Bill Gates and investors worth $170 billion are launching a fund to fight climate change through energy innovationBill Gates is leading a more than $1 billion fund focused on fighting climate change by investing in clean energy innovation. The Microsoft co-founder and his all-star line-up of fellow investors plan to announce tomorrow the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, which will begin making investments next year. The BEV fund, which has a 20-year duration, aims to invest in the commercialization of new technologies that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in areas including electricity generation and storage, transportation, industrial processes, agriculture, and energy-system efficiency. [ Quartz ] A Silicon Valley Party Tries To Put Guests To SleepCan the tech industry code the cure to our insomnia? On a recent night, the hottest place for a certain swath of tech-happy San Franciscans to be was sprawled out, eyes closed, on the floor of an elegant Victorian in the city’s Pacific Heights neighborhood. A dozen others, sunk deep into couches, were nodding off with faint smiles on their faces. The sun had set hours ago. Candles illuminated the cozy living room, lined with bookshelves and paintings. The event was meant to underline the importance of sleep — the struggle to make time for it, the agony of tossing and turning, the exhaustion from having too little. [ BuzzFeed ] What traction do I need to raise money?Elizabeth Yin of 500 Startups How This Startup Plans to Turn Thrifty Foodies Into Raving FansThrive Market is working to make shopping for organic food online cheaper than your corner supermarket (and Whole Foods). When the co-founders of organic food e-commerce company Thrive Market saw an Instagram of a bear mauling one of their deliveries, they were oddly delighted. "A box of food had been left on the porch of a woman in rural Wyoming," says co-CEO Nick Green. It's remote locales like this where he and his co-founders, Gunnar Lovelace and Sasha Siddhartha, hope to have their biggest success selling organic food that's accessible and affordable. For a $59.95 membership fee, consumers can buy organic products at up to 50 percent off the retail price. Green explains how they make it work. [ Inc. ] Andreessen in hot water for texts he sent ZuckerbergFacebook’s board was sued earlier this year, with investors alleging that their interests were not adequately represented when Zuckerberg was permitted to sell most of his shares and still retain voting control of the company. And now court filings uncovered by Bloomberg show that texts sent by board member Marc Andreessen are being used to suggest that he was protecting Zuckerberg instead of shareholders. [ Tech Crunch ] Well-Funded Startups Are Cutting Costs and Laying Off StaffIt’s the kind of thing that stinks to be right about. Earlier this week, I predicted that many startups would go through end-of-year layoffs. Some are trimming headcount after over-expanding based on revenue projections they didn’t meet. Some are shifting strategies. Others are in survival mode. [ Fortune ] Here’s how fintech will impact emerging markets in 2017Mobile payments, digital wallets, and other forms of financial technology (fintech) have seen widespread adoption in the West, but fintech has a whole new meaning for the developing world. Because of the largely unbanked populations in emerging markets, fintech companies serving those markets are facing a unique opportunity (and challenge) to entirely skip a whole generation of financial services (i.e., banks, cards) and rethink the payments ecosystem as it moves away from cash. [ VB ] 100 of the most exciting startups in New York CityThe Berlin-based magazine The Hundert has been compiling lists of Europe's most exciting startups for years. For the ninth edition of the magazine, the team focused on startups in New York City instead. A panel of 40 judges, including Business Insider's Henry Blodget and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, chairman of Spitzer Partners, chose the finalists. [ Business Insider ] Curated by Venture Pulse Team. Find us on : [ Venturepulse.org, CrunchBase, AngelList ] |