capital

Skyflow Secures Additional $30 Million Amidst AI-Driven Surge in Privacy Industry Growth

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The deal is interesting on a number of fronts including the round’s structure and how Skyflow has been impacted by growth of AI. The new capital comes after Skyflow expanded its data privacy business to support new AI technologies last year. (In its latest news dump, Skyflow said that it expanded its support of China and that market’s particular data rules.) This Skyflow round slots neatly into several trends we’ve observed recently. The explosive growth in AI is creating healthy businesses for LLM infrastructure and support companies.

Byju’s granted permission to proceed with crucial EGM by India’s tribunal court

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Byju’s secured favorable outcomes in two court hearings Thursday, paving the way for the embattled edtech startup to move ahead with the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for Friday. The National Company Law Tribunal refused to stay on Thursday Byju’s planned EGM to increase the authorized share capital for the $200 million rights issue. The matter will be heard again on April 4, but as the lawyer representing the estranged four investors of Byju’s warned, once the authorized share capital has been increased, it cannot be reversed. Separately, the Karnataka High Court said Thursday it will only hear the case where the investor group seeks to remove Byju’s founder and chief executive Byju Raveendran from the firm after two months. The rights issue is crucial for Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, as it seeks to tap the $200 million it has already received from a set of investors, including Raveendran.

: “UK Stuns New York with Lavish Event to Attract American Venture Capitalists – TechCrunch Recap”

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The UK threw a splashy event in New York this week to woo more American VCs Welcome to the new UK: the Unicorn KingdomA 3-D hologram, dubbed the Ever-Changing Statue, will be on display at the Rise by Barclays workspace in New York until April 4. Dealroom data shows that UK startups raised $31 billion in venture capital in 2022 and $41 billion in 2021. It’s also still more than the $18 billion the UK raised in 2019 and the $12 billion raised in 2018. Between 2009 and 2019, only 38 UK Black founders raised venture capital funding—that number now stands at 80, according to an updated report by Extend Ventures. “The UK tech ecosystem has made significant strides, but work remains to reach the scale and influence of Silicon Valley,” Taylor told TechCrunch.

to the blockchain Web3 Funding Company Borderless Capital Purchases CTF Capital, Combining AI and Quantitative Knowledge for Blockchain Industry

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Borderless Capital, an investment firm that specializes in web3, announced Tuesday that it is acquiring CTF Capital, a quantitative trading and asset management firm headquartered in Miami, with technology and operation teams in Latin America. With this acquisition, Borderless Capital will add AI-infused quant trading expertise to its own business. After combining with CTF Capital, Borderless will have over $500 million in assets under management (AUM). All the existing funds managed by CTF Capital will be merged into Borderless’s Multi-Strategy Fund V LP., launched last year with $100 million under management today. “Borderless already has significant exposure through several portfolio companies from this geography [Latin America].

“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.

“Inflection-Microsoft AI Saga Persists as Astera Labs Goes Public”

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Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, focused on startup and venture capital news that matters. Today we have a grip of startup stories, and a venture capital item that isn’t as bad of news as it seems at first blush. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Here’s the rundown:

LACERA Slashes Venture Capital Allocation Range Due to Market Conditions

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LACERA decreases venture capital allocation range, but experts say it doesn’t signal a trend Analysts say this is likely more of a one-off than a sign that LP interest in venture is waning. The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) voted to decrease its allocation range to venture capital at a March 13 meeting. The board of investments voted to decrease its allocation range to venture capital and growth equity from between 15% and 30% of the pension system’s private equity portfolio, to between 5% and 25%. LACERA’s venture portfolio is currently 10.8% of the PE portfolio. “They aren’t going to cut their venture allocation.

“Telegram Secures $330M in New Capital via Bonds Offerings”

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Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said on his channel today that the company secured $330 million in investment through bond sales last week. “This bond offering was oversubscribed, and we were delighted to have global funds of the highest caliber with impeccable reputations as participants. The maturity for the bonds is either 2026 or when Telegram goes public, whichever is earlier. The chat app, which has more than 900 million users, issued bonds worth $210 million last year. Earlier this month, the company announced that personal users can convert their accounts to business accounts by paying a subscription fee.

“Deconstructing SAFEs, Notes, and Series Seed Financing with Rebecca Whiting at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024”

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Raising capital sounds simple: You hand over shares, investors hand over cash, and everyone then gets back to work. She’s coming to TechCrunch’s Early Stage event next month on April 25 to not only present on early-stage fundraising topics, but also to answer your questions. Early Stage is one of our most popular events, so don’t delay — I’ll see you in April, pen in hand, listening to Whiting. Early Stage 2024 prices go up March 31. Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024?

A Closer Look at VC Strategies: Arjun Sethi’s Mission to Share His Company-Picking Approach and the Success of His Sales

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Arjun Sethi speaks with the confidence of someone who knows more than other people, or else who knows that sounding highly confident can shape perception. Namely, if Termina is so good, why are Sethi and Tribe giving other investment firms a way to better compete? Relatedly, why should other investors trust Termina, which ingests its customers’ data to improve over time? This may prove doubly true given Termina’s ties to Tribe Capital. Among these is Alex Chee, who cofounded MessageMe with Sethi, joined him at Social Capital, and subsequently co-founded both Tribe and Termina with him.