December 26, 2024

This international surveillance project aims to protect wheat from deadly diseases

When Dave Hodson walked through wheat fields in Ethiopia in 2010, it seemed as if everything had been painted yellow. A rust fungus was in the process of infecting about one-third of the country’s wheat, and winds had carried its spores far and wide, coating everything in their path. “The fields were completely yellow. You’d…

Speedinvest closes fourth fund at $380 million to back early-stage startups in Europe

January 31, 2024

Vienna-based early-stage VC Speedinvest has closed its fourth early-stage fund, Speedinvest 4, at €350 million (around $380 million at today’s exchange rate), surpassing the initial goal of €300 million ($325 million). This follows the final €50 million close supported by several new institutional investors including, Aviva, PwC Germany, Bitburger, ODDO BHF, and Abeille Assurances Ventures. […]

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5,000 or Bust! is New Stock Market Slogan

January 31, 2024
The S&P 500 (SPY) is adding to the gains from 2023 early in the new year. However, not every group is participating. In fact, small and mid caps are in…

India’s central bank orders Paytm’s Payments Bank to stop accepting customer deposits

January 31, 2024

The Reserve Bank of India has directed Paytm’s Payments Bank to cease deposits, credit transactions and top-ups in customer accounts, prepaid instruments and wallets after February 29 in new strict penalties after the central bank found the firm to be in non-compliance with an earlier embargo. Wednesday’s move follows the Indian central bank ordering Paytm […]

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Why BYD is breaking into shipping

January 31, 2024
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. For people who have been watching BYD for a long time, it won’t be surprising that the company has just ventured into a new field.  The Chinese electric-vehicle maker has been particularly…

How new magnets could accelerate climate action

January 31, 2024
The motor in your vacuum cleaner and the one in your electric vehicle likely have at least one thing in common: they both rely on powerful permanent magnets to function. And the materials for those magnets could soon be in short supply.  Permanent magnets can maintain a magnetic field on their own without an electric…

Sundar Pichai says Google One cloud storage service has nearly 100M subscribers

January 31, 2024

Google CEO Sudar Pichai said that the company’s Google One cloud storage service is ” just about to cross” 100 million subscribers. Speaking during Alphabet’s Q4 2023 earning call, Pichai added that the company is looking to add more AI-powered features to the Google One service. The search giant first launched Google One in 2018. […]

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Accel eyes new India fashion e-commerce bet with Newme

January 31, 2024

Accel, an early investor in Indian e-commerce giants Flipkart and Myntra, is preparing a new fashion e-commerce bet in India even as competition intensifies with the recent expansion of Mukesh Ambani’s Ajio platform. Accel is in advanced talks to lead a $15-20 million funding round into Newme, an Indian fast-fashion e-commerce startup, according to four […]

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Wattpad, a storytelling platform, conducts another layoff round

January 31, 2024

Wattpad, a Toronto-based storytelling platform owned by Naver’s Webtoon Entertainment, conducted another round of layoffs earlier this month.  Wattpad has cut less than 30 jobs, or roughly 15% of its workforce, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch. According to local media outlets, including The Korea Economic Daily, the cut impacted about 30 employees. A […]

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Elon Musk’s $56B Tesla pay deal is unfair, judge rules

January 31, 2024

A Delaware judge ruled Tuesday that Elon Musk’s $56 billion multi-billion pay package is unfair, voiding the largest in compensation deal in corporate history. The decision, issued Tuesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery by Judge Kathaleen McCormick, means that Musk, the world’s richest person, can’t keep the 2018 compensation package. The ruling can be […]

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