Miscellaneous
Can Bitcoin be used for good?
Something strange is happening to Bitcoin. Once viewed as a way to do business in the darkest corners of the web, the digital currency has rather suddenly become a favorite talking point among humanitarians and international development enthusiasts. Bitcoin isn’t just for illicit transactions Read More...
Vegan venture fund fighting for animal rights
Most investment funds are, first and foremost, about making money. Not New Crop Capital, a venture capital fund started by animal-welfare activists to support entrepreneurs whose products will save the lives of cows, pigs, chickens and fish. Launched last fall, New Crop has raised $25m and is Read More...
How Colorado is turning food waste into electricity
Americans throw away about a third of our available food. But what some see as trash, others are seeing as a business opportunity. A new facility known as the Heartland Biogas Project is taking wasted food from Colorado's most populous areas and turning it into electricity. Through a technology Read More...
New York and California governors sign $15 minimum wage laws
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday signed into law a minimum wage increase that takes a two-tier approach, setting a higher $15 per hour minimum for New York City and its environs and a lower legal minimum for less-costly areas. Cuomo held a rally celebrating the event with Hilary Read More...
Sustainability’s new frontier: Asia
Sustainable investing once seemed like a laughing matter to some executives in Asia. Literally, says Billy Hwan, a portfolio manager for Parnassus Asia Fund (PAFSX), which has $10 million in assets. He says many Asian company managers used to laugh in his face when he would ask about sustainable Read More...
Microsoft Strikes Partnership With Banks on Blockchain Tech
Microsoft Inc. has pulled ahead of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, International Business Machines Corp., and Amazon.com Inc. in the race for supremacy in operating other companies’ blockchains. Microsoft and R3, a consortium of 43 financial institutions, have formed a strategic Read More...
Mobile Phones Promise to Bring Banking to the World’s Poorest
The rapid proliferation of mobile platforms and the digital services that move across them are transforming the world in countless ways. Overnight, these technologies create billionaires and business models so beautifully unique and freakishly inspired that we call them “unicorns.” But Read More...
Wall Street goes big on Bitcoin tech
The mainstreaming of bitcoin tech continues. Nearly 500 suit-clad Wall Streeters, regulators, professors, and tech execs gathered at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.’s attended first ever single-issue public symposium, on blockchain, Tuesday in midtown Manhattan. Earlier Tuesday DTCC, Read More...
Angel investing gets a shot in the arm in the UK
The nation’s small businesses can expect a wave of capital from a new generation of investors following the launch of a campaign to more than double the number of active angels backing UK firms by 2019.The new Become An Angel campaign, which will launch on Wednesday at the House of Commons, plans Read More...
Starbucks will start donating 100% of its unused food to those in need
Starbucks announced on Tuesday that it will donate 100% of the leftover food from its 7,600 stores to food banks across the U.S. In a bid to fight hunger and food waste, the coffee-giant has teamed up with nonprofit organization Feeding America and Food Donation Connection to donate perishable Read More...