While other battery startups are pursuing the best performance, the highest energy density, or the longest life span, Sparkz has a different goal in mind.

• “The focus of the company from day one, when this company was conceptualized, was to ease the supply chain. That has been the main focus and remains the main focus,” Sanjiv Malhotra, founder and CEO of Sparkz, told Emerging Tech Brew.

Every battery company that wants to actually, you know, produce its batteries needs to think about its supply chain. But not all of them have chosen it as a starting point for optimizing their chemistries.

In 2019, the Sparkz team set out to find a battery that could avoid supply-chain constraints and safety concerns while still providing competitive energy density, cycle life, and cost, Malhotra said. Through partnerships with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Sparkz ultimately licensed patents for battery tech that doesn’t require cobalt, a scarce mineral used in many lithium-ion batteries on the market today.

Put it into practice: Now, Sparkz is putting that strategy to the test as it begins to build out its manufacturing capacity. The company plans to begin production at its pilot facility in California later this year and have between 0.2 GWh and 0.5 GWh of battery capacity up and running at a new plant in West Virginia by late 2023 or early 2024.

Read the full on Sparkz here.—GD

Cows have been domesticated by humans since at least the 9th millennium BC.

Halter, a New Zealand-based startup, is attempting to bring that long-standing relationship into the digital age.

Zoom in: The company creates digital cow collars—solar-powered devices that use IoT to deliver real-time data about the status of cattle to a phone app. The cow collars track a host of metrics, like temperature, fertility, behavior, and general health.

• Halter uses the data to help establish a baseline for each individual cow on a given farm and to train machine learning models that can help detect issues with cow health, according to its CEO, Craig Piggott.

Zoom out: Halter, which has raised ~$63 million in funding since its founding in 2016, is part of the fast-growing world of agtech startups. In 2021, 751 agtech startups raised a total of $10.5 billion, per Pitchbook, a big leap from the previous year, in which 628 firms raised $6.6 billion.

And by 2026, Pitchbook forecasts the animal-focused agtech market, comprised of companies like Halter, to nearly double in value to $12.4 billion, up from an estimated $6.4 billion in 2021.

Keep reading about the internet of cows.—JW

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Emerging Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

In my current role, my job is to drive innovation across our company’s product and engineering teams to help protect users from evolving digital threats. With malicious behavior from cybercriminals quickly rising, I’m proud to be part of a team whose technology prevents and detects cyberattacks. My role combines things like understanding the market, deep technical expertise, and the ability to lead a talented team to achieve their audacious goals.

What’s your favorite emerging tech project you’ve worked on?

This is a really interesting question because one of the benefits of cybersecurity is that you are on an endless treadmill of innovation. It is an absolute necessity because you are defending against an adversary who is also driving emerging technologies with malintent.

What emerging tech are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

I’m a big fan of artificial intelligence. I believe AI will play a huge role in security, from enhancing our protections to even automating our security-operations centers and responses. However, like any advanced tool, it can also be used for evil, which means mastering the skill is of the utmost importance.

What’s the best piece of tech-related media you’ve read/watched/listened to?

I pay attention to a broad range of media outlets, from general tech, like CNET, to cyber-specific ones like Krebs on Security or just my favorite Reddit boards.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile?

I’ve worked in the technology industry for more than 30 years and I’ve never lived in Silicon Valley.

Stat: Less than one in ten tech workers felt confident in their job security according to a June survey from Blind.

Quote: “This is technology made from taxpayer dollars…It was invented in a national lab. [Now] it’s deployed in China, and it’s held in China. To say it’s frustrating is an understatement.”—Joanne Skievaski, CFO of Forever Energy, on a promising battery tech the US gave to China

Read: In 2019, Google claimed it had achieved quantum supremacy. A classical supercomputer may have just proved the company wrong.

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Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• This startup wants to replace diesel generators with tiny wind turbines
• Alexa’s next trick? Figuring stuff out itself
• Sodium-based batteries could solve the lithium crunch