French startup Leavy.co raised $14m in seed funding, with an app to help travelers rent out their home while away
The Paris-based travel tech platform Leavy.co has disclosed a seed funding round that earned $14m earlier this year, according to TechCrunch. The company says it’s the most seed funding ever earned in a round by a travel tech startup. The platform allows travelers to rent out their home while away, and is geared toward millennials who […]
Investment in Europe’s tech startups surged 40 percent to a record $34.3 billion this year
European startups earned a record level of investment in 2019, drawing $34.3 billion in venture capital since the start of the year, according to the latest “State of European Tech” report from the London-based VC firm Atomico. It’s a 40 percent increase from the year before, and occurred even as US and Asian markets saw investment slowing. […]
French startup Angell unveils advanced, connected e-bike with integrated dashboard screen
The French startup Angell revealed its first e-bike this week, a ‘smart bike’ with advanced design and features, according to TechCrunch. The company is positioning itself to take advantage of an opportunity in the French market, where their data shows only 2 percent of commuters travel cities by bike, compared to 31 percent in the Netherlands […]
Instagram expands test run to hide the number of ‘likes’ earned by posts
Instagram is expanding its testing of a new policy hiding the number of ‘likes’ received by a post, from an initial set of countries to select users in the rest of the world. It could be the final step in testing before the change is applied to all of the platform’s users worldwide, according to The Independent. […]
E-scooter startup Voi raises $85 million in Series B funding round
Swedish e-scooter startup Voi has raised $85 million in a Series B funding round, to expand their e-scooter and e-bike network in Europe, according to TechCrunch. First launched in 2018, the company provides services in 38 cities in ten European countries, offering e-scooter and e-bike sharing. They say they have 4 million registered users and […]
Airbnb will now verify all of its listings, in sweeping policy shift
Airbnb will verify every one of its rental listings by the end of 2020, in a reversal of long-standing company policy, according to The Verge. For over a decade, the home-sharing platform has relied on agreements between guests and their hosts. The move follows a fatal mass shooting at one of its rentals this month, as […]
UK startup Medopad raises $25 million in Series B funding, led by Bayer
The UK-based startup Medopad has raised $25 million in a Series B funding round led by the pharmaceutical giant Bayer, to predict and track the development of chronic diseases using big data analysis, according to TechCrunch and VentureBeat. With AI analysis of vast sets of data from wearable and mobile devices, Medopad’s app tracks “biomarkers” in patients that […]
UK agtech startup WeFarm raises $13m in Series A funding round
London based startup WeFarm has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round, to build its network of smallholder farmers, agricultural suppliers, services, and informational resources, according to TechCrunch and EU-startups.com. Globally, there are more than one billion people involved in smallholder farming, making it the world’s largest industry. Together, these farmers grow roughly 70 percent […]
Volkswagen aims to surpass Tesla with expanded production of electric cars
Volkswagen is stepping up electric car production to compete with Tesla, aiming to produce roughly 1 million electric vehicles by 2022, according to Reuters. Production will be concentrated at two factories in China, with a combined production capacity of 600,000 vehicles. Tesla is building its own new plant in Shanghai, as part of an effort to […]
Google researchers report major breakthrough in quantum computing
Google has announced an unprecedented breakthrough in quantum computing, with a quantum processor performing a complex calculation in a fraction of the time they say it would have taken the world’s most powerful conventional supercomputers, according to Reuters. Google’s 54-qubit Sycamore processor performed the calculation in 200 seconds, compared to the 10,000 years they say it […]