How to Launch a New Photo App: Wait for iOS 7 Launch, Try to Get Featured. Then Hope.

Another new photo-sharing app? In 2013? Really?

Yup, really. But say this for the team behind Memoir, which is launching today: While sharing photos is a component of what their app does, it's not solely a photo-sharing app. It's more of a photo-storage and filing service, with ambitions to move someday beyond photos into other personal data.

Which is good, because it sure seems like the photo-sharing app space is full up, though people are still trying to prove otherwise.

Memoir was co-founded by Lee Hoffman and Angela Kim, and is a pivot out of Veri, a TechStars education startup they launched in 2011. They raised $1.2 million for that project from backers including BetaWorks and SV Angel, and used much of that to move into Memoir; they're also finishing a new funding round.

You can get a sense of what they're trying to do with Memoir in the video below, but if you want a very short sentence, it would be: TimeHop mashed up with Photo Stream.

More sentences: Memoir checks the metadata for pictures you have on your phone, plus those you upload to Facebook and other services (if you let it), and organizes them by date and location; it will also try to figure out who you were with when you took the photo. Then it stores all the images on its servers, and lets you access them whenever you want; it assumes your photos are private, and will only share them with friends if you ask.

The service is free now, and the company hopes to introduce a freemium model that will give you access to goodies like higher-resolution images, etc. One day, Hoffman and Kim can see Memoir storing and filing things that aren't photos.

For now, they're just hoping to pick up some momentum from today's Apple's iOS 7 launch.

They've held the launch of their app until this afternoon, with Apple's encouragement, in the hope that they get featured in Apple's App Store. There's no guarantee that they'll get that attention, and even if they do, a feature slot at the App Store is no guarantee of success.

But it sure would be nice to show up today, when lots of you are going to be spending lots of time there.

Introducing Memoir from Memoir on Vimeo.

Sherpa Ventures Starts $150M Fundraising With $15M Infusion From TPG

Sherpa Ventures - a new early-stage venture firm recently founded by well-known Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Shervin Pishevar, formerly of Menlo Ventures, and former Goldman Sachs tech banker Scott Stanford - has started off its efforts to raise $150 million for its initial fund with a $15 million commitment from private equity giant TPG Capital, according to sources close to the situation.

The pair declined to comment on the new funding anchor for Sherpa, which has apparently already made more than two dozen investments in startups since its creation earlier this year. They include BackOps, a cloud-based company that offers back-office services like accounting, human resources and financial reporting; and Munchery, a gourmet-meal delivery service.

Along with Sherpa, Pishevar and Stanford also are working on a second part of their new business, called Sherpa Foundry, a business aimed at helping major strategic corporations gain a digital edge with their existing assets.

Interestingly, TPG recently made a big investment in Uber, the red-hot travel-logistics company. Pishevar has been a close adviser to co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick.

As I noted in a February post about their new endeavors, the pair's efforts will certainly be interesting to watch:

Indeed more than many in the tech scene, the incessantly networking Pishevar is perhaps well suited to such an ambitious effort like Sherpa. He's has worked closely with a lot of Web 2.0 s hottest startups, such as Uber, Fab and Warby Parker, while also leading Menlo's investment in Tumblr.

An active angel investor, he has also started a number of companies, such as the Social Gaming Network, which was merged with MindJolt.

And Stanford is equally well known in Silicon Valley, having shepherded a wide variety of high-profile deals for the banking giant, while heading its global Internet investment banking business from San Francisco as a managing director. He's been at Goldman for a dozen years and has been involved in investments in Facebook, Zappos and LinkedIn. Before banking, he worked at pioneering search company, LookSmart.

Fast Car: Uber Funding Auction Could Reach a $3.5B Valuation

Uber, the ride-logistics startup, could be valued at up to $3.5 billion in a new funding round led by TPG Capital, said multiple sources close to the discussions, which are ongoing but advanced. We had first reported that Uber was seeking the round in June.

In the past few days, we've heard a continuous stream of rumors and reports about the funding auction for the high-profile startup, with uber-high valuations floated. That seems to be the case for the deal as it is now conceived, as the amount that Uber is valued at has risen over the last month.

Still, no deal is done as yet, said sources, warning that any terms could change.

In recent weeks, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick hasn't been particularly discreet about his company's fundraising efforts, which sources said could bring the company more than $100 million in investment funds for use in expansion of its offerings.

Sources said that TPG, the large private equity firm, is aware of the perception of such a lofty valuation and has been endeavoring to negotiate more favorable terms for its investment.

A year and a half ago, Uber raised $37.5 million in 2011 from investors including Menlo Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Goldman Sachs. At the time, the company was valued at $330 million.

The ensuing months have been fruitful. Sources said Uber is now on track to bring in about $125 million in total revenue this year, much higher than had been projected, and that number is growing quickly.

In addition to TPG, Google Ventures could also be one of its new investors, sources said.

It must be noted that, when asked a direct question at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Aspen this week about new Uber funding at a $2.5 billion valuation that Airbnb reportedly has, Kalanick appeared to deny the higher price, but was also not specific.

"So, the party line is that we are not commenting on fundraising discussions we may or may not be having," said Kalanick, who often playfully parses his words. "You know, there are probably one or two folks we're talking to who we've signed NDAs with who are particularly loose with information, but that information is not correct."

Reached for comment late Wednesday, an Uber representative referred us back to Kalanick's onstage remarks, but declined to elaborate or answer further questions.

Uber now operates in 35 cities around the world, and Kalanick told us less than a month ago that revenue is growing 18 percent each month. The company now has some 320 employees, and said Wednesday that it would launch its service in Silicon Valley. In recent months, Uber hired CTO Thuan Pham, formerly of VMware, and set up international operations in the Netherlands.

After starting as a limo-hailing service and expanding to all sorts of vehicles, Uber has also extended into new areas beyond moving people around - such as stunts to deliver ice cream. "We like to think of Uber as the cross between lifestyle and logistics, where lifestyle is what you want and logistics is how you get it there," Kalanick has said.

Other car services have also raised money recently. Lyft recently raised $60 million, bringing its total to $83 million.

Another peer-to-peer ride-sharing service, Sidecar, raised $10 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Google Ventures.

Yves Behar's "Smart" Lock Startup August Raises $8 Million

August, the home automation startup that makes a "smart" lock that uses virtual keys, said it has raised $8 million to bring the device to market next spring.

If you are talking about the Internet of Things trend, this is that.

The San Francisco-based company's Series A round was led by Maveron, who invested along with Cowboy Ventures, Industry Ventures, Rho Ventures and SoftTech VC. The funding follows on a $2 million seed round that included angel investors such as Matt Mullenweg, Mark Pincus and others.

August was co-founded by well-known tech designer Yves Behar and entrepreneur Jason Johnson.

The lock was, in fact, debuted at the 11th D: All Things Digital conference in the summer. It is a Bluetooth device that works with a mobile application to "send virtual keys to anyone you choose to have access to your home," the company said.

As part of the investment, Maveron's David Wu will join the August board.

Here's the video of the demo at D11:

Social Startup Sprinklr Raises $17.5 Million

Sprinklr, a social media management platform that works with both Twitter and Facebook, announced on Tuesday it has raised $17.5 million in a series C round of funding. The new funds come from previous investors Battery Ventures and Intel Capital, bringing the total amount of money raised to date to $37.5 million.