StrictlyVC: August 11, 2015

Hi, happy Tuesday, all! No column today.

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Top News in the A.M.

Meet Alphabet, the new parent company to Google and a bunch of other businesses, including the R&D biotech company Calico, Google Ventures, Google Capital, Nest Labs, Google X, and Life Sciences, which is a business focused on health efforts. Google itself remains parent company to a variety of business units that it has already long overseen, including YouTube, Android, maps and apps.

Sundar Pichai, who has been in charge of product and engineering for Google’s internet businesses, is now top tog at Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin are now CEO and president, respectively, of Alphabet.

Bloomberg Business has more on why it makes sense for the conglomerate to separate out its lucrative businesses from its more speculative ones here.

TechCrunch walks readers through the tech behind each letter in Alphabet.

Meanwhile, investors, who still digesting the restructuring, give it an early thumbs up.

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New Fundings

Bounce Exchange, a five-year-old, New York-based startup that helps websites advertise against their user behavior, has raised $6.45 million in new funding led by angel investor Justin Yoshimura, with participation from Contour Venture Partners, Primary Venture Partners, and New York Yankees’ All-Star Alex Rodriguez. TechCrunch has more here.

Crowdcube, a five-year-old, London-based crowdfunding platform, has raised £6m ($9.3 million) in new funding led by Numis, a U.K.-based stockbroker.Tim Draper and London-based Draper Esprit have also joined the new round, alongside earlier backers Balderton Capital. More here.

Editas Medicine, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that’s aiming to precisely edit DNA to potentially treat fatal genetic diseases, has raised $120 million from investors led by Boris Nikolic, formerly an adviser on science and technology to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Other investors include Deerfield Management, Fidelity Management & Research Co., and Silicon Valley investors Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Bloomberg has more here.

Grey Orange, a four-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based company that makes automated warehouse robot workers, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from earlier investor Blume Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Groupon, the seven-year-old, Chicago-based daily deals company, says Sequoia is investing an undisclosed amount in its Groupon India unit, adding that Groupon will “remain a significant shareholder.” More here.

Livspace, a three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based interior design and home furnishings e-commerce startup, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Helion Venture Partners, Bessemer Ventures Partners and Jungle Ventures, along with numerous, unnamed angel investors. TechCrunch hasmore here.

pCloud, a two-year-old, Zug, Switzerland-based cloud storage company, has raised $3 million in funding from unnamed individual investors. More here.

PHEMI, a two-year-old, Vancouver, Canada-based company whose software for hospital EMRs, databases, and information systems aims to streamline care pathways, has raised $12.2 million in new funding co-led by CTI Life Sciences Fund and British Columbia Discovery Fund, with participation from earlier investors BDC Capital Healthcare Venture Fund and Yaletown Venture Partners.

Prodigy Finance, an eight-year-old, London-based online lending platform that pairs alums and other investors with students needing loans for their postgraduate studies, has raised $12.5 million in funding led by Balderton Capital, with participation from numerous angel investors. As part of the transaction, the company has also reportedly raised $87.5 million in debt fromCredit Suisse. Tech.eu has more here.

StyleLounge, a three-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based metasearch engine for clothing and lifestyle products, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from TA Ventures, Axivate Capital, ASTUTIA Ventures, a number of family offices, and Felix Jahn, a former managing director at  Rocket Internet who StyleLounge counts as a co-founder.  TechCrunch, whose sources place the round at roughly $2.5 million, has more here.

Turing Pharmaceuticals, a year-old, New York-based biopharmaceutical company founded by former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, has raised $90 million in Series A funding from Shkreli, along with unnamed equity investors and debt providers. Shkreli has most recently founded a similar company, Retrophin, in 2012 but was ousted from his role as CEO last year. Xconomy has much more here.

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New Funds

Insight Venture Partners, the 20-year-old, New York-based venture capital and private equity firm, just announced the closing of Insight Venture Partners IX, L.P., a $3.29 billion fund, and Insight Venture Partners Growth-Buyout Coinvestment Fund, L.P., a $1.46 billion co-investment vehicle that will co-invest in earlier deals that the firm has led. In case you don’t have your calculator at the ready, that’s a stunning $4.75 billion altogether. More here.

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Exits

The Carlyle Group is acquiring data storage and server management businessVeritas from Symantec for $8 billion, the companies announced this morning. The newly-independent company will be led by CEO Bill Coleman, the founder and former chairman and CEO of BEA Systems. More here.

Zirtual, a four-year-old, Las Vegas-based company pairing customers with on-demand virtual assistants, is “pausing all operations,” it announced yesterday. It cited “a combination of market circumstances and financial constraints.” Zirtual has raised $5.5 million in equity and debt financing, shows Crunchbase. Its investors include Jason CalacanisMayfield FundRecruit Strategic PartnersStructure CapitalTenOneTen Ventures, and VegasTechFundMore here.

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People

A federal judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit filed by a games publisher accusing Oculus VR and its cofounder, Palmer Luckey, of stealing trade secrets and code in the creation of the Oculus virtual-reality headset. The ruling is a win for ZeniMax Media, the game publisher that sued Oculus last year, saying that some help its then-employee, John Carmack (who designed “Doom” and “Quake”), provided Luckey as he was starting Oculus was illegal. The New York Times has more here.

Content discovery company StumbleUpon was unable to secure additional venture capital funding and is now letting go of up to 70 of its 100 employees by the end of this week, reports VentureBeat. More here.

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Jobs

FundersClub, a platform that matches accredited investors with tech startups, is looking for a venture analyst. The job is in San Francisco.

Kapor Capital is looking to hire both an analyst and an associate. The jobs are in Oakland, Ca.

Orange, the telecommunications company, is looking to hire a tech and market trends analyst. The job is in San Francisco.

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Essential Reads

“Stop reverse engineering our code already.”

The ultimate guide to doing anything in Slack.

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Detours

An hilarious (saucy) take on Tesla’s new charger prototype.

The case for chili peppers.

How to make a killer cheese platter.

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Retail Therapy

J.K. Place, Capri.


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