• Construction App Fieldwire Raises $5.5 Million Led by Formation 8

    Field16x9NoLogo (1)Fieldwire, a San Francisco-based mobile and web platform designed to make collaboration on construction projects more efficient, has raised $5.5 million in fresh funding led by Formation 8. Other participants in the round included Trinity Ventures and earlier backers Bloomberg Beta and AngelPad, the investment fund and accelerator where the company first gained investors’ attention in the fall of 2013.

    Including earlier seed funding, the company has now raised $6.6 million altogether.Because Fieldwire is part of an increasingly crowded, if nascent, group of startups that are zeroing in on the same market, we decided to talk last week with cofounder Yves Frinault to learn more. Our chat has been edited for length.

    One of your better-known competitors is PlanGrid. How do your companies differ?

    At our core, we’re a task management platform, working on tasks and collaboration, including with the foreman, the subcontractors, and labor; PlanGrid is more focused on digitizing and storing blueprints and construction documents. We’re more like Asana for construction; they’re more like Box. It’s tasks versus files.

    How big is Fieldwire at this point?

    We were five people. We’ve doubled in the last four months to meet demand, but we could have been a lot more; we believe in dense, focused teams. As for [our clients], there are currently 35,000 projects on the platform [owned by] 1,000 companies.

    So these are big clients.

    When you operate a typical SaaS company, you usually start in mid-market and go up market. In construction, it’s different. The top line, half-a-billion-dollar companies are the ones driving the projects, so we found ourselves working with those guys — the large general contractors and specialty contractors — right away.

    More here.

    Connie

    ,

  • StrictlyVC: October 26, 2015

    Hello! Hope you had a terrific weekend, everyone.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Yikes. From the New York Times: “Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict.”

    The U.S. government-backed American Egg Board has been working to sink the privately held food startup Hampton Creek, reveals a report from The Guardian that turns up leaked emails describing Hampton Creek as a “major threat” and a “crisis” for the $5.5 billion-a-year egg industry.

    —–

    Bessemer’s Byron Deeter on Mobile Enterprise Apps: They’ll Create “Tens of Billions” of Dollars

    Top SaaS investors have been saying for nearly a year that the next billion-dollar market opportunities are rooted in mobile enterprise apps – software for people who don’t sit behind a desk but do keep a smartphone in their pocket.

    Last month, we talked about the trend with Kevin Spain of Emergence Capital. More recently, we caught up with Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners, who says Bessemer, which has already made 10 related bets, is similarly making a giant push into more mobile enterprise apps businesses. More from our chat, lightly edited, here:

    How long have you been focusing on mobile enterprise apps?

    We probably began focusing on this 18 months ago, with investments that range from pure plays like [the conference calling software company] Speakeasy to vertical applications – meaning they have mobile-heavy use cases or vertical use cases — like [the construction management software company] Procore; ServiceTitan [it makes management software for home services businesses like plumbing]; and ClearCare [which makes software for home care agencies].

    Something like 80 percent of the 3 billion people in the world who work do not sit behind a desk. Given the opportunities, how do you decide which industries to go after first?

    We look at industries and market size and sectors. We look at the state of existing technologies. And we try to have hypotheses around which verticals should fall first and where the biggest opportunities should lie. But we’re also very opportunistic in terms of meeting with great entrepreneurs and trying to find out where traction is happening because often it happens in areas you wouldn’t expect. For example, construction wasn’t an area we were looking at as an early adopter segment. Now that we work with Procore, it seems obvious in hindsight. But it isn’t something you would have seen outside in. It took industry insiders and proactive outreach to understand the power of the trend.

    Which is suddenly huge. There seem to be a lot of mobile companies now tackling the construction market. 

    There can be multiple winners in these markets; they’re surprisingly big. Take ClearCare in the health care space. Healthcare alone is massive and it’s just sourcing a small part of it.

    The company is [focused on] home care workers for a specific type of segment. But there are probably dozens of other opportunities to do mobile-centric things in healthcare, within the hospital setting, within the home setting . . . we think it will be many years in the making, and that these are very early days.

    What industry do you think is ripe for mobile disruption next?

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Angaza, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose hardware and software platform enables consumers to pay for clean energy devices in an affordable way over time, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by an unnamed U.S.-based family office, with participation from New York-based The Social Entrepreneurs Fund and several others. The company had raised $1.5 million in seeding funding in 2013. TechCrunch has more here.

    GoCardless, a four-year-old, London-based service that allows smaller merchants to easily set up interbank transfers for customers, is reportedly in talks to raise a “big round of funding,” in the “tens of millions” of dollars. Business Insider has the story here. GoCardless last raised $7 million in January 2014 from Balderton Capital, Accel Partners, and Passion Capital.

    IronNet Cybersecurity, a year-old, Fulton, Md.-based cybesecurity company, has raised $32.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity, with participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

    Jifiti, a four-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based company that offers packaged gift registries, including the ability to trade an item for another of equal value (without integrating with the retail sites), has raised $3.3 million in funding from Liberty Israel Venture Fund, a subsidiary of the Liberty Media Corp., and the Schottenstein Store Corp. GeekTime has more here.

    Karhoo, a 10-month-old, New York-based taxi comparison app that plans to launch in January, has reportedly raised a whopping $250 million and plans to raise more than $1 billion as part of an attempt to combat the likes of Uber. Confirmed financial backers include David Kowitz, cofounder of Indus Capital Partners; Jonathan Feuer, managing partner at CVC Capital Partners; and Nick Gatfield, former chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment, the record label. The Financial Times has the story.

    Knip, a two-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based “mobile-first” digital insurance broker, has raised $15.7 million in Series B funding led by Route 66 Ventures, with participation from QED Investors, Creathor Ventures and earlier backers Orange Growth Capital and Redalpine Capital. TechCrunch hasmore here.

    Magic Leap, a four-year-old, Dania Beach, Fla.-based semi-secretive “cinematic reality” company that has already raised a giant funding round from Googleand other investors, is talking with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba as the lead investor in a new round. As we told you on Friday, the South Florida Business Journal has reported that Magic Leap is raising upwards of a billion dollars. Recode has more here.

    Palantir, the 11-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based data analytics company that caters largely to government agencies and Wall Street, has added an extra $105 million to an earlier round of $450 million in funding, according to a new SEC filing. Its latest round of financing now totals more than $554 million and, as of a July WSJ report, values the company at $20 billion. Palantir has raised more than $1 billion from investors to date, In-Q-Tel, Founders Fund and Tiger Global Management. Business Insider has more here.

    Signals Group, a six-year-old data analytics company that delivers intelligence to Fortune 500 companies to support product development strategy, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investor TPY Capital. More here.

    SimilarWeb, a six-year-old, Tel Aviv-based company whose search tools help users understand insights about sites and mobile apps (including those of their competitors), has raised $25 million in funding at a $400 million valuation led the South African media conglomerate Naspers, with participation from Lord David Alliance. To date, SimilarWeb has raised $65 million. TechCrunch has the story here.

    Uber, the six-year-old, San Francisco-based ride-hailing service, is reportedly planning to raise close to $1 billion in new venture capital from investors, at a valuation of $60 billion to $70 billion. The round will make Uber the world’s most valuable private start-up. The New York Times has the story here.

    —–

    Exits

    Five-year-old Everything.me, which added contextual capabilities to smartphones and raised more than $35 million from high-profile investors, is shutting down. Tech.eu has the story here.

    —–

    People

    DraftKings is spending $250,000 on a marketing campaign featuring the “King of Instagram,” Dan Bilzerian, who earned his nickname on Instagram after sharing hundreds of photos of his seemingly lavish lifestyle. Wrote Bilzerian under an Instagram photo last week: “So I guess Draft Kings figured they hadn’t spent enough money running commercials so they gave me 250k to spend on a 3 day Cabo trip hosted by a bunch of models, I usually spend 150k for 4-5 days, so it will be a bit of a challenge to spend it, but I’m sure I can find a way.” Business Insider has the story.

    Fortune talks with Ted Ullyot, Facebook’s first general counsel and today Andreessen Horowitz policy chief, about startups, safety nets, and tech’s lack of love for Donald Trump.

    We sat down last week with Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures to talk IPOs, Theranos, and why it’s NBD that Square’s CEO is already running another public company. (Khosla Ventures owns roughly 17 percent of pre-IPO Square.)

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Lawyers are suing Apple over high customer iPhone bills they say are caused by an iOS 9 upgrade can result in phones automatically switching from Wi-Fi to more costly cellular data usage. The Recorder has more here.

    Facebook’s “Internet for all” vision is reportedly a tough sell in India.

    Are coding academies nonsense?

    —-

    Detours

    How friendships change over time.

    The guy who signed Slick Rick and Jay Z is still killing it.

    Three sumo wrestlers running a 40-yard dash.  (We do not know why.)
    —–

    Retail Therapy

    A longboard stroller (for European hipsters only).

    Connie

  • Bessemer’s Byron Deeter on Mobile Enterprise Apps: They’ll Create “Tens of Billions” of Dollars

    Byron DeeterTop SaaS investors have been saying for nearly a year that the next billion-dollar market opportunities are rooted in mobile enterprise apps – software for people who don’t sit behind a desk but do keep a smartphone in their pocket.

    Last month, we talked about the trend with Kevin Spain of Emergence Capital. More recently, we caught up with Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners, who says Bessemer, which has already made 10 related bets, is similarly making a giant push into more mobile enterprise apps businesses. More from our chat, lightly edited, here:

    How long have you been focusing on mobile enterprise apps?

    We probably began focusing on this 18 months ago, with investments that range from pure plays like [the conference calling software company] Speakeasy to vertical applications – meaning they have mobile-heavy use cases or vertical use cases — like [the construction management software company] Procore; ServiceTitan [it makes management software for home services businesses like plumbing]; and ClearCare [which makes software for home care agencies].

    Something like 80 percent of the 3 billion people in the world who work do not sit behind a desk. Given the opportunities, how do you decide which industries to go after first?

    We look at industries and market size and sectors. We look at the state of existing technologies. And we try to have hypotheses around which verticals should fall first and where the biggest opportunities should lie. But we’re also very opportunistic in terms of meeting with great entrepreneurs and trying to find out where traction is happening because often it happens in areas you wouldn’t expect. For example, construction wasn’t an area we were looking at as an early adopter segment. Now that we work with Procore, it seems obvious in hindsight. But it isn’t something you would have seen outside in. It took industry insiders and proactive outreach to understand the power of the trend.

    Which is suddenly huge. There seem to be a lot of mobile companies now tackling the construction market. 

    There can be multiple winners in these markets; they’re surprisingly big. Take ClearCare in the health care space. Healthcare alone is massive and it’s just sourcing a small part of it.

    The company is [focused on] home care workers for a specific type of segment. But there are probably dozens of other opportunities to do mobile-centric things in healthcare, within the hospital setting, within the home setting . . . we think it will be many years in the making, and that these are very early days.

    What industry do you think is ripe for mobile disruption next?

    More here.

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: October 23, 3015

    Hello, glorious Friday! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Yesterday, Amazon reported a surprise $79 million profit during its third-quarter earnings report (52 percent of it from its cloud business, Amazon Web Services). This morning, the stock is up nearly 10 percent.

    Pandora meanwhile reported a big loss yesterday, and its investors appear to be losing faith.

    —–

    Watch Out, VCs, Chris Farmer Plans to Massively Disrupt the Industry

    For years, Chris Farmer worked as a venture partner at General Catalyst Partners, helping develop its then-nascent seed-investing program while simultaneously working on a big idea: a database that could help screen engineering talent.

    Today, that idea forms the basis of SignalFire, a San Francisco-based investment firm that Farmer, who is its sole general partner, calls the “most quantitative fund in the world.” He says to “think of us as the world’s most elite angel group, with a central institutional fund, built on top of a mini proprietary Google.”

    It all sounds pretty audacious, of course, but there’s some “there” there, as we saw first-hand during a demonstration last week.

    According to Farmer, SignalFire’s platform, Beacon, tracks more than half a trillion data points that it collects from two million data sources, from patents to academics publications to open source contributions to financial filings.

    As a result, SignalFire is able to keep close tabs on the comings and goings of millions of engineers around the globe. And that’s just one piece of the picture. SignalFire also invests heavily in unstructured data, including raw consumer transactions that allow Beacon to see where consumers are spending their time and money — and which companies and sectors are growing or not.

    Much more here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Allay, a year-old, San Francisco-based, easy-to-use online HR and benefits platform for the country’s 500,000 insurance brokers, has raised $3.4 million in seed funding led by BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, with participation from Sandbox Industries, 500 Startups, Arnold Capital and individual angels. The company has passed through AngelPad’s accelerator program last winter.

    Avito, a seven-year-old, Moscow, Russia-based site for online classified ads in Russia, has raised $1.2 billion from Naspers. The deal sees the South Africa conglomerate upping its stake in the site — reportedly the third largest classifieds site in the world — to 67.9 percent from its previous ownership position of 17.4 percent via the shares of previous shareholders. TechCrunch has more here.

    IntelliCyt, a nine-year-old, Albuquerque, N.M.-based company whose platforms aim to accelerate drug discovery, has raised $5.4 million in new funding led by Arboretum Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Prolog Ventures, Verge Fund, and New Mexico Community Capital. The company also secured a $2 million debt facility from Oxford Finance. More here.

    Magic Leap, a four-year-old, Dania Beach, Fla.-based augmented reality technology company (click here to see what it can do), is closing on $1 billion in new funding from as-yet undisclosed sources, reports the South Florida Business Journal. The transaction will reportedly value the company — which has previously raised upwards of $600 million, including from Google and Andreessen Horowitz — at more than $4.5 billion.

    Off Grid Electric, a four-year-old, Arusha, Tanzania-based pay-as-you-go solar power provider, has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by DBL Partners, with participation from Western Technology Investment, SolarCity, Omidyar Network, Serious Change LP, Vulcan Capital, and Helios Investment Partners founder Tope Lawani.

    Outlearn, a year-old, Boston-based cloud publishing platform and curated content catalog for professional developer learning, has raised $2 million in seed funding from General Catalyst Partners and Paul Sagan, an EIR at General Catalyst and the former CEO of Akamai Technologies. BetaBoston has more here.

    Poynt, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based smart payment terminal manufacturer, has raised $28 million in Series B funding led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Stanford-StartX Fund and earlier backers Matrix Partners, Webb Investment Network, and Nyca Ventures. The company never disclosed how much funding it raised for its Series A round last year. Vator has more here.

    Simility, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Calif.-based maker of fraud prevention software that employs machine learning, big data analytics, and data visualization, has raised $3.45 million in seed funding led by Accel Partners. More here.

    —–

    New Funds

    Sequoia Capital is raising a new U.S. growth fund and a global growth fund, show SEC filings.

    —–

    Exits

    Nitro, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based document productivity company that has raised roughly $25 million from investors over the years, just acquired DoxIQ, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based “connected documents” company that raised a small amount of debt funding. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed.

    Yota Devices, a Russian company that sells two-screened Android smartphones, has a new owner after shareholder Telconet Capital sold its majority 64.9 percent holding to Hong Kong-listed REX Global Entertainment for $100 million, according to a regulatory filing. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    People

    Hoping to counter poverty’s toll on children, Priscilla Chan and her husband, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are launching a private comprehensive preschool and K-8 school that’s linked to health services for children and families in East Palo Alto, Ca. More here.

    Domo, the fast-growing business management platform provider, has begun providing an interesting perk to its expectant employees: $2,000 in gift certificates for maternity clothes.

    Jack Dorsey is giving about a third of his Twitter shares — or 1 percent of the company — back to Twitter’s employees, he said in a yesterday today. More here.

    Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones to staff: Learn to write or I’ll rip up your memo.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company that last month raised the price of the decades-old drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750, now has a competitor — and it’s charging $1 per pill.

    —–

    Detours

    When the doorman is your main man.

    The perfect password that’s also easy to remember.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Cocoon Cabin. (H/T: Uncrate)

    Connie

  • Watch Out, VCs, Chris Farmer Plans to Massively Disrupt the Industry

    BN-KT144_ChrisF_G_20151013194954For years, Chris Farmer worked as a venture partner at General Catalyst Partners, helping develop its then-nascent seed-investing program while simultaneously working on a big idea: a database that could help screen engineering talent.

    Today, that idea forms the basis of SignalFire, a San Francisco-based investment firm that Farmer, who is its sole general partner, calls the “most quantitative fund in the world.” He says to “think of us as the world’s most elite angel group, with a central institutional fund, built on top of a mini proprietary Google.”

    It all sounds pretty audacious, of course, but there’s some “there” there, as we saw first-hand during a demonstration last week.

    According to Farmer, SignalFire’s platform, Beacon, tracks more than half a trillion data points that it collects from two million data sources, from patents to academics publications to open source contributions to financial filings.

    As a result, SignalFire is able to keep close tabs on the comings and goings of millions of engineers around the globe. And that’s just one piece of the picture. SignalFire also invests heavily in unstructured data, including raw consumer transactions that allow Beacon to see where consumers are spending their time and money — and which companies and sectors are growing or not.

    Much more here.

    Connie

    ,
    , , , , ,

  • StrictlyVC: October 22, 2015

    Hi, everyone, happy Thursday!

    Sorry for the late send — we were on several back-to-back calls this a.m. Also, no column today. More tomorrow!

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Nasdaq has agreed to buy SecondMarket to combine forces with the Nasdaq Private Market, reports TechCrunch. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. The group will facilitate the exchange of shares for private companies, including DocuSign, Pinterest, Shazam and Tango. Bill Siegel, present CEO of SecondMarket, will lead the expanded Nasdaq Private Market business, which will be headquartered in both San Francisco and New York.

    Amazon‘s one-hour delivery service, Prime Now, has hit the Bay Area.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Ampy, a 1.5-year-old, Chicago-based kinetic charging battery startup — it makes a wearable spare battery pack charged by human movement — has raised $875,000 in seed funding led by Clean Energy Trust and NewGen Ventures, with participation from numerous angel investors. TechCrunch hasmore here.

    Bownty, a 4.5-year-old, Copenhagen, Denmark-based aggregator that collects, sorts and distributes deals from more than 100 deal sites in approximately 1,200 cities in Europe, has raised €3.4 million (roughly $3.9 million) in Series A funding. Backers include HOWZAT Partners, SEED Capital, and Bownty chairman Pia Vemmelund. More here.

    Clutter, a 2.5-year-old, L.A.-based high-tech self-storage service, has raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital. The company has now raised $12.3 million altogether. The WSJ has more here.

    DigiTour Media, a five-year-old, L.A.-based company that produces concerts and other live events that feature social media stars, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Viacom, LionTree Entertainment and Slow Ventures. More here.

    Honestbee, a year-old, Singapore-based on-demand grocery concierge and delivery service startup, has raised $15 million in funding led by Formation 8, with participation from Pejman Mar Ventures, Gideon Yu and Owen Van Natta. Tech In Asia has more here.

    Insureon, a Chicago-based online provider of small business insurance, has raised $31 million in new funding led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from earlier backer Accretive. The Chicago Tribune has more here.

    Kaleo Software, a three-year-old, El Segundo, Ca.-based enterprise cloud platform for capturing and sharing employee expertise, has raised $7 million in funding led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from Saturn Partners. More here.

    MoneyForward, a Tokyo, Japan-based online financial management startup, has raised JPY 1.6 billion (US$13.3 million) in Series C funding from SBI Holdings, Shizuoka Bank, Yamaguchi Financial Group, Toho Bank, Fenox Venture Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, and Mitsui & Co. Tech in Asia has more here. The company had raised a separate,$12.6 million round, less than a year ago.

    Numerify, a three-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based company that sells IT business analytics applications to companies, has raised $37.5 million in Series C funding led by Tenaya Capital. Silicon Valley Bank and Four Rivers Group also joined the round, along with earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company has now raised more than $60 million altogether. Vator has more here.

    Opinio, a six-month-old, Bangalore, India-based hyperlocal delivery startup, has raised $7 million in Series A funding from Accel Partners, Sands Capital and the logistics firm Delvhivery. Tech in Asia has more here.

    Periscope Data, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that has built a platform for data scientists to create fast, detailed and customized visualizations, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding led by by DFJ, along with participation from earlier backers AngelPad, Susa Ventures and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. TechCrunch has more here.

    Playful Corp., a three-year-old, McKinney, Tex.-based virtual-reality gaming studio founded by Paul Bettner, cofounder of the once-popular mobile game “Words with Friends” (it sold to Zynga for a bundle in 2012), has raised $25 million from undisclosed investors. The WSJ has more here.

    Portal Instruments, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based drug delivery company focused on injectable biologics for chronic diseases, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by 5AM Ventures. Earlier backer Sanofi Sunrise also joined the round. Med Device Online has more here.

    Silk Road Medical, an eight-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company that makes medical devices for neurovascular diseases, has raised $57 million in equity and debt financing. CRG led the debt financing. It also participated in the company’s equity funding, with Warburg Pincus and The Vertical Group. Fierce Medical Devices has more here.

    Squad, a months-old, New York-based app that connects groups of friends together (including around events or nights out), has raised $1.7 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures and First Round Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

    Sunnova, a three-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based private residential solar service company, has raised $300 million in debt arranged by Credit Suisse and equity funding led by Triangle Peak Partners. Other equity investors include business development companies sponsored by Franklin Square Capital Partners. Sunnova had raised another giant round — $250 million — last November. More here.

    The18, a 1.5-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based online content and commerce platform for soccer enthusiasts, has raised $1 million in funding from unnamed individual investors. More here.

    Worthy, a three-year-old, New York-based online marketplace for pre-owned luxury goods, has raised $8 million in Series B funding led by Carmel Ventures, with participation from earlier investors, including Star Ventures founder Meir Barel. The company has previously raised more than $8.5 million. Finsmes has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    General Mills is launching a new venture capital arm called 301 Inc. that will take stakes in small regional food-related startups that are looking for growth capital. Fortune has more here.

    According to Fortune’s Dan Primack, KKR is quietly raising its first-ever fund dedicated to growth equity investing in technology companies. Reportedly, the fund isn’t being marketed with a specific target, though KKR is committing to invest roughly $200 million.

    In Europe today, Google is opening up applications for startups and others who are interested in receiving grants from its Digital News Initiative Innovation Fund, a €150 million ($170 million) pool that the company has set aside for startups and others building new services, products and technologies for the news industry. Grants range from €50,000 to €1 million but there’s no cap and there are no strings attached, reports TechCrunch.

    Reach Capital, a new venture firm in Palo Alto, Ca. has raised a $53 million fund to back education-tech startups, reports Venture Capital Dispatch. Reach was spun out from the nonprofit New Schools Venture Fund earlier this year and will make seed investments of $100,000 to $500,000 and write follow-on checks of $1 million or more.

    —–

    Exits

    Publicly traded Ruckus Wireless has acquired Cloudpath Networks, a privately held company that makes secure Wi-Fi onboarding software. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed. Wireless Week has more here.

    —–

    IPOs

    Less than two weeks after Shield Therapeutics pulled the plug on its £110 million ($170 million) IPO, Acacia Pharma has yanked its, too, citing “volatility and uncertainty in global equity markets.” It’s looking like a trend. According to FierceBiotech: “While the window for life science IPOs in London has yet to shut completely . . . it has become much harder to persuade investors to part with large sums of money.”

    —–

    People

    Twitter co-founder and recently re-installed CEO Jack Dorsey kicked off the company’s big developer event with an apology for Twitter’s past behavior and a commitment to try to make it better. “Our relationship with developers got confusing, unpredictable.” More here.

    “Give us a few years,” says Uber CEO Travis Kalanick of taking the company public (as dozens of investors pound their fists into nearby walls).

    “I did find [Twitter] challenging to use at times and intimidating to use,” Omid Kordestani tells the WSJ in his first interview since being named executive chairman at Twitter last week.

    A former SpaceX employee has filed a class action lawsuit against the rocket company, saying hourly employees are regularly expected to work overtime hours without proper compensation. It’s at least the fourth lawsuit alleging SpaceX violated California labor law to be filed since 2014, reports the International Business Times.

    —–

    Jobs

    The private equity advisory business StepStone Group is looking to hire a research analyst. The job is in San Diego.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Airbnb regrets its tone-deaf hotel ads and is taking them down “immediately.”

    Yesterday, YouTube made its top video creators an offer they can’t refuse (because their content will disappear otherwise).

    —–

    Detours

    Has it become impossible to prosecute white collar crime?

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Smart Ped.

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: October 21, 2015

    Hi, everyone, hope your Wednesday is off to an auspicious start!

    We’re racing out the door a little early for an interview; please send any and all complaints to trumpforpresident@aol.com.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    JP Morgan is about to make it easier for retail investors to gain access at the IPO price. The bank is announcing today that it will partner with Motif Investing to give ordinary investors the option to purchase shares in IPOs that it manages.

    Morgan Stanley downgraded Twitter stock to “underweight” this morning, with a price target of just $24 — down from the roughly $30 at which it was trading. (As of this writing it has fallen just 4 percent to $29.50.)

    Apple and Dropbox said yesterday that they do not support a controversial cybersecurity bill that critics say would give the government new powers to spy on Americans.

    —–

    Howdy Raises $1.5 Million from Top VCs to Build Apps for Slack

    Despite a checkered history with online platforms, developers are always looking for the next big distribution model and a small but growing number is betting Slack, the popular group-messaging platform, is the way to go.

    One such startup, Austin-based Howdy, may be the first to nab venture funding based largely on that vision. Specifically, the company, which has developed a customizable chat bot application that runs automated tasks for teams on Slack, has just nabbed $1.5 million in venture funding from Bloomberg Beta, True Ventures, a small angel group called Outlier and numerous individual investors.

    Howdy is first and foremost a time saver for now, especially when it comes to meetings. For example, after connecting to Slack, the app can simultaneously message each member of a team, collecting status updates that can be archived and viewed by everyone. The idea: to keep meetings from turning into one long catch-up session and enabling attendees to focus on decision-making instead. (Worth noting: Howdy can also be used to collect everyone’s lunch orders. It’s up to the team using it.)

    Howdy co-founder Ben Brown says the still-in-beta company will eventually charge customers on a monthly basis but that it’s a “little early to know the details.” What he says he does know is that providing applications, content and services via messaging applications is becoming a “huge opportunity.”

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Adjust, a 3.5-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based mobile app intelligence and analytics company, has raised $17 million in new funding led by Highland Europe. The company has now raised $30 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    Cielo24, a three-year-old, Santa Barbara, Ca.-based company that delivers searchable captions for large media platform partners in the online education, enterprise, and entertainment markets, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by ff Venture Capital, with participation from North Base Media, Pereg Ventures, Indicator Ventures and Wavemaker Partners. More here.

    Citus Data, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based real-time big data company that’s helping drive advanced uses of Postgres, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Data Collective and Vaizra Investments. More here.

    Collective Health, a two-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based enterprise health insurance services platform, has raised $81 million in Series C funding from Google Ventures, along with earlier backers New Enterprise Associates, Founders Fund, Maverick Capital, Red Point Ventures and RRE Ventures. The company has now raised $119 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

     Conversocial, a six-year-old, New York and London-based customer relationship management software company that integrates with social media so support teams can answer question about brand products directly, has raised $11 million in new funding led by Dawn Capital, with participation from earlier backers Octopus Ventures and Draper Espirit. The company has now raised $22 million altogether. More here.

    Betabrand, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based online clothing company known for its limited batch clothing and bags, has raised $15 million in fresh capital co-led by Morgan Stanley and earlier backer Foundry Group. The company has now raised $29 million altogether. More here.

    Frontline Aerospace, an eight-year-old, Broomfield, Co.-based company focused on gas turbine engine efficiency technologies, has raised $2 million in new venture funding from undisclosed investors. More here.

    Gritstone Oncology, a months-old, San Francisco-based company that’s planning to develop personalized cancer therapeutics, has raised $102 million in Series A funding co-led by Versant Ventures and The Column Group, with participation from Clarus Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Partners, Redmile Group, and Casdin Capital. The Boston Globe has more here.

    Humacyte, an 11-year-old, Morrisville, N.C.-based developer of human tissue-based products for uses in regenerative medicine and vascular surgery, has raised $150 million in Series B funding from a long list of investors, including Access Industries, Bangkok Bank Public Company, Brady Dougan, Pacific Eagle Asset Management, Reignwood Group and Gavril Yushvaev. Xconomy has more here.

    Mouth Foods, a five-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based e-commerce startup selling craft foods, wine and spirits, has raised $5.5 million in funding led by KarpReilly, a Greenwich, Cn., investment firm that specializes in e-commerce and food and beverage startups. Earlier backers Vocap Investment Partners and Jason Calacanis also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $8.7 million. Crain’s New York Business has more here.

    Ourglass, a 3.5-year-old, Boston-based private social network for sharing with 12 or fewer connections, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from General Catalyst Partners and other, unnamed investors. More here.

    Phenom People, a five-year-old, Horsham, Pa.-based service that customizes company job search pages for individuals, has raised $6 million in venture funding led by Sierra Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

    Pyramid Analytics, a seven-year-old, Seattle-based business intelligence platform for the enterprise, has raised $30 million in new funding led by Viola Private Equity and return backer Sequoia Capital. The Seattle Times hasmore here.

    ROOY, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based shoe design platform, has raised $3.4 million in seed funding led by Formation 8, with participation from Korea Investment Partners. More here.

    Science 37, a year-old, L.A.-based company that’s trying to bring clinical studies to patients (instead of vice versa), has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding led by Lux Capital and dRx Capital. More here.

    Solinea, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based software and services company that helps enterprises design and deploy their private clouds, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Translink Capital, with participation from its angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

    Vittamed, a Boston-based developer of a non-invasive intracranial pressure monitor, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Xeraya Capital, with participation from return backer Imprimatur Capital. More here.

    ——

    New Funds

    Activant Capital Group, a five-year-old, Greenwich, Cn.-based growth-equity firm, is raising $250 million for two funds that will target retail technology and e-commerce companies, according to Venture Capital Dispatch.

    Progress Ventures, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based early-stage investor, has raised $20 million for its third venture fund. The capital will be used to fund business-to-business, marketing and media technology companies, says the firm.

    —–

    Exits

    It’s official. Western Digital, the storage giant, has agreed to buy SanDisk for about $19 billion. The move follows speculation that SanDisk was shopping for a buyer. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    People

    Jill Hazelbaker, Snapchat’s VP of communications and public policy, is the eighth Snapchat executive to leave this year, notes Business Insider. As Recode reported early yesterday, she’s joining Uber and reporting to her old boss at Google, Rachel Whetstone.

    Speaking with Business Insider yesterday, Bill Maris of Google Ventures drove over Theranos, then threw the truck in reverse. Explaining why GV — which has a strong focus on life sciences — didn’t invest in the now-controversy-embroiled diagnostics company, he said, “We looked at it a couple times but there was so much hand-waving — like, Look over here! — that we couldn’t figure it out. So, we just had someone from our life science team go into Walgreens and take the test. And it wasn’t that difficult for anyone to determine that things may not be what they seem here.”

    Home services marketplace Thumbtack has hired a new CFO, Servaes Tholen, roughly a month after closing on a fresh $125 million at a $1.3 billionvaluation. Tholen was previously CFO at eBay and Upwork (formerly Elance-oDesk). Thumbtack has also named Mitt Romney’s former general counsel Katie Biber as lead in-house counsel. Recode has the story here.

    ——

    Jobs

    J&J Innovation, a part of Johnson & Johnson’s family of companies, is looking to a hire a venture investments principal in Menlo Park, Ca.

    —–

    Data

    New data highlights that there’s really no such thing as bad publicity when it comes to the consumer Internet. Even when there’s a dip in usage following bad news, business resumes before too long. The Information has the story here. (Subscribers only.)

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Apple has told a federal judge that it “would be impossible” to access user data on a locked iPhone running one of the newer operating systems.

    The New York Times is collaborating on a virtual reality project with Google and planning to distribute more than a million cardboard VR viewers to its print subscribers.

    —–

    Detours

    How innovations in biological science may change the fairness, safety and meaning of sports. (Great report.)

    An artist transforms her parents’ home into a creepy visage for Halloween.

    Tesla owners love their cars, but they may have trouble reselling them.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Stupendo.

    Connie

  • Howdy Raises $1.5 Million from Top VCs to Build Apps for Slack

    howdyDespite a checkered history with online platforms, developers are always looking for the next big distribution model and a small but growing number is betting Slack, the popular group-messaging platform, is the way to go.

    One such startup, Austin-based Howdy, may be the first to nab venture funding based largely on that vision. Specifically, the company, which has developed a customizable chat bot application that runs automated tasks for teams on Slack, has just nabbed $1.5 million in venture funding from Bloomberg Beta, True Ventures, a small angel group called Outlier and numerous individual investors.

    Howdy is first and foremost a time saver for now, especially when it comes to meetings. For example, after connecting to Slack, the app can simultaneously message each member of a team, collecting status updates that can be archived and viewed by everyone. The idea: to keep meetings from turning into one long catch-up session and enabling attendees to focus on decision-making instead. (Worth noting: Howdy can also be used to collect everyone’s lunch orders. It’s up to the team using it.)

    Howdy co-founder Ben Brown says the still-in-beta company will eventually charge customers on a monthly basis but that it’s a “little early to know the details.” What he says he does know is that providing applications, content and services via messaging applications is becoming a “huge opportunity.”

    More here.

    Connie

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  • StrictlyVC: October 20, 2015

    Hi, happy Tuesday, everyone!

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Venture capital funds should face less red tape across the 28-nation European Union so there can be more of them and in more regions, EU Financial Services Commissioner Jonathan Hill said at a conference earlier today in Brussels. Here’s what he has in mind.

    —–

    Crisis Experts Debate Amazon’s Latest Lob

    When a New York Times piece came out in August that described Amazon’s workplace culture as “bruising,” Amazon cofounder and CEO Jeff Bezos acted quickly to dampen the story’s blow. He wrote a memo to employees saying the account “doesn’t describe the Amazon I know” and pointed out a separate piece by an Amazon engineer who described the Times article as “utter reader bait.”

    It was a smart approach, suggests Marina Ein, whose Washington, D.C.-based crisis communications firm has represented Michael Milken and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, among others. “I thought the company was acting on very good advice,” she says.

    More confounding to Ein is a new post authored by former journalist and current Amazon spokesman Jay Carney, in which Carney not only systematically attacks the now two-month-old Times piece for being imbalanced but works to undermine several former employees quoted in the story.

    One is former site merchandiser Bo Olson, who spent roughly 20 months at Amazon and had told the Times for its story, “You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face . . . Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

    Wrote Carney of Olson today: “His brief tenure at Amazon ended after an investigation revealed he had attempted to defraud vendors and conceal it by falsifying business records. When confronted with the evidence, he admitted it and resigned immediately.”

    “I think it’s crazy,” says Ein of Carney’s unexpected missive.

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    AgentDesks, a year-old, San Francisco-based mobile-first CRM for real estate agents that helps realtors track tasks, find property leads, import contacts, and store notes, has raised $2.95 million in seed funding from Sierra Ventures, Cota Capital and Vegas Tech Fund, among others. The company was incubated at the accelerator program, AngelPad, late last year. The Economic Times has more here.

    Amino, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based digital healthcare startup that’s been quietly amassing a database of U.S. consumer healthcare data since late 2013 to make it easier for consumers to locate a doctor or specialist with experience treating their condition, has raised $19.4 million in pre-launch funding from Accel Partners, CRV, Rock Health and more than a dozen individual investors. TechCrunch has much more here.

    Attune Technologies, a six-year-old, Singapore-based startup that makes cloud-based software for hospitals and labs, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from Qualcomm Ventures and returning investor Norwest Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

    Illusive Networks, a 1.5-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity company focused around so-called deception technology, has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by new investor New Enterprise Associates, with participation from new and earlier backers, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker LLC, Citi Ventures, and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors.

    Mobvoi, a three-year-old, Beijing, China-based company specializing in mobile voice search technology, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series C, including from Google, which has become a minority shareholder. Altogether, the company has raised $75 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

    Redox, a 1.5-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based health care software development tool-maker, has raised $3.5 million in  funding round led by .406 Ventures, with participation from Flybridge Capital Partners, and HealthX Ventures, a venture capital fund that formed in Madison to invest in digital health companies. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has more here.

    Stitch Labs, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of online inventory control software, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Triangle Peak Partners. The company has now raised $23 million altogether. More here.

    Sweeten, a four-year-old, New York-based home renovation matchmaker that connects contractors with customers, has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding led by Navitas Capital, with participation from Overnight Capital and Gotham Gal Ventures. More here.

    Yidao Yongche, a five-year-old, Beijing, China-based ride-hailing app, says that a unit of Beijing-based technology company LeTV has agreed to invest $700 million in the firm in return for a 70 percent stake. The funding brings the total capital raised by the company to at least $790 million, shows CrunchBase. Reuters has more here.

    ZeroStack, a 1.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based developer of self-service and scale-out private clouds, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Formation 8, with participation from from earlier investor Foundation Capital and company board member Mark Leslie. More here.

    Zignal Labs, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based real-time media analytics company, has raised $15 million in new funding led by earlier investors Andy Ballard of Figtree Partners; Mitch Cohen of Ross Investment Associates; and the company’s own cofounder and chairman, Jim Hornthal.

    —–

    New Funds

    S2G Ventures in Chicago has closed on $125 million for a debut venture fund to invest exclusively in agriculture and food ventures. The firm has already backed eight companies, and deployed 18 percent of its fund to these deals. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here.

    —–

    Exits

    Gone, a year-old app that helps users sell items they no longer want in their home, has acquired FOBO, a young Y Combinator alum that had pivoted into an auction-based service that lets users sell their things via a mobile app. According to CrunchBase, FOBO Had raised just $1.6 million in seed funding; Gone has meanwhile raised just more than $1 million, according to CrunchBase. More here.

    According to Bloomberg, SanDisk is in advanced talks to sell itself to Western Digital Corp., and the two storage makers could reach a deal as soon as this week. More here.

    —–

    People

    One week after announcing major layoffs, Twitter is hiring New York Times editor at large Marcus Mabry to help develop editorial direction for its new Moments section.

    Jeff Seibert, senior director of product at Twitter, tells Stanford students what went well and what didn’t during the acquisition of his earlier startups by big-name technology companies — and why an acquisition isn’t always the best exit strategy for a promising startup.

    Inside Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel‘s entertainment empire.

    Remember that altercation at Tesla’s battery gigafactory site between two Reno Gazette-Journal photographers and Tesla security guards? RGJ’s attorney is saying the guards were violent and that Tesla’s portrayal of the incident is “scandalous.”

    A 23-year-old Google employee is living in a truck in the company’s parking lot. (The upside, he says: He’s saving 90 percent of his income.)

    —–

    Jobs

    Bessemer Venture Partners is looking to hire an associate or senior associate for its cloud team in Silicon Valley. (That means spending time at both its San Francisco and Menlo Park, Ca., offices.) To apply, write to kristina at bvp.com.

    —–

    Data

    Apple CEO Tim Cook said yesterday that Apple Music has 6.5 million paid subscribers, plus another 8.5 million users who are still in their three-month free trial period.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Google’s growing problem: Half of people do zero searches per day on mobile.

    Sky-high valuations are starting to backfire on some Silicon Valley companies that are trying to raise more money or go public, reports the WSJ, and it holds up Dropbox as a prime example. To wit, BlackRock, which led a $350 million deal that more than doubled Dropbox’s valuation from $4 billion to $10 billion early last year, has since cut its estimate of the company’s per-share value by 24 percent.

    A U.S. judge has dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit filed by an Uber driver against the ride service over a data breach disclosed by the company.

    —–

    Detours

    Why you should carve a pumpkin from the bottom.

    The new “Star Wars” trailer, scene-by-scene as GIFs for you to study.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    weeHouse.

    Connie

  • Crisis Experts on Amazon’s Latest Lob (and What Could Be Next)

    img-thingWhen a New York Times piece came out in August that described Amazon’s workplace culture as “bruising,” Amazon cofounder and CEO Jeff Bezos acted quickly to dampen the story’s blow. He wrote a memo to employees saying the account “doesn’t describe the Amazon I know” and pointed out a separate piece by an Amazon engineer who described the Times article as “utter reader bait.”

    It was a smart approach, suggests Marina Ein, whose Washington, D.C.-based crisis communications firm has represented Michael Milken and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, among others. “I thought the company was acting on very good advice,” she says.

    More confounding to Ein is a new post authored by former journalist and current Amazon spokesman Jay Carney, in which Carney not only systematically attacks the now two-month-old Times piece for being imbalanced but works to undermine several former employees quoted in the story.

    One is former site merchandiser Bo Olson, who spent roughly 20 months at Amazon and had told the Times for its story, “You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face . . . Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

    Wrote Carney of Olson today: “His brief tenure at Amazon ended after an investigation revealed he had attempted to defraud vendors and conceal it by falsifying business records. When confronted with the evidence, he admitted it and resigned immediately.”

    “I think it’s crazy,” says Ein of Carney’s unexpected missive.

    More here.

    Connie

    , , , ,

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