Tech
In uncertain times, B2B sales teams must put value front and center
Ketan Karkhanis Contributor Share on Twitter Ketan Karkhanis is the executive vice president and general manager of Sales Cloud at Salesforce. As uncertainty pervades the economy, maintaining profitability ratios and increasing revenue has never been more important. This decade is showing signs of becoming one of the most challenging landscapes to grow a business as … Read more
Starbucks opens up its blockchain-based loyalty program and NFT community to first beta testers
Starbucks today is launching its blockchain-based loyalty program and NFT community, Starbucks Odyssey, to its first group of U.S. beta testers. The new initiative, which includes coffee-themed NFTs that translate to real-world experiences, is an extension of Starbucks’ existing loyalty program, Starbucks Rewards, but leverages web3 technology like the polygon blockchain and NFTs. Announced to … Read more
Philips Hue lights are 20 percent off at Amazon when you buy three
The discount only applies when you bundle the company’s latest smart bulbs and select items. | Image: Philips Hue Whether you’re looking to decorate your home with colorful smart lights or shopping for that perfect holiday gift, Philips Hue lights are popping with color, decent brightness, and broad compatibility with voice assistants. They tend to … Read more
Komi, a landing page tool for content creators, raises $5M seed round
Komi, a personalized website page builder tool for influencers and celebrities to create and customize a landing page to promote their projects, today closed a $5 million seed round led by Contour Venture Partners. Launched in October 2021, Komi is designed to provide content creators, musicians, athletes, celebrities and other creative talent and personalities alike … Read more
Banzai, a marketing tech startup, acquires Hyros for $110M, raises $100M and goes public via a $580M Spac
The IPO window is all but closed right now, but a few things appear still to be getting through the cracks and there are big sums attached to that. Today, Banzai — an engagement marketing startup that provides tools to source and connect with potential sales leads, and tools to build and run online video … Read more
Advent of q 2022
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This time, the DoD gives four tech titans equal shot at piece of $9B cloud contract
It seems perhaps the rules of fairness your parents taught you as children also apply to large multi-billion dollar defense contracts. This week the DoD announced that it was awarding four big tech companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracle – an equal opportunity to share in a $9 billion contract to bring the department … Read more
Cinder’s content moderation software is custom-built for trust and safety teams
A startup from former Meta employees aims to streamline the content moderation process for companies grappling with some of the internet’s most complex, dangerous challenges. Cinder, which likes to describe itself as an “operating system for trust and safety,” boasts years of combined experience in security and content policy work. That includes CEO and co-founder … Read more
NFT-focused startup Metagood raises $5 million to grow ‘social good’ impact
Metagood, a for-profit social impact NFT startup, has raised $5 million in its pre-seed round, the team exclusively told TechCrunch. “We launched the company on the concept of using NFTs as an expression where everyone does good things for each other and the good stuff is tokenized and exchangeable,” Bill Tai, co-founder and chairman of … Read more
Our favorite deals we actually bought this year
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Here at The Verge, we are just as eager to take advantage of sales and other good deals as anyone else (more so, perhaps, since we do have a slight interest in cool new stuff). What with inflation and all, the name of the game this year has … Read more
Salesforce to expand Sustainability Cloud into full ESG reporting tool
Salesforce has always fashioned itself as a socially responsible company, and that includes working on a Net Zero carbon emissions goal. In fact, it launched Sustainability Cloud in 2019, a product for tracking customer Net Zero goals. This year, they are taking that idea a step further with a new product that incorporates not only … Read more
TripActions secures $400M in credit facilities from Goldman Sachs, SVB
Less than two months after announcing a new $9.2 billion valuation, TripActions said today it has secured $400 million in credit facilities from Goldman Sachs and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Specifically, TripActions has secured a warehouse debt facility from Goldman Sachs with a $200 million commitment and the potential to “flex up” to $300 million … Read more
Black Sheep Foods grabs $12.3M to craft tastier plant-based meats
Black Sheep Foods, a San Francisco–based food tech company that uses plants to create a similar flavor to animal meat, secured another funding round, this time $12.3 million in Series A capital. The company is leaping over the traditional plant-based foods, like beef, chicken and pork, to focus on scaling production for its lamb-flavored product. … Read more
To prepare for a downturn, build a three-case model
Matt Barbieri Contributor Share on Twitter Matt Barbieri is partner-in-charge, Media, Technology and Life Sciences at Wiss & Co. Many founders are reactive when business doesn’t go as planned. They may make knee-jerk reactions like: “If I lose 10% of revenue then I’ll just lay off five people.” The problem with such approaches is that … Read more
Reddit’s 2022 recap transforms users into trading cards
You’ve activated my… Reddit trading card! | Card images: Reddit It’s app recap season once again, and Reddit is getting in on the moment with its second annual personalized recap. This year, your recap will include an autogenerated trading card that represents you and your Reddit experience in 2022. Like other recaps, Reddit’s features a … Read more
Foxconn invests another $500 million in India business
Foxconn is investing another $500 million in its India business as it ramps up its plans to expand its chipmaking factories in the South Asian market that is slowly becoming a key hardware base for Apple. In a stock exchange filing in Taiwan on Thursday, Foxconn said its Singapore subsidiary will deploy the capital. The … Read more
Ideas that changed my life
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Starling Bank’s new virtual cards are what every bank needs
Starling Bank’s virtual debit cards. | Image: Starling Bank UK-based Starling Bank is introducing new virtual debit cards this week that will help customers manage spending, saving, and even security free of charge. These new virtual cards will be linked to a main Starling bank account and use your balance, but they’ll have a unique … Read more
Zeraki, a Kenyan edtech providing digital solutions for school admin, raises $1.8M
Zeraki, a Kenyan edtech that has built digital learning and school data analytics platforms, has raised $1.8 million seed funding in a round led by Acumen Fund, for product catalog growth and regional expansion. Save the Children Impact Investment Fund, Verdant Frontiers Fintech, Logos Ventures participated in the round, as did the Nairobi Business Angels … Read more