• StrictlyVC: August 25, 2015

    Hi, happy Tuesday, everyone!

    A quick mention: As some of you have discovered, our September 16 event is now sold out. For what it’s worth, we opened up a waitlist yesterday — it’s here — and we’ll do our best to accommodate a few more of you between now and then. Thanks to those of you who purchased tickets; we’re excited to see you. We’re also very thankful to our wonderful speakers and to our friends and partners, including at Bolt and Ludlow Ventures, for helping make possible what’s going to be a very fun night!

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    This Ashley Madison business is far from over. Here’s the latest.

    —–

    A Slick New 401(k) Platform, From TaskRabbit Cofounder Kevin Busque

    In recent years, Kevin Busque began to notice something at TaskRabbit, the outsourced jobs marketplace that he co-founded seven years ago with his wife, and TaskRabbit’s CEO, Leah Busque.

    The company employs a lot of younger employees, and according to Busque (who was long the company’s VP of Technology but also tackled HR for some time), they weren’t taking advantage of TaskRabbit’s 401(k) program.

    In fact, the participation rate was somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 percent — on par with other U.S. businesses, where 401(k) participation is around just 36 percent, Busque says.

    According to Government Accountability Office testimony from 2013, numerous reasons explain such low figures. Sometimes, the employer plans of small businesses are too expensive. Sometimes, employees worry they aren’t making enough money to contribute to retirement savings. Often, too, retirement plans are so confusing that employees – younger staffers especially — decide they’re not worth the hassle.

    Enter Guideline Technologies, Busque’s four-month-old, San Francisco-based company, which has just raised $2 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, SV Angel, Red Swan Ventures, BoxGroup, Xfund and 500 Startups.

    Its big idea: To work with small and mid-size employers in making 401(k) plans affordable for employees — as well as dead simple to set up.

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    BlueData, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that helps customers generate virtualized big data clusters, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from Amplify Partners, Atlantic Bridge, Ignition Partners, and an unnamed strategic investor. TechCrunch has more here.

    carbonTRACK, a five-year-old, Victoria, Australia-based energy-tech startup that helps users to track their energy use in their homes, has raised $1.4 million (U.S.) in seed funding from Impact Investment Fund and Wolf Capital. Startup Daily has more here.

    Coursera, the three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based online education service, has raised $49.5 million in Series C funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Other investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, International Finance Corporation, and Times Internet Limited. Coursera expects a second closing of the round this fall. TechCrunch has more here.

    EHang, a year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based drone startup, has raised $42 million in Series B funding led by GP Capital, with participation from earlier backers GGV Capital, ZhenFund, PreAngel, Lebox Capital and OFC. TechCrunch hasmore here.

    Fanatics, a 20-year-old, Jacksonville, Fla.-based e-commerce company focused on sports merchandise, has sold a minority ownership stake to private equity firm Silver Lake for $300 million, Fortune is reporting this morning. The company, acquired in 2011 by eBay spinoff Kynetic, had earlier raised $320 million in minority equity funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Insight Venture Partners and another $130 million from Alibaba Group.

    FluGen, an eight-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based biotechnology company at work on a  “universal” influenza vaccine, has raised $12 million in Series A funding from Venture Investors, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and other new and existing investors led by Knox LLC. More here.

    Friendsy, a 2.5-year-old, Princeton, N.J.-based student-only social network, has raised $500,000 in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Slow Ventures, firms that had previously provided the startup with $200,000 in funding. Princeton University also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

    Greenhouse Software, a three-year-old, New York-based recruiting optimization platform, has raised $35 million in Series C funding led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Benchmark, The Social+Capital Partnership, and Groupe Arnault.

    Scality, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based object-based storage startup, has raised $45 million in Series D funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from new strategic partner Broadband Tower, Scality employees, and earlier backers IDInvest, Digital Ambition Fund, Iris Capital, Omnes Capital and Galileo Partners. The company has raised $80 million to date. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.

    Simility, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of adaptive fraud prevention software, has raised $3.45 million in seed funding led by Accel Partners. More here.

    Spare5, a 10-month-old, Seattle, Wa.-based company that helps businesses outsource menial tasks like tagging and describing images (the company calls itself a “snack-sized task platform”), has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group and New Enterprise Associates. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    Owl Ventures — founded by Tory Patterson and Jed Smith, who previously ran the consumer goods and tech fund Catamount Ventures — has closed a $100 million fund. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here.

    Peakview Capital, the two-year-old investment arm of the management consulting giant Shengjing Group, has been investing about $1 billion a year in private equity and venture capital funds. Next year, though, it plans to invest more than $1.5 billion, and much of it in the U.S. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

    —–

    IPOs

    In the U.S., there are 40 fewer deals in the IPO pipeline than this time last year. The WSJ has more here.

    —–

    Exits

    Shopa, a nearly two-year-old, London-based social shopping site, is reportedly shutting down and its CEO is out just seven months after it raised $11 million from investors, including Notion Capital and Octopus Investments. Business Insider takes a look at what’s happening here.

    —–

    People

    Meet Liam Casey, the founder and CEO of PCH International, otherwise known as the tech industry’s “fixer” in China.

    —–

    Jobs

    Saints Capital, which makes primary and secondary investments in venture-backed startups, is looking for an analyst. The job is in San Francisco.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Aerosense, Sony’s joint-venture drone company, yesterday unveiled a prototype of the flying machines it will use to serve business customers.

    Uber is testing bus-style “smart routes” with designated pick-up and drop-off areas.

    —–

    Detours

    Wall Street: Still very white and very male.

    Posture for a healthy back.

    Why teenagers are the worst.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Do mosquitoes love you? Try this.

    OCD for breakfast.

    Connie

  • A Slick New 401(k) Platform, From TaskRabbit Cofounder Kevin Busque

    1485040In recent years, Kevin Busque began to notice something at TaskRabbit, the outsourced jobs marketplace that he co-founded seven years ago with his wife, and TaskRabbit’s CEO, Leah.

    The company employs a lot of younger employees, and according to Busque (who was long the company’s VP of Technology but also tackled HR for some time), they weren’t taking advantage of TaskRabbit’s 401(k) program.

    In fact, the participation rate was somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 percent — on par with other U.S. businesses, where 401(k) participation is around just 36 percent, Busque says.

    According to Government Accountability Office testimony from 2013, numerous reasons explain such low figures. Sometimes, the employer plans of small businesses are too expensive. Sometimes, employees worry they aren’t making enough money to contribute to retirement savings. Often, too, retirement plans are so confusing that employees – younger staffers especially — decide they’re not worth the hassle.

    Enter Guideline Technologies, Busque’s four-month-old, San Francisco-based company, which has just raised $2 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, SV Angel, Red Swan Ventures, BoxGroup, Xfund and 500 Startups.

    Its big idea: To work with small and mid-size employers in making 401(k) plans affordable for employees — as well as dead simple to set up.

    More here.

    Connie

    , , , , , , , , , ,

  • StrictlyVC: August 24, 2015

    Hi, everyone, welcome back!

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Chinese stocks plummeted earlier today, erasing gains for the year. It’s dragging our markets down with it, too. (A tumbling stock market could also mean bad juju for so-called unicorn companies.)

    Need more proof that the stock market is in trouble? Apple CEO Tim Cook emailed TV personality Jim Cramer this morning to calm nervous investors.

    —–

    Having Won Over VCs, Y Combinator Turns to LPs

    Last week, Y Combinator ran investors through 105 presentations by early-stage startups in a two-day show it calls Demo Day. The pace of deal-making for such events, staged every summer and winter, has grown so feverish that the incubator introduced a new wrinkle: backers could commit to plowing millions into a company by simply clicking the equivalent of an “easy button” via an online dashboard that Y Combinator created.

    Many local VCs seemed too busy to notice. Brian O’Malley of Accel Partners was walking around on his phone. Jon Sakoda of New Enteprise Associates made the rounds. Hunter Walk of Homebrew looked to be taking a couple of meetings, too.

    Yet there were other, more surprising guests. There, in the front row, was “Stevie” Cohen, the famed hedge fund manager. Elsewhere in the audience, a money manager for Major League Baseball sat rapt, listening to the procession of startup presentations.

    Perhaps the most interesting category of attendee, though, were more traditional limited partners, who typically invest in venture and private equity funds.

    Indeed, while it used to be that VCs treated their LPs a bit like mushrooms, keeping them mostly in the dark, today’s LPs want to be closer to the action, and for them, Y Combinator is Ground Zero.

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    AppInside, a months-old, Israel-based mobile application security platform that identifies vulnerabilities, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding from Accomplice and unnamed angel investors. The Globes has more here.

    Cavendish Kinetics, a nine-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based radio chip design company, has raised $36 million from undisclosed backers in a round that brings its total funding to $105 million. The company’s earlier backers include Tallwood Venture Capital, Wellington Partners, Celtic House Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, and Quadia. VentureBeat has more here.

    Everything But The House, a seven-year-old, Cincinnati, Oh.-based online estate sale marketplace, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led byGreenspring Associates, with participation from earlier backers Greycroft Partners and Spark Capital. The company has now raised $43 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    Freee, a three-year-old, Tokyo, Japan-based accounting software-as-a-service startup led by ex-Googler Daisuke Sasaki, has raised $28.7 million in Series C funding from Recruit Holdings, Japan Co-Invest, and earlier backer DCM. The company has now raised $45.9 million altogether, shows Crunchbase. Tech in Asia has more here.

    Get Smart Content, a nearly four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company whose tech helps marketers provide site content and messaging based on visitors’ profiles and web-based interactions, has raised $3.5 million in funding led by Origin Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Chicago Ventures and Virgo Capital. More here.

    Link Labs, a 1.5-year-old, Annapolis, Md.-based company that builds long-range machine-to-machine networks for the Internet of Things, has raised $5.7 million in funding from TCP Venture Capital, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, and unnamed individual investors. Capital Gazette has more here.

    Mirantis, a 4.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that says it delivers all the software, services, training and support needed for running OpenStack, has raised $100 million in new funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from Goldman Sachs, August Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Ericsson, Sapphire Ventures and WestSummit Capital. (Last week, we told you that the company — which raised $100 million in October of last year, too — had raised at least $75 million, per a regulatory filing.) TechCrunch has more here.

    RNTS Media, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based investment company that acquires and owns businesses in the mobile ecosystem, has raised 100 million euros, or $112 million, in a convertible bond. VentureBeat has more here.

    SkinVision, a three-year-old, Amsterdam-based digital health startup whose smartphone tech and vision algorithms help users track changes to their moles with the aim of identifying suspicious growth, has raised $3.4 million from the European pharmaceutical firm LEO Pharma, with participation from earlier backer Personal Health Solutions Capital, a Dutch investment firm focusing on consumer-centric digital health opportunities.

    Stream.io, a year-old, Boulder, Co.-based company whose development tools aim to help companies reduce the time required to build feeds for their mobile apps and websites, has raised $1.75 million in funding from investors, including Brad Feld/FG Angels, Techstars Ventures, and Tahoma Ventures, among others. BizWest has more here.

    Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a 10-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on an inhibitor for solid tumors and hematological tumors, has raised $80 million in Series C funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Delos Capital Fund, with participation from EcoR1 Capital, OrbiMed, Jennison Associates (on behalf of certain clients), Tavistock Life Sciences, Arrowpoint Partners,Cormorant Asset Management, BioMed Ventures and undisclosed mutual funds. Earlier backers Domain Associates, MPM Capital, RusnanoMedInvest and Forward Ventures also joined the round. FierceBiotech has more here.

    Thread, a three-year-old, London-based e-company that’s aiming to make shopping easier for men, has raised $8 million in funding from Balderton Capital and other investors. The Sunday Times has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    Hatteras Venture Partners, a 15-year-old, Durham, N.C.-based venture firm focused on life sciences and other healthcare technologies, has raised $90 million for its fifth fund, which could reportedly reach as much as $150 million before it holds a final close. Its anchor LP is the Irish life sciences firm Malin. The firm, which specializes in the Southeast U.S., closed its last fund with $90 million. Xconomy has more here.

    InnoSpring, a three-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based U.S.-China tech incubator, announced this morning that its Shanghai, China-based holding company has raised $10 million in strategic funding from Chinese auto parks maker Wanxiang Group. More here.

    The LA Dodgers Accelerator, a new, L.A.-based accelerator program in partnership with R/GA, is kicking off its first class today with ten sports-related tech startups. TechCrunch has the story here.

    Lakestar, a Zurich, 2.5-year-old, Switzerland-based venture firm founded by longtime VC Klaus Hommels, has closed its second fund with $385 million. TechCrunch has more here.

    Versant Ventures, a 16-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based healthcare venture capital firm, has launched its third biotech incubator, Highline Therapeutics, in Manhattan. The firm says it’s busily forming partnerships with local academic institutions — beginning with the Weill Cornell Medical College — and that several other formal programs will be announced over the coming months. Carlo Rizzuto, who’d joined as Versant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals in 2012, will manage the firm’s newly established New York base. Xconomy has more here.

    —–

    People

    Apple has hired senior engineer Jamie Carlson from electric car maker Tesla Motors, as part of its effort to build a team of experts in automated driving. Reuters has the story here.

    Talk about a change in direction: Stephen Colbert’s first handful of “Late Show” guests will include SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. The Verge has more here.

    Silicon Valley companies like may provide companies plenty of perks, but enough child care (including day care centers so employees can remain close to their toddlers) is not one of them yet, argues Buzzfeed.

    —–

    Jobs

    Hulu is looking to hire a business development and partnerships manager. The job is in Santa Monica, Ca.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    In Uber’s quest to Win over China, Tencent blocks the way.

    How not to commit fraud when raising money, by Andreessen Horowitz.

    —–

    Detours

    No, you don’t have to drink eight glasses of water a day.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    A “paparazzi proof” penthouse in L.A. Cost: $50 million.

    Action hero beach blankets. (Heh.)

     

    Connie

  • Having Won Over VCs, Y Combinator Turns to LPs

    y_combinator_logo_400-400x220Last week, Y Combinator ran investors through 105 presentations by early-stage startups in a two-day show it calls Demo Day. The pace of deal-making for such events, staged every summer and winter, has grown so feverish that the incubator introduced a new wrinkle: backers could commit to plowing millions into a company by simply clicking the equivalent of an “easy button” via an online dashboard that Y Combinator created.

    Many local VCs seemed too busy to notice. Brian O’Malley of Accel Partner was walking around on his phone. Jon Sakoda of New Enteprise Associates made the rounds. Hunter Walk of Homebrew looked to be taking a couple of meetings, too.

    Yet there were other, more surprising guests. There, in the front row, was “Stevie” Cohen, the famed hedge fund manager. Elsewhere in the audience, a money manager for Major League Baseball sat rapt, listening to the procession of startup presentations.

    Perhaps the most interesting category of attendee, though, were more traditional limited partners, who typically invest in venture and private equity funds.

    Indeed, while it used to be that VCs treated their LPs a bit like mushrooms, keeping them mostly in the dark, today’s LPs want to be closer to the action, and for them, Y Combinator is Ground Zero.

    More here.

    Connie

    ,
    , ,

  • StrictlyVC: August 21, 2015

    Friday, old friend, are we ever happy to see you. (Long Thursday.) Hope you have a stupendous weekend, everyone!

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Uber plans to go public in the next 12 to 18 months, according to a leaked presentation.

    Twitter‘s shares closed at $26 last night — meaning they’re all the way back down to their IPO price. More here.

    Intuit announced surprising plans yesterday to sell Quicken (among other properties). More here.

    Worries of a deepening China economic slowdown intensified earlier today after a private survey showed the factory sector shrank at its fastest rate in almost6.5 years this month.

    —–

    CrowdFunding Platform OurCrowd Seeks a Broader Audience, Including with Traditional VCs

    Many crowdfunding startups now make it easier for founders to reach a bigger audience of investors. The question is whether investors are as keen to continue funding crowdfunding sites.

    OurCrowd may find out soon. The two-and-a-half-year-old, Jerusalem-based hybrid platform enables accredited investors to back startups through its site, as well as makes direct investments in each of those companies. In the meantime, it’s thinking about its own, next funding round.

    To learn the latest about the company, which raised $25 million in Series B funding from undisclosed investors last year, we talked yesterday with founder and CEO (and longtime VC) Jon Medved.

    OurCrowd has brand recognition in the U.S., but I’m not sure people understand how it differs from other crowd-funding platforms.

    Honestly, ten years ago, the Valley was much less Valley-centric than it is today. The world goes global and is connected on the web, yet the Valley becomes more hyper local than ever. It’s really contrary to all the trends. We can all meet in cyberspace, but if you’re not physically in the Valley, it’s often like, “Who are you?”

    Dare I ask if you’ve thought about opening a Bay Area office?

    We’re looking to establish a presence in Silicon Valley. We’re actively looking for a managing director [in the Bay Area], someone with rich angel and venture capital experience, if you want to tell your readers.

    You sometimes lead deals on your platform, is that correct?

    Yes, in fact, we just launched a deal for $25 million that we’re leading. Most people, when they think of crowdfunding, they think of deals that are small, but we’re far ahead of that; we’re doing millions of dollars on average, and in this particularly case, we’re investing more than $10 million.

    The already profitable company [called Mprest] basically makes software that powers the Iron Dome, which is the Israel-based system that shoots missiles out of the air before they land. In Israel, you have about 15 seconds if someone shoots at you from the Gaza Strip. This system responds within a second, creating instruction sets to intercept whatever has been fired — and it’s now taking its technology into the Internet of Things.

    To do what?

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Avegant, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company whose media headset, Glyph, supports 3-D and virtual reality content, has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by the Chinese mobile Internet company Hangzhou Liaison Interactive Information Technology Co. Ltd. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here.

    Carbon3D, a two-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based maker of 3D printing machinery and software, has raised $100 million in funding led by Google Ventures, with participation from Reinet Investments, Yuri Milner and earlier investors Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Northgate Partners. VentureBeat has more here.

    ChurchDesk, a five-year-old, Copenhagen, Denmark-based startup that makes mobile apps for church engagement and management, has raised $2 million in funding led by Mangrove Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

    Dianrong.com, a nearly three-year-old, Shanghai, China-based peer-to-peer lender, has raised $207 million in new funding co-led by Standard Chartered Private Equity and China Fintech Fund, with participation from Boahi Leasing. Earlier this year, Tiger Global Management also invested an undisclosed amount of money in the company. TechNode has more here.

    GuiaBolso, a three-year-old, Sao Paolo, Brazil-based personal finance management platform, has raised $7 million in new funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from Omidyar Network, QED Investors, Kaszek Ventures, e.Bricks,Valor Capital, and numerous individual investors. More here.

    Hightower, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based leasing management platform for the commercial real estate industry, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Corp., Starwood Capital CEO Barry Sternlicht, Rudin Management CEO Bill Rudin, and earlier backer Aaron Levie of Box. The funding comes just four months after the company raised $13 million in Series B funding led by RRE Ventures. New York Business Journal has more here.

    Marilyn Monroe Spas, a three-year-old, Orlando, Fla.-based chain of spas that plans to begin teaching classes about the salon, spa, and beauty industry, has raised $20 million in funding from JCR Holdings. The round brings the company’s total funding to $36 million, it says. More here.

    Orbus Therapeutics, a 3.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company working on therapies to treat rare diseases like anaplastic astrocytoma, has raised $32.5 million in Series A funding from Longitude Capital, H.I.G. BioVentures and Adams Street Partners. More here.

    —–

    New Funds

    Lerer Hippeau Ventures, the 5.5-year-old, seed-stage, New York-based venture capital firm, is looking to raise up to $75 million for its fifth fund, shows an SEC fiing that states the first sale has yet to occur. The firm closed its fourth fund with $62 million in June of last year. StrictlyVC had chatted with managing director Eric Hippeau about that vehicle, and what the firm finds most interesting, here.

    Point Judith Capital, a 14-year-old, Boston-based early-stage venture firm, is looking to raise up to $100 million for its fourth fund, shows an SEC filing that states the first sale has yet to occur. The firm had targeted the same amount for its third fund, which it began raising in 2011 and whose closing it didn’t publicly announce.

    —–

    Exits

    Local Motion, a four-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based fleet management startup that had raised more than $6 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, has been acquired by the car-sharing company Zipcar for an undisclosed amount. More here.

    Maxymiser, a nine-year-old, New York-based maker of cloud-based consumer personalization software that had raised more than $15 million from investors, including NXT Capital, Investor Growth Capital, and Pentech Ventures, has been acquired by enterprise software giant Oracle for undisclosed terms. ZDNet has more here.

    —–

    People

    Tech stocks have been taking a beating lately, and venture capitalist Bill Gurley of Benchmark thinks private market valuations might be next.

    Facebook and Asana cofounder Dustin Moscovitz writes smartly on Amazon, tech company culture, and why rest matters.

    —–

    Jobs

    SurveyMonkey is looking to hire a director of corporate strategy. The company is in Palo Alto, Ca.

    WPP is looking to fill a junior corporate development role. The job is in New York.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Spotify just “got real creepy with the data it collects” about users, Forbesreported yesterday. For this weirdness, the company now says it’s sorry.

    Google’s Life Sciences unit, previously part of its X research lab, is becoming its own company under Alphabet. More here.

    The coders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, designers, and scientists (and, yes, one actress) behind L.A.’s tech boom.

    —–

    Detours

    Glenn O’Brien opens up about the abrupt end of his beloved “Style Guide” column in GQ.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Sidecar bicycle. Do not try this in New York, or any other crowded, urban setting for that matter, unless you have a death wish.

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: August 20, 2015

    Happy Thursday, everyone!

    Really nice seeing some of you yesterday at Y Combinator‘s second Demo Day. For those of you who missed it or else maybe spaced out occasionally, here’s a list of the 52 startups that pitched investors.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Snapchat lost $128 million and generated only $3 million in revenue between January and November of 2014, according to leaked financials published yesterday by Gawker.

    JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are teaming up to create a company that will pull together and clean reams of data used to determine pricing and transaction costs. The WSJ has the story here.

    —–

    Amazon Softens Blow of Times Piece, But Attorneys Warn of Celebrating Too Soon

    In recent days, Amazon has worked to soften the blow of a blistering piece about its culture in Sunday’s New York Times. In the article’s immediate aftermath, Jeff Bezos wrote a memo to employees, saying the account “doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day.” He further pointed employees to a newer piece by current Amazon engineer Nick Ciubotariu that praises the company’s workplace environment.

    The moves helped push the story in a positive direction for the company, as did the Times’s own public editor’s assessment of the story, which, she wrote yesterday, should have provided more balance and context. (The Times’s executive editor, Dean Banquet, later let her know that he disagreed entirely with her assessment.)

    Still, employment attorneys suggest it may be a little soon for Amazon to break out the bubbly. They think there could well be a class-action lawsuit in the many anecdotes cited by the Times of employees who were treated poorly — particularly those who appear to have they lost their jobs owing to health issues and other demands outside of Amazon.

    Says Wilma Liebman, a visiting scholar at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, who spent three terms as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (including, most recently, as its chair): “Being a very tough boss, not being nice, not being sympathetic – that isn’t illegal in itself.” Violating overtime law and discriminating against women because they are pregnant is, however.

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Grand Rounds, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based service that connects patients with highly specialized care, has raised $55 million in new funding, including from Facebook CFO David Ebersman and Venrock. The company has now raised $106 million to date. The New York Times has more here.

    Payoneer, a 10-year-old, New York-based financial services company that enables users to transfer and receive money through re-loadable MasterCards, has raised $50 million in Series E funding led by Wellington Management Company, with participation from earlier backer Susquehanna Growth Equity. Shares were purchased from existing investors, though all major shareholders in the company retained their holdings, says the company. More here.

    Ring, a four-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based smart doorbell maker that aims to reduce crime by enabling homeowners, no matter where they are, to see and speak with visitors over their smartphones, has raised $28 million in Series B funding led by Sir Richard Branson, Shea Ventures and American Family Insurance. Other participants in the round included True Ventures, Upfront Ventures and angel investor Sky Dayton.Siklu, an 8.5-year-old, Petah Tiqva, Israel-based millimeter wave technology company, has raised $18 million in Series D funding from investors, including Sercomm Corporation, Argonaut Private Equity, Evergreen Venture Partners, DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, The Tamares Group and Amiti Ventures.

    SmackHigh, a nearly two-year-old, Boston-based startup that aggregates submissions from high school students via social media and its own website and distributes them across thousands of high schools across the U.S., has raised $1.65 million in seed funding led by Flybridge Capital Partners, with participation from an AngelList syndicate led by Twitter exec Wayne Chang, and Boston Seed Capital. Several prominent angel investors from the Boston area also joined the round. BetaBoston has more here.

    Solexel, a 10-year-old, Milpitas, Ca.-based solar cell and module maker backed by solar panel maker SunPower and semiconductor company Spirox, has seemingly closed a Series D round with $95 million in funding from investors, including King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, through its venture arm, Riyadh Valley Company. Other investors in the round include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, Gentry Ventures, GSV Capital, Gentry Ventures, and Jasper Ridge Partners. Global University Venturing has more here.

    Sovrn Holdings, a 20-month-old, Boulder, Co.-based programmatic advertising and publisher platform company, has raised $18 million in funding led byFoundry Group, with participation from Oak Investment Partners, Archer Venture Acquisitions and entrepreneur John Battelle. More here.

    Yoogaia, a two-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based startup that charges monthly subscriptions to users wanting to watch live yoga classes and other fitness instruction via its web platform, has raised $3 million in seed funding from Nokia Growth Partners, Inventure, Sanoma Ventures and Point Nine Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

    Zynergy, a four-year-old, Singapore-based renewable energy company, has raised an undisclosed “multi-million dollar” amount of funding from Kohli Ventures. More here.

    —–

    Exits

    Freshdesk, a three-year-old provider of SaaS customer support software, has acquired the three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based live video chat and co-browsing platform 1CLICK for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition follows a $50 million Series E funding that Freshdesk closed in April, led by Tiger Global Management. (The company has raised $95 million altogether.) Meanwhile, 1Click.io had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Blume Ventures.

    Viki, the five-year-old, Seoul-based video site owned by Japan’s Rakuten, has acquired Soompi, an English-language news and fan site dedicated to Korean cinema and dramas, for “less than $10 million.” Interestingly, as TechCrunch notes, Soompi was a property of rival Crunchyroll, an anime video distribution company that Chernin Group had acquired for undisclosed terms last year.

    —–

    People

    SoftBank’s Nikesh Arora — the man who Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son is backing as his replacement at the Japanese company — is doubling down on his employer after he agreed to buy $483 million in company shares from his own pocket. As tweeted investor Hunter Walk about the news yesterday, “Wow. Kinda beats that Twitter insider buying news from last week, eh?”

    Colin Bryar, a former Amazon vice president, has joined the Singapore-based online grocery-delivery service RedMart as COO. Venture Capital Dispatch hasmore here.

    Cecile Lal, a former Yahoo employee sued by the company in May for breach of contract and fiduciary duty, has agreed in a settlement to pay the company an undisclosed sum and to cooperate with its ongoing investigation of confidential information leaked to journalist Nicholas Carlson. Carlson published a book about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in January. More here.

    Serial entrepreneur Alex Rampell, who most recently cofounded the e-commerce payment and advertising company TrialPay (sold to Visa earlier this year), is the newest general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Rampell, who will be focused on fin tech startups, is longtime friends with fellow Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon. One of Rampell’s earlier companies, FraudEliminator, merged into a company of Dixon’s called SiteAdvisor. SiteAdvisor was later acquired (in 2006) by McAfee. The New York Times has more here.

    —–

    Jobs

    Uber is looking to hire a business operations and corporate development associate to primarily cover UberChina. The job is in San Francisco.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    YouTube is opening a production studio in Mumbai, India. TechCrunch has more here.

    California regulators said they have evidence that Uber has failed to screen out 25 drivers with criminal records, including convictions for kidnapping and murder. The WSJ has more here.

    Microsoft is reportedly interested in acquiring the cloud-computing software startup Mesosphere, valued by bankers at more than $1 billion. Mesosphere has raised roughly $50 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Khosla Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Center Electric, Fuel Capital, SV Angel, and Data Collective. The Information has the story here.

    —–

    Detours

    Black arts: the $800 million family selling art degrees and false hopes.

    Forty old high-school yearbook photos of Wall Street’s titans.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    The Embassy Gardens sky pool, coming soon to London.

    Connie

  • Amazon Softens Blow of Times Piece, But Attorneys Warn Against Celebrating Too Soon

    dnews-files-2013-05-drinking-champagne-improves-memory-660-jpgIn recent days, Amazon has worked to soften the blow of a blistering piece about its culture in Sunday’s New York Times. In the article’s immediate aftermath, Jeff Bezos wrote a memo to employees, saying the account “doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day.” He further pointed employees to a newer piece by current Amazon engineer Nick Ciubotariu that praises the company’s workplace environment.

    The moves helped push the story in a positive direction for the company, as did the Times’s own public editor’s assessment of the story, which, she wrote Tuesday, should have provided more balance and context. (The Times’s executive editor, Dean Banquet, later let her know that he disagreed entirely with her assessment.)

    Still, employment attorneys suggest it may be a little soon for Amazon to break out the bubbly. They think there could well be a class-action lawsuit in the many anecdotes cited by the Times of employees who were treated poorly — particularly those who appear to have they lost their jobs owing to health issues and other demands outside of Amazon.

    Says Wilma Liebman, a visiting scholar at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, who spent three terms as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (including, most recently, as its chair): “Being a very tough boss, not being nice, not being sympathetic – that isn’t illegal in itself.” Violating overtime law and discriminating against women because they are pregnant is, however.

    More here.

    Connie

    , , , ,

  • StrictlyVC: August 19, 2015

    Hi, everyone. It is Wednesday! Already!

    We’ll be at Y Combinator’s second Demo Day for part of this afternoon, representing TechCrunch. If you’re also heading there and want to chat about your top picks, please find us; we’d love to tawk. In the meantime, here are the 50 startups that presented at its Demo Day yesterday.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    GrabTaxi, the taxi-hailing app that rivals Uber in Southeast Asia, is getting some support from China after it announced a $350 million Series E round from a range of investors that — most interestingly — includes Didi Kuaidi, China’s largest taxi app firm. TechCrunch has more here.

    Snapdeal — currently in a three-way battle for e-commerce dominance in India with rivals Flipkart and with Amazon — has raised $500 million in fresh funding at a valuation of $4.7 billion led by Alibaba and Foxconn. Bloomberg has more here.

    Uber is upping its focus on India, with an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Tata Capital, one of India’s largest wealth management organizations. As TechCrunch notes: Tata is a “potentially very influential ally in Uber’s battle against Indian rival Ola, which is present in over 100 cities and has the support of SoftBank, Tiger Global and other heavy-hitting investors.”

    —–

    Adam Lisagor of Sandwich Media on Making the Killer Corporate Video

    Adam Lisagor, an L.A.-based video producer, has more demand for his corporate videos than he can handle, thanks to the breakout success of product launch videos for Square, Airbnb, and Warby Parker among many dozens of others. Demand doesn’t look to be tapering off any time soon, either. We talked with Lisagor about his own six-year-old, startup, Sandwich Video, yesterday.

    A Forbes piece earlier this year attributed your early success to a seemingly serendipitous meeting with Jack Dorsey, who asked you to make a video for Square. How did he find you?

    I was Internet friends, then real-life friends, with Robert Andersen, who was the first lead designer at Square [and is today its creative director]. Since we were friends and I’d done my own video for an app I worked on with a friend, and done one professional video for Genentech that no one saw, Robert suggested I fly up and meet with Jack. I thought he was photogenic and charismatic and that he could speak about the product as clearly as anyone, but he said, “No, I want you to do it.” And that was that.

    Sandwich’s pricing model allows for startups to pay you partly in equity. How many stakes have you amassed that way?

    About 35 at this point.

    You also announced the Sandwich Fund earlier this year with Ludlow Ventures, a Detroit-based venture firm. The idea is to assemble a portfolio of select companies that will provide you with early shares instead of pay you the roughly $100,000 that it costs to make a video. How many stakes have you taken through that fund?

    Only one so far: Cur, [which makes a pain relief wearable that people apply like a bandaid]. As a product, it was really interesting to me because it seemed like such a slam sunk. I tried it and it worked exactly as promised.

    Has Sandwich itself raised any outside funding or would it?

    For more of our interview with Lisagor, click here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    AlienVault, an 8.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company that delivers a hybrid threat management solutions combined with a crowd-sourced threat intelligence platform, has raised $52 million in new funding led by Institutional Venture Partners, with participation from Trident Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and GGV Capital. The company has now raised roughly $116 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    Api.ai, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based developer of artificial intelligence and natural language tech that enables developers to add Siri-like conversational interfaces to their apps, has raised $3 million in funding led by SAIC Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

    CastAR, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based augumented reality gaming startup, has raised $15 million in a round led by Playground Global, the hardware accelerator and fund launched earlier this year by Android co-founder Andy Rubin. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

    Guideline Technologies, a months-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company whose automated investment technology incorporates an individual’s entire financial ecosystem to make ongoing recommendations and adjustments to his or her 401(k), has raised $2 million in seed funding from investors, including New Enterprise Associates, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, SV Angel, Red Swan Ventures, BoxGroup, Xfund, and 500 Startups. More here.

    Iconixx, a five-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based maker of compensation management software, has raised $10 million in funding co-led by Harbert Venture Partners and S3 Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Ballast Point Ventures. More here.

    IntelligenceNODE, a three-year-old, Mumbai, India-based big data analytics startup that serves retailers, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Orios Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

    Kahuna, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based mobile marketing startup, has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital and SoftTechVC. The company has now raised about $58 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

    Kik, a six-year-old, Waterloo, Ontario-based messaging app, has raised $50 million in new funding from China’s Tencent at around a $1 billion valuation. More here.

    Kindara, a three-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based startup that helps women track ovulation cycles and fertility, has raised $5.3 million in seed funding led by Boston Seed Capital, with participation from SOS Ventures, Good Works Ventures, PV Ventures, MENA Venture Investments, and 62 Mile Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

    Klarna, a 10-year-old, Swedish payments startup, has reportedly seen its valuation double to $2.25 billion in a secondary offering that involvedNorthzone, mutual fund Wellington Management, and the foundation Wellcome Trust, which purchased roughly $80 million worth of stock from company insiders. Klarna was valued at about $1.4 billion last year when it raised roughly $100 million from earlier backers. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

    Mirantis, a 4.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that says it delivers all the software, services, training and support needed for running OpenStack, has raised $75 million in fresh funding, according to regulatory filing flagged by Dow Jones. The company had raised $100 million in funding in October of last year led by Insight Venture Partners. More here.

    NextHealth Technologies, a two-year-old, Denver-based predictive analytics company, has raised $1 million in funding, including from the City of Denver’s Office of Economic Development and numerous health industry veteran executives. More here.

    Owlet Baby Care, a two-year-old, Provo, Ut.-based maker of the Smart Sock baby monitor, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Formation 8, with participation from TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie and earlier backers Azimuth Ventures, ffvc, Eniac Ventures and Peak Capital. Owlet also receiving another $1 million for participating in a government National Institutes of Health grant. The grant and the Series A collectively bring the amount that Owlet has raised to $9.2 million. More here.

    Revel Systems, a five-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based iPad point-of-sale platform, has raised $13.5 million in Series C-3 funding from ROTH Capital Partners. the round has now reached $110 million altogether, and the company has collectively raised $128.5 million, according to Crunchbase. More here.

    Royole Corporation, a two-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based company that develops rollable displays that can be incorporated into smartphones, computers and TVs, has raised $172 million in Series C funding from investors, including IDG Capital Partners, Shenzhen Capital Group, Shenzhen Green Pine Capital Partners, AlphaWealth, Jack and Fisher Investment, and other undisclosed investors. China Money Network has the news here.

    SpotHero, a four-year-old, Chicago-based on-demand parking app, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Battery Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Chicago Ventures,Draper Associates, OCA Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital and 500 Startups. The company had previously raised $7 million. TechCrunch hasmore here.

    WaVe Life Sciences, a six-year-old, Boston-based genetic medicine company focused on advancing stereopure nucleic acid therapies for patients impacted by rare diseases, has raised $66 million in Series B funding led by new investorForesite Capital, with participation from Fidelity Management & Research Company, New Leaf Venture Partners, Redmile Group, Jennison Associates (on behalf of certain clients), Cormorant Asset Management, and certain private investment funds advised by Clough Capital Partners. Earlier backers RA Capital Management and Kagoshima Shinsangyo Sosei Investment also joined the round. BioPortfolio has more here.

    —–

    IPOs

    Edge Therapeutics, a six-year-old, New Providence, N.J.-based company with a drug delivery system for brain hemorrhaging and other acute neurological conditions, has filed an S-1 form with the SEC, revealing plans to raise up to $115 million. Just five months ago, the comapny had raised $72.5 million in Series C funding, including a C-2 round led by Venrock, with participation from Sofinnova Ventures, Janus Capital Management, New Leaf Venture Partners and BioMed Ventures.

    RegenXBio, a seven-year-old, Rockville, Md.-based company that’s developing gene therapies for rare diseases and licensing out gene delivery technology, has filed with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. More here.

    SynCardia Systems, a 14-year-old, Tucson, Az.-based developer and manufacturer of temporary implantable artificial hearts, has registered plans with the SEC to raise up to $40 million in an IPO. More here.

    —–

    Exits

    Anova, maker of an automated sous vide cooker, is spending $9.2 million in cash to acquire Get Fresh, whose CEO, Stephen Svajian, will become CEO of Anova. Anova, which had raised $1.8 million in a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, is paying $9.2 million in cash. Get Fresh had raised one seed round from Zenefits COO David Sacks and Cotap CEO Jim Patterson (who were formerly colleagues at Yammer). GetFresh never disclosed the amount of that seed round. TechCrunch has more here.

    PayPal has bought Modest, a Chicago-based startup headed by the former chief technology officer of President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Modest helps merchants build mobile apps, and had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Hyde Park Venture Partners and Base Ventures. Fortune has the story here.

    —–

    People

    After three years, Paul Maritz is stepping down as CEO at Pivotal Software, a data analytics, cloud computing and software-development services company spun out of EMC and VMware. His successor: Rob Mee, who cofounded Pivotal Labs, a software development company. The WSJ has more here.

    —–

    Jobs

    Kapor Capital is looking for a full-time portfolio services director. The job is in Oakland, Ca.

    —–

    Data

    From the New York Times: “Last year, Yale paid about $480 million to private equity fund managers as compensation — about $137 million in annual management fees, and another $343 million in performance fees, also known as carried interest — to manage about $8 billion, one-third of Yale’s endowment. In contrast, of the $1 billion the endowment contributed to the university’s operating budget, only $170 million was earmarked for tuition assistance, fellowships and prizes.”

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Hackers finally posted that stolen Ashley Madison data.

    With the help of its investors, including Sequoia Capital and China Broadband Capital, the home-sharing startup Airbnb is gearing up for a big push into the booming market of Chinese travelers.

    —–

    Detours

    How to be an expert in anything.

    At Lucali, pizza for the A-list and the landlady upstairs.

    “I’m Phil Brock, and I want to be your bald wingman.”

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Surf Snowdonia. (GoPro CEO Nick Woodman checks it out here.)

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: August 18, 2015

    Hi, everyone! Hope you have a great Tuesday.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Google has finally launched Android One, a standard created for Android devices in developing countries, in Africa. VentureBeat has more here.

    In other Google news, the next version of Android, called “Marshmallow,” is reportedly coming soon, though there’s no official timetable. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    EShares, Now Valued at $77 Million, Looks Far Beyond Silicon Valley

    Three-year-old eShares digitizes paper stock certificates along with stock options, warrants, and derivatives to create a real-time picture of who owns what at a startup. It also makes it far simpler to transfer ownership of all of the above — which goes a long way in explaining the company’s traction. The Mountain View, Ca.-based outfit right now maintains the cap tables of 1,500 companies, including Slack and Blue Bottle Coffee, and says it’s adding 200 more companies each month. Perhaps more important, eShares has won the trust of roughly 35 law firms, the gatekeepers for most startups and their paper certificates.

    But eShares — which has just raised $17 million in Series B funding at a post-money valuation of $77 million from insiders like Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures — isn’t just racing to win over tech startups. Now, the 42-person company wants the rest of the world’s still-private small and mid-size businesses on its platform, too.

    We talked with cofounder and CEO Henry Ward about his big plans yesterday.

    As of last year, eShares charged companies $159 a month or roughly $1,900 a year to maintain an ongoing valuation. It also charged a $20 fee every time a company issued a new grant and another $20 every time someone exercised the sale of one of their holdings.

    That hasn’t changed, and the model works well at the early stage, though a lot of our larger customers go to an all-you-can-eat annual subscription model. We don’t publish the pricing (publicly) but that typically happens when companies hit 50 employees.

    Worth noting: Employees on eShares can hook up their bank account to their eShares account and self-exercise their options and we wire the money straight to the company, as well as issue the employee new stock certificates. It’s much easier than the normal paper exercise, where employees have to get the company to process [the transaction every time they want to exercise their options].

    You must have pretty good insight into what’s happening in terms of secondary sales, too. Are you noticing more shares selling to insiders versus third parties or vice versa? 

    >I can’t talk specifics, but secondaries are getting a lot of attention. We joined forces with [the secondary investment firm] Industry Ventures [which participated in eShare’s new round] to work on streamlining the process and bringing more transparency to it.

    As an investor, does Industry Ventures get “first dibs” on secondary sales where you’re helping companies facilitate their movement?

    For more of our conversation with Ward, click here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Apiary, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company that aims to make API development simpler and more collaborative, has raised $6.8 million in Series A funding led by Flybridge Capital Partners, with participation from Baseline Ventures and Credo Ventures. The company has now raised $8.4 million to date. More here.

    Aviacode, a 16-year-old, Salt Lake City-based medical coding-related software and services company, has raised $16 million in growth equity funding from Frontier Capital. More here.

    Away, a months-old, New York-based direct-to-consumer luggage company that sources its own components and promises to bring down prices by cutting out middle men, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Accel Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

    BuzzFeed, the seven-year-old, New York-based media company, has raised $200 million in funding from NBCUniversal. (Recode had reported this was coming a couple of weeks ago, though its number was off by $50 million.) The company has now raised roughly $300 million altogether, including from Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and RRE Ventures. More here.

    CloudDesk, a two-year-old, Singapore-based desktop virtualization software company that originally targeted educational institutions and is now moving into other commercial and governmental sectors, has raised roughly $418,000 from the Singapore National Research Foundation and IncuVest, a Singapore-based investment firm and incubator. The outlet e27 has more here.

    Datameer, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based big data analytics company built on Hadoop, has raised $40 million in Series E funding led by ST Telemedia, an investment firm based in Singapore. Top Tier Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Redpoint Ventures, Next World Capital, and Software AG also participated. The company has now raised more than $76 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    Deezer, an eight-year-old, Paris, France-based music-streaming service that targets consumers in Europe and Africa, is seeking funds from investors in a transaction that could value it at about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), reports Bloomberg. Deezer has 16 million actively monthly users and 6 million paid subscribers, compared with Spotify’s more than 75 million active users and 20 million subscribers. More here.

    Filament, a three-year-old, Reno, Nev.-based developer of decentralized Internet-of-things infrastructure, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led byBullpen Capital, with participation from Verizon Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Samsung Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Haystack, Working Lab Capital, and Techstars. More here.

    First Light Fusion, a four-year-old, Oxford, England-based company that was spun out from the University of Oxford to develop a process for achieving affordable fusion energy, has raised £22.7 million ($35.5 million) from investors, including the intellectual property business IP Group, a fund managed by Invesco Asset Management, clients advised or managed by Sandaire Investment Office, and the University of Oxford.

    MarketInvoice, a four-year-old, London-based peer-to-peer business lender, has raised £6 million ($10 million) from Northzone and the family office of Paul Forster, the co-founder of job search engine Indeed.com. Business Insider has more here.

    Marvel, a two-year-old, London-based startup that lets users turn sketches into mobile app “prototypes,” has raised $2 million in new seed funding from Index Ventures and Connect Ventures, with participation from earlier backers. TechCrunch has more here.

    Peach, a year-old, Seattle-based company whose web-based technology provides order processing and food logistics services to restaurants under a revenue-sharing agreement, has raised $8 million in Series A financing led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from Vulcan Capital. Xconomy has much more here.

    Piramal Realty, the four-year-old, Mumbai, India-based real estate development arm of the Piramal Group, has raised $150 million from Goldman Sachs in exchange for a minority stake in its business. The capital follows roughly $284 million invested in the company earlier this year by the private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The Hindu has the story here.

    Platform9, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based cloud service that aims to transform infrastructure into an agile, self-service private cloud in minutes, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Redpoint Ventures. The company has now raised $14.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    Roposo, a nearly two-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based fashion discovery startup, has raised $15 million from Tiger Global Management just a few months after having attracted a $5 million Series A check from the firm. Times of India has the story here.

    Solu, a year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based startup that’s operating in stealth but is reportedly targeting the personal computer market with a new type of OS and its own hardware, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding from KSV Finland, along with numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

    Swipe, a three-year-old, London-based, web-based PowerPoint alternative that features audience analytics, real-time polls and live syncing, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital from earlier investors Passion Capital and Playfair Capital. The company say it has now raised roughly $1 million in total. TechCrunch has more here.

    Talenta, a 1.5-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based, cloud-based human resources management startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of bridge funding led by Fenox Venture Capital, with participation from earlier backer East Ventures. Tech in Asia has more here.

    Tracksmith, a 2.5-year-old, Wellsley, Ma.-based running apparel brand that features classic styling (think “run-swim-run” shorts, among other things), has raised $4.1 million in Series A funding led Pentland Brands, the management group behind Reebok, Speedo, and Lacoste footwear, among other sporting brands. The company has now raised $5.7 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    OMERS Ventures, the four-year-old venture unit of Canada’s Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, has raised $199 million in new funding. The WSJ has more here.

    —–

    People

    Joanne Bradford, a longtime media executive who was most recently Pinterest’s head of partnerships, has joined the online lender SoFi as its chief operating officer. Recode has the story here.

    Entrepreneur-investor Justin Kan was the victim of a hate crime over the weekend, when an unidentified man wrote a derogatory racial epithet on his garage door. Reports Buzzfeed: After a neighbor painted over the epithet in the wrong color (without seeking Kan’s approval), and a TV station misspelled his last name, Kan joked on Facebook hat he’d been the “victim of a hate crime, a help crime, and now a name crime.”

    —-

    Essential Reads

    Product Hunt, the app discovery site, is taking aim at Reddit and Twitter by introducing live interviews.

    Uber, the ride-sharing startup that has suffered from several data breaches, plans to quadruple the size of its 25-person security team by year end, its chief security officer Joe Sullivan told the Financial Times yesterday. More here.

    —–

    Detours

    This is what happens to your body when you stop exercising. (Do not read if you’ve stopped exercising.)

    Manspreading, upstreaming, and other stock photos of New Yorkers.

    Future grooms, a very high bar has just been set.

    —-

    Retail Therapy

    If you liked Lite-Brite as a kid, you’re going to love (like?) Everbright.

    Connie

  • EShares, Now Valued at $77 Million, Looks Far Beyond Silicon Valley

    eSharesThree-year-old eShares digitizes paper stock certificates along with stock options, warrants, and derivatives to create a real-time picture of who owns what at a startup. It also makes it far simpler to transfer ownership of all of the above — which goes a long way in explaining the company’s traction. The Mountain View, Ca.-based outfit right now maintains the cap tables of 1,500 companies, including Slack and Blue Bottle Coffee, and says it’s adding 200 more companies each month. Perhaps more important, eShares has won the trust of roughly 35 law firms, the gatekeepers for most startups and their paper certificates.

    But eShares — which has just raised $17 million in Series B funding at a post-money valuation of $77 million from insiders like Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures — isn’t just racing to win over tech startups. Now, the 42-person company wants the rest of the world’s still-private small and mid-size businesses on its platform, too.

    We talked with cofounder and CEO Henry Ward about his big plans yesterday.

    As of last year, eShares charged companies $159 a month or roughly $1,900 a year to maintain an ongoing valuation. It also charged a $20 fee every time a company issued a new grant and another $20 every time someone exercised the sale of one of their holdings.

    That hasn’t changed, and the model works well at the early stage, though a lot of our larger customers go to an all-you-can-eat annual subscription model. We don’t publish the pricing (publicly) but that typically happens when companies hit 50 employees.

    Worth noting: Employees on eShares can hook up their bank account to their eShares account and self-exercise their options and we wire the money straight to the company, as well as issue the employee new stock certificates. It’s much easier than the normal paper exercise, where employees have to get the company to process [the transaction every time they want to exercise their options].

    You must have pretty good insight into what’s happening in terms of secondary sales, too. Are you noticing more shares selling to insiders versus third parties or vice versa? 

    I can’t talk specifics, but secondaries are getting a lot of attention. We joined forces with [the secondary investment firm] Industry Ventures [which participated in eShare’s new round] to work on streamlining the process and bringing more transparency to it.

    As an investor, does Industry Ventures get “first dibs” on secondary sales where you’re helping companies facilitate their movement?

    For more of our conversation with Ward, click here.

    Connie

    ,

StrictlyVC on Twitter