Boulder-based venture firm and accelerator Canopy is raising a $50 million growth-stage fund targeting companies working in the legal cannabis industry. Canopy Ventures I will invest in companies working in the cannabis supply chain, including agtech, retail tech, blockchain software, robotics and biotech. “Many of our investments, if you took away the world “cannabis,” would […]
North American investments in virtual reality took a step back last year as consumers have been slower than expected to adopt VR technology. But investors in the sector remain bullish. A total of 65 companies in Canada and the United States last year raised a little less than $1 billion in venture funding, according to preliminary data […]
Arjun Arora, tapped by 500 Startups a year ago to handle investor relations and head up fundraising, said in a Medium blog post late Thursday that he was leaving. Arora wrote that he plans to take time off to figure out what’s next, but he says he’ll “continue to be engaged in the technology, startup […]
A pair of funds from Insight Venture Partners leads a portfolio of mid-decade venture and growth funds at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The portfolio of 2004 to 2007 vintages is a mix of smaller and mid-sized funds. It employs a multi-stage, or generalist, approach to investing and has two funds of funds. Half […]
Blockchain Capital has added bitcoin software developer Jimmy Song as a venture partner. In his new role, Song, 41, will serve as a liaison between the venture firm and the blockchain developer community, support the firm’s investment research, and lead upcoming programs to foster blockchain innovation, a news release says. “After talking to the Blockchain […]
Joyance Partners has an investment thesis more abstract than that of most early-stage venture firms. Instead of focusing on companies within a particular industry or sector, Joyance invests in companies that produce human pleasure. That includes technologies that leverage genetics, neuroscience, augmented reality, and personalized pharmaceutical chemistry to create experiences similar to those produced by […]
Emergence Capital late last year unveiled a major new investment theme it dubbed “Coaching Networks” and which it believes will fundamentally change software investing. Given the firm’s recent record, it is worth paying attention. In much the way software-as-a-service and cloud tipped the market away from client server, Coaching Networks is to transform enterprise software […]
Podcasting is a tiny market compared with other media, but that just means the growth potential in the digital audio files that users download and listen to, usually for free, is substantial. So says DCM Ventures General Partner Jason Krikorian, who oversaw the firm’s investment last August in ART19, the San Francisco provider of podcast […]
Venture activity in Europe bounced back during the final three months of last year with a big jump in capital coming into funds and a modest rise in investments made. During the fourth quarter, 26 funds raised about $2.8 billion, or a 45 percent jump in capital from the third quarter, according to Dow Jones […]
A proposed bill intended to update the procedures of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has raised concerns from the National Venture Capital Association, which argues the legislation is ambiguous in regard to requirements for venture firms with foreign LPs. The NVCA also said it could damage the U.S. venture sector’s […]