Shasta Ventures is doubling down on security startups with 3 new hiresEarly-stage venture capital firm Shasta Ventures has brought on three new faces to beef up its enterprise software and security portfolio amid a big push to “go deeper” into cybersecurity, per Shasta’s managing director Doug Pepper. [ Tech Crunch ] A look at six of SoftBank's most high-profile investments this yearLast Friday, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is set to pour $45 billion into SoftBank's second Vision Fund, after already investing the same amount in the first one. On Tuesday, SoftBank made
headlines again when The Wall Street Journal reported that it's considering spending up to $20 billion for a majority stake in WeWork. Then, on Wednesday, reports indicated that while SoftBank is still in talks to make a major investment in WeWork, the co-working giant's leadership isn't willing to give up control. [ PitchBook ] Zenefits’ Parker Conrad returns with Rippling to kill HR & IT busyworkConrad refused to say how much Rippling has raised total, citing the enhanced scrutiny Zenefits’ raises drew. But he says a Wall Street Journal report that Rippling had raised $7 million was inaccurate. “We haven’t raised any priced VC rounds. Just a bunch of seed money. We raised from Initialized Capital, almost all the early seed investors at Zenefits and a lot of individuals.” He cited Y Combinator, YC Growth Fund, YC’s founder Jessica Livingston and president Sam Altman, other YC partners, as well as DFJ and SV Angel. [ Tech Crunch ] A 24-year-old VC has spent the past 7 years investing in companies that are now worth billions. Here's how's she's picking her next investments to help us live longer.
Investors are betting $75 million on AllTrails and its content for hikersThe startup AllTrails is popular with the hiking set, giving trailgoers a way to track their path up and down a mountain. Now it’s taking on real outside money to try and build a real business. Investors are putting $75 million toward the company in its first serious fundraising round — but one that will hand control over to Spectrum Equity. It’s money that it will use to hire and grow overseas and into diffferent languages, plus cash to buy out existing shareholders. [ Recode ] Checkout Spectrum Equity's Deals, Exits and Fund Raised Data. Y Combinator-backed delivery startup Chaldal raises $5.5 million for ‘nano-warehouse’ technologyAt 19,447 people per square mile, Dhaka, Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. The metropolis of more than 18 million people is notoriously difficult to navigate; expensive real estate (land prices grew by an average of 100 to 125 percent in 2016) and standstill traffic (the average road speed was about 4.5 miles per hour in 2018) mean that millions have to rely on online services for basic grocery, personal care, and household items. Checkout Y Combinator's Deals, Exits and Fund Raised Data. 'I Will Not Be a Part of the Charade Anymore.' Why a Facebook Millionaire and Tech Investor Is Getting Out of the Startup 'Ponzi Schem
Investor Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of Social Capital, called the growth-focused startup scene “an enormous multivariate kind of Ponzi scheme,” yesterday at the Launch Scale conference in San Francisco, CNBC reports. [ Fortune ] |