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
Inspired Capital is celebrating its fifth birthday with the closing of its Inspired Capital Fund III with $330M in capital commitments. This new amount brings the firm’s total assets under management to nearly $900 million. The New York-based early-stage venture firm was founded in 2019 by entrepreneurs Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker. They went … Read more
The construction sector is known for its slow embrace of technology. But a new venture capital firm, funded by some heavyweight legacy construction companies, is out to change that. Zacua Ventures has launched its inaugural $56 million fund targeting early-stage construction technology startups, backed by 19 of the construction sector’s biggest corporations. The limited partner … Read more
Dubai-based early-stage venture capital firm COTU Ventures is announcing that it has raised $54 million for its inaugural fund to support startups in the Middle East from pre-seed to seed stages. With a final close achieved last year, COTU Ventures, which identifies and backs founders from the inception to post-product launch, invests between $500,000 to … Read more
Partech has closed its second Africa fund, Partech Africa II, at €280 million ($300 million+), just one year after reaching its first close. At that size, Partech Africa, which originally targeted €230 million before its fundraising efforts started, solidifies its position as the largest fund dedicated to African startups. Amidst a backdrop of global VCs … Read more
Foundry Group, an 18-year-old venture firm with nearly $3.5 billion in assets under management, has quietly decided to shut down and not raise any more funds. The move was unexpected considering that the firm announced a $500 million fund last year. Boulder, Colorado-based Foundry first announced that its current fund would be its last on … Read more
TOKYO — Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group returned to profitability in October-December after four straight quarters in the red, the company said Thursday. Tokyo-based SoftBank reported a 950 billion yen ($6.4 billion), profit for the October-December quarter, a reversal from a 783 billion yen loss in the same period a year earlier. It remained in … Read more
The Norges Bank, Norway’s central bank, in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund on Tuesday reported record profit of 2.22 trillion kroner ($213 billion) in 2023, supported by robust returns on its investments in technology stocks. The so-called Government Pension Fund Global, one … Read more
Kost Capital, a new Danish venture capital fund, is out to bring better food to more people. General partner Bodil Sidén started the firm with LPs Kasper Hulthin, Christian Tang-Jespersen, Mark Emil Hermansen and Jacob Lee Ørnstrand. Kost, which means “diet” in the Scandinavian language, however, it will most like be difficult to stick to … 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