At One Ventures' new fund is going after startups out to 'destroy the industries that are destroying the environment'

Planet-positive venture capital firm At One Ventures closed on its Fund I, aimed at injecting $150 million into startups that are innovating in the technical hardware space and specializing in environmentally positive technology. The Bay Area firm was started in 2019 by GoogleX co-founder Tom Chi,

Building better startups with responsible AI

Founders tend to think responsible AI practices are challenging to implement and may slow the progress of their business. They often jump to mature examples like Salesforce's Office of Ethical and Humane Use and think that the only way to avoid creating a harmful product is building a big team.

Cannabis investment jumps 82% the second half of 2021, 165% over 2020 levels

Cannabis equity fundraising is quickly hitting new highs. An analysis of Crunchbase data reveals cannabis companies are seeing larger checks from equity financing, and the number of rounds is seemingly shifting from seed to later-stage rounds. News broke today that cannabis tech leader Dutchie rais

Zeus Living closes on $55M to offer flexible, furnished rentals as it expands beyond corporate housing

During the pandemic and shift to remote work that came with it, many people took advantage of their newfound flexibility to try living in different places. One startup poised to benefit from this is Zeus Living, which is focused on giving people “flexible living” options and has just raised $55

Wisdom is a social audio app for opening access to mentorship

U.K. social audio startup Wisdom has launched a new mentorship marketplace that’s described as a mix between Clubhouse and the celebrity-focused courses platform MasterClass. The app lets users log on to find conversations which they can join live (with the chance to ask questions) or listen

Bird nabs $150M, up from $40M, in vehicle financing from Apollo Investment Corp.

Shared micromobility operator Bird announced that it has secured commitments from Apollo Investment Corporation to raise its existing $40 million vehicle financing credit facility to $150 million. The upsize goes into effect once the SPAC deal with Switchback II Corporation officially closes. The s

Agreena, a regenerative farming carbon market, raises $4.7M seed from Giant Ventures

Farming accounts for 24% of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions, and this is largely due to the intensive, “industrial” farming methods employed in the last few decades, together with the rise in the consumption of meat. However, a new approach has been taking the farming world by sto

Newsela breaks into interactive educational video with first acquisition

YouTube is the third-most-used website within schools, according to Matthew Gross, CEO and co-founder of Newsela. “That is incredible, considering how difficult it is to find videos, how unfiltered it is and how inaccessible it is for many students who have different learning a

Evolution Equity Partners closes on $400M for new cybersecurity fund

Evolution Equity Partners is targeting cybersecurity and enterprise software companies for its new Evolution Technology Fund II LP for which it announced Thursday a final closing totaling $400 million. The fund was oversubscribed and included new and returning institutional investors, corporates an

AI shopping assistant Karma raises $25 million in Series A funding led by Target Global

AI shopping assistant and shopping network Karma announced that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Target Global followed by MoreTech Ventures, with participation from existing investors including NFX and Altair Capital. Karma allows users to plan their next online purchases, get

European point of sale provider SumUp acquires customer loyalty startup Fivestars for $317M

SumUp, a European-based competitor to Square, PayPal/iZettle and others that provide mobile-powered card readers and other sales technology to merchants and small businesses, has made an acquisition in the U.S. to dig deeper into that market and to expand the kinds of services that it provides to c

Singapore-based insurtech startup Surer nabs seed round to bolster its product development

There is an imbalance between demand and supply of general insurance due to the tedious workflow and processes that insurance intermediaries and insurance companies face.  Singaporean insurtech company Surer, which automates the workflow and processes via a cloud-based platform, helps insurance i

Smart growth tactics can put account-based marketing within reach for startups and SMBs

For many startups and SMBs, successfully setting up account-based marketing strategies can feel like a pipe dream. Startups still struggling to find product-market fit wouldn't dream of being able to identify and map out their ideal customer profile (ICP) clearly enough. At the same time, small

Dear Sophie: Marriage-based green card versus EB-1C green card?

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies. “Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says