Hi, everyone, good morning!

Here’s where to donate to victims of Harvey, a storm we now know is like no other in U.S. history.

Top News in the A.M.

Uber is ending its post-trip tracking of riders, as part of a new public relations privacy push.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by Studio Science, a leading design and innovation consultancy that specializes in building and launching ambitious brands, services and products for some of the world’s leading technology companies. Studio Science partners with world-class VCs, startups and founders to design compelling brand experiences, explore emergent business models and innovate new products and services. To learn more about Studio Science’s customers, results, and work, we invite you to visit www.studioscience.com.

The Rise of Iranian-Americans in Tech is No Surprise

Longtime Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has put Iranians and Iranian-Americans in the spotlight. In part, that’s because the 48-year-old, just elected to become Uber’s new CEO, fled Iran with his family at age 9 to escape the Iranian Revolution. In part, his ties to other people of Iranian descent in the U.S. tech world are, well, extensive.

As The Washington Post noted in an article earlier today, Khosrowshahi’s brother, Kaveh Khosrowshahi, is a managing director with Allen & Co. His cousin, Amir Khosrowshahi, co-founded Nervana, an artificial intelligence company that Intel acquired last year for more than $400 million. He is also cousins with Hadi and Ali Partovi, high-powered twins who are both founders and tech investors.

As if that’s not enough, the Post says two other family members include Farzad “Fuzzy” Khosrowshahi, who played a role in creating Google spreadsheets, and Avid Larizadeh Duggan, a London-based general partner at GV.

Venture capitalist Pejman Nozad, who was practically penniless and unable to speak English when he moved to the U.S. from Iran in 1992, says that neither Khosrowshahi’s success, nor that of his extended network, should come as a shock to anyone who knows how Iranian families tend to operate — putting family and friends first, followed closely by a dedication to study, particularly of math and science.

“Math and science are so rooted in Iranian culture,” says Nozad, who today co-manages the venture firm Pear, which he co-founded roughly four years ago with friend and fellow investor Mar Hershenson.

Nozad points to Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman and first Iranian to win the Fields Medal, often described as the rough equivalent of a Nobel Prize for mathematicians. (Sadly, Mirzakhani, who was most recently a professor at Stanford, passed away last month at age 40, a victim of aggressive breast cancer.)

Nozad also evokes Sharif University of Technology in Iran, which has produced large numbers of PhD students for Stanford, as Newsweek once noted. In fact, the report praised Sharif as having “one of the best undergraduate electrical-engineering programs in the world.”

More here.

New Fundings

Akeso Biopharma, a five-year-old, Zhongshan, China-based contract research organization that provides services to domestic and international pharmaceutical companies, has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by GTJA Investment Group, with participation from Shenzhen Capital Group, Qianhai Fund of Funds and TriWise Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Amplero, a year-old, Seattle-based company behind an AI-driven marketing platform, has raised $17.5 million in Series B funding co-led by Greycroft Partners and Ignition Partners. Earlier backers Wildcat Venture Partners, Seven Peaks Ventures, and Trilogy Equity Partners also participated in the round, which has brought Amplero’s total funding to more than $25 million. More here.

Anonyome Labs, a three-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based startup that runs a cyberprivacy platform for consumers, has raised $20.4 million in Series B funding from Hanna Ventures and a long list of individual investors, including LifeLock founder Todd Davis, Ariba cofounder Ken Eldred, and earlier backers, such as Crosspoint Ventures cofounder John Mumford and Symatec CEO Greg Clark. SiliconAngle has more here.

Arrail Dental, a 19-year-old, China-based private dental service provider with nearly 100 private clinics in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, among other cities, has raised $90 million in Series D round funding from Goldman Sachs and the Chinese private equity firm Hillhouse Capital Group. China Money Network has more here.

Bestow, a year-old, Dallas-based on-demand life insurance platform, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Core Innovation Capital, Morpheus Ventures and 8VC. More here.

Gigster, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that does software development on demand, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from original investors Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and Sound Ventures. Michael Jordan, Marc Benioff and former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo also participated in the round. More here.

Herb, a two-year-old, Toronto-based digital media business focused on cannabis-related news, has raised $4.1 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from Slow Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and numerous individual investors, including Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke and Buddy Media co-founder Michael Lazerow.  TechCrunch has more here.

Hotelchamp, a two-year-old, Amsterdam-based marketing and sales platform that aims to help hoteliers drive more direct bookings on their sites, has raised €2.25 million ($2.7 million) in seed funding, including from popular Dutch blogger Nalden, and Phillippe de Knijff and Jolanda Degen of WorldTicketCenter.  The company has now raised €4 million ($4.8 million) altogether. More here.

LevaData, a four-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based software company that aims to help its enterprise customers improve their gross margins by reducing supply chain costs, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Tola Capital. More here.

LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, an eight-year-old, Reston, Va.-based cybersecurity company, has raised $26.3 million in debt and equity, including from new investors Eastward Capital and Triangle Peak Partners. Earlier backers Alsop Louie Partners, Neuberger Berman, and New Spring Capital also joined the round. More here.

Next Caller, a five-year-old, New York-based phone fraud detection service, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Crystal Towers. TechCrunch has more here.

Qiniuyun, a six-year-old, Shanghai, China-based  enterprise cloud services company, has raised $140 million in new funding from Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital. The company is expected to support the development of Alibaba’s cloud computing unit, Alibaba Cloud. China Money Network has more here.

Recvue, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.- based recurring revenue and billing management platform, has raised $2 million in funding led by Cota Capital. More here.

Wise Apple, a year-old, Chicago-based meal delivery service whose hook is that it helps involve kids in meal planning, has raised $3.6 million in seed funding. Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Levy Family Partners led the round, with participation from Chicago Ventures, Greycroft Partners, BoxGroup and Irish Angels. More here.

Zūm, a nearly three-year-old, Belmont, Ca.-based start focused on providing on-demand rides for kids aged 5 through 15, has raised $5 million in funding from Sequoia Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

DSG Consumer Partners, a four-year-old, Singapore-based investment firm focused on (mostly) privately held consumer businesses, has closed its second fund with $50 million in capital commitments, putting the amount of money it’s now managing at $74 million. LiveMint has more here.

Joy Capital, a China-based venture capital firm founded a couple of years ago by former Legend Capital managing director Liu Erhai, is seeking to raise $300 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. The firm closed on a $200 million debut fund just last year.

Exits

Meltwater, a 16-year-old, San Francisco-based company that provides data to more than 25,000 businesses to track where and how they are mentioned in media and other public platforms, has acquired Algo, a 12-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based startup that has built a data analytics platform for real-time searches around topics and specific keywords. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Algo had raised an undisclosed amount of funding, says TechCrunch, including from Matt Michelsen, an angel investor and Algo’s cofounder. More here.

Western Digital Corp., known for storage hardware,  said yesterday that it has acquired the assets of startup Upthere, an app-based cloud-storage offering meant to challenge services like Dropbox. Terms of the deal were not announced, but UpThere had raised $77 million in venture funding last year led by Western Digital’s venture investment arm, along with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Marketwatch has the story here.

People

Ryan Hoover, founder of popular tech leaderboard Product Hunt, is raising a small venture capital fund called Weekend Fund that has secured just over $3 million, per an SEC filing first flagged by Axios. The fund isn’t a complete surprise; as we reported in May, a number of investors are raising small venture funds that are managed by AngelList, including Hoover. Axios notes, however, that Hoover’s fund appears to have raised more money than most Angel Funds to date, which are investing less than $1 million. AngelList had acquired Product Hunt last December for a reported $20 million. More here.

Dara Khosrowshahi may need to divest his shares in freight startup Convoy if he accepts the CEO role at Uber, reports Recode. In May, the company launched a competing freight service called UberFreight that matched truckers with payloads through an app. Uber cofounder Garrett Camp, also an early investor in Convoy, divested his shares in the company in June, says the report. More here.

The top two executives of Mozido, a financial technology company that has raised some $300 million to develop a mobile payments business, have quietly left the company, reports Forbes. More here.

Facebook hired Michael Sayman for an internship when he was 17 years old, and gave him a full-time engineering job at 18. Now, the wunderkind, who turned 21 last week, is leaving for Google. More in Bloomberg.

Heavyweight tech investor and FDA-critic Peter Thiel is among conservative funders and American researchers backing an offshore herpes vaccine trial that blatantly flouts US safety regulations, according to a report yesterday in Kaiser Health News. Ars Technica has more here.

Jobs

Verizon is looking to hire a venture development manager. The job is in San Francisco.

Data

Basically, every problem in the U.S. economy is because companies have too much power, new research argues.

Essential Reads

In case there was any doubt, the Apple iPhone event is, in fact, taking place September 12. The company is aiming to use its new 1,000-seat Steve Jobs theater, on its new headquarters, for the spectacle.

Detours

The Library of Congress has put the papers of Alexander Hamilton online for the first time in their original format. Zoom in and read them here.

Why Yale owns a forest.

The stars of “The Crown” on what British people say versus what they really mean.

Retail Therapy

Skyroam Solis. So WiFi, so much puck-like. (We want one.)

Holy s, southeast Texas. Hang in there.

No column today (we’re not quite done with what we’re working on).

Top News in the A.M.

Uber has a new CEO: longtime Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Here’s an excellent look at his career, and what he and ousted CEO Travis Kalanick have in common.

Interestingly, Khosrowshahi may come with a price tag in the neighborhood of $200 million. At least, as Bloomberg notes, he holds unvested options at Expedia worth $184.4 million, and companies typically grant replacement awards to execs who forfeit unvested equity.

It’s going to be a big job, obviously. One of Khosrowshahi’s first tasks, says early Uber advisor Bradley Tusk, should be to implement the Holder report recommendations. Step two: Hire a management team.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by Studio Science, a leading design and innovation consultancy that specializes in building and launching ambitious brands, services and products for some of the world’s leading technology companies. Studio Science partners with world-class VCs, startups and founders to design compelling brand experiences, explore emergent business models and innovate new products and services. To learn more about Studio Science’s customers, results, and work, we invite you to visit www.studioscience.com.

New Fundings

Access Vascular, a two-year-old, Bedford, Ma.-based medical device company that’s developing venous access devices to eliminate thrombotic risk, has raised $3.7 million in funding from unnamed individual investors and angelMD, an investment platform that connects medical startups, physicians, and investors. More here.

Athelas, a year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup that wants to change blood testing with a machine that promises precise results (yes, that sounds familiar), quietly raised $3.5 million million earlier this year led by Sequoia Capital. The company has raised $3.7 million altogether. Bloomberg kicks the tires here.

CF PharmTech, an eight-year-old, Suzhou, China-based specialty pharmaceutical company that develops and manufactures inhalation products, has raised $65 million in Series D funding led by Future Industry Investment Fund, a private equity fund managed by SDIC Fund Management Corporation. Other participants in the round include CCB International, Yuanming Capital, Longmen Capital and Hengyutianze. China Money Network has more here.

Distinct Healthcare, a five-year-old, China-based private clinic franchise (a la One Medical), has raised $40 million in Series C funding, including from Matrix Partners China, Tiantu Capital, China International Capital Co., Qianhai Fund of Funds, and Shuimu Fund. China Money Network has more here.

Entefy, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company at work on a smart platform that uses AI to help users interact with people, services, and smart devices through what it has dubbed a “universal connector,” has raised $8 million in Series A funding from undisclosed investors. The company has now raised $17.7 million to date. More here (though its site is fairly cryptic).

Fangsiling, a two-year-old,  Nanjing, China-based startup offering rent installment payment options to young professionals in China, has raised $45 million in Series E funding. Mingdaojinkong led the round; other participants include 9F Bank, 9C Capital, Will Hunting Capital and Fengjr.com. China Money Network has more here.

Freenome, a three-year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based company focused on disease management and cancer detection through blood tests, has raised an additional $7 million in Series A funding. The new funding brings the company’s total funding to nearly $72 million, was led by Section 32 (Bill Maris’s new fund) and included the participation of 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki and other private and corporate investors. More here.

Hubble, a 10-month-old, New York-based direct-to-consumer contact lens brand, has raised $10 million in additional Series A funding from earlier investors FirstMark Capital, Greycroft Partners, Founders Fund, Wildcat Capital Management and Two River. The company, which had closed on $16.5 million in Series A funding earlier this year, has now raised more than $30 million to date. More here.

IndoorAtlas, a five-year-old, Oulu, Finland and Palo Alto, Ca.-based developer of indoor positioning technology, has raised €3.6 million ($4.3 million) in Series B funding led by Yahoo! Japan, with participation from earlier investors Takoa Invest and Innovestor Ventures. More here.

MedGenome, a four-year-old, Foster City, Ca.-based genomics research and diagnostics company, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Sequoia India and Sofina s.a., with participation from Zodius Capital; Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former CEO of Infosys; and Lakshmi Narayanan, former CEO of Cognizant. More here.

Seven Senders, a three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based e-commerce logistics startup that helps online shops ship to their customers, has raised €6.5 million ($7.8 million) in Series A funding led by btov Partners. EU Startups has more here.

Sherpa, a year-old, Naxxar, Malta-based price comparison sites for insurance products, has raised $2.3 million from InsurTech.VC and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

TimePlay, a 13-year-old, Toronto-based company specializing in interactive experiences for mobile and other second screen devices, has closed the first tranche of its Series A, closing on $6.4 million in funding. The company comes from unnamed accredited investors. More here.

WhatsBroadcast, a two-year-old, Munich, Germany-based messenger service for enterprises, has raised €5 million (roughly $6 million) in Series A funding, including from Hightech Gründerfonds, Müller Medien, media + more ventures, Wessel Management, and other, unnamed, parties. More here.

Exits

Hong Kong logistics company GoGoVan has agreed to a merger with 58 Suyun, the freight business of mainland Chinese online classifieds giant 58 Home, creating Hong Kong’s first startup that’s worth more than $1 billion. South China Morning Post has more here.

Gilead Sciences has acquired to buy acquire Kite Pharma, a publicly traded, Santa Monica, Ca.-based cancer immunotherapy company, for  $11.9 billion in cash, or $180 per share, which is a 29 percent premium over Friday’s closing price. Kite Pharma has a cell therapy treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma under review by the FDA that uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancerous cells. The L.A. Times has more here.

People

Since joining the Warriors in 2013, Andre Iguodala, 33, has quickly become part of the vanguard of NBA players and other athletes making financial forays into Silicon Valley. Bloomberg takes a look at his web of connections, and what he has funded so far.

Travis Kalanick filed a new document today arguing the case involving Benchmark should move to arbitration. This filing reiterates Kalanick’s earlier argument that Benchmark’s claims are subject to mandatory arbitration and that the Delaware Chancery Court doesn’t have the jurisdiction to settle them.

Boosted just landed a new CEO — Jeff Russakow — as the company tries to grow beyond electric skateboards.

Nice news: Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan welcomed their second daughter, August, he announced earlier today.

Also Sponsored By . . .

Casper is an internet sensation, with thousands of 5-star reviews and countless awards. The Casper mattress is obsessively engineered and sleeps cool. Plus it ships for free, straight to your door in a “how did they do that?” sized box. Try it risk-free for 100 nights. Mention the promo code STRICTLYVC and receive $50 off.

Jobs

American Family Insurance, a venture firm investing $200 million into startups in and around the insurance industry, is looking to hire a senior analyst. The job is New York.

Essential Reads

Apple is expected to announce three new iPhones at its September 12 event.

The retailers that can resist the Amazon onslaught.

In related news, Amazon’s its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods closed today, and the grocer is already rolling out discounts on select food items as result.

Detours

Why dating in your 20s is terrible.

(Better) understanding last night’s season conclusion to “Game of Thrones.”

Retail Therapy

Six places to visit with your unused vacation days.

Friday! [Clouds part, rainbows appear in background.] Hope you have a fantastic weekend, everyone.:)

Friends in Texas, we’re thinking of you!

Top News in the A.M.

A South Korean court just found 49-year-old Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong guilty of bribery and sentenced him to five years in prison. The decision could freeze up decision-making at the global electronics powerhouse, suggests the Associated Press.

Uber just abandoned its plans to move into a massive, 380,000-square-foot building in Oakland.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by Rosebud Communications. We’re small, scrappy, and get the job done. Our retainer is $6,250 per month, and we love going up against the bigger guys who charge $12K or more. Reach us at info@rosebudpr.io; operators are standing by.

Racing Against Big Rivals, India’s Ezetap Raises $16M

There are more than 1 billion cellphone users in India. The country also abruptly went cashless last November, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that millions of high-denomination currency notes would no longer be legal tender.

These two developments play nicely into the vision of Ezetap, a six-year-old, Bangalore-based startup whose software as a service is used by more than 200,000 merchants; they’re using its technology to transact payments via everything from physical cards to online payments to wallets to one-click payments in applications via India’s new UPI system.

Indeed, Ezetap and its ilk, which were once seen as innovators, are quickly becoming mainstream, with Indians being forced to switch to electronic payments quickly. The company’s biggest challenge now: capturing market share as fast as possible from its better-known and more richly funded regional competitors, including the Alibaba and SoftBank-backed outfit Paytm, whose parent company was recently valued at $7 billion; and MobiKwik, which reportedly raised around $35 million earlier this month from the non-bank finance company Bajaj Auto Finance.

Investors seem to think Ezetap has a shot against its deeper-pocketed rivals. The company just closed on $16 million in new funding led by JS Capital Management, which is the venture firm of Jonathan Soros, with participation from Jeff Skoll Group and earlier backers Social Capital and Horizons Ventures.

“India is on the brink of a massive surge in consumer consumption, but not until the underlying payments infrastructure is securely in place,” Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya said in a statement to the press about Ezetap, whose $3.5 million Series A round Social Capital led back in 2012.

That puts the company “in an incredible position,” Palihapitiya said.

Time will tell what Ezetap is able to make of it.

More here.

(Other) New Fundings

Amitree, a nearly five-year-old, San Francisco-based online platform that helps home buyers navigate the process of buying a house, has raised $7 million in funding led by Vertical Venture Partners, with participation from Accel Partners and Seven Peaks Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Ember Technologies, a five-year-old, Westlake Village, Ca.-based maker of temperature-controlled mugs, has raised $13 million in fresh capital from a long list of private individuals. Ember has now raised more than $20 million altogether, including from StubHub CEO Scott Cutler, eBay Chief Product Officer RJ Pitman, singer Demi Lovato, and Robert Brunner, chief designer of Beats by Dre and the former head of design at Apple. L.A. Biz has more here.

Go-Jek, a seven-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based ride-hailing startup that rivals Uber and Grab regionally, has raised $100 million from JD.com according to Reuters. The money is part of a $1.2 billion round that Go-Jek is trying to close and which will give the company a $3 billion post-money valuation, says TechCrunch. More here.

Mirador, a three-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based digital small business lending platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from CMFG Ventures. More here.

Revive Kombucha, a seven-year-old, Petaluma, Ca.-based employee and family-owned brewery, has raised $7.5 million in Series B funding led by Peet’s Coffee. A long list of individual investors also joined the round. More here.

Stride Health, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based benefits startup for independent workers, has raised $23.5 million in Series B funding led by F-Prime Capital Partners, with participation from Portage3 Ventures and earlier backers Venrock and New Enterprise Associates. More here.

New Funds

Baidu, along with the biggest life insurer in China, China Life, are forming a 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) private equity fund to target internet and other technology investments, the companies said earlier today. VentureBeat has more here.

Primus Capital, a 34-year-old, Cleveland, Oh.-based venture capital and private equity firm, is looking to raise up to $500 million for its eighth fund, according to an SEC filing.

People

Melinda Gates: I spent my career in technology. I wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids.

Early Uber investor Shervin Pishevar — who was introduced to Uber by Benchmark’s Bill Gurley and Matt Cohler — has penned a letter to Uber’s board, demanding that Benchmark Capital drop its lawsuit against former CEO Travis Kalanick. Pishevar has also filed a legal motion, asking for Benchmark’s case to be dismissed. More here.

Verve, an ad tech firm that has raised at least $64 million, has quietly laid off staff in recent weeks in a sign of the company’s struggles.

Also Sponsored By . . .

Nicky Goulimis is a fast-talking, smart-as-a-whip Brit who came to America for a Stanford MBA. But something she found surprised her: In spite of her great UK credit history, she had a hard time getting a car, apartment, and credit card in the U.S. So she co-founded Nova, which enables immigrants to bring their credit “passport” with them — unlocking a world of quality customers for lenders. (And yes, they’re a Financial Solutions Lab company, today’s sponsor.)

Data

There are more unicorns in the startup world than ever before, but fewer companies are reaching a $1 billion valuation than in years past, says Pitchbook. More here.

Essential Reads

These former Apple engineers just built a $700 door lock.

Uber‘s board is gathering today to talk CEOs; there will be plenty of bickering, too.

Google is issuing refunds to advertisers over fake traffic, though some are questioning the level of those refunds.

Detours

Turd Reich: San Francisco dog owners are laying a minefield of dog poop for some out-of-town guests.

The innovation that changed fashion forever.

UFC champion Conor McGregor or a pretentious barista?

Retail Therapy

Crosley Rocket Jukebox. (It would not suck to have this in your office.)

Hi, all, happy Thursday. Hope you’re enjoying these last weeks of August.:)

A quick note to our reporter friends out there, especially those of you in the Bay Area. If you are interested in attending our upcoming SVC event the evening of September 27, let us know; we’re happy to send you a press pass. (Full-time journalists only, please.)

We also wanted to mention that over at TechCrunch, on Tuesday, September 19, the second day of TC’s upcoming Disrupt show, we’re organizing a breakfast discussion around fundraising tips from successful female founders. It’s going to be a lively chat, including with Jini Kim of Nuna (whose company has raised $90 million to date) and Elizabeth Iorns of Science Exchange (which closed its Series C earlier this year). This is a closed-door session, so won’t be live-streamed. If you’re a reporter who’s attending the event and you’d like to come, just let us know and we’ll make sure to get you a pass.

Top News in the A.M.

Holy b’doly. WeWork just announced a $4.4 billion investment from the SoftBank Group and its Vision Fund. More here.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by Rosebud Communications. We’re small, scrappy, and get the job done. Our retainer is $6,250 per month, and we love going up against the bigger guys who charge $12K or more. Reach us at info@rosebudpr.io; operators are standing by.

A Battery Company with Bold Claims Just Closed a $30M Seed Round

There’s no shortage of battery companies battling with Tesla for market share. Outfits around the world are building out battery capacity to fill the needs of automakers and energy storage developers alike — so much so that overcapacity has led to lower battery prices.

Still, a year-old, L.A.-based battery company called Romeo Power thinks its future looks very bright, thanks to a combination of talent, materials, and techniques that it claims enables the company to achieve at least 25 percent more energy density — and sometimes upwards of 200 percent more — than existing lithium-ion battery packs. In fact, its very tagline is: “The world’s most energy dense battery packs.”

It’s a bold claim, and one that skeptics will surely dismiss as little more. But Romeo has a number of things working in its favor. For starters, cofounder and CEO Mike Patterson has previously founded — and sold — three companies, including InAuth, a mobile authentication and fraud detection company that American Express bought last year for undisclosed terms.

The 190-person company features a number of veterans of SpaceX, Samsung, Tesla, and Amazon, so there’s institutional know-how about manufacturing, procurement, design, and about battery packs specifically. Indeed, cofounder and CTO Porter Harris spent a year at Faraday Future as its chief battery architect; before that, he spent four years at SpaceX as an energy storage engineer. In fact, Porter has been working on batteries for the last decade, dating back to an earlier engineering gig at The Aerospace Corporation, in Southern California.

Romeo is also fueled by capital. Specifically, it just closed on $30 million in seed funding —  all of it from its management team, unnamed family offices, and past shareholders who’ve invested in Patterson’s startups and “were willing to throw into the next one,” he says. (Asked if he has something against venture capitalists — or vice versa — Patterson says that’s not the case. “I’m not saying we won’t raise venture in the future, but not now.”)

More here.

(Other) New Fundings

51zhaoyou.com, a two-year-old, China-based business-to-business  e-commerce platform that trades in diesel, gasoline, and kerosene, has raised $31.8 million in Series B funding led by DCM Ventures. Others to join the round include the venture capital firm SIG, GGV Capital, Yunqi Partners, the Uber-like truck logistics start-up Huochebang, Sky9 Capital and Chuangban Investment. China Money Network has more here.

AbleTo, a nine-year-old, New York-based telehealth company that matches people with therapists and behavioral coaches, has raised $36.6 million in funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Aetna and earlier backers .406 Ventures, Sandbox Industries, HLM Venture Partners, and Horizon Healthcare Services. More here.

Blend, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based technology company focused on consumer lending, just raised $100 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Greylock Partners, with participation from Emergence Capital, 8VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Nyca Partners. The company has now raised $166 million altogether. More here.

Clearink Displays, a five-year-old, Fremont, Ca.-based developer of reflective display technology for various industry applications, has raised $5 million in Series C funding. The round, which is half subscribed, was led by Vestech International, which is an investment fund backed by a number of Asian display manufacturers. More here.

Cubic Telecom, an 11-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based supplier of data connections for cars and other IoT devices, has closed a new $46.5 million funding round from investors, including chipmaker Qualcomm and Audi‘s venture arm. TechCrunch has more here.

Descartes Labs, a three-year-old, Santa Fe, N.M.-based data company that’s applying machine learning to satellite imagery, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by March Capital, with participation from seed investors Crosslink Capital and the company’s Series A lead, Cultivian Sandbox. More here.

Eko Communications, a five-year-old, New York and Thailand-based company that operates a messaging app targeted at businesses, has closed a strategic investment of $2 million to grow in Japan and expand into Europe and the U.S.. The funding was led by Japanese corporate Itochu, which provided $1 million and will partner to help expand sales. Earlier backers, including Gobi Ventures, also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

G2 Esports, a four-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based esports team, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding, including from FC Barcelona midfielder André Gomes, Eric Mindich’s Everblue Management, and MACRO Venture. More here.

People

Former Twitter COO Adam Bain has joined the board of a new $500 million special purpose vehicle launched by Social Capital that plans to help startups go public without enduring the dreaded IPO process.

Susan Fowler, the former Uber engineer whose blog post about the company’s troubling internal workings eventually led to Travis Kalanick’s ouster, has a new message for the Supreme Court: get rid of arbitration agreements.

Also Sponsored By . . .

Eddie Lim had a problem. He had sold his company to Visa and was prepping to start another, when he tried to refi his home in Palo Alto. Interest rates? Super low. His home value? High. The answer? No dice; he was unemployed. Which made him wonder: Why is home wealth so illiquid in the first place? And so he started Point, a company selected by the Financial Solutions Lab, today’s sponsor. Here’s the rest of his story.

Essential Reads

Apple plans to offer a premium version of its iPhone for $999.

Roku isn’t only maintaining its lead as the top streaming media player device in the U.S.; it’s increasing it.

Detours

Salaries of top TV talent revealed.

Aging parents have lots of stuff, and their children don’t want it.

Now you can rent a dad in Japan.

Retail Therapy

Miniature Eames chair and ottomon, perhaps to go with the real deal.

Honestly, we’re not so sure about this trend (if you were to ask our opinion).

Well, hello, and happy Wednesday.:)

Top News in the A.M.

VIPKid, an online education company that matches Chinese students with North American teachers and has been exploding as parents seek out high-quality education for the children, just raised $200 million, exactly one year after raising $100 million. Investors include Sequoia Capital China and Tencent Holdings, says Bloomberg, The company is reportedly now valued at $1.5 billion. (Worth noting: Founder and CEO Cindy Mi is speaking at TechCrunch’s upcoming Disrupt event next month.)

Wall Street banks are warning that a downturn is coming.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by Rosebud Communications. We’re small, scrappy, and get the job done. Our retainer is $6,250 per month, and we love going up against the bigger guys who charge $12K or more. Reach us at info@rosebudpr.io; operators are standing by.

This Purveyor of “Human Grade” Pet Food Just Raised $12.6M from VCs

Ollie, a two-year-old, New York-based subscription service that sells what it calls human-grade pet food, has raised $12.6 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Canaan Partners, with participation from WME Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, RiverPark Funds, Correlation Ventures and earlier backers Primary Venture Partners and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. It brings the company’s total funding to roughly $17 million, including a $4.4 million seed round led by Primary and Lerer Hippeau last fall.

The company certainly takes dog food seriously, promising to customize recipes based on each dog’s “unique needs” as well as recommending the perfect portion and delivering that precise amount of food to its customers’ doors.

It uses a third-party USDA kitchen in Pennsylvania to produce its meals, which include chicken, beef, and lamb heart dishes with butternut squash, rutabaga, chickpeas, potato, cranberries, kale, strawberries, and cod liver oil, among other ingredients that you probably do not associate with dog food (yet!).

More here.

(Other) New Fundings

Art19, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based podcast technology company, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and DCM Ventures. Other investors participating in the round included United Talent Agency, Gallo Digital, Zach Coelius and Array Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Baozhunniu, a two-year-old, Beijing, China-based customized insurance products company, has raised $14 million in Series B funding led by the venture firm Marathon Venture Partners. Other investors in the round include Matrix Partners China, Xinyi Capital, Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, and Denise Peng, a venture partner at GGV Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Forward Networks, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company whose technology aims to help engineers and operators visualize and search complex networks to debug problems, verify network-wide policy correctness, and predict network behavior prior to making major changes, has raised $16 million in Series B funding. DFJ led the round; it was joined by investors that include Andreessen Horowitz and A.Capital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

ICEYE, a two-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based satellite-based service aiming to provide access to near-real-time imagery from space, has raised $8.5 million in funding led by Draper Nexus, with participation from True Ventures, Lifeline Ventures, Space Angels, Draper Associates and Finnish Funding Agency for Innovations. ICEYE has now raised $18.7 million altogether since its founding. TechCrunch has more here.

Innowatts, a four-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based energy analytics startup, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Shell Technology Ventures. More here.

Lumity, a three-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based HR benefits startup that aims to help employers optimize and simplify health care costs, has raised $19 million led by DFJ. TechCrunch has more here.

Memphis Meats, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based “clean” meat startup (it uses animal cells versus actual animals), has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by DFJ. Other investors to join the round include Cargill, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Atomico, New Crop Capital, SOSV, Fifty Years, KBW Ventures, Inevitable Ventures, Suzy Welch, Kyle Vogt, and Kimbal Musk. VentureBeat has more here.

Raised Real, a year-old, San Francisco-based subscription meal delivery service designed for growing babies, has raised $5 million in funding from privately held food delivery giant Schwan’s Company. More here.

Roost, a three-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based smart home technology startup, has raised $10.4 million in Series B funding led by Aviva Ventures, with participation from Desjardins Insurance and Fosun RZ Capital. More here.

Shanghai Distributed Technologies, a young, Shanghai-based company behind Onchain, a local version of blockchain technology, has raised its first round of institutional funding from Fosun Group, says Reuters. The size of the investment is not being disclosed. More here.

Sliver.TV, a two-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based esports entertainment platform in 360-degree VR, has raised $9.8 million in Series A funding led by Danhua Capital, with participation from Heuristic Capital Partners, ZP Capital, DCM, Sierra Ventures, The VR Fund, Samsung Next Fund and Sony Innovation Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Square Roots, a year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y. -based urban farming accelerator that invites applicants to participate in a yearlong program where they’re trained in urban farming, has raised $5.4 million in seed funding. Collaborative Fund led the round for the company, which was founded by Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk. TechCrunch has more here.

SquadLocker, a six-year-old, Warwick, R.I.-based startup that allows athletic teams to build and launch custom online gear stores quickly and easily, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding led by Causeway Media Partners. More here.

StoryStream, a five-year-old, U.K.-based platform that helps marketers centralize and display all their best social media content, has raised roughly $1.5 million in funding led by MMC Ventures. More here.

Truss, a year-old, Chicago-based commercial real estate tech platform, has raised $7.7 million in Series A  led by Navitas Capital, with participation from Hyde Park Angels. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

Snap‘s lead IPO underwriter, Morgan Stanley, just lowered its price target for the stock — again.

Exits

Okay, so this is more like an attempted exit, but: Match Group, the parent company of a variety of dating apps, offered to acquire Bumble for $450 million over the summer, according to TechCrunch. A source close to the company suggests that Bumble is valued at over $1 billion. More here.

People

James Damore,  the engineer who was fired by Google after he criticized the company’s diversity policies for ignoring differences between the sexes, has hired civil rights lawyer Harmeet Dhillon to explore filing a lawsuit.

Former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson has launched a campaign to buy Twitter to kick off the president.

Hi, happy Tuesday.:) SO MANY CALLS TODAY. (We didn’t forget you.)

Top News in the A.M.

Sonos says its customers won’t be given an option to opt out of its new privacy policy, leaving them with sound systems that may eventually “cease to function.”  They don’t seem too happy about the development.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by Rosebud Communications. Everybody’s still talking about the solar eclipse today. We’d say the sun did a good job of “getting the word out.” Smart, on-message media coverage = higher valuations. We’re the hardest-working PR firm in the business. Send us an email; operators are standing by: info@rosebudpr.io

This 23-Year-Old Just Closed Her Second Fund with $22 Million

Laura Deming is not your typical venture capitalist. Then again, she isn’t typical in many ways.

For starters, the 23-year-old, New Zealand native was home schooled, developing a love of math and physics and, perhaps most interestingly, the biology of aging, along the way. In fact, she became so preoccupied with the last that at age 11, Deming wrote to Cynthia Kenyon, a renowned molecular biologist who specializes in the genetics of aging, asking if she could visit Kenyon’s San Francisco lab during a family trip to the Bay Area. Kenyon said yes. When, soon after the visit, Deming asked if she could work in the lab, Kenyon said yes again.

Deming’s family moved to the U.S. to make it possible, and it’s highly doubtful they regret the decision. Indeed, by age 14, Deming was a student at MIT, and two years after that — at the tender age of 16 — she was a college drop-out, having been accepted into Peter Thiel’s two-year-old, Thiel Fellowship program, which gives $100,000 to young people “who want to build new things.”

Often, those “new things” evolve along the way. Not for Deming, who pitched the idea of a venture fund that would support aging-related startups, and has since turned that early concept into Longevity Fund, an early-stage venture outfit that just closed its second fund with $22 million.

Earlier today, we caught up with Deming, who’s now 23, to learn more about her path — and which technologies she’s betting on to extend the human lifespan.

It’s incredible that this all started with an email to a UCSF professor.

[Cynthia Kenyon] is the most amazing person I’ll ever meet.

What did you do in her lab, exactly?

We were working with tiny, see-through worms. You put them on plate of jelly and you see what happens if you change their genetic material. Do they live longer or die faster? If you starve them, they live longer. If you starve worms and also turn off certain genes, could you get them to live even longer? I was naïve, but I really wanted to make the longest-living worms ever. [Laughs.]

More here.

New Fundings

Animusoft, a three-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based software platform for drones, has raised $1 million from investors, including from Accelerated Growth Partners, a South Florida network of angel investors. The Miami Herald has more here.

CommandScape, a newly launched, Delray Beach, Fl.-based company that offers control centers, video surveillance and security for buildings, has raised an undisclosed amount funding from founder Jim Clark, who is best known for cofounding Netscape but who moved to Florida years ago to jump into real estate investing. USA Today has more here.

Databricks, a nearly four-year-old, San Francisco-based machine learning and analytics platform that was founded out of the UC Berkeley AMPLab, has raised $140 million in Series D funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, less than a year after raising $60 million led by New Enterprise Associates. The company has now raised $247 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Druva, a nine-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based cloud-based data protection provider, has raised $80 million in fresh funding led by Riverwood Capital. Other participants include Sequoia Capital India, Nexus Venture Partners, NTT Finance, Tenaya Capital and other, earlier backers. The company has now raised $200 million altogether. VC Circle has more here.

Elucida Oncology, a three-year-old, New York-based clinical development stage company whose technology aims to identify and treat an array of solid tumor cancers, has raised $10.9 million in funding, shows an SEC filing.

GoodTime, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that uses employee data to schedule interviewers faster and more cost effectively, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Big Basin Capital and Walden Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Hyper Anna, a two-year old, Sydney, Australia-based startup that has created a kind of virtual, AI-powered data analyst, has raised $16 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital China, with participation from seed investors Reinventureand AirTree Ventures. Australia’s Financial Review has more here.

Julive, a three-year-old, China-based online-to-offline real estate agency, has raised “tens of millions of U.S. dollars” in a round led by Vertex Venture Holdings, with participation from earlier backer Source Code Capital. China Money Network has more here.

ShoCard, a two-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based blockchain-based identity management system, has raised $4 million in funding. Morado and AME Cloud Ventures led the round with participation from Storm Ventures, Danhua Capital, Correlation Ventures, Recruit Strategic Partners and Robert Tinker, the founder and former CEO of MobileIron. More here.

Sigstr, a four-year-old, Indianapolis, Ia.-based cloud platform for employee email personalization, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Hyde Park Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Battery Ventures, HubSpot, Grand Ventures and High Alpha Capital. More here.

Skytap, an 11-year-old, Seattle-based company that runs its own cloud with the goal of helping enterprises that want to modernize their infrastructure bring their existing applications to its service, has raised $45 million in Series E funding. Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing led the round, with participation from existing investors. The company has now raised $109 million, altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Tulip.io, a four-year-old, Toronto-based startup whose mobile software allows sales associates and retailers to engage more effectively with customers, has raised $40 million in new funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The WSJ has more here.

New Funds

1confirmation, a fund that plans to invest in blockchain-based companies, is looking to raise $20 million for its debut fund, says Bloomberg. Mark Cubanand the venture capital firm Runa Capital is among its investors, and its technical advisors include investor-founder Balaji Srinivasan and programming language JavaScript founder Brendan Eich. More here.

Unshackled Ventures, a three-year-old organization that funds and helps foreign entrepreneurs who want to base their startups in the U.S., is raising a targeted $25 million for a second fund, according to an SEC filing. Axios has more here.

IPOs

Crystal Biotech, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based gene therapy company at work on treatments for dermatological diseases, is planning to raise up to $35 million in an IPO, shows a new filing.  Marketwatch has more here.

Meanwhile, Blue Apron has been hit with multiple class-action lawsuits over its sinking share price. TechCrunch has more here.

People

GoDaddy has named chief operating officer Scott Wagner its new CEO, announcing earlier today that current CEO Blake Irving will retire at the end of this year.

Veteran media executive Ross Levinsohn was named publisher and CEO of the 135-year-old L.A. Times yesterday.

The newest board seat for VC Mary Meeker: it’s with the PGA Tour Policy Board, a council that governs the tour.

Also Sponsored By . . .

Today’s StrictlyVC is also brought to you by the Financial Solutions Lab at CFSI, which would like to gently remind you that if you’re lucky, you’re going to get old. But your parents will first — and if they’re lucky, their money will last the rest of their lives. But what if there was a way to keep an eye on your folks’ financial lives, without taking away their financial independence? There is — it’s EverSafe, one of this year’s Lab companies. Here’s their story.

Jobs

Nextworld Capital is looking to hire an associate. The job is in San Francisco. (We hosted our May event at NextWorld; you can get a feel for its digs here.)

Data

Parents are maybe not great role models when it comes to texting and driving, suggests a new survey.

Essential Reads

Why big business is racing to build blockchains.

All 50 startups from day one of Y Combinator‘s Demo Day.

Coinbase’s individual customers get burglarized—with surprising and unsettling frequency — and fraud protections are mostly unavailable.

Detours

The next step after a bad first impression at work.

Foiling fast in Silicon Valley.

JayBey just shelled out $88 million for a new L.A. mansion — the most expensive home sale of the year in L.A.

Retail Therapy

The Plaza Hotel. Now it can be yours (for around $500 million).

Hi and happy Monday, everyone! No column today. (It was the first day back to school in our house, so hectic. We’ve also been distracted by this stupefying solar eclipse, which we’re still watching online.)

In separate news: our upcoming event, Wednesday, September 27, in San Francisco, is nearly sold out. We have roughly a dozen seats and that’s it, alas. If you don’t have a ticket but know you want to come, don’t delay.

Thank you to Bolt and to Ballou PR and to Rosebud Communications for partnering with us; your support is invaluable. Thanks, too, to the wonderful Sarah McBride of Bloomberg, who will be leading the evening’s VC chat.

Top News in the A.M.

Bitcoin Cash is crashing.

Watch Google unveil the next version of Android, coming up live in a bit right here.

New Fundings

Capital Float, a four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based digital finance company that provides working capital and business loans to SMEs, has raised $45 million in Series C funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments. TechCrunch has more here.

Commonwealth Joe, a five-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based coffee roasting company, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Mendacre, with participation from Hammerstone Capital and Stroud Companies. Technical.ly DC has more here.

eMoov, a seven-year-old, Essex, England-based online real estate agency, has raised £9 million ($11.6 million) in funding led by JXC Ventures, with participation from Episode 1 VC, Maxfield Capital, Spire and Startive Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Let’s Do This, a year-old, London-based online sports listing startup that wants to build the “Airbnb of endurance events,” has raised £1 million from numerous individuals in tech, banking, and sports. Business Insider has more here.

Magmode, a two-year-old, Beijing-based Chinese men’s fashion start-up, has raised $15 million in addition Series B funding led by the Sino-French private equity firm Cathay Capital Private Equity. Sinovation Ventures also joined the round. China Money Network has more here.

Monstar Lab, an 11-year-old, Japan-based software development firm, has raised $6.3 million in funding, including from YJ Capital, Shinsei Corporate Investment, San-In Chuo Television Broadcasting Co, Fenox Venture Capital and Tanabe Corp. Tech in Asia has more here.

Prodigy Finance, a 10-year-old, London-based platform that helps students fund their studies by connecting them with alums who’ll loan them money based on their future earning potential, has raised $40 million in Series C funding. Index Ventures led the round, with participation from Balderton Capital and the African fintech accelerator AlphaCode. Business Insider has more here.

UangTeman, a three-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based online microlending platform, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by K2 Venture Capital, Enspire Capital and Alpha JWC Ventures, with participation from Draper Associates. DealStreetAsia has more here.

New Funds

Beoff Lewis, a partner at Founders Fund, is leaving to start his own fund, says Bloomberg. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he’s following a similar path as Luke Nosek, a Founders Fund cofounder who also recently left the firm to start his own fund. Nosek’s fund is called Gigafund, and its objective in part is to help Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, raise money. Meanwhile, Lewis reportedly plans to raise more than $100 million for his new fund, with Founders Fund as an anchor investor. More here.

The pan-Asian venture capital and growth equity firm Epsilon Venture Partners – which recently marked the first close of its $350 million fund – expects to hit its final close by early next year, it says. The firm, set up two years ago, was founded by Sudheer Kuppam, the former India and Asia Pacific managing director of Intel Capital; it plans to invest at least one third of its fund in Indian companies and the rest in North and Southeast Asian countries. DealStreet Asia talks with Kuppam here.

Exits

Cisco said today that it plans to buy Springpath, a five-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based software startup known for the development of a distributed file system for hyperconvergence that enables server-based storage systems. Cisco is paying around $320 million, says ZDNet. According to Crunchbase, Springpath had raised $34 million from NEA, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Stanford University. More here.

Amazon-owned video game streaming site Twitch has acquired ClipMine, a three-year-old, Palo Alto-based video indexing platform that’s now being put to use to translate visual information in videos – like objects, text, logos and scenes – into metadata that can help people more easily find the streams they want to watch. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. ClipMine had raised $2.6 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Its backers included renowned investor Ram Shriram, former Facebook vice president Greg Badros, entrepreneur Amarjit Gill and Cadence CEO Lip-Bu Tam. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Investor-operator Ellen Pao has published a new book about sexism in Silicon Valley. The Cut has an excerpt.

Over half a dozen residents of a San Francisco “castle” have become bitcoin millionaires. Business Insider takes a look inside.

Also Sponsored By . . .

Today’s StrictlyVC is also brought to you by the Financial Solutions Lab at CFSI, which selected Blueprint Income, Dave.com, EverSafe, Grove, Nova, Point, Token Transit, and Tomorrow for this year’s Lab class. What makes these startups so special?

Jobs

Rev1 Ventures, a Columbus, Oh.-based seed-stage venture firm, is looking to hire a director of investments.

Data

The solar eclipse is reportedly costing companies at least $700 million in lost worker productivity. (To quote the characters from “Billions,” one of our favorite shows: worth it!)

Essential Reads

How hate groups forced online platforms to reveal their true nature.

Since Britain gave notice it was leaving the European Union in March, a growing list of British VC firms has been told they will not receive financial support from the European Investment Fund, the EU agency that provides almost half of the money for the region’s venture capital industry.

An inside look at Ford’s $1 billion bet on Argo AI.

Detours

The evolution of Drogon the Dragon, in “Game of Thrones.”

How your feelings affect your face.

Retail Therapy

Freak out a date (and anyone else who visits you).

VW is bringing back its Microbus, and it’s electric.

Hi, happy Friday, all! We’re publishing a little earlier today, as it’s a morning of planes, trains and automobiles for us.

Much thanks again to Semil Shah for offering to help here and there with StrictlyVC while we’ve been catching up with family and friends on the East Coast and Midwest. For today’s edition, he talks with Zach Supalla, the founder and CEO of Particle, a self-described “prototype-to-production platform for developing an Internet of Things product,” about what Supalla learned while raising the company’s Series A round. Hope you enjoy it.:)

Top News in the A.M.

Travis Kalanick has hit back at Benchmark in a court filing. You can read it here.

Sponsored By . . .

This weekend, it’s time to put an end to your buffering. eero was the world’s first home mesh WiFi system and the new 2nd generation is even better. With more power, a smaller form-factor, and Thread, new eero systems can blanket homes of any shape, size, or layout with WiFi so good, you’ll never think about it again. For StrictlyVC readers: use code StrictlyVC at checkout and select overnight shipping for free!

How I Raised It: Particle’s Zach Supalla on Landing a Series A

By Semil Shah

Zach Supalla is CEO and co-founder of Particle, a venture-backed start-up that’s making it easier to build internet-connected hardware. The company has so far raised roughly $35 million over six rounds, including from Spark Capital, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners, and Root Ventures. We talked with him recently about how he got the ball rolling.

As a founder, how do you define what a Series A means?

I would define a Series A as the first raise where you’re raising off of traction, not just a concept or vision. It can be tough to define seed versus Series A versus Series B financially, because a large seed round can be larger than a small Series A. But the way I see it, a founder typically needs to raise anywhere from a few hundred grand to a couple million dollars to get their product to market, at which point they can start collecting data about customer interest, and that’s the point at which they’re raising a Series A.

How many months did it take to raise the A, and how many meetings did it take?

It took me about six months to raise our Series A. I met with roughly fifty funds. Our Series A ended up being a bit complex; we brought in a total of $10 million, but it was a mix of two smaller equity rounds — $4 million plus $3 million plus another $3 million in venture debt. We were originally trying to raise between $10 million and $15 million in equity.

Looking back now, what were the biggest mistakes you made in raising  Series A and why? What are the most important lessons you learned in that process?

My pitch deck for the Series A felt like a seed deck – it was more focused on vision and less on traction and metrics. It took me a while to figure out what was most compelling to investors at this stage, especially because it can be challenging to extract real honest feedback from investors, so I had already burned half of my potential investors before I refactored the deck to make it more metrics-based.

I was also pretty cagey about sharing our financial model, based on some feedback I had gotten from other founders. The concept was that every Series A fund will put an associate on the deal who will be responsible for reviewing the financial model and poking holes in it. The less information you give them, the fewer holes they will be able to poke, so don’t share unless necessary.

The problem with that strategy is it slowed the process down a lot and created a perception of a lack of momentum. VC partners are influenced by their associates, but honestly, they’re more influenced by the social pressure around a raise that feels “hot,” so it’s better to optimize for speed than around managing the associate.

For our Series B raise, I was very aggressive with our data room; I filled it with a ton of information and data and gave it to investors before people even asked. It sped up the process significantly, and many investors told me that they really appreciated our transparency.

How about one last piece of advice for aspiring-seed-stage CEOs who are out there trying to raise a Series A round?

Remember you’re not in R&D anymore; you’re building a business. It should feel that way. You should be tracking metrics that are key to your business, and they should be improving month-over-month or quarter-over-quarter. If those things aren’t true, you’re not ready. Get your business in a good position so that you can raise from a position of strength and get good terms.

New Fundings

Boatsetter, a four-year-old, Miami, Fl.-based boat rental community connecting boat owners and capitals with prospective clients (it’s an Airbnb for boats), has added $4.75 million in funding to its December 2016 Series A round. The company has now raised $17.75 million altogether, including from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Nordic Eye Venture Capital, AMP Brickyard Ventures and numerous others. Notably, it’s is using some of its new funding to acquire a competitor, Boatbound, for undisclosed terms. TechCrunch has more here.

CareAcademy, a four-year-old, Boston-based startup that provides specialized online training for senior home care professionals, has raised $1.675 million in seed funding, including from Rethink Education, Lumina Foundation, and Techstars Venture Capital Fund. More here.

FilmTrack, a 10-year-old, Studio City, Ca.-based end-to-end rights management platform that helps media and entertainment companies manage and monetize their intellectual property, has raised $5.5 million in Series C Funding from Insight Venture Partners. The company has now raised $40 million altogether. CityBizList has more here.

Huochebang, a six-year-old, China-based truck logistics start-up that helps drivers find commodities to transport, facilitates truck sales, as well as provides other services to China’s trucking industry, has raised $56 million in “Series B-3” funding led by All-Stars Investment. The company has now raised $327 million, including a $156 million round involving Baidu that closed just three months ago. China Money Network has more here.

Immersv, a two-year-old, Bay Area-based mobile 360 VR ad network, has raised $10.5 million Series A led by Rogers Venture Partners, with participation from Foundation Capital, The Venture Reality Fund, Initial Capital, East Ventures, HTC Vive, MCJ Co., GREE, i-mobile, Metaps, and Gigi Levy. TechCrunch has more here.

LiftIgniter, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that uses data science to help publishers and retailers optimize their websites and mobile apps in real-time, is raising $6.4 million in a round led by Storm Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Outdoor Voices, a five-year-old, New York-based recreational apparel — or “athleisure wear” — company, is raising $9 million in new funding and has collected at least $6.5 million toward that end, shows a new SEC filing. Outdoor Voices had raised $13 million in Series B funding just last year. Its investors include General Catalyst Partners, Forerunner Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and 14W. More here.

ThoughtSpot, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup whose business intelligence-powered tool, dubbed SpotIQ, suggests content to people based on past searches and likes, has raised $60 million in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Capital One Growth Ventures also joined the round, along with earlier investors General Catalyst Partners, Geodesic Capital and Khosla Ventures. The company has now raised $160 million altogether. The WSJ has more here.

Unity Biotechnology, a year-old, Brisbane, Ca.-based biotechnology company that’s aiming to create therapeutics that prevent, halt, or reverse numerous diseases of aging, has raised an additional $35 million in Series B financing that brings the round — previously closed roughly a year go  — to $151 million. Its new Series B investors include INVUS Opportunities, Three Lakes Partners, Cycad Group, COM Investments, and Pivotal Alpha Limited. They joined the company’s earlier Series B investors, including ARCH Venture Partners, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Partner Fund Management, and Venrock. More here.

New Funds

Gobi Partners, a China-based venture capital firm, has held a first close of its Southeast Asia-focused fund with $50 million in capital commitments, including from Malaysia Venture Capital Management, the Korean home shopping company GS Shop, and the Indonesian investment firm CKM. China Money Network has more here.

Leap Global Partners, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based cross-border venture capital firm that  looks to fund technologies created by entrepreneurs in Mexico and the U.S., has held a first close for its debut fund with $15 million in capital commitments. The firm, founded Goldman Sachs alums Roman Leal and Pablo Perez, invests in seed and Series A rounds and has backed four startups already, including Insikt, a fintech lending-as-a-service startup; and Listo, a consumer-facing company that offers financial services to underserved Latinos in the US. More here.

People

Mic.com, the millennial news site, laid off 25 staffers yesterday in what is part of a larger pivot to video that it will begin later this month.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg just transferred 590,000 shares of Facebook stock, worth just under $100 million, to a special fund she uses for charitable donations, according to a document filed yesterday with the SEC.

Three and a half years after his return, Chris Wanstrath says he will step down as CEO of the popular developer platform GitHub after leading the search to find his own replacement. Wanstrath reportedly made the announcement as the company passes $200 million in revenue.

Jobs

Aflac, the Fortune 500 insurance company known for its duck mascot, is hiring a venture capital associate. The right candidate can work from Charlotte, N.C.; Atlanta; or the Bay Area.

Essential Reads

Can Silicon Valley disrupt its neo-Nazi problem? (Relatedly, check out this illuminating report.)

Scientists at Johns Hopkins say they’ve developed a test that spots tiny amounts of cancer-specific DNA in blood and have used it to accurately identify more than half of 138 people with relatively early-stage colorectal, breast, lung and ovarian cancers. More here.

The Essential phone is now available.

Detours

A revealing look at CEO travel habits.

How to get through a workday on no sleep.

Retail Therapy

A skateboard by Hermès (priced around where you would guess).

Rare Apple shoes, yellowing from wear and age, and on track to sell for more than than $10,000 to one very hard-core Apple fan.

Thursday! Just a mention that we’ll be traveling tomorrow with our kids, so StrictlyVC will likely be either very short or very late. We’ll have much more for you Monday.:)

Also, in our rush to publish yesterday, we failed to mention that our friend Semil Shah had interviewed Mike Maples for the newsletter. Many of you wrote to let us know you enjoyed Maple’s advice; we just wanted to give credit where it’s due.

Top News in the A.M.

U.S. stocks are tumbling today and Treasuries rising on rising speculation that Donald Trump’s pro-growth policy agenda is imperiled following a rebuke by business leaders.

Sponsored By . . .

At eero, we believe the foundation of home technology has been broken for far too long. So in 2014, we assembled a team of the brightest engineers and designers with a singular goal: make WiFi so great it disappears. And that’s just what we’ve done. eero is simpler, performs better, and is more intelligent than any WiFi solution on earth. For StrictlyVC readers: get your eero whole-home WiFi system with code StrictlyVC at checkout and select overnight shipping for free.

Social Capital Brings Aboard a New Partner: Mike Ghaffary

If you’ve worked in tech in the Bay Area over the last decade or more, you quite possibly know Mike Ghaffary, a USC grad who nabbed both his MBA and JD from Harvard before beginning to work his way through a number of well-known institutions.

From his first stop at Summit Partners, to co-founder of the news and talk radio service Stitcher (sold to Deezer in 2014), to business development roles at TrialPay and Yelp to eventually CEO of Yelp Eat24, Ghaffary has seemingly been working toward a career as a venture capitalist since completing his degrees.

Now, with Yelp selling its food ordering service Eat24 to GrubHub for $287.5 million earlier this month (roughly twice what Yelp paid for it in early 2015), he has landed just that role.

To wit, Ghaffary just joined Social Capital as one of five full-time partners on the firm’s venture team.

It’s good timing for Social Capital, whose co-founder, Mamoon Hamid, left earlier this monthto join Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In fact, it was Hamid who introduced Ghaffary to the firm, inviting him to an offsite retreat last year where Ghaffary had a chance to meet the entire team and spend more time with another Social Capital co-founder, Chamath Palihapitiya, who oversees the firm as its CEO.

We had a quick chat with Ghaffary yesterday and he sounds, understandably, excited about his new post, where he will be investing in both consumer and enterprise deals.

More here.

New Fundings

Alzeca Biosciences, a five-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based early-stage healthcare diagnostic company that’s trying to develop best-in-class imaging technologies for the early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease pathology, has raised $11 million in Series A financing from undisclosed sources. FierceBiotech has more here.

Codacy, a three-year-old, Lisbon, Portugal-based automated code review platform provider, has raised $5.1 million in Series A funding led by EQT Ventures, with participation from Faber, Caixa Capital, Join Capital, and Seedcamp. TechCrunch has more here.

Color Genomics, a four-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based genetic health screening startup, has raised $80 million in Series C funding from General Catalyst Partners, CRV, and Emerson Collective. The company has now raised $150 million altogether. CNBC has more here.

LVL Technologies, a six-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that’s developing proprietary sensor platforms for wearables (it was formerly called BSX Athletics), has raised $6.75 million in Series A funding. Samsung Catalyst Fund led the round, with participation from Maxim Integrated Products and other unnamed individual investors. More here.

Ripcord, a months-old, Hayward, Ca.-based company that uses machine vision, robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to digitize all of an enterprise’s records, has raised $40 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Icon Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has now raised $49.5 million altogether. More here.

Tokopedia, an eight-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based online marketplace for individuals and business owners, has raised $1.1 billion in funding in funding led by Alibaba. TechCrunch has more here.

TuSimple, a two-year-old, Beiijing-based autonomous truck technology startup, has raised $20 million in funding led by Sina, with participation from Nvidia. TechCrunch has more here.

Wine.com, a San Francisco-based online wine retailer, says it has raised $15 million in funding from earlier investors. It didn’t name any outfits specifically, but the company is majority owned by Baker Capital, a New York-based private equity firm. More here.

ZingBox, a 2.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup whose software guards IoT devices from threats on the Internet, has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by Dell Technologies Capital and Triventures. More here.

Exits

Google has acquired AIMatter, a startup founded in Belarus that has built both a neural network-based AI platform and SDK to detect and process images quickly on mobile devices, and a photo and video editing app that has served as a proof-of-concept of the tech called Fabby. The company had raised approximately $2 million in venture funding from Haxus Venture Fund. Terms of the deal aren’t being diclosed, but TechCrunch reports that the service will continue to run, and that most of the company’s employees will join Google. More here.

ShapeShift, a three-year-old, Zug, Switzerland-based digital currency exchange platform, has acquired KeepKey, a Kirkland, Wa.-based hardware wallet for digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Financial terms weren’t disclosed but this was an “all bitcoin deal.” ShapeShift has raised roughly $13 million from investors, shows Crunchbase, including Earlybird Venture Capitaland Digital Currency Group. KeepKey doesn’t appear to have raised outside funding (or announced it, in any case). Reuters has more here.

People

National Economic Council Director (and former Goldman Sachs president) Gary Cohn is said to be “disgusted” by President Trump’s statements in the wake of the violence at a white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville, Va. He isn’t going anywhere, though. (In you’re still confused over how Cohn landed at the White House in the first place, Vanity Fair published a piece this month titled, “The Untold Story of How Gary Cohn fell for Donald Trump.”)

Last night, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent an email to all global employees condemning racism and bigotry. More here.

WeWork has hired Shiva Rajaraman as its chief product officer. Rajaraman worked briefly at Apple earlier this year to help shape its video strategy. Before that, he held posts as the VP of Product at Spotify, and as a director of product management at Google. Dave Fano, previously WeWork’s chief product officer, will (somewhat confusingly) become chief product & growth officer.

Fortune just published its annual “40 under 40” list. You can check it out here.

Jobs

LaunchCapital, a seed and early-stage venture firm, is hiring an associate. The job is in New Haven, Ct.

Essential Reads

Facebook quietly shut down an internal discussion group at the end of last year, after employees reportedly used the anonymity within the group to make racist and sexist comments. Business Insider has more here.

A big, successful trial of probiotics at long last.

Detours

Inside Japan’s retro gaming shops, which are now drawing buyers worldwide. (Some are paying up to $18,000 per title!)

A masterful master shot.

The incredible, shrinking airline seat.

Retail Therapy

A mansion in L.A. that won’t sell, so its owners keep increasing its price.

Well, hello, and happy Wednesday. Do you have a solar-eclipse strategy yet? (We’re still working on ours.)

Top News in the A.M.

The most-liked tweet in history was published last night.

Top CEOs who were members of Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum just agreed to disband the group, following his comments yesterday that “both sides” were responsible for the violence initiated by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Virginia this past weekend. The policy group had included IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and GM CEO Mary Barra among a dozen others. “There really was nothing to debate,” one member told CNBC. More here.

Sponsored By . . .

At eero, we believe the foundation of home technology has been broken for far too long. So in 2014, we assembled a team of the brightest engineers and designers with a singular goal: make WiFi so great it disappears. And that’s just what we’ve done. eero is simpler, performs better, and is more intelligent than any WiFi solution on earth. For StrictlyVC readers: get your eero whole-home WiFi system with code StrictlyVC at checkout and select overnight shipping for free!

Mike Maples on How to Raise a Fund in Today’s Climate

By Semil Shah

Mike Maples founded the early-stage firm Floodgate roughly a decade ago and it’s fair to say that things have gone pretty well for him since. His bets include Twitter, Twitch.TV, Bazaarvoice, Spiceworks, Demandforce, and Okta. He’s been on the Midas List. And Maples was involved as a founder and operating executive at Tivoli Systems, acquired by IBM after going public, and Motive, acquired by Alcatel-Lucent after going public. (The firm has also benefited from an early bet on Lyft made by Ann Miura-Ko, who joined Maples a year later as cofounder.)

When Maples raised his first, $15 million, fund, it took just one month, and most of the capital came from one individual investor — though he lined up six altogether. We talked with him recently about that fund, as well as what aspiring fund managers need to keep in mind today. Our chat has been edited for length.

You raised your first fund fairly easily, based on your operating background.

I always had a pretty realistic view of the purpose of Fund 1. I saw it as a booster rocket for the future. Either it would propel Floodgate to escape velocity, or it would flame out quickly. Many first-time fund managers have a target to raise and they go out and try to raise it. In general, I disagree with this approach. Instead, I looked at my fund size as “that which I can raise from the true believers in 30 days or less.” My view was that if someone wanted to invest in my fund, they already had decided for the most part. So . . . rather than say “I’m raising $25 million” or $50 million or whatever,  I took the perspective of: I am new at this. I might lose money. I might not like managing a fund. You might not like how I manage a fund. What is an amount you would consider investing, given these realities?

If you don’t have a set of people who already believe, I hate to be the bearer of bad news: You are likely not ready to raise a fund.

When did you start talking with more traditional LPs, and how did you approach them?

I started building these relationships before I closed Fund 1 but did not pitch any of the more traditional LPs [for Floodgate’s second fund].  My view was that it was important to get to know LPs when I was not fundraising. It was more straightforward to have honest conversations and not try to sell around objections or try to out-guess what people were looking for.

One of the unanticipated benefits of this was that I really got to understand how some of the best LPs thought about investing in the very best firms. I could get data and insights about the types of portfolios that produced the winning returns and the best practices of building great teams and funding great founders.

You should never be in sell mode with a potential LP. You should  . . . use the meeting as an opportunity to test your ideas and improve them. When you have the chance to meet with a new potential LP and you are not in  sell mode and you get an objection about your strategy, you can say, “Interesting. Tell me more about that.” If the LP is right because they have more perspective or data, you’ll get better and smarter. If you disagree on a first-principles basis after receiving the feedback, you’ve dodged a bullet because you have different values. When your investors have different values than you, it’s a miserable existence.

Anything else you can tell folks who are out there in today’s market, trying to raise a fund?

First, you are not for everybody. Some people will see your advantage and value your advantage. Most will not. Just like a startup raising money, your early customers — in this case, LPs — are not the mainstream. They are the people who believe what you believe. Your task is to find these people. If most don’t believe what you believe, then that’s OK. Come back to them when they do.

Second, don’t try to outguess what people are looking for. Ask yourself honestly why you’re raising a fund and in what ways you’re going to be awesome in a crowded world of way too many VC dollars. You need a crystal clear answer to this, especially as a first-time fund manager, including to justify the use of your own time. A lot of people enjoy investing in startups and would like more money to invest in more. LPs don’t care about your desire to fund startups; they care about your unique strategy to get paid for the risk you take.

Third, turn off your happy ears. By the time you have decided to raise money, most of the people who will invest have already decided. If they are not willing to declare their commitment quickly, they are not ready. If the sum of the money of committed investors who believe in you right now does not add up to a fund, then you are either raising money too soon or trying to raise too much. Accept this, as well as the fact that if you are awesome, there will always be another chance down the road. But failure mode is pressuring and rushing people.

New Fundings

3Bar Biologics, a four-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based company that uses living microbes to stimulate plant growth (its product is applied to seeds), has raised $2 million in funding, including from Rev1 Ventures, Maumee Ventures, Ohio TechAngel Funds, Queen City Angels, Carmen Innovations, and SVG Thrive Fund. More here.

Actionable Quality Assurance, a 3.5-year-old, Gainesville, Fla.-based software as a service platform for thorough monitoring of food safety for restaurants, has raised $2 million in seed funding from a private angel investment group. More here.

GeoTix, a two-year-old, Traverse City, Mi.-based ticketing platform that aims to help local and regional media companies grow their revenue, has raised $1 million in funding, including from Boomerang-Catapult and Casey Cowell, a co-founder of U.S. Robotics. More here.

HiScene, a five-year-old, Beijing-based startup that’s developing hardware and software products for augmented reality, has raised roughly $14 million in Series B funding led by Shanghai Cableway Investment, with participation from Sincere Capital, Vstar Capital and the Chinese smartphone and selfie app developer Meitu. China Money Network has more here.

ilos Videos, a two-year-old, St. Paul, Mn.-based provider of a video platform for the workplace, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Active Capital, with participation from Ingram Content Group and Hyde Park Venture Partners. The company has now raised $3 million altogether. More here.

Kingo, a four-year-old, Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala-based solar energy technology company, has raised $8 million in Series B funding led by FCP (the innovation fund of Colombian utility EPM), ENGIE (a French utility), FMO (a Dutch development bank), Proparco (a French development bank), and H-Reff(a renewable energy fund). The company has now raised $19 million altogether. FinSMEs has more here.

Lift, a three-year-old, Toronto-based startup that helps customers find cannabis clinics and book appointments with them, has raised $3 million in Series A funding from undisclosed backers. More here.

MedAware, a five-year-old, Raanana, Israel-based company whose software performs real-time evaluations of prescribed drugs against up-to-date patient profiles to eliminate prescription errors, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Backers included BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), Gefen Capital, OurCrowd and Yingcheng City Fubon Technology. More here.

Options, a 23-year-old, New York-based provider of cloud-enabled managed services to the global capital markets, has raised roughly $100 million in growth funding from Bregal Sagemount, a New York-based private equity firm. More here.

Phil, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based, end-to-end prescription management and delivery service that connects patients with local pharmacies, has raised $10 million in funding led by Crosslink Capital. Other participants in the round include Eniac Ventures, Softtech VC, Forerunner Ventures, SV Angel, Silicon Valley Bank, and Transmedia Capital. More here.

Respond Software, a year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based expert system that says it emulates the decision-making and judgement of a seasoned security analyst, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by CRV and Foundation Capital. More here.

SnapApp, a six-year-old, Boston-based SaaS platform used by B2B marketers to create, publish, and measure interactive content, has raised $10.2 million in Series B funding, including from Providence Strategic Growth, the growth equity affiliate of Providence Equity Partners. Xconomy has more here.

YangTian, a two-year-old, Tianjin, China-based developer of light industrial robotic arms that are used for a variety of jobs like handling, assembling, polishing, and coating, has raised $7 million in “pre-A” funding from Lenovo Capital and the Incubator Group. GSR Ventures and Yinxinggu Capital also joined the round. China Money Network has more here.

New Funds

645 Ventures, a four-year-old, New York-based, seed-stage venture  firm, is looking to raise up to $30 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. The company was cofounded by Nnamdi Okike, a former principal at Insight Venture Partners, and Aaron Holiday, a former associate at DFJ Gotham Ventures and former entrepreneurial officer at Cornell Tech.

Andrew Ng, the cofounder of Coursera and formerly Baidu’s chief scientist, is looking to raise up to $150 million for a new vehicle called The AI Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Round13 Capital, a six-year-old, Toronto-based tech-focused venture capital firm, has closed on $95 million in commitments for its newest fund, from backers that include high-net-worth individuals, family offices, National Bank, and the pension fund LiUNA. The firm funds growth-stage Canadian companies. More here.

IPOs

Despegar, an 18-year-old, Buenos Aires-based online travel company, yesterday filed to raise up to $100 million in an IPO on the NYSE. The company, a rare “unicorn” in Latin America, is owned in part by Tiger Global Management, which has been investing actively in Brazilian startups for years. Other shareholders include Expedia, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Insight Venture Partners and Accel Partners. Reuters has the story here.

MongoDB, a 10-year-old, New York-based database startup that has raised more than $300 million from VCs, has confidentially filed to go public, says TechCrunch. At the time of its last private valuation in 2015, MongoDB was reportedly a $1.6 billion company. More here.

Exits

Netsertive, a Morrisville, N.C.-based marketing technology company, has acquired Mixpo, a Seattle-based video advertising software company. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Mixpo had raised more than $10 million in funding from investors, including GrowthWorks Capital, Madrona Venture Group, and Yaletown Partners. Netsertive has raised roughly $38 million, including from RRE Ventures, Babson Capital Management, Harbert Venture Partnersand Greycroft Partners. GeekWire has more here.

People

Shelby Bonnie, the cofounder of CNet and more recently spent four years as a managing director with Allen & Co., is newly the CEO of Pylon, an artificial intelligence cmpany that’s building custom experiences for Amazon Echo and Google Home. Business Insider has more here.

Nicole Sanchez, co-founder and CEO of Credit Hero, has joined female founder-focused seed fund XFactor Ventures. More here.

Data

According to Facebook, 45 million people send birthday wishes on its platform each day. It just equipped them with some new features, too.

According to a poll by the public relations firm Weber Shandwick, roughly half of millennials believe CEOs “have a responsibility to speak up on issues important to society”— compared to just 28 percent of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. (H/T: Fortune’s Alan Murray.)

Essential Reads

Uber is in talks to raise as much as $12 billion, according to Bloomberg. Approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion would be used to acquire new shares, and anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion would be used to buy out the shares of existing shareholders.

Apple is budgeting $1 billion to procure and produce original content over the next year, says the WSJ, a sign of how serious it is about making a splash in Hollywood.

Why Benchmark may want to cash out of Uber, in Dealbook.

Waymo may get an edge over rival Uber as the two head into an explosive trade secrets trial this fall. Today, a federal judge said he’ll likely tell the jury about how Uber’s lawyers “misled the court” and repeatedly failed to produce documents that could be important in the case. The SJ Merc has more here.

Detours

Millennials like vintage, but they haven’t inherited a love of antiques.

Jimmy Kimmel’s not-terrible idea to make Donald Trump king.

It’s always a Florida man.

Retail Therapy

Solar eclipse camps. (Hey, it’s one option.)