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[1/4] Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new right-wing coalition and its proposed judicial reforms to reduce powers of the Supreme Court, in Tel Aviv, Israel January 21, 2023. Israeli tech isn't going anywhere. FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITYIn a country rife with divisions over the conflict with the Palestinians and matters of synagogue and state, Israel's tech sector has generally stayed out of sensitive political debates. For some of those running tech businesses in Israel the judicial reforms plans may have tipped the scales. Additional reporting by Rami Amichay and Emily Rose in Tel Aviv; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by James Mackenzie and Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Start-up and VC fund to move funds out of Israel over judicial plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Steven Scheer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM, Jan 26 (Reuters) - An Israeli venture capital fund and a local startup are moving their bank accounts out of Israel, they said on Thursday, as opposition mounts against government plans to overhaul the country's judicial system. This is a painful but necessary business step," said Guez, a vocal critic of the government's judicial plans. Barnoach told the Calcalist financial daily that the reforms are like a "legal coup" that could lead to economic instability. He said his foreign investors are worried and they may not continue to invest in Israel if the reforms pass. An S&P Global Ratings analyst this month told Reuters that Israel's judicial reforms plan could pressure the country's sovereign credit rating.

☆ Small businesses are saving the economy from a recession, for now
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Data shows a boom in small businesses likely to employ workers, suggesting job growth could keep going well into the future. Small businesses have seen their openings soar, compared to larger businesses, from where they stood before the pandemic. While openings for small businesses are not as high as they were in spring 2022, there still are more openings in these kinds of businesses than big ones. Yet Swonk remains optimistic that small businesses will prevail. "Although small businesses fail at a much higher rate than any other businesses out there, I have some hope in the traction that they've already gained," she said.

☆ U.S. startup Outrider raises $73 mln to scale up autonomous yard trucks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Nick Carey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 19 (Reuters) - U.S. self-driving truck firm Outrider said on Thursday it has raised $73 million in funding to scale up its autonomous trucks operating in distribution yards for customers in e-commerce, manufacturing and other industries. It also includes fresh funding from American venture capital fund New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and the venture capital arm of industrial conglomerate Koch Industries. Outrider says its self-driving yard truck "hitches to and unhitches from trailers, robotically connects and disconnects trailer brake lines, backs semi-trailers with precision, interacts safely with loading docks, and keeps track of trailer locations throughout the yard." The company says its customers represent more than 20% of all yard trucks operating in North America, and have invested in joint product testing and pilot operations since 2019. Yard trucks are designed to move trailers and cargo containers in distribution yards.

☆ Small businesses are saving the economy from a recession for now
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

☆ 11 podcasts that busy venture capitalists and founders say they trust right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Investors at JetBlue Ventures, Mighty Capital, and other VC firms shared their favorite podcasts. Another recommendation is "Origins" by partners at the biotech VC firm Notation Capital. Here are 11 great options, recommended by VCs, founders, CEOs, and other industry insiders. "The main thing about the VC world is building relationships, and Harry is an example of a great networker," Gershfeld said. "BTC is the single-most important asset in the world, and that podcast gets to the heart of why that is."

☆ NYC mayor cites slower economic growth spurred by high office vacancy, cost of migrant crisis and health care, in budget address
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Mark Morales | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“We crafted this budget in the environment of economic and fiscal uncertainty. The increase in vacancies weakens the commercial office market, according to analysis from the preliminary budget. Rising health care costs and settling expired labor contracts are also listed as hurdles, according to the preliminary budget. Adams said that 88% of jobs lost during the pandemic have been recovered, according to the preliminary budget. The Adams administration also boasts $8.3 billion in budget reserves, according to the preliminary budget, which also looks ahead to investments in affordable housing addressing and environmental concerns.

☆ A financially independent millennial predicts that 2023 will be the year of 'the creator millionaire.' He says he's taking advantage of the creator economy while it lasts.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Digital content creators and people with online businesses will do particularly well, he predicts. For the next couple of years, Sabatier predicts that digital content creators and people with online businesses will do particularly well. "I think that 2023 will be the year of the creator economy, and that 'the crypto millionaire' is going to be replaced by 'the creator millionaire.'" I think it's really going to be the golden age of the online creator." "There's a real feast or famine component to taking advantage of money making opportunities online right now."

☆ Inventor in Baja is testing a plan to cool the Earth by mimicking a volcanic eruption
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

When Luke Iseman was thinking of launching a solar geoengineering startup, he talked to experts in the field. I want no geoengineering to occur," Iseman told CNBC. And that's a that's a pretty terrifying world to imagine," Iseman told CNBC. "Initially, I was really skeptical entirely of the of the voluntary carbon credit market," Iseman told CNBC. Pasztor told CNBC.

☆ 2023 will make or break Tesla wannabes like Rivian and Lucid. Here's what they need to do if they want to survive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Alexa St. John | Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"As the pressure on the supply chain eases, investors can point to a General Motors and say, 'They're building without a problem, why can't you?'" During quarterly earnings calls, executives at Rivian and Lucid cautioned investors of more trouble heading into 2023 as they raced to ramp up production and their logistics processes in hand. Accordingly, stock prices have been sinking from blockbuster IPO and SPAC highs, with many EV startups' shares down as much as 80% from earlier last year. Rivian reported Tuesday it fell a few hundred vehicles short of its goal to build 25,000 electric cars in 2022. If the startups want to succeed and regain investor faith, they have to get closer to meeting their numbers in 2023.

☆ After a very quiet 2022, these are the five tech startups that could go public in 2023, according to bankers and tech market experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In a bleak market, some startups are turning to sellsides or letting go of IPO lawyers. Many companies that were looking to go public are now pausing IPO efforts due to falling public and private valuations, according to five investors, bankers, and tech market experts Insider spoke with. This year hasn't been a total wash for the tech IPO market. Some expected Mobileye's IPO to open the public market floodgates. Here are five companies that could end the 2022 IPO winter, according to people close to the tech markets who spoke with Insider.

☆ Venture debt will be big for startups in 2023 — and could break the bad habits of the boom years
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Investors say venture debt encourages founders to build rather than grow — and that's a good thing. Fundraising from venture capital is expected to slow in 2023 as the tech slowdown continues. From the third quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022, startup funding from venture capital fell by 54%, to $74.5 billion from $164 billion, according to PitchBook. Without more traditional venture-capital funding, startups are increasingly turning toward venture debt, taking out three-year loans to raise capital. In their view, venture debt will break the bad habits of a generation of free-spending startups and create a new breed of companies focused on execution and market fit over blitzscaling or promising to change the world.

☆ This investor predicts a wave of biotech bankruptcies — and thinks it could be a 'canary in the coal mine' for other industries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Top biotech investor Christian Angermayer expects a wave of biotech bankruptcies in 2023. During the 2008 recession, biotech companies also struggled with mass layoffs and restructuring. Most biotech companies are still pre-revenue, which means they are hit hard and fast when economic slowdowns occur. In the massive 2008 recession, biotech companies were hit hard and early as venture capital funding faltered. In 2011, biotech companies raised $4.82 billion from venture capitalists, a significant increase from prior years according to Reuters.

☆ Musk's yes-men: 5 experts break down why it's difficult to 'speak truth to power.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Like yesterday, we're continuing with some of the year's best stories from our VC and startups team. Why it's difficult to "speak truth to power." The top VC and startups stories of 2022:Union Square Ventures; 645 Ventures; Race Capital; Mindset Ventures; Marianne Ayala/Insider6. Former Amazon leaders have infiltrated the tech industry. After dominating the VC industry last year, crossover funds spent 2022 pulling back.

☆ Bank of America's stock chief warns that the S&P 500's popularity could be its worst enemy as investors crowd in. She told us her strategy for avoiding that volatility in a rocky 2023 market.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Crowding in S&P 500 index funds make the index vulnerable to volatility, Savita Subramanian says. The Bank of America equity chief currently sees the S&P 500 at 4,000 by year-end 2023. "The S&P 500 is one of the most liquid equity benchmarks — it's made up of the largest stocks in the world," she continued. "Given this crowding into the S&P index, we've actually seen the S&P 500 exhibit higher realized volatility than the Russell 2000 or less historically-liquid benchmarks. She then sees the market stabilizing and the S&P 500 recovering to around 4,000 by the end of 2023.

☆ 'The music stopped': 6 founders tell how they survived this year's bursting VC funding bubble, customers unwilling to spend, and a graveyard of fallen startup peers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

This year's economic caution marked a huge contrast to 2021's exuberance and record VC funding. Insider spoke with six founders about how they've handled the abrupt switch from market exuberance to economic caution. But at the same time, they said, they've sought to pounce on new opportunities created by the economic downturn. ElektraShifting landscapes, changing prioritiesAfter a year of record venture capital funding, the abrupt shift in investor sentiment hit hard in 2022, founders told Insider. Artificial intelligence startups are the latest beneficiary of VC hype, buoyed by breakthrough software tools such as DALL-E and ChatGPT.

☆ Creator economy insiders share the 5 trends that could change the industry in 2023, from a flood of Gen X and millennial creators to a startup reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Amanda Perelli | Sydney Bradley | Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Insider asked creator economy industry professionals to share their predictions for 2023. We spoke with investors, influencer marketers, and industry experts, who shared their best predictions for the creator economy in 2023. Live shopping could finally have its moment in the USIndustry insiders may have been premature in declaring 2022 the year of social and live shopping. Some creator economy startups might close their doorsThis past year, layoffs have been rampant in the creator economy, as companies like Patreon and Jellysmack reacted to the economic slowdown by letting employees go. "Venture capitalists think this isn't the time to be betting on the creator economy, so the next nine months will be really tough."

☆ Why tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos are all investing in biotech startups that want to link your computer directly to your brain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Andrew Dunn | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Tech moguls like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates are investing in brain-implant startups. Through their venture-capital funds, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates both recently backed the Brooklyn, New York, startup Synchron, which has tested its brain stent in seven humans. Peter Thiel, a billionaire cofounder of PayPal, invested last year in Utah's Blackrock Neurotech, an older BCI startup that has said it hopes to apply for Food and Drug Administration approval soon. That long-term potential has caught the attention of tech billionaires like Musk, Gates, and Bezos. No BCI startup has gone public, and most of their fundraising rounds have been modest compared with larger and more-mature biotechs.

☆ Twitter has given new square business badges to some of its staff, news outlets, and a close friend of Elon Musk — but not Musk himself
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter introduced a new square badge to show where company verified accounts are employed. At least 10 Twitter staff have the new badge, but Elon Musk doesn't. Musk himself, however, has not got a square badge, despite owning the company and spearheading the verification changes. Musk retweeted the official announcement for the feature, but is yet to address the poll which saw Twitter users vote for him to step down as CEO. The news outlet Bloomberg also has access to the square badge, which is currently being used for different sections of the outlet's coverage, but not individual journalists.

☆ Southeast Asian venture capital firms expect to be pickier in 2023 than in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Venture capital-backed companies only raised $369 billion for the first three quarters of 2022, according to Crunchbase data. Malte Mueller | Fstop | Getty ImagesVenture capital firms in Southeast Asia will probably be pickier next year, with valuations plunging and economic headwinds slowing growth in 2022. Sequoia Southeast Asia raised a $850 million fund in June, East Ventures raised $550 million in July, and Insignia Ventures Partners raised $516 million in August. Indonesia-based e-grocery company HappyFresh ceased operations in Malaysia after seven years, while Grab discontinued its quick commerce service GrabMart Kilat in Indonesia. "The 15-minute model of quick commerce in Southeast Asia is very difficult because the unit economics are very negative.

☆ Exclusive: PE firm THL to buy digital asset management platform Bynder in a deal that values the company at $600 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

THL will spend $350 million to acquire a majority stake in the company. Boston-based private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) has agreed to buy a majority stake in venture-backed digital asset management platform Bynder in a deal that would value the company at over $600 million. THL, founded in 1974, is a private equity firm focused on acquiring middle-market companies in the fintech, healthcare, and enterprise tech spaces. THL Director Cliff Longley said that the firm has spent the last few years building a thesis around digital asset management. The acquisition comes at the end of a year that has seen a slowdown in private equity dealmaking.

☆ Nonstop partying, lavish spending, and sexual-harassment accusations: Inside the self-destruction of Pollen, the music startup once worth $800 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Melkorka Licea | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

About 400 Pollen employees were camped out in Mendocino County, California, for five straight days of partying. Two former Pollen employees told Insider that they recalled the assistant telling them about Callum's inappropriate comments at the time. (The Pollen representative said Callum and Bedi didn't date at Pollen or at any other company connected to Pollen. Out of 360 events Pollen announced over the past 12 months, 39 were canceled, the Pollen representative said. (The Pollen representative said that "out of hundreds of thousands of customers, fewer than 100 people were moderated" online.)

☆ VCs say AI in the classroom and tech meant to help students who've fallen behind will be among the top edtech trends in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

In fact, annual venture-capital funding to edtech startups has more than tripled since 2019, according to PitchBook data. That increased nearly threefold in 2020, to $14.1 billion, and then reached a record total in 2021 with $16.8 billion, PitchBook found. PitchBook estimates that edtech funding in 2022 stood at $8.4 billion as of December 15, as schools reopening led to less need for virtual teaching tools. Edtech startups across all sectors tend to be countercyclical compared with the economy at large, according to Amit Patel, a managing director at Owl Ventures. Here are the top four edtech trends to watch in 2023, according to top edtech investors.

☆ A food fight is raging over what we can and can't call 'meat'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Morten Toft Bech, the founder of a startup that makes plant-based meat alternatives, brought the animals in protest. Meat lobbies argue that plant-based products have stolen the concept of meat without matching its taste and nutrition standards, tarnishing the integrity and cultural importance of meat. It tends to argue that plant-based meat alternatives shouldn't be allowed to use meaty terms at all because, put simply, they aren't meat. Meat bodies want startups to come up with new terms for plant-based food that imitates meat. Both meat organizations and plant-based companies told Insider they encouraged a healthy, balanced diet.

☆ Inside 4 of the biggest VC-backed startups that went public and crashed, from Casper Sleep to Blue Apron
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Bird became the latest VC-backed startup showing signs of distress, after hinting at a potential bankruptcy this week. The company is among several former success stories struggling against competition and a tough economy. Here are four of the biggest VC-backed startup downfalls of recent years. Meanwhile, VC-backed startup darlings of recent years — many of which held the vaunted $1 billion valuation unicorn status — are suddenly unable to keep their heads above water. Here's a look at four of the biggest VC-supported startups that went public and crashed in recent years.

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