Jessica Owens and Iana Dimkova, co-founders of Initiate Ventures, are launching their new healthcare/ life sciences-focused firm with a respectable $45 million debut fund. One of the ways they convinced limited partners to become investors is because they are building a combination early-stage and incubation firm. So not only will they invest in early-stage startups […]
As college tuition increases and the student loan debt crisis continues, three former executives from language learning app Duolingo are building a new startup aimed at making college education more affordable and accessible. The company, tentatively named Outsmart Education (the name is not final yet), is headed by co-founders Daniel Falabella (CPO), former senior director
The wide availability of tools to build generative AI has led to a Cambrian explosion of startups in the space. Plentiful capital hasn’t hurt, either — nor has the declining cost of the requisite technical infrastructure. In fact, one of the flashiest applications of generative AI, generative video, risks becoming oversaturated. Labs such as Genmo,
Moonvalley wants to build more ethical video models Read More »
People prefer texts over phone calls — especially when it’s a company on the other side. According to one survey, two-thirds of consumers say they’d switch to a company that offered texting as a contact option. With the text-message marketing industry expected to grow to $12.6 billion by 2025, it’s not surprising that vendors like
Text marketing firm Take Blip secures backing from SoftBank, Microsoft Read More »
People prefer texts over phone calls — especially when it’s a company on the other side. According to one survey, two-thirds of consumers say they’d switch to a company that offered texting as a contact option. With the text-message marketing industry expected to grow to $12.6 billion by 2025, it’s not surprising that vendors like
Text marketing firm Blip secures backing from SoftBank, Microsoft Read More »
Warehouses aren’t the only places grappling with a labor crunch. Since the start of the pandemic, restaurants around the world have been grappling with staffing shortages. A number of startups have entered the picture with automation solutions, aimed at reducing the number of hands required to keep the lights on and the food warm. There
Botinkit’s robot wants to cook for you Read More »
American drone manufacturer Skydio has raised an extension round of $170 million, adding onto the $230 million Series E it closed early last year. The new tranche of funding brings in strategic investors like Japanese telecom operator KDDI and Axon, the creator of the taser and other police tech. It also includes previous investors, like
Drone manufacturer Skydio raises $170 million extension round Read More »
In a splashy op-ed in Time published this summer, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Thrive AI Health, a venture with the goal of building an AI-powered assistant to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington’s mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive AI Health would seek to
Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive AI Health assistant has a bare-bones demo Read More »
For all its promise as a climate friendly fuel, hydrogen hasn’t had much luck. It lost the battle over personal transportation to battery electric vehicles, and for industrial users, it remains far more expensive than natural gas. That’s in part because natural gas can flow through sprawling networks of pipelines. Hydrogen doesn’t, which means buyers
Ecolectro stuffs hydrogen production into shipping containers to cut costs Read More »
With the advent of flexible workspaces, companies are increasingly adopting smartphone-based authentication to let employees enter and leave. In a recent poll, nearly two in five firms said they’re letting staff use their phones to access office buildings. The boon has benefited vendors like SwiftConnect, which sells a platform for managing access to physical offices. Chip
SwiftConnect lets workers access the office with a smartphone swipe Read More »
