Keep an eye on Korea. Altos Ventures, an early-stage venture firm with an office on Sand Hill Road and in Seoul, has just raised an oversubscribed fund of $110M to invest exclusively in Korean startups – nearly double the size its first Korea-focused fund of $60M. It makes sense: More than a dozen unicorns have come out of Korea over the last decade, including the web search giant Naver (now publicly traded and valued at $17B), web search company Daum Kakao (now valued at $5.5B), and mobile apps business Yello Mobile (valued at $4B as of last month). Another round of layoffs for LivingSocial. Online deal marketplace LivingSocial announced yesterday that it’s laying off 280 people, or over 50% of its staff, in the company’s 3rd round of layoffs in just 18 months. The nine-year-old company joined the unicorn list in December of 2010, at a time when there were only 6 unicorns, and was valued at over $6B less than a year later when Groupon went public. That valuation has since plummeted by 75% to $1.5B. Is quantum computing the next “moonshot” for VC? Andrew Schoen and Harry Weller of NEA discuss VC investment in the quantum computing field. For the average investor, they write, it’s probably still too early. But for a firm with technical aptitude, a deep capital base, risk tolerence, and realistic expectations, an investment in quantum computing could be a moonshot worth the financial risk. Introducing new ways to access CrunchBase Data: Uncover new opportunities, discover industry trends, and build powerful apps using the Daily Excel Export or API. | 