Okay, if you are not at Burning Man, raise your hand.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Earlier today, EU antitrust regulators ordered Apple to pay up to $14.5 billion in taxes (plus interest) to the Irish government after ruling that a scheme to route profits through Ireland is illegal state aid. Ireland doesn’t want Apple’s billions in back taxes —  the country wants to remain attractive to the likes of other giants, including Facebook and Google — and has vowed to fight the ruling.

—–

New Fundings

Arcus Biosciences, a year-old, Hayward, Ca.-based cancer immunotherapy startup, has raised $70 million in Series B funding from Google Ventures, Invus Group, Stanford University and DROIA Oncology Ventures, among others. FierceBiotech has more here.

BBOXX, a six-year-old, London-based off-grid solar company, has raised $20 million in Series C funding from MacKinnon, Bennett & Co., ENGIE Rassembleurs d’Energies and KawiSafi Ventures, along with earlier backers Khosla Impact Fund, Bamboo Finance and DOEN Foundation. PV Magazine has more here.

Behalf, a five-year-old, New York-based commercial payment platform for small businesses, has raised $27 million in Series C funding led by Viola Growth, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, MissionOG, and Vintage. More here.

Glint, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based employee engagement platform, has raised $27 million in Series C funding led by Meritech Capital Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers Norwest Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures. The company has now raised $50 million altogether. More here.

Health2Sync, a three-year-old, Tapei, Taiwan-based startup that makes a diabetes management app and related “smart cable” accessory, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by WI Harper Group, with participation from Cherubic Ventures, iSeed Ventures and SparkLabs Global Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

IntSights, a year-old, Herzliya, Israel-based leading intelligence driven security provider for cyber threats from the dark, deep and open web, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from Glilot Capital Partners as well as Blackstone, Wipro Ventures, and other investors. More here.

LogRhythm, a 13-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based cybersecurity company, has raised $40 million in new funding led by earlier investor Riverwood Capital Management, with participation from Adams Street Partners, Siemens Venture Capital, Delta-v Capital, Exclusive Ventures, and Silver Lake Waterman (Silver Lake’s late-stage growth fund). More here.

LYKE, a year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia -based fashion and beauty commerce app, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Holtzbrinck Ventures, with participation from the Singapore-­based firm APACIG. The outlet e27 has more here.

Mediamorph, a nine-year-old, New York-based company whose software helps media and entertainment companies better measure, manage and optimize their reach, has raised $21.2 million in Series C funding led by Advance Vixeid Partners, with participation from earlier backers Liberty Global Ventures, Smedvig Capital, and individual investors. Variety has more here.

Mitra Biotech, a seven-year-old, Woburn, Ma.-based developer of personalized cancer treatments, has raised $27.4 million in Series B funding co-led by Sequoia India and Sands Capital Ventures, with participation from RA Capital Management and earlier backers Accel Partners and Tata Capital Innovations Fund. The Economic Times has more here.

Petnet, a 3.5-year-old, L.A.-based pet tech company that makes a “smart” pet feeder, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by strategic investor and partner Petco. TechCrunch has more here.

Revelator, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based data management platform for distributing, selling and licensing music online, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding led by Exigent Capital, with participation from Digital Currency Group and the Israeli early-stage fund Reinvent. TechCrunch hasmore here.

Runnr, a Mumbai, India-based food delivery platform that was formed by the merger of startups Roadrunnr and TinyOwl, has raised around $7 million from investors, co-led by Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Venture Partners. Times of India has more here.

Shyft Analytics, a 10-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based cloud data and analytics company that’s focused on the life sciences industry, has raised $12.5 million in Series B funding from McKesson Ventures, Medidata Solutions, and earlier investors Health Enterprise Partners and Milestone Venture Partners. More here.

Space Market, a two-year-old, Tokyo, Japan-based marketplace of unused venues for on-demand rental use, has raised roughly $4 million in a round led by Opt Ventures, with participation from Recruit Strategic Partners, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Orix. The Bridge has more here.

Velocity, a two-year-old, London-based restaurant booking app for those needing help with short notice, has raised $22.5 million in a Series B round led by DIG Investments, with participation from Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht and concierge giant John Paul. VentureBeat has more here.

Zillion, a 5.5-year-old, Norwalk, Cn.-based health care tech company, has raised $28 million in Series C funding led by TwinFocus Capital Partners. More here.

—–

New Funds

Rev1 Ventures, a seed-stage firm focused on Columbus, Oh., has closed on a $22 million fund. Fortune has more here.

Sofinnova Ventures, the 42-year-old, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical venture capital firm, has announced a new, $595 million fund. FierceBiotech has more here.

—–

Exits

Cisco is acquiring ContainerX, a year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that helps companies manage and integrate containers across data centers. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. ContainerX raised $2.7 million in seed funding from General Catalyst Partners, Greylock Partners and Caffeinated Capital. You can read more about the company here.

Washio, a three-year-old, on-demand laundry service, has shut down after raising roughly $17 million from investors.

—–

People

Apple CEO Tim Cook has rejected the EU’s demand for the company to return $14.5 billion in “unpaid” taxes in Ireland as having “no basis in fact or law.” TechCrunch has more here.

Alphabet executive David Drummond has left Uber’s boad amid increasing competition between two tech companies. The WSJ has more here.

Tech’s favorite bad boy, Sean Parker, has reportedly shelled out $58 million to create a palace on 10th Street in Manhattan.

Techies are getting priced out of Palo Alto, where even a 790-square-foot studio now costs $1.3 million.

—–

Essential Reads

Twitter will start paying its best users to create videos.

When is an endorsement an ad on Instagram?

—–

Detours

The mystery at the heart of great photographs.

An M.I.T. scientist claims that this pill is the fountain of youth.

—–

Retail Therapy

A hotel, inspired by prisons everywhere.

Monday! (That came fast.) Hope yours is off to a great start.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

As of today, it’s finally legal to fly drones commercially.

Snapchat is planning to introduce behavioral targeting for advertisers.

—–

AngelList Deals Will Soon Be Private (and Other Updates You’ll Want to Know)

Earlier this week, we sat down with Naval Ravikant, cofounder of five-year-old AngelList, a popular platform that matches startups with early-stage investors. Three million people, including 50,000 accredited investors, have created profiles on AngelList since its founding, and AngelList now uses that information to pair startups with capital, pair startup employees with employers and, more newly, pair startups with customers.

It’s become a big business, as well as a confusing one, Ravikant readily admits. And while we can’t report on one interesting new, performance-related wrinkle that’s coming soon, he walked us through many other stats and initiatives. Our chat has been edited for length and clarity.

TC: A few years ago, AngelList introduced Syndicates, essentially pop-up funds that allow angel investors to syndicate their investments in exchange for some upside. It was fairly transparent at the outset, but that’s been changing. Why?

NR: Seventy-five percent of the deals are now private, up from 45 percent a year ago. It’ll be default private soon because a lot of the hot deals tend to be private. Also, that public-private dichotomy is always really hard for entrepreneurs [in fundraising mode] to figure out, so they start associating our brand [with a place to share information publicly to accredited investors], which is a negative, so they don’t want to go on here. We might take a hit on liquidity by making the default private, but at the end of the day, it’s all about getting the high-quality companies.

TC: An investor, Gil Penchina, has built a big business on the platform. Are more leads starting to see a kind of of network effect?

NR: Gil is a unique case. He’s the one who’s always breaking the system. We’re more catering to operator-angels, meaning people who have operating jobs, or VPs at big companies or who’ve started their own startups. It’s people who aren’t professional VCs but who do four to six deals a year, investing in alumni and people they know.

TC: How many of them close a deal each month? And are the investors on the platform mostly based in Silicon Valley?

NR: We had 55 deals led by 41 leads close in June; we had 44 deals led by 38 leads close in July. The average for most leads on the platform is a couple of deals per year. As for demographics, I’d say over half [the people who lead deals on the platform] are in Silicon Valley.

TC: You’d said publicly somewhere that you were getting into special purpose vehicles, which come together quickly to invest in a single, later-stage company. Why would someone create an SPV on the platform?

More here.

—–

New Fundings

BlueTalon, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company that aims to help companies enforce consistent data access controls on increasingly complex data infrastructures, has raised $16 million in Series A financing led byMaverick Ventures, with participation from Arsenal Venture Partners and earlier investors Signia Venture Partners, Data Collective, Divergent Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, and Stanford-StartX Fund. More here.

DogHero, a two-year-old, Brazil-based pet-sitting service a la American companies Rover.com and DogVacay, has raised $3.1 million in funding led by Monashees Capital, with participation from earlier backer Kaszek Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Eight Days, a Suzhou, China-based online grocery delivery company that targets university students, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series C funding led by the Chinese retailer Suning. TechNode has more here.

GOAT, a six-year-old, Culver City, Ca.-based mobile-only marketplace for used and collectible sneakers, has raised $5 million in funding led by Matrix Partners, with participation from earlier backers Upfront Ventures and Webb Investment Network. TechCrunch has more here.

HappyFresh, an 18-month-old, on-demand grocery service that operates in Southeast Asia, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding led by Samena Capital, a Dubai-based private equity firm, along with previous backers Vertex Ventures and Sinar Mas Digital Ventures. TechCrunch hasmore here.

Helix Sleep, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based company that sells made-to-order mattresses, has raised $7.4 million in Series A funding, including from Double J Capital, Simon Venture Group, Western Technology Investments, Great Oaks VC and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

LivSpace, a four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based site where people can design interiors and buy furniture, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Jungle Ventures and Helion Ventures. Tech in Asia has more here.

Notonthehighstreet.com, an 11-year-old, U.K.-based curated online marketplace where users can browse a variety of individual sellers and purchase items, has raised £21 million ($27.5 million) in Series E funding led by the media company Hubert Burda Media, with participation from earlier backers Index Ventures, Industry Ventures, and Eight Roads Ventures. More here.

Paytm, a six-year-old, Noida, India-based digital payments and e-commerce startup, is raising $300 million led by Taiwan’s MediaTek and other investors, in a round that will more than double its valuation to $5 billion, says Bloomberg.More here.

Plowz & Mowz, a two-year-old, Syracuse, New York-based marketplace for landscaping, snow plowing, and other home care and repair services, has raised $1.5 million from the startup studio Science, along with undisclosed angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Rheo, a year-old, San Francisco-based personal video channel for Apple TV, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding led by Accomplice, with participation from Pathbreaker Ventures, Social Capital, SocialStarts, and Google Maps creator Lars Rasmussen. TechCrunch has more here.

StudySoup, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace that works as an online study group for students looking to sell or purchase class notes and study guides, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding from 1776, Canyon Creek Capital, 500 Startups and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Testin, a five-year-old, Hong Kong-based cloud testing service for mobile app developers, has raised $30 million in Series C funding from undisclosed sources. DealStreet Asia has more here.

—–

Exits

Nutanix, a San Jose, Ca.-based company that combines server, storage, and virtualization into a single “converged” piece of data center gear (and which is expected to go public soon), said it is in the process of buying PernixData and has completed an acquisition of Calm.io. PernixData, also based in San Jose, makes software that aggregates all the flash-based storage that comes with servers into one sharable pool. Calm.io, based in India, offers online “devops” software that automates software deployment. Fortune has more here. According to CrunchBase, PernixData had raised $62 million from investors, and Calm.io raised just $4 million.

—–

People

“I got scammed…” A story of things gone pretty wrong in Silicon Valley.

Former HP employees say Meg Whitman encouraged ageist hiring. More here.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met Pope Francis at the Vatican this morning and presented him with . . . a drone.

Apple, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft just promised to pay women as much as men.

—–

Essential Reads

Silicon Valley start-ups were set to face a great reckoning in 2016. Yet the crash hasn’t happened, notes the New York Times.

Wall Street is redoubling its fight to manage $100 billion at endowments, says Bloomberg.

Recode looks at why the Google X moonshot factory is struggling to get products out the door.

—–

Detours

What just happened at the Video Music Awards?

In a new book on white collar crime, Bernie Madoff, Andrew Fastow, and Dennis Koslowski address the giant frauds they perpetrated, and why.

The weird connection between smiling and racism.

—–

Retail Therapy

Shipboard Girl (1965) by Roy Lichtenstein. Price: $59,000

Woot! Happy Friday, everyone — see you Monday.:)

No column today.

—-

Top News in the A.M.

Uber just told investors that it has lost $1.2 billion in the first half of this year. Bloomberg notes that dot.com disasters Webvan and Kozmo.com “lost just over $1 billion combined in their short lifetimes.” (Oof.)

If you haven’t already, update your iPhone.

—–

New Fundings

Denali Therapeutics, a year-old, South San Francisco-based company that’s developing a portfolio of therapeutics based on insights into the genetic causes and biological processes underlying neurodegenerative disease, has raised $130 million in Series B funding led by Baillie Gifford, along with several new and large institutional investors (all unnamed). More here.

Dice, a two-year-old, London-based ticketing startup that sells mobile tickets without booking fees and primarily focuses on millennials wanting to discover new bands, has raised $6 million Series A funding led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Lumia Capital and earlier backers White Star Capital, Designer Fund and Kima Ventures, along with several angel investors from the music industry. TechCrunch has more here.

MobiKwik, a seven-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based mobile wallet startup service, has raised $40 million in strategic funding from Net1, a mobile payment firm that caters to the unbanked. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

New Funds

Afore Capital, a new, San Francisco-based early-stage firm, is targeting $40 million for a debut fund, shows an SEC filing. Founders includ former Foundation Capital partner Anamitra Banerji and former Founders Collective principal Guarav Jain. (H/T: Fortune.)

—–

IPOs

Apptio, a Bellevue, Wa.-based company whose software helps CIOs better manage their IT departments, filed today to go public. GeekWire has much more here.

—–

Exits

Enterprise software company SAP is acquiring Altiscale, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that offers a cloud-based version of the Hadoop open source software for storing, processing, and analyzing lots of different kinds of data. VentureBeat says the deal could fetch more than $125 million. Altiscale had raised $42 million from investors, including Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners, and Sequoia Capital, shows CrunchBase.

Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm, is taking private the publicly traded cloud company Rackspace for $4.3 billion in cash. CNBC has more here.

—–

People

A former in-house attorney at Apple has sued the company for alleged age and gender discrimination. Defending Apple is Orrick partner Lynne Hermle, the employment lawyer who defeated Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination claims against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The Recorder has more here.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been trying to get a date with actress Amber Heard for three years, says Hollywood Reporter. (We don’t care; we’re just reporting the news!)

—–

Essential Reads

It’s going from bad to worse for Hampton Creek, which is now reportedly facing a criminal probe into its mayo buyback scheme. Bloomberg has the story here.

In the latest example of how the restructuring of Google into Alphabet hasn’t gone smoothly, Google Fiber is on shaky ground, with orders to halve its workforce, reports The Information.

Theranos is appealing the government sanctions that have barred CEO Elizabeth Holmes from running its blood-testing lab for two years. Business Insider has more here.

—–

Detours

Nine non-threatening leadership strategies for women.

KFC’s top-secret recipe revealed (maybe).

Nick Kyrgios might be the most entertaining tennis player since John McEnroe. Too bad he’d rather be playing basketball.

—–

Retail Therapy

Given the trend lines, you probably are not, but in case you’re still trying to catch Pokemon. . .

Hi, all, hope you’re having a wonderful Thursday afternoon! (This is not a new delivery trend, we promise; just a busy week.):)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Sorry about your privacy, WhatsApp users.

—–

Naval Ravikant on China Money Coming into Silicon Valley: This Trickle Could Become a Tsunami

AngelList, the online platform that matches startups with early-stage investors, has grown by leaps and bounds since its 2010 founding — and so have its ambitions. In fact, the company, which already bills itself as both the biggest seed-stage firm in the world, and the world’s largest hiring platform for startups, also aims to become the biggest venture fund in the world.

Earlier this week, we sat down with cofounder Naval Ravikant at the firm’s swanky new, three-story digs in San Francisco’s Jackson Square, and as workmen shifted planks around the nearly completed ground-floor level, Ravikant caught us up to speed on a many aspects of what’s happening at AngelList.

We’ll have more on his overarching vision tomorrow. Today, we’re publishing a part of our conversation that centered one of the biggest drivers of AngelList’s current growth: the $400 million that CSC Group — one of the biggest private equity funds in China — committed to invest through AngelList roughly 10 months ago. (The WSJ billed it as the “largest single pool of funds devoted to early-stage startups—ever.”)

Ravikant shared how that relationship is evolving, and why he thinks CSC’s money is just the tip of the iceberg for both AngelList and Silicon Valley more broadly. Our chat has been edited for length and clarity.

TC: Let’s start at the beginning. Who is managing this $400 million from CSC?

NR: It’s a fund called CSC Upshot that’s managed by CSC’s Veronica Wu, who used to be a VP at Tesla Motors in Beijing; Ming Yeh, who’d spent the previous six years or so as a managing director at [Silicon Valley Bank] in Shanghai; and Tom Cole, a former partner at Trinity Ventures.

TC: How much have they invested in startups on AngelList so far?

NR: They’re on track to invest between $25 million and $40 million this year, with an average check size of $100,000.

TC: Wow, that’s quite a pace. How does the decision-making process work?

NR: We’ve built a dashboard for fund management, and all these managers [have signed nondisclosure agreements] so they get to see literally hundreds and hundreds of deals on AngelList. And they chat with each other and [with the lead investor’s approval], if enough people vote yes, the deal gets done.

Much more here.

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New Fundings

Arcadia Power, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based startup whose direct-to-consumer platform that allows customers to better manage their home energy use, has raised $3.5 million in funding led by BoxGroup and Wonder Ventures. More here.

Curology, a two-year-old, San Diego-based startup that provides acne and anti-aging treatment and prescriptions through a visual diagnosis made via users’ phones, has raised $15 million in funding led by Advance Vixeid Partners, with participation from Forerunner Ventures and Sherpa Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Gobiquity, a five-year-old, Scottsdale, Az.-based company that provides mobile applications for the early detection and tracking of eye diseases in the U.S., has raised $6 million in Series B funding from InterWest Partners. More here.

Grabr, a year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer shopping and delivery platform, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from RBV Capital, N-Trans Group, and numerous individuals. TechCrunch has more here.

Mint Solutions, a six-year-old, Amsterdam-based company whose medicine scanning technology, MedEye, aims to reduce errors when medicines are given to patients (think wrong tablets or dosage), has raised roughly $5.6 million in Series B funding led by Brabant Development Agency (BOM Capital). Earlier backers LSP (Life Sciences Partners), Seventure Partners, NSA Ventures and others also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Navisens, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based software-based location platform that can locate mobile devices indoors, outdoors, and underground, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding led by Resolute Ventures, with participation from KEC Ventures, Amicus Capital, Arba Seed Investment Group, and angel investor Gokul Rajaram. TechCrunch has more here.

Panopto, a nine-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based software company with a video platform used for recording and live streaming in the academic and business worlds, has raised $42.8 million led by Sterling Partners. More here.

Symphony Commerce, a 5.5-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud technology for e-commerce platforms (it helps them handle a variety of wholesale and retail business requirements), has raised $11 million from CRV, Bain Capital Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures and FirstMark Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Zoomcar, four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based Zipcar-like company that operates in India, has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by Ford Smart Mobility, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Empire Angels. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

New Funds

The 11-year-old, early-stage firm True Ventures, with offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto, has closed its fifth fund with $310 million. That’s slightly more than the $290 million that the firm raised for its fourth fund, which closed in 2014. More here.

—–

Exits

Hi, happy Wednesday, everyone!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Fitbit has been cleared by a U.S. International Trade Commission judge of stealing trade secrets from rival Jawbone. Recode has more here.

A look at the 48 startups that launched yesterday, the second day of Y Combinator‘s Demo Day.

—–

CRV Comes Out Against Trump in New Statement

The U.S. presidential elections are fast approaching, and a growing number of VCs who’ve historically shied from making taking sides publicly, are tweeting, talking with reporters, and blogging about who they are backing and why. The early-stage venture firm CRV, formerly known as Charles River Ventures, is taking things a step further, having just published a tranquil little piece called “F*ck Trump” about the firm’s rejection of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s “anti-immigration statements.”

We talked with CRV general partner George Zachary earlier this morning about why it bothered.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has a strong lead over Trump in the polls. Why publish this statement right now?

It doesn’t make a difference how he’s doing in the polls. We feel strongly about the topic. Several weeks ago, we had an off-site, where we talked about strategy and where we also talked about the election. And each one of us felt offended by what Donald Trump has been saying, including what he has been saying specifically about immigrants. Your grandparents were Greek. My father came from Greece. This country was built by immigrants. It’s time for us to speak up about it.

His statements have varied over time.

And they’ll continue to vary, but we have to be authentic here and speak up on behalf of the people who come to this country and build. Half the teams we’ve backed were founded by immigrants. Our nine partners come from seven countries.

I was in Cleveland not long ago, where I saw much more Trump support than we see in the Bay Area. You run a business. Don’t you risk alienating people?

More here.

——

New Fundings

Autho, a three-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based company whose technology enables developers and IT staff to set up social and enterprise identity provider registration and login, username and password, single-sign-on, multifactor authentication and more, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, K9 Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has now raised $24 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

DroneDeploy, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based drone data management platform, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from HighAlpha and ExactTarget cofounder Scott Dorsey. The company has now raised $31 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Hi, everyone, hope your Tuesday is off to a great start.:) We were just handed a delicious croissant, which has greatly improved our late morning and fortified us for the Tesla product announcement that’s coming out at noon PST today.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Find a comfortable seat; here’s a quick look at all 44 startups that launched yesterday on day one of Y Combinator‘s 16th Demo Day.

—–

For HBS Students, a Study in What Not to Do

At Harvard Business School, students pay top dollar to learn everything from how to manage international trade to scaling technology ventures. They’re also schooled in the art of venture capital. Among the case studies they learned last year is the story of Rothenberg Ventures (RV), a four-year-old seed stage firm.

Whether the San Francisco outfit should have been part of their curriculum is an open question.

Though RV was founded by HBS graduate Mike Rothenberg, the firm, which has raised at least $47 million over the years and employed upwards of 60 people at its peak, is on the brink of imploding owing to a “lack of controls,” in the words of one of its investors.

That the firm isn’t a breakaway success story isn’t necessarily the issue. Many case studies center of companies that make missteps. A larger problem, seemingly, is that the study about RV – which was funded by HBS before the firm’s troubles publicly surfaced last week — was also co-authored by two professors who have a “significant financial interest in Rothenberg Ventures,” as stated prominently in a curriculum footnote. (The study is available for purchase here.)

One of those professors has since left HBS and is now a visiting associate professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He didn’t respond to a message seeking more information.

Asked about attracting students’ attention to a venture firm that he has funded, Professor Ramana Nanda, another of the study’s co-authors, wrote us yesterday that HBS has numerous, strict guidelines governing the relationship between professors and students, the most relevant in this case being that professors aren’t allowed to invest in ventures started by current students or to contract with them while students to invest after they graduate. Dr. Nanda notes that he made an investment in RV after Rothenberg graduated from HBS, as he sometimes has with other HBS alums.

Stringent ethicists might quibble with whether that’s sufficient, given that many HBS students attend the school with an eye toward getting a startup off the ground and that introducing them to certain brands may make it more likely that students will approach them.

It’s easy, too, to imagine a fund using the support of HBS professors (not to mention an HBS case study) to gain legitimacy with future investors.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Bitfinder, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based maker of an air quality monitor, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding led by Altos Ventures, with participation from Samsung Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Centricient, a year-old, Bozeman, Mt.-based customer service messaging management toolkit, has raised $6.5 million from Venrock and Next Frontier Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Coda Payments, a five-year-old, Singapore-based alternative payment gateway that enables merchants to accept payments from cardless customers in Southeast Asia, has raised $2 million in new funding. Earlier backers GMO Global Payment Fund, Skype co-founder Toivo Annus and Golden Gate Ventures provided the capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Lemonade, a year-old, New York-based peer-to-peer insurance carrier, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from XL Innovate. More here.

LendUp, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based direct lender focused on non-prime borrowers, has raised $47.5 million in Series C funding led by the Y Combinator Continuity fund. Other participants in the round include GV, Thomvest Ventures, QED Investors, Data Collective, Susa Ventures, Radicle Impact, Bronze Investments and SV Angel. 

Logikcull, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based legal intelligence startup, has raised $10 million in funding led by OpenView Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backer Storm Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

MediaBrix, a five-year-old, New York-based developer of in-app advertising compaigns, has raised $6.5 million in new funding from Edison Partners, Revel Partners and Horizon Technology Finance. More here.

RedShelf, a 4.5-year-old, Chicago-based e-textbook comapny, has raised $4 million in Series B funding from Coniston Capital, with participation from existing investors, including the National Association of College Stores. More here.

ThreatQuotient, a three-year-old, Reston, Va.-based threat intelligence platform, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from return backers Blu Venture Investors and the Center for Innovative Technology. DCInno has more here.

Vyome Biosciences, a six-year-old, New Delhi, India-based company that makes treatments for skin diseases caused by resistant microbes, has raised $14 million in Series C funding led by Perceptive Advisors, with participation from Romulus Capital and return backers Kalaari Capital, Sabre Partners and Aarin Capital. The Economic Times has more here.
—–

IPOs

How HotelTonight went from burning millions of dollars to reportedy planning an IPO, in Bloomberg.

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Exits

In a bid to grow its retail sector reach, IBM is reportedly in discussions to acquire Revel Systems, which makes an iPad point-of-sale system. Bloomberg has more here. Revel has raised roughly $127 million, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include DCM Ventures; Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, and Rothenberg Ventures, among others.

Pinterest is acquiring the team behind eight-year-old, New York-based Instapaper, which will continue operating as a separate app. TechCrunch has more here.

And now we know: One Kings Lane, once valued at more than $900 million, sold for less than $30 million, says Recode. More here.

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People

Vadim Lavrusik, a former Facebook product manager who worked on the company’s live video feature, just debuted a new service, Alively, that allows users to share live-streamed or recorded footage with select friends and family. VentureBeat has more here.

Sir Ian McKellen reportedly turned down $1.5 million to officiate Sean Parker’s “Lord of the Rings” themed wedding. “I said, ‘I am sorry. Gandalf doesn’t do weddings.’” Vanity Fair has more here.

Michael Steinmetz, a longtime healthcare venture capitalist who co-founded Clarus Ventures in 2005, has passed away. Fortune has more here.

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Essential Reads

How Google keeps familiar former engineers close to the fold.

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Detours

In insider trading case that pit father against son.

Why we judge parents for putting kids at perceived, but unreal, risk.

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Retail Therapy

Freak out your office guests with these.

We’re not quite ready for Monday, yet here it is anyway.:) Happy Monday, everyone.

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Top News in the A.M.

Pfizer is buying the publicly traded San Francisco-based cancer drug maker Medivation for a whopping $14 billion. Dealbook has more here.

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VC Charlie O’Donnell on Building Community on the Cheap

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, a nearly four-year-old, seed-stage venture firm that’s solely run by founder and general partner, Charlie O’Donnell, just closed its second fund with $15 million, up from an $8.3 million debut fund in early 2014.

Yesterday, we talked  with O’Donnell about what the process was like, whether the New York venture scene will be impacted by the $3 billion sale of e-commerce company Jet.com to Walmart, and how a small operation like Brooklyn Bridge Ventures can make an outsize impact on a shoestring budget.

TC: We sat down last November and you’d mentioned that you’d circled $13 million or so for this new fund.

CO: I estimated that I had about $13 million in estimated commitments, and we didn’t go into detail on what that meant. For me, it’s a spreadsheet that has a [potential investor] in the fund, a number, and a percent chance of closing, much like a sales pipeline.

Comparatively, my first fund took 9 months from announcement to first close, and 15 months from first close to last close. This fund took 6 months from first close to last close, with 70 percent of the capital commitments coming in the first two closes.That all seemed super fast to me.

TC: We were wondering if you ran into trouble this year with investors; some of the institutions that fund venture firms say they were mobbed earlier this year by firms that raised funds a couple of years ago and that didn’t want to be the last in line for their new fund.

CO: Most of my [investors] aren’t in any other funds. An endowment that wrote me a $1 million check certainly is. And I think my lead investor is in one or two other funds, along with maybe a handful of individuals [who wrote me checks]. But they’re definitely in the minority. At my size, I’m not talking to many traditional [investors]. I have no idea why they keep writing checks every two years for funds that haven’t proved themselves out yet. I came from the fund side. I thought VCs raised every three to four years.

TC: You’ve funded a lot of very promising companies. In your past life as a principal with First Round Capital, you also backed a number of companies that have sold. Do you have any “exits” yet at Brooklyn Bridge?

CO: One exit returned its capital, but given that most of these companies average about two years old or less (it was a three-year investment period fund), it would be pretty early to start seeing exits at this stage. Also, standouts like [the smart home security company]Canary are ramping up revenues and releasing new and improved products and not looking to take an early exit anytime soon.

TC: People have long said that New York needed a giant exit, especially after certain companies that looked to become big wins saw their fortunes change, including Gilt Groupe and Fab. Was Jet that exit? 

CO: Jet was certainly a large exit and a testament to the great team the company assembled. Three billion dollars is a lot of money, but given how much they raised right out of the gate, I don’t know what multiples its investors got given what one would assume were the entry prices. So, do the aggregate dollars count or the return multiple? I’m not sure, but I’m also not someone who believes in the “giant exit” theory.

What’s supposed to happen when we get a giant exit? We get more angels?

More here.

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New Fundings

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, a 3.5-year-old, Canton, Ma.-based company at work on a therapeutic for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Morningside Ventures, with participation from the ALS Investment Fund, former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer, and other new and previous investors. More here.

Mobike, an 11-month-old Shanghai, China-based mobile app that allows users to rent bikes for short distance commutes, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Panda Capital, with participation from Joy Capital. The company, which operates its own bike fleet, was founded by a former Uber manager in China, says China Money Network. More here.

Quanergy Systems, a nearly four-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company that’s working on solid state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing software, has raised roughly $90 million in Series B funding at a valuation that’s “well over $1 billion,” says the outfit. The publicly traded companies Sensata Technologies and Delphi Automotive participated in the round, along with Samsung Ventures, Motus Ventures and GP Capital. Quanergy has now raised $150 million altogether. More here.

Singlera Genomics, a two-year-old, Shanghai, China- and La Jolla, Ca.-based non-invasive genetic testing company, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Lilly Asia Ventures, with participation from Green Pine Capital Partners, CDBI Partners and others. More here.

Teambition, a three-year-old, Shanghai, China-based workplace collaborations SaaS startup,  has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Chinese Internet services giant Tencent.  DealStreetAsia has more here.

Virtru, a four-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based email and file encryption service, has raised $29 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Other participants include New Enterprise Associates, Soros Fund Management, Haystack Partners, Quadrant Capital Advisors, and Blue Delta Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Zoona, a seven-year-old, Cape Town, South Africa-based mobile money platform whose products include money transfers, electronic voucher payments, and agent payments, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group. Earlier backers Accion, Omidyar Network and Lundin Foundation also joined the round. CNBC Africa has more here.

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New Funds

Kobe Bryant is now a venture capitalist, reports the WSJ. According to its report, Bryant has teamed up with longtime entrepreneur and investor Jeff Stibel to create an L.A-based firm called Bryant Stibel that — somewhat amazingly — will invest their own $100 million in combined capital. (They say they aren’t seeking outside investors.) The reports notes that they’ve already funded 15 startups together in recent years, including the home-juicing company Juicero and the legal services company LegalZoom. Much more here.

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IPOs

Everbridge, a Burlington, Ma.-based emergency communications platform provider, has filed plans for its IPO, putting an end to rumors of its intentions to go public. BostInno has more here.

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Exits

Apple has acquired a three-year-old personal health data startup Gliimpse, reports Fast Company. Terms aren’t known.

Microsoft has acquired Genee, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based artificial-intelligence-powered scheduling service. Microsoft is planning to integrate the intelligence technology into Office 365 and shut down the Genee service on September 1. Genee appears to have raised one small venture round. VentureBeat has more here.

A group of Chinese investors said it’s acquiring the six-year-old ad-tech startup Media.net for about $900 million in cash, with plans to eventually sell the company to an obscure telecommunications firm whose shares have been suspended from trading since last year. Bloomberg has more here.

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People

Isaac Evans has joined Redpoint Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Evans, 22, spent the last three years as a computer scientist at the Pentagon and will be looking at a a variety of security, machine learning and natural language processing technologies while at the firm.

Longtime ad exec turned consultant Cindi Gallop doesn’t care what you think. (Great profile of Gallop, whose path you’ve perhaps crossed on Twitter.)

Bill Gates‘s net worth just hit a record high of $90 billion.

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Data

The New York Times takes a look at the 20 U.S. cities with the greatest percentage increase in technology jobs from 2010 to 2015. Among them: Phoenix, Az., and Warren, Mi.

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Essential Reads

How venture-backed Bandcamp became the holy grail of online record stores.

There may be another Snowden at the NSA. Here’s why.

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Detours

Polo lessons for Conan, by legendary player Nacho Figueras.

Make that two not-so-easy days.

Everything I’m afraid might happen if I ask new acquaintances to get coffee.

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Retail Therapy

Ka-pow! Big-budget director Michael Bay’s 30,000-square foot Bel Air home. (We’re not sure if it’s for sale, but it will be, someday!)

Oh, sweet Friday, is it really you at long last? [Collapses.]

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Top News in the A.M.

Vevo, the online music video service owned by the world’s largest record labels, has hired Goldman Sachs to raise up to $500 million from new investors, says the Financial Times. More here.

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Quero Education Looks to Educate U.S. VCs

Much has been written about Brazil during the Rio Olympics. But one facet of the country that’s relatively unknown to foreigners is how 9 percent of the population – or the roughly 17 million Brazilians between the ages of 15 through 19 – can get a decent, affordable college education.

If U.S. investors were to take an interest, says Quero Education, they might be rewarded for it.

We chatted with Quero’s co-founder and CEO Bernardo de Pádua about his six-year-old, online college marketplace and the opportunity it’s chasing.

TC: You say the education industry is very different in Brazil versus the U.S. What are some of the biggest differentiators?

BDP: About 20 years ago, for-profit colleges took over the market, and now almost 85 percent of students are attending them. A company called Kroton this year acquired the second-largest college on the stock market in Brazil and it’s now the world’s largest school corporation, with 1.6 million students and more than $3 billion in annual revenues. And they only own a small share of the market — around 10 percent.

TC: Quero is helping match students with these for-profit schools. Is that correct?

BDP: Yes. These [for-profit] colleges have been fighting for new students and partnering with companies that have large databases and giving them discounts in exchange. Or, for example, if you have a church or soccer team, you can partner with a college and [because you’re sending multiple people to the school], you’ll get a 10 to 50 percent discount on tuition. But there’s a great mismatch of information that exists for the students.

TC: So you’re saying these colleges suffer from oversupply?

BDP: That’s right. There are six million seats open every year, and three million people enroll, so something like 50 percent of the seats are available. Some schools get oversubscribed. Public colleges are a very different story. They’re free to attend but have a limited number of seats [so it’s very competitive to attend them] and just 10 percent of people who take a national exam are really eligible for those slots. Medical schools are very heavily regulated. But there’s an oversupply in most other fields of study.

More here.

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New Fundings

CellSavers, a year-old, Bay Area-based on-demand mobile repair platform, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Carmel Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Sequoia Capital. Reuters has more here.

DevMynd Software, a five-year-old, Chicago-based digital strategy firm, as raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. More here.

Dexter, a year-old, New York-based bot-building platform, has raised $2.3 million in seed funding led by Rakuten Ventures, with participation from Social Starts and Betaworks. TechCrunch has more here.

Ecobee, a nine-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-based smart thermostat maker, has raised $35 million in funding from the Amazon Alexa Fund, Thomvest, and Relay Ventures. The company has now raised more than $51 million altogether. VentureBeat has more here.

Histogen, a nine-year-old, San Diego-based regenerative medicine company, has raised $6 million in Series D funding led by Pineworld Capital, an affiliate of Huapont Life Sciences. More here.

KRY, a two-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based health startup that connects patients with healthcare professionals for consultations via video, has raised €6.1 million ($6.9 million) in seed funding  led by Index Ventures and Creandum, with participation from Berlin-based Project A. TechCrunch has more here.

NVBots, a three-year-old, Boston-based company whose 3D printing technology that can print multiple metals in the same build, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by Woodman Asset Management. BostInno has more here.

SmartFile, a seven-year-old, Indianapolis, In.-based secure enterprise file management and sharing platform, has raised $1.1 million led by VisionTech Angels, with participation from Elevate Ventures. More here.

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New Funds

Darwin Ventures, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based venturee fund of funds, is looking to raise $100 million for its fourth fund, shows an SEC filing. Darwin closed its last fund with roughly $60 million in early 2014.

London’s Octopus Ventures just launched a new accelerator — Octopus Labs — to capitalize on the financial tech boom. Details here.

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Exits

Foodpanda, the food delivery startup backed by Rocket Internet, is selling its operations in Indonesia and evaluating its presence in the rest of Southeast Asia as part of a push towards profitability. TechCrunch has more here.

Rakuten has acquired the assets of Bitnet, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based bitcoin wallet startup that was reportedly struggling. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, but according to CrunchBase, Bitnet had raised $14.5 million, including from Rakuten, ARTIS Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Webb Investment Network, and Highland Capital Partners. More here.

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People

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick talks with Business Insider about his vision of our self-driving future, where “a million fewer people are going to die a year. Traffic in all cities will be gone. Significantly reduced pollution and trillions of hours will be given back to people . . .”

Remember Eric Martin, who won a Jet.com contest whose prize was 100,000 shares? Media outlets seemed to think he was in line for up to $20 million following Jet’s sale to Walmart. Turns out it’s closer to $900,00 — pre tax, says Fortune. (We’d take it!) More here.

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Essential Reads

A legal battle is escalating between the venture-backed software startup Domo and one of its former managers who’s fighting the company for financial information. The WSJ has more here.

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Detours

They’re calling this the most lavish dorm room in America.

The strange brain of the world’s greatest solo climber.

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Retail Therapy

Extreme Series Roof Top Tent. (Extremely sweet.)