China-backed SILK Ventures announces $500 million fund to invest in European techSino-British fund SILK Ventures has announced a new $500 million fund, supported by the Chinese government, to investment in European and US companies. The investment firm, which was founded to back and support companies that are trying to break into China, will invest from Series A on in fields like AI, robotics, IoT, fintech, deep science, and medtech. It intends to announce its first investment in July and guide these companies through breaking into the Asian market. [ Tech.eu ] Sam Altman for governor?Y Combinator President Sam Altman might run for governor of California — or so says Willie Brown, who spent decades in the California State Assembly and served two terms as the mayor of San Francisco. Brown slipped a few comments on Altman’s apparent interest in holding office into his Sunday column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Altman is considering running as soon as 2018, Brown said. Altman, 32, told “Vice News Tonight” correspondent Nellie Bowles a month ago that he wanted to see a techie run for governor, but that he didn’t see himself in office. Kalaari Capital’s Vani Kola steps down from Snapdeal boardTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey believes that it’s “important” that President Donald Trump continues to tweet. Why? Because hearing from Trump publicly will help hold him accountable, Dorsey says. “I believe it's really important to have these conversations out in the open, rather than have them behind closed doors,” he told Willie Geist in a snippet from a longer interview that will air on Sunday TODAY. [ VC Circle ] America’s immigration policies are hurting startups, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison saysHow America welcomes — or doesn’t — outsiders who want to work for American companies is “an even bigger deal than we think,” Stripe CEO Patrick Collison says. Speaking on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, he declaimed against the “needless barriers in the way” of the U.S. remaining a destination for immigrants. Collison and his brother/co-founder John were born in Ireland, but founded Stripe, an online payments platform now valued at more than $9 billion, while they were students at MIT and Harvard, respectively. Q&A: WeChat guru Matthew Brennan on the superapp’s next moveThere are few products in China as influential as WeChat. The Chinese social app dominates the daily life of its 889 million monthly active users – a third of them spend more than four hours on it every day. And with payments, blogs, chat groups, newsfeeds, and an ever-expanding selection of services embedded inside, WeChat is often described as a mobile operating system instead of an app. [ Tech In Asia ] Sheryl Sandberg is calling for a better safety net for moms on Mother’s DayWho showed you how to run a business? Who somehow miraculously did not completely lose it when you totaled your dad’s car? Big-name techies answer: Their moms. Sheryl Sandberg and others are sharing thanks and appreciation on social media and in the press this Mother’s Day. Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, used the holiday as a way to praise her mother and mother-in-law, and to promote her support for equitable pay for women. [ Re/Code ] Venture capital helps drive Utah tech sectorFor almost two decades now, Jeff Burningham has been on a streak, hitting home runs with whatever endeavor he puts his mind to. He started a successful tech startup while still a BYU undergrad and, at 25, sold it to a NASDAQ-listed company (long before it was cool). He then parlayed his earnings from that deal into real estate when the market was booming in the early oughts. [ Deseret News ] Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo is teaming up with LyftWaymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent company Alphabet, is teaming up with Lyft to work on bringing autonomous vehicle efforts to market, the New York Times reports. Details on what this partnership entails remain a little fuzzy, but sources told Times reporter Mike Isaac the two companies would be working together on pilot projects and product development efforts. That’s another way of saying Lyft users in some markets will likely be able to hail a Waymo self-driving car in a limited test sometime down the road. [ Re/Code ] How Kylie Jenner Built A Makeup Empire Out Of Her Most Famous AssetSeconds after Kylie Jenner launched her first three lines of lipstick, on November 30, 2015, all three sold out online. Less than two years later, Kylie Cosmetics is a full-service, direct-to-consumer beauty brand, with offerings that include its signature lip kits (lipstick and liner) plus eye shadows, blushes, and tools. The 19-year-old Jenner, famous for her own perfectly plump pout, continues to draw upwards of 10 million people to her Snapchat makeup tutorials and has led the brand to a reported $400 million in revenue since its launch. That’s why Jenner is No. 57 on our list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business 2017. [ Fast Company ] Full transcript: Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna on Recode DecodeOn this episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, the Congressman Ro Khanna came by the studio to speak with Kara and Recode’s Senior Editor for Policy and Politics, Tony Romm. The conversation ranged from Silicon Valley’s responsibility toward American citizens to job creation and job loss due to technological advances. You can read some of the highlights from the interview at that link, or listen to it in the audio player below. We’ve also provided a lightly edited complete transcript of their conversation. [ Re/Code ] reVIVE wins the Disrupt NY 2017 Hackathon Grand PrizeIt’s been a long night at Pier 36, also known as Basketball City. But this time, you couldn’t see hoops. Instead, the building hosted a very special competition — the Disrupt NY Hackathon. Around 750 engineers and designers got together to come up with something cool, something neat, something awesome. The only condition was that they only had 24 hours to work on their projects. Some of them were participating in our event for the first time, while others were regulars. [ Tech Crunch ] Report: Snapchat installs fell 16% in April as Instagram continues to pull further aheadOn the heels of a disappointing first earnings report for Snap, a new report indicates the company’s trouble attracting new users deepened at the start of the second quarter. According to Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence data, downloads of Snapchat in April 2017 fell about 16 percent year-over-year on the App Store and Google Play combined. That puts the actual downloads for the month at 21.1 million, compared to 25.2 million for April 2016, back when the company was riding a user-growth hot streak. [ Venture Beat ] CEO of a game startup that treats mental illness scolded for trying something newAyako Shimuzu is the founder of Hikari Labs, a startup developing and marketing video games to treat mental illness. While she has the clinical data to show that the approach has real therapeutic value, Japanese academia and the medical industry as a whole have been unsupportive of her efforts. [ Tech In Asia ] Melbourne fashion ecommerce tool To Me Love Me wants to help shoppers find the right fitThese days blockchain-based startups are a dime a dozen. But when one of those startups is run by Jed McCaleb—who is famous for founding famous crypto-currency enterprises like Mt. Gox and Ripple—it's worth paying attention. [ Startup Daily ] Google’s Fight Against Uber Takes a Turn for the CriminalTHINGS DON’T LOOK good for Uber and autonomous vehicle wunderkind Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer who now leads the startup’s robocar program. This week, US District Court Judge William Alsup made two key decisions in the lawsuit between Google’s autonomous vehicle spinoff Waymo and Uber. You know, the one accusing Levandowski of swiping 14,000 confidential documents from Waymo and taking them with him to Uber. [ Wired ] Newcastle’s Hunter Innovation Festival set to showcase regional innovation The tenth annual Hunter Innovation Festival kicks off this week, aiming to showcase regional startup success stories, promote innovation, and facilitate discussion around women in the startup ecosystem through the event’s flagship Women in Innovation panel. Hosted at numerous locations across Newcastle, including the University of Newcastle’s Three76 Hub coworking hub in the city CBD, the festival will bring together entrepreneurs and key community members from across the Hunter region. [ Silicon Paddock ] |