Hi, welcome back, everyone!
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Top News in the A.M.
Google is abusing its dominant position to cross-sell its own products, India-based companies have complained to an India-based antitrust regulatory body — which is now formally bringing charges against Google.
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An Insider on Switching Firms
Last week, we sat down with venture capitalist Brian O’Malley of Accel Partners to talk about where he’s shopping now.
We also asked O’Malley — who was recruited into Accel from Battery Partners in 2013 — what it was like to transition between the heavyweight firms, and what he views as the biggest differences between them.
More from that candid chat follows. Our conversation has been edited lightly for length.
Founders sometimes feel “orphaned” when a cherished VC board member leaves to start his or her own fund or, in rarer cases, is recruited into a new firm. What happened to your portfolio companies when you changed firms?<
The simplest way to look at [these transitions] is that with the money comes the board seat, and the money is from the firm, not from Brian. So at the end of the day, it’s the firm’s call about whether you stay or go.
Sameer [Gandhi], who recruited me in, had [been recruited into Accel from Sequoia Partners back in 2008] and gone through a similar process, so I think there was a general attitude of: “Look, your entrepreneur relationships are the one thing you take with you, and your reputation is all you have, so let’s err on the side of doing right by the teams you’ve backed.” The thinking was, “If it takes these startups a year to get things figured out, that’s okay. At the end of the day, they chose Battery to work with you, and it’s kind of not fair [to abruptly end those ties].”
What did Battery think?
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New Fundings
Instabase, a six-month-old, San Francisco-based platform in the cloud for data, applications, and interactive computing, has raised $3.75 million in seed funding from Greylock Partners and New Enterprise Associates.
Mobcrush, a year-old, L.A.-based live-streaming service centered around mobile games, has quietly raised at least $10 million in new financing led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, reports TechCrunch. More here.
Peleton Technology, a four-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based developer of vehicle safety systems for trucking fleets, has raised $17 million in fresh funding co-led by DENSO International America and Intel Capital, with participation from Lockheed Martin. Just last month, the company raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Nokia Growth Partners. That round had followed a $17 million Series A funding that included Magna International, Castrol innoVentures, Volvo Group Venture Capital, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Birchmere Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, and Band of Angels.
Vivoom, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based mobile marketing platform, has raised $4.65 million from investors, including CommonAngels Ventures, shows an SEC filing.
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New Funds
Xiaohong Chen, formerly a managing director in China for Tiger Global, looks to be raising her third venture capital fund under the brand H Capital. According to an SEC filing, she’s targeting $500 million this time, and the first sale has yet to occur. H Capital closed its second fund last year with $300 million, shows an earlier SEC filing.
Ryan Gembala — who spent more than a year in corporate development at Facebook and, before that, held numerous roles in business development, as well as with Azure Capital Partners, where he was an associate — is raising his own seed-stage fund. According to an SEC filing, it’s called Pathbreaker Ventures and it has already raised $3.4 million from 16 investors. The filing doesn’t list a target.
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IPOs
CytomX Theraputics, a seven-year-old, South San Francisco-based biotech company whose cancer immunotherapies aim to avoid healthy cells, plans to raise $100 million in an IPO, shows a new SEC filing. Its principal shareholders include Third Rock Ventures, which owns 30.8 percent of its shares; Canaan Partners, which owns 17.4 percent; Fidelity Management and Research Company, which owns 8.7 percent; and Roche Finance, which owns 6.8 percent. The San Francisco Business Times has more here.
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Exits
CytomX Theraputics, a seven-year-old, South San Francisco-based biotech company whose cancer immunotherapies aim to avoid healthy cells, plans to raise $100 million in an IPO, shows a new SEC filing. Its principal shareholders include Third Rock Ventures, which owns 30.8 percent of its shares; Canaan Partners, which owns 17.4 percent; Fidelity Management and Research Company, which owns 8.7 percent; and Roche Finance, which owns 6.8 percent. The San Francisco Business Times has more here.
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People
Two founders of startups acquired by Facebook are leaving the company, they announced separately last week. Josh Miller, CEO of Branch, is parting ways with the social network 20 months after his eight-person company was acquired. Ilya Sukhar, whose development platform, Parse, was acquired by Facebook in April 2013, is also moving on. Quartz has the story here.
Uber has hired two top vehicle security researchers: Charlie Miller, who had been working at Twitter and Chris Valasek, who worked at security firm IOActive. The pair attracted attention earlier this month after demonstrating they could hack into a moving Jeep. Reuters has the story here.
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Jobs
PayPal is looking to hire a corporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.
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Essential Reads
Netflix is losing more Hollywood movies. Recode has the story here.
If a growing number of state bills is any guide, the email addresses and search queries of U.S. schoolchildren are a hot commodity.
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Detours
Postcards from Silicon Valley, circa 1985-2000.
Spotify says age 42 is when many of its users rediscover current pop music.
What the most expensive house in America looks like.
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Retail Therapy
The beloved Jeep Grand Wagoneer is coming back. If you can’t wait, there’s always the vintage market (and it’s a good time to buy).
Turntable cassette player combo.