Good morning, everyone!  (Web visitors, for an easier-to-read version of today’s issue, click here.)

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Top News in the A.M.

It’s official: Microsoft has acquired “Minecraft” maker Mojang for $2.5 billion. Most employees will stay on for now; Mojang’s founders will not. The company has published a blog about the sale, explaining that Markus Persson (“Notch”), the 35-year-old creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder of Mojang, “decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that.”

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Steve Blank: Washington Really Is Starting to Get It

Steve Blank, a renowned serial entrepreneur who teaches at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, and Columbia, used to groan that the government just didn’t understand entrepreneurship, particularly as it pertains to tech and life sciences startups.

That’s quietly beginning to change, says Blank, who traces part of the shift to a surprise call in 2011 from the National Science Foundation, the second-largest research organization in the U.S., with a budget of $7 billion.

Early that same year, Blank — incorporating some ideas of startup advisors Alexander Osterwalder and Eric Ries – had devised a course called the Lean Launchpad that dispenses with traditional business school coursework and pushes students out of the building instead. The idea is to get each student or team of students to write a business hypothesis; test that hypothesis in the real world by asking dozens of potential users, purchasers and partners for feedback; then iterate on their business idea based on that input.

Initially, Blank wasn’t sure how the experiment would turn out. He blogged about the process each week, though, and while he was winning converts at Stanford where it was first introduced, the NSF was also quietly following along from Washington. Indeed, recalls Blank, seemingly out of the blue, “[Errol Arkilic, head of the NSF’s SBIR program] called me and said, ‘You’ve invented the scientific method for entrepreneurship. This is now understandable. You’ve cracked the code,’ Then he said, ‘How quickly can you prototype a class?’”

With the the help of numerous VCs and dozens of scientists, it took a year, Blank says. Since then, 400 teams of NSF-funded researchers have received nine weeks of training to help them evaluate their scientific discoveries for commercial potential. (Here’s one powerful testimonial by the chief of general surgery at UCSF, who says the course saved him from chasing down the wrong path.)

More, beginning next month, the National Institutes of Health — the country’s primary federal medical research agency, with an annual budget of $31 billion that it spreads across the country – will begin teaching eligible NIH grantees the exact same curriculum. And the Department of Energy is next in line, adds Blank.

I ask Blank how he feels about his class beginning to figure into how tens of billions of dollars in research grants (potentially) become allocated. Blank, who is the son of immigrants and takes a teaching salary of $1 dollar a year (“I made a lot of money and teaching is how I give back to the country,” he says), sounds optimistic.

“Instead of VCs having to guess about markets and channels and product market fit, and scientists who don’t know what the hell a customer is, these scientists can now articulate arguments based on layers of evidence. It’s much different than, ‘Let me tell you about my lab creation.’”

Adds Blank, “It’s an enrichment program to get public investment matched with private capital more efficiently. How can you argue with that?”

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New Fundings

AcuFocus, a 13-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based medical device company whose corneal lenses allows patients to see near and intermediate objects more clearly, has raised $21 million in new funding from a group of undisclosed investors. The funding brings AcuFocus’s total funding to at least $86 million, shows Crunchbase.

Celoxica, an 18-year-old, London-based company that sells its low-latency trading platforms to trading firms, banks, and brokers, has raised £1.5 million ($2.4 million) from Beringea Growth Finance. Celoxica was established as a spinout of Oxford University; it has raised $34.4 million from investors over the years, shows Crunchbase.

Cloudyn, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv-based cloud monitoring company that helps its customers optimize their cloud use across different infrastructure providers, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Titanium Investments, with earlier investor RDSeed participating. To date, the company has raised $5.5 million, it says

Formation Data Systems, a two-year-old, Fremont, Ca.-based company whose site says simply that’s building a “converged data platform for web-scale computing,” has raised $15 million in funding, shows an SEC filing that lists CEO Mark Lewis, COO Andy Jenks, Imperva CEO Anthony Bettencourt, Carl Ledbetter of Pelion Venture Partners and Robert Schwartz of Third Point Ventures.

HouseLens, a 7.5-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based company that produces full-motion walk-through video tours of real estate, has raised $1.5 million from investors, according to an SEC filing that shows a $2 million target. The company had previously raised $500,000 from investors, shows an earlier SEC filing.

Inrix, a 10-year-old, Kirkland, Wa.-based a provider of real-time traffic data (it takes into account accidents, construction and events, among other inputs), has nabbed $55 million in funding from Porsche Automobil Holding, which is taking a stake of roughly 10 percent in exchange for its capital. The company, whose earlier investors include Venrock, Bain Capital Ventures, August Capital, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has now raised $133 million altogether.

Kinnek, an 18-month-old, New York-based online marketplace that invites small businesses to list goods they need and for suppliers to provide competitive prices for them, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Matrix Partners. Earlier investors also participated in the round, including Sierra Ventures, Version One Ventures, TriplePoint Ventures, CrunchFund, and individual investors Richard Chen, Naval Ravikant, and Benjamin Ling. The company has raised $11.5 million altogether.

Milyoni, a five-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based company that specializes in social video marketing for entertainment companies, brands, and artists, has raised $16.1 million in new funding, shows an SEC filing. The company, whose backers include Oak Investment Partners, ATA Ventures, and Thomvest Ventures, had previously raised $14 million over two rounds of funding.

Moment, a nine-year-old, Seattle-based company that makes portable lenses that work to enhance mobile phone pictures, has raised $1.5 million in debt, shows an SEC filing. Earlier this year, the company ran a successful Kickstarter campaign through which it raised roughly $450,000. Venture capitalist Hunter Walk interviewed Moment founder Marc Barros this past summer.

Needly, a four-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based company whose RSS reader makes it easy to follow feeds, collaborate in small groups, and build drag-and-drop web sites, is looking to raise $1 million, shows an SEC filing. The company had raised $987,000 in seed funding last year, including from Upfront Ventures.

Omakase, a months-old, New York-based company that’s operating in stealth mode, has raised $2.4 million in a mix of debt and other securities, shows an SEC filing that lists a $4 million target. Will Gaybrick, a general partner at Thrive Capital, and Akshay Navle, a venture parter with High Peaks Venture Partners, are listed on the filing (both as “executive officers,” interestingly). Caleb Merkl, a longtime VP at The New Traditionalists, a New York-based company that makes handmade furniture, is also named in the filing. Omakase means “I’ll leave it to you” in Japanese.

Peaberry Software, a two-year-old, New York-based company whose product, Customer.io, allows users to send newsletters to segments of customers using data from their site, has raised roughly $775,000 in seed funding from 23 investors, shows an SEC filing.

Product Hunt, a 10-month-old, San Francisco-based aggregation site and email service that surfaces new tech products and startups, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, reports TechCrunch. The company had previously raised $1 million in seed funding from Y Combinator (Product Hunt was part of its summer batch), betaworks, Cowboy Ventures, CrunchFund, Google Ventures, Greylock Partners, Ludlow Ventures, Slow Ventures, SV Angel, Tradecraft and Vayner/RSE, among a long list of individual investors. Apparently, the funding is small change compared with what at least one other recent Y Combinator alum is or has recently raised. See here.

Scholar Rock, a 1.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma-based biotechnology company working a new type of biologic drug it calls niche activators, which affect disease-causing proteins in the body, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by ARCH Venture Partners. Founding investorsPolaris Partners and Professor Timothy Springer of Boston Children’s Hospital also participated in the round, along with new investors EcoR1 Capital and The Kraft Group.

Snowball Finance (Xueqiu in Chinese), a four-year-old, Beijing, China-based financial media platform, has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Renren, with participation from earlier investor Morningside Ventures, reports TechNode. The company had previously raised $13.2 million across two fundings, says the report.

TrustedCompany, a year-old, Kuala Lumpur-based open review community that helps consumers identify trustworthy e-commerce businesses in emerging markets, has raised $1 million in Series A funding led by Tengelmann Ventures, with participation from 500 Startups and returning investor Asia Venture Group. TechCrunch has the story here.

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New Funds

Govtech Fund, a new, San Francisco-based seed-stage fund focused on startups that sell into the government, has raised $23 million in funding, it’s announcing today. The firm is headed up by Ron Bouganim, a Code for America mentor and operator who has worked for numerous startups over the years. Talking with the outlet Government Technology, Bouganim says that he anticipates backing 15 to 20 startups with an average check size of $500,000 and that Govtech Fund has already made investments in four startups, including MindMixer, a company that makes it easy for local officials to poll residents about proposed actions.

MissionOG, an 18-month-old, Philadelphia-based venture firm, has raised $9 million as part of a fund that’s targeting up to $49 million, according to SEC filings that were turned up by Technically Media and confirmed by founding partner George Krautzel. To date, MissionOG has made five investments; its checks range in size from $250,000 to $2 million, according to Krautzel.

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IPOs

It looks like Alibaba‘s opening-day IPO shares will see a bump in price from $66 to just below $70, owing to intense demand for the e-commerce giant. Bloomberg has more here.

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People

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks with Charlie Rose for the first time, telling him he sees Google, not Samsung, as Apple’s biggest competitor, and describing the Apple Watch as the “most personal device we’ve ever created.” Asked by Rose whether the iPhone 6 isn’t a “continuation of the iPhone,” Cook corrects him, calling it instead “a leapfrog.”

Venture capitalist Tim Draper‘s ballot initiative that would have asked voters to split California into six separate states failed to qualify for the ballot in 2016, the secretary of state’s office reported Friday. Draper had submitted 1.37 million signatures this summer in support of the measure. The AP has the story here.

The world of startup investing is headed for trouble, says venture capitalist Bill Gurley of Benchmark in a new Q&A with the WSJ. Among other things, Gurley tells the outlet: “I guarantee you two things: One, the average burn rate at the average venture-backed company in Silicon Valley is at an all-time high since ’99 and maybe in many industries higher than in ’99. And two, more humans in Silicon Valley are working for money-losing companies than have been in 15 years . . . In ’01 or ’09, you just wouldn’t go take a job at a company that’s burning $4 million a month. Today everyone does it without thinking.”

Mahboob Hossain has joined the California Public Employees’ Retirement System as a senior portfolio manager to oversee co-investments made alongside private equity fund managers, reports peHUB. Hossain previously spent more than seven years as a private equity portfolio manager at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

Investor Peter Thiel argues that you really do have to reinvent the wheel to win.

A new reality show will follow six entrepreneurs while they try to raise the capital they need to build a legal marijuana business in Denver. Really.

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Job Listings

Learn Capital, a San Mateo, Ca.-based venture firm focused on the global education sector, is looking for “venture fellows” for part-time and full time internships that begin on a rolling basis throughout the year and have varied durations.

Robert Bosch is looking for a senior associate of corporate development who can build relationships with Silicon Valley companies to support its next generation “connected car” and “connected mobility” experiences for its customers. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

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Data

The WSJ looks at which parts of the human body are garnering most capital from healthcare-focused VCs.

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Essential Reads

A tale of two very similar apps, one created by serial entrepreneur Kevin Rose, the other created by a former employee of Rose.

Wired’s Mat Honan pens a surprisingly touching requiem for the fast-disappearing iPod.

Did Apple just become a big bank?

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Detours

A boy lobbying to include his cat in his senior portrait. NBD.

Wonder Woman’s secret past.

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Retail Therapy

You know, it is possible to be too unself-conscious.

It is Friday! Huzzah! Hope you a terrific weekend, everyone. (Web visitors, you can find an easier-to-read version of today’s morning email here.)

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Top News in the A.M.

A group of New York-based Uber drivers, who say they number about 1,000, are attempting to organize a strike against the company on Monday morning over complaints of falling fares and unfair working conditions. BuzzFeed has the story here.

In separate, also bad, news for Uber, the California Public Utilities Commission sent a letter to the company yesterday saying that commercial carpooling — which both Uber and rival Lyft are now orchestrating — is illegal.

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In Palo Alto, a Micro Community in the Making

In Tuesday, in leafy Palo Alto, Ca., tucked away in a nondescript office enlivened by bright, computer-themed art, the 1.5-year-old early-stage firm Pejman Mar Ventures welcomed journalists and investors to watch half a dozen startups explain what it is that they’re doing. Four of the teams were comprised of Stanford students who had tinkered on their nascent ideas at Pejman Mar’s offices this past summer. The other two startups that presented are fully up and running and about to hit the fundraising trail.

In terms of quantity, it wasn’t much of a showcase. Two of the four Stanford-led teams are returning to school, its founders determined to finish their computer science PhDs. Pejman Mar’s timing could have been better, too, given everything else that was going on in the Bay Area on Tuesday, including Apple’s highly anticipated launch event and TechCrunch’s signature fall conference in San Francisco.

Still, plenty of VCs and reporters showed up — including from SoftTech VC, Sequoia, Floodgate, CRV, and Forbes — and for two reasons, seemingly.

First, Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson, the firm’s likable cofounders, are highly focused on creating a community around their young firm. Making room for ambitious Stanford students to hole up during the summer months is one way of going about it. The pair also hold weekly events at their space that feature VCs and renowned founders.

Past guests include John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus — though an even more popular attraction, says Nozad, is a life coach who comes twice a month to help founders with their personal problems. (“When you say you’re going to have a VC here, maybe 10 or 20 people come,” he says. “As soon as we announced the life coach, we had a wait list.”)

Of course, squishier stuff aside, investors are paying close attention to Pejman Mar because of its track record to date.

On his own, Nozad, who famously sold rugs to tech millionaires before becoming a full-time investor, has backed more than 100 companies over the last 14 years, many of which have gone on to big exits, including the early smartphone company Danger, which sold to Microsoft in 2008 for $500 million. (It’s also through Danger that Nozad met Hershenson, athree-time entrepreneur whose husband cofounded Danger.)

Since launching their fund a year and a half ago, the pair have backed another 21 companies, half of which have raised follow-on rounds – including some doozies. DoorDash, for example, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto-based restaurant food delivery startup, closed on a $17.3 million Series A round in May led by Sequoia. The company has raised $19.7 million altogether. Guardant Health, a Redwood City, Ca.-based startup that has developed a blood test for cancer, has also gone on to raise significant funding, most recently raising a $30 million Series B round in April led by Khosla Ventures. Guardant has raised at least $40 million altogether.

Little wonder that on Tuesday, VCs were paying close attention to the two startups that will soon be seeking funding: Solvvy, which is trying to reinvent mobile search and has so far raised $500,000 from Pejman Mar (it’s seeking out more seed funding this fall), and Fieldbook, whose software lets users track and organize their information in simple data tables. Fieldbook has also raised $500,000, including from Pejman Mar; AngelList cofounder Naval Ravikant; former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky; and Lotus founder Mitch Kapor. The company says it will seek out more funding in the middle of next year.

It’s a little early to know whether the assembled investors connected with the startups this past week. With Pejman Mar’s growing reputation for spotting promising teams, though, it’s easy to imagine they’ll find interest somewhere along the line. “These companies are for real,” Nozad told me on Tuesday, looking like a proud parent as the crowd chatted with the presenting companies. “They’re great people.”

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New Fundings

6SensorLabs, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose consumer products will eventually help users determine what’s in their food, has raised $4 million in seed financing led by Upfront Ventures. Other participants in the round included Lemnos Labs, SK Ventures, SoftTech VC, Xandex Investments and Mitch Kapor.

AltspaceVR, a 1.5-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based virtual reality software company, has raised $5.2 million from investors, including Dolby Family Ventures, Formation 8, Google Ventures, Lux Capital, Foundation Capital, Rothenberg Ventures, SV Angel, Haystack Fund, Tencent, Raine Ventures, Promus Ventures, Western Technology Investment, and others.

Asset Avenue, a 1.5-year-old, L.A.-based online peer-to-peer lending platform that provides its customers with fixed income investments in loans secured by commercial real estate, has raised $3 million in funding from Matrix Partners and NetEase Capital, the venture arm of the Chinese technology company NetEase Inc., reports VentureWire.

Bluestone, a three-year-old, Mumbai, India-based online jewelry company, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata, the former chairman of the Tata Group. Bluestone had previously raised at least $15 million, including from Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, and Saama Capital. LiveMint has the story here.

The Dodo, a nine-month-old, New York-based online media company that focuses on animal stories, has raised $4.68 million in Series A funding led by Discovery, with participation from earlier investors SoftBank Capital, Greycroft Partners, RRE Ventures, Sterling Equities and Bruce Wilpon. The company, founded by Izzie Lerer, daughter of investor Ken Lerer, has raised $5.68 million to date.

Ifbyphone, a nine-year-old, Chicago-based maker of voice marketing software, has raised $30 million in Series E funding from new investor NewSpring Capital, along with earlier backers Apex Venture Partners, SSM Partners, Origin Ventures, River Cities Capital Funds, i2A Illinois Accelerator Fund, and Spring Mill Venture Partners. The company has now raised $60 million altogether.

Liquid Light, a five-year-old, Monmouth Junction, N.J.-based company that develops and licenses process technology to make major chemicals from carbon dioxide, has raised $15 million in Series B financing from new investor Sustainable Conversion Ventures. Earlier investors VantagePoint Capital Partners, BP Ventures, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, and Osage University Partners, also participated in the round.

Mediamorph, a seven-year-old, New York-based company whose entertainment analytics software helps film studios, TV networks, and large video service providers measure, manage and optimize their digital distribution, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Liberty Global Ventures, with participation from earlier investor Smedvig Capital. The company has raised $23 million thus far, shows Crunchbase.

SmartStudy, a year-old, Beijing-based online education platform, has raised $10.6 million in Serie A funding from Internet giant Baidu, reports China Money Network. Baidu has backed numerous online education firms, says the report, noting that in August, Baidu acquired online education platform Chuanke.

Tink, a 1.5-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based personal finance mobile app, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Sunstone Capital, with participation from financial entrepreneur Sven Hagströmer and existing investors. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Blue Cloud Ventures, a two-year-old, New York-based firm that specializes in late-stage cloud software investments, is looking to raise a second fund of $50 million to $100 million, “about four to eight times the size of its first fund,” reports VentureWire. The firm seeks out companies with $50 million to $60 million in revenue, that are two to three years away from an exit, and which may need an additional $10 million to $15 million, it tells VentureWire. Among its investments is AFS Technologies, a 29-year-old, Phoenix, Az.-based company that makes business intelligence software for food and beverage companies.

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IPOs

Underwriters for Alibaba told their sales staffs in a memo this morning that they’ll close all orders for the company’s IPO by Wednesday because demand has been so strong, reports Dealbook. The underwriters added that they’ve received orders with “no sensitivity” to the current price range of $60 to $66 per share, suggesting that range may rise.

Mevion Medical Systems, a 10-year-old, Littleton, Ma.-based company that makes proton therapy systems for use in cancer patients’ radiation treatments, has filed to go public. The company has raised at least $125 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its S-1 shows that its biggest shareholders include Still River, which owns 35.3 percent of the company; ProQuest Investments, which owns 14.1 percent; Venrock, which owns 8.4 percent; and CHL Medical Partners, which owns 6.4 percent.

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Exits

Byliner, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based longform journalism startup that very publicly ran into trouble this past summer, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by Vook, a New York-based company that offers digital publishing services to authors and organizations. Byliner had raised $1 million in seed funding, and an undisclosed amount of Series A funding, from investors Bullpen Capital, SoftTech VC, Freestyle Capital, Avalon Ventures, CrunchFund, and ICG Ventures. GigaOm has more here.

Conversant, a 16-year-old, Westlake Village, Ca.-based digital marketing company that was known until earlier this year as ValueClick, has been acquired by Texas-based Alliance Data Systems for $2.3 billion in cash and stock. The deal creates one of the world’s biggest online marketing and data-driven companies, notes the L.A. Times. ValueClick had gone public in 2000.

Eventjoy, a nine-month-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based startup behind a free digital ticketing platform for event organizers, has been acquired by TicketMaster for undisclosed terms. The startup, part of the Y Combinator Winter 2014 batch, will be incorporated into TicketMaster’s Live Nation Entertainment unit.

Eucalyptus Systems, a five-year-old, Goleta, Ca.-based cloud software startup, is being acquired by Hewlett-Packard for “less than $100 million,” reports Recode. The company had raised $55.5 million across three rounds of funding. Its investors include New Enterprise Associates, Institutional Venture Partners, Benchmark and e.ventures.

Mongoose Metrics, a seven-year-old, Independence, Oh.-based voice marketing software company that appears to have been bootstrapped, has been acquired by Ifbyphone, a competing company that just raised $30 million from investors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Polar, a two-year-old, Lucerne Valley, Ca.-based startup whose technology is used to poll mobile-device users for their opinions, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by Google. The company’s founder and handful of employees will join the company’s Google+ division, says the WSJ.

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People

Entrepreneurs, just how bad do you want funding from Shasta Ventures‘s Rob Coneybeer?

Brad Garlinghouse, the former Yahoo executive brought in to transform the company formerly known as YouSendit into the file-sharing company Hightail, has been replaced as CEO by the company’s cofounder and original CEO, Ranjith Kumaran. (We reported yesterday that Kumaran, who was spent the last four years as CEO of his newest company, PunchTab, had stepped down from that role, replaced by a longtime Citrix executive. Now we know why!) Recode broke the news yesterday, suggesting Garlinghouse’s departure may owe to Hightail’s struggles to differentiate itself in the crowded cloud storage market.

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe is donating $31 million to the University of Maryland, the largest donation in the school’s history. “The public school system is really important to me,” Iribe told Business Insider. “I grew up locally in Maryland, born and raised, and grew up in public schools. This is part of Oculus’ commitment, and my commitment as CEO, to supporting education.” Iribe, who attended the school from 1996 to 1997, says the money will be used to construct a new computer science building with a dedicated virtual reality lab.

Serial entrepreneur Kevin Rose, who recently left Google Ventures to start a new mobile development company called North, is developing a new app and according to TechCrunch, it lets users share thumbnail-sized photos and animated GIFs that disappear 24 hours later.

Investor Peter Thiel answered questions on Reddit yesterday for an “Ask Me Anything” session and seemed to have fun with it. Asked about his favorite rap artist, he immediately served up fellow VC Ben Horowitz.

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Job Listings

CalPERS is hiring an investment officer. The deadline to apply is September 25th.

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Essential Reads

Google just launched a cloud platform for startups.

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Detours

Twenty-five absurd photos of billionaire Richard Branson.

Things you will find at Google’s online store.

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Retail Therapy

We said we’d never ever never want a van. Then we spied this.

Good morning, dear readers! (Web visitors, you can find an easier-to-read version of today’s email here.)

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple is facing a potential setback in China after much-anticipated introductions of its new iPhone models were delayed, reports the New York Times.

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Hired CEO: “We’re on a Clear Path to $1 Billion Plus in Revenue”

Some people think great hires come through networking. Hired, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company focused primarily on technical talent, thinks much more of the process can and should be automated, and it’s seemingly on to something. More than 1,100 employers – from American Express to Secret — are now using its platform and it has facilitated more than $3.3 billion in job offers, it says. As tellingly, most of a $15 million round that Hired raised earlier this year remains untouched in the bank, according to the company.

Should boutique agency recruiters be nervous? Maybe. Many still use tech minimally, throwing people on phones and email, while Hired tries wringing every inefficiency out of the process through data analysis, providing high-touch experiences on top.

Certainly, it’s a big market to disrupt. U.S. companies alone pay out $124 billion each year to recruiting services. We talked yesterday with Hired’s CEO, serial entrepreneur Matt Mickiewicz, to learn how he’s trying to nab a piece of that pie.

There are lots of recruiting startups. What are some big differentiators that companies and prospects should know about Hired?

We’re basically flipping the funnel. Traditional recruiters sell into companies and get client contracts. We’re focused on candidates and building a consumer brand, so when you’re ready for a new challenge, you come to us because you know you’ll get offers from a spectrum of companies with minimum fuss.

How are you reaching these elusive engineering job candidates?

Thirty percent is through paid advertising – like sponsoring online developer communities and hackathons and meetups. Thirty percent is through organic sources and 30 percent comes through direct referrals.

How many candidates have you placed?

We don’t disclose that number but it’s multiple people per day.

How are companies paying you to find them?

There’s no initial cost for employers. It’s a pay-for-success model and employers can either pay 15 percent of [a new employee’s] base salary, which is typically around $20,000, or they can pay 1 percent per month [of that person’s salary] for up to 24 months, amortizing the cost across the life span of the employee.

That’s [roughly a third] more money for you.

In recruiting, traditionally, all the cost is front loaded, but the value is delivered over time. So if you’re growing fast and hiring 10 people a quarter, that’s a lot of money in up-front expense. With the 1 percent plan, companies can better manage their cash flows. It also aligns our interests. In the traditional model, if a person leaves after eight months, the company is still on the hook [for the recruiting fee]. If that happens with our model, the company [stops paying us].

What makes you so sure you’re finding the right matches?

We filter for quality – whether [candidates have] attended top schools, worked for top venture-backed startups, contributed to hackathons – and typically accept just 5 percent of applicants. We also screen for intent, meaning how likely it is that this person will go on interviews with companies based on how long they’ve been with their current employer, how realistic the candidate is . . .

Where is Hired today? Give us some metrics.

Six months after raising our Series A, we’re on an eight-figure annual run rate, which is crazy. Our employee count is 57 [up from 25 a year ago], and we’re now opening a new office every six weeks and becoming profitable [at that office] within 30 to 60 days. It’s a great product-market fit.

You have offices in in San Francisco, Seattle, L.A., and New York. Where do you go next?

We’re scaling out in the U.S. and internationally, so Boston is opening this month and we’ll be in London by the end of this year.

You talk a big game about customer service. What’s an example of going above and beyond for a job candidate?

If someone flies an engineer to New york but doesn’t reimburse that person right away, we’ll pay that bill ourselves.

You previously cofounded the fast-growing freelance marketplace 99Designs, among other companies. Think Hired will be the biggest company for you?

Yes. We’re solving a problem at scale and it works. We’re on a clear path to a billion dollars plus in revenue.

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New Fundings

365 Data Centers, a two-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based provider of data center services, has raised $16 million in Series B funding from earlier investors Crosslink Capital and Housatonic Partners. The company has also secured a $55 million credit facility from Fortress Credit Corp. GigaOm has more here.

Airway Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Cincinnati, Oh.-based biotechnology company working to prevent a debilitating lung condition in premature infants, has raised $4.6 million in Series A funding led by CincyTech, with participation from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Queen City Angels and private investors.

Apropose, a year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based software startup developing a web design analytics platform, has raised $1.875 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Andreessen Horowitz, with additional support from Tableau founder Pat Hanrahan and Nicira founder Nick McKeown.

Elastic Path Software, a 14-year-old, Vancouver-based company that builds commerce software, has raised 5.35 million in Canadian dollars ($4.9 million) led by BDC Venture Capital IT Fund. Yaletown Venture Partners and unnamed individual investors also participated.

EShakti, 15-year-old, Chennai, India-based online women’s apparel retailer, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding, reports VCCircle. Investors in the round included IvyCap Ventures and IDG Ventures India, which invested in the company’s Series A round.

Festicket, a two-year-old, London-based startup whose site provides users with packages including festival tickets with accommodations, has raised $2.7 million in Series A funding led by Wellington Partners and PROfounders Capital, with participation from previous investors Windcrest Partners, Playfair Capital, and Jacques-Antoine Granjon. The company had raised $680,000 in seed funding last year. TechCrunch has more here.

Harpoon Medical, a year-old, Stevenson, Md.-based company that’s developing a guided surgical tool for beating heart mitral valve repair, has raised $3.2 million in Series A funding led by Epidarex Capital. Other participants in the round include Maryland Venture Fund and the Abell Foundation.

JimuBox, a year-old, Beijing-based peer-to-peer lending platform, has raised $37.19 million in Series B funding led by Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital Partners, reports China Money Network. Matrix Partners China, Vertex Venture Holdings (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings), Magic Stone Alternative and earlier investor Ventech China all participated in the round. The company has raised at least $47.2 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Livongo Health, a new, Palo Alto, Ca.-based consumer digital health company that has developed an (FDA-cleared) interactive blood glucose meter, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from General Catalyst Partners. The company had previously raised seed funding from 7wire Ventures, which is run by Livongo’s CEO Glen Tullman and his longtime partner Lee Shapiro. The Chicago Tribune has more here.

Looop, a year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based mobile-friendly platform to enable small- to medium-size business to deliver training online, has raised $2 million seed funding from undisclosed education investor. TechCrunch has more here.

Poxel, a five-year-old, Lyon, France-based biopharmaceutical company that’s developing drugs to treat type-2 diabetes, has raised $12.9 million in funding from the venture division of BPI France.The company, whose previous investors include Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, has now raised roughly $50 million altogether.

Soneter, a four-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company whose sensor technology detects water leaks in the home, has raised $6 million led by the GRA Venture Fund, with strategic investor Flextronics International participating.

Telogis, a 14-year-old, Aliso Viejo, Ca.-based company whose software tracks commercial vehicles, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Fontinalis Partners, the Detroit-based venture firm. Last October, the company raised $93 million Series A round from investors led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Tinder, the two-year-old, New York-based mobile dating app, is in talks to raise a big round of funding from Benchmark in a deal that would value the company at between $750 million and $1 billion, according to TechCrunch’s sources. A big gating factor: Tinder’s relationship with IAC, which owns a majority stake in the company.

Twitter, the eight-year-old, San Francisco-based microblogging platform, is tapping debt markets with plans to raise as much as $1.5 billion to invest in acquisitions and expansion, reports Bloomberg. Much more here.

Veracode, an eight-year-old, Burlington, Ma.-based company that makes cybersecurity software for large companies, has raised $40 million in new funding led by Wellington Management, with earlier investors including .406 Ventures and Atlas Venture participating. Veracode has now raised $112 million altogether. BetaBoston has more here.

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New Funds

Advent Venture Partners, the 33-year-old, London-based venture capital and private equity firm that focuses on both life sciences and tech sector investments, has raised $146.3 million for its newest life sciences fund, according to an SEC filing that shows a $194 million target.

AngelList is expanding globally and launching new vehicles for accredited investors to back what amount to indexed AngelList syndicate funds for the top deals on the platform, reports TechCrunch.

Darwin Ventures, a 10-year-old, fund-of-funds focused on early-stage venture capital, is aiming to raise up to $100 million for a third fund-of-funds according to an SEC filing flagged yesterday by peHUB. So far, shows the filing, the firm has raised $21.4 million for the effort. Darwin raised its last fund, a $94 million vehicle, in 2008. It closed its debut fund with $40 million in 2004.

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IPOs

Virobay, an eight-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing treatments for neuropathic pain, autoimmune disease and fibrosis, has filed to go public. StrictlyVC is running a little behind this morning, but you can see its S-1 here.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals, an 18-year-old, British Columbia-based drug maker focused on rare diseases, has also registered to go public. You can see the filing here if you’d like to know who owns what.

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Exits

Lift Labs, a 5.5-year-old, Bay Area company that that created tremor-canceling technology for patients with Parkinson’s disease, including a spoon that makes eating easier, has been acquired by Google for undisclosed terms. The firm’s employees will join Google X lab.

Movirtu, a six-year-old, London-based startup whose software enables companies to avoid paying costs incurred by employees using their devices for personal use, has been acquired by Blackberry. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. According to Crunchbase, Movirtu had raised at least $5.5 million, including from TLCom Capital Partners. Business Insider has more here.

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People

Kurt DelBene, a former Microsoft executive who spent six months this year helping to fix some of the glitches associated with the Healthcare.gov site, has joined Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group as a venture partner, the firm said yesterday. The Seattle Times has more here.

PunchTab, a nearly four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based loyalty and engagement program, has appointed Mike Mansbach as CEO. He replaces founding CEO Ranjith Kumaran, who will “take an active role on the PunchTab board,” says a release. Mansbach previously spent roughly a decade at Citrix as a VP of enterprise marketing, global sales, and, most recently, customer care. Before founding PunchTab, Kumaran cofounded the file sharing and online data storage company YouSendit (later renamed Hightail). StrictlyVC talked with Kumaran last winter about how much tougher it has grown for startups to draw Series B funding.

—–

Job Listings

The Kaiser Foundation is looking for a pre-MBA investment associate to help out with its $600 million endowment. The job is on Sand Hill Road, in Menlo Park, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Facebook is testing a feature that lets you schedule the deletion of your posts in advance.

Marissa Mayer’s day of reckoning at Yahoo is fast approaching.

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Detours

More than half the U.S. population is now single, up from 37 percent in 1976, when the government began tracking such things.

How crossword puzzles are made.

—-

Retail Therapy

The 2016 AMG GT S, with actual “race” mode. Coming next spring.

Hi, good Wednesday morning, everyone! StrictlyVC spent part of yesterday driving back and forth to Palo Alto and ran out of time to write a column, but we’ll see you back here tomorrow. Also, for an easier-to-read version of the following, click here.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple didn’t disappoint yesterday, say those who jammed into its Cupertino, Ca., launch event. In addition to two new phones, the consumer products giant unveiled its long-awaited Apple Watch and a new payments system. Here’s Bloomberg on the new payments system, The Verge on the Apple Watch, and the New York Times on the company’s two iPhone 6 models.

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New Fundings

4Moms, a nine-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based maker of high-tech baby gear (including a stroller that folds itself up with the push of a button), has raised $41 million in growth capital led by Castanea Partners. Bain Capital Ventures, which invested $20 million in the company in 2012, also participated. The company has now raised just more than $80 million altogether.

Avogy, a four-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based semiconductor and systems technology company, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from earlier investor Khosla Ventures.

aWhere, a 15-year-old, Denver-based software-as-a-service data analytics company that combines public and proprietary data about weather, soil quality, and crop prices to help farmers make better business decisions, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Elixir Capital, with Aravaipa Ventures participating. The company has raised $11.6 million to date. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

CartoDB, a new company out of six-year-old, New York-based Vizzuality, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Earlybird Venture Capital, with Kibo Ventures and Vitamina K participating. CartoDB makes easy-to-read maps and apps that make sense of location data.

Dagne Dover, a two-year-old, New York-based maker of handbags and accessories, has raised $1.25 million in seed funding from investors, including 2020 Ventures, First Round Capital, and individuals David Bell, Fabrice Grinda, and Dominic Cioffoletti.

Edufii, a two-year-old, San Luis Obispo, Ca.-based social network for athletic skills development (coaches use it in part to communicate their advice to athletes), has raised $1.4 million in Series A funding led by DFJ Frontier and Pasadena Angels. Other participants in the round include the Gideon Hixon Fund, Tech Coast Angels, SLO Seed Ventures and individual investors.

Euclises Pharmaceuticals, a three-year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based biotech startup that’s aiming to develop treatments for cancer, has raised $1.3 million in Series A funding led by Cultivation Capital, with BioGenerator, Missouri Technology Corporation, the St. Louis Arch Angels, ABC Laboratories and the St. Louis County’s Helix Fund participating.

FieldAware, a three-year-old, Plano, Tx.-based company whose software makes it easier for mobile field workers to handle technical support calls over their phones, has raised $24 million in new funding led by Summit Bridge Capital, with Silicon Valley Bank and earlier investors OpenView Venture Partners, Atlantic Bridge Partners and Oyster Capital Partners participating. The round follows a $12 million investment made in FieldAware by OpenView Venture Partners in late 2012.

FlightCar, a 2.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based online marketplace that allows car owners who are parking at the airport to rent out their cars to other travelers, has raised $13.5 million in fresh funding from GGV Capital. Comcast Ventures and Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin also invested in the round, alongside earlier investors General Catalyst Partners, SoftBank Capital, and First Round Capital. The company has raised $19.7 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

HomeUnion, a five-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based online real estate investment management firm that specializes in single-family rental properties, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding from Artiman Ventures.

Interior Define, a two-year-old, Chicago-based e-commerce site that promises high-quality furniture with personalization options, has raised $1 million in seed funding from individual investors, including Bonobos and Red Swan Ventures founder Andy Dunn.

LightCyber, a three-year-old, Israel-based cyber-security startup that says it enables companies to detect cyber penetrations early on, has raised $10 million in new funding led by Battery Ventures. Earlier investors Glilot Capital Partners and Check Point Software co-founder Marius Nacht also participated. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

SGB, a seven-year-old, San Diego-based bioenergy crop company that develops and produces hybrids seeds of the Jatropha tree as a low-cost feedstock for biofuels, has $11 million from existing investors, which includes Life Technologies, Finistere Ventures, Thomas, McNerney & Partners, and Flint Hills Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries. The company has raised at least $28 million to date, shows Crunchbase. The San Diego Union-Tribune has much more here.

Taboola, a seven-year-old, New York-based content-marketing company that was founded in Tel Aviv, is looking to raise $75 million to $100 million at a valuation of between $900 million and $1.2 billion, say WSJ sources. The company has hired Credit Suisse Group to lead the fundraising.

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New Funds

Avrio Capital, an eight-year-old, late-stage venture firm that looks to back innovative food and agriculture companies, has held a first close of roughly $60 million dollars for its fourth fund. The Canadian firm, which has offices in Calgary, Montreal and Toronto, counts Farm Credit Canada and Export Development Canada among its limited partners.

Exitround, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that allows founders to discreetly explore strategic acquisition opportunities, is today announcing Exitround Capital, a marketplace that will put founders in touch with private equity capital options, as well. (Candidates need between $3 million and $100 million in yearly revenue, with positive EBITDA margins.) You can learn more here.

Jasper Infotech, the seven-year-old, New Delhi, India-based owner of e-commerce juggernaut Snapdeal, is launching its own mobile-focused technology incubator and seed fund, reports the Economic Times. The company’s head of corporate development, Abhishek Kumar, says Snapdeal will incubate about eight ventures for two months per batch and will set up a separate team to run the initiative. “An increasing amount of content and transactions are happening on hand-held devices . . .That’s the eco-system we are targeting,” he told the outlet.

SoftBank Capital, the investment arm of Japanese telecom company SoftBank, has raised $100 million for a new venture fund, according to a recent SEC filing that was flagged yesterday by Boston Business Journal. SoftBank’s portfolio includes the wearables company Fitbit and media startup BuzzFeed.

TrueBridge Capital Partners, a seven-year-old, Chapel Hill, N.C., fund of funds manager focused exclusively on venture capital, has raised its third vehicle with $408 million, reports VentureWire. The firm’s LPs include Lehigh University and the agricultural company Syngenta.

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IPOs

Alibaba‘s stock filing, which could potentially be the largest ever, is already fully booked after its road show kicked off earlier this week, reports Fortune.

Rocket Internet, the seven-year-old, Germany outfit, plans to float a stake of just below 15 percent in the company in an IPO worth about $970 million, sources tell Reuters.

A quick look at the 10 “hottest” tech companies that are expected to go public by year end.

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Exits

Dropbox has “acqu-hired” the two computer vision and machine learning professors who founded Kriegman-Belhumeur Vision Technologies, a software concern provides select customers with “cutting-edge” facial recognition technology. TechCrunch explains the deal here.

To the consternation of 7-year-olds everywhere, Microsoft is in advanced talks to acquire the maker of the game Minecraft for more than $2 billion, reports Dealbook.

Path, the beleaguered social network, is on the cusp of being acquired byApple, reports PandoDaily, whose source tells the outlet: “It’s almost done, if not signed already, but it’s essentially a done deal.” A pact isn’t so far-fetched, notes Business Insider. Path founder Dave Morin had a marketing and product role at Apple between 2004 and 2006; he was also seated in the front row of Apple’s big event yesterday.

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People

Y Combinator president Sam Altman has taken to Genius — the online platform that breaks down text with line-by-line annotations — to point out some of the “major disagreements” he had with a recent piece in The Information about Y Combinator (as well as to supplement other parts of the piece with his additional thoughts). It makes for interesting reading. For example, the original story reported that: “One of the main reasons that investors have grown more fearful about YC’s dominance is the increasingly stratospheric valuations of YC companies.” Altman says those valuations are entirely out of his hands, though. “I’d be delighted if venture investors stopped paying such high prices for the companies coming out of YC,” he writes. “The number one rule of fundraising strategy is to never put yourself in a position where you might face a down round, which are usually fatal.”

If Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has any political ambitions, he wouldn’t admit it yesterday during the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. One of San Francisco’s highest-profile civic leaders, Benioff also declined to identify with a political party, saying, “I’m not a Democrat or Republican, I’m an American. I give everyone a lot of money.”

Reggie Brown came up with the idea of creating an application to send disappearing picture messages while a Stanford student and fraternity brother of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, the company announced in a release yesterday (one that, big surprise, went over the wire during Apple’s widely watched launch event). The two sides have also agreed to an undisclosed settlement that ends a suit that Brown had filed against the firm. According to yesterday’s statement: “We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter in a manner that is satisfactory to Mr. Brown and the Company. We acknowledge Reggie’s contribution to the creation of Snapchat and appreciate his work in getting the application off the ground.”

Tracy Isacke has joined Silicon Valley Bank as the head of its corporate venture relationship group, which was established in 2009. Isacke was previously an executive vice president of new business ventures at Telefonica Digital.

Vanity Fair’s New Establishment issue is out. At the very top of its “disruptors” list: entrepreneur Elon Musk, just ahead of Larry Page andSergey Brin, and Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive.

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Job Listings

AMD Ventures is looking for hire someone — an associate, senior associate, or principal, based on the person’s experience — to add to its venture team. The job is in Sunnyvale, Ca.

Also, we listed this job yesterday without a link: Hewlett-Packard is hiring a corporate development associate in Palo Alto, Ca.

—–

Essential Reads

Bloomberg imagines what Alibaba‘s post-IPO wish list might look like, highlighting Snapchat and Internet TV provider Roku among other possible acquisition targets.

Wow. SpaceX is vying with Boeing to build NASA taxis to Mars.

—–

Detours

The most economically diverse top colleges.

Oh, that name misspelling was no mistake. Your Starbucks barista is hoping you have a mental breakdown.

—–

Retail Therapy

You already have the lumberjack shirts and beard. May as well get the mug.

Good Tuesday morning, everyone, it is Apple time! The company’s big launch event kicks off at 10 a.m., and it will be streaming live video right here.

Also, if you missed our interview yesterday with globetrotting investor Nazar Yasin of Rise Capital (and formerly of Tiger Global), here’s the link.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple, Apple and more Apple. There’s even a newly published piece on the structure of the Apple keynote.

—–

A Billionaire Brawl in Silicon Valley

It’s no secret that Uber and Lyft don’t like each other much. In just one recent kerfuffle, Lyft told CNN that over a recent 10-month period, Uber employees had requested, then canceled, more than 5,000 rides from Lyft drivers. Uber quickly punched back, claiming that Lyft’s employees had canceled more than twice as many trips on Uber.

Investors in the rival ride-sharing services have mostly stayed above the fray through such public scuffles. But now, they’re starting to sling mud, too.

The trouble started yesterday morning, when at a TechCrunch conferencein San Francisco, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington interviewed Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in what appeared to be an effort to publicly rehabilitate Kalanick, who the press has begun to portray as something of a bully.

Arrington asked, for example, if it wasn’t true that Lyft is a copycat, partly because Uber and Lyft announced carpool options within a day of each other in early August. Kalanick, who typically seizes opportunities to trash competitors, humbly offered: “Here’s maybe a little bit of a hat tip: I don’t think Lyft copied this particular feature; companies are often working on similar things.” (According to New York magazine, Lyft began work on its program in April, but “before the Lyft news had landed,” Uber published a blog post announcing a “virtually identical service.”)

Arrington also uniformly dismissed Uber’s competitors as “ankle biters” and called Lyft “annoying because you have to sit in the front and talk, and they have those mustaches.” Said Arrington to Kalanick: “They seem to be constantly whining that [Uber is] beating them. Would you consider buying Lyft to shut them up?” (The audience laughed as Kalanick told him that Uber isn’t acquiring companies right now.)

Initially, the interview seemed a coup for Uber. Noting Kalanick’s gentler demeanor — Kalanick repeatedly called himself “scrappy” and misunderstood — TechCrunch reported that if “Uber can buck its perception as a ruthless, greedy company trying to put cabbies out of work and instead show the softer side of on-demand services, it could succeed far beyond taxis.” Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle reported onKalanick’s “pains to exhibit his kinder, gentler side” during the on-stage interview.

But the cozy interview almost immediately drew criticism on Twitter, with comments from people like Wall Street Journal reporter Doug MacMillan and Founders Fund partner Geoff Lewis, both of whom noted that Arrington is an investor in Uber through his investment firm CrunchFund, an affiliation that was never raised during his interview with Kalanick. Lewis, whose firm has invested in Lyft, was particularly pointed in his tweets, calling Arrington’s interview “shameful,” given its absence of any relevant disclosures.

Things only grew more heated several hours later, when during an on-stage interview with TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis, Peter Thiel of Founders Fund described Uber as “without question, the most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley.”

(As Twitter lit up over Thiel’s remark, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, whose firm also owns a stake in Lyft, joyfully jumped into the fray,tweeting: “A big thank you to @arrington for all the unsolicited free publicity for Lyft this morning at Disrupt!” He also published a discount code for Lyft — DISRUPT — and in Andreessen fashion, punctuated his tweet with a disarming smiley face.)

Arrington seemingly tried to stifle the conversation by tweeting to Lewis, “Let’s just cut to the ‘and the horse your rode in on’ and go our separate ways, you worthless d__k.” Perhaps realizing the tweet would only garner more attention, Arrington then tweeted that Thiel is an investor in Uber through Arrington’s fund, CrunchFund, and that Arrington is himself an investor in Lyft through Andreessen Horowitz, where he is a limited partner.

By then, though, Valleywag had caught the flavor of the story, calling out Arrington and Thiel for fighting over Uber “like boys with toys.” And Arrington’s efforts to help alter Kalanick’s public reputation as a brawler were largely forgotten.

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New Fundings

Be-Bound, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose technology makes it possible to access and to stay connected to the Internet on any existing network, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding. Backers include the Global Corporate Investment Holding and Gonzague de Blignières, a former chairman of Barclays Private Equity France.

Blinq Networks, a four-year-old, Ottawa, Ontario-based company that’s developing wireless backhaul products that help wireless carriers address the growth in demand for capacity, has raised $15.1 million in Series B funding led by WIN Fund. Kensington Global Private Equity Fund also participated in the round, alongside earlier investors BDC Capital, New Venture Partners and Summerhill Venture Partners. The company has raised $32.5 million altogether.

Conservis, a five-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based maker of compliance, tracking, traceability and performance management software for farmers, has raised $10 million in new funding from Chicago-based Cultivian Sandbox Ventures and prior investors Middleland Capital and Heartland Farms.

Delhivery, a three-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based e-commerce logistics firm, has raised $35 million in Series C funding led by the private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management, reports VCCircle. Earlier investors Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet also participated in the round. The company had previously raised $5 million in Series B funding and an undisclosed amount of Series A funding.

Edge Therapeutics, a five-year-old, Berkeley Heights, N.J.-based clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat acute, life-threatening neurological conditions, has raised $10 million in venture debt financing from Hercules Technology Growth Capital. The company has previously at least $18 million in equity, shows Crunchbase, including from Maxim Group.

GlassPoint Solar, a six-year-old, Fremont, Ca.-based maker of solar steam generators for the oil and gas industry, has raised $53 million in new funding led by Oman’s largest sovereign wealth fund and Royal Dutch Shell, with earlier investors RockPort Capital, Nth Power and Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital also participating. Bloomberg has more here. The company has raised at least $86.7 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

GlobalTranz, a 11-year-old, Phoenix-based logistics management firm that specializes in carrier, supply chain and warehouse management, has raised $40 million in Series C funding from Providence Equity Partners and Susquehanna Capital. The company has raised at least $50 million altogether, including from Volition Capital.

Good Eggs, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based organic food delivery service, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by Index Ventures. Other company backers include earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Correlation Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Kapor Capital, Harrison Metal Capital and The Westly Group. The company has raised at least $31.5 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Jawbone, the 15-year-old, San Francisco-based consumer electronics company, is in the midst of completing a $100 million piece of funding, part of a $250 million round that it had said it was raising this year, reports Recode. New investors include Rizvi Traverse Management; earlier investors expected to participate in the round include Andreessen Horowitz, J.P. Morgan, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

Parkmobile, a six-year-old, Atlanta-based mobile payment technology company that lets motorists pay for parking through a mobile app, as well as creates digital parking permits, has raised a “substantial” amount of funding from the BMW Group, says the company. Parkmobile had earlier raised at least $6.3 million in funding from Bluefield Investments, BCD Holdings, and Fontinalis Partners, shows Crunchbase.

Property Partner, a months-old, London-based company that combines residential real estate crowdfunding with a secondary exchange to enable investors to trade their holdings, has raised a £1.25m seed round ($2 million) led by Octopus Investments, with participation from the European accelerator Seedcamp; Betfair co-founder Ed Wray; Better Capital founder Jon Moulton; BskyB CFO Andrew Griffith, among others.

Skyword, a four-year-old, Boston content product platform that helps brands produce online content, has raised $11 million in new funding from earlier investor Cox Media Group. Skyword has raised about $25.5 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Talklocal, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based startup that helps consumers connect quickly with up to three local service providers over the phone, has raised $2.6 million in Series A funding led by Crystal Tech Fund, Privateer Capital, Fortify VC, and Launch Angels’ Where Fund. Other participants in the round include K Street Capital and Bazaarvoice founder Brett Hurt. Talklocal was previously called Seva Call. Tech Cocktail DC has more here.

Tryton Medical, an 11-year-old, Durham, N.C.-based developer of stents designed to treat coronary bifurcation lesions, has raised $20 million in new funding from Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund and earlier investors RiverVest Venture Partners and 3×5 Special Opportunity Fund. The company has raised at least $86.3 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

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New Funds

CDH Venture, an arm of one of China’s biggest asset managers, CDH Investments, has recently closed a third venture capital fund with just more than $100 million in commitments, reports Venture Capital Dispatch, which notes that the fund had originally targeted $150 million. Its predecessor was far larger, at $500 million. Venture Wire attributes “muted fundraising” to the departure of general partner Hui Wang, who left to launch his own firm, HighLight Capital. Highlight recently closed its debut fund with roughly $300 million.

Fenox Venture Capital, a three-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based outfit that invests across stages and facilitates partnerships between the startups it backs and multinational corporations, has launched a $20 million fund in partnership with Infocom Group, one of Japan’s largest information technology providers, reports FinSMEs. Fenox Infocom Venture Fund V, which will be managed by Fenox, will make investments in North American and Southeast Asian startups, with an emphasis on wearable technologies, healthcare, and other consumer Internet opportunities.

Innova Memphis, a seven-year-old, Memphis, Tn.-based early-stage firm that primarily backs early-stage, Tennessee-based companies that focus on health care or biotechnology to develop or improve new farming or food technologies, has raised $20 million for its third fund, says the firm. The Memphis Business Journal has more here.

LeapFrog Investments, a 7.5-year-old, London-based investment firm that focuses on socially responsible investments in Asia and Africa, has raised $400 million for its second fund. Among the firm’s investments is Bima, a 3.5-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based company providing mobile-delivered insurance to emerging markets. Reuters has much morehere.

OrbiMed Advisors, the 25-year-old, New York-based investment firm, has raised a new, $325 million fund to back health care companies in Asian nations, where “rising affluence is fueling increased demand for medical products and services,” reports VentureWire. OribMed’s debut Asia fund closed in 2008 with $182 million, says the report.

Peak Ventures, a Provo, Ut.-based seed-stage fund that focuses on startup in Utah and the Mountain West, has closed on a $23 million venture capital fund, the firm announced yesterday. The firm, which writes initial checks of between $100,000 to $1 million, has already already backed seven startups, including Owlet, a maker of a “smart sock” that tracks babies’ movements and measures their vitals. Peak Ventures is a subsidiary of Peak Capital Partners, which owns and manages 70 student apartment communities in 15 states.

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Exits

It’s official. Ebates Shopping.com has been acquired by Rakuten, the owner of Japan’s largest online mall, for $1 billion, roughly the same amount that Rakuten paid for the mobile messaging company Viber earlier this year. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Hong Kong billionaire Gerald Chan has given Harvard $350 million, its biggest single donation ever, reports the Harvard Gazette. The money is being donated by the Morningside Foundation, run by Chan and his brother, Ronnie. Their family operates several businesses, including Chinese real estate giant Hang Lung Group and the Morningside Group, a private equity and venture capital firm.

Nest Labs cofounder Tony Fadell is on the mend with an injured hamstring after it became detached from his hip bone during a water skiing accident. “I could hear it and feel it go pop,” he told Fortune in a call last week.

Lou Forster has joined the new, San Francisco-based financial services venture firm Green Visor Capital as a general partner. Forster was most recently a senior managing director of Cerberus Capital Management, where he built and led Cerberus’s Japan office and was the senior ranking executive in Asia.

Mark MacGann, the former head of government affairs and public advocacy for NYSE Euronext in Brussels, has joined Uber as a senior financial and public policy lobbyist in Europe, reports the WSJ. MacGann, a 20-year lobbying veteran, has been appointed head of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Graham Pingree has joined the San Francisco-based Cendana Capital, which invests in seed-stage venture firms, as a principal. Pingree was most recently a manager at Project Frog, which develops component buildings that assemble easily onsite. He has also worked as an associate at both Cambridge Associates and Horsley Bridge Partners.

Tinder and parent company IAC have settled a major sexual harassment lawsuit with cofounder Whitney Wolfe, reports Buzzfeed. The suit was “resolved (without admission of wrongdoing),” John Mullan, an attorney representing Wolfe, said in an email to BuzzFeed News. Wolfe’s complaint, filed in late June, alleged that Tinder co-founder and CEO Sean Rad and co-founder Justin Mateen subjected her to “horrendously sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate comments, emails, and text messages,” before ultimately firing her. Mateen is no longer with the company.

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Job Listings

Hewlett-Packard is hiring a corporate development associate in Palo Alto, Ca.

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Data

India’s most active tech venture firms, according to CB Insights.

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Happenings

TechCrunch Disrupt rolls into day two. Here‘s the agenda.

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Essential Reads

Things aren’t looking so great for Amazon’s Fire phone, reports the New York Times. Among other things, it cut its price from $200 to 99 cents yesterday.

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Detours

Bike lanes have actually sped up car traffic in New York City.

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Retail Therapy

It’s bad for business. Your children will grow up looking like mountain people who’ve never seen the sun. But 4,000 hours of HD recordings is compelling.