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The plan is simple: First, we create a knockoff of a popular digital service. Second, we cry political persecution. Third, we raise a bunch of money with a SPAC. And then, to cap it off, we take on AWS.
Got it?
What’s actually funny is that I am not kidding. That is not only a real plan, but one that we’ve now seen twice. READ MORE
The shell company that is facilitating former President Donald Trump's return to Wall Street disclosed Monday that federal regulators are investigating the deal.
In October, Trump announced a new media venture that would "stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech." That new entity, chaired by the former president, agreed to go public through a merger with Digital World, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC. READ MORE
Edward Tufte of Yale, one of the fathers of information design and data visualization, noted that “there are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.” His insight is especially troubling for the venture capital (VC) industry, which is the main bloodstream of financial investment into software innovation. VC is also the main “culprit” behind “The Social Dilemma” described in the aptly named Netflix documentary featuring Tufte’s quote. READ MORE
Across the board, 2021 has been a banner year for U.S. startup funding. But some industries are seeing much larger investment gains than others.
In an effort to see where funding spigots are flowing fastest, Crunchbase News took a look at Series B investment across a range of sectors. We looked at which industries have seen the largest year-over-year gains as well as those where average and median round sizes are growing fastest. READ MORE
Although the metaverse may still seem like an undefined concept to many, like everything else touched by technology it will need security—likely a lot of it.
While the metaverse promises a new in-depth virtual experience that could change the way we work, play and, in general, interact with each other, its reliance on virtual and augmented reality, digital devices and different digital social platforms may have implications for a variety of security concerns from hardware in a headset to personal data privacy issues. READ MORE
For too long, the venture capital industry has been limited to a select few.
But thanks to new platforms that are democratizing investment opportunities, investors of all sizes now have a chance to participate in funding and building new venture companies. READ MORE
The two billion teenagers and young adults born after 1995 that we call Generation Z have been described as many things. They’re seen as uncompromising, not swayed by political or marketing tricks, but also supporters of “cancel culture” — the public and vocal shutting down of speech perceived as problematic. They’re at once entrepreneurial, educated, perceptive and sensitive — sometimes bordering on fragile — and they value authenticity, transparency and radical inclusivity. READ MORE
Every three weeks on a Monday morning, Nat Turner flies from New York to Orange County, California to start a work “sprint.” He’s up at 4:30 AM local time the next day — jet lag is his ally — and talking to startup founders on the East Coast by 5. Before 6:30, he relocates to the offices of Santa Ana-based Collectors. By 7, he’s on the phone back to New York, attending the weekly partner meeting of his new venture capital fund, Operator Partners. READ MORE
Ten years ago this month, we witnessed what may very well go down as one of the most significant events in modern American history: In downtown New York’s Zuccotti Park, police officers stormed a small, makeshift compound, evicting a small throng of occupants and putting an end to what became known as the Occupy Wall Street movement. READ MORE
BuzzFeed, the digital media company most known for its lists, quizzes and journalism, is going public and its debut on the Nasdaq will serve as a bellwether for the rest of the media industry's financial futures.
Shareholders of 890 Fifth Avenue Partners, a special purpose acquisition company, approved a merger with BuzzFeed on Thursday. BuzzFeed will also close its acquisition of Complex Networks, a media company run as a joint venture of Verizon (VZ) and Hearst, on Friday. The newly combined companies will start trading Monday under the ticker BZFD. READ MORE
Raising capital for a startup is a lot like getting a hug … followed by a swift punch in the gut.
If you’re like the thousands of startup founders we’ve worked with, you understand. You receive a check from your venture capital partner (a massive accomplishment), and the next thing across your desk is a legal bill to cover the tens and thousands of dollars of fees for documentation and diligence. READ MORE
Seed funding experienced steep growth in the past decade, with more than 40,000 U.S.-based startups raising this early capital since 2011, per Crunchbase data.
With all this growth, are a greater proportion of startups stonewalled at seed? How many of these startups are successfully raising post-seed funding to graduate to the next phase? It turns out that while the odds of raising funding post seed have not changed significantly, per our analysis, raising a large seed round of $1 million and above significantly improves a startup’s chance of subsequent funding. READ MORE
Simon Clark is frustrated. The Wall Street Journal reporter is five months removed from the publication of his well-received book on Abraaj Group, a private equity pioneer turned Ponzi scheme, but tells me the industry has turned a blind eye to the cautionary tale he co-authored with Will Louch. READ MORE
The ten best-performing venture capital firms this year are all based in the US, in a poor year for European firms.
Two European VC firms, Glasgow-based Scottish Equity Partners and Stockholm-based Northzone, were among the top 10 firms listed in the HEC-Dow Jones Venture Capital Performance Rankings in 2020 but this year no European firms made it to the top 10. READ MORE
Just because venture capitalists are investing record amounts of money into startups doesn’t mean that it’s smooth sailing for the baby companies.
In fact, the rapid influx of cash is posing some significant challenges, as several startup founders and executives explained during a roundtable discussion on Wednesday during Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif. READ MORE
The venture industry has continued to prove its resiliency in 2021—a year marked by outsized funds, numerous mega-deals and the soaring interest of multistage investors looking to back younger startups.
As a result, valuations of VC-backed companies are on the rise across most stages in the third quarter. Our latest US VC Valuations report takes a deep dive into startup valuations across the venture lifecycle through Q3 2021, including spotlights on sectors such as biotech, climate tech and enterprise tech. READ MORE
In this purpose-driven era, executives love to wax poetic about their values and principles. Why not? It’s happy talk. It makes everybody feel good. READ MORE
When Paige Doherty’s parents asked her to explain her dream job investing in startups as a venture capitalist, she went a few steps further: she wrote a book. After a cold email, Midas List stalwart Ann Miura-Ko wrote the forward to Seed To Harvest, an illustrated book that looks to demystify VC for readers old and young alike. READ MORE
Venture capitalists have bet big on crypto start-ups in 2021, investing more than $27 billion globally as of late November, more than the previous 10 years combined, according to PitchBook.
Many of the investments were made by the venture capital arms of crypto companies, businesses whose continued growth will depend on the ecosystem expanding. READ MORE
For the first time in history, private equity is on track to invest more than USD1 trillion in American businesses over the course of a single calendar year, according to the American Investment Council’s (AIC) 2021 Q3 Investment Trends Report.
Through the end of the third quarter, private equity has invested USD788 billion in 4,806 businesses across the United States. The amount invested represents an 86 percent increase from the same period in 2020. READ MORE