How VCs Can Overcome the “Winner’s Curse”

It is common for businesspeople to make excessively rosy predictions of their prospects for success. When entrepreneurs offer overly optimistic forecasts, their investors end up disappointed. But investors can contribute to this problem by encouraging founders to be optimistic. Venture capitalists often push founders to set big, hairy, audacious goals. When potential investors demand a promise of glorious revenues in five years, founders often oblige. READ MORE

Crypto Regulation, Fraud, and Venture Capital

Empire Fintech Conference, hosted by Empire Startups as part of New York Fintech Week, included a few hot takes on the regulation of cryptocurrency, the relevance of Web 3.0, and where venture capital wants to invest in this space.

The mix of one-on-one discussions and panels showed that as fintech has seen some fast-moving growth and deals, there is still plenty of reason to remain pragmatic about what may come next. READ MORE

This women-led funding round gives me hope venture capital is changing

Repeat a word out loud often enough and it loses its meaning. Read a set of facts too often, and they start to feel meaningless, too.

One such fact is that all (or one) women founding teams raised just two percent of venture capital dollars in 2021, and Black women raised just 0.34%. Even as women entrepreneurs post better financial results than male founding teams, these numbers only get worse at the next growth stage: Women raised just one percent of “early-stage” (that’s after the seed round, so Series A, B, or C) dollars in 2021. READ MORE

Q1 US venture capital trends in five charts

The first quarter of 2022 showed signs of a slowdown for US venture dealmaking and exits compared to last year's record highs.

While the public market volatility of the past few months is expected to have a trickle-down effect on other venture metrics in coming quarters, the start of 2022 also suggests the onset of a healthy recalibration period for both startups and venture investors. READ MORE

Why SaaS is bucking the venture slowdown

As the global startup market digests a changing valuation environment and climate for venture investment, not every sector is taking the same amount of damage. One is indeed faring better than the rest.

It’s not the flashiest sector in startupland. Instead, it’s the tried-and-true software-as-a-service (SaaS) category that appears to be in the best shape to fend off a slowdown in private-market investment. READ MORE

Meet The Next Billion-Dollar Startups

Today, Crunchbase News is launching The Crunchbase Emerging Unicorn Board, a curated list of startups on the path to achieving  billion-dollar valuations, also known as unicorn status.

The startups on our Emerging Unicorn Board are private companies valued at $500 million or more, but less than $1 billion. They could well become the next billion-dollar private companies listed on The Crunchbase Unicorn Board, our list of the most highly valued startups in the world. READ MORE

Proposed Rule Changes Could Chill Already Cool SPAC Market

When it comes to the market, there are many differences thus far between the early part of this year and last—perhaps none more pronounced than the dearth of companies going public.

Taking that point a step further is the slowdown in special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. While all the rage the past two years, both SPACs going public and those finding a target to merge with are on the decline—and newly proposed rule changes by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding blank-check firms could further affect the market, according to those in the industry. READ MORE

Chipotle launches $50M venture fund in bid to foster new restaurant tech

In a bid to position its brand as more tech-forward — and, in the process, foster new culinary innovations — Chipotle today announced the launch of Cultivate Next, a venture fund run by Curt Garner, the restaurant chain’s chief technology officer. Chipotle says that Cultivate Next, which will be financed solely by Chipotle to start, will offer a tranche of $50 million and focus on tech companies in the “seed to Series B” stages. READ MORE

Using data science to reshape the VC industry

One of the ironies of venture capital is that, although it is one of the most powerful mechanisms in modern society for catalysing innovation – particularly in tech – the industry itself is not particularly innovative. Venture capital is a business that historically, and even now, is deeply rooted in personal relationships, intuition, reputation and a very analogue flow of ideas and information. READ MORE

High hopes and a mountain of dry powder have VCs poised for a soft landing

Some investors I talked to in the second half of last year complained about the VC market's exuberance. They yearned for a slowdown in the dealmaking pace and even a decline in valuations.

Their wish came true earlier this year following a correction in the stock market. And despite the new climate of pressure on late-stage VC-backed valuations, there are plenty of reasons to expect the market to ride out the storm. READ MORE

Crypto is altering the investing landscape for even the most disciplined VCs

The long-awaited re-correction of private tech startup valuations and fundraising expectations has a web3-sized asterisk next to it.

While many funds are returning to more conservative check-writing, with a focus on profitability and business fundamentals, crypto remains a sector in the spotlight that attracts dedicated billion-dollar funds and investment terms that remind us more of 2021 than 2022. READ MORE