February 6, 2025

What a return to supersonic flight could mean for climate change

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. As I’ve admitted in this newsletter before, I love few things more than getting on an airplane. I know, it’s a bold statement from a climate reporter because of all the associated…

July 2023

Spotting Chinese state media social accounts continues to be a challenge

July 19, 2023
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. It’s no secret that Chinese state-owned media are active on Western social platforms, but sometimes they take a covert approach and distance themselves from China, perhaps to reach more unsuspecting audiences. …

Nigeria’s MyCover.ai to scale its open insurance API platform with new funding

July 19, 2023
Africa’s insurance market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% between 2022 and 2028, reaching $120 billion. Though seemingly impressive, the insurance industry in Africa could be worth more if insurance penetration on the continent wasn’t extremely low, less than 3%, according to reports. As a result, traditional insurers […]

Reliance-backed Dunzo defers staff pay amid funding search

July 19, 2023
Dunzo, a hyperlocal delivery startup in India, is postponing employee salaries for a month and intends to settle remaining dues from the previous month also in September as Google and Reliance Retail-backed startup hunts for new funding. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup told employees Wednesday that it will not be able to pay the remainder of their […]

Neura Robotics picks up $55M to ramp up in cognitive robotics

July 19, 2023
Neura Robotics, a German startup that since 2019 has been building cognitive robots — machines that possess memory, the ability to operate across a complex and changing mix of variables, and can collaborate with people (“cobots” as Neura calls them) — has raised $55 million. It plans to use the funding to fuel more R&D […]

Korean fashion platform Musinsa bags $190M Series C led by KKR at a $2.7B valuation

July 19, 2023
Musinsa, a Seoul-based fashion marketplace, said Wednesday it has raised a $190 million round of Series C funding led by KKR, with participation from Wellington Management.  The new capital put Musinsa’s valuation at approximately $2.76 billion (more than 3 trillion won), per sources familiar with the situation. The Korean fashion e-commerce startup declined to provide […]

Shark Tank India investors fall short on pledges

July 19, 2023
Over a year following the inaugural season of the Indian edition of Shark Tank, the seven esteemed investors made good on less than half of their investment pledges, according to a new analysis, the latest in a series of criticisms for the show. The “sharks” overall invested in only 27 of the 65 investment pledges […]