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Valar Ventures
Valar Ventures is a US-based venture capital fund founded by Andrew McCormack, James Fitzgerald and Peter Thiel in 2010. Historically, the majority of the firm's investments have been in technology startups based outside of Silicon Valley, including in Europe, the UK, the US and Canada. Valar Ventures originally spun out of Thiel Capital, Peter Thiel's global parent company based in San Francisco, and is now headquartered near Madison Square in Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg .... The firm's namesake is the Vala (Middle-earth), Valar of J. R. R. Tolkien's Tolkien's legendarium, legendarium, who are god-like immortal spirits that chose to enter the mortal world to prepare it for their living creations. Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald are the managing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Privately Held Company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equity, company's stock is offered, owned, traded or exchanged privately, also known as "over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter". Related terms are unlisted organisation, unquoted company and private equity. Private companies are often less well-known than their public company, publicly traded counterparts but still have major importance in the world's economy. For example, in 2008, the 441 list of largest private non-governmental companies by revenue, largest private companies in the United States accounted for $1.8 trillion in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to ''Forbes''. In general, all companies that are not owned by the government are classified as private enterprises. This definition encompasses both publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tolkien's Legendarium
Tolkien's legendarium is the body of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic writing, unpublished in his lifetime, that forms the background to his ''The Lord of the Rings'', and which his son Christopher summarized in his compilation of '' The Silmarillion'' and documented in his 12-volume series ''The History of Middle-earth''. The legendarium's origins reach back to 1914, when Tolkien began writing poems and story sketches, drawing maps, and inventing languages and names as a private project to create a mythology for England. The earliest story, "The Voyage of Earendel, the Evening Star", is from 1914; he revised and rewrote the legendarium stories for most of his adult life. '' The Hobbit'' (1937), Tolkien's first published novel, was not originally part of the larger mythology but became linked to it. Both ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954 and 1955) are set in the Third Age of Middle-earth, while virtually all of his earlier writing had been set in the fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Companies Based In Manhattan
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether natural, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared goals. Over time, companies have evolved to have the following features: "separate legal personality, limited liability, transferable shares, investor ownership, and a managerial hierarchy". The company, as an entity, was created by the state which granted the privilege of incorporation. Companies take various forms, such as: * voluntary associations, which may include nonprofit organizations * business entities, whose aim is to generate sales, revenue, and profit * financial entities and banks * programs or educational institutions A company can be created as a legal person so that the company itself has limited liability as members perform or fail to discharge their duties according to the publicly declared incorporation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acton Capital Partners
Acton Capital is a German venture capital fund, founded in Munich and investing in tech-enabled startup companies in Europe and North America. History As one of the first venture capital funds in Europe, Acton Capital invested in startups of the early Digital Economy. The first investment was online auction platform Alando in Germany, acquired by eBay in 1999 for $43 million. In November 2019, Acton Capital announced the closing of its fifth fund "Acton V" at $215 million. Investments and exits Acton Capital's investment focus is on tech-enabled business models like platforms, software as a service (SaaS) or online marketplaces and in fields such as financial technology (fintech), mobility, healthcare and Direct-to-consumer or recommerce. Exited investments include online marketplace AbeBooks - acquired by Amazon in 2008, online retailer of pet supplies zooplus - IPO in 2008, luxury fashion platform mytheresa.com - acquired by Neiman Marcus Group in 2014, global online ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Technology
Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, including mobile banking, online lending platforms, digital payment systems, robo-advisors, and blockchain-based applications such as cryptocurrencies. Financial technology companies include both startup company, startups and established technology and financial firms that aim to improve, complement, or replace traditional financial services. Evolution The evolution of financial technology spans over a century, marked by significant technological innovations that have revolutionized the financial industry. While the application of technology to finance has deep historical roots, the term "financial technology" emerged in the late 20th century and gained prominence in the 1990s. The earliest documented use of the term dates back to 1967, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stash (company)
Stash Financial, Inc., or Stash, is an American financial technology and financial services company based in New York, NY. The company operates both a web platform and mobile app, mobile apps, allowing users to incrementally invest small amounts, commonly known as micro-investing. It also provides Robo-advisor, robo advice. History Stash was founded in February 2015 by Brandon Krieg, David Ronick, and Ed Robinson. It was launched on the App Store (iOS), iOS App Store in October 2015 and made available on Android (operating system), Android in March 2016. By summer 2017, Stash had approximately 1 million users. In February 2018, the firm raised $37.5 million in a Series D funding in a round led by Union Square Ventures. In April 2020, it raised another $112 million in Series F funding in a round led by LendingTree. As of July 2020, Stash's user base had grown to over 5 million customers. Reception In February 2018, CNBC praised the app's automation and ease-of-use. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of island countries, sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The Geography of New Zealand, country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps (), owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. Capital of New Zealand, New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and subsequently developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andreessen Horowitz
AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of May 2024, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management, with $42 billion. Andreessen Horowitz invests in both early-stage Startup company, startups and established Growth stock, growth companies. Its investments span the healthcare, consumer, cryptocurrency, gaming, fintech, education, and enterprise IT (including cloud computing, security, and software as a service) industries. Founding and partnering Between 2006 and 2010, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz actively invested in Technology company, technology companies. Both separately and together, they invested $4 million in 45 startups, including Twitter, Inc., Twitter. During this time, the two became known as "super angel" investors. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TransferWise
Wise, previously known as TransferWise, is a British financial technology company focused on global money transfers. Headquartered in London, it was founded by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011. As of 2023, it offers three main products: Wise Account, Wise Business, and Wise Platform. History Wise was cofounded in London by Taavet Hinrikus, one of the first employees of Skype, and Kristo Käärmann, a Deloitte management consultant. Hinrikus moved from Estonia to London around 2006, when he began experiencing the challenges of international money transfers. He became aware that when sending money between Estonia and the UK, banks would typically deduct at least a 5% fee, and also remarked that most of the charge is hidden in the exchange rate. According to him, banks try hard to make it extremely difficult to understand what the consumer is paying for, and there is no transparency in the market. In its first year of operation, transactions through Wise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Market Capitalization
Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by the number of common shares outstanding. Description Market capitalization is sometimes used to rank the size of companies. It measures only the equity component of a company's capital structure, and does not reflect management's decision as to how much debt (or leverage) is used to finance the firm. A more comprehensive measure of a firm's size is enterprise value (EV), which gives effect to outstanding debt, preferred stock, and other factors. For insurance firms, a value called the embedded value (EV) has been used. It is also used in ranking the relative size of stock exchanges, being a measure of the sum of the market capitalizations of all companies listed on each stock exchange. The total capitalization of stock markets or eco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xero (software)
Xero Limited is a New Zealand technology company that provides cloud-based accounting software for small businesses. The company has offices in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, South Africa and Singapore. Xero's products are based on the software-as-a-service model and sold by subscription, based on the type and number of entities managed by the subscriber. The products are used in over 180 countries. History In 2006, Xero was founded by Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards in Wellington, where Xero Limited's headquarters are still located. The company was originally called Accounting 2.0. By 2017, Xero had more than one million customers globally, and the following year, it had more than one million subscribers in Australia and New Zealand. In April 2018, Steve Vamos was appointed as CEO, replacing Rod Drury who remained on the board as a non-executive director until 2023. Vamos announced in November 2022 that he would step down in February 2023 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vala (Middle-earth)
The Valar (; singular Vala) are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. They are "angelic powers" or "gods" subordinate to the one God ( Eru Ilúvatar). The '' Ainulindalë'' describes how some of the Ainur choose to enter the world ( Arda) to complete its material development after its form is determined by the Music of the Ainur. The mightiest of these are called the Valar, or "the Powers of the World", and the others are known as the Maiar. The Valar are mentioned briefly in ''The Lord of the Rings'' but Tolkien had developed them earlier, in material published posthumously in ''The Silmarillion'', especially the "Valaquenta" (Quenya: "Account of the Valar"), ''The History of Middle-earth'', and '' Unfinished Tales''. Scholars have noted that the Valar resemble angels in Christianity but that Tolkien presented them rather more like pagan gods. Their role in providing what the characters in Middle-earth experience as luck or providence is also discussed. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
