Tootfinder

Robinhood has filed an application with the SEC to launch a new publicly traded fund called "Robinhood Ventures Fund I" that will hold shares of startups (Julie Bort/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/15/robinhood-pl…

Robinhood plans to launch a startups fund open to all retail investors  | TechCrunch
The “Robinhood Ventures Fund I” is intended to allow any retail investor to make money on startups, but the details are scant.

Documents: Rhoda AI, which raised a $162.6M Series A in April, and Genesis AI, which raised a $105M seed earlier this year, have been developing humanoid robots (Anna Tong/Forbes)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/annatong/2025

Startups Rhoda AI And Genesis AI Are Building Humanoid Robots In Stealth
Flush with hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding, Rhoda AI and Genesis AI are developing humanoids they hope can go head-to-head with robots from Figure AI and Tesla.

"Countries that neglect #science become dependent on those that don’t. U.S. post-WWII dominance came from basic science investments (OSRD, NSF, NIH, DOE labs). After WWII ended, the UK slashed science investment which allowed the U.S. to commercialize the British inventions made during the war.
...[USSR failed] to convert science into sustained innovation...during the same time that U.…

Steve Blank No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We’re Switching Off
Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists? What d…

📈 More than 10 European startups became unicorns this year
#europe

More than 10 European startups became unicorns this year | TechCrunch
This is a good indication of the sectors that are hot among investors, from biotech and defense tech to AI, AI, and AI.

KI soll 600.000 fehlende Beamte ersetzen? Klingt wie der Plan eines Startups, das gerade seine erste Fördermillion verbrannt hat.
Problem 1: KI ist kein Zauberstab.
Problem 2: Selbst wenn – die Infrastruktur dahinter gleicht oft noch einem Flickenteppich aus den 90ern.
Problem 3: Bürger wollen keine Algorithmen. Sie wollen funktionierende Behördengänge. Wie bei Amazon. Nur ohne Prime-Mitgliedschaft.

Forbes: The past, present and future of brain-computer interfaces https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2025/10/05/these-are-the-startups-merging-your-brain-with-ai/ Will Part 2 address The vOICe non-invasive vision BCI for the blind? …

These Are The Startups Merging Your Brain With AI
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) sound like science fiction to most people. But this technology is getting real, quickly.

„Resilience Factories“ https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/news/detail/10114

Dealroom: 230 European defense tech startups have launched since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with VC funding reaching $1.5B this year, mostly for drone tech (Sylvia Pfeifer/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/6c247bbe-0181-472f-8369-581e2fd4f19b

There may finally come a first peer-reviewed publication about Neuralink with human data, but for now still no details https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/startups-tech/startups/musks-neuralink-submits-brain-implant-patient-data-journ…

Musk’s Neuralink submits brain implant patient data to journal
The company aims to implant its chips in 20,000 people per year by 2031, and generate at least US$1 billion in annual revenue

Sensor Tower: as of July 2025, Rapido had 50M MAUs on Android in India vs. Uber's 30M; in the four-wheeler cab segment, Rapido holds ~30% share vs. Uber's ~50% (Pranav Mukul/The Economic Times)
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/t…

ETtech in-depth: Rapido races to the top, keeping Uber on edge
Bengaluru-based mobility company Rapido now has nearly half the share of overall ride-hailing market, with monthly active users at 50 million versus Uber’s 30 million in July. Not jus tthat, Rapido has now made significant inroads in four-wheeler cab hailing as well, grabbing nearly 30% share of that segment.