Mike Maples Jr. is a prolific angel investor and co-founder of early-stage venture firm Floodgate. Over the years, he’s taken a lot of bets. Some have paid off handsomely (Twitter, Twitch, Lyft and Bazaarvoice, for example). Others have not. I interviewed him for a recent episode of Equity Podcast, and we dug into a number […]
Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is jam-packed with deals, hot topics, and the latest dramaaaaaa in the tech world. If you haven’t listened yet, consider this your spoiler-filled invitation to dive in. Three Deals of the Week Formation Bio’s $372M Raise First up,
AI-powered drug development, VW teams up with Rivian, and DEI is ‘bad’ Read More »
Apple has been named the first of tech’s so-called “gatekeepers” to be charged for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act. In a press release this morning, the European Commission alleged that Apple’s App Store rules, “prevent app developers from freely steering consumers to alternative channels for offers and content,” blocking developers from providing customers with
The EU’s DMA is coming for Apple, and X bots are on the loose Read More »
Good news, crypto founders! Venture capital activity is picking up in the sector, recovering from the multiyear lows investments fell to in late 2023. Put another way, venture folk appear more bullish on web3 than they used to be not very long ago. But that was hardly the only news item we had to dig
$450M for Noname, two billion-dollar rounds, and good news for crypto startups Read More »
News that Jack Dorsey is out at Bluesky caused a stir this weekend. After all, Dorsey is a former Twitter co-founder and CEO, so his investment of time into the rival social network carried weight. The decentralized social networking service said that it is looking for a new board member. But while we had to
Dorsey leaves Bluesky, tech giants do more with less, and the next IPO Read More »
The downturn in venture capital funding has impacted startups, VC firms, and accelerators alike. One company in the final category, Techstars, has been shaking up its operations for some time now, leading to a number of departures. TechCrunch got curious about what happened, so we dove deep into exactly how it all went down. We
Inside TC’s Techstars investigation and how AI is accelerating disability tech Read More »
Startups are not shying away from big projects. That’s my takeaway from news that The Browser Company’s Arc browser is now generally available for Windows users, just as Island raised a massive grip of capital for its enterprise-focused browser tool. It’s very encouraging to see startups going after core pieces of technology and not just
A new venture capital supergroup is forming Read More »
Hans Tung, a managing partner at Notable Capital, formerly GGV Capital, has a lot of thoughts on the state of venture capital today. With $4.2 billion in assets under management, Notable evolved from 24-year-old cross-border VC firm GGV Capital, and Tung was around when GGV invested in the likes of Affirm, Airbnb, StockX, Square and Slack.
Notable Capital’s Hans Tung on why founders need to play the long game Read More »
We’re off to an AI-heavy start to the week. OpenAI has a new deal with the Financial Times that caught our eye. Sure, it’s another content licensing deal, but there appears to be a bit more in the tie-up than just content flowing one way and money the other. We also dug into the xAI
Musk’s xAI shows there’s more money on the sidelines for AI startups Read More »
You don’t have to be venture-backed to be successful Rubrik’s strong IPO pricing and warm reception by the public markets after its listing add more weight to the perspective that the public markets are not as closed to tech startups as some thought. If Rubrik’s result isn’t enough to break the logjam, well, maybe there’s something else
Good news for Rubrik, bad news for TikTok and medium news for early-stage startups Read More »
