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How Pilot charted a course of not raising too much money

A few weeks ago, we wrote about fintech Pilot raising a $100 million Series C that doubled the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion. Bezos Expeditions — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ personal investment fund — and Whale Rock Capital joined the round, adding $40 million to a $60 million raise led by Sequoia about one month…
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14 April 2021 0

Amira Learning raises $11M to put its AI-powered literacy tutor in post-COVID classrooms

School closures due to the pandemic have interrupted the learning processes of millions of kids, and without individual attention from teachers, reading skills in particular are taking a hit. Amira Learning aims to address this with an app that reads along with students, intelligently correcting errors in real time. Promising pilots and research mean the…
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14 April 2021 0

Coinbase tokenized shares seem to be in free fall on FTX

Investors with tokenized exposure to Coinbase (COIN) shares experienced extreme volatility Tuesday, as the value of their holdings plummeted in a matter of minutes. The selloff took place on FTX, a leading derivatives exchange, where the COIN-USD stablecoin exchange rate fell from a high above $640 all the way to around $420. Three huge red…
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14 April 2021 0

Bird, Lime and VeoRide selected for NYC e-scooter pilot

Lime, Bird and VeoRide have scored coveted permits to New York City’s first e-scooter pilot. The New York City Department of Transportation, which originally released a request for proposals in October for the pilot that was meant to start in early March, made its selections public Wednesday. The three companies are expected to begin operations in…
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14 April 2021 0

Check out the tech leaders joining us on Extra Crunch Live in May

Extra Crunch Live, our weekly event series that connects founders with tech leaders, is really picking up speed. Recently, we had a conversation with Accel’s Dan Levine and Scale’s Alexandr Wang about how sometimes, unconventional VC deals are the best deals. We’ve also taken a walk through early decks from companies like Poshmark, Steady and…
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14 April 2021 0

Dear Sophie: How can I get an H-1B without the lottery?

Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Help! My H-1B wasn’t…
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14 April 2021 0

Gay dating site Manhunt hacked, thousands of accounts stolen

Manhunt, a gay dating app that claims to have 6 million male members, has confirmed it was hit by a data breach in February after a hacker gained access to the company’s accounts database. In a notice filed with the Washington attorney general’s office, Manhunt said the hacker “gained access to a database that stored…
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14 April 2021 0

Life beyond Ethereum: What layer-one blockchains are bringing to DeFi

Issues with Ethereum congestion and high fees have led to many companies adopting layer-one solutions like Optimistic Rollups, OMG Network and many others. These platforms allow transactions to be created outside of the Ethereum network on what are known as “sidechains,” which then can be reconciled on the main Ethereum network in one simple transaction.…
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14 April 2021 0

Amazon’s latest Echo Buds are a shameless Apple knock-off

This is Amazon’s latest hardware product: The redesigned Alexa earbuds. TechCrunch covered the announcement here, where the specs and capabilities are listed. I’m sure they work fine, too, but the case design is a blatant rip-off of Apple’s AirPod Pros. This is just lazy. Amazon has a long history of selling and promoting lookalikes, copycats,…
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14 April 2021 0

I can’t believe it’s not meat! Mycelium meat replacement company aims for summer launch of first products

Meati, a company turning mycelium (the structural fibers of fungi) into healthier meat replacements for consumers, is prepping for a big summer rollout. Co-founder Tyler Huggins expects to have the first samples of its whole-cut steak and chicken products in select restaurants around the country — along with their first commercial product, a jerky strip.…
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14 April 2021 0