Hi, all, happy Tuesday!
We’re still at Disrupt, where Google’s Sridhar Ramaswamy — in charge of Google’s lucrative ad products — is coming up next. We’re also excited to see Uber’s chief advisor David Plouffe take the stage in the next hour or so. A note that we may be a little late in reaching you tomorrow (we have a couple of interviews in the morning).
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Top News in the A.M.
Amazon, which touts itself as Earth’s biggest store, has officially launched its bid to be the place to watch any kind of video under the sun. Variety has the story here.
The world’s largest storage manufacturer, Western Digital, just got bigger, saying this morning that it has cleared all the necessary regulatory hurdles in their planned purchase of SanDisk. Engadget has more here.
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HP Rolls Out a New Venture Arm
There’s a new corporate venture arm in town.
Roughly six months after Hewlett-Packard finalized its division into two companies — Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which focuses on servers, storage, networking and security; and HP Inc., which continues to sell PCs and printers — the latter is introducing a new venture unit called HP Tech Ventures.
The eight-person team, which ultimately reports up to HP’s CTO Shane Wall, is being led by Andrew Bolwell, who has spent the last 16 years with HP and has held the title of chief disruptor for the last few of them.
Among his colleagues and cofounders are Irit Hillel, based in Israel, and Vitaly Golomb, who is based alongside Bolwell in Palo Alto.
In a brief meeting in New York yesterday, Bolwell gave us a few details about HP Tech Ventures’ plans. The idea is to focus primarily on seed and Series A deals that serve HP Inc. strategically. The team will focus on five areas, including: 3D printing and the broader ecosystem that supports it; immersive experiences, including both augmented reality and virtual reality; smart machines, including home and commercial robots; and the Internet of Things.
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New Fundings
Bayshore Networks, a four-year-old, Bethesda, Ma.-based company that makes cybersecurity software for the Industrial Internet of Things, has raised $6.6 million in Series A funding from Trident Capital Cybersecurity and earlier angel investors. More here.
Dyn, an 18-year-old, Manchester, N.H.-based internet performance management company, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Pamplona Capital Management. TechCrunch has more here.
E8 Storage, a 1.5-year-old, Ramat Gan, Israel-based enterprise storage company, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Accel Partners, with participation from earlier investors Vertex Partners and Magma Venture Partners. Tech.eu has more here.
Faircent, a three-year-old, Bangalore, India-based peer-to-peer lending startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A round led by JM Financial, which now owns a 9.8 pecent stake in the company. Earlier backers Aarin Capital Partners and other individual investors have also co-invested in the round. The Economic Times has more here.
Fluent, a two-year-old, New York-based financial operating network built on blockchain technology, has raised $1.65 million in seed funding led by ff Venture Capital, with participation from Digital Currency Group, Crosscut Ventures, Draper Associates, Fenbushi Capital, Lindbergh Tech Fund, and the St. Louis Arch Angels. The company has now raised $2.5 million altogether. More here.
MegaBots, a two-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based company that company that aims to bring the robot-fighting stuff of manga and anime to a venue near you, has raised has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from Azure Capital Partners, AME Cloud Ventures, Autodesk, Maveron, and angel investor Ray Rothrock. TechCrunch has the story here.
Rancher Labs, a two-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based company that makes container management software, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by GRC SinoGreen, with participation from earlier investors Mayfield and Nexus Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.
Simplee, a five-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based healthcare expenses startup, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Social Capital, with participation from American Express Ventures, as well as earlier investors 83North andHeritage Group, and new investor American Express Ventures. The Globes has more here.
SPEAKABOOS, an eight-year-old, New York-based company whose app aims to turn “screen time into reading time” for kids ages 2 to 6, has raised $12.5 million in Series B-1 funding led by Wellington Management Company. EdSurge has more here.
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IPOs
NantHealth, the digital health wing of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks portfolio of companies, has registered for an initial public offering. The filing was for a $92 million IPO. MobiHealthNews has more here.
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Exits
Indiegogo has acquired Celery, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based “pre-commerce” platform that specializes in sites that are taking product pre-orders. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. Celery had raised $2 million from Y Combinator, SV Angel, and Max Levchin. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Parker Conrad, the Zenefits co-founder who resigned in scandal from the human resources startup, sold stock last year worth $10 million and later negotiated a $130,000 payment as a condition of his resignation, three people with knowledge of the matter told BuzzFeed News. More here.
Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who is one of the top libertarian mega-donors in Republican politics, will apparently be a delegate for Donald Trump.
The 25 best-paid hedge fund managers took home a collective $12.94 billion in income last year, according to an annual ranking published today by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine.
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Data
Invest Europe just released its private equity activity report. You can check it out here.
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Essential Reads
The second round of bidders in the sale of Yahoo have begun holding all-day meetings with Yahoo‘s top management, including CEO Marissa Mayer, reports Recode, whose sources say most of management invariably be replaced. “I cannot imagine a scenario where we keep her,” said one potential buyer of Mayer. “Yahoo will need a clean slate.”
Gizmodo reported yesterday that human editors at Facebook have been routinely suppressing conservative news sources from the “Trending Topics” section of its site. But Facebook VP of Search Tom Stocky says his team has found “no evidence” that those claims are true.
At Lending Club, the cover up may have been worse than the crime. CNBC has more here.
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Detours
The 10 strangest hoodies ever created.
Surprising beauty in the world’s most hellish traffic interchanges.
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Retail Therapy
Peter Thiel’s gorgeous mansion in San Francisco’s Marina district has hit the market. Price: $9.2 million.