Genki Forest Calls 2025 a Breakthrough Year, Tightens Ops to Focus on Steady Growth
Genki Forest celebrated its ninth anniversary by declaring 2025 a breakthrough year, achieving its first sustainable profitability and higher‑quality growth. The company credited tighter expense control, disciplined pricing and a trimmed SKU portfolio for the improvement, while deepening channel penetration and cutting case costs. New capacity came online with the second phase of its Tianjin plant and a planned Henan facility, bolstering domestic production. Core brands—sparkling water, iced tea and the Alienergy/Haozizai lines—continued to drive revenue, and the firm outlined a disciplined, core‑focused strategy for 2026.
Sagrada Madre Enters Mainland China After Building a Following in Hong Kong
Argentine incense brand Sagrada Madre has opened 15 counter stores in mainland China, moving from a Hong Kong souvenir niche to a structured retail presence. The brand commands roughly 30% of incense‑related searches on Xiaohongshu, signalling strong digital visibility. Leveraging patented...
Wealthtech Startup Otto Money Raises $1.3 Mn Led by Pravega Ventures
Wealthtech startup Otto Money announced a $1.3 million pre‑seed round led by Pravega Ventures, with participation from several angel investors. The funding will be deployed over the next 12‑18 months to bolster AI models, expand personalization and goal‑based advisory features, and...
Blushington Co-Founders Discuss 15 Years of Operating in the Beauty Industry
Blushington’s co‑founders Nicki Maron and Stephi Cohen marked 15 years of operating a hybrid beauty‑service franchise, highlighted by the opening of their first Boca Raton franchise. The brand pioneered an affordable, service‑first makeup lounge when experiential retail was nascent, later...
How One Teaspoon Turned Counter‑culture Denim Into a 25‑Year Global Business
One Teaspoon, founded by Liz Roberts in 1999, has evolved from a counter‑culture denim experiment into a globally distributed brand sold in over 40 countries. The label has remained entirely self‑funded, preserving full control over pricing, design, and retail partnerships....
DailyRounds Delivers Rs 363 Cr Profit on Rs 641 Cr Revenue in FY25
DailyRounds posted a Rs 363 crore profit on Rs 641 crore operating revenue for FY25, marking a 13% rise in both profit and revenue from FY24. The company’s flagship subscription platform Marrow contributed 88% of revenue, while non‑operating income added Rs 132 crore....
Arm Wants a Bigger Slice of the Chip Business
Arm, the British‑American‑Japanese semiconductor IP giant, now powers more than 300 billion chips, including 30 billion shipped in 2025 alone. While it never manufactures silicon, the firm earns upfront licensing fees and per‑chip royalties from a vast ecosystem of device makers. In...
Techstars Sydney Is the Latest Victim of the NSW Government’s Ongoing Startup Purge
Techstars Sydney accelerator is shutting down after its three‑year contract with the NSW government expired, ending the state’s funding for the program. Over three cohorts the accelerator invested more than $6 million in 36 startups, with 58% receiving their first external...
Diamonds-USA.com: Luxury Jewelry. Personal Attention. Real Trust
Diamonds‑USA, founded by gemologist David Braverman in 1997, blends boutique‑level service with an online platform to sell certified diamonds and custom jewelry. The company’s hand‑checked ordering process and 100% money‑back guarantee have produced a near‑zero return rate, a rarity in...
How to Get Into A16z’s Super-Competitive Speedrun Startup Accelerator Program
Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun accelerator, launched in 2023, accepts fewer than 1% of applicants, admitting about 50‑70 startups per 12‑week San Francisco cohort. The program invests up to $1 million—$500,000 upfront for 10% equity and a conditional $500,000—offering extensive advisory, brand, and vendor‑credit...
LA’s “Hottest” Coffee Shop Is Found Inside Someone’s Home
Granada, a coffee counter run from the lower level of a home in Angelino Heights, has become a viral hotspot in Los Angeles. The shop operates under the county’s new Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) permit, which allows limited‑scale food...
Qatar Development Bank Expands Investment Program to QAR 1 Billion as Demand Surges
Qatar Development Bank announced an expansion of its Startup Qatar Investment Program to QAR 1 billion (≈$275 million) by 2030, an eight‑fold increase in capital allocation. The surge follows more than 6,000 startup applications in the past three years, reflecting strong regional...
In a Changed VC Landscape, This Exec Is Doubling Down on Overlooked Founders
Stacy Brown‑Philpot, former TaskRabbit CEO and Google veteran, launched Cherryrock Capital in 2025 to fill a gap for underinvested entrepreneurs by writing smaller Series A and B checks. The fund, backed by institutional LPs such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Melinda...
“I Had No Assumptions. I Was Just Building:” Day 1-1000 of Selar
Selar, the African creator‑commerce platform founded in 2016, paid out over ₦18 billion ($12.8 million) to users in 2025, nearly double its 2024 payouts. The growth stemmed from relentless product iteration, a shift toward disciplined distribution, and a strategic pivot after the...
Guest Post: How Market Shaping Supercharges AI GTM Automation for Series A Startups
Series‑A founders have access to powerful AI‑driven GTM automation tools, yet most still miss the $10M‑$25M revenue milestones. The article argues that the technology merely amplifies existing messaging, and without a strategic market‑shaping foundation, outreach becomes noise. Market shaping involves...
Eden Life Pauses Consumer Business to Refocus on Corporate Clients
Eden Life, the Lagos‑based home services startup, has temporarily halted its consumer‑facing food, cleaning and laundry subscriptions to concentrate on higher‑margin corporate catering and industrial food contracts. The strategic reset follows an internal audit that flagged weak unit economics amid...
Can Prediction Markets Fix a Multi-Billion-Dollar Information Gap for African Startups?
African tech startups repeatedly waste capital because founders lack reliable market data, leading to costly pivots and failures. The continent’s ecosystem raised $4.1 billion in 2025, yet 54% of startups still collapse, reflecting a multi‑billion‑dollar information gap. Prediction markets—already familiar through...
Aline Nasseh Chocolates Pop Up at Holt Renfrew
Toronto‑based Aline Nasseh Artisan Chocolates launched a seasonal pop‑up at Holt Renfrew Yorkdale, running through February 22 and featuring a limited‑edition Valentine’s collection. The activation gave the two‑year‑old brand exposure to a luxury retail audience and generated stronger‑than‑expected sales despite post‑holiday lulls...
Black Business Ventures Association Brings Dragons Den Energy to Edmonton Unlimited
On Thursday, the Black Business Ventures Association hosted an Innovation Expo at Edmonton Unlimited, offering early‑stage Black entrepreneurs a Dragons’ Den‑style platform to pitch their ventures. Six startups—including a gamified ad platform, legal‑tech, peer‑to‑peer exchange, hyperlocal networking, digital business cards,...
Mesosil’s Infection-Fighting Dental Tech Gets FDA Clearance
Toronto‑based health‑tech startup Mesosil has secured FDA 510(k) clearance for its antimicrobial dental additive, allowing U.S. dental manufacturers to embed the technology in products such as composites and cements. The clearance follows a four‑year development program and validates the company’s...
BTG Pactual Acquires Brazilian Fintech Meutudo
BTG Pactual announced the acquisition of up to a 48% stake in Brazilian digital‑credit platform meutudo, valuing the fintech at roughly $200 million. meutudo specializes in FGTS‑backed and payroll‑deducted loans, leveraging workers' severance funds to lower interest rates. The app also...
Gen Z Men Are Flocking to This 87‑Year‑Old Self‑Help Book for Success Hacks
Napoleon Hill’s 1937 classic *Think and Grow Rich* is experiencing a resurgence among Gen Z men, especially those early in startup careers. The book’s core messages are circulating on TikTok and being amplified by influencers like Ben Mercer and Joe Rogan. Young...
Clean-Tech Start-Up Solar Capital Launches Digital Platform Enabling Rooftop-Less Consumers to Participate in India's Solar Growth
Solar Capital, a Gurugram clean‑tech start‑up, launched a digital platform that lets individuals and organisations invest in solar projects without owning rooftops. Subscriptions start at just Rs 999, removing installation and maintenance barriers for renters, apartment dwellers, and small businesses. The...
Manchester Innovation District Signs International Partnership Deal
Manchester’s £1.7bn Sister innovation district has entered a 12‑month partnership with Ireland’s Platform94, a tech hub in Galway. The agreement provides reciprocal access to workspaces and corporate networks, enabling startups in both regions to collaborate on AI, medical technologies and...
Artha Venture Moves To Oust Hornet CEO Over Alleged Governance Breaches
Artha Venture Fund exercised its shareholder rights to remove Hornet’s co‑founder and CEO, Souvik Haldar, citing serious governance breaches. The VC alleges Haldar diverted seed‑fund proceeds, took paid external work with a client, and copied the startup’s code and sensitive...
UK Tech Funding Roundup: This Week’s Deals From Tem to Occam Industries
UK tech investment this week totaled £82.5 million across six rounds, an 81% drop from the prior week, partly due to last week’s £368 million ElevenLabs megadeal. The headline transaction was tem’s £55 million Series B, an energy‑brokerage platform matching buyers with suppliers. Seed‑stage...
Startup Bets on New Approach to Space-Based Missile Defense
California startup Wardstone has closed a $5 million seed round to develop space‑based kinetic interceptors. The company plans to test its first prototype on a suborbital sounding rocket in late April, employing a novel “buckshot” particle‑cloud approach to counter hypersonic missiles....
Centre Approves Startup India FoF 2.0 With An Outlay Of ₹10,000 Cr
The Indian government has approved the second phase of the Startup India Fund of Funds (FoF) 2.0, allocating an additional ₹10,000 crore to the scheme. Managed by SIDBI under DPIIT oversight, the FoF channels capital to SEBI‑registered alternative investment funds, which...
Ecomm Cowboy Talks AI and Underdogs
Chris Hall launched Ecomm Cowboy, a daily livestream on X and YouTube that breaks down ecommerce news, AI developments, and D2C strategies for online retailers. The hour‑long show, debuting a month ago, aims to both inform operators about the fast‑moving...
FAST42 2026: Announcing The Ranking Of India’s Fastest-Growing D2C Brands
Inc42 unveiled FAST42 2026, its fifth edition ranking the 42 fastest‑growing Indian direct‑to‑consumer (D2C) brands. The list, compiled from over 250 applications, uses FY23‑FY25 CAGR and a minimum ₹1 Cr FY23 revenue threshold. Collectively the winners generated ₹2,100 Cr in revenue, secured...
ScyAI Secures €2M and Launches AI Risk Platform for Real Assets
Zurich‑based ScyAI closed a €2 million pre‑seed round led by AENU and PT1, bringing together unicorn founders and angel investors. The startup launched an AI‑driven platform that merges operational data with external hazard models to create auditable, asset‑specific climate risk profiles....
Exclusive: D2C Brand ClayCo Raises ₹30 Cr From Twenty Nine Capital Partners
ClayCo Cosmetics, a 2023‑founded D2C beauty brand, closed a fresh Series A round of ₹29.99 crore (about $3.3 million) from London‑based Twenty Nine Capital Partners. The funding was issued as 1,529 non‑cumulative CCPS at a premium exceeding ₹1.96 lakh per share. This capital...
Photonic Claims “World-First” Quantum Teleportation Across Telus Fibre Network
Photonic announced it successfully teleported quantum information across 30 km of Telus’s commercial PureFibre network, marking the first time usable qubits have been transferred to a remote processing node on a live telecom backbone. The demonstration builds on earlier lab‑scale experiments...
Addverb’s Humanoid Bet: How This Noida Robotics Startup Is Building Physical AI
Addverb, a Noida‑based robotics firm backed by Reliance, has introduced its first humanoid robot—a six‑foot, 80 kg machine capable of carrying 15 kg and equipped with wheels for legs. The humanoid is designed for unstructured factory and warehouse settings where traditional automation...
Google’s Gemini to Be Integrated Into Major UK Property Platform
Rightmove, the UK’s leading digital property portal, will embed Google’s Gemini large‑language‑model into its search service. The integration enables conversational, natural‑language queries and personalised property discovery, letting users describe homes in plain English instead of ticking boxes. Gemini’s AI will...
How Freelancers Can Stay Profitable in Every Economy — From Crushing Recessions to Crazy Booms
Freelancers must treat economic cycles and AI disruption as catalysts for change, not threats. By broadening skill sets, offering multiple services, and positioning themselves as strategic advisors, they can convert slow periods into growth opportunities. Financial discipline—cash reserves, expense audits,...
19 MENA Startups Graduate From the Second Exel by Merak Accelerator Cohort
Nineteen MENA game studios have graduated from the second cohort of Exel by Merak, an $80 million gaming accelerator launched by Merak Capital. Each studio receives $300,000 in seed funding plus mentorship and global network access. Cohort 2 has already produced $1.2 million...
Kenya’s WapiPay Targets Billions in Diaspora Cash to Unlock Credit for Households
WapiPay, a Kenyan fintech founded in 2019, has introduced a Remittance Credit Scorecard (RCS) that lets banks and SACCOs incorporate diaspora money‑transfer data into loan underwriting. The AI‑driven tool analyzes payment frequency, size and stability, converting these patterns into a...
India’s Computer Vision Health Startup Krigat Wins Supernova AI MEA in Cairo
India‑based health‑AI startup Krigat captured the Supernova AI MEA Champion title in Cairo, outpacing 74 finalists from over 30 countries. The win includes a $10,000 equity‑free cash prize and heightened visibility at the AI Everything MEA summit. Krigat’s platform leverages...
London’s Nscale Signs €1.1 Billion Debt Facility to Deploy Large-Scale GPU Clusters in Europe
London‑based Nscale has secured a €1.1 billion delayed‑draw term loan to fund the purchase of GPU infrastructure for large‑scale AI clusters across Europe. The loan, led by PIMCO, Blue Owl and LuminArx, builds on a €146 million Series A and a record‑breaking €936 million...
Wexler Founder: Don’t Worry About the Competition
Gregory Mostyn, co‑founder and CEO of Wexler, says founders should ignore competitors and concentrate on building truly unique solutions. Wexler is creating a new “fact intelligence” category for legal, compliance, HR, tax and forensics teams, leveraging AI for extraction, verification...
Anthony Edwards Has a Plan to Get Your Attention
NBA star Anthony Edwards is turning his on‑court fame into a media empire through Three‑Fifths Media, which now produces the unscripted series *Year Six* and the viral Believe That Awards. The company, co‑founded with manager Justin Holland, secured a production...
Speaker Spotlight: Eddie Flores, Co-Founder L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, Chairman of L&L Franchise, Inc.
Eddie Flores, co‑founder of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue and chairman of L&L Franchise, Inc., will deliver the opening keynote at the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in San Diego on March 16‑18, 2026. In his talk, “Franchising the American Dream,” he...
Real-Time Settlements: When Money Starts Moving Like a Text Message
Real‑time settlement in the United States is now delivered through two instant payment rails – the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service and The Clearing House’s RTP network – both operating 24 × 7 × 365 and providing finality at the moment of confirmation. The article...
Why World Models Will Become a Platform Capability, Not a Corporate Superpower
The article argues that large language models have become commoditized, offering generic linguistic intelligence but lacking real‑world understanding. It proposes that world models—systems that learn environment dynamics, causality, and feedback—will evolve into a shared platform capability rather than a proprietary...
Skosh Launches Global Culture-Based Dating and Friendship Platform
Skosh has launched a global dating and friendship app that centers culture, identity, and language in its matching algorithm. The platform lets users find romantic or platonic connections based on shared home country, cultural layers, and cross‑cultural curiosity, targeting immigrants,...
Battery Tech Startup E-TRNL Energy Raises ₹27.4 Cr For Product Development
e-TRNL Energy, a battery‑tech startup founded in 2021, secured ₹27.4 cr ($3 mn) in a seed round led by IAN Alpha Fund. The capital will fund completion of its chemistry‑agnostic lithium‑ion and future sodium‑ion cell technology and demonstrate large‑scale manufacturing in India....
Ikeja Electric Ties Power Supply to Tax IDs for Businesses
Nigeria’s largest electricity distributor, Ikeja Electric, announced that all business customers must provide a Tax Identification Number, National Identification Number, or CAC registration details to receive valid bills. The company set a seven‑day deadline, requiring submissions by February 20, 2026, after which...
Real Equity vs Virtual Shares in Bulgaria: A Corporate Governance Playbook for Employee Incentives
Bulgarian companies are increasingly choosing between real equity and virtual (phantom) shares to motivate staff, each offering distinct governance and tax outcomes. Real equity provides statutory ownership and voting rights but can create minority vetoes and exit‑execution risk. Virtual shares...