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Beyond Meat shares soared today on the heels of an announcement that Walmart is beefing up its relationship with the purveyor of meatless protein patties, sausages, and balls.

900 stores will now be stocking Beyond Meat’s hot Italian sausages and its party packs of beefless burgers — those grilling delectations for the omnivores, vegetarians and vegans who no longer want to ask “Where’s the beef?”

Beyond Meat’s increased distribution at Walmart stores is the second jump in production over the past year and part of the company’s efforts to lock down the market for plant-based meat substitutes.

The company’s foods are now sold in over 28,000 stores, and it’s also pulling ahead in the food service industry, where it recently announced deals with Yum Brands and McDonalds.

Shares of the company’s stock ended the day up 3.16% or $4.28 as investors ate up the news.

“We are thrilled by the continued growth with Walmart and the opportunity to offer Walmart customers increased accessibility to a larger selection of our delicious and better-for-you plant-based products,” said Chuck Muth, Chief Growth Officer, Beyond Meat. “As more households continue to buy our products and buy them more frequently, we’re excited to satisfy the growing demand through increased product offerings and distribution.”

The partnership with Walmart, which dates back to 2015 is significant, but not nearly as attention grabbing as the company’s elaboration on recent agreements with McDonalds and Yum! Brands — the brains behind KFC and the two franchises that launched America’s greatest fast food hip hop anthem.

In late February, Beyond Meat opened up about its deals with Yum! Brands and McDonald’s that would see the company work to co-create plant-based protein menu items for KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell along with the famous golden arches fo McDonald’s.

That details of the agreement withYum! included the expansion of testing the company’s Beyond Fried Chicken in other U.S. cities with KFC. And the launch of the Beyond Italian Sausage Pizza and the Great Beyond Pizza nationwide, becoming the first national pizza chain to introduce a plant-based meat pizza coast-to-coast, the company’s said in a statement at the time.

The McDonald’s announcement fleshed out the meatless details of a partnership that was previously announced when the fast food giant unveiled its McPlant sandwich — a kind of face plant for Beyond given that it couldn’t confirm the details of the agreement at the time.

Now, other plant-based menu items — including options for chicken, pork, and egg products, have been unveiled as part of the broader McPlant platform, the companies said in February.

“Our new McPlant platform is all about giving customers more choices when they visit McDonald’s,” said Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s Executive Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer, said at the time. “We’re excited to work with Beyond Meat to drive innovation in this space, and entering into this strategic agreement is an important step on our journey to bring delicious, high quality, plant-based menu items to our customers.”

It’s been a busy year for the branding geniuses at Beyond Meat, who also inked a deal with Pepsi to develop protein enhanced snacks and beverages under the tragically named PLANeT Partnership.

Along with a more spacious cockpit, more storage and some upgraded cupholders, Audi has packed in some serious new tech into its upcoming all-electric Q4 e-tron compact crossover, including an augmented reality head-up display (HUD) that’s reactive enough to accurately stick to a driver’s real environment. 

Audi revealed Tuesday the interior of the Q4 e-tron, the fifth electric vehicle in its lineup and part of the German automaker’s plan to launch more than 30 EVs and plug-in hybrids by 2025. The Q4 e-tron has been expected for some time; it was first revealed as a concept at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show.

The exterior of the production version of the Q4 is still camouflaged, but we know its dimensions. The takeaway: An electric vehicle that fits in the larger compact SUV segment with a short overhang and wheelbase of 9.1 feet — a combination that gives it a rather stout look. However, that allows for an interior of 6 feet in length, the kind of space found in a large full-size class SUV.

The underlying architecture of the vehicle is based on its parent company VW’s modular electric drive toolkit chassis, or MEB platform. This flexible modular system, first introduced by VW in 2016, was developed to make it more efficient and cost-effective to produce a variety of EVs. It has also given designers more room to play with thanks to the flat floor. And they took advantage of that space, popping in a center console with two cup holders, a 4.4-liter stowage compartment with a cover, two (or four as an option) USB-C sockets and the Audi phone box (which charges wirelessly and boosts your phone’s signal) upon request.

Head-up-Display. Image Credits: Audi

The real story here is the tech — and most notably an option to add an AR-enabled windshield. The AR windshield provides a wider field of view and more accurate and dynamic animations versus a standard windshield HUD. The Q4 e-tron will break down important displayed information via two sections: one for status and one for AR. The former, appearing about 3 meters ahead of the driver, will display the driving speed, traffic signs, the assist system and navigation symbols as static displays. 

With the AR section, the driver will perceive the floating symbols to be about 10 meters away. That’ll display information like lane departure warnings that superimpose a red line on the real-life lane marking and a colored stripe over an active car driving in front when in adaptive cruise control.

“Head-up displays aren’t new,” states Audi. “This just takes the field of vision farther out so it enables more active use.”

The AR will also display navigation information. Audi calls the turning arrows “drones,” probably because the arrows fly ahead when driving straight and then disappear, reappearing before the next point of action. When the driver approaches an intersection, the drone announces the turn before steering the driver onto the road with precision.

Head-up-Display. Image Credits: Audi

On the software side of things, the Q4 e-tron’s processing unit, called the AR Creator, picks up raw data from the car’s front camera, radar sensor and GPS navigation to render display symbols at a rate of 60 frames per second and adapt them to the surrounding environment. The quality of these displays, shown via a bit of advanced smoke and mirrors on what Audi calls the EV’s “picture generation unit (PGU)” — basically, a lot of mirrors — will obviously be key to how well it works in real life. With only simulations to show for it currently, it’s not clear how well Audi will pull this off. A wider frame with dynamic symbols must deliver on its promise to show up “just as clearly as their real-life environment” otherwise they’ll become a hindrance to the driver, and if they don’t pull off the depth effect exactly, they could even cause driver discomfort.

The Q4 e-tron also features updated natural-language voice control, activated by saying “Hey Audi.” The new car will also ditch physical buttons on the steering wheel in favor of touch-sensitive ones. But with a haptic feedback loop, it’ll still feel somewhat like you’re pressing a button. 

About 3% of the company’s sales in 2020, or 47,000 vehicles, were the electric e-tron SUV and the e-tron Sportback, a number that will surely increase as the company continues to roll out luxury EVs. 

In light of Women’s History Month, we’re taking a look at the status of gender diversity in investment portfolios because women remain underrepresented in the field of entrepreneurship. Let’s delve into the numbers — and why your deal flow may not be diverse enough.

Women entrepreneurs and fundraising

There is an unmet need of $260 billion to $320 billion for women-owned company funding, according to a 2013 study conducted by the International Finance Corporation. A survey of women from 350 tech startups reinforced this: 72% of women respondents said that they faced difficulty attaining financial capital when they were starting their businesses and nearly 80% of them had to rely on personal funding. Furthermore, women founders receive less than 3% of all VC dollars.

The stark contrast between the ease of fundraising for men compared to women is apparent. Data show that men were four times as likely as women to access equity financing from angel investors or VCs (14.4% against 3.6%). The ease with which men tap into multiple sources for capital explains why they start companies with almost twice the capital of women founders on average.

So, why is fundraising harder for women-led startups?

Women’s struggle to attain capital can perhaps be explained by looking into the diversity in fund management firms. Fund managers’ lack of diversity ultimately contributes to the resulting funding inequality when it comes to their portfolios. Data from Women in VC show that only 5.6% of U.S. VC firms are women-led and only 4.9% of VC partners in the U.S. are women.

“Empowering women and people of color to drive the investment strategy of venture firms is the fastest and most effective course correction” for the lack of gender-diverse portfolios, the Women in VC report said. “Venture investors have extraordinary power to impact broader society norms. They decide what founders get funded, what businesses stand a chance at success, and what products get brought to market. These things, in turn, exert a determining influence on our culture.”

Investors must address the diversity issue within their ranks first; they must be aware of the existing unconscious bias and take extra actions toward improving their efforts in actively trying to source and invest in women-led startups.

Why is diverse deal flow important?

Diversifying an investment portfolio to include more women-led ventures means trusting in the leadership of women, which research has shown to be worth believing in. A 2012 study of company performance showed that more than 150 listed German firms excelled when they had at least 30% women representation on their executive boards.

Even more interesting, another study argues that women make better board directors than men. The findings revealed that women are more effective at accounting for multiple competing interests, solving problems creatively and building consensus. By comparison, male directors often made decisions based on rules, regulations and tradition.

Undeniably, companies managed by effective women leaders are set to provide a lucrative return on investment. Roy Adler, a Fulbright scholar and professor of marketing at Pepperdine University, conducted a 19-year study that found a correlation between companies with the best record of promoting women to senior positions and higher profitability — between 18% to 69% higher than the median Fortune 500 companies in their respective industries.

While the numbers prove that the financial returns can be promising, the bigger impact and importance of investing in gender diversity is the overall economic growth and prosperity that follows. Increasing opportunities for women entrepreneurs sets off a domino effect that local and global markets can benefit from.

McKinsey estimated that if total gender equality was achieved, the global gross domestic product (GDP) could be increased by up to $28 trillion globally by 2025. In fact, by not investing in women, the downsides prove to be quite massive. A study by the United Nations showed that the Asia-Pacific region, including China and the United States, loses at least $42 billion annually in GDP by not fully engaging women’s participation in their economy.

Seedstars, the Swiss investment holding group that focuses on investing in tech high-growth companies from emerging markets, provides a more in-depth view of the benefits of developing women entrepreneurship, specifically in developing countries.

The numbers make it evident that gender diversity is underutilized but highly valuable. In Melanne Verveer and Kim K. Azzarelli’s book “Fast Forward,” experts weigh in on the topic of gender inclusivity.

“The biggest destroyer of wealth creation is patriarchy,” Pax World Funds CEO Joseph Keefe said. “It’s not just up to women to ‘lean in’. Shareholders seeking better returns would do well to lean on companies to appoint and promote more women.”

“Women remain hugely underrepresented at positions of power in every single sector across this country,” Barnard College president Debora Spar noted. “We have fallen into what I call the 16% ghetto, which is that if you look at any sector, be it aerospace engineering, Hollywood films, higher education, or Fortune 500 leading positions, women max out at roughly 16%. That is a crime, and it is a waste of incredible talent.”

Moving gender inclusivity forward

Taking active measures to ensure that we are fully including women is necessary to make an impact. Since 2018, Seedstars has been actively working on gender equity within its core activities, highlighted in the group’s theory of change, such as sourcing of ventures, capacity-building programs and investment activities.

To date, Seedstars has supported more than 600 women-led enterprises and invested in 14 businesses co-founded by women. Additionally, Seedstars is working on gender equity when it comes to mentors, jury members and training delivery experts. Recent numbers show that about 30% of all Seedstars program participants are women, a number that Seedstars is proud to have increased over the past years (2018 numbers were more around 20%, depending on the region) and is committed to increasing that figure in the coming years.

Through the combined efforts of our own initiatives and those from investors who do their part in promoting gender diversity, the world is bound to reap the benefits of investing in what is proving to be one of the most powerful demographic groups the world is yet to fully embrace.

Recognizing the issue is the first step to solving any problem. The increase in awareness and action is sure to bring forth important development that makes the future brighter for women entrepreneurs everywhere.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be providing NASA with a valuable scientific tool ahead of the U.S. space agency’s goal of returning to the Moon: The ability to run experiments in simulated lunar gravity much closer to home, in suborbital space.

NASA revealed that Blue Origin will be modifying its reusable New Shepard sub-orbital launch vehicle to add Moon gravity approximation via rotation of the spacecraft’s capsule. That’ll effectively turn it into one big centrifuge, which will mean that objects inside will experience a gravitational force very close to that found on the lunar surface.

It’s not like there aren’t already ways to simulate lunar gravity, but the way that New Shepard will implement its system will provide two benefits that none of these existing methods can match: Longer duration, offering over two minutes of continuous artificial Moon gravity exposure, and larger payload capacity, which will unlock experimental capabilities that are currently impossible just due to space restrictions.

Blue Origin anticipates that this new capability for New Shepard will be ready to roll by 2022 – important timing because the whole idea is to help support NASA’s Artemis program, which is its mission series that will see a return to human Moon exploration, including establishment of a more permanent crewed research presence both in lunar orbit and on the surface.

Gravity on the surface of the Moon is about one-sixth as powerful as that here on Earth. NASA also points out that it will require experimentation not only in preparation for lunar missions, but also to support eventually crewed launches to Mars, which has gravity that’s just over one-third as strong as it is here.

Blue Origin is also working with NASA on human landers for its lunar missions, through a space industry team-up that includes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper.

This morning Techstars Music is announcing 11 new companies that have joined its ranks, along with a partnership with Atlanta media house Quality Control.

While it’s easy to mentally bunch everything Techstars does together under the singular “Techstars” name, it’s actually made up of 40+ interconnected accelerator programs each with its own focus and portfolio. The majority of these are focused on a specific region — programs like Techstars Boulder, Boston, or LA. Others focus on a specific vertical or industry — like Sports, Space, or, in this case, Music.

So what all does that “Music” focus cover? It’s not just music creation tools, or apps for artists. As Techstars Music Managing Director Bob Moczydlowsky put it in a Q&A last year, “we don’t invest in music companies — we invest in companies solving problems for music. “.

Their past portfolio includes Endel, which generates “personalized soundscapes” meant to help you focus or fall asleep faster, and Blink Identity, a company looking to replace the paper/digital concert ticket with facial recognition machines.

The companies in the 2021 class, in alphabetical order:

555 Comic: A company that develops “virtual characters” and uses them to tell stories through social media (like the tweet above). Imagine one artist having multiple “personas”, with each genre they dabble in represented by a different character, each with an evolving backstory. (Fun trivia: the number five said aloud in Japanese sounds like “Go”; the company’s name is a play on “Go Go Go!”)

BlackOakTV: A subscription, on-demand video service focusing on content made by black creators. Currently costs $4.99 a month with apps available on most major platforms.

Creative Futures Collective: A networking/mentoring program aiming to “unearth the next generation of creative industry leaders from disenfranchised backgrounds” and connect them with jobs and paid internships.

Fave: A social platform meant to help connect an artist’s “superfans” with each other and allow them to compete to earn reward from the artist.

HappsNow: a fully white-labeled ticketing platform meant to give artists/venues more control of the experience.

Holotch: Capture volumetric 3D video with off-the-shelf technology and stream it live. Imagine an artist capturing a performance live, and being able to watch them perform in your living room through augmented reality “holograms”.

Music Tech Works: A super simplified catalog and workflow for figuring out who owns the rights to a song and acquiring a license to use it.

Rares: A platform for investing in shares of particularly notable sneakers — think gameworn shoes, one-offs, or those that were never mass produced.

Remetrik: A software platform that aims to bring all of the (often labyrinthian) accounting involved with music royalties into one place in a simple and transparent way.

Volta Audio: A platform for artists to build immersive, evolving VR experiences

Westcott Multimedia: An automated advertising platform that looks for events related a music catalog (like, say, an artist’s birthday, or a song being played in the background of a viral video) and builds marketing campaigns around them.

Along with this latest class, Techstars Music is also announcing that it’s partnering with Quality Control, the media house behind Quality Control Music — best known as the label behind Migos, Lil Yachty, and Lil Baby. Quality Control joins Techstars Music as a “member” company (sort of like their equivalent to an LP, offering investment, helping with sourcing and vetting companies and mentoring them once they’re in); existing members include Amazon Music, AVEX, Bill Silva Entertainment, Concord, Peloton, Entertainment One, Right Hand Music Group, Royalty Exchange, Sony, and Warner Music Group.

Moczydlowsky tells me that Techstars Music alumni companies have raised over $105m since the first class in 2017, and that the group above has already raised over $3M ahead of its Demo Day in May.