Hi, happy Monday, everyone.

Early send today. We’re in Washington, D.C., for a memorial service to celebrate one of StrictlyVC’s very first readers, and one of its most beloved. We hope she knew how much we idolized her, and how much she will be missed.

Softbank’s Uber deal took a major step forward this weekend.

Bitcoin buyers are returning to the market this morning following a 29 percent plunge from the cryptocurrency’s record high. Speculators had seemingly freaked out over a tech upgrade getting cancelled.

The only way to change the world is to face ideas that make us uncomfortable. The collision of technology, business, politics, and culture has contributed to the most divisive time in U.S. history. Rational discourse is in short supply. It’s time to come together, bringing into one room the cross-disciplinary and cross-the-aisle POVs required to drive change. Shift Forum is that room – don’t miss your opportunity to be there. StrictlyVC readers use CODE: STRVC for a 20 percent discount.

Ecological Service Partners, a 1.5-year-old. Dallas- and Washington, D.C.-based company that’s engaging in the large-scale restoration of wetlands by purchasing land or interests that can generate significant restoration yields, has raised $250 million in equity funding from undisclosed investors. More here.

Enveil, a 1.5-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based data security company, has raised $4 million from Thomson Reuters, the insurance firm USAA, and Bloomberg Beta. The Washington Post has more here.

Graphcore, a 1.5-year-old, U.K.-based chipmaker, has raised $50 million fromSequoia Capital as it angles to become Britain’s biggest maker of artificial intelligence hardware. Sequoia has made only made a handful of investments in Europe but sees Graphcore competing with industry giants Nvidia and Intel, reports the Financial Times. More here.

Loft Orbital, a months-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to lease space on satellites for any organization wanting to collect information about the Earth, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding. Uncork Capital led the round; other participants include MDI Ventures, V1 VC, Mercuria Investment Japan and The Remote Sending Tech Center of Japan. More here.

Malong Technologies, a three-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based artificial intelligence company that focuses on product recognition, has raised $33 million in Series B funding led by SoftBank China Capital. China Daily has more here.

Pretty Green, an eight-year-old, U.K-based menswear brand originally conceived by former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, has raised £10 million ($13 million) in funding from the private equity firm Rockpool Investments. More here.

TrackStreet, a six-year-old, Santa Barbara, Ca.-based automated brand protection platform, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Okapi Capital. More here.

Trouva, a two-year-old, London-based curated online marketplace for boutique homeware and lifestyle items, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by BGF Ventures, with participation from Index Ventures and Octopus Investments. VentureBeat has more here.

Entera Bio, a seven-year-old, Jerusalem-based clinical-stage biomedical company developing drugs for osteoporosis, bone disorders, and the orphan disease hypoparathyroidis, has filed for a $50 million IPO. The company, whose shares will trade on Nasdaq, had tried going public in 2015 but decided to pull back after biotech deals ground to a halt in the fall of that year. More here.

Boku, a carrier billing mobile payments company that partners with Facebook, Sony, Spotify, and Apple, among others, expects to raise £45 million ($60 million) on a post-money valuation of £125 million ($164 million) when it goes public on November 20. That might sound like a modest amount, but it’s intentional, explains TechCrunch. More here.

Razer, the gaming hardware maker backed by Intel and Hong Kong’s wealthiest man Li Ka-shing, rose as much as 41 per cent in debut trading in Hong Kong on Monday, after receiving an oversubscription of 290 times for its public offering. South China Morning Post has more here.

Hasbro has made a takeover offer for rival Mattel, according to the WSJ. The combination would unite the two biggest U.S. toy makers, valued at $11 billion and $5 billion, respectively.

Nathan Benaich has joined Point Nine Capital, the Berlin-based early-stage venture capital firm, as a venture partner. He comes from Playfair Capital, where he led investments in numerous deals that leverage data and intelligent systems.

Bill Gates is adding Alzheimer’s to the roster of causes he has put his money behind. The billionaire is investing $50 million of his personal money in the London-based Dementia Discovery Fund, a private-public collaboration that invests in innovative dementia research. He plans to invest at least another $50 million into other startups that are working on “less mainstream” approaches, but these have not yet been identified. Fortune has more here.

Stan Laurent, who spent 10 years in charge of the photo-printing consumer company PhotoBox, has joined Highland Europe as a partner. Laurent had spent the previous year as a entrepreneur-in-residence with the firm. TechCrunch has more here.

Tim Berners-Lee confronts his creation in the era of fake news.

Alibaba’s billionaire founder Jack Ma shows off his martial arts skills in a new Jet Li movie. You can catch the trailer here.

MakeSpace, a four-year-old service that picks up, stores, and delivers items to storage units for its customers for a monthly fee, has replaced its CEO with its COO, reports Wired. More here.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees two reasons for deep political division: opioids and technology. The Financial Times has more here (sub required).

Flex (formerly Flextronics) is looking to hire a corporate strategy director.

A flood of Chinese companies is driving the biggest world-wide surge of initial public offerings in a decade. More than 1,450 companies globally have gone public so far in 2017, putting this year on track to become the busiest for new listings since 2007, according to Dealogic data, and roughly two-thirds of them were in the Asia-Pacific region. The WSJ has more here.

Buoyed by China’s plans to build a ubiquitous CCTV surveillance network, Chinese and some foreign investors are pouring money into start-up technology firms that specialize in facial recognition software. Reuters has more here.

Fashion’s interest in alternative fabrics keeps growing, reports the New York Times.

Why Wish, the shopping app taking over the world, spent more than $30 million to sponsor the L.A. Lakers jersey.

How to host a dinner party.

Academic job market or terminal illness?

Red Hot Chili Peppers, played with red hot chili peppers.

What is the only Da Vinci painting on the open market worth? We’ll find out Wednesday, when it goes under the hammer at Christie’s.

Hi, happy Friday, everyone! [Tap dancing.]

We’re working on something that’s not quite finished and it’s getting late, so no column but we’ll have more for you Monday. Hope you have a terrific weekend.:)

Investors Goldman Sachs and Alphabet are suing Chicago-based Outcome Health and its founders, claiming fraud and breach of contract some eight months after investing nearly $500 million in the company.  The WSJ has the story here.

Musical.ly, the three-year-old maker of a social-media app popular among tweens, has agreed to be acquired by Chinese news and information site Beijing Bytedance Technology Co. for as much as $1 billion, says the WSJ. Musical.ly had raised roughly $150 million from a long list of investors, including Greylock Partners,DCM Ventures, Aiming Venture Partners, Legend Capital and Goodwater Capital.

Another Craigslist killer manages not to kill Craigslist. VarageScale, a Canada-based buy-and-sell website and mobile app that raised $60 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and iNovia Capital, has been acquired by VerticalScope, an 18-year-old, Toronto-based Internet media company. Terms were not disclosed. TechVibes has more here.

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Bolt Threads, an eight-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based materials company that’s spinning microbes into spider silk, is in the process of raising a $106 million round, shows an SEC filing flagged by TechCrunch. Bolt’s earlier backers include Founders Fund and Formation 8.  More here.

Broker Genius, a four-year-old, New York-based dynamic pricing technology for the secondary ticket market, has raised $15 million in Series A funding fromVolition Capital. More here.

Embodied Intelligence, a nearly two-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based company that wants to teach robots via virtual reality, has raised $7 million in seed funding.Amplify Partners led the round with participation from Lux Capital, SV Angel,FreeS, 11.2 Capital and A.Capital. Wired profiled the company a few days ago.

Flightdocs, a 13-year-old, Bonita Springs, Fla.-based company that sells maintenance tracking software and services to the aviation industry, has raised $10 million in funding led by Argentum. More here.

Fortuna Fix, a two-year-old, London-based regenerative medicine startup focused on Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injuries, has raised $25 million in Series B funding, including from Amgen Ventures, Salamander Invest and Rajah Blue Holdings. FierceBiotech has more here.

Milk Bar, a New York-based bakery with 10 locations in the city (as well as in Washington and in Toronto), has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from RSE Ventures. More here.

Nio, a three-year-old, Shanghai, China-based electric vehicle maker whose U.S. division is led by CEO Padmasree Warrior, has raised more than $1 billion in new funding at a roughly $5 billion valuation led by earlier backer Tencent Holdings. Reuters has the story here.

Oyster Point Pharmaceuticals, a San Francisco-based clinical-stage company developing treatments for dry eye and ocular surface disease, has raised $22 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Versant Ventures.More here.

Peloton Innovations, a three-year-old, Toronto, Canada-based security startup studio, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from Globalive Capital and individual investors. More here.

ScaleFactor, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based business finance and accounting platform, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Next Coast Ventures,Techstars Ventures, Firebrand Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Edison Factory and Flyover Capital. More here.

Scoop Technologies, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose app matches users with neighbors and workers for carpooling purposes, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by G2VP. The company has raised $36 million altogether, including from Index Ventures. Forbes has more here.

ScoreStream, a five-year-old, Del Mar, Ca.-based crowdsourcing platform for capturing and syndicating local sports content, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Intel Capital, Avalon Ventures, Sinclair Broadcasting, R/GA andVerizon Ventures. More here.

Silk Technologies, a four-year-old, Plymouth, Mn.-based biotech company that uses silk protein to develop drugs that treat eye disease, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Skyview Ventures. More here.

Welkin Health, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based digital patient relationship platform, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Thrive Capital. The company has now raised $12 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

1984 Ventures, a new San Francisco-based venture outfit, is aiming to raise $75 million for its debut fund, shows an SEC filing. Founder Ramy Adeeb previously sold his company Snip.it for $10 million to Yahoo, where he stayed on for a couple of years as a senior director

Partners HealthCare System has raised has raised $171 million for a second fund targeting seed stage investments in life science startups, according to a news release.  The Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital each committed $50 million for the fund. MedCity News has more on the nine-year-old outfit here.

Streamlined Ventures, a nearly five-year-old, seed-stage investment firm that focuses on business applications, is looking to raise a $30 million opportunity fund, shows an SEC filing. Founder Ullas Naik had previously cofounded Cota Capital.More here.

PC gaming company Razer is set to raise upwards of $500 million when it lists on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday. TechCrunch has more here.

Accruent, a 22-year-old, Austin, Tex..-based maker of facilities management software, has acquired BlueCielo, a 34-year-old, Amsterdam-based global advanced asset lifecycle information management provider. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Austin Business Journal has more here (sub required).

Apple has acquired InVisage Technologies, a startup whose software improves imaging capabilities on space-constrained devices like smartphones. Apple isn’t disclosing terms of the deal, but InVisage had raised at least $98 million from investors, shows Crunchbase, including Intel Capital, Interwest Partners, GGV Capital, and Nokia Growth Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Electronic Arts is acquiring seven-year-old Respawn Entertainment for $315 million in cash and stock, plus a possible bonus of $140 million. Respawn publishes a popular franchise called  “Titanfall” and was founded by Vince Zampella andJason West, two of the creators of the “Call of Duty” franchise. VentureBeat hasmore here.

Green House Data, a 10-year-old, Cheyenne, Wy.-based cloud hosting and colocation services company, has acquired Ajubeo, a six-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based provider of infrastructure as a service. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. DataCenter Knowledge has more here.

Panera Bread will buy Au Bon Pain for an undisclosed amount. Dealbook hasmore here.

Pronoun, a New York-based self-publishing service for authors, is shutting down after raising $3.5 million in venture funding from Avalon Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Skyscanner, the Scotland-based travel comparison company that was acquired for £1.4 billion last November by Chinese company Ctrip.com, is acquiring Twizoo, a London-based developer of a restaurant recommendation app. Financial terms aren’t being disclosed. Twizoo had raised around $2 million in funding, including from EC1 Capital, Downing Ventures and Jensons EIS Fund. More here.

Jeremy Conrad, co-founder of hardware-focused venture Lemnos, is stepping down as general partner to launch a robotics company with a former Apple iPad engineer. He will remain a venture partner with the San Francisco-based firm, which also plans to invest in Conrad’s startup. Axios has more here.

Despite the fact that he oversaw the period when Mt. Gox went from the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange to a bankrupt and damaged company, CEO Mark Karpelèscould stand to profit hundreds of millions of dollars. Ars Technica has more here.

Dara Khosrowshahi yesterday gave his first public interview since being named CEO of Uber, saying of the pending investment from SoftBank that it “hasn’t happened yet but it will.” Axios has more here.

Jonathan Larkin, the chief investment officer of crowd-sourced quantitative investment algorithm platform Quantopian, has reportedly left the firm following disappointing returns in its inaugural hedge fund.The company’s “1337” vehicle was launched last summer with approximately $50 million devoted to the best quantitative ideas of its members. Quantopian is backed by hedge fund billionaireSteven Cohen and Andreessen Horowitz, among others. More here.

Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook, said at a Dealbook conference New York yesterday that he has become a “conscientious objector” when it comes to social media. He says he didn’t appreciate the “unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people and … it literally changes your relationship with society, with each other … It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.”More here.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel lost half a billion dollars this week.

IAC Applications, a division of IAC, is looking for a senior corporate development manager. The role is in New York.

Another blow for Uber’s UK business: The company has lost its appeal against an employment tribunal ruling that last year determined the Uber drivers who brought the case should be classified as employees, not contractors. TechCrunch has more here.

Louis CK’s career is toast. (For starters, Netflix just cut ties with him.)

A super-long, nerdy NBA podcast that’s making money.

How tennis balls are made.

The “Home Alone Two” package, available at The Plaza hotel starting next Friday.

Hey, everyone, happy Thursday morning! It’s planes, trains, and automobiles for us today after a very fun, if short, week in Lisbon. Please forgive any and all typos. We’re zonked and in between flights.:) More tomorrow.

Saudi billionaires and millionaires are seeking to move assets from the kingdom and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council region as a crackdown on alleged corruption intensifies, according to Bloomberg; it says that in addition to arresting princes and ministers, lenders are being asked to freeze the accounts of dozens of other individuals.

Some senators are pushing to ditch Social Security numbers in light of the Equifax hack.

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Yesterday, at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Brad Parscale, the digital director of Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign, revealed much more about Trump’s election campaign and the role that Facebook played in it.

In conversation with renowned investigative journalist Michael Isikoff, Parscale also suggested that if anyone was seeking support from the Russian government during the campaign — or ignoring nefarious signs about Russian actors — it was the social media platforms, all of which were chasing the money.

Isikoff started the interview by remarking on the Democratic wins in Virginia on Tuesday, but he quickly pivoted, asking Parscale what he understood about social media during the campaign season that the “Clinton campaign did not.”

Parscale said that two things worked to his benefit: the recognition that “eyeballs were moving to social media and mobile phones and devices in huge numbers” and that he “had a great piece of product that would resonate with Americans.” Trump, in other words.

“It was the right mix,” Parscale added. “Whenever anybody is in marketing or advertising, it’s a lot easier to sell an iPod than [its short-lived competitor] Zune.

Parscale also shared more detail about the campaign’s need to raise money, saying that when “Donald Trump became the candidate, we didn’t have any money other than Mr. Trump’s money and I don’t think he wanted to write all that check himself.” Parscale said he subsequently saw the need to “create a grass-roots campaign and find millions of people to be our grassroots supporters.” He said that Facebook “allowed us to do that in alarming numbers, very fast.” In fact, he credited the Trump  campaign’s Facebook initiative with producing $280 million dollars, $100 million of which was then poured into targeted ads, on Facebook, with the help of Facebook employees.

The employees “weren’t crafting ads,” insisted Parscale. “They were there to help us support their platform.

“Look,” he said. “You go spend $300 million [on advertising], [and] $100 million dollars on social media, [and] a lot of people show up at your office, wanting to help you spend that money on their platforms. Facebook would rather have me spend that $100 million on their platform. Twitter would rather me spend it there. Snapchat. Google They were all wanting to have that money.”

More here.

Crux Informatics, a months-old, New York-based startup that says it wants to help Wall Street clean its data, has raised $10 million in funding led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from undisclosed other institutional investors. TechCrunch hasmore here.

EclecticIQ, a three-year-old, Amsterdam-based cybersecurity firm, has raised €14 million ($16.2 million) in Series B funding from Keen Ventures Partners and earlier backers. It has now raised more than €20 million ($23 million) altogether. Tech.eu has more here.

Enview, a three-year-old, Bay Area-based company that’s mapping the world in 3D with geospatial big data analytics, has raised $6 million from investors led byCrosslink Capital, with additional participation from Lemnos, Promus Venturesand Skype co-founder Toivo Annus. TechCrunch has more here.

EOC Pharma Group, a nearly two-year-old, Shanghai City, China-based oncology-focused development and commercialization company, has raised $32 million in Series B funding led by Taikang Investment, with participation from Sequoia China and H&Q Asia Pacific. More here.

Modern Adventure, a months-old, Portland, Ore.-based experiential travel company, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by Seal Rock Partners, with participation from unnamed angel investors. More here.

Natural Cycles, a four-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based startup pushing to establish what it bills as a “digital contraceptive,” has closed on $30 million in Series B funding led by EQT Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Sunstone,E-ventures and Bonnier. TechCrunch has more here.

Qubole, a six-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based big data-as-a-service company, has raised $25 million in funding co-led by Singtel Innov8 and Harmony Partners, with participation from earlier backers CRV, Lightspeed Venture Partners,Norwest Venture Partners and Institutional Venture Partners. More here.

Rollick Outdoor, a months-old, Austin, Tex.-based marketing platform for retailers and manufacturers that helps them tailor individualized online and in-store experiences, has raised $5.6 million in seed funding. The round was led bySilverton Partners, with participation from Autotech Ventures, Troy Capital Partners, Capital Factory and Bazaarevoice cofounder Brett Hurt. More here.

Treasury Intelligence Solutions, a seven-year-old, Walldorf, Germany-based company behind a SaaS-based cloud platform for managing and analyzing corporate payments, has raised $12 million in funding from 83North, with participation fromTarget Partners and Zobito. Tech.eu has more here.

Tricida, a four-year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based Phase 3 stage biopharmaceutical company that’s developing non-absorbed oral drug therapies, has raised $57.5 million in Series D funding. Investors include Wellington Management Company, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners and Cormorant Asset Management, along with earlier backers OrbiMed, Longitude Capital,Sibling Capital Ventures, Limulus Venture Partners and Vivo Capital. The company has now raised $153.3 million altogether. More here.

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Roku, the digital streaming business, issued its first earnings report as a public company, and it greatly surpassed analyst expectations, sending the company’s shares up 26 percent in initial after-hours trading. TechCrunch has more here.

The Chinese search engine company Sogou has priced its American depository shares at $13, coming in at the top of the expected range and putting the size of its IPO today at $585 million. The Financial Times has more here.

What all these hot IPOs say about Hong Kongs’s next crash.

Continental, a Hanover, Germany-based company that develops tech and services for sustainable and connected mobility, is acquiring Argus Cyber Security, a four-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company whose technology guards cars against hacking. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Argus had raised at least $25 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Vertex Ventures andMagna International. Reuters has more here.

Airnbnb cofounder Nathan Blecharczyk is predicting that China will be the company’s largest source of business by 2020.

Shernaz Daver, the chief marketing officer for Udacity, has stepped down. Daver is also an advisor to Google Ventures. No word yet on her next steps.

A letter from DST Global’s management team to its limited partners seems seems designed to assuage investors that DST will protect their identities despite coming under recent scrutiny itself.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer apologized yesterday for two massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents for at least one of them.

Silicon Valley VC Shervin Pishevar was arrested but never charged over an alleged rape in London. Forbes has the story here.

The U.S. Department of Justice is saying ‘not so fast’ to Time Warner’s sale toAT&T. A central component of the dispute is CNN — the network that Donald Trump has frequently attacked as a purveyor of “fake news.” More here.

According to the New York Times, China spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each quarter, spreading propaganda on Facebook.

Uber has asked its drivers if they want to provide other on-demand services.

In unrelated news (we think), Uber‘s  ‘flying cars’ could arrive in L.A. by 2020, reports The Verge.

Scientists saved a kid by growing a whole new skin for him(!).

How to get over the need to be liked by everyone you meet.

A Bloomberg reporter recounts dining with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, just days before his arrest last weekend.

Jon Hamm’s New York apartment, now available to rent for $15,000 a month.

Hi, and happy Wednesday, everyone. We’re on a plane tomorrow so SVC might be coming to you from the Newark airport again. (We’re praying for WiFi but not counting on it.)

We’ll have more for you from Web Summit in Lisbon in the meantime, including over at TechCrunch.:)

Twitter‘s character limit has now officially doubled for all of its Roman-alphabet users. (@realDonaldTrump does not appear to have gotten the memo yet, so zip it.)

An estimated $280 million worth of the cryptocurrency ethereum is currently locked up today thanks to one person’s mistake.

StrictlyVC is sponsored this week by AngelLoop. If tracking company performance has become a time-consuming chore that leaves you feeling out of the loop with your founders, chances are you’re using outdated tools. Leave spreadsheets behind and try our secure platform to centralize your portfolio and post-funding communications. It’s free for investors, and we’re offering StrictlyVC readers acomplimentary setup service. Complimentary setup is limited, so sign up today and get in the loop.

Yesterday, at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, we caught up with Jim Breyer, renowned in Silicon Valley thanks to a decades-long track record of smart bets, most notably in Facebook. Breyer was the managing partner at Accel Partners, which invested $12.7 million in Facebook in 2005 when the company was priced around $100 million; that bet proved to be among the most lucrative in the history of the venture business, returning many billions of dollars to Accel’s investors after the company went public in 2012.

In 2013, Breyer segued out of the firm, opening up his own family office, called Breyer Capital, where he has continued to make bold bets. Breyer has also partnered over the years with the Chinese firm IDG Capital Partners, which formerly collaborated with Accel Partners and where Breyer Capital has since become an anchor investor in a series of funds that now manage more than $4 billion.

Breyer will be taking the stage today in Portugal, but he also sat down with us behind the scenes yesterday to talk about Facebook, Softbank, and ICOs, among other factors playing an outsize role in the startup ecosystem. You can find much of that conversation below, edited for length.

You’ve just come to Lisbon from China. How much time do you spend there?

I’m there four times a year. I probably have 100 partners who are part of IDG China, where Breyer Capital is a sponsor and I’m a general partner on the investment committee and we cover 10 cities in China.

Meanwhile, you’re also overseeing Breyer Capital, your family office. How active is that, and is its focus exclusively on U.S. companies?

We make six to 10 new investments a year, investing in artificial intelligence and deep learning mostly, and how it applies to finance, healthcare, publishing, and other large verticals, and yes, [the investments are stateside].

Before sitting down today, I’d seen a recent CNBC interview you’d given, where you said you expect to see a number of big companies focused around artificial intelligence that are even bigger, much bigger, than Facebook and its ilk today. I think of Google and Facebook and Amazon and Apple as having an insurmountable lead, given the monopoly they have on these huge data sets. Why are you so sure that’s not the case?

Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, [Alibaba founder] Jack Ma, [Tencent founder] Pony Ma, [Baidu founder] Robin Li — these are phenomenal founder-driven companies and I expect the Apples, Facebooks, Amazons, Alphabets, and Baidus will only get stronger in many ways. But the [opportunity] to apply deep learning and true artificial intelligence to large verticals [is immense]. For example, doctor recommendations around cancer research — both in the U.S. and China, where we can pull together data from hospitals, analyze that data in ways that have never been possible before, and provide better potential advice to doctors and nurses — those are just great opportunities for startups.

I’m still confused as to how nascent AI teams get very far. It seems that most are either getting pulled into these bigger companies before their companies can really prove themselves, or else they’re having to focus on very small verticals — like assessing the health of cabbages — and building a data set around them. Can AI teams still build big defensible businesses?

I’m no longer on the board of Facebook, but I have these conversations with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg all the time, and it’s interesting. Facebook continues to grow dramatically but they’re also optimistic about startups and building new companies than ever before. Yes, there are strong founder-driven companies, but I don’t think it’s about fringe opportunities.

You think we’ll see giant AI companies. Do you think you’ve met the next Mark Zuckerberg yet?

I don’t think I’ll ever find a Mark Zuckerberg. And the combination of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, who I helped Mark hire in 2008 – I don’t think I’ll ever find a team like that again. Sheryl’s opportunities to make Mark better, Mark’s opportunities to make Sheryl better – that combination is the best single leadership combination in the world. In fact, they’re two of the key references on so many of the new deals that I do.

You’re getting their advice on potential investments?

Absolutely — and reference checks on people who might be from Google or Apple or Amazon. Not a day goes by when I’m not in contact with Facebook executives about a potential new deal or recruiting. They’ve been a wonderful source of both references on new deals in AI, specifically, or in talent management and referrals of executives who I meet who are potentially future founders or future executives of these AI companies.

More here.

Compass, a five-year-old, New York-based tech-enabled real estate company, has raised $100 million in fresh funding led by Fidelity Investments, with participation from earlier backers IVP and Wellington Management. TechCrunch has more here.

Fisdom, a two-year-old, Bangalore, India-based personal finance management startup, has raised $4 million in Series B funding led by Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, with participation from existing investor Saama Capital. More here.

Hostmaker, a three-year-old, London-based Airbnb management service, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Sansiri, one of Thailand’s largest premium real estate developers, and Gaw Capital, a Hong Kong-based global hospitality real estate investor. Earlier backers DN Capital, Ventech, and DSGCPalso joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Leanplum, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile market platform that tries to help brands improve engagement, has raised $47 million in Series D funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from earlier investors Canaan Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Shasta Ventures. More here.

MetricStream, an 18-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of governance, risk and compliance software, has raised $65 million in growth equity funding led byClearlake Capital Group, with participation from EDBI and return backersGoldman Sachs and Sageview Capital. More here.

Monzo, a two-year-old, London-based digital, mobile-only bank, has raised £71 million ($92.9 million) in fresh funding led by Goodwater Capital at a £280 million ($366 million) post-money valuation. Other new investors joining the round are payments company Stripe and Michael Moritz, who is investing personally through his charitable investment vehicles. Previous backers Passion Capital, Thrive Capital and Orange Digital Ventures also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

MyMusicTaste, a nearly four-year-old, Seoul-headquartered service that lets fans campaign to bring their favorite artists to their city, has raised $11 million in Series C. funding led by KTB Network, with participation from Stonebridge, Yellow Dog, and previous investors Softbank Ventures Korea, Samsung Ventures,Formation 8, Bokwang Investment and Golden Gate Ventures. The company has now raised $22.3 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Opendorse, a five-year-old, Lincoln, Neb.-based marketing platform that helps sports brands share their marketing content on social channels, has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding led by Serra Ventures, with participation from Flyover Capital and numerous pro athletes. The Lincoln Journal Star has more here.

Panorama Education, a five-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based edtech company that tries to help parents and educators understand the social-emotional needs of children, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Emerson Collective, with participation from Spark Capital, Owl Ventures, SoftTech VC, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. EdSurge has more here.

ShopBack, a three-year-old, Singapore-based cash-back-focused e-commerce startup, has raised $25 million in funding led by Credit Saison, with participation from Blue Sky, AppWorks, Intouch, Aetius Capital, 33 Capital and return backers SoftBank Ventures Korea, Singtel Innov8, Qualgro and East Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Smartkarma, a three-year-old, Singapore-based online marketplace for investment research on Asian companies, has raised $13.5 million in Series B funding led bySequoia India, with participation from earlier backers Wavemaker Partners,Jungle Ventures and Spring Seeds. Bloomberg has more here.

Sourceress, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based AI-driven HR recruiter, has raised $3.5 million in new funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, OpenAI researchers, Y Combinator, Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, as well as other individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Vidrovr, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based startup that develops multimodal computer vision and machine learning systems to index, tag, and understand video, has raised  $1.25 million in seed funding led by Samsung NEXT, with participation from Verizon Ventures, R/GA Ventures, Social Starts and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

WeLab, a four-year-old, Hong Kong-based mobile lending company, has raised $220 million in new Series B funding, including from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, International Finance Corp. and Credit Suisse. Bloomberg has more here.

Yotpo, a six-year-old, New York-based platform that lets companies gather content from their customers in the form of reviews, Q&As, photos and videos to use mostly in marketing, has raised $51 million in Series D funding. The round was led byAccess Industries, with participation from Vertex Ventures and earlier backersBessemer Venture Partners, Marker, Vintage Partners, Blumberg Capital,Rhodium, and 2B Angels. The company has now raised $101 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Blue Bear Ventures, a year-old outfit that expects to make early-stage investments in startups coming out of the University of California system, is looking to raise up to $20 million for its debut fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.

According to Axios’s Dan Primack, Sequoia Capital is raising up to $180 million for a new fund that will focus exclusively on seed-stage opportunities. Sequoia already manages a pair of “scout” funds, the report notes: the new vehicle will be viewed as the third in that series.

Tencent’s China Literature, an Amazon-like e-book business, has enjoyed an impressive debut as public company, with its share price doubling on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today. The listing follows Southeast Asia-based Sea (formerly Garena), also backed by Tencent, which raised $880 million in a NYSE IPO last month, and is just ahead of gaming firm Razer, which plans to raise $550 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this month. TechCrunch has the story here.

We missed this one, but Tesla said on Monday that it has acquired a Minnesota-based factory automation company called Perbix Machine Company for undisclosed terms. Business Insider has more on the company here.

Zynga, the publicly traded gaming company, is acquiring the mobile card game studio of six-year-old, Turkey-based Peak Games for $100 million in cash. Peak Games had raised $18 million shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Earlybird Venture Capital, Endeavor Global and Hummingbird Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Founder turned investor Hayley Barna is now a general partner with the early-stage venture firm First Round Capital. The appointment comes roughly one-and-a-half years after Barna — who cofounded the seven-year-old Birchbox, a start-up that mails monthly packages of beauty samples to subscribers —  joined First Round as a venture partner. TechCrunch has more here.

Two luxury-car-loving founders behind a crypto currency startup called Centra have left the company. (Very notably, two weeks ago, it raised $32 million through an ICO.) Business Insider has more here.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been subpoenaed to testify to the Senate Commerce Committee about the massive cyber hack that compromised 3 billion accounts. The U.S. has charged four alleged Russian spies with the breach; it’s now being investigated by the government for insight into Russia’s cyber espionage activities. Fortune has more here.

Snap’s vice president of engineering Tim Sehn is stepping down from the company four years after joining it to head up its engineering team. His departure is expected to be announced today when the company files details of its quarterly results with securities regulators, says The Information. More here.

SoftTech VC has rebranded as Uncork Capital. The team wants to help startups “uncork” their potential, says firm founder Jeff Clavier. More here.

Adoption of voice-powered smart speakers is taking off. According to a new report from Juniper Research out this morning, smart devices like the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Sonos One will be installed in 55 percent of U.S. households by the year 2022. TechCrunch has more here.

Uber hasn’t recovered its business in San Francisco and New York since #deleteUber, according to new report by credit card analytics company Second Measure.

Apple soft-launched direct, person-to-person payments in an iMessage yesterday with the Apple Pay Cash beta. The feature, announced earlier this year, allows users to send and receive cash inside the Messages app on iPhones.

Snap was destroyed by Wall Street yesterday, after announcing Q3 earnings well short of expectations. To get things going in the right direction, Snapchat is redesigning the app to be easier for older people to use, and it will begin sorting its Stories feed algorithmically, instead of running Stories in reverse-chronological order as now. More here.

China’s Tencent has meanwhile taken a 10 percent stake in Snap, it was revealed yesterday, a much-needed vote of confidence. (Tencent had also invested in the company before it went public.)

Wired takes a look inside one of venture capital’s messiest breakups, the implosion of Xfund.

Want to stay safe while traveling? Wear a Rolex (apparently).

Why canceling plans is so strangely satisfying.

How Facebook figures out everyone you’ve ever met.

Arcade coffee table. Our kids would not hate this.

Hola from Portugal! Busy day. We had an, erm, spirited on-stage discussion about ICOs at Web Summit with VCs Tim Draper, Rebecca Lynn, and Ethereum cofounder Joseph Lubin. You can check it out here if you like.

We also enjoyed a lengthy back-stage chat with famed VC and early Facebook investor Jim Breyer, who served on the company’s board until 2013. We’re running out the door but we’ll have more from that discussion for you soon, too.

Waymo’s fully self-driving vehicles are here and ready to take your kids to school, the company announced today at Web Summit.

StrictlyVC is sponsored this week by AngelLoop, a secure platform to centralize your portfolio and post-funding communications. Are you stuck managing your portfolio with clunky CRMs and spreadsheets? Leave outdated tools behind and try AngelLoop. It’s free for investors, and we’re offering StrictlyVC readers a complimentary setup service. It’s never been easier to see how streamlined tools can improve your founder relationships and your bottom line. Complimentary setup is limited, so sign up today and get in the loop.

AnchorDX, a two-year-old, Guangzhou city-headquartered precision medicine start-up, has raised $28 million in Series B funding led by the Chinese healthcare-focused investment firm 6 Dimensions Capital and Sijia Jianxin Fund. China Money Network has more here.

Bravely, a months-old, New York-based resource for confidential coaching for employees facing stress and issues at work, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding, including from Primary Venture Partners, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures,Correlation Ventures and Trail Mix Partners. New York Business Journal hasmore here (sub required).

CargoX, a two-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based company selling trucking services to corporations, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by earlier investorGoldman Sachs, which had also led its $10 million Series B round last year. Other investors in the round include George Soros, Qualcomm Ventures, Agility Logistics, Valor Capital Group and Oscar Salazar. More here.

Excelero, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel.-based software-defined block storage company, has raised $25 million in venture funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, the Australian venture capital fundSquare Peg Capital, and numerous individual investors. The company says it has now raised $30 million altogether. Globes has more here.

Heyday, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based outfit that’s opening up pop-in facial shops, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures. Fast Company has more here.

I.am+, a five-year-old, L.A.-based startup that competes in the corporate computing market with a voice assistant for customer service (and notably was founded by pop star and entrepreneur will.i.am), has raised $117 million in venture funding, reports Reuters. The company’s most recent, $89 million, round closed in March but hadn’t been previously reported. Salesforce Ventures is among its investors. More here.

Jitterbit, a 16-year-old, Alameda, Ca.-based API integration platform, has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by KKR. More here.

Mojiworks, a 1.5-year-old, U.K.-based games creator for chat and messaging platforms, has raised $2.8 million in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital, with participation from Lifeline Ventures and Sunstone Capital. TechCrunch hasmore here.

NousCom, a two-year-old, Basel, Switzerland-based oncology company, has raised $55 million in Series B funding led by Abingworth, with participation from 5AM Ventures, LSP and Versant Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.

NuID, a months-old, Seattle-based blockchain security and digital identity startup, has raised $1.64 million in seed funding, including from Jemison Investment Company and 8VC. FierceBiotech has more here.

Phoenix Travel Worldwide, a 20-year-old, Beijing, China-based travel agency that covers tourism destinations in more than 100 countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere, has raised roughly $105 million in Series C funding. The round was led by China’s CITIC Capital, Haier Capital, Lenovo Holdings andLegend Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Powerful, a four-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based food and beverage company that markets all-natural, high-protein products, has raised $4 million in Series B funding led by River Hollow Partners, a lower mid-market private equity firm focused on consumer and retail brands in the natural products space. More here.

ThirdChannel, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based retail intelligence platform, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Fung Capital. More here.

Goldman Sachs is teaming up with China Investment Corp and forming a fund of up to $5 billion to invest in U.S. manufacturers. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Proofpoint, the publicly traded enterprise security company, is acquiringCloudmark, a 16-year-old, San Francisco-based firm that provides security protection for messaging services for $110 million. Cloudmark had raised roughly $39 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.

Uber has some “new cultural norms,” its new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, announced to the world today.

Silicon Valley investor Shervin Pishevar has filed a defamation lawsuit against a Republican-driven political opposition firm, alleging that it conducted a smear campaign that tied him to the Russian government, as well as an incident with a prostitute in Europe. A partner at the firm calls the claims “delusional.” Recode hasmore here.

Rex Tibbens is stepping down as COO of Lyft by year-end, reports Axios. This one is interesting. Tibbens joined just a bit over two years ago after four years at Amazon and more than a decade at Dell. According to Axios, he hasn’t yet decided on his future plans. Longtime readers might remember that late last year, there wastalk about Tibbens being “looked at” by the Trump administration for the role of U.S. Transportation Secretary, talk that Tibbens quickly squelched.

S&P Global is looking for a corporate development manager. The job is in New York.

Perhaps you’ve noticed: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is challenging anunusually large number of H-1B applications.

The most riveting host in late night (and the most overlooked).

The Cary42 portable game console. (There were only 50 made and this story came out seven days ago, so if you want it, get going.)

Hi, happy Monday, all! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We’re just back at our hotel in Lisbon for a pit stop after a couple of on-stage interviews that we hope to write up for you shortly. More soon.:)

More on that potential biggest-takeover-ever-of-a-chipmaker ever: Broadcom has reportedly offered about $105 billion for Qualcomm. Bloomberg has more here.

Softbank is losing its patience with Uber, it signaled today on a quarterly earnings briefing today, when it floated the idea that it just might invest in Lyft after all.

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In a move sure to shock the business world, Saudi Arabia announced the arrest of at least eleven princes on Saturday night, including renowned billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, as part of a sweeping corruption investigation.

Prince Alwaleed controls the investment firm Kingdom Holding and is one of the world’s richest men, owning or having owned meaningful positions in satellite TV networks, as well as in News Corp. (a stake it has since mostly sold), Citigroup (shares of which it has owned since 1991), and a growing number of tech companies.

The prince and Kingdom Holding, of which he owns 95 percent, first invested $300 million in Twitter in 2011, two years before the company went public. In 2015, he invested another $50 million to increase his ownership in Twitter and, as of last year, remained one of the company’s largest shareholders.

In 2013, Kingdom also acquired 2.5 percent of China-based retailer JD.Com, which went public on the Nasdaq the following year and whose shares have roughly doubled since.

Prince Alwaleed and Kingdom further acquired a stake in the car-hailing company Lyft early last year, buying some of the shares of its earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund.

The prince and other members of his investment company announced in March 2015 that they’d sat down with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and the company’s chief strategy officer, Imran Khan, about a possible investment in Snap, though several months later, a source close to the prince said Kingdom had no plans to invest.

Price Alwaleed first began investing in tech in the late ’90s and has owned shares of both Apple and Ebay for more than 15 years.

According to the New York Times, the arrests appear to be a move to consolidate the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a son and the top adviser of King Salman, who had announced the creation of a new anti-corruption committee — headed by the crown prince —  just hours before the arrests were ordered.

According to the Times, the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh was subsequently evacuated, possibly to house the arrested royals, and the airport for private planes shuttered, presumably to stop anyone from fleeing the country.

More here.

Annoroad, a five-year-old, Beijing, China-based next-generation sequencing company, has raised $105 million in Series C funding led by Ping An Ventures and the Shenzhen GTJA Investment Group, with additional money coming fromSoftBank China Venture Capital. More here.

Aquam, a San Diego, Ca.-based company that helps water and energy companies better understand and assess their pipes and other assets, has raised $26 million in funding from NewWorld Capital Group, with participation from a Credit Suisse advised fund. More here.

Auto1 Group, a five-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based online used car marketplace that raised $404 million in debt and equity financing earlier this year, is reportedly in talks with Softbank‘s Vision Fund team about an investment. It would SoftBank’s first major deal in Germany, says DealStreetAsia. More here.

CloudSense, an eight-year-old, London-based startup that aims to bring together customers and companies on one commerce platform that’s built on Salesforce, has raised $77 million in growth funding from Vector Capital. More here.

Kaodim, a three-year-old, Malaysia-based service for booking a range of services that include cleaning, moving, gas delivery, appliance care, and even photography, has raised $7 million  led by Square Peg Capital, with participation from 500 Startups, Venturra Capital, East Ventures and KK Fund. The company has now raised $11.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

LogDNA, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-based log management system that aggregates application logs in a single platform, has raised $7 million in Series A financing led by earlier investor Initialized Capital, which partly provided the company with $1.3 million in seed funding last year. NewsCenter.io has more here.

MetricStream, an 19-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of governance, risk and compliance applications and software, has raised $65 million in funding led byClearlake Capital Group, with participation from EDBI and earlier backersGoldman Sachs, Sageview Capital, and others. More here.

Pienso, a 1.5-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y.-based startup aiming to democratize machine learning and make it accessible to people with no prior background in either advanced statistics or machine learning, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding.Eniac Ventures led the round, with participation from SoftTech VC, Indicator Ventures and E14 Fund. More here.

QLess, a 10-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based maker of mobile customer queue software that aims to do away with on-hold wait times, has raised $5.5 million in funding from Palisades Growth Capital and Act One Ventures, with participation from earlier investors. More here.

The 10-year-old,  European venture capital firm Sunstone Technology Ventures, has closed two new funds totalling €160 million ($185.3 million) in committed capital. More here.

Another U.K.-based car-buying startup looks to be shutting down. According to TechCrunch, London-based Hellocar is closing its doors, not so long after Rocket Internet pulled the plug on a competitor called Carspring. Hellocar, founded last year, looks to have raised just $1 million in seed funding. More here.

Eleven IPOs are scheduled to raise $2 billion in the coming week. Renaissance Capital has the rundown here.

William Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2009, will retire from his position in mid-2018, the bank announced today. Whoever fills the role is expected to be a “key bulwark against Wall Street misbehavior as the Trump administration moves to loosen regulatory oversight of banks,” notes the New York Times.

Yuri Milner, the Russian billionaire investor who is widely respected in Silicon Valley for his big, bold bets on Facebook, is now being connected with the Kremlin, which reportedly invested in the powerful social media platform  (and Twitter, too) through shell companies that funded Milner’s efforts. More here.

Unity Technologies, whose software reportedly powers half of all new mobile games, is looking to hire a corporate development analyst. The job is in San Francisco.

According to a new survey, roughly 60 percent of people who have Amazon Prime definitely would not buy Amazon Key, a new service with hardware that allows couriers into customers’ homes. Recode has more here.

Apple has revealed that “face with tears of joy” is the most popular emoji among English speakers in the United States, followed closely by a red heart, loudly crying face, heart eyes face, face throwing a kiss, face with rolling eyes, skull, smiling face with smiling eyes, weary face, and thinking face. (Hey, someone out there cares about these things.) More here.

Softbank’s Masayoshi Son just can’t quit Sprint. The WSJ has inside story of how theSprint and T-mobile deal collapsed, again.

Despite months of talk about combatting the fraud facing Facebook and other tech companies, their sites remain infected by obvious counterfeits. The New York Times has more here.

Startup workers are expected to get some tax relief on their paper wealth if a House Republican tax bill goes through as planned. Bloomberg has more here.

Oh. No. WeWork is launching a grade school for “conscious entrepreneurship.”

Kids, would you please start fighting?

Inside the RVs of Silicon Valley.

How renting parking spaces can make you rich.

Forty-one cocktails you’ll want this fall.

These vaunted pastries are also delicious.

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.