Startup Monday: Latest tech trends and news happening in the global startup ecosystem
#19
Startup, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Medtech, Founders
Those 14 startups making European fashion sustainable. Sweden’s Material Exchange has become the latest startup to raise money in the field of sustainable fashion, closing a €5m round for its business to help streamline the supply chain processes of fashion brands. Read more
Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel has backed a Berlin start-up aiming to make psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders in a $125 million funding round. Almost a billion people suffer from mental health problems worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Of the 322 million people globally that have depression, roughly a third are treatment-resistant, according to fellow company co-founder Brand. Read more
Payments Startup Stripe in Talks for Funding at $70 Billion Valuation, according to CB Insights. Read more
The AI in cybersecurity market is projected to generate a revenue of $101.8 billion in 2030, increasing from $8.6 billion in 2019, progressing at a 25.7% CAGR during 2020–2030, ResearchAndMarkets reveals.Read more
A Danish company planning to manufacture small modular reactors raised about 20 million euros ($24 million) to bring a floating nuclear power station to southeast Asia. Read more
97% of the companies said they have seen measurable benefits from the implementation of AI. For this reason, and as a result of the pandemic, 78% of business leaders affirmed that they will continue to invest in AI in the way they did before COVID-19 , and one in five said that they even plan to increase their investment. Read more
Top Free AI & Data Science Courses Launched In 2020 Read more
Restaurant tech start-up Toast soars to $8 billion valuations seven months after cutting half its staff. Read more
Despite security concerns, some still believe that blockchain-based voting systems will be leveraged in major elections moving forward. Tapscott noted that a blockchain system relies on distributed network computers to verify transactions. Once verified, results are recorded in blocks that are linked cryptographically to the preceding block. A secure ledger is then formed, which is transparent to all network participants, yet remains immutable and tamper-proof. This feature is also important for ensuring that individuals only cast a single vote, as blockchain-based systems are meant to prevent double-spending. Read more
Meet Bigblue, a French startup that just raised a $3.6 million seed round (€3 million) to build an end-to-end fulfillment solution in Europe. If you sell products on your own website and across multiple marketplaces, you can use Bigblue to handle everything that happens after a transaction. Read more
Slack’s stock climbs on possible Salesforce acquisition. Slack shares are up just under 25% at the moment, according to Yahoo Finance data. Slack is worth $36.95 per share as of the time of writing, valuing it at around $20.8 billion. The well-known former unicorn has been worth as little as $15.10 per share inside the last year and worth as much as $40.07. Read more
Only 11% of the cybersecurity workforce is female. The KnowBe4 Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship will offer $10,000 to be applied to tuition, fees, books, and required electronics for the recipient. Read more
In its recent S-1 filing for an IPO, Airbnb declared an interest in a number of emerging technologies, including tokenization, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain. Read more
Alloverse, a Swedish VR startup developing an open-source platform for virtual collaboration, has closed its pre-seed round at €250K. The startup has an ambitious mission of building the future of the 3D internet by keeping their technology open and growing a global community of VR/AR enthusiasts. Read more
BOOKR, the Hungarian edtech startup working for literacy, receives over €2 million in funding. Read more
French cleantech startup PowerUp nabs €5 million to grow across France and Europe. Read more
London-based RevLifter raises €3.6 million to encourage online retailers to deliver AI-driven personalized deals for customers. Read more
Worldwide sales of service robotics exceeded $17 billion (approx £13 billion) in 2019, and this rapid and exponentially growing market is forecast to top $55 billion (approx £41 billion) by 2023, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Read more
7 investors discuss augmented reality and VR startup opportunities in 2020. Some investors who are bullish on AR have opted to focus on virtual reality, for now, believing that there’s a good amount of crossover between AR and VR software and that they can make safer bets on VR startups today that will be able to take advantage of AR hardware when it’s introduced. Read more
The German government approved a massive investment of state capital to promote start-ups in the country. The 2021 budget will see the government provide €2.4 billion via Germany’s developmental bank, and other channels to help new and growing companies scale up their activities. The government has committed to investing a total of €10 billion between next year and 2030. It is hoped that this financial infusion will create an additional €20 billion in private venture capital investments. Read more
