Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 9th June 2019
News you can use
The FAA is offering new partnership opportunities to validate key drone technologies – Is your company up for a challenge? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will partner with qualified commercial companies who can match the agency’s $6 million pledge to perform vital drone integration safety work at the FAA’s UAS test sites. “The FAA intends to bridge the gap between industry and the test sites to tackle some of our most difficult technical and operational challenges,” said Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell today at the FAA UAS Symposium in Baltimore.
Are Electric Motorbikes in India: likely to take off – A recent article in New York times highlights the shift in ride-sharing trends in India. (ref: Ride-Sharing’s Future? It May Sit on Electric Motorbikes). The article describes “Several start-ups — backed by big Silicon Valley venture firms and Uber’s Indian competitor, Ola — are betting that shared “two-wheelers” are better suited to wallets and transportation needs than the cars that are the heart of the ride-hailing industry.”
Startup Merger and Acquisitions
KPMG in India acqui-hires AI decision services startup Recommender Labs – KPMG in India has acqui-hired artificial intelligence (AI) decision services company Recommender Labs Pvt. Ltd, a statement by the professional services firm said. As part of the deal, KPMG said it will acquire Recommender’s trademark brand, software products and other intellectual property rights. The firm did not disclose the financial details of the deal. KPMG said it will combine its own capabilities with those of Recommender’s to build assets and capability to respond to client requests with AI-led offerings. The company said it is also planning to build its own centre of excellence specialising in decision-science and AI-driven solutions.
Bird is in talks to acquire scooter startup Scoot – If you are among those who thought that the scooter market sounded a little overhyped and overcrowded, we’ve gotten wind of a deal that could point to some impending consolidation. The on-demand scooter business Bird has agreed to acquire Scoot, a smaller two-wheeled mobility startup, sources tell TechCrunch.
Google to acquire analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion – Looker will join Google’s cloud division after the acquisition closes later this year. Google said on Thursday that it would acquire Looker, an analytics software startup, for $2.6 billion, in an all-cash transaction to extend and improve its solutions for its cloud customers. The company said that the Looker acquisition would be completed later this year, subject to regulatory approvals. When the deal closes, Looker will join Google’s cloud division, the company said in a blog post.
Twitter acquires AI startup to help it fight fake news – Its technology has a 93 percent success rate in detecting fake news, according to ‘TechCrunch.’ Twitter has acquired London startup Fabula AI, which is working on a technology to detect fake news. On its website, Fabula says its patented technology called Geometric Deep Learning exhibits high success rates when it comes to identifying and spotting online disinformation. Twitter didn’t mention how it plans to use the technology, though, only that Fabula will give the company the ability to “analyze very large and complex datasets.” The startup’s tech and talent will serve as the social network’s “key driver” in its efforts to make people feel safe, to help them see more relevant information and “to improve the health of the conversation” on the platform.
Apple to expand its Autonomous Vehicle talent pool with Drive.ai acquisition – Now comes news that the tech giant is expanding its Autonomous Vehicle Talent pool by acquiring Drive.ai Like the rest of Tech Oligipoly, Apple has been working on autonomous driving technology too, and most of the growth in talent has come from acqui-hire. According to the industry journal patentlyapple.com, “As of June 4, 2019, the U.S. Patent Office have published 11 Project Titan patents describing various vehicle systems relating to semi or fully autonomous vehicles from advanced safety belts, to providing drivers with superior night vision lighting to motion control seating to suspension systems and more.”
Startups failures
Another Legal Tech Startup Is Shutting Down – SupportHound, a spousal support calculator for Oregon attorneys that used real cases to calculate how much and how long a spousal support award should be. SupportHound was founded in 2016 by Julie Gentili Armbrust, an attorney and family law mediator in Oregon. The site uses data collected from actual cases to analyze the financial situations of parties going through a divorce and recommend a suggested support award. The suggestion forms a data-driven basis for negotiations with opposing counsel.In an email last week to SupportHound customers, Armbrust said that she had made the difficult decision to shut down the site.