Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto

Automotive Tech
Marvell Technology Group opened its automotive electromagnetic compatibility lab in North America. The facility is CISPR 25-qualified and gives the chip company the capability to conduct in-house electrostatic discharge, emission, and immunity testing. Marvell also reported that its 88Q2112 offering received a mark of 100% in conformance testing outlined by the Japan Automotive Software Platform and Architecture organization. The 88Q2112 automotive PHY complies with the IEEE 802.3bp 1000BASE-T1 specification.

Ford Motor this week said it will spend $4 billion on autonomous vehicle development through 2023 and established a new subsidiary, Ford Autonomous Vehicles. The $4 billion figure includes the $1 billion Ford has committed to investing in Argo AI, its Pittsburgh-based partner in self-driving system development. Ford Autonomous Vehicles, which will have its own board of directors, will hold Ford’s shares in Argo AI.

Waymo struck a deal with Walmart, Avis, and AutoNation to provide self-driving vehicles to residents of the Phoenix area. Users are able to place an online grocery order with Walmart, which will dispatch a self-driving vehicle to the customer’s home, convey them to pick up their groceries at the store, and return the customers home. AutoNation will offer the self-driving vehicles to customers having their vehicles serviced, rather than a standard loaner car. Avis will send Waymo cars to pick up and drop off customers using its two locations in Chandler, Ariz.

General Motors debuted a peer-to-peer car-sharing service through its Maven mobility brand. Under a pilot effort, the Peer Cars beta program is being offered in Chicago, Detroit, and Ann Arbor, Mich. Maven will receive 40% of the revenue generated, while vehicle owners will get 60% for sharing their cars.

Volvo Cars is readying its Polestar 2 electric vehicle, with a range of 350 miles. The new EV will be priced about $39,000 to around $65,000. The Polestar 2 will make its formal debut next March at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show.

Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group is resuming road-testing of its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, albeit with designated drivers actually operating the cars. The collision avoidance systems in the vehicles won’t be disabled, it was said. The company stopped self-driving tests in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto after the March death of a pedestrian hit by an Uber vehicle in Phoenix; Uber was suspended from testing in Arizona following the tragedy.

Daimler will separate its operations into three units for cars, trucks, and mobility services. “The new structure positions Daimler to tackle the rapid pace of change in the mobility sector and the corresponding strategic challenges. Legally independent divisions will sharpen our focus on the future success of the business,” Manfred Bischoff, chairman of Daimler’s supervisory board, said in a statement.

Deals/No Deals
Rambus signed a deal with Coles, one of Australia’s big retailers, which will use the Rambus Unified Payment Platform for its digital payments.

The Qualcomm deal to acquire NXP Semiconductors is finally and truly dead. The American chip company will pay a breakup fee of $2 billion to NXP and spend up to $30 billion buying its shares as Qualcomm gets on with its life. Canaccord Genuity tech analyst Michael Walkley said, “At midnight ET on July 25, Qualcomm terminated its deal to purchase NXP. We believe ending the uncertainty of buying NXP is positive for Qualcomm shares and anticipate strong earnings growth over the next several years due to the increased share repurchase program, likelihood of settling with Apple and Huawei over the next year, and longer-term 5G driving market share gains and adjacent market growth opportunities.”

Finance
SoftBank Group’s SoftBank Vision Fund reportedly wants to invest about $1 billion in SenseTime Group, an artificial intelligence startup that has already raised more than $1.2 billion this year, at a valuation of $4.5 billion. SenseTime’s AI technology is used in facial recognition, image processing, and identity verification; it is also being adapted for other applications, such as augmented reality and autonomous driving.

Booking Holdings invested $500 million in Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing service. The Chinese company will be able to offer its on-demand car services through the Booking.com applications. Didi Chuxing late last year took in a funding round of $4 billion. Booking Holdings also offers Agoda, Kayak, OpenTable, Priceline.com, and Rentacars.com.

Tenable of Columbia, Md., completed an initial public offering this week, pricing 10.9 million shares at $23 a share, raising $250.7 million from the offering. It trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as TENB. Tenable provides a cybersecurity and compliance monitoring platform.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Embark Trucks raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital. Also participating were Data Collective, Y Combinator, SV Angel, and AME Cloud, all existing investors. Embark Trucks, an autonomous trucking startup, has raised a total of $47 million in private funding.

AnyVision of Tel Aviv, Israel, received $28 million in Series A funding, with Bosch as its lead investor. The startup uses artificial intelligence for body and facial recognition applications. AnyVision markets the Better Tomorrow platform.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Xage Security raised $12 million in Series A funding led by March Capital Partners. Joining the round are GE Ventures, City Light Capital, and NexStar Partners. Xage provides a blockchain-protected cybersecurity platform for the Industrial Internet of Things.

Arlo Technologies, Netgear’s security camera unit, set its IPO terms at 10.2 million shares, priced in the range of $18-$20 a share. The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange as ARLO.

Zoox, a self-driving car startup, is pulling together a new funding round of $500 million, bringing its total private funding to $800 million. Grok Ventures is said to be leading the new round, which would give the company a post-money valuation of $3.2 billion, up from $2.7 billion. Zoox plans to offers to offer ride-hailing services with autonomous electric vehicles by 2020.

Tuya Smart raised $200 million in Series C funding led by Australia’s Future Fund. Also participating are NEA, China Broadband Capital, CICC Global Bridge Capital, Quadrille Capital, and C.M. Capital Advisors. The Chinese company offers an IoT platform and an AI-based voice-interactive platform.

China’s Wayz.ai received $80 million in Series A funding; its investors weren’t disclosed. The company is a geolocation and mapping startup, founded last year by Vincent Tao, former CEO of PPTV, an online TV provider in China.

San Francisco-based Metromile raised $90 million in Series E funding co-led by Tokio Marine and Intact Financial. Existing investors NEA, Index Ventures, Future Fund, and Section 32 also joined in the funding. Metromile provides pay-by-the-mile auto insurance and automated claims processing.

Siemplify of New York and Tel Aviv received $14 million in private funding led by Jump Capital, bringing its total private funding to $28 million. G20 Ventures and 83North, existing investors, also participated in the new round. Siemplify is in the security orchestration, automation, and response market.

Scotland’s Snap40 raised $8 million in new funding led by ADV and joined by MMC Ventures. The company, which also has an office in New York, offers health monitoring wearable gadgets.

Scandit of Zurich, Switzerland, received $30 million in Series B funding led by GV, which was joined by NGP Capital and Atomico, an existing investor. The new round brings the startup’s total funding to $43 million. Scandit has a mobile computer vision platform, used in IoT applications by customers in health care, logistics, manufacturing, retail, and transportation.

Cybersecurity
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorized the North American Electric Reliability Corp., a utility industry group, to require stricter reporting of cybersecurity incidents by power companies. Electric utilities will have to submit reports to the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center and to the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Emergency Response Team.