Becoming a venture capitalist has become the latest status symbol In Hollywood. 
Everyone from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson is investing in startups.

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There is a new venture fund in town. Swizzle Ventures, founded by Jessica Kamada, former COO of the marketing agency Bamboo, has raised just over $5 million for its Fund I, according to an SEC filing. There was no target raise amount.  The firm, which quietly opened in 2023, is an early-stage firm looking to […]

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Lerer Hippeau, one of New York's most prolific and A-list VC firms, has filed to raise its ninth fund, according to an SEC filing made Wednesday.

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Doug Schuessler has always been a founder. This passion, which has been with him since childhood, saw him launch two startups, move to San Francisco, and take a job at Square to see what a “real rocket shop looked like.” He later became chief revenue officer at restaurant booking platform Resy, before becoming a founder once […]

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As a dietitian, Vanessa Rissetto’s main goal is to help people stay healthy. She also knew that there were some roadblocks to achieving that. For example, the Black community deals with pressing health concerns, in addition to a disproportionate lack of access to care. More than 80% of registered dietitians in the U.S. are white, […]

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Penny Jar Capital is the early-stage firm founded by Bryant Barr and Richard Scudellari and where basketball star Stephen Curry serves as a special advisor.

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Jay-Z’s venture capital firm, Marcy Venture Partners, has merged with another Black-owned investment firm, Pendulum Holdings’ investment arm Pendulum Opportunities, to form MarcyPen Capital Partners, a MarcyPen spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. The newly formed MarcyPen Capital Partners has $900 million in assets under management, according to PitchBook.  MarcyPen’s spokesperson declined to comment further on the […]

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The list includes Elon Musk’s xAI, which is already valued at a staggering $24 billion, as well as a good number of other AI startups.

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Skims co-founder Jens Grede has confirmed that plans for an IPO are on the back burner — for now at least, according to a new interview with WWD.  TechCrunch reported in August that investors were hoping for the retail darling, last valued at $4 billion, to go public, and the Information reported that the earliest […]

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Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital, announced Friday that her role at the firm she started in 2015 will evolve.  “After 12 years of being deeply involved in the day-to-day operations, I’ve decided to transition into a chairperson and advisory position,” she wrote in a statement released online. She was previously a managing partner at […]

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These startups have fascinating new technologies, business models, founder stories or are pushing an industry forward in exciting ways.

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Audrey Djiya and Peter Nsaka always wanted to be founders.  Djiya’s parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all entrepreneurs, and even as she took a consulting job after college, she kept an idea journal, documenting the problems she saw and the potential ways technology could help solve them.  “Growing up watching family members move goods cross-border, […]

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The next generation of New York City investors are already making their mark in the Big Apple.  They come from big-name venture firms like Female Founders Fund and Lerer Hippeau and smaller ones like Chai Ventures. They work in areas like growth, consumer, and health. They canoe, hike, and play pickleball on the weekends. We […]

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Former NBA Lakers star Metta Sandiford-Artest (formerly known as Metta World Peace) has teamed up with Stephen Stokols, the former CEO of Boost Mobile, to launch Tru Skye Ventures, a firm looking to invest in sports and health tech, according to Sportico.  The firm wants to raise $100 million and cut its first formal check […]

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To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. Tamar Eilam has worked at IBM for the past 24 years. She’s currently an IBM fellow, serving as chief scientist for […]

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The nonprofit organization 1863 Ventures, which focused on providing capital and mentorship to early-staged underrepresented founders, will close and become a for-profit entity called New Majority Ventures, according to its founder Melissa Bradley. The new organization will rely on a fiscal sponsor and is said to be in talks with Tides Foundation for this role.  […]

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Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner are looking to raise $10 million for a new business called Khloud, according to an SEC filing.  Per the filing, which was listed on Tuesday, the company started raising last month and has already raised $4.49 million. Trademark filings show that earlier this year, trademarks affiliated with Khloud were filed […]

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What do Tim Cook, Jay Z, and Fred Ehrsam (co-founder of Coinbase) all have in common?  That would be their interest in Frère, a bespoke ready-to-wear clothing brand that has attracted names all over the tech world. The brand, which only launched in March, is opening its first store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. Frère […]

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Cleo Capital, the early-stage venture fund that counts the AI firm Groq, fintech company Ellevest, and fashion brand Hill House as investments, has announced the launch of a new cybersecurity accelerator. The program is looking for pre-seed and seed companies from all around the world. The accelerator is a remote, 12-week program, with a standard […]

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Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player for the Milwaukee Bucks, launched a venture capital firm called Build Your Legacy Ventures that will focus on sports and entertainment investing, according to Bleacher Report. Antetokounmpo will serve as general partner. The fund was “not just about capital; it’s about forging partnerships and opening my network to accelerate the growth […]

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