The Download: Questions over a clean fuel startup, and Chinese lockdown censorship

by Rhiannon Williams - April 25, 20220

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This $1.5 billion startup promised to deliver clean fuels as cheap as gas. Experts are deeply skeptical Last summer, Rob McGinnis, the founder and chief executive of startup Prometheus Fuels,

This $1.5 billion startup promised to deliver clean fuels as cheap as gas. Experts are deeply skeptical.

by James Temple - April 25, 20220

Last summer, investors gathered in the parking lot of a converted warehouse in Santa Cruz, California. Rob McGinnis, the founder and chief executive of Prometheus Fuels, was ready to show off his “Maxwell Core.” The pipe-shaped device is packed with a membrane riddled with carbon nanotubes, forming pores that separate alcohols

The Download: This startup wants to kick-start a molecular electronics revival

by Rhiannon Williams - March 31, 20220

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This startup wants to kick-start a molecular electronics revival In 2000, many hoped molecular electronics (using single molecules to create circuits and components) would leapfrog silicon-based circuitry to allow computer

This startup wants to kick-start a molecular electronics revival

by Rachel Courtland - March 31, 20220

In 1999, Rice University chemist Jim Tour co-founded Molecular Electronics Corporation, a company that aimed to use single molecules to make a new type of electronic memory. But Tour had even bigger dreams. In a 2000 story in Wired, he foretold a future in which molecular electronics would leapfrog silicon-based

This new startup has built a record-breaking 256-qubit quantum computer

by Siobhan Roberts - November 17, 20210

At long last, physicists from Harvard and MIT have found the killer application for quantum computing: a Mario Bros. GIF made from qubits. The qubits (quantum bits) can also be arranged in a Space Invaders design, or Tetris, or any other shape—your geometrical wish is the qubits’ command. The GIFs are

[Thread] Analysis of FTC's report on Big Tech's startup M&A between 2010 and 2019: half of the deals were <$10M, most had <10 people and were US-based, and more (Benedict Evans/@benedictevans)

by HendrikWiese - October 20, 20210

Benedict Evans / @benedictevans: [Thread] Analysis of FTC's report on Big Tech's startup M&A between 2010 and 2019: half of the deals were <$10M, most had <10 people and were US-based, and more — A common talking point in tech anti-trust: big tech companies have made hundreds of acquisitions in

Salesforce backs Indian payments startup Razorpay

by Manish Singh - September 20, 20210

Six-year-old Bangalore-based fintech Razorpay, which was valued at $3 billion in a financing round in April this year, has courted one more high-profile investor: Salesforce Ventures. Razorpay said on Monday it has received a “strategic investment” from the venture arm of the American enterprise giant. The investment will help the startup

F5 acquires cloud security startup Threat Stack for $68 million

by Carly Page - September 20, 20210

Applications networking company F5 has announced it’s acquiring Threat Stack, a Boston-based cloud security and compliance startup, for $68 million. The deal, which comes months after F5 bought multi-cloud management startup Volterra for $500 million, sees the 25-year-old company looking to bolster its cloud security portfolio as applications become a growing

Pakistan edtech startup Maqsad gets $2.1M pre-seed to make education more accessible

by Kate Park - September 20, 20210

Taha Ahmed and Rooshan Aziz left their jobs in strategy consulting and investment banking in London earlier this year in order to found a mobile-only education platform startup, Maqsad, in Pakistan, with a goal “to make education more accessible to 100 million Pakistani students.” Having grown up in Karachi, childhood friends

Demand Curve: How to get social proof that grows your startup

by Ram Iyer - September 18, 20210

Nick Costelloe Contributor Share on Twitter Nick writes actionable growth marketing insights as head of content at Demand Curve. More posts by this contributor Demand Curve: How to double conversions on your startup’s homepage Demand Curve: 10 lies you’ve been told about marketing When people are uncertain, they look to others for behavioral guidance. This is