Airbnb is acquiring a hotel company. So is Airbnb now a hotel company?
Airbnb is making what could be its biggest acquisition yet, plunging fully into the hotel space by acquiring HotelTonight, the provider of last-minute, boutique options for a night’s stay.
The announcement further cements Airbnb’s transformation from a mere platform for wayward travelers looking for a spare room in an off-beat home into a full-fledged travel company that is increasingly similar to the hotel incumbents it began to replace more than a decade ago. [ Re/Code ]
Private Equity Has Trillions. Women Get Little of It
The private-equity and venture-capital industries have piled up trillions of dollars in assets, yet little finds its way to female-led businesses.
The dry powder from both sectors has hit record levels — with around $3 trillion in global assets under management. In emerging markets, just 7 percent of private equity and venture capital is invested in portfolio companies run by women, according to an International Finance Corporation study on gender balance released Thursday. [ Bloomberg ]
Presenting Airbnb’s 20th Known Acquisition: HotelTonight
If you’re looking for a last-minute hotel booking app, Airbnb just acquired it. According to the New York Times, Airbnb bought HotelTonight, its second announced acquisition in 2019. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In a statement to the Times, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said “a big part of building an end-to-end travel platform is serving every guest, whether they plan their trip a year or a day in advance.” For now, Airbnb told the Times that HotelTonight will continue to operate as a “stand-alone business.” [ Crunchbase ]
Wharton's Sherryl Kuhlman and Joey Hundert, CEO of Sustainitech, discuss modular farming.
Media startups trying to drive people to their websites are doing it wrong, says Overtime CEO Dan Porter
Overtime CEO Dan Porter does not want you to go to Overtime’s website. “When I go and meet with a billion-dollar media company, and the CEO of that company starts out the conversation and says, ‘I went to your website,’ I think, ‘Our website?’” Porter said on the latest episode of Recode Media. “We have a website so we can have an email address.” [ Re/Code ]
Venture capital has a gender problem. Here's what needs to change to help fix it
For many women in venture capital, there's no question the industry has a gender disparity problem.Venture capital, or VC, partnerships "have historically been built by men," investor Ophelia Brown tells CNBC.VC companies consist of general partners, who manage funds and advise on investment decisions, and limited partners, who give them the capital to work with. [ CNBC ]
There Are More VC Funds Than Ever, But Capital Concentrates At The Top
In the U.S., there are now plenty more VC funds, and they’re raising more money than ever. That’s great news for most founders, and the folks looking to get into the business of funding them. [ Crunchbase ]
Hometown Star, Early Facebook Alum Returns To Lead Firebrand Ventures’ New Austin Office
The Austin area is seeing an influx of new investors, as we’ve written about extensively in recent times. But the newest entrant is a little unique. Kansas City-based Firebrand Ventures has launched an office in the Texas capital and tapped Ryan Merket, a Facebook alum-turned angel investor to lead it. The Texas native has a storied professional background and what’s really interesting about this is his choice to be here instead of the Bay Area (we’ll elaborate more on that later). [ Crunchbase ]
Which cities lead the nation for women founding venture-backed startups?
International Women’s Day is this week, and millions around the world are mobilizing to celebrate womanhood and promote women’s rights. Unfortunately, there’s perhaps less to celebrate for women in the venture capital industry and the high-growth startups it supports. In 2017, just 16 percent of venture capital funding in the United States went to startups with at least one female founder, and only 2.5 percent went to companies with all female founders. [1] An estimated 9 percent of general partners (the people making investment decisions) at leading U.S. venture capital firms are women. [ Brookings ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
Netflix star and tidying expert Marie Kondo is looking to raise $40M
Marie Kondo, the woman who stole millions of Netflix viewers hearts this year with her show, “Tidying Up,” is in talks to raise up to $40 million in venture capital funding to scale KonMari, the business behind her personal brand, books and TV series. [ Tech Crunch ]
Home Cannabis Farming Startup Seedo Recruits Pninat Yanay for Board
Israel-based startup Seedo (incorporated as Eroll Grow Tech Ltd.) has recruited attorney Pninat Yanay for the company's board of directors, Seedo announced in an SEC filing Monday. [ Calcalistech ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
Seven Questions WITH AlexRodrigues
Alex Rodrigues is co-founder and CEO of Embark, the leading developer of self-driving trucks—or, as he calls them, the world’s biggest robots. When he was 13, he founded a competitive robotics team that went on to win a world championship in its first year, an experience he says taught him lessons in everything from budgeting to teamwork that he still draws on today. [ Sequoiacap ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
VCs have growing appetite for ‘AgriFood’
Venture investors are pouring billions of dollars into feeding their hunger for food and agriculture startups. Whether that trend line is due to enthusiasm for the sector or just broader heavy investing in the VC space is much less clear.According to a recent report published by AgFunder – a VC and investing marketplace focused on the agriculture and food sectors – the “AgriFood” space is booming. Using data from Crunchbase and several other data partners, the organization published its “2018 AgriFood Tech Investing Report” this morning, finding that investment in AgriFood companies increased 43% year-over-year, reaching $16.9 billion in 2018. [ inc42 ]
Playfair Capital, the UK-based seed firm, announces $32M second fund
Playfair Capital, the U.K. seed investor, has raised a new $32 million fund to continue investing in promising early-stage tech startups.The VC firm, founded in 2013 by Federico Pirzio-Biroli, who is fund II’s sole LP, is an early investor in the likes of Stripe, Ravelin, Thought Machine, CryptoFacilities and Mapillary. [ Tech Crunch ]
SoftBank launches the Innovation Fund, committing $2B to invest in Latin America
While SoftBank continues to make big bets on startups out of its $100 billion Vision Fund, it has also launched another vehicle to invest in tech opportunities specifically in Latin America.
Today the group announced the SoftBank Innovation Fund, which is starting out with a $2 billion commitment to invest in tech startups in Central and South America, specifically starting in the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, covering areas like e-commerce, digital financial services, healthcare, mobility and insurance. [ Tech Crunch ]
Taxify rebrands as Bolt to expand its transport options beyond private cars
Taxify, the ride-hailing company from Estonia backed by Didi and Daimler and now active in 30 countries, is making a key shift in its business today as it gears up for its next stage of growth. The company is removing “taxi” from its name and rebranding as Bolt, the same name that it has been using for its new electric scooter service, to double down on providing multiple transportation options beyond private cars. [ Tech Crunch ]
With These Numbers, It’s No Surprise SoftBank Is Investing In Latin America
After SoftBank announced this morning its plans to launch a $5 billion innovation fund in Latin America, we reached out to the good folks at the Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) for some context, and what they told me only validates the reasoning behind SoftBank’s interest in the region. (In 2017, we reported on the growing interest in Latin America.) [ Crunchbase ]
NeuroVive Receives SEK 28.2 Million in a Directed New Share Issue
NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB today announced that the company has successfully conducted a directed new issue of shares, which has raised proceeds to NeuroVive of SEK 28.2 million before issue costs. These proceeds will be used primarily to accelerate clinical development activities. [ PR Newswire ]
Checkout 15K+ Venture Capital Data on our platform.
The Ultimate Guide to Raising Startup Capital
In the world of startups, it’s survival of the fittest. According to a Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy study, only 50% survive after five years – and only one-third make it to the 10-year mark. A lack of capital is one of the primary reasons startups fizzle within the first few years, so learning the ins and outs of acquiring money and promoting your company can help ensure a successful business. [ Crunchbase ]
E908 Roger McNamee, FB investor, author "Zucked": mentoring Zuck, Russia, big data, surveillance-PT1
Roger McNamee, early Facebook investor & author of "Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe," shares early days mentoring Zuck, the destructive power of persuasive tech, the Russian plan to subvert American democracy, & Beyond Facebook: Big Tech’s dystopian surveillance, data collection & what we can do about it - PART 1
Huawei sues America as SoftBank spends more money
Today, a bunch of analysis on stories we have been covering the last few weeks.You’re reading the Extra Crunch Daily. Like this newsletter?Subscribe for free to follow all of our discussions and debates.
Three inter-related stories today on SoftBank and its Vision Fund. First, an analysis from my Bangkok-based colleague Jon Russell, who notes that controversies surrounding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi hasn’t deterred the Vision Fund from its investments in the Asia-Pacific region:
The $100 billion megafund has done 21 deals over the last two quarters, that’s as more than in the other quarters of the previous year combined, according to data from Crunchbase, thanks to an uptick from Asia. Since the October 2 murder, there have been 11 investments in U.S. companies, seven in Asia, two in Europe and one in Latin America. Just this week, the fund completed a near $1.5 billion investment in Southeast Asia-based ride-hailing company Grab.
While U.S. and European firms have more options, and therefore, perhaps deserve more scrutiny, Softbank’s cash is increasingly the only game in town for startups in Asia, where there are fewer alternatives for later stage capital outside of large Chinese private equity firms or tech giants — which come with their own risks. [ Tech Crunch ]
Mike Knoop on Product and Design Processes for Remote Teams with Kevin Hale
Mike Knoop is cofounder and Chief Product Officer at Zapier, which was in the YC Summer 2012 batch. Zapier moves information between your web apps automatically.
© 2016 Venture Pulse Inc. All Rights Reserved.
36 Laight Street, New York NY 10013.
