“SpaceX, the Elon Musk-led company that recently became the first business in history to send astronauts into Earth’s orbit, is parlaying its successes into big money,” reports CNN Business: The company recently finished a $1.9 billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, according to public filings and data aggregated by venture capital data…
Tag: investing
Some Cities are Combining Basic Incomes with Local Currenices
Bloomberg looks at some interesting local currency programs that have been implemented around the world. And in at least one case money “is literally being made from trees” — the wooden dollars being printed in a small city in the northwest U.S. and distributed to the needy in monthly stipends. “We preach localism and investing in our local community,” says mayor…
Coursera is Among the Top 10 on Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators List
By Jenny Talwar, Director of Talent at Coursera Innovators wanted: join our team at a pivotal moment Today, Fast Company ranked Coursera ninth on its Best Workplaces for Innovators list. The 2020 ranking features 100 companies that demonstrate a deep commitment to nurturing innovation at all levels. “As much of the world recovers from health, […]
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Facebook Seeks Insights Into Startups by Investing in VC Funds
Facebook in recent weeks has approached a handful of small venture capital firms to discuss becoming an investor in their funds, The Information reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The VC strategy, which also includes direct investments in startups, aims to give the social network early, valuable insight into a wider swath of companies. From a report: To run…
U.S. Hatches Plan To Build a Quantum Internet That Might Be ‘Unhackable’
U.S. officials and scientists unveiled a plan this week to pursue what they called one of the most important technological frontiers of the 21st century: building a quantum Internet. From a report: Speaking in Chicago, one of the main hubs of the work, they set goals for forging what they called a second Internet — one that would function alongside the…
Amazon Met With Startups About Investing, Then Launched Competing Products
Some companies regret sharing information with tech giant and its Alexa Fund. From a report: When Amazon.com’s venture-capital fund invested in DefinedCrowd, it gained access to the technology startup’s finances and other confidential information. Nearly four years later, in April, Amazon’s cloud-computing unit launched an artificial-intelligence product that does almost exactly what DefinedCrowd does, said DefinedCrowd founder and Chief Executive Daniela…
South Korea Commits $61 Billion For ‘Net-Zero Society’ By 2025
South Korea announced it’s investing $61 billion by 2025 to become a “net-zero society,” according to a statement from the country’s Ministry of Environment, reports a local news source. Interesting Engineering reports: As part of the South Korean New Deal, this “green” policy is the Asian country’s response to the rising tide of climate change, while also boosting its economy –…
Google Invests $4.5 Billion in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms
Google has become the latest high-profile firm to back India’s Reliance Jio Platforms. The search giant is investing $4.5 billion for a 7.73% stake in the top Indian telecom network, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Wednesday. From a report: The investment today from Google is one of the rare instances where the Android-maker has joined its global rival Facebook…
Robinhood Has Lured Young Traders, Sometimes With Devastating Results
Robinhood users buy and sell the riskiest financial products and do so more frequently than customers at other retail brokerage firms, but their inexperience can lead to staggering losses. From a report: Richard Dobatse, a Navy medic in San Diego, dabbled infrequently in stock trading. But his behavior changed in 2017 when he signed up for Robinhood, a trading app that…
Tim O’Reilly Asks If Venture Capital Is Doing More Harm Than Good
Tim O’Reilly is the founder of O’Reilly Media (formerly O’Reilly & Associates), and is credited by Wikipedia as helping to popularize the term open source. But Techcrunch reveals what he’s learned about venture capital from his work with Bryce Roberts (O’Reilly’s investing partner at early-stage venture firm O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures). “At a minimum, O’Reilly — who bootstrapped his own company, O’Reilly…