Online publishing platform Medium, originally created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, announced today it’s embracing the open-source Mastodon platform by creating its own instance to support its authors and their publications. The company said it’s launching me.dm, a Mastodon community that will offer reliable infrastructure, moderation, and a short domain name to make it easier…
Jonathan Martinez Contributor Jonathan Martinez is a former YouTuber, UC Berkeley alum and growth marketing nerd who’s helped scale Uber, Postmates, Chime and various startups. More posts by this contributor Growth hacking is really just growth testing Why growth activation matters Without customers, there can be no business. So how can you drive new customers…
The outlook of investing in China is suddenly brightening up as the country gradually phases out its draconian zero-COVID policy, which has caused disruptions in businesses of all kinds and kept the country’s borders shut for the last three years. For venture capitalists, the pandemic has been a tumultuous ride. Tony Wu, a partner at…
Indonesia’s PasarPolis is now able to underwrite its own products, making it one of Indonesia’s first full-stack insurtechs. This means PasarPolis will be able to offer new products and work with partners like Tokopedia, Gojek, Traveloka, Xiaomi and IKEA Indonesia to create custom insurance policies. PasarPolis is able to underwrite insurance products because of its…
Last week, TechCrunch reported that Black founders in the United States raised 1% of the $215.9 billion in venture capital allocated last year. That is not to be confused with the 1.3% raised in 2021, the 0.8% they pulled in 2020, the 1% they got in 2019, or the 1.1% raised in both 2018 and…
Venom Foundation, a layer-1 blockchain licensed and regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Market, and investment manager Iceberg Capital have partnered to launch a $1 billion venture fund, the two firms announced on Wednesday. The $1 billion vehicle, Venom Ventures Fund (VVF), is a blockchain-agnostic fund that will invest in pre-seed to Series A rounds…
TikTok has revolutionized the way people consume and share information. Now a startup called Vylo wants to take the short video format a step further and lets users share their thoughts about sports, current affairs, and other categories of news by filming themselves talking. My first reaction to the idea was: why does one need…
A little over two years after its public debut, Mineral is becoming its own Alphabet company. The team, which was formerly known as the “Computational Agriculture Project” (no prizes for guessing why they adopted the new name), just graduated from the X “moonshot” labs. “After five years incubating our technology at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory,…
The crypto venture capital industry has become more selective thanks to the general market downturn and wavering trust caused by a slew of scandals and market disruptions, but investors at major firms are still writing checks in the space. Amid market volatility, decentralized finance, or DeFi, is an area that continues to be in focus…
The Ryl Company, a healthy beverage company making a line of functional ready-to-drink tea, raised $6.7 million in funding and is launching into retailers across the Northeastern U.S. in Wegmans and select Whole Foods Market and Wakefern stores. Functional beverages, those offering healthier benefits then your average drink, are hot right now, especially in the…
