Happy Friday, everyone! We are running out the door but we will see you back here on Monday. Hope you have a terrific weekend!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

More bad news for daily fantasy sports startups. The Massachusetts’ attorney general wants to ban anyone younger than 21 from playing daily and to impose a host of regulations on the industry.

—–

Cognoa, Which Promises Parents Faster Answers. Looks to Series B

There’s a lot of talk these days about computational medicine, which uses massive amounts of data to train a machine to understand even more than experts or, at least, to identify health-related problems more quickly.

Cognoa, a consumer-focused healthcare outfit, is among the developing field’s biggest proponents. The two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company claims it can dramatically speed up the time that it takes parents to identity whether their child has developmental issues, and it can do so by assessing far fewer data points than have been traditionally employed toward the same end.

The company’s story centers on the work of Dennis Wall, an associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Stanford who began looking into the complexity of diagnosing Autism while an associate professor of pathology at Harvard several years ago. Specifically, he learned that the process of better understanding whether a child’s development is on track typically means hours of behavioral examinations by certified practitioners who’ve been trained to perform interview-based analyses with parents or with children directly.

As you might imagine, appointments are hard to get as a result. In fact, the process is so slow, says Wall, that the average age of a child being seen by one of these practitioners is 4.5 years old. That’s not good. By that age, a kid has missed a window of brain plasticity when an intervention can have the biggest impact.

Work by researchers at The New England Center for Children — which studied 83 toddlers diagnosed with autism in the school’s Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention program —underscores the problem. According to their findings, there’s an alarming gulf between the impact that 20 to 30 hours of weekly one-on-one therapy can have on a child who’s under age 2 and one who is 2.5 years old or older. While fully 90 percent of the toddlers in their study aged 2 or younger made “significant gains” in social and communication skills, just 30 percent of children who entered therapy at age 2.5 or older made “significant gains.”

Cognoa says it can get children in front of doctors faster with its deceptively simple app, one that asks parents to answer 15 questions that address a minimum viable set of behaviors that indicate whether their child is at risk of Autism.

How can it boil down the process so drastically? The company says much of its power is rooted in the information that Wall has culled over the years, including from research repositories like the Autism Genetic Research Exchange, Cure Autism Now (later subsumed into Autism Speaks), the Autism Consortium, and the National Database for Autism Research, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Collectively, the repositories feature observations about 10,000 children. It’s always been possible to request access to that information, says Wall, but he claims no one before had tried to combine, synthesize, and analyze the data using machine learning.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Avenida, a two-year-old, Buenos Aires, Argentina-based e-commerce giant, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by earlier investor Naspers, with participation from another earlier backer, Tiger Global Management. TechCrunch has more here.

Hover, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based app that lets residents and contractors easily create 3-D models of houses from a handful of photos, has raised $6 million in funding led by Alsop Louie Partners. Earlier backers Almaz Capital and Maverick Investments also joined the round. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Nuzzel, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based social, real-time platform that allows users to see the news that their friends share, has raised its third round of $1.7 million in funding (a coincidence, apparently), from investors that include Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and SoftBank Vice President Nikesh Arora. TechCrunch has more here.

OpenHouse, a five-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based real-estate agent recommendation service, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding led by Triangle Peak Partners and March Capital Partners, with participation from other, undisclosed investors. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Travo, a year-old,  L.A.-based travel reservations platform tailored for professionals who book their own business trips, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from investors that include Great Oaks Ventures, Baroda Ventures, Valence Ventures, TYLT Lab and individual angels.

Tubi TV, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company offering a free alternative to paid subscription video services like Netflix, has raised $6 million in Series B funding led by Cota Capital, with participation from Hollywood studios MGM and Lionsgate. Earlier backer Foundation Capital also joined the round. The company has now raised $10 million altogether. TechCrunch hasmore here.

WaHome, a six-month-old, Seoul-based on-demand home cleaning service, has raised $1 million in seed funding from Sparklabs Global Ventures, Mashup Angels, Fast Track Asia, and several individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

New Funds

Lerer Hippeau Ventures in New York has raised a new $113 million fund. That’s almost twice the size of the firm’s fourth fund, closed in early 2014 with $62 million.

Razer, the high-end gaming hardware firm that entered the billion dollar unicorn club last year courtesy of an undisclosed investment from Intel, is planning to create a corporate venture capital fund that is slated to launch next year. TechCrunch has the story here.

—–

IPOs

Square, the payments technology company, saw its share rise 45 percent in their first first day of trading (though the stock was priced at $9, below its expected range).

Shares of Match Group, which owns dating site Match.com and mobile app Tinder, jumped 23 percent in their market debut.

—–

Exits

Cisco announced today it plans to buy the U.K.-based video conferencing firm Acano. The widely reported price: $700 million. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Watch out, Amazon? Veteran entrepreneur and technologist Diane Greene has been appointed to head up Google’s cloud business that caters to companies.

Jawbone yesterday laid off around 60 employees, or 15 percent of staff in a global round of layoffs that affects all areas of the business. It’s the second round of layoffs at Jawbone since this summer. TechCrunch has the skinny here.

This is not a good development for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

—–

Essential Reads

Facebook debuts new digital break-up tools.

You can now use bitcoin anywhere that Visa is accepted.

The Finnish mobile devices and OS maker Jolla is reportedly in big trouble.

Thirteen tech IPOs compared: How much a $10,000 investment would be worth today.

—–

Detours

Sturdy legs could mean healthy brains.

Tesla Model S owners in Hong Kong have suddenly found their autopilot features disabled.

“The Singularity.”

—–

Retail Therapy

The real-life villain’s lair from “Spectre”. Price: $4 million.

Happy Thursday, everyone! We’re off to moderate a panel at the Draper Venture Network CEO Summit in San Jose this morning. See some of you there.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

The EU is reportedly clamping down on bitcoin to curb terrorism funding. Reuters has the story here.

—–

VCs Aren’t the Only Ones Watching Those Mutual Fund Markdowns

VCs have been watching with great interest as mutual funds mark down the value of some of their privately held, illiquid investments, including shares of Dropbox, Zenefits, and Snapchat. Turns out the SEC is watching, too. A new Wall Street Journal report says the agency “has been asking more questions of large fund firms about how they value startups and whether their process ensures an accurate estimate of a company’s worth.”

According to the WSJ, examiners from the agency’s enforcement division are not yet involved in the inquiries. And asked yesterday if the SEC is investigating mutual funds’ pricing of private companies, a spokeswoman responded to us this morning, saying the agency isn’t commenting on its plans.

But some think it’s only a matter of time before a full-fledged investigation is launched into possible violations of federal securities laws, given the difference in prices that some funds have assigned their holdings, how they’ve timed their markdowns, and the opaqueness around both. The whole matter may give pause to other investors who’ve been looking to access the private markets, too.

More here.

——

New Fundings

Card.com, a three-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based online financial services company whose prepaid MasterCards  can be customized with a user’s favorite brands and characters, has raised $9 million in growth capital from Columbia Pacific Advisors and Fenway Summer Ventures. SoCalTech has more here.

ClearCare, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose software enables the elderly to receive care and support in their homes instead of a nursing home or doctor’s office, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from McKesson Ventures. More here.

Deep Genomics, a year-old, Toronto-based company whose computational system is learning to predict and interpret how genetic variations affect cells in order to help pharmaceutical and diagnostic researchers, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding, says Dow Jones VentureWire. True Ventures led the round, with participation from Bloomberg Beta and individual investors. More here.

Eve, a 16-month-old London-based e-commerce mattress startup, has raised £2.5 million ($2.7) in Series A funding from DN Capital and Octopus Ventures. More here.

First Aid Shot Therapy, a five-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based consumer healthcare company focused on over-the-counter medicine in liquid shot form, has raised $24 million in Series C funding led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, with participation from Lumira Capital and earlier backersS ofinnova Ventures, Redmile Group and HealthQuest Capital, among others. More here.

Ola, the nearly five-year-old, Bangalore, India-based on-demand transportion app company, has raised $500 million in fresh funding led by Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global Management, SoftBank Group, DST Global and China’s biggest taxi aggregator, Didi Kuaidi. Ola has now closed more than $1.3 billion altogether, nearly all of which has been raised over the past year. The Economic Times has more here.

PlanGrid, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose cloud-based app allows users to store blueprints and construction documents on iPads and iPhones, has raised $40 million in new funding led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, YC Continuity Fund and Northgate. The company has now raised more than $58 million. TechCrunch has more here.

PresenceLearning, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based company that provides live online speech therapy, occupational therapy, and behavior and mental health services for K-12 students, has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by Catalyst Investors, with participation from Birchmere Ventures, Blue Heron Capital, Catamount Ventures, and New Markets Venture Partners. More here.

test IO, a four-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based self-service crowdtesting platform for app and web developers, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Turn/River Capital, a San Francisco-based firm. TechCrunch has more here.

Townsquared, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based online social platform for local business owners to connect and share resources, has raised $5.26 million from Floodgate and August Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

TutorGroup, an 11-year-old, Shanghai, China-based online education platform, has raised $200 million in Series C funding at a reported $1 billion valuation. Backers include GIC, Singapore’s sovereign fund; the Russia-China Investment Fund; Goldman Sachs; and Silverlink Capital. Reuters hasmore here.

UrbanClap, a year-old, Bangalore, India-based mobile marketplace for services ranging from in-home manicures to wedding photographers, has raised about Rs 165 crore ($25 million) led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from earlier investors Accel Partners and SAIF. The company has now raised a total of about $37 million to date. The Economic Times has more here.

VoltServer, a four-year-old East Greenwich, R.I.-based developer of electrical energy distribution technology, has raised $5 million in Series A2 round of funding. The round, which brings the rounds total funding to $10.5 million, was led by Marker Hill Capital, with participation from NRCM and Clean Energy Venture Group. More here.

Zipdrug, a nearly year-old, New York -based on-demand prescription medication delivery company, has raised $2.6 million seed funding led by Collaborative Fund, with participation from Lux Capital, Montage Ventures, Mesa Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, and serial entrepreneur Brian Lee. The New York Business Journal has more here.

—–

New Funds

FXiaoKe, a four-year-old, Beijing-based mobile sales management tool company, has teamed up with IDG Capital Partners, Northern Light Venture Capital, and China Soft Capital to launch a $20 million investment fund to invest in China-based software-as-a service companies. China Money Network has more here.

—–

IPOs

Last night, Match priced its IPO at $12 per share, raising $400 million. The company began trading on the Nasdaq this morning, under the ticker symbol MTCH. More here.

Square yesterday priced its IPO at $9, giving the company a valuation of $2.66 billion, but it has jumped 50 percent already this morning. During its last fundraise as a private company, it was valued at $6 billion.

—–

People

Shuddle founder Nick Allen has stepped down as CEO of the company. Shuddle is an on-demand car service aimed mainly at children. TechCrunch has the story here.

Jim Coulter, a billionaire investor in Uber, criticized Amsterdam yesterday for not making the ride-sharing service more widely available in the Dutch city, saying it reflected an unwelcoming attitude to technology innovation.

Since leaving an investing role at DFJ in 2013, firm cofounder Tim Draper has kicked his own seed investing into overdrive; he’s also taken charge of the former DFJ Global Network, renaming it Draper Network and instituting a bunch of other new initiatives that may soon include a new fund-of-funds.

President Barack Obama took time off at an Asia-Pacific summit yesterday for an unusual task: He interviewed Chinese internet billionaire Jack Ma. More here.

You may have heard: Tinder CEO Sean Rad had a tough Wednesday.

Entrepreneur Anne Wojcicki shares her improvement plans for downtown Los Altos, Ca., where she owns lots of property with ex-husband Sergey Brin. The area’s number one issue, she says, is parking, though she calls it a “short term” problem because, self-driving cars.

YouTube is getting a new product boss from Google, which is getting a new display advertising boss. Ad Age has the story here.

—–

Jobs

Hi, everyone! We’re sending out SVC a little earlier than usual to get some news to you as it’s breaking. Hope you have a wonderful day and we’ll see you tomorrow.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

It’s baaaaack. Google Plus, that is. More on why Google is injecting new life into the platform here.

Taxi owners and lenders filed a lawsuit this morning against New York City and its Taxi and Limousine Commission, saying Uber was destroying their businesses and threatening their livelihoods.

—–

Andreessen Horowitz Lands a New GP —  And A New Fund

Andreessen Horowitz is making a big move into biotech, and it’s using a $200 million new fund called the AH Bio Fund – and new general partner, Vijay Pande — to plant its stake in the ground.

The fund will be used to invest in mostly early-stage startups at the intersection of computer science and life sciences. It’s the first sector-focused fund for Andreessen Horowitz, which is halfway through its main fund, a $1.5 billion vehicle that it announced in March of last year.

Pande seems a good choice to lead it. He has the know-how and the connections, having spent the last 16 years teaching chemistry, structural biology and computer science at Stanford University, where he says he’ll continue “spending a very small percentage of my time” with his research group there.

Pande also knows startups, having been involved in a number of them already. Last year, he cofounded Globavir, a seed-funded infectious disease company. Pande also foundedFolding@home, a now 16-year-old distributed computing project for disease research that remains his highest-profile work to date.

Asked if it will be hard to say no to some of the many Stanford-related startups now working on health care-focused, machine-learning startups, Pande calls it a “kid in a candy store” issue, adding that he expects to “see a lot [of startups] from Stanford, Berkeley, and M.I.T.,” among other places. (Conveniently, he notes, he has spent time at all three. He was once a Miller Fellow at U.C. Berkeley and nabbed his PhD in physics from M.I.T.)

Andreessen Horowitz is quick to note that Pande won’t be making decisions about what to fund on his own.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Aiwujiwu, a 1.5-year-old, Shanghai-based rental and second-home listings portal, has reportedly raised $150 million in Series E funding led by Temasek Holdings and Hillhouse Capital, with participation from earlier backers Morningside Venture Capital, Banyan Capital, Shunwei Capital Partnersand GGV Capital. The young company has now raised $350 million to date. DealStreetAsia has more here.

APX Labs, the five-year-old, Herndon, Va.-based company behind the Skylight smart glasses development platform, has raised $13 million in venture funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Other participants in the round includeCNF Investments, GE Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and SineWave Ventures. The company has now raised $29 million altogether. TechCrunch hasmore here.

Goodbox, a nearly three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based marketplace app that helps small retailers set up mobile storefronts, has raised $2.5 million in Series A from Nexus Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Hoodline, a San Francisco-based news startup centered on local communities (it was founded by former TechCrunch co-editor Eric Eldon), has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from SoftTech VC and along list of individual investors, including Keith Rabois, Shervin Pishevar, and Cyan and Scott Banister. TechCrunch has more here.

Joyable, a year-old, San Francisco-based digital therapeutics company (its app aims to treat people diagnosed with mental health issues like social anxiety and depression), has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Thrive Capital and Harrison Metal. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Jugnoo, a 1.5-year-old, Chandigarh, India-based hyper-local online marketplace that facilitates autorickshaw rides and food and grocery deliveries through autorickshaws, has raised $3 million in Series B funding from Paytm, with participation from individual investors. The round brings the company’s total funding to $9 million altogether. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Numecent, a 19-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based “cloudpaging” technology company  that transmits pre-virtualized native software instructions in a transient manner, has raised $15.5 million in Series B funding led by earlier backer Deutsche Telekom. Other participants included unnamed family offices and private equity firms. The company has now raised $38 million altogether.

Nuvolo Technologies, a two-year-old, New York-based company that’s making enterprise applications for the ServiceNow cloud platform, has raised $2 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates and ServiceNow. More here.

Stuart, a new, Barcelona, Spain-based on-demand, same-hour delivery startup that is currently pre-launch and operating in stealth, has raised €22 million in funding led by GeoPost, the delivery subsidiary of Le Groupe La Post. TechCrunch has more here.

Tuition.io, a four-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca-based student loan management startup, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from MassMutual Ventures,Wildcat Venture Partners, and Mohr Davidow Ventures, among others. The company has now raised $8.2 million altogether. More here.

TuringSense, a months-old, Campbell, Ca.-based wearable sports technology startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding, including from Angel Plus, ChinaRock Capital, Ideosource, SV Tech Ventures, Zen Water Capital, and numerous individual investors.

—–

IPOs

Stay tuned: Square and Match.com are pricing their IPOs this afternoon.

China’s version of Lending Club is planning an IPO on the NYSE.

—–

People

Michael Chou, who joined Harmony Partners as a principal in its New York office in 2011, has been promoted to partner. Chou relocated to lead the venture firm’s San Francisco office earlier this year. Earlier in his career, he was a techn  investment banker at Perella Weinberg and Barclays.

S. (“Soma”) Somasegar, who spent nearly 27 years at Microsoft, including most recently as corporate VP of its developer division, has joined Madrona Venture Group as a venture partner.

—–

Jobs

Salesforce is looking to hire a senior director of strategic partnerships. The job is in San Francisco.

TechStars is looking for a CFO. The job is in Boulder, Co.

—–

Data

Startup valuations continued to rise at a torrid pace in the third quarter, though there were potential signs the venture-capital tide may have started to turn, according to new data published yesterday by the law firm Fenwick & West.

—–

Essential Reads

Lyft, the San Francisco-based ride-hailing startup, is reportedly looking to raise about $500 million at a valuation of approximately $4 billion. The New York Times has more here.

—–

Detours

Inside one billionaire’s apocalypse shelter.

—–

Retail Therapy

Finally, a small act of kindness toward parents from Lego’s.

Hi, everyone! We ran out of time to finish today’s column, but we have some good stuff coming your way the rest of this week.

Happy Tuesday.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

The board of directors for Angie’s List rejected a proposal today from New York-based IAC/InterActiveCorp to acquire the local recommendations service, claiming the all-cash deal “dramatically undervalues” the company.More here.

—–

New Fundings

Align Commerce, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based bitcoin company that’s being used as a tool to provide cross-border payments for small businesses, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Codiak BioSciences, a new, Cambridge, Mass.-based company that aims to develop exosomes as a new therapeutic and diagnostic modality to treat diseases, including cancer, has raised $80 million in funding from Arch Venture Partners and Flagship Ventures. The underlying technology is being licensed from the The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. More here.

Cogito, an eight-year-old, Boston-based company that makes voice recognition and behavioral analysis software that analyzes customer service reps, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Romulus Capital, with participation from Salesforce Ventures. Xconomy has more here.

Craftsvilla, a four-year-old, Mumbai, India-based marketplace for ethnic goods, has raised $34 million in Series C funding led by earlier investors Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Ventures. Nexus Venture Partners and Global Founders Capital, which are also existing backers, participated alongside Apoletto Asia. TechCrunch has more here.

Datto, the company that acts as a backup and disaster recovery service for small to mid-sized businesses, has raised $75 million in Series B funding led by Technology Crossover Ventures. The company has now raised just more than $100 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Descartes Labs, a 1.5-year-old, Los Alamos, N.N.-based artificial intelligence technology company that’s right now focused on analyzing satellite imagery, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Cultivian Sandbox Ventures. Venture Capital Dispatch has much more here.

Door to Door Organics, a 10-year-old, Lafayette, Co.-based natural and organic online grocer, has raised $25.5 million in Series B funding led by Arlon Group, with participation from Greenmont Capital Partners. Tech Bulletin has more here.

Earnest, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based online consumer lender, has raised  $75 million in Series B funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Adams Street Partners and earlier backer Maveron. Earnest also secured $200 million in commitments from New York Life and others in a warehouse financing facility that will be used to finance loansonline consumer lender, reports Venture Capital Dispatch.

Gogoro, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based electric scooter maker, has raised $130 million in Series B funding led by Taiwanese billionaire Samuel Yin, who is chairman of the Taiwan-based retail firm Ruentex Group. Yin is an earlier investor and major shareholder of Gogoro. Other participants in the round include Panasonic Corporation and the National Development Fund of Taiwan. The company — which says it has sold nearly 2,000 scooters to date — has now raised more than $180 million in total funding. More here.

Noitom, a four-year-old, Beijing, China-based motion capture software firm, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from Legend Capital, Haitong Kaiyuan Investment, Alpha Animation and Culture, and other undisclosed investors, according to a company announcement posted on Wechat. China Money Network has more here.

ProtectWise, a 2.5-year-old, Denver-based, cloud-based network security services company, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Tola Capital, with participation from earlier backers Crosslink Capital, Trinity Ventures, Paladin Capital Group and Arsenal Venture Partners. The Denver Post has more here.

Salesfusion, an eight-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based maker of marketing automation software for small and mid-size businesses, has raised $13.5 million in Series B funding from a long list of investors who’d provided most of the round to the company late last year. Those backers include Noro-Moseley Partners, BLH Venture Partners, Alerion Ventures, Tech Square Ventures, Ellis Capital, Dave Williams, and Hallett Capital, which was Salesfusion’s sole Series A investor. Noro-Moseley led the Series B. More here.

Taskbucks, a 1.5-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based Android-only mobile-focused task marketplace that lets users “do interesting tasks on your smartphone and earn bucks,” has raised $15 million in funding from India’s Times Internet.TechCrunch has more here.

TinyRx, a seven-month-old, San Francisco-based prescription delivery startup, has raised $5 million in new funding, including from Joe Lonsdale’s new fund, 8 Partners, as well as from early employees of Google and Airbnb. TechCrunch has more here.

——

New Funds

Ameba Capital, a four-year-old, China-focused venture capital firm, has closed its second fund with RMB1 billion (US$157 million) in capital commitments, it says. Ameba Capital focuses on early-stage investment in the tech, media, and telecom sectors. China Money Network has more here.

—–

Exits

Pandora, the publicly traded streaming music company, has acquired “key assets” from Rdio for $75 million in cash, it announced yesterday. Rdio had raised at least $125 million in funding from investors that included Atomico,Mangrove (which eventually sold its stake), and serial entrepreneur Janus Friis, who cofounded Rdio with longtime business partners Niklas Zennstrom and Carter Adamson. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Seven top executives have resigned from the fashion tech company Rent the Runway in the past 10 months—four in the past two months alone. Fortune looks at what’s going on here.

Tech executives may have attained a cult-like status in Silicon Valley. But their popularity doesn’t extend to the rest of America, suggest audience numbers from Stephen Colbert’s new “Late Show,” which has so far featured Tim Cook, Brian Chesky, Elon Musk, Travis Kalanick, Reed Hastings and Evan Spiegel. The Information takes a look here. (Subscribers only.)

Solar City’s Lyndon Rive talks with Inc. about entrepreneurship, sustainable energy, and what movie makes him think about his cousin Elon.

UBS Group has hired four bankers from Jefferies Group, as Switzerland’s biggest bank looks to build its global technology business. Bloomberg has more here.

—–

Essential Reads

Uber’s transition plan for self-driving cars.

SpaceX may win its first U.S. military satellite launch after the only other certified bidder, a Boeing Co.-Lockheed Martin Corp. joint venture, decided not to compete.

Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has contracted for a second consecutive quarter, marking a technical recession.

—–

Detours

A charmingly hapless dad pointed his GoPro in the wrong direction for his entire Las Vegas vacation.

Figures from classic paintings placed in contemporary settings.

“Ms.Wang confirmed that, as in the past, she and Mr. Liu would be using their American Express card to pay for the [$170 million] Modigliani. That way, with the cardholder’s points they accrue, their whole family — the couple, their four children and two grandchildren — can continue flying for free.”

—–

Retail Therapy

A subterranean garage that evokes James Bond but was built for a “royal.”

Hi, everyone, welcome back.:)

——

Top News in the A.M.

It is Friday the 13th! Have fun and be careful out there. See you back here soon.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Wish, a low-flying, online bazaar for cheap, unbranded clothes, jewelry, and other products, most of them sent directly from China, may have just turned down a $10 billion (with a b) acquisition offer from Amazon. Business Insider has more here.

—–

Fiverr CEO On Raising $60 Million in New Capital: “It’s a Land Grab”

Hey, hey, it’s Thursday, and not a minute too soon. Hope it’s off to a great start.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Credit Suisse just published its 2016 global outlook, and here are the two biggest threats to the global economy that it sees.

—–

AngelPad “Graduates” 13 New Companies

AngelPad, a five-year-old incubator that twice a year chooses roughly a dozen startups to coach over a three-month period, held its ninth “demo day” yesterday in San Francisco. As has become routine, its founders presented to a densely packed audience of invite-only guests.

We weren’t surprised, walking onto the crowded scene. At this point, Angelpad, founded by husband-and-wife team Thomas Korte and Carine Magescas, has earned a solid reputation for finding interesting new entrepreneurs. (MoPub and Crittercism are two of its better-known discoveries.)

The outfit — which provides each company with a $55,000 convertible note and an addition $4,000 per founder in exchange for 7 percent of their startup — also seems to be attracting more sophisticated entrepreneurs. That, or else Korte and Magescas are getting better at identifying talent. As Magescas told us, while companies are “usually just getting off the ground here,” Angelpad’s current batch of 13 companies “has an enormous amount of traction already,” to the tune of $2.5 million in combined revenue. “That’s not intentional,” she says. “Some are just [taking off] earlier than we thought.”

Continue reading for an overview of the presenting companies.

—–

New Fundings

Appcast, a 1.5-year-old, Lebanon, N.H.-based pay-per-applicant job marketplace, has raised $5 million in funding led by Point Judith Capital, with participation from IrishAngels and Baird Capital.

Eyefluence, a two-year-old, Milpitas, Ca.-based company that makes an eye tracking system for virtual reality and augmented reality headsets, has raised $14 million in Series B funding led by Motorola Solutions. Other participants in the round include Jazz Venture Partners, NHN Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, and other unnamed strategic and private investors. The company has now raised $21.6 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Fiverr, a 5.5-year-old, Tel Aviv-headquartered marketplace for skilled freelancers, has raised $60 million in new funding led by Square Peg Capital, with participation from earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Qumra Capital. The company has now raised $110 million altogether; we’ll have more on the deal over at TechCrunch later today.

Flexe, a two-year-old, Seattle-based online marketplace that connects business in need of warehouse space, has raised $4.4 million in seed funding from Second Avenue Partners, SV Angel, Microsoft executive Hank Vigil and former Microsoft executive Fritz Lanman. More here.

NextVR, a six-year-old, Laguna Beach, Ca.-based live-action virtual reality broadcast technology company, has raised $30.5 million in Series A funding led by Formation 8, a firm that backed Oculus VR early on (and that recently alerted investors that it would not raise a planned third fund). Other investors in the deal include Time Warner Investments, Comcast Ventures, Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Gruber, RSE Ventures, the Madison Square Garden Company, and Dick Clark Productions.

Panaseer, a 1.5-year-old, London-based cybersecurity software company,  has raised $2.25 million in seed funding from investors, including Albion Ventures, Notion Capital, Winton Technology Ventures, C5 Holdings, and Elixirr.

Shelfbucks, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that makes dynamic marketing platforms for retail stores and brands, has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding. The sources are undisclosed, but the round brings the company’s total funding to $11.5 million. Silicon Hills News has more here.

Zhan.com, a four-year-old, Shanghai, China-based online education startup that provides training courses for students preparing for entrance exams at overseas universities, has raised $60 million in Series C funding from Sequoia Capital and other undisclosed investors, according to Chinese media reports. The company had raised $29 million in Series B funding back in April from GGV Capital and Shunwei Capital.

Zola, a two-year-old, New York-based online wedding-gift registry founded by former Gilt Groupe employees, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led byCanvas Venture Fund, with participation from AOL’s BBG Ventures, Female Founders Fund, Forerunner Ventures, and earlier backer Thrive Capital. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

—–

New Funds

Elevar Equity, a 7.5-year-old, Seattle-based venture firm, has closed its third fund with $74 million from investors that include JPMorgan Chase, Omidyar Network, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Treehouse Investments. The firm invests in early-stage companies that are focused on providing financial services, education, housing and healthcare to low-income communities primarily in India and Latin America.

—–

People

23andme cofounder Anne Wojcicki on her ex-husband and fellow entrepreneur, Sergey Brin: We’re still “very good friends.” [Bloomberg video.]

—–

Jobs

Novartis Venture Fund is looking to hire a principal. The job is in Cambridge, Ma.

—–

Essential Reads

Uber struck a deal yesterday to use digital maps provided by the Dutch technology company TomTom in its smartphone applications. (As readers will recall, Uber, which is quietly tinkering with self-driving technologies in Pittsburgh, has been interested in alternatives to Google’s mapping technologies for some time.)

How Revolve became the trendiest, most profitable e-commerce startup you’venever heard of.

In-N-Out wants the food-delivery startup DoorDash to stop delivering its burgers because of concerns around quality, food handling and safety — and it has filed a lawsuit toward that end.

—–

Detours

Why you’re always mishearing song lyrics.

This Brooklyn startup supplies the apartment, furniture, and roommates.

If politicians had man buns. (Last man bun link this week, promise!)

—–

Retail Therapy

The Cezeta 506 electric scooter, for when you want to go old school.

Hi, everyone! Happy Wednesday.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Yesterday, a federal court judge ruled that tracking web histories can violate laws like the Wiretap Act, the Stored Communications Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Wired has more on what that decision means here.

—–

Diamonds Born in California

A Santa Clara, Ca.-based company calledDiamond Foundry is this morning taking the wraps off what it’s been creating over the last three years: the ability to produce diamonds. In Santa Clara.

As the company explains it, it discovered a plasma that allows atoms to attach themselves to a thin slice of diamond that’s been extracted the old-fashioned way, by being plucked from the earth. One by one, it says, atoms stack atop the diamond’s crystal structure, growing layer by later into a “pure, cultured jewelry-grade diamond.”

We couldn’t catch CEO Martin Roscheisen on the phone yesterday to ask what, precisely, jewelry-grade diamonds mean. We’re guessing if they were colorless and had what gemologists refer to as “excellent clarity,” Diamond Foundry would say so in its marketing materials. (It does not.)

Either way, the gems seem to be good enough for a list of prominent list of investors who’ve plugged some of their capital into the company. Diamond Foundry’s backers include entrepreneurs Mark and Alison Pincus; serial entrepreneur Ev Williams; early Facebook COO Owen Van Natta; and actor Leo DiCaprio, who famously played a mercenary gem smuggler in the 2006 film “Blood Diamond.”

More here

—–

New Funds

Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, a nine-year-old, San Diego-based preclinical stage company that’s developing a new anti-fungal compound for treating life-threatening fungal infections, has raised $40.5 million in Series B financing led by RiverVest Venture Partners, with participation from New Enterprise Associates, BioMed Ventures, and individual investors. Xconomy has more here.

Bango, a 16-year-old, London-based mobile payments company that allows app stores, operators and publishers to collect payments over the mobile web, has raised £11 million ($17 million) in new funding at a post-money valuation of roughly $90 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Careem, a two-year-old, Dubai-based app-based car service launched by former McKinsey & Co. consultants Magnus Olsson and Mudassir Sheikha, has raised $60 million in Series C funding led by the private equity firm Abraaj Group. Other participants in the round include Al Tayyar, STC Ventures, Beco Capital, Impulse (a subsidiary of Kuwait Investment Authority), Lumia Capital and Wamda Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.

CircleUp, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based crowdfunding platform that consumer retail businesses like food companies use to raise money from outside investors, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Collaborative Fund. Other investors include Capital One co-founder Nigel Morris and the former CEOs and presidents of Goldman Sachs, Thomson Reuters and the Stanford Endowment. Previous backers Union Square Ventures, Canaan Partners, Maveron and Rose Park Advisors also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

EventBoard, a three-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based developer of cloud-based meeting tools and analytics, has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft Partners, with participation from Origin Ventures and its seed round investor, Zetta Venture Partners. Vator has more here.

MiRagen Therapeutics, an eight-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based biopharmaceutical company that’s developing microRNA-based therapeutics, has raised $41 million in Series C funding co-led by MRL Ventures, a venture fund of Merck, and JAFCO. Other participants include new investors Brace Pharma Capital and MP Healthcare Venture Management, along with earlier backers Atlas Venture, Boulder Ventures, Remeditex Ventures, Amgen Ventures and others. More here.

PeerSpace, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps companies and individuals find short-term space, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Foundation Capital, with participation from earlier backer Structure Capital. The company had earlier raised $1.5 million in seed funding and another $800,000 in debt financing. TechCrunch has more here.

Perfecto Mobile, a nine-year-old, Woburn, Ma.-based company that helps businesses troubleshoot an app before it gets in the hands of users, has raised $35 million in new funding led by Technology Crossover Ventures, with participation from previous investors FTV Capital, Carmel Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, and Vertex Ventures. Perfecto has now raised $92.8 million altogether. Xconomy has more here.

Swrve, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile engagement platform, has raised $30 million funding in funding led by Evolution Media Partners, TPG Growth, Participant Media, and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Earlier backers Acero Capital and Atlantic Bridge also joined the round. Fortune has more here.

Tenable Network Security, a 13-year-old, Columbia, Md.-based company that develops unified security monitoring software to secure enterprise networks, has raised a whopping $250 million in venture funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backer Accel Partners. Reuters has more here.

Udacity, the nearly four-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based online university co-founded by Stanford University Research Professor Sebastian Thrun, has raised $105 million at a valuation of $1 billion led by the German media conglomerate Bertlesmann. Scotland’s Baillie Gifford, Emerson Collective and Google Ventures also joined the round, as did earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures and Drive Capital. The WSJ has more here.

VideoAmp, a 1.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based screen optimization platform for the TV and video ecosystem, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by RTL Group. The company has now raised $17.2 million altogether. More here.

Worldsensing, a 7.5-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based company that develops machine-to-machine and Internet of Things technologies, has raised an undisclosed amount of  Series B funding from Cisco Investments, Mitsui & Co., Kibo Ventures, Fundación Jose Manuel Entrecanales and Endeavor Catalyst. Earlier backers, including Finaves (the investment platform of IESE Business School), also joined the round. More here.

—–

New Funds

500 Startups, the five-year-old, San Francisco-based investing and conference juggernaut, is raising yet another new fund: This time, it’s targeting $15 million to invest in seed-stage Nordic startups. Fortune has more here.

Collaborative Fund, the five-year-old, New York-based venture firm, has closed its third fund with $70 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Open Ocean, a Helsinki-based venture firm that has backed such startups as Truecaller and EyeEm, has raised a new, €100 million ($107 million) fund and also recruited entrepreneur and investor Richard Muirhead as a general partner. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

Exits

Google has acquired Fly Labs, a four-year-old, New York-based company that specializes in user-friendly photo and video editing software. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The company had raised $750,000 in a convertible note last spring, shows CrunchBase. InformationWeek has more here.

—–

People

Facebook board member Marc Andreessen has now sold almost half his personal holdings in the giant social network. The sales were reportedly part of a prearranged trading plan but seem to suggest that Facebook’s share price is also pretty rich at the moment. As Jan Dawson, chief analyst with Jackdaw Research, tells USA Today: “The fact is, Facebook stock is up over 40 percent in the past year and up even more significantly since the (IPO), so Andreessen has had a great return on his investment here already.”

Longtime investor Pierre Lamond — who spent much of his career with Sequoia Capital, and later moved to Khosla Ventures before joining Formation 8 in an advisory role –has joined Eclipse Ventures as a full-time general partner,reports Fortune. Eclipse was formerly called the F8 Hardware Fund.

Ambar Bhattacharyya, formerly a vice president in Bessemer Venture Partners’s Menlo Park, Ca. office, has joined Maverick Capital, a Dallas-based money management firm.

HotelTonight CEO Sam Shank said yesterday that his five-year-old, San Francisco-based hotel booking startup has laid off 37 employees, or 20 percent of its total workforce. TechCrunch has more here.

Megan Quinn, a former product manager at both Google and Square who later spent time as an investor with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has joined Spark Capital as a general partner, working with its growth stage fund team. TechCrunch has more here.

Investor Chamath Palihapitiya is trying to disrupt a lot of businesses, and the newest is the carrier business. More here.