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TechCrunch

Kapor Capital, Square co-founder Sam Wen back TomoCredit in its $10M Series A funding round

Building credit history can be difficult if you are a consumer that is having trouble getting access to credit in the first place.

Enter TomoCredit, which has developed a credit card focused on building credit history for first-time borrowers. The San Francisco-based startup is announcing today that it has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Kapor Capital and KB Investment Inc. (KBIC), a subsidiary of South Korea’s leading consumer bank. Lewis & Clark Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, WTI, Bronze and Square co-founder Sam Wen also participated in the Series A financing. Read more.

Forbes

This Startup Just Raised $6 Million For An App That Helps Treat Addiction

Affect Therapeutics, a company working to treat stimulant use disorder through mobile technology, announced Tuesday that it has raised $6 million in a seed investment round. Investors in the round include City Light Capital, Kapor Capital, Acumen, and AlleyCorp.

This healthcare startup utilizes a digital app alongside group therapy, individual counseling, drug screening and other services to treat those dealing with stimulant use disorder - which involves the abuse of drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine. The company’s app uses game design theory and monetary incentives to maintain retention and keep its members engaged throughout the process as the company monitors any changes in behavior. Affect’s app also builds a personalized experience for users to receive any tools and incentives that they will need. In effect, it gamifies addiction treatment.

Read more.

TechCrunch

NoRedInk raises $50 million Series B to help students become better writers

“In order to become a better writer, read your written words out loud.”

That’s one of the first, and best, writing tips I ever received. I always found the advice ironic because it required me to change the medium of my writing to become a better writer. Still, all these years later, it’s true: Vocalizing your words helps identify typos and incomplete thoughts, but also notice more subtle things like awkward turns of phrases or a weird rhythm in your sentence structure. Best of all, if you find yourself bored of your own text while reading out loud, you know readers will be, too.

This is all to say that writing, even for those who love writing, is a deeply human art built on top of non-obvious rules. While those complications don’t exactly scream for a tech solution, NoRedInk, a San Francisco-based startup, has spent nearly a decade trying to help students get better at their writing through software. Read more.

Apple

Apple selects 15 Black- and Brown-owned businesses for first-of-its-kind Impact Accelerator

Apple today unveiled its first class of 15 Black- and Brown-owned businesses on the cutting edge of green technology and clean energy, who will join the company’s Impact Accelerator to support equity and opportunity in the environmental sector. Part of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, this program will help to combat systemic barriers to opportunity, while also advancing innovative solutions for communities most impacted by climate change. Read more.