Browsing Tag: Startups

 This week on Technotopia I talk to Chris Boos, the creator of a bot that can play FreeCiv, a Civilization clone. His solution demonstrates the power of machine learning and, wildly, has beaten multiple humans at the game. Boos’ company, Arago, specializes in building tools that build themselves. Humans can show his bots how to do something – manage a piece of software, for… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | AI pioneer Chris Boos talks about the future of machine learning

 If something scary or infuriating happens with your Uber, sending an email to support doesn’t always cut it. And if you’ve ridden thousands of miles with Uber and paid them boatloads over the years, you might expect better service. You’re always just a few taps away from switching to Lyft, right? This week, TechCrunch spotted Uber testing new “Premium Support&#8221… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Uber gives top riders a 24/7 ‘Premium Support’ hotline

 Over the past 20 years there have been 11,459 accidents across the network of oil and gas pipelines that crisscross the U.S. The toll in human lives and financial damages is severe and something that can be avoided. Technology startup Enview has developed tools for geospatial analytics that oil and gas companies and utilities are beginning to use to monitor and manage their networks. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Geospatial imaging service Enview raises million to manage energy and utility infrastructure

 Founder Gym, co-founded by Mandela Schumacher-Hodge and Gabriela Zamudio, is unveiling its online platform to support and train underrepresented founders building tech startups. Instead of describing it as a school, bootcamp or incubator, Founder Gym describes itself as a topical, four-week training program that covers topics like fundraising, pitching, user growth and problem validation. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Founder Gym aims to help underrepresented startup founders build tech startups

 A bitcoin transaction wastes as much electricity as it takes to power an American home for a week, and legendary coder Bram Cohen wants to fix that. Cohen has started a new company called Chia Network that will launch a cryptocurrency based on proofs of time and storage rather than bitcoin’s electricity-burning proofs of work. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | BitTorrent inventor announces eco-friendly bitcoin competitor Chia

 Back in April the Netherlands-based Rockstart bootcamp announced it was adding an AI track. It’s now named the first batch of startups in the inaugural six-month program, with teams hailing from as far afield as India, Singapore, South Africa and the US. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Meet European bootcamp Rockstart’s first AI cohort

 The latest company to emerge from startup accelerator Expa Labs is focused on helping online marketplaces make money from advertising. Promote founder and CEO Siddharth Vora used to lead the engineering team for advertising products at StumbleUpon. (StumbleUpon’s founder Garrett Camp went on to start Expa, which runs Expa Labs.)  Vora said he became convinced that with their user data… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Promote helps any online marketplace get into the ad business

 Coffee Meets Bagel, the dating app that serves up a small number of targeted matches each day, has today introduced a new video feature to help users connect right on the app. “We learned that people don’t really feel a connection to each other until they meet, which makes any dating app feel like a lot of work,” said cofounder and COO Dawoon Kang. “We wanted to figure… Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Coffee Meets Bagel dating app introduces ephemeral video to foster authenticity

 Yotpo, a platform that lets companies gather content from their customers in the form of reviews, Q&As, photos and videos, mainly for use in marketing, has closed $51 million in Series D funding. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | User-generated content marketing platform Yotpo closes M Series D round

 For driverless car startups, raising capital seems to happen on autopilot. Investors and acquirers have put billions into the space over the past couple of years in the race for early-mover advantage. They’ve shown no desire to hit the brakes lately either, as indicated by a spate of recent deals. Read More
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Quantifying the driverless startup boom