News about venture capital: events, facts and developments on tafs uz.
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Disruptive, a Dallas-based investment firm known for its investments in Palantir, Airbnb and Spotify, announced the creation of a $10 billion fund that will invest in at least 10 late-stage companies. This is the firm's first blind-pool fund and, according to the Dallas Business Journal, the largest venture fund in Texas history.
Otabek YusupovAt TechCrunch Disrupt, Iconiq and Sapphire Ventures partners and Superhuman Mail founder Rahul Vohra discussed the new rules of product-market fit: pilots have become easy to get, but conversion to production is hard, and revenue metrics are often inflated. The experts named red and green flags and shared practices such as the internal metric “delighted ARR”.
Javlon TursunovOn November 4, 2026, TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 will take place at the SoWa Power Station venue in Boston in partnership with Fidelity Private Shares. Among the speakers are Steve Fredette (Toast), Kent Bennett (Bessemer Venture Partners), Rudina Seseri (Glasswing Ventures), Lior Div (7AI), Chase Garbarino (HqO) and Dave Balter (True Ventures). The program includes sessions on product-market fit, scaling, AI and pitching, as well as live startup pitches before an investor jury.
Javlon TursunovAccording to Bloomberg, even before a possible IPO of Anthropic at a valuation of up to $2 trillion, its investors' stakes are worth billions: Eric Schmidt owns roughly 1% of the company (about $10 billion), Iconiq holds $17 billion, Menlo Ventures $14 billion, Sequoia about 1% after a $3 billion investment, and Sound Ventures and Spark Capital have also seen multiple returns on their investments.
Javlon TursunovAndreessen Horowitz announced the renaming of its digital assets division a16z Crypto to a16z Frontier. The team, led by Chris Dixon, which has raised nearly $10 billion since 2018, is expanding its focus to new technologies — AI, robotics, and networks connecting people and machines — but is not abandoning cryptocurrencies.
Sevara AzamovaAt TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Luca Arrighi (Lovable), Ben Broca (Polsia) and Tomasz Tunguz (Theory Ventures) discussed how to build growth in the AI era: early sales don't mean readiness to scale — the key is repeatable go-to-market and closeness to customers.
Sevara AzamovaAt TechCrunch Disrupt, investors from Peak XV, Index Ventures, and Bessemer discussed what founders today need to raise a Series A: a compelling story, a quality team, and promising areas such as defense, robotics, and AI infrastructure. At the same time, Shailendra Singh warned of market 'dysfunctionality' and a possible correction as early as 2027.
Sevara AzamovaTechCrunch will hold a one-day Founder Summit 2026 on November 4 at the SoWa Power Station venue in Boston. The program includes sessions on fundraising, AI-focused company building and leadership, a pitch competition, breakout sessions, and networking via the Braindate app. The event was previously called Early Stage and All Stage.
Sevara AzamovaTechable Ventures founder Amulya Vishwanath said on TechCrunch's Equity podcast that robotics has not yet had its 'ChatGPT moment' — the industry is at the stage of building basic components, which she called the 'LEGO era'.
Sardor QodirovNew York-based Inspired Capital, founded by Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker, closed its fourth fund at $450 million, bringing assets under management to nearly $1.4 billion. According to PitchBook, between 2020 and 2025 the Bay Area attracted $352 billion — about 46% of US venture capital, and last year 55% of new commitments. The firm invests in roughly 10 companies a year, with checks from $1 million to $15 million.
Javlon TursunovFive partners of the venture firm Benchmark spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt and discussed their approach to investing during the AI hype: two to three new investments per year per partner, Monday meetings with no agenda, the fund's growth to $2 billion, and their view on the risks of a correction, the Cerebras IPO, and the role of San Francisco.
Dilnoza RahimovaAmulya Vishwanath, who led product marketing for NVIDIA's robotics platforms for seven years and is now the founder of Techable VC, believes robotics is in its 'Lego era': the basic components — actuators, robotic arms, software and safety standards — are still being rebuilt. This contradicts the view of those expecting a breakthrough soon on the level of a 'ChatGPT moment'.
Sardor QodirovBenchmark partners at TechCrunch Disrupt said that because of AI, conflicts of interest between portfolio companies are becoming inevitable. The trigger was the scandal around Factory and Cognition, where advisor Chris Degnan moved to a direct competitor.
Dilnoza RahimovaOn October 14, 2026, the second day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 takes place at Moscone West in San Francisco. The program features more than 300 startups in Expo Hall, sessions with Nvidia, Waabi, Flock Safety, Benchmark, OpenAI and Anthropic, the continuation of the Startup Battlefield competition with a $100,000 prize, as well as roundtables, breakouts and networking for more than 10,000 attendees.
Sardor Qodirov
