For the last two years, climate tech was on a tear. To be fair, so were a lot of other sectors. But when a slowdown hit tech investing in the middle of last year, climate tech startups bucked the trend and kept racking up the deals. Now the party might be over, if preliminary data
Month: April 2023
Yfood, one of the direct-to-consumer food tech startups that has emerged over the last decade around the concept of meal replacement drinks, is bulking up. Nestlé, the food and drink behemoth, has acquired 49.95% of the company’s shares, with the option to buy Yfood’s outstanding shares over the next few years. The financial terms of
Apple has devised a pocket-sized companion that (hypothetically) does it all: music, videos AND books, sans the nagging smartphone or clumsy smartwatch. Cupertino, you’re so close. In a patent application published recently by the U.S. Patent Office, Apple sketched out such a device, a headphone-case-meets-pocket-computer with a touchscreen display and the prerequisite guts for flicking
T-Mobile announced today that it has extended its partnership with Major League Baseball to allow its customers to continue receiving free MLB.TV subscriptions through 2028. An MLB.TV subscription typically cost $150 per year. The extended partnership comes as T-Mobile has offered MLB.TV as a free perk for its customers for the past eight years. MLB.TV
Even as Y Combinator reveals the latest startups in its cohort for this winter, we have poor news for founders: the global venture capital market shrank in Q1 2023, and it would have been even worse if it were not for a few mega deals, according to Crunchbase (disclosure: my former employer) and PitchBook reports.
Staytuned Digital has $34 million in new equity and debt to continue developing a software suite for e-commerce brands with a goal of what co-founder Serge Kassardjian described as “the Salesforce suite for e-commerce stores.” “E-commerce has completely shifted and is moving to these emerging platforms, with Shopify being the biggest one,” he said. “In
Cows are a significant source of methane emissions, primarily due to their unique digestive system. Milk and beef cows are ruminants, which means they have a specialized stomach chamber (called the rumen), which houses billions of microbes that facilitate the breakdown of fibrous plant material. The process is called “enteric fermentation,” and as these microbes
In the Netherlands, central heating boilers will be banned by 2026 and its government has incentivized the installation of heat pumps. Meanwhile, the U.K. government estimates that heating buildings accounts for 25% of the U.K.’s greenhouse gas emissions. It passed the Energy Security Bill, and is aiming to install 600,000 heat pumps a year by
Roku has announced that the ad-supported Disney+ tier, Disney+ Basic, is now available to its users. When the ad-supported plan launched four months, many users were surprised to find that it wasn’t accessible on Roku. At the time, Disney told TechCrunch that was still in talks with Roku about reaching an agreement that suits both
Verdane founder and Managing Partner Bjarne Lie joins Ed Ludlow to discuss the VC space in Europe following the SVB fallout. ——– Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrM7B7SL_g1edFOnmj-SDKg Watch the latest full episodes of “Bloomberg Technology” with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow here: https://tinyurl.com/ycyevxda Get the latest in tech from Silicon
The global medical imaging market was valued at a touch over $28 billion in 2021, and is only expected to rise with an increase in demand for early-detection services as well as lifestyle and age-related conditions. Yet at the same time as demand for radiology services is increasing, the number of available radiographers is decreasing.
Venture capital has traditionally been an industry that revolves around relationships. VCs invest in a startup’s idea but their conviction stems from the folks behind it. This largely makes sense because investing in a startup also usually entails entering a years-long relationship. But backing companies based on the allure of the founder hasn’t always worked
French startup Forest Admin is launching a cloud-based version of its product. The company helps you create flexible back-end admin panels for operations teams. Essentially, Forest Admin helps development teams spend less time on back office tools so that they can focus on the actual product. With the cloud version, companies just have to integrate
Netflix continues with its livestreams, this time with the “Love is Blind” season 4 cast. This will be the streamer’s first-ever live reunion special in its history. “Love Is Blind: The Live Reunion” will air on April 16 at 8 p.m. ET. The five main couples attending the live reunion include Brett Brown and Tiffany
As generative AI proliferates, it’s beginning to reach the ads we hear on podcasts and the radio. Startup Adthos this week launched a platform that uses AI to generate scripts for audio ads — and even add voiceovers, sound effects and music. Customers can optionally go in and edit the ads using a browser-based, multi-track
Lux Capital, known for investing in life science and frontier tech startups, is back in the market to fundraise for its latest vehicle — but this time without a dedicated late-stage entity. The firm is targeting over $1 billion for Lux Ventures VIII, according to meeting materials from the New Mexico State Investment Council (NM
Germany’s antitrust authority has today confirmed Apple meets its test for special abuse controls — having so-called “paramount significance for competition across markets”. The designation stands for five years. “The company holds a dominant, or at least powerful, position on all vertically related levels based on its smartphones, tablets and smart watches as well as
Savvy Games Group, a games and esports company that is part of the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund, has agreed to acquire mobile games studio Scopely for $4.9 billion. Founded in 2011, Scopely is known for several popular mobile games including Yahtzee With Buddies, Star Trek Fleet Command, Marvel Strike Force, Stumble Guys and Scrabble
Today, Y Combinator’s latest startup cohort will kick off a two-day presentation cycle. The Exchange loves a demo day, so we keep an eye on accelerators as best we can. We recently covered the latest concerning YC’s rival group Techstars’ geographic footprint as well. As we wait for the first presentations to begin, this is
Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that has launched the likes of Instacart, Stripe and Airbnb, has broadened its investing lens in recent years, backing companies all over Africa and India, and beyond. As the tech downturn has continued, though, Y Combinator has shrunk its cohort size, stepped back from late-stage investing, and brought on a
Africa contributes less than 3% of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions but the continent will be one of the most impacted by the adverse effects of climate change. Some explanations for Africa’s vulnerability include poor diffusion of technologies and information relevant to supporting adaptation, usually provided by clean or climate tech companies. Despite the
In a major win over opaque algorithmic management in the so-called gig economy an appeals court in the Netherlands has found largely in favor of platform workers litigating against ride-hailing giants Uber and Ola — judging the platforms violated the drivers’ rights in a number of instances, including when algorithms were involved in terminating driver
The Roku Channel has added 14 new free, ad-supported channels featuring TV shows and movies from Warner Bros.’s content library. Earlier this year, Warners Bros. Discovery announced that it reached a deal with Roku and Tubi to license 2,000 hours of content. The content is now available on Roku. Roku’s new channels feature many popular
Huawei USA Chief Security Officer Andy Purdy joins Ed Ludlow to discuss the Huawei’s outlook after the company posted its first annual profit decline in more than a decade, after years of US sanctions all but obliterated its smartphone arm and compelled the Chinese telecom gear maker to ratchet up research spending. ——– Like this
Mobile gaming is set to reach $315.9 billion this year, according to Statista, but it’s not easy money: Various subscription models, IP, operating costs and how people access games make it an expensive endeavor that can be prohibitive for anyone who wants to try something new or different. Ryan Horrigan, co-founder and CEO of game
Indian electric mobility startup Magenta Mobility has closed a $22 million Series A1 round, backed by $11 million each from Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure and BP Ventures. Magenta will use the all-equity investment to boost its existing logistics and last-mile delivery fleet operations. The Navi Mumbai-headquartered startup has a fleet of 800 three-wheeled electric cargo
A warming world is going to need a lot of cold drinks. Problem is, today’s refrigeration tech is anything but climate friendly. The way we cool our food and drink has barely changed in a century and the technology is still reliant on environmentally harmful refrigerants. Now, a German startup thinks it can freeze those
TikTok has been issued with a fine of £12.7 million (~$15.7M) for breaching U./K. data protection law, including rules intended to protect children. The privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), announced today that it found the video sharing site “did not do enough” to check who was using their platform and failed to take
Apple is gearing up to open its first retail store in India to the public later this month, roughly two decades after the company began selling products and services in the South Asian nation that has grown to become the second largest internet market. The iPhone-maker on Wednesday shared the barricade of its first retail
Amazon is set to shutter Book Depository, an online bookstore and competitor it acquired back in 2011. The news comes hot on the heels of a swathe of cutbacks at the internet giant, with two separate rounds of layoffs impacting at least 27,000 people across various divisions including its highly profitable AWS cloud unit and,