Daily Precap - Wednesday 11th July 2018

 

Hey I’m Domm, it’s Wednesday 11th July 2018, and this is your daily precap of the latest and greatest technology, startups, and business news.

 

We have a new unicorn.  Out of the US, Toast, has raised $115M with a valuation of $1.1B.  The startup offers a complete suite of hardware and software that help restaurants streamline both the front and back house.  They are looking to be the primary platform supporting restaurants, one hell of a target considering 1 in 11 human beings work in a restaurant.

 

Get ready for more virtual reality.  Facebook is testing VR ads that show up right in your newsfeed.

 

Tesla cars may soon come with a “Made in China” badge, as they dry the ink on a deal to open their first ever factory outside the US, in Shanghai.

 

ANGLR, a company that builds fishing trip management and devices, is building a fitbit for fishing, with a range of wearables being tested, their aim is to “become the center of fishing intelligence.”

 

Instagram is testing a new feedback tool for Insta Stories and will let your viewers reply to your stories in a new sticker format, similar to the existing poll and slider.

 

Google Pay wants you to use its service to make payments to your mates, not just when shopping online, with a new update enabling peer to peer payments.

 

The Victorian government is putting up $13M for 3 accelerator programs to spur innovation and startup growth.

 

Meanwhile, regional Queensland is the focus of expansion for Onramp, a traning and mentoring program for founders.  Backed by the Queensland Government’s Advance Queensland, Startup Onramp aims to help regional businesses leverage the internet to reach a global market.

 

Bike sharing startup Ofo is pulling out of Australia less than a year after launching.  The Chinese company said it would focus on ‘priority international markets’.

 

When will companies learn, we don't want your bikes we want the electric scooters, give us Bird, give us Lime.

 

Stop texting and driving!

 

New stats released today show our use of mobile phones in the car is at epidemic levels, In NSW alone last year 42,000 tickets were handed out for using phones in the car, but thats the tip of the iceberg.  New speed camera style technology is being rolled out to catch and fine people using their phones in the car.

 

Do NOT miss out on the best news, reviews and tip-offs about the most exciting happenings in tech, startups or product releases, make sure you are following me on instagram @domm, AND subscribe to the daily precap podcast, on your favorite podcast app.

 

That was your daily precap, I am Domm, thanks for listening

Daily Precap - Tuesday 10th July 2018

 

Hey I’m Domm, it’s Tuesday 10th July 2018, and this is your daily precap of the latest and greatest technology, startups, and business news.

 

The hackers have been busy with multiple breaches announced.

 

Timehop, an app the reminds your of social media posts on the same date years later has had a network breach and revealed the info of 21M users.

 

Polar Flow - the fitness tracking service has accidentally leaked the location of over 5000 military and government personnel, and spies, at sensitive locations all around the world.  

 

But seriously, if you’re a cia agent and you bought a cheap Fitbit clone which broadcasts your location while you run, from a top secret location, then you’re probably not the super sleuth we need protecting us.

 

Silicon Valley VC fund Lightspeed, is betting big on India with a new $175M fund to invest in Indian tech startups.

 

Index Ventures raises two funds, 650M for early stage, 1bn for growth stage scale ups.

 

Samsung is building worlds largest smartphone factory in India capable of producing 120M devices a year.

 

Apple Music is outgrowing Spotify Music and set to over take with just 1M subscribers behind Spotify’s 22.5M subscribers.

 

Uber wants you to book electric scooters through its service too is investing in scooter startup Lime, participating in a 300M capital raise.

 

China Fintech’s Start-up Ant Financial, has raised $14 Billion, in a massive series c round, valuing the company at  $150Bn valuation. The company serves over 500 million customers through its payment platforms including Alipay.

 

PayPal is ready to invest up to $3 billion a year on acquisitions that enable it to acquire specific capabilities,

 

It may be easier and faster to get insurance soon, with insuretech startup Plack Re, raising $12M to simplify insurance underwriting.

 

Audi’s E-tron SUV launching in 2020 will have one major shake-up, with virtual rear view mirrors.  It will use small cameras on the side of the vehicle then project the image on the side doors.

 

Don’t miss out on the best news, reviews and tip-offs about the most exciting happenings in tech or product releases, make sure you are following me on instagram @domm, AND subscribe to the daily precap podcast, on your favorite podcast app.

 

That was your daily precap, I am Domm, thanks for listening.

Daily Precap - Monday 9th July 2018

 

Hey I’m Domm, it’s Monday 9th July 2018, and this is your daily precap of the latest and greatest technology, startups, and business news.

 

It is IPO season! If you don’t know what IPO means, it stands for Initial Public offering, and means a company is listing on a stock exchange to raise funds, so retail investors like you or I, can then buy shares in them.  

 

And if thats what you want to do, there are a bunch of new tech companies you will be able to invest in.  

 

Smart connected speaker company Sonos, is about to list and the company is looking to raise up to $100M.

 

Netgear has had so much success with its Arlo range of security cameras, its spinning them out into their own business to list on the New York Stock exchange, under the arlo ticker symbol.

 

Airbnb is apparently preparing for an IPO mid to late next year.

 

Chinas Apple Clone, Xiaomi, has underperformed in its recent IPO, with stock being traded at a more than 10% discount on the grey market.

 

Facebook, who went public 6 years ago, has had a great run lately, despite all the scandals, so much so its founder Mark Zuckerberg’ personal wealth has outgrown Warren Buffet, making him the third richest person on the planet.

 

Groupon, the daily deal site is looking for a new owner. At its peak it was valued at $16Bn. Had knocked back a $6Bn buy out from Google.  It would be dying to get that offer now, though being valued at just $2.4Bn.

 

The domain Crypto.com has been sold, and if the rumours are true it went for over $10M.  It was bought by Blockchain company, Monaco who will now rebrand.

 

Red, the company that makes camera use to shoot blockbuster Hollywood films like Transformers, is releasing a smartphone.  The phone will be available later in the year, is called Red Hydrogen, and is targeted at cinematographers with a 3d Holographic display.

 

Aussie startup Jar Aerospace, a startup run by 4 20-year-olds, has won $40k in cisco gear after winning the Cisco Start Challenge.  The startups been working with the defence sector, to build drones that transport blood and organs over suburban areas.

 

Staying in the sky, Virgin Galactic, the space voyage company owned by Richard Branson, has announced it will soon begin launching space flights from Italy.

If you bought fake followers on twitter, you’re in for trouble, Twitter is suspending 1M accounts per day, 70M in the last two months alone to stamp out bots and fake accounts.

Don’t miss out on the best news, reviews and tip-offs about the most exciting happenings in tech or product releases, make sure you are following me on instagram @domm, or you can subscribe to the daily precap podcast, on your favorite podcast app.

 

That was your daily precap, I am Domm, thanks for listening.

Daily Precap - Friday 6th July 2018

 

Hey I’m Domm, it’s Friday 6th July 2018, and this is your daily precap of everything technology, startups, and business from Australia and beyond.Sydney based eSports company Gamurs raised $3.5M.  The company serves 2.7M active monthly eSports fans, and will use the cash to grow to 4.5M active monthly users.

Malcolm Turnbull and Australia’s federal government has signed a landmark whole of government ICT procurement deal with IBM, worth a whopping $1Bn, and designed to save Australia over $100M.  Great cost cutting, but a shame we are about to write another 10 figure check for a US tech company.

VW launching electric car sharing startup W.E., in Germany next year.  The company has also developed a range of other electric vehicles it plans to expand to, including my favorite, electric scooters.  VW has plans to expand throughout Europe and ASIA by 2020.

 

Netflix might get more expensive, ‘Ultra’ subscription.  No new content, just higher quality streams in 4k and HDR.

 

NAIF plowing $96M into building a 3 story innovation complex at JCU in Townsville.  Personally, I think the money would be better spent on upgrading data connections in regional areas through 5G or high speed fibre connections, or put the money straight into capital for regional startups.  This $96M is an investment in the construction industry, not the innovation sector.

Brisbane company Tritium who build electric vehicle charging stations are celebrating like teenagers at schoolies, after their contract to supply high powered chargers to Europe company Ionity, was increased from an order of 12, to 600 just 4 days after first inking the deal.

Uganda is now charging its citizens a tax of 5c a day to access online services like facebook, Instagram, twitter.  In a move that could raise up to $60M / month for the government, but has understandably infuriated its citizens.

If you have any tips, news or announcements about entrepreneurs, startups, technology or business in or around Australia, hit me up on Twitter at @dommholland or Insta @domm.

That was your daily precap, I am Domm, thanks for listening, and I will be back with you on Monday!

Daily Precap - Thursday 5th July 2018

Hey I’m Domm, it’s Thursday 5th July 2018, and this is your daily precap of everything technology, startups, and business from Australia and beyond.You can now buy stock in 3,000 US companies right from your iPhone, thanks to a Sydney based start-ups new app called Stake.  The company does not charge any brokerage fees and just makes a small margin on currency exchange. However, Android users aren't so lucky, with the app currently only available on the Apple App store.

Car sharing Startup Car Next Door, - Shark Tank June last year - raised a further $2M led by Hyundai Motor company

 

Caltex

Hollard Insurance

Shark Tank Judge and Qld Chief Entrepreneur Steve Baxter

 

UrbanYou the two sided marketplace for hiring service people lioke cleaners, gardeners snapped up by rival company OneFlare.  Neither party has disclosed the deal terms but we can presume someone is cracking open the champagne.

Ubers newest competitor in Australia, Ola, the Indian ridesharing giant has a new Australian managing director, with ex eBay Australia boss, and ex serv-corp vp Simon Smith now in charge.

 

Over in the US, 4th of July celebrations have gone high tech with Intel replacing fireworks in an aerial demonstration with 500 drones lighting up the sky in synchronization.  What a sight.

 

Baidu, the Chinese search giant, has just made its 100th driverless bus.  Quite a feat, considering in Australia, we can’t even seem to order trains that fit our tracks.Chinese E-commerce giant Alibaba says that its copywriting tool has now beaten the Turing test.  Turing test is basically a test of questions designed to be answered by a machine or computer, to determine if it can answer like a human, meaning it has achieved artificial intelligence.  

The copywriting tool is used to generate product descriptions for the millions of products on the Alibaba family of websites, and it can produce a whopping 20,000 lines of copy per second.  So, yes be very afraid that we are about to be invaded by an army of Chinese robots.

Paypal has sold its consumer credit portfolio for a cool $7 Bn.  Which could be good news for our startup darling Afterpay, as it will likely delay or permanently delay any plans for Paypal to launch its Paypal credit product locally.If you have any tips, news or announcements about entrepreneurs, startups, technology or business in or around Australia, hit me up on Twitter at @dommholland or Insta @domm.

That was your daily precap, I am Domm and I will be back with you tomorrow!

Daily Precap - Wednesday 4th July 2018

Hey I’m Domm, it’s Wednesday 4th July 2018, and this is your daily precap of everything technology, startups, and business from Australia and beyond.

Melbourne fintech AirWallex foreign exchange - Ω - $108M Series B second biggest Aus raise - expand globally, $26M previously raised.

Google Australia MD Jason Pellegrino leaving the search giant to become CEO of Domain.

Michael Dell taking Dell public second time, private 5 years ago.  $82b revenue year.

Is phone company HTC dying? laying off 1,500 staff, 5,000 left.  Was 19,000 in 2013.

Marley Spoon's second day of trading down a further 10%.

The Global Talent Scheme 1st July - Skilled Worker shortage startups - Home Affairs Government website

Request for Start-up: Spotify for food delivery.

One monthly fee for all your meals but you order each meal ad-hoc to be delivered freshly made, from different restaurants in an Uber Eats type format.

If you have any tips, news or announcements about entrepreneurs, startups, technology or business in or around Australia, hit me up on Twitter at @dommholland or Insta @domm.

That was your daily precap, I am Domm and I will be back with you tomorrow!

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 - Daily precap of technology, startup, and business from Australia and beyond.

Hey I’m Domm, it’s Tuesday 3rd July 2018, and this is your daily precap of everything technology, startups, and business from Australia and beyond.

This is the first episode in the series, which I will release in the morning of each weekday.

Global co-working giant WeWork has announced it’s coming to Brisbane, in what will be its sixth Australian location at 310 Edward St right  near central station.

Driverless/autonomous buses are heading to Adelaide, through a partnership with Transit Australia Group (tag) and Precision Buses.

Sport Tech is the centre of attention for the NSW Institute of Sport and Sydney  Olympic Park Authority who have together launched the Sydney Sports Incubator; and they are on the hunt for sport tech focused startups.

Tesla has hit its 5000 a week Model 3 production goal, just 6 months after its deadline.  Pushing out a total of 7000 cars in the last week of June.

Another drone company gets big Australian backing, with AirTree ventures contributing to a US$25M Series C round, in US company DroneDeploy.

Chinese companies in the last two years have raised over $100M through Indigogo, to break into the US market.  This is a strategy Australian companies and innovators should be watching with a very keen eye.

US Electric scooter sharing company Bird, has raised $300M to continue its growth, that’s a hell of alot of scooters!

Berlin founded, subscription Meal Kit company Marley Spoon listed on the ASX yesterday and stumbled in its first day of trading, falling to close at just $1.19 from its opening at $1.25.Not a great run of Tech listings for the ASX, with the recent failed listing of Prospa’ which was pulled indefinitely after eleventh hour enquiries from ASIC into its lending criteria and loan contracts.

But a different story for Afterpay, who is our current best performing startup/scale up, is continuing its mega rally, closing yesterday at a record high of $9.55, with a market cap of nearly $2.1Bn spurred on by a buy recommendation from Goldman Sachs because of the company's strong expansion into the US.

With the Pexa hacking scandals revealed last week, and with the new regulations now in effect, you have to wonder why there aren't more startups out trying to get into the market here.  With regulation forcing electronic settlement, and only one player in the space, it's a prime area for a security-focused start-up to get in now and create a duopoly.

To finish this episode, let me finish with a request for start-up:

 

Charity Tech companies who make giving, simple and frictionless, whether its time or money, and more people will give.

If you have any tips, news or announcements, hit me up on Twitter at @dommholland or Insta @domm.

That was your daily precap, I am Domm and I will be back with you tomorrow!