Pick One: Performance or Battery Life

Skin sensors are the future of healthcare, a floating dairy is run by robots and more.

Steph Newton

Published in

Hardware News

6 min readAug 21, 2019

What’s New In Hardware:

Renault and Jiangling Motors are going in together on a new electric vehicle company aimed at the Chinese market. (Reuters)
3D printing for carbon fiber: it’s here, it works, and it makes great bikes, apparently. (IEEE Spectrum)
Soft, wearable sensors that stick to the skin are going to transform healthcare as we know it. (Nature)
Boston Dynamics is ready to bring Spot to market; what are we going to use it for? (The Verge)
Following last year’s PR disaster, CES is giving sex toys their own product category at the 2020 show. (Fortune)
Auto manufacturers are starting to make more bets on electric vehicles than autonomous ones since nobody really knows when the latter will truly be ready. (Axios)
Electric scooters are becoming so ubiquitous and poorly regulated that impounding them threatens to become a serious growth business. (The Verge)
Ikea and Sonos have teamed up to introduce the Sonos product ecosystem to the masses; how’d they do? (TechCrunch)
Apple is buying Intel’s cellular modem business for a cool $1 billion. (Axios)
In the coming world of 5G, we will need to address unavoidable tradeoffs between performance and battery life. (Forbes)

Offbeat tidbits you might’ve missed:

IBM and Rensselaer Polytechnic are teaming up to find out whether VR can help teach new languages. (MIT Technology Review)
Do delivery robots belong in bike lanes? (The Verge)
Given that babies eventually let you know when they’re uncomfortable all on their own, do we really need smart diapers? (Engadget)
Your smart TV is officially too smart. (Fortune)
Here’s a drone that can fold itself into a smaller shape to fit through windows. (IEEE Spectrum)
Anyone in Rotterdam lately might’ve spotted a floating dairy farm run by robots. (Quartz)

— And now a word from our sponsor, Modular Marketing —

Modular integrates into fast-moving tech teams, for as little or long as needed, to build out or permanently manage important marketing functions that move the needle.
Struggling to know where to invest in marketing to achieve the best results? Schedule your free 30-minute consultation.

Seed Round:

Leuko, an MIT-born technology startup developing the first non-invasive white blood cell monitoring device, has secured $1.8 million in seed financing from Good Growth Capital, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Nina Capital, and angel investors.
Augmentir, a leading provider of augmented worker software for industrial companies, has closed a funding round of an undisclosed amount. The round was led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital with participation from Lerer Hippeau and the strategic venture capital arm of HOLT CAT, HOLT Ventures.

Venture Round:

Miami-based healthcare robotics startup Neocis has raised $30 million in funding to expand Yomi, the robotic guidance system for dental implant procedures the company is developing. Mithril Capital Management led and was joined by Norwest Venture Partners.
Series A:
Human engineering tissue startup Prellis Biologics has raised $8.7 million in a series A round as it revolutionizes the field of regenerative medicine. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by earlier backer True Ventures. The company has now raised $10.5 million altogether.
Computer vision startup Recogni has secured $25 million in series A funding led by GreatPoint Ventures with participation from Toyota AI Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Fluxunit, and DNS Capital.
Boston-based 3D printing startup Fortify has raised $10 million in a series A funding. Accel led the round and was later joined by Neotribe, Prelude Ventures, and Mainspring Capital Partners.
Karem Aircraft, Uber Air’s vehicle partner, has closed $25 million in series A funding for its new air taxi spin-off. The round was led by Korean industrial conglomerate Hanwha Systems.
Award-winning technology and education company SAM Labs has raised $8.9 million in a series A equity funding round to expand the global reach of its educational content, software, and hardware. Investors include Partners in Equity and Inventures Investment Partners.

Series B:

Cambridge-based greentech company Sense has secured $10 million in series B funding. Investors include MacKinnon, Bennett & Company, and IDO Investments.
Robotic storage and retrieval system startup Attabotics has raised $25 million to fund hiring and expand its manufacturing and research & development capabilities. Investors in this recent series B funding round include Coatue, Comcast Ventures, and Honeywell, as well as earlier investors Forerunner Ventures and Werklund Growth Fund.
Smart access startup Latch has completed a $126 million financing round to accelerate its growth in the new construction and retrofit markets. The round was closed with a lead check from growth equity firm Avenir, alongside existing series B investors including Brookfield Ventures, Lux Capital, RRE, RxR Realty, Tishman Speyer, Third Prime, Camber Creek, and Primary Venture Partners.

Series C:

UK-based developer of personal hemodialysis systems Quanta Dialysis Technologies has secured $48 million in a series C funding round with participation from Wellington Partners, Seroba Life Sciences, Btov Partners and a Swiss family office.
Traxens, an expert in providing high-value data and services for the supply chain industry via smart containers, has closed $22.3 million in a series C funding led by the Itochu Corporation, Bpifrance, and Supernova Invest.

Debt Financing

Connectivity management supplier for the IoT and automotive industries Cubic Telecom has secured $26.4 million in debt financing from European Investment Bank.

Acquisitions:

Ford has acquired Quantum Signal, a small robotics company focused on building remote control software for robotic vehicles. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Montreal-based tech firm Mnubo has been snapped up by Aspen Technology for $77.6 million. According to Aspen Technology, this acquisition will help improve the next generation of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.