Tag: Companies
The engineers behind Google’s Bookbot have launched a delivery robot startup
The engineers behind Google’s short-lived Bookbot — a robot created within the company’s Area 120 incubator for experimental products — have launched their own startup to bring the sidewalk delivery bot back to life. The secretive startup called Cartken was formed in fall 2019 after Google shuttered an internal program…
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Advocating reform, activist investor Elliott Management takes a $2.5B stake in SoftBank
The activist investment firm Elliott Management has steadily amassed a $2.5 billion stake in the headline-grabbing, Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank even as a series of missteps battered the company’s share price. Famous for its investments in companies like Slack and Uber and infamous for betting billions on the co-working real…
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Techstars Detroit accelerator is shutting down
Techstars Detroit, the accelerator that has funded 54 startups in the past five years, is shutting down, TechCrunch has learned. In an email to supporters, Techstars Detroit managing director Ted Serbinski said the accelerator was not able to secure enough funding for 2020. “It’s clear the entire automotive mobility industry…
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OpsRamp raises $37.5M for its hybrid IT operations platform
OpsRamp, a service that helps IT teams discover, monitor, manage and — maybe most importantly — automate their hybrid environments, today announced that it has closed a $37.5 million funding round led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, with participation from existing investor Sapphire Ventures and new investor Hewlett Packard Enterprise.…
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Stanford’s Doggo quadrupedal robot and siblings Pupper and Woofer are coming to TC Sessions: Robotics+AI
Animal-like, four-legged robots have been a crowd pleaser since Boston Dynamics’ BigDog, and Stanford’s Doggo shows how the technology can be made open source, accessible, and educational. Doggo’s creators will bring the diminutive robot, plus its smaller and larger siblings Pupper and Woofer, to TC Sessions: Robotics+AI on March 3.…
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Kenyan logistics startup Sendy raises $20M round backed by Toyota
Africa’s logistics startup space has gained another multi-million dollar round with global backing. Kenyan company Sendy — with an on-demand platform that connects clients to drivers and vehicles for goods delivery — has raised a $20 million Series B led by Atlantica Ventures. Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a trade and investment…
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