Tag: Design

German startup Marvel Fusion and Colorado State University have broken ground on a $150M laser facility in a bid to commercialise fusion energy. Dubbed ATLAS, the facility will use three ultra-high intensity lasers to fire 7 petawatts of power — over 5,000 times the electrical generation capacity of the US — at a target roughly the width of a human hair.   The blast will last approximately 100 quadrillionths of a second. However, it will produce enough heat and pressure to fuse atoms together, initiating the same reaction that powers the Sun and stars. For decades, scientists have been experimenting…

Dutch startup Skytree has opened a new HQ in Toronto, Canada and a new office in Nashville, Tennessee, as it looks to cash-in on attractive government incentives for direct carbon capture (DAC) technologies.  Engineer-turned-entrepreneur Max Beaumont founded Skytree in 2014, following his work on DAC for the European Space Agency. Skytree’s technology is based on the carbon scrubbers used aboard the International Space Station, which remove the excess CO2 produced from the breath of astronauts.    Direct air capture DAC machines suck CO2 from the air like a giant vacuum. The CO2 they capture can be buried underground or mineralised into…

A warming world will — and is already having — a profound impact on the things we all depend on: shelter, food, water, energy, medicine. Most nations have committed to drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to dial back the planet’s thermostat.  But true sustainability is not just about emissions. We will need to transform the way all industries operate — from agriculture to transport and health — to meet the SDGs. The great green transition necessitates innovation. It calls for new, clean technologies and the scaling of proven ones. It requires industry leaders, disruptive innovators, and ambitious startups to…

German “teledriving” startup Vay has secured €34mn from the European Investment Bank (EIB).   In January, Vay launched a commercial remote-controlled car service in Las Vegas. Now it wants to roll out the technology on its home turf. In 2023, the company successfully conducted test drives without a safety driver on public roads in Hamburg. Vay says it has been working closely with authorities to launch a commercial service in the German city.  “This investment will play a crucial role in strengthening the confidence and trust that EU regulators, partners and consumers have in Vay, paving the way for the commercial…

In November 2023, violent Atlantic storm “Domingos” struck the northern coast of Portugal, generating record-high waves and leaving a path of destruction across much of Western Europe.  People on land were grappling with flooded homes, closed roads, and landslides. But just offshore, a potentially game-changing wave energy device was happily bobbing up and down, side to side — seemingly, in its element.  Built by Swedish startup CorPower, the giant golden buoy turns the raw power of the ocean into a clean, reliable electricity source. CorPower claims its tech is at least five times more efficient than the previous state-of-the-art. “We’ve…

Stockholm-based node.vc has closed a €71mn fund to back early-stage startups in the Nordics. “The Nordic tech ecosystem is thriving, especially in areas like AI, gaming, fintech, and climate tech,” John Elvesjö, managing partner at node.vc, told TNW. “We’re seeing experienced talent, particularly from companies like Klarna, Spotify, Voi, Kry, and Pleo, stepping up to become founders,” Elvesjö said. The devaluation of employee stock options and increasing layoffs have sparked “fresh entrepreneurial energy,” he added. The fund is sector-agnostic. This means that any startup with “innovative technology” can apply. The size of initial investment per company will be around €1-2mn,…

 Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s special episode, we’re happy to present an interview with Anita Schjøll Abildgaard, co-founder and CEO at Iris.ai. The startup has been around for almost a decade and saw several significant pivots, while Anita and the team have been through all the highs and lows imaginable, including balancing on the brink of bankruptcy. Anita and Andrii talked about it all, as well…

From the outside, it looks like a clean, modern social housing block. You can tell it’s new — there are 84 shiny solar panels on the roof and the fresh paint has barely dried on the walls. But it’s how this 56-dwelling building in Barcelona, complete with ground floor nursery, was designed and built that really matters.  “Our software is our superpower,” says Lucas Carné, co-founder of 011h, a construction tech firm, as he describes how his company has designed digital tools to help architects plan buildings like this one. “We use a lot of prefab,” he adds. “That reduces…

In 2020, Google identified that more than 70% of its Chrome browser’s severe security bugs were in fact caused by memory safety issues. “That is,” the Chrome team said, “mistakes with pointers in the C or C++ languages which cause memory to be misinterpreted.” In 2022, the NSA weighed in on memory safety with Neal Ziring, its cybersecurity technical director saying that “Memory management issues have been exploited for decades and are still entirely too common today. We have to consistently use memory safe languages and other protections when developing software to eliminate these weaknesses from malicious cyber actors.” That…

Munich-based startup OroraTech has secured €25mn in funding to scale up its AI-powered wildfire detection system.  Korys, the investment arm of the Colruyt’s — a Belgian noble family — led the funding round. The EU’s Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) also chipped in, alongside existing investor Bayern Kapital.  OroraTech will use the fresh funding to fuel the next phase of its growth. The company looks to expand into global markets beyond Europe, and keep refining its technology. OroraTech’s so-called Wildfire Solution collates imagery from its own probes, as well as over 20 other Earth observation satellites. The startup has trained an…