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Peter Thiel isn’t so sure self-driving tech is a good investment

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel doesn’t like investing in trends, he’s fond of saying. It’s a mantra he repeated this week at the Future Investment Initiative, an investment forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he took the stage with journalist Maria Bartiromo. Asked about where he’s investing, he noted that he’s looking outside of Silicon Valley largely, but he suggested he doesn’t put much stock in “buzzwords” like SaaS software or virtual computing or augmented reality or artificial intelligence. “Even though these trends may or may not happen, as investments, they’re dangerous,” he said. In fact, “when you hear buzzwords, you should run away as fast as you can.” Otherwise, you’re left dealing with “many companies of that kind, and many competitors.” [ CrunchBase ]

Q&A: IVP principal on the firm's $1.5B VC fund, Coinbase and cryptocurrency

Twitter. Snap. Dropbox. Slack. Late-stage VC firm IVP has already made a slew of notable investments. And with a fresh $1.5 billion in the firm's 16th flagship fund—its largest vehicle to date—IVP is set to add even more companies to its portfolio.

We spoke with lVP principal Tom Loverro about the fund, which will invest in late-stage, high-growth companies, including cryptocurrency startups—if it can find any. Other topics on the docket: Coinbase, one of the only crypto startups in IVP's current portfolio, and Loverro's reaction to Jamie Dimon's infamous bitcoin comments. [ PitchBook ]

E773: Future of ICOs & Cryptocurrency w/Brock Pierce(BlockchainCap, Block.one)Vinny Lingham(Civic)

Southeast Asian e-commerce startup Carousell closes $70-$80M Series C round

Singapore-based startup Carousell is in the money this week after it closed a Series C round of between $70-$80 million, two sources with knowledge of the deal told TechCrunch.

Started by three graduates from the National University of Singapore in 2012, Carousell operates a mobile-first listings service for second-hand goods and services in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Prior to this new funding it had raised $41 million, including a $35 million Series B in August 2016, from investors that include Rakuten, Sequoia Capital, Golden Gate Ventures and 500 Startups. [ TechCrunch ]

Here’s a chart that shows why financial earnings are a big deal

So, we’re midway through earnings season, and as you’ve probably seen, we’ve covered a majority of the big companies that have reported thus far: Alphabet, Twitter, Microsoft, Atlassian, PayPal, eBay and Netflix. There are plenty more that have reported, and there are still more to come, but these are the periods that generally have the most impact on the best public barometer of a company’s success: its stock price. [ TechCrunch ]

How Women Founders Would Change VC

Here’s what dozens of women would do if they could change the venture world for founders. Out today is a survey of 94 women founders and investors, detailing how the group would “address the challenging gender dynamics in the founder-VC relationship.” The data comes after the technology world has been rocked by successive sexual harassment scandals, where the perpetrators were often venture capitalists. Positive change, and quickly, is needed. Which is why the survey’s data — compiled by the startup Baloonr, a tool that helps groups source information from themselves, sans bias — seemed worth our time. [ CrunchBase News ]

Uber has hired PepsiCo’s Tony West as its new chief legal officer

Uber has hired Tony West as its chief legal officer, filling a critical void at the ride-hailing giant as it continues to battle back a series of investigations by the U.S. government and a major lawsuit from one of its chief corporate rivals. West arrives at Uber after serving as the general counsel at PepsiCo, and before that, as an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice under former President Barack Obama. The DOJ is one of the very agencies probing some of Uber’s business activities. [ Re/Code ]