Blue Bear Capital has raised a new $150 million fund that will be used to find and invest in startups developing technology aimed at speeding up the adoption and industrialization of renewable energy. This is the venture firm’s second fund, which it says is oversubscribed. Blue Bear has already backed nine new companies since 2020. The firm said the fresh cash will be used to fund digital technologies “making an outsized impact” in markets including wind, solar, the electric grid, EV infrastructure, transportation and energy-intensive industries. “Trillions of dollars will be spent to scale renewable energy, modernize infrastructure and secure … Continue reading Blue Bear Capital raises $150M to fund climate, energy and infrastructure tech

Small and medium businesses regularly face cashflow problems. But if that’s an already-inconvenient predicament, it has been exacerbated to the breaking point for too many during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a UK startup called MarketFinance — which has built a loans platform to help SMBs stay afloat through those leaner times — is announcing a big funding infusion of £280 million ($383 million) as it gears up for a new wave of lending requests. “It’s a good time to lend, at the start of the economic cycle,” CEO and founder Anil Stocker said in an interview. The funding is coming … Continue reading UK’s MarketFinance secures $383M to fuel its online loans platform for SMBs

Pipe, a two-year-old startup that aims to be the “Nasdaq for revenue,” announced today it has snagged former Stripe EIC Sid Orlando and HubSpot’s ex-Chief Strategy Officer Brad Coffey to serve on its executive team. The Miami-based fintech also revealed today its first expansion outside of the United States with its entry into the U.K. market. It’s been a good year for Pipe. The buzzy startup has raised $300 million in equity financing this year from a slew of investors, such as Shopify, Slack, Okta, HubSpot, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, Chamath Palihapitiya, MaC Ventures, Fin … Continue reading Alternative financing startup Pipe snaps up Stripe and HubSpot execs, expands to UK