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The conventional theory in the world of venture capital is that investing as early as possible produces the greatest returns.
But that’s not always the case, according to a new report by Manhattan Venture Partners, an investment firm focused on late-stage private companies. READ MORE
Twenty years ago, I sat down in a Boston lobster shack with a college endowment manager who looked equal parts dazed and triumphant. "They're really going to give the money back," he said before we'd even been offered water. "Can you f**king believe it?"
Fast forward: 2022 is not 2002. READ MORE
As anyone following tech stocks recently has observed, there’s been a lot of downward momentum.
Even so, public tech companies have carried out some big startup M&A deals lately. Just yesterday, e-commerce software company Shopify said it’s buying logistics and fulfillment unicorn Deliverr for $2.1 billion, marking its largest acquisition yet. And just last month, chipmaker AMD announced another huge purchase, buying venture-backed Pensando for $1.9 billion. READ MORE
A lot of founders ask, “When is the right time to take on venture capital investors?” The specific answer to this varies by company, but I’m always sure to remind them that as soon as they take VC money, the clock starts ticking.
This is true not just of VCs, but also angel investors. As soon as a founder takes on angels or VC investors, they are under certain expectations to perform and grow the business quickly. READ MORE
Elon Musk's bid to acquire Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) may have just gotten a step closer to becoming reality. In a May 4 amendment to his previously filed Schedule 13D, Musk revealed that he has put together roughly $7 billion in funding for his takeover efforts from nearly 20 sources. Investors include Silicon Valley luminaries, venture capital funds, and more.1 The new filing seems to indicate that Musk is making arrangements to move forward with the acquisition of Twitter after the company's board accepted his offer on April 25. READ MORE
The pace at which venture capitalists are deploying funding across the globe slowed yet again in April.
Venture capital dollar volume, as tracked by Crunchbase News in a new report, peaked in November 2021. Since that apogee, the value of venture investments has ticked lower in most months before dropping another $5 billion from March to April. READ MORE
As anyone following tech stocks recently has observed, there’s been a lot of downward momentum.
Even so, public tech companies have carried out some big startup M&A deals lately. Just yesterday, e-commerce software company Shopify said it’s buying logistics and fulfillment unicorn Deliverr for $2.1 billion, marking its largest acquisition yet. And just last month, chipmaker AMD announced another huge purchase, buying venture-backed Pensando for $1.9 billion. READ MORE
Global venture funding totaled $47 billion in April 2022—the lowest amount invested in private companies in the past 12 months—based on an analysis of Crunchbase data. While the dip isn’t massive, it does signal that the slowdown we saw in the first quarter of this year is the start of a longer-term shift in funding, particularly at late stage.
All in all, April funding fell 10 percent month over month from $52 billion in March and down 12 percent from $53.5 billion in April 2021. READ MORE
If you’re a founder, business owner, or entrepreneur, you may dream of selling your business one day and walking away with a big check. Sounds great, but sometimes we can get stuck on the “when and how” in preparing to sell.
Joey Osborne, founder of the Mosquito Authority franchise, was recently acquired by a private equity firm for an eight-figure payday and he worked his deal so that he still has significant ownership and will get what’s known in the industry as “the second bite of the apple” READ MORE
Never has so much money poured into venture capital.
In the first quarter of 2022, US VCs raised more money for new funds than in the entirety of 2019, according to Pitchbook. But those new funds didn’t translate into more investments into startups. Instead, global VC investment fell sharply in the first quarter, down from record highs the year before. READ MORE
Top leadership for Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, have quietly launched a separate “blank check” fund that stands to fuel astronomical fortunes for former intelligence officials.
In-Q-Tel, which receives funding and directions from the CIA, was founded by the CIA in the late ’90s to spur private sector innovation with the goal of bringing the latest technology to market to fuel America’s covert national security operations. Now, its chief executive and president are taking advantage of the latest stock market fad to create financial windfall for themselves and a small set of former national security officials. READ MORE
For the better part of a decade, VC firms and growth equity funds have plowed nearly $42 billion into battery technology startups across almost 1,700 deals, according to an analysis by PitchBook and TechCrunch. What’s more, about 75% of the investments in that period happened in the last two years alone. READ MORE
The startup exit market has seen better days. Heck, the startup market has seen better days.
After a turbulent and ultimately aggressive 2020 in venture capital terms, startups rolled into 2021 more than hot. Last year saw record-breaking totals of venture capital pumped into upstart tech companies around the world, with some startups raising two or even three times in a single 12-month period if they were particularly in demand. READ MORE
The number of electric vehicle owners today is dwarfed by a secondary group. This would be the untold millions who say they’d like one, but are waiting until costs go down, driving range goes up, and charging stations are more widely accessible.
On that last point, venture investors and startups are scaling up efforts to improve infrastructure. Over the past few quarters, scores of companies in the EV charging space have raised funding, much of it seed and early stage. READ MORE
Chinese ride-hailing company Didi said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating it after the company’s bumpy IPO.
The company disclosed in its annual report this week that the SEC made inquiries regarding the IPO, CNBC reported. READ MORE
In the not-too-distant future, it may be possible to come home, kick off your made-from-fungus sneakers, hang up your kelp yarn jacket, and plop down on a plush sofa upholstered in cell-grown leather.
Those are some of the fabric and materials advancements that, in varying degrees of market readiness, startups have been cooking up in the past few years. With venture funding to the space picking up this past year, many are getting closer to mass-market adoption. READ MORE
“The effects of the [2008/09] financial crisis and the pandemic differed dramatically; the financial crisis put the brakes on funding, while the pandemic was an inflection point.”
— CRUNCHBASE.COM
Different Crises. Different Causes. Different Outcomes. READ MORE
Corporate venture arms, hedge funds, private equity firms and other nontraditional investors have rushed into venture over the last few years. Their participation, which reached over 78% of total US VC deal value in 2021, according to PitchBook data, was credited with driving up deal prices across the venture industry. READ MORE
Scared of being left in the digital dust, venture capital and private equity investors are stampeding towards crypto projects - blockchain-based apps and platforms fuelled by cryptocurrencies that are native to the virtual economies of the metaverse and Web3. READ MORE
White men manage a whopping 93% of venture capital dollars. A minuscule 2.8% of dollars went to Black and Latinx founders, 17.3% to teams with at least one female founder, and only 2.0% to all-female founder teams.
Some VCs say there is a pipeline issue, but women- and BIPOC-led fund managers know there is no shortage of talented, diverse founders. Lolita Taub recently announced her first solo fund—Ganas Ventures—which invests about $100,000 in pre-seed and seed-stage Web 2 and Web 3, community-driven startups in the U.S. and Latin America. READ MORE