Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s VC-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Natasha Mascarenhas, Danny Crichton and your humble servant gathered to chat through a host of rounds and venture capital news for your enjoyment. As a programming note, I am off next week effectively, so look for Natasha ... Conventional wisdom says your company should be up and running and have some traction before you raise, but MasterClass co-founder David Rogier says entrepreneurs should try to raise funds before launching. ... Earlier this year, we launched The TechCrunch List, a carefully curated group of VCs who lead rounds recommended by thousands of founders for their acumen and friendliness, grouped by market focus, stage and geography. Since the launch of the List, we’ve seen great engagement: tens of thousands of founders have each come back multiple times ... Most venture capital firms are based in hubs like Silicon Valley, New York City and Boston. These firms nurture those ecosystems and they’ve done well, but SaaS Ventures decided to go a different route: it went to cities like Chicago, Green Bay, Wisconsin and Lincoln, Nebraska. The firm looks for enterprise-focused entrepreneurs who are trying ... One of a founder's biggest early challenges is figuring out how to sift through all the advice they receive. ... Crista Galli Ventures, a new early-stage health tech fund in Europe, officially launched last week. The firm offers “patient capital” — with only a single LP (the Danish family office IPQ Capital) — and promises to provide portfolio companies with deep healthcare expertise and the extra runway needed to get over regulatory and efficacy hurdles ... Pan-African fintech company Interswitch plans to fire up its corporate venture arm again—according to CEO Mitchell Elegbe—who spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt on Wednesday. The Nigerian founder didn’t offer much new on the Lagos-based firm’s expected IPO, but he did reveal Interswitch will revive investments in African startups. Founded by Elegbe in 2002, Interswitch pioneered the ... Lightspeed Venture Partners announced the launch of its Southeast Asia operations today. Based out of the firm’s new regional headquarters in Singapore, Lightspeed’s team there will invest in startups throughout Southeast Asia from the three global funds it closed earlier this year, which total about $4 billion. The Southeast Asia team consists of partner Akshay ... While venture capitalists are pouring funding into edtech startups, the surge of interest isn’t coming without pressure. Edtech companies are searching for new ways to tap into a booming market. As Course Hero co-founder Andrew Graeur put it, the goal for his Q&A platform went from reaching a million subscribers to “many millions” as a ... Yesterday, we had a chance to catch up with Josh Kopelman, the founder of the now 16-year-old early-stage venture firm First Round to talk about a wide variety of issues. As part of that conversation — which we’ll run in its entirety in podcast form a bit later this week — we naturally asked Kopelman ...
Posts Tagged ‘venture capital’
Why isn’t Robinhood a verb yet?
Fundraising lessons from David Rogier of MasterClass
We’re updating The TechCrunch List soon. Founders, send in your recommendations of the most helpful lead VCs
SaaS Ventures takes the investment road less traveled
Startup founders must overcome information overload
Does early-stage health tech need more ‘patient’ capital?
Interswitch to revive its Africa venture fund, CEO confirms
Lightspeed announces the launch of its Southeast Asia operations
Making sense of 3 edtech extension rounds
VC Josh Kopelman isn’t so sure about SPACs, but he thinks so-called rolling funds could prove powerful