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The Europas Awards — Hottest HealthTech Startup

The Europas Awards for European Tech Startups came around again last week (Thursday 27th June), and once again proved that Europe’s enormous diversity in startups continues to shine through on the world stage.

Once again TechCrunch was the exclusive media sponsor of the awards, alongside new “tech, culture & society” event creator The Pathfounder. Attendees, nominees and winners were given discounts to TechCrunch Disrupt in Berlin, later this year.

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21 Neurotech Startups To Watch: Brain-Machine Interfaces, Implantables, And Neuroprosthetics

These startups have seen investment from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, and DARPA, among many others.

As the digital health sector matures from basic tracking apps into highly regulated medical devices, we are seeing bleeding edge technologies being developed that blur the lines between computers and biology. And a growing share of these startups are beginning to target the brain.

The burgeoning field of neurotechnology involves brain-machine interfaces, neuroprosthetics, neurostimulation, neuromonitoring, and implantable devices intended to not only augment nervous system activity, but expand its capabilities. One such project is Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which is developing “high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.” And even Facebook has announced plans to create brain-machine interfaces that allow users to type using their thoughts.

Below, we used CB Insights data to identify 21 early- and mid-stage neurotech companies working across brain-machine interfaces, neuroprosthetics, neuromonitoring, and neurostimulatory devices.

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The top 7 startups from Y Combinator W17 Demo Day 1

A Fitbit for cows, USB ports for bionic limbs and microbatteries were amongst the most promising companies of the 52 that launched at Y Combinator’s winter 2017 Demo Day 1 yesterday. After asking investors their favorites and huddling with the TechCrunch team, here are our picks for the top 7 startups.

Click through/scroll to learn about each. You can read our full coverage of all the companies that demoed yesterday here, and plus here’s our write-ups for the 51 Day 2 companies and our top Day 2 picks.