Roam raises $24M to scale electric vehicle production in Kenya
Roam, an EV startup based in Kenya, has raised $24 million in a Series A round, including up to $10 million debt commitment from the U.S International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), to scale the production of electric motorcycles and buses. Equator, an Africa-focused climate tech VC fund, led the round,
Read moreSurprise! Mark Zuckerberg thinks Quest 3 is better than Vision Pro
Mark Zuckerberg tried Apple’s Vision Pro headset and his verdict is that the Meta Quest 3 is a better product. Shocking, right? In a video posted on his Instagram account, recorded with Quest 3’s passthrough, the Meta CEO said before trying out the headset he thought that Quest 3 would
Read moreExploring the inclusive tech revolution
On this sponsored episode of the podcast, Ben and Ryan chat with Maya Sellon, inclusive design and digital accessibility principal at Shell, about how she’s scaling accessibility and inclusive design practice across an organization the size of Shell. They talk about how knowing the accessibility issues is half the battle,
Read moreAndrej Karpathy is leaving OpenAI again — but he says there was no drama
Andrej Karpathy, a widely respected research scientist, announced today that he has left OpenAI. This is the second time Karpathy has left the top AI firm and his departure is not because of any event, issue or drama, he said. Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI, initially left the company
Read moreFoundry Group is shutting down and won’t raise another fund
Foundry Group, an 18-year-old venture firm with nearly $3.5 billion in assets under management, has quietly decided to shut down and not raise any more funds. The move was unexpected considering that the firm announced a $500 million fund last year. Boulder, Colorado-based Foundry first announced that its current fund
Read moreIntuitive Machines to take its shot at reaching the moon with first private lunar lander
Intuitive Machines is looking to succeed where past ventures have failed with its inaugural lunar lander mission, which would mark the first time a private company has landed a spacecraft on the moon — ever. The mission is poised to lift off on a SpaceX rocket at 12:57 a.m. EST
Read moreAirbnb plans to use AI, including its GamePlanner acquisition, to create the ‘ultimate concierge’
In November, Airbnb acquired a stealth AI firm launched by Siri’s co-founder, called GamePlanner.AI. The deal valued the secretive startup at around $200 million, according to reports. Though the hosting company didn’t telegraph its plans for GamePlanner at the time, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky today shared a high-level
Read moreWaymo recalls and updates robotaxi software after two cars crashed into the same towed truck
Waymo is voluntarily recalling the software that powers its robotaxi fleet after two vehicles crashed into the same towed pickup truck in Phoenix, Arizona, in December. It’s the company’s first recall. Waymo chief safety officer Mauricio Peña described the crashes as “minor” in a blog post, and said neither vehicle
Read moreAirbnb is making progress to get rid of those hated cleaning fees
Airbnb is slowly killing the cleaning fee as it aims for more transparent pricing. Since early last year, when the company started showing guests all-inclusive pricing when booking a property, almost 300,000 listings have removed or lowered cleaning fees, Airbnb said in its earnings report today. Now, nearly 40% of
Read moreInstacart lays off 250 employees, or 7% of its workforce, to ‘reshape’ company
Grocery-delivery giant Instacart announced today that it’s laying off around 250 employees, or roughly 7% of its global workforce, as part of a restructuring. Instacart CEO Fidji Simo said in a letter to investors that the layoffs will allow the company to streamline how it operates. The company announced the
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