Top startups news to follow this week:

- U.S. House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act to expand immigration opportunities for foreign-born scientists and engineers. If retained during negotiations with the Senate, the measures in the bill could become the most significant on legal immigration to pass Congress in more than 30 years.

- Jumpstart Nova fund, launched in 2021 to invest exclusively in Black health-tech firms, has raised $55 million from investors including Eli Lilly, HCA Healthcare and Bank of America. For Black-led startups, the lack of diversity in venture capital can pose a hurdle to access funding. Dr. Derrell Porter knew he had a good idea: a company that provides a platform to help researchers develop and commercialize gene and cell therapies.

- Employment grows at a much faster rate at venture capital-backed startup companies than other private-sector firms⁠—roughly eight times faster, a new report finds.

- Blockchain startups grow as global VC funding generated $25.2B in 2021. Last year was impressive for blockchain startups, as research from CB Insights found that venture capital funding reached new heights during every quarter of 2021. According to CB Insights’ “State Of Blockchain 2021” report, $25.2 billion worth of venture capital funding went to global blockchain startups last year, demonstrating a 713% increase from $3.1 billion in 2020.

- Partech Shaker, the innovation division of the Paris-based VC firm Partech, has launched an accelerator program christened Chapter54 to help European startups launch in African markets. The accelerator will take in 10 technology scaleups annually over the next four years for the Chapter54 program, which will last up to eight months. Application for the inaugural cohort will open next month, and successful startups will begin the acceleration journey in April.

- ICON, which creates homes using 3D printing, has raised an additional $185 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. The financing is said to be an extension of ICON’s $207 million Series B that was announced last August.

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