In 2011, Sunil Dhaliwal was named to the Forbes Midas List. In 2012, he left Battery Ventures to start his own venture firm, Amplify Partners.

It hasn’t been a walk in the park, says Dhaliwal, who joined Battery in Boston almost straight out of college at Georgetown University and ultimately stayed 15 years, backing companies like Netezza, acquired by IBM, and CipherTrust, acquired by Secure Computing.

Yet today, after 18 months of on-again, off-again fundraising – Amplify has just closed its new micro fund with $49.1 million — Dhaliwal has a new home base in the Bay Area, where he moved his family in the summer of 2012. He has a strong partner in David Beyer, a cofounder of Chartio who joined as a principal in January. And Dhaliwal has lots of insights about nascent infrastructure startups, a world he has immersed himself in completely at Amplify, backing 11 startups so far, including Continuuity andKeen.io.

To learn more about what Dhaliwal is seeing in his particular niche of the market, StrictlyVC recently sat down with him at one of San Francisco’s many newer hipster hangouts, Sightglass Coffee, in SOMA. Our chat has been edited for length.

Why Amplify, why now?

If you look at Cisco, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Dell – that universe of companies in and of itself is a trillion dollars of market cap. If you trace what that market cap looked like before the bubble of 2000, go back to 1998, it was still a trillion dollars. So these guys have basically failed to grow… and I feel like they’ll be more pressured to reinvent themselves.

Meanwhile, for [Battery’s ninth fund], I think I made five investments over two-and-a-half years, and the largest one was $2.8 million. The others were $1.1 million, $700,000, $300,000 [in that range]. What I learned is that you can get meaningful results from infrastructure startups with small checks.

Why are the startups you want to back –distributed computing and developer-centric and data analytics companies — so much cheaper to launch?

In enterprise IT and in software, the transition is actually happening in stages. There’s the cost that it takes to develop, there’s the cost that it takes to acquire initial customers, then there’s the cost that it takes to scale enterprise buyers. The first and second stage have come down dramatically; our ability to get alpha and beta produced, reduce technical risk, and get basic validation of product-market fit off initial dollars has gone up a lot (to the point where it can be done for $1 million to $2 million). More, a lot of today’s tools allow technical buyers to discover things of interest to them, validate that they work with them, then begin using them without your sitting on top of them with an enterprise sales guy who makes $300,000 a year.

But it does cost money to ramp up.

When you want to go out and grow deal sizes, dramatically ramp up sales and expand your business, that takes more capital. In enterprise infrastructure, you’re still basically acquiring customers one at a time. But they don’t consume $10 million or $15 million or $25 million to get there. We have a lot of companies that have consumed less than $5 million that are thinking about how they go do the big scale-up round.

For us, as early investors, we find we suffer dramatically less dilution as result. And the value of the companies we’re able to develop, when we walk into the B round, C round, or expansion-stage financing, is markedly higher, not because it’s frothy or bubbly — though there’s some of that, too — but these companies are so much further ahead than companies were five or six years ago.

You raise a good point. When you conceived of Amplify in 2012, not a lot of people were focused on infrastructure deals. Now they are. How has that impacted your work?

It’s a big issue. I’ve seen safely 30 percent inflation on early-stage deals in the last year. And we continually ask ourselves, “How big can this get?” And for a lot of things that don’t seem like they can get that big, it’s not a rational conversation to have with the entrepreneur to say, “We think you’re worth less,” when someone else thinks [he or she is] worth more.

It’s not only uncomfortable for us, but I fear for what some entrepreneurs are going to have to deal with when they set really high expectations for their seed or A round and have to go back and deliver, in theory, some sort of appreciation to their early investors. There’s no way around that ending badly.

Happy St. Patty’s Day, everyone! Don’t forget to wear something green today, lest you rightly get flak from someone at some point for being all old-timey rather than fun and sassy.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple Designer Jonathan Ive gives what’s being characterized as his first in-depth interview, in Time.

Reversing earlier assertions, officials this morning said that they couldn’t pinpoint whether the missing Malaysia jet’s communication system was turned off before or after the cockpit’s last radio contact.

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With Six Tech IPOs Coming This Week, Whispers of Others Grow Louder

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that GoDaddy, which provides domain-name registration and Web hosting services to millions of customers, is “preparing for an initial public offering” and that in “coming weeks [GoDaddy] plans to interview banks” to underwrite its offering. The source was “people familiar with the matter.”

For better or worse, such whisperings have now become the new normal, and we can expect to see much more of the same as a result of the JOBS Act and the changes it has brought to tech IPOs. (The JOBS Act permits companies to submit confidential draft registrations to the SEC and go public within 30 days of their acceptance.)

Before the JOBS Act, filing an S-1 was much more public. Competitors knew a company was planning to go public, and any revisions by the SEC caused costly delays that could cause a company to miss its “window” to go public.

GoDaddy was just one company that suffered through this process. In 2006, it tried to go public but later pulled its offering. Former CEO Bob Parsons, who was replaced as CEO in 2012, said at the time that he yanked the offering because he found the quiet period that came along with it “suffocating” as it prevented him for doing radio, TV, or his-then weekly Internet radio show. (The company was also losing money, according to its S-1.)

Today, the JOBS Act gives companies much more flexibility in timing their offering, and leaking their supposed IPO plans has become a big part of the process.

For now, the situation seems to be a win-win for everyone involved. Companies can test the public waters while simultaneously chumming for strategic acquirers, while reporters can feast on “scoops” that are hard to disprove.

If there’s any downside, it’s that not going public after all can be, well, awkward, says Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida who studies the I.P.O. market. “One of the reasons companies like confidential filings is that if they start the process then pull back because the market isn’t as receptive to their business model as they thought, it can be embarrassing for a company, just as it might be embarrassing for someone who broadcasts that they’ve applied for a new job and gets turned down. People like to wait until the good outcome is about to occur before they announce things.”

Conceivably, employee morale could take a hit, too, if staffers become convinced that an IPO is nearer than they thought based on press reports.

But John Fitzgibbon, founder of the research firm IPO Scoop, says the advantages far outweigh any potential downside.

“Before the Jobs Act,” says Fitzgibbon, “companies had to hang it out there and hope to God the market didn’t fall apart. But [the nearly two-year-old law] created market timing.”

Now, says Fitzgibbon, “You prime the pump, get the guns lined up and, like Bunker Hill, you don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

New Fundings

Gravie, a year-old, Minneapolis-based health insurance marketplace, has closed a $10.5 million Series A round led by Aberdare Ventures, with participation from exiting investor FirstMark Capital. The round brings the company’s total funding to more than $13 million.

i.am.plus electronics, a year-old, L.A.-based company, has raised $6 million, according to an SEC filing that shows a target of $40 million. The company doesn’t appear to have a site live. Notably, it’s being led (or co-led) by Chandrasekar Rathakrishna, whose last startup, Fusion Garage, tussled with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington after a deal to co-create a tablet called the Crunchpad went south. Fusion Garage eventually produced the tablet on its own, calling it the JooJoo. (Then Apple’s iPad came out. So.)

ID.me, a four-year-old Tysons Corner, Va.-based company that authenticates military and public safety personnel to access online discounts and benefits at retailers, has raised $10.3 million in new funding, shows an SEC filing. Last September, ID.me received a $1.2 million grant from National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop and test online identification technology. The company had earlier raised seed funding from BoxGroup, the New York-based seed fund founded by David Tisch and Adam Rothenberg.

InVenture, a 2.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based startup that helps so-called unbanked and underbanked people in India and Africa get access to financial services, has raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by Lowercase Capital. Other participants in the round includedCollaborative Fund, Google Ventures and Mesa+, the CEO told VentureWire on Friday.

Meican, a 3.5-year-old, China-based online food ordering site, has raised $10 million in Series B funding to expand into more cities across the country, reports Tech In Asia. The round was led by new investor Nokia Growth Partners and included participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which had earlier provided the startup with an undisclosed amount of funding.

OKCoin, a China-based bitcoin exchange that claims to be the country’s largest by trading volume, has raised $10 million in funding, reports Coindesk. Investors include Ceyuan Ventures, Mandra Capital,VenturesLab, and other undisclosed angel investors. According to an earlier Technode report, OKCoin had raised $1 million in angel funding last November from venture capitalist Tim Draper and VenturesLab.

Sand 9, a 6.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based developer of tiny timer and frequency control technology for wireless devices, has raised $4.4 million, shows an SEC filing. The funds appear to bring the company’s total capital raised to around $75 million. Its investors include General Catalyst Partners, Vulcan Capital, Intel Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Khosla Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, andEricsson.

Synthesio, a 7.5-year-old, New York-based social analytics platform designed to monitor and analyze conversations about brands on social media and elsewhere on the Web, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from the European private equity firm Idinvest Partners. The company has raised $22 million altogether, according to Crunchbase.

TeaBox, a three-year-old, Siliguri, India-based e-commerce startup that sells numerous variants of tea, has raised around $1 million in seed funding led by Accel Partners India. Horizon Ventures also participated in the round.

Three Twins Organic, a nine-year-old, Petaluma, Ca.-based maker of organic ice cream, has raised $1.8 million from angel investors, according to an SEC filing that shows a target of $3 million. According to the company’s site, its ice cream is sold in hundreds of groceries stores, including the Whole Foods chain, and it has four standalone stores in Northern California.

VoltDB,a 4.5-year-old, Billerica, Ma.-based company whose database technology performs analytics on high-velocity data, has raised $8 million in new funding, shows an SEC filing. The round brings the company’s funding to close to $19 million. Co-founded by database pioneer Michael Stonebraker, VoltDB’s backers include Sigma Partners and Kepha Partners.

YeahMobi, a 4.5-year-old, Shanghai City, China-based mobile CPA affiliate network that’s helping Chinese mobile apps expand to overseas markets, has raised $15 million in Series A funding from three unnamed Chinese investors, reports TechNode.

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New Funds

Expa Capital, a nearly year-old, San Francisco-based company that describes itself as a “startup studio,” has raised $50 million from investors including David Bonderman, Sir Richard Branson, Li Ka-Shing, Ram Shriram, and Meg Whitman. Expa was created by Garrett Camp, chairman and co-founder of StumbleUpon and Uber.

Uprising, a two-year-old San Francisco-based social impact firm, has raised $3.2 million for a sixth pool of capital, shows an SEC filing. Uprising was cofounded by Tabreez Verjee, a serial entrepreneur who seed-funded the non-profit lending organization Kiva.org.

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IPOs

The Alibaba Group, China’s online commerce giant, confirmed early yesterday that it planned to begin the process of becoming a public company in the United States.

Castlight‘s IPO shares shot skyward on Friday. As the WSJ notes, those who invested $181 million in the company look poised to win big if its share price holds or rises, including Venrock, which owned 20 percent of Castlight before the offering and 18 percent afterward. The company’s other principal shareholders include Oak Investment Partners, which own 13.8 percent of the company’s stock post-IPO; Maverick Capital, which owns 8.9 percent; Fidelity Investments, which owns 8.6 percent; and Wellcome Trust, which owns 7.6 percent.

Just Eat, the 13-year-old, London-based online fast food ordering company, is looking to raise $166 million from the IPO, with an expected valuation in the range of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion, according the FT (and flagged by TechCrunch). Just Eat has raised at least $90 million over the years, including from Index Ventures, Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, Axon Partners Group, Forum Synergies.

Ignyta, a San Diego-based precision medicine developer, priced its IPO late last week, offering 5,245,000 shares of its common stock at $9.15 a share. The shares, a quarter of which are owned by the CEO’s investment firm, City Hill Ventures, remained mostly flat in their debut on Friday, closing at $10.20 per share.

Weibo, the major Chinese microblogging company often called the country’s Twitter, filed on Friday for its own stock sale. (Business Insider has published a handy guide to Weibo’s finances), if you’re interested.)

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Exits

Corkbin, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile and social platform for wine enthusiasts, has been acquired by Hello Vino, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based startup behind a wine recommendation app, for undisclosed terms. Corkbin hadn’t disclosed any outside funding.

Dhingana, a 6.5-year-old, Pune, India-based music streaming site, has been acquired by Rdio, a San Francisco-based digital services company for undisclosed amount. The deal marks the entry of Rdio in India,according to Deal Curry. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Dhingana had reportedly shut down its operations in February after the biggest music label in India, T-Series, decided not to renew its contract with the company. Dhingana had raised at least $7 million in funding, including from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners, and Helion Venture Partners. Rdio, meanwhile, raised $17.5 million in 2011 from Mangrove Capital Partners, along with earlier investors Skype, Atomico Ventures and the co-founder of both outfits, Janus Friis.

Mochi Media, a distribution and monetizing platform for Flash-based games that was acquired in 2010 for $80 million by the China-based games publisher Shanda Games, is closing down by month’s end,reports TechCrunch. “If Mochi had a more meaningful position today beyond Flash, then there may have been a different path for the company going forward,” writes CEO Josh Larson in a blog post.

Ono, a Spanish cable company, is being acquired by the British telecommunications company Vodafone for about $10 billion, reports Dealbook. The move is part of a wave of consolidation in the Continent’s telecommunications sector as companies look to offer bundled services like mobile, fixed-line, broadband and pay TV offerings, notes the report.

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People

Last year, Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway paid Bill Gates and many of its other directors in the neighborhood of $2,000 for their service — a pittance compared with what most public company directors pocket. As the WSJ notes, the median retainer among S&P 1500 companies hit $168,270 in 2012. It’s probably much higher today, too. According to that same research, by the firm Equilar, director compensation increased nearly 30 percent from 2008 through 2012.

Alan Patricof and crew just landed what sound like nice new digs on Madison Avenue. According to the Observer, Greycroft Partners just leased 6,000 square feet south of Grand Central in a spot that commercial brokers, at least, are calling Tech-Creative Corridor.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has been elected to Salesforce‘s board of directors. The retired four star general is also a strategic limited partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn’t skipping on office hours, despite a net worth right now of roughly $28 billion. According to a Facebook employee who last week answered the question of how much time Zuckerberg logs at headquarters on Quora, Zuckerberg is “often in every morning before me and is around after dinner working as well. I would say he’s in the office roughly 9-10 hours a day, 5 days a week…I should say that it’s great to have him around with regularity and that he chooses to have the same desk set up as everyone else. He takes his job very seriously not just as a businessman but as a leader; he has helped keep our company culture what it is.”

An unnamed Silicon Valley billionaire has purchased the world’s most valuable life insurance policy, according to Dovi Frances, the financial advisor who says it took him seven months and 19 insurance companies to put it together. (It surpasses the $100 million policy sold to Hollywood mogul David Geffen in 1990, attests the Guinness Book of World Records, which reportedly spent three months reviewing Frances’ records.) Frances called it “worse than any audit you can think of.”

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Happenings

The Game Developers Conference kicks off today in San Francisco.

The GigaOm Structure Data event gets underway this week in New York. More information here.

And get ready to watch your Twitter feed fill with insights gleaned at TED 2014, the invite-only event getting underway today in Vancouver.

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Job Listings

Open Innovation Center, the recently opened Samsung Electronics organization based in San Jose, Ca., is looking for a director of corporate development and M&A.

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Data

Roughly 67 percent of investor-backed tech exits in 2013 came after the company raised just a seed or Series A round of financing, shows CB Insights research.

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Essential Reads

Meet Healthbook, Apple’s major first step into health & fitness tracking.

An ugly situation spills out of Github and into view, as a female engineer very publicly quits, citing discrimination and other bizarre happenings. The company, a social network for programmers that has raised more than $100 million, almost all of it from Andreessen Horowitz, says it’s taking appropriate action, including a “full investigation.”

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Detours

You really can predict the “marrying type,” sort of, says a new study.

A developer has transformed a 19th century Brooklyn bank into a grand event space called Weylin B. Seymore, after a fictionalized Gatsby-esque character. The New York Times has the details, including a slideshow.

The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane is truly smitten with actress Scarlett Johansson.

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A standing desk that won’t break the bank.

The desk caddy for the Renaissance man.

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Top News in the A.M.

Almost a week after a Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared with 239 passengers and crew members on board, there’s no firm evidence to suggest where it could be.

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The Analyst: Talking with Azure Capital’s Mike Kwatinetz

Mike Kwatinetz is old school. The cofounder of Azure Capital in San Francisco isn’t likely to call himself a “an artisan” or “venture assistant.” He’s no great fan of networking. And Kwatinetz co-manages the firm with three people he has worked alongside for 20 years, a rarity in the venture world. (The firm’s GPs all spun out together from Credit Suisse First Boston.)

Azure emerged on the scene in 2000, just as the market was going into Internet Bubble free fall. Bolstered by early wins like VMWare, which EMC acquired for $675 million in 2003; and BillMeLater, which eBay purchased in 2008 for $945 million, Azure survived, but it had to significantly reconstitute itself in the process. Although Azure raised $540 million in its 2000 debut fund, its second fund (vintage year 2006) was only $127 million, and Kwatinetz says the firm’s third fund, closed in 2011 is “smaller,” on the scale of its immediate predecessor.

Today Azure focuses on post-seed-stage investments. The other day, StrictlyVC caught up with Kwatinetz, an amiable straight-talker with a PhD in mathematical modeling, to talk about that shift — and what’s next. Our chat has been shortened for length.

Azure’s team is like a band. How would its four GPs characterize one other? Who plays drums?

Hah. I’m probably the most analytic, though Paul Weinstein is pretty similar. Cameron [Lester] is probably the best one at networking. And Paul Ferris has some very deep relationships with real superstars in his area. He’s also probably the nicest of the four of us.

Azure had some big exits in the aughts. What are some of your most recent exits?

Cyan, [a computer network gear company] went public last year. We also had a relatively fast exit with [travel app] TripIt [acquired by the expense and travel management company Concur for $120 million in 2011].

We completed our distribution of stock last year of Concur, which was an unusual deal but worked out well. When Concur came to the table, it as offering much less. We said no, so Concur wound up guaranteeing us its stock would be worth a certain amount two-and-a-half years later. We had to hold on to the stock [for the duration] but it made it possible for them to give us a lot less stock, while we locked in the price we wanted.

I’ve read about these ratchet provisions, which sound incredibly risky. Are you seeing more of them?

Not first-hand, though I’ve heard other instances of them. This was a pretty big payday for key members of the TripIt team, though, and taking cash right away [versus agreeing to this stock deal] would have significantly reduced their payday.

Where’s your investment sweet spot right now?

We tend to come in at around a $10 million [pre-money valuation], so we call ourselves post-seed — that’s how we think of ourselves. We’re aiming to have three-quarters of our startups in that category and one or two earlier and one or two later.

It seems like that stage is getting crowded all of a sudden.

Post seed is still the least crowded. About 40 percent of seed-funded companies can’t get to their next round, so we have a tremendous volume of opportunity, though, again, we’ll make exceptions and go even earlier. We’ve already invested in the new company of TripIt’s founders, Chairish, an online consignment marketplace for furniture. It’s now reaching that post-seed stage and they’ll have to decide if they raise another round; from our view, I’d be happy if we could lead it.

Having experienced the late ’90s dot com bubble, how are you feeling about the market right now?

It’s wide open but the requirements are much higher than they were in the mid ‘90s, even pre-bubble. What’s interesting to us: the Toronto Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange are trying to fill the gap that Nasdaq has created by moving up market, so we’re looking at them. We want as many options as possible for our companies.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of going abroad?

There are lots of pros and cons to Toronto. The pros: you need a minimum of $10 million in [annual] revenue, not $100 million. Of course, you don’t want the to be orphaned afterward, where there’s no constituency of buyers and your company becomes a penny stock. So we’re trying to understand all of that better before we do anything in that arena.

We’ve been studying London longer. The [revenue] threshold is higher, but there are restrictions about how you can exit that make it trickier.

Do you think the U.S. is anti- small companies?

I think startups that get acquired before going public cut off job creation and that the government should pay attention to that.

New Fundings

EnEvolv, a three-year-old Boston-based company that’s engineering microorganisms to make chemicals, enzymes and small molecules for variety of industries, has raised $1.7 million in Series A funding led by Cultivian Sandbox Venture Partners of Chicago.

Coull, a 5.5-year-old, Bristol, England-based ad tech company whose technology allows advertisers to tag individual products within videos that can be clicked on for purchase, has raised $4 million from angel investors, says TechCrunch. The company has raised $16 million to date, all from wealthy individuals, including John Greathouse, a partner with Rincon Venture Partners, and Paul Fraser, a founder of PFC Auctions.

Kineta, a six-year-old, Seattle-based company that’s developing drugs to treat RNA viruses like hepatitis C, influenza, and the common cold, has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from angelMD, a crowd-funding platform that connects physician investors with medical startups seeking capital investments, advisors, and users.

Mubi, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based online movie website that integrates elements of social networking with on-demand video streaming, has raised $7.5 million in Series D funding, including from Floreat, MMC Ventures and White Star Capital. Mubi has raised $15.7 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

ownCloud, a three-year-old, Lexington, Ma.-based company behind the ownCloud Project, a popular file sync and share open source project, has raised $6.3 million in Series A funding led by Devonshire Investors and earlier backer General Catalyst Partners, with participation from existing angel investors. The company has raised roughly $9.6 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Premise, two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that’s building a network to track macroeconomic data in real time, has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by The Social+Capital Partnership. Earlier investors Google Ventures, Harrison Metal, Andreessen Horowitz and Bowery Capital also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $16.5 million. TechCrunch takes a look at the company here.

Sage Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that’s developing medicines for central nervous system disorders, has raised $38 million in Series C financing from OrbiMed Advisors, EcoR1 Capital Management, Foresite Capital Management, Third Rock Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners. The funding comes just five months after the company closed on a $20 million Series B round led by ARCH Venture Partners and Third Rock Ventures. The company has raised roughly $95 million to date.

SiNode Systems, two-year-old, Chicago-based materials startup developed at Northwestern University, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Energy Foundry, an impact venture capital fund created out of the Illinois Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act.

Smart Sparrow, a three-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based ed-tech start-up, has raised $10 million in funding led by London-based Yellow Brick Capital. Earlier investors OneVentures and Uniseed — which had given the company $2 million last year — also participated in the round.

SteelBrick, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.based maker of easy-to-use apps for Salesforce.com customers, has raised $5 million backing from SteelBrick CEO Godard Abel, and Matt Gorniak, former global SVP sales/alliances from BigMachines (Abel’s last company), who will serve as a senior advisor to SteelBrick.

Xapo, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that’s building bank vaults deep in the earth to store millions of dollars worth of bitcoin code on computer drives, has raised $20 million in first-round funding led by Benchmark. Other investors include Fortress Investment Group and payment-focused VC firm Ribbit Captial. It’s the brainchild of Wences Casares, former CEO of digital wallet company Lemon (acquired by Lifelock last December). The WSJ has much more on the company here.

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New Funds

Binary, a new San Francisco-based, consumer-focused, early-stage venture fund, is emerging on the scene, reports Fortune. The firm, which isn’t talking yet with reporters, was founded by two VCs of other firms who’ve joined forces: Jonathan Teo and Justin Caldbeck. Teo comes to Binary after two years as a managing director at General Catalyst Partners, whose investment in Snapchat Teo reportedly led. (He also reportedly owns a personal stake in the company.) Teo was previously a principal at Benchmark Capital, where he says he originated its investments in Instagram and Twitter. (So Teo, who also logged four years as an engineering manager at Google, is a superstar, basically.) Caldbeck has meanwhile spent the last three years as a managing director at Lightspeed Venture Partners and had spent the previous six years working his way up to partner at Bain Capital Ventures. The one-time McKinsey & Company analyst has led high-profile deals for Lightspeed in numerous consumer startups, including GrubHub and TaskRabbit.

Maiden Lane, a new, San Francisco-based firm is “expected to close its debut fund within the next week on between $20 million and $25 million,”reports Fortune. The fund’s LPs include traditional sorts, such as Top Tier Capital Partners and Venture Investment Associates. Half of the firm’s capital will be designated for AngelList syndicates, says Fortune, while the other half will flow to direct investment opportunities (or co-investments) offered via AngelList’s deal platform.

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Exits

Appixia, a young Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup — incubated through the Microsoft Ventures Israel Accelerator program — has been acquired by the publicly traded Israeli company Wix, a cloud-based Web development platform. Terms for the deal were not disclosed. Appixia’s platform promises to make it easy for retailers to take their stores mobile and build their own native commerce apps.

Katech, a 37-year-old, Clinton Township, Mi.-based company that specializes in the design, prototyping, testing, research and development, and making of engines, has been acquired by six-year-old EcoMotors, the venture-backed maker of advanced engines and power trains. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. EcoMotors has raised roughly $60 million from investors, including Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, and Braemar Energy Ventures.

LaunchRock, a three-year-old, Walnut, Ca.-based company that helps startups set up viral “launching soon” pages in minutes, has been acquired by Fundable, a business crowdfunding platform. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. LaunchRock had raised $800,000 in seed funding from 500 Startups, White Star Capital, Venture51, Quotidian Ventures andTrinity Ventures, among others.

Zuuka, a five-year-old, Santa Barbara, Ca.-based children’s media company, has been acquired by New York-based mobile games and app developer Cupcake Digital for undisclosed terms. Zuuka had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from CFP Investments.

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People

Bill Gates sits down with Rolling Stone for extraordinarily wide-ranging interview that’s well worth reading. Among his many keen observations, Gates says, “We take things like TV or Internet or a microwave or a refrigerator for granted, but moving people from basic lives to decent lives requires a lot less than that. You know, development sometimes is viewed as a project in which you give people things and nothing much happens, which is perfectly valid, but if you just focus on that, then you’d also have to say that venture capital is pretty stupid, too. Its hit rate is pathetic. But occasionally, you get successes, you fund a Google or something, and suddenly venture capital is vaunted as the most amazing field of all time. Our hit rate in development is better than theirs, but we should strive to make it better.”

Serial entrepreneur Max Levchin sat down for a fireside chat with PandoDaily founder Sarah Lacy last night. Among other things, he said that his social apps company Slide “drained the crap out of me.”

Oh, boy. Barry McCarthy is out the door of Clinkle, reports Re/code. The longtime Netflix CEO joined the stealth payments startup last fall in a move that signaled the still-stealth company was ready for prime time. In fact, McCarthy was led to believe the company’s app would launch in November. Instead, the app has only gone live in a limited beta test. “They’re not nearly as close to scaling the businesses as I thought they were when I came in the door,” McCarthy tells Re/code. “And that’s what I do.” In related, terrible news for the startup that raised what was infamously billed as the “largest seed round in Silicon Valley history,” former Twitter designer Josh Brewer has reportedly walked away from Clinkle, too, after less than a week’s time. (That’s probably some kind of record.)

Pamela Rice has joined the alternative lending company OnDeck as its senior vice president of technology. Rice worked as a hiring manager at PayPal for nearly eight years, as a credit and payments product leader. OnDeck, in New York, just last week announced a whopping $77 million round led by Tiger Management, with earlier investors Institutional Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, SAP Ventures, Google Ventures, First Round Capital, Industry Ventures, and Peter Thiel participating.

David Zhu, former COO of Chinese search giant Baidu, has joined GGV Capital as a venture partner in Singapore. According to his bio, he was in “charge of [Baidu’s] overall operations” from 2002 until 2007, when he left. Before joining Baidu, he was VP of one of what was one of country’s largest consulting companies, Han Consulting.

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Happenings

It’s a couple of months away, but knowing some of you like to plan ahead: The National Venture Capital Association is hosting one of its biggest yearly events, VentureScape, on May 14 at the Westin San Francisco. The two-day event will feature GE chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, Workday cofounder and CEO Aneel Bhusri, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among other speakers. Learn more here.

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Job Listings

Looks like Andreessen Horowitz is still in the market for both consumer and enterprise deal partners to help the firm’s GPs find and assess deals. (H/T: Dan Primack)

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Data

A chart, care of CB Insights, of the top 10 (in terms of fundraising) tech companies backed by Goldman Sachs.

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Essential Reads

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he has called President Barack Obama to express his frustration over the government’s spying. “The U.S. government should be the champion for the Internet, not a threat,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook page yesterday.

Leaked photos claim to show Amazon‘s new games controller, and it is ugly.

Oops. Phone call metadata does betray sensitive details about your life, says a new study.

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Detours

To keep teens alert, a growing number of high schools is letting them sleep in.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell posts a 60-year-old selfie to Facebook.

Two guys, singing Bey’s newest album, “Beyonce,” in five minutes.

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Retail Therapy

You have to admire creative, high-end retailers. In today’s news, Harrys of London is selling $1,500 socks crafted from deer hair. Deer hair! Says the Daily Mail, “Harrys of London claim the grey-colored fashion accessories are the ‘most exclusive in the world’ because they are crafted out of ‘light’ and ‘soft’ down hair harvested from New Zealand Red Deer.” Before readers race to the store’s site, you should know the report goes on to say that “the Today show managed to get hold of a pair and after giving them to various people to touch concluded the high price tag is ‘not justifiable.’”

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One more weekday to go, people; we can do this!

Speaking of which, you’ll notice there’s no column today — meetings — but we’ll see you here again tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the intel below!

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Eventbrite has joined the $1 billion club. Dan Primack of Fortune is reporting this morning that the event ticketing platform has raised “around $60 million” in new venture capital funding at billion-dollar valuation just 11 months after raising $60 million from Tiger Global Management and T. Rowe Price. The company was widely expected to go public this year. Primack suggests that Tiger and T. Rowe wanted more ownership before that happens.

FireEye, the computer security firm, warned Target that something suspicious was going on within its payments and security system before 40 million credit card numbers were stolen. “And then…” reports BusinessWeek, “Nothing happened.”

New Fundings

Acorns, a two-year-old, Newport Beach, Ca.-based micro-investing platform that allows people to invest in sub-dollar amounts, then rounds up those fractional shares to invest in a portfolio of index funds, has raised $5.5 million in Series B funding led by Jacobs Asset Management in New York. Clients of Digital Offering, which calls itself a “next-generation, technology-driven investment bank,” also participated in the funding. Acorns has raised $8.3 million to date.

Azimo, a two-year-old, London-based international money transfer startup, has raised $10 million in first-round funding led by Greycroft Partners. Frontier Investments Group, eVenture, TA Ventures, RI Digital Ventures, and KRW Schindler Investments also participated in the round.

Banjo, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based social media startup that gives users a way to read multiple social media conversations about particular topics of news in one screen, has raised $16 million led by Balderton Capital. Other participants in the round, which bring the company’s total funding to $21 million, included BlueRun Ventures and Vegas Tech Fund.

BrightBytes, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based analytics company that measures the effectiveness of spending, technology and more to help schools make better decisions, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round; earlier investors Rethink Education and Learn Capital also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $18.5 million.

Codoon, a four-year-old, Chengdu, China-based company that makes smart fitness-tracking wearables, has raised $9.8 million in Series A funding led by Shenzhen Capital Group, with participation from CITIC Capital. The company had raised $3.6 million from the Chinese online gaming company Shanda in 2011.

Credit Karma, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based online credit score provider, has raised $85 million in growth-stage funding led byGoogle Capital. Tiger Global Management and earlier investors Ribbit Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity also participated in the round, which brings Credit Karma’s total funding to $118.5 million.

MuleSoft, a 7.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose software enables applications from different vendors to communicate and exchange data, has raised $50 million at a valuation of nearly $800 million, reports the WSJ. The round was co-led by three venture firms—earlier backers New Enterprise Associates and Lightspeed Venture Partners and new investor Meritech Capital Partners, which had to wait nearly a year to invest in MuleSoft because it was shut out of the last round, Meritech Managing Director Paul Madera tells reporter Deborah Gage. MuleSoft has raised roughly $130 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Omniata, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based data platform that gives developers an overview on how their apps are being used and monetized, has raised $5.2 million in Series A financing led by Creandum. Sigma West, which had led a $1.6 million seed round in Omniata, also participated in the round.

Quantenna Communications, a 7.5-year-old, Freemont, Ca.-based fabless semiconductor company, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Tokyo-based NTT Finance Corp, which is part of the NTT Group. Quantenna has raised more than $200 million from earlier backers, including DAG Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners, Telefonica Ventures and Venrock.

Quikr, a 6.5-year-old, Mumbai, India-based online classifieds site, has raised $90 million in funding led by Kinnevik of Sweden. Omidyar Network and Nokia Venture Partners also participated in the round, along with earlier backers Matrix Partners, Norwest Venture Partners,Warburg Pincus and eBay. Quikr has raised $136 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

TaxJar, a year-old, San Diego-based maker of tax management software for online retailers, has raised $600,000 in seed funding, including from Dan Rose, vice president of partnerships at Facebook;Harris Barton, principal at H Barton Asset Management; and Roy Rubin, co-founder and COO at Magento. Xconomy looks at TaxJar’s opportunity in this piece.

Tipbit, a three-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based company that makes a productivity-focused email app, has raised $4 million in new funding led by Ignition Partners. Tipbit has also raised money from Andreessen Horowitz in the past, shows Crunchbase.

VeryLastRoom, a 2.5-year-old, Marseille, France-based, last-minute mobile-based hotel booking service, has raised $2.1 million funding led by the French venture firm A Plus Finance, with Extend Capital and Sigma Gestion participating. The company has raised $2.65 million to date.

Violet Grey, a new, L.A.-based retail store (on Melrose Avenue) and high-end beauty products site, has raised $7.1 million from investors, shows an SEC filing. The company was founded by Cassandra Greyand her husband, Paramount film studio executive Brad Grey. And is launching with 400 “prestige” products, Grey told the WSJ last month.

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New Funds

Hamilton Lane, the private markets asset management firm, yesterday announced a final close on its first dedicated fund in Brazil, called HL Brazil FIQFIP. The fund, based in Rio de Janiero, will be investing R$150 million, or $63.5 million, in primary, secondary- and co-investment deals in the country. “Brazil’s economic and investment landscape has continued to mature since our venture into the region, and the country has established itself as a key area of opportunity in private markets investing. We remain committed to the region for the long term and look forward to continuing to build on our success in Brazil and across Latin America,” said firm CEO Mario Giannini in a statement. The fund, whose LPs include Brazilian institutions, including pension funds and financial companies, has already put capital to work in six deals, all of them diversified across vintage year and strategy, says the firm.

RiverVest Venture Partners, a 14-year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based, early-stage venture capital firm focuses on life sciences companies, is looking to raise $150 million for its third fund, according to an SEC filing that states the fund’s first sale has yet to occur. RiverVest’s first two funds totaled $164 million in committed capital. Among the firm’s bets: Lumena Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company that Tuesday announced it had raised $45 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates; and ZS Pharma, a Coppell, Tx.-based specialty pharmaceutical company focused on treating kidney, cardiovascular and liver disorders. Last Friday, ZS Pharma announced it had raised a $55 million round of Series D financing led by Novo A/S.

Venrock, the 45-year-old technology and health care investor — with offices in Cambridge, Ma.; Palo Alto, Ca.; and New York City — is hoping to raise $200 million for its newest fund, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners II LP, shows an SEC filing that says the first sale has yet to occur. Among Venrock’s more recent healthcare investments is Tesaro, two-year-old biopharmaceutical company that’s “dedicated to improving the lives of people with cancer.”

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Exits

ChinaVision Media Group has sold a 60 percent stake in its business to Alibaba Group Holdings, for roughly $800 million, TechNode reports. ChinaVision Media oversees newspapers, produces mobile content, and manages artists directly; it also invests in movies and licenses third-party content, says TechNode, which suggests that Alibaba may hope to entice users to its Ailyun OS Android-based operating system for smart phones (and TVs) using ChinaVision content.

Giant Media, a 4.5-year-old, Venica, Ca.-based video ad platform that gained some renown for distributing a Dollar Shave Club video that was viewed more than 13 million times, was acquired this week by Adknowledge, the privately owned digital advertising marketplace. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Giant had bootstrapped its way to success; according to a PandoDaily report from last April, the company was on track to see $20 million in revenue in 2013. The deal marks Adknowledge’s 12th acquisition since its 2004 founding.

That was fast: Google Capital two weeks ago invested $40 million in the education company Renaissance Learning, in a deal that valued it at $1 billion. This morning Hellman & Friedman announced that it’s purchasing the company from its majority owner, European private equity firm Permira, for $1.1 billion. Fortune has more here.

Snell, a 4.5-year-old, U.K.-based broadcast production, management, and Web distribution company, has been acquired for an undisclosed amount by the 41-year-old, U.K.-based post-production and broadcast technology company Quantel. The two companies have combined revenues of $170 million.

WorkWell, a 16-year-old, Duluth, Mn.-based company that specializes in soft tissue injury prevention and treatment, has been acquired by NextImage Medical for undisclosed financial terms. NextImage, a six-year-old, San Diego-based radiology services management company, is backed by the venture firm Chrysalis Ventures.

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People

In its newest issue, Vanity Fair takes a long look at Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s “liaison” with Google Glass marketing manager Amanda Rosenberg, and Silicon Valley’s “relationship issues” more broadly (though it sticks mostly to those of Brin). On the culture of office romances at Google specifically, one “Atherton socialite” with “close connections to the company,” tells VF: “When you have executives dating employees, it’s like a doctor-nurse relationship—it’s not illegal, but it seems like it shouldn’t be happening. Tech is a man’s world. Most of these guys are married, and then there are these young fresh [female] sharks, and they’re smart too…It’s almost like you get a Stanford degree so you can work at Google, so you can find a husband.”

Vanity Fair also has lunch with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, at one of StrictlyVC’s favorite burger spots in San Francisco, Liverpool Lil’s. (Stone, a vegan, orders pear salad without the cheese, and fries.) Stone comes across as highly likable, telling the reporter, who brings up his newfound wealth: “We have everything we could need. I’m very comfortable with my dented old Volkswagen Golf. I would feel embarrassed if I bought a fancy-looking car or a new home. It would just reflect poorly on me somehow…The most important thing for me about having money is that it takes away most of the anxiety I’ve lived with my whole life.”

And Eileen Burbidge, one of three partners of London-based Passion Capital, gets the profile treatment from VentureBeat’s Christina Farr. The Telegraph, which first published the piece, calls Burbidge “one of the most powerful forces in Silicon Roundabout, (the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley).”

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Jobs

Co=Creation=Capital is seeking technical co-founders for a stealth, seed-funded, Menlo Park, Ca.-based company that “addresses important or at least irritating problems for busy people that happen to be carrying a smartphone.” (If you’re wondering: Co=Creation=Capital is a new incubator/investing outfit cofounded by Sean Foote, a former GP at Labrador Ventures.)

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Data

Israeli companies aren’t seeing much funding in the local currency, the Shekel, reports the WSJ, basing its conclusion on a new report by the Tel Aviv-based IVC Research Center. According to IVC’s findings, foreign venture capital in first-time investments in Israeli startups outstrips local VC funding by almost two-thirds right now, and last year was the first time Israeli VC first investments dropped below 50 percent of the total.

I’d asked Adam Fisher, an Israel-based partner of Bessemer Venture Partners, why things are trending the way they are for yesterday’s StrictlyVC. If you missed it, he explained that Israel firms hadn’t built strong brands like we see in the U.S, and that when “when U.S. funds with a track record came in and, especially when they put someone on the ground, it became a very alluring thing” for local entrepreneurs.

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Essential Reads

Here’s what Goldman Sachs thinks of bitcoin.

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Detours

Any time now, San Francisco is due for another massive earthquake. Writer Ethan Watters does a superb job of painting a worst-case scenario when it arrives. (Skip this if you want to sleep soundly tonight in the Bay Area.)

According to a new study, the mood of your Facebook updates are directly influenced by the moods of those in your newsfeed.

I Hope You Enjoy This Artisanal Knuckle Sandwich.

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Retail Therapy

Not bad. (You just know everyone on this thread will be wearing one.)

St. Patrick’s Day is coming. Get ready.

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Good morning, everyone! Quick weekly reminder: You can always reach out to me with tips, complaints, piercing observations, etc., at connie@strictlyvc.com or on Twitter.

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Top News in the A.M.

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly passed a large package of laws intended to strengthen data protection. GigaOm writes on what startups (and their investors) should expect.

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Foreign Firms Rule the Roost in Israel, Says Local VC

Israel’s startup scene has probably never looked quite so promising to investors. In 2013, five venture-backed companies headquartered in the country netted $2.7 billion at the time of their respective exits, says CB Insights. Within that group: Google acquired the social mapping service Waze for $1.1 billion; the Web development platform company Wix went public (its market cap is currently $670 million); and Cisco acquired the mobile networking firm Intucell for $475 million.

The country’s prospects this year look just as bright. Last month, for example, Israeli-run Viber, a voice and messaging service with a development center in the country, was sold to Rakuten of Japan for about $900 million. Around the same time, Covidien, the health care company, completed its acquisition of Given Imaging for $860 million. (Given makes a capsule with a camera that is swallowed, allowing doctors to see patients’ intestinal tracts.)

“Three years ago, the [Israeli] press was complaining about a lack of big, $500 million exits,” recalls Adam Fisher, who co-manages the Herzliya, Israel office of Bessemer Venture Partners. “Now billion-dollar exits are growing boring to [reporters]. That’s good news.”

It’s good news for global firms like Bessemer, at least, which set up an office in 1992 and in 2007 plucked Fisher out of Jerusalem Venture Partners, which he joined straight out of Georgetown Unversity. Fisher says he has led “15 or so” investments for Bessemer and that roughly half have produced stellar returns, including Intucell and Wix.

From where he’s sitting, both Israeli venture firms and U.S. firms without a local presence could miss out on Israel’s maturation into a mainstream tech market – which, by the way, is just fine with him.

“Israeli funds had proprietary deal flow” during the last bubble, but “I don’t think any Israeli fund ever created a strong brand,” he says. “Why work with a small, no-name fund when you can work with Bessemer?”

I ask Fisher if things might change. For example, the country’s former Finance Ministry Director General Haim Shani and the former head of Microsoft’s R&D operations in Israel, Moshe Lichtman, are reportedly close to raising $250 million for a new venture fund. Another Israeli venture firm called Stage One is raising $100 million for a second fund that has reportedly already closed on roughly $75 million. Isn’t it likely that competition will increase?

Fisher notes that activity is picking up but says that in many cases, Israeli VCs are “going for the scraps.” Bessemer, he says, has “50 odd professionals across the U.S. working at deals – networking. We have a huge trove of competitive industry information that no local fund can compete with.”

As for U.S. investors who might be tempted to spend more time in the region right now, Fisher says the venture community is “welcoming,” but “It’s a tight network … I’ve been here 15, 16 years, and those of us who are active literally know everybody, along with who they’ve worked with, and who was in the army with them.”

Language is an issue, too. “Everyone speaks in English, but if you don’t speak Hebrew, you’ll be a few steps behind, no question about it.”

To be a successful investor in Israel also “takes a certain culture,” he adds.

“I fit here in Israel. I fit there [in the U.S],” says Fisher, who has twice lived in the U.S. “There aren’t many people who fit that profile.”

New Fundings

Adbrain, a year-old, London-based artificial intelligence startup whose tracking and analysis software is primarily used by advertisers, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Octopus Investments, with participation from earlier investor Notion Capital. The company has raised $9 million in funding to date.

Advanced Mem-Tech, a 3.5-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that develops thin membranes that can filter bacteria, microbes and parasites and which are used in commercial and residential water treatment, has raised $5 million. The funding came from SEB Alliance, the corporate venture unit of Groupe SEB, and Uzi Halevy, a Texas-based investor.

Beats Music, the Santa Monica, Ca.-based subscription-based music streaming service spun out of Beats Electronics last year, has raised a second round of funding of between $60 million and $100 million from existing investors, sources tell Bloomberg. Billionaires Len Blavatnik, Marc Rowan, James Packer and entities affiliated with Lee Bass first provided $60 million a year ago. Last week, Beats Music agreed to acquire Topspin Media for undisclosed terms.

Breezy, a four-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based company whose cloud-based mobile printing software ostensibly makes printing anything from any device to any printer easy, has raised $2.7 million in funding, according to an SEC filing that shows a target of $3.3 million. The company had previous raised $750,000 in seed funding.

Complete Solar Solution, a 12-year-old, Foster City, Ca.-based company that sells a wide variety of solar products, has raised $5 million led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund, a young, San Francisco-based venture capital fund focused on so-called sustainability start-ups.

Cortica, a 6.5-year-old, Ramat-Gan, Israel-based image identification technology company, has raised $20 million in Series C funding from earlier investors Mail.ru, Horizons Ventures, and Ynon Kreiz, chairman of Maker Studios. Cortica has raised $38 million to date.

Exosome Diagnostics, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based biotech company focused on developing and commercializing blood-based cancer molecular diagnostics, has closed $27 million in Series B financing led by new investors QIAGEN and Arcus Ventures. NGN Capital and Forbion Capital Partners, which led Exosome’s $20 million Series A round in 2010, also participated in the new funding.

L2, a four-year-old, New York-based subscription business intelligence service that benchmarks the “digital competence” of brands, has raised a growth round of $16.5 million from General Catalyst Partners. The financing appears to be the company’s first institutional investment.

Lumena Pharmaceuticals, a three-year-old, San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company focused on rare liver diseases and serious metabolic disorders, has raised $45 million in Series B financing led byNew Enterprise Associates. Other investors in the round included Adage Capital Management, RA Capital Management, Pappas Ventures, RiverVest Venture Partners and Alta Partners. The company has raised roughly $70 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

Luxola, an 18-month-old Singapore-based online beauty store, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Japanese corporate investor Transcosmos, with participation from earlier investor GREE Ventures. Luxola appears to have raised roughly $13 million to date.

MicroDimensions, a three-year-old, Munich, Germany-based company whose software specializes in microscopic image processing, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from High-Tech Gruenderfonds,Bayern Kapital and individual investor Adriaan Hart de Ruijter.

Next Games, a year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based games company founded by design veterans from Rovio, Supercell, and Disney, has raised $6 million in Series A funding co-led by IDG Ventures and the company’s original investor, Jari Ovaskainen, who was also an early investor in Supercell. Other participants in the round included Lowercase Capital; Asia-based IDG Capital; AMC Networks Ventures; and York Ventures, an early-stage venture firm backed by Alec, Tom and Sam Gores.

Persimmon Technologies, a four-year-old, Wakefield, Ma.-based maker of vacuum robotics for the semiconductor and solar equipment markets, has raised $14 million from investors, including ABB Group, Berwind Private Equity, Intel Capital, Nidec Sankyo, and the Bernard Gordon Charitable Remainder Trust.

Public Good Software, a year-old, Chicago-based startup that’s aiming to bring data-driven campaigning to nonprofits, has raised just less than half a million dollars, reports Tech President. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg led the round. Jason Kunesh, Obama 2012’s former director of user experience, is the company’s CEO.

Rover, a 3.5-year-old, Seattle-based platform that connects dog owners with dog sitters, has raised $12 million in Series C funding from earlier investors Madrona Venture Group, Foundry Group and Petco. The company has now raised roughly $27 million to date. (If you’re interested in learning more, StrictlyVC interviewed Rover CEO Aaron Easterly last fall.)

Trulioo, a 4.5-year-old, Vanouver-based identify verification startup, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Tenfore Holdings, with participation by BDC Venture Capital and earlier investor Blumberg Capital. The round brings the company’s funding to $8.3 million.

Ulmon, a 3.5-year-old, Vienna, Austria-based maker of travel apps and city guide apps, has raised $5 million in seed funding from Global Founders Capital, reports TechCrunch.

VIPtela, an 18-month-old, San Jose, Ca.-based networking startup, has raised $33 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, the company announced yesterday in a press release. AllThingD had reported on the funding in early December, though at the time, the company refused to confirm the amount.

Webflow, an 18-month-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup that makes it easier for creative professionals to design and host their own websites (without needing to know how to code), has raised $1.5 million in seed funding, says TechCrunch. Investors include Khosla Ventures, venture capitalist Tim Draper, various angels, and Y Combinator, whose program the startup passed through last summer.

WorldRemit, a 4.5-year-old, London-based online platform that allows migrants and expats to send low cost remittance to families and friends abroad, has raised $40 million in Series A funding from Accel Partners. The funding is the company’s first venture investment.

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Exits

Dax, a 6.5-based Culver City, Ca.-based company that helps major film studios manage their digital work flow needs, has been acquired by Prime Focus, a Mumbai, India-based post-production and media technology company. Prime will pay up to $12.5 million over three years to acquire Dax’s assets. Dax, formerly known as Sample Digital, had raised what it characterizes as a “major round of funding” from unnamed investors back in 2007. The acquisition will help Prime expand its North American business, reports the L.A. Times.

Maker Studios, a 4.5-year-old, Culver City, Ca.-based company that develops and publishes YouTube entertainment videos, could sell to media giant Disney for $500 million or more, report Re/code sources. If the sale goes through, notes the outlet, it would be by far the biggest bet by a traditional media company in a company built on top of YouTube. Maker has raised around $70 million to date, including from Greycroft Partners,Upfront Ventures, Time Warner Investments, and Northgate Capital.

Qlika, a two-year-old, Israeli company whose ad technology targets consumers in small geographic areas and presents them with specific search results based on their location, has been acquired for $3 million in cash by Priceline, reports The Times of Israel. Qlika had raised roughly $1.7 million in funding from mostly individual investors and participated in a Silicon Valley accelerator program for young Israeli companies called UpWest Labs.

Software Advice, an 8.5-year-old, Austin, Tx.-based platform that offers detailed reviews, comparisons, and research to organizations searching for the right software for their employees, has been acquired by the publicly traded research giant Gartner. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Software Advice doesn’t appear to have raised institutional funding.

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People

Forbes has produced a list of what it considers to be the “most powerful CEOs under 40 based on the 20 publicly traded companies with the highest market caps as of market close March 5. In the number one slot:Larry Page of Google, who is 40 this year. Coming in at second, third, and fourth are Facebook‘s Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo‘s Marissa Mayer, and Icahn Enterprise CEO Keith Cozza, who just stepped into the role last month.

Atman Binstock has joined two-year-old Oculus VR, maker of a much-about buzzed-virtual reality headset. Binstock is joining the company from Valve, a Seattle-based entertainment technology company. Binstock, whose new title is chief architect, will lead an R&D team based in Seattle,reports Re/code.

Rami Branitzsky has joined SAP Ventures as its newest managing director. Branitzsky was most recently CEO of the machine learning startup Grok Solutions (formerly Numenta), but he has a long history with SAP, spending a decade at the company beginning in 2002, including as managing director of SAP Labs North America.

Chris Petrovic has been appointed the head of corporate development at the free-to-play gaming company Kabam. Petrovic, who will be overseeing M&A, joins the video game retailing giant GameStop Digital Ventures, where he led the company’s digital strategy.

Facebook‘s billionaire COO Sheryl Sandberg is reportedly “having conversations” about becoming Disney‘s CEO. Business Insider has more here on the latest speculation about Sandberg’s next move.

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Job Listings

CalSTRS, the second largest public pension fund in the country, has five positions open, from various-level investment officers to a portfolio manager.

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Data

Since the start of 2009, says CB Insights, Intel Capital has seen the highest number of portfolio exits among corporate venture capital arms, butSAP Ventures has seen the highest percentage of IPO exits. Here are the top 15 corporate venture arms by exit activity since 2009, according to CB Insights.

According to Pitchbook, the median valuation of companies at IPO throughout the early 2000s was approximately 3x larger than it was for companies that were acquired. But the difference has been widening in recent years—greater than 5x each year since 2008 and hitting 6.5x in 2013. Pitchbook dives into why here.

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Essential Reads

Sources tell Re/code that Qatalyst Partners, the investment bank led by Frank Quattrone, has been shopping around Jive Software for five months and that Oracle, SAP and Workday have all passed. Jive has had a difficult run since its 2011 IPO, says Re/code, as customers lose interest in social software for the enterprise.

Google is opening its first-ever retail store in Manattan.

What you think you know about the Web is wrong, says the CEO of Chartbeat.

Everywhere one turned at SXSW, people were talking about television, says Quartz. More here.

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Detours

The CIA has been spying on our investigation into the CIA, complains the Senate Intelligence Committee.

A “youth bias” makes us think the most important events happen when we’re young, suggests a pair of Danish psychologists.

Jimmy Fallon and Jon Hamm expertly photobomb tourists in New York City.

New latte art, brought to you by Kazuki Yamamoto.

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Retail Therapy

Diamonds that really are, gulp, the family jewels.

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It’s Friday. We love Friday! Have a wonderful weekend everyone; see you here next week.

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Top News in the A.M.

Bitcoin trading platforms can, for now, operate freely under Japanese law, the government said today in a note that signaled a hands-off approach to the virtual currency.

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A Bitcoin Bear in Silicon Valley, It’s True

Well, yesterday was crazy.

Newsweek published a story saying it had finally found the elusive original creator behind the digital currency bitcoin. People on Reddit then went nuts, arguing that the world should leave the guy alone. On Twitter, journalists then weighed in on whether Newsweek had put his life at risk, before a gaggle of them in L.A. (where the man lives) converged on his home, then chased him around town by car until he denied to reporters that he has anything to do with bitcoin.

Plenty of investors appeared to be following the action, too. At Andreessen Horowitz, for example, at least three partners who follow bitcoin tweeted of their skepticism that Newsweek had the story right, with Balaji Srinivasan observing that bitcoin connoisseurs know that “there are vastly more credible candidates” than the 64-year-old California man that Newsweek turned up.

So much of the day revolved around the story that you might think that everyone in the tech world is convinced that bitcoin will be as big as the Internet itself.

You would be wrong, though.

While venture capitalists often seem in league on Next Big Things, Josh Stein, a managing director at the storied venture firm DFJ, says that when it comes to bitcoin, he isn’t convinced of anything — even calling himself a “bitcoin bear” in an interview early yesterday (that I’ll run more of next week).

Stein is a savvy investor who is known, among other things, for writing the first check to the online data storage company Box. It isn’t surprising that he doesn’t like advertising his position on bitcoin, which he says is personal and not a reflection of the firm’s interest. (He says others at DFJ are “looking at it.”)

As he explains it, “I’m at a huge disadvantage to the bulls. Bulls have huge incentives to make elaborate arguments for why bitcoin is going to work. But I’m not going to short it, so I have zero upside [in discussing at length why it may fail].”

Still, given that the “bulls” have had the floor for much of 2014 (Marc Andreessen in particular has been actively promoting the currency since the company placed its first big bet on a bitcoin company, investing $25 million in Coinbase in mid-December), I pushed Stein for more.

Noting that if Andreessen is right, he’ll “make a billion dollars,” and that if Stein is right, “I don’t make any money — so who do you think will spend more time refining their argument?” – he continued.

“Look, why does everyone think bitcoin is going to work? Well, you say, it [offers] a lower transaction cost between existing systems. But anyone can [enjoy low to no costs] with ACH,” for Automated Clearing House, a widely used electronic network that allows financial institutions to process transactions in batches, transactions that are often free for customers.

“People also say bitcoin is a hedge against inflation. And why? Because they say it’s like gold. But gold actually has value. People want gold, aside from its value, and that’s been true for thousands of years. Bitcoin has no intrinsic value. It’s electrons; it doesn’t exist.”

Here, Stein stopped talking, noting that publicly stating his position on bitcoin would only serve to “cue the trolls.”

I hope he’s mistaken. Forgive the pun, but there are two sides to every coin, and skepticism is a good thing; it strengthens the development of new technologies. Silicon Valley is often an echosphere. In just a few months, the tech cognoscenti have seemingly anointed bitcoin as the currency of the future. It’s refreshing to hear a VC challenge this new conventional wisdom and express a little doubt once in a while.

New Fundings

DigitalOcean, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based cloud hosting company, has raised a $37.2 million Series A round at a $153 valuation led byAndreessen Horowitz. Earlier investors IA Ventures and CrunchFund also participated, says TechCrunch. The company had raised roughly $40 million to date.

Emotient, a two-year-old, San Diego-based developer of automated facial expression recognition and analysis technologies, has raised $6 million in Series B funding led by Handbag, a new venture capital firm founded by former Crosspoint Venture Partners general partner Seth Neiman. Earlier investors Intel Capital also participated in the round, which brings Emotient’s total funding to $8 million.

General Assembly, a three-year-old, New York-based digital trade school, has closed $35 million in Series C funding led by Institutional Venture Partners. Other participants in the round included GSV Capital, Rethink Education and Western Technology Investment. The New York Times reports that since opening its doors, the companyhas grown to more than 100,000 students, about 6,000 of whom have finished from coursework taught at eight locations.

Hello Curry, an Hyderabad, India-based fast-food chain serving Indian cuisine, has raised roughly $500,000 from Sri Capital, the seed-stage venture capital fund of Indian entrepreneur Sashi Reddi. “Hello Curry has the potential to become the McDonald’s and Dominos Pizza of Indian food,” Reddi told the outlet Live Mint. “It has the potential to change the way we think of Indian food.”

iRxReminder, a 4.5-year-old, Akron, Oh.-based patient management medical app developer, has raised $250,000 commitment in seed funding from an undisclosed Washington, D.C.-based angel investment group. The company has raised $458,000 to date.

Layer3 TV, a two-year-old, Boston-based still-stealth developer of technology for TV service providers, has raised $7.5 million, according to an SEC filing that shows the company is targeting roughly $25 million. Jeff Binder, a partner with the Groton, Ma.-based investment firm Genovation Capital, is also Layer3’s CEO, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Livestage, a two-year-old, New York-based still-in-beta digital venue for live music that will stream concerts live and on-demand, has raised $1.6 million, according to an SEC filing that shows the startup is targeting a $3 million fundraise. The company had previously raised $55,000 in seed funding.

Machinima, the 14-year-old, L.A.-based YouTube network for gamers, is raising $18 million in new funding led by movie studio Warner Bros., sources tell Re/code. Some of the company’s earlier investors, includingGoogle, Redpoint Ventures and MK Capital, are reportedly planning to participate, too. Ahead of the round’s completion, Machinima will also lay off 42 employees as part of a restructuring of its sales organization.

Optio Labs, a two-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based developer of security and productivity technologies for mobile and embedded systems, has raised $10 million in funding from its parent company, Allied Minds, as well as several private investors.

Polarion Software, an 8.5-year-old, San Francisco-based application lifecycle company that tries cutting the time-to-market of its customers, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Siemens Venture Capital.

PrestaShop, a 6.5-year-old, Miami, Fla.-based company whose open source e-commerce software is used by small business owners looking to build and manage their online stores (it then sells them customized services), has raised $9.3 million in Series B funding from XAnge Private Equity, Seventure Partners and Serena Capital.

Quipper, a three-year-old, London-based maker of quiz-based e-learning apps, has received $5.8 million in funding from Atomico, Benesse Holdings and Globis Capital Partners. The company has raised roughly $10 million altogether.

Redlen Technologies, a 15-year-old, British Columbia-based maker of high-resolution Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) semiconductor radiation detectors, has raised $5.5 million in financing led by Pangaea Ventures.In-Q-Tel also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $13.3 million, according to Crunchbase.

Sailogy, a two-year-old, Chiasso, Switzerland-based marketplace that pairs those wanting to charter a yacht with companies that own them, has just closed a $1.15 million Series A funding round. The financing was led by the Swiss Government Foundation AGIRE and Fabio Cannavale, exec chairman of online travel group BravoFly Rumbo Group. The company previously raised $400,000 in seed funding.

SolarBridge Technologies, a 10-year-old, Austin, Tx.-based company that develops microinverters designed to increase solar panel efficiency, has $42 million in funding. Constellation Technology Ventures led the round, with participation from Shea Ventures, Rho Ventures and Prelude Ventures.

Trusper, a 2.5-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based mobile app and social network that encourages users to share tips, has raised $6.17 million led by DCM and numerous individual investors, including Charles Schwab.

TVSmiles, a 15-month-old, Berlin-based mobile app that encourages people to watch TV ads in exchange for redeemable virtual currency, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by earlier investor Ventech. Other investors to join the round included e.ventures, German Startups Group;Brandenburg Ventures; and Magix.

ZS Pharma, a 5.5-year-old, Coppell, Tx.-based specialty pharmaceutical company focused on treating kidney, cardiovascular and liver disorders, has raised $55 million in Series D financing led by Novo A/S. Other investors in the round included RA Capital, Adage Capital, Sofinnova Ventures, Alta Partners, Devon Park Bioventures, 3×5 Special Opportunity Fund, Salem Partners and RiverVest.

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New Funds

Benchmark Capital has raised $34 million for its latest Founders Funds, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filings show Benchmark raised $22.8 million for Benchmark Founders’ Fund VIII and $11.3 million for Benchmark Founders’ Fund VIII-B. (H/T: PE Hub)

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IPOs

Coupons.com, the 16-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based digital promotions company, raised $168 million in an IPO last night, selling 10.5 million shares — which is 500,000 more than originally offered — at $16 a share up from their original range of $12 to $14 a share. The shares are set to begin trading today on the NYSE. Its biggest shareholder is Passport Capital, which owns a 19 percent stake that was about $220 million as of last night.

Spotify, the 7.5-year-old, Stockholm-based music-streaming company, is speaking with banks about raising a credit facility, a type of business loan from banks that could signal a not-too-distant U.S. IPO, sources tell Bloomberg.

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Exits

The Echo Nest, an 8.5-year-old, Somerville, Ma.-based “music intelligence company,” has been acquired by Spotify for $100 million, 90 percent of it in Spotify equity, reports TechCrunch. Echo Nest had raised roughly $25 million from investors over the years, including Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Matrix Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners.

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People

Disney’s video game and Internet division laid off roughly 700 employees, or 26 percent of its staff, yesterday. “These are large-scale changes as we focus not just on getting to profitability but sustained profitability and scalability,” James Pitaro, the president of Disney Interactive, said in an interview with the New York Times. The layoffs come as Disney melds its mobile games business with its comparatively poorly performing social games business. The Times also reports that Disney is “significantly” scaling back its in-house development of games of all types.

John LeFevre, who authored the Twitter account GSElevator, has lost a book deal with Simon & Schuster roughly a week after it was revealed by Dealbook that Lefevre has never been employed by Goldman Sachs and is instead a former bond trader living in Texas. “In light of information that has recently come to our attention since acquiring John Lefevre’s Straight to Hell, Touchstone has decided to cancel its publication of this work,” Simon & Schuster said in a statement. “Guess elevators go up and down,”tweeted Goldman Sachs. Said LeFevre, through the GSElevator account: “I want to thank Simon & Schuster for supporting me…. until now…. The book Straight To Hell is still coming…..”

You kind of already knew this but now it’s official: serial entrepreneur Sean Parker is no longer making new investments on behalf of Founders Fund, reports Fortune. The firm announced it had raised $1 billion for its sixth fund on Wednesday.

Former Apple CEO John Sculley is reportedly planning to launch a new smartphone brand in India that is backed by Inflexion Point, a Singapore-based supply-chain company cofounded by Sculley. The new company is expected to launch a series of smartphones as early as next month.

At the end of March, Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton will be stepping down from his position after nearly two decades, after he and the company were unable to “renew their contractual relationship,” reports The Verge.

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Happenings

Northeastern University is hosting its second Collegiate Alternative Investments Summit, a student-run conference at its Boston campus on March 21st and 22nd. You can learn more here.

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Job Listings

Yelp is looking for a senior manager of corporate development in San Francisco.

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Data

When it comes to new fundings, New York City is on track to see its best first quarter in history, says TechCrunch, with 98 companies raising nearly $1.3 billion to date. More here.

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Essential Reads

Surveillance by algorithm.

Yahoo is shutting down innovative apps and services right and left as it snaps up startups—to no clear purpose, writes ReadWrite.

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Detours

Very funny meme alert.

Possibly the most maddening teaser of all time.

Five ideas for future New York Times hipster trend pieces.

Twitter’s advertising rate keeps falling. The average cost to advertise on Twitter’s website and mobile apps fell 18% in the last three months of 2013.

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Retail Therapy

This Chinese company will print a three-dimension, life-size copy of you for $28,000. Perfect for pitch meetings, LP meetings, and video-conferenced partner meetings with far-flung colleagues. (Why feign interest when you can literally be somewhere else?)

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