Ah, Wednesday, we meet at last.
No column today (we ran out of time) but more soon.
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Top News in the A.M.
Pfizer and Allergan just called off their merger. Dealbook has more here.
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New Fundings
Anchore, a three-month-old, Santa Barbara, Ca.-based company at work on a solution for inspecting, tracking and securing software containers, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Menlo Ventures and e-ventures. Fortune has more here.
Bright Health, a new, Minneapolis, Mn.-based tech-enabled consumer health insurance company founded by former UnitedHealth CEO Bob Sheehy, has raised $80 million in Series A funding co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates, with Flare Capital Partners participating among others. Fortune has more here.
CrossChx, a four-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based company whose primary product is a healthcare identity management system for patients, has raised $15 million in Series C funding from Khosla Ventures, Drive Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, NCT Ventures and Moonshots Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Dispatch, an 11-month-old, San Francisco-based company that makes autonomous vehicles for home-delivery purposes, has raised $2 million in seed financing led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Precursor Ventures and others. TechCrunch has more here.
Finanzcheck, a 3.5-year-old, Hamburg, Germany-based consumer loans marketplace, has raised €33 million ($37.6 million) in Series C funding led by HarbourVest, with participation by Acton Capital Partners and earlier backer Highland Europe. TechCrunch has much more here.
Haptik, a four-year-old, Mumbai, India and San Francisco-based personal assistant app that employs both people and artificial intellignece, has raised $11.2 million in Series B funding from the India-based media giant Times Internet. The company has now raised $35 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Joyowo.com, a Hangzhou, China-based online human resources startup, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital China, with participation from Tsing Ventures, Meridian Capital China and others. Techstory.in has more here.
Lola Travel, a 10-month-old, Boston-based travel app that matches customers with actual humans who dispense advice (it was co-founded by Paul English, who’d previously cofounded the travel-search company Kayak), has raised $19.7 million in Series A funding. Backers including Accel Partners and General Catalyst Partners. More here.
Meadow, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes specialized cannabis sales software, just closed on $2.1 million in seed funding from investors David Lee, Justin Kan, Steve Huffman, Hiten Shah, Slow Ventures, SOMA Capital, and Poseidon Asset Management. More here.
Projector, a year-old, San Francisco-based still-in-private beta adaptive messaging and push notifications startup, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Baseline Ventures. Other participants include Freestyle Capital, SV Angel, IDG Ventures, and True Ventures. Numerous angels also joined the round, including Owen Van Natta, Dick Costolo, and Damien Weiss. More here.
Vinomofo, a five-year-old, Australia-based site that sells wine, has raised AUD $25 million ($19 million) in funding from regional venture firm Blue Sky Capital. More here.
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New Funds
Private equity investor HarbourVest Partners has closed a new Canadian venture capital fund-of-funds with C$375 million ($285 million) in capital commitments. The money will be used to invest in venture funds that primarily back Canadian companies. Reuters has more here.
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People
Cargomatic, an L.A.-based based logistics startup that’s been described as the “Uber for truckers” and has raised more than $10 million in funding, has laid off half its workforce — around 60 employees — over the past couple of months, reports Business Insider.
Beyond the Rack, a seven-year-old, Montreal, Canada-based flash-sale fashion site, has filed for protection from creditors. The company had raised $90 million in venture capital and financing, including from Silicon Valley Bank, iNovia Capital, Panorama Capital and Highland Capital Partners. VentureWire hasmore here (subscription required).
“The advantage to being second-to-market is that you can look at the guy who was there before you and learn from their past mistakes,” Juno CEO Talmon Marco tells Vanity Fair in a new profile about Marco and budding ride-sharing business.
Nutanix CEO Dheeraj Pandey is sweetening the equity pot for employees as the company waits to go public. Though Pandey remains the company’s biggest individual shareholder, he voluntarily returned $17.5 million worth of restricted stock to the equity pool last month, as CNBC reports.
Executives at the online lender Prosper Marketplace sold shares last year after a hefty financing round, reports VentureWire, citing one source who says the amount taken off the table and the timing of the sale are unusual(subscription required).
Fenox Venture Capital is bringing on TiE Global Chairman and the founder of TiE Angels, Venktesh Shukla, as a general partner. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Peter Thiel’s Breakout Labs is looking for a communications guru to build out its overall voice and brand. The job is in San Francisco.
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Essential Reads
It’s not just celebrities; Facebook is paying media companies to make live video, too.
SurveyMonkey is suddenly getting into App Annie’s bidness.
Verizon and AwesomenessTV are forming a mobile video service.
Mystery solved? Fidelity‘s head of global capital equity markets tells The Information that Fidelity’s valuation calculations are heavily based on public stock comparisons.
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Detours
People dressed like their surroundings.
Classic poems modified for climate change.
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Retail Therapy
Bike speedometer.
Limited edition socks, coming soon to Neiman Marcus.