Happy Tuesday, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Later today, Apple is expected to post its first quarterly revenue decline since 2003. Recode has more here.

Twitter‘s earnings are coming, too. The WSJ has what to watch for here.

Google, Ford, and Uber just created a giant lobbying group for self-driving cars. The Verge has more here.

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Cyan Banister Has a New Startup and It’s Looking for Seed Funding

Cyan Banister realized long ago that Zivity, a subscription-based online community of artistic glamour and pin-up photography that she founded in 2007, was never going to be a highly profitable endeavor. That’s okay with her, too.

In an interview last week, Banister — known for the many angel investments she and husband Scott Banister have made over the years and more newly for her role as a partner at Founders Fund — told us Zivity was “always growing, but never at a crazy rate.”

Indeed, nine years after it was created, it has amassed 3,000 subscribers who pay the site on average $250 a year to access its various photo sets.

Now, Banister and Zivity’s longtime general manager-turned-CEO, Nadya Lev, think they’ve struck on a more lucrative opportunity that can not only shine a light on the creative class but help artists get paid, too. Their new company is called ThankRoll, and it’s looking for $1.5 million in seed funding to see how far it can get over the next 18 months.

It could make for an interesting bet. ThankRoll is essentially a service that offers a convenient way for fans of artists, blogs and others to support those products and services through a white-label widget that appears on the artists’ or blogs’ site. Fans just enter their credit card information; they can cancel their pledge any time they like.

More here.

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New Fundings

Auro Robotics, a year-old, San Francisco-based company that’s building driverless shuttles for campuses (which have their own, rather than state or federal, regulations), has raised $2 million in Series A funding led by Motus Ventures, with participation from Rothenberg Ventures. More here.

Kasisto, a three-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based SRI spinoff that provides virtual personal assistants to banks (they use them to communicate with their customers), has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Singapore’s DBS Bank. More here.

LaunchPad Recruits, a 4.5-year-old, London-based company that makes data and video software for hiring, has raised $2.3 million in Series A funding from Sussex Place Ventures and Edenred Capital Partners, among others. More here.

Lendix, a 1.5-year-old, Paris-based peer-to-peer lending platform, has raised $13.5 million in funding from CNP Assurances, Matmut, Zencap AM and earlier backers Partech Ventures, Decaux Frères Investissements, Sycomore Factory and Weber Investissement. TechCrunch has more here.

Remitly, a five-year-old, Seattle-based remittance service, has raised $38.5 million in Series C funding led by Stripes Group, with participation from Vulcan Capital and earlier backers DFJ, DN Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Trilogy Equity Partners, and several unnamed investors. The company has now raised $61 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

SparkCognition, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based “cognitive” security analytics company, has raised $6 million in Series B funding from CME Ventures, Verizon Ventures and earlier backers The Entrepreneurs’ Fund and Alameda Ventures. More here.

StoryStream, a five-year-old, London-based content platform helps marketers combine user generated and brand content, has raised $2.6 million in Series A funding led by MMC Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Tado, a five-year-old, Munich, Germany-based maker of smart thermostat and AC control products, has raised $23 million in fresh funding  led by Inven Capital, the venture capital arm of the Čez Group, a multinational energy conglomerate based in the Czech Republic. The company has now raised $57 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

TranServ, a 5.5-year-old, Mumbai, India-based mobile payments company, has raised $15 million in Series C funding led by IDFC Spice Fund and Micromax Informatics, with participation from earlier backers Nirvana and Faering Capital India. TechCrunch has more here.

Trov, a four-year-old, Danville, Ca.-based on-demand insurance platform that lets users buy insurance for specific products for a specific amount of time, has raised $25.5 million in Series C funding led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Suncorp Group, Guidewire, and earlier backers Anthemis Group. TechCrunch has more here.

UrbanStems, a two-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based on-demand flower delivery service, has raised $6.8 million in Series A funding led by SWaN & Legend Venture Partners, with investments from Middleland Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, Interplay Ventures, and Sagamore Ventures. More here.

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New Funds

Finistere Ventures and the International Farming Corp. have teamed up to create an agriculture-focused venture capital fund called Willow Hill Ventures. More here.

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IPOs

The biggest IPO so far of this year could well be Red Rock Resort‘s upcoming offering on Friday, and brothers Fran and Lorenzo Fertitta, respectively CEO and director of the casino operator, stand to take home the jackpot. Bloomberg has more here.

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Exits

Nokia, once the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, is now looking to build out its health technology business, acquiring Withings, a French company that makes  smart scales, activity trackers, and other health gadgets. Nokia is paying $192 million; Withings had raised just less than $34 million from investors, including from BPIFrance, Idinvest, Ventech and 360 Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

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Hi, everyone! Hope you had a terrific weekend.

Sorry you’re receiving this a bit on the later side; our email service provider was working through some technical difficulties that surfaced just as we were hitting “send” around an hour ago.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple is reportedly working on adding cell-network connectivity and a faster processor to its next-generation Watch. The WSJ has more here.

Google is forming a startup incubator within Google dubbed “Area 120” that will be overseen by long-time Google executives Don Harrison and Bradley Horowitz, according to The Information. More here.

Chinese search giant Baidu has formed a team dedicated to its self-driving car efforts in Silicon Valley, taking its autonomous car ambitions to Google’s home turf. The Verge has more here.

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The Next New Thing: Women VCs

The venture landscape changes fast. Ten years ago, few would have predicted the ubiquity of micro funds or the rise of Andreessen Horowitz or the very existence of a platform like AngelList that enables people with enough connections to become pop-up VCs.

Few — though not most — see what’s coming next, too, and that’s women VCs, taking their place alongside men, in equal, or nearly equal, numbers. In fact, we’d argue that the shift will represent the biggest opportunity over the next decade.

It may be hard to believe, given the wealth of attention paid to the low numbers of women in the industry and the obstacles they’re having to overcome. But the signs of change are everywhere if you’re paying close enough attention.

Women now make up 60 percent of college graduates, and many more of them are graduating with tech-friendly degrees. (Women are exceeding at elite institutions particularly, and now account for one-third of Stanford’s undergraduate engineering students, as well as one-third of Stanford’s graduate engineering students.)

Though women are making slow inroads at venture firms — according to CrunchBase data published last week,  just 7 percent of the partners are women at the top 100 venture firms —  women are increasingly finding paths around today’s guard.

They represent 12 percent of investing partners at corporate venture firms — a percentage likely to grow because of heightened interest in how tech companies fare when it comes to diversity. “We believe it’s a missed opportunity if we aren’t an active participant” in funding women- and minority-led companies and funds,” says Janey Hoe, VP of Cisco’s 40-person investments unit.

More, over the last three years, 16 percent of newly launched venture and micro-venture firms had at least one female founder, shows CrunchBase data.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So what’s happening? As VC Jon Callaghan of True Ventures noted during a panel discussion in San Francisco last week, Moore’s law has played a starring role. As costs have fallen and made entrepreneurship accessible globally, more people are coming into venture capital.

Monique Woodard, a longtime entrepreneur and more newly a venture partner at 500 Startups, credits her own path to the democratization of information brought about by social media platforms, as well as the many public insights into the industry that VCs like Fred Wilson and Brad Feld have contributed over time. “You suddenly have this library around venture capital and thought leadership that didn’t exist before,” said Woodard, speaking on the same panel.

It’s also the case that women — an expanding number of whom are founding startups, as well as rising through the ranks of other companies — have more role models in VC than they did a decade ago.

Of course, none of these trends is brand-spanking new. So why, you may be wondering, is now suddenly the tipping point? Because the ethical, business and financial reasons for change are finally poised to overtake the industry’s inertia.

More here.

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New Fundings

Aerojet Rocketdyne, a Sacramento, Ca.-based aerospace company, has landed a $67 million contract from NASA to develop an advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) system for future deep-space missions. The propulsion system could be used on robotic missions to an asteroid and in other missions related to NASA’s Journey to Mars program. TechCrunch has more here.

Augmedix, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based Google Glass startup whose platform enables doctors to collect, enter and recall patient data in real-time, has raised $17 million in funding from five of the biggest healthcare providers in the U.S.: Sutter Health, Dignity Health, Catholic Health Initiatives, TriHealth and a fifth company that’s going unnamed for now.The company has now raised $40 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

Enjoy, two-year-old, Beijing, China-based mobile app for dining deals at high-end restaurants, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by the private equity firm China Media Capital, with participation from Costone Venture Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Helium, a three-year-old San Francisco-based smart sensor startup, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by GV, with participation from Khosla Ventures, FirstMark Capital and Munich RE/Hartford Steam Boiler Ventures. Forbes has more here.

Kamcord, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile game live streaming platform, has raised $10 million in Series C funding led by Time Warner, with participation from earlier backers Tencent, TransLink Capital, XG Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures and Wargaming. TechCrunch has more here.

Sirin Labs, a three-year-old, Schaffhausen, Switzerland-based high-end, ultra secure smartphone manufacturer, has raised a $72 million round of funding from Singulariteam founder Moshe Hogeg, Kazakh businessman Kenges Rakishev, and the Chinese social networking service Renren. TechCrunch has more here.

Sysdig, a three-year-old, Davis, Ca.-based startup that sells full-suite monitoring, alerting and troubleshooting software designed to support distributed, containerized environments, has raised $15 million in Series B funding from Accel Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Silicon Angle has more here.

TULIU.com, a seven-year-old, China-based land information database that integrates information like land area, prices and development trends, as well as provides farmers with land-value evaluation services, has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Shanda Capital,  Foyo Culture & Entertainment, and Matrix Partners. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Unlockd, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based ad startup that serves ads to a phone customer after he or she has unlocked their phone in exchange for discounts on their phone bill, has raised $12 million in Series A funding, including from earlier investors PLC Ventures and Lachlan Murdoch. The company has now raised roughly $17 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Yahoo Japan and East Ventures, a pan-Asian venture capital firm, are teaming up to create a new accelerator in Tokyo called Code Republic that’s more than a little reminiscent of Y Combinator. Tech In Asia has more here.

Chinese outdoor advertising firm Focus Media is teaming up with Hong Kong-based private equity firm FountainVest Partners to launch a $400 million fund to invest in sports companies in China and overseas. China Money Network has more here.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals, a Amman, Jordan-based pharmaceutical company, is launching Hikma Ventures, a $30 million venture capital fund focused on the digital health tech. The fund’s primary focus is on, but not limited to, startups in Amman. StepFeed has more here.

The Thai government will provide THB20 billion (US$570 million) of funding to startups in the country, it just announced late last week. DealStreetAsia has more here.

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IPOs

Lianjia, a Beijing-based real estate agency service, is reportedly preparing for an IPO in China, Hong Kong or the U.S.;  just two weeks ago, the platform raised a stunning $926 million in Series B funding led by Huasheng Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here. (And, from a story in the WSJ a year ago, a look at China’s deal activity in the property services sector that includes HomeLink, which is another name for Lianjia.)

It’s too early to know if SecureWorks‘s IPO was a success or failure, but it’s worth noting that it closed below its opening price on its first day of trading Friday.

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Exits

One of the world’s largest children’s mobile app makers, Toca Boca, whose studios have produced apps totaling over 140 million downloads, has been acquired. The company had originally operated like a startup within the 200-year old Swedish publishing firm Bonnier, but has now been bought up by Spin Master, a children’s entertainment company. TechCrunch has more here.

Zalora, the fashion-focused e-commerce site backed by Rocket Internet, is selling its businesses in Thailand and Vietnam to retail giant Central Group, according to multiple TechCrunch sources. More here.

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People

Udacity’s founder Sebastian Thrun is stepping down as CEO, the company announced on Friday. Vishal Makhijani, the company’s COO. will be Udacity’s new CEO.Thrun will remain as president and chairman of Udacity and continue to work full-time at the company. Fortune has more here.

LeEco’s billionaire CEO Jia Yueting says Apple is outdated. More here from CNBC.

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Jobs

Microsoft is looking to hire a director of business development. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

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Data

Esports will generate $500 million in revenue this year, which is a 43 percent increase from 2015, according to a new report by PwC. PwC also conducted a major survey of the esports audience, with surprising results. For example, it found that women were more likely to describe themselves as involved in esports than men —  22 percent of them, compared to 18 percent of men surveyed. The Daily Dot has the story here.

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Essential Reads

Inside of the world’s most secretive phone factories.

Why cities aren’t ready for the driverless car.

Yik Yak is attempting a comeback with the launch of private chat.

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Detours

The Guardian takes a peek into the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before its long-awaited reopening.

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Retail Therapy

Now you can prepare beer from home, without all the jugs and tubes and thermometers and what not.

Is it Friday already? Have fun at Coachella, half of SVC readers! Also, happy Earth Day!

Our column isn’t quite done and it’s getting late so we’re skipping it today, but we’ll have more for you on Monday.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Alphabet‘s first-quarter numbers came in a little short yesterday and shareholders noticed, knocking down its stock 6 percent in after-hours trading.

Volkswagen agreed yesterday to fix or buy back nearly 500,000 diesel cars in the U.S. that are equipped with illegal emissions software.

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New Fundings

Anomali, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based threat intelligence platform, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Institutional Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst Partners, GV and Paladin Capital Group. More here.

Baidu Video, a new, Beijing, China-based spin-off from the web giant Baidu, has raised $155 million in capital from Baidu, Shanghai New Culture Media Group, Tianshen Yule, Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund and Redpoint Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

BioBeats, a three-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based company whose wearables monitor the health of employees and patients, has raised $2.28 million in funding led by White Cloud Capital, with participation from AXA Strategic Ventures and IQ Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Bridgit, a four-year-old, Kitchener, Ontario-based maker of construction project management software, has raised C$2.2 million ($1.73 million) in seed funding led by Hyde Park Venture Partners, with participation from Vanedge Capital. Forbes has more here.

Chameleon, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that wants to help other startups and online businesses do a better job of explaining their products to users, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

CareerFoundry, a nearly three-year-old, Berlin-based online learning platform for aspiring developers, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Tengelmann Ventures, Bauer Venture Partners and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft. TechCrunch has more here.

Forter, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv-based company that makes fraud prevention software for online retailers, has raised $32 million in Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers New Enterprise Associates and Sequoia Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Hua Medicine, a Shanghai-based biotech company at work on therapeutics for diabetes and CNS disorders, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Harvest Investments, with participation from earlier backers Frontline BioVentures, Arch Venture Partners, Venrock, F-Prime Capital, WuXi Ventures, SAIL, Ally Bridge Group and TF Capital. More here.

Kueski, a four-year-old, Guadalajara, Mexico-based online lender, has raised $10 million in venture funding and $25 million in debt funding, including from Richmond Global Ventures, Rise Capital, CrunchFund, Variv Capital,Victory Park Capital, Angel Ventures Mexico, Core Ventures Group and Auria Capital. More here.

Medium, the nearly five-year-old, San Francisco-based social publishing platform, has raised a fresh $50 million from investors, just months after raising $57 million. Investors valued the company at $600 million, says Recode. Spark Capital has led the company’s newest round; earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz and GV also participated. More here.

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New Funds

Jamie Goldstein, who spent 18 years with North Bridge Venture Partners, is looking to raise up to $100 million for a new fund called Pillar, per a new SEC filing first flagged by Fortune. The filing states the first sale has yet to occur.

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IPOs

SecureWorks, an Atlanta-based cybersecurity unit of Dell Inc, has become the first IPO of the tech industry in 2016, though it’s not clear yet there’s much to cheer about. The company last night priced 8 million shares at $14 per share, below initial plans to offer 9 million shares at between $15.50 and $17.50 per share. The shares are still trading around $14 this morning. Dealbook has more here.

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People

FBI Director James Comey said yesterday that the agency paid $1.3 million to break into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, more than he’ll make in his remaining seven-plus years in his job.

Julia Hartz, who cofounded the online event planning platform Eventbrite with husband Kevin Hartz, has just taken over for him as CEO while he stays on as executive chairman.

Now hyper-entrepreneur Elon Musk wants to solve traffic congestion with self-driving buses.

Investor-entrepreneur Sean Parker has relaunched Airtime, a video chat room for watching, together.

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Jobs

Microsoft is looking to hire a director of business development. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Uber has reached a settlement in two class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts that contested that Uber should be classifying its drivers as employees instead of independent contractors. In exchange for up to $100 million to the 385,000 drivers represented in the cases, both sides have now agreed that drivers will remain independent contractors and not employees. More here.

Topless dancers, champagne, and David Bowie: inside the crash of London’s $2.7 billion unicorn Powa.

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Detours

The secret history of Tiger Woods.

A dating app for burrito-lovers (that’s working!).

Remembering Prince.

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Retail Therapy

Now you can kiss your cherished guitar teacher good-bye. (Just hope this thing doesn’t break.)

Happy Thursday, dear readers! [Elbow stand.]

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Top News in the A.M.

Bill Gurley just published his bi-annual musings state of the venture industry. They’re worth reading, here.

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Felicis Ventures Closes on $20o Million, Roughly Doubling Its Last Fund

When we first met Aydin Senkut in 2006, it was just months after he’d resigned from Google, where he was a senior manager responsible for strategic partner development in Asia Pacific. He was among a small number of “Googlaires” who had lots of money, great connections, and the ability to see many web startups before traditional VCs.

In fact, many in the industry viewed Senkut and his ilk as arrivistes, and Senkut has been on his unwavering mission since, first to first impress them, then to surpass them. His execution has been pretty spot on, too. Felicis Ventures, the San Francisco-based firm that he founded 10 years ago and he now manages with three other investors, just closed its fifth fund with $200 million. That’s nearly double the amount Felicis gathered up for its fourth fund less than two years ago.

Institutions are writing out big checks left and right these days. But it’s easy to understand why Felicis’s limited partners were particularly open to providing the firm with more capital. Felicis has invested in 180 startups to date. Three of those companies have gone public, including Fitbit and Shopify. At least three others — Credit Karma, Planet Labs, and Adyen — appear positioned to go public.

Meanwhile, another 60 companies in Felicis’s portfolio have enjoyed what Senkut calls “meaningful exits.” Most meaningful, seemingly, Felicis was an early investor in Cruise Automation, which is being acquired by General Motors for more than $1 billion; it backed the cloud infrastructure startup Meraki, acquired by Cisco for $1.2 billion in cash; it invested in Twitch, acquired by Amazon for $970 million in cash; and it backed Climate Corp., which Monsanto bought for roughly $930 million.

If you’re wondering about the number of companies that have flamed out after receiving a check from Felicis, Senkut says it’s is in the “very low digits; it’s in the teens percentage on a dollar-adjusted basis.”

When we talked earlier this week, Senkut suggested Felicis’s success so far owes to what he characterizes as a unique strategy.

More here.

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New Fundings

Acorns, a four-year-old, Newport Beach, Ca.-based robo advisory company whose app targets young investors, making it simple for them to buy into a diversified group of exchange-traded funds, has raised $30 million in funding from PayPal, with participation from the Rakuten Tech Fund. The WSJ hasmore here.

Advantagene, a 17-year-old, Auburndale, Ma.-based immuno-oncology company, has just raised $5 million of a proposed $35 million round, according to an SEC filing. The company is developing a prostate cancer vaccine that’s in Phase 3 development. MedCity News has more here.

BeBop Sensors, a two-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based developer of smart fabrics embedded with sensors that are capable of measuring motion, force, location, weight, size and shape, has raised more than $4.4 million in a round of funding that remains open. The company hasn’t disclosed its investors. MedCity News has more here.

Brayola, a three-year-old, New York-based online markeplace service for women’s intimate apparel, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from investors, including Haim Dabah of HDS Capital and FirstTime Capital’s Jonathan Benartzi. TechCrunch has more here.

China Eastern Airlines, a 28-year-old, Shanghai, China-based state-run airline that claims 94 million passengers, has raised $463 million in funding from the 16-year-old, Shanghai-based travel booking giant Ctrip. TechCrunch has more here.

Forter, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based fraud prevention company, has raised  $32 million in Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with follow-on funding from Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates. TechCrunch has more here.

Framebridge, a two-year-old, Lanham, Md.-based online custom framing company, has raised $9 million in Series B funding from SWaN & Legend Venture Partners and earlier backers New Enterprise Associates and Revolution. TechCrunch has more here.

MemSQL, a five-year-old, Sam Francisco-based in-memory database platform, has raised $36 million in Series C funding led by new investors REV and Caffeinated Capital, with participation from earlier investors Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, Data Collective, IA Ventures and First Round Capital. MemSQL has now raised a total of $85 million. TechCrunch has more here.

NurseGrid, a three-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based company behind an online platform for staffing management and communication among nursing teams, has raised $2.5 million from investors, including Toba Capital and returning investor Excelerate Health Ventures. Portland Business Journal has more here.

Preempt Security, a 1.5-year-old, Bay Area-based startup that’s still operating in stealth, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from Trusteer founders Mickey Boodaei and Rakesh Loonkar, and former Akamai Technologies CEO Paul Sagan. The company has now raised $10 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

The RealReal, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based consignment site that focuses on authenticated, high-end resale items for women, men, and the home, has raised $40 million in Series E funding led by Greenspring Associates, with participation from Broadway Angels, Next Equity, Springboard Fund and earlier backers Canaan Partners, e.ventures, Greycroft Partners, InterWest Partners, DBL Partners, and Industry Ventures. To date, the business has raised $123 million in funding. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Europe has a new venture firm in Backed VC, which today is officially outing its €30 million ($33.8 million) pan-European seed-stage fund. TechCrunch has more here.

CrunchFund, the five-year-old, San Francisco-based seed stage fund cofounded by TechCrunch cofounder Michael Arrington, is looking to raise up to $40 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing. Arrington, who is not listed on the filing, tells Fortune he’s playing a smaller role, by design, in part to focus on his health. “I don’t have cancer or anything, please don’t make it sound so serious,” he tells the outlet. More here.

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IPOs

SecureWorks, an Atlanta-based cybersecurity company owned by Dell, is planning to seek as much as $157.5 million in an IPO that’s scheduled to price today after markets close. It will be the first IPO of a U.S. tech company this year. Bloomberg has more here.

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Exits

Auris Surgical Robotics, backed by Peter Thield’s Mithril Capital Management, is buying the minimally invasive robotic surgery company Hansen Medical in a deal valued at about $80 million. Auris has raised $184 million to date, according to CrunchBase. FierceMedical Devices has more here.

The Huffington Post, owned by AOL, owned by Verizon (which pays us in our other role, at TechCrunch), is buying a virtual reality studio called RYOT to build VR content production on the site. Sources tell TechCrunch the purchase price was in the $10 million to $15 million range. RYOT had raised a little more than $3 million in Series A funding prior. More here.

Lexmark, the U.S. printer manufacturer, has agreed to be acquired by a Chinese consortium for $3.6 billion, as mainland companies continue their spending spree on established brands in developed markets. The Financial Times has the story here.

Mindie, a venture-backed app that let users pick songs to accompany their videos and which shut down in December, has been acquired by Shots, the selfie app-turned-comedy feed backed by Justin Bieber. Unsurprisingly, Shots co-founder John Shahidi tells TechCrunch the price “wasn’t a crazy amount.” TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Venture capitalist Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners has been having a host of problems with his (beloved) Tesla Model X, and he isn’t alone. More here.

Zalora, the fashion-focused e-commerce site backed by Rocket Internet, has lost two top executives. Singapore-based managing directors Harry Markl, who is also listed as a co-founder, and Avni Pundir have departed the company. TechCrunch has more here.

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Jobs

Cisco is looking to hire a corporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

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Data

Ad tech may remain unfashionable, but the online advertising is continuing to attract more revenue, according to a new report prepared by PwC for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Among the report’s conclusions: that digital ad revenue in the U.S. reached $59.6 billion last year, a 20 percent increase from 2014 and an all-time high. More here.

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Essential Reads

Apple‘s efforts to move its cloud infrastructure in-house for its web services are being slowed by “political infighting” between the company’s iCloud and Siri engineering teams, according to The Information.

—–

Detours

The story behind Donald Trump’s epic Mar-A-Lago portrait.

Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Fun seeing some of you last night at the NVCA/CrunchBase/SBA event in SF.:)

On a completely separate note, if you own a Tesla Model X that’s been acting a little bananas over the last day or so, please let us know.

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple has just agreed to settle a long-running patent lawsuit for almost $25 million.

The sale of Yahoo‘s internet assets enters phase two.

Wow. Audi created so-called defeat devices which cut emissions in 1999, years before parent company Volkswagen used them to cheat diesel emissions tests, the German newspaper Handelsblatt is reporting. More here.

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SkySafe Lands $3 Million to Disable Badly Behaving Drones

SkySafe, a six-month-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company whose technology can disable drones that are flying where they shouldn’t, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from Founder Collective, SV Angel, and BoxGroup.

No doubt the company is serving a fast-growing need, particularly given the number of drones poised to wreak havoc on public spaces from sports arenas to airports. Consider the British Airways flight that was hit by a commercial drone as it approached Heathrow Airport on Sunday, or the World Cup skier nearly done in by a falling drone in December. The FAA estimates there will be 2.5 million drones sold in the  U.S. alone just this year.

“We’re very excited about a future where drones are used by consumers and businesses for all sorts of purposes, but to get there, drones need to be made extremely reliable and safe,” says venture capitalist Chris Dixon, who led the deal for Andreessen Horowitz.

Dixon suggests SkySafe can ensure that drones don’t go rogue, largely via radio waves, which it uses to override a drone’s remote and take control of the aircraft. Perhaps so. What SkySafe is building certainly sounds less menacing than some of the other options to emerge recently, including an anti-drone laser and an anti-drone rifle. Unfortunately, for competitive reasons, the six-person company isn’t willing to dive much more deeply into how its tech works, as we learned when we talked yesterday with cofounder and CEO Grant Jordan. Our chat has been edited for length.

SkySafe has four founders. What’s your background, and how did you come together?

I graduated from MIT, then spent four years as an officer in the Air Force Research Lab testing anti-drone tech, where I got a lot of exposure to various ways that different groups have come up with for taking down small drones. After I finished my time there, I went to grad school at USCD for computer security, and I [connected with my cofounders] for a security company consulting firm that we founded called Somerset Recon. Between that security work and [my] drone work, we saw a growing threat in the drone space.

What types of customers will you be trying to persuade to use SkySafe?

Pretty much the entire space of public safety. Airports, prisons, stadiums, other event venues, border protection, critical infrastructure. The number of places that have seen incidents in the past year has grown tremendously.

Would you characterize most of those incidents as accidents or otherwise?

In the aviation industry, at airports, those look like accidents. But in prisons, there are no accidents. Those are drones that are trying to smuggle in weapons, drugs and other contraband. I wouldn’t classify what we’ve seen in stadiums as accidents, either. [Drone operators] might not mean any harm, but they’re going out of their way to fly into an area they aren’t supposed to be, and right now, there’s nothing an event venue can do about it.

More here.

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New Fundings

1mg, a four-year-old, India-based online pharmacy and platform for finding medical labs, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Maverick Capital Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia India and Omidyar Network. TechCrunch has more here.

Armada Interactive, an 11-month-old, Helsinki, Finland-based mobile gaming startup that hasn’t yet launched its first title, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Initial Capital, with participation from Index Ventures, PROfounders Capital, Backed VC, Reaktor Ventures, Sisu Game Ventures, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Brighter, a 4.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based online marketplace that allows members to compare dentists by price and reputation, has raised $21 million in Series D financing led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from DAG Ventures and earlier backers Mayfield, Benchmark and Tenaya. More here.

Bugcrowd, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company focused on crowdsourced security for the enterprise, has raised $15 million in Series B funding round led by Blackbird Ventures. Other participants in the round include Industry Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and earlier backers Rally Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital and Paladin Capital Group.

Cabify, a 4.5-year-old, Madrid, Spain-based ride-sharing app that’s active in Spain and Latin America, has raised $120 million in Series C funding at a post-money valuation of $320 million. Rakuten led the round, with participation from other, unnamed investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Lodgify, a four-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based startup that makes site builder software that enables vacation rental owners to create their own branded sites and accept online bookings, has raised €1.4 million in funding. The round was led by Nauta Capital, with participation from earlier investors Chris Hitchen, HOWZAT Partners and Roland Zeller. TechCrunch has more here.

PicsArt, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a photo-editing app of the same name, has raised $20 million in new funding from Siguler Guff & Company and DCM Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Hi, everyone, happy Tuesday!

We had a deliverability issue yesterday of indeterminate nature; if you missed the newsletter, it’s here.

Looking forward to seeing some of you a little later today at the Bridging the Gender Gap event in San Francisco, where we’re moderating one of two discussions. Apparently, it’s overbooked at this point, but there are always people who don’t show up, so don’t let that stop you from swinging by if you’re in the neighborhood.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Yahoo is expected to report first-quarter results after the end of trading today. Here’s what to watch, says the WSJ.

Bloomberg sees early warning signs of a recession in new U.S. jobs data.

—–

Longtime Facebook VP Joins Sequoia Capital

Mike Vernal, a Facebook VP who has spent the last eight-plus years at the company, most recently leading its search, profile, local and developer platform product groups, is leaving the company to become a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital.

Before joining Facebook, Vernal spent nearly six years at Microsoft, first as a product manager and later as a development lead.

The Harvard grad (two degrees) wrote in a tweet yesterday afternoon that “Facebook is an exceptional company with amazing people. Thank you to Mark and everyone at @facebook for the past eight years. I’ll miss you.”

Vernal joins 10 other partners in Sequoia’s Menlo Park office.

One of those partners is Bryan Schreier, who joined Sequoia in 2008 after being a senior director at Google. In an email provided to us by a Sequoia spokesman, Schreier writes, “You don’t recruit people like Mike. They choose you and we are thrilled to have him join.”

Schreier says the firm got to know Vernal through his work fostering startups when he was leading Facebook’s platform initiatives. “His experience scaling engineering, product, and design teams at Facebook will be invaluable to Sequoia founders working to build similarly transformative companies.”

Like all Sequoia partners, Vernal is expected to be something of a generalist, but it’s likely he’ll be focusing on consumer and developer tech to start.

Sequoia recently parted ways with another longtime partner, Michael Goguen, when it was revealed that he was being accused of breach of contract in one of the more explosive lawsuits to hit Silicon Valley in a while.

More here.

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New Funds

Betaout, a three-year-old, New York-based marketing automation platform for e-commerce companies, has raised $1.5 million in new seed funding that brings the amount of capital raised by the company to $2 million. Its investors includeBeenext, Stanford Angels, Letsventure, Chennai Angels, Hyderabad Angels, Mumbai Angels, and former Match Group CEO Sam Yagan. TechCrunch has more here.

Curbside, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company whose app searches real-time local inventory across retailers and alert stores when a customer is arriving for a pickup, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from the drugs store giant CVS. TechCrunch has more here.

Diamanti, a 14-month-old, San Jose, Ca.-based data center infrastructure startup led by former Cisco exec Jeff Chou, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding from Goldman Sachs, CRV, DFJ, and GSR Ventures. TechCrunch hasmore here.

FusionOps, an 11-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company that makes a supply chain analytics tool, has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by the Canadian firm Georgian Partners, with particpation from earlier backers New Enterprise Associates and FusionOps Chairman Prabhu Goel. More here.

Gradescope, a two-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based cloud-based educational grading platform, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding from Freestyle Capital, Bloomberg Beta, The House Fund, and Reach Capital, with additional participation from earlier backer K9 Ventures. EdSurge has more here.

HomeLight, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that matches homebuyers with real estate agents, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Zeev Ventures, with participation from Dovi Frances of SGVC, Bullpen Capital, Montage Ventures, Krillion Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Oren Dobronsky, and Yariv Davidovich. To date, the company has raised $15 million in funding. Vator has more here.

Insightly, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based online CRM application for small businesses, has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by Scott Bommer, venture investor and former founder of SAB Capital, with participation from existing investors Emergence Capital Partners, Cloud Apps Capital Partners and Sozo Ventures. The company has now raised more than $40 million altogether. More here.

NestAway, a 15-month-old, Bangalore, India-based real estate startup that’s focused on furnished homes in cities, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from DST Global founderYuri Milner, IDG Ventures India, and Flipkart president Sujeet Kumar. The round brings NestAway’s total funding to about $43.2 million, according to CrunchBase. TechCrunch has more here.

Ninja Van, a two-year-old, Singapore-based plug-and-play logistics partner that gives e-commerce companies reach to customers across Southeast Asia, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by the Abraaj Group, with participation from B Capital Group, YJ Capital, and earlier backer Monk’s Hill Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Proteus Digital Health, a 16-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company whose sensor-enabled pills aim to help patients adhere to their medication regimens, has raised $50 million in Series H funding from undisclosed investors. Earlier backers in the company include Essex Woodlands, Novartis AG, and Medtronic. More here.

Rinse, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that picks up and cleans anything in its customers’ closets, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Arena Ventures, CAA Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, Expansion VC, Structure Capital, Otter Rock Capital and Base Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Sharper Shape, a three-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based that makes software for automated drone-based asset inspections, has raised $3.25 million in funding led by Straightforward Capital, with participation from the consulting firm Partners in Performance. FinSMEs has more here.

TapInfluence, a seven-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based platform that connects brands with influencer marketers to promote their content online, has raised $14 million in Series B-1 funding led by Noro-Moseley Partners, with participation from Knollwood Investment Advisory and earlier backers Grotech Ventures and Access Venture Partners. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Threat Stack, a 3.5-year-old, Boston-based maker of cloud security and compliance management software, has raised $15.3 million in Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from all existing investors, including Accomplice and .406 Ventures. The company has now raised more than $26 million altogether. More here.

TrapX Security, a six-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based cyber security company, has raised $5 million from Strategic Cyber Ventures, bringing its total Series B round to $14 million. Earlier investors in the round include Intel Capital, Liberty Israel Venture Fund, BRM Group and Opus Capital. More here.

Waltz Networks, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup focused on automatic real-time network control, has raised $6.75 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates, along with another $1.4 million in National Science Foundation grants. FinSMEs has more here.

—–

News Funds

Biomatics Capital Partners has been launched as a Seattle-based venture capital firm by Boris Nikolic, a former Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation advisor, and Julie Sunderland, formerly director of program-related investments for the Gates Foundation. According to an SEC filing first flagged by VentureWire, the new firm is targeting up to $150 million for its debut fund.

—–

Exits

Tyba, a Madrid, Spain-based recruitment platform that aims to help companies more efficiently hire university and college graduates and which had raised $4 million from investors, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by the six-year-old, Denmark-based career network Graduateland. Tyba appears to be acquiring the tech but not the team. TechCrunch has more here.

Verizon Wireless and Hearst Corp. are reportedly acquiring Complex Media, a  “video-first” lifestyle site that’s focused on pop-culture trends and general entertainment. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Complex Media has raised more than $60 million, including from Hearst. The WSJ has the story here.

—–

People

A growing number of Alibaba executives are choosing to retire in New Zealand; founder Jack Ma is reportedly looking to buy a house there, too.

Elon Musk earns just $40,000 in annual salary from Tesla Motors, but he’s fast working his way toward a $1.6 billion payday. Bloomberg explains how here.

Apple has reportedly hired former Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Chris Porritt for a “special [car] project.” Electrek has the story here.

Investors Chris Sacca sees a downturn coming, he tells Vanity Fair. (Like Bill Gurley, with whom we spoke last week, Sacca also hints that fund managers are racing to raise money before their paper returns evaporate.)

—–

Data

The first comprehensive study on women in venture capital and their impact on female founders, courtesy of CrunchBase. There’s a lot of interesting information here, including that: 7 percent of the partners are women at the top 100 venture firms; women hold 22 percent of the roles on the investment team at the associate, vice president and principal levels; and 16 percent of the venture and micro-venture firms founded in the last three years feature at least one female founder.

—–

Essential Reads

Wired has more today on Magic Leap, the world’s most secretive startup.

Theranos, the embattled blood-testing laboratory, says federal officials are now conducting a criminal investigation into the company, adding to a series of questions from officials about its inner workings. The New York Times has more here.

Even Uber can’t quite figure out how to make quick food delivery add up. Yesterday, it announced that it’s killing off its instant food delivery option in New York City.

—–

Detours

Ascension Island, where nothing makes sense.

The best undergraduate business schools of 2016.

—–

Retail Therapy

Restocks, when you need those Yeezys now.

Hi, welcome back, everyone.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Silicon Valley’s legendary business coach, Bill Campbell, has passed away. Recode has more here.

—–

Meet Jeremy Fiance, UC Berkeley’s 24-Year-Old Superconnector

Most 24-year-olds are still figuring out how their careers will take shape. Jeremy Fiance, a recent UC Berkeley graduate, knows he wants to be a venture capitalist. He isn’t waiting to rise through the ranks of someone else’s firm, either.

Instead, Fiance is today taking the wraps off his new firm, The House Fund, which just closed its debut vehicle with $6 million in capital commitments from an array of individual investors, many of them venture capitalists.

It’s easy to understand their interest in Fiance. He’s sharp. (He graduated with an interdisciplinary studies degree, having studied business, engineering, and design). He’s media savvy. (Within hours of our phone conversation last week, Fiance sent over a comprehensive package of media assets.)

Fiance also has a highly compelling pitch. The big idea: UC Berkeley has been overlooked for too long by angel investors and VCs alike, and Fiance is positioned as well as anyone to unearth its hidden gems.

It’s hard to believe when you think about the numbers. UC Berkeley has a half a million alums and a current student body of 37,000, including undergraduate and graduate students. But students and alums alike say that despite high-profile alums like Eric Schmidt, Steve Wozniak, and Chris Anderson — not to mention the many interesting startups created at the school (Caviar, acquired by Square is but one) — UC Berkeley still receives a small fraction of the attention that angel investors and venture capitalists pay Stanford students and alums.

As venture capitalist Pejman Nozad told us last summer, a big gating factor is simply location. Because UC Berkeley is 45 minutes from Palo Alto, where plenty of VCs still live and work, it “doesn’t get nearly as much attention despite that its computer science department ranks right up there with Stanford and Carnegie Mellon and M.I.T.”

Last year, Nozad’s firm, Pejman Mar, which is itself a stone’s throw away from Stanford, created a $250,000 startup competition at UC Berkeley to help it identify promising teams until it has more bandwidth to throw at the school.

Other firms have also crept up here and there.

More here.

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New Fundings

ClassDojo, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based feedback platform that connects educators to students’ parents to communicate more consistently about student’s activities, social and behavioral development at school, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst Partners, participation from GSV Advisors, Reach Capital and earlier backer SignalFire. TechCrunch has more here.

Jugnoo, a two-year-old, Chandigarh, India-based startup that provides an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from Snow Leopard, Rocketship.vc, the Alibaba-backed payments firm Paytm, and the CEO of Snapdeal-owned Freecharge, Kunal Shah. TechCrunch has more here.

Transactis, a 13-year-old, New York-based maker of electronic billing and payment software,  has raised $30 million in Series E funding from Capital One, Fifth Third, PNC, TD Bank, Wells Fargo and Safeguard Scientifics.

—–

New Funds

Genomics company Illumina is committing $100 million to a new venture capital fund focused on early-stage companies pioneering new genomics products. The new Illumina Ventures fund is being run by Nicholas Naclerio, the company’s former senior vice president for corporate and venture development. Times of San Diego has more here.

—–

Exits

The Capital Partnership in the U.K. has agreed to acquire Northgate Capital, a California-based venture capital and private equity fund-of-funds and direct investment manager that says it has $4.8 billion in assets under management. No financial terms were disclosed. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.

Mobify, a nine-year-old, Vancouver-based mobile customer engagement platform, has acquired four-year-old, Vancouver-based AI specialist Pathful. Pathful had raised $400,000 in seed funding, according to CrunchBase. In February, Mobify announced $10 million in Series A funding led by Acton Capital Partners. Fortune has the story here.

Oracle is spending roughly $50 million to acquire Crosswise, a three-year-old, Israel-based company that makes cross-device identification mapping software and that had raised $5 million from investors, including Pereg Ventures, ZhenFund, Giza Venture Capital, OurCrowd and Horizons Ventures. Business Insider has more here.

—–

People

Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes talked with “The Today Show” this morning in a rare interview since her company came under fire for faulty results.

Gilt Groupe co-founder Alexis Maybank has a new fashion app that lets you shop from Instagram photos. Recode has more here.

On Friday night, nearly 200 Bernie Sanders supporters gathered with pots and pans outside the home of venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, who co-hosted a star-studded Hillary Clinton fundraiser alongside George and Amal Clooney. The protest reflected a growing rift in the city. The Guardian has more here.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is reinventing himself as an electronic dance music artist (sort of.)

—–

Jobs

Capital One Ventures is looking to hire a senior associate. The job is in New York.

Strava, maker of the popular social fitness app, is looking to hire a business development manager. The job is in San Francisco.

—–

Data

Globally, fintech startups raised $5.3 billion in funding in the first quarter of 2016, according to a new report from Accenture. That’s up 67 percent from the same period last year. Business Insider has more here.

—-

Essential Reads

Alphabet is plotting a digital city full of Google cars, high-speed Internet and maybe more(!).

Amazon is taking on Netflix more directly as it aims to become a primary destination for streaming video. The WSJ has more on the company’s plans to offer streaming video as a standalone option, here.

Publicly traded tech companies that pay their employees generously with stock-based compensation are facing greater scrutiny. The New York Times explains why.

—-

Detours

How spies keep their double lives secret.

Beloved New Yorker Elaine Benes interviews Bernie Sanders (on SNL). “You can’t yada, yada at a debate.”

—–

Retail Therapy

The Aston Martin Vantage GT8. It’s the “Aston Martin you’ve been waiting for,” says the company, as if we would have refused a lesser Aston Martin(!).

Aaaaaaaand, Friday! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Companies have until Monday to bid on Yahoo’s internet assets. Yet Fortune is reporting this morning that many of the parties identified by media reports as kicking Yahoo’s tires haven’t even signed the 14-page nondisclosure agreement required to view its sale book.

—–

A Strange New Battle Begins Over Who Owns Cruise Automation

A strange new battle over valuable startup equity took another step forward late yesterday afternoon.

Jeremy Guillory, a Bay Area mechanical engineer, has filed a cross-complaint against 2.5-year-old Cruise Automation and its longtime CEO, Kyle Vogt. At issue: Guillory says that the self-driving car company — which developed an autopilot system for existing cars and is being acquired by General Motors for reportedly north of $1 billion — is cheating him out of his rightful 50 percent ownership stake in the business, which he says he helped form. (In legalese, Guillory is accusing Vogt and Cruise of promissory estoppel, conversion, unjust enrichment and accounting.)

You knew this counter-claim was coming Wednesday, when the president of Y Combinator, Sam Altman, tried to get ahead of things publicly in a blog post.

As you may have read then, Altman, who has known Vogt for years and whose accelerator program provided Cruise its first check, acknowledged that Gillory “collaborated with Kyle for a very short period early on in the life of Cruise.”

Some time in the weeks since GM announced it was buying the company in mid March, Guillory requested a percentage of Vogt’s equity in the company, even though, according to Altman,  “Kyle and Jeremy parted ways” after roughly one month of working together. “This event happened more than two years ago, and well before the company had achieved much of anything.”

The matter was private at first, with Vogt making what Altman described as an “extremely generous offer to settle this claim,” presumably to keep it from derailing Cruise’s acquisition. When Guillory didn’t accepted Vogt’s offer by a deadline last Friday, Vogt hired the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to sue Guillory for so-called declaratory relief.

Guillory’s new cross-complaint seems to confirm Altman’s account from yesterday (which itself echoes Vogt’s suit).

The filing acknowledges that Guillory and Vogt first met in mid October 2013 and began working on Cruise. By October 21, 2013, they had submitted an application to Y Combinator, whose deadline that year was October 31. By November 7, 2013, after the duo had been accepted into the accelerator, Vogt told Guillory that he no longer wanted to work together.

Guillory’s attorneys note that on that print application to YC, Guillory and Vogt list themselves as co-founders and 50 percent shareholders of Cruise.

That seems to be the only documentation Guillory has to support his claim, along with this one-minute video, which Guillory and Vogt also submitted as part of their application. Whether it’s enough could determine whether or not Guillory is entitled to up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

More here.

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New Fundings

Beekeeper, a 4.5-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based business communications platform for organizations with field employees, has raised $5 million in new funding led by Fyrfly Venture Partners, with additional investment from b-to-v Partners, Polytech Ecosystem Ventures and numerous angel investors, including Delivery Hero Niklas Ostberg. TechCrunch has more here.

Covalent Data, a five-year-old, Denver, Co.-based company that helps technology developers find licensing opportunities, has raised $1.2 million in Series A-1 funding led by High Country Venture. The company has now raised $4.8 million altogether. More here.

HomeToGo, a two-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based metasearch engine for holiday rentals, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers DN Capital and Acton Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

RefleXion Medical, a six-year-old, Hayward, Ca.-based company at work on a technology to make cancer radiation therapy safer, has raised $46 million in Series B funding led by KCK Group, a family investment fund. Earlier investors Pfizer Venture Investments, Sofinnova Partners, and Venrock also joined the round. FinSMEs has more here.

RigUp, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based online marketplace for oil-rig projects, has raised $15 million in Series A funding from mostly earlier investors, including Founders Fund, Box Group, and Great Oaks. New backers include FreeS VC, Moore Capital and GE Ventures. The company has now raised $18 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

TabMo, a three-year-old, Paris-based mobile programmatic advertising startup, has raised €4 million ($4.5 million) from Generis Capital and Ardian. More here.

TargEDys, a five-year-old, Rouen, France-based company that develops drugs and other medical products to regulate appetite, has raised €5.8 million ($6.53 million) in Series A funding from Seventure Partners, NCI and Pontifax. More here.

—–

IPOs

Bats Global Markets, the second-largest stock exchange operator in the U.S., looks to be off to a promising start as a public company. This morning, its shares opened trading at $22.88, up from their IPO price $19 per share. Business Insider has more here.

—–

Exits

Beacon, a two-year-old, New York-based startup that sought to bring an all-you-can-fly option to business and leisure travelers starting on the East coast, has closed shop. The company had raised $6.5 million in funding from Romulus Capital, MiVentures and others. It also raised $1 million in venture debt funding from Western Technology Investment. TechCrunch has more here.

Dinner Lab, a four-year-old, New Orleans, La.-based pop-up food event service, has officially shut down. The company had raised $9.1 million in venture financing, including from James River Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Publicly traded Mitel of Kanata, Ontario is acquiring publicly traded Polycom of San Jose, Ca., in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.96 billion. The combo creates a company with sales of $2.5 billion and 7,700 employees. Both Mitel and Polycom provide communications networks, software and other products for businesses. TechCrunch has more here.

Shuddle, the Uber-like service that promised the safe transport of kids to soccer games and other places, is shutting down today. The company had raised $12.2 million from investors, including RRE Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, and Accel Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

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Jobs

Siemens Venture Capital is looking to hire an associate. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

—–

Data

What bubble? Or, bubble! New National Venture Capital Association data shows that the $12.1 billion invested at the beginning of 2016 represents the best start to a year since the dot-com boom in 2001 (except for last year, which saw $13.7 billion invested in the first quarter). The first quarter was also the ninth consecutive quarter that saw deal volume reach $10 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

The total spend on medications in the U.S. grew to $310 billion in 2015 – up 8.5 percent from 2014, according to a new report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. That number is expected to double by 2020, to around $610 billion on an invoice price basis. MedCity News has more here.

—–

Essential Reads

Apple has reportedly created a secret team to explore changes to the App Store, including a new strategy for charging developers to have their apps more prominently displayed. Bloomberg has the story here.

For the first time, San Francisco is going to require the 37,000 Lyft and Uber drivers who work in the city seven or more days a year to obtain a business license. The San Francisco Chronicle has more here.

—–

Detours

The unoriginal originality of Led Zeppelin.

This baby gorilla is a pretty good dancer.

A pizza box for 420 Day. (We neither condone nor condemn this pizza box.)

—–

Retail Therapy

An inflatable house-shaped bed, for some reason.

Hi, everyone, it is Thursday! [Breakdancing.]

—–

Top News in the A.M.

A bill that would require a warrant to get your emails has finally made some progress on the Hill.

Yale is clearing the air about its venture returns.

—–

Bill Gurley on the Newest Superfund Trend

On Monday, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters released some surprising data. Despite few opportunities to exit from their investments, 57 venture firms managed to raise $12 billion in the first quarter — more money than VCs have raised since the second quarter of 2006. More, just seven firms counted for nearly two-thirds of all that money, with four raising north of a billion dollars apiece.

“It’s not just the size of the funds but the velocity” at which VCs are returning to their investors, known as limited partners (or LPs), says an astonished Bill Gurley of the venture firm Benchmark. “The Kauffman fund said that billion dollar funds sucked, then everybody went out and raised billion-dollar funds.”

Gurley is referring to a 2012 Kauffman Foundation report that suggests venture capital isn’t a great place for institutions to invest, and that big venture funds are a losing proposition almost entirely.

According to the organization’s findings, which it based on its 20-plus years of investing in more than 100 venture funds, only 20 percent of its investments had generated returns that beat a public market equivalent as of 2012, and even then, the funds outpaced those public market indices by a measly three percent. Kauffman further found that only four of 30 venture funds that exceeded $400 million delivered better returns for investors than a small-cap common stock index.

What’s changed in four years’ time? As far as Gurley is concerned, not a thing. Gurley — whose firm raised one billion-dollar fund in the late ’90s and quickly reverted back to sub $500 million funds — says he doesn’t think big venture funds add up for anyone other than VCs, whose management fees typically equal two percent of a fund. “If you talk with an LP, you’ll hear that funds raised in times of scarcity perform the best, while those raised in peak [fundraising] moments don’t have the best returns. The only type of return that’s guaranteed is excessive fee income. You get that no matter what, which is a conflict, for sure.”

More here.

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New Fundings

ContainerShip, a 16-month-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based service that aims to make it easier for developers to use Docker containers to develop and deploy their applications, has raised a $2.41 million in seed funding led by Pittsburgh-based Draper Triangle Ventures and Birchmere Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

KONUX, a 1.5-year-old, Munich, Germany-based industrial IoT company, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates; the largest German industrial venture firm, MIG; and individual investors, including Andy Bechtolsheim, Warren Weiss, and Splunk’s founding CEO, Michael Baum.

Onfido, a four-year-old, London-based platform that conducts background checks for on-demand startups and other businesses like online marketplaces, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Idinvest Partners, with participation from earlier backers Wellington Partners and CrunchFund. The company has now raised roughly $30 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

OnShift, a nine-year-old, Cleveland-based company that makes cloud-based staff scheduling software primarily for long-term care and senior living facilities, has raised $18 million in Series D funding led by Health Velocity Capital, with participation from earlier backers Draper Triangle Ventures, Early Stage Partners, Fifth Third Capital, HLM Venture Partners, North Coast Venture Fund and West Capital Advisors. More here.

Quartet, a two-year-old, New York-based tech company that helps doctors analyze patients’ records to learn if someone’s physiological symptoms are likely to be associated with a mental health condition, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by GV, with participation from earlier backers Oak HC/FT Partners, F-Prime Capital Partners, and Polaris Partners. Fortune wrote about the company recently here.

Yup, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile app that provides on-demand tutoring for students and was previously known as MathCrunch, has raised $4 million in seed funding from existing and new investors, including Stanford University’s StartX Fund and SOMA Capital. The new funding brings Yup’s total funding to $7.5 million.

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Exits

Barcelona is seeing its biggest ever exit with the sale of 10-year-old, Spanish ecommerce player Privalia to France’s Ventee-Privee. The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but a TechCrunch source says Ventee-Privee is paying €500 million ($563 million). According to CrunchBase, Privalia had raised roughly $190 million over the years, including from General Atlantic and Highland Capital Partners. More here.

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People

Facebook has hired former Google vice president of advanced technology and projects, Regina Dugan, to head up a new group dubbed Building 8. According to Facebook, Dugan’s department will combine R&D with product development, and focus on technologies that “fluidly blend physical and digital worlds.” TechCrunch has more here.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison‘s Hawaiian hotel has a suite that costs $21,000 a night; here‘s what it looks like (via Business Insider).

Nest CEO Tony Fadell went to Google’s all-hands meeting recently to defend Nest. Here’s what he said (via Recode).

Apple has hired Cynthia Hogan, formerly a top lobbyist for the NFL and aide to Vice President Joe Biden, as the new head of its Washington office as it continues to battle law enforcement officials over access to its customers’ data. Politico has more here.

Federal health regulators have proposed banning Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing business for at least two years after concluding that the company failed to fix what regulators have called major problems at its laboratory in California. The WSJ has the story here.

Former Reuters journalist Matthew Keys was sentenced today to two years in prison on hacking charges. He faced a maximum sentence of 25 years. TechCrunch has more here.

President Obama is reportedly the only person in the world to receive advanced episodes of the newest “Game of Thrones” season. (“When the commander-in-chief says, ‘I want to see advanced episodes,’ what are you gonna do?,” says showrunner David Benioff.)

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Jobs

Bolt, a hardware-focused seed fund with offices and prototyping shops in Boston and San Francisco, is looking to hire a platform manager. The job is in San Francisco.

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Data

Snapchat’s messaging service is gaining more momentum with teenagers, according to an ongoing survey series fielded by research firm Piper Jaffray that says Snapchat has now caught up to Instagram’s photo-sharing app as the most important social network among this younger demographic. Fortune has more here.

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Essential Reads

Pharmacy startup PillPack is about to lose about a third of its customers, as a competitor is shutting it out of its pharmacy network. (The company has raised $65 million from investors.)

That Coolest cooler project on Kickstarter continues to be a disaster.

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Detours

Conan in Korea.

Kobe’s glorious good-bye (and the 30,699 shots he took leading up to it).

The adult skills that every 18-year-old should have.

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Retail Therapy

Election season scratching posts for cats.

Meanwhile, you might want to pick up some of these for yourself. (You could probably score a discount on the Marco Rubio merch.)