The trend that is instant grocery delivery — online ordering of essentials with your purchases being delivered to you in under an hour — continues to proliferate across multiple markets, and in the latest development, Sequoia is leading an investment in one out of Australia. Voly, a five-month-old Sydney-based startup that offers thousands of SKUs […]
UBQ Materials’ plastic replacement product attracts $170M from impact investor TPG Rise
UBQ Materials, which claims it has developed a plastic-like material made from 100% unsorted household waste, has raised a $170 million funding round led by TPG Rise, TPG’s global impact investing platform, made through TPG Rise Climate, the firm’s dedicated climate investing fund, and The Rise Funds, its multi-sector impact investing fund. The financing round […]
Global ClimateTech investment triples, but cash for tech directly cutting emissions lags
Investment from VC and PE into climate tech is booming, reaching $87.5bn over H2 2020 and H1 2021, with in excess of $60bn in the first half of 2021 alone, according to a new report from PWC. This is a 210% increase from the $28.4bn invested in the 12 months prior. Some 14¢ of every […]
Google offers behavioral pledges on news payments in France to try to end costly antitrust litigation
In its latest move to placate European competition regulators, Google has offered a set of commitments to France’s antitrust watchdog — in the hopes of settling a costly (for it) intervention over legally mandated payments for displaying snippets of news publishers’ content. Back in July, France’s Autorité de la Concurrence slapped the tech giant with […]
‘PayPal for Crypto’ wannabe Ramp raises $52.7M Series A round led by Balderton Capital
In the same way that PayPal and Stripe radically changed online payments by allowing any online service to embed payments, the race is on to have the same impact on crypto assets. To this end, players such as Wyre (raised $29.1M) and MoonPay (raised $555M) have risen to the fore. But in the Summer of […]
As EU’s VAT reform ramps up, marketplaces must focus on compliance to avoid tax risk
On July 1, 2021 there was a big change in the European Union’s Value Added Tax (VAT) law, impacting online retailers, marketplaces and their e-commerce businesses across the EU.
Earnr is a new finance and tax app aimed at UK ‘side-hustle’ businesses
Earnr is a new finance and tax service aimed at the UK creator economy and people doing ‘side-hustle’ businesses. It’s now secured £650,000 to launch an app aimed at ‘solopreneurs’. The round was led by 7percent Ventures, and was joined by Antler and FJ Labs. The startup deals with the financial and tax admin side […]
RentTheRunway-style UK fashion rental marketplace HURR raises $5.4M round led by Octopus
HURR — a “RentTheRunway” style UK fashion rental marketplace – has raised $5.4M in a seed funding round led by European VC firm, Octopus Ventures. Also participating was Ascension and D4 Ventures, among others. HURR launched in 2019 and has a hybrid business model combining peer-to-peer fashion rentals, direct partnerships with fashion outlets, and a […]
US wins appeal over extradition of WikiLeaks founder
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is facing the prospect of imminent extradition to the US after the UK High Court granted an appeal by the US government against an earlier (January) refusal by a UK judge to extradite him on mental health grounds. A final decision on whether or not to grant the extradition will be […]
Flink, the Berlin-based instant grocery startup, is now valued at $2.85B after raising $750M in a round led by DoorDash
Instant grocery delivery continues to be a very frothy market, but today comes news of a major funding round for one player in it that investors believe will still be standing after the hype has died down. Flink, the Berlin-based startup that sells food and other essentials at supermarket prices and aims to deliver them […]