Page 25 - Extra Crunch News Today

Why one Databricks investor thinks the company may be undervalued The recent Databricks funding round, a $1 billion investment at a $28 billion valuation, was one of the year’s most notable private investments so far. For Databricks signaled its IPO readiness by disclosing to TechCrunch last year that it had scaled its revenue run rate from $200 million to $350 million in a year, so the new capital looked like the capstone on its private fundraising before an eventual public debut. But I did ...

The big story: Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO Amazon announced today that founder Jeff Bezos will be transitioning from CEO to executive chair in the third quarter of this year. Andy Jassy, currently the CEO of Amazon Web Services, will be taking over as chief executive for the entire company. In an email to employees, Bezos said that this will allow him to devote more time to “Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and [his] other passions.” Jassy, mea...

Venture capital is going to get even bigger, faster and more expensive this year Looking back, looking ahead The venture capital market has skewed later and larger in recent quarters, something you might have felt in the rapid recent pace of new unicorn formation. December was a hot month for new unicorns, for example. So was January. February likely will be more of the same. Powering those unicorn births are huge rounds led by large funds. In 2020, for example, there were at least 97 global fi...

Bumble IPO could raise more than $1B for dating service Is there room in the market for more dating products? On the heels of private companies Robinhood and Databricks eachraising $1 billion or more yesterday, Bumble is out with a new IPO filing this morning indicating that it wants to raise 10 figures as well. The relationship-finding service where women reach out first will go public on the heels of strong public debuts in December by companies like Airbnb, DoorDash and C3.ai with Qualtrics...

8 Miami-area investors assess America’s southernmost tech ecosystem There’s a lot of potential for this city, but Rome wasn’t built in a day The exodus out of San Francisco and New York is making a big impact on Miami, a city that’s been steadily growing into a tech hub over the last 15 years. We’re seeing a “moment” in Miami, but many are hoping — and working — to turn it into a movement. In late January, Softbank Group International announced a $100 fund directed at Miami’...

Welcome Tage Kene-Okafor, Mary Ann Azevedo, Sophie Burkholder and a guy named Drew There are some additions to the TechCrunch team that I’m happy to announce. First, Kirsten Korosec, who has been with us for more than two years, was promoted to Transportation Editor. Kirsten has done amazing work, helping to elevate our foothold in the transportation space and making our Mobility events some of the most successful we’ve produced. This means that not only will she continue to hunt for scoops...

5 ways Robinhood’s rushed UX changes exacerbated the GameStop crisis The GameStop debacle has been hailed by many as a first of its kind form of digital activism, with the “crowd” coming together to stick it to Wall Street, and specifically hedge funds that are in the business of short selling. However, what if you’re a startup or scale-up caught in the middle of such an unprecedented and unstoppable set of events, requiring you to make rapid business and product decisions almost seemin...

Robinhood’s Q4 2020 revenue shows a return to growth Its why investors were willing to put in another $1B last week Deeply funded fintech company Robinhood has been the world’s most discussed startup over the last week. After the discount trading pioneer found itself in the midst of a battle between hedge funds on one side and a slurry of retail and institutional capital on the other, Robinhood’s trading volume spiked last week. But after the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC...

The big story: Robinhood raises $1B I know the newsletter has been dominated by Robinhood and stock market news for the past few days but, well, so have the headlines. The latest news is that after reportedly tapping its credit lines, Robinhood raised $1 billion in new funding from existing investors. It seems the company needed the money in order to meet regulatory minimums and other requirements tied to users’ trading activity. Meanwhile, the SEC has issued a statement that doesn’t specif...

Reddit co-founder on GameStop: ‘The collective public cannot unsee this’ When Robinhood, a startup that promises to make finance accessible for all, temporarily limited trading on GameStop, AMC, and other memestocks, many retail investors were pissed that the fintech darling suddenly didn’t live up to its name. The specific reasons may have been short-term and technical, but the choice looked corrupt to the average person. Here’s why: The presence of a massive hedge fund as a main Robin...