Author: Olsi
Last-mile delivery, the very last step of the delivery process, is a common pain point for companies. According to one survey, nearly 90% of retailers struggle with their last-mile delivery operations, either because of technical issues, costs, or a combination of both. Bill and Lisa Catania understand this well. The husband-and-wife team founded OneRail, a last-mile delivery solutions business, in 2018. Bill previously founded a digital coupon company, M-Dot Network, which was acquired by retail transaction processing org Inmar in 2011. An avid stock racing fan, Bill also previously managed web properties that syndicated racing news and results to media…
Ten years after pitching onstage at The Tech Spot Disrupt in London, fintech N26 has reported its first ever quarterly (pretax) profit. The challenger bank with millions of customers across Europe generated a net operating income of €2.8 million during the third quarter of 2024 (or $2.9 million at current exchange rates). This is an important milestone for the startup but also significant news for the fintech industry. Challenger banks like Monzo, N26, Revolut, and Starling used to be some of the most hyped startups in Europe. They raised billions in funding, expanded aggressively, and overspent to reach that next…
The funding round, led by prominent investors, aims to bolster Zepto’s expansion plans and enhance its delivery infrastructure. As e-commerce continues to evolve rapidly, the startup is poised to capitalize on the shifting consumer behaviors in the Indian market. Zepto has secured $350 million in new funding, its third round of financing in six months, as the Indian quick-commerce startup strengthens its position against its competitors ahead of a planned IPO next year. Indian family offices, wealthy individuals, and asset manager Motilal Oswal invested in the round, which maintains Zepto’s $5 billion valuation. Motilal co-founder Raamdeo Agrawal, family offices of…
Nuclear startup Kairos Power received approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start construction on two test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The permit marks a significant milestone for Kairos, which in October inked a deal with Google to provide 500 megawatts of electricity for its data centers. The fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactors are scaled-down versions of what Kairos hopes to ultimately build to supply Google with electricity starting in 2030. And while the new reactors are technically test beds, Kairos intends to connect the power plant to the grid, spokesperson Ashley Lewis told TechCrunch. The Hermes 2 reactors will…
Anthropic has raised an additional $4 billion from Amazon and has agreed to train its flagship generative AI models primarily on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division. The OpenAI rival also said it’s working with Annapurna Labs, AWS’ chipmaking division, to develop future generations of Trainium accelerators, AWS’ custom-built chips for training AI models. “Our engineers work closely with Annapurna’s chip design team to extract maximum computational efficiency from the hardware, which we plan to leverage to train our most advanced foundation models,” Anthropic wrote in a blog post. “Together with AWS, we’re laying the technological foundation—from silicon…
Daricus Releford always wanted to be a founder. In high school, he ran a hot dog station and in college launched a chocolate-covered strawberry business, making millions in sales before moving to Silicon Valley to pursue his dreams in tech. Entrepreneurship simply runs in his family, he told The Tech Spot. “My grandfather was one of the first Black hotel owners in the U.S., and my mom always started businesses. I think it’s just in my blood,” he continued. It’s no wonder then that no matter what tech job he took, he always found himself going back to launching something…
Beleaguered Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt announced on Thursday that it was filing for bankruptcy in the U.S., striking a blow to Europe’s ambitions for homegrown lithium-ion batteries. The company reportedly chose Chapter 11 in an effort to right its finances. In the wake of the filing, co-founder and CEO Peter Carlsson resigned, though he’ll remain on as an advisor and a member of the board. “Today marks a significant new phase for Northvolt as well as for me personally,” Carlsson said in a statement. “The Chapter 11 filing allows a period during which the company can be reorganized, ramp up operations…
AI may be the hottest thing since sliced bread. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting easier to develop and run. According to a recent Boston Consulting Group poll, 74% of organizations are struggling to derive value from their AI investments. William Falcon, the creator of PyTorch Lightning, a popular open-source AI framework, says that one of the biggest mistakes businesses make is underestimating the amount of legwork involved in AI orchestration. “Building your own AI platform today is like building your own Slack—it’s complex, costly, and not core to your business,” he told The TechSpot. “The value for enterprises lies…
