In the shadow of Amazon and Microsoft, Seattle startups are having a moment

Venture capital investment exploded across a number of geographies in 2019 despite the constant threat of an economic downturn. San Francisco, of course, remains the startup epicenter of the world, shutting out all other geographies when it comes to capital invested. Still, other regions continue to grow, raking in more capital this year than ever. …

2019 Africa Roundup: Jumia IPOs, China goes digital, Nigeria becomes fintech capital

2019 brought more global attention to Africa’s tech scene than perhaps any previous year. A high-profile IPO, visits by both Jacks (Ma and Dorsey) and big Chinese startup investment energized that. The last 12 months served as a grande finale to 10 years that saw triple-digit increases in startup formation and VC on the continent. …

Seed investors favor enterprise over consumer for first time this decade

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. It’s the second to last day of 2019, meaning we’re very nearly out of time this year; our space for repretrospection is quickly coming to a close. Before we do run out of hours, however, …

Indian tech startups raised a record $14.5B in 2019

Indian tech startups have never had it so good. Local tech startups in the nation raised $14.5 billion in 2019, beating their previous best of $10.5 billion last year, according to research firm Tracxn . Tech startups in India this year participated in 1,185 financing rounds — 459 of those were Series A or later …

Startups Weekly: 2019’s dead startups

Welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy startups and venture capital news. Before I jump into today’s topic, let’s catch up a bit. Last week, I wrote about the defining moments of VC in 2019. Before that, I noted some thoughts on U.S. VC activity in Europe. Remember, …

Daily Crunch: The startups we lost in 2019

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Remembering the startups we lost in 2019 This year’s batch doesn’t include any story quite as spectacular as last year’s big …

Latin America Roundup: XP’s chart-topping IPO, Wildlife becomes a unicorn, SoftBank backs Konfio

Sophia Wood Contributor Share on Twitter Sophia Wood is a principal at Magma Partners, a Latin America-focused seed-stage VC firm with offices in Latin America, Asia and the U.S. Sophia is also the co-founder of LatAm List, an English-language Latin American tech news source. More posts by this contributor Latin America roundup: Neobanks raise $205M+; …

The four corners of the new space economy

It’s gotten to the point now where a handful of angel investors can put a space company on the map. But the same changes that have made the industry accessible have made it increasingly complex to track its trends. By default, all space startups are exciting, but companies vary widely in risk, capital intensity and …

Remembering the startups we lost in 2019

All manner of startups fail for all manner of reasons. But there’s one constant: this is an incredibly difficult business. Launching a successful company isn’t just a matter of drive and finding the right people (though both, clearly, are important). Doing well in this business requires the stars to align perfectly on a billion different …

As 2019 closes, a look back at what happened to the altcoin boom

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re peeking at what’s gone on in the world of altcoins recently, the other cryptocurrencies aside from bitcoin. As 2016 came to a close, altcoins like ether and XRP saw their value soar. Toward …