Good morning! Hope you had a super weekend, everyone, and that many of you are enjoying a happy Rosh Hashanah.:)

Thanks to those of you again who came last week to our most recent SVC event! Attendees, here are some pictures you might enjoy.

Also, for those who missed it, here’s video of our interview with Marc Andreessen who had a lot of instructive things to say about the industry and his firm in particular. We broke down where he answers what so you can speed through. (Reporter friends, we’re hoping this might be helpful when it comes to future stories.) Numerous outlets covered our first questions about Twitter if you want to skip past those.

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Top News in the A.M.

Good news for depressed tech investors (and their frustrated LPs): Nutanix, the cloud data-storage firm that made its market debut Friday morning, has seemingly jammed open the window for IPOs. More here.

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SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie: IPO, Yes; 2017, Not Likely

On Thursday night, at a StrictlyVC event at SurveyMonkey in Palo Alto, this editor sat down with CEO Zander Lurie to learn more about the direction of the 17-year-old company, known for the roughly 90 million surveys that the outfit and its customers create for their various constituents each month (and whose average order volume is $300, says Lurie).

I was particularly interested in Lurie, a former GoPro, CBS, and CNET executive, given his relatively quiet tenure as chief executive — a role he accepted in January after the passing of longtime CEO Dave Goldberg last year (and following a brief stint by a more immediate precedessor, tech veteran Ben Veghte).

We wound up chatting about the company’s valuation, polling accuracy, and whether and when the company will go public, among other things. Part of that chat, edited for length, follows.

You’ve been a CEO for nine months. What do you now appreciate much more about every CEO you’ve ever known?

I always had a boss or somebody who was there for constant feedback, and it’s different when you’re CEO. We have an amazing board of directors . . . but as CEO, you’re in charge of the script: What’s the strategy, who are the teams you’re entrusting to build the company, then all the comms and the motivation and accountability associated with delivering on the company’s promise. It’s on you to be that great storyteller. And I love it, but that’s what has struck out for me. There’s no one to ask: Am I doing a good job?

You inherited a unicorn company – valued at $2 billion at its last financing in late 2014. You also inherited the company under unique circumstances. Do you feel extra pressure owing to those circumstances?

We’re fortunate to have one of the most profitable businesses on the internet. You couldn’t really do a survey until SurveyMonkey and its founder really invented this new online survey platform. The company in 2009 had about 12 employees and $25 million in profits, then beloved Dave Goldberg became CEO in a buyout and in six years hired about 600 people, and today we’ll do about $200 million in revenue, with EBITDA margins in the mid 30s. So sure, the circumstances under which I became CEO were awful. Dave was one of my best friends in the whole world. But the culture he built, and his ability to recruit a team of world-class people across product and engineering and marketing, amazes me still. So while it’s a lot of pressure, it’s also super fun and a great honor.

How many people are using your surveys?

There are 15 million who are sending [surveys] on an annual basis and interacting with our products in different ways. The vast majority are responding to surveys from people they trust, increasingly on a mobile device.

We have a very detailed cohort analysis whereby people who try [the service] on a monthly basis tend to come on a somewhat transactional basis, and those who sign up for an annual plan — the longer they stay, the less likely they are to churn, and those are obviously our most profitable companies.

Uber is one of your many corporate customers, correct? Are they responsible for those five-star ratings we’re asked to give drivers at the end of each ride?

Uber is using a variety of [our] products, though I can’t say exactly which. I think the largest survey company in the world today is Uber. Today, every time you take an Uber, you take a .2-second survey where you’re rating your driver, and obviously those data points are helping inform them about which drivers are doing a great job, as well as [informing Uber about] the customers who drivers like. It’s using what we call people-powered data in a really refreshing way to drive their product forward.

I always give drivers five stars out of some paranoid fear that if I don’t, there will be ramifications. Other people game surveys for their own reasons. How do you ensure these surveys are actually useful to your customers?

Good morning, dear readers! We are in transit this morning so have a very streamlined version of SVC for you today that we’ll call SVC Lite because we are dorks. We had a great time last night at our Palo Alto event with our guests Zander Lurie of SurveyMonkey, Hunter Walk of Homebrew, Kim Malone Scott of Radical Candor, and Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz. We greatly appreciated everyone’s time, and we’re going to have a bunch of follow-up coverage for you as soon as we’re up and running (including, we think, the entire interview with Andreessen). In the meantime, here’s a story in TechCrunch and another in Bloomberg about the night.

Hope you have a terrific weekend. See you back here Monday.

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Top News in the A.M.

G Suite? Er, you sure about this, Google?

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New Fundings

Dozr, a year-old, Ontario, Canada-based online marketplace that enables contractors to earn income by renting their underutilized construction equipment to other operators, has raised $1.9 million led by Fair Ventures, an investment and innovation unit within Fairfax Financial Holdings. TechCrunch has more here.

Home Chef, a 3.5-year-old, Chicago, Il.-based fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service, has just announced that it’s raised a new $40 million round of funding atop the $10 million round that the company raised earlier this year. It was led by L Catterton, the private equity firm formed by the recent merger of Catterton with the PE arm of luxury conglomerate LVMH. TechCrunch has more here.

Prowler.io, a months-old, Cambridge, U.K.-based company that’s building a platform that can be used by makers of autonomous systems to help those machines think and learn to make better decisions, has raised £1.5 million ($2 million) from Passion Capital, Amadeus Capital and Singapore’s Infocomm Investments. TechCrunch has more here.

Remitly, a five-year-old, Seattle mobile-remittance company, has raised $38.5 million in new funding that includes both equity and debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. The Seattle Times has more here.

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People

Laurene Powell Jobs, already a major investor in the Walt Disney Company and Apple, said this morning that her company, Emerson Collective, has taken a minority stake in Anonymous Content, a prominent production and talent management company behind the fabulous (and frustrating!) “Mr. Robot.” Dealbook has more here.

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Jobs

Attention attorneys: Google Capital is looking for a corporate attorney to focus on investment transactions and provide general legal support and analysis for Google Capital and its portfolio companies. The job is in Mountain View, Ca.

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Essential Reads

The exceptional human toll behind the battery in your smartphone.

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Detours

What a $5 million townhouse looks like in three different cities.

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Retail Therapy

Aston Martin makes a yacht. (Who knew?)

Thursday! We’re so excited to see a bunch of you later today at our event; wish we could have accommodated more of you but we’ll cover what you miss right here and elsewhere. One final pre-game thank you to our wonderful sponsors Ballou PR, Mattermark, and Bolt for all their support! More tomorrow.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

The streaming music company Spotify is reportedly in advanced talks to buy fellow online music service provider SoundCloud. The Financial Times has more here.

Qualcomm is in talks to acquire NXP Semiconductors NV, a deal that would likely be valued at over $30 billion and represent the latest merger in a rapidly consolidating semiconductor industry. The WSJ has more here.

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Venky Ganesan on Interest Rates, Diamonds, and Quietly Imploding Startups

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers that she’s not ready to hold interest rates low for much longer, but she isn’t raising them right now.  Afterward, we talked about the news and what it might augur for startups with Venky Ganesan, a managing director at Menlo Ventures, the early-stage firm that led Uber’s Series B round (among its many other investments). Part of that chat, edited for length, follows.

Are we wrong or does it sound from Yellen’s testimony like the money is going to keep rushing into Silicon Valley?

Yes, though it’s not about when the Fed raises interest rates; it’s when [the Fed] tells the market they’re going to do it. There’s a sea of liquidity that gets pushed out when interest rates are low and gets pulled back fast when people think they’re going to rise. Remember, the slowdown in the market happened in the third quarter and fourth quarter of last year, when the Fed said it planned to raise interest rates in Q1. Then they backed down. Then they said the same in Q3 and they didn’t [raise rates].

Is that good news or bad news for the startup ecosystem?

My sense is that you’re going to see an uptick in financings. The money is still flowing in. I don’t think it’s going to go back to where it was in early 2013, but you’re going to see some big financings get announced in Q4.

What are implications of that? Are there enough good companies to fund?

There’s enough big change in the word that people want to invest behind it. Are there enough good companies? No. But let’s say I told you there’s a treasure chest, and there are hundreds of balls in the chest and inside five of them, there’s a diamond ring worth a lot of money. The others are worth a dollar. You can either opt out of the game or you can try to buy all the balls, knowing you’re going to get a diamond. That’s [the mindset of investors]. They don’t know which companies will be the next Facebook or Uber, so they’re investing in everything. And you have to keep investing because what if the next one was Uber and you missed it?

More here.

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New Fundings

Apptus, a 16-year-old, Lund, Sweden-based software company that helps online retailers develop, manage, and optimize their merchandising strategies, have raised $88 million in Series D funding led by the UAE investment firm GII, with participation from Iconiq, K1 and KIA. The funding values Apttus at more than $1.3 billion. Forbes has more here.

codeSpark, a 2.5-year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based startup whose web and mobile games teach kids how to code, has raised $4.1 million in seed funding led by Kapor Capital, with participation from Idealab, PGA Advisors, Felton Group, NewGen Venture Partners, and angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Folloze, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based account-based marketing sales platform, has raised $7.3 million in funding co-led by Canvas Ventures and earlier investor New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Cervin Ventures and others. More here.

Karamba Security, a 1.5-year-old, Hod Hasharon, Israel-based startup aiming to protect internet-connected and self-driving cars from hackers, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding led by Fontinalis Partners, with participation from earlier investors YL Ventures and GlenRock. TechCrunch has more here.

Lingumi, a year-old, London-based ed tech company that has created a pre-school English language learning system for children, has raised roughly $650,000 in seed funding from LocalGlobe, founded by former Index Partners investors Robin Klein and Saul Klein. TechCrunch has more here.

Lydia, a three-year-old, Paris-based iPhone and Android app that enables users to pay anyone very easily and for free, has raised raised $7.8 million from New Alpha AM and Oddo & Cie. TechCrunch has more here.

Lystable, a two-year-old, London-based startup that helps companies more easily onboard, manage, talk with, and pay their external workers, has added an undisclosed amount of Series A funding to a previously closed, $11 million round, the new funding comes from PayPal co-founder Max Levchin. TechCrunch has more here.

Remedy, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps consumers save money on medical billing errors, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding from Karlin Ventures, Marc Benioff, Brian Lee, Haystack, Precursor Ventures, Slow Ventures, Susa Ventures, Baroda, and others. More here.

Skymind, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that’s developing an open-source deep-learning library for Java (along with tools for implementation), has raised $3 million in new funding from Tencent, SV Angel, GreatPoint Ventures, Mandra Capital and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

Analogix Semiconductor, a 13-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based startup that designs and manufactures high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors for the digital media market, is being acquired for more than $500 million by Shanhai Capital. Analogix had raised roughly $40 million from investors, who say this is one of the biggest deals for a semiconductor company in the last decade. More here.

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People

Emergence Capital, a venture firm focused on enterprise cloud companies, is announcing a few promotions this morning. Joe Floyd, who joined the firm as a principal in 2012, has been named partner. Floyd was previously a Kauffman Fellow and an associate at McKinsey & Co. Emergence also promoted Jake Saper to principal (he joined as a senior associate in 2014 from Kleiner Perkins). And Emergence has brought aboard Kara Egan as a senior associate. Egan was most recently director of product marketing at Stitch Labs.

Longtime Microsoft executive Qi Lu — he’s in charge of the company’s applications and services unit — is leaving the company following medical issues that arose from a bicycle accident that took place several months ago, says Recode. More here.

Elon Musk wants us to colonize Mars but, er, says he won’t actually go himself because he doesn’t want to die.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says women are learning in, but facing pushback, too.

Martin Shkreli, the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO, is now auctioning off the opportunity to punch him in the face for charity.

Kapil Venkatachalam and John Doran have both been promoted to general partner at TCV. Venkatachalam, based in New York, joined the firm as an associate in 2006. Doran joined TCV’s London office in 2012 as a principal and worked previously at Summit Partners, Xander Group and Morgan Stanley.

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Jobs

Twilio, the cloud communications software company that went public in June, is looking to hire a corporate development associate. The job is in San Francisco.

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Essential Reads

An immigrant-funded biotech center in rural Vermont. What could go wrong?

What millennials actually use the mobile payment app Venmo to do.

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Detours

Vox on the sudden, incredible decline in teen births since 2009.

Mark Zuckerberg’s photos from Facebook’s futuristic, arctic data center.

This woman ate a pork bun in a typhoon and now everyone loves her.

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Retail Therapy

VW debuted its first dedicated electric car yesterday at the Paris Auto Show. Though it’s technically a concept car, the company says it should be buyable in 2020. (VW says it’ll drive more than 370 miles on a single charge, too.)

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We’re running here and there this a.m., so no column today.

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Top News in the A.M.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers today that the U.S. will continue to add jobs at a solid rate, though the recent average pace is probably higher than what’s sustainable over the long term and could eventually cause the economy to overheat. If that happens, she said, “We could be faced with having to raise interest rates more rapidly than we would want.” Bloomberg has more here.

Apple has revealed plans to opening a swanky new London headquarters at Battersea Power Station by 2021. The Evening Standard has the story.

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New Fundings

A.I. Nemo, a two-year-old, Beijing-based smart hardware and robotics start-up, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sinovation Ventures and Chengwei Capital. The company says it had raised nearly $30 million in Series A and B funding prior to the new round, but isn’t disclosing from whom. China Money Network has more here.

AppNexus, the nine-year-old, New York-based ad tech company, has raised a $31 million funding round that includes a $10 million investment from News Corp, involvement from Yahoo Japan, and participation from its existing investors. The company has now raised more than $300 million altogether, shows CrunchBase. Business Insider has more here.

AquaSecurity, a year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based platform for securing virtual container applications, has raised $9 million in Series A funding led by Microsoft Ventures. Return backers TLV Partners and Shlomo Kramer also participated in the round. Globes has more here.

b8ta, a year-old, Palo Alto-based showroom for trendy tech gadgets, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by TriplePoint Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Fifth Wall Ventures, Macerich and Eniac Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

BigchainDB, a two-year-old, Berlin-based blockchain database provider for developers and businesses, has raised roughly $3.4 million in Series A funding from Earlybird Venture Capital, Anthemis Group, Digital Currency Group and Innogy SE. Coindesk has more here.

Contrast Security, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company focused on the security of software applications, has raised $16 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from Acero Capital, Tenable Network Security founder Ron Gula, former Akamai Technologies CEO Paul Sagan, and Microsoft board chairman John Thompson.Technical.ly Baltimore has more here.

Druva, an eight-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based unified data protection platform, has raised $51 million in fresh funding from earlier investor Sequoia India, along with NTT Finance, Nexus Venture Partners and Tenaya Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Kustomer, a year-old, New York-based customer relationship platform, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Canaan Partners, with participation from other investors, including Boldstart Ventures and Social Leverage. TechCrunch has more here.

MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, a nine-year-old, Hayward, Ca. and Shanghai, China-based company that’s developing antibiotics to prevent and treat drug-resistant bacterial infections, has raised $55 million in Series C funding. GP Healthcare Capital led the round, with participation from new investors GP TMT Capital, 3E Bioventures Capital, and Delian Capital. More here.

OpenSesame, a 14-year-old, Portland, Or.-based company on on-demand e-learning courses for the enterprise, has raised $9 million in Series B funding led by Altos Ventures, with participation from earlier backer Partech Ventures. More here.

Paddle, a four-year-old, London-based company that makes checkout-focused software tools for ecommerce companies, has raised $3.2 billion in Series A funding led by BGF Ventures, with participation from Spring Partners. More here.

Think Labs, a four-year-old, Hong Kong-based company whose flagship device is Handy — a smartphone for hotel guests that allows travelers to make calls and send messages and includes details of services available at the hotel and nearby — has raised a whopping $125 million. The funding was providing by earlier backer and manufacturing giant Foxconn; with participation from Sinovation Ventures, the investment firm from ex-Google China head Kaifu Lee; and Cai Wensheng, a prolific angel investor who is chairman of the popular Chinese photo service Meitu. TechCrunch has more here.

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New Funds

Razor’s Edge Ventures, a 5.5-year-old, Reston, Va.-based venture capital firm that’s focused largely on cyber security, is looking to raise up to $250 million for its second fund, shows a new SEC filing. It’s a huge step up from the $55 million the team raised for its debut fund. We profiled the firm back in 2014 if you’re interested in learning more.

Europe’s biggest software maker, SAP, just earmarked 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) for investments in products that help companies to connect everything from washing machines to cars to the Internet. Reuters has more here.

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People

Tyra Banks sat down with TechCrunch to talk startup investing and her new, startup competition show on NBC, “Funded.”

Melinda Gates is returning to her roots to tackle gender inequality in computer science. BackChannel has more here.

Elon Musk has a plan to colonize Mars, but he’s not rushing it, he said yesterday in a conference call from the International Astronautical Conference.

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Jobs

Bain Capital Ventures is looking to add two associates to its West Coast team. One associate will work with its infrastructure software team; the other will work with its application software team. To apply, seek out a “warm intro,” says the firm (and not from us, please). More here.

We’re also hearing that Menlo Ventures is seeking a principal, an associate, and a partner for its San Francisco-based consumer group. These new hires will work closely with managing director Shawn Carolan, who recently rejoined the firm in a full-time capacity. Again, we don’t have contact information for you, but work your connections!

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Essential Reads

Oops. “Good guy” loan startup LendUp was just fined $6.3 million by state and federal agencies for overcharging its customers.

Twitter wants you to take make a moment.

Defending against hackers took a back seat at Yahoo, insiders tell the New York Times.

Meanwhile, Verizon is dodging questions about whether that breach of 500 million Yahoo user accounts will impact its takeover plans.

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Detours

The fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

Smashing two cars together in mid-air.

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Retail Therapy

The amazing, transforming coffee table!

Tuesday!

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Top News in the A.M.

Facebook at Work is reportedly launching next month.

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Gusto Rushes to Release New Features Ahead of Rival Zenefits

In the world of HR and payment software, things are heating up this fall.

In the one corner: Zenefits, the high-flying software company that admitted to having an array of compliance issues and that asked its cofounder to resign as CEO earlier this year. The company has been heavily promoting an all-new, fully complaint, next-generation version of its offerings that it plans to unveil on October 18. These offerings come complete with superstar operator David Sacks, who’d joined the company as COO in late 2014 and took over as CEO of the company back in February. (We sat down with Sacks to talk about that transition earlier this month.)

Meanwhile, Gusto, formerly known as ZenPayroll, is taking the wraps off some new, human resources features of its own, including paperless employee records that are centralized online so HR admins can navigate that information all in one place; a 401(k) solution that allows employees to more easily enroll in retirement plans and update their contributions; and a new “welcome wall,” where teammates can leave greetings for a new hire before their first day.

Gusto is also touting its nearly 40,000 customers – which is twice the number of customers that Zenefits has said it has — and noting that it has amassed them with 314 employees to Zenefits’s 900-person staff. Gusto CEO Josh Reeves, who isn’t shy about throwing his elbows, further notes that Gusto has raised $150 million from investors to date and was last valued at $1 billion, compared with Zenefits, which has raised roughly $580 million from investors and halved its valuation to $2 billion in June.

Last week, to learn more, we caught up briefly with Reeves. Our chat has been edited for length.

More here.

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New Fundings

Color Genomics, a three-year-old, Burlingame, Ca.-based personalized genomics startup aiming to detect cancer risk, has raised $45 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst Partners, with participation from entertainer-investor Bono and earlier investors Susan Wagner, 8VC, Khosla Ventures and Emerson Collective. TechCrunch has more here.

Deepgram, a year-old, Menlo Park, Calif.-based audio search startup, has raised $1.8 million in funding co-led by Metamorphic Ventures and Y Combinator. TechCrunch has more here.

NS1, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based company that makes DNS and network traffic management software, has raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures and return backers Flybridge Capital Partners and Sigma Prime Ventures. More here.

Ofo, a 2.5-year-old, Beijing, China-based bicycle-sharing platform, has raised “tens of millions of U.S. dollars” from Didi Chuxing, says VentureBeat. More here.

Propeller Aero, a two-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based platform for drone flyers to upload their data and see it presented visually (creating things such as 3D maps for industrial companies), has raised $4 million in funding from Costanoa Ventures and Accel Partners. Australia’s Financial Review has more here.

ProsperWorks, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based cross-platform customer relationship management  service that plugs into the Google for Work platform, has raised $24 million in Series B funding funding led by Next World Capital, with participation from Storm Ventures, True Ventures, Industry Ventures, Devoteam, and a consortium of strategic angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Qrvey, a year-old, McLean, Va.-based customer feedback platform, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by the Center for Innovative Technology. DCInno has more here.

Red Points, a five-year-old, Barcelona, Spain-based company that offers brand protection, copyright protection, and removal of content services, has raised roughly $2.2 million in funding from Mangrove Capital Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

The Luxury Closet, a four-year-old, Dubai-based online marketplace that buys, sells, and consigns personal luxury goods that are mostly pre-owned, has raised $7.8 million in Series B funding led by Wamda Capital and Middle East Venture Partners, with participation from Equitrust, Saned Partners, Arzan Venture Capital and a few other regional investors. Arabian Gazette has more here.

Zenly, a six-year-old, Paris-based smartphone app that allows family and friends to follow each other’s tracks on a private map, has raised $22.5 million from Benchmark, with participation from earlier backers Idinvest, Xavier Niel and Insight Venture Partners co-founder Jerry Murdock. TechCrunch has more here.

Zuoyebang, a year-old, China-based K-12 online education startup that spun out of Baidu last year, has raised $60 million in Series B funding co-led by GGV Capital and Xianghe Capital, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital and Legend Capital. China Money Network has more here.

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Exits

Sequoia Capital just shut down a dedicated investment fund for Israeli startups, according to local news site Calacist (via news aggregator No Camels) and multiple sources. More here.

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People

Bill Gates’s investment firm, Cascade Investment, is joining a private equity venture to take stakes in retailers, restaurant chains and consumer-branded companies that are in need of a turnaround. Bloomberg has more here.

Watch Elon Musk reveal his plan for colonizing Mars right here at 2:30 p.m. PST.

“We’re in a constant state of argument over this,” investor-entrepreneur Reid Hoffman told Bloomberg TV yesterday of his friend, Peter Thiel, who is very publicly supporting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Hoffman adds that he thinks Thiel is actually “inventing policies for Trump that Trump doesn’t actually have.” More here.

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Essential Reads

Elon Musk’s SolarCity is being accused of intellectual property theft by Cogenra Solar, a wholly owned subsidiary of SunPower Corporation, and Khosla Ventures. Reuters has more on the lawsuit here.

The U.S. Department of Labor yesterday filed an administrative lawsuit against Palantir, alleging the secretive data analytics and security company systematically discriminates against Asian job applicants. Reuters has more here.

The Verge went to China’s Silicon Valley to see the front lines of the robot wars.

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Detours

Power poses might not work after all.

What. The first “three person” baby was just born in Mexico.

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Retail Therapy

Leather touchscreen gloves. Because sometimes, when someone texts you, you’re riding your motorcycle.

Happy Monday, dear readers!

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Top News in the A.M.

Is Facebook buying Twitter? That’s what some are speculating now that the king of Twitter, investor (and Facebook board member) Marc Andreessen has saidsayonara for now to the platform.

Then again it could be Disney (buying Twitter). At least, the entertainment giant has reportedly discussed with bankers whether a deal makes sense.

Senator Mark Warner is calling for an SEC probe into that massive Yahoo hack.

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Fallen VC Ifty Ahmed Strikes Back at Former Employer, Claiming Self-Dealing

Owes HimIn May of last year, Ifty Ahmed was accused by federal regulators of conning his former employer — the venture capital firm, Oak Investment Partners — out of $65 million. Now, Ahmed suggests, Oak is doing the conning, and he says the stakes are even higher.

You might remember Ahmed’s sensational story. According to his former colleagues, Ahmed — who’d joined Oak in 2004 following short stints as a junior investor with both Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Ventures — began bilking the firm almost immediately. They say he doctored deal documents and faked invoices, among other ways he directed the Norwalk, Conn. firm’s monies into his own personal account.

The alleged fraud was discovered almost by accident. One month earlier, Ahmed, who lived with his wife and children in Greenwich, Conn., was arrested and criminally charged with insider trading. The reason: Federal prosecutors in Boston said Ahmed had conspired with longtime friend Amit Kanodia to profit from the planned acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. by India-based Apollo Tyres, making $1 million from the deal before it was publicly announced. (Kanodia’s wife was Apollo’s general counsel at the time.)

In a civil lawsuit filed against Ahmed at the time (May 2015), the SEC identified at least nine companies in which Ahmed allegedly manipulated Oak investments for his personal gain, the most egregious of which appeared to be a Hong Kong-based online retailer. According to the SEC, in December 2014, Ahmed convinced his partners to write a $20 million check for a stake in the company when, in reality, it was buying a $2 million stake. Ahmed pocketed the rest, says the SEC.

With his name in the headlines, Ahmed fled to India, where he was quickly arrested by local authorities for entering the country illegally on an expired passport. (He surrendered his U.S. and Indian passports to U.S. authorities when he was charged with insider training.) In the meantime, the SEC froze all his assets, including his brokerage accounts, his investments in Oak’s funds and various properties, such as a home in Greenwich, and two Park Avenue apartments in New York.

Now Ahmed, who remains in India — he tells us he’s been prevented from returning to the U.S. by Indian authorities who’ve confiscated all of his documents — is trying to wage a battle of his own. To wit, earlier this month, he filed a motion in a U.S. District Court petitioning the SEC to include all of his “untainted assets currently held by Oak” and to direct them into a “joint untainted frozen bank account.”

According to Ahmed’s legal filing, these assets include four direct forms of investment and investment-related economic interests associated with his employment with Oak, including carried interest in four funds (Oak Investment Partners X, XI, XII and XIII), in which he says he was significantly vested. Specifically, Ahmed says that when he was terminated from Oak on May 18, 2015, he was fully vested in his Fund X; 91 percent vested in Fund XI; 83 percent vested in the carry of Fund XII; and 54 percent vested in Fund XIII’s carry.

“With very conservative assumptions, the total value of [Ahmed’s] carried interest across these funds is material and significant — easily in the $60 million range even with very conservative assumptions,” states his motion.

More here.

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New Fundings

Estify, a four-year-old, L.A.-based company that’s developed a new tool for auto repair businesses to better gauge the cost of its services for insurance claims, has raised $6.3 million in new funding led by Romulus Capital, with participation from ff Venture Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Flexport, a 3.5-year-old, San Francisco-based freight forwarding company and data provider, has raised $65 million in Series B funding from Eight Partners, along with previous investors Founders Fund, Bloomberg Beta, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Susa Ventures, and Yuri Milner.

FreshDirect, a 14-year-old, Long Island, N.Y.-based popular online grocery service on the East Coast, has raised $189 million in new funding led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with participation from W Capital and AARP Innovation Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Inverse, a year-old, New York and San Francisco-based digital media startup geared towards millennial men, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Crosslink Capital with participation from Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Social Starts, Bialla Venture Partners, and Vast Ventures. The company has now raised $8 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

MemberSuite, a eight-year-old, Atlanta, Ga.-based maker of customizable association management software, has raised $11 million in Series B funding led by Revolution Ventures. Additional investors included Fidelis Partners, Angel Investment Management, Accomplice Partners, and Alerion Ventures. More here.

TheSkimm, a four-year-old, New York-based publisher of a popular e-newsletter aimed at young women, has tacked on $500,000 in funding onto an earlier $8 million round led by 21st Century Fox. The new capital comes from the New York Times; Yannick Bolloré, the CEO of French media conglomerate Havas; media advisory firm MediaLink; and actress Mariska Hargitay. Recode has more here.

Podium Data, a two-year-old, Lowell, Ma.-based data lake management platform, has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding led by Malibu Ventures. SiliconAngle has more here.

Skyhigh Networks, a five-year-old, Campbell, Ca.-based cloud security startup, has raised $40 million in new venture capital funding, bringing its total outside investment to over $105 million. Thomvest Partners led the Series D round and was joined by return backers Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. Fortune has more here.

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New Funds

Aleph, a three-year-old, Israeli early-stage venture capital firm, has closed its second fund with $180 million in capital commitments. It had closed its debut fund with $150 million. GeekTime has more here.

Canvas Ventures, a Portola Valley, Ca.-based early-stage venture firm, has closed its second fund with $300 million. That’s a meaningful step up from the $175 million debut effort of the firm, which was cofounded in 2013 by former Morgenthaler Ventures partners Gary Little, Rebecca Lynn and Gary Morgenthaler. TechCrunch has more here.

FTV Capital, an 18-year-old, San Francisco and New York-based growth equity investment firm, has closed its fifth fund with $850 million. The firm plans to continue its focus on funding high-growth companies with $10 million to $100 million in revenue (and 20 percent year-over-year revenue growth). VentureBeat has more here.

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Exits

AppLovin, a 4.5-year-old, San Francisco-based mobile ad tech company backed by just $4 million in angel funding, has sold a majority stake in its business to the Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital at an enterprise value of $1.42 billion. Fortune has more here.

Publicly traded CA Technologies is spending an undisclosed amount to acquire BlazeMeter, an Israel-based provider of continuous application performance testing software. Blazemeter had raised around $7 million from investors, including YL Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners, Flint Capital andWestern Technology Investment. More here.

CBOE Holdings, operator of the Chicago Board Options Exchange,  has agreed to acquire Bats Global Markets, the U.S.’s third largest exchange, which went public earlier this year. The price: $3.2 billion in cash and stock. Bats shareholders include TA Associates, which holds a 21 percent stake. MarketWatch has more here.

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Essential Reads

Harvard Management Company lost almost $2 billion in endowment value during a “disappointing” fiscal year 2016, posting its worst endowment returns since the nadir of the financial crisis and marking the latest in a string of underwhelming investment results for the world’s largest university endowment.More here.

A look at the hopes and anticipated headaches of Snapchat’s new glasses.

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Detours

Debate tonight! Woot! In the meantime, plenty of politicians dodge questions; see if you can decode these answers from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

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Retail Therapy

BB-8 desk lamps. Beeps and boops not included.

It is Friday! Afternoon! (We know, we know, but it’s been one call after another today.) Hope you have a most wonderful weekend, everyone! See you back here Monday.:)

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Top News in the A.M.

Google and Salesforce are reportedly interested in buying Twitter; TechCrunch sources say Microsoft and Verizon have been kicking the tires, too. Bloomberg notes the stock is surging on the reported talks.

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New Fundings

Aceable, a four-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company that delivers drivers’ education in a mobile app, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Silverton Partners and Floodgate Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Airbnb, the popular, eight-year-old, San Francisco-based marketplace for people to discover and book accommodations around the world, has raised $555 million in new funding at a $30 billion valuation co-led by Google Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures. Neither received board seats. Fortune has more here.

Gfycat (as in “Jiffy Cat”), a year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based startup whose site is a Webm host that lets people convert videos into short-form, shareable, looping and fast-loading clips, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Alsop Louie Partners, an early backer of Twitch.tv. Other participants in the round include Pear, You & Mr Jones Brandtech Ventures, and the Stanford StartX fund, as well as individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Kahoot!, a nearly five-year-old, Oslo, Norway-based game-based educational platform, has raised $10 million from Creandum, Northzone and Microsoft Ventures. More here.

Linio, a four-year-old, Mexico City, Mexico-based ecommerce marketplace for Latin America, has raised $55 million in funding from LIV Capital, Northgate Capital and Kinnevik. More here.

Tealium, an eight-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company that makes website data management software, has raised $35 mllion in new funding led by earlier backer Georgian Partners. Other previous investors also joined the round, including Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Silver Lake Partners and Tenaya Capital. The San Diego Union-Tribune has more on the company here.

Zero, a months-old, San Francisco-based mobile banking startup, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by ENIAC Ventures, with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Nyca Partners, Lightbank, and Middleland Capital. More here.

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New Funds

GE Healthcare has taken the wraps off a healthcare accelerator called five.eight that will invest $50 million in startups dedicated to improving healthcare in emerging markets. MedCity News has more here.

SignalFire, a venture firm that mines data on moves by top startup employees for investing signals, is in the process of raising a $300 million to $350 million for its second fund, according to WSJ sources. (We’ve heard this, too.) The WSJ has more here. We walked readers through how the firm works last fall.

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IPOs

Apptio, a nearly nine-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based company that makes cloud-based business management software, jumped 44 percent in its trading debut this morning. Investors Business Daily has more here.

Coupa Software, a 10-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based corporate spend management platform, just set its IPO terms to 6.7 million shares being offered at between $14 and $16 per share. In the middle of that range, it would have a market cap of $711 million, or less than the unicorn valuation that its private investors had assigned it. Silicon Valley Business Journal has more here.

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Exits

Cuff, a smart jewelry maker that promised a line of fashion wearables capable of sending emergency alerts to family and friends, shut down earlier this year; now it’s being named in a bankruptcy suit filed by five of its manufacturing partners. The company was funded by New Enterprise Associates, Tandem Capital, and Tugboat Ventures. More here.

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People

Zander Farkas, a former investor at Greycroft Partners who just nabbed his MBA from Wharton, has joined Tribeca Venture Partners as a principal.

Sarah Hodges has joined Boston-based Pillar Companies, a venture firm, as a partner. Hodges previously cofounded of Intelligent.ly, a four-year-old, Boston-based learning campus that connects experts with entrepreneurs and others who want to hone their skills.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is reportedly funding a Trump group that’s dedicated to circulating internet memes maligning Hillary Clinton. “I’ve got plenty of money,” Luckey tells the Daily Beast. “Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time.”

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Jobs

Tribeca Venture Partners is looking to hire an associate. The job is in New York.

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Essential Reads

Facebook says that for two years, it systematically overestimated the time its users spent watching videos on the site by ignoring views that lasted less than three seconds. The WSJ has more here. (And here, Facebook VP David Fischer apologies for what the company is calling a miscalculation.)

Apple’s interest in McLaren likely centers on its five-year-old consulting arm, McLaren Applied Technologies. TechCrunch has more here.

UPS is beginning to test drone deliveries, and it’s turning to its longtime partner, venture-backed CyPhy, to do it. BostInno has more here.

Google will reportedly launch a new Wi-Fi router similar to that of Eero and Luma in October.

Inside MIT‘s $60 million-per-year lab for geniuses.

An era in Hong Kong is ending, thanks to China’s tight embrace.

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Detours

Why your handwriting keeps changing, even in adulthood.

New research shows grown children would rather live at home and play video games than find gainful employment. (In the Washington Post, people, not The Onion!)

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Retail Therapy

The estate of the late, renowned VC Tom Perkins has come on the market in Belvedere in Marin County for $16.5 million.

AutoCamp. Ideal for glamping with pals.