• StrictlyVC: April 16, 2018

    Happy Monday, all! Hope yours is going well. We’ve been on calls, in meetings, and in the middle of a laptop switcheroo; if we missed anything, we’ll catch you up tomorrow.:)
    Top News
    The U.S. Department of Commerce just banned American companies from selling components to leading Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE for seven years for violating an agreement in a sanctions violation case. Industry watchers expect the move to pretty much destroy ZTE’s handset business. Reuters has more here. 

    Elon Musk’s Boring Co. raised $113 million in equity to dig tunnels and develop a high-speed transportation system known as the hyperloop. The startup disclosed the investment in an SEC filing processed earlier today. Bloomberg has more here.
    Sponsored By . . . .
    Do you love your teeth? Get them a better electric toothbrush. Quip was created by dentists and designers to guide the good habits that matter — starting at $25. Brush heads ($5) are delivered for an automatic refresh every 3 months. Get your first refill free. 
    New Fundings
    AgNext, a two-year-old, India-based agriculture data firm, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Omnivore. The Economic Times has more here. 
    Ceterus, a 10-year-old, Charleston, S.C.-based maker of accounting software for small-business entrepreneurs, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Harbert Growth Partners, with participation from earlier investorsTechOperators, Grotech Ventures, Idea Fund Partners, and Alerion Ventures. More here. 

    Embibe, a 5.5-year-old, Bengaluru, India-based online education platform that says it uses data analytics to capture and address student weaknesses, has raised $180 million from Reliance, which now owns a majority of the company. Your Story has more here. 

    GrAI Matter Labs, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based ultra-low power neuromorphic computing startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led byiBionext, with participation from 360 Capital Partners and 3T Finance. More here.

    Kolide, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based infrastructure analytics company, raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Matrix Partners. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Level Ex, a three-year-old, Chicago-based medical technology company creating professional video games for physicians, has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from OSF Ventures. MedCity News has more here. 

    Mixcloud, a 10-year-old, London-based long-form digital audio streaming platform, has raised $11.5 million in funding led by WndrCo. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Sensu, a year-old, Portland, Ore.-based full-stack monitoring platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Foundry Group. TechCrunch has more here. 

    SpaceX, the 16-year-old, Hawthorne, Ca.-based maker of rockets and other spacecraft, is reportedly aising $507 million of private capital in a deal that will value the company at $25 billion. As Fortune notes, the deal would rank SpaceX just behind Uber and Airbnb among the most valuable startups. More here. 

    Sword Health, a six-year-old, Porto, Portugal-based company whose digital physiotherapy solution allows patients to be treated remotely in their own homes, has raised $4.6 million in seed funding from Green Innovatons and Vesalius Biocapital.  TechCrunch has more here.
    New Funds
    Caerus Ventures, a 5.5-year-old, West Palm Beach, Fla.-based seed and early-stage venture firm, is looking to raise up to $100 million for its second fund, shows an SEC filing first flagged by Fortune. More here. 

    Niv Dror, AngelList’s former head of marketing, has launched a $3 million venture-capital fund called Shrug Capital, stylized as ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Capital. Business Insider has more here. 

    Gili Raanan, general partner at Sequoia Capital Israel, has raised $50 million for a new venture capital fund called Cyberstarts that plans to invest in 10 cybersecurity companies. Investors in the fund include Sequoia Capital and Check Point Software cofounders Shlomo Kramer and Marius Nacht. Reuters has more here. 

    Octopus Ventures, the 11-year-old, London-based early-stage venture fund, says it has closed its newest fund with roughly $285 million, bringing its total assets under management to roughly $1.2 billion. The new fund is 64 percent bigger than the firm’s last fund, closed in 2016. Bloomberg has more here. 

    Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners has announced the closing of three new funds totaling $1.39 billion. The new funds include Qiming Venture USD Fund VI, with closed with $935 million; Qiming Venture RMB Fund V with RMB2.1 billion ($334 million); and Qiming U.S. Healthcare Fund I, which the firm closed with with $120 million in commitments. China Money Network has more on the different funds here.
    Exits
    Boston Scientific has agreed to acquire nVision Medical, a San Bruno, Calif.-based developer of a medical device to detect ovarian cancer and tube blockages, for roughly $275 million, including $150 million in an upfront payment. nVision had raised just $16.4 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Its backers included Arboretum Ventures, Catalyst Health Ventures and Astia. Mass Device has more here. 

    Coinbase, the high-flying cryptocurrency exchange, announced plans earlier today to acquire Earn.com, the five-year-old startup that uses the blockchain for its paid-email service, in a deal worth more than $120 million in cash, stock, and some crypto assets. In addition, Coinbase has appointed Earn.com co-founder and CEO Balaji Srinivasan as its first CTO. TechCrunch has lots more here. 

    The seven-year-old coding school General Assembly has agreed to be acquired for $412.5 million in cash by Swiss staffing and workforce development company Adecco. General Assembly raised nearly $120 million in venture funding between 2011 and 2015, with a final round at a post-money valuation of around $440 million. Axios has more here. 

    Goldman Sachs has acquired Clarity Money, a two-year-old, New York-based personal finance app focused on monthly bills. Clarity had raised $14.5 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Backers included RRE Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Maveron and Citi Ventures. Reuters has more here.
    IPOs
    Evelo Biosciences, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of monoclonal microorganisms for treating inflammatory diseases, has filed to raise $100 million in an IPO. The company has raised more than $170 million in venture funding. FierceBiotech has more here. 

    nLight, a Vancouver, Wash.-based maker of semiconductor lasers, has set the terms of its IPO terms, revealing plans to sell 5.4 million shares at between $13 and $15 for a valuation of $462 million if prices in the middle of that range. The company has raised roughly $200 million from investors. GeekWire has more here. 

    Pluralsight, the Utah-based online education company, has filed for an IPO that seeks to sell up to $100 million in shares, according to an SEC filing. The company has raised roughly $192 million from investors. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Smartsheet, a Bellevue, Wa.-based SaaS platform for managing and automating collaborative work that had raised around $106 million from VCs, just revealed plans to sell 11.6 million shares at between $10 and $12 in an IPO. GeekWire has more here.
    People
    VC John Doerr talks OKRs at TED. Renowned investor Tim Draper, who once advocated splitting California into six states, says he would now settle for three. Paul Jacobs, the ousted chairman of Qualcomm, is making progress in lining up enough funding to offer to take the chipmaker private  and could make the bid within a few months, says Bloomberg.  Lerer Hippeau is now taking over Binary Capital’s second fund, too. 
    Essential Reads
    How Russian Facebook ads divided and targeted U.S. voters before the 2016 presidential election. 

    Google has worked out a fascinating, slightly scary way for AI to isolate voices in a crowd. 

    Amazon, which sells bulk items to business customers through its Amazon Business marketplace, has shelved its plan to sell and distribute pharmaceutical products after considering it last year, according to CNBC’s sources. More here. 

    Oof. Thousands of Android mobile apps are improperly tracking children, according to a new study.
    Detours
    Dan Scavino is the the White House’s social media director and the only man that Trump trusts with his Twitter account. 

    The 100 pages that shaped comics. 

    Forty sea gulls wrecked his hotel room. Then came the pepperoni pardon.
    Retail Therapy
    The 50 most luxurious hotels in New York. When words won’t suffice.

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 13, 2018

    Friday! [Turns up Daft Punk.] Hope you have a fun weekend, everyone. See you Monday.:)
    Top News
    You’ll soon be able to send expiring emails in Gmail. 

    Walmart is likely to reach a deal to buy a majority stake in Indian e-commerce player Flipkart by the end of June in what could be the U.S. retail giant’s biggest acquisition of an online business, reports Reuters. 

    Apple just detailed how it plans to crack down on leaks . . . in a leaked memo. 

    Elon Musk offered a rare mea culpa earlier today, tweeting, “Excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake,” he wrote. “Humans are underrated.” More here.
    New Fundings
    Agreement Express, a 17-year-old, Vancouver-based wealth management, payments, and insurance provider platform, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Frontier Capital. More here. 

    Biocytogen, a 10-year-old, Beijing-based contract research organization that’s focused on gene-targeted animal models, just raised $65 million in Series C funding. CMB International led the round. FierceBiotech has more here.  

    empow, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based security firm, has raised $10 million in funding led by Ascent Venture Partners. More here. 

    Honest Buildings, a six-year-old, New York-based project management platform for commercial real estate owners, has raised $25 million in Series B funding, including from QuadReal and Altus Group. More here. 

    Kadena, a year-old startup that’s selling private distributed ledger technology, has raised $12 million in Series B funding, including from Devonshire Investors, SV Angel, Multicoin Capital, Susquehanna International Group and Asimov Ventures. Coindesk has more here. 

    Local Crate, a three-year-old, St. Paul, Mn.-based meal kit startup, just raised $1.4 million in seed funding from The Syndicate Fund, Matchstick Ventures, M25 Group and Router Ventures. More here. 

    Mapillary, a 4.5-year-old, Malmo, Sweden-based street-level imagery platform that extracts map data using computer vision, has raised $15 million in Series B funding, led by BMW i Ventures, with participation from Samsung Catalyst Fund, NavInfo, and the company’s earlier backers. More here. 

    Onapsis, a nine-year-old, Boston-based company that sells business-critical application cybersecurity and compliance software, raised $31 million in Series C funding. LLR Partners led the round, with participation from earlier investors .406 Ventures, Evolution Equity Partners and Arsenal Venture Partners. More here. 

    PullRequest, a year-old, Austin, Tex.-based code-review-as-a-service startup, has raised has raised $8 million Series A funding just months after closing on $2.3 million in seed funding. The new round was led by Gradient Ventures, which also led the seed financing. Other investors in the round include Y Combinator,  Fika Ventures, Lynett Capital and Defy Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
    New Funds
    Lerer Hippeau, the New York-based early-stage venture firm, has raised $150 million in capital commitments for its sixth fund, shows an SEC filing. The firm closed its fifth flagship fund with $113 million in 2015. It separately closed a $28 million fund for follow-on investments in its breakout portfolio companies last year. More here.
    Exits
    The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is acquiring Cipher Browser, a decentralized app browser and wallet for the Ethereum blockchain that it will be using to bolster its own similar product. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Yahoo Japan says it’s buying 40 percent of a Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange — BitARG Exchange Tokyo — in the process becoming the latest major Japanese financial services company to join the digital money industry. CNBC has more here.
    People
    Elliott Broidy, an L.A.-based venture capital and a deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, resigned from his position today after it was reported that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, negotiated a $1.6 million settlement between Broidy and a Playboy playmate following an affair. It’s the second time that Broidy has been in the news over the last month. 

    Ben Davenport, the cofounder and CTO of blockchain security company BitGo, said today that he’s stepping down to spend more time with his family and the broader bitcoin community as he determines next steps. Coindesk has more here. 

    Pappas Capital, a Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based venture firm focused on life sciences, has brought aboard Tom Mathers, the the former CEO of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, a Pappas Capital portfolio company that was acquired last year by Eli Lilly & Company for about $1 billion. Mathers, who is based in Boston, is expected to help create a new biopharmaceutical company that will be backed by Pappas.
    Data
    Games, dating apps and streaming services contributed to a rise in consumer spending in iPhone apps last year, according to new data from app store intelligence firm, Sensor Tower. The firm found that U.S. iPhone users spent 23 percent more on in-app purchases in 2017 than they did the year prior – or, an average of $58 per active user was spent on in-app purchases, up from $47 in 2016. TechCrunch has much more here. 

    Asian investors directed nearly as much money into startups last year as American investors did—40 percent of the record $154 billion in global venture financing versus 44 percent, according to a new WSJ analysis of private markets data. More here.
    Essential Reads
    An electrified road for charging vehicles was just opened in Sweden. 

    Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, this week applied to test cars without drivers on California roads. 

    A look at Red Antler, the increasingly powerful Brooklyn-based creative agency that has helped brands like Allbirds and Casper hone their customer pitches.
    Detours
    Nine ways you’re cooking pasta wrong (including pouring the sauce on top). 

    How to get the most out of college visits with your kid. 

    The monkey selfie lawsuit lives.
    Retail Therapy
    If you need more attention, this should do the trick.

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 12, 2018

    Hi! Hope you’re having a terrific Thursday, everyone. We happen to be very tired. StrictlyVC’s beloved mascot was up all night after snarfing something he shouldn’t have eaten. Oh, Brodie! (He’s completely fine now, by the way.)
    Top News
    Top News Tesla is still fighting with the NTSB over its probe into a recent, fatal accident involving one of its cars. Tesla suggested the driver was to blame. The NTSB viewed Tesla’s public statements as a violation of its protocols. Now, the NTSB is saying it booted Tesla from its investigation, while Tesla is saying it withdrew itself. More here.
    Background Checks Pay for Checkr; It Just Raised $100 Million from Investors
    Criminal records, driving records, employment verifications. Companies that use on-demand employees need to know that all the boxes have been checked before they send workers into the world on their behalf, and they often need those boxes checked quickly. 

    A growing number of them use Checkr, a San Francisco-based company that says it currently runs one million background checks per month for more than 10,000 customers, including, most newly, the car-share company Lyft, the services marketplace Thumbtack, and eyewear seller Warby Parker. 

    Investors are betting many more customers will come aboard, too. This morning, Checkr  is announcing $100 million in Series C funding led by T. Rowe Price, which was joined by earlier backers Accel and Y Combinator. 

    The round brings the company’s total funding to roughly $150 million altogether, which is a lot of capital in not a lot of time. Yet Checkr is very well-positioned considering the changing nature of work. The company was born when software engineers Daniel Yanisse and Jonathan Perichon worked together at same-day delivery service startup Deliv and together eyed the chance to build a faster, more efficient background check. The number of flexible workers has only exploded in the four years since. 

    So-called alternative employment arrangements, in the parlance of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including gig economy jobs, have grown from representing 10.1 percent of U.S. employees in 2005 to 15.8 percent of employees in 2015. And that percentage looks to rise further still as more digital platforms provide direct connections between people needing a service and workers willing to provide it. 

    Meanwhile, Checkr, which has been capitalizing on this race for talent, has its sights on much more than the on-demand workforce, says Yanisse, who is Checkr’s CEO. While the 180-person company counts Uber, Instacart, and GrubHub among its base of customers, Checkr is also actively expanding outside of the tech and gig economy, he says. It recently began working with the staffing giant Adecco, for example, as well as the major insurer Allstate. 

    At present, all of these customers pay Checkr per background check. That may change over time, however. 

    More here.
    New Fundings
    Aetion, a six-year-old, New York-based company whose software analyzes how drugs are performing in the real world, has raised $36 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Amgen Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Flare Capital Partners, Lakestar, and Oxeon Ventures. The company has now raised $50 million altogether. The WSJ has more here. 

    Billie, a six-month-old, New York-based women’s razor subscription startup, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Silverton Partners, with participation from earlier investors Female Founders Fund and Lakehouse Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Cluno, a year-old, Munich, Germany-based startup offering what it calls a “car subscription” service, has raised €7 million ($8.6 million) in Series A funding. The round was led by Acton Capital Partners, with participation from previous investor Atlantic Labs. TechCrunch has more here. 

    East Meet East, a three-year-old, New York-based matchmaking service focused on connecting Asian people in the U.S., has raised $4 million in Series A funding, including from 500 Startups and new investors Asahi Medialab Ventures, DG Lab Fund, Mobile Internet Capital, and the ad tech firm Septeni. The startup previously raised $1 million in November 2016. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Livongo Health, a four-year-old, Mountain View, CA-based company behind a chronic disease management platform, has raised a whopping $105 million in new funding led by earlier backers General Catalyst and Kinnevik, with participation from other earlier investors that include DFJ, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Microsoft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Zaffre Investments, and 7wire Ventures. Echo Health Ventures, a new investor, also joined the round. Modern Healthcare has more here. 

    Punchh, a seven-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based marketing platform that serves more than 115 restaurant chains, has raised $20 million in Series B funding.Sapphire Ventures led the round, with participation from earlier investor Cervin Ventures. The company has now raised $31 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Revolut, a three-year-old, London-based international payments startup that functions like a digital bank, allowing users to transfer money across different currencies without transaction fees, is being valued at $1.4 billion in a new fundraising round that DST Global is expected to lead, says Recode. More here. 

    ServiceTitan, a nearly six-year-old, Glendale. Ca.-based software app for service professionals, has raised $62 million in Series C funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners and ICONIQ Capital. TechCrunch has more here. 

    TravelPerk, a three-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based SaaS startup with an end-to-end business travel platform, has raised $21 million in Series B funding co-led by Target Global and Felix Capital. Earlier backers Spark Capital and Sunstonealso participated in the round, alongside new investor Amplo. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Xeeva, a four-year-old, Madison Heights, Mi..-based company that sells procurement and sourcing software, has raised more than $40 million in funding led by PeakEquity Partners. More here. 

    Zaius, a six-year-old, Boston-based customer data company that works with consumer brands like Tea Forte and Burt’s Bees Baby, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners. Other participants in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $50.8 million, include Matrix Partners,Underscore VC and Leaders Fund. TechCrunch has more here.
    IPOs
    Subscription management software company Zuora raised $154 million today in an IPO that both topped its price goals and sold more shares than expected. The San Mateo-based company began trading on the NYSE this morning at $20 — 43 percent above the $14 price it set for the offering. It also sold 11 million shares in the IPO, giving it an implied valuation of about $1.44 billion. It was expected to sell 10 million shares for between $11 and $13 a share, reports Silicon Valley Business Journal.
    Exits
    Spotify announced this morning it has acquired the five-year-old, music licensing platform Loudr, which offers products and services that allow content creators, aggregators, and digital music services to identify, track and pay royalties to music publishers. Loudr had raised less than a million dollars from investors, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here. 

    WeWork is buying up one of its largest competitors in China: Naked Hub. The deal was widely reported by Chinese media yesterday, but WeWork has now confirmed it through a blog post from its CEO Adam Neumann. Terms of the transaction aren’t being disclosed but Bloomberg reports that it’s worth around $400 million. TechCrunch has more here.
    People
    Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg gets the Jim Carrey sketch treatment. 

    The FDA has launched a criminal investigation into research by a Southern Illinois University professor who injected people with his unauthorized herpes vaccine. According to the Daily Beast, the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations is also looking into the professor’s former company, Rational Vaccines, backed in part by billionaire Peter Thiel, who is considered a proponent of rolling back FDA regulations to speed up medical innovation.
    Essential Reads
    Essential Reads A comprehensive list of the 43 things that Mark Zuckerberg said that he will follow up on during his two days of congressional hearings this week. The HomePod isn’t the hot seller Apple had wanted. Google is redesigning Gmail, and here’s what it will look like. Nintendo is looking to startups to develop new ways to play or use its hit gaming console, and the company has teamed up with San Francisco-based Scrum Ventures toward that end.
    Detours
    What it’s like to make a million dollars a year. Cheap red wine that’s delicioso. Mother and Child: Portraits of prominent women and their children.
    Retail Therapy
    Perfect ice balls for your whiskey. 

    The Impossible Foods burger is now at White Castle. 

    The Sobro side table. Warning: it will make your other furniture look stupid.

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 11, 2018

    It’s Wednesday! We hope you’re very well. We’re having to rush out the door unexpectedly, so you’re missing some sections, fyi.
    Top News
    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emerged mostly unruffled after two grueling days of congressional hearings, reassuring investors with his composure even as lawmakers scoffed at his apologies over failures to protect user privacy and his assurances to do better. 
    Sponsored By . . .
    Fintech startups, how does $250,000 sound? What about unparalleled access to banking, financial services, nonprofit and communications expertise? Apply TODAY for the Financial Solutions Lab. This highly influential virtual incubator has helped the likes of Digit, Even, EarnUp, Nova and more to scale their products and navigate the complicated side of fintech. Apply now — applications are due at 11:59 p.m. PT today, April 11! 
    Tentrr is Turning Private Land into Glampgrounds, with the help of VCs
    If you’ve ever gone camping and found yourself thinking it kind of sucks, likely because you’re too close to other campers, you might be interested in learn about Tentrr, a three-year-old, 47-person company that’s promising to make it “dirt simple” to enjoy the great outdoors. How: by striking deals with private landowners who are willing to host semi-permanent campsites on their property. 

    What do these look like? Picture elevated decks with Adirondack chairs, canvas expedition tents, wood picnic tables and sun showers, not to mention a fire pit, lanterns, dry food storage, cookware, a camping toilet and air mattresses that, courtesy of most hosts, will come with fresh linens. 

    Venture capitalists certainly appreciate the startup’s pitch. Tentrr — founded by one-time investment banker turned former NYSE managing director Michael D’Agostino —  has raised $13 million to date, including a newly closed $8 million Series A round led by West, a San Francisco-based venture studio that both funds startups and helps them market their goods and services. 

    No doubt the investors are looking at the overall market, whose numbers are compelling. According to one trade association, for example, the outdoor recreation industry represents a $887 billion opportunity, with Americans shelling out $24 billion annually on campsites alone. 

    Still, it’s easy to wonder how scalable the company will be. Tentrr had 100 campsites up and running in the Northeastern U.S. as of the end of last year. D’Agostino expects it will have 1,000 sites by year end, including on the West Coast, where it will begin installing camps this summer, but this assumes that Tentrr can convince enough families with sufficiently large properties that partnering with the company is worthwhile. 

    D’Agostino says its landowner partners need to have 15 acres at least and that the average property on the platform currently is much larger than that. He also says they keep 80 percent of whatever they decide to charge campers to stay on their grounds. 

    For what it’s worth, Tentrr doesn’t seem to have much in the way of direct competition if you exclude state campgrounds. Venture-backed Hipcamp, for example, which raised a small amount of seed funding back in 2014, partners with private landowners to help arrange camping experiences, but it mostly acts as search engine. Meanwhile, industry giant Airbnb offers unique experiences that include camping, but Tentrr is largely about offering a standardized experience. The idea is to leave fewer questions about what to expect. In fact, D’Agostino says roughly 40 percent of Tentrr customers are first-time campers. 

    We know that if the service makes it way to California, we’re likely to try it, having suffered through some fairly crummy camping experiences. If you’re also interested in learning more, you might check out our conversation with D’Agostino, edited for length. We chatted yesterday. 

    More here.
    New Fundings
    Liberis, an 11-year-old, London-based fintech company that provides capital to small businesses, has raised £57.5 million ($81.5 million) in new, and largely debt, funding. Backers include British Business Investments (the commercial arm of the tax payer-funded British Business Bank), Paragon Bank, and BCI Finance. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Symphony, the four-year-old, Palo Alto, C-based communications platform for the financial services market, raised $67 million in new funding, including fromBarclays, Bpifrance and CLSA. Finextra has a bit more here.
    New Funds
    Chris Paik, a cofounding partner of Thrive Capital in New York is leaving to raise his own fund, reports Axios, which says Paik isn’t sharing any details just yet.
    IPOs
    While Spotify‘s public listing last week was novel and successful at generating intrigue, it doesn’t change anything for most companies or the IPO industry at large, according to banking experts interviewed by Business Insider. More here (sub required.)
    Exits
    Palo Alto Networks, the California-based, publicly traded information security firm, announced today that it’s acquiring the Israeli startup firm Secdo. The Israeli media says the price was roughly $100 million. Times of Israel has more here.
    People
    Almost exactly three years ago, Patrick Pichette surprised industry observers when he left his powerful job as the CFO of Google to, well, enjoy his life. As he described the decision at the time, he wanted to “enjoy a perfectly fine midlife crisis full of bliss and beauty.” Now, Pichette is back in a role that should afford him both mental stimulation, as well as plenty of time to relax. He’s become a VC. More here. Congress can’t seem to stop asking Mark Zuckerberg about sisters Diamond and Silk. If you’re wondering who they are, read on.
    Jobs
    Lyft is looking to hire someone to lead its operations strategy team. The job is in San Francisco.
    Essential Reads
    The fact that Facebook  probably has a profile of you whether you’re a Facebook user or not might come as a surprise to some users, though today even CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied knowledge of the practice — or at least the term used to describe it. Mark Zuckerberg’s defense when asked in a Senate hearing yesterday about a lack of competition to Facebook was to cite that the average American uses eight social apps. what he didn’t say: Facebook owns three of the top 10 U.S. iOS apps and it’s aggressively looking to topple the rest.
    Detours
    Why we boil lobsters while they’re still alive.  

    Ten vacation ideas for a dreamy June getaway. 

    Know how manufacturers insist that consumers will void their warranty if they use unauthorized repair services or third-party parts? Those policies are illegal, the Federal Trade Commission announced today.
    Retail Therapy
    An Alexa car charger that’s half off today. 

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 10, 2018

    Happy Tuesday! As many of you know, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is right now delivering his Senate congressional testimony and you can catch the live-stream here. We’ve been watching closely and we’re not shocked to see Facebook shares are up more than four percent today. No matter what you think of the company, Zuckerberg has been masterful at addressing the senators’ questions and navigating around those with more contentious approaches, like Senator Lindsey Graham, who’d asked him if Facebook is a monopoly. (“It doesn’t feel that way to me,” Zuckerberg had answered, to laughter in the room.) Interestingly, Zuckerberg also just hinted that Facebook might one day offer a paid, premium version of its social network. Much more tomorrow. We’ve been squeezing in calls and have a couple of interesting young companies to tell you about.
    Top News
    Facebook announced a bug and data abuse bounty program today that will pay up to $40,000 to people who catch large data leaks. It’s believed to be the first program of its kind in the tech industry. CNBC has more here. 
    Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s financial-technology business, Ant Financial, is about to vault into the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies, says the WSJ. According to its sources, Ant, which owns the mobile payments network Alipay and is among China’s largest non-bank lenders, is preparing to raised $9 billion in private funding at a valuation of $150 billion. More here.
    New Fundings
    Alan, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based health insurance startup, has raised $28.3 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, with participation fromXavier Niel, CNP Assurances, Partech and Portag3 Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. 

    BayoTech, a three-year-old, Albuquerque, N.M.-based chemical reactor company, has raised $12.5 million in Series B funding from an undisclosed strategic investor and earlier backers Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital. More here. 

    Chargifi, a nearly five-year-old, London-based company behind a wireless power charging platform, has raised $7 million in funding led by Accelerated Digital Ventures, with participation from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and firstminute capital. More here. 

    CloudMargin, a five-year-old, London-based web-based collateral management platform, has raised $10 million in funding, including from Leucadia National Corporation; the parent company of investment banking firm Jefferies; IHS Markit; and Illuminate Financial Management. More here. 

    CoinTracker, a nine-month-old, San Francisco-based portfolio and tax manager for cryptocurrencies, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Initialized Capital, with Y Combinator and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Directly, a seven-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based customer-service startup, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Northgate, with participation fromMicrosoft and earlier backers Costanoa Ventures and True Ventures. More here. 

    Eporta, a 3.5-year-old, London-based business-to-business interior marketplace startup, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Canvas Ventures, with participation from LocalGlobe, Oxford Capital Partners, Talis Capital, andSamos Ventures. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Expel, a two-year-old, McLean, Va.-based cybersecurity company, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners. More here. 

    Fleetsmith, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-based Mac management product that automates the management of apps and settings, has raised $7.7 million in Series A funding, including from Upfront Ventures, Index Ventures andHarrison Metal. TechCrunch has more here. 

    InsightFinder, a three-year-old, New York-based cloud monitoring and system analytics startup, has raised $2 million in pre-Series A funding led by Eight Roads Ventures, with participation from The Propel(x) Network. More here. 

    Karamba Security, a three-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based company at work on endpoint security software designed to protect connected cars from cyber attacks, has raised $10 million in funding led by Western Technology Investment. More here. 

    Knotel, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that’s competing with WeWork in the flexible-office-space business and planning a service that will use blockchain to track space listings, just closed on $70 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Newmark Knight Frank and The Sapir Organization, with participation from The Wolfson Group, The Moinian Group, and Wainbridge Capital. The WSJ has more here. 

    Say, a New York-based startup seeking to upend the proxy-voting process, has raised $8 million in seed funding led by Point72 Ventures, with participation fromQuiet Capital, Struck Capital, Core Innovation Capital, and other investors. Barron’s has more here. (Sub required.) 

    Spectral Edge, a four-year-old, Cambridge, U.K-based startup with a mathematical technique for improving  photographic imagery in real time, has raised $5.3 million in Series A funding from earlier backers Parkwalk Advisors and IQ Capital. TechCrunch has more here. 

    StackRox, a four-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup that provides security for containerized cloud-native applications, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from follow-on investments from Sequoia Capital and Amplify Partners. More here. 

    Veerum, a four-year-old, Calgary, Canada-based artificial intelligence platform that aims to predict and resolve issues on construction projects, has raised $3.9 million in seed funding led by Brick & Mortar Ventures, with participation from Blackhorn Ventures and Creative Ventures.
    New Funds
    Conductive Capital, a new Bay Area-based expansion-stage venture firm, has secured $100 million from electronics giant Panasonic for its debut fund. The firm’s cofounders are Carey Lai, who previously worked at Intel Capital and IVP, and Paul Yeh, formerly of Kleiner Perkins. The two were previously roommates, says TechCrunch. More here. 

    The European Investment Fund and the European Commission have launched VentureEU, a pan-European venture capital funds-of-funds program to boost investment in innovative startup and scale up companies across Europe. The idea is to close the investment gap with the U.S. VentureBeat has more here.
    IPOs
    Carbon Black, a Waltham, Ma.-based maker of endpoint security software, has filed for a $100 million IPO. Its biggest outside shareholders include Accomplice,Highland Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, .406 Ventures and The Blackstone Group. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Huya, a six-year-old, Guangzhou, China-based company that says it’s the largest live-streaming gaming platform in the country, is planning to raise $200 million through the sale of American Depository Shares on the NYSE, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The pricing of the ADS and exact timing of the listing were not included in the filing. China Money Network has more here. 

    Zuora, the 12-year-old Foster City, Ca.-based subscription billing software company, boosted its IPO pricing today, from an initial $9 to $11, to $11 to $13. It still plans to offer 10 million shares. Nasdaq has more here.
    Exits
    Footwear and clothing giant Nike announced last night that it has acquired a Tel Aviv, Israel-based computer vision company called Invertex to strengthen its digital technology platforms. Financial details weren’t disclosed, but as the outlet Globes notes, but the acquisition is likely for a small sum. Last year, Invertex raised $2 million in a seed funding led by OurCrowd. More here. 

    An investor group led by tech-focused private equity firm Francisco Partnersagreed to acquire payments technology company VeriFone Systems for $3.4 billion, including debt. Francisco is paying a 54 percent premium over the company’s closing share price yesterday. As Bloomberg notes, VeriFone, which makes point-of-sale card readers, has struggled against increased competition from Silicon Valley upstarts like Square. Bloomberg has more here.
    People
    Jack Dorsey’s fight against twitter trolls has gotten personal, in ways that Twitter insiders describe as both promising and fraught. 

    Todd Jackson, a former product manager with Dropbox and Twitter, has joined First Round Capital as a founder-in-residence. 

    Uber rolled out a new app for its drivers today that aims to make their lives easier, and their work more lucrative. Dara Khosrowshahi talked today to Uber drivers in L.A. about the new app; you can catch his presentation here if you’re curious. 

    Former hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz was sidelined by Goldman Sachs, then Fortress Investment Group. Now he’s searching for redemption in cryptocurrencies. (Great New Yorker piece.) 
    Good Deeds
    Last week, the crowdfunding website DonorsChoose.org featured more than 35,000 requests from teachers seeking cash for field trips, computers, musical instruments, and the like, and all the teachers’ needs were answered by a single outfit — Ripple — the San Francisco cryptocurrency company. Ripple’s donation — $29 million in XRP, the cryptocurrency it developed — is the largest gift in the 18-year history of DonorsChoose. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has more here. (H/T: Axios for flagging.)
    Jobs
    The venture firm IVP is hiring a financial analyst. The job is on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Ca. Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, is hiring a business operations and strategy associate. The job is in San Francisco.
    Data
    American teenagers continue to deeply prefer Apple’s iPhone to phones running Android,  according to Piper Jaffray‘s new “Teens Survey,” which questioned thousands of kids across 40 states and found that 82 percent of them own an iPhone, up from 78 percent last fall. Business Insider has more here.
    Essential Reads
    Japan wants to allow crypto ICOs. Big banks like Wells Fargo and Citigroup are using a back door to finance subprime loans.
    Detours
    The richest zip code in America. 

    The best tweets from Zuckerberg’s big day before Congress. 

    This may be our favorite story ever. 
    Retail Therapy
    The Otto fan. (“Makes wind!”)

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 9, 2018

    Hi, happy Monday, all! Hope your week is off to a great start.:) We’ve been a little crazed today, so no column.
    Top News
    Congress has released Mark Zuckerberg’s prepared testimony ahead of a Wednesday hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The greatest bubble in history is popping, according to Bank of America’s chief investment strategy; he wrote in a note last night that the cryptocurrency is tracking the downfalls of the other massive asset-price bubbles in history less than one year out from its record.
    New Fundings
    Armis, a 2.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based enterprise IoT security company, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Red Dot Capital Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital. The company has now raised $47 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Bitmovin, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based online video software and infrastructure company, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Highland Europe, with participation from earlier backers Atomico, Constantia New Business, Dawn Capital, and Y Combinator.  The company has now raised $43 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

    BookNook, a two-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based reading instruction startup that powers personalized and small group learning, has raised $2 million in seed funding co-led by Better Ventures and the Urban Innovation Fund, with participation from Reach Capital, Impact Engine, Kapor Capital, Redhouse Education, and Edovate Capital. TechCrunch has more here. 

    City Pantry, a five-year-old, London-based office catering marketplace, has raised £4 million ($5.7 million) in funding led by Octopus Investments, with participation from Newable Private Investing and earlier backers. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Comma.ai, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based transportation startup that has been in a near-state of constant iteration (we’re not exactly sure what it’s working on right now), has raised a fresh $5 million in funding, according to a new SEC filing. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Ecovia Renewables, a four-year-old, Ann Arbor, Mi.-based biotech company focused on developing high-performing bio-based chemicals and fuels, has raised an initial $1 million in seed funding, including from Seppic Group, a designer and manufacturer of specialty ingredients. More here.

    Edovo, a five-year-old, Chicago, Il.-based tablet-based education startup for incarcerated people, has raised $9 million from Impact Engine, Lumina Foundation, Kapor Capital and others. More here. 

    Great Jones, a nearly year-old, New York-based full-service residential property management company, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Juxtapose and several New York City real estate and tech entrepreneurs. More here. 

    Holberton School, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based two-year program that trains full-stack engineers, has raised $8.2 million in Series A funding led by earlier backers daphni and Trinity Ventures, with participation from new investor The Omidyar Network. The company has now raised $13 million altogether. 

    IceKredit, a nearly three-year-old, Shanghai, China-based risk management platform, says it has raised roughly $25 million in Series “pre-B” capital led by Yoozoo Network, with participation from YongRui Investment and other investment firms. More here. 

    Intangible Labs, a 10-month-old, New York-based cryptocurrency startup that’s backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Digital Currency Group and Pantera Capital, has raised a whopping $125 million through a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) sale, a new SEC filing shows. The company is developing Basecoin, an adjustable-supply cryptocurrencies that, unlike fixed-supply (and wildly volatile) cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is designed to maintain a stable value in volatile conditions. Coindesk has more here. 

    Juro, a two-year-old, London-based startup that makes contract workflow tools, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Point Nine Capital, with participation from earlier backer Seedcamp. TechCrunch has more here. 

    Magenta Therapeutics, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotechnology company that’s aiming to make stem cell transplants accessible to more patients, has raised $52 million in Series C funding. Casdin Capital led the round, with participation from EcoR1 Capital, Eventide Asset Management, Watermill Asset Management and earlier backers Be the Match BioTherapies and Access Industries. More here. 

    Nexford University, a year-old, Washington, D.C.-based company that will develop a curriculum based on employer needs (it isn’t being more specific than that right now), has raised $4 million in seed funding, including from Magnify Ventures, and unnamed angel investors. A tiny bit more here. 

    Ocrolus, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that says its software can analyze uploaded bank and credit card statements quickly, cheaply and with near perfect accuracy, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Bullpen Capital, with participation from QED Investors, Laconia Capital Group, ValueStream Ventures, and RiverPark Ventures. More here. 

    Plus Products, a 2.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that makes cannabis-infused edibles, has raised roughly $6 million in Series B financing led by Serruya Private Equity Partners and Navy Capital Green Fund. More here. The Primal Pantry, a four-year-old, Maidenhead, U.K.-based food brand that sells snack bars, has raised £3 million ($4.2 million) in funding from NVM Private Equity. More here. 

    TVSquared, a six-year-old, Edinburgh, Scotland-based global TV performance analytics provider, has raised $8 million in funding led by West Coast Capital, with participation from earlier backers, including Scottish Investment Bank. The company has now raised $21 million altogether. More here. 

    WorkFusion, an eight-year-old, New York-based company whose robotic process automation software manages robots that perform repetitive work, has raised $50 million in Series E funding co-led by Hawk Equity and Declaration Partners, with participation from earlier investors Georgian Partners, iNovia Capital and NGP Capital. More here.
    New Funds
    A new Chinese blockchain fund called Xiong’An Global Blockchain Innovation Fund has a healthy $1.6 billion available to invest in innovative startups. The fund was launched publicly today by the Hangzhou, China-based venture capital firm . Tunlan Investment; reportedly, more than $400 million is coming from the Hangzhou city government. Coindesk has more here. 

    Background Capital, a four-month-old, Bay Area-based firm founded by former CRV general partner Rafael Corrales, has raised $9 million for its debut fund, reports Axios. It says the outfit employs a  super-angel strategy, with a group of LPs serving as “super-connectors” for founders. Slightly more here. 

    Saama Capital, a five-year-old, Bengalaru, India-based early-stage venture firm, has raised $100 million for its fourth fund shows an SEC filing. The outlet Inc 42 has a bit more here.
    IPOs
    Pivotal Software, a five-year-old, 2,500-person, Bay Area-based business that’s majority-owned by Dell Technologies, has revealed some more plans about an upcoming IPO in which it plans to raise up to $681 million. Specifically, the company plans to sell 37 million shares of Class A stock for between $14 and $16 each, which would give it a valuation of roughly $4 billion at the top of that range. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.
    Exits 
    Uber has acquired bike-sharing startup JUMP for an undisclosed amount of money that TechCrunch is hearing is close to $200 million. TC had reported last week that JUMP was in talks with Uber, as well as with investors who were interested in providing it with more capital. More here.
    People 
    In an interview, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tells The Atlantic he’s not walking away from the company, but he is looking for outside expertise. National Geographic is developing a a six-part limited series called “Valley of the Boom” that’s set in Silicon Valley during the ’90s tech bubble. John Karna will play Marc Andreessen. Actors Bradley Whitford and Steve Zahn are also signed on for the project.
    Data
    Instagram was just ranked the worst social network for young people’s mental health in a survey of people ages 14 to 24. 
    Jobs
    Industry Ventures is looking to bring aboard an associate to help in sourcing and executing deals. We’re told that top-performing associates will be considered for a promotion to senior associate after their second year. The job is in San Francisco. Applicants should write to ira@industryventures.com.
    Essential Reads
    Three-year old SenseTime has raised $600 million from Alibaba to continue making surveillance software that analyzes images and faces. TechCrunch has more here. 

    YouTube is in hot water again over how it deals with kids who use the video site. 

    A federal grand jury in Arizona has indicted seven people behind the classified-ads website Backpage.com on 93 counts, including charges of facilitating prostitution and money laundering.
    Detours
    Here’s the secretive waterfront town where both Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates live, among other billionaires. The trick to perfecting that spring suit. What animals think about EPA chief Scott Pruitt.
    Retail Therapy
    Embattled casino mogul Steve Wynn is quietly selling $100 million worth of art at Christie’s, in case you’re in the market.
    Correction
    Oopla. In Friday’s email, we told you that Jared Fliesler just joined the reading subscription site Scribd from Matrix Partners, but Fliesler had actually left Matrix a couple of years ago and has spent the last couple of years as an angel investor, advisor and world traveler. Sorry (mostly to Fleisler) for the mix-up.

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 6, 2018

    Yesterday, we meant to write “tantalizingly.” We hate it when we make errors like that, largely because it’s then harder to poke fun at this monster. (Okay, fine, he’s mostly human! Maybe. Save your hate mail.)

     

    Happy Friday, everyone.:)

     

    Also, to our Greek peeps and other Orthodox readers, happy Easter!

     

    Top News

     

    TechCrunch reported last night that Facebook has retracted Facebook messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg and other executives from their recipients’ inboxes. Now Facebook tells TechCrunch it will turn the ability to “unsend” messages into a feature for everyone.

     

    Sponsored By . . .

     

    Let’s keep this short: If you’re a startup or nonprofit that offers a solution that could improve financial health — even early stage —  you should apply to the Financial Solutions Lab virtual accelerator before April 11. Selected startups get $250K + incredible resources. More: Lab Impact Report, Launch Blog, Challenge Details,Application. Hurry! Have questions? Email today!

     

    Confirmed: Six Months After Leaving DFJ, Steve Jurvetson is Back with a New Venture Firm

     

    Last year, renowned VC Steve Jurvetson  parted ways with his longtime firm, DFJ, in what appeared a painful split. Six months later, he’s back with a new firm, Future Ventures, Jurvetson tells us via email. (Recode was first to take notice of its new site.)

     

    Says Jurvetson: “I am incredibly excited about the future — the future of entrepreneurship, disruptive technologies, and my [“future ventures”] to come. I strongly believe that mission-driven founders forge the future. At Future Ventures, we will support those passionate founders.

     

    Jurvetson’s fast return to the venture scene isn’t a complete surprise. In November,we talked with numerous institutional investors who agreed that if they could invest behind a new Jurvetson effort, they would.

     

    Largely, that interest ties to Jurvetson’s track record, which includes SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and the satellite company Planet, among other bets.

     

    The circumstances around Jurvetson’s departure from DFJ appear to have provided an opening for his return, too.

     

    More here.

     

    New Fundings

     

    BayoTech, a three-year-old, Albuquerque, N.M.-based maker of chemical reactors for the distributed production of hydrogen and fertilizers, has raised $12.5 million in Series B funding from an undisclosed strategic investor and earlier investors Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital. More here.

     

    By Chloe, a three-year-old, New York-based plant-based fast casual restaurant concept, has raised $31 million in funding led by Bain Capital Double Impact, with participation from Kitchen Fund, Collaborative Fund, RiverPark Ventures and TGP International/Qoot International.

     

    Nantero, a 17-year-old, Woburn, Ma.-based nanotechnology company developing next-generation memory using carbon nanotubes, has raised $29.7 million in funding, including from Dell Technologies Capital, Cisco Investments,Kingston Technology Corporation, CFT Capital, and Schlumberger. More here.

     

    Selina, a six-year-old, Panama-based hospitality company that aims to provide accommodations for budget and mid-range travel, has raised $95 million from Abraaj Group and WeWork founder Adam Neumann. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    Spidr Tech, a nearly three-year-old, Manhattan Beach, Ca.-based startup that’s developing law enforcement technology, has raised $2.5 million from investors including Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs, Birchmere Ventures, Stage Ventures, Kairos Association, Heartland Ventures, and No Name Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    New Funds

     

    Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is creating a venture capital arm, Coinbase Ventures, to invest in early stage companies in cryptocurrency and financial tech, it said yesterday. More here.

     

    Unusual Ventures, an early-stage venture fund founded by John Vrionis, who’d previously spent more than 11 years with Lightspeed Venture Partners, has raised $150 million in capital commitments for its debut fund, says Axios. According to a new SEC filing, the fund is targeting up to $160 million.

     

    IPOs

     

    Three weeks after disclosing a $55 million funding round, the nine-year-old, Brisbane, Ca-based anti-aging company Unity Biotechnology has filed to go public. The company is focused on stopping “cellular senescence,” which is when cells stop dividing and secrete proteins believed to damage nearby healthy tissue, and it has collectively raised $200 million toward that end so far. Xconomy has more here.

     

    Exits

     

    Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck, made famous after hackers made off with more than $400 million in digital token NEM, has been acquired. The company announced yesterday that the Tokyo-based online brokerage Monex Group will buy it in full. The transaction will see Coincheck become a wholly owned subsidiary of Monex. More here.

     

    People

     

    Controversial Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman “was fêted Wednesday at a Hollywood dinner hosted by power producer and director Brian Grazer and wife Veronica, plus WME-IMG boss Ari Emanuel,” reports the New York Post. Guests included Jeff Bezos, Bob Iger, Robert Kraft, Ron Howard, Evan Spiegel, Kobe Bryant, Dina Powell, and Shane Smith.

     

    MSNBC is airing a new interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook at 8 p.m. EST.

     

    Jared Fliesler, who spent a little more than three years with Matrix Partners, where he was a general partner, has joined reading subscription site Scribd as COO. Fliesler is the second partner to leave Matrix recently. Last month, as readers might recall, longtime general partner Josh Hannah also stepped down from the firm.

     

    Aaref Hilaly later this year will step down as a general partner with Sequoia Capital, says Axios, which cites personal reasons related to a family matter. Hilaly had joined Sequoia in 2012

     

    Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg tells the Financial Times that she personally made “mistakes” and that the company had been too slow to respond after the discovery of a massive data leak to Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that worked for the Trump campaign. She also says Facebook still doesn’t know what data Cambridge Analytica has, and that Facebook “underinvested” in the platform’s safety and security.

     

    Business magnate and philanthropist George Soros called cryptocurrencies a bubble in January. Now his $26 billion family office is planning to trade digital assets. According to Bloomberg, Adam Fisher, who oversees macro investing at New York-based Soros Fund Management, received internal approval to trade virtual coins in the last few months. More here.

     

    Essential Reads

     

    Holy s. A new headset developed by MIT called AlterEgo can read your mind, answering questions you ask without speaking them aloud.

     

    Postmates and DoorDash have reportedly discussed a merger that would unite two of the largest restaurant-delivery startups in the U.S. in a bid to take on better-funded competitors like GrubHub, Uber and Amazon.

     

     

    Detours

     

    How to ripen an avocado, according to science.

     

    The fascinating economics of massive cruise ships.

     

    Fortnite on iOS made $15 million in its first three weeks in the App store.

     

    Retail Therapy

     

    Time Slippers. (Funky brand, great shoe.)

     

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 5, 2018

    Thursday! So tantalizingly close to Friday!

     

    Top News

     

    Stocks are rising for a third day. (Phew.)

     

    Sponsored By . . .

     

    Financial Solutions Lab startups are doing extraordinary things. Digit has helped people save $1 billion+, yet the average user income is $40,000. Even has partnered with Walmart to provide financial tools to millions. Dave has helped people avoid more than $15 million in overdraft fees. Nonprofit EARN has helped thousands establish a savings habit. Want to count your visionary startup among them, receive $250K plus access to unparalleled resources that can help you scale?Apply for the next FinLab class by April 11!

     

    Benchmark Just Funded Chainalysis, the Intelligence Company That Helped Crack the Mt. Gox Case

     

    When the virtual currency exchange Mt. Gox collapsed into bankruptcy in 2014 following the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of bitcoins and tens of millions of dollars, those who lost money were understandably furious.

     

    For a small group of people, however, the theft — likely masterminded, we now know, by a Russian cybercrime suspect who was arrested in Greece this past summer — would prove auspicious.

     

    Specifically, Michael Gronager, who was then COO of the Kraken bitcoin exchange, spied an opportunity to team up with a new friend, Jonathan Levin, a post-graduate economist from Oxford who’d written academic works on crytpocurrencies. The two were already discussing intelligence software that could trace specific transactions on the blockchain and be sold to law enforcement. Before long, their young company, Chainalysis, was the official investigator on the Mt. Gox case, hired by its bankruptcy trustee to find all those missing coins.

     

    Its small team “cracked the case probably two months in,” Levin says now.

     

    It was a far bigger credit than most companies start off with, and Chainalysis  smartly ran with it, signing up customers like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Europol to help them catch criminals.

     

    But Chainalysis — which now employs 75 people and has offices in New York, Washington and Copenhagen — isn’t interested in forensics alone.

     

    More here.

     

    New Fundings

     

    Arkera, a three-year-old, London-based AI platform for wealth managers, has raised £4 million co-led by XTX Markets and Alan Howard. More here.

     

    Arvinas Therapeutics, a five-year-old, New Haven, Ct.-based pharmaceutical company that’s focused on protein degradation approaches to developing drugs that treat cancer and other diseases, has raised $55 million in Series C funding. Nextech Invest led the round, and was joined by investors including Deerfield Management, Hillhouse Capital and Sirona Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.

     

    BetterCloud, a six-year-old, New York-based SaaS operations management platform, has raised $60 million in Series E funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. Earlier investors also re-upped, including Accel, Greycroft Partners Flybridge Capital Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners and New Amsterdam Growth Capital. Forbes has more here.

     

    Careship, three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based marketplace for in-home senior care, has raised €6 million in further funding led by Creandum. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    CoinList, a year-old, San Francisco-based platform for connecting accredited investors to blockchain projects, has raised $9.2 million from Polychain Capital, Digital Currency Group, FBG Capital, Libertus Capital, Blockchain Capital and CoinFund. The platform was first incubated at venture firm AngelList. Coindesk has more here.

     

    Comet.ml, a 14-month-old, New York-based company that allows data scientists and developers to more easily monitor, compare and optimize their machine learning models, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding. Trilogy Equity Partners led the round and was joined by investors Two Sigma Ventures, Founders Co-Op, Fathom Capital, Techstars Ventures, and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    The Hotels Network, a 2.5-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based hotel software maker, has raised $3.7 million in funding led by Seaya Ventures, with participation from SeedRocket 4Founders. HospitalityNet has more here.

     

    Instacart, the six-year-old, San Francisco-based grocery delivery company, is closing on $150 million in new funding from earlier backers, including Coatue Management, says Axios. The money is reportedly part of a Series E round that was first disclosed last month and now totals $350 million at a $4.35 billion post-money valuation. More here.

    ITBMed, a two-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based developer of a drug to improve organ transplant outcomes, has raised up to $67 million in new funding led by Pablo Legorreta, the CEO of Royalty Pharma. Other investors in the round weren’t named. FierceBiotech has more here.

     

    Knowhere, a three-year-old, San Francisco and London-based startup that uses machine learning to write what it calls unbiased news stories, has raised $1.8 million in seed funding, including from CrunchFund, Day One Ventures, Danhua Capital, Struck Capital, and Abstract Ventures. More here.

     

    Qmerit, a three-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based startup that helps companies vet, onboard, manage and measure their contractors, has raised $11.75 million in funding, including from Strandview Capital, Schneider Electric, and Innogy Ventures. More here.

     

    RefleXion, a nine-year-old, Hayward, Ca.-based cancer treatment firm focused on positron emission tomography, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by TPG’s The Rise Fund. Others in the round include T. Rowe Price Associates, GT Healthcare Capital Partners, and earlier investors Sofinnova Partners, KCK Group, Venrock, Pfizer Venture Investments, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation. FierceBiotech has more here.

     

    ShopShops, a three-year-old, New York-based platform that connects brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. with consumers in China, has raised $6.1 million in seed funding led by Forerunner Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Founder Collective, SV Angel, GGV Capital, Third Kind Venture Capital and XRC Labs. More here.

     

    Sigilon Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech startup that just partnered with Eli Lilly to develop cell therapies for the potential treatment of Type 1 diabetes, has also taken $63 million in funding from the pharma giant, with up to another $410 million in additional royalties on the table, pending the meeting of certain milestones. FierceBiotech has more here.

     

    Suplari, a two-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based procurement insights platform, has raised $10.3 million in Series A funding led by Shasta Ventures, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures, Workday Ventures and earlier investors Madrona Venture Group and Amplify Partners. GeekWire has more here.

     

    Welltok, a nine-year-old, Denver-based health software firm that says it uses machine learning to analyze healthcare needs for individuals, then connects them to health-focused programs, has raised $75 million in funding, including from Future Fund Management Agency, Ziff Davis, NF Trinity Capital and ITOCHU Corporation. MobiHealthNews has more here.

     

    Zilingo, a three-year-old, Singapore-based e-commerce fashion marketplace for Southeast Asia, has raised $54 million in Series C funding led by Sofina, with participation from earlier backers Burda, Sequoia India, SIG, Venturra, Beenextand Tim Draper. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    New Funds

     

    Panacea Venture, a healthcare-focused venture firm founded by KPCB China managing director James Huang, is reportedly close to raising $150 million. Huang’s new fund will focus on early-stage healthcare opportunities in China. According to an earlier report in Private Equity International, Huang will continue to oversee his portfolio of KPCB companies until 2022.

     

    IPOs

     

    The business software company Domo, founded by serial entrepreneur Josh James and last valued at over $2 billion, is moving to go public, Recode has learned. More here.

     

    Exits

     

    MoviePass is saying “Hello — and welcome to Moviefone!” reports Variety. Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), an IT services management company and the majority owner of MoviePass, announced the acquisition of Moviefone from Verizon’s Oath subsidiary. Under the terms of the deal, Helios and Matheson is paying Verizon $1 million in cash and granting 2.55 million common shares (worth less than $8 million at HMNY’s current stock price) — substantially less than the $388 million that AOL paid to acquire Moviefone in 1999. More here.

     

    A Montreal-based fashion site called Ssense is acquiring Polyvore from Verizon’sOath, but the site will not live on. Ssense has already shut down the Polyvore  site, taking its user data and redirecting traffic from the site’s main URL. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    People

     

    JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon — who once called himself “barely a Democrat” — has Wall Street guessing again whether he might run for U.S. president in 2020.

     

    Stefan Glaenzer, a prominent European VC and former chairman of Last.fm, has quit his role as partner at Passion Capital, the London-based firm he co-founded seven years ago with partners Eileen Burbidge and Robert Dighero. His resignation ties to Glaenzer’s arrest and subsequent conviction in 2012 for sexually assaulting a woman on the London Underground Tube network. He claimed to be high on cannabis at the time. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    FourSquare’s former president Steven Rosenblatt has partnered with Facebook’s former director of sales Joshua Rahn and recruiting veteran Glenn Handler to launch a new company called Oceans that will mentor founders in exchange for a mix of cash and equity. Fortune has more here.

     

    Redpoint Ventures his hired Annie Kadavy, formerly of the venture firm CRV and, more recently, Uber, to be its first female partner. Forbes has more here.

     

    Michael Liberty said his startup Mozido, which once boasted a valuation of $5.6 billion, would revolutionize mobile payments. Now the SEC says that $55 million of the capital he raised toward that end, including from Google billionaire Eric Schmidt’s venture fund, went into Liberty’s own pocket. Forbes has more here.

     

    Jobs

     

    Humanity United, part of the Omidyar Group, is looking to hire an associate for its Working Capital Fund. The job is in San Francisco

     

    Essential Reads

     

    Facebook had asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. The project has been put on pause, following news of that Cambridge Analytica leak, but as CNBC notes in a new report, it could have, and may still, raise new concerns about the massive amount of data Facebook collects about its users and how it’s used.

     

    Wall Street’s big banks are waging an all-out technological arms race.

     

    You can now use your Echo smart speaker as a one-way intercom system! More here.

     

    Detours

     

    A woman whose memorable middle-finger salute to Donald Trump’s motorcade last year got her fired, is suing her employer.

     

    See how Montblanc makes its famous pens.

     

    “Always at the Carlyle.”

     

    Retail Therapy

     

    The Pupreme stainless steel dog bowl, for trend setters who happen to also eat poop sometimes.

     

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 4, 2018

    Hello! Happy Wednesday.:)

     

    Top News

     

    It turns out the woman who attacked YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno yesterday may have been acting out of anger over its content policies. More here.

     

    Sponsored By . . .

     

    Don’t kick yourself on April 12 (next week!) for missing the deadline. If you have a startup or nonprofit that offers a solution that could improve some facet of financial health — even early stage —  you should apply to the Financial Solutions Lab before April 11. More: Lab Impact Report, Launch Blog, Challenge Details, Application. (Did we mention winners get $250,000 plus access to unparalleled resources?)

     

    IfOnly, a Marketplace for Experiences, Has New Funding — and a New CEO

     

    IfOnly, a San Francisco-based online marketplace that offers more than 3,000 unique experiences to its adventuresome users, has raised $20 million in Series D funding led by MasterCard, which was joined by other strategic investors, including Hyatt Hotels and Sotheby’s.

     

    It has another new announcement, too: the company has brought aboard a new CEO, John Boris, who spent the previous six years as the chief marketing officer at the personalized photos and products company Shutterfly.

     

    The latter wasn’t necessarily something the company saw coming. Until recently, IfOnly  was led by serial entrepreneur and founder Trevor Traina. But in January, Traina — a financial supporter of President Donald Trump — was nominated for an ambassadorship to Austria, and last Thursday, he was sworn in at his Pacific Heights home in San Francisco.

     

    With Traina off to Vienna, Boris will steer the company’s growth, and its newest strategic partners should help.

     

    Both MasterCard and Hyatt, for example, offer the kinds of experiences featured at IfOnly to help make their offerings a bit stickier for customers.

     

    Meanwhile, Sotheby’s, known of its auctions business, has similarly been getting into the business of experiences. In December, anyone willing to pay enough could enjoy an after-hours tour of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, before being treated to an authentic Venetian dinner.

     

    More here.

     

    New Fundings

     

    6 River Systems, a three-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based startup whose mobile robots are designed to speed up production in warehouses, has raised $25 million Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures and iRobot. The company’s founders were previously executives with Kiva Systems (sold to Amazon). TechCrunch has more here.

     

    Alisports Group, a three-year-old, China-based sports affiliate of Alibaba Group, has raised $191 million in Series A funding led by Yunfeng Capital. China Money Network has more here.

     

    Chairman Mom, a new, San Francisco-based subscription startup aiming to provide resources to working mothers, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding led by Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate Ventures and Tim Connors from PivotNorth Capital, with participation from Greylock Discovery and Precursor Ventures. The company was founded by Sarah Lacy, the founder of the media site Pando. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    Impossible Foods, a seven-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company developing a plant-based meat alternative and known for its burgers, has raised $114 million in a convertible note led by Singapore’s Temasek and Sailing Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    OrderMyGear, an 11-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based company that sells its e-commerce and payments software to team sports and affinity groups, has raised $35 million in funding from Susquehanna Growth Equity. More here.

     

    Virta, a nearly four-year-old, San Francisco-based company try to reverse type 2 diabetes and other chronic metabolic diseases by remotely monitoring what patients eat, has raised $45 million in Series B funding from Founders Fund, Playground Global and earlier backers Venrock, Obvious Ventures, Creandum, Caffeinated Capital, and Max Levchin’s SciFi VC. The company has now raised $75 million altogether. More here.

     

    Yellow, a new, Brazil-based mobility startup, just raised a $9 million seed round for its dockless bike-share service, though it’s not saying who its backers are. Yellow was founded by Ariel Lambrecht and Renato Freitas, who sold their ride-share company 99 to Didi in January earlier this year. Yellow’s third co-founder is Eduardo Musa, CEO of bike manufacturer Caloi. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    New Funds

     

    The Australian venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures has closed its third fund with $225 million in commitments. Industry super fund Hostplus is its cornerstone investor. It also turned to First State Super, the Australian government’s Future Fund, and 100 high net worth individuals. More in Startup Daily.

     

    Congruent Ventures, a new, Bay Area-based firm led by veteran clean energy VCsAbe Yokell and Joshua Posamentier, has raised $92 million in funds to back early-stage companies focused on sustainability-related technology. Axios has more here.

     

    Firebrand Ventures, a young, Kansas City-based venture firm focused on startups in the Midwest, has closed its debut fund with just less than $18 million. The outfit is led by former Techstars managing director John Fein. Startland News has more here.

     

    Makers Fund, an eight-month-old, Hong Kong-based early-stage venture fund that’s focused exclusively on the global interactive entertainment market, has sealed up $180 million in capital commitments for its debut fund. We talked with cofounder Jay Chi about how he pulled it off, and what Makers Fund aims to do.

     

    Sofinnova Partners, the Paris, France–based venture capital firm specializing in life sciences, has launched a new fund, Sofinnova Crossover I, with €275 million ($340 million). Limited partners include Bpifrance, CNP Assurances, a major (unnamed) Chinese biopharmaceutical company, the Danish State Investment fund, and family offices in Europe and Asia. FierceBiotech has more here.

     

    IPOs

     

    Cloudera, which went public last year, fell more than 28 percent yesterday, after the company posted guidance that fell below analysts’ expectations. CNBC has more here.

     

    Exits

     

    GoFundMe, the startup that focuses on crowdfunding for charitable causes, has made another acquisition to scale up its platform, acquiring smaller rival YouCaring. YouCaring also never disclosed how much it has raised and has only ever disclosed one backer, Alpine Investors. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    JUMP Bikes, an on-demand biking service that was long known as Social Bicycles, or SoBi, is reportedly considering a sale to Uber for more than $100 million. TechCrunch, which has the scoop, says the company is also weighing another round of funding, one that Sequoia Capital may want to lead. More here.

     

    People

     

    CEO Daniel Ek, who owns just over 9 percent of the music streaming company, is now sitting on about $2.3 billion of Spotify stock at its current price. His lower-profile co-founder, Martin Lorentzon, has about $3.1 billion worth of shares in the company. Recode has more here.

     

    Oracle CEO Safra Catz reportedly criticized the bidding process for a huge Pentagon cloud computing contract in a private dinner with Donald Trump last night, saying it seemed designed for Amazon to win. Bloomberg has more here.

     

    Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has joined the board of StyleSeat, an online platform that manages scheduling, appointment reminders, and payments for the beauty industry. Minted cofounder Melissa Kim is also now a director. Fortune has more here.

     

    Alicia Navarro, the CEO and co-founder of venture-backed, London-based Skimlinks, has stepped down, handing over the reins to the company’s chief revenue officer. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    “I thought I was the hardest-working person on the planet” until I met wife Serena Williams, says investor Alexis Ohanian, adding that he thought tech was the hardest-working industry. “It’s all malarkey.”

     

    Slack is promoting VP of product April Underwood to be its first-ever chief product officer, per an announcement from CEO Stewart Butterfield. Fortune has more here.

     

    Jobs

     

    G2VP, a venture firm led by four partners who worked together previously for Kleiner Perkins’s Green Growth Fund, is hiring an analyst or associate. The job is in Menlo Park, Ca. More here.

     

    Essential Reads

     

    More than 3,000 Google employees, including dozens of senior engineers, have signed a letter addressed to CEO Sundar Pichai, protesting the company’s involvement in a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence to interpret video imagery and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes. “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” says the letter. More here.

     

    Remember the 50 million Facebook users whose data may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica? That was probably closer to 87 million, Facebook is now saying. More here.

     

    Lyft is now testing a subscription service in more than two dozen cites, hoping to lock in customers as competition with Uber heats up in the U.S. More here.

     

    Detours

     

    Inside the worst U.S. maritime disaster in decades.

     

    How one artwork can have four very different price tags.

     

    Female authors, describing themselves like a male author would.

     

    Retail Therapy

     

    Buy this, then tell your kids to get it themselves, dammit.

     

    Connie

  • StrictlyVC: April 3, 2018

    Hi, happy Tuesday, all.

     

    Top News

     

    We wish very much this was not suddenly the top news, but: Gunshots were reported around 1 p.m. PST near the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. Ambulances are at the scene and authorities have warned the public to stay out of the area. Roughly 10 minutes ago (as of this writing), parent company Google published the following on Twitter: “Re: YouTube situation, we are coordinating with authorities and will provide official information here from Google and YouTube as it becomes available.” Judging by what we’re seeing, a San Francisco hospital has confirmed reports that it’s starting to see patients from the shooting, though it hasn’t shared any numbers yet. We’d expect Google to release a statement shortly. More here in the meantime.

     

    (Note: The rest of the newsletter was authored before this situation developed, so please forgive the casual tone. This suddenly feels like anything but a routine day in our world.)

     

    Sponsored By . . .

     

    In just three years, 26 visionary startups and nonprofits have been through the Financial Solutions Lab, and they’ve had an impact on Americans’ financial health. They have helped more than 2.5 million Americans improve credit scores, save more than $1 billion, and gain better control of their financial lives. Be part of this impact story. Apply now for the Financial Solutions Lab (hurry — applications are due 4/11).

     

    New Fundings

     

    DeepScale, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based provider of deep learning perception software for use in mass-produced automated vehicles, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Point72 and next47, with participation from earlier backer Autotech Ventures and Trucks Venture Capital. More here.

     

    DriveWealth Holdings, a six-year-old, Chatam, N.J.-based fintech company, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by Raptor Group Holdings, SBI Holdings, and Point72. Earlier investors, including Route 66 Ventures, also joined the round. Business Insider has more here.

     

    Honey, a six-year-old, L.A.-based startup whose internet tool tells online shoppers whether there is an eligible coupon for their purchase, tells Recode that it’s in talks to raise in the neighborhood of $100 million in fresh funding. More here.

     

    Qwil, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that helps companies track their independent contractors and get them paid more quickly, has raised $5 million in Series A funding, along with a whopping $102 million in debt funding. The Series A was led by Mosaik, with participation from NextGen, Reciprocal, 500 Startups, Cantos Ventures, Ranch.vc, and Silicon Valley Bank. The debt round was led by Route 66 Ventures. More here.

     

    Paytm Mall, an online shopping app controlled by the eight-year-old, Noida, India-based mobile payment and commerce platform Paytm, has raised roughly $450 million from SoftBank Group and earlier backer Alibaba Group in a new round of funding that will come in four tranches, reports LiveMint. More here.

     

    Poseida Therapeutics, a 2.5-year-old San Diego-based company at work on a gene therapy for orphan liver diseases and immuno-oncology therapeutics for several types of cancer, has raised $30.5 million in Series B financing. Longitude Capital led the round, with participation from new investors Vivo Capital, theTavistock Group, and earlier investor Malin Corporation. More here.

     

    Red Balloon Security, a seven-year-old, New York-based developer of software that helps customers detect, mitigate and recover from a wide range of emerging threats to their embedded devices, has raised $21.9 million in Series A funding.Bain Capital Ventures led the round, with participation from Greycroft, American Family Ventures and Abstract Ventures. The company has now raised $23.5 million altogether. More here.

     

    SalesLoft, a seven-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based startup that helps companies manage the contact phase of the sales process, just raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers LinkedIn and Emergence Capital. The company has now raised $75 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    Shine, a two-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based self-care app that offers audio tracks on how to handle toxic relationships and more, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Comcast Ventures, with participation from Betaworks, Felix Capital and The New York Times Co. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    Stackery, a two-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based startup that provides a governance and management layer for the relatively new concept of serverless architecture, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding led by HWVP (formerly Hummer Winblad Venture Partners). Other participants in the deal include Voyager Capital, Pipeline Capital Partners, and Founders’ Co-op. The company has now raised $7.3 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    Ubiquity6, a year-old, San Francisco-based augmented reality startup, has raised $10.5 million Series A funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from First Round Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Gradient Ventures, LDVP, A+E and WndrCo. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    New Funds

     

    Eclipse, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm, is raising one big honking special purpose vehicle, shows an SEC filing that lists a $190 million target. More on Eclipse here.

     

    Razor’s Edge Ventures, a Reston, Va.-based venture firm, is trying to raise $63.5 million for a new fund, according to an SEC filing.

     

    Vida Ventures, a year-old, Boston, Ma.-based life sciences venture firm, has raised $295 million for its debut fund. The firm, founded by Arie Belldegrun, Fred Cohen, Leonard Potter, Arjun Goyal, and Stefan Vitorovic, plans to both actively fund — and build — life sciences companies. More here.

     

    Exits

     

    21st Century Fox is willing to sell Sky News to The Walt Disney Co., it says. More here.

     

    InVision App, a seven-year-old, New York-based digital product design platform, has acquired Wake, a collaboration tool for digital product designers. InVision has raised around $235 million in venture funding, shows Crunchbase. Meanwhile, Wake earlier this year raised $2.1 million via a SAFE offering. TechCrunch has more here.

     

    Meituan Dianping, the China-based provider of on-demand services, is reportedly in talks to buy bike-sharing company Mobike for around $3.7 billion, which has raised just shy of $1 billion from investors to date, shows Crunchbase. TechNode has more here.

     

    Japanese online broker Monex Group says it’s considering buying Coincheck, a local cryptocurrency exchange hit by a high-profile $530 million theft earlier this year. The company did not provide any details, but the Nikkei daily reports that the deal could be worth “several billion yen” and thinks an announcement is likely this week. CNBC has more here.

     

    Nine years after spending $884 million to acquire Wind River Systems, which made software for embedded devices, Intel is selling the company to private equity firm TPG for undisclosed terms. ZDNet has more here.

     

    IPOs

     

    GreenSky, a 12-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company whose lending platform enables retailers, health-care providers and home contractors to offer loans to their customers, has filed confidentially for an IPO, says the WSJ, whose sources say it could raise up to $1 billion at a valuation of roughly $5 billion. The company was in talks to go public through an acquisition by a “blank-check” company run by a former Blackstone Group partner but those plans fizzled, says the WSJ. More here.

     

    Zuora, the 11-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based cloud subscription management platform, yesterday revealed plans to raise $100 million in an IPO of 10 million shares priced between $9 to $11 a piece. The company’s biggest outside shareholders include Benchmark, Redpoint Ventures, Shasta Ventures,Tenaya Capital and Wellington Management Company. Crunchbase News has more here.

     

    People

     

    The 36 women secretly breaking up Silicon Valley’s old boys’ club.

     

    500 Startups is making its most meaningful governance change since founderDave McClure resigned from the role last year. In an unusual deal, the firm is selling an undisclosed amount of equity in its parent company, called Mothership, to the Abu Dhabi Financial Group, which will now help manage 500 Startups operations alongside the firm’s current head, Christine Tsai. Recode has more here.

     

    Amber Baldet, a program lead who set up JPMorgan’s blockchain strategy and headed up its enterprise-focused Quorum blockchain, is leaving the bank to launch her own venture, JPMorgan said on Monday. Reuters has more here.

     

    Two founders of a cryptocurrency firm that was endorsed by champion boxer Floyd Mayweather have been charged with carrying out a fraudulent ICO by the SEC. CNBC has more here.

     

    The full Midas List, out today.

     

    Jobs

     

    BET Networks, a division of Viacom, is looking to hire a senior digital business development director. The job is in New York.

     

    Lead Edge Capital, a growth equity firm, is hiring a full-time associate. The job is in New York.

     

    Data

     

    At least $2.4 trillion was raised privately in the U.S. last year, concentrating power amid a far smaller pool of backers with access to such deals — and raising concerns about oversight. The WSJ takes a look here.

     

     

    Essential Reads

     

    Spotify  opened on the NYSE today at $165.90, giving the company a market value of $29.5 billion(!). Spotify isn’t selling its shares on the stock market, meaning the company isn’t raising any money today. Instead, the event, known as a “direct listing,” is a collection of transactions from existing shareholders like employees and investors who are selling shares directly to stock market investors. TechCrunch has much more here.

     

    Snapchat is rolling out group video chats — the same kind of group video chats that apps like Houseparty and Facebook Messenger offer.

     

    MIT is cutting ties with Nectome, the Y Combinator-backed startup promising to preserve customers’ brains for the possibility of future digital upload.

     

    According to Vanity Fair, Donald Trump wants the Post Office to increase Amazon’s shipping costs. According to Bloomberg, however, there are no active discussions happening inside the White House about turning the power of the administration against the company.

     

     

    Detours

     

    The first 3D printed steel bridge looks as futuristic as you’d imagine it would.

     

    The untold story behind Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech.

     

    An updated Sinclair Broadcast anchor script.

     

    Retail Therapy

     

    Designer fire extinguishers. These seem wrong, but don’t you want one?

    Connie

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