The proliferation of mobile devices, low-cost sensors, and technologies like AI-assisted image-processing have led to an explosion of new and potential data sources. Hedge funds and other investors see value in these non-traditional datasets to mine predictive insights, which might put them ahead of the rest of the pack.
After Foursquare’s recent accurate prediction about Chipotle earnings miss — based on the app’s aggregated foot-traffic data — we can expect more investors to look closely alternative data sources. We mapped out startups (and exited companies) working to provide investors and other clients with non-traditional data. See below for the full infographic.
NXP, the Netherlands-based purveyor of automotive semiconductors, today launched a smart-car computing system called BlueBox that knits together devices that the company already sells.
“We already build processors for radar, vision, and LIDAR, and we see these systems now being combined,” says Bob Conrad, who heads NXP’s automotive microcontroller business.
He spoke from his Austin, Texas, office, where he’d worked for Freescale until last year, when NXP bought it for US $12 billion. That acquisition created what NXP now says is the largest supplier of automotive semiconductors in the world.
Skin-like wearables—sensors and other electronics that can be worn comfortably for days at a time because they stretch and feel just like skin—made a big splash at CES. But the first generation of these “electronic tattoos” are externally powered, that is, they harvest RF energy to respond to an external reader. That’s fine for a limited range of applications, when you want to make spot checks of somebody’s temperature, say.
La multinacional catalana de hemoderivados Grifols ha llegado a un acuerdo para adquirir el 20 % de la empresa estadounidense de diagnóstico Singulex por un importe de 50 millones de dólares (unos 44,2 millones de euros).
Grifols, que ha tomado esta participación a través de una ampliación de capital, tendrá asimismo un representante en el consejo de administración.
Singulex tiene su sede en Alameda, en el estado de California (EEUU), y ha desarrollado y patentado la tecnología de ultrasensibilidad SMC (Simple Molecular Counting), que tiene amplias aplicaciones en diagnóstico clínico y en el ámbito investigador.
At the giant Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park under construction near Dubai, a desalination facility goes into operation this month. Run by an array of solar panels and batteries, the system will produce about 13,200 gallons of drinking water a day for use on site. That’s insignificant compared with desalination plants elsewhere, but it’s a start toward answering a pressing question: can countries stop burning fossil fuels to supply fresh water?
Negozioa martxan jartzen ausartzen al zara? Ausartu zaitez ausarta izaten. Claim hori da, hain zuzen, LABORAL Kutxa-k Gaztenpresa Fundazioko azken kanpainan ematen duen erantzuna, enpresa-abentura bati baietz esaten ausartzen diren ekintzaileen negozio-ideia bideragarriak bultzatzera zuzenduta dagoena.
¿Te atreves a poner en marcha tu negocio? Atrévete a atreverte. Este claim es precisamente la respuesta de LABORAL Kutxa en su última campaña de la Fundación Gaztenpresa destinada a apoyar las ideas de negocio viables de los emprendedores que se atrevan a decir sí a una aventura empresarial.
La inversión de US$1.000 millones que Apple Inc. ha hecho en la empresa china Didi Chuxing Technology Co. refleja la intensificación de la batalla por el futuro de la industria automotriz y pone de relieve las nuevas alianzas entre fabricantes de automóviles, empresas tecnológicas y compañías de reserva de taxis.
A small team of researchers based in the hills outside Jerusalem is designing technology that could potentially save thousands of women’s lives per year. The company behind this, Illumigyn, is using advanced imaging technology originating in the Israeli military to develop medical hardware that gynecologists could use to better identify and treat cervical cancer and other diseases in routine inspections for women.
“The product is ready, and this is a game-changing experience for the patient, for the quality of service, and for the ability to treat women, not only at the point of injury, or problem, but also through their entire life,” said Ran Poliakine, the serial entrepreneur funding the project.
500 Startups’ 16th demo day just wrapped up, and the firm is already turning its eyes to its next batch of companies. More than 40 startups are participating in this batch of companies.
From softer baby products to tools for creating and distributing vertical videos (a big focus given the shift on many mobile platforms), there’s something that might pique pretty much anyone’s interest. 500 Startups often has a bunch of companies that are doing things that are perpendicular to the typical software startup you might expect coming out of Silicon Valley.
