Friday, November 22

Tag: Small Business Financing

Extension Rounds Push Venture Capitalists to Collaborate
12Dec By adminNo Comments
World

Extension Rounds Push Venture Capitalists to Collaborate

Dec. 12, 2023 6:00 am ET|WSJ ProVenture capitalists are leaning on relationships with their peers to pull off extension rounds—financing that can help safeguard a startup’s valuation during down markets.These deals often happen without standard fundraising pitches, meaning venture investors need to hash out terms among themselves. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More
Pro Take: Venture Investors Move the Goal Posts for Seed-Stage Companies
4Dec By adminNo Comments
World

Pro Take: Venture Investors Move the Goal Posts for Seed-Stage Companies

Dec. 4, 2023 6:00 am ET|WSJ ProVenture capitalists focused on backing companies at the seed stage—the earliest chapter of startup investing—broadly say they have become pickier about which startups they are willing to back, yet another sign of how the venture industry’s slowdown is affecting companies previously insulated from the choppy environment. Nascent startups must clear a higher bar for metrics like annual recurring revenue and customer acquisition to attract investors, who also say they are reviewing more deals before committing. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More
Crypto Entrepreneurs Are Pivoting to AI. Here’s One Founder’s Experience.
7Nov By adminNo Comments
World

Crypto Entrepreneurs Are Pivoting to AI. Here’s One Founder’s Experience.

Nov. 7, 2023 6:00 am ET|WSJ ProIn 2021, at the height of the investor frenzy for crypto startups, entrepreneur Chris Horne raised $2 million in seed funding for Filta, a marketplace on which customers could buy and sell custom nonfungible token face filters that could digitally augment their face, say, by adding cat whiskers or a block head. But by the time the company launched in late summer of 2022, enthusiasm for crypto had waned and Filta was faltering. So Horne pivoted to the new hottest sector: artificial intelligence. He ditched the NFT idea, and this year relaunched Filta as a generative AI-powered digital pet, one that talks and can offer its owner emotional support. The technology behind his new company is OpenAI’s large language model, ChatGPT. And Horne is running his new Filt...
Read More
Tech Giants Spend Billions on AI Startups—And Get Just as Much Back
4Nov By adminNo Comments
World

Tech Giants Spend Billions on AI Startups—And Get Just as Much Back

Updated Nov. 3, 2023 1:41 pm ETAmazon, Google and Microsoft have spent the past year investing billions of dollars in artificial-intelligence startups—while also charging those fledgling companies a similar amount to use their cloud platforms.The deals are making the big tech firms the largest backers and most direct beneficiaries of these startups, reflecting how some of the AI boom’s biggest rewards keep going to the most powerful players. The value of the tech giants’ stakes could shoot up if the startups take off. And if not, they still will have turned chunks of cash into revenue. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More
Tech Giants Spend Billions on AI Startups—And Get Just as Much Back
3Nov By adminNo Comments
Technology

Tech Giants Spend Billions on AI Startups—And Get Just as Much Back

Updated Nov. 3, 2023 1:41 pm ETAmazon, Google and Microsoft have spent the past year investing billions of dollars in artificial-intelligence startups—while also charging those fledgling companies a similar amount to use their cloud platforms.The deals are making the big tech firms the largest backers and most direct beneficiaries of these startups, reflecting how some of the AI boom’s biggest rewards keep going to the most powerful players. The value of the tech giants’ stakes could shoot up if the startups take off. And if not, they still will have turned chunks of cash into revenue. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
27Oct By adminNo Comments
World

Health Care Roundup: Market Talk

The latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.1351 ET – Venture-capital investment in biotechnology startups continues to slide from its 2021 peak, but that isn’t a reason to think innovation will suffer, says Kevin Eisele, managing director, equity capital markets for investment bank William Blair. As biotech investment surged from 2018 to 2021, many similar companies emerged to pursue the same drug targets, he says. Now fewer quick-follower companies attract attention as investors target more-differentiated companies. Moreover, investment in healthcare venture-capital funds remains robust. U.S. healthcare VCs had raised $13.7 billion as of midyear, putting 2023 on pace to nearly match the record $2...
Read More
Visa, Mastercard Want a Slice of Africa’s Mobile Money
19Oct By adminNo Comments
Money

Visa, Mastercard Want a Slice of Africa’s Mobile Money

Updated Oct. 19, 2023 12:01 am ETListen to article(2 minutes)JOHANNESBURG—African fintech companies have found creative ways to help the continent’s consumers spend their money. Traditional payments companies want in.Global payment giants, including Mastercard and Visa, are pouring billions of dollars into African companies that have powered a sharp expansion in e-commerce on the continent. Recent deals have focused on mobile-money operators, which allow users to send funds using simple cellphones, and platforms that facilitate such payments for merchants such as Uber Technologies, Netflix or Estée Lauder without relying on credit cards or bank accounts.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More
Visa, Mastercard Want a Slice of Africa’s Mobile Money
19Oct By adminNo Comments
Money

Visa, Mastercard Want a Slice of Africa’s Mobile Money

Oct. 18, 2023 11:00 pm ETListen to article(2 minutes)JOHANNESBURG—African fintech companies have found creative ways to help the continent’s consumers spend their money. Traditional payments companies want in.Global payment giants, including Mastercard and Visa, are pouring billions of dollars into African companies that have powered a sharp expansion in e-commerce on the continent. Recent deals have focused on mobile-money operators, which allow users to send funds using simple cellphones, and platforms that facilitate such payments for merchants such as Uber Technologies, Netflix or Estée Lauder without relying on credit cards or bank accounts.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More
Digital Startup Convoy Is Winding Down Its Freight Business
18Oct By adminNo Comments
World

Digital Startup Convoy Is Winding Down Its Freight Business

Digital freight startup Convoy, a business founded by former Amazon.com executives that has drawn a star-studded lineup of tech investors, has suspended operations and is winding down its core business as it seeks alternatives that may include selling its technology, according to people familiar with the matter. Convoy, which raised $260 million in a funding round last year that valued the business at $3.8 billion, on Wednesday told employees in an email that it would stop accepting shipments until further notice and that it was rescheduling or canceling existing loads.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Read More