Biotech & Health
You could be Wasted and not even know it
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This week, Natasha Mascarenhas, Mary Ann Azevedo and Rebec
Starling Medical’s new urine-testing device turns your toilet into a health tracker
The Houston-based company wants to prevent hospitalizations from chronic conditions, including urinary tract infections, diabetes and kidney disease.
Danish startup Kanpla wants to help canteens cut food waste
As much as 40% of all food produced each year goes nowhere near a human mouth, resulting in economic, environmental and social costs of an estimated $2.6 trillion. While there are a multitude of socia
With new funding, Atomic AI envisions RNA as the next frontier in drug discovery
The biotech industry is experiencing a rush of AI-powered tools for many aspects of the complex drug discovery process. But one that has flown under the radar, increasingly thought to be key to certai
TechCrunch+ roundup: Deep tech fundraising, negative trade secrets, 3 metrics investors love
You can’t create a magic plan to save your startup — there are simply too many factors outside of your control.
Despite 2022’s headwinds, women’s health startups did better than ever before
TechCrunch conducted a vibe check to see where this sector stands, and found a prevailing sense of guarded optimism.
Sunfish’s technology wants to bring affordability to assisted reproduction
Sunfish, a new startup built by a former director at one of the oldest surrogacy and egg donation agencies in the world, has raised $4 million to build financial assistance tooling for hopeful parents
Amazon launches RxPass, a $5/month Prime add-on for all-you-need generic drugs covering 80 conditions
More than two years since announcing Amazon Pharmacy to take some of the prescription drugs business away from big (and smaller) drug stores, Amazon is launching a new product to expand its reach in t
Babylist makes an even bigger bet on baby products with Expectful acquisition
Today, baby registry and product discovery platform Babylist announced that it has acquired health and wellness tool Expectful for an undisclosed price. The deal brings together two companies focused
With a focus on patients with chronic illness, Nourish hopes to help Americans eat better
Nourish connects users with a registered dietitian (RD) via telehealth and helps them get their consultations covered by health insurance.
A peek into the future as Sam Altman sees it
Late last week, in a rare sit-down before a small audience, this editor spent an hour with Sam Altman, the former president of Y Combinator and, since 2019, the CEO of OpenAI, the company he famously
Predictions for the longevity industry in 2023
This year will shift the conversation from "life span" to "health span" — how we live healthier for longer.
Inflow, a platform for managing ADHD through cognitive behavioral therapy, raises $11M
Inflow, a company developing a platform to manage ADHD using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques, has raised $11 million in a Series A round of funding. ADHD, or “attention deficit hy
Peppy secures a $45M Series B to expand its B2B2C health services platform to the US
There are some mega-trends playing out across developed-world workforces that startups are picking up on. There’s the digitization of healthcare, the “platforming” of employee services a
BioNTech acquires Tunisian-born and UK-based AI startup InstaDeep for £562M
German-based biotech company BioNTech SE is set to acquire InstaDeep, a Tunis-born and U.K.-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup, for up to £562 million (~$680 million) in its largest deal yet.
Urine luck: These CES startups want to take a closer look at your waste
You wait for years for a urine analysis company, then all of them hit their flow all at once. One of the notable trends at CES in Las Vegas this year was that the quantified-self movement is going dee
Guide dogs will be giving the side-eye to self-driving car tech coming for their jobs
The visually impaired are getting a helping hand (or a helping belt, as it were) from Korean startup AI Guided. At CES in Las Vegas, the company was showing off some pretty neat tech that incorporates
HealthAtom empowers LatAm’s small healthcare offices with cloud-based ops
HealthAtom is aiming to be the go-to cloud-based operations system for small and midsize healthcare companies across Latin America (LatAm). Although the company has been around since 2012, this is the
VR comes of age, as Rendever, a mixed reality startup focused on the elderly, acquires Alcove from AARP
Elderly people are not typically thought of as early adopters of cutting-edge technology, but there are startups looking to buck that trend, banking on an opportunity to provide them with new services
Halo’s SleepSure is a baby wearable to keep an eye on the little one
At a preview event at CES in Las Vegas today, baby-sleep experts Halo showed off a wearable for babies, which can track four measurements in real time: heart rate, rollover, skin temperature, and move