Launching the lunar economy

Quick Hits

Bitcoin bounce: Currency tops $90k.

Blue skies: X rival tops 15M users.

Crypto clash: FTX sues Binance.

Chip wars: AWS grants lure AI talent.

Connecting Africa: Starlink enters Chad.

Deep(L) voice: App adds ears.

Geo block: EU warns Apple.

Going nuclear: Oklo to deliver 750MW.

Grok unlock: xAI plans free version.

Infra Red: Red Hat acquires Neural Magic.

Meta monetizes: Threads adds ads.

News dues: Newspapers demand payment.

Old meets new: VW, Rivian partner.

Platform pivot: Guardian exits X.

Reporting to work: WashPo opts for RTO.

Task master: OpenAI preps task bot.

Thinning Mozilla: Foundation cuts 30%.

Slow your scroll: Australia mulls social media ban.

Video add: Signal takes on Zoom.

Fintech flies

Fintechs are flying high and crypto confidence is climbing post-election. Coinbase, Robinhood, Toast, and Upstart are among this week’s Wall Street darlings.

Bot bags $1M

Oxford-made humanoid artist Ai-Da made history selling a portrait of Alan Turing for $1M. “The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies,” the bots tells the world.

Alt funding for open source

VCs remain tepid on open source projects with no clear path to profits, so others like Bloomberg’s FOSS (free and open source software) fund are stepping up to fill the void.

Launching the lunar economy

Houston-based Intuitive Machines landed a ship on the moon, the first step in building “the platform for the lunar economy.”

Sailing into startup life

Rhode Island-based Vatn Systems draws on unique experience to compete with much larger makers of underwater military drones: two of their co-founders grew up on sailboat.

Weekly Pulse

Startup We Love: Rula

Why we love it: Personalized mental health for everyone.

Rula is on a mission to make high-quality mental healthcare standard for all. No matter the size of your team, Rula makes it possible for everyone to access personalized mental health support through a network of 10k therapists. They boast a 97% hit match rate connecting people with therapists that fit their specific needs, whether by specific condition, gender, race, location, or life experience | Apply now

Poll of the week

Recently funded companies

Australia's Animoca Brands Raises $10M for Open Metaverse

Dallas-based Conflixis Secures $4.2M for Data and Risk Intelligence

Denver-based Cloverleaf AI Nets $2.8M for Government Contracting

California’s General Galactic Raises $8M for Alternative Fuel Tech

Germany's Tozero Secures $11.7M Seed for Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

India's Nexstem Raises $3.5M for Non-Invasive Brain Computer Interface

India's Funstop Games Raises $5M for Game Development

India-based Equal Secures $10M to Simplify KYC

Japan's Mawari Raises $10.8M for Decentralized Spatial Streaming

Kenya's Agventure Secures $9.5M for Farm Innovation

San Francisco's Oyster Secures $5M for Global Employment Solutions

San Francisco's Neon Raises $14M for Direct-to-Consumer Gaming

Spain's Acai Travel Secures $4M Seed for AI-Powered Travel

UK's Paloma Health Raises $2.5M for AI-Enabled Health Services

Wilmington-based Akave Secures $3.5M for Decentralized Data Management

What we're reading

Return-to-Office Mandates: How to Lose Your Best Performers (MIT)

Unlocking the mysteries of complex biological systems with agentic AI (MIT)

Navigating talent decisions in a growing tech company (Fast Company)

Why learning 10 programming languages doesn’t make you a more interesting job candidate (The Next Web)

What Happens When Robots Don’t Need Us? (Bloomberg)

AI coding assistants can help startups develop products, seed VCs believe (TechCrunch)

Knowledge workers are leaning on generative AI as their workloads mount (VentureBeat)

Post of the week

Podcasts of the Week

• Becoming an AI-Powered Company with Prasad Setty, Lecturer, Stanford GSB, Advisor, Former VP at Google, People Ops and Workspace (Future of HR)
• The Myth of the Perfect Candidate (HR Heretics | How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies)
• How to Build A Competitive Edge with Ryan Petersen of Flexport (For Starters with Alexa von Tobel)

✓ Startups hiring now

Decagon: AI support agents for your enterprise | 9 open roles

Coast: Coast is re-imagining B2B payments, beginning with fleet and fuel | 12 open roles

Nanit: The most advanced baby monitoring solution - ever | 10 open roles

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