Founders Fund
Startups that paused fundraising are starting to get back into the game, but these are shaky economic times and most founders will be coming back to a different world altogether.
Belvo scores $10M from Founders Fund and Kaszek to scale its API for financial services
Belvo, a Latin American fintech startup that launched just 12 months ago, has already snagged funding from two of the biggest names in North and South American venture capital. The…
Virtual events startup Run The World just nabbed $10.8 million from a16z and Founders Fund
Run The World, a year-old startup that’s based in Mountain View, Calif., and has small teams both in China and Taiwan, just nabbed $10.8 million in Series A funding co-led…
Featured Article
Big VCs stacked billions in Q1 while smaller firms saw their haul shrink
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. After spending perhaps more time than we should have recently trying to figure out what’s going on with the public markets, let’s return to the private markets this morning, focusing in on venture capital itself.…
Homeschooling startup Primer raises $3.7 million seed round led by Founders Fund
As parents across the country are tasked with managing their children’s schooling amid a pandemic, investors are betting on a homeschooling startup that’s aiming to provide parents with services that…
Trillions are at stake in the retirement wars, and Vise nets $14.5M from Sequoia to manage it
The retirement wars are heating up. As millions of baby boomers leave their jobs in the coming years and transition into retirement, there is a huge competition for who will…
Workstream, a platform for deskless work, raises $10 million to serve local businesses
Deskless workers make up 80% of the global workforce, but to Desmond Lim, that job title is his entire world. Lim grew up in Singapore and saw his father wake…
IRL, the recently pivoted calendar app that aggregates live virtual events, has today launched a web version of the platform. The company, which has $11 million in funding from Goodwater…
Trade Republic, a German Robinhood, raises $67M led by Accel and Founders Fund
In the U.S., Robinhood has led the charge in upending the stock investing model through its mobile-first, minimal-step, commission-free trading platform. Now a startup out of Germany built on a…
Cyan Banister leaves Founders Fund for Long Journey Ventures
Cyan Banister is leaving Founders Fund to become a member of a new early-stage investment and operations-focused firm called Long Journey Ventures. The move, first reported by Axios, brings Banister…
A look at Made Renovation, which just raised $9 million in seed funding to zero in on bathroom remodels
Made Renovation, a new, San Francisco-based company, thinks it has found a profitable way to help homeowners get done something that busy general contractors in the Bay Area won’t otherwise…
Founders Fund confirms $3 billion in new capital across two funds
Founders Fund, the investment firm led by its controversial co-founder Peter Thiel and partners Keith Rabois and Brian Singerman, has closed on $3 billion in new capital across two investment…
Eight Sleep CEO says his startup is more than a mattress company
Matteo Franceschetti, CEO of Eight Sleep, would prefer that you don’t call his startup a mattress company. Eight Sleep does sell mattresses, albeit smart ones packed with sensors and temperature…
Practice Fusion, once backed by top VCs, pushed doctors to prescribe opioids in kickback scheme
Practice Fusion, a medical records startup that attracted more than $150 million from VCs, including at Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins and Artis Ventures, has received its share of negative press…
Teller raises $4M to take on Plaid in the US by providing API access to bank accounts
“They’re idiots, they’re really naive,” is how Stevie Graham, the co-founder of fintech Teller, once described Open Banking Limited, the body charged with delivering open banking in the U.K. His…
Zinier, a startup that is bringing automation to the field service management realm, announced today that it has raised $90 million in fresh funding as it looks to tackle new…
St. Louis-based Summersalt raises $17.3 million for its direct-to-consumer clothing line
The Midwest may not be known as the fashion capital of the world (or even the U.S.), but its place in the consumer retail firmament is secure through L Brands…
Omni storage & rentals fails, shutters, sells engineers to Coinbase
$35 million-funded Omni is packing up and shutting down after struggling to make the economics of equipment rentals and physical on-demand storage work out. It’s another victim of a venture…
Featured Article
Placement is the much-needed talent agent for jobseekers
“We’re giving away money to strangers on the internet” is a pretty cavalier pitch for a new startup. But the more I learned about Placement, the smarter it sounded. In exchange for 10% of your income for 18 to 36 months, Placement will find you a much higher paying job, prep you for the interview…
Remrise raises $8.2M to deliver tailored, plant-based sleep solutions
Sleep is big business. Casper, Leesa and a dozen other mattress companies have driven the point home in recent years. It’s something we all want, but none of us are…
VC Cyan Banister on who decides what at Founders Fund (and much more)
Cyan Banister is an American success story. A homeless teenager who originally supported herself by making hemp necklaces, then silk-screen T-shirts, she went on to become a self-taught engineer and…
Ghost wants to retrofit your car so it can drive itself on highways in 2020
A new autonomous vehicle company is on the streets — and unbeknownst to most, has been since 2017. Unlike the majority in this burgeoning industry, this new entrant isn’t trying…
Scanwell Health launches smartphone tests for UTIs in partnership with Lemonaid Health
Companies continue to refine digital diagnostic tools for in-home healthcare at a rapid clip. The latest to launch is an at-home test for urinary tract infections from the Los Angeles-based…
Modern Animal raises $13.5 million to make going to the vet suck less
Modern Animal just raised a $13.5 million seed round of funding to fuel its mission of offering pets, humans and veterinarians a better experience. Led by Founders Fund, with participation…
Koio, the high-end sneakers brand led by Chris Wichert and Johannes Quodt, has today raised an additional $6 million in Series A funding, bringing total Series A funding to $9…
The founder of one of 2019’s most buzzworthy startups is putting on his VC hat.
Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann on ‘choppy’ public markets, competitors and more.
Arceo.ai raises $37 million to expand cyber insurance coverage and access
Critical cyber attacks on both businesses and individuals have been grabbing headlines at an alarming rate. Cybersecurity has moved from a background risk for enterprises to a critical day-to-day threat…
Readying an IPO, Postmates secures $225M led by private equity firm GPI Capital
Postmates is expected to unveil its IPO prospectus this month.
SexTech, Kobalt, sales efficiency, philanthropy and ethics, Brexit, and startup growth tactics
Tech startups want to destigmatize sex Sex, despite being one of the most fundamental human experiences, is still one of those businesses that some advertisers reject, banks are hesitant to…
