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☆ The CEO of Capital, formerly Party Round, dishes on the strategy behind its rebrand — and why the company's ambitions have grown beyond being just a tool for startup fundraising
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Party Round is now Capital and will offer more features beyond fundraising capabilities. Party Round, the fundraising app for startups, has rebranded as Capital, expanding its services beyond a tool to raise cash. Jordi Hays, Capital CEO, said the rebrand was really tied to the company's expanding vision to support other startups as they built Party Round with the idea of becoming a sort of neobank. But now, once they've begun fundraising, Capital can issue a virtual Visa debit card to users so they can start using the cash they just received. Capital has a long history with NFTs; Party Round went viral in 2021 after it launched NFT versions of top VCs.

☆ Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman says there's about to be a "washout" of fintech valuations and a wave of consolidation. Here's how the bank is thinking about potential deals.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman predicted a "wash out" for fintech firms in an earnings call. The market is volatile, but Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman sees it as a return to normalcy. Companies trading at 50 times revenue, what's gone on with Bitcoin trading at $60,000, and what's gone on with GameStop and other companies," Gorman said in the third-quarter earnings call on October 14. Consolidation in the fintech space is nothing new to Morgan Stanley, he added. Fintech founders, however, have been reluctant to face their new reality, according to a slew of VCs.

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☆ TripActions raises equity at $9.2 bln valuation, gets Coatue's structured financing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 12 (Reuters) - U.S. corporate travel and expense company TripActions said it raised $304 million from investors in equity and debt-like structured financing on Wednesday, as the company gears up for expansion and a public listing. The company said the funding includes $154 million in equity financing from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Premji Invest, which valued the startup at $9.2 billion, up from its last round of $7.5 billion. The $150 million structured financing comes from Coatue Management’s new fund targeting late-stage startups as the IPO market remains shut. The company has filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO) that could land next year, sources told Reuters. “We are investing for the company to be ready to be a public company."

☆ One of the investors that agreed to back Elon Musk's Twitter bid says they want out of the deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

MVP partner says the VC firm committed to back Musk's Twitter acquisition earlier this year. Musk attorney says "vast majority of equity investors have been spoken to and are all in." With Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition looking like it's barreling towards a close, he will soon have to come up with $44 billion dollars — a lot of money even for the world's richest person. Alex Spiro, Musk's attorney, said "the vast majority of equity investors have been spoken to and are all in." Are you an investor in the Twitter deal, or an employee with insights to share?

☆ Rapidly-growing productivity startup ClickUp poached new executives from ServiceNow and Zscaler as it looks to an eventual IPO
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

ClickUp has brought on new executives as it looks to grow and prepare for an eventual IPO. Productivity and collaboration startup ClickUp has brought on new executives from competitors like ServiceNow to help it grow and prepare for an eventual IPO. From ServiceNow comes two execs: Jim Bartolomea, now ClickUp's new senior VP of people, and Marshall Tyler, ClickUp's newly-minted chief strategy officer. ClickUp's new leadership bench will be focused on "creating a predictable, scalable, and efficient revenue engine," Tommy Wang, ClickUp's chief business officer, told Insider. Jim Bartolomea is ClickUp's new senior VP of People ClickUpThat's where Bartolomea, the new senior VP of people, comes in.

☆ Grammy-nominated DJ Steve Aoki told us he's made more money from NFTs than royalties. Here's how he says he's profited $10 million — and how Web3 can disrupt the multi-billion-dollar music industry.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Aoki was "shocked and excited" when he realized he made more from NFT sales than music royalties. NFTs can disrupt the music industry by creating a new revenue stream for artists, Blau previously told Insider. "This could facilitate a change that I've been waiting to see for most of my career as an independent artist," Blau said of tokenized music royalties. NFT earnings vs music royaltiesThe 2X Grammy-nominated artist says he's made more from NFTs than a decade of music royalties, Decrypt first reported. Aoki touts Web3, or the metaverse, as a chance for artists to truly own their work via the blockchain.

☆ Startup founders are panicked amid a market meltdown, but most VCs don't want to hear it. 'It's like don't ask, don't tell.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"It's like don't ask, don't tell," Josh Felser, a successful founder and outspoken investor, said. The following report on how startup founders are coping with the funding crunch was originally published on August 4. Seven Seven Six partner Katelin Holloway. Her investor, Seven Seven Six, pays for its founders to participate. Caleb Frankel, whose Seven Seven Six-backed startup, EarlyBird, helps families invest in their kid's financial future, wants desperately to have kids, but he and his wife have struggled with pregnancy loss.

☆ I binge-listened to tech podcasts for a week, and what I learned about Silicon Valley is kind of scary
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-04 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

2: The hosts don't know what they don't knowThe problem is, VC podcasts don't stick to the core issues of venture capital. 3: The hosts want us to believe what they don't knowThere's a shocking amount of this kind of drivel on the tech podcasts. This is what a good tech podcast should do: Use access to the best and most successful investors and innovators to illuminate the way Silicon Valley works. But that's not what matters in the world of tech podcasts. But after 40 hours of listening to tech podcasts, I feel kind of bad about it.

☆ Exclusive: TripActions has filed confidentially for an IPO, targeting a $12 billion valuation, a rare exception in the frozen IPO market
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

TripActions, which was last valued at $7.25 billion, aims to modernize business travel. Founded in 2015 by Ariel Cohen and Ilan Twig, the Palo Alto-based company helps businesses manage travel, company cards and expenses for employees. At the time, Cohen said TripActions had originally planned to go public this year but delayed those plans when the market went south. TripActions raised $275 million in series F funding last fall at a $7.25 billion valuation in a deal led by Greenoaks. Andreessen Horowitz first invested in TripActions in 2018, when it led the company's series C funding round at a $1.1 billion valuation.

☆ Cathie Wood's new fund gives small investors access to the VC market for just $500
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Ark Invest, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference on May 2, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California. Cathie Wood's Ark Invest launched a new venture capital fund, targeting individual investors with a minimum investment of just $500. "We are doubling down on innovation," Wood said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Tuesday. The ARK Venture Fund charges a flat management fee of 2.75%, and does not charge any carried interest or load fees. Ark's flagship Innovation Fund (ARKK) has been under water all year as Wood's disruptive darlings have been some of the biggest victims of rising interest rates.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark have piled into the burgeoning FinOps sector. Now, European startups are racing to become the region's early leader.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

European startups like Sequence and Numeral want to establish themselves as the region's leaders. In March, the valuation of Californian startup Modern Treasury spiked to $2 billion as it established itself as an early leader in the burgeoning FinOps sector. In Europe, FinOps startups have captured the attention of a wealth of venture capital firms hoping to be an early backer in the region's own Modern Treasury. The US payments market is notoriously fragmented with some 5,000 banks and no universal real-time settlements platform. Indeed, investment into European startups plummeted by 38% in the second quarter of the year to $23.7 billion, according to Crunchbase data.

☆ The 26 most important VCs in Miami, according to other VCs
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( April Joyner | Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Miami's tech-startup scene has heated up in the past two years as VCs have flocked to the city. Early-stage funding to the area has topped $2 billion this year, according to Crunchbase. Insider asked VCs to identify the top investors in the Miami area. Despite the slowdown in venture-capital investments this year, early-stage funding flowing to the Miami area is set to eclipse last year's total, according to Crunchbase, with more than $2 billion already invested. Insider asked venture capitalists and other prominent tech figures which investors Miami-area founders should get to know.

☆ Special interest groups representing Amazon to Uber oppose possible crypto regulation in California
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Industry groups representing Amazon, Apple, Block, Coinbase, Genesis, Google, GrubHub, Lyft, Facebook/Meta, Uber, and other companies wrote to the state assembly opposing the law. Nine organizations representing consumers and advocating for economic justice wrote to the state assembly expressing support for the law. Several tech industry groups representing major companies and venture capital firms wrote in to oppose the law. Several organizations advocating for consumers and economic justice wrote to the state assembly expressing support for the law. Interest groups argued that regulation presents an "undue burden"on crypto companiesBlockchain Advocacy CoalitionThe Blockchain Advocacy Coalition wrote to Assemblymember Grayson on August 26.

☆ Twitter hunts for documents showing possible connection between Elon Musk and former executive turned whistleblower Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Zatko accused Twitter of lax security and other missteps during his time as a top executive. He also sided with Elon Musk in claiming "bots" are improperly quantified on the platform. Twitter now wants to know if Zatko has had prior dealings with Musk or those on his side of the deal. He also openly sided with Musk and his claims that Twitter hosts more "bots" or fake accounts that it publicly discloses. A section of Zatko's disclosure is titled "Lying about Bots to Elon Musk" and accuses Twitter of misrepresenting how it counts and combats spam accounts, saying "Elon Musk is correct."

☆ How security questionnaire startup SecurityPal raised $21 million from investors like Craft Ventures and a GP at Andreessen Horowitz without a pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

SecurityPal helps companies complete security questionnaires using automation and human analysts. The startup raised a $21 million Series A round from Craft and a16z investors without a pitch deck. Hamal is the founder and CEO of SecurityPal, a security questionnaire startup that recently raised $21 million in Series A funding from Craft Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Martin Casado, and other angel investors. SecurityPal aids companies in filling out security questionnaires using a combination of automation and human security analysts. Hamal told Insider that the round came together from inbound investor interest and without the use of a pitch deck.

☆ The quiet success of Tecton, a $900 million startup, has turned rivals Snowflake and Databricks into co-investors — and fanned a fierce debate over the future of AI
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Matthew Lynley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tecton, which specializes in a technology called feature stores, was a more divisive subject among industry insiders. Both Databricks and Snowflake have invested heavily in real-time data pipelines, including in Tecton's latest funding round. But it was hardly alone among machine-learning startups in commanding a high valuation with nominal revenue. Many investors wondered whether Tecton's feature stores were "a feature, not a product," as Steve Jobs famously called Dropbox. That skepticism remains, and some insiders expect a roll-up of overvalued machine-learning startups that attack one piece of the workflow, including Tecton.

☆ Meet Dylan Field, the 30-year-old college dropout who built Figma, one of Silicon Valley's most beloved companies, and is set to become a billionaire when it sells for $20 billion to Adobe
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Adobe's $20 billion bid to buy Figma makes CEO Dylan Field's stake worth $2 billion. When the design-software startup Figma was just starting out, Dylan Field, its cofounder and CEO, and his colleagues would pitch prospective customers' design teams, but they struggled with one major problem. While customers were excited about Figma's product, they hesitated to switch from existing tools. Now, Adobe's $20 billion bid to buy Figma makes Field's stake in the company worth $2 billion. Field's rise to successEvan Wallace and Dylan Field are the cofounders of Figma.

☆ Meet Dylan Field, the 30-year-old college dropout who built Figma, one of Silicon Valley's most beloved companies, and then will become a billionaire when it sells for $20 billion to Adobe
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When design-software startup Figma had just started out, cofounder and CEO Dylan Field and his colleagues would pitch potential customers' design teams, but they struggled with one major problem. While customers were excited about Figma's product, they hesitated to switch from existing tools. Now, Adobe's $20 billion bid to buy the design software startup makes Field's stake in the company worth $2 billion. Field's rise to successEvan Wallace and Dylan Field are the cofounders of Figma. After taking time off to do a product design internship at news-sharing service Flipboard, he decided not to return to school.

And other up-and-coming ‘machine-health tech’ firms are offering similar wares. ‘Predictive-Maintenance’ Tech Is Taking Off as Manufacturers Seek More EfficiencyWalgreens Boots Alliance Inc. said Thursday it would appoint Hsiao Wang as its new chief information officer, as tech leader Francesco Tinto departs. Warehouse robots offer a stopgap to the labor crunch despite technology limitations, chief information officers say. American Airlines Names New Tech Chief Ganesh Jayaram, currently CIO of Deere & Co., is joining the airline as its chief digital and information officer. XPO Logistics CIO Readies for Shift to Chief Executive Role Tech-savvy CEOs look at every opportunity as having tech as part of the answer, says Mario Harik.

☆ Inside the ultra-exclusive home-swapping app Kindred — which has a 'Raya-type' invite-only membership and a rapidly growing waitlist
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Emily Carmichael | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some have compared the new home-swapping app Kindred to Raya, the exclusive members-only dating app. With homes that are largely luxurious, the average length of a Kindred stay is six days. Kindred gives home-swapping the (fancy) app treatment. And Kindred has a waitlist that it pulls from to build its housing inventory in locations popular with its members. Kindred vets, and personally photographs each of the homes on the app to ensure residences look like pictures.

☆ Adam Neumann Handing Over Part of Property Holdings to Fund Startup
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-13 | by ( Konrad Putzier | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Adam Neumann, former CEO of WeWork, has bought stakes in thousands of apartments since leaving the company he co-founded. Adam Neumann ’s new rental-apartment startup recently received a $350 million investment from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. That big check came with an unusual catch. Mr. Neumann, the co-founder and former chief executive of WeWork Inc., agreed to effectively hand over part of his vast real-estate holdings in return for the money, according to people familiar with the matter.

☆ See the presentations that hot healthcare startups used to raise millions from top VCs
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-08 | by ( Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Here are the presentations obtained by Insider that healthcare startups have used to raise millions. Even so, healthcare startups raised $15.8 billion in the first half of the year, according to Silicon Valley Bank. Insider rounded up all the presentations we've published that healthcare startups have used to raise cash from investors. For instance, check out the 13-slide presentation heart-health startup Miga Health used to raise $12 million in seed funding. Brightside used this presentation to break through a crowded field of mental health startups and convince VCs to invest $24 million.

☆ $6.1 billion cloud startup Benchling hired executives from top software companies like Atlassian, Workday, and ServiceNow as it looks to its next phase of growth
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-25 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Benchling, which makes cloud R&D software for life sciences companies, boomed during the pandemic. Benchling has grown in size and valuationBenchling makes cloud software to help life sciences companies make their research and development more efficient. He sees a huge opportunity to bring life sciences companies into the cloud, especially given that there aren't many other software companies serving that specific market. The company's new CTO and product chief will be key to making that happen. Shawna Wolverton, chief product officer at Benchling BenchlingWolverton, meanwhile has experience in helping build out Salesforce's platform, which in turn fostered an ecosystem around the cloud giant's products.

☆ Women in venture capital who made partner or higher at firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-06 | by ( Melia Russell | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Each year, more women barrel through the doors of venture capital's boy's club. However, progress slowed in a tough macro environment. PitchBook data indicates that the share of women in decision-making roles at venture firms held steady year over year, with women representing 16% of general partners at firms with more than $50 million in assets in the US. To toast their success, Insider is recognizing the women in venture capital who made partner or general partner for the first time in 2022. Let us know who we missed — investing partners or general partners only, please — by contacting Melia Russell at mrussell@insider.com

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