| Friday! [Runs through field of wildflowers.] Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone.:) |
| Top News |
| California just passed a landmark data privacy bill over the strenuous objections of many tech companies that rely on surreptitious data collection for their livelihood. If you couldn’t reach your favorite web sites earlier today. it wasn’t just you. |
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| These 50 Founders and VCs Suggest 2018 May Be a Tipping Point for Women in Tech (Part One) |
| For the last several years, we’ve compiled profiles of women founders and investors at the end of each year because they’ve either raised substantial amounts of money or otherwise achieved notable milestones. This year, we don’t want to wait until December. We’re too excited about the progress we’re witnessing, with women-led startups getting seed, Series A or later-stage funding each week — all while top venture firms grow more serious about pulling women into their most senior ranks, female VCs band together to fund female founders and other women go about launching their own funds. Some of you will note that this list is far from comprehensive, and we’ll readily agree with you. But we think it’s better to celebrate the accomplishments of some of the women who deserve attention than try to capture every last person we’d include if only there were more hours in the day. Herewith, a list of 25 founders and investors who’ve had a pretty good 2018 so far, with a follow-up coming shortly, so stay tuned. More here. |
| New Fundings |
| Appello Pharmaceuticals, a Nashville, Tn.-based developer of a Parkinson’s disease treatment, raised $10.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Deerfield Management and Mountain Group Partners. FierceBiotech has more here. ApplyBoard, a three-year-old, Kitchener, Ontario-based university application platform for international students, has raised $9.9 million in Series A funding led by Artiman Ventures, with participation from earlier backers 500 Startups and Candou Ventures. More here. Cashify, a nine-year-old, Gurgaon, India-based marketplace for used smartphones, has raised $12 million in Series C funding co-led by CDH Investments and Morningside, with participation from Aihuishou (a China-based startup that sells used electronics) and earlier backers Bessemer Venture Partners and Shunwei. TechCrunch has more here. Density, a four-year-old, Bay Area-based company that makes a Wi-Fi powered, sensor-loaded counting device that measures how many people are inside a space at any one time, has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, Jason Calacanis, and David Sacks. More here. Doctrine, a two-year-old, Paris-based company that’s building a search engine for court decisions and other legal texts, is raising $11.6 million in new funding from earlier backers Otium Venture and Xavier Niel. TechCrunch has more here. Kaleido Biosciences, a three-year-old, Bedford, Ma.-based healthcare company at work on chemistries that drive functions of the microbiome organ in order to treat disease, has raised $101 million in Series C funding. New investors Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Invus and Rock Springs Capital joined original funder Flagship Pioneering in the round. MedCity News has more here. MedCrypt, a two-year-old, Encinitas, Ca-based company that sells data security as a service to medical device OEMs, has raised $1.9 million in new funding led by Eniac Ventures. Nex Cubed, Oronoco Investments, Sway Ventures and Friedman BioVentures also participated. MedCity News has more here. Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, a year-old, Oxford, England-based biotech firm that’s researching the potential of cannabinoid-based medications, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Casa Verde Capital, Imperial Brands Ventures and other, unnamed family offices and institutions. Bloomberg has more here. |
| New Funds |
| Industry Ventures, the 18-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm, says it has closed its fifth hybrid fund of funds with $335 million in capital commitments. The fund’s strategy will be to make primary commitments and early secondary purchases in smaller, early-stage venture capital funds, as well as to co-invest directly alongside these funds. More here. |
| Exits |
| SimpliSafe, the company behind the SimpliSafe home security service, today announced that Hellman & Friedman, the private equity firm, has taken a controlling interest in the company for undisclosed terms that TechCrunch sources say values SimpliSafe at roughly $1 billion. Simplisafe appears to have raised $57 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital. TechCrunch has more here. |
| IPOs |
| To keep its staffers happy, home sharing giant Airbnb told employees yesterday that it will pay them cash bonuses and that it’s aiming to hold an IPO before late 2020, when some employee stock grants expire. Bloomberg has more here. Domo, the business analytics company based out of Utah, today became the latest enterprise tech company to go public, and it did so with a small pop. TechCrunch has more here. Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, raised $4.7 billion in its Hong Kong IPO after pricing shares at the lowest end of its offering range. Bloomberg has more here. |
| Jobs |
| Canaan is looking for an analyst to work alongside industry veterans on enterprise/deep tech deals. Canaan is an early-stage firm with a history of company building across life sciences and tech. It’s currently investing its eleventh, $800 million, vehicle; the 30-year-old firm has $5 billion in assets under management altogether. More here. |
| People |
| Elon Musk is involved in a copyright argument over a farting unicorn. |
| Data |
| Digital currency sales hit a stunning $13.7 billion in first five months of 2018, according to a new report. Reuters has more here. |
| Essential Reads |
| Apple is rebuilding Maps from the ground up, says TechCrunch. Watch where you step. According to The Information, Uber plans to resume testing self-driving cars by August, in Pittsburgh and possibly San Francisco. Spin isn’t out of the e-scooter race, looks like. While rival companies Bird and Lime have been gathering up hundreds of millions of dollars from venture investors (compared with the comparatively measly $8 million in funding that Spin is known to have raised), Spin has apparently been crafting a $125 million “security token offering,” reports Axios. More here. |
| Detours |
| The rise and fall of CrossFit’s science crusader. A network of members-only co-living spaces designed to train guests in the “art of conversation.” |
| Retail Therapy |
| Old-school Broncos that are brand new. An electric hydrofoil. (You are going to need a helmet.) |