Hi, everyone! No column today. (Sorry to make it two days in a row but we were in meetings most of yesterday.)
We do have newly posted pictures from our event this past Wednesday night; We also have lots of great content coming your way next week.
Hope you have a terrific weekend.:)
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Top News in the A.M.
This fight isn’t over yet. Lyft, the three-year-old, San Francisco-based ridesharing startup, has raised $100 million in new funding from Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises. The investment is an extension of a round of funding announced in March that values Lyft at $2.5 billion. “If you look at the way the market evaluates Uber and then look at the valuation of Lyft—Lyft is a tremendous bargain,” Icahn tells the WSJ. “There is room for two.” Lyft, notes the WSJ, has raised a total of more than $1 billion in its battle against Uber, which has raised more than $5 billion.
Watch out: Google’s self-driving cars hit the road this summer.
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New Fundings
Alpha7, a year-old, Singapore-based technology consultancy, has raised $2.3 million in new funding from undisclosed backers. The company has now raised $3.6 million to date.
Denali Therapeutics, a new, San Francisco-based biotech focused on treating and curing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, ALS and Parkinson’s, has raised $217 million in funding from Fidelity Biosciences, ARCH Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures, and the Alaska Permanent Fund, with participation from sovereign wealth funds, mutual funds, and private family offices. Denali was founded by three former top researchers at Genentech. Forbes has much more here.
Geekie, a four-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based adaptive learning platform designed to help students gain acceptance into public universities, has raised $7 million in funding from Mitsui & Co. and Omidyar Network, as well as previous backers Gera Venture and Virtuose.
Intact Vascular, a three-year-old, Wayne, Pa.-based company that makes medical devices for minimally invasive peripheral vascular procedures, has raised $38.9 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Quaker Partners, H.I.G. Bioventures and earlier investors.
LeTV Sports, a new, Beijing, China-based online video site that focuses on live streaming sports events, (it’s a spin-off from online video firm LeShi Internet Information, which handles broadcast and media rights to hundreds of events in a dozen sports categories), has raised $128 million in Series A funding led by Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianin. Reports say the company is now valued at $452 million.
IndianRoots.com, a two-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based e-commerce platform that features hundreds of designer brands, has raised $5 million in Series B funding at an $85 million valuation led by KJS Group. Inc42 has more here.
Officevibe, a five-month-old, Montreal, Canada-based maker of employee engagement software, has raised $1 million in seed funding from GSoft Ventures.
RealMassive, a two-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based cloud-based platform used by real estate agents looking to collaborate and to streamline their marketing efforts, has raised $8 million in funding led by RHS Investments, with participation from Hurt Family Investments, Capital Factory, HPI Real Estate Services, Aquila Commercial, Avison Young and InSite Realty. The company has now raised roughly $14 million, shows Crunchbase.
Wonolo, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based on-demand staffing platform for businesses to fill their immediate hourly or daily labor needs, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by PivotNorth Capital, with participation from CrunchFund, Foundry Group, and angel investors. Coca-Cola also provided a convertible note of $1 million and has provided another note of $700,000 that will convert on the next round. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.
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New Funds
Collaborative Fund, a five-year-old, New York-based seed investment firm that’s focused on so-called collaborative consumption models, has raised $65 million for its third fund. Among its many bets to date: Hampton Creek,Earnest, and Kano Computing. Collaborative’s LPs include the San Francisco-based fund of funds Cendana Capital. Last July, Collaborative founder Craig Shapiro also rolled out a special purpose entity called Alignment Holdingsthat works with later-stage companies. We’d talked with him about it here.
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People<
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is forming a new team called the Strategic & Private Capital Solutions Group to raise money for private companies, reports the WSJ. Bankers Sachin Aggarwal and Warren Fixmer will run the group.
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Jobs
UC Davis is looking for an associate director to act as a liaison between investors and the school’s research, technology transfer and new venture development departments. The job is in Davis, Ca.
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Essential Reads
Decoding the enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Coca Cola wants to fund the next billion-dollar startup, too.
“Living” concrete that can heal itself.
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Detours
A pilot’s-eye view of life in the sky.
Playground purgatory.
Real people, fake arms.
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Retail Therapy
The Lily camera; just throw and go.