Alexandra Garfinkle

Los Angeles

Senior Finance Reporter at Fortune

@FortuneMagazine senior finance reporter, writing @thetermsheet, and co-chairing Brainstorm. Covering VC, startups, offbeat ideas, and the human side of tech.

Articles

Inside the rise of Alexandr Wang and Meta’s $14 billion bet that the MIT dropout will help bring AI supremacy

6 days ago | cryptostudent.io | Sharon Goldman |Alexandra Garfinkle

[[{„value”:”As their heads were measured and fitted for custom-made, felt cowboy hats, the 100 or so guests assembled in Utah’s scenic Wasatch Mountains in November 2023 had ample reason to feel special. The group of AI executives, venture capitalists, government officials, and policy folks, had been handpicked to attend a secretive, three-day retreat focused on the national security implications of artificial intelligence.
Inside the rise of Alexandr Wang and Meta's $14 billion bet that the MIT dropout will help bring AI supremacy

6 days ago | fortune.com | Sharon Goldman |Alexandra Garfinkle

Presiding over the confab was Alexandr Wang, the young CEO of data labeling AI startup Scale. Wang’s company was eight years old and already worth $13 billion at the time, but the event at the Montage Deer Valley, co-hosted with longtime Scale angel investor Nat Friedman, was clearly intended to signal Wang’s status as more than just the latest Silicon Valley wunderkind.
Inside the rise of Alexandr Wang and Meta’s $14 billion bet that the MIT dropout will help bring AI supremacy

6 days ago | flipboard.com | Sharon Goldman |Alexandra Garfinkle

1 day agoMeta is reportedly offering up to nine figures in compensation for AI researchers, amounting to $100 million signing bonuses and even higher overall pay. Meta is taking an aggressive approach to hiring new members of its Superintelligence lab, the group tasked with developing AI that is more …
South Loop Ventures’s Zach Ellis on investing in Texas and diverse founders

1 week ago | fortune.com | Alexandra Garfinkle

When I first saw the name South Loop Ventures, I thought of Chicago, where I lived for almost six years—and I told Zach Ellis, the Houston-based firm’s managing director and founder, as much. The firm’s name references Houston’s South Loop, which connects various historically diverse neighborhoods and is near the historically Black Third Ward, Beyoncé’s birthplace. But the fact that I thought of my own touchpoint is, actually, somewhat ideal.
Traversal emerges from stealth with $48 million from Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins to reimagine site reliability in the AI era

1 week ago | fortune.com | Alexandra Garfinkle

BY Allie GarfinkleSenior Finance Reporter and author of Term SheetJune 18, 2025 at 7:11 AM EDTLeft to right: Traversal's Raaz Dwivedi, Anish Agarwal, Ahmed Lone, and Raj Agrawal. TraversalThey met at 10 p.m. each weeknight, after class at Columbia University. Sometimes talking over Zoom until 2 AM, Anish Agarwal, Raaz Dwivedi, Ahmed Lone, and Raj Agrawal talked about what it might mean to walk away from their lives—for a startup.
Traversal emerges from stealth with $48 million from Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins to reimagine site reliability in the AI era

1 week ago | aol.com | Alexandra Garfinkle

They met at 10 p.m. each weeknight, after class at Columbia University. Sometimes talking over Zoom until 2 AM, Anish Agarwal, Raaz Dwivedi, Ahmed Lone, and Raj Agrawal talked about what it might mean to walk away from their lives—for a startup. All academics in some form or fashion, the group swapped ideas at the intersection of their research: causal machine learning, reinforcement learning, and AI agents. For Agarwal, the decision wasn’t to be taken lightly.
In Q1 2025, enterprise SaaS M&A deal count hit 210, according to PitchBook

1 week ago | fortune.com | Alexandra Garfinkle

Consider, first, the good news, of which there’s quite a bit: Q1 2025 saw 210 enterprise SaaS mergers and acquisitions get done, a number on par with the 211 deals inked in Q4 2024, according to recent PitchBook data. That’s also a sizable jump from the beginning of Q1 2024, which saw 165 enterprise SaaS mergers and acquisitions.
WorkWhile, flexible labor platform, raises $23 million Series B

1 week ago | fortune.com | Alexandra Garfinkle

“It was my first job ever, and I blew up the balloons with the helium,” she said. “But the worst possible job you could have at Party City was called go-backs—take a shopping cart full of tchotchkes that parents didn’t actually want to buy and put them back on the pegboard. You have to find, say, where this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle goody bag goes, and hang it back up.”Euston, who grew up in Fresno, Calif, is now the CEO and cofounder of flexible labor platform WorkWhile.
WorkWhile, flexible labor platform, raises $23 million Series B

1 week ago | aol.com | Alexandra Garfinkle

At 16, Jarah Euston landed her first job at a Party City—on the better days, as the balloon person. “It was my first job ever, and I blew up the balloons with the helium,” she said. “But the worst possible job you could have at Party City was called go-backs—take a shopping cart full of tchotchkes that parents didn’t actually want to buy and put them back on the pegboard.
Exclusive: Felicis has raised $900 million tenth fund

2 weeks ago | fortune.com | Alexandra Garfinkle

BY Allie GarfinkleSenior Finance Reporter and author of Term SheetJune 12, 2025 at 8:00 AM EDTAydin Senkut, founder and managing partner of Felicis. FelicisAydin Senkut got 50 nos before he heard one yes. “I thought I was never going to raise that fund,” said Senkut. “I had my first son coming, and it was a really tough time….

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Allie Garfinkle @agarfinks

13 Jun 25

RT @AnitaRamaswamy: OnlyFans is considering selling itself for a meager $8bln. While investors are titillated by its enticing financials, t…

Allie Garfinkle @agarfinks

12 Jun 25

RT @asenkut: To the next generation of founders: If you’re building boldly in AI, infrastructure, health, defense, or anywhere the rules ar…

Allie Garfinkle @agarfinks

12 Jun 25

RT @felicis: Read more about how we work with founders: 👉 https://t.co/ojKHdr9GTK And learn about our firm in this story by @agarfinks at…

Alexandra Garfinkle

Articles

Inside the rise of Alexandr Wang and Meta’s $14 billion bet that the MIT dropout will help bring AI supremacy

Inside the rise of Alexandr Wang and Meta's $14 billion bet that the MIT dropout will help bring AI supremacy

Inside the rise of Alexandr Wang and Meta’s $14 billion bet that the MIT dropout will help bring AI supremacy

South Loop Ventures’s Zach Ellis on investing in Texas and diverse founders

Traversal emerges from stealth with $48 million from Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins to reimagine site reliability in the AI era

Traversal emerges from stealth with $48 million from Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins to reimagine site reliability in the AI era

In Q1 2025, enterprise SaaS M&A deal count hit 210, according to PitchBook

WorkWhile, flexible labor platform, raises $23 million Series B

WorkWhile, flexible labor platform, raises $23 million Series B

Exclusive: Felicis has raised $900 million tenth fund

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