Silicon Valley’s $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the SqueezeTwo investors in Juicero were surprised to learn the startup’s juice packs could be squeezed by hand without using its high-tech machine. But after the product hit the market, some investors were surprised to discover a much cheaper alternative: You can squeeze the Juicero bags with your bare hands. Two backers said the final device was bulkier than what was originally pitched and that they were puzzled to find that customers could achieve similar results without it. Bloomberg performed its own press test, pitting a Juicero machine against a reporter’s grip. The experiment found that squeezing the bag yields nearly the same amount of juice just as quickly—and in some cases, faster—than using the device. [ Bloomberg ] Theranos Investors Say They Were Pressured to Abandon LawsuitTheranos Inc. investors accused the company of threatening to file for bankruptcy protection if they don’t agree to give up their rights to sue the firm over its flawed blood-testing business. Officials of Partner Investments LP and two other funds, which invested more than $96 million in Theranos preferred shares, said a lawyer representing the privately held medical-testing company suggested it would seek Chapter 11 protection if the investors won’t abandon their lawsuit and accept more equity instead. [ Bloomberg ] Startup Xpenditure turned down 20 VCs, but for what?In the startup world, venture capitalists can find themselves treated as demigods. Feted by startup founders, by the media and by government, VC’s wield power, influence and, most importantly, money. Alternatives to VC rounds are rarely considered. It’s expected that Series B follows A, and A follows seed. For a young startup ‘VC-funded’ is seen as a badge of honour to attract new employees and investors. VC is a team sportThe venture business has a lot of folks who talk a good game…but this is because it is in fact a humbling game. The LPs who invest in venture funds want awesome returns but very few VCs deliver them. Most venture firms are lucky to have even one great investing partner…yet even these rare groups force the LPs who invest in them to buy “the bundle” of multiple partners rather than the true money-makers. Planned Parenthood enrolls in 500 Startups’ seed programPlanned Parenthood has been threatened repeatedly with blockage of access in several states since Trump became our 45th president. But it also, as a consequence, has received a serious spike in donations (40 times its normal rate, according to the Guardian). The organization’s leaders are now looking to 500 Startups’ seed program to help them capitalize on the recent surge and harness technology to help further the momentum. [ Tech Crunch ]People invested €1 billion in just 4 months using fast-growing German fintech company RaisinRaisin, a German fintech business that lets people invest in savings accounts across Europe, announced on Wednesday that it has passed €3 billion (£2.5 billion) invested across its platform. It means the fast-growing startup, founded in 2013, has seen €1 billion (£840 million) of investment in just 4 months. Inside the Glowing-Plant Startup That Just Gave up Its QuestDown in a basement along bustling Third Street in San Francisco’s SoMa startup district, Antony Evans unzipped a black tent. It’s the same kind of tent that marijuana growers use, he told me. But it was heavy, earthy patchouli, not skunk, that hit me when I stepped inside the brightly lit cube. Petri dishes piled high on a table contain clusters of green moss. In 2017, Only 17% Of Startups Have A Female FounderThe percentage of startups that have at least one female founder was flat in the first quarter of 2017. Crunchbase’s inaugural study on female founder representation of US-based companies was published in May 2015. As the discussion on the lack of women in engineering teams gathered pace, we concluded that Crunchbase was uniquely placed to address the issue of women being represented in tech when it comes to founders. As the open dataset for the startup community, we added gender to Crunchbase in March 2015 to further the research on leadership, founders, and gender. [ Crunchbase ] Factom’s Latest Investment Sends Draper Startup $8mln HigherTim Draper’s Blockchain startup Factom has announced it has raised $8 mln in an extended series A funding round. The Blockchain data storage outfit, owned by the serial cryptocurrency investor, raised the cashthrough a multitude of partners. These included Draper Associates, Stewart Title, Overstock, Fenbushi Capital, Plug & Play, Peeli Ventures, and Harvest Equity, Fortune reports. 17 fintech businesses that could one day be worth over $1 billionGP Bullhound, a boutique investment bank focused on tech, on Thursday published an in-depth report looking at the global fintech industry. The report found 39 fintech companies around the world already valued at $1 billion or over, and found that global venture capital investment into the sector has risen almost fivefold in the past three years to reach $13.6 billion in 2016. |