Serena Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow team up in new 'superfood' startup
Superfood delivery startup Daily Harvest announced it added some “superstar” investors to its latest funding round. Tennis champion Serena Williams and Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow teamed up with others in a Series A that will help deliver re-packaged smoothies, soups and chia/oat bowls nationwide using direct-to-consumer e-commerce. [FOXBusiness]
Insurtech company SURE raises $8M to keep your valuables protected
Insurtech company SURE just simultaneously closed an $8 million Series A funding round and announced the launch of a new smartphone protection product. The funding was led by IA Capital, with participation from Menlo Ventures, FF Venture Capital, Nationwide Ventures, Assurant and AmTrust, and will help support many of the company’s long-term goals. [Built In NYC]
The producers behind New York Fashion Week are launching a startup accelerator
A new startup accelerator “Futures NYC” is coming to Greenwich Village. LDJ Productions, the agency producers of WME/IMG New York Fashion Week, is launching the program at its headquarters as a way to connect with people developing new tech products in the live events industry. [New York Business Journal]
MDC Partners Forms MDC Ventures to Expand Investment in Innovation
Marketing and communications company MDC Partners announced its rebranding initiative to scale investments in early-stage digital media and marketing technology companies under MDC Ventures. The move will expand access to MDC Partners’ existing venture investments and increase knowledge-sharing across the entire agency partner network. [Press release]
New Program Brings Real Estate Technology to New York City Public Housing
The Fund for Public Housing, a non-profit founded to facilitate public-private partnerships, is leading an initiative to help the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) find innovative solutions improve how it manages its 326 developments. The initiative, called “2017 NYCHA Tech Pilots,” will call on the help of local real estate technology startups to solve issues that affect hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. [CRE.Tech]
This hackathon wants to help destigmatize the sex tech industry
This week, New York's first SexTech Hackathon was held at the ThoughtWorks office in Manhattan. It brought together participants with a range of backgrounds — from coding to design to sex therapy — to generate innovative ways to enhance human sexuality. The creator of the hackathon hopes it will help decrease the stigma surrounding sex tech. [Mashable]
How Alphabet’s AI robot is helping The New York Times replace its public editor
Sometimes, a human touch isn’t enough. The New York Times will begin to use the Jigsaw-built platform, Perspective, to increase the number of articles that feature a commenting section. It uses a machine-learning algorithm that automatically scans for abusive and superfluous comments. As the year goes on, the paper hopes to offer comments on 80 percent of its articles. [Fast Company]
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