Happy Wednesday, everyone!
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Top News in the A.M.
Google is rolling out Your Timeline, a private way for users to visualize their real-world routines. More here.
Yesterday was chockful of quarterly earnings reports. Apple beat expectations but its investors are pretty hard to please. Yahoo also beat expectations by a tiny bit, but its shares also slipped in after-hours trading. And GoPro outpaced expectations, but it, too, traded down on its news. (Geez, people.)
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DataFox Hunts Down Another $5 Million
DataFox, a 2.5-year-old subscription-based deal intelligence platform, has just raised $5 million in funding co-led by Goldman Sachs and earlier investor Green Visor Capital, with participation from another previous backer, Stanford’s StartX fund.
The funding follows an earlier, $2 million seed round completed via convertible note. It also follows a slight pivot for the 15-person, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company, which was earlier considered a competitor to other deal intelligence platforms like Mattermark but has since begun emphasizing its ability to help accelerate sales. Its informal new tagline: It helps corporations use data science to find their next customers.
We talked with cofounder and CEO Bastiaan Janmaat to learn more. We picked up some interesting details about the financing along the way. More here.
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New Fundings
500px a six-year-old, Toronto-based online platform for discovering and selling photography, has raised $13 million in Series B funding led by strategic investor Visual China Group, with participation from earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, Harrison Metal, and ff Venture Capital. The company has now raised $23 million altogether. TechVibes has more here.
Baixing, a 10-year-old, Shanghai, China-based online classified ads company, has reportedly raised a whopping $354 million in Series E funding from CITIC, Suzhou High-tech Venture Capital Group, Shenzhen Capital Group, and other investors in preparation for going public. More here.
Beacon, a year-old, New York-based subscription flight service that will lease other airlines’ planes and launch its first route between New York and Boston, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Romulus Capital, with participation from MiVentures, Western Technologies Investment, and other early stage investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Bima, a five-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of mobile-delivered insurance in emerging markets, has raised $38.4 million in Series C funding from Investment AB Kinnevik, LeapFrog Investments and Millicom. More here.
BrightBytes, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based data analytics platform that measures and links the use of technology to learning outcomes, has raised $33 million in Series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Rethink Education, and Learn Capital. The company has now raised $51.5 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.
Darktrace, a two-year-old, London-based cyber-security firm backed by former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, has raised $22.5 million from Summit Partners in a funding round that values the company at more than $100 million, reports Business Insider. The company has now raised $40.5 million altogether, shows Crunchbase. Others of its investors include Hoxton Ventures, Invoke Capital Partners, and Talis Capital.
Flipboard, the 4.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based news and content aggregation app, has quietly raised $50 million in what may be a flat round, says TechCrunch, which uncovered new documents filed late last month in Delaware. According to Crunchbase, Flipboard has previously raised roughly $160 from investors, including Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Insight Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs and others. More here.
Grana, a 10-month-old, Hong Kong-based fashion brand focused on affordable, high-quality wardrobe staples from T-shirts to men’s jeans, has raised $1.5 million from investors, including Golden Gate Ventures. Along with an earlier seed round from luxury retailer Bluebell Group, the company has so far raised $2.5 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.
Granular, a year-old, San Francisco-based maker of software and analytics for farm management, has raised $18.7 million in Series B funding led by Tao Capital Partners, with participation from Emory Investment Management, Fall Line Capital, and H. Barton Asset Management, as well as previous backers Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures. More here.
Mallzee, a two-year-old, Edinburgh, Scotland-based personalized shopping app that invites users to swipe right or left depending on whether they like the items they see, has raised £2.5 million ($3.9 million) in funding led by the Royal Mail Group, with participation from Scottish Investment Bank, Par Equity, and individual investors. The company has raised a total of $4.8 million to date. More here.
Mirakl, a three-year-old, Paris-based company that brings online marketplaces to retailers like Best Buy, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by 83North, with participation from Felix Capital, and Dave Strohm, a partner at Greylock and a founding investor and advisor to 83North. Forbes has more here.
Mswipe Technologies, a four-year-old, Mumbai, India-based company whose hardware and software enables smart phones to be used as a mobile point of sale, has raised $25 million in Series C funding from Falcon Edge Capital, Ola Cabs and Meru Capital, as well as earlier backers Matrix Partners India, Axis Bank, and DSG Consumer Partners. More here.
Simplus, a year-old, Salt Lake City, Ut.-based SaaS consulting and development firm, has raised $4.2 million in a seed round led by EPIC Ventures, with participation from Simplus employees, Silicon Valley Bank, Infinite Investments, Prelude, Service Provider Capital, Workfront CEO Eric Morgan, and SteelBrick CEO Godard Abel.
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Exits
Altimeter Group, a seven-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based research and advisory firm, has been acquired by the 23-year-old, San Francisco-based brand and marketing consultancy Prophet for undisclosed terms. Asked how this will affect Altimeter’s current customers, Altimeter Charline Li tells TechCrunch, “Nothing changes.”
Blackberry is acquiring AtHoc, a 10-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based maker of mass notification systems for the military, government and other organizations, for undisclosed terms. AtHoc had raised $8.2 milion from investors shows Crunchbase. Its backers include Intel Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, and Greylock Partners. VentureBeat has more here.
Sysomos, an eight-year-old, Toronto-based social analytics company, has acquired Expion, a five-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based enterprise social marketing platform that counts the likes of CocaCola, Heineken, Volvo and other major brands among its customers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. More here.
The Singapore-based private lender United Overseas Bank is buying a 50 percent stake in the India-based venture debt firm InnoVen Capital (formerly SVB India Finance) as part of a larger plan to expand its focus to the rest of Asia. VCCircle has the story here.
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People
While Uber has been waging a war against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio this week, CEO Travis Kalanick’s girlfriend Gabi Holzwarth tried a more personal appeal yesterday. Fusion has more here.
Twitter hosted a fraternity-themed party. Which was maybe not such a good idea, given that it’s in the middle of a gender discrimination lawsuit. More here.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is launching a new charitable social network called TPO.com. More here.
Hollywood’s newest attempt to portray the “real” Silicon Valley, starring Dave McClure of 500 Startups and Brady Forrest of Highway1, debuts in September. If you’re eager to check it out, you can see the trailer here.
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Jobs
Arbor Ventures, a venture firm focused primarily on financial tech in Asia, is hiring an associate. The job can be in Hong Kong or Singapore.
Peter Thiel’s Breakout Labs is still in the market for the right portfolio manager. The job is in San Francisco.
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Data
Virtual Reality devices, visualized by Silk.
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Essential Reads
Customers who hired Lifelock to monitor their identities after their data was stolen in a breach were in for a surprise. It turns out Lifelock failed to properly secure their data.
Suddenly Huawei is hot, and Xiaomi is not.
A movement in Silicon Valley to make sharing salary information less taboo.
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Detours
New York City’s most opulent private pools.
The man who flies around the world for free.
Truly incroyable.
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Retail Therapy
A wireless battery case that charges itself and your phone. Noice.