December 24, 2025

Four bright spots in climate news in 2025

Climate news hasn’t been great in 2025. Global greenhouse-gas emissions hit record highs (again). This year is set to be either the second or third warmest on record. Climate-fueled disasters like wildfires in California and flooding in Indonesia and Pakistan devastated communities and caused billions in damage. In addition to these worrying indicators of our…

How Seedcamp’s networked approach to Europe helped it secure new $180M fund

May 17, 2023

European early-stage investor Seedcamp has announced the $180M close of its “Fund VI”. It’s a long way from a London university lecture hall 15 years ago in September, when Founding Partner and co-CEO Reshma Sohoni stood up and introduced the first Seedcamp cohort (Incidentally, this was the same day TechCrunch launched in Europe, and my first day […]

How Seedcamp’s networked approach to Europe helped it secure new $180M fund by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch

Insurtech bolttech gets $196M at $1.6B valuation from investors like MetLife

May 17, 2023

Embedded insurtech is still hot, as the $196 million in funding landed by bolttech proves. The company, which started in Singapore but now has operations around the world, said it is now valued at $1.6 billion. The funding was led by Tokio Marine, Japan’s first insurance company, and life insurance leader MetLife through its subsidiary […]

Insurtech bolttech gets $196M at $1.6B valuation from investors like MetLife by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

France’s privacy watchdog eyes protection against data-scraping in AI action plan

May 17, 2023

France’s privacy watchdog, the CNIL, has published an action plan for artificial intelligence which gives a snapshot of where it will be focusing its attention, including on generative AI technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, in the coming months and beyond. A dedicated Artificial Intelligence Service has been set up within the CNIL to work on scoping […]

France’s privacy watchdog eyes protection against data-scraping in AI action plan by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch

The WORST Stock Market Ever- Part 2

May 17, 2023
The S&P 500 (SPY) seems to be going nowhere. But that does not mean there is nothing happening. Nor does it mean there is not money to be made in…

Entro raises $6M to for its end-to-end secrets security solution

May 17, 2023

Entro, a Tel Aviv-based startup that is building a security platform that helps enterprises manage and protect their secrets like account credentials, certificates and API keys, today announced that it has raised a $6 million seed round led by StageOne Ventures and Hyperwise Ventures.  A number of angel investors, including Trusteer and Transmit Security founders […]

Entro raises $6M to for its end-to-end secrets security solution by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

Inside Tencent’s weirdly secretive customer service center

May 17, 2023
China Report is MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. It’s been a while. I just got back from several weeks in China. It was my first visit since the pandemic, and I noticed some changes: half the cars running on the streets of Shanghai…

Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo raise $192M in a joint round to boost cloud security business

May 17, 2023

Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo, two players in the world of physical cloud security — respectively video surveillance and access control systems to secure buildings and other physical spaces — are doubling down on their businesses… quite literally. The pair of U.S. companies — majority owned by the same individual, security entrepreneur Dean Drako — […]

Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo raise $192M in a joint round to boost cloud security business by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Google pushes ahead with in-app billing policy in India, insists watchdog compliance

May 17, 2023

Google said on Wednesday that its Google Play’s payments policy is compliant with the Indian watchdog’s order and it is moving ahead with plans to enforce the policy in the South Asian market, weeks after some developers sought to suspend Google’s in-app billing fee system alleging it was not compliant with the watchdog’s directive. “In […]

Google pushes ahead with in-app billing policy in India, insists watchdog compliance by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

Tiger Global-backed Axis launches digital payments platform for Egyptian SMEs months after its $8.25M seed 

May 17, 2023

Egyptian fintech Axis has launched its digital payments platform to the North African market after securing a license from the apex bank, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), for its open-loop mobile wallet, axisPay, which offers a digital banking alternative for small businesses and their employees.  This is coming almost 18 months after the startup received […]

Tiger Global-backed Axis launches digital payments platform for Egyptian SMEs months after its $8.25M seed  by Tage Kene-Okafor originally published on TechCrunch