Tuesday!

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Top News in the A.M.

Facebook at Work is reportedly launching next month.

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Gusto Rushes to Release New Features Ahead of Rival Zenefits

In the world of HR and payment software, things are heating up this fall.

In the one corner: Zenefits, the high-flying software company that admitted to having an array of compliance issues and that asked its cofounder to resign as CEO earlier this year. The company has been heavily promoting an all-new, fully complaint, next-generation version of its offerings that it plans to unveil on October 18. These offerings come complete with superstar operator David Sacks, who’d joined the company as COO in late 2014 and took over as CEO of the company back in February. (We sat down with Sacks to talk about that transition earlier this month.)

Meanwhile, Gusto, formerly known as ZenPayroll, is taking the wraps off some new, human resources features of its own, including paperless employee records that are centralized online so HR admins can navigate that information all in one place; a 401(k) solution that allows employees to more easily enroll in retirement plans and update their contributions; and a new “welcome wall,” where teammates can leave greetings for a new hire before their first day.

Gusto is also touting its nearly 40,000 customers – which is twice the number of customers that Zenefits has said it has — and noting that it has amassed them with 314 employees to Zenefits’s 900-person staff. Gusto CEO Josh Reeves, who isn’t shy about throwing his elbows, further notes that Gusto has raised $150 million from investors to date and was last valued at $1 billion, compared with Zenefits, which has raised roughly $580 million from investors and halved its valuation to $2 billion in June.

Last week, to learn more, we caught up briefly with Reeves. Our chat has been edited for length.

More here.

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New Fundings

Color Genomics, a three-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based personalized genomics startup aiming to detect cancer risk, has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from entertainer-investor Bono and earlier investors Susan Wagner, 8VC, Khosla Ventures and Emerson Collective. TechCrunch has more here.

Deepgram, a year-old, Menlo Park, Calif.-based audio search startup, has raised $1.8 million in funding co-led by Metamorphic Ventures and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.

NS1, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based company that makes DNS and network traffic management software, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures and return backers Flybridge Capital Partners and Sigma Prime Ventures. More here.

Ofo, a 2.5-year-old, Beijing, China-based bicycle-sharing platform, has raised “tens of millions of U.S. dollars” from Didi Chuxing, says VentureBeat. More here.

Propeller Aero, a two-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based platform for drone flyers to upload their data and see it presented visually (creating things such as 3D maps for industrial companies), has raised $4 million in funding from Costanoa Ventures and Accel Partners. Australia’s Financial Review has more here.

ProsperWorks, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based cross-platform customer relationship management  service that plugs into the Google for Work platform, has raised $24 million in Series B funding funding led by Next World Capital, with participation from Storm Ventures, True Ventures, Industry Ventures, Devoteam, and a consortium of strategic angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Qrvey, a year-old, McLean, Va.-based customer feedback platform, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by the Center for Innovative Technology. DCInno has more here.

Red Points, a five-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based company that offers brand protection, copyright protection, and removal of content services, has raised roughly $2.2 million in funding from Mangrove Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

The Luxury Closet, a four-year-old, Dubai-based online marketplace that buys, sells, and consigns personal luxury goods that are mostly pre-owned, has raised $7.8 million in Series B funding led by Wamda Capital and Middle East Venture Partners, with participation from Equitrust, Saned Partners, Arzan Venture Capital and a few other regional investors. Arabian Gazette has more here.

Zenly, a six-year-old, Paris-based smartphone app that allows family and friends to follow each other’s tracks on a private map, has raised $22.5 million from Benchmark, with participation from earlier backers Idinvest, Xavier Niel and Insight Venture Partners co-founder Jerry Murdock. TechCrunch has more here.

Zuoyebang, a year-old, China-based K-12 online education startup that spun out of Baidu last year, has raised $60 million in Series B funding co-led by GGV Capital and Xianghe Capital, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Legend Capital. China Money Network has more here.

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Exits

Sequoia Capital just shut down a dedicated investment fund for Israeli startups, according to local news site Calacist (via news aggregator No Camels) and multiple sources. More here.

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People

Bill Gates’s investment firm, Cascade Investment, is joining a private equity venture to take stakes in retailers, restaurant chains and consumer-branded companies that are in need of a turnaround. Bloomberg has more here.

Watch Elon Musk reveal his plan for colonizing Mars right here at 2:30 p.m. PST.

“We’re in a constant state of argument over this,” investor-entrepreneur Reid Hoffman told Bloomberg TV yesterday of his friend, Peter Thiel, who is very publicly supporting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Hoffman adds that he thinks Thiel is actually “inventing policies for Trump that Trump doesn’t actually have.” More here.

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Essential Reads

Elon Musk’s SolarCity is being accused of intellectual property theft by Cogenra Solar, a wholly owned subsidiary of SunPower Corporation, and Khosla Ventures. Reuters has more on the lawsuit here.

The U.S. Department of Labor yesterday filed an administrative lawsuit against Palantir, alleging the secretive data analytics and security company systematically discriminates against Asian job applicants. Reuters has more here.

The Verge went to China’s Silicon Valley to see the front lines of the robot wars.

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Detours

Power poses might not work after all.

What. The first “three person” baby was just born in Mexico.

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Retail Therapy

Leather touchscreen gloves. Because sometimes, when someone texts you, you’re riding your motorcycle.

Happy Monday, dear readers!

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Top News in the A.M.

Is Facebook buying Twitter? That’s what some are speculating now that the king of Twitter, investor (and Facebook board member) Marc Andreessen has saidsayonara for now to the platform.

Then again it could be Disney (buying Twitter). At least, the entertainment giant has reportedly discussed with bankers whether a deal makes sense.

Senator Mark Warner is calling for an SEC probe into that massive Yahoo hack.

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Fallen VC Ifty Ahmed Strikes Back at Former Employer, Claiming Self-Dealing

Owes HimIn May of last year, Ifty Ahmed was accused by federal regulators of conning his former employer — the venture capital firm, Oak Investment Partners — out of $65 million. Now, Ahmed suggests, Oak is doing the conning, and he says the stakes are even higher.

You might remember Ahmed’s sensational story. According to his former colleagues, Ahmed — who’d joined Oak in 2004 following short stints as a junior investor with both Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Ventures — began bilking the firm almost immediately. They say he doctored deal documents and faked invoices, among other ways he directed the Norwalk, Conn. firm’s monies into his own personal account.

The alleged fraud was discovered almost by accident. One month earlier, Ahmed, who lived with his wife and children in Greenwich, Conn., was arrested and criminally charged with insider trading. The reason: Federal prosecutors in Boston said Ahmed had conspired with longtime friend Amit Kanodia to profit from the planned acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. by India-based Apollo Tyres, making $1 million from the deal before it was publicly announced. (Kanodia’s wife was Apollo’s general counsel at the time.)

In a civil lawsuit filed against Ahmed at the time (May 2015), the SEC identified at least nine companies in which Ahmed allegedly manipulated Oak investments for his personal gain, the most egregious of which appeared to be a Hong Kong-based online retailer. According to the SEC, in December 2014, Ahmed convinced his partners to write a $20 million check for a stake in the company when, in reality, it was buying a $2 million stake. Ahmed pocketed the rest, says the SEC.

With his name in the headlines, Ahmed fled to India, where he was quickly arrested by local authorities for entering the country illegally on an expired passport. (He surrendered his U.S. and Indian passports to U.S. authorities when he was charged with insider training.) In the meantime, the SEC froze all his assets, including his brokerage accounts, his investments in Oak’s funds and various properties, such as a home in Greenwich, and two Park Avenue apartments in New York.

Now Ahmed, who remains in India — he tells us he’s been prevented from returning to the U.S. by Indian authorities who’ve confiscated all of his documents — is trying to wage a battle of his own. To wit, earlier this month, he filed a motion in a U.S. District Court petitioning the SEC to include all of his “untainted assets currently held by Oak” and to direct them into a “joint untainted frozen bank account.”

According to Ahmed’s legal filing, these assets include four direct forms of investment and investment-related economic interests associated with his employment with Oak, including carried interest in four funds (Oak Investment Partners X, XI, XII and XIII), in which he says he was significantly vested. Specifically, Ahmed says that when he was terminated from Oak on May 18, 2015, he was fully vested in his Fund X; 91 percent vested in Fund XI; 83 percent vested in the carry of Fund XII; and 54 percent vested in Fund XIII’s carry.

“With very conservative assumptions, the total value of [Ahmed’s] carried interest across these funds is material and significant — easily in the $60 million range even with very conservative assumptions,” states his motion.

More here.

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New Fundings

Estify, a four-year-old, L.A.-based company that’s developed a new tool for auto repair businesses to better gauge the cost of its services for insurance claims, has raised $6.3 million in new funding led by Romulus Capital, with participation from ff Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Flexport, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based freight forwarding company and data provider, has raised $65 million in Series B funding from Eight Partners, along with previous investors Founders Fund, Bloomberg Beta, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Susa Ventures, and Yuri Milner.

FreshDirect, a 14-year-old, Long Island, N.Y.-based popular online grocery service on the East Coast, has raised $189 million in new funding led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with participation from W Capital and AARP Innovation Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Inverse, a year-old, New York and San Francisco-based digital media startup geared towards millennial men, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Crosslink Capital with participation from Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Social Starts, Bialla Venture Partners, and Vast Ventures. The company has now raised $8 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

MemberSuite, a eight-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based maker of customizable association management software, has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by Revolution Ventures. Additional investors included Fidelis Partners, Angel Investment Management, Accomplice Partners, and Alerion Ventures. More here.

TheSkimm, a four-year-old, New York-based publisher of a popular e-newsletter aimed at young women, has tacked on $500,000 in funding onto an earlier $8 million round led by 21st Century Fox. The new capital comes from the New York Times; Yannick Bolloré, the CEO of French media conglomerate Havas; media advisory firm MediaLink; and actress Mariska Hargitay. Recode has more here.

Podium Data, a two-year-old, Lowell, Ma.-based data lake management platform, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding led by Malibu Ventures. SiliconAngle has more here.

Skyhigh Networks, a five-year-old, Campbell, Ca.-based cloud security startup, has raised $40 million in new venture capital funding, bringing its total outside investment to over $105 million. Thomvest Partners led the Series D round and was joined by return backers Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. Fortune has more here.

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New Funds

Aleph, a three-year-old, Israeli early-stage venture capital firm, has closed its second fund with $180 million in capital commitments. It had closed its debut fund with $150 million. GeekTime has more here.

Canvas Ventures, a Portola Valley, Ca.-based early-stage venture firm, has closed its second fund with $300 million. That’s a meaningful step up from the $175 million debut effort of the firm, which was cofounded in 2013 by former Morgenthaler Ventures partners Gary Little, Rebecca Lynn and Gary Morgenthaler. TechCrunch has more here.

FTV Capital, an 18-year-old, San Francisco and New York-based growth equity investment firm, has closed its fifth fund with $850 million. The firm plans to continue its focus on funding high-growth companies with $10 million to $100 million in revenue (and 20 percent year-over-year revenue growth). VentureBeat has more here.

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Exits

AppLovin, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile ad tech company backed by just $4 million in angel funding, has sold a majority stake in its business to the Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital at an enterprise value of $1.42 billion. Fortune has more here.

Publicly traded CA Technologies is spending an undisclosed amount to acquire BlazeMeter, an Israel-based provider of continuous application performance testing software. Blazemeter had raised around $7 million from investors, including YL Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, Flint Capital andWestern Technology Investment. More here.

CBOE Holdings, operator of the Chicago Board Options Exchange,  has agreed to acquire Bats Global Markets, the U.S.’s third largest exchange, which went public earlier this year. The price: $3.2 billion in cash and stock. Bats shareholders include TA Associates, which holds a 21 percent stake. MarketWatch has more here.

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Essential Reads

Harvard Management Company lost almost $2 billion in endowment value during a “disappointing” fiscal year 2016, posting its worst endowment returns since the nadir of the financial crisis and marking the latest in a string of underwhelming investment results for the world’s largest university endowment.More here.

A look at the hopes and anticipated headaches of Snapchat’s new glasses.

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Detours

Debate tonight! Woot! In the meantime, plenty of politicians dodge questions; see if you can decode these answers from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

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Retail Therapy

BB-8 desk lamps. Beeps and boops not included.

It is Friday! Afternoon! (We know, we know, but it’s been one call after another today.) Hope you have a most wonderful weekend, everyone! See you back here Monday.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Google and Salesforce are reportedly interested in buying Twitter; TechCrunch sources say Microsoft and Verizon have been kicking the tires, too. Bloomberg notes the stock is surging on the reported talks.

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New Fundings

Aceable, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that delivers drivers’ education in a mobile app, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Silverton Partners and Floodgate Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Airbnb, the popular, eight-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace for people to discover and book accommodations around the world, has raised $555 million in new funding at a $30 billion valuation co-led by Google Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures. Neither received board seats. Fortune has more here.

Gfycat (as in “Jiffy Cat”), a year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup whose site is a Webm host that lets people convert videos into short-form, shareable, looping and fast-loading clips, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Alsop Louie Partners, an early backer of Twitch.tv. Other participants in the round include Pear, You & Mr Jones Brandtech Ventures, and the Stanford StartX fund, as well as individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Kahoot!, a nearly five-year-old, Oslo, Norway-based game-based educational platform, has raised $10 million from Creandum, Northzone and Microsoft Ventures. More here.

Linio, a four-year-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based ecommerce marketplace for Latin America, has raised $55 million in funding from LIV Capital, Northgate Capital and Kinnevik. More here.

Tealium, an eight-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company that makes website data management software, has raised $35 mllion in new funding led by earlier backer Georgian Partners. Other previous investors also joined the round, including Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Silver Lake Partners and Tenaya Capital. The San Diego Union-Tribune has more on the company here.

Zero, a months-old, San Francisco-based mobile banking startup, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by ENIAC Ventures, with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Nyca Partners, Lightbank, and Middleland Capital. More here.

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New Funds

GE Healthcare has taken the wraps off a healthcare accelerator called five.eight that will invest $50 million in startups dedicated to improving healthcare in emerging markets. MedCity News has more here.

SignalFire, a venture firm that mines data on moves by top startup employees for investing signals, is in the process of raising a $300 million to $350 million for its second fund, according to WSJ sources. (We’ve heard this, too.) The WSJ has more here. We walked readers through how the firm works last fall.

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IPOs

Apptio, a nearly nine-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based company that makes cloud-based business management software, jumped 44 percent in its trading debut this morning. Investors Business Daily has more here.

Coupa Software, a 10-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based corporate spend management platform, just set its IPO terms to 6.7 million shares being offered at between $14 and $16 per share. In the middle of that range, it would have a market cap of $711 million, or less than the unicorn valuation that its private investors had assigned it. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.

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Exits

Cuff, a smart jewelry maker that promised a line of fashion wearables capable of sending emergency alerts to family and friends, shut down earlier this year; now it’s being named in a bankruptcy suit filed by five of its manufacturing partners. The company was funded by New Enterprise Associates, Tandem Capital, and Tugboat Ventures. More here.

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People

Zander Farkas, a former investor at Greycroft Partners who just nabbed his MBA from Wharton, has joined Tribeca Venture Partners as a principal.

Sarah Hodges has joined Boston-based Pillar Companies, a venture firm, as a partner. Hodges previously cofounded of Intelligent.ly, a four-year-old, Boston-based learning campus that connects experts with entrepreneurs and others who want to hone their skills.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is reportedly funding a Trump group that’s dedicated to circulating internet memes maligning Hillary Clinton. “I’ve got plenty of money,” Luckey tells the Daily Beast. “Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time.”

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Jobs

Tribeca Venture Partners is looking to hire an associate. The job is in New York.

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Essential Reads

Facebook says that for two years, it systematically overestimated the time its users spent watching videos on the site by ignoring views that lasted less than three seconds. The WSJ has more here. (And here, Facebook VP David Fischer apologies for what the company is calling a miscalculation.)

Apple’s interest in McLaren likely centers on its five-year-old consulting arm, McLaren Applied Technologies. TechCrunch has more here.

UPS is beginning to test drone deliveries, and it’s turning to its longtime partner, venture-backed CyPhy, to do it. BostInno has more here.

Google will reportedly launch a new Wi-Fi router similar to that of Eero and Luma in October.

Inside MIT‘s $60 million-per-year lab for geniuses.

An era in Hong Kong is ending, thanks to China’s tight embrace.

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Detours

Why your handwriting keeps changing, even in adulthood.

New research shows grown children would rather live at home and play video games than find gainful employment. (In the Washington Post, people, not The Onion!)

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Retail Therapy

The estate of the late, renowned VC Tom Perkins has come on the market in Belvedere in Marin County for $16.5 million.

AutoCamp. Ideal for glamping with pals.

Hey, everyone, happy first day of fall!

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Top News in the A.M.

A hacker named “Peace” is bringing chaos to Yahoo just as its sale to Verizon is pending. Recode has more here.

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Good News for the Mutual Fund with the Most Unicorn Stakes! Wait . . .

A new report may have mutual fund investors beaming right now — and traditional venture investors sniggering.

According to new research from the data company Pitchbook, Fidelity Investments has assembled stakes in 24 “unicorn” startups. That’s more than any venture firm. Fidelity’s peer and rival, T. Rowe Price, isn’t doing too shabbily on the same front. Pitchbook places it fifth in terms of its unicorn holdings, with investments in 17 privately held startups that are valued at a billion dollars or more.

Pitchbook asks whether mutual funds might be beating VCs at their own game, but a wealth of unicorn holdings isn’t necessarily a positive signal about Fidelity so much as a reminder that it has stuffed an awful lot of money into venture-backed companies that haven’t yet gone public or been acquired.

For one thing, the investment giant has in some cases bought stakes in companies afterthey were assigned billion-dollar plus valuations. Take Oscar Health, the three-year-old health insurance startup that has so convinced investors of its uniqueness that by last September, it was already valued at $1.75 billion. Fidelity then led a $400 million investment in the company this February, pushing Oscar’s valuation to a reported $2.7 billion.

And that’s hardly the only time a mutual fund company has taken an already rich valuation and driven it substantially higher. While the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz in particular seemed to get the ball rolling – remember that $100 million in first-round funding it provided to Github, or the $90 million it plugged into Tanium in one shot? – it was non-traditional venture investors like Fidelity, T. Rowe, and Tiger Global Management that picked up the torch and carried it to new lengths over and over and over again.

More here.

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New Fundings

Anodot, a two-year-old, Ra’anana, Israel-based real time business incident detection and analytics company, has raised $8 million in funding led by Aleph Venture Capital with participation by Disruptive Technologies L.P. The company has now raised $12.5 million altogether. GeekTime has more here.

Avalara, a 12-year-old, Seattle-based company that makes tax compliance automation software, has raised $96 million in new growth equity funding from return backers, including Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures and Sageview Capital. VentureBeat has more here.

BrightFarms, a five-year-old, New York-based company that designs, finances, builds and operates hydroponic greenhouse farms at or near supermarkets, has raised $30.1 million in Series C funding led by Catalyst Investors, with participation from earlier investors WP Global Partners and NGEN Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Centec Networks, a Suzhou, China-based company focused on software-defined networking, has raised $47 million in Series E funding led by China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund. More here.

GameCo., a year-old, New York-based company that’s making skill-based video game gambling machines(?), has raised $8.25 million in seed and Series A funding led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Courtside Ventures, QB1 Ventures, New York Angels, Steel Partners and individual angels. More here.

Operator, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based personal shopping assistant chatbot, has raised $15 million in Series B funding at a $100 million pre-money valuation led by GGV Capital, with participation from Formation8, Morningside Ventures, Horizons Ventures and earlier investors Greylock Partners and Expa. TechCrunch has more here.

Sonder, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to combine the hospitality and perks of a hotel with home rentals (a la Airbnb), has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Spark Capital, with participation from Thayer Ventures, Real Ventures and BDC Capital. More here.

TrueFacet, a three-year-old, New York-based online marketplace for used jewelry and watches, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Maveron, with participation from Freestyle Capital, Social Leverage, Founders’ Co-op, Trilogy, Liquid2 Ventures and individual angels. GeekWire has more here.

Vina, a 21-month-old, Bay Area-based  social network for girls, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates,Wildcat Venture Partners and Tinder. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Signia Venture Partners, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm has closed its second fund with $85 million to lead early-stage deals in emerging tech startups mostly in and around San Francisco. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

Airware, a Newport Beach, Ca.-based drone OS and hardware startup, has paid an undisclosed amount for Redbird, a three-year-old, Paris-based startup focused on drone analytics. According to CrunchBase, Airware has raised roughly $70 million from investors, including Next World Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Redbird had raised roughly $3 million from investors, shows CrunchBase. TechCrunch has more here.

Apple is on a machine learning company buying spree. After buying Perceptio at the end of 2015 and Turi just a few months ago, Apple has now acquired the machine learning startuo Tuplejump. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, announced yesterday that they are making a $3 billion investment over the next decade to help cure, prevent, or manage disease — all of it. TechCrunch has more here.

Fortune just published its annual “40 Under 40” compilation. Are you an influential young person? Find out here.

Not to be outdone by Fortune, Bloomberg has simultaneously released its age-agnostic 50 Most Influential People list.

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Jobs

The Climate Corporation, now a division of Monsanto, is looking to hire a director of corporate development. The job is in San Francisco.

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Essential Reads

How Hampton Creek sold Silicon Valley on a fake-mayo miracle.

Driven in the Valley: Fortune’s smart look at the startup founders fueling GM’s future.

How the FDA manipulates the media.

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Detours

Zack Galifianakis grills Hillary Clinton “Between Two Ferns.”

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Retail Therapy

Leo DiCaprio’s $11 million Malibu beach house hit the market last Friday. You can take a look-see here.

A new report may have mutual fund investors beaming right now — and traditional venture investors sniggering.

According to new research from the data company Pitchbook, Fidelity Investments has assembled stakes in 24 “unicorn” startups. That’s more than any venture firm. Fidelity’s peer and rival, T. Rowe Price, isn’t doing too shabbily on the same front. Pitchbook places it fifth in terms of its unicorn holdings, with investments in 17 privately held startups that are valued at a billion dollars or more.

Pitchbook asks whether mutual funds might be beating VCs at their own game, but a wealth of unicorn holdings isn’t necessarily a positive signal about Fidelity so much as a reminder that it has stuffed an awful lot of money into venture-backed companies that haven’t yet gone public or been acquired.

For one thing, the investment giant has in some cases bought stakes in companies afterthey were assigned billion-dollar plus valuations. Take Oscar Health, the three-year-old health insurance startup that has so convinced investors of its uniqueness that by last September, it was already valued at $1.75 billion. Fidelity then led a $400 million investment in the company this February, pushing Oscar’s valuation to a reported $2.7 billion.

And that’s hardly the only time a mutual fund company has taken an already rich valuation and driven it substantially higher. While the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz in particular seemed to get the ball rolling – remember that $100 million in first-round funding it provided to Github, or the $90 million it plugged into Tanium in one shot? – it was non-traditional venture investors like Fidelity, T. Rowe, and Tiger Global Management that picked up the torch and carried it to new lengths over and over and over again.

More here.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We’re soooo excited to see some of you one week from tomorrow in Palo Alto for our next INSIDER event, featuring the one-and-only Marc Andreessen, SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie, “Radical Candor” author and founder Kim Malone Scott and Homebrew’s Hunter Walk. Giant thanks again to our partners at Mattermark, Ballou PR, and Bolt for their generous help in putting the night together.

The event is sold out as space is very limited (and we’re told SurveyMonkey takes security seriously), so please don’t show up without a seat. For those of you we can’t accommodate this time around, we’re hoping to organize one more of these evenings before year end up in San Francisco, so stay tuned!

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Top News in the A.M.

Here’s the Department of Transportation‘s newly issued policy on self-driving cars. (It basically tells automakers to figure it out themselves.)

Apple is reportedly talking with the car manufacturer McLaren about a possible acquisition or strategic investment, according to the Financial Times. (What the, who the . . .) More here.

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New Fundings

Allset, a 17-month-old, San Francisco-based startup whose app speeds the dining process by enabling users to book a restaurant reservation, place their order before arriving, and even pay from the app, has raised $2.35 million in seed funding led by Metamorphic Ventures. Other participants in the round include Andreessen Horowitz, FJ Labs and SMRK VC Fund. The company has now raised $3.35 million to date. VentureBeat has more here.

Catalyze, a three-year-old. Madison, Wi.-based startup centered around HIPAA compliant cloud computing for healthcare, has raised $6.5 million in Series B funding led by Lewis & Clark Ventures, with participation from earlier investors Arthur Ventures, Baird Venture Partners and Chicago Ventures. More here.

d.light, a nine-year-old, Bay Area-based company that’s developing solar light and energy solutions for off-grid communities in remote emerging markets, has raised $22.5 million in new funding, including $15 million in equity from KawiSafi Ventures Fund, Energy Access Ventures, Omidyar Network and NewQuest Capital Partners, and $5 million in grants from the Shell Foundation, USAID and its Development Innovation Ventures, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund. Fortune has more here.

FinanceFox, a two-year-old, Berlin-based insurance technology startup, has raised $28 million in Series A funding co-led by Horizons Ventures and Target Global, with participation from earlier investors AngelList, Idinvest, Salesforce Ventures, Speedinvest, Seedcamp and Victory Park Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Gametime, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based event ticketing app catering to people needing last-minute tickets, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from GV, Evolution Media Partners and the Stanford StartX Fund, as well as earlier investors Accel Partners, Casey Wasserman, and Jeff Mallett. TechCrunch has more here.

InfluxData, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based time series, events, and metrics database, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Mayfield, Trinity Ventures and Bloomberg Beta. TechCrunch explains the tech (which we’re still trying to understand) here.

Metromile, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based pay-per-mile insurance startup, is disclosing that it has raised $191.5 million in equity and debt funding across three previously undisclosed rounds. Its backers include Intact Financial, China Pacific Insurance, New Enterprise Associates, Index Ventures, First Round Capital, SV Angel and Mitsui & Co. Part of the proceeds will be used to acquire insurance carrier Mosaic Insurance (to handle the underwriting of its policies). TechCrunch has more here.

Mobilize, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based unified messaging platform, has raised $6.5 million in new funding from Trinity Ventures, Array Ventures, Floodgate, Hillsven Capital and Upwest Labs. TechCrunch has more here.

Nucleus, a two-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based company that makes a wireless home intercom system that can be activated with voice and began shipping last month, has raised $5.6 million in Series A funding led by Amazon’s Alexa Fund, with participation from BoxGroup, Greylock Partners, Founders Fund, Foxconn, Liquid 2 Ventures and SV Angel. TechCrunch has more here.

OurCrowd, the three-year-old, Jerusalem-based equity crowdfunding platform, has raise $72 million in Series C funding from unnamed financial institutions, family offices, and private investors. More here.

Pepperfry, a five-year-old, Mumbai, India-based startup that helps homeowners and renters outfit their living space with furniture, has raised $31 million led by earlier backers Goldman Sachs, Bertelsmann India Investments, Norwest Venture Partners and Zodius Technology Fund. The company has now raised nearly $160 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Troops, a 17-month-old, New York-based company whose bot allows users to configures Salesforce reports through Slack, has raised $7 million in funding from Aspect Ventures, Slack Fund, Susa Ventures and Flight.VC, along with earlier investors First Round Capital, Nextview Ventures, Chicago Ventures, Great Oaks Capital, Founder Collective and Vast Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Elephant Partners, a year-old, Boston-based venture growth firm co-founded last year by Highland Capital veterans Andy Hunt and Jeremiah Daly, has closed its debut fund with $156 million in capital commitments, says Fortune’s Dan Primack. Elephant focuses on consumer internet, mobile, and software startups. One of its newest bets is on Scopely, a Culver City, Ca.-based mobile entertainment network that has raised around $100 million from investors to date. Hunt also cofounded the eyeglass retailer Warby Parker.

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IPOs

A handful of European tech firms are testing the appetite for initial public offerings, taking their lead from a modest rebound in listings in the United States following a two-year slump. Reuters has more here.

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Exits

Navid Hadzaad, cofounder and CEO of 1.5-year-old, New York-based Angel.ai, has joined Amazon as its “head of new bot products,” reports TechCrunch, which says various employees of the company are joining or also have offers from Amazon in what appears to be an acqui-hire situation. Angel.ai, formerly known as GoButler, automates conversational commerce using natural language processing. According to CrunchBase, it had raised at least $8 million in funding from investors, including General Catalyst Partners, Lakestar, Rocket Internet’s Global Founders Capital, Slow Ventures, BoxGroup, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, and Cherry Ventures. More here.

Akarna Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Ma.-based  biopharmaceutical company whose lead product is a potential treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and other liver diseases, has been acquired by drug giant Allergan for an upfront cash payment of $50 million, plus success-based development, regulatory and sales milestones. According to CrunchBase, Akarna most recently raised $15 million in Series B funding in February; its backers include Forbion Capital Partners, New Science Ventures, and Third Point Ventures. More here.
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People

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Jobs

Structural Capital, a low-flying, three-year-old venture firm, is looking to hire an investment associate. The job is in Menlo Park, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Google just rejoined the messaging wars with its artificially intelligent app, Allo.

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Detours

Making six figures but have almost nothing in the bank? You have plenty of company.

From: Wells Fargo, Re: Closing the accounts we secretly opened for you.

Things that New Yorkers fear more than ISIS.

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Retail Therapy

Peter Thiel’s massive two-in-one San Francisco property just saw a major price reduction, to $8 million down from $9.25 million in May. (Buy it now!?)

Tuesday! Hope you’re having a fine day, everyone.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

The Obama administration is about to roll out new policies governing autonomous vehicles that give the federal government a lead role in developing safety, testing and road-ready rules for the fast-growing industry. More here.

Google is expected to offer more details on Google Home, its answer to Amazon’s Echo, at an Oct. 4 event in San Francisco. More here.

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True Ventures Just Led a $12 Million Investment in Still-Stealth Brava

If you’re curious to learn about the latest investment out of San Francisco-based True Ventures, you’ll have to be patient. Though the firm is disclosing that it has led a whopping $12 million Series A round in new startup Brava, details about the startup are scarce.

What we do know: Brava is a new IoT company that plans to create a suite of domestic hardware and software products, beginning with a kitchen appliance that aims to make cooking easier. It also just brought aboard John Pleasants as CEO.

If that name is familiar, it’s because Pleasants has led a number of digital media companies over the last couple of decades, including as co-president of Disney Interactive Media Group, COO of Electronic Arts, CEO of Ticketmaster, and most recently as an EVP at Samsung.

Pleasants also spent a year as the CEO of Playdom, a social gaming company that was acquired for $563 million by Disney in 2010 (thus Pleasants’s role there). It was at Playdom where he met Brava cofounder Dan Yue, who went to high school with Brava’s other cofounder, Thomas Cheng.

Yue was Playdom’s chief product officer and headed to Disney with Pleasants after the sale, logging a couple of years with the entertainment giant as an SVP of product. Cheng meanwhile cofounded the smart parking company Streetline and recently spent a year as the head of hardware at August, the smart lock company.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where True Ventures fits into all of this, the firm sold an earlier portfolio company, social gaming startup Hive7, to Playdom back in 2010 and got to know Pleasants then.

We had the chance to talk with Pleasants yesterday about Brava, which quietly came together about a year ago.

More here.

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New Fundings

Fauna, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company that has developed an adaptive operational database, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by CRV, with participation from Data Collective, Quest Venture Partners, theWebb Investment Network, Ulu Ventures and individual investors, including Scott McNealy. FinSMES has more here.

FoodChéri, a year-old, Paris-based virtual restaurant that delivers meals to its customers through its mobile app, has raised €6 million ($6.7 million) in Series A funding led by 360 Capital Partners and Breega Capital, with participation from Samaipata Ventures and Ambrosia Investments. TechCrunch has more here.

Grab, a five-year-old, Singapore-based company that has become Uber’s largest rival in Southeast Asia, has raised $750 million in Series F funding led by earlier investor SoftBank, with participation from undisclosed existing and new backers. TechCrunch has more here.

Hostmaker, a year-old London-based startup that makes hospitality management software for Airbnb hosts, has raised $1.1 million in funding led by Initial Capital, with participation from DN Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Startups has more here.

Insider, a four-year-old, Turkey-based unified online marketing platform, has raised $2.2 million in Series A funding led by 212, with participation by Wamda Capital, among others. The company has now raised $3.3 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

LeEco, a 12-year-old, Beijing, China-based web video company that now dabbles in everything from televisions to transportation and is taking on Tesla with its own electric sports car plans, has raised $1.08 billion in fresh funding from Legend Holdings Corp., Yingda Capital Management, and China Minsheng Trust. TechCrunch has more here.

Progressly, a two-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based business process platform, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by 8VC, with participation from Bill Malloy and Brian Nugent, general partners of Accelerate-IT Ventures (AITV) and David Beirne. TechCrunch has more here.

StarOfService, a four-year-old, Paris-based marketplace connecting consumers to service professionals (a la Thumbtack), has raised $10 million in fresh funding from Andrea Piccioni and Silvio Pagliani, ENERN Investments and Point Nine Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

TenNor Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Suzhou, China-based company that’s developing dual-acting antibiotics, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Northern Light Venture Capital, with participation from earlier backers Frontline BioVentures, WuXi PharmaTech Healthcare Fund I, Oriza Venture Capital and Relativity Healthcare Fund. FierceBiotech has more here.

Vlocity, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes cloud software for specific industries like insurance and telecommunications, has raised $50 million in new funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, New York Life Insurance and return backer Accenture. Fortune has more here.

Vroom, a three-year-old, New York-based pre-owned car marketplace, has raised $50 million in Series E funding led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from Altimeter Capital, Foxhaven Asset Management, and earlier backers L. Catterton, General Catalyst Partners and Allen & Co. The company has now raised $218 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Dundee Venture Capital, an Omaha, Neb.-based venture firm, has raised $20 million toward a $30 million third fund as venture capital activity in the Midwest continues to grow. The firm is also partnering with Lakewest Venture Partners in Chicago and in time will take over Lakewest, according to Dundee founder Mark Hasebroock. The WSJ has more here.

Spectrum 28, a 15-month-old, Hong Kong and Silicon Valley-based venture firm, has closed its debut fund with $170 million, it announced today. Spectrum 28 was founded by Kent Ho and Lyon Wong and has backed a half dozen companies already, including the online lending company Ernest and the revenue management software startup Duetto. Ho previously served as co-founder and managing partner for Harbor Pacific Capital, a firm he co-founded out of Stanford GSB. Wong has worked at a variety of venture firms, including SV Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners. The firm invests in fintech, real estate and digital health. More here.

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IPOs

The Oakland, Ca.-based cosmetics company e.l.f. Beauty has set the terms for its IPO, planning to raise up to $153 million, according to a new SEC filing. The company will offer up to 9.58 million shares at a price range between $14 and $16 a share, commanding a fully diluted market value of $737 million at the midpoint of the proposed range. TPG owns 56.8 percent of the company.

Tabula Rasa HealthCare, a Moorestown, N.J.-based company that makes patient-specific medication management technology, has set the terms for its IPO, saying it will offer 4.3 million shares at between $13 and $15 per share, giving it a fully diluted market value $217 million at the midpoint of that range.

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Exits

Etsy has acquired Blackbird Technologies, a Menlo Park, Ca.-based AI and machine learning startup focused on search. Deal terms weren’t disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Facebook has acquired Nascent Objects, a San Carlos, Ca.-based modular electronics platform, for an undisclosed amount. Recode has more here. (Fast Company wrote more about the company earlier this year.)

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People

Jack Ma swung by Fortune’s offices in New York yesterday where among other things, he told those gathered that he thinks Alibaba’s business outside of China will grow from 5 percent today to 40 percent by 2026. He also believes that in 20 years, the value of the merchandise handled by Alibaba will reach $1 trillion. More here.

In a new interview, investor Chamath Palihapitiya tells the Times of India, “I think we are 12 to 18 months away from a reckoning of sorts in India. The reckoning will be about the quality of capital, the amount of the capital, and the quality of the resulting businesses. Too much money came in too early and the resulting businesses that got built can’t independently exist and they can’t go public.”

—–

Jobs

Facebook is looking to add a corporate development manager. The job is in Menlo Park, Ca.

PayPal is hiring a corporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

—–

Essential Reads

Unilever just bought a “green” product company, but it wasn’t The Honest Company. More here.

The music industry is finally making money on streaming.

—–

Detours

Bill Murray, Brooklyn bartender.

All the rumors about why Angelina and Brad are splitsville (sniffle).

How not to act in front of a bear.

—–

Retail Therapy

Montblanc augmented paper.

Sony’s new flagship camera (Wired thinks it may be its best ever).

If you’re really feeling spendy: Lasata, the 11-acre East Hampton, N.Y. estate where Jackie Kennedy spent her summers as a child, is on the market.

Happy Monday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Most Lyft rides will be autonomous in five years, said its president in a post published yesterday. Recode ballparks that likelihood here.

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Foundry Group Just Closed Its Sixth Fund with a Record $500 million

Foundry Group, the 10-year-old, Boulder, Colorado-based early-stage venture firm, announced this morning that it has closed its sixth fund, Foundry Group Next, with $500 million.

It comes hot on the heels of the firm’s fifth fund, which closed last summer with $225 million.

The firm’s fourth fund, called Foundry Group Select, closed with exactly the same amount in 2013 ($225 million) but Foundry had been using it as a so-called opportunity fund, meaning the capital was funneled exclusively to break-out companies in Foundry’s portfolio.

Which brings us back to Foundry’s newest fund. Though it’s the largest pool for Foundry to date, there’s a reason for that beyond the current go-go funding environment. This time, Foundry is combining two separate efforts into one.

Its newest fund won’t back early-stage companies, per its historic focus. Those investments will come from the fund it closed last summer.

It will also be used to support the firm’s follow-on investments — essentially taking the place of a new and separate opportunity fund — and it will fund growth-stage investments outside of Foundry (a new twist).

Last, 25 percent of the fund will be used to invest in other venture capital funds. This is also a new initiative by Foundry.

More here.

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New Funds

CV Auctions, a two-year-old, Buffalo, N.Y.-based company whose mobile app enables car dealers to facilitate wholesale vehicle auctions, has raised $5 million in funding led by Tribeca Venture Partners, with participation from SoftBank Capital NY, Armory Square Ventures, and Rand Capital. Buffalo Business First has more here.

AdStage, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a cross-channel advertising suite for marketers and agencies, has added $2 million in funding from Verizon Ventures, which led the company’s Series A round. More here.

Friday!!!!!!!! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Unilever is the front-runner in talks with the Honest Company about an acquisition. Sounds like it doesn’t think the company is quite worth the $1.7 billion valuation that investors assigned the company last year, however. More here.

Tesla just won a bid to supply grid-scale power in SoCal to help prevent electricity shortages following the biggest natural gas leak in U.S. history. More here.

Eek. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission officially recalled the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in an announcement yesterday because of serious fire and burn hazards. The recall will include roughly 1 million phones. More here.

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Guild Education Lands $8.5 Million in Series A Funding Led by Redpoint

According to a 2014 report from Complete College America, a nonprofit group based in Indianapolis, just 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years at public universities. The stats are even worse at community colleges, where five percent of full-time students earn an associate degree within two years, and just 15.9 percent earn a one- to two-year certificate on time.

Some of why students are taking longer to graduate centers on the lack of a clear planning, changing majors, changing universities, and taking unnecessary courses, suggests a variety of research. But Rachel Carlson, the cofounder and CEO of Denver-based Guild Education, says there are plenty of non-academic factors at play, too, including soaring tuition costs and shift work that can interfere with community college class schedules.

Indeed, to help those many students who are working their way through college, as well as help companies that recognize the importance of helping employees realize their full potential, 16-month-old Guild partners with employers including Chipotle to offer education as a benefit, right alongside healthcare.

How does it work?  The IRS already allows for employers to offer up to $5,250 annually of tax-free education to help any employee as long as the benefits “are provided by reason of their employment relationship.” Employers can also pay beyond $5,250 if they like, though employees generally have to pay tax on the additional amount. (Qualified employees can also apply for an additional $5,815 in available federal grants.)

More here.

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New Fundings

Applause, a nine-year-old. Framingham, Ma.-based company that makes software testing tools, has raised $35 million in Series F funding led by Credit Suisse, with participation from Accenture and return backers Goldman Sachs, QuestMark Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Mesco and MassVentures. More here.

KeyMe, a four-year-old, New York-based startup that makes self-service key duplicating kiosks that can be found in 7-Eleven, Rite Aid and other stores, has raised $15 million in Series C funding led by QuestMark Partners. Earlier backers, including Comcast Ventures, Battery Ventures, White Star Capital, 7-Eleven, Ravin Gandhi and the Polsky Family Office, also participated in the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Renmatix, a 13-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based biofuels company, has raised $14 million in new funding led by Bill Gates and the publicly traded company Total. More here.

Happy Thursday, everyone! We greatly enjoy TechCrunch Disrupt events but we also love wrapping them up.:) It’s been a fun but exhausting few days, capped off with an interview with ambitious founder-investor Shervin Pishevar, whose latest company, Hyperloop One, aims to move people and freight at the speed of sound. We talked on stage about the moonshot idea and some of the various challenges it’s facing.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple Music just shut down rumors about a Tidal deal.

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Luma Tacks on $7 Million in Funding from AH and GV

Luma, an Atlanta-based company that makes a sleek router with a wide variety of bells and whistles, has tacked on $7 million in funding to its coffers from Andreessen Horowitz and GV. The funding comes fast on the heels of a $12.5 million Series A round that was co-led in April by Accel Partners and Amazon and included participation from Felicis Ventures.

Seemingly, investors are trying to get a stake in the company before the router wars begin to heat up further. “Unlike a smart thermostat, a wireless router isn’t option; it’s something that everyone needs,” notes Luma cofounder Paul Judge.

Customers want something that’s more sophisticated than the routers of yesteryear, too, given how much more advanced tech has grown in other aspects of their lives. “The consumer network and IT at home has just been broken, and there isn’t a device or product that people are excited about to be the backbone of the connected home,” Judge says.

Established companies like Asus, D-Link, and Netgear definitely get it. In recent years, they’ve begun layering in features like parental controls and the ability to prioritize traffic based on network and device. But they face fresh entrants that are going after a piece of the market with their own next-generation features. And no wonder: Roughly 170 million wireless routers are purchased each year.

More here.

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New Fundings

BitSight, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that has built a security rating platform that analyzes external data and helps organizations manage third party risk, just raised $40 million in Series C funding by GGV Capital, with participation from Comcast Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Singtel Innov8 and previous investors Flybridge Capital Partners, Globespan Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Shaun McConnon. More here.

Canva, a four-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based company that tries to make graphic design easily accessible and simple for everyone, has raised an additional $15 million for its online design platform from earlier backers Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Carbon 3D, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company known for its rapid, 3D printing technologies, has added $81 million in funding to its Series C round from strategic investors including BMW Group, GE, Nikon and JSR Corp., and earlier venture backers including GV and Sequoia Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Ellevest, a year-old, New York-based digital investment platform for women, has raised $9 million in fresh funding from Khosla Ventures, Aspect Ventures, tennis superstar Venus Williams; Ariel Investments president Mellody Hobson; and investor Sonja Perkins, among others. Fortune has more here.

FastPay, a seven-year-old, L.A.-based company that makes lending and financial workflow software, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Citi Ventures. More here.

Klara, a three-year-old, New York-based healthcare messaging company, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by New York’s Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Project A Ventures from Berlin, with participation from earlier backers Atlantic Labs and Groupe Arnault. More here.

Lucid Software, a seven-year-old, Draper, Ut.-based company whose web-based tool enables people to create diagrams of complex procedures and designs (like company workflows), has raised $36 million in funding led by the growth firm Spectrum Equity. Earlier backers Kickstart Seed Fund and Grayhawk Capital also joined the round. Bloomberg has more here.

Optimove, a seven-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based maker of retention automation software, has raised $20 million in growth funding from Israel Growth Partners, a private equity investment firm. The round marks Optimove’s first outside investment. More here.

Ripple, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based provider of blockchain-based cross-border payments technology for banks, has raised $55 million in fresh funding from new investors including Standard Chartered, Accenture, SCB Digital Ventures, the venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank, and SBI Holdings. The company has now raised $93 million altogether. Reuters has more here.

Tipalti, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company whose tech streamlines and automates the way companies make payments to their suppliers, partners, and others, has raised $14 million in new funding led by the Israeli venture firm SGVC. More here.

ViSenze, a four-year-old, Singapore-based developer of AI-based visual technology for ecommerce and other digital businesses, has raised $10.5 million in Series B funding co-led by Rakuten Ventures and eSpire Capital, with participation from SPH Media Fund, FengHe Fund Management, Raffles Venture Partners, Phillip Private Equity and UOB Venture Management. More here.

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New Funds

Sapphire Ventures, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm funded solely by the German software giant SAP, has secured a whopping $1 billion to invest across two new funds: a $700 million growth fund, and a $300 million early-stage tech fund. TechCrunch has more here.

China-based Sinovation Ventures, co-founded by former Google and Microsoft exec Kai-Fu Lee, has raised 4.5 billion yuan ($674 million) in commitments across two funds: a dollar-denominated fund of $300 million—in which Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group is the anchor investor—and a yuan-denominated fund totaling the equivalent of $374 million. Sinovation plans to invest the funds raised in startup companies involved in artificial intelligence, building enterprise software, and creating entertainment content. The WSJ has more here.

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Exits

GE will pay $495 million for Meridium, a 23-year-old, Roanoke, Va.-based company that sells technology for tracking the performance of heavy-duty machinery. The Roanoke Times has more here.

PayU, an online payments company with a focus on developing markets that’s owned by South Africa’s Naspers, has acquired India’s Citrus Pay for $130 million in cash, in what the companies say is the largest cash exit for a payments company in India to date. TechCrunch has more here.

Ranku, a three-year-old, Seattle, Wa-based startup that helps universities scale online degree enrollment, has been acquired by the publicly traded education conglomerate John Wiley & Sons for around $25 million, says TechCrunch. The company had raised just $650,000 in funding, including from billionaire Mark Cuban, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Microsoft Accelerator, Archangel, and investor Deborah Quazzo. More here.

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People

Armaan Ali has joined the late-stage venture firm IVP as an associate. He worked previously at Qatalyst Partners, the tech-focused investment bank.

Former GV CEO Bill Maris has “preliminary plans” to raise between $350 million and $500 million for his very own venture fund, says CNBC.

Donald Trump would nominate Peter Thiel to the Supreme Court. No, wait, not true. One of your more ridiculous stories of the day here.

Zhou Yahui, a Chinese billionaire who owns a controlling stake in the gay dating app Grindr, will have to transfer nearly 300 million shares of his company — valued at $1.14 billion — to his wife, Li Qiong, as the two move toward a divorce (according to Chinese outlets). The equity transfer would make the settlement one of the most expense in China to date, says Dealbook.

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Jobs

Shippo, a three-year-old, S.F.-based startup that makes shipping easier for businesses and just raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures, is looking for a VP of business development.

—–

Essential Reads

The Economist on why the rise of the corporate colossus threatens both competition and the legitimacy of business.

—–

Detours

How to become an investment banking summer analyst at Goldman Sachs.

The National Book Awards long list for fiction.

A look at the top 10 museums in the world (plus the best tours to book at each one).

—–

Retail Therapy

Trumped Up Cards, a multiplayer card game created by founder-investor Reid Hoffman. He’s calling the product the “world’s biggest deck” (wink, wink).