IXI raises .5M from Amazon and others to bring autofocus to prescription glasses

IXI raises $36.5M from Amazon and others to bring autofocus to prescription glasses

Blink and you’ll miss it: A startup out of Finland is taking a new look at the market for prescription eyewear. Tapping into innovations in eye-tracking and liquid crystal lens technology, IXI is building low-power glasses that will invisibly and automatically adjust to account for a wearer’s presbyopia (far-sightedness). Four years into its life, Helsinki-based…

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Italy finance minister warns US stablecoins pose bigger threat than tariffs

Italy finance minister warns US stablecoins pose bigger threat than tariffs

Italy’s Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti said US stablecoins’ appeal to Europeans should not be underestimated. Italy’s minister of economy and finance warned that US stablecoin policies are more concerning than President Donald Trump’s tariffs, citing the potential for these crypto assets to undermine the euro’s dominance in cross-border payments. Speaking at an…

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Startups Weekly: Enjoying the reprieve

Startups Weekly: Enjoying the reprieve

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Startups aren’t isolated from the world. But this week, funding news felt positively uncorrelated from the overall news cycle, offering somewhat of a reprieve — or perhaps…

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Swedish MP proposes Bitcoin reserve to finance minister

Swedish MP proposes Bitcoin reserve to finance minister

The MP proposed a “budget-neutral” Bitcoin reserve to the finance minister, inspired by US President Donald Trump’s March 7 executive order. A member of Sweden’s parliament has proposed adding Bitcoin to the country’s national foreign exchange reserves, suggesting increased openness to cryptocurrency adoption in Europe following recent moves by the United States. Swedish MP Rickard…

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