Equity Monday: Byju’s raises more money, somehow, as tech stocks fall

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here. I also tweet.

Sorry that the show is so delayed today, it’s utterly my fault. Regular service returns Wednesday, and we’ll make sure to not be late on a Monday again this year! Here’s what we got into on the show:

• Tech shares are falling in America in a larger domestic selloff — but once again we’re seeing high-valued technology stocks lose the most ground. Software companies are having a particularly rough morning.
• The Facebook whistleblower situation remains the biggest news item in the technology world this morning, dominating aggregators and conversation. Precisely what comes next isn’t clear, I reckon, but Facebook shares haven’t lost enough ground yet to be a worry for the firm; that could change with another few days’ declines, however.
• What else was on our mind? Apple’s epic gaming profits, new AI guidelines from China and data concerning just how much money semiconductor startups are raising. It’s more, but is it enough?
• Byju’s raised $300 million, this time at an $18 billion valuation. Its upcoming IPO will help set the tone for global edtech valuations.
• Ladder raised $100 million, proving that the insurtech market is still active. Sure, shares of public insurtech startups have taken a pounding in recent quarters, but there’s still plenty of private capital ready to make bets on the market.
• And the Vision Fund 2 is even more Vision Fund-y than we anticipated!

Chat soon!