Primary Venture Partners Announces New $100 Million Seed FundPrimary Venture Partners today announced that it has raised $100 million for its second fund to invest in seed-stage technology startups based in New York City. The fund is the second for co-founders Brad Svrluga and Ben Sun, who finished investing out of their first $60 million seed fund earlier this year. Primary is the only VC fund of scale to focus solely on New York City. [ PR Newswire] Scooter startup Bird is seeking a $2 billion valuationE-scooter company Bird is seeking to raise around $200 million in new funding at a $2 billion valuation, according to multiple sources. Big picture: This would be just weeks after it raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation, and only three months after raising at a $300 million valuation. Venture capitalists have never before participated in such a rapid and rocketing price spike. [ Fortune ] New Venture Funds Focus on DiversityAs venture capitalists try to find the next Facebook , they may unconsciously be scanning for someone who looks like Mark Zuckerberg —male and white. Hypergrowth and The Law of Startup PhysicsThe leadership at Coinbase, Lyft, Checkr and other high-flying startups are grateful that their coach, Khalid Halim, didn’t skip out on a class called Military Science as an undergrad at UCLA. What he thought was a throwaway course delivered one of his most valuable insights: “I started noticing patterns in startups — which I’ve validated with executives and VCs over the years — that how companies scale and break matches military groupings. So, the most efficient group in the military is a group of three, then a group of eight, and then three groups of eight, so 24,” says Halim. “Look across companies and you’ll see that around 24 people, someone speaks up to say, ‘We need a manager.’ If a startup makes it to 48 people, the next break is often in HR. And so on. As they scale, companies have more predictable breaking points.” [ First Round ] Rising Venture-Capital Firms’ Strategies for SuccessStartups may have high rates of failure, but some venture-capital firms have a knack for picking winners. Silicon Valley mainstays like Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Accel have long commanded reputations for producing top-tier investment returns over the course of decades. Now several other firms are making their way into the upper echelons of venture capital. [ NY Times ] Can Aparito's Wearable Tech Solve Big Pharma's Billion-Dollar Crisis?As many as 42% of pediatric clinical trials end up in failure and inconclusive results. “That means we don't know one way or the other if a drug works or not,” says Aparito founder Elin Haf Davies. This isn’t just a problem for the big pharma companies who are spending billions of dollarsdeveloping successful studies. It’s a problem for you, the patient, who pays a mark-up on medication to cover these costs—and for taxpayers supporting healthcare services like the NHS. [ Forbes ] Why Bozoma Saint John is leaving Uber for EndeavorEarlier today, news broke that Bozoma Saint John is leaving her position as chief brand officer at Uber to head over to Endeavor. At Endeavor, an entertainment industry behemoth, Saint John will serve as chief marketing officer, working across all of Endeavor’s portfolio companies, which includes William Morris Endeavor and IMG. I had the chance to catch up with Saint John for a little bit over the phone to learn more about why she left. For starters, “nothing horrible or terrible happened,” she told me in response to a question about if something bad caused her to leave. “I am very thankful for that because we’ve had enough of those stories. We don’t want any more of that.” [ TechCrunch ] Here’s one number that shows the craze for electric vehicles in ChinaOf the global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) last year, China contributed more than half. And that trend is very likely to continue. Just look at this one sign—in Beijing alone, the number of people who applied for a license to own an electric car already surpassed this year’s allowed number more than five times. [ QZ ] Kry bags $66M to launch its video-call-a-doctor service in more European marketsSwedish telehealth startup Kry has closed a $66 million Series B funding round led by Index Ventures, with participation from existing investors Accel, Creandum, and Project A. It raised a $22.8M Series A round just over a year ago, bringing its total raised since being founded back in 2014 to around $92M. [ TechCrunch ] The focus is female at this year's R/GA, Cannes Startup AcademyR/GA and Cannes Lions Innovation have selected eight female-founded companies from around the world to participate in the fourth annual Cannes Startup Academy. The entrepreneurs, who are from Africa, Indonesia, Romania, England and the U.S., are focused on the likes of consumer research, media and analytics, social media and more. Interest in this year’s academy was at an all-time high, with double the amount of inbound applications as 2017, said R/GA Global Chief Operating Officer Stephen Plumlee, who founded R/GA Ventures and drives all of our programs. [ Campaign Live ] Bitcoin’s Price Was Artificially Inflated Last Year, Researchers SayA concentrated campaign of price manipulation may have accounted for at least half of the increase in the price of Bitcoin and other big cryptocurrencies last year, according to a paper released on Wednesday by an academic with a history of spotting fraud in financial markets. [ NY Times ] The Blockbuster Software M&A Market Of 2018Meet the 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in ChinaUtah: Small But Mighty In Venture Dollars Raised Per Capita Led By Female Founders For Female Founders, VC Fund XFactor Ventures Has Big Plans To Triple In SizeWhat's fuelling Athens' burgeoning startup scene?385: David Pakman | Playing Beautiful Music in the World of Venture Capital Mystery Startup Tells the SEC It's Raising a $180 Million ICOThis startup wants to enable merchants to accept digital currency anywhere, anytimeFord: Postmates self-driving delivery pilot is a ‘significant stride’ toward deploymentSilicon Valley has a problem with conservatives. But not the political kind.THE FUTURE OF VENTURE CAPITAL AT BAYER-MONSANTO: IT’S COMPLICATEDNaspers is in talks to invest in Southeast Asia’s CarousellChinese Venture Capital funds rush to buy stakes in Indian startupsThe Female Quotient Panel - How We'll WinyIn 2017, female founders received just 2.2% of venture capital dollars. But funding is just one piece of the founder puzzle: there’s creative inspiration, confidence to build something new, network, and execution. After hiatus, Sony is back in the corporate venture capital gameAsia news roundup: Mercari eyes $1.2b IPO, new potential funding for Carousell, and more7 Signs That the Investment Landscape for Women Is Finally Changing$3 billion pledge to women, sustainable investing lag in Asia, fire-free slums, Backstage 100Edutech startup OpenLearning raises $8.5 million Series A to further expansion across Southeast AsiaOptus opens space at Sydney Startup Hub to facilitate collaboration with startups and SMBsFeminine-care startup LOLA receives $24M in venture capitalAmino raises $45M for to bring fan communities to smartphones |