Highlights of the Week (2020/01/15)

As the second full week of the year comes to a close, there’s a lot of buzz for what is happening in the Capitol next week. At the same time, headlines were abuzz throughout the week about the actions of Big Tech companies ranging from the ban of the app Parler and its use by the rioters to organize the attack on Capitol Hill to the crackdown of more far-right accounts across various social media channels. Meanwhile, the Daily Stack looked into trends in four different verticals and their trends for 2021. 

• AgTech is a term coined for agriculture-focused technology startups that have introduced products, services, or applications that improve agriculture input/output or the processes of farming. We rounded up 5 AgTech companies from the US on our watchlist. Read about them.
• eLearning has experienced never before growth and platforms that offer vocational and skills development are not exempt. Many of these and other eLearning platforms attracted funding in 2020 and we expect 2021 to be no different. See our thoughts on the trends in eLearning this year. 
• Refresh your understanding of SPACs and get familiar with some up-and-coming SPAC companies and the startups that have merged with some of them. 2021 may be another SPAC year. 
• Zoom meetings were ranked as one of the top 20 words of 2020 by Global Language Monitor and it certainly does not come as a surprise. Digital workplace tools have become top of the mind for all enterprises as employees needed to find new ways to collaborate with colleagues while working remotely. Here’s a sample of some startup enterprise tools we think are carving out their own niche markets for helping businesses work smarter. Read about it.