Alastair Goldfisher

TaskRabbit founder Leah Busque joins Fuel Capital as GP

Quinn Li chats about Qualcomm Ventures, bike sharing and what makes the CVC unique

Ross Fubini and others launch seed fund Village with Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg as LPs

State Auto in Ohio creates $25 mln corporate fund to invest in fintech, insurtech

State Auto Labs Corp, an arm of the State Automobile Mutual Insurance Company in Ohio, has launched a $25 million corporate venture fund to invest in fintech and insurtech companies.

IVP raises $1.5 bln for its largest ever fund; expects more AI, cryptocurrency deals

Fund Performance: Returns for 281 venture funds

MIT-founded The Engine announces investments, $200 mln fund

MIT-backed The Engine announced its first batch of seven investments and revealed that it has closed on $200 million for its first fund, 33 percent more than the $150 million it said it initially raised. MIT is one of its investors, committing $25 million to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based organization, which incubates and supports startups. The Engine was founded last year and is led by CEO and Managing Partner Katie Rae. It aims to back 40 to 50 startups in the next few years form Fund I.

Shasta develops camera-focused fund as computer-vision sector heats up

Social Capital forms blank check company Hedosophia to buy unicorns

Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings, a blank check company formed to acquire a large private technology company, raised $600 million by offering 60 million units at $10, exceeding its $500 million initial target. Social Capital Hedosophia, which trades on NYSE under the symbol IPOA.U, will operate as a special purpose acquisition company. A SPAC, also known as a blank check company, will use the proceeds to provide a source of liquidity for private companies that will become part of the holding company, and investors can sell their shares on the NYSE. Social Capital CEO and founder Chamath Palihapitiya, who is chairman and CEO of Hedosophoia, told the Financial Times that he was targeting unicorn companies with a valuation of between $3 billion to $20 billion.

Samsung unveils $300 mln fund to focus on automotive tech

Samsung announced it has formed a $300 million Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund to focus on the automotive sector. The fund launch follows its $8 billion acquisition of audio and auto parts supplier Harman earlier this year. The Samsung fund will invest in such connected car segments as sensors, machine vision, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, cloud services, mobile connectivity, automotive-grade safety and security. The first investment is TTTech, a Vienna, Austrian-based provider of networked safety controls for the automotive industry.