Lyft is facing a fresh batch of lawsuits from drivers and passengers who say they were sexually and physically assaulted during rides and accused the ride-hailing company of failing to protect its users. Seventeen lawsuits were filed in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to Peiffer Wolf Carr
Month: August 2022
When it comes to types of venture capital instruments, party rounds are as controversial as they come. A party round is an early-stage financing round, usually occurring between the pre-seed and Series A stages, that includes a laundry list – or “party” – of individual investors. It’s different from a more traditional round, which may
Two weeks ago, longtime venture capitalist Chris Olsen, a general partner and cofounder of Drive Capital in Columbus, Oh., settled into his seat for a portfolio company’s board meeting. It turned out to be a maddening exercise. “Two of the board members didn’t show up, and the company had a resolution on the agenda to
More than three years in the making, the U.K. government today announced a new, sweeping set of rules it will be imposing on broadband and mobile carriers to tighten up their network security against cyberattacks — aimed at being “among the strongest in the world” when they are rolled out, said the Department for Digital,
It’s happening — Paramount+ now has an in-app Showtime bundle. Previously announced back in February, the company is offering a new bundle to U.S. subscribers that brings all the content from Showtime to its flagship streaming service. The two services were already available in a discounted streaming bundle, but now U.S. subscribers can upgrade in-app
Firewalla, maybe the only company that can say that its hardware firewalls have something of a cult following, today announced the latest addition to its portfolio: the $569 Firewalla Gold Plus. The Gold Plus will feature four 2.5 gigabit Ethernet interfaces and its deep packet inspection hardware can handle up to 5 gigabits at a
Drones, sidewalk robots and autonomous vehicles are being touted as some of the next big movers in the last-mile delivery space, but what of the humble bicycle? Global logistics and delivery companies like UPS, FedEx and Amazon have all begun trialing some form of electric bike or cargo bike for delivery. At the same time,
Amazon is lagging its chief rival Flipkart in India on several key metrics and struggling to make inroads in smaller Indian cities and towns, according to a scathing report by investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein. The American e-commerce giant’s 2021 gross merchandise value in the country, where it has deployed over $6.5 billion, stood between
The process of finding job candidates often entails a lot of tedious manual work for recruiters, like sending versions of the same email over and over again. That’s why Kula was created. The platform not only automates tasks like sending introductory messages, but also surfaces promising leads from the first-degree connections of an organization’s existing
NetEase, a Chinese technology company and billion-dollar video-game publisher, has acquired French video-game studio Quantic Dream. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal means that NetEase now has its first studio in Europe, and comes just a few months after the Hangzhou-based company launched its first hub in the U.S., located in Austin,
Sony Music filed a lawsuit against TikTok-competitor Triller for copyright infringement, Variety reports. This lawsuit is the latest event following a troubling pattern of alleged missing payments for the app, which plans to go public even though its $5 billion SPAC deal fell through. Last year, the company announced a $14 million program that would
The process of sending and receiving payments in a $1.5 trillion B2B payments market in sub-Saharan Africa is one where merchants commonly use manual invoices and inefficient processes that burden merchants and make them struggle with their businesses. Duplo, a B2B payments startup that solves these issues by enabling African enterprises to collect payments from
Despite serving as the online watercooler for journalists, politicians and VCs, Twitter isn’t the most profitable social network on the block. Amid internal shakeups and increased pressure from investors to make more money, Twitter reportedly considered monetizing adult content. According to a report from The Verge, Twitter was poised to become a competitor to OnlyFans by
Rachel Parrinello Contributor Rachel Parrinello is a principal in The Alexander Group’s San Francisco office and is a leader in sales compensation, media sales and technology practices. John Stamos Contributor John Stamos, a principal in The Alexander Group’s Chicago office, has extensive experience leading large-scale sales transformation engagements, enterprise program build-outs and global compensation redesign
Populus, the San Francisco-based transportation data startup, got its start as shared scooter mania took hold and cities tried to make sense of how infrastructure was being used by fleets of tiny vehicles. Now, Populus co-founder and CEO Regina Clewlow is positioning the company, which collects data on transportation fleets and shares it with cities,
A new company is looking to do for B2B hardware sales what a growing number of companies have been doing in the consumer sphere, by making it easier for businesses to pay for equipment in instalments through rentals and subscriptions. While companies such as Klarna and Affirm have been pushing payment services that help consumers
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Few startups in the crypto world boast the market dominance that OpenSea currently enjoys, but numerous venture-backed startups are looking to chip away at their lead. Welcome back to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the crypto curious. For
After SpaceX announced its Starlink Maritime service last month, it was only a matter of time before some household name in boat world went all-in on the satellite service. Sure enough, today Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines announced it will be adding the service to its whole fleet, after a pilot service on one of its
Kate Anthony started in the Lone Star State. It was there, in 2019, that she launched her app Euphoria, seeking to provide information and resources on gender-affirming care. She knew the stakes were going to be high, and as the state passed anti-trans legislation, she and her company were forced to flee. Settling in Denver,
Women-led mobile gaming startup Robin Games raised funding around the idea of carving out a new niche in the market of “lifestyle gaming.” The idea, the company explained at the time of its 2020 public debut, was to create a fantasy gaming experience that’s more sophisticated and stylish — something more in line with the
I’ve always wondered who gets to name demographic cohorts. My parents were pre-Baby Boomers, which made them part of the Silent Generation. (I’m Generation X, so feel free to ignore me entirely.) Generation Z is stereotyped as being materialistic, mistrustful and extremely reliant on personal technology. And now that they are entering the ranks of
Blank-check companies may be little more than a quick way to de-horn unicorns Alex Wilhelm Anna Heim 11 hours Yesterday, we asked how low SPAC-led public debuts could go, and the answer was very close to zero. Some now-public companies that rode blank-check companies to the public markets have seen 90% or more of their
It’s an exciting day for Studio Ghibli fans — fans in the United States and Canada, that is. The majority of Studio Ghibli’s film catalog has just been released to major digital rental platforms, such as Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft and Vudu, a report by Variety confirms. For the first time, Studio Ghibli’s films can
Mavenoid, a Swedish company that provides both human- and AI-enabled support and troubleshooting tools for hardware companies, has raised $30 million in a series B round of funding. Founded out of Stockholm in 2017, Mavenoid works with hardware and consumer electronics companies including HP, Husqvarna, and Jabra, serving to automate technical support and onboarding for
Keyboard tech licensing startup Fleksy has expanded its SDK offering with an eye on winning over indie devs and app makers with an accessible, SaaS-like platform entry-point to its software licensing business. CEO Olivier Plante says Fleksy now has a dozen enterprise customers for its keyboard SDK — which offers a suite of features like
While small- and medium-sized (SMBs) businesses are the bulwark of the economy, driving up to 44% of activity in the U.S. alone, it can be hard for sales teams to get an accurate picture of them. That’s because they’re often too small for data providers to monitor and — more often than not — are
Ben Boissevain Contributor Ben Boissevain is the founder of Ascento Capital, a boutique investment bank that provides advisory services for M&A, capital raises and valuations to technology companies in the U.S. and internationally. More posts by this contributor How to prepare for M&A, your most likely exit avenue Despite the war in Ukraine, accelerating inflation
Oxwash, a UK startup that’s spent the last few years applying high tech processes to shrink the environment cost of dry cleaning and commercial laundry, has trousered £10 million (~$12M) in Series A funding to expand its nationwide footprint. Currently its service is available in five UK cities: London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester but
The first major subsidy contract under the U.K. Government’s £5 billion ($5.9 billion) Project Gigabit scheme has officially been awarded, with Wessex Internet securing £6 million ($7 million) to connect remote properties in South West England to high-speed broadband. In a world that has rapidly embraced remote work over the past couple of years, the
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