Hello and happy Monday, everyone! Slightly abbreviated version this a.m. We were busy earlier today moderating a couple of panels at TechCrunch Disrupt in London. Here’s one of them, with VCs David Hornik, Andy McLoughlin, and Thomas Korte; you can check out the rest of the conference coverage right here.

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Top News in the A.M.

Although Google Ventures only opened its London office in July 2014 — setting aside an initial $100 million to invest in startups “across Europe” — it’s now abandoning the idea of running separate funds, says CEO Bill Maris. More here.

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Venrock’s Bryan Roberts on What’s Up with Health Tech IPOs

Bryan Roberts has seen plenty of market swings in his 18 years as a venture capitalist with Venrock, the venture firm that started as the venture arm of the Rockefeller family and has historically invested in early-stage technology and — Roberts’s specialty — health care start-ups.

Roberts also has a thorough understanding of what’s happening on the U.S. public markets as the chairman of three Venrock portfolio companies that now trade on Nasdaq: Castlight Health, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and Achaogen.

Given his background, we asked him recently what he’s expecting to see happen in the health care market next year. Our chat has been edited for length.

Several months ago, the IPO market for health care companies suddenly tightened after a long run. What’s happening?

Health care has tightened, but we could probably talk broadly about the financing market tightening. With the later-stage stuff getting dicier, I’ve been hearing about more IPOs getting pulled. People are either “risk on” or “risk off,” and we’re beginning to back off from full-throttle risk-on environment. I guess I feel like the last four or five months in both biotech and tech more broadly have been akin to what you might have considered “last licks” in a stickball game as the sun was going down, and that shift predates the mutual fund valuation stuff that came out.

I don’t know that I have a good reason as to why biotech pulled back specifically other than pricing concerns mentioned by presidential candidates, some high-profile price gouging, and some clinical trials that read out negatively, though that always happens.

What are you expecting in 2016 and how might it impact your approach?

Well, for one thing, the changing environment may make me feel less out of step with everyone else. We don’t tend to focus on sectors or stages. I invest really broadly across health care, from genomics to diagnostics to therapeutics, so from a fundamental perspective, we don’t tend to follow the herd. In this bullish market environment, we haven’t been doing growth equity investing. We tend to avoid the party seed rounds done by 15 different people.

[All that said,] in health care IT, we’ve moved to earlier stage. We’ve started a couple of companies. We’ve moved to pre-product market fit, which is different than how we’d invested in the space 10 years ago. When we invested in Athenahealth [the now publicly traded company that offers a suite of administrative services for medical practices], they had product market fit, but no one wanted to invest in that space. Now, once something has traction, it’s priced very fully. So earlier this year we started a business with [former Facebook CFO] David Ebersman called Lyra Health. We did the same with [former U.S. CTO], Todd Park at Castlight. We’ll continue doing that for some time.

What does someone need to get a meeting with you?

More here.

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New Fundings

Aslan Pharmaceuticals, a five-year-old, Singapore-based biotech company focused on the development of immunotherapies, has raised $34 million in Series C funding led by Accuron Technologies, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Other participants in the round include Tianda Pharmaceuticals,Haitong International and earlier backers Morningside, Bioveda, Cenova and Sagamore Bioventures. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Gigster, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based on-demand software development service, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Y Combinator Continuity Fund I, SV Angel, Sound Ventures and Launch Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Shoes of Prey, a six-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based company that makes hand-made shoes on demand, has raised $15.5 million led by the Australian firm Blue Sky Capital, with participation from Greycroft Partners, the retail giant Nordstrom, and previous investor Khosla Ventures. TechCrunch hasmore here.

Zenatix, a two-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based  Internet of things (IoT)-focused energy data analytics company, has raised an undisclosed amount from funding from Blume Ventures Advisors. DealStreetAsia has more here.

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New Funds

CSIRO and Sydney University have joined the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales to raise $50 million for a new Uniseed fund. The fund will be the third for Brisbane, Australia-based Uniseed, which was set up by the three founding universities in 2000 with $10 million in capital. Australia’s Financial Review has more here.

China’s APUS Group has launched an APUS Fund in India with $45 million. Some of the capital comes from Northern Light Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Chengwei Ventures, SIG Global and Qiming Venture Partners. DealStreetAsia has more here.

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Exits

Paytm, which claims to be India’s leading mobile payment platform, has acquired year-old, local services startup Near.in for $2 million to strengthen its online-to-offline commerce strategy. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

When it comes to threats to humanity, VC Vinod Khosla is more concerned about technologies used to remove genes in embryos than about artificial intelligence.

How Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wins big even if she’s canned.

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Jobs

ARM Holdings, the British semiconductor designer, is looking to hire acorporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

American Family Ventures, the venture capital branch of American Family Insurance, is looking to bring on a paid intern. The job (which doesn’t start until next summer) is in Madison, Wi.

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Essential Reads

With a crucial deadline looming next week, Yahoo shareholders still do not know how — or if — the board plans to restructure the technology giant.

Google Ventures is backing out of seed stage investing, two years after Andreessen Horowitz did the same.

The business of Silicon Valley Bank has been booming, but there’s risk looming on the horizon.

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Detours

China’s airpocalypse is now so bad, it’s banning half the cars in Beijing.

The 10 best movies of 2015.

Existential riddles.

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Retail Therapy

The highlighter cannabis vapor pen. Arrives in 100 percent recyclable packaging, too.

Hello and happy Friday, everyone! Hope you have a terrific weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday.

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Top News in the A.M.

The Federal Open Market Committee is almost universally expected to raise rates slightly at its December 15th meeting. What this means for the markets isn’t clear, however, reports Dealbook.

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The Obstacle to Becoming a VC is Financial, Not Gender, Inequality

Start you own venture firm. That’s the advicethat one of the industry’s first women VCs, Kathryn Gould, gave to other women, and it came to mind yesterday as I watched an interview given to journalist Emily Chang this week by longtime Sequoia Capital investor Michael Moritz.

As you’ve likely heard by now, Chang asked Moritz about Sequoia’s responsibility to hire women, as Sequoia has no female investment partners on its U.S. investment team.

Adjusting his collar uncomfortably, Moritz said he’d like to think that the firm is “blind to somebody’s sex, to their religion, to their background.” He added that there is, in his view, a pipeline problem to explain the dearth of women at Sequoia. “I think the issue begins in our high schools, and where women particularly in America and also in Europe, tend to elect not to study the sciences when they’re 11 or 12. So suddenly the hiring pool is much smaller.”

Asked if Sequoia might not be looking hard enough, Moritz said that Sequoia “looks very hard . . . We just hired a young woman from Stanford who is every bit as good as her peers and if there are more like her, we’ll hire them. What we’re not prepared to do is to lower our standards.”

Numerous outlets have since suggested that Moritz put his foot in his mouth by associating women with low standards. Facebook commenters were no more generous, with some smartly pointing out that Moritz himself was a history major.

I’m not going to defend Moritz. But focusing anger at him, or at Andreessen Horowitz, or at Benchmark, or Accel Partners (none of which employ any female general partners, save for Accel’s Sonali De Rycker in London), is somewhat misguided.

More here.

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New Fundings

Hollar, a months-old, L.A.-based online destination for gifts and goods that start at $2, has raised $12 million in Series A funding just after raising $5.5 million in seed funding. Its investors include Index Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Forerunner Ventures and BAM Ventures, the investment firm of Honest Company cofounder Brian Lee. L.A. Business Journal has more here.

Reverb, a three-year-old, Chicago-based online marketplace for musical instruments and equipment, has raised $25 million in funding led by Summit Partners. Billboard has more here.

SeamlessDocs, a months-old, New York-based company whose technology allows users to convert any PDF into a fillable, mobile friendly cloud document that can be completed from any device, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by the Govtech Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Teforia, a 1.5-year-old Mountain View, Ca.-based startup that says its machine makes the perfect cup of tea every time, has raised $5.1 million in funding led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Lemnos Labs, PreAngel and InnoSpring, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Top Flight Technologies, a 1.5-year-old, Malden, Ma.-based commercial drone developer, has raised $1.75 million in seed funding led by ff Venture Capital, with participation from angel investors, including Joi Ito. More here.

Vanitee, a six-month-old Singapore-based online marketplace that connects beauty practitioners with customers, has raised $3.5 million, including from the Southeast Asia-based beauty seller Luxasia and Robert Yap, head of the logistics firm YCH. Garena — a billion dollar tech firm covering payments, games and e-commerce — also partook in Vanitee’s round. TechCrunch has more here.

Younity, a five-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based provider of cloud storage services, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Marker LLC. Boulder County Business has more here.

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Exits

Today Nokia completed its sale of its mapping division Here to Audi, BMW Group and Daimler AG for €2.55 billion ($2.8 billion). The deal was originally announced in August. TechCrunch has more here.

Welltok, a Denver-based health optimization platform, has acquired Silverlink Communications, a Burlington, Ma.-based healthcare communications company for undisclosed terms. To help fund the deal, Welltok has raised $45 million in funding from new investors Georgian Partners, EDBI, Flare Capital and some of its earlier investors. Welltok has now raised around $130 million altogether, according to CrunchBase. Meanwhile, Silverlink had raised $12.6 million, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include  HLM Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. More here.

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People

Mark Zuckberg took to the platform yesterday to respond to growing criticisms concerning how he plans to give his money away.

Pandora’s recent $75 million acquisition of bankrupt music streaming service Rdio means major layoffs for Rdio employees, reports VentureBeat. The company is reportedly axing 123 poeple in San Francisco and it only employed between 140 and 180, say its sources. More here.

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Essential Reads

Stanford to MBAs: Don’t start up until you graduate.

Angry French Uber drivers have created their own Uber.

How Airbnb’s worst problems are confirmed by its own data.

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Detours

The world’s fastest runner, in super slow motion.

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Retail Therapy

Eleven drones for all types of pilots.

Hi, cheers from charming London, everyone! (Yes, we made it.) Thanks so much to everyone who has reached out about coffee or lunch while we’re here. We’re hoping to meet up with some of you in the coming days, including at London Disrupt, where we’ll be moderating two very different investor panels. More to come.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Uber is at it again. According to a new Bloomberg report, the car-booking company is looking to raise as much as $2.1 billion in a financing round that would value it at $62.5 billion.

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New Fundings

Baobab Studios, a new, Redwood City, Ca.-based virtual reality company that creates story and character-driven cinematic experiences and was founded by former Zynga game developers and Dreamworks animators, has raised $6 million in Series A funding. Comcast Ventures led the round; HTC, Samsung Ventures, Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel also participated. Fortune has more here.

BrightFunnel, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based predictive intelligence platform for business-to-business marketers, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and previous investors Bloomberg Beta, Karlin Ventures and Resolute Ventures. BrightFunnel has now raised nearly $10 million in funding altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Cellwize, a three-year-old, Singapore-based maker of self-organizing network software that it sells to mobile operators, has raised $14.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Carmel Ventures and Vintage Investment Partners.Viola Credit separately provided a $10 million credit facility.

Clearpool Group, a three-year-old, New York-based company that develops electronic trading, routing, compliance and risk software, has raised $8 million in growth equity funding from Edison Partners. More here.

EatStreet, a five-year-old, Madison, Wi.-based online food ordering service, has raised $15 million in Series C funding co-led by 4490 Ventures and Lumia Capital. Others in the round included GCI Capital, MATH Venture Partners, and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board. TechCrunch has more here.

Evariant, a seven-year-old, Farmington, Cn.-based CRM platform for healthcare providers, has raised $42.3 million in Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from earlier backers Health Enterprise Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Figma, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup whose web-based tool for user interface design allows for many simultaneous users, has raised $14 million in fresh funding led by Greylock Partners. Other investors in the company include Iconiq Capital, Index Ventures, OATV, Soleio Cuervo, and individual investors, including LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. TechCrunch has more here.

Kesios Therapeutics, a three-year-old, London-based company developing therapeutics to treat multiple myeloma and other cancers, has raised $28.5 million in Series A funding, including from Imperial Innovations Group, SV Life Sciences and Abingworth.

LiveSafe, a nearly four-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based maker of safety and alert technology for universities and businesses, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Hearst Ventures and IAC. The Washington Post has more here.

Lufax, a four-year-old, Shanghai, China-based peer-to-peer lender, is reportedly looking to raise around $1 billion in new equity funding at a valuation of between $15 billion and $20 billion. Bloomberg has more here.

OpsClarity, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company whose software helps developer teams better understand and troubleshoot issues in their fast-changing web-scale application environments, has raised $11 million in funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Other participants in the round include Pinnacle Ventures, AME Cloud, Morado Venture Partners and other, angel investors.

Remedy Pharmaceuticals, an 11-year-old, New York-based developer of drugs to treat acute CNS disorders, has raised $9 million in VC funding. New investors included The Vertical Group. More here.

Sensoro, a 2.5-year-old, Seattle-based maker of iBeacon sensors, has raised $10 million in new funding from Nokia Growth Partners, New World Development Company, and Mandra Capital.

Hey, everyone, great seeing some of you yesterday.

Quick mention: Starting tomorrow, we’ll be reporting from London for about a week. We haven’t tried this before and we’ll have a lot going on in the evenings, so you may wind up receiving SVC at funky times. We promise we’ll resume our normal schedule later next week when we’re back home in San Francisco.

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Top News in the A.M.

Yahoo‘s board is reportedly planning a series of meetings this week to consider selling off the company’s core but flagging Internet businesses. The Wall Street Journal has the story here.

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Sequoia’s Alfred Lin on Why Uber’s Valuation is Twice That of Airbnb

Yesterday, at the Post-Seed conference in San Francisco, Alfred Lin, the former COO and CFO of Zappos and now a Sequoia Capital partner, was asked a variety of on-stage questions about the current market.

Among them was whether Lin thinks it’s a good time to start a fund. “Probably not,” he said. “Valuations are high. But it doesn’t matter if you’re [thinking] long term,” he said. “If you’re building something enduring, you’re going to face lots of ups and downs anyway and you might as well start today.” As he noted, “It only gets more competitive in this world” of investing.

Lin was also asked about the changing landscape and talked about the slowdown he expects next year, prompted by rate changes that the Federal Reserve is expected to enact shortly. “With interest rates close to zero, you can’t make money in the bond market,” he said. “So the bond people now invest in stocks, and people who invest in stocks invest in private growth rounds . . . and VCs invest in seed deals.” That’ll all change when the Fed starts raising rates, which Lin anticipates it may do “maybe even once a quarter.” Once that happens, he said, “There will be less money chasing companies all the way down the spectrum.”

Lin was also asked to take a look back and address some of Sequoia’s most impactful decisions in recent years. He was asked, for example, why Sequoia invested in the accommodations marketplace Airbnb but passed on the ride-sharing company Uber.

More here.

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New Fundings

Bluecore, a nearly three-year-old, New York-based data marketing platform that helps ecommerce brands send more emails at times designed to drive higher conversion, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by Georgian Partners, with participation from earlier backers FirstMark Capital and Felicis Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Netsertive, a 6.5-year-old, Morrisville, N.C.-based digital marketing analytics company, has tacked $9 million on to what is now a $24 million Series C round of funding. The new injection was led by River Cities Capital Funds, with participation from Babson Capital Management and Netsertive’s existing investors. More here.

Neurona Therapeutics, a 4.5-year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based biotechnology company focused on the transplantation of selected neurons to treat intractable neurological diseases, has raised $23.5 million in Series A funding led by The Column Group. More here.

ORIC Pharmaceuticals, a 1.5-year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based biotechnology company focused on a treatment for prostate cancer that resists existing therapies, has raised $53 million in Series B funding from Column Group, EcoR1 Capital, Foresite Capital Management, Kravis Investment Partners, OrbiMed Advisors and Topspin Partners. Xconomy has more here.

Osaro, a months-old, San Francisco-based startup that’s developing advanced machine learning known as deep reinforcement learning, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding to take its technology to market. The money comes from Scott Banister, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, and Peter Thiel. TechCrunch has more here.

Stringr, a two-year-old, New York-based crowdsourced news startup that relies on professional videographers to submit footage that can then be sold to media organizations, has raised $1.5 million in funding. The capital comes fromMatter, the media-focused startup accelerator where Stringr was incubated;Founder.org; and Signia Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Super, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based subscription-based service that provides homeowners with routine maintenance and repairs, has raised $3.6 million in seed funding from General Catalyst Partners, Lux Capital andFounders Collective. More here.

Velicept Therapeutics, a year-old, Malvern, Pa.-based clinical development company focused on treating overactive bladders, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by CAM Capital and Longitude Capital. More here.

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New Funds

Autodesk, whose 3D design software is used in manufacturing, architecture, construction and entertainment, is launching a $100 million venture fund as part of a new software platform that Autodesk is opening to developers. Its first focus will be manufacturing. The WSJ has more here.

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IPOs

According to data from Renaissance Capital, companies have raised less than $30 billion this year through IPOs on U.S. exchanges. That’s the lowest number since 2009, at the end of the Great Recession. More here.

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People

Google just lost another long-time manager to Uber. Manik Gupta, who worked on Google Maps for seven years, has joined the ride-hailing juggernaut as the director of its maps product. Business Insider has the story here.

Good Eggs, an e-commerce website that delivers local and organic foods to customers, has hired a new CEO months after closing operations in several cities and laying off employees. Bentley Hall, the new executive, previously worked at Plum Organics and Clif Bar & Co.

Twitter cofounder Evan Williams sold 1.8 million shares of Twitter stock on Monday, netting about $47 million, according to a new SEC filing. As Business Insider notes, Williams has sold blocks of shares in the past, including almost 400,000 shares worth about $24 million back in April. But that sale was exercised as part of a preplanned schedule, according to a note in the accompanying SEC filing. Yesterday’s filing had no such note.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made astunning announcement yesterday. As they welcomed their daughter, Max, into the world, they also announced plans to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares — worth $45 billion right now — for charitable purposes.

Here’s how competitive hiring has grown: Facebook, Intuit, and others are now hiring college students first and figuring out jobs for these new recruits much later.

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Jobs

Stripe, the payments company, is looking to add to its business development department. The job is in San Francisco.

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Data

For Airbnb hosts in New York City,  typical annual income from the service is roughly $5,110, according to a trove of information that Airbnb released yesterday. Much more here.

Chief executives of the largest U.S. single-family offices earned a median $830,000 in 2014, according to new data from Fidelity Investments.

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Essential Reads

New writedowns of Jawbone‘s stock by investors BlackRock and Firsthand Technology Value Fund show how far its valuation has fallen over the past 18 months, observes The Information. Preferred stock sold for $11.27 per share last year has fallen in value to $4.19 per share. (Subscription required.)

The anonymous Silicon Valley satire that has stumped tech world insiders.

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Detours

Ten iconic brands that have disappeared.

The mysterious aging of astronauts.

A pediatrician of 30 years shows how to calm a crying newborn.

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Retail Therapy

Caffeinated peanut butter. Because caffeine is delicious.

Hi, all, happy Tuesday.

We’re running off in a bit to moderate a panel at the Post-Seed conference in San Francisco. The topic? The Tightening. (Are early-stage VCs reacting to “unicorn volatility“? We’ll find out!). Famed VC John Doerr kicks things off at 9. Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

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Top News in the A.M.

Tiger Global Management has raised another $2.5 billion to invest in private companies, according to an SEC filing. It’s the tenth fund of its kind. Its ninth fund closed with a separate $2.5 billion almost exactly one year ago.

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AppDyamics Raises $158 Million at a $1.9 Billion Valuation

Last month, based on an SEC filing, we told you that seven-year-old, San Francisco-based AppDynamics had raised a fresh $83.4 million in funding as part of a round that was targeting up to $150 million.

Turns out the company met that target and then some. CEO David Wadhwani — who joined the firm in September after spending more than a decade as an executive at Adobe, including as its digital chief — says the company just closed on $158 million in a round led by General Atlantic and Altimeter Capital.

Other participants in the round include Adage Capital, Industry Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and Cross Creek Advisors, as well as earlier backers Institutional Venture Partners, Greylock Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

AppDynamics makes software to monitor the performance of business applications, competing with some traditional firms like IBM, as well as younger outfits like New Relic, which went public last December and has seen relatively steady stock performance since. (New Relic, which raised $214 million in venture funding, has a current market cap of $1.8 billion.)

AppDynamics had previously raised roughly $206 million in debt and equity, including a $120 million round — $70 million equity and $50 million of debt — that closed in July of last year.

At the time of the funding announcement, the company told VentureBeat that the money represented “pre-IPO growth financing.” Asked yesterday what this new round means, Wadhwani said he “won’t speculate on the exact timing” of an IPO but added, “I was brought in to take this company public, and that’s what I intend to do.”

More here.

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New Fundings

Burpple, a four-year-old, Singapore-based food discovery service, has raised $6 million in Series A funding from Tembusu Partners, Singapore Press Holdings’ Media Fund and Triumph Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Nestio, a four-year-old, New York-based leasing and marketing platform for residential landlords, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Freestyle Capital, Joanne Wilson, and David Cohen. TechCrunch has more here.

Mirador, a 1.5-year-old, Portland, Or.-based company that makes cloud-based borrower application software for lenders, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Core Innovation Capital. Other participants in the round include Nyca Partners, Jump Capital and seed backers Collaborative Fund, Wicklow Capital and Crosslink Capital. More here.

Revolar, a two-year-old, Denver-based company whose wearable device signals an alert to loved ones via text message and/or email message, has raised $3 million in seed funding from Foundry Group.

Soliton, a new, Houston-based stealth-mode startup whose technology will aid in methods for medical and cosmetic treatments using electro-hydraulic generated shockwaves (it was developed out of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center), has raised $9 million, according to an SEC filing. Houston Business Journal has more here.

ThreatConnect, a four-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based company that makes cyber threat detection software, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by SAP National Security Services, a subsidiary of the enterprise software giant SAP. Previous backer Grotech also joined the round, along with other, unnamed strategic investors. More here.

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New Funds

Greycroft Partners has closed its fourth early-stage fund with around $220 million in commitments. The nine-year-old bicoastal firm, with an office in New York and L.A., raised $75 million for its debut fund in 2006; $131 million for its second fund in 2010; and $175 million for its third early-stage fund in 2013. Last year, the company, whose investments include Maker Studios, Buddy Media, and Huffington Post, also raised a growth fund for the first time to support its most promising investments. That fund, Greycroft Growth LP, closed with $200 million.

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IPOs

Enterprise software company Atlassian, which filed a month ago to go public on NASDAQ, has revealed in a new SEC filing that it plans to sell 20 million shares at between $16.50 to $18.50. If the company — which makes the Slack competitor Hipchat — sell its shares at the high end, it will raise a total of $370 million. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

Innography, an eight-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that sells software services designed to manage and protect patents, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by CPA Global, an intellectual property software and services specialist based in the Channel Islands. In early 2014, Innography raised $3.5 million in debt financing, according to an SEC filing. In 2010, the company raised $3 million in Series B funding, including from Austin Ventures and Covera Ventures.

Israeli marketing software company Perion Network has acquired the 13-year-old, New York-based digital advertising company Undertone in a deal valued at $180 million. The WSJ has more here.

In the first large consolidation deal in India’s frothy online property-selling sector, Quikr Homes, the real estate vertical of digital classifieds platform Quikr, will merge with seven-year-old real estate portal CommonFloor.com in a $200-million full equity swap deal, reports the Economic Times.

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People

Rufus Griscom, the founder of Nerve and Babble, has launched Heleo, a platform for “thought leaders.”

Lawrence Lenihan, the cofounder of FirstMark Capital, has left the firm for a new company he has cofounded, Resonance Companies, which will create and operate fashion startups. Lenihan isn’t leaving investing altogether, as Venture Capital Dispatch reports; Resonance will provide capital in exchange for equity in the fashion startups, but it will also provide plenty of operational help.

Analysts pick their top 10 choices to replace Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

Revolution Growth, the Washington, D.C.-based venture firm co-founded by Steve Case, has brought aboard three new VPs: Kristin Gunther, Ashley Larson and Chris Hughes. Gunther joins the firm from Perseus, most recently as vice president. Larson joins from ABS Capital Partners, where she was a senior associate. Hughes joins the firm from the Boston Consulting Group, where he was a project leader in it is consumer and retail practice.

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Essential Reads

India is pulling further ahead of China as the world’s fastest-growing big economy.

The race to create Elon Musk’s hyperloop heats up.

—–

Detours

Autonomous electric cars races are coming, starting next year.

Five interview tips from a Goldman Sachs campus recruiter.

Why even skeptics fall for lies if they hear them often enough.

—–

Retail Therapy

Revols earbuds for your unique (and may we say lovely!) ears.

Happy Monday, everyone! Welcome back.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Climate talks got underway in Paris this morning, with French President Francois Hollande saying the world was at a “breaking point” in the fight against global warming.

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TrialPay Cofounder Back with Fractional Home Ownership Startup

Point — an 11-month-old, Palo Alto-based home equity marketplace that plans to take people’s homes and make them completely liquid, divisible and tradable by letting owners sell fractional equity in them — is raising funding, shows a new SEC filing.

It’s a fascinating concept that we think has only been tried in the past with vacation rentals by high-end developers, including Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton.

Point was co-founded by Eddie Lim, who co-founded the e-commerce payment platform TrialPay, which Visa acquired in 2013 for undisclosed terms.

Don’t be surprised to see Andreessen Horowitz lead or participate in this round. In August, the Sand Hill Road firm brought aboard another TrialPay co-founder (and Lim’s fellow Harvard classmate), Alex Rampell, as a general partner to focus on financial tech startups.

More here.

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New Fundings

Atzuche, a two-year-old, Shanghai-based peer-to-peer car rental start-up, has raised $47 million in Series B funding from China Pacific Insurance, Ivy Capital, Hearst Capital, Matrix Partners and Ceyuan Ventures. The company had reportedly raised $10 million in Series A funding roughly a year ago, led by Matrix. China Money Network has more here.

Bee, a new, New York-based company that provides bank accounts, debit cards and financial services to people who live in low- and middle-income neighborhoods, has raised $4.6 million in funding in two rounds of seed funding, including from AXA Strategic Ventures, Blue Seed Capital, Fenway Summer Ventures, Funders Guild and T5 Capital. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here. (Meanwhile, you can find the app here.)

GOQii, a 1.5-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based wearable and fitness technology startup, has raised $13.4 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Cheetah Mobile; Great Wall Club; DSG Consumer Partners; and numerous individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Iguaz.io, a year-old, Herzliya Israel-based stealth-mode company that says it’s rebuilding the framework for dealing with big data in a way that integrates information from numerous storage and processing platforms, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Magma Venture Partners. Jerusalem Venture Partners also participated in the round, along with other, unnamed, strategic investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Pinrose, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based direct-to-consumer fragrance brand that sells perfume through a try-at-home model, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding, including from Harrison Metal Capital, Grace Beauty, investor Andy Rachleff, and ZIG Capital, among others. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here.

Pluss, a months-old, Gurgaon, India-based on-demand medicine and healthcare products delivery service startup, has raised $1 million in pre-Series A funding from IDG Ventures India, m & s partners in Singapore, and Powerhouse Ventures in the U.S. Times of India has more here.

Stayglad, an eight-month-old, Bangalore, India-based on-demand beauty services startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and Anil Chopra, former CEO of Lakme Lever. The outlet e27 has more here.

Vector Watch, a two-year-old Bucharest-based maker of a low-power operating system for wearables, has raised $5 million in funding led by GECAD Group, with participation from Catalyst Romania. Tech.eu has more here.

Yixia Tech, the two-year-old Beijing, China-based company behind a popular Chinese video blogging app called Miao Pai, has raised $200 million in Series D funding from Weibo, Sequoia Capital, YG Entertainment, and other investors at a valuation of $1 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Hostplus, a $20-plus-billion hospitality and sports super fund (it’s akin to a pension fund in the United States), plans to pour $400 million into venture capital firms in the next five years, according to Australia’s Financial Review. Among its newest investments: Blackbird Ventures’s new $200 million fund, which we’d written about here.

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IPOs

Atlassian‘s IPO road show begins this week. The 13-year-old, Sydney, Australia-headquartered company, which makes project management and collaboration software, now plans to raise between $330 million and $370 million, sources tell Fortune.

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Exits

Perk.com, which makes mobile apps that reward users for watching TV, unlocking their phones, online shopping, surfing the web and more, is acquiring the mobile app development platform Corona Labs for a total of $2.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

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People

Some of the world’s most powerful individuals are forming a new organization called Breakthrough Energy Coalition to invest in tech that could help climate change. The coalition includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg; Alibaba CEO Jack Ma and many others. Geekwire has the full list and other details here.

Founders Fund partners Scott Nolan and Aaaron VanDevender talk with us about the firm’s processes, deal flow, and its newest big bets.

R.I.P Kathryn Gould, venture pioneer, straight shooter, lover of curse words.

VC Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital gives The Sunday Times a look at a day in his life (in what’s become an unusual and welcome string of interviews): “I am up at 5 am and I start each day with exercise,” he starts. “Two days a week I go for a swim and two days a week I do a bike spin class. I may have been born in Wales, but I’ve fallen for the California lifestyle, hook, line and sinker . . .”

Marie-Hortense Varin has joined the venture firm Partech Ventures as a senior associate in Paris. Varin worked previously as a consultant at Bain & Company and was involved in the development of Rocket Internet in Africa, working on the logistics of the e-retailer Jumia in Egypt.

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Jobs

Vivo Capital, a healthcare-focused investment firm that funds both private and public companies in the U.S. and China, is looking to hire an associate. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Amazon may have a secret air cargo operation called Aerosmith. (Meanwhile, Amazon released a video yesterday showing off its new Prime Air drone design.)

Google Glass could return as a monocole.

A San Francisco couple’s elite supper club captures Airbnb’s attention.

Silicon Valley is growing up — and giving parents a break.

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Detours

Is there a secret behind King Tut’s tomb?

Did you know: L.A. is now home to more manufacturing jobs than anywhere else in the U.S.

How men’s and women’s brains appear to age differently.

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Retail Therapy

The Valkyrie, and 26 other extravagant gifts for when money is no object.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! We have family coming and food to prepare, so we’re shutting down the works the rest of this week. U.S. readers, we hope your holiday break is relaxing. Everyone else, have a terrific week. We’ll see you back here Monday.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Just eight months after raising $40 million from venture capitalists, the food delivery startup DoorDash is reportedly in talks to raise a new round at a $1 billion valuation, led by earlier investor Sequoia Capital. Bloomberg has more here.

Blue Origin, the private space firm owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has just dropped a huge, unexpected gauntlet in the race to develop a reusable rocket.

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A New Microbiome Syndicate Launches on AngelList

Ubiome is an unusual startup. The three-year-old sequences the collected microbes in the human body and sells $89 kits to those curious to understand their own microbiome better.

Now uBiome founders and academics Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte — who’ve raised $6.5 million from investors like Andreessen Horowitz for the San Francisco company — are taking an even more unusual step. They’re launching an AngelList Syndicate to fund other microbiome startups.

It’s not an entirely novel concept. There are plenty of corporations that create funds expressly to get a look at startups whose work might be of strategic interest to them. There are also a sprinkling of founders who are running early-stage startups and forming Syndicates to make startup bets of their own, including Joshua Reeves of Gusto, a four-year-old payroll startup that was formerly known as ZenPayroll.

Still, investing in young startups that could eventually compete with your own young startup isn’t something one sees every day; we talked earlier with Richman to learn more about her Microbiome Fund — and why she and Apte decided to do it.

Understanding of the role played by the microbiome in many health conditions is relatively recent and you have a very young company,  Why shift some of your focus to investing in other startups?

We’ve heard from a lot investors, including angels, who’ve wondered what other companies they should invest in other than us. We’re also heard a lot of interest from [microbiome] companies that are curious about investors. We want to help, with what we think is the first microbiome fund ever.

Are uBiome’s investors at all concerned that this Syndicate might become a distraction for you both?

More here.

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New Fundings

Deliveroo, a three-year-old, London-based delivery startup that services restaurants that don’t traditionally offer take-out, has raised a $100 million in Series D funding led by DST Global and Greenoaks Capital, with participation from earlier backers Accel Partners, Hummingbird Ventures and Index Ventures. The company has now raised roughly $200 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Fortscale Security, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based cyber security software company, has raised $6 million in new funding from CME Ventures and UST Global. Crain’s Chicago Business has more here.

Glovo, an 11-month-old, Barcelona, Spain-based delivery service (it’s akin to Postmates), has raised €2 million ($2.1 million) in funding from Cube Investments and a long list of individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Harvest Power, a seven-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based company that uses organic waste to generate power and produce compost, has raised $20 million in funding led by True North Venture Partners, with participation fromGeneration Investment Management and Industry Ventures. More here.

Homie, a new, Salt Lake City-based peer-to-peer marketplace for home buyers, builders and sellers, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Peak Ventures. More here.

MiaoPai, a two-year-old, Beijing, China-based short-video mobile app maker, has raised $200 million in Series D funding led by Weibo, with participation from Sequoia Capital, the South Korean entertainment firm YG Entertainment and others, according to China Money Network. The round follows a $50 million Series C round closed in September 2014. That round was reportedly led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with participation from Sina Corp., Redpoint Ventures and StarVC.

ObsEva, a three-year-old, Geneva, Switerland based biopharmaceutical startup that’s developing treatments for preterm labor and women’s reproductive health, has raised 60 million Swiss francs ($58.9 million) in Series B funding, including from HBM Healthcare Investments, New Enterprise Associates, OrbiMed Advisors and Rock Springs Capital. Previous backers MS Ventures, Novo Ventures, Sofinnova Partners and Sofinnova Ventures also joined the round. More here.

Placester, a five-year-old, Boston-based service that helps real estate agents and brokers market themselves and their services more easily, has raised $27 million in Series C funding from New Enterprise Associates and Romulus Capital, both of which had backed the company previously. Placester has now raised $50 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

RentoMojo, a year-old, Mumbai, India-based online home appliances and furniture rental company, has raised nearly $2 million in funding from IDG Ventures India and Accel Partners. The Economic Times has more here.

Shiftgig, a three-year-old, Chicago-based mobile marketplace that connects employers with locally available and vetted hourly workers, has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by Renren. Additional investors included Chicago Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, GGV Capital, Garland Capital Group, KGC Capital, Pritzker Group, Wicklow Capital and individuals. The company has now raised $35 milion altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

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Exits

KidoZen, a three-year-old, Miami, Fla.-based platform that powers enterprise mobile apps, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by Mad Mobile, a five-year-old Tampa, Fla.-based mobile platform company. Mad Mobile hasn’t publicly disclosed any outside funding. KidoZen had raised $5.5 million in equity and debt, including from Third Point Ventures.

Parklet, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based employee onboarding software company, has been acquired by the three-year-od, New York-based recruiting platform Greenhouse Software for undisclosed terms. Greenhouse Software has raised around $60 million in funding, including from Thrive Capital, Benchmark, and Resolute Ventures. Parklet had raised $1.5 million in seed funding FundersClub, Greylock Partners and Storm Ventures.

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People

Investor Marc Andreessen is doing his best to dislodge Donald Trump as a Republican frontrunner.

Benchmark’s Bill Gurley talks with M.I.T. Technology Review, calling Y Combinator “an innovation,” adding: “Venture is a business that is not really prone to systemization. [Benchmark co-founder] Bob Kagle used to call it a shoe-leather business. So anyone who builds a new type of system is interesting. But we do have a fundamental belief that company building is an art, not a science.”

Jordan Kong, a former investment banking analyst who spent the last couple of years at Institutional Venture Partners as an investor, has joined Expa, the startup studio of entrepreneur Garrett Camp, as an entrepreneur.

According to Fortune’s Dan Primack, investor Joe Lonsdale has an interesting proposition for his “friends and allies.” His new firm, Eight Partners, which expects to close on $400 million next year, will funnel 10 percent of the fund’s carried interest to those who provide its portfolio companies with meaningful help. More, if an advisor donates his or her upside to a nonprofit, Lonsdale will match the donation.

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Jobs

Nike is looking to hire a senior director of corporate and business development. The job is in Beaverton, Ore.

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Essential Reads

Disruption theory is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success, argues its author, Clayton Christensen.

Inside Snapchat’s newest feature, Story Explorer.

Apple Pay will reportedly hit China in February.

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Detours

How envy changes as you grow older.

The aftermath of a snowstorm, as seen from a satellite.

Fun at the New York Times.

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Retail Therapy

An absurd, effective automatic beer chiller. (Ah, science in the service of alcoholism.)

Hello! Happy Monday, everyone, and welcome back.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said this morning it has struck a $160 billion deal, including debt, to merge with Allergan, the maker of Botox, in one of the biggest takeovers in the health care industry. Dealbook has more here.

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A New Way to Fund Unicorns Starts to Look Less Magical

If you haven’t heard of a fairly new twist on investing called special purpose vehicles (SPVs), you probably aren’t an institutional investor or a wealthy individual with direct ties to either a venture firm or a high-flying startup like Pinterest or Postmates.

But don’t worry if you’ve missed the opportunity to invest in one. Investors may find they weren’t worth the risk if valuations of so-called unicorns — some given “haircuts” recently by their mutual fund investors — start to slip more broadly.

The vehicles – essentially pop-up venture firms that come together quickly to make an investment in a single company – began surfacing around 2011, leading up to Facebook’s IPO, and they’ve been on the rise since. In April, the Wall Street Journal reported on several low-flying SPVs that have been used to connect investors with high-profile, still-private companies like the data analytics company Palantir Technologies and the grocery -delivery outfit Instacart.

Another company that has raised money via numerous SPVs is the digital scrapbooking company Pinterest. When it set out to raise more than $500 million earlier this year, the venture firm FirstMark Capital raised a $200 million for a SPV to help fund it. In 2014, Pinterest separately raised $131.1 million through two SPVs organized as Palma Investments by SV Angel, the seed-stage fund founded by renowned investor Ron Conway.

It’s no wonder that investors are drawn to the vehicles. In the case of Facebook, early access to the company produced big dividends for investors. Investor Chris Sacca similarly amassed an outsize stake in Twitter for investors Rizvi Traverse and J.P. Morgan by creating SPVs that paid off. (How richly depends on when they began cashing out. As of late September, Rizvi Traverse had sold more than 10 percent of the 15.6 percent of Twitter it owned at the time of its November 2013 IPO. Twitter’s shares peaked in January of 2014 at $69 per share; they’re now trading at roughly $26 apiece.)

Whether investors in newer SPVs will see such rewards remains a question mark – and there a lot of investors in newer SPVs.

More here.

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New Fundings

Airbnb, the seven-year-old, San Francisco-based online marketplace for people to list and rent places to stay, has raised more than $100 million in a new round of funding that continues to value the company at $25.5 billion. The WSJ, which reported the news late Friday, did not include investor names.

Arcstone, a two-year-old, Singapore-based data analytics company that caters to manufacturing plants, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding (its first round) led by the Tokyo-based venture firm Global Brain. Other participants in the round include Wavemaker Partners, 500 Startups, and YSS Capital. Tech in Asia has more here.

BAROnova, a nine-year-old, Goleta, Ca.-based medical tech company that’s developing devices to treat obesity, has raise $36.5 million in Series D funding co-led by Delos Capital and Longitude Capital. Earlier backers Lumira Capital Partners, ONSET Ventures and Sante Ventures also joined the round. More here.

ColorChip, a 14-year-old, Caesarea, Israel-based company that makes dense, hyper-scale transceivers and advanced optical splitters, has raised $25 million in funding led by Israel Growth Partners, with participation from Vintage Investment Partners and previous backers Gemini Israeli Funds and BRM Group. TechCrunch has more here.

HealthCrowd, a four-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based healthcare-focused mobile messaging platform, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding from investors that include Startup Capital Ventures, Herlitz Capital, Healthy Ventures, Band of Angels, Berkeley Angel Network, and 37 Angels. More here.

Le Tote, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based service that allows women to rent everyday clothing and accessories, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by AITV, with participation from Azure Capital, Epic Ventures, Funders Club, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Simon Venture Group. More here.

MindTickle, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based sales productivity platform, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associatesand earlier backer Accel Partners. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Movago, a months-old, Berlin-based moving services startup, has raised $7.4 million in Series A funding led by DN Capital, with participation from Holtzbrinck Ventures and Piton Capital. More here.

PatientPop, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based digital health startup whose office management platform helps physician practices understand how they’re reaching patients, has raised $10 million from Toba Capital. MedCity News hasmore here.

Quizlet, a nearly nine-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose site offers shared learning tools from students worldwide, has raised $12 million in Series A funding from Union Square Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital, Altos Ventures and Owl Ventures. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Ruby Ribbon, a four-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based fashion e-commerce company that makes and markets apparel, has raised $7.5 million in Series C funding co-led by DBL Partners and Direct Selling Capital, with participation from earlier backers Trinity Ventures and Mohr Davidow Ventures. More here.

SportPursuit, a four-year-old, London-based flash sales site for outdoor and sports gear, has raised £9.5 million ($10 million) in Series C funding fromScottish Equity Partners, Grafton Capital, and earlier backer Draper Esprit. TechCrunch has more here.

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IPOs

Early Friday, we sat down with GGV Capital’s Glenn Solomon about his firm’s investment in Square, the hoopla surrounding its IPO, and why more tech companies are likely to go public soon — whether they want to or not. (Video.)

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Exits

LexisNexis has just acquired Lex Machina, a six-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based company that provides intellectual property litigation data and predictive analytics to companies, law firms, consultants and other users. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Lex Machina had raised around $10 million from investors, including Costanoa Venture Capital, XSeed Capital, and entrepreneur-investor Joe Lonsdale.

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People