Jul 18, 2019 - Economy & Business

Dust Identity raises $10 million in Series A funding

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

Dust Identity, a Framingham, Mass-based supply chain security and tracking startup that utilizes diamond dust, raised $10 million in Series A funding.

Why it matters: Do you know any other company whose business model is based on diamond dust? Specifically, inexpensive industrial diamond waste that's used to lightly coat an object, thus creating unique tagging properties and an ability to ensure that the object hasn't been messed with.

Kleiner Perkins led, and was joined by Airbus, Lockheed Martin, New Science Ventures, Angular Ventures and Castle Island Ventures.

The bottom line: "Dust Identity’s tagging technology could eventually help secure the increasingly long and complex supply chains that global manufacturers rely on. Producers of complex products like airplanes or electronics would be among the biggest potential users of the company's technology, which emerged from research into the quantum properties of diamonds," writes Fortune's David Z. Morris.

Go deeper: The diamond market gets cloudy

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Updated 4 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 12,009,301 — Total deaths: 548,799 — Total recoveries — 6,561,969 — Map.
U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 3,053,328 — Total deaths: 132,256 — Total recoveries: 953,420 — Total tested: 37,532,612 — Map.
Public health: Houston mayor cancels Republican convention over coronavirus concerns — Deaths are rising in hotspots — Déjà vu sets in as testing issues rise and PPE dwindles.
Travel: United warns employees it may furlough 45% of U.S. workforce — How the pandemic changed mobility habits, by state.
Education: New York City schools will not fully reopen in fall — Harvard and MIT sue Trump administration over rule barring foreign students from online classes.
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7 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Photo: Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

An "infodemic" of misinformation and disinformation has helped cripple the response to the novel coronavirus.

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