The man who probably ushered in the current SPAC rush with the merger of Virgin Galactic with his holding company Social Capital Hedosophia has sold the rest of his personal stakes in the space tourism company. Chamath Palihapitiya, who serves as Virgin Galactic’s chief executive officer, still owns 6.2% of the company’s shares in partnership … Read more
Banzai, a Seattle startup that sells event marketing software, has raised $ 15 million in venture capital. Columbia Pacific Advisors led the round, which included Gaingels’ participation. Banzai was founded in 2016 by former Avalara employees and was originally an on-demand platform for sales and marketing. It has been postponed to help companies run event … Read more
Insurance agents spend hours completing paperwork and getting customer information over the phone. InsurGrid, a new startup in the seed stage, has developed a software solution that simplifies the process and makes it easier for agents to serve existing customers – and secure new customers. InsurGrid offers agents a personalized platform for collecting information from … Read more
TikTok’s Q&A is now official. The feature was first spotted last month when TikTok started testing it with users who had 10,000 or more followers. But now the app allows anyone with a creator account to log in. Once activated, there are a few ways that users can take advantage of the question and answer … Read more
Downstream co-founders Salim Hamed (left, CTO) and Connor Folley (CEO). (Downstream photo) Jungle Scout raised $ 110 million and today announced it has acquired Downstream, a Seattle startup helping brands with their Amazon advertising strategies. The terms of the contract were not disclosed. Downstream will add its 11-person team to Jungle Scout, a 200-person company … Read more
A security flaw A website operated by the Indian government in West Bengal published the laboratory results of at least hundreds of thousands of residents, but probably also of millions who took a COVID-19 test. The website is part of the West Bengal government’s mass coronavirus testing program. Once there is a COVID-19 test result, … Read more
After a last-second crash today, SpaceX launched the SN10 spacecraft in a high-altitude flight test that lasted 10 km above the earth. The main difference between this test and previous flights is that not only was it properly maneuvered by a flip, but it landed gently on the pad in Boca Chica, TX – with … Read more
(Dapper Labs photo) NFTs go viral: Digital collectibles, also known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are suddenly the topic of conversation in the tech world. They have been around for a couple of years but have gained momentum in the past few weeks. Music star Grimes just sold $ 6 million worth of digital art earlier … Read more
Sometimes the smallest innovations can have the greatest impact on global efforts to curb global climate change. Arguably one of the greatest contributions to combating climate change has been the move to the humble LED light, which has reduced hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions by simply reducing energy consumption in buildings. … Read more
Japanese fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa earned the right to be SpaceX’s first lunar tourist on a mission slated for 2023, but he won’t go alone. Maezawa bought all of the seats on the flight and announced plans to choose eight people for the week-long trip to orbit the moon with him (and two or three … Read more