Food delivery startups have proven to be a hard business – focus is often on growth more than profits, with high burn rates, low returns and they can be logistics nightmares. But nevermind all that, a new, more niche prepared meal delivery service seems to be popping up — for babies.
Yumi (formerly Caer) announced its launch just last week; Gather, Ayesha Curry’s meal kit… Read More
Netherlands-based accelerator program Rockstar, which focuses on helping startups through their first 1,000 days, has launched a new vertical program for artificial intelligence startups — touting it as Europe’s first AI-focused accelerator. Read More
If you’re a fan of the Star Wars (many people are) then you may also be a fan of this trailer for Star Wars: Battlefront II, which just popped up a bit early on Vimeo. The trailer is amazing, showing action-packed sequences rendered using the in-game engine, which seems to be able to delivery top-notch visuals of the variety normally reserved for cutscenes. Perhaps you played Star… Read More
Teamable wants to know your social network. Well, its software does. The reason: it might find someone suited to fill an opening at your company who — no offense to your intelligence — might not necessarily spring to mind. How does it work? By churning through your contact lists (think Gmail, Facebook, GitHub, any other sources of contacts that employees are willing to… Read More
Time Warner’s Turner and Warner Bros. have joined the now-crowded market of subscription-based streaming services with the launch of Boomerang, a $5 per month service that streams both classic cartoons and current series. Boomerang’s catalog will offer shows from Warner Bros.’ Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes and MGM animation library of over 5,000 titles, which includes new… Read More
Home robotics is an area of intense interest, with many large companies exploring how they might best address the potential market. Bosch subsidiary Mayfield Robotics has Kuri, and automakers including Toyota and Honda have their own approach, which a focus on independence for people continuing into our senior years. Startup OhmniLabs thinks that human connection is what will convince people… Read More
Yes, Toyota used both “millennial” and “casualcore” to dreadful effect in the press release for the new FT-4X crossover SUV concept it revealed during the New York International Auto Show. But I still want this adorable car box to become a real thing, because it reminds me of both the Honda Element and the Toyota FJ Cruiser, vehicles I love so well. The FT-4X… Read More
Toyota is introducing a new robotic leg brace called the Welwalk WW-1000 that can help patients with partial paralysis affecting one side of their body walk again. The robotic exoframe is worn on the affected leg, with a large motor component at the knee joint that provides just enough assistance to the patient, letting them recover their own walking ability therapeutically over time. The… Read More
We’re pleased to announce the addition of pitches and demos at Session: Robotics, our upcoming event centered around the issues concerning the robotics community. Students and startups should apply now for slots for event, taking place July 17 in Boston at MIT’s stunning Kresge Auditorium. This opportunity will put participants in front of the companies, founders and engineers… Read More
Rules governing the use of food delivery robots remain to be seen across the US. But major food businesses are investigating the possibilities already. In the latest deal, Yelp Eat24 has begun testing delivery by robot in partnership with Marble in select San Francisco neighborhoods. TechCrunch spied Marble’s delivery robots, stickered with a Yelp Eat24 logo, earlier this month. But… Read More
Sisense introduced a new tool today called Pulse, which uses machine learning to trigger an alert when it detects results outside of normal parameters for a particular metric. A user can set a Pulse alert to monitor a metric or KPI such as sales activity or win rate. The machine learning component watches the chosen metric and learns over time what’s normal. When it detects an… Read More
Amazon FreeTime, the subscription service offering kid-friendly books, videos, apps and games, is today rolling out a feature called Discussion Cards that will help parents better understand the content their child is viewing, reading or playing. The feature will be a part of a new Parent Dashboard that will also include activity reports and other insights into how the child has been using… Read More
HackerEarth, an Indian startup that grew from arranging hackthon to offering corporate innovation services, has closed a $4.5 million Series A funding round. The Bangalore-based company said the funding was led by DHI Group, which operates U.S. IT recruitment portal Dice.com, with participation from Japanese quartet Beenext, Beenos, Digital Garage, BizReach and existing investor Prime… Read More
Like most new forms of media and communications, GIFs have thus far struggled to find a business model that matches their ubiquity. GIF-sharing startup Tenor hopes to change that, by partnering with media companies, brands and advertisers to help them build and distribute GIFs users will love — and hopefully make a few bucks along the way. Read More
Like other chipmakers, Japan’s Renesas is putting focus on an emerging industry: autonomous cars. The Tokyo-based company announced the R-Car Consortium at a trade fair in the city this week, highlighting its efforts to bring together engineers and researchers from Japan, the U.S., Europe, China and South Korean companies and academic institutions. The goal of the collaboration is to… Read More
That Qualtrics IPO many have been expecting is on hold for now. The online market research platform has just raised its third round for $180 million at a whopping $2.5 billion valuation. The Provo, Utah-based company came from much humbler beginnings, bootstrapping the operation for a decade before finally taking financing from Sequoia and Accel in 2012. It has blown up since then,… Read More
Lincoln is testing a new service for owners of its vehicles that supply a driver on demand. The service is like a very upscale Uber, in which you supply the car, and Lincoln supplies a professional driver – one who is actually a Lincoln employee, not a spot contractor – to ferry you around, return your car to your home, and basically make you feel like a VIP. The service will… Read More
Amazon has gained a wallet license in India, Medianama reports, as part of a move that will allow the U.S. e-commerce giant to offer a paying experience with less friction in the country. Currently, Amazon customers must go through two-factor authentication processes for each purchase that they make. That’s in accordance with national law. A wallet license could change things but… Read More
Full Harvest, a San Francisco-based startup, has raised $2 million in seed funding to reduce food waste at the farm level. Founded by Christine Moseley, formerly the head of business development for cold-pressed juice makers Organic Avenue, Full Harvest connects farmers with food makers who want to buy the fruit and veggies that grocers deem too ugly to sell in stores. While she was helping… Read More
A government voter registration website in the UK that crashed in the hours before the deadline for registering to vote ahead of last year’s Brexit referendum could have been targeted by a denial of service attack. Read More
