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Philly daily roundup: Ghost Robotics $240M exit; Ending the digital divide; Mayor’s business roundtables

Plus, financial planning platform WealthMore launched its product beta.

ANITA ROMANO FROM NORTHEAST HIGH SCHOOL WON THE SUSTAINED IMPACT AWARD FROM CS4PHILLY (SARAH HUFFMAN/TECHNICAL.LY)

Ghost Robotics is landing a $240M exit

South Korean aerospace manufacturer LIG Nex 1 initially filed for the acquisition in December 2023, aiming to purchase a 60% stake in Ghost Robotics for $240 million. The deal is expected to close this month, according to The Korea Herald.

However, Ghost has drawn protests and criticism from Philadelphia residents and University of Pennsylvania students and faculty concerned about its relationship with military organizations.

➡️ Read more about the controversy around this robotics spinout

Teresa Hodge works to end the digital divide

When Hodge was released from prison in 2011, she stepped into a completely different digital world. So, she made it her mission to eliminate the digital divide for currently and formerly incarcerated people.

Hodge and her daughter cofounded the Baltimore nonprofit Mission: Launch in 2012 to make the reentry process easier for formerly incarcerated people. The duo went on to found R3 Score, an alternative background check service and credit counseling firm.

➡️ Read Kaela’s report to learn more

News Incubator: What else to know today

•  Philadelphia ranked as No. 8 for research and development, No. 7 for manufacturing and No. 9 for medtech among 100 US markets in CBRE’s annual life sciences talent report. Overall, these rankings are lower than last year’s No. 6 spot.  [CBRE/Technical.ly]

• Mayor Cherelle Parker launched business roundtables. The goal of the roundtables is to improve collaboration between the city’s business community and government. [KYW/Technical.ly]

• Financial planning platform WealthMore launched its product beta at New York Tech Week during the a16z Talent x Opportunity demo day. [LinkedIn/Technical.ly]

• The World Trade Center Greater Philadelphia is hosting its 20th Global Business Conference with Temple University’s Fox School of Business on June 18. The theme of the event is “Celebrating Peace and Prosperity through Global Trade.” [WTCGP]

🗓️ On the Calendar

• Coffee and Code Philly’s next meetup is on June 15. [Details here]

• AI Philly is hosting a workshop called “Automated AI Generated Content with OpenAI and Zapier” on June 17. [Details here]

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

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