All posts tagged: unicorns

Solo GP fund Andrena Ventures hopes to carry startup talent onto its next challenges

Solo GP fund Andrena Ventures hopes to carry startup talent onto its next challenges

Published by skeptic

In the world of startups, it’s not uncommon to see talent from successful companies go on to found their own ventures. This is particularly evident in fintech in Europe, where alumni from unicorns like Monzo, N26, Revolut and others have started a flurry of new companies. Andrena Ventures, a solo GP fund based in the U.K, wants to support this startup factory snowball effect by investing in such second-generation startups at the pre-seed and seed stages. To do so, it has raised $12 million from backers including several VCs and entrepreneurs. The firm’s general partner, Gideon Valkin, told TechCrunch that while he will fund talent with roots in European and British fintech, Andrena itself is sector agnostic. He expects most of his portfolio companies to focus on other categories like AI, climate tech and B2B enterprise solutions. Andrena has already made its first investment: Nustom, an AI startup founded by Monzo’s co-founder, Jonas Templestein, whom Valkin reported to when he worked at Monzo. Nustom hasn’t publicly launched yet (which explains its succinct website), but it …

Cat people rejoice – new feline gore fest lets you get your claws into some bloodthirsty unicorns

Cat people rejoice – new feline gore fest lets you get your claws into some bloodthirsty unicorns

Published by skeptic

Sometimes I look back a what I have just written and wonder if I am in some kind of fever dream. That title for example. Don’t tell me ChatGPT could ever come up with that. Just don’t. The fever dream continues as I watch the amazing new trailer for Cat ‘em-up, Gori: Cuddly Carnage. As the music builds – it’s ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’ by Richard Strauss, which you will know from the opening bars of 2001: A Space Odyssey, well it is, except that this version is meowed by a cat. Of course it is. Gori: Cuddly Carnage looks ridiculous fun right from the off, and we already can’t wait for its big launch at the end of August. Billed as “A cat with cute paws and vicious claws”, this feline game has been in the making for five years and has that kind of feel about it that the devs just kept saying, “Well what if we did this?” – Hence the cat is on a skateboard, the enemies are bloodthirsty unicorns, and Gori …

‘Beautiful and resilient’: exhibition explores cultural history of unicorns | Museums

‘Beautiful and resilient’: exhibition explores cultural history of unicorns | Museums

Published by skeptic

Across two millennia, the unicorn has accumulated a wealth of symbolism reflecting the preoccupations of the ages. But two qualities remain consistent – that the fantastical horse-like creature with a single, spiralling horn protruding from its forehead is impossible to capture and that it possesses an extraordinary capacity to heal. From the Roman author Pliny’s description of a beast with a bellowing roar, through its choice as an emblem of Scottish royalty to its contemporary adoption as an icon of diversity by the LGBTQ+ community, the unicorn is the subject of a major exhibition opening next weekend in Perth. The first UK exhibition to investigate the cultural history of this elusive, magical and well-loved creature will be the centrepiece of the opening celebrations at the new Perth Museum, after a £27m transformation of the former City Hall, where another object of enduring national fascination, the Stone of Destiny, will be on permanent display. “We’re exploring how people conceptualise an animal that they’ve never seen,” says the lead curator, JP Reid, as he contemplates a 700-year-old, …

Clumsy kittens, pigs in costumes and glittery unicorns: how the cult of cute took hold | Life and style

Clumsy kittens, pigs in costumes and glittery unicorns: how the cult of cute took hold | Life and style

Published by skeptic

Every day I rise early, like a stock trader, to start the daily business of sending and receiving adorable videos. Pigs wearing pig costumes, alien creatures spanking each other’s botties, relationship dynamics explored via gibberish, talking cats and noodly cartoons. My friends and I are in deep, but how did this happen? “Cuteness has been slowly taking over our world,” says Claire Catterall, curator of the Cute exhibition at London’s Somerset House. “It’s now accepted as one of our languages.” It’s a language that wouldn’t exist without the internet. Even in 2014, Tim Berners-Lee expressed surprise at how his invention was being used. “I’m amazed to see the many great things it’s achieved.” Another thing that surprised him? “Kittens,” he told Reddit readers. ‘Cuteness is a manipulation, designed to trigger our protective instinct.’ Photograph: Mauro Rodrigues/Alamy You could see the origins of cute, its Rosetta Stone, perhaps, in one memorable cat meme from 2007, “I can haz cheezburger?” which gave rise to lolspeak, still influencing the way we talk online. Words like zoomies, gorlies and …

Here are the newly minted fintech unicorns

Here are the newly minted fintech unicorns

Published by skeptic

Welcome back to The Interchange, where we take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. If you want to receive The Interchange directly in your inbox every Sunday, head here to sign up! We’re looking at a bunch of news — from new unicorns, to a fintech doing good, to one that shut down, to another that did layoffs. Here we go! The first unicorn in 2024 is likely to be a fintech It’s a bold statement, I know. Reaching the $1 billion valuation milestone — aka, becoming a unicorn — is what startups live for. The number of companies able to claim that title peaked in 2021 and slowed down since the second quarter of 2022, according to a chart created by colleagues Anna Heim, Alex Wilhelm and Miranda Halpern. It hasn’t been much fun for already-minted unicorns either, as both Mary Ann and Rebecca Szkutak reported in December 2022. Valuations for companies like Stripe, Brex, Chime and Plaid all took a haircut during the last half of 2022. Others, like Chipper …

Startups are doing fine, but scale-ups and unicorns are in deep water

Startups are doing fine, but scale-ups and unicorns are in deep water

Published by skeptic

It seems the younger a startup is today, the better its fundraising prospects. Recent data from Carta pushes back against the narrative that 2023 has been tough on startups that are not building an AI product. In fact, grouping startups by maturity yields a very different picture. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Earlier-stage startups are seeing stronger valuations and smaller declines in total capital availability, welcome boons in a year of mostly negative news. However, late-stage investment has been in retreat, and since this segment usually accounts for the most dollars, people have been making the mistake of conflating a dramatic late-stage recession with general startup malaise. We don’t mean to be glib. There are certainly many early-stage startups that are struggling and late-stage startups that are thriving. And Carta’s data is predicated on its customer base, which makes the information useful and directional, but not whole. Still, the trends that we can spy are an effective argument against the …

Not many unicorns were spotted in the UK and France this year

Not many unicorns were spotted in the UK and France this year

Published by skeptic

As La French Tech and unicorns both turn 10, maybe it’s time to rethink where to shine a light London was the place to be this week for a who’s who of political leaders and tech CEOs; or more precisely, Bletchley Park was. Famous for housing Alan Turing and other Enigma codebreakers during WW2, the British heritage site played host to the world’s first AI Safety Summit on Wednesday and Thursday. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Culminating in the Bletchley Declaration, an agreement on AI safety signed by all the countries in attendance, the event was also very much about “positioning the U.K. as a central player in setting the agenda for ‘what we talk about when we talk about AI,’” TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden reported from the ground. Let’s not, however, overestimate the leg up that hosting the conference might have given Great Britain over its cross-channel rival. While this week did put the U.K. and its prime minister in …

Klaviyo’s strong IPO pricing should give unicorns an idea of what they are worth

Klaviyo’s strong IPO pricing should give unicorns an idea of what they are worth

Published by skeptic

Last night Klaviyo, a Boston-based marketing automation company, priced its IPO at $30 per share, $1 above its previous price range, which it had raised recently. This pricing looks to be a win for the late-stage startup, as it gives the company a fully diluted valuation of around $9.2 billion, which isn’t all that far from its last private valuation of $9.5 billion. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. After making us wait, Klaviyo started trading at around $37 per share, and is currently at $35.51 per share, up nearly 18%. Akin to other recent IPOs, Klaviyo is having a good first trading day. Defending — or nearly defending — a 2021-era valuation in a 2023 IPO is impressive, given how much the value of tech companies has changed in the past year and a half. In fact, venture capitalist Jason Lemkin used Klaviyo’s pricing and trading today to tell startups that its debut will be the “ultimate” measuring stick for …

Instacart’s IPO storms out the gate, showing that unicorns can, in fact, go public and survive

Instacart’s IPO storms out the gate, showing that unicorns can, in fact, go public and survive

Published by skeptic

Instacart shot up high this morning after the American grocery delivery giant priced its IPO at the top of its recently-raised range yesterday. For startups dying of thirst in this desert devoid of capital, Instacart could not have offered up a more satisfying glass of cool water. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Instacart was worth $42 per share out the gate, and has since moderated slightly to $39.89 per share. Still, it’s up 33% from its IPO price, which is a pretty darn good first day for any public company. I am writing this to you backstage at Disrupt 2023 after wrapping up an Equity taping — shoutout Kirsten and Becca for being excellent as always — so we will be brief this morning. Here’s what I am taking away from the Instacart debut: Strong late-stage startups can go public today and do it at a price higher than their minimum needs. Both Klaviyo and Instacart raised their IPO price …