Tech investors see bugs as a big business as Ÿnsect raises $125 million

A company using advanced technologies to grow and harvest mealworms (larval beetles) at scale is on track to become one of the venture capital industry’s oddest billion dollar investments. Ÿnsect, (pronounced ‘insect”) is a Paris-based producer of insect protein that has just closed on $125 million as the company looks to expand into North America […]

View More Tech investors see bugs as a big business as Ÿnsect raises $125 million

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal invests $92M in Ola

The money is starting to flow from India’s largest startup exit. Ola has added a major name to its ongoing financing round after it confirmed that Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested 650 crore INR (around $92 million) into the Indian ride-hailing business. The deal rumored in January when Paper.vc, an intelligence service that sifts through company […]

View More Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal invests $92M in Ola

Manipulating an Indian politician’s tweets is worryingly easy to do

Here’s a concerning story from India, where the upcoming election is putting the use of social media in the spotlight. While the Indian government is putting Facebook, Google and other companies under pressure to prevent their digital platforms from being used for election manipulation, a journalist has demonstrated just how easy it is to control […]

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Two former members of Google’s skunkworks division have launched a biomanufacturing company

Biomanufacturing technologies — taking modified versions of existing organisms and bending them to the will of humans — has moved from the world of science fiction to becoming a new reality. Across the startup landscape companies are launching to make synthetic spider silk, or make leather substitutes, or meat substitutes, or novel chemicals and pharmaceuticals. […]

View More Two former members of Google’s skunkworks division have launched a biomanufacturing company

Bots are cheap and effective. One startup trolls them into going away

Bots are ruining the internet. When they’re not pummeling a website with usernames and passwords from a long list of stolen credentials, they’re scraping the price of hotels or train tickets and odds from betting sites to get the best data. Or, they’re just trying to knock a website offline for hours at a time. […]

View More Bots are cheap and effective. One startup trolls them into going away

Ousted Flipkart founder Binny Bansal aims to help 10,000 Indian founders with new venture

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal’s next act is aimed at helping the next generation of startup founders in India. Bansal has already etched his name into India’s startup history after U.S. retail giant Walmart paid $16 billion to take a majority stake in its e-commerce business to expand its rivalry with Amazon. Things turned sour, however, […]

View More Ousted Flipkart founder Binny Bansal aims to help 10,000 Indian founders with new venture

Aiming to change the way people take medicine, Lyndra Therapeutics raises $55 million

A little over two years after Lyndra Therapeutics Inc. first unveiled its technology for time-delayed drug delivery through a simple pill, the company has raised $55 million to continue developing the technology for public consumption. By creating a new kind of ultra long-acting drug delivery mechanism in pills, the company claims it can remove the […]

View More Aiming to change the way people take medicine, Lyndra Therapeutics raises $55 million

Entrepreneur First eyes further Asia growth to build its global network of founders

British startup venture builder Entrepreneur First is eying additional expansion in Asia, where its operation is now as large as it is in Europe, as it expands its reach in 2019. But, despite serving a varied mixture of markets, the company said its founders are a fairly unified breed. The Entrepreneur First program is billed […]

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Go-Jek makes first close of $2 billion round at $9.5 billion valuation

Southeast Asia-based ride-sharing firm Go-Jek is making progress with its plan to raise up to $2 billion in fresh capital to fund its battle with close rival Grab . Indonesia-headquartered Go-Jek has closed an initial chunk of that round after a collection of existing investors, including Google, Tencent and JD.com, agreed to invest around $920 million […]

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Backing Culture Genesis, T.I. launches Tech Cypha, an investment syndicate for tech deals

With an inaugural investment into the Los Angeles-based entertainment startup Culture Genesis, Clifford Harris Jr., who’s better known as “T.I.”, has launched a new syndicated investment vehicle called Tech Cypha. Launched by the music and cultural impresario with more hustle than hustle and his business partner Jason Geter, the new collaborative investment strategy focused on tech startups will […]

View More Backing Culture Genesis, T.I. launches Tech Cypha, an investment syndicate for tech deals

Oil and gas giants Chevron and Occidental are backing tech to combat carbon emissions

Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company developing technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and process it for use in enhanced oil recovery or in the creation of new synthetic fuels, has locked in financing from two big industry backers — Chevron and Occidental Petroleum — to bring its products to market. The undisclosed amount […]

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A look back at the Israeli cyber security industry in

Yoav Leitersdorf Contributor Yoav Leitersdorf is a partner at YL Ventures. More posts by this contributor A look back at the Israeli cyber security industry in Trends in Israel’s cybersecurity investments Ofer Schreiber Contributor Ofer Schreiber is a partner at YL Ventures. More posts by this contributor The state of Israel’s cybersecurity market Trends in […]

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