Rebecca Grant

Hi! I am Rebecca. You may also find my name spelled as Bekah. It’s a long story. I write about startups and entrepreneurship for VentureBeat and head up the deals channel.

Before VentureBeat, I studied English and Art History at Cornell and wrote for a slew of magazines. I joined the Peace Corps in 2009 and served as an education volunteer in rural Thailand, followed by many adventures in Southeast Asia. I returned to the US to find that everyone had a smartphone and there was a thing called “The Cloud.” I moved to San Francisco and found myself in the middle of a vibrant and exciting startup scene. I love to hear about innovative ideas, interesting stories, and technology that is having an genuine and meaningful impact on the world.

In my spare time, I can generally be found gallivanting around the Mission in San Francisco. My favorite things (in no particular order) are yoga, ice cream, pandas, travel, dancing, picnics, wine, and art.

Disclosure: I fully embrace and abide by VentureBeat’s ethics statement.


stories by Rebecca Grant

Cendana Capital gathers $88M to put seeds into seed funds

Fund-of-funds Cendana Capital closes an $88 million fund to invest in seed funds, which then invest in seed startups.

BikeSpike assembles crack team to protect cyclists from bike theft

BikeSpike's GPS tracking device works together with your smartphone to prevent theft, detect crashes, and give law enforcement help tracking down stolen bikes.

Funding Daily: Same-Day Delivery

Funding news takes part in the same-day delivery battle, and also delves into game development, Argentina, and PaaS.

SEC recognizes FundersClub as first-ever online VC

In huge news for the venture capital world, the SEC officially announced that it will not recommend enforcement action against online investment platform FundersClub.

Wal-Mart dabbles with ‘sharing economy’ to implement same-day delivery

Wal-Mart experiments with a new crowdsourced delivery system where Walmart in-store customers deliver to online shoppers.

3 Latin American entrepreneurs set out to build stronger startups

Quasar Ventures is a new "tech company builder" based in Buenos Aires that made its public debut today with $5.4 million in outside investment.

Startups clear out cash registers to usher in retail revolution

Traditional payments systems are becoming obsolete as companies developer cheaper, more efficient, flexible alternatives.

VC firm Maveron gets ‘em while they’re young with new seed-stage investment program

Maveron, a well-known venture capital firm that focuses exclusively on consumer-facing companies, announces an initiative to fund and support seed stage startups.

eBay’s new ‘Sell it Forward’ program channels your hoarding impulses for charity

eBay is partnering with Goodwill to launch a new pilot program. You mail in your stuff, Goodwill tries to sell it for you, and what doesn't get sold gets donated.

With $25M, travel site Ostrovok emerges as leader in Russian market

Online hotel booking service Ostrovok nabs $25 million from General Catalyst, Accel Partners, and Yuri Milner to become the top Internet travel company in the Russian-speaking world.

WeFunder gives startups a ‘green button’ to meet their fundraising goals

Online investment platform WeFunder finds and features promising startups, and connects them with a community of 14,000 accredited investors.

Prizeo charity raffles could make your celebrity dreams come true

Prizeo's online raffles give anyone the opportunity to share experiences with their favorite celebrities, for a good cause.

YC’s first nonprofit wants medical care for everyone on the planet

Watsi is a crowdfunding platform that helps fund basic medical treatments for people in need.

‘Kickstarter for science’ wants to cure Alzheimers, teach coding, save the pandas

Microryza is a crowdfunding platform for scientific research projects.

Wevorce wants to make divorce suck less

Wevorce combines family law expertise with software to make the divorce process cheaper, more friendly, and easier on everyone involved.

Watch out for Bigfoot! ‘Series A crunch’ sighting reported in Silicon Valley

Well-known law firm Fenwick & West releases its 2012 Seed Financing Survey which found that the mythical Series A crunch does in fact exist.

Third Rock Ventures gets its hands dirty with $516M for healthcare startups

Third Rock is a venture capital fund solely dedicated to health care companies. The firm's distinct hands-on approach first discovers breakthrough technology and then builds the teams to execute it.

Uber expands ‘uberverse’ with new Android, Blackberry, Windows apps

Uber's new app releases will help expand its user base and continue disrupting the taxi industry around the world.

Evernote continues global crusade, offers 60M Germans Premium services for free

The king of digital note-taking services partners with Deutsche Telekom to make its subscribers eligible for a free year of Evernote Premium.

Joyride’s voice-activated mobile apps ‘turn cars into starships’

Joyride is building a voice-activated mobile applications that turns the millions of hours Americans spend driving into a safe, entertaining experience.