February 21, 2025

Doctors and patients are calling for more telehealth. Where is it?

Maggie Barnidge, 18, has been managing cystic fibrosis her whole life. But not long after she moved out of her home state to start college, she came down with pneumonia and went into liver failure. She desperately wanted to get in touch with her doctor back home, whom she’d been seeing since she was diagnosed…

September 2023

Sources: CrowdStrike will announce its Bionic.ai acquisition for $350M today

September 19, 2023
Earlier this year, we broke the news that CrowdStrike was close to acquiring Bionic.ai — a security posture management platform for cloud services — for between $200 million and $300 million. Sources tell us that this deal has now closed and will be formally announced later today after market open, and that publicly-traded CrowdStrike ultimately […]

MigRun wants to simplify the process of immigrating to a new country

September 19, 2023
Two year ago, after Vlad Shipilov, a Russian immigrant, moved to Portugal, his business visa was denied because his lawyer wasn’t aware of certain requirements pertaining to visa applications originating from Russia. It ultimately took $16,000, joining immigration groups on Telegram and Facebook and the help of a Portugal-based friend to secure Shipilov his visa […]

Outschool launches an AI-powered tool to help teachers write progress reports

September 19, 2023
Outschool, the online learning platform that offers kid-friendly academic and interest-based classes, announced today the launch of its AI Teaching Assistant, a tool for tutors to generate progress reports for their students. The platform – mainly popular for its small group class offerings — also revealed that it’s venturing into one-on-one tutoring, putting it in […]

Google’s Bard chatbot can now tap into your Google apps, double check answers and more

September 19, 2023
Google today is releasing a more capable version of Bard, its generative AI chatbot and ChatGPT rival, which now lets you double-check its answers, collaborate with others, and, notably, integrate with Google’s own apps and services, including Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, YouTube, and Google Flights and hotels. The latter is available through new Bard Extensions […]

Babbel acquires language learning browser extension Toucan

September 19, 2023
Babbel, the popular subscription-based language learning service, today announced that it has acquired Toucan, the well-funded language learning browser extension. Toucan, it turns out, wound down as a company earlier this year, though its service has remained online. None of Toucan’s co-founders or employees will join Babbel, which is only buying Toucan’s technology. Babbel will […]

TikTok debuts new tools and technology to label AI content

September 19, 2023
As more creators turn to AI for their artistic expression, there’s also a broader push for transparency around when AI was involved in content creation. To address this concern, TikTok announced today it will launch a new tool that will allow creators to label their AI-generated content and will begin testing other ways to label […]

Meet the next generation of AI superstars

September 19, 2023
So smart! So talented! This week I’m pleased to introduce you to a new crop of bright minds working on some of the most challenging problems in AI and beyond. You can read MIT Technology Review’s full list of 35 Innovators Under 35 here.  We’ve previously highlighted some of the most promising people in tech before…

YC says visa challenges hampering participation of international founders

September 19, 2023
The most recent cohort from Y Combinator features more than 200 startups. The S23 batch stands out for several reasons. More than half of these startups focus on AI applications, highlighting a dominant trend we can expect in the coming years. It’s also remarkable for at least one more reason: only one startup from the […]

IFC leads $5M extension round in Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform ANKA

September 19, 2023
ANKA, an Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform for African businesses, has raised $5 million. The pre-Series A extension round is a mix of equity and debt; last January, ANKA, formerly Afrikrea, raised $6.2 million. The seven-year-old startup has secured $13.5 million from investors since its inception. In a statement, ANKA said it will use the fresh […]