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elcome to the TechCrunch Trade, a weekly startups-and-markets e-newsletter. It’s impressed by the daily TechCrunch+ column the place it will get its title. Need it in your inbox each Saturday? Enroll here.
Journalists and readers love scoops. However generally it’s essential to state the apparent. This week, I’m reminded that democracies are fragile however that know-how can assist. And likewise that crowdfunding isn’t at all times one of the simplest ways to launch an revolutionary product.
On a facet notice, this text can be taking a break till January 6 subsequent 12 months, so wishing you all glad holidays. — Anna
Why agentic tech?
After I learn {that a} new enterprise agency known as ex/ante had raised $33 million to put money into “agentic tech,” I bought curious: What did that imply, and why have been LPs akin to Marc Andreessen and Union Sq. Ventures prepared to again an rising fund supervisor specializing in this class?
I already had one thing to go on: Forbes’ Alex Konrad famous that ex/ante would put money into on-line privateness and safety, and described agentic tech as “a fledgling term that the fund defines as technology that relates to human agency and rights in the digital age.” However I nonetheless needed to know extra, so I had a chat with its founder, 32-year-old Zoe Weinberg.
