*By Conor White*
Anjali Sud, the CEO of Vimeo, seemed comfortable Wednesday with carrying the huge expectations placed on her by the video-sharing website's owner, the media conglomerate IAC.
"We've invested a lot in our product and technology, we've launched a lot of new features, we're seeing our growth accelerate," said Sud at the Collision Conference in New Orleans. "We plan to exceed $100 million in revenue this year, and so I say bring it on."
At 34, she is the youngest chief executive at any of IAC's companies. And her corporate bosses have declared that Vimeo is IAC's "big bet" for 2018. Despite all the hype surrounding Vimeo, Sud told Cheddar's Kristen Scholer the company won't be stretching beyond its core competency.
"We're not investing in original content. There's billions of dollars being invested in that content," said Sud. "We don't think that's a problem that isn't being solved elsewhere, and we're really focused on the other side of that coin, which is the creators who are creating that content."
Vimeo recently launched a Mac OS tool, making it easier for creators who use Final Cut Pro to publish their content.
For more information, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/vimeo-leaves-content-wars-behind).
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a private-public fund backed by Bill Gates, is planning to invest up to $15 billion in clean technology initiatives across the U.S., UK, and European Union. It will target four key areas and help fund large projects that otherwise would not be financially possible. Bobby Hollis, Director of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
An economic development agency, the Northwest Arkansas Council, is looking to draw technology professionals to their region of the Southern state with incentives like $10,000 worth of Bitcoin and a new bicycle. Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the private nonprofit made up of companies like Walmart and Tyson Foods, joined Cheddar to talk about the program to further power his local economy. "By offering the payment in Bitcoin, we're looking to identify those people with interest and expertise in the underlying technologies, the blockchain technologies," he said.
After months of investors turning to crypto as a hedge against inflation, instead of the traditional hedge of gold, one crypto exchange is working with a token creator to launch a digital coin backed by a physical asset. GCOIN gives customers a digital title of ownership to 99.99% pure physical gold which is stored in a secured vault. Brent de Jong, GCoin's founder and Kristin Boggiano, Co-Founder and President of CrossTower, a cryptocurrency exchange, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the GCOIN rollout, customer interest, why crypto is used as an inflation hedge, and more.
Retail platform operator and delivery company, Foxtrot,
raised $100 million in a Series C round led by D1 Capital Partners. Foxtrot bills itself as the modern convenience store that combines what it calls in-store curated discovery with 30-minute delivery and 5-minute pickup. Since launching first as a digital-only delivery service, the company has since grown into a popular local retailer, opening 16 brick and mortar locations across Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, DC. Foxtrot co-founder and CEO Michael LaVitola joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The January 6 committee has subpoenaed four tech giants for more information on what they did and didn't do leading up to last year's deadly Capitol insurrection. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit were asked to assist the investigation in August, but the committee says their responses have been 'inadequate.' Craig Timberg, a national technology reporter at the Washington Post, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more details about the subpoenas, why this is happening now, and how it might impact social media companies moving forward.
