Category Archives: Startups digital

Pixie Technology – lost item smart tags

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The Israeli startup has developed Pixie Points – small smart tags that will direct you to the location of lost items with a dynamic display on your smartphone

Pixie Technology

Israeli company Pixie Technology has developed tags for locating items that will show you their location using layered reality on your smartphone, with quite impressive range and accuracy. To continue doing this while developing new capabilities, the company has announced the completion of an US$18.5 million Series B funding round.

Leading the current round was Spark Capital, whose resume includes investments in companies such as Twitter, Slack, and Medium. OurCrowd, Cedar Fund, and private investors also took part in the round. Together with the US$5.5 million raised by Pixie Technology in 2013, the new financing round brings the total amount raised by the company to $24 million.

Pixie Technology’s tags, called “Points,” use Bluetooth low energy (LE). In contrast to other products, which merely show your proximity to the lost device, Pixie also enables you to operate the smartphone camera and see the precise location of the lost item with the help of augmented reality. In addition, for all intents and purposes, it is also a navigational app, just like Google Maps, and will direct you accurately and give instructions on how to get to the lost item.

The point tags have an outstanding range of 15 meters within buildings and 45 meters outside the building, with the possibility of locating items to within 30 centimeters. To increase the range, the tags communicate not only with the smartphone, but also with each other so that each tag serves as a kind of “relay station” for signals from the other tags.

Although the tags broadcast their location continuously, they are guaranteed to last for 18 months. You will then have to say goodbye to your tags and buy new ones, because the batteries are not replaceable. Fortunately, four such tags cost US$70, a fairly reasonable price for making our lives a little easier.

Other than the end users, the company is also aiming at developers by offering them API and SDK for future developments based on its technology.

With the help of its latest financing round, Pixie will soon be able to launch new features for its product, including locating any smartphone with a tag attached to it, such as through a different smartphone. They are also developing a “digital strap,” which will notify users as soon as a tagged item is found outside its range, and family sharing, which will enables relatives to keep watch over their family members’ products.

Pixie Technology’s founders are President, CEO, and Chairperson Amir Bassan-Eskenaz — he was also the founder of BigBand Networks, where he was CEO for 12 years — and CTO Ofer Friedman, who worked for 10 years in the wireless department at Texas Instruments. Pixie has offices in Boston and Israel.   

Pixie Technology

The article Lost item smart tags developer Pixie raises $18.5 million first appeared on Geektime.

The post Lost item smart tags developer Pixie raises US$18.5 million appeared first on e27.

Pixie Technology

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Pixie Technology

MyTaxiIndia – inter-city taxi rental solutions

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MyTaxiIndia has over 12,000 taxis operating across 120 cities on more than 10,000 routes, through affiliates

MyTaxiIndia

Delhi-based inter-city cab rental platform MyTaxiIndia (MTI) has raised US$1 million in a bridge funding from existing investor Nihon Kotsu — an 88-year old leading taxi rental company in Japan.

MyTaxiIndia is currently in talks with investors to raise US$5-10 million in a Series A round.

The firm will use the fresh capital for expanding services to tier II and III cities, technology development, marketing and branding.

MyTaxiIndia was founded in December 2013 by Anshuman Mihir, Mohit Rajpal and Satyakam Rahul. It offers inter-city taxi rental solutions and provides one-way fare ride to commuters for outstation trips. It also does city tours on an hourly basis for B2B clients.

The firm uses an in-house routing and prediction algorithm to automate trip-related processes.

MyTaxiIndia has over 12,000 taxis operating across 120 cities on more than 10,000 routes, through its affiliates. It plans to increase its presence to 200 cities by the end of FY2016-17.

Recently, MyTaxiIndia tied up with SpiceJet to provide passengers the option of booking a taxi to reach the airport at the time of ticket purchase.

In August 2015, the startup had raised US$500,000 in pre-Series A funding from Nihon Kotsu. Previously, it had received US$100,000 from GHV Accelerator as part of its 12-month acceleration programme.

“It has cracked the space where players like Ola, Uber and ZoomCar are still trying to figure out. The technology which it has built has taken it out from GMV model; otherwise, it will be profitable in a few quarters,” said Vikram Upadhyaya, chief mentor and accelerator evangelist at GHV.

Ichiro Kawanabe, Chairman of Nihon Kotsu, said, “My Taxi India and Nihon Kotsu share the common values that what we provide is not just a mean of transportation, but a superior ride experience which embodies the spirit of hospitality. Moreover, we pursue the similar business model of which provides an IT platform that connects customers and duly licensed taxi companies of the local area, but not illegal taxi service provides or unlicensed taxi drivers. As the companies that shares common values and business model, we believe we can exploits the good synergy across the border.”

The post Japan’s Nihon Kotsu invests in MyTaxiIndia to help it crack what Ola or Uber couldn’t yet appeared first on e27.

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Sepura – communications technology

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sepura, cambridge, communications

Cambridge UK communications technology business Sepura has backed a thumping set of full-year results by revealing that it has conditionally raised £65 million through a placing of shares.

The share placing raises £15m more than Sepura felt it might seek when it announced liquidity issues in April.

It will ease cashflow but also help underpin bold expansion plans, notably in the United States. The fundraising was clearly nailed before the shock Brexit vote. CEO Gordon Watling said: “The fundraising announced today will significantly strengthen our balance sheet and provide the right capital structure to support our growth strategy.

“We see significant opportunities to build on recent success in the global transport sector such as New York City Transit, as well as grow our business in North America – the world’s largest PMR market. We also expect FY17 and beyond to benefit from our recent investment programmes.

“We have revised our business model and our financial focus is firmly now on cash conversion, improving operating margins and increasing our revenue visibility with contracted and recurring business. The board believes that the group is well positioned to exploit key growth markets.”

Sepura group revenue was hoisted by €58.5m to €189.7m, which included a €44.7 million contribution from the acquired Teltronic business which has substantially boosted sales in the US and Latin America.

The 250,000 devices shipped in the year was up 15 per cent on the previous 12 months; the company has a record-breaking order backlog of €75 million. The pre-tax loss of €19m compared to a 2015 profit of €16.7m as a result of an aggressive acquisition strategy in the past 12 months.

Watling said the company and its lending banks have also agreed to make certain commercial and other amendments to its existing facilities agreement which will be implemented conditional on completion of the capital raising.

A general meeting of the company has been convened for July 15 to ratify the fundraising.

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ThisIsMe – online verification

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South African online verification startup ThisIsMe has raised US$2.5 million in funding from private investors, and is planning to use the cash to expand into African and international markets.

Launched in 2014, ThisIsMe, which is available on iOS and Android, allows a user to prove their identity and that they are still alive in order to prevent fraud such as identity theft. It has a focus on compliance related to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) and the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) in the financial space.

The service verifies an individual’s identity to other individuals, businesses, financial institutions and regulators, by using links to South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs and major banks.

Having secured the US$2.5 million funding round, ThisIsMe is now setting its sights on expanding into African and international markets this year.

“We are planning to enter at least three different regions this year and progress in terms of expanding into two of these countries – Australia and New Zealand – is very advanced,” said ThisIsMe chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Chirnside.

“On the African front, we are in talks with a potential partner in Nigeria. Nigeria represents a particularly demanding market, and confidence among ThisIsMe staff is high that their processes will aid Nigeria’s specific challenges.”

The startup also has plans to expand to the United States (US) and Europe, while since its launch over 20 corporates have signed up to use ThisIsMe’s solutions to verify the identities of their clients.

“This includes two banks, one from the ‘top five’ in South Africa; three insurance companies; fund managers; and human resources businesses,” Chirnside said.

“Currently, South Africans are using the ThisIsMe app for FICA purposes and to avoid the hassle of paperwork and duplicated effort in this regard. They are also actively verifying each other using the early releases of our mobile apps. In the long-term, however, I hope to see this technology become ubiquitous in South Africa and even be used for hassle-free voting online one day.”

The post SA online verification startup ThisIsMe raises $2.5m funding appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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