Leena Rao
Featured Picks from Leena Rao
Latest from Leena Rao
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Ask A VC: Google Ventures’ Dr. Krishna Yeshwant On The Opportunities For Health-Focused Mobile Apps And More
In this week's Ask A VC show, we sat down with Google Ventures partner Dr. Krishna Yeshwant in the TechCrunch TV studio. Read More
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Foundry Group Raises Fourth $225M Fund To Make Late-Stage Growth Investments In The Firm’s Portfolio Companies
Foundry Group has raised a fourth fund, called Foundry Group Select. This new fund is $225 million (the same size as Foundry's previous funds), but has a much different focus. This fund is purely for late-stage growth rounds in Foundry's existing portfolio companies. The firm says it will invest up to $25 million into companies that Foundry has backed through its previous funds. As managing… Read More
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Simple, Cloud-Based Payroll App ZenPayroll Debuts API
YC-backed ZenPayroll, the startup that offers an easy to use, cloud-based payroll application, has released its API, which allows third party software providers to integrate data from their offerings into the payroll app. Read More
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Union Square Ventures Adds Hacker News-Like Link Sharing Community To Newly Designed Site
Union Square Ventures, the New York-based VC firm that has backed Twitter, Foursquare, Etsy, Zynga and many others, has debuted a newly redesigned website today. A VC firm launching a new site isn't usually big news, but in this case, USV has added an interesting new sharing community that draws comparisons to Y Combinator's Hacker News. Read More
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AmEx Partners With VeriFone To Allow NYC Taxi Passengers To Pay For Cab Fares With Rewards Points
Similar to other credit cards, AmEx card holders have been able to use the rewards points they earn for flights hotels, retail purchases and access to concerts and sports events. Today, AmEx is taking this a step further by allowing users to access membership rewards points at point of sale, via a VeriFone integration. In a new partnership announced today, AmEx will allow card holders to use their… Read More
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VCs Try A New Method: Curated Events
VCs have long thrown events for portfolio startups to share knowledge, and learn from each other and from previous successful entrepreneurs. Last year’s Kleiner Perkins CEO Summit featured fireside chats with Bill Gates, Colin Powell and Al Gore. Google Ventures CEO Summit last year included Sergey Brin and Ron Conway, among others. And most other firms hold similar CEO and founder summits… Read More
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Ask A VC: Greylock’s Simon Rothman On Disruptive Marketplaces, Greymarket And More
In this week's Ask A VC, we were joined by Greylock's newest partner, Simon Rothman to talk about future disruptive marketplaces and more. Read More
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Hybrid Data Storage And Backup Company Nimble Storage Files For $150M IPO
Nimble Storage, the developer of flash-optimized, hybrid storage and backup solutions for the enterprise has filed its S-1 with the SEC today. The company aims to raise as much as $150 million in the offering, but this is just a placeholder amount and could change. Read More
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U.S. Tech Companies Raised $8.1B In 806 VC Deals In Q3, Capital Raised, M&A Activity And IPOs All Up From Previous Quarter
Dow Jones Venture Source released its quarterly report on the state of venture capital, including data on number of VC deals, funds raised, M&As and IPOs in the technology sector. According to the reprot U.S.-based companies raised $8.1 billion from 806 venture capital deals in 3Q 2013, a 2% increase in capital and a 4% decrease in number of deals from the previous quarter. Read More
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Backed By Social+Capital, A16Z, And Formation8, Data Elite Launches Lab To Fund And Advise Big Data Startups
If AngelList provides a foundation for investment 'capital as a service,' then Data Elite could be the model for 'advising-as-a-service.' Data Elite is launching today as a a venture lab and fund that counts Social+Capital Partnership, Andreessen Horowitz, Formation8, Ron Conway and Anand Rajaraman as backers. Data Elite has declined to reveal the amount of funding it has raised from these… Read More
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Early Stage VC Firm Javelin Venture Partners Raises $125M For Third Fund
Javelin Venture Partners has raised $125 million for the firm's third fund. The firm, which focuses on early stage, seed and Series A investments, has also promoted principal Alex Gurevich to partner. Read More
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Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Greylock’s Simon Rothman
In this week's episode of Ask A VC, we have Greylock's newest partner, Simon Rothman, joining us in the studio. You can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we’ll ask them during the show. Read More
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Marc Andreessen: Series A Investments Are Still The Bread And Butter Of A16Z
This week, the Wall Street Journal published a brief interview with Andreessen Horowitz Partner Scott Weiss in which he seemed to indicate that the firm is moving away from Series A investments in consumer startups. He also compared many consumer companies to "fruit fly experiments." It was unclear what Weiss meant by this, but A16Z founder Marc Andreessen jumped into this Hacker News thread over… Read More
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Brian Chesky Talks About Why Airbnb Didn’t Acquire European Clone Wimdu, Global Growth And More
Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky and Sequoia Capital partner, Airbnb board member, and former Zappos COO Alfred Lin joined us in the TechCrunch TV studio for a special three-part series on how Chesky and Lin work together on retaining culture, expanding internationally, and maintaining customer service. Read More
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Ask A VC: Redpoint’s Ryan Sarver On Why He Joined Venture Capital And More
In this week's Ask A VC, we hosted Redpoint Ventures' newest partner Ryan Sarver in the studio to talk about his jump to the VC world from Twitter and more Read More
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Brian Chesky And Sequoia’s Alfred Lin On Adding The Wow Factor To Airbnb’s Customer Service
As we mentioned earlier this week, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky and Sequoia Capital partner, Airbnb board member, and former Zappos COO Alfred Lin joined us in the TechCrunch TV studio for a special three-part series on how Chesky and Lin work together on retaining culture, expanding internationally, and maintaining customer service. Read More
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First Data Quietly Buys Payments Startup Clover; Launches Point Of Sale Platform For Merchants
Last year, payments processing giant First Data quietly acquired Andreessen Horowitz-backed mobile payments startup Clover to help the company expand into point of sale for small businesses. Today, First Data is debuting its point of sale platform to small and medium-sized businesses, Clover. Read More
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AmEx And TripAdvisor Team Up To Allow Card Members To Get Credit For Travel Reviews And Access Spend Data
American Express has been steadily partnering with various consumer technology companies to allow cardmembers to integrate their accounts, and access new ways to spend. For example, the financial services giant debuted a new partnership with Twitter earlier this year to allow cardholders to use hashtags to buy items. Today, AmEx is furthering its presence in the online travel space by teaming up… Read More
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Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Redpoint’s Geoff Yang And Ryan Sarver
This week on TechCrunch TV’s Ask A VC show, we have Redpoint partner Geoff Yang and the VC firm's newest partner Ryan Sarver in the studio. You can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we’ll ask them during the show. Read More
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Zulily, The Flash Sales Site For Moms, Files For $100M IPO
Zulily, a private-sale shopping site targeted at busy moms and their kids, has filed its S-1, aiming to raise as much as $100 million in an IPO (this is a placeholder amount and could change). Read More
