Campaign Monitor CEO Alex Bard Joins Redpoint Ventures As PartnerAs Satish Dharmaraj tells it, venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures just missed out on Alex Bard for the first time in 2011. Back then Bard was cofounder of Assistly, a young customer service software company looking to raise its Series B funding round. Redpoint had made a verbal offer to Bard and thought the deal was going to happen. Then Marc Benioff struck, with Salesforce acquiring the company, and Redpoint had to wait as Bard became one of Benioff's top young lieutenants, running the CRM leader's service cloud, then departing in 2014 to become CEO of an Australian company, Campaign Monitor. [ Forbes ] Unicorn class of 2017: 25 startups and countingTwenty-five VC-backed companies have reached billion-dollar valuations and become "unicorns" so far this year. CMO Jonathan Mildenhall used Cannes Lions to not only recruit more diverse talent, but to try and encourage others to take the issue more seriously. One of the simplest, most talked about ads during this year’s Super Bowl was from Airbnb. There were no celebrities, Hollywood-sized special effects, or complex commercial narrative. It was just a collection of portraits–faces of men and women of all colors and nationalities–with these words: “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love, or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful, the more you accept. #weaccept” [ Fast Company ] Billionaire LeEco Founder Turns to Cars as Debtors Close InLeEco Chairman Jia Yueting asked for more time to repay debt and realize his ambitions of disrupting the automobile industry, days after a Chinese court froze billions of dollars in assets he controlled. The increasingly beleaguered tycoon, who built his sprawling tech conglomerate on a Netflix-like streaming service and smart TVs, on Thursday resigned as chairman of his main listed company in favor of leading LeEco’s fledgling automobiles division. [ Bloomberg ] Scottish data analytics startup Aquila Insight acquired by US firm MerkleAquila Insight, a Scottish data analytics startup, has been acquired by US marketing agency Merkle for an undisclosed amount. The Edinburgh-based company’s customers include Tesco Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Sony Mobile and it has offices in Derby and London. Aquila Insight founders John Brodie and Warwick Beresford-Jones (pictured) will continue to run the company under the umbrella of Merkle’s European operations. German Venture Capital Soars as Startups Seek Room to GrowGerman venture capital financing more than doubled in the first half of the year as the country’s startups grow beyond fledgling status and a successful internet IPO opens the door to further investments. VCs invested 2.16 billion euros ($2.45 billion) across 264 equity deals in German-based startups in the first half, according to a new report by consultant EY. That compares with 972 million euros across 248 deals in the first half of last year. [ Bloomberg ] Felix Capital announces closing of its second fund at $150 millionLondon VC firm Felix Capital has announced the closing of its second fund at $150 million. The fund is backed by institutional investors but they have not been named. According to Felix Capital, the fund was oversubscribed at $200 million. It will invest in early stage startups in Europe and the US with $2-5 million per round. The firm recently led a round in retail tech startup YOOBIC. [ Tech.eu ] An Engineer Who Worked at Google and Facebook Says This 1 Job Skill Is Highly OverlookedLooking to expand your marketable skill set? Learn to code. Want a coveted job at a top tech firm? Get thee to coding bootcamp. Want to give your kid a competitive advantage? Code camp is the answer. What's the true meaning of life? Code! As learn-to-code fever continues to spread, it leaves the non-technically inclined feeling their skills are lacking. And it often leaves those fluent in multiple coding languages feeling like they're at the top of the world. [ INC ] Recode Daily: After North Korea launched an ICBM, the U.S. and South Korea flexed their missilesThe Trump administration confirmed North Korea’s claim that it had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching parts of the U.S.; the administration responded by conducting a joint military exercise with South Korea, firing missiles as a show of power. [Choe Sang-Hun / The New York Times] Dave McClure, the founding partner of tech incubator 500 Startups, officially resigned following reports that he had inappropriate interactions with women in the tech community. Co-founder Christine Tsai stepped in as CEO; partner Elizabeth Yin also resigned, citing a lack of transparency from the accelerator’s leadership. [Kurt Wagner and Johana Bhuiyan / Recode] A template for investor/founder sexual harassment policyThis policy template is a collaborative effort by a group of whistleblowers, investors, founders, and activists, compiled by TechCrunch. The full list of contributors can be found below. Venture capitalists need to adopt formal policies to protect startup founders from sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination throughout the fundraising process. The policy template below was created to facilitate the creation of comprehensive, enforceable investor/founder sexual harassment policies. [ Tech Crunch ] The State of Alternative LendingBeyond Pledges and Tweets: How Can Venture Capital Fix Its Sexual Harassment Problem?This article first appeared in Term Sheet, Fortune’s newsletter on deals and dealmakers. Sign up here. While the rest of America watched fireworks and ate BBQ, the citizens of Startup Land spent the July 4th holiday weekend glued to their phones as push notifications about the industry's sexual harassment reckoning rolled in. I felt disgusted by every new accusation, tweet, and blog post. But I also felt reassured by the fact that exposing the industry’s dirty “open secrets” is making a difference. [ Fortune ] |