A craft marijuana brand has raised a total of $50 million from VCs including an early Facebook investor — here's why it's a big deal for the industry
Yo founder returns with design-to-code startup AnimaOr Arbel doesn’t like spending too much time on design. His startup Yo only let you send your friends the word “Yo” after all. That messaging app made waves with its minimalism, but quickly petered out. Now Arbel is back with a new company called Animathat could let app designers build more complex products in less time. Anima makes a set of plug-ins for popular interface design platform Sketch. Auto-Layout creates responsive designs. Launchpad exports Sketch designs to HTML. [ Tech Crunch ] These 50 founders and VCs suggest 2018 may be a tipping point for women in tech: Part 2On Friday, we featured 25 founders and VCs who are having a notable 2018 — and who happen to be women. Herewith, 25 more who deserve some kudos for getting it done in the first half of this year. This list, meant to highlight the growing number of women with interesting companies or starting venture firms to watch, could easily be several times longer, we’re gleefully aware. [ Tech Crunch ] Online bra startup Harper Wilde raises $2 million in seed roundHarper Wilde has raised a $2 million funding round led by venture capital firm CRV, which the company told TechCrunch it’s excited to use to not only build its workforce but to further its mission of providing women across the country with comfortable and empowering bras. Graduate school friends Jenna Kerner and Jane Fisher launched Harper Wilde together in 2017 to address the fact that shopping for bras is awful. [ Tech Crunch ] For VCs, food tech is on the menu [interactive graphic]So far in 2018, they've poured more than $2 billion into global startups in the food & beverage sector, per the PitchBook Platform. That includes large financing rounds for DoorDash, Instacart and most recently, Imperfect Produce, which has authorized the sale of new shares worth up to $30
million. In Support of Engineers: Introducing the Primary Tech CouncilAs you’re building (or investing in) a new business, your clearest, most expedient path to success is rarely what you know, but rather who you know. In early-stage company-building it’s important to surround yourself with smart operators - true experts in their respective fields - who can help you solve tactical problems and avoid wheel reinvention by advising you on how to navigate early-stage hurdles. It’s this idea that has motivated us to build an extensive support system - made up of our in-house Portfolio Impact Team and the Primary Expert Network - to help our companies work through their operating challenges. [ Primary.vc ] Lyft has inked a deal to acquire Motivate, the largest bike-share system operator in North America, and the parent company of well-loved networks like New York’s Citi Bike and Chicago’s Divvy. As part of the deal, all of Motivate’s city contracts will transfer to Lyft, which will also incorporate the bike-share company’s corporate structure and technology. Motivate’s maintenance and servicing operations will remain separate. [ Fast Company ] Airwallex raises $80M for its international payment service for businessesAirwallex, a three-year-old fintech startup focused on international payments for SMEs and businesses, is putting itself on the map after it raised an $80 million Series B round. Based of out of Melbourne, but with six offices in Asia and other parts of the world, Airwallex’s new funding round is the second largest financing deal for an Australian startup in history. [ Tech Crunch ] A vape pen startup that’s taking over America is raising $1.2 billion — but questions remain about its safety
The founder of one of China's hottest startups explains how getting too much press and customers early on nearly sunk the company |