ashton kutcher
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Stoner Cats’ NFTs get smoked by the SEC
It’s been a disastrous week for Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, and it’s only Wednesday. The SEC has charged the Hollywood power couple’s NFT-based web series, “Stoner Cats,” calling the…
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Instagram’s Dual camera feature copies BeReal, but misses the point
We know the drill: Snapchat adds the Stories feature, Instagram nabs it. TikTok gets too popular, Instagram pivots to short-form video. Now, here’s another one for the list. This week, Instagram quietly added a feature to its TikTok-clone Reels called Dual, which lets you record with both your front and back camera at the same…
Today, it’s my pleasure to tear down Forethought’s 23-slide deck that helped it raise a $65 million Series C late last year.
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Cruz Foam’s shell-based Styrofoam alternative brings in $3.4M seed with DiCaprio and Kutcher
Plastic foam like Styrofoam is a ubiquitous, harmful and nearly immortal single-use material that is long overdue for a good, green replacement — and Cruz Foam is here to supply it. The startup creates a durable yet backyard-compostable packing foam out of shrimp shells produced (and discarded) by the seafood industry. It recently extended its…
TikTok star Charli D’Amelio and family back Facetune maker Lightricks
Charli D’Amelio is the most-followed and highest-earning creator on TikTok, but the 17-year-old superstar and her family are now looking beyond their short-term riches from short-form video. Today, the D’Amelio…
Bright raises $15M for its live video platform that lets you learn from top creators
Bright, a live video platform that lets fans engage in live conversations with their favorite creators and celebs, has raised $15 million in new funding, the company announced today. The…
It’s been a wild 2021 for NFT auction marketplace OpenSea. The startup was exceedingly well positioned in a niche space when NFTs exploded earlier this year, seemingly out of nowhere.…
Collective, a back-office platform for the self-employed, raises $20M from Ashton Kutcher’s VC
With so much focus on the “creator economy”, and countries hit by the effects of the pandemic, the self-employed market is “booming”, for good or for ill. So it’s not…
Live video platform Bright lets you Zoom with your favorite creators
What if you could Zoom with your favorite creator and ask them questions? That’s the promise of Bright, the new live video platform launching today from co-founders Guy Oseary and…
Pearpop raises from The Chainsmokers, Alexis Ohanian, Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart, Mark Cuban, Marshmello, and Snoop Dogg
Pearpop, the marketplace for social collaborations between the teeming hordes of musicians, craftspeople, chefs, clowns, diarists, dancers, artists, actors, acrobats, aspiring celebrities and actual celebrities, has raised $16 million in…
The NFT ecosystem is having an explosive moment and the startups that were ready to run with it are getting lots of cash to continue capturing that momentum. SuperRare, an…
NBA Top Shot maker Dapper Labs is now worth $2.6 billion thanks to half of Hollywood, the NBA and Michael Jordan
From the early success of Crypto Kitties to the explosive growth of NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs has been at the forefront of the cryptocurrency collectible craze known as NFTs.…
Titan nabs $12.5M for ‘next generation’ investment management
Titan, a startup that is building a retail investment management platform aimed at millennials, has closed on $12.5 million in a Series A round led by VC heavyweight General Catalyst.…
Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures targets $150M for third fund
Sound Ventures, a fund co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, has filed paperwork indicating plans to raise a third fund at $150 million. Notably, the firm filed paperwork for…
Render, the winner of our Disrupt SF 2019 Startup Battlefield, today announced that it has added another $4.5 million onto its existing seed funding round, bringing total investment into the…
Collaborative enterprise software is absolutely booming, and Airtable is riding that wave in a very real way. The company, which offers a flexible, collaborative database product, has raised more than…
And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt SF 2019 is… Render
Startups participating in the Startup Battlefield have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. They all presented in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech…
Ashton Kutcher, Ann Miura-Ko and Mamoon Hamid are coming to Disrupt!
The Disrupt Battlefield is one of the best parts of the conference. Twenty+ startups step on to the Disrupt Main Stage with a product, a pitch and a dream. They…
In this week’s newsletter: Everything you need to know about the Vision Fund II.
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An inside look at the startup behind Ashton Kutcher’s weird tweets
Guy Oseary’s latest undertaking, Community, nurtures celebrity-fan relationships through text.
LearnLux raises $2M from Sound Ventures, Marc Benioff to help employees make financial decisions
LearnLux offers businesses access to its financial wellness platform, a digital product that helps employees make important financial decisions.
Ne-Yo wants to make Silicon Valley more diverse, one investment at a time
Ne-Yo made his first investment in the coding academy Holberton School about a year ago. This month, he visited the campus for its grand opening and spoke to TechCrunch about…
Ashton Kutcher and Effie Epstein discussed their investment strategy at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. With their VC fund Sound Ventures, they invested in Bird. While they are conflicted on this topic,…
It might feel like ancient internet history, but Ashton Kutcher was the first person to reach 1 million followers on Twitter back in 2009. Effie Epstein and Kutcher came to…
Ashton Kutcher and Effie Epstein to talk Sound Ventures at Disrupt SF
While many celebrities try to invest in the world of tech, very few do so successfully. And no one has proved their worth as celebrity-turned-VC more than Ashton Kutcher. That’s…
Crowd Cow, offering ranch to table meats, picks up $8 million from Madrona, Ashton Kutcher
Most high-end restaurants don’t get their beef from the local grocery store. Well-regarded chefs and restauranteurs build relationships with small farms and family ranchers to procure what’s known in the…
A lot of people ask me how I choose to invest in startups. I’m not proactively funding at different stages. I’m proactively funding brilliant people trying to solve hard problems.
![How [and why] I invest in startups](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/gettyimages-167844639.jpeg?w=1024)
Ashton Kutcher plans to host an open dialogue on gender equality
Actor and startup investor Ashton Kutcher is gearing up to host a “live open dialog about gender equality in the work place and in tech in general.” He plans to…
Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures hires a new managing partner and COO
Sound Ventures, the venture firm founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, has hired a new managing partner and COO. Effie Epstein, who most recently led global strategy at Marsh…
Zenreach raises $30M to help businesses boost their marketing with free Wi-Fi
Zenreach is announcing that it has raised $30 million in Series C funding. Founder and CEO Jack Abraham said that Zenreach is “bringing the online and offline world together.” Specifically,…
