Peter Thiel May Be Looking To Buy Gawker.comIn a federal bankruptcy court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for venture capitalist Peter Thiel objected to the ongoing sale process of Gawker.com, arguing that the billionaire has been unfairly excluded from bidding for the assets of the defunct news website. The filing, which comes more than a year after the revelation that Thiel helped finance a clandestine legal war to destroy Gawker.com’s parent company, Gawker Media, lays the groundwork for the Facebook board member’s possible bid for the dormant website. While its sister sites were sold to Univision in August 2016 for $135 million following Gawker Media’s bankruptcy, a bankruptcy plan administrator has not been able to find a buyer for Gawker.com. Whoever ends up buying the site will also buy its archives, which are still up, and will have the right to do with them what they want, including delete them. [ BuzzFeed ] Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57 Million PeopleHackers stole the personal data of 57 million customers and drivers from Uber Technologies Inc., a massive breach that the company concealed for more than a year. This week, the ride-hailing firm ousted its chief security officer and one of his deputies for their roles in keeping the hack under wraps, which included a $100,000 payment to the attackers. HOW SILICON VALLEY IS CRACKING THE CONSTRUCTION CODESILICON VALLEY’S LATEST axiom: Move fast and build things. VC firms expect to invest $375 million in construction tech this year—a 420 percent increase from 2014. “It’s one of the last massive industries to be disrupted,” says Darren Bechtel, founder of Brick and Mortar Ventures (and kin to the founders of the eponymous construction giant). Investors like him envision streamlining a process that has traditionally required teams of contractors to build a single house. The so-called constructech industry’s unlikely darling, Katerra, builds homes by controlling every step of the process, from fabricating walls to installing doorknobs. Despite the fact that the founders have never worked in the building industry, the startup secured a $130 million Series C round earlier this year. Katerra CEO Michael Marks, former head of Flex and Tesla, argues that it takes an outsider to shake things up: “Amazon didn’t come from within the retail industry; Airbnb didn’t come from the hospitality industry.” [ WIRED ] ThankfullyThankfully the US is enjoying one of the longest economic expansions of the post-war period (101 months and counting) Thankfully that economic expansion is starting to result in job growth for the parts of the economy that have lagged during this expansion Thankfully the Trump Administration has, so far, failed to enact the most troublesome parts of its agenda Thankfully the developing world continues to experience rising wealth, income, and living standards Thankfully technology continues to produce answers to our most vexing problems Thankfully renewable energy continues to grow and displace carbon-based energy around the world [ AVC ] Shasta Ventures promotes three to partnerGrab has appointed Vikas Agrawal as chief technology officer (CTO) of its mobile payments unit GrabPay. His arrival is the latest in a string of hires and acquisitions that the company has made as it moves beyond ride-hailing to build its credentials as a payments platform. Agrawal was previously a senior vice president at Indian digital payments firm Paytm, where he led a team of 200 engineers. Prior to joining Paytm in February 2016, he was co-founder and CTO at ecommerce startup Fashionara. He will be based in Bangalore, where Grab has a research and development facility. Grab group CTO Theo Vassilakis highlighted Agrawal’s tech leadership at Paytm at a time when India has been attempting to reduce its reliance on cash. [ Tech In Asia ] Do VC Woes Extend To Portfolio Companies? For Rothenberg, Probably NotAs VC brands go, Rothenberg Ventures has seen better days. The firm built up a reputation as an up-and-coming early stage investor a few years ago, based on bold bets on virtual reality, a flashy marketing strategy, and its well-connected namesake and founder, Mike Rothenberg. Between 2012 and 2016, the San Francisco firm participated in funding rounds for more than 100 early-stage companies, commonly investing alongside top-tier VCs. [ CrunchBase ] HP commits to hiring women for at least 50% of jobs in a key recruitment areaHP, alongside around 90 other companies including Accenture, Cisco, and Dell, have banded together to try and help one another to gain greater gender diversity in the UK tech workforce. Their vehicle: an industry collective called Tech Talent Charter, which has now received the formal backing of the UK government. Their focus: the early stages of industry recruitment. Their aim: to build a stronger pipeline of diversity for the future. “There could be any number of reasons” for the lack of equal representation for women in STEM fields, particularly at senior levels, “from cultural and educational influences, unconscious bias, or simply male dominated industries attracting more males,” says George Brasher, managing director of HP in the UK and Ireland. “We need to disrupt the system and address all of these, whilst making positive changes to attract more women.” [ QZ ] University of Queensland launches Hype Spin Lab Accelerator for sportstech startupsSport. It has long held a special place for most individuals living in this great nation of ours, and so it should – we have some of the best in the world and for our size and population always tend to hold our own when it comes to global sporting events like the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. In 2016 / 2017 over $4.5 billion was invested in sports tech globally – that spend includes wearables, smart stadiums and technologies that support the health and safety of players and fans. [ Startup Daily ] Women-led startup turns domestic abuse survivors into entrepreneursmonth ago Christine and her children were living in a shelter for survivors of domestic violence. Now she lives in her own apartment and runs a business selling aromatherapy products on the side while working as an admin assistant.She credits that transition to a not-for-profit called FreeFrom, which helps women who have left abusive partners launch businesses and become financially independent so they can build new lives for themselves and their children. [ The Guardian ] 16 charts showing current trends in US venture capitalEquity podcast: Stitch Fix and Sailpoint get their IPOs doneUnilever Ventures invests $10 mn in IDG Ventures IndiaFemale Entrepreneurs Face Tougher Questions from Venture CapitalistsLyft raising additional $500 million on top of recent $1 billion roundUber Japan Chief Masami Takahashi Is Said to Leave for WeWork |