Mary Meeker’s most important trends on the internetIt’s the holiday season for data nerds: That is, Mary Meeker is delivering her annual Internet Trends Report — the most highly anticipated slide deck in Silicon Valley — again at Code Conference 2019. The general partner at venture capital firm Bond Capital delivered a rapid-fire 333-page slideshow that looked back at every important internet trend in the last year and looked forward about what these trends tell us to expect in the year ahead. The “Queen of the Internet” and former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner touched on everything from accelerating internet ad spend in the US to the growth of digital delivery services in Latin America. [ VOX ] Infarm closes $100M Series B to scale its ‘urban farming platform’Infarm, the Berlin-based startup that has developed vertical farming tech for grocery stores and restaurants, is disclosing $100 million in in Series B investment. The round is led by London VC Atomico, and consists of mix of equity funding and debt financing. Infarm’s existing investors, including Balderton Capital, Astanor Ventures, Cherry Ventures, also participated in the round. In addition, TriplePoint Capital has invested, presumably providing a bulk if not all of the debt. [ Tech Crunch ] Peter Thiel's Palantir Now Employs More People In London Than It Does In Silicon Valley HQPalantir, the controversial data mining firm cofounded by billionaire Peter Thiel, now employs more people in London than at its U.S. headquarters. Backed by the CIA's venture capital arm, Palantir has developed data mining software that intelligence agencies and governments use for surveillance and to spot suspicious patterns in public and private databases. The company also sells its software to companies in the private sector that want to try and make sense of huge datasets. [ Forbes ] Chinese Cash Is Suddenly Toxic in Silicon Valley, Following U.S. PressureSilicon Valley startup Pilot AI Labs Inc. signed a Chinese-backed venture-capital firm as its first big investor. By last summer, Pilot AI wanted it gone. Silicon Valley startup Pilot AI Labs Inc. signed a Chinese-backed venture-capital firm as its first big investor. By last summer, Pilot AI wanted it gone. The U.S. startup hoped to sell more of its artificial-intelligence software to the U.S. government after working with the Pentagon, according to people familiar with its operations, and worried its effort could be hurt by the investor’s ties to China’s government. [ WSJ ] How Much Equity to Give Your Cofounder - Michael Seibel
Y Combinator CEO and Partner Michael Seibel on splitting equity between cofounders. Medium CEO Ev Williams wants to get the internet right this time aroundWhen Medium founder and CEO Ev Williams co-founded Twitter back in 2006, he had no idea how powerful — for better or worse — the platform would become. Now, the man who helped coin the term “blogger” is worried about the digital landscape he’s helped create. That’s something Vox founder and editor-at-large Ezra Klein will discuss with Williams on stage at Recode’s Code Conference this year. [ VOX ] Our 6 Must Reads for Onboarding Tactics That Help New Hires Succeed (and Stay)Hiring managers and founders spend so much time and energy on recruiting, evaluating and closing talented candidates. And while it might have taken creative hiring tactics and an extended timeline to get star candidates to sign on the dotted line, in many ways, the real journey is only beginning. New hires' first days and weeks are what will determine whether they’ll stick around for the long run. But all too often, startups underinvest in onboarding, or ignore it entirely, hoping that “trial by fire” will be a reliable teacher. [ First round ] Automotive Cybersecurity Startup GuardKnox Raises $21 MillionAutomotive cybersecurity startup Guardknox Cyber Technologies Ltd. announced on Tuesday the completion of a $21 million series A funding round. The round was led by Fraser McCombs Capital, with participation from investors including French auto parts manufacturer Faurecia, Chinese automaker SAIC, Shanghai-based venture capital fund Glory Ventures, NextLeap Ventures, Nasdaq-listed automotive investment company VectoIQ Acquisition Corp., and Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play Ventures. According to the company, this round brings its total funding raised to $24 million. Guardknox said it will use the funds to expand its research and development team and support global expansion. [ calcalistech ] Misfits Market raises $16.5 million for their ‘ugly’ produce subscription boxAs grocery shopping moves online, one piece of the puzzle hasn’t been directly addressed: fresh fruits and vegetables. That also happens to be a category in which there is a ton of food waste, with a good deal of fruits and veggies never making it out of the grocery store to begin with. [ Tech Crunch ] This Startup Wants to Be the Beyond Meat of Pet FoodIt is the rare entrepreneurial journey that begins with a visit to the leading authority on the subject of disgust. But Haley Russell wanted to start a food company using crickets as a protein source, and needed to understand how willing people might be to eat them. So in 2017 she sought out Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was an MBA student. Rozin has written extensively on food aversions, and, Russell says, "unsurprisingly he had a high level of interest in edible insects and human responses to them." [ Vox ] Two-Year Old Startup Brex Now Has A $2.6 Billion ValuationBrex, the business credit card startup, raised $100 million in a fresh round of funding, propelling the company’s valuation to $2.6 billion. It was only in October that San Francisco-based Brex became the latest fintech unicorn with a $125 million capital raise led by Greenoaks Capital and DST Global at a valuation of $1.1 billion. This time around Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund was the lead investor with participation coming from existing backers including Y Combinator Continuity, Ribbit Capital, DST Global, Greenoaks Capital and IVP. [ Forbes ] New Bay Area startup promises a house without the down payment bluesA new startup launching in the Bay Area on Tuesday says it can help buyers survive the region’s cutthroat housing market by doing away with one of its biggest hurdles — a massive down payment. San Francisco-based ZeroDown allows clients to live in the home they want to buy while paying into a fund that ultimately will allow them to purchase it. It’s a unique idea designed to provide a leg up to buyers struggling to afford the region’s pricey homes, but an untested one that gives some experts in the industry pause. [ Mercury News ] Africa's Technology Hub Rises in a Congested Lagos NeighborhoodThe fading facades of century-old buildings in a neighborhood of the Nigerian megacity of Lagos house a vibrant technology cluster that’s caught the eye of Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The Yaba area, home to the Yaba College of Technology and the University of Lagos, is an emerging technology ecosystem -- from fewer than 10 startups in 2013 to more than 60 today, including businesses like booking site Hotels.ng. It also hosts digital labs for Nigeria’s oldest bank, First Bank of Nigeria Ltd., and Stanbic IBTC, the local subsidiary of Africa’s largest lender. [ Yahoo ] Venture Capital Firm Finistere Is Committed to Israel, Says Founding PartnerSan Diego-based agtech and foodtech-focused venture capital firm Finistere Ventures LLC has a commitment to Israel, Finistere co-founder and partner Spencer Maughan, said in an interview with Calcalist Thursday. [ Calcalistech ] Capgemini expands with technology venture capital fundGlobal business consultancy Capgemini is launching its first-ever investment fund, with plans to invest up to 90 million euros ($102 million) in early-stage technology companies. Capgemini, which advises global companies on their organizational and technology needs, said its consultancy business would help accelerate the growth of the firms backed by the fund, which would be managed by asset manager ISAI Gestion. [ kfgo ] Curated by Venture Pulse Team. Find us on : [ Venturepulse.org, CrunchBase, AngelList ] |