Hi, everyone, it is March! Hope it’s off to a good start.:)

We haven’t boiled the ocean for you today (too busy; running out the door), but we do think you hope you’ll enjoy today’s central story. We learned a lot during the featured interview.

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Top News in the A.M.

Yikes. Facebook’s vice president for Latin America was  arrested on his way to work in São Paulo, Brazil. The reason: Facebook disobeyed a court order to help investigators in a drug case that involves a WhatsApp user. Much more here.

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The Fascinating Rise of Wish

Last week, toward the end of a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, GGV Capital managing director Hans Tung took the stage to interview one of his portfolio CEOs, Peter Szulczewski of Wish. With an increasingly boisterous crowd as their background, Tung managed to ferret out lots of fascinating information from the highly personable Szulczewski, who looked very much the part of busy founder. (Blood-shot eyes, rumpled clothing.)

We’d been eager to learn more about Wish — a fast-growing e-commerce mobile app that has raised roughly $600 million from investors — particularly because Szulczewski hasn’t talked often with the press or shared much hard information about the company. He did last week, though, including telling the crowd that Wish now has “hundreds of millions of users,” that it saw “single-digit billions of dollars” in gross merchandise volume, and seemingly confirming rumors that the company has seen interest (if not concrete acquisition offers) from Alibaba and Amazon.

If you’re interested in e-commerce or want to understand merchants in China particularly, this is a must-read.

More here.

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New Fundings

Chromis Therapeutics, a year-old, San Diego-based company developing treatments for chronic hepatitis B infection, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Torrey Pines Investment. FinSMEs has more here.

CornerJob, a year-old, Barcelona-based mobile app that lets employers advertise blue-collars jobs via its location-based technology, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Antai Business Angels, Mediaset España (through its subsidiary Ad4Ventures), venture funds from Banc Sabadell Capital, Bonsai Venture Capital, Cube Investments, Ithaca Investment, Samaipata Ventures, La Caixa Capital Risc and Media Digital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Hungryroot, a year-old, New York-based meal kit startup that focuses on vegetable-based natural foods that can be prepared in under seven minutes, has raised $3.7 million in new funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Crosslink Capital and others. The company has now raised $6 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Rocksbox, a nearly four-year-old, membership-based platform that sends monthly subscription boxes of jewelry to consumers, has raised $8.7 million in Series A funds co-led KEC Venture and Matrix Partners. More here.

YourMechanic, a five-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based on‐demand auto mechanic service, has raised $24 million from SoftBank Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Data Point Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, SAIC, Verizon Ventures, American Family Insurance, PG Ventures, Promus Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has now raised $32 million altogether. More here.

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Exits

Cisco has acquired CliQr, a provider of application management solutions for hybrid cloud environments, for $260 million. CliQr was already working with Cisco, with the company’s solutions integrated across several of Cisco’s data center switching and cloud solutions, the company said. CliQr had raised just over $38 million from investors that include Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, InstantScale Ventures, Polaris Partners and Translink Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

GoPro yesterday announced the acquisition of two startups to address one of the company’s sore spots: Video editing. Stupeflix and Vemory are the companies behind the mobile apps Replay and Splice, respectively. GoProspent $105 million on the two companies combined. TechCrunch has more here.

Mobile Action, a San Francisco, Ca.-based provider of an app store intelligence and optimization platform, has acquired Appmind, a provider of an App Store optimization tool. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. FinSMES has more here.

NativeX, a seven-year-old, Sartell, Mn.-based startup that makes advertising for mobile games and apps, is being acquired by Chinese mobile ad platform Mobvista. The companies say the all-cash deal is valued at 160 million RMB (about $24.5 million). TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Anshu Jain, Deutsche Bank’s former co-CEO, is joining American finance company SoFi as a senior advisor. More here.

Carl Eshenbach, the COO and number two at VMware, the software company controlled by EMC, is stepping down in an executive shakeup ahead of its effective acquisition by Dell later this year.

At a private dinner in Beverly Hills last week, Elon Musk agreed to audit pay at his rocket company, SpaceX, to ensure that men and women are paid fairly. If he sticks to his promise, Musk will be following the lead of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who said that Salesforce spent $3 million in 2015 to bring the salaries of female employees up to the level of their male counterparts.

Tech workers are increasingly looking to leave Silicon Valley.

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Essential Reads

Facebook is changing its news feed to favor ongoing broadcasts.

Owing to a decades-old tax provision, employees have to exercise their options within 90 days of leaving or else lose them to the company.Triplebyte, with the support of Y Combinator, is joining the battle against such restrictive stock option plan schemes.

A recent poll suggested that the majority of Americans support the FBI and its order to open the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. But Apple has the backing of the husband of one of the survivors of the terrorist attack. More here.

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Detours

This year’s Best Picture nominees, recreated in LEGOs.

The world’s most powerful passports.

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Retail Therapy

Aquarium backpack. (This would kill at show-and-tell.)

A next-generation bike bell.

Happy Monday, everyone! How about those Oscars?

We’re happy to say we’ve begun posting content from our event last Thursday. Check out our column today and our “People” section. You can also see some pictures of the evening right here.

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Top News in the A.M.

Fidelity just slashed more startup valuations. Fortune has the rundown here.

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Bill Maris Talks Uber, Zenefits, and Running the Show at GV

Thursday night, at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, we talked with GV CEO Bill Maris about a wide range of issues, including what happened with its Europe fund, why GV didn’t invest in Zenefits, and why Maris alone makes every decision on behalf of the powerful venture unit, which now employs 70 people.

As venture geeks, we found much of what he had to say interesting. Hopefully, you’ll find the conversation instructive, too. (It’s been edited lightly for length.)

You work for the most valuable company in the world. You run its venture arm. Every decision falls to you and you alone, which not everyone realizes.

It’s getting scary. [Laughs.]

What is the trickle-up process?

So all the investment decisions I make, going into a company or when and how to come out of it, is in collaboration with the partner who brings [the deal] forward. So we talk about all the opportunities as a team and everyone is invited to that discussion – not just the investing partners. And we don’t take a vote. It’s not like a democracy in any way. But everyone knows where people stand and we try and give each other good advice, and at the end of the day, the person who brings it forward and I decide whether to move forward or not.

Why isn’t it more democratic?

I have no idea, because I’ve never worked as a venture capitalist before. I masquerade as one now . .  . But basically it started out with just me. The buck stops with me. So if we succeed, credit all goes to the team. If we fail, the blame should fall all on me; that’s how management should work.

Do Larry Page or Sergey Brin ever say, “Bill, why’d you invest in XYZ deal?”

They never say anything. And that’s not a bad thing. We designed it specifically not to be influenced by Google. Larry and Sergey . . . are billionaires. Google has many billions of dollars. If they want to invest in something themselves, they have the opportunity to do that.

Some people are surprised that they don’t or can’t influence [GV], but the idea was that they wouldn’t. So I never talk about ventures with them. The closest we get is an email from Larry with a URL of a company that he came across.

Much more here.

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New Fundings

Borrowell, a year-old, Toronto, Canada-based online lender focused on the Canadian market, has secured $6.4 million in operating and loan capital fromEquitable Bank, Hedgewood, Power Financial Corporation, Oakwest Corporation, Adam Felesky, and Freycinet Investments. More here.

Enlighted, a seven-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based maker of smart energy software for commercial buildings, has raised $25 million in Series D funding from Tao Capital Partners, along with earlier backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, RockPort Capital Partners and DFJ. More here.

Health Catalyst, an eight-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based tech platform that organizes and links health-related data from different systems and makes it available for all users, has raised $70 million in Series E funding co-led byNorwest Venture Partners and healthcare provider UPMC. Other participants include MultiCare Health System, OSF Healthcare, Leerink Capital and earlier investors Sequoia Capital, Sands Capital, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, CHV Capital, Partners HealthCare, EPIC Venture Partners,Leavitt Equity Partners, and Tenaya Capital. Silicon Slopes has more here.

Hopscotch, a four-year-old, Mumbai, India-based e-commerce service focused on mums and founded by a former Diapers.com executive, has closed a $13 million Series C round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. The company has now raised $26 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out last night for our San Francisco event. We had a really great time; we hope you did, too. Giant thanks, also, to our wonderful speakers Heidi Roizen, Bill Maris, Carl Bass, Ben Einstein, Hans Tung, and Peter Szulczewski, as well as to our sponsors Autodesk, AiBrain, Ludlow Ventures, and Bolt.

We have lots of content from the evening coming soon, along with pictures. In the meantime, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

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Top News in the A.M.

Tech giants are uniting in support of Apple, with Google, Facebook and Microsoft among those that will back the company in its iPhone fight with the U.S. government.

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New Fundings

55Haitao.com, a 4.5-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based online cash-back shopping guide, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by the Beijing-based venture firm JJ Capital. More here.

Arctic Sand Technologies, a 5.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based MIT spinoff that is commercializing a power conversion technology, has raised $19 million in Series B funding led by Murata Manufacturing, with participation from GE Ventures, Northwater Capital and Arsenal Venture Partners. Xconomy has more here.

CREXi, a year-old Venice, Ca.-based commercial real estate platform for brokers, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Freestyle Capital, TenOneTen Ventures, Founder Collective, Karlin Ventures and Leon Capital Group. FinSMEs has more here.

GenomeNext, a 1.5-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based genomic data management and analysis company, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Hydra Capital, with participation from unnamed investors. More here.

Niantic, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile gaming group that began as a lab at Google, has raised $5 million in expanded seed funding from Alsop Louie Partners and individual angel investors, including Scott and Cyan Banister. VentureBeat has more here.

Signal Sciences, a two-year-old, Venice, Ca.-based SaaS platform that provides security monitoring and defense for web applications, has raised $9.7 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures. SoCal Tech has more here.

VitalWare, a five-year-old, Yakima, Wa.-based company that makes revenue cycle software for healthcare organizations, has raised an undisclosed amount of growth equity funding from F-Prime Capital Partners (formerly Fidelity Biosciences). More here.

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New Funds

Tribeca Venture Partners, a four-year-old, New York-based early-stage venture firm, has closed its second fund with $107 million in commitments. Tribeca founders Brian Hirsch and Chip Meakem (who remain the firm’s only investors) closed their debut fund with $65 million. We talked with the firm yesterday.

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Exits

Talkwheel, a company that offers a unique way to visualize customer conversations, has been acquired by Clickable. More here.

Zumper, an apartment rental platform, has acquired the apartment listings startup PadMapper. More here.

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People

Frederic Jacobs, a Switzerland-based developer who helped develop Signal — the secure messaging app of choice for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden — is joining Apple this summer to work on its CoreOS security team. More here.

Startups whose VCs tweet the most.

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Data

The affordability of housing by profession.

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Essential Reads

Zenefits just laid off 250 people. More here.

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Detours

Dial-up, slowed down.

A taste of Vienna.

Every Oscar-winning special effects clip ever, in a neat little supercut.

The most right-swiped jobs on Tinder.

The Hamster Revenant.

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Retail Therapy

Smart, collapsible, hard-shelled luggage.

A floor pillow for your startup’s office.

We are so excited to see nearly 200 of you tonight! [Tuck jump. Cartwheel. Backwards roll.] Just a quick reminder that doors open at 5; Autodesk CEO Carl Bass sits down with Ben Einstein of Bolt around 5:45.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple is reportedly at work on plans that would make it impossible for the company to comply with future demands for data from law enforcement.

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Who Lives and Dies in a Down Economy

The Bay Area is well-acquainted with boom and bust cycles, and while it’s too soon to declare that the tech economy has turned, recruiters see early indicators that it’s happening.

Indeed, a handful of job placement executives confirms what recent headlines about layoffs already imply: The market is softening for numerous sectors of the startup world, as well as at publicly traded tech companies.

It hasn’t always been this way. Up until recently, recruiters have been working fast and furiously to place a whole range of executives.

Numbers from California’s Employment Development Department illustrate part of the story. In October, for example, the Bay Area accounted for 40 percent of all job growth in California, even though it represents less than 20 percent of the state’s population.

Data in December only hints at a shift, with the overall number of employed Californians down just 10,000 from November, according to the same state agency.

Still, recruiters largely believe the situation is starting to change, particularly for certain jobs.

“I think what we’re seeing is bigger than a small correction,” says Paul Gomory, an executive recruiter who’s been placing C-level professionals for more than 30 years and seen his share of cycles. “Everyone thinks it will be different this time, but it never is.”

More here.

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New Fundings

AppCard, a four-year-old, New York-based marketing and loyalty program platform, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by German entrepreneurAlexander Rittweger, founder of Loyalty Partner and PLDT Capital. Earlier investors, including Founders Fund, Innovation Endeavors, and Jerry Yang also participated in the round. Tech.eu has more here.

Didi Kuaidi, the 3.5-year-old, Beijing, China-based ride-hailing giant, has received at least $1 billion in commitments for a new fundraising round, according to Bloomberg. Once the financing closes, the company will reportedly be valued at more than $20 billion.

EnSilo, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a real-time targeted attack exfiltration prevention platform, has added $9 million to an earlier Series A round, which is now $19 million in size. The new funding comes from Rembrandt Venture Partners and includes previous investors Carmel Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Ibibo Group, a nine-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based company that claims to be India’s largest online travel group, has raised $250 million in new funding from majority stakeholder Naspers Group. TechCrunch has more here.

Overnight, a six-month-old, L.A.-based last-minute booking app that facilitates same-day stays with local hosts, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding, led by Accomplice and CrossCut Ventures. Other participants in the round includePaul Bricault and Elliott Bisnow. TechCrunch has more here.

Parkifi, a two-year-old, Denver-based provider of real-time, parking occupancy data that it sells to lot operators, cities and others, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Crosslink Capital and Grotech Ventures. More here.

REVL, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based smart action camera, has raised $2 million in funding led by venture capitalist Bill Tai. Other investors joining the round include Y Combinator, Frog Ventures, James Lindenbaum, and Lars Rasmussen. VentureBeat has more here.

ThousandEyes, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based network intelligence company, has raised $35 million in fresh funding led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from Google Ventures and earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

BlackBerry has acquired Encription, a 40-person, nine-year-old, U.K.-based cyber security consulting business, as it looks to bolster sales of mobile security offerings. Encription appears to have been bootstrapped. The WSJ has more here.

Microsoft is acquiring Xamarin, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that allows developers to build fully native apps across several platforms from a single shared code base. Xamarin had raised a total of $82 million in funding from investors including CRV, Floodgate, Ignition Partners, Insight Venture Partners, and Lead Edge Capital, according to data from CrunchBase. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Yesterday, Andreessen Horowitz announced the appointment of its newest and ninth general partner: Martin Casado, the cofounder and CTO of Nicira and a pioneer of so-called software defined networking; Nicira was among the first companies to decouple software from networking hardware, allowing companies to see greater flexibility in managing their networking needs. We have more here.

KaloBios Pharmaceuticals is at it again, seeking bankruptcy court permission to buy rights to a drug that could be in line for a lucrative priority review voucher. (The WSJ explains this is ticket for a fast trip through the regulatory process.) Worth noting: ousted CEO Martin Shrekli remains a major shareholder in the company. The WSJ’s story is here.

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Jobs

Walmart eCommerce is looking for a director of corporate development. The job is in San Bruno, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Google’s DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company, has formed a health unit to build medical software.

New research reveals surprising truths about why some work groups thrive and others falter.

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Detours

All the Oscars’ Best Picture contenders in one delightful supercut.

The saddest wedding cake topper of all time.

Professional skier Candide Thovex knows how to show off.

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Retail Therapy

Satellite Island.

Hi, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Facebook has rolled out six more emoticons. We feel so happy! Sad. Angry! Hungry.

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Travel Platform KimKim Brings Back the Travel Agent

Sometimes, there can be a little too much disruption. So goes the thesis of Joost Schreve, the former head of mobile for TripAdvisor, who left the company last November and started his own startup, KimKim, in December.

The nascent company — newly seed-funded with $1 million from investors, including NFX Guild — is catering to the presumably many people who no long want to plan their next vacation by scouring the web. Its simple, secret weapon? Good old-fashioned travel agents, who talk online with customers via a conversational interface.

We talked with Schreve earlier this morning to learn more about what he’s developing at his four-person, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length.

You left TripAdvisor — where you worked after selling it your startup in 2011 — expressly to start this new thing. What wasn’t TripAdvisor doing that you think you can?

TripAdvisor and many sites like it have a lot of information, so users have to do a lot of filtering and comparing and it becomes a very painful process, especially for trips that are complex or longer. The average consumer goes to 38 different sites, according to an Expedia study, and they spend more than 10 hours [researching these more involved trips].

The difference between this painful process and a nice process is one person who is unbiased and can help you.

We are talking, of course, of the long-maligned travel agent. But how do you convince people that these online agents are unbiased and not getting kickbacks for their recommendations? Wasn’t that part of the problem to begin with?

More here.

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New Fundings

AppilyEverAfter, a months-old, Hyderabad, India-based wedding services app, has raised $400,000 from a group of angel investors. The Economic Times has more here.

Captain401, a year-old, San Francisco-based company whose tech allows employers to quickly set up 401(k) retirement savings plans for employees, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by SoftTech VC, with participation from SV Angel, CrunchFund, Slow Ventures, Susa Ventures, FundersClub, former NFL quarterback Joe Montana, and others. VentureBeat has more here.

ClearMetal, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based predictive logistics startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates, Skyview and Innovation Endeavors. FinSMEs has more here.

Deliv, a three-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca-based crowdsourced same-day delivery startup, has raised $28 million in new funding from UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, with participation from earlier backers Upfront Ventures, RPM Ventures, PivotNorth Capital, General Growth Properties, The Macerich Company, Simon Venture Group, Taubman Centers and Westfield Corp. We talked with the company about its business model back in November.

Forty Seven, a young, Palo Alto, Ca.- based immuno-oncology startup started by a group of Stanford professors, has raised $75 million in Series A funding co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures, with participation from Clarus Ventures and Google Ventures. More here.

Loanzen, a six-month-old, Bangalore, India-based peer-to-peer lending marketplace, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Tracxn Labs, angel investors through Tracxn Syndicate, and others. Inc 42 has more here.

MakeSpace, a three-year-old, New York-based self-storage business, has raised $17.5 million in funding led by Harmony Venture Partners and Upfront Ventures, with participation from its Series A and seed investors. (These include Founders Fund, Carmelo Anthony’s Melo7Tech, and Gary Vaynerchuk.) TechCrunch has more here.

NICO, a nine-year-old, Indianapolis, In.-based company that makes “corridor” surgical instruments that provide access to difficult-to-reach places in the body through smaller openings, has raised $15 million in new funding from earlier backers River Cities Capital Funds and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. FierceMedicalDevices has more here.

NoBroker, a 1.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based person-to-person property rental site, has raised $10 million in Series B funding co-led by Beenext and Digital Garage, with participation from Qualgro, Asuka Holdings and return backer SAIF Partners. TechCrunch has more here.