Rivet Ventures Puts Women at the HelmVenture capital’s soul-searching around the problem of sexual harassment parallels another gender-based challenge facing this male-dominated profession: Many founders say that the market of female consumers is being overlooked by venture investors. That’s the mind-set driving the partners of Rivet Ventures, a new venture firm focusing on... [ WSJ ] Susan Fowler, the engineer who shook up Uber, is working on a movie dealFormer Uber engineer Susan Fowler's life story is being turned into a Hollywood movie, reports Deadline Hollywood. Fowler's tell-all blog post about the sexual harassment she says she endured while working at the app-based taxi company turned Uber on its head. And it spurred an investigation that eventually led to the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick. The working title of the movie is "Disruptors," Deadline reports. It seems that Oscar-nominated screenwriter Allison Schroeder ("Hidden Figures") has been tapped to write it, with former Disney exec Kristin Burr producing. [ Business Insider ] HandUp, the startup that helps homeless people, has been acquiredIn slightly bittersweet news, startup HandUp is selling itself to the Detroit-based South Oakland Shelter for an undisclosed amount. This isn’t your typical Silicon Valley exit where the founders and investors made a bunch of money. HandUp CEO Rose Broome described it to me as a “primary philanthropic acquisition.” But it’s still a solid outcome for a startup that operates as a public benefit corporation. [ Tech Crunch ] Andela, a tech training and development outsourcer for African coders, raises $40MAndela, a startup that trains developers in Africa and hires them out to global tech companies, has raised $40 million in Series C funding. The financing came from CRE Venture Capital, a pan-African venture firm, with additional participation from DBL Partners, Amplo, Salesforce Ventures, and Africa-focused TLcom Capital. Previous investors, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, and Spark Capital, also joined in funding what is now one of the most highly funded African company not based in Africa. [ TechCrunch ] Masayoshi Son’s Grand Plan for SoftBank’s $100 Billion Vision FundWhen Eric Gundersen, the chief executive of a mapping start-up called Mapbox, met Masayoshi Son, the head of the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, in late July, he expected to have to sell Mr. Son on what made Mapbox important. But Mr. Son, 60, did not need to be convinced that Mapbox’s technology — which powers Lyft drivers and companies like Snap and Mastercard — had value. After a whirlwind courtship, Mr. Son’s nearly $100 billion Vision Fund, which SoftBank unveiled last October with money from Saudi Arabia and others, led a $164 million investment in Mapbox that was announced on Tuesday. [ NY Times ] How These 4 Women Built Hot Startups Without Compromising Their IdealsIf the four women founders on the Building Companies panel at the opening session of Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2017 in D.C. are to be believed, then the smartest way to build a business today is to care about more than one bottom line. Gregg Renfrew of Beautycounter was inspired by the 2006 Al Gore documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to help create a “clean beauty” category and a company that made products free of toxic chemicals and environmental impacts. It’s become a movement of 30,000 independent consultants and inspired an advocacy group of like-minded companies. [ Fortune ] Democratic candidates won’t build digital campaigns. Silicon Valley is just going to do it for them.Democrats are still running their campaigns as if it was 2004. Despite former US president Barack Obama’s unprecedented use of the internet to rally donors and voters, the skill never trickled down. That’s contributed to the near decimation of the party in many state and local elections. Silicon Valley is ready to take matters into its own hands by creating digital campaign infrastructure for progressives to win in 2018. [ QZ ] VERY BEST of STARTUPS from BANGLADESHBRILLIANT RAISES $21 MILLION SERIES A TO BRING SMART HOME AUTOMATION TO EVERYONEG.M. Acquires Strobe, Start-Up Focused on Driverless TechnologyFormer NEA investor Sheel Tyle is reportedly raising his own, $100 million fundCrunchbase Q3 2017 Global VC Report (Charts and Graphs)Logistics on-demand startup Lalamove raises $100M as it approaches a $1B valuationStart-Up Bets on Tech Talent Pipeline From AfricaHome improvement startup Houzz partners with Indian media company Times BridgeAlibaba to Spend $15 Billion Exploring 'Moonshot' ProjectsA group of Silicon Valley tech experts is raising money to help 500 Democrats win elections in 2018Cash Is Pouring Into Singapore's Biggest Private Venture FundVC activity revs up as electric vehicles prepare to go mainstreamA new startup is taking on Silicon Valley by teaching middle America how to codeMicrosoft Ventures launches global AI startup competition with top VC firms |