Natasha Mascarenhas
The Latest from Natasha Mascarenhas
Tom Brady and Salesforce Ventures pour millions into Class, a Zoom-friendly edtech startup
Class, an edtech startup that integrates exclusively with Zoom to make remote teaching more elegant, has raised $12.25 million in new financing. The round brings Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures an
Clearbanc rebrands its way into a unicorn
After five years of providing non-dilutive financing for founders, Clearbanc is tired of being only a bank. So, it’s rebranding, and has just raised a $100 million Series C at a $2 billion valuation
What does it take to create a startup ecosystem?
Say it louder for the people in the back: As tech grows bigger by the minute and venture capital adds dollar signs by the day, a startup hub’s success is not an either/or situation. The next Silicon
Do you need a SPAC therapist?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat th
Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform
Four years ago, MasterClass, a platform that sells celebrity-taught classes, invited chess legend Garry Kasparov to teach a class. He said yes, but soon realized that creating a message that could sat
Why expensive workout gear is actually cheap
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For this week’s deep dive Natasha and Alex wanted to dig in
Outschool is the newest edtech unicorn
Outschool, a marketplace providing small-group, virtual after-school activities for children, has raised a $75 million Series C led by Coatue and Tiger Global Management. TechCrunch first learned of t
Let’s talk about gaslighting and fundraising
“Most of the startups I give advice to about how to raise venture capital shouldn’t be raising venture capital,” an investor recently told me. While the idea that every startup isn’t venture-b
Cleo Capital is targeting $20 million for Fund II
Cleo Capital, a venture capital firm founded in 2018 by Sarah Kunst, is raising up to $20 million for its second fund, according to a source familiar with the matter. A recent SEC filing shows that Cl
Creator economy’s slow burn
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Danny and Grace were all here to chat through the we
So you want to raise a Series A
Bucky Moore, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, gives founders tactical advice on the process of raising a Series A round.
Discover how Duolingo started with CEO Luis von Ahn at Disrupt 2021
Before Luis von Ahn co-founded Duolingo, a gamified language-learning app used by hundreds of millions around the world, he was fixated on squiggly letters. The entrepreneur was a co-inventor of CAPTC
Walnut wants to crack open flexibility for healthcare bills
Healthcare insurance, if you’re lucky to have it, only covers a subset of conditions in the United States. As a result, patients can often get burdened with horror story charges, like huge deductibl
Saying hello to TechCrunch’s newest podcast: Found
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For this week’s deep dive, the Equity team sat down not with exte
Clubhouse launches payments so creators can make money
Clubhouse, a one-year-old social audio app reportedly valued at $1 billion, will now allow users to send money to their favorite creators — or speakers — on the platform. In a blog post, t
Nonobvious acquisitions are on my 2021 bingo board
At the end of 2020, I argued that edtech needs to think bigger in order to stay relevant after the pandemic. I urged founders to think less about how to bundle and unbundle lecture experience, and mor
Clubhouse will create billions in value and capture none of it
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat th
How is edtech spending its extra capital?
Edtech unicorns have boatloads of cash to spend following the capital boost to the sector in 2020. As a result, edtech M&A activity has continued to swell.
The disconnect between Y Combinator Demo Day and due diligence
Within 48 hours, the startup world experienced two momentous events: Y Combinator’s largest Demo Day ever, and the early investor exodus of Dispo, a photo-sharing app. Both events, while seemingly u
You can only invest if you promise not to read the fine print, OK?
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat th