Author: bibhuti

In a blog post that lays out a vision for crypto’s future, ranging from a “new financial system” to warnings about “opaque” AI, a16z crypto announced a new $2.2 billion fund. This is the VC firm’s fifth fund and brings the total raised to date to $9.8 billion, it says. In addition, the fund also promoted its CTO, Eddy Lazzarin, to general partner, bringing the GP investing team to four people. Lazzarin joins Chris Dixon, Ali Yahya, and Guy Wuollet. The fund has backed standout companies like Coinbase, Kalshi, and Solana Foundation. The timing of this news is a bit…

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Thirty-eight science educators representing seven school districts across Virginia’s Tidewater region joined forces with community organizations, such as the Elizabeth River Project, to deepen their instructional practice through a dynamic collaboration between NASA eClips and the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) Program. Together, these groups are cultivating a regional STEM ecosystem that connects classrooms, community science, and NASA resources in meaningful and lasting ways. As part of NASA’s Science Activation Program, NASA eClips engages educators and learners with standards-aligned resources grounded in authentic NASA science. Complementing this work, the GLOBE Program empowers participants to contribute to…

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Companies working on batteries, semiconductors, and medical devices generate vast amounts of data — and much of it ends up scattered across spreadsheets and legacy systems, making it hard to use to improve products or understand failures. San Francisco-based startup Altara, which just secured $7 million in seed funding, says it has built an AI layer designed to bridge these data gaps and bring fragmented technical information into a single platform. The round was led by Greylock, with participation from Neo, BoxGroup, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Jeff Dean. Altara was founded in 2025 by Eva Tuecke (pictured right), who previously…

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Forward Industries and crypto investment company RockawayX have co-led a strategic investment in OnRe, a startup building reinsurance infrastructure on the Solana blockchain, in a move aimed at bringing traditional risk-transfer markets onto decentralized rails.The companies said Tuesday they co-led OnRe’s $5 million Series A round, with Forward planning to allocate up to $25 million into the platform’s yield-bearing token on Solana.The funding will be used to expand OnRe’s platform and attract more institutional participants to onchain reinsurance, a niche but emerging segment within decentralized finance.OnRe is attempting to shift parts of the reinsurance market — where insurers offload risk…

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Franco Manca has confirmed that its Hove restaurant, located on Church Road, will shut, after a restructuring plan was approved by creditors. The restaurant’s parent firm The Fulham Shore said it planned to close the sites as part of a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) process, which will hit around 225 jobs. A vote on the CVA proposal was backed by more than 90 per cent of creditors. Marcel Khan, chief executive of The Fulham Shore, said: “We are grateful for the support shown by our creditors today. “Franco Manca is a fantastic brand with a strong heritage and loyal customer…

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Unreliable electricity costs African economies an estimated 2 to 4 percent of GDP every year. Businesses cannot plan production schedules around power that cuts out unpredictably. Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, who chairs Inmā Emirates Holdings, has built an investment portfolio targeting precisely these markets where infrastructure absence constrains economic participation. Without functioning ports, agricultural exports rot at inland collection points while shipping containers sit empty at berths too congested to process them. Without digital identity systems, rural populations remain locked out of formal banking, insurance and government services. Without stable power, manufacturers cannot commit to delivery schedules that international…

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As Bumble gets ready for a big overhaul meant to win back Gen Z users (who are pretty over dating apps right now), its latest earnings still reports that paying users are declining. In the first quarter of 2026, total paying users fell 21.1% to 3.2 million, down from 4 million a year ago.  This has been the story for a few quarters now. However, during the call to investors this afternoon, Bumble has framed this as a deliberate shift toward higher-quality, more intentional users. So while total revenue dropped 14.1% to $212.4 million (though it did beat expectations), and…

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Nuro has been granted a permit to begin driverless testing of Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with its autonomous tech on California public roads — vehicles that will eventually be used in Uber’s premium robotaxi service. But the Silicon Valley-based startup, backed by Nvidia and Uber, says it isn’t quite ready to begin. The California Department of Motor Vehicles, the agency that regulates the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles in the state, confirmed to TechCrunch on Tuesday that it modified Nuro’s driverless AV permit to include Lucid Gravity vehicles. Nuro has held a driverless permit for six years, but it…

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By OpenAI COO’s own admission last February, ‘we have not yet really seen AI penetrate enterprise business processes.’ But for enterprise software giant SAP, whose stock has dropped significantly in 2026 in part from the ‘SaaSpocalypse’, the issue is still front and center. On Monday, the European heavyweight announced its intention to acquire German AI startup Prior Labs for an undisclosed amount. Pending regulatory approval, SAP plans to invest €1 billion (approximately $1.16 billion) into the business over the next four years to grow it into an AI lab focused on structured data — the tables and databases where enterprise…

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