Happy Tuesday!:)
No column today.
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Top News in the A.M.
Google just jumped into the business of jobs search.
New Fundings
Aera Technology, a 12-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company that crawls the enterprise systems of its customers, then refines, indexes, and augments their data, has raised $50 million in funding led by New Enterprise Associates. More here.
AimBrain, a 1.5-year-old, London-based startup that sells biometric identity as a service to help fintech companies and other financial institutions fight fraud, has raised £4 million ($5 million) in Series A funding. BGF Ventures led the round, with participation from Episode 1, Entrepreneur First, and a number of angel investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Agentology, a two-year-old, San Diego-based startup aiming to deliver qualified real estate leads to brokers, has raised $4.5 million in funding led by Freestyle Capital, with participation from Entry Ventures Group and OurCrowd. Techcrunch has more here.
Alight, an 11-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose cloud-based apps aim to help enterprises understand the ripple effects of real and potential events, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Caterpillar Venture Capital. More here.
Bigger, a 1.5-year-old, Beijing-based co-working space startup that was launched by Modern Land (a regional property developer), has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Commercial real estate firm Hongfu Group led the round and was joined by Beijing incubator First Care. China Money Network has more here.
CirrusMD, a five-year-old, Denver, Co.-based text-based communication platform for large health systems and insurers, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Colorado Impact Fund, with participation from Bootstrap Incubation, Three Leaf Ventures, Rockies Venture Fund, Service Provider Capital, Sand Hill Angels, and New York Angels. More here.
CloudPost Networks, a two-year-old, Santa Clara, Ca.-based maker of real-time analytics and risk management software, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Wing Venture Capital, with participation from numerous individual investors. More here.
Cosmo Tech, a seven-year-old, Lyon, France-based maker of decision-management software, has raised $3 million in funding led by Sofimac Partners, with participation from BNP Paribas and Aster Capital. More here.
EaseCentral, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based SaaS platform for managing employee benefits, onboarding, and compliance, has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding led by Propel Venture Partners, with participation from Freestyle Capital, Compound, Upside Partnership, and Transmedia Capital. More here.
FinalPrice, a year-old, L.A.-based subscription-based travel app, has raised $4 million in funding from Almaz Capital, Sistema VC and unnamed private investors. TechCrunch has more here.
Freshly, a two-year-old, New York-based meal delivery startup, has raised $77 million in Series C funding led by Swiss-based food giant Nestle. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Highland Capital Partners, Insight Venture Partners, and White Star Capital. The company has now raised $107 million altogether. Fortune has more here.
Graduway, a four-year-old, London-based provider of alumni networking platforms, has secured $2 million in credit from SaaS Capital, an outfit that provides credit facilities to SaaS companies. More here.
Hero K12, a 3.5-year-old, Miami Lakes, Fl.-based student behavior analytics platform, has raised $150 million in funding from the private equity firm BV Investment Partners. EdSurge has more here.
Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems, a six-year-old, Pensacola, Fl.-based maker of early detection systems for diabetic eye disease, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B financing led by Ballast Point Ventures, with participation from healthcare system funds Providence Ventures and CoxHealth. More here.
M.Gemi, a two-year-old, Boston-based women’s footwear brand, has raised $16 million in Series C funding led by Burda Principal Investments. Previous investors Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners and Forerunner Ventures also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to date to $47.2 million. The Business of Fashion has more here.
Misty, a new Boulder, Co.-based robotics company at work on hobbyist robots (it later wants to develop mainstream devices but isn’t saying much about any of its products for now), has raised $11.5 million in Series A funding. Venrock and Foundry Group co-led the round. TechCrunch has more here.
Modacruz, a three-year-old, Istanbul, Turkey-based mobile marketplace of second-hand women’s fashion, has raised $2 million in Series B funding led by Middle East Venture Partners, with participation from Hummingbird and Nevzat Aydin. More here.
Simply Wall St., a three-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based investment advisory firm, has raised $1.8 million in funding from it own high-net-worth clients. TechCrunch has more here.
SLIPS Technologies, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based company that makes slippery coatings for commercial and residential customers, has raised $8.6 million in funding from Anzu Partners, BASF Venture Capital, Hansjörg Wyss, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. More here.
Unbxd, a six-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company whose machine learning software helps its e-commerce customers present products to shoppers that they’re more likely to buy, has raised $12.5 million in Series C funding led by Eight Roads Ventures, the investment arm of Fidelity. Earlier backers IDG Ventures, Inventus Capital Partners, and Nirvana Ventures also joined the round, along with Infosys cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan. More here.
Xpertdoc Technologies, a 17-year-old, Montreal-based company whose customer communications platform aims to help companies more effectively engage with their clients, has raised $1.7 million in funding from BDC Capital. More here.
New Funds
Adams Street Partners, the Chicago-headquartered investment firm, has just closed on $475 million in commitments across its venture and growth equity fund programs. The firm typically writes checks of between $5 million to $30 million in IT and healthcare companies and deploys between $125 million and $150 million per year. Its team has nine investment pros across a Menlo Park and Chicago office, and they focus on SaaS, mobile, cloud, security, fintech, healthcare IT, medical device, and biopharma sectors. More here.
New Enterprise Associates has raised the largest-ever venture fund with $3.3 billion in capital commitments. The fund, the firm’s 16th, is just larger than NEA’s last pool of $3.15 billion, which it closed in 2015 and that included a $2.85 billion main fund and a $350 million opportunity fund for investing in growth stage companies. The WSJ has more here.
IPOs
Aileron Therapeutics, a 12-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based cancer treatment biotech, has revealed IPO plans to offer 3.75 million shares between $15 to $17, raising about $60 million at the offering’s midpoint. The company’s biggest outside shareholders include Apple Tree Partners, Novartis BioVentures, and Glaxo Smith Kline’s S.R. One. Nasdaq has slightly more here.
Ancestry.com, the 34-year-old, Lehi, Ut.-based genealogy research service, says it’s preparing to go public and has made a confidential filing with the SEC. The company, whose owners include Permira and Silver Lake, says it hasn’t decided how many shares to issue or at what price. Bloomberg wrote a bit more about the company’s ownership history back in March.
Exits
Meltwater, a 16-year-old, San Francisco-based media monitoring company, has acquired Klarity, a four-year-old, Hong Kong-based social media analytics platform. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.
Consumer products giant Unilever has agreed to acquire Hourglass, a 13-year-old, Inglewood, Ca.-based “luxury performance” cosmetics brand. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. More here.
People
Tony Bates, formerly the president of GoPro, has joined Social Capital as CEO of its new growth unit.
In a new Medium post, Uber co-founder Garrett Camp says recent events have left him upset and “deeply reflective.” (Somewhat notably, he doesn’t mention CEO Travis Kalanick.)
Mark Cranney, long an operating partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has joined SignalFx, an AH-backed cloud application monitoring company, as its new chief commercial officer.
Todd Steinberg, an early investor in the cannabis delivery startup Eaze, says he was about to sell $500,000 in shares to Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, but the brothers backed out; now he’s suing them.
Iris Ostermaier has joined the Munich-based venture firm Target Partners has a venture partner. Ostermaier was previously CEO of 1-2-3.tv, a teleshopping channel that was backed by Target Partners and which sold last November.
Joe Tucci, formerly chairman and CEO of EMC, has joined 83North as a special adviser.
Jobs
Two Sigma Ventures is looking to hire an associate. The job is in New York.
Data
Instagram Stories is widening its lead over Snapchat.
Essential Reads
Inside Apple‘s global war on leakers.
Amazon is testing a service that gives Prime members seven days to try on clothing orders at home before deciding on what to buy.
Tesla Motors is reportedly close to signing an agreement with the city of Shanghai to produce electric cars in China for the first time.
Detours
“I feel like I found New York City when I found the bike.”
How to make the perfect lemon bar.
Thirteen amazing hotel suite views.
Retail Therapy
Depict Digital Canvas. Why not change it up a little?