Technology

This biohacking company is using a crypto city to test controversial gene therapies

February 13, 2023
The advertisement—posted on Mirror, a Web3 publishing platform, in March last year—outlined an eye-catching if perhaps confusing proposal: “Access NFTs for a follistatin plasmid phase I clinical trial in Prospera ZEDE, Honduras.” The ad had been posted by a biotech startup called Minicircle, which was recruiting participants for a clinical trial of gene therapy. But…

Restoring an ancient lake from the rubble of an unfinished airport in Mexico City

February 13, 2023
When the Mexica people left their ancestral land of Aztlán in search of a new home, they were following orders from the sun god Huitzilopochtli. In 1325, the god’s prophecy brought them to a salty swamp at the lowest dip of the Valley of Mexico. “Among the reeds and bushes they spotted an eagle perched…

Cleantech Qotto embarks on growth plan backed by $8M funding

February 13, 2023

Qotto, a solar kits provider with operations in Burkina Faso and Benin, has raised $8 million in a Series A equity-debt round led by the IBL group, a billion-dollar conglomerate headquartered in Mauritius with business interests in a number of sectors including energy, financial services, logistics, distribution, and engineering. The Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (FEI-OGEF), […]

Cleantech Qotto embarks on growth plan backed by $8M funding by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

BuuPass raises $1.3M to scale mobility sector digitization in Africa

February 13, 2023

The public transport sector in Kenya is largely traditional and a majority of operators, especially those in road travel, still require their clients to physically book tickets at their offices even when making advance travel plans. Others do not have provisions for seat reservation. Looking to bridge the gap, booking platforms are emerging in the […]

BuuPass raises $1.3M to scale mobility sector digitization in Africa by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

Two-year-old Zeekr raises $750M at $13B valuation

February 13, 2023

At a time when venture capital funding is slowing in China, EV is one of the few sectors that are still keeping investors excited. Case in point, Zeekr, the luxury electric vehicle brand of China’s largest private carmaker Geely, announced Monday that investors have committed to investing $750 million in its Series A funding round. […]

Two-year-old Zeekr raises $750M at $13B valuation by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch

Tesla’s biggest hater airs Super Bowl ad against FSD

February 13, 2023

Safety advocacy group The Dawn Project is taking its campaign to ban Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system to the Super Bowl. The 30-second ad, which is broadcasting to millions of football fans in Washington D.C. and state capitals like Austin, Tallahassee, Albany, Atlanta and Sacramento, outlines several alleged critical safety defects of Tesla FSD, the […]

Tesla’s biggest hater airs Super Bowl ad against FSD by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

AI comes to expense reports

February 12, 2023

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. […]

AI comes to expense reports by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

Cities, cycles and San Francisco’s ‘return’

February 11, 2023

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. “San Francisco is back!” “It never left.” “It’s been long dead.” They’re all takes, none particularly good, yet all insinuating a degree of self-importance that […]

Cities, cycles and San Francisco’s ‘return’ by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch

AI is coming to your Bing and Google searches, Apple’s M2 chip and Super Bowl streaming

February 11, 2023

Ahoy, all. Welcome back to the latest edition of Week in Review, the newsletter where we point you to some of the most-read TechCrunch stories from the past seven days. Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning (which, not for nothin’, used to be cartoon time for this Gen Xer)? Here’s the link. And […]

AI is coming to your Bing and Google searches, Apple’s M2 chip and Super Bowl streaming by Henry Pickavet originally published on TechCrunch