Thiel tapped to speak at GOP convention as Trump draws backlash from tech industry leaders

Peter Thiel, the controversial Paypal co-founder and billionaire investor, is among the list of speakers for next week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Thiel is one of the few prominent Silicon Valley figures to publicly support Trump. Outspoken detractors are more numerous, with a long list of technology leaders this week signing an open letter stating that “Trump would be a disaster for innovation.”

Report: VCs put more dollars in fewer U.S. deals in Q2

Venture capitalists invested $15.3 billion in 961 U.S. deals in the second quarter of 2016, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters. Total venture dollars deployed to companies for the quarter increased 20 percent and total deal count was down 5 percent compared with the first quarter.

Line IPO seen as latest positive sign for tech offerings

Messaging app provider Line’s market debut Thursday marked the largest tech offering on a U.S. exchange in more than a year, and its early success is one of several indicators that healthy investor demand exists for reasonably priced offerings, according IPO investment firm Renaissance Capital. While tech IPO activity remains well below historical levels, the firm found that the last ten offerings in the sector are up more than 50% on average from their IPO prices. The biggest gainer was Twilio, up 178% from the offering price of its IPO a few weeks ago.

DCM raises $500M for eighth venture fund

DCM Ventures has closed its eighth flagship fund, DCM VIII, with $500 million in committed capital, to be invested in early stage companies across the United States, China and Japan.

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