The pandemic and the massive transition to video-conferencing solutions have made the world flat but what happens when there are language barriers? KUDO is a video-conferencing platform that provides real-time language interpretation for live meetings and conferences. Attendees can listen and speak in their native languages, while expert interpreters translate so that everyone else in the audience is able to participate and understand. The platform currently supports 100+ languages and experiences a 3500% increase in demand since the lockdown began. The company has recently launched an on-demand marketplace for conference interpreters as the world opens up and enters a new era of hybrid meetings. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Fardad Zabetian to learn more about the company’s impressive progress since we spoke after the company’s seed round last June, future strategic plans, latest round of funding from investors that include Felicis Ventures, Maverick Ventures, Elephant VC, FJ Labs, Global Founders Capital, and Bill Ackman.
Tech
Fi Raises Another $30M for is Smart Connected GPS Collar for Dogs
According to the American Pets Product Association, Americans spent $99B on their pets in 2020. With the growing popularity of IoT, Americans also spent ~$10B on wearables last year. Fi, the company behind a proprietary GPS-enabled smart collar for dogs, fuses the two. Aside from tracking location, the collars monitor the movement, activity, and sleep patterns of the dog and the company is increasingly focused on using machine learning to address potential health issues that may arise and be detected from the data it collects. Fi’s Series 2 collar, which has a battery life of 3 months without a charge, retails at $149 and the GPS tracking service is $99/yr. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Jonathan Bensamoun to learn more about the inspiration for the business, the company’s future plans, experience managing its supply chain during the pandemic, and latest round of funding from investors that include Longview Asset Management, Advance Venture Partners (AVP), Gokul Rajaram RRE Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, and Freestyle.
Electric Raises Another $40M to Support the IT Needs of a Remote World
11 months ago, the world shut down and now 11 months later, much of our lives have shifted to remote. Overnight, businesses were forced to adjust their operations to support working from home. In order to support this dramatic shift, companies needed to ensure that they have the proper IT support infrastructure in place to address the reshaped reality of work. Electric, a pioneer in the tech-enabled managed service provider (MSP) space, was able to support the needs of the small and medium-sized businesses that lacked the in-house resources to manage this process. The company’s 100+ IT technicians are able to fully remotely manage tasks like a client’s networks, devices, security, applications, onboarding, and data monitoring. Employees are able to reach an IT expert within 10 minutes to handle their inquiries using popular chat communication platforms like Slack or Teams. Electric now provides support for over 400 businesses that comprise 20,000+ employees. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO, Cofounder, and repeat entrepreneur Ryan Denehy (Swarm Mobile acquired by Groupon) to learn more about the value that Electric brings its partners, the company’s impressive traction, future plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Greenspring Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners, GGV Capital, 01 Advisors, Primary Venture Partners, Atreides Management, and Vintage Investment Partners, and much, much more…
Are Robo-Butlers Really Handy?
“I am extremely skeptical about the quality of the artificial intelligence behind the housekeeping robot in Samsung’s CES video. They show it performing an extremely wide variety of tasks, from pouring wine to loading the dishwasher to doing laundry. Developing an AI robust enough to go into an unknown consumer home and learn from them how they want to pick up toys is already a hard problem.”
NWO.ai Raises $3.5M to Predict Cultural Shifts Before They Happen Using AI
We’d all like to be able to look into a crystal ball and tell the future. With the use of AI and machine intelligence, we are now able to more accurately produce trend forecasts that accurately mimic reality. NWO.ai takes this one step further. The platform combs through unstructured data to track 20M+ signals, adds a time dimension, eliminates noise, and prioritizes sources to identify microtrends and global cultural shifts. For example, the platform has recently considered and tracked possible geopolitical events and themes like will COVID-19 lead to war, will Bitcoin continue to rise, and the impact of the pandemic on Big Tobacco. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounders Sourav Goswami and Pulkit Jaiswal to learn more about the company’s recent launch out of stealth, future plans, and recent round of funding from investors that include Hyperplane, Wavemaker, Colle Capital, Adit Ventures, and SuperAngel.
What is Clubhouse App, and Why Does it Matter?
Let’s talk about Clubhouse app. The app is the beginning of a wildly underrated, emerging, social media platform. Why is it underrated? Because most people don’t know about it yet. While many of you might already know about Clubhouse, in the scheme of 300 million-plus Americans and 7.5 billion people on earth, very few do. The […]
Parsec Raises $25M to Ensure You Can Connect to Any Computer in the World Remotely
Remote working has become the new normal but for some professions, having access to the powerful computing systems found at the office is difficult to replicate. Parsec is a platform that allows users to remotely access virtual machines and their powerful PCs from any device without any noticeable latency. The company got its start in gaming, where it was popular with gamers that wanted to play on the go, but since the pandemic, the technology is being used by animators, game developers, engineers, or anyone that needs enhanced processing power remotely. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Benjy Boxer to learn more about the impact the company’s technology has had on working remotely, the company’s expansion plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Andreessen Horowitz, Makers Fund, Notation Capital, NextView Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau.
Video-Sharing App Dubsmash Acquired by Reddit
Dubsmash, the video-sharing social app that’s been named a rival to TikTok, has been acquired by Reddit. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Actasys Raises $5M for its Sensor Cleaning Technology Necessary for a Future with Autonomous Vehicles
There are approximately 22 billion sensors used in the automotive industry per year according to a 2017 study and the average automobile has at least 60 individual sensors. The push towards autonomous vehicles will only increase the number of sensors used exponentially. Actasys has built a critical sensor-cleaning technology for vehicles and smart mobility systems ensuring that these sensors can be operated continuously safely. ActaJet™ is an electronically controlled array of actuator cartridges that generates strong jets of air without the need for mechanical pumps or compressors. The company is partnered with automotive companies like Volvo and the technology is also being deployed in other use-cases such as robots, camera systems, traffic monitors, and more. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO Miles Flamenbaum to learn more about the core technology, its practical uses, and the company’s recent funding round.
Kustomer Acquired by Facebook for a Reported $1B Price Tag
Kustomer, the customer service messaging and management platform, has agreed to be acquired by Facebook. While the terms of the transaction were not disclosed, it has been widely reported that the transaction value is $1B.
Levels Raises $12M for its Biowearable Device that Monitors Glucose in Real Time
Forget about wearing your Apple Watch to track your health. Levels is the biowearable that provides real-time feedback on how your diet and activities directly impact your health. Through continuous glucose monitoring, which has traditionally been reserved for those with diabetes, the company is on a mission to address the rising rates of metabolic dysfunction in the US by monitoring the effects of your food choices. Levels currently has a waitlist of 44,000 people. AlleyWatch caught up with founders Casey Means MD Josh Clemente, Sam Corcos, David Flinner and Andrew Conner to discuss the importance of metabolic health, the company’s plans to expand the team across engineering, operations, and marketing, and recent funding round from investors that include A16z, Marc Randolph, Dick Costolo, Michael Arrington, and Matt Dellavedova.