Sramana Mitra: I understand what you’re doing. You said you have 200 enterprises that have already adopted your technology? Joe Lea: We do. That’s critical. The broader our deployment, the more...
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According to ASSOCHAM, India spends around 14.4% of its GDP on logistics and transportation as compared to less than 8% spent by the other developing countries. The Indian logistics sector is set to...
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Apple's COO Jeff Williams told students in North Carolina on Friday that Apple does not want to be an "elitist" company.
As reported by Apple Insider, Williams gave a short speech at Elon University followed by a Q&A session. A student asked Williams about Apple's plans to lower iPhone prices, citing a recent report which claimed the iPhone costs significantly less to manufacture than its sale price.
"The stories that come out about the cost of our products [have been] the bane of my existence from the beginning of time, including our early days," said Williams. "Analysts don't really understand the cost of what we do and how much care we put into making our products."
Read more: A short trip to India showed me just how badly Apple is screwing up in the world's biggest democracy
Williams said he's cognizant of the iPhone's climbing price point, which means it has fallen behind in key markets where consumers have less disposable income. In India for example, Apple commands just 3% of market share.
"We do not want to be an elitist company. That's not â we want to be an egalitarian company, and we've got a lot of work going on in developing markets," Williams said.
His comments come after Apple has continued to raise the price of iPhones. The average selling price of the phones has increased by nearly 27% to $793 since 2010, helped in no small part by the $1,000 iPhone X.
Amazon said it is mourning a "terrible tragedy" after an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane crashed into a bay outside Houston, Texas, on Saturday, killing three people on board.
Police said they have recovered two bodies after the Boeing 767 cargo jet, operated by Atlas Air Worldwide, went down on its approach to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. A third person is presumed dead.
In a statement on Twitter, Amazon's SVP of operations, Dave Clark, said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the flight crew, their families and friends along with the entire team at Atlas Air during this terrible tragedy. We appreciate the first responders who worked urgently to provide support."
Business Insider has contacted Amazon for further comment.
In an update on Sunday evening local time, Chambers County Sheriff's Office said they had recovered the aircraft's black boxes, which will provide information as to why the aircraft apparently nosedived into Trinity Bay during its journey from Miami.
Footage shows debris strewn across a mile-long stretch of water. Chambers County Sheriff's Office posted a video of the crash site, which was left exposed after the tide was pushed south on Sunday.
On Saturday, local TV station FOX 26 Houston posted video of the aircraft while the tide was in. Debris, including a wheel was visible. Sky News has an image showing part of Amazon's logo.
The National Transportation Safety Board is already examining wreckage from the accident.
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said on Sunday that investigators have secured a video of the crash from a local jail, which shows that plane descended in a "steep nose-down" position.
Captain Sean Archuleta has been named as one of those on board the cargo flight. He is survived by his wife and two children.
Matt Holleran, General Partner at Cloud Apps Capital Partners, talks about his firm’s investment thesis in what he calls classic Series A. His is one of the rare firms that invest at the concept...
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Huawei's foldable phone. Shona Ghosh/Business Insider
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday.
Huawei unveiled a 5G foldable phone, the Mate X, at Mobile World Congress. Huawei one-upped Samsung with a 5G version of its folding phone. Microsoft revealed the HoloLens 2, its new $3,500 holographic headset that seems to improve on the original in every way. Business Insider got hands-on with HoloLens 2 back in January, and found it to be futuristic and promising, but also a little glitchy in the early form in which we tried it. Microsoft and the creator of "Fortnite" have formed an alliance that could put a ton of pressure on Apple and Google. Microsoft has said that it will allow anybody to open an app store for its new HoloLens 2 headset, and the plan has won over Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. After a big privacy backlash, Google's Nest explains which of its products have microphones and why. Last week Google told Business Insider that the microphone in its Nest Guard home security device was "never intended to be a secret." Nokia's new $700 smartphone has an insane 5 cameras, blowing up the 2019 trend for 3 lenses. The five cameras are arranged in a pentagon shape on the rear of the phone, and impressively don't add any extra bump or bulk. Jeff Bezos gave a 30-minute private talk to a members-only event at the Yale Club in New York. Bezos said his private aerospace company, Blue Origin, would launch its first people into space aboard a New Shepard rocket in 2019. Netflix's "Roma" made history with its Oscar wins despite losing best picture to "Green Book." Netflix's "Roma" won Oscars for best cinematography, foreign film, and director on Sunday. A whole crop of new Android phones just got dedicated Google Assistant buttons, whether people want them or not. LG, Nokia, Xiaomi, and Vivo are all bringing out new devices with the button, but Huawei and Samsung are holding out. Criminal groups are offering $360,000 salaries to accomplices who can help them scam CEOs about their porn-watching habits. "Sextortion" email scams have raked in more than $330,000 from scared victims since July 2018, a new report from cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows claims. YouTube won't let anti-vaccine videos make advertising money for their creators, citing a policy around "dangerous or harmful" content. Some channels promoting anti-vaccination content were reportedly able to monetize for some time, in violation of the policy, and a number of advertisers became upset after learning their ads were running alongside the harmful content.Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.
It was quite an Oscar night for Netflix and its movie, "Roma."
Alfonso Cuarón's semi-autobiographical look at his childhood growing up in Mexico City won Oscars for best cinematography, foreign film, and director. And some of those wins were historic.
Cuarón's win for shooting "Roma" made him the first director ever to win an Oscar for shooting their own movie. And the movie was also the second black-and-white movie to ever win the award since black-and-white and color movies combined into the same category over 50 years ago. The other winner was "Schindler's List" in 1994.
And with "Roma" winning best foreign film, it marked the first time a Mexican movie had won in that category.
Cuarón also won for best director. It was his second time winning this category in his career. He previously won in 2014 for "Gravity."
But the movie could not get the night's big award. It lost best picture to "Green Book." Netflix, which made a big push into original movies last year, has never won the Academy's top prize.
This feature from The Verge covers the winners of the 91st annual Academy Awards at the ceremony being held today at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California. For this week’s posts, click on the...
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Peloton, a digital exercise equipment company retailer, has reported lty chosen bankers for an IPO.
Peloton sells exercise bicycles, treadmills and subscriptions to digital content. Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan will lead the IPO, according to Bloomberg, which added that the deal could value the company at more than $8 billion.
Founded in 2012, Peloton sells high-end exercise bikes and treadmills, as well as subscriptions to content that streams on the machines, and separate digital exercise classes. The basic Peloton bike costs $2,245, and a Peloton treadmill costs $4,295.
Peloton was last valued at $4.15 billion in a 2018 funding round led by Technology Crossover Ventures, according to PitchBook. It's backed by others including Wellington Management, Fidelity Investments and Kleiner Perkins.
Since it sells consumer goods, Peloton could be considered a retail company, but it's expected to price on the public markets at similar multiples to other technology companies, one person familiar with the company said.
Peloton did not respond to a request for comment.
This year's Oscars season has been full of controversy, but the big night is finally here.
With no host but plenty of Queen, the 91st Academy Awards kicked off on Sunday at the Dolby Theater. But it was a long road up to this point. Multiple best-picture nominees have been mired in backlash, and the race is wide open.
Regina King won the first award of the night for her supporting performance in "If Beale Street Could Talk."
Will Netflix's "Roma" or "Green Book" take home the final prize, or something else entirely?
"Green Book" has been hit with criticism throughout awards season for how it depicts its real-life subject, Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali. And Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" is up for best picture, despite credited director Bryan Singer, who has been acused of sexual misconduct, being fired late into production.
Beyond the movies, the telecast itself has been in a state of disarray. Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting after homophobic tweets of his resurfaced; a popular Oscar award was announced last year and then quickly rolled back after outcry; and similarly, the Academy, in an effort to shorten the telecast to three hours, announced that four awards would be handed out during commercial breaks (that was also rolled back after criticism).
Regardless, the show must go on. "Roma" is a favorite to win best picture, but can a Netflix movie wow enough Academy voters to pull it off? Could "Black Panther," the highest-grossing movie in the US of 2018, achieve a surprise victory and become the first superhero movie to ever win best picture?
Business Insider will be updating this winners list live throughout the Oscars ceremony on Sunday.
The Oscars air Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Below is the full list of winners for the 2019 Oscars, updated live:
Google has struck deals with some of the biggest Android phone makers to include a dedicated Google Assistant button on their new handsets â whether users want one or not.
The upshot is that new devices such as LG's new flagship, the LG G8 ThinQ, and Xiaomi's 5G Mi Mix 3 will have a dedicated button on the side of the devices which launches Google's AI helper.
Read more: Check out Huawei's 5G foldable phone, the Mate X
Google said it had also struck deals with Nokia, TCL, and Vivo. Nokia's new 3.2 and 4.2 models will have the new Assistant button, as well Xiaomi's Mi 9, Vivo's V15 Pro, and LG's mid-range K40.
The two biggest Android phone makers, Huawei and Samsung, don't seem to be involved with the tie-up. Samsung already has dedicated buttons on its handsets for its own rival assistant, Bixby.
Samsung's Bixby assistant. Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
Assistant is Google's powerful rival to Apple's Siri. Pressing the dedicated button variously lets users quickly find their calendars, map directions, open up music and podcasts, as well as tailored information based on previous activity with the Assistant.
It's easy to see how a dedicated handset button is a win for Google, which has been pushing Assistant hard over the last year. CEO Sundar Pichai famously demoed Assistant making a terrifyingly human call to a hair salon worker to make an appointment â although the demo may have been faked.
It's less obvious that a dedicated Google Assistant button will be popular with users, not least because it's relatively easy to launch it with a simple voice command: "OK Google."
One indicator might be the Samsung Bixby fiasco. Samsung released its Galaxy S8 flagship in 2017, with a button dedicated to its own Bixby assistant. Users rebelled, complaining that the button couldn't be "remapped" to do any other task.
Samsung eventually capitulated with the 2019 launch of the Galaxy S10, allowing users to remap the dedicated Bixby button for other apps.
In a statement, Google said it expected 100 million phones to launch with the dedicated Assistant button.
On Sunday, Microsoft announced the HoloLens 2â the second iteration of its pioneering holographic headset, a $3,500 device that projects digital imagery over the real world, a form of augmented reality.
As one might expect, the device was the centerpiece of Microsoft's keynote presentation at Mobile World Congress.
But in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment that may have gone overlooked, chief HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman made another, related announcement that has much larger implications for the industry: Microsoft committed to allowing anybody to operate their own app store for the HoloLens or any Windows-powered headsets like it.
It's a commitment that comes among a broad discussion about the economics of smartphone app stores. Apple, in particular, has come under scrutiny for requiring developers to fork over 30% of most App Store transactions, while also disallowing competitors to open their own alternative iOS app storefronts.
Microsoft's commitment to openness seems to have already won over one of its fiercest critics, as Tim Sweeney, the CEO of "Fortnite"-creator Epic Games, actually made an appearance at the keynote event to announce the company's commitment to HoloLens as a platform.
That's especially notable, as way back in 2016, Sweeney decried the Windows 10 app store as "the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made," and a play at making the Windows PC an iPhone-style "walled garden."
At the event on Sunday, Sweeney announced that HoloLens 2 will get support for Epic's popular Unreal Engine 4 game design software, and more broadly, that the company will consider HoloLens a part of its strategy going forward â though he said he wasn't prepared to announce more specifics at this time.
Sweeney specifically called out Microsoft's commitment to this kind of openness as a reason behind the alliance and tied it to his broader principles.
"We will resist efforts to build walled gardens around our lives," Sweeney said on stage at the Microsoft event.
To that point, Epic has spent much of the last year campaigning against the major platforms. In late 2018, flush with new funding, Epic launched the Epic Games Store, a PC games storefront that's challenging Valve's leading Steam store by offering game developers a more favorable share of the revenue. Before that, Epic courted controversy by skipping the Google Play store on Android, instead asking players to download the game directly from the web.
Epic Games cofounder Tim Sweeney Mike Coppola/Getty Images
In so doing, Epic has used the incredible popularity of "Fortnite" to start a conversation around the economics of digital stores like Apple's, Google's, and Steam's. For its part, at least, Steam has changed some of its revenue split model in recent months, though Apple and Google are so far sticking to their guns. In a recent call with shareholders and analysts, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he believes the Google Play store offers value for developers.
Microsoft's HoloLens is a far more nascent platform than Android or Apple's iOS. When the second version launches later this year, it'll cost $3,500, and only be available to businesses.
At the same time, much of the industry â including Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft itself â believe that augmented reality tech, like the HoloLens, is the next big thing after the smartphone. By declaring this commitment early, Microsoft seems to be hoping that the next generation of devices allows for healthy competition between app stores.
And by getting Epic on board, Microsoft has a powerful ally in the fight. The two companies had previously teamed up to make it possible for "Fortnite" players to play together across Xbox, the PC, and smartphones â an alliance that got Sony to allow that kind of cross-platform play for the PlayStation 4.
Together, the two might have enough juice to keep putting the pressure on Apple and Google around how they do business in their app stores, perhaps convincing them to make some kind of change.
Beyond the stores, too, Microsoft at its event actually showed how a HoloLens 2 wearer could interact with holograms placed by someone with an Apple iPad using the camera to project augmented reality imagery, indicating the company's further commitment to keeping the platform open.
However, I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that Microsoft doesn't have a lot to lose here, either. Despite Sweeney's earlier fears, the company hasn't had a lot of luck with any of its Windows app stores, and no longer maintains any kind of smartphone operating system at all. By picking this fight, Microsoft can only make itself look better to developers, without having to worry much about the economics of its own Windows app store businesses.
Joe Lea: For example, Samsung smart TVs makes a DNS request followed by connection attempts once a minute for about 45 minutes. Then they take a nap for an hour. Then they start up and do that...
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The rumors are true: Microsoft officially announced the HoloLens 2, its next-generation holographic headset, at a keynote session at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday. Microsoft says it'll cost $3,500, and be available to business customers later this year.
Like 2016's original HoloLens, this new iteration is a pair of goggles that projects digital imagery over the real world â a technology that Microsoft calls mixed reality, and others like Facebook call augmented reality. Whatever you call it, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and many others have made big bets that this will be the next big thing.
What's new with the HoloLens 2 is a comprehensive redesign, fixing several frustrations with the original. First and foremost, the HoloLens 2 doubles the viewing area, alleviating one of the major problems with the first generation of these sorts of headsets. That said, it's still not close to totally filling your field of vision with holograms.
Microsoft also boasts that the HoloLens 2 comes with a brand-new interface: Rather than wave your fingers around to tap on virtual icons, Microsoft says that you can use "intuitive" movements to manipulate the holograms as you would a physical object. It also comes with eye-tracking technology, Microsoft says, that offers more ways to interact.
The device has gotten a physical redesign, as well, with Microsoft boasting that it's more comfortable and easier to adjust. That's another plus from the original model, which required users to fiddle with knobs to get the fit of the headset just right. The visor section also flips up, if you need to switch between mixed reality and actual reality.
Check out the HoloLens 2 in action here:
Read more: Microsoft releases new apps that make augmented reality way more helpful to businesses
Business Insider's Alyson Shontell got to be one of the first to try the new hardware at an event on the Microsoft campus in January, before many employees got their own shot. The software felt futuristic, but this early version wasn't quite ready for prime time â though Microsoft has had ample time to fix things since. The holograms that appeared were colorful and interactive, though at times, glitchy. The hardware was comfortable enough, almost like wearing a bike helmet or ski goggles.
Beyond the hardware, Microsoft is working to expand on the HoloLens ecosystem, and announced a partnership with Mozilla to bring Firefox Reality, a web browser designed specifically for augmented reality, to HoloLens. Epic Games, the proprietor of "Fortnite," also says that it will bring support for its popular Unreal Engine 4 game development tool to HoloLens. Microsoft announced new services for the Azure cloud to build mixed reality apps as well.
Microsoft also hammered on the value of HoloLens to businesses, which is the primary market for the device â just last week, Microsoft announced the availability of HoloLens-friendly tools including Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, which allows a remote technician to see what the headset wearer sees and lend their expertise. App bundles including Dynamics 365 Remote Assist start at $125/month, says Microsoft.
Here's a video showing how some of those enterprise-tailored apps will work:
The HoloLens 2 will be going up against Magic Leap, the Google-backed startup that released its inaugural Magic Leap One headset late last year. Google is working on a second version of its infamous Glass headset, too, as is Facebook.
Startup:Calm
VC: Napoleon Ta, Founders Fund
Relationship: No relation. Just thinks it's cool.
Total raised: $28 million
What it does: Calm is a popular mobile app for meditation, sleep and overall mental wellness.
Why it's hot in 2019: "Calm is driving a real positive social impact by helping its users alleviate anxiety, depression, insomnia and a number of other ailments," says Ta.
He notes that with 35 million downloads, Calm has outpaced its competitors while raising less money and "still has huge potential to grow by expanding internationally and evolving into a more comprehensive wellness brand."
Average demand expressions: 23,739,181
Description: "DOOM PATROL reimagines one of DC's most beloved groups of Super Heroes: Robotman aka Cliff Steele (BRENDAN FRASER), Negative Man aka Larry Trainor (MATT BOMER), Elasti-Woman aka Rita Farr (APRIL BOWLBY) and Crazy Jane (DIANE GUERRERO), led by modern-day mad scientist Niles Caulder aka The Chief (TIMOTHY DALTON). Each member of the Doom Patrol suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities, but also left them scarred and disfigured. Traumatized and downtrodden, the team found their purpose through The Chief, coming together to investigate the weirdest phenomena in existence. Following the mysterious disappearance of The Chief these reluctant heroes will find themselves in a place they never expected to be, called to action by none other than Cyborg (JOIVAN WADE), who comes to them with a mission hard to refuse. Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of superpowered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them."
Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 1): 93%
What critics said: "The show is absurdly watchable. Bananas, yes, but enjoyably bananas." â Alex McLevy, AV Club
Season 2 premiered on DC Universe February 15.
2019 is the year of the triple camera on smartphones, with the Samsung Galaxy S10, Huawei P20 Pro all boasting a three-camera array.
HMD Global, the company that now owns the Nokia brand, has now unveiled the Nokia 9 PureView, an expensive, sleek smartphone with a crazy five rear cameras.
The five cameras are laid out in a pentagonal arrangement on the rear of the phone and, impressively, don't seem to add any ugly bulk to the phone. The back of the phone is completely flat, and the device comes in at 8mm thickness. That compares to 7.7mm for the iPhone XS, and 7.8mm for the Samsung Galaxy S10.
The Nokia 9 PureView is 8mm thick, despite its five lenses. Shona Ghosh/Business Insider
Nokia fans might remember 2012's 808 PureView, another enthusiasts' device that introduced the 48-megapixel camera. The new PureView, HMD exec Neil Broadley said at a preview briefing of the device in London, was about reviving that innovative spirit.
HMD is pushing what it calls "computational imaging", with the five sensors all working together simultaneously as a system, rather than switching between different cameras.
Two of the five lenses are 12-megapixel colour cameras, while the remaining three are 12-megapixel monochrome sensors. The upshot is that the phone can shoot natively in black and white, with the monochrome sensors adding sharpness and detail to colour photos.
The demo shots we saw at HMD's preview of the Nokia 9 PureView were pretty astonishing, capturing multiple layers in a shot. We didn't get much hands-on time with the device, but it certainly feels like a high-end phone.
Shona Ghosh/Business Insider
The phone starts at $699 and is targeted at "early adopters", HMD said. Photos are saved directly to Google Photos, rather than a separate Nokia gallery, and users can use Google's editing tools to play around with shots.
The phone also captures images in a RAW format, meaning the device keeps all the unprocessed data from the PureView's sensors. Nokia has partnered Adobe Lightroom, meaning you can edit those unprocessed shots on the device.
The phone itself comprises a sleek-feeling aluminium chassis with Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back. It comes with wireless charging, an underscreen fingerprint sensor, and face recognition. It comes with a POLED screen, 65GB of RAM. It comes in a midnight blue colour, and runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 825 processor.
The Nokia 9 PureView is already shipping, but HMD hasn't given exact dates for availability in the US and Europe.
Nathan Raikman, a 14-year-old high school freshman from Massachusetts, started coding because he had always been interested in computers. He would watch tutorials online and play around with code by creating new projects. When he found out about coding clubs at school, he became more deeply invested in growing his skills.
However, when he wanted to build more complicated projects, it required him to do some setup â getting started with coding usually requires installing a bunch of other programs, like code editors and software packages, to get started. So about four years ago, Raikman searched for an easier way... and found Repl.it.
Repl.it is an online coding platform that's sort of like a Google Docs for coding, with some elements of a Facebook-style social network. There's a growing community of both amateur and professional developers using the platform. Because of its simplicity, though, it's attracting kids like Raikman.
"When I go to school, I can just go on one computer," Raikman told Business Insider. "I can automatically start coding. It doesn't require any setup. If I want someone to see my stuff I can just send the link to them. I can just send them a URL and they can run the code."
Repl.it founder Amjad Masad calls Repl.it a cross between GitHub and Codecademy. Like GitHub, Microsoft's ubiquitous code-sharing site, users can host software projects that anybody can work on. But like Codecademy, the popular learn-to-code service, users can also find tutorials to help them ramp up.
There are other services like Repl.it: CodePen, PythonAnywhere, and even Amazon Web Services' Cloud9. But they either focus on specific languages and uses (as with PythonAnywhere and the Python programming language), or they're too powerful for beginners.
Repl.it, on the other hand, has found some success because it supports 40 languages, and it supports both novice and experienced programmers. The site currently has over 1 million monthly active users.
Growing up in Jordan, Masad didn't own a laptop. When he studied computer science in school, he had to practice coding in a shared lab. This often involved the cumbersome, time-consuming process of installing a slew of software every time he got started on a new machine.
Masad also spent time working at Codecademy. Inspired by these experiences, he wanted to build a platform that allows people to learn to code without leaving the browser, lowering the bar to entry â you don't need a powerful computer to get started; you just need something that access the internet.
Although Repl.it has many professional developers and educators on its platform, Masad says that the service has also seen a rapid growth among kids and teenagers building calculators, games,personal websites, and chatbots. A 13-year-old even built an artificial intelligence program that can recognize written numbers, Masad boasts.
"What captured our attention was when kids started using Repl.it out of their own ambition," Masad told Business Insider. "A lot of kids find out from their friends and teachers or by Googling it. They join this community of a bunch of teenage hackers who are building amazing software together."
To that point, Repl.it is a social platform, where users can code collaboratively. Repl.it's so-called Multiplayer mode allows people to collaborate on code at the same time, similarly to how Google Docs allows multiple people to edit a document at once.
"A lot of kids are going in the YouTube era and the Snapchat era, and they're used to building things socially," Masad said. They want to show each other their code."
Raikman normally builds tools that helps him in school, like a program that helps him with the quadratic equation. He's also made timers, calculators, and text-based games. He's run code jams on Repl.it, where he creates coding challenges that other users can participate in. He even got his friends at coding club to use it, too.
Repl.it has also brought together users from outside the United States. Lucy Durrand, a 14-year-old from Scotland, has been learning to code in Python and HTML in her computing class. The class is learning how to use Repl.it to build websites, going so far as to build integrations with Twitter.
"[Repl.it] is really easy to use, and it keeps all your coding files organised rather than having them in odd places saved on your computer and being hard to find," Durrand told Business Insider.
15-year-old Samarth Jajoo from India first started using Repl.it two years ago because he was drawn to its weekly coding challenges. Now, he builds tutorials on Repl.it, such as one about how to make a bot on WhatsApp.
Likewise, 15-year-old Kaldis Berzins from Latvia discovered Repl.it two to three years ago online. He got started in learning to code from online resources like Codecademy, but when he wanted to code, he would have to use apps like Notepad or Sublime. So when Repl.it rolled out support for more languages, Berzins stuck to it.
Now, he's building a shooting game that involves snatching guns, crates and other objects falling from the sky.
"It has a wide variety of languages now which is nice and one of the greatest things was the awesome community behind that," Berzins told Business Insider. "It's nice to be with those people and learn."
With Repl.it, users are holding study sessions together, teaching each other to code and working together to build games and apps. The fact that many of these users are young people makes Masad optimistic about the future.
"All these young people are creating amazing software and collaborating doing it," Masad said. "It's pretty easy to see Repl.it and think it's a learning tool, and it's much more than that. It's a place where people are building things."
Accurx, the U.K. startup and Entrepreneur First alumni that has developed a messaging service for doctor surgeries, has raised £8.8 million in Series A funding, TechCrunch has learned.
According to multiple sources, London venture capital firm Atomico has led the round, with participation from LocalGlobe and EF. We first heard a term sheet had been put on the table as far back as mid-January, while it is thought the investment only closed last week.
I also understand the round was highly contested, potentially pushing up Accurx’s valuation. One source tells me that Accel was in the running but didn’t end up investing.
Both Atomico and Accurx declined to comment.
Co-founded by Jacob Haddad and Laurence Bargery, who met and subsequently founded the company at Entrepreneur First in 2016, Accurx initially set out to develop a data-set and tools to help tackle the problem of inappropriate use of antibiotics, which is a major contributor to the diminishing effectiveness of antibiotics. Since then the startup has pivoted to focus on creating a broader communication platform to bring medical teams and patients closer together.
(Given Haddad and Bargery’s backgrounds, I dare say that the use of data and machine learning to help improve healthcare delivery is still very much front of mind for the company).
As it exists today, Accurx’s main product is Chain SMS, a messaging app for use by doctor surgeries to communicate with patients. It has been designed to support nurses, administration staff and practice managers etc., as well as GPs. Typical use-cases for Chain SMS includes sending advice to patients, notifying a patient of normal results, and reminding them to book appointments. All communication is saved back to a patient’s medical record to ensure a more joined up approach than might otherwise happen using arcane communication methods such as telephone calls and sending letters in the post.
(Somewhat related: this weekend, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has called for the use of pagers for communications within the NHS to be phased out by 2021. The outdated technology costs the U.K. taxpayer-funded health service £6.6m per year, apparently).
To that end — and no doubt not gone unnoticed by investors — I gather that Chain SMS is already in use by 20 percent of GP practices in England, from close to zero when it launched in February 2018. The conventional wisdom is that startups find it difficult to penetrate the NHS, when in practice this is starting to change, whilst GP surgeries, although funded through the NHS, are actually run as independent businesses so arguably easier to sell into.
A fun fact: A quick spelunking of Companies House records reveals that prominent Conservative Party politician and former Army officer Tom Tugendhat — who is also the current chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and tipped by some to be a possible future PM — is an early investor in Accurx.
Separately, I’m told that Wendy Tan White, the former EF General Partner who recently joined Alphabet’s X (formerly Google X) as Vice President, has also invested as part of this latest round. Meanwhile, I understand that recently recruited Principal Irina Haivas led on behalf of Atomico. Haivas is a former surgeon and former surgical fellow at Harvard Medical School (yes, you read that correctly!) and has previously worked at healthcare investor GHO Capital Partners.
Swapna Gupta, Senior Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures, explains the firm’s investment strategy.
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