By Evan Vitale
What’s new in the wild world of venture capital this week?
Venture capital is now “prowling” into the life insurance business, reports The Wall Street Journal.
In an article published on Thursday, Oct. 20, Ladder Financial Inc., a Silicon Valley startup that offers term-life-insurance policies for California residents, said Wednesday it raised $14 million in a new fundraising round led by Canaan Partners. The venture-capital firm was one of the first outside investors in LendingClub Corp. , a pioneer in financial technology.
Insurance is becoming a fashionable bet. Competition in online lending has become more intense, and investors have become more skeptical of loan quality. More venture capitalists now are looking at new companies that want to displace the insurance agent, rather than the loan officer.
You can read the full story here: http://on.wsj.com/2dOhoUj
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that KamaTech, a startup incubator organization for ultra-Orthodox Israelis, has launched a venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to entrepreneurs and start-ups from the haredi community in a seasonally appropriate setting – a succa.
Called 12 Angels, the new fund has amassed $5 million from some of the most prominent Israeli investors in the hi-tech sector, including Chemi Peres, co-founder of Pitango Venture Capital; Adi Soffer Teeni, general manager of Facebook Israel; and Dov Moran, whose company invented the USB flash drive.
The full story is here: http://bit.ly/2dCaGTE
KCRise Fund, a new Kansas City-based venture capital fund that piggybacks on other investor funding, has announced investments in SpiderOak and Innara Health, so says a recently-published article in The Kansas City Star.
SpiderOak, an online data security company based in Mission, and Innara Health, a developer of neonatal medical products based in Olathe, are the fund’s first recipients.
You can read the full article here: http://bit.ly/2enjECs
