Hi, happy Tuesday, all, and welcome back. So much amazing basketball this weekend!   We’re catching up on all and getting very excited about our drinks event next month in San Francisco. Giant thanks again to Lightspeed Venture Partners and investor Semil Shah for helping us put this one together. If you’re on the list to come but realize that you won’t be able to make it, please do let us know. We maxed out on headcount a few hours after announcing this get-together and have a lot of other readers who’d like to come.

Top News

A start-up company based in the Cayman Islands is on track to raise more than $4 billion(!) through a yearlong sale of digital tokens—the largest fundraising of its kind, reports the WSJ. What buyers of the tokens still don’t know, it adds: how the company, block.one, will use the bulk of the windfall from its so-called initial coin offering.  Stocks plummeted today as unease surrounding political turmoil in Italy spread across global markets.  Bye, Roseanne.

New Fundings

Acko, a two-year-old, Mumbai, India-based digital insurance startup, has raised $12 million in funding led by Amazon, which had separately invested in a lending startup, Capital Float, last month. Others participants in the round include Ashish Dhawan, who founded the private equity firm ChrysCapital, and earlier backer Catamaran Ventures. Acko has now raised $42 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. Azimo, a 5.5-year-old, London-based digital money transfer service, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Japan’s Rakuten Capital, the investment arm of Rakuten. Other participants in the round include e.ventures, Frog Capital, GR Capital Partners, Greycroft Partners, MCI, Quona Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. Forbes has more here.  CTRL-Labs, a year-old, New York-based startup that’s making an armband that reads electrical impulses sent from users’ brains to their fingers (and, by the way, was cofounded by one of the creators of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser), just raised $28 million in new funding. Lux Capital led the round, with participation from GV, Vulcan Capital, Founders Fund, the Amazon Alexa Fund and earlier backers Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Breyer Capital, and Fuel Capital. Dealbook has more here.  Comet, a two-year-old, Paris-based startup that’s building a marketplace of talented tech and data freelancers as well as companies that are looking for engineers and teams for a specific project. The company just raised a $12.8 million funding round (€11 million) with Otium Venture and Daphni. TechCrunch has more here.  CoreView, a four-year-old, New York-based provider of Office 365 management software that handles reporting, monitoring, and security auditing, has raised $20 million from Insight Venture Partners. More here.   Flock, a nearly two-year-old, London-based startup that sells customized, on-demand insurance for drone flights (the insurance is underwritten by Allianz), has raised £2.25 million in seed funding. Anthemis led the round, with participation from Plug and Play, Seed and Speed, and Downing Ventures and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Saranas, a seven-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based company that last month submitted an FDA application seeking de novo classification for its internal bleeding detection device, says it has raised $2.8 million in Series C funding, though it did not disclose any investors. More here.  SocialChorus, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based workforce communications platform, has raised $12.5 million in growth funding co-led by Arrowroot Capital and Kohlberg Ventures, with participation from Western Technology Investment. TechCrunch has more here.  Waggl, a four-year-old, Sausalito, Ca.-based employee feedback platform, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by First Analysis, with participation from other institutional and individual investors including Labora, Funder’s Club, andRob Bernshteyn, who is the CEO of Coupa. Vator has more here.  ZTO Express, a nine-year-old, Shanghai, China-based express delivery company that says it is among the country’s largest, has raised $1.38 billion in funding from Alibaba Group Holding Limited and its logistic arm Cainiao Network in exchange for an approximately 10 percent stake in the company. China Money Network has more here.

New Funds

Caffeinated Capital, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture fund, is raising up to $75 million for its third flagship fund, shows an SEC filing. Caffeinated was founded by Raymond Tonsing, a longtime investor and formerly a partner with the secondary firm Akkadian Ventures. Interestingly, the firm, which has closed two substantially smaller funds previously, is also looking to raise a $150 million “opportunity fund,” shows a separate SEC filing. Crunchbase News has more here.  Collaborative Fund, an eight-year-old, New York-based venture firm providing seed and early stage funding to technology companies, just closed its fourth fund with $100 million in capital commitments, including from Quora founder Adam D’Angelo, former Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson, and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow. TechCrunch has more here.  Genesis Capital, a three-year-old, Hong Kong-based growth equity fund that was cofounded by Richard Peng, a former corporate vice president and head of investment at Tencent, and his former Tencent Kurt Xu,  is raising up to $600 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. The outfit had closed its debut fund with $400 million in 2016. DealStreetAsia has more here.  High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the 13-year-old, public-private venture capital investment firm based in Bonn, Germany, has held a second close on its third fund with €316.5 million ($365 million). More here.  XSeed Capital, a 12-year-old, Portola Valley, Ca.-based early-stage venture firm, is raising up to $100 million for a new fund, shows an SEC filing. More here.

IPOs

Avrobio, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based clinical stage gene therapy firm focused on rare diseases, has filed for a $86.2 million IPO. Its biggest outside shareholders include Atlas Venture, Clarus Life Sciences and SV Life Science. More here.  NIO, the Shanghai, China-based electric car startup backed by Tencent, has filed confidentially for an U.S. IPO that could raise up to $2 billion says Bloomberg. More here.  SoulCycle, the 12-year-old, New York-headquartered business known for its spin workouts, withdrew its IPO registration on Friday. It cited market conditions, though several related press accounts also note increased competition, including from New York-based Peloton, which sells stationary bikes and streams cycling classes and is rumored to be gearing up towards an IPO later this year. CNN has more here.

Exits

JAB, the privately held owner of Krispy Kreme and Panera Bread, is deepening its bet on prepared food with plans to buy Pret A Manger, the British sandwich chain that has been expanding in the U.S. The WSJ reports the price is $2 billion, including debt. More here.

People

Emily Calkins was promoted to senior associate at Mainsail Partners, two years after joining the firm. Calkins worked previously as a banking analyst at Credit Suisse in New York.  Arjun Singh, a fresh graduate of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, has joined next47 (Siemens’s venture arm) as an associate.  A former Snap employee just went on the record to describe the company’s culture as “sexist” and “toxic.”  The father of the four-year-old boy who was rescued in that viral “Spiderman rescue” video was off playing “Pokemon Go” at the time.

Jobs

Playground Global, the early-stage venture firm cofounded by Android creators Andy Rubin and Matt Hershenson, among others, is looking to hire an investment associate. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

Essential Reads

Imgur just launched video.  De Beers is getting into lab grown diamonds.  Apple‘s HomePod smart speaker will finally be able to play in multiple rooms simultaneously and in stereo mode.  Russia has now asked Apple to remove Telegram from the App Store, saying it will give the company one month to comply before it enforces punishment for violations.  The Department of Defense is reportedly reviewing the process that won the well-funded cybersecurity startup Tanium hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Detours

How Anna Delvey tricked New York.  The luxury Bay Area neighborhood that’s giving San Francisco a run for its money.  The suspense builds: where is she?

Retail Therapy

Don’t let your kids blow out their eardrums; try these.

Friday! [Flashdances way out of home office.] Hope you have a terrific long weekend, everyone. We will not be publishing StrictlyVC this Monday in observance of Memorial Day, but we’ll see you bright and earlyish on Tuesday.:)

Top News

Goodbye for now, e-scooters in San Francisco.   Pepsi just announced that it’s acquiring Bare Foods, a venture-backed maker of baked fruit and vegetable snacks that looks to have raised just $9.3 million in the 14 years since it was founded. Terms of the deal weren’t being disclosed, but, Pepsi. Can’t be too bad, right?

Former Journo Alexia Bonatsos Takes the Wraps Off Her New Fund, Dream Machine

Five years ago, Alexia Bonatsos, née Tsotsis, was co-editor of TechCrunch, a job that made her renowned in startup circles and familiar with a wide number of startups and their founders. What she really longed to do, in fact, was invest in some of them. “I was among the first people to write about Pinterest and Wish — when it was known as ContextLogic — and Uber and Instagram and WhatsApp,” says Bonatsos. “I started to wonder if I was in the right place at the right time — so, luck — or if I’m in the right information flows. I was curious: what if I’d been writing checks?” She talked occasionally with venture firms, but the right job didn’t materialize. So she set to work on creating her own dream job. Her first move was to step down from her post at TechCrunch in 2015 to enter into an accelerated, one-year master’s degree program at Stanford University’s business school. (“I wanted to be able to communicate in the same language” as other VCs, she says with a shrug.) All the while, and in the year afterward, she was talking with founders about how tell their story and shape their editorial and convince people with large followings that they are worth tracking — skills Bonatsos had herself honed as a reporter.  She wasn’t building out her network merely to stay connected; she was also slowly piecing together checks from individual investors for a debut venture fund. Toward that end, last December, she registered her San Francisco-based firm, Dream Machine, with the SEC, listing the target amount at $25 million. If she has reached or is nearing that number, she won’t say out of an abundance of caution around securities regulations. (This is what happens when business journalists become VCs.) Still, when we caught up with her recently, she disclosed that she has already made seven investments, including as part of one token sale. She also shared a bit about what they have in common, which seemingly centers on two things: they involve the ever-growing sharing economy, and they take advantage of an overarching trend toward decentralization.  More here.

New Fundings

Albert, a three-year-old, L.A.-based startup that provides its customers access to on-demand financial advisors, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from investors including QED, American Express Ventures, and Portag3. The company has now raised $7.5 million altogether. Fortune has more here.  Bright Cellars, a four-year-old, Milwaukee-based wine subscription service that uses algorithms to pair customers with wines they might like, has raised $2.8 million in financing, including from Cleveland Avenue, Northwestern Mutual‘s Cream City Venture Capital and CSA Partners. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has more here.  BRD, a three-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency mobile wallet (BRD stands for Banking Reinvented and Decentralized), has raised $32 million in funding, including from East Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Brii Biosciences, a months-old, Shanghai, China-based biotechnology company that says it is developing medicines exclusively for the China market, has raised $260 million in funding. Investors include ARCH Venture Partners, 6 Dimensions Capital, Boyu Capital, Yunfeng Capital, Sequoia Capital and Blue Pool Capital. Forbes has more here.  ICEYE, a three-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based Earth observation data company, has raised $34 million in Series B funding. True Ventures led the round, with participation from Draper Nexus, Draper Associates, Seraphim Capital, Space Angels, OTB, Tesi, Draper Esprit and Promus Ventures. SpaceNews has more here.  PACT Pharma, a recently launched, Hayward, Ca.-based biotech company that will be developing cell-based immunotherapy products for a wide range of cancers, has raised $95 million in Series B funding led by earlier investor GV. Other participants in the round include Canaan Partners, Casdin Capital, Abbvie Ventures and Wu Capital, along with earlier backers Taiho, DROIA, Invus, Pontifax and Foresite. GV general partner Blake Byers is leading the company as interim president while it recruits a permanent CEO. More here.  Phenom People, a seven-year-old, Ambler, Pa.-based talent relationship marketing platform, has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by AXA Venture Partners, with participation from Sierra Ventures, Sigma Prime Ventures and Omidyar Ventures. More here.  Porter Road, a seven-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based online whole animal butcher shop, raised $3.7 million in seed funding, including from Max Ventures, Slow Ventures, BoxGroup, Tribeca Venture Partners, Collaborative Fund, andGreat Oaks VC. More here.  Riminder, a two-year-old, Paris-based maker of AI-driven HR software, has raised $2.3 million in funding from various business angels, including Xavier Niel. TechCrunch has more here.  Strata Oncology, a three-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based precision medicine startup, has raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Pfizer Ventures and theMerck Global Health Innovation Fund. Other contributors to the round includeDeerfield Management, Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, Arboretum Ventures, and Baird Capital. The company has now raised $38 million. Xconomy has more here.

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New Funds

DCM, the 22-year-old venture firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Tokyo, and Beijing, is raising up to $750 million for its ninth VC fund, according to an SEC filing. The firm had closed its eighth flagship fund with $500 million two years ago.  Draper Esprit, a U.K.-based venture firm, has raised £176 million (€200 million) in fresh investing capital. The Irish Times has more here.

IPOs

Greensky, an Atlanta, Ga.-based online lending platform that enables consumer loans at the point of sale, priced its IPO at the high end of its expected range but saw virtually no movement in its share price once trading began yesterday. MarketWatch has more here.  Magenta Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Ma.-based firm focused on bone marrow transplants, has filed for a $100 million IPO just weeks after bagging $52 million from venture capitalists. EndPoints News has more here.  Xeris Pharma, a Chicago-based developer of injectable hypoglycemia treatments, has filed for a $75 million IPO. FierceBiotech has more here.

Exits

Essential, the phone company founded by Android co-creator Andy Rubin, is considering selling itself and has reportedly canceled plans to develop a new smartphone. Essential had raised around $300 million, including from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.  Kaltura, a 12-year-old interactive video startup, is expanding its enterprise video platform with the acquisition of Rapt Media, a seven-year-old company that had raised $12 million in funding from investors, including Boulder Ventures. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. According to Crunchbase, Kaltura has raised roughly $166 million over the years, including from Avalon Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Goldman Sachs. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Founder-investor Jonathan Abrams wonders what would happen if Didi acquired Lyft and much more in this week’s “Equity” podcast (we had fun recording this with him yesterday).  Media darling Elon Musk is becoming less darling by the day.  When former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was asked about Elon Musk’s warnings about AI at the VivaTech conference in Paris yesterday, he answered, “I think Elon is exactly wrong. . . He doesn’t understand the benefits that this technology will provide to making every human being smarter.” (Of course he said this.)  Venture capital firm IDG Capital has fired a top investment manager in Chinafollowing leaked messages on social media purporting to show he had made sexual advances toward several women in the course of his work. Douglas Jianghad joined IDG in 2013 to lead the firm’s cryptocurrency investments.

Jobs

ORIX Growth Capital, the venture arm of the Japan-based financial services firm Orix Corp., is looking to hire an associate. The job is in San Francisco.

Lawsuit!

Augur, a prediction market system that runs on the ethereum blockchain and whose tokens have soared in value in the three years since the outfit orchestrated an initial coin offering, is now at the center of a lawsuit. Former employee Matthew Liston has brought the case, claiming that cofounder Joey Krug and investorJeremy Gardner were among others to make off with Liston’s stake in Augur’s distribution. Coindesk has more here.

Resolution

A patent case that began back in 2011 has reached a conclusion, with Samsungordered to pay about $539 million to Apple over infringements of the latter’s patents in devices that are now long gone. TechCrunch has more here.

Essential Reads

Pinterest may be growing into its valuation, sources tell Bloomberg.  When it comes to the race to rent rooms outside of hotels, Airbnb is suddenly neck and neck with travel giant Booking Holdings, says The Information.  Amazon is listening to you, just as you suspected. (Here’s how to find out what it knows.)

Detours

Robot Next Door: a photo series.  Check out your Twitter timeline from 10 years ago.  This is your kid’s brain when you read them a story.  “She’s doing great. She’s looking at us right there.” Reporters turned to look at the spot he indicated, but there was no sign of the first lady.

Retail Therapy

Be still, my beating heart.

Thursday! Almost. There. We’re headed off to TechCrunch headquarters, where we’re helping to host its “Equity” podcast. Today’s guest: one Jonathan Abrams of Nuzzel, an app for news consumption that some of you likely use. (Abrams is also a longtime angel investor.) We’ll share a link from that tomorrow in case you’re looking for a podcast while walking the doge (“dohj“) this weekend.

Top News

The U.S. Justice Department just launched a criminal probe into Bitcoin price manipulation.  Uber intentionally disabled an emergency braking system in the self-driving vehicle that struck and killed a woman in Arizona in March, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released this morning. Uber engineers reportedly believed doing so would lessen the “potential for erratic vehicle behavior.”  Nuts. And they were getting along so well.

TruStory, a New Startup, Just Raised $3 Million to Stop ICO Scams from Happening

Investing in initial coin offerings, or ICOs, is a minefield. This isn’t just true for people with absolutely no technical background but also for many investors who may be well-versed in tech but still struggle to understand many projects’ white papers. Enter TruStory, a platform for users to research and validate claims that people make online, whether in a blog post, white paper, website or social media post. The young company’s aim is to “bring authenticity back into the digital and decentralized world.” It’s a huge and growing opportunity. Though regulators around the world are cracking down on cryptocurrency fraud, the number of ICOs has skyrocketed and the funds raised through the mechanism are increasing. According to data collected last month by CoinDesk, ICOs raised $6.3 billion in the first three months of 2018; that’s 118 percent more than projects managed to raise by way of ICOs in all of 2017.  It’s not just blockchain-startups that are carrying out ICOs, either. Many other types of companies are trying to use them — and many of them are frauds. Just last week, The Wall Street Journal published an analysis of 1,450 cryptocurrency offerings, in which the outlet found “271 with red flags that include plagiarized investor documents, promises of guaranteed returns and missing or fake executive teams.”  Separating the wheat from the chaff is a tall order, but investors are willing to bet that TruStory can do the sorting. The outfit just raised $3 million in seed funding led by True Ventures  with participation from Pantera Capital, Kindred Ventures, Homebrew, Coinbase Ventures, Wonder Ventures, Abstract Ventures and former TechCrunch co-editor Alexia Tsotsis through her new fund Dream Machine.  The round also attracted checks from numerous notable individual investors, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, entrepreneur and investor Scott Belsky and former Twitter M&A executive Jessica Verrilli,  who recently joined GV as a general partner.  All are betting on TruStory’s founder, Preethi Kasireddy.  More here.

New Fundings

Abstract, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based platform for modern design teams to work together, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Amplify Partners and Cowboy Ventures. More here.  Canopy Biosciences, a two-year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based research tools company focusing on gene editing and expression analysis, raised $2.4 million in Series A funding co-led by BioGenerator, the investment arm of BioSTL, and Kingdom Capital. The St. Louis Dispatch has more here.  Conga, a 12-year-old, Bloomfield, Co.-based company that aims to help businesses get more value from their Saleforce CRM by automating documents, has raised $47 million in funding, including from Insight Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures. More here.  Crowd Cow, a three-year-old, Seattle-based company that delivers “small-batch craft meats” to customers’ front doors, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from Sound Ventures and earlier backers that include Joe Montana of Liquid 2 Ventures. More here. eLichens, a four-year-old, Grenoble, France-based developer of gas sensors and an air quality analysis and prediction platform, has raised €7 million ($8.2 million) fromBpifrance, BNP Paribas Développement and return backers Aereco, DEMETER,SOFIMAC Innovation and France Angels. More here.  GoGuardian, a four-year-old, L.A.-based SaaS company that powers personalized learning for K-12 students, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding form Sumeru Equity Partners. More here.  Grail, a two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based blood diagnostics company focused on detecting cancer early, has quietly raised $300 million in Series C funding led by Hong Kong-based Ally Bridge Group. The rest of the participants in the new round, which brings the company’s total funding to a stunning $1.5 billion, are also largely China based, including Hillhouse Capital Group, 6 Dimensions Capital, Blue Pool Capital, China Merchant Securities International, CRF Investment, HuangPu River Capital, ICBC International, Sequoia Capital China, and WuXi NextCODE. In a statement, Grail described the round as oversubscribed but did not mention whether earlier backers participated in the new round. (Some of its earlier backers, in case you are interested, include the gene-sequencing giant Illumina,Johnson & Johnson, and Jeff Bezos.)  Kronos Bio, a young, New York- and Cambridge, Ma.-based startup that’s setting out to screen chemical libraries for compounds that may work against historically difficult cancer targets, has raised $18 million in seed funding. Investors include Omega Funds, Vida Ventures and BellCo Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.  Lending Express, a two-year-old, New York-based AI-powered marketplace for business loans, has raised $2.7 million in funding, including from Entree Capital and iAngels. More here. Mented Cosmetics, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based cosmetics startup that’s targeting women of color, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by CircleUp Growth Partners. Forbes has more here.   Orbit Discovery, a three-year-old, Oxford, England-based biotech company developing a peptide identification and optimization platform, has raised £6.9 million ($9.2 million) in Series A funding led by Oxford Sciences Innovation. Other investors in the round include RT Ventures, Borealis Ventures, Perivoli Innovations, and Oxford University. More here.  PlusOne Robotics, a two-year-old, San Antonio, Tex.-based 3D vision and controls developer for robotic automation in the logistics and e-commerce markets, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding. Schematic Ventures led the round, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, ff Venture Capital, First Star and Dynamo. More here.  Reltio, a seven-year-old, Redwood Shores, Ca.-based company that serves enterprises with data-powered insights and recommendations via a cloud-based platform, has raised $45 million in Series D funding. Investors include New Enterprise Associates, Crosslink Capital, .406 Ventures, and Sapphire Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.  Roadstar.ai, a year-old, Shenzhen, China and California-based autonomous driving startup, has raised $128 million in Series A funding co-led by Wu Capital and Shenzhen Capital Group, with participation from Yunqi Partners. Rover, a seven-year-old, Seattle-based marketplace that matches dog owners with caretakers, has raised a $155 million(!) in fresh funding led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from Winslow Capital, Cross Creek, and earlier backers TCV, Greenspring Associates, and Spark Capital. Rover also closed on a $30 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank. The company has now raised $310 million altogether. GeekWire has more here.  SafetyCulture, a 14-year-old, Queensland, Australia-based maker of software for mobile workplace safety and quality management, has raised A$60 million ($45.2 million) in funding led by Tiger Global Management. Startup Daily has more here. Sonnen, a 10-year-old, L.A.- and Germany-based maker of smart energy storage systems,  has raised $70 million in new funding led by Shell Ventures. PV Magazine has more here.  Ultromics, a year-old, Oxford, England-based developer of echocardiography software, has raised $13.4 million in Series A funding led by Oxford Sciences Innovation. Other investors in the round include Neptune, RT Ventures, GT Healthcare, Tanarra and Fushia. More here.  WorkFusion, an eight-year-old, New York-based company whose robotic process automation software manages robots that perform repetitive work, just raised $50 million in strategic funding, roughly one month after closing what appears to be aseparate $50 million in Series E funding. Its newest backers include the large insurance company, Guardian; the healthcare services provider New York-Presbyterian; and the commercial bank, PNC Bank. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Innovation Endeavors, the Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture capital firm that continues to count former Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt as its anchor investor, has raised $333.5 million for its third fund, according to an SEC filing. Crunchbase News has more here.  Snap wants to find the next big media business, so it’s launching a seed accelerator to invest in startups or creators that want to build media projects for mobile devices. The new accelerator, which Snap has named Yellow, will invest $150,000 into 10 different creators or startups beginning this fall. The company will take a small equity stake in exchange for the money. Recode has the story here.  Team 8, an Israel-based venture capital firm, has set out to raise an $85 million second cybersecurity-focused venture-capital fund, according to an SEC filing.

IPOs

Adyen, a company that powers payments for large and smaller e-commerce merchants and others, has said that it plans to publicly list on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, keeping the company’s financial future close to where Adyen itself is based, rather than taking it to the U.S. markets as some other European unicorns have opted to do. Adyen to date has raised $266 million in outside funding, including from Index Ventures (its largest shareholder), Felicis Ventures,Temasek, General Atlantic, and Iconiq. TechCrunch has more here.

People

CalPERs just lost its CFO eight months after he accepted the role, and the pension giant isn’t saying why he was quietly “separated from his position” last week. The WSJ has more here.  Media darling Elon Musk in going on the attack against the media this morning. (That Consumer Reports piece we’d mentioned a couple of days ago didn’t help.)  Comic Amy Schumer is taking her raunchy humor to Spotify in a podcast deal that the company hopes will help it attract a wider audience and challenge Apple’s dominance of this growing audio entertainment field.

Jobs

Apple is looking to hire a corporate development analyst. The job is in Cupertino, Ca.

Data

Just how rich is “rich? enough for private bankers to really, truly care about you? Try $25 million, says Bloomberg. The number, back in 1994, was $3 million. Yikes. The share of female CEOs in the Fortune 500 has dropped by 25 percent in 2018.

Essential Reads

Starting today, all election-related and issue ads on Facebook and Instagram in the U.S. must be clearly labeled – including a “paid for by” disclosure from the advertiser at the top of the ad. Uber forgot to tell Pittsburgh that it was reviving its self-driving tests in the city, and its mayor is pissed.

Detours

Youtoo#, Morgan Freeman?

Retail Therapy

The things you can do with a sugar factory!

Hi, happy Wednesday, all.:)

Top News

A federal district court judge just ruled that Donald Trump can’t block people from viewing his Twitter feed over their political views. As The Hill notes, the ruling is a win for the Knight Foundation, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of seven people who were blocked from the @realDonaldTrump account because of opinions they expressed in reply tweets, including this one.

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Superpedestrian Just Raised $$ to Put Smarter “Brains” in E-scooters and Bikes

Superpedestrian, a Cambridge, Ma.-based company, has been known until now for its electric Copenhagen wheel, which a user attaches to his or her bikes and operates through an app. It’s essentially a circular unit that houses a motor, a battery and sensors and is placed in the middle of the rear wheel, measuring how fast and how forcefully someone is riding and adding a little electric oomph when a bike’s pedals are pushed.  Riders love the wheel, but now, Superpedestrian is shifting gears. It isn’t abandoning its consumer base. Instead, it’s taking the wraps off an entirely new second business that plans to use the one million kilometers of data it has amassed from Copenhagen customers to improve the offerings of urban mobility companies. More specifically, it wants to sell them hardware and software that will keep their fleets up to snuff.  It doesn’t matter if these companies are renting out electric bikes, scooter, mopeds or all three. Superpedestrian is “micro vehicle” agnostic, suggests its founder, Assaf Biderman — who’d earlier spent 10 years working at MIT’s Senseable City Lab. In fact, he says Superpedestrian has been quietly modeling out this business-to-business diagnostics business since nearly the company’s launch five years ago but was waiting for small motorized vehicles to gain momentum.  More here.

A New Eyewear Brand is Taking on Luxottica with a Single Wire

A U.K.-based startup has come up with a new design for high-end, direct-to-consumer sunglasses that are original, modular, and virtually indestructible. But to get their eyewear in the hands of consumers, they’ll have to compete with some industry giants, including Luxottica Group of Italy, whose brands include Ray-Ban and Oakley among others. Their company, Wires Glasses, isn’t competing on price. At $380 per pair, its sunglasses cost as much as other designer eyewear. If Wires succeeds, it will largely owe instead to its unusual single-wire design, patented invisible hinge, and, perhaps most important, the narrative it tells about design and sustainability. Indeed, in a day and age where new brands are launched every day, storytelling can mean the difference between barely surviving and thriving, something this team seems to understand.  A new, albeit undisclosed, amount of seed funding from the early-stage venture firm True Ventures should also help. True has helped grow a number of consumer companies, including Blue Bottle Coffee, the doorbell startup Ring, and the wearables company FitBit; likely it has lessons to share. We talked with Wires cofounder Yair Neuman to learn more about how Wires came to be and how the glasses work. More here.

New Fundings

CareZone, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based smartphone service for managing chronic health conditions, has raised $50 million in Series D funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and Catamount Ventures. The company, which has now raised $150 million altogether, is headed up by former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. More here.  Hugging Face, a nearly two-year-old, New York-based chatbot startup, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by  led by A.Capital Ventures. Earlier backers Betaworks, SV Angel and NBA star Kevin Durant are also participating. TechCrunch has more here.  NewsDog, a three-year-old, Delhi, India-based news app that’s among the most popular in India, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Chinese internet giant Tencent. TechCrunch has more here.  Novel Effect, a three-year-old, Seattle-based voice interactive app that was once featured on the show “Shark Tank,” has raised $3 million in Series A funding co-led by Alpha Edison, TenOneTen Ventures, and Waverley Capital. More here.  Platform.sh, a four-year-old, Paris-based company wants to helps enterprises manage their cloud infrastructure by handling testing and deployment to their cloud infrastructure, has raised a $34 million in funding. Partech led the round, with participation from Idinvest Partners, Benhamou Global Ventures, SNCF Digital Ventures and earlier investor Hi Inov. TechCrunch has more here.  RenovoRx, a six-year-old, Los Altos, Ca.-based med-tech company at work on an catheter-based approach to treating pancreatic cancer, has raised $10 million in funding led by Boston Scientific. Other participants include btov Partners and earlier backers Astia Angels, the Angels’ Forum, Halo Fund III, Golden Seeds, and Acorn Campus Taiwan.​ More here.  Sentry, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based company that provides open source error tracking to give its customers insight into crashes in their stack as they happen, has raised $16 million inSeries B funding led by earlier investors New Enterprise Associates and Accel. The company has now raised $26.5 million altogether. More here.  Tempow, a two-year-old, Paris-based software startup that wants to rewrite the Bluetooth stack from scratch, has raised $4 million in funding led by Balderton Capital, with C4 Ventures also participating. TechCrunch has more here.  Verifly, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that launched as an insurance provider for drone pilots and just expanded its services to include pretty much every type of part-time or contract worker, has raised $7 million in venture funding. Slow Ventures is a backer. So are numerous individual investors, including Sam Shank, the co-founder and chief executive of HotelsTonight. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Magnetic Ventures, a months-old, San Francisco-based venture firm that’s targeting early-stage medtech companies, is looking to raise $100 million for its inaugural fund, shows an SEC filing.  Magnetic is led by Christine Aylward, who’d spent roughy a decade in marketing positions with Roche and other pharma giants, and later spent more than five years as a managing director with Foresite Capital Management. According to Aylward’s bio, she also cofounded MakingOf, a digital media company that was launched in 2008. More here.

Exits

Health insurance provider Anthem has agreed to acquire Aspire Health, a seven-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based non-hospice palliative care provider. No financial terms were disclosed. Apire had raised roughly $53 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Oak HC/FT, GV, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Sandbox Industries. Forbes has more here.  The Ireland-based online gaming company Paddy Power Betfair has agreed to buy New York-based fantasy sports site FanDuel. Legal Sports Report has more here.

People

New Enterprise Associates just promoted two members of its investing team to general partner: Carmen Chang, who is also the chairman and head of the firm’s Asia practice, and Ali Behbahani, a medical doctor and healthcare investor who focuses on biopharmaceutical and medical devices.  Libertarians and “crypto bros” are one and the same, notes Quartz, usinga handy Venn diagram to illustrate its point.

Jobs

Relay Ventures is looking to hire a principal. The job is in Menlo Park, Ca.

Data

According to eMarketer statistics, 23.4 million U.S. customers use Starbucks’ mobile payments — more than the 22 million using Apple Pay(!). Here’s who owns everything in big media at the moment.

Essential Reads

Apple is launching a new privacy portal where users can download a copy of everything Apple knows about them.  HTC‘s newest phone is see-through and . . . squeezable.  Lyft says it’s going to spend $100 million on new driver support centers that will feature discounted car washes, basic car maintenance, and clean bathrooms, among other things.  Why China’s payment apps give U.S. bankers nightmares.  After some foot dragging, SoftBank has decided to sell Walmart its stake in Flipkart after all. No word on whether additional strings were attached to the deal.

Detours

The six biggest myths about tech addiction.  Age your lime juice if you’re going to use it in cocktails (we’re being told).

Retail Therapy

The most expensive sneakers of 2018, so far.

Tuesday!

Top News

Amazon has been quietly selling facial recognition technology to police.

For Madrona Venture Group, Four IPOs in 20 Months, and a New Fund

Madrona Venture Group typically flies under the radar of Silicon Valley reporters, partly because it’s in Seattle. But the 23-year-old, early-stage venture firm has been having a pretty good run of late — success it just used to close its seventh fund with $300 million, the same amount it raised for its sixth fund in 2015.  Among its investors: Bezos Expeditions, Vulcan Capital, and billionaire John Stanton, who is the chairman of the board of Trilogy International Partners (as well as the majority owner of the Major League Baseball team the Seattle Mariners).  Madrona’s momentum didn’t build overnight. Four Madrona portfolio companies that have IPO’d over the last 20 months — the cloud software companies Smartsheet and Apptio, the real estate site Redfin, and the RFID chip maker Impinj —  took on average 12 years to get into the hands of public market investors.  More here.

New Fundings

Honor, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based home care company, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Naspers Ventures. MobiHealthNews has more here.  Insightin Health, a two-year-old, Gaithersburg, Md.-based digital health platform that allows health plans to identify and acquire their best member prospects and engage them with personalized content, has raised $2 million in seed funding. Health Catalyst Capital Management led the round, with participation from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest seed fund, TEDCO, SaaS Ventures, TCP Ventures and angel investors. More here.  Iora Health, a seven-year-old, Boston-based primary care provider that focuses on Medicare patients over the age of 65, has raised $100 million in Series E funding. Investors include .406 Ventures, Devonshire Investors, F-Prime Capital, Flare Capital Partners, GE Ventures, Humana, Khosla Ventures, Polaris Partners and Temasek. Xconomy has more here.  LockState, a 13-year-old, Denver, Co.-based company whose subsidiary, RemoteLock, is a cloud platform for smart locks, has raised $5.8 million in a new funding. Iron Gate Capital led the round, and it was joined by Kozo Keikaku Engineering, Nelnet, and Service Provider Capital. VentureBeat has more here.  Okera, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to simplify data governance within companies, just raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from earlier investors Felicis Ventures and Capital One Growth Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  OM1, a three-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based health outcomes and technology company, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by Polaris Partners, with participation from earlier backers General Catalyst and 7wire Ventures. More here.  Pensa Systems, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that gives retailers and manufacturers an automated view of what’s on retail shelves using autonomous vision capture, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by ATX Seed Ventures, with participation from ZX Ventures, Mick Mountz and Yechiam Yemini. More here.  Quit Genius, a three-year-old, London-based cognitive therapy app that helps users quit smoking through content, including audio sessions and interactive exercises, has raised a fresh $1.1 million in funding that brings its seed round to $2 million. Village Global VC, Pioneer Fund, Arab Angel VC, and numerous individual investors joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.  Real Vision, a four-year-old, Grand Cayman-based media platform for finance and business, has raised $10 million from what it vaguely describes as several prominent hedge fund managers and investors. The company has now raised $15 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  SignalFx, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company that works with companies to solve the challenges they face in operating modern infrastructure technologies like AWS, Docker, Mesos, Kafka, and Cassandra, just raised $45 million in Series D funding. General Catalyst led the round, with participation from earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz and CRV. The company has now raised $103.5 million altogether. More here.  StoreDot, a five-year-old, Herzeliya, Israel-based nanotechnology and fast charging energy-storage technology developer, has raised $20 million in strategic funding from BP Ventures. CNBC has more here.  Tear Film Innovations, a four-year-old, Carlsbad Ca.-based company that makes a system to treat evaporative dry eye and related syndromes, has raised $8.5 million in Series B funding led by Visionary Ventures Fund and Bluestem Capital. More here.  Terminal, a year-old, Kitchener, Ontario-based company that helps U.S. companies access Canadian tech talent and tax credits, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The capital comes from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Thiel Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Atomic, Craft Ventures and angel Jerry Yang. More here.  Valimail, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of an email trust platform aimed at stopping fraud, brand abuse, and data theft, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from earlier backersShasta Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, and Bloomberg Beta. TechCrunch has more here.  Vervoe, a two-year-old, New York-based based advanced interviewing platform, has raised $3.5 million in venture funding led by the publicly traded jobs platform company Seek, with participation from numerous angel investors. More here.  Vitamin Packs, a year-old, Seattle- and Greenwich, Ct.-based developer of personalized vitamins that are partitioned into individual packets, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from L Catterton, the consumer-focused private equity firm. More here.

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New Funds

Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, a 10-year-old, Michigan-based venture capital fund-of-funds, raised $81 million of new capital for its third vehicle. Silicon Prairie News has more here.

Exits

Sony is spending more than $2 billion to take control of the major music publishing company EMI. CNN has more here.

People

Tesla has hired Snap vice president of monetization engineering, Stuart Bowers, to be its vice president of engineering.   Paul Levine, most recently Trulia’s president and COO, has joined Sapphire Ventures as a partner focused on consumer tech companies.   Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was able to cherry-pick the questions he wanted to answer from EU Parliament today, after it spent an hour taking turns rattling off queries in bulk, then giving him 30 minutes for batched responses.

Jobs

Tribeca Venture Partners is looking to hire an associate. The job is in New York.

Data

People really love streaming services.

Essential Reads

Facebook is full of could-be CEOs — but no one ever leaves.  Instagram is adding a mute button but shhh, we won’t tell your unbearable friends.  Did you know? Charging electric scooters is a cutthroat business

Detours

A bad lip reading of the royal wedding.  How many objects can be juggled?   “Cities of Lies” (trailer).  The red phone box, a British icon, stages a comeback.

Retail Therapy

Mercedes Benz is going to make a second electric vehicle at the same plant that has spit out Smart cars for the last 20 years.

Hi, happy Monday, all!

Top News

Facebook is teaming up with Qualcomm to work on high-speed wireless internet.  Adobe just agreed to acquire Magento Commerce from the private equity firms Permira and Hillhouse Capital for $1.68 billion. Magento, founded in 2008, powers hundreds of thousands of online stores. It was acquired by eBay in 2011 but in 2015, eBay sold off many assets, handing off Magento to Permira, which later brought in Hillhouse. (The latter invested $250 million in Magento early last year.) We’re not crystal clear yet on how much the firms had poured into Magento altogether. More on this tomorrow.

This Top Silicon Valley Firm Just Made a Contrarian Bet with Its Newest Fund

In Silicon Valley, venture firms with a track record of success find themselves awash in money thanks to the growing number of institutions that want to invest more of their capital in tech. In March, an SEC filing showed that General Catalyst had closed a $1.375 billion fund, the biggest vehicle in its 18-year history. Battery Ventures also closed on two funds earlier this year that are the 35-year-old firm’sbiggest to date. Sequoia Capital, meanwhile, is reportedly out raising $12 billionacross a series of funds, a move that’s unprecedented for the firm — or any U.S.-based venture firm, for that matter.  Fifteen-year-old Emergence Capital could easily follow the same path. Emergence funds early stage ventures that are focused on enterprise and SaaS applications, and it does this very well. Its bets include the storage company Box (now public), the social networking company Yammer (sold for $1.2 billion to Microsoft in 2012), and Veeva Systems, the company that’s generally known for its customer relations software for the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, though envious investors recognize Veeva as the company that produced a more than 300x return for Emergence when it went public in 2013. (Emergence had invested just $6.5 million in the outfit and owned 31 percent of it going into the IPO. It was also Veeva’s sole venture backer.)  Still, when it came time to raise its fifth fund, Emergence did not raise a billion-dollar fund, as it surely could have. Instead, the San Mateo, Ca., firm, which closed its fourth fund with $335 million in 2015, opted to increase the fund by 30 percent, closing its new vehicle this past Friday with $435 million.  We talked the other day with firm cofounder Jason Green, who is one of four general partners, about the firm’s trajectory. Specifically, we asked why — like almost every other firm in Silicon Valley — it didn’t close its newest fund with exponentially more in capital commitments than its last fund.  More here.

New Fundings

Bestow, a two-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based “insurtech” startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures, with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Core Innovation Capital, 8VC, and Morpheus Ventures. More here.  CREXi, a three-year-old, Venice, Ca.-based commercial real estate marketplace, has raised $11 million in Series A funding from Jackson Square Ventures,Manifest Investment Partners, Lerer Hippeau, Freestyle Capital, TenOneTen Ventures and Founder Collective. TechCrunch has more here.  Decent, a four-month-old, Sausalito, Ca.-based healthcare startup whose business is still largely under wraps, just raised $8 million in funding from Foundation Capital, Menlo Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Lux Capital, Maverick Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, Meridian Street Capital, Healthy Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, Abstract Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Ride Ventures, Sequoia Capital Scouts, Fenwick & West and Sure Ventures. Founder and CEO Nick Soman is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Foundation Capital, focused on blockchain-related stuff. More here.  Hoop, a three-year-old, London-based online marketplace for finding and booking local children’s activities, has raised £4 million in Series A funding led by Edge Investment Partners, with participation from Business Growth Fund, an earlier backer. More here.   Indee Labs, a three-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.- and Sydney, Australia-based developer of hardware for gene delivery, has raised $2.6 million in funding led by Founders Fund, with participation from Main Sequence Ventures. The startup had passed through Y Combinator last year. VentureBeat has more here.  Nanit, a three-year-old, New York-based startup whose smart baby monitor uses computer vision technology, has raised $14 million in Series B funding two years after closing on $6.6 million in Series A funding. Jerusalem Venture Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Upfront Ventures, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Vaal Investment Partners. More here.  OJO Labs, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based learning chatbot provider, has raised $20.5 million in Series B funding, including from LiveOak Venture Partners, Silverton Partners, Realogy Holdings Corp., Royal Bank of Canada,Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures and ServiceMaster. More here.  Orbbec, a 3.5-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based motion sensing startup, has raised more than $200 million in Series D funding led by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. Other backers include SAIF Partners, Green Pine Capital Partners, R-Z Capital and Tianlangxing Capital. China Money Network has more here.  REBBL, a five-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based producer of organic coconut-milk “elixers,” has raised $20 million in funding led by CAVU Venture Partners. CNBC has more here.  Selected, a two-year-old, New York-based online platform that matches teachers with jobs, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Propel Capital, with participation from Kapor Capital. More here.  TheSkimm, a six-year-old, New York-based digital-media company built around a daily newsletter aimed at millennial women, has closed its $12 million Series C round after taking in some fresh checks from a group of mostly female investors, including Shonda Rhimes and Tyra Banks. Variety has more here.  TradingView, a seven-year-old, New York-based social network for day traders, just closed on $37 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Jump Capital and DRW Venture Capital. More here.  TuneGO, a 5.5-year-old, Henderson, Nev.-based tech platform that connects music fans with music from new artists, has raised more than $7.7 million in Series B funding led by Falcon Capital. More here.

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New Funds

Earlier today, at a conference taking place in Bellagio, Italy and organized by the Rockefeller Foundation, the venture firm Social Capital committed to invest in (and incubate, if need be) 10 companies that are focused on complex urban problems. The firm says it will dedicate $150 million toward the effort. More here.

Exits

Microsoft is acquiring Semantic Machines, a four-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based startup that wants to solve one of the biggest challenges in conversational AI: making chatbots sound more human. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed but Crunchbase shows the company had raised $20.9 million from investors that include General Catalyst and Bain Capital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Whisk, a U.K. startup that has built a B2B data platform to power various food apps, including making online recipes “shoppable,” has acquired Avocando, a competitor based in Germany. Terms aren’t being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Former U.S. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama just struck a deal to produce films and series for Netflix.   Last August, Eric Schmidt‘s Innovation Endeavors merged with the Israel-based venture capital firm Marker, and people have been churning out ever since, reportedly. According to a new write-up in Calcalist, Ziv Kop just became the third partner to leave the firm in the last eight months. Schmidt remains the main backer of Innovation Endeavors, which is currently raising a $300 million fund, says the Calcalist.  Remember how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly slated to meet tomorrow with EU regulators in closed-door sessions? Well, surprise. It’s going to belive-streamed now.

Jobs

Maven Ventures, a seed-stage Silicon Valley-based firm whose past deals include Cruise Automation and Chariot, is looking to hire an analyst or associate onto its team. The role is based in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

Data

There are 143 tech billionaires in the world, and half of them live in Silicon Valley.

Essential Reads

Essential Reads How did Google get so big?  Lyft is looking to get into the electric scooter biz, too.

Detours

Consumer Reports can’t recommend Tesla’s Model 3.  The best way to persuade someone they are wrong.  Everything you need to know about the royal wedding.  And here, what went down at the reception.

Retail Therapy

Six accessories for keeping your sneakers out-of-the-box clean.

Friday! [Pours Scotch atop ridiculous ice cubes.] No column today but we’ve had a series of interesting calls today so should have some good stuff for you next week. See you Monday.:)  Oh, and if you’re looking for a podcast to listen to this weekend, we had fun making this yesterday over at TechCrunch.

Top News

Donald Trump has been personally pushing U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com and other firms, reports the Washington Post.

New Fundings

Adzuna, a seven-year-old, U.K.-based meta-search engine for jobs, has raised £8 million in Series C funding from Smedvig Capital. The company has now raised £12 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  AtYourGate, a three-year-old, Newport Beach, Ca.-based mobile e-commerce and airport gate delivery service, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Triton Funds. More here.  CipherHealth, a nine-year-old, New York-based maker of healthcare coordination software, has raised $37.5 million in new funding led by JMI Equity. More here.  CowaRobot, a four-year-old, Shanghai, China-based developer of robotics for low-speed autonomous driving, has raised $21 million in Series B funding co-led bySoftBank China Venture Capital and China Creation Ventures. China Money Network has more here.  Cuebiq, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based location intelligence and consumer insights company, has secured $27 million in Series B financing. The investors included Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments, Nasdaq Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners, Tribeca Angels and TLcom Capital. More here.  DigiLens, a 15-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based augmented reality display maker, has raised $25 million in Series C funding from automotive parts manufacturing giant Continental. TechCrunch has more here.  EIP Pharma, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech at work on treatments for central nervous system diseases like Alzheimer’s, has raised $20.5 million in Series B funding led by Access Industries. FierceBiotech has more here.  Eyellusion, a four-year-old, L.A.-based hologram concert company that features deceased stars, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Thomas Dolan. Dolan part of a family that owns a number of New York entertainment properties and venues, including Madison Square Garden. Billboard has more here.  FogPharma, a three-year-old, Boston-based drug development company, has raised $66 million Series B financing led by 6 Dimensions Capital, with participation from GV, Blue Pool Capital, Horizons Ventures, Nan Fung Group,Leerink Partners and all of the company’s earlier backers. Xconomy has more here.  HiFiBiO Therapeutics, a five-year-old, Paris-based antibody developer focused on cancer and inflammation, has raised $37.5 million in Series B funding co-led by Sequoia China and LYFE Capital, with participation from Legend Star Capital, Proxima Ventures and return backers VI Ventures and Nest Bio Ventures. FierceBiotech has more here.   Jirnexu, a six-year-old, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based financial comparison services startup, has raised $11 million in Series B funding from SIG Asia Investments and earlier investor SBI Group. TechCrunch has more here.  Maisonette, a two-year-old, New York-based online baby and children’s fashion e-commerce site, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Pritzker Group Venture Capital, DFJ and Thrive Capital. Business of Fashion has more here. Mynd, a two-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based property management tech startup, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Canaan Partners and Jackson Square Ventures. BW Disrupt has more here.  OpenClassrooms, a five-year-old, Paris-based online higher ed platform, has raised $60 million in Series B funding led by General Atlantic. TechCrunch has more here.  OwlTing, an eight-year-old, Taipei, Taiwan-based maker of blockchain-powered applications for hotel bookings, food safety, and other verticals, has raised at least $10 million from SBI Crypto Investment, part of Japan-based SBI Holdings. The company had previously raised $5.1 million across its seed and Series A rounds. Bloomberg has more here.  Workframe, a two-year-old, New York-based collaboration and communication platform for commercial real estate professionals, has raised $9.5 million in Series B funding led by Newmark Knight Frank, with participation from MetaPropr and earlier investor Venrock. More here.

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New Funds

Biomatics Capital is raising a second venture fund targeting $300 million, according to an SEC filing. The Seattle-based firm is led by Julie Sunderland, who previously served as the director of program related investments for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Boris Nikolic, previously the chief advisor for science and technology to Bill Gates. We wrote a bit about the firm when it launched last year with its $200 million debut fund.  Lightspeed Venture Partners is considering setting up a new cryptocurrency project that would be the first of its kind for a top-tier venture firm: An earmarked pool of cash within a bigger fund to be spent solely on crypto investments. Recode has the skinny here.  Reinventure Group, a four-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based venture capital group, has closed its third $50 million fund backed by Westpac. The capital will be used to accommodate Reinventure’s expanding focus on the wider Asia-Pacific region. Startup Daily has more here.

Exits

EAT Club, a corporate lunch service whose customers include Flipboard, Mastercard and TaskRabbit, has acquired Farm Hill, a lunch box delivery service, to solidify and expand its presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Farm Hill had previously raised $4 million in capital; EAT Club has raised more than $46 million. TechCrunch has more here.  Rackspace today announced that it has acquired RelationEdge, a five-year-old, San Diego-based Salesforce implementation partner and digital agency. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

Adaptive Insights, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of cloud-based financial management software, just filed for a $100 million IPO. The company had raised $175 million from investors, including Onset Ventures (which owns 17.9 percent of the company as of this writing), Norwest Venture Partners (16.5%), Bessemer Venture Partners (11.7%), and a whole bunch of others. Crunchbase News has more here.

People

Goldman Sachs’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein will likely step down in December.   Bill Gates‘s unvarnished perspective on Donald Trump.   Uber’s chief product officer, Jeff Holden, has stepped down, though details about his next moves remain scarce, says Recode.  Kevin Lee, co-founder of the New York-based digital marketing agency Didit, has made a bid for the remaining assets of Gawker Media. Reuters has more here.  Chinese search engine giant Baidu facing more turmoil in its top ranks, with President Qi Lu planning to step down from his operational roles after about 18 months on the job. A former top executive with Microsoft, Lu was hired with much fanfare but says now that, “Due to personal and family reasons, I am no longer able to work in China on a full-time basis.” The WSJ has more here.

Essential Reads

Last night, Boring Company executives Elon Musk and Steve Davis offered a few more details about their plans to revolutionize L.A. urban transit. TechCrunch has more here.  A leaked look at Facebook‘s search engine for influencer marketing. Publishers with video ambitions see YouTube as a safer bet than Facebook.  Finally, phew, a white-glove shopping service for affluent city moms, courtesy of Walmart.

Detours

A “chief of disguise” at the CIA says “The Americans” got a lot right. A link where you can watch the royal wedding tomorrow (if you’re on the move and not in front of your elephantine TV screen). “What, are you going to go home and have a warm beer and talk to your parrot?” (We just love Barry.)

Retail Therapy

How to make your apartment look like a “Westworld” set.

Wow! Thanks so much to the many of you who offered to volunteer for our June 20th event, which we’re hosting courtesy of Lightspeed Venture Partners. We have far more interest than we can accommodate but we’re happy to find ways to involve you in SVC events, so stay tuned.  We’re so crazed today it’s almost(?) funny. Our point: we don’t have time to include many new fundings, but we’ll have more tomorrow. Happy Thursday.:)

Top News

Hundreds of technology firms raising money in the fevered market for cryptocurrencies are using deceptive or even fraudulent tactics to lure investors. In a newly posted review of documents produced for 1,450 digital coin offerings, The Wall Street Journal has found 271 with red flags that include plagiarized investor documents, promises of guaranteed returns and missing or fake executive teams. No wonder the SEC is just outright trolling ICO scammers now.

Spend Time this Spring with These VCs, and It Will All Go to Charity

Five years ago, TechCrunch wrote about a venture capital auction wherein dozens of VCs donated their time toward a greater good — helping fund research at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, one of the world’s largest voluntary health organizations dedicated to funding research and access to treatments for blood cancer patients. The auction was centered around then five-year-old Rhett Krawitt, a pink-cheeked, bright-spirited boy who’d been diagnosed with leukemia in 2010 and “fought a really hard battle,” recalls his father, Carl Krawitt, who works in the Bay Area for Tata, the enterprise information management consultancy.  “For three-and-a-half years, he was undergoing chemotherapy, and his doctors would say, ‘Here are the 20 complications you can have, though most kids have three or four.’ But Rhett had all 20 of them. He was between a rock and a hard place. I had to tell my daughter that her little brother was probably going to die.”  Rhett was still actively battling his blood disease back in 2013, when longtime VC David Lee — who himself fought Stage IV lymphoma when he was just 24 years old — helped organize what was then the annual “Venture Capital Master’s Lunch Series,” an auction program that benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Keith Rabois,  Megan Quinn and Tim Draper were among many who donated their time, helping raise more than $200,000 for LLS in the process.  Today, Rhett is nearing his fifth year of remission, thanks largely to treatments funded in part by LLS, says his father. To show thanks for all of the organization’s support, and to help it continue on its mission, Rhett and Lee banded together again this year with founder Pete Quinzio of the drug testing service Notable Labs to sign up a host of new VCs who are donating their time.  More here.

New Fundings

Arevo, a five-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based maker of software-controlled additive manufacturing technology, has raised $12.5 million in Series B funding led by Asahi Glass, and was joined by Sumitomo, Leslie Ventures and Khosla Ventures. More here.  Skip, a six-month-old, Bay Area-based electric scooter rental startup (another!), just raised $6 million in seed funding led by Initialized Capital and A Capital, with participation from SV Angel. The company’s founders previously founded the electric skateboard company Boosted Boards. TechCrunch has more here.  Tracking First, a six-year-old, Sandy, Utah-based enterprise data governance platform, has raised $4 million in new funding led by Silverton Partners, with participation from Kickstart Seed Fund. More here.

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New Funds

Underscore VC, a three-year-old, Boston-based early-stage firm, is today taking the wraps off a second fund that it just closed with $115 million in capital commitments. Among its investors: Boston Children’s Hospital, the fund of funds Greenspring Associates and family offices, including that of Henry McCance, chairman emeritus of Greylock Partners. Underscore’s cofounders include Michael Skok, who spent the previous 12 years with Boston-based firm North Bridge Venture Partners, and, John Pearce, a former CEO of Demandware. We’ve written up much more here.

Exits

PayPal is taking its biggest bet yet on point-of-sale transactions, small businesses, and markets outside of the US, as it looks to raise its game against Square, Stripe and others in the world of payments: the company has confirmed that it is buying iZettle — the Stockholm-based payments provider commonly referred to as the “Square of Europe” — for $2.2 billion in an all-cash deal. TechCrunch has more here.  Maybe people like their stupid suitcases after all. Two weeks after Bluesmart called it quits, another smart luggage maker is pulling the plug. New York-based travel startup Raden just posted a note on its site announcing that the company is “no longer in operation.” More here.

People

The founders of Centra Tech, a company that raised a $32 million ICO, have been indicted for wire fraud and securities fraud, charges that could lead to a minimum of five years in jail. This one is notable because Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled posted support for Centra Tech on Instagram during the run-up to the token sale. More here.

Essential Reads

It looks like Apple could build its new campus not in Washington, D.C. but in Blue Devils’ territory. More here.  You can now re-share someone’s Instagram post with your friends.

Detours

Mom jokes.

Retail Therapy

A card game based on a CIA training game.  Anthony Scaramucci is selling his house in the Hamptons.  The french swimwear brand you need to know (if you are a dude).

Hi, happy Wednesday, all. We’re heading over to the 1 to [100] event in SF to interview some CEOs about leadership, as well as sit down with Zoom cofounder and CEO Eric Yuan to learn more about his fast-growing web conferencing company.  In the meantime, we have some volunteers for our June 20th event, but we could use a few more. Let us know if you’re willing to work for an hour and we’ll fill you in.  More tomorrow.

Top News

Microsoft is reportedly working on a cheap tablet to rival the iPad.

New Fundings

Aircall, a four-year-old, Paris-based maker of advanced call center software, has raised $29 million in Series B funding led by Draper Esprit, with participation from Balderton Capital, NextWorld Capital, eFounders and Newfund. TechCrunch has more here.  Beam Dental, a six-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based company that sells Bluetooth-connected toothbrushes, has raised $22.5 million in funding led by Kleiner Perkins. The round puts the company’s total funding at more than $30 million. CNBC has more here.  Circle, a five-year-old, Boston-based crytpocurrency startup, has raised a $110 million in new funding that values the company at nearly $3 billion. The cryptocurrency mining company Bitmain is leading the round. Other participants include Blockchain Capital, Tusk Ventures, and earlier investors IDG Capital, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Digital Currency Group and Pantera Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Dashdash, a two-year-old, Berlin, Germany- and Porto, Portugal-based startup that wants to democratize web app creation through the use of basic spreadsheet skills, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Accel, with participation from Cherry Ventures, Atlantic Labs, and various angel investors. More here.  Genoox, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based platform for managing and storing genomic data in the cloud, has raised $6 million in new venture funding led by Triventures, with participation from Inimiti Capital and Glilot Capital Partners. More here.  Lime, a year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based mobility startup that’s among others filling city sidewalks with electric scooters, is raising up to $500 million in new funding, says Axios, possibly via a combination of equity and debt. More here.  Lulus, a 10-year-old, Chico, Ca.-based fast-fashion brand for women, has raised $120 million in new funding from IVP and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Forbes has more here.  Parsable, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile collaboration and workflow platform, has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Future Fund, with participation from B37 and earlier investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Airbus Ventures and Aramco Ventures. The company has now raised nearly $70 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Quip, a four-year-old, New York-based electric toothbrush company, has raised $10 million in funding from Silicon Valley Bank. It has also acquired for undisclosed terms a dental insurance startup called Afora that’s based in New York and offers $25-per-month dental insurance plans. Quip has now raised $20 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Simplesurance, a six-year-old, Berlin-based online platform promising easy access to insurers, has raised $24 million in Series C funding led by Allianz,  with participation from Rheingau Founders and Rakuten. More here.  Tanium, an 11-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based endpoint cybersecurity company, has raised $175 million in new funding at a $5 billion valuation from earlier backer TPG Growth. Reuters has more here.  Teatime Games, a new Icelandic “social games” startup from the same team behind the hugely popular QuizUp (acquired in by Glu Mobile), has raised $9 million in funding across its seed and Series A rounds. Index Ventures led both; Atomico, the European venture fund founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, participated in the company’s $7.5 million Series A round. TechCrunch notes that this is the first time the two venture firms have done a Series A deal together in over a decade, which is kind of wild, considering the size of Europe’s venture scene. More here.  Vesper, a nine-year-old Boston-based developer of piezoelectric sensors, has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by American Family Ventures, with participation from Accomplice, Amazon Alexa Fund, Baidu, Bose Ventures,Hyperplane, Sands Capital, Shure, Synaptics and ZZ Capital. Xconomy has more here.

Sponsored By . . .

How does access to 80 mobile app specialized developers sound to you? That’s what you get with CodigoDelSur, a digital development boutique that has designed and developed digital products for a wide range of companies, from Avon to Office Depot to Shutterfly to Founder Institute graduates like Kindara, and in your timezone!Contact us and access a free 30-minute consultation to find out more about how we can help with your next big idea and learn more about our services and pricing

New Funds

Cisco Systems is starting up a new, early-stage venture fund that will run independently from the parent company, though Cisco will be the anchor limited-partner investor, says the Wall Street Journal. The fund will be led by Jon Sakoda, a former founder and popular venture capitalist, who has spent the last 12 years at the venture giant, New Enterprise Associates. More here.  In a move to further spur Middle East’s startup ecosystem, Bahrain Development Bank has launched a $100 million venture capital fund of funds to support startups in Bahrain and across the Middle East. Announced at the Gateway Gulf Forum, the Al Waha fund will invest in venture firms with a presence in Bahrain, as well as occasionally make direct investments in startups in Bahrain and the Middle East. Entrepreneur has more here.  Lerer Hippeau, the early-stage venture fund, has raised two new funds — $122 million for a sixth fund devoted to seed stage investments, as well as $60 million for a “Select Fund” focused on later-stage deals. Managing Partner Eric Hippeau says both funds will be used to continue the firm’s existing strategy: “We continue to be seed-first investors and New York-first investors. We’re big believers in New York.” TechCrunch has more here.  Next 10 Ventures, an L.A.- and Singapore-based “operating fund for the creator economy”, has raised $50 million in funding from undisclosed sources. The firm’s founder and CEO is Benjamin Grubbs, who was formerly the global director of top creator partnerships at YouTube and worked on content and marketing partnerships for Google before that. The company says it plans to develop new businesses and tech services centered around the creator economy that has emerged in the past decade from the mass adoption of digital video and social media platforms. More here.

IPOs

Flea market app operator Mercari has received approval for an initial public offering in Tokyo that will raise up to $1.1 billion, a regulatory filing showed on Monday, giving investors a rare chance to buy into a Japanese unicorn. Reuters has more here.

People

Hemant Mohapatra, who was a business development lead for Google for four years before joining Andreessen Horowitz as a partner for a year, has joined Lightspeed India Partners as a partner.   Sarah Smith has joined Bain Capital Ventures as its fifth investing partner in the Bay Area. Smith comes from Graph Ventures; she was also previously a VP at Quora, leading advertising sales, and an early employee at Facebook, where she was the director of online operations.  Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is heading to Europe soon to answer questions — in private — from EU regulators.

Jobs

Aspect Ventures is looking to hire an associate in the Bay Area to help evaluate and screen companies. Send resumes to Elisia (emonroy@aspectventures) with the subject, “AV Associate Role — [First Name, Last Name]”

Essential Reads

After Uber’s announcement yesterday that it will no longer require mandatory arbitration for sexual assault and harassment claims from riders, drivers, and employees,  Lyft is following suit with the same changes. It also plans to eventually release a report wth data about safety incidents. Both companies’ policy change applies only to individual claims, not class action lawsuits.  Turns out fears that Tencent, Asia’s highest-valued tech company, might suffer a rare poor quarter of business were unwarranted; the company just trounced analyst expectations for its latest earnings, thanks to its fast-growing mobile games business.  Thirty minutes and a little bitcoin can buy you an army of believable Facebook users (still).  In Silicon Valley, it’s hard to find jurors for the Apple versus Samsung patent trial. One electrical engineer who works at Google was excused after he pulled out his Android phone and said his job is working on them.

Detours

Why Washington insiders leak. Literary pet names unworthy of their namesakes.

Retail Therapy

The things you can do with an old propeller factory(!).

Happy Tuesday, all.:)

Top News

Uber is getting rid of forced arbitration for riders, drivers and other employees who want to file a legal complaint against the company over claims of sexual assault.

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Sarah Guo Breaks Through at Greylock, Becoming One of the First Female GPs in the Firm’s 53-Year History

Sarah Guo  didn’t necessarily set out to become a venture capitalist. She certainly didn’t imagine she would become one of the first general partners at one of the oldest venture firms in the country. Yet Guo is both of these things today. Indeed, the venture firm Greylock Partners, which Guo joined five years ago as a principal, is announcing her promotion this morning. Greylock, which closed its current, 15th, fund with $1 billion in October 2016, now has 12 general partners altogether.  For Guo, the appointment caps a lifetime spent in the world of startups. Before joining Greylock, she worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, where she led much of the bank’s coverage of business-to-business tech companies and advised public clients, including Twitter, Netflix, Zynga, and Nvidia.  A graduate (for both her undergraduate degree and MBA) of the University of Pennsylvania, Guo also worked previously at Casa Systems, a 15-year-old tech company that develops a software-centric networking platform for cable and mobile service providers and that — in a twist that we think is pretty neat — was founded by her parents. (Her father, CEO Jerry Guo, took the company public earlier this year.)  In a conversation earlier this week, Guo said that growing up around entrepreneurship gave her an “understanding of how difficult” starting a company truly is. It also occurred to her early on that “something related to company building was what I wanted to do in the future.”  Guo also said that not much will change with her promotion. Broadly speaking, she focuses on B2B applications and infrastructure, cybersecurity, AI, AR, and healthcare. She already sits on the boards of several companies, including the security startup Obsidian, which was founded by ex-Cylance and Carbon Black execs last year and quickly raised $9.5 million led by Greylock. She said she does hope to mentor more up-and-coming investors like herself, however.  Guo first became acquainted with Greylock through Aneel Bhusri, a partner at Greylock and the cofounder and CEO of the software giant Workday. The two talked occasionally when Guo was covering internet and software startups at Goldman, and he’d encouraged her to meet some of his venture partners, she said. “I came in, not necessarily ready to venture forever. But I’m now very excited about it obviously,” she added with a laugh.  More here.

New Fundings

AnyDesk, a five-year-old, Stuttgart, Germany-based remote desktop offering, has raised $7.7 million in Series A funding led by EQT Ventures. More here.  Auth0, a five-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based startup that helps developers with a set of APIs to build authentication into their applications, has raised $55 million in Series D funding led by Sapphire Ventures, with help from World Innovation Lab and earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, Meritech Capital and K9 Ventures. The company has now raised $110 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Beautiful.ai, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based software company that automates the visual design process, has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Shasta Ventures and First Round Capital. More here.  BrainQ, a two-year-old, Israel-based startup that aims to treat stroke victims and those with spinal cord injuries with the help of a personalized electromagnetic treatment protocol, has raised $5.3 million atop the $3.5 million the company previously raised. The company’s investors include Qure Ventures, crowdfunding platform OurCrowd, Norma Investments, IT-Farm and a number of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Celsius Therapeutics, a new, Cambridge, Mass.-based company translating single-cell genomic insights into precision therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and cancer, has raised $65 million in Series A funding led by Third Rock Ventures, with participation from GV, Heritage Provider Network, Casdin Capital, andAlexandria Venture Investments. Forbes has more here. Choosy, a six-month-old, New York-based on-demand social shopping platform, has raised $5.4 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Forerunner Ventures, Innovation Global Capital,Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, XFactor Ventures, Supernode Ventures, and Bryan Rosenblatt. More here. Good Eggs, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based online market that delivers fresh groceries, has raised $50 million in funding led by Benchmark, with participation from Index Ventures, Obvious Ventures, S2G Ventures, DNS Capital, Uprising and Collaborative Fund. TechCrunch has more here.  MemSQL, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based scalable database for enterprises, has raised $30 million in Series D funding co-led by GV and Glynn Capital, with participation from earlier backers Accel, Caffeinated Capital, Data Collective, and IA Ventures. The company has now raised $110 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Metawave Corporation, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup at work on high-performance radar capable of 3D imaging and vehicle-to-vehicle communications, has raised $10 million in funding. Investors include DENSO, Toyota AI Ventures,Hyundai Motor Company, Asahi Glass, Motus Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Autotech Ventures, Bold Capital, SAIC Capital, Western Technology Investment and Alrai Capital. More here.  PegEx, a six-year-old, Fitchburg, Wi.-based hazardous waste removal online platform, has raised $8 million in Series B funding led by Plymouth Growth Partners, with participation from Capital Midwest Fund and WISC Partners. More here.  Prisma, a two-year-old Berlin- and San Francisco-based startup focused on GraphQL, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Rael, a two-year-old, Buena Park, Ca.-based maker of organic feminine care products, just raised $2.1 million in pre-Series A funding co-led by SoftBank Ventures Korea and Thrive Market Ventures. More here.  Saildrone, a four-year-old, Alameda, Ca.-based company that sells high-resolution ocean data that it collects via unmanned surface vehicles, has raised $60 million in Series B funding. Horizons Ventures led the round, and was joined byCapricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Lux Capital, Social Capital, and The Schmidt Family Foundation. More here.  Welcome to the Jungle, a four-year-old, Paris, France-based recruiting startup, has raised $8.4 million in fresh funding from XAnge, Bpifrance and Kima Ventures, along with earlier backers Jean-Paul Guisset and Michael Benabou. TechCrunch has more here.

Sponsored By . . .

How does access to 80 mobile app specialized developers sound to you? That’s what you get with CodigoDelSur, a digital development boutique that has designed and developed digital products for a wide range of companies, from Avon to Office Depot to Shutterfly to Founder Institute graduates like Kindara. Find out more about how we can help with your next big idea by contacting us here to learn more about our services and pricing.

New Funds

New Enterprise Associates is reportedly trying to sell $1 billion in aging stakes by selling them to another firm it is looking to create. The WSJ has more here.  OpenView, a Boston-based expansion-stage investor, has closed its fifth fund with just less than $300 million, shows a new SEC filing. Crunchbase News has a bit more here.  AppDynamics cofounder Jyoti Bansal, and John Vrionis, a former VC with Lightspeed Venture Partners, have taken the wraps off their new seed-stage venture firm, Unusual Ventures, and its $160 million debut fund. As industry observers will remember, AppDynamics sold early last year for $3.7 billion to Cisco just as it was preparing to go public. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

PluralSight, a 14-year-old, Farmington, Ut.-based cloud-based learning platform, says it plans to raise $269.1 million in an IPO of 20.7 million shares priced between $12 to $14, up from a previously stated range of $10 to $12. The firm’s biggest outside shareholders include Insight Ventures Partners, which owns a whopping 53 percent of the company, followed by ICONIQ Capital, which owns 9.3 percent. Reuters has more here.

Exits

Eli Lilly is pulling out its checkbook again to acquire another cancer drug developer, this time inking a deal for early-stage company AurKa Pharma. Under the agreement announced yesterday, two-year-old, Montreal-based AurKa will sell for $110 million upfront and up to another $465 million more in milestone payments. Xconomy has more here.

People

Chad Boeding, a cofounder of ICONIQ Capital (best known for managing the money for numerous prominent Silicon Valley families), has left the 6.5-year-old outfit to launch a rival firm called EPIQ Capital Group. Both firms are based in San Francisco. More here.  Ted Eliopoulos is stepping down as chief investment officer at CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension, with more than $300 billon under management. Eliopoulous was named CIO of CalPERS four years ago but has spent the last 11 years with the organization. He says he’s now moving to New York to be closer to family.  Beth Seidenberg joined Kleiner Perkins 13 years ago to focus on life sciences for the storied venture firm. Now, she’s heading off to start her own life sciences venture fund in L.A. where she lives.

Data

Since 2008, less than half of all-female founding teams have secured follow-on capital for their startups, compared more than half of all-male founding teams, according to PitchBook. Axios has more here.  While women still represent only about 15 percent of decision makers at Silicon Valley’s major venture capital firms, another subset of the industry, corporate venture capital, has a higher proportion of women calling the shots, reports The Information.

Jobs

Greenspring Associates, a venture capital platform that invests in established and emerging venture capital fund managers, is looking to hire multiple analysts to help it analyze and make investments. The firm is based in Owings Mill, Md.

Essential Reads

A look at the “black hole” that’s sucking up Silicon Valley’s money.  Act like a jerk, and Twitter will start limiting your tweets’ visibility.  Snapchat just rolled out ads that viewers can’t skip.

Detours

So this time, a family realizes their pet dog might be a bear.  RIP, Tom Wolfe.

Retail Therapy

Four cameras for following your furry friends.