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☆ Exclusive: The University of California has invested billions in venture capital firms since 2000 and it has lost hundreds of millions so far. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Ben Bergman | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Insider obtained UC Investments' returns through a Public Records Act request. Unlike many other financial institutions, VC funds are not required to show their return on investment in startups. UC Investments, which has been managed by Jagdeep Singh Bachher since 2014, declined to comment. Though selling early produced an initial windfall, UC Investments could have ultimately missed out on substantial gains from these VC funds. By comparison, UC Investments earned a 8.3% return for its investment in public markets.

☆ Exclusive: Buzzy legal generative AI startup Harvey taps Sequoia to lead funding round at a $150 million valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Legal generative AI startup Harvey has raised a funding round from Sequoia, Insider has learned. This funding round landed the startup a $150 million post-money valuation. Industry-specific generative AI startups have emerged in nearly every industry, from healthcare to gaming, to offer specialized services beyond the capabilities of general models like OpenAI's GPT-4. Legal generative AI startup Harvey has raised a Series A round of funding at a $150 million post-money valuation from Sequoia Capital, according to three people with knowledge of the financing who were not authorized to speak publicly. The relatively few customers makes Harvey's valuation seem rich in comparison, the source said, pointing to a broader trend of elevated valuations and round sizes in the hyped-up generative AI space.

☆ LayerZero Labs valued at $3 billion after latest fund-raise
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 4 (Reuters) - LayerZero Labs said on Tuesday that it has raised $120 million in an early stage funding round, that has tripled the blockchain messaging protocol's valuation to $3 billion. The Series B fund-raise saw participation from 33 investors, including a16z crypto, Christie's, Circle Ventures, OpenSea Ventures, Samsung Next, and Sequoia Capital, amongst others. In February, Via said it bagged a valuation of $3.5 billion after a funding round led by 83North. Last year, the New York-based blockchain infrastructure provider had raised $135 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures among others that valued it at $1 billion. It has received backing from some of the strongest crypto-focused companies in the entire world, including Binance, Blockdaemon, Christie's, Circle Ventures, Coinbase, OpenSea Ventures, and many more.

[1/2] Horizon Quantum Computing Chief Science Officer Si-Hui Tan and Chief Executive Officer Joe Fitzsimons sit in front of their white board in Singapore in this handout photo taken November 2021. Courtesy Horizon Quantum Computing/Handout via REUTERSOAKLAND, Calif March 31 (Reuters) - Singapore-based software startup Horizon Quantum Computing on Friday said it raised $18.1 million to expand its engineering team and speed up product development. The company, founded in 2018, created a programming language called Helium for quantum computers, designed to make it easier to tackle complex problems. Quantum computers, based on quantum physics, could potentially perform some calculations millions of times faster than the current fastest super computers. Horizon Quantum Computing said it is also planning to open its first European offices in Ireland, where it is building its new engineering center.

☆ Indian skincare firm Mamaearth's parent puts IPO on hold - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( M. Sriram | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, March 27 (Reuters) - Indian skincare startup Mamaearth has put its initial public offering (IPO) on hold because of weak market conditions, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, a month after two other Indian companies also scrapped their share sales. Mamaearth planned to start marketing the IPO and begin initial talks with investors by the end of January, but that has not happened yet, the sources said. The company has until December to receive approval for the IPO from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and file its final prospectus. He added that its largest investor, Sequoia, would not be selling any shares in the IPO and the founders would own more than 97% of their shares after the IPO. Last month, Indian apparel retailer Fabindia, backed by billionaire Azim Premji's fund, and jewellery retailer Joyallukkas scrapped their IPOs due to poor market conditions.

“VCs think this is the new internet,” a generative AI founder in the United States told Reuters. While the closure of Silicon Valley Bank may hamper debt financing, venture capitalists said interest in funding AI startups remains high, especially for top early-stage founders. Investors sense opportunity, even for a sale if not an initial public offering; some are betting that AI startups might outpace bigger rivals, encumbered by their size. You.com, a search engine company founded in 2020 and backed by Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff, has found new life from incorporating generative AI technology. It has attracted more attention from users and investors, handling millions of searches per day, the company told Reuters.

☆ This Sequoia-backed startup bringing a form of buy now, pay later to B2B payments just raised $19.3 million. Check out the 10-slide pitch deck Two used to land the funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sequoia-backed payments startup Two just raised $19.3 million in a Series A round. The Oslo-based company plans to bring a version of buy now, pay later to B2B transactions. Check out the 10-slide pitch deck Two used to land the fresh cash below. A Sequoia-backed startup that wants to bring a version of the buy now, pay later model to B2B transactions just raised $19.3 million in fresh funds. Two's solution is to effectively offer a form of buy now, pay later for B2B payments to both small and medium-sized businesses and multinational corporations.

☆ Premarket stocks: Silicon Valley Bank left a void that won't easily be filled
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

There’s no doubt that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank left a large void in tech. To find out, Before the Bell spoke with Ahmad Thomas, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Before the Bell: What’s the feeling on the ground with tech and VC leadership in Silicon Valley? Ahmad Thomas: Silicon Valley Bank has been a key part of our fabric here for four decades. FDIC sells most of failed Signature Bank to FlagstarFrom CNN’s David GoldmanA week after Signature Bank failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it has sold most of its deposits to Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bank.

The Biden administration and CFIUS are pushing for a sale of TikTok in the US. The Chinese government could also block a TikTok sale outright before bidding kicks off. But the list of companies that would actually consider buying TikTok is small, experts told Insider. "I think Microsoft would be one of the only big money, big company possibilities." Ultimately, separating TikTok's US operations, whether in a sale to a big tech firm or a spin off, is complicated.

"Meta's discovery gluttony confirms its request of eBay is not worthy of the burden Meta seeks to impose," eBay's lawyers told the California court. EBay's Quinn Emanuel attorneys derided Meta as a "litigant that has completely disregarded the bounds of reason and proportionality" in seeking information from third parties. A representative from eBay and its attorneys at Quinn Emanuel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for eBay contend the company doesn't compete with Meta on social networking but does face off over the Facebook Marketplace e-commerce service. The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

Chinese start-ups and fund managers said they are still looking to move their money out of SVB once they can. Such banks have offered account services similar to those of SVB, but found it hard to crack the U.S. bank's dominance among early-stage start-ups in China, where SVB has operated for more than two decades and has a local joint venture. STILL HUNTINGSome venture funds said they were in a quandary as SVB had certain advantages and was especially friendly to early-stage start ups. "Not a lot of banks are friendly to venture capital." "But the market space left by SVB will be filled by the next bank, which is an opportunity," said Chen, whose company counts Sequoia Capital China and Wu Capital among its investors and banks with SVB.

☆ Venture capitalists 'almost took the whole system down' by having startups stow all their cash at Silicon Valley Bank, says one tech billionaire CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tom Siebel, the billionaire CEO of C3.ai, offered a scathing post-mortem of the Silicon Valley Bank fallout. Top VCs like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen let startups entrust their finances to a "C minus bank," he said. Federal regulators have said they would protect all customers with deposits at Silicon Valley Bank. Since regulators closed down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, the 40-year-old institution whose popularity in the startup world shot up in more recent years has been under the control of the Financial Deposit Insurance Corporation. A representative for the FDIC declined to comment, and representatives for Silicon Valley Bank did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Monday evening.

☆ China's Shein set to raise $2 billion in new funding round, aims for U.S. IPO later this year, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Reuters reports the fast fashion retailer is targeting a U.S. IPO in the second half of 2023. Shein cut its valuation to $64 billion in this fundraising, down by a third from a funding round a year ago, according to six sources with knowledge of the matter. All sources declined to be identified as the information was confidential. Shein said it does not currently have plans for an IPO and declined to comment further. Shein, founded by Chinese entrepreneur Chris Xu, has grown into one of the world's largest online fashion marketplaces since its 2008 launch in Nanjing.

☆ This fish farmer-turned-entrepreneur runs a profitable start-up. Here are his tips
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Now at 33, Farizy runs Indonesia-based startup eFishery, which developed products such as automatic feeders that help local seafood farmers save costs and improve productivity. Automatic feeders eliminate the problems of manual feeding, which could result in over-feeding or under-feeding. Say no to high cash burnMany startups focus on blistering growth, which usually means a high cash burn rate. When asked about how he runs a successful company, he said: "We don't burn cash unnecessarily." Cash burn refers to a company spending its cash reserves when it is not yet generating profit.

☆ 'PayPal Mafia' member says Google and Meta intentionally overhired engineers to prevent them from working at other companies.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"PayPal Mafia" member says Google and Meta "do fake work." The companies over-hired thousands of employees to fulfill a "vanity metric," said investor Keith Rabois. He's part of the infamous PayPal cohort (pictured above — he's number nine) that went on to play influential roles at other major tech companies. Rabois estimates that Facebook parent company Meta and Google each have thousands of employees who don't do much. He even suspects that Google intentionally overhired engineers to prevent them from working at other companies.

☆ Half of Sequoia Capital's VC funds since 2018 have posted losses for the University of California's endowment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ben Bergman | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The University of California endowment has invested over $800 million in Sequoia funds since 2018. The returns show ten Sequoia funds across all stages and geographies are now underwater for the investor. The University of California's massive $28 billion endowment, a limited partner in 20 Sequoia Capital funds since 2018, is underwater on half those investments, according to documents obtained by Insider. Meanwhile ten of the Sequoia funds that UC Investments has invested in have been marked down in value on paper. One of UC Investment's largest commitments to Sequoia is $232 million earmarked for the 2022 Sequoia Capital Fund.

A CHINESE COMPANY? Those rules followed a regulatory crackdown that has slowed U.S. listings by Chinese companies to a trickle. Chinese companies raised only around $230 million in U.S. listings last year, a massive drop from $12.9 billion in 2021, according to Refinitiv data. It was not immediately clear if SHEIN is planning to officially seek Chinese regulatory approval for its IPO. The moves were designed so that SHEIN could bypass seeking Chinese regulatory approval for the listing, sources have previously said.

☆ Embark shares tank as autonomous trucking firm mulls 'shutting down completely'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Investors and industry watchers have also been concerned about billions of dollars that have been poured into the self-driving technology sector in a short span of time to commercialize it. "Over the next handful of weeks, we will work closely with the Embark Board of Directors to evaluate our options, including selling assets, restructuring the company or shutting down completely." Embark went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal and is backed by Mubadala Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management. The company expects to incur charges of $7 million to $11 million related to the workforce reduction, which spans about 230 employees. Shares of Embark closed down 32.8% lower at $2.56 on Monday, giving the firm a market capitalization of $60 million, compared with the over $5 billion in market value when it went public.

☆ The top US consumer watchdog is worried you're going to fall for AI scams or overblown marketing hype
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tech companies and investors think generative AI will be an economic revolution. Investors say generative AI could save workers loads of unnecessary labor. While AI products may hold less promise than companies say, the FTC is worried they will make it easier to deceive voters and consumers. "We're also concerned with the risk that deepfakes and other AI-based synthetic media, which are becoming easier to create and disseminate, will be used for fraud," FTC spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald told Insider. If the FTC's instincts are right, today's generative AI may pose less economic disruption than deception.

☆ Bridgewater's new executive team is already making big changes. But was it all part of Ray Dalio's master plan?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

On tap, we've got stories on the top VCs in Texas, more headaches for Blackstone's BREIT, and why boomers stink. Maybe it's just the fear of facing your own mortality and realizing that life, in fact, will go on without you. As Rebecca Ungarino reports, the world's largest hedge fund is making a slew of new changes less than six months after billionaire founder Ray Dalio stepped aside. Bridgewater, which was founded in 1975 from Dalio's two-bedroom apartment, is arguably just as well known for its culture as its size. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) and Nathan Rennolds (tweet @ncrennolds) in London.

☆ Legendary VC Doug Leone touts AI, praises Elon Musk, and reveals how he tests people over dinner in a new interview. Here are the 10 best quotes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Doug Leone compared AI to mobile devices and the internet in terms of technological impact. Great companies often emerge in tough times, and easy money can be bad for founders, he said. Leone is a legendary venture capitalist who led Sequoia Capital for over 25 years. (Leone said he looks for founders, partners, and employees who are seen by others as insufferable, belligerent, and bad listeners.) "What you shouldn't do and say: 'There's money in venture, I want a cushy life, I want to go into venture.'

☆ BlackRock just sold its robo-advisor to the wealth firm Ritholtz Wealth Management
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Ritholtz Wealth Management is acquiring FutureAdvisor from BlackRock, Ritholtz confirmed. FutureAdvisor notified retail clients on Monday that Ritholtz would acquire the company. Ritholtz Wealth Management is acquiring the robo-advisory product FutureAdvisor from asset management giant BlackRock, a spokesperson for Ritholtz confirmed on Tuesday. FutureAdvisor notified retail clients on Monday that Ritholtz would acquire the company, according to a copy of an email to clients that Insider viewed. A Ritholtz spokesperson said this is the firm's first acquisition, and that terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

☆ Israeli cyber security firm Wiz raises $300 mln, valued at $10 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

JERUSALEM, Feb 27 (Reuters) - U.S.-Israeli cyber security startup Wiz said on Monday it raised $300 million in a private funding round that values the firm at $10 billion. The late stage round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and existing investors Greenoaks Capital Partners and Index Ventures. Since its founding three years ago, Wiz, which focuses on cloud security and has 650 employees globally, has raised $900 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Blackstone and G Squared. It said it plans to open new offices in Austin, Dallas and Washington D.C. Reporting by Steven Scheer Editing by Ari RabinovitchOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Sequoia Capital has started screening some investments its China arm is considering in technology companies there for U.S. national-security concerns, according to people familiar with the matter, as Washington steps up efforts to stop American money from funding China’s development of sensitive technologies. The Biden administration is expected to soon unveil investment restrictions that would prevent U.S. capital from flowing to companies and startups in China that are developing cutting-edge technologies in sectors including advanced semiconductors.

☆ Companies have a lot more room to reduce expenses, says Sequoia Capital's Roelof Botha
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCompanies have a lot more room to reduce expenses, says Sequoia Capital's Roelof BothaRoelof Botha, Sequoia Capital Managing Partner joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss his thoughts on venture capital, company layoffs and why he is most excited about the AI space.

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