A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
WorldRemit a London-based money transfer startup, has announced a new $100 million funding round, with a reported valuation of more than $500 million. Silicon Valley venture capital firm TCV, which has previously invested in everyone from Facebook to Spotify and Netflix, will lead this round. Continue reading… “Silicon Valley investors betting against banks”
The Chronicle of Philanthropy released its annual list of the top 50 philanthropists, showing that the tech industry now comprises roughly half of the top philanthropic giving in America. Continue reading… “Half of money given by top 50 U.S. donors from Tech elite”
In another demonstration of the power of machines to solve problems that used to be the sole domain of humans, Persado Inc. has raised another $21 million for software that aims to replace copywriters with computers. Continue reading… “Replacing human copywriters with computers”
2014 was the best year for venture capital investments since 2000, with $43.3 billion invested.
Continue reading… “$43.3 billion invested by VCs in 2014, most since 2000”
In the tech industry, we celebrate raising money as a victory second only to that of a successful exit.
And while I recognize that venture capital is often an unavoidable requirement for growing a business, most entrepreneurs, and the tech community at large — who often seem to push people into raising VC — would be better served viewing it as a necessary evil as opposed to an absolute win.
Continue reading… “Trading in your Soul for Venture Capital”
Venture capitalists invested a record amount in agriculture and food startups in the third quarter this year, totaling $269 million across 41 deals. Conservis, for example, raised $10 million to offer farmers a real-time view of operations. FarmLogs raised $4 million to deliver apps that help farmers increase their productivity and profitability by identifying the crops most likely to sell. In November, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors and Flextronics Lab IX launched Farm2050, a collective to support “ag-tech” startups whose solutions boost global food production.
Continue reading… “Internet of Things Innovations in Agriculture”
Audrey Watters: “The business of ed-tech” is also the “politics of ed-tech.” The business and the politics of ed-tech together dictate almost all the other trends that I’ll cover in this year-end series. MOOCs. Big data. Learning analytics. Privacy. Competency-based education. Buzzwords.
One way to identify the dominant ed-tech trends is to look at what venture capitalists are funding. Another is to look at what government policies are demanding. The state of Maryland, for example, said this year that it would need to invest $100 million in technology upgrades in order to be ready for the new online testing mandated by the Common Core State Standards.
New hardware. New infrastructure. New curriculum. New expenditures. So… who benefits?
Continue reading… “Coding Education & Tech Trends of 2014”
Venture capitalists invested a record amount in agriculture and food startups in the third quarter this year, totaling $269 million across 41 deals. Conservis, for example, raised $10 million to offer farmers a real-time view of operations. FarmLogs raised $4 million to deliver apps that help farmers increase their productivity and profitability by identifying the crops most likely to sell. In November, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors and Flextronics Lab IX launched Farm2050, a collective to support “ag-tech” startups whose solutions boost global food production.
Continue reading… “The Venture of Agriculture”
