Tuesday!

Top News

Industrial giant GE is getting booted from the Dow, to be replaced by Walgreens.  Global markets convulsed today after Donald Trump called for further tariffs against China.

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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

New Fundings

Bainbridge Health, a two-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based company whose data analytics platform aims to help clinicians better monitor patient safety and reduce medication errors, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding. BioAdvance, Chestnut Street Ventures and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia led the round. More here.  Brex, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that’s offering startups a kind of credit card that they can use without having to personally guarantee the card, has raised $57 million in funding from investors, including the Y Combinator Continuity fund, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Yuri Milner, Ribbit Capital and former Visa CEO Carl Pascarella. TechCrunch has more here.  Crate.io, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of CrateDB, an open source SQL database for real-time machine data and IoT applications, has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Zetta Venture Partners and Deutsche Invest Equity co-led the round, with participation from Momenta Partners and numerous individual investors, along with earlier backers like Draper Esprit. More here.  CrowdStrike, a seven-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based endpoint protection cybersecurity startup, has raised $200 million in fresh funding, at a $3 billion valuation. The round was co-led by General Atlantic, Accel, and IVP; previous investors March Capital and CapitalG also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.  Decibel Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Boston-based company working on medicines to protect and repair hearing, has raised $55 million in Series C funding from earlier backers Third Rock, GV, SR One and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, along with new new investors Foresite Capital, Bessemer Trust, Schroder Adveq, SCubed Capital, and Longevity. We’d written about the company (which we still find interesting) last year.  Embodied, a two-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based robotics platform for care and wellness, has raised $22 million in Series A funding led by Calibrate Ventures, with participation from Jazz Venture Partners and earlier backers Osage University Partners, Intel Capital and Grishin Robotics. More here.  Emulate, a Boston-based startup that has developed small laboratory chips intended to replace the animal tests used in pharmaceutical research, has raised $36 million in Series C funding led by Founders Fund. The funding also includes additional new investors including ALS Investment Fund, SciFi VC, members of GlassWall Syndicate Association, as well as several existing investors. Xconomy has more here.  Ethos, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based life insurance startup, has raised $11.5 million in new equity and debt funding. Sequoia Capital led the equity piece of the deal; SVB provided the credit. More here.  ezCater, an 11-year-old, Boston-based nationwide marketplace for business catering, has raised $100 million in new funding led by Wellington Management Company, with participation from earlier backers ICONiQ Capital and Insight Venture Partners, among others. The round brings ezCater’s total funding to around $170 million. TechCrunch has more here.  Fabric, a three-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based life insurance startup, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. More here.  Falkonry, a six-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company that markets a ready-to-use machine learning system for direct use by manufacturing engineers or process engineers, has raised $4.6 million in Series A funding. Presidio Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Fortive Corporation, Basis Set Ventures, Polaris Partners, Start Smart Labs and Zetta Venture Partners. More here.  Jane.ai, a year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based artificial intelligence platform that says it makes all of a company’s information accessible through chat, has launched with $8.4 million in funding from a Midwest network of private and angel investors. The company was founded by former Answers.com CEO David Karandish. More here.  Micrima, a 12-year-old, Bristol, England-based breast imaging company, has raised £4.4 million ($5.8 million) in funding, including from Technology Venture Partners, The Angel CoFund, and Venture Founders. More here.  Peek, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based startup aiming to digitize the travel activities industry, has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from numerous individual investors. The company has also announced a tie-up with Google that will see its inventory added to Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Trips. Peek has now raised $40 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Prifender, a three-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.- and Tel Aviv, Israel-based maker of identity-aware technology, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Firstime VC, with participation from Shaked Ventures and iAngels. More here.  Pulse Q&A, a year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer platform that aims to offer bias-free business strategy and innovation advice for C-level executives, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. Y Combinator and angel investors including Steve Norall, former CPO at Survey Monkey, also participated. More here.  Scratchpay, a 2.5-year-old, L.A.-based company that uses mobile tech to match pet owners with affordable veterinary care by aggregating and analyzing different providers, has raised $6.4 million in Series A funding. Companion Fund, a $100 million pet-centered venture capital fund, led the round, with participation fromStruck Capital, TTV Capital and SWS Venture Capital. L.A. Business Journal has more here.  SigFig, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that provides wealth management tech to financial companies, has raised $50 million in new funding led by General Atlantic, with participation from UBS Group AG, Eaton Vance Corpand Bain Capital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  SmartAsset, a seven-year-old, New York-based personal finance startup, has raised $28 million in Series C funding, bringing its total raised to more than $51 million. The new round comes from Focus Financial Partners, Javelin Venture Partners, TTV Capital, IA Capital, Contour Venture Partners, Citi Ventures, founder-investor Fabrice Grinda and others. TechCrunch has more here.  SpinLaunch, a four-year-old, Silicon Valley startup that wants to catapult rockets into space, has raised $35 million in Series A funding from GV, Airbus Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins, bringing the company’s total funding to $40 million. Business Insider has more here.  Talentry, a six-year-old, Munich, Germany-based startup that has developed a social recruitment and marketing platform, has raised €6 million (roughly $7 million) in Series A funding. Leading the round is Nauta Capital, a pan-European venture firm that’s focused on SaaS, with participation from Rocket Internet’s Global Founders Capital, Allgeier SE, and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Veriff, a three-year-old, Estonia- and Mountain View, Ca.-based startup whose software aims to make it easy for companies like banks to easily verify a person’s identity online, has raised $7.7 million in Series A funding. Mosaic Ventures led the round, with participation from SV Angel, ACE Ventures, Superangel and numerous individual investors, including Paul Buchheit. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

George Arida, a Madison, Wi.-based investor, is raising a $15 million venture capital fund called  30Ventures Fund I L.P., according to a new SEC filing. 30Ventures is based at the University Research Park in Madison. The Milwaukee Business News has more here. Not a new fund exactly but a program that might interest some of you: Highland Capital Partners, the early-stage venture capital firm, has opened up a summer accelerator for security startups called the Cybersecurity Factory 2018. Startups will receive a $35,000 investment and participate in the 10-week mentoring program at Highland’s office near the Harvard and MIT campuses. More here.  MetaProp, a three-year-old, New York-based seed-stage, real-estate focused venture fund, has closed its second fund with $40 million in capital commitments. The fund will be used to invest from $150,000 to $2 million in up to 40 property-management software, IoT, hardware and tech-enabled services startups. More here.  Redpoint Ventures, the 19-year-old, Bay Area-based early-stage venture firm, has closed a new fund with $400 million in commitments. TechCrunch has more here.

Exits

F-Secure, a Finnish cybersecurity company,  is paying £80 million (€91,6M) in cash to purchase all outstanding shares in MWR InfoSecurity, a privately held cyber security company with numerous offices, including in the U.S. and the U.K. As TechCrunch notes, that move underscores the shift in the cyber security industry from defensive, reactive actions towards pro-active detection and response. More here.  Leanplum, a venture-backed mobile engagement platform, has acquiredConnecto, a Sofia, Bulgaria-based conversational marketing company. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. LeanPlum has raised nearly $100 million from investors since its founding six years ago. GameStop, a publicly traded, Grapevine, Tex.-based video game and equipment retailer, is in talks with private equity firms about being acquired, says Reuters. More here.  PayPal just announced that it’s acquiring Hyperwallet, an 18-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind an online worker payment platform. According to Crunchbase, Hyperwallet had raised at least one round of venture capital (though the amount wasn’t disclosed) from Raymond James and Primus Capital. PayPal is buying it for $400 million in cash. More here.

IPOs

BrightView, a 79-year-old, Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based company that’s among the largest providers of commercial landscaping services in the U.S., says it plans to sell 21.3 million IPO shares at between $22 and $25. The company’s biggest outside shareholders include KKR and MSD Capital. Nasdaq has a bit more here.  Forty Seven, a three-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based immuno-oncology firm, said it plans to raise $101 million in an IPO of 6.7 million shares priced between $14 to $16. Its biggest shareholders include Lightspeed Ventures Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Clarus Lifesciences, Wellington Management Company andAlphabet. Nasdaq has more here.

People

Apple CEO Tim Cook is the latest business leader to condemn the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy that has resulted in immigrant children being separated from their parents at the US border. Others to publicly slam the policy include Airbnb’s founders. More here.  VC Tim Draper, an early and prominent Theranos investor, appeared on the Cheddar network earlier today, where he continued to defend Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, saying Holmes was “doing good work” before Theranos was “attacked” by the WSJ and “forced to sort of fail.” More here.

Data

Social media is still growing in emerging markets, but it is stalling elsewhere.

Essential Reads

Facebook is launching a gameshow platform with interactive video.  Amazon just rolled out a version of Alexa for hotels that are interested in putting Echo speakers in their rooms.  IBM‘s new AI supercomputer can argue, rebut and debate humans.

Detours

How Facebook’s latest machine learning research could save a lot of bad photographs.  The 11 best foods for your immune system.  Inside the binge factory.

Retail Therapy

Five cheap-ish things for bike commuting bliss.

Aaaand, we’re back after a relaxing week off! (Lots of running around today, thus the latest send ever!) Back on track tomorrow. Hope you had a wonderful Monday.:)

Top News

In a rebuke of the Trump administration, the Senate voted today to reinstate tough penalties on ZTE, the Chinese telecom company accused in April of violating American sanctions. As the New York Times reports, the measure would undo an agreement the Commerce Department recently reached that would allow ZTE to remain in business in exchange for paying a $1 billion fine, replacing its senior leadership and installing American compliance officers.  That was fast. Roughly one year after investment banker and hedge fund founder Marc Mezvinsky was brought into Social Capital, he is parting ways with the firm. So is Tony Bates, formerly the president of GoPro, who was also brought in a year ago. Also leaving the firm, Arjun Sethi. That’s at least four partners to leave the firm over the last year. Longtime industry watchers might recall that last summer, firm cofounder Mamoon Hamid left Social Capital for Kleiner Perkins while the firm’s third cofounder, Ted Maidenberg, was also said to be leaving (though he continues to list Social Capital as his primary affiliation on LinkedIn). Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya describes the continuing exodus from the firm as growing pains.  Elon Musk emailed employees a bit ago about “extensive and damaging sabotage” by a Tesla employee. CNBC has more here.

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New Fundings

Capture Technologies, a month-old, L.A.-based company that’s launching a new app of the same name, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Social Capital, Dream Machine and Mail.ru Group, among others. Two of the cofounders had previously cofounded the art filter app Prisma. TechCrunch has more here.  CHEQ, a four-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity company that aims to protect advertisers from negative content association and digital ad fraud, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Battery Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Chowbotics, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based  company that makes a salad-making robot, has raised $11 million in Series A-1 funding led by the Foundry Group and Techstars. TechCrunch has more here.  Cleo, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that acts as an extension of prenatal and postpartum care offered by employers to new and expecting parents, has raised $10.5 million in Series A funding. Greylock Partners led the round; the capital follows $2.25 million in seed funding that the startup raised last year from Felicis Ventures and Forerunner Ventures. Forbes has more here.  Elucidata, a three-year-old, New Delhi, India- and Cambridge, Ma.-based data science company that’s developing tools and software solutions for drug discovery, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding. Hyperplane Venture Capital led the round. More here.  Gamurs, a four-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based esports media network, has raised $2.2 million in funding, including from Alium Capital. More here.  Hipcamp, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based booking site for camping experiences, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark. Other investors include Affirm co-founder Max Levchin and former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. Forbes has more here. Influential, a five-year-old, Las Vegas-based company that employs artificial-intelligence technology to match social-media stars and celebs with marketers, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. Capital Zed and Europlay Capital Advisors led the round, with participation from WME. TechCrunch has more here.  JD.com, the publicly traded e-commerce giant, has taken $550 million from Google as part of a broader strategic partnership. JD shares opened up nearly 6 percent today, giving it a market cap north of $65 billion. TechCrunch has more here.  Gospel Technology, a 1.5-year-old, London-based blockchain software startup that’s working with one of the U.K.’s biggest aerospace and defense manufacturers to develop a proof of concept to improve record keeping for its supply chain, has raised £1.4M from LocalGlobe. More here.  Moxy, a new commercial airline startup from David Neeleman, who launched New York-based JetBlue nearly two decades ago, is reportedly raising $100 million in first-round funding, including from Neeleman himself. CNBC has more here.   Panaseer, a four-year-old, London-based cyber security software company, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Evolution Equity Partners led the round with participation from Notion Capital, Albion Capital, Winton Ventures, Paladin Capital Group and Cisco Investments. More here.  PatSnap, an 11-year-old, U.K.- and Singapore-based Euro-Asian company that offers patent and R&D platform and services, has raised $38 million in Series D funding led by earlier investors Sequoia Capital and Shunwei Capital, the investment firm founded by Xiaomi co-founder and CEO Lei Jun. Southeast Asia’s Qualgro also took part in the round. All three backed the company in 2016 when it led an undisclosed Series C round. TechCrunch has more here.  Photomyne, a nearly four-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based A.I.-powered app that helps bring users’ old photo prints online, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Luxembourg-based Maor. TechCrunch has more here. Pulumi, a year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based cloud application development company, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from Tola Capital. More here. RideOS, a year-old, San Francisco-based stealth tech platform designed to accelerate the roll-out of self-driving vehicles, has raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Graph Ventures and SV Angel. More here.  TenantBase, a 4.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based tech-enabled commercial real estate brokerage, has raised $10.7 million in new funding led by Stonecutter Capital. OC Startups Now has more here.   Tessian, a five-year-old, London-based startup that’s deploying machine learning to improve email security, has raised $13 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Accel, Amadeus Capital Partners, Crane, LocalGlobe, Winton Ventures, and Walking Ventures. More here.  Toss, the largest payment app in South Korea, has raised $40 million in fresh funding from the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Sequoia China. TechCrunch has more here.  Xiaozhu, a Beijing, China-based rival to Airbnb, is in talks with investors to raise $100 million, according to The Information. The company was valued at $1 billion in its previous round in November when it raised $120 million from investors, including Yunfeng Capital, a private equity fund backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma. More here. Zenaton, a year-old, Paris-based cloud-based developer tool company focused on workflows, has raised $2.35 million in seed funding co-led by Accel and Point Nine Capital, with participation from Slack Fund and Kima Ventures. TechCrunch hasmore here.

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New Funds

Firstminute Capital, a London, U.K.-based early stage venture capital firm, has officially closed its first seed fund with $100 million in commitments. The firm was formed last year by Brent Hoberman and Spencer Crawley and focuses on European early-stage tech companies. TechCrunch has more here.  Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi is creating a $400 million fund to invest in European technology companies. Reuters has more here.  Primary Venture Partners, a New York-based, seed-stage venture capital firm that’s focused on New York-based startups, has closed on $100 million in capital commitments for its second fund. TechCrunch has more here.  True Ventures is fundraising again, according to SEC filings flagged last week by Crunchbase News. The venture firm is raising a sixth early-stage flagship fund that’s targeting $325 million; it’s also raising its third “Select” fund, which aims to make later-stage investments in breakout companies in its early-stage portfolio. More here.

Exits

BitTorrent, an early mover in concept of building a business around decentralized computing architecture to distribute and store data, is being sold for $140 million in cash to Justin Sun and his blockchain media startup Tron, TechCrunch has learned. More here.  Microsoft acquired Flipgrid, a nearly four-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based social learning platform, for undisclosed financial terms. Flipgrid had raised approximately $17 million in funding from venture investors, including Arthur Ventures andBrightstone Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

The online polling firm SurveyMonkey has filed confidentially to go public.  Domo, the business software company founded by serial entrepreneur Josh James and last valued at $2.28 billion, could go public at a valuation of just $511 million.

People

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and the blood-testing firm’s former president, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, were indicted on Friday by federal grand jury that alleged the pair engaged in schemes to defraud investors, doctors and patients.   Khosla Ventures has hired Dan Levin, the longtime No. 2 at Box. Recode has more here.  Travis VanderZanden, the founder of the 10-month-old e-scooter company Bird, has already sold some of his shares, reports The Information.  Investor Mike Rothenberg and others allegedly shared a former employee’s Social Security number in a public blog, according to a lawsuit filed last week. The SJ Merc has more here.

Data

Lower demand for leather has left the beef industry with a glut of hides.

Essential Reads

India is probing whether Sequoia Capital had any role in an alleged money laundering case involving a former minister’s son, according to Bloomberg.   CryptoKitties, a startup that raised $12 million in March to build out its digital feline project, has hit the skids. Fortune has more here.  A group of Amazon shareholders is asking CEO Jeff Bezos to stop selling and marketing pattern-recognition technology to governments after civil liberties groups warned of the potential for abuse.

Detours

The World Health Organization has recognized “gaming disorder” as a mental health condition.  Texas Senator Ted Cruz defeated Jimmy Kimmel in charity basketball game on Saturday. Speaking for both men, Kimmel said: “We apologize to the game of basketball.”

Retail Therapy

Get sharp.

Friday! [Throws champagne glass at fireplace.]  Please don’t let it be a sweep, please don’t let it be a sweep.  Remember, no SVC next week but we’ll be back soon. Hope you have a wonderful weekend and week (much as we wish we could rewind this past one and start over).

Top News

You can’t be surprised at this point, but: Facebook now says it gave some companies special access to additional data about users’ friends after shutting off access for other developers.   The bike-share company Motivate (which operates publicly as Citi Bike), is apparently still up for grabs.

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 Coinbase, Lisnr, and more! Join for free and begin investing in the private markets: equityzen.com

New Fundings

Ant Financial, the nearly four-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based fintech affiliate of Alibaba that includes Alipay, announced today that it has raised a stunning $14 billion in Series C funding. (Earlier reports had pegged the targeted amount at a nearly-as-stunning $9 billion). The round includes an RMB tranche for Chinese investors and a US dollar tranche for other investors. Some of these backers include the Singapore-based sovereign funds GIC and Temasek, Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Warburg Pincus, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Silver Lake and General Atlantic. TechCrunch has more here on the deal. Meanwhile, CNBC takes a look at how the young company sprinted past Goldman Sachs in size. Bedrock Analytics, a five-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based intelligent analytics and insights automation platform for the consumer packaged goods industry, raised $7.2 million in funding co-led by Cervin Ventures and Illuminate Ventures. More here.  BlueVine, a five-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based online lending company that caters to small businesses, has raised $60 million in Series E funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from new investors, including SVB Capital and “all major” previous investors. More here.  EON Foundation, a Palo Alto, Ca.- and Singapore-based blockchain games company, has raised $5 million in seed funding, including from Cherubic Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.  Gett, an eight-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based ride hailing app, has raised $80 million in funding at a $1.4 billion valuation led by earlier investor VW, with participation from Access Industries and others. TechCrunch has more here. JetClosing, a two-year-old, Seattle-based provider of digital real estate title and settlement transaction software, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from PSL Ventures, Imagen Capital Partners and return backers Trilogy Equity Partners and Maveron. TechCrunch has more here.   Panda, a year-old, San Francisco-based voice-activated camera with filters, has raised $850,000, including from Social Capital, Afore Capital, and Cyan Banister. TechCrunch has more here. SutroVax, a five-year-old, Foster City, Ca.-based developer of conjugate and antigen-based vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases, has raised $85 million in Series C funding led by TPG Growth, with participation from Medicxi, Foresite Capital and earlier backers Abingworth, Longitude Capital, Frazier Health Care Partners, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Roche Venture Fund, and CTI Life Sciences Fund. More here.   TraceLink, a nine-year-old, North Reading, Ma.-based company that helps eliminate counterfeit prescription drugs from the global marketplace, has raised a $60 million in new funding shows an SEC filing. According to previous filings, the company has now raised roughly $140 million to date, including from Goldman Sachs. More here.  WhyHotel, a two-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based operator of pop-up hotels in luxury apartment buildings, has raised $3.9 million in seed funding led by Camber Creek, with participation from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund,Mendacre, MetaProp and Working Lab Capital. More here.

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New Funds

The government of Guizhou Province, China, has announced plans to establish a RMB3 billion ($470 million) industrial fund to boost big data developments. China Money Network has (a little) more here.

Exits

Workday announced today that it’s buying Rallyteam, a San Francisco-based startup that helps companies keep talented employees by matching them with more challenging opportunities in-house. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. According to Crunchbase, Rallyteam had raised $8.6 million from investors, including Norwest Venture Partners, Storm Ventures, and Microsoft, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

Stitch Fix, one of last year’s high-profile IPOs, has had a bumpy ride for the past few quarters, but it blew out expectations yesterday for its most recent quarter, and the stock went nuts.  We separately chatted yesterday with Alex Wilhelm of Crunchbase News and VC Brian Ascher of Venrock about why people aren’t quite so crazy about Domo‘s planned IPO; if you’re looking for some weekend listening, you can check out that conversation over on the “Equity” podcast.

People

People RBC just fired its investment banking chief Blair Fleming because he failed to disclose that he was having an affair with a staffer. The Financial Times has more here.  Kevin Hartz, co-founder and former CEO of Eventbrite, has quietly stepped down as a partner with venture capital firm Founders Fund, reports Axios. Hartz joined Founders Fund in late 2016, several months after turning the reins at Eventbrite over to co-founder and wife Julia Hartz.   The former chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix,  is being accused of taking $8 million from the company ahead of its collapse. Verizon will have a new CEO as of August: Hans Vestberg, who is currently the company’s CTO. Dealbook takes a look at outgoing CEO Lowell McAdam’s biggest deals.

Essential Reads

How not to launch a blockchain network. Status symbol, wreaker of havoc: a look at the one-name email.  Investors in the newest unicorn race better settle in a long ride. To wit, while it’s known that San Francisco plans to cap the number of e-scooters in the city, now Santa Monica, Ca. is following suit, recommending regulations that will allow up to three providers to operate just 1,500 devices in the city, with the potential to increase the number to 2,250 by the end of 2019.

Detours

Female versions of Marvel actors.  How to easily create and manage dummy email accounts that forward to your real address. A Are you sure there isn’t anything else I can do before the end of the school year?

Retail Therapy

For your inner college student.

Hi, there, happy Thursday! We’re racing out the door again this morning, but a quick reminder that StrictlyVC will *not* go out to readers next week; we’ll happily be resuming operations on June 18th, so hang tight.:)

Top News

It’s official: The U.S. has struck a deal that gets ZTE back in business.

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 Coinbase, Lisnr, and more! Join for free and begin investing in the private markets: equityzen.com

Coinbase is Looking to Trade Startups’ Digital Tokens Now, Too

Every day, tech investors and reporters are pitched on new services that intend to generate digital tokens that its creators expect will trade . . . somewhere. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Coinbase,  known currently for trading a handful of the largest cryptocurrencies, wants to be that somewhere. To that end, it’s acquiring securities dealer Keystone Capital, a California-based FINRA-registered broker-dealer that, according to the WSJ, can operate as a registered investment and run an alternative trading system. Coinbase said the move sets it on a path to “offer future services that include crypto securities trading, margin and over-the-counter trading.” Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Coinbase will need regulatory approval to operate under the Keystone licenses, and its COO Asiff Hirji told the WSJ that it expects to take several months after those approvals are obtained to integrate Keystone’s operations. More than $13 billion has been raised by startups via so-called initial coin offerings since the beginning of last year — a whopping $6.3 billion of that raised in just the first three months of 2018. That represents a huge opportunity for a company like Coinbase, particularly as more startups submit to regulatory oversight and, as a result, produce what are called “security” tokens.  More here.

New Fundings

10% Happier, a two-year-old, Boston-based meditation app company, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding, including from Khosla Ventures, Trinity Ventures and Correlation Ventures. More here.  Avi Networks, a six-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based intent-based application services development platform, just raised $60 million in funding from Cisco, DAG Ventures, Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures. More here.  Caroobi, a three-year-old, Berlin-based platform that connects auto mechanics with consumers and parts suppliers, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by NGP Capital, formerly known as Nokia Growth Partners. TechCrunch has more here.  Danke Gongyu, a three-year-old, Beijing-based apartment leasing platform, has raised a $70 million Series B+ round led by New York-based Tiger Global Management. Other investors in the round include China Media Capital, Gaorong Capital, Joy Capital, Vision Plus Capital, Bertelsmann Asia Investments and Shenzhen Youjin Investment Management. DealStreetAsia has more here.  Devo, a seven-year-old, Burlingame, Ma.-based data operations platform that helps companies extract intelligence from their streaming and historical data (and was formerly known as LogTrust), has raised $25 million in Series C funding. Insight Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Kibo Ventures. The investment brings the company’s total funding to $71 million. TechCrunch has more here.  DocAuthority, a five-year-old, Ra’anana, Israel-based data management startup, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Raine Ventures, with participation from Greycroft, ff VC, Differential VC, 2B Angels and Plus Ventures. More here.  The Honest Company, the six-year-old, L.A.-based personal care and baby product business co-founded by Jessica Alba, has sold a minority stake in its business for $200 million to the private equity firm L Catteron. Honest had raised $297 million from its six prior funding rounds, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource. The company was valued at $1.7 billion in 2015, but lost its so-called unicorn status as issues with products arose. The WSJ has more here.  Kittyhawk, a nearly 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based drone innovation company, has raised $5 million in funding led by Bonfire Ventures, with participation fromBoeing HorizonX Ventures, Freestyle Capital, and Kluz Capital. GeekWire has more here.  LendStreet, an eight-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based online consumer debt restructuring and consolidation platform, has raised $7 million in Series A funding co-led by Prudential Financial and Radicle Impact. Earlier backers existing investors Accion, the Center for Financial Services Innovation, Serious Change, Crunchfund, Kapor Capital, and Cross Culture Ventures also joined the round. More here.  Meesho, a three-year-old, Bengalaru, India-based Indian “social selling” startup, has raised $11.5 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia India, with participation from SAIF Partners, YC and Venture Highway. The company has now raised $15 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.   Metacrine, a three-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based biotech company centered around treating diabetes, steatohepatitis and other metabolic and liver disorders, has raised $65 million in Series C funding led by Venrock. Other participants in the round include Franklin Templeton Investments, Deerfield Management, Arrowmark Partners, Invus, Lilly Asia Ventures, Vivo Capital and others. FierceBiotech has more here.  Nash Work, a five-year-old, Beijing, China-based co-working space operator, has raised $78 million in Series B funding led by Sino-Ocean Capital, with participation from China Huarong Asset Management, Deutsche Bank and Clearwater Capital. China Money Network has more here.  NextInput, a six-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that markets a set of proprietary touch technologies, has raised $13 million in Series B financing, including from earlier backers Sierra Ventures, Cota Capital and UMC Capital. More here.  Obligo, a year-old, New York-based fintech startup that offers an alternative to the security deposit needed traditionally by renters, has raised $5 million in seed funding. 83 North led the round, and was joined by investors including Entree Capital, HFZ Capital, and Viola Credit. Calcalist has more here.  Packlane, a 3.5-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based manufacturer that works with brands to make customized packaging, has reportedly raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Breakout Capital, with participation from Draper Associates among other investors. More here.  Panorays, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that automates third-party security management, has raised $5 million led by Aleph. Calcalist has more here. Podium, a four-year-old, Lehi, Ut.-based customer communication platform for local businesses, has raised $60 million in Series B funding led by IVP, with participation from Accel, Summit Partners, GV, and Y Combinator. More here.  Qumulo, a six-year-old, Seattle-based file storage company, has raised $93 million in Series D funding led by funds managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners.Goldman Sachs and Western Digital also participated in the round, along with many of Qumulo’s early backers, including Highland Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Madrona Venture Group, and Valhalla Partners. Vator has more here.  Sirnaomics, an 11-year-old Gaithersburg, Md.-based company that’s developing anti-fibrosis and anti-cancer RNAi therapeutics, has raised $25 million in Series C1 funding. Yuexiu New Industrial Investment led the round, and was joined by investors including Sangel Biomedical Venture Capital, HuaKong Equity Investment and Qianhai Shenghui Investment. The WSJ has more here.  Starship Technologies, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes hotel-room-refrigerator-size last-mile delivery robots, has raised $25 million in fresh funding from earlier backers Matrix Partners and Morpheus Ventures and new investors who include Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn and others. TechCrunch has more here.  Stocard, a six-year-old, Mannheim, Germany-based digital wallet company that invites users to store their loyalty cards on its app, has raised $20 million in funding led by Macquarie Capital. More here.  Sunlight Financial, a four-year-old, New York- and Charlotte, N.C.-based company that provides point-of-sale, structured consumer funding for customers of solar, battery and roofing companies in the U.S., has raised a $50 million investment from FTV Capital, the growth equity investor. More here.  Taft, a three-year-old, Provo, Ut.-based men’s footwear brand, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Kickstart Seed Fund, with participation from M3 Ventures,Fifth Wall Ventures, and Peterson Partners. More here.  Tiantianpaiche, a three-year-old, Chinese used car auction site, has raised $100 million from Autohome, a Chinese automobile online platform. China Money Network has more here.  Unchained Capital, a year-old, Austin, Tex.-based crypto-finance company that lends cash to long-term crypto-investors, has raised roughly $3 million in seed funding from numerous individual investors, including former Wall Street trader Michael Komaransky, and Trunk Club cofounder Brian Spaly. More here.  Verity Studios, a four-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based developer of indoor drones used to film indoor events, has raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Fontinalis Partners, with participation from Airbus Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund and Kitty Hawk. More here.  Xtraction Services, year-old, Clermont, Fl.-based maker of CO2 extraction equipment, has raised $2.8 million in funding, following a $5 million round the company had closed last fall.  Archytas Ventures, an L.A.-based holding firm that specializes in cannabis businesses, led the round. Other investors include Quinsam Capital and Ollerhead Capital. More here.  Zebra Medical Vision, a four-year-old, Israel-based medical imaging startup that uses machine and deep learning to build tools for radiologists, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by health technology fund aMoon Ventures, with participation from Aurum, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Intermountain Health and artificial intelligence experts Fei-Fei Li and Richard Socher. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Camber Creek, a New York- and Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm focused on real estate tech, has closed its second fund with $30 million in capital commitments. The firm was formerly known as Berman Venture Capital, having started life as the corporate venture arm of Berman Enterprises, a real estate development firm. More here.  Drugmaker Pfizer said yesterday that it plans to pour $600 million in its venture capital fund, a quarter of which will be earmarked for research on neuroscience. The new funding will bring total assets managed by Pfizer Ventures to over $1 billion, the company said in a statement. Six months ago, Pfizer said it was abandoning research to find new drugs aimed at treating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases after a string of costly trials yielded disappointing results. Reuters has the story here.  Valo Ventures, a new, Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm founded by Scott Tierney, who’d cofounded Google’s late-stage investment arm, CapitalG, is raising a $250 million debut fund, shows an SEC filing that was first flagged yesterday by Axios. Crunchbase News has more here.

IPOs

Electrocore, a 13-year-old, Basking Ridge, N.J.-based migraine device maker, is planning to raise $65 million in an IPO that prices its shares between $14 to $16 apiece. Nasdaq has more here.  Marley Spoon, a four-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based meal kit company that operates globally, has filed for an Australian IPO that could give it a market cap of around$152 million. It has raised more than $40 million from investors, including Quasar Discovery Ventures, Lakestar, Kreos Capital, WestTech Ventures and TA Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

People

GM president Dan Ammann has left Lyft’s board, the latest sign that the automaker and ride-hailing company are looking more like competitors than allies. Ammann’s departure comes just two years after GM formed a partnership with Lyft that included a $500 million investment and a board seat. Fortune has more here.  Jonathan Bush, Athenahealth’s CEO and co-founder, resigned Wednesday following reports of inappropriate behavior. Bush, a “nephew of one president and cousin of another, stepped down as chief executive of Athenahealth under intensifying pressure from Elliott Management, which last month made a hostile takeover offer for the company,” reports the New York Times.  Former Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is starting a new company with two ex-Qualcomm executives that will focus on next-generation wireless technology.The new company doesn’t interrupt Jacobs’ plans to take Qualcomm private, reports CNBC.

Essential Reads

Coinbase is Looking to Trade Startups’ Digital Tokens Now, Too  is throwing its servers in the sea to keep them cool.  The “gig” economy has actually shrunk since 2005.  Instagram is preparing to unveil a home for longer-form video.  Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said his company wants to become the “Amazon of transportation.” Now Lyft is following that lead. Recode explains here.

Detours

Golden State’s terrifying (to Cavs fans) Plan B.  Why so many sitcoms look the same.  The world’s highest-paid athletes.

Retail Therapy

Danish Fuel. We dig.

Hi, everyone! We have to keep things short and sweet today. (A graduation ceremony.) Much more tomorrow.

Top News

Apple is finally overhauling Siri.

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Norwest Just Scored an Interesting New Partner in Google and Facebook Alum Priti Yousseff Chokski

A lot of people who’ve been working in the venture industry — even for many years — haven’t seen a true down cycle. Somewhat ironically, Priti Youssef Choksi, a newly minted VC, knows very well what one looks like. The newest partner of the multi-stage investment firm Norwest Venture Partners has been working in tech since before the last boom and bust — and she has lessons to share about both good times and bad. It all started in her native Mumbai (“Bombay to me!” she says). Choksi didn’t tell her parents when, as a teenager, she applied to the University of Pennsylvania to study architecture and business. “I couldn’t study both back home,” she says, somewhat sheepishly from Norwest’s glass-lined new offices in San Francisco’s South Park neighborhood. Instead of wind up at an architecture firm, she landed at Broadview Associates, an investment bank that was based in the Bay Area and advised dozens of tech companies during the go-go dot.com days — before nosediving along with the market. (In 2003, it was acquired by bigger rival Jefferies.) By then, Choksi had already joined one of the bank’s clients, an internet marketing company called USWeb whose CEO asked her to work for him despite having no discrete job description. Looking back now, Choksi remembers the experience fondly, saying she ran strategy projects and competitive analysis of what others in the industry were doing as USWeb grew from a 200- to an 8,000-person operation. This being the dot com era, however, USWeb, which was renowned for its roll-up strategy at the time, merged with another company, which promptly went bankrupt. Choksi again left before her employer’s demise to join an early streaming media company, but alas, it wasn’t meant to last long either. If at this point, Choksi felt ready to throw in the towel, she doesn’t seem to recall it. Instead, she entered into a one-year program at the Kellogg School to burnish her “soft skills and negotiating skills and things you don’t have time to practice” at a startup. Then she headed right back to Silicon Valley. Her return would begin a second chapter of sorts. In fact, like a lot of people who came to the Bay Area in the ’90s and who have stayed, Choksi’s fortunes began to turn after the detritus of the bubble’s burst began to blow away. More here.

New Fundings

MoloFinance, a year-old, London-based fintech that is developing a fully digital mortgage offering, has closed £3.7 million in seed funding. The round was led by Ubon Partners, a Nordic fund specializing in financial services. TechCrunch has more here.  Ritual, a nearly four-year-old, Toronto-based meal-ordering app, has raised $70 million in funding led by Georgian Partners, with existing investors Greylock Partners, Insight Ventures, and Mistral Venture Partners all participating. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

March Capital, a two-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based venture capital firm that was cofounded by longtime investment banker Jamie Montgomery, has so far raised more than $108 million in capital commitments for its second fund, according to an SEC filing that shows a $150 million target.. The fund’s target is $150 million.  Target Global, a Berlin, Germany-based venture capital fund, is launching a dedicated fund to invest in next-generation mobility and transportation. The firm says the evergreen fund will be able to invest up to $300 million in capital and that target investments will be in European and Israeli startups that focus on automotive, private and public transportation, logistics and delivery and related services. VentureBeat has more here.

Exits

This one is interesting, with venture firm giant New Enterprise Associates acting like a buyout shop. Specifically, it announced it has acquired Paladina Health, a company with a chain of primary care clinics, for $100 million. Paladina had been a wholly owned subsidiary of the healthcare services corporation DaVita Inc. CNBC has more here.

People

Tesla’s three board members whose fate with the company was unclear remain in place following yesterday’s annual shareholder meeting. Shareholders also voted to maintain Elon Musk’s role as chairman of Tesla’s board. According to the Washington Post, Musk appeared emotional immediately after the vote, saying the company has experienced “the most excruciating hellish several months that we’ve ever had.” “But I think we’re getting there,” he’d added.

Essential Reads

Amazon‘s Echo Look camera, which analyzes a user’s clothing style and makes fashion  recommendations through machine learning, can now be purchased by customers in the United States. Until now, the $200 device had been available only through invites. More here.

Detours

Think you aren’t FBI material? The FBI disagrees.

Retail Therapy

Honestly, we’d probably rather just die in the earthquake.

Hello and happy Tuesday.:)

Top News

According to Reuters, ZTE reportedly just signed an agreement in principle that would lift a ban instituted in April that keeps it from buying from U.S. suppliers.

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New Fundings

Bungie, a 27-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based games studio whose hits include “Halo” and Destiny,” has taken $100 million from the Chinese tech and gaming company NetEase in exchange for minority stake and seat on its board of directors. The Verge has more here.  Coya, a two-year-old, Berlin-based insurance tech startup, has raised $30 million in new funding that brings its total funding to $40 million, says TechCrunch. The company’s backers include Valar Ventures, eVentures and La Famiglia. More here.  Dataminr, a nine-year-old, New York-based startup that analyzes public data about events in real time (including, presumably, Donald Trump’s tweets and their impact), has raised $221 million in new funding, according to an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. Dataminr had previously raised around $185 million, including a $130 million round in 2015 led by Fidelity. Others of its investors include IVP, Venrock, Wellington Management and Goldman Sachs. More here.  EV Hive, a three-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesian-based co-working space operator, has raised $20 million in Series A funding from Softbank Ventures Korea, H&CK Partners and Tigris Investment, among numerous others. DealStreetAsia has more here.   Genetesis, a five-year-old, Mason, Oh.-based biomagnetic imaging startup that’s focused on chest pain triage, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by CincyTech, with participation from Mark Cuban, Ohio Innovation Fund andRaptor Group. More here.  GLXSS, a Beijing, China-based developer of augmented reality glasses, has raised $15.6 million in additional Series B funding, including from CCB International, BlueRun Ventures and Matrix Partners China. China Money Network has more here.  Hailo, a year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based a company that’s developing a chip for deep learning on edge devices, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding from Ourcrowd.com, Maniv Mobility, the Drive accelerator fund, Next Gear, and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Hellobike, a two-year-old, Shanghai, China-based bike-sharing company, is the third company of its kind to reach so-called unicorn status, following a $321 million investment from earlier backer Ant Financial investment, the Alibaba affiliate. The investment was reportedly made at a post-money valuation of $1.47 billion. China Money Network has more here.  Lime, a 15-month-old, San Francisco-based e-scooter and e-bike company, is reportedly in the process of sealing up around $250 million in fresh funding led byGV, with participation from earlier backers Coatue Management and Andreessen Horowitz. Axios had the scoop earlier today. TechCrunch has more here (including about a new filing from Lime competitor, Bird). Marqeta, an 8.5-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based open API payment card issuing platform, has raised $45 million in new funding led by ICONIQ Capital, with participation from Goldman Sachs and existing backers. The company has now raised $116 million altogether. Bloomberg has more here.  Mews, a five-year-old, Amsterdam-based hotel property management platform, has raised €6 million in Series A funding led by Notion Capital, with participation from HenQ and Thayer Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.  Motorway, a two-year-old, London-based platform for selling used cars, has raised £2.75 million in seed funding co-led by LocalGlobe and Marchmont Ventures. More here.  OneLogin, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based enterprise security startup that tries making it safer for companies to access the apps and data they need, just raised $22.5 million in Series C funding. It did not disclose its investors. GeekWire has more here.  OutSystems, a 17-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based platform that helps organizations build enterprise-grade apps, just raised $360 million from KKR and Goldman Sachs. TechCrunch has more here.  Science 37, a four-year-old, Playa Vista, Ca.-based clinical trial startup that helps researchers find participants for medical trials, is reportedly in talks with SoftBank‘s Vision Fund about a $150 million round that would value the company at $300 million. Recode has more here.  Vetsource, a 13-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based platform designed to empower veterinarians to deliver better care to their patients, has raised $50 million in Series D funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. The Oregonian has more here.

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New Funds

Logan Allin, who joined the lending company Social Finance (SoFi) last year to spearhead its investments and roll out a corporate venture fund, is now trying to raise his own, $150 million, early-stage fund to in the U.S. and abroad, including Asia, Europe and Israel, according to Bloomberg. Mike Cagney, the former SoFi CEO who quit amid allegations of sexual harassment at the fintech firm (and now heads up a new lending startup called Figure), will reportedly be a senior adviser to the fund, called Fin Venture Capital. More here.  Grab, the six-year-old. Singapore-based ride-hail company, has launched a venture unit focused on Southeast Asia startups; it plans to fund between 8 and 10 startups over the next 24 months. TechCrunch has more here.  JLL Spark, a relatively new division of 235-yr-old commercial real estate services and investment firm JLL, announced the launch of a $100 million venture fund called JLL Spark Global Venture Fund, to invest in real estate startups. Vator has more here.  Stride.VC, a months-old, London-based venture firm led by former Accel Partners investor Fred Destin and Harry Stebbings of the “20 Minute VC” podcast, has reportedly has already closed on £40 million ($53.5 million) in capital commitments, with a final target of £50 million ($67 million) or more. TechCrunch has the skinny here.

IPOs

After announcing its intention to go public in May, Adyen today published more details. The Netherlands-based payments startup — which competes against the likes of PayPal and Stripe to power payment services both to online and physical retailers — said that it will be raising between €922 million and €947 million (approximately $1 billion and $1.1 billion) before it opens for trading on the Euronext Amsterdam on June 13 trading. If all goes as planned, the sale will give Adyen a market capitalization of between €6.5 billion and €7.1 billion ($7.6 billion – $8.3 billion). TechCrunch has more here.

People

Github‘s founders — Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath and PJ Hyett — whose company just sold to Microsoft for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock, will become some of Microsoft’s biggest individual shareholders. In fact, the windfall won’t just make the three billionaires; according to data compiled by Bloomberg, they’ll own 10 times more shares than Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and roughly 14 times more than Microsoft President Brad Smith(!). More here.  Howard Schultz, the outspoken executive chairman of Starbucks, announced yesterday that he’ll leave the company at the end of this month, a move that some suspect (hope?) indicates that he may run for U.S. president in 2020.  Valerie Szczepanik , a longtime attorney with the SEC who has worked on cyber crimes most recently, is assuming a new position with the agency, overseeing digital currency issues. She is the agency’s first “crypto czar,” as the outlet Coindesk describes her. Szczepanik nabbed her law degree from Georgetown, after studying engineering at the University of Pennsvylvania. According to the SEC, she will “coordinate efforts across all SEC Divisions and Offices regarding the application of U.S. securities laws to emerging digital asset technologies and innovations, including initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies.”

Data

Holy smokes. Apple Podcasts currently hosts more than 550,000 active shows.More here. The 15 largest global funding rounds last month.

Essential Reads

Inside the messy, expensive split between Facebook and WhatsApp’s founders.  While a number of large financial institutions have discussed trading Bitcoin, one firm — Susquehanna International Group of Bala Cynwyd, Pa. — has been doing it for some time, very quietly.

Detours

Terrible newscasting gone viral.  How bacteria actually eat penicillin.  RIP, Kate Spade.

Retail Therapy

We’re just going to say it. If you need this to keep your shirt tucked in, there is something wrong.

Hello! Happy Monday.:)   A few quick notes: StrictlyVC will *not* publish next week. We’re always reluctant to shut things down but as longtime readers know, this happens about two weeks out of the year for our sanity’s sake.:) Also, our striplings will be just out of school and we want to see them before they get sucked into the world of summer camps. (Btw, we’ll probably mention this a few more times this week, so please bear with us.)   Also, a quick reminder that our just-drinks event is coming up fast, co-hosted with our friend, investor Semil Shah. We’re excited! Giant thanks again to Lightspeed Venture Partners for partnering with us on this.

Top News

At Apple‘s annual conference for developers, which kicked off earlier today, execs are looking to both wow the audience with new features but also shore up confidence that the company can deliver quality software. It sounds like the company is delivering on the first front, as of this writing.  Here’s what else you may have missed.  After a week of rumors, Microsoft today confirmed that it has acquired GitHub, the popular Git-based code sharing and collaboration service. The price of the acquisition was $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. GitHub had raised $350 million; during its last private fundraising round in 2015, it was valued at $2 billion. The deal looks like an especially big win for venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which astonished the industry when in 2012, it wrote a $100 million check to GitHub, making what was then the firm’s biggest investment ever. TechCrunch has more on the deal here. Recode has more on AH’s return here. And here’s more on GitHub’s new CEO, Nat Friedman.  U.S. stocks just reached a 12-week high.

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Y Combinator’s Plan to Help More of Its Companies Lock Down Series A Funding

Y Combinator,  the popular startup accelerator program, has never been shy about experimenting. Now, in its latest trial, the outfit is launching what it’s calling a Series A program. The idea is to help alums that maybe picked up seed funding after one of YC’s famous Demo Day presentations but that could use some help thinking through how much to raise in Series A funding, and from whom. We talked Friday with the YC partner who is leading the program, Aaron Harris, about how it will work, why YC deems it necessary, and what it signals about the 15 companies that will be accepted into each of these batches, where they will meet every other week over a two-month period to discuss (in part) business models, forecasts, pitch decks, and how to approach meeting with different types of investors. For readers who don’t know you, how did you wind up at YC and how long have you been involved with the organization?  I’ve been a partner for five years. I cofounded a [since shuttered] company, TutorSpree, which went through YC in 2011 and was funded by Sequoia Capital. Before that, I worked at a hedge fund in New York. Why create programming around Series A rounds?  As YC has gotten bigger, we’ve had more companies reaching Series A level funding, and what I noticed was that we didn’t have great advice to give them. The advice was sort of scaled up from seed [round discussions] and while that works for some, it doesn’t work for others. It became apparent that founders don’t have a great sense of who they should be talking with and about what.  In 2017, 62 of our alums raised $550 million across their Series A rounds. That’s more than in any other portfolio in the world as far as I’m aware, so we should know more than others. But we hadn’t established best practices around this, so I started advising companies on a one-off basis about six months ago; now, we’re formalizing the process.  How long after companies graduate from YC and close their seed rounds do they raise Series A rounds typically? And what are some of the things you learned by looking across your portfolio?  More here.

New Fundings

Babytree, an 11-year-old, China-based pregnancy and new parent e-commerce site, has raised $219 million from Alibaba in exchange for a 10 percent stake in its business. China Money Network has more here.   Bext360​,​ ​a​ ​​year-old, Denver, Co.-based traceability SaaS platform that’s focusing on critical supply chains like coffee, cocoa, seafood, palm oil, cotton, and timber, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding, bringing its total funding to roughly $3.4 million. SKS Ventures led the round, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures and individual angel investors. More here.  Boxbot, a two-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based startup focused on self-driving delivery vehicles (though it isn’t being more specific than that yet), has raised $7.5 million in seed funding led by Artiman Ventures, with participation from Toyota AI Ventures, Pear Ventures, Afore Capital, Ironfire Ventures and The House Fund. The company has now raised $9 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Cast, a 28-year-old, New York–based security outfit, has raised $12 million in funding from DevFactory, CM-CIC Investment, Keren Finance and the Boston Consulting Group. More here.  CMR Surgical, a four-year-old, Cambridge, U.K.-based surgical robotics company, has closed on $100 million in Series B funding, including from Zheijiang Silk Road Fund and earlier investors Escala Capital Investments, LGT, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Watrium. More here.  Hyperchain Technologies, a two-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based enterprise blockchain platform, has raised around $234 million in Series B funding from Xinhu Zhongbao and China SDIC Gaoxin Industrial Investment Corp, among others. China Money Network has more here.   Lendix, a four-year-old, Paris-based lending platform, has raised $37 million in new funding led by Idinvest and Allianz, with participation from CIR SpA and earlier backers Partech, CNP Assurances, Decaux Frères Investissements and Matmut. TechCrunch has more here.  Locus, a three-year-old, Bengaluru, India-based logistics mapping startup, has raised $4 million in new funding from Rocketship.vc, Recruit Strategic Partners,pi Ventures, Blume Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, BeeNext and growX. TechCrunch has more here.  Innoactive, a five-year-old, Munich, Germany-based provider of VR/AR enterprise software, has raised € 4.4 million (about $5.1 million) in funding. Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners led the round, with participation from Capnamic Ventures. More here.  PlayVS, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based startup that’s developing software to formalize high school gaming competitions, has raised $15 million in Series A funding round led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation fromScience, CrossCut Ventures, Cross Culture Ventures, funds affiliated with theSan Francisco 49ers, and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Systum, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-based, digital operating platform for small to medium-sized businesses that was founded by a former president of both SAP and NetSuite, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Underscore VC and Hearst Ventures. More here.  Tamara Mellon, a 1.5-year-old, L.A.-based direct-to-consumer women’s luxury footwear brand, has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by earlier investor New Enterprise Associates, with participation from new investor Quadrille Capital. The company has now raised $37 million altogether. More here.  WhereTo, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based AI-based travel platform that aims to simplify business travel planning for corporations and their employees, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital. More here.

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New Funds

Sequoia Capital Partner Matt Huang will leave the firm to start a new cryptocurrency fund with Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, according to the WSJ. Sequoia will continue to invest in blockchain-related technologies and is making a substantial commitment to Huang and Ehrsam’s new fund, says the report.  LG Group, the Seoul, Korea-based conglomerate that makes chemicals, electronics and telecom products, says it has set up LG Technology Ventures in the U.S. in the latest effort to find promising start-ups engaging in robots, artificial intelligence and auto parts. The corporate venture unit will reportedly manage four separate funds worth a total of $400 million. BusinessKorea has more here.  Meritech Capital Partners, the 19-year-old, late-stage, Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm, has raised $630 million for its sixth venture fund, shows an SEC filing. The firm is led by Paul Madera, George Bischof, Max Motschwiller, Craig Sherman, and Robert Ward. More here.  Moneta Ventures, a four-year-old, Folsom, Ca.-based early stage venture firm focused primarily on startups in (relatively underserved) Sacramento and the broader Bay Area, has closed its second fund with $50 million. It also opened a second office in Austin, Tex. and promoted investor Sabya Das to partner. More here.  Global venture capital firm White Star Capital has closed a second fund of $180 million, money it plans to invest in “transatlantic” companies that need help to go international, it says. White Star had closed its debut fund with $70 million in 2015 and has backed around 26 startups since. TechCrunch has more here.  China just launched a RMB100 billion ($15.57 billion) fund to support economic integration and development in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, according to the country’s official state-run press agency. Launched in Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta Collaborative Advantage Fund will invest in “hard technologies,” with a focus on artificial intelligence, smart logistics and biotech. China Money Network has more here.  Zeev Ventures, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based seed-stage venture firm operated by sole general partner Oren Zeev, is looking to raise a fourth fund, shows an SEC filingthat doesn’t list a target. Zeev previously spent a dozen years with Apax Partners.More here.

IPOs

Domo, an eight-year-old, Utah-based developer of cloud-based enterprise software launched by Omniture founder Josh James, filed for an IPO on Friday. The number of shares that will be sold as well as the stock’s pricing terms have yet to be set. CNBC has more here.

Exits

Lyft is in discussions to acquire Citi Bike operator Motivate for $250 million, says The Information, though nothing has been finalized. More here.

People

The publicly traded security vendor Palo Alto Networks has announced that Nikesh Arora will take over as CEO and executive chairman. Arora left his post as chief business officer at Google in 2014 to join SoftBank as its president and COO, though he abruptly resigned in 2016. Recode has more here.  Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting is happening this week, and there’s a growing movement to boot four members — including Elon Musk’s brother Kimball Musk — from Tesla’s board. Business Insider has more here.  Some 10 years ago, Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer of Microsoft, raised nearly $3 billion for two private equity funds from financial investors and tech companies. They were designed to invest in patents and innovations over a lifespan of 20 years and halfway into their run, they are deep in the red, reports Forbes. More here.

Essential Reads

Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers — including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung — over the last decade, providing them with vast amounts of their users’ data without their explicit consent, says the New York Times.  Worried About big tech? China’s giants make America’s look tame.

Detours

Detours The dating game.  In conversation: Conan O’Brien.  Dancing FBI agent does backlip, loses gun, accidentally shoots someone.

Retail Therapy

Too bad Michael Cohen didn’t have one of these.

Ugh, our Cavs had a brutal night, but that was a great game. We love this time of year. Speaking of, we have to send out an abbreviated version today — it’s “field day” up the road at our kids’ school. This means we’ll spend the rest of this morning making sure no one breaks a leg during tug of war (the parents are especially high risk).

Top News

Facebook is shutting down its sometimes-problematic “trending” news section after four years.

SV Angel Says It Won’t Be Raising Another Fund from Outside Investors

SV Angel, the seed-stage investment firm, announced yesterday that it’s getting out of the traditional venture business. At least, going forward, its founders — meaning famous angel investor Ron Conway and his son Topher — will be investing their own money in startups, they say. In an email exchange, Topher Conway explained that several of the firm’s most recent checks, including to the chatbot startup Hugging Face, the hormone-testing company Modern Fertility, and to the electric skateboard company Boosted Boards, came from SV Angel’s existing, outside-investor-backed funds. He added that those existing funds will no longer make new investments, but that SV Angel  will continue to invest in follow-on rounds in its existing portfolio companies. The outfit had closed its last fund with $53 million in late 2016. Partners Brian Pokorny, Kevin Carter and Robert Pollak will now become advisors to SV Angel. Meanwhile, Ron and Topher Conway will be writing smaller initial checks than they have in recent years — $25,000 to $100,000, they say —  to “align” themselves better with the “thousands of firms and individuals” who are now investing in seed rounds. As SV Angel hints at in a related new post (and has come up increasingly in our discussions with seed-stage investors), it is challenging these days for any one outfit to write big checks to the most promising seed-stage companies. There’s simply too much money sloshing around. SV and its outside investors may also have simply grown weary, with the small outfit going through several iterations over time, some of them more challenging than others. More here.

New Fundings

Chime, a 5.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile banking startup known for its lack of fees, has raised $70 million in Series C financing led by Menlo Ventures. The round — which also included earlier backers Forerunner Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Cathay Innovation, Northwestern Mutual, Crosslink Capital, and Omidyar Network — brings the company’s total funding to more than $100 million and values the business at around $500 million. TechCrunch has more here.  CyberInt, a nine-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity detection and response services company, has raised $18 million in funding led by Viola Growth, with participation from existing investors. More here.  Emagispace, a three-year-old, Colorado Springs, Colo.-based company with a physical product for the construction of interior spaces, has raised $5 million in Series B funding led by Alpha Edison. We’d written about this company back in July of last year if you want to learn more.  Honest Buildings, a six-year-old, New York-based maker of a project management platform built for real estate owners, has added $5 million to a previously closed Series B financing, bringing  the total round to $30 million. The newest capital infusion came from First Capital Realty. Others of the company’s Series B investors include Brookfield Property Partners, Oxford Properties Group, The Durst Organization, and a bunch of others. The company has now raised $48 million altogether. More here.  Protean Electric, a 10-year-old, Troy, Mi.-based automotive technology company, has raised $40 million in Series E funding led by Weifu High-Technology Group and Oak Investment Partners. More here.  Virtru, a six-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based security startup that came out of research at the NSA, has raised $37 million in Series B funding led by Iconiq Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Weights & Biases, a six-month-old, Bay Area-based startup that’s building new tools for machine learning developers, has raised $5 million in Series A funding fromTrinity Ventures and Bloomberg Beta. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Bessemer Venture Partners is launching a $10 million early-stage seed program to back new startups. TechCrunch has more here.  Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange based on daily trade volumes, just announced a $1 billion fund to back blockchain and crypto startups. Capital for the fund is reportedly coming from Binance’s own reserves as a way to contribute to the industry ecosystem. TechCrunch has more here.  Nexus Venture Partners, a cross-border venture firm with two offices in India and an American outpost on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley, is looking to close its fifth fund with $450 million, according to a newly processed SEC filing. Crunchbase News has more here.

Exits

Box announced today that it has purchased Progressly, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based startup that focuses on workflow. All of Progressly’s dozen employees will be joining Box. The purchase price isn’t being disclosed, but for what it’s worth, Progressly had raised $6 million, according to Crunchbase data. TechCrunch has more here.

People

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks the nine-year economic recovery is far from over, telling attendees at an investor conference in New York today that “we’reprobably in the sixth inning.”

Data

Twenty takeaways from Mary Meeker’s 294-slide internet trends report.

Essential Reads

The terrifying lessons of a pandemic simulation.

Detours

The best British shows on Netflix.  A new study that casts the famous marshmallow test into doubt.  Fourteen-year-old Karthik Nemmani became the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion yesterday after 12-year-old Naysa Modi misspelled the word “Bewusstseinslage” in the first championship round (which, pardon us as we look that one up). The L.A. Times has more here.

Retail Therapy

Katz’s Delicatesen, the iconic Jewish deli in New York, just launched a monthly subscription service. It isn’t cheap, but when you have to have your pastrami . . .

Thursday! We’re *so* excited about tonight’s NBA playoff game. For what it’s worth, Fortune published an interesting piece about what kind of moolah the Cavs and Warriors stand to make by making it this far.

Top News

Waymo, the driverless-technology company spun out of Google, just announced it is buying as many as 62,000 minivans from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for use in a ride-hailing service set to begin commercial operations later this year.  Apple was thrust into the middle of a long-simmering dispute today between the encrypted messaging app Telegram and the Russian government. More here.

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This Newly Funded Startup Wants Women to Assess Their Reproductive Health at an Early Age

It’s often the case that women don’t think much about their reproductive health until they have to. Sometimes it begins with an aside from a well-meaning gynecologist — or one’s impatient parents. Sometimes, it’s because a couple is ready to try conceiving and it’s proving harder than they imagined it would be. A San Francisco-based startup called Modern Fertility wants to help educate women about their reproductive health much earlier in their lives, enabling them to become more “proactive” instead of reactive, says co-founder and CEO Afton Vechery, who worked formerly as a product manager at the genetic testing company 23andMe and, before that, at a healthcare-focused private equity firm in Greenwich, Conn. At both places, she learned a lot about the growing number of companies that are empowering customers with information about their own bodies. She also learned, particularly at 23andMe, about the importance of making that information affordable. Indeed, after shelling out $1,500 for tests run by a reproductive endocrinologist to get a better picture of her own reproductive health, Vechery set out to create similar tests that one needn’t be a Rockefeller to order. Toward that end, an at-home finger-prick hormone test that Modern Fertility began selling today for $199. The vast difference in price owes to economies of scale, says Vechery. Because there are just 500 infertility clinics in the U.S. and roughly 6,000 endocrinologists — just 2,000 of which are focused on reproductive health — the cost of individual testing has been prohibitively high. Modern Fertility, meanwhile, has “systems and tech and integrations that support a high volume of tests” conducted at the same time, she says, explaining that with volume comes discounted pricing. Modern Fertility is not analyzing its customers’ hormones. More here.

New Fundings

Ancora Heart, a 16-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based company that makes a percutaneous ventricular repair system to address heart failure, has raised $17.8 million in funding led by Savitr Capital and other earlier investors. More here.  CAMP4 Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based platform that aims to amplify the value of cellular and genetic insights, has raised raised $30 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from The Kraft Group and earlier investor Polaris Partners. More here.  Cortexyme, a five-year-old, South San Francisco-based company whose experimental drug (which will enter a mid-stage clinical trial next year) attacks a specific bacteria at the root of Alzheimer’s inflammation and protein tangles in the brain, has raised $76 million in Series B funding. Among the many investors in the round is Sequoia Capital, Vulcan Capital, Verily Life Sciences, EPIQ Capital Group, RSL Investments, Huizenga Capital and earlier backers that include Breakout Ventures and Dolby Family Ventures. San Francisco Business Times has more here (sub required).  Ecobee, an eight-year-old, Toronto-based smart thermostat maker that’s trying to take on Nest, has raised $36 million from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, AGL Energy and BDC. Business Insider has more here.   FlyHomes, a three-year-old, Seattle-based startup, has raised $17 million in Series A funding to act as an intermediary buyer for homes. How? By prescreening homebuyers, then putting in an all-cash bid to the seller, and finally reselling the home to the original interested buyer after the standard closing period (and collecting 3 percent commission in the process). Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from Shasta Ventures and Zulily and Blue Nile co-founder Mark Vadon, a previous investor. The Seattle Times has more here.  Hello Alfred, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based on-demand home chore startup that’s about to start selling its own line of home goods, has raised $40 million in Series B funding from Divco West, Invesco and earlier investors Spark Capital and New Enterprise Associates. TechCrunch has more here.  ImToken, a two-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based Ethereum wallet, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by IDG Capital. According to Bloomberg, ImToken was among the first cryptocurrency wallet apps to support the Ethereum blockchain and the free software has attracted 4 million users who’ve used it to stash $35 billion of crypto assets over the past year — more than at big-name competitors including Coinbase. More here.  Karnott, a two-year-old, Lille, France-based agriculture technology startup that makes “connected” meters for farm equipment, has raised €2.5 million ($2.9 million) in funding led by Partech and Leap Ventures. Tech.eu has a bit more here. Klaxoon, a 3.5-year-old, Paris-based maker of meetings-focused work collaboration software, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Idinvest Partners led the round, and was joined by return backers Bpifrance, Sofiouest, Arkea and White Star Capital. VentureBeat has more here.  Neighborhood Goods, a year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based kind of nex-gen department store that aims to feature pop-up store flavor, has raised $5.75 million in seed funding. Forerunner Ventures led the round, with participation from Maveron, CAA Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and NextGen Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.  Ocrulus, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that analyzes uploaded bank and credit card statements from U.S. financial institutions, has raised $4 million in fresh funding led by Bullpen Capital, with participation from QED Investors, Laconia Capital, Riverpark Funds and ValueStream Ventures. The round brings the company’s funding to $7.3 million altogether. AlleyWatch has more here.  Paxos, a five-year-old, New York-based company that’s building a blockchain-powered trust that can settle assets and payments simultaneously, has raised $65 million in Series B funding, including from Liberty City Ventures, RRE Ventures, and longtime private equity exec Jay Jordan. Reuters has more here.  Pixoneye, a four-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based business that relies on users’ personal mobile phone photo galleries to extract marketing insights for its customers, has raised £6 million ($8 million) in Series A funding from Octopus Ventures. (We aren’t judging but this sounds creepy.) The Telegraph has more here. SenseTime, a nearly-four-year-old, Beijing-based developer of AI technologies like facial recognition, has raised $620 million in new funding — just one month after raising $600 million in an Alibaba-led round. Investors in the latest round include Fidelity International, Hopu Capital, Silver Lake and Tiger Global Management, along with earlier backer Qualcomm. TechCrunch has more here.  Signifyd, a seven-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based e-commerce fraud-prevention company, has raised $100 million in Series D funding led by Premji, the personal investing vehicle of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji. Other investors in the round include Bain Capital Ventures, Menlo Ventures, American Express Ventures, IA Ventures, Allegis Cyber and Resolute Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.  Pine Labs, a 20-year-old, New Delhi, India-based company that offers a point-of-sale device that covers debit and credit cards, as well as increasingly popular digital payment methods that include mobile wallets, has raised $125 million from PayPal and Temasek, the sovereign wealth fund. The company has now raised $208 million altogether, including from seed-stage investor Sequoia Capital, which reportedly remains the company’s single-largest investor. TechCrunch has more here.  Polybit, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based company that years ago introduced what it calls the Standard Library of the Internet, a resource to make back-end coding easy for even beginning developers, has raised $2 million in strategic funding from Stripe. The round brings the company’s total funding to $4 million. More here.  Trilogy Education, a three-year-old, New York-based skills-based training startup that partners with universities, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Highland Capital Partners, with participation from Macquarie Group and Exceed Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Voltaiq, a six-year-old, Berkeley, Ca., and Brooklyn, N.Y.-based maker of data visualization and analytics tools for batteries, has raised $6.6 million in Series A funding led by Anzu Partners, with participation from Bee Partners, SJF Ventures, and UL Ventures. More here.

Exits

Games maker Zynga is buying the Istanbul-based, franchise games publisher Gram Games for $250 million. The company looks to have raised a tiny amount of seeding funding, including from Hummingbird Ventures and founder-investorFabrice Grinda, among others. Reuters has more here.

People

New York VC Steve Schlafman has joined Primary Venture Partners roughly six months after quitting his job at RRE Ventures. We caught up with him to learn more.  Warren Buffett proposed investing $3 billion in Uber earlier this year, but talks with new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi fell apart following disagreements over the terms and size of the deal, says Bloomberg.

Data

Teens love that YouTube. According to a new Pew survey, Snapchat and Instagram are also up there in terms of use by people ages 13 through 17. You know what’s not cool? Facebook.

Essential Reads

The three reasons that Spotify did a rare, direct public listing, in the words of its CEO, Daniel Ek.  Uber wants to “kinda be the Amazon of transportation,” says CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.  Roblox, the massively multiplayer online game favored by the under 13 crowd, is following in Minecraft’s footsteps with a move into the education market.

Detours

Why Kevin Durant’s shoes keep falling off.  “The Americans” series finale recap.   It’s me, Melania! I’m right here!

Retail Therapy

DIY stamp set, when you have a very special message to craft.

Wednesday!

Top News

Microsoft today surpassed Alphabet‘s market cap for the first time in three years, begging the question: which company will get a trillion-dollar market cap first?  Famed prophetess Mary Meeker delivered her annual state of the Internet report at the Recode conference in Southern California a little earlier today. Some takeaways: smartphone and Internet adoption are slowing (everyone is already online). People are spending more time gazing into their screens than ever (and more of that time is spent on their phones than ever). China is catching up, fast, as a tech hub. In fact, it’s now home to nine of the world’s 20 most biggest Internet companies by market cap. More here.

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Consumer Reports Just Reversed Its Stance on the Tesla Model 3

It sometimes reads like a punishing love story, the relationship between Consumer Reports and electric car company Tesla. Consumer Reports withholds its affection, Tesla addresses its errant ways, and not long afterward, the two come happily come together until the next car review. We saw this happen in late 2015, when Consumer Reports assigned Tesla’s Model S a “worse-than-average” rating in an annual report about the predicted reliability of new vehicles, knocking down the company’s share price by more than 10 percent in one day.  Later, the car was re-instated by Consumer Reports as a top-rated ultra-luxury sedan after consumers said its reliability had improved and it updated its software to include automatic emergency braking at highway speeds.  Something similar happened today. As we told you last week, Consumer Reports decided to withhold its recommendation to buy Tesla’s more compact luxury car, the Model 3, after its testers “found flaws—big flaws—such as long stopping distances in our emergency braking test and difficult-to-use controls.”  Specifically, the outlet reported, the car’s stopping distance of 152 feet from 60 miles per hour was “far worse than any contemporary car” it has tested and “about seven feet longer than the stopping distance of a Ford F-150 full-sized pickup,” which weighs about 7,000 pounds. (The Model 3 weighs roughly half that amount.)  Tesla told Consumer Reports that its own testing had found stopping distances from 60 mph to 0 mph were on average 133 feet. Still, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also jumped on the phone with Consumer Reports’s head of auto testing to share information that Tesla had discovered about its braking system and to say the carmaker had an over-the-air software update in the works to address it. More here.

New Fundings

Alpha, a four-year-old, New York-based on-demand user insights platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding  led by Crosslink Capital and Calibrate Ventures. The company, whose customers include NBCUniversal, Experian, and AARP, has now raised $15.5 million to date. Forbes talked with the company back in January.   Ant Financial Services Group, the China-based operator of online payment platform Alipay, has raised $10 billion at a $150 billion valuation(!), says Reuters. Investors include Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC Pte Ltd, Temasek, and Warburg Pincus. More here.  Auto, a year-old, Bay Area-based stealthy manufacturing tech startup led by Amar Hanspal, has raised around $200 million in funding, according to Axios, which says Auto already employs roughly 400 people and is producing “tens of millions of dollars in recognized revenue.” The company was reportedly spun out of Flex 10 months ago and Flex is a minority shareholder. Other investors include Eclipse Ventures, says Axios. Hanspal spent his last five months at Autodesk as its co-CEO, leaving last year. He’d spent the previous five years as the company’s chief product officer and SVP of products. Ava, a four-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based maker of a fertility-tracking bracelet, has raised $30 million in fresh funding from earlier investors — including Polytech Ecosystem Ventures, Blue Ocean Ventures, Global Sources, ZKB, and Swisscom, as well as new backers Btov and SVC. The company had previously raised $15 million. TechCrunch has more here.  Bird, the year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based electric scooter-sharing startup, is raising $150 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital that will value the company at $1 billion (already), people familiar with the matter said. This is the first batch of money in this new round, and the company plans to raise more, according to Bloomberg. More here.  CleanSlate, a nine-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based medical group that provides treatment for the chronic disease of addiction, primarily to opioids and alcohol, has raised $25 million in new funding led by HealthQuest Capital. More here.  Coffee Meets Bagel, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based app-based dating service, has raised roughly $7 million in Series B funding, per an SEC filing. The round values the startup at $82 million, per PitchBook data. The company had raised just over $10 million in funding previously, including from DCM Ventures, Quest Ventures and Azure Capital. More here.  Curai, a year-old, Bay Area-based machine learning-driven startup that helps patients deliver information to doctors to help them figure out the right diagnosis, has raised $10.7 million in a round that includes General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures and a variety of other angels. TechCrunch has more here.  Cursor, a 10-month-old, San Francisco-based startup whose tech serves as a sort of internal search tool for information, whether it’s inside SQL queries, database metadata, existing platforms like Tableau, or other, has raised $2 million in funding from Toba Capital, with participation from Ride Ventures and several angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Emogi, a seven-year-old, New York-based conversational content platform that integrates emoji, stickers, and GIFs into conversations, has raised $12.6 million in Series A funding led by a group of existing investors (that it isn’t naming). The capital adds to $2.7 million in Series A funding that Emogi had closed on previously. TechCrunch has more here.  Nova Credit, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that provides lenders, property managers and other businesses with real-time international credit reports in order for them to acquire immigrant consumers from around the world, has raised $16 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by General Catalyst and Index Ventures, with participation from First Round Capital, Nyca and Y Combinator. More here.  OnTruck, a two-year-old, Madrid, Spain-based haulage tech platform, has raised roughly $29 million in Series B funding led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from GP Bullhound and earlier investors Atomico, Idinvest Partners, All Iron Ventures, Total Energy Ventures, Point 9 Capital, and Samaipata Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Plum, a 3.5-year-old, Dania Beach, Fla.-based startup whose appliance preserves, chills and serves wine by the glass, has raised $10 million in Series B financing. Las Olas Venture Capital led the round. More here.  SnackNation, a four-year-old, L.A.-based company that curates and delivers snacks to companies, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by 3L Capital. The round brings the company’s total funding to $22.5 million. More here.  SQream, an eight-year-old, New York- and Israel-based GPU database developer, has raised $26.4 million in Series B funding led by Alibaba, with participation from Hanaco VC, Sistema.vc, World Trade Ventures, Paradiso Ventures, Glory Ventures and Silvertech Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Surkus, a three-year-old, L.A.-based event tech platform, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by the venture firm EOS Global. More here.  Taxify, a five-year-old, Estonia-based ride-hailing company that operates in Europe and Africa, has raised $175 million at a $1 billion valuation led by Daimler AG, with participation from Didi Chuxing, Korelya Capital and TransferWise founder Taavet Hinrikus. China Money Network has more here.  Tradeshift, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based supply chain payments platform, has raised $250 million in Series E funding at a post-money valuation or more than $1.1 billion. Goldman Sachs and PSP Investments co-led the round, with participation from HSBC, H14, GP Bullhound and earlier backers HSBC, American Express Ventures, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, Notion Capital and Santander InnoVentures. TechCrunch has more here.  Voodoo, a 5.5-year-old, Paris-based mobile games publisher, has raised around $200 million from Goldman Sachs, says Reuters. More here.

New Funds

Amaranthine, a year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm, is targeting $50 million for its debut fund, shows an SEC filing. The firm was cofounded by Patrick Murphy, a former banker with Goldman Sachs who went on to spend three years as a venture investor with Universal Music Group. Its site is here.  Moderne Ventures, a three-year-old, Chicago-based venture firm that specializes in real-estate, finance, insurance, and home services startups, has officially closed its debut fund with $42.7 million, shows an SEC form. Among its most recent deals is LeaseLock, a three-year-old, L.A.-based company that’s looking to replace security deposits with insurance, and had raised $10 million in Series A funding in late April. More here.  TVC Capital, an 11-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based growth equity fund, is looking to raise $180 million for a fourth fund, shows an SEC filing. The outfit had closed its third fund with $115 million in early 2015. More here.

IPOs/ICOs

Monster Products, which has been making headphones and speakers for decades, has reportedly been losing money for years. To turn things around, Monster is now planning to run one of the biggest ICOs of all time by selling “monster money tokens.” (Eek.) CoinDesk has more here.  Uxin, a seven-year-old, China-based car commerce platform that sells used directly to consumers, as well as helps business buyers source vehicles,  plans to raise $500 million in a U.S.-based IPO, shows a new SEC filing. China Money Network has more on the company and its backers here.

People

Thousands of activists delivered an open letter to Amazon today, urging the company to free its contractors from forced arbitration.  Snap’s Evan Spiegel took a snarky swipe at Mark Zuckerberg yesterday over Facebook’s data scandal.  Senator Mark Warner say to beware of regulating U.S. tech companies in a way that gives Chinese tech companies an advantage.

Jobs

Square is looking to hire a corporate development associate. The job is in San Francisco.

Essential Reads

Airbnb founders were moments away from merging their China business with local competitor Tujia in January 2017. CEO Brian Chesky had a change of heart and decided to forge ahead in China alone, but the decision has reportedly rankled investors and emboldened Chinese rivals. Bloomberg has the story here.  Walmart said today it will start paying for its workers to earn college degrees. (If you are wondering, Amazon apparently already offers tuition support.)  A new startup wants to buy seniors’ homes at a steep discount, and let them live there for life. It’s one of a growing spate of companies offering to cash out homeowners for the right price.

Detours

The 22 best U.S. national parks to escape the crowds.  How to be happy: a cheat sheet.  Why everyone is running off to Bellport, N.Y.

Retail Therapy

Super expensive Father’s Day ideas.