Lyft raises $1 billion at $11 billion valuation led by Alphabet’s CapitalGRide-hailing company Lyft has raised a new $1 billion funding round, putting its post-money valuation at $11 billion total. The round was led by Alphabet’s CapitalG, its growth-focused investment fund, and CapitalG partner David Lawee will join Lyft’s board as part of the transaction. Lyft shared the news in an official blog post, and noted that it has run over 500 million rides to date, and expanded its coverage in the U.S. to 95 percent of the population, which is up from just 54 percent at the start of 2017. [ Tech Crunch ] Tony Fadell’s newest product? An investing and advisory firm called Future ShapeTony Fadell is starting yet a new chapter. Fifteen months after leaving Nest Labs, a maker of digital thermostats and smoke detectors that Fadell cofounded and sold to Google for $3.2 billion in 2014, Fadell is taking the wraps off a new investment and advisory firm that’s working with engineers and scientists called Future Shape. The firm’s site, which appears to have gone live very recently, explains that Future Shape is not relying on outside investors for its capital. It also states that the idea is to provide “seed funding, and sometimes A” to companies no matter where they are. [ Tech Crunch ] Data is the name of the game, as Intel Capital puts $60M in 15 startups, $566M in 2017 overallIntel Capital, the investment arm of the processor giant, is today announcing its latest tranche of investments, a total of nearly $60 million going in to 15 startups that are working on solving different problems in the bigger area of big data (with a full rundown below). The investments come on the back of a big year for the group: in 2017 so far, Intel says that it’s invested $566 million in startups in its portfolio. [ Tech Crunch ] Top tech investor predicts the 'sun is setting' on the golden age of Silicon ValleyTwo of the technology industry's top startup investors took to the stage at a conference on Wednesday to decry the power that companies such as Facebook had amassed and call for a redistribution of wealth. Bill Maris, who founded Alphabet's venture capital arm and now runs venture fund Section 32, and Sam Altman, president of startup accelerator Y Combinator, said widespread discontent over income inequality helped elect US President Donald Trump and had put wealthy technology companies in the crosshairs. [ Business Insider ] Betterment, the investing startup that's attracting $12 million a day, is now valued at $1 billion in private market trading
Betterment, a roboadviser with $11 billion under management, is considered a unicorn in the private markets. Preferred shares of Betterment are being offered at a price of $11 on EquityZen, an online marketsite for shares of private companies, according to a list of investment opportunities seen by Business Insider. That gives Betterment an implied valuation of over $1 billion. [ Business Insider ] Huge ICO plummets, raising transparency questionsTezos, which raised $232 million in an initial coin offering in June, plummeted on derivative exchanges before the product — a blockchain for digital currency — even launched, Bloomberg reports. Derivatives on Tezos tokens fell as much as 31%, according to exchange HitBTC, Bloomberg says. Ethereum, a platform used to launch many ICOs, fell 2% after the news, per Coindesk. Why it matters: As Bloomberg puts it, "Experts have warned for months about the risks and lack of transparency in ICOs, which have raked in $3 billion this year despite offering little protection or guarantees to investors. Whether Tezos recovers to deliver value to investors could go a long way to shaping how authorities regulate ICOs." [ Axios ] Hillary Clinton isn't happy with her friend Sheryl Sandberg's explanation of how Russians bought ads on Facebook Hillary Clinton and Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg are good friends. So much so, Sandberg endorsed Clinton during her 2016 presidential bid and there were rumours she might take up a political post in a Clinton administration. But all the rumours came to nothing after Donald Trump won, and now Sandberg is answering awkward questions from Congress about how Russia used Facebook ads to manipulate the election. [BusinessInsider ] Here are the big winners from Stitch Fix's IPOThree venture capital firms are poised to take home a huge payday off of Stitch Fix’s decision to go public, the company’s IPO filing shows.The online retailer disclosed on Thursday that only a few investors held concentrated ownership positions in the company. That’s in part because Stitch Fix, despite seeking a valuation at $2 billion, has raised just under than $50 million in equity since it was founded six years ago. Baseline Ventures, which co-led the
company’s $5 million Series A round in 2013, holds 28 percent of its common shares, according to the S-1 document filed with the SEC. Benchmark Capital, the top-tier firm that led Stitch Fix’s next round later that year, owns 26 percent of the company. Prominent investor Bill Gurley has been seated on the company’s board. Coda is a next-generation spreadsheet designed to make Excel a thing of the pastWhen Shishir Mehrotra worked at YouTube, he was struck by the relatively pedestrian tools that kept the site running. Mehrotra, who served as the company’s head of product until he left in 2014, managed his team largely using a combination of Google Docs and Sheets. The system worked well enough, but the tools had been built for a previous age. Mehrotra began to fixate on a question: what would documents and spreadsheets look if they were invented today? [ TheVerge ] SoftBank says it could invest as much as $880 billion(!) in techCan Silicon Valley learn something from Harvey Weinstein’s fall?SILICON VALLEY’S TECH GODS ARE HEADED FOR A RECKONINGYour pension fund could be invested in techMongoDB finishes up 34% in database IPOTech giants studying artificial intelligence are enlisting an Obama veteran as their new leaderThis Little-Known Startup Just Hit a Valuation of $30 BillionUber is charging drivers to workEveryone’s Mad at Google and Sundar Pichai Has to Fix ItWill cryptocurrencies trash cash? 'Fedcoin' could do it |