Hi, everyone, hope readers had a Happy Easter!

It’s spring break for our kiddos this week (maybe yours, too); the newsletter may reflect the fact that they’ll be running circles around us over the next five days.

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Top News in the A.M.

The Tesla 3 is launching this week.

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What Life Sciences VCs Got Right in This Last Boom

It’s long been the case that life sciences investors don’t get the attention that their more traditional tech counterparts do. They’re underrepresented on lists of top investors in venture capital. They’re also remarkably underfunded, according to institutional investors (or limited partners) who back venture firms.

It’s the “life sciences guys who are smart as hell,” says one LP who’s grown frustrated with some of the tech-focused firms he has backed because they’ve haven’t produced the cash-on-cash returns he expected, yet who’s exceedingly happy with bets on firms like Third Rock Ventures, a 10-year-old, Boston-based outfit that incubates biotech startups and which took many of those companies public before the IPO window largely slammed shut last fall.

Taking companies public is “exactly what the tech guys should have been doing,” says this person, who represents a sizable endowment.

Whether the LP is being completely fair is an open question. Certainly, in recent years, many more biotech startups have gone public than consumer or enterprise startups, with public investors seemingly drawn in part to unprecedented levels of innovation, including new machine therapies and other treatments for a variety of diseases that couldn’t be addressed earlier in time.

However, even healthcare investors are quick to point out that they took so many companies public in part because they didn’t have much choice.

More here.

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New Fundings

Cyberpost, a young, Toronto, Canada-based online platform where “virtual mailboxes” are assigned to actual street addresses for use by marketers, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from a group of private investors. More here.

Emulate, a two-year-old, Boston-based company that aims to develop and sell organs-on-chips for testing drugs, has raised $28.8 million in Series B funding from earlier investors Hansjörg Wyss, NanoDimension and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Boston Business Journal has more here.

FixNix, a 3.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based governance, risk management, and compliance platform, has raised $500,000 in seed funding led by former Tesla Motors CIO Jay Vijayan, along with other, unnamed, Silicon Valley-based angel investors. YourStory has more here.

Katerra, a six-month-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based startup that sells design services to the construction industry, has raised $75 million as part of what looks to be an $85 million round, shows an SEC filing. More here.

Permission Click, a three-year-old, Winnepeg, Manitoba-based digital permission slip platform that helps schools create registration forms and permission slips for field trips, fundraising programs, and more, has raised $1.75 million from investors including Friesens and Real Ventures. More here.

Venus Medtech, a seven-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based replacement heart valve maker, has raised $37 million from Goldman Sachs, with participation from Qiming Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital China and Dinova Venture Capital. MedCity News has the story here.

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New Funds

Founders Fund made official on Friday what had earlier this month been whispered to the New York Times. According to a new SEC filing, the 11-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm has raised $1.27 billion for its sixth fund. More here.

UniCredit evo, a new, $223 million joint initiative between Italian lender UniCredit and the London venture firm Anthemis Group, will invest in mid-stage fintech startups, as well as early-stage startups in Europe and North America. UniCredit is a bank with operations in 17 countries throughout Western, Central, and Eastern Europe that’s looking to ramp up the digitalization of its banking group. More here.

Zhuang Chenchao, co-founder and former CEO of the China-based online travel giant Qunar, has started up his own venture capital fund to invest in Chinese start-ups. Financial details of the fund haven’t been reported yet. More here.

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People

Al Jazeera Media Network has reportedly fired about 500 people, with most of the layoffs occurred at Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, the country’s capital. Al Jazeera earlier this year announced plans to shut down its U.S. operations after failing to find an audience (though it plans to open new platforms here). Fortune has more.

Since 2014, there’ve been a dozen important departures from Verily, the life sciences subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, and a new article in STAT suggests that Verily CEO Andrew Conrad is why. More here.

Writer Dan Lyons documents his “year in startup hell.”

Pandora cofounder Tim Westergren is taking over as CEO if the online radio service roughly a decade after he last ran it. The idea: the reverse its flagging stock price. Bloomberg has more here.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s “most important meeting of the day.”

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Jobs

Venture-backed Zymergen is looking for a business development analyst. The job is in Emeryville, Ca.

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Data

Between 2014 and 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the first and third largest occupational jumps to be personal care aides and home health aides. In case you were wondering why HomeHero, Hometeam, and Honor have raised a combined total of $86.5 million in the last year or so. MedCity News has more here.

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Essential Reads

Last month, hedge funds participated in the fewest number of venture capital rounds in U.S. tech companies since 2013, inking just two deals, according to research firm PitchBook Data. Even Tiger Global Management has pulled back, and smaller firms are getting out altogether.

How Oculus cracked the impossible design of VR. (CEO Palmer Luckey hand-delivered the first edition to a surprised buyer in Alaska on Saturday, which you can see here.)

A would-be WiFi paradise, in Sri Lanka.

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Detours

Do you live in a bubble?

How pushy parents ruined a giant Easter egg hunt in Connecticut yesterday.

Fascinating maps that show the different places locals and tourists go in 19 major cities.
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Retail Therapy

When you’re single and ready to flamingle (though we do not endorse this look).

Hi, all, happy Easter. Hope you have a terrific weekend.:)

No column today.

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Top News in the A.M.

Microsoft execs have reportedly been meeting with private equity firms mulling over bids to buy Yahoo and telling investors the company might be willing to lend significant financing to their efforts. Recode has the story here.

Netflix admits it’s been throttling its videos on AT&T’s and Verizon’s wireless networks for more than five years, saying it wanted to protect users from exceeding data caps, which could discourage viewing. The WSJ has the story here.

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New Fundings

6Fusion, an eight-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based end-to-end cloud management platform, has raised $6.6 million from investors, shows an SEC filing. More here.

Bromium, a 5.5-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based developer of endpoint protection using virtualization, has raised $40 million in funding from Silver Lake Waterman and earlier backers, including Andreessen Horowitz,Ignition Partners, Highland Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners. The company has now raised $115 million altogether. More here.

CiValue, a two-year-old, Israel-based customer analytics and personalization cloud platform for grocery, health and beauty retailers, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from Nielsen Innovate, Mac Fund and Deutsche Telekom. VentureBeat has more here.

DimensionalMechanics, a year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based startup that says it’s making artificial intelligence scalable, has raised $4.7 million in funding, shows an SEC filing. More here.

EndoStim, a seven-year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based company that makes a neurostimulation device to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease, has raised $11 million in new funding, shows an SEC filing that shows a $20 million target. Earlier investors include Sante Ventures and Prolog Capital.

FLYR, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based travel and data science company, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from JetBlue Technology Ventures. More here.

Hive, a 10-month-old, New York-based team collaboration platform, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding led by Tribeca Venture Partners with participation from funds and angel investors from Google and Grey Group. More here.

Iterum Therapeutics, a year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based pharmaceutical company that’s developing anti-infective therapies, has raised $40 million in Series A funding led by Frazier Healthcare Partners, with participation fromCanaan Partners, Sofinnova Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners. FierceBiotech has more here.

June, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based countertop “smart” oven designed by former Google, Apple and GoPro employees, has raised $22.5 million in Series A funding led by hardware and software investor Eclipse. Previous investors also participated in the round, including Foundry Group, First Round Capital, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Lagou, a nearly three-year-old, Beijing, China-based online recrutiing platform, has reportedly raised $34 million in Series C funding led by Hongdao Capital, with participation from earlier backers Qiming Venture Partners and Rongchao Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Soasta, a 10-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based performance analytics business, has raised $30 million in debt funding led by Tennenbaum Capital, with participation from earlier backers Canaan Venture Partners, Pelion Venture Partners and Formative Ventures. More here.

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New Funds

Forté Ventures, a four-year-old, Atlanta-based VC firm, is looking to raise up to $75 million for its second fund, shows an SEC filing that states the first sale has yet to occur. More here.

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Exits

Ebates, a San Francisco-based subsidiary of Rakuten, has acquired Shopular, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based mobile product discovery app, for undisclosed terms. Shopular had raised $13.6 million, including from Sequoia Capital, shows CrunchBase.

Olapic, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based startup that helps brands leverage user-generated images, has acquired Piqora, a 3.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based visual marketing and visual commerce platform for marketers and publishers. Deal terms aren’t being disclosed. Olapic has raised $21 million in funding, according to CrunchBase. Its backers include Felix Capital and Fung Capital. Piqora had raised roughly $11 million, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include DFJ, Baseline Ventures and Freestyle Capital.

PriceZombie, a three-year-old, Tampa, Fla.-based price comparison site, is shutting down without investor intervention, the company announced this morning, saying it lost 90 percent of its income after its Amazon affiliate account was closed. The company appears to have been bootstrapped. More here.

Snapchat has agreed to acquire Bitstrips, an 8.5-year-old, Toronto-based company that makes customized emojis, for a reported $100 million in cash and stock (roughly). Bitstrips had raised $11 million in funding, including fromHorizons Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Fortune has thestory here.

TiVo, the digital video recorder company, is reportedly in advanced negotiations to be sold to Rovi, one of the largest owners of patents for digital entertainment devices. Dealbook has the story here.

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People

Alphabet’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, on how Google helps the government track down criminals.

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Jobs

Credit Karma is looking to hire a summer associate to join its corporate development team. The job is in San Francisco.

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Essential Reads

Snapchat has hit a notable milestone: for the first time ever, its iOS application reached the top of the iTunes App Store, where it briefly become the number one “overall” free application in the U.S. More here.

Square has jumped into the online lending business.

Dyson may be gunning for Tesla Motors. Here’s why.

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Detours

Professional rowers really seem to love economics, finance, and management.

In Tokyo, friendship is just a credit-card swipe away.

The 100 funniest Twitter jokes. (Our favorite: Hello sir, I-*briefcase full of jellybeans falls open*)

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Retail Therapy

Trax & Wax. And seriously fashionable backpacks.

Hi, everyone, happy Thursday!

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Top News in the A.M.

Hedge fund Starboard Value is seeking to remove the entire board of Yahoo, setting the stage for a battle over the future of the faded Web giant. (We’re actually starting to feel sorry for CEO Marissa Mayer.)

Google is reportedly building a live-streaming app to take on Twitter‘s Periscope.

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Recharge Invites Users to Book Hotel Rooms — One Minute at a Time

Call it on-demand on steroids. A 10-month-old, San Francisco company called Rechargehas developed an app that enables users to book a stay in hotel for just for 67 cents a minute, or $40 an hour.

The offering sounds both brilliant and preposterous, yet it has already attracted some smart investors, including Scott and Cyan Banister and early Google engineer Harry Cheung, who’ve provided the company with $650,000 in seed funding. It’s raising up to $2.5 million altogether.

To learn more about the company, we chatted recently with CEO Emmanual Bamfo, who held numerous brief stints at startups, including at the carpooling company Hitch (acquired by Lyft), before teaming up with two former classmates at Washington University in St. Louis to create Recharge.

Okay, so tell us about this seemingly crazy idea that just might work. Who is your target audience?

Somebody who came up to San Francisco from L.A. for a day trip booked a Recharge earlier today. We see folks who just want to change a diaper or nurse their baby. We get people who live in Menlo Park but work in San Francisco and who want to shower and take a little time for themselves before they head to an evening engagement.

It’s a real need that we’re solving. [Customers] are getting privacy in the city to nap or shower or prepare for something. You can’t do that at Starbuck’s.

This concept is very much like that of Breather, which provides on-demand rooms in cities so that visitors can pop in to relax with friends or maybe make some quiet calls. We should also note that Breather has raised nearly $28 million from investors. Why is this better?

More here.

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New Fundings

Acutus Medical, a five-year-old, Carlsbad, Ca.-based medical device maker with a new technology for diagnosing and treating irregular heartbeats, has raised $75 million in Series C funding, including from new investors Deerfield Management, Xeraya Capital, and an undisclosed strategic investor. Advent Life Sciences, the company’s founding investor, also joined the round, along with existing backers OrbiMed and GE Ventures. Xconomy has more here.

Fixt, a three-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based app for on-demand smartphone repair services (it works with both individuals and enterprise customers), has raised $1.4 million in seed funding, according to VentureWire. More here.

Juno, a months-old, New York-based ride-sharing service that is planning to take on Uber, is talking with investors about a $30 million round of funding, according to several TechCrunch sources, one of whom said of the valuation that Juno seeking, “It’s high.”  More here.

Kreditech, a four-year-old, Hamburg, Germany-based startup that offers loans and other financial services to consumers who have little or no credit history, has added another $11 million to its Series C financing, bringing the total round to $103 million. The new capital comes from the International Finance Corporation (a division of the World Bank). Other investors already in the round — which initially closed last September — include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Amadeus Capital Partners, Värde Partners, HPE Growth Capital, Blumberg Capital, and the private equity firm J.C. Flowers, which invested the most in the round. More here.

LifeBEAM Technologies, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that makes wearable goods for measuring fitness and performance, has raised $16 million in Series A funding, says VentureWire. Square Peg Capital led the round, with participation from Wellborn Ventures, Cerca Partners, Atomic14 Ventures, Triventures and angel investors. More here.

Mesosphere, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based container-centric company that aims to help enterprises better use their data centers with the help of its own operating system, has raised a $73.5 million Series C funding round. The round was led by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and also includes previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, and Fuel Capital, as well as new investors A Capital, Triangle Peak Partners, and Microsoft. TechCrunch has more here.

OneRent, a nearly two-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup behind a full-service rental management platform for landlords and tenants, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from the Chinese social-networking company Renren. More here.

Turner, a unit of Time Warner, reportedly intends to pour $100 million into its digital sports property, Bleacher Report. The WSJ has the story here.

Verdigris, a five-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca., based company that makes cloud analytics software for enterprise facilities managers and large commercial buildings, has raised $9 million in funding across a previously undisclosed seed and Series A round, including from Jabil Circuit, Stanford StartX Fund, Founder.org Capital, DCVC, and a collection of private investors. More here.

Zeel Networks, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based on-demand massage startup, has closed $10 million of a $12 million Series A round. Emil Capital Partnersled the round, with participation from Slow Ventures, Partech Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures and Spafinder. The company has raised $11.5 million to date. VentureWire has more here.

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New Funds

Gobi Partners has partnered with Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhard (MAVCAP), which claims to be the country’s largest venture capital firm, to launch a $14.5 million fund dedicated to seed-stage companies in Southeast Asia. More here.

True Ventures, the 10-year-old, early-stage venture firm, is targeting $295 million for its fifth investment fund, according to an SEC filing. The company, which closed its last fund with $290 million in 2014, could presumably raise much more. We wrote last fall about why that is.

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Exits

AppDirect, a company that helps customers manage multiple cloud vendors, is spending an undisclosed amount to acquire Xendo, a two-year-old startup that enables users to conduct federated searches across cloud services. This is the sixth purchase for AppDirect, which has raised more than $245 million so far. As for Xendo, it’ raised just $28,000 in seed money, says TechCrunch. More here.
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People

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has announced a $100 million investment in the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a fund focusing on the future of biotech research. Allen, who is worth about $15.3 billion, announced the investment yesterday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. More here.

We told you in late 2014 that things were a mess at Nest Labs, particularly pertaining to its $550 million acquisition of Dropcam. Today, The Information takes an even deeper dive, with insight from Dropcam’s cofounder and CEO Greg Duffy, who left Nest after CEO Tony Fadell reportedly told him, “You can’t report to me because you haven’t earned it.” More here.

Smartwatch pioneer Pebble is laying off 25 percent of its staff amid increased financial concerns. More here.

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Data

Email is dying among mobile’s youngest users, says a new report out of App Annie (that we hope is wrong).

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Essential Reads

Instacart is  . . . generating profits?

A new startup, Boom, just landed a $2 billion deal with Virgin Group. Now it just needs to build 10 supersonic planes.

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Detours

You’re excited! Not nervous. Just keep telling yourself that.

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Retail Therapy

Neat. Swivel chairs, made from old Vespa parts.

Hi, everyone. It is Wednesday! [Slowly rolls head from left to right, cracks knuckles.]

Quick mention: If you’re interested in hardware and seed investing, we’ll be moderating a related investor panel on Tuesday, April 5 at Highway1’s offices in San Francisco. Among the featured investors: Charles Hudson of Precursor VC, Semil Shah of Haystack, and Highway1’s Brady Forrest. Come if you can; it should be fun. More details here.

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Top News in the A.M.

Cellebrite, an Israel-based maker of mobile forensic software, is reportedly helping the company that’s helping the FBI in its attemp to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California shooters. Reuters has the story here.

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Former Apple Exec Launches At-Home Blood Test Startup

Bob Messerschmidt knows a little about health and wellness tech, having spent three years helping architect the Apple Watch platform after Apple quietly acquired his spectroscopy company, Rare Light, in 2010. (The terms were undisclosed.)

Messerschmidt also knew when he left Apple to found a new company that it would again involve smartphones. After all, he reasoned, they’re starting to help us track not just our general wellness but also our responses to medicine and other treatments. The bigger question was which chronic condition he would tackle and before long, he settled on Cor, a now two-year-old, San Francisco-based, consumer-facing startup that helps measure heart health, all with just a tiny drop of blood.

Before you start worrying that Cor is a young Theranos, the embattled blood testing company, it’s worth noting that there are many meaningful differences between the two companies. For one thing, Cor wants people to test themselves in their own homes, using an appliance the size of an electric toothbrush and disposable cartridges. Their blood chemistry information is then sent “into the cloud,” analyzed, and results are beamed backed to users within five minutes, along with helpful tips about how to improve them.

Which raises another important point: Cor isn’t trying to tell its users anything definitive. “Theranos is trying to provide diagnostic numbers,” notes Messerschmidt. “We’re not. We’re not a medical device company. We’re providing life style guidance.”

It’s trying to be as transparent as possible about how, too.

More here.

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New Fundings

Aerin Medical,  a five-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based company that develops devices and procedures for improved nasal breathing, has raised $16.7 million in Series C funding from Targeted Technology Fund and KCK Group. FinSMEs has more here.

BetterWorks, a 2.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based cloud-based platform designed to help employees set and reach business goals, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Emergence Capital, with participation from earlier backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC. (Formation 8 was a Series A investor in the company.) Vator has more here.

Convoy, a year-old, Seattle-based on-demand service for local and regional trucking, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Greylock Partners. The company had raised $2.5 million in seed funding last fall. The Seattle Times has more here.

Domo, a 5.5-year-old, American Fork, Ut.-based data management platform company, has raised $131 million in additional Series D funding, pushing a $200 million round that it had initially closed last April to a whopping $331 million. The newest capital comes from BlackRock and unnamed family offices n Asia and Russia. The company, currently valued at $2 billion, has now raised $589 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

FOVE, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of an eye-tracking VR headset, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by the Japanese game publisher Colopl. TechCrunch has more here.

GoCardless, a five-year-old, London-based payments company that makes collecting payments by direct debit easy, has raised a $13 million in new funding led by Notion Capital, with participation from earlier backers Balderton Capital, Accel Partners, and Passion Capital. TechCrunch hasmore here.

HomeUnion, a 6.5-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based online real estate investment management firm that specializes in single-family rental properties, has raised $16 million in Series B funding from Artiman Ventures, Colchis Capital, Northgate Capital, and Tamarisc. HomeUnion has now raised $23 million in funding altogether. More here.

Polarsteps, a 1.5-year-old, Amsterdam-based company that makes an automated travel blogging app, has raised €500,000 ($563,000) in seed funding from Silver Point Ventures and TMG. TechCrunch has more here.

Quanterix Corporation, a nine-year-old, Lexington, Ma.-based diagnostic company whose device is able to test for proteins in the blood that correlate with a variety of different diseases, has raised $46 million in Series D funding led by three new strategic investors: Trinitas Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, and Arch Overage Fund. Existing investors also joined the deal, including ARCH Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Tufts University and David Walt. Hercules Capital participated, too. More here.

Science Exchange, a nearly five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based scientific research marketplace, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Maverick Capital, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, OATV, Collaborative Fund, YC Continuity Fund and individual angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Start A Fire, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company whose software enables individuals and brands to promote their social presence and content over any link they share, has raised $2.5 million in funding led by Canaan Venture Partners, with participation from Lool Ventures and Aleksandar Totic, who was one of the original developers of the Mosaic browser. More here.

Stratoscale, a three-year-old, Herzliya, Israel-based company that sells data center software, has raised $27 million in Series C funding from Qualcomm Ventures along with earlier backers Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, Intel Capital and SanDisk Ventures. More here.

Visionary VR, a 1.5-year-old, L.A.-based story creation software company that’s hoping to make it possible for people other than expert-level developers to create VR stories, has raised $6 million in Series A funding by DFJ Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Last October, we told you about the newest early-stage fund of Frazier Healthcare Partners, a 25-year-old firm. Now, the firm is announcing that it has closed a companion fund, Frazier Healthcare Growth Buyout Fund VIII, at $525 million. The fund, which is run out of the firm’s Seattle office, was oversubscribed, according to its partners.

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People

Power couple? Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is reportedly dating 23andme CEO Anne Wojcicki.

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Essential Reads

All 60(!) companies that launched at Y Combinator’s Demo Day yesterday.

SpaceX’s big plan to launch rockets every few weeks.

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Detours

Tesla is now offering Ludicrous Mode upgrades for older P90D models because why not.

The stars of “Silicon Valley” guess what real startups do.

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Retail Therapy

Hahaha. Worst place ribbons.

Hi, happy Tuesday, everyone. (We’re thinking of those of you in Europe today. Ugh.)

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Top News in the A.M.

Here’s everything that Apple announced yesterday.

The FBI thinks it has found a way to hack into that iPhone 5c without Apple’s help.

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A VC in Greece, Operating in Tumultuous Times

Georgios Kasselakis has the same concerns as most VCs: How to raise money, how to grow the money investors provide him, how to identify the most promising startups.

Unlike most VCs, Kasselakis and his seed-stage firm, OpenFund, are based in Athens, Greece, a country that’s nearly bankrupt and where, even worse, more than 44,000 refugees are now trapped (a number that’s growing daily, owing to the closed-door policies of its neighbors).

We talked with Kasselakis last week via email to learn more about how seven-year-old OpenFund operates, and how it’s coping with what’s happening all around it.

How much money is OpenFund managing?

We sit on top of a €15 million fund, which is our second one. [It’s] a big jump from the €500,000 that we originally launched with.

How many companies has your firm funded to date?

We’ve made more than 20 investments in our second fund. While small by Silicon Valley standards,  you have to keep in mind the cost of labor for highly trained knowledge workers (developers, IT, network), which is roughly six to seven times less than the Valley.

How many other active tech venture firms are there in Athens?

There are four:  Odyssey Venture Partners; First Athens; VentureFriends, which just launched; and PJ Tech Catalyst.

Is that more or less than, say, five years ago?

A lot fewer. At some point, a fund of funds firm called Taneo had helped create more than 10, which were then discontinued. Most fund managers stumbled on the crisis, panicked, and didn’t do any investments at all.

More here.

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New Fundings

Big Basket, a 4.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based online grocery delivery company, has raised $150 million in new funding led by Abraaj Group, with participation from International Finance Corp, Sands Capital, and earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Advisors. More here.

BYJU, an eight-year-old, Bangalore, India-based educational app for Indian schoolchildren, has raised $75 million from Sequoia India and Sofina. The round brings the company’s total funding to $90 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Edgewater Markets, a seven-year-old, New York-based electronic foreign exchange aggregation and distribution platform, has raised $30 million in growth equity led by FTV Capital. More here.