What's Possible: 30th July, 2021
A weekly curation of what’s possible in frontier tech.
⚡ News from our portfolio this week
⇨ Arlula partner, Agtuary, joins farmers and banks with Space technologies (Geospatial World)
⇨ An independent user's review of Donut on how to maximise APY. (Richie Crowley)
⇨ Qatalog hits #1 spot on Product Hunt!
Qatalog @qatalog
We've hit the #1 spot on @ProductHunt. Thank you to everyone who's followed our journey thus far, we're just getting started. Keep the support coming! q.ink/phl
5:53 PM ∙ Jul 26, 202133Likes11Retweets
Ag-Tech
⇨ 5 Benefits Of Drones In Agriculture (Your Drone Reviews)
Precision agriculture is the science of improving efficiency, productivity, crop yield and profitability through the use of technology. According to analysts, drones in agriculture will be worth a massive $5 billion by the end of 2025.
Blockchain / Crypto
⇨ Michael Saylor's 4 Quadrant Method (Link)
Michael Saylor’s 4 quadrant approach to identifying value in Cryptocurrency.
Climate Solutions
⇨ World’s biggest wind and solar hydrogen hub planned for south-west Australia (Renew Economy)
The scale of the $100 billion project – to be known as the Western Green Energy Hub – is unprecedented. It would rank as one of Australia’s biggest ever projects of any kind, and not far short of the size of the country’s main grid.
⇨ China is gearing up to activate the world's first 'clean' commercial nuclear reactor (Live Science)
The molten-salt nuclear reactor, which runs on liquid thorium rather than uranium, is expected to be safer than traditional reactors because the molten salt cools and solidifies quickly when exposed to the air, insulating the thorium, so that any potential leak would spill much less radiation into the surrounding environment compared with leaks from traditional reactors.
Deep Tech
⇨ The Location Intelligence ecosystem in Asia-Pacific (Link)
To make the most of location-based technology, you need to find the right partners. This market map appropriately categorizes location-based service providers so you can find the right partner for their specific use case.
Food & Food Systems
⇨ Ag-tech Employing AI and Range of Tools With Dramatic Results (AI Trends)
Plenty’s vertical farm approach can produce the same quantity of fruits and vegetables as a 720-acre flat farm, on only two acres.
Gaming
⇨ Half Of Chinese Football Fans Think Esports Football is Just As Exciting As Real-Life Football (The FinTech Times)
According to data presented by Safe Betting Sites, 52% of Chinese football fans find esports football just as exciting as live football compared to an average rate of 29.5% for Europe’s ‘Big-5’.
GenZ
⇨ Sports trading cards boom in pandemic-era US (The Daily Star)
In February this year, a rare Jordan card signed by the six-time NBA champion himself sold for $1.44 million at auction, breaking the previous record for a card of his by $500,000.A LeBron James rookie card fetched $5.2 million in April.
Productivity
⇨ Why we built this (Qatalog)
We’re early in our journey and our story is ramping up. It might begin with Tariq mentioning this pain point that’s followed him from Wise to Amazon, or maybe a funny anecdote that Guy Raz chuckles at before leading into another question. At Qatalog, we’re just getting started.
Security
⇨ Accel doubles down on 1Password, which just raised $100M more at a $2B valuation (TechCrunch)
Profitable since day one, 1Password recently crossed the $120 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue) mark, according to CEO Jeff Shiner. Over 90,000 businesses use its SaaS platform.
Space & Satellites
⇨ The Space Exploration Initiative supports research across and beyond MIT in two microgravity flights this spring. (MIT News)
This flight opportunity that SEI wrangles, for labs across MIT, is meant to incubate and curate the future artifacts for life in space and robotic exploration.
SynBio
⇨ CSIRO ‘brews’ milk for animal-free dairy startup (The Sydney Morning Herald)
“Our planet will be faced with challenges around producing enough food to feed the growing world population,” he said. “We have an opportunity with Eden Brew to pioneer a new food category and create a product that serves today’s consumers’ hunger and need for more options.” — Main Sequence partner Phil Morle
Venture
⇨ The 30 Best Bits of Advice We’ve Heard on Our Podcast (So Far) (First Round)
From big, thought-provoking ideas, to put-to-use-right-away tactics, here are the 30 best takeaways we heard in the first 30 episodes of First Round’s new podcast - In Depth.
⇨ Why is China smashing its tech industry? (Noahpinion)
I find it bizarre that the world has decided that consumer internet is the highest form of technology. It’s not obvious to me that apps like WeChat, Facebook, or Snap are doing the most important work pushing forward our technologically-accelerating civilization. To me, it’s entirely plausible that Facebook and Tencent might be net-negative for technological developments. The apps they develop offer fun, productivity-dragging distractions; and the companies pull smart kids from R&D-intensive fields like materials science or semiconductor manufacturing, into ad optimization and game development.
⇨ The Decline of Venture Debt at the Early Stage (Tomasz Tunguz)
The cost of capital in the early stage has fallen dramatically in the last six months, i.e., valuations in the early stage have close to doubled. Flush with cash, why raise debt at the early stage?
