What do iconic Valley investors Zachary Bogue and Chris Sacca have in common? They are both trying to stop cows from burping methane. No, really. And a Sacca investment just raised $20 million to do just that. What gives? With the conclusion of COP28, the global talks on the climate crisis, methane is going up…
Jagat, a social network that is designed to get you out more with your friends instead of mindlessly scrolling on your phone, has surpassed 10 million users globally. The location-based social network, which launched earlier this year in March, wants to help people focus on real-life connections and make friends. The app, available on both…
As 2023 comes to a close, a critical cohort of tech companies has regained the value it lost after the summer rally, potentially setting the stage for a stronger IPO cycle in early 2024 than some may anticipate. Cloud stocks are back, y’all! The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on…
A few days ago, the mobile app Beeper Mini went back into operation after an attempt by Apple to shut down its service that brings iMessage’s blue bubble texts to Android users. Now, Apple is again targeting Beeper’s users, the company claims in a post on X, by “deliberately blocking iMessages from being delivered to…
Bank and technology platform Kapital continues to rake in venture capital, grabbing another $40 million in Series B dollars and $125 million in debt financing. Tribe Capital led the Series B and was joined by backers, including Cervin Ventures, Tru Arrow, MS&AD Ventures and Alumni Ventures. This marks the second investment for the Mexico City–based…
Google’s defeat in its antitrust battle with Epic Games was a sweeping victory for the Fortnite maker and a significant upset to the business model underpinning the mobile app ecosystem, where platforms host app stores and then take a cut of developer revenues. But what does the ruling actually mean, at least in the near…
Lightspeed Venture Partners is formalizing its scale-up efforts, as other outfits make similar moves Connie Loizos @Cookie / 1 day The hurdle for Series A funding is a lot higher than it was a year ago — and investors in seed-stage companies are having to respond. They don’t have much choice if they want their…
Proton Mail finally has a native desktop app, rolling out now in beta for some users on Windows and MacOS. The encrypted email service has, of course, been available to desktop users since its inception nearly a decade ago — first through the web, and latterly via a “bridge” that opened access to Proton Mail accounts…
Instagram introduced its generative AI-powered background editing tool to U.S.-based users Wednesday. Meta’s lead for generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, posted on Threads saying that the tool will let users change the background to their images through prompts for Stories. When users tap on the background editor icon on an image they will get ready prompts…
Playground Global, the storied early-stage venture capital firm, brought in $410 million in capital commitments for its Fund III to invest in early-stage deep tech and science companies. The new fund gives Palo Alto–based Playground over $1.2 billion in assets under management. Before co-founder and general partner Peter Barrett became a venture capitalist, he started…
