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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that will let Americans invest their 401(k) retirement savings in cryptocurrency, private equity and real estate, marking a major shift in retirement investment options.
The order directed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Labor Department and Treasury to update their rules to give investors access to these alternative assets. READ MORE
In the past, the private equity world has been largely populated by ultra-rich investors, endowments and pension funds. That is about to change.
Retirement savers with 401(k) accounts are gaining access to the private investment market, which mostly pivots on privately held companies, rather than public ones. READ MORE
Jake Brukhman is a computer scientist who worked at Amazon and on Wall Street before founding CoinFund, one of the first venture capital firms dedicated to cryptocurrency investing. He is also the latest guest on Fortune’s new podcast Crypto Playbook (available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube) where Brukhman shared his insights based on a decade of investing—and offered some very practical tips for those coming to this market for the first time. READ MORE
AI soon may revolutionize venture capital, but not in the way that many investors think. READ MORE
"AI has impacted all walks of life, and investing is no exception. We see AI transforming all elements of the investment process," declared Rotem Shacham, Director at PSG Equity. This statement encapsulates the profound shift occurring within venture capital firms, as artificial intelligence moves beyond a mere buzzword to become an indispensable tool deeply integrated into the day-to-day work of partners and team members. READ MORE
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There’s been much talk about the Silicon Valley venture capital model being broken given the scarcity of successful exits over the past few years. But the standard VC playbook can still sometimes work as written, as shown by the blockbuster flotation of Figma on the New York Stock Exchange last week from which the design software company’s market value surged to more than $60bn on its opening day. The VC playbook goes as follows: READ MORE
Global dealmaking has reached $2.6 trillion, the highest for the first seven months of the year since the 2021 pandemic-era peak, as a quest for growth in corporate boardrooms and the impact of a surge in AI activity has overcome the uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs.
The number of transactions to August 1 is 16% lower than the same time last year, but their value is 28% higher, according to Dealogic data, boosted by U.S. megadeals valued at more than $10 billion. READ MORE
With revenues likely to soar past $1 billion this fiscal year, the Big Ten’s deep pockets give its membership advantages well beyond its competition. But even for college athletics’ richest conference, the cash never seems enough in today’s ever-changing sports landscape. READ MORE
Global venture funding totaled $29.7 billion in July 2025, flat year over year and down month over month from the $43 billion invested in June, Crunchbase data shows.
Despite a month-over-month dip in venture dollars, July offered hopeful signs for startup investors: AI remains a funding juggernaut, and Figma’s stellar IPO performance could be the catalyst needed to unlock the public markets for dozens of high-growth, revenue-generating tech unicorns that have been waiting in the wings. READ MORE
The VC landscape is getting heated and expanding over AI, but another topic seems to be populating investment memos, GTM strategies and expansion plans. Tariffs, those seemingly boring policy tools, are redrawing the investment map across continents and deciding on winners versus losers in ways that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. READ MORE
Women are making strides in the venture capital world, according to a new report published by the nonprofit All Raise and as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
All Raise released a report that said 18.6% of the top roles at leading VC firms are held by women, which is double what it was in 2018. The survey also found that many women (a quarter of survey respondents) were promoted last year and that investors were still interested in backing underrepresented founders (75% of investors said they were looking to make such deals). READ MORE
A new buzzword for many VCs today is “rollups.”
This year, a slew of VC firms have turned to the PE playbook of buying and merging multiple similar small companies in the hope of building industry leaders. But unlike its big brother, VC’s secret sauce is technology, specifically AI. READ MORE
President Trump is considering whether to encourage retirement funds to invest in private equity, a financial sector that’s hungry for capital after shrinking last year for the first time in decades.
Trump is mulling an executive order that would instruct the Securities and Exchange Commission and Labor Department to guide directors of 401(k) and individual retirement account plans to make investments in private equity funds, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. READ MORE
As the AI investment landscape reaches greater maturity, investors are observing a decisive "shift from 'hype' to 'discipline'" in evaluation criteria. While AI undoubtedly offers what many describe as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," investors are increasingly demanding evidence of "sustainable growth and proven profitability" rather than accepting promises based purely on technological potential. READ MORE
The Weekly Notable Startup Funding Report takes us on a trip across various ecosystems in the US, highlighting some of the notable funding activity in the various markets that we track. The notable startup funding rounds for the week ending 8/2/25 featuring funding details for ESB, Observe, Salient, and twenty-nine other deals representing $10.5B in new funding that you need to know about. READ MORE
For many HR pros, startups are a career sweet spot. That’s the case for Stacey Richey, who currently is global VP of people at Smartcat, a Series C AI translation company.
She’s worked at companies during hyper-growth periods. What first gave Richey the startup bug, she told HR Brew, was a formative early career experience working at a private equity firm, and consulting its portfolio companies on their talent strategies. READ MORE
Silicon Valley famously rewards outliers. Greylock Partners' Reid Hoffman invested in Airbnb—now an $87 billion publicly traded company—when seven other firms had turned the nascent startup down. First Round Capital's Rob Hayes turned the firm's seed investment in Uber into a 5,000x return. READ MORE
President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4 the joint domestic spending and tax package, dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill," and some provisions will impact startups and VCs. While investors will continue to enjoy favorable taxation of their carried interest alongside some other wins, the final bill also includes provisions that will sting. READ MORE
Limited partners in private equity funds are usually reluctant to sell their positions at a loss, fearing reputational risk. The steeper the discount, the stronger the hesitation. READ MORE