Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 14 July 2019
News you can use
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink set to reveal ‘computer-brain interface’Tech & Gadgets – The company is focused on creating devices resembling tiny sewing machines that can be implanted in the human brain – to improve memory or more direct interfacing with computing devices.
Not many people know that Tesla Founder and CEO Elon Musk owns a startup called Neuralink that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces, existing only in sci-fi movies at the moment, to connect humans and computers. The least visible Musk company is set to reveal its progress in developing the technology to connect computers to human brains on July 16 during at event in San Francisco that would also be live-streamed.
Houston, We Have A Solution: Israeli Startups Take On World’s Largest Medical Center – Two Israeli companies (GiantLeap and DosentRX), recent graduates of a prestigious medical technology accelerator at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, are embarking on paid proof of concept trials and opening offices in Houston to be close to the hospitals and research centers they met during their acceleration program. A third Israeli medical device startup (InnoSphere), founded by two Arab Israeli engineers from Haifa, has just been accepted into the accelerator’s next cohort. Two recent previous participants of the accelerator Sonaris and VoiceItt are in the process of deploying medical trials.
Facebook’s ambitious cryptocurrency Libra: Opportunity for startups? This week, the tech giant Facebook made headlines when it announced its ambitious cryptocurrency programs Libra and Calibra that would create Digital Wallet for billions. As expected, the announcement got tech analysts and digirati buzzing about the possibility of a move that could “transform the global economy.” In this article, we look at a few factoids about Libra and Calibra.
New E-Tattoo Enables Accurate, Uninterrupted Heart Monitoring for Days – The leading cause of death in Texas is heart disease, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, accounting for more than 45,000 deaths statewide in 2017. A new wearable technology made from stretchy, lightweight material could make heart health monitoring easier and more accurate than existing electrocardiograph machines — a technology that has changed little in almost a century. Developed by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin and led by Nanshu Lu in the Cockrell School of Engineering, this is the latest incarnation of Lu’s electronic tattoo technology, a graphene-based wearable device that can be placed on the skin to measure a variety of body responses, from electrical to biomechanical signals.
Startup Merger and Acquisitions
RBC has acquired Burlington-based WayPay, an automated accounts payables platform for small businesses. The acquisition price was not disclosed. Launched in 2014, WayPay allows businesses to connect to accounts payables platforms like Xero, Sage, and QB so businesses can automatically view, pay, and reconcile approved bills and invoices. WayPay will continue to operate as a separate platform allowing clients to connect to third-party accounting platforms.
Mnubo, a Montreal-based Internet of Things (IoT) and AI company, has been acquired by Aspen Technology (AspenTech), an asset optimization software firm, for $102 million CAD. “This is truly a success story of a Montreal AI company finding commercial success globally.” AspenTech said Mnubo’s technology will be used to accelerate its asset optimization solutions, which will combine deep process expertise with AI and machine learning. The acquisition of Mnubo was announced alongside the acquisition of Sabisu, a UK-based enterprise solutions company.
As MasterCard Acquires Transfast, A Quick Look At Its M&A and Investment History – On Tuesday, credit card giant MasterCard announced the completion of its previously announced acquisition of Transfast, a global payments company “with significant cross-border network reach.”
Founded in 1988, Transfast is hardly a startup. Indeed, the company is older than a portion of the current Crunchbase News staff. Crunchbase data is a bit sparse on the firm, but it does have two recorded rounds, one in 2016 and one in 2017. So we can infer from its fundraising activity that the firm’s pace of activity in recent years was likely high.
Startups failures
Startup Call9 shutting down telehealth services to nursing homes – Call9, a startup that provides telehealth services for the nursing home industry, is shutting down operations. The company raised $34 million in venture capital but struggled to secure additional funds to scale its business and manage the high cost of running a digital healthcare firm.