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☆ Russian regional leaders wrote to Putin demanding he stop mobilizing reservists to fight in Ukraine, as chatter about a second draft intensifies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Local Russian leaders wrote a letter to President Vladimir Putin, urging him to end the mobilization of reservists. Officials have said the draft is "complete," but the letter asks Putin to codify this with a decree. Both are party deputies for the liberal Yabloko political party — which opposes the war in Ukraine — in the northwestern Russian region of Karelia. Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian news wire RIA Novosti on Wednesday that he hasn't seen the deputies' letter. In the meantime, Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Internal Affairs minister, accused Russia of preparing to draft 500,000 to 700,000 new reservists in January.

☆ This Is Your Brain on ‘Deep Reading.’ It’s Pretty Magnificent. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +57 min

But if over time, we have begun to elaborate this brain so that it includes deep reading, the unnatural apex of the achievement of reading is what deep reading provides. And every time I get off of a plane, I say to myself, I’m going to do that more. I’m going to sit and I’m going to have quiet time with a book. I’m going to bring this to me in a second, so I’m not just putting this on little kids. maryanne wolfThe first thing I do is understand the purpose of whatever I’m reading.

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☆ Cloud financing lender Efficient Capital Labs raises $3.5 million from 645 Ventures to connect India-based startups to US lenders and expand operations to other countries
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Efficient Capital Labs lends capital from US firms to software companies in India. 645 Ventures led its seed round, and it got $100 million debt from Community Investment Management. Kaustav Das, a cofounder of the cloud financing platform Efficient Capital Labs, wanted to start a company that played to his knowledge of the field. ECL raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by 645 Ventures in April and closed a $100 million debt facility from Community Investment Management this month. Capchase took in $400 million in additional debt financing in June.

☆ Waivr's founders had failed at their first idea. Here's how they ended up landing $1.4 million for their company.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It raised a $1.4 million pre-seed round from Costanoa Ventures, NextView Ventures, CRV, and others. Their first idea was a lot like their payments startup Waivr, but without the focus on subscriptions. That beta test on the market had 300 people, whose transaction data they gathered. The founders noticed that people were overdrafting mainly on subscription payments, so they moved to focus on that. That's how Waivr, a startup seeking to facilitate real-time subscription payments with safeguards to prevent accidental overdrafts, came to be.

☆ A16z-backed financial wellness benefits provider Brightside raises $33 million in Series B funding with plans to hire hundreds of employees
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Brightside works with employers to provide financial wellness benefits to employees. Brightside, which sells its financial wellness platform to businesses for use as an employee benefit, is currently based in Arizona and only serves US businesses. The latest round brings Brightside's total funding to $75 million, after a $35.1 million in Series A funding round in June 2020. Financial wellness became a big topic for employees as companies aim to provide more benefits to entice them to stay. And roboinvestment company Betterment hinted at looking to acquire financial wellness companies as it seeks to expand beyond investment.

☆ Lindsey Graham says it's 'definitely not a Republican wave — that's for darn sure' as Democrats win in competitive races
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said it's "definitely not a Republican wave" on Tuesday evening. "It's not a wave for sure, but I think it'll be a very good night," he said. "If you run that far behind your governor candidate, you probably made a mistake," Graham said of Bolduc, referring to the state's Republican Gov. "Hats off to the Democrats, they performed well in a lot of these swing districts," Graham said. "It's not a wave, for sure, but I think it'll be a very good night," he added.

☆ Fintech darling Brex is requiring potential engineering hires to be located outside of New York and California. Here's why the startup calls that its 'competitive advantage'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The fintech startup follows companies like Oracle in hiring outside of traditional tech hubs. Instead of limiting its hiring pool to San Francisco, the startup can now tap into qualified candidates anywhere, it said. In a note to employees, Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi said the current economic environment contributed to the decision to lay off workers. Tech workers traditionally concentrated in certain hubs, but research showed remote work helped expand tech talent into many other cities. But besides the cost cutting benefits other companies experience, hiring outside of tech hubs lets go of some traditional talent restraints, Brex said.

☆ Tiger Global-backed Mesh Payments raised $60 million in a bid to help companies make better decisions around travel, HR, and other spending
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Mesh Payments raised $60 million from Alpha Wave, Tiger Global, TLV Partners, and Entreé Capital. Mesh Payments, one of the few companies Tiger Global has funded this year, has big plans for the next year. The fintech dealing with corporate payments and issuing corporate virtual cards raised $60 million in September from Tiger Global and other investors. Mesh Payments' founder and CEO, Oded Zehavi, said the company was focusing on refining its products and developing new ones. Alpha Wave led its $60 million Series C funding round in September, along with Tiger Global, TLV Partners, Entreé Capital, and Meron Capital.

Meanwhile, the number of "mega-deals" — or funding rounds of more than $100 million — dropped to its lowest level since 2018, CB Insights also reported. According to CB Insights, the volume of payments-related dealmaking reached nearly $4 billion, or slightly less than a third of all fintech funding. And while that's not a record-breaking amount, payments are accounting for a larger amount of the fintech funding pie. One year ago, when third-quarter fintech funding topped $36 billion in the midst of a bull market, payments accounted for roughly 20% of overall funding volume. But even amid a relative pullback in broader fintech funding, payments represent a safe, evergreen thesis because it is a largely complicated and analog space.

☆ Fintech startup Ampla buys Upside Financing to launch a buy now, pay later service for consumer-facing businesses
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It closed the deal to buy Upside Financing, which extends payment terms for companies, in October. The new buy now, pay later service will be called Ampla Pay Later and be available soon. With funding to fintech startups in a freefall, acquisitions in the buy now, pay later space have started to heat up. Upside will bring all of its employees to Ampla, with Mares heading Ampla Pay Later. "And the larger the burden for brands, [BNPL] provides another option for consumer brands to grow more efficiently and responsibly."

☆ Fintechs have been getting crushed this year, but the sector's biggest investors say payments are a key area to watch in 2023. Here's what they are most excited about.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Emilia David | Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

☆ Robb Elementary educator says she is 'suffering mentally' after police wrongly claimed she left a school door open
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Mirna Alsharif | Mirna Alsharif Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The Robb Elementary educator whom Texas law enforcement initially blamed for leaving an exterior door at the school open says she is "suffering mentally" after the shooting and its aftermath. “He said, ‘A teacher left the door propped open,’ and I looked at my daughter and I said, ‘That’s a lie,’” Marin told ABC News' John Quiñones. "I'm running to him to help him." When Marin realized he was armed, she kicked away a rock that was holding the door open to close it as she ran inside, not knowing it wouldn't lock behind her. "As I'm running back, I tell her, 'He's got a gun, he's shooting,'" she said.

☆ Former Trump staffer and Republican attorney Madison Gesiotto Gilbert faces off against state Rep. Emilia Sykes in Ohio's 13th Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Former Donald Trump campaign staffer Madison Gesiotto Gilbert is running against state Rep. Emilia Sykes in Ohio's 13th Congressional District. Ohio's 13th Congressional District candidatesGesiotto, an attorney and former Miss Ohio USA, scored Trump's endorsement earlier this year in her bid for Congress. Sykes won the race for the 34th Ohio State House District seat in 2014, succeeding her father. Voting history for Ohio's 13th Congressional DistrictOhio's 13th Congressional District encompasses Akron, the fifth largest city in the state. State Sen. Vernon Sykes, Rep. Emilia Sykes' father, sat on the seven-member commission that drafted the new congressional map.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that fintech startup WageFi used to raise its first $400,000 from former American Express and Goldman Sachs executives
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

WageFi raised $400,000 from investors include former American Express and Goldman Sachs executives. Prshant Batra, who founded the company this year and serves as its CEO, previously worked for Goldman Sachs's consumer banking unit, Marcus, and American Express. The startup plans to mainly work with small and medium-sized businesses within the service industry that WageFi believes is underserved with financial products. While this is the first institutional funding for WageFi, Batra said he's not rushing any other fundraising for the company. Here is an exclusive look at the pitch deck WageFi used to raise $400,000 in pre-seed funding.

☆ Schools in Scotland, Uganda and Chile among 'world's best' in new prize
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Schools in Scotland, Uganda, Chile, Philippines and the United States triumphed at the inaugural "World’s Best School Prizes" on Wednesday for feats including saving mangroves and expanding classrooms in an area hit by war. The five schools shared $250,000 in prize money for supporting pupils and communities, especially during the pandemic, in the awards organised by global body T4 Education. Dunoon Grammar School in Scotland won the category of community collaboration for skill-based courses, including in travel and tourism, design and maritime studies, intended to stem a brain-drain. Bonuan Buquig National High School in Dagupan City, Philippines took the environmental prize for helping rehabilitate lost mangroves and provide new habitats for fish. “Far too many children will continue to be left behind in the wake of COVID unless governments take urgent action to tackle the education crisis," T4 Education and the prizes founder Vikas Pota said in a statement.

☆ Here's how generative-AI startup Jasper raised $125 million in Series A funding from Insight Partners and became a unicorn
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jasper uses artificial intelligence to create content from marketing copy and blog posts to images. The Texas startup has raised $125 million in Series A funding, led by Insight Partners. The startup runs on GPT-3, an AI model from its fellow generative-AI company OpenAI. For instance, in addition to online blog posts and marketing content, Jasper can feed user-generated content back into the model to refine its output over time. The startup also trains its model on content that users "favorite" or copy onto clipboards to improve quality.

☆ I’ve been following a woman around the internet. Turns out she was created by artificial intelligence.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Evan Ratliff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Even in their first efforts, the GAN images were quickly on par with those made by any other, less intelligent software. You can find the results on the Generated Photos site, where you can filter by ethnicity, age, sex, eye color, and other attributes. Generated Photos' GANs tend to match conventional beauty standards, a product of the models that have been fed to the software. I'm not sure anyone would be surprised to find fake images accompanying testimonials on an Estonian bitcoin exchange or an online CBD seller. Are they real people deploying fake images, or fake people deploying fake images?

☆ The CEO of Capital, formerly Party Round, dishes on the strategy behind its rebrand — and why the company's ambitions have grown beyond being just a tool for startup fundraising
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Party Round is now Capital and will offer more features beyond fundraising capabilities. Party Round, the fundraising app for startups, has rebranded as Capital, expanding its services beyond a tool to raise cash. Jordi Hays, Capital CEO, said the rebrand was really tied to the company's expanding vision to support other startups as they built Party Round with the idea of becoming a sort of neobank. But now, once they've begun fundraising, Capital can issue a virtual Visa debit card to users so they can start using the cash they just received. Capital has a long history with NFTs; Party Round went viral in 2021 after it launched NFT versions of top VCs.

☆ Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz spared death penalty. Victims' families might be better off.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Emilia Benton | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Though many were shocked he didn’t receive the death penalty, and many victims’ family members were visibly upset by the decision, it’s wrong to assume this would have automatically brought them solace. The lengthy proceedings stirred up decades-old memories of waiting to find out whether my own mother’s murderer would receive the death penalty. It’s the prime example people use when they’re surprised to learn I’m not fervently in favor of the death penalty. Sometimes family members of victims do have clear-cut feelings that the death penalty is needed. It’s time for everyone in this country, from lawmakers to the general public, to prioritize the effect of the death penalty on a victim’s survivors over their own political ideologies.

☆ Wesley Chan's FPV Ventures coleads $10 million round in Astra, a fintech startup that makes it easier for companies to embed payments technology into their businesses
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The startup raised $10 million in Series A funding led by FPV and Slow Ventures. Astra, a fintech startup that's developed technology to allow developers to embed financial automation into existing products, raised a $10 million Series A along with a $30 million line of credit. "Everything was going really, really fast and really big, so we said, why not ride this growth." For example, B2B payments company Hopscotch recently raised $6.1 million in additional funding in March. Akos said one of Astra's goals is to move upmarket and begin providing payments services to startups in the later stages.

☆ Oak HC/FT-backed Mexican buy now, pay later startup Aplazo expands customer data services with deal to buy Sensai Metrics
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Mexican buy now, pay later startup Aplazo bought data platform Sensai Metrics for an undisclosed amount to improve its merchant network and help brands manage marketing to customers. Aplazo has integrated the Sensai data platform into its system, so merchants using Aplazo can directly access Sensai's machine learning-powered data services like sales figures, marketing performance, and customer demographics. Sensai cofounders Salo Dabbah and Daniela Gorra will join Aplazo as the company's head of growth and product manager, respectively. "Our intention is to help merchants connect to consumers better and have insights that they've never had before," Peña said. "The goal is to help merchants become better providers, which is one of the steps in improving financial literacy in the country," he said.

Insider asked more than 40 investors to identify top up-and-coming fintechs. Investors nominated startups both inside and outside of their own portfolios. Insider surveyed 43 investors — including those from Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and QED Investors — about the most promising fintechs to watch. Startups that were nominated included a mix of investors' portfolio companies and ones they have no financial interest in. As was the case last year, the majority of those nominated work with other businesses, not individual consumers.

☆ More layoffs hit CNN as CEO Chris Licht sets strategy and shuffles talent across the organization
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Lucia Moses | Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

CNN is laying off a small number of people in its audio division. A company rep said audio remains an important area for the company and that it's refining its strategy. CNN is laying off people in its audio division, according to affected staffers. One product manager posted on LinkedIn that their position had been eliminated and that the company told staff it planned to produce fewer audio series in 2023. "Audio is an important growth area for the company," the CNN rep said.

☆ How AI service startup Aisera is helping companies embrace machine learning to automate tasks
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

His startup, Aisera, uses machine learning and natural language processing to resolve customer service, IT, sales, and operations problems by integrating with a host of enterprise applications like Zendesk, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services, and ServiceNow. The startup also offers a conversational AI service, or a chat service, in multiple languages that is meant to quickly resolve certain issues. Funding for AI, machine learning, and data analysis grew to $115 billion in 2021, according to PitchBook data. For example, Dave uses Aisera's conversational AI for its around-the-clock customer service, allowing the startup to resolve customer questions before handing off to a human if the question is more complicated. "Thanks to Shelly, Chegg's global service desk technicians can better focus on solving complex issues and proactive support."

☆ The 26 most important VCs in Miami, according to other VCs
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( April Joyner | Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Miami's tech-startup scene has heated up in the past two years as VCs have flocked to the city. Early-stage funding to the area has topped $2 billion this year, according to Crunchbase. Insider asked VCs to identify the top investors in the Miami area. Despite the slowdown in venture-capital investments this year, early-stage funding flowing to the Miami area is set to eclipse last year's total, according to Crunchbase, with more than $2 billion already invested. Insider asked venture capitalists and other prominent tech figures which investors Miami-area founders should get to know.

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