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VW hails speed of car sales recovery in China

Demand in most profitable market nears 2019 level but brand expects slower revival in Europe




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FCA posts €1.7bn loss as plant closures hit car market

Maker of Fiat and Chrysler burns through billions of euros in cash in first quarter




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Dignity: perilous undertaking

An already grim outlook has become worse for the UK’s largest funeral director




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Defence industry in retreat as coronavirus attacks

The era of extravagant military purchases is surely over after the threat posed by the pandemic




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VW warns of rising costs as car market faces deep recession

Carmaker says profits are under pressure as suppliers pass on increased expenses




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UK car sales fall 97% in worst month since 1946

Showroom and factory closures blamed for dive to 4,321 registrations in April




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Qantas shelves ‘Project Sunrise’ plan for world’s longest flights

Australian carrier reviews operations and fleet due to coronavirus travel collapse




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Pressure on aviation, Argentina’s debt, Silicon Valley ads

Industry takes another hit as GE cuts jobs, Mnuchin casts doubt on restart for US air travel




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EU industrial supply lines need strengthening, commissioner warns

Thierry Breton says coronavirus crisis shows vital supplies are vulnerable to disruption




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GE cuts 10,000 more aviation jobs

New blow to industry after Mnuchin casts doubt on restart for US air travel and Buffett exits airline stocks




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The real work of helping companies bounce back from coronavirus hasn’t even begun

Government loans a start but not the end; Pendragon takes a pop at Lookers; insurers and honey badgers




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Thyssenkrupp warns on proceeds from lifts unit sale

Group says virus will hit restructuring, while private equity seeks to offload risk




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Airbus to deploy smell sensors to detect explosives on passengers

System devised by neurotech start-up Koniku uses living cells




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BOC Aviation taps parent for assault on leasing market

Fifth-biggest lessor approaches Bank of China to snare greater share of sector




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Companies ramp up orders for kit to protect workers

Manufacturers say they will struggle to provide equipment sought by business




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Judgment day for VW as pensioner’s Dieselgate fight goes to top court

German group’s battle to minimise financial damage from scandal hinges on test case




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Italy’s corporate reopening stirs fears over more deaths

Conflicting pressures between health and preventing economic ruin divide country as it emerges from lockdown




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As funding slows in Boston, its early-stage market could shine

Chris Lynch, a founder and former general partner at Boston-based seed-stage fund Accomplice, remembers “VC Mountain in Waltham.” Back then, entrepreneurs on funding quests would visit a building overlooking the Waltham Reservoir near Boston where they pitched to a few investors: Matrix Partners, Charles River Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. “And if they didn’t invest in […]




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Lucid Lane has developed a service to get patients off of pain meds and avoid addiction

Four years ago, Adnan Asar, the founder of the new addiction prevention service Lucid Lane, was enjoying a successful career working as the founding chief technology officer at Livongo Health. It was the serial senior tech executive’s most recent job after a long stint at Shutterfly and he was shepherding the company through the development […]




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Your startup can still be seen and heard: Exhibit in Digital Startup Alley

We’re not letting this pandemic disrupt Disrupt SF 2020. Like any determined early-stage startup founder, we’re adapting and moving forward. Can’t join us in person on September 14-16? No problem. Take advantage of Digital Startup Alley, a completely new way to disrupt. Place your startup in front of influential movers and shakers and keep your […]



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CRV’s Saar Gur wants to invest in a new wave of games built for VR, Twitch and Zoom

Saar Gur is adept at identifying the next big consumer trends earlier than most: The San Francisco-based general partner at CRV has led investments into leading consumer internet companies like Niantic, DoorDash, Bird, Dropbox, Patreon, Kapwing and ClassPass. His own experience stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred his interest in three new investment […]




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VCs see opportunities for gaming infrastructure startups and incumbents

As the infrastructure for developing games becomes more advanced, studios have turned to buying best-in-class technology from others instead of building everything from scratch (often with inferior quality). This shift underpinned Unity’s rise as the most popular game engine. The current focus on games as ever-evolving social hubs that can remain popular for a decade […]





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How will coronavirus change the world? — Parlia launches to help you find out

“Is Greta Thunberg a hypocrite?” Google that phrase and you will get thousands of results. It just goes to show that, to a large extent, the “Q&A” model is broken on the internet. Where once Yahoo Answers and Quora were considered the bright young things of Web 2.0’s “Read/Write Web,” today there is only the […]




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Acast partners with JioSaavn, one of India’s largest streaming audio services

Acast, a podcast monetization and distribution platform, announced a new partnership with JioSaavn, one of the largest streaming audio services in India. The agreement mean JioSaavn will distribute content from Acast and have access to its technology for podcasters. JioSaavn, which claims 104 million monthly active users, is the second-largest streaming audio service in India […]




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Waymo says it will resume driving operations starting in Phoenix next week

After suspending its self-driving operations at the end of March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Waymo has announced it will resume driving operations on May 11 in Arizona. Waymo will start its driving operations in the Phoenix area again, a decision the company says it made after discussions with “our teams, partners and local and […]




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Owkin raises $25 million as it builds a secure network for healthcare analysis and research

Imagine a model of collaborative research and development among hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, universities and other research institutions where no one shared any actual data. That’s the dream of the new New York-based startup Owkin, which has raised $25 million in fresh financing from investors, including Bpifrance Large Venture, Cathay Innovation and MACSF (the French Pension […]




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Health APIs usher in the patient revolution we have been waiting for

Rish Joshi Contributor Rish is an entrepreneur and investor. Previously, he was a VC at Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), co-founded a fintech startup building an analytics platform for SEC filings and worked on deep-learning research as a graduate student in computer science at MIT. More posts by this contributor Health APIs usher in the […]




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VC’s largest funds make big bets on vertical B2B marketplaces

During the waning days of the first dot-com boom, some of the biggest names in venture capital invested in marketplaces and directories whose sole function was to consolidate information and foster transparency in industries that had remained opaque for decades. The thesis was that thousands of small businesses were making specialized products consumed by larger […]




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Workstream, a platform for deskless work, raises $10 million to serve local businesses

Deskless workers make up 80% of the global workforce, but to Desmond Lim, that job title is his entire world. Lim grew up in Singapore and saw his father wake up every morning, six days a week, at 5 a.m. to start his job as a driver. Lim and his mom, who worked as a […]




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As private investment cools, enterprise startups may try tapping corporate dollars

Founders hunting down capital in the middle of this pandemic may feel like they’re on a fool’s errand, but some investors are still offering financing, even if the terms might not be as good as they once were. One avenue that appears to remain open: corporate venture capital. The corporate route offers its own set […]




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Target to acquire same-day delivery tech from Deliv

Target, which already owns on-demand delivery service Shipt, is in the process of acquiring technology assets from same-day delivery service Deliv. The retailer is characterizing the deal as more of an R&D type of acquisition and not one that will have an immediate consumer-facing impact. Deal terms were not disclosed, but we understand the deal […]




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Longtime VC Todd Chaffee of IVP says late-stage scene is now ‘M&A world’

Todd Chaffee has long been one of the most senior members of the late-stage venture firm Institutional Venture Partners. Chaffee joined IVP in 2000 after logging six years at Visa, and went on to lead rounds in numerous prominent later-stage companies, many (but not all) of which have gone public, including Coinbase, Compass, Klarna, Kayak, […]




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Locatee raises $4M Series A for its workplace analytics platform

Locatee, a Swiss startup that uses existing sensors and IT infrastructures to provide employers and commercial real estate owners with detailed data about how their spaces are utilized, today announced that it has raised a $4 million Series A funding round led by San Francisco-based FYRFLY Venture Partners and Zurich-based Tomahawk VC. “We started the […]




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Daily Crunch: Zoom acquires security startup Keybase

Zoom acquires some encryption expertise, Uber makes a big investment in scooters and we review the new 13-inch Macbook Pro. Here’s your Daily Crunch for May 7, 2020. 1. Zoom acquires Keybase to get end-to-end encryption expertise Keybase, whose encryption products include secure file sharing and collaboration tools, should give Zoom some security credibility as […]




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Stilt, which provides financial services for immigrants, raises $7.5 million seed round

Stilt, a Y Combinator alum that provides financial services for immigrants without Social Security numbers or credit reports, announced today that it has closed a $7.5 million seed round. It also launched FDIC-insured pre-approved global bank accounts today. The startup has raised equity from investors including Liron Petrushka; Hillsven Capital; Streamlined Ventures; Gokul Rajaram; Bragiel […]




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Cuckoo Internet closes seed funding to disrupt UK broadband market

Cuckoo Internet is a new U.K. startup that aims to disrupt the U.K. broadband market. It has now raised £470,000 in seed funding, which includes funding from work.fund, a new Silicon Valley fund operator fund led by Bart Macdonald (Sapling founder). Other investors include Lorin van Nuland (early investor in Betterment), Edward Campbell-Harris (Bulb early […]




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Xi and Putin are the big losers from this pandemic

The relationship of unequals has seen both Beijing and Moscow wrongfooted by the crisis




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How politics thwarted the UK’s Covid-19 response

Ministers failed to grasp the threat as Boris Johnson tried to swerve a tough response




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Johnson can now redeem his debt to the NHS

Covid-19 and his brush with mortality present the UK prime minister with a unique chance




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The danger in the coronavirus recovery will be inertia

A make-do-and-mend approach will not be enough — we need a societal transformation




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Doctors are being asked to play God

The coronavirus pandemic is presenting hospitals with a terrible choice about whose life to save




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How coronavirus is remaking democratic politics

The superficial conclusion is that it will be a gift to populists and authoritarians 




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National action cannot fix a global pandemic

US, China and Europe must work together to defeat coronavirus




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Johnson’s covert Brexit plan is self-isolation

The real story is that all traces of the EU are to be expunged from the public realm




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Coronavirus lays a political minefield

Hopefully, its defeat will show the worth of intelligent and honest government




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Trump’s America is threatening the nuclear peace

Hostility to multilateralism means the forces that contained proliferation are dissipating




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Merkel and Macron: Europe’s missed chance

German and French leaders’ hesitation could be fatal




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Europe must embrace a new way of politics

The two-party system that prevailed for so long has been upended




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The skies darken for France’s Sun King

His imperious manner and lack of emotional intelligence make him vulnerable