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Indie streamer Mubi raised a staggering $100 million from Sequoia Capital. Then, fans started boycotting. Mubi built a loyal audience of cinephiles through breakout hits like The Substance and Decision to Leave. But after subscribers examined investor Sequoia Capitals portfolio, many took to X to denounce the streamer. They pointed to Sequoias ties to Israels military campaign in Gaza, highlighting its investments in the Israeli defense tech startup Kela. Even after Mubi issued a public statement, its social media remains flooded with Palestinian flags and posts about canceled subscriptions. Even after Mubi issued a public statement, its social media remains flooded with Palestinian flags and posts about canceled subscriptions. The crisis raises broader questions about the financial forces shaping the indie film world. Mubis money crisis Founded in 2007, Mubi coasted for a decade on a loyal base of cinephiles. Then, the distributors films began breaking out, most notably with The Substance, the $80-million-grossing body horror starring Demi Moore. Between 2016 and 2025, Mubi jumped from 100,000 to 20 million subscribers. That growth enabled the company to invest in more films. At the 2025 Cannes festival, Mubi was a top buyer, acquiring titles like The Sound of Falling and the Jennifer Lawrence-led Die My Love. Its success also helped Mubi secure significant funding. After closing a $100 million fundraising round, the company was reportedly valued at $1 billion. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, the investment firm known for backing companies like Nvidia, Reddit, and PayPal. Sequoia also led a $10 million seed round for Kela, an AI-powered defense tech firm founded by four former Israeli intelligence officials, one of whom also worked as the general manager of Palantir Israel. That connection sparked outrage among some Mubi fans. On X, users organized a boycott of the streamer after learning about its ties to Sequoia. One protest flyer claimed that Sequoia is deeply invested in Israels genocide of the Palestinian people. As posts gained traction, Mubi issued a statement on Instagram that many fans considered inadequate. The company’s social media postseven unrelated onescontinue to attract comments from upset subscribers. When reached for comment, Mubi sent Fast Company the same statement shared on its Instagram: Over the last several days, some members of our community have commented on the decision to work with Sequoia given their investment in Israeli companies and the personal opinions expressed by one of their partners. The beliefs of individual investors do not reflect the views of MUBI. How big money invaded independent filmmaking Mubi is far from alone in facing investment controversies. A24, known for films like Civil War and Moonlight, is valued at $3.5 billion. In 2024, A24 accepted $75 million from Thrive Capital, an investment firm that has also put more than $1 billion into OpenAI. Some fans were dismayed that A24, ostensibly a bastion for human-made art, would align itself with investors helping to accelerate generative video. Other independent film studios dont just take money from large firmstheyre owned by them. Annapurna Pictures, the company behind Her and Hustlers, is owned by Megan Ellison. Megan is the daughter of Larry Ellison, cofounder of Oracle, and sister of David Ellison, CEO of SkyDance. Neon, distributor of Anora, is owned by The Friedkin Group, which invests heavily in automotive companies like Toyota. Focus Features is owned by Comcast. Sony Pictures Classics belongs to Sony. IFC Films is under AMC. Some holdouts still maintain a more independent path. Blumhouse Productions focuses on low-budget, scalable horror films, which allows it to operate without major outside investment. Briarcliff Entertainment uses its lack of financial stakeholders to support riskier projects, including The Apprentice and the Jonathan Majors-led Magazine Dreams. But most independent filmmakers cannot avoid the pull of Wall Street, Big Tech, or other powerful investors entering the entertainment world. These financial ties often leave fans in an ethical bindan issue many Mubi subscribers are currently trying to navigate.
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From a distance they look almost like ordinary sailboats, their sails emblazoned with the red-and-white flag of Denmark.But these 10-meter (30-foot) -long vessels carry no crew and are designed for surveillance.Four uncrewed robotic sailboats, known as “Voyagers,” have been put into service by Denmark’s armed forces for a three-month operational trial.Built by Alameda, California-based company Saildrone, the vessels will patrol Danish and NATO waters in the Baltic and North Seas, where maritime tensions and suspected sabotage have escalated sharply since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.Two of the Voyagers launched Monday from Koge Marina, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Powered by wind and solar energy, these sea drones can operate autonomously for months at sea. Saildrone says the vessels carry advanced sensor suitesradar, infrared and optical cameras, sonar and acoustic monitoring.Their launch comes after two others already joined a NATO patrol on June 6.Saildrone founder and CEO Richard Jenkins compared the vessels to a “truck” that carries sensors and uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to give a “full picture of what’s above and below the surface” to about 20 to 30 miles (30 to 50 kilometers) in the open ocean.He said that maritime threats like damage to undersea cables, illegal fishing and the smuggling of people, weapons and drugs are going undetected simply because “no one’s observing it.”Saildrone, he said, is “going to places . . . where we previously didn’t have eyes and ears.”The Danish Defense Ministry says the trial is aimed at boosting surveillance capacity in under-monitored waters, especially around critical undersea infrastructure such as fiber-optic cables and power lines.“The security situation in the Baltic is tense,” said Lt. Gen. Kim Jrgensen, the director of Danish National Armaments at the ministry. “They’re going to cruise Danish waters, and then later they’re going to join up with the two that are on (the) NATO exercise. And then they’ll move from area to area within the Danish waters.”The trial comes as NATO confronts a wave of damage to maritime infrastructureincluding the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions and the rupture of at least 11 undersea cables since late 2023. The most recent incident, in January, severed a fiber-optic link between Latvia and Sweden’s Gotland island.The trial also unfolds against a backdrop of trans-Atlantic frictionwith U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration threatening to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to Denmark, a NATO member. Trump has said he wouldn’t rule out military force to take Greenland.Jenkins, the founder of Saildrone, noted that his company had already planned to open its operation in Denmark before Trump was reelected. He didn’t want to comment on the Greenland matter, insisting the company isn’t political.Some of the maritime disruptions have been blamed on Russia’s so-called shadow fleetaging oil tankers operating under opaque ownership to avoid sanctions. One such vessel, the Eagle S, was seized by Finnish police in December for allegedly damaging a power cable between Finland and Estonia with its anchor.Western officials accuse Russia of behind behind a string of hybrid war attacks on land and at sea.Amid these concerns, NATO is moving to build a layered maritime surveillance system combining uncrewed surface vehicles like the Voyagers with traditional naval ships, satellites and seabed sensors.“The challenge is that you basically need to be on the water all the time, and it’s humongously expensive,” said Peter Viggo Jakobsen of the Royal Danish Defense College. “It’s simply too expensive for us to have a warship trailing every single Russian ship, be it a warship or a civilian freighter of some kind.”“We’re trying to put together a layered system that will enable us to keep constant monitoring of potential threats, but at a much cheaper level than before,” he added. James Brooks, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Given the rise of mental health woes, financial strain, and concerns over layoffs, there’s a lot weighing on the modern employee. But one company is hoping to offset the stress with . . . Legos?Deloitte is offering to pay for employees’ Legos to help them connect away their stress. The firm, which already offered well-being items and experiences, updated its employee subsidy program on June 1 to cover the toy. According to internal documents accessed by Business Insider, Deloitte will reimburse employees up to $1,000 for gym memberships and equipment, spa services, gaming consoles, and, now, Legos and puzzles. The move is getting mixed reactions on social media. On X, comments about the Lego perk ranged from “cheaper than therapy” to lots of laughing emojis to utter confusion. One popular post points out that the company had layoffs to cut costs just prior to announcing the Lego incentive, hinting that maybe the funds could be better allocated to retain employees rather than to add offbeat incentives. “Corporate culture is irrevocably broken and backwards,” the post reads. One Deloitte employee told Business Insider that the perk was received with a mix of jokes and enthusiasm. “Most of the responses are things like ‘Lego?!?!? Finally!’ or jokes about how they can now rationalize buying the coveted Millennium Falcon Star Wars Lego set,” the employee said. (The set costs $850). While Legos might be fun, or even therapeutic, employees who are battling against very real modern concerns might need more than building blocks to avoid burnout. And that may be especially true at firms like Deloitte, where the workweek can average 55 hours. Fast Company reached out, but Deloitte declined to comment. Matthew Owenby, chief strategy officer and head of HR at insurance company Aflac, tells Fast Company that employees today are up against big challenges. “Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic first started a national conversation around mental health [and] employee burnout persists at very high levels,” Owenby says. According to the 2024-2025 Aflac WorkForces Report, more than half of all U.S. employees say they face at least moderate burnout, with nearly a quarter experiencing high burnout.” That report also points out that nearly half (47%) of respondents said having an employer who respects the importance of time off helps with their work-life balance. Likewise, 51% said more paid time off (PTO) is the most effective way to alleviate burnout. Shockingly, the report did not ask respondents how much Legos impacted their well-being. Owenby says that addressing the burnout epidemic is not quite as easy as providing a stipend for puzzles and building blocks. Instead he recommends examining employees’ heavy workloads, giving them flexibility and time off. “When asked about the most effective ways to address burnout, employees offered simple and straightforward solutions: giving employees the option to work from home, increasing paid time off, and creating company-sponsored self-care programs,” Owneby said. Again, Legos did not make the list. Sadly, while workers desperately seem to need PTO, they don’t always feel they can take it. A June 2025 report from LiveCareer showed that one in three workers are worried that taking vacation days will lead to layoffs. Fear of layoffs and job insecurity is at an all-time high, and these concerns are influencing the workforce to deprioritize their overall well-being, Jasmine Escalera, career expert for LiveCareer, said in the report. When employees hesitate to take the PTO theyve earned, it can seriously impact their mental health, productivity, and overall engagement at work. That’s not to say that hobbies like social time, crafts, or even playing with Legos can’t be helpful. However, when it comes to employee satisfaction, a Lego allowance feels a bit like, well, child’s play. Because unless those Lego sets come with an extra week of vacation and the time to actually play with them, how much good can they really do for employees anyway?
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