Hi and happy Monday, everyone! No column today. (It was the first day back to school in our house, so hectic. We’ve also been distracted by this stupefying solar eclipse, which we’re still watching online.)

In separate news: our upcoming event, Wednesday, September 27, in San Francisco, is nearly sold out. We have roughly a dozen seats and that’s it, alas. If you don’t have a ticket but know you want to come, don’t delay.

Thank you to Bolt and to Ballou PR and to Rosebud Communications for partnering with us; your support is invaluable. Thanks, too, to the wonderful Sarah McBride of Bloomberg, who will be leading the evening’s VC chat.

Top News in the A.M.

Bitcoin Cash is crashing.

Watch Google unveil the next version of Android, coming up live in a bit right here.

New Fundings

Capital Float, a four-year-old, Bangalore, India-based digital finance company that provides working capital and business loans to SMEs, has raised $45 million in Series C funding led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments. TechCrunch has more here.

Commonwealth Joe, a five-year-old, Arlington, Va.-based coffee roasting company, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Mendacre, with participation from Hammerstone Capital and Stroud Companies. Technical.ly DC has more here.

eMoov, a seven-year-old, Essex, England-based online real estate agency, has raised £9 million ($11.6 million) in funding led by JXC Ventures, with participation from Episode 1 VC, Maxfield Capital, Spire and Startive Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Let’s Do This, a year-old, London-based online sports listing startup that wants to build the “Airbnb of endurance events,” has raised £1 million from numerous individuals in tech, banking, and sports. Business Insider has more here.

Magmode, a two-year-old, Beijing-based Chinese men’s fashion start-up, has raised $15 million in addition Series B funding led by the Sino-French private equity firm Cathay Capital Private Equity. Sinovation Ventures also joined the round. China Money Network has more here.

Monstar Lab, an 11-year-old, Japan-based software development firm, has raised $6.3 million in funding, including from YJ Capital, Shinsei Corporate Investment, San-In Chuo Television Broadcasting Co, Fenox Venture Capital and Tanabe Corp. Tech in Asia has more here.

Prodigy Finance, a 10-year-old, London-based platform that helps students fund their studies by connecting them with alums who’ll loan them money based on their future earning potential, has raised $40 million in Series C funding. Index Ventures led the round, with participation from Balderton Capital and the African fintech accelerator AlphaCode. Business Insider has more here.

UangTeman, a three-year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia-based online microlending platform, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by K2 Venture Capital, Enspire Capital and Alpha JWC Ventures, with participation from Draper Associates. DealStreetAsia has more here.

New Funds

Beoff Lewis, a partner at Founders Fund, is leaving to start his own fund, says Bloomberg. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he’s following a similar path as Luke Nosek, a Founders Fund cofounder who also recently left the firm to start his own fund. Nosek’s fund is called Gigafund, and its objective in part is to help Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, raise money. Meanwhile, Lewis reportedly plans to raise more than $100 million for his new fund, with Founders Fund as an anchor investor. More here.

The pan-Asian venture capital and growth equity firm Epsilon Venture Partners – which recently marked the first close of its $350 million fund – expects to hit its final close by early next year, it says. The firm, set up two years ago, was founded by Sudheer Kuppam, the former India and Asia Pacific managing director of Intel Capital; it plans to invest at least one third of its fund in Indian companies and the rest in North and Southeast Asian countries. DealStreet Asia talks with Kuppam here.

Exits

Cisco said today that it plans to buy Springpath, a five-year-old, Sunnyvale, Ca.-based software startup known for the development of a distributed file system for hyperconvergence that enables server-based storage systems. Cisco is paying around $320 million, says ZDNet. According to Crunchbase, Springpath had raised $34 million from NEA, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Stanford University. More here.

Amazon-owned video game streaming site Twitch has acquired ClipMine, a three-year-old, Palo Alto-based video indexing platform that’s now being put to use to translate visual information in videos – like objects, text, logos and scenes – into metadata that can help people more easily find the streams they want to watch. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. ClipMine had raised $2.6 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Its backers included renowned investor Ram Shriram, former Facebook vice president Greg Badros, entrepreneur Amarjit Gill and Cadence CEO Lip-Bu Tam. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Investor-operator Ellen Pao has published a new book about sexism in Silicon Valley. The Cut has an excerpt.

Over half a dozen residents of a San Francisco “castle” have become bitcoin millionaires. Business Insider takes a look inside.

Also Sponsored By . . .

Today’s StrictlyVC is also brought to you by the Financial Solutions Lab at CFSI, which selected Blueprint Income, Dave.com, EverSafe, Grove, Nova, Point, Token Transit, and Tomorrow for this year’s Lab class. What makes these startups so special?

Jobs

Rev1 Ventures, a Columbus, Oh.-based seed-stage venture firm, is looking to hire a director of investments.

Data

The solar eclipse is reportedly costing companies at least $700 million in lost worker productivity. (To quote the characters from “Billions,” one of our favorite shows: worth it!)

Essential Reads

How hate groups forced online platforms to reveal their true nature.

Since Britain gave notice it was leaving the European Union in March, a growing list of British VC firms has been told they will not receive financial support from the European Investment Fund, the EU agency that provides almost half of the money for the region’s venture capital industry.

An inside look at Ford’s $1 billion bet on Argo AI.

Detours

The evolution of Drogon the Dragon, in “Game of Thrones.”

How your feelings affect your face.

Retail Therapy

Freak out a date (and anyone else who visits you).

VW is bringing back its Microbus, and it’s electric.

Well, hello, and happy Wednesday. Do you have a solar-eclipse strategy yet? (We’re still working on ours.)

Top News in the A.M.

The most-liked tweet in history was published last night.

Top CEOs who were members of Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum just agreed to disband the group, following his comments yesterday that “both sides” were responsible for the violence initiated by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Virginia this past weekend. The policy group had included IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and GM CEO Mary Barra among a dozen others. “There really was nothing to debate,” one member told CNBC. More here.

Sponsored By . . .

At eero, we believe the foundation of home technology has been broken for far too long. So in 2014, we assembled a team of the brightest engineers and designers with a singular goal: make WiFi so great it disappears. And that’s just what we’ve done. eero is simpler, performs better, and is more intelligent than any WiFi solution on earth. For StrictlyVC readers: get your eero whole-home WiFi system with code StrictlyVC at checkout and select overnight shipping for free!

Mike Maples on How to Raise a Fund in Today’s Climate

By Semil Shah

Mike Maples founded the early-stage firm Floodgate roughly a decade ago and it’s fair to say that things have gone pretty well for him since. His bets include Twitter, Twitch.TV, Bazaarvoice, Spiceworks, Demandforce, and Okta. He’s been on the Midas List. And Maples was involved as a founder and operating executive at Tivoli Systems, acquired by IBM after going public, and Motive, acquired by Alcatel-Lucent after going public. (The firm has also benefited from an early bet on Lyft made by Ann Miura-Ko, who joined Maples a year later as cofounder.)

When Maples raised his first, $15 million, fund, it took just one month, and most of the capital came from one individual investor — though he lined up six altogether. We talked with him recently about that fund, as well as what aspiring fund managers need to keep in mind today. Our chat has been edited for length.

You raised your first fund fairly easily, based on your operating background.

I always had a pretty realistic view of the purpose of Fund 1. I saw it as a booster rocket for the future. Either it would propel Floodgate to escape velocity, or it would flame out quickly. Many first-time fund managers have a target to raise and they go out and try to raise it. In general, I disagree with this approach. Instead, I looked at my fund size as “that which I can raise from the true believers in 30 days or less.” My view was that if someone wanted to invest in my fund, they already had decided for the most part. So . . . rather than say “I’m raising $25 million” or $50 million or whatever,  I took the perspective of: I am new at this. I might lose money. I might not like managing a fund. You might not like how I manage a fund. What is an amount you would consider investing, given these realities?

If you don’t have a set of people who already believe, I hate to be the bearer of bad news: You are likely not ready to raise a fund.

When did you start talking with more traditional LPs, and how did you approach them?

I started building these relationships before I closed Fund 1 but did not pitch any of the more traditional LPs [for Floodgate’s second fund].  My view was that it was important to get to know LPs when I was not fundraising. It was more straightforward to have honest conversations and not try to sell around objections or try to out-guess what people were looking for.

One of the unanticipated benefits of this was that I really got to understand how some of the best LPs thought about investing in the very best firms. I could get data and insights about the types of portfolios that produced the winning returns and the best practices of building great teams and funding great founders.

You should never be in sell mode with a potential LP. You should  . . . use the meeting as an opportunity to test your ideas and improve them. When you have the chance to meet with a new potential LP and you are not in  sell mode and you get an objection about your strategy, you can say, “Interesting. Tell me more about that.” If the LP is right because they have more perspective or data, you’ll get better and smarter. If you disagree on a first-principles basis after receiving the feedback, you’ve dodged a bullet because you have different values. When your investors have different values than you, it’s a miserable existence.

Anything else you can tell folks who are out there in today’s market, trying to raise a fund?

First, you are not for everybody. Some people will see your advantage and value your advantage. Most will not. Just like a startup raising money, your early customers — in this case, LPs — are not the mainstream. They are the people who believe what you believe. Your task is to find these people. If most don’t believe what you believe, then that’s OK. Come back to them when they do.

Second, don’t try to outguess what people are looking for. Ask yourself honestly why you’re raising a fund and in what ways you’re going to be awesome in a crowded world of way too many VC dollars. You need a crystal clear answer to this, especially as a first-time fund manager, including to justify the use of your own time. A lot of people enjoy investing in startups and would like more money to invest in more. LPs don’t care about your desire to fund startups; they care about your unique strategy to get paid for the risk you take.

Third, turn off your happy ears. By the time you have decided to raise money, most of the people who will invest have already decided. If they are not willing to declare their commitment quickly, they are not ready. If the sum of the money of committed investors who believe in you right now does not add up to a fund, then you are either raising money too soon or trying to raise too much. Accept this, as well as the fact that if you are awesome, there will always be another chance down the road. But failure mode is pressuring and rushing people.

New Fundings

3Bar Biologics, a four-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based company that uses living microbes to stimulate plant growth (its product is applied to seeds), has raised $2 million in funding, including from Rev1 Ventures, Maumee Ventures, Ohio TechAngel Funds, Queen City Angels, Carmen Innovations, and SVG Thrive Fund. More here.

Actionable Quality Assurance, a 3.5-year-old, Gainesville, Fla.-based software as a service platform for thorough monitoring of food safety for restaurants, has raised $2 million in seed funding from a private angel investment group. More here.

GeoTix, a two-year-old, Traverse City, Mi.-based ticketing platform that aims to help local and regional media companies grow their revenue, has raised $1 million in funding, including from Boomerang-Catapult and Casey Cowell, a co-founder of U.S. Robotics. More here.

HiScene, a five-year-old, Beijing-based startup that’s developing hardware and software products for augmented reality, has raised roughly $14 million in Series B funding led by Shanghai Cableway Investment, with participation from Sincere Capital, Vstar Capital and the Chinese smartphone and selfie app developer Meitu. China Money Network has more here.

ilos Videos, a two-year-old, St. Paul, Mn.-based provider of a video platform for the workplace, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Active Capital, with participation from Ingram Content Group and Hyde Park Venture Partners. The company has now raised $3 million altogether. More here.

Kingo, a four-year-old, Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala-based solar energy technology company, has raised $8 million in Series B funding led by FCP (the innovation fund of Colombian utility EPM), ENGIE (a French utility), FMO (a Dutch development bank), Proparco (a French development bank), and H-Reff(a renewable energy fund). The company has now raised $19 million altogether. FinSMEs has more here.

Lift, a three-year-old, Toronto-based startup that helps customers find cannabis clinics and book appointments with them, has raised $3 million in Series A funding from undisclosed backers. More here.

MedAware, a five-year-old, Raanana, Israel-based company whose software performs real-time evaluations of prescribed drugs against up-to-date patient profiles to eliminate prescription errors, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Backers included BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), Gefen Capital, OurCrowd and Yingcheng City Fubon Technology. More here.

Options, a 23-year-old, New York-based provider of cloud-enabled managed services to the global capital markets, has raised roughly $100 million in growth funding from Bregal Sagemount, a New York-based private equity firm. More here.

Phil, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based, end-to-end prescription management and delivery service that connects patients with local pharmacies, has raised $10 million in funding led by Crosslink Capital. Other participants in the round include Eniac Ventures, Softtech VC, Forerunner Ventures, SV Angel, Silicon Valley Bank, and Transmedia Capital. More here.

Respond Software, a year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based expert system that says it emulates the decision-making and judgement of a seasoned security analyst, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by CRV and Foundation Capital. More here.

SnapApp, a six-year-old, Boston-based SaaS platform used by B2B marketers to create, publish, and measure interactive content, has raised $10.2 million in Series B funding, including from Providence Strategic Growth, the growth equity affiliate of Providence Equity Partners. Xconomy has more here.

YangTian, a two-year-old, Tianjin, China-based developer of light industrial robotic arms that are used for a variety of jobs like handling, assembling, polishing, and coating, has raised $7 million in “pre-A” funding from Lenovo Capital and the Incubator Group. GSR Ventures and Yinxinggu Capital also joined the round. China Money Network has more here.

New Funds

645 Ventures, a four-year-old, New York-based, seed-stage venture  firm, is looking to raise up to $30 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. The company was cofounded by Nnamdi Okike, a former principal at Insight Venture Partners, and Aaron Holiday, a former associate at DFJ Gotham Ventures and former entrepreneurial officer at Cornell Tech.

Andrew Ng, the cofounder of Coursera and formerly Baidu’s chief scientist, is looking to raise up to $150 million for a new vehicle called The AI Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Round13 Capital, a six-year-old, Toronto-based tech-focused venture capital firm, has closed on $95 million in commitments for its newest fund, from backers that include high-net-worth individuals, family offices, National Bank, and the pension fund LiUNA. The firm funds growth-stage Canadian companies. More here.

IPOs

Despegar, an 18-year-old, Buenos Aires-based online travel company, yesterday filed to raise up to $100 million in an IPO on the NYSE. The company, a rare “unicorn” in Latin America, is owned in part by Tiger Global Management, which has been investing actively in Brazilian startups for years. Other shareholders include Expedia, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Insight Venture Partners and Accel Partners. Reuters has the story here.

MongoDB, a 10-year-old, New York-based database startup that has raised more than $300 million from VCs, has confidentially filed to go public, says TechCrunch. At the time of its last private valuation in 2015, MongoDB was reportedly a $1.6 billion company. More here.

Exits

Netsertive, a Morrisville, N.C.-based marketing technology company, has acquired Mixpo, a Seattle-based video advertising software company. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Mixpo had raised more than $10 million in funding from investors, including GrowthWorks Capital, Madrona Venture Group, and Yaletown Partners. Netsertive has raised roughly $38 million, including from RRE Ventures, Babson Capital Management, Harbert Venture Partnersand Greycroft Partners. GeekWire has more here.

People

Shelby Bonnie, the cofounder of CNet and more recently spent four years as a managing director with Allen & Co., is newly the CEO of Pylon, an artificial intelligence cmpany that’s building custom experiences for Amazon Echo and Google Home. Business Insider has more here.

Nicole Sanchez, co-founder and CEO of Credit Hero, has joined female founder-focused seed fund XFactor Ventures. More here.

Data

According to Facebook, 45 million people send birthday wishes on its platform each day. It just equipped them with some new features, too.

According to a poll by the public relations firm Weber Shandwick, roughly half of millennials believe CEOs “have a responsibility to speak up on issues important to society”— compared to just 28 percent of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. (H/T: Fortune’s Alan Murray.)

Essential Reads

Uber is in talks to raise as much as $12 billion, according to Bloomberg. Approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion would be used to acquire new shares, and anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion would be used to buy out the shares of existing shareholders.

Apple is budgeting $1 billion to procure and produce original content over the next year, says the WSJ, a sign of how serious it is about making a splash in Hollywood.

Why Benchmark may want to cash out of Uber, in Dealbook.

Waymo may get an edge over rival Uber as the two head into an explosive trade secrets trial this fall. Today, a federal judge said he’ll likely tell the jury about how Uber’s lawyers “misled the court” and repeatedly failed to produce documents that could be important in the case. The SJ Merc has more here.

Detours

Millennials like vintage, but they haven’t inherited a love of antiques.

Jimmy Kimmel’s not-terrible idea to make Donald Trump king.

It’s always a Florida man.

Retail Therapy

Solar eclipse camps. (Hey, it’s one option.)

Hi, everyone, happy Tuesday!

StrictlyVC is being brought to you this week by Rosebud Communications. Smart, on-message media coverage = higher valuations. We’re the hardest-working PR firm in the business. Send us an email; operators are standing by: info@rosebudpr.io

Top News in the A.M.

Everything that Apple announced yesterday at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

Uber is expected to share some findings of its harassment probe today.

The RealReal Ropes in $50 Million in Funding

The RealReal, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based company focused on authenticated, high-end resale items for women, men, and the home, has landed $50 million in growth funding from the private equity firm Great Hill Partners.

The round, which brings the company’s total funding to $173 million, did not include previous backers; a spokeswoman for the company says Great Hill “wanted all of the investment.”

The cash infusion comes at an important juncture for The RealReal, which now employs more than 800 people and has pushed out the time by which it will turn profitable, setting its sights instead on spreading brand awareness by expanding its physical footprint.

Already, the company has opened six valuation offices in the last 18 months, including in San Francisco, New York, L.A., Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The spaces enable consignors to consult directly with valuation experts about their fine jewelry and watches.

Last month, in a sit-down with this editor in San Francisco, CEO Julie Wainwright said that The RealReal is also weighing a strategy of opening a series of brick-and-mortar stores, starting first with one New York location that a RealReal spokeswoman says is still being locked down and should be open for business in late fall or early winter this year.

More here.

New Fundings

Armis, a 1.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based enterprise IoT security company, has emerged from stealth mode with $17 million in funding, including from Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital. More here.

BookNook, a year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based reading instruction technology that promotes small group learning for kids, just closed a $1.2 million seed round led by Reach Capital, with participation from Urban Innovation Fund, Better Ventures, and Impact Engine. More here.

Carsome, a 2.5-year-old, Malaysia-based consumer-to-business used-car platform, has raised $6 million in funding led by Gobi Partners, with participation from earlier backers 500 Startups, Spiral Ventures, as well as new investors Lumia Capital and Innoven. Digital News Asia has more here.

Coinbase, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based bitcoin wallet and platform, is in talks with investors about $100 million or more in new funding, at a valuation of more than $1 billion, says the WSJ. To date, Coinbase has raised $116.5 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, DFJ, Ribbit Capital and NTT DoComo, as well as half a dozen banks. More here.

Clustree, a four-year-old, Paris-based SaaS business that aims to turn external and internal data into actionable insights for HR departments, has raised $7.9 million in Series A funding from Creandum, with participation from Idinvest Partners and Alven Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

DOC+, a nearly two-year-old, Moscow-based digital health company centered around on-demand medical services and medical data management, has raised $5 million in Series B funding, including from Yandex and Baring Vostok. More here.

Earlens Corporation, a 12-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based hearing aid maker, has raised a whopping $73 million in Series C funding led by Vertex Healthcare, with participation from Windham Venture Partners, Sightline Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Aisling Capital, Lightstone Ventures and Medtronic. More here.

Freight Farms, a seven-year-old, Boston-based company that’s been steadily growing its network of distributed hydroponic farms (made from used shipping containers), has raised $7.3 million in Series B funding, led by Spark Capital. Spark had also led the company’s $3.7 million Series A round in late 2014. More here.

MediaMath, a 10-year-old, New York-based company offering tools and data for automated ad-buying, has secured a $175 million credit facility led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Santander Bank.The company says the financing will fund its growth, as well as allow it to refinance existing debt. TechCrunch has more here.

Netskope, a five-year-old, Los Altos, Ca.-based cloud-access security broker that has developed a platform to monitor a company’s disparate apps and devices, has raised $100 million in new funding. The Series E was led by previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel Partners, with participation from other, earlier backers Social Capital and Iconiq Capital. The round also includes two new backers: Sapphire Ventures and Geodesic Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

PhiSkin, a five-year-old, Shanghai-based aesthetic medical products and beauty services company, has raised $17 million in Series B funding led by Legend Capital, with participation from Ares Management. China Money Network has more here.

Plume Design, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based company that has developed a WiFi network extender, has raised $37.5 million funding from Comcast Cable, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and Presidio Ventures. Earlier backers Liberty Global Ventures, Shaw Ventures, and Jackson Square Ventures also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to more than $63 million. More here.

The Relish, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based sports media company that creates content geared toward female fans, has raised an undisclosed amount, including from Precursor Ventures, Halogen Ventures and Slow Ventures. More here.

Riversand Technologies, a 16-year-old, Houston, Tex.-based maker of data management software, has raised $35 million in funding led by Crestline Investors. More here.

Savonix, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that helps gauge cognitive function via a 30-minute assessment that can be accessed from any iOS or Android device, has raise $5.1 million in Series A funding led by DigiTx Partners, with participation from Rethink Impact. The company has now raised $6.6 million altogether. More here.

Shipt, a three-year-old, Birmingham, Ala.-based online grocery delivery company that employs an annual membership model, has raised another $40 million from the company’s previous backers: Greycroft Partners, e.ventures, and Harbert Venture Partners, which had provided the company with $20 million a little less than a year ago. TechCrunch has more here.

STRIVR Labs, a 2.5-year-old, Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtual reality training software company, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the National Football League, according to WSJ. More here.

Trilogy Education Services, a 1.5-year-old, New York-based continuing education program manager that creates and manages skills-based training programs for 21 universities around the world, has raised $30 million in Series A funding from Highland Capital Partners, with participation from Rethink Education, City Light Capital, and other, individual investors. More here.

Tulip, a three-year-old, Somerville, Ma.-based maker of smart manufacturing apps, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Pitango Venture Capital and numerous returning angel investors. More here.

Wahed, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based robo-advisory firm that serves religious Muslims who are looking to build a halal portfolio, has raised $5 million in seed funding from a mix of investors, including Afkar Holdings managing partner Khalid Al Jassim, former JPMorgan Chase managing eirector John Elkhair, and former McKinsey & Company partner Nasr-Eddine Benaissa. TechCrunch has more here.

Wiretap, a 3.5-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based cloud security platform, has raised $4.85 million in funding co-led by Draper Triangle Ventures and Ohio Innovation Fund, with participation from JumpStart and Rev1 Ventures. More here.

Workey, a two-year-old, Tel Aviv-based career site that uses artificial intelligence to streamline the process of matching companies with potential candidates, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. The round was led by PICO Partners and Magma VC and brings the total Workey has raised so far to $9.6 million. TechCrunch has more here.

New Funds

Causeway Media Partners, a three-year-old, Boston-based investment firm founded by Highland Capital Partners cofounder Bob Higgins; Boston Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck; and Mark Wan, co-founder of Three Arch Partners, has held a $207 million close on its second fund, shows an SEC filing first flagged by Axios.  We talked with Higgins when the firm first launched its $125 million debut fund, to get a handle on its mission.

An SEC filing for Softbank’s Vision Fund has materialized, showing that eight investors have provided the outfit with its $93.15 billion to date. (Softbank, Apple, Qualcomm, Mubadala Investment Company, Saudi Arabia’s PID public fund, Foxconn, and Foxconn-owned Sharp are investors, which, we think, leaves one mystery backer.)

Also Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is also being brought to you this week courtesy of Dreamit UrbanTech. Its message to readers (and founders of breakthrough startups, particularly):

The Dreamit UrbanTech Accelerator Program is officially accepting applications for their Fall 2017 cycle through June 23rd. Participating startups will benefit from unprecedented access to Dreamit’s national customer and investor network, including a chance to interface with the $3 billion Tampa Bay Urban Redevelopment Initiative being led by Strategic Property Partners, a joint venture between Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates’ Cascade Investments. The Dreamit UrbanTech accelerator seeks startups that use digital solutions to make urban areas more livable, sustainable, connected and efficient. We’re looking for startups working in real estate tech, construction tech, IoT, smart cities, clean energy, agriculture, transportation, and AI to join our 14-week growth-focused program. Apply before June 23!

IPOs

Delivery Hero’s much-anticipated IPO is on. Today, the European food delivery company officially announced that it plans to raise as much as €450 million ($506 million) from a public listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. More here.

Exits

Snap has acquired Placed, a Seattle-based location-based analytics and ad measurement startup that aims to demonstrate the extent to which ads are driving users to stores. The purchase price was not disclosed (though Bloomberg’s sources say the deal was sewn up for around $125 million). Placed had raised a little more than $13 million from investors, including a $10 million Series B led by Two Sigma Ventures in 2014. More here.

Professional services company EY has acquired the Melbourne-based identity and access management software company Open Windows; the latter’s tools will now help form the basis of a new centralized IAM advisory platform within EY, led by Open Window’s CEO, Simon Adler. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. More here.

People

Yesterday, we mentioned that Bozoma Saint John, the Apple executive who garnered significant attention for her demo at last year’s worldwide developer conference, is planning to leave the company. The reason, it turns out: she’s headed to Uber. TechCrunch has more here.

In a bid to heal its fractured company culture, Uber has also hired Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei as its new SVP of leadership and strategy. According to Uber, Frei will report to CEO Travis Kalanick, “work as a partner” with chief human resources officer Liane Hornsey, and serve as an executive coach for Uber’s leadership team. TechCrunch has more here.

Elon Musk measures everything in dog years (whether he means to or not).

Jobs

A new fintech-focused venture firm called Motive Partners — its founders are fintech entrepreneurs and investors and they’re reportedly out raising a $150 million debut fund — is looking to hire an associate. The job is in New York.

Essential Reads

After blocking Google users from reading free articles in February, the WSJ’s subscription business soared fourfold. But there was a trade-off.

Carvana, a Phoenix-based company that sells used cars through vending machines, us about to release its first earnings report since going public in April. In preparation, Bloomberg reports on the founder’s checkered past.

Did the Intercept bungle the NSA leak?

Detours

Why drug dealers are killing their customers: A kilo of heroin nets a dealer $60,000. A kilo of fentanyl is worth $1.2 million.

Apple is introducing a new feature called Do Not Disturb while Driving.

Retail Therapy

Museum Hotel.

Seersucker is back.

Hi, all happy Tuesday! Is it too early to get excited about another showdown between the Cavs and the Warriors? Because it looks like it’s a’ comin’. [Biceps flex.]

Top News in the A.M.

Benchmark, the storied early-stage venture firm, has added a new general partner, Sarah Tavel, it announced this morning, saying that Tavel’s “career-long desire and commitment to be one of the world’s great venture capitalists” makes her an “ideal addition” to the Benchmark team. Tavel is the first female general partner in the firm’s 22-year history. Much more here.

Sponsored By . . .

StrictlyVC is being brought to you this week courtesy of Grand Central Tech. Its message to readers (and founders of budding startups, particularly):

Apply today for the Grand Central Tech Accelerator Program! Join the ranks of some of NYC’s premier startups in the single most comprehensive, entrepreneur-friendly program of its kind. GCT attracts top-tier startups, acquaints them with one another and with industry experts to the mutual benefit of all involved; offers relevant, programming tailored to each company’s specific needs; and then more or less gets out of the way. We do not take equity, we do not charge rent, and we aren’t needlessly disruptive. We only take 20 companies so we can concentrate on adding value as/where it’s needed. Applications are due THIS FRIDAY May 12th; we look forward to seeing yours.

This Venture-Backed Company Just Filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy — to Resolve a Patent Dispute

In the world of venture-funded companies, not much surprises industry observers. Yet a new strategy employed by one privately held company might have founders and venture investors wondering if it’s a maneuver worth replicating.

What happened: The U.S. subsidiary of a venture-backed Berlin-based search optimization company called Searchmetrics just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

Why it’s interesting: Sources close to Searchmetrics say the company was forced to file to escape a longstanding battle with venture-backed competitor BrightEdge, based in Menlo Park. Specifically, Searchmetrics alleges that BrightEdge stole its intellectual property, then filed for patents around it. (Searchmetrics says it had patents on its technology in Europe but failed to secure similar patents in the U.S., which created an opening for BrightEdge to exploit.)

Here’s how Searchmetrics’s chief restructuring officer, Wayne Weitz, describes the companies’ rivalry in a letter he submitted to the court today: “One of the [Searchmetrics’s] primary competitors in the U.S. market is BrightEdge Technologies [which] sought to acquire or merge with Searchmetrics in or about October of 2013. During acquisition discussions, BrightEdge became privy to Searchmetrics’ confidential, proprietary, competitive information and business practices, including its business model and growth plans. Ultimately, Searchmetrics and BrightEdge could not agree on terms and the acquisition discussions fell apart.

“Unbeknownst to Searchmetrics, whilst in the midst of the acquisition discussions, BrightEdge developed a campaign to eliminate [Searchmetrics’s] presence in the U.S. market. BrightEdge started by engaging in a smear campaign designed to lure the Debtor’s customers and prospective customers to BrightEdge by making false and disparaging statements about Searchmetrics’s products, and then initiated vexatious, baseless, and prolonged litigation against [Searchmetrics] on two fronts. This Chapter 11 Case was initiated to bring [this litigation] to an expeditious and cost-effective end to permit the Debtor to reorganize, failing which, [Searchmetrics] will be liquidated.”

More here.

New Fundings

Cabify, a 5.5-year-old, Madrid, Spain-based company that’s among the biggest ride-sharing companies in Latin America, Spain and Portugal, has raised $100 million in new funding, according to a Form D SEC filing for Maxi Mobility, as the company is officially called. The money is reportedly part of a total of $500 million that the company hopes to raise in a Series D round.TechCrunch has more here.

Cover, a year-old, L.A.-based technology company that designs and manufactures custom backyard studios, has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Fifty Years, Hyperspeed Ventures, and angel investors (We didn’t realize backyard studios were a thing. Did you know this?) More here.

Donut Media, a two-year-old, L.A.-based digital media company that aims to create viral automotive video content for car enthusiasts, has raised $800,000 in seed funding from Techstars Ventures, 3311 Ventures, Fontinalis Partners and professional driver Ryan Tuerck. More here.

Empower, a year-old, San Francisco-based startup whose app aims to help millennials better manage their finances, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Sequoia Capital. More here.

Finxact, a year-old, Jacksonville, Fla.-based company behind a completely open banking API, has raised $12 million in seed funding, including from Live Oak Ventures. More here.

Freska, a two-year-old, Helsinki, Finland-based on-demand home cleaning service, has raised €2 million in new funding led by Sweden’s Spintop Ventures, with participation from Norway’s Momentum Partners.  TechCrunch has more here.

Grammarly, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that underlines awkward words and phrases in users’ writing and makes suggestions, similar to a feature in Microsoft, has raised a stunning $110 million in funding. General Catalyst led the round, with participation from Breyer Capital, IVP, SignalFire and Spark Capital. Bloomberg has more here.

Podium, a 3.5-year-old, Utah-based enterprise software company specializing in customer review management, has raised $32 million in Series A funding, led by Accel Partners, with participation from GV, Summit Partners, and Y Combinator.(Podium was in YC’s winter 2016 batch). TechCrunch has more here.

Redlock, a two-year-old, Menlo Park, Ca.-based company that works with cloud infrastructure vendors to warn users or fix user errors that could expose their data, has raised $12 million in funding across two previously undisclosed Series A and seed rounds that included participation from Sierra Ventures, Storm Ventures, and Dell Technologies Capital, among others. More here.

Signal Sciences, a three-year-old, Venice Beach, Ca.-based startup that wants to help companies secure their web apps in a modern DevOps context, has raised $15 million in funding led by CRV, with participation from Harrison Medal, Index Ventures and OATV. TechCrunch has more here.

StarLeaf, a nine-year-old, U.K.-based startup that sells cloud-based video and conferencing services to businesses, has raised $40 million in a round that represents its first institutional capital. The financing was co-led by Highland Europe and Grafton Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Tubi TV, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based free streaming TV and movie network, has raised $20 million in funding led by Jump Capital, with participation from Danhua Capital, Cota Capital, and earlier backer Foundation Capital, which had led the company’s Series A round. More here.

Updox, a nine-year-old, Dublin, Oh.-based company that sells communication and document management software to medical practices, physicians, and providers in North America, has raised $12.7M in Series B funding led by TT Capital Partners. Other investors include Tamarind Hill and earlier backer, Rev1 Ventures. More here.

New Funds

Dell said yesterday that it has combined the venture capital operations from its two predecessor companies, computer maker Dell and data storage firm EMC, and that the new unit intends to invest $100 million a year in startups. Reuters has more here.

Peak Ventures, a 2.5-year-old, Utah-based seed-stage venture firm, has closed on $50 million in capital commitments for its second fund, more than double the $23 million it had raised for its debut effort. Investments include local startups Owlet and Homie, as well as the New York-based Nigerian education startup Andela. TechCrunch has more here.

Exits

Coach is buying rival Kate Spade & Co. for $2.4 billion, reports the WSJ. Coach is looking to tap younger consumers amid slowing growth in the handbag market, as women snap up smaller, less expensive purses, as well as seek out aggressively discounted bag in stores and online. More here.

Maple, a prepared food delivery startup that had raised more than $25 million from investors, is ending its operations in New York, the only city it served. TechCrunch has more here.

Media Prima, a Malaysia-listed firm with its hand in print, radio and TV media, announced a deal to acquire new media startup Rev Asia for approximately $24.2 million. Rev Asia was found 17 years ago in Kuala Lumpur and went public on a the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in 2011. TechCrunch has more here.

The publicly traded streaming music service Pandora is set to sell a big chunk of its business to private equity’s KKR, but it would rather find a buyer, sounds like. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Francisco Riordan, once a lead developer at the San Francisco venture firm Rothenberg Ventures, says he’s the one who exposed the firm’s alleged self-dealing to the SEC. He talks with Bloomberg about a story that TechCrunch first broke last summer. (Our colleague over at TC, Sarah Buhr, wrote more recently on founder Mike Rothenberg’s attempt to keep his firm up and running here.)

Essential Reads

Amazon just unveiled the Echo Show, a WiFi-enabled home device with a seven-inch screen that plays media and responds to voice commands. TechCrunch has more here.

The intense deal making in Silicon Valley in recent years has attracted hordes of investment banks. Now Rothchild and Company is setting up shop in San Francisco, too, says Dealbook.

And this is interesting: According to Bloomberg, China’s contract manufacturers are cutting out the middle man — venture capitalists — and instead seeking out entrepreneurs themselves and building the founders’ designs in hopes of finding the next must-have device.

Detours

Fancy prisons for billionaires (are reshaping New York’s skyline).

Tiffany Trump is heading to Washington.

You will *never* see a better ad for a used car.

Retail Therapy

For the teenage monster in your life.

Thursday?! (Where did this week go?)

Top News in the A.M.

Airbnb, the fast-growing accommodations marketplace, has officially closed off its Series F round with $1 billion. The company is now worth $31 billion. Much more here.

Google is turning Hangouts into a Slack competitor.

Facebook now has its own “stories” feature, too.

A New, Affordable Naming Startup for Startups

A few years ago, I launched a daily email newsletter, and I was ecstatic to be striking out on my own for the first time. Alas, just a few weeks after filing to secure a trademark, an officious-sounding note appeared in my inbox, and soon after, I found myself shelling out $10,000 in lawyer’s fees over a short-lived trademark dispute. It wasn’t nearly as painful as it might have been, but it was a rude realization that figuring out the right brand can be both time-consuming and have implications that founders might not foresee.

Of course, my experience is hardly rare. Most founders are typically left to either conduct trademark searches on their own via the USPTO site, or else pay top dollar for law firms or branding agencies to do it for them. Often they do both.

Thankfully, affordably eliminating risky name choices is exactly the opportunity that a two-year-old Bay Area company, Naming Matters, is chasing, and the company’s founder is very familiar with the market. S.B. Master previously co-founded Master-McNeil, a 29-year-old corporate naming and branding firm in Berkeley, Ca., whose past clients include Apple, General Motors, Disney and PayPal.

Now Master sees an opportunity to cater not just to deep-pocketed corporate customers but also startups on shoestring budgets. Indeed, 18 months ago, she decided to take everything she has learned over the years about linguistic analysis, trademark searching and domain name acquisition and pour it into a self-service software product that also incorporates search and data visualization. I talked with her earlier today to learn more.

You’ve already run a naming company for decades. Why start this new thing?

SM: Naming is hard, and we tend to work with companies that can afford us to do deep preliminary availability screening. I grew frustrated with how slow and antiquated that searching step is [for companies that can’t afford such a service]. I mean, if you have 100 names, how do you figure out which are most likely to get you into trouble, and which are your stronger candidates that you should focus on? There are legacy providers, but their model is to charge users for every name they look up. If you’re looking for a name in every country and every class, it adds up. You have to be very skilled to [keep your costs down].

More here.

New Fundings

Astro, a two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based AI company focused on improving workplace communication, including via more intelligent email software, has raised $8.3 million in Series A funding from Redpoint Ventures, Harrison Metal, Aspect Ventures and Upside Partnership. More here.

Chairish, the 3.5-year-old, San Francisco, Ca.-based parent company of Chairish and Decaso (Chairish is an online marketplace for vintage furniture and decor; Decase is an online platform for antiques and art dealers), has raised $8 million in funding. The round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from return investors OATV and Azure Capital Partners. More here.

Chowbotics, a 2.5-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based maker of robots for the food service industry, has raised $5 million in Series A funding from Techstars Ventures, Foundry Group, Galvanize Ventures and the Geekdom Fund. More on the company, formerly known as Casabots, here.

Cradlepoint, an 11-year-old Boise, Id.-based cloud-based network management company, has raised $89 million in Series C funding from TCV. The round marks the largest recorded venture investment for an Idaho-based company, according to Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.

Currencycloud, a five-year-old, London-based company that builds tools for payment companies to use by way of an API, has raised £20 million ($24.3 million) in Series D funding led by GV. Earlier backers also joined the round, including Notion Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Rakuten FinTech Fund, and Anthemis. TechCrunch has more here.

Fluxx, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based software company catering to grantmaking professionals, has raised $16 million in Series B funding. Canvas Ventures led the round, with participation from Kresge Foundation and Felicis Ventures. More here.

Kidizen, a six-year-old, Minneapolis, Mn.-based marketplace for secondhand children’s apparel, has raised $3.2 million in Series A funding led by Chicago-based Origin Ventures. Other participants in the round include Royal Street Ventures, Corigin Ventures, Mergelane, and earlier investors Sofia Fund and Gopher Angels. TechCrunch has more here.

Kinsa, a five-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of smart thermometers, raised $17 million in funding from GSR Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, FirstMark Capital and others. More here.

OncoResponse, a two-year-old, Houston, Tex.–based immuno-oncology antibody discovery company, has closed its Series A round with $22.5 million in funding from HT Family Office, Arch Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, MD Anderson, Marsh Rice University, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Baxalta, GreatPoint Ventures and the Helsinn Investment Fund. The company has now raised $28.6 million altogether. More here.

Prevedere, a five-year-old, Columbus, Oh.-based company whose predictive analytics software aims to help enterprises improve their sales numbers, has raised $10 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Microsoft Ventures and earlier backers PointGuard Ventures and Rev1 Ventures. More here.

RealConnex, a four-year-old, Miami and New York-based platform connecting real estate professionals to capital, investments, and services, has raised $3.5 million in strategic funding led by Silver Portal Capital, a San Diego-based real estate investment and merchant banking firm. The company has now raised $10.2 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

RiskSense, a year-old Albuquerque, N.M.-based company that makes cyber risk management software, has closed its Series A round with $14 million, including some new funding from Jump Capital. Earlier investors in the round include Paladin Capital Group, Sun Mountain Capital, EPIC Ventures, and CenturyLink. In addition, Silicon Valley Bank has also provided the company with a debt facility. More here.

ScyllaDB, a nearly two-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based startup that produces a NoSQL database that’s compatible with Apache Cassandra but has much faster throughout (it says), has raised $16 million in Series B funding. Investors include Western Digital Capital, Samsung Ventures, Magma Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners. More here.

TurnKey, a 4.5-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based vacation rental management company, has raised $21 million in Series C funding led by Adams Street Partners, with participation from earlier backers Altos Ventures, Silverton Partners and other unnamed angel investors. The company has now raised $41 million altogether. More here.

Tushy, a new New York-based startup whose attachment turns any toilet into a bidet, has raised $500,000 in seed funding led by Propulsion Capital, with participation from numerous angel investors. More here.

VATBox, a nearly four-year-old, Herzliya, Israel-based company that helps its corporate customers maximize their foreign and domestic VAT (value-added tax) returns and ensure governance, has raised $20 million in funding led by Target Global Fund. Earlier backers Viola Private Equity and others also joined the round. The company has now raised $50 million altogether. Globes has more here.

Vertiflex, a 12-year-old, Carlsbad, Ca.-based company that makes a minimally invasive implant for spinal stenosis, has raised $40 million in funding co-led by Endeavour Vision and H.I.G. BioHealth Partners, with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Thomas, McNerney & Partners, and Alta Partners. More here.

New Funds

Blumberg Capital, a 26-year-old, San Francisco-based venture firm, has raised $200 million for its fourth fund, up from the $150 million the firm raised for its third fund. Most of that capital was secured by early last year. TechCrunch has more here.

Rethink Impact, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based impact investing venture capital fund that looks to fund gender-diverse, tech-enabled companies, has raised $110 million for new fund. It partnered with UBS Wealth Management Americas toward that end, with more than half the capital commitments coming from UBS clients, including high net worth individuals, family offices, private foundations, and universities. More here.

Exits

Pinterest, the San Francisco-based visual discovery tool and social network, has acquired Jelly, a San Francisco question-and-answer app started by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone for undisclosed terms. Jelly had raised an undisclosed amount in  funding from Greylock Partners, Spark Capital, and SV Angel. In a post yesterday, Stone said he didn’t know  details of the acquisition, including whether Jelly will remain a standalone property or be integrated into Pinterest.

People

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston had a birthday party last weekend in San Francisco, and some well-known faces came to celebrate.

Gary Marcus, a research scientist who joined Uber four months ago as director of its AI labs, is leaving the company, according to Axios. More here.

Trevor Oelschig has joined General Catalyst Partners as a managing director working from its Palo Alto and San Francisco offices. Oelschig had spent the last nine years with Bessemer Venture Partners; he’ll initially be focused on application layer technologies.

Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan are having another baby girl, he announced on Facebook this morning. (Babies! Happiness.)

Zuckerberg is also giving the commencement speech at Harvard this year (and getting an honorary degree in the process). Here, he asks another Harvard dropout for some advice on what to say to students.

Essential Reads

Fitbit‘s VCs have paid a price for not selling their shares earlier.

Detours

With Trump, planning has become “virtually impossible,” say late show execs.

Essential Reads

When you can’t stop, won’t stop (playing hoops).

Okay, if you are not at Burning Man, raise your hand.:)

—–

Top News in the A.M.

Earlier today, EU antitrust regulators ordered Apple to pay up to $14.5 billion in taxes (plus interest) to the Irish government after ruling that a scheme to route profits through Ireland is illegal state aid. Ireland doesn’t want Apple’s billions in back taxes —  the country wants to remain attractive to the likes of other giants, including Facebook and Google — and has vowed to fight the ruling.

—–

New Fundings

Arcus Biosciences, a year-old, Hayward, Ca.-based cancer immunotherapy startup, has raised $70 million in Series B funding from Google Ventures, Invus Group, Stanford University and DROIA Oncology Ventures, among others. FierceBiotech has more here.

BBOXX, a six-year-old, London-based off-grid solar company, has raised $20 million in Series C funding from MacKinnon, Bennett & Co., ENGIE Rassembleurs d’Energies and KawiSafi Ventures, along with earlier backers Khosla Impact Fund, Bamboo Finance and DOEN Foundation. PV Magazine has more here.

Behalf, a five-year-old, New York-based commercial payment platform for small businesses, has raised $27 million in Series C funding led by Viola Growth, with participation from earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, MissionOG, and Vintage. More here.

Glint, a three-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based employee engagement platform, has raised $27 million in Series C funding led by Meritech Capital Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from earlier backers Norwest Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures. The company has now raised $50 million altogether. More here.

Health2Sync, a three-year-old, Tapei, Taiwan-based startup that makes a diabetes management app and related “smart cable” accessory, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by WI Harper Group, with participation from Cherubic Ventures, iSeed Ventures and SparkLabs Global Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

IntSights, a year-old, Herzliya, Israel-based leading intelligence driven security provider for cyber threats from the dark, deep and open web, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from Glilot Capital Partners as well as Blackstone, Wipro Ventures, and other investors. More here.

LogRhythm, a 13-year-old, Boulder, Co.-based cybersecurity company, has raised $40 million in new funding led by earlier investor Riverwood Capital Management, with participation from Adams Street Partners, Siemens Venture Capital, Delta-v Capital, Exclusive Ventures, and Silver Lake Waterman (Silver Lake’s late-stage growth fund). More here.

LYKE, a year-old, Jakarta, Indonesia -based fashion and beauty commerce app, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Holtzbrinck Ventures, with participation from the Singapore-­based firm APACIG. The outlet e27 has more here.

Mediamorph, a nine-year-old, New York-based company whose software helps media and entertainment companies better measure, manage and optimize their reach, has raised $21.2 million in Series C funding led by Advance Vixeid Partners, with participation from earlier backers Liberty Global Ventures, Smedvig Capital, and individual investors. Variety has more here.

Mitra Biotech, a seven-year-old, Woburn, Ma.-based developer of personalized cancer treatments, has raised $27.4 million in Series B funding co-led by Sequoia India and Sands Capital Ventures, with participation from RA Capital Management and earlier backers Accel Partners and Tata Capital Innovations Fund. The Economic Times has more here.

Petnet, a 3.5-year-old, L.A.-based pet tech company that makes a “smart” pet feeder, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by strategic investor and partner Petco. TechCrunch has more here.

Revelator, a three-year-old, Tel Aviv, Israel-based data management platform for distributing, selling and licensing music online, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding led by Exigent Capital, with participation from Digital Currency Group and the Israeli early-stage fund Reinvent. TechCrunch hasmore here.

Runnr, a Mumbai, India-based food delivery platform that was formed by the merger of startups Roadrunnr and TinyOwl, has raised around $7 million from investors, co-led by Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Venture Partners. Times of India has more here.

Shyft Analytics, a 10-year-old, Waltham, Ma.-based cloud data and analytics company that’s focused on the life sciences industry, has raised $12.5 million in Series B funding from McKesson Ventures, Medidata Solutions, and earlier investors Health Enterprise Partners and Milestone Venture Partners. More here.

Space Market, a two-year-old, Tokyo, Japan-based marketplace of unused venues for on-demand rental use, has raised roughly $4 million in a round led by Opt Ventures, with participation from Recruit Strategic Partners, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Orix. The Bridge has more here.

Velocity, a two-year-old, London-based restaurant booking app for those needing help with short notice, has raised $22.5 million in a Series B round led by DIG Investments, with participation from Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht and concierge giant John Paul. VentureBeat has more here.

Zillion, a 5.5-year-old, Norwalk, Cn.-based health care tech company, has raised $28 million in Series C funding led by TwinFocus Capital Partners. More here.

—–

New Funds

Rev1 Ventures, a seed-stage firm focused on Columbus, Oh., has closed on a $22 million fund. Fortune has more here.

Sofinnova Ventures, the 42-year-old, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical venture capital firm, has announced a new, $595 million fund. FierceBiotech has more here.

—–

Exits

Cisco is acquiring ContainerX, a year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based startup that helps companies manage and integrate containers across data centers. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed. ContainerX raised $2.7 million in seed funding from General Catalyst Partners, Greylock Partners and Caffeinated Capital. You can read more about the company here.

Washio, a three-year-old, on-demand laundry service, has shut down after raising roughly $17 million from investors.

—–

People

Apple CEO Tim Cook has rejected the EU’s demand for the company to return $14.5 billion in “unpaid” taxes in Ireland as having “no basis in fact or law.” TechCrunch has more here.

Alphabet executive David Drummond has left Uber’s boad amid increasing competition between two tech companies. The WSJ has more here.

Tech’s favorite bad boy, Sean Parker, has reportedly shelled out $58 million to create a palace on 10th Street in Manhattan.

Techies are getting priced out of Palo Alto, where even a 790-square-foot studio now costs $1.3 million.

—–

Essential Reads

Twitter will start paying its best users to create videos.

When is an endorsement an ad on Instagram?

—–

Detours

The mystery at the heart of great photographs.

An M.I.T. scientist claims that this pill is the fountain of youth.

—–

Retail Therapy

A hotel, inspired by prisons everywhere.