Death and taxes may be the only two certainties in life (according to Ben Franklin), but tax compliance software provider Avalara has raised $96 million with a pitch to make one a lot less painful.The company’s whopping new round of growth capital will be used to buy out some undisclosed existing shareholders and to provide $50 million in new money for growth and acquisitions.“This financing...

We have grown so accustomed to plastic pollution that we hardly notice it anymore. Bottles, cups, and straws blend into the ground like part of the scenery, and we often pass them by without stopping to pick them up.Two artists named Jana Cruder and Matthew LaPenta have created an art installation called “Natural Plasticity,” with which they hope to wake the general public out of its apatheti...

Ironically, smart specs (like Google Glasses) turned out to be a pretty dumb idea for mainstream users. The tech wasn’t quite there and the idea of wearing a bulky headset wasn’t all that appealing. While the concept has lost momentum, one group of people are still finding this wearable tech useful: the visually impaired.Many blind individuals wear sunglasses to avoid others’ distraction. Wi...

New data also shows that concerns over battery life far outweigh demands for better cameras or shatterproof screens.By now it's old news that after announcing that the iPhone 7 wouldn't include a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, Apple's reputation took a hit. Late-night talk show hosts to people across Twitter derided the brand's decision to replace the universal smartphone feature with wireless...

Companies are presented with many opportunities when they decide to enter a new market. Venturing into unfamiliar territory offers a unique chance to innovate and make changes that benefit the business as a whole.One of PepsiCo’s growth strategies is to proactively adapt to emerging market trends for natural, healthy, and nutritious beverages. The strategy makes the company’s supply chain mor...

The coffee wars of San Francisco are back on!We’re now hearing from sources that Blue Bottle is raising a big round of financing a little more than a year after it raised a whopping $75 million. We don’t know the exact amount, but given the immense (and at times odd) interest in coffee from investors in Silicon Valley, it wouldn’t be surprising if it would be approaching or matching that pre...

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute have developed a portable technique for biomolecular manufacturing, which allows the creation of vaccines almost anywhere.Vaccines and bimolecular treatments are constantly improving, but the logistics of getting them to the front lines of new outbreaks, often in remote locations, remains a challenge. In the latest attempt to find a practical way to produ...

Waze Beacons are battery-powered wireless transmitters that can be installed in tunnels to send navigation signals directly to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth when GPS satellite signals are unavailable.For anyone who has driven into a tunnel while using GPS for navigation, the loss of satellite signal and map guidance can be disconcerting, particularly when trying to find your way to the c...

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (“Didi”) announced that it has invested “tens of millions” of U.S. dollars into bike-sharing platform Ofo. The deal represents part of a “multi-layered partnership” in the urban mobility realm, according to a statement released by the company.Didi Chuxing was born in early 2015 as the result of a merger between local rivals Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dac...