It took some evasive maneuvering to get us here — the building out of a small-scale hardware ecosystem, coupled with a couple big-ticket acquisitions and a partnership with one of its largest potential competitors. But suddenly, Google emerging as competitive in the smartwatch space doesn’t seem an altogether outlandish proposition. One can make a compelling
VUZ, a social app that allows users to stream and experience immersive realism in extended reality (XR) and metaverse digital experiences, has raised $20 million in Series B investment. Investors in the round include Caruso Ventures, Vision VC Fund, e& capital, investment pillar of e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), DFDF (Dubai Future District Fund),
Pillow aspires to be an all-in-one platform that helps even newbie users save, spend and invest in crypto currency. The Singapore-based startup announced it has raised $18 million in Series A financing co-led by Accel and Quona Capital, with participation from Elevation Capital and Jump Capital. The app currently has more than 75,000 users in
Focused on Southeast Asia, Ayoconnect’s APIs make it faster for businesses to launch new financial services, instead of needing to build their own tech infrastructure. It is also licensed by Indonesia’s central bank, enabling it to offer more services. The open finance startup announced today it has closed a $13 million Series B extension round
Lightrock, the London-based backer of neobank Niyo and “wood modification” company Kebony, has secured about $834 million (€860 million) for a new fund focused on climate tech. The private equity and venture firm plans to pump the money into startups in areas such as clean energy, decarbonization and sustainable agriculture. Lightrock will write checks as small
There’s a new VC fund in town — at least if you live in Paris. Meet Resonance, a new $150 million fund (€150 million) backed 100% by Otium Capital. You may already be familiar with Otium Capital. It is Pierre-Edouard Stérin’s family office. Back in 2003, Stérin co-founded Smartbox Group, the company behind many popular
Samsung and Google announced a new partnership today that will allow easier setup for Matter-enabled devices on both Samsung SmartThings and Google Home systems. At the Samsung Developer Conference held in San Fransisco, the Korean tech giant said that it will update its SmartThings app in the coming months so that users can onboard Matter-enabled
Mori Taheripour teaches negotiations at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught undergraduates, MBA students and executive MBA students how to have better business conversations. Taheripour has also coached corporate clients, including on behalf of Goldman Sachs and Major League Baseball, about how to feel more confident and comfortable in
For the first time in years, it felt like venture capitalists slowed their cadence this summer. In days of yore, such “summer slowdowns” were par for the course, as investors took long holidays in August, leading to a general paucity of VC activity. Then the market went nuts for a few years, and such breaks
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The venture capital industry doesn’t have the best track record when you’re talking about ethics. Like most professions involving power and wealth, venture capital also sometimes attracts people for whom doing the right thing isn’t a concern. Limited regulatory oversight and a lack of transparency mean that investors can often get off scot-free for not
Following last week’s Google event, a colleague commented to me that the Pixel 7 wasn’t as big an upgrade as the Pixel 6. This is an objectively true statement. But also, it’s fine. Whatever you think about the yearly refresh cycle hardware makers are locked into, we’ve all come to accept that some upgrades are
After years of being tight-lipped on viewership numbers, Netflix teamed up with British TV ratings agency Broadcasters Audience Research Board or BARB, an organization in the U.K. that reports broadcast and streaming numbers. Starting in November, the organization will measure Netflix’s daily streaming numbers as well as report on its monthly reach and share of
Wolfgang Rückerl Contributor These days, a blockchain startup founder should expect to navigate challenging waters. Even in the best of times, founders must both prepare for a bull market and be ready for possibly bearish territory. Having a solid roadmap, real-world use cases and a war chest are only a small part of a blockchain
Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Any tips for negotiating
Net Purpose, a platform for sustainable investors, has raised $11 million in a Series A round led by ETF Partners, funding which will be used to expand its product and team, says the company. The company is benefitting from a shift to investing in sustainable products. According to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, $120
It was only in June last year when we reported how Immersive Labs, a platform which teaches cybersecurity skills to employees in a “gamified” way, had closed a $75 million Series C funding round. As of today, the company just pulled in another $66 Million, taking the total raised to $189 million. And it can
The cameras in our phones, laptops, and increasingly home robots and the like are about as small as they can get unless we starting doing something different, and that’s just what Metalenz is getting up to — with great success and now a $30 million funding round to expand its ultra-small 3D imaging tech. The
Today, October 10, Hulu raised its subscription prices. Announced in August, the Disney-owned streaming service, as well as ESPN+ and Disney+, are all getting price hikes. Hulu is increasing its ad-supported plan from $6.99 to $7.99 per month. Its ad-free plan now costs $14.99 per month instead of $12.99 per month. Subscribers with the Disney
French startup Homa has raised a $100 million Series B funding round. Quadrille Capital and Headline are leading the round. Homa partners with indie mobile game studios so that their games are perfectly optimized to become a hit game on the App Store and Google Play. In other words, Homa builds tools that help third-party
Tiger Global’s latest investment in India is Vecmocon, a startup building solutions to bring safety and reliability alongside intelligence and health monitoring to light electric vehicles (EVs), addressing concerns that are curtailing the sales of electric scooters in the South Asian market. Unlike traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that have existed for more than
Spherics, a UK-based carbon accounting platform for SMEs to understand and reduce their environmental impact, has been acquired by accounting giant Sage. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but it’s understood Spherics had raised £1.25m in equity financing from angel investors and £300,000 in grants. Spherics was a smaller startup playing in a similar
Mark Zuckerberg will make his impassioned pleas that the metaverse is a real thing and a valid Next Big Business for Meta (neé The Facebook) on Tuesday. The annual Meta Connect developer conference kicks off with a keynote starting at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT, which is followed immediately by a more technical
Tech giants and news organizations sparring over news reporting isn’t new. Companies often complain to journalists about getting nuances wrong and usually air their dismay “off the record.” Journalists usually agree to include the rebuttals provided the companies can offer the same assertions on-record. The companies don’t follow through and the conversation typically ends there
Sep.30 — Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw discusses the viral South Korean show “Squid Game” and its mass appeal in our post-pandemic world. He speaks to Emily Chang on “Bloomberg Technology.”
Neobanks are wagers that modern, digitally native services can supplant the traditional banking landscape. Founders flocked to the idea, investors wrote myriad checks, and despite how far along we are in the neobanking boom, startups are still being formed today to attack the problem space. Lately, we’ve seen neobanks focused on targeted niches, often segmented
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Stellantis on Tuesday launched a plan for its business unit dedicated to circular economics, which, to cut through the jargon, is a segment of the company dedicated to sustainability and recycling. The parent company to brands like Jeep, Dodge, Maserati and Peugeot estimates that the new unit will bring in more than €2 billion in
Meta keeps saying VR is the future, but everything it shows us is an inferior rehash of the things we already have. Its event today was, between assurances that everything is great in the Metaverse, a collection of tacit admissions that the best they can hope to do is ape a reality we are all
At Meta Connect 2022, the company’s annual developer conference for its VR efforts and Oculus hardware platform, the company announced a lot of stuff — but what it communicated more effectively than anything else was just how incredibly thirsty — one might even say desperate — Mark Zuckerberg is for his metaverse bet to pay