Exclusive : Warby Parker Seeks to Raise $75 Million For $1.2 Billion The company last raised $100 million in 2015 for its Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation. It's is seeking a higher share price for its Series E, which indicates that its valuation will likely be higher after it completes the financing round. Since last raising money, Warby Parker has significantly expanded its retail footprint and plans to have nearly 100 stories open in the U.S. by the end of 2018. Last year it opened a $16 million optical lab dedicated to building its own glasses in-house. And in January, it started selling products for kids for the first time. Warby Parker has raised $216 million in total since its founding in 2010 from investors such as General Catalyst, T. Rowe Price, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. [ Cheddar ] Magic Leap gets $461M more, Travis goes VC, and HQ Trivia scales upHello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week we had a corking set of news to get through, so we rounded up the usual gang (Matthew Lynley, Katie Roof, and myself), and brought in Eric Feng from Kleiner Perkins to help us get under the skin of the latest. [ Tech Crunch ] Many in Silicon Valley support Universal Basic Income. Now the California Democratic Party does, too.Universal Basic Income is a policy that’s been lauded by tech leaders from Mark Zuckerberg to Elon Musk as a proposed solution to job loss due to automation. Last Sunday,
it officially became part of California’s Democratic Party platform, signaling that the idea is beginning to enter the political mainstream at the same time Silicon Valley leaders are putting their weight behind it. The top 16 VC investors in Europe's female-founded companiesWho leads the way in Europe when it comes to investing in female-founded companies? Spiegel Sets Ambitious Goal for Snap: Break Even This YearSnap CEO Evan Spiegel has told employees in a company-wide directive he wants the company to work toward break-even this year, an ambitious goal that could require Snap to aggressively cut costs. Snap last year lost $720 million, before interest, taxes and charges like stock compensation expenses, due mostly to heavy spending on research and development and marketing. This year, analysts expect it to lose anywhere from $687 million to $912 million. Analysts don’t project Snap turning profitable until at least 2021. [ The Information ] Some venture capital firms are publicizing their sexual harassment policies for the first timeA group of venture capital firms are publicizing their sexual harassment policies, some for the first time, as part of a new directory co-led by one of the women who publicly accused a VC of harassment. On Thursday, about forty firms are publicly spelling out their policies or identifying their point of contact for human resources complaints as part of a new initative called MovingForward. The creators claim they encouraged several venture capital firms to release or even create entirely new sexual harassment policies that didn’t exist before. [ Re/Code ] Grab unveils bike- and scooter-sharing app in salvo against Mobike and OfoGrab is about to launch an app that will allow consumers to hire bicycles and electric scooters from a variety of providers. GrabCycle Beta will integrate offerings from oBike, GBikes, Anywheel, and Popscoot. It will be piloted on Sentosa Island in Singapore before rolling out to other locations. Users can pay for rentals with GrabPay, Grab’s payments solution, which it is also rolling out to food stalls and retail outlets in Singapore. [ Tech In Asia ] Startup Investor School Day 4Startup Investor School is a free, 4-day course designed to educate early stage investors interested in investing in startups. We'll cover the fundamentals of investing, from investing instruments to legal and accounting basics to evaluating startups and managing deal flow. Our hope is that more people, from a wide range of backgrounds will consider investing in startups and that those who do will be better at it. The course will run from March 5th, 2018 through March 8th, 2018. The course will be offered live online and in-person in Mountain View. All of the course content, including the curriculum, lectures and other resources will be made available to the public once the course ends. [ YC ] Taking the pulse of startups, VCs, and innovation in ‘Emerging Europe’Uber has hired a top Amazon voice exec as head of product as Daniel Graf departsIn another high-profile executive departure at Uber, product head Daniel Graf is leaving the company, according to sources. His replacement is Amazon’s top voice shopping VP, Assaf Ronen. It is not clear where Graf, who had previously held top product jobs at Google (good) and Twitter (not as good), will be going. Update: Uber confirmed the hiring of Ronen and the departure of Graf, who will remain as an adviser for a time. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also sent a memo to staff (see below). Uber declined to comment, and Graf did not return a message requesting comment. Ronen is a big get, having done stints at Microsoft and Amazon. At the e-commerce giant, he was VP of voice and natural user interface shopping — no, the Israeli entrepreneur was not responsible for the evil Alexa laugh — a big area of growth there. [ Re/Code ] 327 What Entrepreneurs Need To Know About Venture CapitalDETERMINE WHAT TYPE OF SEED FUNDING IS RIGHT FOR YOUFintech startup Atom raises £149 million led by Spanish bank BBVAKen Ouimet meets entrepreneurs at Startup Grind Sacramento$9 billion Stripe just bought a payments startup backed by Eric Schmidt as it goes after even larger customers7 Women VCs on How Female Founders Can Get More Venture DollarsKiller Startup Advice from the Founders of theSkimmWomen breach tech and venture capital barriersCalifornia Today: Peter Thiel Is Leaving Silicon Valley. Will Others?Startup grind Johannesburg hosts Venture Capitalist (Shakes Motsilili)Ecommerce platform Emperor Champagne sells and educates consumers about champagne |