Hello again, and happy Tuesday! Quick mention: Programming continues for our upcoming StrictlyVC INSIDER event on Tuesday night, September 25th in San Francisco. We have one new founder team about which we are very excited and you will be, too, though we can’t announce them just yet. In the meantime, thanks to our generous partners in the evening: Norwest Venture Partners, which is hosting us at its beautiful South Park;  KCPR, a boutique public relations and strategy firm specializing in venture capital and startup clients founded by Silicon Valley publicist Kelsey Cullen; and MobSquad, a company that’s helping U.S.-based companies win the war for engineering talent by creating remote teams of high-caliber software engineers in Canada.   It’s going to be fun night. If you haven’t nabbed a seat yet, don’t wait too long. More than half our spots are already gone.

Top News

Americans may soon be able to get cholesterol-lowering medications and other widely used prescription drugs without seeing a doctor, judging by a draft guideline that was outlined earlier today by the FDA.  Bitcoin is ticking up again, and it’s pulling up the price with top coins with it.

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Connie Chan Breaks the Mold at Andreessen Horowitz

Connie Chan has made such an impact on her colleagues at Andreessen Horowitz  (a16z) since joining the firm in 2011 that today, they’re announcing Chan’s appointment to general partner. It’s a big deal for the Sand Hill Road venture firm for numerous reasons. First, Chan becomes just the second woman in the firm’s nine-year history to be appointed to the role of general partner. As readers may recall, a16z announced the first female general partner in its history late last month, bringing aboard former federal prosecutor Katie Haun to help lead its new cryptocurrency fund.  According to Jeff Jordan — himself an a16z general partner and the former CEO of OpenTable — the nine-year-old firm has also never before promoted someone from within to the post of general partner, instead pulling in people like Jordan himself with senior operating experience. (Jordan also distantly held posts as the president of PayPal, the CFO of Hollywood Entertainment, and the CEO of Reel.com.)  The “policy was not to promote internally,” says Jordan. Yet such thinking has changed recently as 16z has grown and the operating functions that it uses to support its portfolio companies have matured. Indeed, when it came to Chan, a Stanford alum who logged four years with the private equity firm Elevation Partners and another two years in product management roles at HP and Palm, a lack of direct experience in scaling a business was eventually outweighed by her ability to identify and support talented founders, Jordan says.  He credits Chan, for example, with the firm’s initial investment in the digital scrapbook site Pinterest. “It wasn’t a contentious discussion, but Connie really pounding the table is what led to our investment in the company,” he says.  Pinterest was most recently valued at more than $12 billion. When a16z led a $27 million round in the company back in 2011, it was reportedly valued at $200 million.  Chan also brings to the table two other things desperately needed at Andreessen Horowitz and ever other U.S. venture firm: an understanding of China’s market and key contacts there.  More here.

New Fundings

AdQuick, a two-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based startup that helps customers buy and sell outdoor advertising services, has raised $2.1 million in Series A funding led by Initialized Capital. More here.  Blast, a 1.5-year-old, Newport Beach, Ca.-based outfit that wants to give users a way to save money while playing video games, has raised $7 million in funding, including from self-help guru Tony Robbins, the fintech investment firm CreditEase, and RX3, an investment fund based in Orange County, Ca. TechCrunch has more here.  Dialpad, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of cloud-based business phone software, has raised $50 million in Series D funding led by Iconiq Capital. Other investors in the round include earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, Amasia, Scale Venture Partners, Section 32 and Work-Bench. TechCrunch has more here.  Didi Chuxing, the China-based ride-share giant, has accepted a $500 million strategic investment from Booking Holdings — formerly known as Priceline — which will now offer Didi’s on-demand car services through Booking.com’s apps, including Kayak and OpenTable. TechCrunch has more here.  K Health, a two-year-old, New York-based app that uses AI and anonymized health records to augment the diagnoses of health problems after a user inputs his ore her symptoms and answers a series of questions, has raised $12.5 million. Investors in the round include Comcast Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Mangrove Capital Partners. Crunchbase News has more here.  Mention Me, a five-year-old, London-based referral marketing platform, has raised $7 million in funding led by Eight Roads Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Mosa Meat, a five-year-old, Maastricht, Netherlands-based lab-grown meat company, has raised $8.8 million in funding led by Merck’s venture capital arm, M Ventures, and Swiss meat processor Bell Food Group. According to the WSJ, it is Merck’s first investment in the food industry. More here. Naadam, a five-year-old, New York-based luxury cashmere brand, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Vanterra Capital, with participation from Torch Capital, U-Start Club, Trail Post Ventures and Plug & Play Ventures. More here.  Get Spiffy, a 1.5-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based on-demand car wash and maintenance service, has raised $9 million in funding led by Bull City Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers, including IDEA Fund Partners. More here.  Openpath,  a three-year-old, Culver City, Ca.-based remote access company that’s focused on the way that people enter and secure their workplaces, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Emergence Capital, with follow-on from all existing investors. More here.  Presage Biosciences, a 10-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based cancer biotechnology company that works with oncology-focused pharmaceutical companies to identify novel drug combinations, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series D funding led by pharmaceutical companies Takeda and Celgene. The company also has a new CEO. More here.  TowerIQ, a 1.5-year-old, Boston-based communication platform for the insurance market, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Hyperplane VC, with participation from Vestigo Ventures and Clocktower Ventures. More here.  TVision Insights, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based developer of a facial recognition technology to analyze television viewer behavior, has raised $11.5 million in funding led by Accomplice and Jump Capital. Broadcasting & Cable has more here.  Verge Genomics, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based neurological drug discovery startup, has raised $32 million in Series A funding led by DFJ, with participation from WuXi AppTec, ALS Investment Fund, Agent Capital and OS Fund. Xconomy has more here.  Verodin, a four-year-old, McLean, Va.-based software company that says it dynamically assesses the cumulative effectiveness of its customers’ entire security portfolios, has raised $21 million in Series B funding co-led by TenEleven Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. More here.  Yitu Technology, a six-year-old, Shanghai, China-based artificial intelligence outfit that was cofounded by a UCLA PhD in statistics and a former senior expert with Alibaba cloud computing, has raised $100 million in fresh funding just one month after announcing $200 million in Series C funding last month. The company says the money is being tacked on to that earlier round and comes from China Industrial Asset Management. The company’s other backers include Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital Group, and Banyan Capital. China Money Network has more here.   Zoox, a four-year-old, Foster City. Ca.-based self-driving car startup, is closing a $500 million round of new funding at a $3.2 billion post-money valuation, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Prior to the deal, Zoox was valued at $2.7 billion, Zoox tells TechCrunch. More here.

New Funds

AP Ventures, a new, London-based venture capital firm that’s focused on funding tech companies that use the characteristics of platinum group metals, has launched with $100 million, including from the mining company Anglo American Platinum and the government owned investment manager The Public Investment Corporation. The two are cornerstone investors. More here.  Crosslink Capital, the 29-year-old, San Francisco-based stage-agnostic investment firm (it invests in both private and public companies), has raised $275 million for its eighth fund, it announced yesterday. The firm’s past venture bets include Pandora, Coupa, Casper and Postmates. More here.  High Alpha, an Indianapolis, Ia.-based venture studio and early-stage venture fund, says it has raised more than $100 million to expand the scope of its current operations. Crunchbase News has more here.

Exits

Dataroma, a six-year-old, New York-based AI-powered marketing intelligence platform, has been acquired by Salesforce for reportedly more than $800 million in cash. The company had raised $50 million from investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Innovation Endeavors, Marker, and Cedar Fund. AlleyWatch has more here.  Publicly traded LendingTree is acquiring Student Loan Hero, an Austin, Tex.-based personal finance website that helps student loan borrowers manage student debt, for $60 million in cash. American Inno has more here.  Publicly traded Ultimate Software is acquiring French startup PeopleDoc for $300 million in cash and stock. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter. Both companies make HR software. PeopleDoc had raised $50 million from investors. TechCrunch has more here.

IPOs

Cango, an eight-year-old, Shanghai, China-based used car marketplace, has revealed plans to sell 12.5 million shares at $10 to $12 per share to public shareholders. The company, which will trade on the NYSE, counts as its biggest outside shareholders Warburg Pincus, Didi Chuxing, and Tencent. More here.  Endava, an 18-year-old, London-based provider of outsourced IT development services,  says it plans to sell 5.6 million shares at between $17 and $19 apiece in an upcoming IPO. It also plans to trade on the NYSE. More here.  Focus Financial Partners, a 14-year-old, New York-based wealth management firm, says it plans to offer 16.2 million shares at a price range of $35 to $39 in an upcoming IPO in the $600 million range that it will stage on Nasdaq. More here. Pinduoduo, a three-year-old, Shanghai, China-based discounted e-commerce site that’s focused on group buying (and which competes with Alibaba and JD.com), plans to sell 85.6 million shares in its upcoming stateside IPO at between $16 and $19 per share. Its biggest outside shareholders are Tencent, Banyan Capital andSequoia Capital. Reuters has more here.  Pintec Technology, a five-year-old, Beijing, China-based online platform that connects businesses with financial services companies, has revealed plans to raise $70 million in an IPO on Nasdaq. Its biggest shareholders include Ventech China and Xiaomi Ventures. China Money Network has more here.  Urovant Sciences, a London-based urological diseases firm that’s among the newest “vants” of holding company Roivant (whose founder and CEO spoke at one or our SVC events last year), has filed for an $150 million IPO. FierceBiotech hasmore here.

People

Jeff Bezos is now the richest CEO in modern history.  “It’s cool to be smart in Silicon Valley. It’s not cool to be smart on the West Side of Detroit.” — TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot talking with the New York Times.  Serial entrepreneur and angel investor Elad Gil has just published a new manual for late-stage companies called The High Growth Handbook. We talked with him about it here.  Scott Heiferman, the CEO and cofounder of 15-year-old Meetup, which sold last year to WeWork for a reported $200 million, is becoming chairman of the community-building startup. More here.

Essential Reads

Instead of forcing their VC backers to go on waiting for a good outcome, some founders of many years-old startups are choosing to end that uncertainty by buying out early investors.  Instagram has started more widely testing the ability to manually remove followerswith a few taps.

Detours

Inside America’s last Blockbuster.  The secret rooms hotels don’t tell you about.  “Bohemian Rhapsody” (the official trailer of the movie, which we are definitely seeing).

Retail Therapy

Vroom, vroom.

Hi, happy Monday, all. Hope yours has been less hectic than ours.:)

Top News

Donald Trump spoke on behalf of Russia today at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, undoubtedly stunning millions around the world as he called Putin a “good competitor” and accusing U.S. institutions of “foolishness.”  Among many jaw-dropping moments during the televised event: Putin offered to have Russian intelligence agencies work with their American counterparts on the U.S. election meddling case. Trump called this “an incredible offer,” as everyone who has ever worked on behalf of U.S. intelligence spat out their morning coffee (we presume). Said Republican former press secretary Ari Fleischer to Bloomberg: “I continue to believe there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. But when Trump so easily and naively accepts Putin’s line about not being involved” in interfering with the last U.S. presidential election, “I can understand why Ds think Putin must have the goods on him.”

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Investors from top VC firms like Union Square Ventures and Bessemer read The Altcoin Transmission to stay on top of the latest trends in cryptocurrency. Click here to subscribe now and have a chance to win three best-selling cryptocurrency books.

New Fundings

7Net, a five-year-old, China-based online exam grading service, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Sinovation Ventures, with participation from Wanrong Capital, Shanghai SIIC Fund Management, the Chinese education company Gaosi Education and Chinese game developer ELEX. China Money Network has more here. A-lign, a nine-year-old, Tampa, Fla.-based company that helps its corporate customers navigate their specific audit and security assessment needs, just raised $54.5 million from FTV Capital. More here.  Eatigo, a five-year-old, Bangkok, Thailand-based restaurant booking startup, has raised around $10 million from TripAdvisor, says TechCrunch. More here.   Fastly, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that operates a content delivery network to speed up web requests, has raised $40 million in Series F funding led by Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, with participation from Sozo Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, and existing investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Greensill Capital, a seven-year-old, London-based provider of working capital for supply chain finance, has raised $250 million from General Atlantic in its first round of institutional financing. Private Equity News has more here.  Kapwing, a year-old, San Francisco-based online video creation and editing platform, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Shasta Ventures, Sinai Ventures, Village Global, Shrug Capital, and ZhenFund. More here.  Klang, a five-year-old, Berlin-based games studio that’s building a massive multiplayer online simulation called “Seed,” has raised $8.95 million in Series A funding. Northzone led the round, which brings the company’s funding to just less than $14 million. TechCrunch has more here.   Pliant Therapeutics, a two-year-old, South Fran Francisco-based biotech startup that’s focused on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, has raised $62 million in Series B funding led by Cowen Healthcare Investments.  Other in the round include Eventide Asset Management, Schroder Adveq, Menlo Ventures,SCubed Capital and Agent Capital. More here.  PPRO, a 12-year-old, London-based business that is focused on cross-border payments for merchants, has raised $50 million in fresh funding led by PayPal, with participation from Citi Ventures and previous backer HPE Growth Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Toka, a months-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity startup cofounded by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, has raised $12.5 million in seed funding. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz,  Dell EMC (through its venture capital arm Dell Technologies Capital), Israel-based Entrée Capital and New Haven, Ct.-based LaunchCapital. Calcalist has more here.  Unacademy, a 7.5-year-old, Bangalore, India-based outfit that produces educational videos in a wide variety of languages, has raised $21 million in Series C funding from Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. Unacademy has raised $38.6 million altogether. Financial Express has more here.  Undo, a 13-year-old, U.K.-based maker of debugging tools, has raised $14 million in Series B finding led by Cambridge Innovation Capital, a Cambridge, UK-based builder of tech and healthcare companies. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

A Singaporean fund management firm and a Korean company are launching a $120 million venture fund for Southeast Asian tech companies. The fund, called the GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund, will reportedly invest in Series A- and Series B-stage start-ups with a “small proportion” reserved for South Korean companies looking to expand into the region via Singapore. Its average investment will be between $2 million and $5 million, says The Straits Times. More here.

Exits

Gett, a ride-hailing app that competes with Uber, is weighing an exit from the U.S. just over a year after spending $200 million to enter the market by acquiring Juno, a New York-based startup it acquired in April 2017 and now may sell.  Read-it-later and bookmarking service Instapaper announced today that it will once again be an independent operation. Instapaper was mostly recently owned by social network Pinterest after an acquisition two years ago.  Salesforce says it has signed an agreement to acquire Datorama, an Israeli cloud-based artificial intelligence marketing platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Israeli media reports it was worth more than $800 million. Reuters has more here.

People

Hosein Khajeh-Hosseiny is stepping down from his role as CEO and managing general partner of the venture and private equity firm Northgate Capital, he tells Axios. He plan to instead form and run a new tech consulting and early-stage investment firm called Open X Innovations.  Goldman Sachs is expected to name its president, David Solomon, as its next CEOearly this week, says the New York Times.

Essential Reads

Uber is the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stemming from a complaint about gender inequity, according to the WSJ, which reports that the EEOC has been interviewing former and current Uber employees as part of its probe.  On the heels of Lyft’s acquisition of bike-share company Motivate, the company is gearing up to fully integrate bicycle and scooter sharing into its app, it says. TechCrunch has more here.  A handful of investors in Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital tell Bloomberg they will not support the venture firm’s next fund, following a string of departures. A third investor tells the outlet, “I don’t think there will be a next fund.”  CRISPR might cause more unintended DNA damage than we thought.

Detours

The wildest Wimbledon in recent memory.  What your favorite ’80s band says about you.

Retail Therapy

The Bell Bullitt Helmet, when you like to keep it simple.  Also, Amazon Prime Day officially kicked off as of noon PST. Happy shopping if you can get the site to work for you.

Friday! [Rides motorcycle over bank of parked cars.] Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Per the usual, if you’re looking for something to listen to while you’re tooling around in your car or bike, a few of us recorded a new “Equity” podcast yesterday over at TechCrunch’s offices, with special guest and sheer delight Graham Brown of Lerer Hippeau.

Top News

Special counsel Robert Mueller has obtained a new indictment charging 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democrats during the 2016 presidential election just three days before next week’s unprecedentedly private one-on-one sit-down, which is not being canceled, says the White House. Instead, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are reportedly holding a joint press conference afterward.   Microsoft today called for government regulation on facial-recognition software, one of its key technologies, saying such artificial intelligence is too important and potentially dangerous for tech giants to police themselves.

New Fundings

Allthings, a five-year-old, Basel, Switzerland-based property tech company, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding led by EarlyBird Venture Capital, with participation from Idinvest Partners, and Kingstone Capital Partners. Tech.eu has more here.  ASR Microelectronics, a thee-year-old, Shanghai, China-based semiconductor design company focused on mobile intelligent communication terminals, Internet of things, navigation and other consumer electronics platforms, has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by IDG Capital and Wanrong Hongtu Fund. China Money Network has more here.  EndoGastric Solutions, a 15-year-old, Redmond, Wa.-based medical device company that’s hoping to commercialize its minimally invasive transoral incisionless fundoplication (TIF) procedure, has raised $30.5 million in new funding. Earlier investors Advanced Technology Ventures, Canaan Partners, Canepa Healthcare, Chicago Growth Partners, CRG, Radius Ventures, and Sightline Partners participated in the round along with several new healthcare investors. MedCity News has more here.  Chowly, a three-year-old, Chicago-based point-of-sale system for restaurants, has raised nearly $4.7 million, according to an SEC filing that lists a target amount of $5.8 million. The company had previously raised $700,000 from Math Venture Partners and others. TechCrunch has more here.  GoGoVan, a three-year-old, Hong Kong-based on-demand delivery van service, has raised $250 million in new funding led by InnoVision Capital, with participation from Cainiao, Russia-China Investment Fund, Hongrun Capital, Qianhai Fund of Funds, and 58 Daojia Group. The Business Times has more here.  Headout, a four-year-old, New York-based travel app that enables tourists to book outings on very short notice, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from earlier backers Nexus Venture Partners and Version One Ventures. The company has now raised $12 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Radiflow, an eight-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based maker of industrial cybersecurity software for critical infrastructure, has raised $18 million in funding led by ST Engineering Ventures, the venture capital unit of the Singaporean technology, defense and engineering group ST Engineering. More here.  Verto Analytics, a five-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based consumer-centric audience measurement company, has raised $13.4 million in funding, including fromConor Venture Partners, Open Ocean Capital, and Finnish Industry Investment, along with numerous individual investors. More here.  UrbanVolt, a nearly four-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based solar power-as-a-service company for corporate clients, has raised $65 million from British investment firmLow Carbon. More here.

New Funds

Apple has announced a new investment fund to foster clean energy usage in China. More specifically, Apple and 10 of its suppliers have agreed to invest $300 million over the next four years to expand the use of clean energy across the board (and not just in Apple’s own facilities). TechCrunch has more here.  Sound Ventures, founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, is targeting $150 million in capital commitments for its second fund, shows an SEC filing processed earlier this week. CrunchBase News has more here.

Exits

Intel is acquiring eASIC, the 19-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based fabless semiconductor company that had raised nearly $150 million in funding over the years, including from Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, Seagate andCrescendo Ventures. Financial terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.  From Axios’s Pro Rata today: “Jibo, a Boston-based maker of family-friendly social robots that raised over $60 million in VC funding, is seeking a buyer. The company has laid off all but five employees, including the closure of its California office (the layoffs were first reported last month), but is continuing to sell product in the interim.”

People

Hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen has invested in Autonomous Partners, a new hedge fund headed by investor Arianna Simpson that acquires both cryptocurrencies and equity in blockchain-related companies. Fortune has more here.  Bryan Goldberg, the entrepreneur behind both Bustle and Bleacher Report, put in the winning $1.35 million bid for Gawker.com in an auction held yesterday in Manhattan, the New York Post reports.  Edward Yip has been promoted to partner at Norwest Venture Partners, where he focuses on consumer-related opportunities. Yip had joined the firm in 2012 after spending four years with Evercore Partners, as well as founding a collective purchasing startup.   Nathan Yu, also known as Yu Ning, former vice president of Chinese automaker Geely Holding Group, has joined NIO Capital, a China-based venture fund established by the Chinese electric car company NIO, as managing partner. Yu worked at Geely for four years and was responsible for its international business.

Essential Reads

The scooter wars will be a bloodbath and Uber will win, argues a founder whose pioneering ride-hailing company was later crushed by Uber.

Detours

A body language expert* analyzes Queen Elizabeth’s meeting with Donald Trump.  Man with the world’s largest fingernails cuts them 66 years too late for our liking.  Perfect roommates you’ll never find.

Retail Therapy

You are royalty to us.

Thursday! Can. Almost. Weekend. So close.

Top News

Apple’s most expensive MacBook Pro now costs, gulp, $6,700. Here’s what elsewent on sale today at an Apple store near you.

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‘Airbnb Mafia’ Fund Wave Capital Closes Its Debut Fund with $55 Million

A couple of weeks ago, Airbnb announced some major changes to the ways it compensates employees before it goes public.  At least two former Airbnb employees and a longtime VC will be ready to fund those who leave when it does. They’ve been waiting on this moment since last summer, in fact. That’s when former Airbnb data scientist Riley Newman left the firm to start work on a venture firm, quickly enlisting the help of his colleague of several years, Sara Adler (Airbnb’s former head of corporate development) and former Madrona Venture Group principal David Rosenthal. What they set out to do with that fund, Wave Capital, is invest in marketplace startups, including — especially, even — those founded by other former employees of the home-rental giant.  It’s an idea that has resonated with investors. Wave just closed its debut fund with $55 million in capital commitments, slightly more than the three were targeting. They’ve already begun putting it to work, too. To find out more about those bets, and where the three expect to shop next, we asked them for a few more details in a chat that has been edited for length.  How exactly did this firm come to pass?  DR: Riley is really the hub for all of us; his wife and mine grew up together in Marin and have remained best friends since early childhood. As Riley’s career at Airbnb progressed and my career in VC progressed, we talked about doing something together at some point in time.  RN: Meanwhile, Sara and I sat beside each other and together reported to the person who was effectively Airbnb’s CTO and we were part of a number of working groups together. David and I started talking about doing something together and we quickly drew Sara into our plans.  Why pursue “marketplaces” alone?  DR: For me, when I was at Madrona, we incubated the [dog services company] Rover.com and I saw the power of marketplaces and the importance of helping them get off the ground. And Riley and I talked a lot over the years about how he watched Greg McAdoo [formerly of Sequoia Capital and now of the venture firm Bolt] work with Airbnb in the early days, and the importance of a true lead board member. And we thought that between our three collective experiences, we could play that role.  SA: As a member of the corp dev team at Airbnb and at Dropbox and Facebook before that, I could also see the impact of investors even on the final stages of companies’ journeys.  You’ve now fully closed the fund from institutional investors, including the fund-of-funds Cendana Capital. How many companies do you expect to support with it?  DR: We think roughly 18 to 20 companies. We intend to lead every round and to take board seats. We want to play the same role as Greg did at Airbnb.  SA: We expect for each partner to do one to two deals per year.  You haven’t invested together in the past, and establishing an investing history together is usually really important to institutions that invest in venture funds. How did you persuade them that this wasn’t an issue?  RN: It was definitely a process. [Laughs.] We were told no multiple times. We had not invested together and it did come up quite a bit and was a disqualifying thing for people who care a lot about that. More here.

News Fundings

CapLinked, an eight-year-old, Redondo Beach, Ca.-based secure information-sharing company that’s currently creating a product to tokenize equity, just raised $2.5 million in fresh funding from Alphabit Fund, Translunar One, Kenetic Capital, NextProtocol Ventures and BKCM were the investors. Crowdfund Insider has more here.  Cosential, a 19-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based maker of CRM and proposal automation software for architecture, engineering and construction firms, has raised $34 million in funding led by JMI Equity. More here.  Dirt Protocol, an eight-month-old, Bay Area-based pre-launch startup that intends to use blockchain technology to create a new approach to verify information, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Investors include General Catalyst, Greylock,Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group, SV Angel, Avichal Garg, Elad Gil, Fred Ehrsam, Linda Xi and others.  TechCrunch has more here.  Goodwall, a four-year-old, Geneva, Switzerland-based, U.S.-focused student and graduate professional network that aims to connect young people with college and employment opportunities, has closed $10.8 million in Series A funding. Randstad Innovation Fund, a strategic corporate VC fund that focuses on recruitment, led the round with and the Swiss private equity firm Manixer. Additional investors include Francis Clivaz, Zurich Cantonal Bank and Verve Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.  Greenhouse Software, a six-year-old, New York-based recruiting optimization platform that counts Benchmark, Thrive Capital, and Social Capital among its investors, just raised $50 million more from Riverwood Capital. The company has now raised $110 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here. Higi, a six-year-old, Chicago-based company that invites consumers to measure and track their health numbers at its self-screening health stations across more than 11,000 retail locations, has raised $21.3 million in Series C funding. Investors include Flare Capital Partners and 7wireVentures. More here.  Journera, a two-year-old, Chicago-based startup whose software platform connects travel-related companies, so if an individual’s flight is delayed, car, hotel, and dinner reservations will adjust to the new flight, has raised $9 million in Series A funding. B Capital Group led the round; other participants in the deal include Andreessen Horowitz, Pritzker Group Venture Capital and The Boston Consulting Group. Chicago Inno has more here.  Luckin Coffee, a nine-month-old, Beijing-based on-demand coffee delivery startup that’s aiming to take on Starbucks, has raised $200 million in Series A funding at a $1 billion(!) post-money valuation. Investors in the deal include GIC, Legend Capital, Joy Capital and Centurium Capital. Quartz has more here. Lumiata, a five-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based software company whose predictive analytics tech is used to manage healthcare costs, has raised $11 million in funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, with participation from Sandbox Industries, Intel Capital and others. MobiHealthNews has more here.  MediaMath, an 11-year-old, New York-based ad tech company whose platform lets advertisers and their agencies buy online ads using automated systems, has raised $225 million in funding from the investment firm Searchlight Capital Partners. The money is partly being used to buy out one of MediaMath’s earlier investors, Safeguard Scientifics; still, it’s a lot of $ for an ad tech company, considering the sector has been hammered over the last few years. The WSJ has more here.  Meero, a three-year-old, Paris-based company that uses AI imaging to quickly provide photos, videos and virtual tours in the service of helping its customers reach their sales targets, has raised $45 million in funding led by Alven Capital and Idinvest. TechCrunch has more here.  Octi, a 1.5-year-old, L.A.based augmented video company, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding from Shasta Ventures, I2BF Ventures, Bold Capital Partners,Day One Ventures, Human Ventures, Live Nation, and InBev, among others. The company also relatedly entered into a strategic investment and partnership with the NFL Players Association that will enable fans to create videos wherein they interact with NFL player avatars. More here.  Paidy, a 10-year-old, Tokyo-based fintech startup that enables Japanese consumers to shop online without using a credit card, has closed on $55 million in Series C funding led by Japanese trade conglomerate Itochu Corporation, with participation from Goldman Sachs. The company has now raised $80 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.  Perceptive Automata, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that hopes to teach autonomous vehicles to learn to interpret the world like humans, has raised $3 million in seed funding, including from First Round Capital. Wired takes a look at the company here.  Pointy​,​ a four-year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based ​startup​ whose tech helps offline retailers make their stock discoverable online via search engines, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Polaris Partners and Vulcan Capital. TechCrunch has more here. Seatfrog, a four-year-old, London-based firm for live bidding of airline and rail seats, raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Octopus Ventures. UKTN has more here.  Spring Health, a two-year-old, New York-based platform for smaller companies to use to help their employees access to mental health treatment, has raised $6 million in fresh funding led by Rethink Impact, with Work-Bench, BBG Ventures, RRE Ventures, the William K. Warren Foundation, and The Partnership Fund for New York City joining the round. TechCrunch has more here.

(Other) New Funds

Cayuga Venture Fund, a 10-year-old, Ithaca, N.Y.-based early-stage venture firm firm with ties to neighboring Cornell University, plans to raise $100 million for its sixth fund. Ithaca Journal has more here.  Glasswing Ventures, a two-year-old, Boston-based venture outfit investing in early-stage startups that apply artificial intelligence to various industries, has closed its debut fund with $112 million. TechCrunch has more here.  Trail Mix Ventures, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based seed-stage fund that’s investing in startups to which wellness-obsessed millennials are gravitating, has closed its debut fund with $11 million. We talked with the firm’s founders here.

Exits

Netskope, a company that focuses on security in the cloud, announced today it has acquired Sift Security, a four-year-old startup that helps secure cloud infrastructure services like Amazon, Microsoft and Google using machine learning. Terms of the deal aren’t known, but Sift’s 10 technical employees will become part of Netskope’s 500+ person team. TechCrunch has more here.  Univision, a media giant serving Latinos in the U.S., said it’s pulling back from its expansion into English-language digital content by exploring a sale of its Gizmodo Media Group assets and its stake in Onion Inc. The move places 13 popular sites on the block: Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Splinter, The Root, Kotaku, Earther and Jalopnik. Univision’s stake in Onion Inc also gives it partial ownership of The Onion, Clickhole, The A.V. Club and The Takeout. Fortune has more here.

People

Days after trying to help a Thai soccer team escape from their cave dungeon, Elon Musk is now vowing to fix the water in any house in Flint, Michigan that has water contamination above FDA levels. “No kidding,” he tweets. (To which the mayor of Flint has tweeted to him, “Mr. Musk, I am the Mayor of Flint. I would like to have a conversation with you about Flint’s specific needs.”)   In very separate but related news, Martin Tripp, the fired Tesla technician fighting a corporate legal battle and a war of words with Musk, has formally filed a tip with the SEC alleging the automaker lied to investors and used dangerous batteries in its electric cars.

Essential Reads

Tiger Global Management has poured more than $1 billion into SoftBank Group, says the Financial Times. According to the outlet, Tiger told its investors that SoftBank’s shares are “meaningfully undervalued.” Tiger and SoftBank share several investments in common, including Alibaba, Flipkart and Uber. TechCrunch has more here.   New Zealand scientists have performed the first-ever 3-D, color X-ray on a human, using a technique that promises to improve the field of medical diagnostics. Agence France-Presse has more here.  Facebook Watch is the social media giant’s year-old bid to dethrone YouTube. Problem is, few are watching it, says The Information.

Detours

The extinction of the middle child.  The Alt-Ivies: 15 top U.S. colleges with blue-chip reputations.  An oral history of “Step Brothers.”

Retail Therapy

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House.

Hello! Happy Wednesday. No column today (too many calls); more tomorrow.:)

Top News

Chipmaker Broadcom is nearing a deal to buy software company CA Technologies for about $18 billion, according to the WSJ. Broadcom is to pay $44.50 a share for CA, formerly known as Computer Associates, if the deal doesn’t fall apart at the last minute. More here.  A new round in the White House’s escalating trade war with China has been rattling global markets today. AT&T has staken an undisclosed stake in the secretive mixed reality headset company Magic Leap. The deal also establishes AT&T as the exclusive wireless distributor of Magic Leap products in the U.S., assuming they’re actually sold at some point. (The company says they are coming this summer, but it still hasn’t offered an exact date or price.)

Sponsored By . . .

At last, a responsible way to invest your money: introducing Wunder Capital, the award-winning investment platform that allows individuals to invest in solar energy projects across the U.S. With Wunder, you can earn up to 7.5 percent annually, while helping to finance renewable energy projects.

New Fundings

Apollo Fusion, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based satellite propulsion company founded by a former project leader of Google’s Project Loon, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners, who is joining the company’s board. SpaceNews has more here.  Aurora Labs, a young, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that has created predictive tools designed to automatically fix problems with software in cars, has raised $8.4 million in Series A financing led by Fraser McCombs Capital, with participation from previous investor MizMaa Ventures. The company just came out of stealth a few months ago. TechCrunch has more here.  BIMobject, a seven-year-old, Malmö, Sweden-based company whose cloud-based platform makes digital product information available for Building Information Modeling (BIM), has raised $27.4 million in funding from EQT Ventures. More here.  GrubMarket, a 3.5-year-old, Bay Area-based company that sources organic food directly from producers, then delivers it to other businesses like Whole Foods, has raised $32 million in equity and debt. The equity portion is being led by GGV Capital and includes participation from earlier backers Fusion Fund (formerly New Gen Capital) and Great Oaks Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here.  Monday.com, a six-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based maker of workplace collaboration tools, has raised $50 million in Series C funding at what’s reportedly a $500 million pre-money valuation. Stripes led the deal, joined by earlier backers Insight Venture Partners and Entrée Capital. TechCrunch has the scoop here.  Movile, a 20-year-old, Sao Paulo-based mobile marketplaces giant, has raised $124 million in primary and secondary funding from earlier investor Naspers Ventures, with participation by Brazilian investment fund  Innova Capital. The round marks the single largest in the company’s history. More here.  Nestio, a 7.5-year-old, New York-based marketing and leasing platform for multifamily owners and managers, has raised $4.5 million in a round that brings its total funding to $16 million. The round was co-led by Camber Creek and Trinity Ventures, with participation from numerous real estate groups and earlier backers Freestyle Capital and Lazerow Ventures. More here.  Next Insurance, a two-year-old, Israel-based digital insurance startup that helps small businesses secure coverage, has raised a whopping $83 million in Series B funding led by Redpoint Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  Olio, a 3.5-year-old, London-based hyperlocal food sharing app that invites users to list and post photos of unwanted food items to be shared with other people in their ‘hood, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Octopus Ventures. Earlier investors Accel, Quadia and others also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.  PactSafe, a five-year-old, Indianapolis, Ia.-based maker of cloud-based contract management software, just raised $5.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Mercury Fund and Signal Peak Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Elevate Ventures and Vulpes Testudo. More here.  Penrose Studios, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based virtual reality animation house whose CEO, Eugene Chung, was previously head of film and media at Oculus VR, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by TransLink Capital. Other investors in the round include Marc Benioff, Will.i.am, Korea Telecom, Co-Made, and earlier backers Sway Ventures, 8VC and Suffolk Equity. TechCrunch has more here.  Pony.ai, a three-year-old, Freemont, Ca.-based startup whose autonomous driving platform powers the first fully self-driving fleet in China, has raised $102 million in funding (just seven months after raising a separate, $112 million in funding). The new round was co-led by China’s ClearVue Partners and Eight Roads. TechCrunch has more here.  Xometry, a five-year-old, Gaithersburg, Md.-based on-demand manufacturing platform, just raised $25 million in funding led by Foundry Group. Other investors in the deal include Almaz Capital, BMW i Ventures, GE Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Maryland Venture Fund. The WSJ has more here.

People

Xiaomi’s IPO in Hong Kong may not have been the smash hit that the company was hoping for, but the listing is a major financial windfall for one former employee: Xiaomi’s ex-head of international, Hugo Barra.  Theresa Gouw of Aspect Ventures is now as the richest female venture capitalist in the world, says Forbe, and her wealth is entirely self-made.  Uber’s Chief People Officer Liane Hornsey resigned in an email to staff yesterday, following an investigation into how she handled allegations of racial discrimination at the ride-hailing firm.   Holy smokes. Kylie Jenner has built a $900 million fortune in less than three years through her cosmetics company, Kylie Cosmetics. (Jenner is 20.) Forbes has more here.  A deep dive into the thought processes of Robert Smith, the billionaire founder of Vista Equity Partners, which has been buying up software companies left and right in recent years. (Smith is also the richest African American in the U.S. — ahead of Oprah Winfrey.)  Former Apple employee Xialang Zhang was arrested at the San Jose airport this past weekend after downloading a plan for a self-driving car circuit board and booking a flight to China. TechCrunch has more here.

Jobs

Industry Ventures, the 18-year-old investment firm that invests in venture-backed startups, as well as invests directly in venture funds, is looking to hire a portfolio analyst to maintain a dynamic database that monitors existing investments and report insights to the investment team, finance, and investor relations. The job is in San Francisco. Applicants should write to fanni@industryventures.com

Essential Reads

A landmark ruling just opened the door for homemade firearms.  Forget the paper routes and pathos, says Bloomberg. Today’s prototypical founding story involves an upper-middle-class childhood, early access to a computer, and an elite education.)

Detours

Why your Twitter follower count is probably going down this week.  Inside San Francisco’s Fire Department, which makes its wooden ladders by hand(!).  The entire history of steel.

Retail Therapy

Deerupts. (Looks to us like Adidas is hoping to “deerupt” sales of AllBirds.)

Tuesday! Hello! Quick note: We’ll be helping out with TechCrunch’s giant Disrupt conference, taking place in San Francisco September 5th through 7th. TC has doubled the programming this year, and it’s a pretty superb line-up, with Uber’sDara Khosrowshahi coming, along with “Silicon Valley” creator Mike Judge, Whitney Wolfe Herde of Bumble, and many others.  We’re especially excited about it as we get to jump on stage with Goldman Sachs CFO Marty Chavez, Sequoia’s global managing partner Doug Leone, longtime SEC director Jina Choi, and top VCs Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures, Megan Quinn of Spark Capital and Sarah Tavel of Benchmark, all of whom will be talking with us about the trends impacting — and, in some cases, roiling — the business of startup investing.  TC just posted the full line-up this morning; you can check it out here.

Top News

Twitter’s stock had its worst day in months yesterday on the fallout over its fake account purge. The stock reaction followed a Washington Post article that reported the company suspended more than 70 million accounts in May and June — a clean-up of the platform that may affect user growth.

Sponsored By . . .

Two MIT grads walk into a VC firm (no, not a bar) and the result is a venture-backed wine company that is fueled by—you guessed it—data science. Take Bright Cellars’ wine-matching quiz to see your top wine matches and get 50% off your first month.

With Lime Teaming Up With Uber, Can Its Rival, Bird, Afford to Go It Alone?

Yesterday, we learned that 18-month-old, Bay Area-based electric scooter rental company Lime is joining forces with the ride-hailing giant Uber, which is both investing in the company as part of a $335 million round and planning to promote Lime in its mobile app. According to Bloomberg, Uber also plans to plaster its logo on Lime’s scooters. Lime isn’t being acquired outright, in short, but it looks like it will be. At least, Uber  struck a similar arrangement with the electric bike company JUMP bikes before spending $200 million to acquire the company in spring. There are as many questions raised by this kind of tie-up as answered, but the biggest may be what the impact means for Lime’s fiercest rival in the e-scooter wars, 15-month-old L.A.-based Bird, which several sources tell us also discussed a potential partnership with Uber. Despite recently raising $300 million in fresh capital at a somewhat stunning $2 billion valuation, could its goose be, ahem, cooked? At first glance, it would appear so. Uber’s travel app is the most downloaded in the U.S. by a wide margin, despite gains made last year by its closest U.S. competitor, Lyft,  as Uber battled one scandal after another. It’s easy to imagine that Lime’s integration with Uber will give it the kind of immediate brand reach that most founders can only dream about. A related issue for Bird is its relationship with Lyft, which . . . isn’t great. Bird’s founder and CEO, Travis VanderZanden, burned that bridge when, not so long after Lyft acqui-hired VanderZanden from a small startup he’d launched and made him its COO, he left to join rival Uber. Lyft, which sued VanderZanden for allegedly breaking a confidentiality agreement when he joined Uber, later settled with him for undisclosed terms. But given their history, it’s hard to imagine Lyft — which also has a much smaller checkbook than Uber — paying top dollar to acquire his company. Where that leaves Bird is an open question, but people familiar with both Bird and Lime suggest the e-scooter war is far from over. More here.

New Fundings

Convene, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based meeting room booking startup that pitches itself as a WeWork competitor, has $152 million in Series D funding led by ArrowMark Partners, with participation from several real estate-related organizations, including Brookfield Property Partners and the Durst Organization, and from Steve Case’s Revolution Growth. The company has now raised $260 million altogether. TechCrunch has a bit more here.  Elixirgen Therapeutics, a 1.5-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based stem cell therapies maker that’s developing treatments for Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s, has raised $4 million in Series A funding. The Baltimore Business Journal has more here.  EndoGastric Solutions, a 15-year-old, Redmond, Wa.-based company centered around an incisionless therapy for gastro-esophageal reflux disease, has raised $30.5 million in new funding. Earlier backers Advanced Technology Ventures, Canaan Partners, Canepa Healthcare, Chicago Growth Partners, CRG,Radius Ventures, and Sightline Partners all joined the round, with participation from several new investors. More here.  Lodgify, a six-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based maker of subscription software for property owners to manage vacation rentals, has secured $5 million in Series A funding. Earlier backers Nauta Capital, Howzat Partners, and a number of angels participated, in addition to new investor Intermedia Vermögensverwaltung. The round brings total funding for the startup to $7.3 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.  Nurx, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based reproductive health services platform that integrates an owned-and-operated pharmacy, a network of partner physicians, and a mobile telehealth app, just raised $36 million in Series B funding. Kleiner Perkins led the round, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, and Lowercase Capital. Also worth noting: Chelsea Clinton just joined the company’s board. More here.  Toast, a seven-year-old, Boston-based point-of-sale and restaurant management platform, has raised $115 million in fresh funding at a whopping $1.4 billion valuation led by T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from Tiger Global Management and other, earlier investors. TechCrunch has more here.  Virtudent, a four-year-old, Newton, Ma.-based company that aims to improve access to oral healthcare via pop-up dental clinics, has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Boston-based .406 Ventures, with participation from SpringRock Ventures and earlier investor the Sparta Group. More here.

New Funds

Lightspeed Venture Partners, the 18-year-old venture firm, says it has officially closed on $1.8 billion in capital commitments, including for a $750 million early-stage fund and a $1.05 billion “select” fund that will be used to back some of its breakout companies as they mature. In related news, the firm has brought aboard Brad Twohig as a partner focused on growth-stage deals. Twohig was previously a managing director at Insight Venture Partners, where he’d spent the last dozen years.  Scale Venture Partners, an 18-year-old, early-stage venture firm that focuses on software companies, has closed its sixth fund with $400 million, up slightly from the $335 million the firm had raised in early 2016. Among its biggest hits: the e-signature company Docusign and the marketing software company Hubspot, which went public in 2014. We talked with firm cofounder Rory O’Driscoll to learn more about where it will invest the capital.  Unicorn Capital Partners, a three-year-old, Hong Kong-based venture capital fund-of-funds manager, has closed its second fund with $250 million in capital commitments. The outfit had closed its debut fund with $210 million in 2016. Slightly more here.

Exits

Biodesix, a Boulder, Co.-based company that specializes in molecular diagnostics and liquid biopsy tests, has acquired Seattle-based Integrated Diagnostics, which is developing a test designed to determine whether nodules in patients’ lungs are cancerous. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. MedCity News has the story here.  Box, the publicly traded online data storage company, said today that it has acquired Butter.ai, a startup that helps customers search for content intelligently in the cloud. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, but Butter.ai had raised $3.3 million over two seed rounds, including from Slack and General Catalyst. TechCrunch has more here.

Data

Makers of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices often tout their products as smoking cessation aids. But new research suggests that the devices haven’t helped many U.S. smokers quit. From the WSJ.

Essential Reads

Netflix is automating downloads of series so you can binge-watch shows off-linewithout even pressing a button. Facebook is testing augmented reality ads in its News Feed. The Seasteading Institute aims to launch a floating “nation-stage” that’s independent from any land-based country (and its laws) by in 2022 in the Pacific, and the group, backed by investor Peter Thiel, just launched a cryptocurrency called Vayron to finance the launch.

Detours

How an expert in 18th-century French furniture ripped off the rich.  The astounding story of triplets separated a birth.  The best, weirdest running workout you haven’t tried yet.

Retail Therapy

A stationary bike “so beautiful” that it “becomes an object of desire.” (You have to love Italian marketing.)

Happy Monday! (It’s been insanely busy for us.)  Quick thanks to our newest partner in our upcoming StrictlyVC event on Tuesday night, September 25th: MobSquad, which helps startups address talent gaps by equipping them with remote technical talent who are full-time employees.   Thanks also to Norwest Venture Partners for generously hosting us at its beautiful South Park space, and to our very first partner in the evening, KCPR, a boutique public relations and strategy firm specializing in venture capital and startup clients founded by Silicon Valley publicist Kelsey Cullen.   Working on a number of stories already this week that we’ll bring your way shortly. So much for it being one of those sleepy summer weeks.:)

Top News

Oh, good. Another rose ceremony.   Chetan Puttagunta just joined Benchmark Capital as its newest general partner. Bill Gurley, one of the firm’s earliest investors (and its most renowned), has more on the hiring here. Puttagunta spent the last seven years focused on enterprise software at NEA. Uber just named Scott Schools, a former top attorney at the U.S. Justice Department, as its chief compliance officer. Uber is hoping that Schools, a top advisor to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein before stepping down last week, can keep the company out of hot soup. More here.

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There’s a New, $100 Million Fund Expressly for Women Founders of Color

When Richelieu Dennis came to the U.S. from his home in Liberia to attend Babson College, he wasn’t expecting to stay. But unable to return home owing to the first Liberian civil war, stay he did, building the personal care products company SheaMoisture with his college roommate Nyema Tubman in Harlem and later establishing a larger holding company, Sundial Brands, that would oversee a suite of product lines focused on women of color. Among them, SheaMoisture, Nyakio, Nubian Heritage, and Madame C.J. Walker, named after a  philanthropist and social activist and one of the earliest female founders of color. (Walker, the daughter of slaves, died a wealthy woman at the age of 51 in 1919, after herself developing a line of beauty and hair products for black women.) All that hard work was seemingly rewarded when last year, consumer goods giant Unilever acquired Sundial for undisclosed terms. In a unique twist, the deal should fuel the companies of future founders of color, too. More here.

New Fundings

Anchanto, a six-year-old, Singapore-based global e-commerce selling and logistics platform, has raised $4 million in Series C funding led by Telkom Indonesia’s corporate venture capital arm, MDI Ventures. Inc 42 has more here.  Cell-Ed, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based mobile learning software for low-skilled workers, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Lumina Impact Ventures with participation from Strada Education Innovation Fund, Partners Group Impact and Twilio.org Impact Fund. More here.  DeepMap, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that makes down-to-the-inch maps tailor-made for autonomous vehicles, is reportedly in talks to raise up to $60 million in fresh cash from Alibaba, Didi Chuxing and automaker BAIC Group, in a deal that would value the company as high as $430 million. The Information has the story here.  Kyligence, a two-year-old, Shanghai, China-based data analysis company, has raised $15 million in third round funding led by Eight Roads, with participation from Redpoint, Cisco, China Broadband Capital and Shunwei Capital. More here.  Lime, the 15-month-old, San Francisco-based e-bike and e-scooter company, has raised $335 million in fresh funding at a post-money valuation of $1.1 billion. GV, which had also led Uber’s Series C round back in 2013 (and whose parent company, Alphabet, was more recently embroiled in a since-resolved legal battle with Uber), is co-investing in the company alongside . . . Uber. Very notably, Uber also says it will feature Lime on its mobile app and put its branding on Lime scooters. Bloomberg has more here. Moneybox, a three-year-old, London-based mobile savings and investment app, has raised £14 million ($18.7 million) in Series B funding led by Eight Roads, with participation from Oxford Capital Partners and Samos Investments. UKTN has more here.  Oasis Labs, a year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based provider of cloud computing platform for the blockchain, raised $45 million in funding, including from a16zcrypto, Accel,Binance, Polychain Capital, Metastable, and Bitmain. TechCrunch has more here on why so many crypto investors are excited about this deal.  Secoo Holding Limited, a 10-year-old, Shanghai, China-based, publicly traded (on Nasdaq) online luxury fashion retailer, has received $175 million in funding from L Catterton Asia, the Asian unit of global consumer-focused private equity firm, and JD.com. The deal ostensibly offers Secoo a chance to collaborate with other L Catterton porfolio companies and boost its recognition internationally. WWD has more here, though you’ll need a subscription. Sportradar, an 18-year-old, Saint Gallen, Switzerland-based company that analyzes and leverages the power of sports data, has two new minority owners: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the growth equity firm TCV. The two outfits are buying their new stake from the private equity firm EQT and certain minority shareholders in a deal that values Sportradar at $2.4 billion. Legal Sports Report has more here.  Topbox, a three-year-old, Potomac, Md.-based company that helps businesses understand how their customers experience their products and where they run into issues by analyzing voice and text chats, has raised $5 million in funding.Telescope Partners led the round, with participation from Cascade Angels,Flyover Capital and the Maryland Venture Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Abingworth, the 45-year-old, London-based private equity and venture capital firm, raised $315 million for its latest fund, Abingworth Bioventures VII. The firm intends to use the capital to fund life sciences companies in both the U.S. and Europe. More here.  Aligned Partners, a seven-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based early-stage venture firm, is looking to raise up to $50 million for its third fund, shows a new SEC filing.  You can get a better understanding of the firm’s thinking through this sit-down with cofounder Jodi Sherman Jahic that we’d written some time ago. More here.  Index Ventures, the 22-year-old, international venture firm with offices in San Francisco,  London and Geneva, has raised $1.65 billion across two new funds, including a $1 billion vehicle for later-stage, growth rounds, and $650 million that it plans to put into earlier rounds for smaller startups. The venture fund is Index’s ninth; the growth round is its fourth since it was founded in 1996. TechCrunch has more here.  Tribe Capital is the name of a new Bay Area fund being assembled by three former Social Capital investors, says Business Insider. Its founders include Arjun Sethi, a former Social Capital investment partner; Jonathan Hsu, Social Capital’s former head of data science; and Ted Maidenberg, a founding partner of Social Capital who left the firm amid a wave of departures and changes in strategy. More here.

Exits

Autodesk has has acquired Assemble Systems, a startup that has built a platform to help plan and run building projects — and more generally building information management (BIM) — across the network of people and jobs involved. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed as Autodesk says the value is not material to its previous guidance. Autodesk had led Assemble’s Series A last year, so it was already a strategic investor in the startup. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Jefferies’ former top banker in Asia is joining Block.one, the firm behind a recent $4 billion cryptocurrency offering. Michael Alexander, who until recently was Asia CEO at Jefferies, will head Block.one’s venture capital arm. Bloomberg has more here.  Google co-founder Sergey Brin says he’s been mining ethereum with his son.  Recode founder Kara Swisher will begin writing for the New York Times as a contributor later this summer.

Essential Reads

About 56 percent of crypto startups that raise money through token sales die within four months(!) of their initial coin offerings, according to a new Boston College study. More here.  In related news, more than a year after Bancor raised $153 million in an initial coin offering (ICO), representing the largest token sale of its kind at the time, it’s saying today that $13.5 million was stolen from its platform following a “security breach” that took place earlier today.  Samsung has opened the world’s largest mobile phone factory in India, in a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship program to lure investors to manufacture in the South Asian nation. Bloomberg has more here.

Detours

Spiders can fly hundreds of miles using electricity.  Sacha Baron Cohen gets Dick Cheney to sign his “waterboard kit.”  Guy Trolls His Neighborhood With Fake Posters, and People Aren’t Sure If He’s For Real.

Retail Therapy

If a Segway and an electric scooter had a baby.

Friday! [Reverse dives off board.] Hope you have a terrific weekend, everyone.  If you’re looking for a podcast to dip into, we sat down yesterday with our pal Alex Wilhelm of Crunchbase News and Jai Das, managing director of Sapphire Ventures, a late-stage investor and lively guest, as it turns out. We collectively shared our half-baked observations about the Lyft-Motivate deal, Airbnb’s new compensation structure, Automation Anywhere’s giant Series A round, and why Tiger Management thinks Juul is so cool.

Top News

Donald Trump just threatened to impose tariffs on every single Chinese import into America. China is hitting back hard, too.

Sponsored By . . .

Today the Gullixson Team presents an iconic Atherton property.  Formerly owned by Larry Ellison, this home and property offer an exquisite expression of the guiding principles of Japanese aesthetics. Situated on a 1.78 acre lot, this property includes a traditional tea house and a series of ponds linked by stone footbridges. For questions about this or any of the fabulous listings you’ve seen this week, you can learn more here.

This Startup’s Software Makes it Easier for Attorneys to  Conduct Pro Bono Work, Including for Immigrants

Felicity Conrad and Kristen Sonday were on very different paths until three years ago. Conrad was an associate at the powerhouse law firm Skadden Arps. Meanwhile, Kristen Sonday, a Princeton grad and the first person in her family to go to college, was reflecting on the several years she’d spent with the U.S. Department of Justice in Mexico City, working to extradite fugitives. As it happens, both were coming to similar conclusions about the U.S. legal system, including that it’s especially challenging for people who don’t speak English. More here.

New Fundings

21Buttons, a three-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based social fashion shopping app, has raised $17 million in Series B funding led by Idinvest Partners, with participation from earlier investors Kibo Ventures, Breega, JME VC, 360 Capital Partners, Sabadell VC, and Samaipata. The company has now raised $31 million altogether. Tech.eu has more here.  Bitmain, the five-year-old, Beijing, China-based bitcoin mining giant, has reportedly closed a Series B round that values the firm at roughly $12 billion. With a B. Bitmain had raised $50 million in Series A funding last year led by Sequoia Capital China and IDG Capital. Coindesk has more here.  Dynacure, a two-year-old, Strasbourg, France-based biotechnology company developing new treatments for numerous orphan disorders, has raised roughly $55 million in funding led by Andera Partners (formerly Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners), with participation from Pontifax, Bpifrance,  Kurma Partners and IdInvest Partners. More here.  Savioke, a nearly five-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based developer of an indoor service robot that works in public environments like hotels and hospitals, has raised $13.4 million in Series B funding, including from Brain Corp, Swisslog Healthcare, NESIC, and Recruit. The company has now raised $31 million altogether. Robotics & Automation News has more here.  Starry, a four-year-old Boston-based wireless internet service, is bulking up with a $100 million in fresh funding, shows an SEC filing. With the new capital, Starry has now raised a total of $163 million from investors, including KKR, FirstMark Capital, and Tiger Global Management. The Boston Globe has a bit more here.

Exits

Uber and Lyft appear to be pursuing a crowdsourced bus startup calledSkedaddle,  the latest indication that the ride-hailing companies want to build businesses that cover every mode of transit. TechCrunch has the skinny here.

IPOs

Sonos, the smart speaker company that markets its high-end speakers to audiophiles — and is increasingly threatened by smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa — has filed for an IPO. TechCrunch has more here.

Jobs

OpenView Venture Partners is hiring an associate. The job is in Boston.

People

“I definitely hope centralized exchanges go burn in hell as much as possible.” — Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin, speaking at a TechCrunch event in Zug, Switzerland earlier today.   Responding to a question on Facebook yesterday, billionaire hedge fund founder Ray Dalio wrote that artificial intelligence and automation are improving productivity but also causing such a dramatic wealth gap that “a national emergency should be declared.”  Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s tech empire goes way beyond smartphones.  Elon Musk was lashing out at the media again yesterday.

Data

Three times more cryptocurrency was stolen from exchanges in the first half of 2018 than all of 2017, with a corresponding boost in money laundering related to crypto, according to a report released earlier this week by CipherTrace. American Banker has more here.

Essential Reads

An Alzheimer’s drug thought to be a failure may work after all.  The dark side of the Silicon gold rush.

Detours

“Neymar!” Why country clubs are on the wane.   RIP, Saman Gunan.

Retail Therapy

The Beekman, a “New York staple” since 1761.

Hi, all, happy Thursday. Hope for your sake that you’re still vacationing.:)

Top News

EPA chief Scott Pruitt resigned a bit ago, following a series of scandals in which Pruitt was discovered to be abusing his privileges as a government official.  The European Parliament just sent a controversial digital copyright law back to the drawing board.  Meanwhile, a revamped California net neutrality bill is moving forward again.

Sponsored By . . .

Today the Gullixson Team would like to present a one of a kind modern masterpiece. Designed by renowned architect Stanly Saitowitz, this incredible home is set on a 1.63 acre lot with incredible views of the Bay Area and surrounding western hills. There is no comparison to the quality, detail and design of this home.

New Fundings

Adlai Nortye Biopharma, a 14-year-old, Hangzhou, China-based biopharmaceutical company at work on 10 different cancer treatments, has raised $53 million in Series B financing funding, including from YuanMing Capital, Matrix Partners China, DT Capital Partners, and Yahui Precision Medicine Fund. More here.  Booksy, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that provides a booking app for appointment-based beauty businesses, has raised $13.2 million in funding led by Piton Capital, with participation from OpenOcean and individual investors Sebastian Kulczyk and Zach Coelius. More here.  Fever, a six-year-old, New York-based data-led entertainment and experience company, has raised $20 million in Series C funding co-led by Atresmedia and Labtech co-led the round, with participation from Accel Partners and 14W Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.  MeWe, a 3.5-year-old L.A-based Facebook alternative engineered with privacy in mind, has raised $5.2 million Series A financing from individual investors. The company says it has now raised $10 million altogether. More here.

New Funds

Health Enterprise Partners, 12-year-old, New York-based venture firm, has closed its third fund with $188 million, including from what it describes as some of the largest healthcare organizations in the country. More here.

Exits

Zebra Technologies — a company that makes handheld scanners, printers and other portable hardware, and develops the technology to tag things to be read by them — is acquiring Xplore Technologies, an older maker of ruggedized tablets and other hard-wearing hardware. Both companies are publicly listed and Zebra says it will be paying $6 per share in cash for Xplore, which works out to about $90 million — a premium on the company’s current market cap of about $65 million. Zebra’s market cap is just under $8 billion. TechCrunch has the play-by-play here.

IPOs

Doubts are growing that an eagerly anticipated IPO of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco will ever happen. It would create the largest public company in the history of capital markets, but Saudi officials tell the WSJ the country isn’t ready for an offering that could bring unprecedented scrutiny to the kingdom’s crown jewel.

Jobs

Pritzker Group Venture Capital is hiring an Associate for its LA team. To apply, email Associate Eric Duboe, at eduboe@pritzkergroup.com.

People

After more than a decade of winning and unconventional behavior, hedge fund manager David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital has shrunk by half, with frustrated clients bolting. According to the WSJ, the value of an investment in the firm’s main fund was down 11.3 percent at the end of 2017 from 2014’s end. The S&P 500 grew 38.3 percent over the same period. More than a third of Chinese millionaires want to leave the country, according to a new report. Here’s where they want to go.

Essential Reads

Uber’s exit from Southeast Asia — it saw Grab take over Uber’s local operations in exchange for a 27.5 percent stake — is coming under pressure in Singapore, where the country’s antitrust regulator has threatened to unwind the deal.  Bugs are coming soon to your dining table.

Detours

The secret price of pets.  A new study suggests men are “fighting to establish dominance” through their Patek Philippes.  At Wimbledon, married women are still “Mrs.”  Andrés Cantor thinks everything sounds better in Spanish.

Retail Therapy

A portable cooking set for kitchenless millennials.

Happy Independence Day, ‘Merica.

Top News

This U.S.-China trade war looks to be getting real: A Chinese court temporarily banned Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology from selling 26 products, cutting the company off from the world’s largest semiconductor market. Its Taiwanese rival United Microelectronics Corp. delivered the news is an announcement yesterday, as Micron’s shares fell 8 percent. UMC took legal action against Micron in January, saying it infringes on patents in China. Bloomberg has more here.

Sponsored By . . .

While you’re relaxing by the pool or barbecuing with friends, please enjoy theGullixson Team’s new Atherton listing.  This custom home is a triumph of classic architectural design, integrated with superbly appointed interiors. Located in what’s considered to be the best location in Atherton, its sits 1.25 acres of absolutely private grounds intertwined with Versailles-patterned limestone, a pool and spa, and magnificent gardens in a palette of green and white. What an amazing place to celebrate the holiday. Enjoy!

New Fundings

American Well, a 12-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based company that helps hospitals and other physician groups integrate virtual consultations, is closing a $315 million round with backing from a giant new strategic partner: Philips, the healthcare-focused multinational company. CNBC has more here.  Dreem, a four-year-old, Paris- and San Francisco-based neuro-technology company, has raised $35 million in funding, including from Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Bpifrance. More here.  InAccel, a months-old, Wilmington, De.-based company that’s aiming to help companies speed up their mission-critical applications by using its ready-to-use cloud FPGA-based accelerators, has raised $600,000 in seed funding from the Athens, Greece-based venture firm Marathon Venture Capital. More here.  Salamander Solutions, a year-old, Houston, Tex.-based spinout of Shell that sells advanced heater technology to the oil and gas industry, has raised $7 million in Series A funding. Eden Rock Group led the round; other participants include MCAAA Holding, Shell Venture and Frontive Holding. More here.  Trillium Secure, a four-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based maker of cybersecurity protection and secure data management software for vehicles and fleets, has raised $11 million in Series A2 funding. The round was led by Jafco, with participation from Airbus Ventures, Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Tokyo Century Corporation and Plug and Play Ventures. The company has now raised $15 million altogether. More here.  WelbeHealth, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based healthcare services company that looks to deliver coordinated and value-based care to medically frail seniors, has raised $15 million in Series B funding co-led by Longitude Capital and Ulysses Diversified Holdings, with participation from Town Hall Ventures and earlier backers F-Prime Capital and .406 Ventures.

New Funds

ISAI, a French venture capital firm, says it has closed a new, $175 million fund that aims to back later-stage investments (they don’t have to be in Paris, either). TechCrunch has more here.

Data

Personal loans surged to a record this year and are the fastest-growing U.S. consumer-lending category, according to data from credit bureau TransUnion and reported by Bloomberg. Outstanding balances rose about 18 percent in the first quarter to $120 billion. Fintech companies originated 36 percent of total personal loans in 2017 compared with less than 1 percent in 2010. More here.

People

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group says its chairman and co-founder Wang Jian died after being injured in an accident during a business trip in France yesterday.   To meet production deadlines, Elon Musk has reportedly ordered Tesla engineers to stop doing a “critical” brake test on Model 3s.  “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, now serving seven years behind bars for securities fraud, may be blogging biopharma tips from the big house.   Former Microsoft COO Kevin Turner has taken the helm of Core Scientific, a stealthy new blockchain and artificial intelligence startup led by veteran tech executives.

Essential Reads

Uber and Careem  are in preliminary talks to combine their Middle Eastern ride-hailing services, hoping to resolve a costly rivalry as Uber prepares for a public offering next year, according to Bloomberg’s sources.   Baidu is preparing to launch a driverless service in China — and elsewhere.  American law enforcement is doubling down on investigations of Facebook, broadening separate inquiries into Cambridge Analytica to add a focus on the social network.

Detours

Two strangers, flirting on a plane.  So rude, Siri!  British newspapers celebrate England’s win over Colombia yesterday.

Retail Therapy

Sunglasses-slash-bottle-openers. Pure . . . genius?