Author: Arabian Media staff

Qapita, a Singapore-based equity management platform, has raised $26.5 million in a Series B round led by Charles Schwab. As part of the deal, Charles Schwab has introduced a new platform called Schwab Private Issuer Equity Services — powered by Qapita — which let’s U.S. startups manage their cap tables, administer stock plans, and prepare for public listings. Founded in 2019 by former banker Ravi Ravulaparthi (CEO) with Lakshman Gupta (COO) and Vamsee Mohan (CTO) (pictured above, from left to right), Qapita helps private companies track ownership, manage employee equity, and facilitate secondary share sales. The startup serves private companies…

Read More

British fintech Revolut — now launching in India — says cross-border payments remain one of India’s most underserved financial services. By its estimate, Indians spend about $30 billion overseas every year and lose around $600 million in bank charges — fees its India head calls “criminal.” “It has been the preserve of banks,” Paroma Chatterjee, Revolut India CEO, told TechCrunch. “You go to your bank to take currency, foreign exchange out from your bank, or you take a travel card that is issued by your bank when you’re traveling overseas … there have been humongous charges which have been levied…

Read More

The scourge of modern concrete is, perhaps surprisingly, rust.  Most concrete structures are laced with steel rebar to add strength, but if the metal corrodes, it can cause the concrete to fail prematurely. Bridges, which are exposed to water and salt, are some of the most vulnerable. About one third of bridges in the United States need to be repaired or replaced, which could cost nearly $400 billion over the next decade. There are plenty of ways engineers cope with rust, from coating the rebar with epoxy to pouring extra concrete to buy some time before seeping water reaches the…

Read More

The Department of Energy is looking to cut billions more in federal funding, and many promising startups as well as automakers Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis could be affected by the Trump administration’s decision. The proposed cuts would cancel more than $500 million of contracts awarded to more than a dozen startups, according to a TechCrunch analysis of a internal document that has not become public yet. All of the proposed cuts are grants that had been awarded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The proposed cancelations, many of which have not been reported before, come on top of more than…

Read More

Äio (pronounced EYE-oh) is the Estonian god of dreams. It seems a sweetly appropriate namesake for a rising startup, called ÄIO, from that tiny Baltic country that has developed a process to turn agricultural waste like sawdust into fats for the food and cosmetic industries.  This process could be a way to reduce the world’s dependency on palm oil, which has become a staple for food and cosmetics for its emulsifying and preservative properties. Unfortunately, because of that plant’s need for hot humid climates, this massive industry has also notoriously destroyed rain forests and other sensitive ecosystems to make way for farms.  ÄIO was co-founded by biotechnology scientists Nemailla Bonturi and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee based on Bonturi’s doctoral research. During her studies she invented a new microbe, a strain of yeast. Instead of consuming sugar and outputting carbon dioxide gas or alcohol as with bread and beer, this yeast consumes sugar and outputs…

Read More

New PitchBook data illustrates how dramatically AI is dominating startup investment, with 2025 on track to become the first year when AI accounts for more than half of all VC money invested. PitchBook reports that VCs have poured $192.7 billion into the industry so far this year, out of a total $366.8 billion, according to Bloomberg. In the most recent quarter, AI accounted for 62.7% of the money invested by U.S. VCs, and for 53.2% of money invested by global firms. Most of that money is going to marquee names like Anthropic, which announced a $13 billion Series F in…

Read More

Context windows of AI models, which indicate the ability of a model to “remember” information, have increased over time. However, researchers have suggested new ways to increase long-term memory of AI models, as they often can’t hold context over several sessions. Nineteen-year-old founder Dhravya Shah is attempting to solve problems in this area by building a memory solution, called Supermemory, for AI apps. Originally from Mumbai in India, Shah started building consumer-facing bots and apps a few years ago. He even sold his bot that formatted tweets into good-looking screenshots to the social media tool Hypefury. The founder, who was…

Read More