Silicon Valley's diversity push is stagnant"As diversity progress in Silicon Valley stalls, advocates call for a new approach," the L.A. Times' Tracey Lien writes from San Francisco. The big picture: "[W]hen companies pay money or lip service to diversity initiatives but don’t track whether those initiatives work, people start to feel like their time is being wasted ... Attrition of women remains high. And the number of black and Latino tech workers has by some counts actually declined." [ AXIOS ] Seattle Angel Fund rebrands with launch of SeaChange, its largest raise to dateAngel investing is a tricky game. Supporting a startup just getting off the ground takes a lot of work. But after several years spent as a venture capitalist in the Bay Area, Susan Preston, now the managing member at Seattle's SeaChange Fund, returned to the Pacific Northwest with an idea for how to spot sound bets for seed investments and then nurture their growth. [ Pitchbook ] Top 10 Cannabis Startups With The Most Green Back in January, directly following the legalization of cannabis for recreational use by adults, Crunchbase News reported on the state of the cannabis industry. We found that the industry was attracting a lot of attention in media and among adults looking to explore cannabis for entertainment and medical purposes. [ Crunchbase ] Gett raises $80M led by VW at a $1.4B valuation, says it will be profitable by Q1 of next yearFormer Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is starting a new company with two ex-Qualcomm executives that will focus on next-generation wireless technology. The start-up engineering company, called XCOM, will invest and develop technologies to tackle important 5G problems, such as low latency and greater reliability. Jacobs is the new company's CEO and chairman and is joined by Derek Aberle, Qualcomm's former president who left the company last year, and Matthew Grob, who served as Qualcomm's chief technology officer from 2011 to 2017. [ CNBC ] ‘So remarkably inefficient’: Venture capital takes on the housing marketIn early June, venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz said it was investing $17 million in FlyHomes, a startup that works with home buyers to make cash offers — a competitive life boat in many of the nation’s ultra-hot housing markets. [ Market Watch ] The future of ride-hailing in China’s Silicon Valley is electrifyingThe Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen already has an all-electric bus fleet. Soon it’s going to have an all-electric ride-hailing car fleet as well. The municipality of Shenzhen announced via a messaging app Wednesday (June 6) that starting Aug. 1, it will no longer give ride-hailing licenses to vehicles that aren’t pure electric, part of a shift to make its entire taxi fleet electric. The city unveiled plans for an all-electric taxi fleet back in 2010. Things moved slowly at first, until it picked up steam around 2015, and now over 60% of the fleet is electric. The city is seeking public comment from taxi drivers and others on the ride-hailing announcement until June 22. Non-electric vehicles with an existing ride-hailing license will still be allowed after August 1, but those licenses will be phased out, most likely by 2020. [ QZ ] M17 delays IPO debut after pricing this morning on NYSEM17 Entertainment, a Taipei-based live streaming and dating app group, priced its IPO this morning on the NYSE and was expected to open trading today according to their final press release. But with just a little more than two hours to go before market closing, it’s still not trading, and no one seems to know why. An interview I had scheduled with the CEO earlier this afternoon was canceled at the last minute, with the company’s representative saying that M17 couldn’t comment since its shares were not yet actively trading, and thus the company remains under an SEC-mandated quiet period. [ Re/Code ] What's next for public PE stocks?Israeli startup Eko building sales platform for WalmartVenture Capital Community Puts Up RMB3 Billion to Seek "Unicorns"He’s built 17 startups in Japan in the last 30 years. Here are his insightsIn conversation with Nadiem Makarim: How Go-Jek solved travel and logisticsHow going by the book helped Hong Kong start-up VCredit weather China’s breakneck consumer finance marketAfter the crisis, Silicon Valley overtook Wall Street as the place to beShould startups prefer a venture capital firm or a tech giant for funding?Godrej Properties raises Rs 1,000 cr via pref. issueAccelerating Berkeley startups at SkyDeck Borderless Summit - Ashley Carroll, Partner at Social Capital and Josh Constine part14 6 5 2018Business Unusual: Startups and the Future of Entrepreneurship in India |Alan Rosling |Karthik ReddyEF and Diversity VC - Panel 1: Entering the Startup World EF and Diversity VC - Panel 2: Entering the Startup WorldSilicon Valley scooter wars How security tokens are going to disrupt venture capitalIndian startup Leaf Wearables takes first place in $1M Women’s Safety XPRIZE competitionHigh-tech home closing startup JetClosing raises $20M to capitalize on ‘tipping point’ in real estateRakuten acquires mobile commerce startup CurbsideNew Law Creates New Venture Capital Fund Exemption Under Investment Company Act Of 1940Airbnb creates $10M fund to cover cancelled reservations in Japan after regulatory shiftA visual look at the latest financials from four PE giants |