Infinity Augmented Reality, an Israeli virtual reality startup, has been acquired by Alibaba, the companies announced this weekend. The deal’s terms were not disclosed. Alibaba and InfinityAR have had a strategic partnership since 2016, when Alibaba Group led InfinityAR’s Series C. Since then, the two have collaborated on augmented reality, computer vision and artificial intelligence […]
View More Alibaba acquires Israeli VR startup Infinity Augmented RealityCategory: China
Planning for the uncertain future of work
In a recently published, roughly 75-page report, British non-profit organization The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA) outlined several scenarios for how the UK labor market will be impacted by frontier technologies such as automation, AI, AVs and more. The analysis titled “The Four Futures of Work” was conducted in collaboration with design […]
View More Planning for the uncertain future of workHow Nuro plans to spend Softbank’s $940 million
Autonomous delivery startup Nuro is bursting with ideas since SoftBank invested nearly $1 billion in February, new filings reveal. A recent patent application details how its R1 self-driving vehicle could carry smaller robots to cross lawns or climb stairs to drop off packages. The company has even taken the step of trademarking the name “Fido” […]
View More How Nuro plans to spend Softbank’s $940 millionNorth Korea’s new website and pro rata rights
From Extra Crunch We have published the transcript for Brian Heater’s conference call on robotics. Arman published report reviews on China’s luxury goods and consumer spending as well as on perceptions of automation in Europe. We have Lucas Matney and Eric Peckham scheduled for today at 3pm EST / noon PST discussing GDC on our […]
View More North Korea’s new website and pro rata rightsIndonesia’s Kargo comes out of stealth with $7.6M from Travis Kalanick, Sequoia and others
Travis Kalanick may be busy cooking up a cloud kitchen business, but that hasn’t stopped the former Uber CEO’s VC fund from making its first investment in Southeast Asia. 10100, the firm that Kalanick launched last year for investments in Asia, just took part in a $7.6 million seed round for Kargo, an early-stage ‘Uber […]
View More Indonesia’s Kargo comes out of stealth with $7.6M from Travis Kalanick, Sequoia and othersTencent Q4 profit disappoints, but cloud and payments gain ground
China’s Tencent reported disappointing profits in the fourth quarter on the back of surging costs but saw emerging businesses pick up steam as it plots to diversify amid slackening gaming revenues. Net profit for the quarter slid 32 percent to 14.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), behind analysts’ forecast of 18.3 billion yuan. The decrease was […]
View More Tencent Q4 profit disappoints, but cloud and payments gain groundTaxes on VC and electric buses harming oil prices
From Extra Crunch A lot of subscribers got to hear from TechCrunch hardware guru Brian Heater, who has been meeting with (too many) robotics companies as we prepare for TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics. If you weren’t able to join us, a transcript will be available in the next 48 hours. We have Lucas Matney and Eric […]
View More Taxes on VC and electric buses harming oil pricesSlowdown or not, China’s luxury goods still seeing high-end growth
Despite well-documented concerns over an economic slowdown in China, the country’s luxury goods market is still seeing opulent growth according to a new study. Behind secular and demographic tailwinds, the luxury sector is set to continue its torrid expansion in the face of volatility as it’s quickly becoming a defensive economic crown jewel. Using proprietary […]
View More Slowdown or not, China’s luxury goods still seeing high-end growthPicsArt hits 130 million MAUs as Chinese flock to its photo editing app
If you’re like me, who isn’t big on social media, you’d think that the image filters that come inside most apps will do the job. But for many others, especially the younger crowd, making their photos stand out is a huge deal. The demand is big enough that PicsArt, a rival to filtering companies VSCO […]
View More PicsArt hits 130 million MAUs as Chinese flock to its photo editing appThe World Health Organization is setting up rules and oversight for human gene editing
Yesterday, the World Health Organization wrapped up its first meeting of a new advisory committee set up to create global governance and oversight standards for human gene editing. The committee was hastily pulled together in December after the revelation last year that a Chinese scientist had genetically modified two embryos using CRISPR technology to remove the […]
View More The World Health Organization is setting up rules and oversight for human gene editingSeven Africa-focused startups present at Y Combinator’s Demo Day
The seven African-focused companies which presented as part of Y Combinator’s 200 strong cohort of Winter 2019 class of 200 startups may seem like a small percentage for such a large class, but it represents the growing significance of African ventures in YC’s universe. Since 2016, the Silicon Valley accelerator—that provides seed funds and mentorship […]
View More Seven Africa-focused startups present at Y Combinator’s Demo DaySpotify rival Tencent Music posts maiden quarter loss of $130M on one-off costs
Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the Chinese answer to Spotify that Tencent spun out and floated on the New York Stock Exchange in December, reported a net loss of 876 million yuan ($127 million) in its first set of quarterly results since going public. The loss, which TME forecasted in its prospectus filed ahead of the IPO, […]
View More Spotify rival Tencent Music posts maiden quarter loss of $130M on one-off costs