StrictlyVC: July 9, 2015

Hi, good morning, readers. It is Thursday!

A few quick things: If you are interested in coming to our Wednesday, September 16 event, you may want to pick up a ticket soon. (More than half have sold.) Speakers include Chamath Palihapitiya of Social + Capital; DFJ’s legendary cofounder Steve Jurvetson; investor-entrepreneur Tony Conrad of About.me and True Ventures; and Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg, among others. (We’re very excited about the full line-up.) If you’re interested in a sponsorship opportunity, we’d love to talk with you.

We also want to let you know we will not be publishing StrictlyVC this coming Monday, as we’ll be en route to Fortune’s Brainstorm conference at a very early hour. We’ll be back in full-form on Tuesday, though.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Jawbone has just filed its third legal action against rival fitness tracker company Fitbit, this one seeking to block Fitbit from importing fitness trackers or their parts. The WSJ has the story here. (Interestingly, shareholders don’t seem phased; Fitbit’s shares have doubled in price to roughly $42 since their public market debut roughly a month ago.)

IBM is this morning announcing new computer chips that are more powerful than any in existence.

Uber has dropped out of the running to buy Nokia’s mapping business. Reuters has the story.

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New Fundings

Afferent Pharmaceuticals, a six-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based drug developer focused on debilitating neurogenic disorders, has raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, with participation from Jennison Associates, New Leaf Ventures, Partner Fund Management, Redmile Group, Tekla Healthcare Investors, Tekla Life Science Investors, and an undisclosed public investment fund. More here.

Amistad Energy Partners, a newly formed, Houston, Tex.-based independent oil and gas company, has raised $150 million in funding from Kayne Anderson Energy Funds and members of the management team, which includes four former BP executives. More here.

Apester, a four-year-old, New York City-based digital storytelling platform for publishers that enables them to embed interactive units – polls, surveys, personality tests and video quizzes – in stories, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Mangrove Capital Partners, with participation from former AOL Video CMO Tal Simantov and other individual investors. More here.

Clara Foods, a nine-month-old, San Francisco-based biotech that’s creating egg whites out of genetically modified yeast, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding from David Friedberg, Gary Hirshberg, Ali and Hadi Partovi, Scott Banister, and SOS Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Collectabillia, a three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based celebrity commerce company that sells memorabilia autographed by celebrities, as well as fan merchandise, has raised $7.5 million in Series B funding from earlier investor Accel Partners. VCCircle has more here.

Curely, a year-old, Newport Beach, Ca.-based mobile application that connects doctors and consumers around the world, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Exponential Partners. More here.

DigitalOcean, a four-year-old, New York-based cloud-hosting service built for developers, has raised a $83 million in Series B funding led by Access Industries, with participation from earlier backer Andreessen Horowitz, which led the company’s $37 million Series A round last year. The company has now raised $173.2 million altogether.

Emma, a 12-year-old Nashville, Tenn.-based email service provider, has raised $5 million in equity and debt funding from Nashville Capital Network and Square 1 Bank. More here.

Genymobile, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company at work on three different products that aim to make using Android much easier for Android developers, has raised $7.7 million from Alven Capital, with Bpifrance also participating. TechCrunch has much more here.

Influitive, a 4.5-year-old, Toronto-based company focused on advocate marketing, has raised $30.5 million in Series B funding led by Georgian Partners, with participation from OurCrowd, DoCoMo Capital, BDC Capital IT Venture Fund, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Illuminate Ventures, Resolute Ventures, Relay Ventures, CommonAngels Ventures and First Round Capital. The company has now raised $41.8 million altogether, shows Crunchbase.

Jinfuzi, a three-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based online wealth management firm, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by the Chinese social networking firm Renrenaccording to China Money Network. Earlier backer Sequoia Capital also participated.

Foody, a three-year-old, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based restaurant review app, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from the Singapore-based Internet company Garena. The company has previously raised two other rounds; its other investors include CyberAgent Ventures and Pix Vine Capital Investment. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Karmic Labs, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based business-to-business payments infrastructure company, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft Partners. More here.

Lendingkart, a year-old, Gujarat, India-based online lending company focused on small businesses, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Saama Capital, Mayfield, and individual investors. More here.

Lybrate, an 18-month-old, New Delhi, India-based, mobile-based platform that connects patients and doctors, has raised $10.2 million in fresh funding fromTiger Global Management, with participation from earlier backer Nexus Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

The Medical Memory, a seven-year-old, Phoenix, Az.-based medical video messaging platform that lets doctors record and securely share videos of patient visits, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding led by Provenance Venture Partners. More here.

mLevel, a three-year-old, Chicago, Il.-based game-based learning platform for corporate customers, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from BIP Capital. More here.

News In Shorts, a two-year-old, New Delhi, India-based mobile news app, has raised $20 million in Series B funding from earlier backer Tiger Global Management, which also led the company’s $4 million Series A in February. TechCrunch has more here.

PandaDoc, a two-year-old, South San Francisco, Ca.-based company whose software product sits atop customers’ CRM tools to help manage quotes, proposals, contracts, and other collateral, has raised $5 million in funding led by Altos Ventures, with participation from TMT Investments and other unnamed investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Pickup, a year-old, Addison, Tex.-based developer of an on-demand delivery app, has raised $600,000 in seed funding from undisclosed sources. The Dallas Business Journal has more here.

Secoo, a four-year-old, Shanghai, Chinese-based luxury e-commerce site, has raised $55 million in Series E funding led by Ping An Ventures. More here.

Touchten, a six-year-old Indonesia-based gaming studio, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series C funding led by Japanese mobile and social firm GREE, with 500 Startups as a follow-on investor. VentureBeat has more here.

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New Funds

TLV Partners, a new Tel Aviv, Israel firm cofounded by Eitan Bek and Rona Segev, both formerly of Pitango Venture Capital, is looking to raise up to $100 million for its debut fund, shows an SEC filing first flagged by Fortune.

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Exits

AOL, recently acquired by Verizon for $4.4 billion, is in the process of buying mobile ad network Millennial Media, sources tell TechCrunch. The rumored price: betwen $300 million and $350 million, a premium to its public market capitalization of $217 million.

The 17-year-old security company Avast Software has acquired Remotium, a 2.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based company whose enterprise security services protect mobile devices. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. According to Crunchbase, Remotium had raised $1 million from Draper Nexus Ventures.

ViralNova, a one-person content company run by Canton, Ohio-based entrepreneur Scott DeLong, has been acquired by Zealot Networks in a deal worth roughly $100 million in cash and stock. Zealot was founded by former Maker Studios chief executive Danny Zappin last year. TechCrunch has the story here.

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People

Netscape billionaire Jim Clark has a new super yacht — Comanche — and it’s expected to make a big ol’ splash at the upcoming Transatlantic Race. The WSJ has the story here.

Ben Huh, the entrepreneur who founded Cheezburger, parent company to site I Can Has Cheezburger, is stepping down as CEO, with the company’s president and COO Scott Moore assuming the role. Huh announced the news on Medium. More here.

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Essential Reads

Nick Bilton of the New York Times visited Twitter recently to see how its CEO search is coming along. He walked away more concerned than ever.

Yahoo is introducing a more intense, daily form of fantasy sports that allows competitors to compete with real money. The San Jose Mercury News has more here.

You can now tell Facebook what you want in your News Feed.

9to5mac is reporting new details about Google Glass’s “enterprise edition.”

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Detours

The people who barely sleep (and are fine)!

The work the rest of us do when we’re in dreamworld.

The 10 best islands in the world, according to travelers.

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Retail Therapy

Zip line kit. You never know; it could come in handy(?).


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