MENTAL HEALTH
Ed tech firm raises $30m to grow online college mental counseling platform
Uwill, an education technology company based in Natick, announced Tuesday that it has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round from the Connecticut-based growth equity firm Education Growth Partners. Uwill is a teletherapy platform designed to provide college students with immediate access to licensed counselors; it launched in 2020 to support campus counseling centers that were upended by the pandemic. Since then, Uwill has served more than 1.5 million students around the world, according to the company, and established itself at more than 150 colleges nationwide, including local institutions like Boston College and New England Law, Boston. “We built Uwill to provide students with immediacy, choice, and a frictionless experience to receive the mental health support they need in a way that works best for them,” said Michael London, UWill’s founder and chief executive, in a press release. London previously founded Examity, a Newton-based startup that facilitates the online exam proctoring. — DANA GERBER
ONLINE GAMING
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At Chamber breakfast, Campbell warns that irresponsible gaming could fuel addiction
Attorney General Andrea Campbell warned Tuesday that irresponsible gaming could go hand-in-hand with gambling addiction, alcoholism, substance use disorder, and poverty as the House pushes with the governor’s support to expand lottery games onto digital platforms. “We want to make sure from our office’s perspective that it is responsible, that it is fair, and that they are really looking at the technology and making sure that it’s not encouraging folks to bet when they don’t have any money or play when they don’t have any money,” Campbell said at a breakfast hosted by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “If we actually are ahead of this and proactive versus being reactive, we can prevent a potential public health crisis.” The House’s fiscal year 2024 budget would launch an online “iLottery,” which top Democrats say could generate enough revenue to steer $200 million toward early education grants. With the chance of more gambling moving online, Campbell talked Tuesday about the work her office has done with the Gaming Commissions since sports betting has rolled out throughout the state. Her concerns include the design of online betting applications to encourage more betting, privacy, and data collection, and payment to third-party influencers who encourage consumers to place specific bets “knowing it is probably a losing bet.” — STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
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LIFE SCIENCES
Danaher Corp. merges two lab equipment units
Danaher Corp. has integrated its Pall Life Sciences business with its Cytiva business, both of them makers of lab equipment. Cytiva, the former General Electric life sciences business, employs about 16,000 people across 40 countries as a result of the merger. Cytiva’s four main corporate hubs will remain in Marlborough for the US, Amersham in the UK, Sweden, and Shanghai. Cytiva declined to say how many people work for it in Massachusetts now, although it had 850 in this state in 2020 and was planning to grow that number at the time. Cytiva chief executive Emmanuel Ligner, who is based in the UK, said the company’s biotech customers were eager for Danaher to combine the Pall Life Sciences and Cytiva businesses. They offer complementary product lines, Ligner said. Now customers can place one order instead of two for items offered by both businesses, get one invoice, and have one delivery. (Danaher is keeping the Pall brand name for Pall filtration products.) Cytiva was created by Danaher in 2020 when it acquired GE’s biopharma business for $21 billion. “This is a dream come true for me,” Ligner said. “Suddenly, you have an incredible [biotech] portfolio that really helps you do everything from an idea to a vial.” — JON CHESTO
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AUTOMOTIVE
Ford cuts prices on Mach E as Tesla raises them on Model Y
Ford is cutting US starting prices on its Mustang Mach E electric SUV, bringing many versions below the cost of its main competitor, the Tesla Model Y. Ford also said it is reopening the order bank on Wednesday for the Mach E after upgrading a factory in Mexico to increase output. Also on Tuesday, Tesla raised prices by $250 on the Model Y SUV and the Model 3 small sedan, its two top-selling vehicles. The standard range base versions of the Mach E each saw $3,000 price cuts, with the rear-wheel-drive version falling to $42,995 and the all-wheel-drive model going to $45,995. Ford cut $4,000 off prices of the premium standard-range versions, with rear-wheel-drive dropping to $46,995 and all-wheel-drive going to $49,995. The price of the GT all-wheel-drive extended-range version also fell by $4,000 to $59,995. ― ASSOCIATED PRESS
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Coinbase launches international exchange as tensions with US regulators rise
Coinbase Global Inc. is launching an international derivatives exchange for institutional crypto traders outside the US, seeking to diversify its business amid souring relations with American regulators. The new platform, Coinbase International Exchange, will list Bitcoin and Ether perpetual futures starting this week after it received a license last month from the Bermuda Monetary Authority. With the move, Coinbase is entering a market dominated by offshore players, such as Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, and previously FTX before its collapse. The company with roots in San Francisco has been facing mounting legal uncertainty after receiving a Wells Notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission in March, which signals the agency’s plan to sue it over several business lines. Some of its earlier attempts at expanding globally have been met with challenges: Coinbase shut down its operations in Japan earlier this year, citing market conditions. ― BLOOMBERG NEWS
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OIL
OPEC output falls because of Iraq pipeline halt, Nigeria strike
OPEC’s oil production fell last month as Iraq’s exports were reduced by a pipeline suspension while a labor strike cut shipments from Nigeria. Output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries declined by 310,000 barrels a day to an average of 28.8 million, the lowest level in almost a year, according to a Bloomberg survey. OPEC and its allies have announced new production cutbacks starting this month to shore up global oil markets, but the biggest supply changes in April were unintentional. Iraq accounted for about 80 percent of the drop. A political spat between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has led to the halt of a pipeline that normally carries 500,000 barrels a day via Turkey. In Nigeria, a production recovery seen in the run-up to presidential elections has fizzled, with industrial action forcing Exxon Mobil Corp. to renege on shipments from several terminals last month. Still, the supply losses by OPEC and its allies — both deliberate and accidental — are barely propping up an oil market that’s being roiled by fears over economic growth in China and the wider world. Crude futures briefly sank below $72 a barrel in New York on Tuesday to the lowest since March. ― BLOOMBERG NEWS
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