2017 was the year of numbers: AI, YCombinator and investment funds
AI/Vision recognition:
As we start 2018 lets review some stories that covered AI, an industry that has gained recognition as one of the leading subjects in tech. Last year Intel acquired Mobileye, a vision-based driver-assistance systems that provides warnings for collision prevention and mitigation. Below is a recap on TechCrunch’s story.
Intel buys Mobileye in $15.3B deal, moves its automotive unit to Israel
Intel has confirmed that it is acquiring Mobileye, a leader in computer vision for autonomous driving technology, for $15.3 billion — the biggest-ever acquisition of an Israeli tech company.
Mobileye today covers a range of technology and services, including sensor fusion, mapping, front- and rear-facing camera tech and, beginning in 2018, crowdsourcing data for high-definition maps, as well as driving policy intelligence underlying driving decisions.
Intel has been working officially with Mobileye since last year. Earlier this year, with BMW, the two started to test 40 self-driving cars equipped with the two companies’ technology. Mobileye was also an early partner of Tesla’s for its autonomous technology, although that relationship is ending amid some controversial undertones about safety measures at the carmaker. Other investments that Intel has made in the space of cars include taking a stake in Here (which will feed into the mapping initiatives at Mobileye); acquiring Itseez and Yogitech for safety and navigation functionalities in autonomous cars; making a commitment of at least $250 million to the space (which sounds so tiny considering today’s price tag).
Catch the entire article at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/13/reports-intel-buying-mobileye-for-up-to-16b-to-expand-in-self-driving-tech/
Intel Unveils Neural Compute Engine in Movidius Myriad X VPU to Unleash AI at the Edge
Intel introduced its new Movidius Myriad X vision processing unit (VPU), advancing Intel’s end-to-end portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to deliver more autonomous capabilities across a wide range of product categories including drones, robotics, smart cameras and virtual reality.
Myriad X is world’s first system-on-chip (SOC) shipping with a dedicated Neural Compute Engine for accelerating deep learning inferences at the edge.
Read Intel’s full disclosure of Movidius at https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-unveils-neural-compute-engine-movidius-myriad-x-vpu-unleash-ai-edge/
Investment funds:
There were a handful of announcements of big companies launching their investment funds to further develop technological gaps they might be experiencing.
Samsung is launching a $150M fund to invest in emerging tech startups
The Samsung NEXT Fund is a $150 million venture fund targeted at early-stage startups working in emerging tech.
Specifically, they will be looking for companies focused on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and “other new frontier technologies.”
So far the fund has invested in 10 startups: Converge Industries, Dashbot, Entry Point VR, Filament, Intezer, LiquidSky, Otto Radio, 2Sens, SafeDK and Virtru. These companies range from a VR animation studio to water monitoring sensors for your appliances — signaling that NEXT will stay pretty broad with its investments.
Catch the entire story at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/04/samsung-is-launching-a-150m-fund-to-invest-in-emerging-tech-startups/
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi launches $1 billion corporate venture capital fund
Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi, has launched a $1 billion corporate venture capital fund to focus on investments in “new mobility” including electrification, autonomous systems, network connectivity and artificial intelligence.
Called Alliance Ventures, the fund has already made its first investment, taking an equity stake for an undisclosed amount in Ionic Materials — a Bill Joy-backed battery technology developer.
Catch the entire story at: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/09/renault-nissan-mitsubishi-launches-1-billion-corporate-venture-capital-fund/
The Startup world:
I was amazed by all the great ideas behind the selected 52 Y Combinator 2017 startups. Below are a few I found intriguing, the full list available at https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/20/yc-demo-day-winter-2017/
52 startups that launched at Y Combinator W17 Demo Day 1
Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems – Plug-and-play standard for human bionics
CBAS wants to be the USB port for the human body. The startup has developed a low-cost implant that can connect any bionic device, like artificial limbs, to any part of the body, and give patients control of their prostheses. It also created the first live streaming nerve implant to gather data from a pig’s leg. CBAS wants to be the standard on which all bionic implants build. Just for amputees, this could be a $9 billion a year market, and now 10 companies have switched to the CBAS standard.
Cowlar – Fitbit for cows
It’s way smarter than it sounds. Cowlar makes a special collar for cows that tracks their temperature, activity and other data, and makes it available to farmers. It can recognize a cow with an infected hoof from the change in its gait, or identify that a cow is pregnant and will eventually produce milk. Cowlar costs $69 per cow with a $3 per month subscription, and provides a solar-powered “cow router” that collects data from the collars. It already has 600 cows on the platform, with 7,200 on the waitlist, and has alerted farmers about 103 sick cows. It already has the opportunity to build an $11 billion business on milk cows, and could enter the 3X-bigger beef cow market next. While the idea might seem ridiculous, cows are a huge part of the economy, and more data on them leads to more revenue from them.
Volans-i – B2B drone delivery
Amazon promised consumer drone delivery via Amazon PrimeAir but you likely don’t need a toothbrush in your backyard via drone. Businesses, however, do need deliveries fast, and volans-i aims to speedily deliver those shipments door-to-door via drone. For example, a company may need a certain part delivered to keep up with production. Volans-i steers its drones to this company with up to 50 lbs of payload going 1,000 miles — or 15,000 shipments per year per customer, according to the company. Volans-i’s team comes from strong industry backgrounds including Northrup Grumman, and the company believes it can save time and money for a number of business categories, including high-tech, aviation, medical, oil and gas, automotive and manufacturing.
Delee – A blood test for circulating tumor cells
Cancer is one of the biggest killers in the U.S. and Delee aims to take on the “emperor of all maladies” with a blood test device able to isolate tumor cells. The patent-pending device aims to personalize cancer treatments based on a new approach.The founding team comes from Stanford and the Rochester Institute of Technology and works in biomedical engineering; the startup has already run a successful clinical trial using 15 patients, isolating tumor cells for 13 of them. Delee aims to take on bigger companies working in the same space, like Grail, and take on a $2 billion market.
Indee – Hardware for gene delivery
Indee provides a new way to use CRISPR to edit the genome of cells. Current methods of editing genes include using viruses or electroporation, but Indee uses microturbulence to dissolve molecules within a cell. It currently is targeting a $1.5 billion addressable market for immunotherapy, but sees that market growing to $9 billion as the market improves.
