#venture-capital

#venture-capital

Independently and immediately, a flood of people reached the same conclusion: This had to be a mistake. It was the summer of 2017, and as word spread that Mamoon Hamid was joining venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, some people wondered if it was a joke, or "fake news." And they didn't hold back. "I got calls from friends in the venture business, other GPs [general partners], asking: 'Are you sure this is happening? Is this real?'" Hamid recounts.

While Bitcoin treads water to start 2026, sentiment for other niches in crypto has soured even more-especially DePIN, or decentralized physical infrastructure. Tokens for the decentralized cellphone service Helium and the decentralized mapping network Hivemapper, for example, are near all-time lows. Still, some investors remain bullish on the concept, including the upstart venture firm Escape Velocity, which has raised $61.74 million for a second fund to back founders in DePIN and crypto more broadly.

Outtake, founded in 2023 by a former Palantir engineer, Alex Dhillon, has found a way to automate what has largely been the manual problem of spotting and taking down digital identity posers: impersonation accounts, malicious domains posing as the company's, rogue apps, fraudulent ads, and more. This problem has grown even more difficult because AI has enabled attackers to be more convincing and faster in their efforts.

"You can have as much money as you want to pour into the algorithm and buy ads," Kaplan told Business Insider. "But if you don't have the right founder who's able to build a community and the attention that you need to build a real product that people want, all of that money ... is meaningless."

where visionary founders showcase AI-driven innovations designed to create meaningful, positive impact. This event spotlights startups leveraging artificial intelligence, deep tech, and frontier technologies to solve real-world challenges and transform industries for the better. Selected startups will pitch live to a distinguished panel of venture capitalists and technology leaders, sharing their mission, traction, and measurable impact in a fast-paced, interactive format.

The latest venture capital, seed, pre-seed, and angel deals for NYC startups for 1/20/2026 featuring funding details for Verse Gaming, Cosmos, and much more. This page will be updated throughout the day to reflect any new fundings. Cosmos - $15M Series A CREATIVE TECH Cosmos, a platform for creatives to discover, save, and organize visual inspiration, has raised $15M in Series A funding led by Shine Capital and Matrix. Founded by Andy McCune and Luca Marra in 2021, Cosmos has now raised a total of $21M in reported equity funding.

As part of OpenAI's defense against Musk's lawsuit, Altman addressed rumors about restrictions in OpenAI's 2024 funding round. While he denied that OpenAI investors were broadly prohibited from backing rivals, he did acknowledge that investors with ongoing access to OpenAI's confidential information were told that access would be terminated "if they made non-passive investments in OpenAI's competitors."

Jenny Xiao, who cofounded Leonis Capital in 2021 after a stint at OpenAI, said the current investment excitement around AI is far behind the actual research. "There is a massive disconnect between what researchers are seeing and what investors are seeing," Xiao said on the Fortune Magazine podcast this week. What's being discussed at the biggest AI conferences is as much as 3 to 5 years behind what researchers are thinking about, Xiao said.

A fierce dispute between an American venture capital firm and the family investment office of a Russian billionaire has trickled down into the Bay Area. In December and January, four local biotech companies with stakes in the battle each filed for bankruptcy. The argument pits New York's Apple Tree Partners, a biotech-focused venture investor, against Rigmora, an investment entity owned by the family office of Dmitry Rybolovlev, who made his billions in the Russian fertilizer industry.

It was the most chaotic two weeks of my life," Sumer told Business Insider, adding that at one point, she told her then-fiancé that wedding planning would be left to him, and she'd just show up to get married.

Ben Horowitz is a big fan of tiny teams. On an episode of the A16z podcast, the Andreessen Horowitz cofounder shared how his venture capital firm maintains a lean operation despite being one of the world's largest. "An investing team shouldn't be too much bigger than a basketball team," he said, referring to advice he got from famed American investor David Swensen in 2009. He added, "A basketball team is five people who start, and the reason for that is the conversation around the investments really needs to be a conversation."

Presence CRM integrates contact data, communication history, website activity and third-party information to monitor changes such as property ownership records, employment updates and other indicators that may signal a future real estate transaction. The system is designed to generate suggested outreach and prioritize contacts based on those signals, the company said. Luxury Presence said Presence CRM will be included across its platform offerings and is scheduled to begin rolling out in early 2026.

You could think of us a lot like a climate tech fund, but instead of thinking about, where can we emit less carbon dioxide or avoid emissions in the first place, we're doing the same thing for nature loss,

Most executives wobble at the thought of controversy. Marc Andreessen embraces it. The venture capitalist and cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz has been a lightning rod for Silicon Valley, voicing his opinions loudly and publicly. That includes drawing a fair share of backlash - something he seems unfazed by. "Generally speaking, the more out there we are, and the more outspoken we are, and the more controversial we are, the better for the business," Andreessen said on " The A16z Show."

The haul represents over 18% of all venture capital dollars allocated in the United States in 2025, according to firm co-founder Ben Horowitz, but even more jaw-dropping is that it brings the organization to more than $90 billion in assets under management, putting it neck-and-neck with Sequoia Capital as among the largest venture firms in the world. Which is fitting, since a16z appears to be very friendly with actual sovereign wealth funds, including at least one from Saudi Arabia.

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.

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