Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This week Connie Loizos and I were joined by Norwest Scott Beechuk.
Sadly, Matthew Lynley was reading slam poetry to ambivalent cacti in the Sonora Desert and thus couldn&t join us.
He&ll be back soon, we promise.But we had a good crew on deck and a grip of news to sift, so let get to what we got into.First up was the latest headlines in the on-demand transportationsector.
Lyft raised a huge new pile of cash at a staggering valuation, Uber got the go-aheadto operate once more in the great city of London, and Bird $300 million round officially closed.So that another $900 million for domestic transportation-sharing, at least, in a single week.
Right.Next up Sequoia epic new $6 billion in fresh capital.
Recall the famous line about a million dollars not being cool, but a billion dollars being cool Sadly a billion dollars isn&t cool, 2012 Andreessen Horowitz.
But maybe $6 billion is cool.
At least 2018 Sequoia thinks so.
(Good luck returning a multiple of that figure!)Speaking of a16z, that shop has a new vehicle in the market focused on the crypto space.
With $300 million ready to go and no 20 percent cap on crypto investments, a16z can now do what it wants inside of the surprisingly-still-nascent space.All that and we tried to squeeze AppNexus into the show.
(Update: We failed!)Stay cool and we&ll see you in a week!Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts,Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast and all the casts.