Today, the Internet is the backbone for economies, connected technologies of all kinds and free speech.
The many stakeholders that will be in attendance are scheduled to discuss the future of Internet services, specifically around how they are paid for.
--and legislate that payment--a common good when there's no global system of governance? A fascinating and complex challenge for which I'm not sure we yet have an answer.
after shareholders rebuffed Roche s all-cash offers (which have grown to $6. 8 billion). In 2007, Roche purchased next-generation sequencing company 454 Life sciences.
to commodity items such as consumer electronics technologies, said Jordan Socran, vice president of business development. There are even technologies emerging to help small local businesses.
The fact that a firm that produces mobile devices is now more valuable than an oil company is the most powerful repudiation of the sprawling, exurban, oil-dependent old economy
literally represents a wealth transfer from the old economy--cars, oil, long commutes--to a new one built on a desire to capitalize on virtual connectivity by recapitulating it in the real world.
The strong growth can be explained partly by the falling prices of solar panels. Take Walmart for example:
And as prices continue to fall for solar panels and other energy sources it looks like utilities will be forced to innovate e
#Why no one can be a'passive consumer'in today's API economy Increasingly, innovative businesses are being built around application programming interfaces (APIS)
which provide every conceivable function from credit card transactions to finance to procurement to human resource management--whatever it is there's an API for that.
Ross Mason, founder and vice president of Mulesoft, outlined in a recent webcast how the rise of the API economy can be considered to be second digital revolution.
000--also are taking part in the API economy, Mason observes. Nike, Coca-cola, Target, and even the National Basketball Association are leveraging APIS to open up new markets and advance product innovation.
Everyone in the API economy can start springing up and start creating new businesses. For example
when the payments world was dominated by Mastercard and Visa. API technology has opened up this restrictive market,
In this API economy, anyone can do it, Mason continues. Once someone exposes an API, your competitive advantage is how you can stitch all these APIS together to create new advantages.
There is another element of the API economy that separates it from the status quo, Mason adds.
The key thing about the API economy is you can't just consume APIS. It's not just about consuming data, connecting to Amazon or Salesforce.
This is a key part of the economy--you re not just a passive consumer. Innovation starts with an API strategy,
The new National Coordinator for Health IT, David Blumenthal, put together committees that defined meaningful use, eligibility for stimulus money, in terms of
And with the first deadlines for getting stimulus money coming in 2011, Hensler found he could suddenly get in line for some of that money,
thanks to open source. It was an incredibly short decision time frame for a county. A lot of our doctors did their training at the VA. We knew we could download it
and then after consulting many startups he raised money from some saavy investors and launched, Docstoc. com. Docstoc has quickly become the web s largest destination for sharing
business forms, financial models, worksheets, conference presentations, diagrams, templates white papers, and legal contracts just to name a few.
and spend way too much money before they get their web product online. As a rule of thumb, don t spend more than 3-6 months building your web product before you put some version of it online,
You Have to Always be Raising Money; The Sales Relationship with Your Investors Does NOT end when you Raise Money;
Be attached to the Problem You Want to Solve not the Solutions You Come up with to Solve Them;
the price of desalinated water rises with the price of crude. The King Adbullah City for Atomic and Renewable energy, the government organization also known as Ka-care that was set up in 2010 to oversee the country's renewable energy strategy,
Stress from the stagnant economy: People are rethinking the relationship between cost and value, Gansky said.
Technically more of microfinance organization than a sharing model, this site supports the creation of artistic projects.
#Why teaching toddlers Mandarin chinese is a smart investment Now that China is the world s second largest economy,
it s no surprise that a booming language immersion program has seen a 300 percent growth in demand for Mandarin chinese.
she says, It s an investment in their future. You have launched dozens of programs in Washington and Chicago.
It s an investment in their future. Tell me more about that. Generally China s emerging market standing makes Mandarin an especially attractive language.
Still, prices are falling, and research and development efforts are gaining momentum. Market research firm IHS predicts that almost 100 million devices that support wireless charging could be on the market by 2015
which adds to the price of manufacturing. From a competitive standpoint, WPC is up against two other notable organizations:
But the U s. economy is growing again, so are people driving more? Doug Short takes a look at the latest data (PDF), on vehicle miles traveled, from the U s. Department of transportation.
and gas prices stay highthis is where discussions of eak oilbecome relevant and on how quickly the U s. economy rebounds.
That company returned to the United states earlier this year as part of an investment round from Partners 1993,
but we re also recognized for our price point. The key is the mycelium the whole organism
Based largely on data from the UK's Stern Review on the Economics of Climate change report,
the REDD program plans to offer money in exchange for the prevention of the destruction of forests deemed significant to curbing global climate change.
but Google. org plans to make it available within the year, perhaps as a"not-for-profit service"for only scientists, governments,
Earthquake-warning systems come at a high price, though, too high for countries like Nepal and others in quake-prone zones in South Asia,
The information can also be used to prove to insurers that the money they spend on health care is producing results. ealth care providers are more and more being paid for outcomes,
funding organizations appeared to have doubled down on the simpler one-hormone system in the hope that it will get approved more easily.
and we want to put all our money on bringing the closed loop to market. What next?
thanks to elimination of the gear box and the use of lightweight aluminum blades that cost less than 10 percent the price of traditional composite blades.
But it would take a lot more money and power than someone would be willing to supply.
he says. t comes down to money. It not a question of anything else but funding.
Other laboratories could reach the performance of the number one supercomputer, Tianhe-2 if they want to pay US $390 million for the same technology,
Dongarra predicts that the China Tianhe-2 will remain at the top of the supercomputer pyramid for at least two more lists because of the lack of funding for new systems.
having arrived at the ISS thanks to a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket launched in April. ur team is developing the technology that will enable humanity to create an off-planet economy that will fundamentally change the way we live on Earth,
#Baidu Maker Of China s Largest Search engine Confirms Its Strategic Investment In Uber It s official:
Chinese Internet giant Baidu has confirmed that it is Uber s latest investor as Techcrunch reported last week.
The companies did not disclose the amount of the investment. Bloomberg previously reported that Baidu had taken the entire $600 million surplus that Uber built into its most recent funding round
however a source at Baidu told Techcrunch that this is untrue. If there is further capacity in the round
which was earmarked towards developing Uber s market position across Asia Pacific then it stands to reason that other strategic investors from Asia may make similar deals with the U s. company.
and Baidu is more significant than the investment because Baidu Maps will be able to integrate Uber This is similar to Google maps Uber integration after Google Ventures invested in the car-calling app.
The Baidu investment comes just a few weeks after Uber announced that it had raised $1. 2 billion in funding at a $40 billion valuation with##a portion of the capital earmarked for expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.
and o be able to make more money (No. 4). Opinions differ as to whether the higher education system is meeting those studentscareer goals
which drove a much higher price point and a number of other major product changes.
Employment, Not Just Education In order for Udacity to support the higher price point required by their new quality bar,
but how would they make money from the millions of users that they taught? Pushed by the same forces as the rest of us,
The firm is an investor in Boxbee. The generational shift occurring as millennials come of age and baby boomers just keep aging has massive implications for both technology and society.
wee experiencing an berficationof the economy. Alongside this movement to an n-demandeconomy (discussed in detail by the team at Sherpa Ventures),
Another consequence of this shift is the rise of the sharing economy, or ollaborative consumptionas many call it.
Mcdonald s has said that 50 percent of its NFC-based tap payments are already Apple Pay as of November
and advocating their alternatives. 50 percent of tap-to-pay transactions even at a large-scale national chain like Mcdonald s still doesn t amount to a huge number of payments relative to the general pool;
cash and traditional card-based payments still greatly outweigh any and all mobile payment initiatives Apple Pay included.
Apple s mobile payments system is still by far the most successful individual initiative we ve seen in the field so far
One such newcomer competitor may be Samsung which is in talks to launch an Apple Pay-style payments mechanism of its own according to Re/code.
I m sure they would never ever never be building a mobile payments solution (longest eye-roll of all time).
Regardless of who else throws their hat in the ring it looks likely at this stage that Apple Pay will be the prime mover in terms of mobile payments industry growth over the next few years s
#With $2. 5m In Seed Funding Digit Saves Money For You So You Don t Have To Think about It Over the years wee seen the emergence of a number of personal finance apps,
better understand their finances, and make positive decisions with their money. Those apps were great for the small percentage of users who were interested already ultra in examining the minutiae of where their money was goingbut for those of us who don want to deal with the cognitive overhead
and depression that comes with knowing youe spending more than you should on things you don need,
they weren very helpful. That why over the past few months Ie become such a big fan of a little startup called Digit.
by helping them to put money away without having to think about it at all. To do that, the company has raised $2. 5 million in seed funding
taking into account a number of factors it knows about your payment history and spending habits to do so.
if it safe to move money out of it. Then, among other things, it takes into account a user regular salary
or payment schedule and how far away they are from their next payday. It also looks at someone daily spending habits to determine how much it can transfer without them really noticing
or web site with detailed statistics about your spending habits where your money went, or how you could better budget for the future.
How much money is currently in the account, how much has been saved over time, what the average transfer amount is,
Type ithdrawand you can move money back from your Digit account to checking at any time.
Most importantly, users should know that the money that is transferred into your Digit avings accountisn really bearing any interest,
That will no doubt cause some skeptics to complain that any Digit user would be better off just putting aside the money themselves into their own savings account.
those users should be putting their money into stocks or bonds or basically anything with a better financial return than a sub-1%APY savings account.
Digit exists because the majority of people in the world aren good at saving money
It puts money aside so that they don have to, and does so in a way that requires very little foresight.
and you don really notice any money has gone missing from your checking account, well then, the team at Digit believes it doing its job well.
It not a ton of money, but it $1, 000 more than I would probably have had if
About That Funding Bloch is the former CEO of social marketing startup Flowtown. That company was acquired by Demandforce in 2011,
coincidentally, also led the investment in Flowtown. Also participating in the round are Freestyle Capital, Upside Partnership, Google Ventures, Operative Capital, Garry Tan, Alexis Ohanian, Aaron Harris, Rick Berry, Nate Bosshard, Eric
That money will be used to grow the team slightly, as the company works to integrate with a major banking partner.
In addition to the funding Digit is also announcing a number of advisors to the company, including Braintree founding CTO Dan Manges, early Square team member Randy Reddig, Airbnb global payments general counsel Sharda Caro-del-Castillo,
and Paul Hastings partner Tom Brown. With their help, Digit hopes to make savings more seamless for a whole bunch of users a
#Adyen Raises $250m From General Atlantic To Expand Its International Payments Platform International payments startup Adyen is growing fast,
doubling the number of payments processed over the last year as well as revenues over that time.
The new financing was led by growth equity firm General Atlantic with participation from existing investor Index Ventures,
Also participating were Silicon valley Felicis Ventures and Asian investment firm Temasek Holdings. Over the last several years
Adyen has worked to enable payment solutions for companies seeking to offer their goods in an increasingly global marketplace.
Rather than relying on a combination of different banks and other payments processors for individual markets,
To enable that, Adyen has created a platform that allows companies to accept payments from basically anywhere.
as well as local payment processors around the world. Its platform works in nearly 200 countries, allowing partners to get paid in virtually any currency and through a wide variety of payment methods.
Finally through its platform payments can be accepted either online, via mobile devices, or even in store for businesses that have operations in multiple countries.
Due to the increasingly global nature of business, that attracted huge interest from a wide range of companies.
For companies using its payment network, it can simplify the process of accepting payments in multiple territories.
At the same time, it can also improve conversion rates in places where it supports local forms of payments
according to cofounder and CEO Pieter van der Does. That flexibility has led even some clients to sign up to address specific markets where they hoped to grow,
In addition to its payment network, Adyen has also been investing in offering a mobile point-of-sales system called Shuttle.
By growing both the size of its customer base and the number of payments it processes for them
Adyen will process nearly $30 billion in payments, van der does told me. That means revenues have doubled also in that time, to $185 million.
Since it previously only raised $16 million, with its last money raised in 2011, the mega-round it announcing signals a huge commitment to growth.
The company, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and San francisco, has 240 employees spread across a number of international offices,
That why it took money from Temasek, according to van der Does. Given its clients and the size of Adyen existing business,
Over the last few months, its profile has been raised by several major funding rounds, including those of e-commerce site Coupang;
These include isolation from startup ecosystems in other countries, lack of early-stage funding opportunities,
while the administration of Seoul mayor Park Won-Soon has launched the Seoul Social Investment fund, which supports companies that solve social problems.
He adds that the organizers of Global Hackathon Seoul will work with the most promising teams after the event to provide them with mentorship and opportunities for funding.
301m Smartphones Sold In Q3 As Xiaomi Muscles Into The Top 5 At Samsung s Expense Smartphones now account for 66%of all mobile phones worldwide
but rather says it because of the narrowing price difference between them and basic devices. Smartphones are already 66%of the world total mobile market
and that was one of the key components in a reported investment deal that Baidu is making in car service Uber.
According to the China National Tourism Association (via China Travel Guide) the number of Chinese travellers visiting foreign countries have grown drastically over the last several years as China economy has expanded its number of moneyed citizens
up 18%on 2012 and totalling $128. 7b in expenditures (up 27%on the year before).
It estimates that in 2014 that number will have risen to 114 million with total expenditure of $140 billion. very day,
Here posted net sales of#236 million on an operating profit of zero out of total net sales at Nokia of#3. 3 billion
Transparency Leads to Trust Each year, GMI Ratings releases a list of the 100 Most Trustworthy Companies, inspired by the abuses that led to the financial collapse.
the companies on this list are keeping shareholders informed, leading to less investor uncertainty and, in most cases, solid stock prices.
What might surprise you (or might not) is that technology is cited as one of today most fraudulent industries along with pharmaceuticals.
This means that the opportunity is ripe to distinguish your tech startup from closed-up competitors by employing a model of radical openness with investors and clients.
Investors in companies like IFTTT (which stands for If-This-Then-That) are also placing huge bets that the future lies in interconnection and open interaction among a multitude of platforms and devices.
This brilliant, long-game strategy landed the company a $30 million investment in August of this year.
bitcoin for traditional currency; at home 3d printing for manufacturing; and right now in Hong kong, Firechat, which is enabling protesters to circumvent Internet service providers.
The largest data providers have served as arbitrary gatekeepers for the world commercial real estate listings by asking brokers and agencies for info on their available spaces,
But now that there are large companies with large bankrolls that are capable of funding their own studios,
#Update Lending Club IPO Shows The Profit Potential For Financial Technology Investments Lending Club $5. 4 billion initial public offering on the New york stock exchange is more than just the largest IPO
which the world deals with money. his is not some narrow addressable market, it trillions of dollars and represent billions of dollars of opportunity,
The most immediate winners are Lending Club investors among them Norwest Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Bay Partners, Foundation Capital, Union square Ventures,
Equityzen has a breakdown of how much investors from each round stand to gain on their participation in each of the rounds here.
an investor in several financial technology companies including Lending Club, the soon-to-list Ondeck Capital, Motif Investing, and Lendinghome.
Moldow, whose lengthy white paper mapped the potential of marketplace lending, says that these companies are the vanguard of a larger host of companies that will remake finance. here are equity fundraising
Companies like Social Finance are pitching student lending services; Funding Circle, Ondeck, Swift Capital, CAN Capital,
and others are appealing to small business borrowers; and Avantcredit, Lendup, Earnest all want to lend to different types of consumers.
says Funding Circle cofounder Sam Hodges. t one step in what will be a multiple step shift in companies like ours coming to scale
As the financial crisis loomed in 2008 the U s. Securities and exchange commission took a hard look at both Lending Club
Some investors point to the different approaches Prosper and Lending Club took to addressing regulatorsconcerns as one reason why Lending Club was able to take the pole position against its rival,
investors said. And both companies stumbled in the face of regulatory scrutiny. Lending Club was nearly out of money
when investors like Salil Deshpande from Bay Partners (and now with Bain Capital) came in to revive the business in 2008.
Here how chief executive officer Renaud Laplanche described the situation on his own Linkedin page, alil invested in Lending Club as a Series A in 2008.
We were in the middle of the financial crisis and were awaiting for the clearance from the SEC to launch our program to investors.
Exit Music In the following years attention and capital turned to payments companies like Braintree (acquired by Paypal), Stripe or Square as the hope for fintech biggest home runs.
But those businesses all have potential (and actual) acquirers, while lending businesses almost as a rule, can only look to public markets for exits. here are no M&a acquirers of these lending companies.
says one investor familiar with the market. Also, the economics of lending make it a more profitable business then any of the other,
advisory services that could come to market. With loans there risk and a multiple that lenders make based on the risks they take,
Bain Capital Harris has his money both literally and figuratively on business payments and transaction management companies. hese are companies that have very good enterprise facing products.
There again this wave of innovation in B2b payments and although there are a lot of M&a buyers,
there are a lot of CEOS in that category that are eager to go public. Bain Capital has backed Billtrust
*An earlier version of this post misrepresented the Equityzen infographic reporting returns for each round as returns from specific investors r
With load prices going down and fuel prices going up it important to control costs, said Hristov. The product is being built now
or down Workflow is cheap enough that anyone who bounces around between apps for complex tasks should consider investing in it s
has announced today the close of a $9. 6 million Series A financing round with participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Firstmark Capital and Andy Palmer among others.
Kinsa s new funding will go toward growth with plans to hire engineers and marketing employees to help build out the product and the brand.#
with buyers using bank transfers to overcome payments issues, the postal service/meeting in person tapped for delivery,
to provide a central point for managing communications, payment, stock, etc. There plenty of demand:
The round is provided by Inspire Ventures and existing investor Galaxy Ventures. It will be used to expand the company sales and marketing teams,
Now its sole revenue source is a cut of paid-for value added services offered by partners, such as payments and logistics.
Cofounder Prathan opthananart explained that the company will take a revenue hit from its pricing change,
but it was deemed necessary to grow its market share in an increasingly competitive space. hailand social commerce scene was very quiet two years ago
although he did admit that expansion will require a further round of funding e
#Microsoft Begins Accepting Bitcoin For Windows Windows phone And Xbox Purchases If you want further proof that Microsoft is going through a transformative phase,
you may be interested to hear that the company has jumped on the bitcoin wagon. The Redmond-based tech giant is now accepting bitcoins for buying games
and other digital content on its Windows, Windows phone and Xbox platforms, as the folks at Coindesk noticed today.
Members of Reddit bitcoin subred noted that Microsoft appears to be working with payments firm Bitpay to make this happen.
Neither Microsoft nor Bitpay have announced formally the partnership or details but the former does have a series of instructions related to bitcoin payments within its illing helppages.
Wee contacted both companies for further information, but did not hear back at the time of writing.
It described its adoption of Bitcoin as being bout giving people options and helping them do more on their devices and in the cloud.
Customers can use bitcoin to load money into a Microsoft wallet or to create digital gift cards,
but direct payments with the cryptocurrency are supported not at this time. Finally, bitcoin payments appear to be limited to customers in the U s.,according to feedback from Reddit members d
#Sidecar Follows The Competition Starts Charging A $1##Ridesafe##Fee Last year, Uber introduced a afe Ridesfee that added a $1 charge to uberx fares.
Its prices will vary based on prices set by the driver, but the passenger gets to pick the driver based on the calculated trip price (or whatever other factor they care about,
like type of car or estimated time of arrival) before they get in the car. The new fee will automatically be tacked on to that trip price up front
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