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Quick Hits
AI love: Dating app features no humans.
Caffeine + charge: Starbucks adds Benz fill-ups.
Changing film: Generative cinema arrives.
Claude for all: Chatbot goes Android.
Connecting India: LinkedIn introduces video shorts.
Culture boom: K-content spending soars.
Crypto surge: Currencies ride Bitcoin rally.
Fighting frenzy: Evo expects record crowd.
G → Wiz: Google nears $23B Wiz acquisition.
iFund 2.0: Anthropic launches Anthology Fund.
Indian summer: Apple revenue soars 33%.
Leaving Cali.: SpaceX, X move to Texas.
Less force: Salesforce slashes 300 jobs.
Open to investigation: OpenAI’s NDAs scrutinized.
Phone breach: AT&T customer data hacked.
Space rhapsody: NASA beams Missy Elliott to Venus.
Urban air: Air taxis planned for California.
Trending Startups
European dreams
VC investment in Europe is up 12% so far this year, boosted by AI companies — though the energy sector still leads. England leads with $9.4B so far this year, ahead of France, home of Mistral. U.K.-based AI startups account for 22% of the country’s innovation ecosystem value and worth $256B. “We are in the very early innings of one of the largest technology sea changes in history,” one VC says.
Digging the moon
Seattle-based Interlune is one of 11 startups receiving NASA grants to test commercial tech in space. The startup plans to use its $350k grant to pulverize lunar soil, or “regolith,” to extract a form of helium that could be used in quantum computing and fusion power.
Cutting cooling costs
U.S.-based Montana Technologies believes it has cracked the code to efficient air conditioning with its novel dehumidifier — a big deal considering that about 10% of the world’s energy is used for cooling.
Cream of the language crop
Swift, Finch, and Zig are emerging as must-know languages for programmers, according to some experts, and can greatly increase a candidate’s pay potential.
Recently Funded
- Nairobi’s Bio-Logical Raises $1.3M for Climate Tech
- San Francisco’s Echo Chunk Raises $1.4M for Wordle-style Chess
- Mumbai-based Icanheal Raises $1.8M for Healthcare Financing
- Los Angeles-based Making Space Raises $2M for B2B SaaS Talent
- Austin-based Modicus Prime Raises $3.5M for Computer Vision
- Singapore's PEXX Raises $4.5M for Stablecoin-to-Fiat Platform
- Gurugram-based Boon Nets $5M for IoT Drinking Water Solutions
- Boston-based Predicta Biosciences Raises $5.2M for Precision Oncology
- São Paulo-based Caliza Raises $8.5M for Real-Time Money Transfers
- San Francisco’s Medal Raises $13M for Contextual AI Assistant
- Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ario Raises $16M for AI Parenting Assistant
- Sweden's Leya AB Raises $25M to Transform Legal Services with AI
- London’s Switchee Raises $6.6M for Social Housing Technology
- Paris-based Spotlight Medical Raises $6.2M for AI-driven Prognosis Tests
Weekly Pulse
Post of the Week
What We’re Reading
What The Jetsons got right and wrong about the future of work (The Next Web)
A short history of AI, and what it is (and isn’t) (MIT Technology Review)
This HR company tried to treat AI bots like people — it didn’t go over well (The Verge)
TechCrunch Space: Space cowboys (TechCrunch)
How AI is fueling uncertainty for game developers (BBC News)
The Metaverse Was Supposed to Be Your New Office. You’re Still on Zoom (Wired)
Can we please stop talking about replacing employees with AI? (VentureBeat)
Poll of the Week
Podcasts of the Week
Reinventing Offboarding and Ending Awkward Exits with Rebecca Consolvo (HR Superstars)
How HR Can Be A More Strategic And Impactful Presence With HR Advisor Tracie Sponenberg (Voices of HR)
Shalin Madan, Formidium (Code Story)
How to Strengthen your Mental Armor with Lindsey Vonn (For Starters)
Startups Hiring Now
VSCO: Take your photography to the next level | 2 open roles
Cedar: Inspiring patient engagements enriched by intelligence | 13 open roles
StockX: The Stock Market Of Things | 16 open roles
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