Founders Fund
Wellness startup Hims enters the unicorn club with $100M investment
Men and women’s wellness startup Hims has raised $100 million on a $1 billion pre-money valuation.
Valar Ventures plans to raise $350 million across two new funds, according to a pair of SEC documents filed this morning.
More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela
Brud, the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela, is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing the company is currently closing. Meanwhile, new…
Postmates has landed a $100M investment to compete with SoftBank-backed competitor DooDash ahead of an IPO expected later this year.
Synapse raises $6M to bring neural net weapon detection to x-ray machines
With all of the advances made by computer vision tech in the past few years, it might seem a little crazy that so much of the x-ray security equipment being…
VCs back wholesale marketplace Faire with $100M at a $535M valuation
Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures, Keith Rabois of Khosla, Alfred Lin of Sequoia and Alex Taussig of Lightspeed are backers of Faire.
Zizoo, a booking.com for boats, sails for new markets with $7.4M on board
Berlin-based Zizoo — a startup which self describes as booking.com for boats — has nabbed a €6.5 million (~$7.4M) Series A to help more millennials find holiday yachts to mess about taking…
Africa Roundup: Local VC funds surge, Naspers ramps up and fintech diversifies
Africa’s VC landscape is becoming more African with an increasing number of investment funds headquartered on the continent and run by locals, according to Crunchbase data summarized in this TechCrunch feature.…
Men’s wellness startup Hims has launched a line of women’s health products called Hers
Hims has a new women’s brand offering birth control, the ‘female viagra,’ shampoo, skin care and more.
The tactics behind The Athletic’s breakout success in sports subscriptions
Local newspapers may be shuttering and people may be consuming most news on social media, but don’t tell Alex Mather that a subscription news publication can’t grow like a unicorn…
Summersalt raises $6M for its direct-to-consumer line of eco-friendly swimsuits
Founders Fund has led the $6 million Series A for the startup, which plans to use the investment to launch a line of travel apparel.
Synthego raises $110 million to make gene editing technologies more accessible
Paul Dabrowski, the chief executive officer of Synthego, which provides genetically engineered cells to scientists and researchers, worries about a future where access to the genetic technologies that will reshape…
Featured Article
China is funding the future of American biotech
Silicon Valley is in the midst of a health craze, and it is being driven by “Eastern” medicine. It’s been a record year for US medical investing, but investors in Beijing and Shanghai are now increasingly leading the largest deals for US life science and biotech companies. In fact, Chinese venture firms have invested more this…
Last day to buy early-bird tickets for TC Sessions: AR/VR 2018
Holy smokes, TC Sessions: AR/VR 2018 is less than a month away, and it’s going to be an epic, day-long event. But listen up tech fans, the following reality is…
In-car commerce startup Cargo raises $22 million led by Founders Fund
Cargo, the startup that helps ridesharing drivers earn money by bringing the convenience store into their vehicles, has raised $22 million in a Series A round led by Founders Fund. Additional…
TC Sessions: AR/VR early-bird sale extended to Friday
You heard it here first! Early-bird ticket sales are extended till September 28 for TechCrunch Sessions: AR/VR on October 18 at UCLA. Don’t miss out on the biggest savings for…
Early-bird tickets close today, 9/21
TC Sessions: AR/VR on October 18 at UCLA is gearing up to be a great show. Early-bird sales end after today, September 21. Don’t miss out on the biggest savings…
TaskRabbit is kicking off its Canadian expansion in the greater Toronto area before rolling out in Vancouver in October and Montreal sometime in 2019.
HQ Trivia names new CEO and teases upcoming Wheel of Fortune-style game
HQ Trivia co-founder Colin Kroll, formerly the company’s CTO, will take over as CEO. He’s replacing Rus Yusupov, who will now serve as HQ’s chief creative officer. According to Digiday,…
Early-bird sale ends this Friday for TC Sessions: AR/VR in Los Angeles
After Friday, September 21, ticket prices for TC Sessions: AR/VR will jump $100 for the October 18 event hosted at UCLA. Buy your early-bird $99 tickets today before these savings…
Safety and inspection bot startup Gecko Robotics adds $7 million to the coffers
Gecko Robotics aims to save human lives at our nation’s power plants with its wall-climbing robots. To continue doing so, the startup tells TechCrunch it has just secured $7 million…
With our fixation on all things tech, we’re missing out on the big picture — there are actually more biotech and healthcare startup IPOs than tech offerings.
When we look around at some of the Silicon Valley superstars, it’s easy to wonder how they got here. Was it luck? Brute force? Wits? Charm? At Disrupt SF, Founders…
Social planning apps are a dime a dozen, but none have risen to become a mainstay in our digital lives. IRL, founded by Abe Shafi and Scott Banister, is looking…
Some of the top female founders in the U.S. are backing the latest Female Founders Fund
Roughly five years after the launch of its first fund in 2013, Female Founders Fund (F3) has closed on $27 million for its latest seed fund — backed by some of the startup…
I visited a teeth-straightening startup and found out I needed a root canal
Going to the dentist can be anxiety-inducing. Unfortunately, it was no different for me last week when I went to discuss Uniform Teeth’s recent $4 million seed funding round from…
Featured Article
How did Thumbtack win the on-demand services market?
Earlier today, the services marketplace Thumbtack held a small conference for 300 of its best gig economy workers at an event space in San Francisco. For the nearly ten-year-old company the event was designed to introduce some new features and a redesign of its brand that had softly launched earlier in the week. On hand,…
A16Z and Founders Fund sink $28M into IRL asset blockchain Harbor
Harbor helps businesses legally issue cryptocurrency tokens that represent ownership of real-world assets like real estate, fine art, company equity, and investment funds. This “tokenization” might sound boring, but it…
In the middle of testimony over Facebook’s privacy scandal, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas took a moment to grill Mark Zuckerberg over his company’s political loyalties. In the course of…
IfOnly, a marketplace for experiences, has new funding — and a new CEO
IfOnly, a San Francisco-based online marketplace that offers more than 3,000 unique experiences to its adventuresome users, has raised $20 million in Series D funding led by MasterCard, which was…
