Startups

Figma’s IPO success is ‘a little bit of a meme stock,’ says Sapphire Ventures’ Jai Das

Startups /

Figma managed something rare in today’s market: it survived a failed Adobe acquisition, stayed independent, and went public on its own terms. But its post-IPO performance tells a more complex story about startup exits in 2025. “This is a little bit of a meme stock,” said Jai Das, president and partner at Sapphire Ventures, on […]

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A top designer was banned from Dribbble. Now he’s building his own competitor.

Startups /

Dribbble has permanently banned dozens of designers from its platform following a new effort to pivot to a marketplace and chase monetization. This includes one of the platform’s most well-known designers, Gleb Kuznetsov, founder of the San Francisco-based design studio Milkinside. Dribbble deleted his account with its over 210 million followers because he shared his contact information with prospective clients through

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OpenMind wants to be the Android operating system of humanoid robots

Startups /

Many companies are focused on building robots, or the hardware components to help them move, grip objects, or interact with the world around them, Silicon Valley-based OpenMind is focused under the hood. OpenMind is building a software layer, OM1, for humanoid robots that acts as an operating system. The company compares itself to being the

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Lina Khan points to Figma IPO as vindication of M&A scrutiny

Startups /

A surprising figure is celebrating Figma’s successful IPO: Lina Khan, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission. In a Friday afternoon post on X, Khan linked to an article about Figma’s impressive first day of trading and argued the IPO is “a great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be

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Handwave lends a hand to retailers with its European alternative to Amazon’s palm payments

Startups /

Paying with a handwave once sounded like science fiction, but contactless palm recognition service Amazon One has already been used more than 8 million times, according to the company. That’s Amazon, though, which explains why it has been deployed in Amazon stores and more than 500 Whole Foods Market stores in the U.S., but only

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Figma’s stock soars in its highly anticipated IPO, market cap instantly hits $45B

Startups /

Figma began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after a long delay. It soared so quickly that trading was halted for a short time due to market volatility. The price is currently bouncing between $101 and $112 with a mid-day market cap of $45 billion, Yahoo Finance reports. The company and existing

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Ramp hits $22.5B valuation just 45 days after reaching $16B

Startups /

Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of expense management startup Ramp, announced on Wednesday a fresh $500 million raise at a whopping $22.5 billion post-money valuation. This new round, led by Iconiq Growth with participation from Founders Fund and D1 Capital Partners, comes just 45 days after Ramp’s last round. In June, Ramp raised $200 million

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How 2 UC Berkeley dropouts raised $28 million for their AI marketing automation startup

Startups /

AI-powered marketing automation startup Conversion, founded five years ago by two UC Berkeley dropouts, has raised a $28 million Series A led by Abstract, with participation from True Ventures and HOF Capital. The company’s founding story sounds like it could have been an episode of the HBO show “Silicon Valley.” The story begins all the

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