🌐Fewer Small and Midsize Venture Funds Closing This Year Amid Sluggish Fundraising Environment
In 2024, only 118 U.S. venture funds under $500 million have closed, the lowest in years, as economic headwinds and a slowdown in tech IPOs and exits impact fundraising efforts. Despite fewer funds, some standout funds in sectors like cleantech and cybersecurity have successfully raised capital.
🌐Fewer Small and Midsize Venture Funds Closing This Year Amid Sluggish Fundraising Environment
In 2024, only 118 U.S. venture funds under $500 million have closed, the lowest in years, as economic headwinds and a slowdown in tech IPOs and exits impact fundraising efforts. Despite fewer funds, some standout funds in sectors like cleantech and cybersecurity have successfully raised capital.
At the start of 2018, the company attempted to launch an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which would enable it to enable payments (and earn the cash that comes from doing so). The initial signals were promising, especially given Telegram’s user base is already fairly crypto-savvy. It raised an initial tranche of cash – worth more than a billion dollars – to help develop the coin before opening sales to the public. Unfortunately, third-party sales of coins bought in those initial fundraising rounds raised the ire of the SEC, which brought the hammer down on the whole operation. In 2020, officials ordered Telegram to pay a fine of $18.5 million and hand back much of the cash that it had raised. There was another possible development: Reuters also reported that Ukraine said that Belarus could soon join the invasion of Ukraine. However, the AFP, citing a Pentagon official, said the U.S. hasn’t yet seen evidence that Belarusian troops are in Ukraine. The channel appears to be part of the broader information war that has developed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has paid Russian TikTok influencers to push propaganda, according to a Vice News investigation, while ProPublica found that fake Russian fact check videos had been viewed over a million times on Telegram. The next bit isn’t clear, but Durov reportedly claimed that his resignation, dated March 21st, was an April Fools’ prank. TechCrunch implies that it was a matter of principle, but it’s hard to be clear on the wheres, whos and whys. Similarly, on April 17th, the Moscow Times quoted Durov as saying that he quit the company after being pressured to reveal account details about Ukrainians protesting the then-president Viktor Yanukovych. "Markets were cheering this economic recovery and return to strong economic growth, but the cheers will turn to tears if the inflation outbreak pushes businesses and consumers to the brink of recession," he added.
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