StrictlyVC: January 14, 2016

It’s Thursday! That came fast.

Two quick mentions: One-third of the tickets for StrictlyVC’s February 25th evening event at the Autodesk Gallery have sold. You might nab yours sooner than later as these things always sell out. (The gallery only lets in so many people.)

Also, a reminder that we’ll be in Davos next week. We’re excited about the trip; we’re also not sure how or when we’ll be writing the newsletter, so it may be on the short side and arrive at random times. Steel yourselves!

Have a great day, everyone.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Wealthy clients of Morgan Stanley and Bank of America just got dibs on shares of the unlisted Uber, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting a chance to see the ride-sharing company’s financials, according to an offering document seen by Bloomberg News. More here.

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Call9 Lands $10 Million in Series A Funding Led by Index

Call9, a nine-month-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based telemedicine startup that came together last spring as a Y Combinator company, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, whose cofounder, Neil Rimer, is joining the board.

Other investors in the round include Ali Rowghani, who leads the Y Combinator Continuity Fund; Joe Lonsdale, the VC and co-founder of Palantir Technologies; and Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe.

It’s easy to appreciate the young company’s appeal. While there’s no shortage of startups connecting patients to doctors on demand, Call9 specializes in specifically reducing unnecessary visits to emergency rooms by those who call 911 most frequently, which is people in nursing homes.

The company is the brainchild of two physicians: Celina Tenev, a radiology postdoctoral fellow from Stanford, and Timothy Peck, who worked previously as an emergency medicine physician and faculty at Harvard Medical School. The two met while working part-time for a now-defunct startup and shared a joint disbelief that the patient experience still typically includes spending several hours in an emergency room.

More here.

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(Other) New Fundings

Anaplan, a nine-year-old, San Francisco-based company that sells financial planning as a service to large organizations, has raised $90 million in new funding at a post-money valuation of $1.09 billion, reports TechCrunch. The round was led by the Indian firm Premji Invest, with participation from the Scottish firm Baillie Gifford, Founders Circle Capital, Harmony Partners, and earlier backers Brookside Capital, Coatue Management, DFJ Growth,Granite Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Salesforce, Sands Capital Management and Shasta Ventures. The company has now raised more than $234 million altogether. More here.

App Annie, the nearly six-year-old, San Francisco-based app analytics firm that long ago became the first stop for developers, investors, and journalists looking to better understand app rankings and trends, has raised $63 million in Series E funding in “mostly equity” and debt, says cofounder and CEO Bertrand Schmitt. The round was led by Greenspring Associates, with participation from earlier backers e.Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital. The debt — raised to avoid diluting stakeholders unnecessarily, says Schmitt — was provided to the company by Silicon Valley Bank. We talked with Schmitt about the round here.

Boomerang Commerce, a three-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup that helps retailers optimize their pricing strategies has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Shasta Ventures. Previous investors Madrona Venture Group and Trinity Ventures also participated in this round. TechCrunch has more here.

Care24, a 14-month-old, Mumbai, India-base home healthcare startup, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from SAIF Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Carwow, the five-year-old, London-based site that claims to offer a better way to buy a new car, has raised a £12.5 million (roughly $18 million) in Series B funding led by Accel Partners. Earlier investors Balderton Capital, Samos Investments and Episode 1 Ventures also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

Everlaw, a five-year-old, Berkeley, Ca.-based advanced litigation and e-discovery company that was bootstrapped with $1.5 million from friends and family, has raised $8.1 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. We talked with founder and CEO AJ Shankar about the deal here.

Looker, a four-year-old, Santa Cruz, Ca.-based business intelligence startup, has raised $48 million in Series C funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Previous investors Redpoint Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners and Sapphire Ventures also participated. The company has raised roughly $96 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

MiMedia, a six-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based personal cloud storage service for all of your photos, videos, music and other files, has raised $15 million in Series C funding from numerous global family offices, along with Indian smartphone maker Micromax Informatics. The company has now banked a total of $35 million in funding. TechCrunch has more here.

MindTouch, an 11-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based cloud service that helps customers find answers to product questions using the company’s existing documentation, training materials and customer service documents, has raised $12 million in its first outside funding led by PeakSpan Capital. SK Ventures and SAP SE also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

MoveWith, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based social networking startup that allows people to follow instructors of particular workout types, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Forerunner Ventures, with participation fromAccomplice and Founder Collective. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Picwell, a three-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based predictive recommendation engine for healthcare plan selection, has raised $3 million in Series A funding from BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and the Sandbox Advantage Fund. The money brings the round, which held an earlier close led byMassMutual Ventures, to $7 million. More here.

ResiModel, a two-year-old, New York-based platform for aggregating, standardizing and analyzing financial data for multifamily transactions, has raised new funding led by Symmetrical Ventures. The company has now garnered $4 million to date. FinSMEs has more here.

Savioke, a two-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based company that makes autonomous robots for the services industry, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Intel Capital. Other participants in the round include Northern Light Venture Capital and EDBI, which invests for Singapore’s economic development agency. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

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New Funds

Canadian oil companies Cenovus Energy and Suncor Energy are funding a new outfit called Evok Innovations that will invest in startups offering cleaner oil and gas technologies. The companies have committed to plugging $100 million into the venture. More here.

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Exits

Distil Networks, a four-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based company that makes bot detection and mitigation software, is buying 17-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based rival ScrapeSentry for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock. Distil has raised $33 million in funding from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group, and TechStars, shows CrunchBase. If ScrapeSentry raised venture funding, it doesn’t appear to have reported it. TechCrunch has more here.

Pivotal, the EMC and VMWare spinout, has agreed to acquire Slice of Lime, a 15-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based startup that specializes in making web pages, mobile applications, and other products more attractive. No financial terms were disclosed. Slice of Lime doesn’t appear to have raised venture funding.

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People

PayPal is positioning itself for the future of money and currency, adding seasoned fintech figure and bitcoin entrepreneur Wences Casares to its board. TechCrunch has more here.

Entertainer, investor, and former Xbox Live fan Snoop Dogg would like Bill Gates to “fix” his “sh_t.

Ludlow Ventures talks with Twitter personality “Startup L. Jackson” in the firm’s newest episode of Carpool VC. (Spoiler alert: He doesn’t reveal his identity. He does confirm, however, that he’s alive and well.)

Zander Lurie has left GoPro, where he headed its entertainment efforts, to become CEO of survey startup SurveyMonkey. He will replace former Hewlett-Packard exec Bill Veghte, who is leaving due to “differences of opinion on strategy” with investors. Recode has the story here.

Twenty-six people who are helping to spearhead change in tech investing.

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Essential Reads

A neat look behind the scenes at Google’s autonomous car testing center.

The Nest glitch and the broader ramifications of connected devices.

Soon, your Uber driver may be a non-violent criminal (probably not so unlike some of your cab drivers over the years).

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Detours

The Stanford professor who pioneered praising kids for effort says we’ve totally missed the point.

United’s quest to be less awful.

Carpool karaoke with Adele.

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Retail Therapy

If we were not so lazy, we might just buy this Rok espresso maker.


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