Venture

Sapphire Sport spins out, rebrands as 359 Capital with $300M AUM

Venture /

Nearly seven years after announcing its first fund, Sapphire Sport—the venture fund focused on sports, media, and entertainment—is spinning out from Sapphire Ventures. The fund will rebrand as an independent venture firm, 359 Capital. The firm’s new name is a tribute to the sub-four-minute mile, a feat once deemed humanly impossible but ultimately achieved through […]

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How startups can lure good talent fairly without big tech bank accounts 

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Startups have never been able to offer the same sizable salaries as big tech companies. Now with companies like Meta and OpenAI willing to pay million-dollar salaries amid the AI race — the compensation divide has grown even larger. Early-stage startups are not doomed though. If they develop a compensation strategy that is generous, fair,

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Vinod Khosla on softening the blow from AGI, and other future bets

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In this episode recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief Connie Loizos talks with Vinod Khosla about entrepreneurship in the age of AI and the massive disruptions ahead. Loizos and Khosla discuss why he believes every profession represents a startup opportunity, his investment thesis of building AI workers rather than tools, and why he

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Why Benchmark made a rare crypto bet on trading app Fomo, with $17M Series A 

Venture /

Paul Erlanger and Se Yong Park, co-founders of consumer crypto trading app Fomo, took an unusual route to raising capital that is paying off for them. Their app launched in May and they just announced a $17 million Series A round led by Benchmark — an atypical crypto bet for the top-tier VC firm — bringing total funding to

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Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s most active early-stage investors, has raised another $64 million

Venture /

Lagos-based Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s most active early-stage investors, has raised $64 million so far for its second fund, targeting a final close of $75 million, founding partner Kola Aina tells TechCrunch. Among the investors is the Nigerian government, through its Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program, which marks the first time

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Roelof Botha on Sequoia, startup building, and Washington — days before stepping down

Venture /

In this episode recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief Connie Loizos talks with Roelof Botha about Sequoia’s approach to finding and backing outlier companies — just days before he announced he was stepping down from the firm. Loizos and Botha discuss why he thinks venture capital isn’t really an asset class, how Sequoia’s

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Sequoia names Alfred Lin and Pat Grady as new Co-Stewards as Roelof Botha steps down

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Just over three years after taking the reins as the leader of Sequoia Capital, Roelof Botha is stepping down as Senior Steward of the storied VC firm. The firm announced Tuesday that partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady will succeed him as co-Stewards. Lin joined the storied firm in 2010, where he has led major

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a16z pauses its famed TxO Fund for underserved founders, lays off staff

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Andreessen Horowitz is pausing its Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund and program, according to four sources familiar with the matter, including more than one founder in the program.  The firm announced TxO in 2020 to support founders who do not have access to traditional venture networks. Many of TxO’s participants were women and minorities who, overall, receive very slim amounts of venture

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Elad Gil on which AI markets have winners — and which are still wide open

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Solo VC investor extraordinaire Elad Gil said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt that AI has been one of the least predictable tech booms he’s ever seen. Gil is on the cap table of virtually every hit company of the past decade, including many of today’s leading AI companies. Still, he thinks that over the last

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Alphabet is increasingly launching “moonshot” projects as independent companies — here’s why

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Alphabet’s X moonshot factory is shifting how it brings ambitious technology projects to market, increasingly spinning them out as independent companies rather than keeping them within the Alphabet corporate structure, X’s head honcho, Astro Teller, revealed at TechCrunch Disrupt this past week. The strategy hinges on a dedicated venture fund that exists solely to invest

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