Hello, and welcome to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Friday episode, in which we dig through the most critical stories and themes from the week. As the week comes to a close, we’re also shutting the book on the trial … Read more
A new study that zeros-in on the founders of so-called “Unicorns” (companies worth over a billion dollars) has found most have “underdog” founders, are often drawn from the top 10 universities, a rising female founder make-up, but no obvious monopoly at Seed stage of funding for VCs. The study (“Unicorn Founder DNA Report) by Defiance … Read more
The Artemis Fund, which invests in underrepresented founders, closed on its second fund with $36 million in capital commitments. Stephanie Campbell, Diana Murakhovskaya and Leslie Goldman Tepper founded Artemis in 2019, naming the firm after the Greek goddess of the hunt, wild things and a champion of women. Artemis, with offices in Houston and New … Read more
Last night, for an evening hosted by StrictlyVC, this editor sat down with Trae Stephens, a former government intelligence analyst turned early Palantir employee turned investor at Founders Fund, where Stephens has cofounded two companies. One of these is Anduril, the buzzy defense tech company that is now valued at $8.4 billion by its investors. … Read more
Venture capital funding has never been robust for women or Black and brown founders. Alongside Crunchbase, we’ve been tracking funding levels to pinpoint moments of progress and regression for marginalized entrepreneurs. For example, Black founders saw record amounts of funding in the bull year that was 2021, but that amount dipped substantially as the market … Read more
If you’re looking at the current seed funding climate and thinking it’s rough out there, you’re not alone. The last few years have been a roller coaster for startups. First came the uncertainty in the early days of the pandemic, then came the exuberance mid to late in the pandemic when cash flowed freely to … Read more
The partners of European venture capital firm Plural, from left to right: Ian Hogarth, Taavet Hinrikus, Carina Namih, Sten Tamkivi and Khaled Helioui. Plural The founders of Wise, Skype and Songkick have raised 400 million euros ($436.4 million) for a new fund to back technology startups in Europe. It seeks to compete with established funds … Read more
European VC Plural has carved out a reputation for itself as one of the few VC’s in the region started and led by entrepreneurs who grew their own startups, with its founders including Taaavet Hinrikus from Transferwise/Wise; Sten Tamkivi; and Ian Hogarth, the founder of Songkick who more recently has also added a role with … Read more
When TechCrunch’s former editor-in-chief Matthew Panzarino joined a startup, we knew it was one that would pique our interest. Panzarino, well-known among TC staff as an avid collector of everything from shoes to novel cooking appliances to iPhones, recently became the latest addition at TipTop, a new startup from Postmates founder Bastian Lehmann. The app, … Read more
Artifact, a personalized news app curated by AI, is shuttering its windows and shutting off comments, just one year after it launched from the minds of Instagram’s former founders. “We have built something that a core group of users love, but we have concluded that the market opportunity isn’t big enough to warrant continued investment … Read more