Startups

As edtech churns out more and more MasterClass copycats and coding bootcamps, it's becoming glaringly obvious that students need better ways to navigate the crowded world of online learning. Career Karma, founded in 2018 by Ruben Harris, Artur Meyster and Timur Meyster, wants to help. The start

Dataform, a startup in the U.K. that was building what it dubbed an “operating system” for data warehouses, has been quietly acquired by Google’s Google Cloud division. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, although I understand this is mostly an acqui-hire, albeit one w

Karl Marx famously argued in “Das Kapital” that to achieve freedom from the slavery of capitalism, the worker must own the means of production. Perhaps that day is edging closer. Today Wikifactory, billing itself as a “GitHub for hardware”, announced it has closed a $3 milli

Inspiration to launch a lawn-care company struck Coulter Lewis when he was shopping for lawn-care products one day. The entrepreneur, who previously worked as a designer and co-founder of a snack company, says the stench of pesticides and herbicides piled high was too strong to ignore. Lewis began

Amy Yin doesn’t foresee startups resuming a five-day-a-week in-office work schedule, even after COVID-19 has been battled back. It’s probably a safe bet. Many companies have learned this year that employees can be just as productive working from home. More, employees — much as the

From a young age, Will Bruey, the co-founder and chief executive of Varda Space Industries, was fascinated with space and running his own business. So when the former SpaceX engineer was tapped by Delian Asparouhov and Trae Stephens of Founders Fund to work on Varda, he didn’t think twice.

The Federal Trade Commission has sued to block Procter & Gamble's acquisition of Billie, a NY-based startup that sells razors and body wash. In the notice, the FTC alleged that the merger would “eliminate innovative nascent competitors for wet shave razors” to the loss of consumers.

According to media reports, food-delivery giant DoorDash priced its IPO at $102 per share, ahead of its final IPO pricing range of $90 to $95 per share. The company’s debut has been warmly anticipated by public investors, as evinced by the company raising its range from an initial target of $

Calm, a well-known meditation app, has raised new capital at a valuation of $2 billion. The round was anticipated after the company was reported to be hunting for up to $150 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion; perhaps Calm will follow in the steps of Robinhood and add a second tranche to the ro

ShoppingGives, a Chicago-based startup pitching retailers a service that can integrate nonprofit donations into their sales and shopping platforms, has raised an undisclosed amount from Serena Williams’ venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, the company said.  ShoppingGives allows retailers

Buzzy face-swap video app Reface, which lends users celebrity ‘superpowers’ by turning their selfies into “eerily realistic” famous video clips at the tap of a button, has caught the attention of Andreessen Horowitz. The Silicon Valley venture firm leads a $5.5 million seed

The two founders of Parrot Software, Roberto Cebrián and David Villarreal, first met in high school in Monterrey, Mexico. In the 11 years since, both have pursued successful careers in the tech industry and became family (they’re brothers-in-law). Now, they’re starting a new business t

Lettuce celebrate the rise of indoor agriculture. In the past few months, AppHarvest, a developer of greenhouse tomato farms, went public through a special purpose acquisition vehicle, vertical farming giant Plenty raised $140 million, and now Gotham Greens, which is developing its own network of g

Carsome, which bills itself as Southeast Asia's largest e-commerce platform for used cars, announced it has closed a $30 million Series D. The funding was led by Asia Partners, with participation from returning investors Burda Principal Investments and Ondine Capital. The startup described this