5 Qs WITH A DEALMAKER
Good morning from Aspen!
Fortune’s annual Brainstorm Tech conference begins today, and I look forward to meeting many of you in person.
We’ll kick it off with a conversation between Fortune executive editor Adam Lashinsky and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. It’s hard to believe that Khosrowshahi has only been at the helm of the tech giant for less than a year ―yet there’s a lot to talk about. We should get an update on Uber’s strategy, business, culture, and of course, its much-anticipated IPO.
Khosrowshahi recently commented on his plan to take Uber public in 2019, saying that the company is in a “good position” in terms of its profitability and margins. (It still needs to hire a chief financial officer, though.)
The conversation will take place today at 2:05 p.m. MT // 4:05 p.m. EST, and it will belivestreamed here. If you miss it, I’ll have a full breakdown of the topics discussed shortly following the session as well as in tomorrow’s Term Sheet.
Other highlights from today’s agenda include:
― Shiva Rajaraman,chief product officer at WeWork
―Richard Liu,CEO of JD.com
―Bradley Tusk,CEO of Tusk Ventures
―Penny Pritzker,chairman of PSP Partners
―Hooi Ling Tan, co-founder of Grab
―Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMWare
―Dennis Woodside, COO of Dropbox
―Marc Lore,CEO of Walmart eCommerce U.S & CEO of Jet.com
― Toni Reid, Vice President of Alexa Experience and Echo Devices at Amazon
―Jerry Yang, founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures & co-founder of Yahoo
See thefull agenda here.
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VENTURE DEALS
GoGoVan , a Hong Kong-basedplatform providing delivery services, raised $250 million in funding. InnoVision Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including theRussia-China Investment Fund, Hongrun Capital, Qianhai Fund of Funds,Alibaba’s Cainiao logistics subsidiary, and 58 Daojia Group .
Paidy Inc , a Japan-based instant post-pay credit service for ecommerce consumers, raised $55 million in Series C funding. ITOCHU Corporation led the round, and was joined by investors including Goldman Sachs.
PPRO , a London-based company focused on cross-border payments for merchants, raised $50 million in funding. PayPal led the round, and was joined by investors including Citi Ventures and HPE Growth Capital.
Eventbase Technology Inc , a Canada-based event technology platform, raised $6.5 million in funding. Investors include Madrona Venture Group and BC Tech Fund, managed by Kensington Capital Partners .
Productboard , a San Francisco and Prague-based provider of a software-as-a-service platform for strategic product design and management, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers led the round, and was joined by investors including Index Ventures, Credo Ventures, Reflex Capital and Rockaway Capital .
Wicket Labs , a Seattle-based provider of audience insights for subscription video services, raised $2.8 million in funding. WestRiver Group led the round, and was joined by investors including Madrona Venture Group and Divergent Ventures.
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HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES DEALS
Verge Genomics , a Mountain View, Calif.-based drug discovery company, raised $32 million in Series A funding. DFJ led the round, and was joined by investors including WuXi AppTec’s Corporate Venture Fund, ALS Investment Fund , Agent Capital, and OS Fund .
Modus Therapeutics , a Sweden-based clinical stage drug development company focused on treating patients with sickle cell disease, raised SEK 140 million ($15.6 million) in funding. The investor was HealthCap .
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PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
General Atlantic invested $250 million in Greensill , a London-based provider of working capital finance to businesses. The deal values the company at $1.64 billion.
TA Associates made an investment in Prudent Corporate Advisory Services , an India-based distributor of mutual fund and other wealth products. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
SSP Innovations , which is backed by Warren Equity Partners, acquir