Hi, all, happy Tuesday!

We’re still at Disrupt, where Google’s Sridhar Ramaswamy — in charge of Google’s lucrative ad products — is coming up next. We’re also excited to see Uber’s chief advisor David Plouffe take the stage in the next hour or so. A note that we may be a little late in reaching you tomorrow (we have a couple of interviews in the morning).

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Top News in the A.M.

Amazon, which touts itself as Earth’s biggest store, has officially launched its bid to be the place to watch any kind of video under the sun. Variety has the story here.

The world’s largest storage manufacturer, Western Digital, just got bigger, saying this morning that it has cleared all the necessary regulatory hurdles in their planned purchase of SanDisk. Engadget has more here.

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HP Rolls Out a New Venture Arm

There’s a new corporate venture arm in town.

Roughly six months after Hewlett-Packard finalized its division into two companies — Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which focuses on servers, storage, networking and security; and HP Inc., which continues to sell PCs and printers — the latter is introducing a new venture unit called HP Tech Ventures.

The eight-person team, which ultimately reports up to HP’s CTO Shane Wall, is being led by Andrew Bolwell, who has spent the last 16 years with HP and has held the title of chief disruptor for the last few of them.

Among his colleagues and cofounders are Irit Hillel, based in Israel, and Vitaly Golomb, who is based alongside Bolwell in Palo Alto.

In a brief meeting in New York yesterday, Bolwell gave us a few details about HP Tech Ventures’ plans. The idea is to focus primarily on seed and Series A deals that serve HP Inc. strategically. The team will focus on five areas, including: 3D printing and the broader ecosystem that supports it; immersive experiences, including both augmented reality and virtual reality; smart machines, including home and commercial robots; and the Internet of Things.

More here.

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New Fundings

Hi, all, hope you had a terrific weekend! We’re in the thick of Disrupt so don’t have a column prepared for you, but you can catch our on-stage interview from earlier this morning with Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital, Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures, and Chris Douvos of Venture Investment Associates. (The topic, broadly speaking: how in the world institutional investors get paid in today’s market.)

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Top News in the A.M.

Lending Club shares are down more than 25 percent this morning after the company announced that CEO and founder Renaud Laplanche would resign following an internal review of $22 million in near-prime loan sales to a single investor. TechCrunch has more here.

The lawsuit over the mental competency of the ailing mogul Sumner Redstone was dismissed this morning, after the judge viewed videotaped testimony from the 92-year-old billionaire that was shown on Friday. The New York Times has more here.

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New Fundings

CoreOS, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind the container-centric CoreOS Linux distribution and Tectonic container management service, has raised $28 million in Series B funding led by GV, with participation from Accel Partners, Fuel Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the Y Combinator Continuity Fund. The company has now raised $48 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Musikki, a 5.5-year-old, London-based image management and distribution platform, has raised $1 million in fresh funding from Portugal Ventures, the biggest venture firm in Portugal. TechCrunch has more here.

Pivotal, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based software company that helps its customers build up their own software development capabilities, has raised more than everyone thought. Recode reported last Friday that it had garnered $253 million in Series C funding at a $2.8 billion valuation from Ford, Microsoft, EMC, VMware and GE. Turns out that was the tip of the iceberg; according to an SEC filing turned up Friday, the company has received a total of $653 million in new funding. Fortune has more here.

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New Funds

The private equity firm TPG has announced a final close of its latest North American- and European-focused private equity fund, TPG Partners VII with $10.5 billion in commitments, including $400 million from TPG and its personnel. More here.

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IPOs

Talend, a Redwood Shores, Ca.-based software firm that helps corporations organize and analyze data, has hired investment banks for an IPO, say Reuters sources, who tell the outlet that Talend has already registered its IPO confidentially with the SEC. More here.

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Exits

Bango, the U.K.-based mobile payments company that provides tech to enable consumers to charge app store purchases directly to their phone bill, has acquired the U.S.-based carrier billing service BilltoMobile from Danal for $3.5 million in mostly cash and newly issued Bango shares. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Point72 Asset Management, which manages hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen‘s fortune, has made its first venture investment as it looks to refine investment decisions and improve returns. Reuters has more here.

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, has fired back at a report published by Buzzfeed alleging that the data analysis firm he now advises has been struggling. Fortune has more here.

Ruby Lu, cofounder of DCM China, has joined H Capital, a China-focused venture capital firm founded by Tiger Global Management‘s former China managing partner, Chen Xiaohong. DealStreetAsia has more here.

John McAfee, America’s favorite (and most entertaining) cybersecurity expert has a new gig. TechCrunch has more here.

Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures thinks Uber could go public “at around $25 billion” (and not its private-market valuation of $60 billion) if it were to IPO today.

Norman Winarsky, the former president of SRI Ventures and co-founder and board member of Siri, has joined Relay Ventures as the firm’s first executive-in-residence.

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Jobs

Union Square Ventures is hiring an analyst. The job is in New York. (Work those connections; this is one of the best entry-level gigs in the business.)

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Data

The law firm Fenwick & West just analyzed the terms of 148 venture financings closed in the first quarter of 2016 by companies headquartered in Silicon Valley, finding small declines in the number of up rounds, as well as average and median prices. More here.

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Essential Reads

Here’s the first demo of Viv, the next generation AI assistant built by Siri creator Dag Kittlaus.

Twitter has cut off U.S. intelligence agencies from access to a service that sifts through the entire output of its social-media postings, the latest example of tension between Silicon Valley and the U.S. government. The WSJ has more here.

The company developing Elon Musk‘s 700 mile-per-hour maglev train has announced new details about the levitation system it plans to use.

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Detours

What the science of touch says about us.

The 50 best dive bars in New York.

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Retail Therapy

The perfect customizable sofa system (says Design Milk).

Hi, everyone, we made it! Happy Friday from beautiful, rainy, hectic New York City. Hope you’re in for a terrific weekend. We’ll see you Monday, after we finish an onstage interview at Disrupt with Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital, Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures, and Chris Douvos of Venture Investment Associates.

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Top News in the A.M.

Lyft says it’s rolling out self-driving taxis — next year.

Square reported first quarter earnings yesterday that beat analysts expectations. Still, its shares fell as much as 20 percent on concerns about financing for its small-business customer-loan program, a service once viewed as a growth area for the company.

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New York’s ff Venture Capital Just Raised a $54 Million Fund, and It’s Targeting Another

New York-based venture firm ff Venture Capital, has raised $53.8 million for its fourth seed-stage venture fund, according to an SEC filing that shows fundraising began in the fall of 2014.

The firm had closed its third seed-stage fund fund in January 2014 with $52 million. Since then, ff Venture Capital has hired two new partners, including Adam Plotkin, who was formerly one of its entrepreneurs-in-residence, and Michael Faber, who’d spent nearly two decades as a general partner with NextPoint VC.

Earlier (and remaining) partners with the firm include its founder, John Frankel; Alex Katz, who does double duty as the firm’s CFO; and David Teten, who previously cofounded a short-lived data mining and analytics company called Navon Partners.

Some of ff Venture’s biggest exits in recent years include the learning software maker Cornerstone OnDemand, which went public in 2011; ThinkNear, a hyper-local mobile ad company that sold to Telenav in 2012 for undisclosed terms; and Omek Interactive, which sold to Intel for $40 million in 2013.

The firm has also seen two of its portfolio companies sell this year. In February, the car service app Whisk sold to the cloud and mobile commerce company Deem, and last week, Livefyre, a portfolio company focused on brand engagement, was acquired by Adobe. Terms of both deals weren’t disclosed publicly.

ff Venture Capital (the “ff” stands for founder friendly) employs 30 people, including recruiting, PR, and investor relations staff to assist its portfolio companies. Some of those that remain privately held are Indiegogo, Plated, Distil Networks, Ionic Security, and Skycatch.

Indeed, according to a source familiar with the firm’s plans, ff Venture Capital is still in the fundraising market, with plans to raise a separate “opportunities” fund to invest in the best-performing companies in its existing portfolio. The idea is to invest in 15 of the roughly 85 startups the firm has funded to date across its four early-stage funds.

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New Fundings

360fly, a 16-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based company behind a single-lens camera that captures 360-degree video, has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by L Catterton Backers, with participation from Hydra Ventures, which is the corporate venture arm of Adidas Group. Earlier investor Qualcomm Ventures also joined the round. More here.

ACT Genomics, a two-year-old, Taipei, Taiwan-based integrated cancer molecular information company, has raised $12.5 million in Series B funding led by Hotung Group and CDIB Capital Management, with participation from earlier investors Eminent II VC, Hua Nan Venture Capital, President International Development and UMC Capital. More here.

DigiExam, a 4.5-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based startup that sells software-as-a-service for academic testing and grading, has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding, including from Joen Bonnier of the Bonnier family, owner of the largest media group in Sweden. TechCrunch has more here.

Drawbridge, a 5.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based ad tech company, has raised $25 million in Series C funding from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Northgate Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Omni, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based on-demand storage startup, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from Bolt, Formation 8 and individual investors, including Drake and Scooter Braun. The company had previously raised $3 million in seed funding. Fortune has more here.

Pivotal, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based software company that helps its customers build up their own software development capabilities, has raised $253 million in Series C funding at a $2.8 billion valuation from Ford, Microsoft, EMC, VMware and GE. Recode has more here.

Sirqul, a four-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based company behind an IoT platform, has raised $3 million in additional Series A funding led by Miteno USA. The round, closed now with $9 million, also includes Compal Electronics and numerous angel investors. More here.

Via, a four-year-old, New York-based on-demand rideshare app operating in New York City and Chicago, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led byPitango Growth, with participation from numerous other VCs and family offices including Poalim Capital Markets and C4 Ventures. TechCrunch hasmore here.

VTS, a five-old, New York-based commercial real estate management and leasing platform, has raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from earlier investors OpenView and Trinity Ventures. The company has now raised $84 million to date. The Real Deal has more here.

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New Funds

venBio Partners, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based life sciences investment firm, closed its second venture capital fund, with approximately $315 million. More here.

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Exits

Airtime, Sean Parker’s live mobile video chat platform, has acquired vLine, a  video chat infrastructure startup. No financial terms were disclosed. According to CrunchBase, vLine had raised $1.5 million from Harrison Metal and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. TechCrunch has more here.

Blackjet, a four-year-old, Florida-based on-demand jet service created by Uber co-founder and chairman Garrett Camp, has informed members that it is “abruptly” ceasing operations. Fortune has more here.

Hello, lovely and talented readers, happy Wednesday!

We’ll be on a plane to New York early tomorrow for TechCrunch Disrupt, so we can’t publish StrictlyVC. But look for your next issue Friday. See you then.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

It’s “Star Wars” Day again (we’re told). Just in time to celebrate, a new video marries the magic of the Force with the music of sold-out Broadway sensation “Hamilton.” The Washington Post has more here.

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eShares Puts the Screws to 409A Valuation Firms

very startup that gives employees option grants has to comply with 409A, a section of the U.S. tax code that was established in late 2004 and basically states that a company has to pay tax on some of the compensation it defers, including those options. The 409A valuations are a way to get to their value.

Unfortunately, for much of the last 12 years, such 409A audits have proved expensive, not to mention incredibly confusing. Accounting specialists initially charged startups north of $10,000 per audit, until a a sudden glut of specialists drove prices down fivefold. Meanwhile, many founders still don’t know precisely how valuation firms arrive at a particular number. Appraisers typically look at a company’s costs (meaning its assets and liabilities), its income, and/or the valuations of companies with similar financial and operating characteristics. But there’s little transparency into the whole process.

That’s not accidental or necessary, says Henry Ward, the cofounder and CEO of eShares, an 80-person Mountain View, Ca., startup that now works with more than 4,000 companies, digitizing their paper stock certificates along with stock options, warrants, and derivatives to create a real-time picture of who owns what. In fact, starting today, eShares is charging just $25 a month for its own wholly transparent 409A service. It’s also open sourcing its valuation models for startups that might like to manage the process themselves.

We talked with Ward yesterday about the new service and what it may presage.

There’s so much confusion about 409A valuations, including how they compare with a company’s fair market value. Is there an easy way to understand how the two work together?

In theory, and arguably in practice, a 409A valuation tends to run at a discount of 25 percent to the [value of a company’s] preferred shares. But as a company matures and heads towards an IPO, the 409A starts to converge toward the price that [investors have assigned it in its most recent funding round].

Why do you think confusion around 409A valuations has persisted for so long?

It’s consulting. When the IRS created this standard in the mid 2000s, they documented a set of models that you could use that would pass its requirements. Financial analysts got a hold of these models and they basically turned them into a trade secret. As more people ran into the business [to service startups], prices fell, but nobody solved the tech piece of it. Everyone was just hiring people to do cheaper and cheaper work.

Does that include you? You started offering 409A valuations as part of a bundled service a couple of years ago.

More here.

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New Fundings

Appboy, a five-year-old, New York-based mobile marketing automation platform, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Blumberg Capital, Bullpen Capital, IDG Ventures, InterWest Partners, Metamorphic Ventures and Rally Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

ChargePoint, a nine-year-old, Campbell, Ca.-based electric vehicle charging network, has raised $50 million in funding led by Linse Capital, with participation from earlier backers Braemar Energy Ventures and Constellation Energy. Automotive News has more here.

DFLabs, an 11-year-old, Milan, Italy-based company that makes automated cyber incident management and response software, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding from Evolution Equity Partners. More here.

Farfetch, an eight-year-old, London-based a fashion e-commerce platform that connects consumers with a curated global network of boutiques and bigger brands, has just raised $110 million in Series F funding led by new investors Temasek, IDG Capital Partners and Eurazeo, with the participation of earlier investor Vitruvian Partners. The company has now raised roughly $305 million. This new round was reportedly sewn up at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion. The Business of Fashion has the story here.

Full Measure Education, a three-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based mobile platform for post-secondary student communication and administrative management needs, has raised $6 million in Series B funding led by Safeguard Scientifics. More here.

Haven, a two-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.- and Singapore-based programmatic logistics platform that automates freight procurement for commodity traders, food producers, and CPG companies, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital. Other participants include AITV and earlier backers O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, Data Collective and First Round Capital. More here.

IDEAYA Biosciences, a year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based oncology-focused biotechnology company, has raised $46 million in Series A funding from 5AM Ventures, Canaan Partners, Celgene, WuXi Healthcare Ventures, Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research and Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Biospace has more here.

Job Market Maker, a three-year-old Charleston, S.C.-based online recruitment startup, has raised $1 million in Series A funding from Charleston Angel Partners. More here.

Jolla, a five-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based mobile OS maker whose Sailfish licensing business aims competes with Android  by offering OEMs the ability to tailor the mobile platform to their needs, has raised $12 million in Series C funding from undisclosed investors. TechCrunch has more here.

LiveNinja, a five-year-old, Miami, Fla.-based live video chat marketplace that connects users with topic experts, has raised $2 million in fresh funding from Scout Ventures, Anzu Partners, Comcast Ventures Catalyst Fund, Citi Ventures, Accelerated Growth Partners and SeedInvest.  The company has now raised $3.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

OutboundEngine, a 3.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based automated marketing platform for small business owners, has raised $16 million in Series C funding led by S3 Ventures, with participation from Silverton Partners, Noro-Moseley, Harmony Partners, Altos Ventures and Capital Factory. The company has now raised $33.8 million to date. More here.

Passport, a six-year-old, Charlotte, N.C.-based company specializing in enterprise business applications and payments for parking and transportation, has raised $8 million in Series B funding led by MK Capital, with participation from earlier backers Grotech Ventures and Relevance Capital. The company has now raised $17 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

PowWow Mobile, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based enterprise app mobility startup, has raised $4.3 million in new funding led by Vertical Venture Partners, with participation from IT-Farm, OurCrowd, Prabhakar Goel and VKRN. More here.

Rebagg, a two-year-old, New York-based online marketplace for previously owned designer handbags, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led byGeneral Catalyst Partners, which also led the company’s $4 million seed round last August. Other earlier investors to join the new financing include FJ labs, Metamorphic Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Founder Collective, Big Sur Ventures and Necotium. TechCrunch has more here.

Roli, a seven-year-old, London-based music technology company, has raised $27 million in funding led by Foundry Group, with participation from BGF Ventures, Founders Fund, Balderton Capital, FirstMark Capital, Index Ventures, Horizons Ventures, and Universal Music Group. TechCrunch has more here.

VTS, a five-year-old, New York-based commercial real estate leasing and asset management platform, has raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from OpenView Venture Partners andTrinity Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Winc, a 4.5-year-old, L.A.-based online wine retailer that’s been known until now as Club W, has raised $17.5 million in new funding co-led by Shining Capital and earlier investor Bessemer Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

Adobe yesterday announced plans to acquire Livefyre, a service that’s probably best known for its online commenting system. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Livefyre had raised $67.3 million from investors, shows CrunchBase. Adobe participated in its last $47 million round (as did Salesforce), so the two companies were already quite familiar with each other. TechCrunch has more here.

Pinterest, the popular, San Francisco-based visual bookmarking tool, has acquired URX, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based adtech startup whose platform helps consumers to discover content inside mobile apps. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. URX had raised $15 million from investors, shows CrunchBase.

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People

It’s graduation time; this year, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison is giving the commencement address at USC.

Apple has hired famed robotics expert Yoky Matsuoka, one of the co-founders of Google’s X lab and former head of technology at Nest, to work on the iPhone maker’s health projects. Fortune has more here.

Octopus Ventures in London has hired as an investor mobile gaming entrepreneur Eyal Rabinovich, who’s best known for co-founding the Israeli game publisher PlayScape.

In case you missed all the coverage (we love our tech execs!): 23andMe CEOAnne Wojcicki attended the Met Gala on Monday night with New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez. They arrived in the same car as Wojcicki’s ex-husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and his girlfriend of the last year,Nicole Shanahan, who founded the patent-technology company ClearAccesIP. Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was also at the gala, with his glamorous mama. So was Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Emerson Collective CEO Laurene Powell Jobs, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Business Insider has more pics here.

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Jobs

NextEv, a Chinese car company taking on Tesla (and headed up by Cisco’s former chief strategy officer, Padmasree Warrior), is looking to hire a corporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Apple is revamping its streaming music service, in response to customers not liking it very much.

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Detours

The fascinating correlation between the first class cabin and air rage.

That baby is sizing you up.

Beautiful Kung Fu visualizations.

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Retail Therapy

A precision-engineered humidor, for your herb(s).

Hi, all! Happy Tuesday.

Quick mention: As most of you know, we also work with TechCrunch, and TechCrunch Disrupt is coming up next week in New York. We’re excited. We’re interviewing former big bank executive (and now startup founder) Sallie Krawcheck; actress and The Honest Company cofounder Jessica Alba; and investors Josh Kopelman, Andy Weissman, and Chris Douvos. (Other featured speakers include Casey Niestat, David Plouffe and B. J. Novak. Woot.)

Just a note that SVC may be a leetle skimpier while we’re traveling/busy with the event. It might also come at unexpected times, as today. (It keeps us pretty tied-up for a bit.) Hope you’ll bear with us.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

It’s official: Fiat is partnering with Google to build several dozen self-driving prototypes.

Meanwhile, Tesla Motors is probably looking at a big quarterly loss and a yearly sales miss, say UBS analysts, who issued a note to clients this morning.

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Designer Fund Raises $20 Million for Debut Effort

Designer Fund, a San Francisco outfit that looks to invest in seed-stage startups that feature designers on their founding teams, has raised $20 million in funding from unnamed individual investors, most of them successful designers looking to support the next generation.

The four-year-old firm was founded by Enrique Allen and Ben Blumenfeld, who remain its only general partners. Previously, Allen was a designer with 500 Startups and Facebook’s fbFund; Blumenfeld was meanwhile an early design lead at Facebook who spent more than five years with the company. The two met at the Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab, which studies how computer design can change human behavior; when Blumenfeld left Facebook to take a sabbatical, they decided to form Designer Fund.

“We saw a lack of capital that really understood and valued design at the early stages,” explains Allen, who notes that Airbnb’s founders weren’t taken seriously at first because few understood how two design students could rethink and expand the travel market.

More here.

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New Fundings

Age of Learning, a nine-year-old, Glendale, Ca.-based education company behind the popular children’s site and app ABCMouse, has quietly raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation led by Iconiq Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Bench, a four-year-old, Vancouver-based online bookkeeping service for small businesses and independent contractors, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Altos Ventures and Contour Venture Partners. The company has now raised $33 million altogether. More here.

CloudHealth Technologies, a Boston-based cloud service management company, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Scale Venture Partners, .406 Ventures and Sigma Prime Ventures. More here.

Digital Reasoning, a 16-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based cognitive computing company, has raised $40 million in Series D funding co-led by Lemhi Ventures and Nasdaq, with participation from earlier backers Goldman Sachs andHCA.

Envera Health, a Richmond, Va.-based company that sells clinical delivery and physician support services, has raised $14 million in new funding co-led by Harbert Venture Partners and Noro-Moseley Partners, with participation from New Richmond Ventures. More here.

Maana, a 3.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based analytics platform, has raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Saudi Armco Energy Ventures, with participation from Shell Technology Ventures and previous backers GE Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Intel Capital, and Frost Data Capital. More here.

MobiKwik, a 6.5-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based mobile wallet company, has raised $50 million in Series C funding co-led by Japan’s GMO and Taiwan’s Mediatek, with participation from Sequoia Capital India and Treeline Asia. TechStory has more here.

Parasail Health, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that provides term loans to help individuals cover their out of pocket medical expenses, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding round from Peter Thiel and Montage Ventures. More here.

Hi, everyone, welcome back!

We forgot to mention anything Friday, but we hope our Greek and other Orthodox readers had a very happy Easter yesterday.:)

No column today. (Swamped.)

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Top News in the A.M.

So much for a market correction? As the WSJ reports, Fidelity Investmentsreversed course in March, marking up many of the stakes in closely held technology companies it had previously cut. Much more here.

What we know about Craig Steven Wright, the businessman who just claimed today that he’s the inventor of Bitcoin, via the Washington Post.

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New Fundings

Acquisio, a 13-year-old, Brossard, Quebec-based performance marketing software company that sells to small businesses, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital from Wellington Financial. More here.

Airstoc, a 2.5-year-old, Sheffield, U.K.-based online marketplace that connects professional drone pilots with companies looking for aerial videography, has raised $700,000 in seed funding from Point Nine Capital, Launchub, and Thibaud Elziere. Tech.eu has more here.

Bnbsitter, a three-year-old, Paris, France-based on-demand marketplace for concierge-related services, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from Frederic Mazzella and CapDecisif Management. TechCrunch has more here.

Brightwheel, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile platform for early education, has raised $600,000 from investors Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca, who met the company on the ABC television show “Shark Tank.” You can watch the pitch, which aired Friday night, here. Brightwheel had previously raised $2.2 million in seed funding from RRE Ventures and Eniac Ventures.

CarVi, a two-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based company whose dashboard device analyzes a driver’s actions and surroundings in real time to provide feedback and warnings when necessary, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Samsung Ventures, Korea Telecom Investment, and POSCO. Crowdfund Insider has more here.

Certrax, a months-old, Woodbridge, N.J.-based company whose app helps real estate owners, property managers and service providers manage third-party risk, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from WorldQuant Ventures. More here.

CodeCombat, a three-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based platform for kids to learn computer science, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Third Kind Venture Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Allen & Company. More here.

DocsApp, a year-old, Bangalore, India-based medical consultation app, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding, including from Rebright Partners and angel investors Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan. Inc42 has more here.

EclecticIQ, a two-year-old, Amsterdam, Netherlands-based threat intelligence software company, has raised €5.5m ($6.3 million) in Series A funding, including from Inked Capital and Kpn Ventures. The company has now raised roughly $7.3 million altogether. More here.

Graybug Vision, a Redwood City, Ca.-based early stage pharmaceutical company that’s developing ophthalmology products, has raised $44.5 million in Series B funding led by Deerfield Management Company. More here.

Home Chef, a three-year-old, Chicago-based startup that delivers recipes and ingredients to its customers to make home cooking easier, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Shining Capital and Guild Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Homology Medicines, a year-old, Lexington, Ma.-based gene editing and gene therapy company focused on developing treatments for patients with rare diseases, has raised $43.5 million in Series A funding from 5AM Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from Temasek and Deerfield Management. Xconomy has more here.

LocBox, a five-year-old, San Francisco, Ca-based startup that provides local businesses with a multi-channel marketing platform, has raised $5.1 million in Series A funding from InterWest Partners, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, 500 Startups, and numerous angel investors.

MyNFO, a 1.5-year-old, Tampa, Fla.-based media platform for marketers and consumers, has raised $6.8 million in Series A funding led by Almaz Capital. More here.

Nuki, a 1.5-year-old, Graz, Austria-based maker of a Bluetooth smartlock, has raised €2 million ($2.3 million) in seed funding from Up to Eleven, Venta Beteiligungs GmbH, and aws Austria Wirtschaftsservice GesmbH, among others.

SAM Labs, a two-year-old, London-based company that makes an internet-connected kit for aspiring inventors and coders, has raised £3.2 million ($4.5 million) from a group of investors led by Imperial Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, a Westlake Village, Ca.-based aesthetics and medical dermatology startup, has raised $34 million in Series A funding led by ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from Altitude Life Science Ventures, Partner Fund Management and Venvest Capital. L.A. Biz has more here.

Sqreen, a year-old, Paris, France-based app security startup whose SaaS platform is used to inspect apps and protect them real-time, has raised $2.3 million in funding from Alven Capital, Point Nine Capital, Kima Ventures,50 Partners and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Varo Money, an eight-month-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based mobile-only banking startup, has raised $27 million in funding led by Warburg Pincus, with David Coulter, a special limited partner of Warburg Pincus, joining Varo’s board of directors. More here.

WeCounsel, a five-year-old, Chattanooga, Tn.-based telemedicine software company, has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding from Longmeadow Capital Partners, Point Judith Capital and CVH Holdings. More here.

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New Funds

According to Fortune, Heritage Group, a 30-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based venture and growth equity firm that focuses on healthcare, has closed its second fund with roughly $220 million in capital commitments. Heritage closed its last fund with $170 million in 2011. More here.

Leerink Capital Partners, a three-year-old, Boston-based, healthcare-focused venture firm (that’s affiliated with Leerink Partners, a 21-year-old, Boston-based investment bank), is hoping to raise up to $250 million for a new fund, shows an SEC filing.

Rothenberg Ventures, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based seed and early-stage VC firm, is looking to raise up to $50 million for its next fund, according to an SEC filing that shows it has closed on at least $17 million in commitments thus far.

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Exits

ACT, the college and career readiness assessment company, has acquired OpenEd, a 2.5-year-old, Los Gatos, Ca.-based K-12 standards-aligned educational resource startup. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. According to CrunchBase, OpenEd had raised $2 million in seed funding from PivotNorth Capital.

Oracle is shelling out $532 million for Opower, a SaaS-based customer engagement and energy efficiency company that went pubic in 2014 and whose market cap was roughly $427 million as of earlier this morning. TechCrunch has more here.

Vimeo, an IAC subsidiary that’s more recently been investing in its own original content and creator community, has acquired VHX, a company that provides a platform for premium over-the-top subscription video channels. Deal terms were not revealed, but according to CrunchBase, five-year-old VHX had raised $10.25 million from investors, including Comcast Ventures, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and others. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Video games pioneer Nolan Bushnell is planning to revive the “hardcore fundamental game design” of arcades to make mobile titles worth playing.

Do you earn less than a Silicon Valley intern?

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Jobs

RRE Ventures is looking to bring aboard an undergraduate student to be its content platform intern for 10 hours a week during the school year and full-time in summer. The job is in New York.

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Essential Reads

The government wants your fingerprint to unlock your phone.  Should that be allowed?

WhatsApp was just blocked in Brazil for the second time in less than six months for failing to comply with an order to turn over data in a criminal investigation.

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Detours

Shelby Bonnie’s iPad took quite a vacation last month.

What happens when Amy Schumer takes over your Tinder.

It isn’t your imagination. TSA lines have gotten a lot worse (and they look to stay that way through year end).

The hoverboard we’ve all been dreaming about.

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Retail Therapy

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wants to start waking your ass up with this, his new motivational alarm clock app.