Hi, everyone! Hope your Tuesday is off to a great start.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Shares of Twitter fell yesterday on news that job cuts were coming. They’re rising today as the social-media company made the cuts official.

—–

Drone Maker CyPhy Works Raises $22 Million for Two-Prong Strategy

iRobot maker iRobot has long had two major lines of businesses: its famous disc-shaped vacuum cleaning robot called the Roomba; and another robot that, well, disposes of bombs.

Cofounder Helen Greiner says iRobot — now a publicly traded company currently valued at $940 million — “wouldn’t been able to have struggle through” without both.

No wonder Greiner is again focusing on disparate lines of business at her seven-year-old drone company, CyPhy Works in Danvers, Mass, a startup that has just raised $22 million in Series B funding.

On the one hand, CyPhy is about to start mass producing its Persistent Aerial Reconnaissance and Communications (PARC) drones, which can fly as high as 500 feet in the air and hang there for 100 hours at a time. How? They’re tethered to the ground with a highly specialized microfilament that both powers them and acts as a secure communications link. As an added bonus, the tether keeps the robots from flying away in sandstorms and other harsh conditions.

The PARC drones have mostly been used to date by the U.S. military, which employs them at combat posts to monitor compounds. The drones can also accept a variety of payloads. But now that the FAA has begun more freely authorizing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for non-governmental purposes, Greiner is expecting enterprise customers of all kinds to start ordering them, from mining to port security to construction to even media companies.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Bizongo, a year-old, Mumbai, India-based B2B marketplace for industrial goods like plastics, chemicals, and packaging materials, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Accel Partners. Iamwire has more here.

Cape Productions, a 1.5-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based drone photography and video service startup, has raised more than $10 million in funding, reports VentureWire, including a recent (and very quiet) $7.7 million Series A round led by New Enterprise Associates. Other investors in the company include Madrona Venture Group, XSeed Capital, S:Cubed Capital, and the Commercial Drone Fund. More here.

Cybereason, a three-year-old, Boston-based cybersecurity firm with an R&D center in Tel Aviv, has raised $50 million in funding led by SoftBank, with participation from earlier backers CRV and Spark Capital. The company had raised a separate, $25 million from defense contractor Lockheed Martin back in May. The WSJ has more here.

DataVisor, a nearly two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based cybersecurity company that aims to protect consumer-facing sites and mobile apps from cyber criminals, has raised $14.5 million in Series A funding led by GSR and New Enterprise Associates. VentureBeat has more here.

Doctolib, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based platform that aims to make it easier for doctors to schedule appointments with patients and vice versa, has raised €18 million ($20.4 million) led by the London team of Accel Partners. The company has now raised roughly $26 million altogether. Business Insider has more here.

EverString, a three-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based marketing startup that sells software for personalizing business-to-business sales outreach, has raise $65 million in Series B funding led by LightSpeed Venture Partners, with participation from Sequoia Capital, IDG Ventures, and Lakestar. The company had previously raised $13.7 million in seed and Series A funding. Fortune has more here.

InvestCloud, a five-year-old, L.A.-based maker of of cloud-based front and middle-office software for investment managers, has raised $45 million in growth equity funding led by FTV Capital. More here.

K4Connect, a two-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based startup whose connected home technology aims to integrate consumers’ disparate devices, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding from Sierra Ventures and Better Ventures, along with North Carolina-based Lowe’s Companies and Florida’s Stonehenge Growth Equity Partners. Individual investors also joined the round. American Underground has more here.

Marfeel, a four-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based ad tech platform focused around mobile publishers, has raised $3.5 million in funding led by Nauta Capital, Elaia Partners and BDMI. More here.

Mubble Networks, a two-year-old, Bangalore, India-based start-up that helps smartphone users track their spending on calls, SMSes and mobile data, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Accel Partners. LiveMint has more here.

Optimizely, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based site optimization company whose A/B tests compare two versions of a webpage to determine which performs better, has raised $58 million in Series C funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures and Citi Ventures. The company has now raised $146 million altogether. Reuters has more here.

SentinelOne, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based security software maker that attacks security threats at the kernel of devices, has raised $25 million in new funding from the hedge fund Third Point, along with earlier backers Tiger Global Management, Data Collective, Granite Hill Capital Partners, and the Westly Group. TechCrunch has more here.

ShopWell Labs, a seven-year-old, San Carlos, Ca.-based personalized nutrition app, has raised $3.4 million in funding led by Finistere Ventures, with additional funding from Fairhaven Capital, Munich Venture Partners, S2G Ventures and ATA Ventures. The company has now raised $11.4 million altogether. More here.

Thistle, a two-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based healthy meal delivery startup that once focused on fresh juices, has raised $1 million from various, unnamed individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Vipkid, a two-year-old, Beijing, China-based online education startup that provides one-on-one video teaching sessions for Chinese children with teachers based in North America, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Northern Light Venture Capital led the round, with participation from earlier backers Matrix Venture Partners, Innovation Works and Sequoia Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Voodoo, a five-month-old, Delhi, India-based startup that aims to help Indian consumers save money by enabling them to compare services in different apps without installing a bunch of them, has raised $1 million in seed funding from SAIF Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Zugata, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based software service that provides employees regular performance feedback on their iPhones, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding from General Catalyst Partners, Formation 8 and Redpoint Ventures, along with numerous angel investors. Fortune has more here.

—–

New Funds

Coatue Management has secured more than $543 million for its second private equity fund, according to SEC filings first flagged by Fortune.

IDC forecasts that Europe’s public cloud software market will grow almost 12 times faster than other IT segments to reach $37.8 billion by 2019, and Salesforce Ventures has noticed. TechCrunch has more here on its plans to plug a fresh $100 million into European startups.

—–

Exits

Qualcomm has sold its Vuforia augmented reality platform for $65 million to PTC, a Needham, Mass.-based Internet-of-Things company. Recode has the story here.

RetailNext, an eight-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based developer of in-store data analytics for retailers, is acquiring the mobile content startup Pikato, according to VentureWire. No financial terms are being disclosed. RetailNext has raised $184.5 million in funding from a long list of investors, including Activant Capital Group, August Capital, and Star Vest Partners, shows CrunchBase. Two-year-old Pikato, based in Chicago, doesn’t appear to have raised institutional funding.

—–

People

Google Ventures has brought aboard former Symantec COO Stephen Gillett as an “executive in residence.” TechCrunch has more here.

YouTube star Michelle Phan and L’Oréal USA have ended their partnership after a little over two years, WWD reports. The pair created a massive line of beauty products that reportedly never met the expectations of L’Oréal. More here.

Who wore it better? The Evan Spiegel Vogue photo shoot edition.

EMC CEO Joe Tucci could make about $30 million for selling his company to Dell.

That was fast: Six months ago, Snapchat hired Marcus Wiley — former co-head of comedy development at Fox Broadcasting — to run original content programming for its Snap Channel. Now, it has “done a course correction on its original content strategy, opting to shut down its Snap Channel permanently, leading to the departure of a number of executives” including Wiley, reports Deadline. More here.

—–

Essential Reads

Facebook Messenger: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s app for everything.

New media companies — including BuzzFeed, Vice Media and Huffington Post — are increasingly venturing into the older medium of television.

Tesla’s batteries aren’t just for cars anymore. They’ll be used in battery farms at buildings around California.

—–

Detours

How America’s biggest for-profit college fleeced the U.S. military and taxpayers.

Soft rock is alive and well and, evidently, now called “yacht rock.”

Stephen Colbert shares rejected TED talks.

—–

Retail Therapy

The 21.5-inch iMac gets a major update.

A pomade for every occasion.

Happy Monday, everyone! Welcome back.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Company-wide layoffs are coming to Twitter this week, reports Recode.

—–

VC Jeff Clavier on Getting to the Promised Land

Last month, we talked with Jon Callaghan of True Ventures and marveled at the billion-dollar-plus return that his firm is poised to reap from leading the seed round of the wearable fitness company Fitbit.

But True isn’t the only venture firm for which Fitbit is a giant home run. During a recent sit-down with Jeff Clavier, founder of the venture firm SoftTech VC in San Francisco, he joked that as another investor in Fitbit’s seed round, he finds it hard not to take a daily interest in the share price of the company, which went public in June and is now valued at more than $7 billion. (Its lock-up period ends in December.)

More from that recent chat follows, edited for length.

You moved up to San Francisco from Palo Alto a couple of years ago. How’s it going? How many companies do you have up here now?

We have several dozen portfolio companies in San Francisco and three more in [nearby] Oakland. We started out in Palo Alto 11 years ago, then three years ago we started hanging out at [the San Francisco workspace collective] Founders Den and having weekly meetings there. By the time AOL kicked us out of its buiding in Palo Alto two years ago, there was no point in looking elsewhere because freaking Palantir [the private data analytics company] had killed the startup activity.

Meaning?

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Boostinsider, a year-old, San Francisco-based online platform company that lets brands pay influencers for shares on social media,  has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Fine Charm Ventures and Kyline Fortune, a new Silicon Valley fund led by ex-Twitter employees. TechCrunch has more here.

Cabify, a four-year-old, Madrid, Spain-based Uber competitor whose app enables users to request a high-end car with chauffeur or hail a taxi, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led Rakuten, with participation from previous investor Seaya Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Opsonix, a new, Cambridge, Ma. based company with technology to remove infectious microbes and toxins from circulating blood in a bid to treat sepsis and other infectious diseases, has launched with $8 million in Series A funding led by Baxter Ventures, with participation from Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. Xconomy has more here.

Rong360.com, a four-year-old, Beijing, China-based financial products search and recommendation engine, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series D funding, according to Chinese media reports. The company, founded by former PayPal China general manager Ye Daqing, has reportedly raised roughly $97 million previously, including from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Zero2IPO Venture and Pavilion Capital, which is a subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings.

Symphony, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based secure messaging platform backed by major Wall Street firms, announced today that it has raised $100 million round from a list of investors that includes Google. Google’s part in the investment was first reported last week, but now we know it was also joined by Lakestar, Natixis, Societe Generale, UBS and earlier backer Merus Capital. The company actually went looking for $50 million, but the demand was so great, it ended up doubling its original request, Symphony CEO David Gurle tells TechCrunch.

Womai.com, a six-year-old, Beijing, China-based online grocery store that’s backed by the state-owned food conglomerate COFCO, has raised a fresh $200 million in Series C funding led by Taikang Life Insurance Company and Baidu, according to China Money Network. The company had reportedly raised more than $100 million in funding previously, including from SAIF Partners and IDG Capital.

Wynd, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based startup that offers its software-as-a-service to restaurants to help them digitize their ordering, payment, and rewards programs, has raised $7.8 million in Series A funding (€7 million) led by Alven Capital, with Orange Digital Ventures also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Xpenditure, a four-year-old, Brussels-based startup that sells an expense management platform aimed at enterprises, SMEs and sole traders  has closed $5.7 million in Series A funding from a long line of individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Yunmake, a two-year-old, Hangzhou-based smart bike maker, has raised “tens of millions of RMB” (a seed amount in U.S. dollars) in Series A funding led by return investor Shunwei Capital, the investment firm led by Xiaomi chief executive officer Lei Jun. Other participants include Foxconn, Qualcomm, ZhenFund, Yinxinggu Capital and earlier backer Ricebank. TechNode has more here.

—–

New Funds

AngelList has a fresh, $400 million to invest in startups on its platform, care of one of China’s largest private equity firms. TechCrunch has much more here.

—–

Exits

In the largest tech deal in history by far, Dell and partners MSD Partners and Silver Lake agreed to buy EMC today for $67 billion, or $33.15 a share. Much more here.

Marvel, a U.K.-based startup that lets users turn sketches into mobile and web app “prototypes”, has acquired design and animation tool Plexi. Terms of the acquisition remain undisclosed but it sounds like an acqui-hire. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Keith Krach, who has been the chairman and CEO of the electronic signature company Docusign since January 2010, is stepping down as CEO, though he says he’ll remain chairman for three more years after a new CEO is brought aboard. DocuSign was most recently valued at $3 billion. Recode has the skinny here.

LinkedIn will soon give its employees “unlimited” vacation, plus 17 paid holidays, joining a reported 2 percent of companies that offer the same kind of alternative-vacation model. Business Insider has more here.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s new CEO under the company’s Alphabet restructuring, has made his first major wave of executive shuffles as CEO, promoting three top lieutenants on the critical ads and Android units. Recode has more here.

—–

Data

Before March, getting drone exemptions for commercial purposes from the FAA was much harder. Then things changed. Silk breaks out what’s happened over time and by sector here.

—–

Essential Reads

Computer science has for the first time become the most popular major for female students at Stanford University.

How WeWork, which saw $4.2 million in operating profit last year, convinced investors that it’s worth $10 billion. (Great reporting here, if you didn’t read this over the weekend.)

The traditional car market is as hot as ever. In California, though, where electric cars outpace electric plugs, sparks are flying.

—–

Detours

Searching for Bel Air’s biggest water waster. (We’re guessing it’s not resident Elon Musk.)

Five things in the new Steve Jobs movie that are completely made up.

Teenage Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai may be heading to Stanford to study politics.

—–

Retail Therapy

A snow helmet that’s more wearable computer than headgear.

Hello, beloved Friday!

No column today, but we’d suggest checking out a take on what’s happening in Silicon Valley by our former colleague, Dan Primack. We recently looked into new worries about the market, but he captures the broader sentiment well.

Have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here in a few days.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

After months of deliberation, the Obama administration has decided that it will not — for now — call for legislation requiring companies to decode messages for law enforcement.

Netflix is raising its prices again. Here’s why.

—–

New Fundings

CardFlight, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based company that enables app developers to more easily incorporate payment acceptance into mobile apps, has raised $4.2 million in funding from Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, ff Venture Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital, MATH Venture Partners, Plug & Play Ventures and individual investors. More here.

Clue, a two-year-old, Berlin-based app that helps women track their fertility cycles, has raised $7 million in Series A funding from Union Square Ventures and Mosaic Ventures. The company has now raised $10 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

EverSport Media, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based digital media network that distributes live and recorded sports broadcast content, has raised $4.2 million in funding from the German TV station ProSieben, Emil Capital and Third Wave Capital, as numerous angel investors. More here.

Glamsquad, a two-year-old, New York-based on-demand beauty company whose app lets users book hair blowouts and get their makeup done in the homes, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Lerer Hippeau Ventures, AOL’s BBG Ventures, Montage Ventures and Softbank. Glamsquad has now raised $24 million altogether. WWD has more here.

HipVan, a two-year-old, Singapore-based furniture and home accessories online retailer, has raised $3.4 million in Series A funding led by the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures, among other investors. Today has more here.

Nykaa, a 3.5-year-old, Mumbai, India-based online cosmetic and wellness retailer, has raised roughly $9.5 million in Series B funding led by TVS Shriram Growth Fund and Techpro Ventures, with participation from other investors, including the family office of Marico Industries chairman, Harsh Mariwala. Inc 42 has the story here.

Procyrion, a 10-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based company aiming to treat chronic heart failure with an implantable device that pumps blood, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from Fannin Partners, Scientific Health Development and undisclosed strategic and individual investors. More here.

Segment, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based, Y Combinator-backed startup that allows businesses to use a single API for event tracking in order to send data to hundreds of different tools and databases like Google Analytics, MailChimp, and Mixpanel, has raised $27 million in Series B funding. Thrive Capital led the deal, with participation from earlier backers Accel Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and former Goldman Sachs president Jon Winkelried. TechCrunch has more here.

Schoolguru, a three-year-old, Mumbai, India-based e-learning company that helps universities launch, run and manage online programs through its platform, has raised a little more than $3 million in Series A funding from unnamed individuals in India and the US. MediaNama has more here.

TVA Medical, a seven-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based medical device company developing minimally invasive therapies for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease, has raised $15 million in Series C funding led by Baxter Ventures, with participation from Boston Scientific Corporation and earlier backers Sante Ventures, S3 Ventures, TriStar Technology Ventures, among others. MedCity News has more here.

—–

New Funds

Three power players have entered into the VC business together. Stefan Jung, founder and MD of Rocket Internet Southeast Asia and formerly of VC firm Monks Hill Ventures; Rudy Ramawy, Google’s first country manager in Indonesia; and John Riady, director of the Lippo Group, an Indonesian super-conglomerate with more than $15 billion in business assets, have rolled out a $150 million venture fund in Jakarta, Indonesia called Venturra Capital. It plans to focused on the region, where mobile internet adoption is rising rapidly across a population of more than 600 million people. TechCrunch has much more here.

—–

Exits

Remote computing company LogMeIn is acquiring the password management service LastPass for $125 million in cash and plans to integrate its technology into a single offering. It isn’t clear whether seven-year-old, Fairfax, Va.-based LastPass ever raised outside funding. The Next Web has the story here.

—–

People

Makerbot CEO Jonathan Jaglom said yesterday that the company, now owned by parent company Stratasys, is laying off about 20 percent of its 400 employees. The move follows a previous round of layoffs that slashed the original workforce by 20 percent and saw the closing of three retail stores. More here.

The property developer who’s accusing Mark Zuckerberg of breaking a promise to introduce him to Silicon Valley’s elite just lost the lawyer who got him to the brink of trial. Bloomberg has the story.

—–

Essential Reads

Amazon yesterday announced the launch of its AWS Mobile Hub, a new tool that makes it easier for mobile developer to build the back-end processes for their apps.

Apple’s App Store has removed some root certificate-based ad blockers over privacy concerns.

Highly perseverant Jawbone is now working on an ingestible health-tracking sensor for its newest act.

—–

Detours

The 21 most dangerous foods in the world.

Elvis Costello reflects on four decades of reinvention.

In case you were curious, Daniel Craig says he’d rather slit his wrists than play James Bond again.

—–

Retail Therapy

Apple Pay is coming to Starbucks. And KFC. And Chili’s.

Underwater jet packs!

Hi, it is Thursday and we are off to another field trip! (Help!)

Hope you have a great day, everyone.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

This morning, Amazon opened an arts-and-crafts bazaar online that squarely takes aim at a niche but growing market dominated by the Brooklyn-based Etsy.

—–

Flightcar Raises Fresh $20.7 Million Amid Major “Restructuring”

Imagine a young startup where two of three founders are pushed out the door. Imagine that this same startup parts ways with its COO, its SVP of Finance, its VP of Guest Experience, its VP of Engineering, its VP of Marketing and roughly half its other full-time employees, all within a period of months. Not last, imagine that the remaining cofounder, who is 20, has never before held a full-time job.

Sound like a great company into which to sink a small fortune? Investors in Flightcar, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup, apparently think so. In fact, Priceline Group, Tencent Holdings, and earlier backers GGV Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Softbank Capital and First Round Capital came together last month to quietly provide the company with $20.7 million in Series B funding. It has now raised roughly $40 million to date.

Flightcar was formed to address a very real problem: the hassles involved in airport parking. The idea: while you’re away on a trip, someone else arriving into town can use your ride. You leave your car with a valet and skip the process of schlepping back and forth to a far-flung lot. You also avoid parking fees that can add up fast. Your car, meanwhile, gets insured against theft and damage, it’s thoroughly cleaned, and you’re given a little cash for every day your car was rented.

The idea isn’t foolproof for many reasons, including growing competition from Uber. But Flightcar had been ticking along just the same, striking deals with three airports – San Francisco, Boston, and L.A. — by September of last year and raising $13.5 million in the process.

Then, encouraged by investors to start scaling as rapidly as possible, the figurative wheels began to come off.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Binary Fountain, an 11-year-old, McLean, Va.-based company that makes health care reputation management and patient experience analytics software, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by HLM Venture Partners. Earlier backers Providence Health & Services and Pioneer Venture Partners also joined the round. More here.

CareSync, a four-year-old, Tampa, Fla.-based maker of software and services for chronic disease management, has raised $18 million in Series B funding from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Greycroft Partners and Harbert Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers Tullis Health Investors, Clearwell Group, CDH Solutions and the company’s founder and CEO, Travis Bond.

Hixme, a year-old, Agoura Hills, Ca.-based online platform that helps employers transition to a new type of market-based private benefit exchange, has raised $10.14 million in Series A funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. More here.

Hubba, a three-year-old, Toronto, Ontario-based B2B product sharing and discovery platform, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Real Ventures, with Kensington Venture Fund, and various funds managed by Canso Investment Counsel. Earlier backers Brightspark Ventures and numerous angel investors also joined the round. More here.

Hulbee, a seven-year-old, Switzerland-based semantic search company that launched a consumer search engine in the U.S. this August, has raised $9 million in angel funding. The company isn’t disclosing those investors’ names. TechCrunch has more here.

Pypestream, a months-old, New York-based messaging app designed to connect organizations with their customers and employees, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by WGI Group and Jonah Goodhart, the co-founder of Moat. TechCrunch has more here.

Quartet Medicine, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based developer of treatments for chronic pain and inflammation, has added $6.25 million to its Series A funding, bringing the total round to $23.25 million. Investors include Atlas Venture, Novartis Venture Funds, Partners Innovation Fund, Pfizer Venture Investments, Remeditex and two undisclosed Shanghai-based strategic investors. More here.

Reflektive, a year-old, San Francisco-based employee engagement and performance platform, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz. We’ve written more about the deal here on TechCrunch.

Scalock, a months-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that wants to secure the burgeoning container space, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from TLV Partners, a new fund launched earlier this year by veterans of the Israeli VC scene Rona Segev and Eitan Bek. TechCrunch has more here.

Skurt, a year-old, L.A.-based on-demand rental car delivery service, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding led by Upfront Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

New Funds

Formation8 Partners Hardware Fund I LP has been renamed Eclipse Ventures Fund I LP, according to a filing flagged by Venture Capital Dispatch. The outlet says the fund — which has closed with $125 million, according to its sources — still appears to be under the umbrella of the San Francisco venture firm Formation 8. You can check out that new SEC filing here.

—–

IPOs

Hit or miss? Data storage rivals see the IPO of flash storage company Pure Storage very differently, reports the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

—–

Exits

Dell is reportedly in talks with EMC over a possible merger.

—–

People

Harvard, Goldman Sachs, venture capitalist and now fugitive. The WSJ digs into the strange story of Ifty Ahmed.

Sources tell Reuters that an IP address belonging to Lyft CTO Chris Lambertwas used to access a security key that was later employed in a breach of Uber driver data.

Elon Musk has now hinted at a Tesla Model Y with falcon-wing doors. Ars Technica has more here.

—–

Essential Reads

With Seattle’s tech scene booming, it’s begun looking to the Bay Area as a cautionary tale.

—–

Detours

“Extreme poverty” should fall below 10 percent of the world’s population for the first time this year.

Every conversation between a parent and a child.

Smartphone battery myths, explained.

—–

Retail Therapy

Slim house.

It is Tuesday! Hope yours is off to a good start.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Microsoft is holding a big hardware event right now. You can check out a live stream here.

Europe’s highest court just struck down an international agreement that could make it a lot harder for global technology giants like Amazon and Facebook to collect and mine online information from their millions of users in the 28-member European Union.

—–

A Survey on Diversity, of Lack of It, at Venture Firms

The Venture Capital industry is stuck in yesteryear – the same people, living the same lives and having the same experiences making largely the same decisions. This sameness may have been a strength but is now creating blind spots. For every idea we fund, how many great ideas don’t even get a sounding board because we can’t relate to the problem or the entrepreneur? How much better off would we be if we had a larger lens from which to take bets on a broader class of entrepreneurs and ideas? My suspicion is greatly.

So begins an op-ed by venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya about some research that his firm,Social + Capital, has just produced in concert with The Information on the state of diversity in venture capital.

You may think the results can’t possibly surprise you, given venture capital’s stubbornly persistent reputation as a bastion of largely white, privileged men who’ve attended top universities and gone on to land plum operating assignments or start their own venture-backed companies on their path to becoming VCs.

You’ll still be taken aback.

According to the organizations’ conclusions, fully 92 percent of senior investment team members at top venture firms are men, and 78 percent of them are white. More shockingly, fully 21 of the 71 most active U.S. venture firms – that’s 30 percent — employ only white “leaders,” as they’re called in the study.

Even compared with tech giants — many of which have been called out for terrible gender and diversity numbers — the venture firms look lousy in this rendering.

Take Microsoft, where just 17 percent of employees are women. That puts Microsoft behind Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, where 23 percent, 25 percent, and 28 percent of employees are women, respectively. Meanwhile, at venture firms, just 8 percent of senior VCs are women.

As for ethnicity, venture firms don’t score quite as terribly, as long as you’re willing to overlook that the 71 firms employ just four black people who happen to be men. (Given that 12 percent of the American population is African-American, you should not overlook this.)

Says Palihapitiya in his op-ed, “The bottom line is that the VC community is an increasingly predictable and lookalike bunch that just seems to follow each other around from one trivial idea to another.” To “fund the big ideas of our day,” he continues, “we need to improve the decision making — or change the decision makers within our industry.”

For a link to the diversity data collected from VCs; the rankings; and Palihapitiya’s full op-ed,click here.

To download an Excel file of all the data, click here.

If you want to complain to Palihapitiya about these findings, which, it should be noted, rank Social + Capital as the most diverse venture firm among those managing more than $1 billion in assets, you can find him here on Twitter.

—–

New Fundings

90min, a four-year-old, London-based contributor-driven football media platform (it relies largely on unpaid, volunteer writers), has raised $15 million in new funding from the German media group ProSiebenSat.1 Media, with participation from earlier backers Battery Ventures, Dawn Capital and Gemini Ventures. The company has now raised $39 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Breakout Labs, the three-year-old, San Francisco-based program of Peter Thiel’s philanthropic organization, the Thiel Foundation, has announced funding for four new companies owing to their discoveries in biomedical, chemical engineering, and nanotechnology. You can see the list here.

Canva, a three-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based online design platform that makes creating quality professional graphics easier for non-technical users, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Felicis Ventures. The deal values the startup at $165 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Code42, the 14-year-old, Minneapolis-based developer of the Crashplan enterprise backup tool, has raised $85 million in new funding co-led by JMI Equity and New Enterprise Associates, with participation from earlier backers Accel Partners and Split Rock Partners. The company has now raised $137.5 million over two rounds. TechCrunch has more here.

EverCharge, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based smart electric vehicle charging company for multi-tenant properties, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding led by the hardware-focused venture fund Bolt. More here.

ezCater, an eight-year-old, Boston-based online marketplace for business catering, has raised $28 million in Series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers. The round brings ezCater’s total funding to $35 million. More here.

Flixel, a four-year-old, Toronto-based company that enables users to create cinemagraphs (a still photo with a portion of seamless and infinitely looping motion), has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by Extreme Venture Partners, with Cranson Capital Securities and business angels also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Frame.io, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based startup that improves the collaboration process around video production, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by Accel Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Hi, everyone, hope you had a fun weekend.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

The U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations agreed this morning to the largest regional trade accord in history, a model that could tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. More here.

Jack Dorsey, cofounder of Twitter and Square, was officially named Twitter’s permanent CEO this morning. As readers know, Dorsey is also CEO of Square, which will be going public in the not-too-distant future. Other changes announced this morning: Adam Bain, the company’s president of global revenue, was just promoted to COO and former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down from the board. More here.

—–

Much Ado About Peeple

“Imagine every positive and ugly opinion about you— from your mother to that awkward co-worker you rejected at the company Christmas party— centrally located on one online profile. Sound scary? It is.”

That’s the way people are characterizingPeeple, a year-and-a-half-year-old, Calgary-based company whose app is currently being beta tested by 35,000 people yet has garnered an almost endless stream of publicity since being described last week in the Washington Post as “terrifying.”

Peeple lets people rate other people on a scale of one to five stars, as well as to write a review explaining the rating. But it’s not the first outfit to take a swing at encouraging people to present a picture of other people. In fact, that quote above? It was written by former TechCrunch writer Evelyn Rusli in a 2010 review of a similar app called Unvarnished that also used a five-star rating system and invited people to explain the rating.

You may not remember it, because Unvarnished didn’t work, and its path strongly suggests that Peeple may head in the same direction.

Let’s start with what went wrong at Unvarnished, which, like Peeple, was widely vilified in the press at its launch — so much so that it changed its name to Honestly six months after its public debut.

Honestly co-founder Pete Kazanjy — who later remodeled the San Francisco company into a recruiting startup called TalentBin and sold it to Monster  — says Honestly ran into a number of obstacles in its attempt to become an enduring reputation management site.

First, as you might imagine, there’s was a disconnect between the people who were being rated and the users who were doing the rating (anonymously, it should be mentioned).

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Draper James, a six-month-old, New York-based American South-inspired lifestyle brand co-founded by actress Reese Witherspoon, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Forerunner Ventures, with participation from Stone Canyon Industries and JH Partners. The company has now collected $17 million from investors altogether. Forbes has more here.

Neumob, a 1.5-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based service that helps mobile app developers get their in-app content to users faster, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by Accel Partners, with participation from Shasta Ventures, Eniac Ventures and Lightbank Ventures, as well as private investors, including RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser. The round follows a $2.3 million seed round earlier this year. TechCrunch has more here.

Peaxy, a three-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based software provider that enables data access and supports advanced analytics across the enterprise, has raised $15 million in Series B funding from a gaggle of individual investors, including microprocessor pioneer Federico Faggin. Peaxy has now raised $32 million altogether. SiliconAngle has more here.

ReplyBuy, a 4.5-year-old, Scottsdale, Az.-based company that enables sports fans to buy tickets to events via SMS messages, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Mrtnz Ventures, Enspire Capital, Kosinksi Ventures, SEAG Ventures and individual angels. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

RunTitle, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based online marketplace for information about mineral ownership, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Founders Fund, with participation from Deep Fork Capital and return backer Austin Ventures. More here.

YouNow, a four-year-old, New York-based social network that connects audiences and broadcasters in real time, has raised $15 million in new funding co-led by earlier backers Venrock and investor Oren Zeev, with participation from Comcast Ventures. The company has now collected $30 million altogether from investors, including Union Square Ventures, which led its Series A round in 2013. We’ve written up much more about it here.

—–

New Funds

Fidelity Biosciences and the tech venture group of Devonshire Investors — both affiliates of Fidelity Investments — have merged to form F-Prime Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.

Octopus Ventures, the 16-year-old, London-based venture fund, is launching a new $140 million (£92 million) growth-stage fund to back the most promising companies in its portfolio as they mature. It’s called Octopus Opportunities, and the firm says investments will range from £250,000 to £25 million. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

Exits

The team behind Endaga, a 1.5-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based startup that focused on creating locally-owned, small-scale, independent cellular networks to run by and for rural communities, has been acqui-hired by Facebook. According to CrunchBase, Endaga had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Kapor Capital, and Techammer. More here.

IBM just announced plans to acquire Cleversafe, an 11-year-old Chicago-based data storage vendor. Terms of the deal aren’t being dislosed. Cleversafe had raised roughly $100 million from investors, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include Alsop Louie Partners, In-Q-Tel, and New Enterprise Asssociates, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Gemini, the bitcoin exchanged started by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has finally received approval to launch from the New York State Department of Financial Services. More specfically, reports TechCrunch, the company is now allowed to operate as a chartered limited liability trust company, which is different and subject to stricter regulatory approval than a BitLicense, which is a new business license issued by the NYSDFS for businesses that deal with Bitcoin. More here.

—–

Essential Reads

L.A.-based Science created a popular culture app called Wishbone four months ago, and it’s already struck a chord with more than 3 million teenage girls. Business Insider has the story here.

LinkedIn might have to pay you money for spamming your email contacts.

Twitter has abandoned plans to expand into Uber and Square’s 1455 Market Street headquarters, potentially due to a hiring slowdown, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

—–

Detours

Happy Friday, dear readers! Hope you’re in for a terrific weekend.

——-

Top News in the A.M.

In a anti-competitive move that may irk its customers, Amazon said yesterday that it will no longer allow the sales of some competing media players, including Apple TV and Chromecast.

Credit reporting agency Experian says a data breach at one of its business units may have compromised the personal records of about 15 million people, including customers of T-Mobile. The information accessed included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and passport IDs.

And, in more good news: Crowdfunding site Patreon revealed earlier this week that it had recently been hacked, compromising the email addresses, usernames, and shipping addresses of its users. Now, hackers have dumped the data online, revealing the personal information of about 2.3 million users in the process.

—–

Aspiration, a “Merrill Lynch with a Conscience,” Gains Traction

As consumers, we can probably agree that bank profits are, well, gross. In the second quarter of this year alone, U.S. lenders wrung a record $43 billion from their customers.

It’s the kind of stat that a small but growing two-year-old, L.A.-based investment company called Aspiration is increasingly using to gain new customers. In the words of cofounder and CEO Andrei Cherny, Aspiration aims to be a “Merrill Lynch with a conscience.”

So far, the company is walking the walk. After toiling quietly for a couple of years to receive the necessary approvals, Aspiration now has its own low-risk mutual fund (managed by Emerald Asset Management on the East Coast) that its clients can begin funding with just $500.

Users don’t have to pay any management fees, either – zero – though they can opt to pay up to 2 percent of their assets under management if they so choose.

Aspiration also offers completely free checking and free ATM transactions, though again, customers are invited to pay for the service – up to $6 per month — if they see fit.

It’s a pretty good deal. Not only do customers enjoy being freed from onerous transaction fees but Aspiration pays 1 percent interest on checking accounts, while most traditional banks are currently paying out between .20 percent and .80 percent interest.

As if that weren’t enough, Aspiration is also donating 10 percent of its revenue to Accion, the larges nonprofit microloan provider, so that more low-income Americans can start businesses.

How it will all work to create a profitable business for Aspiration — freshly backed by $15.5 million — is the big question.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Dome9 Security, a five-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.based cloud security SaaS company, has raised $8.3 million in Series B funding led by ORR Partners, with participation from JAL Ventures, Pinnacle, Lazarus Israel Opportunity Fund and Opus Capital Ventures. More here.

Euroscreen, a 21-year-old, Belgium-based drug development company focused on women’s health, has raised 16 million euros ($17.8 million) in Series B funding co-led by SFPI-FPIM and Fund+ , with participation from Capricorn Health-Tech Fund and earlier backers Vesalius Biocapital II Partners, SRIW SA, and BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity. More here.

HonkMobile, a two-year-old, Toronto-based app that helps users find and pay for parking, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Impression Ventures, with participation from angel investors. More here.

Parola, a new, Israel-based collaborative music app, has raised $2 million in seed funding from angel investors, including Michael Cohen, a partner at Capital International; Yanki Margalit, founder of Innodo; and Miki Tunis, senior vice president of The Orchard (a Sony Music Entertainment company). Tech.eu has more here.

Pioneer Square Labs, a new, Seattle-based startup studio, has raised $12.5 million from 13 venture capital firms and over 50 angel investors to create and launch startups. Venture capitalist and Rover.com founder Greg Gottesman; super angel Geoff Entress; aQuantive co-founder Mike Galgon; and Madrona Venture Labs co-founder Ben Gilbert founded the company. Foundry Group led its new financing round, with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Greycroft Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron, Menlo Ventures, MHS Capital, True Ventures, Voyager Capital and Vulcan Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

ZeeMee, a 1.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based platform that wants to help students bring their college applications to life, has raised $5.8 million in Series A funding led by BlueRun Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

New Funds

AARP and J.P. Morgan Asset Management have just teamed up to form a $40 million AARP Innovation Fund to back startups that “are improving the lives of people 50-plus.” Fortune has more here.

Trident Capital, the 22-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based growth capital firm, is raising $200 million for a new fund, shows an SEC filing that states the first sale has yet to occur.

—–

People

A Santa Clara County judge sent a contract suit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg toward trial yesterday, ruling that emails from Zuckerberg, his assistant and his financial advisor raise the question of whether the billionaire reneged on promises he allegedly made in connection with a 2012 real estate purchase. “We are trying to ‘wow’ these schmucks so they will accept an offer for the home that is reasonable,” Zuckerberg’s financial advisor, Divesh Makan, wrote to the CEO’s assistant in late 2012. “The plan is to have [Zuckerberg] spend 15 [minutes] with them, make them feel special etc. Perhaps you can prepare [two] goodie bags as well.” In an email leading up to the first meeting with the property owner, Zuckerberg wrote, “Feel free to use meeting me as a negotiating carrot with them. That likely has real soft value to them and may make them more likely to want to give us a good deal.” The judge wrote the evidence “presents a triable issue of material fact as to whether Zuckerberg made the alleged promises without a then-present intent to perform.” The Recorder has the story here (subscribers only).

Russell Fleischer, previously a partner at Battery Ventures, has been promoted to general partner. Fleischer, who works out of the firm’s Boston office, focuses on later-stage and private-equity software deals; he joined Battery last year from HighJump Software, where he was CEO. Morad Elhafed, also based in Boston, has also been promoted at Battery, from principal to partner (the level below GP). Elhafed was previously an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

—–

Essential Reads

Two of Dropbox’s largest mutual fund investors have marked down the value of their holdings in the company by more than 20 percent in recent months, possibly reflecting faltering confidence in the company, valued at $10 billion at its last fundraising early last year. The Information has the story here (subscribers only).

A Florida state agency that had earlier ruled that an ex-Uber driver was an employee has reversed its decision after Uber appealed the case.

The New York Times tested out those controversial ad blockers that Apple began supporting with its iPhone operating system a couple of weeks ago. The results? For sites that contained mobile ads with a lot of data, load times “accelerated enormously” with the ad blockers turned on. The iPhone’s battery life also improved, but less dramatically. More here.

—–

Detours

What a life. R.I.P., Joseph Coffey.

A new study tracks some interesting differences between web and mobile tweeting.

Fifteen things you might not know about “Young Frankenstein.”

—–

Retail Therapy

“The Martian.” It opens today. Hip, hip!

October already? (Hope you’re having a great Thursday, everyone.)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Nest Labs just opened up its smart home technology to other companies.

A “terrifying” Yelp for people is coming. Maybe. If it gets funding. It’s called, ahem, Peeple. And as many of you will recall, we’ve kind of been down this path before (so don’t panic).

—–

Australia’s Biggest Tech VC Firm on What’s Happening Now

A couple of weeks ago, a three-year-old venture firm that’s focused on Australian entrepreneurs, Blackbird Ventures, announced an impressive $200 million for its second fund.

That’s nearly seven times the $30 million it raised for its debut fund. It also makes Blackbird the biggest tech-focused venture firm in Australia, even while its biggest bets, including the graphic design platform Canva, have yet to exit.

To better understand the firm, we talked with Blackbird cofounder Niki Scevak, who manages Blackbird with just one other GP and a venture partner. Scevak helped shine more light on the whole operation — and the broader landscape.

Much more here.

—–

New Fundings

Aceable, a three-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based education startup whose online courses include driver’s ed course work and standardized test prep, has raised $4.7 million in seed funding led by Silverton Partners, with participation from Floodgate Ventures, NextGen Angels and Capital Factory. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

BigPanda, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based data science platform that correlates IT data and alerts into consolidated insights for its customers, has raised $16 million in Series B financing led by Battery Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Mayfield. Geektime hasmore here.

Dolly, a two-year-old, Seattle-based company centered around on-demand moving services, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Maveron. The company has now raised roughly $10 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

General Assembly, a 4.5-year-old, New York-based company that offers classes, workshops, full-time immersive programs and online educational programming, has raised $70 million in Series D funding from Wellington Management and earlier backers, which include Institutional Venture Partners, Maveron, Jefferson Education Accelerator, Learn Capital Venture Partners, Rethink Education, Western Tech and Harmony Trust. The company has now raised $110 million altogether. The WSJ has more here.

Happn, a two-year-old, Paris, France-based location-based mobile dating app, has raised $14 million in Series B funding from Idinvest, with participation from Alven Capital, DN Capital, Raine Ventures and numerous angel investors, including Fabrice Grinda and Gil Penchina. TechCrunch has more here.

Lytmus, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based “flight simulator for technical talent”  — it’s an immersive environment where hiring managers can see candidates operating inside of a web-based virtual machine — has raised $7.2 million from New Enterprise Associates and Accel Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

NodePrime, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that aims to help service providers, SaaS players and online gaming companies reliably operate massive IT infrastructures, has raised $7 million in seed funding from Menlo Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Formation 8, Ericsson, Initialized Capital, Crosslink Capital and TEEC Angel Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Renovate America, a 5.5-year-old, San Diego-based company that partners with local governments to finance residential energy upgrades, has raised $90 million in new funding led by DFJ Growth with participation from Silver Lake Kraftwerk. The round eportedly values the company — which previously raised $85 million — at north of $500 million. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here.

SoFi, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace lender, has raised $1 billion in Series E funding led by the Japanese telecom giant SoftBank. Earlier investors also joined the round, including Third Point Ventures and affiliates of Third Point LLC; Wellington Management Company; Institutional Venture Partners; Renren; Baseline Ventures; and DCM Ventures. The company has now raised $1.42 billion altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Apple just added its an airplane executive to its board of directors, bringing on James Bell, former CFO and corporate president of The Boeing Company.

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch has just sued Hewlett-Packard in British court for $150 million, accusing the American tech company of making false and negligent statements about him and other former Autonomy executives following its takeover of the company. The New York Times has the story.

Last summer, the “unicorn” company Evernote parted ways with longtime CEO Phil Libin (who recently joined General Catalyst as a general partner). Now it’s parting with 47 employees, or 13 percent of its staff. More here.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is expected be named the company’s new permanent CEO as early as today, Recode reported yesterday. Dorsey will apparently continue to run Square, the payments company he founded where he’s also CEO.

—–

Data

Ninety venture-backed M&A deals were reported in the third quarter, 20 of which had an aggregate deal value of $5.1 billion. That’s up 39 percent compared to the second quarter and marks the strongest quarter for M&A exits with disclosed value this year, according to new data out from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. Things on the IPO front weren’t nearly as brisk, with 13 venture-backed IPOs raising $1.7 billion during the third quarter — a 55 percent drop in the number of offerings from the second quarter.

In fact, Renaissance Capital just released its third quarter IPO review and it’s u-g-l-y. The IPO market slowed to 34 deals altogether, down 43 percent year-over-year. More, a significant number of IPOs were pulled or delayed and, for the first time since 2011, average IPO returns were negative (-4 percent). Much more here.

—–

Essential Reads

Scientists are working on space-based solar panels.

With a new name and financial backing from Chinese billionaire Lu Guanqiu, electric-car maker Fisker Automotive may just have a shot at life after death.

—–

Detours

San Francisco’s housing shortage, illustrated through alarming Craigslist ads.

How to cancel your Apple Music subscription.

Half of U.S. freelance workers say they wouldn’t take a job, no matter what.

—–

Retail Therapy

Want waterfront views? We’ll get you your waterfront views. Asking price: $1.995 million.

Hi, all, happy Wednesday! We are racing off to an aquarium with 22 six-year-olds, but we’ll see you back here (bedraggled, we’re guessing) tomorrow.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Erm. Some Mercedes, BMW and Peugeot models consume around 50 percent more fuel than official results, a new study reveals.

—–

AboutLife Raises $3 Million Series A from Kleiner

There’s no shortage of services trying to drive traditional financial planners into extinction. Think Wealthfront, Personal Capital, Betterment and Intuit-owned Mint.com, among them.

Today, another company personal finance tools company is publicly joining the fray: aboutLife, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based eight-person startup that quietly raised $3 million in Series A funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers some time ago.

Founder and CEO Rajat Kongovi — a former project leader at Boston Consulting Group who later served as COO of the social network hi5 — says he decided to create the company after having his second daughter a few years ago.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Avant, a three-year-old, Chicago-based online marketplace for consumer loans, is raising $325 million in new equity funding at a valuation well north of $1 billion, reports Fortune. General Atlantic is lead the round, with participation from Balyasny Asset Management and earlier backers Tiger Global Management, August Capital, RRE Ventures and DFJ Growth. More here.

Adyen, a nine-year-old, Amsterdam-based multichannel payment company that outsources payment services to international merchants (customers include Facebook, Uber and Netflix), has raised an undisclosed amount of new funding from Iconiq Capital that values the company at $2.3 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

Base CRM a nearly six-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based sales platform, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from return backers, including Index Ventures. More here.

BeneStream, a four-year-old, New York-based company that moves qualified employees onto free government health insurance, has added $2 million to a previously closed Series A round from BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Sandbox Advantage Fund. The round total is now $6.26 million.

Credible, a three-year-old, San Francisco-base multi-lender marketplace for student loans, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Soul Htite, founder and CEO of Dianrong.com and cofounder of LendingClub; with participation from Prosper president Ron Suber; and investor Scott Langmack. TechCrunch has more here.

Farmigo, a six-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based online consumer marketplace that invites users to order farm-fresh groceries, then pick them up from local “food communities” like nearby schools or offices, has raised $16 million in new funding led by Formation 8, with participation from earlier backers Benchmark Capital and Sherbrooke Capital. Farmigo has now raised a total of $26 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Ibotta, a four-year-old, Denver, Co.-based mobile savings app, has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by billionaire Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape. TechCrunch has more here.

InfoWorks, a year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based automated big data management company, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from Knoll Ventures. More here.

Nuzzel, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that allows users to see the news that their friends share, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a long list of new investors, including Matter, the media-focused startup accelerator and fund backed by Knight Foundation; Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal; Arturo Duran, managing partner at IVA Ventures, and Craig Forman, partner at NextNews Ventures. Nuzzel had previously raised roughly $3.4 million from investors, shows CrunchBase data.

Origami Logic, a three-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based marketing data analytics platform, has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by Next World Capital, with participation from DAG Ventures and return backers Accel Partners, Icon Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company has now raised $49.3 million in total funding altogether.

PaperG, a seven-year-old, New Haven, Cn.-based company whose dashboard matches the creative content of advertisements to various ad formats, has raised $5 million in new funding from KLP Enterprise, Wavemaker Partners, WI Harper Group and AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley. More here.

PhageTech, a 1.5-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based maker of biosensors for the early detection of cancers, has raised $2.4 million in Series A funding co-led by Mark IV Capital and Black River Investments. More here.

ShopFully, a five-year-old, Italy-based app that helps drive consumers to physical retail stores via the digital equivalent of paper fliers, has raised €10 million ($11.1 million) from Highland Capital Partners. The company has now raised €20 million ($22.3 million) altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Swarm64, a three-year-old, Berlin-based company whose technology powers cloud-based computing, like real-time analytics and games, has raised € 7.1 million ($7.9 million) in new funding from Alliance Venture, Target Partners and Investinor. More here.

Teridion, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud-based networking company that aims to delivers a super-fast internet experience, has raised $15 million in Series B funding from JVP, Magma Venture Partners and Singtel Innov8. The company has now raised $20 million altogether. More here.

Therachon, a Nice, France-based biotechnology company aiming to treat achondroplasia, a genetic disease that is the leading cause of dwarfism in children, has raised $35 million in Series A funding. OrbiMed led the round, with participation from New Enterprise Associates and earlier backers Inserm Transfert Initiative and Versant Ventures. More here.

Triplebyte, an eight-month-old, San Francisco-based technical recruiting platform for Y Combinator startups, has raised $3 million in funding from Initialized Capital, Caffeinated Capital, SV Angel, Felicis Ventures and more than a dozen individual angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Tru Optik, a 2.5-year-old. Stamford, Cn.-based digital media audience intelligence company, has raised $1.7 million in funding from Progress Ventures and Alex Blum. More here.

—–

People

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said yesterday that Google is open to self-driving cars that can also be driven manually. “[I] think there’s always going to be pleasure in being able to hit the open road and enjoy that.” He then stressed that humans are the most unsafe part of driving and that the company’s intends to largely remove humans from the process.

Instacart, the three-year-old, grocery delivery startup – which hit “unicorn” status late last year when it raised $220 million at a reported $2 billion valuation – has hired a CFO for the first time in Ravi Gupta, long of KKR. More here.

Elon Musk says Tesla cars will reach 620 miles on a single charge “within a year or two,” and be fully autonomous in “three years.”

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden joined Twitter yesterday.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Amazon is building its own Postmates. It’s called Amazon Flex. More here.

At Apple, your trust means everything, the company reminds in an informational update to its privacy policy. The Washington Post breaks down what’s behind the update here.

—–

Early-Stage Investors Apply the Brakes

In June, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures penned a widely read post using data from the law firm Cooley that showed, in Wilson’s words, that seed and Series A deals were “more or less healthy” while Series B deals were “getting overheated” and Series C and later deals had “gone crazy.”

Something appears to be changing, suggests new data from the market research company Pitchbook. Seed and Series A deals aren’t just healthy. They’re slowing down. A lot.

Based on Pitchbook’s numbers, investors poured $1.95 billion into early-stage startups across 115 deals in the second quarter. As of Friday, we’ve seen just $300 million invested across 66 deals in the third quarter, and there isn’t much time left. The quarter ends tomorrow.