Optima Design Launches, Focuses On Functional Safety


Autonomous driving is really happening. "Although a concept and dream for many automotive enthusiasts and engineers since the 1950s, now it's really happening," asserted Jamil Mazzawi, founder and CEO of Optima Design, which launched today. “At the same time, everybody knows that if we continue to have accidents, like the Tesla accident or the Uber accident, this will not work. People will... » read more

Over $7 Billion Raised In Mega-Rounds By 27 Firms


It was also a good month for private equity firms and venture capitalists to raise their own rounds, with the money to be invested in early-stage companies and more mature ventures. A semiconductor company led the month. Nexperia, once the Standard Products business unit of NXP Semiconductors, took in $1.5 billion of senior credit facilities. The money will go toward refinancing debt and par... » read more

August 2019 Startup Funding Report


Last month, 18 startups received private funding rounds of $100 million or more. Software and cybersecurity startups were once again popular, while automotive, mobility, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and agriculture-related technology also saw a good deal of funding. Analytics, energy, Internet of Things, and robotics startups drew new funding, too. Those 18 companies together to... » read more

July’19 Startup Funding


During the month of July, 21 technology startups took in mega-rounds of $100 million or more. Those companies together received more than $7.5 billion. On the other end of the financing spectrum, dozens of startups got seed funding or a Series A round. The dollar amounts were much smaller. Still, they are the beating heart of entrepreneurship around the world. It also was a month when som... » read more

PurpleAir: IoT Sensor Soars To 13,000 feet


Startup PurpleAir makes a living counting dust. Its consumer-level sensors measure particles of dust in air—airborne particulate matter (PM)—using laser particle counters that can count particle sizes 0.3µm up to 10µm. Add power, WiFi, the Internet, and PurpleAir pulls all the data from the devices into an online map showing extremely local air quality around the world, wherever devices a... » read more

June’19 Startup Funding


During the month of June, there were 15 startups that brought in funding rounds of $100 million or more, as investors continued to chase deals in cybersecurity, automotive technology, semiconductors, and a variety of services. There were no billion-dollar deals as spring slid into summer; yet, those 15 companies together raised a total of about $3.13 billion. Aurora Innovation, the developer... » read more

Aspinity’s Analog Neural Net Wake-Up Call


Putting an analog chip in front of an always-on system for digitizing speech and having the analog chip listen for sounds of interest may help avoid huge power waste and data congestion in current voice-recognition systems. Aspinity, an analog neuromorphic semiconductor startup, has worked the problem and just announced its Reconfigurable Analog Modular Processor (RAMP) platform yesterday. RAMP... » read more

AiMotive Is EDA For Self-Driving Cars


The team at aiMotive, a tool and IP company for OEMs making automated vehicles, isn’t waiting for smart infrastructure or 5G to make self-driving cars possible. The four-year-old startup based in Budapest, Hungary, is taking a self-sustainable route for the foreseeable future. The key to staying in business is not to compete with Waymo, Cruise or automotive companies, but to build the softwar... » read more

May’19 Startup Funding: Mega-Funding Rounds Continue


In May, 20 startups enjoyed the distinction of getting a mega-round of $100 million or more in private funding. Those 20 companies together took in more than $6.65 billion. There were two billion-dollar investments in recent weeks. GM Cruise, the autonomous vehicle startup, received $1.15 billion in new funding from General Motors, Honda Motor, the SoftBank Vision Fund, T. Rowe Price Asso... » read more

April’19 Startup Funding: Corporate Gushers


It was another rich month for startups, large and small. In April’s top 11 funding rounds, five were investments by big corporations or corporate venture capital funds—an investor consortium led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, PayPal, Ford Motor, NTT DoCoMo, and HAPSMobile, a joint venture of SoftBank Group and AeroVironment. Those 11 investments totaled $3.74 billion. Intel Capital was als... » read more

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