Alastair Goldfisher

Metamorphic Ventures raises second fund, expands advisory board

DCM raises $330 mln for new fund

Founders Fund raises $1 bln for fifth fund

San Francisco-based Founders Fund, an investor in Palantir Technologies, Practice Fusion, Ripple Labs, Twilio and others, announced it has raised $1 billion for its fifth fund. The firm raised $625 million for its fourth fund, which closed in December 2011, according to Thomson Reuters data. The firm, through co-founder Peter Thiel, was one of the earliest investors in Facebook, which went public in May 2012. However, other recent portfolio company exits for the firm have included Topsy Labs, which Apple bought in December for $200 million, and The Climate Corp, which Monsanto purchased in October for $930 million in cash.

Peek raises $5 mln in second round

The travel activities booking site Peek announced it has raised $5 million in its second round of funding that was led by Todd Kimmel from Montage Ventures. As part of the funding, Kimmel has joined the board, which also includes co-founders Ruzwana Bashir and Oskar Bruening. Other new investors in the second round include individuals Brad Gerstner (founder of Altimeter Capital) and Jeff Fluhr (co-founder of StubHub and Spreecast), as well returning investors. The San Francisco-based company has now raised $6.5 million in total funding. Peek.com was launched in 2012 with funding from Jack Dorsey (co-founder of Twitter and Square), Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google) and David Bonderman (founding partner of TPG Capital), among others. The company helps travelers and locals to book activities, such as sightseeing tours and wine tastings.

College app Blend raises $2.7 mln, Ohio State students need not apply

New Enterprise Associates has led a $2.7 million seed round in Blend, a San Francisco-based maker of a social networking app for college students. Trinity Ventures, Foundation Capital, Lerer Ventures, Maveron, BoxGroup, XG Ventures and SparkLabs Global Ventures also joined in the seed round. The app is available for students in more than 3,500 universities nationwide, except those from Ohio State University. Blend co-founder and CEO Akash Nigam attended the University of Michigan before dropping out and launching Blend. As such, the company doesn't allow students from rival school Ohio State to sign up for the app.

MovieLaLa raises more in undisclosed seed round

San Francisco-based MovieLaLa, which operates a social network and marketing platform for upcoming movies, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Allen DeBevoise, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Machinima, a provider of a worldwide video entertainment network. Allen joins previous MovieLaLa backers in the seed round, including Jim Moloshok, a former executive at HBO and Warner Bros; Larry Braitman, a founding investor in Flixster; Wealthfront CEO and President Adam Nash; and Manatt Digital Media Ventures.

GGV's Bonham takes on co-chair role at C100

Scott Bonham, who's from Ontario, said that he expects to see more startup and entrepreneurial activity from those associated with BlackBerry

GGV's Bonham takes on co-chair role at C100

Scott Bonham, who’s from Ontario, said that he expects to see more startup and entrepreneurial activity from people associated with BlackBerry

VCs putting their bitcoin where their mouth is

I bet you that bitcoin investing will soar this year. And if you want to wager in bitcoin, I will most certainly take that bet.

Roizen named operating partner at DFJ

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which recently closed Fund XI with $325 million in commitments, has named Heidi Roizen an operating partner. DFJ announced the move on its blog, which you can read here. Roizen, who was formerly a managing director with Mobius Venture Capital, joined DFJ as a venture partner in February 2012.