Startups Weekly: Is Y Combinator’s latest cohort too big?Greetings from Chittorgarh, one of my stops on a two-week excursion through Goa and Rajasthan, India. I’ve been a little too busy exploring, photographing cows and monkeys and eating a lot of delicious food to keep up with *all* the tech news, but I’ve still got the highlights. For starters, if you haven’t heard yet, TechCrunch launched Extra Crunch, a paid premium subscription offering full of amazing content. As part of Extra Crunch, we’ll be doing deep dives on select businesses, beginning with Patreon. Read Patreon’s founding story here and learn how two college roommates built the world’s leading creator platform. Plus, we’ve got insights on Patreon’s product, business strategy, competitors and more. [ TechCrunch ] As Uber Prepares for I.P.O., Its Losses Pile UpTechnology companies rarely make money before they go public. Twitter was unprofitable when it listed on the stock market. So were Snap, Spotify and SurveyMonkey. For Uber, the question as the ride-hailing giant prepares for a public offering is even bigger than whether it can make money. That’s because the company, the most prominent tech start-up of its generation, will set the bar for other well-known tech companies like Slack and Lyft as they also stampede toward the stock market this year. [ NY Times ] Uber reports $3B in Q4 revenue, rising operating losses [ Tech Crunch ] Bling Capital Nearly Closes Out $90 Million For Seed & Early-Stage Funds, Filings ShowBen Ling, a former GP at Khosla Ventures and prior exec at Facebook and Google, has closed out the fundraise for his eponymous seed-stage venture fund, Bling Capital. Bling Capital made a number of filings on Thursday afternoon. [ Crunchbase ] This Founder Sold A Startup To Cisco For $475 Million. Now He's Raised $110 Million To Take It OnIsraeli entrepreneur Ido Susan scored a windfall of a lifetime when he and his cofounder sold their mobile startup Intucell to Cisco for $475 million. Six years later, Susan is reappearing on the startup scene with a company already valued at more than that sum—and an idea that could someday pose an existential threat to his former acquirer. [ Forbes ] Steve Jurvetson tells all: about his new $200 million fund, his new partner, his new shopping list, and moreSteve Jurvetson is staging a comeback, disclosing today that his new San Francisco-based, early-stage venture firm Future Ventures, has raised $200 million for its debut fund. “It’s good to be back in the saddle again,” says Jurvetson, whose career was somewhat derailed in the fall of 2017 when a former girlfriend wrote a Facebook post, accusing DFJ — the firm Jurvetson cofounded in 1985 — of “predatory behavior.” DFJ said publicly the next day that it was already investigating “indirect and secondhand allegations” about Jurvetson, and within weeks, the firm and Jurvetson apparently had enough of each other, mutually deciding that it was time to part ways. (Jurvetson, who was recently wed for the second time, has since said he poorly handled his love interests, some of which he acknowledges were extramarital.) [ Tech Crunch ] Opendoor files to raise another $200M at a $3.7B valuation, documents showThe housing market is predicted to cool this year, but the market for startups selling houses? It seems to be heating up. Opendoor, the company that aims to bypass real estate agents and brokers by providing an online platform — by way of a mobile app — for people to buy and sell properties direct, has filed papers in Delaware indicating that it would like to raise around $200 million more, at a valuation of about $3.7 billion. [ CB Insights ] Legal firm Lander & Rogers partners with YBF Ventures to open LawTech HubLegal firm Lander & Rogers has partnered with Melbourne coworking community YBF Ventures to open a LawTech Hub. The space will be open to the firm’s staff and clients, and startups, with startups to be accepted for set periods through two intakes a year. Genevieve Collins, chief executive partner at Lander & Rogers, said the hub “reflects new ways of working”. “It will give our people and clients the opportunity to step out of their day-to-day environment where they can approach problems differently and focus on driving solutions,” she said. [ Startup Daily ] There Are Only Three Venture Capital StrategiesThink about some venture funds. Now think about their approach. What comes to mind? Do they focus on a particular geography or technology trend? Or invest alongside their most famous friends? Maybe their partners have built large personal brands. Or they have an operational platform to support their companies' growth. [ Forbes ] Flow Kana Harvests $125M For Sustainable CannabisMarijuana producer and distributor Flow Kana has closed on a $125 million Series B in what is being touted as the largest private funding round for a US-based cannabis company. [ Crunchbase ] Startup Grind Global Conference 2019 - Day 2 LivestreamThe Slow Progress Of Women In VentureMorning Markets: Axios has new data on the percentage of venture capital “decision-makers” who are women. Let’s chart it. The venture capital industry is slowly changing, according to data released by Axios. The media company’s recent survey of more than 280 venture capital shops shows that the percentage of “decision-makers” at VC companies who are women has steadily risen, if slowly. [ Crunchbase ] Growth marketing tactics to supercharge your startup in 2019Have you ever wondered how some of those Silicon Valley startups can grow their businesses so fast? The answer is – in part – growth marketing. To dig deeper, let’s look at what growth marketing is, how to know which ideas are worth pursuing, and why it’s a strategy that can help your business improve its results. [ Startup Daily ] Cryptocurrency Bear Market Taking a Toll on VC Valuations: Jalak JobanputraE903 DeepMap James Wu built Google/Apple/Baidu maps, now precision HD maps for autonomous/ OfficeHrsDeepMap CEO & Co-founder James Wu built the world's greatest maps for Google, Apple & Baidu, now provides precision HD mapping technology & real-time data for autonomous vehicles // Office Hours with Jason! Balancing supply & demand Spotify says it paid $340M to buy Gimlet and AnchorSpotify doubled down on podcasts last week with a double deal to buy podcast networks Gimlet and Anchor. Those acquisitions were initially undisclosed, but Spotify has quietly confirmed that it spent €300 million, just shy of $340 million, to capture the companies. [ Tech Crunch ] Ryan Hoover on Product Hunt's Acquisition and Lessons Learned About Launches with Dalton CaldwellRyan Hoover is the founder of Product Hunt which was in the Summer 2014 YC batch and was acquired by AngelList. He also invests in startups through his Weekend Fund. GoTrendier raises $3.5 million to take on Spanish-language fashion marketplacesThanks to environmentally conscious young buyers, throwaway culture is dying not only in the U.S., but also in Latin America — and startups are poised to jump in with services to help people recycle used clothing. GoTrendier, a peer-to-peer fashion marketplace operative in Mexico and Colombia, has raised $3.5 million USD to do just that. And investors are eyeing the startup as the digital fashion marketplace growth leader in Spanish-speaking countries. [ Tech Crunch ] Small banks you've never heard of are quietly enabling the tech takeover of the financial industryInstead of trying to beat a wave of high-growth financial technology start-ups at their own game, a group of small banks is opting to join them. These low-profile community banks quietly run the plumbing underneath billion-dollar fintech firms such as Square, Stripe and Robinhood — handling mundane banking activities for them like holding customer deposits and underwriting loans — while the tech firms remake finance for a digital age. [ CNBC ] Passage Bio to tackle CNS diseases with $115M and UPenn gene therapy programsPassage Bio reeled in a $115.5 million series A on Thursday, which will support the development of five programs aimed at treating rare monogenic central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Passage Bio is working on those five under a research, collaboration and license agreement with the University of Pennsylvania and could, in the future, choose to fund preclinical work for to seven more. [ Fierce Biotech ] Last Week In Venture: Haute Hijab, Pro Network Mining, Coin Crunching, And Time StorageHello and welcome back to Last Week In Venture, the weekly roundup of startup funding deals which may have flown under your radar. Before getting into that, though, here’s a bit of what the Crunchbase News team did this week. VC investor confidence is down, and we followed up with an investor to hear their thoughts on the market. We covered Amazon’s acquisition of home WiFi company Eero and supergiant funding rounds raised by Rivian, DriveNets, Flow Kana, and Nuro. We covered reports that Doordash is inking a big new funding deal. And, in other news, Lyft’s founders move to concentrate power, Peloton is prepping for an IPO, and dating apps aren’t getting a lot of love from VCs. [ Crunchbase ] Six big things: Do Amazonians dream of electric trucks?Over the past decade, Tesla has used some stellar technology and its mostly sterling brand to establish itself as a leader in the realm of electric cars. A startup called Rivianhopes to do the same thing for electric pickup trucks. And reports emerged this week that the company might soon have a pair of powerful new backers. [ Pitchbook ] |