First Up
Jim: Welcome back to The Beat. Joe Biden has a running mate. Big 10 football is officially postponed. And Airbnb plans to file for IPO in August. Big news day across all the sections of your newspaper.
Plenty happening in Chicago tech, too. So let's dive in...
The Big One
A breakdown on the day’s biggest Inno story.
Katherine: Chicago’s S2G Ventures, a food and agriculture-focused VC firm, is planning to invest $100M in seafood startups and other ocean ventures. Jim has more.
Jim: S2G Ventures announced Tuesday that it has launched a new Oceans and Seafood investment team and will invest up to $100M in startups working to improve the health of our oceans and create sustainable seafood.
The firm said it plans to back early, venture and growth-stage companies across the world, with a focus on seafood and alternative protein, supply chain innovation, traceability/transparency, and other ocean-focused endeavors.
The oceans and seafood investment team will be led by managing directors Kate Danaher and Larsen Mettler.
Founded in 2015 with a $125M million fund, S2G Ventures is led by Chuck Templeton, the founder of OpenTable. S2G Ventures set out to back founders that are improving the health and sustainability of the food system, and counts Beyond Meat, sweetgreen and Chicago’s Hazel Technologies among its portfolio companies. In 2017 it raised $180M for its second fund.
Now with an increased focus on the ocean ecosystem, S2G Ventures says it plans to fund solutions to challenges that threaten the health of the world’s waterways and expand the scope of food startups that it invests in.
Read more: S2G Ventures is investing $100M in sustainable seafood and other ocean startups
Making Moves
Inside the people, companies and organizations making moves in Chicago.
Jim: A woman in Chicago filed a lawsuit against Macy's this month, alleging that the department store violated Illinois’ biometric privacy law by using video surveillance and facial recognition tech on its customers. The lawsuit says the customer was likely identified by the technology without her consent. Macy's is reportedly a client of Clearview AI, a controversial facial recognition startup that scans images online in order to build a massive database that's capable of identifying people in real time. The lawsuit says Macy's sent pictures of its customers to Clearview. More here.
Katherine: Reveal, a cloud-based provider of eDiscovery, risk and compliance software, has acquired Chicago startup NexLP, an artificial intelligence software for the legal industry. The startup's tech turns unstructured data like email communications, business chat messages, contracts and legal documents into meaningful insights. The company was part of the Techstars Chicago 2014 cohort. More here.
Jim: Gogo is looking to sell its commercial in-flight internet business, CEO Oakleigh Thorne said on a conference call Monday. Thorne said Gogo's had “extensive discussions with multiple parties” and that he “feel[s] optimistic that a deal may happen.” The move comes as Gogo laid off 143 employees late last month and furloughed hundreds more earlier this year. More here.
|
