-year-old, Netanya, Israel company whose software allows developers to store and manage binary code and control their full software release flow, has raised $7 million in Series B funding from VMware and earlier investor Gemini Ventures. The company has raised $11.5 million to date.

Motionsoft, a 29-year-old, Alexandria, Va.-based company that makes marketing software for fitness, gym, and recreation club managers, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Route 66 Ventures, with earlier investor Edison Partners participating. The company has raised $21.2 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Neon Labs, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based Carnegie Mellon University spin-out whose technology automatically selects the best frame in a video to become a thumbnail, has raised $4.1 million in Series A funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures. Earlier investors True Ventures and serial entrepreneur Steve Blank also participated in the round, which brings the company’s funding to $5 million. VentureWire has more here.

NetBase Solutions, a 10-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based social-media analytics company, has raised $10.2 million in Series D funding from new investor SAIF Partners and earlier investors Altos Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, and WestSummit Capital. The company has raised $51.6 million, shows Crunchbase.

Plastiq, a three-year-old, Boston-based online platform that enables consumers to use their credit cards for payments from any Internet-enabled device, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Khosla Ventures. Earlier investors Atlas Ventures and Flybridge Capital Partners also participated in the round, which brings Plastiq’s total funding to $20.3 million.

RedMart, a 2.5-year-old, Singapore-based online grocery-delivery service, has raised $23 million in funding from investors including Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin; Garena, an online games and social platform company; SoftBank Ventures; and Visionnaire Ventures. The company has raised $28.4 million to date, shows Crunchbase. The WSJ has more here.

Zooz Mobile, a four-year-old, Ra’anana, Israel-based company that makes secure payment software for e-commerce websites and applications, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Blumberg Capital. Access Industries, Camp One Ventures and earlier investors XSeed Capital, lool ventures and Rhodium also participated in the round, which brings the company’s funding to $15.5 million.

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New Funds

Siemer Ventures, a 12-year-old L.A.-based venture firm that focuses on late-stage seed business-to-business and business-to-consumer opportunities, has announced the first closing of Wavemaker Fund III, a $45 million venture capital fund. The firm, which plans to focus especially on Southern California and Southeast Asia startups, is also renaming itself Wavemaker Partners.

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IPOs

Line, the Japan-based social message service, might be going public in the U.S., say bankers, who think the company could be valued at up to $20 billion. Reuters has more here.

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Exits

Freshplum, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that helps e-commerce sites offer personalized discounts to visitors who might not make a purchase otherwise, has been acquired by five-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based TellApart, an ad tech startup. TechCrunch has the story here. FreshPlum had raised $2.7 million from a long line of investors, including CRV, Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures, and SV Angel. TellApart has raised $17.8 million from investors.

SmartThings, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based company whose smartphone app allows its users to monitor and control everyday things in their home, office, and car through sensors, is close to being acquired bySamsung for “around $200 million,” reports TechCrunch. SmartThings has raised $15.5 million from investors including Greylock Partners, Highland Capital Partners, First Round Capital, SV Angel, Lerer Ventures, Yuri Milner’s Start Fund, A-Grade Investments, CrunchFund and Box Group.

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People

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg enjoyed an “intimate dinner” Monday night in Ketchum, Idaho, reports Fortune. Unfortunately, the outlet’s sources didn’t strain to hear the conversation, but it’s a good guess that the two were discussing Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to the Newark, N.J. school system. The two might have been talking about the governor’s political future, too, notes Newsweek, which reminds readers that Zuckerberg hosted a fundraiser for Christie at his Palo Alto, Ca. home last year.

Box CEO Aaron Levie talks with Buzzfeed about his company’s trajectory and how he “synthesizes” what comes next. Says Levie, “I spend a lot of time with customers. I used to be 80 percent product and 20 percent video games. Kidding! Now I’m probably 40 percent to 50 percent product and 50 percent customers.”

Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally has just been appointed to Google‘s board of directors. Mulally retired from Ford on July 1.

Hanneke Smits, the London-based chief investment officer of Adams Street Partners, is leaving the firm after 17 years to take a career break, reports VentureWire.

Reporting dynamo and self-described “worst gold digger” Kara Swisher is profiled in a new, 5,000-word piece in New York Magazine that explores her sources’ love-hate relationship with her. (It’s terrific.) Marc Andreessen says, for example, that “a lot of people” thought it was “hilarious” that a major investor in Swisher’s new media company is former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, “given how thoroughly she savaged the sh*t out of him. It’s like PTSD or Stockholm syndrome.”

Peter Taylor, Twitter‘s 57-year-old former manager of data center deployment, is suing the company, saying he was terminated two-and-a-half years into the job over age and medical bias. SFWeekly has more here.

Gautam Thakar, an eBay exec who’d been CEO of Shopping.com, has been newly appointed to the role of president and CEO of LivingSocial, the troubled daily deals business. He’ll officially join the company in mid-August.

Where the Winklevii work.

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Job Listings

Salesforce.com is looking for a senior manager to join its corporate development group in San Francisco.

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Happenings

It’s the last day of Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen. You can watch a live stream of the event here.

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Data

The mid-stage venture funding gap, by the numbers.

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Essential Reads

Apple and IBM are teaming up to push iOS into the enterprise.

Is Rand Paul’s Silicon Valley charm offensive working?

Yahoo’s dependence on Alibaba is starting to get silly, argues Kevin Kelleher.

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Detours

Tatia Pilieva captured the world’s attention with her video of strangers kissing. Now, the filmmaker has made a sequel.

Former NYT executive editor Jill Abramson is “not ashamed of getting fired.”

How to take better dog portraits.

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Retail Therapy

Selfie sticks.

Tiny pocket knives.

Interpol is coming.

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Happy Tuesday, all! 

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Top News in the A.M.

Microsoft is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, Bloomberg is reporting this morning.

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BetterDoctor Raises $10 million, Led by NEA

ZocDoc, a seven-year-old online service that helps users find and book appointments with doctors who accept their insurance, is raising a new, $152 million round of funding that values the company at $1.6 billion.

That kind of momentum might dissuade some competitors, but not Ari Tulla, the founder of BetterDoctor, whose Web and mobile apps also help users locate the most appropriate doctors for them. Before founding BetterDoctor three years ago, Tulla spent five years at the phone giant Nokia, including as the head of its app studio; he has seen first-hand what determined competitors can do — especially when there’s an enormous market up for grabs. (According to Tulla, 70 million people in the U.S. alone seek out new physicians each year.)

We talked yesterday with Tulla about his 25-person company, which just raised $10 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Our chat has been edited for length.

You had a nice job at Nokia. Why leave to start what seems like a very different business?

It was a personal vendetta for me. About 10 years ago, my wife became ill and it took us many months to find the right help for her. [Afterward], I [began investigating] different systems and learning how they work – Aetna’s, Kaiser’s, even some hospitals like Stanford. You could always find doctors through these services, but you weren’t given any information beyond doctors’ names and where they worked; you couldn’t see who they are, what they focus on specifically [etc.]. Finding the right doctor is complicated, because your perception of quality might be very different than mine.

ZocDoc, among others, also promises to help consumers find the right doctors. What does BetterDoctor differently?

The big difference between BetterDoctor and ZocDoc is that we will feature millions of doctors, pulling in information from [reviews site] Yelp, Doximity [an online social networking service for U.S. physicians], and government data made available through the Open Data Act to [learn] where doctors are, which doctors are referring each other, all the procedures the doctors have done and performed and the prices they’ve charged. We’re not just going to feature those doctors whose are paying ZocDoc [to be listed in its service].

Do doctors have any control over what you feature about them?

They can claim their profile for free and edit their information. We’re also selling the doctor on the ability to upgrade their practice profile, where we create a mini website for them, because most practices still don’t have a good site or any online presence. They exist inside of BetterDoctor – they don’t get their own URL – but we take photos of the practice, write content for the doctor and basically create a picture that allows doctors to look more human to patients. We also [let validated doctors pay for] premium visibility.

How many doctors are in the database currently, and how many doctors have paid for these mini sites?

We have a clean database of million doctors at this point and we’ve built 15,000 [sites].

You used to make mobile apps and games for Nokia. How are you using that background at BetterDoctor?

We try to make it easy and fun for both doctors and patients to use the [platform] by making it very simple. Especially for patients, when you’re looking for a doctor, you’re often at your weakest. So the [user interface] works seamlessly and looks looks very minimalistic. We want to be sure that when you’re sitting there with a 100-degree fever, you can’t get lost.

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New Fundings

24Tidy, a young, Shanghai-based startup that does its users’ laundry for them, just raised “tens of millions” of RMB from the investment branch of Suzhou, China-based Oriza Holdings, reports Tech In Asia, which notes that “‘tens of millions’ of RMB could mean anywhere from roughly $1.5 million to $15 million.”

Autobutler, a four-year-old, Copenhagen-based company that provides information online about automobile repair service providers to help users compare service costs, has raised roughly $10 million in a round led by Index Ventures. Earlier investors, including Dawn Capital and the Nordic venture capital firm Creandum, also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Bustle.com, a 1.5-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based online content site that caters to women, has raised $5 million in funding from earlier investors Social+Capital Partnership and Time Warner Investments. New investor R&R Ventures also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $11.5 million, shows Crunchbase.

MicroGreen Polymers, a 12-year-old, Arlington, Wa.-based company that turns plastic bottles into lightweight, environmentally friendly coffee cups, has raised $7 million in venture funding, $5 million in convertible debt, and another $5 million in secured debt, reports GeekWire. Altogether, the company has raised $45 million in equity and $17 million in debt, including from investors Waste Management, WRF Capital, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Stillaguamish Tribe and individuals.

Reviews42, a 3.5-year-old, New Delhi, India-based product and price discovery site, has raised $5 million in new funding led by Tiger Global Management. Existing investors Blume Ventures and Nirvana Venture Advisors also participated in the round. Earlier, the company had raised an undisclosed amount of funding, including from Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, co-founders of India’s largest e-commerce website, Flipkart.com.

Secret, a nine-month-old, San Francisco-based app that lets people post messages anonymously, has raised $25 million in new funding from investors, including Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, SV Angel and Fuel Capital. The company had previously raised $11.3 million. The young company is now valued at more than $100 million, reports the New York Times.

SoundCloud, the seven-year-old, Berlin-based digital-music service that was believed to be this close to being acquired by Twitter a couple of months ago, is now closing in on a deal with the largest record labels, which will reportedly take a stake in the company in exchange for not suing it over copyright violations. Bloomberg has the story here.

Upside Financial, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based SEC-registered investment advisor providing online brokerage services directly to consumers, as well as to retail banks and registered investment advisors, has raised $1.1 million from Cultivation Capital, the financial technology accelerator SixThirty, and angel investors.

WizRocket, a 1.5-year-old, Mumbai, India-based company whose SaaS-based analytical tools help sites measure and improve user engagement, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from Accel Partners, reports the Economic Times.

Xagenic, a four-year-old, Toronto-based molecular-diagnostics company, has held a second closing of its Series B round, bringing the total raised to $25.5 million, including from BDC Capital, CTI Life Sciences Fund, Domain Associates and Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund. The company has raised at least $35.5 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

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New Funds

Blue Sky Alternative Investments, an eight-year-old, Brisbane, Australia-based diversified asset manager, has announced plans to raise $30 million for a new venture fund designed to capitalize on Australia’s “underpenetrated VC asset class,” says the company’s investment director Elaine Stead to the outlet StartupSmart. Competition for venture capital deals in Australia is at an 11-year low, she says, observing that $100 million in venture capital was invested in Australia in 2013, compared with $29 billion in the U.S.

Charles River Ventures, the early-stage venture firm with offices in Menlo Park, Ca., and Cambridge, Ma., has officially closed its 16th fund with $400 million. Also, it wants you to know it would appreciate it if you’d just call it CRV from now on, thank you.

London Venture Partners, a three-year-old, London-based seed-stage firm focused on digital game startups in Europe, this morning announced its first investment fund with third party investors, including NEXON Co.,Wargaming, and Zynga CEO Don Mattrick. The firm, led by general partners David Gardner, David Lau-Kee, and Paul Heydon, isn’t disclosing the size of its new fund. The firm’s past investments include Supercell, NaturalMotion, and Unity.

Seedcamp, a seven-year-old, London-based micro VC fund, has held a first close on its third fund, reports Tech.eu, which says the outfit has secured $28 million of a $30 million round. Half the round is coming from the European Investment Fund, a part of the European Investment Bank dedicated to supporting research and innovation in the EU, says Tech.u; the other half is from investment funds like Index Ventures, Connect Ventures, WhiteStar Capital, Credo Ventures and Caixa Capital, along with individual angel investors.

Sevin Rosen Funds, the 34-year-old, Dallas-based venture firm, is reportedly hoping to raise up to $150 million for what would be its first new fund in eight years. The Dallas Business Journal has the story.

SV Angel, the San Francisco-based micro VC fund, is looking to raise up to $70 million for its fifth fund — much more than the roughly $40 million the firm raised for each of its last two funds — shows a new SEC filing that says the firm has yet to sell any shares. Managing director David Lee alone is listed on the filing.

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Exits

Aorato, a 1.5-year-old, Herzliya, Israel-based cybersecurity startup whose software monitors access to central communication components in enterprise IT systems, is in talks to be acquired by Microsoft for $200 million, reports the WSJ. The company has raised $11 million to date, shows Crunchbase, including from Glilot Capital Partners, Accel Partners, and Innovation Endeavors.

DraftStreet, a four-year-old, New York-based online and mobile daily fantasy sports company, has been acquired by competitor DraftKings for an undisclosed amount. According to Crunchbase, DraftStreet had raised $3.1 million from undisclosed investors. Boston-based DraftKings has meanwhile raised $35.4 million, including from Redpoint Ventures, GGV Capital, and Atlas Venture.

HowAboutWe, a 4.5-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based online platform that recommends dating activities for singles, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by IAC, reports the New York Times. Last month, Business Insider had reported that a hook-up between the two was imminent. IAC also owns dating properties Match.com, OK Cupid, and the mobile dating site Tinder.

Trunk Club, a five-year-old, Chicago-based e-commerce company that offers a personal styling service for men, is in acquisition talks with Nordstrom, reports Recode. The company, founded by Bonobos cofounder Brian Spaly, has twice raised capital but disclosed only its Series A, a $12 million round that included U.S. Venture Partners,Greycroft Partners, Apex Venture Partners and Anthos Capital.

Sensor Platforms, a 10-year-old, San Jose-based company whose software interprets sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices, has been acquired by Audience, a publicly traded company that develops audio software and semiconductor systems. Sensor Platforms’ investors included North Bay Angels, ArrowPath Venture Partners and Newbury Ventures.

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People

HLM Venture Partners, a 31-year-old, Boston-based healthcare-focused venture firm, has promoted Yumin Choi to partner. Choi had joined the firm as an analyst seven years ago and was promoted in 2012 to vice president. Before joining HLM, Choi was an associate with Angel Healthcare Investors.

Facebook has agreed to fund a $194,000-a-year police position in Menlo Park, Ca., and police ethicists are accusing it of trying to buy protection. Says Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller: “Anyone who has the perception that Facebook is trying to protect themselves really doesn’t understand the situation,” he said. “That place is a fortress—they don’t need the Menlo Park Police to protect them.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk should get out of the car business, says influential DoubleLine Capital founder Jeff Gundlach, who thinks Musk should focus on building the battery systems that power his luxury electric vehicles. More here.

Christa Quarles, who most recently oversaw Disney’s mobile and social games division, has joined the social network for neighbors, Nextdoor, as its chief business officer, reporting to CEO Nirav Tolia. Recode has the story here. Quarles landed at Disney through its acquisition of Playdom, where she was CFO. Quarles also spent nearly a decade as an equity research analyst with Thomas Weisel Partners.

Zach Rait, a former Facebook software engineer, has joined Benchmark as an entrepreneur-in-residence, said the firm’s general partner, Matt Cohler, in a tweet yesterday. Among other things he developed at Facebook, Rait helped create the “subscription button” that allows people to subscribe to parts of your news feed without having to become your Facebook friend.

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Job Listings

Naturebox, the well-funded 2.5-year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based snack delivery service, is looking for a VP of brand strategy.

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Happenings

Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference rolls into its second day in Aspen. You can watch a live stream of the event here.

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Data

The value of disclosed M&A deals fell 56 percent between the first and second quarters of this year, from $7.55 billion to $3.35 billion, says the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters. Investors Business Daily has more here.

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Essential Reads

Zeroing in on precious real estate: the lock screen.

Twitter is cracking down on companies that provide stats about their users.

More fascinating emails trickle out of the wage-conspiracy case involving Google, Apple, Intel, and Adobe.

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Detours

One very ambitious pneumatic tube installation.

Ryan Block, VP of product at AOL, tries canceling Comcast.

The 10 craziest stories in Rick James’s posthumously published new memoir.

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Retail Therapy

Bittermilk. Just add the booze.

These contours are kind of irresistible.

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Good morning, everyone, hope you had a terrific weekend! You can find an (easier-to-read) email version of today’s newsletter here.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has prepared a 30-page proposal with suggestions of how to cope with the growing power of Google, along with other tech giants. Treat them like a utility.

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A London VC on Google’s Move to the Hood, and Why Berlin Is Just a Tad Overhyped

With the official news last week that Google Ventures is opening a London office, we decided to call American-born Rob Kniaz of Hoxton Ventures, a London-based firm that closed its first $40 million fund late last year. In the view of Kniaz — who began his career in London as a market development manager with Intel before becoming a product manager at Google, then a VC with Fidelity Ventures Capital — Google’s move to London could be just the shot of adrenaline that the city’s staid venture scene needs. Our chat has been edited for length:

I had read that raising a fund was harder than you’d expected.

It took us almost three years. There’s far less appetite for funds here, so it probably took two or three times as long [as it would have in the U.S.]. But we got it closed last year, with 90 percent of it coming from individuals and 10 percent from institutions. People don’t understand the opportunity here because [some of the biggest successes] don’t seem European. People often think that Skype and Spotify are U.S. companies; they say, “I’d rather have tech exposure in California.”

What are some of the biggest challenges right now for European startups?

A lot of ideas here are comparable to ideas in the U.S. but have a harder time becoming globally competitive because they don’t have the same firepower. Because there are fewer VCs here, a company will raise $1 million, while a similar company in the U.S. raises $5 million.

There’s also a big gap in mid to senior management talent. When I went to work for Google in 2004, probably 20 percent of the managers were ex-Amazon, with another 10 percent from Microsoft [etc]. It was almost like an academy, with people bringing best practices from legacy companies. Here, that generational knowledge isn’t passed down the same way, so the biggest challenge for us is either developing that talent, or finding people who’ve learned at the Facebooks or Googles of the world and are coming here.

Does it seem like more people are moving to Europe from the U.S.?

It does. At some point, people want to come home. Especially with the cost of living in San Francisco and the housing [shortage], the city is looking less tenable to a lot of people. There’s a lot of value in California, but if you already have that network in place, it makes a lot of sense to come here, especially with the pace picking up. Ten years ago, if you were a Frenchman, you went to the Valley and you didn’t come back. Now, it’s feasible to do your company here.

You invest across Europe. Is it possible to draw broad distinctions between startups in Helsinki, Sweden and Berlin, for example?

Finland is disproportionately excellent. The Swedes are thinking internationally from day one; there’s also tons of computer science talent familiar with the programming language Erlang, which is very good for massively parallel communications and was developed at Ericsson, outside Stockholm. And Berlin is super cool, like Brooklyn. Its livability is really high. There’s a big consumer and design focus. But it’s still in that hype cycle. People are talking about it, but it hasn’t had any tremendous successes yet except for the [e-commerce company] Zalando.

Are you seeing more sophisticated angel investors in Europe?

Every city has a good group of angels. It’s very different from angels in the Valley, though, who are former engineers, product directors, [and other former operators]. Here, they’ve mostly made their money in finance or banking and they’re tech fans; they don’t have that industry background.

It all sounds a little like New York five years ago.

It feels a lot like New York five years ago. There’s a lot of interesting stuff bubbling up, but it takes a while for people and money and ideas to come together.

London has a few big firms: Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, Accel Partners. How do you feel about Google Ventures now coming to town?

I’m tremendously excited about it. That London is the first place outside of California that Google is establishing an office – ahead of New York and many other places they could set up – it’s a pretty strong signal.

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New Fundings

Amplitude Analytics, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that provides mobile analytics to app developers, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Box Group, Data Collective, Merus Capital, Quest Venture Partners, Start Fund, SV Angel, Tencent Holdings, and individuals. Financial terms of the round weren’t disclosed. The company is an alum of Y Combinator.

Barkbox, a three-year-old, New York-based subscription service for dog treats and accessories, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from earlier investors Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Box Group,CAA, Daher Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Resolute VC, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures and Vast Ventures. The company also raised $5 million in debt financing from City National Bank (which seems to be working much more with startups lately). Barkbox has raised $21.7 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

EyeVerify, a 2.5-year-old, Kansas City, Ks.-based security company that delivers mobile phone users secure authentication at a glance, has raised $6 million in new funding from Qihoo 360 Technology, Samsung Electronics, Sprint, and an unnamed bank. The company has raised $10.4 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Fruition Partners, an 11-year-old, Chicago-based cloud-service management firm, has raised $5 million, shows a new SEC filing that lists earlier investor Trident Capital. The company has raised at least $17 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Genius.com, a five-year-old, Brooklyn-based company formerly known as Rap Genius, has raised $40 million in Series B funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Dan Gilbert, the billionaire owner of Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The company plans to use the funding to broaden it mission from lyrics hub to “knowledge platform” for digital publishers looking to annotate things online. Business Insider has a great story about the company’s highs and lows to date here.

Issuu, an eight-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based digital publishing and discovery platform, has raised $10 million in fresh funding, reports VentureWire. The company has now raised $16.3 million to date, shows Crunchbase. Its investors include Sunstone Capital.

Madwire Media, a four-year-old, Loveland, Co.-based full-service digital marketing firm, has raised $3.5 million from a single investor, according to an SEC filing.

Proofpilot, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based platform that makes online research studies faster to set up and easier to manage, has raised $1.65 million from a dozen investors, according to an SEC filing. Proofpilot participated in the Blueprint Health accelerator program earlier this year, and pitched to investors alongside other startups at the organization’s Demo Day in April.

Redpoint Global, an eight-year-old Wellesley, Ma.-based company that makes software to help marketers plan and measure their campaigns, has raised $5.2 million, according to an SEC filing that lists two (unnamed) investors. The company had raised $6.4 million in 2012, also from undisclosed investors.

RocketTrip, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based online travel management platform, has closed its Series A round of funding with $3 million, much of which was raised earlier this year, reports TechCrunch. The company’s investors include Genecast Ventures, Canaan Partners, Gmail creator Paul Buchheit, and CrunchFund. The company has raised roughly $3.5 million to date.

SilkRoad Technology, an 11-year-old, Chicago-based company that makes end-to-end cloud-based HR software, has raised $14 million from existing investors, including Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, Azure Capital Partners, Tenaya Capital, and Two Sigma Investments. The company has raised $192 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

VentureBeat, the nearly eight-year-old, San Francisco and New York-based technology news site, has raised $2.6 million in fresh funding, shows an SEC filing that lists founder Matt Marshall, along with Philippe Cases, the CEO of Spoke Software and a former general partner at Partech Ventures. According to the funding, 20 investors participated in the funding. VentureBeat raised its first round of funding in 2008, gathering $320,000 from Felicis Ventures, early Google employee Georges Harik and MHS Capital Partners.

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New Funds

GSR Ventures, a 10-year-old, Beijing-based venture fund with offices in Hong Kong and Palo Alto, Calif., has joined with Oak Investment Partners, to create a new, independent fund called G-O Scale Capital, reports VentureWire. G-O Scale, which is expected to back clean tech companies that can scale in China, is reportedly looking to raise $500 million and has already gathered $150 million in commitments.

Sofinnova, the biotechnology investor, is looking for up to $500 million for its new Sofinnova Venture Partners IX LP fund, according to an SEC filing. The company’s last fund closed with $440 million in the fall of 2011.

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IPOs

Otonomy, a six-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based biotech company that focuses on treatments for diseases and disorders of the ear, filed to go public on Friday. The company has raised $143 million in funding, including from Avalon Ventures (which incubated the company and owns 16.8 percent), OrbiMed Advisors (it owns 15.2 percent), Novo (14.4 percent),TPG Biotech (14.4 percent), Domain Associates (11.8 percent), and Rivervest Venture Partners (7.5 percent).

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Exits

Caviar, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based food delivery service whose app lets users track their order on a map, is in talks to be acquired by the payments company Square for up to $100 million, sources tell TechCrunch. The company has raised $15 million from investors, including Mixt Greens, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global Management,Ironfire Capital, Winklevoss Capital, and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit.

InMage Systems, a 13-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that focuses on cloud-connectivity and data recovery for businesses, has been acquired by Microsoft for undisclosed terms. The company had raised $35.9 million from investors, including Amidzad Partners, Intel Capital, and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. PCWorld has much more here.

mBlox, a 15-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based mobile-messaging company, has acquired two companies in an all-cash deal: NextGen Mobile, a U.K.-based company that goes by the name CardBoardFish, and Zoove, in New York. VentureWire has the story.

Newsle, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based machine learning startup whose app allows users to follow real news about their Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, and public figures, has been acquired by LinkedIn for an undisclosed amount. The company had raised $2.6 million from investors, including Transmedia Capital, Advance Publications,Maveron, DFJ, Bloomberg Beta, SV Angel, and Lerer Ventures.

PowerCloud Systems, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of a WiFi router and app called Skydog that lets users monitor and modify how broadband is used in their homes, has been acquired by Comcast, looks like. TechCrunch has the details here. The company, a spin-out of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), had raised at least $9.2 million from investors, including Walden Venture Capital, Javelin Venture Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures.

RayV, a nine-year-old, New York-based video-streaming startup, has been acquired by Yahoo for undisclosed terms. The company had raised $16 million, including from Magma Venture Partners and Accel Partners.

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People

In the Bay Area, Google‘s real estate footprint is about to get bigger. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the company — which has purchased more than 20 buildings near its headquarters in Mountain View, Ca., in the last four years — has acquired an eight-story building and signed a lease for another in San Francisco, where the company first opened an office in 2007.

Barbak Parvix, one of the product leads behind both Google Glass and Google’s smart contact lenses is moving on to Amazon. GigaOm ha smore here.

Enrique Salem, formerly president and CEO of Symantec, has joined Bain Capital Ventures as a managing director on the West Coast.

Elle magazine profiles “Security Princess” Parisa Tabriz, Google’s top hacker, who heads up a 30-person unit in the U.S. and Europe. “Some people in other parts of the industry, they introduce themselves as, like, ‘vice president,’ with all of these certifications,” she tells the outlet. “I couldn’t give a sh*t. You could be Code Monkey Number 507, but if you’re doing cool stuff, I’m much more interested in talking to you than to whoever’s senior vice president.”

Yahoo is suddenly embroiled in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Nan Shi, a former principal software engineer, is accusing her supervisor, industry veteran Maria Zhang, of forcing her have sex against her will on multiple occasions. In her suit, Shi says that when she later refused Zhang’s advances, she was demoted, and that when she reported to the abuse, the company put her on unpaid leave, then terminated her. The lawsuit names Yahoo as a defendant and lists three causes for damages: sexual-harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination. The Mercury News has the story here.

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Job Listings

Early-stage fund and startup studio Expa Capital, created by StumbleUpon and Uber founder Garrett Camp and co-run by Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai, is looking for a business analyst. The job is in San Francisco.

Spotify, the digital music company, is looking for a business development manager in New York.

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Data

Coindesk has published its newest quarterly “State of Bitcoin” report. Among its findings: VCs plugged $73 million into Bitcoin-related startups in the second quarter, up 28 percent from the first quarter, when they reportedly poured $57 million into Bitcoin companies.

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Essential Reads

Will Yahoo bite the bullet and buy AOL?

What happens when digital cities are abandoned.

Does anyone outside Silicon Valley even want a smartwatch?

So much for that idea. Three parking startups that came under legal scrutiny by the City of San Francisco have suspended their service and changed business models.

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Detours

“Major League Baseball is a funny little club,” a pitching guru tells the New York Times of the nearly extinct screwball. “There are people who absolutely won’t do things, no matter how much they might make sense.”

The ultimate tree house. (H/T: Fast Company)

Your Uber driver reviews you.

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Retail Therapy

Passive-aggressive greeting cards.

Stare into the abyss, from the couch!

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Have we mentioned how much we love Fridays? Have a great weekend, everyone!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Google isn’t sure how to apply “very vague and subjective tests” to the more than 70,000 removal requests that have landed on its doorstep in the wake of the EU’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, says its chief legal officer, David Drummond.

Federal regulators announced yesterday that they’ve filed a lawsuit against Amazon for allegedly making it too easy for children to make purchases when using mobile apps without a parent’s permission.

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The Beauty of Annoying Apps

Earlier this week, I stopped at the Palo Alto offices of General Catalyst Partners, an East Coast heavyweight that’s been politely muscling its way into more West Coast startups since planting a flag in the Bay Area in late 2010. One of those companies is Snapchat, the popular mobile messaging startup, and one of the investors I sat down with was Niko Bonatsos, who first brought Snapchat to General Catalyst’s attention. Among other things, we discussed why Snapchat’s most popular feature is no longer “snaps.” Our conversation has been edited for length.

Snapchat users appear to be less and less interested in the company’s “ephemeral” features. Is that a concern?

It’s the same thing that happens with other software products. When they get started, they’re very simple. Over time, their user base diversifies. So with Snapchat’s newest release, you can basically do a live video chat with others on Snapchat rather than one message at a time. And that’s fantastic. In the past, Snapchat was the icebreaker; now you can do much more. It’s still probably the fastest-growing app out there.

What early signals do you look for when it comes to non-transactional products like Snapchat?

If there’s anything that people are talking about in online communities, or if in reviews of apps, you see polarizing reviews, these are good signals.

When you’re controversial, it fuels word of mouth, which also gets amplified by the media. Back in the early days, for example, Snapchat was perceived as the ultimate tool [for lascivious] texting; it wasn’t true, because 75 percent of the user base was girls. But the media picked it up. Later, Facebook launched Poke, which was characterized as a Snapchat killer. Most people didn’t know Snapchat [at that point], and they looked it up and downloaded it. Controversy is great when it comes to building a brand and acquiring users for zero marketing spend. Obviously, you have to graduate from one controversy to another, or three to six months later there’s fatigue, but it can be controversy because of behavior, content, or because your product annoys people.

So investors should be looking for annoying apps.

Yes. With Snapchat, a lot of parents were very annoyed with it. With [anonymous messaging app] Yik Yak, a lot of schools and parents were annoyed. With [the mobile dating app] Tinder, people were telling their friends, “There’s an amazing app where I can check out girls and if I like them and they like me back, maybe we can start chatting and hook up later.” Meanwhile, older people were like, “This is terrible. What are young people doing these days?”

Secret and Whisper, apps where people share confessions and gossip anonymously, are controversial and, to some, annoying.

But their word of mouth isn’t as strong. Things don’t spread quickly from one community to another. Secret hasn’t managed to break out of its techie, Silicon Valley roots. You can see that it has something like 100,000 Android downloads. It launched on Android [in mid-May], but for a company that has raised so much money and been so [buzzed about], you’d expect some more.

I’m also a little hung up by the names Secret and Whisper. How many secrets do you have, really? Maybe one a day? Three times a week? I get the value proposition of the product; it’s like a Twitter parody account. But most content is, “My girlfriend just broke up with me,” or “I hate my boss.” It’s heartbreaking and after a couple of weeks, you don’t want to go back.

Before I go, what’s one last trend you’re seeing?

How fast we’ve gone from single apps to portfolios of apps. Google now has 150 apps between iOS and Android. Facebook has about 40. The world basically saw what happened in China, where companies like Tencent [the Chinese Internet company] now have [hundreds of] apps and do a lot of cross promotion and [essentially] game the app store. Mobility into the top 100 has become much harder for early-stage startups as a result, and if you aren’t in the top 100 app [download rankings], no one can find you. That’s the opportunity and the challenge.

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New Funds

Bop.fm, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based music technology company that creates permalinks for songs to make them easier to find and share, has raised $2 million in Series A funding led by Charles River Ventures. Other participants in the round included SV Angel, Y Combinator, FundersClub, and individual investors. The WSJ has more here.

Button, a year-old, New York-based mobile marketing company, has raised $2.25 million in seed funding led by Atlas Venture. Other participants in the funding included by DCM, Greycroft Partners, Mesa+and VaynerRSE, as well as individual investors.

Cover, a mobile payments startup that enables restaurant diners to pay for their meals without involving a paper check or a credit card, has raised $5.5 million in funding led by Spark Capital. The company has collected $7 million to date. The WSJ has more here.

D-Wave Systems, a 15-year-old, Burnaby, Canada quantum computing technology company, has raised $28.4 million in new funding, according to a SEC filing that was flagged by TechCrunch. The capital brings the company’s total funding to $160 million, money that D-Wave has raised from Goldman Sachs, DFJ, and the Business Development Bank of Canada, among others.

Erecruit, a five-year-old, Boston-based company that makes software designed for larger staffing firms, has raised $25 million in funding from North Bridge Venture Partners. It’s the company’s first institutional round of financing.

Jobandtalent, a five-year-old, Hondón de los Frailes, Spain-based service that matches professionals with available job opportunities and sends them related alerts, has raised $14 million in Series A funding from Qualitas Equity Partners, Kibo Ventures, FJME Ventures, Pelayo Cortina Koplowitz, and Nicolas Luca de Tena. The company has raised $18.7 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

KeVita, a four-year-old, Ojai, Ca.-based company that makes a line of organic probiotic drinks, has raised $6 million in Series D funding led by SPK Capital, with participation from existing investors KarpReilly and Ecosystem Integrity Fund.

Landscape Mobile, a young, San Francisco-based company whose mobile technology enables users to clip, save and retrieve reading materials in one step, has raised $1.85 million in seed funding from IDG Capital and individual investors.

Malwarebytes, a six-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based that develops anti-malware technologies to detect and remove malicious programs, has raised $30 million in funding from Highland Capital Partners. The round represents the company’s first institutional round of financing.

Olacabs, a 3.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based car rental service, has raised $41.5 million in Series C funding led by Steadview Capital and Sequoia Capital. Earlier investors Matrix Parters India and Tiger Global Management also participated in the round, which brings the company’s funding to $66.5 million, shows Crunchbase.

Tablo, a two-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based online platform for creating and publishing e-books, has raised $375,000 in seed funding from Y Combinator and individual investors, including Kevin Hale, a partner at Y Combinator. The company has raised roughly $400,000 to date.

Vidyo, a 9-year-old, Hackensack, N.J.-based videoconferencing company, has raised $20 million in Series E funding from earlier investors Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds,QuestMark Partners, Saints Capital, Four Rivers Group, ORR Ventures, Triangle Peak Partners and Juniper Networks. The company has now raised $139 million altogether.

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New Funds

FreshTracks Capital, a small, 14-year-old venture capital firm based in Shelburne, Vt., has raised $11.5 million for its third venture capital fund. Assembled with the help of 48 limited partners, the firm intends to spread the capital across 10 to 15 companies. Notable past investments include EatingWell Media Group, acquired by Meredith Corporation in 2011. Notable current invesments include Quirky, a product invention platform that has raised about $175 million over the last five years, including from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Electric, among others. Vermont Business Magazine has more here.

The founder of GetJar, a mobile app store that was acquired earlier this year by China’s Sungy Mobile, has created a new fund to back 20 Eastern European startups a year, reports VentureWire. The firm, Nextury Ventures, was founded late last year by Ilja Laurs and former Microsoft country manager Mindaugas Glodas. It’s focusing on mobile startups primarily, with a particular focus on business-to-consumer products.

InnoSpring, a two-year-old accelerator founded in Silicon Valley to help U.S. and Chinese tech startups expand across borders, is raising a second, $5 million, fund, reports VentureWire. The organization was established by a joint partnership between Tsinghua University Science Park, Shui On Group, Northern Light Venture Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. Its first seed fund, of undisclosed size, was backed by both Chinese and U.S. venture firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Northern Light Venture Capital, GSR Ventures, China Broadband Capital, and TEEC Angel Fund.

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IPOs

Alibaba may launch its IPO process as soon as the end of the month, according to a timetable it shared with some investors in an email. The WSJ has more here.

ReWalk Robotics, a 13-year-old, Israel-based company whose motorized device, designed to aid movement for some people with lower body paralysis, recently received FDA approval, has filed to go public in order to raise roughly $60 million. The company’s biggest backers include SCP Vitalife Partners, which owns 28.4 percent of the company; Yaskawa Electric Corporation, which owns 25.4 percent; Israel Healthcare Ventures, which owns 18.4 percent; Pontifax, which owns 10.6 percent; and Previz Ventures, which owns 6.5 percent.

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Exits

Kior, the publicly traded, advanced biofuel producer that billionaire investor Vinod Khosla personally incubated and which he has backed financially alongside Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, is considering selling itself after missing a $1.88 million loan payment, reports Bloomberg. Kior failed to make the payment on June 30 to the state of Mississippi, where it opened its first U.S. commercial-scale cellulosic biofuel plant in 2012. It still owes the state $69.4 million on a $75 million loan it was provided; Mississippi has agreed to a forbearance period while Kior pursues financing options.

RelateIQ, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based relationship intelligence platform that allows teams to track, share and analyze professional relationships, has been acquired by Salesforce for roughly $350 million, according to an SEC filing. RelateIQ had raised roughly $70 million from Morgenthaler Ventures, Accel Partners, SV Angel, Stage One Capital, Battery Ventures, Formation 8, Accel Partners, AITV, Redpoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Felicis Ventures, and News Corp.

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People

“He’s a great shot, don’t let him tell you otherwise” — Governor Chris Christie on skeet shooting in Sun Valley with SurveyMonkey founder CEO (and husband to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg) Dave Goldberg. (H/T: Sarah Frier.)

Venture capitalist Bill Gurley has authored a hard-hitting post on the potential market size of Uber, in response to a piece in the FiveThirtyEight blog that Gurley suggests was rife with “unnecessary errors.”

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been keeping a low profile at the Allen & Co. conference this week, but Dealbook spotted her heading into a meeting yesterday with Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of the Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten — as well as leaving half an hour later. Mayer, says Dealbook, told another attendee that the meeting didn’t go so well.

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is donating $1 million to a science center being built at the site of a Long Island laboratory where Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla once toiled, reports VentureBeat. Musk also plans to build a supercharger station for his company’s electric vehicles at the 16-acre site. Musk was spurred to action by the comic website The Oatmeal, which had previously raised more than $1.3 million for the science center through a crowdfunding campaign and gently nudged Musk this spring to get involved.

Dan Raveh has joined San Francisco-based Commerce Ventures as as a senior associate. Commerce Ventures was formed in the summer of 2012 by Dan Rosen, who’d previously spent six years at Highland Capital Partners. (Its focus — on the intersection of mobile, payments, and retail — has led to bets like the in-store analytics company RetailNext, which announced a $30 million round earlier this week.) Raveh was most recently a teaching assistant at the Wharton School. Earlier, he spent two-and-a-half years with Viola Private Equity.

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Job Listings

Pandora is looking for a head of corporate strategy. The job is in Oakland.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is looking for a director of corporate development in L.A.

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Essential Reads

Microsoft’s massive mobile problem—and opportunity—in two charts.

Five years in, growing pains are hitting the popular meme and photo-sharing site Imgur.

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Detours

If we could turn back time, we’d probably unread this.

Novel selfies.

A new algorithm that finds the most beautiful routes, instead of the shortest ones.

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Retail Therapy

A portable party, disguised as a cooler. Count us in!

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• The Beauty of Annoying Apps
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