Monthly Archives: January 2023

Tech Nation looks for new home as UK Gov hands tech ecosystem contract to Barclays

After over ten years in operation, Tech Nation, the UK’s government-sanctioned ecosystem builder for UK tech startups and growth tech companies is to cease operations after losing its grant funding to a programme run by Barclays Bank Eagle Labs. The … Continue reading

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Fairphone nabs $53M in growth capital for ‘sustainable’ consumer electronics

Dutch social enterprise Fairphone, which makes modular and — the claim is — more sustainable and ethical consumer electronics, has nabbed a chunk of funding to continue scaling a circular-economy-aligned smartphone business. The €49 million (~$53M) “growth capital” investment — … Continue reading

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Guardz emerges from stealth with $10M for SMB security and cyber insurance to protect against attack-as-a-service breaches

Small and medium businesses have become a growing target for malicious online hackers in recent years, currently accounting for between 43% and 61% of all security breaches and some $7 billion annually in related losses, according to different estimates. Today, … Continue reading

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Finley closes $17M to turn 100-page debt capital agreements into software-managed code

As venture capital investments slowed down in 2022, some startups turned to private credit, including debt capital, as a way to supplement their operations in the meantime. However, the policies and procedures paperwork that goes with these deals aren’t always … Continue reading

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Would Baidu’s answer to ChatGPT make a difference?

Baidu, China’s top search engine provider and robotaxi developer, is apparently working on its own counterpart to ChatGPT. The news, first reported by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, sent Baidu’s stock price rising on Monday to reach its highest … Continue reading

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InstaDeep’s acquisition is a classic case of an African startup gone global 

This January, Germany’s largest vaccine maker BioNTech announced that it had agreed to acquire Tunisian-born and London-headquartered AI startup InstaDeep for up to £562 million, including a performance-tied £200 million tranche investment. InstaDeep’s deal — subject to regulatory approval and … Continue reading

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Groupon cuts another 500 employees in the second round of layoffs

Groupon has laid off another 500 employees in a bid to cut costs, the company said in an SEC filing last week. The e-commerce company had cut 500 jobs — nearly 15% of its workforce then — previously in August … Continue reading

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Southeast Asia farm-to-table startup Secai Marche raises Series A

Secai Marche, a farm-to-table fulfillment platform serving farmers in Japan and Southeast Asia, announced today it has raised 210 million Japanese yen (about $1.6 million USD) in Series A funding. The round included participation from venture capital firm The Agribusiness … Continue reading

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Labor officials found that Apple execs infringed on workers’ rights

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found merit to complaints that high-level executives at Apple violated national labor law. This finding comes after the NLRB also found that Apple illegally interfered with labor organizing at retail stores in New York … Continue reading

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Hotai Motor exposed thousands of iRent customer documents

Taiwanese automotive conglomerate Hotai Motor exposed reams of personal customer data from its car rental and carshare unit, iRent, until a security researcher found the data online last week. Even then, it took the company a week — and the … Continue reading

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