Halfway there! Hope you have a great Wednesday, everyone.

Top News in the A.M.

Reportedly, the FBI doesn’t plan to tell Apple how it cracked a San Bernardino, Ca., terrorist’s phone, leaving Apple in the dark on a security vulnerability on some iPhone models. The WSJ has more here.

In separate news, Apple‘s streak of 51 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted sales growth is over — and its expansion may not resume until late this year. Bloomberg has more here.

Twitter now has revenue problems, it revealed yesterday during an earnings call (after which its stock tanked). Recode has more here.

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It’s Not Just Uber: Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Dean on the School’s Poaching Problem

Andrew Moore was a professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University for a dozen years when Google hired him away in 2006 to lead some of its efforts around ad targeting and fraud prevention.

CMU lured Moore back in 2014, making him the dean of its computer science school. But he still understands well what goes through his colleagues’ minds when industry comes calling, and he says the battle to keep them in academia grows fiercer by the year.

Earlier today, we talked with Moore about Uber, which famously raided the school’s robotics department a year ago, poaching 40 of its researchers and scientists. We also talked about how Moore entices people to stay, and the newest new thing his 2,000-student school is focused on right now. Our chat has been edited for length.

Sorry to start with a question you’re surely asked too often, but just how big a hit did the school take when Uber recruited away some of your professors and researchers?

This kind of thing happens from time to time, especially in fast-growing areas where academia and industry are advancing things all the time. In January 2015, Uber hired away four faculty and about 35 technical staff to start its Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. By the school’s standards, this is one of many examples where our faculty disappear for a while into industry. It happened to me. Usually, every year, between five and 15 faculty members take a leave of absence for one or two or up to four years. Some never come back. Most do.

The perception was that this was a significant wave, though.

And that public perception is what really hurts. The truth is we have about 40 faculty and four took a leave of absence for a while to work for Uber. Meanwhile, this is such a growth industry that we’ve hired 17 new faculty in the past year, about half in robotics and half in machine learning. It’s frustrating. We’re trying to find space for new robotics people, not suffering from a lack of them.

What’s the school’s relationship with Uber like today? Is there one?

More here.

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New Fundings

BitFlyer, a two-year-old, Japan-based bitcoin exchange, has raised $27 million in Series C funding led by SBI Investment, with participation from earlier backer Venture Labo Investments. Coindesk has more here.

BlueVine, a nearly three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company providing fast financing to small businesses, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital from Citi Ventures. More here.

CareOnGo, a nine-month-old, New Delhi, India-based chain of co-branded online pharmacies, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series funding from Farooq Oomerbhoy of FAO Ventures and a group of other investors. VCCircle has more here.

ClearTax, a five-year-old, New Delhi, India-based startup that helps customers file their income tax returns electronically in India, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding, including from Max Levchin (this is the PayPal co-founder’s first investment in India), Scott Banister, Neeraj Arora, Naval Ravikant, and Ruchi Sanghvi. TechCrunch has more here.

Desktop Metal, a year-old, Lexington, Ma.-based commercial metal 3D printing startup led by A123 founder Ric Fulop, has raised $33.8 million in new funding per an SEC filing first flagged by Fortune. Fortune says the round values the company at more than $100 million and involves earlier backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lux Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Data Collective, and Founder Collective. More here.

Disruptive Technologies, a 2.5-year-old, Bergen, Norway-based developer of wireless sensors, has raised roughly $6.2 million in funding from Ubon Partners. More here.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Later today, Apple is expected to post its first quarterly revenue decline since 2003. Recode has more here.

Twitter‘s earnings are coming, too. The WSJ has what to watch for here.

Google, Ford, and Uber just created a giant lobbying group for self-driving cars. The Verge has more here.

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Cyan Banister Has a New Startup and It’s Looking for Seed Funding

Cyan Banister realized long ago that Zivity, a subscription-based online community of artistic glamour and pin-up photography that she founded in 2007, was never going to be a highly profitable endeavor. That’s okay with her, too.

In an interview last week, Banister — known for the many angel investments she and husband Scott Banister have made over the years and more newly for her role as a partner at Founders Fund — told us Zivity was “always growing, but never at a crazy rate.”

Indeed, nine years after it was created, it has amassed 3,000 subscribers who pay the site on average $250 a year to access its various photo sets.

Now, Banister and Zivity’s longtime general manager-turned-CEO, Nadya Lev, think they’ve struck on a more lucrative opportunity that can not only shine a light on the creative class but help artists get paid, too. Their new company is called ThankRoll, and it’s looking for $1.5 million in seed funding to see how far it can get over the next 18 months.

It could make for an interesting bet. ThankRoll is essentially a service that offers a convenient way for fans of artists, blogs and others to support those products and services through a white-label widget that appears on the artists’ or blogs’ site. Fans just enter their credit card information; they can cancel their pledge any time they like.

More here.

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New Fundings

Auro Robotics, a year-old, San Francisco-based company that’s building driverless shuttles for campuses (which have their own, rather than state or federal, regulations), has raised $2 million in Series A funding led by Motus Ventures, with participation from Rothenberg Ventures. More here.

Kasisto, a three-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based SRI spinoff that provides virtual personal assistants to banks (they use them to communicate with their customers), has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Singapore’s DBS Bank. More here.

LaunchPad Recruits, a 4.5-year-old, London-based company that makes data and video software for hiring, has raised $2.3 million in Series A funding from Sussex Place Ventures and Edenred Capital Partners, among others. More here.

Lendix, a 1.5-year-old, Paris-based peer-to-peer lending platform, has raised $13.5 million in funding from CNP Assurances, Matmut, Zencap AM and earlier backers Partech Ventures, Decaux Frères Investissements, Sycomore Factory and Weber Investissement. TechCrunch has more here.

Remitly, a five-year-old, Seattle-based remittance service, has raised $38.5 million in Series C funding led by Stripes Group, with participation from Vulcan Capital and earlier backers DFJ, DN Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Trilogy Equity Partners, and several unnamed investors. The company has now raised $61 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

SparkCognition, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based “cognitive” security analytics company, has raised $6 million in Series B funding from CME Ventures, Verizon Ventures and earlier backers The Entrepreneurs’ Fund and Alameda Ventures. More here.

StoryStream, a five-year-old, London-based content platform helps marketers combine user generated and brand content, has raised $2.6 million in Series A funding led by MMC Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Tado, a five-year-old, Munich, Germany-based maker of smart thermostat and AC control products, has raised $23 million in fresh funding  led by Inven Capital, the venture capital arm of the Čez Group, a multinational energy conglomerate based in the Czech Republic. The company has now raised $57 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

TranServ, a 5.5-year-old, Mumbai, India-based mobile payments company, has raised $15 million in Series C funding led by IDFC Spice Fund and Micromax Informatics, with participation from earlier backers Nirvana and Faering Capital India. TechCrunch has more here.

Trov, a four-year-old, Danville, Ca.-based on-demand insurance platform that lets users buy insurance for specific products for a specific amount of time, has raised $25.5 million in Series C funding led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Suncorp Group, Guidewire, and earlier backers Anthemis Group. TechCrunch has more here.

UrbanStems, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based on-demand flower delivery service, has raised $6.8 million in Series A funding led by SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, with investments from Middleland Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, Interplay Ventures, and Sagamore Ventures. More here.

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New Funds

Finistere Ventures and the International Farming Corp. have teamed up to create an agriculture-focused venture capital fund called Willow Hill Ventures. More here.

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IPOs

The biggest IPO so far of this year could well be Red Rock Resort‘s upcoming offering on Friday, and brothers Fran and Lorenzo Fertitta, respectively CEO and director of the casino operator, stand to take home the jackpot. Bloomberg has more here.

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Exits

Nokia, once the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, is now looking to build out its health technology business, acquiring Withings, a French company that makes  smart scales, activity trackers, and other health gadgets. Nokia is paying $192 million; Withings had raised just less than $34 million from investors, including from BPIFrance, Idinvest, Ventech and 360 Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

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Hi, everyone! Hope you had a terrific weekend.

Sorry you’re receiving this a bit on the later side; our email service provider was working through some technical difficulties that surfaced just as we were hitting “send” around an hour ago.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple is reportedly working on adding cell-network connectivity and a faster processor to its next-generation Watch. The WSJ has more here.

Google is forming a startup incubator within Google dubbed “Area 120” that will be overseen by long-time Google executives Don Harrison and Bradley Horowitz, according to The Information. More here.

Chinese search giant Baidu has formed a team dedicated to its self-driving car efforts in Silicon Valley, taking its autonomous car ambitions to Google’s home turf. The Verge has more here.

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The Next New Thing: Women VCs

The venture landscape changes fast. Ten years ago, few would have predicted the ubiquity of micro funds or the rise of Andreessen Horowitz or the very existence of a platform like AngelList that enables people with enough connections to become pop-up VCs.

Few — though not most — see what’s coming next, too, and that’s women VCs, taking their place alongside men, in equal, or nearly equal, numbers. In fact, we’d argue that the shift will represent the biggest opportunity over the next decade.

It may be hard to believe, given the wealth of attention paid to the low numbers of women in the industry and the obstacles they’re having to overcome. But the signs of change are everywhere if you’re paying close enough attention.

Women now make up 60 percent of college graduates, and many more of them are graduating with tech-friendly degrees. (Women are exceeding at elite institutions particularly, and now account for one-third of Stanford’s undergraduate engineering students, as well as one-third of Stanford’s graduate engineering students.)

Though women are making slow inroads at venture firms — according to CrunchBase data published last week,  just 7 percent of the partners are women at the top 100 venture firms —  women are increasingly finding paths around today’s guard.

They represent 12 percent of investing partners at corporate venture firms — a percentage likely to grow because of heightened interest in how tech companies fare when it comes to diversity. “We believe it’s a missed opportunity if we aren’t an active participant” in funding women- and minority-led companies and funds,” says Janey Hoe, VP of Cisco’s 40-person investments unit.

More, over the last three years, 16 percent of newly launched venture and micro-venture firms had at least one female founder, shows CrunchBase data.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So what’s happening? As VC Jon Callaghan of True Ventures noted during a panel discussion in San Francisco last week, Moore’s law has played a starring role. As costs have fallen and made entrepreneurship accessible globally, more people are coming into venture capital.

Monique Woodard, a longtime entrepreneur and more newly a venture partner at 500 Startups, credits her own path to the democratization of information brought about by social media platforms, as well as the many public insights into the industry that VCs like Fred Wilson and Brad Feld have contributed over time. “You suddenly have this library around venture capital and thought leadership that didn’t exist before,” said Woodard, speaking on the same panel.

It’s also the case that women — an expanding number of whom are founding startups, as well as rising through the ranks of other companies — have more role models in VC than they did a decade ago.

Of course, none of these trends is brand-spanking new. So why, you may be wondering, is now suddenly the tipping point? Because the ethical, business and financial reasons for change are finally poised to overtake the industry’s inertia.

More here.

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New Fundings

Aerojet Rocketdyne, a Sacramento, Ca.-based aerospace company, has landed a $67 million contract from NASA to develop an advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) system for future deep-space missions. The propulsion system could be used on robotic missions to an asteroid and in other missions related to NASA’s Journey to Mars program. TechCrunch has more here.

Augmedix, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based Google Glass startup whose platform enables doctors to collect, enter and recall patient data in real-time, has raised $17 million in funding from five of the biggest healthcare providers in the U.S.: Sutter Health, Dignity Health, Catholic Health Initiatives, TriHealth and a fifth company that’s going unnamed for now.The company has now raised $40 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

Enjoy, two-year-old, Beijing, China-based mobile app for dining deals at high-end restaurants, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by the private equity firm China Media Capital, with participation from Costone Venture Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Helium, a three-year-old San Francisco-based smart sensor startup, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by GV, with participation from Khosla Ventures, FirstMark Capital and Munich RE/Hartford Steam Boiler Ventures. Forbes has more here.

Kamcord, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile game live streaming platform, has raised $10 million in Series C funding led by Time Warner, with participation from earlier backers Tencent, TransLink Capital, XG Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures and Wargaming. TechCrunch has more here.

Sirin Labs, a three-year-old, Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based high-end, ultra secure smartphone manufacturer, has raised a $72 million round of funding from Singulariteam founder Moshe Hogeg, Kazakh businessman Kenges Rakishev, and the Chinese social networking service Renren. TechCrunch has more here.

Sysdig, a three-year-old, Davis, Ca.-based startup that sells full-suite monitoring, alerting and troubleshooting software designed to support distributed, containerized environments, has raised $15 million in Series B funding from Accel Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Silicon Angle has more here.

TULIU.com, a seven-year-old, China-based land information database that integrates information like land area, prices and development trends, as well as provides farmers with land-value evaluation services, has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Shanda Capital,  Foyo Culture & Entertainment, and Matrix Partners. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Unlockd, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based ad startup that serves ads to a phone customer after he or she has unlocked their phone in exchange for discounts on their phone bill, has raised $12 million in Series A funding, including from earlier investors PLC Ventures and Lachlan Murdoch. The company has now raised roughly $17 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Yahoo Japan and East Ventures, a pan-Asian venture capital firm, are teaming up to create a new accelerator in Tokyo called Code Republic that’s more than a little reminiscent of Y Combinator. Tech In Asia has more here.

Chinese outdoor advertising firm Focus Media is teaming up with Hong Kong-based private equity firm FountainVest Partners to launch a $400 million fund to invest in sports companies in China and overseas. China Money Network has more here.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals, a Amman, Jordan-based pharmaceutical company, is launching Hikma Ventures, a $30 million venture capital fund focused on the digital health tech. The fund’s primary focus is on, but not limited to, startups in Amman. StepFeed has more here.

The Thai government will provide THB20 billion (US$570 million) of funding to startups in the country, it just announced late last week. DealStreetAsia has more here.

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IPOs

Lianjia, a Beijing-based real estate agency service, is reportedly preparing for an IPO in China, Hong Kong or the U.S.;  just two weeks ago, the platform raised a stunning $926 million in Series B funding led by Huasheng Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here. (And, from a story in the WSJ a year ago, a look at China’s deal activity in the property services sector that includes HomeLink, which is another name for Lianjia.)

It’s too early to know if SecureWorks‘s IPO was a success or failure, but it’s worth noting that it closed below its opening price on its first day of trading Friday.

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Exits

One of the world’s largest children’s mobile app makers, Toca Boca, whose studios have produced apps totaling over 140 million downloads, has been acquired. The company had originally operated like a startup within the 200-year old Swedish publishing firm Bonnier, but has now been bought up by Spin Master, a children’s entertainment company. TechCrunch has more here.

Zalora, the fashion-focused e-commerce site backed by Rocket Internet, is selling its businesses in Thailand and Vietnam to retail giant Central Group, according to multiple TechCrunch sources. More here.

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People

Udacity’s founder Sebastian Thrun is stepping down as CEO, the company announced on Friday. Vishal Makhijani, the company’s COO. will be Udacity’s new CEO.Thrun will remain as president and chairman of Udacity and continue to work full-time at the company. Fortune has more here.

LeEco’s billionaire CEO Jia Yueting says Apple is outdated. More here from CNBC.

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Jobs

Microsoft is looking to hire a director of business development. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

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Data

Esports will generate $500 million in revenue this year, which is a 43 percent increase from 2015, according to a new report by PwC. PwC also conducted a major survey of the esports audience, with surprising results. For example, it found that women were more likely to describe themselves as involved in esports than men —  22 percent of them, compared to 18 percent of men surveyed. The Daily Dot has the story here.

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Essential Reads

Inside of the world’s most secretive phone factories.

Why cities aren’t ready for the driverless car.

Yik Yak is attempting a comeback with the launch of private chat.

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Detours

The Guardian takes a peek into the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before its long-awaited reopening.

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Retail Therapy

Now you can prepare beer from home, without all the jugs and tubes and thermometers and what not.

Is it Friday already? Have fun at Coachella, half of SVC readers! Also, happy Earth Day!

Our column isn’t quite done and it’s getting late so we’re skipping it today, but we’ll have more for you on Monday.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Alphabet‘s first-quarter numbers came in a little short yesterday and shareholders noticed, knocking down its stock 6 percent in after-hours trading.

Volkswagen agreed yesterday to fix or buy back nearly 500,000 diesel cars in the U.S. that are equipped with illegal emissions software.

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New Fundings

Anomali, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based threat intelligence platform, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Institutional Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst Partners, GV and Paladin Capital Group. More here.

Baidu Video, a new, Beijing, China-based spin-off from the web giant Baidu, has raised $155 million in capital from Baidu, Shanghai New Culture Media Group, Tianshen Yule, Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund and Redpoint Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

BioBeats, a three-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based company whose wearables monitor the health of employees and patients, has raised $2.28 million in funding led by White Cloud Capital, with participation from AXA Strategic Ventures and IQ Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Bridgit, a four-year-old, Kitchener, Ontario-based maker of construction project management software, has raised C$2.2 million ($1.73 million) in seed funding led by Hyde Park Venture Partners, with participation from Vanedge Capital. Forbes has more here.

Chameleon, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that wants to help other startups and online businesses do a better job of explaining their products to users, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

CareerFoundry, a nearly three-year-old, Berlin-based online learning platform for aspiring developers, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Tengelmann Ventures, Bauer Venture Partners and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft. TechCrunch has more here.

Forter, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv-based company that makes fraud prevention software for online retailers, has raised $32 million in Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers New Enterprise Associates and Sequoia Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Hua Medicine, a Shanghai-based biotech company at work on therapeutics for diabetes and CNS disorders, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Harvest Investments, with participation from earlier backers Frontline BioVentures, Arch Venture Partners, Venrock, F-Prime Capital, WuXi Ventures, SAIL, Ally Bridge Group and TF Capital. More here.

Kueski, a four-year-old, Guadalajara, Mexico-based online lender, has raised $10 million in venture funding and $25 million in debt funding, including from Richmond Global Ventures, Rise Capital, CrunchFund, Variv Capital,Victory Park Capital, Angel Ventures Mexico, Core Ventures Group and Auria Capital. More here.

Medium, the nearly five-year-old, San Francisco-based social publishing platform, has raised a fresh $50 million from investors, just months after raising $57 million. Investors valued the company at $600 million, says Recode. Spark Capital has led the company’s newest round; earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz and GV also participated. More here.

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New Funds

Jamie Goldstein, who spent 18 years with North Bridge Venture Partners, is looking to raise up to $100 million for a new fund called Pillar, per a new SEC filing first flagged by Fortune. The filing states the first sale has yet to occur.

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IPOs

SecureWorks, an Atlanta-based cybersecurity unit of Dell Inc, has become the first IPO of the tech industry in 2016, though it’s not clear yet there’s much to cheer about. The company last night priced 8 million shares at $14 per share, below initial plans to offer 9 million shares at between $15.50 and $17.50 per share. The shares are still trading around $14 this morning. Dealbook has more here.

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People

FBI Director James Comey said yesterday that the agency paid $1.3 million to break into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, more than he’ll make in his remaining seven-plus years in his job.

Julia Hartz, who cofounded the online event planning platform Eventbrite with husband Kevin Hartz, has just taken over for him as CEO while he stays on as executive chairman.

Now hyper-entrepreneur Elon Musk wants to solve traffic congestion with self-driving buses.

Investor-entrepreneur Sean Parker has relaunched Airtime, a video chat room for watching, together.

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Jobs

Microsoft is looking to hire a director of business development. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Uber has reached a settlement in two class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts that contested that Uber should be classifying its drivers as employees instead of independent contractors. In exchange for up to $100 million to the 385,000 drivers represented in the cases, both sides have now agreed that drivers will remain independent contractors and not employees. More here.

Topless dancers, champagne, and David Bowie: inside the crash of London’s $2.7 billion unicorn Powa.

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Detours

The secret history of Tiger Woods.

A dating app for burrito-lovers (that’s working!).

Remembering Prince.

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Retail Therapy

Now you can kiss your cherished guitar teacher good-bye. (Just hope this thing doesn’t break.)

Happy Thursday, dear readers! [Elbow stand.]

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Top News in the A.M.

Bill Gurley just published his bi-annual musings state of the venture industry. They’re worth reading, here.

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Felicis Ventures Closes on $20o Million, Roughly Doubling Its Last Fund

When we first met Aydin Senkut in 2006, it was just months after he’d resigned from Google, where he was a senior manager responsible for strategic partner development in Asia Pacific. He was among a small number of “Googlaires” who had lots of money, great connections, and the ability to see many web startups before traditional VCs.

In fact, many in the industry viewed Senkut and his ilk as arrivistes, and Senkut has been on his unwavering mission since, first to first impress them, then to surpass them. His execution has been pretty spot on, too. Felicis Ventures, the San Francisco-based firm that he founded 10 years ago and he now manages with three other investors, just closed its fifth fund with $200 million. That’s nearly double the amount Felicis gathered up for its fourth fund less than two years ago.

Institutions are writing out big checks left and right these days. But it’s easy to understand why Felicis’s limited partners were particularly open to providing the firm with more capital. Felicis has invested in 180 startups to date. Three of those companies have gone public, including Fitbit and Shopify. At least three others — Credit Karma, Planet Labs, and Adyen — appear positioned to go public.

Meanwhile, another 60 companies in Felicis’s portfolio have enjoyed what Senkut calls “meaningful exits.” Most meaningful, seemingly, Felicis was an early investor in Cruise Automation, which is being acquired by General Motors for more than $1 billion; it backed the cloud infrastructure startup Meraki, acquired by Cisco for $1.2 billion in cash; it invested in Twitch, acquired by Amazon for $970 million in cash; and it backed Climate Corp., which Monsanto bought for roughly $930 million.

If you’re wondering about the number of companies that have flamed out after receiving a check from Felicis, Senkut says it’s is in the “very low digits; it’s in the teens percentage on a dollar-adjusted basis.”

When we talked earlier this week, Senkut suggested Felicis’s success so far owes to what he characterizes as a unique strategy.

More here.

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New Fundings

Acorns, a four-year-old, Newport Beach, Ca.-based robo advisory company whose app targets young investors, making it simple for them to buy into a diversified group of exchange-traded funds, has raised $30 million in funding from PayPal, with participation from the Rakuten Tech Fund. The WSJ hasmore here.

Advantagene, a 17-year-old, Auburndale, Ma.-based immuno-oncology company, has just raised $5 million of a proposed $35 million round, according to an SEC filing. The company is developing a prostate cancer vaccine that’s in Phase 3 development. MedCity News has more here.

BeBop Sensors, a two-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based developer of smart fabrics embedded with sensors that are capable of measuring motion, force, location, weight, size and shape, has raised more than $4.4 million in a round of funding that remains open. The company hasn’t disclosed its investors. MedCity News has more here.

Brayola, a three-year-old, New York-based online markeplace service for women’s intimate apparel, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from investors, including Haim Dabah of HDS Capital and FirstTime Capital’s Jonathan Benartzi. TechCrunch has more here.

China Eastern Airlines, a 28-year-old, Shanghai, China-based state-run airline that claims 94 million passengers, has raised $463 million in funding from the 16-year-old, Shanghai-based travel booking giant Ctrip. TechCrunch has more here.

Forter, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based fraud prevention company, has raised  $32 million in Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with follow-on funding from Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates. TechCrunch has more here.

Framebridge, a two-year-old, Lanham, Md.-based online custom framing company, has raised $9 million in Series B funding from SWaN & Legend Venture Partners and earlier backers New Enterprise Associates and Revolution. TechCrunch has more here.

MemSQL, a five-year-old, Sam Francisco-based in-memory database platform, has raised $36 million in Series C funding led by new investors REV and Caffeinated Capital, with participation from earlier investors Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, Data Collective, IA Ventures and First Round Capital. MemSQL has now raised a total of $85 million. TechCrunch has more here.

NurseGrid, a three-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based company behind an online platform for staffing management and communication among nursing teams, has raised $2.5 million from investors, including Toba Capital and returning investor Excelerate Health Ventures. Portland Business Journal has more here.

Preempt Security, a 1.5-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that’s still operating in stealth, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from Trusteer founders Mickey Boodaei and Rakesh Loonkar, and former Akamai Technologies CEO Paul Sagan. The company has now raised $10 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

The RealReal, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based consignment site that focuses on authenticated, high-end resale items for women, men, and the home, has raised $40 million in Series E funding led by Greenspring Associates, with participation from Broadway Angels, Next Equity, Springboard Fund and earlier backers Canaan Partners, e.ventures, Greycroft Partners, InterWest Partners, DBL Partners, and Industry Ventures. To date, the business has raised $123 million in funding. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Europe has a new venture firm in Backed VC, which today is officially outing its €30 million ($33.8 million) pan-European seed-stage fund. TechCrunch has more here.

CrunchFund, the five-year-old, San Francisco-based seed stage fund cofounded by TechCrunch cofounder Michael Arrington, is looking to raise up to $40 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. Arrington, who is not listed on the filing, tells Fortune he’s playing a smaller role, by design, in part to focus on his health. “I don’t have cancer or anything, please don’t make it sound so serious,” he tells the outlet. More here.

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IPOs

SecureWorks, an Atlanta-based cybersecurity company owned by Dell, is planning to seek as much as $157.5 million in an IPO that’s scheduled to price today after markets close. It will be the first IPO of a U.S. tech company this year. Bloomberg has more here.

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Exits

Auris Surgical Robotics, backed by Peter Thield’s Mithril Capital Management, is buying the minimally invasive robotic surgery company Hansen Medical in a deal valued at about $80 million. Auris has raised $184 million to date, according to CrunchBase. FierceMedical Devices has more here.

The Huffington Post, owned by AOL, owned by Verizon (which pays us in our other role, at TechCrunch), is buying a virtual reality studio called RYOT to build VR content production on the site. Sources tell TechCrunch the purchase price was in the $10 million to $15 million range. RYOT had raised a little more than $3 million in Series A funding prior. More here.

Lexmark, the U.S. printer manufacturer, has agreed to be acquired by a Chinese consortium for $3.6 billion, as mainland companies continue their spending spree on established brands in developed markets. The Financial Times has the story here.

Mindie, a venture-backed app that let users pick songs to accompany their videos and which shut down in December, has been acquired by Shots, the selfie app-turned-comedy feed backed by Justin Bieber. Unsurprisingly, Shots co-founder John Shahidi tells TechCrunch the price “wasn’t a crazy amount.” TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Venture capitalist Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners has been having a host of problems with his (beloved) Tesla Model X, and he isn’t alone. More here.

Zalora, the fashion-focused e-commerce site backed by Rocket Internet, has lost two top executives. Singapore-based managing directors Harry Markl, who is also listed as a co-founder, and Avni Pundir have departed the company. TechCrunch has more here.

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Jobs

Cisco is looking to hire a corporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

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Data

Ad tech may remain unfashionable, but the online advertising is continuing to attract more revenue, according to a new report prepared by PwC for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Among the report’s conclusions: that digital ad revenue in the U.S. reached $59.6 billion last year, a 20 percent increase from 2014 and an all-time high. More here.

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Essential Reads

Apple‘s efforts to move its cloud infrastructure in-house for its web services are being slowed by “political infighting” between the company’s iCloud and Siri engineering teams, according to The Information.

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Detours

The story behind Donald Trump’s epic Mar-A-Lago portrait.

Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Fun seeing some of you last night at the NVCA/CrunchBase/SBA event in SF.:)

On a completely separate note, if you own a Tesla Model X that’s been acting a little bananas over the last day or so, please let us know.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple has just agreed to settle a long-running patent lawsuit for almost $25 million.

The sale of Yahoo‘s internet assets enters phase two.

Wow. Audi created so-called defeat devices which cut emissions in 1999, years before parent company Volkswagen used them to cheat diesel emissions tests, the German newspaper Handelsblatt is reporting. More here.

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SkySafe Lands $3 Million to Disable Badly Behaving Drones

SkySafe, a six-month-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company whose technology can disable drones that are flying where they shouldn’t, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from Founder Collective, SV Angel, and BoxGroup.

No doubt the company is serving a fast-growing need, particularly given the number of drones poised to wreak havoc on public spaces from sports arenas to airports. Consider the British Airways flight that was hit by a commercial drone as it approached Heathrow Airport on Sunday, or the World Cup skier nearly done in by a falling drone in December. The FAA estimates there will be 2.5 million drones sold in the  U.S. alone just this year.

“We’re very excited about a future where drones are used by consumers and businesses for all sorts of purposes, but to get there, drones need to be made extremely reliable and safe,” says venture capitalist Chris Dixon, who led the deal for Andreessen Horowitz.

Dixon suggests SkySafe can ensure that drones don’t go rogue, largely via radio waves, which it uses to override a drone’s remote and take control of the aircraft. Perhaps so. What SkySafe is building certainly sounds less menacing than some of the other options to emerge recently, including an anti-drone laser and an anti-drone rifle. Unfortunately, for competitive reasons, the six-person company isn’t willing to dive much more deeply into how its tech works, as we learned when we talked yesterday with cofounder and CEO Grant Jordan. Our chat has been edited for length.

SkySafe has four founders. What’s your background, and how did you come together?

I graduated from MIT, then spent four years as an officer in the Air Force Research Lab testing anti-drone tech, where I got a lot of exposure to various ways that different groups have come up with for taking down small drones. After I finished my time there, I went to grad school at USCD for computer security, and I [connected with my cofounders] for a security company consulting firm that we founded called Somerset Recon. Between that security work and [my] drone work, we saw a growing threat in the drone space.

What types of customers will you be trying to persuade to use SkySafe?

Pretty much the entire space of public safety. Airports, prisons, stadiums, other event venues, border protection, critical infrastructure. The number of places that have seen incidents in the past year has grown tremendously.

Would you characterize most of those incidents as accidents or otherwise?

In the aviation industry, at airports, those look like accidents. But in prisons, there are no accidents. Those are drones that are trying to smuggle in weapons, drugs and other contraband. I wouldn’t classify what we’ve seen in stadiums as accidents, either. [Drone operators] might not mean any harm, but they’re going out of their way to fly into an area they aren’t supposed to be, and right now, there’s nothing an event venue can do about it.

More here.

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New Fundings

1mg, a four-year-old, India-based online pharmacy and platform for finding medical labs, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Maverick Capital Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia India and Omidyar Network. TechCrunch has more here.

Armada Interactive, an 11-month-old, Helsinki, Finland-based mobile gaming startup that hasn’t yet launched its first title, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Initial Capital, with participation from Index Ventures, PROfounders Capital, Backed VC, Reaktor Ventures, Sisu Game Ventures, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Brighter, a 4.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based online marketplace that allows members to compare dentists by price and reputation, has raised $21 million in Series D financing led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from DAG Ventures and earlier backers Mayfield, Benchmark and Tenaya. More here.

Bugcrowd, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company focused on crowdsourced security for the enterprise, has raised $15 million in Series B funding round led by Blackbird Ventures. Other participants in the round include Industry Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and earlier backers Rally Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital and Paladin Capital Group.

Cabify, a 4.5-year-old, Madrid, Spain-based ride-sharing app that’s active in Spain and Latin America, has raised $120 million in Series C funding at a post-money valuation of $320 million. Rakuten led the round, with participation from other, unnamed investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Lodgify, a four-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based startup that makes site builder software that enables vacation rental owners to create their own branded sites and accept online bookings, has raised €1.4 million in funding. The round was led by Nauta Capital, with participation from earlier investors Chris Hitchen, HOWZAT Partners and Roland Zeller. TechCrunch has more here.

PicsArt, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a photo-editing app of the same name, has raised $20 million in new funding from Siguler Guff & Company and DCM Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.