Capital Gains: Magic Leap's Mega Money, SolarCity's Bond Offering and More

A bunch of companies got a bunch of money this week. Here are some of the big funding headlines, brought to you by Re/code:

• We reported that Google may be leading a whopping $500 million funding round for the “cinematic reality” startup Magic Leap, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz. Given Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR earlier this year, this might be how Google hopes to break into a similar new technology.
• The solar technology company SolarCity aims to raise $200 million with a bond offering to help it raise the necessary capital for the installation of solar infrastructure. The bonds begin at $1,000 for qualifying investors.
• The venture fund Life.SREDA is set to launch a second, $100 million fund (Dow Jones) for financial tech startups looking to enter the Russian market.
• The Minerva Project, a partially online university, raised $49 million as part of a $70 million Series B round led by a group of Chinese investors, along with the San Francisco-based VC firm Benchmark.
• A startup focused on social media marketing, Thismoment, raised $17.6 million in a Series D funding round led by existing investors Sierra Ventures, Trident Capital and UMC Capital.
• Osmo, which turns an iPad’s camera into an educational toy for kids, announced a retail partnership with Apple and $12 million in funding from a Series A round lead by Accel Partners. We’ve reported on Osmo here and here.
• In a round led by General Catalyst Partners and a few others, the social network for homework Brainly raised $9 million in venture funding. The company’s last funding round was a $500,000 seed round in 2012. The company is similar to Quora (the community both posts and answers questions), but is exclusively for homework help, and it’s primarily used outside of the U.S. right now.
• Nousdecor, a home decorating startup (similar to Houzz and Pinterest), raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The primary investor is Kathy Clark, the former wife of YouTube founding CEO Chad Hurley.
• The cybersecurity company Zenedge announced a $3.5 million Series A funding round (WSJ), with participation from Yehuda Neuberger, Fred Sorkin and Needham & Company chairman Andrew Malik.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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