David Barret

Back in 2018 we covered how Open Mineral (OM), a startup aiming to leverage greater transparency in commodities trading, had raised $2.25 million. Well, they’ve come a long way and now the Zug, Switzerland-based, company has raised a $33 million Series C funding round led by Mubadala Investment Company. Existing investors Xploration Capital and Emerald […]

We’ve spent so long staring at record venture capital results around the world from Q2 that it’s nearly Q3. We’ve seen record results from cities, countries, and regions. There’s so much money sloshing around the venture capital and startup worlds that it’s hard to recall what they were like in leaner times. We’ve been in […]

September 16, 2021 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has ordered a sweeping review of the ethics rules governing financial holdings and dealings by senior officials at the U.S. central bank, a Fed spokesperson said on Thursday. Powell ordered the review late last week, the spokesperson said, a development that comes on the heels […]

Lucid Group, the all-electric automaker slated to go public this year, said Thursday that one variant of its upcoming luxury Air sedan has an EPA range of more than 520 miles. The official rating of the Lucid Air Dream Edition Range variant pushes Lucid past Tesla, a company that has long dominated in this category. […]

Avalanche, a relatively new blockchain with a focus on speed and low transactions costs, has completed a $230 million private sale of AVAX tokens to some well known crypto funds. Polychain and Three Arrows Capital are leading the investment. The Avalanche Foundation completed the private sale back in June 2021 and is disclosing it today. […]

September 16, 2021 TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s President Kais Saied on Thursday ordered the border with Libya, which had been closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, to reopen on Friday after meetings between health teams from the two countries, his office said on Twitter. The decision to reopen the border follows a visit last week […]

In less than a year after raising $25 million in Series B funding, technical assessment company CodeSignal announced a $50 million in Series C funding to offer new features for its platform that helps companies make data-driven hiring decisions to find and test engineering talent. Similar to attracting a big investor lead for its B […]

September 16, 2021 By Simon Evans MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – FIFA says it has fan backing for the much-criticised plan to shift to a biennial World Cup after releasing a summary of the results of an opinion survey of supporters. The proposals, which have been outlined by FIFA’s head of Global Football Development, former Arsenal […]

September 16, 2021 FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The euro zone economy is recovering quicker than anticipated just six months ago, mostly due to a rapid vaccination campaign that allowed large sectors of the economy to reopen, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday. The combined gross domestic product of the 19 countries sharing the […]

September 16, 2021 By Victoria Waldersee and Arno Schuetze BERLIN (Reuters) – Shares Vitesco Technologies were broadly flat on Thursday in a volatile market debut that highlights the challenges faced by the German auto parts manufacturer spun off from Continental. The stagnant share price, combined with a drop in the price of Continental’s shares compared […]

September 16, 2021 By Alexander Ratz BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will not lurch to the left with a ruling coalition that includes the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), party chief Christian Lindner said on Thursday ahead of a Sept. 26 national election after which he aims to play kingmaker in coalition negotiations. Opinion polls indicate that […]

September 16, 2021 DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates plans to invest 10 billion pounds ($13.8 billion) in Britain over the next five years, building on the two country’s long-running business ties, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund said on Thursday. The fund, called Mubadala, said the investment in Britain’s energy transition, infrastructure, technology […]

September 16, 2021 (Reuters) -A UK regulator referred Sony Music Entertainment’s purchase of London-based independent record label AWAL for an in-depth probe on Thursday, after the buyer refused to divest any undertakings to allay competition concerns. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said the wholesale distribution of recorded music in the UK was highly […]

September 16, 2021 (Reuters) – Business activity for service sector firms in the New York region continued to grow in September but at a slower pace, according to a survey released on Thursday by the New York Federal Reserve. The New York Fed’s business activity index fell thirteen points to 14.4, the third consecutive monthly […]

Following entries into the newsletter market from tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, Google is now experimenting with newsletters, too. The company’s internal R&D division, Area 120, has a new project called Museletter, which allows anyone to publish a Google Drive file as a blog or newsletter to their Museletter public profile or to an […]

September 16, 2021 By Fergal Smith TORONTO (Reuters) – Foreign investors are growing more worried that Canada’s federal election on Monday could result in a deadlock that hampers Ottawa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and further slows the economic recovery from the crisis. Polls show Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s center-left Liberals virtually tied with the […]

September 16, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. retail sales unexpectedly increased in August, likely boosted by back-to-school shopping and child tax credit payments from the government, which could temper expectations for a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter. Retail sales rose 0.7% last month, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. Data for […]

September 16, 2021 By Ambar Warrick (Reuters) -Wall Street indexes were set to open flat on Thursday, with economically sensitive sectors likely to gain as retail sales rose more than expected, indicating resilience in economic recovery. S&P and Dow index futures pared losses after a report from the Commerce Department showed retail sales unexpectedly rose […]

September 16, 2021 PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech car maker Skoda Auto, part of the Volkswagen group, will halt production at its domestic plants for a week at the end of September due to chip shortages, its union head said in a union newsletter on Thursday. From delayed car deliveries to a supply shortfall in home […]

September 16, 2021 BEIJING (Reuters) -China will extend tariff exemptions for 81 products imported from the United States by seven months, the finance ministry said in a statement published on Thursday. China has routinely made such extensions as part of an initial agreement to end a bruising trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. […]