FDA fully approves Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, making it the first vaccine to achieve that status. The mRNA-based vaccine has been available since late last year through an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), and will continue to be
How to establish a health tech startup advisory board
When you enter the health tech industry as a new startup, an advisory board is a crucial foundational step. A board can guide you through industry-specific nuances, help you make important decisions and prove your legitimacy to investors looking for a strong industry background.
An advisory board w
Mealworm farming company Beta Hatch raises $10M
Last time I was in Hong Kong, a startup gave me a jar of mealworms as a snack. They were crunchy and a bit odd looking (as one might expect from a jar full of baked larvae). They really didn't offer much in the way of flavor, though, so maybe supply your own seasoning.
For all sorts of sustaina
Apeel bites into another $250M funding round, at a $2B valuation, to accelerate fresh food supply chains
Apeel Sciences, a food system innovation company, is out to prevent food produced globally from ending up in the landfill, especially as pressures from the global pandemic affect the food supply chain.
The company just added $250 million in Series E funding, giving it a valuation of $2 billion, to
Maven’s comprehensive approach to women’s health earns it unicorn status
For Kate Ryder, the founder of women's health clinic and benefits platform Maven, business is personal. During the first year of building her company, Ryder experienced a miscarriage. Maven began offering support for pregnancy loss and high-risk care management as the founder herself waded thro
Discover all things biotech with Mayfield at Disrupt 2021
Solving the twin challenges of human and planetary health is the greatest task of our generation, and it also presents the greatest entrepreneurial opportunity in history, which is why we’ve partnered with Mayfield to bring you an engineering biology track to Disrupt 2021 this September 21-23
GSK and R/GA Ventures are launching a health studio for startups
GSK Next, the innovation arm of GSK Consumer Healthcare, is launching a new mentorship and business development program. Called the Re/Wire Health Studio, the program will eventually select six startups that will win access to nine weeks of mentoring, business development expertise and cash grants.
BrainQ raises $40M to transform stroke patient rehabilitation with its home therapy device
If you injure your elbow, surgery can help. If you lose a leg, prostheses are available. But problems within the brain are more difficult to treat, and for stroke victims, rehabilitation is largely left to the body’s own repair mechanisms. BrainQ aims to change that with a device that stimula
How Adia Sowho helped steer Thrive Agric through the pandemic crisis
Nigeria’s less than two-decade-old ecosystem is evolving fast. But behind the funding and legitimate hype, there’s without a doubt plenty of learning that needs to be done in running a startup.
In retrospect, founders in Nigeria do tremendous work when you consider the kind of harsh mar
Hear how Cityblock Health’s Toyin Ajayi, Carbon Health’s Eren Bali and Forward’s Adrian Aoun see tech impacting access to health at Disrupt 2021
If there’s one thing that the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has proven, it’s that the healthcare system in the U.S. is in drastic need of major transformation. One of the biggest issues to be highlighted by the pandemic in particular is the iniquity in access to care, but there are signs that
Impossible's plant-based sausage is coming home
Impossible sent me a tube of its plant-based sausage to try ahead of today's news. As an aside, the big box with several frozen packs inside was maybe not the most efficient way to send it, but I don't know, maybe there's no great way to send frozen foodstuffs. Someone feel free to disr
Zomato’s losses widen in first quarterly earnings since IPO
Zomato's losses more than tripled in its first quarterly earnings report since its listing last month as the company’s expenses grew and the pandemic hit the firm’s dining-out business.
The Gurgaon-headquartered firm reported (PDF) a net loss of $48 million in the quarter that ende
$100M donation powers decade-long moonshot to create solar satellites that beam power to Earth
It sounds like a plan concocted by a supervillain, if that villain’s dastardly end was to provide cheap, clean power all over the world: launch a set of three-kilometer-wide solar arrays that beam the sun’s energy to the surface of the Earth. Even the price tag seems gleaned from pop fi
Craft your pitch deck around ‘that one thing that can really hook an investor’
Michelle Davey’s pitch to Jordan Nof of Tusk Venture Partners about Wheel, a startup focused on providing a full suite of virtual care solutions to clinicians, was front-loaded with early metrics. It may not be standard practice to start with the numbers, especially early on, but she explaine