Amazon on Tuesday launched The Climate Pledge Fund, a new venture capital investment program that will funnel an initial $2 billion into startups building sustainable technologies across various industries such as transportation, food, manufacturing, and more. From a report: The fund is part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge announced by the tech giant last year as the company promised to become net…
Tag: Venture Capital
What Happens When Software Development Environments Move to the Cloud?
An anonymous reader quotes IEEE Spectrum:
If you’re a newly hired software engineer, setting up your development environment can be tedious. If you’re lucky, your company will have a documented, step-by-step process to follow. But this still doesn’t guarantee you’ll be up and running in no time. When you’re tasked with updating your environment, you’ll go through the same time-consuming process. With…
Newton Mail is Being Resurrected Again, This Time by Superfans
Newton Mail, a subscription-based email client with an impressively large fanbase, is being reincarnated by new owners: long-time fans Maitrik Kataria and Justin Mitchell. From a report: After Newton’s owner Essential announced it would be shutting down in February — for the second time, Kataria and Mitchell reached out to the company to figure out how they could save their favorite…
Startups Pursue ‘Free Money’ With Relief Funds, Prompting Backlash
Some young companies have turned to the government loans not for day-to-day survival but simply to buy useful time. From a report: Domio, a start-up that offers short-term rentals, has its headquarters in a New York City loft that features beer on tap, a game room and a wall of house slippers for visitors. The fast-growing and unprofitable company has raised…
Will the Pandemic Inspire Silicon Valley to Do Good?
The global pandemic “has stirred up a missionary zeal throughout Silicon Valley,” writes Bloomberg:
Apple and Google put aside a decadelong rivalry to form an alliance to track the spread of infections. Facebook and Salesforce.com are procuring millions of masks for health care workers. Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million and Jack Dorsey $1 billion. In other corners of the Valley, people…
WeWork Sues SoftBank In Intensifying Crisis Over Canceled $3 Billion Tender Offer
Just days after SoftBank announced that it would not consummate its $3 billion tender offer for WeWork shares that would have bought out some of the equity held by the company’s co-founder Adam Neumann along with venture capital firms like Benchmark and many individual company employees, the company is now retaliating, suing SoftBank over alleged breach of contract and breach of…
The Rich Are Preparing for Coronavirus Differently
The new coronavirus knows no national borders or social boundaries. That doesn’t mean that social boundaries don’t exist. An anonymous reader shares a report: “En route to Paris,” Gwyneth Paltrow wrote on Instagram last week, beneath a shot of herself on an airplane heading to Paris Fashion Week and wearing a black face mask. “I’ve already been in this movie,” she…
Tech Startups Face New Investor Mandate: Profits Over Discounts
The discounts and freebies many tech startups have used to lure customers– free lunch delivery, $3 beauty products and bargain taxi rides — have fallen out of favor with investors who are losing patience with the failure of these companies to turn a profit. From a report: The proliferation of subsidized products and services from venture-capital-backed startups over the past decade…
Uber Joins Forces With Joby Aviation To Launch An Air Taxi Service By 2023
Uber is joining forces with California-based aerospace company Joby Aviation to launch urban air-taxi services in select locations by 2023. The Verge reports: Joby is the brainchild of inventor JoeBen Bevirt, who started the company in 2009. The company operated in relative obscurity until 2018, when Joby announced it had raised a surprising $100 million from a variety of investors, including…
WeWork’s Sudden Fall Reveals the Cracks in the Startup Economy
The venture capital firm First Round Capital conducts an annual “State of Startups” survey that gets passed around widely in Silicon Valley. Its 2019 findings, published this week, are grim. From a report: Over two-thirds of startup founders, more than ever before, believe that we are in a tech “bubble.” Sixty-five percent of founders believe that it’s going to be harder…