Capital Gains: Old-Media Money for New Media, Derek Jeter Invests in Videoconferencing and More

Business Insider is close to terms with a buyer, Derek Jeter joined a funding round led by NEA for a videoconferencing service and a bunch of other startups raised money this week. Here are the details:

• Axel Springer is close to finalizing a deal to buy Business Insider for $560 million. The German publishing giant led a $25 million funding round for the company in January and narrowly missed out on buying the Financial Times from Pearson earlier this year.
• Auris Surgical Robotics, which makes technology for eye treatments and surgery, raised $150 million from Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management, Lux Capital, NaviMed Capital and others. Last year, the company raised a $34 million Series A (MedCity News).
• Cyber security and networking company CloudFlare raised $110 million in a round led by Fidelity Investments, with participation from Google Capital, Baidu, Microsoft and Qualcomm Ventures. The company now has $182 million total funding, but probably won’t go public in the next year and a half (Fortune).
• Onshape, which uses cloud technology to run computer-aided design software on any type of device, raised $80 million in a new funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company has raised $144 million in total (Wired).
• Blue Jeans Network, a widely used videoconferencing platform, raised $76.5 million from a group of investors led by NEA, whose other contributors include former baseball player Derek Jeter, Accel Partners, Battery Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners. In 2013, the company was valued at $500 million (Forbes).
• Boston-area pharmaceutical startup Deciphera raised $75 million to advance two cancer-treatment drugs through clinical trials. Investors in the Series B round include New Leaf Venture Partners, a “high net worth individual” from the Midwest, and other undisclosed names (Boston Globe).
• Data-analysis startup Premise, which scrapes economic data from around the globe and sells it to governments and financial institutions, raised $50 million in a round led by Valor Equity Partners. Valor’s CEO (a Solar City and Tesla board member), Antonio Garcias, is joining the Premise board.
• CoverHound, an insurance-shopping service, raised $33 million at a $103 million valuation in a round led by ACE Group. Oher investors include RRE Ventures, Blumberg Capital and others (Silicon Valley Business Journal).
• Magazine and newspaper publisher Hearst invested $21 million in the pop-culture website network Complex, which was last valued at $174 million in 2013, when it took in $25 million from Iconic Brand Group.
• Skillz, an e-sports software company that powers tournaments for video game makers, raised a $15 million Series B funding round led by Wildcat Management Group, with participation from New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft and Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry (Forbes).

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via