Venture
Our venture capital news features interviews and analysis on all the VCs, the VC-backed startups, and the investment trends that founders, investors, students, academics – and anyone else interested in the way that tech is transforming the world – should be tracking.
Matrix is rebranding its India and China affiliates, becoming the latest venture firm to distance its international franchises. The U.S.-headquartered venture capital firm will retain its name, while Matrix Partners…
Kleiner Perkins announces $2 billion in fresh capital, showing that established firms can still raise large sums
Many VC firms are struggling to attract new capital from their own backers amid a tepid IPO environment. But established, brand-name firms are still able to raise large funds. On…
Featured Article
All VCs say they are founder friendly; Detroit’s Ludlow Ventures takes that to another level
VCs Jonathon Triest and Brett deMarrais see their ability to read people and create longstanding relationships with founders as the primary reason their Detroit-based venture firm, Ludlow Ventures, is celebrating its 15th year in business. It sounds silly, attributing their longevity to what’s sometimes called “Midwestern nice.” But is it…
In an industry where creators are often tossed aside like yesterday’s lootboxes, MegaMod swoops in with a heroic promise to put them front and center.
Get ready to unlock the secrets of successful fundraising in the upcoming year at Disrupt 2024. Our featured session, “How to Raise in 2025 if You’ve Taken a Flat, Down,…
AI-powered drug development, VW teams up with Rivian and DEI is ‘bad’
Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is jam-packed with deals, hot topics and the…
Hebbia raises nearly $100M Series B for AI-powered document search led by Andreessen Horowitz
Hebbia, a startup using generative AI to search large documents and return answers, has raised a nearly $100 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to three people with…
AI big shot Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, a startup incubator that backs small teams of experts looking to solve key problems using AI, plans to raise upward of $120 million…
While startup valuations have plummeted since the bull run of 2021-2022, a factor that’s hit the European startup ecosystem particularly hard, there’s one region of Europe where the correction has…
Austin-based Ironspring Ventures raised $100M to invest in the industrial revolution
When Ironspring Ventures launched in 2020 to back startups in industrial sectors like construction and manufacturing, it was one of very few early-stage venture firms paying attention to those capital-intensive…
Why Tecovas sought out physical sales first despite its DTC dreams
When Paul Hedrick left his private equity career to launch Tecovas in 2015, he knew he wanted to sell the brand’s signature cowboy boots a…
Backed by Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank, DTCP raises $450M for its growth and early-stage funds
German investment management firm DTCP held the final close of its third growth fund and an initial closing of its new early-stage fund.
Accel, India’s most successful e-commerce investor, is making a contrarian move by turning its focus to smaller towns and villages.
10 of the most exciting digital health startups of 2024, according to VCs
In the post-COVID world, VCs say it’s not as easy to get excited about investing in digital health. Deal activity in healthcare IT was relatively flat in Q1 2024 at…
Fearless Fund’s founder has resigned, and it’s a sad reflection on the VC world for Black women
Fearless Fund’s co-founder and COO Ayana Parsons has announced that she was stepping down. The firm is being sued by a politically conservative group.
Investors, you know you need to keep your pipelines primed, and one of the best places to find early-stage startups with promising portfolio potential is, you guessed it, TechCrunch Disrupt.…
Backed by David Sacks, Garry Tan and Walter Isaacson, Created by Humans helps people license their creative work to AI models
In 2024, it seems like no week goes by without a media organization, author group or artist suing generative AI companies for using their work to train models without permission.…
Foray Bioscience is breaking down the barriers of bringing biomanufacturing to plants
Ashley Beckwith spent years of her academic and professional career focused on the intersection of biology, materials and manufacturing to build medical solutions more efficiently. When she realized the tech…
Featured Article
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the…
Apple has been named the first of tech’s so-called “gatekeepers” to be charged for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act. In a press release this…
Prosus, the largest external investor in Byju’s, has written off its 9.6% stake in Indian edtech firm.
Vinod Khosla, the Sun Microsystems co-founder turned prominent investor, talks about how AI is changing tech and the risks of government regulation.
Deal Dive: Sir Jack A Lot returns with a startup for retail traders
When former YouTube product manager Kevin Xu, known as “Sir Jack A Lot” on Reddit, turned $35,000 into $8 million trading stocks between 2020 and 2022, many people thought his…
Khosla-backed Marble, built by former Headway founders, offers affordable group therapy for teens
Rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts are surging among U.S. teens. A recent report from the Center of Disease Control found that nearly one in three girls have seriously…
Ilya Sutskever’s new AI venture, and time to BeReal about bankruptcy
Get ready for a jam-packed episode of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups! This week, co-hosts Mary Ann Azevedo and Haje Kamps…
Kevin Hartz’s A* raises its second oversubscribed fund in three years
Venture firms raised $9.3 billion in Q1 according to PitchBook data, which means this year likely won’t match or surpass 2023’s $81.8 billion total. While emerging managers are feeling the…
Brex’s compliance head has left the fintech startup to join Andreessen Horowitz as a partner
Ali Rathod-Papier has stepped down from her role as global head of compliance at corporate card expense management startup Brex to join venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a partner…
Announcing the agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
We’re out-of-this-world excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated Space Stage to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and AI as the other industry-focused stages — all under…
The U.S. is facing an accountant shortage. Fewer first-time candidates took the CPA exam in 2022 than in 2006, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. One possible…
Ex-HubSpot exec builds an AI-powered CRM that learns for you, with $4M seed led by Sequoia
Christopher O’Donnell has hobbies. He likes music and playing guitar, but above all, he loves building software. Which is why three years after leaving HubSpot, he built Day.ai, a CRM…