Ex-Windows EVP Terry Myers joins Madrona Ventures More than half a year after splitting from a long time role at Microsoft, former Windows and Device EVP Terry Myerson is finally ready to talk about his future. In a blog post this morning, the executive discussed what he’s been up to for the past several months (running, learning the piano, strengthening personal relationships, and all that good stuff) and highlighted two new roles. [ Tech Crunch ] VC Fred Wilson - Who Are My Investors?The CEO asked his VCs because questions were coming up internally and he wanted to answer honestly and accurately. I expect to get more emails like this in the coming weeks as the startup and venture community comes to grip with the flood of money from bad actors that has found its way into the startup/tech sector over the last decade. [ AVC ] Coinbase Wants To Be Too Big To FailThe cryptocurrency-trading startup rose from obscurity to become the first billion-dollar company of the Bitcoin boom. Now founder Brian Armstrong must prove that Coinbase, along with crypto itself, has the staying power to take on Wall Street. Such is life at Coinbase, a company where the mood alternates between upbeat and under siege. It was founded in 2012 as an exchange that lets individuals and companies easily buy and store digital currencies, most notably Bitcoin. Billionaire AOL cofounder Steve Case says he waited 10 years for the moment he realised his company was a success
SoftBank CEO pulls out of speaking at Saudi investment conference SoftBank Group has become the latest high profile technology business to drop out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia following the snowballing global outcry over the killing of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. [ Tech Crunch ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Predictive sales tool People.ai racks up $30M Series B led by Andreessen HorowitzPeople.ai, a startup that tracks every communication touchpoint between sales teams and customers, wants to solve this problem. Now, the company (and the youngest Y Combinator graduate to make the accelerator’s list of its most successful
startups) has attracted the attention of Andreessen Horowitz, scoring a fresh $30 million to move forward on this mission. Also participating in the round were Series A investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, GGV Capital and Y Combinator. In addition to the investment, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Peter Levine is joining People.ai’s board. [ Tech Crunch ] Financial startup frenzy has created 30 unicornsA new report on the explosion of financial startups has found that at least 30 of them have now attained unicorn valuations. The finding is part of the second annual Fintech 250 list published by research firm CB Insights. “After we named the inaugural Fintech 250 in 2017, they went on to raise $23 billion, including 30 rounds of over $100 million,” said CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal, in a statement. “This year, we’ve added 113 new companies to the Fintech 250, using the CB Insights Mosaic algorithm, and the group is broad, covering everything from insurance tech to consumer banking to capital markets tech.” [ Venture Beat ] Research over 15K+ Venture Capital Investors on our platform. Ananda Impact Ventures closes its third fund at €50 million, announces first five investmentsMunich-based impact VC firm Ananda Impact Ventures has secured €50 million for its third fund, bringing the total amount under its management to €80 million across three funds. Among the limited partners of the new fund are the European Investment Fund (EIF), the UK-based impact player Big Society Capital (BSC), and several private investors. [ Tech.eu ] Understanding SAFEs and Priced Equity Rounds by Kirsty Nathoo: Y CombinatorYC Partner Kirsty Nathoo gives the lowdown on several different ways to capitalize your company and how those impact founder equity and cap tables overall. [ Y Combinator ] 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki says ‘one of our biggest competitors’ is fake science on sites like GoopAmjad Masad built software developer tools for Facebook'sthousands of engineers for two years. Then he decided he needed to leave the company to build the online developer tool he most wanted. [ CNBC ] Deals, Exits, and Fund Raised data on our platform. Vector speeds toward orbital launch capability with $70M in new fundingThe market for small satellites in low Earth orbit is expanding faster than the gas in a thruster nozzle, and Vector aims to be the go-to launch platform for companies looking to put a bird in the air on short notice. The company just raised a $70 million B round and aims to take its first payload into space early next year. [ Tech Crunch ] Deals, Exits, and Fund Raised data on our platform. E866 Future of Early-Stage: Garry Tan, Initialized; Hunter Walk, Homebrew; Andrea Zurek, XG Ventures"Future of Early-Stage Investing" with Garry Tan (Initialized Capital), Hunter Walk (Homebrew), Andrea Zurek (XG Ventures): Insights on founder-market fit, the value of operators, outdated venture models, & helping startups break through Series A bottleneck. Funding, collaboration and the gender gap: LPs on the record about Europe's VC sceneEuropean venture has seen enormous changes over the last few years, including the emergence of mega-funds and an ever-increasing count of unicorns. Yet while it's easy to notice a difference in the numbers, from higher median deal sizes to rising sector trends, attention has also shifted to the behavior and makeup of the firms and investors themselves. [ Pitch Book ] |