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Automation Platform Jaunt XR Acquired by Verizon

2Oct By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Automation Platform Jaunt XR Acquired by Verizon

Jaunt XR announced the acquisition of its software, technology, and certain other assets by Verizon Communications Inc for an undisclosed amount. Jaunt has raised over $100 million in venture funding from Disney, Google's venture arm GV, Evolution Media Partners, CMC, Highland Capital Partners, and RedPoint Ventures. Jaunt XR is a leader in the immersive industry with a focus on the scalable creation and distribution of volumetric video of humans. “We are thrilled with Verizon’s acquisition of Jaunt’s technology,” said Mitzi Reaugh, President & CEO of Jaunt XR. “The Jaunt team has built leading-edge software and we are excited for its next chapter with Verizon.” Jaunt will be assisting Verizon with the transition of select portions of the software and technology for a brief...

McDonald’s to Acquire Apprente to Automate its Drive thrus Outlets

16Sep By NitishNo Comments

ACQUISITION

McDonald’s to Acquire Apprente to Automate its Drive thrus Outlets

CHICAGO, IL, September 16, 2019– McDonald to acquire Apprente, an early stage leader in voice-based, conversational technology. The deal advancing McDonald’s technology capabilities between employee and their customers. The announcement comes after extensive exploration with several parties, including evaluating Apprente’s solutions in McDonald’s test restaurants. Apprente was founded in 2017 in Mountain View, California, to create voice-based platforms for complex, multilingual, multi-accent and multi-item conversational ordering. In McDonald’s restaurants, this technology is expected to allow for faster, simpler and more accurate order taking at the Drive Thru with future potential to incorporate into mobile ordering and kiosks. “Building our technology infrastructure and digi...

25Aug By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Ecobillz Raises Pre Series A Funding From 92 Angels

Belgaum-based digitisation start-up Ecobillz has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round led by IIM Ahmedabad alumni-backed 92Angels. Ecobillz is a platform which leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to digitise and aggregate information from documents. The funding will be used by the start-up for the expansion of the product and engineering teams and to augment the sales and go-to-market capacity. Founded in 2016 by Ameet Patil and Nitesh Singh Rathore, Ecobillz has solutions that can digitise documents downloaded from any software. Apart from its capacity of aggregating information through AI/ML, Ecobillz’s platform can derive insights from aggregated data through advanced analytics. 92 Angels is an angel network founded by Indian Ins...

Predictronics Raises $3.2 Million from TVS Motor Singapore

19Aug By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Predictronics Raises $3.2 Million from TVS Motor Singapore

TVS Motor Singapore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TVS Motor India invest $3.2 million in US-based Predictronics Corporation, which specializes in providing end-to-end predictive maintenance analytics solutions. Predictronics' solutions combine expertise in IoT, Industrial AI, Big Data, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics to remove the uncertainty from industrial operations and improve process uptime, production planning, maintenance, and product quality by providing actionable information and accurate predictions that empower clients to have a transparent, worry-free business. Their claim to fame is that "We know what happens next, and so can you." Rajesh Narasimhan, Board Member of TVS Motor Company and CEO of TVS Motor (Singapore), stated, "We evaluated many companies global...

16Aug By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Uniphore Raises USD 51 Million in Series C Funding

Uniphore, an AI technology company raised $51M in Series C funding led by March Capital Partners, with participation from Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures), Sistema Asia, CXO Fund, ITP, Iron Pillar, Patni Family, plus other investors. The new round of funding is Uniphore’s largest to date and marks one of the most substantial funding rounds in the conversational AI sector. Uniphore will use the funds to accelerate its go-to-market in North America, invest in research and development for the next wave of innovation on its platform and grow its talented employee base globally. “With this new round of funding, we will be able to accelerate our global expansion and better serve our customers by developing and delivering innovative CSA solutions to more organizations around th...

13Aug By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Ola Acqui-hires AI Startup Pikup.ai

Cab aggregator Ola acqui-hiring' Pikup.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup based out of Bengaluru. Acqui-hiring is a term for acquisition plus hiring. As part of the deal, the team at pikup.ai will join Ola, the company said in a statement. Ola announced earlier this year its intent to set up an advanced technology centre in the San Francisco Bay area in the US, to focus on developing next-generation technologies in mobility like Electric, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. "By bringing deep domain expertise to Ola, this acquihire will also deliver innovations that continue to improve safety and transform customer experience," Ola said. Pikup.ai was co-founded by Inder Singh and Ritwik Saikia, which uses autonomous technologies like AI, computer vision and sensor fusion...

8Aug By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

NIKE acquires AI driven Startup Celect

BEAVERTON, Ore.-- NIKE, has acquired Celect, a leading retail predictive analytics and demand sensing firm based in Boston. Celect is Nike’s latest acquisition fueling its Consumer Direct Offense strategy, serving consumers personally at a global scale. “With the acquisition of Celect, Nike greatly accelerates our digital advantage by adding a platform developed by world-class data scientists.” said Eric Sprunk, NIKE, Inc. Chief Operating Officer. “As demand for our product grows, we must be insight-driven, data optimized and hyper-focused on consumer behavior. This is how we serve consumers more personally at scale.” Celect, founded in 2013, holds a cutting-edge intellectual property portfolio across data science and software engineering. Celect’s cloud-based analytics platform...

Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI, a platform cofounded by Elon Musk

23Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI, a platform cofounded by Elon Musk

SAN FRANCISCO and REDMOND, Wash., July 22, 2019 — Software major Microsoft led by Satya Nadella invested $1 billion in AI-based platform OpenAI. The two companies have partnered to further extend Microsoft Azure’s capabilities in large-scale AI systems. Through this partnership, the companies will accelerate breakthroughs in AI and power OpenAI’s efforts to create artificial general intelligence (AGI). The resulting enhancements to the Azure platform will also help developers build the next generation of AI applications. The partnership covers the following: Microsoft and OpenAI will jointly build new Azure AI supercomputing technologiesOpenAI will port its services to run on Microsoft Azure, which it will use to create new AI technologies and deliver on the promise of artificial gen...

TVS Motor Singapore Invest US$7 Million in AI Decision Platform

22Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

TVS Motor Singapore Invest US$7 Million in AI Decision Platform

SINGAPORE and NEW YORK, July 22, 2019-- TVS Motor Singapore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TVS Motor Company Limited, India, has signed definitive agreements to invest $7 million in Scienaptic Systems Inc., a Delaware corporation, headquartered in New York City. TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte. Limited led this Series A funding in Scienaptic. Scienaptic has combined the latest big data technologies and proprietary machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms on its decision platform, "Ether." Solutions built on Ether enable enterprises to improve risk and credit assessment, monitor evolving fraud patterns, and improve customer journeys and experience. Scienaptic counts several marquee Fortune 100 enterprises as its clients. Rajesh Narasimhan, Board Member of TVS Motor Company...

17Jul By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

RoadBotics Raises $7.5M in Series A Funding

PITTSBURGH, July 17, 2019- AI-based road assessment platform RoadBotics has raised $7.5 Million Series A investment round lead by AI-focused venture capital fund Radical Ventures. Other investors like Hyperplane Venture Capital and Wharton Alumni Angels of Silicon Valley also participated in this round. Roadbotics will use this round of funding to accelerate its growth and development of new products in order to further help local governments and other infrastructure asset managers to get important, objective data about their roads. Only two and a half years since founding, RoadBotics has over 150 customers in 23 US states and 11 countries. "This fresh capital, together with Radical's vast network and Artificial Intelligence domain expertise, wi...

Uber Acquires AI platform to advance its Self-driving cars technology

26Jun By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Uber Acquires AI platform to advance its Self-driving cars technology

Cab booking platform Uber has acquired computer vision startup Mighty AI to help advance its technology for self-driving cars. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the ride-hailing giant said 40 employees of the Seattle-based firm would join Uber soon. Mighty AI specialises in computer vision, a field within artificial intelligence that is used to better understand or "label" the surroundings of vehicles that will be deployed autonomously. "The team at Mighty AI has built technology to label at scale using the latest AI and user experience techniques," said Jon Thomason, vice president of software engineering for the Uber division. "Training our AI at increasing pace is critical to scaling our self-driving technology, and I look forward to bringing Mighty AI's techn...

AnyVision raises $74 Million Series A from Microsoft venture fund & others

20Jun By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

AnyVision raises $74 Million Series A from Microsoft venture fund & others

New York, United States: AnyVision closes $74 million Series A funding from Microsoft’s venture fund, DFJ Growth, and OG Technology Partners. The funding is an extension of Series A round. Earlier, AnyVision raises investment from LightSpeed Venture Partners, Robert Bosch GmbH, Qualcomm Ventures, and Eldridge Industries in Series A. Founded in 2015, Anyvision is a leading computer vision company specializing in face, body, and object-recognition software. The company develops core software solutions that make all cameras smart. These solutions are agnostic to all cameras, computing frameworks, and use-cases. “There are very few times in business when you have the opportunity to build an entirely new industry alongside leading ecosystem players,” said Eylon Etshtein, CEO and Co-Fo...