Venture Capital coverage.

Founders share VC horror stories, and some are naming names

A massive viral conversation sharing VC horror stories has taken place this week on X. Some are weird. Some are infuriating.…

Benchmark raises its first-ever growth fund as part of $2B capital raise

The legendary abandons its more than 20 year tradition of keeping its funds to about $425 million.…

'Disrupted or dead': AI is crushing a generation of startups built before ChatGPT

The AI boom that has funneled more than $250 billion into OpenAI and Anthropic has left hundreds of startups built before ChatGPT's arrival in 2022 stranded.…

Variant raises $222 million for new fund with a thesis of AI, crypto and ‘autonomy’

A VC who helped Andreessen Horowitz design its early crypto strategy has big ideas on the next era of decentralization.…

High growth startups are full contact sports

Time zone math isn't a competitive advantage.…

How to make the Startup Battlefield Top 20 — and what every company gets regardless

Every founder who applies to Startup Battlefield wants the same thing: the Disrupt Main Stage. Here’s how to get there and why the opportunity starts well before the main stage.…

OpenRouter raises $113M Series B

OpenRouter has raised a $113M Series B led by CapitalG, with participation from NVentures, ServiceNow Ventures, MongoDB Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Databricks…

The groupthink boom: what three top VCs really think about the AI frenzy

"If you're 22 years old in San Francisco and building something in AI, there may be a seed term sheet in your inbox — but if you're 19, oh my God, this means you're really good; yo…

Bessemer Venture Partners highlights Anthropic’s 80x growth in Q1

Bessemer's Byron Deeter highlights Anthropic's 80x Q1 growth, $47B run-rate revenue, and $965B valuation after a massive $65B Series H funding round.…

Friday assorted links

1. Where are the economies of scale in homebuilding? 2. Peter Thiel and Argentina (NYT). 3. Discourse on classical guitar. 4. How many dissertations are AI-written? 5. NYT talks wi…

What’s rarer than a unicorn? Anthropic didn’t just join the Series H club, it almost became the first $1 trillion private company ever

The $65 billion funding round was led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia, more than doubling the company's valuation in just three months.…

Amazon fulfillment competitor Stord raises $250M at $3B valuation

Stord was founded in 2015 by then-college students CEO Sean Henry and CTO Jacob Boudreau while they were still at Georgia Tech.…

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close in days: Apply before May 27

The deadline to apply or nominate for Startup Battlefield 200 is May 27. This is your shot at VC access, global visibility, TechCrunch coverage, and $100,000. Apply now.…

Venture Capitalist John Doerr Says AI Is the Biggest Tech 'Tsunami'

Easier bets to get early customer validation and VC attention

Easier Bets to Get Early Customer Validation and VC Attention

There is not much of scale to be achieved in the Enterprise AI space unless you have a big team, a...…

I’ve spent 25 years in venture capital. Here’s how it quietly shut ordinary Americans out of the AI wealth boom—and what could fix it

The private market didn't just grow. It replaced the system that once let regular investors participate in America's biggest wealth-creation moments. One solution keeps getting ign…

‘A pressure cooker ready to explode’: The wild secondaries scramble for Anthropic shares

The secondaries market for the biggest private tech companies has gotten scorching hot, and is potentially ripe for fraud.…

Dragonfly outlines $650M fund deployment strategy focused on DeFi and real-world finance

Dragonfly Capital closed its $650M Fund IV, surpassing a $500M target, with a deployment strategy focused on DeFi, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets.…

Businessman Michael Koerner approached philanthropy with an entrepreneurial spirit

After making his fortune as a venture capitalist, he became a prolific and inventive benefactor, supporting innovation in the arts, education and health sciences…

Hark raises $700M Series A for its secretive “universal” AI interface

Brett Adcock's new AI startup is now valued at $6 billion by its investors.…

Fake it, or don't. There is no middle way – What being venture-backed demands

When you raise venture capital, you cross a threshold. Here’s what you’re actually committing to, and why the choice to raise money must be intentional.…

VCs invested $300B in agentic infrastructure in Q1 2026

Parallel Web raised $100M. Firestorm raised $82M for drone factories. Anthropic is reportedly raising $50B. None of them built apps. The funding market is concentrating fast. Here'…

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close in one week: Window to nominate and apply for the most promising startups ends May 27

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close May 27. Pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt, get investor access, win $100K, plus more scaling perks. Nominate an early-stage founder or submit y…

Theo Baker spent four years investigating Stanford. Before he leaves, here’s what he found.

"There's a common refrain among [young] people in this world that it's easier to raise money for a startup right now than to get an internship. Which is remarkable, right?"…

Everything is seed (founders are all that count)

Founders are all that count…

Meet Tamber, an AI-Powered Music Creation Platform Whose Founder Isn’t Interested in ‘Blatantly Robbing’ Musicians

Meet Tamber, an AI-powered music creation platform whose founder isn't interested in 'blatantly robbing' musicians…

The AI boom is pulling Europe’s hottest startups to the U.S.—whether they planned to move or not

Creadum partner Carl Fritjofsson says European AI startups are increasingly pulled toward U.S. customers and investors, despite Europe’s deep bench of technical talent.…

Eclipse Ventures turns $6.5M Cerebras investment into $2.5B windfall

Eclipse Ventures turned a $6.5M early investment in AI chip maker Cerebras Systems into an estimated $2.5B after the company's IPO priced at $185 and surged 68%.…

For Eclipse, the $2.5B Cerebras win is just the start of realizing its physical-world thesis

Investing in the real world was lonely for Lior Susan 10 years ago. Now his firm finds itself at the center of the tech world's action.…

How Stars Leverage Themselves as Investors: Serena Williams, Eva Longoria and Kevin Yorn on Venture Capital, Vision and Dealmaking

Serena Williams and Eva Longoria on building their brands as investors; Elisabeth Moss and Warren Littlefield on partnerships, from Milken conference.…

‘Research here is world class’: son of Steve Jobs looks to invest in UK cancer care

After death of his father, Reed Jobs is keen for his $1bn venture capital fund Yosemite to make a difference…

Capital Must Seek Delight

Too few people are experiencing the delights and serendipity of AI, causing capital misallocation…

How one venture firm is investing in an increasingly fragmented world

Geopolitical turmoil has made venture investing challenging, leading Kompas VC to carve out a niche in startups focused on the physical world.…

India’s Snabbit closes $56M round as investor interest in on-demand home services heats up

Snabbit now processes over 40,000 daily jobs and has cut costs sharply as it expands across cities and services.…