Fundings and Exits

Scott Brown Contributor Prior to becoming CMO at Hum Capital, Scott Brown led marketing for Sapphire Ventures, a $6 billion VC firm based in the U.S. and Europe. He has had a 20+-year career in enterprise technology, holding senior marketing roles at Facebook, Google, Cisco and several startups. Late-stage startups are facing major fundraising headwinds,

Zomato said on Monday its co-founder and chief technology officer Gunjan Patidar has left the firm, the latest in a series of departures at the Indian food delivery firm whose shares have lost over 57% of its value in the past year. Patidar is the fourth co-founder to leave the firm. His departure also follows

An interview with OpenView operating partner Kyle Poyar Anna Heim 9 hours Among public tech companies, “product-led growth (PLG) companies — those who educate and convert buyers with product rather than sales and marketing (SLG) — operate at about 5% to 10% less profitability than sales-led motions,” venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz highlighted in a blog

Despite, well, everything, the U.S. is still the best place in the world for Black startup founders to raise money. The check sizes are bigger, the market more mature, the ambition oversized. There are more funds, more options, more opportunities, more, more, more. It’s quite easy to harp on the dismal funding and often discriminatory

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Welcome back to your daily digest of TechCrunch goodness. It is my last day with you (you’re welcome!), so Christine will be back in the Daily Crunch seat on Tuesday. Haje will

Lukas Gentele Contributor Kubernetes is a wonderful but complex software that can present significant “Day Two” challenges when put into production. Developers who are new to Kubernetes — and most are — face a large knowledge gap when they look to sustain and optimize Kubernetes clusters. In this piece, I will share several ways to

In 2014, Prayank Swaroop made a pitch to the storied venture firm Accel, where he worked as an associate, about future marketplaces in India. At the time, Flipkart and Snapdeal were the only two e-commerce startups in India that had shown a semblance of scale. Swaroop made a case that as more Indians come online,

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. We’re almost there, folks. It’s the last Thursday of 2022, and today we have some news for you out of Alibaba and Spotify, as well as some crypto news out of India.

For organizations that do a good chunk of their work through virtual meetings, simply hitting record or taking notes isn’t enough to capture everything that’s said. Some build their own meeting integrations to capture data, but that’s time-intensive and costly. Recall.ai helps with a unified API that currently works with Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft

Building an investor network from scratch sounds daunting. This is true particularly if, like many founders, you don’t happen to be part of a social or economic circle where striking up early conversations with potential investors is a no-brainer. We recently sat down with three VCs who have also been founders to talk about different

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hey, folks, welcome back! Below we’ve got some 2022 roundups and even some news. I suspect it’ll get even leaner as the week wears on, but no matter! There will always be

Alison Miller Contributor Alison Miller, trial lawyer at Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP in New York, litigates commercial disputes at all stages in subjects such as securities, contract, antitrust, IP misappropriation, and corporate M&A law. The most important asset early-stage companies possess is their intellectual property. But IP can be difficult to protect during fundraising,

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Greetings, readers. As Haje and Christine told you last week, this week’s Daily Crunch will look a bit different, given they are both taking some time off. But you’ll still get some

As generative AI like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 attract investor attention, startup entrepreneurs are looking to cash in with new business models built around them. One of the more interesting ventures to emerge from the space recently is Poly, which lets designers create video game and other virtual assets, including textures for 3D models, using

Robert Krayn Contributor Robert Krayn is the co-founder and CEO of Talkiatry. Previously, he spent five years as vice president and senior analyst at an investment management firm. Early indications show funding to digital health startups in Q4 2022 fell so much, they’re close to levels last seen in 2019. But the dollar amounts don’t

Jakarta-based fintech Akulaku has raised $200 million from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), the largest bank in Japan. This is part of a strategic investment, with startup and MUFG planning to expand into new markets and product together in 2023. Earlier this year, Akulaku raised $100 million in funding from Siam Commercial Bank as part

Carl Niedbala Contributor Carl Niedbala is COO and co-founder of Founder Shield, a commercial insurance broker. High-growth companies often set significant goals, knowing full well that the idea of “overnight success” is for the storybooks. However, there is no better time than the middle of a market downturn to start planning for the leap from

Reliance has backed the Philadelphia-based AI and robotics startup Exyn, the Indian conglomerate disclosed in a stock exchange filing on Thursday, making further inroads in startup backings globally. Reliance Strategic Business Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has acquired a 23.3% stake in Exyn for $25 million, the Indian firm said. The Indian firm’s

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Today we celebrate a bit of oversight over an industry that has been allowed to prey on those less fortunate for way too long — Devin reports that the FCC is taking

This year’s been eventful for investors and founders alike. Just as it seemed the venture capital boom of 2021 was slowing down, the startup and VC worlds spun on their axes practically overnight, birthing a new dynamic where “growth at all costs” was quickly replaced by a more measured and careful approach to business and

Eddie Ackerman Contributor Eddie Ackerman is strategic finance operating partner at Thomvest Ventures, where he works closely with the company’s portfolio companies to provide valuable financial insight and guidance. Recent headlines have been dominated by announcements of large headcount reductions across the tech industry and especially at giants like Meta, Amazon and Twitter. But it’s

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Well, the weather outside is…entirely dependent on where you are, we suppose. For the purposes of this newsletter, let’s imagine sunshine, some pristine beaches, a lovely gentle cooling breeze, and some piña

Founders and investors alike are bracing for a tough 2023 as the economy shows few signs of improving. But there are a lot of questions up in the air: Will the truckload of dry powder VCs have make its way to the market? Are there going to be more layoffs if the pressure on valuations

Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: When can I register

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. It’s the mooooost wonderful tiiiiiiime of the yeeeaaar. Today, we’ve been skiving off work to explore the weirdest subgenres of holiday music. Trap Christmas is a thing. Christopher Lee (yes that Christopher

Vidya Raman Contributor More posts by this contributor The product-led growth playbook For founders winding down from a challenging year and planning for the new year, this is an excellent time to reevaluate your relationships with the investors you work with. I am fortunate to be able to work with almost a dozen early-stage startups

Wischoff Ventures’ solo GP on tailwinds from the CHIPS Act, the US versus China and more Anna Heim 1 day For many Americans, COVID-19 served as a wake-up call: The U.S. was nowhere nearly as prepared to overcome challenges as it should be, and it was overly dependent on China. Whether the current geopolitical order

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. We’ve been working on a series of gift guides over the past month or so. Today, Devin’s guide to gaming headphones is up! If you missed any of our gift guides, here’s

Few startups launch with a coherent content strategy. In the early days, every project is a sprint, and there are times when putting on a show for investors can feel more important than actually serving your customers. Blogs are a great example: Because they’re a cheap way to drive SEO, companies crank them out, then

The bad blood between tech boot camp MyTechBestfriend and many of its former students is anything but finished, according to nearly a dozen people who spoke to TechCrunch. In November, TechCrunch detailed the fallout between Mary Awodele, the founder of the Texas-based MTBF, and her students. Students accused Awodele of bullying and harassment while alleging