Happy Tuesday, everyone. We’re so looking forward to seeing a couple hundred of you tomorrow night at Galvanize in San Francisco!

Quick reminder: check-in begins at 5 and the program starts around 6. You must have a ticket to get in, meaning you purchased a ticket at Eventbrite and are now on our guest list. (Sorry to be Scrooge-y; it’s largely for security reasons.)

No column today — StrictlyC was a little overwhelmed with funding news this morning. We’ll be back with more good stuff tomorrow.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Verizon Communications, the largest mobile phone company in the U.S., is acquiring AOL for $4.4 billion, or $50 a share, a 17 percent premium over AOL’s closing share price of $42.59 yesterday. AOL’s “advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams,” said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam in a statement this morning. Said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong in a letter to employees:”The deal will give our content businesses more distribution and it will give our advertisers more distribution and mobile-first features. The deal will add scale and it will add a mobile lens to everything we do inside of our content, video, and ads strategy.”

That may not be all, however. As Recode notes in a report about the deal, AOL owns Web properties like Huffington Post and TechCrunch, but it’s been more actively investing in services that help it and other publishers automate their ad sales, a high-growth but low-margin business. It’s possible, as a result, that Verizon will spin out some or all of its content operations with a third partner — “perhaps German publisher Axel Springer,” reports Recode. Indeed, in an interview with Re/code about the Verizon deal, Armstrong seemed to leave the door open. “We’ve spoken to partners about content and scaling . . . Obviously we’ve seen a lot of interest in the content brands we have. So over the course of the summer, stay tuned.”

—–

New Fundings

Autonomic Technologies, an eight-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company whose microstimulator technology treats severe headaches, has raised $38 million in Series D funding led By Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, with partipation from Forbion Capital Partners and earlier backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Interwest Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, Aberdare Ventures, and the Cleveland Clinic. According to Crunchbase, the company has now raised $93 million altogether.

Bit Stew Systems, a 10-year-old, Burnaby, British Columbia-based company whose software platform provides real-time analytics, dynamic event management and a way to integrate into both IT and operational systems and applications, has raised $17.2 million in Series B funding led by GE Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Cisco and Yaletown Venture Partners. The company has now raised at least $25.7 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Blue Danube Systems, a nine-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based company whose hardware and software product aims to increase average user data rates for wireless communication systems, has raised raised $16 million in Series B funding from AT&T, Northgate Capital and earlier backer Sequoia Capital. The company has now raised $33.7 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Cartiva, a four-year-old, Alpharetta, Ga.-based company whose products are designed to treat cartilage injuries and osteoarthritis, has raised $8.5 million in Series D funding led by earlier investor New Enterprise Associates, with participation from new backer Windham Ventures Partners.

Cleeng, a four-year-old, Amsterdam, Netherlands-based specialist in video e-commerce for sports and entertainment companies, has raised €1.1 million in Series A funding led by earlier backer Pascal Cagni, a former Apple VP. The company has now raised  €1.5 million ($1.7 million) to date, it says. More here.

Credit Sesame, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based personal finance company that helps users manage their money and investments, has raised an additional $16 million in an oversubscribed Series D, with plans to raise as much as $20 million in the near future, reports TechCrunch. The new round was led by Syncora Alternative Investments, with participation from earlier investorsMenlo Ventures, IA Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, Inventus Capital, and numerous angel investors. The company has now raised more than $35 million altogether, says TechCrunch.

Diagnostic BioSystems, a 21-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca-based FDA-registered medical device company that develops specialty immunohistochemistry reagents, has raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital from BroadOak Capital Partners, a life sciences-focused merchant bank.

DocuSign, a 12-year-old, San Francisco-based e-signatures specialist, has raised a fresh $233 million in funding at reported $3 billion valuation led by Brookside Capital and Bain Capital Ventures. The company has now raised $440 million together. The WSJ has more here.

Electronic Warfare Associates, a 38-year-old,  Herndon, Va.-based company that sells electronic warfare, cyber security and advanced commercial test tool systems to the U.S. and allied-nation government agencies (as well as commercial customers), has raised $21.5 million in debt led by American Capital.

FST Biometrics, a 7.5-year-old, Rishon Lezion, Israel-based company whose biometric identification applications combine facial recognition and behavioral analytics, has raised $15 million in funding led by GMF Capital. According to Crunchbase, the company had previously raised at least $5 million.

Hungryroot, an eight-month-old, New York-based company that’s promising pre-packaged “farm fresh” seven-minute meals that last in the refrigerator for up to 14 days, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, with participation from Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and KarpReilly. More here.

IEX, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based upstart stock trading platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Sapphire Ventures. The company had hired Claudia Crowley, a former regulatory chief of the Big Board, as its chief regulatory officer back in March. Last fall, IEX raised $75 million  from investors, including Spark Capital and Franklin Templeton Investments.

Immediately, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that’s building mobile tools for salespeople, has raised $2 million in seed funding, including from Maiden Lane Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Galvanize Ventures, QueensBridge Venture Partners and numerous individual investors, including Naval Ravikant and Haroon Mokhtarzada.

JHL Biotech, a three-year-old, Hsinchu, China-based biopharmaceutical company that’s aiming to develop and commercialize affordable biologic medicines, has raised $45.6 million in Series C funding from Sungent BioVenture, Liwick Investment Management, and an unnamed “global crossover fund,” along with earlier backer Milestone Capital. The company has now raised $135 million altogether.

Juventas Therapeutics, an 8.5-year-old, Cleveland, Oh.-based clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing non-viral gene therapies to treat advanced cardiovascular diseases, has raised $13.5 million in new funding. Green Cross Holdings and POSCO Capital led a $7.5 million Series B-2 round in the company that included participation from other new and earlier investors; Juventas also secured $6 million in debt financing from Oxford Finance. More here.

Knod, a two-year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based online experience-based employment and learning program, has raised $6.2 million from investors, including Epic Ventures and Impact Investment Leaders. More here.

NerdWallet, a 6.5-year-old, San Francisco-based personal finance site, has raised $64 million in new funding led by Institutional Venture Partners, with participation from RRE Ventures, iGlobe Partners and angel investors. The company has now raised $100 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

StrongDM, a three-year-old, New York-based company whose monitoring service provides automated real-time data error detection for businesses, has raised $800,000 in seed funding led by Bloomberg Beta, with participation from Data Collective, SocialStarts and venture investor Jerry Neumann, among others. More here.

Synoste Oy, a three-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based medical device company that’s developing implants for the correction of skeletal deformations, has raised €2.2 million ($2.5 million) in Series A funding from Metsola Ventures and former Nokia executive Petri Pöyhönen, along with earlier backers High-Tech Gründerfonds, Finnvera, Lifeline Ventures, Mectalent Oy and unnamed angel investors. The company has also just received a € 1.0M European Eurostars grant.

Talkspace, a three-year-old, New York-based startup that provides users access to professional and licensed therapists on their mobile devices (or via the web), has raised $9.5 million in Series A round led by earlier investor Spark Capital, with participation from earlier backer SoftBank. Previously, Talkspace had raised $3.5 million, including from Metamorphic Ventures.

Vested Finance, a months-old, Austin, Tex.-based fintech startup focused on student financing, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Sandleigh Ventures. More here.

Wave Accounting, a 4.5-year-old, Toronto-based company that makes a suite of online small business software products, has raised $10 million in Series C funding from CRV, OMERS Ventures, The Social+Capital Partnership and an undisclosed strategic investor. The company has now raised $34.6 million, according to Crunchbase.

Zapstitch, a two-year-old, Bangalore, India-based cloud data integration platform, has raised $2 million in pre-series A funding from Helion Ventures and earlier backer Orios Venture Partners. More here.

—–

New Funds

Mission Bay Capital, a San Francisco, Ca.-based seed-stage venture firm that invests in life science companies to emerge from the University of California and the San Francisco Bay Area ecosystem more broadly, has closed its second fund with $25 million. Its limited partners include include Brook Byers of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; the UCSF Foundation; the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation; Sobrato Capital; and Capital Pacific, among others.

Rocketship.vc, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based early-stage venture that invests in startups using data science models, is targeting $25 million for its debut firm, shows an SEC filing that sales the first sale has yet to occur. More here.

Seed Equity Capital Partners, a new, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based seed fund — a spin-off of the investment bank Seed Equity Ventures — is hoping to raise a $10 million debut fund, shows an SEC filing that states the first sale has yet to occur. More here.

SherpaVentures is raising a new $175 million fund, according to an SEC filing that was flagged by TechCrunch. This is the firm’s second early-stage fund; its first fund closed with $150 million. SherpaVentures has separately raised a $250 million fund called SherpaEverest that’s designed to support growth-stage companies.

—–

Exits

WunWun, a three-year-old, New York-based on-demand delivery service, is closing its doors and some of its assets are being scooped up by Alfred, a 1.5-year-old startup that manages home-related on-demand orders. WunWun had raised $17.5 million from investors, including Resolute.vc. Alfred has raised $12.5 million from investors, including Spark Capital, SV Angel, CrunchFund, SherpaVentures, and New Enterprise Associates. TechCrunch has the story here.

—–

People

Art Coviello, formerly executive chairman of RSA, has joined the Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm Rally Ventures as a venture partner.

The 22 most memorable quotes from the new Elon Musk book, ranked.

Entrepreneur Kevin Ryan — who has cofounded Gilt Groupe, Business Insider, MongoDB, and the wedding registry startup Zola — is taking the wraps off yet another new company: a visual search and discovery platform for workplace design called Kontor. TechCrunch has more here.

Jawbone, a San Francisco-based company that makes activity trackers, wireless speakers and other products, has hired  as its new president. Samat is currently VP of shopping and travel products at Google, but starts at the company this month, reporting to Jawbone’s CEO and cofounder Hosain Rahman. Recode has the story here.

Kevin Thau has joined Spark Capital as general partner in its San Francisco office. Thau was Twitter’s business development head for five years before becoming COO of Jelly, a (seemingly flagging) question-and-answer platform cofounded by Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. More here.

—–

Essential Reads

Why the ruling against the NSA’s phone records program could have huge implications.

In case you were curious: Twitter spent more than $86 million to acquire livestreaming app Periscope and social media talent agency Niche earlier this year. Recode has the news here.

—–

Detours

Five hacks to get faster streaming video.

A supercut of the many times Owen Wilson has said “wow” in a movie.

A custom-built electric racer for one of the more surreal (and deadliest) road races in the world, happening next month on the Isle of Man.

—–

Retail Therapy

Lotus Belle luxury tents. When you’re not so into “roughing it” in the great outdoors. (Hey, we’re with you.)

Hi, everyone, hope you had a terrific weekend!
—–

Top News in the A.M.

Everyone in China who wants a smartphone already has one, according to a new survey. “China is now a replacement market,” an analyst tells the WSJ.

SoftBank just unveiled a management reshuffle, appointing its investments head, Nikesh Arora, as president and naming him as a potential successor to CEO Masayoshi Son. More here.

The New Yorker published a sweeping profile of Marc Andreessen this morning that’s a must-read. Among many juicy nuggets about Andreessen Horowitz and the current venture landscape, there’s this: “A16z was designed not merely to succeed but also to deliver payback: It would right the wrongs that Andreessen and Horowitz had suffered as entrepreneurs. Most of those, in their telling, came from Benchmark Capital . . . Of Benchmark’s Bill Gurley, in particular, Andreessen tells the New Yorker: “I can’t stand him. If you’ve seen ‘Seinfeld,’ Bill Gurley is my Newman.”

—–

Quick Chat with Kevin Talbot of Relay Ventures

In recent years, Relay Ventures, a nine-year-old, early-stage venture firm that once operated as BlackBerry Partners Fund, has been organizing one of the more thought-provoking events for investors: a half-day, invite-only affair in Mountain View, Ca., called Strictly Mobile.

The event, like Relay Ventures itself, focuses solely on mobile software and services, and though we couldn’t make it this year, we caught up with firm cofounder Kevin Talbot recently to talk about what we missed. Invariably, we also talked about what Relay is looking to fund these days. Here’s some of that chat, edited for length.

You dropped everything but mobile back in 2008. That seems pretty prescient now, though presumably it’s also less of a differentiator.

People kind of laughed at us and said, ‘It’s a category.’ Now, I’d be surprised if any VC firm hasn’t figured out that mobile is real, although if you look across the board, you’ll still see just one or two partners at each firm who focuses on it, which surprises me.

Given that “mobile” is now so ubiquitous, how do you narrow your areas of focus?

We’ve been focusing on four verticals: healthcare, education, commerce and the consumer. If you pick any one, you see a huge amount of disruption, whether in the form of payments, in commerce; or the digitization of education – which is really the democratization of education; or the consumerization of healthcare, with all these new sensors and tools that are altering whole healthcare systems and turning doctors into white collar workers.

We remember your early investment in Scanadu [a four-year-old company whose first medical device for home use measures temperature, blood pressure and oxygen].

We’re big supporters of Scanadu, whose [Series B, which closed last month] was oversubscribed. The company has really been at the forefront of citizen-driven healthcare. It also ushered in a whole new model of, how do you embrace the FDA rather than run away from it. That deal was also led by Tencent, which speaks to the strategy of more American startups that don’t look at marketing as something to be done sequentially, where you launch in the U.S. first, but rather as something that should be done in parallel.

Have you backed any fitness-related mobile tech?

We’re not all that interested in another tracker of a relatively unverifiable metric like step counting. We don’t think that’s changing the world.

What are one of your newer ed tech investments? 

We’re excited about Galxyz, an iPad app that invites kids to solve puzzles and put the world back together while teaching them scientific content; it sees educators and game designers working side by side and was founded by Osman Rashid, who also founded [the publicly traded textbook rental service] Chegg and [the e-learning startup] Kno [which was acquired by Intel in 2013].

You also mentioned the consumer. Are you focused on the so-called Internet of Things? 

We think the Internet of Things is in an exciting phase that’s a bit like the Wild West. It’s all very fun and interesting, like the Oral B toothbrush that connects to your smartphone. We’re less sure how you’re going to make money on a lot of these things. We’re more interested in the meta layers that will make the market useful and frictionless.

What’s an example of a related company you’ve backed? 

We haven’t yet found it, but that’s what we’re looking for.

Before you go, we have to ask: Thumbs up or down for the Apple Watch?

I think there will be very point-specific solutions that work. But also, as I stare [at my own Apple Watch], I’m reminded of the bottom drawer of my desk, which is a graveyard of tech. There’s just about every fitness tracker in there; there’s Google Glass. There’s a lot of money sitting there. I still don’t know yet if the Apple Watch will stay on my wrist or [ultimately land] in the drawer.

Are startups starting to pitch you on Apple Watch-related apps?

No, but they are showing us the watch along with the smartphone app they’re pitching. Much of it won’t work on the wrist, but everyone has figured out that you have to have the watch picture beside the phone.

—–

New Fundings

It is Friday! Woot!

Before we let you go, a quick scheduling note about our next INSIDER event, coming up Wednesday: Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad has canceled, owing to a change in his travel schedule. The great news: Tom Fallows, Director of Global Expansion Products at Uber — and creator of the Google Express same-day delivery service — has joined the program. (Recode covered his poaching here). We are very excited to have him.

Thanks to those of you who are coming. Thanks very much, too, to our generous sponsors and partners in the evening, Amazon Web Services, Galvanize, and Personal Capital.

No column today, but we hope you have a wonderful weekend — especially you, supermoms!

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Uber has submitted a bid of up to $3 billion for the Nokia subsidiary Here, the main competitor to Google Maps, reports the New York Times. Its bid is reportedly competing with a consortium of German automakers that are are teaming up with the Chinese search engine Baidu on their own offer. Nokia is expected to announce the unit’s sale by May’s end, says the report.

According to the WSJ, the publicly traded, online reviews site Yelp is looking to sell itself. A couple of investment banking analysts have identified eight potential buyers.

—–

New Fundings

Big Data Partnership, a three-year-old, London-based company that provides big data consulting, training and support for numerous industries, has raised £3.1 million ($3.5 million) in Series B funding from earlier backer Beringea, which had previously invested £1.25m in the company. More here.

Delvv, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company whose app promise users a personalized news feed to help them find the best events, apps, and articles, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding from undisclosed backers.

Dida Pinche, a year-old, Beijing, China-based carpooling app, has raised $100 million in Series C funding led by China Renaissance Capital Investment, with TBP Capital and earlier backers IDG Capital and Beijing-based auto information and marketing site Bitauto joining the round. The company had previously raised $30 million across its first two rounds, reports China Money Network. (This deal is interesting, given that Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, which merged back in February, control something like 99 percent of China’s market. But Dida Pinche has reportedly talked with Uber about some kind of tie-up.)

GaN Systems, a seven-year-old, Ottawa, Canada-based company that produces gallium nitride power switching semiconductors, has raised $20 million in new funding led by Cycle Capital Management, with participation from BDC Capital and Beijing-based Tsing Capital, as well as earlier backers Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and RockPort Capital. The company has raised funding across at least two prior rounds, though according to Crunchbase, it hasn’t disclosed how much it raised in those financings.

Iwjw, a 14-month-old, Shanghai, China-based company that helps people buy or rent apartments via its site and apps, has raised $120 million in Series D funding led by GGV Capital and Morningside Ventures, with participation from Shunwei Capital and Banyan Capital. The round values the young company at $1 billion, according to China Money Network.

Kymab, a six-year-old, Cambridge, England-based company that uses its antibody technology to form corporate partnerships and to develop its own drugs, has tacked on $50 million in new funding to its Series B round, bringing its total to $90 million. Its backers include Malin Corp. and Woodford Patient Capital Trust.

Lucid, an 11-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based company whose cloud operating system connects a building’s hardware and software technologies with a single platform (and will soon focus on similarly connecting disparate buildings), has added capital to its Series B financing from GE Ventures. The round, which now amounts to $14.2 million, also includes participation from Formation 8, Zetta Venture Partners, and Autodesk.

The Odyssey, a nearly six-year-old, New York-based millennial-targeted content platform, has raised $3 million in funding from ExactTarget cofounder Scott Dorsey; former ExactTarget CMO Tim Kopp; and Traci Dolan, ExactTarget’s chief administration officer.

Twistlock, a Herzliya, Israel-based company whose security suite aims to give enterprises the visibility and control they need over their container-based applications and data, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by YL Ventures.

Vedantu, a six-month-old Bangalore, India-based online tutoring platform, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management. TechCrunch has more here.

Wag, a five-month-old, L.A.-based app that connects dog owners with access to pre-screened, insured and bonded dog walkers, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Freestyle Capital, with participation from Greylock Partners, Crunchfund, Slow Ventures, Social Leverage, and RRE Ventures.

Webydo, a five-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based SaaS platform that enables designers to create and manage code-free websites for their clients, has raised $5 million in Series C funding led by Singulariteam, a venture fund headed by entrepreneur Moshe Hogeg of Mobli and Yo fame. The company has now raised $13.4 million altogether, including from OurCrowd and Magna Capital Partners.

Wish, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile shopping application, is looking to — or has — raised more than $500 million, according to filings obtained by VC Experts and shared with Forbes, whose sources say investors value the company at roughly $3 billion following its latest round. The WSJ reported that Wish was worth $400 million following a $50 million round led by Founders Fund last year. Wish’s other investors include Jerry Yang, GGV Capital, Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois, actor Jared Leto andFormation 8. Forbes’s story is here.

—–

IPOs

Fitbit, the eight-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of activity trackers — roughly 20 million of which it has sold over the years — filed yesterday to become a publicly traded company, as a growing number of competitors crowds into the fitness tracking business. According to an SEC filing, the company is offering up to $100 million in common stock. Fitbit has raised at least $83 million in funding from investors, including Foundry Group, True Ventures, SoftBank Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Felicis Ventures. Foundry is the biggest shareholder, with a 28.9 percent stake; True is the second-biggest shareholder, with 22.4 percent ownership. The WSJ has more here.

—–

Exits

The publicly traded meal delivery company Just Eat is acquiring Menulog, a nine-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based online food ordering service, for roughly $687 million. Three months ago, Menulog merged with rival EatNow. TechCrunch has the story here.

The Boston-area manufacturing software company PTC is paying $112 million to acquire ThingWorx, a six-year-old, Downington, Pa.-based company whose software platform allows developers to build and run machine-to-machine and “Internet of Things” applications. ThingWorx had raised at least $13 million in funding, including from Safeguard Scientifics. More here.

Tesla Motors has spent an undisclosed amount to acquire Riviera Tool, a Michigan-based company that specializes in constructing the type of machinery that stamps large sheets of metal into auto parts. Ironically, notes TechCrunch, Tesla still can’t sell cars in Michigan. Its governor signed legislation last fall that bans Tesla and any other carmaker from selling direct to consumers in the state.

Yahoo acquired an unnamed company for $23 million during the first three months of this year, according to a newly filed SEC form that was flagged yesterday by Business Insider. The filing provides few details about the transaction.

—–

People

As Zappos switches to a self-governing management system called Holacracy (StrictlyVC talked with the consultant who dreamed it up here), 14 percent of its employees have opted instead to accept three-month severance packages. More here.

Are New York real estate prices peaking? Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú seems to think so. He’s selling a red-brick Beaux Arts style mansion at 1009 Fifth Ave. that he bought as an investment five years ago for $80 million. He paid $44 million for the property. Says his son-in-law to Forbes: “Back then it was a good time to buy, as we also believe it is a good time to sell now.”

—–

Jobs

Samsung Electronics is looking to add a senior director to its Global Innovation Center in New York. More here.

—–

Essential Reads

A cybersecurity company, Tiversa, faked hacks and extorted clients to buy its services, according to an ex-employee. Its board includes the retired four-star U.S. Army General Wesley Clark.

—–

Detours

The problem(s) with electric bicycles.

Walk in Shanghai.

Why CEOs are four times more likely to be psychopaths. (We’re not talking about you, of course. Hah, hah. Gulp.)

—–

Retail Therapy

Pretty, though good luck determining what time it is.

Hi, everyone. No column today but lots of intel. Hope you have a great Tuesday.:) (Psst, web visitors, here’s a more scannable version of today’s email.)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Alibaba shares fell to an all-time low of $77.8 per share this morning. More here. 

Oof. Comcast spent $336 million over the past year-plus on its failed attempt to acquire Time Warner Cable. Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable reportedly shelled out more than $200 million in merger-related costs. More here.

—–

New Fundings

Hi, everyone, happy Monday! (Web visitors, click here to read this email in a slightly easier-to-scan layout.)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Silicon Valley executive and SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg passed away suddenly Friday night at age 47. Goldberg, beloved by friends and the many fellow entrepreneurs, investors, and former employees who knew him, was married to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in 2004 when both were executives elsewhere; the couple has two children. In recent years, Goldberg had become renowned for being a highly supportive husband, as described by Sandberg in her best-selling book, Lean In. In fact, notes a New York Times article published yesterday, Goldberg was a lifelong advocate for women. (Business Insider also ran a nice piece about Goldberg over the weekend that you can find here.)

—–

Accel Partners’s Fred Destin on What’s Changing (Fast) in Europe

It is May, people! Can you believe it? Hope you have a great, spring-y weekend in store.:) (Pst, web visitors, here’s an easier-to-read version of this morning’s email.)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Spotify has just raised roughly $350 million in a new round of fundraising that values it at a stunning $8 billion.

—–

TPG Growth’s Bill McGlashan: We’re No Stranger to Startups

Happy Thursday, everyone! We interviewed a couple of folks yesterday — including the head of TPG Growth, Bill McGlashen —  and hoped to publish one of those chats today. We’re running a little late as it is, though, so stay tuned. McGlashen, in particular, had some interesting things to say about the way TPG Growth operates — and why he takes issue with one common perception about his group.

(Psst, web visitors, here’s an easier-to-read version of this morning’s email.)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Salesforce is working with financial advisers to help it field takeover offers after being approached by a potential acquirer, according to Bloomberg sources. ZDNet takes a look at some possible buyers.

Shares of the business ratings and reviews company Yelp have tanked more than 21 percent today, following a big miss on its first quarter earnings.

—–

New Fundings

Beisen, a 13-year-old, Beijing, China-based maker of SaaS-based HR software, has raised $18 million in Series C funding led by Matrix Partners and another unnamed investor. The company reportedly raised roughly $10 million in Series B funding in 2013 from Matrix and Sequoia Capital.

Campus Job, a year-old, New York-based online marketplace for college students to find part-time jobs and internships, has raised $7.8 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from Index Ventures, SV Angel, Slow Ventures, and others. Earlier backers Box Group and Lerer Hippeau Ventures also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $9.1 million.

Cintell, an eight-month-old, Boston, Ma.-based customer intelligence platform, has raised $800,000 in seed funding led by angel investor and entrepreneur Venkat Janapareddy, whose startup, Gozaik, was acquired by Monster Worldwide.

Circle Internet Financial, a two-year-old, Boston-based bitcoin brokerage firm, has raised $50 million in new funding led by Goldman Sachs and IDG Capital Partners, with participation from all of its earlier backers. (Some of those include Breyer Capital, Accel Partners, Pantera Capital, and Oak Investment Partners.) The company, cofounded by by Brightcove founder Jeremy Allaire, has now raised $76 million altogether, shows Crunchbase. Reuters has more here.

Clarifai, a two-year-old, New York-based company whose image recognition software helps companies better handle certain kinds of data, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures, Lux Capital and Osage University Partners. Other participants included Google Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Nvidia Ventures,Corazon Capital, LDV Capital and New York University. Crain’s New York has more here.

Femasys, an 11-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based company that has developed a non-surgical female sterilization device that delivers biomaterial through a catheter-based system to block a patient’s fallopian tubes, has raised $10.2 million in funding led by Legacy Capital Partners, Salem Partners, and Mario Family Partners. The company has now raised $16.6 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Glu Mobile, the 14-year-old, San Francisco-based publicly traded games maker, has sold 21 million shares, or 14.6 percent of its outstanding shares, to the Chinese Internet giant Tencent for $126 million. Recode has more here.

Lyst, a four-year-old, London-based fashion e-commerce platform, has raised $40 million in Series C funding from Groupe Arnault, Accel Partners, Balderton Capital, 14W, DFJ and an unnamed New York based hedge fund. More here.

MD Insider, a three-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based healthcare platform that helps companies choose the best doctor networks for their employees based on experience, quality and cost, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding led by the company’s executive chairman, Jason Ader, with participation from Tim Ferriss and Bill Ackman.

Mobile Action, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based marketing platform that helps app publishers figure out how to better optimize their apps’ search result rankings, has raised $2 million in funding led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from Streamlined Ventures, 500 Startups, 500 Mobile Collective, CrunchFund and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

MX, a five-year-old, Provo, Ut.-based  personal finance startup, has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by a subsidiary of USAA, with participation from the Tokyo-based venture firm Digital Garage. The company has now raised $50 million altogether, including from Peak Ventures, Commerce Ventures, North Hill Ventures, and TTV Capital. (We’d mentioned this same deal early last week, though we didn’t know at the time who the new backers were.)

MyoKardia, a 2.5-year-old, South San Francisco-based company that’s developing precision therapies for genetic heart disease, has raised $46 million in Series B funding from an undisclosed public investment fund, Casdin Capital, Cormorant Asset Management, Perceptive Life Sciences, an affiliate of Cowen Group, and BridgeBio, with participation from earlier backer Sanofi.

NetBase, an 11-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based social media analytics company, has raised $9 million in Series E funding led by ORIX Ventures, with participation from return backer Thomvest Ventures. The company had earlier raised $24 million in Series E funding (announced in March). Altogether, Netbase has raised $84.6 million, shows Crunchbase.

PlateJoy, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based meal-kit delivery startup, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding from Foundation Capital, Sherpa Ventures, HealthBox, 500 Startups, VaynerRSE, Bassett Investments, and angel investors Joanne Wilson and Jared Leto.

Rimidi, a three-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based digital health company focused on diabetes and other chronic conditions, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Cox Enterprises. The company had previously raised at least $1.4 million in seed funding, shows Crunchbase. More here.

Rocana, a year-old, Boston, Ma.-based company whose software helps IT professionals trace data center problems to their root cause, has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Google Ventures, with participation from General Catalyst Partners, Toba Capital and Paul Sagan. The company, which has now raised $19.4 million altogether, was formerly called ScalingData.

Sticky, a six-year-old, New York-based online eye-tracking analytics platform for content publishers, advertisers and agencies, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Dawn Capital, with participation from previous investors Northzone and Conor. More here.

SwitchedOn, a year-old, Singapore-based company behind a team messaging app, has raised $300,000 from 14 angel investors. More here.

TripleMint, a four-year-old, New York-based online real estate brokerage, has raised $1.65 million in seed funding from Dominion Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Kima Ventures, Archangel Ventures, and individual investors, including Fabrice Grinda. TechCrunch has more here.

Visidraft, a four-year-old, Cheverly, Md.-based augmented reality startup that’s developing a communications and design platform for architecture and construction work, has raised $250,000 in seed funding led by Hivers & Strivers. DCInno has more here.

Warby Parker, the five-year-old, New York-based online glass retailer, has raised $100 million in new funding led by T.Rowe Price, with participation from Wellington Management and earlier backers Tiger Global Management and General Catalyst Partners. The round reportedly values the company — which has now raised $215 million altogether — at $1.2 billion. The WSJ has the story here.

XOEye Technologies, a 4.5-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based maker of work-related wearables, has raised $1.9 million in Series A funding led by IncWell, an early-stage venture firm founded by former Chrysler Group CEO Tom LaSorda. More here.

Zooppa, a Seattle-based company that crowdsources advertising creative through online contests, has raised $3.4 million in a new round of funding, according to an SEC filing. GeekWire has more here.

—–

New Funds

Catalyst Investors, a 15-year-old, New York-based growth equity firm, has closed its fourth fund with $377 million.

Slow Ventures, a four-year-old, seed-stage firm, has raised $65 million for its fourth fund. Business Insider has more here.

—–

IPOs

Blueprint Medicines, a seven-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based developer of experimental cancer therapies that was originally formed by Third Rock Ventures, sold 8.15 million IPO shares at $18 apiece last night, bringing in nearly $147 million. The company began trading on Nasdaq today. Along with Third Rock, which owned 41.8 percent of the company before the IPO, Blueprint’s biggest shareholder is Fidelity, which owned 13.4 percent. Xconomy has more here.

—–

Exits

Amazon has acquired ClusterK, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that can run apps on Amazon Web Services at 10 percent off the regular price, reports VentureBeat. According to its report, Amazon paid between $20 million and $50 million for the company, which had raised one undisclosed round of seed funding.

Secret — the 16-month-old, anonymous social app that made headlines around the world in the months after its controversial debut— is closing shop, having lost the interest of users, BuzzFeed News reported yesterday. Secret had raised more than $37 million from investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, S-Cubed Capital, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Google Ventures and Matrix Partners. Cofounder David Byttow declined to address questions from BuzzFeed regarding how much of that capital would be returned, including the $6 million in restricted stock he and his co-founder, Chrys Bader, sold and split last summer. (Byttow, who’d bought a red Ferrari with the proceeds, has since sold it, a source tells the New York Times.)

You might want to know: Twitter paid $532.6 million in stock for the ad targeting company TellApart, whose acquisition it revealed in an earnings call on Tuesday. The number was first reported by Business Insider, which dug up a new, related SEC filing yesterday.

—–

People

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is heading to Silicon Valley – the first sitting Japanese leader to do so – in the “hopes of rekindling that innovative spark,” reports Reuters. Scheduled stops include meetings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, and California Governor Jerry Brown.

Daniel Hoffer and Shashi Seth have joined the eight-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based seed fund Tandem Capital as partners. Hoffer cofounded the startup CouchSurfing; Seth has spent the last 16 months as the president of Tribune Digital Ventures.

Looks like Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is set to deliver his first commencement speech next week, for undergraduates at the USC Marshall School of Business.

Mark Troughton, a former president at Wonga and Green Dot, has joined the three-year-old, L.A.-based anonymous social network Whisper as president, reports Recode. Whisper — whose primarily competitor, Secret, just went out of business — also just disclosed that there are now 10 million people using the app every month. Recode generously suggests that both pieces of Whisper news, coming out this week, could be a coincidence rather than what they kind of look like — a way to elude inquiries into the health of Whisper’s own viability.

—–

Jobs

Launch Angels, a New England-based venture capital firm that helps alumni, universities, and other affinity groups create early-stage venture funds, is looking for managing directors interested in raising (and helping fund) alumni venture funds.

—–

Data

From Silk: A ranking of the leading AngelList syndicates, as of March’s end.

Corporate venture groups accounted for 19 percent of all venture deals in the first quarter. (That’s $2.2 billion across 196 deals, though a big slug of that total, $900 million, centered on Google Ventures’s January investment in SpaceX.) The NVCA has more here.

—–

Essential Reads

Twitter has a huge problem, and it’s all in your head.

—–

Detours

Compare conditions in your own country with another country. (H/T: Business Insider.)

Watch the first test flight of Jeff Bezos’s mysterious new rocket.

Based on a study of reader comments at each NFL team website, Redskins fans can’t spell very well, reports the WSJ, which insists there is no correlation between fan exasperation and grammatical errors. (Indeed, Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns fans were tied for the best spelling.)

—–

Retail Therapy

The unstainable white shirt. We don’t care what it’s made of. We’ll take four.

Good morning, dear readers. Our upcoming event in San Francisco is just two weeks from tonight — squeal! Excited to see many of you there.

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Uber is quietly testing a massive merchant delivery program. More here.

——

A Startup Exposes the Shadiness of Shipping

Among a sea of specialized data companies,Windward, a five-year-old, 35-person, Tel Aviv-based company, stands out. The reason: it’s among few companies attempting to collect and sell detailed, real-time information about global ship activity.

Its story attracted Horizon Ventures of Hong Kong to its door. (Horizon just led a $10.8 million strategic investment in the company, with participation from Windward’s early backer, Aleph). Windward also counts a dozen governments around the world as customers. After poring over some of Windward’s findings about ship behavior, we also found ourselves wanting to learn more.

Luckily, we were able to catch Windward’s cofounder and CEO, Ami Daniel, as he bounded around New York City yesterday, trying to strike new partnerships. Our chat, edited for length, follows.

You were a navy officer for six years before starting Windward. Did you start thinking about the company during that period?

I was entrepreneurial as a teenager, and when I left the Navy, I hooked up with [Windward cofounder] Mantan [Peled], who I’d served with for five or six years. We wanted to do something big, and we felt that oceans were the Wild West. More than 90 percent of the world’s trade is carried by sea [according to the International Maritime Organization, or IMO], yet the shipping ecosystem is much more opaque than most people realize.

How so?

Talk to a big commodity trader, for example – someone who buys and sells more than $100 million in oil every year. His secret sauce is his connections, like port agents who know who is entering or leaving the ports, or the mine manager who knows when cargo is rolling out to market, or the contact in Nigeria who knows how to buy [low and sell high]. It’s an industry that’s based on 200-year-old methods. It’s all very gray. It’s kind of like real-estate in New York. [Laughs.]

You claim Windward has a better picture than anyone of everything that’s happening. How does your tech work? 

We start by checking whether you are who you say you are and creating a record of what you’ve been doing. We also calculate what you say you’re transporting by gauging, for example, how long you’re in the jetty, and how long it’s taking you to load what you’re carrying compared with the average loading rate for the same cargo. We don’t necessarily trust you to tell us how much oil you’re carrying. There’s a lot of [subterfuge in shipping]. For example, ships only report their final destination 41 percent of the time, and 55 percent of ships misrepresent their port of call for most of their voyage.

Aren’t there mandates against doing such things?

The IMO is responsible for maritime data and there are mandates issued by the UN, which is the regulator. But there is no punishment for not complying. You can steal an identity. You can turn off your data transmissions. I personally approached the head of the IMO to give him an executive summary of our findings and to ask for the organization’s feedback and they never called us back.

And you collect all this information how? Through satellites? Sensors? 

It starts with public information, then we get commercially available information. Spire, for example, is a San Francisco-based company that tracks ship transmissions and weather and sells information to companies like us. Beyond our data partnerships, we go to port agents and logistics brokers and we say, “We’ll give you technology [in exchange for information].”

Everyone has a small segment of the picture. There are no magic solutions, no one vendor, no one protocol. Everybody’s stories are different, so it’s very time- and resource-intensive work. But one of the moats we’re building is one of the biggest databases ever.

But you have competitors. 

We do have competitors, including IHS [a company that sells information and analytics about the maritime industry to customers]. But what we’re doing is better. Others take this older approach of information services, with analysts looking at databases and writing reports and then selling a giant report to everybody. We’re taking a data science approach, using Hadoop and Apache Spark to compute and slice and dice things automatically according to different queries.

You have a dozen governments paying you to subscribe to this platform. Can you give us some idea of what they’re paying you?

We’re happy that we’re being paid for the value that we’re providing, which is high, but I can’t be more specific except to say that we’re seen three times revenue growth year over year for the last three years and we’re making enough that we’ve barely touched the [$5 million Series A round we closed in 2013 from Aleph].

Like another intelligence specialist, Palantir Technologies, Windward started with government customers but wants to begin targeting financial clients. Have you lined up any firms so far?

We’re in beta testing. No one is paying yet. But we’re not cash strapped. We can afford to engage with customers as we develop the product. We want to make a billion dollar company out of this  That’s why I’m in New York, meeting with hedge funds and commodity traders. Legwork!

—–

New Fundings

Access Integrated Healthcare, a six-year-old, L.A.-based healthcare services company, has raised $8.5 million in its first round of growth capital led by Penta Mezzanine Fund. More here.

Albeado, a five-year-old Santa Clara, CA-based software company that markets its predictive analytics and causal modeling platform to the healthcare, utilities and mining industries, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by the tech consulting outfit Brillio.

CargoSense, a three-year-old, Reston, Va.-based big data and analytics SaaS company that targets the pharmaceutical, cold chain, and refrigerated storage industries, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from IrishAngels, Middleburg Capital Development and Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology.

Crispr Therapeutics, a two-year-old, London-based biopharmaceutical company that’s hoping to use a particular genome-editing technology to create medicines for serious human genetic diseases, has raised a combined $89 million in Series A and Series B funding, it just announced. Its investors include SR One, Celgene Corp., New Enterprise Associates, Abingworth, and Versant Ventures.

The Daily Dot, a four-year-old, New York-based media company, has raised $10 million in funding from an undisclosed media company, reports The Observer. More here.

Dedrone, a year-old, Kassel, Germany-based maker of drone early-warning and detection systems, has raised $2.9 million in funding. The round was led by Target Partners, with participation from angel investors, including  Tom Noonan, a Cisco exec who was long CEO of Internet Security Systems (acquired by IBM).

Empathetics, a four-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based interpersonal skills training company for medical professionals, has raised $1.5 million in funding led by GDN Holdings and Key Venture Partners.

Grab A Grub, a three-year-old, Mumbai, India-based food delivery service, has raised $1 million in seed funding from Oliphans Capital and former Network18 CEO Haresh Chawla. The startup says it has more than 500 delivery people in Mumbai and that it connects users to more than 350 restaurants in the city. VC Circle has more here.

Huakang Mobile Health, a three-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based mobile healthcare app developer, has raised $32 million in Series B funding from Yunfeng Capital (cofounded by Alibaba’s Jack Ma), Shenzhen Co-Win Venture Capital Investments, New Horizon Capital, and Henan Haijie Healthcare Investment. More here.

InCarda Therapeutics, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based biotech company that’s developing inhaled therapies for acute cardiovascular conditions, has raised more than $5 million in Series A funding led by Morningside Venture, with participation from other angel investors.

Infinidat, a five-year-old, Herzliya, Israel-based data storage company, has announced a whopping $150 million in new funding, at a valuation of $1.2 billion, led by TPG Growth. The company has now raised $230 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has much more here.

Jukely, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based concert subscription service, has raised $8 million in fresh funding led by Northzone and 14W, with participation from a long list of individual investors, including GroupMe founders Steve Martocci and Jared Hecht. The company has now raised $11.3 million to date, shows Crunchbase.

Kaizen Platform, a two-year-old,  San Francisco-based marketing optimization platform, has raised $4 million in funding from Fidelity Growth Partners and GREE Ventures. The company has now raised $9.8 million altogether, shows Crunchbase. AdWeek has more here.

Ninox Medical, a three-year-old, Lyon, France-based medical device company that’s developing a wearable to treat obstructive sleep apnea, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Mérieux Développement and Pitango Venture Capital, with participation from earlier backer Xenia Venture Capital.

Pamlico BioPharma, an Oklahoma City, Ok.-based company that’s developing human monoclonal antibody therapeutics to treat human pathogens, cancer, and autoimmune diseases, has raised $2.2 million in Series A funding led by Accele Venture Partners and the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund.

ReGlobe, a six-year-old, New Delhi, India-based consumer electronics refurbishment platform, has reportedly raised around $1 million in seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. The Economic Times has more here.

ShipBob, a year-old, Chicago-based shipping startup, has raised $1 million in seed funding from SV Angels, Funders Club, and WeFunder, and others. ChicagoInno has more here.

SlamAd, a 16-month-old, New York-based ad tech startup that’s developing a mobile texting application that integrates advertising, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding from unnamed strategic investors.

Styla, a three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based company whose software makes it possible for anyone to publish an online magazine, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Redalpine Venture Partners, with participation from Groupe Arnault, Atlantic Labs,Cherry Ventures, and Westtech Ventures.

ThreatQuotient, a two-year-old Dulles, Va.-based cybersecurity software company, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Blu Venture Investors, the Center for Innovative Technology, the Virginia Tech Investor Network and angel investor Todd Headley.

Tracxn, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based analytics firm that tracks data from startups, has raised 3.5 million in Series A funding from SAIF Ventures.

—–

New Funds

Foundation Medical Partners is announcing a new name today — Flare Capital Partners — and a new, $200 million fund. The 14-year-old, Boston-based firm specializes in early-stage and growth-equity investments in healthcare technology, and it’s led by three general partners: Bill Geary, Michael Greeley and Lee Wrubel. Flare also recently appointed Kristen Laguerre as a partner and its CFO.

—–

IPOs

Teladoc, a 13-year-old, Dallas, Tex.-based health services company that provides medical care via video conferencing and phone consultations, has taken a first step toward an IPO, filing a confidential registration statement with the SEC, it tells MedCity News. The company has raised at least $74.3 million from investors, shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Icon Ventures, Cardinal Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, QuestMark Partners, Greenspring Associates, and FLAG Capital Management.

—–

Exits

Bitcoin Shop, a year-old, Arlington, Va.-based blockchain startup whose shares trade on the over-the-counter market, is merging with Spondoolies, a digital currency server manufacturer. Spondoolies, a two-year-old, Kiryat Gat, Israel-based company, has raised $5 million from investors, including Aleph partner Eden Shochat.

SolarWinds, a 15-year-old, Austin, Tx.-based, publicly traded IT performance management service, has acquired Papertrail, a four-year-old, Seattle-based log management service, for $41 million in cash. Papertrail hadn’t raised outside funding. Geekwire has more here.

Twitter has acquired the six-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based commerce ads tech firm TellApart, which was formerly a big Facebook ad partner. TellApart had raised $17.8 from investors, including Harrison Metal, Bain Capital Ventures, Greylock Partners, SV Angels and Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (who presumably recused himself from the selection process of else sold his stake previously). More here.

—–

People

Yesterday, at the Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton, Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz talked again about why the firm’s general partners are exclusively male, reportedly saying at one point,  “It would be great if we could attract a great person to that position, but why should that be a goal? It’s not going to actually change Silicon Valley.” Megan Quinn, an investor-turned-strategic advisor to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, respectfully disagrees.

Rahul (“RJ”) Jain has joined the Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm Foundation Capitalas an entrepreneur-in-residence. Jain cofounded Appurify, a performance optimization platform for mobile applications that Google acquired last year for undisclosed terms. Earlier in his career, Jain was director of engineering at the ride-sharing startup Sidecar Technologies and a principal software engineer at the games company Zynga.

Saul Klein, a longtime partner at Index Ventures, is leaving the firm, he announced in a post yesterday.

Stripe, the five-year-old payment company, has just leased 300,000 square feet of a building in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, says the San Francisco Business Times. It’s apparently the largest lease deal of the year.

—–

Jobs

Adobe is looking to add a senior manager to its corporate development team. The job is in San Jose or San Francisco.

Hewlett-Packard is also looking for a senior manager who will be part of its venture investment, as well as corporate development, teams. The job is in Palo Alto.

—–

Essential Reads

OUYA, a three-year-old, L.A.-based company that makes game consoles for television, is on the auction block after tripping a debt covenant, according to an email sent to investors from CEO Julie Uhrman and obtained by Fortune. Sounds like something has to happen by month’s end.

Investors have spent the last year criticizing Twitter’s slowing user growth. After seeing its first-quarter numbers yesterday, their big concern now is revenue.

Facebook‘s impact on surrounding real estate prices in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park has been profound, reports TechCrunch.

—–

Detours

David Letterman on his 33-year run.

The billionaire, the dealer, and the $186 million Rothko.

Antartica.

——-

Retail Therapy

Wet suits.