Venture

Hexa, the startup studio behind Aircall and Swan, unveils its next batch of startups

Hexa, a Paris-based startup studio that has launched dozens of B2B software companies, is sharing a list of its next batch of projects that are soon going to become independent startups. Hexa originally started its life in 2011 as eFounders, a startup studio focused on B2B software-as-a-service products. Hexa usually comes up with the ideas […]

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Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners merges with investment arm of Pendulum Holdings

Jay-Z’s venture capital firm, Marcy Venture Partners, has merged with another Black-owned investment firm, Pendulum Holdings’ investment arm Pendulum Opportunities, to form MarcyPen Capital Partners, a MarcyPen spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. The newly formed MarcyPen Capital Partners has $900 million in assets under management, according to PitchBook.  MarcyPen’s spokesperson declined to comment further on the

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Arlan Hamilton announces changes at Backstage Capital, will step into advisory role

Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital, announced Friday that her role at the firm she started in 2015 will evolve.  “After 12 years of being deeply involved in the day-to-day operations, I’ve decided to transition into a chairperson and advisory position,” she wrote in a statement released online. She was previously a managing partner at

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Why Marc Andreessen was ‘very scared’ after meeting with the Biden administration about AI

After famed investor Marc Andreessen met with government officials about the future of tech last May, he was “very scared” and described the meetings as “absolutely horrifying.” These meetings played a key role on why he endorsed Trump, he told journalist Bari Weiss this week on her podcast.  What scared him most was what some

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Kalshi CEO admits enlisting influencers to dis Polymarket in a now-deleted podcast segment

Kalshi’s CEO, Tarek Mansour, confirmed on a podcast interview that his employees did ask social media influencers to promote memes about the FBI’s raid on the home of his arch rival, the CEO of Polymarket.  Both of these companies offer competing events-betting markets, a new kind of betting industry where people wager about the outcomes

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Humba Ventures raises $40M fund to invest in deep tech, defense tech 

Humba Ventures said today it has raised $40 million to invest in deep tech and defense tech startups. It is a sister-firm to Susa Ventures, the seed-stage firm that has backed companies like Robinhood, Human Interest and Flexport.  The fund comes at a time when defense tech is seeing venture investment reach record highs: Startups in

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Trump’s proposed university endowment tax could hurt funding, VC warns

Some VCs are looking at the Trump administration’s proposed massive tax increase on university endowments with alarm, warns Ann Miura-Ko, co-founder at Floodgate Partners. “There is a proposal right now to take the endowment tax from 1.4 percent to 35 percent and most people would say, well endowments are super rich, why do we care?  Well, they

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