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

<ul class="summary-list"><li>On Tuesday, Wells Fargo said it racked up $935 million in impairments during the first quarter on its own investments including venture capital and PE bets. </li><li>Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest US bank by customer assets, said the investments involved were made through Norwest Venture Partners, Norwest Equity Partners, and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.</li><li>Overall, securities impairments took a $950 million bite out of the bank's net income for the quarter. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime">Visit BI Prime for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Wells Fargo said tanking valuations for its venture capital and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/private-equity">private equity</a> investments took a bite out of profits in the first quarter. The San Francisco-based bank said in its quarterly earnings report on Monday that it racked up $935 million in securities impairments "reflecting lower market valuations," primarily from its affiliated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/venture-capital">venture capital</a> and private equity partnerships, as well as its wholesale business.Specifically, the firm referred to impairments on investments and activity through its own Wells Fargo Strategic Capital arm and partners Norwest Venture Partners and Norwest Equity Partners. That hit represented 17% of the carrying values of these businesses' portfolio investments that are subject to an impairment assessment, the bank said. Overall, hits to debt and equity securities took a $950 million toll on the bank's net income for the quarter, cutting earnings per share by 17 cents. Wells Fargo reported an 89% drop in overall profit for the first quarter as it also set aside billions to cover loan loss reserves amid the pandemic's economic devastation. For weeks, analysts have warned investors that banks and other financial services firms are likely to turn in dismal results this earnings season as US stocks logged the worst first quarter in years and interest rates cratered.A Wells Fargo spokesperson responded to a request for further comment by referring to the statements made within the bank's earnings presentation. Norwest Venture Partners and Norwest Equity Partners representatives did not respond to requests for comment. Business Insider could not determine which investments were impacted by the impairments. When asked by an analyst about whether any near-term reversal to write the equity investments back up was in the cards, Wells Fargo CFO John Shrewsberry pointed to the economic uncertainty that has been created by the coronavirus pandemic. "I wouldn't expect that to happen in the early stages of a recession, if that's where we are in the next few quarters," he said, according to a call transcript from the platform Sentieo. "Obviously, there are lots of ways to earn that back over the life of those investments, but it will take a while for that to reveal itself."Palo Alto, California-based Norwest Venture Partners, to which Wells Fargo is the main institutional limited partner, has invested in startups that have seen public market debuts in recent years, like <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/uber-technologies-publicly-listed-company-initial-public-offering-2019-5-1028189839">Uber</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spotify-stock-price-ipo-ticker-time-what-to-expect-as-the-streaming-music-giant-goes-public-2018-4">Spotify</a>, and acquisitions like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/plaids-ceo-discusses-building-controls-around-customer-data-2020-2">Plaid</a>.It's also backed companies that have had a tumultuous time more recently. Knotel, a New York-based flexible-office provider that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/office-space-startup-knotel-raises-60-million-from-venture-firms-1540313381">raised $50 million from Norwest Venture Partners in 2018</a>, has struggled with a backlog of payments and has stopped paying rent for some locations, Business Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/knotel-stops-paying-rent-landlords-commission-fees-to-cushman-cbre-2020-4">previously reported</a>. Knotel also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/knotel-cuts-employees-as-coronavirus-hits-flexible-office-hard-2020-3">laid off or furloughed</a> half of its staff last month. Norwest Venture Partners has also backed real-estate startup Opendoor in multiple funding rounds. Business Insider reported in March that Opendoor had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ibuyers-pause-purchases-as-coronavirus-precautions-take-effect-2020-3">paused purchases,</a> along with other so-called iBuyers like Redfin and Zillow.The earnings hit highlighted the wider venture landscape's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/investor-advice-for-startups-during-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-3">historically difficult moment.</a> SoftBank, which has also backed Opendoor, warned earlier this week of a nearly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/softbank-shares-untraded-after-estimating-historic-loss-2020-4">$17 billion annual operating loss</a> in its massive tech-focused Vision Fund.Norwest Equity Partners, meanwhile, makes equity investments in the range of $30 million to $250 million-plus, and targets industries including agriculture, business services, consumer, distribution, industrials, energy, and healthcare, according to Wells Fargo's website. Wells Fargo Strategic Capital unit makes principal investments directly from the bank's balance sheet via equity and debt capital.Its investments this year have included DadeSystems, a financial technology firm, and Elliptic, a crypto-asset risk management provider. In 2019, the unit took part in an <a href="https://www.industriousoffice.com/blog/company-updates/industrious-raises-80-million-in-series-d-announces-profitability-in-2020">$80 million Series D</a> round for flex-office startup Industrious, as well as a <a href="https://www.reonomy.com/blog/post/reonomy-raises-60-million-in-series-d-funding-to-become-the-worlds-primary-source-of-property-intelligence">$60 million Series D</a> for commercial real-estate startup Reonomy. Norwest Venture Partners has also backed Casper, the online mattress vendor that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/casper-no-longer-unicorn-after-pricing-ipo-12-a-share-2020-2">went public earlier this year</a> in a disappointing stock market debut, and had invested in the online marketplace Jet.com, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-is-buying-jetcom-2016-8">Walmart bought</a> for $3 billion in 2016.When asked about the venture capital and private-equity portfolios on an earnings call in October 2019, then-CEO Allen Parker was optimistic about the firm's investments, though he noted deploying capital could be difficult since "asset prices are so high." He also noted a change in its accounting rules would lead to volatility for some of its investments' values. "It's a great time to be realizing from both private equity and venture portfolios," Parker, who retired from the bank a month later, said. "And so our teams have been selling into that and that's where we've been at the high point in the cycle for a while now." Broadly, analysts expect the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/s&amp;p_500">S&amp;P 500</a> financials sector to report a 20% drop in profits compared to a year ago, according to a Bank of America and FactSet analysis published on Monday. Revenue for the sector is expected to drop by nearly 4% over the same time.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/10-up-and-coming-fintechs-2019?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_leadgen&amp;itm_content=finance&amp;itm_campaign=10-up-and-coming-fintechs-2019-2"></a>

Wells Fargo took a $935 million hit as its own venture capital and private-equity bets sank in the first quarter. Here's a look at how it makes the investments.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>On Thursday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/norwest-raises-12-billion-fund-2016-1">Silicon Valley venture firm Norwest Venture Partners</a> announced its fifteenth fund - its largest to date. The $2 billion fund will be used across the firm's current range of geographies and industries.</li><li>Norwest managing partner Jeff Crowe told Business Insider that the fund's size is partially due to the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/growth-equity-firm-norwest-invests-in-rapidly-growing-activewear-brand-vuori-1028450818">growing size of funding rounds</a>. Today's<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pre-seed-investors-look-to-fund-smart-people-with-startup-ideas-2015-4"> pre-seed check</a> is the same size as a Series C check 15 years ago, he explained.</li><li>Even with the new funds, Crowe predicted that Norwest and other venture firms will stop pushing entrepreneurs to grow at all costs, burning venture dollars as they go, because the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-ipo-struggling-to-keep-investors-happy-uber-fiverr-lyft-2019-9">current slate of tech IPOs</a> - and the WeWork debacle - showed the public markets did not like that approach.</li><li>Crowe said the fund will work across the firm's consumer, enterprise, and healthcare teams in the United States, India, and Israel.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>The days of growing at all costs are over, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/norwest-raises-12-billion-fund-2016-1">Norwest Venture Partners</a> managing partner Jeff Crowe. But his firm just raised its biggest fund ever to back entrepreneurs that can balance growth with profitability.On Thursday, Norwest Venture Partners announced the closure of its fifteenth fund, its largest to date. The $2 billion fund doesn't signal a change in investment strategy, but rather an attempt to keep up with the ever-growing check sizes in Silicon Valley investment deals."Today, seed-stage checks are what a Series A check was 5 years ago, and a pre-seed check today was a Series C check 15 years ago," Crowe said. "That's why you see us raising a larger fund and other funds raising larger funds."Silicon Valley's ever-growing warchest has fueled speculation of an impending bubble burst for the last few years, with overhyped, unprofitable startups as proof that the startup world has been living in a bubble that is due, at any minute, to pop.The most telling recent example is the debacle around WeWork's aborted IPO, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-ipo-fiasco-adam-neumann-explained-events-timeline-2019-9">where it turned out that Softbank had pumped billions of dollars in venture funding into a company with no clear plan for achieving profitability </a>- raising concerns among Valley investors that the grow-at-all-costs mentality was creating ultimately unhealthy companies.Further proof came from the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-ipo-struggling-to-keep-investors-happy-uber-fiverr-lyft-2019-9"> flops that were the Uber, Lyft, and Slack public offerings.</a> All of those companies had raised billions in venture funding based on strong growth, but their profitability - or lack thereof - failed to impress Wall Street.Crowe believes this disconnect between financiers on the coasts might be enough to shock Silicon Valley back to reality."Even if an entrepreneur is raising as late-stage venture round, they get counsel that it's not just growth at all costs now," Crowe said. "You're seeing it now that public markets don't like that strategy. I just don't think that investors are going to put up with that anymore."<h2>Growth, but not at all costs</h2>That $2 billion, then, will go to entrepreneurs that set their sights on reasonable growth without sacrificing profitability, Crowe said. The firm diversified itself 12 years ago, and now has dedicated teams investing in consumer, enterprise, and healthcare startups across the United States, India, and Israel. The teams work out of the single fund, unlike other firms that raise separate, dedicated funds for each sector. But with the fresh funding, those teams have more freedom to write <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/growth-equity-firm-norwest-invests-in-rapidly-growing-activewear-brand-vuori-1028450818">bigger checks in either follow-on or new late-stage rounds</a>, Crowe said."We want to do more late-stage investing and growth equity deals," Crowe said. "But when we write those checks, those can be $50 million, $75 million, or even $100 million. You want to have the flexibility of a larger fund to do that."In order to justify such a large fund, however, Crowe and his team <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pre-seed-investors-look-to-fund-smart-people-with-startup-ideas-2015-4">will have to write those big checks</a> to generate even larger returns for their own limited partner base. He says the firm has a leg up on the relatively younger firms managing their own growth mega-funds, such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bessemer-ventures-ethan-kurzweil-why-bet-pagerduty-before-ipo-2019-4">Bessemer Venture Partners</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marc-andreessen-andreessen-horowitz-financial-services-2019-4">Andreessen Horowitz</a>, because Norwest has weathered economic downturns before and is prepared to help entrepreneurs navigate uncertain markets."Two or three years ago, an investor would put a bunch of money into a company and say the time is now, go scale as fast as you can. Don't worry about how much it costs," Crowe said. "If money is free and infinite you can do that, but money is not free or infinite for extended periods of time."Ultimately, it comes down to entrepreneurs growing at a reasonable pace, Crowe said. While exponential growth is enticing, it's just not realistic for most businesses and most founders. And in the event of a downturn, entrepreneurs are the ones left out in the cold if they can't figure it out."If the economy turns or markets turn hard and you're caught short, burning a lot of cash each month, and no investors come in to fund you, you're in a really precarious position," Crowe said. "You're not going to see entrepreneurs raising these huge funds to fund crazy growth, because you are basically seeing investors and board members saying that 2x growth is plenty fast enough."

Norwest Venture Partners just raised $2 billion for its biggest fund ever to keep up with skyrocketing Silicon Valley deal sizes

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">NVPNVP's general partners Jeff Crowe, Promod Haque, and Matt Howard</div></div></div>There's been some concerns of major <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research-venture-capital-2015">VC cutbacks since late last year</a>, but Norwest Venture Partners sees it as an opportunity - and it just raised another fresh $1.2 billion to take advantage of it.On Wednesday, Norwest Venture Partners announced that it closed a new $1.2 billion fund called Norwest Venture Partners XIII. That's the third $1.2 billion fund the 55-year old VC firm has closed since 2009, and brings the total capital under management to over $6 billion.The new fund comes on the heels of a strong 18-month period for the firm, during which it was able to cash out 22 of its portfolio companies, including Lending Club, the online lending platform that had one of the biggest tech IPOs in 2014, and Elemental, the mobile video startup acquired by Amazon for $296 million.And it shows Norwest plans to continue being one of the most active VC investors in the Valley, despite signs of a general pullback in the later stage and public market investments."You get some great opportunities when markets cool off, so you can also look at it as an opportunity to pick up good companies at better valuations," NVP's managing partner Jeff Crowe told Business Insider.Part of what makes that possible is NVP's diversified approach, which tends to be broader than some of its peers who focus on a specific industry or size of companies. NVP's portfolio companies are spread across all sectors, including <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword>, e-commerce, and healthcare, and vary in size, as it goes from seed to later stage rounds.For example, it's investors in more mature consumer upstarts like Uber and Spotify, while it's also invested in business software used by large companies, like Adaptive Insights and Blue Jeans Network."Our diversified strategy allows to stay productive, and that success allows us to continue to raise capital," managing partner Matt Howard said.One big reason NVP is able to raise such large rounds on a consistent basis is that almost all of its capital comes from Wells Fargo, who's always been its primary investor. Wells Fargo merged with Norwest Bank, where NVP was first created, in 1998, but the two firms are managed entirely separately.NVP last raised $1.2 billion in May 2014, after closing another $1.2 billion fund in late 2009. The firm is headquartered in Palo Alto, but recently opened an office in San Francisco, and expanded to Israel and India, as well. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-closing-stores-worldwide-retail-supercenter-express-neighborhood-texas-2016-1">Find out if you live near one of the 153 US Walmart stores that are closing this month</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="d0bW83MDE6hsoCBXLICH4MLVrvyUNweQ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

This 55-year old VC firm just raised its third $1.2 billion fund in a little over 6 years

Insurtech platform <keyword id="11089826" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="policygenius" source="Orion">Policygenius</keyword> has laid off 25 per cent of its workforce, less than 3 months after raising $125 million. <keyword id="14102871" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="jamisson-buck" source="Orion">Jamisson Buck</keyword>, a life insurance agent at Policygenius, wrote in a LinkedIn post late on Thursday that the company has made the "extremely difficult decision to lay off 25 per cent of its staff". "I unfortunately was part of that layoff. I want to thank the entire team for the last 19 months. It's now time to search for the next opportunity," wrote <keyword id="1069056" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="buck" source="Orion">Buck</keyword>. According to reports, the number of employees affected are around 170. In a statement to TechCrunch, <keyword id="14102872" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="jennifer-fitzgerald" source="Orion">Jennifer Fitzgerald</keyword>, CEO and co-founder of Policygenius, said that as with many companies, the sudden and dramatic shift in the economy has "forced us to adapt our strategy". "After careful consideration, we announced the difficult and necessary decision to reduce the size of our workforce. With these changes, we remain confident in the future of our company, our continued innovation, and the excellent service we continue to provide our customers every day," she was quoted as saying. During its Series E funding round in March, Policygenius said that its home and auto insurance business had "grown significantly, with new written premiums having increased "more than 6x from 2019 to 2021." "Policygenius continues to be the only tech-enabled brokerage and distribution platform to have successfully scaled and diversified across life and home and auto insurance," it had said in a statement. "The company will use the new capital to continue to invest in the growth of its core businesses of life, disability, home, and auto insurance, as well as new no-exam life insurance offerings and Policygenius Pro." Policygenius has raised over $250 million from investors such as <keyword id="6354544" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kkr" source="Orion">KKR</keyword>, <keyword id="14102873" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="norwest-venture-partners-and-revolution-ventures" source="Orion">Norwest Venture Partners and Revolution Ventures</keyword>. As VC money disappears amid economic slowdown, tech startups have laid off over 20,000 employees the world over since April, while more than 8,000 employees have lost jobs at the Indian startups led by edtech platforms.

Insurtech platform Policygenius lays off 25% of its workforce after raising $125 million in 3 months

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li style="font-weight: 400;">On Thursday Fungible, a data center infrastructure startup, announced $200 million in Series C funding led by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/softbank-vision-fund-100-billion-tech-unicorn-factory-2019-6">SoftBank Vision Fund</a>.</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">The round also included participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Mayfield, Redline Capital, and Walden Riverwood Ventures. </li><li style="font-weight: 400;">The company has raised $300 million since it was founded in 2015 by two Silicon Valley veterans: Juniper Networks founder and former CEO Pradeep Sindhu and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bertrand-serlet-leaving-apple-2011-3">former Apple engineering executive Bertrand Serlet</a>.</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">Sindhu told Business Insider that he disliked the constraints of a traditional pitch deck, and chose to hand-write his presentation on a tablet. </li></ul><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>Pradeep Sindhu wasn't trying to stand out when he started pitching his new data center infrastructure startup Fungible in 2015, but his slide deck quickly caught the eyes of some of Silicon Valley's biggest investors.Instead of putting together polished slides in PowerPoint or Keynote, Sindhu opted instead to draw them out on a tablet before presenting to potential investors. "The fact that my slides are hand drawn became a theme," Sindhu told Business Insider. "It's not that I wanted to stand out, but it's just how I like to work. I don't like PowerPoint because it constraints you. Being able to draw by hand allows me to be much more expressive."Sindhu's strategy seems to have paid off. On Thursday, Fungible announced $200 million in Series C funding led by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/softbank-vision-fund-100-billion-tech-unicorn-factory-2019-6">SoftBank Vision Fund</a>. Since 2015, Sindhu and his cofounder Bertrand Serlet have raised a total of $300 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Mayfield, Redline Capital, and Walden Riverwood Ventures. Read More: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tenderd-seed-funding-paul-graham-peter-thiel-2019-6">Here's how this founder convinced Silicon Valley heavyweights Paul Graham and Peter Thiel to invest $5.8 million in his startup - without using a pitch deck</a>"When you had 50 plus meetings with investors they tend to get blurred in your mind," Sindhu said. "One of the striking things I remember is hearing 'Oh boy, you're trying to do something big'."Sindhu also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-brief-juniper-networks-says-co-and-chief-technology-officer-pradeeep-sindhu-have-agreed-to-redefine-sindhus-duties-and-responsibilities-2017-2">founded Juniper Networks</a> and together with Serlet, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bertrand-serlet-leaving-apple-2011-3">a former engineering executive at Apple</a> responsible for helping create the Mac operating system, came to the conclusion that existing processors could be used to make data centers more efficient as more applications rely on increasingly complex math. The end goal, Sindhu explained, is to increase the efficiency of edge servers - that is, the servers that are physically closest to where the user is actually running their applications - which are increasingly called on to handle complex artificial intelligence and machine learning tasks. Here's the hand-written deck that landed these Silicon Valley veterans $300 million in funding from some of the biggest <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="enterprise">enterprise</keyword> investors.

A founder of Juniper Networks and a co-creator of Apple's Mac operating system used this hand-written pitch deck to raise $200 million from SoftBank for their new data center startup

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ProductivJody Shapiro, CEO and founder of Productiv</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Productiv, a startup founded by former head of Google Analytics Jody Shapiro, just raised $20 million in Series B funding, just 6 months after raising its Series A.</li><li>Productiv helps companies look at which cloud-based software and services their employees are using, and how they are using it.</li><li>"So much has changed in the industry overall, but especially in <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="enterprise">enterprise</keyword> with this disruptive aspect that SaaS has had," Shapiro told Business Insider. "This was hugely disruptive, there were literally hundreds of applications in use at any given enterprise and real struggle by CIOs to understand what they had...but also to really understand the value they delivered." </li><li>Rama Sekhar, a partner at investor Norwest Venture Partners, which led this latest round of funding, said Productiv is addressing a huge challenge that his firm saw in the market for cloud based software and subscription services by applying a Google Analytics model to enterprise software. </li><li>Shapiro said the company is raising funding because of the demand they're seeing in the market, and how quickly they've been able to grow. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summarymary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>With the spread of more and more software as a service tools, companies are being overwhelmed by the sheer amount cloud-based software and services their employees are using. It's that phenomenon that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-google-analytics-head-launches-accel-backed-startup-productiv-2019-3">led former head of Google Analytics Jody Shapiro to start Productiv, his new startup.</a>Productiv helps companies look at what software and services their employees are using, and how they are using them - so they can decide which of the subscriptions and suites they're paying for are actually adding value, and which can be cut.It's a strategy that's led to Productiv continuing to grow at a rapid clip: It just raised another $20 million in Series B venture funding, just <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-google-analytics-head-launches-accel-backed-startup-productiv-2019-3">6 months after it raised $8 million in a Series A round</a>. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with Okta Ventures and Accel participating. Shapiro saw a need for a service like Productiv's as the number of cloud based software tools - often called software as a service, or SaaS - in the world keeps increasing, making it harder for businesses to organize and make smart decisions.A big part of that proliferation: Where before, only the IT department had the authority to buy new software, now anybody at a company can go online, punch in their credit card, and start using whatever tool they deem appropriate."So much has changed in the industry overall but especially in enterprise with this disruptive aspect that SaaS has had," Shapiro told Business Insider. "This was hugely disruptive, there were literally hundreds of applications in use at any given enterprise and real struggle by CIOs to understand what they had...but also to really understand the value they delivered." <h2>Three big things</h2>Shapiro said he wanted to do three things with Productiv: give companies visibility into all the apps being used in its organization, look at what they're used for, and give advice into how to get maximum value out of these applications. Companies like Blue Diamond Growers, LiveRamp and Equinix currently use Productiv's product. Rama Sekhar, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, which led this latest round of funding, said Productiv is addressing a huge challenge that his firm saw in the market for cloud based software and subscription services. "Often times you've got hundreds of subscriptions to SaaS products, cloud storage products...it creates this nightmare situation for CIOs to monitor and manage and that's exactly the problem that Productiv solves," Sekhar told Business Insider. Shapiro started the company in 2018, after heading up <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/20-enterprise-startups-former-google-employees-2019-6#productiv-cofounder-and-ceo-jody-shapiro-1">Google Analytics, the search giant's tool for tracking website performance, for nine years</a> prior to that. He built up the Google Analytics enterprise business, and brought that experience with him to Productiv. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ProductivThe Productiv team, a startup founded by former head of Google Analytics, Jody Shapiro.</div></div></div>The company had its Series A funding round back in April, led by Accel, and raised $8 million. Shapiro said the company is raising funding again so soon because of the growth and demand it's seeing for the product. "The product has been coming along incredibly quickly, the customer reception has been incredible and so we're finding that our earlier hypothesis was spot on correct and enterprises were hungry for this kind of information," Shapiro said. The money from this new round will be used to continue building out the product and expanding the team - adding engineers and other employees, Shapiro said.Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at <a href="mailto:pzaveri@businessinsider.com">pzaveri@businessinsider.com</a> or Signal at 925-364-4258. You can also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tip-business-insider-securely-guide-signal-securedrop-2017-6">contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop</a>. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-airpods-review-wireless-headphones-sound-quality-battery-life-2019-8">Apple just revealed its AirPods Pro for $249, which feature noise cancellation. Here's everything that was wrong with the $159 pair of the wireless headphones.</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

The former head of Google Analytics just scored $20 million more for his startup Productiv, which is helping businesses manage the sheer number of software subscriptions they use

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dave will go public through a <keyword id="1817616" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="SPAC">SPAC</keyword> merger that will value the company at $4 billion.</li><li>The <keyword id="1880592" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="banking-app">banking app</keyword>'s board of directors includes billionaire <keyword id="219358" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mark-Cuban">Mark Cuban</keyword>.</li><li>Founded in 2017, Dave said it has helped Americans avoid billions of dollars in overdraft fees charged by banks.</li></ul>Dave, a banking app supported by billionaire Mark Cuban, on Monday <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210607005181/en/Dave-a-Leading-Banking-App-with-10-Million-Customers-Announces-Plans-to-Become-Publicly-Traded-Company-via-Merger-with-VPC-Impact-Acquisition-Holdings-III-Inc.">announced</a> it will go public through a merger with a blank-check company at a valuation of $4 billion.Dave will merge with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings III, a SPAC launched by Chicago-based Victory Park Capital, and includes a $210 million concurrent private placement led by Tiger Global Management. VPC completed its initial public offering for the SPAC in March.Founded in 2017, Dave said it has helped Americans avoid billions of dollars in overdraft fees charged by banks, and has assisted over 10 million customers over the years. "We believe the legacy financial system has failed to deliver and today, more than 150 million people need our help to build financial stability," Jason Wilk, Dave CEO, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210607005181/en/Dave-a-Leading-Banking-App-with-10-Million-Customers-Announces-Plans-to-Become-Publicly-Traded-Company-via-Merger-with-VPC-Impact-Acquisition-Holdings-III-Inc.">said in a statement</a>. The app is backed by Norwest, Section 32, Capital One, Mark Cuban Companies, The Kraft Group, SV Angel, and The Chernin Group.The company's board of directors includes Mark Cuban, Metromile CEO Dan Preston, Google Ventures Founder Bill Maris, and Norwest Venture Partner Parker Barrile.The merger is expected to close in the second half of 2021. Shares will trade under the ticker DAVE.SPACs, shell companies seeking to merge with private companies with the intention of taking them public, have exploded in popularity in the last year.In 2020, a total of 248 SPACs raised $83.3 billion according to <a href="https://www.spacanalytics.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SPAC Analytics</a>. But in the sixth month of 2021 alone, data already show 333 SPACs that have raised $104 billion, comprising 61% of initial public offerings.

Mark Cuban-backed banking app Dave to go public via SPAC merger at a $4 billion valuation

<keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> is planning to invest in online food delivery startup <keyword id="6358977" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Swiggy">Swiggy</keyword>, which also got attention from Chinese players like Ele.me that is backed by Alibaba. 
 
However, Amazon India and Swiggy are in initial discussions only and talks may fall apart too. 
 Bengaluru-based Swiggy, which competes with <keyword id="830092" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zomato">Zomato</keyword> and <keyword id="1666592" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Foodpanda">Foodpanda</keyword>, is getting lot of attention from strategic investors as it is fulfilling close to 40,000 orders per day. 
 
As per Morgan Stanley, online penetration in food delivery services was only 2 per cent in India while it was 20-30 per cent in China, the UK and Canada. 
 
"Everyone is talking since they are doing really well but it is not certain that a deal will be closed," sources told ET. 
 
Swiggy was founded by BITS-Pilani alumnus Sriharsha Majety, the CEO, and Rahul Jaimini and Nandan Reddy. 
 
ET reported Swiggy's executives have held three meetings with Amazon's India head Amit Agarwal. 
 
Swiggy has raised about $72 million so far and has investors including, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. 
 
"There are synergies in hyperlocal cross-utilisation. Amazon will get a big food business and a hyper-local fleet on whose backbone they can grow aggressively in grocery as well," an investor in the hyper-local market told ET. 
 
"For Swiggy, getting a high order density will lead to better utilisation of the hyper-local fleet leading to a sustainable business. After food, the next logical expansion would be grocery and Amazon Now does grocery, so maybe that's the synergy."

After Chinese investors, online food delivery startup Swiggy gets attention from Amazon India

<table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div>Jordy Leiser, CEO of STELLAService</td></tr></table><a href="http://stellaservice.com/">STELLAService</a>, a customer service rating company for e-commerce sites, has raised a $15 million Series B round led by Norwest Venture Partners.
Existing investors Battery Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, RRE Ventures and Forerunner Ventures all contributed to the financing.
In addition to raising the new round, STELLAService is publicly launching a paid data product that will help partnering e-commerce companies get customer service dirt on their employees, and their competitors.
"At the end of the day, many sites sell the same sort of items, and customer service becomes what makes a shopper pick one site over another," CEO Jordy Leiser tells Business Insider.
STELLAService pays thousands of mystery shoppers daily to buy items from sites like Nordstrom.com and Gilt Groupe, call customer service teams and ask questions, then return products. The mystery shoppers take detailed notes of the entire experience and rate the companies on response time, helpfulness, shipping time, and more. 
All of the data they collect gets put into the new subscription data product. Smaller companies pay a few thousand dollars for either annual or semi-annual reports. Larger companies, which are tracked daily by STELLAService's mystery shoppers, pay six-figures annually for monthly customer service reports. Leiser says the data product has been in private beta for a few months, and it already has paying customers.
STELLAService will use the new revenue stream as well as the Series B financing to hire a large research team and make the data product more comprehensive. The company will also be moving its headquarters to lower Manhattan; it's a finalist in Bloomberg's "Take the Helm" initiative, which is granting STELLAService $250,000 to move its office downtown. STELLAService is a New York-based startup that has raised more than $22 million to date.

STELLAService And Its Army Of Online Secret Shoppers Raise $15 Million Series B Round

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Norwest partner Sean Jacobsohn started collecting objects from failed businesses a year ago. </li><li>Since then, he's collected more than 500 items that sit in glass display cases in his office. </li></ul>Sean Jacobsohn fashions himself as something of a "scholar of failure."By day, the Bay Area venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners helps startup founders realize visions for their companies and weather the every day stresses of company building, focusing on early-to-growth-stage enterprise SaaS startups.But in his free time, Jacobsohn collects artifacts from times when those visions didn't exactly pan out.A longtime sports fan and collector, he's always gotten a kick out of finding rare items related to his favorite teams. But in November of last year, he attended a Golden State Warriors game where the facilities managers started handing out bobbleheads of player Jordan Poole that were sponsored by the then <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-crypto-implosion-sam-bankman-fried-loses-billions-sequoia-trillionaire-2022-11?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">actively collapsing FTX.</a>"I thought, this is a collector's item, how cool is this! " Jacobsohn told Business Insider.<div type="image" title="FTX Failure Museum Display" height="1200" width="900" msid="105497279" hostid="261" sizebytes="57690"></div>That freebie became the first addition to Jacobsohn's now extensive archive of over 500 items from failed companies, product launches, toy lines, and sports teams, which he keeps in rows of glass display cases in his office. "I'm surrounded with my museum — I need to find more space," he joked.Dubbed the <a target="_blank" href="https://failure.museum/">Failure Museum</a>, he runs a website that details all of the physical items in his collection like the Pets.com puppet mascot (he has 3) and the discontinued Mattel "Allan" doll, made famous in the Barbie movie this summer.<div type="image" title="Allan Doll" height="1200" width="900" msid="105497281" hostid="261" sizebytes="29492"></div>Some of the items can just be products that flopped, such as Harley Davidson's ill-fated foray into cologne.But some can be one-of-a-kind memorabilia that represent whole companies that failed. One of his most prized items is an unopened, branded-bottle of champagne from early grocery-delivery startup Webvan's 1999 IPO celebration. The startup went on to lose millions and filed for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2010/12/13/the-biggest-ipo-flops/amp/">bankruptcy</a> in late 2001. "That might have been the only one not opened, and I own it!" he said.Given his day job as a venture capitalist, about one third of his collection skews towards tech and startups, he said. Highlights include a Theranos lab coat, Elizabeth Holmes' official business card, a Juicero juicer, and a Bird "Birdie" scooter, the company's child-sized, kick-powered scooter. To make it into the museum, the failure has to be a physical item — no NFTs allowed, Jacobsohn said. He sources the largest chunk of his items through solicited donations, but he also purchases some on eBay, he said.<div type="image" title="A Juicero juicer in the Failure Museum's collection" height="1200" width="900" msid="105497282" hostid="261" sizebytes="21674"></div>Like the FTX-sponsored bobblehead, many of his startup collectibles relate to the biggest tech news stories of the day. Jacobsohn recently featured his WeWork water bottle, an authentic WeWork summer camp koozie, and mug in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanjacobsohn/recent-activity/all/">LinkedIn post</a> the day the news broke that the company was planning to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wework-bankruptcy-biggest-startup-failures-ever-vcs-havent-learned-2023-11">file for bankruptcy</a>.Alongside the photo, he also shared advice for any of his followers that could be interested in starting a business someday."It's important not to scale go-to-market until you've had repeatable success with your product and/or geography expansion. Plus a high burn rate and poor financial planning can result in eventually running out of money," he wrote.He likes to write up other lessons and thoughts on failure on the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nvp.com/blog/learning-from-failure-failed-companies/">Norwest blog</a>, where he breaks down exactly why each product or business didn't work, and what lessons a founder could take away from the story. "It does inform how I make some of my investments," he said.And more than a few founders have reached out to him because of it, he shared. Some even offer to donate failed business swag as a way of getting in his rolodex. "It has grown my pipeline significantly," he said. "A lot of people reach out and say, 'Hey, I used to work at that company,' and will donate an item, and then tell me about their company."While his collecting hobby certainly meshes well with his current role as a VC, he mused about returning to his alma mater, Harvard Business School, to share some of his insights. He's currently scheduled to lead a guest lecture on the subject for the class "Avoiding Startup Failure,' he mentioned.And in the much-predicted <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-mass-extinction-event-has-begun-venture-capital-2023-6">mass extinction era</a> for startups, it's anyone's guess as to which startup-branded item could be next on Jacobsohn's <a target="_blank" href="https://failure.museum/faqs/">wishlist </a>— so if you're a founder looking to connect with him, it may be wise to hold on to whatever startup relics you've got.

Meet the founder of the Failure Museum, an exclusive collection of swag from companies that went bust 

<div class="image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="https://twitter.com/ChetKapoor/">Chet Kapoor</a>Chet Kapoor, CEO, <keyword id="1739504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apigee">Apigee</keyword></div></div></div>Hot startup Apigee landed another $20 million round of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword>.
That brings its total to $72 million since it launched in 2004.
The reason it's on everyone's radar isn't the cash that CEO Chet Kapoor has raised, though—it's the team he's assembled. Notably, he hired Sam Ramji as VP of strategy in 2009. Ramji was at Microsoft where he had the difficult task of teaching Microsoft to like open source.
Apigee's team also includes former IBM cloud big wig Anant Jhingran, Michael Gardner from eBay and Srinivasulu Grandhi from Amazon and Microsoft Windows Live. Kapoor started his career at Steve Jobs's NeXT Computer.
They came to Apigee because it solves a hard problem for enterprises, helping them convert their Web-based applications into new mobile apps and new business opportunities. Apigee offers tools for "application programming interfaces." APIs are the little hooks that let apps tap into each other.
Apigee's tech helped <keyword id="377607" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Walgreens">Walgreens</keyword> roll out an app that lets people print photos directly from their iPhone and Android phones. Walgreens then turned around and offered APIs so that other apps could use the QuickPrint service. Sites like GroupShot, Kicksend, Pic Stitch, Pinweel, and StillShot signed on to let their customers print pics at Walgreens.
"APIs are like doors, They let information flow in and out of apps," Kapoor told Business Insider. "The opportunity is not just for companies like Netflix to create mobile apps, but for companies like Walgreens." It now "has a third-party ecosystem" and "a whole new market."
Apigee grew its revenue last year by over 300%, which may make it sound like a tiny company. But it also has about 350 big <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword> customers, says Kapoor. In addition to Netflix and Walgreens, customers include AT&amp;T, Gamestop, Shazam, The Weather Channel and Whole Foods.
The round was led by new investor Focus Ventures, with participation from current investors Bay Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, SAP Ventures, and Third Point Ventures.

You Searched For "Norwest Venture Partners" and got 11 results

Wells Fargo took a $935 million hit as its own venture capital and private-equity bets sank in the first quarter. Here's a look at how it makes the investments.

Rebecca Ungarino

Norwest Venture Partners just raised $2 billion for its biggest fund ever to keep up with skyrocketing Silicon Valley deal sizes

Megan Hernbroth

This 55-year old VC firm just raised its third $1.2 billion fund in a little over 6 years

Eugene Kim

Insurtech platform Policygenius lays off 25% of its workforce after raising $125 million in 3 months

IANS

A founder of Juniper Networks and a co-creator of Apple's Mac operating system used this hand-written pitch deck to raise $200 million from SoftBank for their new data center startup

Megan Hernbroth

The former head of Google Analytics just scored $20 million more for his startup Productiv, which is helping businesses manage the sheer number of software subscriptions they use

Paayal Zaveri

Mark Cuban-backed banking app Dave to go public via SPAC merger at a $4 billion valuation

Isabelle Lee

After Chinese investors, online food delivery startup Swiggy gets attention from Amazon India

BI India Bureau

STELLAService And Its Army Of Online Secret Shoppers Raise $15 Million Series B Round

Alyson Shontell

Meet the founder of the Failure Museum, an exclusive collection of swag from companies that went bust

Madeline Renbarger

The Startup That Turned Walgreens Into A Cloud Company Just Landed $20 Million

Julie Bort

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides