Anna Heim

Corporate venture capital investments boosted by new entrants and mega-rounds Alex Wilhelm Anna Heim 8 hours The venture capital boom of 2021 was not built from merely traditional VC money. A host of other capital sources played a role in the global trend, from new methods of disbursing angel and seed capital...

Writing about Europe is hard today. Russia is invading Ukraine as we write, and global markets are in freefall. This is the continent’s political and military backdrop. Last week, this column took a look at the European technology market’s deep tech expertise. Europe’s economic future, in other words. We could...

Fundraising is still 'a paradoxical issue' As of this month, personal care and beauty retailer Sephora is selling vibrators on its U.S. website. It is a significant milestone not just for Dame and Maude, the startups it partnered with, but also for the sexual wellness product category. These startups operate...

New data collected by Crunchbase News indicates that the value of global unicorns has crested the $4 trillion mark. The valuation milestone is notable not merely for its scale, but its relative size. Compared to what? The value of the major tech companies of the West, namely the U.S....

TechCrunch explored the changing state of the insurtech market last week, diving into category wins and losses from recent quarters and what’s ahead for the sector this year. Insurtech companies had a simply amazing fundraising year in 2021, setting records in both dollar and deal terms. But at the...

A diverging insurtech market could injure many companies while others remain unscathed Alex Wilhelm Anna Heim 19 hours There were two markets for insurtech startups in 2021: one welcoming and one dismissive. Private market investors poured capital into promising insurtech startups, while the public markets sent the value of recently public insurtech...

With another year of venture capital records in the books, it’s time to look forward. Global data was clear: The 2021 venture capital startup investment cycle was record-breaking; around the world, startups raised more money than ever before, with individual geographies posting all-time hauls. Africa had a killer year. North...

Amid this long-lasting startup era, 2021 may go down as the peak venture capital year. When The Exchange looked at global data for venture capital activity in 2021, we used words like “bonkers” and “record-setting.” Those might have been a little modest when we compare just how much the...

TechCrunch got its teeth into the pandemic trade and its possible conclusion yesterday. As a refresher: After the initial onset of COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns, changes to work environments and restriction of travel, some companies saw their values quickly appreciate as they found investor favor. The reasons for...

Startups and VCs see opportunities in open banking, finance and insurance Brazilian instant payment system Pix ended 2021 having powered more than 8 billion transactions, according to statistics from the country’s Central Bank. This is quite an impressive figure for an offering only launched in November 2020 and goes...