Venture

Keep up with the latest venture capital trends, including information about VCs, VC-backed startups, and investment trends that tech founders and investors should be aware of.

“Saudi Arabia Pledges Additional $1 Billion to Lucid Motors in Quest for Affluent Electric Vehicle Customers”

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Lucid Motors is raising another $1 billion from its biggest financial backer, Saudi Arabia, as it looks to blunt the high costs associated with building and selling its luxury electric sedan. The fresh funding comes just a few weeks after Lucid told investors that it only plans to build around 9,000 of its Air electric vehicles this year, a slight bump over last year’s output. It lost $2.8 billion in 2023 and finished the year with just shy of $1.4 billion in cash and equivalents. Lucid also plans to start building its electric Gravity SUV at the end of this year. Lucid announced the investment less than three weeks after CEO Peter Rawlinson told the Financial Times that he was wary of relying too heavily on Saudi Arabia to keep shoveling money into its proverbial furnace.

1991 London Ventures Becomes Newest Addition to VC Network Targeting Ukrainian Startups

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1991 Ventures is the brainchild of Ukrainian brothers Denis and Viktor Gursky, who are better known for running incubation and accelerator programs inside Ukraine. The Gursky brothers previously backed over 200 startups between 2016 and 2024, via their incubator Social Boost and their 1991 Accelerator. Startups backed to date include LegalTech startup AXDRAFT; European toll payment app eTolls; and cybersecurity company Osavul. Finally, TA Ventures is perhaps the best known and most active Ukrainian VC internationally, headed up by the almost-ubiquitous Viktoriya Tigipko. Of course, many of the tech companies Ukraine will produce in the forthcoming years are likely to be either ‘dual-use’ or related to defence.

“Breaking Records: Discover the $700M SAFE, the Resurgence of IPOs, and Crossing Boundaries with a Cutting-Edge Venture Fund”

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A $700M SAFE, IPOs are back, and how one venture fund is transcending bordersHello, and welcome to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Friday episode, in which we dig through the most critical stories from the week and chat through new and emerging themes. This week we had Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex aboard. Becca of course is one of the two hosts of TechCrunch’s Found podcast, which talks to founders about how they built what they did, and how they did it! Today on Equity, however, here’s what we got into:We are back Monday with more!

“UK Launches Comprehensive Investigation on Three and Vodafone’s Proposed $19B Merger”

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The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed that it’s launching a formal “phase 2” investigation into the planned merger between Vodafone and Three UK. The CMA says that the deal could lead to higher prices for consumers, while also impact future infrastructure investments. However, the CMA has given both parties a token five working days to address its concerns with “meaningful solutions” before it formally progresses the investigation. Such a scenario is precisely why the U.K. introduced the National Security and Investment Act back in 2022, with previous form in blocking deals between U.K. entities and Chinese companies. “This case has more moving parts than the CMA’s other recent big decisions, and is arguably more important for the U.K. economy,” Smith said.

€300M Climate Fund Seeks Follow-On and Supports Hardware: World Fund’s Inaugural Closure

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If you’re looking for comparisons, Norrsken VC is a $130 million impact VC that covers climate, while Demeter Partners last raised a €250 million fund focused on climate. World Fund is also backed by pension funds including the UK Environment Agency Pension Fund, Wiltshire Pension Fund, and Croatia’s Erste Plavi. World Fund has completed its raise during a war in Europe, interest rate rises, and jittery LPs. In 2023 there was over $20 billion raised by European climate tech startups, almost matching the previous year, and bucking declining trends in other sectors, according to Dealroom. The U.K., Sweden and Germany led for total climate tech VC in 2023 but Iceland, Lithuania and Bulgaria showed notable growth.

“Uncovering the Art of VC Pitching: A Deep Dive with Wing Venture’s Sara Choi at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024”

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Crafting the perfect venture capital pitch is so simple that there’s an industry of consultants to help founders get their decks in order. TechCrunch has a long-running series of Pitch Deck Teardowns to help founders, and you can find an infinite number of Twitter threads on the subject. Enter Wing Venture Capital’s Sara Choi, who will give a talk at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 this April and take audience questions on how to pitch. After all, when venture capital is harder to raise than it has been in years, nailing the pitch is critical for today’s early-stage founders. Early Stage 2024 is just around the corner, so book your pass here before March 29 and save $200.

Microsoft Delivers a ‘Favorable Outcome’ for Inflection AI Venture Capitalists, Fulfilling Reid Hoffman’s Pledge

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The big cloud vendors have all already lined up with other chatbot partners: Microsoft with OpenAI, Google and Amazon with Anthropic; Cohere picking up assorted others like Oracle and Salesforce. If and when Inflection ever perfected Pi on its enormous AI infrastructure, the race looked to be already lost. Despite close ties with OpenAI, Microsoft also has many reasons to be needing a backup for it’s all-important AI gambit. There are so many red flags with OpenAI that Microsoft is wise to wean its dependence. Then again, just like Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, we wonder if regulators will also have something to say about this deal.

“Crossing the Atlantic: Frontline Ventures Secures $200M to Support B2B Companies in Europe and US”

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Giant Ventures in January closed two new funds totaling $250 million that it will invest in startups on both sides of the Atlantic, and today, TechCrunch has learned exclusively that Frontline Ventures has also raised $200 million across two funds, named Frontline Growth and Frontline Seed. Frontline has historically invested in both Europe and North America, and its new funds will continue to follow that strategy, betting on B2B software companies. The new seed fund will favor European ventures, while the growth fund will focus on U.S. startups. Expansion roadmapO’Donnell told TechCrunch that when it helps portfolio companies navigate expansion to another market, Frontline focuses on four aspects: timing, go-to-market strategy, talent, and organizational design and location. That’s by order of importance, and a company’s location should be a derivative of the previous three aspects, O’Donnell said.

“Unveiling Silence: A Cutting-Edge Climate Tech VC Fund With $35 Million”

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Silence wants to shake things up when it comes to climate tech investment. This new angel-style VC firm has already raised $35 million and plans to make dozens of small investments in climate startups to help them apply the tech startup playbook. He also founded Merlin, an hourly jobs marketplace in the U.S.With Silence, Borja wants to apply his experience to climate investment. A silent partnerSince the first close of the fund in June 2022, Silence has already invested in 22 different companies. So we told them ‘we’ll be your lead,’” Borja said.

“Candela’s Ferries Experience Electrifying Growth with $25M Injection of Funds”

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Electric boat maker Candela is approaching cruising speed with $25 million in new funding and the first commercial deployment of its new P-12 ferry, in New Zealand. The P-12, a ferry design that can handle up to 30 passengers, made its debut late last year. Like any other industry, you have to know when to buy and when to build, and big boating companies are happy to buy — or invest. Candela’s boats use hydrofoils with electric engines mounted on the bottom to effectively fly above the surface of the water once they get past a certain speed, vastly reducing energy consumption — historically and understandably a sticking point for electric boating. Theh $25 million round was led, as mentioned, by Beneteau, with participation from EQT Ventures, Ocean Zero LLC, and Kan DelaAB.