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Venture Capitalists Hunt for the Next Big Thing

Venture capitalists are always chasing the next big thing. Of late, they are struggling to figure out what that might be. Nearly a decade has passed since the smartphone sparked a startup gold rush. Silicon Valley investors have yet to identify the next product that will spawn a similar wave of tech companies and lucrative returns. Venture capitalists are spreading their bets across technologies where the path to profits is unclear, including self-driving cars, drones, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, even food. [ WSJ ]

The ghost of AOL will haunt the Time Warner-AT&T deal

 In the end, I guess you could finally say Steve Case was right. Case led AOL to great power in the 1990s, and he then presided over what has become known as one of the worst mergers of all time, when he combined his high-flying internet giant with Time Warner, back at the turn of the century. It was a truly epic move, all predicated on the very big idea that distribution and content had to marry in the digital age and that whoever did that successfully would rule the next era of media and more. It was also an epic failure, brought down by a toxic combination of timing and execution.
[ Recode ]

Why We Invested: VCs On What They Saw Early On In Big-Name Startups

From Airbnb to Blue Bottle to Dropbox, and from Sequoia to Upfront Ventures, here's why top VCs made big bets on some of today's best known startups. VCs are always on the hunt for the next 10x company, but what draws them in can be anything from a great founder team to  product-market fit to a game-changing user interface. Below we highlight quotes from funding announcements, interviews, and VCs’ own blogs where they share what aspect of an up-and-coming startup made them want to invest. [ CB Insights Blog ]

Design Due Diligence - Screening and evaluating early-stage investment opportunities from a design perspective.

 

To evaluate a potential investment opportunity, every VC firm typically runs due diligence — a process to determine whether or not to invest in the company and at which valuation. While technical, financial and legal stages of the due diligence process are already widely used in the industry, design due diligence hasn’t taken off yet. Many still focus on product functionality, and underestimate the value of design in the process of building a business. [ Medium ]

Saving People Money, Fintech Edition - By Sarah Tavel

This past February, I wrote a post outlining my belief that a sure path to building an enduring, multi-billion dollar business was to build a “10x product, and save people money.” Over the past six months, I’ve been exploring how “saving people money” extends beyond how we spend money, but also how we manage our money (or for many of us, our debts). I pulled some research and thinking together in the deck below, which I presented at Greylock’s annual LP meeting this past summer. In it, I outline why I think Americans, particularly young Americans (uh-oh, the dreaded buzzword: millennials!), have a burning need for new financial products, and why the timing is ripe for a new generation of startups. [ Medium ]

LATEST FUNDING

Arch, J&J Join $40M Bet on New Approach to Neurobehavioral Drug Discovery

Neurobehavioral disorders are notoriously tricky for drug developers. The underlying biology of diseases like schizophrenia, autism, and addiction often isn’t well understood. Multiple complicating factors, genetic and environmental, are at work. Placebo effects of treatments can run high. Not to be deterred, Arch Venture Partners, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and a cast of other venture investors are betting $40 million on a new South San Francisco-based company, Blackthorn Therapeutics, that they think is putting together the necessary puzzle pieces to overcome the odds. [ Forbes ]

TurboAppeal adds $4 million to help people fight property taxes

TurboAppeal, a Chicago-based startup that makes software to help property owners appeal taxes, has raised a $4 million Series A funding round, the company announced Tuesday morning. It will use the money to expand nationally and introduce new products, said CEO and co-founder Badal Shah. Guaranteed Rate, the Chicago-based mortgage company that recently gained naming rights to the White Sox ballpark, led the round, which brings the company's total funding to $7.2 million, Shah said.
[ Chicago Tribune ]

Payments startup Coins.ph just raised $5m from some familiar names

Online payments startup Coins.ph has landed a series A funding round worth US$5 million, the company announced today. The round is led by Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, a global emerging markets fintech fund focused on financial inclusion, which is managed by similarly-minded investment firm Quona Capital. Other investors like Wavemaker Labs, Global Brain, BeeNext, Rebright Partners, as well as Kickstart Ventures and Ideaspace Foundation – the investment arms of Filipino telcos Globe Telecom and Smart Communications respectively – joined in. Innovation Endeavors, Pantera Capital, and Digital Currency Group also participated. [ Tech In Asia ]

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Wal-Mart to invest $50 million in China online grocer New Dada

Wal-Mart Stores Inc will invest $50 million in Chinese online grocery and delivery firm New Dada, the U.S. retailer said on Friday, extending its tie-ups with local online players to help boost sales in the world's second-largest economy. Wal-Mart shifted its China strategy earlier this year when it sold its own online platform Yihaodian in exchange for a stake in local e-commerce giant JD.com Inc. New Dada is a joint venture part-owned by JD.com. [ Reuters ]

Verdigris raises $6.7 million for artificial intelligence that powers green factories and hotels

The smart energy startup Verdigris announced today that it has raised $6.7 million to scale production of its Einstein smart sensor and frequency detectors. The sensors are used to predict the failure of machines and improve energy efficiency. Factories, manufacturing facilities, and other large buildings using Verdigris technology reduce energy use 8 to 22 percent, CEO Mark Chung told VentureBeat in a phone interview. [ Venture Beat ]

LA startup Joymode scores $3 mln

Homebrew has led a $3 million funding round for Los Angeles-based Joymode, which lets users “access everything you need but don’t own or want to own for great experiences,” according to a spokesperson for the firm. Other participants in the round were Lowercase Capital, Founders Collective, Collaborative Fund, TenOneTen, Slow Ventures, Sherpa Ventures, Scott Belsky and Emil Michael. 
[ PE Hub ]  

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LATEST EXITS 

With the acquisition of Appirio, Wipro expects to stay ahead of the game

Wipro’s $500 million of cloud services company Appirio was not just to gain access to its cloud-integration business, it was also part of a bet that the IT industry would be disrupted the way cab-hailing company Uber disrupted the transport sector. Buried inside Appirio is a crowdsourcing platform for developers and data scientists called TopCoder. Clients contact the platform with their IT requirements and with a budget. [ Economic Times ]

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Altice Said to Weigh IPO of U.S. Cable Unit to Spur Growth

Patrick Drahi’s Altice NV is considering options to raise money for expansion in the U.S., including an initial public offering of the cable-TV business it created by buying Cablevision Systems and Suddenlink, according to people with knowledge of the situation. An IPO of Altice USA is one option, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are still in flux. Others being considered are raising more capital at the parent level of Altice, or more borrowing, one of the people said. No banks have been hired. [ Bloomberg ]

FUND RAISED

Chattanooga venture capital fund expands with another round of investments in female-headed firms

Three years after launching one of the first female-ledventure funds in the country, a Chattanooga venture capital fund is launching a second and bigger round of financing to back more female-owned or female-headed business startups. The Jump Fund, which raised $2.5 million in 2013 and began making investments in businesses the next year, announced Friday that it plans to launch a second, larger fund to continue investments for female entrepreneurs. The first fund has invested in 18 female-led companies across the Southeast and has reached the capacity of its initial funding.[ Times free press ]
 

 
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Curated by Venture Pulse Team. Find us on : [ Venturepulse.org, CrunchBase, AngelList ]