February 7, 2025

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.  The payment reports have been…

Technology

With its planet-friendly protein, Farmless wants to dramatically outperform animal agriculture

May 10, 2023

Dutch startup Farmless has today announced that it has raised a €1.2 million pre-seed equity round at an undisclosed valuation to bring to our tables proteins created without the need for traditional farming operations. The climate crisis means that it has never been more pressing to develop alternative food sources in order to both protect […]

With its planet-friendly protein, Farmless wants to dramatically outperform animal agriculture by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

Sound Ventures has already plugged half its new $240 million AI fund into three companies

May 10, 2023

Sound Ventures, the eight-year-old, Beverly Hills, Ca.,-based venture firm led by general partners Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Effie Epstein, announced a new $240 million AI fund just last week. Turns out half of it is already invested in the three companies that it announced at the time that it rolled out the fund: OpenAI, […]

Sound Ventures has already plugged half its new $240 million AI fund into three companies by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch

Ascend raises $25 million for pre-seed AI startups in the Pacific Northwest

May 9, 2023

Investing in artificial intelligence (AI) startups is the latest bandwagon VCs are piling onto. But as last year’s crypto experts quickly work to rebrand as AI experts, they’ll have to compete with the VCs who have been investing in the category all along. Seattle-based Ascend is one of them. Firm founder and solo GP Kirby […]

Ascend raises $25 million for pre-seed AI startups in the Pacific Northwest by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch

EV maker Rivian narrows losses in Q1, beats on revenue

May 9, 2023

Rivian may still be burning through cash, but its managed to narrow losses and generate more revenue as the automaker sells more of its EVs while paring down costs. Rivian reported Tuesday $661 million in revenue in the first quarter, a nearly seven-fold increase from the same period last year when it was plagued by […]

EV maker Rivian narrows losses in Q1, beats on revenue by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

The UAE’s transition to a net-zero future

May 9, 2023
As the impacts of climate change like desertification, biodiversity loss, pollution, and severe weather persist, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is approaching the green transition and decarbonization with a great sense of urgency. Between its ratification of the 2015 Paris Agreement, its $160 billion investment in renewables over the next 30 years, and its green…

Charlie’s new banking app aims to help seniors ‘make the most of their limited resources’

May 9, 2023

Different demographics often have different banking needs. So it’s no surprise that we have seen a flurry of financial technology startups offering banking services catered to certain populations based on factors such as age and ethnicity. For example, numerous fintech startups cater to younger users – from Greenlight to Step to Current and now, Acorns. […]

Charlie’s new banking app aims to help seniors ‘make the most of their limited resources’ by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

Liquidity Group, a debt financier for growth stages, raises another $40M and aims for Europe

May 9, 2023

Last year we covered how late-stage tech backer Liquidity Group had raised $775M for its fintech platform from Apollo (private equity) and MUFG (a Japanese bank). Liquidity is part tech platform and part lender, using its technology to make decisions on deploying debt facilities and other financial solutions from $5M to 100M relatively quickly compared […]

Liquidity Group, a debt financier for growth stages, raises another $40M and aims for Europe by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch

Eventbrite integrates GPT capabilites into platform to aid the event planning process

May 9, 2023

Eventbrite, an event management and ticketing website, announced Monday new GPT-powered tools that will help event creators with arguably some of the most tedious, time-consuming steps in event planning—event pages, email campaigns and social media ads. The features will roll out this month. Now, users can create an event page on Eventbrite with automatically generated […]

Eventbrite integrates GPT capabilites into platform to aid the event planning process by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch