SoFi’s CEO is resigning immediatelyIt turns out the embattled CEO of SoFi couldn't last until the end of the year. Mike Cagney, the head of the high-flying lending startup who has over the last week been battling ugly sexual harassment allegations at his company, is now stepping down as CEO. He is also stepping down immediately from the company’s board. Earlier this week, the company said Cagney would resign “by year end” once his successor had been chosen. It seems the allegations were making that delay close to impossible, with more revelations about his behavior potentially on the way. Corporate venture in Brazil gains steam as giants amp up startup investmentsWhat a difference one year makes. Since showing noteworthy signs of a maturing tech ecosystem last summer, corporate venture in Latin America has begun to crescendo in just 12 months, led by Brazil. According to LAVCA’s 2017 Latin American Startup Directory, of the 144 early-stage tech companies that received $1 million-plus in funding over at least two rounds and are still operating in Brazil, approximately one-sixth of them secured corporate venture capital (CVC) funding. While this might seem shy compared to half of the rounds in Silicon Valley, it is a significant step for the region and a clear sign that corporations are evolving fast from curiosity to actual action, with skin in the game. [ Tech Crunch ] Sydney-based startup Grei offers a multimedia content platform aimed at improving financial literacy in ChinaWhether it’s millennials splitting bills through an app or artificial intelligence (AI) advising budding investors where to put their dollar, helping people achieve their financial goals has been an objective for a number of fintech startups recently. One of the latest in the market, PictureWealth, provides users a “wealth selfie” or ‘welfie’ (yes, you read that correctly) of their financial profile to help educate them about personal finance and lay the framework for achieving their personal financial goals. [ Startup Daily ] Tim O’Reilly thinks focusing less on shareholders just might save the worldThere’s no shortage of angst in Silicon Valley. Tech leaders are still reeling from the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Their increasingly rich companies are coming to be viewed as more and more sinister, thanks in part to the jobs they look to automate. Calls to break up some of the biggest companies are starting to take on some urgency for the first time in nearly 20 years. Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media and author of a new book, “WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us,” thinks a lot of these problems could be solved if only big tech would focus a little less on profits and more on enabling other companies to be built atop of, or in partnership, with their platforms. In fact, his book, which is part memoir and part case study, is largely an entreaty to do things differently before it’s too late. [ TechCrunch ] E764: News Roundtable! Molly Wood & Sarah Frier: FB takes Russian $, Zuck runs amok, new Apple, A.I.What Listening To 124 Startup Pitches In Two Days Taught Me About What's Next In TechHow Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignoranceThis Startup Is Transforming Alzheimer's Care One Story At A TimeFarhad’s and Mike’s Week in Tech: New iPhones and Facebook AdsDharma hopes to solve health data collection for NGOs of the worldLurid Lawsuit’s Quiet End Leaves Silicon Valley Start-Up Barely DentedAll of the car companies, suppliers, and auto startups in Silicon ValleyMeet the startups that just pitched at EF’s 8th Demo Day in LondonSilicon Valley’s quest for a basic income in the US just got a boost from a $1.4 trillion tax proposal in Congress |