Juna.ai wants to use AI agents to make factories more energy-efficient

AI agents are all the rage, a trend driven by the generative AI and large language model (LLM) boom these past few years. Getting people to agree on what exactly AI agents are is a challenge, but most contend they are software programs that can be assigned tasks and given decisions to make — with

India’s HealthKart valued at $500M in new investment

Indian nutrition startup HealthKart’s valuation has surged to about $500 million in a new all-secondary investment of $153 million, two sources familiar with the matter told technewss. The investment, one of the largest for an Indian consumer startup this year, was co-led by private equity

The Exploration Company raises $160M to build Europe's answer to SpaceX Dragon 

Only two companies currently provide cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station, and both are based in the United States. The Exploration Company, which operates out of Germany, France, and Italy, is looking to change that: It just closed a large funding round to further its mission

Norwegian startup Factiverse wants to fight disinformation with AI

In the wake of the U.S. 2024 presidential election, one fact became clear: Disinformation proliferated online at a startling rate, shaping Americans' views about each candidate as well as a diverse set of topics, including public health, climate change, and immigration. Generative AI — with

Precursor’s Charles Hudson believes founders should test their investors

Charles Hudson, managing partner of Precursor Ventures, told an audience at AfroTech the basics of knowing when to invest: A company should have product-market fit and some form of traction.  But the next thing he said garnered some surprised looks from the audience: Founders should test inve

Robust AI's Carter Pro robot is designed to work with, and be moved by, humans

Two things are immediately notable when watching the Carter Pro robot navigate the aisles of the demo warehouse inside Robust AI's San Carlos, California, headquarters. The first is the shelving units: standardized, modular, and off-the-shelf. The wire frames will look familiar to anyone who h

The best tech for plant lovers

House plants are great. They can also be hard. All of those stress-reducing self-care qualities they promise tend to fade into the background when they suddenly turn brown for seemingly no reason. Unlike pets and human children, they can't bug you when something is wrong. They just sort of wit

Consumer tech is bouncing back, and consumer founders like Brynn Putnam are bouncing back with it

When Brynn Putnam sold her last company, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million at the start of the pandemic, it looked to this editor like she'd sold the smart fitness company too soon.  Instead, the timing proved brilliant. The home fitness craze crashed nearly as abruptly as it peaked d

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight shows Netflix still struggles with live events

Viewers have been talking about Friday evening's boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul — but probably not for the reasons Netflix was hoping. Yes, the 27-year-old Paul (a YouTuber turned professional boxer) defeated the 58-year-old Tyson (a former heavyweight champion who came out of

Best gifts for frequent travelers

What's the best gift you can get someone? Why, the gift of travel, of course. The next best is something to enhance the travel experience. As fun and enlightening as seeing new places is, the whole part of getting there can detract from the overall experience, especially for those who find them

Botinkit's robot wants to cook for you

Warehouses aren’t the only places grappling with a labor crunch. Since the start of the pandemic, restaurants around the world have been grappling with staffing shortages. A number of startups have entered the picture with automation solutions, aimed at reducing the number of hands required t

SpaceX Starship: Everything you’ve ever wondered but were afraid to ask

SpaceX's massive Starship rocket has the potential to transform the commercial space economy, ensure America's position as the global leaders in the space race, and put humans on Mars for the first time. But first it has to get to orbit. This is becoming much more likely as the Starsh

T-Mobile hack linked to Chinese breaches of telecom networks

U.S. phone giant T-Mobile was hacked as part of a broad cyberattack on U.S. and international phone and internet companies in recent months, according to the Wall Street Journal. T-Mobile said it was “closely monitoring this industry-wide attack, and at this time, T-Mobile systems and data h

What a second Trump term means for the future of ransomware

The U.S. government has made big strides over the past four years in the ongoing fight against the “scourge of ransomware,” as President Joe Biden described it. At the start of his term, Biden and his administration were quick to declare ransomware a national security threat, unlocking new pow