DroneSeed’s $36M A round makes it a one-stop shop for post-wildfire reforestation

DroneSeed started as a tech-powered alternative to the backbreaking work of large-scale tree-planting, but this important task is only one small part of forest restoration, the infrastructure for which is being pushed to the breaking point by wildfires. Armed with $36M in new funding, the company is reimagining reforestation from root to crown in a […]

Netflix acquires its first games studio, “Oxenfree” developer Night School

Night School Studio, the independent game developer known for narrative-driven titles like “Oxenfree,” announced today it has been acquired by Netflix. This makes it the first games studio the streaming giant has purchased. In Netflix’s announcement, Mike Verdu, vice president of game development, wrote Night School’s “commitment to artistic excellence and proven track record make […]

Sisu Data raises $62M to stop companies from making clouded business mistakes

Sisu Data, which aims to help businesses make better decisions, announced today it has raised $62 million in a Series C round of funding led by Green Bay Ventures. Existing backers Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and NEA also put money in the round, along with new investor Geodesic Ventures. The financing brings San Francisco-based Sisu’s total […]

Fairmat creates a new material based on recycled carbon fiber composite

Meet Fairmat, a new French startup that wants to improve the recycling process for sophisticated composite materials. The company wants to produce new kinds of materials from material waste and sell them to industrial companies. Fairmat just raised a $10 million funding round (€8.6 million) led by Singular. Various business angels also participated in the […]

Dance raises another $19.4 million for its e-bike subscription service

German startup Dance has raised $19.4 million in new funding (€16.5 million). The news comes just weeks after the company started rolling out its e-bike subscription service in Berlin. Eurazeo is leading today’s funding round. HV Capital and BlueYard are also investing, as well as Dave Morin and James Higa from Offline Ventures, Nicolas Berggruen, […]

Indonesian ID and data verification startup Verihubs gets $2.8M led by Insignia Venture Partners

For many financial institutions in Southeast Asia, verifying new customers takes a week or two, said the founders of Verihubs. The startup cuts that time down to as little as five seconds, using AI-based identity authentication technology and APIs that let companies continue verifying returning customers through SMS, WhatsApp or flash calls. Verihubs announced it […]

Will rising interest rates scupper the startup surge?

Investor and entrepreneur Anshu Sharma — formerly a partner at Storm Ventures, now CEO of privacy-focused SkyFlow — asked on Twitter today about the connection between interest rates and technology valuations: Ignore the compliments; Sharma was merely trying to bait Jeff and me into engaging with his question. Which worked, as you can tell. Sharma […]