European healthtech VCs have never had a bigger warchest to deploy. The most recent example is the closing of Sofinnova Partners’ €472m healthtech-focused fund last month.

And that’s helped healthtech startups raise record rounds in 2021. London-based Exscientia raised nearly $1bn in multiple funding rounds this year and went public last month, Swedish telemedicine platform Kry raised $300m in April and synthetic DNA startup Touchlight raised $125m in September.

Between documentaries and fiction films , there are many things you can learn about the path that entrepreneurs have traveled, from the comfort of your armchair. Regardless of whether you are starting your business or have been working in it for years, you can get powerful insights from these 18 provocative and highly entertaining films.

Venture firms in the U.S. founded by women are on track to raise more than $7 billion in 2021— almost $1 billion more than the prior peak of 2019 and up 59 percent so far year over year, Crunchbase data shows. 

U.S. venture capital has raised record funds in 2021, at $96 billion through the third quarter, according to a Pitchbook/NVCA report. That compares with $86.8 billion in 2020, a prior record in the past decade.

Image: https://news.crunchbase.com

Creativity in business is the key to innovation, and in this era of rapid change, can mean the difference between your long-term business success and failure. Unfortunately, in my role as a business advisor, I still find too many owners who fall into the rut of rejecting creativity to minimize change and keep costs down. They don’t realize that it may be keeping revenues down as well.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

As entrepreneurs, we often forget to look at our business journey as a part of life. There is not one single business journey out there that has been perfect, but choosing how to pursue sustainability is worth admiring. 

Sustainability can mean so many different things, but in short, it means making more out of less. It’s about creating cycles that can sustain themselves. Hence the “sustainable sign” we are all familiar with.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a reminder this week to critical infrastructure partners that bad actors are unlikely to take a break for the holiday season.  

Although neither CISA nor FBI have identified specific threats looming, they noted that previous incidents over U.S. holidays have set a concerning precedent.  

An algorithm can predict the severity of COVID patients’ illnesses depending on how many of them will be highly likely or unlikely to need intensive care or ventilation

As hospitals and healthcare workers across the world still bear the burden of intense COVID pandemic pressure, this new algorithm will help alleviate pressure off hospitals when confronted by new waves of COVID-19 patients.

The inaugural Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report 2021, from leading intellectual property firm Appleyard Lees, analyses patent filings relating to several key environmental challenges facing the world, including the development of bio-derived, biodegradable and recyclable polymers – also known as bioplastics.

Image: https://www.circularonline.co.uk

Recently, there has been an exponential expansion in the market for wireless sensors and micro-power generation systems. The power demand of these devices facilitates the need for self-generating energy devices. Conventional battery technologies cannot meet these demands as they must be recharged or replaced and are not thin enough.

While working conditions have certainly improved, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the average American works 8.8 hours per day. Yet research suggests the average worker is only productive for less than three hours during their workday.

From checking social media to texting family and friends to surfing the internet, our workdays are wrought with distractions that impact our ability to focus and use our time effectively and efficiently.

VENTURE CAPITAL is no longer embodied by Silicon Valley investing in its own backyard. A new wave of both capital and competition is powering new ideas across sectors and around the world. Our correspondent Arjun Ramani and host Rachana Shanbhogue speak to veteran VCs, newcomers and founders to find out whether the innovation being funded will be worth the risks.

Image: https://www.economist.com

In August 2022, a NASA probe called Psyche will set out to explore a giant metallic asteroid called Psyche 16, to help scientists learn more about how planets form. The way Psyche reaches its target, though, will be different from typical NASA missions.  

Building on technology used in previous missions, including Dawn and Deep Space 1, solar power will help propel Psyche into deep space. If that proves successful, it could be the start of a new era of using more fuel-efficient probes for both space exploration and commercial missions. 

Image: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/ASU

Why do organizations have so much trouble enabling employee creativity? The answer lies in subtle and deeply ingrained behaviors that prevent companies from creating a creative culture. The authors identify three misconceptions that managers must overcome to effectively build creative cultures.

Berlin, Germany, November 2021 - software development company Moove-It.com has released a study that analyzes the healthtech capabilities of 85 global cities. As a company that helps organizations use technology for positive impact in multiple industries including healthcare, Moove It decided to conduct a study to identify which global locations have the most developed healthtech ecosystems. To do this, they assessed each city against a range of factors related to investment, corporate infrastructure, human capital, and their healthtech credentials in different sectors. The resulting index gives insight into which cities have the most robust healthtech ecosystems, and which are the global capitals of healthtech in different healthcare sectors.

The South Korean city of Busan this month signed an historic deal to build the world’s first sustainable floating city.

Blue tech pioneer and designer of the prototype city, OCEANIX, along with UN-Habitat, are collaborating with Busan Metropolitan City to test what promises to be a transformative solution for citizens in coastal cities threatened by sea level rises.

Image: https://www.innovatorsmag.com - OCEANIX/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Many of the startup investors I know are disappointed that so few of the startup ideas they see are really innovative or disruptive. Most of us are incremental or linear thinkers, and we miss the really big opportunities, like the next smartphone or space travel. That ability to “see around the next corner” seems to be limited to a very few entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

There’s still uncertainty about what the workplace new normal will be, and it’s easy for companies to default to old routines and habits. Based on their extensive research on psychological contracts, idiosyncratic deals, and leadership, the authors present three strategies managers should implement now to develop thriving employees — those who experience learning and vitality at work and feel that they make difference. By recalibrating expectations, reestablishing commitment, and rebuilding capacity, you’ll strengthen your company’s most important asset to weather the next unexpected, extreme event — whenever it comes.

The New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology (CSIT) today announced the creation of a $1.5 million Catalyst Seed Research and Development (R&D) Grant Program to help New Jersey-based startups accelerate development of technologies. The funding will help the companies transform new discoveries from the research stage into commercially viable products and services. The application, which opens on December 6, will be available at http://www.njeda.com/csit.

YOUNG COMPANIES everywhere were preparing for doomsday in March 2020. Sequoia Capital, a large venture-capital (VC) firm, warned of Armageddon; others predicted a “Great Unwinding”. Startups like Airbnb trimmed their workforce in expectation of an economic bloodbath. Yet within months the gloom had lifted and a historic boom had begun. America unleashed a raft of stimulus measures; the dominance of tech firms increased as locked-down consumers spent even more of their lives online. A wave of companies, including Airbnb, took advantage of the bullish mood by listing on the stockmarket. The market capitalisation of venture-capital-backed firms that went public last year amounted to a record $200bn; it is on course to reach $500bn in 2021.

Image: Satoshi Kambayashi

“The creative spirits. The underdogs. The resolute.” This ethos describes precisely the people who read this column, I have no doubt, putting us in alignment with Sequoia, the US venture capital firm that began a much talked-about blog post recently by addressing just such groups. Also “the independent thinkers”, “the fighters” and the “true believers”. Sequoia has a relentless drive to help them succeed, too, and naturally so does this column.

Image: Sequoia Roelof Botha - https://www.sequoiacap.com/people/roelof-botha/