Natasha Mascarenhas
The Latest from Natasha Mascarenhas
Boston startups expand region’s venture capital footprint
This year has shaken up venture capital, turning a hot early start to 2020 into a glacial period permeated with fear during the early days of COVID-19. That ice quickly melted as venture capitalists d
Chinese live tutoring app Yuanfudao is now worth $15.5 billion
Yuanfudao, a homework tutoring app founded in 2012, has raised $2.2 billion from investors, surpassing Byju’s as the most valuable edtech company in the world. The Beijing-based company is now w
Quibi is dead
Plagued with growth issues, Quibi, a short-form mobile-native video platform, is shutting down, according to multiple reports. The startup, co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, had raised
Founders don’t need to be full-time to start raising venture capital
“More than 50% of our founders still are in their current jobs,” said John Vrionis, co-founder of seed-stage fund Unusual Ventures. The fund, which closed a $400 million investment vehicle in Nove
Unusual Ventures’ Sarah Leary and John Vrionis join Extra Crunch Live now
Today at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT, Unusual Ventures’ Sarah Leary and John Vrionis are joining us over at the Extra Crunch Live stage! The Unusual Ventures team has investments spanning the consume
Are VCs cutting checks in the closing days of the 2020 election?
Before the 2016 election, Vice Ventures founder and general partner Catharine Dockery was bullish about the future of recreational cannabis in the United States. “We saw quite a bit more optimis
Ready Set Raise, an accelerator for women built by women, announces third class
In 2018, Leslie Feinzaig, the founder of Female Founders Alliance, launched a free, equity-free accelerator for women called Ready Set Raise. The goal was to provide under-networked female founders th
Three views on the future of media startups
The Equity crew this week chewed through a trio of media stories, each dealing with private companies and their successes. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Axios was growing rapidly and
Startup founders set up hacker homes to recreate Silicon Valley synergy
“We joke that we’ve got so many people in the house that have different pieces of expertise that you just yell down the hallway if you have a problem."
Getaround raises a $140 million Series E amid rebound in short-distance travel
Amid a rebound in short-distance travel, Getaround, a Silicon Valley car rental startup, has raised some new money to meet demand. The startup, which allows customers to instantly rent cars near them
Coa wants to bring an emotional workout into your fitness regimen
When’s the last time you worked out your soul? A mid-spin pep talk at SoulCycle might make you shed a tear, but not in the way that the co-founders of Coa, Alexa Meyer and Dr. Emily Anhalt, want. Th
Discuss the unbundling of early-stage VC with Unusual Ventures’ Sarah Leary & John Vrionis
This year has been everything but business as usual for the venture and tech community. And we still have a presidential election ahead of us. So, why not listen to the aptly-named experts over at Unu
With thousands of subscribers, The Juggernaut raises $2 million for a South Asian-focused news outlet
As paid newsletters grow in popularity, Snigdha Sur, the founder of South Asian-focused media company The Juggernaut, has no qualms about avoiding the approach entirely. In October 2017, Sur started T
With $2.7M in fresh funding, Sora hopes to bring virtual high school to the mainstream
Long before the coronavirus, Sora, a startup run by a team of Atlanta entrepreneurs, was toying with the idea of live, virtual high school. The program would focus on student autonomy and organize its
What if the kernel is corrupt?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s VC-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week, Alex is on a much-deserved vacation (but not from T
Duolingo CEO explains language app’s surge in bookings
Language learning apps, like many educational technology platforms, soared when millions of students went home in response to safety concerns from the coronavirus pandemic. It makes sense: Everyone be
New program wants to be the Y Combinator for emerging fund managers
Rolling funds, the rise of solo capitalists, crowd syndicates and team-based seed funds all scream one thing in unison: venture capital is growing and getting unbundled at the same time. While the ass
Equity Monday: Palantir might have a very eventful hump day
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 big
Alexis Ohanian files for a new $150M fund, with a nod to his Olympian family
According to an SEC filing, Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and early-stage VC firm Initialized Capital, is raising a new fund, named 776, with a target of $150 million. The filing comes thre
The first rule of BookClub? No boring book clubs.
Book clubs can be magical. Bring together a group of friends, tear apart a book and all of a sudden the words have a second, paperless, life. But what if the author could join in the banter? Imagine r