With President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs coming out today — a day he is calling “Liberation Day” — a Web3 startup thinks it could track tariffs automatically on goods coming into and out of the USA using its blockchain platform. The claim may well be bold — and typical of many such bold claims […]
Spotlight on District Elementary Student of the Month, Alejandro Arroyo Ascencio
[[{“value”:” Congratulations to Alejandro Arroyo Ascencio, a 5th grade student at Douglas Elementary School, for being named the District Elementary Student of the Month. Alejandro is recognized for his outstanding achievements in coding, robotics, and leadership. Despite his young age, Alejandro has already demonstrated remarkable skill in programming. He earned a certificate of completion in Python programming from CoderZ, a curriculum typically…
NC STEM e-Update (April 3, 2025)
[[{“value”:” Twice a month the NC STEM Center publishes an e-update on what’s happening in STEM education throughout North Carolina, and their latest edition is now available. View NC STEM e-Update in your browser by clicking here. Not receiving an e-update? Opt-in and subscribe at the NC STEM Center and get your personalized copy sent directly to your email inbox….
Fuse raises $6.6M to fix a payment problem for companies expanding to MENA
Expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains a costly and complex challenge for global businesses, thanks to fragmented regulations and banking systems. Dubai-based fintech Fuse aims to simplify that with a cross-border payments API and has raised $6.6 million in seed funding to make it happen. Founded in 2023 by George Davis, […]
Truecaller now has over 450M monthly active users
Caller ID app Truecaller said on Thursday that it crossed the 450 million user mark earlier this week. The company said that it added 50 million users in the past 10 months and 15.5 million users since the beginning of 2025. India is the company’s biggest user base, so it wasn’t surprising to see Truecaller […]
Fintech Plaid raises $575M at a $6.1B valuation, says it will not go public in 2025
Plaid, which connects bank accounts to financial applications, has sold about $575 million worth of common stock at a $6.1 billion post-money valuation, the fintech company confirmed to TechCrunch. The valuation is about less than half of the $13.4 billion that San Francisco-based Plaid was valued at when it raised a $425 million Series D […]
Y Combinator neobank Djamo raises $17M with 1M users across Francophone Africa
Djamo is one of several digital banking startups targeting Africa’s underbanked. But unlike many that focus on large markets like Nigeria, Egypt, or South Africa, Djamo has carved out a niche in Francophone West Africa, specifically the Ivory Coast and, more recently, Senegal. It now serves over one million customers across both countries. The Y […]
Space solar startup Aetherflux raises $50M to launch first space demo in 2026
Aetherflux, the space solar startup founded by billionaire co-founder of Robinhood Baiju Bhatt, has raised a $50 million in a Series A round as it works to launch its first low Earth orbit demonstration in 2026. The San Carlos, California-based startup, which came out of stealth last October, aims to eventually launch a constellation of […]
Stablecoin issuer Circle takes another stab at a public listing
Circle, the issuer of USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, filed to go public on Tuesday. The company, which makes money from interest earned on its reserve assets, reported that its 2024 revenue and reserve income was $1.68 billion, up from $1.45 billion the year prior. Circle’s 2024 net income was $156 million, […]
OpenAI’s o3 model might be costlier to run than originally estimated
When OpenAI unveiled its o3 “reasoning” AI model in December, the company partnered with the creators of ARC-AGI, a benchmark designed to test highly capable AI, to showcase o3’s capabilities. Months later, the results have been revised, and they now look slightly less impressive than they did initially. Last week, the Arc Prize Foundation, which […]