Buzzfeed will cut its staff by 15% in major round of layoffsIt’s a dark day to work in media. On the heels of news that TechCrunch parent company Verizon Media Group (formerly Oath) would lay off roughly 800 workers, BuzzFeed has announced its own substantial staffing cuts. And though they were anticipated, Gannett also made substantial cuts to newsrooms around the US on Wednesday. [ TC ] “Venture capital money kills more businesses than it helps,” says Basecamp CEO Jason FriedSome tech companies are worth billions of dollars. But the vast majority are not, and should stop raising money like they could be, says Basecamp CEO Jason Fried. “Raising a bunch of money, and raising way more than you need, it ends up stunting people’s actual growth as businesses. It destroys businesses,” Fried said on the latest episode of Recode Decode. “It’s like, look, you know, you plant a seed, it needs some water, but if you just pour a whole fucking bucket of water on it’s going to kill it.” [ Recode ] The world's biggest YouTube stars told us they're burning out because of the unrelenting pressure to post new videos
6 Little-Known Startups Where Jeff Bezos Has Invested MillionsJeff Bezos is not only the world's richest man, he's also a very smart investor. That's especially true when he invests in startups. Over the past few years, he's put money into several new companies that turned out to be phenomenally successful, including Airbnb, Uber, General Assembly, MakerBot, and Lookout. Where is Bezos putting his money these days? Into a handful of companies you've probably never heard of. But chances are you will, especially now that they have the Amazon founder's money and smarts backing them. The personal finance site GOBankingRates has done the research and identified 15 companies Bezos has poured money into over the last decade. You can find the full list here. These are some of his most recent investments. [ Inc. ] Andela’s latest $100 million funding round is led by a former US vice presidentSoftware developer training and outsourcing company, Andela has announced a $100 million Series D round. It’s one of the largest ever single rounds raised by an African-focused tech company, keeping pace with Andela’s track record of big-ticket rounds. The round is led by Generation Investment Management—an investment firm co-founded by former US vice president Al Gore, with participation from existing investors including Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV (Google Ventures), Spark Capital, and CRE Venture Capital. It brings the total venture funding raised by Andela to $180 million. [ QZ ] A former Bessemer Venture Partners principal just closed his own $30 million fund, and here’s how Sunil Nagaraj, who’d studied computer science as an undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill, landed two pretty nice gigs after deciding to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. First, he founded a venture-backed company called Triangulate — though he recognized when it was time to shut it down two years later. He then wound up working as a principal for Bessemer Venture Partners, a top-tier venture firm with locations around the world. [ Tech Crunch ] 3-D Printing Unicorn Desktop Metal Grabs Another $160 Million As It Prepares To Ship Its Mass-Production PrintersDesktop Metal, a 3-D printing unicorn, has raised another $160 million, bringing its total funding to a whopping $438 million and its valuation to some $1.5 billion. Koch Disruptive Technologies, a subsidiary of Koch Industries—the privately held industrial conglomerate with $110 billion in revenues—led the investment, which was joined by GV, Panasonic and Techtronic. Koch joins a high-powered lineup of investors in Burlington, Massachusetts-based Desktop Metal that includes Ford, GE Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Kleiner Perkins. [ Forbes ] The Most Recent Startup Investments Over $250 Million In 20192018 was the year supergiant VC deals became a nearly everyday occurrence. Equity funding rounds of $100 million or more dominated the global VC market, accounting for a vanishingly small percent of total deal volume, but accounting for 56 percent of the total dollar volume. [ Crunch base ] What's Next for Security Startups?Wait a minute... things are actually getting better -- and not worse -- for security practitioners today? That's the contrarian case that Joel de la Garza (former chief security officer at Box and a16z operating partner focused on our security network, startup opportunities, and best practices for portfolio companies) makes in this hallway-style conversation with operating partner and head of research & deal team Frank Chen. Electric, the startup that automates IT, raises $25 million from GGV Electric.ai, the New York-based startup that offers chat-based IT support, has announced the close of a $25 million Series B round led by GGV. As part of the deal, partner Jeff Richards will be joining the board. Founder Ryan Denehy launched Electric in 2016. Previously, he’d run two startups that were sold to USA Today Sports and Groupon, respectively, where he realized that all of the simplicity that came with using a service like Zenefits simply didn’t exist in the IT world. [ TechCrunch ] China-US Venture Activity Could Slip Over Huawei TensionsRecent comments from a former People’s Bank of China official indicate that China-US venture activity is about to hit a wall.China-US tensions surrounding trade could begin to impact startups in a new, foreboding fashion, one that could trip up investment between the two countries’ technology sectors. [ Crunch base ] Dog cancer treatment startup raises $5 million from Andreessen Horowitz and othersOne in every three dogs gets cancer, according to the National Canine Cancer Foundation. One Health, a startup that just raised a $5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Bio fund with participation from Lerer Hippeau and Y Combinator, aims to make it easier for humans to treat canine cancer, which is the number one disease killer of pups. [ Tech Crunch ] Julie Novack: PartySlate & Building A Venture-Capital Backed BusinessThere are many digital platforms that provide inspiration for designing and organizing events, however, PartySlate is an especially curated platform, using images, that offers such inspiration and connections to local professionals. Creating such a well-orchestrated and impactful company is no small feat, which is what makes building this creative source so impressive. VC’s coming into Crypto Panel | Blockstack - Hong KongBlockstack Decentralizing the World Tour event in Hong Kong, January 10, 2019 at HKEX Connect Hall. VC’s coming into Crypto Panel: Kenneth Ballenegger, Oyster Ventures Nick Grossman, USV Carman Chan, Click VC Bonnie Cheung, 500 Startups Jason Choi, Spartan Capital (Moderator) |