#venture-capital

#venture-capital

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.

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.

There is a very good set of investment opportunities here,

The AI gold rush these days is littered with abandoned enterprise projects, with humans - not the technology itself - being blamed for high failure rates of AI projects. Recent data indicates that stagnant AI projects were often the result of poor vision, mismanagement, and a lack of resources. Eagerness from the top to become "AI-first" companies is also putting pressure on C-suite execs and other IT decision-makers who might not have the budgets, systems, or tools for success.

The latest venture capital, seed, pre-seed, and angel deals for NYC startups for 11/19/2025 featuring funding details for Venn, Deduction, and much more. This page will be updated throughout the day to reflect any new fundings. Venn - $52M Series B Venn, an operating system for multifamily property management, has raised $52M in Series B funding led by noa and CIM Group. Founded by Chen Avni and Or Bokobza in 2016, Venn has now raised a total of $152M in reported equity funding.

Produced by The Legaltech Fund, the first venture capital firm devoted exclusively to legal tech, it is a conference I previously dubbed the Davos of legal tech for the fact that it brings together leaders from across disciplines to engage in open and unfettered dialogue about the state and future of legal innovation. As someone who has attended all four summits, I've had a front-row seat to its evolution.

Corporate investing may sound like something that only happens behind closed boardroom doors, but quite simply, it's about making smart financial decisions. Companies invest in order to strengthen their future, balance their risk, and create more profit. Whether it's placing money in stocks, real estate, or cutting-edge tech, the goals of being resilient and profitable stay the same. Most businesses have been looking beyond the more traditional investment routes and into emerging areas. These are areas that include sustainability, green energy, and digital assets.

According to a recent blog post, the San Francisco-based a16z launched an internal branding and marketing arm called the "New Media team" several months ago in order to provide founders with "the legitimacy, taste, brandbuilding, expertise, and momentum they need to win the narrative battle online." This team will embed itself within portfolio companies when necessary, per the blog post.