A Look Into Elon Musk’s Empire

Luxury apparel commerce startup Vaunte raised $1.125 million from Battery Ventures, Maveron, and fashion and Christopher Burch. The site, which allows celebrities to sell secondhand goods and new items (sortof like what OpenSky tried and pivoted away from), has 60,000 members, having facilitated more than half a million dollars in transactions since it launched in the Fall. [Source: TechCrunch]

Clearlake Capital Partners has acquired publicly traded Bluefly.com, the luxury ecommerce site with a market cap of $11 million. Clearlake is acquiring shares from public shareholders as well as private investors Rho Capital Partners, Soros Fund Management, Prentice Capital Management and Maverick Capital. [Source: Clearlake Capital]

Adly, a startup that pays celebrities to celebrities to tweet about brands, has raised $2 million from GRP Partners and new investor Siemer Ventures, bringing its total funding to $7.5 million. [Source: TechCrunch]

Austin Ventures plans to go downmarket to invest in more early stage companies. As a result, the company is shrinking its next fund size by half for its upcoming vehicle. The company is raising $450 million for its 11th fund. It’s 10th fund was $900 million. [Source: Austin Ventures]

Tremor Video, a video advertising network, has filed with the SEC to raise $86 million in an IPO on NYSE. Credit Suisse and Jefferies are heading up the deal. [Source: Renaissance Capital]  

Bloomberg is now reporting that mapping company Waze is the subject of acquisition talks, with Google as the chief suitor. TechCrunch, which has reported false rumors about a Waze acquisition before, says this one’s probably not true either. Waze won’t comment. What’s the likelihood that all these rumors are coming from someone who wants to jack up Waze’s value? Greater than zero. [Source: Bloomberg]

The Fairphone, an ethically sourced, built, and distributed smartphone initially designed to bring attention to the use of conflict minerals in consumer electronics, is open for pre-sales, starting in Europe.  The phone retails for $436, is unlocked, and runs Android 4.2. [Source: Fairphone]

Skeuomorphia might be out the window in the next iteration of Apple’s iOS, and it looks like color won’t be far behind. The latest rumors about the Jony Ive-led design suggest that black-and-white elements will feature heavily in the new user interface. [Source: 9to5Mac]

US officials say energy companies are believed to have fallen victim to cyberattack assaults by Iran-backed hackers. The hackers were unsuccessful in manipulating oil and gas pipelines, which is what officials suspect they were attempting to do, but one former official told the Wall Street Journal that they got “far enough to worry people.” [Source: Wall Street Journal]

Technology Review reports on a new molecule-sorting material that could lower gas prices and reduce the need for cancer-linked additives. During the refining process, gasoline molecules are sorted by size to achieve certain octane levels. But this new hydrocarbon-sorting material would remove many steps from the process thus making gas less costly to produce. [Source: Technology Review]

According to a memo obtained by Fox News, the Department of Homeland Security warns 3D-printed guns may be “impossible” to stop: “Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns.” The memo closes with, ” [Source: Fox News via Venture Beat]

3D printing. It’s not just for guns. In fact it’s hardly for guns at all. Will 3D printing save more lives than it ends? That’s not a stretch to say. The latest milestone comes out of the University of Michigan, where a team built a tracheal splint that allows a child with a collapsed windpipe to breath again. [Source: New England Journal of Medicine via Gizmodo]