Friday! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you back here soon, as long as the Internet doesn’t completely implode between now and then. (Today’s blackout is now being investigated as a criminal act.)

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Top News in the A.M.

AT&T is in the advanced stages of negotiations to acquire Time Warner, which would give the carrier a huge content creation arm. The WSJ has the story here.

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Board of Hampton Creek Said to Be Investigating Buyback Allegations

The board of Hampton Creek has hired one of the Big Four accounting firms to investigate claims in a Bloomberg story that the San Francisco-based vegan food company executed on a campaign to buy back mass quantities of its eggless mayo product, Just Mayo.

A source familiar with the situation says the board was unaware of the alleged scheme until contacted by Bloomberg’s reporters this fall, and that if CEO Josh Tetrick and other managers were “buying back mayo solely for the purpose of juicing the numbers,” the board will be “livid.”

This source says the board has no evidence of wrongdoing currently but that an auditing firm is currently “looking at every f_cking receipt that the company has created.”

A spokesman for the board refused comment.

Tetrick also declined to comment for this story, though a source close to Tetrick insists that there is no board-initiated investigation ongoing or taking place imminently.

In August, Bloomberg reported that the SEC and the Justice Department had launched probes of Hampton Creek for possible securities violations and criminal fraud, following its report that Hampton Creek had hired contractors to purchase Just Mayo from grocer’s shelves.

Reporter Olivia Zaleski said in the piece that Bloomberg was “shown 250 receipts, expense reports, cash advances and e-mails” from these contractors that collectively showed buybacks at Safeway, Kroger, Costco, Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods.

Tetrick told Bloomberg that the buybacks were centered around quality control, but these same contractors said they were free to consume, distribute to friends, or discard the product rather than look for quality issues.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, but a follow-on story in Bloomberg didn’t reflect well on Hampton Creek’s board, which was reportedly warned by the successful entrepreneur and investor Ali Partovi that the company might have a truthiness issue, to steal from comic Stephen Colbert.

More here.

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New Fundings

Buzzfeed, a 10-year-old, New York-based digital content company, is reportedly raising a fresh $200 million from Comcast’s TV and movie arm NBCUniversal, at a valuation of roughly $1.7 billion. Recode has more here.

EverQuote, a six-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based online marketplace for consumers to shop for auto insurance quotes (and soon home and life insurance, too), has raised $23 million in funding led by Maryland-based Savano Capital Partners, with participation from Stratim Capital, Oceanic Partners and T Capital Partners. Insurance Journal has more here.

IbanFirst, a three-year-old, Brussels, Belgium-based specialist in international payments with real-time exchange rate access, has raised €10 million ($10.9 million) in funding led by longtime investor Xavier Niel. More here.

Joymode, a year-old, L.A.-based startup that rents gear to people so they can organize things like beach parties and backyard barbecues, has raised $3 million in venture funding led by Homebrew, with participation from Lowercase Capital, Founders Collective, Collaborative Fund, TenOneTen, Slow Ventures, Sherpa Ventures, and individual investors Scott Belsky and Emil Michael. Joymode’s CEO and co-Founder is Joe Fernandez, who previously founded Klout (acquired by Lithium Technologies). TechCrunch has more on the company here.

Ladder, a 1.5-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based insurtech startup, has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Canaan Partners, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, NYCA and 8VC. More here.

Mio Global, a 16-year-old, Vancouver, British Columbia-based wearables company whose tech tracks heart rates, has raised $15 million in funding led by Hydra Ventures, with participation from private investors. More here.

Undo, a nearly 12-year-old, Cambridge, U.K.-based startup that makes debugging tools for Linux and Android developers, has raised $3.3 million in Series A funding led by Cambridge Innovation Capital, with participation from Rockspring, Martlet, Sir Peter Michael, the Cambridge Angels group, and Jaan Tallinn. More here.

Yijiupi.com, a two-year-old, Beijing-based wholesale alcohol business-to-business e-commerce start-up, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by the Shanghai-based alternative investment firm Greenwoods Asset. Other participants in the deal include Source Code Capital, Lighthouse Capital, Meituan-Dianping, HG Capital, and Meituan-Dianping, which is China’s largest peer review and group buying company. China Money Network has more here.

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Exits

Event ticketing startup YPlan has been acquired by travel publication Time Out in a deal worth $1.96 million, a figure that will rise to $2.94 million after a year if certain terms are met. It’s not a great outcome for investors; YPlan had raised $37.5 million, including from actor Ashton Kutcher. VentureBeat has more here.

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People

The ride-share company Lyft just underwent an executive reshuffling. Raj Kapoor, from Mayfield Fund, has joined Lyft in the new position of chief strategy officer. Melissa Waters, formerly Pandora’s vice president of brand and product marketing, is taking over as head of marketing. More here.

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Essential Reads

Google is the latest tech company to drop the longstanding wall between anonymous online ad tracking and user’s names. More here.

Slack is still growing fast, but not as fast as before. More here.

Walmart is hitting reset on its online business in China. More here.

Ride-hailing app Uber is partnering with MasterCard and Mexico’s first online bank, Bankaool, to launch its own debit cards, a move aimed at getting more people to use Uber in Mexico. More here.

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Detours

Tom Cruise acts out his career.

Apparently, drinking hand sanitizer will not kill you right away.

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Retail Therapy

You’re going to want a good lock for this one.

The board of Hampton Creek has hired one of the Big Four accounting firms to investigate claims in a Bloomberg story that the San Francisco-based vegan food company executed on a campaign to buy back mass quantities of its eggless mayo product, Just Mayo.

A source familiar with the situation says the board was unaware of the alleged scheme until contacted by Bloomberg’s reporters this fall, and that if CEO Josh Tetrick and other managers were “buying back mayo solely for the purpose of juicing the numbers,” the board will be “livid.”

This source says the board has no evidence of wrongdoing currently but that an auditing firm is currently “looking at every f_cking receipt that the company has created.”

A spokesman for the board refused comment.

Tetrick also declined to comment for this story, though a source close to Tetrick insists that there is no board-initiated investigation ongoing or taking place imminently.

In August, Bloomberg reported that the SEC and the Justice Department had launched probes of Hampton Creek for possible securities violations and criminal fraud, following its report that Hampton Creek had hired contractors to purchase Just Mayo from grocer’s shelves.

Reporter Olivia Zaleski said in the piece that Bloomberg was “shown 250 receipts, expense reports, cash advances and e-mails” from these contractors that collectively showed buybacks at Safeway, Kroger, Costco, Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods.

Tetrick told Bloomberg that the buybacks were centered around quality control, but these same contractors said they were free to consume, distribute to friends, or discard the product rather than look for quality issues.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, but a follow-on story in Bloomberg didn’t reflect well on Hampton Creek’s board, which was reportedly warned by the successful entrepreneur and investor Ali Partovi that the company might have a truthiness issue, to steal from comic Stephen Colbert.

More here.

Hi! Happy Thursday, everyone. We’re running out the door so have a streamlined version of SVC for you today, but more tomorrow!

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Top News in the A.M.

Verizon just reported declining revenue and plunging subscriber growth, and said it is assessing whether it will need to renegotiate its acquisition of Yahoo after a major data breach. The WSJ has more here.

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Jess Lee Become’s Sequoia’s 11th Investing Partner

Sequoia Capital has brought aboard Jess Lee as its eleventh investing partner in the U.S., becoming the firm’s first senior female U.S. investor in its 44-year-old history.

Lee was a former Google product manager turned CEO of the fashion site Polyvore, which was acquired for $230 million in cash by Yahoo last year. She had stayed on with Yahoo, which is now being sold, maybe, to Verizon.

Lee seemed to demonstrate a strong eye for startups long ago. Indeed, in 2008, as an avid user of Polyvore, which was then just months old,  Lee wrote to its founder, Pasha Sadri, with whom she shared mutual friends. After offering him her unsolicited feedback via email about how to improve the site speed and other aspects of its product design, the two met for coffee and she was quickly brought into the company. By 2012, she was its chief executive.

The new appointment is a huge win for Lee, a Stanford grad who grew up in Hong Kong and joked to Fortune last year that she would have gone to art school but “Asian parents don’t really like that,” so she took a more traditional path; it has led her straight to the top of the venture industry.

The appointment is highly meaningful for Sequoia, too, of course. Though Sequoia China and Sequoia India feature five female investing partners, they are separate, affiliated funds. Meanwhile, the storied Sand Hill Road firm has been pressed for years on the lack of any female investors in its ranks. Pressure on the firm seemed to intensify late last year after longtime Sequoia investor Michael Moritz gave a widely watched interview given to journalist Emily Chang where they discussed whether Sequoia felt a responsibility to hire women.

Adjusting his collar uncomfortably at the time, Moritz said he’d like to think that the firm is “blind to somebody’s sex, to their religion, to their background.” He’d added that there is, in his view, a pipeline problem to explain the dearth of women at Sequoia. Asked if Sequoia might not be looking hard enough, Moritz had added that Sequoia “looks very hard . . . We just hired a young woman from Stanford who is every bit as good as her peers and if there are more like her, we’ll hire them. What we’re not prepared to do is to lower our standards.”

The comment drew scorn from across the internet, though a Bloomberg story this morning reports that longtime Sequoia partner Roelof Botha invited Lee to join Sequoia in the summer of 2015 when Yahoo acquired Polyvore.

More here.

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New Fundings

Atipica, a 20-month-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based recruiting software startup, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by True Ventures, with participation from Kapor Capital, Precursor Ventures, and numerous angel investors, including former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao. USA Today has more here.

Bumpers.fm., a months-old, New York-based company whose iOS app that lets anyone make a podcast straight from their phone, using the phone’s built-in microphone, has raised $1 million in seed funding led by Spark Capital, with participation from Founders Collective and angel investors, including Evan Williams. TechCrunch has more here.

Finrise, a year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based online lending startup that plans to reach customers in doctor’s offices (to aid with out-of-pocket expenses), has raised $5.4 million in debt and seed equity funding, including from Mayfield, NFX Guild, WTI, and numerous angel investors, including Funding Circle cofounder Sam Hodges and LendingHome CEO Matt Humphrey. We wrote up more here.

Hangar Technology, a months-old, Austin, Tex.-based startup, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding for technology that lets corporations get all the business intelligence they want out of drones, without having to pilot them or crunch the billions of data points that they generate. The deal was led by Lux Capital, with participation from Fontinalis Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Propeller Health, a six-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based mobile platform that offers sensors, mobile apps, analytics, and services to support respiratory health management, has raised $21.5 million in Series C funding, including from 3M Ventures, S.R. One, and Hikma Ventures. Earlier backers Safeguard Scientifics and Social Capital joined the round. More here.

Ritual, a year-old, L.A.-based West Hollywood, Ca.-based vitamin company, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Forerunner Ventures, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and earlier backers Upfront Ventures and Rivet Ventures. The company has now raised $5 million altogether TechCrunch has more here.

Sequoia Capital has brought aboard Jess Lee as its eleventh investing partner in the U.S., becoming the firm’s first senior female U.S. investor in its 44-year-old history.

Lee was a former Google product manager turned CEO of the fashion site Polyvore, which was acquired for $230 million in cash by Yahoo last year. She had stayed on with Yahoo, which is now being sold, maybe, to Verizon.

Lee seemed to demonstrate a strong eye for startups long ago. Indeed, in 2008, as an avid user of Polyvore, which was then just months old,  Lee wrote to its founder, Pasha Sadri, with whom she shared mutual friends. After offering him her unsolicited feedback via email about how to improve the site speed and other aspects of its product design, the two met for coffee and she was quickly brought into the company. By 2012, she was its chief executive.

The new appointment is a huge win for Lee, a Stanford grad who grew up in Hong Kong and joked to Fortune last year that she would have gone to art school but “Asian parents don’t really like that,” so she took a more traditional path; it has led her straight to the top of the venture industry.

The appointment is highly meaningful for Sequoia, too, of course. Though Sequoia China and Sequoia India feature five female investing partners, they are separate, affiliated funds. Meanwhile, the storied Sand Hill Road firm has been pressed for years on the lack of any female investors in its ranks. Pressure on the firm seemed to intensify late last year after longtime Sequoia investor Michael Moritz gave a widely watched interview given to journalist Emily Chang where they discussed whether Sequoia felt a responsibility to hire women.

Adjusting his collar uncomfortably at the time, Moritz said he’d like to think that the firm is “blind to somebody’s sex, to their religion, to their background.” He’d added that there is, in his view, a pipeline problem to explain the dearth of women at Sequoia. Asked if Sequoia might not be looking hard enough, Moritz had added that Sequoia “looks very hard . . . We just hired a young woman from Stanford who is every bit as good as her peers and if there are more like her, we’ll hire them. What we’re not prepared to do is to lower our standards.”

The comment drew scorn from across the internet, though a Bloomberg story this morning reports that longtime Sequoia partner Roelof Botha invited Lee to join Sequoia in the summer of 2015 when Yahoo acquired Polyvore.

More here.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Get out the guacamole. Tonight is the third and final presidential debate, which you can stream live here.

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Why Do We Even Care About Peter Thiel’s Politics?

Peter Thiel is supporting Donald Trump, and it’s time to for Silicon Valley to take sides. Is it for Peter Thiel or against him? Relatedly, should Y Combinator president Sam Altman resign if he can’t bring himself to fire Thiel as a part-time partner?

These were actual questions posed publicly yesterday, I’m sorry to note.

It’s clear that Trump is about as popular as the Zika virus in Silicon Valley (and, seemingly, a growing number of other places). But it’s worth asking: Why does everyone care so much what Peter Thiel thinks about politics? Is he also running for office? Did somebody appoint him Silicon Valley’s official representative in Washington? Along the same vein, why spend so much time worrying about what Sam Altman says and whether Y Combinator will continue to work with Thiel?

The common wisdom seems to be that Trump poses a threat to the country, and because Thiel sits on the boards of some very powerful companies, including Facebook, we should be concerned by his support of Trump. Meanwhile, Y Combinator is an influential force in Silicon Valley, and if it continues to employ Thiel as a part-time partner, it’s sending the wrong message to the many entrepreneurs whose minds it is helping to shape and who may themselves be in positions of power at some point.

Aren’t we all smarter than this? Do we really think founders are that impressionable? Thiel is renowned, yes, but there are many successful people with varied perspectives in Silicon Valley. Those worried about a Trump presidency should be delighted that Thiel is seemingly alone in sticking his neck out here. It could be a lot worse.

I don’t know Thiel. I’ve interviewed him maybe a handful of times, and nearly a decade ago, he accepted an invitation I extended to meet a gaggle of reporters out for drinks at a dumpy pool hall, which I thought was nice, even if it was also self-serving.

But I’m a little astonished by how he tends to be depicted by the media.

More here.

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New Fundings

Chorus, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco- and Tel-Aviv-based startup that adds AI to sales conversations, has raised $6.3 million in first-round funding led by Emergence Capital.

ContentSquare, a four-year-old, Paris-based company whose optimization shopping technology is used by L’Oreal and Unilever, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from Highland Europe. The Telegraph has more here.

Finwizard Technology, a 1.5-year-old Bengaluru, India-based company that makes a wealth management app called Fisdom, has raised $1.1 million from Saama Capital. The company’s founders include Subramanya SV, a former partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. The Economic Times has more here.

FR8, a three-month-old, Chennai, India-based logistics service provider that aims to provide long haul transportation, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from the venture firm Omnivore. More here.

Furlenco, a five-year-old, Bangalore, India-based online furniture rental platform, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by earlier backer LightBox Ventures, with participation from the Hong Kong-based venture capital fund Axis Capital and other investors. The company has also secured $15 million in new debt funding. YourStory has more here.

HigherMe, a two-year-old, Boston-based hiring startup, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding, including from Y Combinator (where the company was incubated), Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners, NatureBox founder Gautam Gupta, HootSuite founder Ryan Holmes, TEEC Angel Fund and The Unofficial Syndicate. TechCrunch has more here.

Leanplum, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile marketing startup, has raised $29 million in Series C funding led by Canaan Partners, with participation from earlier backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Shasta Ventures. GeekWire has more here.

Moov, a four-year-old, Copenhagen, Denmark-based company whose wearables can be used to provide real-time feedback for fast-paced workouts, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Mangrove Capital, with participation from BOE Technology Group. TechCrunch has more here.

Oryx Vision, a seven-year-old,  Israel-based developer of solid state depth sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles, has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Maniv Mobility and Trucks Venture Capital. FinSMEs has more here.

Productboard, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose product management system helps organize user research and prioritize development tasks, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding co-led by Index Ventures and Credo Ventures, with participation from Spread Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Ravelin, a two-year-old, London-based machine-learning fraud detection startup, has raised £3 million ($3.7 million) in Series A funding led by Playfair Capital, with participation from previous backers that include Amadeus Capital and Passion Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

ShotTracker, a 3.5-year-old, Overland Park, Ks.-based company that got its start by launching a wearable sensor to track and analyze users’ basketball shots, has raised $5 million in seed funding, including from basketball legend Magic Johnson, former NBA Commissioner David Stern, R/GA, Elysian Park Ventures, and Greycroft Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

TravelTek, a 14-year-old, Scotland-based startup that provides travel retailers, agents and wholesalers with the technology to package together a range of hotels, flights, cruises and ancillary travel services, has raised £5.3 million ($6.5 million) in funding from YFM Equity Partners. More here.

Vertical Mass, a three-year-old, L.A.-based data management platform and marketplace built specifically for the music, entertainment and sports industries, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Greycroft Partners, Formation 8, Sierra Wasatch, Canyon Creek Capital, Magnetar Capital and the San Francisco 49ers. More here.

CRISPR Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Basel, Switzerland-based gene editing company, just raised $56 million in an IPO. The company priced 4 million shares at $14 per share. More here.

Ra Pharmaceuticals, an eight-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based clinical-stage biopharma company, plans to sell 5.8 million shares at a range of $12 to $14 apiece in its upcoming IPO. A midpoint pricing would raise $75.4 million for the company. Pitchbook has more here.

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Exits

Fintech startup Lendingkart Group, based in Bangalore and Mumbai, has acqui-hired KountMoney, an online lending marketplace for personal loans. Financial terms aren’t being disclosed. The Economic Times has more here.

Online travel firm MakeMyTrip has agreed to buy Ibibo Group’s travel business in India in an all-stock deal, creating the country’s largest online travel firm. LiveMint has more here.

Malwarebytes, an 8.5-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based detection engine for computer threats, has acquired French adware tracker and remover AdwCleaner for an undisclosed amount. Malwarebytes has raised around $80 million in funding, shows CrunchBase. AdwCleaner doesn’t appear to have announced outside funding. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician and the wife of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, spoke last night at a Fortune event about the couple’s philanthropic work, and about the moment she decided to “go to medical school to help advocate for the lives of children.” You can watch here.

When serial entrepreneur and father Mike Lanza turned his Menlo Park backyard into a place where kids can play unsupervised, not all of his neighbors were thrilled.

Pixar made Steve Jobs his first billion dollars. Now, former Pixar CFO Lawrence Levy shares some behind-the-scenes color about how that came to pass.

Zihao Xu has joined the London-based venture capital firm Octopus Ventures as an associate. Xu joins the firm from the consultancy Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, where he spent the last six years.

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Essential Reads

Snapchat is bringing the TV model to mobile. It just told its ad partners it will pay them a license fee for their content — and keep the ad revenue. Recode has more here.

Facebook caught an office intruder using the controversial surveillance tool it just blocked last week. The Verge has more here.

Walmart is teaming up with IBM and Tsinghua University in Beijing to digitally track the movement of pork in China on a blockchain. (Interesting.) Fortune has more here.

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Detours

On-demand orchestras for your living room.

Why autonomous cars will be great for jerks.

Find out if you’re underpaid.

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Retail Therapy

Finally, a robot crib.

GO TRIBE. Also, happy Tuesday.:)

We’re running a little behind today so no column.

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Top News in the A.M.

Amazon may become the latest company to try its hand in providing broadband access, not just the services that run on top of it. According to The Information, the company is considering offering internet access directly to consumers in Europe. More here.

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New Fundings

Baobab Studios, a year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based VR animation studio, has raised $25 million in funding led by Horizons Ventures, with participation from Twentieth Century Fox, Evolution Media Partners, Shanghai Media Group, Youku Global Media Fund and LDV Partners. Earlier backers Comcast Ventures, HTC, and Samsung also joined the round. VentureBeat has more here.

FirstCry.com, a six-year-old, Pune, India-based online and offline retailer of baby products, has acquired its younger competitor, Mahindra Retail, and raised a fresh $34 million in funding from the private equity firm Mahindra Group and Infosys executive vice chair Kris Gopalakrishnan, as well as from the company’s earlier backers. YourStory has more here.

Gymbox, a 13-year-old, London-based gym chain, has raised $48 million in equity and debt, including from Business Growth Fund and HSBC. FinSMEs has more here.

Heal, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based platform for ordering up on-demand doctor house calls, has raised $26.9 million in Series A funding led by Thomas Tull’s Tull Investment Group, with participation from Breyer Capital, Qualcomm’s executive chair Paul Jacobs, Skydance Media CEO David Ellison, and previous investors HashtagOne and Slow Ventures. The company has now raised $40 million altogether. More here.

Hypr, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based biometric security startup that integrates fingerprint, voice, face, eye and palm recognition into mobile and desktop banking and shopping so customers need not use PIN numbers of passwords, has raised $3 million in funding from RTP Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, and Mesh Ventures. American Banker has more here.

Joy, a months-old, San Francisco-based hardware startup whose first product is an interactive photo frame, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including Obvious Ventures, The Chernin Group, BoxGroup, and Maywic Select Investments. Joy was founded by Alan Chan, who sold his last startup, an ad tech company called Bread, to Yahoo in 2013. TechCrunch has more here.

Oblong Industries, a 10-year-old, L.A.-based developer of gesture recognition and immersive collaboration platforms, has raised $65 million from Greenspring Associates; Morgan Stanley; Foundry Group; Industry Ventures; and UTIMCO, the investment arm of the University of Texas. (You don’t see the last make many direct investments in startups, so this is interesting.) VentureBeat has more here.

PayCommerce, a 12-year-old, Edison, N.J.based cross-border payments network for payments disbursement, has raised $22 million investment from Tritium Partners. More here.

SafetyCulture, a 12-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based maker of a business-to-business inspection checklist app called iAuditor, has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Blackbird Ventures and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, who led the company’s Series A round in 2014. TechCrunch has more here.

SecureKey Technologies, an eight-year-old, Toronto-based company that makes identity and authentication software, has secured C$27 million ($20.6 million) in funding from BMO Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC, Desjardins, Royal Bank of Canada and TD. More here.

SoloLearn, a two-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based app that helps would-be developers learn how to code via interactive lessons, coding exercises and more, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Learn Capital, with participation from unnamed individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Tovala, a 1.5-year-old, Chicago-based startup that makes a smart, cloud-connected countertop oven, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding led by Origin Ventures, with participation from New Stack Ventures, Service Provider Capital, and GREE Ventures, along with a handful of individuals. Tovala graduated from Y Combinator last summer. The Chicago Tribune has more here.

Veritas Genetics, a two-year-old, Danvers, Ma.-based startup that offers whole genome sequencing to consumers for under $1,000, has raised $30 million in new funding led by the private equity firm Trustbridge Partners. Lilly Asia and Jiangsu Simcere Pharmaceutical of Nanjing, one of China’s largest drug companies, also joined the round. The Boston Globe has more here.

VMRay, a three-year-old, Bochum, Germany-based company that makes threat analysis and detection software, has raised $3.9 million in Series A funding, including from eCAPITAL entrepreneurial Partners and High-Tech Gründerfonds. More here.

Zumper, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based online apartment search platform, has raised $17.6 million in Series B funding led by Breyer Capital and Foxhaven Asset Management, with participation from earlier backers, including Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Intuit cofounder Scott Cook and others. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Quark Venture, a year-old, Vancouver-based venture capital firm, said yesterday that it’s establishing a $500 million biotechnology fund — “the largest of its kind in Canada” — with the support of the China-based investment bank GF Securities. FierceBiotech has more here.

Ysios Capital, an eight-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based venture capital firm focused on biotech, has closed its second fund with  €126.4 million (roughly $139 million). More here.

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IPOs

Skyscanner, a 13-year-old, Edinburgh, Scotland-based online travel search company,has begun exploring strategic options, including a possible sale or an IPO, reports Bloomberg. The company was reportedly valued at $1.2 billion after its most recent funding round in January. Its backers include Sequoia Capital and Artemis, among others. More here.

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Exits

Razer, an 11-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based company that develops hardware and services for gamers and the world of gaming, has made an acquisition to catapult it to more platforms and more people: The company has acquired THX, the legendary audio and video quality assurance company that was originally founded 33 years ago by George Lucas as part of Lucasfilm. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Razer has raised $125 million from investors, including Accel Partners, IDG Capital, and Intel Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Trump TV is probably going to happen, says ex-Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau (who, by the way, doesn’t think think Hillary Clinton’s speeches work). More here.

A quick look at billionaire Dan Gilbert‘s mission to rebuild Detroit as a tech hub of “muscles and brains.”

Twitter has hired AngelHack founder Gregory Gopman to work on its virtual reality initiative. (In related news, Twitter has a virtual reality initiative.) Variety has more here.

Good grief, it continues. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is now suing two California agencies as part of protracted legal battle over public access to beach on his property. More here.

Dinesh Moorjani has joined Comcast Ventures as a managing director. Moorjani was most recently an executive-in-residence at Warburg Pincus. He also cofounded Saffronart, a 17-year-old, fine art and collectibles e-commerce marketplace in India.

—–

Essential Reads

Silicon Valley is now spending twice as much(!) on lobbying the government than does Wall Street.

You’ll have to wait longer on that Tesla Model 3 than you might have hoped.

—–

Detours

Can you identify these major global cities from space?

Things aren’t looking good for The Donald according to FiveThirtyEight’s newest election forecast.

Stop storing your tomatoes in the refrigerator already.

—–

Retail Therapy

An incomplete nuclear plant in Alabama can be yours, alarmingly.

Hi, everyone, hope you had a terrific weekend — happy Monday.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Apple just scaled down its titanic plans to take down Detroit. Bloomberg explains what’s going on here.

—–

The SEC Gets the Case It’s Been Waiting for in Silicon Valley

Not so long ago, Theranos was flying high, its claims that it was upending the medical diagnostics business largely accepted by the public. Behind the scenes, however, some employees were growing wary of those claims, with at least one eventually reaching out to regulators to report the company’s failure to report its questionable test results.

A stinging series of articles by the Wall Street Journal soon followed, and in recent months, the government agency that oversees U.S. labs has banned founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes from operating a blood-testing laboratory for two years, and Theranos has shuttered its clinical labs and wellness centers. To make matters worse, company was last week slapped with a lawsuit by one of its biggest investors, which claims that Theranos knowingly lied to it.

It’s a nearly ideal scenario for the SEC, which is investigating Theranos and widely expected to use a case against it to expand its mandate into Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem. The truth is while the SEC has long been viewed as a force in the public markets, it also has the authority to chase after private companies that engage in any “act or omission resulting in fraud or deceit in connection with the purchase or sale of any security.” And lately, Wall Street’s top cop is finding Silicon Valley too high-profile a target to resist.

“If you’re only raising couple million bucks, everyone expects your huffing and puffing,” says one San Francisco-based securities attorney. “But if you’re raising hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, why would the SEC ignore that when they’re auditing the financials of some piddly company that’s raising $50 million in an IPO?”

Much more here.

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New Fundings

Aramisauto, a 15-year-old, Arcueil, France-based online used-car marketplace, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from PSA Group, a French auto company whose brands include Peugeot and Citroën. More here.

CloudLex, a 20-month-old, New York-based legal tech startup, has raised $3.7 million in Series A funding led by Aligned Partners. More here.

Hyper Anna, a nine-month-old, Sydney, Australia-based startup behind an AI-powered data analyst, has raised $1.25 million in venture capital funding from Westpac’s venture capital arm, Reinventure, and AirTree Ventures. More here.

KodaCloud, a 2.5-year-old, Campbell, Ca.-based cloud network-as-a-service company, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Comcast Ventures, Celtic House Venture Partners and Voyager Capital. More here.

Prelude, a 1.5-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company focused on providing proactive fertility care, has partnered with two other regional organizations — My Egg Bank North America and the fertility treatment center Reproductive Biology Associates — and with Spanish entepreneur Martín Varsavsky (who previously founded Fon), and garnered a commitment of up to $200 million from the private equity firm Lee Equity Partners for its collective efforts. More here.

Snapsheet, a six-year-old, Chicago, Il.-based startup that makes a smartphone app to speed up collision-repair estimates for auto insurers, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by F-Prime Capital and IA Capital Group, with strategic participation from Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Intact Ventures and a USAA subsidiary. Crain’s Chicago Business has more here.

Zipwhip, a nine-year-old, Seattle-based cloud texting company whose platform enables existing mobile, landline, and toll free numbers to send and receive text messages from any connected device, has raised $9 million in  Series B funding led by Voyager Capital. Other participants include Microsoft Ventures, the regional telecom GCI, and Inteliquent, an interconnection partner for communications service providers. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

A Paris-based group of entrepreneurs and operators has raised a $165 million debut fund for their year-old venture firm, Daphni. The outfit plans to target seed and Series A round opportunities in startups with “European DNA but international ambition.” More here.

K Fund, a young, Madrid-based seed-stage venture firm that plans to invest in Spanish startups that also have an international outlook, has raised a a €50 million ($55 million) fund. More here.

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Exits

Cisco is acquiring Worklife, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based web and mobile app meant to boost productivity. The company passed through Y Combinator in late 2015, so raised at least $120,000 in funding; Cisco is paying an undisclosed amount for the company. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Elon Musk just pushed back an “unexpected product” announcement he’d planned to make today. More here.

Peter Thiel reportedly just donated $1.25 million to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. It’s a tiny drop in the bucket for Thiel, which has many speculating why he bothered (face-saving measure?) and whether it will further hamper his reputation in Silicon Valley.

People in Silicon Valley are usually fairly reticent publicly about U.S. presidential elections. Not this time.

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Essential Reads

“End to end” private offerings for companies.

In China, property frenzy, fake divorces, and a bloating bubble.

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Detours

SNL takes on Honda’s humanoids.

The latest celebrity fashion: cyberbullying.

The greatest race pass this year.

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Retail Therapy

Tangle-proof earbud wrap. A little late in coming, but we’ll take it.

Happy Friday, everyone! We’re working on a story that isn’t *quite* ready, so no column today, but we’ll see you back here Monday. Hope you have a fantastic weekend.

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Top News in the A.M.

Chicago-based Morningstar is buying the Seattle-based private deal-tracking site PitchBook. Morningstar is paying $180 million, valuing PitchBook at $225 million. The Chicago Tribune has more here.

Verizon is either trying to get out of its deal to buy Yahoo, or it’s still working to knock down the purchase price.

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New Fundings

Baroo, a two-year-old, Boston-based startup that partners with apartment buildings to deliver high-quality pet care services straight to residents’ doors, has raised $2.25 million in seed funding, including from the The Graduate Syndicate, a new seed-stage fund that plans to fund the startups of recent Harvard grads. BostInno has more here.

Hyperloop One, the two-year-old, L.A.-based transportation company that aims to shuttle cargo and people in pod-like trains at speeds of up to 700 miles per hour, has raised $50 million in new funding  led by Dubai’s DP World Group, one of the world’s largest port-terminal operators. The company has also brought on as a strategic adviser Brent Callinicos, who spent two years as Uber’s CFO. The WSJ has more here.

InnoGames, a nine-year-old Hamburg, Germany-based developer and publisher of successful browser games such as “Tribal Wars” and “Grepolis,” has sold a 35 stake in its business for an estimated $100 million to MTG (Modern Times Group), a Swedish digital entertainment company. TechCrunch has more here

Iora Health, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based private primary care company, has raised $75 million in Series D funding led by Temasek, with participation from earlier backers .406 Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, F-Prime Capital, GE Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Polaris Partners and Rice Management Company. MobiHealthNews has more here.

mParticle, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based startup whose software helps mobile app owners to manage and control their data, has raised $17.5 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Social Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Veeba Food Services, a three-year-old, New Delhi, India-based maker of specialty food ingredients, has raised $6 million in new funding from earlier backer Saama Capital and Verlinvest. Livemint has more here.

Virgil Security, a two-year-old Manassas, Va.-based startup that makes cryptography software for app developers, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by KEC Ventures, with participation from Bloomberg Beta, Blu Venture Investors, Charge Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Sparkland Capital, and Working Lab Capital. eWeek has more here.

Webscale Networks, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based web application delivery platform, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures, with participation from Benhamou Global Ventures, Grotech, and Silicon Valley Bank. SiliconAngle has more here.

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New Funds

Whoa. Saudi Arabia’s top sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund(PIF) and Japan’s SoftBank Group, plan to create a tech investment fund that could grow as large as $100 billion, making it one of the world’s largest private equity investors. PIF may invest up to $45 billion over the next five years, while SoftBank expects to invest at least $25 billion. Reuters has more here.

Founders Factory, a London-based accelerator/incubator, has received a “multimillion pound” investment from CSC Group. The China-based private equity group is the same outfit that’s committed to investing $400 million in deals on the AngelList platform. Tech.eu has more here.

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IPOs

As many as four IPOs could price in the week ahead, notes Renaissance Capital. They are Forterra, CRISPR Therapeutics, iRhythm Technologies, and Full Spectrum.

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Exits

InfiniLED, a Cork, Ireland-based spin-out from research center Tyndall National Institute, has been acquired by the Facebook-owned Oculus in a “multi-million euro deal” that clears the way for InfiniLED’s low-power display technology to be integrated into Oculus’s VR flagship products, such as the Rift headset. Tech.eu has more here.

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People

HP intends to cut up to 4,000 jobs over the next three years. Reuters has more here.

Spotify cofounder Martin Lorentzon just announced that he’s stepping down as chairman of the company; cofounder and CEO Daniel Ek will take on the role in what looks like a move to consolidate his own power. TechCrunch has more here.

Investor Chamath Palihapitiya tells CNBC his hedge fund is both beating the stock market and outperforming the average hedge fund.

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Data

Nine companies became newly minted unicorns in the third quarter. Here’s the list along with some other funding numbers.

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Essential Reads

In the midst of a highly charged presidential election, where fact and fiction have frequently become confused, Google News has introduced a new fact check feature in search results for news stories, reports the Guardian.

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Detours

Wall Street’s top in-house lawyers are apparently part of a secret society.

Really, really short workouts.

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Retail Therapy

Golden tree rings.

Thursday already!? We will take it.:)

Top News in the A.M.

Pinterest said today that more than 150 million people use its visual bookmarking and ideas service, up from 100 million a year ago. More here.

WeWork, the 6.5-year-old, New York-based shared office and living space provider, just raised a whopping $260 million, including from Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels, reports the WSJ. The money reportedly brings WeWorks’s latest funding round to $690 million; the round values the company at around $16.9 billion. More here.

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Fast Chat With Science Inc.

It’s been a good week for Science, a five-year-old, L.A.-based startup studio that’s known for both funding nascent startups and incubating them, including FameBit, a three-year-old outfit that helps marketers connect with digital influencers and which sold on Wednesday to Google.

Science was the majority owner. FameBit was the firm’s third exit of the year, too. Science also funded the marketing agency HelloSociety, which sold to the New York Times in March for undisclosed terms, and it backed the men’s grooming company Dollar Shave Club after its founder, Michael Dubin, showed Science what would go on to become a massively viral video promoting Dollar Shave Club’s razors. (Dollar Shave Club sold to Unilever for $1 billion in cash in July.)

Financial terms of the FameBit deal weren’t disclosed, but we reached out earlier this week to Science cofounder (and former MySpace CEO) Mike Jones to talk about it and get a bit of an update on Science while we were at it. Because he was traveling, we had an email exchange.

How much has Science raised in its five years? CrunchBase shows $10 million in venture capital, another $30 million in private equity, and another $20 million in debt financing. is that correct?

We don’t share that information.

Does Science plan to raise more money?

Yes, we are actively fundraising now.

How many companies is Science currently incubating?

We have four companies being incubated at the moment.

How many of those companies have you either cofounded or backed altogether at this point?

We’ve co-founded and invested in more than 60 companies.

You invest in companies off a balance sheet. What’s Science’s annual budget for startups?

We don’t share that information.

At the outset, Science planned to work with larger, publicly traded companies to help them invigorate their businesses. Was FameBit part of that strategy? If not, can you point to a startup that you’ve incubated or funded that is?

Despite its purchase by Google, FameBit will remain independent, which confirms that it’s a crucial, scalable ad unit for brands and YouTube. Traditional brands [haven’t been able to fully understand] their audiences, and that’s why we’re starting to see so much M&A activity in commerce. Brands like HelloSociety, FameBit and Dollar Shave Club energize seasoned companies, and that’s why we continue searching for similar disruptors.

More here.

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New Fundings

Astronomer, a year-old, Cincinnati, Oh.-based platform for enterprise-scale big data integration, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding led by CincyTech, with participation from AngelPad, 500 Startups, First Ascent, Connetic Ventures, Drummond Road Capital and CoreNetwork Fund. Cincinnati Business Courier has more here.

ComplyAdvantage, a two-year-old, London-based startup that claims to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to help firms manage compliance obligations at reduced cost, has raised $8.2 million in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Coorpacademy, a three-year-old, Paris-based company at work on expanding its online platform for corporate education, has raised $11 million in funding from Serena Capital, NextStageAM, and Debiopharm Investment funds, among others. VentureBeat has more here.

Group Nine, a newly formed holding company that comprises four digital media organizations — Thrillist (lifestyle), NowThis Media (video news), The Dodo (animals), and Discovery’s digital network Seeker (including its production studio SourceFed) — has accepted $100 million in funding from Discovery Communications in exchange for a minority stake in the business. TechCrunch has more here.

PlaceIQ, a five-year-old, New York-based mobile location intelligence startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from e-commerce giant Alibaba. TechCrunch has more here.

Pluto TV, a three-year-old, L.A.-based video streaming service that targets cord cutters, has raised $30 million in Series B funding from ProSieben of Germany, which is one of Europe’s largest independent media companies, and the lifestyle media company Scripps Networks Interactive. TechCrunch has more here.

TouchBistro, a six-year-old, New York-based company whose iPad-based restaurant point-of-sale system enables owners to manage reservations and take orders quickly, has raised $17 million in Series B funding led by BDC IT Venture Fund. Other participants in the round include Round13 Capital, Huff Capital, and earlier backers Relay Ventures and Kensington Capital Partners. More here.

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New Funds

They’re baaaack. Longtime investors and operators Dixon Doll, Eric Ball and Jack Crawford have formed a new venture firm called Impact Venture Capital; interestingly, they plan to make investments alongside corporate venture groups. Doll founded Doll Capital Management (DCM), which has gone on to great success by investing in both Silicon Valley and China. Ball previously served as the Treasurer for Oracle. Crawford previously managed Velocity Venture Capital. More here.

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IPOs

Snapchat has reportedly chosen bankers for an IPO that could happen as soon as March. The big winners? Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Bloomberg has the story here.

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People

Investors Ron Conway, Michael Moritz and William Oberndorf have each donated $50,000 to a controversial measure to rid San Francisco of its homeless tent cities. More here.

Longtime VC John Doerr has shelled out $500,000 to support Prop. 62 in California, a measure looking to repeal the 1978 law that imposes the death penalty.

If investor Peter Thiel still supports Donald Trump, he’s not telling.

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Data

At big U.S. law firms, there is a 44 percent(!) difference in pay between female partners and their male colleagues, according to the latest survey of big-firm partners released yesterday by the legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa. More here.

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Essential Reads

Are we living in a simulation? No, really, Silicon Valley wants to know (and the press can’t quite believe it).

Twitter wants more TV producers live-streaming on Periscope with this new feature.

After years of behind-the-scenes planning, Goldman Sachs is opening its new online lending platform, Marcus, today. You need a special code  to use it, though.

Morgan Stanley is furnishing a $100 million credit line for Affirm, the four-year-old San Francisco-based online lending company led by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.

Mercedes decides who an autonomous car should save, and the answer is, erm, worrying.

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Detours

The ultimate efficiency hack — have kids.

Donald Trump’s reported Plan B: launch a next-gen Fox News.

Where did all the good movies on Netflix go?

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Retail Therapy

Two words: Levitating. Turntable. (Ya welcome.)

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Geofeedia, a Chicago-based company that says it analyzes social media posts to deliver real-time surveillance information to help 500 law enforcement agencies track and respond to crime, just lost its access to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram after the ACLU alerted the companies about looming public exposure in an extensive report. The Washington Post has more here.

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Four Kites Tracks Trucks for Customers Like Staples

FourKites, a two-year-old, Chicago-based company that aims to make sense of the fragmented trucking industry for vendors trying to ship their goods, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, and Otter.

What the platform is promising more specifically is visibility into where each truck is traveling at any point in time, so that problems — a breakdown, an unforeseen delay — can be addressed quickly.

FourKites planned from the start to share as much data as possible with shippers, brokers, and carriers to boost on-performance time from what it says is in the low 90 percent range to closer to 98 percent. But the company is also taking advantage of a December 2015 ruling by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association that states every professional truck driver and commercial motor carrier need have an electronic logging device (ELD) onboard by the end of next year.

We talked yesterday with cofounder and CEO Mathew Elenjicka about the company’s software, its customers, and how it differs from the many other trucking-related startups to emerge in recent years. Our chat has been edited for length.

There’s no shortage of companies trying to wring efficiencies out of the stodgy trucking business, including TransFix, Cargomatic, Cargo Chief, and Trucker Path. What are you promising that’s different?

The strategy [of those companies is] is, let’s build an app for the drivers and take this community [of drivers] and go to shippers and try to disintermediate brokers, who take a lot of margins and don’t add a lot of value.

The problem with that approach is first, you can only get a subsection of drivers to do download those apps. In the U.S, there are four million truck drivers but just half a million of them are owner-operators; the rest are working for a trucking company, and [those companies] aren’t making them use the apps. They have ELD devices and GPS and are already running a pretty efficient operation.

Instead of starting with the trucking companies and going bottoms up, as do those companies, we’re going top down, building our platform for shipping customers, and they are pushing our app down on the platform, saying to trucking companies, “If you want our business, you have to use our platform.”

What’s the advantage of working with FourKites versus working directly with the trucking companies themselves?

The shippers in the country are working with a lot of trucking companies already, and the data is out there, but it’s all siloed. We’ve built integration across all of these ELD devices, so can act as a single data point for shippers, enabling them to see, for example, which shipments are delayed so they can focus on those exceptions. If you’re asking why it has to be a third party, a new player, it’s because existing players can’t build it. If a dispatcher wanted to build what we’re building, they’d have to build integrations with their competitors, and that’s not going to happen.

More here.

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New Fundings

Akriveia Therapeutics, a year-old, Thousand Oaks, Ca.-based immune-oncology startup, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding from F-Prime Capital Partners. More here.

Blue Medora, a nine-year-old, Grand Rapids, Mi.-based company that develops plugins for virtualization and cloud monitoring and management, has raised $8.6 million in Series B funding led by Lewis & Clark Ventures, with participation from earlier backers VMWare, eLab Ventures, Start Garden and Grand Angels. Grand Rapids Business Journal has more here.

C1X, a two-year-old, California City, Ca.-based ad tech company, has raised $8.5 million in Series B funding led by the Japanese firm Venture Labo Investment, with participation from earlier investors. TechCrunch has more here.

DTI Management, a four-year-old, Alexandria, Va.-based company that makes inventory software for online marketplaces, has raised $75 million in growth equity funding from CVC Capital Partners and New Amsterdam Growth Capital. FinSMEs has more here.

MEL Science, a 2.5-year-old, London- and St. Petersburg-based company whose standalone educational packages include virtual reality and augmented reality content, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from Sistema Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Mist, a 2.5-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based smart wireless networking company, has raised $28 million in Series B funding led by GV, with additional funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and Cisco Investments. The company has now raised $43 million altogether. More here.

Nexus Systems, a 17-year-old, Falls Church, Va.-based maker of so-called procure-to-pay software for medium and large businesses, has raised $28 million in growth equity funding from Mainsail Partners. More here.

Noodle, a 6.5-year-old, New York-based education company that’s partnering with schools to create new online certificates and degree programs, has raised $4 million in funding led by the Philadelphia-based venture firm Osage Venture Partners. Other participants in the round include New Markets Venture Partners and 500 Startups. TechCrunch has more here.

Optimus Ride, a 1.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based MIT spinoff that’s working on a fully autonomous driving technology (that it’s not disclosing in much detail yet), has raised $5.25 million in seed funding led by NextView Ventures and FirstMark Capital. Other participants in the round incude MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito, Greycroft Partners, Morado Venture Partners, Haystack, and Uj Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Serverless, a year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based startup whose open source framework allows developers to more easily write applications for platforms like AWS Lambda, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Trinity Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Yi Wei Xing, a Beijing-based car sharing tech platform provider that’s responsible for Feezu, a timeshare rental car service similar to Zipcar, as well as for providing the backend for rental companies looking to provide their own car-sharing service, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from GM. More here.

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New Funds

China’s Baidu said today that it has established a 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) investment fund, Baidu Capital, that will focus on mid- and late-stage deals in the internet sector, in Chinese yuan, U.S. dollars and other currencies, with individual funding amounts ranging from $50 million to $100 million, the company said on its official WeChat mobile messaging account. Fortune has more here.

Three veterans of a number of Silicon Valley companies, including Samsung, Cisco, and SGI have formed a Los Altos, Ca.-based venture firm called Immersive Capital and raised $21.4 million for their debut fund, shows an SEC filing.

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Exits

Google has acquired FameBit, a marketplace that connects video creators with marketers who want to sponsor their content. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. FameBit was backed by the L.A. startup studio Science. More here.

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People

Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, is launching a new virtual reality company called Modal VR. More here.

Among the tech tidbits buried in the trove of Clinton campaign emails published by WikiLeaks on Monday was a request from Apple CEO Tim Cook for a one-on-one meeting with Hillary Clinton last year. Wrote a campaign aide, “Tim’s office requested a 1:1 meeting today, which was a nice way of saying ‘no staff.’ I think this is one [where] we should proceed cautiously. He’s supportive but new to this so I think we shouldn’t come on too strong.” More here.

President Obama talks AI with Wired: “One of the challenges that we’ll have to think about is, where and when is it appropriate for us to have things work exactly the way they’re supposed to, without surprises?” More here.

Might Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg be the next U.S. Treasury Secretary? Asked during a fireside yesterday about whether she’d accept the post if asked by Hillary Clinton, Sandberg insisted that she’s staying put. “I really am staying at Facebook. I’m very happy.” More here.

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Essential Reads

Would you pay a few extra bucks a month to turn your smart home speaker into an intelligent, unlimited jukebox?  Amazon is betting people will.

Bed Bath & Beyond paid just $11.78 million to acquire online retailer One Kings Lane earlier this year, according to regulatory documents turned up by Fortune. The company had raised more than $200 million from investors and was once valued at more than $900 million.

Elon Musk‘s wild ride. (Biographer Ashlee Vance examines troubles at SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.)

Why does Siri still seem so dumb (and what does it mean for Apple)?

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Detours

Painstaking, heartfelt and misunderstood gifts for professional tennis players.

The 10 best Ken Bone memes on the internet.

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Retail Therapy

BMW’s new motorcycle concept. So smart, you won’t need a helmet. (You should probably wear one anyway.)