German startup DeepDrive has bagged €30mn to scale up its electric motor technology that promises to boost EV range to over 800km — without any changes to battery capacity. Founded in 2021, DeepDrive claims its dual-rotor motor boasts the highest torque and power density of any EV motor available today. It also has low noise emissions, and is built using far fewer rare earth materials. DeepDrive says its technology can... Read more ›
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The NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) has announced its first investment in quantum tech, leading a €5mn seed round. The recipient is Southampton University spinout Aquark Technologies, which has developed a unique quantum sensing technology. Aquark’s patented cold atom system can be used as an alternative position, navigation, and timing (PNT) device, independent from satellites and thus immune to external tampering such as GPS interference. Doing away with the cumbersome magnetic... Read more ›
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This year, Air Canada lost a lawsuit against a customer who was misled by an AI chatbot into purchasing full-price plane tickets, being assured they would later be refunded under the company’s bereavement policy. The airline tried to claim the bot was “responsible for its own actions.” This line of argumentation was rejected by the court and the company not only had to pay compensation, it also received public criticism... Read more ›
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Amid the AI boom, data centres are consuming alarming amounts of electricity. They’re also responsible for 1% of global energy-related emissions. By 2030, their power demand could increase by 160%. Switzerland-based Lightium aims to provide a solution. The young startup announced today it has raised $7mn in seed funding to both accelerate the performance of data centres and reduce their energy consumption with a next generation of photonic chips. Data... Read more ›
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Ekaterina Zaharieva hasn’t even started work as the EU’s first startup commissioner, but tensions are already rising around her role. The Bulgarian politician was nominated for the job on Tuesday. Alongside startups, her brief will also cover research and innovation. But first, her appointment needs approval from the European Parliament. Her critics hope that confirmation never comes. Here are three big reasons for their opposition. 1. She lacks experience in... Read more ›
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In its most expensive project to date, Germany’s Cyber Agency (Cyberagentur) has awarded three different contracts to four quantum computing startups — Quantum Brilliance, ParityQC, Oxford Ionics, and neQxt. Their mission is to deliver the world’s first quantum computer for “mobile security and defence” by 2027. After that, phase four of the project will kick in, and only one of the candidates will remain. Qubits from defect diamonds A portable... Read more ›
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Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about flight tracking and its community, the new European Commission, health trackers for pets, revisiting Prince of Persia, and much more. Here are the stories and... Read more ›
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A German drone firm claims to have made a “major breakthrough” in autonomous swarm technology. Munich-based Quantum Systems announced on Tuesday that it has successfully flown AI-controlled Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in swarms. The company said the AI ensured “reliable mission execution” — even when individual drones completely failed. The system also operated effectively under radio interference. Commissioned by the German Armed Forces, the tests were conducted last month at... Read more ›
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Since its founding in 2017, DeepL has been raising machine translation standards, successfully rivalling giants such as Google Translate. Today, the startup unveiled an ‘industry-first’ AI-powered glossary generator for businesses. The new tool works as a supplement of DeepL’s Glossary feature, first launched in 2020. Glossary enables professionals and companies to personalise translations based on their needs, from technical terminology to product names and branded terms. “Many businesses struggle to... Read more ›
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Espoo outside of Helsinki is turning into quite the quantum hub. The city’s latest addition to the Finnish quantum computing ecosystem is QMill. The newly minted algorithm startup just raised €4mn in seed funding to leverage near-term hardware to deliver real benefits to industry through quantum computing. “There is momentum growing at the moment [in quantum], and investors can see that a lot of companies are experimenting with quantum computing... Read more ›
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Ekaterina Zaharieva has been nominated as the EU’s first ever commissioner for startups, the bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen announced today. Zaharieva served as Bulgaria’s deputy prime minister for judicial reform and foreign affairs between 2017 and 2021. She’s currently a member of the Bulgarian Parliament. Von der Leyen has now proposed Zaharieva as the designated commissioner for startups, research, and innovation. “We must put research and innovation, science... Read more ›
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Data centres gobble up roughly 2% of global electricity, which translates to around 1% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Streaming Netflix, storing stuff in the cloud, and meeting up on Zoom are just some of the online activities fuelling machines’ appetite for energy. But perhaps the biggest culprit of all is artificial intelligence. AI models require immense amounts of computational power to train and run, particularly for machine learning and... Read more ›
0
Flink, one of the few rapid grocery delivery startups left operating in Europe, has secured $150mn to grow its business in Germany and the Netherlands. The funding comprises $115 million in equity and $35 million in debt, with backing from both new and existing investors, including BOND, Northzone, and supermarket chain REWE. This reportedly brings the company’s valuation to nearly $1bn. With the fresh capital, Flink plans to “expand [its]... Read more ›
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In a first for London, electric drones will soon fly urgent blood samples between Guy’s and St Thoma’s hospitals in the centre of the city. The upcoming flights are part of a joint pilot between the NHS, healthcare logistics startup Apian, and drone manufacturer Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet, spun out from the company’s moonshot factory X. The aim is to improve patient care by accelerating turnaround delivery times. Currently,... Read more ›
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Oftentimes, even in the tech world, people equate the term quantum computing to something almost mysterious. But as much as concepts of quantum mechanics such as superposition and entanglement may seem akin to magic, they still happen (in the context of quantum computing) on pieces of hardware. While research breakthroughs will be crucial in scaling quantum computing as a technology, ramping up hardware production capacity will become increasingly important to... Read more ›
0
Lithium-ion batteries are a critical element for our transition away from fossil fuels. It is equally critical to ensure the sustainability of their supply chains for the benefit of society and businesses alike. The mining process of the raw materials necessary for lithium batteries has long been linked not only to pollution, but also to human rights abuses. New research from Infyos, an AI-powered supply chain risk platform, has once... Read more ›
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Back in the early 2000s, Estonia was rapidly modernising, shaking off the remnants of Soviet influence. It was ambitiously transforming itself into a digital society with innovations such as e-government and online voting. And, of course, it gave birth to Skype, the company that would launch the small Baltic nation’s journey towards becoming a startup powerhouse and a “unicorn country.” Since then, Estonia has established itself as a leader in... Read more ›
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Swedish startup Heart Aerospace has unveiled its first full-scale demonstrator hybrid-electric aircraft as it targets commercial flight by the end of 2029, a year later than previously planned. Heart revealed the prototype, dubbed HX-1, at its hangar in Gothenburg yesterday, which we toured earlier this year. The HX-1 prototype outside Heart’s hangar in Gothenburg, Sweden. Credit: Heart Aerospace The company will initially use the aircraft for ground-based testing, with the... Read more ›
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Every week, millions of adults pretend that they’re football managers. I am one of them. We live out our dreams in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL), an online game that’s become a global phenomenon. With a budget of 100 million (digital) pounds, we build virtual squads of footballers. If their real-life counterparts play well, we win points. By the end of the season, the team with the most points wins.... Read more ›
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Paris-based AI startup Poolside is in discussions to raise nearly $500mn at a $3bn valuation, Bloomberg reports. Poolside is developing a ChatGPT-like large language model (LLM) that writes software code — but the business plan remains hush-hush. The company has yet to launch its first product. However, on its website Poolside states that it is currently training its LLM by “allowing it to improve by completing millions of tasks in... Read more ›
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27.11.2024 03:49
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