Another week in the VC maelstrom!
Hello friends! The holidays have been snug and cozy…and cold as heck.
In the world that we’re in—NFT wars, Dorsey-Andreesen disputes, and of course, the aggressively transmissible Omicron (although less severe than prior strains)—it’s jarring how we’re backdropped by the soft patter of raindrops upon our rooves amidst the chaos. So, in the name of staying warm by your hearths, stick with us, grab a hot chocolate, and let’s dive right in.
As always, if you have any ideas about how we could improve this newsletter, please email us at ops@crescentfund.vc – and if you like what you see, we’d love it if you could share this with others.
Cheers,
The Crescent Team
Crescent’s industry highlights.
This week, we’ve got Teresa Huang’s (our Partner over at CalTech) highlights on Decentralized Finance (or in its known form, DeFi). DeFi has paved way for the likes of Non-Fungible Tokens, efficient banking, more equitable business models, and more. It could even end up being the financial backbone of the metaverse.
In light of the vast array of opportunities within the DeFi space, many Gen Zs are taking it upon themselves to take part in spearheading what’s more accurately described as a movement than a market. Read Teresa’s awesome piece here!
Jobs.
If you’re looking to work at a startup, take a look at some of the positions we found!
Product Manager (Full-Time) - Spring Labs
Engineering (Intern) - CANDY
Product Marketing (Intern) - Paragon One
Lead Campus Marketer (Intern) - Kunduz
Web Developer Intern (Intern) - Common Hire
If you want to check out the positions we found last Thursday, refer to last week’s newsletter.
The Broader Tech Landscape.
Discover the current happenings within the crazy world of tech that Gen Z students are watching closely!
VC is booming in Africa. African FinTech in particular has had massive funding rounds in recent months. Read more into the activity here.
Latin America, with respect to the VC ecosystem, took center stage this year. Many firms directed their theses towards Latin America: read an analysis of why that was, here.
In the midst of the pandemic, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (or SPACs) were all the hype in 2020 as an alternative to the bureaucratic, often slow IPO process. But as is the case with convenient alternatives, the cracks start to show themselves eventually. Read more here.
That’s wraps up another week. Thank you for reading and happy new year (tomorrow)!
Signing off,
Crescent Fund