David Bogoslaw

AI agents are catching on for the promise they hold to enable truly autonomous workflows that can free up humans for higher-level tasks.

Socium Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Cox Enterprises, shares the vision behind its second $300m fund.

Stripe's $1.1bn acquisition of Bridge signals more mainstream acceptance of stablecoins among fintech players, especially those eyeing scale-up opportunities in developing markets.

Venture investors are bullish about AI agents, which are said to "achieve near-human cognition in many areas" and are expected to be adopted quickly in the enterprise.

Mountside Ventures’ new accelerator program is the first in Europe specifically geared to emerging VCs, who are struggling to secure commitments from limited partners.

CRV says valuations are too high to justify continued investment from its opportunity fund, but other VCs say they are still seeing plenty of good follow-on deals.

Since its launch in 2012, the firm has backed a host of iconic companies, including Zoom, Twitter, Square, Coinbase and Palantir.

The $865m fund will be invested by a new growth team led by former TCV general partner Shalini Rao and including alumni of Bessemer Venture Partners, EQT Group, Insight Partners and Bond.

"When firms like TPG are coming in to provide the finance for the facilities, that's a market signal that these projects are bankable" says Robert Ethier of Impact Science Ventures.

In an effort to raise a debut fund, one firm has reduced its minimum LP commitment, set up a mechanism to accept donations and held a poker tournament for potential LPs.