Happy Monday, everyone!
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Top News in the A.M.
Most Lyft rides will be autonomous in five years, said its president in a post published yesterday. Recode ballparks that likelihood here.
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Foundry Group Just Closed Its Sixth Fund with a Record $500 million
Foundry Group, the 10-year-old, Boulder, Colorado-based early-stage venture firm, announced this morning that it has closed its sixth fund, Foundry Group Next, with $500 million.
It comes hot on the heels of the firm’s fifth fund, which closed last summer with $225 million.
The firm’s fourth fund, called Foundry Group Select, closed with exactly the same amount in 2013 ($225 million) but Foundry had been using it as a so-called opportunity fund, meaning the capital was funneled exclusively to break-out companies in Foundry’s portfolio.
Which brings us back to Foundry’s newest fund. Though it’s the largest pool for Foundry to date, there’s a reason for that beyond the current go-go funding environment. This time, Foundry is combining two separate efforts into one.
Its newest fund won’t back early-stage companies, per its historic focus. Those investments will come from the fund it closed last summer.
It will also be used to support the firm’s follow-on investments — essentially taking the place of a new and separate opportunity fund — and it will fund growth-stage investments outside of Foundry (a new twist).
Last, 25 percent of the fund will be used to invest in other venture capital funds. This is also a new initiative by Foundry.
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New Funds
CV Auctions, a two-year-old, Buffalo, N.Y.-based company whose mobile app enables car dealers to facilitate wholesale vehicle auctions, has raised $5 million in funding led by Tribeca Venture Partners, with participation from SoftBank Capital NY, Armory Square Ventures, and Rand Capital. Buffalo Business First has more here.
AdStage, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based company behind a cross-channel advertising suite for marketers and agencies, has added $2 million in funding from Verizon Ventures, which led the company’s Series A round. More here.
Curve, a 17-month-old, London-based startup that has build a “smart” MasterCard that can be controlled from an app and aims to replace people’s wallets, has raised a fresh £2 million ($2.6 million) from Connect Ventures, payments industry veteran and Vitesse MD Paul Townsend, and Samos Investments. The company has now raised £3.5 million ($4.6 million) in seed funding. Business Insider has more here.
Doxly, a months-old, Indianapolis, Ia.-based legal transaction management software platform, has raised $2.25 million in seed funding from Nextlaw Ventures, High Alpha Capital and Hyde Park Venture Partners. More here.
DueCourse, a two-year-old, Manchester, England-based cloud-based invoice financing service for SMEs, has raised £6.25 million ($8.2 million) in equity and debt from GFC (the venture arm of Rocket Internet), Zoopla founder and CEO Alex Chesterman, and Simon Franks (co-founder of Lovefilm, acquired by Amazon). TechCrunch has more here.
LumaTax, a months-old, Seattle-based startup that makes sales tax automation software for small businesses, has raised $2 million in funding from Madrona Venture Group, Greycroft Partners and individual angels. GeekWire has more here.
OMSignal, a five-year-old, Montreal, Canada-based company that makes bio-sensor clothing, including a “smart” sports bra, has raised $10 million in fresh funding from new and previous investors. These include Relay Ventures, MAS Holdings, Bessemer Venture Partners, Techstars Ventures, Real Ventures, Mistral Ventures, Primera Capital, Investissement Québec, and Export Development Canada. BetaKit has more here.
Swiggy, a two-year-old, Bangalore, India-based food delivery app that’s looking to take on bigger rival Zomato, has raised $15 million in fresh funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Tech In Asia has more here.
Thalmic Labs, a four-year-old, Waterloo, Ontario-based startup that’s developing gesture control and wearable technology, has raised $120 million in Series B funding from investors including Intel Capital, The Amazon Alexa Fund and Fidelity Investments Canada. TechCrunch has more here.
White Ops, a four-year-old, New York-based cyber security company, has raised $20 million in Series B funding co-led by earlier backers Paladin Capital Group and Grotech Ventures. More here.
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IPOs
Nutanix, a seven-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based company that filed to go public in January, then put its plans on hold, set terms for its IPO this morning. It aim to issue 14 million shares at $11 to $13 per share, a sale that could raise $168 million at the mid range price and up to $209.3 million for the company. Fortune has more here.
Dutch food delivery company Takeaway.com is gearing up to go public later this month, revealing plans this morning to price its shares between €20.5 and €26.5 — with a post-IPO market cap of between €904 million and €1.1 billion (which works out as $1.2 billion). The companies biggest investors include MacQuarie Capital Funds and Prime Ventures. Business Insider has more here.This week should be the year’s most active on the IPO front, with nine companies slated to go public. Renaissance Capital has more here.
Airbnb has bought a travel startup it was advising and partnering with: four-year-old, Barcelona-based Trip4real offers a marketplace of experiences for tourists to browse and book ahead of time. Trip4real had raised $3.1 million across four rounds, including from Kibo Ventures and Caixa Capital Risc, according to CrunchBase. The price of the acquisition isn’t being disclosed, though a TechCrunch source pegs the deal at between $5 million and $10 million. More here.
The publicly traded network software and security company Infoblox has agreed to be acquired for around $1.6 billion by tech-focused private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, says Fortune. More here.
Oracle is paying an undisclosed amount for Palerra, a three-year-old cloud security startup co-founded by Oracle alums Rohit Gupta and Ganesh Kirti. Palerra had raised $25 million from Norwest Venture Partners and August Capital, among others. TechCrunch has more here.
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People
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is diving into a new cause: healing the oceans. Fortune has more here.
Oracle’s executive chairman and CTO Larry Ellison made a joke last night about his demotion of two years ago. Business Insider has more here.
Star fund manager Neil Woodford says “appallingly bad” funding keeps stopping Britain from creating the next Google or Facebook. Business Insider has more here.
Palo Alto appears to be leaning against allowing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to demolish some homes that neighbor his own. The Mercury News has more here.
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Jobs
Canaan Partners, the early-stage venture firm, is hiring an investment analyst. The job is in New York.
Bullpen Capital, a post-seed stage venture firm, is also looking to hire ananalyst. The job is in Menlo Park, Ca.
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Data
Half of U.S. smartphone users download zero apps each month.
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Essential Reads
All told, more than 70,000 square feet of Palo Alto retail and restaurant space has been lost to office space between 2008 to 2015, driven by the tech boom. “Restaurants as we know them will no longer exist here in the near future,” says one discouraged restaurateur. The New York Times has the story here.
Twitter is being sued by a shareholder over claims it misled investors on key growth metrics almost two years after touting plans to top 500 million users. The suit is seeking class-action status, too. Bloomberg has more here.
Uber is moving into Detroit, though it says the idea is to partner with auto makers, not become one.
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Detours
Emmy Awards 2016: The winner’s list.
Like it or not, cargo shorts remain the “man-purse for Americans.”
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Retail Therapy
GoPro Karma drone. It’s here, yo.
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