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Ramp CEO: Fintech Startup Primed for Limitless Growth, Says CEO

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Despite all that growth, Eric Gylman, the co-founder and CEO of Ramp thinks that the industry, and companies like his, are just scratching the surface. Glyman and his current co-founder Karim Atiyeh launched their first fintech startup, Paribus, back in 2014. The company raised a mere $2 million before getting snapped up by Capital One. When the team was building Paribus, the generative AI technology to craft the emails was still relatively rudimentary and the rest of the company’s AI technology was built on very simple language models. The startup has raised more than $1.7 billion from venture capitalists and was last valued at $5.8 billion in August 2023.

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.

Virtual Spotlight: Discover the Excitement of the AI World at Nvidia’s GTC 2024 Conference

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Chip giant Nvidia is hosting a massive AI conference as part of its GTC event this week, which kicks off Monday. With a keynote planned from Jensen Huang, CEO and co-founder, of the company best known in year’s past for its gaming hardware and today for its massive market share in the burgeoning AI hardware market, expect Nvidia to make some news. Given how many AI startups and giants alike use Nvidia gear, TechCrunch is expecting quite a lot to shake loose over the next few days. To presage the confab, and detail just why we’re paying such close attention to a single company’s industry event, hit play below. Stick close to TechCrunch for coverage throughout the week.

VCs set to receive liquidity in 2024 through secondary market instead of IPOs

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The secondary market allows for that now.”Stripe’s recent secondary sale is a clear example of this. Leung said that Sapphire deployed roughly $500 million into the secondary market in 2023, and expects to deploy the same if not more into secondary stakes in 2024. But given the maturation of the secondary market, it doesn’t need to thaw before the market is really ready. The secondary market “is playing a huge role,” Leung said regarding companies waiting to go public. [LPs] are not pressuring the GPs to push out their assets, which reduces the demand for the public market.”

“Fluent Metal Makes a Bold Entrance into the World of 3D Printing for Metal”

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Almost a decade ago, Desktop Metal was one of the early darlings in accessible 3D printing in metal. Last year, Stratasys tried to merge with Desktop Metal in a $1.8 billion deal, but the deal fell through, and these days, Desktop Metal is worth less than $210 million. In June 2020, he split off and started his own thing — Fluent Metal — which is taking a different technology path than Desktop Metal’s technology. It accomplishes this through liquid metal printing technology, which it hopes will set a new standard in additive manufacturing. “In the near term, Fluent Metal will spark the imagination of designers, engineers, and technologists to consider how rapid, on-demand production of custom metal parts could transform their capabilities.

“Memecoin Craze Drives Solana to Reach $160 – Its Peak Since January 2022”

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The cryptocurrency passed $160 on Wednesday, marking its highest price since January 2022. So it’s not surprising that the growth and traction on its blockchain is also being transpired through to its token. Since mid-December, a number of Shiba Inu dog-themed tokens on the Solana blockchain like Bonk and dogwifhat have taken off. (Please note none of this is financial advice, but one of the reasons that could point to Solana’s price increase.) Memecoins in general have seen a huge rally as the crypto market continues to thaw from its most recent winter.

“TechCrunch Early Stage 2024: Exploring TAM with Felicis, Quotient AI, and Cellino”

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We’re getting closer to this year’s Early Stage get-together in Boston, which means that it’s time to add three more names to our ever-expanding list of whip-smart speakers coming to present, and answer your most burning questions. Today, I’m stoked to announce that Felicis’s Tobi Coker, Quotient AI’s Julia Neagu, and Cellino’s Nabiha Saklayen will be on-site and ready to rock next month. Regular TechCrunch readers will recall that Cellino won our 2021 Battlefield event. How to calculate TAM is no small question, and it’s too big a topic to fit inside any single acronym. Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024?

Zomato’s Rapid Rise to Supreme Quick Commerce in India with Blinkit

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Even as quick commerce is slowly fading in many markets and several heavily-funded startups have folded in the past two years, India is emerging as a striking outlier where the model remains vibrant. Zomato’s Blinkit leads the quick commerce market in India, having cornered as much as 46% of the market share by GMV in the quarter that ended in December, according to a new analysis. Reliance Retail-backed Dunzo, which pioneered the quick commerce model in India, has virtually lost its entire market share. However, the long-term sustainability of the quick commerce model remains to be seen. Flipkart is weighing entering the quick commerce market by as early as May this year, TechCrunch reported last week.

Moonbird’s Relaxation Gadget Soars Across the Globe

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We had the idea of developing a device — a physical thing — that helps by breathing with you. The device is designed to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation without continuous app connectivity. The device works without an app, so even if the Moonbird company were to disappear, the product itself will continue to work. By focusing on activating the parasympathetic nervous system, the theory is that the device will help users achieve a state of relaxation and calm. “The lack of subscription also means that you can share your device with other people if you want.”

“Record Breaking Bitcoin: Surging to $72,700 Amidst Warnings of ‘Extreme Greed’ in Market Index”

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Bitcoin has increased 9.5% in the past seven days and is up 50% on the month, according to CoinMarketCap data. There is, of course, no way of telling how high bitcoin can rise during the current bull frenzy. The CoinMarketCap Crypto Fear & Greed Index is in “extreme greed” territory at 89.12 points, up from “neutral” at 59.3 points, in early February. The index measures price and trading data of the biggest cryptocurrencies, with its user behavior data to measure crypto market sentiment from 0-100. The last bitcoin halving was on May 11, 2020 and drove its price up about 600% from around $9,000 to $63,000 by the April 2021 mark.