Kate Clark
The Information
San Francisco, CA, United States
Contact Kate
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Kate:
The Final Breaths of Silicon Valley Bank
Silicon Valley Bank wasn't just a bank—it was a central artery in the venture capital circulatory system. VC firms recruiting new partners would tell them SVB could set them up with a mortgage in a day. The bank wined and dined the industry in Napa. It sponsored numerous events across the ... → Read More
Startups and VCs Scramble to Pay Employees After SVB’s Collapse
The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sowed panic at hundreds of startups and venture capital firms that banked there and now must seek new ways to pay employees and access funds from their investors and customers. Founders and VC firms, which also kept billions of dollars worth of assets ... → Read More
Silicon Valley Bank CEO Tells VC Clients to ‘Stay Calm’
Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker on Thursday told top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to “stay calm” amid concerns around a capital crunch that wiped nearly $10 billion off the bank’s market valuation. On a call, Becker said that “calls started coming and started panic.”He added that ... → Read More
OpenAI Rival Anthropic Raises Funding at $4.1 Billion Valuation
Spark Capital is leading a $300 million investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, one of the primary startup challengers to OpenAI, at a pre-investment valuation of $4.1 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. The deal follows a $400 million investment in the ... → Read More
Coatue Hires Snap Exec as New General Partner After String of Exits
Ben Schwerin, a senior vice president of content and partnerships at Snap who helps lead the company's TikTok competitor Spotlight, will join Coatue Management as a general partner, Schwerin told The Information. The new hire follows the departures of four general partners at the New York-based ... → Read More
Genesis Parent Company DCG Shutters Its Wealth Management Division
Digital Currency Group, the parent company of crypto broker Genesis and the publication CoinDesk, has shut down its wealth management subsidiary HQ Digital, according to a memo shared with one of its customers. HQ—yet another piece of collateral damage in the FTX implosion—ceased operations Jan. ... → Read More
The Star Sequoia Investor Behind FTX’s Collapse
Last week, Sequoia Capital partner Doug Leone compared FTX’s blowup to childbirth. “Like having a child, you forget the pain of having that child three months later, a year later,” he said on stage at a conference in Europe.Leaving aside the strange and inappropriate metaphor, Sequoia should not ... → Read More
Coatue General Partner Matt Mazzeo Departs to Launch Fund
Matt Mazzeo, a general partner at New York-based investment firm Coatue Management since 2018, has left to start his own investment fund, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Mazzeo’s deals at Coatue, one of the world’s biggest private tech investors, included augmented ... → Read More
Venture Firms’ $290 Billion ‘Dry Powder’ is About to Revive Startup Funding
Startup founders should expect a tidal wave of venture capital interest next year as a record level of dry powder pressures VC funds to step up their investment pace, according to a new analysis of these cash reserves. U.S. VC investors are sitting on $290 billion, including $162 billion ... → Read More
‘I Can’t Pay a Stupid Price Anymore’: Bessemer’s Levine on New $4 Billion Fund, ‘Stalemate’ With Founders, Crypto Bets
Venture capitalists aren’t striking many deals with tech founders these days. Initial public offerings are nonexistent and public tech stocks are down by half or more from a year ago. Yet some major venture firms, including the 48-year-old Bessemer Venture Partners, are raising more money than ... → Read More
Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six Targets $177.6 Million for Crypto Token Fund
Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, plans to raise $177.6 million for a new fund focused on investments in cryptocurrency tokens, according to fundraising materials viewed by The Information. The new fund, named Kryptós, will be the two-year-old ... → Read More
Sequoia Capital to Open New York Office, First U.S. Outpost Outside Silicon Valley
Sequoia Capital, the Menlo Park, Calif.–based venture capital firm known for its early investments in Google and Instagram, plans to open an office in New York City, its first U.S. facility outside Silicon Valley, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The move by Sequoia, ... → Read More
Disappearing Term Sheets and Down Rounds: Inside Venture Capital’s New Normal
On a Monday in February, founder Annafi Wahed downed two glasses of wine, called her best friend and had a good cry. A venture capitalist had just emailed to say he was walking back a verbal agreement he made late last year to lead a seed round in The Flip Side, her media startup, with a ... → Read More
Consumer VC Firm Maveron Raises $225 Million Amid ‘Serious Paradigm Shift’
Venture firm Maveron, whose well-timed investments in eBay and Drugstore.com helped it get through the 2000 dot-com bust with relative ease, had a tougher time during the financial crisis eight years later, when it was forced to downsize and narrow its focus to early-stage investing in consumer ... → Read More
VCs Brace for Crypto Winter as They Weigh Whether to Dial Back
This week’s crypto collapse has obliterated $400 billion in market value from cryptocurrencies including heavyweights bitcoin and ethereum. Now venture capitalists who have rushed into the sector have to grapple with a key question: Are they in or out? → Read More
More Startup Layoffs Are Coming as Investors Push Founders to Conserve Cash
Silicon Valley startups are facing hard choices: Cut jobs now or risk incurring worse pain later. Following a hiring and funding boom in 2021, technology startups have started to lay off workers to conserve cash. In the past month alone, more than 2,000 employees have lost their jobs at half a ... → Read More
In Denver, an Ethereum Conference Overflows With Burning Man Vibes and Anti-VC Sentiment
“You can’t help but walk around here and go, ‘What the fuck is this?’” John Paller is sitting in a small, white-walled meeting room somewhere inside the century-old Denver Sports Castle, a six-floor, 35,000-square-foot former Chrysler showroom that’s overdue for a renovation. The longtime Denver ... → Read More
Tiger Global Raised $11 Billion for New Venture Fund, Exceeding Target
Tiger Global Management, the New York–based hedge fund that made more private tech investments than any other firm last year, raised more than $11 billion for its latest venture capital fund as of January, according to a person familiar with the matter. The firm plans to close the fund, Private ... → Read More
Founders Fund Invests in Corporate Card Startup Ramp at $8 Billion Valuation
Venture capital firm Founders Fund has led a new investment in Ramp, a corporate credit card and spending management software startup that is less than three years old, at an $8 billion valuation, including the investment, said two people familiar with the matter. The deal, initially struck in ... → Read More
Crypto Startup MoonPay Valued at $3.4 Billion in First VC Funding
Crypto payments startup MoonPay is raising its first round of venture capital at a $3.4 billion valuation including the investment, according to two people familiar with the matter. Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management are co-leading the $400 million financing for the bootstrapped ... → Read More