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Speaking of layers, let’s get into our latest stories from the site: most recently, our reporter����unfolded��.

Now on to a busy week of funding rounds. In terms of real estate-related deals, we had��,��,��, and����all raise money, with each tackling different parts of the complex residential and office markets. Next we wrote about a startup raising $100 million to��, and a company that raised��.

Outside the Valley, as always, brought a fresh mix of deal flow. For one, take��, a growing startup hub in India. We unpacked��, including one from a company that wants to compete with IKEA. From elsewhere around the globe, Brazil’s��, a mobility startup, raised a $30 million Series A from global investors, and��, a digital onboarding startup (also��based in Brazil) raised $10 million.

Now for two unicorn updates: Coveo, a Canadian startup,��, and Cloudflare’s earnings taught us a��.

And before��you��go,��some��other hits��you��may want to check out include����and��’s take on the��best��slides from Softbank’s WeWork-focused earnings report, and��’s piece on��.

Alright,��I’m��off to travels!��I’ll be back next week, Dunkin Donuts in hand.

Best,
Natasha

P.S.��Follow me () and��������Ƶ��News��on����and����for daily updates.

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While journalists strive for objectivity, oftentimes the subjective sits in between the lines of the stories we pursue, the voices we elevate, and the noise we clarify. For me, my most recent story on��immigration and how it impacts the Valley’s workforce��has a close-to-home undertone: both of my parents left India to come to the United States.

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This kind of perspective might make journalism professors cringe, but I’m firmly in the camp that the stories we care about are the stories that we tell the best.

More of this in our mini Podcast series, , but after that, grab your��non-WeWork fruit water��and let’s look at what else has happened in venture capital.

A handful of the news team was at TechCrunch Disrupt, a startup conference, for the week, giving us information on��Brex’s newest product��and��Impossible Meat’s “steak” in the future.����also walked us through a��nine-figure round scored by a scooter startup. It’s been a while, we know.

Putzing around the conference reminded me about how much is truly happening outside the Valley. And our coverage matched. This week, we got into Atlanta’s��rise��and��challenges��as a startup hub, how��Nebraska is turning into a Silicon Prairie, and how��Taiwan is manufacturing the next wave of entrepreneurs.

Moving into some healthy funding rounds, a��Tokyo-based startup raised $42.9 million��to diagnose gastric cancer early and��a fertility product startup raised $5 million��in a seed round. Of course, there’s more in��Last Week In Venture.

From the fund side, we covered how��Brazil-based ONEVC closed a $38 million fund��to invest across the border, and how��SoftBank has dealt in tenth of worldwide VC dollar volume so far in 2019.

Also, to address the elephant in the coworking space:��WeWork officially pulled its IPO. Check out��our timeline of the implosion.

As always, thank you for reading,

Natasha

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Fall in San Francisco looks like��,��coffee-robot tension,��,��cannabis funding, and��esports. Last fall, while I was still in Boston, I would’ve said that this month felt like meeting old friends,��, and the leaves actually changing colors.

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Adjustment aside, let’s get into the latest headlines with an IPO update. In this week’s line up, we had debuts from��Datadog��and��Ping Identity,��funding for Postmates, and a��set-the-record-straight moment from Airbnb��(and��WeWork).

Then there’s the still-private, but equally big companies. A Brazilian online home goods platform,��MadeiraMadeira, raised $110 million; payments company��Stripe raised $250 million; and WordPress owner��Automattic landed $300 million.

We also covered two industries that have been traditionally slow to adopting new technologies but seem to be coming around. Fieldwire, which has developed a��cloud-based task management tool aimed at those working in the construction field, raised $33.5 million. And Biproxi, which aims to be the��“Zillow of commercial real estate,”��brought in $10 million in a seed round.

Through scouring filings, we also got a look at the latest venture funds. Deep-tech investor DCVC��landed $725 million for Fund V; March Capital Partners is��eyeing $410 million for Fund III; Revolution Ventures��closed $215 million for its third fund, and Precursor Ventures is��raising $10 million for an opportunity fund. As part of the Seed Series, Gené Teare interviewed��#Angels on its investment taste buds. Mary Ann also looked into��Goldman Sachs’ startup investing spree.

Finally, here are some big topics in the late-stage and public markets you should understand: a theory behind��Slack’s market repricing,��the trend of supergiant seed rounds, and why, if you care about Andreessen Horowitz,��you should probably care about the J-Curve.

After all of this, I guess one thing has stayed the same between the move from Boston to San Francisco: September will always be a little nerdy after all.

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I used to get frustrated when I left a tech networking event without a lead on a scoop or a new source. But last night, while sitting an off-the-record dinner with other empowering women, I realized that a successful night might be more about finding empathy for the other side than scoring the next exclusive.

While it feels like tech and media are often at odds, I feel thankful to be in a city that makes space for both sides to be vulnerable from time to time.

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For more on the power of face-to-face interactions, read��my final installment of the Loneliness In Tech series. It’s worth noting that the same power can be undermined through social media, as����unpacked in her piece about��a startup that is tackling cyberbullying.

On a lighter note,����wrote about funding rounds for��cricket-inspired cereal,��chickpeas, and��employee perk payments. Startups accelerated by nine-figure rounds included��Rivian Automotive, a Michigan electric SUV and truck company, which landed $350 million, and��Root Insurance, an Ohio insurance company, which landed the same sum. Also a ways away, we covered Brazil’s newest unicorn thanks to SoftBank:��QuintoAndar.

Turning the tables, we covered two new funds this week: Bee Partners’��$43 million pre-seed fund��and Work Life Ventures’ new��$5 million seed fund to invest in the next Superhuman.

Then we tackled WeWork,��from its up-and-down valuation, to its��governance shakeup. With whatever energy you have left, read about��its potential valuation haircut.

Despite WeWork, IPO momentum looks good.����covered SmileDirectClub, the controversial DIY teeth straightening company, and its��less-than-shiny debut. She also jumped on��Cloudflare’s early pricing days,��and Jason mapped��Airbnb’s investment strategy��as it crawls toward a filing.

I’ll end on a human note. This week, I caught up with��, the co-founder of Pinch, for Proust Goes Tech. Read her interview to find out��how she thinks ugly shoes and hoodies fit��into tech’s history.

Until next week,
Natasha

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After my notebook is tucked away and the recorder app stops, it seems that my conversations these days are taking the same not-so-subtle turn. Everyone I speak to, in some way, is lonely. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and everyone hoping for outsized success are no exception.

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The realization inspired me to investigate the intersection of loneliness and tech and write a series focusing on those tensions. The first installment,��unpacking how founders deal with loneliness, went live this past week.

But I am not the only one talking about mental health in tech. Y Combinator, which coaches and invests in hundreds of startups each year, is focusing on founder mental health, too, and it was a central theme at Y Combinator’s Demo Day.

On the YC Demo Day beat,����reported on the��growing size of Y Combinator startup batches��and����helped host a��live Equity Podcast interviewing the president of Y Combinator, Michael Seibel. We also��dove deeper into Tandem��and��all the other startups that share its name, and��I had a lot of thoughts��on the startups presenting��and wrote about��YC’s investment cadence in India.

Speaking of India, Tala, a digital lending startup,��raised $110 million to expand its services in the region. International coverage continued when Yijipui, an online liquor retailer and Chinese unicorn,��raised $80 million for its ongoing Series D. Plus, JUUL Labs��raised $325 million to fuel the global expansion of its e-cigarettes.

Other rounds this week: Root Insurance��raised $350 million, Better.com��raised $160 million, and ThredUp��raised $175 million to dress you up in what your friends got rid of. SpotHero also��raised $50 million to make it easier to park your car.

On a final note,��we welcomed Sophia Kunthara to the ������Ƶ News family��by way of the San Francisco Chronicle and Reuters. She’ll be covering the late-stage scene for us from the San Francisco desk, so����to stay up to date. Of course, in honor of her first week here,��Datadog filed to go public.

We’re one fantastic person stronger here, and we’re really proud of it.

Thanks for reading,

P.S.��Follow me () and��������Ƶ��News��on����and����for daily updates.

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So, Bolt struck twice this week, and��. Let me explain.

Two startups, both named Bolt, both working on widely different products from ride-hailing to the checkout process, announced they raised roughly around the same amount of money at roughly the same amount of time. For more, read��here��and .

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Beyond realizing that Bolt appears to be a����and��that founders might be getting lazy, I thought this example serves as an ironic anecdote into our flagship story this week:��the Q2 global venture capital report.

In our quarterly report,����used ������Ƶ data and projections to learn more about deal and dollar volume in venture capital, uncovering data around most active lead investors and how angel investment is looking, globally. Come for the bullish and bearish findings, and stay for the charts.

For more quarterly coverage, read Joanna’s report on��North America’s venture activity��(which is flat) and if the boom of funding into��construction tech has slowed after a peak. We also took a look at��Texas’ last quarter, and how��China went from number one in venture volume, to not that.

Up next week,����and I will be publishing a report on how the past few months have played out for female-founded companies at every stage of investment.

Until then, peek at one smart woman in tech’s story in the most recent edition of Proust Goes Tech. This week, I spoke to Lolita Taub, who recently left Backstage Capital to join an artificial intelligence startup as its chief of staff.

The week also had its fair share of funding news. Clara, which��wants to help startups with legal advice, launched with $2 million in seed funding from investors like 500 Startups and TechStars, and Exyn raised $16 million for a Series A to help fly its pilotless drones under the radar, literally;��three cancer drug developers secured over $500 million; Sonder raising $210 million to become��hospitality’s latest unicorn; and Argo AI grabbed $2.6 billion in an��on-brand move to fuel its autonomous driving efforts.

While our coverage focuses a lot on startups and their data, Mary Ann reminds us that it’s important to remember the heart of most communities: the mom and pop businesses. Read her��break down on startups helping local businesses thrive, then go to your nearest non-chain coffee shop, grab a mug for-here, don’t tweet about it, and pat yourself on the back for all of the above.

Until next time,

.

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