The kingdom of Eswatini is considering the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), joining the growing list of African countries exploring the viability of an e-currency. The Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) said it has appointed German technology group Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to research and explore the possibilities of a digital Lilangeni (the country’s…
Cityblock Health is focused on providing affordable, human-centered healthcare in lower-income and marginalized communities, while also building sustainable business models. Founder and CEO Toyin Ajayi talked at Disrupt today about the challenges of tackling the healthcare system’s inequalities, while serving patients with personalized medical care, behavioral health care and social services. “Do I believe that…
For many people who live with depression, medication is an important part of managing the condition. But knowing which will work for you can be a difficult months-long process. Circular Genomics claims its new form of genetic testing can identify which medications will work for a patient in a fraction of that time. As some…
Kate Ahlering Contributor Kate Ahlering is the chief revenue officer at Calendly, where she leads sales, sales enablement, revenue operations and partnerships functions. Between the changing tides of the economy and digital buying preferences, SaaS companies are under tremendous pressure. Many of these companies understand that 80% of their interactions with buyers occur on digital…
Verlinvest, a family-backed, “evergreen”, growth fund investor, that has previously funded a few well-known consumer brands like Oatly, Vita Coco, Tony’s Chocolonely, Who Gives A Crap, Pedego, Chewy.com, Hint & others, is getting into the venture game. After putting around €50m into VC initiatives globally, it’s now embarking on being the kick-starter LP in a…
As more streaming services explore the livestreaming space, Amazon Prime Video is branching out beyond live sports and introducing a new weekly livestreamed concert series called “Amazon Music Live.” Next Thursday, October 27, at 9:00 p.m. PDT, Amazon will launch the series, which features rapper 2 Chainz as the host and performances by artists Lil…
Netflix announced today that it has launched “Profile Transfer,” a feature that lets a member on an existing account switch to a brand-new account without rebuilding their profile. This prevents their personal data from being erased like customized recommendations, viewing history, list of favorite shows/movies, and other settings that could be annoying to lose and…
This morning Kanye West announced he’s buying Parler, the annoyingly-named so-called “free speech” platform that ignores the proper French pronunciation of its moniker in service of a poor pun. The deal terms aren’t out there yet, but the startup has so far raised $56 million and I bet it has a tidy little exit on…
Flipkart has launched a metaverse offering for consumers to discover and shop new products, the latest bet from the Indian e-commerce giant as it experiments with web3 offerings to supercharge its customer experience. The Walmart-backed Bengaluru-headquartered firm has partnered with eDAO, a Polygon-incubated firm, to launch the metaverse offering, which it is calling Flipverse. The…
Cruise never planned to make its own silicon. But in the quest to commercialize robotaxis — and make money doing it — those never planned pursuits can suddenly seem a lot more appealing. Cruise realized that the price of chips from suppliers was too high, the parts were too big and the reliability of the…
