Marina Temkin, Author at TechCrunch

Acquiring AI talent wholesale

Marina Temkin — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 18:05:00 +0000

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. This week we are looking at acquisitions of small startups, two new unicorns, wearable AI devices, and VCs who are supporting Kamala Harris. Let’s get into it. Most interesting startup stories from the week With the IPO […]

Moxxie Ventures, led by ex-Twitter media head, raises $95M third fund

Marina Temkin — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

The fundraising environment is challenging for emerging managers, defined as VC firms raising their first through third time. But Katie Jacobs Stanton, a former head of media at Twitter who founded Moxxie Ventures in 2019, said that she had a much easier time than she was expecting when raising funds for her third time. Moxxie, […]

Legal tech, VC brawls and saying no to big offers

Marina Temkin — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 19:03:00 +0000

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. To get Startups Weekly in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. This week we are talking about Wiz’s bold decision, VC’s public feud, legal tech’s new capital and a16z’s close call. Let’s go! Most interesting startup stories […]

ZoomInfo alum raises $15M for startup that builds AI sales engineers

Marina Temkin — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Until a year ago, Arjun Pillai had the comfortable yet important role of chief data officer at ZoomInfo, a B2B database company. But the serial entrepreneur was getting antsy. He had already founded and sold two startups, including Insent, which ZoomInfo bought in 2021. “Once you start a startup, you always have that bug,” he […]

Pearl raises $58M to help dentists make better diagnoses using AI

Marina Temkin — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Dental care is a necessity, yet many patients lack confidence in their dentists’ ability to provide accurate diagnoses and appropriate treatments. Some dentists overtreat patients, leading to unnecessary expenses, while others may miss critical issues that could develop into more significant and costly problems in the future. While seeking a second opinion from another dentist […]

Wiz walks away from Google’s $23B acquisition offer: Read the CEO’s note to employees

Marina Temkin — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 03:04:35 +0000

Cybersecurity startup Wiz has turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Alphabet, Google’s parent company, according to a source familiar with discussions. Despite the offer representing a substantial premium over its last private valuation of $12 billion, Wiz’s management team with the support of investors has opted to remain independent, the person said. Wiz’s […]

M&A activity heats up with Wiz, Graphcore, etc.

Marina Temkin — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 19:05:00 +0000

This week, Google is in discussions to pay $23 billion for cloud security startup Wiz, SoftBank acquires Graphcore, and more.

PE firm PartnerOne paid $28M for HeadSpin, a fraction of its $1.1B valuation set by ICONIQ and Dell Technologies Capital

Marina Temkin — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:22:05 +0000

Canadian private equity firm PartnerOne paid $28.2 million for HeadSpin, a mobile app testing startup whose founder was sentenced for fraud earlier this year, according to documents viewed by TechCrunch. The fire sale was reported by TechCrunch last week. HeadSpin’s 2023 revenue was $21 million and its Q1 2024 revenue stood at $5 million, the […]

Menlo Ventures and Anthropic team up on a $100M AI fund

Marina Temkin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Menlo Ventures and Anthropic are teaming up on a $100 million fund dubbed "the Anthology Fund" to invest in pre-seed and Series A AI startups.

Andreessen Horowitz co-founders explain why they’re supporting Trump

Marina Temkin — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:01:33 +0000

Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of one of the most prominent venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, says he’s been a Democrat most of his life. He says he has endorsed and voted for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. However, he says he’s no longer loyal to the Democratic Party. […]

Trump’s VP candidate JD Vance has long ties to Silicon Valley, and was a VC himself

Marina Temkin — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 23:56:07 +0000

Former President Donald Trump picked Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate on Monday, as he runs to reclaim the office he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020. Vance, who’s best known for his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” spent years as a venture capitalist before leaving the industry when elected to the U.S. Senate […]

Google’s Kurian approached Wiz, $23B deal could take a week to land, source says

Ingrid Lunden, Marina Temkin — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 18:34:47 +0000

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is in advanced talks to acquire Wiz for $23 billion, a person close to the company told TechCrunch. The deal discussions were previously reported by The Wall Street Journal. Wiz, a cybersecurity startup founded in 2020, was approached a few weeks ago by Thomas Kurian, head of Google’s cloud division, the […]

Defending Russia’s EU neighbors

Marina Temkin — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 19:05:00 +0000

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. This week we’re looking at an AI startup that wants to help people get creative with video; Kudos, which raised $3 million to help get rid […]

AI-powered Regard nabs $61M to find missed illness, boost hospital revenue

Marina Temkin — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

People in tech often say that data is the new oil. That phrase, coined by British mathematician Clive Humby, of course implies that data is valuable. Data about a person’s health can also provide meaningful insights and improve outcomes, but only 3% of patient data is currently used by physicians, according to the World Economic […]

AI startup Hebbia raised $130M at a $700M valuation on $13 million of profitable revenue

Marina Temkin — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 23:04:29 +0000

Hebbia, a startup that uses generative AI to search large documents and respond to large questions, has raised a $130 million Series B at a roughly $700 million valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Index Ventures, Google Ventures and Peter Thiel. And its funding demonstrates that 50x annual recurring revenue (ARR) is becoming […]

Seae Ventures acquires Unseen Capital after founder death

Marina Temkin — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Seae Ventures is acquiring Unseen Capital after the death of founder Kayode Owens in 2021. The combined firm will continue to invest in healthcare for minorities and underserved populations. Owens, an investor and entrepreneur, launched Unseen Capital to focus on early-stage healthcare companies started by underrepresented founders, in 2020. He raised $30 million but unfortunately […]

Valuations of startups have quietly rebounded to all-time highs. Some investors say the slump is over.

Marina Temkin — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 19:43:40 +0000

Generative AI businesses aside, the last couple of years have been relatively difficult for venture-backed companies. Very few startups were able to raise funding at prices that exceeded their previous valuations. Now, approximately two years after the venture slump began in early 2022, some investors, like IVP general partner Tom Loverro, are saying that the […]

J2 Ventures, focused on military healthcare, grabs $150M for its second fund

Marina Temkin — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

J2 Ventures, a firm led mostly by U.S. military veterans, announced on Thursday that it has raised a $150 million second fund. The Boston-based firm invests in startups whose products are purchased by civilians and the U.S. Department of Defense. While many emerging VCs are struggling to raise second funds, J2’s latest vehicle is more […]

Granza Bio grabs $7M seed from Felicis and YC to advance delivery of cancer treatments

Marina Temkin — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Ashwin Nandakumar and Ashwin Jainarayanan were working on their doctorates at adjacent departments in Oxford, but they didn’t know each other. Nandakumar, who was studying oncology, one day stumbled across a curious dataset for prostate cancer, with which he needed sequencing help. “I reached out to a few friends asking to help me analyze this […]

Industry Ventures raises a $900M fund for investing in small, early-stage VCs and their breakout startups

Marina Temkin — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

The venture fundraising trend in 2024 is fairly clear by now: Large, established VC firms are continuing to attract capital from limited partners, while smaller, newer funds are finding it more difficult to raise. But Industry Ventures’ latest fundraise should offer a dash of good news for emerging managers. On Tuesday, the 24-year-old firm announced […]