Hi, everyone!

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Top News in the A.M.

Sorry, Chamath, Michael Bloomberg says he won’t run for president in 2016.

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Subleases Spike in Number, as SF Startups Downsize

In January, office rents in San Francisco eclipsedthose of New York to become the most expensive in the country.

Two months later, there are signs the San Francisco may not maintain its dubious position for long. The biggest indicator? There’s suddenly 1.7 million square feet of sublease space available in San Francisco, up more than 50 percent from 1.1 million square feet in November, according to CBRE Group, a commercial real estate services and investment firm.

That kind of jump in four month’s time suggests ripple effects from a funding slowdown that stretch beyond a small but growing number of layoffs.

If the trend isn’t giving local landlords flashbacks of the late ‘90s, it may soon. The Bay Area’s real estate market enjoyed an historically active 2015, with San Francisco accounting for the world’s highest rent growth at 14 percent, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. (Oakland saw the third biggest jump in rent nationally, said the brokerage.)

The last time San Francisco surpassed New York in price per square footage, says CBRE, it was 2000, the same year that the tech market famously peaked then abruptly imploded.

Of course, today’s volatility in the public tech sector pales in comparison to the tech market nosedive that followed the dot com boom of 16 years ago. The slowdown in venture investing isn’t as sudden or severe, either, making it “too early to tell” if the economy has turned in a meaningful way, says Colin Yasukochi, director of research and analysis at CBRE.

Still, says Yasukochi, “There are definitely signs of change. It’s mostly a question of how severe they are, and how they evolve.”

Bay Area brokers, landlords and tenants appear to be in a kind of discovery stage at the moment. On the one hand, despite the dramatic increase in subleased space that’s become available, new tenants aren’t seeing a huge discount, which is usually an indication of a weak market.

“It depends on how long the lease is – one, two or five years or more – in terms of cost,” says Yasukochi. “But if you compare a good quality sublease space to a good, quality space direct from its owner, you’re seeing maybe a 10 percent markdown.”

It’s when discounts rise to 30 and 40 percent that a market is officially in trouble, says Yasukochi.

Much more here.

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New Fundings

AlphaSense, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based search engine for financial professionals, has raised $33 million in funding from Tribeca Venture Partners, Triangle Peak Partners, and Quantum Strategic Partners. Forbes has more here.

AreaMetrics, a 1.5-year-old, Seattle-based consumer analytics platform for brick-and-mortar retailers, has raised $2 million in seed funding co-led by Startup Capital Ventures and Quest Venture Partners, with participation from Seraph Group, Social Starts, and previous angel investors. Vator hasmore here.

Disruptive Multimedia, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based SMS commerce startup founded by rapper and music producer Ryan Leslie, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from VC-operator Ben Horowitz, Betaworks, and others. TechCrunch has more here.

Spotinst, a year-old, Tel Aviv-based SaaS optimization platform that aims to ease the management of cloud computing purchasing options, has raised $2 million in funding led by PICO Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Tiqets, a three-year-old, Amsterdam-based mobile ticketing platform for tourists, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by the Dutch venture capital firm Capital Mills. Tnooz has more here.

Wunder Capital, a two-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based startup that promises to make solar financing work for businesses, has raised $3.6 million in Series A funding led by Techstars Ventures, with participation from Fenway Summer Ventures and FinTech Collective. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Zenstores, a 14-month-old, Bristol, U.K.-based startup whose cloud-based shipping software targets the “long tail” of e-commerce, has raised £400,000 ($570,000) in seed funding led by Downing Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

500 Startups has announced a $10 million fund in Vietnam. The effort is led by Binh Tran and Eddie Thai, two partners who 500 Startups hired last year. TechCrunch has more here.

Entrepreneur First, a nearly five-year-old, London-based startup acceleration space, is looking to raise a £40 million ($57 million) fund to invest in companies that are created on its turf. Founded by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck, the outfit provides technical talent with £17,000 in pre-seed funding in exchange for an 8 percent equity stake in the company that’s created. TechCrunch has more here.

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IPOs

Seven surprises from last year’s dismal IPO market.

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Exits

Atom Bank, a Durham, England-based still-stealth, online-only startup, has acquired Grasp, a design and development house based out of the north of England. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Much more here.

Mic.com, a four-year-old, New York-based digital media company catering to millennials, has acquired a 10-month-old, Berlin-based mobile video aggregation app called Hyper for an undisclosed amount. Mic has raised $32 million in funding, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include Lightspeed Venture Partners and Netscape cofounder Jim Clark. Hyper had meanwhile raised $1.1 million in seed funding, including from Advancit Capital and Broadway Video Ventures. The WSJ has more here.

UserZoom Technologies, a nine-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based UX research and testing SaaS platform, has acquired YouEye, a Mountain View, Ca.-based research platform that automates in-person interviews for digital products. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. UserZoom has raised roughly $36 million from investors, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include TC Growth Partners, Trident Capital and StepStone Group. YouEye had raised $7.5 million from investors, including Signatures Capital, Stardust Venture Partners, and FundersClub.

Veeqo, a Wales-based company that makes e-commerce inventory software, has acquired London-based parcel delivery startup ParcelBright to bolster its shipping features. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. According to CrunchBase, ParcelBright had raised $1 million, including from Talis Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

GV isn’t investing in India, but Google Capital has apparently spent the last year setting up a local presence, and it’s reportedly set to announce former Sequoia Capital investment analyst Kaushik Anand as the head of that outpost. The Economic Times has more here.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster cofounder Sean Parker, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX honcho Elon Musk joined other billionaires, CEOs, and top members of the Republican establishment at a confab last weekend on a private island off the coast of Georgia. The main topic: How to stop Donald Trump.

Facebook has paid $15,000 (€13,600) to an independent security researcher who discovered a simple method of resetting passwords for other accounts, setting a new passphrase, and effectively taking over profiles. More here.

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Essential Reads

Amazon just launched its first live show and, no surprise, it’s akin to a QVC for the YouTube generation.

It is Friday! Our relief knows no boundaries. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone!:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Snapchat has raised $175 million in fresh funding from Fidelity Investments, valuing the messaging company at the same $16 billion valuation from one year ago, reports the WSJ.

Microsoft eyed Slack as a potential acquisition target for as much as $8 billion, says a TechCrunch source. An internal campaign around making an offer failed to drum up support, though. More here.

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This LP Has Millions to Give U.S. Venture Firms (Now!)

Peakview Capital is the investment advisory arm of Shengjing Group and the largest global fund of funds in China.

It also has millions of dollars to invest in U.S.-based venture capital funds, it says. This year. Right now.

It’s a very different message than VCs are receiving from many other institutions, judging by our recent conversations with them.

According to a variety of sources, the many brands talking with LPs include Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, Eight Partners, True Ventures, and First Round Capital (to name but a handful). But some investors aren’t happy with the founder-friendly approach that many VCs have taken in recent years. As one investor told us earlier this week, speaking on background: “A lot of VCs have ‘returns’ but they’re mostly unrealized; it’s not like they were pumping these [portfolio companies] out [onto the public market] as soon as they could. And now the IPO market has collapsed.”

Erik Lassila, a longtime VC who is now the U.S.-based managing partner of Peakview, understands his peers’ frustration. There’s a big — and often costly — divide between paper and realized gains. But as part of an organization that plans to invest $1 billion in venture funds —  including “hundreds of millions of dollars” in the U.S., a smaller percentage in Israel, and the rest back home in China — Lassila doesn’t have to worry about VCs’ mistakes in recent years. He’s working with a “blank slate,” as he puts it.

More here.

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New Fundings

Autolus, a 1.5-year-old, London-based  biopharmaceutical company working to develop next-generation engineered T-cell therapies for haematological and solid tumors, has raised £40 million ($56.8 million) in Series B funding, including from Woodford Investment Management and Perceptive Bioscience Investments. More here.

Exo, a nearly three-year-old, New York-based startup that’s developing insects as an alternative protein source (think cricket flour protein bars), has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by AccelFoods, with participation from Collaborative Fund, Start Garden, and individual investors Tim Ferriss, Nas, and Amelia Boone. Vator has more here.

Phenom People, a 5.5-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based talent relationship marketing company, has added $2.7 million to its Series A financing, bringing funding for the round to $7.6 million. The new capital came from Sigma Prime Ventures. More here.

SourceKnowledge, a 6.5-year-old, Montreal, Quebec-based performance video technology company, has raised $1.5 million in funding from BDC Capital. More here.

Terbium Labs, a nearly three-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based company whose product, Matchlight, alerts clients the instant their stolen data appears on the dark web, has raised $6.4 million in new funding led by .406 Ventures. The company has now garnered $9.7 million altogether. The Baltimore Sun has more here.

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New Funds

Aberdeen Venture Partners is looking to raise up to $200 million for a new fund of funds, shows an SEC filing. Earlier last year, FLAG Capital Management — an asset manager that had backed a long list of top venture firms, including Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures — was acquired by the British fund manager. In December, we talked with the head of its global venture capital practice, Peter Denious (a FLAG exec who stayed on), about Aberdeen’s 2016 outlook.

Eight Partners, a venture firm launched by serial entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale, has closed on more than $300 million in a first close just a few months after coming to market, according to the WSJ. The fund’s target is $400 million, and its hard cap is $420 million. (For what it’s worth, we’ve heard that this fund is already oversubscribed.)

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners is looking to raise up to $125 million for its seventh fund, shows an SEC filing. The firm, whose founders, John Hummer and Ann Winblad, stopped actively investing on its behalf some time ago, is these days run by three managing directors: Lars Leckie, Mitchell Kertzman and Steve Kishi. We talked with Leckie about Hummer’s “reboot” in April of last year.

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IPOs

Messaging app operator Line, owned by South Korea’s largest web portal operator, Naver Corp, plans an IPO of up to $3 billion in New York and Tokyo, the IFR reported today. More here.

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Exits

Docker, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based open-source data platform, has the orchestration startup Conductant. No financial terms were disclosed, but Conductant appears to have been bootstrapped. Docker has meanwhile raised $180 million, shows CrunchBase, including from Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Insight Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

First Round Capital has written to its LPs its view that the valuation pullback is “not a temporary blip.”

Oculus cofounder Palmer Luckey says his Rift virtual reality headset will (still) only support Windows PCs at launch. It can’t support the Mac, though it Apple ever releases a “good computer, we will do it.” Ars Technica has more here.

Marissa Mayer is secretly trying to sell a “package deal” that would keep her as Yahoo CEO, according to a new report. The deal is being pitched by Frank Quattrone, the famous banker Mayer has hired.

AltSchool founder Max Ventilla tells the New Yorker what inspired him to launch his young (well-backed) educational franchise: “A three-year-old today isn’t that different” today, he tells the outlet. But, largely because of technology, “a thirteen-year-old is really different.”

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Essential Reads

A running list of Apple’s allies in its fight with the FBI.

Bitcoin’s nightmare scenario has come to pass, with the network’s capacity to process transactions maxed out.

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Detours

Poor sleep gives you the munchies, a new study confirms.

The world’s richest auto magnates, 2016 edition.

Why Wall Street’s iconic steakhouses are empty.

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Retail Therapy

Deadpool jacket.

Hi, happy Thursday, everyone.:)

No column today. Yesterday was busy, punctuated by a dinner in one of San Francisco’s tiniest restaurants. (Delicious food!)

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Top News in the A.M.

Amazon just added two new members to its Echo family.

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New Funds

Africa Internet Group, a three-year-old, Lagos, Nigeria-based outfit that owns online retailer Jumia, has raised $326 million in funding, including a previously disclosed chunk of money from AXA. Other backers include existing stakeholders MTN, an Africa mobile operator; Rocket Internet; and new backer Goldman Sachs. TechCrunch has more here.

Fe3 Medical, an eight-year-old, San Antonio, Tex.-based company whose transdermal patch helps patients suffering from iron-deficiency anemia, has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by the Chinese drug company Jianmin Pharmaceuticals. Other participants include HG Capital, PingAn Ventures, and earlier investor InCube Ventures. The San Antonio Express-News has more here.

GoTenna, a four-year-old, Brooklyn-based startup whose pocket-size communication tool lets smartphones talk to one another without cell service, has raised a $7.5 million Series A led by earlier backer Walden Venture Capital, with participation from MentorTech Ventures, BBG Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Wareness.io, and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Haizhi, a three-year-old, China-based cloud computing service provider, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Legend Capital. The round reportedly values the company at $250 million. DealStreetAsia has more here.

iAngels Crowd, a 2.5-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based crowdfunding investing network that matches international investors with Israeli startups (that are already backed by Israeli investors), has raised $14 million in Series B funding led by the Australia-based Thorney Investment Group. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Mapillary, a two-year-old, Malmo, Sweden-based startup that’s using crowdsourced photos to create an open source, B2B database to compete with Google’s Street View, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Atomico, Sequoia Capital, LDV Capital, and PlayFair. TechCrunch has more here.

Oro, a 3.5-year-old, L.A.-based company that makes open-source tools for CRM and B2B e-commerce, has raised $12 million in Series A funding from Highland Europe. Tech.eu has more here.

This Wall Street firm says virtual reality is like smartphones nine years ago.

Mercedes is booting robots from its production line.

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Detours

First listen: Jeff Buckley, “You and I.”

The market is definitely doomed now.

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Retail Therapy

The most expensive SUV in the world.

Great news, it’s Wednesday already! (We thought it was Tuesday.) Have a happy Wednesday, everyone.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

The messaging platform Slack is reportedly back on the fundraising trail. The WSJ reports it’s talking with investors about a new round of more than $150 million in funding. More here.

That Brazil-based Facebook VP who was arrested yesterday on his way to work was just let go. (Phew.) Diego Dzodan was jailed for refusing to hand over WhatsApp messages to the police investigating a drugs case.

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NFX Guild Just Graduated 16 Startups: Here They Are

The Bay Area accelerator NFX Guild presented 16 companies to a crowded room of 200 investors down on Sand Hill Road yesterday, and the room was reportedly very energized.

Little wonder. NFX was founded by seasoned entrepreneurs and operators James Currier, Stan Chudnovsky and Gigi Levy Weiss. Its companies are referred to the outfit by a network of 42 scouts — some of them investors, many of them entrepreneurs, and a fair number who work double-time as angel investors. (No company can enter into the program without being routed through them.)

Even more attractive to investors, presumably: These startups are centered around fully formed ideas by the time they hit NFX. Indeed, fully 13 of the 16 companies that presented today had already raised funding, and some were started by pretty big wheels. Wheelwell, for example, a Houzz-like platform automotive parts, accessories and services, was cofounded by the person who established Apple’s Mac Genius service in Apple’s retail stores. Meanwhile, the CEO of Outdoorsy has already led two public companies.

Companies admitted by NFX are given $120,000, along with 30 hours of programming, mentoring, and introductions to investors. NFX in turn gets 7 percent of their company. (If they’ve already raised more than $750,000, NFX asks for 5 percent.)

Today’s batch represents NFX’s second class, and the companies are still meeting with VCs, so it’s probably not too late to kick the tires if you’re an investor — or check out your newest peers if you’re a founder. You can check them out right here.

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New Fundings

Augment, a four-year-old, Paris-based augmented reality startup that allows users to visualize 3D models and the real environment at scale, has raised $3 million from Salesforce Ventures in a round that brings its total funding to $4.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Blippar, a 4.5-year-old, New York-based image-recognition platform and visual browser for mobile, has raised $54 million in Series D funding led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the strategic investment arm of the Government of Malaysia, with particpation from earlier backers. TechCrunch has more here.

Carsome, a year-old, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based platform that connects car dealers with buyers and sellers, has raised $2 million in Series A funding led by IdeaRiverRun, a Malaysian private equity firm, with participation from IMG Investment Partners and 500 Startups. TechCrunch has more here.

Eight Sleep, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based company that makes smart sleep trackers in the form of mattress covers, has raised $6 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Yunqui Partners, Azure Capital, Cota Capital, Comcast Ventures, Vast Ventures, Stanford University, Galvanize Ventures and individual angel investors. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Jobbatical, a 1.5-year-old, Estonia-based job matching site for tech gigs abroad, has raised $2 million in funding led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Saul Klein and Robin Klein’s LocalGlobe. Previous investor Smartcap also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Landit, a year-old, New York-based jobs platform designed to help women advance professionally, especially through moments of career transition, has raised $2 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates, Cue Ball Capital, XFund and Female Founders Fund. Venture Capital DIspatch has the story here.

Lola, a two-year-old, New York-based subscription service  that sells 100 percent cotton tampons, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from Brand Foundry, BBG Ventures, BoxGroup, VaynerRSE, 14W, and Seth Berkowitz among others. More here.

MarianaIQ, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based  platform that uses artificial intelligence for business-to-business marketing, has raised $2 million in convertible notes in a round led by Blumberg Capital. More here.

MedyMatch Technology, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that applies deep vision and advanced cognitive analytics to medical imaging scans to help physicians recognize abnormalities, has raised $2 million in seed funding from investors, including Genesis Capital Advisors and Exigent Alternative Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Mercari, a three-year-old, Tokyo-based peer-to-peer marketplace shopping app, has raised 8.4 billion yen (about $75 million) in a Series D round that values the company at more than $1 billion. Investors include Mitsui & Co,Development Bank of Japan, and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank’s Japan Co-Invest, along with earlier backers Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab, and Global Brain. The company has now raised roughly $111 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Motiv, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based company at work on micro wearable technologies, has raised $5.5 million in fresh funding, shows an SEC filing. More here.

Replay Technologies, a four-year-old, Newark, Ca.-based company that develops video 3D reconstruction technologies, has raised $13.5 million in Series B funding led by Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners. The B round brings the total raised by to date by the company to $27 million. Other investors include Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Samsung Ventures. Jewish Business News has more here.

Unchained Labs, a 1.5-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based life sciences tools company, has raised a new round of $25 million, shows an SEC filing. The company had raised $25 million roughly a year ago led by Novo Ventures, Canaan Partners and TPG Biotech. More here.

Xirrus, a 12-year-old, Thousand Oaks, Ca.-based company that makes wireless networking products and had previously raised roughly $112 million from investors, has garnered another $7.5 million in equity and debt, shows a new SEC filing. More here.

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New Funds

Resolute Ventures, the 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm run by general partners Mike Hirshland and Raanan Bar-Cohen, is looking to raise $50 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing.

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Exits

Augmented reality smart helmet company Daqri has acquired 1066 Labs, a nine-year-old, head-mounted display maker focused on serving enterprise client. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Berlin-based Delivery Hero has built up a large network of online food ordering and delivery operations globally that was valued at over $3 billion as of its last fundraise, but it has now decided to call it quits in one of the biggest markets in the world. TechCrunch says it’s getting out of China after facing aggressive competition from local startups, which include the likes of Ele.me and Baidu Waimai. More here.

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People

Father and son VCs Robin and Saul Klein just sat down with TechCrunch to talk about their new LocalGlobe seed fund.

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Jobs

Cisco is hiring a senior corporate development manager. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Slack will soon begin testing voice and video chat.

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Detours

‘Passive Wi-Fi’ uses 10,000 times less power than normal to save your phone battery.

The U.S, government just banned electronic cigarettes from airplanes. (You probably imagined they were already banned, but they were not! Apparently.)

People were desperately Googling ‘How can I move to Canada’ last night.

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Retail Therapy

The night light you never knew you needed (buy now kind of have to buy).

Hi, everyone, it is March! Hope it’s off to a good start.:)

We haven’t boiled the ocean for you today (too busy; running out the door), but we do think you hope you’ll enjoy today’s central story. We learned a lot during the featured interview.

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Top News in the A.M.

Yikes. Facebook’s vice president for Latin America was  arrested on his way to work in São Paulo, Brazil. The reason: Facebook disobeyed a court order to help investigators in a drug case that involves a WhatsApp user. Much more here.

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The Fascinating Rise of Wish

Last week, toward the end of a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, GGV Capital managing director Hans Tung took the stage to interview one of his portfolio CEOs, Peter Szulczewski of Wish. With an increasingly boisterous crowd as their background, Tung managed to ferret out lots of fascinating information from the highly personable Szulczewski, who looked very much the part of busy founder. (Blood-shot eyes, rumpled clothing.)

We’d been eager to learn more about Wish — a fast-growing e-commerce mobile app that has raised roughly $600 million from investors — particularly because Szulczewski hasn’t talked often with the press or shared much hard information about the company. He did last week, though, including telling the crowd that Wish now has “hundreds of millions of users,” that it saw “single-digit billions of dollars” in gross merchandise volume, and seemingly confirming rumors that the company has seen interest (if not concrete acquisition offers) from Alibaba and Amazon.

If you’re interested in e-commerce or want to understand merchants in China particularly, this is a must-read.

More here.

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New Fundings

Chromis Therapeutics, a year-old, San Diego-based company developing treatments for chronic hepatitis B infection, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Torrey Pines Investment. FinSMEs has more here.

CornerJob, a year-old, Barcelona-based mobile app that lets employers advertise blue-collars jobs via its location-based technology, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Antai Business Angels, Mediaset España (through its subsidiary Ad4Ventures), venture funds from Banc Sabadell Capital, Bonsai Venture Capital, Cube Investments, Ithaca Investment, Samaipata Ventures, La Caixa Capital Risc and Media Digital Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Hungryroot, a year-old, New York-based meal kit startup that focuses on vegetable-based natural foods that can be prepared in under seven minutes, has raised $3.7 million in new funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Crosslink Capital and others. The company has now raised $6 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Rocksbox, a nearly four-year-old, membership-based platform that sends monthly subscription boxes of jewelry to consumers, has raised $8.7 million in Series A funds co-led KEC Venture and Matrix Partners. More here.

YourMechanic, a five-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based on‐demand auto mechanic service, has raised $24 million from SoftBank Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Data Point Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, SAIC, Verizon Ventures, American Family Insurance, PG Ventures, Promus Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. The company has now raised $32 million altogether. More here.

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Exits

Cisco has acquired CliQr, a provider of application management solutions for hybrid cloud environments, for $260 million. CliQr was already working with Cisco, with the company’s solutions integrated across several of Cisco’s data center switching and cloud solutions, the company said. CliQr had raised just over $38 million from investors that include Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, InstantScale Ventures, Polaris Partners and Translink Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

GoPro yesterday announced the acquisition of two startups to address one of the company’s sore spots: Video editing. Stupeflix and Vemory are the companies behind the mobile apps Replay and Splice, respectively. GoProspent $105 million on the two companies combined. TechCrunch has more here.

Mobile Action, a San Francisco, Ca.-based provider of an app store intelligence and optimization platform, has acquired Appmind, a provider of an App Store optimization tool. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. FinSMES has more here.

NativeX, a seven-year-old, Sartell, Mn.-based startup that makes advertising for mobile games and apps, is being acquired by Chinese mobile ad platform Mobvista. The companies say the all-cash deal is valued at 160 million RMB (about $24.5 million). TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Anshu Jain, Deutsche Bank’s former co-CEO, is joining American finance company SoFi as a senior advisor. More here.

Carl Eshenbach, the COO and number two at VMware, the software company controlled by EMC, is stepping down in an executive shakeup ahead of its effective acquisition by Dell later this year.

At a private dinner in Beverly Hills last week, Elon Musk agreed to audit pay at his rocket company, SpaceX, to ensure that men and women are paid fairly. If he sticks to his promise, Musk will be following the lead of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who said that Salesforce spent $3 million in 2015 to bring the salaries of female employees up to the level of their male counterparts.

Tech workers are increasingly looking to leave Silicon Valley.

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Essential Reads

Facebook is changing its news feed to favor ongoing broadcasts.

Owing to a decades-old tax provision, employees have to exercise their options within 90 days of leaving or else lose them to the company.Triplebyte, with the support of Y Combinator, is joining the battle against such restrictive stock option plan schemes.

A recent poll suggested that the majority of Americans support the FBI and its order to open the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. But Apple has the backing of the husband of one of the survivors of the terrorist attack. More here.

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Detours

This year’s Best Picture nominees, recreated in LEGOs.

The world’s most powerful passports.

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Retail Therapy

Aquarium backpack. (This would kill at show-and-tell.)

A next-generation bike bell.

Happy Monday, everyone! How about those Oscars?

We’re happy to say we’ve begun posting content from our event last Thursday. Check out our column today and our “People” section. You can also see some pictures of the evening right here.

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Top News in the A.M.

Fidelity just slashed more startup valuations. Fortune has the rundown here.

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Bill Maris Talks Uber, Zenefits, and Running the Show at GV

Thursday night, at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, we talked with GV CEO Bill Maris about a wide range of issues, including what happened with its Europe fund, why GV didn’t invest in Zenefits, and why Maris alone makes every decision on behalf of the powerful venture unit, which now employs 70 people.

As venture geeks, we found much of what he had to say interesting. Hopefully, you’ll find the conversation instructive, too. (It’s been edited lightly for length.)

You work for the most valuable company in the world. You run its venture arm. Every decision falls to you and you alone, which not everyone realizes.

It’s getting scary. [Laughs.]

What is the trickle-up process?

So all the investment decisions I make, going into a company or when and how to come out of it, is in collaboration with the partner who brings [the deal] forward. So we talk about all the opportunities as a team and everyone is invited to that discussion – not just the investing partners. And we don’t take a vote. It’s not like a democracy in any way. But everyone knows where people stand and we try and give each other good advice, and at the end of the day, the person who brings it forward and I decide whether to move forward or not.

Why isn’t it more democratic?

I have no idea, because I’ve never worked as a venture capitalist before. I masquerade as one now . .  . But basically it started out with just me. The buck stops with me. So if we succeed, credit all goes to the team. If we fail, the blame should fall all on me; that’s how management should work.

Do Larry Page or Sergey Brin ever say, “Bill, why’d you invest in XYZ deal?”

They never say anything. And that’s not a bad thing. We designed it specifically not to be influenced by Google. Larry and Sergey . . . are billionaires. Google has many billions of dollars. If they want to invest in something themselves, they have the opportunity to do that.

Some people are surprised that they don’t or can’t influence [GV], but the idea was that they wouldn’t. So I never talk about ventures with them. The closest we get is an email from Larry with a URL of a company that he came across.

Much more here.

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New Fundings

Borrowell, a year-old, Toronto, Canada-based online lender focused on the Canadian market, has secured $6.4 million in operating and loan capital fromEquitable Bank, Hedgewood, Power Financial Corporation, Oakwest Corporation, Adam Felesky, and Freycinet Investments. More here.

Enlighted, a seven-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based maker of smart energy software for commercial buildings, has raised $25 million in Series D funding from Tao Capital Partners, along with earlier backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, RockPort Capital Partners and DFJ. More here.

Health Catalyst, an eight-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based tech platform that organizes and links health-related data from different systems and makes it available for all users, has raised $70 million in Series E funding co-led byNorwest Venture Partners and healthcare provider UPMC. Other participants include MultiCare Health System, OSF Healthcare, Leerink Capital and earlier investors Sequoia Capital, Sands Capital, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, CHV Capital, Partners HealthCare, EPIC Venture Partners,Leavitt Equity Partners, and Tenaya Capital. Silicon Slopes has more here.

Hopscotch, a four-year-old, Mumbai, India-based e-commerce service focused on mums and founded by a former Diapers.com executive, has closed a $13 million Series C round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. The company has now raised $26 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out last night for our San Francisco event. We had a really great time; we hope you did, too. Giant thanks, also, to our wonderful speakers Heidi Roizen, Bill Maris, Carl Bass, Ben Einstein, Hans Tung, and Peter Szulczewski, as well as to our sponsors Autodesk, AiBrain, Ludlow Ventures, and Bolt.

We have lots of content from the evening coming soon, along with pictures. In the meantime, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

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Top News in the A.M.

Tech giants are uniting in support of Apple, with Google, Facebook and Microsoft among those that will back the company in its iPhone fight with the U.S. government.

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New Fundings

55Haitao.com, a 4.5-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based online cash-back shopping guide, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by the Beijing-based venture firm JJ Capital. More here.

Arctic Sand Technologies, a 5.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based MIT spinoff that is commercializing a power conversion technology, has raised $19 million in Series B funding led by Murata Manufacturing, with participation from GE Ventures, Northwater Capital and Arsenal Venture Partners. Xconomy has more here.

CREXi, a year-old Venice, Ca.-based commercial real estate platform for brokers, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Freestyle Capital, TenOneTen Ventures, Founder Collective, Karlin Ventures and Leon Capital Group. FinSMEs has more here.

GenomeNext, a 1.5-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based genomic data management and analysis company, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by Hydra Capital, with participation from unnamed investors. More here.

Niantic, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile gaming group that began as a lab at Google, has raised $5 million in expanded seed funding from Alsop Louie Partners and individual angel investors, including Scott and Cyan Banister. VentureBeat has more here.

Signal Sciences, a two-year-old, Venice, Ca.-based SaaS platform that provides security monitoring and defense for web applications, has raised $9.7 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures. SoCal Tech has more here.

VitalWare, a five-year-old, Yakima, Wa.-based company that makes revenue cycle software for healthcare organizations, has raised an undisclosed amount of growth equity funding from F-Prime Capital Partners (formerly Fidelity Biosciences). More here.

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New Funds

Tribeca Venture Partners, a four-year-old, New York-based early-stage venture firm, has closed its second fund with $107 million in commitments. Tribeca founders Brian Hirsch and Chip Meakem (who remain the firm’s only investors) closed their debut fund with $65 million. We talked with the firm yesterday.

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Exits

Talkwheel, a company that offers a unique way to visualize customer conversations, has been acquired by Clickable. More here.

Zumper, an apartment rental platform, has acquired the apartment listings startup PadMapper. More here.

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People

Frederic Jacobs, a Switzerland-based developer who helped develop Signal — the secure messaging app of choice for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden — is joining Apple this summer to work on its CoreOS security team. More here.

Startups whose VCs tweet the most.

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Data

The affordability of housing by profession.

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Essential Reads

Zenefits just laid off 250 people. More here.

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Detours

Dial-up, slowed down.

A taste of Vienna.

Every Oscar-winning special effects clip ever, in a neat little supercut.

The most right-swiped jobs on Tinder.

The Hamster Revenant.

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Retail Therapy

Smart, collapsible, hard-shelled luggage.

A floor pillow for your startup’s office.

We are so excited to see nearly 200 of you tonight! [Tuck jump. Cartwheel. Backwards roll.] Just a quick reminder that doors open at 5; Autodesk CEO Carl Bass sits down with Ben Einstein of Bolt around 5:45.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple is reportedly at work on plans that would make it impossible for the company to comply with future demands for data from law enforcement.

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Who Lives and Dies in a Down Economy

The Bay Area is well-acquainted with boom and bust cycles, and while it’s too soon to declare that the tech economy has turned, recruiters see early indicators that it’s happening.

Indeed, a handful of job placement executives confirms what recent headlines about layoffs already imply: The market is softening for numerous sectors of the startup world, as well as at publicly traded tech companies.

It hasn’t always been this way. Up until recently, recruiters have been working fast and furiously to place a whole range of executives.

Numbers from California’s Employment Development Department illustrate part of the story. In October, for example, the Bay Area accounted for 40 percent of all job growth in California, even though it represents less than 20 percent of the state’s population.

Data in December only hints at a shift, with the overall number of employed Californians down just 10,000 from November, according to the same state agency.

Still, recruiters largely believe the situation is starting to change, particularly for certain jobs.

“I think what we’re seeing is bigger than a small correction,” says Paul Gomory, an executive recruiter who’s been placing C-level professionals for more than 30 years and seen his share of cycles. “Everyone thinks it will be different this time, but it never is.”

More here.

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New Fundings

AppCard, a four-year-old, New York-based marketing and loyalty program platform, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by German entrepreneurAlexander Rittweger, founder of Loyalty Partner and PLDT Capital. Earlier investors, including Founders Fund, Innovation Endeavors, and Jerry Yang also participated in the round. Tech.eu has more here.

Didi Kuaidi, the 3.5-year-old, Beijing, China-based ride-hailing giant, has received at least $1 billion in commitments for a new fundraising round, according to Bloomberg. Once the financing closes, the company will reportedly be valued at more than $20 billion.

EnSilo, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a real-time targeted attack exfiltration prevention platform, has added $9 million to an earlier Series A round, which is now $19 million in size. The new funding comes from Rembrandt Venture Partners and includes previous investors Carmel Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Ibibo Group, a nine-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based company that claims to be India’s largest online travel group, has raised $250 million in new funding from majority stakeholder Naspers Group. TechCrunch has more here.

Overnight, a six-month-old, L.A.-based last-minute booking app that facilitates same-day stays with local hosts, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding, led by Accomplice and CrossCut Ventures. Other participants in the round includePaul Bricault and Elliott Bisnow. TechCrunch has more here.

Parkifi, a two-year-old, Denver-based provider of real-time, parking occupancy data that it sells to lot operators, cities and others, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Crosslink Capital and Grotech Ventures. More here.

REVL, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based smart action camera, has raised $2 million in funding led by venture capitalist Bill Tai. Other investors joining the round include Y Combinator, Frog Ventures, James Lindenbaum, and Lars Rasmussen. VentureBeat has more here.

ThousandEyes, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based network intelligence company, has raised $35 million in fresh funding led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from Google Ventures and earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

BlackBerry has acquired Encription, a 40-person, nine-year-old, U.K.-based cyber security consulting business, as it looks to bolster sales of mobile security offerings. Encription appears to have been bootstrapped. The WSJ has more here.

Microsoft is acquiring Xamarin, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that allows developers to build fully native apps across several platforms from a single shared code base. Xamarin had raised a total of $82 million in funding from investors including CRV, Floodgate, Ignition Partners, Insight Venture Partners, and Lead Edge Capital, according to data from CrunchBase. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Yesterday, Andreessen Horowitz announced the appointment of its newest and ninth general partner: Martin Casado, the cofounder and CTO of Nicira and a pioneer of so-called software defined networking; Nicira was among the first companies to decouple software from networking hardware, allowing companies to see greater flexibility in managing their networking needs. We have more here.

KaloBios Pharmaceuticals is at it again, seeking bankruptcy court permission to buy rights to a drug that could be in line for a lucrative priority review voucher. (The WSJ explains this is ticket for a fast trip through the regulatory process.) Worth noting: ousted CEO Martin Shrekli remains a major shareholder in the company. The WSJ’s story is here.

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Jobs

Walmart eCommerce is looking for a director of corporate development. The job is in San Bruno, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Google’s DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company, has formed a health unit to build medical software.

New research reveals surprising truths about why some work groups thrive and others falter.

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Detours

All the Oscars’ Best Picture contenders in one delightful supercut.

The saddest wedding cake topper of all time.

Professional skier Candide Thovex knows how to show off.

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Retail Therapy

Satellite Island.