From Crimefighter to 'Crypto': Meet the Woman in Charge of Venture Capital’s Biggest GambleKathryn Haun was the Justice Department's go-to prosecutor for Bitcoin-related felonies. Now she's one of cryptocurrency's most important investors. Here's why her career change is a watershed moment. SoftBank to raise $100 billion fund every 2-3 years, spend $50 billion annually: BloombergSoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) plans to create a new $100 billion fund every two to three years and spend $50 billion annually, its Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview published on Thursday. [ Reuters ] She's 35 -- and runs a $3 billion companyStitch Fix founder Katrina Lake is one of the wealthiest female entrepreneurs in the country, but it wasn't too long ago that she could have never imagined herself as a CEO. "There haven't been a lot of founder CEOs that look like me," Lake tells CNN's Poppy Harlow in an episode of Boss Files. "I showed up as a girl who spent a lot of her life in California who said 'like' a lot, and kind of looked like what you would expect for that." Lending platform Funding Circle raises £300M in London IPO, valuing it at £1.5B, as investor interest coolsAnother fintech startup has made the leap into publicly-traded company: Funding Circle, the peer-to-peer lending platform for small and medium businesses that was originally founded in the UK, opened for trading today on the London Stock Exchange. It was a positive, if not stratospheric, debut. Trading under FNIG.L, its stock opened at 460 pence, only a small rise of 4.5 percent on its initial offer price of 440 pence per
share. Funding Circle [ Tech Crunch ] 35-Year-Old Unknown Creates the World’s Most Valuable StartupBytedance’s said to be valued at over $75 billion in new round. SoftBank is said to plan an investment of about $1.5 billion. [ Bloomberg ] Pymetrics raises $40 million for AI-powered job recruitmentPymetrics today announced it has raised $40 million to expand its work using a combination of neuroscience and artificial intelligence to help companies recruit the right job candidates. The funding will allow Pymetrics to continue its product development and expansion in markets outside the United States. [ Venture Beat ] Swiss Startup Raises $103 Million to Launch Cryptocurrency BankSwitzerland-based startup SEBA Crypto AG has raised 100 million Swiss francs ($103 million) to set up a bank offering cryptocurrency-related services, Reuters reported September 26. SEBA is reportedly headed by former UBS bankers — Guido Buehler as chief executive and Andreas Amschwand as chairman — and plans to apply for a banking and securities dealer license from Swiss financial market regulator FINMA. A license would allow the firm to conduct crypto trading and investmentsbusiness for other banks and qualified investors. [ Cointele Graph ] This 24-Year-Old Built a $5 Billion Hotel Startup in Five YearsFinding clean, affordable hotels in India can be a traveler’s nightmare. Too often, what looks good on a website turns out to be a roach-infested room in a crumbling building where water has to be schlepped to the bathroom in a bucket. [ Bloomberg ] We’re Looking for a Partner Operations Manager to Work with Bill TrenchardThis is a full-time role based in San Francisco. Apply here. The death of once high-flying VC fundsThey all started with the best of intentions. Formation 8 talked about bringing “smart enterprise” to the corporate world. Social Capital talked about how to “fix capitalism” and Binary Capital wanted to “affect global behaviour change.” Rothenberg Ventures set out to “work on the biggest problems that change the world. [ Tech Crunch ] |