01
SoftBank and Alibaba: The $20 Million Bet That Became One of Technology’s Great Returns
SoftBank led a $20 million investment into Alibaba in 2000, backing a young Chinese B2B marketplace before China's consumer Internet boom was obvious.
↗
Collection
Tag: ecommerce
02
Webvan: Hundreds of Millions Chasing Grocery Delivery Before the Economics Worked
Webvan raised hundreds of millions of dollars and built automated grocery infrastructure at national scale before proving that online grocery orders could support the capital intensity.
↗
03
Boo.com: The $100-Million-Plus Fashion E-Commerce Bet That Burned Through Capital
Boo.com raised and spent more than $100 million trying to build a global online fashion retailer, but technical complexity, international expansion, and heavy marketing exhausted its runway.
↗
04
Amazon’s Early Capital Stack: Family Money, Angels, and Kleiner Perkins Back the Everything Store
Amazon survived its earliest years by moving from Bezos family capital to angels, Kleiner Perkins venture funding, and finally public markets.
↗