Vangst ropes in $19 million more to place employees with work in the growing cannabis industry

In a tight labor market, so-called vertical labor marketplaces that zoom in on one industry, like nursing or hospitality, are drawing funding. Trusted Health, a healthcare staffing platform, raised $149 million in funding in November, for example. Seasoned, a hiring platform for restaurant workers, closed on nearly $19 million at roughly the same time. Investors […]

A peek into Web3 power player Animoca Brands

If you haven’t heard of Animoca Brands over the last year or so, you haven’t been paying close attention. With a long and growing list of digital entertainment, blockchain, and gaming properties, the eight-year-old, 600-person Hong Kong-based outfit has quietly become one of the most active participants in a world that more and more stakeholders […]

With funding from top investors, Gameto is aiming to delay — even eradicate — menopause

With every year, more scientists and academics are very specifically trying to lengthen the lifespan of humans and ensure that those extra years are worth living. Some of these teams are focused on detecting cancer earlier as a means of extending longevity; some are working to improve people’s metabolism. A small but growing group is […]

This Dapper Labs-backed company is turning Dr. Seuss characters into NFT trading cards

Back in 2012, a Brooklyn-based mobile apps development startup was hired to do a job by the 83-year-old trading card company Topps. For that Brooklyn outfit’s president, Erich Wood, a UCLA graduate who’d studied economics and loved trading cards, the opportunity not only sounded fun but would change his trajectory. At the time, Topps had […]

Venture firm Chapter One, focused on all things web3, draws backing from big-name VC firms

Jeff Morris Jr., founder and managing partner of the L.A.-based venture firm Chapter One, just closed a $40 million early-stage fund to focus on web3 investments, and he’s in the process of raising a separate, $20 million opportunity fund. Even in this go-go market, where digital assets are suddenly top of mind for everyone, the […]

South Park Commons, an “anti incubator” founded by early FB and Dropbox engineers, gains momentum

When South Park Commons (SPC), a community of tens of engineers in San Francisco’s South Park neighborhood, came together, it mostly flew under the radar, save for a New York Times profile in 2017, a year after it was formed. Founded by Facebook’s first female engineer, Ruchi Sanghvi, she explained at the time that her […]

Breakout Ventures has a new, $112.5 million fund, backed by Tony Fadell, Chris Sacca, and others

Breakout Ventures, a San Francisco-based seed-stage venture firm that funds what it calls creative biosciences startups, has closed the second fund in its five-year history with $112.5 million in capital commitments. Both of its funds, including a $60 million debut effort that we wrote about in 2017, are backed by Dolby Family Ventures, the Thiel […]

TrueNorth has raised $50 million from Sam Altman and others to empower independent truckers

Jin Stedge studied aerospace engineering at MIT, but after she found herself at Scotty Labs, an SRI International spin-out focused on autonomous driving, she says she came to appreciate how far away the tech is from large-scale adoption. Indeed, when Scotty was acquired by DoorDash in the summer of 2019, she teamed up with Sanjaya […]

At SoftBank, a reported battle over pay with COO Marcelo Claure adds to other bad news

Not for the first time, SoftBank is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. Indeed, even while the Japanese conglomerate is known for its extremes — be it bold bets, internal squabbles, soured business relationships, or its ability to repeatedly bounce back from the brink — some newer developments could prove particularly hard, […]