<p>Design software startup Figma announced Tuesday it has filed its confidential paperwork for an IPO. We won&#8217;t know more until that paperwork becomes public, which, best-case scenario would be in about a month. However, with the stock market in groundhog mode — seeing its shadow with every new gyration of the Trump administration&#8217;s trade policies [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Tesla famously struggled to scale up production of the Model 3 sedan in 2018 &#8212; so much so that CEO Elon Musk said his company was weeks away from collapsing. That near-death experience helped spawn a whole new company called Atomic that&#8217;s built around using AI to streamline supply chains. Co-founded by former Tesla employees [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Peter Thiel&#8217;s Founders Fund has completed the raise of its third growth fund, according to an SEC filing. Beyond the sum — which is a big step up from its previous $3.4 billion growth fund closed in early 2022 — there&#8217;s a couple of other interesting things to note about this raise. For one, it&#8217;s more [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The application to speak at TechCrunch All Stage closes this Friday, April 18 — don’t miss your chance to share hard-won insights with 1,200+ startup founders and VCs. If you’ve been in the trenches and cracked tough growth problems, now’s the time to step up and share your scaling strategies onstage at TC All Stage, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A handful of engineers who worked at Lucid Motors and on Apple&#8217;s electric car project have launched a new startup that puts a fresh spin on electric hub motors. The new startup, called Conifer, has developed its motor to be free of rare earth elements by using more abundant ferrite magnets, which the company says [&hellip;]</p>

<p>According to Dealroom data cited by the Financial Times, British startups raised just £16.2 billion last year, far less than the more than £65 billion raised by their counterparts in Silicon Valley during the same period. In fact, the U.S. appears to be pulling further ahead each year. In 2024, 57% of global venture capital [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In recent years, focus on career and delayed marriage age is driving some women to consider preserving their fertility through egg freezing. But the steep cost of the procedure, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000 per attempt, means many women can&#8217;t afford it during their most fertile years: 20s and early 30s. Cofertility, a startup founded [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A new shipbuilding startup called Blue Water Autonomy has emerged from stealth with the promise of developing captain-less naval ships. The Boston, Massachusetts-based company has raised a $14 million seed round from Eclipse, Riot, and Impatient Ventures. The startup was founded in 2024 by former members of the U.S. Navy, leaders of Amazon Robotics, and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>TechCrunch Sessions: AI is fast approaching. So, what does that mean for you? It means exhibit tables are nearly gone — and now’s your chance to grab one before they’re all sold out. If you’ve got a game-changing product to showcase to the AI world, don’t keep it quiet. Exhibit your brand in front of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Mark your calendar — StrictlyVC London is just around the corner on May 13. Designed for founders, entrepreneurs, and investors, this exclusive gathering promises deep VC insight and high-value connections. We’re thrilled to welcome our first pair of confirmed speakers: Nazo Moosa, managing director of Paladin Capital Group, and Sonali De Rycker, partner of Accel [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Symphonic Capital announced today in a blog post that it raised $13.5 million for its inaugural fund to invest in early-stage companies.&nbsp; Sydney Thomas launched the firm in 2022 after leaving Charles Hudson’s Precursor Ventures, where she was the first hire.  Thomas said her fund will focus on founders outside of the Bay who are [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It would appear the environment and society remain relevant, whatever you might hear in some other quarters. At least, that’s one conclusion to be drawn from the news that European specialist VC Revent has closed a  €100 million ($109 million) Fund II to invest in “planetary and societal health” startups.  Launched out of Berlin in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The number of “operator VCs” — former founders turned VCs — has risen in Europe in recent years. This is common in the U.S., where the majority of VCs are former founders. The reverse is true in Europe, where most come from banking or finance. Recent examples in Europe include Wise founder Taavet Hinrikus, Glovo [&hellip;]</p>

<p>New York&#8217;s A-list venture capital seed fund, Lerer Hippeau, announced on Wednesday that it closed a ninth $200 million fund. That&#8217;s a step up from its eighth fund, which closed at $140 million, it said. With the new fund, Lerer Hippeau has $1.4 billion of assets under management. Since its inception in 2010, Lerer Hippeau [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It’s been a couple of years since our last topic-focused, one-day event — but with AI transforming the tech landscape, we couldn’t miss the chance to gather 1,200 founders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone shaping the future of AI for a deep dive into what’s next. On June 5 in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>If you’re reading this, consider it your signal: The opportunity to influence the future of tech is here. TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is now accepting speaker applications. Join us onstage this October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco and share your ideas with 10,000+ tech leaders, VCs, and innovators shaping what’s next. Apply to speak [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Thirteen years ago, when Chris Farmer founded early-stage venture firm SignalFire with data analysis at the core of its investment strategy, many were skeptical about the approach — conventional wisdom dictated that nascent companies didn&#8217;t have enough data to make investment algorithms effective. &#8220;This was a very radical idea, and everyone thought I was crazy,&#8221; [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Both firms hoped to raise at least $1 billion in their public market debuts.</p>

<p>Since IPOs slowed to trickle a few years ago, limited partners who invest in venture capital funds have had one giant problem: a dearth of liquidity. Lack of cash returns has been especially troublesome for wealthy individuals or their small family offices — who manage the assets of the wealthy — that made substantial investments [&hellip;]</p>

<p>TechCrunch All Stage, our big event for founders of startups at all stages of funding (see what we did there?), is coming up July 15 at Boston’s SoWa Power Station. And it’s our pleasure to announce that Underscore VC’s investing partner Chris Gardner will join a loaded lineup of speakers by leading a breakout session [&hellip;]</p>