April Joyner

By April JoynerNEW YORK (Reuters) - The shares of so-called dollar stores have suffered as U.S. shoppers have started spending more at bargain retailers with focused concepts and big discount chains.Once thought to be insulated from the retail industry’s challenges, the dollar stores, which got the name because they try to price items for $1 or less, such as Dollar General Corp , Dollar Tree Inc and Big Lots Inc derive much of their sales from household staples.But investors have been drawn to…

New communication sector's shine could soon wear off

Wombo uses AI to turn selfies into lip-synched songs. It's been downloaded 49 million times in three months, but fundraising wasn't easy, its CEO said.

Alex Merutka, an early Applovin employee, turned down a multimillion bonus to launch his own advertising tech startup that’s backed by Reid Hoffman.

As venture-capital firms have raised record sums of funding, an emerging class of funds led by investors from underrepresented backgrounds is gradually beginning to reap the benefits.On Tuesday, Base10 Partners announced it had raised a $460 million fund for early-stage investments, which brought its total assets under management to $1.3 billion. Base10 is the first Black-led firm to cross $1 billion in assets, according to the firm and data provided to Insider by Crunchbase.Base10 has grown qui…

Juxtapose is aiming to generate VC-like returns with lower PE-like risks by buying up businesses in industries like HVAC and improving them with tech.

Herrod’s new role at the venture studio, Juxtapose, will be to build enterprise startups in areas like AI and cybersecurity.

Startups such as Topl and Toucan are aiming to make carbon-credit markets more transparent through blockchains, and industry giants are taking note.