Happy Wednesday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Google was formally accused in a letter this morning by the European Commission of “abusing its dominant position in the markets for general internet search services” in Europe by “systematically favouring its own comparison shopping product in its general search results pages. The Commission has also formally opened a separate antitrust investigation into Google’s mobile operating system Android. Google has already issued a statement explaining why it “strongly” disagrees with the letter.

Nokia has announced plans to acquire rival telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion in shares. More here.

Yahoo is reportedly about to acquire Foursquare for around $900 million. TechCrunch has the story here.

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FLAG’s Peter Denious: “It’s a Good Time to Be Asking Questions”

Roughly one year ago, FLAG Capital Management, the limited partnership, revealed that after 20 years, Diana Frazier would step down from her role as co-head of U.S. venture capital, and that Peter Denious, who formerly headed the firm’s emerging markets efforts, would assume her role.

Denious has been fairly quiet since then, possibly because the move came about as FLAG – which has backed Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, among others — was beginning to raise its ninth fund of funds.

Denious still declines to discuss that effort, but he did talk with us this week about his observations – and concerns – about the current state of the venture industry. Here’s part of that conversation, edited for length.

You recently created a presentation called “Venture Portfolio Management in the Age of the Unicorn,” stating that FLAG has exposure to 56 so-called unicorns across 100 positions but suggesting that you have concerns about whether investors are taking enough money out of those deals. Are you talking with them about it?

We talk with them pretty openly and actively about it. We’ve always been big believers that you have to be both a great investor who can attract world-class entrepreneurs, as well as be a world-class portfolio manager.

It’s easy for VCs operating inside partnerships to get involved in their 10 or so investments, but it’s important for somebody to be thinking about the dynamics of generating returns, too. It’s a piece that we think is relevant in a time when things are up and to the right.

Given the number of secondary shops to descend on Silicon Valley in the last couple of years, I’d guess that plenty of firms are selling portions of their stakes. What are you seeing?

These are case by case situations. Obviously, we’ve looked into our portfolio and across those exposures, and where the VC has an embedded return of at least 10x, we’ve been seeing them take chips off the table. We think as long as managers are having the discussion, they’ll arrive at the right answer.

Are you concerned by how few companies are going public, relative to the number of richly funded late-stage companies we’re seeing?

I don’t think that each of whatever the number of agreed-upon unicorns that we’re seeing will do well. Some will be severely tested when the capital runs dry, and anyone who says otherwise must be wearing a pretty strong pair of rose-colored glasses.

By the same token, the amount of transformation and disruption in these companies’ respective industries is truly amazing. I do think there’s a subset of these companies that deserve to be very big. Do they deserve to be $50 billion, $100 billion [in value]? That’s subject to debate, but many will be very profitable if they aren’t already.

So you’re more troubled by valuations than underlying business models.

In most cases, we don’t have a business model problem. We don’t see a lot of nonsense, as with the last [late ‘90s] cycle. What’s debatable is valuation and are people paying too much for growth as these businesses scale, and I think that’s all to be determined. Who are we to say that this company at that valuation is too low or too high?

We’re typically early-stage and not growth or late-stage investors and part of the reason we don’t invest there is because as you move later and later on the continuum, you’re taking more of the valuation risk. I don’t think anyone would question the 10 most highly valued unicorns. The question is whether the premiums being paid for their growth is justified, and again, only time will tell. I do think that late-stage and crossover ventures are the most at risk, but that’s what they get paid to do.

But you anticipate a day of reckoning?

With respect to the pool of these late-stage companies, one can argue that so much late-stage capital has allowed for more unicorns to be created than would otherwise be the case. When that capital goes away, you’ll see more exits at the sub-$1 billion level.

Some [may go public.] I think it’s too early to draw too many conclusions about IPOs, which were down in the first quarter; we’ll know more in the next few quarters. But it’s a good time to be asking questions. I do think there will be a day of reckoning.

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New Fundings

99designs, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based online graphic design marketplace, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Recruit Strategic Partners, with participation from earlier investor Accel Partners. The company has now raised $45 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Acorns, a three-year-old, Newport Beach, Ca.-based finance company that allows individuals to round up purchases and automatically invest the change, has raised $23 million in Series C funding co-led by Greycroft Partners and e.ventures, with participation from Sound Ventures, Garland Capital, and MATH Venture Partners. To date, Acorns has raised $32 million.

Bedrock Data, a three-year-old, Boston-based data integration platform for businesses, has raised $3.1 million in Series A funding led by .406 Ventures, with participation from Boston Syndicates, Maiden Lane, and Visible Measures CEO Brian Shin. BostInno has more here.

Benchling, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that makes it easy to edit, analyze, and collaborate on DNA sequences, has raised $5 million funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Thrive Capital. Benchling had previously raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from backers that include Y Combinator, Rock Health, FF Angel, SV Angel, Tim Draper, Geoff Ralston, Kevin Mahaffey, and Matt Huang.

CrossChx, a three-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based company whose software helps reduce medical errors by identifying patients via fingerprint scan, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from earlier investor Drive Capital. The company has now raised $20 million altogether.

Grofers, a 1.5-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based startup that provides quick delivery of products from local brick-and-mortar merchants, has raised $35 million Sequoia Capital and Tiger Capital, just two months after the same investors provided the company with $10 million in Series A funding. Grofers has now raised $45.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Innocrin Pharmaceuticals, a 15-year-old, Durham, N.C.-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing small-molecule inhibitors to treat certain breast and prostate cancers, has raised $28 million in Series D funding led by Eshelman Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Novartis Venture Fund, Lilly Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, Intersouth Partners, and A&B Equity Holdings.

LovetheSign, a 2.5-year-old, Milan, Italy-based home design e-commerce platform, has raised roughly $4 million in Series A funding led by United Ventures, with participation from unnamed angel investors from the Italian fashion and design industry. TechCrunch has more here.

OnePlus, a two-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based smartphone maker that offers high-end phones at less than half the price of flagship models by Samsung and Apple, is in funding talks with Silicon Valley venture capitalists to help double its workforce, reports Bloomberg. Co-founder Carl Pei isn’t sharing how much the company wants to raise; he says “the most important part is access to experience and senior-level talent that will help us scale further.”

PepperTap, a six-month-old, Gurgaon, India-based on-demand grocery delivery service, has raised $10 million in Series A from SAIF Partnersand from Sequoia Capital, which invested a $1.2 million in seed funding in the startup last month, reports TechCrunch. If it seems like on-demand grocery startups in India are suddenly awash in funding, it isn’t your imagination. In addition to Grofers (see above), ZopNow, featured in yesterday’s newsletter, also just received funding ($10 million, led by Dragoneer Investment Group).

Poachable, a year-old, Seattle-based anonymous talent marketplace (users tell Poachable about themselves and it gauges employers’ interest without revealing their identify), has raised $750,000 in seed funding from Vulcan Capital and angel investors, including former Drugstore.com CEO Dawn Lepore.

PolicyBazaar, a seven-year-old Gurgaon, India-based online insurance policy aggregator, has raised roughly $40 million (Rs 248 crore) in Series D funding from PremjiInvest, the personal investment vehicle of Wipro chairman Azim Premji, among other new and existing backers, including Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Steadview Capital and ABG Capital. VCCircle has more here.

RetailNext, a 7.5-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based maker of in-store retail analytics, has raised a whopping $125 million in growth funding led by Activant Capital Group, with participation from earlier backers August Capital, StarVest Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, Commerce Ventures, American Express, Pereg Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures. Siguler Guff & Company also joined the round as a first-time investor. The company has now raised $184 million altogether.

Skyport Systems, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based enterprise security company, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Intel Capital and earlier backer Sutter Hill Ventures. The company has now raised $37 million altogether.

TouchBistro, a 3.5-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-based iPad-based restaurant point-of-sale system enabling owners to manage reservations and take orders instantly, has raised $6 million in Series A funding, including from Just Eat, a publicly traded, U.K.-based online marketplace for restaurant delivery. Other backers include Difference Capital, Kensington Capital Partners and Relay Ventures. The company has now raised roughly $12 million altogether.

UniKey, a five-year-old, Winter Park, Fl.-based smart lock maker, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Asset Management Ventures, AXCIT, Broadway Angels, CBRE, ff Venture Capital, Samsung Ventures, Haas Portman, Oriza Ventures and other, unnamed investors. According to TechCrunch, the company had raised $2.9 million in seed funding. More here.

WorldViz, a 13-year-old, Santa Barbara, Ca.-based virtual-reality company whose platform helps enterprise customers to develop their own VR content, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Intel Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

Yoyo, a two-year-old, London-based mobile wallet startup that focuses primarily on university campuses, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by the Imperial College-affiliated Imperial Innovations, reports Business Insider. Imperial Innovations had also provided the company with $1.2 million in seed funding in 2013. Other investors in the new round include angel investors, including Philip Riese, former president of American Express consumer cards.

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New Funds

Dentsu, the 113-year-old, Tokyo-based advertising powerhouse that has struggled to expand internationally, has just established a venture capital fund, Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I, with 5 billion yen (roughly $42 million). The fund will target companies in U.S., Europe and Asia, says the company.

New Enterprise Associates, the 38-year-old venture firm, has closed its 15th fund with $2.8 billion, as well as closed a co-investment fund of $350 million to invest alongside the main fund in growth deals. Together, the two funds top the $3 billion fund that Technology Crossover Ventures raised in 2007 (It remains the largest single venture fund ever raised, according to industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource.) NEA commits around 70 percent of its capital to IT deals and another 30 percent to healthcare.

MAB Capital Management, a private equity group led by beverage entrepreneur Marc Bushala, has created a $50 million fund to invest in early-stage beverage businesses, reports VentureWire. The new fund, Liquid Asset Brands Innovation Fund I, plans to invest between $3 million and $10 million in early-stage U.S.-based beverage businesses that are already generating revenue.

Menlo Ventures has closed its 12th fund with $400 million, the same size as its previous fund. Two of its six general partners, Doug Carlisle, who joined the firm in 1982, and John Jarve, who joined in 1985, will begin to retire after this fund, reports Venture Capital Dispatch. More here.

Viola Private Equity has raised $250 million for the firm’s second growth-stage fund targeting technology companies based in Israel. GeekTime has more here.

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IPOs

Shopify, a nine-year-old, Ottawa, Ontario-based commerce platform that allows anyone to sell online via a professional-looking online storefront and Shopify’s payment solutions, has registered plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $122 million from investors over the year, including from Felicis Ventures(which isn’t listed on the filing), Georgian Partners (which owns 5.9 percent), Bessemer Venture Partners (30.3 percent), FirstMark Capital (11.9 percent), Insight Venture Partners (not listed on the filing), and OMERS Ventures (6.1 percent).

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Exits

BlaBlaCar, a nine-year-old, Paris-based car-sharing site that connects drivers with empty seats and paying passengers to offset distance travel costs, is acquiring the German group Carpooling.com, its main European rival, as well as Hungary-based AutoHop, reports the Financial Times. According to its report, the “combined entity will make BlaBlaCar the leading ride-sharing service in Europe, where it will control more than a 90 per cent share of large markets such as Germany, Spain and Italy. It will also create one of the world’s biggest ride-sharing services with 20 million users across 18 markets.”

Datazen, a 13-year-old, Toronto-based mobile business intelligence and data visualization service, has been acquired by Microsoft for undisclosed terms. ZDNet has more here.

LinX Computational Imaging, a four-year-old, Israel-based company that develops and markets miniature cameras for tablets and smartphones, has been acquired by Apple for around $20 million, suggests the WSJ.

Segway, the 14-year-old, Bedford, New Hampshire transportation company, has been acquired — for a third time — selling to three-year-old, Beijing, China-based Ninebot, a company whose remarkably similar self-balancing robotic scooters have just attracted $80 million in fresh funding from Xiaomi, Sequoia Capital, and Shunwei Foundation. The companies will reportedly remain separate for now. Bloomberg has more here.

Temasek Holdings, the Singapore-based government-owned investment firm, has completed its acquisition of SVB India Finance, a debt venture firm run by Silicon Valley Bank, for roughly $48 million. The newly rebranded unit will be called InnoVen Capital India. The outlet e27 has more here.

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People

Annabelle Long, managing partner of Bertelsmann Asia Investments, talks with Venture Capital Dispatch about the roles played by former employees of Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu and the heated pace of investment in China. (As the article notes, China’s tech sector raised $7.2 billion in private funding deals last year, compared to $1.6 billion in 2013, according to the Centre for Asia Private Equity Research.)

Mark Pincus, who recently returned to Zynga as CEO, receives a scathing write-up in the San Francisco Chronicle, which suggests he’s back at the company because “no one could stop him.”

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Data

Last year, only 11 percent of the tech IPOs were profitable; that’s less than the 13 percent of unprofitable tech IPOs that hit the market 2000. The Information has more here (subscribers only).

Surprise: According to Pew Research Center, Facebook remains the most used social media site among American teens ages 13 to 17, and boys visit the site more often than girls.

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Essential Reads

The biggest thing in app making: small packages of code.

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Detours

Junk food with Michelin-style plating.

If you have to ask where your invite is, you’re not on the A-List.

A super-gross diagnostic tool that could save your life.

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Retail Therapy

Vermont Maple Sriracha. We have absolutely no idea how we’d use this, but you might.

Hi, happy Tuesday, everyone!

We know some of you didn’t receive yesterday’s email or else had trouble opening the links. (Sorry.) Our ESP suffered a denial-of-service attack early in the day. For those who missed the latest about our May 13 event in San Francisco (and other bits, including a job listing you might want to check out), click here.

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Top News in the A.M.

Qualcomm has rejected a call for its break-up by activist investor Jana Partners, saying that “synergies provided by our business model create more value for stockholders than could be created through alternative corporate structures.”

Bad news for Google: Apple has managed to sell more Apple Watches in a single day than the number of Android Wear smartwatches sold in an entire year.

Rakuten‘s shopping spree looks to continue. According to TechCrunch, the Japanese conglomerate may soon shell out $580 million for the online celebrity news site PopSugar. According to Crunchbase, the nine-year-old company has raised roughly $46 million from investors, including NBC Universal, Sequoia Capital, and Institutional Venture Partners.

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Duo Security Raises $30 Million More, Led by Redpoint

Duo Security, a five-year-old, 100-person company that sells its cloud-based two-factor authentication software to thousands of organizations, including Facebook, Twitter, Nasa and Uber, has just raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Benchmark, Google Ventures, Radar Partners and True Ventures. (The Ann Arbor, Mi.-based startup has now raised around $50 million altogether.)

Last week, we chatted the Duo Security’s cofounder and CTO, Jon Oberheide, about how his company is using mobile devices as a second form of authentication, and what comes next.

Some major company’s information is breached every week it seems, yet there are also other two-factor authentication services out there tackling the problem. What makes yours different?

First, we think the existing security is broken. Underlying information technology has shifted out underneath existing security technologies and they aren’t relevant anymore. In the past few decades, your security model was built within the physical walls of your organization, then people began accessing the same device but they weren’t necessarily in the building, which made phishing for those employees’ names and passwords easy. Poor hygiene across multiple sites was the problem we were trying to solve, and we succeeded in ensuring that your identification couldn’t be stolen.

Then mobile devices came along and now everyone uses their own favorite products.

Yes, and those mobile devices aren’t under the control of an IT administrator. You have these cloud services that are being controlled by third parties. IT departments have gone from saying “no,” to partnering with [various parties] to ensure their [devices’] secure enablement.

And you have a new edition that you say works even better than what your customers have been using. How so?

Our new platform edition allows companies to establish what security policies are acceptable and customize protection at the point of entry. It can stop break-ins regardless of whether hackers have a user’s name or password by analyzing a company’s policies for each log-in attempt, including the location of the user, the reputation of the IP address, and what level of device health they want to admit into their enterprises. It addresses, for example, the employee who might forget his phone at the bar. A company can require that a full encryption and screen lock [are activated] to prevent someone else rom picking it up and trying to access corporate information. Or, if you’re a domestic company whose employees primarily log-in from Starbucks, you might want to block access to China or Russia, where a lot of hackers come from. You just click a box and it’s done.

How much more will this new edition cost customers?

On a per user, per month basis, we currently charge $3; our platform edition wil cost $6 per user per month because we’re providing a lot more value to companies that we think justifies [the price hike].

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New Fundings

Adallom, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based SaaS-based security company focused on auditing user activity and protecting users from threats in real time, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Hewlett-Packard Ventures and Rembrandt Venture Partners, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures.

Alfred Club, a 20-month-old, San Francisco-based startup that pairs people needing work with people wanting their errands handled, has raised $10 million in new funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Spark Capital, with participation from Sherpa Ventures and CrunchFund. Spark also led Alfred’s previous $2 million round.

CapriCoast, a months-old, Bangalore, India-based online furniture store that connects its customers with manufacturers directly, has raised $1.25 million in seed funding led by Accel Partners. DealCurry has more here.

Commeasure, a year-old, Singapore-based company that helps hotels develop their direct booking systems, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by the Singapore-based early-stage investor Jungle Ventures. VCCircle has more here.

Docker, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose open platform enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications, has raised $95 million Series D funding led by earlier investor Insight Venture Partners. Other investors in the round include Coatue, Goldman Sachs and Northern Trust and previous investors Benchmark, Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, Trinity Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures. More here.

Eaze, a 10-month-old, San Francisco-based medical marijuana on-demand delivery platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by DCM Ventures, with participation from Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital (of course), 500 Startups, and earlier backer Fresh VC. Eaze had previously raised $1.5 million in a seed funding.

FinalCode, a year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based company that makes file-encryption software, has raised $6 million in Series A funding from Japan’s Digital Arts. CRN has more here.

Illumio, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based cybersecurity company, has raised $100 million in Series C funding from BlackRock and Accel Partners, with participation from earlier backers Formation 8, Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst Partners. To date, the company has raised $142 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Movidius, an 8.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based fabless semiconductor company that designs compact, high-performance, ultralow power, computational imaging and vision processing chips and reference designs, has raised $40 million in Series E funding led by Summit Bridge Capital, with participation from ARCH Venture Partners, Sunny Optical Technology Group, and earlier backers Atlantic Bridge Capital, AIB Seed Capital Fund, Capital-E, DFJ Esprit and Robert Bosch Venture Capital. The company has now raised $86.5 million altogether. Silicon Angle has more here.

Npm, a 16-month-old, Oakland, Ca.-based company that makes software for JavaScript developers, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Planet Labs, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to cover the Earth in tiny satellites, has raised $118 million in Series C funding led by the the International Finance Corporation, a division of the World Bank. Other participants in the round include Data Collective, and earlier backers Yuri Milner, DFJ, Capricorn Investment Group,O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, Founders Fund, First Round Capital,Innovation Endeavors, AME Cloud Ventures, Industry Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Lux Capital, and Ray Rothrock. TechCrunch has much more here.

Pocket, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based service that lets users save content from across the web to read or watch later, has raised $7 million in fresh funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Sound Ventures, a fund announced by actor Ashton Kutcher and talent manager Guy Oseary last month. Pocket has now raised $14.5 million to date. VentureBeat has more here.

PrimeRevenue, a 12-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company that sells multi-bank supply chain finance services to buyers and suppliers worldwide, has raised $80 million led by BBH Capital Partners and Battery Ventures. The company had previously raised $11.6 million, including from Battery and RRE Ventures, shows Crunchbase.

ResiModel, a two-year-old, New York-based service that aggregates, standardizes and analyzes financial data for transactions in multifamily properties, has raised an undisclosed amount of money that brings its total amount of backing to $3.5 million. The company had previously raised nearly $2 million in debt, shows Crunchbase.

Take Eat Easy, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based company that, like DoorDash, invites users to order food online from restaurants that don’t traditionally offer a take-out and delivery service, has raised €6 million ($6.4 million) in Series A funding from Rocket Internet, DN Capital, and Piton Capital. More here.

Tiantian Yongche, an eight-month-old, Beijing, China-based carpool and ridesharing app, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series C funding led by Baidu, with participation from Sequoia Capital. The company claims its valuation is now close to $200 million. Baidu has been playing catch-up in the taxi app race. It has also recently invested in in 51yongche, another carpooling app, and in December, it invested in Uber, the car-booking giant. Tech in Asia has more here.

Tonara, a 6.5-year-old, Ramat Gan, Israel-based startup behind the eponymous interactive sheet music app, has raised $5 million from Chinese Internet giant Baidu and earlier backer Carmel Ventures. The company had previously raised $4.8 million, shows Crunchbase. Techcrunch has more here.

WhatWeLike, a a 15-month-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based social shopping startup that focuses on local fashions, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from East Ventures. Tech in Asia has more here.

Zomato, the seven-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based online restaurant guide, has reportedly raised roughly $24.9 million from Info Edge as part of a $50 million fundraise. Zomato had also raised $60 million from Vy Capital, Info Edge and Sequoia last November. Altogether, it has raised $163 million in funding until now, reports the Economic Times.

ZopNow, a four-year-old, Bangalore, India- based online grocery startup, has raised $10 million in new funding led by San Francisco-based Dragoneer Investment Group, with participation from earlier backers Accel Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Times Internet. Inc42 has the story here.

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New Funds

Yesterday, 500 Startups announced a new $10 million carveout fund, called the DistroFund, aimed at helping early-stage companies with both financial backing and support services when they are trying to land Series A funding. PandoDaily has more here.

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People

Twitter’s former head of investor relations, Nils Erdmann, has a new job as a partner at the young secondary shop Battery East Group. TechCrunch asks him about the move here.

Eight VC firms, including Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Accel Partners, Shasta Ventures, and Redpoint Ventures, have opened or are opening offices in San Francisco’s South Park. “It’s Sand Hill, but with street art and better burritos,” Redpoint’s Ryan Sarver tells Recode.

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Data

Of the 56 current “unicorns,” just four are led by women (and just three if you exclude Good Technology, whose path continues to appear uncertain). Almost two-thirds of the companies don’t have a woman on the board, either. Silk has the data story here.

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Essential Reads

As vertical marketplaces rise, Craiglist is reportedly losing market share at long last.

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Detours

How not to be a jerk while wearing the Apple Watch.

Why everyone went nuts over Hillary Clinton’s new logo.

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Retail Therapy

Whoops. Looks like Johnny Walker hired the wrong branding agency.

Good morning, dear readers!

We’re happy to announce that Charles Hudson of SoftTech VC has just joined our upcoming program on May 13 in San Francisco, making an already terrific line-up even better. Thank you, Charles! And giant thanks to Personal Capital, Amazon Web Services, and Galvanize for helping us produce the evening. We’re getting excited to see everyone.

No column today. (Busy morning.)

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Top News in the A.M.

Chip maker Qualcomm is under pressure from activist investor Jana Partners to consider a breakup to boost its sagging stock price.

Twitter is reportedly encouraging its celebrity users to dump the live broadcasting app Meerkat and use its product, Periscope, instead.

Yesterday, the first four episodes of the “Game of Thrones” were leaked and promptly downloaded more than 100,000 times in just the first few hours following. As Forbes notes, the leak is bad news for HBO, which just rolled out a standalone streaming service that costs customers $15 per month.

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New Fundings

4i, a six-year-old, Amsterdam-based TV app development company, has raised $2 million in funding from investors, including Newion Investments.

CradlePoint, an 11-year-old, Boise, Id.-based wireless networking company, has raised $48 million in Series B funding from new investorsSorenson Capital, Delta-v Capital and the Caprock Group, reports VentureWire. The company has raised $65.5 million altogether over the years, shows Crunchbase. Earlier backers include OVP Venture Partners and Highway 12 Ventures.

Crowd Supply, a 2.5-year-old, Portland, Oregon-based crowdfunding and product development platform for hardware engineers and product designers, has raised $585,000 in seed funding led by Portland Seed Fund, with participation from SOSVentures, Inspiration Ventures, and a consortium of angels. The company had previously raised $500,000 in seed funding.

Embera NeuroTherapeutics, a 10-year-old, Sudbury, Ma.-based development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing treatments for smoking cessation and other addictions, has raised $2 million in A-2 funding from earlier investors and HRA Pharma, a Paris-based specialty pharmaceutical company. The company has now raised at least $7 million from investors, including Louisiana Ventures and Themelios Ventures.

Estimize, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that crowdsources estimates from more than 4,500 hedge funds, brokerages and independent analysts, has raised $3 million in Series B funding led by WorldQuant Ventures, with participation from Agilic Partners, numerous individual investors, and earlier backer Contour Venture Partners. The company has now raised roughly $5.6 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Fliptu, a two-year-old, L.A. company whose suite of social aggregation tools help brands curate their best brand and fan social content into visualizations, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding from Scout Ventures and numerous angel investors.

Khorus, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that makes business management software for CEOs, has raised $4 million in seed funding from company founder Joel Trammel and angel investor Tom Greig, a senior managing director at the New York-based private equity firm Liberty Partners. The company has raised $6 million altogether. Austin Business Journal has more here.

Magency Digital, a four-year-old, Paris, France-based company that makes event apps for everything from small training seminars to large conferences, has raised €3M ($3.7M) in Series A funding led by Alliance Entreprendre and Sigma Gestion.

ScoreStream, a three-year-old, San Diego, CA-based platform for crowdsourcing scores and photos for local sporting events, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Sinclair Digital Ventures, with participation from previous investors Avalon Ventures and New Enterprise Associates, Sagamore Ventures, and Paul Palmieri.

Spotify, the nine-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based music streaming service, is nearing a deal to raise $400 million at a $8.4 billion valuation, according to the WSJ, which says that Goldman Sachs and an Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund have agreed to invest in the round.

Stem, a six-year-old, Millbrae, Ca.-based startup that uses batteries and software to help businesses reduce their electricity bills, has raised $12 million in Series C funding from Mitsui & Co. The company tells VentureWire that it expects to raise between $25 million and $30 million before closing the round, which also includes participation from earlier backers Angeleno Group, Constellation Energy, Iberdrola SA, and General Electric.

UCloud, a three-year-old, Shanghai, China-based cloud service provider, has reportedly raised roughly $100 million in Series C funding led by Legend Capital, with the participation from VMS Legend Investment Fund, DCM, Bertelsmann and GX Capital. The company, founded by former Tencent executives, had previously raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding in 2013 and $50 million in Series B funding last year.

UgenTec, a year-old, Hasselt, Belgium-based laboratory software developer whose products aim to trace respiratory infections and certain types of cancer, among other things, has raised $1.4 million in funding led by an unnamed Belgian investor group; IWT, a government agency; and the Belgian investment company LRM (which provided provided $105,000 in debt).

UXP Systems, a four-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-based company whose software helps telecommunication and cable operators simplify user registration from any screen and for any member of their customers’ households, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from cable and media veterans John Malone and John Risley.

Vacatia, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based resort marketplace for vacationing families, has raised $7 million in funding led by Javelin Venture Partners. The company has now raised $12 million altogether, shows Crunchbase. Earlier backers include Maveron, Bee Partners, Peterson Ventures, and operator-investor Erik Blachford.

Videoo, a six-month-old, Miami-based company that plans to sell crowdsourced video products to brands and advertisers, recently raised $1.6 million in seed funding, including from the Miami-based angel network Accelerated Growth Partners. The Miami Herald has more here.

Voyager Therapeutics, a year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that focuses on treatments for fatal and debilitating diseases of the central nervous system, has raised $60 million in Series B funding led byBrookside Capital and Partner Fund Management, with participation from Wellington Management, Casdin Capital and two undisclosed investment funds. Voyager spun out of Third Rock Ventures last year, raising $45 million in Series A funding from Third Rock in the process.

Wingz, a 16-month-old, San Francisco-based ride-sharing app that invites users to book prescheduled rides to and from the airport, has raised $2 million in funding led by Binux Capital, Blue Angel Ventures and Florence Venture Partners, with participation from Ocotea Holdings, Big Bloom Investments, Olive Tree, and investor Larry Marcus of WaldenVC.

Zeemi.tv, a year-old, Indonesia-based live-streaming video platform, has raised $1 million in seed funding from DeNA and 500 Startups. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

New Atlantic Ventures’s managing partner John Backus and True Ventures’s cofounder John Burke are raising a $300 million fund together, according to Washington Business Journal. From its report: “People familiar with the plans behind the fund say it would effectively make a proxy investment in a company on behalf of a smaller fund, but only when the smaller fund lacked the capital for a follow-on investment. The investment would be in exchange for half of the profits. In theory, this means the smaller fund would have the opportunity to earn additional returns without having to put down any additional money.”

OrbiMed, a 26-year-old, New York-based investment firm that backs both private and publicly traded life sciences companies around the world, is raising a second Israel-focused fund and it’s targeting $200 million to $250 million for the effort, reports the Globes. OrbiMed raised its first, $203 million, fund in Israel in 2010. According to documents obtained by the Globes, it has since invested that capital across 19 companies and exited (or partially exited) from six of them, establishing a current internal rate of return of 21.4 percent.

Pelion Venture Partners, a 29-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based early-stage venture firm that focuses primarily on enterprise software and cloud computing startups, is looking to raise up to $200 million for its sixth fund, shows an SEC filing that states its first sale has yet to occur.

SWaN and Legend Venture Partners, a three-year-old Leesburg, Va.-based venture capital firm, is looking to raise up to $150 million for a third fund, according to an SEC filing that states its first sale has yet to occur. The firm was cofounded by longtime colleagues Fred Schaufeld, Clifford White and Anthony Nader and has already made dozens of bets, among them Optoro, which helps retailers get rid of their distressed inventory; SocialRadar, which makes a location-based social app (StrictlyVC featured it out of the gate), and Tango Card, a rewards platform company. With the new fund come apparent changes. White is no longer listed anywhere at the site; meanwhile, David Bosserman has recently joined as a managing director and the firm’s chief financial officer.

There’s a new fintech accelerator on the scene called the TCF-PnP Program. The effort is a joint venture between The Co-Foundry, a venture accelerator in Singapore, and Plug and Play, the Silicon Valley-based accelerator. It aims to support financial tech startups with up to $200,000 (if they’re truly nascent), and up to $1 million if they’re further along. The startups, which will spend between 6 and 12 months with the program, can work out of either Singapore or Sunnyvale, Ca. Much more here.

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IPOs

Aduro Biotech, a 15-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based company that’s developing drugs that aim to teach the body’s immune system to fight cancer, expects to raise up to $93 million in an IPO this week by issuing 5 million shares at $14 to $16 per share. (It’s offering another 750,000 shares to underwriters.) Aduro has raised roughly $140 million from investors over the years. Some of its biggest shareholders include Morningside Ventures, which owns 37.8 percent of the company; Fidelity Investments, which owns 7.9 percent; and Johnson & Johnson, which owns 6.6 percent.

Etsy, the 10-year-old, Brooklyn-based marketplace for mostly handmade and vintage items, and Virtu, the seven-year-old, New York-based high-speed trading firm, are planning to go public this week. Virtu is the better bet, argues Crain’s New York, which has more details about both.

KemPharm, a nine-year-old, Coralville, Ia.-based specialty pharmaceutical company, plans to raise $60 million in IPO this week by issuing 4.6 million shares at between $12 and $14 per share.

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Exits

Elto, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based online marketplace that pairs business owners with web developers and marketers to help them grow their online presence, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by by GoDaddy, the now publicly traded web hosting company. Elto reportedly raised less than one million dollars, including from the Australian fund Blackbird Ventures. More here.

Sunstorm Games, a six-year-old, Las Vegas-based maker of casual gaming apps for kids, has been acquired for by TabTale, an Israel-based kids’ gaming and educational app publisher that has raised $13.5 million from Qualcomm Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, and Vintage Investment Partners. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but TechCrunch sources peg it at $6 million.

—–

Job Listings

Bessemer Venture Partners is looking to hire an associate for its Menlo Park, Ca., office.

—–

Data

European and Israeli VC trends in the first quarter of this year.

—–

Essential Reads

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced a major reorganization of the company’s product teams on Friday. More here.

Venture-backed DataSift faces a new, and very big, problem — along with other third parties that have been reselling firehose data from Twitter.

More on the burgeoning battle over home services. (Tweeted venture capitalist Bill Gurley last night: “This will be messier than everyone realizes.”)

—–

Detours

Why people care more about their pets than other humans.

The Terminator is back. Again.

Gym membership packages: an overview.

—–

Retail Therapy

Candylab cars.

A new toothbrush subscription service. (Unlike GoodMouth, this one focuses on electric toothbrushes.)

It’s Friday! To our Greek friends, Kali Anastasi! To the rest of our Orthodox friends, Happy Easter.:)

Have a great weekend, everyone — we’ll see you soon.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Hope you snuck your order in; according to 9to5Mac, all models of Apple Watch have now almost entirely sold out.

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One of Craiglist’s Biggest (Only) Threats to Date: VarageSale

It’s accepted wisdom that nothing and no one can destroy Craiglist, the San Francisco-based local classifieds marketplace whose success has continued unhampered for roughly 20 years, despite many newer entrants with far snazzier technologies.

VarageSale might just be different. At least, the 50-person, Toronto-based outfit is gaining enough traction that last month, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners sank $34 million into its operations.

What makes the startup, which claims to have millions of users, so promising? A few things, according to cofounder Carl Mercier, who sold an antispam company to security-software maker Websense in 2009 and founded VarageSale with his wife, Tami Zuckerman, in 2012. For starters, users have to be accepted onto the platform by volunteer moderators in the many communities in which VarageSale now operates. (The company has quietly spread to cities in 42 states and in every Canadian province.)

As key, seemingly, the conversations that happen behind the scenes between Craigslist users — the harried “I’ll take it!” emails, along with the privately asked questions and price haggling — are instead displayed in Twitter-like feeds at VarageSale. It helps build interest in users’ items, suggests Mercier; it also builds community.

We talked with Mercier this week. Our conversation has been edited for length.

You say VarageSale has millions of users. Is that single-digit millions? And how many items are selling on the platform each month or year?

We have millions of users who view billions of items of month. For competitive reasons, we’d rather not be more specific. But 50 percent of our mobile users open the app every day, which is very unusual for a commerce app.

What are they returning to check out?

Typically people are coming to the site for information about a specific category they’re following — like clothes for a two-year-old boy, or smartphones. They also come back all the time because they want to make sure they don’t miss that treasure, or because they posted an item and there are 10 people who’ve expressed an interest in it.

Do you do anything to slow the pace of transactions to foster those conversations? It’s interesting that people don’t just sell to the first interested party.

It’s more akin to people putting their towel on a beach chair at 6 a.m to reserve it. Maybe the first person to express an interest [lands the item], but once they ask a question, then we see other people become interested — sometimes tens of them.

You don’t enable people to transact through the site, though. Like Craigslist, that happens offline. Might that change?

We really want to focus on building up our local communities right now — growing our user base and coverage. That’s where we feel like we’ll have the biggest impact.

I’d read about VarageSale meet-ups. How do most people come together?

It really depends on the people and the communities. Sometimes people meet in a parking lot or at their house; sometimes, our moderators organize events every one or two weeks.

Given your emphasis on community, VarageSale sounds like a hybrid of a number of things, including Craigslist and NextDoor. Maybe even Airbnb? Are people selling home items alone, or are you starting to see other things, like neighbors alerting others to their available in-law unit?

Hah, no. Airbnb is really good at that. Some people are renting properties [on the platform], but we mostly focus on physical goods.

You’ve just raised a lot of money. Is this an employee-intensive business? How will you use the capital?

Building strong communities isn’t something that we can just press a button and it happens. It’s definitely hard work that involves a lot of human intervention. We probably won’t be hiring 1,000 people, but we think we’ll add 30 to 40 employees in the next year. We already have a small presence in Europe, Australia, and Japan that we’re growing.

Will your eventual business model center on transaction fees? Local advertising?

Revenue isn’t a priority for us. We want to focus on improving user experience and we have great partners [in our venture investors]. With the money we now have in the bank, we have runway for a few years.

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New Fundings

1366 Technologies, an eight-year-old, Bedford, Ma.-based maker of inexpensive silicon wafers, has added $5 million to an earlier Series C round. Haiyin Capital led the new funding, with participation from earlier backers Vorndran Mannheims Capital, Tokuyama, Energy Technology Ventures, Polaris Partners, VantagePoint Capital Partners, and North Bridge Venture Partners & Growth Equity. The company has raised $66.5 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Asqella, a 3.5-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based maker of advanced imaging systems for security screening applications, has raised 1.8 million euros ($1.9 million) in funding led by Shenzhen Lietou Fund and VTT Ventures Oy.

Aviso, a nine-month-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based predictive insights software company for sales management, operations and forecasting, has raised $15 million in Series B funding co-led by Scale Venture Partners and Next World Capital, with participation from earlier backers including Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, Bloomberg Beta and Cowboy Ventures. The company has now raised $23 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Carbon 3D, a two-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company that uses something called liquid interface production technology to advance 3D printing from basic prototyping to manufacturing, has raised $10 million in venture funding from the Autodesk Spark Investment Fund. The company had earlier raised $41 million in two rounds of venture funding led by Sequoia Capital and SilverLake Kraftwerk, says VentureWire.

Clypd, a 2.5-year-old, Boston-based programmatic TV startup, has raised $19.4 million in Series B funding led by RTL Group, with participation from Atlas Venture, Data Point Capital, Duke University, TiVo, Transmedia Capital and Western Technology Investment. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised roughly $31 million to date.

DemoChimp, a two-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based company whose software automates custom product demos to accelerate sales, has raised $2.8 milion in seed funding from Seed Equity Ventures, Peak Ventures, Albion Financial, and individual investors.

EBR Systems, a 12-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based medical-technology company that makes a wireless implantable simulator for the heart, has raised $20 million in Series E funding led by Emergent Medical Partners, with participation from earlier investors Split Rock Partners, SV Life Sciences, Delphi Ventures and St. Paul Venture Capital. The company has now raised at least $81 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Edge Therapeutics, a six-year-old, New Providence, N.J.-based company with a drug delivery system for brain hemorrhaging and other acute neurological conditions, has raised $72.5 million in Series C funding, including a C-2 round led by Venrock, with participation from Sofinnova Ventures, Janus Capital Management, New Leaf Venture Partners and BioMed Ventures, and a first tranche that closed in December and came from individuals, family offices and private foundations. MedCity News hasmore here.

Maven Clinic, a year-old, New York-based company whose mobile applications connect women with health-care providers via video, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Box Group, Female Founders Fund and angel investors.

Niara, a 1.5-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based stealth security analytics company, has raised $20 million in Series B financing led by Venrock, with participation from New Enterprise Associates and Index Ventures. The company has now raised roughly $30 million altogether.

PeerIQ, a year-old, New York-based credit risk analytics firm that helps financial institutions analyze risk in the peer-to-peer lending sector, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Uprising and John Mack, former chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley. Other participants in the round include Vikram Pandit, former Citigroup CEO; Arthur Levitt, former SEC chairman; former Bloomberg CEO Dan Doctoroff ; and Eric Schwartz, former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Rubicon Labs, an 8.5-year-old, Austin, Tx.-based cybersecurity company that’s developing secure communication technologies for cloud-based data centers, has added Akamai Technologies as an investor in its Series A financing. The round, which now exceeds $11 million, also includes participation from Third Point Ventures and Pelion Ventures.

Stanza, a three-year-old, Redwood City, California-based company whose “button” lets users add online events to their personal calendar, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Metamorphic Ventures, Founder Collective, Tekton Ventures, Western Technology Investment, and Stanford-StartX Fund, along with a group of angel investors.

Urban Ladder, the 2.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based e-commerce store that claims to be India’s largest online seller of furniture and home accessories, has raised $50 million in new funding led by Sequoia Capital and TR Capital, with participation from earlier backers Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners, and Kalaari Capital. The company has now raised $77 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

VendOp, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based review site where professionals can share opinions on business and industrial vendors, has raised $1.1 million in seed funding from individual investors.

Vulcun, an 11-week-old fantasy e-sports site, has just raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Matrix Partners, Universal Music Group, Battery Ventures, Creative Artists Agency, Crosscut Ventures, and a long list of notable angel investors, including AngelList cofounder Naval Ravikant, Zynga cofounder Mark Pincus, and Joe Kraus of Google Ventures. More here.

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New Funds

Illuminate Ventures, an Oakland, Ca.-based early-stage venture that focuses on enterprise cloud and mobile computing startups, is targeting a second, $30 million fund, suggests a new SEC filing that states a first sale has yet to occur. StrictlyVC talked with Cindy Padnos, the founder of Illuminate Ventures, when she closed her last, $20 million fund, roughly 15 months ago.

According to the Times of India, Sequoia Capital has added another $210 million to its existing $530 million India-focused fund, giving the firm a “bigger war chest and a substantial leg up over other VCs amid rising valuations of tech companies” in the country.

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IPOs

Etsy is crafting an “artisanal public offering,” reports the WSJ, whose sources say the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based online marketplace is making a big effort to attract small investors and fewer big investors.

ViewRay, an 11-year-old, Oakwood Village, Oh.-based company that markets an FDA-approved MRI-guided radiation therapy system, postponed its IPO yesterday.

The Nasdaq debut of Wowo — a three-year-old, Beijing, China-based company that operates the Groupon-like, Chinese group-buying site — didn’t wow investors this week. That could prove problematic for other, smaller tech IPOs, suggests The Street.

—–

Exits

Collegefeed, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that helps college students and recent grads find jobs, has been been acquired by rival AfterCollege in San Francisco for an undisclosed sum. Collegefeed had raised $1.8 million from investors, including Accel Partners and Silicon Valley Angels. AfterCollege has raised an undisclosed amount of equity funding from Flywheel Ventures; it has also raised an undisclosed amount of debt funding, according to Crunchbase.

Shoefitr, a five-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based company whose 3-D technology helps consumers purchase footwear online by providing measurements pertinent to fitting, has been acquired by Amazon for undisclosed terms. Shoefitr looks to have raised $1.3 million in funding from Vital Venture Capital, Innovation Works, and AlphaLab. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Analysts at Morgan Stanley say that Yahoo, which has fired up to 900 employees since last fall, needs to reduce its headcount by another 11 percent just to keep earnings flat between 2014 and 2015. That’s about 1,400 more employees.

People Magazine could go to trial for misidentifying an entrepreneur as the mistress of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, based on an April 3 court decision. More here.

What do Pharrell, Drake and Katie Perry have in common (well, besides being international celebrity entertainers)? They’re already wearing the Apple Watch.

Meet the Amazon Web Services mafia.

—–

Job Listings

General Catalyst Partners is looking to hire an investment associate in Cambridge, Ma.

Snapchat is hiring a business analyst. The job is in Venice, Ca.

—–

Essential Reads

Here’s what it looks like when a startup wins big at Y Combinator.

—–

Detours

Meet Walnut, the crane who fell in love with her zookeeper.

Where the white people live.

—–

Retail Therapy

Out with gray. In with blue. (Blue, blue, blue, we’re telling you.)

Hi, happy Thursday, everyone!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

LinkedIn is spending $1.5 billion in cash and stock to acquire Lynda.com, a 20-year-old, Carpinteria, Ca.-based online learning company that teaches business, technology and creative skills to aspiring professionals. It’s LinkedIn’s biggest deal to date, and the company explains the tie-up here. Lynda had raised roughly $290 million across two rounds fromSpectrum Equity, Meritech Capital Partners, and Accel Partners.

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Joya Raises $5 Million to Make Messaging More Fun

Three years ago, Michal and Vlada Bortnik, former Microsoft employees who met on a soccer field in Seattle, had a host of problems every time they gathered up their two young daughters and tried communicating online with far-flung family members.

The couple decided to do something about it, founding Joya, a mobile video communications company whose two newest messaging apps allow users to record playful messages of up to 30 seconds in length. One app, FlipLip, allows users to play with their voice and insert their face in a variety of county-fair-like digital cut-outs; the other, Cleo, invites people to make video selfies using filters designed to make them appear more attractive.

Whether the apps take off remains to be seen, but Facebook certainly thinks they’re promising. The couple was among 39 other developers to work with the company in advance of the rollout last month of its Messenger Platform, for which it hopes developers will build apps that integrate with Facebook Messenger.

Facebook’s apparent endorsement could prove especially meaningful as it attempts to turn Messenger into its own ecosystem. (Yesterday, as you likely read, Facebook launched a standalone Messenger app for the web with the hope that people will use Messenger both inside and outside of the social network.)

Certainly, Joya’s traction caught the attention of Battery Ventures and Altos Ventures, which have just provided the now seven-person company with $5 million in Series A funding.

As for what’s next, the pair — now based in Palo Alto, Ca. — say to expect more apps this year that will continue their focus on making quick, online messaging easier and more enjoyable.

They add that for now, they plan to make their existing (free) apps better and more tightly integrated with Messenger.

“It’s very rare that platforms like this come out with such large audience,” says Michal Bortnik, noting that according to Facebook, Facebook Messenger now has more than 600 million monthly active users.

“We’ve developed many concepts that never saw the light of day,” he says, “but we now have a clear product and a clear story: How can we make communications more personal and fun . . . We have something that’s growing.”

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New Fundings

Annapurna Microfinance, a six-year-old, Bhubaneswar, India-based microfinance venture, has raised $4.2 million in Series C funding from earlier investor Samridhi Fund. VCCircle has more here.

ApplePie Capital, a year-old, San Francisco-based online loan business focused on franchise financing, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Signia Venture Partners, with participation from Freestyle Capitaland QED Investors. (All three had backed the company last July, when it raised $3.7 million in seed funding.) Ron Suber, president of the lending marketplace Prosper, also invested in the new round. StrictlyVC talked ApplePie CEO Denise Thomas last November about how the company works.

CliQr, a five-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based hybrid cloud management vendor, just raised $20 million in Series C funding from Polaris Partners, along with earlier backers Foundation Capital, Google Ventures andTransLink Capital. The company has now raised $38 million altogether.More here from Forbes.

Conversion Logic, a year-old, L.A.-based company whose software helps advertisers track the effectiveness of their ads across devices and channels, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Rincon Venture Partners, with participation from Crosscut Ventures, Founder Collective, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Raptor Ventures and TenOneTen. The company previously raised $1.1 million in seed funding.

DiabetOmics, a seven-year-old, Beaverton, Or.-based diagnostics company that makes a saliva-based glucose monitoring test for diabetes patients and an early detection test for gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia, has raised $4 million in funding led by Ventureast. Crunchbase shows the company has now raised $10 million altogether, including fromRogue Venture Partners. More here.

Domo, a 4.5-year-old, American Fork, Ut.-based SaaS business founded by Josh James of Omniture fame, has raised $200 million in Series D funding at a $2 billion valuation led by BlackRock, with participation fromCapital Group and Glynn Capital. Earlier backer GGV Capital also reportedly contributed five times its pro rata. Domo previously raised $259 million from investors, including TPG Growth, Salesforce, T. Rowe Price,Fidelity Investments, Morgan Stanley, Viking Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners and Mercato Partners. The WSJ has the new funding details.

Engagio, a new, San Mateo, Ca.-based company that’s building an account-based marketing automation platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from Storm Ventures and First Round Capital. Its cofounder, Jon Miller, founded Marketo, which went public in May of 2013 and currently has a market cap of more than $1 billion.

Brainbees Solutions, a five-year-old, Pune, India-based company that operates the baby- and kids-focused e-commerce site FirstCry, has added $10 million to its Series D round from New Enterprise Associates. Last month, it had closed the round with $26 million led by Valiant Capital Partners, with participation from earlier backers IDG Ventures India, Temasek’s VC arm Vertex and SAIF Partners. FirstCry has now raised nearly $70 million altogether. VCCIrcle has the story here.

Global Fashion Group, a four-year-old, Luxembourg-based cluster of five of its Rocket Internet’s emerging market fashion sites that consolidated into one bigger operation last year, has raised $35 million at a $3 billion post-money valuation led by Tengelmann Ventures and Verlinvest. The company has also recruited as CEO Romain Voog, the former head of Amazon France. TechCrunch has more here.

Lili & Beauty, an eight-year-old, Shanghai, China-based cosmetics e-commerce platform, has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by Crescent HydePark, with participation from Milestone Capital and New Access Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Meican, a four-year-old, Beijing, China-based online food ordering platform, has raised $23 million in Series C funding led by the Yelp-like review site Dianping.com, with participation from earlier backers KPCB China, Nokia Growth Partners, and Trustbridge Partners, reports China Money Network.

Nabriva Therapeutics, a 14-year-old, Vienna-based biotechnology company focused on a new class of antibiotics for the treatment of serious bacterial infections that cause pneumonia, has raised $120 million in Series B led by Vivo Capital and OrbiMed, and with participation fromEcoR1 Capital, Boxer Capital of Tavistock Life Sciences, and earlier investor HBM. MedCity News has more here.

Opendorse, a 2.5-year-old, Lincoln, Ne.-based company that pairs athletes and brands seeking social media endorsements, has raised $1.75 million in funding led by Flyover Capital. Altogether, the company has raised $2.1 million from investors since its launch, it says. Forbes hasmore here.

Pixability, a seven-year-old, Boston-based video advertising startup, has raised $18.2 million in Series C funding from undisclosed investors. The company has now raised $28.2 million altogether. BetaBoston has more here.

Prosper, the nine-year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer lending marketplace, has raised $165 million in Series D funding led by Credit Suisse NEXT Investors, part of Credit Suisse Asset Management. Additional participants included J.P. Morgan Asset Management, SunTrust Banks, a subsidiary of USAA, BBVA Ventures, Neuberger Berman Private Equity Funds, Passport Capital, Breyer Capital, and others. According to Crunchbase, the company has now raised $355 million from investors. Dealbook has more here.

Qingchifan, a year-old, Beijing, China-based dating app for meeting up with strangers for dinner dates, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding led by Vertex Ventures, with participation from Sequoia Capital. Tech in Asia has more here.

Seismos, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company whose data analytics software focuses on real-time subsurface fluid flow for oil and gas production monitoring, has raised $4 million in funding led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Osage University Partners and other oil and gas technology-focused investors, including Kemal Farid, founder of Merrick Systems; Donald Kendall, CEO of Blue Earth Capital; and Geoff Hicks, founder of Hicks Oilfield.

Testlio, a 2.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based community of expert test engineers that test mobile apps, has raised $1 million in seed funding fromTechstars Ventures, Galvanize, Geekdom Fund and individual investors.

The RealReal, the four-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based online luxury consignment site, has raised $40 million in Series D funding led by Industry Ventures, with participation from Greycroft Growth, e.ventures Growth, DBL Partners and earlier backers Canaan Partners and InterWest Partners. The company has now raised $83 million to date. StrictlyVC visited one of the company’s warehouses last summer.

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New Funds

Kalaari Capital, the three-year-old, India-based venture capital fund, is planning to raise $300 million for its second tech-focused fund, reports DealCurry. Kalaari was created in 2012 by the partners behind Indo US Venture Partners (IUVP, also known as IndosUS). Its portfolio consists of numerous fast-growing e-commerce companies, including Snapdeal, Flipkart, and Urban Ladder.

—–

IPOs

Adaptimmune Therapeutics, a U.K.-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on cancer immunotherapy products, has filed to go public in the U.S., following on the heels of other IPOs in the field, including Juno Therapeutics, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, and Kite Pharma. Investors Business Daily has more here.

aTyr Pharma, a 10-year-old, San Diego-based biotherapeutics company that discovers and develops protein biologics for human therapeutics, and which just announced $76 million in Series E funding nine days ago, has filed to go public. Major shareholders include Fidelity Investments, which owns 13.5 percent of the company, Domain Associates (10.5 percent),Polaris Partners (10.5 percent), Alta Partners (10.3 percent), Cardinal Partners (10.1 percent), Sofinnova Ventures (8.9 percent), and Baker Brothers Life Sciences (8.9 percent). Xconomy has more here.

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Exits

Apple quietly bought Dryft, a startup that develops keyboard apps, last year, reports TechCrunch.

Coinsetter, a New York-based bitcoin exchange that targets institutional and professional traders, acquired Canadian Virtual Exchange, a bitcoin trading platform that recently shut down due to security breaches. The deal was valued at $2 million, reports Reuters.

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People

Hillary Rodham Clinton has hired longtime Google executive Stephanie Hannon to oversee her likely presidential campaign’s technology development and build new ways for Clinton to engage with voters, reports the Washington Post.

Golden Venture Partners, a Toronto-based mobile-focused seed and early stage venture capital fund, has hired Ameet Shah as a partner and Bert Amato as a venture partner. In 2011, Shah cofounded Tira Wireless alongside Matt Golden, Golden Venture’s founder; he then sold his next startup, Five Mobile, to Zynga. Amato, cofounded Delrina, which was acquired by Symantec. More here.

Less than two years after Don Mattrick was installed as CEO of the online games company Zynga, he’s abruptly out the door and founding CEO Mark Pincus is back. No outside word yet about what happened, though the New York Times notes notes the a “long-running turnaround plan that [Mattrick] set in motion at Zynga had yet to take flight.” Mattrick, a longtime Electronic Arts executive who later ran Microsoft’s Xbox business, walks away roughly $15 million richer for leaving the company, notes VentureBeat. Meanwhile, the market doesn’t love the news of Pincus’s return.

The institutional investor HarvourVest Partners is opening an office in Toronto, and it just hired Senia Rapisarda, a former vice president at BDC, as a principal to help run it. The firm notes that it has a long history of investing in Canadian companies through primary and secondary investments; this is its first Canadian office, though.

Anthony Watson, the former CIO of Nike, has joined the San Francisco-based fiat-to-bitcoin exchange BitReserve as president and COO. Bitreserve was founded last year by CNET cofounder Halsey Minor. Fortune has much more here.

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Job Listings

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is looking to hire an associate of venture capital coverage for its Palo Alto, Ca.-based tech investment banking division.

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Essential Reads

Yahoo is planning a big reorganization that will bring Tumblr more closely into the company. More here.

Google is planning a service to connect users with plumbers, electricians, roofers and other home-service providers, reports the WSJ. The development comes eight months after Google Capital led a $100 million investment in the local services site Thumbtack. (Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta is speaking at our event next month. We’ll ask him about it!)

Genius (formerly Rap Genius) now enables users to annotate any web page. More here.

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Detours

Futuristic subway stations.

The return of sad sack “Louie.”

What’s going on with Tiger Woods?

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Retail Therapy

Hu$tle.