Tuesday!

Top News in the A.M.

Snapchat shares were downgraded this morning by Morgan Stanley, a rare rebuke by a firm that helped bring it public.

The Trump administration said yesterday it would delay, and probably eliminate down the line, a federal rule that would have let foreign entrepreneurs come to the United States to start companies.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by First Democracy VC, a new, registered equity crowdfunding portal formed through a partnership between Indiegogo and MicroVentures, crowdfunding and investing pros. Equity crowdfunding is a great way for startups to raise money from their community of customers and fans and can augment a raise from other institutional investors.  Moreover, First Democracy VC gives anyone, yep anyone, the ability to invest in startups and growing companies. Interested in raising money for your startup?  Apply now.  Interested in investing?  Check out current investment opportunities here.

The Hunted Becomes the Hunter: How Cloudflare’s Fight with a “Patent Troll” Could Alter the Game

Matthew Prince knew what was coming. The CEO of Cloudflare, an Internet security company and content delivery network in San Francisco, was behind his desk, when the emails began to trickle in, slowly at first, then in bursts. College classmates-turned-defense attorneys, including from the University of Chicago, where Prince had nabbed his law degree years earlier, were reaching out to say hello and to ask: did Prince perhaps need help to fight a lawsuit they’d seen filed in Delaware against Cloudflare?

The paperwork would itself arrive shortly after from a registered agent in a thick white envelope. The claim: patent infringement. The firm going after Cloudflare: Blackbird Technologies, a three-year-old, Boston- and Chicago-based firm founded by two former attorneys with white-shoe law firms who’d previously litigated intellectual property cases on behalf of some of the largest tech companies in the world.

Blackbird has since amassed a portfolio of roughly 37 broad-seeming patents that it has so far used to file more than 100 lawsuits, including against Asics, New Balance, and Lululemon over a sports bra, and Amazon, Petsmart, and Walmart over a bicycle pet carrier.

Blackbird’s specific lawsuit against Cloudflare accuses it of violating US Patent No. 6,453,335, a patent filed 18 years ago by the owner of a Web hosting company in Germany that describes providing a “third party data channel” online and whose original owner, Oliver Kaufmann, doesn’t seem to have tried using it to create anything.

Kaufmann hasn’t responded to a request for comment for this story, but a patent record shows he sold the patent last October for $1 plus “other good and valuable consideration” to Blackbird, which is also using the patent to sue another startup called Fastly.

The Cloudflare suit is fairly typical. So-called non-practicing entities — or holders of a patent for a process or product that they don’t plan to develop — often use them to sue companies that would sooner settle, rather than pay what can add up to $1 million by the time a case reaches a courtroom. Prince calls Blackbird uniquely dangerous because its founders’ law backgrounds make it even easier for the outfit to sue companies like Cloudflare; they needn’t pay an attorney to represent their interests.

Even more unusual, however, and potentially more meaningful for other companies, is Cloudflare’s response to the suit. Indeed, when Prince was handed that envelope on a sunny March afternoon, he saw it as a moment he’d been waiting for since cofounding Cloudflare seven years earlier. As far as he was concerned, this was war, and he was ready for it.

More here.

New Fundings

Advanced Microgrid Solutions, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based energy services company and developer of behind-the-meter energy storage systems, has raised more than $34 million in Series B funding led by Energy Impact Partners, Southern Company and DBL Partners. Other investors to participate included GE Ventures, AGL Energy Limited, and Macquarie Capital. More here.

Allurion Technologies, an eight-year-old, Wellesley, Ma.-based developer of an intragastric balloon for weight loss (you swallow it in pill form), has raised $27 million in Series C funding led by Romulus Capital, with participation fro mCogepa Investments and IDO Investments. TechCrunch has more here.

Brandless, a year-old, San Francisco-based consumer-packaged goods company that’s selling household items from groceries to dishes to cleaning items for flat $3 pricing, has raised $35 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates and GV. The company, which staged a public unveiling earlier today, was incubated by Sherpa Capital, received seed funding from Cowboy Ventures and Slow Ventures, and raised Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures. It has now collected $40 million in funding altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Buoyant, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of open source software for cloud-native applications, has raised $10.5 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark, with participation from Twitter Angels, A Capital Ventures, Data Collective, Fuel Capital, SV Angel, and the Webb Investment Network. TechCrunch has more here.

CompareAsiaGroup, a three-year-old, Hong Kong-based online comparison shopping engine for financial, telecom and utility products in Asia, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. International Finance Corp. led the round and was joined by the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, SBI Group, H&A Asia Pacific and return backers Nova Founders Capital, ACE & Co., Route 66 Ventures and Lisa and Doug Goldman of San Francisco. China Money Network has more here.

Curve, a two-year-old, London-based platform that invites users to consolidate all their bank cards into a single Curve card, is on the verge of closing $10 million in Series A funding, says TechCrunch. The round is being led by Connect Ventures, with participation from Santander Ventures. More here.

Darktrace, a four-year-old, Cambridge, U.K.-based AI cybersecurity company, has raised $75 million in Series D funding round led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from earlier backers Summit Partners, KKR and TenEleven Ventures. The company was assigned a post-money valuation of $825 million. More here.

Datatron, a year-old, San Francisco-based company whose technology helps companies query real-time and historical data, has raised $2.7 million in funding from Start X, Credence Partners, Authentic Ventures, Enspire Partners, Plug and Play and 500 Startups.TechCrunch has more here.

Engage3, a nine-year-old, Davis, Ca.-based competitive intelligence and consumer engagement company, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Kayne NewRoad Ventures, with participation from Pereg Ventures, Moneta Ventures and Dale Carlsen. More here.

Ephesoft, an eight-year-old, Laguna Hills, Ca.-based developer of document capture and analytics software, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Mercato Partners. More here.

Evy Tea, a three-year-old, Boston, Ma.-based maker of all-natural cold brew teas, has raised $1 million in seed funding co- Notudis Ventures and Campitor Investments. BostInno has more here.

Gencove, a two-month-old, New York-based genome sequencing technology developer, has raised $1 million in seed funding, including from Third Kind Venture Capital, Version One Ventures, Refactor Capital, and SV Angel. The company’s technology was spun out from the New York Genome Center. GenomeWeb has more here.

Hi, hope you had a wonderful weekend, everyone!

No column today (it’s not ready quite yet), but quick mention: one week from today, we’ll be in Boston for TechCrunch interviewing the “father of robotics,” Rodney Brooks. If you’re a robotics investor or work for a robotics startup or just happen to have some questions you’d like us to ask him, shoot them our way; we’re happy to get you answers if we can.

Top News in the A.M.

New SEC rules went into effect today to permit any company, no matter how large, to file paperwork for an initial public offering without immediately disclosing the fact to the public. Fortune has more here.

Recode reported this morning that Amazon is quietly rolling out its own Geek Squad to set up gadgets in your home. Best Buy has since lost $1 billion in value.

Other interesting news on the regulatory front: The nation’s consumer watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is adopting a rule today that will allow class-action lawsuits against financial firms, rather than forcing customers into arbitration and blocking them from banding together. Lawmakers have 60 legislative days to overturn the rule, which would take effect next year.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is brought to you this week by First Democracy VC, a new, registered equity crowdfunding portal formed through a partnership between Indiegogo and MicroVentures, crowdfunding and investing pros. Equity crowdfunding is a great way for startups to raise money from their community of customers and fans and can augment a raise from other institutional investors. Moreover, First Democracy VC gives anyone, yep anyone, the ability to invest in startups and growing companies. Interested in raising money for your startup?  Apply now.  Interested in investing?  Check out current investment opportunities here.

New Fundings

AutoLotto, a 2.5-year-old. San Francisco-based mobile Powerball app that allows users to buy tickets from their smart phone, has raised $17 million in Series A funding from a long roster of investors, including angel backer Jason Port, venture capitalists Bruce Gibney and Ben Narasin, Causecast CEO Ryan Scott, and Aurum Partners. CNBC has more here.

Cargo Systems, a year-old, New York-based monthly subscription service for ride-share drivers wanting to offer additional products to their passengers like candy and Kind bars, has raised $1.75 million in funding from Techstars Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, and Detroit Venture Partners. More here.

CellTrak Technologies, an 11-year-old, Schaumburg, Ill.-based company that makes care delivery management software for home and community-based health organizations, has raised more than $11 million in new funding from Boathouse Capital and return backer MK Capital. More here.

CerebrEX, a five-year-old, Osaka, Japan-based maker of IP blocks and display controllers for flat panel displays, has raised roughly $7 million in funding from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and Fortune Venture Capital. More here.

Chengjia Apartment, a two-year-old, China-based apartment rental platform, has raised $50 million in funding from earlier backers IDG Capital and Huazhu Hotels Group. China Money Network has more here.

Choice Pet, a Stamford, Conn.-based pet retailer with 17 stores, has raised $2.7 million in funding from Petros Partners. More here.

Matcherino, a two-year-old, Seattle-based eSports crowdfunding platform, has raised $1.5 million in funding, including from Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, and Seven Peaks Ventures. More here.

Movile, a 19-year-old, São Paulo, Brazil-based mobile marketplaces company that claims more than 100 million monthly active users, has raised $53 million in funding led by earlier backer Naspers, with participation from Innova Capital. More here.

NewLeaf Symbiotics, a five-year-old, St. Louis-based agricultural biologicals startup, has raised $24 million in Series C funding. Monsanto Growth Ventures and Otter Capital co-led the round, and were joined by Lewis & Clark Ventures, Rockport Capital, Pangaea Ventures and Open Prairie Ventures. The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch has more here.

SignUpGenius, a nine-year-old, Charlotte, N.C.-based online sign up site for event and volunteer management, has raised a strategic majority investment of an undisclosed amount by Providence Strategic Growth, the growth equity affiliate of Providence Equity Partners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal represents the first round of funding for the company. More here.

Sunrate, a year-old, China-based company offering both cross-border payments and exchange rate risk management, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by China Growth Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Yamibuy, a four-year-old, City of Industry, Ca.-based e-commerce site for Americans wanting to purchase popular Asian snacks, beauty products, health supplements and home appliances, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by GGV Capital, with participation from New Oriental Education & Technology Group and K2VC. More here.

New Funds

CRV, a 46-year-old, venture firm formerly known as Charles River Ventures, looking to raise up to $450 million for its 17th early-stage venture firm and $400 million for an opportunity fund that would back its breakout companies, shows two SEC filings, here and here.

Partech Ventures, the 35-year-old, Paris-based venture firm (with partners also in San Francisco and Berlin) has  closed on $450 million in capital commitments for its Partech International Ventures VII fund. The capital will be used to fund mostly Series A- and B-stage companies. Limited partners include Nokia, L’Oréal, and Cisco. TechCrunch has more here.

UBS has raised $325 million from its clients for The Rise Fund a private equity impact investment fund co-founded by Bono and led by TPG Growth. (We’d written about it here last year.) Reuters has more on the news here.

IPOs

Kala Pharmaceuticals, a Waltham, Ma.-based developer of ophthalmic products based on muscle-penetrating particle technology, announced its IPO terms this morning. More here.

Friday! [Moonwalks.]

No column today, but before we go, a shout out on behalf of our colleagues over at TechCrunch: If you are a startup founder, or an investor who knows startup founders, know that TC is right now reviewing applicants for its newest Battlefield competition, being staged at TechCrunch Disrupt SF on September 18th through September 20th. What TC is looking for specifically: companies that are early stage, willing to launch something significant on stage, and have had limited to no press exposure. Any and all verticals will be considered. Startups needn’t be based in the U.S. Winners — and these have included Dropbox, Yammer, and Zenefits — receive $50,000 and a whole lot of attention from investors and corporates. (Finalists don’t do too shabbily on that front, either.) Apply here.

Hope you have a stellar weekend, everyone. See you in a few days.:)

Top News in the A.M.

Whoa: Waymo just dropped most of its patent claims in its fight with Uber. Bloomberg has more here.

Snack bar company Kind, whose products have become ubiquitous at tech startups — VC Chamath Palihapitiya’s related joke at a StrictlyVC event was so resonant, it went viral — is reportedly looking to sell a stake in its business at a $3 billion valuation. Reuters has more here.

New Fundings

Dashu Finance, a three-year-old, Shenzhen China-based online lender of unsecured loans to small and micro enterprises, has raised $17 million in Series C funding led by the Asian alternative investment management firm PAG and the China-focused private equity firm Primavera Capital Group. DealStreetAsia has more here.

Hudl, an 11-year-old, Lincoln, Ne.-based software platform that provides video analysis and coaching tools to sports teams, has raised $30 million in funding from earlier backers, including Accel Partners, Jeff and Tricia Raikes, and Nelnet. VentureBeat has more here.

Jiguang, a six-year-old, Shenzhen, China-based startup that analyzes user activity for mobile app developers and marketers, has raised “tens of millions of dollars” of Series D funding led by Fidelity International, reports DealStreet Asia. More here.

Josh.ai, a two-year-old, L.A.-based company at work on a voice-controlled system for smart homes that includes hardware, has raised $11 million from undisclosed investors. TechCrunch has much more here.

Kangarootime, a two-year-old, Long Beach, Ca.-based maker of cloud-based software for early learning centers, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Skyview Ventures, Mucker Capital, and Tech Coast Angels. More here.

Light Polymers, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based nanochemistry startup with domain knowledge of lyotropic liquid crystals (used in LCD and OLED flat panel displays), has raised $5 million in funding round led by Tsingda International Venture Capital and TEL Venture Capital. More here.

MobileODT, a five-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of connected medical devices, has raised $6.8 million in Series B funding led by OrbiMed Advisors, with participaton from Tristel. More here.

PointPredictive, a four-year-old, San Diego, Ca.-based company that helps lenders and online retailers stop fraud and reduce payment default losses, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by Mosaik Partners, an expansion-stage venture capital fund. More here.

Side, a two-year-old, Paris-based marketplace that helps companies scale their workforces for product launches, peak seasons and more, has raised $5.7 million led by investor Xavier Niel. TechCrunch has more here.

Sol Voltaics, a 10-year-old, Lund, Sweden-based nanotechnology company focused on solar cell nanowire materials, has raised $21.3 million in fresh funding from Norway-based Watrium, alongside previous investors Kagra Gruppen, Nordic VC firm Industrifonden, FAM, Nano Future Invest, Blue Marlin and Teknoinvest. More here.

Squirro, a five-year-old, Zurich, Switzerland-based advanced context intelligence and insights software platform, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Orange Growth Capital, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and (unnamed) earlier backers. More here.

ThinkHR, a 12-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.-based cloud-based HR platform that offers a unique combination of online compliance and employee training solutions, has secured a $5 million credit faciity from SaaS Capital, a lending outfit to SaaS businesses. It’s the second credit line SaaS Capital has provided to the company. More here.

Vidcode, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based startup that’s focused on teaching teens how to code and passed through the Y Combinator program last summer, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Backers include ZhenFund, Rethink Education, NYU Ventures, CoVenture, Evan Korth Syndicate, Stephano Kim, Cherry Ventures, and BrainPOP. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

ICONIQ Capital, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based venture capital firm that somewhat famously manages the money of family offices that do (or did) include Mark Zuckerberg’s, has closed on $570.4 million for its third fund, shows an SEC filing.

Oakhouse Partners, a 10-month-old, San Francisco-based venture firm, is aiming to raise a $50 million debut fund, suggests an SEC filing. The firm was founded by Jason Portnoy, who’d previously cofounded four-year-old Subtraction Capital. Earlier in his career, Portnoy also served as the CFO of Clarium Capital, Palantir Technologies, and Practice Fusion. More here.

IPOs

Biotech’s IPO uptick is nothing to fear, says Bloomberg.

Exits

DataGravity, a five-year-old, Nashua, N.H.-based data security and remediation services software company, has been acquired, though it hasn’t yet disclosed by whom or for what terms. According to Crunchbase, the company had raised $92 million from investors, including Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV and General Catalyst Partners. The Register has more here.

Jawbone, the consumer electronics firm, is kaput, reports The Information. (We’d kind of seen this coming five years ago; we’re genuinely amazed-impressed that the company managed to slug it out for so long.)

People

Japanese mobile company Gree is ending its operations in the West, shutting down three studios, and cutting 125 jobs.

A government watchdog group yesterday filed a complaint with the Office of Government Ethics over White House adviser Jared Kushner‘s ownership interest in the real estate investment company Cadre.

Jobs

Target Global, a venture firm focused on fintech opportunities, is looking to hire a senior associate. The job is in Moscow.

Viacom is looking to hire an SVP of digital business development. The job is in New York.

Essential Reads

Amazon reportedly threatened to kill its Whole Foods deal if the grocer started a bidding war. More in Recode.

The largest online black market for drugs, AlphaBay, has been down for nearly two days, raising questions about whether it was seized by law enforcement authorities or taken down in a swindle. Dealbook has the story here.

Detours

This deadly spider assassin is a-mazing.

Kafka’s joke book. (Still funny.)

How to fit two weeks’ worth of clothes in a carry-on, and other travel tips.

Retail Therapy

Off-road campers for when money is no object.

Comma.ai also has some new stuff worth checking out.

Hi, all, hope you’re having a terrific Thursday.

Thanks to the many of you who picked up tickets for our September event yesterday; we’ll have more info about the event for you soon.:)

Top News in the A.M.

Starting today, Uber’s new in-app tipping option is being rolled out in 100 cities in the US and Canada, including major markets like New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

It was a good run, but three months in, Tesla has lost its spot as America’s most valuable automaker.

The ‘Uber of Garbage’ Picks up Steam, and $11.7 Million in Series A Funding

Sometimes, it seems like every possible on-demand service that could be created has already come along — and, in some cases, gone away. But Recycle Track Systems (RTS), a two-year-old, New York-based waste and recycling management technology company, serves to remind that there remain plenty of opportunities for startups looking to turn our smartphones into lucrative businesses.

Indeed, while companies have sprung up around everything from on-demand family care to shipping, the waste industry — valued at anywhere from $45 billion to $65 billion when accounting for collection services, treatment and disposal — has largely been left untouched by tech founders.

That’s changing. Already, one company, nine-year-old Rubicon Global in Atlanta, has raised more than $145 million from investors — including private equity king Henry Kravis — to steal away market share from incumbents like Waste Management and Republic Services. Now, RTS is aiming to do the same by making it simple for customers to schedule on-demand pick-ups through its phone app.

A high-tech garbage service may sound ridiculous to the uninitiated. But it’s no joke to customers like WeWork, Whole Foods and SoulCycle that have signed multi-year contracts in exchange for RTS’s flexible pricing options, along with notifications about when a truck has arrived and reports about exactly where their waste is being sent.

Investors are taking the company seriously, too. For starters, RTS is an asset-light business. Instead of purchasing its own trucks, RTS is partnering with a growing number of mid-size, independent haulers that it provides with feature-rich tablets to make their work more efficient — even when they aren’t being used in service to RTS.

Another apparent part of RTS’s appeal is that it’s profitable, though that might change, now that the 17-person company has raised $11.7 million in Series A funding from the Boston-based growth equity firm Volition Capital —  money it plans to use to hit the gas. (Notably, Volition was the first outside money into Chewy, a pet supplies company that sold to PetSmart earlier this year in the biggest e-commerce sale to date, ever.)

To learn more, we talked yesterday with RTS co-founder and CEO Gregory Lettieri about the company and the opportunity it’s chasing. Our chat has been edited for length.

More here.

New Fundings

AxiomSL, a 26-year-old, New York-based maker of risk data management and regulatory reporting software for the financial services industry, has received an undisclosed amount of growth equity funding from TCV. The investment represents the company’s first institutional funding; it already has a dozen offices around the globe. More here.

Clark, a year-old, New York-based startup whose app makes it easier for educators to start and manage a tutoring business, has closed a second seed funding round with $2.5 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company has now raised $3.5 million altogether. More here.

Go-Jek, a seven-year-old, Indonesia-based ride-hailing company, has raised between $100 million and $150 million in funding from Tencent, says Reuters. More here.

Jumbotail, a 1.5-year-old, Bangalore-based online marketplace for food and groceries, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding from Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. YourStory has more here.

Miso Robotics, a year-old, Pasadena, Ca.-based robotics and artificial intelligence company whose first product is a robotic kitchen assistant called Flippy, just raised $3.1 million in funding from Acacia Research Corporation, Match Robotics VC, and undisclosed strategic investors. More here.

Moglix, a two-year-old, Noida, India-based company that once sold construction supplies online and now sells enterprise software to help manufacturers become complaint with the country’s new tax codes, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. International Finance Corporation and Rocketship.vc co-led the round. Ratan Tata, the former chairman of Tata Sons, also joined the round, alongside earlier backers Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures, Shailesh Rao, and Venture Highway. The company has now raised $18 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Nightstar, a four-year-old, London-based biopharmaceutical company that’s developing therapies for retinal dystrophies, has raised $45 million in Series C funding from Syncona, New Enterprise Associates, Wellington Management Company, and Redmile Group. More here.

OnboardIQ, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that aims to help companies quickly screen and hire independent workforces, just raised $9.1 million in fresh funding led by Origin Ventures, with participation by SoftTech VC, Crosslink Capital and Y Combinator. The company has now raised $10.75 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

PayFit, a two-year-old, Paris-based startup whose software helps SMEs manage the pay and leave of their employees, has raised $15.9 million in Series B funding. Accel Partners led the round, with Xavier Niel and Otium Venturealso participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Spotinst, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based cloud cost management company, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from Vertex Venture Capital. Globes has more here.

Theranica Bio-Electronics, a year-old, Netanya, Israel-based biomedical technology company developing advanced electroceuticals to treat migraines, has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other participants in the round include LionBird and Corundum Open Innovation. More here.

THEVA, a 21-year-old, Bayern, Germany-based superconductor manufacturer, has raised €7 million ($7.9 million) in funding, including from Target Partnersand EnBW New Ventures. More here.

Tonsser, a four-year-old, Copenhagen-based vertical social network aimed at youth soccer players, has raised €2.5 million ($2.85 million) in new funding from earlier investors. These include Wellington Partners, SEED Capital, Booking.com cofounder Arthur Kosten, and unnamed professional soccer players. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Atlas Venture, the 37-year-old venture firm, has closed on $350 million for its eleventh fund. The capital will be devoted exclusively to biotechnology startups. FierceBiotech has more here.

Felix Capital, a two-year-old, London-based early-stage venture firm, has closed its second fund with $150 million in commitments. (Its debut fund closed with $120 million). Founded by longtime VC Frederic Court, Felix invests largely in fashion and lifestyle businesses that are based on digital platforms. Among its bets: Goop, the online media and e-commerce business of Gwyneth Paltrow, and the fashion news site Business of Fashion. TechCrunch has more here.

GrowthX, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm and accelerator, has closed its second fund with $15 million, shows an SEC filing. More here.

IDG Capital, a Beijing-based private equity and venture capital firm, is closing on $589 million for its fifth Chinese venture capital fund, IDG China Venture Capital Fund V, judging by this SEC filing.

Hi, happy Wednesday, everyone! No column today but we do have some great news: After a very busy May, with our most recent StrictlyVC event followed by TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in New York, we’re starting to plan out our next StrictlyVC event in earnest. We’re still at the outset, but we’re very happy to announce our first guests: Michael Kim of Cendana Capital and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Ventures.

Both are limited partners — meaning they invest in the venture firms that invest in the startups — and we’re going to be talking with them about a host of things, including the role that LPs do and perhaps should be playing in determining whether bad actors get bounced from the venture industry sooner. It’s especially topical in light of the news that Legacy Venture, a limited partner in Binary Capital, was aware of the questionable reputation of cofounder Justin Caldbeck but decided to invest anyway. (In a comment to the New York Times last week, Legacy said of its decision: “We failed to follow up on information about Mr. Caldbeck’s personal behavior. We regret this oversight and are determined to do better.”)

We don’t have an event page just yet, but you can nab a seat here. The date is Wednesday, September 27. The location: the contemporary Autodesk Gallery in downtown San Francisco. Longtime readers know these seats go fairly quickly so don’t wait too long to grab yours.

In the meantime, much thanks to our friends at both the international public relations firm Ballou PR and the hardware-focused venture firm Bolt, two longtime SVC supporters that have already offered to help us in putting the evening together. If you’d also like to talk with us about partnering on this next event, we’d love to talk with you, too.

Top News in the A.M.

Omise, a four-year-old, Bangkok, Thailand-based fintech startup, has raised $25 million in new financing via a token sale — more commonly know as ICO — that closed today. The deal is notable for several reasons, including that Omise, which has already raised roughly $20 million from venture investors, is now the most established tech company to date to take this financing route. The offering also represents the first “controlled” sale that we’ve seen, with Omise capping its sale at $25 million rather than potentially raising tens of millions of dollars more based on interest. TechCrunch has more here.

Tesla shares are sinking today after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock based on what it thinks is plateauing demand. Business Insider has more here.

New Fundings

Happy Monday, all! With any luck, you’re on a boat or a beach or resting poolside today. Either way, we hope you’re enjoying a very leisurely July 4th break.

We’re racing out the door ourselves; we’ll see you back here Wednesday.:)

Top News in the A.M.

Two days after apologizing for being a “creep” toward women (and, notably, three days after the New York Times reported that he’d been demoted from the firm he cofounded, owing to inappropriate interactions with female founders), Dave McClure has resigned as general partner of the venture firm 500 Startups. Firm co-founder Christine Tsai asked for McClure’s resignation and he accepted, according to a letter sent to limited partners today. More here.

VC Aileen Lee’s Specific Advice to Female Founders Seeking Funding

In May, at TechCrunch’s Disrupt event in New York, researchers from Harvard Business Review were in the audience, and they were taking notes. Using their findings, along with the help of a linguistic software program that scanned video transcriptions of Q&A sessions between onstage venture capitalists and startup founders, they came to an interesting — and disturbing — conclusion.

They discovered the investors (and 40 percent of them were women) tended to ask men questions about the potential for gains at their startups, while they asked women about the potential for losses.

That wasn’t a surprise to longtime venture capitalist Aileen Lee, who spent nearly 13 years with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers before leaving in 2012 to start her own seed-stage venture firm, Cowboy Ventures. Lee has funded male founders (August, Dollar Shave Club, Philz Coffee), as well as women founders (Textio, Brit & Co., Accompany); she has also sat around many tables with her mostly male VC peers as they’ve discussed where best to steer startups as they’ve sought follow-on funding.

At Y Combinator’s fourth Female Founders Conference in San Francisco last week, Lee talked about that HBR study and the bias she sees every day. She also shared very specific advice to female founders who are looking to raise capital (along with one observation for male-heavy venture firms).

Among her suggestions for women founders:

1) Be a good storyteller, and don’t fret if storytelling doesn’t come naturally to you. “If you are not a great storyteller, you can become one. It’s just a matter of feedback and practice.”

2) Each story has basic but important elements. Make sure you include these, beginning with:

More here.

New Fundings

AUrate, a three-year-old, New York-based jewelry startup, has raised $2.6 million in funding, including from Arab Angel and Victress Capital. City Biz List has more here.

Bonfire, a five-year-old, Waterloo, Canada-based company that makes software for procurement teams, raised $11 million in funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Crosslink Capital and Spider Capital. BetaKit has more here.

Emocha, a nine-year-old, Baltimore, Md.-based mobile health platform for patient engagement, has raised $1 million in seed funding from Propel Baltimore Fund, Kapor Capital, Sand Hill Angels, Baltimore Angels, and Blue Jay Syndicate. The Baltimore Sun has more here.

Harver, a seven-year-old, Amsterdam-based HR tech company, has raised $8.1 million in Series A funding led by Insight Venture Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Lynq, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based startup whose peer-to-peer technology allows individuals and groups to locate each other anywhere in the world and works independently of phones, cell networks, Wi-Fi and maps, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding. Plus Eight Equity Partners led the round; other participants include ARC Angel Fund and Angel Investor Forum. More here.

Make.TV, a year-old, Seattle, Wa.-based company that’s trying to reinvent how broadcasters and publishers can discover, acquire, produce and distribute video content from mobile users, has raised $8.5 million round of funding. Voyager Capital led the round, with participation from Microsoft Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Arnold Ventures. More here.

Mendel.ai, a year-old, San Francisco-based AI-powered clinical trial matching platform, has raised $2 million in seed funding from DCM Ventures, Bootstrap Labs and Launch Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

ProSteel Security, a 70-year-old, Provo, Utah-based maker of safety and security products like vaults and gun safes and doors, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from City Capital Ventures and Promus Equity Partners. More here.

New Funds

Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder and the former CEO of $33 billion IT services giant Infosys, and Sanjeev Aggarwal, an investor with Helion Ventures, have come together to launch the Fundamentum Partnership, a new firm that is looking to raise a $100 million debut fund (and that’s halfway toward that target). TechCrunch has more here.

Growth Street Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, raised $70 million for its debut fund. More here.

IPOs

Dropbox, the data-sharing business, is looking to hire underwriters for an IPO that could come later this year; it would be the biggest U.S. technology company to go public since Snap Inc, sources told Reuters on Friday. More here.

Redfin, the popular real estate listings site, has filed for an IPO. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Apple CEO Tim Cook took home $145 million last year.

Microsoft is poised to layoff thousands of employees worldwide in a move to reorganize its salesforce.

Essential Reads

Under new leadership, the SEC expanding a program that will allow all (not just some) private companies to keep some details of their finances and business strategies under wraps early in the process of an initial public offering. Dealbook has the story here.

The WeChat app has almost a billion users, and many of them use it all day. So why isn’t the company everywhere by now?

The first 30 production examples of the Tesla Model 3 will be released to customers on July 28, says CEO Elon Musk. CNet has more here.

Detours

You shouldn’t exercise to lose weight.

How a napping commuter knows when it’s his or her subway stop.

Retail Therapy

Twenty things for your preppy July 4th party. (We know you’re going to host one at some point.)

Happy Friday, everyone! If you’re heading out of the town in advance of July 4th, safe travels. So you know, we will be publishing StrictlyVC next week except on Tuesday; it might be a little more compact, depending on what’s happening in startupland.

See you back here soon.:)

Top News in the A.M.

Social media companies operating in Germany face fines of as much as $57 million if they do not delete illegal, racist or slanderous comments and posts within 24 hours under a law passed on Friday. The New York Times has more here.

Sponsored By . . .

This week’s StrictlyVC was brought to you by Crowded Ocean, the two-person marketing agency that specializes in positioning and launching startups (46 to date, including Palo Alto Networks, Nimble Storage and Sumo Logic—as well as 10 exits). We help develop your positioning and messaging, turn it into content (website, white papers, use cases) and hire the resources (PR, web design, demand gen, etc.) to launch your company. We then help hire our successor. Today’s successful startup is based on strong positioning and early customer acquisition. To learn more about our services, see our book, The Ultimate Startup Guide, or contact us.

Binary’s Investors Just Accepted Jonathan Teo’s Resignation

Earlier this week, following the resignations of Binary Capital co-founder Justin Caldbeck and a more recent addition to the team, Matt Mazzeo, Binary co-founder Jonathan Teo offered to resign his position, as well.

Late yesterday, the firm’s limited partners — including WeatherGage, Legacy Venture, UNC and UCLA — accepted Teo’s resignation.

According to sources, the firm’s portfolio companies will now report directly to these limited partners with any questions or concerns. In the meantime, these institutional investors have committed to coming up with a new brand for the entity and to finding a new general partner to assume control of the stakes in Binary’s $125 million debut fund.

Binary had closed a second fund last year with $175 million, but it had yet to call down the vast majority of that capital. The companies in that portfolio will also be managed by the incoming general partner.

Binary’s investors were torn over whether or not to allow Teo to continue managing the firm’s investments, according to one source close to the situation. Not all were in agreement that he was culpable for the failings of Caldbeck, who was revealed in an explosive report last week to have harassed or preyed upon numerous female founders who’d met with Caldbeck in a professional capacity over the years.

When revelations about Caldbeck were initially made public last week by The Information, Caldbeck and Teo initially denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations a “few examples which show that Justin has in the past occasionally dated or flirted with women he met in a professional capacity.”

On Sunday, after Caldbeck was pressured to step down from his post, Teo issued a statement calling the “predatory behavior” of Caldbeck “deplorable” and insisting that “there will be zero tolerance at our firm of any conduct that is demeaning to women.”

The company’s portfolio CEOs evidently didn’t buy it, banding together and telling Binary’s LPs that it was either their way or the highway. Specifically, we’re told, nearly all of the CEOs presented or obtained legal documents with which to buy back their shares from Binary unless the LPs agreed to accept Teo’s resignation, too.

New Fundings

ArangoDB, a five-year-old, Cologne, Germany-based distributed open-source database, has raised €4.2 million ($4.8 million) in funding led by the Munich-based venture capital firm Target Partners. More here.

Babyscripts, a four-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based virtual care platform for obstetricians, has raised $5.7 million in new funding led by Ysios Capital, with participation from Chemo Group, CG Health Ventures, Aurora Health Care Ventures, and P5 Health Ventures. More here.

Danke Apartment, a two-year-old, Beijing-based online apartment rental platform, has raised $14 million in fresh Series A funding led by JOY Capital, with participation from co-working space start-up UrWork and earlier investor Kaiwuhuadeng. China Money Network has more here.

Rong Cloud, a three-year-old, Beijing-based cloud-based instant messaging service provider, has raised $14 million in Series B funding led by GP Capital, with participation from other firms, including Tianxing Capital. China Money Network has more here.

Kakao Mobility, a ride-hailing Korea-based app business that’s been spin out of Kakao, the country’s top mobile messenger company, has raised roughly $437 million in funding from TPG. As some readers may know, TPG’s portfolio includes Uber, which is Kakao Mobility’s most visible rival in Korea. TechCrunch has more here.

Mirexus Biotechnologies, a nine-year-old, Ontario-based natural nanomaterials company, has raised $12 million funding led by GEL Tech, with participation from the GreenSky President’s Club, an Ontario-based group of angel investors. More here.

Swift Navigation, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based tech company that’s building centimeter-accurate GPS technology to power autonomous vehicles, has raised $34 million in Series B funding led by Forest Baskett and Greg Papadopoulos of New Enterprise Associates, with participation from earlier backers Eclipse and First Round Capital. More here.

Trax, a seven-year-old, Singapore-based computer vision company that’s trying to transform how in-store retail data is collected, viewed and analyzed, has raised $64 million in funding from private equity giant Warburg Pincus. China Money Network has more here.

Unchained Labs, a two-year-old, Pleasanton, Ca.–based life sciences company that provides new tools to biologics researchers, has raised $13 million in Series C financing including from Novo Ventures, Canaan Partners and TPG. More here.

Vector, a year-old, Tucson, Az.-based micro satellite launch company, has raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Shasta Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company — founded by aerospace engineer Jim Cantrell, who was part of the original Space X team — has now raised $31 million altogether. Bloomberg has more here.

Work Truck Solutions, a four-year-old, Chico, Ca.-based commercial truck sales platform, has raised $5 million in Series B funding led by Autotech Ventures. Earlier backers Belle Michigan, Wakestream Ventures, Moneta Ventures and Golden Seeds also joined the round. More here.

IPOs

Delivery Hero rose as much as 8.6 percent in its first day of trading, giving the Berlin-based takeout company a market capitalization of 4.7 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in a successful debut on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Bloomberg has more here.

Enterprise cloud company Tintri is finally out, after lowering its price last night to $7 per share (down from an initial targeted range of between $10.50 to $12.50). The shares, which began trading this morning, are up the slightest bitas of this writing. More here.

ZhongAn Online Property and Casualty Insurance, China’s first internet-only insurer, has filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong worth up to $1.5 billion. Reuters has more here.

People

Designer Tony Fadell sees a screenless future.

Not all is Zen at Headspace, as layoffs hit the app-based mindfulness startup.

Nokia has nabbed Samsung’s North America CEO, Gregory Lee, to lead its consumer-focused technologies division.

Palmer Luckey, who created the Oculus headset, is now pledging money to a project that allows users to play Oculus-exclusive games on competing products.

Elon Musk says he’s revealing more details about the Tesla 3’s release this Sunday.

Retired VC Chris Sacca says he hasn’t always been so great to women founders, either.

Data

People who post 50-plus times per day are likely sharing spam or false news, Facebook says, and it plans to demote those links.

Essential Reads

If you missed the Female Founders Conference yesteday, you can watch it here.

How teens really use Snapchat, Instagram, and other apps.

Here’s when you should buy bitcoin and ethereum.

Detours

The man who drew Eloise.

A new planet has just been discovered at the edge of the solar system. At least, that’s what everyone is hoping it is.

Retail Therapy

Neat,  an app that connects you with real-life photo editors who can clean up your snaps.

Thursday!

No column today.

Top News in the A.M.

The global ransomware attack that’s still spreading: what we know and don’t know.

Immigrants and refugees from six majority-Muslim countries will be barred from entering the U.S. beginning tonight unless they can prove a relationship with a U.S. person or entity.

Tech stocks are diving right now.

Sponsored By . . .

This week’s StrictlyVC is being brought to you by Crowded Ocean, the two-person marketing agency that specializes in positioning and launching startups (46 to date, including Palo Alto Networks, Nimble Storage and Sumo Logic—as well as 10 exits). We help develop your positioning and messaging, turn it into content (website, white papers, use cases) and hire the resources (PR, web design, demand gen, etc.) to launch your company. We then help hire our successor. Today’s successful startup is based on strong positioning and early customer acquisition. To learn more about our services, see our book, The Ultimate Startup Guide, or contact us.

New Fundings

Abl Schools, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes time and resource management software for middle schools and high schools, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. Rethink Education led the round, with participation from Sinovation Ventures and earlier backers Owl Ventures, Reach Capital, and First Round Capital. The company, which had raised $4.5 million last year, has now garnered $12 million in funding altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

ClauseMatch, a five-year-old, London-based Saas platform offering smart document management to banks, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding, led by Speedinvest, with participation from earlier backers SparkLabs Global Ventures, Techstars, former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer and former SunGard CEO Cristobal Conde. TechCrunch has more here.

Highcon, an eight-year-old, Yavne, Israel-based company that sells digital finishing materials for applications ranging from packaging to marketing collateral, has raised $20 million in new funding led by JVP, with participation from earlier backers Landa Ventures, LR Group, OurCrowd and Go Capital. More here.

iKongjian, a three-year-old, Beijing-based online platform for home renovation, has raised $31 million in Series C funding led by Gome Holdings. The company is now reportedly valued at $2 billion. China Money Network has more here.

Kinetica, an eight-year-old startup that builds databases that harness fast graphical processing chips to perform everyday business applications, now has $50 million in Series A funding led by Canvas Ventures and Meritech Capital Partners, with participation from Citi Ventures and earlier backer Ray Lane. (That’s a lot of Series A funding.) The company has now raised $63 million altogether. Fortune has more here.

LogicBio Therapeutics, a three-year-old, Foster City, Ca.-based company at work on disease-modifying gene therapies for orphan pediatric diseases, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. London’s Arix Bioscience led the round; other participants include OrbiMed Advisors, Edmond De Rothschild Investment Partners, Pontifax and SBI. More here.

Pray.com, a year-old, Santa Monica, Ca.-based interfaith mobile app that helps religious leaders keep in touch with their congregants, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Science Inc., with participation from Greylock Partnersand Spark Capital. More here.

Science Exchange, a six-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based platform for outsourced research and development, has raised $28 million in Series C funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers Union Square Ventures, Maverick Capital, and Collaborative Fund. The company has now raised $58 million altogether. More here.

Spruce Finance, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based consumer financing company centered around residential energy efficiency and solar technology, has raised $25 million in strategic funding from HPS Investment Partners. More here.

Super League Gaming, a three-year-old, L.A.-based e-sports platform, has raised $15 million in Series C funding including from Nickelodeon, DMG Entertainment, Jeff Vinik and aXiomatic. More here.

Terran Orbital, a four-year-old, Irvine, Ca.-based nanosatellite company, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. The company had previously raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Marc Bell Capital and Staton Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Zai Lab, a four-year-old, Shanghai-based biopharma company led by former Sequoia Capital China managing director Samantha Du, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by OrbiMed Asia Partners, with participation from Vivo Capital, Cormorant Asset Management and Rock Springs Capital. China Money Network has more here.

New Funds

Upfront Ventures, the 19-year-old, L.A.-based early-stage venture firm, has closed its sixth fund with $400 million in capital commitments. Partner Mark Suster has more here.

Kairos Ventures, a nearly two-year-old, L.A.-based early-stage venture firm founded Jim Demetriades, founder of the software company SeeBeyond, has raised $74.7 million toward a $150 million venture fund, according to an SEC filing. More here.

IPOs

Blue Apron opened for trading at $10 per share this morning and . . .  that’s where the shares are trading hours later, meaning its IPO investors have yet to reap any gains. TechCrunch has more here.

Tintri, a venture-backed company that’s focused around VM-aware storage for virtualization and cloud environments, has called off its IPO, which was supposed to price last night. It hasn’t explained why yet, though based on what’s happening in the market today, it was probably a good move. Business Insider has more here.

Exits

Staples agreed yesterday to be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners for $6.9 billion, an 11 percent premium over its share price as of yesterday afternoon. The deal is expected to dramatically restructure the struggling office supply retailer. USA Today has more here.

Cloudyn, a company that helps customers manage their cloud billing across multiple clouds, is officially being acquired by Microsoft. Sources tell TechCrunch the price was between $50 million and $70 million. According to Crunchbase, Cloudyn had raised roughly $20 million from investors over four rounds. Its backers included Carmel Ventures, Infosys, Titanium Investments. More here.

The Muse, a six-year-old, New York-based recruitment site for millennials, has acquired Brand Amper, a three-year-old, Chicago-based startup whose Mad Libs-like web app makes it easier for companies to capture employee sentiment. Brand Amper had raised a small friends-and-family round of funding; terms aren’t being disclosed, though The Muse says it was a cash deal. More here.

People

Ann Lai, a former principal at Binary until May 2016, is suing the firm for harassing and defaming her after she resigned. In the lawsuit, Lai claims that Binary cofounder and all-around miscreant Justin Caldbeck texted her repeatedly after she left the firm, threatening her not to disparage or divulge information about the company. TechCrunch has the filing here.

Anthony Levandowski was making an s-load at Google.

Julie Sandler, who spent the last six years an investor with Madrona Venture Group, has joined the two-year-old startup studio Pioneer Square Labs. The Seattle Times has more here.

A passenger who says she was raped by an Uber driver in Kansas City has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that Uber ignored previous warnings that the driver was not fit to drive for the company. More here.

Data

Finnish startups attract the most venture capital in Europe — but there’s one big problem. (Turn page to see more.)

Essential Reads

As Uber stumbles, Lyft sees an opening, and bites its tongue.

Feeling good about the markets? Maybe you shouldn’t read this.

Detours

Once a model city, Hong Kong is in trouble.

Thirteen ways to be better at grilling.

So very presidential. So pride much.

Retail Therapy

We could probably live in Seattle.

Hi, happy Wednesday.:)

Top News in the A.M.

Less than a week after an explosive report emerged about the predatory behavior of Justin Caldbeck, cofounder of Binary Capital, the firm is being shut down, for all practical purposes. Bloomberg, which has the news here, said last night that LPs would likely either sell off all the firm’s current portfolio stakes, allow remaining cofounder Jonathan Teo manage them, or assign their management to another venture firm. In an update this morning, however, Teo has just offered to resign from both funds. It could be for reasons that aren’t publicly apparent (yet). Another possibility: a growing number of Binary’s startups seem to prefer breaking all ties. One of them, Assist, said  last night that they’ve asked to buy back Binary’s stake in its business.

Axios yesterday published a related report on Lightspeed Venture Partners, which previously employed Caldbeck, and it’s not going to win the powerful firm many new fans. According to Axios, Lightspeed removed Caldbeck from a board observer seat several years ago after Katrina Lake, cofounder and CEO of the e-commerce company Stitch Fix, complained about him. Alas, when Lake began talking with Benchmark Capital about her next round of funding, Lightspeed had Lake sign a non-disparagement agreement, effectively silencing her. A year later, Caldbeck cofounded Binary Capital.

Sponsored By . . .

This week’s StrictlyVC is brought to you courtesy of Crowded Ocean, the two-person marketing agency that specializes in positioning and launching startups (46 to date, including Palo Alto Networks, Nimble Storage and Sumo Logic—as well as 10 exits). We help develop your positioning and messaging, turn it into content (website, white papers, use cases) and hire the resources (PR, web design, demand gen, etc.) to launch your company. We then help hire our successor, then skedaddle. Today’s successful startup is based on strong positioning and early customer acquisition. To learn more about our services, see our book, The Ultimate Startup Guide, or contact us.

While Most Investment Firms Ponder ICOs, This Outfit is Barreling Ahead with a $100 Million ICO Fund

Most investors are trying to get a handle on initial coin offerings, which have begun racing through the tech ecosystem like a fire, veering off in multiple directions and causing excitement and confusion and some degree of terror as they grow in number.

In the simplest terms, the offerings enable startups to create their own digital currencies and sell them to users who can either redeem them later for the startups’ services, or sell them on a coin exchange at a later date.

Because the offerings are unregulated, most venture capitalists remain wary of them, even as their very line of work suddenly looks threatened. (Why sell equity to an investor when your customers are willing to throw money at you?)

However, one San Francisco-based firm is barreling full steam ahead into the world of ICO investing: Pantera Capital, founded 14 years ago by Tiger Management veteran Dan Morehead, whose team was among the first to launch funds focused exclusively on bitcoin and other digital currencies.

That Pantera is again chugging past its peers into territory they view as uncertain isn’t surprising. (Pantera has done pretty well with bitcoin, which it began buying when the currency was valued at $65. Today, one bitcoin is valued at roughly $2,500.) Still, the size of its newest fund — which has already garnered $35 million and Pantera expects to close with $100 million by summer’s end — seems like an outsize gamble, even for the gun-slinging outfit.

To learn more, we talked yesterday with Morehead, Pantera partner Paul Veradittakit and new hire Joey Krug, who previously co-founded Augur, a decentralized prediction market platform that raised $5.3 million in an ICO in 2015 — long before the rest of us had ever heard the term.

More here.

New Fundings

Cabin, a year-old, San Francisco-based hospitality transportation company (it operates buses with private cabins and other luxuries for regional travel, including from San Francisco to L.A.), has raised $3.3 million in seed funding. The round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from SV Angel, Floodgate, Box Group, Brainchild Holdings, Justin Rosenstein, StartX, FJ Labs, and 1517 Fund. More here.

Clique Media Group, an 11-year-old, L.A.-based fashion startup that is part media company, part consumer product house, has raised $15 million in Series C funding co-led by Greycroft Partners and e.ventures. Recode has more here.

Kry, a three-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based digital health startup, has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Accel Partners in London, with participation from Creandum, Index Ventures, and Project A. More here.

Lazada, five-year-old, Bangkok-based online shopping and selling destination that’s reportedly Southeast Asia’s number largest, has raise $1 billion in further funding from earlier backer Alibaba Group, which now owns 83 percent of the company. Bloomberg has more here.

LendUp, a 5.5-year-old, San Francisco-based online lending company that says it helps the underbanked develop better credit, has received an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from PayPal. According to Crunchbase, the company had previously raised at least $360 million in equity and debt funding. TechCrunch has more here.

Wonder, a two-year-old, Venice, Ca.-based mobile company that’s been operating in stealth mode since its launched, has raised an undisclosed amount to Series A funding led by Grishin Robotics and TCL Communication Holdings. The round brings the company’s total funding — including from Kevin Spacey, Shakira, Greycroft Partners and 8VC —  to $14 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Xometry, a nearly four-year-old, Gaithersburg, Md.-based on-demand manufacturing platform, has raised $15 million in funding led by BMW i Ventures, with participation from earlier backers GE Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. More here.

New Funds

Benhamou Global Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses exclusively on enterprise investments, says it has closed its third fund with $80 million in commitments from existing LPs, as well as new international and institutional LPs that include several U.S., European, Israeli and Chinese investors. More here.

Google today is more formally taking the wraps off its internal incubator, Area 120. More here.

Verizon Ventures, the corporate venture capital unit of Verizon, has established a new arm in Tel Aviv called Verizon Ventures Israel. The group, which isn’t disclosing how much capital it has to use, is being headed up by Merav Rotem-Naaman, the  former Head of Nautilus, AOL’s Israeli investment and scouting arm. It will back both early- and late-stage companies. More here.

IPOs

Blue Apron just slashed its price range target (by a lot).

People

The Democratic National Committee has tapped Raffi Krikorian, a former top engineer at Uber’s self-driving-car program, to be its next chief technology officer. The idea is to create tools to reach more voters. Recode has more here.

Speaking at the annual Stanford Directors’ College yesterday, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defended ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, suggesting he was unaware of the toxic culture brewing at Uber because of the company’s rapid growth. The San Francisco Chronicle has more here.

Joshua Newman, a fitness entrepreneur who was raised in Palo Alto and previously ran a venture fund that provided backing to startups founded by college students, was just sentenced to 41 months in prison for using money he’d raised for a new venture for his personal use. Dealbook has more here.

Essential Reads

ProPublica on Facebook’s secret censorship algorithm: it protects white men more than black children.

That malware attack is still spreading.

Detours

What it costs to open a restaurant in San Francisco.

Nike’s cofounder says not even Tiger Woods could make golf profitable.

Retail Therapy

No.

Hi, dear readers, happy Tuesday!

Top News in the A.M.

Google was just slapped with a $2.7 billion fine by European antitrust officials for unfairly favoring some of its own services.

Facebook now has two beellion users.

And, crikey, a new ransomware attack is going global fast.

Sponsored By . . .

Today’s successful startup is based on strong positioning and early customer acquisition. This week’s StrictlyVC is brought to you courtesy of Crowded Ocean, the two-person marketing agency that specializes in positioning and launching startups (46 to date, including Palo Alto Networks, Nimble Storage and Sumo Logic—as well as 10 exits). We help develop your positioning and messaging, turn it into content (website, white papers, use cases) and hire the resources (PR, web design, demand gen, etc.) to launch your company. We then help hire our successor and depart. To learn more about our services, see our book, The Ultimate Startup Guide, or contact us.

StdLib Just Raised $2 Million to Connect Businesses via APIs

Six years ago, Keith Horwood was known in his native Toronto as a former graduate student who’d hacked into his school’s student union election site, changing candidates’ titles for comic effect. (He was given what’s called a conditional discharge after paying a fine and performing community service.)

He also determined that he’d rather become known in tech circles as an agent for good, and he seems to be working toward that end with StdLib, his roughly two-year-old startup that abstracts away infrastructure using “serverless” architecture, allowing developers to write everything from simple functions to complex business logic, then deploy their code as scalable, fully­ documented web APIs.

The idea: delivering web services and APIs is a complex problem, and plenty can go wrong between the birth of a business idea and the production implementation of a web service. StdLib is aiming to solve the problem by making it possible to deploy new updates that are uncoupled from a company’s infrastructure. (This way, if things go awry with that new function or update, users and customers needn’t know.)

The company has plenty of competition. Still, investors must think it has a chance at fighting through a growing field of upstarts.

StdLib first passed through the accelerator program AngelPad early last year; today, it’s announcing another $2 million in fresh seed funding led by BlueYard Capital, a Berlin­- based venture firm focused largely on the democratization of software development.

Other investors in the round include Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures; Aston Motes, who was Dropbox’s first engineer; Michael Dabrowski, president of the biotechnology company Synthego; and the Nordic Makers Venture Group.

Horwood says it wasn’t easy breaking into the Silicon Valley scene several years ago, where he first moved to work at Storefront, a company that likens itself to an Airbnb of retail, renting out short-term commercial space.

More here.

New Fundings

Acquired.io, a newly launched, Bay Area-based startup that want to enable publishers to manage their user acquisition from a single place, has raised $2 million in funding from individual investors, including AdColony founder Jonathan Zweig and John Zdanowski, a former CFO at  Linden Lab. TechCrunch has more here.

Auth0, a four-year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based company that makes online identity verification and protections software, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Meritech Capital Partners. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and Australia’s Telstra also joined the round, along with earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, and K9 Ventures. GeekWire has more here.

Diffblue, a year-old, Oxford, England-based company whose core AI can apparently build an exact mathematical model of any code base with just a few examples provided, has raised $22 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments, with participation from Oxford Sciences Innovations, and the Oxford Technology and Innovations Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Drive.ai, a two-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based self-driving technology startup, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from GGV and previous investors, including Northern Light. TechCrunch has more here.

Flip, a two-year-old, New York-based company that enables users to sublet or escape their apartment leases, has just raised $2.2 million from Union Square Ventures, Techstars New York City, and Collaborative Fund. The company had earlier raised $1.2 million from Joanne Wilson, Scott Belsky, Techstars Ventures, Built by Girls Ventures, V1 Ventures and MetaProp NYC. TechCrunch has more here.

Glooko, a seven-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based diabetes data management platform, has raised $35 million in new funding led by Georgian Partners. Other investors in the round include Insulet Corporation, Mayo Clinic, Canaan Partners, Social Capital, Medtronic and Samsung Next. More here.

HealthLoop, an eight-year-old, SaaS platform that enables medical practices to monitor symptoms and communicate with patients during the recovery process, has raised $8.4 million in Series B funding. Investors include NextEquity, Lafayette General Hospital, Canvas Ventures, Summation Health Ventures, and iCarbonX, a Chinese health-related data mining and analysis firm. DealStreetAsia has more here.

JASK, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based company whose technology  automates network monitoring and management for overtaxed security teams, has raised $12 million in funding led by Dell Technologies Capital and TenEleven Ventures. Earlier backers Battery Ventures and Vertical Venture Partners also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Klarna, the 12-year-old, Stockholm, Sweden-based e-commerce payments “unicorn,” has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Visa. TechCrunch has more on what the tie-up means here.

Oars & Alps, a two-year-old, Chicago-based e-commerce company that’s focused on “premium” men’s grooming and skincare products, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding, including from Breakout Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

PromoRepublic, a five-year-old, Helsinki-based SaaS business that helps freelance marketers and small businesses create content for social networks, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding, including from Howzat Partners, Digital Future and Spring Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Stashfin, a 1.5-year-old, Delhi, India-based online lending company, has raised $5 million in “pre-Series A” funding  from Snow Leopard Ventures and Alto Partners. The Economic Times has more here.

Stayawhile, a nine-month-old, New York-based collection of furnished apartments for guests who want to move freely between cities, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Founders Fund and Global Founders Capital also joined the round. TechCrunch has more here.

Sumo Logic, a seven-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based cloud-based log analysis platform, has raised $75 million in funding led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Accel Partners, DFJ Growth, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures. The company has now raised $235 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

View, a 10-year-old, Milpitas, Ca.-based maker of internet-connected windows that can be made more or less transparent, eliminating the need for blinds, has raised $200 million in fresh funding from TIAA and earlier investor BlackRock, which had previously provided the company with $70 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Your.MD, a five-year-old, London-based AI-driven health information service delivered via a bot, has raised $10 million in new funding. The round was led by Orkla Ventures, the venture arm of Orkla, a supplier of branded consumer goods to the health, pharmacy, and grocery sectors in the Nordics, Baltics and parts of Central Europe. Earlier backer Smedvig Capital also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Capnamic Ventures, a five-year-old, early-stage venture capital firm based in Berlin and Cologne, has closed its newest fund with €115 million in capital commitments, including from corporate investors Axa Germany, Cisco, and several media companies. The firm plans to invest in the primarily German-speaking regions of Europe, with a focus on “B2B solutions, digital infrastructure, and digital transformation.” TechCrunch has more here.

Cloudflare, an eight-year-old performance and security company that provides online services to protect and accelerate websites online, just announced a $100 million fund, which it has created with the help of its own investors. (These include NEA, Union Square Ventures, and Fidelity Investments.) The idea is to back developers whose apps take advantage of the Cloudflare ecosystem. TechCrunch has more here.

DayTwo, a two-year-old, Israel-based microbiome-health management startup, has raised $12 million in Series A funding from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Seventure Partners and the Mayo Clinic. More here.

The South African bank Investec is planning to put together a new €75 million venture capital fund to support early-stage, high-growth Irish companies. The Irish Times has more here.

Ludlow Ventures, an eight-year-old, early-stage venture firm in Detroit, has closed its second venture fund with $45 million in capital commitments, founder and managing partner Jonathon Triest tells us. Ludlow’s team, which includes partner Brett deMarrais and associate Blake Robbins, was originally targeting $40 million; its investors, or limited partners, include four institutions, along with numerous family offices and high-net-worth individuals. TechCrunch has more here.

Pantera Capital, an investment firm that for years has focused exclusively on digital currencies, has now raised $23.5 million from 28 investors to expressly to back initial coin offerings. The SEC filing, which doesn’t state a target, is here.