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Neil Shen, founding and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China. Photo by Getty
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Sequoia Capital’s China Arm Employed Daughter of Politburo Member

By Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Sep 9, 2022 5:00am PDT · 1 comment
No U.S. venture capital firm has produced more investment gains from China or navigated Beijing’s difficult political landscape better than Sequoia Capital. But as tensions rise between the two countries and the U.S. increasingly restricts cross-border investments, Sequoia Capital’s close ties to the Chinese government may become a... No U.S. venture capital firm has produced more investment gains from China or navigated...
Jeremy Levine of Bessemer Venture Partners. Photo by Getty
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‘I Can’t Pay a Stupid Price Anymore’: Bessemer’s Levine on New $4 Billion Fund, ‘Stalemate’ With Founders, Crypto Bets

By Kate Clark · Sep 8, 2022 6:00am PDT · 5 comments
Venture capitalists aren’t striking many deals with tech founders these days. Initial public offerings are nonexistent and public tech stocks are down by half or more from a year ago. Yet some major venture firms, including the 48-year-old Bessemer Venture Partners, are raising more money than ever in the hopes of backing the next $100... Venture capitalists aren’t striking many deals with tech founders these days. Initial...
Sundar Pichai. Photo by Bloomberg
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Google Restricts Employee Travel to ‘Business Critical’ Trips

By Mark Matousek and Amir Efrati · Sep 7, 2022 12:12pm PDT · 1 comment
Google is clamping down on employee travel, telling some senior managers late last week to limit travel to “business critical” trips, according to an email to managers that was viewed by The Information. The move is a sign of how tech’s once free-spending ways are being discarded as even the most profitable and cash-rich... Google is clamping down on employee travel, telling some senior managers late last week to limit...
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.
Instagram Scaling Back Shopping Features Amid Commerce Retreat
By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Sep 6, 2022 1:45pm PDT
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.
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Instagram Scaling Back Shopping Features Amid Commerce Retreat

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Sep 6, 2022 1:45pm PDT
Instagram is planning to drastically scale back its shopping features, the company told Instagram staffers on Tuesday, as it shifts the focus of its e-commerce efforts to those that directly drive advertising. The retreat shows how Meta Platforms is moving away from some long-term projects as it focuses on building its short-form video business.... Instagram is planning to drastically scale back its shopping features, the company told Instagram...
From left, C3.ai CEO Thomas Siebel, DataRobot interim CEO Debanjan Saha, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Photos by Bloomberg, DataRobot
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CEOs Want AI, but Deals Are Getting Stuck

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 6, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments
In the early days of cloud computing, Amazon Web Services and other providers of cloud-based servers and storage struggled to grow because IT departments of large companies took a long time to approve such purchases. Now, those bureaucratic barriers are being exacerbated by macroeconomic pressures on corporate spending, hammering a host of... In the early days of cloud computing, Amazon Web Services and other providers of cloud-based...
A Jokr ad in New York last year. Photo by AP
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Jokr in Talks to Raise Up to $50 Million at $1.3 Billion Valuation

By Erin Woo · Sep 3, 2022 10:02am PDT · 6 comments
Instant-delivery startup Jokr is in talks with investors to raise between $35 million and $50 million in Series C funding at a pre-money valuation of $1.3 billion, according to two people familiar with the company’s fundraising efforts. That represents a slight increase from its valuation of $1.2 billion set last December. The fundraising... Instant-delivery startup Jokr is in talks with investors to raise between $35 million and $50...
Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack. Photo by Substack.
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Substack Reins in Cash and Perks for Writers as Creator Economy Retrenches

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 30, 2022 2:13pm PDT
Substack shook up traditional media last year, offering six-figure cash advances and benefits including healthcare to recruit writers for a newsletter platform that publishes high-profile authors like Bari Weiss and Glenn Greenwald. But this year, the San Francisco startup has told some writers it is scaling back such perks, joining a group of... Substack shook up traditional media last year, offering six-figure cash advances and benefits...
Alexis Ohanian and Katelin Holloway, partners at Seven Seven Six. Photo by Bloomberg and Holloway. Illustration by Mike Sullivan.
Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six Targets $177.6 Million for Crypto Token Fund
By Kate Clark · Aug 29, 2022 5:13pm PDT
Alexis Ohanian and Katelin Holloway, partners at Seven Seven Six. Photo by Bloomberg and Holloway. Illustration by Mike Sullivan.
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Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six Targets $177.6 Million for Crypto Token Fund

By Kate Clark · Aug 29, 2022 5:13pm PDT
Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, plans to raise $177.6 million for a new fund focused on investments in cryptocurrency tokens, according to fundraising materials viewed by The Information. The new fund, named Kryptós, will be the two-year-old firm’s first focused exclusively on... Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, plans to raise...
George Kurtz, CEO of Crowdstrike. Photo by Bloomberg
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CrowdStrike CEO Plays Catch-Up in Israel as He Hunts For Security Deals

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Aug 29, 2022 2:10pm PDT
In April, George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, the second-most valuable cybersecurity firm, traveled to Israel to meet with a number of startups it could invest in or acquire. Kurtz and his team spent most of their time holed up in a hotel in an ancient port city that abuts Tel Aviv—a veritable Mecca of cybersecurity engineers and... In April, George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike, the second-most valuable cybersecurity firm, traveled...
Blake Chandlee. Photo byBusiness Wire; art by Mike Sullivan
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TikTok Cuts Advertising Employees Amid Department Restructuring

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Aug 26, 2022 1:09pm PDT
TikTok has cut employees from its U.S. ad department as part of a restructuring of the unit, as the fast-growing social media app responds to the economic slowdown that has slammed the ad business of its competitors, such as Meta Platforms and Snap. Employees of the Chinese-owned app were notified several weeks ago that certain roles in the ad... TikTok has cut employees from its U.S. ad department as part of a restructuring of the unit, as...
Photo by Bloomberg
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AWS Preps ‘Bastion’ Cloud Service for Advertisers

By Kevin McLaughlin and Amir Efrati · Aug 26, 2022 6:00am PDT
Amazon Web Services is preparing to unveil a cloud service to help companies improve the way they target ads to potential customers without violating data privacy laws, according to three people with knowledge of the product. The move comes as advertisers try to recover from, and get ahead of, Apple’s and Google’s restrictions on... Amazon Web Services is preparing to unveil a cloud service to help companies improve the way they...
Art by Laurent Bazart
The Kids Are Alright: Big-Tech Interns Upbeat About Prospects Despite Turbulence
By Stephen Council · Aug 25, 2022 6:00am PDT · 1 comment
Art by Laurent Bazart
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The Kids Are Alright: Big-Tech Interns Upbeat About Prospects Despite Turbulence

By Stephen Council · Aug 25, 2022 6:00am PDT · 1 comment
This summer, the hearts of college interns across tech collectively skipped a beat as layoffs and hiring freezes began to mount throughout the industry. It didn’t help when two big companies, Meta Platforms and Twitter, made headlines due to their decisions to delay permanent job offers to current interns because of the wobbly... This summer, the hearts of college interns across tech collectively skipped a beat as layoffs and...
Illustration by Josh Brill
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Companies Are Ditching Cybersecurity Insurance as Premiums Rise, Coverage Shrinks

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 22, 2022 11:00pm PDT · 8 comments
Can you imagine going without flood insurance if you lived alongside a river? That’s what is happening in corporate America nowadays, as skyrocketing cyberinsurance premiums prompt more companies to go without traditional cyber insurance even as ransomware and other digital hacks surge. Last year cyber insurance premiums in the U.S. spiked... Can you imagine going without flood insurance if you lived alongside a river? That’s what...
Photo by AP
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Cybersecurity Startup Arctic Wolf in Talks to Raise $300 Million in Convertible Debt

By Maria Heeter · Aug 22, 2022 6:40pm PDT
Arctic Wolf, a 10-year-old cybersecurity startup valued last year at $4.3 billion, is in talks to raise $300 million in convertible debt from investors including direct lender Owl Rock Capital, according to people familiar with the matter. The debt would convert to shares at a premium to the price in an eventual initial public offering, the... Arctic Wolf, a 10-year-old cybersecurity startup valued last year at $4.3 billion, is in talks to...
Photo by AP.
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KKR Has Considered Buying Venture Lender to Expand Startup Debt

By Maria Heeter · Aug 19, 2022 3:52pm PDT
Private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is looking to expand its lending to venture-backed startups and has considered buying a venture-focused lender or recruiting a team of professionals focused on such deals, people familiar with the talks told The Information. Some KKR rivals, including Blackstone, have been making a similar... Private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is looking to expand its lending to...
Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins in May. Photo by Bloomberg
What Belt-Tightening? Cisco CEO Plans $1 Billion Budget Increase to Retain Employees
By Aaron Holmes · Aug 19, 2022 6:00am PDT · 1 comment
Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins in May. Photo by Bloomberg
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What Belt-Tightening? Cisco CEO Plans $1 Billion Budget Increase to Retain Employees

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 19, 2022 6:00am PDT · 1 comment
Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins told managers earlier this month that the networking hardware pioneer would increase its operating expenses $1 billion over the next 12 months, in part to raise employee pay to stem a rise in departures, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Robbins made the surprising comment after the... Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins told managers earlier this month that the networking hardware...
Singapore's business district. Photo by Bloomberg
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Chinese Venture Firms Expand in Singapore as Risks Rise at Home

By Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Aug 18, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments
China’s venture capitalists made fortunes gambling on the country’s blockbuster tech successes such as Alibaba and Meituan. But as a slowing economy, new regulations and pandemic restrictions cast a pall over China’s tech sector, some of those investors have begun looking to make their next big bets from new outposts in another... China’s venture capitalists made fortunes gambling on the country’s blockbuster tech...
Bolt co-founder Ryan Breslow. Photo by Julian Buitrago. Art by Mike Sullivan
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Startup Workers Find Founders Cashed Out When They Couldn’t

By Erin Woo, Becky Peterson and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 17, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments
A few weeks before Ryan Breslow stepped down as CEO of commerce software startup Bolt in January, he made a deal with investors. As part of a funding round in which BlackRock and other investors bought new stock in Bolt that valued the privately held company at $11 billion, Breslow also sold $10 million worth of his own shares to existing... A few weeks before Ryan Breslow stepped down as CEO of commerce software startup Bolt in January,...
Gili Raanan of Cyberstarts. Art by Clark Miller
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How a Former Sequoia Capital Partner Cornered the Israeli Security Startup Market

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 16, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments
Whenever a cybersecurity startup seeks capital from venture capital firms in Israel, whose military trains an outsize number of security software entrepreneurs, the first thing prospective investors usually do is check whether Gili Raanan has invested in it. If he hasn’t, there had better be a good reason, said Shlomo Kramer, co-founder of... Whenever a cybersecurity startup seeks capital from venture capital firms in Israel, whose...
Art by Clark Miller.
How Instagram’s TikTok Envy Finally Backfired
By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 15, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments
Art by Clark Miller.
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How Instagram’s TikTok Envy Finally Backfired

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 15, 2022 6:00am PDT · 2 comments
Last month, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and other influencers stirred up a public relations firestorm for Instagram, complaining to their hundreds of millions of followers about the app's recent attempts to mimic TikTok. Those efforts were just part of a broader internal effort to take on the Chinese short-form video app, though. The... Last month, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and other influencers stirred up a public relations...