Brex might not be having a good couple of quarters, but there’s sufficient positive news from the world of fintech to offset all the negativity around the sector.
So, yeah, while there has been a stark lack of fintech companies going public recently, capital is flowing into the sector because venture investors are still cautiously optimistic about it.
We can answer that question relatively easily today thanks to a new list compiled by GGV US that highlights 50 fintech startups venture capitalists think are hot stuff.
We also spoke to GGV managing partner Hans Tung, about what he’s seeing in the sector today.
Why does fintech look like it’s stuck in first gear today?
When Anomalo’s co-founders left Instacart in 2018, they thought they could put machine learning to work to solve data quality problems inherent in large data sets.
Five years later, the company’s idea is even more relevant as data quality takes center stage with large language models.
Today, the startup announced a $33 million Series B, equaling their 2021 Series A and bringing the total raised to $72 million, according to the company.
As companies store increasingly large amounts of data in cloud storage and data warehouses like Databricks and Snowflake, this need has only become more pronounced, he says.
SignalFire led the $33 million Series B investment with participation from strategic investor Databricks Ventures.
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This new impediment to securing financing opportunities for BIPOC entrepreneurs is disconcerting.
Confronted with these challenges, angel investors and investment groups that fund BIPOC entrepreneurs must remain committed to keeping vital early-stage capital flowing.
This inherent color blindness removes a structural impediment that blocks minority investing within the conventional venture capital fund structure.
Eleven percent of all campaigns on the platform Honeycomb have been run by Black founders, and SeedInvest has seen 12% of campaigns run by Black founders.
Defining intentionally inclusive criteria in your fund/syndicate may also open the door to additional funding opportunities for BIPOC entrepreneurs.
After a year of people throwing money at AI companies, investors are now looking for startups that are more solid and viable.
That could prove daunting for AI founders: AI is expensive to build and maintain.
SymphonyAI CEO Sanjay Dhawan offers some tips on how to build a strong foundation for a profitable AI startup.
KaryneGenerative AI isn’t a home run in the enterpriseAh, we’ve found the one place that’s slowing down when it comes to generative AI: the enterprise.
According to a Boston Consulting Group survey of 1,400 executives, almost 70% said they’re ambivalent or dissatisfied with the progress their orgs have been making on generative AI.
A slew of consumer tech and companies focused on consumer packaged goods (CPG) have gobbled up venture capital in the past year.
Keychain, Harmonya, Highlight, Ramani, SupplyPike, Vividly and Turing Labs, just to name a few, captured investor attention for their technologies.
That’s because consumers’ tastes constantly change, grocery shelf space is finite and e-commerce takes finesse to cut through the noise.
But why are investors so interested in consumer tech and CPG as an opportunity now?
Oreo is going to need to know whether Oreo A or Oreo B tastes better, and that’s not something that generative AI can spit out.
Investors bring expertise from their prior careers as COOs, CFOs, or other operational roles.
However, navigating conversations with investors in their areas of operational expertise isn’t always straightforward.
I keep the following principles in mind to avoid these pitfalls and get the most out of investors’ operational knowledge and experience.
What would happen if we broke down the percentage of our sales reps hitting 50%, 80%, or even 100% of their quota?
Our numbers looked good on paper, but unless we could democratize sales success, our efforts wouldn’t scale.
It’s been over a decade since the first application for a spot bitcoin ETF was filed.
After a number of denials over the years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved all 11 applications from spot bitcoin ETF issuers, marking a potential watershed moment for the crypto industry and potentially opening the floodgates by making it easier for institutional investors and consumers alike to invest in the biggest digital asset.
The issuers are BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust, WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust, VanEck Bitcoin Trust, Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund, Hashdex Bitcoin ETF and Franklin Bitcoin ETF.
In 2021, BITO, the first bitcoin-linked futures ETF in the U.S., launched and immediately saw a lot of demand during its first year.
It eventually grew to become one of the largest and most traded crypto ETFs., according to ProShares data.
Twilio’s CEO and co-founder, Jeff Lawson, is stepping down from his role and his seat on the company’s board, following months of pressure from activist investors and several quarters of slowing revenue growth.
Khozema Shipchandler, Twilio’s president and a former GE denizen, is taking over as CEO.
While the timing of the move was a surprise, it’s not a massive shock to see Lawson heading for the exits.
Investors have long made clear their discontent with Twilio’s recent performance, and at some point, either the results improve or something changes at the top.
First, activist pressure on companies is not something that can always be ameliorated by a board shakeup or smaller changes to operations.
Pitch, the company behind a collaborative presentation software for businesses, is scaling back and bootstrapping, with CEO and co-founder Christian Reber stepping down and two-thirds of its employees losing their jobs.
This translates roughly to 80 personnel, based on the 120 headcount figure Pitch has published on its about page.
As with just about every other VC-backed startup, Pitch has clearly faced challenging times in terms of maintaining growth and keeping their investors happy.
“Despite having more than 4 years of runway, we know that a sustainable path has a much higher chance of success than the path we were on,” Reber added.
“Going forward, we’ll be a significantly smaller team focused on creating maximum value for our customers and driving sustainable growth.”
