Monday, February 28, 2022

Better Dairy slices into new funding for animal-free cheeses

Food tech company Better Dairy is closer to getting its aged and hard cheeses into the testing phase after securing $22 million in Series A funding.

The U.K.-based company, founded in 2019 by Jevan Nagarajah, is still in the R&D phase of developing animal-free cheeses using precision fermentation. We initially got to know Nagarajah and Better Dairy back in 2020 when the company raised £1.6 million in seed funding in a round led by Happiness Capital.

At the time, he explained that animal-based dairy farming was “hugely unsustainable,” needing 650 liters of water to produce just 1 liter of milk and utilizing a process that emits the equivalent of over 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

Instead, Better Dairy is using precision fermentation to produce products that are molecularly identical to traditional dairy, Nagarajah said. The process is similar to brewing beer, with the end result being dairy.

While other food tech companies are tackling softer cheeses like mozzarella or whey proteins, Better Daily is targeting hard cheeses, a process that is more complex, in a more sustainable way.

Better Dairy

Image Credits: Better Dairy

“We see limitations in hard cheese, similar to trying to create animal-free steak,” Nagarajah added. “By building a team that includes a chief scientific officer with 30 years of expertise making proteins for the pharmaceutical industry, we realized we could go complex and do it consciously.”

Happiness Capital is back for the Series A, this time as a participant to the co-lead of RedAlpine and Vorwerk. Joining them are Manta Ray, Acequia Capital and Stray Dog Capital.

Better Dairy is not alone in going after the dairy space. Companies like Clara Foods, NotCo, Climax Foods and Perfect Day are all working on animal-alternative cheese and dairy products. However, Nagarajah believes that the new funding, aimed at advancing the precision fermentation technology, will help the company get out ahead of the competition to become the first player to launch hard cheeses in this space.

The company is investing the capital into expanding its workforce from eight people to 35 and into a new 6,000-square-foot laboratory and office space in East London.

Better Dairy is working on the science to nail down texture and then maturation so that all of the components can come together under one product that has a shelf life. Nagarajah is optimistic that the precision fermentation will get to unit economics — a.k.a. price parity with similar artisanal cheeses — in the next 18 months or so.

“We need the right space and equipment to upgrade our science,” he added. “It is not just about being animal-free and sustainable, but also delicious. If it tastes better then it becomes a no-brainer and a benchmark for success. There is a benefit for doing it the right way because if not, the time it takes to unwind it all could take years.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/U8qjDak

High-end Realme GT2 Pro and GT2 launch internationally

The Realme GT2 Pro and GT2 are official and they're going on sale in Europe from March 15. The Realme GT2 Pro is the real deal, ready to butt-heads with the smartphone elite, thanks to a top-shelf Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Samsung's latest AMOLED display tech, and a potent battery and capable cameras. Realme made the decision to cut its carbon footprint with the GT2 series by using bio-based polymer material for the entire rear panel. According to Realme, compared with purely petroleum-based materials, this biopolymer creates 2kg fewer carbon emissions for every kilogram made. The retail...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/7YtNgyn

Realme unveils 100-200W UltraDart charging, upcoming GT Neo3 first to use it at 150W

Realme announced the next evolution of its Dart charging system dubbed UltraDart. It is a new charging architecture that will enable speeds ranging from 100W to 200W. The company also revealed that it will soon launch the first smartphone to utilize the UltraDart Charging Architecture (UDCA), the Realme GT Neo3, which will be right in the middle of the range with 150W. Existing phones using older incarnations of Dart charged at between 18W and 65W. The best of them can be fully charged in 35 minutes. UltraDart aims to go even faster, while adding more features to ensure battery safety...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/ySAsGB3

Temasek in talks to back India’s OneCard at $1.5 billion valuation

FPL Technologies, the Indian startup that operates OneCard, is set to double its valuation to about $1.5 billion in a new financing round, just a month after it disclosed its previous funding, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Singapore’s Temasek, one of the world’s largest investors, is in advanced stages of talks to lead a new financing round of the Pune-headquartered startup, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the deliberation is ongoing and private.

The size of the round is over $100 million, two sources said.

OneCard declined to comment whereas Temasek said it does not comment on market rumors and speculation.

The new round follows a $75 million Series C funding that OneCard disclosed last month. The Series C round, led by QED, valued OneCard at about $750 million.

Founded by banking veterans, OneCard operates a mobile-first credit card. Its cards come without any joining or annual fee and give customers more control and flexibility over how and where they transact. It also offers a range of personalized rewards and loans to customers.

The startup also operates an app called OneScore, which helps users understand and find their credit score. The app is one of largest customer acquisition drivers for OneCard.

There are fewer than 30 million Indians who currently own a credit card even as nearly a billion bank accounts exist in the South Asian market.

Scores of startups including OneCard, Slice, which entered the unicorn club late last year, and Lightspeed Venture Partners and Elevation Capital-backed Uni are attempting to bring credit card features to more customers in India.

OneCard says it has amassed over 250,000 OneCard customers who are spending about $60 million with its cards each month.

Anurag Sinha, the startup’s co-founder and chief executive, said last month that he estimates that about 80 million to 90 million Indians are eligible to have a credit card.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/pPmT7v0

Lenovo’s new ThinkPad kicks off Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon laptop platform

After dominating the world of high-end mobile processors for so long, Qualcomm’s got a laptop it would like to sell you. Announced at the tail end of last year as part of the annual Snapdragon summit, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 marks the chipmaker’s latest foray into the world of laptop components.

As the name suggests, this marks Qualcomm’s third major foray into the category. It arrives at time when Apple in-house chip production has given way to its own ARM-based laptop chips — to some pretty spectacular performance results. Qualcomm is hoping to do the same, leveraging mobile performance games into a Windows 11 Pro-based laptop.

Image Credits: Lenovo

As rumors swirl around a Microsoft Surface device built around the platform, Lenovo just used Mobile World Congress to launch its own device, the ThinkPad X13s. The advantages of the platform are apparent at first glance — adhering to the longstanding promises of shifting to ARM architecture in a laptop form factor. Namely, it’s super thin and light, has built-in 5G, some stellar battery life and builds atop several generations of Qualcomm security advancements.

Lenovo’s an ideal first partner here. For one thing, the ThinkPad brand is synonymous with work laptops for many. Lenovo may also be the most eager laptop maker when it comes to exploring new avenues.

Hopping over the spec sheet for a moment, the 13-inch laptop weighs in at 2.35 pounds — roughly half a pound lighter than the 2020 MacBook Air. At 0.53 inches thick, it sits comfortably within the Air’s 0.16 to 0.63-inch range. Battery life is really the thing here — with a stated 28 hours of video playback. An exec in a briefing ahead of the event noted he’d taken the system to New York for an overnight trip and never plugged it in — which seems wholly believable.

Other Qualcomm benefits include the addition of a computer vision processor for improved log-in authentication. The system’s body is made from 90% recycled magnesium, and yeah, the pointing stick remains in-tact.

The system is set to arrive in May, priced at $1,099.

Read more about MWC 2022 on TechCrunch



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/y0apcZt

Watch the Realme GT 2 series global launch event here at 9AM UTC

MWC 2022 is officially underway and Realme is bringing its GT 2 series smartphones to global audiences. In addition, we’re expecting a new breakthrough in charging speeds with Realme teasing the fastest smartphone charging tech to be announced on stage. The livestream should kick off at 9AM UTC time. Realme GT 2 and Realme GT 2 Pro were announced in China back in January with the Pro model boasting a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, 120Hz LTPO2 AMOLED with QHD+ resolution and a paper-like back material. The vanilla model is no slouch either as it brings a 120Hz AMOLED display, Snapdragon...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/mJjut5L

Sunday, February 27, 2022

A new main series Pokémon game is coming in late 2022

Step aside, whatever “Pokémon Café Remix” is — the ninth generation of Pokémon is coming. This morning, a Pokémon Presents broadcast announced “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet,” the latest installment in the main series Pokémon games after “Pokémon Sword and Shield” came out in late 2019. The Nintendo Switch games are expected to be released in late 2022.

Check out the extremely dramatic trailer here:

From the trailer, the graphics look similar to the recently released (and very fun) “Pokémon Legends: Arceus,” but the footage may not show actual gameplay, so it’s still up in the air if we’ll encounter over-world Pokémon again (that implementation worked in “Arceus,” but let’s not pull a “Pokémon Let’s Go” again, please.) But, the YouTube description of the trailer declares, “Welcome to the open world of Pokémon,” so maybe this game will take a nod from “Arceus” (which isn’t technically an open world game, but it’s the closest thing the Pokémon franchise has to a “Breath of the Wild”-style adventure).

We see some familiar friends like Magnemite, Lucario, Hoppip, Drifloon, Combee, Meowth, Pikachu and others in the trailer, but the only new Pokémon we see are the generation nine starters, which have yet to be named. (Update: apparently these new friends are: Sprigatito, a “capricious, attention-seeking Grass Cat Pokémon;” Fuecoco, a “laid-back Fire Croc Pokémon that does things at its own pace;” and Quaxly, an “earnest and tidy Duckling Pokémon.” Don’t ask me how any of these are pronounced.)

We’ve got a strange trio here. There’s a cute little grass kitty (easily my pick), an apple-shaped, fire-type dinosaur (serious potential for a final evolution here, don’t let us down), and a water Pokémon that literally looks like Donald Duck — don’t tell Disney’s legal department.

In other Pokémon news, the broadcast announced that Pokémon from the Alola region will now appear in “Pokémon Go,” there are some minor updates to “Diamond and Pearl” and “Arceus,” some new playable Pokémon in the “Pokémon Unite” and “Pokémon Masters EX” side games, and… I don’t know, something new in whatever “Pokémon Cafe Remix” is supposed to be.

Find out for yourself on a replay of this morning’s broadcast:



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tNwBUfF

Huawei debuts all-in-one MateStation X, MatePad Paper brings 10.3-inch E Ink display

Alongside its new Matebook E and Matebook X Pro Windows laptops, Huawei brought its all-in-one PC dubbed MateStaion X and its first E Ink tablet dubbed MatePad Paper as part of the growing Huawei Smart Office ecosystem. MateStation X Huawei’s MateStation X is the largest all-in-one PC in the maker’s lineup. It boasts a 28.2-inch IPS LCD touchscreen with 3840 x 2560 pixel resolution with a 3:2 aspect ratio and covers 98% of the P3 color gamut. The device features a metal unibody design and brings a three speaker setup co-engineered with French audio firm Devialet. MateStation X...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/RUY45Is

Huawei unveils Matebook X Pro 2022 flagship ultraportable and Matebook E 2-in-1 laptops

Huawei kicked off its MWC hardware announcements with two new Windows 11 laptops - Matebook X Pro 2022 and Matebook E. The former is the new flagship ultraportable laptop in the brand’s portfolio while the Matebook E is a compact 2-in-1 running full Windows 11. Matebook X Pro 2022 Matbook X Pro 2022 brings a 14.2-inch IPS LCD touchscreen with 3120 x 2080 px resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate and a 3:2 aspect ratio. Huawei says this is the best panel it’s ever put on a laptop. It can crank out 500 nits of brightness and covers the entire P3 color gamut. The top bezel is just 6mm thin and...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/utVbAYX

Huawei introduces Super Device for seamless connection across devices

Huawei has been working on seamless integration across its laptops, tablets, smartphones and smartwatches for some time now and the newly announced Super Device software package marks the next step towards that smooth workflow. Super Device is an umbrella term for its connectivity features across Health and Fitness, Easy Travel, Smart Office, Entertainment and Smart Home. Smart Office, as the name implies, aims to improve productivity by enabling Cross-Device Collaboration. The feature connects all devices into one "singular experience". The best part is that it doesn't matter if those...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/YcwgbrB

Week 8 in review: India gets iQOO 9 series, Find X5 Pro official

As the final week before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona ends, let's take a look at the biggest stories. The Oppo Find X5 and X5 Pro became official. Both phones feature Oppo's new 6nm MariSilicon X image processing chip and Hasselblad Natural Color Calibration. The Find X5 Pro has a 50MP 1/1.56" main camera with a 3-axis sensor-shift and 2-axis lens stabilization, a 50MP ultrawide, and 13MP 2x tele. The Pro gets a Snadragragon 8 Gen 1 chip, while the X5 uses a Snapdragon 888. The Oppo Find X5 is on sale from March 14, starting at €1,000 for the 8/256GB model. The X5 Pro's sole...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/3Sg4Mfr

Watch Huawei's Spring 2022 Smart Office Live event here

Huawei has scheduled a new product launch event as part of MWC 2022. It is set for 27.02.2022 at 9:30 PM local time in the company's home China or 14:30 CET. The live stream is already up on YouTube, and you'll find it embedded below. Going by the title, as well as some of the poster slogans - "Super Device, Super Creativity" we are guessing that the event will see mostly "office-related" product announcements like tablets, laptops and monitors. Most of these are also likely to be "seamlessly interconnected" in one way or another, probably through the company's Device+. Device+ is...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/tjfJkgN

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Not all SPACs are garbage, and the power of teamwork

Welcome to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here

Hello and happy Saturday! Today we’re taking on two topics. The first fits neatly into our usual coverage area. The second not so much. Let’s go!

Not all SPACs are garbage

In the 2021 SPAC rush I missed the public debut of Alight Solutions. Based outside of Chicago, the company is a business process outsourcing shop that supports tens of millions of employees in the United States. It combined with Foley Trasimene, a blank-check company, last July after announcing its intentions to list via the SPAC earlier in 2021.

It also reported earnings this week, and I chatted with its CEO Stephan Scholl after the fact. There are three things that matter from the Alight report that I want to noodle on with you. In order:

  • Not all SPACs are a mess: Today Alight Solutions is worth about $4.7 billion, and is trading a fraction above its pre-combination $10 per share price. That means that the company’s SPAC deal was valued pretty well, and that it is possible to take a company public using the method and not have it eat its own shorts in the following weeks, months and quarters. SoFi was, previously, our leading example of a SPAC combo that failed to flounder; we can add another name to the list.
  • Some SPAC projections bear out: In its investor deck from its combination announcement from last January, Alight said that it expected to generate $363 million in BPaaS revenues in 2021. BPaaS stands for Business Process as a Service, and is the company’s SaaS-y service that is its fastest-growing revenue segment. In 2021, however, the company actually saw $390 million in BPaaS revenues. It beat on a key metric! That’s why the company is above water, I reckon.
  • The idea of profitable growth: Why is it considered bad news in some circles if a tech company starts to pay a dividend? One line of thinking is that the choice to return cash to shareholders via regular disbursements is an indication that the company in question is out of places to deploy funds, which implies slower future growth. So we tend to see tech companies that aren’t goliaths simply grow like hell even at the expense of profits. Alight appears to sit between the two extremes, focusing on what Scholl described as profitable growth to TechCrunch. This, he explained, ensures that his company doesn’t “over-rotate” on any particular effort, and isn’t burning its ships on its BPaaS strategy; if it doesn’t work out long-term, the company will survive. Alight is rather profitable, so he’s speaking from a position of black ink, for reference. Still, it was interesting to talk to a company that has much in line with tech companies going through a software transition, but with a very different approach to balancing growth and profits. Interesting.

And now, something different.

Teamwork

I am writing to you, as I do every week, on Friday afternoon. I type up this little missive, contribute to Daily Crunch, and then bounce into the weekend.

This Friday, however, has been a grinder. Not only because of economic uncertainty, the pandemic, or the invasion of Ukraine, but also because Chris Gates is leaving TechCrunch for a new role elsewhere. You probably don’t know Chris, which is evidence that I haven’t done enough along the way to shout him out.

Regardless, he was a founding member of the Equity podcast, and his last day was today. By the time you read this, he will be gone. We worked together for around a half decade, recording hundreds of shows, suffering from failures, celebrating wins and generally making the show work as a team. Through host changes, the sale of our parent company, and so very much more, he was there, steady, warm and ready to fucking go. It goes without saying that Equity is also Grace and Mary Ann and Natasha, and has also had the pleasure of having Danny and Kate and Matthew and Katie and Connie in the mix during its life. It is very much a group project.

I’m going to miss working with Chris so much. But his exit is a good reminder of the very human force-multiplier called teamwork.

The man, the myth, the smile. Chris posted this to Slack when he announced his exit, so it’s only fair to troll him with it here. This is the energy he brought every single day.

This newsletter, for example, gets written by myself. Then Annie or Richard give it a read. Henry often peeks at it, as well, as he helped dream it up with me a few years back and supported its birth. Finally, it’s moved into our email software, into a slot that our sales team prepares to include the correct advertising elements. It then gets sent out to your inbox and posted on the site, which our tech crew makes possible. I just get my name at the top because I wrote the words. But this product is the result of material, longitudinal teamwork.

I’ve had better luck than I have deserved when it comes to teams. The folks I have had the pleasure of working with in my career have, with very few exceptions, been people I have loved having in my life more generally. Chris and I worked on Equity together through weddings, the birth of kids, moves and more. We did life together, you know?

And let me just note that the TechCrunch+ team, which is where The Exchange lives generally, is aces. Walter and Annie and Ram and Anna and the rest of the team are excellent folks I am lucky to orbit around. I get to do so much more because we work together. And I hope I am returning the favor.

Teamwork. It’s the best. And it makes work breakups all the harder.

Godspeed, Chris, in your next adventure. I look forward to being your #1 fan in whatever it is you’re cooking up next.

Alex



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/L2jpK8N

Oppo Find X5 Pro gets a blue leather version in China

The Oppo Find X5 Pro was announced a couple of days ago in two colors - Glaze Black and Ceramic White. However, the company has introduced a third version in China, which comes with a leather back that's painted blue. The blue leather model is thicker (8.8mm) yet lighter (195 grams) than the regular versions, and has the same specs, meaning you get Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC (there's also a Dimensity 9000 edition, though), Android 12-based ColorOS 12.1, and three memory options - 8GB/256GB, 12GB/256GB, and 12GB/512GB. The Oppo Find X5 Pro is built around a 6.7" 120Hz QHD+ LTPO 2.0...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/ZOAS49c

A Lenovo Legion Y700 gaming tablet and two laptops will be unveiled alongside the Y90 smartphone

Info on Lenovo's upcoming hardware launch has been steadily trickling in over the past few weeks. An event is set for February 28 where apparently Lenovo will be unveiling the at least four new Legion devices - the Y90 gaming smartphone, which has already been the subject of a few, extensive leaks and teasers, also at least two gaming laptops - the Y7000P and Y9000P, with 12th gen Intel CPUs and an Y700 gaming tablet. Lenovo Legion Y7000P laptop Most of this info has already been known in some capacity, but details on the Legion Y700 tablet have now started to amass including a full...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/oVhwTpt

Realme V25 passes through Geekbench ahead of launch

The Realme V25 set to launch in China on March 3 has passed through Geekbench, confirming key specs in the process. The V25, sporting model code RMX3475, is powered by the Snapdragon 695 SoC, runs Android 12, and has 12GB RAM onboard. But thanks to TENAA, we know there will also be 6GB and 8GB RAM options. Realme hasn't divulged much about the V25 yet, but the company already revealed its design and said that the smartphone's rear cover will feature a photochromic layer, which will change the panel's color from blue to red when exposed to sunlight. Realme V25 The V25's...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/49kYdMi

Recent Apple patent imagines the Magic Keyboard with a Mac built-in

A new patent has been published by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) that was filed by Apple back In August 2020. The patent is for an Apple keyboard device that is essentially a portable Mac computer. The patent explains this is a “computer in an input device”, that’s essentially a Mac mini if it was crammed into a Magic Keyboard housing. “A strong demand for portable computing devices which also deliver high performance has driven miniaturization and reduction in size of the once bulky computing components used to power and drive the devices,” reads the...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/4tZCFHD

Motorola Edge 30 Pro in for review

Motorola unveiled the Edge X30 last December in China as the world's first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered smartphone, which debuted globally yesterday as the Motorola Edge 30 Pro with slight differences and two color options - Stardust White and Cosmos Blue. And we've received one in blue shade at our office for a full review. The Motorola Edge 30 Pro's retail package isn't all that different from what we've seen with its predecessor - Edge 20 Pro. A compact, blue-ish box with the smartphone's name on top. On the inside, we've got the phone itself along with some paperwork, a SIM ejector tool,...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/yrE7nPD

Friday, February 25, 2022

Can Taur be the brand that makes e-scooter ownership cool?

Much of the e-scooter conversation has been dominated by the happenings of shared vehicles, the companies that deploy them and the cities in which they are deployed. But Carson Brown, co-founder and lead designer of Taur Technologies, a London-based e-scooter brand, says it’s time to separate scooter sharing from scooters as vehicles.

Taur came onto the scene in 2019 to launch a pre-order campaign for its premium, sleek, white e-scooters that are built with a foot deck that lets riders face forward while riding and a couple of big ol’ tires. The plan was to launch in London, but the U.K. has still failed to legalize privately owned e-scooters.

Instead, Taur is launching in Los Angeles after raising $1.75 million from Trucks VC, a San Francisco VC firm specializing in the future of transportation. While it would be a stretch to say the electric scooter market is mature, it is certainly far enough along that a new company entering the industry is notable, if not potentially exciting.

“When we started, I guess sharing was really quite prevalent, and we made the confident, brave and stupid decision to say, actually, we think it’s going to go to ownership,” Brown told TechCrunch. “So we’re seizing the opportunity of markets that are embracing these vehicles, and we see LA as a great place to be, not just from a product perspective, but because we see a brand as a huge part of our job. We’re going to change how scooting looks to the normal person. If we can do that, we’ve done our job.”

In other words, Taur wants to create a cultural shift that sees scooters not as niche or “second-class-citizen activities” but as aspirational methods of transportation. Most scooter companies don’t have much in the way of character, and they certainly haven’t done much for the culture, said Brown.

“It’s always been make it as cheap as you can and sell as many as you can,” he said. “We were drawn by the opportunity to deliver something that really was at the cutting edge and at the forefront and actually became the product that people reference.”

Unagi scooters have been referred to as the iPhone of scooters. The brand’s recently unveiled next generation, the Model Eleven, is a smart scooter with advanced rider assistance features like object detection and warning, as well as built-in speakers and more. That vehicle will cost around $2,860, and its standard Model One comes in at around $990.

While Unagi has tapped celebrity influencers like Iggy Pop to up the cool factor of its scooters, Brown doesn’t reckon the company has pushed the form factor to its limits enough. He’s hoping Taur’s strategy of building a well-thought-out scooter from a design perspective that looks sexy and is priced on the premium end ($1,495) will help achieve the culture shift necessary to encourage ownership.

taur e-scooter

Image Credits: Taur Technologies

At the forefront of that strategy is obviously the front-facing deck, which allows riders to assume a “twin ski” ride position with both feet positioned on two fold-down foot platforms. This, Brown said, gives riders an equal view of the road that they wouldn’t have from standing half sideways and half forwards as you do on other scooters. It also helps with stability, he added.

“If you think of when you’re skiing, you can adjust how much weight you put on each foot, and that steers the vehicle in addition to the handlebars,” said Brown. “It’s a bit of a different feel. I’ve had a lot of moments from people who were generally really firm and said, ‘No I like it the way it is,’ and then they try it and are like, ‘OK, I really get it now.'”

[gallery ids="2276758,2276760,2276761"]

Taur’s scooter has very large Continental tires that come in 50% larger than most e-scooters. It also comes with three lights – The front light is a wrap-around, which not only provides the rider with great visibility but also allows other road users to see the light from the side and behind the rider. There’s also a dedicated brake light, as well as a projection light in the rear that shines upward onto the ride to make them fully visible. And for convenience while traveling and easy storage, the scooter also folds up nicely.

It’s only available in white for the moment, but that was both an aesthetic choice and a functional one, Brown said, adding that a white scooter not only stands out from the sea of black and silver scooters hitting the market, but also can be more visible to other road users.

Too many scooters on the market are unserviceable by the average bike shop and have poor customer service channels, said Brown. Taur’s scooter was designed modularly, which means it is made up of five modules that can be swapped out for easier maintenance.

“‘Built for ownership’ was there from the premise,” said Brown. “You can do a tire change in under five minutes, and if you don’t have a tire lever, you can use a spoon. When you’re a user of these vehicles and you’re designing them, you know what the bar is and you know that no one’s hitting it.”

Taur is due to start shipping pre-orders for its scooter over the summer, and from August onward, the startup will be selling direct to consumers in LA exclusively. The scooters will include a 30-day money-back guarantee, plus a warranty. Customers elsewhere in the U.S. can put down a $100 deposit to secure a spot on Taur’s waitlist.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xfBIrmc

Cococart sweetens the process for e-commerce companies to take orders immediately

Two years ago, entrepreneur Derek Low lost his hotel in Bali and began selling homemade cheesecakes online to make ends meet. However, he found it difficult to find an easy e-commerce tool that enabled him to quickly get up-and-running to take orders.

Low noticed that 200 million businesses rely on the phone or messaging apps, like WhatsApp or Instagram, to take orders, a process that he found hard to track and to collect payments. He also saw that a professional e-commerce website takes weeks to set up and is costly for new businesses.

Cococart, Derek Low

Derek Low, co-founder and CEO, Cococart. Image Credits: Cococart

Pairing up with Zhicong Lim, they founded the Singapore-based Cococart, a tool to enable merchants to set up an online store in minutes with no code, no design and no app downloads. The store comes with everything from order management to mobile payment solutions. Merchants can manage their own sales without apps or marketplaces that charge unsustainable fees and commissions, Low added.

“Honestly, managing orders is hard,” he said. “Most local businesses are still taking orders on WhatsApp and managing their orders using spreadsheets. It sucks up so many hours of time, which could be better spent growing the business. We’re at the forefront of a new wave of local entrepreneurs. We’re inspired every day by stories of our merchants who started from selling food from their kitchen, but are now running retail stores with commercial kitchens. Our mission is to transform local businesses and empower business owners to pursue their passion.”

Many of Cococart’s merchants are just like him, he said. The pandemic created a new generation of independent business owners, and they represent a fast-growing segment in e-commerce. What’s also helping is that people are now more used to ordering online, a behavior Low doesn’t see going away.

“Like myself, many people who lost their jobs turned to side hustles online, which then became their main source of income,” Low added. “These entrepreneurs realized that running their own business was both more profitable and fulfilling than working for others.”

Since its launch, Cococart is a profitable company with over 20,000 merchants in 90 countries signed up that have collectively taken over 500,000 orders and earned more than $15 million.

For example, one of the company’s top merchants is INDOCIN, a company providing on-demand artisan Indonesian cuisine. Low said when the owner started with Cococart a year ago, she was selling her homemade food from her kitchen. Today, she employs a team of 24 staff and owns a retail outlet.

In 2021 alone, Cococart grew its merchant count 30 times and customer growth by 46 times, according to Low. During that same time, the company grew the team from just the two founders to 22 people across 12 countries.

To keep the momentum going, Cococart raised $4.2 million from Forerunner Ventures and Sequoia, with additional investors including Y Combinator, Uncommon Capital, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Fitbit CEO James Park and Curated CEO Eduardo Vivas.

Low intends to use the new funding to continue hiring and customer acquisition.

“We’re just getting started,” he added. “Our goal is to define the next generation of commerce. There are still so many challenges in starting and running a business that we want to solve, from deliveries to supply chain to financing. We see a massive opportunity in front of us and we want to bring Cococart to 200 million businesses worldwide.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/B6G1yl3

Asus 8z finally arriving in India on February 28

Asus introduced the Zenfone 8 series back in May 2021 and it planned to bring them to India shortly after that, but then it reconsidered because of a COVID-19 related lockdown. The company promised the Snapdragon 888-powered phones will arrive soon and the time has apparently come. Now 9 and a half months later may not be what most people will call "soon," fewer still when talking about smartphones, but the Zenfone 8 is finally hitting India as Asus 8z. The phone was teased on the company’s Twitter page, and the launch is scheduled for February 28 at 12PM local time. Your wait for the...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/doR01J7

Counterpoint: MediaTek and Exynos market share dips, Qualcomm and Unisoc on the rise

The smartphone chipset market grew 5% in the final quarter of 2021 compared to Q4 2020, according to Counterpoint Research. Component shortages and shifting market demands have had interesting effects on the various chipset vendors. MediaTek remains on top, despite dipping from 37% to 33% share. The analysts explain that with smartphone vendors stocking up with extra units as a precaution against the chip shortage. Supply proved stable enough and they had more than they needed, hence lower shipments in Q4. The new Dimensity 9000 flagship chipset and higher demand for 5G phones will...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/iV6UFgS

CR: Total smartphone revenues in 2021 reached $448 billion, Apple leads the way

The latest Counterpoint Research report is taking a look at the revenues generated by smartphone makers for the past year. Smartphone vendors generated a total of $448 billion in revenues for 2021 which represents a 7% increase compared to the values for 2020. The average smartphone selling price (ASP) grew by 12% on the yearly basis and reached $322 thanks to a growing demand for 5G devices. An estimated 40% of all smartphones shipped in 2021 were 5G-capable which is an 18% rise compared to 2020 values. Apple yet again sits atop the rankings with total revenues of $196 billion and a...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/idOjNcT

Samsung Galaxy S22 and Tab S8 open sales begin in multiple countries

Open sales of the Samsung Galaxy S22 series have now begun in many places around the world, the same goes for the Galaxy Tab S8 series of flagship tablets. This doesn’t mean that the discounts are over, Samsung.com is still accepting trade-ins for store credit and you may still be able to score a free pair of Galaxy Buds Pro. You can also buy a unit from third-party retailers such as Amazon and others. Well, you can try, anyway, the S22 series has proven to be quite popular and supplies are already running out for some storage/color combos. For example, Samsung US is out of 1 TB Galaxy...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/80IsXt6

nubia Z40 Pro goes official, Gravity edition pioneers magnetic charging on Android

The nubia Z40 Pro was just announced in China with two industry firsts. It brings a new 64MP Sony IMX787 sensor with a 35mm equivalent lens, while its limited Gravity edition is the first Android smartphone with magnetic wireless charging. The front panel has a 6.67” AMOLED with Full HD+ resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. nubia says the Z40 Pro could reach 1,000 nits brightness. The nubia Z40 Pro runs on Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and comes in three RAM capacities - 8GB, 12GB, 16GB. Storage options are four 128GB,...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/ArUn60h

Poco teases M4 Pro ahead of MWC launch

We’ve finally got more official details on the upcoming Poco M4 Pro which is scheduled to launch on Monday, February 28 at MWC 2022. M4 Pro will pack a 6.43-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. This will be the first M-series Poco device to use an AMOLED panel. Poco M4 Pro official teasers The display can crank out up to 1000 nits peak brightness and supports the DCI-P3 wide color gamut. Poco also confirmed L1 Widevine certification for FHD content playback on streaming platforms as well as stereo speakers and a headphone jack. The software side...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/0jvbGwK

Thursday, February 24, 2022

iQOO 9 Pro global model's first software update comes with February security patch, bug fixes

The iQOO 9 Pro began its global journey yesterday in India and is already receiving its first software update. It comes with firmware version PD2172BF_EX_12.0.3.1.W30.V000L1 and requires a download of 428MB. The new build bumps up the Android security patch level on the iQOO 9 Pro to February 1, 2022 and optimizes the smartphone's compatibility with Bluetooth devices and network adaptability in certain regions. The firmware also comes with some bug fixes. You can check out the screenshots below for the complete changelog. iQOO 9 Pro's global unit receives its first software...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/xs9rzq2

Jeffrey Katzenberg backs the $10M Seed round for HUBUC’s embedded finance API

I recently wrote about the so-called “Embedded finance” trend, citing the example of Intergiro’s recent fund-raising in the space. There’s now yet another example of this trend in the shape of HUBUC.

Billing itself as “AWS for financial services” the startup — which emerged from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain — has now raised a $10m Seed funding round co-led by WndrCo and Runa Capital.  

WndrCo is a significant win for the company, since the deal brings WndrCo’s Managing Partner and former co-founder and CEO of Dreamworks Animations, Jeffrey Katzenberg to HUBUC’s cap table. This is a powerful ally to have.

But the list of influential investors doesn’t stop there. Y Combinator and Village Global, backed by Jeff Bezos, Kenneth I. Chenault, Abigail Johnson, and Bill Gates, also participated alongside a number of angel investors (listed below).

Founded in 2021 by a pair of fintech entrepreneurs (Hasan Nawaz, CEO, and Ignacio Javierre, COO) HUBUC says it does the heavy lifting of embedding financial services into business offerings via an API with no-code solutions. This means bank accounts, payments, virtual and physical cards as well as real-time FX rates and digital wallets can be offered HUBUC, becaue is sits as a layer between the financial partners it works with, and the company’s product. That means it manages the contracts, regulatory requirements, AML, other integrations and risk etc.

In a statement, Nawaz said: “Embedded finance is no longer the exclusive privilege of large technology firms. Our vision is to become the platform that enables any company to embed financial services within their products. And we’re doing that by simplifying a hugely complex process and wrapping everything into one contract and one API.” He says they looked at various fintech verticals in 2017 such as but decided to go for an across-the-board API approach.

HUBUC says it now covers 58 territories, working with products such as travel booking payments, marketing and media spend, and employee benefits. Customers include Mastercard, Wagestream, PayFlow, OkTicket, and Declarando.

Of course, they aren’t the only player. These include FIS, Temenos, Adyen, and Wex. Some analysts predict that, by 2025, the payments segment revenue of embedded fintech could reach $141bn. 

Katzenberg, Walt Disney Studios’ former chairman, and WndrCo co-founder said: “Embedded finance is going to disrupt banking in every single vertical market, from retail, mobility, to logistics and insurance. But to get there requires significant investment – and therefore risk – to develop and deploy. We can see the huge value HUBUC offers to its customers by delivering a full suite of services.”

Andre Bliznyuk, General Partner at Runa Capital added: “We see fintech infrastructure as one of the most promising themes for the next 10 years, as the demand for launching financial products is rapidly accelerating.”

Angels in the funding round included ´Sujay Jaswa (Dropbox), John Lilly (ex CEO Mozilla), Immad Akhund (CEO Mercury), Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen (ex VP Uber), Bo Jiang (CEO Lithic), John Bautista (Partner Orrick), and Anthony Saleh (angel investor in Coinbase and Robinhood).



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/6QqCtKG

Watch the Oppo Find X5 series announcement live

The time for Oppo’s big announcement has come. The Find X5 series launch is taking place today at 11:00 GMT, and the company will livestream the event on all its social media channels. We expect to see a pair of smartphones, including the flagship Find X5 Pro and the vanilla Find X5. Multiple teasers and leaks slightly lifted the curtain ahead of the full scale of the launch. The manufacturer is expected to talk more of its in-house NPU, called MariSilicon X. It is the first time it is making its way into a smartphone. Expectations are the ISP to support better dynamic range, real-time...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/rnqUM6d

Specify automagically collects, stores and distributes your design tokens and assets

Meet Specify, a startup that is creating a common language for Figma and GitHub. Specify acts as a central repository and API for your design tokens and assets. In other words, designers can update canonical Figma files, and changes will be reflected in GitHub repositories.

The startup raised a $4.6 million (€4 million) seed round led by Eurazeo. Bpifrance’s Digital Venture fund, 360 Capital and Seedcamp are participating as well. Some business angels also invested in the company, such as Clément Vouillon and Didier Forest.

When organizations start to get serious about design, they want to create a design system with a unified style for buttons, icons, fonts, logos, colors and more. For instance, the login page looks completely different on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail or Pinterest.

And yet, it often remains a manual process for both designers and developers. Designers create documentation pages with design tokens and assets in Confluence or Notion. Developers then manually have to check the documentation and make sure that they’re using the latest elements.

Image Credits: Specify

Specify acts as a central repository for your design tokens and assets. You first connect Specify with one or several sources, as well as one or several destinations.

For instance, you can fetch information and data from Figma files directly. Designers can update something in Figma and changes will be reflected in the Specify repository. Specify acts as the single source of truth.

But changes can also appear in your application more quickly. When something is updated, Specify can automatically create a pull request on GitHub — there’s also a command-line interface. Developers can accept changes in one click. This way, colors, logos, fonts and more are updated without any manual work.

Specify doesn’t want to restrict its product to Figma and GitHub. There will be more data sources down the road, such as Dropbox and Google Drive. And Specify will be able to update more destinations, such as Notion. The ability to push one design change to multiple destinations could be particularly useful.

The product vision is clear. Specify wants to become the unifying glue of design teams. “With our approach, we consider our product quite similar to Segment, but for design,” co-founder and CEO Valentin Chrétien told me.

Image Credits: Specify



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/GB7ouqr

Realme Narzo 50 debuts with 120Hz LCD and Helio G96

Realme’s Narzo series has its newest member - welcome to the Narzo 50 which comes as the successor to last year’s Narzo 30. The newly announced device bears plenty of similarities to the Realme 8i across the board though it brings faster 33W charging speeds. Realme Narzo 50 in Speed Blue and Speed Black Narzo 50 brings a 6.6-inch 120Hz IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution and a punch-hole cutout for its 16MP selfie cam. The screen can dial between 30Hz and 120Hz depending on the task at hand and also supports a 240Hz touch sampling rate. Realme Narzo 50 key specs There’s a...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/0CaQXgK

Finary wants to reimagine private banking

French startup Finary has raised a $9 million Series A round (€8 million). The company has built a comprehensive aggregator so that wealthy individuals can get the full picture when it comes to tracking wealth. And that means that Finary isn’t restricted to bank accounts. You can track a lot of assets, from real estate to cryptocurrencies and stocks.

And the startup’s vision hasn’t changed much since my original post on the company. Aggregating data was just the first step. Finary wants to build a private bank from scratch with a different set of founding principles.

If you think about the private banking industry, there is a misalignment between customers and banks. Instead of generating revenue from customers directly, banks try to sell financial products and generate revenue from those products. They call it financial advice, but it’s just a shady sales process.

“Because we’re independent, we can tell you everything. Existing actors only suggest solutions that generate commissions for them,” co-founder and CEO Mounir Laggoune told me

Finary believes the next generation of rich people will be looking for a different experience. They’ll want to see information directly and make educated decisions on their own. In other words, just like you no longer call your banker to transfer money to a family member, Finary wants to empower wealthy people with the right tools and information.

Some existing investors are leading today’s round in Finary, namely Speedinvest and Y Combinator. Business angels are also participating, such as Qonto’s founders Steve Anavi and Alexandre Prot, as well as Bitpanda’s Eric Demuth.

But that’s not all. Finary also believes that building a new private bank also means that the most active customers should be able to own a stake in the startup. The startup will soon launch an equity crowdfunding campaign.

In practical terms, people will be able to invest as little as €10 to buy shares or fractions of a share through an equity crowdfunding platform that is launching soon in France. “We have allocated €500,000 but we’re OK with some ‘overfunding’,” Laggoune said.

Since my previous post, Finary has launched a mobile app for both iOS and Android. That app has become a popular way to access the service as users tend to check their Finary account nine times per week on average — that’s more than once per day.

The startup has also added more integrations and it can now track 10,000 different pockets of money in France, the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. For instance, you can connect several bank accounts, stock trading accounts, add your real estate, gold bars, the public address of your cryptocurrency wallet, etc.

Finary is using several API-based aggregators to track accounts, such as Plaid and Budget Insight. It also runs bitcoin and Ethereum nodes to track wallet addresses.

Overall, the startup has attracted 30,000 users and tracks €10 billion worth of assets — it means that on average the company’s users track more than €300,000 each. The company currently makes money through a premium subscription that costs €10 per month.

And this is where the product gets interesting. In addition to aggregating data, Finary can make recommendations. For instance, the service helps you uncover hidden fees in mutual funds. Users can also generate performance reports and learn how they could diversify their investments through different geographical allocations, sectors and risk profiles.

With today’s funding round, the company plans to fully cover financial institutions in the U.K., Germany and Switzerland. The company is also working on additional features, such as a family mode, a better way to track RSUs (or BSPCE in France) and the ability to separate personal wealth from professional wealth.

Finary will hire 25 additional people. There are many potential product expansions down the road. For instance, you could imagine buying cryptocurrencies directly from the platform. The service could also help you with tax filings. By the end of 2022, Finary expects to grow its userbase tenfold and reach 300,000 users.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Zi6Dtzu

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Realme Pad Mini renders surface revealing design

Renders of the Realme Pad Mini that got NBTC certified over a week ago have surfaced, revealing the tablet's design. These pictures show us the Realme Pad Mini in silver color, and you can see that the tablet has an 8MP camera on the rear with support for some AI-powered features. The back panel also has the Realme logo in the bottom-right corner, with the Pad Mini's right-side frame housing the power key and volume rocker. We don't get to see the front of the Realme Pad Mini, but the source claims that it sports an 8.7" screen. There's also a 5MP selfie shooter, something which was...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/RjvVhwQ

B2B marketplace TradeDepot acquires Green Lion to accelerate its growth in Ghana

TradeDepot, a B2B marketplace that connects micro-retailers with distributors and manufacturers of fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), has acquired Green Lion, its competitor in Ghana, for an undisclosed amount, paving the way for its growth, and the delivery of its services across the West African country.

The acquisition involves a full take-over of Green Lion’s assets, relationships in Ghana and its employees. Green Lion had developed fintech solutions to enable traders access financing, and a digital ledger Wysr, which retailers use for stock monitoring and bookkeeping. Green Lion was co-founded by Jorge de Rojas, Enrique Moreno de la Cova and Miguel de Rojas in 2018.

Green Lion has so far made 29,854 transactions with 4,404 customers – making it one of the largest B2B e-commerce platforms in Ghana. By September last year, it had a presence in four cities with plans to enter more after it raised debt funding from Global Social Impact Investments. It also looked to grow its customers to 15,000 by the end of this year. Before acquiring Green Lion, TradeDepot was only active in Accra, Ghana’s capital city.

TradeDepot is now set to accelerate its growth across the country by building on what Green Lion had achieved and using its data, technology and logistics network to connect more neighborhood retailers to suppliers, while providing them with access to financing options like loans or BNPL support. The BNPL offering is embedded in the company’s ShopTopUp platform.

“Ghana represents a significant market for consumer goods in Africa and we are excited to bring the Green Lion team onboard to drive growth and prosperity for more retailers and distributors in the country. We look forward to deepening our relationship with the market and working with more partners to maximize the opportunities that abound in Ghana and beyond,” said TradeDepot CEO and co-founder Onyekachi Izukanne.

TradeDepot, which was founded in 2016 and recently raised $110M in series B funding, uses its own warehouses and fleets of drivers to distribute FMCGs to its network of micro-retailers across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The Series B round remains one of the largest for B2B e-commerce platforms in Africa.

It started off in Nigeria distributing milk to small retailers before diversifying to other fast moving goods. According to a past interview, the startup is now servicing more than 100,000 merchants. Its main competitors are Sokowatch and Marketforce, scaleups that are also streaming the informal retail supply chain.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QPX15Cx

Cryptocurrency payments key to lowering cross-border remittance charges and boosting microwork uptake in Africa, study shows

In the past one decade, a $1 billion jobs market — microwork — has emerged around technologies that split activities into piecemeal tasks to be completed by many people over the internet, mostly using mobile devices.

The allure of microwork opportunities has grown to capture the interest of Africa’s youth, who stand to earn up to $7 per day, against a daily urban income rate of $4.35 urban earning average for low-income groups, according to a study conducted in Kenya by Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV), the impact investing arm of global development agency Mercy Corps.

Microwork has the potential to create jobs for gig workers of any skill level and boost employment for Africa’s booming youth population, with 10 million to 12 million youth entering the workforce in Africa each year, according to the African Development Bank.

However, the MCV study notes that the costs incurred in payment collection, as well as other barriers, have limited the uptake of microwork in Africa, where a turnaround could be achieved using crypto-payment options. Cryptocurrency payment cuts down the transaction fees by 93% regardless of the size of payment, according to the pilot which was conducted in Nairobi, Kenya to test whether digital stablecoins and mobile wallets could ease frictions and reduce costs in cross-border payments.

Other partners in the study were Celo, a mobile-first DeFi platform; Kotani Pay, a technology stack that enables blockchain protocols; Appen, a publicly traded data company, and NairoBits, a Kenyan non-profit that uses ICT to empower disadvantaged youth.

“We trained 200 Kenyan youth to access digital microwork from global platforms using a mobile app and integrated Valora digital wallet, which is built on Celo. Our pilot tested how a stablecoin could reduce the costs and challenges of sending and receiving cross-border micropayments over a three-month period,” said Mercy Corps Ventures Senior Managing Director, Scott Onder.

The outcome of the study, according to Celo partner Will Le, confirmed that, “by reducing financial frictions, we introduced a new model for tapping talent across borders, which was not previously possible with traditional financial infrastructure. Cryptocurrency, and specifically stablecoins, could hugely reduce the cost of remittances and foster cross-border commerce.”

In the trial, participants were paid a few seconds after task-completion, using Celo dollars (cUSD), a Celo-native stablecoin that tracks the value of the US dollar, with fees at approximately $0.01. The payments were temporarily stored in Celo’s digital wallet, Valora, and could be cashed-out at any time to Kenya’s mobile money platform, M-Pesa, with the conversion enabled by Kotani Pay’s off-ramp technologies.

In 2021, remittances, including payments for online jobs, made over 3.5% of Kenya’s GDP, at a value of $3.7 billion. With the global weighted average remittance costs at 4.71%, Kenyans receiving remittances are potentially losing out on nearly $100 million per year.

“Given that the average cost of remittances to the value of $200 is significantly higher than the global average (8.72 percent in sub-Saharan Africa versus 6.30 globally), the savings are potentially even greater. If all those transactions only cost the 2.02% enabled during the pilot, the total potential impact to the Kenyan economy could be over $200 million, or 0.22% over Kenya’s overall GDP,” said MCV, in a statement.

Overall, the online jobs market in Kenya is on a consistent growth path due to an increase in internet penetration – nearly 90% of the country’s urban population is aware of mobile internet. According to this study, at least 1.2 million Kenyans currently work online, earning an average of $182per month, in a country where 36 percent of its 2.6 million salaried workers (about 1 million people) earn between $176 – $274 per month.

Among the commonly used options for international online jobs are PayPal, Skrill and Payoneer, some of which have policies for withholding payments without explanation and higher charges for lower payouts.

“High transaction fees, especially for lower payouts, mean that microworkers often forfeit a significant portion of earnings (with a global weighted average cost of 4.71% but in some cases up to 30% of gross earnings), said MCV, adding that these barriers can be overcome using cryptocurrency.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yRqK6YV

Black Shark 4 Pro goes global, here are the prices

Nearly a year after it became official, the Black Shark 4 Pro is becoming available internationally. It joins the vanilla model, which has been available since last May, but the S version of the Pro isn't coming yet. That means the phone is powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset (the 4S Pro had the 888+). Two configurations are available – 8/128 GB and 12/256 GB (the 16/512 GB capacity remains exclusive to China). Out of the box it will run JOYUI 12.5, which is based on MIUI 12.5. Interestingly, the global Black Shark 4 Pro will support the full 120W charging speed as the Chinese...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/GmZ867L

Game studios come together to grow industry in Africa

Ten game development studios in Africa have come together under one umbrella, the Pan Africa Gaming Group (PAGG), in an effort to unify the continent’s gaming sector, which is currently fragmented. The association is further envisioned to drive the uptake of gaming in the continent, and grow developer talent.

The announcement was made today against the backdrop of the Africa Games Week 2022, which is taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. The PAGG said they aim to grow the industry by two times annually, and to put Africa “on the map of the global game industry.”

The gaming studios in the new lobby are South Africa’s Sea Monster, Senegal’s Kayfo Games, Cameroon’s Kiro’o Games, Ghana’s Leti Arts, Tunisia’s Digital Mania, Ethiopia’s Qene Games, Kenya’s Usiku Games, Tanzania’s Khanga Rue,
DopeApps from Rwanda and Messeka Games, with more are expected to join soon. Collectively, the current members have developed more than 50 games.

The PAGG will bring together games developed by its members for publishing under Gara, an African game store, and AfroComix, a content hub for Afrocentric creative work. These channels will enable content distribution and monetization by allowing locally relevant payment options including mobile money and airtime billing. They also plan to increase the number of Africa’s next generation game developers through training and incubation, a function that has already taken off in Kenya, at the Nairobi Game Development Center.

“One of our core values is not just to build a collection of games, but to incubate Africa’s gaming industry of tomorrow. There is a wealth of incredible talent already on the continent, with more graduating every year from top-tier game development schools like Rubika. Most graduates though are relegated to doing remote work for overseas clients due to the lack of local gaming job opportunities. We’re going to fix that,” said Leti Arts CEO Eyram Tawia.

PAGG founders are hoping to grow the gaming industry in Africa by two times yearly. Image Credits: PAGG

The lobby will be governed by a founders’ council to be made up of top gaming entrepreneurs from the continent and joined by Peter Kihara (ex-Goldman Sachs and PWC) who will serve as the group financial officer and Jake Manion, the BAFTA-nominated director and former game director at Aardman Animation in UK, as the group creative director.

Each gaming studio will maintain its autonomy but will be involved in voting proposals or resolutions brought forth by the council. Dawit Abraham, the CEO of Qene Games (Ethiopia) will be the PAGG’s spokesperson.

The gaming industry in Africa is set to grow exponentially due a soaring interest amongst the youth, and as more people get connected to the internet. According to the 2021 GSMA mobile economy report, 303 million people, about 28% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa, are connected to mobile internet, a number that is set to grow to 474 million by 2025, creating an even bigger market for the gaming industry.

South Africa has the highest saturation of gamers across Africa with 24 million people(almost half of its population) playing, according to the Games Industry Africa report. Other major markets include Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia. In 2021, South Africa generated the most total annual gaming revenue at $290 million, followed by Nigeria ($185 million), Ghana ($42 million), Kenya ($38 million), and Ethiopia ($35 million).



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ioIn09J

iQOO 9, 9 Pro and 9 SE go on pre-order in India, here are the prices

The iQOO 9 trio is going global, though not as we initially imagined. The brand unveiled the new iQOO 9 (different from the one that launched in China), also the iQOO 9 SE appears to be a new name for the iQOO Neo5 S. The iQOO 9 Pro is the same, both name and hardware. This may seem confusing, but the important thing is this – the three phones will become available in India soon, here are the launch dates and prices. The iQOO 9 Pro and the new iQOO 9 can be pre-ordered today, open sales will begin on March 2 (Wednesday next week). The iQOO 9 SE can’t be pre-ordered yet, but it will also...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/Tk18cGS

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Europe’s Revent hits $68M hard cap on its climate, health & impact-focused fund

Last year I covered the launch of Berlin-HQ’d Revent — a new European early-stage with an “impact” focus — it was aimed to launch a €50 million ($60 million) fund to focus on climate tech, health, and well-being, and economic empowerment, backing startups with both “purpose and profit”.

It’s now announcing the final close of €60m ($68m) hard cap in a fundraise it describes as “highly-oversubscribed”.

In a statement Otto Birnbaum, Founding Partner at Revent said: “Today’s immense climate and societal challenges will not be solved without the efforts of the world’s best founders harnessing technology and building scalable, commercial businesses that drive sustainable and significant impact. We’re convinced that purpose and profit fuel one another and that top financial returns will be generated precisely because companies are targeting significant, positive impact on society and the planet.”

“We’re convinced that Europe is uniquely positioned to lead the way for more technology-driven positive impact for the planet and society”, added Dr. Lauren Lentz, Founding Partner at Revent.

LPs in the fund include globally-active retail and services company Otto Group.

Benjamin Otto is a member of the influential German Otto family, founders of the Otto Group.

Other LPs include multinational skincare company Beiersdorf (NIVEA, Eucerin); institutional investors such as the European Investment Fund (EIF), which committed 20 million Euro to the fund; the NRW.BANK; and the LfA Förderbank Bayern. Additionally, members of German-entrepreneurial families such as Heraeus, Hymer, and Wepa families are backing Revent. Finally, a number of high-profile tech founders and investors such as Verena Pausder (Fox & Sheep), Sascha Konietzke (Contentful), Florian Heinemann (Project A), and Luis Hanemann (Headline) have invested in the fund.

Revent has invested in nine companies so far, including Sylvera (UK) (ratings carbon offset schemes); Net Purpose (UK) (impact assessment for investment portfolios); and Avelios (D) (a modular hospital software platform).

As well as Birnbaum and Lentz; the partner team includes Emily Brooke MBE, founder of Beryl and Henrik Grosse Hokamp, who worked previously for Partech’s late-stage fund.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1NREHJz

Redmi K50 Pro renders emerge alongside more specs

Last week, Xiaomi introduced its Redmi K50 Gaming as the first member of the K50 series but we’re also expecting vanilla and Pro entries. In come new CAD renders of the Redmi K50 Pro courtesy of OnLeaks and Zoutons showing out the phone in all its glory. The K50 Pro design is a departure from the K50 Gaming with a larger camera island housing a triple camera setup on the back with a 64MP main cam. The auxiliary modules are not detailed though we can expect one of them to be an ultrawide snapper. The front brings a 6.6-inch flat display with a centered punch-hole cutout on top....



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/s8zIXnd

Automata expands its lab automation ambitions with $50M B round

The world’s labs are under pressure to do more tests and process more materials, not just due to COVID but from the growing biotech and drug development sectors — and automation is the sure path forwards. Automata, which got its start making a robotic arm for handling individual tasks, has now raised $50M to automate entire lab processes from start to finish.

When we last talked with Automata in 2019, the company had just raised a $7.4M A round and was focusing on developing and deploying its Eva robotic arm, which could be used for a variety of common tasks: moving glass around, performing simple samples, that sort of thing. But they soon found that life as a robot provider for small, highly individual projects and labs wasn’t a viable business model.

“It’s not enough to engage with your customer at one stage — like, ‘here’s the most affordable robot arm on the market, good luck!’ If companies buy one or two robots, it optimizes a few processes but it doesn’t revolutionize how that company works. So over the last few years we’ve started looking at how we can drive adoption of our tech at a scale that matters,” said co-founder and CEO Mostafa ElSayed.

They identified three large markets that they felt were on the cusp of an automation boom: diagnostics, drug discovery, and synthetic biology (i.e. the discovery and cultivation of purpose-built microbes).

What the company found as it installed the first few hundred of its Eva arms was that companies in these sectors had a lot of “partial automation.” ElSayed compared this to having a dishwasher in your kitchen: you don’t have to wash plates by hand any more, but you still have to load and unload it, add soap, select the settings, etc. Useful but it still relies entirely on human labor.

The limits of partial automation were highlighted during the pandemic, when labs performing PCR tests especially were operating at maximum capacity and still nowhere near meeting demand. Similarly in drug development and synthetic bio, timelines stretch into the 5-7 year range for certain processes because there’s a hard limit on how frequently a given process can be run. By moving from partial to full automation, huge time savings and throughput increases can be realized. But it couldn’t be done with a handful of robotic arms.

The Automata Labs enclosure with Eva robotic arm next to it.

The Automata Labs enclosure with Eva robotic arm next to it.

“We’ve had to build an entirely new hardware stack that allows for this kind of automation,” ElSayed said. Late last year they announced their new hardware platform, Automata Labs, a sort of modular container built for continuous operation of machinery inside and the ability to pass the results to the next step. “The benchtop is really the standard unit of all laboratories, so it’s basically a whole lab bench that’s amenable to automation.”

The company’s most visible success is an NHS testing facility that has been as automated as is currently possible (that is, humans are still in there but a huge amount of the work is done robotically), and has now processed over a million samples. ElSayed pointed out that the number is large, but the more important one was that the automation reduced turnaround times for results by half, which as you might imagine is crucial for time-sensitive tests. It’s largely because the automation level lets the clinicians set the robots to work overnight, and they can have results ready in the morning.

In experimental settings, timelines can be reduced by 25-40 percent, which is significant but may sound modest to anyone who has read of orders of magnitude productivity increases in sectors like manufacturing. ElSayed said there are other paths to go down to further improve that specific number, like the “lights out laboratories” that enabled the NHS rapid labs.

CEO Mostafa ElSayed sits in a chair below the Automata logo.

CEO Mostafa ElSayed.

But he noted that for many researchers there’s also a serious need for accuracy and repeatability.

“There was a clear, describable need for those user bases,” he said. “There’s the basic one of increasing throughput while reducing menial tasks in a lab… but there was also, and we didn’t know this going in, a repeatability problem in labs. Teams would publish their own research papers, then try to replicate the results and fail, because the processes in the lab were highly manual and variable.”

So a large part of the draw in automation is systematic tracking and performance, and fewer errors. To that end Automata has been investing in the software to manage and administer its labware and robots.

“The scientists in these organizations — especially their automation scientists, this up and coming role — what they really want is the ability to program these systems themselves, and design these screenings themselves, rather than call us in,” said ElSayed. As anyone who’s negotiated with scientists before probably knows, many would rather keep doing things the old way rather than cede control to an outside agency. So building a system that’s designed to be deployed and adjusted by the on-site crew has been a major focus.

“More and more of the labs adopting our hardware are coming to us for these digital solutions to configure or deploy them, or connect the ecosystem to their data system,” he continued.

A new generation of hardware, in limited testing with partners, is set to be revealed later this year, and Automata is also getting ready to make the leap into the U.S. and wider European markets. The huge amount of hiring, manufacturing, sales, support and so on that this expansion necessitates are the reason the company has raised this $50M B round. The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Hummingbird, Latitude Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures, Isomer Capital, In-Q-Tel and others.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/KESDuvV