When the ‘dry powder’ disappears

By Connie Loizos

Venture capitalists have raised record-breaking funds in recent years, but that doesn’t always mean the money is there for them when they want it. In extreme downturns, limited partners or LPs — the people and institutions that promise capital to venture capital firms, and then wire it when the VCs need it for their startups — have little choice but to answer the phone less. The alternative is to sell others of their positions — including in publicly traded stocks — at a steep loss, and they’d really prefer not to do that.

“The public markets end up being the ATM for the illiquid stuff,” says Chris Douvos of Ahoy Capital, an LP who has backed such firms as First Round, Data Collective, and True Ventures. When the markets are in free fall as now, the collective reaction of asset managers, he says, is: “Holy smokes, this kind of sucks.”

What happens next depends on how sustained and deep this downturn proves, but LPs seem to agree that the the industry could be in for a reckoning this time that’s beyond their control. They have little choice but to get practical fast.

Already, newer managers are seeing …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

Model Y deliveries begin: Here’s what is new in Tesla’s EV crossover

By Kirsten Korosec

Tesla said Monday it has started delivering the Model Y crossover to customers in the U.S., hitting a milestone one year after unveiling the prototype and six months ahead of schedule.

Reports of deliveries started last week. The tweet from Tesla, which included a video of the Model Y being assembled and then hitting the road, made it official.

Tesla announced in January that production of the Model Y had started with plans to begin the first deliveries of the all-electric compact crossover by the end of the first quarter. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the time that the company would initially produce a limited volume of the Model Y.

When Musk unveiled last March a prototype of the Model Y, he predicted the vehicle would hit the marketplace in fall 2020. At the time of the unveiling, the Model Y looked strikingly similar to the Model 3. Now that Tesla has started deliveries and released the owner’s manual to the Model Y, it’s easier to spot how its different or the same as the Model 3.

Here are some of the important features and differences between …read more

Source: Tech Crunch

How big tech is taking on COVID-19

By Brian Heater

Over the past week, one thing has become painfully clear for U.S. residents: COVID-19 is going to permeate every aspect of our lives for a long time to come. Those of us in and around tech have been noticing this for months now. First through the impact on our friends and colleagues in Asia, who have been facing fallout from the pandemic head-on for some time, and then through the domino effect on tech conferences.

First there was MWC, then Facebook’s F8, E3, WWDC. The list goes on and on. Yesterday, TechCrunch announced that we would be postponing a pair of our own events. It was the right thing to do, and increasingly not really a choice, to be honest, as more and more cities have banned large gatherings.

Tech has been keenly aware of COVID-19′s impact for a while now because being a tech company is being a global company almost by default. Now, however, the virus’s threat has come to nearly everyone’s back door. If you don’t yet know someone who has been infected with the virus, odds are good you will soon. This is our reality, for now, at least.

If there’s hope to be mustered from …read more

Source: Tech Crunch