June 2020

5 of the best indoor garden systems for growing herbs and veggies

Gardening at home is not limited to people with large gardens — or even to people with sunny windowsills. With the right tools, anyone who wants to grow their own vegetables or fresh herbs indoors can find a way to do it.

Indoor gardening kits range from high tech to very simple. Your needs will vary based on your budget, the plants you want to grow, and the space you have available, but you'll likely be able to pull something off, even if you have to hang your garden on the wall. We believe in you.

What should I grow?

If you just want to start your plants indoors, then move them to an outdoor garden, your crop options are pretty much endless. If you must grow your garden entirely indoors, though, there are a few plants that have the best chance of thriving. Read more...

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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR FEATURES

AeroGarden Harvest Elite

This smart, six-pod AeroGarden allows you to grow herbs, salad leaves, and other veggies pretty much anywhere.

  • Self-watering feature: No
  • Built-in grow light: Yes
  • Best for: Herbs, tomatoes, salad greens
£149 from Amazon
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR TRANSPLANTING

Click and Grow Smart Garden 3

This smart garden has all the features you could want — if you're cool with using its pods.

  • Self-watering feature: Yes
  • Built-in grow light: Yes
  • Best for: Herbs, vegetables, microgreens
£95 from Amazon
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR MICROGREENS

Chef'n Microgreen Grower

This affordable microgreen starter kit comes with a growing tray, soil, and a starter pack of seeds.

  • Self-watering feature: No
  • Built-in grow light: No
  • Best for: Microgreens
£25.95 from Amazon
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR WALLS

Ogrmar Vertical Wall Garden Planter

This space-saving hanging garden has plenty of pockets and attaches to the wall.

  • Self-watering feature: No
  • Built-in grow light: No
  • Best for: Herbs
£18.12 from Amazon
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR KIDS

BIGHAVE Mini Aquaponic Ecosystem

A garden that's also a fish tank? It's fun and functional.

  • Self-watering feature: Yes
  • Built-in grow light: No
  • Best for: Microgreens, herbs, flowers
£69.98 from Amazon



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How to download YouTube videos

In this time of ubiquitous internet and abundance of content, downloading videos to your hard drive is rarely necessary. But sometimes, an important video can be hard to find, or can even be permanently removed from a platform, in which case it's not a bad idea to have a personal copy. 

Say you've encountered a cool YouTube video and want to download it for your archive to make sure you still have it in case it disappears. YouTube has no easy "download" button, so how do you  download a video off the platform?

Fortunately, there are a few ways to grab a YouTube video fairly easily, and in good quality. However, before we continue, note that downloading videos from the regular, free version of YouTube is against the site's terms of service. And this brings another problem: Because of this, many of the ways to download YouTube videos that you'll find online are fairly dangerous as they're riddled with spamware and shady ads.  Read more...

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Make sense of SEO with this heavily discounted training bundle

TL;DR: The Complete SEO Certification Training bundle is on sale for £24.41 as of July 1, saving you 96% on list price.


It's been said that attention to detail is the determining factor in whether something is great or just good. That's certainly true when you're dealing with search engine optimisation or SEO. 

Things like HTML tag structure and lead images might seem minor and irrelevant to an untrained user, but with a little training, one will come to realise that they're often the determining factors in whether your site ranks on the first page of Google search results or in No Man's Land. Read more...

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When in 2010, former VC Michael Kim set out to raise a fund that he would invest in a spate of micro VC managers, the investors to which he turned didn’t get it. Why pay Kim and his firm, Cendana Capital,  a management fee on top of the management fees that the VC managers themselves charge?

Fast forward to today, and Kim has apparently proven to his backers that he’s worth the extra cost. Three years after raising $260 million across a handful of vehicles whose capital he plugged into up-and-coming venture firms, Kim is now revealing a fresh $278 million in capital commitments, including $218 million for its fourth flagship fund, and $60 million that Cendana will be managing expressly for the University of Texas endowment.

We talked with Kim last week about how he plans to invest the money, which differs slightly from how he has invested in the past.

Rather than stick solely with U.S.-based seed-stage managers who are raising vehicles of $100 million or less, he will split Cendana into three focus areas. One of these will remain seed-stage managers. A smaller area of focus — but one of growing importance, he said — is pre-seed managers who are managing $50 million or less and mostly funding ideas (and getting roughly 15% of the company in exchange for the risk).

A third area of growing interest is in international managers. In fact, Kim says Cendana has already backed small venture firms in Australia (Blackbird Ventures), China (Cherubic Ventures, which is a cross-border investor that is also focused on the U.S.), Israel (Entree Capital), and India (Saama Capital), among other spots.

Altogether, Cendana is now managing around $1.2 billion. For its services, it charges its backers a 1% management fee and 10% of its profits atop the 2.5% management fee and 20% “carried interest” that his fund managers collect.

“To be extremely clear about it and transparent,” said Kim, “that’s a stacked fee that’s on top of what are fund managers charts. So Cendana LPs are paying 3.5% and 30%.” One “might think that seems pretty egregious,” he continued. “But a number of our LPs are either not staffed to go address this market or are too large, like the University of Texas, to actually write smaller checks to these seed funds. And we provide a pretty interesting value proposition to them.”

Meanwhile, Kim argues that other, bigger fund managers have a very different strategy than his own.

“A lot of these well-known fund of funds are asset gatherers,” he says. “They’re not charging carried interest. They’re in it for the management fee. They have shiny offices around the world, they have hundreds of people working at them, they’re raising billion-dollar-plus kind of funds, and they’re putting 30 to 50 names into each one, so in a way they become index funds. [But[ I don’t think venture is really an asset class. Unlike an ETF that’s focused on the S&P 500, venture capital is where a handful of fund managers capture most of the alpha. Our differentiation is that we’re taking we’re creating very concentrated portfolios.”

Specifically, Cendana typically holds positions in up to 12 funds, plus makes $1 million bets on another handful of more nascent managers that it will fund further if they prove out their theses.

Some of the managers it has backed has outgrown Cendana from an assets standpoint. It caps its investments in funds that are $100 million or less in size. But over time, it has backed 22 managers over the years. Among them: 11.2 Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Angular Ventures, Bowery Capital, Collaborative Fund, Forerunner Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle Capital, IA Ventures, L2 Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, MHS Capital, Montage Ventures, Moxxie Ventures, Neo, NextView Ventures, Silicon Valley Data Capital, Spider Capital, Susa Ventures, Uncork VC (when it was still SoftTech VC), Wave Capital and XYZ Ventures.

As for its pre-seed fund managers, Cendana is now the anchor investors in 10 funds, including Better Tomorrow Ventures, Bolt VC, Engineering Capital, K9 Ventures, Mucker Capital, Notation Capital, PivotNorth Capital, Rhapsody Venture Partners, Root Ventures, and Wonder Ventures.

As for its returns, Kim says that Cendana’s very first fund, a $28.5 million vehicle, is “marked at north of 3x” and “that’s net of everything.”

He’s optimistic that the firm’s numbers will look even better over time. According to Kim, Cendana currently has 38 so-called unicorns in its broader portfolio and more than 160 companies that are valued at more than $100 million.




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Facebook’s recently launched app, Hobbi, an experiment in short-form content creation around personal projects, hobbies, and other Pinterest-y content, is already shutting down. The app first arrived on iOS in February as one of now several launches from Facebook’s internal R&D group, the NPE Team.

Hobbi users have now been notified by way of push notification that the app is shutting down on July 10, 2020. The app allows users to export their data from its settings.

In the few months it’s been live on the U.S. App Store, Hobbi only gained 7,000 downloads, according to estimates from Sensor Tower. Apptopia also reported the app had under 10K downloads and saw minimal gains during May and June.

Though Hobbi clearly took cues from Pinterest, it was not designed to be a pinboard of inspirational ideas. Instead, Hobbi users would organize photos of their projects — like gardening, cooking, arts & crafts, décor, and more — in a visual diary of sorts. The goal was to photograph the project’s progress over time, adding text to describe the steps, as needed.

The end result would be a highlight reel of all those steps that could be published externally when the project was completed.

But Hobbi was a fairly bare bones app. There was nothing else to do but document your own projects. You couldn’t browse and watch projects other users had created, beyond a few samples, nor could you follow top users across the service. And even the tools for documentation were underdeveloped. Beyond a special “Notes” field for writing down a project’s steps, the app experience felt like a watered-down version of Stories.

Image Credits: Hobbi

Facebook wasn’t alone in pursuing the potential of short-form creative content. Google’s internal R&D group, Area 120, also published its own experiment in this area with the video app Tangi. And Pinterest was recently spotted testing a new version of Story Pins, that would allow users to showcase DIY and creative content in a similar way.

It’s not surprising to see Hobbi wind down so quickly, given its lack of traction. Facebook already said its NPE Team experiments would involve apps that changed very rapidly and would shut down if consumers didn’t find them useful.

In addition to Hobbi, the NPE Team has launched a number of apps since last summer, including meme creator Whale, conversational app Bump, music app Aux, couples app Tuned, Apple Watch app Kit, audio calling app CatchUp, collaborative music app Collab, live event companion Venue, and predictions app Forecast. Before Hobbi, the only one to have shut down was Bump. (Some are not live in the U.S., either.)

Of course, Facebook may not intend to use these experiments to create a set of entirely new social apps built from the ground-up. Instead, it’s likely looking to collect data about what features resonate with users and how different creation tools are used. This is data that can inform Facebook’s development of features for its main set of apps, like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment but one had not been provided at the time of publication.




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Lyft’s self-driving vehicle division has restarted testing on public roads in California, several months after pausing operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lyft’s Level 5 program said Tuesday some of its autonomous vehicles are back on the road in Palo Alto and at its closed test track. The company has not resumed a pilot program that provided rides to Lyft employees in Palo Alto.

The company said it is following CDC guidelines for personal protective equipment and surface cleaning. It has also enacted several additional safety steps to prevent the spread of COVID. Each autonomous test vehicle is equipped with partitions to separate the two safety operators inside, the company said. The operators must wear face shields and submit to temperature checks. They’re also paired together for two weeks at a time.

Lyft’s Level 5 program — a nod to the SAE automated driving level that means the vehicle handles all driving in all conditions — launched in July 2017 but didn’t starting testing on California’s public roads until November 2018. Lyft then ramped up the testing program and its fleet. By late 2019, Lyft was driving four times more autonomous miles per quarter than it was six months prior.

Lyft had 19 autonomous vehicles testing on public roads in California in 2019, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the primary agency that regulates AVs in the state. Those 19 vehicles, which operated during the reporting period of December 2018 to November 2019, drove nearly 43,000 miles in autonomous mode, according to Lyft’s annual report released in February. While that’s a tiny figure when compared to other companies such as Argo AI, Cruise and Waymo, it does represent progress within the program.

Lyft has supplemented its on-road testing with simulation, a strategy that it relied on more heavily during COVID-related shutdowns. And it will likely continue to lean on simulation even as local governments lift restrictions and the economy reopens.

Simulation is a cost-effective way to create additional control, repeatability and safety, according to a blog post released Tuesday by Robert Morgan, director of engineering, and Sameer Qureshi, director of product management at Level 5. The pair said simulation has also allowed the Level 5 unit to test its work without vehicles, without employees leaving their desks and, for the last few months, without leaving their homes. Level 5 employs more than 400 people in London, Munich and the United States.

Using simulation in the development of autonomous vehicle technology is a well-established tool in the industry. Lyft’s approach to data — which it uses to improve its simulations — is what differentiates the company from competitors. Lyft is using data collected from drivers on its ride-hailing app to improve simulation tests as well as build 3D maps and understand human driving patterns.

The Level 5 program is taking data from select vehicles in Lyft’s Express Drive program, which provides rental cars and SUVs to drivers on its platform as an alternative to options like long-term leasing.




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Willa, the Sweden and U.S.-based fintech that wants to help freelancers request payment and get paid immediately for a fee, has raised $3 million in funding. The company’s founders are former early members of Spotify’s growth team and also created influencer marketing platform Relatable.

Leading the seed round is EQT Ventures. Also participating is ex-Atomico partner Mattias Ljungman’s Moonfire Ventures, Nordic Makers, Michael Hansen and Johan Lorenzen. Willa says the injection of cash will enable it to launch “Willa Pay,” an app that promises to remove the paperwork required when billing corporations for freelance work and comes with a payment process that claims to make it easier to collect payments.

One you’ve completed a job, you use the Willa Pay app to enter the details of the work, how much you are supposed to get paid, and who you did the job for. Willa Pay then contacts the corporation and issues the paperwork.

If you wish to get paid earlier than a corporation’s standard terms, which is often anything from 30-90 days, for a small fee Willa will pay you directly. The idea is that freelancers gain more predictable income, and can pay their bills on time and protect their credit score.

“The payment process between freelancers and corporations is completely broken,” says co-founder and CEO Kristofer Sommestad. “It’s built for the old world, by people of the old world. Both freelancers and corporations are suffering a lot from this. At least half of freelancers experience problems getting paid, while a third of payments are late. The result? Credit scores decline”.

Sommestad says Willa Pay solves this problem by “re-engineering” the payment process. “We’re creating it from scratch with the new freelance economy in mind. And we’re starting with freelancers’ biggest problem: getting paid, on time, every time. As a freelancer, using the Willa Pay app is a faster, simpler and better way of requesting payment for your work”.

To help with Willa Pay’s launch, Sommestad says the product’s first 10,000 users will be influencers, averaging a 100,000-plus following. “They are brilliant creators, the world’s best product marketeers and suffering as much as anyone from the payment problems,” he tells me. “This is, by the way, a brilliant distribution move from the Spotify growth playbook”.

Meanwhile, on the question of competitors, the Willa CEO says financial services are typically built by massive companies like PayPal and Intuit, along with many startups “building shiny tools or launching yet-another challenger bank”.

“But none of them are solving the core problem for freelancers… That’s what we do at Willa. We’re focusing on solving the biggest problem, for the people that suffer the most”.




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David Hockney's painted 'Vogue' cover is a soothing moment in your day

Why have one Vogue cover when you can have 14 different ones? 

That's the plan for the August issue of British Vogue, a special edition exploring the theme of "reset" — especially fitting for a world still experiencing lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders in many countries amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The covers feature original artwork by the UK's great artists and photographers, including David Hockney, Nadine Ijewere, Tim Walker, Nick Knight, Lubaina Himid, Mert Alas, David Sims, Marcus Piggott, Jamie Hawkesworth, Juergen Teller, Alasdair McLellan, Martin Parr, David Bailey, and Craig McDean.  Read more...

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DeepSpin, a Berlin-based startup that is developing what it describes as a “next-generation, AI-powered MRI imaging machine”, has raised €600,000 in seed funding.

Backing the round is APEX Digital Health, with participation from existing investors Entrepreneur First (EF) and SOSV, along with a number of unnamed angel investors. Including grants and earlier investment, it brings the total raised to €1 million pre-launch.

DeepSpin is a graduate of EF’s company builder programme, where its two founders — Clemens Tepel, a former McKinsey consultant, and Pedro Freire Silva, a PhD researcher from KIT — decided to partner in September 2019. Freire Silva drew on his research into small-scale, mass-manufacturable MRI systems and pitched the idea to his future co-founder.

“From the beginning I found the idea very intriguing and so we directly jumped into attempting to prove its feasibility,” says Tepel. “Within 4 weeks we were able to prove it in simulation, get industry-leading advisors on board and get first LOIs [letter of intent] from interested clinicians”.

Yet-to-launch and still in the development phase, DeepSpin aims to build a new type of MRI system at a “fraction of the cost, weight and size” of existing systems. To make this possible, the startup is has developed a new antenna technology combined with AI-controlled operation, which the startup is currently patenting.

“The problem we are solving is that MRI, the most advanced medical imaging method, is currently not easily accessible because it is incredibly expensive, requires specialised operators and needs specifically shielded rooms,” explains Tepel. “We are removing all of these constraints based on our proprietary technology, making MRI universally accessible for any patient, anywhere in the world”.

Adds Freire Silva: “Instead of combining highly expensive hardware with standard software, as it is done on conventional MRI scanners, we will be able to obtain the same clinical information by applying very sophisticated algorithms on simplified hardware, thereby reducing our system’s cost by orders of magnitude”.

Tepel tells me this approach has not been taken before because both key enablers — highly capable AI-algorithms and the specific antenna design – were only available very recently.

Having proven DeepSpin’s methods in simulation, the next step and the team’s current focus is to develop a first fully AI-driven prototype. “Based on that, we will develop an initial product version, aimed at pre-clinical applications, before going into medical certification, which then will allow us to sell our product for clinical use across a range of medical domains and to new geographies that can’t afford conventional systems,” says Tepel.




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Save £100 on this stylish and smart coffee machine

TL;DR: The Nespresso Vertuo Plus coffee machine is on sale for £79.99 on Amazon, saving you 56% on list price.


There are many coffee machines out there that can make all your favourite drinks, but not every option uses barcode technology to automatically adjust the brewing parameters to make each blend exactly how the coffee is meant to be enjoyed. 

For this sort of technology you'll need to purchase the Nespresso Vertuo Plus coffee machine.

The Nespresso Vertuo Plus is really simple to use, and all you need to do is insert a capsule and close the lever. The Centrifusion Technology then spins the capsule, producing the perfect crema to compliment your favourite coffee or espresso.  Read more...

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Welcome to Cloud City: The case for going to Venus, not Mars

NOTE FOR 2020 READERS: This is the 12th in a series of open letters to the next century, now just 80 years away. The series asks: What will the world look like at the other end of our kids' lives?

Dear 22nd Century,

Is there life on Mars?

Human life, I mean. Or does a pioneering percentage of you have your heads in the clouds of a closer planet instead?

It’s not the sort of thing we take surveys about, because we’ve got a lot on our political plate right now. But if you were to ask the average 21st century Joe which planet we are most likely to establish permanent habitation on first, Mars would win in a landslide. It’s just a given. It’s NASA’s official plan — has been ever since the first President Bush announced we’d land on the planet by, ahem, 2019 — as well as Elon Musk’s highly theoretical plan for 2024. We’ve watched and read The Martian, cheering for deposits of ice and potatoes grown in Mars' barren soil. Read more...

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Netflix unveils eerie new 'Unsolved Mysteries' clip

The launch of Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries reboot is now only a day away — but if you're feeling impatient, they've just dropped a new teaser on YouTube.

The clip above is from "Impossible Hotel" – one of six new episodes – which revolves around a strange incident at the Belvedere Hotel in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore.

Although the clip doesn't give too much away, the man in the thumbnail image is Rey Rivera, whose mysterious death in 2006 was the subject of a book by writer Mikita Brottman.

Unsolved Mysterious drops July 1 on Netflix. Read more...

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Improve your memory, focus, and brainpower with this $35 bootcamp

TL;DR: Work towards becoming more self aware and in control with a bundle of online coursed that's aptly titled Master the Science of Memory, Leadership, and Focus. Altogether it's $34.99, a 98% savings as of June 30.


There are lots of things your brain needs to work at its fullest potential: high-quality sleep, fuel, and a little exercise. But did you know you can exercise your brain just like any other part of your body? It just requires some different equipment. Instead of weights and resistance bands, you need some brain training courses, like this Master the Science of Memory, Leadership, and Focus Bundle, to improve your intellectual fitness. Read more...

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Apple Magic Keyboards on sale for 23% off when you shop refurbished

TL;DR: Get a new Apple magic keyboard with numeric keypad for $99.99, a 23% savings as of June 30.


By now, you've probably figured out some sort of work-from-home routine that works for you. Or you've at least figured out what doesn't. But considering we're likely in it for the long haul, no matter where you live, you may want to invest some time and money into your slapdash workspace. At the very least, you could get yourself a keyboard to pair with your laptop, so you can work in a more ergonomic fashion.

This certified-refurbished Apple Magic Keyboard is a solid option and pairs perfectly with your MacBook Pro. Just prop your computer on a stand and connect the keyboard via Bluetooth. The extended layout of the Magic Keyboard features a numeric keyboard, document navigation controls, and full-size arrow keys that make any task a breeze. The built-in rechargeable battery keeps it kicking for roughly a month before it needs to be plugged in. And optimized key travel allows you to work faster and more efficiently. Oh, and you can also pair it with your iPhone or iPad, which is a total game-changer. Read more...

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Save over 60% on this 3-pack of braided USB-C chargers

TL;DR: Get a three-pack of 10-foot Nylon Braided USB-C cables for $21.99, a 63% savings as of June 30. 


Third-party chargers (the ones that don't come with your phone) often get a bad rap. People are extra wary of them because they break easily, sometimes even after only a few days of use. (Like the ones at the local gas station checkout.) 

While it's tempting to pick up a random charger at the store to save money, keep in mind that you're going to want a cable that is strong, sturdy, and lasts a long time. So instead, snag something like this pack of 10-Foot Nylon Braided USB-C Cables, and place one everywhere you need to charge up.  Read more...

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This cool gadget makes wired headphones Bluetooth ready

TL;DR: Make any pair of headphones Bluetooth-compatible with the TUNAI square Bluetooth amp for $45.99, a 16% savings as of June 30.


Just because everyone's got AirPods or Galaxy Buds practically glued to their ears doesn't mean you should feel pressured to go wireless. Your wired headphones work perfectly fine. Maybe even better. And if it's the Bluetooth experience you're after, you don't have to buy an entirely new pair to get that. 

All you need is something like the TUNAI Square, a device designed to bridge the gap and let your wired headphones connect with phones, stereos, PMPs, and more, all via Bluetooth. And for a limited time, you can snag one on sale for over $10 off, dropping the price to just $45.99. That's a lot less than a new pair of AirPods. Read more...

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Fitness trackers will get your kid excited about being active

Kids have the kind of energy adults could only dream of having, and they spend their days being active just for the fun of it. You might not think that a kid needs to track and monitor their health and activity, but fitness trackers for kids are made specifically with children in mind. That means they're not focused on weight loss, but rather forming good habits and leading an active lifestyle.

What makes a fitness tracker kid-friendly?

Fitness trackers for kids are simplified versions of those for adults — they trade out smartwatch features for motivational games and rewards systems. Your kid doesn't really need an Apple Watch to count their steps and monitor their heart rate. Read more...

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IMAGE: Best Buy

BEST FOR BONUS FEATURES

Garmin Vívofit Jr. 2

Games, rewards, and Disney help this tracker motivate kids.

  • Battery life: Non-rechargeable, up to one year
  • Sleep tracking: Yes
  • Water resistance: Waterproof up to 50 meters
$69.99 from Best Buy
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST OVERALL

Fitbit Ace 2

Fitbit's industry-leading fitness tracking is made available to kids.

  • Battery life: Up to five days
  • Sleep tracking: Yes
  • Water resistance: Waterproof up to 50 meters
$69.95 from Amazon
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IMAGE: Verizon

BEST SMARTWATCH TRACKER

Verizon GizmoWatch 2

This watch is ideal for communication and fitness features.

  • Battery life: Up to four days
  • Sleep tracking: No
  • Water resistance: Waterproof up to 1 meter
$99.99 from Verizon
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST FOR OLDER KIDS

Fitbit Charge 3

Pre-teens can skip the kiddie games and designs with the Charge 3.

  • Battery life: Up to seven days
  • Sleep tracking: Yes
  • Water resistance: Waterproof up to 50 meters
$149.95 from Amazon
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST BUDGET PICK

Biggerfive fitness tracker watch

With simple features, this is a nice option without breaking the bank.

  • Battery life: Up to seven days
  • Sleep tracking: Yes
  • Water resistance: Waterproof up to 1 meter
$23.99 from Amazon
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IMAGE: Amazon

BEST EDUCATIONAL TRACKER

UNICEF Kid Power Band

Kids will learn about culture and use activity to give back to those in need.

  • Battery life: About two weeks
  • Sleep tracking: No
  • Water resistance: Waterproof up to 1 meter
$39.99 from Amazon



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Facebook Avatars, which lets users customize a virtual lookalike of themselves for use as stickers in chat and comments, is now available in India, the social juggernaut’s biggest market by users account.

The American firm said Tuesday it had launched Avatars to India as more social interaction moves online amid a nationwide lockdown in the world’s second largest internet market. The company said Avatars supports a variety of faces, hairstyles, outfits that are customized for users in India.

Avatars’ launch comes to India at the height of a backlash against Chinese apps in the country — some of which have posed serious competition to Facebook’s ever-growing tentacles in Asia’s third-largest economy. On Monday evening, New Delhi ordered to ban TikTok and nearly 60 other apps developed by Chinese firms.

The social giant’s Avatars, a clone of Snapchat’s popular Bitmoji, was first unveiled last year. The feature, which Facebook sees as an expression tool, aims at turning engagements on the social service fun, youthful, visually communicative, and “more light-hearted.”

Users can create their avatar from the sticker tray in the comment section of a News Feed post or in Messenger. Facebook has expanded Avatars, initially available to users in Australia and New Zealand, to Europe and the U.S. in recent weeks.

Scores of companies including Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi have attempted to replicate Bitmoji in recent years — though no one has expanded it like Snapchat.

Earlier this year, Snapchat introduced Bitmoji TV, a series of 4-minute comedy cartoons with users’ avatars. At the time, Snapchat said that about 70% of its daily active users, or 147 million of its 210 million users, had created their own Bitmojis.

Snapchat is preparing to launch the Spectacles, its AR glasses, in India. The California-headquartered firm has so far struggled to gain ground in India, where it had about 30 million monthly active users last month, according to mobile insights firm App Annie, data of which an industry executive shared with TechCrunch. Facebook has amassed over 350 million users in India and its instant messaging service WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in the country.




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Netflix in 4K HDR seems to finally be coming to the Mac

Mac users will likely be able to stream Netflix in 4K, with HDR, once the new version of macOS Big Sur becomes widely available. 

The evidence for this was discovered by tech enthusiast Ishan Agarwal and picked up by 9to5Mac. Agarwal noticed that Safari in macOS Big Sur displayed a 4K Netflix stream with Dolby Vision on his MacBook Pro. 

And 9to5Mac recently noted that the new version of Safari supports HDR videos. This means Mac users will finally be able to watch Netflix in their browsers with the best possible image quality. There's one caveat, though — only Macs introduced in 2018 or later support 4K HDR.  Read more...

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Facebook reveals the future of VR headsets, and it's more 'CSI Miami' than 'Tron'

Immersing yourself in virtual reality can feel like a sci-fi fantasy come true, but bulky, cumbersome VR headsets almost make it more trouble than it's worth. There have been various attempts to slim down VR headsets, such as Dlodlo's lightweight V One headset and Panasonic's prototype goggles shown at CES 2020. Now Facebook has revealed its own glasses-like prototype headset with a display measuring 8.9 mm thick — about the same thickness as a smartphone.

In a new research paper entitled "Holographic Optics for Thin and Lightweight Virtual Reality," Facebook Reality Labs researchers Andrew Maimone and Junren Wang have proposed a VR headset design that replaces the refractive lens with holographic optics and polarization-based optical folding. This allows the headset to be much lighter and more compact, like a strangely thick pair of retro sunglasses. Read more...

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You can now tip your Ola driver. The Indian ride-hailing giant said on Tuesday that it has rolled out this feature to its users in India, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom — all the nations where it currently operates.

Ola said riders in each market will see a range of denominations they can pick as the amount they wish to tip digitally. It plans to allow riders to pay a custom amount of their choice in a few weeks, a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

All of Ola’s 2.5 million driver partners globally — from those who operate two-wheelers to four — can receive tips, the nine-year-old ride-hailing giant said.

The addition of this feature comes as Ola looks to broaden its efforts to help its driver partners who have been financially hit in recent weeks after New Delhi and several other governments across the globe enforced a lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Uber first introduced the tipping feature in some states in the U.S. in 2017 and has since expanded to it many more states and nations. It rolled out tipping feature to its users in India early this year.

Driver partners on both the platforms have long expressed the need for a tipping feature after both the companies gradually reduced the incentives they had offered in the early years.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, our driver-partners have worked tirelessly to enable essential travel for all those in need, despite facing their own challenges. As services resume, they continue to personally invest in ensuring the safety of their customers and deliver a comfortable ride experience,” said Anand Subramanian, a spokesperson at Ola.

“Linking rewards to higher-quality services, we invite our customers to join us in sharing our appreciation and supporting them during these trying times. Not only will the new functionality provide an opportunity for drivers to increase their earnings but will also showcase how a small gesture of solidarity and support from customers will drive our driver-partner community to go a long way,” he said.

In recent months, Ola has announced a range of relief packages including exempting lease rental to assist its driver partners. It has also committed to provide driver partners with a few hundred dollars if they or their family members test positive for Covid-19. Uber has yet to offer any significant aid to its driver partners in India.

Like their driver partners, both Ola and Uber have been hit with the global pandemic as well. Ola said last month it was cutting 1,400 jobs, or 35% of its workforce in India. Days later, Uber said it was eliminating 600 jobs, or 25% of its local workforce, in the nation. India is a key overseas market for Uber.




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The pandemic has wreaked havoc on all manner of professional sports this year, and cycling has not been immune. For example, the best-known race on the planet, the Tour de France, normally staged in July, has had to be pushed back to August 29 through September 20.

That doesn’t mean that the world — and professional cyclists — can’t enjoy world-class racing this summer. In fact, beginning this coming weekend, 23 top men’s teams and 17 women’s teams will participate in a virtual version of the event that’s being hosted by six-year-old Zwift, after it was chosen by the official race organizer of the real tour, Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), as its partner on the event.

It’s a coup for the Long Beach, Calif., company whose multiplayer video game technology is used by both amateur and pro cyclists and that, according to Outside magazine, is now the biggest player in the growing online racing world.

Investors have noticed, funding the company to the tune of $170 million so far, says cofounder and CEO Eric Min.

This Tour has the potential to drive many more users its way, too.

For one thing, the virtual version of the event, which will feature six stages that last roughly hour over the next three weekends beginning this Saturday, will be broadcast in more than 130 countries. (The race gets underway with the first women’s stage, followed immediately by the men, and will be broadcast on NBC Sports here in the U.S.)

It’s hard to imagine another way for a company like Zwift to get so much exposure as quickly.

The race is also open to any cyclists on its platform who want to race on the same roads as the professionals, meaning anyone who wants to “compete” in this virtual tour needs to sign up for an account, though it’s worth noting a few things.

First, mere mortals won’t be racing at the same time as the cyclists in the Tour but during mass participation events during the week that will ostensibly provide them the chance to experience exactly what the pros went through and to compare their power, heart rate, cadence and other data to their pro rider heroes.

Also, Zwift is a subscription service. Users can check out the platform for a free, seven-day trial, but after that, Zwift charges $15 per month. Riders also need a smart trainer, which costs around $300. Zwift doesn’t make its own trainers — yet — but its software works with the hardware of a dozen or so companies.

Unsurprisingly, Min sounded both excited and terrified when we caught up with him last week to talk about the race, whose first two stages will be held in Zwift’s existing game world, Watopia, with the other stages orchestrated in virtual versions of real courses from the race.

Though Zwift has staged virtual races before —  including the Giro d’Italia, which is basically the Tour de France for Italy, and the Vuelta a Espana, an annual multi-stage race in Spain — it “doesn’t get any bigger than this,” said Min, who told us the idea was hatched six weeks ago with ASO and that Zwift has been working furiously to prepare for the race ever since.

It could prove a turning point for the outfit. It already has nearly two million accounts, and while subscribers ebb and flow, depending on the time of year, the virtual Tour is an opportunity for some of those riders to “reengage,” Min says, adding that Zwift has been growing 50 percent year over year, and has unsurprisingly seen pick-up accelerate throughout the pandemic.

Zwift doesn’t just cater to competitive athletes, Min stresses, saying that more than half the company’s customers are overweight and that, unlike Peleton, its customers are drawn less to particular instructors and more to the idea of being part of a club where they can train, take part in events, and compete with one another another, either in a public way or by via private rides wherein users share maps with friends, for example.

Either way, both amateur rider and professional racers will undoubtedly have high expectations of the Tour itself, even while it comes with more inherent challenges, including less time to break away from fellow riders than in the real-world tour, where each stage can take five or six hours.

Min thinks Zwift is ready. On our call, he discussed how Zwift convincingly creates drag, for example, walking through the software’s calculations, including a rider’s weight and body mass and the terrain they’re on and whether a rider is receiving draft from riders in front. Apply resistance to the machine  or easing it is what gives riders a sense of motion and inertia. “It’s not exactly like outdoor riding,” said Min, but combined with the software’s visual tools, meant to fool the mind, “it gets pretty darn close.

And that software, including the Tour maps, is now largely done, Min said. Now, Zwift just needs to ensure that its broadcast tools work as well as possible, among other last-minute priorities.

“We’ll do some dry runs [this] week. Then it’s showtime,” he said, before adding: “The stakes are pretty high. It has to be rock solid.”




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Gorgeous Google Doodle celebrates Marsha P. Johnson for the last day of Pride Month

As a tumultuous Pride Month draws to a close, Google is marking it with a tribute to transgender artist, activist, and drag performer Marsha P. Johnson.

Johnson was a central and beloved figure in New York's gay scene from the 1960s onward, and is widely recognized as one of the first people to fight back against police harassing patrons during a raid on the Stonewall Hotel. This sparked the Stonewall riots, commemorations of which became Pride celebrations. 

Alongside Sylvia Rivera, Johnson also founded Street Transvestite (now Transgender) Activist Revolutionaries, or STAR, to offer housing, food, and other assistance to trans and non-binary youth. She said the "P" in her name was there for when people questioned her gender or presentation — it stood for "Pay it no mind."  Read more...

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Start coding with this comprehensive master class

TL;DR: The Complete C# Master Class Course is on sale for £10.55 as of June 30, saving you 93% on list price.


Remember back in the day when you had to spend years in school and/or your life savings to learn to code? Those days are long gone. Getting into coding is easier — and more affordable — than ever before.

Since there are approximately a billion coding languages out there, choosing one to start with is no easy feat. But since C# is among the most popular and one of the easiest to learn, and since there's a huge price drop on this Complete C# Master Class Course as of June 30, might we suggest it as a starting point? Read more...

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This set of online courses gives your brain a serious boost

TL;DR: The Brain Booster bundle is on sale for £16.23 as of June 30, saving you 97% on list price.


Your brain, like any other part of your body, needs exercise in order to operate at peak capacity. 

Yes, it also needs fuel and plenty of sleep, but exercise is essential. If you're not quite sure how to mentally exercise, no worries. We've got you covered with this Brain Booster bundle.

As the name suggests, this four-course collection is designed to boost your brainpower. Each course introduces you to different aspects of your brain function and how it impacts your life. You'll start by learning new strategies to improve your memory, so maybe next time you forget your shopping list, you'll remember what you wrote on it. Read more...

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Uber has reportedly made an offer to buy food delivery service Postmates, according to The New York Times.

According to the Times, the talks are still ongoing and the deal could fall through.

For those that have been paying attention to Uber, this appetite is not new, albeit consistent. A little over a month ago, the ride-hailing company was reportedly pursuing an acquisition of Grubhub,  another food delivery company. Grubhub was ultimately acquired by Just Eat Takeaway in a $7.3 billion deal, but only after the deal with Uber fell through over a variety of concerns.

Food delivery market has set to benefit largely from the COVID-19 pandemic, as stores remain shuttered or switch operations to takeout only. Latest earnings from the public ride-hailing company show that its ride-hailing business is slowing while its food delivery service is growing like hell. Gross bookings for Uber Eats last quarter were $4.68 billion.

So even though Uber still loses a ton of money ($2.94 billion including all costs), its Uber Eats growth is staggering. And the green shoots might be fueling some of this interest in other competitors.

Sources close to Uber told TechCrunch that regulatory concerns scuttled the company’s bid for GrubHub, but its chief executive later said the JustEat deal was better.

If regulatory concerns were an issue, Postmates may make a better fit.

With a valuation of $2.4 billion, Postmates is significantly smaller than Grubhub. And while the company filed to go public nearly 16 months ago, it held off eventually citing “choppy market” conditions.

So if Uber Eats and Postmates combined, the result would still be smaller than Doordash’s market hold, but would be competitive nonetheless. DoorDash, last valued at $13 billion, confidentially filed for an IPO nearly four months ago. 

Also, Postmates delivers more than just food.

If the merger goes through, the food delivery race would get refueled in an interesting way: Uber Eats and Postmates versus Grubhub and Takeaway versus DoorDash .

Postmates declined to comment on rumors or speculation. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.




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The United States government began measures today to end its special status with Hong Kong, one month after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Congress that Hong Kong should no longer be considered autonomous from China. The new actions include suspending export license exceptions for sensitive U.S. technology and ending the export of defense equipment to Hong Kong. Both the Commerce and State Departments also said further restrictions are being evaluated.

The U.S. government’s announcements were made a few hours before news broke that China had passed a new national security law that will give it greater control over Hong Kong. It is expected to take effect on July 1, according to the South China Morning Post.

The term “special status” refers to arrangements that recognized the difference between Hong Kong and mainland China under the “one country, two systems” policy put into place when the United Kingdom handed control of Hong Kong back to Beijing in 1997. These included different export controls, immigration policies and lower tariffs. But that preferential treatment was put into jeopardy after China proposed the new national security law, which many Hong Kong residents fear will end the region’s judicial independence from Beijing.

The U.S Commerce Department and State Department issued separate statements today detailing the new restrictions on Hong Kong. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said the Commerce Department will suspend export license exceptions for sensitive U.S. technology, and that “further actions to eliminate differential treatment are also being evaluated.”

The State Department said that it will end exports of U.S. defense equipment and also “take steps toward imposing the same restrictions on U.S. defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong as it does for China.”

In a statement to Reuters, Kurt Tong, a former U.S. consul general in Hong Kong, said that the U.S. government’s decisions today would not impact a large amount of trade between the U.S. and Hong Kong because the territory is not a major manufacturing center and its economy is mostly services.

According to figures from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Hong Kong accounted for 2.2% of overall U.S. exports in 2018, totaling $37.3 billion, with the top export categories being electrical machinery, precious metal and stones, art and antiques, and beef. But the new restrictions could make more difficult for U.S. semiconductor and other technology companies to do business with Hong Kong clients.

Other restrictions proposed by the United States including ending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.

Both the State and Commerce departments said that the restrictions were put into place for national security reasons. “We can no longer distinguish between the export of controlled items to Hong Kong or to mainland China,” Pompeo wrote. “We cannot risk these items falling into the hands of the People’s Liberation Army, whose primary purpose is to uphold the dictatorship of the CCP by any means necessary.”

In his statement, Ross said, “With the Chinese Communist Party’s imposition of new security measures on Hong Kong, the risk that sensitive U.S. technology will be diverted to the People’s Liberation Army or Ministry of State Security has increased, all while undermining the territory’s autonomy.”




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Despite the Wirecard fallout, German fintech startup solarisBank has raised a Series C funding round of $67.5 million (€60 million). Following today’s funding round, solarisBank is now valued at $360 million (€320 million). solarisBank doesn't have any consumer product directly. Instead, it offers financial services to other fintech companies through a set of APIs.

With solarisBank, you can build a fintech startup and leverage solarisBank’s line of products to do the heavy lifting. It’s an infrastructure company in the banking space.

While solarisBank might not be a familiar name, some of its clients have become quite popular. They include challenger banks, such as Tomorrow, Insha and a newcomer called Vivid, business banking startups, such as Penta and Kontist, trading app Trade Republic, cryptocurrency startups Bison and Bitwala, etc.

Overall, solarisBank works with 70 companies that have attracted 400,000 clients in total.

HV Holtzbrinck Ventures is leading the round with existing investor yabeo committing a substantial follow-on investment. Other new investors include Vulcan Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Storm Ventures. Existing investors BBVA, SBI Group, ABN AMRO Ventures, Global Brain, Hegus and Lakestar are investing again.

The company started the fundraising process back in December. Due to the economic prospects, it has been a mixed process. “A lot of investors looked at their portfolio companies and the appetite to look at something new was not there,” solarisBank CEO Roland Folz told me. But everything worked out eventually as around half of the funding comes from existing investors.

“We originally were looking for €40 million but we were overwhelmed by the interest of investors in spite of Covid,” solarisBank Head of Strategy and Shareholder Relations Layla Qassim told me.

solarisBank’s vision could be summed up in two words — regulation and modularity. The company is a fully licensed bank, which means that its clients don’t have to apply to a banking license themselves.

And the startup lets you pick the modules that you want to use for your product. Maybe you’re building a mobile cryptocurrency wallet and you just want to be able to give an IBAN and a debit card to your users. Maybe you’re building a used car marketplace like CarNext and you want to offer credit. Maybe you want to build a challenger bank but address a specific vertical.

With solarisBank, you can open bank accounts and issue payment cards attached to those accounts. You can also issue cards and attach them to a different account in case you’re integrating with existing bank accounts. The startup also offers various services around payments, vouchers, cross-border transactions and more.

More recently, the company launched a new feature called Splitpay with American Express. When customers check out on an e-commerce platform in Germany, American Express customers will be able to choose a repayment plan to pay over multiple months.

solarisBank generates revenue from its clients as they pay to use the company’s APIs and enable accounts and cards. solarisBank also collects the interchange fees on card transactions and share revenue with its clients. Similarly, solarisBank can offer to share revenue on credit interests with its clients.

In the future, solarisBank plans to make its portfolio of financial services even more compelling by introducing local IBANs in the most important European markets. It should make it easier to convince potential clients outside of Germany to use solarisBank as their banking infrastructure.




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'Hamilton' teases fans with a very satisfying new clip ahead of Disney+ release

The filmed original cast performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton is now only a moment away, due to land on Disney+ on July 3. To tide over eager fans as they wait for it, Disney has just released a sneak peek of Renée Elise Goldsberry's Angelica Schuyler performing her iconic song "Satisfied."

The unexpectedly heartbreaking song is one of the musical's most lauded numbers — which is saying a lot considering the entire production won near universal critical and audience acclaim. The performance of "Satisfied" is a defining moment in Hamilton, so it's thrilling that so many people will finally get to see it as it was originally staged. Read more...

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'Normal People' star Paul Mescal reading Sally Rooney's novel aloud will send hearts aflutter

Connell Waldron loves a good book. 

And it would appear Paul Mescal — who played Connell in BBC's Normal People — does too. 

The Irish actor read an extract from Sally Rooney's bestselling novel in a video by Instagram book club, Between Two Books, which is run by Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine. 

The video below — published with permission from Between Two Books — shows Mescal reading a chapter from the book. Rooney fans will recognise the chapter immediately as the moment when Marianne and Connell bump into each other for the first time at Trinity College, Dublin.

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Scotts Miracle-Gro, the lawn care and fertilizer giant that has opened up a secondary business as a pioneer in cannabis and hemp cultivation, is launching a $50 million corporate venture capital fund called1868 Ventures

Is it strange that a fertilizer company would commit to a $50 million fund to invest in two to three startup companies per year over the next few years? It’s 2020, folks, nothing makes sense.

Except this might?

New discoveries around crop cultivation, the development of organic pesticides and herbicides, and the wave of new applications for hemp and cannabinoids in manufacturing, healthcare, and legal recreational use are creating new opportunities for the business and Scotts Miracle-Gro is looking to capitalize on them.

At least, that’s the word from the company’s chief financial officer, Randy Coleman.

“The company is doing extremely well in both of our big businesses,” said Coleman. “A lot of that ties back to the budding cannabis industry.”

For those who don’t know, while Scotts Miracle-Gro is humongous in the hedgerow business, it also has a subsidiary called Hawthorne Gardening Company which it created in 2014 to service the specific needs of cannabis growers.

We identified some areas that we knew we needed to supercharge a bit,” said Coleman. And after a discussion with members of its board of directors, the company decided to turn to Touchdown Ventures to help power its new investment arm. 

Investment areas the company intends to seed with its follow-on financing include technology to help with controlled agriculture environments and plant genetics.

“A lot of that work is being done in our Hawthorne business up in Canada,” said Coleman. “Down the road as laws change in the US we might do more there… Right now the R&D we’re doing around hemp in Oregon.”

The company will also look at ways to boost its e-commerce and direct to consumer channels as more Americans use online commerce instead of shopping at physical retail locations. Coleman said Scotts Miracle-Gro sales were up 200% on digital channels including Amazon.

Finally, natural products and sustainable packaging also are interesting to the company, said Coleman.

“I really like the exposure to more ideas and spreading our risk around and opportunity around,” he said.

1868 Ventures will be stage-agnostic and investments will range between $250,000 and $2.5 million, looking at companies primarily in North America.

To help with the firm’s venture initiatives, Scotts turned to Touchdown Ventures, a firm specializing in corporate venture capital. Touchdown will work closely with senior executives at Scotts Miracle-Gro to operate the fund, the company said. 

“We are enthusiastic about the capital investment, industry expertise, and customer validation that Scotts Miracle-Gro can bring to innovators in lawn and garden care and controlled environment agriculture,” noted David Horowitz, Co-Founder and CEO of Touchdown Ventures, in a statement. “We believe Scotts Miracle-Gro will be the partner of choice for entrepreneurs seeking to create a competitive advantage for their startups in these categories.” 




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