Hi, happy Friday, everyone. No column today. (Psst, web visitors, you can find an easier-to-read version of this morning’s email here.)
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Top News in the A.M.
Wikileaks published a searchable database of 30,000 leaked Sony documents yesterday. More here.
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New Fundings
Assured Labor, a seven-year-old, New York-based company that helps low- and middle-income workers across Latin America find jobs through their mobile phones, has raised $6.8 million in Series B funding led by earlier backer Capital Indigo, a Mexico-based venture firm. The round also included new investors Mexico Ventures, Promotora Social Mexicoand San Francisco-based firm Thayer Ventures. The company had previously raised $5.5 million in Series A funding, including from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Kima Ventures, Enzyme Venture Capital, and entrepreneur-investor Fabrice Grinda.
Attivo Networks, a four-year-old, Fremont, Calif.-based company that’s been developing cyberthreat detection technology, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures.
COBI, a year-old, Frankfurt, Germany-based company whose hardware and “intelligent” software offerings create more than 100 ways to upgrade a traditional bike, has raised more than $4 million in funding from Capnamic Ventures, Iris Capital and Creathor Venture. More here.
EyeEm, a four-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based online marketplace where photographers can showcase and sell their photos, has raised $18 million in new funding led by Valar Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Earlybird Ventures, Passion Capital, Wellington Partners, Atlantic Labs, and Open Ocean Capital. Fortune has more here.
Flatiron School, a three-year-old, New York-based computer science educational platform for kids and young adults, has raised $9 million in Series B funding led by Thrive Capital, with participation from earlier backers CRV and Matrix Partners. Last year, the company raised $5.5 million in Series A funding.
Hydra Biosciences, a 14-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that develops drugs to treat pain, inflammation, cardiovascular and other diseases, has raised $11 million in Series E funding from Abingworth, Advanced Technology Ventures, BioVentures Investors, and Lilly Ventures. According to Crunchbase, the company raised its last financing, a $22 million Series D round, in 2009.
Ihiji, a five-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based remote monitoring tool developer, has raised $1.8 million in Series A funding from Jopeko, the Capital Factory, Silverton Partners, and Floodgate. Austin Business Journal has more here.
MeQuilibrium, a five-year-old, Boston-based online platform for managing stress, has raised $9 million in Series B funding led by Safeguard Scientifics, with participation from earlier backer Chrysalis Ventures and others. According to Crunchbase, the company has now raised $14.3 million altogether.
MoneyStream, a 2.5-year-old, Los Gatos, Ca.-based personal money management service, has raised $3.2 million in Series A funding led by H&R Block, with participation from angel investors, including entrepreneur and tech executive Kim Polese.
Omeicos Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based company developing small-molecule therapeutics to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases, including atrial fibrillation, has raised 6.2 million euros ($6.7 million) in Series A financing led by Vesalius Biocapital Partners, with participation from High-Tech Gruenderfonds, KfW Group and VC Fonds Technologie Berlin.
Peloton Cycle, a three-year-old, New York-based stationary bike startup with a built-in tablet for live streaming cycling classes, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global Management and True Ventures. The company has now raised $44 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Phantom Cyber, a year-old, Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that automates enterprise security operations, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding from Foundation Capital and Rein Capital, along with a long list of angel investors, including former Symantec CEO John Thompson and former Sourcefire CEO John Becker.
Pledgeling, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based online platform that aims to make it easier to follow charitable influencers, create a philanthropic profile, and centralize one’s giving, has raised $4.1 million in seed funding from Double M Partners and a roster of angel investors, including “Wheel of Fortune” co-host Vanna White.
Purch, a 12-year-old, Ogden, Ut.-based network of sites about technology, is raising between $50 million and $60 million at a valuation of between $175 million and $250 million, according to Fortune. The company has previously raised at least $40.5 million from Village Ventures, ABS Capital Partners, and Highway 12 Ventures, shows Crunchbase. More here.
Recorded Future, a six-year-old, Somerville, Ma.-based analytics company that crawls more than 650,000 publicly available Web sources to identify possible cyber threats for its customers, has raised $12 million in Series D funding led by Reed Elsevier Ventures, with participation from MassMutual Ventures and previous backers Google Ventures, In-Q-Tel,Atlas Venture, IA Ventures, and Balderton Capital. BostInno has much more here.
Relationship Science, a five-year-old, New York-based professional-networking startup that aims to connect top deal makers and power brokers on Wall Street and beyond, has raised $31 million in new funding from new and earlier backers, including hedge-fund manager William Ackman. The round brings the company’s total funding to date to $119 million, reports the WSJ. The company has also hired a new CEO: Jon Robson, a veteran of NYSE Euronext and Thomson Reuters. StrictlyVC talked with Relationship Science last year about its hopes to bring more VCs into its platform.
Rethink Robotics, a seven-year-old, Boston-based maker of a robots for production and research settings, has increased the size of its Series D financing by $13.4 million, bringing the total round to $40 million. Goldman Sachs had led the earlier round; Wellington Management led the newest installment. Altogether, Rethink Robotics has raised $113.5 million. BostInno has more here.
Robosoft, a 19-year-old, New Udupi, India-based mobile app and game developer, has raised $12 million in Series B funding from Ascent Capital and existing investor Kalaari Capital. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised at least $15.7 million in recent years (since retooling itself in 2008 from a desktop game developer). DealCurry has more here.
Spring, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based shopping application for iOS devices, has raised $25 million in funding from BoxGroup, Yuri Milner, Google Ventures, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Groupe Arnault, the investment firm controlled by LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. Fortune has more here.
Vessel, the two-year-old, San Francisco-based online video platform cofounded by former Hulu head Jason Kilar, has raised $57.7 million in fresh funding led by Institutional Venture Partners, with participation from previous investors Greylock Partners, Benchmark and Bezos Expeditions. The company has now raised $132.5 million to date. The Guardian has the story here.
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New Funds
.406 Ventures, the 10-year-old, Boston-based early-stage, tech focused venture firm, is raising up to $200 million for its third fund, according to an SEC filing. The company closed its most recent fund with $175 million in 2012. Boston Business Journal has more here.
Atlas Venture, the 35-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based venture firm, has raised $280 million for its first biotechnology-only fund — its tenth fund altogether. The firm’s last fund, a $265 million pool closed in 2013, was used to fund both tech and biotech deals, but last fall (as some of you know) the tech and biotech teams went their own ways. Forbes has much more here.
Helion Venture Partners, a nine-year-old, Mauritius-based venture firm focused on India-based startups, has closed its fourth fund with $300 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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IPOs
Here are the biggest winners in the blockbuster IPO of Etsy, whose shares closed their opening day yesterday 86 percent higher than where they’d started.
Shares of Virtu, the high-speed, computerized trading company, also debuted yesterday, ending the day 17 percent above their offering price of $19. More here.
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Exits
Two of Washington D.C.’s tech networking and venture capital hubs are combining, with incubator and seed fund 1776 acquiring Crystal City’s Disruption Corp, launched more than a year ago by venture capitalist Paul Singh, reports the Washington Post. Singh had previously been a partner at 500 Startups. He left the outfit in 2013, enticing 500 Startups venture partner George Kellerman to join him last year. More here.
India’s Snapdeal, e-commerce rival of Flipkart, has acquired Bangalore-based FreeCharge, a service that providers users with coupons for charging their mobile plans. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though media outlets report the price at between $400 million and $450 million. If accurate, the deal would be the biggest M&A tie-up yet in India’s e-commerce sector — even beating out Flipkart’s $330 million acquisition of Myntra last year, notes India West.
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People
Andrew Beebe has joined Obvious Ventures, the San Francisco-based seed-stage firm of Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, as a managing director. Beebe was previously a VP at NextEra Energy Resources and chief commercial officer at Suntech Power Holdings. He’s now focusing on renewables and clean tech opportunities for the outfit.
Apple CEO Tim Cook apparently has the best pay-for-performance rating of any chief executive officer on the Bloomberg Pay Index, the first daily ranking of the highest-paid U.S. executives. More here.
Steve Dowling has officially replaced Katie Cotton as Apple‘s head of public relations. Cotton stepped down from the role last year after an 18-year run. Dowling, a 12-year veteran of the company, was named interim head of PR about six months ago. Dowling is known to be more open and friendly with the press than was Cotton, possibly because of his background. Before joining the company, he was a producer and the Silicon Valley bureau chief for CNBC.
Scott Forstall stands to make a windfall as an advisor to Snapchat, suggests a leaked email from that Sony Pictures hack that shows Snapchat set aside .11 percent of its stock for the former Apple head of iOS. Indeed, if Forstall completes his two-year vesting schedule (it kicked off in February 2014), his stake could be worth at least $16.5 million, given the $15 billion valuation that Snapchat is believed to currently wield. TechCrunch has the story here.
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Essential Reads
Microsoft just took Android’s future out of Google’s hands.
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Detours
Why CEO pay reform failed.
Last month was the hottest March worldwide since record keeping began in 1880.
Let your mind wander. It’s good for you.
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Retail Therapy
“Game of Thrones” Horn Mug. (Pretty good, no?)