"Remember when Elon Musk challenged Vladimir Putin to physical combat and Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight? Neither of those brawls took place for various reasons. Not least, I suspect, because Musk is just self-aware enough to know that he would not emerge with his dignity, or his spine, intact. However, if the richest man in the world is still casting around for a way to publicly demonstrate his virility, I think I've hit on the perfect way: sperm racing."
"A teenage entrepreneur called Eric Zhu came up with the idea, and went viral with his first sperm race in April. That initial race was rudimentary: college students gave sperm samples to be analysed and the results were turned into an animated race that visualised the fastest offerings. Since then, things have got more sophisticated: the company has developed a real-time race mechanism. According to the San Francisco Standard, investors have valued Sperm Racing at $75m and it recently got $10m in seed funding."
"Good for Zhu, but imagine being a teenage female founder asking for investment in an Ovulation Olympics; you'd get laughed out of the room. That's if you were even let in the room: wholly women-led companies in the US got just 1% of venture capital funding in 2024. While sperm racing started off as a joke, it's now being presented as a health initiative. Male fertility is declining. Like, a lot, the company manifesto says."
Sperm racing originated with teenage entrepreneur Eric Zhu, whose first viral event animated sperm samples from college students into a visualised race. The founder's initial race was rudimentary, and the company subsequently developed a real-time race mechanism. Investors have valued Sperm Racing at $75m and provided $10m in seed funding. The venture markets racing as a health initiative to address steep declines in male fertility and sells a supplement called Sperm Worms. The phenomenon highlights stark gender disparities in venture capital: wholly women-led US companies received only 1% of VC funding in 2024.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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