Coinbase announced the launch of Coinbase Ventures- an early stage fund that will invest in the digital currency ecosystem. According to Emilie Choi, Head of Corporate and Business Development at Coinbase, the fund won’t make it a strategic requirement to formalize partnerships with it’s future portfolio companies, and will focus instead on spurring development of the ecosystem. Read more here.
Instacart has just raised a further $350M in it’s latest Series E funding, following a $200M round two months ago. Instacart is backed by Whole Foods (Amazon) and American Express, and this latest round was led by Coatue Management. Read more here.
Pharma-giant Bayer Crop Science has just partnered with UC Davis to launch CoLaborator- an agtech focused accelerator.This follows in the footsteps of the pharma company’s Bayer Trendlines Ag Innovation Fund established in late 2016. Read more here.
Salesforce is the latest enterprise tech company to be hedging on blockchain. Co-founder Benioff didn’t disclose any details, but announced Salesfroce would have a blockchain-ready product by Dreamforce in September this year. Read more here.
