Don’t knock pet tech. Whistle, the “Fitbit for dogs,” has been acquired by Mars Petcare, owner of popular pet brands Pedigree, Whiskas and IAMS (but also the same Mars that makes Snickers and M&Ms) for more than $100M in a deal that closed last month, TechCrunch reported yesterday. Founded in 2012 by former DCM Ventures EIR Ben Jacobs, Whistle picked up a total of $21M in venture funding from Slow Ventures, Carmelo Anthony’s fund Melo7 and Nas’ Queensbridge, among others. The best time to invest in startups? Always. Alex Mittal and Christopher Steiner of FundersClub explain how investors miss out on opportunities to buy into startups at lower valuations by only investing during peak times, when “the market is rife with IPOs, acquisitions and gaudy valuations.” Gems often emerge during down periods: Consider Dropbox (raised its Series A in October 2008), Airbnb (seed round in April 2009), and Uber (seed round in August 2009). New interactive data visualizations with the most active investors. Check out the detail-rich CrunchBase Unicorn Leaderboard. | 