Months after announcing a $3 million pre-seed, the AI networking startup Boardy is back with an $8 million seed announcement led by Creandum.  The company connects users with other people when they call an AI agent who chats with them for a bit and then connects them with others it thinks they ought to know. […]

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined the ranks of those displeased with Meta’s changes to fact-checking and have released a statement saying that the changes “directly undermines free speech.”  “Meta’s changes to its ‘Hateful Content Policies’ do not protect free expression but instead foster an environment where abuse and hate speech silence and threaten […]

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Ben Lerer, managing partner of one of New York’s most prestigious seed-stage venture firms, Lerer Hippeau, shared some predictions with Fortune’s Leo Schwartz. He believes venture firms will continue to see a bifurcation as money pours mostly into top funds like Thrive and a16z, as well as into smaller more bespoke funds.  “Where you go […]

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At 24 years old, Pryce Yebesi already has one exit: selling his crypto invoicing company Utopia Labs to Coinbase for an undisclosed amount.  Some founders don’t just have one company in them. On Monday, Yebesi announced the launch of his new company, Open Ledger, which embeds automated accounting software into products that enterprises and small […]

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Amazon is now the latest company to curb some of its DEI programs, Bloomberg reports, after Meta announced that it, too, is ending its diversity efforts earlier on Friday.  An internal memo that was sent to staffers said that the company was looking to wind down outdated programs and materials as part of a review […]

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Shein is still looking to IPO, Reuters reports. The company is looking to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and could complete its IPO as early as April.  The push for London comes after the company stopped trying to list in the U.S. as lawmakers raised concerns over Shein’s connections to China and labor […]

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Axios reports that Meta is eliminating its biggest DEI efforts, effective immediately, including ones that focused on hiring a diverse workforce, training, and sourcing supplies from diverse-owned companies. Its DEI department will also be eliminated.   In a memo leaked to the outlet, Meta said it was making these changes because the “legal and policy landscape […]

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A new year brings with it hope for a better tomorrow — kind of, at least. In the world of venture capital, nothing is quite predictable. The number of firms in the U.S. has taken a sharp dip as risk-averse institutional investors splash money on only the biggest names in Silicon Valley, as reported by […]

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Andav Capital's founder claims PayPal's program was discriminatory as it sought to exclusively focus on Black and Hispanic-led enterprises.

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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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