Hey, everyone, happy first day of fall!

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Top News in the A.M.

A hacker named “Peace” is bringing chaos to Yahoo just as its sale to Verizon is pending. Recode has more here.

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Good News for the Mutual Fund with the Most Unicorn Stakes! Wait . . .

A new report may have mutual fund investors beaming right now — and traditional venture investors sniggering.

According to new research from the data company Pitchbook, Fidelity Investments has assembled stakes in 24 “unicorn” startups. That’s more than any venture firm. Fidelity’s peer and rival, T. Rowe Price, isn’t doing too shabbily on the same front. Pitchbook places it fifth in terms of its unicorn holdings, with investments in 17 privately held startups that are valued at a billion dollars or more.

Pitchbook asks whether mutual funds might be beating VCs at their own game, but a wealth of unicorn holdings isn’t necessarily a positive signal about Fidelity so much as a reminder that it has stuffed an awful lot of money into venture-backed companies that haven’t yet gone public or been acquired.

For one thing, the investment giant has in some cases bought stakes in companies afterthey were assigned billion-dollar plus valuations. Take Oscar Health, the three-year-old health insurance startup that has so convinced investors of its uniqueness that by last September, it was already valued at $1.75 billion. Fidelity then led a $400 million investment in the company this February, pushing Oscar’s valuation to a reported $2.7 billion.

And that’s hardly the only time a mutual fund company has taken an already rich valuation and driven it substantially higher. While the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz in particular seemed to get the ball rolling – remember that $100 million in first-round funding it provided to Github, or the $90 million it plugged into Tanium in one shot? – it was non-traditional venture investors like Fidelity, T. Rowe, and Tiger Global Management that picked up the torch and carried it to new lengths over and over and over again.

More here.

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New Fundings

Anodot, a two-year-old, Ra’anana, Israel-based real time business incident detection and analytics company, has raised $8 million in funding led by Aleph Venture Capital with participation by Disruptive Technologies L.P. The company has now raised $12.5 million altogether. GeekTime has more here.

Avalara, a 12-year-old, Seattle-based company that makes tax compliance automation software, has raised $96 million in new growth equity funding from return backers, including Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures and Sageview Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

BrightFarms, a five-year-old, New York-based company that designs, finances, builds and operates hydroponic greenhouse farms at or near supermarkets, has raised $30.1 million in Series C funding led by Catalyst Investors, with participation from earlier investors WP Global Partners and NGEN Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Centec Networks, a Suzhou, China-based company focused on software-defined networking, has raised $47 million in Series E funding led by China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund. More here.

GameCo., a year-old, New York-based company that’s making skill-based video game gambling machines(?), has raised $8.25 million in seed and Series A funding led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Courtside Ventures, QB1 Ventures, New York Angels, Steel Partners and individual angels. More here.

Operator, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based personal shopping assistant chatbot, has raised $15 million in Series B funding at a $100 million pre-money valuation led by GGV Capital, with participation from Formation8, Morningside Ventures, Horizons Ventures and earlier investors Greylock Partners and Expa. TechCrunch has more here.

Sonder, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to combine the hospitality and perks of a hotel with home rentals (a la Airbnb), has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital, with participation from Thayer Ventures, Real Ventures and BDC Capital. More here.

TrueFacet, a three-year-old, New York-based online marketplace for used jewelry and watches, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Maveron, with participation from Freestyle Capital, Social Leverage, Founders’ Co-op, Trilogy, Liquid2 Ventures and individual angels. GeekWire has more here.

Vina, a 21-month-old, Bay Area-based  social network for girls, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates,Wildcat Venture Partners and Tinder. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Signia Venture Partners, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm has closed its second fund with $85 million to lead early-stage deals in emerging tech startups mostly in and around San Francisco. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

Airware, a Newport Beach, Ca.-based drone OS and hardware startup, has paid an undisclosed amount for Redbird, a three-year-old, Paris-based startup focused on drone analytics. According to CrunchBase, Airware has raised roughly $70 million from investors, including Next World Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Redbird had raised roughly $3 million from investors, shows CrunchBase. TechCrunch has more here.

Apple is on a machine learning company buying spree. After buying Perceptio at the end of 2015 and Turi just a few months ago, Apple has now acquired the machine learning startuo Tuplejump. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, announced yesterday that they are making a $3 billion investment over the next decade to help cure, prevent, or manage disease — all of it. TechCrunch has more here.

Fortune just published its annual “40 Under 40” compilation. Are you an influential young person? Find out here.

Not to be outdone by Fortune, Bloomberg has simultaneously released its age-agnostic 50 Most Influential People list.

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Jobs

The Climate Corporation, now a division of Monsanto, is looking to hire a director of corporate development. The job is in San Francisco.

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Essential Reads

How Hampton Creek sold Silicon Valley on a fake-mayo miracle.

Driven in the Valley: Fortune’s smart look at the startup founders fueling GM’s future.

How the FDA manipulates the media.

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Detours

Zack Galifianakis grills Hillary Clinton “Between Two Ferns.”

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Retail Therapy

Leo DiCaprio’s $11 million Malibu beach house hit the market last Friday. You can take a look-see here.

A new report may have mutual fund investors beaming right now — and traditional venture investors sniggering.

According to new research from the data company Pitchbook, Fidelity Investments has assembled stakes in 24 “unicorn” startups. That’s more than any venture firm. Fidelity’s peer and rival, T. Rowe Price, isn’t doing too shabbily on the same front. Pitchbook places it fifth in terms of its unicorn holdings, with investments in 17 privately held startups that are valued at a billion dollars or more.

Pitchbook asks whether mutual funds might be beating VCs at their own game, but a wealth of unicorn holdings isn’t necessarily a positive signal about Fidelity so much as a reminder that it has stuffed an awful lot of money into venture-backed companies that haven’t yet gone public or been acquired.

For one thing, the investment giant has in some cases bought stakes in companies afterthey were assigned billion-dollar plus valuations. Take Oscar Health, the three-year-old health insurance startup that has so convinced investors of its uniqueness that by last September, it was already valued at $1.75 billion. Fidelity then led a $400 million investment in the company this February, pushing Oscar’s valuation to a reported $2.7 billion.

And that’s hardly the only time a mutual fund company has taken an already rich valuation and driven it substantially higher. While the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz in particular seemed to get the ball rolling – remember that $100 million in first-round funding it provided to Github, or the $90 million it plugged into Tanium in one shot? – it was non-traditional venture investors like Fidelity, T. Rowe, and Tiger Global Management that picked up the torch and carried it to new lengths over and over and over again.

More here.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We’re soooo excited to see some of you one week from tomorrow in Palo Alto for our next INSIDER event, featuring the one-and-only Marc Andreessen, SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie, “Radical Candor” author and founder Kim Malone Scott and Homebrew’s Hunter Walk. Giant thanks again to our partners at Mattermark, Ballou PR, and Bolt for their generous help in putting the night together.

The event is sold out as space is very limited (and we’re told SurveyMonkey takes security seriously), so please don’t show up without a seat. For those of you we can’t accommodate this time around, we’re hoping to organize one more of these evenings before year end up in San Francisco, so stay tuned!

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Top News in the A.M.

Here’s the Department of Transportation‘s newly issued policy on self-driving cars. (It basically tells automakers to figure it out themselves.)

Apple is reportedly talking with the car manufacturer McLaren about a possible acquisition or strategic investment, according to the Financial Times. (What the, who the . . .) More here.

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New Fundings

Allset, a 17-month-old, San Francisco-based startup whose app speeds the dining process by enabling users to book a restaurant reservation, place their order before arriving, and even pay from the app, has raised $2.35 million in seed funding led by Metamorphic Ventures. Other participants in the round include Andreessen Horowitz, FJ Labs and SMRK VC Fund. The company has now raised $3.35 million to date. VentureBeat has more here.

Catalyze, a three-year-old. Madison, Wi.-based startup centered around HIPAA compliant cloud computing for healthcare, has raised $6.5 million in Series B funding led by Lewis & Clark Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Arthur Ventures, Baird Venture Partners and Chicago Ventures. More here.

d.light, a nine-year-old, Bay Area-based company that’s developing solar light and energy solutions for off-grid communities in remote emerging markets, has raised $22.5 million in new funding, including $15 million in equity from KawiSafi Ventures Fund, Energy Access Ventures, Omidyar Network and NewQuest Capital Partners, and $5 million in grants from the Shell Foundation, USAID and its Development Innovation Ventures, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund. Fortune has more here.

FinanceFox, a two-year-old, Berlin-based insurance technology startup, has raised $28 million in Series A funding co-led by Horizons Ventures and Target Global, with participation from earlier investors AngelList, Idinvest, Salesforce Ventures, Speedinvest, Seedcamp and Victory Park Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Gametime, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based event ticketing app catering to people needing last-minute tickets, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from GV, Evolution Media Partners and the Stanford StartX Fund, as well as earlier investors Accel Partners, Casey Wasserman, and Jeff Mallett. TechCrunch has more here.

InfluxData, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based time series, events, and metrics database, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Mayfield, Trinity Ventures and Bloomberg Beta. TechCrunch explains the tech (which we’re still trying to understand) here.

Metromile, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based pay-per-mile insurance startup, is disclosing that it has raised $191.5 million in equity and debt funding across three previously undisclosed rounds. Its backers include Intact Financial, China Pacific Insurance, New Enterprise Associates, Index Ventures, First Round Capital, SV Angel and Mitsui & Co. Part of the proceeds will be used to acquire insurance carrier Mosaic Insurance (to handle the underwriting of its policies). TechCrunch has more here.

Mobilize, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based unified messaging platform, has raised $6.5 million in new funding from Trinity Ventures, Array Ventures, Floodgate, Hillsven Capital and Upwest Labs. TechCrunch has more here.

Nucleus, a two-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based company that makes a wireless home intercom system that can be activated with voice and began shipping last month, has raised $5.6 million in Series A funding led by Amazon’s Alexa Fund, with participation from BoxGroup, Greylock Partners, Founders Fund, Foxconn, Liquid 2 Ventures and SV Angel. TechCrunch has more here.

OurCrowd, the three-year-old, Jerusalem-based equity crowdfunding platform, has raise $72 million in Series C funding from unnamed financial institutions, family offices, and private investors. More here.

Pepperfry, a five-year-old, Mumbai, India-based startup that helps homeowners and renters outfit their living space with furniture, has raised $31 million led by earlier backers Goldman Sachs, Bertelsmann India Investments, Norwest Venture Partners and Zodius Technology Fund. The company has now raised nearly $160 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Troops, a 17-month-old, New York-based company whose bot allows users to configures Salesforce reports through Slack, has raised $7 million in funding from Aspect Ventures, Slack Fund, Susa Ventures and Flight.VC, along with earlier investors First Round Capital, Nextview Ventures, Chicago Ventures, Great Oaks Capital, Founder Collective and Vast Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Elephant Partners, a year-old, Boston-based venture growth firm co-founded last year by Highland Capital veterans Andy Hunt and Jeremiah Daly, has closed its debut fund with $156 million in capital commitments, says Fortune’s Dan Primack. Elephant focuses on consumer internet, mobile, and software startups. One of its newest bets is on Scopely, a Culver City, Ca.-based mobile entertainment network that has raised around $100 million from investors to date. Hunt also cofounded the eyeglass retailer Warby Parker.

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IPOs

A handful of European tech firms are testing the appetite for initial public offerings, taking their lead from a modest rebound in listings in the United States following a two-year slump. Reuters has more here.

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Exits

Navid Hadzaad, cofounder and CEO of 1.5-year-old, New York-based Angel.ai, has joined Amazon as its “head of new bot products,” reports TechCrunch, which says various employees of the company are joining or also have offers from Amazon in what appears to be an acqui-hire situation. Angel.ai, formerly known as GoButler, automates conversational commerce using natural language processing. According to CrunchBase, it had raised at least $8 million in funding from investors, including General Catalyst Partners, Lakestar, Rocket Internet’s Global Founders Capital, Slow Ventures, BoxGroup, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, and Cherry Ventures. More here.

Akarna Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Ma.-based  biopharmaceutical company whose lead product is a potential treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and other liver diseases, has been acquired by drug giant Allergan for an upfront cash payment of $50 million, plus success-based development, regulatory and sales milestones. According to CrunchBase, Akarna most recently raised $15 million in Series B funding in February; its backers include Forbion Capital Partners, New Science Ventures, and Third Point Ventures. More here.
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People

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Jobs

Structural Capital, a low-flying, three-year-old venture firm, is looking to hire an investment associate. The job is in Menlo Park, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Google just rejoined the messaging wars with its artificially intelligent app, Allo.

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Detours

Making six figures but have almost nothing in the bank? You have plenty of company.

From: Wells Fargo, Re: Closing the accounts we secretly opened for you.

Things that New Yorkers fear more than ISIS.

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Retail Therapy

Peter Thiel’s massive two-in-one San Francisco property just saw a major price reduction, to $8 million down from $9.25 million in May. (Buy it now!?)

Tuesday! Hope you’re having a fine day, everyone.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

The Obama administration is about to roll out new policies governing autonomous vehicles that give the federal government a lead role in developing safety, testing and road-ready rules for the fast-growing industry. More here.

Google is expected to offer more details on Google Home, its answer to Amazon’s Echo, at an Oct. 4 event in San Francisco. More here.

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True Ventures Just Led a $12 Million Investment in Still-Stealth Brava

If you’re curious to learn about the latest investment out of San Francisco-based True Ventures, you’ll have to be patient. Though the firm is disclosing that it has led a whopping $12 million Series A round in new startup Brava, details about the startup are scarce.

What we do know: Brava is a new IoT company that plans to create a suite of domestic hardware and software products, beginning with a kitchen appliance that aims to make cooking easier. It also just brought aboard John Pleasants as CEO.

If that name is familiar, it’s because Pleasants has led a number of digital media companies over the last couple of decades, including as co-president of Disney Interactive Media Group, COO of Electronic Arts, CEO of Ticketmaster, and most recently as an EVP at Samsung.

Pleasants also spent a year as the CEO of Playdom, a social gaming company that was acquired for $563 million by Disney in 2010 (thus Pleasants’s role there). It was at Playdom where he met Brava cofounder Dan Yue, who went to high school with Brava’s other cofounder, Thomas Cheng.

Yue was Playdom’s chief product officer and headed to Disney with Pleasants after the sale, logging a couple of years with the entertainment giant as an SVP of product. Cheng meanwhile cofounded the smart parking company Streetline and recently spent a year as the head of hardware at August, the smart lock company.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where True Ventures fits into all of this, the firm sold an earlier portfolio company, social gaming startup Hive7, to Playdom back in 2010 and got to know Pleasants then.

We had the chance to talk with Pleasants yesterday about Brava, which quietly came together about a year ago.

More here.

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New Fundings

Fauna, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company that has developed an adaptive operational database, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by CRV, with participation from Data Collective, Quest Venture Partners, theWebb Investment Network, Ulu Ventures and individual investors, including Scott McNealy. FinSMES has more here.

FoodChéri, a year-old, Paris-based virtual restaurant that delivers meals to its customers through its mobile app, has raised €6 million ($6.7 million) in Series A funding led by 360 Capital Partners and Breega Capital, with participation from Samaipata Ventures and Ambrosia Investments. TechCrunch has more here.

Grab, a five-year-old, Singapore-based company that has become Uber’s largest rival in Southeast Asia, has raised $750 million in Series F funding led by earlier investor SoftBank, with participation from undisclosed existing and new backers. TechCrunch has more here.

Hostmaker, a year-old London-based startup that makes hospitality management software for Airbnb hosts, has raised $1.1 million in funding led by Initial Capital, with participation from DN Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Startups has more here.

Insider, a four-year-old, Turkey-based unified online marketing platform, has raised $2.2 million in Series A funding led by 212, with participation by Wamda Capital, among others. The company has now raised $3.3 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

LeEco, a 12-year-old, Beijing, China-based web video company that now dabbles in everything from televisions to transportation and is taking on Tesla with its own electric sports car plans, has raised $1.08 billion in fresh funding from Legend Holdings Corp., Yingda Capital Management, and China Minsheng Trust. TechCrunch has more here.

Progressly, a two-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based business process platform, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by 8VC, with participation from Bill Malloy and Brian Nugent, general partners of Accelerate-IT Ventures (AITV) and David Beirne. TechCrunch has more here.

StarOfService, a four-year-old, Paris-based marketplace connecting consumers to service professionals (a la Thumbtack), has raised $10 million in fresh funding from Andrea Piccioni and Silvio Pagliani, ENERN Investments and Point Nine Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

TenNor Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Suzhou, China-based company that’s developing dual-acting antibiotics, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Northern Light Venture Capital, with participation from earlier backers Frontline BioVentures, WuXi PharmaTech Healthcare Fund I, Oriza Venture Capital and Relativity Healthcare Fund. FierceBiotech has more here.

Vlocity, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes cloud software for specific industries like insurance and telecommunications, has raised $50 million in new funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, New York Life Insurance and return backer Accenture. Fortune has more here.

Vroom, a three-year-old, New York-based pre-owned car marketplace, has raised $50 million in Series E funding led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from Altimeter Capital, Foxhaven Asset Management, and earlier backers L. Catterton, General Catalyst Partners and Allen & Co. The company has now raised $218 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Dundee Venture Capital, an Omaha, Neb.-based venture firm, has raised $20 million toward a $30 million third fund as venture capital activity in the Midwest continues to grow. The firm is also partnering with Lakewest Venture Partners in Chicago and in time will take over Lakewest, according to Dundee founder Mark Hasebroock. The WSJ has more here.

Spectrum 28, a 15-month-old, Hong Kong and Silicon Valley-based venture firm, has closed its debut fund with $170 million, it announced today. Spectrum 28 was founded by Kent Ho and Lyon Wong and has backed a half dozen companies already, including the online lending company Ernest and the revenue management software startup Duetto. Ho previously served as co-founder and managing partner for Harbor Pacific Capital, a firm he co-founded out of Stanford GSB. Wong has worked at a variety of venture firms, including SV Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners. The firm invests in fintech, real estate and digital health. More here.

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IPOs

The Oakland, Ca.-based cosmetics company e.l.f. Beauty has set the terms for its IPO, planning to raise up to $153 million, according to a new SEC filing. The company will offer up to 9.58 million shares at a price range between $14 and $16 a share, commanding a fully diluted market value of $737 million at the midpoint of the proposed range. TPG owns 56.8 percent of the company.

Tabula Rasa HealthCare, a Moorestown, N.J.-based company that makes patient-specific medication management technology, has set the terms for its IPO, saying it will offer 4.3 million shares at between $13 and $15 per share, giving it a fully diluted market value $217 million at the midpoint of that range.

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Exits

Etsy has acquired Blackbird Technologies, a Menlo Park, Ca.-based AI and machine learning startup focused on search. Deal terms weren’t disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Facebook has acquired Nascent Objects, a San Carlos, Ca.-based modular electronics platform, for an undisclosed amount. Recode has more here. (Fast Company wrote more about the company earlier this year.)

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People

Jack Ma swung by Fortune’s offices in New York yesterday where among other things, he told those gathered that he thinks Alibaba’s business outside of China will grow from 5 percent today to 40 percent by 2026. He also believes that in 20 years, the value of the merchandise handled by Alibaba will reach $1 trillion. More here.

In a new interview, investor Chamath Palihapitiya tells the Times of India, “I think we are 12 to 18 months away from a reckoning of sorts in India. The reckoning will be about the quality of capital, the amount of the capital, and the quality of the resulting businesses. Too much money came in too early and the resulting businesses that got built can’t independently exist and they can’t go public.”

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Jobs

Facebook is looking to add a corporate development manager. The job is in Menlo Park, Ca.

PayPal is hiring a corporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Unilever just bought a “green” product company, but it wasn’t The Honest Company. More here.

The music industry is finally making money on streaming.

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Detours

Bill Murray, Brooklyn bartender.

All the rumors about why Angelina and Brad are splitsville (sniffle).

How not to act in front of a bear.

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Retail Therapy

Montblanc augmented paper.

Sony’s new flagship camera (Wired thinks it may be its best ever).

If you’re really feeling spendy: Lasata, the 11-acre East Hampton, N.Y. estate where Jackie Kennedy spent her summers as a child, is on the market.

Happy Monday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Most Lyft rides will be autonomous in five years, said its president in a post published yesterday. Recode ballparks that likelihood here.

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Foundry Group Just Closed Its Sixth Fund with a Record $500 million

Foundry Group, the 10-year-old, Boulder, Colorado-based early-stage venture firm, announced this morning that it has closed its sixth fund, Foundry Group Next, with $500 million.

It comes hot on the heels of the firm’s fifth fund, which closed last summer with $225 million.

The firm’s fourth fund, called Foundry Group Select, closed with exactly the same amount in 2013 ($225 million) but Foundry had been using it as a so-called opportunity fund, meaning the capital was funneled exclusively to break-out companies in Foundry’s portfolio.

Which brings us back to Foundry’s newest fund. Though it’s the largest pool for Foundry to date, there’s a reason for that beyond the current go-go funding environment. This time, Foundry is combining two separate efforts into one.

Its newest fund won’t back early-stage companies, per its historic focus. Those investments will come from the fund it closed last summer.

It will also be used to support the firm’s follow-on investments — essentially taking the place of a new and separate opportunity fund — and it will fund growth-stage investments outside of Foundry (a new twist).

Last, 25 percent of the fund will be used to invest in other venture capital funds. This is also a new initiative by Foundry.

More here.

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New Funds

CV Auctions, a two-year-old, Buffalo, N.Y.-based company whose mobile app enables car dealers to facilitate wholesale vehicle auctions, has raised $5 million in funding led by Tribeca Venture Partners, with participation from SoftBank Capital NY, Armory Square Ventures, and Rand Capital. Buffalo Business First has more here.

AdStage, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a cross-channel advertising suite for marketers and agencies, has added $2 million in funding from Verizon Ventures, which led the company’s Series A round. More here.

Friday!!!!!!!! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Unilever is the front-runner in talks with the Honest Company about an acquisition. Sounds like it doesn’t think the company is quite worth the $1.7 billion valuation that investors assigned the company last year, however. More here.

Tesla just won a bid to supply grid-scale power in SoCal to help prevent electricity shortages following the biggest natural gas leak in U.S. history. More here.

Eek. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission officially recalled the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in an announcement yesterday because of serious fire and burn hazards. The recall will include roughly 1 million phones. More here.

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Guild Education Lands $8.5 Million in Series A Funding Led by Redpoint

According to a 2014 report from Complete College America, a nonprofit group based in Indianapolis, just 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years at public universities. The stats are even worse at community colleges, where five percent of full-time students earn an associate degree within two years, and just 15.9 percent earn a one- to two-year certificate on time.

Some of why students are taking longer to graduate centers on the lack of a clear planning, changing majors, changing universities, and taking unnecessary courses, suggests a variety of research. But Rachel Carlson, the cofounder and CEO of Denver-based Guild Education, says there are plenty of non-academic factors at play, too, including soaring tuition costs and shift work that can interfere with community college class schedules.

Indeed, to help those many students who are working their way through college, as well as help companies that recognize the importance of helping employees realize their full potential, 16-month-old Guild partners with employers including Chipotle to offer education as a benefit, right alongside healthcare.

How does it work?  The IRS already allows for employers to offer up to $5,250 annually of tax-free education to help any employee as long as the benefits “are provided by reason of their employment relationship.” Employers can also pay beyond $5,250 if they like, though employees generally have to pay tax on the additional amount. (Qualified employees can also apply for an additional $5,815 in available federal grants.)

More here.

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New Fundings

Applause, a nine-year-old. Framingham, Ma.-based company that makes software testing tools, has raised $35 million in Series F funding led by Credit Suisse, with participation from Accenture and return backers Goldman Sachs, QuestMark Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Mesco and MassVentures. More here.

KeyMe, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that makes self-service key duplicating kiosks that can be found in 7-Eleven, Rite Aid and other stores, has raised $15 million in Series C funding led by QuestMark Partners. Earlier backers, including Comcast Ventures, Battery Ventures, White Star Capital, 7-Eleven, Ravin Gandhi and the Polsky Family Office, also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Renmatix, a 13-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based biofuels company, has raised $14 million in new funding led by Bill Gates and the publicly traded company Total. More here.