Hi, all, apologies for the very late send. We thought we’d have WiFi on our flight toLisbon and we were mistaken. We now have only have a short layover in Newark to assemble the most recent news, but more next week. Hope you have a wonderful weekend in the meantime.:)

Brodie, we love you but please do not eat our last intact pair of slippers while we’re gone. (A little time-out from Brodie is largely why we’re heading out of town. Don’t tell anyone.)

Broadcom is considering a bid of more than $100 billion for Qualcomm in what would be the biggest-ever takeover of a chipmaker. Bloomberg has the story here.

StrictlyVC has been sponsored this week by “Intangibles” – a podcast about the traits, behaviors, and qualities that entrepreneurs can cultivate to help be successful.  Authors, consultants, behavioral psychologists, and academicians dive deep into topics such as humility, organizational agility, empathy, and leadership. The podcast is created and hosted by Antecedent Ventures. Subscribe on iTunes.

The House tax bill released yesterday has something for VCs (and private equity folks, and hedge fund managers) to celebrate: it doesn’t touch the carried interest tax break that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton vowed to do away with on the campaign trail last year.

Carried interest is the percentage of a fund’s profit — usually a 20 percent share but sometimes up to 30 percent for top firms — that’s paid to firms’ institutional investors. It’s currently treated as long-term capital gains, making it eligible for a tax rate as low as 23.8 percent. Ordinary income, in contrast, can be taxed as much as 39.6 percent for single individuals earning more than $415,050 or more than $466,950 for those who are married and filing jointly.

During every U.S. presidential election season, at least one candidate vows to repeal carried interest deductions, while VCs and other private market investors rail against these proclamations, in part because they believe they deserve the tax break for taking risks and holding on to assets for what often becomes many years on end.

Indeed, in summer of last year, the National Venture Capital Association, which represents venture firms’ interests, called Clinton’s plans to do away with carried interest “misguided” and of Trump’s similar promises to do away with carried interest, the organization said it would  “threaten [the] entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said the NVCA.

In fairness, the NVCA might have been right about Trump’s proposal. It suggested ending carried interest at long-term capital gains rates and instead taxing it at 33 percent, which was the highest marginal tax bracket in his plan at the time. That wasn’t the confusing part, though. What didn’t make sense to academics was a related plan to create a 15 percent business tax for members of partnerships and other pass-through business entities — which would probably destroy a lot more than the entrepreneurial ecosystem. (The very real concern: that pretty much every business would restructure as a pass-through, and the country would essentially run out of tax dollars.)

Former Goldman Sachs president turned White House advisor Gary Cohn said last month on CNBC that Trump remains intent on eliminating the carried interest tax break even though it wasn’t specified in his tax framework.

More here.

If you’re an accredited investor looking for new investment opportunities, don’t miss Angel Capital Expo, coming up Thursday, November 16, in San Francisco. You’ll be joining more than 300 angel investors and founders who’ve already registered to hear 16 highly vetted startups deliver their pitches. It’s our second — and last — event of 2017; StrictlyVC readers who apply the promo code StrictlyVC by weekend’s end receive 15 percent off of the standard ticket price of $150. Register here.

Cheche365.com, a three-year-old, China-based auto insurance search engine, has raised $30 million in Series B funding from Shunwei Capital and CBC Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.

CrossEngage, a two-year-old, Berlin-based cross-channel marketing technology company, has raised $5.8 million in funding co-led by Vorwerk Ventures andEarlybird Venture Capital. More here.

Lunar Wireless, a two-year-old, Detroit-based mobile data plan company with no monthly fees, has raised $4.1 million in funding led by 8VC. More here.

News Guard, a months-old, New York-based startup that will rate news content so search and social-media platforms can help their users know what to trust (its founder is media entrepreneur Steve Brill), has almost finished raising $6 million from unnamed investors, says Axios. More here.

Hevo Data, a 1.5.-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-based data integration platform, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by IDG Ventures India. TechCrunch has more here.

Passionflix, a 1.5-year-old, L.A.-based studio that’s turning romance novels into movies and TV series (it was founded by Tosca Musk, sister of Elon and Kimbal Musk), has raised $4.75 million in seed funding. Investors include a long list of individuals, including Patrick Cheung and Jason Calacanis. TechCrunch has more here.

Reaction Commerce, a four-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based open source e-commerce platform aimed at online retailers, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by GV, with participation from CrossCut Ventures, Double M Partners, and Female Founders Fund. More here.

Snatch, a two-year-old, San Francisco and U.K.-based developer of an augmented reality game, has raised £4.4 million ($5.8 million) in seed funding led by Initial Capital. Other participants in the round include First Minute Capital, CrunchFund, Simon Equity Partners, Cassius Family Fund, Hanson Asset Management, Velocity Technology Fund and Silicon Valley Bank. TechCrunch has more here.

SouChe, a five-year-old, China-based used car finance platform, has raised a whopping $333 million in Series E funding led by Alibaba, with participation from Warburg Pincus, Primavera Capital and CMB International. China Money Network has more here.

Tusk Ventures, a young, early-stage venture firm with offices in San Francisco and New York, has closed its debut fund with $36 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Black Duck Software, a 15-year-old company whose products automate the process of securing and managing open-source software — including detecting license compliance issues — is being acquired by Synopsys, the publicly traded maker of semiconductor-design software. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, 31-year-old Synopsys will pay approximately $565 million, or $548 million net of cash acquired. Black Duck, based in Burlington, Mass., had raised at least $75.5 million over the years, shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Fidelity Ventures, Focus Ventures, Gold Hill Capital, Split Rock Partners, General Catalyst Partners, next47 (a venture unit of Siemens) and Flagship Pioneering. TechCrunch has more here.

Niantic, the company behind the hit mobile game Pokémon Go, has acquired the team from the startup Evertoon for undisclosed terms. Launched last year, Evertoon’s app was designed to help users make short, personalized films that could be shared out to social networks like YouTube and Twitter. The company had raised $1.7 million, according to Crunchbase, including from Greylock Partnersand Arena Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, has quietly acquired Metamarkets, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based ad tech startup that provides programmatic ad data-related services to marketers, like a data dashboard to measure how campaigns are performing. TechCrunch sources says the deal was closed for less than $100 million. Metamarkets had raised just less than $58 million from investors, including Khosla Ventures, True Ventures, and Data Collective. More here.

Tech IPOs have been picking up lately, and one lesser-known semiconductor company, Aquantia, made its debut on the NYSE today, raising $61 million in its offering, after pricing shares at $9.00. It closed the day of trading at $9.51. TechCrunch has more here.

Venture capitalist David Lee has sued former partner Ron Conway for millions of dollars that Lee says is being improperly withheld by Conway. Conway, unsurprisingly, disagrees that this money that Lee is “entitled to receive.” Axios has the story here.

Switcheroo at DoubleDutch, the richly funded live-engagement marketing platform: just two months after Bryan Parker was promoted from COO to CEO, the company’s earlier top banana, Lawrence Coburn, has been reinstated as CEO. TechCrunch has the scoop here.

Cowboy Ventures is looking to hire an investment associate. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

Apple continues its run toward a $1 trillion market cap. (It attracted an especiallybig crowd today, after its iPhone X became available in its retail stores.)

Alphabet has lost another trade secret claim in its lawsuit against Uber.

Bitcoin: What’s coming in the year ahead.

India’s smartphone users love Paytm for sending money and WhatsApp for sending messages. Now each company is getting into the other’s business, with Paytm unveiling an updated version of its service today that integrates chat features.

A peek inside Lake Como’s grandest old hotel.

How to sell a 20-year-old Honda.

American hero. (Twitter has since said it’s putting “safeguards” in place to prevent future accidental deactivations.)

A deodorizing clothes hangar. We could use one of these right about now.

Hi, all, happy Thursday! Quick note: tomorrow, we’re on an early flight to Lisbon to check out Web Summit, the humongous tech conference taking place for most of next week. What this means: your issue of SVC will likely arrive very early and be very short. It may also appear at strange times next week. We’re just trying to keep you on your toes! (Basically, we don’t yet know what our schedule will be like, but we won’t forget you.)

If you’ll be there, too, let us know. We’ll be a little crazed Monday; we’re conducting three interviews for its Venture program. But we’d love to meet up if you’re around and want to grab a coffee or cocktail.:)

Bitcoin’s incredible march continues, with cryptocurrency breaking $7,000 per coin for the first time. The surge even saw it reach a high of $7,200 on some exchanges. TechCrunch has more here.

Coinbase has added more than 100,000 users in the last 24 hours, in the wake of the world’s largest exchange owner, CME Group, announcing earlier this week that it plans to introduce bitcoin futures by the end of the year. Bloomberg has more here.

StrictlyVC is sponsored this week by “Intangibles” – a podcast designed to be helpful to those who want to improve their soft skills. Authors, artists, behavioral psychologists, and professors dive deep into topics including how to become better at critical thinking, listening, personal branding and communicating. The podcast is created and hosted by Antecedent Ventures. Subscribe on iTunes.

3YOURMIND, a three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based platform for 3D industrial printing, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners, with participation from coparion, EOS Group, and the venture arm of TRUMPF. More here.

Arbe Robotics, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of high-resolution automotive radar systems, has raised $9 million in  funding led by O.G. Tech Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Atom Switch, a months-old, Charlotte, N.C.-based maker of solid state circuit breakers, has raised $3 million from investors, shows an SEC filing.

Built Technologies, a two-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based online lending company focused on the construction industry, has raised $20.6 million in funding, including from Index Ventures, shows an SEC filing. More here.

GetYourGuide, an eight-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based travel activities booking platform, has raised $75 million in Series D funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from earlier backers KKR, Spark Capital, Highland Europe,Sunstone Capital and Nokia Growth Partners. The round brings the total raised by the company to roughly $170 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Globality, a two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based advisory marketplace for business services, has raised  $35 million in funding, including from THK Equities, Raine Ventures, and numerous individual investors, including Al Gore. More here.

Instart Logic, a seven-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that accelerates web and mobile performance for its enterprise customers, has raised $30 million in new funding led by ST Telemedia. The company had previously raised $110 million, including from Geodesic Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers andAndreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.

Kano, a nearly five-year-old, London-based startup that teaches kids and adults about computers and coding through do-it-yourself hardware building kits, raised $28 million in funding. Investors include Thames Trust, Breyer Capital, Index Ventures, the Stanford Engineering Venture Fund, LocalGlobe, Marc Benioff, John Makinson, Collaborative Fund, Triple Point Capital, andBarclays. TechCrunch has more here.

LumiThera, a four-year-old, Poulsbo, Wa.-based medical device company focused on treating ocular disorders and diseases, has raised $5.5 million in Series B funding led by WaterStone Capital, with participation from other investors, including RPR Venture. More here.

Onica (fomerly known as CorpInfo), a 34-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based provide of IT consulting services, has raised $20 million in funding from Sunstone Partners. More here.

Pomelo, a two-year-old, New York- and Bangkok-based online fashion brand, has raised $19 million in funding led by JD.com. TechCrunch has more here.

Rallyteam, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile-based employee engagement platform, is raising $8.6 million in funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Storm Ventures, Cornerstone OnDemand andWilson Sonsini. More here.

Recorded Future, an eight-year-old, Somerville, Ma.-based threat intelligence company, has raised $25 million in Series E funding led by Insight Venture Partners. More here.

Testim, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based SaaS company that conducts end-to-end app testing, has raised $5.6 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. More here.

TransferWise, the six-year-old, London-based international money transfer company (and one of Europe’s better-known unicorns), has announced $280 million in Series E funding led by asset management firm Old Mutual Global Investors, with participation from Institutional Venture Partners. TechCrunch says some of the capital is being used to buy earlier investors’ secondary shares and that the company is valued in this new deal at $1.6 billion. More here.

VitalConnect, a six-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based maker of wearable biosensor technology for wireless monitoring in hospitals and remote patient populations, has raised $38 million in Series C funding. MVM and Baxter Ventures led the round. FierceBiotech has more here.

If you’re an accredited investor looking for new investment opportunities, check out Angel Capital Expo, coming up Thursday, November 16, in San Francisco. You’ll join more than 300 angel investors and founders who’ve already registered to hear 16 highly vetted startups deliver their pitches. It’s our second and last event of 2017, and StrictlyVC readers who apply the promo code StrictlyVC will receive 15 percent off of the standard ticket price of $150. Register today.

BioGeneration Ventures, an 11-year-old, Naarden, Netherlands-based venture capital firm, has raised €82 million ($95.3 million) in capital commitments for its third fund. BGV, as the firm is known, focuses on early-stage European biotech, medtech, and diagnostics companies. More here.

Brighteye Ventures, a nine-month-old, Luxembourg-based venture firm, has closed its first venture fund with €50 million in commitments ($58.3 imllion) to invest in education technology startups. Tech.eu has more here.

Cypress Growth Capital, a royalty-based growth capital fund, has closed its third fund with $42 million in capital commitments. Cypress was founded in 2010; its “royalty-based” approach entails buying the right to a percentage of a company’s receipts. (As cofounder Arthur Fox told us when the firm was getting off the ground, the firm’s concern is “getting [a company] to survive, as opposed to speeding it along.”)

Klingenstein Fields Wealth Advisors, a New York-based investment manager, plans to raise $50 million for a venture fund, according to an SEC filing.

VMware has struck a deal to acquire software-based networking startup VeloCloud Networks in a move that is likely to escalate VMware’s rivalry with Cisco Systems,says The Information. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. VeloCloud, founded in 2012, had raised $84 million from investors, including, Venrock, New Enterprise Associates, and, notably, Cisco.

Allena Pharmaceuticals, a six-year-old, Newton, Ma.-based developer of oral enzyme therapeutics to treat patients with rare and severe metabolic and kidney disorders, raised $75 million in its IPO. Its biggest outside shareholders, leading into the IPO, were Frazier Healthcare, Third Rock Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, HBM BioCapital, Fidelity and Partner Fund Management. Nasdaq has more here.

HelloFresh, the Berlin-based cooking kit delivery company, priced its IPO at the middle of its expected range at €10.25, or roughly $11.91. TechCrunch has more here.

SendGrid, an eight-year-old, Denver-based email marketing platform, has revealed IPO plans to offer 7.7 million shares at between $13.50 and $15.50 per share, which would give it a market share of roughly $823 million were it to price in the middle of its range. The company’s biggest outside shareholders heading into the offering areFoundry Group, which owns nearly 30 percent of the company, Bessemer Venture Partners (22.51%), Highway 12 Ventures (13.9%) and Bain Capital Ventures (7.03%). Denver Business Journal has more here.

AltSchool, a new school that promotes self-direction, was founded by ex-Googler Max Ventilla, and has attracted more than $172 million in funding — including from Andreessen Horowitz and Mark Zuckerberg — is scaling back and shutting a school as losses pile up. Bloomberg has more here.

Most California employers will have to change key hiring practices in order to comply with new state laws effective Jan. 1, which is coming up fast. These laws impact job applications, interviews, background checks and compensation. Read up on them here.

China’s ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing is going to build an electric car charging network, for its own cars as well as for the public, the company announced. More here.

John Boehner unchained (great read).

A judge in Hawaii has sentenced a man to write 144 compliments about his ex-girlfriend.

How the White House gutted the U.S.D.A. and endangered America’s food, by Michael Lewis.

The Legion of Regrettable Super Villains. (Hah.)

Happy Wednesday, everyone. We were busy this morning, watching officials from Facebook, Google, and Twitter testify before Congress about Russian activity on their platforms. Notably, none of their CEOs showed up, which wasn’t a great look for the companies. There was also a lot of frustration, unsurprisingly, over the companies’ “unbiased” approach when it comes to dealing with intelligence agencies around the world, despite whether these agencies are friendly to the U.S. or its adversaries. Check out the live feed here. While the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings wrapped up earlier today, the companies are now talking with the House Intelligence Committee.

Uber‘s effort to close a multibillion-dollar investment by SoftBank is reportedly on the rocks as co-founder Travis Kalanick tussles with fellow board members over the limits of his power at the ride-hailing giant, the WSJ is reporting. More here.

The Russian information troll farm Internet Research Agency spent just 0.05 percent as much on Facebook ads as the combined presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the run-up to last year’s election. TechCrunch has more here.

StrictlyVC is sponsored this week by “Intangibles” – a podcast designed to give VCs a different lens with which to look at the founders.  Want to know how curiosity correlates to intelligence and innovation? Listen to the episode where author Ian Leslie talks about people’s need for cognition. The podcast is created and hosted byAntecedent Ventures. Season two is just underway; subscribe on iTunes.

Life is Changing for Men in Two Ways, and New Startups are On It

It’s never been a better time to be a man who privately suffers erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation or hair loss.

Before you roll your eyes, that is a lot of men. They are not the silver-haired septuagenarians depicted in drug advertisements, either. Approximately 25 percentof men with male pattern baldness begin shedding their locks before they reach the age of 21, says the American Hair Loss Association. Another stat that might surprise: According to the Cleveland Clinic, as many as 52 percent of men experience erectile dysfunction, with 40 percent of men age 40 affected. As for premature ejaculation, it may impact upwards of one in three men, estimates the Mayo Clinic.

So why are things looking up for this large yet quietly suffering demographic? Two things: changes to telemedicine laws, and expiring patents, both of which are about to make it a whole lot easier — and cheaper — to obtain pills and other medications that no one seems to want to talk very publicly about.

Let’s take telemedicine first. Thanks to some recently updated telehealth laws, roughly 80 percent of U.S. states now enable companies and health service providers to offer — and receive reimbursement for — telehealth technology that does not rely on, or mandate, in-person visits. This is a big deal given that insurers resisted paying for these services for years after their introduction, arguing it wasn’t clear what qualified as a telehealth visit or whether doctors should submit telehealth claims for every patient phone call, among other concerns.

Many of these insurers have changed their tune owing to rising demand, including in categories where online questionnaires are essentially as effective as face-to-face visits. They also recognize the benefits of seeing their rural members access services that might be hard to reach otherwise. In fact, in the last year, every state but Connecticut and Massachusetts has made substantive legal changes to how telehealth services are delivered, including, in many cases, making it possible to receive a prescription by answering a short online survey.

It’s a powerful shift, especially combined with expiring patents. Why, exactly? Because drugs fall in price — 60 percent, routinely — when a drug that was once sold exclusively by the firm that developed it, is sold in a generic form after the patent for that branded drug expires. That’s what’s about to happen to Pfizer, whose patent on Viagra doesn’t expire until 2020 but which struck a deal a few years ago with generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals that allows Teva to launch a copycat version of the popular erectile dysfunction drug on December 11 — less than two months from now.

The opportunity creating by these two trends is not lost on startup founders — or investors.

More here.

AppZen, a five-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based maker of back-office automation software, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from seed investor Resolute Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

BigPanda, a five-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that correlates IT alerts from fragmented clouds, applications, and infrastructure so IT teams can better manage them, has raised an additional $23 million in funding that brings a Series B round that had closed earlier to $49 million altogether. Greenfield Partners, a partnership backed by TPG Growth, is leading the newest round, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Battery Ventures andMayfield. More here.

Ceres Imaging, a three-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based company at work on a technology that helps farmers conserve water and fertilizer and improve yields in their crops, has added $2.5 million in fresh funding to a previously closed $5 million Series A round. The capital comes from Romulus Capital, which led the startup’s previous bout of funding. TechCrunch has more here.

Cinématique, a five-year-old, New York-based “touchable” video platform that enables users to tap or click on different items to learn more, has raised $1.4 million in new funding led by Pumori Group. The company has now raised $6.8 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Harry’s, a five-year-old, New York-based subscription service for shaving products, is raising $37.6 million in fresh funding, according to an SEC filing that was first flagged by Axios and shows the firm has already secured at least $27 million toward that end. The company’s current backers include Wellington Management, Tiger Global Management, Highland Capital, Harrison Metal, Light Street Capital Management and Bullish. More here.

Hims, a months-old, San Francisco-based startup that’s creating a wellness e-commerce brand for men starting with kits aimed at preventing hair loss (and containing shampoos, prescription pills, and other products), has raised $7 million in Series A funding from Thrive Capital and Forerunner Ventures, among others.More here.

InVision, a six-year-old, New York-based product design platform that enables users to prototype, refine, manage, and test web and mobile products, has raised $100 million in Series E funding led by Battery Ventures. Other participants in the round include Spark Capital, Geodesic, and earlier backers Accel Partners, Tiger Global Management, Firstmark Capital and ICONIQ Capital. TechCrunch hasmore here.

MariaDB, an eight-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca-based open source database company started by the founders of MySQL, has raised $27 million in Series C funding led byAlibaba Group, with participation from earlier investors Intel Capital, California Technology Ventures, Tesi, SmartFin Capital and Open Ocean. The company has now raised $54 million altogether. More here.

Markforged, a four-year-old, Watertown, Ma.-based 3D printing platform that specializes in printing carbon fiber and metals, has raised $30 million in Series C funding from Microsoft Ventures, Porsche, and the Siemens-backed, year-old venture unit next47. The company has now raised $57 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Quip, a three-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based maker of electric toothbrushes with an attached subscription business (it sends out replacement heads and toothpaste), has raised $10 million in fresh funding from Sherpa Capital and other unnamed investors. The company has raised $12 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Reali, a two-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based app-enabled real estate company, has added $3 million to a previously closed Series A financing that brings the round total to $9 million. Investos inculde Zeev Ventures and Signia Venture Partners. More here.

Are you an accredited investor looking for new investment opportunities? If so, you might check out Angel Capital Expo. More than 300 angel investors and founders are already registered to come to see 16 highly vetted companies. You won’t want to miss them, either. It all takes place Thursday, Nov 16. from 8am -5pm in San Francisco. Tickets are regularly priced at $150, but we’re offering 15 percent off to StrictlyVC readers who apply the promo code StrictlyVC). Register today.

Alsop Louie Partners, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm, is raising up to $125 million for its fourth fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.

AOL cofounder Steve Case and the team at Rise of the Rest are raising $100 million for a new seed fund, show an SEC filing. VentureBeat has more here.

Frazier Healthcare Partners, the 26-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based health care focused venture firm, has closed its newest fund with $419 million in capital commitments, reports FierceBiotech. More here.

Vertical Venture Partners, which closed on at least $40 million for its debut fund in 2014 and that targets early-stage enterprise startups coming out of the UC San Diego in particular, is looking to raise up to $80 million for its second effort, shows an SEC filing. More here.

The Israel-based venture firm Carmel Ventures is changing its name to Viola Ventures and announcing a new $200 million fund. VentureBeat has more here.

Borrowed & Blue, a six-year-old, Charlottesville, Va.-based online vendor marketplace that had raised $10 million from investors, including Foundry Group, was abruptly shuttered after the board discovered the startup’s married co-founders, Adam and Christin Healey, had misappropriated funds. CBS News hasmore here (H/T: Axios)

Doppler Labs, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based smart earbud company that raised more than $50 million in funding from backers like Universal Music, Live Nation and the Chernin Group, has shut down after running out of cash and options. The company posted a farewell note to customers on its site this morning. TechCrunch has more here. Wired also has an in-depth report on what went wrong.

Sayfullo Saipov — the 29-year-old believed to have intentionally driven a pick-up truck onto a popular bike path in Lower Manhattan yesterday, killing eight people and injuring at least 10 others — was a driver for Uber.

Hearst Ventures is hiring a senior associate for its U.S. investments team.  The position is in New York City.

Bancor, one of the most successful initial coin offerings in the short history of digital tokens, is proving to be a dud for investors. Bloomberg has more here.

Warner Bros. is reviewing sexual harassment and assault allegations against Brett Ratner, a director and producer whose company has co-financed many of the studio’s biggest hits over the past few years. Bloomberg has more here.

Sixteen things to do in New York over the holidays.

Think you’re middle-class? This calculator will tell you.

Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, up for auction at Bonhams.

Hi and happy Monday, all.:)

What a day in Washington(!). Makes us wish we covered politics, too. (In the meantime, we’re giggling at this and this.)

Wow. Netflix just pulled the plug on “House of Cards” following claims by an actor that the show’s star, Kevin Spacey, propositioned him years ago when he was 14 years old. Netflix is reportedly thinking of killing off another Spacey vehicle, about author Gore Vidal, too. Spacey had apologized last night when the allegations first surfaced. Deadline Hollywood has the story here.

Coursera, the online education company that has raised more than $200 million in venture capital, has quietly ousted several top-level executives, including the chief marketing and financial officers, according to Recode. More here.

StrictlyVC is sponsored this week by “Intangibles” – a podcast about the traits, behaviors, and qualities that entrepreneurs can cultivate to help be successful.  Authors, artists, behavioral psychologists, and academicians dive deep into topics such as strategic thinking, curiosity, creativity, and willpower.  The podcast is created and hosted by Antecedent Ventures. Subscribe on iTunes.

Former media chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. is starting a venture firm called Waverley Capital with longtime investor Daniel Leff, reports Bloomberg, which says the two are looking to raise up to $100 million. The idea: to target media investments.

Media companies are an abiding passion for Bronfman Jr., the former head of Warner Music. He led Seagram, the liquor business built by his grandfather, Samuel, into the entertainment industry — and eventually an ill-fated acquisition in 2000 by France’s Vivendi. Seagram owned Universal Studios and Universal Music Group at the time and sold for $32 billion in an all-stock deal, but Vivendi’s fortune’s abruptly turned, dragged down by the dot.com bubble’s burst and one too many acquisitions (including the TV and film company Canal Plus and the educational publisher Houghton Mifflin).

In fact, despite the well-documented revenue struggles of streaming services like Pandora and Spotify, Bronfman Jr. — who left Warner in 2012 after selling the unit to billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries — told CNBC earlier this year that he thinks “music is probably as compelling a content story as there is right now.”

Said Bronfman Jr., “I think ultimately, music is better off under a streaming or subscription model than it was, even in the ‘80s and ‘90s when it was selling albums” because “more people will be buying music” even if it’s “less people than the fanatics who were buying albums.”  At the end of the day, he’d added, “it broadens [music’s] distribution base.”

More here.

Beam Dental, a five-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based dental benefits company for small and medium-size businesses, has raised $5.5 million in Series B funding led by Lewis & Clark Ventures, with participation from earlier investor Drive Capital.More here.

Common, a two-year-old, New York-based co-living company that currently manages 482 million rooms across a variety of cities, has raised $15 million in funding from Harriman Capital, a new real estate private equity firm. The capital will be used expressly to develop four new co-living properties in New York and L.A. Common had previously raised roughly $23 million over two rounds of funding. Real Estate Weekly has more here.

EdGE Networks, a four-year-old, Bengaluru, India-based AI-driven HR software company, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital andVentureast. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Farmobile, a four-year-old, Overland Park, Ks.-based farm data company, has raised $18.1 million in Series B funding from Anterra Capital and AmTrust Agricultural Insurance Services, along with earlier investors. More here.

New Tranx., a three-year-old, Beijing, China-based AI-powered translation startup, has raised $7.5 million in “pre-A” funding from Kaitai Capital and Bojiang Capital Management Group. China Money Network has more here.

TELA Bio, a five-year-old, Malvern, Pa.-based company that develops surgical scaffolds for abdominal surgeries, has raised $25 million in funding from publicly traded Pacira Pharmaceuticals, as well as from earlier backers OrbiMed, Quaker Partners and Signet Healthcare Partners. More here.

Wonder Workshop, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company whose robots aim to teach kids of all ages creative problem solving, coding, and robotics, has raised $41 million in Series C funding from a long list of investors. Among them areTencent Holdings, TAL Education Group, MindWorks Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Softbank Korea, and VTRON Group, as well as earlier backersTCL Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Bright Success, WI Harper, and CRV.

Creative Labs, a Vancouver media and entertainment venture studio, has started operations in partnership with Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency, says Variety. The incubator is backed by funding of about $12.5 million. More here.

Angel Capital Expo is bringing together investors and entrepreneurs looking for funding. Hosted by Keiretsu Forum, the largest angel investing network in the world, the Expo will showcase 16 presenting early stage companies. The Keiretsu Forum angel investors have screened and hand-picked the presenting companies. If you want to connect with like-minded investors or find high-quality investment opportunities join us on November 16. Register today before prices increase. Apply promo code: StrictlyVC for 15% off.

Bandwidth, an 18-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based API software company that provides text and voice functionality to enterprises, revealed in an updated SEC filing that it plans to raise $84 million via an offering of 4 million shares priced between $20 to $22 a piece. The company’s biggest outside investors includeCarmichael Investment. More here.

Cardlytics, a nine-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based marketing analytics company, has filed confidentially for an IPO, says TechCrunch, which adds that it filed last year and has been trying to improve its bottom line in the meantime. According to Crunchbase, Cardlytics has raised $202 million in funding to date, including fromPolaris Partners, Canaan Partners, Discovery Capital, TTV Capital, ITC Holdings, Total Technology Ventures and Kinetic Ventures. More here.

Sogou, a Beijing, China-based search engine, said it plans to raise $540 million in an offering of 45 million shares between $11 to $13 a piece. Sohu and Tencentown most of the company, with respective stakes of  37.8 percent and 43.7 percent. Bloomberg has more here.

Teforia, essentially the Juicero of tea, has shut down. At least it didn’t raise as much as the pricey juice maker, collecting $17 million from investors, versus Juicero, which had raised roughly $118 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Vikram Bajaj, the former co-founder of Google life sciences startup Verily and chief scientific officer of cancer biotech company Grail, has joined the health care-focused investment firm Foresite Capital as a managing director. Axios has more here.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is again the world’s richest person — for now.

The engineer who let his daughter show off an iPhone X on YouTube has been firedby Apple.

There are reportedly now more than 120 cryptocurrency hedge funds(!).

The iPhone 8 launch has fueled growth for Apple in China after 18 months of declining sales. More here.

Square is expanding its hardware lineup with a new, $999 point-of-sale device called the Square Register.

Jean-Georges, inside the Trump International Hotel, just lost a Michelin star.

The Haunted Apartment.

Samuel Adams is trying to kill us all.