Alastair Goldfisher

On the Bleeding Edge: 10.10.18

Security startup Paladin Cyber raises $3.6 mln led by Lightbank

San Francisco-based Paladin Cyber, which provides cyber protection services for small and medium businesses, announced that it has raised $3.6 million in seed funding. Lightbank led the round, which included participation from Aquiline Technology Growth, Haystack, Argo Ventures and Clocktower Technology Ventures, as well as existing investors Ground Up Ventures, Hemi Ventures, Sutardja Ventures and Y Combinator. As part of the funding, Lightbank Managing Director Vic Pascucci will join the board. Paladin, founded in 2017, has now raised $4.5 million in total funding.

Glasswing backs Sir Tim Berners-Lee and inrupt

Inrupt, the company founded by World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee has emerged from stealth with an undisclosed amount of initial funding led by Glasswing Ventures. The startup inrupt, which focuses on a creating a decentralized web, is led by CEO John Bruce.

Dragonfly to invest in cryptocurrencies with $100 mln maiden fund

San Francisco-based Dragonfly Capital Partners announced this morning its launch of a $100 million fund to invest in cryptocurrency deals. The firm is led by Managing Partners Alexander Pack, who previously headed network investing at Bain Capital Ventures, and Bo Feng, who previously was a founding partner of Ceyuan Ventures.The firm said it already has a portfolio of 20 companies, including Basis, Spacemesh and Oasis Labs. The fund's investors include Salil Deshpande of Bain Capital Ventures, Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz, Cyan Banister of Founders Fund, Olaf Carlson-Wee of Polychain Capital, Neil Shen of Sequoia China, and others.

Tiny raises $4 mln led by BlueRun

Palo Alto, California-based Tiny, provider of a rich-text editing platform, announced that it raised $4 million in Series A funding led by BlueRun Ventures. Additionally, the company introduced a cloud file management system, Tiny Drive, and a preview of a new user interface in the upcoming version 5 of TinyMCE. BlueRun Partner Jeff Tannenbaum wrote more about why the firm invested in a Medium blog post.

Truebill secures $5 mln in funding

San Francisco-based Truebill, which provides a platform that helps users control finances, announced it has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Investors include Cota Capital, Social Capital, Day One Ventures and individual investors David Marcus (head of blockchain at Facebook and former president of PayPal), Neil Blumenthal (co-founder of Warby Parker), Dave Gilboa (co-founder of Warby Parker), Jawed Karim (co-founder of YouTube), Troy Carter (partner at Cross Culture Ventures), Marc Katz (co-founder of Custom Ink) and Hiten Shah (co-founder of Crazy Egg and KISSMetrics) among others. The company also announced Haroon Mokhtarzada, former chief executive of Webs.com, as CEO of Truebill. He co-founded Truebill in 2015 with his brothers, Yahya and Idris Mokhtarzada.

IVP boosts team with two hires and a promotion

Late-stage venture firm IVP announced Louisa Xu has joined as a vice president and Jake Storm has come on board as an associate. In addition, the firm announced it has promoted Armaan Ali to senior associate. Xu will focus on consumer and enterprise companies. Prior to joining IVP, she was with GIC’s technology investment group. Storm will focus on identifying and evaluating later-stage investments across the technology industry. He previously worked for Jefferies’ technology investment banking group. Ali joined IVP in 2016 and focuses on identifying and evaluating investments. Before IVP, he worked at Qatalyst Partners.

Linkfluence gains foothold in U.S. with its acquisition of Scoop.it

German AI company Teraki raises $3 mln in seed

Berlin-based Teraki, which provides AI and edge data processing software for the automotive industry, announced it has raised $3 million in cumulative seed financing and government grants. Backers included new investors Paladin Capital Group and GPS Ventures GmbH, which joined previous investor Hub:raum, the seed investment arm of Deutsche Telekom.

UK cybersecurity company Darktrace valued at $1.65 bln after latest funding

Cambridge, U.K.-based Darktrace, which uses machine learning and AI algorithms to provide cyber defense services, announced that it has raised $50 million in Series E funding led by Vitruvian Partners. Existing investors KKR and 1011 Ventures also participated. The latest funding now values the company at $1.65 billion. Darktrace, founded in 2013, has now raised $229 million in funding.