As demand for lithium explodes, battery recycling startup Tozero sprints to scale with $11.7M seed

Tozero, a Munich-based startup that recovers valuable raw materials from recycled lithium-ion batteries, is gearing up to scale. The startup just closed an oversubscribed €11 million seed round (around $11.7M) to step up production by building its first industrial deployment (A.K.A first-of-a-kin

Ecosia and Qwant, two European search engines, join forces on an index to shrink reliance on Big Tech

Qwant, France’s privacy-focused search engine, and Ecosia, a Berlin-based not-for-profit search engine that uses ad revenue to fund tree planting and other climate-focused initiatives, are joining forces on a joint venture to develop their own European search index. The pair hopes this move

SmartBank secures $26M for its personal finance management app

The majority of the aging population in Japan still prefers using cash for transactions, according to a recent report citing government data. In 2023, cashless transactions in Japan totaled 126.7 trillion yen ($885 billion), accounting for 39.3 percent of all spending in the country, said the Japan

Indonesian VC firm Intudo raises $125M across two funds

Intudo, the Indonesia-only venture capital firm, said it has raised $125 million across two investment funds — $75 million for Intudo Ventures IV, and $50 million for another fund that will invest in downstream natural resources and renewable energy. Intudo said Fund IV will invest in Indonesian

Lightspeed doubles down on Wheelocity as it pivots to rural India commerce

While India’s urban population is shifting from mom-and-pop stores to quick commerce platforms, its rural side — home to more than 800 million people — still heavily relies on offline businesses for daily consumption. Wheelocity aims to transform that untapped market to let people living

Apple updates Find My to let you share locations of lost items

Apple will soon let users share the location of lost or missing items — such as an iPhone, MacBook, or something with an AirTag attached — via the Find My app with people who are not in their contacts using a link. The company is currently testing this feature on the iOS 18.2 public beta after

Amazon confirms employee data stolen after hacker claims MOVEit breach

Amazon has confirmed that employee data was compromised after a “security event” at a third-party vendor. In a statement given to technewss on Monday, Amazon spokesperson Adam Montgomery confirmed that employee information had been involved in a data breach. “Amazon and AW

SpaceX alums find traction on Earth with their Mars-inspired CO2-to-fuel tech

A trend has emerged among a small group of climate tech founders who start with their eyes fixed on space and soon realize their technology would do a lot more good here on Earth. Halen Mattison and Luke Neise fit the bill. Mattison spent time at SpaceX, while Neise worked at Vanderbilt Aerospace

Intuitive Machines CEO: ‘We now have the platform for a lunar economy’

Steve Altemus is optimistic. And as CEO of Intuitive Machines, which made history with the first ever successful moon landing performed by a private company, he has good reason. But that was just the opening act of his company’s plans to build “a full stack: all the pieces you need to c

The best gadgets for new homeowners

In August, I did something I never imagined myself doing: I bought a house. After spending most of my adult life in New York City, I moved a couple hours north to the Hudson Valley. It's been every bit as major an adjustment as I'd expected. Along with your standard new homeowner surprises

Meta taps US, UK universities to test VR in education, creates digital twin ‘metaversities’ in Europe

As part of an ongoing effort to embed virtual reality (VR) in education, Meta has launched a new partnership with a slew of universities in the U.S. and U.K., designed to provide feedback on a new product that Meta hopes will finally make VR just a little more mainstream. The new Meta for Educatio

From self-driving cars to AI that writes enterprise software: Cogna founder raises $15M

A founder who was an early mover in the race to build autonomous vehicles has raised $15 million for his next act: a startup that claims its AI can write enterprise software on its own. Cogna — as the U.K.-based startup is called — is led by Ben Peters, the technical co-founder of Five AI, a s

Swiggy’s public debut will test India’s appetite for $1B+ IPOs

Swiggy’s upcoming IPO on Wednesday will finally give many analysts a public comparable for what has been long considered to be the Indian internet stock: Zomato. It will also test the nation’s appetite for IPOs that can scale past the $1 billion mark.  For its IPO, Swiggy has alre

Brazilian fintech Tako emerges from stealth with sizable seed round led by a16z and Ribbit Capital

Running payroll is hard in any country, but perhaps especially so in Brazil thanks to consistently changing laws and extremely influential unions that make it significantly harder to get it right. Fernando Gadotti struggled with this as the co-founder of DogHero, LatAm’s version of Rover. Whe