Bolt Strikes Twice, Drones Fly Solo, And A Dive Into Q2 Global VC Report

Welcome to the Crunchbase News Weekend Update. An email form of this post went out Saturday morning. Happy reading!

So, Bolt struck twice this week, and people are confused. Let me explain.

Two startups, both named Bolt, both working on widely different products from ride-hailing to the checkout process, announced they raised roughly around the same amount of money at roughly the same amount of time. For more, read here and here.

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Beyond realizing that Bolt appears to be a global go-to for startup names and that founders might be getting lazy, I thought this example serves as an ironic anecdote into our flagship story this week: the Q2 global venture capital report.

In our quarterly report, Jason D. Rowley used Crunchbase data and projections to learn more about deal and dollar volume in venture capital, uncovering data around most active lead investors and how angel investment is looking, globally. Come for the bullish and bearish findings, and stay for the charts.

For more quarterly coverage, read Joanna’s report on North America’s venture activity (which is flat) and if the boom of funding into construction tech has slowed after a peak. We also took a look at Texas’ last quarter, and how China went from number one in venture volume, to not that.

Up next week, Gené Teare and I will be publishing a report on how the past few months have played out for female-founded companies at every stage of investment.

Until then, peek at one smart woman in tech’s story in the most recent edition of Proust Goes Tech. This week, I spoke to Lolita Taub, who recently left Backstage Capital to join an artificial intelligence startup as its chief of staff.

The week also had its fair share of funding news. Clara, which wants to help startups with legal advice, launched with $2 million in seed funding from investors like 500 Startups and TechStars, and Exyn raised $16 million for a Series A to help fly its pilotless drones under the radar, literally; three cancer drug developers secured over $500 million; Sonder raising $210 million to become hospitality’s latest unicorn; and Argo AI grabbed $2.6 billion in an on-brand move to fuel its autonomous driving efforts.

While our coverage focuses a lot on startups and their data, Mary Ann reminds us that it’s important to remember the heart of most communities: the mom and pop businesses. Read her break down on startups helping local businesses thrive, then go to your nearest non-chain coffee shop, grab a mug for-here, don’t tweet about it, and pat yourself on the back for all of the above.

Until next time,

Natasha.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.