Digital Startup news roundup – Week ending 14th Jan


Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 14th Jan 2018

News you can use

MyDigitalStartup.org announces the release of the report “Top 10 technology trends to watch in 2018” – The report will help CIOs and senior IT executives gain insights on the emerging technologies and help them navigate through this period of change. These predictions lay out myDigitalStartup’s vision for the ten most important trends that corporate executives must watch for. PDF copies of the report are available for FREE

Not ‘fake news’: B.C. startup taps into sports publishers’ hunger for video – The term “fake news” has been tossed around a lot in the past year.Originally a reference to manufactured stories shared on social media, it’s since been adopted by some politicians to attack legitimate news organizations.Despite being in the media business and leading a company with the word “news” right in its name, SendtoNews CEO Matthew Watson isn’t anxious about getting hit with that label.

IBM, Comcast Ventures back fund for blockchain business startups Bloomberg |Comcast Ventures is providing funding, while IBM is offering up support services to MState startups.Comcast Ventures is providing funding, while IBM is offering up support services to MState startups.By Olga KharifInternational Business Machines Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s venture arm will become the largest supporters of an investment fund for startups that help corporations use blockchain, the digital ledger that’s become a hot technology.

CES 2018 – Consumer electronic trends and predictions for the coming year – Among the top trends include 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) enabled gadgets, humanoid and companion robots, virtual and mixed reality and other technologies likely to bring us closer to smart cities.

 

Corporate M&A

Salesforce acquires Attic Labs, the startup behind decentralized database Noms – Attic Labs, the creator of Noms, an open-source decentralized database, announced today that is being acquired by Salesforce. Terms of the deal, Salesforce’s first acquisition of 2018, were undisclosed. Last year, the company only bought digital creative agency Sequence, according to Crunchbase, taking a break from an acquisition spree in 2016 when it snapped up a dozen companies.

Volkswagen, Hyundai Motor partner with self-driving startup Aurora – Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor have partnered with US self-driving technology startup Aurora Innovation to speed up their autonomous car programs.The partnerships were announced at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, US.Aurora, which designs and builds self-driving technology, collaborates with automakers on integration, pilot and deployment of advanced self-driving platforms into vehicles.

MetLife Accelerates Transformation with Launch of Digital Ventures and Digital Accelerator – To deliver digital solutions that offer a differentiated customer experience and disrupt the industry, today MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET), one of the world’s leading insurance companies, announced the launch of two InsurTech investment programs for start-up companies: MetLife Digital Ventures and MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars. Both programs will be led under the umbrella of MetLife’s Chief Digital Office.

Startup shut and failed last week

 

  • Startup Mapzen loses its Zen, announces shutdown– However, Mapping continues to be very hot space. The Mapzen team added ‘Fortunately, the core products of Mapzen are built entirely on open software and data. As a result, there are options to run Mapzen services yourself or to switch to other service providers.’
  • step.com shuts down New York based startup that attempted to anonymously crowdsource salary details from NYC startups and hiring experts announced that it is shutting down. The idea was rather interesting. About a week after signing up, users start receiving personalized salary and seniority level estimates from startups and experts.

 

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