September 2023

Boxbot pivots from last-mile trucks to robotical parcel storage

September 18, 2023
I love a good pivot story. It’s something most startups will confront at some point or other, if they’re going to make it long term. In a category where luck, timing and market forces are at least half the battle, you’ve got to be willing to roll with the punches. Boxbot has been kicking around […]

How new tech is helping people circumvent digital authoritarianism

September 18, 2023
This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. I want to talk about the battle that’s raging every day between people who want to censor online content and those who want to protect…

Procurement management platform Levelpath raises $30M

September 18, 2023
Back in 2014, Stan Garber and Alex Yakubovich set out to reinvent the request for proposals (RFP) process with the launch of Scout RFP, which provides a cloud-based sourcing solution designed to help organizations source faster — and, ideally, easier. Scout RFP was acquired by Workday in 2019, and Garber and Yakubovich decided to stay […]

Dragos raises $74M to secure industrial control systems from threats

September 18, 2023
Dragos, a company building software to secure the control systems for manufacturing and industrial equipment, has raised $74 million in a Series D round extension led by WestCap. The round, which brings Dragos’ total raised to $440 million, leaves the startup’s post-money valuation unchanged for the second year at $1.7 billion. Dragos CEO Robert Lee […]

Roam unveils new EV bus model to tap Kenya’s mass transit sector

September 18, 2023
Kenya-based EV startup Roam has unveiled a new shuttle bus model dubbed Move, coming as the East African country continues to push for the adoption of electric vehicles. Roam (formerly Opibus) now plans to ramp up its production of the Move bus, and expand its charging infrastructure as it anticipates a growth in EV bus […]

Prosus, Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk abruptly steps down

September 18, 2023
Bob van Dijk, the chief executive of Dutch e-commerce investor Prosus and its controlling shareholder Naspers, has stepped down from his position effective immediately in a surprising move at the firms that own and are major backers of several large commerce firms globally. Ervin Tu, presently Prosus’ Group Chief Investment Officer, has been promoted as […]