Blockchain cybersecurity startup OpenZeppelin this morning announced a $23 million investment in Forta, a security service aimed at smart contracts. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which OpenZeppelin CEO and co-founder Demian Brener described as 3x oversubscribed. The investment also attracted capital from Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures and Blockchain Capital, among others. Per Brener, OpenZeppelin will […]
Warby Parker makes it clear that direct listings are unicorn-friendly
Warby Parker not only listed, but did so at a price point that was above its final private-market valuation, and its shares appreciated rapidly during its first day of trading.
What Amplitude’s direct listing says about IPO pops (and how startups can avoid them)
If you care about the value of private companies and how they are priced, this is for you. If you do not, please read anything else; you are going to be bored out of your socks.
Will rising interest rates scupper the startup surge?
Investor and entrepreneur Anshu Sharma — formerly a partner at Storm Ventures, now CEO of privacy-focused SkyFlow — asked on Twitter today about the connection between interest rates and technology valuations: Ignore the compliments; Sharma was merely trying to bait Jeff and me into engaging with his question. Which worked, as you can tell. Sharma […]
Can direct listings really fix the IPO pricing problem?
Even if you are tired of IPOs, the direct listings from Amplitude and Warby Parker warrant your attention.
Equity Monday: Instagram pauses youth product as Amplitude, Warby Parker prep public offerings
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You […]
And the winner of Startup Battlefield is…
Natasha and Mary Ann and Alex were all aboard this week under the guidance of Chris and Grace, along with TechCrunch’s Neesha Tambe. Neesha is one of our best and is the leading light of the Startup Battlefield event at our yearly Disrupt conference. That made her the perfect guest — that’s precisely what we discussed on the show today. From a tight […]
It turns out fintech is worth as much as SaaS
The lesson appears to be that revenue growth matters more than near-term margins for fintech companies, allowing them to secure valuations that far surpass their final private marks.
Really, this market isn’t good enough?
Klarna’s CEO says he’s ‘nervous’ to take the company public. But the public market for BNPL companies actually feels pretty strong at the moment.
Freshworks’ valuation could crest $10B in upcoming IPO
Freshworks now expects to charge between $32 and $34 per share in its debut, up from the $28 to $32 per-share range that it initially disclosed.