Chamath Palihapitiya
VC Arjun Sethi talks a big game about selling his company-picking strategies to other investors; he says they’re buying it
Arjun Sethi speaks with the confidence of someone who knows more than other people, or at least knows that sounding highly confident can shape perception. Either way, when he tells…
Chamath Palihapitiya: It could take three years for the market to ‘accurately’ reprice late-stage cos
Former Facebook exec turned VC Chamath Palihapitiya has long been a controversial figure in the investing world. Both brilliant and combative, Palihapitiya came to be known most widely by ushering…
Bookending the blitz, Chamath Palihapitiya begins unwinding two SPACs
Nearly three years ago, a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) spearheaded by investor Chamath Palihapitiya took the space tourism company Virgin Galactic public. It was the first human spaceflight company…
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Just how wrong were those SPAC projections?
Why are companies that went public via SPACs struggling? Did they catch a headwind from changing market conditions that previously pushed them forward? You bet. But the damage is also self-inflicted.
Mitra Chem takes aim at Chinese dominance of battery materials supply chain
Mitra Future Technologies, also known as Mitra Chem, has raised a $20 million Series A led by billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Holdings. The startup aims to boost the…
TechCrunch+ roundup: Palihapitiya on SPACs, inside Rivian’s IPO, BaaS pros talk shop
I have worked in startups for more than half of my life, and for most of that time, I was the only Black person in the room. As a result,…
Chamath Palihapitiya speaks to SPAC concerns, from fees to disclosures to quality
It was almost exactly two years ago that a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) spearheaded by investor Chamath Palihapitiya took public the space tourism company Virgin Galactic. It was the…
Retail investors love him. Venture capitalists envy him. But pretty much everyone writing checks these days is paying attention to Chamath Palihapitiya, whose star has been on the rise since…
Calendly CEO Tope Awotona is joining us at Disrupt 2021
Early Bird Tickets to Disrupt end today, Friday, July 30. Book your tickets now!
Connected car insurance startup Flock raises $17M Series A led by Chamath Palihapitiya
‘Modern fleets need an equally modern insurance company that moves as fast as they do,’ CEO Ed Leon Klinger said. ‘Commercial motor insurance is a $160 billion market, crying out…
Um, where is the SEC when it comes to SPACs and conflicts of interest?
Earlier today, TechCrunch’s Kirsten Korosec reported that the autonomous vehicle startup Aurora is close to finalizing a deal to merge with one of three blank-check companies that have been formed…
More funding flows into Pipe, as buzzy fintech raises $250M at a $2B valuation
At the end of March, TechCrunch reported that buzzy startup Pipe — which aims to be the “Nasdaq for revenue” — had raised $150 million in a round of funding…
Brazil’s Positive Ventures closes on $10M fund for impact investing
Positive Ventures, a São Paulo-based venture firm, has secured $10 million for its latest fund. Positive Ventures has raised the capital from an impressive list of LPs, including investor Luis…
Pipe, which aims to be the ‘Nasdaq for revenue,’ raises more money at a $2B valuation
Fast-growing fintech Pipe has raised another round of funding at a $2 billion valuation, just weeks after raising $50 million in growth funding, according to sources familiar with the deal.…
The NFT ecosystem is having an explosive moment and the startups that were ready to run with it are getting lots of cash to continue capturing that momentum. SuperRare, an…
Max Q is a weekly newsletter from TechCrunch all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Mondays in your inbox. Sometimes even the biggest successes look like…
Virgin Galactic Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya sells off remaining personal stake in the space company
The man who arguably ushered in the current SPAC rush with the merger of Virgin Galactic with his Social Capital Hedosophia holding company has divested the remainder of his personal…
As the SPAC frenzy continues, questions arise about how much the market can absorb
Another week and the biggest story in a sea of big stories continues to center on SPACs, these special purpose acquisition companies that raise capital through IPOs expressly to acquire…
Extra Crunch roundup: Edtech VC survey, 5 founder mistakes, fintech liquidity, more
Edtech is so widespread, we already need more consumer-friendly nomenclature to describe the products, services and tools it encompasses.
Renewable investment wave continues as solar lending company Loanpal raises $800 million
Days after the billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya announced his involvement in the $1.3 billion acquisition of the solar and home improvement lending business Sunlight Financial, a collection of investors announced…
Unpacking Chamath Palihapitiya’s SPAC deals for Latch and Sunlight Financial
Latch is an enterprise SaaS company that makes keyless-entry systems for buildings; Sunlight Financial offers point-of-sale financing for residential solar systems.
SoFi to go public in merger with Chamath Palihapitiya’s newest SPAC
Consumer financial services startup SoFi is going public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp V, one of a series of blank-check companies formed…
If you’ve been following the SPAC boom, you may have noticed something about these blank-check vehicles that are springing up left and right in order to take public privately held…
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A quick peek into Opendoor’s financial results
As investing whirlwind Chamath Palihapitiya continues to make headlines with his full-court press to take private tech companies public via SPACs while markets are hot, one of his targets has disclosed financial information that helps us better understand the transaction it is undertaking. Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. II…
From Unity to Disrupt, tech has an especially optimistic week
Snowflake, Jfrog, Sumo Logic and Unity each raised price ranges days before IPO, to meet what had seemed like growing enthusiasm from public markets. Each one still popped.
Chamath launches SPAC, SPAC and SPAC as he SPACs the world with SPACs
SPACs are going to rule the world, or at least, Chamath’s future portfolio. Chamath Palihapitiya, the founder of Social Capital, has already tripled down on SPACs, the so-called “blank check”…
Can’t stop, won’t stop: Social Capital Hedosophia just filed for its fourth SPAC, says new report
According to a new report in Bloomberg, Social Capital Hedosophia has filed plans confidentially with the SEC to raise $500 million for its newest blank-check company. It will be the…
Today, Social Capital Hedosophia II, the blank-check company associated with investor Chamath Palihapitiya, announced that it will merge with Opendoor, taking the private real estate startup public in the process.…
Report: One of Social Capital’s newest blank-check companies is looking to reverse merge with Opendoor
Some people may have slowed down in 2020, amid a pandemic that has shut down much of the world. Not Chamath Palihapitiya. According to a new report in Bloomberg, Opendoor,…
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