Jul 17
Jul 17
Withings Raises $30 Million From Bpifrance And Others To Fuel International Growth
Posted in: Today's Chili
Health gadget company Withings will announce in a few minutes a new funding round from Bpifrance, Idinvest Partners, 360 Capital Partners and existing investor Ventech. Out of the $30 million, $15 million comes from Bpifrance, the newly created public entity — BPI means Public Investment Bank in French. It is one of its first traditional VC deal.
Withings is perhaps best known for its series of smart scales and body analyzers (along with curious one-off devices like a baby monitor), but the company has recently decided to take a stab at creating yet another sort of fitness gadget: a wearable activity tracker. Calling that particular market crowded is putting it awfully mildly. Devices from the likes of Nike, Jawbone, and Fitbit have put an approachable face on the quantified self movement and have garnered plenty of attention from press and health-conscious consumers.
That’s not to say that Withings’ own fitness tracker, the Pulse, is entering the fight unarmed — it’s capable of measuring its user’s heart rate with a single touch in addition to tracking steps taken and hours slept. The Pulse’s big value though is that it provides even more data for existing Withings device owners to tap into, which helps users piece together a more fully-realized image of their health. That street runs both ways too — the $99 Pulse may wind up acting as a sort of Trojan Horse to introduce its users to the rest of Withings’ health-centric gadgets.
While Withings prepares to face off against some highly popular rivals, it plans to use that fresh infusion of capital to strengthen its foundation. In addition to expanding to new markets, and fleshing out its R&D efforts with new hires, Withings hopes to improve its retail distribution deals to more prominently show off its health-conscious wares to consumers. The Paris-based company was founded in 2008 and previously raised $3.85 million (€3 million) in 2010.
When it comes to the investment, the most surprising part is that Bpifrance is leading the round. Bpifrance is the new venture with teams from OSEO, CDC Entreprises, and the FSI (France’s sovereign wealth fund). In its past iterations, it has invested in France’s biggest startups, such as Dailymotion, or even well-established companies, such as Orange.
Many startup enthusiasts thought that the public institutions weren’t supporting France’s startup economy by putting money into those companies. Dailymotion was already a “success” when the FSI invested. Withings may indicate a new trend at Bpifrance. The institution could make many smaller and riskier deals to support startups at an early stage.
Jul 17
WhatsApp expands its business model to iOS, will cost users 99 cents per year
Posted in: Today's Chili
Even though the WhatsApp iPhone application received an update yesterday, the popular messaging service made it official in a blog post today, detailing notes from the latest release. What’s especially interesting here, however, is that WhatsApp is bringing a familiar cost scheme over to Apple’s platform. Essentially, iOS users can download the app free of charge, but they will now have to pay a 99-cent yearly fee after the first twelve months of using it — a business model similar to the one WhatsApp already implements on Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. Hey, it’s still but a small price to pay to somewhat fashionably keep tabs on all your amigos 24/7, eh?
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Apple
Via: CNET
Source: WhatsApp Blog
Jul 17
In the HBO drama series, "The Newsroom," Jane Fonda plays the recurring role of Leona Lansing, the self-important CEO of the TV news show, Atlantis Cable News (ACN).
Fonda views the fictional network’s influence as falling "somewhere
between Ted Turner (her ex-husband) and Rupert Murdoch." Playing against
type and her real-life liberal bias, Lansing is a staunch Republican
who feels the need to constantly remind her news team staff headed up by
Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels) . . .
Jul 17
I am quite sure that you have read many takes on the Nokia Lumia 1020 already, with most of the media’s attention being focused on the massive 41-megapixel sensor that theoretically, should be able to snap some great looking photos, […]
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Jul 17
Remember when you were a kid and you’d bug your parents for bigger and bigger marker sets so you could get exactly the shades you wanted? It turns out that’s not an issue for today’s kids. As long as they can convince their parents to cough up $47 for Crayola’s miniature marker factory, they can engineer any shade that science allows.
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Jul 17
Meizu MX3 Images Spotted
Posted in: Today's Chili
Jul 17
Out with the old, in with the new. Earlier this week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Florida Power & Light Co. demolished one of its power plants with 450 pounds of dynamite to make way for a cleaner and more eco-friendly plant that’s slated to open in 2016. The Port Everglades plant had been in operation since the ’60s.
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Jul 17
The CME as captured by the European Space Agency and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
(Credit: ESA&NASA/SOHO)
Although the solar maximum isn’t expected until late 2013, we’re starting to see some pretty spectacular effects. On Tuesday, the sun erupted in a massive coronal mass ejection, or CME, that sent billions of tons of particles into the solar system in the direction of Earth.
It’s expected that this wave of particles will pass Earth within about three days, causing a phenomenon known as a geomagnetic storm. This is normal, and will cause no absolutely direct harm to humans.
The sun enters solar maximum, the period of its cycle in which it is most active, every 11 years. This means we’ll see a rather marked increase in the number of coronal mass ejections and flares, with some pretty interesting effects here on Earth.
The coming geomagnetic storm will probably be relatively mild. The energy from the CME will buffet the Earth’s protective magnetosphere, which is likely to disrupt radio-based communications and navigation equipment, such as radio stations, walkie-talkies, a… [Read more]
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Jul 17
There have been countless invite-only sites for booze, fashion and other esoteric desirables for a long time. Before today Grand St. was an invite-only destination for heavily curated but quirkier gadgets, and starting today the site is open to everyone.
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