Venture fund founder sues PayPal, alleging racial discrimination

PayPal is being sued by the founder of venture firm Andav Capital, Nisha Desai, who claims she was excluded from the payment giant’s diversity and equity program because she is Asian, according to a suit filed this week.  In 2020, PayPal made a $530 million commitment to support more Black

Peter Thiel-backed venture debt firm Tacora raises $268.7M for new fund

Tacora Capital, a Texas firm that specializes in venture debt, has raised $268.7 million for its second fund, according to a new SEC filing. Tacora’s inaugural fund in 2022 raised about $350 million, including $250 million from Peter Thiel — the prominent Republican billionaire and investo

Accel closes $650 million for new India fund

Accel has raised $650 million for its eighth India fund as the U.S. venture firm expands its investment strategy in the South Asian market. The new fund follows the firm’s seventh India fund secured in March 2022. Accel — which has backed companies including e-commerce group Flipkart,

Bench shuts down, leaving thousands of businesses without access to accounting and tax docs

Bench, a Canada-based accounting startup that offered software-as-a-service for small and medium-sized businesses, has abruptly shut down, according to a notice posted on its website.   “We regret to inform you that as of December 27, 2024, the Bench platform will no longer be accessib

GV, the VC team backed by Google, has a broad remit, but it can’t do one thing

David Krane is in an enviable position. As the CEO of GV, the venture firm that is funded entirely by Google to the tune of $1 billion a year, his team of roughly 100 gets to make a lot of bets — with just a couple of notable restrictions. During a technewss StrictlyVC event in San Francisco ea

Hollywood angels: Here are the celebrities who are also star VCs

Becoming a venture capitalist has become the latest status symbol in Hollywood.  Everyone these days, from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson, is either launching a venture firm or is in the process of backing the next hottest company. Robinhood, Uber, and Klarna all have some glitzy names on their

Swizzle Ventures raises $5M for inaugural fund addressing women’s health and wealth

There is a new venture fund in town. Swizzle Ventures, founded by Jessica Kamada, former COO of the marketing agency Bamboo, has raised just over $5 million for its Fund I, according to an SEC filing. There was no target raise amount.  The firm, which quietly opened in 2023, is an early-stage fir

Energy Revolution Ventures’ $18M fund lays a bet on ‘new chemistry’ startups in energy and hydrogen

What happens when a chemical engineer, who's previously built a hydrogen-powered drone, becomes a venture capitalist? Energy Revolution Ventures (ERV), that's what. The VC has now closed an $18 million seed and Series A fund to invest in deep tech, such as energy storage, carbon capture, an

‘Genius Girl’ goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund

On the weekend, as most students were stumbling back from the bars, Songyee Yoon was rushing across her South Korean campus. Around dinner time, she would run some programs on her college's supercomputer and then, as the computer chugged through her program, she'd wait sleepless in her dorm

Menlo Ventures and Anthropic have picked the first 18 startups for their $100M fund

Just five months after announcing a new $100 million fund called Anthology Fund, Menlo Ventures and Anthropic have backed their first 18 startups. And they are looking for more. Menlo says these first 18 were selected from thousands of applicants. They include startups working on recruiting softwa

Felix Capital's Julien Codorniou to join 20VC as general partner

Just a few weeks after 20VC announced its third investment vehicle, technewss has learned from multiple sources that the relatively new VC firm based in London is gaining a new general partner. Julien Codorniou is leaving Felix Capital, where he has been a founding advisor since 2015 and a partner

‘It’s dumb to IPO this year’: Databricks CEO explains why he’s waiting to go public

Databricks just closed one of the largest funding rounds ever, raising a staggering $10 billion in fresh capital. Naturally, technology investors were quick to ask what this means for the company’s highly anticipated IPO. During an event in San Francisco on Tuesday night, Databricks CEO Ali G

Insight VC describes Databricks’ wild $10B deal and the bad advice the CEO ignored

It's been a wild week for investors clawing their way into Databricks’ record-breaking $10 billion fundraising, one of the VCs leading the deal told technewss. “There were calls that went well late into the night, and that’s okay, that’s how good opportunities emerge,”

Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners merges with investment arm of Pendulum Holdings

Jay-Z's venture capital firm, Marcy Venture Partners, has merged with another Black-owned investment firm, Pendulum Holdings’ investment arm Pendulum Opportunities, to form MarcyPen Capital Partners, a MarcyPen spokesperson confirmed to technewss. The newly formed MarcyPen Capital Partn