World Positive

2022 was a big year for Climate Tech, particularly in the U.S. The Inflation Reduction Act, also known as the Climate Bill, was a shot in the arm for investors at all stages. This national support joins seemingly unstoppable global momentum. But what emerges from the flood of money, and what doesn’t make the cut?

Forecasting is a tricky business. Experts often get it wrong, but it can help form a distinct point of view and strategy. At Obvious, predictions help us understand how trillion-dollar industries might be reimagined in a world positive way. We foresee the coming year will be one of convergence in TechBio. Cheaper sequencing and new wet lab tools will enable scaled data generation while recent advances in machine learning will unlock unprecedented analytical and predictive capabilities.

If 2021 was the golden year for fintech fundraising, with $130 billion invested in financial services startups, 2022 was the year of the major pullback. In the year ahead, fintechs will focus on profitability and building trustworthy, more personalized financial products. Companies that tackle enduring problems like improving transparency, personalization, access, and affordability will continue to thrive despite market conditions.

Forum Mobility’s mission to electrify a huge industry you’ve never heard of By Emily Brady On a recent weekday morning, the Port of Oakland was humming. A giant ship had just docked with thousands of containers stacked aboard like giant Lego bricks. The Bay Bridge and San Francisco skyline loomed in the distance. Beyond lay the mighty Pacific the ship had just traversed. Outside the terminal, the air was filled with the din of idling engines.

By Emily Brady Jessica was walking into work one morning at a large distribution center in rural Illinois when something caught her eye. It was an advertisement for a benefit her company was offering called Brightside. “If you need financial help, reach out,” the ad said. As she went about her work that day, using a semi-trailer to move containers full of goods to and from the loading dock, Jessica thought about how her debt was impacting her life.

Bringing Generative AI into the healthcare stack can deliver extraordinary possibilities By Kahini Shah Let’s start with the basics. Oversimplified, machine learning (ML) tasks can be broken down into three categories of capability: More specifically, a new class of ML for language-Large Language Models (LLMs)-has pushed the state of the art from #1 to #2. While this breakthrough has exciting implications across all industries, few are more compelling than healthcare.

From innovations in contraception to hormone hacking Over the years, I’ve watched the women I love most struggle with a myriad of health issues that are unique to women including fibroids, endometriosis, preeclampsia, abortion, menopause, and fertility issues. I’ve also seen them wrestle with challenges impacting all genders but that women experience more often, like hyperthyroidism, anxiety and depression, Alzheimers, cancer, and high blood pressure.

A guide to the modernization of healthcare Imagine for a moment that you just walked into your doctor’s office for an appointment. Instead of filling out six pages of forms on a clipboard, the receptionist hands you a tablet that already contains all of your information. You just have to make sure it’s current. Once inside the exam room, your doctor enters on time and proceeds to spend the majority of your appointment focused on what ails you.

How entrepreneurs are helping consumers get better-priced, higher-quality care — with more opportunities ahead. In early May, my fingers began feeling uncomfortably sensitive and my wrists hurt. I wasn’t sure if it was carpal tunnel (CTS), a neurologic issue, another muscular problem, or something else entirely. I wanted to fix it, but couldn’t figure out what type of doctor or therapist to see.