Happy Tuesday, all! We are publishing tomorrow, just fyi (though the newsletter is likely to be short and sweet). Safe travels if you’re already off to a vacation for the rest of the week.

Top News

Even before Donald Trump’s new Supreme Court nominee is announced, a fight over the choice is raging on social media.

Sponsored By . . .

Recently ranked as the #17 team in the Wall Street Journal, the Gullixson Team is proud to present another incredible listing. Today’s showcase property is an award winning French Normandy estate in the heart of Atherton, Ca.  Designed by renowned Bay Area architect Albert Farr and recently renovated and expanded under the artful eye of the current owners this extraordinary estate is a complex combination of history, 21st century innovation and the beauty and serenity of nature.

New Fundings

4Front Holdings, a seven-year-old, Phoenix, Az.- and Boston-based retail and brand development company centered around the medical cannabis industry, says has raised $13.4 million in Series D funding. The sources of that capital aren’t being disclosed. More here.  Airwallex, a 2.5-year-old, Hong Kong-based company that handles cross-border transactions for companies that do business in multiple countries using international currencies, has raised $80 million in Series B funding co-led by earlier backers Tencent and Sequoia Capital China. TechCrunch has more here.   Juul, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based nicotine vaporizer company, is reportedly raising $1 billion in a new round of funding that will value the company at roughly $16 billion. The Information first reported talks of a new round, which it says Tiger Global Management is leading with a $600 million check.  More here.  MeetFrank, an 11-month-old, Estonia-based startup whose recruitment app uses machine learning plus a chatbot wrapper, has raised $1.1 million in seed funding from Hummingbird VC, Karma VC, and Change Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  PlainID, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based authorization management platform that disrupts the way identities, human and non-human, access data assets on premises and in the cloud, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Viola Ventures, with participation from Capri Ventures, Springtide Ventures and iAngels. More here.  Planck Re, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv- and New York-based startup that’s looking to simplify insurance underwriting with artificial intelligence, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Arbor Ventures, with participation from Viola FinTech andEight Roads. TechCrunch has more here.  ThetaRay, a five-year-old, Hod HaSharon, Israel-based company that uses mathematics to provide early detection from cyber threats, has raised $30 million in fresh funding that brings its total funding to roughly $60 million. Investors includeJerusalem Venture Partners, GE, Bank Hapoalim, OurCrowd, SVB Investments and others. Reuters has more here.  Unify Square, 10-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based maker of software and cloud managed services for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business, has raised $10 million in Series C funding led by Primepulse SE, a global investment holding group. The company has now raised around $45 million altogether. More here.

New Funds

Earlybird Venture Capital, the 21-year-old, Berlin, Germany-headquartered early-stage venture firm, says it has closed its sixth fund with 175 million euros (or $204 million). More here.  Nebari Ventures, a New York City-based venture firm investing in early-stage consumer companies, including food and beverage startups, is looking to raise $15 million for its first fund fund, shows an SEC filing. Nebari is controlled by a holding company of the same name that also features a special situations unit, a unit focused on blockchain infrastructure tech, and a fourth unit focused on providing senior debt capital to metals and mining companies. More here.  Telescope Partners, a growth-equity firm founded in 2015 by former Sequoia Capital partner Mickey Arabelovic, raised $79.1 million for its debut fund shows a new SEC filing that lists 15 investors. More on the San Francisco-based firm here.

Jobs

Canaan is hiring an analyst to work alongside industry veterans on enterprise/deep tech deals. Canaan is an early-stage firm with a history of company building across life sciences and tech. It’s currently investing its eleventh, $800 million, vehicle; the 30-year-old firm has $5 billion in assets under management altogether. More here.

People

Oath CEO Tim Armstrong is reportedly exploring strategic options for the digital media division created from the combination of Yahoo and AOL, that could include buying the business out of Verizon.  Google Cloud COO Diane Bryant has left the company after less than a year. She previously spent more than 25 years at Intel before joining Google in late November.   Jonathan Hsu, a partner and the head of data science at Social Capital, has left the investment outfit in the wake of numerous other departures. According to Axios, he’s expected to join another newly former partner, Arjun Sethi, at a new venture firm being formed.  Zain Jaffer, the cofounder and former CEO of Vungle, was completely exonerated yesterday, roughly nine months after being arrested at his home on charges of sexual abuse and battery. Jaffer’s lawyers argued persuasively that Jaffer was taking two different medications prescribed to him by different doctors that caused him to act violently. It was also determined that a hold he’d had on his young son the day of his arrest was a jiu-jitsu move, a form of martial arts that the entire family reportedly practices.

Essential Reads

Inside Amazon‘s fast-paced warehouse world.   Tens of thousands of “Fortnite” players have been infected by malware that hijacks encrypted Web sessions so it can inject fraudulent ads into every website a user visits, says the company.

Detours

International-style bank robbing comes to the U.S.  How many friends you need to be happy.  Safari lodges meant to look like shipwrecks.

Retail Therapy

If Apple made a motor boat.

Hi, all! We’re having all kinds of connectivity issues today — burned cable on our block, intermittent WiFi at our coffee shop. We’re somewhere between laughing and screaming, along with everyone else in our neighborhood. (We can see the relief/frustration in their eyes, as they slowly drain their macchiatos.) Either way, we have to keep things a little shorter today.More tomorrow.

Top News

Controversial entrepreneur and engineer Anthony Levandowski is back with a new autonomous trucking technology company.  Dell said today it will pay $21.7 billion in cash and stock to buy back shares tied to its interest in software company VMware, returning the computer maker to the stock market without an IPO.

Sponsored By . . .

Do you like to follow luxury real estate?  Check out the Gullixson Team and their incredible Silicon Valley listings.  Today’s highlighted property is a remarkable opportunity in Woodside, CA to build on the iconic horse property once owned by Daniel Jackling and most recently Jim Clark.  Approved custom plans by renowned architect Backen Gilliam Kroeger Architects are included.

These 50 Founders and VCs Suggest 2018 May Be a Tipping Point for Women in Tech (Part Two)

On Friday, we featured 25 founders and VCs who are having a notable 2018 — and who happen to be women. Herewith, 25 more who deserve some kudos for getting it done in the first half of this year. This list, meant to highlight the growing number of women with interesting companies or starting venture firms to watch, could easily be several times longer, we’re gleefully aware. Please feel free to tweet us or nominate in our comments section other women who’ve reached a particular milestone in 2018 and should be included in future profiles of female leaders who are on the rise, along with their organizations.  Much more here.

New Fundings

Aikucun, a 1.5-year-old, China-based online platform that connects fashion brands and professional online shoppers to help brands reduce their inventories, has raised $87 million in Series B funding led by Legend Capital. Other participants in the round include Eastern Bell VC and C&D Corp. China Money Network has more here.  Automation Anywhere, a 15-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based maker of robotic process automation software, today announced $250 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, with participation from General Atlantic and World Innovation Lab. The company is saying this is the largest Series A round on record for an enterprise software company. It also brings its post-money valuation to $1.8 billion. VentureBeat has more here.  Califia Farms, an eight-year-old, L.A.-based maker of plant-based beverages — namely nut milks — raised over $50 million in new funding. Ambrosia Investments led the round, and was joined by earlier backers Sun Pacific and Stripes Group. More here.  Harper Wilde, a 1.5-year-old, Venice, Ca.-based company selling a curated selection of bras online, has raised $2 million in funding led by CRV. TechCrunch has more here.  Oden Technologies, a four-year-old, New York-based analytics company that says it helps manufacturers monitor and optimize their production in real time, from any device, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Atomico. TechCrunch has more here.  Trax, an eight-year-old, Singapore-based company that sells image recognition tech to consumer packaged goods brands, has raised $125 million in new funding led by Boyu Capital. According to its CEO, the company — previously backed by Warburg Pincus — is now valued at close to $1 billion. DealStreetAsia has more here. Windward, an eight-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup in the business of providing maritime risk analytics, has raised $16.5 million in Series C funding led byXL Innovate, with participation from earlier backers Aleph and Horizons Ventures. Calcalist has more here.

Exits

Facebook is acquiring London-based Bloomsbury AI, a startup that has built natural language processing technology to help machines answer questions based on information gleaned from documents. According to TechCrunch’s sources Facebook plans to deploy the company’s team and tech to work on combating fake news and to tackle other content issues. Its sources further say Facebook will be paying $23 million and $30 million in a mixture of cash and stock for the company. More here.  Quartz, the business and tech news organization owned by Atlantic Media, is moving to a new home after publicly listed Japanese business Uzabase acquired it in a deal worth up to $110 million. TechCrunch has more here.  Suse, one of the longest-running commercial Linux distributors and a major player in the open-source infrastructure and management space, is being acquired by the private equity firm and venture capital fund EQT in a deal valued at roughly $2.5 billion. TechCrunch has the story here.

IPOs

The Norway-based web browser company Opera has filed for an IPO in the U.S. According to its F-1 document, the company plans to raise up to $115 million after last year generating $128.9 million in operating revenue (and net income of $6.1 million). The company has had a tumultuous history, notes TechCrunch in its write-up about the offering. More here.  Tenable, a 16-year-old, Columbia, Md.-based cybersecurity and compliance monitoring platform, has filed to raise $100 million in an IPO. The company has raised roughly $310 million in funding over the years, with its biggest shareholders being Insight Venture Partners and Accel Partners, which collectively own around 70 percent of the company. Business Insider has more here.

Jobs

Sequoia Capital is adding to its investment team. The role will focus on growth-stage companies and will be based in the Bay Area. Responsibilities include identifying new opportunities, contributing to investment decisions, and building dent-making companies. The ideal candidate is curious, hungry, low ego, and team-first. Learn more here.

People

Tesla’s top engineer, Doug Field, is leaving the company for good after previously stepping away for what the company had characterized as a leave of absence.  NBA veteran Jason Kidd just took his first swing at tech investing, backing a mobile app for golfers.  Alex Lazarow has joined Cathay Innovation as a director in its San Francisco office. Lazarow had spent the last five years as a principal with Omidyar Network.  Former President Barack Obama quietly visited the folks at Andreessen Horowitz late last week, suggests a photo that partner (and popular blogger) Andrew Chen posted on Twitter on Friday. The firm isn’t commenting on the visit, but The Tampa Bay Times flagged the tweet.  The founder whose startup Yo only allowed users to send their friends the word “Yo” has a new company that does . . . more. TechCrunch has the story here.

Essential Reads

Mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp messages are sweeping India.  Tech’s dirty secret? The app developers sifting through your Gmail.

Detours

How one typeface took over movie posters.  The soccer ball that survived the Challenger explosion.  Too soon, NBA.

Retail Therapy

Artist action figures.

Friday! [Runs through field of wildflowers.] Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone.:)

Top News

California just passed a landmark data privacy bill over the strenuous objections of many tech companies that rely on surreptitious data collection for their livelihood.   If you couldn’t reach your favorite web sites earlier today. it wasn’t just you.

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These 50 Founders and VCs Suggest 2018 May Be a Tipping Point for Women in Tech (Part One)

For the last several years, we’ve compiled profiles of women founders and investors at the end of each year because they’ve either raised substantial amounts of money or otherwise achieved notable milestones. This year, we don’t want to wait until December. We’re too excited about the progress we’re witnessing, with women-led startups getting seed, Series A or later-stage funding each week — all while top venture firms grow more serious about pulling women into their most senior ranks, female VCs band together to fund female founders and other women go about launching their own funds. Some of you will note that this list is far from comprehensive, and we’ll readily agree with you. But we think it’s better to celebrate the accomplishments of some of the women who deserve attention than try to capture every last person we’d include if only there were more hours in the day. Herewith, a list of 25 founders and investors who’ve had a pretty good 2018 so far, with a follow-up coming shortly, so stay tuned. More here.

New Fundings

Appello Pharmaceuticals, a Nashville, Tn.-based developer of a Parkinson’s disease treatment, raised $10.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Deerfield Management and Mountain Group Partners. FierceBiotech has more here.  ApplyBoard, a three-year-old, Kitchener, Ontario-based university application platform for international students, has raised $9.9 million in Series A funding led by Artiman Ventures, with participation from earlier backers 500 Startups and Candou Ventures. More here.  Cashify, a nine-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based marketplace for used smartphones, has raised $12 million in Series C funding co-led by CDH Investments and Morningside, with participation from Aihuishou (a China-based startup that sells used electronics) and earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners and Shunwei. TechCrunch has more here.  Density, a four-year-old, Bay Area-based company that makes a Wi-Fi powered, sensor-loaded counting device that measures how many people are inside a space at any one time, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, Jason Calacanis, and David Sacks. More here.   Doctrine, a two-year-old, Paris-based company that’s building a search engine for court decisions and other legal texts, is raising $11.6 million in new funding from earlier backers Otium Venture and Xavier Niel. TechCrunch has more here.  Kaleido Biosciences, a three-year-old, Bedford, Ma.-based healthcare company at work on chemistries that drive functions of the microbiome organ in order to treat disease, has raised $101 million in Series C funding. New investors Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Invus and Rock Springs Capital joined original funder Flagship Pioneering in the round. MedCity News has more here.  MedCrypt, a two-year-old, Encinitas, Ca-based company that sells data security as a service to medical device OEMs, has raised $1.9 million in new funding led by Eniac Ventures. Nex Cubed, Oronoco Investments, Sway Ventures and Friedman BioVentures also participated. MedCity News has more here.  Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, a year-old, Oxford, England-based biotech firm that’s researching the potential of cannabinoid-based medications, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Casa Verde Capital, Imperial Brands Ventures and other, unnamed family offices and institutions. Bloomberg has more here.

New Funds

Industry Ventures, the 18-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm, says it has closed its fifth hybrid fund of funds with $335 million in capital commitments. The fund’s strategy will be to make primary commitments and early secondary purchases in smaller, early-stage venture capital funds, as well as to co-invest directly alongside these funds. More here.

Exits

SimpliSafe, the company behind the SimpliSafe home security service, today announced that Hellman & Friedman, the private equity firm, has taken a controlling interest in the company for undisclosed terms that TechCrunch sources say values SimpliSafe at roughly $1 billion. Simplisafe appears to have raised $57 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

To keep its staffers happy, home sharing giant Airbnb told employees yesterday that it will pay them cash bonuses and that it’s aiming to hold an IPO before late 2020, when some employee stock grants expire. Bloomberg has more here.  Domo, the business analytics company based out of Utah, today became the latest enterprise tech company to go public, and it did so with a small pop. TechCrunch has more here.  Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, raised $4.7 billion in its Hong Kong IPO after pricing shares at the lowest end of its offering range. Bloomberg has more here.

Jobs

Canaan is looking for an analyst to work alongside industry veterans on enterprise/deep tech deals. Canaan is an early-stage firm with a history of company building across life sciences and tech. It’s currently investing its eleventh, $800 million, vehicle; the 30-year-old firm has $5 billion in assets under management altogether. More here.

People

Elon Musk is involved in a copyright argument over a farting unicorn.

Data

Digital currency sales hit a stunning $13.7 billion in first five months of 2018, according to a new report. Reuters has more here.

Essential Reads

Apple is rebuilding Maps from the ground up, says TechCrunch.   Watch where you step. According to The Information, Uber plans to resume testing self-driving cars by August, in Pittsburgh and possibly San Francisco.   Spin isn’t out of the e-scooter race, looks like. While rival companies Bird and Lime have been gathering up hundreds of millions of dollars from venture investors (compared with the comparatively measly $8 million in funding that Spin is known to have raised), Spin has apparently been crafting a $125 million “security token offering,” reports Axios. More here.

Detours

The rise and fall of CrossFit’s science crusader.  A network of members-only co-living spaces designed to train guests in the “art of conversation.”

Retail Therapy

Old-school Broncos that are brand new.  An electric hydrofoil. (You are going to need a helmet.)

Hello and happy Thursday.:)

Top News

Bird, the L.A.-based highly hyped e-scooter startup, has officially closed on $300 million in fresh funding led by Sequoia Capital. The company announced the long-anticipated round this morning, with Sequoia’s Roelof Botha joining the company’s board of directors. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Fundings

Away, a three-year-old, New York-based direct-to-consumer travel brand, has raised $50 million in Series C funding, including from Forerunner Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and Comcast Ventures. Forbes has more here.  Baffin Bay Networks, a year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based cybersecurity startup, has raised $6.4 million in Series A funding led by the European venture firm EQT Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  BitSight, a seven-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that produces daily security ratings for its enterprise customers to help them manage third-party risk, underwrite cyber insurance policies, benchmark performance, and assess aggregate risk, has raised $60 million in Series D funding. Warburg Pincus led the round, with participation from earlier backers Menlo Ventures, GGV Capital and Singtel Innov8. TechCrunch has more here.  BrightFarms, a seven-year-old, Irvington, N.Y.-based indoor farming startup known for its locally grown packaged salads, has raised $55 million in Series D funding led by Cox Enterprises, with participation from Catalyst Investors, WP Global Partners and NGEN Partners. The WSJ has more here.  Bumped, a year-old, Portland, Ore.-based company whose app tracks spending with participating publicly traded companies, then gives customers a percentage of their purchases back in fractional shares of stock, has raised $14.1 million in Series A funding. Canaan led the round, with participation from other investors that include Peninsula Ventures, Commerce Ventures and Oregon Venture Partners. More here.  Cerebri AI, a 2.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that uses machine learning to help companies track, analyze and predict their customers’ behavior, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures). Other participants in the round include the University of Texas Horizon Fund,WorldQuant Ventures, and Leawood Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Ceres Imaging, a nearly four-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based company whose tech helps farmers conserve water and fertilizer and improve yields in their crops, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backer Romulus Capital. The company has now raised around $35 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.  Everlaw, an eight-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based e-discovery and litigation platform, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from earlier investor Andreessen Horowitz. More here.  High Fidelity, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based social VR startup founded by one of Second Life’s original creators, Phillip Rosedale, has raised $35 million Series D funding. The blockchain investment firm Galaxy Digital Ventures(founded by former hedge funder Michael Novogratz) led the round, with participation from Breyer Capital, IDG Capital Partners, Vulcan Capital and Blockchain Capital.  Hims, a year-old, San Francisco-based company that sells men’s prescription healthcare products, has raised $50 million in Series B-2 funding led by IVP. Other participants in the round include Founders Fund and Cavu Venture Partners and earlier backers Thrive Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Forerunner Ventures and SV Angel. (We told you about this company, and why its timing makes sense, late last year.) JASK, a 2.5-year-old, Bay Area-based startup behind an autonomous security operations platform, has raised $25 million in Series B funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with managing partner Ted Schlein (who specializes in cybersecurity) joining the board. The company has now raised $39 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  KaiOS, a two-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company that has built an eponymous operating system for feature phones that packs a range of native apps and other smartphone-like services, has raised $22 million from Google. TechCrunch explains the deal here.   Oh BiBi, a six-year-old, Paris, France-based gaming company, has raised $21 million from Atomico with Korelya Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Republic, a two-year-old, New York-based investment platform that connects retail investors with curated startups and blockchain projects and is affiliated with AngelList, has raised $12 million in funding. Binance Labs and NGC ECO Fund co-led the round, with participation from East Chain Co, Oyster Ventures, FBG Capital, Hazoor Capital, ZK Capital, ZhenFund, and others. More here.  Unblockable, a month-old, L.A.-based startup that’s tackling a new area for blockchain technology — sports fandom, specifically collectibles and fantasy sports — has raised $5 million from Shasta Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.  UST Global, a 10-year-old, Aliso Viejo, Ca.-based multinational digital and tech services firm, has raised $250 million in new funding from Temasek — Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund — at a billion-dollar-plus valuation. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

IQ Capital, an 11-year-old, Cambridge, England-based venture firm, says it’s raising £125 million ($165 million) that it will use specifically to back U.K.-based startups that are building “deep tech” — the layer of research and development and potentially commercialized technology that’s considered foundational to how most tech will eventually work. So far, some £92 million has been committed, the firm tells TechCrunch. More here.  Media mogul Peter Chernin is planning to raise a new media investment fund of more than $500 million, says The Information. According to the outlet, the new fund will “likely be run through Mr. Chernin’s main firm, the Chernin Group, through which he has invested in a range of digital media ventures over the past few years. These include sports and lifestyle site Barstool Sports, mobile gaming company Scopely and Headspace, a Los Angeles-based developer of a meditation app.” More here.

Exits

A week after appointing famed polymath Atul Gawande CEO of its healthcare joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan, Amazon today announced plans to buy PillPack, a five-year-old, Manchester, N.H.-based online pharmacy the lets users buy medications in pre-made doses. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, but PillPak had raised $123 million from investors, including Accel and Accomplice, and TechCrunch sources close to the deal say it was closed for just less than $1 billion. (VC BIll Gurley notes that whatever the price Amazon paid, this is very bad news for CVS.) More here. India’s Times Internet has invested Rs 1,000 crore ($140 million) to acquire a majority stake in MX Player, one of the world’s largest local video platforms, as it prepares to enter the over-the-top (OTT) video streaming sector. The move helps it take on the likes of Netflix and Amazon in India. The Economic Times has more here.

IPOs

Forty Seven, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company that is developing therapies targeting cancer immune evasion pathways based on technology licensed from Stanford University. Forty Seven’s lead program, 5F9, is a monoclonal antibody against the CD47 receptor, a “don’t eat me” signal that cancer cells commandeer to avoid being ingested by macrophages. This antibody is currently being evaluated in several clinical trials involving solid tumors and blood-based cancers.

Jobs

Salesforce Ventures is looking to hire a senior associate. The job is in San Francisco.

People

Hot on the heels of Coinbase expanding its crypto fund to U.S.-based investors, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has unveiled a fund of his own —  focused on philanthropy. GiveCrypto.org is aiming to raise $10 million by the end of this year, and to grow to $1 billion over the next two years. Armstrong says it has already locked down $3.5 million, including $1 million from his own bank account. TechCrunch has more here.  Google announced today that it has tapped GE’s global affairs chief Karan Bhatia to become its next head of policy. According to Bloomberg, Google wants Bhatia to craft the search giant’s public policy strategy on a wide range of issues, including artificial intelligence and job creation. His first focus will be dealing with a regulatory backlash that includes antitrust investigations and new digital-privacy rules. More here.  The SEC just charged a former Equifax manager with insider trading in advance of the company’s September 2017 announcement of a massive data breach that exposed Social Security numbers and other personal information of approximately 148 million U.S. customers.  This is the second case the SEC has filed arising from the Equifax data breach. More here.  Twitter is replacing its head of product, says Recode. Again.

Essential Reads

Amazon says it’s launching a new program to help people with entrepreneurial ambitions establish their own last-mile delivery businesses on its behalf, but we still can’t get this piece out of our heads.  Line — Japan’s biggest messaging service —  is opening a cryptocurrency exchange next month called Bitbox that will offer trading between more than 30 virtual tokens including bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin.  Adidas said today that a “few million” customers shopping on its U.S. website may have had their data exposed to an unauthorized party. Neither the specific number of users affected nor the time frame of the potential breach were immediately disclosed, but the German sportswear maker said it became aware of the issue on Tuesday and has begun a forensic review.

Detours

Robot stunt doubles that can flip through the air and stick a landing every time.  What the royal family really costs British tax payers.  We support this decision.

Retail Therapy

A little justice for these turbulent times.

Wednesday!

Top News

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced a bit ago that he is retiring this summer. The move is likely to have huge consequences, including when it comes to privacy.  Lyft has raised an additional $600 million in a Series I financing round led by Fidelity Management & Research Company in a deal that pushes its post-money valuation to $15.1 billion, says TechCrunch. That’s more than double what the company was valued at 14 months ago.  Snap is launching a gaming platform this fall, according to The Information. According to the report, Snap will let outside developers create games to be played through the Snapchat app; Snap has also lined up at least one gaming publisher to make a game for the new platform.

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New Fundings

AIpark, a three-year-old, Beijing, China-based company that makes “smart” urban parking management software, has raised “hundreds of millions” in Series B funding led by NIO Capital, the venture arm of the China-based electric car company of the same name. China Money Network has more here.  Ambit Analytics, a 10-month-old, San Francisco-based company that spun out of SRI international to build a behavior-change program that emphasizes empathy in the workplace (it will use AI to quantify verbal communication and use those metrics to train people to communicate better) has raise $1.1 million in pre-seed funding from Romulus Capital. More here.  Bento, a five-year-old, Chicago- and San Francisco-based company that sells financial software to small and mid-size businesses to help them control employee spending at the point of sale, has raised $9 million in funding from Edison Partners. More here.  Cedar, a two-year-old, New York-based patient financial management platform for hospitals, health systems and independent medical groups, has raised $36 million in Series B funding. Kinnevik led the round, and was joined by investors including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Lakestar, Sound Ventures, Kevin Systrom of Instagram and Nat Turner of Flatiron Health. More here.  Cibus, a 17-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based developer of application of gene editing technologies for directed mutagenesis, has raised $70 million in Series C funding led by Fidelity Management and Research Company, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments and Cormorant Asset Management. More here.  Cleeng, a seven-year-old, Amsterdam-based company whose video platform is used by Canal+, FIFA, and others to sell their videos live and on-demand, has raised €5 million ($5.8 million) in Series B funding. Walvis led the round, with participation from earlier investor C4 Ventures. More here.  CloudBees, an eight-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based enterprise DevOps startup that tries to help companies accelerate their software development and delivery, raised $37 million in new funding. Delta-v Capital led the round; earlier backers also joined in, including Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Unusual Ventures and Verizon Ventures. The company also secured $25 million in debt financing from Golub Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Codefresh, a four-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based continuous integration and delivery platform built for the Kubernetes container ecosystem, has raised $8 million Series B funding led by M12, Microsoft’s venture fund. Viola Ventures, Hillsven and CEIF also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $15.1 million. TechCrunch has more here.  Cordial, a four-year-old, San Diego-based email marketing startup, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by PeakSpan, with participation from Upfront Ventures and High Alpha. TechCrunch has more here.  Cynet, a three-year-old, New York- and Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity platform, has raised $13 million in Series B funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, serial cyber investor Shlomo Kramer and returning investor Ibex Investors. More here.  Cypress.io, a four-year-old, Atlanta-based automated testing framework, has raised $4 million in seed funding co-led by LOVC and Bessemer Venture Partners. The Atlanta Business Chronicle has more here.  Dreem, a five-year-old, Paris- and San Francisco-based company that says its headband improves sleep by monitoring brainwaves, has raised $35 million in new funding co-led by CPG giant Johnson & Johnson and the French state bank Bpifrance. The company has now raised almost $60 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.  Faraday Future, a four-year-old, Gardena, Ca.-based car company that has been called a “financial house of cards,” has landed a new investor in Evergrande Health, a division of a publicly listed Hong Kong-based company.  It just took a 45 percent stake in Faraday for $2 billion, after which its shares shot up 80 percent, reports the Financial Times. More here.  FirstVet, a two-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of telehealth services for pets, has raised €5.1 million ($5.9 million) in Series A funding led by Creandum. TechCrunch has more here.  Noodle.ai, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that says its enterprise AI system can manage complex business operations for its customers, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. Dell Technologies Capital led the round with TPG Growth. VentureBeat has more here.  Parachute, a five-year-old, Venice, Ca.-based home essentials brand company, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by H.I.G. Growth Partners, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Susa Ventures, Suffolk Equity, JAWS Ventures, Grace Beauty Capital and Daher Capital. More here.  Puppet, a 13-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based company that makes software to automate and manage the administration of data centers and other large computing systems, has raised $42 million in funding from numerous strategic and key financial investors. Cisco led the round, with Kleiner Perkins, True Ventures, Singapore’s EDBI and VMware also participating. The company has now raised $128 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Roadster, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based online marketplace for buying and leasing new cars, has raised $15 million in funding led by Costanoa Ventures. The company has now raised nearly $30 million altogether. Automotive News has more here.  Signal Media, a five-year-old, London-based AI-driven media monitoring company, has raised $16 million in Series B funding co-led by MMC Ventures and GMG Ventures (its limited partner is the owner of the Guardian news organization), with participation from Frontline, Hearst Ventures, Reed Elsevier Ventures and LocalGlobe, among others. TechCrunch has more here.   Silverfort, a two-year-old, Israel-based authentication platform for enterprises, has raised $11.5 million Series A in funding led by TLV Partners, with participation from StageOne Ventures and Singtel Innov8. More here.  SimpleNexus, a 7.5-year-old, Lehi, Utah-based mobile mortgage platform, has raised $20 million from Insight Capital Partners. More here.  Social SafeGuard, a four-year-old, Charlottesville, Va.-based company that sells security services to enterprises aimed at mitigating a range of digital risks that lie outside their corporate firewall, has raised $11 million in Series B funding fromAllegisCyber and NightDragon Security. TechCrunch has more here.  WaterBit, a three-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based company that makes autonomous irrigation software that takes into account growth stages, soil conditions, and weather, has raised $11.4 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Heuristic Capital and TJ Waters. More here.

New Funds

Bahrain Development Bank has officially closed its $100 million venture capital “fund of funds” to support startups in Bahrain and across the MENA region.  The fund, announced last month (and mentioned here in SVC) will invest in venture firms with a presence in Bahrain, as well as occasionally make direct investments in startups in Bahrain and the Middle East. Entrepreneur has more here.  Highland Europe, a European growth-stage firm, has closed a new €463 million (roughly $537 million) fund — its third fund in just six years. Targeting European software and internet-enabled businesses, Highland typically writes initial checks of between €10 million and €30 million. TechCrunch has more here.  Rain Capital, a new, San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm led by security technologist Chenxi Wang has held a first close of $10 million for a debut fund that is targeting $20 million. The firm’s primary focus will be on early-stage cybersecurity companies. Wang was long a VP at Forrester Research; in more recent years she has held posts at McAfee, CipherCloud, and Twistlock. More here.  Wave Capital, a new seed-capital firm that is focused on marketplaces and was founded by  David Rosenthal, formerly with Madrona Venture Group and Meritech Capital; Riley Newman, an early employee at Airbnb; and Sara Adler, also formerly with Airbnb, has officially launched, according to the three. Bloomberg reported on the outfit in March, saying that it had raised $50 million.

Exits

Peloton, the unicorn spin and treadmill business that lets users work out via live-streamed classes, has made its first acquisition, picking up 17-year-old, Atlanta-based Neurotic Media, a B2B music aggregation and streaming service. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Jobs

Canaan is looking for an analyst to work alongside industry veterans on enterprise/deep tech deals. Canaan is an early-stage firm with a history of company building across life sciences and tech. It’s currently investing its eleventh, $800 million, vehicle; the 30-year-old firm has $5 billion in assets under management altogether. More here.

People

Alex Kurland, an investor who spent the last five years at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is becoming the sixth partner at the later-stage venture firm Meritech Capital, effectively slotting in for longtime partner Mike Gordon, who has retired. Forbes has more here.  Waymo, the former Google self-driving project that spun out to become a business under Alphabet, has hired former Netflix and Cruise Automation executive Tawni Nazario-Cranz as its chief people officer. TechCrunch has more here.

Lawsuits! (And Settlements)

Apple and Samsung have finally put an end to their long-running patent battle whose central question was whether Samsung copied the iPhone. In a court filing today, the Judge Lucy Koh said the two companies had informed her that they had reached a settlement. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, says The Verge.  Apple’s Beats Electronics owes $25 million in royalties to one of the early designers of the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, reports Bloomberg. A jury in L.A. today agreed with Steven Lamar that under a 2007 settlement with Beats’ founders, rapper Dr. Dre and Interscope Records’ Jimmy Iovine, he was entitled to a cut of the sales of the headphones that were based on the original Studio model. More here.  RetailMeNot is suing rival Honey over patent infringement, the company announced this week. Honey is the maker of a deal-finding browser extension that helps consumers shopping online get the best price by automatically applying coupon codes at checkout. It also helps with finding the best price on Amazon purchases, doles out digital coupons, offers cash back, helps users track price drops and more. As Sarah Perez of TechCrunch notes in a report about the lawsuit, it “comes at a time when Honey is growing in popularity among online shoppers, while RetailMeNot is getting a bit long in the tooth.” More here.

Essential Reads

A closer look at Google Duplex, the company’s human-like phone AI. From secret dinners to private meetings with the RNC, Twitter and Facebook arescrambling to assuage conservative leaders who have sounded alarms — and sought to rile voters — with accusations that the country’s tech giants are censoring right-leaning posts, tweets and news.

Detours

The best movies of 2018, so far.  How not to f*ck up your hamburgers this summer.  A man on an exit sign shut down an L.A. highway earlier today before dismounting with an epic backflip.

Retail Therapy

$5,000 cycling socks made of silk. (We do not know how to explain this.)

Hi, happy Tuesday, all!

Top News

Uber can operate in London again for now.  Goldman Sachs is reiterating its sell rating on Tesla, saying it expects the electric car maker’s widely watched Model 3 delivery number to fall short of Wall Street expectations.  California has 48 hours to pass this privacy bill or else.

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Confirmed: Sequoia Has Already Secured Three-Quarters of Its $8 billion Global Fund

Sequoia Capital, the 46-year-old venture firm, has secured $6 billion in capital commitments for an $8 billion global fund, according to a new report in the Financial Times. The report echoes a late April piece in the Wall Street Journal that reported Sequoia investors had already committed “roughly” $6 billion to the new fund.  A source familiar with the matter confirms for us that both stories are accurate.  The capital commitments thus far have come from investors with no prior relationship to Sequoia. The firm intends to turn to its previous investors for the rest of the capital commitments, which Sequoia is securing in increments of $250 million or more.  Sequoia now plugs more than 50 cents from every dollar its backers provide it into its overseas bets, according to a separate source close to the firm, noting the firm’s China strategy has been proving particularly fruitful. Like numerous Silicon Valley firms, Sequoia decided to dip its toe into the market beginning in 2005. Unlike most Silicon Valley firms that opted not to remain in China, owing either to attrition or because of tenuous relationships with local VCs, Sequoia stayed put, empowering the founder of Sequoia Capital China, Neil Shen, to eventually build up offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai — and to assemble a portfolio that is today rife with highly valuable companies.  Among the many companies Sequoia Capital China has funded: Meituan-Dianping, the group-discount service that sells locally found products and retail services and just filed to go public in Hong Kong; Ele.me, the food ordering company that sold a controlling stake in its business to Alibaba in April for $9.5 billion; DJI, the drone company, which was reported to be raising $1 billion in new funding this spring at a $15 billion valuation; VIP.com, the commerce platform that went public in 2012 and currently boasts a $7.2 billion market cap; and Didi, the mobile transportation giant that’s in a race against its U.S. rival Uber to conquer the global ride-hailing market.  Sequoia Capital China is also an investor in the electric car company Nio, which filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO last month.  More here.

New Fundings

Aclima, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based company that designs and deploys distributed large scale sensor networks to map air quality, has raised $24 million in Series A funding. Social Capital led the round, with participation from the Schmidt Family Foundation, Emerson Collective, Radicle Impact, Rethink Impact, Plum Alley, Kapor Capital and First Philippine Holdings. TechCrunch has more here.  b8ta, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps shoppers try tech gadgets before buying them (even if those products aren’t yet in stores), has raised $19 million in Series B funding. Macy’s led the round, with participation from Sound Ventures, Palm Drive Capital, Capitaland, Graphene Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures. The company has now raised $39 million altogether. CNBC has more here.  CarBlip, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based car-buying mobile application that’s aiming to compete with services like Wyper, has raised $2 million in new funding led by Nordic Eye Venture Capital, with participation from the startup studio and seed investment firm Science. TechCrunch has more here.  CashShield, a 10-year-old, Singapore-based online fraud detection startup whose clients include Alibaba and Razer, has raised $20 million in Series B funding co-led by Temasek Holdings and earlier investor GGV Capital. Other participants in the round include Nest co-founder Tony Fadell, Wavemaker Partners and Tao Zhang. TechCrunch has more here.  Celonis, a seven-year-old, Munich, Germany-based “process mining” data analytics startup, has raised $50 million in Series B funding from Accel and 83North in a deal that values the company at $1 billion. The Financial Times has more here.  Go-Jek, an eight-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based ride-hailing and courier service whose investors include Tencent and Google, is in talks to raise around $1.5 billion in a new funding round, according to The Information. Go-Jek, whose app offers many services including rides, food delivery, and online shopping, was valued at about $4.8 billion in its previous fundraising earlier this year, say the outlet’s sources. More here.  Homee, a two-year-old, Tampa Fl.-based on-demand property maintenance app, has raised $11 million in Series A funding, including from Home Depot, Activate Capital and Engage Ventures. More here. Honk Technologies, a 4.5-year-old, L.A.-based marketplace for towing services for consumers and insurance companies, has raised $18 million in a new round of funding led by Altpoint Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Structure Capital and Venture 51.TechCrunch has more here.  IMGN Media, a three-year-old, New York-based startup that’s producing and programming content for social audiences, including on Instagram, has raised $3 million in Series A financing from Dot Capital, Rhodium, talent agency UTA, KDC Media Fund, Big Block Media, Ron Zuckerman and more. The company has now raised $6 million altogether. More here.  Jama Software, an 11-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based product development platform for building complex products and integrated systems, has raised $200 million in funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Madrona Venture Group. More here.  Matternet, a seven-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based developer of an autonomous drone logistics platform, has secured $16 million in Series A funding led by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, with participation from Swiss Post, Sony Innovation Fund and Levitate Capital. More here.  Pared, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based app for restaurant owners and employees like line cooks and dishwashers who are looking to fill slots in their respective schedules, has raised $10 million in funding. CRV led the round, with participation from earlier backers Uncork Capital and True Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Silver Peak, a 14-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based maker of broadband and hybrid WAN software and services, has raised $90 million in funding from TCV. More here.  TourRadar, an eight-year-old, Vienna, Austria-based online travel agency that targets the multi-day touring market, just raised $50 million in Series C funding led by TCV, with participation from earlier backers Cherry Ventures, Endeit Capital, Hoxton Ventures, and Speedinvest. TechCrunch has more here.  YOOBIC, a four-year-old, London-based SaaS platform helps brands and retailers track their merchandising and marketing operations, has raised $25 million in new funding led by Insight Venture Partners and earlier backer Felix Capital. More here.

New Funds

Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital outfit, says it has closed on $350 million in capital commitments for a new fund. The fund launched in 2015 with the goal of delivering new drug approaches for both the diagnosis and treatment of dementia by 2025. Among its investors is Biogen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline,Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Takeda, Bill Gates, and the NFL Players Association. FierceBiotech has more here.

Jobs

NextGen Venture Partners, a network-driven venture fund, is looking to hire an investor based out of the Bay Area to source and execute early-stage investments. This role is for an individual who thrives working independently. Interested candidates can apply at jobs@nextgenvp.com

People

Casio Chairman and CEO Kazuo Kashio quietly passed last week at the age of 89. TechCrunch remembers him here.  China’s richest people are buying into Xiaomi’s imminent Hong Kong IPO, including former CK Hutchinson Holdings chair Li Ka-shing. Bloomberg has more here.  Anthemis Group, a fintech VC fund based in London, lost its long-time CEO after Nadeem Shaikh handed in his resignation earlier this week. Questions remain about his departure, however. TechCrunch takes a look.  Spotify, nodding to broader ambitions, has hired a chief content officer. Dealbook has more here.

Data

Crypto collapse? More than 80 percent of 1,586 digital coins that Finder.com tracks in a weekly survey have decreased in price in the past seven days. The tokens fell 19 percent on average, Finder.com found in the week ended June 25. Bloomberg has more here.

Essential Reads

Well, that was fast. Facebook today announced that it’s reversing its cryptocurrency ban, effective immediately.  “I delivered packages for Amazon and it was a nightmare.”

Detours

How P&G’s “The Talk” brought a new level of empathy to advertising.   Wealthy people in Mexico and Brazil can’t get enough armored cars.  Pete Davidson did not take his tattoo artist’s advice.

Retail Therapy

You can now rent the villa from “Under The Tuscan Sun.” It does not look terrible.

Hi, and happy Monday.:)   Before we dive into things, we’re very happy to announce that we’ve finally started programming our second and last StrictlyVC event of this year on September 25th, a Tuesday night. (As some of you know, we ran out of time to do an INSIDER event this past spring.) The first speaker you can look forward to hearing from: David Rogier, the CEO of MasterClass, who three years ago seized on his friendship with Dustin Hoffman’s daughter to begin building an online education business that has since attracted an astonishing number of experts in their fields, from Werner Herzog to Annie Liebovitz to Steve Martin to Steph Curry. We’ll find out just how big an opportunity MasterClass is eyeing, where it goes from here.  Enormous thanks to Norwest Venture Partners, whose team will be playing host to all of us at their beautiful new space in South Park in San Francisco. Much thanks, too, to our early partner in the evening, KCPR, a boutique public relations and strategy firm specializing in venture capital and startup clients founded by Silicon Valley publicist Kelsey Cullen. More about this in the coming weeks. . .

Top News

Donald Trump, already embroiled in a trade battle with China, plans to ratchet commercial tensions higher by barring many Chinese companies from investing in U.S. technology firms and by blocking additional technology exports to Beijing, according to the WSJ. More here.

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Andreessen Horowitz Has a New Crypto Fund — and Its First Female General Partner is Helping Run It

Silicon Valley powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz  (a16z) has some big, and bigger, news today. First, it closed a dedicated crypto fund late last week from a subset of its limited partners, who’ve provided the firm with $300 million in capital commitments. The fund had become the worst-kept secret in the venture industry, largely because so many other venture firms are trying to figure out their own related strategies and have been watching closely a16z’s slow but growing number of investments in crypto-related startups over the past five years. Nine-year-old Andreessen Horowitz has also, at long last, brought aboard its first female general partner: Katie Haun, whose star has quietly been rising in the Bay Area over for the past couple of years. Haun — who is leading Andreessen’s crypto fund with general partner and renowned crypto enthusiast Chris Dixon  — is kind of a big deal, so it’s no surprise that a16z nabbed her. Among her other many accomplishments, Haun spent more than a decade as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, where she focused on fraud, cybercrime, and corporate compliance no-no’s alongside the SEC, FBI, and Treasury. According to Haun’s bio, she was also the DOJ’s first-ever coordinator for digital assets, and she led investigations into the Mt. Gox hack and the task force that investigated and ultimately took down the online drug marketplace Silk Road. Haun is also a lecturer at Stanford Business School and she’s a director on the board of the digital exchange Coinbase, which was backed early on by a16z and where Haun got to know Dixon, who is also on the board. (Both are keeping their seats.)  We talked with Dixon earlier today to learn more about the fund, including how he and Haun are thinking about “exits” in the cryptocurrency world when there haven’t been a whole bunch. Our conversation has been edited lightly for length.  You’ve raised $300 million from some of the same investors who fund Andreessen Horowitz’s flagship funds. Will this fund in any way impact the next flagship fund? Does the firm intend to spend more time on crypto and less on other, more traditional investments?  No, we’re still full-speed ahead on all traditional areas. The fund is a way for us to double down on crypto and not in any way reduce our commitment to enterprise, consumer, or bio investing.  Can this new fund invest in other investors’ crypto funds, as Union Square has been actively doing?  It could, but we don’t plan to. We invested in Polychain and a few others about one-and-a-half years ago when we were figuring out our new crypto strategy. Now, with the full fund and investing in both early-stage and later-stage in crypto projects, the mandate is to be investing directly, though [we] never say never to anything. More here.

New Fundings

Akero Therapeutics, a seven-year-old, Portsmouth, N.H.-based biotechnology company focused on treating non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and other serious metabolic diseases, has raised $65 million in Series A financing. Apple Tree Partners, Atlas Venture, venBio Partners and Versant Ventures led the round. BioSpace has more here.  BigID, a two-year-old, New York- and Israel-based private customer data identification startup, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from ClearSky Security, Comcast Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Information Venture Partners and SAP. TechCrunch has more here.  Nodthera, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech that’s engaged in innate immune/ inflammasome research, has raised £28 million ($37.2 million) in Series A funding from Epidarex Capital, F-Prime, Sofinnova Partners and 5AM Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.  PolicyBazaar, a 10-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based online life insurance and general insurance marketplace, has raised more than $200 million in new funding led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund. TechCrunch has more here.  Tact.ai, a five-year-old, Redwood City, Ca. -based startup that has been trying to change the way sales people interact with information in CRM systems using voice, has raised $27 million in Series C funding. Backers include Amazon Alexa Fund, Salesforce Ventures and M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures), with additional participation from Comcast Ventures, Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Upfront Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Winnie, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose app has the needs of modern-day parents in mind (they can get advice, write reviews, and find new places to go with their kids, among other things), just raised $4 million in additional seed funding led by Reach Capital. Other investors in the new round includeRethink Impact, Homebrew, Ludlow Ventures, Afore Capital, and BBG Ventures, among others. Winnie has now raised $6.5 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Highland Capital Partners, the 30-year-old venture firm with offices in Boston and Palo Alto, Ca., is looking to raise upwards of $300 million for its tenth fund, according to an SEC filing that shows it has already secured $170.7 million in capital commitments. More here.  RRE Ventures, the 24-year-old, New York-based early stage venture firm, has closed its seventh flagship fund with $265 million in capital commitments. Some of the outfits exits in recent years include Bitly (acquired by Spectrum Equity),Business Insider (acquired by Axel Springer) and TapCommerce (acquired by Twitter). TechCrunch has more here.

Exits

AppNexus, the 11-year-old, programmatic ad platform that was forever working toward an IPO (it had filed confidentially for one in late 2016), has been acquired by AT&T for undisclosed terms. AppNexus had raised more than $340 million over the years, including from TCV, Venrock, Fidelity, WPP, News Corp and First Round Capital. AT&T’s ad chief says the acquisition is part of a strategy to build a first-of-its-kind marketplace for television and digital video advertising and give it more firepower against industry juggernauts Google and Facebook. The WSJ has more here. So does TechCrunch.

IPOs

China’s Meituan Dianping, an online food delivery-to-ticketing services platform, is bringing its IPO to Hong Kong, where it aims to raise over $4 billion, three people tell Reuters. More here.

Jobs

Founders Circle Capital, a late-stage venture and secondaries firm, is looking to bring aboard an associate to help in sourcing and executing deals. Top-performing associates will be considered for a promotion to senior associate after their second year. The job is in San Francisco. Applicants should write to andrew@fcc.vc

Essential Reads

Who will lead Benchmark‘s newest fund? Recode wants to know. (Relatedly, Benchmark is bucking the trend of raising new funds every two years. Will others follow?)  Apple is about to pump up the volume on its audio-device strategy, planning higher-end AirPods, a new HomePod and studio-quality over-ear headphones for as early as next year, according to Bloomberg.   Venmo is officially launching a physical debit card.

Detours

The case against low-fat milk.  Wall Street’s newest hot commodity: The $185 Wagyu steak sandwich.  An affair between a reporter and a security aide rattles Washington media.  Comedian John Oliver has apparently gotten HBO’s online content blocked in Chinaafter mocking the company’s president, Xi Jinping.

Retail Therapy

An “official” Dick Tracy watch that works like Chester Gould first imagined it.

Friday! [Throws chair out window.] Hope you have a terrific weekend, everyone.:)  Pics from our Wednesday night mixer here. And here’s this week’s “Equity” podcast if you’re looking for something to listen to while tooling around over the next couple of days.

Top News

The United States Supreme court issued a decision this morning that will require police to obtain a warrant from a judge in order to track individuals through cellphone records. The 5-4 ruling is being regarded as a win for privacy advocates in the U.S. TechCrunch has more here.

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Brian O’Malley Jumps from Accel to Forerunner Ventures

Brian O’Malley may be the most-poached venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. While rising through the ranks at the global investment firm Battery Ventures, where O’Malley had led deals in HotelTonight among others, he was plucked out of the firm by Accel Partners in 2013, where both O’Malley and Accel thought he could be even more successful.  Now, fast forward five years, and O’Malley is announcing today (through Forbes) that he just joined Forerunner Ventures, the top e-commerce investing firm launched in 2010 by founder Kirsten Green.  That O’Malley is willing to make moves is hardly a knock. For someone whose job it is to create and manage promising portfolios, he seems to be managing his career with that same mindset. The move also reflects well on Forerunner, a much younger firm than storied Accel but whose star has been soaring in recent years, thanks to early bets on companies like Bonobos (sold to Walmart), Jet.com (sold to Walmart), Dollar Shave Club (sold to Unilever), and HotelTonight, among other growing brands, including the cosmetics company Glossier, the athleisure-wear company Outdoor Voices, and the home furnishings company Serena & Lily. Indeed, though Forerunner seems to be doing just fine with its current team, one can imagine that adding O’Malley to its ranks will only make fundraising easier — and our bet is the firm is fundraising right around now, based on the close of its current, third, fund in the summer of 2016.  More here.

New Fundings

Agari, a nine-year-old, Foster City, Ca.-based anti-phishing company, has raised $40 million led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity. Earlier backers Norwest Venture Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners, First Round Capital and Alloy Ventures also joined the round. Fortune has more here.  Cape Analytics, a four-year-old. Mountain View, Ca.-based startup that meshes computer vision with geospatial imagery to bring property intelligence to U.S. insurance companies, has raised $17 million in funding led by XL Innovate. Other investors in the round include The Hartford, Nephila, CSAA Insurance Group, The Cincinnati Insurance Co., State Auto Labs Fund and return backers Formation 8, Data Collective, Khosla Ventures, Montage Ventures, Lux Capital and Promus Ventures. VentureBeat has more here. Chasing Innovation, a two-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based developer of underwater drones, has raised $3 million from Shenzhen Capital Group. More here. CloudBolt Software, a six-year-old, Rockville, Md.-based self-service hybrid cloud platform, has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Insight Venture Partners. More here.  Drip Capital, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that provides working capital finance to small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in cross-border trade, has raised $15 million in Series A funding from Accel India, Sequoia Capital India and Wing VC. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Y Combinator. Additionally, the company raised an undisclosed amount of debt capital from Silicon Valley Bank and others. Fortune has more here.  Roambee, a four-year-old., Santa Clara, Ca.-based physical asset monitoring startup, has raised $2 million from the venture arm of Telkom Indonesia. VentureBeat has more here.  TouchBistro, a seven-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-based restaurant operating system, has raised roughly $54 million in Series D funding co-led by OMERS Ventures and JPMorgan Chase, with participation from Napier Park, Recruit Holdings, BDC and Relay Ventures. BetaKit has more here.  Tray.io, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based process automation startup, has raised $14.3 million in Series A funding led by GGV Capital, with participation from True Ventures, Mosaic Ventures and AngelPad. TechCrunch has more here.  Vium, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company that has created an informatics platform for preclinical in vivo drug research, has raised $24 million in Series B funding from earlier Lux Capital and Data Collective, with participation from Dolby Family Ventures, Founders Fund, and Tony Fadell’s Future Shape. More here. Whistle Sports, a nine-year-old, New York-based digital sports media content company focused on millennials, has raised $28 million in Series D funding led by Aser, with participation from Liberty Media, Emil Capital and WndrCo. Variety has more here.

New Funds

World Innovation Lab, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture capital firm that was founded by  Japanese investor Gen Isayama, has raised $521 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. More here.  Fifth Wall Ventures, a two-year-old, L.A.-based real-estate focused venture firm, is raising $400 million for its second fund and it has at least $100 million in capital commitments so far, shows an SEC filing. We’d introduced you to the firm last year when it closed its $212 million debut fund. More here.

IPOs

Elastic, the creator of a data search software that companies buy in order to scan massive documents, data sets and visualizations, has confidentially filed to go public in what will be an initial public offering at a multi-billion dollar valuation, according to Recode. More here.

Exits

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Longreads, Simplenote and a few other things, is acquiring nine-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based startup Atavist, which makes a content management system for independent bloggers and writers. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Atavist had raised a little more than $5 million, judging by SEC filings. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Music producer and rapper Jay-Z has partnered with Larry Marcus, managing director of Walden Venture Capital, on a new venture fund called Marcy Venture Partners, according to business filings. As for the name: Jay Z, legally Shawn Carter, grew up in the Marcy Houses, a housing project in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the ’80s and ’90s. Axios has a bit more here.  Outcome Health’s former leaders Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal have resigned from the company’s board. The two stepped down from daily operations of the startup in January as part of a settlement with big-name investors. The company’s legal troubles followed its first outside fundraising round, which achieved a $5.5 billion valuation. The Chicago Tribune has the skinny here.  The Thiel Foundation today welcomed 20 people into its newest class of Thiel Fellows. Here’s the full list.

Essential Reads

Amazon employees have joined civil rights groups and investors in protesting the company’s sale of facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies. Dealbook has more here.  Tesla layoffs are clouding its solar business, reports Reuters.  Apple has finally acknowledged ‘sticky’ keyboard issues on MacBooks, and it’s offering free fixes and refunds for past repairs. 9to5Mac has more here.

Detours

Young Trumpies hit D.C.  The greatest TV writers rooms ever.  Never make a dry pork chop again.

Retail Therapy

See inside Seagram’s heir Matthew Bronfman’s New York City penthouse (because it’s for sale).

Hi! We’re a little late here today (podcast recording, calls), but so fun to see some of you last night at Trou Normand in SF! We love our INSIDER events, but SVC is a ridiculously small operation as many of you know, so it’s hard for us to actually relax at these things. Last night was different and we’d love to do it again.  Special thanks to our friend Semil Shah for suggesting we throw the event. Giant thanks to Lightspeed Venture Partners for buying everyone drinks and bringing this community together. We also very much want to thank those friends who helped us out last night, including Gené Teare, Vanessa Burns, Sophie Bousset, Oona Rokyta, Ash Archibald, and Yiting Zheng. Not last, thanks so much to those of you who come to SVC’s outings. (We should have pics tomorrow, by the way.)

Top News

The Supreme Court today freed states and local governments to start collecting billions of dollars in new sales taxes from online retailers, overturning a 1992 ruling that had made much of the internet a tax-free zone and put traditional retailers at a disadvantage. Bloomberg has more here. Meanwhile, Wired posits that the decision will likely be troublesome for smaller online retailers — and actually benefit Amazon.

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New Fundings

Aaptiv, a three-year-old, New York-based startup whose app offers users a selection of audio-based, personal-trainer-led workouts, has raised $22 million in fresh funding. Millennium Technology Value Partners led the round, with participation from 14W, Insight Venture Partners, Amazon’s Alexa Fund, Disney, Warner Music Group and NWS Holdings. TechCrunch has more here.  Bossa Nova Robotics, a 13-year-old San Francisco-based company whose robots roam the aisles and scan shelves to figure out what’s in stock and what’s selling well, has raised $29 million in new funding, including from LG Electronics, Cota Capital and China Walden Ventures. The company has now raised $70 million altogether. CNBC has more here.  Cylance, a five-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based cybersecurity startup that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to combat online attacks, has raised $120 million in Series E funding led by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, with participation from other unnamed investors. VentureBeat has more here.  Roblox, the 12-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based online gaming company that your kids won’t stop talking about, is raising up to $150 million, says Pitchbook, which estimates the round could value the company at upwards of $2.4 billion. More here.  Silexica, a four-year-old, Cologne, Germany-based startup that optimizes how disparate applications work together on autonomous cars, has raised $18 million in Series B funding led by EQT Ventures in Stockholm. Earlier backers Merus Capital, Paua Ventures, Seed Fonds Aachen and DSA also joined the round round. The company has now raised $28 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Swiggy, a three-year-old, India-based startup competing in the country’s ongoing food delivery race, has landed $210 million in fresh funding led by earlier backer Naspers, with participation from return investor Meituan Dianping and new investor Coatue Management. TechCrunch has more here.  Tiller Systems, a four-year-old, Paris-based company that makes point-of-sale software for restaurants, has raised $13.9 million in new funding from Ring Capital, with participation from Omnes Capital and earlier backer 360 Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.  Truepic, a four-year-old, La Jolla, Ca.-based startup that makes a camera feature that shoots photos and adds a watermark URL leading to a copy of the image it saves, so viewers can ensure the version they’re seeing hasn’t been altered, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Dowling Capital Partners invested in the round, along with numerous individual investors, including HBS professor William Sahlman. TechCrunch has more here.  Urban Airship, an eight-year-old, Portland, Or.-based company behind a digital customer engagement platform, has raised $25 million in Series F funding led by earlier backer Foundry Group, with participation from True Ventures, August Capital, Intel Capital, Verizon Ventures, QuestMark Partners and Franklin Park Associates. TechCrunch has more here.  VIPKID, a five-year-old, Beijing, China-based company that connects Chinese children with North American tutors, has officially closed on $500 million in Series D+ funding at a valuation of more than $3 billion. (Reports said this round was coming back in April.) Four companies co-led the deal, including Coatue Management, Tencent, Sequoia Capital and Yunfeng Capital, which is Alibaba chief Jack Ma’s investment company. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Chevron Technology Ventures, the 19-year-old venture arm of the energy giant, says it’s setting aside $100 million for a Future Energy Fund that will look to back technologies from across the energy landscape. The Houston Business Journal has more here (sub required).  Matrix Partners China , a 10-year-old, Beijing, China-based early-stage venture firm, has raised $750 million for its fifth fund, shows an SEC filing. The outfit had raised $500 million for its fourth fund in early 2016. More here.  Mercury Fund, a 12-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based early-stage venture firm, is looking to raise up to $125 million for its fourth fund, shows an SEC filing. The outfit had closed its third fund with $105 million in capital commitments back in late 2014. Crunchbase News has a bit more here.  The Urban Innovation Fund, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based, seed-stage fund that’s invest in startups that are shaping the future of cities, has closed its debut fund with $22.5 million. The outfit has been investing as it has been fundraising, with 14 companies in its portfolio. Among these: Chariot, the shuttle bus service that was acquired last year by Ford. More here.

Exits

Microsoft is acquiring Bonsai, a San Francisco-based startup that helps enterprise companies add machine learning and AI capabilities into their existing operations. The company had raised $13.6 million from investors; terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.  Twitter this morning announced it has agreed to buy San Francisco-based technology company Smyte, which describes itself as “trust and safety as a service.” Founded in 2014 by former Google and Instagram engineers and backed by $6.3 million in venture funding, Smyte offers tools to stop online abuse, harassment, and spam, and protect user accounts. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but this is Twitter’s first acquisition since buying consumer mobile startup Yes, Inc. back in December 2016, notes TechCrunch. More here.  PayPal continues apace with its acquisitions streak, saying today that it’s buyingSimility, a fraud prevention specialist, for $120 million in cash. PayPal was an investor Simility (it owns three percent of the company, it says), along with Accel,Trinity Ventures and others. The startup had raised just under $25 million and was last valued at $52.75 million, according to figures from PitchBook. TechCrunch has much more here.

People

Legendary editor Graydon Carter is reportedly launching his own media company and he’s talking with TPG Capital about funding it.  In a press release earlier today touting “another record year,” Intel dropped a bombshell, announcing that CEO Brian Krzanich is resigning amid revelations of a “past consensual relationship” with an employee. TechCrunch has more here.  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is touring of America’s heartland, and he’s uploaded his first related vlog, which he has labeled as “comedy.” Gizmodo asks you to kindly leave a comment on his YouTube page.  More than five dozen Github contributors today signed a letter threatening to abandon the website unless Microsoft canceled its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract. More here.

Essential Reads

YouTube will soon offer content creators the chance to sell subscription services.  This Tesla story keeps getting weirder.

Detours

How the biggest sports star on the planet, Cristiano Ronaldo, makes and spends his millions.  Live out “Westworld” with your Amazon Echo.  This is effed up.

Retail Therapy

Sticky notes for your wrists.

Wednesday! We’re excited to see some of you a little later this afternoon in San Francisco for drinks with investor Semil Shah and our generous partner in the endeavor, Lightspeed Venture Partners. Wish we could do this more often (and in more cities). We *are* hosting a separate event in September; more on that one soon.:)

Top News

Not tech news, but big news: Donald Trump just signed an executive order to end family separations at the U.S. border. More here and here and here.

Sponsored By . . .

EquityZen. We operate a secondary market for company-approved transactions in pre-IPO stock. Founded in 2013, EquityZen has already closed over 4,400 investments in 100+ companies. For as low as $10K on your first investment, you can gain access to proven private companies like 23andMe, DoorDash, and more! Join for free and begin investing in the private markets: equityzen.com

Grove Just Raised $8 Million to Make Traditional Financial Planning Available to Pretty Much Everyone

Financial advisors aren’t cheap to use. They aren’t always seen as trustworthy, either, with many advisors receiving — or perceived as receiving — incentives for recommending certain products over others. Grove, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup, is taking on both of these issues through software that makes it easier for its own financial advisors — who are paid a straight salary — to help greater numbers of people, and more cost-effectively.  Specifically, for $600 a year, a customer can talk with or email his or her financial advisor about all kinds of decisions, from which index funds are worth considering, to whether a particular house is within reach given that person’s retirement goals.  So far, the company has just 12 employees, half of whom are financial advisors and the other half of whom are working on the product itself.  Co-founder and CEO Chris Hutchins won’t reveal how many people each financial advisor is working with currently out of fear that it might give away too much about the young company’s revenue. But generally speaking, the number of clients with whom advisors work can vary widely, from tens to many hundreds. (In a 2016, Barron’s article of the “best” 1,200 financial advisors in the U.S., the advisors worked on average with a stunning 520 families.) More here.

Other New Fundings

Beamery, a four-year-old, London-based that makes recruitment marketing software, has raised $28 million in Series B funding led by EQT Ventures. Other participants in the round include M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures) and earlier investors Index Ventures, Edenred Capital Partners and Angelpad Fund. Beamery last raised $5 million in Series A funding last year. TechCrunch has more here.  Blinkist, a six-year-old, Berlin-based startup that presents condensed versions of non-fiction literature (each title can be read or listened to in about 15 minutes), has raised $18.8 million in funding led by Insight Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.  Calm, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based startup behind a popular mental fitness app, has raised $27 million in new funding at a $250 million pre-money led by Insight Venture Partners, with Sound Ventures also participating. Calm had previously raised roughly $1.5 million in seed funding. TechCrunch has more here.  Finless Foods, a year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based startup that’s using cellular biology to make lab-grown seafood, just raised $3.5 million in funding led by Draper Associates. Other investors in the round include Softmatter VC, Starlight, U-Start Club, Blue Horizon, Hemisphere Ventures, Babel Ventures, Yakumi Investment, Olive Tree Capital and Harrison Blue Ventures. (We’d invest based solely on the company’s tagline: “Sustainable seafood without the catch.”)  More here.  Hired, the six-year-old, San Francisco-based jobs recruiting platform, has raised $30 million in new funding led by the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario. TechCrunch has more here.  Nginx, the seven-year-old, San Francisco-based commercial company behind the open source web server, has raised $43 million in Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity. TechCrunch has more here.  Seal Software, an eight-year-old, Walnut Creek, Ca.-based company that claims its advanced applications of AI makes it possible for companies to find contracts and other unstructured data in any type of file across their networks, has raised $30 million from earlier backer Toba Capital. More here.  Stensul, a four-year-old, New York-based email marketing startup, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Arthur Ventures, First Round Capital, Uncork Capital, Lowercase Capital and former ExactTarget president Scott McCorkle. TechCrunch has more here.  Universe, a two-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based iOS app that allows users to build modular, simplistic websites in a minute or two, has raised $4 million in Series A funding. Backers include Javelin Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Box Group, Eniac Ventures, Paul Buchheit, Yuri Sagalov, Louis Beryl and others. Universe has now raised $7.2 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Canaan Partners, the 31-year-old, early-stage venture capital firm, has a new investment strategy called Canaan Beta that will see it set aside $20 million of its current, $800 million fund for its two youngest employees to allocate to startups as they see fit. TechCrunch has more here.  Jerusalem Venture Partners, the 25-year-old, early-stage venture capital firm, is looking to raise up to $200 million for its eighth fund and it has locked down at least $168.4 million in capital commitments, shows a new SEC filing. Calcalist has more here.  Long Hill Capital, a Shanghai-based venture firm that invests in both health-care and consumer tech startups in China, is raising up to $200 million for a second venture fund, shows an SEC filing. The outfit had closed its debut fund with $125 million in late 2016. More here.  Osage University Partners, the nine-year-old, Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based venture firm that invests in startups which commercialize university research, is raising up to $250 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. The outfit had closed its debut fund with $100 million back in 2011. More here.

IPOs

So far this year, 27 IPOs totaling $32.5 billion have been launched in Europe, eclipsing the 57 listings worth $8.28 billion last year, according to dealroom.co. CNBC takes a look at why Europe’s IPO market is heating up here.  Jiguang, a Shenzhen, China-based data aggregation company, is planning an initial public offering in New York in the second half of this year, according to the WSJ. The company is reportedly looking to raise $300 million, at a post-money valuation of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. More here.  One of the world’s largest commercial real estate companies, Cushman & Wakefield, just filed to go public. Business Insider has more details here.  Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has shelved a plan to sell shares in China in conjunction with its imminent Hong Kong IPO. The company will instead go public in Hong Kong first and consider the potential for a Chinese offering at a later date. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Everyone’s favorite surgeon-who-also-happens-to-be-one-of-the-New Yorker’s-best-writers, Atul Gawande, will lead the joint health-care venture between Amazon, J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway, the three companies announced today. TechCrunch has more here.  Tesla is suing a former employee Martin Tripp for $1 million, alleging Tripp hacked the company’s confidential and trade secret information and transferred that information to third parties, according to court documents. The lawsuit also claims Tripp leaked false information to the media, and he’s not alone, Elon Musk said today, tweeting, “there is more,” meaning more employees trying to sabotage the company. TechCrunch has more here.

Data

New findings underscore what you already know. People don’t trust traditional media as they once did. They trust social media even less. And certain groups in particular, including Republicans and people with a high school education or less, are the most suspicious that what they read isn’t accurate. The Gallup/Knight Foundation breaks it down in a fresh survey of 1,440 American recruited randomly to assess how pervasive U.S. adults believe misinformation is.

Essential Reads

Instagram is ready to compete head on with YouTube.  Union Square Ventures, the New York-based venture capital firm, is betting on yet another cryptocurrency hedge fund startup, Multicoin Capital. It’s the sixth cryptocurrency fund the firm has backed over the last 18 months. Fortune has more here.   Jack Dorsey’s Twitter and Square are both on the verge of doubling in market value this year.

Detours

What the L.A. stand-up scene actually pays.  How the carmakers trumped themselves.  What it means to be loved by a dog.

Retail Therapy

Hush, little babies, with these Bose SleepBuds.