January 10, 2025

How the US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. This week marks a strange anniversary—it’s five years since most of us first heard about a virus causing a mysterious “pneumonia.” A virus that we later learned could…

Construction equipment marketplace raises a $17.5M Series A led by Beringea

October 11, 2022

Back in 2020 I covered how the UK startup Yardlink – which allows construction companies to obtain critical equipment faster than normal equipment rental companies – had raised it’s Seed round. It was basically bringing a digital-first, marketplace approach to an industry normal hide-bound by a slow, centralized hire market. Two years later, and Yardlink […]

Construction equipment marketplace raises a $17.5M Series A led by Beringea by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch

Nigerian data and intelligence company Stears raises $3.3M, backed by Mac VC and Serena Ventures

October 11, 2022

While studying at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford, a group of graduates noticed how difficult it was to get data and information on Africa’s largest economy and their home country, Nigeria. Each had different yet complementary skills — Michael Famoroti, an economist; Bode Ogunlana, a software engineer; Abdul Abdulrahim, a […]

Nigerian data and intelligence company Stears raises $3.3M, backed by Mac VC and Serena Ventures by Tage Kene-Okafor originally published on TechCrunch

Thai beauty platform Konvy raises Series A for international expansion

October 11, 2022

Founded 10 years ago, Konvy is now Thailand’s top beauty e-commerce platform. It plans to accelerate its omnichannel and international distribution with a new Series A of $10 million from Insignia Ventures Partners. Konvy was launched in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur QingGui Huang, who previously managed fashion e-commerce platforms in China. It now works with […]

Thai beauty platform Konvy raises Series A for international expansion by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Singapore-based staffing platform Workmate acquired by Persol Asia Pacific

October 11, 2022

Workmate, a Singapore-based on-demand staffing platform, has been acquired by Persol Asia Pacific, one of the region’s largest HR service providers. Workmate focuses on frontline and essential workers, and the acquisition will allow it to expand its HR solutions throughout the Asia Pacific. Workmate currently operates in Thailand and Indonesia and is expanding operations into […]

Singapore-based staffing platform Workmate acquired by Persol Asia Pacific by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

AgriWebb’s software seeks to boost yields, lower environmental impacts for farmers and ranchers

October 10, 2022

AgriWebb is on a mission to help livestock producers feed the world efficiently, profitably and sustainably by providing its comprehensive, ground-truth database for beef production worldwide. The Australian startup, which builds a livestock management platform for ranchers and farmers, wants to digitize farm records and the meat production process from the cow to the consumer […]

AgriWebb’s software seeks to boost yields, lower environmental impacts for farmers and ranchers by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch

Great, now the AI is coming for your grandma’s recipes as well!

October 10, 2022

We’ve seen AIs create music, pornography and art. The Estonian startup Yummy started off creating a meal-kit startup, but along the way created an AI that can create and adapt recipes based on your taste and dietary restrictions, complete with AI-generated images of what your dishes might look like. “Imagine a world where you would […]

Great, now the AI is coming for your grandma’s recipes as well! by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch