Entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups are more likely to face an uphill climb than their white, male counterparts, but their challenges stretch beyond systemic bias and lack of access to capital.
The enormous challenges and abundant opportunities in climate tech
The decarbonization of the planet will be the next major disruption of the century, according to SOSV managing general partner Sean O’Sullivan and Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Duolingo doesn’t want to disrupt the college degree
CEO and co-founder Luis von Ahn returned to Disrupt this year to explain how the sophistication of public markets impacts the company’s strategy.
The whole package: How plastics and sustainability startups achieve success
As people around the world become more aware and look to minimize the waste they produce, tech startups are coming up with solutions to help people and companies meet their sustainability goals.
Nth Cycle wants to revolutionize metals processing for recyclers and mine operators
There’s a lot of value in waste; just ask metals processing company Nth Cycle, which has developed a technology to help mining and recycling companies recover every bit of critical minerals from their operations. The company calls its technology “electro-extraction,” and Nth Cycle’s founder and CEO Megan O’Connor likened it to a water filter in […]
Carbix spins emissions into gold — or at least useful minerals
Pollutants pouring from smokestacks around the world may be bad news for the atmosphere, but if you catch them before they get out there, you could reduce emissions and collect some valuable materials at the same time. That’s what Carbix aims to do with its carbon-sequestering reactor, which would extract minerals from emissions while staying […]
Flite Material Sciences uses lasers, not chemical coatings, to keep ice and rust off surfaces
Dan Cohen was on the hunt for a coating that could keep ice, snow and frost off of solar panels when he discovered a technology that could cut costs and reduce the environmental footprint of a broad section of products from aircrafts and drones to medical devices, pipelines and even sailboats. And it would prompt […]
Animal Alternative makes a platform play in the growing market of cultured meat
Traditional meat production is about as far from a sustainable process as we’ve got, but our chances of getting everyone to give up “real” meat are lean. Animal Alternative is one of several companies looking to make meat indistinguishable from the animal-based kind using bioreactors and cultured cells, and it aims to empower local producers […]
Verdi aims to give farmers granular control over crop irrigation
Verdi, which launched today at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield, refers to its smart valve clusters as “swarms.” The term denotes the kind of high-density implementation the company is looking to roll out in farms across North America. Retrofitted with existing irrigation technology, the aim of its system is to give farmers more control over the irrigation […]