#venture-capital

#venture-capital

too many powerful, wealthy people in venture act like it's OK to break the law and systemically underpay and abuse their employees.

Menlo has elevated Carrillo, its general counsel and only in-house lawyer, to partner after nearly six years with the firm - a rare distinction inside a venture fund. Carrillo's promotion suggests the role of the legal department is shifting in the venture industry. Carrillo said she's at the table for weekly partner meetings where they pitch deals and bat around ideas.

We're not going to be using iPhones in 10 years,

Universities and research labs have long been Europe's deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated into a solid startup funnel worth $398 billion - and VC money is following. According to Dealroom's European Spinout Report 2025, 76 of these deep tech and life sciences companies have either reached $1 billion valuations, $100 million in revenue, or both. These include unicorns like Iceye, IQM, Isar Aerospace, Synthesia, and Tekever, which are now inspiring more funds to back university spinouts.

They are creating their own financial ecosystem, and there is enough actual momentum in current AI efforts that I don't see the hyperscalers pulling back in 2026, Tom Chi, founding partner at At One Ventures, told TechCrunch.

2026 will be a year of reckoning,

When I was younger, at 8, I loved building things. I started coding very early. Then I turned 12, I did this entrepreneurship program, and I got really into it. I kept trying to build these companies, these little side projects, but nothing took off. Eventually, I realized a really important thing you need to have is knowledge. I knew nothing about tech or venture capital. I decided to learn everything the best way I could, which is by talking to the most knowledgeable people.

With venture capital pouring into artificial intelligence, retail startups are struggling to compete for funding. PitchBook has tracked $396 million worth of VC deals in retail through December 19 of this year, down from a recent peak of $7.6 billion in 2021. In the age of AI, new companies are under more pressure to prove their value to VCs. Founders are saying that the enormous fundraising seen during the pandemic has subsided in 2025.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is once again under fire this time because her husband Tim Mynett's $25 million venture capital firm, Rose Lake Capital, purged key officer details amid growing questions about the couple's wealth and Minnesota's ongoing welfare fraud investigations. According to her latest financial disclosure in May, the couple's net worth surged 3500% in just one year; their net worth is now anywhere from $6 million to $30 million. The venture capital firm alone, per the filing, is worth between $5 million-$25 million.

Founders must prove to VCs they have more than just traction; they need a distribution advantage. Investors are digging deeper into repeatable sales engines, proprietary workflow/processes and deep subject matter expertise that holds up against the 'capital arms race'. VCs no longer care about who's first to market with a flashy demo. They want to know who's building something that can last, earn trust, and scale long-term.

Longevity - or living healthier for longer - is a hot topic, drawing millions of readers to Business Insider and driving billions of dollars of investment worldwide. It's easy to see why the promise of a medical fountain of youth is enticing to both the average person and those peddling snake oil, looking to make a quick buck. That's why Business Insider is launching its Rising Stars of Longevity list, to celebrate and acknowledge those in the longevity space outpacing their peers with meaningful, impactful work.

2025 saw a welcome surge in healthcare venture funding as investors rushed to back top AI startups. Last December, VCs predicted huge funding rounds for AI scribe startups like Abridge and Ambience Healthcare; indeed, both Abridge and Ambience landed hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding this year. Investors also said in December 2024 that they anticipated a race for those startups to expand beyond AI health scribing into other product lines, like medical coding and billing.

Advertising giants like Publicis, WPP, and Omnicom aren't the only companies deploying roll-up strategies and shaking up influencer marketing. Humanz, an Israeli influencer marketing platform that expanded to the US in 2024, is going "full acquisition mode" through 2026, CEO Liran Liberman said in an interview. The company exclusively told Business Insider that it recently raised $15 million from an undisclosed group of venture capital investors to fuel several M&A deals.

PSV Hafnium's successful final close is a strong signal for deep tech innovation in Denmark and the Nordics. The pace at which new research-driven technologies are emerging from DTU's laboratories has never been higher, and the need for early-stage capital that dares to back initial scientific breakthroughs is critical. PSV Hafnium embodies this mission when helping researchers translate frontier research into global solutions. DTU is proud to have initiated and supported the fund from its inception, as early-stage funding is a

Spinny, an Indian online marketplace for used cars, is raising around $160 million as it moves to acquire car services startup GoMechanic, TechCrunch has learned. The Series G round, which includes a mix of primary and secondary transactions, would value the 10-year-old startup at about $1.8 billion post-money, three people familiar with the matter said, broadly in line with its previous valuation.

Bailey Baumbick traded a career as a national security consultant to build tech solutions for the challenges she saw at the Pentagon. Elias Rosenfeld left a job in social impact consulting to start a career aimed at revitalizing America's industrial base. Lee Kantowski spent eight years in the Army before switching to defense tech, where he hopes to fix the military's outdated tools.

The way venture capitalists think about fund-raising can be a black box. But investors must think about their go-to-market strategy for raising their own funds, just as much as they think about how their portfolio companies find their market fit. All season on Build Mode, we've explored how founders should approach marketing, but this week we're exploring how VCs sell themselves to founders as trustworthy partners, and to LPs as worthwhile investments.

"We are living through one of the most profound technological revolutions in history, and one of the toughest tests of investor discipline,"

The Invest in Women Taskforce has surpassed its fundraising ambitions in a major boost for female entrepreneurship, announcing that it has now convened £635 million in commitments, more than double its original £250 million target set at launch in 2024. The milestone includes confirmation that Nationwide and the British Business Bank will join Barclays and M&G as anchor partners in the targeted £130 million first close of the groundbreaking Women backing Women Fund of Funds, subject to final terms and approvals.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Vulcan Elements - a tiny startup of 30 employees that specializes in producing rare-earth magnets used in drones, radars, and other pieces of military equipment - has scored a $620 million loan from the Pentagon as part of "a $1.4 billion deal to increase the supply of magnets for industries alongside partner ReElement Technologies."

The venture capital world has a liquidity problem. With IPOs scarce and M&A exits few and far between, investors have been stuck in positions for years, unable to return capital to their LPs or move into new opportunities. But while traditional exit doors have stayed shut, technology has opened up new ones-specifically, platforms that make it possible to create and trade Special Purpose Vehicles at scale, something that used to require armies of lawyers and fund administrators.