Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

The prestigious venture firm Sequoia Capital likes to say all its partners invest in every sector. But more than anyone, the growth-stage partner Grady, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, has led the firm's AI strategy, making bets on companies including OpenAI, Harvey, and Hugging Face. Along with another partner, Sonya Huang, Grady also wrote a public blog post on Sequoia's website inviting AI founders to email them their ideas and pitches directly. A successful deal for Sequoia is more about investing in the best people rather than at the best price, Grady told Business Insider last year. "We don't make money by getting a good deal," he said.See Business Insider's full <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://businessinsider.com/ai-power-list-2024">AI Power List</a>

Sequoia Capital partner Pat Grady is redefining AI investments

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Elon Musk's OpenAI rival, xAI, says it just raised $6 billion in funding from investors.</li><li>The AI startup is backed by VCs like Sequoia Capital and Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk's</a> xAI just took a critical step in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-ai-startup-raising-funding-war-chest-openai-report-2024-1">building up its war chest</a> to take on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-ceo-career-net-worth-ycombinator-prepper-2023-1">Sam Altman's</a> OpenAI.The AI startup said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://x.ai/blog/series-b">blog post</a> on Sunday that it had raised $6 billion for their Series B funding round.The company, which is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-new-company-xai-website-2023-7">barely a year old</a>, counts among its investors prominent VCs like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andreessen-horowitz-ai-reshuffle-a16z-2023-11">Andreessen Horowitz</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sequoia-capital-generative-artificial-intelligence-boom-venture-capital-2023-5">Sequoia Capital</a> as well as Saudi Arabia's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-kingdom-holding-500-million-russia-energy-2022-8">Kingdom Holding</a>."There will be more to announce in the coming weeks," Musk said in an <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1794964816211087660">X post</a> on Monday morning.The mercurial billionaire said in a subsequent <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1794975702812426595">X post</a> that xAI's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/business-valuation-an-introduction-to-prepost-money-valuation-2011-4">pre-money valuation</a> was $18 billion. The financial term refers to the value of a company before any equity investment is made.Sunday's announcement marks the first time xAI has talked about its fundraising efforts. Musk had <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1748528116127912030">repeatedly denied </a><a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1750995501560807465?s=46">earlier reports</a> from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-20/musk-s-xai-secures-500-million-toward-1-billion-funding-goal">Bloomberg</a> and the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/28983bdc-2a38-4103-beae-08d9542ab69d">Financial Times</a> about xAI's outreach to investors.The influx of funding will be essential for Musk, who has envisioned xAI as an alternative to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-openai-company-chatgpt-elon-musk-founded-2022-12">OpenAI</a>, a company he'd cofounded with Altman. Musk <a target="_blank" href="https://openai.com/blog/openai-supporters">left the OpenAI board</a> in 2018.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chat-gpt-2023-1">ChatGPT</a> maker was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-valued-at-80bn-following-deal-employees-cash-out-report-2024-2">valued at $80 billion or more</a> following a deal that allows staff to cash out their shares, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/technology/openai-artificial-intelligence-deal-valuation.html">The New York Times</a> reported in February, citing people familiar with the deal.Musk <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-sues-sam-altman-betrays-openai-mission-chatgpt-2024-3">filed a lawsuit</a> against OpenAI in February, where he accused the company of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft.A year ago, Musk expressed disappointment in what OpenAI had become, saying that it was "<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1626516035863212034?s=20">not what I intended at all.</a>""OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it 'Open' AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft," Musk wrote on X.

Elon Musk's xAI says it just raised $6 billion in funding, pulling in big bucks from Sequoia Capital and Saudi Arabia

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="23582686" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tim-tully" source="keywords">Tim Tully</keyword> taught himself to code when he was six and went to school for computer science.</li><li>He started his career in software engineering at startups and later worked at Yahoo and Splunk.</li></ul>Venture capitalist Tim <keyword id="23582684" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tully" source="keywords">Tully</keyword>'s programming experience began at age six, when he taught himself to write code and make video games on an Apple II computer. Fast-forward to the present: Tully has a data center in a basement and is known to deploy software and try out startups' APIs when he's sussing out potential investments. He's also written code for some of his portfolio companies. Using his technical expertise as a former programmer and CTO, Tully is helping amass an impressive portfolio of AI startups at <keyword id="23582685" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="menlo" source="keywords">Menlo</keyword> Ventures. The firm, which has backed Chime, Warby <keyword id="20325026" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="parker" source="keywords">Parker</keyword>, Roku, and Uber, has historically focused broadly on early and growth-stage startups across the consumer, enterprise, and healthcare sectors. More recently, Menlo has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/menlo-ventures-naomi-ionita-investor-3-lessons-growth-saas-2020-12">planted its flag in the generative AI space</a> as frenzy in the sector is creating new <keyword id="19926959" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="opportunities" source="keywords">opportunities</keyword> for early-stage startups. The firm closed a <a target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/16/menlo-ventures-closes-on-1-35b-in-new-capital-targets-investments-in-ai-startups/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJVkFGzX14zh8oeHL-Sgmmj-ke1177qyd4BoL1N3eHbqg52MVVO8w7Q3RR0puoRkQ4EVSoyHdffSI5guxcbH9Yl6z1fudXp_WheLfxYB72QiEo_1inwN7UZNPAOLctyEfQ-jGLcCesRz0ajnDsJPg8AVE2iYArspH-l5HM_X7Pbp">$1.35 billion fund</a> last year specifically for investing in fledgling AI startups, and it's already been an early backer of AI powerhouses including vector database <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chroma-weaviate-pinecone-raise-funding-a16z-index-vector-database-ai-2023-3">Pinecone</a>, LLM developer <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/researchers-at-anthropic-taught-these-ai-chatbots-how-to-lie-2024-1">Anthropic</a>, enterprise data cleaner Unstructured, conversational AI system Neon, automated data cleanup program Cleanlab, and many others. For Tully, one of Menlo's key check-writers in this space, having a background in computer science and operating experience has been necessary when it comes to evaluating potential AI investments. "I'm still coding every day," he said. "That really helps me for my job, and I think it's really hard to be a VC and invest in a deeply technical product if you don't have a technical background. I'm actually using this stuff." <h2>Before becoming a VC, Tully worked at startups and led engineering teams</h2>For Tully, who grew up in the Bay Area, computers and games have always been a core part of his life. He had an Apple II computer and cassette tape player that plugged into a TV on a rolling cart, which is where he taught himself to code by playing video games and reading through manuals. He said an early game of his, coded using Applesoft BASIC, was a text-based adventure game in which players would get lost in a forest and navigate through a maze, answering a series of fork-in-the-road puzzles to chase down the treasure. As a teenager, Tully had a bank of modems at his mom's house to organize a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/the-lost-civilization-of-dial-up-bulletin-board-systems/506465/">bulletin board system</a> – a pre-internet computer server that other users could dial into – to host pirated video games. After college, Tully gravitated toward startups, becoming a software engineer at the dot-com-era companies iScale and Pillar Data Systems, the latter of which he left in 2003 and was eventually acquired by Oracle. He spent 14 years at Yahoo, working his way up to lead engineering for Yahoo, AOL, and its media properties, which included the Huffington Post, Tumblr, Polyvore, and Flurry, and managing a team of more than 850 people. In 2017, Tully joined data analytics company Splunk as its chief technology officer and senior vice president of product and engineering and managed the company's migration to the cloud. While he loved his team at Splunk, Tully said that he was always interested in the investing side of the tech world, and his interest was further piqued by his wife, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sequoia-partner-jess-lee-advice-for-startup-founders-2022-9">Jess Lee</a>, who has been a partner at Sequoia since 2016. "Growing up in the Valley, I had this in the back of my mind, and I thought that as a technical person, I could do the job differently, so I began to take some calls," he said. One of those calls eventually turned into a job offer at Menlo Ventures, and Tully joined the firm as a partner in 2021. "This was an opportunity to be part of the next wave of folks that joined the firm, which was exciting to me because I'm a builder," he said. <h2>At Menlo Ventures, Tully writes checks for AI startups at the app and infrastructure layers</h2>Since joining Menlo, Tully has invested in nine startups, including Pinecone, which raised a $28 million Series A in 2022; Neon, which raised a $46 million Series B in 2023; Unstructured, which raised a $40 million Series B in 2024; and JuliaHub, an AI programming startup that raised $24 million in 2021. Another of his portfolio companies, AI quality management software startup True Era, was acquired by Snowflake earlier this year. For Tully, finding camaraderie with technical founders has been a winning strategy so far in his VC career. "My background helps me connect with technical founders because they want investors who they can talk shop with," he said. "I've managed teams and have been CTO of a public company." He's also written code as a way to help win over startups in the broader Menlo Ventures portfolio. In 2022, another Menlo partner, Naomi Pilosof Ionita, was working to land a deal for fintech startup Orb. The company didn't have a software development kit, so Tully wrote them one, printed out a link to the devkit, rolled it into a scroll, and delivered it to the startup. That helped seal the deal, and Ionita led Orb's $14 million Series A funding round. While Menlo has been bolstering its portfolio with AI-infrastructure startups, Tully said he's excited about opportunities at the application layer. This means looking at various vertical AI categories, including legaltech — he wrote a $14 million seed check for the AI legal assistant Eve, which was announced in 2023 — as well as marketing and automation. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, Tully is also trying out various AI coding copilots, and he says that the tech is making him "50-60% more productive if I'm being honest." "I'm really high on AI coding assistants," he said. "Opportunities in this space are pretty compelling." Correction: October 8, 2024 -- An earlier version of the story misstated the year Pillar Data Systems was acquired by Oracle, which was in 2011, not in 2003, which was when Tully left the company. It also said that Menlo Ventures invested in Eve in 2022, and the correct year is 2023. .

Tim Tully taught himself to code at age 6 and still codes daily. Here's how computer science took him from startups to AI investing at Menlo Ventures.

Top VC firm <keyword id="136147" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sequoia-capital-india" source="Orion">Sequoia Capital India</keyword> has sold 17.2 crore shares of <keyword id="830092" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="zomato" source="Orion">Zomato</keyword> in two tranches in the open market, lowering down its stake in the online food aggregator to 4.4 per cent from earlier 6.41 per cent. In a fresh filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (<keyword id="35140" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="bse" source="Orion">BSE</keyword>), Zomato said Sequoia Capital India sold some 6.7 crore shares in the September 6-October 14, 2021 period and 10.5 crore shares between June 27-August 25, 2022. The stock sales were performed by <keyword id="14821825" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sequoia-capital-india-growth-investment-holdings" source="Orion">Sequoia Capital India Growth Investment Holdings</keyword> I and <keyword id="13302083" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sci-growth-investments-ii" source="Orion">SCI Growth Investments II</keyword>, according to Zomato. <keyword id="10639596" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sequoia-capital-india-investments-iv" source="Orion">Sequoia Capital India Investments IV</keyword> also received 45,153,346 incremental equity shares on August 10 owing to the acquisition of quick-commerce delivery platform Blinkit, which further has a lock-in period of one year. Sequoia Capital India joins a list of private market investors like Delivery Hero, Moore Strategic Ventures, and <keyword id="526777" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tiger-global" source="Orion">Tiger Global</keyword>, which have sold their shares in Zomato in the past months, either in open market or via block deals, as the online food delivery platform's stock gets hammered. On Friday, Zomato shares closed around Rs 61.85. Earlier this month, ride-hailing platform Uber sold its 7.8 per cent stake worth over $390 million in Zomato. Uber, which suffered around $707 million loss in its Zomato investment in the first half of this year, sold its share in the food delivery aggregator via a block deal on stock exchanges that has been bought by several global and Indian VCs. The Zomato block deal was executed at Rs 50.44 per share equivalent to 612 million or 7.8 per cent of total outstanding shares. In a statement to IANS, Zomato had said that "We are a public company and are not privy to what our shareholders are doing with their shares". According to the company, the losses for Blinkit are coming down every month -- from Rs 2,040 million (about $26 million) in January 2022 to Rs 929 million ($12 million) in July. The 10-minute delivery platform was acquired by Zomato for Rs 4,447 crore (about $568 million). SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/indices-end-marginally-higher-after-a-volatile-trading-session/articleshow/93802735.cms">Indices end marginally higher after a volatile trading session</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-uks-new-scale-up-visa/articleshow/93799259.cms">Here’s everything you need to know about UK’s new Scale-up visa</a>

Sequoia Capital offloads 2% of its stake in Zomato

<ul class="summary-list"><li>BlackRock has written off its investment in once-hot Indian tech company Byju.</li><li>The Indian education tech giant is facing legal and financial troubles.</li></ul>In another blow to education tech giant Byju's, investor BlackRock says its stake in the once-hot company is worth nothing.In 2022, the education tech company said it raised $800 million at a $22 billion valuation.BlackRock was the first investor to publicly signal the company's troubles. In a first-quarter summary for some of its funds, the asset manager valued its stake in Byju's at $0, a number that has not been previously reported. In October, BlackRock slashed its valuation of the startup to less than $1 billion, <a target="_blank" href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/11/blackrock-cuts-byjus-valuation-by-95-to-1-billion/">TechCrunch reported.</a>BlackRock invested in Byju's parent Think &amp; Learn through <a target="_blank" href="https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/literature/first-quarter-report/fqr-retail-blackrock-science-and-technology-trust.pdf">various</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/literature/investor-education/bcat-commentary.pdf">funds</a>, all of which appear to have written off the investment in recent filings.HSBC, which is not an investor in Byju's, said in a recent research note that Dutch tech investor Prosus' stake in Byju was worth nothing. Prosus owns nearly 10% of the company and invested about $500 million in Byju's."We assign zero value to Byju's stake amid multiple legal cases and funding crunch. Previously, we valued ~10% stake in Byju's by applying 80% discount to the latest publicly disclosed valuation," the HSBC analyst wrote.The Bengaluru-based company is facing significant turmoil.Earlier this week, a group of lenders asked a US court to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against Byju's subsidiaries <a target="_blank" href="https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/byju-s-now-worth-zero-hsbc-warns-prosus-amid-legal-financial-troubles-124060700146_1.html">over a $1.2 billion loan.</a> The company also <a target="_blank" href="https://inc42.com/buzz/byjus-slashes-salaries-for-new-sales-hires-by-more-than-90/">cut the salaries</a> of new sales hires by 90% in an attempt to cut costs, local outlet Inc42 <a target="_blank" href="https://inc42.com/buzz/byjus-slashes-salaries-for-new-sales-hires-by-more-than-90/">reported</a> on Thursday.Byju's investors, including Prosus, are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.business-standard.com/companies/news/byju-s-egm-shareholders-vote-to-remove-ceo-raveendran-and-his-family-124022300919_1.html">seeking the removal of its CEO</a>, Byju Raveendran, and his family members from the board. The company's India CEO left in April, and it missed filing its 2023 financial reports.The digital and physical tutoring company was seen as a star in the Indian startup scene and even sponsored the Indian cricket team until 2023. It is backed by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, and Tencent, among others.Byju's first gained popularity during the pandemic for its unique approach to learning. The company faced challenges in 2022 after students began returning to schools and expensive acquisitions affected its bottom line.The company planned to<a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-26/star-founder-broke-down-in-tears-as-crises-engulfed-byju-s"> go public through a SPAC deal</a> in 2022, which did not ultimately pan out.Byju's and BlackRock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that HSBC wrote about an investor's interest in Byju's. HSBC did not invest in Byju's.

India's once-hot startup Byju's was valued at $22 billion. Now, BlackRock says its investment is worth nothing.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11904329" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sequoia-capital" source="Orion">Sequoia Capital</keyword> is creating a new fund that will have up to $600 million to invest in <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword>. </li><li>The Sequoia Crypto Fund will focus on liquid tokens and <keyword id="12068706" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="digital-assets" source="Orion">digital assets</keyword>. </li></ul>Sequoia Capital has launched a new fund with up to $600 million of investment power that will focus on <keyword id="11895317" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cryptocurrencies" source="Orion">cryptocurrencies</keyword> as it delves deeper into the $2 trillion market. "While we've invested in both equity and tokens over the last five years, many have asked that we take a more active role in managing our tokens, including staking them, providing liquidity, participating in governance and trading through their platforms," the <a href="https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/a-block-step-forward/">firm said on its website Thursday</a>. "Our network of builders at Ethereum, Solana, major DeFi protocols and beyond have urged us to do the same. With that, between $500 million and $600 million will be available for the firm's new Sequoia Crypto Fund to focus on liquid tokens and digital assets. "Our goal with this fund is to participate more actively in protocols, better support token-only projects, and learn by doing ourselves," Sequoia partners Michelle Bailhe, Shaun Maguire and Alfred Lin said in the statement. Sequoia Crypto Fund is one of the firm's first sub-funds under its new capital structure called <a href="https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/the-sequoia-fund-patient-capital-for-building-enduring-companies/">Sequoia Capital Fund</a>, an open-ended liquid portfolio. Sequoia Capital in recent activity has led funding for Fireblocks, a cryptocurrency custody platform that works with more than 800 institutions. The company as of last month had raised more than $1 billion since it was established in 2018, as crypto infrastructure has become a hot area of broader investment interest. Sequoia said Thursday it plans to keep supporting open-source research and to continue partnering with crypto teams across various stages of their expansion.Started in 1972, Sequoia Capital has invested in a number of companies that have evolved into tech industry heavyweights including <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/goog-stock">Alphabet's Google</a>, Yahoo, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/pypl-stock">PayPal</a>.

VC firm Sequoia Capital is launching a fund with up to $600 million to invest in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets

<ul class="summary-list"><li>VC giant Sequoia Capital told investors it's marking down its investment in FTX to zero.</li><li>FTX had asked Binance for help amid a liquidity crunch, Binance's CEO said on Tuesday.</li></ul>Venture capital giant Sequoia Capital says it's marking down the full value of its investment in FTX to zero dollars, amid uncertainty over the crypto exchange's liquidity crunch.The VC firm wrote a letter to its investors informing them of their decision to fully write down an around $214 million investment in FTX's US and global businesses. The letter was posted on VC firm's <a href="https://twitter.com/sequoia/status/1590522718650499073/photo/1">Twitter account</a> on Wednesday."The full nature and extent of this risk is not known at this time. Based on our current understanding, we are marking our investment down to $0," Sequoia added in the letter. Sequoia Capital also sought to reassure investors that its exposure to FTX was "limited.""We are in the business of taking risk. Some investments will surprise to the upside, and some will surprise to the downside," Sequoia added.Sequoia wrote to its investors after a stunning turn of events on Wednesday which saw <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-cryptocurrency-rescue-deal-alameda-ftt-2022-11">Binance pulling out of plans</a> to acquire FTX <a href="https://twitter.com/binance/status/1590449161069268992">due to issues</a> "beyond our control or ability to help."This followed a bizarre sequence of events which started over the weekend after <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-acquisition-sam-bankman-fried-insolvency-rumors-contagion-fears-2022-11">Sam Bankman-Fried</a>, the CEO of FTX and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zhao-changpeng-binance-billionaire-crypto-mcdonalds-fast-food-wealth-lifestyle-2022-10">Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao</a> exchanged barbs on Twitter, after Zhao tweeted Binance would be liquidating all its FTT tokens — a crypto token native to FTX — due to "recent revelations." Zhao didn't specify the reasons behind his decision, but a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet/">November 2 CoinDesk report</a> had been stoking market fears about FTX's liquidity position, at a time when some <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitmart-crypto-hack-exchange-suspends-withdrawals-stole-millions-floki-shiba-2021-12">smaller crypto exchanges</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/crypto-trading-and-lending-platform-vauld-stops-customer-withdrawals-trading-and-deposits/articleshow/92651912.cms">suspended withdrawals to users</a>.Bankman-Fried then appeared to hit back at Zhao on Monday, tweeting: "a competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors," per media reports including <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-08/binance-s-zhao-sbf-ed-ftx-s-bankman-fried">Bloomberg</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/ftxs-founder-dismisses-balance-sheet-concerns-false-rumors-2022-11-07/">Reuters.</a>But the damage had been done and the tiff weighed on market sentiment, sparking a selloff and a rush for withdrawals. At FTX, about $6 billion was withdrawn in 72 hours before Tuesday morning, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/crypto-exchange-ftx-saw-6-bln-withdrawals-72-hours-ceo-message-staff-2022-11-08/">Reuters</a> reported, citing a message Bankman-Fried sent to staff.Both Bankman-Fried and Zhao then appeared to have made up. In a whiplash-inducing about-turn, Bankman-Fried announced the deal with Binance, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-prices-bitcoin-bnb-binance-ftx-takeover-liquidity-crunch-sbf-2022-11">Zhao said</a> Binance "signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch."But the drama did not end there, and Binance about-turned again on Wednesday, bailing on the acquisition, which sent the crypto market tumbling. This was after Bankman-Fried told investors that FTX faced a shortfall of up to $8 billion and needed emergency funding to avoid bankruptcy, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/ftx-investors-told-that-without-more-capital-bankruptcy-likely">Bloomberg</a> reported on Thursday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-prices-bitcoin-bnb-binance-ftx-takeover-liquidity-crunch-sbf-2022-11">Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies</a> fell Wednesday following Binance's announcement that it was walking away from the acquisition of FTX. As of 11.48 p.m. ET, Bitcoin and Ether were both down by around 11% over the last 24 hours, according to <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/">CoinMarketCap,</a> extending a crypto slump this year.

Sequoia Capital says it's marking its investment in FTX down to $0 as a liquidity crunch threatens to put the crypto exchange into bankruptcy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>VC firm Sequoia Capital removed a lengthy September profile of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried this week.</li><li>The URL now shows Sequoia's note telling investors it's marking down its $214 million FTX investment to $0.</li></ul>Sequoia Capital removed its glowing profile of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried that was making the rounds online this week and replaced it with a somber update about its investment in the company, which has cratered and resulted in a complete write-off for the VC firm.The <a href="https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-spotlight/">VC firm self-published the profile</a> of 30-year-old Bankman-Fried in September, chronicling his <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/">ascent to a net worth</a> of $24 billion and crypto tycoon status, writing that he "himself has amassed more wealth in a shorter period of time than anyone else, ever."However, the 13,000-word profile was no longer available on Sequoia's website on Thursday as Bankman-Fried and FTX are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/ftx-investors-told-that-without-more-capital-bankruptcy-likely">reportedly</a> scrambling to raise around $8 billion from investors to save the company for bankruptcy.In its place, <a href="https://www.sequoiacap.com/companies/ftx/">Sequoia posted an update</a> dated November 9, 2022, where it says, "A liquidity crunch has created solvency risk for FTX and its future is uncertain."The update says "many" have also been affected by the "unexpected" crunch, but that the VC firm's fiduciary responsibility is to its LPs. Sequoia <a href="https://twitter.com/sequoia/status/1590522718650499073">linked to its letter</a> about marking down its investment in FTX from around <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-investment-zero-vc-firm-sequoia-capital-says-binance-2022-11">$214 million to $0</a>."For FTX, we believe its fiduciary responsibility is first to its customers, and second to its shareholders," the update says. "As such, FTX is exploring all opportunities to ensure its customers are able to recover their funds as quickly as possible."A spokesperson for Sequoia did not respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.The profile, which had an estimated read time of over an hour, covered the founder's story, from learning to trade in New York's financial district trading shop, Jane Street, to the founding of his trading company Alameda Research and subsequent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-crypto-king-sam-bankman-fried-rise-and-fall-2022-11#by-the-start-of-2019-bankman-fried-and-his-team-were-fervently-working-towards-building-their-own-crypto-exchange-after-four-months-coding-they-launched-ftx-in-may-12">founding of cryptocurrency platform</a> FTX.Bankman-Fried's utilitarian upbringing and meeting with Will MacAskill, one of the founders of the effective altruism movement, are highlighted in the article to explain his <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-crypto-billionaire-profile-ftx-exchange-history-investors-2021-12?r=US&amp;IR=T&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">decision-making and reputation</a> for donating to charity.Bankman-Fried's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-league-of-legends-investor-pitch-meeting-2022-11">first pitch meeting</a> with the VC firm's partners during its Series B round is also included in the profile, in which the founder laid out his vision to investors for FTX to become a super-app — all while he was playing the video game "League of Legends" on his computer."We were incredibly impressed," Michelle Bailhe, a partner at Sequoia who set up the meeting, recounted in the article. "It was one of those your-hair-is-blown-back type of meetings."The now-removed Sequoia profile <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221027181005/https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/sam-bankman-fried-spotlight/">is still available to read</a> on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

FTX investor Sequoia removed its glowing 13,000-word profile of Sam Bankman-Fried and replaced it with somber note after its investment cratered to $0

<ul class="summary-list"><li>VC firm <keyword id="13647765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sequoia-capital-india" source="Orion">Sequoia Capital India</keyword> has spoken out about fraud allegations at multiple <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="startups" source="Orion">startups</keyword> it's backed.</li><li>The firm said it was difficult to conduct due diligence on early-stage businesses.</li></ul><keyword id="11904329" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sequoia-capital" source="Orion">Sequoia Capital</keyword> India, a major investor in Southeast Asian startups, has said due diligence on early-stage startups is tough as four of its portfolio companies face fraud or misconduct allegations.<a href="https://india.sequoiacap.com/build/corporate-governance-the-cornerstone-of-an-enduring-company/">In a blogpost not attributed to a particular author</a>, the firm said: "Recently some portfolio founders have been under investigation for potential fraudulent practices or poor governance. These allegations are deeply disturbing."The post added: "It is easy to think of this issue as ascribed to poor due diligence. But let's remember that when investments are made at seed or early stage there is hardly a business to diligence. Even later stage investors can face negative surprises, post investment, if there is willful fraud and intent."<keyword id="12116150" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sequoia" source="Orion">Sequoia</keyword> didn't name check any firms, but one of these negative surprises has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zilingo-ceo-suspended-accounting-probe-singapore-startup-report-2022-4">Zilingo</a>, a Singapore-based fashion e-commerce startup first backed by Sequoia in 2015 and estimated to be worth $970 million. <keyword id="13616941" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="zilingo" source="Orion">Zilingo</keyword> earlier this month suspended its cofounder and CEO Ankiti Bose amid a financial probe into its accounting practices. A lawyer acting for Bose called her suspension "unfair" in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-14/sequoia-s-singh-leaves-zilingo-board-amid-accounting-probe">a statement to Bloomberg</a>.Sequoia and another backer, Temasek, raised their concerns with Zilingo's board. Sequoia's Shailendra Singh subsequently resigned as director of Zilingo's board, Bloomberg reported.Three other Sequoia-backed startups are also under scrutiny.In mid-March, Indian news media reported that EY India was investigating social e-commerce platform <a href="https://inc42.com/buzz/trells-founders-under-scrutiny-for-financial-irregularities/">Trell</a> for alleged financial irregularities. The same month, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/tax-officials-raid-zetwerks-offices-founders-homes-suspecting-tax-evasion/articleshow/90293975.cms?from=mdr">Zetwerk Manufacturing</a> was reportedly raided by Indian tax officials over alleged tax evasion concerns. Also in March, financial platform <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ashneer-grover-loses-singapore-arbitration-bharatpe-probe-to-continue/articleshow/89887218.cms">BharatPe's</a> cofounder Ashneer Grover was <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/01/bharatpe-founder-ashneer-grover-siphoned-off-money-fintech-startup-says/">accused of misappropriating funds</a> by the firm and quit as CEO. Sequoia in its post called for better "guardrails" for the startup ecosystem, such as agreeing new rules around corporate governance, and said startup "boards can only work with the information shared with them" to uncover wrongdoing.Sequoia's post highlights the risks of investing in early-stage startups, where <keyword id="11897927" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="venture-capital" source="Orion">venture capital</keyword> firms plow cash into unproven companies, often trusting in a founder's vision more than the solidity of their business model. The firm wrote that a startup's board "is not responsible to investigate on an ongoing basis" for potential bad behavior unless it's explicitly flagged up.But some regional investors shot back at suggestions that the wider ecosystem was at fault."Sequoia India, caught with their pants down with 4 portfolio companies. Decides to blames the 'eco-system,'" wrote Sam Gibb, managing partner of Singapore-based fintech investor Resolution Ventures, <a href="https://twitter.com/samngibb/status/1515837214499827714">on Twitter</a>. He said that bigger investors encourage a "growth-at-all-costs" mentality at startups, leading founders to step "over gray lines" to hit metrics."The interests of career VCs (where a bulk of remuneration is fixed) diverge from founders as status is more important to them than building lasting economic value," he wrote.Sequoia could not be reached over the phone for further comment.

Big-name investor Sequoia says startup due diligence is hard as 4 of its Asian portfolio companies face allegations of fraud or misconduct

Merchant payment and lending service provider <keyword id="7349800" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="bharatpe">BharatPe</keyword> on Thursday said it has acquired <keyword id="1917213" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="PAYBACK-India">Payback India</keyword> from <keyword id="91294" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="American-Express">American Express</keyword> and ICICI Investments Strategic Fund. The company, however, did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. This is the first-ever acquisition by BharatPe and will make Payback <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> a wholly-owned subsidiary of BharatPe, a statement said. Payback India - launched in 2010 - is a multi-brand loyalty programme with over 100 million members in the country. It has a network of more than 100 offline and online partners and allows its customers to earn and redeem points on every transaction at its partner merchant outlets. The acquisition of Payback India is in line with BharatPe's strategy to build a robust and engaged network of over 20 million small merchants by 2023, the statement said. With Payback India, BharatPe will be able to enhance its value proposition for the merchant partners, it added. Additionally, it will enable BharatPe to build a lucrative set of offerings for end customers, that will enhance footfalls at merchants and accelerate the growth of their businesses. As a result of the acquisition, all Payback India employees will become part of the BharatPe group. Suhail Sameer and Gautam <keyword id="2220" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kaushik">Kaushik</keyword> (Group Presidents at BharatPe) along with Sumeet Singh, General Counsel of BharatPe, have joined the Board of Payback India. The role of the senior leadership team at Payback India will be expanded to also work on the loyalty programme for the six-million plus merchants of BharatPe, it added. The team, led by Pramod Mahanta (MD Payback India) and Rijish Raghavan (Chief Executive Officer at Payback India), will be working closely with Gautam Kaushik to build a new version of Payback India. Notably, Kaushik was the CEO and MD of Payback India prior to joining BharatPe in February this year. The company (Payback India) will continue operating under its current name and there will be no impact on the existing customer and partner relationships with Payback India that will continue to roll out initiatives for customers across India, the statement noted. "With the acquisition of Payback India, we will be able to add a whole new dimension to our merchant value proposition. In addition to the range of payment and credit products which BharatPe offers to help merchants scale their business, we will also be able to drive more consumers to their stores," BharatPe co-founder and CEO Ashneer Grover said. He added that the company is committed to build India's largest and most engaged merchant network and this acquisition will be a "game-changer" in that regard. "...Users can collect points while shopping offline and online and benefit from exclusive offers in the usual way, now at even more merchants with BharatPe. We are convinced that the great Payback value for customers is guaranteed sustainably and in the long term with BharatPe as the new operator," Markus Knorr, CFO of Payback Global, said. BharatPe at present provides a single interface for all existing UPI apps and allows merchants to accept UPI payments for free, through the BharatPe QR. It also supports merchants to access credit and other value-added services. Founded in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani, the company currently serves over 60 lakh merchants across 100 cities. It processes over 10 crore UPI transactions per month (annualised Transaction Processed Value of more than USD 10 billion) and facilitated disbursement of loans totaling to over Rs 1,600 crores to its merchants since launch. BharatPe's investors include Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, <keyword id="6497288" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="steadview-capital">Steadview Capital</keyword>, Beenext, Amplo and <keyword id="122716" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sequoia-Capital">Sequoia Capital</keyword>. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/here-are-the-coolest-ios-15-features-coming-to-iphones/slidelist/83362145.cms">Here are the coolest iOS 15 features coming to iPhones</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/paraguay-could-become-the-second-country-to-adopt-bitcoin/articleshow/83363776.cms">After El Salvador, Paraguay considers Bitcoin adoption</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/google-microsoft-apple-and-many-others-are-hiring-for-various-it-roles-in-india/articleshow/83365305.cms">Google, Microsoft, Apple and many others are hiring for various IT roles in India —data scientists and cloud architects in high demand</a>

You Searched For "sequoia investments" and got 11 results

Sequoia Capital partner Pat Grady is redefining AI investments

Ben Bergman

Elon Musk's xAI says it just raised $6 billion in funding, pulling in big bucks from Sequoia Capital and Saudi Arabia

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan

Tim Tully taught himself to code at age 6 and still codes daily. Here's how computer science took him from startups to AI investing at Menlo Ventures.

Samantha Stokes

Sequoia Capital offloads 2% of its stake in Zomato

IANS

India's once-hot startup Byju's was valued at $22 billion. Now, BlackRock says its investment is worth nothing.

Shubhangi Goel

VC firm Sequoia Capital is launching a fund with up to $600 million to invest in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets

Carla Mozée

Sequoia Capital says it's marking its investment in FTX down to $0 as a liquidity crunch threatens to put the crypto exchange into bankruptcy

Huileng Tan

Sequoia Capital says it's marking its investment in FTX down to $0 as a liquidity crunch threatens to put the crypto exchange into bankruptcy

Huileng Tan

FTX investor Sequoia removed its glowing 13,000-word profile of Sam Bankman-Fried and replaced it with somber note after its investment cratered to $0

Britney Nguyen

Big-name investor Sequoia says startup due diligence is hard as 4 of its Asian portfolio companies face allegations of fraud or misconduct

Weilun Soon

BharatPe acquires Payback India from American Express and ICICI Investments Strategic Fund

PTI

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides