Chicago

SoftBank’s Vision Fund has single-handedly changed the game when it comes to tech startup investment. And that’s why I’m excited to announce that SoftBank Vision Fund investment director Carolina Brochado is joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin. Carolina Brochado isn’t a newcomer when it comes to VC investment. She’s worked for years at Atomico in London. Originally from Brazil, she first joined Atomico as an intern in 2012 while studying her MBA at Columbia Business School. After her MBA, she joined an e-commerce startup as head of operations. Unfortunately, that startup is now defunct. But she used that opportunity to join Atomico once again, as a principle. She became a partner at Atomico in 2016 and left the firm late last year. At SoftBank’s Vision Fund, she focuses on fintech, digital health and marketplace startups. Just to give you an idea, some of her past investments with both Atomico and SoftBank include LendInvest, Gympass, Hinge … [Read more...] about SoftBank Vision Fund’s Carolina Brochado is coming to Disrupt Berlin

Earlier this year Los Angeles-based Cargomatic, announced it had raised $8 million to expand its platform. Why was this interesting? Well, Cargomatic hopes to become an ‘Uber for truckers’, by connecting shippers and truckers who are available to help move their cargo. Truckers would get to make more money, but, in addition, the shipping would be routed more efficiently towards the truckers available. Companies enter the details of the cargo they need to ship, and truckers use a mobile app to accept jobs and track their routes. Given that the US-market alone is worth $70 billion, this is a huge opportunity. Now a competitor, Trucker Path, an existing app for truckers, has raised substantially more. It’s announced a $20M Series A funding led by Wicklow Capital of Chicago and involving a follow-on partner, Chinese social media giant Renren. It’s also launched the beta test of its shipping marketplace called Trucker Path Truckloads. This puts together truckers, … [Read more...] about Trucker Path Raises $20M To Claim The Uber For Truckers Moniker

Amazon has been quite cautious in its roll-out of Amazon Go stores that replace the cashier with a smartphone app. When you're trying something so different, especially when the general public is involved, it's wise to do so. However, that could all change in the coming months as Amazon is thought to be considering opening thousands of new Go stores over the course of three years. As Bloomberg reports, "people familiar with the matter" suggest 3,000 new locations are planned, but CEO Jeff Bezos still isn't certain which direction to take the Amazon Go concept. Should it be a convenience store with fresh food and groceries? Or more of a fresh-food focused experience where you drop in to grab lunch? Right now, there are three Amazon Go stores in Seattle (7th & Blanchard, 5th & Marion, and 300 Boren Ave N) and one in Chicago. Back in February, we thought there could be seven by the end of 2018. If Amazon intends to get that total up to 3,000 by the end of 2021, it needs to be … [Read more...] about Report: Thousands of Amazon Go Stores by 2021

There may be no limit to how long humans can live, or at least no limit that anyone has found yet, contrary to a suggestion some scientists made last year, five new studies suggest.In April, Emma Morano, the oldest known human in the world at the time, passed away at the age of 117. Supercentenarians — people older than 110 — such as Morano and Jeanne Calment of France, who died at the record-setting age of 122 in 1997, have led scientists to wonder just how long humans can live. They refer to this concept as maximum life span.In a study published in October in the journal Nature, Jan Vijg, a molecular geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and his colleagues concluded that humans may have reached their maximum life span. They analyzed multiple databases containing data on how long people have lived in recent decades in many countries and found that survival rates among the oldest people in most countries had not changed since about 1980. They … [Read more...] about Is There a Limit to the Human Life Span?

People who feel they'll live long lives are likely to make different life decisions, such as investing more in education and marrying later, than those who expect shorter stints on Earth, a new study suggests.This phenomenon can happen at a subconscious level, so you may not even be aware that you're tying life expectancy with life decisions, the researchers said."It's not that you are sitting there thinking about how long you have to live," said study researcher Daniel Krupp of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. "It doesn't have to be the sort of thing to be a logical, cold, rational decision. It can also be an emotional one. You feel like you want to have a baby soon; you feel like you want to get married now."Previous research has shown this effect in some cities where life expectancy varies by neighborhood. The neighborhoods with the lowest life expectancy also show the youngest age of reproduction."When you are living in the slums of Detroit or Chicago or Rio, life is short … [Read more...] about Expectations of Long Life Lead to Leisurely Decisions