Despite fundraising in the middle of a worldwide pandemic that has managed to shut down a significant chunk of global manufacturing, the developer of a metal composite 3D printing technology, Velo3D, has managed to raise $28 million in funding. Over the past fifteen months, the company had bookings of $29 million and revenue of $50 […]
Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions into isolation, video games are seeing a surge in usage as people seek entertainment and social interaction. When we surveyed gaming-focused VCs in October, Andreessen Horowitz partner Jonathan Lai predicted that “next-generation games will be bigger than anything we’ve seen yet,” eventually reaching “Facebook scale.” This month, […]
On the heels of a lively conversation with Precursor Ventures partner Charles Hudson last week, we’re gearing up to chat with Kapor Capital’s Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor in a few hours. Today at 10 a.m. PT, Extra Crunch Live returns for a conversation about maintaining diversity, inclusion and equity during a global pandemic. […]
Identity giant Okta has hired its newest chief security officer, David Bradbury. Bradbury, a security veteran with more than two-decades of security experience who most recently served as chief security officer at Symantec, takes over from Yassir Abousselham, who departed for Splunk in February. Okta chief executive Todd McKinnon said his new direct report will […]
Cloudflare today announced a new partnership with JD Cloud & AI that will see the company expand its network in Chinato an additional 150 data centers. Currently, Cloudflare is available in 17 data centers in mainland China, thanks to a long-standing partnership with Baidu, but this new deal is obviously significantly larger. CloudFlare’s original partnership […]
Checkly, a Berlin-based startup that is developing a monitoring and testing platform for DevOps teams, today announced that it has raised a $2.25 million seed round led by Accel. A number of angel investors, including Instana CEO Mirko Novakovic, Zeit CEO Guillermo Rauch and former Twilio CTO Ott Kaukver, also participated in this round. The […]
Even as oil companies are getting crushed by the collapse of demand for energy in the wake of international shutdowns responding to the global pandemic, investors representing one of the world’s savviest financiers are placing a small bet on electric charging as the future of transportation. Soros Fund Management, the financial investment vehicle led by […]
While human travel has become severely restricted in recent months, the movement of goods has remained a constant priority — and in some cases, has become even more urgent. Today, a startup out of Switzerland that builds hardware and operates a logistics network designed to transport one item in particular — pharmaceuticals — is announcing […]
While Shopify is best-known for powering the online stores of more than 1 million businesses, the company is launching a consumer shopping app of its own today, simply called Shop. The app is actually an update and rebrand of Arrive, an app for tracking packages for Shopify merchants and other retailers, which the company says […]
Pan-African e-commerce company Jumia and B2B agtech startup Twiga Foods are partnering to deliver produce in Kenya using adaptive measures during COVID-19. Jumia offers online goods and services verticals in 11 countries and became the first VC funded tech company in Africa to list on a major exchange, the NYSE. Based in Nairobi, Twiga raised […]
VC firm Partech has raised a new fund focused on seed investments. Named Partech Entrepreneur III, it is the third seed fund from the VC firm. Partech announced the final closing of its previous seed fund in December 2016. The firm is looking for companies at the very early stage, from pre-seed to pre-Series A. […]
Personal Genome Diagnostics, the venture-backed developer of a novel diagnostic kit for genomic profiling of different cancers in lab settings, has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its PGDx elio tissue complete test. The test’s approval is another step forward for precision therapies that rely on an understanding of the unique […]
DJI had to kibosh its usual big unveil this time out, for obvious reasons, but the company won’t let a little thing like a global pandemic get in the way of an announcement. A little over two years after unveiling its lightweight Mavic Air, the drone giant is announcing the sequel. When I reviewed the […]
Online lending firms might be beginning to feel the heat of the coronavirus pandemic in Southeast Asia, but investors’ faith in digital insurance startups remains unflinching in the region. Jakarta-based Qoala has raised $13.5 million in its Series A financing round, the one-year-old startup said Tuesday. Centauri Fund, a joint venture between funds from South […]
The New York attorney general’s office reportedly sent a sternly-worded letter to Amazon telling the company that the measures it has taken regarding the COVID-19 pandemic “are so inadequate that they may violate several provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act,” and firing outspoken workers sends “a threatening message to other employees.” The letter, […]
Lyft’s former COO Jon McNeill has had a fairly storied career as an operator. A Northwestern University economics major who worked at Bain & Co. out of college, he went on to start and sell five companies before being introduced in 2015 to Elon Musk by Sheryl Sandberg and spending 2.5 years as Tesla’s president […]
An emergency room physician for the past 12 years, Dr. Robert Mittendorff joined Norwest Venture Partners eight years ago as a healthcare investor; the firm invests in a number of healthcare startups, including Talkspace, which raised a $50 million Series D last year, and TigerConnect. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, Mittendorff is spending his weekdays […]
Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company have announced their latest film: “Becoming,” a documentary that follows Michelle as she goes on tour to promote her bestselling memoir of the same name. Although the documentary was directed by Nadia Hallgren, it sounds like the film had extensive access to and input from Michelle Obama […]
Ben Horowitz, the co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, won’t seek re-election to Lyft’s board, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Horowitz has served as a board director at the ride-hailing company since June 2016. His venture firm, which he co-founded with Marc […]
