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.
Showing posts with label YC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YC. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Lunch Links - March 20th, 2014
Major Moves
Tango, a Bay Area social networking startup reminiscent of WhatsApp, has raised $280 Million in a Series D round of funding, led by DFJ, Qualcomm Ventures, and new board member Jerry Yang. Notably, Alibaba Group became a major player in the funding round, marking Tango's first Chinese-based backer since they opened an office in Beijing three years ago. Alibaba may be seeking a direct competitor to WeChat, backed by rival Tencent Holdings.
Cloudera, a Palo Alto startup that uses Apache Hadoop to provide analytic data management for enterprises, raises $160 Million in venture funding, leading Dan Primack to wonder whether an IPO may be in its near future.
Y-Combinator announces the addition of two new partners - Justin Kan of Justin.tv and Twitch.tv fame, and Tutorspree founder Aaron Harris, whose joining in October hadn't been formally announced until today.
Personal Blogs
Sam Altman, the man taking over after Paul Graham's announcement of his departure from Y-Combinator, explains he'd like to see YC fund more breakthrough technologies across all sectors.
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures posts about his Flappy Bird experience, powered by MIT's Scratch and Scratch Jr programming platforms.
Entrepreneur-turned-Venture Capitalist Mark Suster posts about why you should determine the outcome of a board meeting before ever setting foot in the room.
Lessons and Lists
MIT's Tech Review sheds some light on 5 secretive startups spun off by former NSA employees.
Inc.com's Adam Varccaro explains that high performance is not the same as high potential, and why failing to take potential into account can hurt your company's leadership.
FastCompany's Maryam Banikarim offers 7 Enduring Lessons from Silicon Valley 1.0.
Tango, a Bay Area social networking startup reminiscent of WhatsApp, has raised $280 Million in a Series D round of funding, led by DFJ, Qualcomm Ventures, and new board member Jerry Yang. Notably, Alibaba Group became a major player in the funding round, marking Tango's first Chinese-based backer since they opened an office in Beijing three years ago. Alibaba may be seeking a direct competitor to WeChat, backed by rival Tencent Holdings.
Cloudera, a Palo Alto startup that uses Apache Hadoop to provide analytic data management for enterprises, raises $160 Million in venture funding, leading Dan Primack to wonder whether an IPO may be in its near future.
Y-Combinator announces the addition of two new partners - Justin Kan of Justin.tv and Twitch.tv fame, and Tutorspree founder Aaron Harris, whose joining in October hadn't been formally announced until today.
Personal Blogs
Sam Altman, the man taking over after Paul Graham's announcement of his departure from Y-Combinator, explains he'd like to see YC fund more breakthrough technologies across all sectors.
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures posts about his Flappy Bird experience, powered by MIT's Scratch and Scratch Jr programming platforms.
Entrepreneur-turned-Venture Capitalist Mark Suster posts about why you should determine the outcome of a board meeting before ever setting foot in the room.
Lessons and Lists
MIT's Tech Review sheds some light on 5 secretive startups spun off by former NSA employees.
Inc.com's Adam Varccaro explains that high performance is not the same as high potential, and why failing to take potential into account can hurt your company's leadership.
FastCompany's Maryam Banikarim offers 7 Enduring Lessons from Silicon Valley 1.0.
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