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Robots are ready to sort our trash, but will VCs be interested in the messy world of recycling?

You finish a greasy-yet-satisfying lunch at the cafeteria, pick up the items from the table and walk to the trash and recycling bins. Like most well-intentioned people, you face a familiar dilemma. Used napkins. Leftover ketchup packets. A foam container. Wait, there’s food stuck on it. Where do they all go? Is anyone watching? Help.

We’ve all been there. And our three-second plight is part of an expensive problem that’s only piling up by the minute.

China took the world by surprise last year when it started banning imports on dozens of kinds of solid waste, including some plastics and other recyclables. The maximum acceptable contamination level in plastics and fiber also dropped to 0.5% in China, making it nearly impossible for recycling facilities around the world to quickly process sizable volumes of scrap.

The impact of those changes has been devastating, and for many private waste management companies in the US, plastic recycling is no longer a viable market. Like any other business, a recycling company needs to efficiently use available resources and have a healthy bottom line. The soaring cost of recycling has forced many local governments across the US and recycling processors to send increasing amounts of waste to landfills or incinerators.

Even in this dire situation, many environmentalists and entrepreneurs believe there’s a silver lining. China’s bold move has forced countries throughout the world to acknowledge green issues and push innovative recycling ideas toward tangible and long-term investments.

While humans could single-handedly choke our planet with waste, we may need some help to clean up the mess. Enter the robots.

One of the crucial steps in contributing toward a circular economy begins with correctly classifying what can and cannot be recycled. Even something as straightforward as a coffee cup could be complicated during disposal. Its light-weight plastic lid, paper cup and cardboard holder may appear to be recyclable components, but rules might be different for a sorting facility if it’s made of virgin tree fiber rather than paper or if it’s contaminated with leftover whipped cream.

Charles Yhap, who co-founded CleanRobotics in 2015, realized there might be a better way to sort trash than to expect high levels of awareness, accuracy and motivation from human beings—especially when recycling laws can be confusing and vary from county to county. The Pittsburgh-based company has developed an AI-powered robot called TrashBot that helps automate the separation process at the point of disposal.

“The idea was born out of frustration, of being confronted with an array of trash bins,” Yhap told PitchBook. “Waste management processes are either dirty, dull or dangerous, and it makes sense to target robotics in this industry.”

TrashBot uses cameras and sensors to scan discarded items from everyday waste—and that doesn’t mean it conveniently tosses an unfinished can of soda straight to the bin bound for the landfill. These robots can “swallow” excess liquids. CleanRobotics is focusing on high-traffic facilities such as airports, convention centers and schools, but one challenge is its technology requires waste to be thrown away one item at a time with a short delay in between. The company is backed by investors including GAN Ventures, SOSV and Innovation Works.

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The most active investors in European unicorns

Swiss fintech startup Numbrs has received $40 million in funding from private investors, pushing its valuation above $1 billion. Launched in 2014, the Zurich-based company partners with banks and insurers such as Santander, Allianz and Barclays and has over €10 billion (around $11.1 billion) in managed assets. Numbrs allows users to manage all their bank accounts under one app, which has more than 2 million downloads. It brought in $27 million from investors including Israeli billionaire Marius Nacht in May 2018 and has reportedly raised nearly $200 million in total financing to date.

Numbrs is the ninth startup to join this year’s European unicorn class—a third of which are fintech businesses—per the PitchBook Platform. German payments provider N26 joined the ranks in January with a $300 million Series D that valued the company at $2.7 billion and in May, its London-based peer Checkout.com landed $230 million in its first fundraise at a valuation of $2 billion. Other newly minted unicorns reportedly include healthtech startup Doctolib and OneTrust, the developer of a privacy management platform.

While Europe still has relatively few billion-dollar businesses compared to the US and Asia, its unicorn club has witnessed significant growth in the past few years. The continent currently has 33 unicorns, including over 20 that hit the $1 billion valuation in the last two years.

The rise in European unicorns is proof that VCs are increasingly willing to invest their money in startups from the continent, but a few names are cropping up more than others.

Using PitchBook data, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 most active investors in European companies valued at more than $1 billion, with their deal counts since the start of 2011 in parentheses.

1. Accel (16)
2. Index Ventures (15)
3. Passion Capital (8)
T-4. General Atlantic (7)
T-4. DST Global (7)
T-4. Valar Ventures (7)
T-7. DN Capital (6)
T-7. HV Holtzbrinck Ventures (6)
T-7. SoftBank (6)
T-7. Insight Partners (6)

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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Heartland Express acquires Millis Transfer

Heartland Express announces that it acquired dry van truckload carrier Millis Transfer for ~$150M.

The company says it’s impressed with the high quality of the Millis Transfer driving professionals and the organization’s safety profile.

Heartland plans to fund the purchase price and pay off the assumed debt with existing cash.  Looking ahead, Heartland expects to end the year with approximately $50M to $60M in cash, zero debt and approximately $90M available under its revolving line of credit.

Read More – www.seekingalpha.com

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Facial recognition could be a part of airport screening within 5 years

Before taking a flight, travelers typically arrive at the airport two to three hours before takes-off so they have time to check-in and make their way through security checkpoints.

What could make for a faster process?

Aviation attorney Mark Dombroff told Yahoo Finance’s “On The Move” a facial recognition system could become a standard part of airport screening relatively.

“I think we should see it implemented,” he said. “Since the events of 9/11 aviation and airplane travel has become even more and more stressful. It’s stressful on the passenger, on the crew, on the ground personnel and everybody across the board.”

“I realize that there’s inherit tension between the privacy issue and most of them are related to the more traditional law enforcement area and the facial recognition area,” he added. “I would predict that within 5 years we’re going to have facial recognition as part of the airport security process.”

In what he calls “The Disruptive Passenger Situation,” Dombroff got a chance to elaborate on the instances of passengers becoming unruly due to high stress from security check-ins, delayed flights and any other traveling factor one can imagine. He discussed how a British airline once charged a disruptive passenger 105,000 euros and how a U.S. airline delayed a flight due to a disruptive passenger and later billed them $120,000.

What is the best way to satisfy travelers?

“Anything that can be done to reduce the stress is something that I would say travelers, particularity business travelers, would be in favor of,” Dombroff said.

Some airports are making incremental changes to satisfy passengers. One option we see now is TSA pre-check, which is a government response program. Dombroff went on to talk about Clear, an alternative screening process that gets passengers through TSA quicker. Like Clear, facial recognition would be implemented be a private company that would allow people the ability to be able to opt out of the program whenever needed.

But the ultimate goal is to reduce stress for its users.

Read More – www.yahoo.com

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William Hill to shut 700 shops placing 4,500 jobs at risk

Gambling firm William Hill has confirmed plans to shut 700 betting shops, placing 4,500 jobs at risk.

The bookmaker had threatened such a move before a crackdown on controversial fixed-odds betting terminal (FOBT) stakes was implemented on 1 April.

William Hill said in a statement: “Since then the company has seen a significant fall in gaming machine revenues, in line with the guidance given when the government’s decision was announced in May 2018.”

 

It warned that a “large number of redundancies” was anticipated among the staff affected.

It said: “the group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process.

 

Read More – https://news.sky.com

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Blackstone stock continues ascent after firm becomes a corporation

As expected, Blackstone flipped from a publicly traded partnership to a C-Corp on Monday. And the asset manager’s stock jumped nearly 5% to close the day at $46.58 per share, pushing the PE shop’s market cap to more than $55 billion and its stock price beyond its previous all-time high.

Blackstone announced in April it would make the move, joining KKR and Ares Management, which flipped after the 2017 US tax bill dropped the effective corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Blackstone hopes to make its stock more accessible to the average retail investor and eliminate the burdensome K-1 tax forms that had to be filled out for publicly traded partnerships. It also aims to make its financial metrics easier to understand.

But perhaps most importantly, flipping to a C-Corp will make the firm’s stock more accessible to index funds and ETFs.

Blackstone’s stock has risen about 55% this year and around 30% since the April announcement. That will no doubt please shareholders as well as co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who has long lamented that his firm was significantly undervalued on the public markets. And it’s happening during a year when the firm has already authorized a nearly $1 billion stock buyback program.

KKR hasn’t experienced the same jolt since it flipped to a C-Corp in July 2018. Its shares are trading at roughly the same price a year later, but at $26.88 per share, it’s still up about 30% year-to-date. Meanwhile, Apollo Global Management plans to make the change in 3Q, while The Carlyle Group has resisted the temptation to join its counterparts.

However, analysts have said Blackstone’s performance may cause Carlyle to follow suit, per The Wall Street Journal. Blackstone and KKR have outpaced the S&P 500, which is up about 17% so far this year.

Blackstone will announce its 2Q earnings in an investor call July 18.

In the meantime, the firm’s real estate division is reportedly nearing a deal to sell a portfolio of Spanish mortgages valued at €1.1 billion (about $1.2 billion) to CarVal Investors. Goldman Sachs and Elliott Management also bid for the assets as Spain’s housing market began to recover after that country’s financial crisis.

Read More – www.pitchbooks.com

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Microsoft to open first UK store in London

The tech giant’s first physical UK store will open in Regent Street on 11 July, just a one minute walk away from Apple’s London flagship branch.

The branch near Oxford Circus will feature “immersive video walls” throughout and an “answer deck”, offering tech support, training, repairs and advice.

Free tech, coding and Stem learning workshops and programmes will be offered at the store’s community theatre.

John Carter, who has been appointed Microsoft Store manager, said: “This will be more than just a store. Customers will have the chance to explore and get hands-on with technology.

“We’ve got a passionate group of store associates ready to bring the experience of tech alive for customers. Unique to any job in retail, there will be many ways for us to give back to our communities, help them build connections, and grow.”

Microsoft already runs three gaming studios in the UK, as well as startup hub Reactor London and a research lab in Cambridge.

This new flagship store builds upon Microsoft’s significant track record of investment in the UK,” said Cindy Rose from Microsoft UK.

“More importantly, located in the heart of central London it will serve as a vibrant hub – for both visitors to our great city as well as a variety of different local communities – to come and play, learn, create and discover.”

Read More – www.cityam.com

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SpaceX lifts off with $1B after Starlink launch

The space race is still alive and well—at least when it comes to VC funding and global satellite internet.

SpaceX, the rocket company founded by celebrity billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has raised an additional $704.74 million across two previously declared rounds, according to filings reviewed by PitchBook on Friday. Both rounds have now raised a combined total of $1.02 billion since January. With the new funding, SpaceX now holds an estimated $31.5 billion valuation, with previous investors such as Sherpa Capital, Alphabet and Founders Fund adding to their stakes in the company. SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The funding announcement comes a day after the Los Angeles-area company launched 60 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, en route to an eventual goal of the 800 satellites needed to reliably provide significant high-speed internet coverage worldwide. The Starlink project, initiated in 2015, is expected to be fully operational in 2020, with the possibility for up to 12,000 satellites entering orbit, per regulatory filings SpaceX submitted to the Federal Communications Commission. Its competitors include global satellite internet aspirations from OneWeb, which is backed by Virgin Group and Qualcomm Ventures, and from Samsung, among others.

Elon Musk has previously declared his goal is to use revenue from Starlink’s projected operations to fund Starship, an initiative to build advanced rockets and spaceships to bring human civilization to Mars. Currently, Starship’s vehicles are being constructed in Boca Chica, Texas, and Cape Canaveral, Florida, with Musk regarding the locations as “competing” to see which site is more efficient.

Legal challenges abound

While the promise of exploring space and colonizing Mars someday may sound dreamy, the journey isn’t always glamorous, and SpaceX has had its share of difficulties.

The new funding also comes on the heels of the company’s lawsuit against the US Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, filed in mid-May and unveiled on Wednesday by CNBC. In the lawsuit, SpaceX claims the center “wrongly awarded” $2.26 billion last fall in development contracts “to a portfolio of three unproven rockets” built by its competitors, while rejecting SpaceX’s bid.

Namely, Blue Origin received $500 million, United Launch Alliance scored $967 million, and Northrop Grumman banked $792 million. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets were kicked to the curb, with the Air Force concluding that certain elements of the company’s Starship vehicle broadly labels its entire fleet as “high risk.”

Since the filing was largely redacted to protect proprietary and competitively advantageous information, it is not clear what the specific factors that were deemed “high risk.” Without greater details, it is difficult to speculate regarding the merit of the complaint.

However, the lawsuit may simply be an indication of the unwillingness of SpaceX and Elon Musk to concede defeat. As part of a broader ethics investigation into Acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, an April 25 report revealed that Shanahan and Musk met privately on December 6 to discuss SpaceX’s failure. During the meeting, Musk expressed his opinion that SpaceX had submitted a lousy contract proposal that “missed the mark.”

In addition to Musk’s stated opinion on the proposal quality, Bloomberg reports SpaceX has won nine federal contracts since 2015, including a recent $297 million launch contract from February. All such contracts were in direct competition with ULA, among others, arguably contradicting perceptions of institutional favoritism working against SpaceX.

While the $1.02 billion in funding SpaceX has garnered this year may be coincidental, it could reasonably be an unenthusiastic replacement for what would have been a grant from the Air Force, considering the timing and a similar amount to what the Air Force was dishing out.

Regardless, such a refusal to concede defeat is far from unusual in the world of Elon Musk, where themes of stubbornness and denial abound. There was his infamous “funding secured” tweet and subsequent unwillingness to adhere to SEC monitoring, as well as his long-standing but never-fulfilled repetition of Tesla’s ever-imminent resolution of cashflow and production issues.

In perhaps the most dramatic example, Musk has steadfastly refused to settle the defamation lawsuit filed against him after he called Vernon Unsworth, one of the divers who helped rescue a Thai soccer team from a cave in 2018, a “pedo guy” on Twitter after Unsworth disparaged Musk’s offer of a submarine to aid in the rescue as a PR stunt. The suit reportedly seeks damages for some $75,000, equivalent to less than 0.00005% of Musk’s net worth, but in a familiar denial, Musk maintains his innocence and regards his comments as an “imaginative insult” protected by the First Amendment.

As SpaceX’s lawsuit seeks to recover its missed Air Force grant by challenging the reasons the company’s bid was not chosen, it remains debatable whether the Air Force truly did cheat SpaceX—or Musk & Co. are simply unhappy to admit that they lost.

 

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer merge healthcare arms

Painkiller brands Panadol and Anadin will be bought under one roof under a giant deal between drug firms GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.

The firms are combining their consumer healthcare businesses into one firm with annual sales of £9.8bn ($12.7bn).

Other brands involved in the deal include Aquafresh toothpaste and Chapstick lip balm.

The deal still needs approval by shareholders and regulators. Shares in GSK rose 7% on the news.

GSK’s consumer healthcare division used to operate as a joint venture with Swiss firm Novartis, but it acquired full control of the business nine months ago.

GSK, which will have 68% of the new business, said the deal was a “compelling opportunity” to build on that earlier buyout of Novartis and deliver stronger sales.

“Through the combination of GSK and Pfizer’s consumer healthcare businesses, we will create substantial further value for shareholders,” said GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley.

“Ultimately, our goal is to create two exceptional, UK-based global companies, with appropriate capital structures, that are each well positioned to deliver improving returns to shareholders and significant benefits to patients and consumers.”

The joint venture will go by the name of GSK Consumer Healthcare. Apart from GSK’s Nigerian subsidiary, which is excluded from the deal, it will operate in all countries where GSK and Pfizer have a presence.

GSK will have six directors on the board, while Pfizer will have three. The new firm will be spun off and listed separately on the London stock market within three years.

Read More – www.bbc.co.uk

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Unilever CEO Polman to retire, replaced by beauty head Jope

Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever said its CEO Paul Polman was retiring less than two months after a damaging row with shareholders, and would be replaced by the head of its beauty unit Alan Jope from January 1.

 

Polman’s exit comes after the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was forced to scrap a plan to move the company headquarters to the Netherlands in October, following an investor revolt.

Jope, 54, is the boss of the beauty and personal care division which is Unilever’s largest, accounting for almost half of group annual profits. He is also a former leader of its China business and has long been seen as a successor to Polman.

“Our global footprint includes strong positions in many important markets for the future and our focus will remain on serving our consumers, and our other multiple stakeholders, to deliver long‐term growth and value creation,” Jope said.

 

Read More – https://uk.reuters.com