Good day. Last week, we asked what advice investors give to startups that are aiming to skip raising a seed round and go straight to a Series A. Here are some of the points that readers raised:

• Initialized Capital general partner Alda Leu Dennis said founders that jump straight to Series A-sized rounds with very little traction or product might miss guidance on issues such as co-founder conflicts, first launches, first big hires and early failures that can be critical to long-term success.
   
• Megan Zengerle, partner at Sweat Equity Ventures, wrote that if a founder does decide to skip the seed round, having past success and/or proven expertise in the startup’s sector helps.
   
• SineWave Ventures founding partner Yanev Suissa warned founders about getting too far over their skis financially by skipping a seed round. Doing so “almost universally comes back to bite an entrepreneur in a future round, when they will either be scarred by a down round for underperforming what is expected from an inflated valuation or they will be saddled with unsophisticated investors who don’t care and can’t add value.”
   
• Vice President of Platform at H/L Ventures Galina Ozgur wrote that founders skipping seed should keep in mind that Series A is the first round requiring an institutional lead and is all about the cap table dynamics.

This week’s question: As limited partners pour more money into venture capital, what is the market like for hiring firm partners?

Please email responses to marc.vartabedian@wsj.com.

And now on to the news...

New CEO. Instacart Inc. named technology industry veteran Fidji Simo as its new chief executive, as the grocery delivery company seeks to expand its business and go public, The Wall Street Journal’s Jaewon Kang reports. Ms. Simo spent the past decade at Facebook Inc., leading the social media giant’s mobile and products teams and helping transition it from a private business to a public company. She joined Instacart’s board in January. “I can’t think of a better leader to take the company public” and be at the helm, said Apoorva Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Instacart, who will become executive chairman of the board next month.

Thoma Bravo, a private-equity firm focused on technology and software, is plotting a return to the fundraising circuit less than a year after it collected $22.8 billion from investors for three prior funds, according to people familiar with the firm’s plans, WSJ Pro’s Preeti Singh reports. The firm has informed several investors that it plans to open a virtual data room in September to enable prospective investors to review documents about the new funds, these people said. Thoma Bravo hasn’t yet specified how much it plans to raise for the funds, all of which will focus on software and technology-enabled businesses, according to these people. 

Circle Internet Financial Inc., one of the biggest companies in the cryptocurrency sector, is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company to go public in a deal that values the company at $4.5 billion, the Journal reports. On Thursday, Circle said it is merging with Concord Acquisition Corp., a SPAC sponsored by investment firm Atlas Merchant Capital that raised $276 million in its December initial public offering. Founded in 2013 by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville, Circle issues and maintains a so-called stablecoin known as USD Coin, a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain an equal value to the U.S. dollar, and provides related services.

Funds

San Francisco-based Amberstone Ventures, a new firm focused on early-stage food and consumer product brands, raised $45 million for its debut fund. Recent investments made by the fund include Honey Mama’s and JuneShine.

Publicly traded advertising tech company The Trade Desk launched a venture arm to make investments in startups focused on the open internet. Chalice, TD7’s initial investment, is developing new approaches to algorithmic ad buying.

People

Early-stage investor Relay Ventures made several promotions and one new hire across its team in Toronto, Calgary and San Francisco. Alex Baker and Irfhan Rawji were promoted to managing partner, Norman Winarsky was promoted to partner, Jake Cassaday becomes venture partner, Samir Remtulla was promoted to vice president, Chevonaé Walcott and Simon Sokol were promoted to associate, and Stephanie Wood joins as associate.

Lightspeed Venture Partners appointed Justin Overdorff as partner to help lead the firm’s fintech practice. He previously held positions at Stripe and Yelp.

Paravision, a provider of facial-recognition technology, named Benji Hutchinson as president and chief operating officer. He was most recently president of NEC National Security Systems. In May, San Francisco-based Paravision raised a $23 million funding round led by J2 Ventures.

Exits

Cisco Systems Inc. acquired event technology platform Socio Labs Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Socio was backed by investors including High Alpha and Greenspring Associates.

Smart window company View Inc. purchased ioTium, a provider of secure edge-cloud infrastructure for smart buildings, for an undisclosed sum. ioTium’s backers included Honeywell Ventures, JC2 Ventures, Hanna Ventures, GE Ventures and Juniper Ventures.

Dataminr, an artificial intelligence provider for event and risk detection, acquired real-time data geovisualization platform WatchKeeper for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2009, New York-based Dataminr picked up a $475 million investment in March valuing the company at $4.1 billion. Investors included Lurra Capital, Eldridge, Valor Equity Partners, MSD Capital, Reinvent Capital, ArrowMark Partners and IVP.

bunq, a Dutch mobile banking startup serving Europe, raised a $228 million Series A round at a $1.9 billion valuation. Pollen Street Capital and company founder Ali Niknam were the investors. In addition to the investment, bunq acquired Irish lender Capitalflow Group for an undisclosed amount.

Clearco, an e-commerce investor formerly known as Clearbanc, picked up a $215 million investment. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the round, which saw participation from Intuit, Bow Capital and Park West Asset Management. Clearco recently appointed Ruma Bose as chief growth officer, Satwik Seshasai as chief technology officer and Sarah Clark as head of U.K. The company has offices in New York, London and Toronto.

Younited, a French fintech startup, raised $170 million in funding. New investors Goldman Sachs and Bridgepoint were joined by existing backers Eurazeo, Bpifrance and AG2R La Mondiale in the round.

Aleph Farms, an Israeli cultivated meat company growing steaks directly from non-genetically modified animal cells, closed a $105 million Series B round. L Catterton and DisruptAD led the funding, which included additional support from Skyviews Life Science, VisVires New Protein, Strauss Group, Cargill, Peregrine Ventures, CPT Capital and others.

mmhmm Inc., a video collaboration startup, scored a $100 million Series B round. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the financing, which included participation from Sequoia Capital, Mubadala Capital, Human Capital, World Innovation Lab and others.

OnBoard, a board management platform with offices in Indianapolis, the U.K. and Australia, secured a $100 million growth investment from JMI Equity. As part of the transaction, JMI's Bob Nye, Krishna Potarazu and Mac Williams will join the board.

Glossier Inc., a New York-based skincare and beauty products provider, secured $80 million in Series E financing. Lone Pine Capital led the round, which included contributions from Forerunner Ventures, Index Ventures, IVP, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital.

Thrive Global, a New York-based startup founded by Arianna Huffington that helps improve well-being, performance and mental resilience in the workplace, snagged $80 million in Series C funding co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Owl Ventures. Kleiner Perkins’s Mamoon Hamid and Owl’s Ian Chiu will join the board. IVP, JAZZ Venture Partners and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management also contributed to the round.

MiRXES, a Singapore-based cancer diagnostics provider, landed $77 million in Series C funding. CR-CP Life Science Fund led the round, with additional participation from Rock Springs Capital, EDBI, Keytone Ventures and others. 

Skedulo, a San Francisco-based mobile employee scheduling platform, raised $75 million in Series C funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Xilis Inc., a Durham, N.C.-based precision oncology platform, completed a $70 million Series A round. Lead investor Mubadala Capital was joined by GV, LSP, Catalio Capital Management, Felicis Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Pear VC, KdT Ventures, Alix Ventures and Duke Angel Network in the funding.

Instawork, a staffing service for hourly workers, collected $60 million in Series C funding. Lead investor Craft Ventures was joined by Greylock, Corner Ventures, WndrCo, Benchmark, Spark Capital, GV, Burst Capital and others in the round. Craft General Partner Jeff Fluhr will join the company’s board.

• Alibaba challenges Amazon with a promise: fast global shipping
   
• China’s cyber watchdog to police Chinese overseas listings
   
• Micron Technology puts its cash to work using artificial intelligence
   
• Software firm at center of ransomware attack was warned of cyber flaw in April
   
• Letting businesses ‘hack back’ against hackers is a terrible idea, cyber veterans say

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, David Carnevali, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc, @ychernova, @davidcarnevali
@BrianPGormley, @marcvarta.