GSV Ventures doubles assets managed with new fund focused on global edtech

GSV Ventures, co-founded by Deborah Quazzo and Michael Cohn, has raised $180 million in its second fund, exclusively focused on backing edtech startups across the globe. The startup now manages $277 million in cumulative assets, inclusive of its debut fund that was closed in 2016.

From the ashes of nearly a billion dollars, Ample resurrects Better Place’s battery swapping business model

A little over 13 years ago, Shai Agassi, a promising software executive who was in line to succeed the chief executive at SAP, then one of the world’s mightiest software companies, left the company he’d devoted the bulk of his professional career to and started a business called Better

Cables could help soft robots transform into harder structures

The sub-category of soft robotics has transformed the way many think about the field. Oft-influenced by natural phenomenon, the technology offers a dramatically different approach than the sort of rigid structures we traditionally think of when we discuss robots. Soft designs offer a number of bene

EV rivals Tesla, Rivian unite to target direct sales legislation

Tesla, Rivian, Lordstown Motors and Lucid Motors — potential rivals in the burgeoning EV market — are working together to pass laws that would allow direct sales in at least eight states with another batch of proposed legislation likely being introduced this year. Passage of such legisl

Netflix launches ‘Fast Laughs,’ a TikTok-like feed of funny videos

Late last year, Netflix began experimenting with a new TikTok-like feed of funny videos inside its mobile app, which it called “Fast Laughs.” Today, the company announced the new feature is now rolling out on iOS, allowing users to watch, react, or share the short clips as well as add t

After 200% ARR growth in 2020, CourseKey raises $9M to digitize trade schools

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced educational institutions to go virtual, many were scrambling to develop online or blended curriculums. That struggle was particularly challenging for trade schools, many of which were not designed to teach online and were mostly paper-driven. 

Microsoft launches ‘Group Transcribe,’ a transcription and translation app for in-person meetings

A new project from Microsoft’s in-house incubator, Microsoft Garage, introduces a different take on meeting transcriptions. While today there are a number of real-time transcription apps to use on your phone — like Otter.ai or Google’s Recorder app for Pixel devices, for example &

Clari revenue forecasting platform snags $150M investment and triples valuation to $1.6B

Clari, the revenue operations platform that helps companies predict revenue outcomes, announced a $150 million Series E today on a $1.6 billion valuation, a number that more than triples its 2019 Series D valuation of $500 million. Silver Lake led the latest investment with participation from B Cap

Google says it won’t adopt new tracking tech after phasing out cookies

While we’ve written about attempts to build alternatives to cookies that track users across websites, Google says it won’t be going down that route. The search giant had already announced that it will be phasing out support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Today it went f

Yugabyte announces $48M investment as cloud-native database makes enterprise push

As demand for cloud-native applications is growing, Yugabyte, makers of the cloud-native, open-source YugabyteDB database, is seeing a corresponding rise in demand for its products, especially with large enterprise customers. Today, the company announced a $48 million financing round to help build

$1.3M in grants go toward making the web’s open-source infrastructure more equitable

Open-source software is at the core of… well, practically everything online. But while much of it is diligently maintained in some ways, in others it doesn’t receive the kind of scrutiny that something so foundational ought to. To that end, $1.3 million worth of grants were announced to

Deliverr scores $170M to bring fast delivery to every e-commerce vendor

At a time when e-commerce is exploding due in large part to the pandemic, a business that helps any online merchant ship goods to a consumer in one or two days is going to be in demand. Deliverr is a startup that fits that bill, and today the company announced a $170 million financing round. The ro

Brave is launching its own search engine with the help of ex-Cliqz devs and tech

Brave, the privacy-focused browser co-founded by ex-Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, is getting ready to launch an own-brand search engine for desktop and mobile. Today it’s announced the acquisition of an open source search engine developed by the team behind the (now defunct) Cliqz anti-tracking s

Scarf helps open-source developers track how their projects are being used

Almost by default, open-source developers get very little insight into who uses their projects. In part, that’s the beauty of open source, but for developers who want to monetize their projects, it’s also a bit of a curse because they get very little data back from these projects. While