📅 [10/19/20–10/25/20] Weekly Digest #4

Published in

The Good AI Podcast

3 min readOct 26, 2020

👋🏽 Welcome to Doing Well by Doing Good, a newsletter and podcast series highlighting the companies aiming to be profitable with a purpose. Get the latest updates

Happy Monday! Welcome to the latest weekly digest in Doing Well by Doing Good, where we’ll catch you up with the latest news, funding rounds, and job opportunities. Enjoy 😀

DWDG News

Check out our latest post on C-corps, PBCs, Nonprofits and B-corps and their relation to Doing Well by Doing Good to learn more about the pros and cons of using these structures to make a positive impact.
Hershey was named in the Forbes Just 100 for their work in Doing Well by Doing Good for their work on sustainable sourcing, equality, human rights, employee safety, and much more.

DWDG Fundings

Chiper, a two-year-old, Colombia-based e-commerce platform for independent merchants, raised $12 million in Series A funding from Wind Ventures, Monashees, and Kaszek Ventures. [Crunchbase Report]

Doing Good: Chipper enables small independent store owners to scale their businesses through a no-code alternative and become more profitable (especially now, in a time where it is becoming exceedingly difficult).

ShopUp, a four-year-old, Dhaka, Bangladesh-based startup aiming to digitize millions of neighborhood stores in the country, has raised $22.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures. It’s the first bet for both on a Bangladeshi startup. Veon Ventures, Speedinvest, and Lonsdale Capital also joined the round, which brings the company’s total funding to about $28 million. [ TechCrunch Report]

Doing Good: ShopUp enables mom and pop stores in Bangladesh to run logistics, inventory, and working capital, and sales through a digital platform enabling lower costs and improving life for these store owners and their families.

Budderfly, a 13-year-old, Shelton, Ct.-based energy efficiency-as-a-service company, has raised $7.8 million in funding co-led by Edison Partners and Balance Point Capital, with additional participation from Connecticut Innovations.

Doing Good: Budderfly provides services to businesses to reduce their carbon footprint while also saving money. Each unit of product they provide reduces carbon emissions.

V2food, a two-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based plant-based meat startup, has raised A$77 million ($54.3 million) in Series B funding from Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Esenagro, Huaxing Growth Capital, ABC World Asia, Altitude Partners, and Novel Investments. [ Bloomberg Report]

Doing Good: V2food, much like Memphis Meats, Impossible Foods, and others, is looking to reduce the carbon footprint of meat production and does this with each unit sold.

Lili, a 2.5-year-old, New York-based banking app designed for freelance workers, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Group 11, with major participation from Foundation Capital, AltaIR Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Torch Capital, and Zeev Ventures. [ TechCrunch Report]

Doing Good: Lili serves to digitize and provide a more stable predictable income stream for the freelancer market, typically a market that struggles to make a profit and is often driven by individual talent, or a small group.

Allonnia LLC., a newly launched, Boston-based venture working to engineer microbes to get rid of pollutants in waste water and soil, has raised $40 million in Series A funding from Ginkgo Bioworks, Battelle, General Atlantic, Cascade Investment, and Viking Global Investors. According to Bloomberg, the outfit is first tackling PFAS, a class of chemicals that are widespread in U.S. drinking water and have proved resistant to breaking down. [ Bloomberg Report]

Doing Good: With a core product focused on ridding the world of pollutants, this climate tech company is combating climate change one microbe at a time