Happy Tuesday, everyone! Thanks very much to those of you signed up yesterday for our inaugural StrictlyVC event, being held on Thursday, February 12th in San Francisco. We’re really excited to host you. (If you missed yesterday’s email, announcing what’s happening, check out our Eventbrite page here.)

In other very good news for readers, Semil Shah — who ran the show here for a couple of weeks this past August — will be taking over StrictlyVC again for the rest of this week and for the week of Dec. 29th. (We’re shutting down the works next week.)

Shah is currently working as a venture advisor to two funds, Bullpen Capital, which focuses on post-seed rounds, and GGV Capital, a cross-border U.S.-Asia fund. He’s also a former TechCrunch columnist and has some terrific content lined up for readers, including interviews with Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures, Michael Dearing of Harrison Metal, and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of Winklevoss Capital, so stay tuned!

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Top News in the A.M.

Samsung is now in talks to launch an Apple Pay competitor.

Uber has written back to Senator Al Franken and he’s not entirely satisfied with its note.

WeWork Companies, a 4.5-year-old company that rents office space, then turns it into shared office space (much of it used by tech startups), has raised $355 million at a stunning $5 billion valuation co-led by T. Rowe Price Associates, clients of Wellington Management, and Goldman Sachs Group. Earlier backers J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Harvard Management Co., and Benchmark also participated. The WSJ has much more here.

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(Other) New Fundings

Adyen, an eight-year-old, Amsterdam-based multichannel payments company that serves as a middleman between merchants and Facebook, Spotify, Airbnb and many other companies that accept credit cards and various currencies, has raised $250 million in funding. General Atlantic led the round, with participation from earlier backers Temasek, Index Ventures and Felicis Ventures. The company has now raised $266 million altogether. The WSJ has more here.

Annexon Bioscience, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company that’s developing drugs to treat neurodegenerative and autoimmune disorders, has raised $34 million in Series A funding led by Novartis Venture Funds, with participating investors Satter Investment Management, and Clarus Ventures. Annexon spun out of Stanford. The San Francisco Business Times has more here.

Boxbee, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based storage service that provides users with plastic containers that are filled and then picked up and stored by the company, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Metamorphic Ventures, with participation from earlier backers. The company has now raised $7.3 million altogether, including from AngelPad, Floodgate Capital, Google Ventures, 500 Startups, Techstars, Ludlow Ventures and individual investors.

Clever, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based education software company that enables schools to quickly sign up and access numerous education apps, all from a single online dashboard, has raised $30 million in new funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backer Sequoia Capital and new backers GSV Capital and Peter Thiel. The company has now raised roughly $43 million altogether.

Dots, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based mobile-gaming company, has raised $10 million in funding from Tencent Holdings, Greycroft Partners, Crunchfund, and Northzone. The company’s two games, “Dots,” and “TwoDots,” have reportedly been downloaded a combined 45 million times.

Foko, a 1.5-year-old, Quebec-based photo sharing and messaging service for corporate workforces, has raised $2 million in seed funding from BDC Capital, Real Ventures and individual investors. The company had previously raised $450,000 in seed funding from individual investors.

Housing.com, a 2.5-year-old, Mumbai, India-based online home and rental property portal, has raised $90 million in new funding led bySoftBank Capital, with participation from participation from Falcon Edge Capital and other, undisclosed investors. The company has now raised roughly $140 million altogether, shows Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.

Hubba, a two-year-old, Toronto-based company whose online data sharing platform enables retailers to exchange product information, has raised $3.1 million in seed funding from Brightspark, The Social+Capital Partnership, and numerous angel investors.

Infinity Levels, a 1.5-year-old, Bangkok-based gaming startup that originally focused on dating apps, has raised $500,000 in funding from the corporate venture group InVent.

Merchbar, a months-old app that sells official band merchandise (including shirts and vinyl) via a smartphone app and web site, has raised $1 million in seed funding from 500 Startups, Maiden Lane, Structure Capital, Universal Music Group, and numerous individual investors, including WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, and KISSmetrics co-founder Hiten Shah.

Miyabaobei, a Chinese site that sells formula, clothes, and other items for babies and toddlers, has raised $60 million in Series C funding from H Capital, with participation from returning investors Sequoia Capital and ZhenFund. The company has now raised roughly $100 million altogether,reports TechCrunch.

Neurio Technology, a nine-year-old, Vancouver-based company that was formerly known as Energy Aware Technology and whose in-home technology monitors users’ energy usage, has raised 1.5 million Canadian dollars ($1.3 million) in seed funding from BDC Capital.

OneLogin, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose cloud-based identity and access management software helps companies secure all their users apps on all devices, has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers CRV and The Social+Capital Partnership. The company has now raised $42.7 million altogether.

SurveyMonkey, the 15-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based online survey platform, has raised $250 million in equity financing, some of which is being used to help employees cash out of some of their equity. New investors include T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Baillie Gifford & Co.; earlier backers participating in the new funding include Google Capital and Tiger Global Management. SurveyMonkey has raised more than $1.2 billion in debt and equity to date.

Talkspace, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based company that runs a marketplace through which therapists can connect with new clients, book appointments, and deliver therapy remotedly, has added $1 million in seed funding from Metamorphic Ventures. Earlier this year, the company raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Metamorphic, SoftBank Capital, and Spark Capital.

Tendril, a 10-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based company that provides a cloud platform to energy service providers for their energy management applications, has raised $20 million from the publicly traded solar panel maker SunPower. The company has now raised $131.2 million over the years.

Virtuos, a 10-year-old, Shanghai, China-based game developer that specializes in 3D art, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from Shanghai-based Xuhui Venture Capital. The company says it’s one of the largest providers of offshore production services to the game and movie industries.

Yangche Diandian, a 10-month-old, Hangzhou, China-based company whose mobile app platform connect users with car wash, maintenance and repair services, has raised $30 million Series B funding led by GGV Capital. China Money Network has more here.

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New Funds

Upfront Ventures, the 18-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based early stage venture firm, has closed on $280 million for its fifth fund, considerably more than the $250 million it stated it was targeting in a November SEC filing. The firm, which was formerly known as GRP Partners and specializes in digital media, retail, and consumer-facing tech startups, closed its most recent fund with $200 million in 2013. Venture Capital Dispatch has much more here.

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IPOs

OnDeck Capital, the seven-year-old, New York-based online lender, will price later today and begin trading tomorrow. Investor’s Business Daily has more here.

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Exits

The networking company Riverbed Technology has agreed to be acquired for $3.6 billion after being unable to shake a challenge from activist investor Elliot Management, led by Paul Singer. Its new owner will be the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which is being joined by a Canadian teachers’ pension group. The San Jose Mercury News has morehere.

Skyera, a four-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based enterprise storage company, has been acquired by the Western Digital Corp. subsidiary HGST in an all-cash deal whose terms aren’t being disclosed. Skyera had raised $51.6 million from investors, including Dell Ventures and the venture arm of Western Digital.

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People

Serial entrepreneur and early Etsy investor Caterina Fake is leaving her role as chairwoman of Etsy’s board, telling VentureBeat that she has mixed feeling about the move but that she’ll still “hang out with Etsy employees, wear Etsy clothes, eat from Etsy dishes, play an Etsy guitar, and wash my hair with Etsy shampoo.” Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson is taking over the role.

Investor Vinod Khosla, speaking at an event in Bangalore, India on Friday, told attendees, “Technology is my only religion. It’s the only thing I subscribe to as a belief system in life.” (Incidentally, Khosla has yet to reopen a private road leading to Martins Beach in San Mateo County one week after a judge ordered him to do so. “It’s clear he’s going to take this all the way to the Supreme Court,” said Joe Cotchett, an attorney for the Surfrider Foundation, which sued Khosla over his 2010 decision to bar public access to the beach.)

Did Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer host a raucous holiday party over the weekend that entailed several days of loud construction, a backyard ice-skating rink, and music that was pumped up as midnight approached? An apparent neighbor says she did. (H/T: Katie Benner.)

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Job Listings

Johnson & Johnson Innovation, a division of Johnson & Johnson, is looking for a director of new ventures at its new life sciences incubator. The job is in Houston.

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Data

CB Insights has just published its 2015 tech IPO pipeline report. You can get a solid overview of its findings, as well as request a free copy of the full report, here.

Crunchbase takes a look at the C.I.A.’s 15-year-old venture arm In-Q-Tel, which has now quietly backed four billion-dollar-plus companies to date: Cloudera, Pure Storage, MongoDB, and Palantir Technologies. More here.

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Essential Reads

Unicorns vs. Dragons.” The first features a rich valuation; the second returns a fund.

China has newly allowed insurance companies to invest in venture capital funds. Reuters has more here.

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Detours

The global conflicts to watch in 2015.

New York magazine’s investing “boy genius” made it all up.

CIA agents assess: How real is “Homeland”?

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Retail Therapy

Butter. It costs [cough] $49 a pound but chef Thomas Keller reportedly swears by it.

Truly incredibeards.

Hi, good Monday morning, everyone!

Before we dive into the news, we’re extremely excited to announce StrictlyVC’s inaugural “Insider” series event on Thursday, February 12th, in the elegant gallery space of Next World Capital, the San Francisco-based expansion-stage firm with ties to Europe.

The early evening program will feature, among others, AngelList cofounder Naval Ravikant, Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois, and Strava CEO and cofounder Mark Gainey. We’ll also have yummy hors d’oeuvres and drinks and a very cool bonus for attendees that we’ll be able to disclose shortly.

Space is limited. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis right here. If you’re interested in co-sponsoring the event, let’s talk!

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Top News in the A.M.

Sony Pictures Entertainment warned media outlets yesterday against using the mountains of corporate data revealed by hackers who raided the studio’s computer systems.

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Erin Glenn, Alphaworks’s New CEO, on Waiting for the SEC

Any new CEO has a lot to contend with, like getting to know employees and clarifying the business’s strategy. Erin Glenn, who recently joined the New York-based crowdfunding platform Alphaworks, has to worry about something else, too: the SEC.

Launched by Betaworks in February of this year, Alphaworks is a white label platform that obtains stakes in companies via seven venture “sponsors” that leave open between $100,000 and $250,000 of certain startups’ rounds. The companies then sell the equity directly to their own “communities,” in turn making those customers even more loyal.

Glenn — who spent the previous four years as CFO of the gaming company Kixeye — sees a day when the model is used across numerous industries, but Alphaworks’s clients so far have been consumer-facing Internet companies with impassioned members.

Gimlet Media, a New York-based podcasting company, is a prime example. Earlier this fall, when the company was looking to top off roughly $1 million in venture funding, it agreed to crowdsource some of the round to its listeners. Alphaworks’s nine employees sprang into action, posting a deal page for Gimlet, reformatting its pitch deck, helping gather audio testimonials and, not last, helping coordinate media coverage to drive interest in the campaign.

The plan worked. Gimlet’s $200,000 crowdfunding campaign was fully subscribed within three hours. (In fact, the company wound up accepting $275,000.) Alphaworks is now represented on Gimlet’s cap table as a special purpose vehicle whose investors have delegated their voting, follow-on, and information rights to Alphaworks.

Still, not everyone who wanted to back Gimlet could — not even close, says Glenn, who estimates that just 25 percent of those who began the registration process were able to complete it. The others didn’t qualify as accredited investors. And until the SEC finalizes a key rule in the now two-year-old JOBS Act that was designed to let small businesses raise money from virtually anyone over the Internet, the non-accredited will remain locked out of the process. (As recently as last week, the agency’s chair, Mary Jo White, suggested it’s in no rush to make binding decisions about the rule, called Title III.)

“It’s frustrating,” says Glenn of the continued delays. “There’s a concern about ‘frothiness’ in the market right now. But in a hot market or a down market, the timing is always going to be difficult.”

In the meantime, Alphaworks has a uniquely challenging mandate. While other crowdfunding platforms cater to wealthy investors in search of investment opportunities, Alphaworks’s focus on turning a company’s fans into owners means it’s catering to very different end users. Not only do many of them lack the financial muscle required currently by the SEC, but some need to be educated on startup investing. (Indeed, Alphaworks, which is backed by $1.5 million from Betaworks, SV Angel, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures, has organized just four campaigns to date.)

Glenn — who says that Alphaworks is sticking to its original mission — isn’t discouraged. As far as she’s concerned, its patience today will pay big dividends later.

She notes, for example, that Gimlet saw nearly triple the demand for what it raised, taking into account the roughly 75 percent of registrants who were forced to abandon the process along the way. “That kind of demand is a strong signal for Gimlet to talk about,” says Glenn. “But it should also be a signal to the SEC. People want to participate in the growth of their favorite companies. They also want to be responsible for their own financial destiny.”

And Alphaworks, she suggests, will be waiting to help them.

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New Fundings

Beactica, an eight-year-old, Uppsala, Sweden-based drug discovery company, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Almi Invest, with participation from other investors, including UNIONEN and Uppsala University Holding.

Carwow, a four-year-old, London-based online platform for buying new cars in the U.K., has raised £4.6 million ($7.2 million) in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital, with participation from Episode 1 Ventures and Samos Investments. The company had previously raised £1.3 million ($2 million) in February this year from the same group of investors.

Hi.Q, a 2.5-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company whose app tests users’ health knowledge through quizzes and by competing with others, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding led by CRV, with participation from Greylock Partners, Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital, Rock Health and Western Technology Investments. Hi.Q was founded by Munjal Shah, who sold his last company, the visual search engine Like.com, to Google for a reported $100 million in 2010. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

iFit, a two-year-old, Taiwan-based online fitness and weight loss community, has raised a $3 million in Series A funding led by Cherubic Ventures, with participation from Yuan-jin Capital, Sino Strategy Group,Alan Chien, and Ming-zhe Ou, the former general manager of Lenovo Taiwan. The company had previously raised $900,000 in seed funding. TechCrunch has more here.

The parent company of Midea, a 46-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based home appliance firm, has sold a 1.29 percent stake in the business to the smartphone giant Xiaomi for roughly $205 million. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

New York state is launching a $50 million fund to back to regional startups. The New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund is expected to leverage at least $100 million in private capital to support high-growth areas, including advanced materials, clean technology, life sciences/biotechnology and information technology, reports Newsday.

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IPOs

Hortonworks, the big data software provider, saw its stock surge 65 percent on Friday after it raised $100 million in an IPO that topped its price range. (It sold 6.25 million shares at $16 each. It was expected to sell 6 million shares at between $12 and $14 each.) The stock closed trading on Friday at $26.48.

New Relic, the seven-year-old, San Francisco-based software analytics company, also saw its stock rise — nearly 48 percent, in fact — on Friday. More here.

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Exits

Aatalogix, a five-year-old, Westminster, Co.-based company that sells offline purchase data to giant publishers and that had raised a $45 million round in late May, is seeking a buyer, reports peHUB, which says the company is seeking bids of $1 billion. Datalogix has raised at least $111 million to date, shows Crunchbase. Its investors include Breyer Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Sequel Venture Partners and Costanoa Venture Capital.

Oculus VR, the Facebook-owned virtual-reality headset maker, is acquiring two startup companies: San Francisco-based Nimble VR, which had raised about $2.2 million from investors, including K9 Ventures,CrunchFund, and Intel Capital; and 13th Lab, a Swedish start-up that had raised just $700,000 from Creandum. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

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People

Business Insider’s Henry Blodget has posted the entirety of a recent interview with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and it’s worth reading. Just one nugget from the sit-down is the revelation that Bezos, like many tech execs, actively limits how much technology his kids use. He tells Blodget: “I have three boys and a girl. The oldest is 14. He was the last person in his class to get a smartphone. He reminded me of this frequently. When the second-to-last person got a smartphone, he sent an email message to all of his classmates that said, ‘Then there was one.’”

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Job Listings

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital is in the market for an investment director. The job is in Schaumburg, Il.

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Essential Reads

The Washington Post looks at the vast lobbying network that the car-share service Uber is assembling.

The group claiming responsibility for the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack has offered to selectively refrain from releasing employees’ email correspondence provided that they, erm, write in and ask.

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Detours

An entire collection of classic cars, forgotten for 50 years.

What kids’ drawings reveal about their homes.

“9 Kisses.”

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Retail Therapy

Visit the Paris-based industrial design-focused Museum of Arts et Métiers — through your smart phone.

The Mustachifier Baby Pacifier. It’s so wrong, but yet . . .

Hi, good morning, everyone. No column today. (We had some power outage issues yesterday.) Hope you have a terrific weekend, and we will see you Monday! (Psst, web visitors, here’s an easier-to-read version of what you see below.)

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Top News in the A.M.

Google is shutting down its Russian engineering office, a move “likely related to the Russian government’s decision to require Web companies, starting in 2016, to keep data related to its citizens within Russia as opposed to data centers outside the country,” says The Information.

Facebook has just rolled out a new feature that will let visitors click a single button on a Facebook page to book reservations, use an app, go to a company’s non-Facebook website or sign up for a subscription service, among other things.

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New Fundings

CellTrust, an eight-year-old, Scottsdale, Az.-based secure mobile messaging platform for enterprises, has raised $10.5 million in Series A funding from Kayne Partners.

Dolly, a year-old, Seattle-based peer-to-peer moving and delivery service that specializes in bulky, heavy stuff, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding, including from Hyde Park Venture Partners, KGC Capital and angel investors.

Drivemode, a year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based company whose Android app enables users to easily control their phones without looking at them while driving, has raised $2 million in seed funding from Tokyo-basedIncubate Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Exco InTouch, a 10-year-old, U.K.-based company that makes patient-engagement software for health-care providers and pharmaceutical researchers, has raised roughly $5 million in funding led by Albion Ventures, with earlier investor Scottish Equity Partners participating.

Framed Data, a year-old, San Francisco-based predictive analytics company, has raised $2 million in seed funding, including from Google Ventures, Innovation Works, Jotter, NYU Innovation Fund and angel investors.

Happn, a months-old, Paris-based mobile dating app, has raised $8 million in funding from Alven Capital, DN Capital, and angel investors, including Fabrice Grinda. TechCrunch has more here.

Kinsa, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based maker of a smartphone-connected thermometer, has raised $9.6 million in Series A funding from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, FirstMark Capital, and serial entrepreneur Andy Palmer among others. The company has now raised $12.2 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Soasta, an eight-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based cloud testing vendor, has raised $15 million in debt from Hercules Technology Growth Capital, reports Venture Capital Dispatch. The company has now raised $78 million altogether, including from Macquarie Capital, Roth Capital, Formative Ventures, and Pelion Venture Partners.

Uber, the five-year-old, San Francisco-based car-booking company, is set to receive cash and non-cash assets worth up to $600 million from China’s biggest Internet search engine company, Baidu, reports Bloomberg. The deal would give Uber a much stronger foothold in China, where competing services Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, backed respectively by Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding, are gaining widespread traction. Earlier this month, Uber completed a round of funding that valued it at $40 billion; to date, it has raised $2.5 billion altogether.

VideoAmp, a nine-month-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based programmatic video-advertising platform, has raised $2.2 million in funding, including from Anthem Venture Partners, Simon Equity Partners, Third Wave Ventures, Wavemaker Partners and ZenShin Capital.

Woven Digital, a four-year-old, L.A.-based digital media publisher whose news and entertainment sites include Brobible, has raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Institutional Venture Partners, with participation from Advancit Capital, The San Francisco 49ers, United Talent Agency, MySpace and SGN co-founder Chris DeWolfe, Buddy Media co-founder Mike Lazerow, and others. The company has now raised $23.5 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

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New Funds

The renowned accelerator Techstars is launching a new program in Detroit to help startups that are focused on transportation and mobility issues. The initiative, created in partnership with Ford Motor Co., Magna International, and Verizon Telematics, is called Techstars Mobility. More here.

DCM, the 18-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based firm, is raising a second, $100 million fund to back Android startups, according to an SEC filing. Its predecessor fund, the $100 million A-Fund, was developed in partnership with the China-based Internet giant Tencent; KDDI, one of Japan’s largest mobile phone operators; and NHN, which owns one of the largest search engines in South Korea. As DCM general partner Jason Krikorian told us back in March, that side fund has “been really great and given us a lot of flexibility to do deals where we put in a few million dollars at a valuation in the high, double-figure millions, including [South Korean messaging company] Kakao, which now has something like 95 percent penetration of the [regional] population.” (At the time, Kirkorian told us there was “interest” from those same backers in another fund but that DCM didn’t have “any definite plans” to do a second one. Kakao has also since merged with the South Korean Internet portal Daum and is now publicly traded in Korea with a $7 billion market cap, notes TechCrunch.)

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IPOs

Hortonworks, the three-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based Hadoop startup that spun out of Yahoo, is making its Wall Street debut today. The company hopes to raise $100 million from 6.25 million shares offered at $16 per share. Underwriters will have the option of purchasing an additional 937,500 shares. Wired has more here.

Lending Club, the seven-year-old, San Francisco-based peer-to-peer lender, surged 56 percent in its Wall Street debut yesterday. Its shares, which began trading at $24.75 — up from the $15-per-share price set the previous night — ended the day at $23.43, giving the company a valuation of $8.5 billion. That’s higher than all but 14 U.S. banks, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

Momo, a Chinese social media application backed by Alibaba Group Holding, Matrix Partners China, Yunfeng Capital and Sequoia Capital, shot up 26 percent on its first day of trading in New York after raising $216 million. The shares jumped to $17.02 yesterday after they were sold for $13.50, the middle of the price range. Bloomberg has more here.

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Exits

Cognilytics, a five-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based, 200-person, predictive analytics company, is being acquired by the telecommunications company CenturyLink for undisclosed terms. VentureBeat has more here.

Fotolia, a nine-year-old, New York-based stock photo site that hosts 34 million images and videos, is being acquired by Adobe for $800 million in cash, reports VentureBeat, which spied the news buried in Adobe’s fourth-quarter earnings report. Adobe says Fotolia will “continue to operate as a standalone stock service,” but intends to integrate it into its Creative Cloud service. Fotolia has raised $225 million in private equity in recent years, from TA Associates and KKR.

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People

Microsoft‘s billionaire cofounder Paul Allen is picking up the tab for a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior. According to the suit, the agency oversees the leasing of public land to coal mining companies yet doesn’t take into account how that coal will contribute to global climate change.

Google is donating $2 million in grants to three San Francisco-based organizations that help the city’s homeless population, the city announced yesterday. Last Friday, Google cofounder Sergey Brin dropped off 50 hoodies to one of those groups, Larkin Street Youth Services, which will receive $500,000 from Google.org to roll out a college and career preparation program for homeless youth. Stunningly, the San Francisco Unified School District district estimates there are 2,100 homeless kids in San Francisco public schools.

Angry protesters, holding signs of “Ferguson” and “Black lives matter,” stormed through the doors during a speech by investor Peter Thiel on Wednesday at UC Berkeley. “F–k you!” one man shouted as he walked out of the hall, to which Thiel responded after several beats: “This is really a classic Berkeley event today — this is so cool.” Protesters later took over the stage, by which time Thiel had already skedaddled, reports Business Insider.

Twitter cofounder Evan Williams addresses reports that Instagram now has more users than Twitter: “If you think about the impact Twitter has on the world versus Instagram, it’s pretty significant. It’s at least apples to oranges. Twitter is what we wanted it to be. It’s this real-time information network where everything in the world that happens on Twitter—important stuff breaks on Twitter and world leaders have conversations on Twitter. If that’s happening, I frankly don’t give a sh_t if Instagram has more people looking at pretty pictures.”

Tesla China President Veronica Wu has resigned from the company just nine months after joining it from Apple, reports Bloomberg, which doesn’t cite a reason for her departure. Tom Zhu, who heads Tesla’s charging network development in China and who had previously co-founded Kaibo International, which provides project and construction management services, will reportedly take over for Wu. Tesla started delivering Model S sedans to China in April and expects to start building them there within three to four years.

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Job Listings

Monsanto Growth Ventures, the corporate venture arm of the agricultural products giant, is looking for a portfolio director to lead its $140 million portfolio of investments. The job is in St. Louis.

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Data

According to new data out of Cambridge Associates, U.S. private equity and venture capital funds generated positive returns in the second quarter, with PE outperforming VC by a margin of almost two to one. PE also surpassed VC over the six-month period ending June 30, and both surpassed the performance of public equities. More here.

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Essential Reads

Google has published a list of most-downloaded apps from Google Play, its online apps storefront, over the past twelve months.

When alleged Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht’s trial begins in January, he’ll face charges of narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and computer fraud—not murder. But the prosecution and judge in his case have now refused to let him know which witnesses will be testifying against him for fear that he might orchestrate their killing from his jail cell, reports Wired. More here.

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Detours

A woman whose identity is stolen gets her revenge, and how.

The vanishing American male worker.

Forty examples of stunning aviation photography.

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Retail Therapy

Don’t have an iPhone 6 yet? You can buy one right now for $129 at Walmart.

Famous rapper bodysuit onesies. [Throws mic over shoulder.]

Hi, good morning, everyone! (Web visitors, here’s an easier-to-read version of today’s email here.)

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Top News in the A.M.

Instagram now has 300 million users. As Recode’s Kurt Wagner astutely notes, that makes it Facebook’s fourth product with more users than Twitter, including Facebook, with 1.35 billion users; WhatsApp, with 600 million users; and Facebook Messenger, with 500 million users. (Adding insult to injury, Twitter — ranked second on Glassdoor’s list of best places to work last year — didn’t crack the top 50 this year.)

Sony tries of a hack of its own to disrupt downloads of its stolen files.

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VC Michael Eisenberg: More VCs Are Staying in Israel

If you’ve ever done an Internet or software venture deal in Israel, you probably know Michael Eisenberg. He started off in the industry 20 years ago, working first as a general partner at Israel Seed Partners, then spending nearly a decade with Benchmark, which he left last year to launch Aleph, an early-stage firm he cofounded with operator-turned-investor, Eden Shochat.

Eisenberg also spends plenty of time in the U.S., to visit Israeli founders who’ve relocated here, as well as to help recruit for those of his portfolio companies that are staying put back home. In fact, the busy father of eight happened to be in New York yesterday; in between meetings, we chatted by phone about Israel’s current startup scene and what he’s seeing there.

You invest exclusively in Israeli startups, though you’re in the U.S. fairly often. What percentage of your management teams have moved here?

Probably half, with the other half still in Israel.

Has that number changed much in recent years?

If anything, we’re seeing more Israeli entrepreneurs decide to stay in Israel. With the development of the web and the ability it affords founders to market their products from anywhere, entrepreneurs no longer need the same degree of in-market presence.

You closed a debut fund of $140 million last year, with a side fund of $14 million. How much have you invested so far, and what size checks are you writing?

We’ve invested about 25 percent of the fund. We’re writing Series A checks of $2 million to $5 million. Half the deals are syndicated; the other half, we’ve done ourselves.

According to IVC-Online, the pace of investment in Israeli startups was up in the third quarter — this despite the Gaza conflict.

I’m not sure there’s any rhyme or reason for it, but the pace of innovation in Israel exists outside of the regional economy and regional politics. At the end of the day, innovation is very scarce. You can find it in pockets of New York and Shanghai and London, but it’s mostly in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, and as more industries are subject to innovation, investment is Israel is inevitably going up.

We hear that local firms are getting sidelined, that multinational firms like Bessemer and Benchmark have a major and growing competitive advantage right now.

There’s definitely brand value to international firms like Benchmark, as I experienced. And most of the Israel firms haven’t built their brand over time. But reputation is earned. It’s not bought. What entrepreneurs learn is that an individual is more important than the firm.

Eden and I have spent a collective 40 years building relationships. We both travel every third or fourth week. I’ve logged more miles than any VC in Israel. Just because you’re the Israeli partner of a U.S firm doesn’t mean you have the relationships needed to help a company.

Are you seeing more Chinese investors in Israel? Baidu just made its first investment in an Israeli startup called Pixellot, which seems notable.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen many more Chinese investors come to Israel, which is a good thing. Chinese investors have [backed] Israeli venture firms, including Pitango [Venture Capital] and Carmel [Ventures], but they’re starting to invest directly in technology as well because the East is such a big market.

Of course, you hope it doesn’t presage the top of the market. I remember a huge infusion of Italian money at the top of the market [in the late ‘90s], and that didn’t end well.

Credit Suisse is reportedly interested in investing in Israeli startups for clients of its wealth management business. Is that a worrisome indicator?

There’s generally been a big move by financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe into Israel. Citigroup and Barclays and others have set up tech centers and innovation labs. Especially around financial technology and security, Israel is a great place to go. I’m just not sure there’s enough engineering talent for everyone who wants to move into the market.

What’s happening with valuations?

Valuations in Israel aren’t as out of whack as they are in the U.S. It’s a much more disciplined market that seems to remember what downturns look like. At Aleph, we have a policy of straight-up flat term sheets, too. That’s something I learned at Benchmark.

Aleph also has an equal partnership model like Benchmark’s, with the carry split evenly. I often wonder why more firms don’t do the same.

It makes a lot of sense. It kills all the politics. Partners at Benchmark help each other tirelessly. But it’s inherently difficult to scale — to be able to find someone who provides as much value [as everyone else], and I think firms are daunted by that. You just have to rise to that challenge.

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New Fundings

Area 1 Security, a year-old, Menlo Park, Calif.-based cyber-security startup founded by three former NSA analysts, has raised $8 million in a Series A financing led by earlier investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company has now raised $10.5 million, including from Cowboy Ventures, Data Collective, First Round Capital, Allegis Capital, and others.

Connect, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose app merges contact information from Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, Instagram, and iPhone address books so users can message any of their contacts from inside the app, has raised $10 million, including from Fosun International and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The company has now raised $13 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Grow, a year-old, Provo, Ut.-based company behind a business-intelligence dashboard service, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Kickstart Seed Fund, Pelion Ventures and individual investors. The company has now raised $2 million altogether.

Helium Systems, a year-old, San Francisco-based Internet-of-things startup, has raised $16 million in funding led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from FirstMark Capital, Digital Garage, Marc Benioff, SV Angel, and Slow Ventures among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Hinge, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based mobile app that helps people meet dates through their online social graphs, has raised $12 million in fresh funding led by Shasta Ventures, with participation from previous investorsLowercase Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Eniac Ventures and CAA Ventures. Hinge had raised $4.5 million in summer. It has now raised $20.6 million altogether.

Huddle, a seven-year-old, London-based company whose enterprise collaboration software enables people to store and share video, messages and other items, has raised $51 million in Series D funding led by Zouk Capital, with participation from the Hermes GPE Environmental Innovation Fund and all of its earlier backers. The company has now raised $85 million altogether. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Infer, a four-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company whose predictive SaaS platform aims to help companies identify prospective customers, has raised $25 million led by earlier backer Redpoint Ventures. The company has so far raised $35 million, shows Crunchbase. Others of its backers include The Social+Capital Partnership, Sutter Hill Ventures,Andreessen Horowitz, and Nexus Venture Partners.

IPerceptions, a 10-year-old, New York-based digital customer research company, has raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital from Wellington Financial.

Kamcord, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose technology enables gamers to record parts of their game play and share key moments, has raised $15 million in new funding led by the Japanese gaming giant GungHo Online Entertainment, with participation from Tencent Holdings and TransLink Capital. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

Optomeditech, a 2.5-year-old, Espoo, Finland-based company that’s developing intravenous catheters and blood collection needles, has raised $2.5 million in funding led by Lifeline Ventures and The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra.

OutboundEngine, a two-year-old, Austin, Tx.-based marketing technology company, has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by Silverton Partners, with participation from Harmony Partners, Altos Ventures and existing investors. The company has now raised $17.8 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Piccing, a 3.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based social shopping platform, has raised $3.62 million in Series A funding from undisclosed investors.

Threat Stack, a two-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based cloud-security monitoring service, has raised $5 million in Series A1 financing from Atlas Venture and .406 Ventures. The company has raised $9 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

UNIFi Software, a year-old, San Francisco-based company that sells data integration software, has raised $4.45 million in seed financing led by Canaan Partners, with participation from other investors, including Omaha Capital.

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New Funds

Milestone Venture Partners, a 15-year-old, New York-based early-stage venture capital fund, is hoping to raise a new, $150 million fund to back software and data services businesses. VentureWire has the details here.

Sequoia Capital, the 42-year-old, global venture firm, is raising its 15th U.S. venture fund, shows an SEC filing that doesn’t list a target.

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IPOs

Box has updated its S-1 paperwork. ZDNet breaks it down here, but among the highlights: Box reported a little more than $57 million in revenue, up from $33.6 million the previous year. Losses are down, too, to $45.4 million at the end of the third quarter, down from $51.4 million in Q3 2013.

LendingClub is now a public company.

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Exits

AppArchitect, a two-year-old, Finnish company behind a drag-and-drop platform for creating mobile apps, has been acquired for undisclosed terms by AppGyver, a mobile app development company. AppArchitect had raised an undisclosed amount of funding rom DreamIt Ventures, shows Crunchbase. AppGyver has raised $3.5 million from investors, including Initial Capital and Open Ocean Capital.

Backupify, a six-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based cloud backup service, has been acquired by Datto, a backup and disaster recovery service in Norwalk, Ct. Terms weren’t disclosed, but Backupify cofounder and CEO Rob May tells TechCrunch the purchase price was “a lot more than we raised.” Backupify had collected $19.5 million from investors, including General Catalyst Partners, Lowercase Capital, Symantec, Avalon Ventures, First Round Capital and numerous angels, including Chris Sacca.

HockeyApp, a three-year-old, Stuttgart, Germany-based company whose platform collects live crash reports, gets feedback from users, distributes betas, recruits new testers, and analyzes its customers’ test coverage, has been acquired by Microsoft for undisclosed terms. More here.

Neohapsis, a 17-year-old, Chicago-based security advisory company that provides governance, risk, and compliance products and security services to enterprises and government agencies, has been acquired by Cisco. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Neohapsis had raised at least $35 million over the years, shows Crunchbase, including from Paladin Capital Group, New Venture Partners, and Trident Capital.

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People

HBO chief technology officer Otto Berkes is leaving the premium cable network following its decision to enlist Major League Baseball Advanced Media to build its streaming service instead of develop it in-house. Berkes, a co-creator of Microsoft’s Xbox, had joined HBO in 2011 as senior VP of digital products and was promoted to CTO in 2012.

Paul Camp, formerly a managing director and global head of J.P. Morgan’s transaction services business, is now the CFO of the bitcoin startup Circle Internet Financial, which provides a digital-currency wallet and account management services to consumers.

Associate Professor Ben Edelman of Harvard Business School has issued an apology for threatening a Chinese restaurant manager over a $4 overcharge. “Having reflected on my interaction with Ran,” and been chastised by nearly everyone on the Internet, “it’s clear that I was very much out of line.”

Early next year, Tony Perkins, founder of the media brand AlwaysOn, plans to open a members-only social club called the Cuckoo’s Nest that will accept just 1,200 members and cost $2,500 a year to join. (Members under age 30 will be asked to pay $1,000.) “The Valley does not have a place where entrepreneurs can find each other and hang out at,” says venture capitalist (and charter Cuckoo Nest member) Tim Draper in an email soliciting new members.

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Job Listings

Vocap Investment Partners, a growth-stage investment firm, is looking for an analyst or associate. The job is in Atlanta.

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Data

Shivon Zilis, an investor at Bloomberg Beta, tries making sense of the exploding number “machine intelligence” companies. Here’s her analysis.

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Essential Reads

Facebook no longer likes the word “users.” You’re just a person who happens to use Facebook.

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Detours

Why football will probably never die.

Oof.

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Retail Therapy

A portable garage toolbox refrigerator. [Grunt.] Hulk like.

Fifteen great gifts for the Apple addicts in your life.