Start-up
Meet the investor behind billionaire Melinda French Gates’ bets on women-led funds and startups
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Melinda French Gates has committed $2 billion to promote women’s rights and economic mobility. In 2015, she set up her family […]
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Obvious Ventures, co-founded by Twitter’s Evan Williams, plans to raise $400 million fund
Medium Founder & CEO Ev Williams speaks during the Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal on November 8, 2018. Pedro Fiúza | Nurphoto | Getty Images Obvious Ventures, the venture capital firm co-founded by Twitter’s Evan Williams, has filed to raise $400 million for its latest fund, according to a regulatory filing. The filing for […]
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Startup founders are turning to ‘seed-strapping’ in a difficult funding environment
“I think what most founders are also realizing is what you need is not just money, but time. You need time to explore … You need space. You can’t have someone breathing down your neck for updates [while you’re] trying to figure out your product market fit at the start,” says Jx Lye, founder and […]
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This millennial’s startup raised $120 million. He reveals what helped him succeed — and says it’s ‘more crucial’ than hard work
Desmond Lim, co-founder and CEO of Workstream. Courtesy of Desmond Lim Desmond Lim is no stranger to hard work. At the age of seven, he fell in love with basketball, but when his family couldn’t afford to buy him his own ball, he came up with the money by himself. “Money was always tight,” Lim […]
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Eight years after selling AppDynamics to Cisco, Jyoti Bansal is pursuing an unusual merger
Jyoti Bansal, co-founder and CEO of startup Harness. Harness Jyoti Bansal knows about weird acquisitions. Eight years ago, his software company, AppDynamics, was on the doorstep of a blockbuster IPO. A day before the offering, Cisco swooped in and bought the company for $2.7 billion Now Bansal is at the center of an equally unconventional […]
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30-year-old takes on loneliness crisis with a social networking app that’s already raised $646,000
Nicola Gunby, co-founder of Cliq. Nicola Gunby Nicola Gunby, a 30-year-old entrepreneur, longed for a community of friends when she moved to London after the pandemic, but was shocked to find herself isolated in one of the biggest cities in the world. Gunby, the co-founder of social and community networking app Cliq, hails from Nottingham […]
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‘Chilling effect’: Here’s what an Indonesian startup scandal means for the region struggling with fundraising
EFishery “was supposed to be reflective of what the local ecosystem could do, what Indonesian founders could do. This was supposed to be one of the better companies from Southeast Asia. This was supposed to be a winner,” Justin Hall, partner at Golden Gate Ventures, told CNBC. Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg | Getty Images Southeast […]
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HR unicorn Deel prepares for IPO as soon as 2026 after revenue jump
Key Points Human resources software startup Deel has hit an annual revenue run rate of $800 million, the company told CNBC. Deel also added two major new shareholders to its capitalization table, General Catalyst and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, as part of a $300 million secondary share sale. “We are getting ready to […]
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DeepSeek’s breakthrough emboldens open-source AI models like Meta’s Llama
Omer Taha Cetin | Anadolu | Getty Images DeepSeek’s powerful new artificial intelligence model isn’t just a win for China — it’s a victory for open-source versions of the tech from the likes of Meta, Databricks, Mistral and Hugging Face, according to industry experts who spoke with CNBC. Last month, DeepSeek released R1, an open-source reasoning […]
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Alphabet-backed fintech GoCardless halves losses, targets first annual profit in 2026
Key Points British payments startup GoCardless reported a net loss of £35.1 million ($43.8 million) in the full year ending June 2024. GoCardless CEO Hiroki Takeuchi said its his aim for the company to post its first full-year profit in 12 to 18 months’ time. Source
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