Canada declares”high-speed’ internet essential for quality of life

Canada has recognized the obvious and declared high-speed broadband internet access a “basic telecommunications service” that every citizen should be able to access. Previously, only landline telephone services had received this designation from the country’s national telecoms regulator, CRTC, and the change is supported by a government investment package of up to $750 million to […]

French startup Agricool to grow fruits and vegetables in containers

French startup Agricool has raised $4.3 million (€4 million) from newly launched VC firm Daphni as well as Parrot founder Henri Seydoux and Captain Train (acquired by Trainline) co-founder Jean-Daniel Guyot. Agricool’s product is quite unusual as the company wants to grow strawberries and later other fruits and vegetables inside shipping containers. With many people […]

Why your next chatbot should be human-augmented, not AI-augmented

Chatbots hit a hot streak in 2016. It seemed like every week there was a new bot. Many of these bots faded as fast as they came on the scene. Most likely, they weren’t backed up with a proper business model, and many  in the industry overestimated the capacity of chatbot and AI to tackle […]

It’s Like Uber for Tractors, and It Could Change the Game for African Farmers

It’Three minutes into my conversation with Jehiel Oliver, CEO of Hello Tractor, the line goes dead. When I call back, he’s already laughing. “Welcome to West African communication,” he said. “That’ll happen three more times during this call.” He’s right (the third time, thankfully, is the charm), but the difficulty drives home only one of […]