Month: May 2020

Consumer fintech startups were massively successful in 2019, attracting millions of new users and disrupting traditional retail banks and financial services with mobile-first, consumer-oriented products. Despite the economic downturn in public markets and the massive wave of cuts at public and private companies in recent weeks, fintech startups have been raising a ton of money.
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Hummingbird Bioscience, a startup focused on developing new treatments for cancer and other diseases, announced today it has added $6 million to its previously announced Series B, bringing the round’s total to $25 million. The extension was led by SK Holdings, and included participation from returning investors including Heritas Capital and SEEDS Capital, the investment
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Vochi, a startup operating out of Belarus that’s created a “computer vision”-based video editing and effects app for mobile phones, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Leading the round is Ukraine-based Genesis Investments (backer of BetterMe and Jiji). It follows pre-seed funding in April 2019 from Bulba Ventures, where Vochi founder and CEO Ilya
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Jan.14 — Rick Yang, NEA general partner and head of consumer investing, discusses Plaid Inc.’s agreement to be acquired by Visa Inc. for $5.3 billion and his views on the valuations in the fintech space. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Romaine Bostick, Scarlet Fu and Sonali Basak on “Bloomberg Markets: The Close.”
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Aug.02 — Lab-grown diamonds, made for decades as an inexpensive alternative to mined stones for industrial purposes, are cracking the consumer market. In recent years, the technology to produce gem-­quality stones has improved dramatically and is shaking up the $80 Billion dollar diamond industry. Diamond wafers are also being developed to power the future of
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“I just think change unfairly favors the startup, the nimble small company,” says Roelof Botha. The Sequoia partner, whose portfolio includes Unity, 23andMe, Instagram, Instacart, Xoom and YouTube, says he’s hopeful about the opportunities this pandemic has created for companies across a variety of sectors, including healthcare, cloud computing, social and others. We spoke for
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Chris Lynch, a founder and former general partner at Boston-based seed-stage fund Accomplice, remembers “VC Mountain in Waltham.” Back then, entrepreneurs on funding quests would visit a building overlooking the Waltham Reservoir near Boston where they pitched to a few investors: Matrix Partners, Charles River Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. “And if they didn’t invest in
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