Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
This week we had another full house which made for a good time. Our own Connie Loizos, Matthew Lynley and I were joined by Renata Quintini, a partner at Lux Capital.
Today’s episode is a grab bag of topics, including some self-driving stuff, late-stage venture noodling, and Microsoft. So, this show hit on every topic I used to have listed on my OkCupid profile.
First up was Zoox’s epic $500 million infusion. The self-driving company is notable for its full-stack approach, and, as Lux is a long-time investor in the project, we had the perfect guest on hand to help us discuss it. As you can imagine, we dug around who else is working in the space, what SoftBank is up to, and why Zoox might need so much capital.
Oddly enough everyone ’round the table found the dollar amount pretty reasonable. We apologize for the lack of drama.
Next up we peeked at Insight Venture Partners’ epic new fund, and how some founders are looking to provide liquidity to their investors without exiting. As you can imagine, we wanted to know how these Very Large Indeed funds are going to return enough capital to make their LPs happy. We also spent some time chewing on what happens to startups that wind up growing, but not as quickly as their venture backers had originally hoped.
Finally, Microsoft’s earnings. We don’t do too much about the already-public, but Microsoft’s latest digest was something that we couldn’t pass up. The company posted another set of healthy growth as it scampers along in the $1 trillion race.
And that’s about it. We’ll be back in a week with more Equity.
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