sequoia capital
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Instacart raises $400 million at a $3.4 billion valuation to deliver groceries on demand
Grocery delivery startup Instacart has raised $400 million in a new round of financing at a valuation of $3.4 billion, according to sources familiar with the deal. Axios broke news that Instacart was in talks to close the deal last week. Instacart executives declined to comment for this story. However, Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta confirmed the deal, tweeting out a company blog post… Read More
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Chinese photo-sharing app Kuaishou planning U.S. IPO later this year
We’re hearing from sources that Kuaishou — a hot photo-sharing application in China — is planning to go public in the U.S. later this year. Sources tell us the app has more than 40 million daily active users against 100 million monthly active users, and was most recently valued at around $3 billion. The app is in some ways similar to Instagram, with photos (some of which… Read More
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Sequoia Capital has quietly announced a leadership change-up, with partner Jim Goetz taking a step back
Prominent venture firm Sequoia Capital has famously handled well its transitions from one powerful team of investors to the next. Founder Don Valentine handed the reins over to Doug Leone and Michael Moritz earlier than he might have planned, then continued attending partner meetings for another 10 years. (The partners say they were happy for his continued advice and guidance — not that… Read More
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Strange new lawsuit against longtime investor Michael Goguen gets dropped
Early last month, we told you about a bizarre new lawsuit involving longtime venture capitalist Michael Goguen, whose career at Sequoia Capital ended early last year after he was sued in a salacious breach of contract suit that accused him of sexually mistreating a woman named Amber Baptiste, then refusing to honor an elaborate financial arrangement they’d made. Baptiste and Goguen… Read More
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Zipline raises $25 million to deliver medical supplies by drone
Zipline International Inc. has raised $25 million in a Series B funding round to expand its humanitarian delivery drone business in Rwanda, the U.S. and beyond. The startup builds drones and runs delivery services, dropping crucial medical supplies to clinics or hospitals in areas that aren’t accessible by land. Recently, TechCrunch visited Zipline’s headquarters in Half Moon… Read More
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Jess Lee of Polyvore joins Sequoia Capital as its 11th investing partner
Sequoia Capital has brought aboard Jess Lee as its eleventh investing partner in the U.S., becoming the firm’s first senior female U.S. investor in its 44-year-old history. Lee was a former Google product manager turned CEO of the fashion site Polyvore, which was acquired for $230 million in cash by Yahoo last year. She had stayed on with Yahoo, which is now being sold, maybe, to… Read More
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Carbon raises $81 million for international expansion of its rapid 3D-printing tech
Large manufacturers of high-tech products, from luxury vehicles to elastomers and resins, have lined up to invest in and partner with Carbon (formerly known as Carbon 3D) the Redwood City, Calif. company known for its rapid, 3D-printing technologies. The three-year-old startup added $81 million in venture funding to its Series C round from strategic investors, including BMW Group, GE, Nikon… Read More
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Orbital Insight lands $20 million from investors, led by GV
Orbital Insight, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based geospatial big data company, has just raised $15 million in Series B funding led by previous investor GV, with participation from CME Ventures and earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital, and Bloomberg Beta. Together, with an investment and development agreement from In-Q- Tel (the CIA’s venture arm), the company… Read More
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Qualtrics makes a small acquisition — its first
Qualtrics, a Provo, Utah, company whose online survey research platforms help 8,500 enterprise customers better understand both their employees and their customers, has made its first acquisition, picking up four-year-old, San Francisco-based Statwing. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, but Statwing’s three-person team is relocating to Qualtrics’s Seattle office and… Read More
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A lending case involving top VCs moves toward a trial
Elevate, a venture-backed company that uses big data to assess loan applications from people with low credit scores, has been called out as a predatory lender, including in Fortune last year. One reason among others is that the APR on some of its loans is a stunning 349 percent. Yet the company’s predecessor, Think Finance, which was founded in 2001 and quietly spun out Elevate into… Read More
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Why DoorDash has to strike a balance between profitability and growth
DoorDash CEO Tony Xu says the company is cash-flow positive in some of its early markets — but the company still has to invest in its growth. That’s the reason the company raised $127 million in a new venture financing round. But it wasn’t without hiccups: DoorDash reportedly wasn’t able to get the $1 billion valuation it was looking for, and had to settle for a… Read More
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Drawbridge raises $25M as it takes its cross-device tech beyond advertising
Drawbridge, a startup that helps businesses identify when a single person is using multiple devices, has raised $25 million in Series C funding. Every time I write about Drawbridge, I’m contractually obligated to mention that the company is backed by two of the best-known venture capital firms, Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. For this round, Drawbridge went back… Read More
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Meet your Disrupt NY Startup Battlefield final round judges: John Borthwick, Charles Hudson, Alfred Lin, Susan Lyne, Matthew Panzarino and Alan Patricof
Choosing this year’s Disrupt NY Startup Battlefield winners will be a tough job. There is an exceptionally strong and unique group of young companies competing in Startup Battlefield next week with 20 companies showcasing their innovative solutions to solving important and critical issues. Thankfully, we have an experienced team of entrepreneurs and investors to help judge the… Read More
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DoorDash’s Tony Xu and Sequoia’s Alfred Lin will join us at Disrupt NY
DoorDash, for better or worse, has become an example of the 2016 VC funding environment. After reportedly failing to raise at a $1 billion valuation, the company had to settle for a flat round. So what happened, and how will it affect the company going forward — and other companies in the on-demand space, too? So we’re excited to announce that DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, along with… Read More
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Longtime Facebook VP Mike Vernal joins Sequoia Capital
Mike Vernal, a Facebook VP who has spent the last eight-plus years at the company, most recently leading its search, profile, local and developer platform product groups, is leaving the company to become a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital. Before joining Facebook, Vernal spent nearly six years at Microsoft, first as a product manager and later as a development lead. The Harvard grad… Read More
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Apply now for Include Office Hours with Sequoia Capital
TechCrunch Include Office Hours are happening on April 15th! Bryan Schreier and Bill Coughran from Sequoia Capital will join TechCrunch to provide valuable advice and feedback to startups. Launched in 2014, Include is TechCrunch’s diversity program, aimed at facilitating opportunities for underrepresented groups in tech to take their startups to the next level. The Office Hours program… Read More
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How Goguen’s Case Hurts Sequoia
A week ago yesterday, we told you that longtime Sequoia partner Michael Goguen had been slapped with a stomach-turning complaint. At its crux, it accused him of breaching an agreement he’d made to pay $40 million to a woman he’d known for years. Apparently, after paying her $10 million, Goguen concluded that he was within his rights to stop writing her checks. The woman then hired… Read More
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Michael Goguen’s counter-complaint calls accuser an “exotic dancer” who was “looking for a payday”
Michael Goguen, the longtime venture capitalist who was asked to leave Sequoia Capital following a stunning breach of contract complaint, has just filed a counter complaint in San Mateo County Court that proposes the accusations against him are a myth. In reaction to claims that Goguen sexually and emotionally abused a woman named Amber Laurel Baptiste for more than a decade, and then failed… Read More
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