Author: pekandesigns

SoftBank wants its competing portfolio companies to stop losing so much money and, in some cases, to merge. That’s the news out from the Financial Times today, which reported that Uber and DoorDash discussed merging last year. The talks didn’t wind up in a deal. The two companies, each heavily backed by SoftBank and its […]

The European parliament has voted overwhelmingly for tougher action to reduce e-waste, calling for the Commission to come up with beefed up rules by July 2020. Specifically, the parliament wants the Commission to adopt the delegated act foreseen in the 2014 Radio Equipment Directive by that deadline — or else table a legislative measure by the […]

During the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s 23rd annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, D.C., one panel focused on the changing regulatory environment when it comes to private launch activities, and how those are integrated into existing rules and practices for managing commercial air transportation. Panelist Caryn Schenewerk, SpaceX senior counsel and senior director of […]

Ed Byrne Contributor Share on Twitter Ed Byrne is an entrepreneur, investor and co-founder of Scaleworks. More posts by this contributor Working backwards to uncover key success factors Netflix is still too cheap There comes a time for many founders when they are ready to pass the baton of running their business to someone else. […]

Over a hundred new emoji are on their way this year. The governing body in charge of official emoji, the Unicode Consortium, announced the addition of 117 new emoji for 2020, as part of Emoji 13.0. The expansion includes 62 brand-new emoji as well as 55 new gender and skin-tone variants, many of which are […]

Techstars Detroit, the accelerator that has funded 54 startups in the past five years, is shutting down, TechCrunch has learned. In an email to supporters, Techstars Detroit managing director Ted Serbinski said the accelerator was not able to secure enough funding for 2020. “It’s clear the entire automotive mobility industry is tightening as sales slump […]

After selling autonomous driving startup Scotty Labs to DoorDash just five months ago, entrepreneur Tobenna Arodiogbu is back with a new startup. This time, he’s focused solely on truck drivers and their businesses. CloudTrucks, which aims to help truck drivers earn more money, has closed a $6.1 million round led by Craft Ventures with participation […]

Roger Hurwitz Contributor Share on Twitter Roger Hurwitz is a founding partner at Volition Capital. He focuses primarily on investments in software and technology-enabled business services. I work every day with company founders who are grappling with the challenges of driving business growth while keeping their finances on an even keel. One topic we often […]

The open source Hyperledger Foundation announced the release of Hyperledger Fabric 2.0 today, the first such project to reach a 2.0 release. It’s a notable milestone. The blockchain as a business tool has certainly had a rocky road over the last few years, but there is still plenty to like about smart contracts that have […]

Medloop, which allows patients to manage healthcare needs and providers, has secured €6 million from Kamet Ventures and AXA. The cash will be used to enhance its product offering and continue expansion across Germany and the UK. Medloop is also developing an evidence-based medical rule engine embedded on the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) of patients. […]