Austin—The grocery store shelf has yet to be plugged into the increasingly digital food supply chain. Instead, inventory is typically tallied by employees by hand in a slow and laborious process. “It’s one big black hole with groceries, not knowing what is exactly on the retail shelf and available for sale,” says Richard Schwartz, president… Continue reading Pensa, AI-Enabled Drones Maker for Inventory Monitoring, Raises $5M
Author: Xconomy Online News
Kaleido Bio and Cirius Join an IPO Queue Stalled by Federal Shutdown
January 11th, 2019 Xconomy Boston — The partial government shutdown may have diminished staffing at the SEC, but it hasn’t dimmed the hopes of biotech firms hoping to go public. On Friday, Kaleido Biosciences and Cirius Therapeutics both filed paperwork for their respective initial public offerings with the securities regulator. While it’s operating with “very… Continue reading Kaleido Bio and Cirius Join an IPO Queue Stalled by Federal Shutdown
Boston Tech Watch: Underscore VC, Piaggio, SoftBank & Sea Machines
A pair of massive Boston-area investments from the Japanese SoftBank Group’s $100 billion Vision Fund, a moonshot power storage spinout from Alphabet’s X labs, and some local robotics moves are found in this week’s Boston technology news. —Underscore VC, a Boston-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage tech startups, is capping off its second fund… Continue reading Boston Tech Watch: Underscore VC, Piaggio, SoftBank & Sea Machines
Mapping Software Startup Ushr Lands Installation Deal with Cadillac
Ushr, the Livonia, MI, and Lompoc, CA-based startup making high-definition mapping software for use in semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles, has earned awards and accolades since it launched last year. The latest award has paved a path to get Ushr’s software into future models of a classic American car brand. Ushr has a big hand in… Continue reading Mapping Software Startup Ushr Lands Installation Deal with Cadillac
Superpedestrian Scoops Up $16.5M, Enters Bike-Sharing Frenzy
Bike sharing is the new ride hailing. Similar to what has played out with Uber, Lyft, Didi Chuxing, and other private car-hailing app companies, investors are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into bike-sharing startups around the world racing to be the leading operator of fleets of bicycles that people can rent on demand. The… Continue reading Superpedestrian Scoops Up $16.5M, Enters Bike-Sharing Frenzy
Toyota Research Institute to Open New Driverless Car Test Bed in MI
The state of Michigan notched another mobility-industry win today when the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) announced that a 60-acre parcel in Ottawa Lakes, MI, will be the home of a new autonomous vehicle development and testing facility, the first dedicated exclusively to TRI’s use. TRI is Toyota’s research arm, which aims to enhance the safety of… Continue reading Toyota Research Institute to Open New Driverless Car Test Bed in MI
Savari Raises $12M To Connect Cars To Stoplights, Phones, Each Other
Savari, whose technology is designed to create a shared communications web among cars, personal devices, and roadway signals, announced today it has raised $12 million in a Series B fundraising round. Santa Clara, CA-based Savari makes V2X technology—that is, software and hardware sensor units designed to connect vehicles to everything that moves, so they can… Continue reading Savari Raises $12M To Connect Cars To Stoplights, Phones, Each Other
Applied Research Associates Teams with MSU on Autonomous Vehicle R&D
The Michigan State University Foundation, an independent nonprofit that works to commercialize university inventions, has a new tenant in its 300,000-square-foot corporate research park in East Lansing. Applied Research Associates (ARA), a contract R&D firm based in Albuquerque, NM, has moved a team to Michigan in order to support MSU’s autonomous vehicle research and development… Continue reading Applied Research Associates Teams with MSU on Autonomous Vehicle R&D
May Mobility CEO: We’ll Beat Waymo, Uber, and Cruise to Market
When we spoke with Ed Olson, CEO of May Mobility, in January, he told us that his driverless-vehicle company had raised a little over $11 million in seed funding in 2017. Last week, May disclosed more details about its $11.5 million seed round: it was led by venture investment arms of Toyota and BMW, and… Continue reading May Mobility CEO: We’ll Beat Waymo, Uber, and Cruise to Market
Aurora, Led by Google and Tesla Driverless Car Vets, Lands $90M
Aurora Innovation, a self-driving car startup whose founders have ties to Google, Tesla, and Uber, has raised $90 million in Series A funding co-led by Greylock Partners and Index Ventures. Along with the money, Greylock and Index are adding a member each to Aurora’s board of directors: Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and partner… Continue reading Aurora, Led by Google and Tesla Driverless Car Vets, Lands $90M