Apoorva Mehta is thinking a lot about bottle deposits. Recycling fees vary by state and container size, but until recently, Mehta’s online grocery delivery startup Instacart Inc. hadn’t paid much attention to what it was charging customers purchasing soda or beer.
Category: Venture Capital
Ofo Becomes Chinese Bike-Sharing Unicorn After Giant Fundraising
A bruising battle between China’s two largest bike-sharing services just ramped up a notch. Ofo has raised $450 million from backers including DST and car-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, taking its valuation to more than $1 billion.
Tech Startup Market Slows Amid Silicon Valley’s Doubts on Trump
The post-election rally that’s lifting U.S. public markets has left at least one group by the wayside: private technology startups. Since last year’s peak in mid-December, startup deal-making has fallen 37 percent, according to the Bloomberg U.S. Startups Barometer, which tracks fundraising, initial public offerings and acquisitions.
Uber Criticized by Venture Backers Over Harassment Claims
A pair of venture capital investors in Uber Technologies Inc. criticized the company for tapping insiders to conduct an investigation into sexual harassment and discrimination claims by a former employee. Mitch and Freada Kapor, spouses and investing partners at Kapor Capital, said they have been unsuccessful in their attempts to convince Uber behind the scenes to prioritize diversity issues.
Uber Criticized by Venture Backers Over Harassment Claims
A pair of venture capital investors in Uber Technologies Inc. criticized the company for tapping insiders to conduct an investigation into sexual harassment and discrimination claims by a former employee. Mitch and Freada Kapor, spouses and investing partners at Kapor Capital, said they have been unsuccessful in their attempts to convince Uber behind the scenes to prioritize diversity issues.
Jay Z is launching his own venture capital firm
According to Axios’ Dan Primack , the rapper and music mogul is launching a VC fund along with Roc Nation President Jay Brown. The pair are looking to add a third investment partner and plan to partner with Sherpa Capital to launch the fund, Axios reports.
Sequoia-Backed China Robot Startup Said to Be Raising New Funds
Makeblock Co., a Chinese maker of DIY robotics parts, is seeking to raise funding at a $200 million valuation as the Sequoia Capital-backed startup expands into classrooms and hobbyist’s workshops globally, people familiar with the matter said. The Shenzhen-based company us seeking to raise about 200 million yuan in a series B round, the people said, requesting not to be named discussing a private matter.
Sequoia-Backed China Robot Startup Said to Be Raising New Funds
Makeblock Co., a Chinese maker of DIY robotics parts, is seeking to raise funding at a $200 million valuation as the Sequoia Capital-backed startup expands into classrooms and hobbyist’s workshops globally, people familiar with the matter said. The Shenzhen-based company us seeking to raise about 200 million yuan in a series B round, the people said, requesting not to be named discussing a private matter.
Stada Bid War Unfolds as Third Suitor Offers $3.84 Billion
Stada Arzneimittel AG is weighing offers as a bidding war for one of the last remaining generic-drug businesses of its size in Germany and Russia begins to unfold. The company said Thursday it received interest from a third firm that made a non-binding offer of 58 euros a share, or about 3.61 billion euros .
How the sale of his cyber business offers important lessons to Washington
While Washington area success story Invincea being sold for more than $100 million last week is newsworthy, founder Anup Ghosh’s journey is in some ways even more important. To provide some lessons learned in the trenches, I asked him to share highlights of his experience.
Tech Investor Jackson to Drop Activism With New Fund
Eric Jackson, an outspoken investor whose barbs have targeted Apple Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Viacom Inc., plans to turn his back on activism to start a new hedge fund. Jackson left as managing director at SpringOwl Asset Management LLC in December and plans to launch the as yet unnamed new fund in the middle of this year, he said.
Hedge Fund That Made 56% in FX Backs New Trading Platform
The $5.1 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market’s newest upstart trading venue has big ambitions to bring more of the world’s currency transactions to Asia. It also has some big-name backers.
How I Successfully Pitched Investors As A 22-Year-Old Startup Founder
My cofounders and I were 21 and 22 when we started Next Big Sound, and by far the biggest challenge we faced was in convincing investors they should trust us with their money. That was in 2009, and around that time Mark Zuckerberg was one of the youngest founders to have ever raised venture capital, at 19 years old.
How I Successfully Pitched Investors As A 22-Year-Old Startup Founder
My cofounders and I were 21 and 22 when we started Next Big Sound, and by far the biggest challenge we faced was in convincing investors they should trust us with their money. That was in 2009, and around that time Mark Zuckerberg was one of the youngest founders to have ever raised venture capital, at 19 years old.
Startup funding drops in 2016
U.S. one dollar bills are arranged for a photograph in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009. Less money flowed to Silicon Valley startups in 2016, after a period of frenzied spending the year before.
Ellen Pao returns to investing with new role at Kapor Center
On Tuesday the Oakland-based Kapor Center for Social Impact announced Pao has joined the team as a venture partner and chief diversity and inclusion officer. She started work there last week.
U.S. Money and Local Talent the Growth Plan for European Biotech
For a 28-year-old biotech entrepreneur, Frenchman Xavier Duportet has a standout resume: a PhD in biology and genome engineering from MIT, a lab at Paris’s Louis Pasteur Institute, and award-winning research with his name on it. Still, in Paris, as in capitals across Europe, it’s much harder for him to raise money than for most of his tech peers.
Silicon Valley Cash Is Still Chasing Blood Despite Theranos Bust
Amid the collapse of Theranos Inc. last year, investors are betting that some of the disgraced blood-testing startup’s lofty medical goals might still have a kernel of promise — at other companies. Grail, a company backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, said on Thursday that it’s expecting to raise a record $1 billion on the promise of a blood test to detect early-stage cancer.
Veteran VC talks about which investments he’ll jump on in 2017, which …
Scott Kupor, Andreessen Horowitz managing partner, is photographed outside of his office in Menlo Park, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016. After a tough slog through 2016, tech startups have reason to be optimistic heading into the new year, says Scott Kupor, managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz.
In Potentially Risky Strategy, U.S. Startups Are Piling on Debt
His New York-based startup doubled annual revenue this year and is on track to break even in 2017. Valued at about $200 million in April, the marketing automation company counts Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs among its backers-a source of validation in the eyes of many venture investors.