Happy Monday morning, lovely and talented readers! Apologies again about Friday’s abbreviated email. As one subscriber and friend wrote us in response, “Sh_t happens all the time.” Wrote another: DON’T EDIT IN THE CMS!” And a handy tip from a third, to use this tool, Lazarus; it saves everything you type into any web form. (Thank you!)

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Top News in the A.M.

Apple said this morning that sales for its newly announced iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are on track to beat last year’s sales for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which sold a record number of 10 million units during the first weekend they were on sale.

A new, 3,000-word Barron’s piece on Alibaba is predicting the stock will fall 50 percent — and that’s not even the worst of it.

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Reid Hoffman Goes Back to Stanford

You might wonder how, exactly, 13-year-old LinkedIn became a $25 billion company. It wasn’t the first social network. The company admits that, even today, people find it very confusing. Plenty of ambitious competitors have sprung up to take on the company. Yet they’ve all been smoked, eventually, by LinkedIn.

It’s a familiar story in the Bay Area, where many industry-dominating companies – from Uber to Airbnb to Facebook – are based. That’s no accident, says LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman. In fact, this fall, Hoffman is teaching a class at Stanford — his alma mater — on how startups like LinkedIn and the others grow into what he calls “scale-ups.”

Another word he’s introducing into the ever-ballooning vernacular of Silicon Valley: “Blitzscaling.” The idea: that to compete in the global, networked age, companies need to know how to out maneuver more competitors than ever, and they need to do it, crucially, by knowing how to scale lightning fast.

More here.

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New Fundings

Abra, a 1.5-year-old, Slovenia-based peer-to-peer remittance service built on top of the Blockchain, has has $12 million in Series A funding from Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures, and First Round Capital. The company has now raised $14 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Argus Cybey Security, a two-year-old Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that makes anti-car-hacking software, has raised $26 million in Series B funding from Magna International, Allianz SE and SBI Group, with participation from return backers Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Venture Capital and RAD Group cofounder Zohar Zisapel. Reuters has more here.

Body Labs, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based 3-D body visualization technology, has raised $4.1 million in new funding, shows an SEC filing flagged by VentureWire. The company had previously raised $2.2 million from FirstMark Capital and New York Angels. More here.

CureVac, a 15-year-old, Tübingen, Germa-based company that’s developing new, messenger-RNA therapies, has raised $225 million, including from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (The money isn’t new but it’s newly public information.) It’s also opening an office in Cambridge, Ma. Xconomy has more here.

Deepomatic, a 15-month-old, Paris-based company whose search engine indexes and identifies objects in an image in order to compare them with a database of objects, has raised $1.4 million from Alven Capital and business angels. TechCrunch has more here..

HouseCall, a two-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company that’s incorporated as Codified and that helps users connect with contractors in their local market, has raised $6 million led by August Capital, reports VentureWire. More here.

Ipsy, a nearly four-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based based online beauty community and cosmetics sampling service started by YouTube star Michelle Phan, has raised $100 million in Series B funding co-led by TPG Growth and Sherpa Capital. The company had previously raised just $3 million from investors, including 500 Startups and Crosscut Ventures. Variety has more here.

MoEngage, a 15-month-old, Bangalore, India-based company that provides user analytics and automated mobile marketing for some of India’s biggest mobile apps, has raised $4.25 million in Series A funding led by Helion Venture Partners, with participation from Exfinity Ventures and angel investors Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, the co-founders of Snapdeal. TechCrunch has more here.

Moff, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes a gesture-controlled wearable tech bracelet, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding from the Japanese gaing company Bandai Namco Entertainment, along with other participants Orso and TomyK. TechCrunch has more here.

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IPOs

Penumbra, an Alameda, Ca.-based medical device company, hopes to raise up to $122.4 million in an offering that is expected to price later this week. It will be the first IPO from the Bay Area in a month, reports the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Cambridge, Ma.-based Dimension Therapeutics also just filed for an IPO, aiming to raise cash to support its pipeline of potential gene therapies for hemophilia and rare diseases. Xconomy has the story here.

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Exits

Practo, a seven-year-old, Bangalore, India-based medical search portal that helps patients connect with doctors and clinics and recently raised $90 million in Series C funding, has acquired the Bangalore-based healthcare management firm Insta Health in a $12 million deal. According to Crunchbase, Insta Health had raised just $1.3 million in Series A funding from Inventus Capital Partners. More here.

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People

Archit Bhise starts today as an associate in the early stage consumer group of Redpoint Ventures. Bhise joins the firm from Wellframe, a company he cofounded while a student at MIT.

Her husband famously helped reboot Apple with the “Think Different” advertising campaign. Now Laurene Powell Jobs is starting a $50 million project to rethink high school. The New York Times has the story here.

John Krakcik, president of the online car-shopping service TrueCar, confirmed yesterday on Twitter that he is joining Google’s Self-Driving Car project later this month as its CEO, tweeting that “driving cars could save 1000s of lives, give people greater mobility [and] free us from things we find frustrating about driving today.” The WSJ has much more here.

Dealbook features a lengthy profile of investor-entrepreneur Micky Malka of Ribbit Capital, calling him a “rising force in Silicon Valley and one of the few Latin Americans to crack its upper echelon.” (StrictlyVC talked with Malka last summer about his concentrated bets on financial services and why he “doesn’t believe in diversification.”)

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Jobs

Lyft is looking to hire a business analyst in San Francisco.

Tumblr is looking to hire a director of business development. The job is in New York.

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Essential Reads

Indiegogo is getting ready for equity crowdfunding.

Coming soon: Etsy Manufacturing, a new service in the U.S. and Canada that matches sellers with small manufacturers.

How Ashley Madison hid its fembot con from users and investigators.

Virtual reality is at its make-or-break moment.

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Detours

The world’s most luxurious fashion show.

Just as you suspected. We are hard-wired for laziness.

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Retail Therapy

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Mercedes AMG GT S. 

Happy Thursday, everyone!

We’re getting super excited to see many of you in just seven days at our newest StrictlyVC event in San Francisco! Thanks to our wonderful sponsors, including Bolt and Ludlow Ventures, for their help; it’s going to be a fun night.:)

We’ve been in many meetings so no column today.

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Top News in the A.M.

There was a lot of Apple news to emerge from its big press event yesterday. We have all kinds of links for you if you missed any of it. Like:

The new Apple TV ships next month. Here’s what you’ll want to know first.

It also unveiled the iPad Pro. (It’s much bigger; you can take advantage of split-screen multitasking. You can also buy a new $99 Apple stylus or $169 smart keyboard by Logitech that also works like a smart cover, as you can see here.)

Apple also introduced a new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 S, in a rose-gold tone and significantly altered innards from their precedessors.

And it announced a 24-month payment plan with an option to upgrade for a new iPhone every year.

And animated iPhone photos.

To make things simpler, here’s everything that was unveiled at yesterday’s big event.

Here’s influential blogger John Gruber’s take on all the pretty new things, too.

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New Fundings

CartoDB, a three-year-old, New York-based mapping software startup, has raised $23 million in Series B funding led by Accel Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and earlier backers Earlybird Ventures and Kibo Ventures. The company has now raised $31 million altogether. TechCrunch hasmore here.

Chain, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose platform enables institutions to design, deploy, and operate blockchain networks, has raised $30 million in new funding from Visa, Nasdaq, Citi Ventures, Capital One Ventures, Fiserv and Orange, along with earlier backers Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures, Thrive Capital and SV Angel. Forbes has more here.

Delphinus Medical Technologies, a five-year-old, Plymouth Township, Mich.-based maker of breast ultrasound technology, has raised $39.5 million in Series C funding led by Venture Investors, with participation from Hopen Life Science Ventures, Waycross Ventures and earlier backers Arboretum Ventures, Beringea, and North Coast Technology Investors.

Discern, a 5.5-year-old, San Francisco-based analytics startup for investment professionals, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Artiman Ventures. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

EaseCentral, a nine-month-old, San Francisco-based online platform for insurance benefits brokers, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding led byFreestyle Capital, with participation from Upside Partnership, Metamorphic Ventures, Deep Fork Capital and Transmedia Capital. More here.

Fundbox, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based alternative lending startup, has raised $50 million in Series C funding less than six months after closing on a $40 million Series B round.  Spark Capital Growth led the round, with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Sound Ventures, and Entrée Capital, along with earlier backers Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Blumberg Capital and investor Shlomo Kramer. The company has now raised $108 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

HookLogic, an 11-year-old, New York-based marketing company, has raised $15.5 million in Series C funding co-led by Fung Capital and Mousse Partners, with participation from earlier backers Bain Capital Ventures and Intel Capital. Vator has more here.

Optimal+, a 10-year-old, Israel-based maker of testing software for the semiconductor manufacturing process, has raised $42 million in growth equity funding led by KKR, with participation from earlier investors Carmel Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital. Reuters has more here.

Orchard Platform, a two-year-old, New York-based technology and infrastructure platform for marketplace lending, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Victory Park Capital, Thomvest Ventures, and former Goldman Sachs president Jon Winkelried, as well as earlier investors, including Spark Capital, Canaan Partners, QED Investors, Nyca Partners, and Conversion Capital.

Paxata, a Redwood City, Ca.-based analytics startup whose technology lets business users clean up and transform data on their own, has raised $18 million in Series C funding led by EDBI, with participation from earlier backers Accel Partners India, Walden-Riverwood Ventures and Toba Capital. Fortune has more here.

Planet3, a 20-month-old, Washington, D.C.-based exploration-based learning company, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Switch, a Nevada-based data center developer. More here.

Plytix, 1.5-year-old, Copenhagen-based company that offers a way for brands to track the performance of their products across multiple web sites, has raised €500,000 in seed funding led by SEED Capital, with participation from unnamed angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

ThredUP, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based online consignment store, has raised $81 million in Series E funding led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, with participation from earlier backers Trinity Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Redpoint Ventures. FastCompany has more here.

Unified, a four-year-old, New York-based marketing and analytics startup, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by iHeartMedia, with participation from Advance Publications, Upfront Ventures, and Foundry Group. The company also raised a $10 million debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.

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New Funds

Gobi Partners, a 13-year-old, Shanghai, China-based venture firm, has closed a new RMB 600 million (about $94 million) fund dedicated to providing fledgling startups in China with early-stage funding. TechCrunch has more here.

Kalaari Capital, a nine-year-old, Bangalore, India-based early-stage venture firm focused on India-based startups, has raised a new $290 million fund — a marked increase from its last fund, which closed with $160 million. Times of India has more here.

Following the success of its first, $1.5 million venture fund for Dartmouth College alumni (raised with the help of 44 individuals), Boston-based Launch Angels is launching new venture funds for Yale College and University of New Hampshire alumni, too. Bostinno has the story here.

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IPOs

First Data Corp., the Atlanta-based payments technology company backed by KKR, is hoping to raise at least $2.5 billion in its upcoming IPO, reports Bloomberg. It will be the year’s largest offering if it succeeds. More here.

Square, the mobile-payments company, plans to stage its IPO in the fourth quarter of this year, say Bloomberg sources.

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Exits

Inrix, an 11-year-old, Kirkland, Wa.-based company that provides real-time traffic and other data to car companies, tech companies, and other enterprises, has acquired ParkMe, a six-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based startup that offers “smart parking” services to users, including finding and reserving parking spaces and paying for them by mobile. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. According to Crunchbase, ParkMe had raised $8.3 million from investors, including Fontinalis Partners and IDG Ventures. Inrix has meanwhile raised roughly $143 million from August Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Venrock, and Bain Capital Ventures, among others. More here.

Wave Broadband, a 12-year-old, Kirkland, Wa.-based gigabit fiber and broadband services company serving both business and residential users, has bought Layer42 Networks, a 16-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based company that provides businesses with Internet, colocation and data transport. (We don’t know the funding situation of either company.) More here.

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People

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says thermonuclear bombs could be key to starting a Martian real estate boom. (He’s not joking.)

Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen has left his position as VP of mobile at Uber and has moved over to London to become a general partner at VC firm Balderton. TechCrunch has more here.

NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway said on Bloomberg TV yesterday that if Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer “hadn’t announced she was pregnant with twins, she’d be out of a job within six months . . . I don’t think any board in America right now in technology that’s as visible as Yahoo wants to be seen as not leaning in.” Fortune has more here.

Michael Giampapa, who formerly worked in the tech investment banking group at J.P. Morgan, has joined Institutional Venture Partners as an associate.

Slack has a higher percentage of African-Americans in engineering than it does company-wide, it revealed yesterday among other diversity-related data. TechCrunch has more here.

Uber poached roughly 50 scientists from Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center earlier this year; now it’s trying to make nice by announcing a $5.5 million gift to the school. More here.

HP’s Meg Whitman has joined SurveyMonkey’s board of directors. VentureBeat has more here.
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Jobs

Yahoo is looking to hire a corporate development M&A analyst. The job is in Sunnyvale, Ca.

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Data

Tough times ahead? Venture capital funding was down by 50 percent last quarter in China. More here.

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Essential Reads

Well this kind of stinks: Intel is dropping its longtime financial support of the most prestigious science and mathematics competition for American high school students.

A California bill that would have curtailed drone usage, prompting the concern and considerable lobbying effort of tech companies like Amazon and Google, is now kaput.

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Detours

How the “High Times” became the New York Yankees of New York media softball.

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Retail Therapy

A shower head that uses 70 percent less water.

The Nike Cortez. They are back! Huzzah.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Get set for Applepalooza; it kicks off at 10 o’clock PST.

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Top News in the A.M.

The outlet 9to5Mac has a rundown of most of what it’s expecting from today’s big event. You can take a look here.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, Amazon has finally exhausted its supply of Fire Phones. GeekWire has more here.

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CrunchBase is Spinning Off, Backed by Emergence Capital

Eight-year-old, San Francisco-based CrunchBase looks to become a standalone company in the very near future. According to several sources, the unit, which calls itself the “definitive database of the startup ecosystem,” is finalizing a term sheet with the venture firm Emergence Capital Partners for an investment of between $5 million and $7 million.

AOL, we’re told, remains a “significant” investor.

It’s both the closing of a chapter for CrunchBase, and the beginning of a new one.

More here.

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New Fundings

Apperian, a six-year-old, Boston-based mobile applications management company, has raised $12 million in fresh funding led by the Malaysia-based firmFirst Floor Capital. Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, North Bridge Venture Partners, Intel Capital and CommonAngels Ventures also joined the round, which brings Apperian’s total funding to more than $39 million. TechCrunch has more here.

AveXis, a five-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based company that’s developing gene-therapy treatments for rare neurological disorders, has raised $65 million in Series D funding led by T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from several other new and returning investors. More here.

The Black Tux, a two-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based suit and tuxedo rental startup, has raised $25 million in new funding led by Stripes Group, with participation from earlier backers First Round Capital and Menlo Ventures. The company has now raised $40 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Chef, a seven-year-old, Seattle-based automation platform that transforms infrastructure into code, has raised $40 million in Series E funding led by DFJ Growth, with participation from earlier backers, including Battery Ventures, Citi Ventures, DFJ, Ignition Partners, and Scale Venture Partners. Hewlett Packard Ventures also joined the round as a strategic investor. TechCrunch has more here.

Cognition Therapeutics, an eight-year-old, Pittsburgh, Pa.-based pharmaceutical company focused disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by the investment syndicate Golden Seeds, with participation from Bios Memory SPV1, Cowtown Angels, Scale Investors, Dolby Family Ventures, Maine Angels, among others. Earlier backers, including Tech Coast Angels, also participated in the financing. More here.

Dronomy, a 1.5-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based drone tech startup, has raised $1.5 million in funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Lool Ventures, Oryzn Capital and numerous angel investors, including former Skype CEO Josh Silverman. Tech.eu has more here.

Eden, a six-month-old, San Francisco-base on-demand tech help service launched out of Y Combinator, has added new $2 million in funding to its now $3.3 million seed round. Investors include SV Angel, Redpoint Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Slow Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Index Ventures, and Canvas Venture Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

FeeX, a three-year-old, New York-based free service that identifies and tries to help consumers eliminate hidden fees in retirement and savings accounts, has raised $2.75 million in new funding led by Collaborative Fund. The money brings the total capital raised by the company to $12.1 million. TechCrunch hasmore here.

Freightos, a four-year-old, Hong Kong-based startup that automates the routing and pricing of international freight shipments, has raised $14 million in Series B funding from MSR Capital, Sadara Ventures, and earlier backers Aleph, Annox Capital, ICV and OurCrowd. The company has now raised $23.3 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Lalamove, a two-year-old, Hong Kong-based on-demand logistics service that lets users hail delivery vans with an app, has raised $10 million in fresh funding led by MindWorks Ventures, with participation from AppWorks, Crystal Stream, and individual investors. The company has now raised $20 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Lesara, a two-year-old, Berlin-based online fashion and lifestyle retailer that wants to make it easier for consumers in Europe to buy directly from factories in Asia, has raised €15 million ($16.7 million) co-led by Northzone and Vorwerk Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Mangrove Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Routehappy, a 4.5-year-old, New York-based platform that helps airlines organize and deliver content about their products wherever flights are displayed, has raised $3 million in new funding, shows an SEC filing. The company had previously raised $5.3 million from investors, including Contour Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, and Primary Venture Partners. More here.

ShapeShift.io, a 1.5-year-old, Zug, Switzerland-based universal and anonymous cryptocurrency converter, has raised $1.6 million from the Digital Currency Group and bitcoin angel investor Roger Ver, as well as other angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

According to Fortune, Amplify Partners, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based venture fund that invests in seed and Series A-stage enterprise deals, has closed its second fund with $125 million in capital – more than double the roughly $50 million it had raised for its debut fund. Amplify was founded by Sunil Dhaliwal, a former partner with Battery Ventures. StrictlyVC talked with him about his fund strategy — which isn’t changing, says Fortune — last year.

A new venture fund called Crystal Towers that’s backed by several Y Combinator founders and aims to invest in the most promising YC companies out of every batch, has raised a fresh $4.4 million, shows an SEC filing. As TechCrunch reported in July, the fund is not associated in any formal capacity with Y Combinator. It also appears to be raising capital in dribs and drabs; as of TechCrunch’s report, the fund had already raised $102.5 million over numerous filings.

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Exits

NEXTracker, a two-year-old, Fremont, Ca.-based solar startup, is being acquired by Flextronics for more than $245 million in cash. Flextronics may also pay $85 million more based on future performance targets. NEXTracker had raised more than $40 million from investors, including SJF Ventures, Tennenbaum Capital Partners, Sigma Partners and DBL Investors. Greentech Media has more here.

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People

Keith Bigelow, a Salesforce executive who was hired from SAP to oversee the launch of an ambitious new line of analytics software, is stepping down from the role to take on another unidentified project within the company, reports The Information. (Subscription required.)

Fresh off of a DUI and gun possession arrest last month, software pioneer John McAfee has decided that the presidency of the United States is his next logical step.

Gary Swart has been named a general partner of Polaris Partners.  Swart, the former CEO of oDesk, joined the firm as a venture partner one year ago, helping it to expand its presence on the West Coast.

Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list for 2015. (Yeah, we know how you feel, but you kind of have to read it.)

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Jobs

AAA is looking to add a strategy analyst to its new business ventures unit. The job is in Emeryville, Ca.

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Essential Reads

Inside Facebook’s $2 billion bet on Oculus Rift.

After five years, Instagram is ready to start cashing in.

Stem CentRx, a low-flying, Peter Thiel-backed “unicorn,” thinks stem cells could be the underlying cause of many cancers.

Periscope, Twitter’s live-streaming product, is developing an app for the new Apple TV that will enable viewers to watch livestreams on their TV.

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Detours

At Harvard, it’s show time.

Truly insane skateboarding.

A press release, brought to you by Rolls-Royce (and penned, evidently, by Danielle Steel).

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Retail Therapy

Two San Francisco homes with bona fide pools have hit the market — timed perfectly for weather that’s turned hot as Hades.

Hi, everyone, welcome back! Hope you had a terrific long weekend.

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Top News in the A.M.

Uber plans to enter 100 more Chinese cities over the next year, doubling a previous goal set just three months ago, CEO Travis Kalanick said earlier today.

Uber also just closed a $1.2 billion round of funding led by Chinese search giant Baidu. (Another day, another round . . .)

Amazon is planning to release a $50 tablet in time for the holidays.

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Emergence Capital, a Top Saas Investors, Zeroes In On Mobile Enterprise Applications

Since its founding a decade ago, Emergence Capital Partners has become among the startup industry’s most highly regarded investors in enterprise software-as-a-service companies.

Fact is, few firms are as specialized. But the approach has paid big dividends. In fact, in 2013, Emergence saw one of the industry’s biggest returns with the IPO of Veeva Systems, an enterprise cloud provider for life sciences companies. In 2008, Emergence invested $4 million in the startup. When it went public, it was valued at $4.4 billion, and the firm’s stake was transformed into more than $1.2 billion.

Veeva’s market valuation has since slid to $3.2 billion, and Emergence has since quietly shifted its focus from SaaS startups to mobile enterprise applications. Among its newest investments: ServiceMax, a company whose applications are used by field service workers who are tasked with, say, completing installations or warranty repairs.

“We think this is a bigger trend than SaaS has been to date,” says general partner Kevin Spain, who just published a detailed industry report that you’ll probably want to read.

We talked with him about it Friday. More from that conversation follows here.

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New Fundings

Azendoo, a five-year-old, Bordeaux, France-based internal collaboration platform for marketing teams, has raised $1.5 million from TheFamily,Thibault Poutrel and Arnaud Vinciguerra. TechCrunch has more here.

BlaBlaCar, a nine-year-old, Paris-based car-sharing website that connects drivers with empty seats and paying passengers to offset distance travel costs, is raising $160 million in fresh funding at a $1.2 billion post valuation, reports TechCrunch. Insight Venture Partners is leading the round with a syndicate that seems not to include earlier backers Index Ventures, Accel Partners, ISAI and Lead Edge Capital, says the report. More here.

CommonBond, a nearly four-year-old, New York-based online lending platform that connects borrowers with investors wiling to make student loans, has raised $35 million in funding led by August Capital, with participation fromNyca Partners and earlier backers Tribeca Venture Partners, Social + Capital Partnership, and individual investors like former Citi CEO Vikram Pandit. TechCrunch has more here.

IDNtimes, a 1.5-year-old, Surabaya, Indonesia-based media portal that hopes to become the equivalent of Buzzfeed for Indonesia’s younger generation, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from local venture capital firm East Ventures. Tech in Asia has more here.

Mia.com, a four-year-old, Beijing-based maternity and baby products flash sales platform, has raised $150 million in Series D funding led by Baidu, with participation from undisclosed earlier investors. China Money Network has more here.

NeoBear, a six-year-old, China-based early childhood education start-up that markets augmented reality toys and mobile apps, has raised $19 million in Series A funding led by GGV Capital, with participation from Qualcomm, Sinolink Securities, Haitong Kaiyuan Capital, and Liuhe Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Okta, a seven-year-old, San Francisco-based integrated identity and mobility management service, has raised $75 million round in new funding at a $1.175 billion valuation. (That puts it in “unicorn” territory, for those of you keeping track.) Earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners andSequoia Capital led the round, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Altimeter, Glynn Capital and other unnamed investors. The company has now raised $230 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Paymium, a four-year-old, Paris-based bitcoin marketplace, has raised €1 million ($1.1 million) in seed funding from French venture firms Newfund and Kima Ventures, with participation from Galitt, a payments consultancy and services firm, and a few angel investors. More here.

Smile Telecoms, an eight-year-old, Mauritius-based company that operates a broadband network in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda and plans to launch in the Democratic Republic of Congo early next year, has raised $365 million in debt and equity financing, including $50 million in equity from the Public Investment Corporation, which invests on behalf of the South African Government Employees Pension Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

TradeIt, a year-old, New York-based startup that allows users to quickly and easily place orders with their existing online brokerage accounts from any website or mobile device, has raised $4 million in funding from Valar Ventures and Citi Ventures. The company had previously raised an undisclosed amount of angel backing. TechCrunch has more here.

TVibes, a 10-month-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that aims to make it easier to store and share videos on its cloud-based platform, as well as to stream video live, has raised $1 million in seed funding from TV and movie producer Damien Collier and other private investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Zomato, a seven-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based restaurant discovery site, has raised $60 million in new funding, just five months after closing a $50 million round. (It has now raised $225 million altogether.) The Singapore investment company Temasek led this newest round, with participation from earlier backer Vy Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Just days after the third “main” fund of 500 Startups was officially closed with $85 million, the five-year-old Mountain View, Ca.-based firm has kicked things into high(er) gear, officially setting out to raise its fourth fund with a target of $200 million. In a more meaningful shift for the firm, it’s preparing to raise a growth fund for the first time, too. More here via TechCrunch.

Japan’s Beenos group, a global conglomerate with a business incubator, has announced a $60 million, Singapore-based fund for early-stage startups called BEENEXT. The fund intends to invest in internet and mobile-related businesses in India, Southeast Asia, Japan, and the U.S. Tech In Asia has more here.

Silversmith Capital Partners, a months-old, Boston-based growth equity firm launched by alumni of Bain Capital Ventures and Spectrum Equity, has closed its debut fund with an impressive $460 million, reports Fortune. More here.

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Exits

Microsoft announced this morning that it purchased the three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based cloud security firm Adallom for a reported $250 million. (Earlier reports pegged the sale at more than $300 million.) Adallom had raised roughly $50 million over three funding rounds. Its backers included Sequoia Capital, Rembrandt Venture Partners, and Index Ventures. More here.

—–

People

Docker has hired former Twitter CFO and Zynga treasurer Mike Gupta as its new CFO. More here.

Why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to read about how the poor spend their money.

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Jobs

Uber is looking for a head of business development for India. The job is New Delhi.

—–

Data

A record 290 companies in Central and Eastern Europe received private equity and venture capital investment last year, as capital invested by funds across the region soared 66 percent from 2013 to €1.3 billion ($1.45 billion). So shows new data released today by the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. Its full report is here.

—–

Essential Reads

Apple has ramped up its hiring of artificial intelligence experts, but it still faces obstacles to making its phones smarter, reports Reuters.

The products of consumer electronics maker Jawbone “have a beautiful design, but they’re expensive to manufacture,” one former executive tells The Information. “They can’t get out of this cycle of products that . . . don’t make money.” (Subscription required.)

Take a peek at someone using Facebook‘s new virtual assistant, “M.”

—–

Detours

Seven of Oliver Sack’s most fascinating case studies.

Six unique and inspiring timelapse videos.

Most cyclists hospitalized for injuries are over age 45, shows new research.

—–

Retail Therapy

Cumberland Street Townhouse, Brooklyn. (H/T: Uncrate)

Good Friday morning, everyone. Hope you have a wonderful, long Labor Day weekend. We have big ambitions to sit poolside and (finally) read Ashlee Vance’s wonderful biography of Elon Musk. We’ll see how that goes — wish us luck.:)

Also, you may have guessed this, but because of the holiday, we will not be publishing Monday.

See you soon.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Jessica Alba’s venture-backed business, The Honest Company, has just been smacked with a lawsuit that accuses five of its products of being “deceptively and misleadingly labeled.” Business Insider has more here.

—–

New Fundings

Databox, a three-year-old, Boston-based company whose app acts as a personal data assistant, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding led by Founder Collective, with participation from Accomplice and other investors. More here.

Letgo, a nine-month-old, Barcelona-based marketplace app lets users buy and sell items locally, has raised $100 million in Series A funding from the South African media company Naspers. The funding is a kind of a shock, considering Letgo has two million users, but Naspers has also backed OLX, the last company of Letgo founder Alec Oxenford. TechCrunch has more here.

Virool, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based programmatic video marketing platform, has raised $5 million in funding from Flint Capital, reports Crunchbase, which shows the company has now raised $11.6 million altogether. More here.

—–

New Funds

500 Startups, the Mountain View, Ca.-based venture firm, has closed its third global fund at $85 million, 15 percent below its original target after more than a year and a half of bumpy fundraising, founder Dave McClure tells VentureWire. The firm’s LPs include Tokyo-based Dentsu, Yahoo Japan and Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad, a venture firm backed by the Malaysian government.

—–

Exits

Amazon is acquiring Elemental Technologies, a nine-year-old, Portland, Ore.-based backend mobile video service. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but The Information pegs the price at $500 million in cash. Elemental had raised roughly $45 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its venture investors include General Catalyst Partners, Voyager Capital, Steamboat Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Docstoc, an 8.5-year-old electronic document sharing service that was acquired by Intuit for an undisclosed amount in late 2013, is now being shut down by Intuit. TechCrunch has more here.

Good Technology, the nearly 20-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based mobile device management company that had repeatedly tried and not gone public, is being acquired by Blackberry in a $425 million cash deal. (That’s roughly the amount it raised from every VC in Siicon Valley over the years.) More on the ahead-of-its-time company and the broader deal here.

Microsoft is acquiring VoloMetrix, a four-year-old, Seattle-based service that specializes in analyzing organizational performance using anonymized data it gathers from across a company’s corporate communications systems. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. VoloMetrix had raised roughly $17 million from Split Rock Partners and Shasta Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Top mortgage analyst Abhishek Mistry has quit JPMorgan to work on his startup, Mixcity, which creates software for DJs. (It’s looking for funding, too.) Bloomberg has more here.

Sean Cunningham, a director at Intel Capital for 15 years, is joining Trident Capital Cybersecurity as a managing director; he joins other managing directors Alberto Yépez and Don Dixon.

Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz tells those who may be worried about a frothy market: “I’ll bet any bubble believer everything that I have that Nasdaq won’t drop 80 percent in the next 5 years.”

Happy Thursday, everyone!

If you were looking for yesterday’s issue — we know some of you had trouble finding it — it’s here.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

According to Bloomberg, Twitter’s board is meeting today to discuss results from its CEO search, which has gained urgency as executives exit. The news has its shares trading up this morning.

—–

For Top VCs, a Demo Day to Call Their Own

For the second time in its two-year history, in a small space that’s easy to miss on a leafy Palo Alto street, the boutique venture firm Pejman Mar brought together seven startups yesterday to present their fledgling ideas to some of the best early-stage investors in the startup industry.

Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital was there, as were investors Jeff Clavier, Manu Kumar, and Kent Goldman. There was also a contingent of bearded VCs, who’d driven over from their respective Sand Hill Road firms. “It looks like we dressed each other today,” joked one to another who was wearing a similar shirt.

The investors had come partly because the presenting teams all have ties to Stanford. Some of them haven’t graduated. Others have advanced engineering degrees. Almost all camp out regularly at Pejman Mar’s simple but cheery offices, batting around ideas and, sometimes, receiving a $15,000 to $25,000 convertible note from Pejman Mar in the process.

Yet another attraction for the VCs: an afternoon that’s refreshingly intimate by current standards. Yesterday, there were no more than 60 people gathered, and at least a third of them were involved in the startups that were pitching. (Most seem to be launching the alpha versions of their products right now.)

To continue reading, click here.

—–

New Fundings

ADC Therapeutics, a four-year-old, Lausanne, Switzerland-based company that’s developing antibody drug conjugates and non-antibody drug conjugate products, has raised $80 million in new funding from earlier backers Auven Therapeutics and AstraZeneca, along with undisclosed new European and U.S. investors. More here.

Bubl, a four-year-old, Toronto-based maker of a 360-degree camera for capturing spherical panoramas, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led bySamsung Ventures and J-Tech Capital, with other unnamed investors also participating in the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Netskope, a three-year-old, Los Gatos, Ca.-based cloud app analytics and policy enforcement company, has raised $75 million in Series D funding led by Iconiq Capital and other prominent Silicon Valley companies. The company has now raised more than $130 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch hasmore here.

Vestiaire Collective, a six-year-old, Paris, France-based pre-owned luxury clothes marketplace, has raised $37 million in Series D funding led by the French investment firm Eurazeo, with participation from previous backers Idinvest Partners, Condé Nast, Balderton Capital and Ventech. The company has now raised roughly $67 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Wrap, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile-first marketing and commerce platform founded by serial entrepreneur Eric Greenberg (he founded Scient in the late ‘90s), has raised $12.7 million in Series B funding led by Raine Capital and ProSieben. Other participants in the round includeChristopher Crain of Crain Communications, Dream Incubator, FF Angel, Salesforce Ventures and Transmedia Capital. The company has now raised $18.7 altogether. More here.

Zivame, an four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based online lingerie store, has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Zodius Technology Fund and Khazanah Nasional Berhad, a fund belonging to the Malaysian government. Previous backers Unilazer, IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to more than $45 million. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

Exits

It’s official. AOL is buying Millennial Media for $238 million after accounting for debt. (Forbes calls it a “mercy killing.”) TechCrunch has more here.

—–

People

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has promoted one of its general partners, Wen Hsieh, to managing member, reports Fortune. The additional title lets Hsieh approve investments across the firm.

Anthony Pompliano, a product manager that led growth and engagement for Facebook pages, has joined Snapchat to lead a new growth team. TechCrunch has more here.

Twitter has promoted Jeff Seibert, who’s been running its developer products for more than year, to be its new head of consumer product. Recode has more here.

The FAA has named two new officials to lead its effort to incorporate commercial unmanned aerial systems, or drones, into the U.S. airspace. Reuters has more on who they are here.

—–

Jobs

Omidyar Technology Ventures is looking to hire an investment associate. The job is in Redwood Shores, Ca.

—–

Essential Reads

Google said that starting in November, it will begin penalizing sites that show these “please install our app” ads — the kind that obscure what’s on the page — by deeming them less mobile friendly. Critics say the move isn’t fair.

A California judge has approved a $415 million settlement between tech workers and Intel, Google, Apple and Adobe Systems, which were accused of conspiring to prevent the poaching of each other’s employees.

—–

Detours

We’re probably getting enough sleep after all, suggests new research.

Israel’s favorite Palestinian calls it quits.

Beautiful lattes.

—-

Retail Therapy

Tesla’s Model 3 is coming . . . in two years. But you can pre-order yours in March!

Happy Wednesday!

Thank you very much to the many of you who wrote yesterday with help for our new TechCrunch “Founders’ Questions” column. You’re such a great crew.

Also, our next StrictlyVC Insider event is coming up in about two weeks. Woot! We released a handful of tickets to those of you on the waitlist last night. Hopefully, we can let a few more of you into the event, too, over the next week or so. We wish we could let in many more guests, but the Autodesk Gallery has attendee limits and for good reason, we’re guessing. Thanks again to our friends and sponsors at Bolt, Ludlow Ventures, and GLG for all of their help; we couldn’t do it without you.

(No column today, btw.)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

There’s a new, long-awaited feature coming to the new Apple TV: universal search. Buzzfeed has the story here.

Amazon is expanding its “Dash Buttons” program, it announced this morning. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

New Fundings

Aquicore, a three-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based company that makes analytics software for energy efficiency management, has raised $3.1 million in seed funding led by 1776, an incubator in Washington. (We mentioned its new fund to you yesterday.) TechCrunch has more on the deal here.

Area360, a three-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based mobile location technology platform (it improves visitor experiences at museums, hospitals, airports and the like using location data), has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding led by Madrona Venture Group. GeekWire has more here.

Capillary Technologies, a seven-year-old Singapore-based social CRM company, has raised $45 million in Series C funding led by Warburg Pincus, with participation from returning investors Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners. The company has now raised $79.1 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Crosswise, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that provides cross-device mapping data, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Pereq Ventures, with participation from ZhenFund, Emerge, and earlier backers Giza Venture Capital, OurCrowd and Horizons Ventures. MediaPost has more here.

DecisionSim, a 5.5-year-old, Chadds Ford, Pa.-based maker of health care simulation-based learnings tools, has raised $1.85 million in Series A funding led by Philadelphia-based Rittenhouse Ventures, with participation from Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Philadelpia Business Journal has more here.

Exosome Diagnostics, a seven-year-old, New York-based company that develops and commercializes blood-based cancer molecular diagnostics for disease monitoring, has raise $17.6 million in Series B-1 funding that brings the entire round to $44.7 million. Participants in this newest financing included Forbion Capital Partners, NGN Capital, Arcus Ventures, Tiger Global Management, and CD Ventures.

Instabridge, a three-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based startup whose app helps users find solid, free WiFi spots, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Stockholm-based Moor (the fund of Rovio co-founder Kaj Hed) and London-based Balderton Capital.  The round also included Creandum and Swisscom Ventures. More here.

InVenture Capital, a four-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based provider of small loans by cellphones that’s targeting the developing world, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Data Collective, with participation from Collaborative Fund, Female Founders Fund and individual investors.

Lengow, a six-year-old, Nantes, France-based company whose software helps e-commerce sites centralize, optimize and track the distribution of their product catalogues, has raised €10 million ($11.2 million) in Series B funding from Serena Capital, BPI, and earlier backer Alven Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

NewsCred, a seven-year-old, New York-based content marketing platform, has raised $42 million led by FTV Capital, with participation from earlier backers FirstMark Capital, InterWest Partners, and Mayfield Fund. The company has now raised roughly $90 million altogether. Techcrunch has more here.

Qnovo, a five-year-old, Freemont, Ca.-based company that develops electronic management systems for lithium ion batteries, has raised $8.6 million in Series B funding from Intel Capital, RockPort Capital, US Venture Partners and Blue Run Ventures. More here.

Quovo, a six-year-old, New York-based data aggregation and analytics platform, has raised $4.75 million in funding led by Fintech Collective, with participation from numerous angel investors. The company had earlier raised $1.5 million in seed funding. WealthManagement has more here.

Saucey, a two-year-old, L.A.-based on-demand alcohol delivery startup, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from Structure Capital, Altpoint Ventures, T5 Captial, HashTagOne and numerous celebrity investors, including Scooter Braun. TechCrunch has more here.

Tanium, the eight-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based security and systems management startup run by father and son David and Orion Hindawi, has raised $120 million in new funding led by TPG and Institutional Venture Partners. The round comes seven months after the company raised $52 million from Andreessen Horowitz (which had also made an even earlier bet on the company). More here.

Universal Avenue, a year-old,  Stockholm, Sweden -based startup that lets customers hire salespeople (or “brand ambassadors”) on demand, has raised $5 million in funding from Northzone and Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Moor (see earlier mention above). TechCrunch has more here.

Voalte, a seven-year-old, Sarasota, Fla.-based startup offering secure communications programs for doctors and nurses with smartphones, has raised $17 million in Series D funding led by Ascension Ventures and Cerner Capital, with participation from earlier backer Bedford Funding.

—–

New Funds

Billionaire Sajjan Jindal of JSW Steel, India’s largest private steel producer, has formed a venture capital fund called JSW Venture Fund. Gaurav Sachdeva, formerly the general manager of strategic investments at Brand Capital, has been hired to run it, alongside Jindal’s son, Parth, who is reportedly enrolled at Harvard Business School currently. The Economic Times has the story here. The fund, it says, will not be a strategic investor; rather, it will look to fund a broad array of startups and sectors.

—–

People

Michael Bell, an Intel VP who helped lead the company’s push into the Internet of Things and who’d previously spent many years as an executive at both Apple and Palm, has has left Intel join Silver Spring Networks as CEO. The WSJ has more here.

Contrary to reports, Forbes wants you to know that singer-investor Bono is not a billionaire.

Josh Miller, 24, who sold his company, Branch, to Facebook in January of last year for a reported $15 million, announced last week that he was leaving the social network for something new. That endeavor, he disclosed yesterday, is as the White House’s first Director of Product. TechCrunch has more here.

Former MoPub CEO Jim Payne has joined Accel Partners as an entrepreneur-in-residence. The idea: to start his next company there. Fortune has more here.

—–

Essential Reads

Google‘s driverless cars are getting involved in minor accidents because they observe traffic laws to the letter — and people don’t.

Hulu is starting a commercial-free version of its streaming service to rival Amazon and Netflix.

China‘s economic uncertainties. How bad is it?

—–

Detours

The 11 greatest moments Apple’s ever had on stage.

A behavioral scientist on how you see you versus how everyone else sees you.

Time travel to-do list.

—–

Retail Therapy

Gateway founder Ted Waitt just put his Hollywood Hills home on the market for $20 million. To us, it looks like a very nice prison from the outside. But the views? Spectacular.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Two quick things. First, happy birthday to one of our most beloved readers.:)

Second, on a programming note, we’re starting a Founders’ Questions column over at TechCrunch. The idea: to answer entrepeneurs’ burning questions or, more aptly, for you — sophisticated investors, entrepreneurs, attorneys (and more) — to offer your insights. This week’s question: “How do you establish a valuation for a nascent SaaS startup when there are no similar products?” Thank you in advance!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

U.S. and European markets are dropping again after a report from China showed activity in August slipped to a three-year low.

—–

IDG Ventures Closes Third Fund with $120 Million

IDG Ventures, an early-stage venture firm that was among the first VC outfits to plant its flag in San Francisco instead of Silicon Valley, has raised $120 million for its third and newest fund, according to cofounders Phil Sanderson and Alex Rosen.

The two longtime VCs came together with a third partner, Pat Kenealy, in 2008; their previous fund closed with $100 million.

IDG Ventures is an interesting outfit in a number of ways. It’s kind of a corporate fund, but not really.

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Apptus, a nine-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based SaaS company whose sales-management software is built on Salesforce’s platform, has raised $108 million in funding from Salesforce Ventures, Iconiq Capital, K1 Capital and KIA. The company has now raised $186 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Ele.me, a six-year-old, Shanghai, China-based online food ordering platform, has raised $630 million from investors including CITIC Private Equity, department store chain Hualian Group, China Media Capital and the private equity firm Gopher Asset. (We told you last week that it had raised $90 million from Hualian Group; looks like that was just part of the story.) The company is now valued at more than $3 billion; Forbes has more here.

Guru, a nearly two-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based Chrome web extension that aims to surface important information as users need it, has raised $2.7 million in seed funding led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from MSD Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and other angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Intellia Therapeutics, a 1.5-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based gene editing startup focused on treating cancer and other diseases, has raised $70 million in Series B funding led by OrbiMed HealthCare Fund Management, with participation from EcoR1 Capital, Fidelity Management, Foresite Capital,Janus Capital Management, Sectoral Asset Management and earlier backers Atlas Venture and Novartis AG. Intellia has now raised $85 million altogether. More here.

LotusFlare, a year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based mobile growth and engagement platform that was founded by three former Facebookers, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Social + Capital, with participation from Google Ventures and Metamorphic Ventures. The company has now raised $10 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Shift, a 22-month-old, San Francisco-based online used car marketplace, has raised $50 million in new funding led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Shift’s Series A investors DFJ and Highland Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Super League Gaming, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based startup that transforms movie theaters into interactive, multiplayer gaming arenas, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from the theater chain Cinemark Theatres, a SoftBank affiliated fund, and multiple (unnamed) institutions in Hong Kong and Singapore. More here.

Take Eat Easy, a two-year-old, Brussels-based food delivery startup backed by Rocket Internet, has raised €10 million ($11.2 million) in Series B funding led byEight Roads Ventures (previously Fidelity Growth Partners), and earlier backers Rocket Internet, DN Capital, and Piton Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Water Planet, a four-year-old, L.A.-based company that makes water treatment membrane products, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from Air Liquide Venture Capital, Bluestem Capital, and UCLA Venture Fund. More here.

WellAware, a three-year-old, San Antonio, Tex.-based provider of monitoring and management services for oil wells, pipelines, and refining and chemical facilities, has raised $16 million in Series B-1 funding from strategic investors Mitsui Corp. and Genscape, a provider of information for the commodities and energy industries. TechCrunch has more here.

Yummly, a six-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based online recipe recommendation and food delivery service, has raised $15 million in new funding led by Bauer Venture Partners, with participation Physic Ventures,Unilever Ventures and earlier investors. The company is now reportedly valued at $100 million. TechCrunch has more here.

—–

New Funds

1776, a 2.5-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based incubator, has announced the final closing of a new, $12.5 million seed fund. The outfit will focus on investments in pre-Series A startups in highly regulated industries like health, education, energy, transportation, and smart cities. 1776 was founded byDonna Harris, a former managing director of the Startup America Partnership, and Evan Burfield, who founded netDecide, which makes enterprise wealth management software, and the consulting firm Synteractive.

Cloud Apps Capital Partners, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm founded by longtime VC Matt Holleran, has raised $53.7 million for its debut fund, he tells us. The single GP firm makes classic Series A stage investments, meaning “leading financings of $3 millionish.” It also typically takes a board seat. Judy Loehr, a former senior director at Salesforce, has joined Holleran as a venture partner. Cloud Apps Capital Partners has so far made seven investments, including in Insightly, GoFormz, ServiceMax, and Hootsuite. More here.

Edison Nation, a seven-year-old, Charlotte, N.C.-based outfit that helps get a lot of those “As Seen on TV” type products made, then sold by big retailers, has raised $50 million from a group of undisclosed backers. TechCrunch has more here.

Sigma West, an independent venture firm that spun out of Sigma Partners four years ago, has rebranded itself as Jackson Square Ventures. (The San Francisco-based firm has an office in San Francisco’s Jackson Square.) “We probably should have done this before,” writes managing director Josh Breinlinger. “[I]t turns out that being tied to the legacy name created confusion.” But now the firm is “choosing a name that fits us.”

—–

People

Nice news: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is expecting twin girls in December, she announced late last night.

Investor Marc Andreessen talks with Bloomberg about Silicon Valley’s relationship with the Pentagon, market volatility in China, and Twitter’s ongoing CEO search.

VC Tim Draper, who appears on the ABC Family series “Startup U,” has offered to donate $1 million to charity if the show can attract 1 million viewers this week.

Silicon Valley loves this presidential candidate six times more than any other.

—–

Essential Reads

Apple is reportedly eyeing a move into original programming. Variety has more here.

Hotels long welcomed sites like Expedia and Priceline. Now, they’re (finally) fighting against them.

—–

Detours

The college fallacy.

Intriguingly mundane moments from Hillary Clinton’s email.

Seoul, day to night.

—–

Retail Therapy

The newest Nest thermostat. A lot like the old Nest thermostat — but a little bit better!

Hi, welcome back, everyone!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Google is abusing its dominant position to cross-sell its own products, India-based companies have complained to an India-based antitrust regulatory body — which is now formally bringing charges against Google.

—–

An Insider on Switching Firms

Last week, we sat down with venture capitalist Brian O’Malley of Accel Partners to talk about where he’s shopping now.

We also asked O’Malley — who was recruited into Accel from Battery Partners in 2013 — what it was like to transition between the heavyweight firms, and what he views as the biggest differences between them.

More from that candid chat follows. Our conversation has been edited lightly for length.

Founders sometimes feel “orphaned” when a cherished VC board member leaves to start his or her own fund or, in rarer cases, is recruited into a new firm. What happened to your portfolio companies when you changed firms?<

The simplest way to look at [these transitions] is that with the money comes the board seat, and the money is from the firm, not from Brian. So at the end of the day, it’s the firm’s call about whether you stay or go.

Sameer [Gandhi], who recruited me in, had [been recruited into Accel from Sequoia Partners back in 2008] and gone through a similar process, so I think there was a general attitude of: “Look, your entrepreneur relationships are the one thing you take with you, and your reputation is all you have, so let’s err on the side of doing right by the teams you’ve backed.” The thinking was, “If it takes these startups a year to get things figured out, that’s okay. At the end of the day, they chose Battery to work with you, and it’s kind of not fair [to abruptly end those ties].”

What did Battery think?

More here.

—–

New Fundings

Instabase, a six-month-old, San Francisco-based platform in the cloud for data, applications, and interactive computing, has raised $3.75 million in seed funding from Greylock Partners and New Enterprise Associates.

Mobcrush, a year-old, L.A.-based live-streaming service centered around mobile games, has quietly raised at least $10 million in new financing led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, reports TechCrunch. More here.

Peleton Technology, a four-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based developer of vehicle safety systems for trucking fleets, has raised $17 million in fresh funding co-led by DENSO International America and Intel Capital, with participation from Lockheed Martin. Just last month, the company raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Nokia Growth Partners. That round had followed a $17 million Series A funding that included Magna International, Castrol innoVentures, Volvo Group Venture Capital, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Birchmere Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, and Band of Angels.

Vivoom, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based mobile marketing platform, has raised $4.65 million from investors, including CommonAngels Ventures, shows an SEC filing.

—–

New Funds

Xiaohong Chen, formerly a managing director in China for Tiger Global, looks to be raising her third venture capital fund under the brand H Capital. According to an SEC filing, she’s targeting $500 million this time, and the first sale has yet to occur. H Capital closed its second fund last year with $300 million, shows an earlier SEC filing.

Ryan Gembala — who spent more than a year in corporate development at Facebook and, before that, held numerous roles in business development, as well as with Azure Capital Partners, where he was an associate — is raising his own seed-stage fund. According to an SEC filing, it’s called Pathbreaker Ventures and it has already raised $3.4 million from 16 investors. The filing doesn’t list a target.

—–

IPOs

CytomX Theraputics, a seven-year-old, South San Francisco-based biotech company whose cancer immunotherapies aim to avoid healthy cells, plans to raise $100 million in an IPO, shows a new SEC filing. Its principal shareholders include Third Rock Ventures, which owns 30.8 percent of its shares; Canaan Partners, which owns 17.4 percent; Fidelity Management and Research Company, which owns 8.7 percent; and Roche Finance, which owns 6.8 percent. The San Francisco Business Times has more here.

—–

Exits

CytomX Theraputics, a seven-year-old, South San Francisco-based biotech company whose cancer immunotherapies aim to avoid healthy cells, plans to raise $100 million in an IPO, shows a new SEC filing. Its principal shareholders include Third Rock Ventures, which owns 30.8 percent of its shares; Canaan Partners, which owns 17.4 percent; Fidelity Management and Research Company, which owns 8.7 percent; and Roche Finance, which owns 6.8 percent. The San Francisco Business Times has more here.

—–

People

Two founders of startups acquired by Facebook are leaving the company, they announced separately last week. Josh Miller, CEO of Branch, is parting ways with the social network 20 months after his eight-person company was acquired. Ilya Sukhar, whose development platform, Parse, was acquired by Facebook in April 2013, is also moving on. Quartz has the story here.

Uber has hired two top vehicle security researchers: Charlie Miller, who had been working at Twitter and Chris Valasek, who worked at security firm IOActive. The pair attracted attention earlier this month after demonstrating they could hack into a moving Jeep. Reuters has the story here.

—–

Jobs

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

—–

Essential Reads

Netflix is losing more Hollywood movies. Recode has the story here.

If a growing number of state bills is any guide, the email addresses and search queries of U.S. schoolchildren are a hot commodity.

—–

Detours

Postcards from Silicon Valley, circa 1985-2000.

Spotify says age 42 is when many of its users rediscover current pop music.

What the most expensive house in America looks like.

—–

Retail Therapy

The beloved Jeep Grand Wagoneer is coming back. If you can’t wait, there’s always the vintage market (and it’s a good time to buy).

Winglights.

Turntable cassette player combo.

Hi, happy Friday, dear readers!

Two quick things: TechCrunch Disrupt is coming up September 21 through September 23 and we’re super excited to be a part of it. We’ll be interviewing the Conways, along with other top VCs Aileen Lee, Jeremy Liew, Dana Settle, and Todd Chaffee. The full agenda was published yesterday; you can check it out here.

Also, as longtime readers know, we don’t publish many guest submissions (for a variety of reasons that probably wouldn’t interest you). We’re making an exception today, though, for a solid piece by Craig Hanson, cofounder of Next World Capital in San Francisco. Enjoy, and have a terrific weekend!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Ian Rogers, who mapped out Apple’s online radio strategy, has resigned, just two months after the launch of its Beats1 radio service. The Financial Times has the scoop here.

Avid Life Media CEO Noel Biderman is stepping down, the company announced this morning. Avid Life Media, operates Ashley Madison. More here.

Apple‘s next big iPhone event happens September 9th.

Facebook has announced that on Monday, for the first time ever, one billion people logged on to the site.

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Market Tumult and the Marginal Productivity Trap

By Craig Hanson

The most disruptive aspect of capital market shifts isn’t simply that financing your business becomes easier or harder. It’s that the underlying math the market uses to value your company fundamentally changes. Public markets, venture capitalists and even employees evaluate you through a different framework. These shifts can be dramatic, with severe consequences for those still adhering to the prior paradigm. The market is reminding us of the potential for one of these systemic shifts now.

For the past couple years, investors of all stages have been chasing furiously after high-growth companies, and rewarding them with valuation multiples exponentially higher than the difference in their growth rate would otherwise imply. An almost single-minded obsession on growth rates has understandably driven companies to dramatically increase their sales and marketing spending, faster than historical norms, fueled by round sizes larger than historical norms.

The constraint, however – the gravitational impact of expansion economics – is that as more sales and marketing budget is spent in a period of time, the efficiency of that spend (in terms of qualified leads, sales prospects, sales, etc) naturally declines. This law of diminishing marginal productivity makes sense when you stop to think about it. When you move from the top 10 ROI marketing programs to the next 20 down the list, you’re investing in lower return programs. If you see 50 sales rep candidates in a quarter, and move from hiring the top 5 to hiring the top 20, you’re going to get lower productivity reps (assuming the manager is good at picking reps in the first place).

Despite this, in the recent environment, CEO’s have felt immense pressure, and a bit of economic rationale, in increasing sales and marketing spending even as the productivity of those dollars declines. In other words, even as it drives productivity and efficiency metrics down, some CEOs keep stepping on the gas. Why? There are 2 reasons: one bad and one (temporarily) good.

First the bad reason. Foremost, as some investors are pumping up round sizes, at all stages, much higher than normal, CEOs given this largesse naturally feel immense pressure to spend it. In too many cases, they have to increase spending dramatically in order to have any hope of reaching the herculean growth rates needed to justify the lofty valuation they just received. Shooting the moon is the only play in the book which has hope.

There is a second reason, which has slightly more economic rationale, but only temporarily.

More here . . .

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New Fundings

DreamBox Learning, a nine-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based company that makes elementary mathematics education software, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Owl Ventures, with participation from Tao Capital Partners. The company has now raised $45.6 million altogether, shows Crunchbase. More here.

Ele.me, a six-year-old, Shanghai, China-based online food ordering platform, has raised $90 million in fresh funding from the Shenzhen-listed Chinese shopping mall operator Beijing Hualian Department Store Co. In January, the company reportedly raised $350 million Series E funding led by CITIC Private Equity. More here.

iZettle, a five-year-old, London-based mobile payments company that’s expanding into small business loans, has raised $67 million in Series D funding led by earlier backers Intel Capital and Zouk Capital, with participation from other earlier investors Creandum, Dawn Capital, Index Ventures, Northzone and 83North. TechCrunch has more here.

Merus, a 12-year-old, Utrecht, the Netherlands-based cancer therapy developer, has raised €72.8 million ($80.5 million) in Series C funding co-led bySofinnova Ventures and Novo Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Pfizer Venture Investments, Bay City Capital, LSP Life Sciences Partners and Aglaia Oncology Fund. More here.

MimiVax, a three-year-old, Buffalo, N.Y.-based company that’s developing a cancer vaccine, has raised $1.55 million in venture funding from Buffalo Capital Partners. The company had earlier secured $2 million in government grants. Buffalo Business First has more here.

Narvar, a three-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based shipping and delivery platform, has raised $10 million in a round led by Accel Partners, with participation from Commerce Ventures, Crosscut Ventures and Freestyle Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

XL Hybrids, a seven-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based company whose hybrid electric powertrain for commercial fleet vehicles reduces fuel consumption by a reported 20 percent, has raised $10.5 million in Series C funding led by former Morgan Stanley executive Peter O’Brien. Venture Capital Dispatch has the story here.

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New Funds

Cross Valley Capital, a nine-month-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based venture firm, has raised a $20 million seed fund, reports Dow Jones VentureWire. The firm, whose anchor LP is the Miami-based incuabor Rokk3r Labs, says it plans to invest in early-stage companies focused on digital health, hospitality, travel or logistics. More here.

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Exits

Motorola Mobility will absorb the mobile unit of Lenovo, the Beijing-based technology giant, with Motorola Mobility president Rick Osterloh leading the global smartphone business.

NumberFire, a five-year-old, New York-based predictive sports and advanced analytics platform that appears to have raised less than a million dollars in seed funding, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by the fantasy sports company FanDuel. More here.

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People

Google cofounder Sergey Brin (now president of newly minted Alphabet) has reportedly checked out a $49 million mansion in Alpine, N.J., a township whose other residents have included P. Diddy, Chris Rock, and Stevie Wonder. In case you’re remotely curious (and c’mon, you are a little bit), The New York Post saysthe “12-bedroom, 19-bathroom spread boasts an indoor basketball court, fitness center and a pool,” along with a “4,000-bottle wine cellar, movie theater, ballroom, formal dining room, dining terrace and three bars.” Oh, there’s also a “master suite with two spa bathrooms and dressing suites, and there’s also a fully equipped staff apartment.”

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have reportedly settled up with YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley over a video of their 2013 engagement that he shot and then allegedly posting to MixBit, a collaborative video app owned by his newest company, Avos Systems. TMZ has the story about the reported $440,000 Hurley is paying in damages here.

Chris Lehane, who spent more than six years working in the Clinton White house and was the spokesman for former Vice President Al Gore in his 2000 presidential campaign, has joined Airbnb as its head of global policy and public affairs. The New York Times has more here.

Venture capitalist Tom Perkins — best known in recent years for putting hisfoot in his mouth — is back in the limelight, arguing in a full-page ad in the New York Times that presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is a visionary executive who helped revive Hewlett-Packard during her tenure as its CEO.

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Essential Reads

Snapchat is charging brands for video ads viewed less than a second, according to buyers.

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Detours

The art of the out-of-office reply.

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Retail Therapy

A flag in a frame. For proud ‘Mericans.