New Billion Dollar Fund LaunchesMaking over 50% of the world's population, women are still drastically underrepresented in the VC funding arena, but the Billion Dollar Fund For Women is looking to change that. Only 2% of venture capital funding goes to women. 2% of $155 billion in 2017 according to KPMG figures. Despite research showing companies with women founders bring in 20% more revenue with 50% less invested. Calibrate Ventures and it's new, 80 million fundTwo years ago, a couple of VCs from Shea Ventures, a 50-year-old, L.A. -based investment firm, banded together to create a Pasadena, Ca.-based early stage venture firm called Calibrate Ventures. Investors clearly like what they’re building. Firm founders Kevin Dunlap and Jason Schoettler are today announcing that they have closed their debut effort with $80 million in capital commitments, including from Shea Ventures itself and from Foundry Group, the Boulder, Co. [ Tech Crunch ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. InVision, valued at $1.9 billion, picks up $115M Series F“The screen is becoming the most important place in the world,” says InVision CEO and founder Clark Valberg. In fact, it’s hard to get through a conversation with him without hearing it. And, considering that his company has grown to $100 million in annual recurring revenue, he has reason to believe his own affirmation. InVision, the startup looking to be the Salesforce of design, has officially achieved unicorn status with the close of a $115 million Series F round, bringing the company’s total funding to $350 million. This deal values InVision at $1.9 billion, which is nearly double its valuation as of mid-2017 on the heels of its $100 million Series E financing.
Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Carolina Brochado, a partner at European venture capital firm Atomico, is joining SoftBank’s Vision Fund.In the latest installment of VC revolving doors, Carolina Brochado, a partner at European venture capital firm Atomico, is joining SoftBank’s Vision
Fund. According to sources, Brochado informed Atomico portfolio companies earlier this week that she was joining SoftBank, where she’ll be based at the mega-fund‘s London office. Nexthink raises $85M to monitor and improve 'employee experience' of appsAs companies compete for talent, a startup that has built a platform to help ensure that the talent — once it’s working for you — doesn’t get bogged down by IT frustration, has raised a significant round of funding. Lausanne, Switzerland-based Nexthink has nailed down $85 million in funding led by Index Ventures (which has a base in Geneva), with participation also from Highland Europe, Forestay Capital, Galéo Capital and TOP Funds and Olivier Pomel (co-founder and CEO of Datadog). Nexthink’s CEO Pedro Bados said in an interview that the company will be using this round to expand its business globally and specifically in the US. [ Tech Crunch ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. This is Peter Thiel’s favorite interview questionHow many golf balls fit in a 747? How much would you charge to wash all the windows in Chicago? How many gas stations are there in Manhattan? Tech companies like Google were once famous for vetting job candidates with quirky interview questions like these, but around five years ago, the riddles fell out of style. “On the hiring side, we found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time,” Laszlo Bock, Google’s former SVP of people operations, told the New York Times in 2013. “They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.” [ QZ ] Which is More Important: New Account Growth or Account Expansion?If you have one marketing dollar to spend on your startup’s growth, should you spend it on acquiring a new customer or on expanding an existing customer? Mining the existing customer base for customer expansion seems very logical. Customers know your product and your sales team, so increasing the account value should be easier. [ Tomasz Tunguz ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuationIn the five years since its product was showcased onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt New York’s hackathon, Plaid has emerged as one of the most critical contributors to financial technology’s evolution — and one of the most under the radar. That is, until now. The company is today announcing a $250 million Series C investment led by famed venture capitalist and the author of the Internet Trends report Mary Meeker, who will join its board of
directors as part of the deal. The funds were raised at a valuation of $2.65 billion, according to sources close to the company. Capital from Meeker’s investment came from Kleiner Perkins’ growth fund — where Meeker has been a partner since 2010 — not from the reported billion-dollar-plus solo fund she’s in the process of raising. [ Tech Crunch ] Indonesia e-commerce leader Tokopedia raises $1.1B from Alibaba and SoftBank’s Vision FundIndonesia-based e-commerce firm Tokopedia is the latest startup to enter the Vision Fund after it raised $1.1 billion Series G round led by the SoftBank megafund and Alibaba. SoftBank and Alibaba are existing investors in the business — the Chinese e-commerce giant led a $1.1 billion round last year, while SoftBank recently transitioned its shareholding in Tokopedia to the Vision Fund. That latter detail is what held up this deal which had been agreed in principle back in October, TechCrunch understands. [ Tech Crunch ] Trello acquires Butler, a tool for automating repetitive tasksTrello, a web-based project management app launched seven years ago by Fog Creek Software and later acquired by Atlassian for $425 million, is a powerful collaboration tool. Its cross-platform dashboard is organized around the idea of boards, or digital whiteboards in a Kanban-style workflow populated by cards containing attachments, to-do items, hyperlinks, due dates, comments, and more. The platform is a highly visual drag-and-drop affair, with a robust ecosystem of third-party Chrome extensions and native apps called Power-Ups — not to mention integrations with services like BitBucket, Google Drive, Dropbox, Salesforce, Slack, and other apps via its API. [ Venture Beat
] With $15M, The Riveter plans to open 100 new female-focused co-working spacesIn a disappointing year for female-founded startups — at least those looking to raise venture capital — The Riveter not only closed its first institutional funding round, but it’s today announcing a $15 million Series A funding, bringing its total backing to $20.5 million. The Seattle-based co-working startup, led by co-founder and chief executive Amy Nelson (pictured), has raised the capital from lead investor Alpha Edison, with
support from Madrona Venture Group, New America president and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter, fashion designer Liz Lange and TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie . [ Tech Crunch ] On Shutting Down: Y CombinatorIt makes sense that founders and investors spend so much time talking about things that go well. If we spent all of our time dwelling on the companies that failed, we wouldn’t have time for much else. When people do talk about company failure, they often do so in a way meant to make them seem wise by breaking down all the lessons they’d learned through failing. I did something like this when we shut Tutorspree down. I think that was a valuable exercise, and maybe it
even helped some people. Mostly, though, it was cathartic. [ YC Blog ] Online liquor store Drizly just landed $34.5 million in fresh fundingApparently, a lot of people realize at the last minute that they don’t have either beer, wine or liquor in their home when they need it. It’s certainly the most obvious explanation for a sizable new round of funding into Drizly, a six-year-old, Boston-based on-demand delivery app for alcohol that works with roughly 1,000 brick-and-mortar liquor stores across the U.S. and Canada to deliver spirits to customers in what it says is less than an hour. Indeed, according to a new SEC filing, the company has just locked down $34.5 million in funding, which roughly doubles the company’s previous $33 million in funding. Investors include Polaris Partners, which led
the company’s Series B round a couple of years ago, along with Baird Capital. Altogether, shows the filing, 17 investors took part in the offering. [ Tech Crunch ] Electric Cars of China: Founder Story of NIOCalled the Elon Musk of China, William Li is the Founder & CEO of NIO, an electric car manufacturer. The most important thing for NIO is offering users a variety of services connected with the vehicle and creating a truly integrated user experience. During his talk at Slush, William will share what pain points electric cars are still facing and how the industry is developing in China. He is being interviewed by Andreas Saari, CEO at Slush. The future of venture capitalDefy.vc's Trae Vassallo, Costanoa Ventures' Greg Sands and Forbes Media's Alex Konrad at Web Summit 2018. We have always been told to think big, but what about thinking small? Our investors today believe that smaller VC firms are the future of startup growth. How can a smaller VC benefit you in 2019? Arlan Hamilton: Founder Story of the Most Talked About VC of 2018Arlan Hamilton is going to tell how she became the founder of Backstage Capital and the most talked about VC in 2018. Backstage Capital is a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started in 2015, Backstage has now invested nearly $5M into 100 startups led by underestimated founders. Interviewing Arlan on stage is Josh Constine, Editor-At-Large at TechCrunch. Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. E884 News Roundtable! Kim-Mai Cutler, Ryan Carson: Uber&Lyft IPO, transportation, housing, diversity [ Jason Calacanis ]E884: News Roundtable! Kim-Mai Cutler, Initialized Capital & Ryan Carson, Treehouse talk IPO heat: Uber & Lyft file, more on deck, effects to ricochet across transportation & housing; diversity in tech & the future of education; the latest in Facebook & Google moral bankruptcy |