Hi, all, hope you’re having a wonderful Thursday afternoon! (This is not a new delivery trend, we promise; just a busy week.):)

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Top News in the A.M.

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Naval Ravikant on China Money Coming into Silicon Valley: This Trickle Could Become a Tsunami

AngelList, the online platform that matches startups with early-stage investors, has grown by leaps and bounds since its 2010 founding — and so have its ambitions. In fact, the company, which already bills itself as both the biggest seed-stage firm in the world, and the world’s largest hiring platform for startups, also aims to become the biggest venture fund in the world.

Earlier this week, we sat down with cofounder Naval Ravikant at the firm’s swanky new, three-story digs in San Francisco’s Jackson Square, and as workmen shifted planks around the nearly completed ground-floor level, Ravikant caught us up to speed on a many aspects of what’s happening at AngelList.

We’ll have more on his overarching vision tomorrow. Today, we’re publishing a part of our conversation that centered one of the biggest drivers of AngelList’s current growth: the $400 million that CSC Group — one of the biggest private equity funds in China — committed to invest through AngelList roughly 10 months ago. (The WSJ billed it as the “largest single pool of funds devoted to early-stage startups—ever.”)

Ravikant shared how that relationship is evolving, and why he thinks CSC’s money is just the tip of the iceberg for both AngelList and Silicon Valley more broadly. Our chat has been edited for length and clarity.

TC: Let’s start at the beginning. Who is managing this $400 million from CSC?

NR: It’s a fund called CSC Upshot that’s managed by CSC’s Veronica Wu, who used to be a VP at Tesla Motors in Beijing; Ming Yeh, who’d spent the previous six years or so as a managing director at [Silicon Valley Bank] in Shanghai; and Tom Cole, a former partner at Trinity Ventures.

TC: How much have they invested in startups on AngelList so far?

NR: They’re on track to invest between $25 million and $40 million this year, with an average check size of $100,000.

TC: Wow, that’s quite a pace. How does the decision-making process work?

NR: We’ve built a dashboard for fund management, and all these managers [have signed nondisclosure agreements] so they get to see literally hundreds and hundreds of deals on AngelList. And they chat with each other and [with the lead investor’s approval], if enough people vote yes, the deal gets done.

Much more here.

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New Fundings

Arcadia Power, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based startup whose direct-to-consumer platform that allows customers to better manage their home energy use, has raised $3.5 million in funding led by BoxGroup and Wonder Ventures. More here.

Curology, a two-year-old, San Diego-based startup that provides acne and anti-aging treatment and prescriptions through a visual diagnosis made via users’ phones, has raised $15 million in funding led by Advance Vixeid Partners, with participation from Forerunner Ventures and Sherpa Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Gobiquity, a five-year-old, Scottsdale, Az.-based company that provides mobile applications for the early detection and tracking of eye diseases in the U.S., has raised $6 million in Series B funding from InterWest Partners. More here.

Grabr, a year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer shopping and delivery platform, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from RBV Capital, N-Trans Group, and numerous individuals. TechCrunch has more here.

Mint Solutions, a six-year-old, Amsterdam-based company whose medicine scanning technology, MedEye, aims to reduce errors when medicines are given to patients (think wrong tablets or dosage), has raised roughly $5.6 million in Series B funding led by Brabant Development Agency (BOM Capital). Earlier backers LSP (Life Sciences Partners), Seventure Partners, NSA Ventures and others also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Navisens, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based software-based location platform that can locate mobile devices indoors, outdoors, and underground, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding led by Resolute Ventures, with participation from KEC Ventures, Amicus Capital, Arba Seed Investment Group, and angel investor Gokul Rajaram. TechCrunch has more here.

Panopto, a nine-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based software company with a video platform used for recording and live streaming in the academic and business worlds, has raised $42.8 million led by Sterling Partners. More here.

Symphony Commerce, a 5.5-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud technology for e-commerce platforms (it helps them handle a variety of wholesale and retail business requirements), has raised $11 million from CRV, Bain Capital Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures and FirstMark Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Zoomcar, four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based Zipcar-like company that operates in India, has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by Ford Smart Mobility, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Empire Angels. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

The 11-year-old, early-stage firm True Ventures, with offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto, has closed its fifth fund with $310 million. That’s slightly more than the $290 million that the firm raised for its fourth fund, which closed in 2014. More here.

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Exits

Hi, happy Wednesday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Fitbit has been cleared by a U.S. International Trade Commission judge of stealing trade secrets from rival Jawbone. Recode has more here.

A look at the 48 startups that launched yesterday, the second day of Y Combinator‘s Demo Day.

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CRV Comes Out Against Trump in New Statement

The U.S. presidential elections are fast approaching, and a growing number of VCs who’ve historically shied from making taking sides publicly, are tweeting, talking with reporters, and blogging about who they are backing and why. The early-stage venture firm CRV, formerly known as Charles River Ventures, is taking things a step further, having just published a tranquil little piece called “F*ck Trump” about the firm’s rejection of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s “anti-immigration statements.”

We talked with CRV general partner George Zachary earlier this morning about why it bothered.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has a strong lead over Trump in the polls. Why publish this statement right now?

It doesn’t make a difference how he’s doing in the polls. We feel strongly about the topic. Several weeks ago, we had an off-site, where we talked about strategy and where we also talked about the election. And each one of us felt offended by what Donald Trump has been saying, including what he has been saying specifically about immigrants. Your grandparents were Greek. My father came from Greece. This country was built by immigrants. It’s time for us to speak up about it.

His statements have varied over time.

And they’ll continue to vary, but we have to be authentic here and speak up on behalf of the people who come to this country and build. Half the teams we’ve backed were founded by immigrants. Our nine partners come from seven countries.

I was in Cleveland not long ago, where I saw much more Trump support than we see in the Bay Area. You run a business. Don’t you risk alienating people?

More here.

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New Fundings

Autho, a three-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based company whose technology enables developers and IT staff to set up social and enterprise identity provider registration and login, username and password, single-sign-on, multifactor authentication and more, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, K9 Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has now raised $24 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

DroneDeploy, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based drone data management platform, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from HighAlpha and ExactTarget cofounder Scott Dorsey. The company has now raised $31 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Hi, everyone, hope your Tuesday is off to a great start.:) We were just handed a delicious croissant, which has greatly improved our late morning and fortified us for the Tesla product announcement that’s coming out at noon PST today.

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Top News in the A.M.

Find a comfortable seat; here’s a quick look at all 44 startups that launched yesterday on day one of Y Combinator‘s 16th Demo Day.

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For HBS Students, a Study in What Not to Do

At Harvard Business School, students pay top dollar to learn everything from how to manage international trade to scaling technology ventures. They’re also schooled in the art of venture capital. Among the case studies they learned last year is the story of Rothenberg Ventures (RV), a four-year-old seed stage firm.

Whether the San Francisco outfit should have been part of their curriculum is an open question.

Though RV was founded by HBS graduate Mike Rothenberg, the firm, which has raised at least $47 million over the years and employed upwards of 60 people at its peak, is on the brink of imploding owing to a “lack of controls,” in the words of one of its investors.

That the firm isn’t a breakaway success story isn’t necessarily the issue. Many case studies center of companies that make missteps. A larger problem, seemingly, is that the study about RV – which was funded by HBS before the firm’s troubles publicly surfaced last week — was also co-authored by two professors who have a “significant financial interest in Rothenberg Ventures,” as stated prominently in a curriculum footnote. (The study is available for purchase here.)

One of those professors has since left HBS and is now a visiting associate professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He didn’t respond to a message seeking more information.

Asked about attracting students’ attention to a venture firm that he has funded, Professor Ramana Nanda, another of the study’s co-authors, wrote us yesterday that HBS has numerous, strict guidelines governing the relationship between professors and students, the most relevant in this case being that professors aren’t allowed to invest in ventures started by current students or to contract with them while students to invest after they graduate. Dr. Nanda notes that he made an investment in RV after Rothenberg graduated from HBS, as he sometimes has with other HBS alums.

Stringent ethicists might quibble with whether that’s sufficient, given that many HBS students attend the school with an eye toward getting a startup off the ground and that introducing them to certain brands may make it more likely that students will approach them.

It’s easy, too, to imagine a fund using the support of HBS professors (not to mention an HBS case study) to gain legitimacy with future investors.

More here.

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New Fundings

Bitfinder, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of an air quality monitor, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding led by Altos Ventures, with participation from Samsung Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Centricient, a year-old, Bozeman, Mt.-based customer service messaging management toolkit, has raised $6.5 million from Venrock and Next Frontier Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Coda Payments, a five-year-old, Singapore-based alternative payment gateway that enables merchants to accept payments from cardless customers in Southeast Asia, has raised $2 million in new funding. Earlier backers GMO Global Payment Fund, Skype co-founder Toivo Annus and Golden Gate Ventures provided the capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Lemonade, a year-old, New York-based peer-to-peer insurance carrier, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from XL Innovate. More here.

LendUp, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based direct lender focused on non-prime borrowers, has raised $47.5 million in Series C funding led by the Y Combinator Continuity fund. Other participants in the round include GV, Thomvest Ventures, QED Investors, Data Collective, Susa Ventures, Radicle Impact, Bronze Investments and SV Angel. 

Logikcull, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based legal intelligence startup, has raised $10 million in funding led by OpenView Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backer Storm Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

MediaBrix, a five-year-old, New York-based developer of in-app advertising compaigns, has raised $6.5 million in new funding from Edison Partners, Revel Partners and Horizon Technology Finance. More here.

RedShelf, a 4.5-year-old, Chicago-based e-textbook comapny, has raised $4 million in Series B funding from Coniston Capital, with participation from existing investors, including the National Association of College Stores. More here.

ThreatQuotient, a three-year-old, Reston, Va.-based threat intelligence platform, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from return backers Blu Venture Investors and the Center for Innovative Technology. DCInno has more here.

Vyome Biosciences, a six-year-old, New Delhi, India-based company that makes treatments for skin diseases caused by resistant microbes, has raised $14 million in Series C funding led by Perceptive Advisors, with participation from Romulus Capital and return backers Kalaari Capital, Sabre Partners and Aarin Capital. The Economic Times has more here.
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IPOs

How HotelTonight went from burning millions of dollars to reportedy planning an IPO, in Bloomberg.

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Exits

In a bid to grow its retail sector reach, IBM is reportedly in discussions to acquire Revel Systems, which makes an iPad point-of-sale system. Bloomberg has more here. Revel has raised roughly $127 million, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include DCM Ventures; Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, and Rothenberg Ventures, among others.

Pinterest is acquiring the team behind eight-year-old, New York-based Instapaper, which will continue operating as a separate app. TechCrunch has more here.

And now we know: One Kings Lane, once valued at more than $900 million, sold for less than $30 million, says Recode. More here.

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People

Vadim Lavrusik, a former Facebook product manager who worked on the company’s live video feature, just debuted a new service, Alively, that allows users to share live-streamed or recorded footage with select friends and family. VentureBeat has more here.

Sir Ian McKellen reportedly turned down $1.5 million to officiate Sean Parker’s “Lord of the Rings” themed wedding. “I said, ‘I am sorry. Gandalf doesn’t do weddings.’” Vanity Fair has more here.

Michael Steinmetz, a longtime healthcare venture capitalist who co-founded Clarus Ventures in 2005, has passed away. Fortune has more here.

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Essential Reads

How Google keeps familiar former engineers close to the fold.

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Detours

In insider trading case that pit father against son.

Why we judge parents for putting kids at perceived, but unreal, risk.

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Retail Therapy

Freak out your office guests with these.

We’re not quite ready for Monday, yet here it is anyway.:) Happy Monday, everyone.

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Top News in the A.M.

Pfizer is buying the publicly traded San Francisco-based cancer drug maker Medivation for a whopping $14 billion. Dealbook has more here.

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VC Charlie O’Donnell on Building Community on the Cheap

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, a nearly four-year-old, seed-stage venture firm that’s solely run by founder and general partner, Charlie O’Donnell, just closed its second fund with $15 million, up from an $8.3 million debut fund in early 2014.

Yesterday, we talked  with O’Donnell about what the process was like, whether the New York venture scene will be impacted by the $3 billion sale of e-commerce company Jet.com to Walmart, and how a small operation like Brooklyn Bridge Ventures can make an outsize impact on a shoestring budget.

TC: We sat down last November and you’d mentioned that you’d circled $13 million or so for this new fund.

CO: I estimated that I had about $13 million in estimated commitments, and we didn’t go into detail on what that meant. For me, it’s a spreadsheet that has a [potential investor] in the fund, a number, and a percent chance of closing, much like a sales pipeline.

Comparatively, my first fund took 9 months from announcement to first close, and 15 months from first close to last close. This fund took 6 months from first close to last close, with 70 percent of the capital commitments coming in the first two closes.That all seemed super fast to me.

TC: We were wondering if you ran into trouble this year with investors; some of the institutions that fund venture firms say they were mobbed earlier this year by firms that raised funds a couple of years ago and that didn’t want to be the last in line for their new fund.

CO: Most of my [investors] aren’t in any other funds. An endowment that wrote me a $1 million check certainly is. And I think my lead investor is in one or two other funds, along with maybe a handful of individuals [who wrote me checks]. But they’re definitely in the minority. At my size, I’m not talking to many traditional [investors]. I have no idea why they keep writing checks every two years for funds that haven’t proved themselves out yet. I came from the fund side. I thought VCs raised every three to four years.

TC: You’ve funded a lot of very promising companies. In your past life as a principal with First Round Capital, you also backed a number of companies that have sold. Do you have any “exits” yet at Brooklyn Bridge?

CO: One exit returned its capital, but given that most of these companies average about two years old or less (it was a three-year investment period fund), it would be pretty early to start seeing exits at this stage. Also, standouts like [the smart home security company]Canary are ramping up revenues and releasing new and improved products and not looking to take an early exit anytime soon.

TC: People have long said that New York needed a giant exit, especially after certain companies that looked to become big wins saw their fortunes change, including Gilt Groupe and Fab. Was Jet that exit? 

CO: Jet was certainly a large exit and a testament to the great team the company assembled. Three billion dollars is a lot of money, but given how much they raised right out of the gate, I don’t know what multiples its investors got given what one would assume were the entry prices. So, do the aggregate dollars count or the return multiple? I’m not sure, but I’m also not someone who believes in the “giant exit” theory.

What’s supposed to happen when we get a giant exit? We get more angels?

More here.

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New Fundings

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, a 3.5-year-old, Canton, Ma.-based company at work on a therapeutic for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Morningside Ventures, with participation from the ALS Investment Fund, former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer, and other new and previous investors. More here.

Mobike, an 11-month-old Shanghai, China-based mobile app that allows users to rent bikes for short distance commutes, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Panda Capital, with participation from Joy Capital. The company, which operates its own bike fleet, was founded by a former Uber manager in China, says China Money Network. More here.

Quanergy Systems, a nearly four-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company that’s working on solid state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing software, has raised roughly $90 million in Series B funding at a valuation that’s “well over $1 billion,” says the outfit. The publicly traded companies Sensata Technologies and Delphi Automotive participated in the round, along with Samsung Ventures, Motus Ventures and GP Capital. Quanergy has now raised $150 million altogether. More here.

Singlera Genomics, a two-year-old, Shanghai, China- and La Jolla, Ca.-based non-invasive genetic testing company, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Lilly Asia Ventures, with participation from Green Pine Capital Partners, CDBI Partners and others. More here.

Teambition, a three-year-old, Shanghai, China-based workplace collaborations SaaS startup,  has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Chinese Internet services giant Tencent.  DealStreetAsia has more here.

Virtru, a four-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based email and file encryption service, has raised $29 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Other participants include New Enterprise Associates, Soros Fund Management, Haystack Partners, Quadrant Capital Advisors, and Blue Delta Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Zoona, a seven-year-old, Cape Town, South Africa-based mobile money platform whose products include money transfers, electronic voucher payments, and agent payments, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group. Earlier backers Accion, Omidyar Network and Lundin Foundation also joined the round. CNBC Africa has more here.

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New Funds

Kobe Bryant is now a venture capitalist, reports the WSJ. According to its report, Bryant has teamed up with longtime entrepreneur and investor Jeff Stibel to create an L.A-based firm called Bryant Stibel that — somewhat amazingly — will invest their own $100 million in combined capital. (They say they aren’t seeking outside investors.) The reports notes that they’ve already funded 15 startups together in recent years, including the home-juicing company Juicero and the legal services company LegalZoom. Much more here.

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IPOs

Everbridge, a Burlington, Ma.-based emergency communications platform provider, has filed plans for its IPO, putting an end to rumors of its intentions to go public. BostInno has more here.

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Exits

Apple has acquired a three-year-old personal health data startup Gliimpse, reports Fast Company. Terms aren’t known.

Microsoft has acquired Genee, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based artificial-intelligence-powered scheduling service. Microsoft is planning to integrate the intelligence technology into Office 365 and shut down the Genee service on September 1. Genee appears to have raised one small venture round. VentureBeat has more here.

A group of Chinese investors said it’s acquiring the six-year-old ad-tech startup Media.net for about $900 million in cash, with plans to eventually sell the company to an obscure telecommunications firm whose shares have been suspended from trading since last year. Bloomberg has more here.

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People

Isaac Evans has joined Redpoint Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Evans, 22, spent the last three years as a computer scientist at the Pentagon and will be looking at a a variety of security, machine learning and natural language processing technologies while at the firm.

Longtime ad exec turned consultant Cindi Gallop doesn’t care what you think. (Great profile of Gallop, whose path you’ve perhaps crossed on Twitter.)

Bill Gates‘s net worth just hit a record high of $90 billion.

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Data

The New York Times takes a look at the 20 U.S. cities with the greatest percentage increase in technology jobs from 2010 to 2015. Among them: Phoenix, Az., and Warren, Mi.

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Essential Reads

How venture-backed Bandcamp became the holy grail of online record stores.

There may be another Snowden at the NSA. Here’s why.

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Detours

Polo lessons for Conan, by legendary player Nacho Figueras.

Make that two not-so-easy days.

Everything I’m afraid might happen if I ask new acquaintances to get coffee.

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Retail Therapy

Ka-pow! Big-budget director Michael Bay’s 30,000-square foot Bel Air home. (We’re not sure if it’s for sale, but it will be, someday!)