Natasha Mascarenhas
TechCrunch
San Francisco, CA, United States
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Recent articles by Natasha:
There’s no ‘hacker house’ geared toward undergraduate women, so they created one of their own –
Hacker houses are making a comeback for entrepreneurs as remote work drags on. While founders are adapting to quarantine in style, a group of college women in their 20s aren’t waiting until they are done with undergraduate to plunge into the lifestyle themselves. Started by college juniors Coco Sack and Kendall Titus, Womxn Ignite is […] → Read More
Equity Dive: Edtech’s 2020 wakeup call –
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week, we’re doing a first-ever for the show and taking a deep dive into one specific sector: Edtech. Natasha Mascarenhas has covered education technology since Stanford first closed down classes in the wake of […] → Read More
As edtech grows cash rich, some lessons for early stage –
Last week, Udemy, an online learning marketplace, raised $50 million at a $3.32 million valuation, up from a $2 million valuation earlier this year. Language learning app Duolingo raised $35 million on a $2.4 billion valuation, up from a $1.65 valuation from earlier this year. The valuation bumps for both Duolingo and Udemy underscore just […] → Read More
Former Sequoia partner Amy Sun has already raised millions for her stealthy startup –
Former Sequoia partner Amy Sun, who left the famed venture capital firm just months ago, has already raised $3.8 million for her new startup, Daylight Labs, SEC filings show. Daylight Labs will be creating a solution to help gig economy workers make more money, Sun hints to TechCrunch. Still in the early product development stages, […] → Read More
Week in Review: Venture-backed loneliness –
Hello everyone and welcome back to Week in Review! Natasha here, subbing in for Lucas while he’s out. This week, we’ll talk about loneliness raising money and how Zoom fatigue is fueling innovation. For everyone celebrating, happy holidays! Keep on the lookout next week for more festive content, including the launch of our annual TechCrunch […] → Read More
A16z is now managing $16.5 billion, after announcing two new funds –
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has closed a pair of funds totaling $4.5 billion, the firm confirmed in a blog post this morning. The firm has raised $1.3 billion for an early-stage fund focused on consumer, enterprise, and fintech; and closed a $3.2 billion growth-stage fund for later-stage investments. The firm did not immediately respond to request […] → Read More
Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures targets $150M for third fund –
Sound Ventures, a fund co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, has filed paperwork indicating plans to raise a third fund at $150 million. Notably, the firm filed paperwork for the same total in 2018 for its second fund. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its plans to raise […] → Read More
Roblox files to go public –
Roblox, the child-friendly gaming company, filed to go public today. Its listing comes one day after the lending company Affirm initiated its own public offering and a mere two days after Airbnb’s filing. Roblox filed confidentially to go public in mid-October, but its numbers were unreleased until today when it published its S-1 document. The company […] → Read More
Transfr raises $12M Series A to bring virtual reality to manufacturing-plant floors –
The coronavirus has displaced millions of workers across the country. In order to recover, companies must focus on re-skilling their workforces in a measured and sustainable way. However, training and recruitment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for companies, a heavy investment that is hard to explain during volatile times. To Bharani Rajakumar, the […] → Read More
Affirm files to go public –
Affirm, a consumer finance business founded by PayPal mafia member Max Levchin, filed to go public this afternoon. The company’s financial results show that Affirm, which doles out personalized loans on an installment basis to consumers at the point of sale, has an enticing combination of rapidly expanding revenues and slimming losses. Growth and a […] → Read More
Virtual HQs race to win over a remote-work-fatigued market –
In retrospect, 2019 feels like the working world’s last dance with spontaneity. The pre-pandemic past is rife with conferences, running into co-workers and post-work happy hours. Now, as companies such as Microsoft and Twitter declare remote work as the future, the very existence of physical offices is unclear for the long-term. Yet, to a growing […] → Read More
Nestlings wants to help international students navigate a messy higher-ed environment –
The admissions process for international students applying to colleges is outdated. For starters, there is no Common App, the one-stop application that U.S. students are able to use to apply to a variety of schools in one go. Instead, international students must navigate thousands of schools, each having their own requirements and application process, on […] → Read More
Why some VCs prefer to work with first-time founders –
Repeat founders who have a proven track record, good references, and in the best cases, an exit to point to will have an easy time making inroads with venture capitalists. Earlier this week, for example, the former founders of Udemy and altMBA raised more than $4 million for a startup with no name or final […] → Read More
Equity shot: Airbnb’s IPO is finally here –
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today we have an Equity Shot for you about Airbnb’s S-1 filing, as it looks to go public before the year is out. First we get into Airbnb’s macro performance, which shows a stable picture historical revenue growth. […] → Read More
The DOJ has approved Mastercard’s acquisition of Finicity –
Federal regulators have approved Mastercard’s acquisition of Salt Lake City-based startup Finicity, which provides open-banking APIs. The deal is expected to go for $825 million. “We were notified that the Department of Justice completed its review of our planned acquisition of Finicity and has cleared it to move forward,” Mastercard wrote in a statement. “We […] → Read More
Will edtech empower or erase the need for higher education? –
The coronavirus has erased a large chunk of college’s value proposition: the on-campus experience. Campuses are closed, sports have been paused and, understandably, students don’t want to pay the same tuition for a fraction of the services. As a result, enrollment is down across the country and university business models are under unrelenting pressure. The […] → Read More
NextView Ventures closes its fourth fund with $89 million –
NextView Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital fund, has raised an $89.6 million fund, according to SEC filings. The firm’s fourth fund, its largest to date, is oversubscribed, with early documents indicating a $70 million goal. The NextView Ventures team did not immediately respond to request for comment. NextView Ventures was launched in 2010 by Rob […] → Read More
Getaround tops up $25M debt financing to its $140M Series E –
Silicon Valley peer-to-peer car rental startup Getaround has secured a $25 million loan from Horizon Technology Finance Corporation. The financing announcement comes one month after Getaround raised $140 million from investors, including SoftBank Vision Fund, Menlo Ventures, Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus’ Reinvent Capital. Getaround’s raise signals that the company is looking for new ways […] → Read More
As public investors reprice edtech bets, what’s ahead for the hot startup sector? –
Reports on November 9 that a COVID-19 vaccine looks incredibly effective moved the market. Software stocks sold off and long-suffering industries hammered by the pandemic saw their fortunes rise. It was odd to see airlines soaring and 2020 high-fliers like Zoom taking blows. But amidst all that noise, another sector that has great import for startups […] → Read More
Udemy and altMBA co-founders return to edtech with a new, stealthy business –
In 2009, Udemy co-founder Gagan Biyani tried to convince people to learn online through live classes. But what he discovered instead was that everyone wanted an online repository of content that allowed them to learn at their own pace, whenever and wherever. So, he canned his idea and Udemy created what is now called a […] → Read More