Venture

In 2024, many Y Combinator startups only want tiny seed rounds — but there’s a catch

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When Bowery Capital general partner Loren Straub started talking to a startup from the latest Y Combinator accelerator batch a few months ago, she thought it was strange that the company didn’t have a lead investor for the round it was raising. Even stranger, the founders didn’t seem to be looking for one. She thought […]

In 2024, many Y Combinator startups only want tiny seed rounds — but there’s a catch Read More »

Kleiner Perkins leads $14.4M seed round into Fizz, a credit-building debit card aimed at Gen Z college students

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Carlo Kobe and Scott Smith believed so strongly in the need for a debit card product designed specifically for Gen Zers that they dropped out of Harvard and Cornell at ages 19 and 21, respectively, in 2021 to build a startup called Fizz. The pair wanted to go beyond creating a debit card for the

Kleiner Perkins leads $14.4M seed round into Fizz, a credit-building debit card aimed at Gen Z college students Read More »

Fearless Fund’s Arian Simone coming to Disrupt 2024

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TechCrunch has kept readers informed regarding Fearless Fund’s courtroom battle to provide business grants to Black women. Today, we are happy to announce that Fearless Fund CEO and co-founder Arian Simone will speak at the Disrupt 2024 Builders Stage in a fireside chat discussing her organization’s fight for racial equity. Fearless Fund was sued last

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An appeals court rules that VC Fearless Fund cannot issue grants to Black women, but the fight continues

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VC firm Fearless Fund has faced a setback in its plans to issue grants to Black women business owners. On Monday, an appeals court ruled against Fearless, upholding a preliminary injunction in place on the program. The court ruling said that Fearless Fund’s Strivers Grant likely violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which bans

An appeals court rules that VC Fearless Fund cannot issue grants to Black women, but the fight continues Read More »

Don’t miss StrictlyVC in DC next week

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The StrictlyVC roadtrip continues! Coming off of sold-out events in London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, we’re heading to Washington, D.C. for a cozy-vc-packed, evening at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre on Tuesday, June 11 in partnership with Revolution. StrictlyVC events are known for delivering exclusive insights and fostering meaningful connections among top investors, entrepreneurs, and

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Unicorn-rich VC Wesley Chan owes his success to a Craigslist job washing lab beakers

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Wesley Chan is often seen in his signature buffalo hat; however, he may be even more well-known for his ability to spot unicorns. Over the course of his career in venture capital, he’s invested in over 20 unicorns, including AngelList, Dialpad, Ring, Rocket Lawyer and Sourcegraph. Five of those went on to become decacorns: Canva,

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How (Re)vive grew 10x last year by helping retailers recycle and sell returned items

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The fashion industry has a huge problem: Despite many returned items being unworn or undamaged, a lot, if not the majority, end up in the trash. An estimated 9.5 billion pounds of returns ended up in landfills in 2022 alone, according to data from return logistics software company Optoro. New York-based (Re)vive wants to help

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VC firm Antler’s CEO says Asia presents ‘biggest opportunity’ in the world for growth

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Asia’s startup ecosystem hasn’t been doing well in the past couple years, as everything from geopolitics to higher interest rates affected investors’ willingness to write checks. Many venture firms have exited China, which used to be the continent’s biggest venture market. Though there hasn’t been a huge decline in the number of fundraising rounds, the

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