Major Moves
Actifio, a Boston-area startup, just eclipsed a $1B valuation through a $100M round led by investment firm Tiger Global Management, alongside VC funds Andressen Horowitz and Greylock Partners. Actifio works to solve the problem of "copy data" by integrating otherwise-independent data protection and recovery backup systems. The new valuation puts Actifio alongside e-commerce site Wayfair as the only two billion-dollar valued Boston companies.
Stir, a startup founded by ex-Apple engineer JP Labrosse, raised $1.5M in a round led by Tony Hsieh's Vegas TechFund. Stir builds kinetic standing office desks to counter the epidemic of long-term sitting in office gigs, recently nicknamed Silicon Valley Syndrome.
OPower, a Virginia-based SaaS company that promotes personalized energy efficiency action, announced terms for its IPO at $110 million by offering 6.1 million shares.
CVC Capital Partners, a PE firm based in London with offices in NYC and Hong Kong, lands investment from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for its £1.8bn Asia-focused fund. This comes on the heels of CVC's reducing its stake in Indonesian department store Matahari.
Personal Blogs
Angel investor and blogger, "Gotham Gal" Joanne Wilson showcases Cameron Houser of Given Goods in her Woman Entrepreneur Monday column. Given Goods, a Boulder, Colorado-based online marketplace for products that give a percentage of the price to non-profits around the world, joined TechStars back in May 2013.
Speaking of women founders, YC's Sam Altman offers a long essay on "What I've Learned From Female Founders So Far", the title of which reminds me of numerous middle school essays. Given the controversy stirred up by his predecessor Paul Graham three months ago, it's good to see Altman attempting to clarify his views.
Tomasz Tunguz, a principal at Redpoint Ventures, gives a great explanation of the "Bike Rack Effect" - why companies often get swept up in debating simple things but gloss over complicated problems.
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