Author: TechBrunch
The war in Ukraine served as a call for European awakening, and defense technology went from a sector where most European VCs did not touch on one of the top investment areas of deep technology. The shift was filmed in Dealroom's latest report on European Defense, Resilience and Security (DSR) and was released along with the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF). This is a hundred million euros initiative that provides direct investment and support funding in the sector. NIF's portfolio includes startups such as Portugal-based dual-use drone company Tekever, which raised a $74 million Series B in November. The tally shows…
If you follow Fintech on X, it's very likely you've come across the account of Sheel Mohnot, co-founder and general partner of Better Tomorrow Ventures. With over 150,000 followers, Mohnot has built an impressive presence on social media sites. Interestingly, many of his posts have nothing to do with venture capital. Mohnot launched Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV) after co-founding several companies, including Feefighters, which was sold to Groupon in 2012. Under $300 million management, BTV focuses on pre-seeding and seed stage investments for fintech startups. It also operates the accelerator, Mint. Since its launch in November 2019, BTV has supported…
According to people close to the company, the Founders Fund is on track to sign a third growth fund fund at the end of March. The costumes belonging to Peter Thiel have raised $3 billion, TechCrunch and Axios also reported, sources said. Funds that are primarily intended to invest additionally in successful late stage portfolio companies are expected to be significantly oversubscribed. Founders Fund's previous $3.4 billion growth fund closed in early 2022 and is fully invested in companies like Rippling, which raised $200 million in April. The Founders Fund is also leading Anduril's latest pay raise, with a round…
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we are considering fintech heavyweights like Klarna and Stripe incorporating Crypto into their strategy. This is a company planning IPOs such as Super Bowl ads for IPOs, Stripe's new startups and venture capital. Subscribe to our list of TechCrunch's biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8am. Big story Image credit: Klarna Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski posted in a post on February 8th that he and Klarna “accept Crypto” in X's post. According to the Financial Times, Swedish Shopping Now is Swedish Purchase Now. That's about a third…
Venture capitalists gobbles term sheets for startups that exercise artificial intelligence, but when it comes to funding a wider range of technology, they're doing fussy things. According to new figures from Analytics Firm Dealroom, the AI startup raised $110 billion last year. At the same time, private companies across the technology spectrum (startups and scale-ups) raised $227 billion in 2024, down 12% from 2023. Image credit: deelroom (screenshot) Dealroom founder Yoram Wijngaarde has been analyzing and counselling in the tech industry for decades. Marketplace had a barnstorming moment in the late 1990s and early 2000s in terms of investor attention,…
The Philadelphia Eagles will face New Orleans' Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday evening for Super Bowl weekend. Many people tune into the Super Bowl for real football, while others do so for halftime performances, harmonizing with the ads alone. This year's ad roster includes many of the names you'll expect to see at the Super Bowl, from beer companies like Budweiser and Coors to snack companies like Doritos. You will also see some ads from a few startups. For startups, especially those with limited cash flow and venture capital investors, spending the millions needed to grab an ad slot in…
Consumer demand for alternatives to Big Tech's social apps is intensifying. Alternative social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon are gaining momentum with those looking to leave X, while others are building alternatives to Tiktok, which are banned by open protocols. Similarly, many independent developers are also working on an open, decentralized alternative to Instagram, the Meta flagship photo sharing app with over 2 billion active users each month. While none of the newcomers are ready to match the size and range of meta, their ability to carve out small niches in the shadows of meta is compelling. They are also…
Apple has released a new app called Invites, designed to make it easy to create custom invitations for events on your iPhone or the web. Invites is Partiful for the popular invite app Apple that won the best Google Play app of 2024. With Invites you can create and share invitations, contribute to events, share albums, and curate event soundtracks. You will need an Icloud+ subscription to create an invitation. This costs 99 cents per month. However, anyone can use RSVP, whether they have an Apple account or an Apple device. This post will show you the process of creating…
Elon Musk recently said he “hasn't munched a bit to get Tiktok.” Musk made these comments in an interview at the Welt Economic Summit on January 28th. The video of the interview was released today. The interview comes after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring the sale of Tiktoc ordinances to be banned in the US. At the time, there were reports that the Chinese government had accepted transactions to acquire apps by Musk (a major Trump alliance). Trump told reporters he wants to see Musk and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison win Tiktok. He also signed an executive order…
Just six months after Defense Tech Anduril raised a massive $1.5 billion round of $15 billion, it is valued at $14 billion, raising another $2.5 billion, up to $28 billion We are discussing the evaluation. Naturally, this agreement is not led by the Founders Fund. Anduril's founder Palmer Luckey is the face of the company, but he nominated five men as co-founders, among his founder's partner Trae Stephens. Founders Fund has been an Anduril investor from the start and led the seed round in 2017. He also co-led to Anduril's 2024 fundraising. The previous round was to help Andrill pay…