Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 2nd Sept 2018

News you can use

Google, Xiaomi in talks to invest in two-year-old startup – Search engine giant Google and smartphone maker Xiaomi are among investors lining up for two-year-old startup Where Is My Train, an app that provides live updates on trains without the use of internet and GPS, according to two people familiar with the development.

News Giant Associated Press Partners Blockchain Journalism Startup Civil – The Civil Media Company and The Associated Press (AP) have announced a partnership to license AP news content for use by newsrooms that use Civil. The news was revealed in a blogpost on Civil’s website on Tuesday, August 28. Under the terms of the agreement, AP will deliver news content – local and international – to Civil, giving newsrooms easy access to it through Civil’s platform. Newsrooms that want to access AP content through Civil will still need to be licensed directly by AP.

Corporate M&A

Apple  acquires Denver based startup Akonia Holographics to get AR technology – The acquisition was confirmed by Apple to Reuters who first reported the news. An Apple spokesperson gave TechCrunch the company’s standard statement, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans.” This acquisition offers the clearest confirmation yet from Apple that it is investing resources into technologies that support the development of a lightweight augmented reality headset. There have been a number of reports over the years that Apple is planning to release consumer AR glasses within the next few years.

VMware to acquire startup CloudHealth – VMware Inc. VMW, -0.91% announced Monday that it plans to acquire startup CloudHealth, a software platform that lets companies juggle different public cloud vendors like Amazon.com Inc.’s AMZN, +0.52% Amazon Web Sevices and Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT, +0.34% Azure. VMware did not disclose a price for the deal in its announcement, but Reuters reported that VMware would pay roughly $500 million. VMware said the deal should close in the current fiscal quarter and does not affect its fiscal-year guidance. The deal was announced during the keynote address of VMware’s annual VMWorld conference, which also included news of a new integration with AWS software and other hybrid-cloud-focused changes.

Playtoome, a live entertainment solutions platform attracts VC funding – Venture Catalysts announced a pre-Series A investment in Playtoome, a live entertainment solutions platform. Playtoome, a digital platform that allows users to connect with their favourite stars and watch them perform live was founded by S Keerthivasan in 2016.

Startup shut and failed last week

Last mile delivery startup, The New Post shuts down – A 5-month-old package holding and delivery service, The New Post, abruptly closed down, leaving its customers in a lurch. Its general manager Sean Khokhar confirmed on Sunday that they had closed.

AutoRaja Shuts Down Services; Co-Founders To Join Ola – Chennai-based auto-rickshaw aggregator, AutoRaja, has finally wound up its services from the city due to lack of funds and inability to sustain competition. With the shut down, the top officials and the remaining fleet has reportedly joined Ola. The AutoRaja’s auto-rickshaws have been told that they will now get their business leads from Ola.