• Never Mind Those Markdowns: An LP Plans for Next Year

    raining_moneyEarlier this year, FLAG Capital Management — an asset manager that has backed a long list of top venture firms, including Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures — wasacquired by the British fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management.

    The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. But the union created a giant that manages $15 billion in private equity assets – money that many venture firms will invariably be competing to attract when they hit the fundraising trail next year.

    To get a sense for how Aberdeen views the market right now, and who’s liable to see a check from the firm in the coming months, we chatted yesterday with its head of global venture capital, Peter Denious. Our conversation has been edited for length.

    It’s a little choppy out there. Meanwhile, your job is to fund venture capital firms. Are you nervous? Are you planning to pull back a bit in 2016?

    As it relates to venture, there won’t be any changes in our strategy. A lot of time was invested in this point [when we were being acquired by Aberdeen], and we plan to stay true to our model, which is to invest about $100 million per year in early-stage venture funds.

    So you aren’t troubled by private-company valuations trending downright now.

    I think it’s somewhat overdue. We aren’t interested in watching markets get overheated. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more volatility in 2016, but I think it imposes more discipline on the private market.

    What about interest rates? Would an expected rate hike impact your work?

    For all asset classes, there will be some ripple effects for sure, but it’s probably going to be most muted in the case of venture capital and it wouldn’t change how we approach the business. I suspect it will have more of a dampening effect on capital flowing into other alternatives, including the buyouts space.

    You sound so positive about venture capital.

    It’s been a banner year for distributions for the industry and certainly for FLAG, and now Aberdeen, where we’ve seen record-setting amounts of cash returned. That’s really a reflection of what happened very early this year and last year, when a lot of companies went public; VCs have to work off those lock-up periods, and that takes time. But we’ve had the good fortune of being able to send back a lot of money to our investors.

    Of course, IPOs are now down 50 percent year-to-date by dollar amount.

    Much more here.

  • December 15, 2015

    Hello, dear readers, happy Tuesday. Hope it’s off to a good start.

    No column today; too many funding announcements (still, with just three weeks to go!).

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Apple has opened a secret laboratory in Taiwan to develop new screens,reports Bloomberg.

    Facebook is taking on Angie’s List and Yelp with a new site for finding top-rated local businesses, says TechCrunch.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Afanti, a 1.5-year-old, Beijing, China-based study mobile app that provides real-time answers and assistance to primary and middle school students, has raised $60 million in Series B funding from Shenzhen Capital GroupFenghuang Xiangrui Internet Investment Fund, and Lang Ma Feng Venture Capital. The company has now raised at least $78 million altogether. China Money Network has more here.

    AltheaDx, a six-year-old, San Diego-based company whose molecular medical tests aim to help identify the best cancer drugs for patients, has raised $30 million in Series C funding, including from WuXi Healthcare Ventures, Ally Bridge Group, ALMA Life Sciences and WuXi PharmaTech. More here.

    Azalead, a 2.5-year-old, Paris, France-based company that’s building a platform for account-based marketingj, has raised $5 million (€4.5 million) from Idinvest, with earlier backer Aurinvest also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

    Dashu Finance, a 1.5-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based online lender of small and micro loans, has raised $77 million in Series B funding led by the Asia-focused alternative investment firm PAG, with participation from earlier backer Sequoia Capital. China Money Network has more here.

    DealStreetAsia, an 18-month-old, Singapore-based site covering financial investment news, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a range of investors, including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Alibaba-backed payments company PayTM ; the Singapore Angel Network; and the Indian media group Hindustan Times. More here.

    Edumedics, a Louisville, Ky.-based company that makes chronic disease management software, has raised $4.2 million in Series A funding led Lunsford Capital, with participation from OCA Ventures and individual angels.

    Giroptic, a 7.5-year-old, Lille, France-based company that makes a 360-degree camera, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding, including from 360 Capital Partners, C4 Ventures, the Finorpa Group, Partech Ventures, and SOS Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

    iKongJian, a year-old, Beijing-based startup that provides cheap home renovation services that can be ordered up online, has raised $21 million in Series B funding led by Shanghai Greenwoods Investment Management, with participation from Share Capital, earlier backer Shunwei Capital, and others. China Money Network has more here.

    iPrice, a 1.5-year-old, Kuala Lumpur-based e-commerce startup that sends traffic to numerous e-tailing services in seven countries, has raised $1.2 million in new funding from earlier backer Asia Venture Group, with participation from 500 Startups, IMJ, Venturra, F2 Capital, and Startstrike Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

    KAHR Medical, a 10-year-old, Israel-based biopharmaceutical company at work on a lymphoma treatment, has raised $12 million in a Series B round that’s expected to close with $15 million altogether. Korea Investment Partners, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and DSC Investment have already participated, along with earlier backer Flerie Invest AB. More here.

    Padloc, a five-year-old, Natick, Ma.-based company that connects shoppers to retailers with its in-store tablet systems, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding from Romulus Capital. With the funding comes a name change, to Aila Technologies.

    PointGrab, a seven-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based machine learning and computer vision startup, has raised $5 million in new funding from ABB Technology Ventures, EcoMachines Ventures, and Flex Lab IX. More here.

    Pramata, a 10-year-old, Brisbane, Ca.-based maker of customer relationship intelligence software, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Volition Capital, with participation from earlier backers Argosy Capital and Peninsula Ventures. More here.

    Sundar, a year-old, New York-based company whose online platform connects pros in the apparel industry with materials and vendors around the world, has raised $1.3 million in funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Techstars Ventures, Correlation Ventures and undisclosed angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

    Trulioo, a four-year-old, Vancouver-based maker of global identity verification software for the online payments industry, has raised C$15 million ($10.9 million) in new funding led by American Express Ventures, with participation from earlier investors BDC Capital, Blumberg Capital and Tenfore Holdings. Business Vancouver has more here.

    Vayyar, a four-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based company whose technology uses radio waves to create 3D mappings of hard-to-access things like root systems and underground piping, has raised $22 million in Series B funding led byWalden Riverwood. Vayyar’s earlier backers, including Battery Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, also participated in the round, which brings the company’s total funding to $34 million. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    A Capital, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco and Menlo Park, Ca.-based early-stage fund managed by Ronny Conway (son of famed investor Ron Conway), is looking to raise upwards of $140 million for its second fund, shows an SEC filing. Conway closed the outfit’s debut fund with $51 million in February 2014.

    OrbiMed Advisors, the 26-year-old, New York-based investment firm, is looking to raise $300 million for its second Israel-focused fund, shows an SEC filing that states the first sale has yet to occur.

    USVP, the 34-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm, says it just closed its eleventh fund with $300 million. More here. The capital pool was a year-and-a-half in the making, suggest SEC filings; USVP closed its previous fund with $625 million in 2008.

    —–

    Exits

    Gilt.com, the New York-based site that offers discounts on high-end apparel, is reportedly in talks to be acquired for $250 million by Hudson’s Bay, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue. The WSJ has the story here.

    Kahala Brands, the Scottsdale, Az.-based parent company of numerous fast-food chains, has purchased Pinkberry, a Santa Monica, Ca.-based frozen yogurt chain. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Pinkberry had raised at least $27.5 million from Maveron.

    McKinsey & Co. has purchased QuantumBlack, a London-based data-crunching consulting firm. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Fortune has more here.

    Salesforce has acquired MinHash, a young, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that was co-founded by two data science engineers formerly with eBay and Avaya. More here.

    Yahoo Japan, the joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo, has launched a bid to buy Ikyu, a popular, publicly traded, Japan-based online travel and restaurant reservation platform, for around $830 million. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    People

    Ashley Madison users are now receiving blackmail demands in the mail.

    Yahoo had an end-of-the-year party for employees, and it sounds like no expense was spared.

    —–

    Jobs

    Auction.com, backed by Google Capital, is looking for a VP of business development. The job is in New York.

    The research firm Gartner is looking for a VP of corporate development. The job is in Stamford, Ct.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Fortune examines Facebook’s governance problem.

    The Financial Times looks at the former Wall Street titans who are shaking up banking with their fintech companies.

    European teens under age 16 could be barred from Snapchat and Instagram.

    —–

    Detours

    mansion, a shell company, and resentment in Bel Air.

    China’s top bankers who “disappeared,” were detained, or died unnaturally this year.

    Whoa. In Flint, Michigan, there’s so much lead in children’s blood that a state of emergency has been declared.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Sweden’s Ice Hotel.

  • StrictlyVC: December 14, 2015

    Hello, everyone, happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Own a drone in the U.S.? You need to register it by February 19.

    —–

    Investor-Entrepreneur Peter Pham on Who’s in the Driver’s Seat Now

    Two weeks ago, during a panel about the state of early-stage investing, a handful of VCs I interviewed largely agreed that, as a class, they’re less keen right now to write checks as quickly as earlier this year.

    The next day, First Round Capital published a survey of more than 500 founders of venture-backed companies who plainly agree. In fact, 80 percent of respondents said they were able to raise their target amounts during their last round, but almost all said they anticipated harder times ahead.

    The slowdown seems due, given the feverish pace of investing in recent years, and the accompanying rise in valuations. The big question is whether things will stay sluggish for long. Peter Pham — an investor and advisor to many seed-stage companies, as well as the cofounder of the L.A.-based company-building outfit Science – says we’ll know the answer in March. We talked about it late last week. Here’s more from that chat, edited for length.

    You just helped serial entrepreneur Gil Elbaz raise $35 million for his company, Factual. You say it was a long road, though, which is surprising.

    It wasn’t an easy round, and this is the guy who created AdSense [which Google created out of Elbaz’s earlier company, Applied Semantics, after acquiring it in 2003]. Gil is super intellectual, and more than ever, the process of raising money requires a lot of salesmanship. You have to convince people who don’t know your business or have the same clarity or information that you have to invest in it, and that’s tough.

    When do you know it’s going to be a “no”?

    I’ve become an expert.

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    CapriCoast, a year-old, Bangalore, India-based online modular furniture marketplace that operates in 20 cities across India and specializes in kitchens and wardrobes, has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding from the Singapore-based firm RB Investments and earlier backer Accel Partners. NextBigWhat has more here.

    Chillr, a two-year-old, Cochin, India-based based peer-to-peer payments app, has raised $7 million in Series A funding from Blume Ventures, Uniqorn Ventures, Sequoia Capital and others. Inc42 has more here.

    Cloudyn, a four-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based service for monitoring and optimizing cloud usage across multiple vendors, has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by Carmel Ventures,  with participation from earlier backers Titanium Investments and RDSeed. The company has now raised $16.5 million altogether. More here.

    Doctena, a two-year-old, Brussels-based medical booking platform, has raised €4.5 million ($4.9 million) in funding from undisclosed private investors, business angels, and debt. TechCrunch has more here.

    Greensmith, a seven-year-old, Rockville, Md.-based energy storage software and integration services company, has raised $18.3 million in Series C funding from the energy utility E.ON. More here.

    LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, a nine-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based cybersecurity company, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by NewSpring Capital, with participation from earlier backers Alsop Louie Partners, Neuberger Berman Group and Vital FinancialMore here.

    Mazlo, a 2.5-year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based digital “self-actualization” platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Polaris Partners, with participation from company cofounder and CEO Tim Kilgallon. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

    Orckestra, a nine-year-old, Montreal, Canada-based software-as-a-service company providing e-commerce services to mid-sized and large retailers, has raised $12 million in Series B funding from earlier backers, including Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Fondaction CSN and W Investments. More here.

    Pixvana, a new, Seattle, Wa.-based virtual reality technology startup whose cloud-based platform aims to dramatically improve the video viewing experience for VR and augmented reality apps across viewing devices, has launched with $6 million in funding led by Madrona Venture Group. Other participants include Vulcan Capital and angel investors. More here.

    SketchDeck, a two-year-old, on-demand design service for marketing and sales teams, has raised $1.7 million in new funding. The round comes 10 months after the startup raised $500,000 from investors. Backers include Matrix Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Foundation Capital, Blue Capital, Arnold Capital and Flight VC. We talked with the company here.

    SteelHouse, a 6.5-year-old, Culver City, Ca.-based advertising software company, has raised $49 million in new funding led by Mercato Partners, with participation from Staley Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. The L.A. Business Journal has more here.

    Submittable, a five-year-old, Missoula, Montana-based company whose app makes it easier for media companies, publishers, schools, and grant-giving organizations to accept and review submissions online, has raised $1.34 million in Series A funding led by Next Frontier Capital, with participation from Knight Foundation Enterprise Fund, Flywheel Ventures, K5 Ventures and individuals. Venture Capital Dispatch has more here.

    Vidyo, a 10-year-old, Hackensack, N.J.-based high-definition videoconferencing provider, has raised $10 million in new funding led by Kaiser Permanente Ventures, with participation from Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and QuestMark Partners. More here.

    Whoop, a four-year-old, Boston-based company that provides performance data to professional athletes and sports teams, has raised $3 million in strategic funding from Infosys, the India-headquartered consulting and IT firm. Whoop was spun out of the Harvard Innovation Lab; it had raised $12 million back in September. TechCrunch has more here.

    X4 Pharmaceuticals, a year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based startup that’s developing an oral medicine that could combine with existing drugs to treat a common type of kidney cancers, has raised $37.5 million in Series A funding led by Cormorant Asset Management. FierceBiotech has more here.

    Yello Mobile, a 3.5-year-old, South Korea-based mobile apps platform company with numerous areas of operations, including  e-commerce, digital entertainment, online marketing, and data analytics, has raised $47.2 million in fresh funding led by earlier backer Formation 8. The funding comes as convertible debt at a $4 billion valuation. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    British Columbia is getting a new, $100 million venture capital fund, courtesy of the local government. NorthEast News has more here.

    Charles Carmel, a longtime corporate development executive at Cisco and, in more recent years, a partner and managing director at Warburg Pincus, appears to be raising a venture capital fund. According to an SEC filing, the fund is called Gold Sky Capital; it does not list a target.

    Foundation Capital, a 20-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based venture firm, has raised $325 million for its eighth fund, six months after kicking off its official fundraising effort. The capital pool, which is being managed by four general partners, is slightly larger than its $282 million predecessor, closed in April 2013 but far smaller than the $750 million that Foundation closed in 2008 for its sixth fund. Longtime GP Paul Holland wrote us last night about the firm’s newest effort.

    Former football great Joe Montana is rasing a new, $25 million fund for his venture capital firm, Liquid 2 Ventures, shows an SEC filing.

    The top executive at a global chemical manufacturer and a social media marketing expert have teamed up to launch a $50 million early-stage fund that will invest in technology-focused Indian startups. The firm’s name: Rainmaker Ventures. The Economic Times has more here.

    —–

    Exits

    Alibaba confirmed on Friday that it has agreed to acquire the South China Morning Post following weeks of rumors. The Hong Kong-based newspaper and SCMP Group’s other assets, which includes local editions of Esquire and Elle, will cost Alibaba a little over HK$2 billion — around $262 million — according to a regulatory filing. TechCrunch has more here.

    Experian, one of the world’s biggest credit ratings agencies, is selling off its two well-known analytics divisions in a $51.5 million deal. Hitwise, the traffic measurement company, is being sold to Connexity; and Simmons, which publishes the National Consumer Study (a huge marketing information and consumer usage database), is being sold to Symphony Technology Group, the private equity company that owns Connexity. TechCrunch has more here.

    Love Home Swap, a U.K.-based marketplace for people to exchange homes for short stays, has acquired Holland’s HomeForExchange in an all-cash deal whose price isn’t being disclosed. TechCrunch, which expects more consolidation in the space, has more here.

    —–

    This morning, Eric Jackson, the manager of hedge fund SpringOwl, sent a brutal 99-page presentation to Yahoo’s board, outlining his case for why Yahoo should drop Marissa Mayer as CEO and find new management. More here.

    In a brief announcement via Twitter on Friday, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed a brand new initiative; OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research company that says its mission is “to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.” Musk is co-chairing the initiative with Y Combinator President Sam AltmanMore here.

    —–

    Data

    Data compiled by the research firm PitchBook unsurprisingly reveals investor protections and other deal terms at 33 of the highest-profile private tech firms. With a few exceptions, reports The Information, the most highly valued companies appear to have granted only limited protections to investors. (Subscribers only.)

    —–

    Essential Reads

    VCs are rushing into virtual reality startups; the New York Times takes a look at what’s happening.

    The streaming music service Pandora just launched a hyper-personalized station for each listener. More here.

    —–

    Detours

    Why you should have bought into that Apple’s IPO 35 years ago. (You’re forgiven if you were not yet alive or possessed of a checking account.)

    “Old-timers, guys that are 60-plus, have no problem with a gang shower and whatever,” says sports club designer Bryan Dunkelberger. “The Gen X-ers are a little bit more sensitive to what they’re spending and what they’re expecting.”

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Thirteen vintage watch icons on auction at Christie’s.

    Lego McNuggets vending machine. Process that.

  • Investor-Operator Peter Pham on Who’s in the Driver’s Seat Now

    12239933_10153728209284188_1277084133700186807_nTwo weeks ago, during a panel about the state of early-stage investing, a handful of VCs I interviewed largely agreed that, as a class, they’re less keen right now to write checks as quickly as earlier this year.

    The next day, First Round Capital published a survey of more than 500 founders of venture-backed companies who plainly agree. In fact, 80 percent of respondents said they were able to raise their target amounts during their last round, but almost all said they anticipated harder times ahead.

    The slowdown seems due, given the feverish pace of investing in recent years, and the accompanying rise in valuations. The big question is whether things will stay sluggish for long. Peter Pham — an investor and advisor to many seed-stage companies, as well as the cofounder of the L.A.-based company-building outfit Science – says we’ll know the answer in March. We talked about it late last week. Here’s more from that chat, edited for length.

    You just helped serial entrepreneur Gil Elbaz raise $35 million for his company, Factual. You say it was a long road, though, which is surprising.

    It wasn’t an easy round, and this is the guy who created AdSense [which Google created out of Elbaz’s earlier company, Applied Semantics, after acquiring it in 2003]. Gil is super intellectual, and more than ever, the process of raising money requires a lot of salesmanship. You have to convince people who don’t know your business or have the same clarity or information that you have to invest in it, and that’s tough.

    When do you know it’s going to be a “no”?

    I’ve become an expert.

    More here.

  • StrictlyVC: December 11, 2015

    We don’t know about you, but we’re pretty ecstatic that it’s Friday. Have a great weekend, everyone!

    (No column today.)

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Alibaba is buying the South China Post. Dealbook has more here.

    Dow and DuPont are merging in a stunning megadeal, reports the Washington Post.

    State legislators in Ohio and Florida are moving ahead with regulations governing Uber and other ride services that would designate all drivers as independent contractors. North Carolina, Arkansas, and Indiana also now require the contractor designation as part of new laws governing so-called transportation network companies. Reuters has the story here.

    In the heaviest blow yet to the daily fantasy sports industry, a New York judge this morning ordered DraftKings and FanDuel to temporarily stop taking entries from that state. The Boston Globe has more here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Boundless, a 3.5-year-old, Boston-based company that provides platforms for managing data and building maps and applications, has raised $5 million in Series B funding led by Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, with participation from earlier backers Vanedge Capital and In-Q-Tel. More here.

    CultureIQ, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based startup whose SaaS software aims to help companies measure, understand and strengthen their culture, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with participation from Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Founder Collective and numerous angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

    DataScience, a 1.5-year-old, Culver City, Ca.-based data science startup focused on business insights, has raised $22 million in Series A funding. Whitehart Ventures led the round. DataScience has now raised more than $28 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    Factual, a seven-year-old, L.A.-based data platform that enables personalized mobile experiences via definitive global data, has raised $35 million in Series B funding. Investors include Altpoint Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Data Collective, Haystack Partners, Heritage Group, Index Ventures, Miramar Ventures, Tamarisk Global, Upfront Ventures, Saif Mansour, Michael Ovitz and Tom Unterman. The WSJ has more here.

    Gradle, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company that automates the process of compiling code, testing it, and creating files with all the necessary dependencies tool comes in, has raised $4.2 million in funding from True Ventures and Data Collective. VentureBeat has more here.

    HomeStudio, a 10-month-old, Bangalore, India-based furniture startup that sells customized solutions for kitchens, wardrobe, living rooms and more, has raised $5 million in funding from Bren Corporation. The outlet Inc42 has more here.

    Nestpick, a 1.5-year-old, Berlin-based long-term home rental startup, has added $2 million to an $11 million Series A round. The capital comes from investors Target Global and b-to-v Partners. More here.

    Streamroot, a 1.5-year-old, Paris-based video delivery startup, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Partech Ventures, with participation from Walnut Venture Associates, Cherrystone Angel Group, and Bpifrance. Rude Baguette has more here.

    TabbedOut, a 6.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company focused on mobile payments for bars and restaurants, has raised $2 million in new funding from Aeterna Capital, bringing its Series C round (announced back in June) to $23.5 million. Earlier investors include Wellington Management, New Enterprise Associates, and Morgan Creek Capital Management. More here.

    Tinyclues, a 5.5-year-old, Paris-based predictive marketing SaaS startup, has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Alven Capital, with participation from earlier investors ISAI and Elaia Partners.

    TinyPulse, a three-year-old, Seattle-based employee engagement platform, has raised $6 million led by Arthur Ventures, with participation from High Alpha Capital and Varenne Partners. StrictlyVC talked with TinyPulse founder Davie Niu last December.

    UrbanClap, a 14-month-old, Gurgaon, India-based online local services marketplace that helps users find and hire service providers like plumbers, wedding photographers and more, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the business tycoon Ratan Tata. The money comes just weeks after the company raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The outlet e27 has more here.

    Vinted, a seven-year-old, Vilnius, Lithuania-based company that operates a mobile, peer-to-peer marketplace for second-hand clothing, has raised $26.3 million in Series C funding led by the German publishing house Hubert Burda Media Group. Earlier backers Accel Partners and Insight Venture Partners also joined the round. Unquote has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    Icon Ventures in Palo Alto, Ca., is raising upwards of $260 million for its sixth fund, according to an SEC filing that states the first sale has yet to occur. Icon was formerly known as Jafco Ventures. It rebranded in January of this year.

    San Francisco has a new venture firm, reports Fortune’s Dan Primack. Presence Capital, founded by serial entrepreneurs Paul Bragiel, Amitt Mahajan and Phil Chen, will focus on virtual reality and augmented reality startups. Toward that end, it has held a first close on a debut fund that it expects will grow to $10 million. More here.

    —–

    IPOs

    The cloud collaboration software company Atlassian opened trading yesterday at $27.48 per share and closed the day at $27.78. It currently has a market cap of $5.8 billion. Bloomberg has more here.

    —–

    Exits

    Quettra, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based mobile analytics startup, has been acquired for $10 million by SimilarWeb, a six-year-old, Israeli company that provides websites and mobile app publishers with intel about their own traffic and that of competitors. SimilarWeb has raised $65 million from its investors, including Naspers. Quettra had raised $2.9 million from Google Ventures, Miramar Venture Partners, CrunchFundSV AngelHorizons Ventures, Sungy Mobile and Data Collective. TechCrunch has more here.

    Yummly, a six-year-old, Redwood City, Calif.-based food discovery platform, has nabbed some of the employees (but not the hardware) of The Orange Chef, a maker of a connected kitchen scale that shut down earlier this month. Yummly has raised $24.1 million in funding from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Harrison Metal, Intel CapitalPhysic Ventures and Unilever Ventures. The Orange Chef had raised roughly $5 million in funding, including from Google Ventures, SparkLabs Global Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, The Social+Capital Partnership and Graph Ventures.

    —–

    People

    Apple CEO Tim Cook is really over discussing the “hump” on the Apple iPhone smart battery case.

    Billionaire investor Mark Cuban thinks Apple should ban Twitter from its App Store until Twitter more effectively solves “any and all objectionable UGC content issues.”

    —–

    Essential Reads

    According to the Financial Times, Google “reversed course and abandoned its high-profile separate European venture fund after tension developed between its continental and U.S. teams on investment strategy and frustration grew over stalled deals.” More specifically, says the piece, the London partners of Google Ventures had trouble persuading CEO Bill Maris — who reportedly spent just three days in Europe last year after the fund’s launch — to sign off on their investments. Google Ventures’s dependence on machine-based algorithms, which had less access to data on European companies than U.S startups, also allegedly caused problems for the London team because it repeatedly rejected their proposed deals. Much more here.

    Faraday Future, an electric automaker that hopes to challenge Tesla, plans to start construction on a $1 billion factory in Nevada early next year if state legislators approve incentives and tax breaks worth $215 million.

    Hacker collective Anonymous seems to be targeting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after he called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States.

    —–

    Detours

    Mapping the staggering, sorry state of U.S. student debt.

    Warriors point guard Steph Curry on LeBron James, isolation tanks, and how it feels to be him: “The game is slow. It just feels so comfortable, smooth, natural. It’s the confidence that when we’re out on the floor, only good things are gonna happen. Any move you wanna make, it happens. You’ll miss shots, but there’s a flow to everything you do. It’s cool. I’m on cloud nine.”

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Gift ideas for your favorite bike commuter.

  • StrictlyVC: December 10, 2015

    And we are back! Happy Thursday, everyone.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    It’s official: Yahoo isn’t spinning off its Alibaba stake after all.

    —–

    Why It’s Harder to Be An Engineer in San Francisco

    Hired, the San Francisco-based employment platform, has produced a short new report about engineering salaries that examines how they stack up in the Bay Area versus the rest of the country after the cost of living is factored in.

    San Francisco, an increasingly expensive city in which to live, pays software engineers an average of $132,000 per year, for example. That may seem like a pretty healthy salary to the rest of the country, but using a standardized cost-of-living calculator, Hired reports that an engineer in Austin would need to make $195,000 in San Francisco to maintain the same quality of life.

    In fact, it concludes that an engineer’s salary goes further in every city, with the exception of New York.

    Here’s what software engineers are being paid yearly (on average) in other parts of the U.S., and what they’d need to make to live as they do in San Francisco.

    In Seattle: $125,000.

    Would need to make in SF: $164,000.

    In L.A.: $122,000.

    Would need to make in SF: $152,000.

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    AeroFarms, an 11-year-old, Newark, N.J.-based company that builds aeroponic vertical farms, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Wheatsheaf Group, with participation from earlier backers GSR Ventures, MissionPoint Capital and Middleland Capital. The WSJ has more here.

    Allena Pharmaceuticals, a four-year-old, Newton, Ma.-based developer of nonsystemic oral protein therapeutics to treat metabolic and orphan diseases, has raised $53 million in Series C funding led by Partner Fund Management, with participation from Fidelity, Wellington Management and return backers Frazier Healthcare, HBM BioCapital, and Pharmstandard International.

    Anodot, a 1.5-year-old, HaMerkaz, Israel-based company that’s developing machine learning algorithms for big data analytics, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Disrupt-ive Partners. Geektime has more here.

    BlackBuck, a year-old, Bangalore, India-based online freight booking marketplace that helps businesses move full truckloads between cities, has raised $25 million in funding Tiger Global Management, Apoletto, and earlier backers Accel Partners and Flipkart. DealStreetAsia has more here.

    CloudEndure, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based cloud-centered disaster recovery service, has raised $7 million in funding led by Indian consulting firm Infosys and previous investor Magma Venture Partners. The round brings the company’s funding to $12 million. TechCrunch has more here.

    Curve, a six-month-old, London-based fintech startup that continues to operate in stealth mode, has raised $2 million in seed funding from TransferWise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus, Speedinvest, the pre-seed investor Seedcamp, and the Mayor of London’s London Co-Investment Fund. TechCrunch hasmore here.

    Eargo, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based maker of a nearly invisible in-ear hearing device, has raised $25 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates. More here.

    GoEuro, a three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based travel search platform for Europe, has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Atomico, Yuri Milner, Tom Stafford, Klarna cofounder Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Supercell cofounder Ilkka Paananen. Earlier backers New Enterprise Associates, Battery Ventures, Hasso Plattner Ventures and Lakestar also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

    GroundFloor, a 2.5-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based real estate lending marketplace that’s open to non-accredited investors, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Fintech Ventures. More here.

    Interlude, a five-year-old, New York-based digital media company that develops and markets interactive video technologies, has raised $18.2 million in funding from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Warner Music Group and Samsung, along with earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Intel Capital. More here.

    ItsOn, a seven-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company behind a smart services platform for mobile device OEMs, OS developers, service providers and others, has raised $12.5 million in new funding led by Delta Partners Capital. Earlier backers Verizon Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Tenaya Capital also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to just less than $53 million. TechCrunch has more here.

    Magic Leap, a four-year-old, Dania, Fla.-based company that promises its wearable technology will enable users to interact with digital devices in a visually cinematic way, is raising $827 million in new equity funding, based on documents filed in Delaware and uncovered by Fortune.

    Palantir Technologies, the 11-year-old, data analytics firm that has overtaken downtown Palo Alto, Ca., has raised $129 million in new funding, it disclosed in a recent SEC filing. The capital is part of a round that now totals almost $680 million, reports TechCrunch.

    Rubius Therapeutics, a new, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech startup that’s focused on treating diseases by putting new genes into red blood cells, has raised $25 million in first-round funding from Flagship Ventures. (It incubated the company.) Forbes has more here.

    Seerene, a 1.5-year-old, Potsdam, Germany-based analytics spinout from Germany’s Hasso Plattner Institute, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Earlybird Venture Capital. More here.

    Server Density, a 6.5-year-old, London-based SaaS server monitoring startup that’s remained largely bootstrapped until now, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by SP Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

    SnapLogic, a nine-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based integration platform allowing companies to connect any number of applications in the cloud and on-premise, has raised $37.5 million from Microsoft and Silver Lake Waterman, along with earlier backers Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners and Triangle Peak Partners. The company has now raised $96.3 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

    Tansler, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based vacation rental startup, has raised $1.3 million in funding from General Catalyst Partners, Karlani Capital and other, unnamed angel investors. The round brings Tansler’s total funding to date to $2.1 million. More here.

    The Tab, a six-year-old, London-based hyperlocal news site aimed at young people and written primarily by unpaid student journalists, has raised $3 million from Balderton Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

    Vice Media, the nine-year-old, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based media company, has reportedly raised another $200 million in funding from The Walt Disney Co., which now owns roughly 10 percent of the company. The New York Times hasmore here.

    Vitals, an eight-year-old,  Lyndhurst, N.J.-based physician review site, has raised $41 million in new funding from Goldman Sachs and undisclosed existing backers. More here.

    Yumist, a 1.5-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based low-cost meal delivery service, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Unilazer Ventures, with participation from Orios VP and investor Steven Lurie. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    New Funds

    Arrowroot Capital, a 1.5-year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based growth-equity firm that’s focused on software companies, is raising upwards of $50 million for its second fund, shows an SEC filing.

    —–

    IPOs

    Atlassian hit the public market this morning, the last big tech company to IPO before year end. It’s trading up, too.

    —–

    Exits

    TransUnion, a Chicago-based company that went public earlier this year, is acquiring Trustev, an Ireland-based e-commerce ID and fraud protection startup, in a $44 million deal. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    People

    Talent manager turned venture investor Troy Carter talks with Bloombergabout Lady Gaga, why he thinks Taylor Swift is wrong about streaming music, and he overcame his complicated childhood.

    Donald Kaberuka, the former President of the African Development Bank Group, has been appointed a senior advisor at TPG/Satya. (That’s a partnership between TPG Growth and the Africa-focused investment firm Satya Capital to invest in growth-stage companies in Africa.)

    Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer just gave birth to baby twin daughters with husband (and investor) Zach Bogue. Mayer delivered the happy news herself on Twitter this morning.

    In reaction to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump calling for Muslims to be banned for the U.S., Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook yesterday: “I want to add my voice in support of Muslims in our community and around the world . . . As the leader of Facebook, I want you to know that you are always welcome here and that we will fight to protect your rights.” More here.

    —–

    Jobs

    J.P.Morgan is looking to add a junior analyst to its technology group in San Francisco.

    Siemens is looking to hire an investment analyst. The job is in Palo Alto, Ca.

    —–

    Data

    The widely held belief that 90 percent of venture industry performance is generated by just the top 10 firms is a “catchy but unsupported claim,” says a new report by Cambridge Associates, a top pension consulting firm.

    The American middle class is losing ground, according to a new report from Pew Research Center. Based on government data that defines “middle-income” as those with annual household incomes between two-thirds and double the national median —  meaning from $46,000 to $126,000 — the middle class is now only 50 percent of the U.S. adult population, down from 61 percent roughly 40 years ago.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    Twitter is now targeting ads at logged-out users.

    —–

    Detours

    The popular podcast Serial is back!

    The secret to getting other people to trust you quickly.

    What your microbiome wants for dinner.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Ducati Scramblerti amiamo.

  • Why It’s Harder to Be An Engineer in San Francisco

    Conceptual 3d abstract illustration.
    Conceptual 3d abstract illustration.

    Hired, the San Francisco-based employment platform, has produced a short new report about engineering salaries that examines how they stack up in the Bay Area versus the rest of the country after the cost of living is factored in.

    San Francisco, an increasingly expensive city in which to live, pays software engineers an average of $132,000 per year, for example. That may seem like a pretty healthy salary to the rest of the country, but using a standardized cost-of-living calculator, Hired reports that an engineer in Austin would need to make $195,000 in San Francisco to maintain the same quality of life.

    In fact, it concludes that an engineer’s salary goes further in every city, with the exception of New York.

    Here’s what software engineers are being paid yearly (on average) in other parts of the U.S., and what they’d need to make to live as they do in San Francisco.

    In Seattle: $125,000.

    Would need to make in SF: $164,000.

    In L.A.: $122,000.

    Would need to make in SF: $152,000.

    More here.

  • StrictlyVC: December 8, 2015

    Hi, everyone, hope your Tuesday is off to a great start. We’ve been having fun here at Disrupt in London (though we’re right now about to fall asleep on our laptop). If you’re interested in checking out some of the panel discussions you may have missed earlier — including an interview with Wallapop CEO Agustin Gomez — you can check out some of the ongoing coverage here.

    Quick note: We’ll be on plane for most of tomorrow, and while we’d love to somehow publish StrictlyVC, we’re guessing it’s not going to happen. If true, we’ll see you back here Thursday when we’re back in San Francisco.:)

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Google Life Sciences has debuted a new name: Verily.

    —–

    Everwise, a Mentoring Matchmaker, Raises $8 Million

    Everwise, a New York-based company whose online service connects executives willing to volunteer their time with people looking for mentorship — from new entrepreneurs, to budding sports coaches, to people looking to rise through the ranks of Fortune 500 companies — is taking the wraps off the bigger business that it’s been quietly building over the the past year. Now, the three-year-old, 40-person outfit has become what it’s calling an “integrated platform for talent development.”

    The cornerstone of the technology has long worked by plugging data from a user’s LinkedIn profile — and from a personalized questionnaire that he or she answers — into an algorithm that essentially points that person to a more experienced executive from another company.

    But Everwise has thrown a number of new bells and whistles into the mix. For example, a user is still assigned a mentor, but he or she is also provided with curated content from around the web based on the recommendations that Everwise mentors have made in the past, including which books to read and TED talks to watch. Customers can also be included in peer groups suited to their needs.

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Backed, a year-old, New York-based peer-to-peer lending company, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding, bringing the total of its seed capital to over $2 million. Backers include iAngels and Cyhawk Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

    BitX, a two-year-old, Singapore-based bitcoin startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Venturra Capital. The company’s previous investors include Naspers and Digital Currency Group, a bitcoin-focused outfit founded by cryptocurrency stalwart Barry Silbert. Tech in Asia has more here.

    Ematic Solutions, a three-year-old, Singapore-based software company that aims to help marketers improve their performance across digital marketing channels, has raised roughly $1 million in seed funding from 500 Startups, Wavemaker Partners and Convergence Ventures. More here.

    GNS Healthcare, a 15-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based precision medicine company that uses machine learning to match health interventions to individual patients, has raised $10 million in Series C funding from Celgene Corporation, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, and Gi Global Health Fund. Earlier backers Cambia Health SolutionsCalifornia’s Heritage Provider Network, and Japan’s Mitsui & Co. also participated. More here.

    GoNoodle, a two-year-old, Nashville, Tn.-based maker of online videos and games that help teachers and parents get kids moving, has raised $5 million in funding from Children’s Health, a pediatric health care company.

    Lemonade, a nine-month-old, New York-based peer-to-peer insurance startup founded by Israeli entrepreneurs Daniel Schreiber (formerly the president of Powermat) and Shai Wininger (a co-founder of Fiverr), has raised $13 million in first-round funding from Sequoia Capital and Aleph, the Tel Aviv-based venture firm. Tech.eu has more here.

    Masabi, a 14-year-old, London-based mobile ticketing startup that caters to bus and train companies globally, has raised $12 million in funding from MasterCard, the French public transportation giant Keolis, the venture capital fund MMC Ventures, and the merchant bank Lepe Partners. The Telegraph has more here.

    Moiiv, a two-year-old, Xiamen, China-based women’s healthcare mobile app, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series D funding led by Cathay Capital Private Equity, with participation from Matrix Partners. The company reportedly raised $35 million in Series C funding last year. China Money Network has more here.

    MD Revolution, a nearly four-year-old, La Jolla, Ca.-based company that makes end-to-end chronic care management and patient engagement software, has raised $23 million in new funding co-led by Chicago-based Jump Capital and an unnamed healthcare technology company. The company has now raised more than $30 million altogether. More here.

    NowThis, a three-year-old, New York-based digital media company that distributes short video clips across social media networks, has raised $16.2 million in Series D funding led by the German media giant Axel Springer. Other participants include earlier backers Oak Investments, NBC News Group and SoftBank. The company, which previously raised $19 million, was founded by former Huffington Post executives Kenneth Lerer and Eric Hippeau. The WSJ has more here.

    SocialFlow, a six-year-old, New York-based enterprise software company that aims to help brand optimize their reach on social media, has raised $7.5 million in new funding led by Gefinor Capital. Other participants in the round include Cayuga Venture Partners, Fairhaven Capital, Rand Capital andSoftBank. TechCrunch has more here.

    Uphold, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company cofounded by former Cnet cofounder Halsey Minor, has raised $3.1 million on a crowdfunding platform called BnkToTheFuture that provides investors with some equity from the companies doing the fundraising. (The move by Uphold makes a kind of sense. As we reported years ago, Minor has had a long, fraught history with VCs.) Coinjournal has more on the new funding here.

    —–

    New Funds

    Nexus Venture Partners, a nine-year-old, India-based venture firm that has backed Snapdeal, among other companies — has raised $450 million for its fourth fund. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    IPOs

    The software development tool company Atlassian increased its IPO targets yesterday and is now planning to raise up to $506 million when it goes public later this week. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.

    Blue Coat Systems, a maker of Internet security software, is taking pitches from investment banks for an IPO just nine months after being acquired by private equity firm Bain Capital Partners, reports Bloomberg.

    —–

    People

    AOL is doing some trimming of its workforce, cutting 100 employees as it looks to eliminate overlap with its new owner, Verizon. TechCrunch has the scoop here.

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (and probably plenty of others) would like to send Donald Trump into space.

    Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is starting another company next spring.

    Verizon’s finance chief, Fran Shammo, said the wireless carrier could look to buy Yahoo’s core business – a deal that would include Mail, its news and sports sites, and advertising technology if it were to occur. AOL CEO and chairman Tim Armstrong meanwhile downplayed the possibility of a deal this morning in an on-stage interview at Disrupt.

    A rogue Secret Service agent who stole from Silk Road dealers while investigating the site was just sentenced to nearly 6 years in the hoosegow. Ars Technica has more here.

    —–

    Data

    Streaming video now accounts for 70 percent of broadband usage in North America.

    China’s IPO logjam, mapped out.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    While the tech industry can’t block all terror content on the web, people who have battled other online threats say it could be doing more.

    Facebook has killed its internal incubator, Creative Labs.

    Why tech startup crowdfunding isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

    —–

    Detours

    The man in the C-3PO suit.

    The most beautiful tech office of the year.

    We why curse.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    Now you can buy an Apple smart battery case that extends your phone’s battery by 25 hours. The integrated battery pack, which sells for $99, is the company’s first.

  • Everwise, A Mentoring Matchmaker, Raises $8 Million

    image002Everwise, a New York-based company whose online service connects executives willing to volunteer their time with people looking for mentorship — from new entrepreneurs, to budding sports coaches, to people looking to rise through the ranks of Fortune 500 companies — is taking the wraps off the bigger business that it’s been quietly building over the the past year. Now, the three-year-old, 40-person outfit has become what it’s calling an “integrated platform for talent development.”

    The cornerstone of the technology has long worked by plugging data from a user’s LinkedIn profile — and from a personalized questionnaire that he or she answers — into an algorithm that essentially points that person to a more experienced executive from another company.

    But Everwise has thrown a number of new bells and whistles into the mix. For example, a user is still assigned a mentor, but he or she is also provided with curated content from around the web based on the recommendations that Everwise mentors have made in the past, including which books to read and TED talks to watch. Customers can also be included in peer groups suited to their needs.

    More here.

  • StrictlyVC: December 7, 2015

    Hello and happy Monday, everyone! Slightly abbreviated version this a.m. We were busy earlier today moderating a couple of panels at TechCrunch Disrupt in London. Here’s one of them, with VCs David Hornik, Andy McLoughlin, and Thomas Korte; you can check out the rest of the conference coverage right here.

    —–

    Top News in the A.M.

    Although Google Ventures only opened its London office in July 2014 — setting aside an initial $100 million to invest in startups “across Europe” — it’s now abandoning the idea of running separate funds, says CEO Bill Maris. More here.

    ——

    Venrock’s Bryan Roberts on What’s Up with Health Tech IPOs

    Bryan Roberts has seen plenty of market swings in his 18 years as a venture capitalist with Venrock, the venture firm that started as the venture arm of the Rockefeller family and has historically invested in early-stage technology and — Roberts’s specialty — health care start-ups.

    Roberts also has a thorough understanding of what’s happening on the U.S. public markets as the chairman of three Venrock portfolio companies that now trade on Nasdaq: Castlight Health, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and Achaogen.

    Given his background, we asked him recently what he’s expecting to see happen in the health care market next year. Our chat has been edited for length.

    Several months ago, the IPO market for health care companies suddenly tightened after a long run. What’s happening?

    Health care has tightened, but we could probably talk broadly about the financing market tightening. With the later-stage stuff getting dicier, I’ve been hearing about more IPOs getting pulled. People are either “risk on” or “risk off,” and we’re beginning to back off from full-throttle risk-on environment. I guess I feel like the last four or five months in both biotech and tech more broadly have been akin to what you might have considered “last licks” in a stickball game as the sun was going down, and that shift predates the mutual fund valuation stuff that came out.

    I don’t know that I have a good reason as to why biotech pulled back specifically other than pricing concerns mentioned by presidential candidates, some high-profile price gouging, and some clinical trials that read out negatively, though that always happens.

    What are you expecting in 2016 and how might it impact your approach?

    Well, for one thing, the changing environment may make me feel less out of step with everyone else. We don’t tend to focus on sectors or stages. I invest really broadly across health care, from genomics to diagnostics to therapeutics, so from a fundamental perspective, we don’t tend to follow the herd. In this bullish market environment, we haven’t been doing growth equity investing. We tend to avoid the party seed rounds done by 15 different people.

    [All that said,] in health care IT, we’ve moved to earlier stage. We’ve started a couple of companies. We’ve moved to pre-product market fit, which is different than how we’d invested in the space 10 years ago. When we invested in Athenahealth [the now publicly traded company that offers a suite of administrative services for medical practices], they had product market fit, but no one wanted to invest in that space. Now, once something has traction, it’s priced very fully. So earlier this year we started a business with [former Facebook CFO] David Ebersman called Lyra Health. We did the same with [former U.S. CTO], Todd Park at Castlight. We’ll continue doing that for some time.

    What does someone need to get a meeting with you?

    More here.

    —–

    New Fundings

    Aslan Pharmaceuticals, a five-year-old, Singapore-based biotech company focused on the development of immunotherapies, has raised $34 million in Series C funding led by Accuron Technologies, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Other participants in the round include Tianda Pharmaceuticals,Haitong International and earlier backers Morningside, Bioveda, Cenova and Sagamore Bioventures. DealStreetAsia has more here.

    Gigster, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based on-demand software development service, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Y Combinator Continuity Fund I, SV Angel, Sound Ventures and Launch Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

    Shoes of Prey, a six-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based company that makes hand-made shoes on demand, has raised $15.5 million led by the Australian firm Blue Sky Capital, with participation from Greycroft Partners, the retail giant Nordstrom, and previous investor Khosla Ventures. TechCrunch hasmore here.

    Zenatix, a two-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based  Internet of things (IoT)-focused energy data analytics company, has raised an undisclosed amount from funding from Blume Ventures Advisors. DealStreetAsia has more here.

    ——

    New Funds

    CSIRO and Sydney University have joined the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales to raise $50 million for a new Uniseed fund. The fund will be the third for Brisbane, Australia-based Uniseed, which was set up by the three founding universities in 2000 with $10 million in capital. Australia’s Financial Review has more here.

    China’s APUS Group has launched an APUS Fund in India with $45 million. Some of the capital comes from Northern Light Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Chengwei Ventures, SIG Global and Qiming Venture Partners. DealStreetAsia has more here.

    —–

    Exits

    Paytm, which claims to be India’s leading mobile payment platform, has acquired year-old, local services startup Near.in for $2 million to strengthen its online-to-offline commerce strategy. TechCrunch has more here.

    —–

    People

    When it comes to threats to humanity, VC Vinod Khosla is more concerned about technologies used to remove genes in embryos than about artificial intelligence.

    How Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wins big even if she’s canned.

    —–

    Jobs

    ARM Holdings, the British semiconductor designer, is looking to hire acorporate development associate. The job is in San Jose, Ca.

    American Family Ventures, the venture capital branch of American Family Insurance, is looking to bring on a paid intern. The job (which doesn’t start until next summer) is in Madison, Wi.

    —–

    Essential Reads

    With a crucial deadline looming next week, Yahoo shareholders still do not know how — or if — the board plans to restructure the technology giant.

    Google Ventures is backing out of seed stage investing, two years after Andreessen Horowitz did the same.

    The business of Silicon Valley Bank has been booming, but there’s risk looming on the horizon.

    —–

    Detours

    China’s airpocalypse is now so bad, it’s banning half the cars in Beijing.

    The 10 best movies of 2015.

    Existential riddles.

    —–

    Retail Therapy

    The highlighter cannabis vapor pen. Arrives in 100 percent recyclable packaging, too.


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