Here is a news roundup from the world of Startups.
Startup Ideas
Banks eager for Artificial Intelligence, but slow to adopt– some analysts are also beginning to wonder if we have already reached the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” when it comes to AI. What do you think?
Tech Founders Around the World Attend Startup School – When Goktug Yilmaz, a game developer in Ankara, Turkey, wanted help with his business, he turned to Y Combinator, a prestigious startup accelerator firm in Mountain View, California. Yilmaz recently completed Y Combinator’s first free online course, called Startup School. He was among 7,000 founders from more than 140 countries who participated.
This Startup Wants Translate Your Own Voice into Another Language that You Can’t Speak
Startup in the news
Meet South Africa’s most promising startup – EMGuidance, an app for the medical profession, has won the local leg of Seedstars World and will now compete for $500,000 (R6.5 million) in funding at the global final in Switzerland in 2018.
Self-driving car startup Oxbotica and online supermarket Ocado are testing autonomous grocery delivery – Self-driving car startup Oxbotica and British digital-only supermarket Ocado are working on an autonomous grocery delivery trial in the Greenwich neighborhood of London, according to Ars Technica. The companies are delivering groceries in the Greenwich GATEway corridor, an area that officials designated as an autonomous testing ground and where Oxbotica has already deployed autonomous shuttles.
Fund Raising and Financing
Singapore fintech startup Validus Capital raises US$2.9M to grow SME lending platform – Validus Capital is an online lending platform that provides insurances to investors. Singapore-based fintech startup Validus Capital has raised S$4 million (US$2.9 million) from Vertex Ventures.
With $6.5B so far, 2017 on track to be biggest digital health funding year yet – StartUp Health’s funding report for the first half of 2017 is out, and the organization is predicting that it will be the biggest year yet for digital health funding. The total raised in the second quarter was $3.8 billion, adding up to $6.5 billion to date this year.
Indian tech billionaire launches $100m fund for startups to break $100m barrier – The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fundamentum as “a logical basis or ruling principle.” The more familiar adjective ‘fundamental’ is derived from this. And in Indian engineering colleges, where students can be seen toting books on the fundamentals of this or that, the shortened version ‘funda’ is preferred. Nilekani, who co-founded Infosys with six others in 1981 and saw India become the leading destination for IT services in this millennium, has been an active participant in the tech ecosystem after relinquishing his CEO post at Infosys. He helmed a government initiative to give a unique ID number to every Indian, called Aadhaar, which has registered more than a billion people. He has also been an angel investor in startups.
Corporate Deals
Microsoft to acquire Israeli startup Cloudyn, Infosys exits – While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, it is reported to be around $50 million-$70 million. According to a company statement, Infosys has agreed for divestment of its entire investment in Cloudyn for a total consideration of approximately $4.4 million. In August last year, Infosys has invested $4 million to pick up a minority stake in Cloudyn marking the Bengaluru-headquartered firm’s second investment in an Israel-based cloud-computing start-up from the company’s $500 million innovation fund.
Sky puts $2m into connected device startup, AstraZeneca completes two major transactions – AstraZeneca confirmed the completion of two major transactions on Monday, bringing in almost half a billion dollars for the drugmaker in the current financial year. The FTSE 100 company said it had completed the agreement with Recordati for the commercial rights to Seloken in Europe, with an upfront payment of $290m to be recorded in the second quarter of 2017. It also said it had completed the agreement with Grunenthal for the global rights to Zomig outside Japan, with an upfront payment of $200m to be recorded in the same quarter.
Volvo’s Parent Company Just Bought a Flying Car Startup – China’s Geely, which also owns Volvo and other car companies, just bought a startup that makes flying cars.The small privately held aviation company, Terrafugia, which is aiming to produce a practical flying car, or more accurately a street legal aircraft, is being bought by the Chinese carmaker Geely, a company that also owns Volvo and Lotus.
SAP Startup Focus Series: MyOmega and Nitish Agrawal
Shutdown and Failures
- Khosla-backed fitness startup Pact shuts down – Pact, the startup that incentivized users to healthy behaviors by getting them to essentially bet money on their own adherence, has shut down, according to an email the company sent out to its users on Friday. The company will pay out its final rewards to users on July 11th and will continue supporting users until the end of August.
- Ambitious augmented reality startup CastAR reportedly shuts down – Four-year-old augmented reality company CastAR has reportedly shut down. According to Polygon, which spoke to former employees, the company was unable to get more funding from either its present backer or any new companies. It reportedly laid off nearly its entire staff yesterday, leaving a core team behind to seek a buyer for its AR tech. We’ve reached out to CastAR to confirm the reports.
- No recycling here: Delhi based startup Surpluss shuts shop – Hit by demonetization and cash crunch, electronics refurbishing and recommerce companies have started consolidating operations in India. Delhi based online retail store for refurbished electronics – Surpluss has shut shop owing to internal business issues aggravated by demonetization. Founded in 2014, Surpluss sold refurbished and surplus products ranging from mobile phones and tablets to fashion apparel.