May 26, 2020 - Economy & Business

Apeel Sciences raises $250 million in new funding

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Apeel Sciences, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based developer of rot-reduction coatings for produce, raised $250 million in new funding led by GIC at a valuation north of $1 billion.

Why it matters: If you buy avocados at Kroger, or at the largest grocery chains in Germany or Denmark, you're getting one with an Apeel coating. It's also now being applied to other fruits like organic apples and limes, and soon to vegetables like asparagus and cucumbers.

  • Other investors were Viking Global Investors, Upfront Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Rock Creek Group, Oprah Winfrey, and Katy Perry.

The bottom line: "COVID-19 has shown how tightly wound and stretched our food system is, and food waste acts as an enormous tax on it." — James Rogers, Apeel Sciences founder and CEO, to Axios

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Axios
Updated 1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 32,471,119 — Total deaths: 987,593 — Total recoveries: 22,374,557 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 7,032,524 — Total deaths: 203,657 — Total recoveries: 2,727,335 — Total tests: 99,483,712 — Map.
  3. States: "We’re not closing anything going forward": Florida fully lifts COVID restaurant restrictions — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tests positive for coronavirus.
  4. Health: Young people accounted for 20% of cases this summer.
  5. Business: Coronavirus has made airports happier places —The expiration of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance looms.
  6. Education: Where bringing students back to school is most risky.
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Mike Allen, author of AM
4 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Biden pushes unity message in new TV wave

A fresh Joe Biden ad, "New Start," signals an effort by his campaign to make unity a central theme, underscoring a new passage in his stump speech that says he won't be a president just for Democrats but for all Americans.

What he's saying: The ad — which began Friday night, and is a follow-up to "Fresh Start" — draws from a Biden speech earlier in the week in Manitowoc, Wisconsin:

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Jonathan Swan, Alayna Treene, Sam Baker
5 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Trump prepares to announce Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court replacement

Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Photo: Matt Cashore/Notre Dame University via Reuters

President Trump is preparing to nominate federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, a favorite of both the social conservative base and Republican elected officials, to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Republican sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Barrett would push the already conservative court further and harder to the right, for decades to come, on the most important issues in American politics — from abortion to the limits of presidential power. If confirmed, she would give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the high court.

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