Lawrence Aragon

Cake Ventures, a new pre-seed and seed venture firm, has closed its debut fund at $17m to invest in companies creating technologies that address major demographic changes.

On top of excelling in their primary roles, many of this year’s Rising Stars spend significant amounts of time helping to bring underrepresented groups into the industry.

CalPERS has made 18 commitments totaling $2.3bn to venture and growth funds managed by Base 10 Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia, among others.

As the tech sector has soured, so has investors’ appetite for venture funds, according to our annual survey of limited partners.

More than 40 venture capital firms have pledged to invest more than $1.5 billion in Vietnam's start-ups over the next few years.

Linse Capital, founded by former Kleiner Perkins partner Michael Linse, has raised $700m in fresh capital. About $563m of the total will go to Linse Capital Fund I, which will invest in a 'select handful of new companies per year, investing between $100m and $400m in each business over time.'

Fundraising will get harder for VC funds because they compete with other private funds for investors’ PE allocations – and those allocations may get trimmed as fixed income investments become more attractive.

Fifth Wall has closed on $866m for its Real Estate Technology Fund III, which the New York firm says is the largest proptech fund raised to date.

Union Square Ventures, which has invested in 17 climate-related companies in the past two years, has closed on $200m for its second climate fund to keep the dealmaking momentum going.

Braven, an early-stage investor, is led by William Abecassis, founder and former head of BlackRock's Innovation Capital venture group.