SA国际传媒

Welcome to the听SA国际传媒 News Weekend Update. An email form of this post went out Saturday morning. Happy reading!

After my notebook is tucked away and the recorder app stops, it seems that my conversations these days are taking the same not-so-subtle turn. Everyone I speak to, in some way, is lonely. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and everyone hoping for outsized success are no exception.

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The realization inspired me to investigate the intersection of loneliness and tech and write a series focusing on those tensions. The first installment,听unpacking how founders deal with loneliness, went live this past week.

But I am not the only one talking about mental health in tech. Y Combinator, which coaches and invests in hundreds of startups each year, is focusing on founder mental health, too, and it was a central theme at Y Combinator鈥檚 Demo Day.

On the YC Demo Day beat,听听reported on the听growing size of Y Combinator startup batches听补苍诲听听helped host a听live Equity Podcast interviewing the president of Y Combinator, Michael Seibel. We also听dove deeper into Tandem听补苍诲听all the other startups that share its name, and听I had a lot of thoughts听on the startups presenting听and wrote about听YC鈥檚 investment cadence in India.

Speaking of India, Tala, a digital lending startup,听raised $110 million to expand its services in the region. International coverage continued when Yijipui, an online liquor retailer and Chinese unicorn,听raised $80 million for its ongoing Series D. Plus, JUUL Labs听raised $325 million to fuel the global expansion of its e-cigarettes.

Other rounds this week: Root Insurance听raised $350 million, Better.com听raised $160 million, and ThredUp听raised $175 million to dress you up in what your friends got rid of. SpotHero also听raised $50 million to make it easier to park your car.

On a final note,听we welcomed Sophia Kunthara to the SA国际传媒 News family听by way of the San Francisco Chronicle and Reuters. She鈥檒l be covering the late-stage scene for us from the San Francisco desk, so听听to stay up to date. Of course, in honor of her first week here,听Datadog filed to go public.

We鈥檙e one fantastic person stronger here, and we鈥檙e really proud of it.

Thanks for reading,

P.S.听Follow me () and听SA国际传媒听News听on听听and听听for daily updates.

Illustration:听.