Hi, everyone, happy Wednesday! No column today. (We were buried under an avalanche of funding and other news.)

Web visitors, you might want to read this version of this morning’s email; it’s easier on the eyes.

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Top news in the A.M.

Numerous minivans mounted with camera equipment have been spied in California, leading Apple watchers — who’ve traced the registration of one van to Apple — to wonder if Apple is working on its own Street View-like mapping system.

The FAA is beginning to regulate business on the moon. No joke. (“What do you think of that new restaurant on the moon? The food’s great, but it has no atmosphere!”)

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New Fundings

Brickell Biotech, a 6.5-year-old, Miami, Fla.-based pharmaceutical company focused on acquiring, developing, and commercializing therapies for skin diseases, has raised $10 million in Series C funding led by its chairman, Charlie Stiefel, former chair and CEO of Stiefel Laboratories. Other, unnamed investors and members of the management team participated. The company has raised at least $25.4 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

BucketFeet, a four-year-old, Chicago-based startup that sells canvas shoes featuring designs by artists from all over the world, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding from Jumpstart Ventures and Crate & Barrel founder Gordon Segal, among others. The company has collected $13.4 million altogether, including from Trunk Club CEO Brian Spaly and Bonobos cofounder Andy Dunn.

Casetext, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based social network and site for annotating legal documents, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures. Other participants include Formation 8 and former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, along with earlier backers SV Angel, A-Grade Investments and BoxGroup. The company has now raised $8.8 million all told.

Derby Games, a four-year-old, New York-based legal online gambling company, has raised $6.5 million in financing led by Bullpen Capital, with participation from angel investors Martin Lautman, partner at Muskateer Capital, and Bill Pescatello, a partner at LightBank. Earlier backers also participated, including Andlinger & Company and Alexis Ohanian. The company had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in March 2013.

DesignCrowd, an eight-year-old, Syndey, Australia-based marketplace that connects freelance designers with clients and potential projects, has raised $6 million in Series B funding led by the new Australia VC firm AirTree Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Starfish Ventures. The company has now raised $12.3 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Fixed, 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile app that scans users’ parking tickets for mistakes, then contests the tickets on their behalf (this is also not a joke — the company say it wins these cases between 20 and 30 percent of the time), has raised $650,000 in seed funding from investors, including Slow Ventures, Structure VC, Paul Buchheit and Queensbridge Venture Partners. Altogether, the company has raised $1.8 million to date.

Graylog, a five-year-old, Hamburg, Germany-based company whose platform helps users collect, index and analyze structured and unstructured data from IT infrastructures and applications, has raised $2.5 million in funding led by Mercury Fund, with participation from Crosslink Capital, Draper Associates, and High-Tech Gründerfonds. With its new funding, the company is planning to relocate to Houston.

HourlyNerd, a two-year-old, New York-based online marketplace for M.B.A. students looking for freelance consulting work, has raised $7.8 million in Series B funding led by return investor Highland Capital Partners, with participation from Greylock Partners, GE Ventures,Haystack, the Kraft family, and Intuit founder Scott Cook. The company has raised $12.6 million to date.

kCura, a 14-year-old, Chicago-based maker of e-discovery software, has raised $125 million in minority equity funding from ICONIQ Capital, the part wealth-management firm, part venture firm founded by Divesh Makan, who Forbes described last year as the consigliere to Silicon Valley’s brightest billionaires.

LabMinds, a 5.5-year-old, Boston, Ma. and Oxford, England-based maker of next-generation lab equipment, has raised $3.2 million in funding from the equity crowdfunding platform VentureFounders and Angel CoFund.

Liftoff, a 2.5-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based mobile market app and retargeting platform that helps companies retain users who actually spend money, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Baseline Ventures, with participation from Harrison Metal, Sage Venture Partners, Core Ventures Group, Tim Koogle (who was Yahoo’s CEO long ago) and Ilya Sukhar, who sold his mobile infrastructure company Parse to Facebook in 2013.

Lysosomal Therapeutics, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company working on new treatment options for patients with severe neurological diseases, has raised $20 million in Series A funding from Atlas Venture, Hatteras Venture Partners, Lilly Ventures, Sanofi-Genzyme BioVentures, Roche Venture Fund, Partners Innovation Fund and several angel investors.

MightySignal, a seven-month-old, San Francisco-based company whose sales intelligence tool tells B2B SaaS sales teams who they should be selling to, has raised $1.2 million from investors, including Draper Associates, Vulcan Capital, Queensbridge Venture Partners, WTI, and numerous angels, including Techstars Seattle managing director Andy Sack. (The company passed through the TechStars Seattle program late last year.)

MiTú, a nearly three-year-old, Culver City, Ca.-based media company exclusively dedicated to Latino content, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from AMC Networks, Daher Capital, Northgate Ventures and other unnamed investors. The company has raised $23 million to date.

Molio, a months-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based video marketing and ad technology company that was spun out of Orabrush, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft Partners, with particpation from True Ventures, Subtraction Capital, Advancit Capital and Peak Ventures.

NeuCoin, a year-old, Isle of Man-based digital currency designed for micropayments (it describes itself as a user-friendly version of bitcoin), has raised $2.25 million of funding from a long list of angel investors, including Rob Goldman, the head of growth at Facebook, and Emil Michael, Uber’s SVP of business.

nToggle, a seven-month-old, Boston-based maker of programmatic advertising software, has raised $5.6 million in Series A funding co-led by Sigma Prime Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Qumulo, a three-year-old, Seattle-based stealth data storage startup whose appliance is made from commodity hardware, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Earlier backers Highland Capital, Madrona Venture Group and Valhalla Partners, also participated in the round.

Revolution Medicines, a new, Redwood City, Ca.-based company that will be developing drugs derived from complex chemical compounds found in nature, has received $45 million in Series A funding from Third Rock Ventures, where it was incubated. San Francisco Business Times has more here.

Sera Prognostics, a seven-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based diagnostics company, has raised $5 million in new funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, bringing the total size of its recent Series B funding to $25 million. Altogether, the company has raised roughly $75 million, including from Chione, Upstart Life Ventures, Catalyst Health & Technology Partners, InterWest Partners, and Domain Associates.

SketchDeck, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that enables businesses to outsource their presentations to professional designers, has raised $500,000 in funding from Y Combinator, HubSpot CTO Dharmesh Shah, Justin.tv cofounder Michael Siebel and other angel investors.

Skimlinks, a nine-year-old, London-based content-monetization service for digital publishers, has raised $16 million in Series C funding led by Frog Capital, with participation from earlier backers Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Greycroft Partners, Sussex Place Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has now raised $24 million in equity, it says.

SoFi, a nearly four-year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer lender that specializes in student loans, has raised $200 million in funding at a $1.3 billion valuation. Third Point Ventures led the round, with participation from Wellington Management Company, Institutional Venture Partners, and existing investors.The company has now raised roughly $766 million across 10 rounds, shows Crunchbase.

Taboola, an eight-year-old, New York-based content recommendation platform, has raised $117 million in Series E funding led by Fidelity Investments. Other participants in the round include earlier backers Marker Financial Advisors and Steadfast Capital and new strategic investors, including Advance Publications; Comcast Ventures; Groupe Arnault, the controlling shareholder of French luxury-goods company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton; and Yahoo Japan. The company has now raised $157 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch hasmuch more here.

Tracx, a seven-year-old, New York-based social media management platform, has raised $18 million in Series C funding led by Edison Partners, with participation from earlier backers Flybridge Capital, Mousse Partners, Klingenstein, and Fields & Co. The company has now raised $25.9 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

YellowPepper, an 11-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based mobile virtual wallet startup aimed at the Latin American market, has raised $19 million in Series C funding round led by LIV Capital, a Mexican venture capital firm; Mexico Ventures, a program managed by Sun Mountain Capital; Fondo de Fondos; IFC/ World Bank Group; and other, strategic investors. The company has raised $39 million to date.

Zoom Video Communications, a four-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based software company centered around Web and video conferencing, has raised $30 million in Series C funding rom earlier investors Qualcomm Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. The company has now raised $45.5 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

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New Funds

Cultivation Capital, the St. Louis-based venture capital firm, has begun raising money for its second tech-focused fund, reports the St. Louis Business Journal. According to an SEC filing flagged by the outlet, Cultivation has raised $4.75 million toward a targeted $40 million. Among its investments: LockerDome, a six-year-old, St. Louis-based interest-based social media platform; and Adarza BioSystems, a six-year-old, St.Louis-based company whose immunoassay technology can identify proteins and genetic markers in medical samples like blood.

Walden Venture Capital, the 41-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm, has closed on its eighth fund with $107 million. The firm began fundraising in August 2013 with a $100 million target. Walden was an early investor in the streaming music service Pandora, which went public in 2011.

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IPOs

Hootsuite Media is holding off on an initial public offering for at least 18 months, Bloomberg reports.

MaxPoint Interactive, a hyperlocal advertising startup, has filed to go public. Madrona Venture Group owns 23.6 percent of the company’s shares; Trinity Ventures owns 32.3 percent.

Three firms created by Third Rock Ventures went public last year, and they now have a combined value of more than $8 billion, their shares outpacing other life sciences stocks “by a great deal,” reports the Boston Globe. Much more here.

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Exits

Clarity.fm, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that connects entrepreneurs with mentors over the phone, has been acquired by the business crowdfunding platform Fundable for undisclosed terms. Clarity had raised $2.7 million from investors, including Baseline Ventures, Mark Cuban, Venture51, Howard Lindzon, Freestyle Capital, Real Ventures, and 500 Startups. TechCrunch has more here.

Disclipline.eu, a startup based in Italy that produces and sells furniture and other objects designed by independent studios, has been acquired by Hem, the Berlin-based home furnishings company that Jason Goldberg created out of the e-commerce portal Fab.com. TechCrunch has more here.

RoomHunt, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based service that aggregates apartment listings, has been acquired by RentLingo, a three-year-old apartment review and listing site. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Neither company has made public any financial backers. TechCrunch has more here.

Schoolwires, a 15-year-old, State College, Pa.-based company that develops and hosts K-12 school district websites, has been acquired by Blackboard for an undisclosed amount. Schoolwires had raised at least $12 million from Kennet Partners in a 2009 round. Blackboard, once public, is now owned by Providence Equity Partners.

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People

Alan Eustace, Google‘s SVP of Knowledge, is leaving the company 13 years after joining it, reports TechCrunch. Its sources say that Eustace is retiring, though one guesses that his retirement will not look like most.

Thirty-one-year-old Andrew McCollum, the forgotten member of Facebook‘s original team, is ready for the spotlight.

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Job Listings

Kaiser Permanente Ventures is looking to hire a senior director. The job is in Oakland, Ca.

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Data

As Silicon Valley’s economy chugs along, it’s leaving a stunning 30 percent of the population incapable of meeting their basic needs without public assistance, according to a new report Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The report shows the median income for the region’s high-skilled workers is $118,651, while the median wages for low-skilled workers is $28,847. The income gap between the sexes is also worse in Silicon Valley than elsewhere, with the median income for men a whopping 61 percent higher than women. (H/T: WSJ)

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Essential Reads

“He’s hit all the low-hanging fruit . . . but now he has to address all the long-term issues.” — Brad Silverberg, a former Microsoft executive-turned-venture capitalist, on why Satya Nadella‘s second year as Microsoft CEO will be far harder than his first.

Testosterone is the drug of the future, evidently.

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Detours

This man — a hero, some call him — has made 47,000 edits to Wikipedia since 2007, almost all to root out exactly one grammatical mistake.

Larry David’s new Broadway play about the ultimate nothing is pretty, pretty, pretty good, say fans.

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Retail Therapy

Tents schments.

If you own a Tesla, this looks like a must-have.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Looks like we have a big, fat fight on our hands (see below); grab your popcorn.

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Top News in the A.M.

Google is preparing to offer its own ride-hailing service, reports Bloomberg. This is a Very Big Deal for numerous reasons, as many readers will know. First, Google Ventures is among the biggest investors in the popular ride-hailing service Uber, with Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, even sitting on Uber’s board. (Drummond wouldn’t be the first fox in the henhouse. Many are already drawing comparisons to Google chair Eric Schmidt sitting on the board of Apple — right up to the point when Google launched Apple’s biggest competitor, Android.)

Putting aside what the development means for Google Ventures (and its reputation with entrepreneurs), it looks to put Uber in a serious bind technologically. As Bloomberg notes, Uber’s smartphone app for drivers and riders is “based on Google Maps, which gives Google a fire hose of data about transportation patterns within cities. Uber would be crippled if it lost access to the industry-leading mapping application, and alternatives . . . are widely seen as inferior.”

Uber’s product chief, Jeff Holden, tells the WSJ that Uber has been working on its own mapping technology “for some time” and is now accelerating development.

A “person familiar with the matter” further tells the WSJ that the “news that Google is developing an app to rival Uber has been blown out of proportion,” that “a Google engineer has been testing an internal app that helps Google employees carpool to work,” and that the app “isn’t associated with the company’s driverless cars program.”

Just in case, Uber has quietly begun building a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh, Pa., home to Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, which Uber has “cleaned out,” says TechCrunch. To wit, Uber has reportedly hired more than 50 senior scientists from the university’s affiliated research entity and the university itself to spin up its own autonomous taxi fleet. Uber’s seeming message to Google, which is famously developing self-driving cars: Two can play this game.

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Bolt Heads West, with $25 Million to Spend on Hardware

Move over Bay Area hardware outfits. There’s a shiny new player in town called Bolt, and it has some creative ideas about how to win over hardware entrepreneurs and co-investors alike.

A new, $20 million machine shop on a pier along San Francisco’s eastern waterfront should help. So should a $25 million new venture fund, care of some powerful limited partners, including Cisco, Logitech, Autodesk, and the robotics-focused venture firm Grishin Robotics.

It’s a big step up from its start in Boston, where Bolt was founded two years ago with just $4 million — money it has stretched across 18 companies. Each has received an initial check of around $100,000, engineering and business help, and unfettered access to Bolt’s 10,000-square-foot downtown digs, replete with metal-working, plastics, electronics, wood-working and 3D printing equipment. In exchange, Bolt has taken stakes in the companies ranging from 8 to 15 percent in common stock.

Now, the firm is super-sizing the operation. For one thing, founder Ben Einstein – an amiable design engineer who’d previously run a design consultancy — says Bolt will begin writing initial checks in the neighborhood of $500,000.

Bolt, which is co-managed by former Atlas Venture partner Axel Bichara, is also hiring a team of 10 full-time engineers in San Francisco to work with the startups it funds. “In our [new] machine shop, you’ll find mechanical, electrical, embedded, prototyping, manufacturing – all types of engineers whose sole job is to help our portfolio companies,” says Einstein. “Bolt is a little like if IDEO [the industrial design company] and a venture firm had a baby,” he adds.

A third “special partner,” Scott Miller, who founded and runs Dragon Innovation, a Cambridge, Ma.-based manufacturing services firm, makes Bolt’s proposition all the more compelling. Dragon is the manufacturing partner of many young hardware companies, and any company that Bolt invests in receives automatic access to those same, well-oiled services.

Given so many bells and whistles, it’s easy to imagine why top co-investors might see Bolt as a useful syndicate partner. Now, the young firm just needs to build its track record.

It’ll happen through connected devices and, more specifically, the subscription businesses that come with them, says Einstein. Petnet, among Bolt’s portfolio companies, is a prime example of how. Though Petnet makes a pricey “intelligent dog feeder” that alerts pet owners when their pet has eaten, it also sends those customers fresh dog food via a monthly service plan.

Occasionally, companies create breakout brands without a subscription business, Einstein notes, but “those are incredibly rare, and you can typically only dominate a category for a year or 18 months.”

After that, he says, “companies with deeper pockets start to manufacture it faster, cheaper and better than you. Then you’re in trouble.”

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New Fundings

AnyPerk, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that provides employee perks like discounts on fitness, entertainment, and travel, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by DCM Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Digital Garage. The company has now raised roughly $13 million altogether, it says.

CampusQuad, a two-year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based mobile engagement platform designed to connect collect students with extracurricular activities and university services, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by ICG Ventures. The company has raised $6.9 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

FirstCry.com, a 4.5-year-old, Pune, India-based online shopping store offering a range of baby care products and toys, has raised $26 million in Series D funding led by Valiant Capital Partners, with earlier backers IDG Ventures India, Vertex Venture Holdings, and SAIF Partnersparticipating. The company has raised $55 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

FiscalNote, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based company that uses artificial intelligence to predict the outcome of legislation, has raised $10 million in new funding led by the Chinese social network Renren. The funding comes just four months after the company announced $7 million in funding led by Visionnaire Ventures, with AME Cloud Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Winklevoss Capital, Enspire Capital, Green Visor Capital, Middleland Capital and individual investors participating. The company has raised now raised $18.2 million to date.

Guardant Health, a two-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company that makes a biopsy-free blood cancer screening test, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Formation 8 and earlier backers Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital. The company has now raised roughly $90 million altogether, including from investor Bobby Yazdani and Pejman Mar Ventures.

KnCMiner, a 1.5-year-old, Stockholm-based bitcoin mining company that’s being sued by some of its customers, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Accel Partners, with participation from CGP Bullhound, angel investor Martin Wattin, and earlier backer Creandum. The company has now raised $29 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has much more here.

Pley, a two-year-old, San Jose, Ca., that rents Legos via monthly subscriptions (it then cleans the pieces between rentals), has raised $10 million in new funding led by Sozo Ventures. Earlier backers Floodgate, Correlation Ventures, Maven Ventures and Allegro Venture Partners also joined the round, which brings the company’s funding to $16.8 million.

Revinate, a 6.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose software-as-a-service platform helps hotels engage with guests and collect their feedback, has raised $15.3 million in Series B funding from new investors Industry Ventures, Northgate Capital, and Tenaya Capital, along with earlier backers Benchmark, Formation 8, Tao Capital Partners, and others. The company has now raised $30.5 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Wave Life Sciences, a two-year-old, Boston-based company that develops nucleic acid therapeutics, has raised $18 million Series A funding led by RA Capital Management and Kagoshima Shinsangyo Sosei Investment, with participation from earlier investor SNBL Ltd. Xconomy has more here.

Yumist, a three-month-old Gurgaon, India-based online food delivery startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Orios Venture Partners. The company was founded by Alok Jain, former CMO at Zomato. The Economic Times has more here.

Zhaosuliao, an eight-month-old, Guangzhou, China-based online platform that matches buyers and sellers of plastic, has raised $20 million in Series A funding from co-led by IDG Capital Partners and QiMing Venture Partners, with participation from Matrix Partners China and angel investor Li Zhujie. China Money Network has more here.

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New Funds

The streaming video company Netflix is planning to offer $1 billion in senior notes, proceeds from which it plans to use for “general corporate purposes” that may include content acquisitions. TechCrunch has more here.

OrbiMed Advisors, the 25-year-old, New York-based investment firm, has raised $924 million for a fund devoted to health-care royalty and credit investments, up from the $600 million the firm raised for its first royalties vehicle in 2011. The firm had raised a separate, $325 million, fund last fall to back health care companies in Asian nations. (That, too, was significantly bigger than its predecessor. OribMed’s debut Asia fund closed in 2008 with $182 million.)

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IPOs

Invitae, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based genetic diagnostics company that registered to go public last month, has estimated it will sell 5.35 million shares at between $13 and $15 per share, raising roughly $75 million. At the midpoint of the estimated range, the company would be valued at about $417 million. Invitae has raised roughly $200 million from private investors. According to its S-1, its biggest institutional shareholders include Baker Brothers Life Sciences, which owns 20.6 percent of the company; BlackRock, which 17 percent; Thomas, McNerney & Partners, which owns 15.2 percent; and Genomic Health, which owns 9 percent.

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Exits

DataStax, the five-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based commercial face of the open source Apache Cassandra database, has acquired the open source graph database company Aurelius for undisclosed terms. DataStax has raised roughly $190 million from investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital, Next World Capital and investor Salil Deshpande, among others. Aurelius, launched in Oakland, Ca., last year, appears to have been bootstrapped.

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People

Jeff Diehl, head of investments at Adams Street Partners, has been promoted. Effective July 1, Diehl becomes the firm’s managing partner, with longtime CEO Bon French shifting into the role of company chairman. Diehl joined Adams Street in 2000. He’d previously worked as a principal at the Parthenon Group.

Harry Heymann, Foursquare‘s original chief technical officer has left the company after more than five years, reports The Verge. Heymann — who formerly worked with Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley at his last company, Dodgeball — joined Foursquare in 2009. He’s the latest in a string of top Foursquare executives to leave the company as it pivots from a location-based social network into a Yelp-like local search engine, notes The Verge.

Yoky Matsuoka, formerly Nest Labs’s VP of technology , announced yesterday in her very first tweet that she’s joining the “flock” at Twitter as its VP of technology and analytics. Matsuoka was long a professor (assistant, then adjunct) at Carnegie Mellon University. She also spent one year as Google’s Head of Innovation.

Ellen Pao, a former partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who is suing the venture capital firm for gender discrimination and retaliation, has asked for $16 million in damages, it emerged in a related hearing yesterday. Now Kleiner is trying to learn how much Pao stands to make from Reddit, her employer of the last two years, and whether that amount should offset any potential damages. Reddit has said it’s willing to provide Kleiner with Reddit’s private valuation but not the details of Pao’s pay package. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here.

Yesterday, Pao’s camp was also granted permission to question former colleague Aileen Lee about a dinner at former Vice President Al Gore’s apartment that only male members of Kleiner attended. They’ve also been granted permission to ask about an instance in which Pao’s attorney claims Lee was not offered a partnership in one of the firm’s funds in 2012. Lee left the firm that same summer to found her own firm, Cowboy Ventures. Kleiner quickly signed on as an LP.

Alec Saunders has joined Microsoft Ventures as principal technical evangelist to work with startups in Canada. He was formerly VP of developer relations at BlackBerry.

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Essential Reads

Twitter is rolling out plans for a new revenue stream: Twitter ads that don’t appear on Twitter.

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Detours

A free diver rides an underwater ocean current.

Matt Malone, professional dumpster diver.

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Retail Therapy

Bluewire, to record conversations from your phone or apps like Skype.

Move over Bay Area hardware outfits. There’s a shiny new player in town called Bolt, and it has some creative ideas about how to win over hardware entrepreneurs and co-investors alike.

A new, $20 million machine shop on a pier along San Francisco’s eastern waterfront should help. So should a $25 million new venture fund, care of some powerful limited partners, including Cisco, Logitech, Autodesk, and the robotics-focused venture firm Grishin Robotics.

It’s a big step up from its start in Boston, where Bolt was founded two years ago with just $4 million — money it has stretched across 18 companies. Each has received an initial check of around $100,000, engineering and business help, and unfettered access to Bolt’s 10,000-square-foot downtown digs, replete with metal-working, plastics, electronics, wood-working and 3D printing equipment. In exchange, Bolt has taken stakes in the companies ranging from 8 to 15 percent in common stock.

Now, the firm is super-sizing the operation. For one thing, founder Ben Einstein – an amiable design engineer who’d previously run a design consultancy — says Bolt will begin writing initial checks in the neighborhood of $500,000.

Bolt, which is co-managed by former Atlas Venture partner Axel Bichara, is also hiring a team of 10 full-time engineers in San Francisco to work with the startups it funds. “In our [new] machine shop, you’ll find mechanical, electrical, embedded, prototyping, manufacturing – all types of engineers whose sole job is to help our portfolio companies,” says Einstein.

“Bolt is a little like if IDEO [the industrial design company] and a venture firm had a baby,” he adds.

A third “special partner,” Scott Miller, who founded and runs Dragon Innovation, a Cambridge, Ma.-based manufacturing services firm, makes Bolt’s proposition all the more compelling. Dragon is the manufacturing partner of many young hardware companies, and any company that Bolt invests in receives automatic access to those same, well-oiled services.

Given so many bells and whistles, it’s easy to imagine why top co-investors might see Bolt as a useful syndicate partner. Now, the young firm just needs to build its track record.

It’ll happen through connected devices and, more specifically, the subscription businesses that come with them, says Einstein. Petnet, among Bolt’s portfolio companies, is a prime example of how. Though Petnet makes a pricey “intelligent dog feeder” that alerts pet owners when their pet has eaten, it also sends those customers fresh dog food via a monthly service plan.

Occasionally, companies create breakout brands without a subscription business, Einstein notes, but “those are incredibly rare, and you can typically only dominate a category for a year or 18 months.”

After that, he says, “companies with deeper pockets start to manufacture it faster, cheaper and better than you. Then you’re in trouble.”

Hi, everyone, welcome back. What a game last night! What a terrible play! “Of course I can say now I wish we had done something different,” said Seahawks’s delated offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell afterward.

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Top News in the A.M.

President Obama will announce today that he wants U.S. companies to pay a 14 percent tax on the approximately $2 trillion of overseas earnings they’ve amassed, reports the WSJ. They could reinvest those funds in the U.S. without paying additional tax, says the piece. They would also face a 19 percent minimum tax on future foreign profits. Tech and pharmaceutical companies hold the greatest share of overseas cash, accounting for 30 percent of the total; Apple alone has roughly $160 billion in offshore cash.

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On the Bias Toward Writing About Bias

The last two years have seen countless articles about why there aren’t more successful women in tech. First, a story is published about the dearth of female entrepreneurs or female investors (or both), then people either applaud the piece or enumerate why its wrong-headed (or both). Finally, someone else is legitimately wronged by some knucklehead, and the cycle begins anew.

Much of the coverage has had a positive impact. By shining a light on age-old behaviors that were deemed acceptable for too long, more tech startups are instituting sensitivity training and diversity initiatives. Women who felt isolated in facing gender bias have learned that they’re far from alone.

The many reports about women in tech have also put a finer point on some differences between male and female entrepreneurs that are now being actively addressed.

For example, Mar Hershenson, a serial entrepreneur-turned venture capitalist, now advises some of the female entrepreneurs with whom she meets to “raise their voice – not be afraid to talk about the best-case scenario for their startups.” Talking up their work doesn’t always come as naturally to women, says Hershenson. But “venture firms look for big vision, nothing-is-going-to-stop-me type pitches,” and getting that memo beforehand is useful, she adds.

Still, some think much of the coverage around women in tech is becoming counterproductive.

Mada Seghete, cofounder of the deep-linking tech company Branch Metrics, says some of what she reads in the media rings true. For example, she observed more of a “risk-taking attitude, to some extent” by her male classmates at Stanford, where Seghete — who has two engineering degrees from Cornell — recently snagged her MBA.

Yet Seghete also notes that a higher percentage of her female classmates have seen their businesses take off since graduating, partly because “a lot of guys played with the ideas and took their time” while their female peers dove into things that are “less risky,” says Seghete.

Among those companies is The League, a dating startup cofounded by Seghete’s former classmate Amanda Bradford. It just closed on $2.1 million in funding last week.)

Seghete also seems to think the ongoing narrative of women as victims can have unintended consequences – namely, making women unnecessarily ill at ease.

“Even as a software developer, I don’t consider that I’m different, and maybe it’s because I don’t anticipate bias that I’m confident in a way that people don’t look at me differently,” says Seghete, whose own company — cofounded with classmates Alex Austin, Dmitri Gaskin, and Mike Molinet — has raised $3 million led by New Enterprise Associates.

“If I thought I’d be facing bias in a situation, then I might be more self-conscious. It would be a self-fulfilling process.”

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New Fundings

Apttus, an 8.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company that helps customers manage the second half of their sales cycle, has raised $41 million in Series B funding led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from K1 Capital and Iconiq. All three were previous investors in the company, which has now raised $78 million altogether, says TechCrunch.

Coursmos, a year-old, San Francisco-based company that offers short “micro courses” for users via a web and mobile platform, has raised $600,000 in seed funding from Altera Capital Group, with participation from Imperious Group. The company has now raised $1.2 million altogether.

ERelevance, a 1.5-year-old, Austin, Tx.-based healthcare IT startup that makes patient-engagement software, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding led by Martin Ventures. The company had previously raised $1.3 million.

MileIQ, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose mobile app tracks mileage, has raised $11 million in funding led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from earlier backers CRV, SV Angel and Marc Benioff. The company has raised $14 million to date.

Pulsate, a 1.5-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based startup whose tech platform helps brands communicate with customers based on their location, context, interests and behavior, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding from PayPal and the marketing research company Dunnhumby. TechCrunch has more here.

QASymphony, a nearly four-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based software company that sells testing services for testing organizations and quality-assurance teams, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Buckhead Investment Partners, Poplar Ventures, and KMS Technology.

Siva Power, an 8.5-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company that makes third-generation thin film PV technologies to increase solar cell efficiency, has closed on $10 million in Series D funding from earlier investors Trident Capital, DBL Investors, Medley Partners, and Acero Capital. The city of Wuxi, China, also participated as a new investor. The round includes $3 million in debt financing that Siva received last May. The company, which has now raised roughly $115 million altogether, was formerly called Solexant.

Skipta, a six-year-old, Lancaster, Pa.-based operator of online communities for health-care professionals, has raised $2.5 million in Series A financing from Mansa Capital.

Sportsman Tracker, a 3.5-year-old, Grand Rapids, Mi.-based company with a suite of mobile applications for hunters and anglers, has raised $950,000 in seed funding led by Huron River Ventures and Start Garden, with participation by Detroit Innovate, Muskegon Angels and Karis Capital Partners.

Zapproved, a 6.5-year-old, Portland, Or.-based company whose software platform helps companies comply with legal rules and regulations, has raised $15 million funding round led by K1 Investment Management. The company has now raised roughly $20 million altogether, including from numerous individual investors.

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New Funds

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has created a $130 million fund called the Alibaba Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation, with the aim of enticing founders to build up businesses through Alibaba’s platforms, including its main shopping sites Taobao Marketplace and Tmall. TechCrunch has much more here.

Aspect Ventures — cofounded by Theresia Gouw, formerly of Accel Partners, and Jennifer Fonstad, formerly of DFJ — is looking to raise its first outside fund, and it’s targeting $150 million for the effort, shows an SEC filing. The pair began investing their own money a year ago. Among their bets to date: Vida, a young, San Francisco-based company whose mobile app connects consumers with coaches and doctors to improve their health; BaubleBar, a four-year-old, New York-based e-commerce company focused on “on-trend” fashion jewelry; and Exabeam, a 1.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based big data security analytics startup.

August Capital has set out to raise a $450 million seventh fund, according to a new SEC filing. Interestingly, the fund size is moving in the opposite direction of many recents funds. August closed on $550 million for its sixth fund, down from the $650 million it had raised for its fifth fund. Among some of its newer bets: Open Garden, a nearly four-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile broadband network for Internet of Things devices; Avant Credit, a two-year-old, Chicago-based online consumer lender; and Quandl, a three-year-old, Toronto-based data management platform and marketplace where people can buy, sell, and download financial and economic data.

Blumberg Capital, the 24-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm, is looking to raise up to $200 million for its fourth fund, according to an SEC filing. Blumberg had closed its third fund with $150 million in November 2013. Some of the firm’s newer bets include Kreditech, a three-year-old, Hamburg, Germany-based consumer finance startup that focuses on lending money to “unbanked” consumers with little or no credit rating; and Credorax, a six-year-old, Southborough, Ma.-based small startup that enables online payment processing for a range of online merchants.

Cendana Capital, the five-year-old, San Francisco-based firm that has made a name for itself by backing so-called micro funds, has added $40 million to its Cendana Co-Investment Fund, money it manages with capital from the University of Texas Investment Management Company. (UTIMCO had originally commited $60 million to the fund in July 2012.) You can find the SEC filing here.

Northern Light Venture Capital, a 10-year-old, Beijing-based early-stage venture fund, is looking to raise $365 million for its fourth fund, shows an SEC filing. It closed its last fund with $404 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

Victory Park Capital, the eight-year-old, Chicago-based alternative investments firm, is setting up a listed fund to invest in loans originating on sites like the peer-to-peer platforms Prosper and Funding Circle, reports the WSJ. The fund — VPC Specialty Lending Investments — plans to hold a £200 million ($224 million) IPO in London, says the report.

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Exits

SolarWinds, the publicly traded IT software company, has acquired the San Francisco-based analytics company Librato for $40 million in cash. According to Crunchbase, Librato had raised $5.1 million from investors, including Baseline Ventures, Cowboy Ventures and Harrison Metal.

Swyft Media, a three-year-old, New York-based digital marketing company that had raised $1 million in seed funding from undisclosed investors, has been acquired by publicly traded Monotype, a company specializing in typesetting and typeface design. Swyft Media is reportedly being paid $12 million up front and could see up to $15 million more in additional earn-outs.

Ticketea, a Madrid-based ticketing startup, has acquired TodayTickets, a two-year-old, Berlin-based last-minute ticket booking app, for undisclosed terms. TodayTickets had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding; Ticketea has raised $5.7 million from investors. TechCrunch has more here.

TripAdvisor, the travel planning and booking business, has acquired San Mateo, Ca.-based ZeTrip and its travel journal app app Rove, which provides a travelog of users’ movements based their GPS coordinates. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ZeTrip had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2012 from Inspiration Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

New Jersey state Treasury investigators found no wrongdoing in venture firm General Catalyst Partners‘ decision to not report a political contribution from one of its EIRs – now Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker – months before the pension committed millions to the firm. The outlet peHUB has more here.

On Friday, Nest Labs told employees that founding VP of technology Yoky Matsuoka and Greg Duffy, who’d joined Nest last summer when it acquired his connected-camera company, Dropcam, have left the company. The company didn’t provide employees insight into why Matsuoka was leaving but credited her with having a “tremendous impact” on the team. As for Duffy, they said he was “leaving to pursue other opportunities.” As we’d reported last November, the cultural fit between Dropcam and Nest was a poor one, with both Dropcam and earlier Nest employees describing a frustrating environment at Nest under Tony Fadell’s leadership.

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Job Listings

Cue Ball Capital, the Boston-based venture capital firm, is looking to hire an investment associate.

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Data

According to VentureSource, investors poured $15.5 billion into China-based deals last year, more than twice the previous record of $7.3 billion set in 2011. More here.

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Essential Reads

So-called zombie apps are on the rise.

Twitter hopes to display its value to new users through a feature called Instant Timeline that shows tweets to people who haven’t yet followed anyone.

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Detours

Vintage portraits of (modern) Hollywood celebrities.

Saturday Night Live takes on football commercials in this very funny parody.

The case of the next U.S. housing boom in eight charts.

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Retail Therapy

Srirachup. You can have it both ways.