By Evan Vitale
Here are the top venture capital stories making headlines this week.
According to the New York Times, Xfund, a venture capital firm formed in 2011 as technology start-ups boomed, began coming undone last year when the relationship between its two partners soured.
The two venture capitalists, Patrick Chung and Hugo Van Vuuren, argued over the dismissal of an employee and who controlled the firm. The disagreements festered, setting off a chain of events including accusations of abuse, a restraining order application, revelations that a hidden camera was used to record an investor meeting, and an investigation by the fund’s investors.
Now the firm, which manages more than $100 million and has put money into start-ups like the genetics company 23andMe, is in salvage mode. Even so, Xfund is in no danger of immediately shutting down.
You can read the full story here: http://nyti.ms/1UBtJNg
CNBC wants you to meet the man who’s out to disrupt venture capital.
As you may know, a long-anticipated regulatory change is expected in May that will allow retail investors to join in start-up funding alongside millionaires and venture capitalists.
Unaccredited investors will be allowed to put money into start-ups, letting the average investor compete alongside the Marc Andreessens of the world to back up-and-coming companies, and potentially to make enormous profits in the process.
Rohan Shah, a student at University of Pennsylvania who founded Slice Capital, is one of the entrepreneurs leading the charge. His online portal that connects companies raising early-stage capital with investors of all sizes has the potential to disrupt venture capital, he said.
Here’s the scoop: http://cnb.cx/1SYuQnJ
A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit has invested $25 million in ON24 Inc., an 18-year-old software company that survived the dot-com bust and lately is seeing growth again after several strategic shifts, this according to The Wall Street Journal.
The story is here: http://on.wsj.com/1OfsP2j
