PRESS RELEASE: IdentityMind Global™, the leader in Digital Identities You Can Trust, today announced that it has closed a $10 million Series C round of financing. In addition to all existing investors, the round was co-led by Benhamou Global... | Continue reading
Peraso Technologies has appointed Bill McLean as CEO to advance its goal of selling wireless networking chips based on the Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) standard. These chips could bring new flexibility to emerging applications such as virtual reality, and McLean aims to help develop … | Continue reading
InVia Robotics, a company that’s setting out to provide ecommerce fulfillment centers with automated robotics technology, has raised $9 million in a series A round of funding led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Embark Ventures. The figure also constitutes a $3 millio … | Continue reading
I’ve just started on my quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and I’m not sure what to think about it yet. The medieval open-world adventure — that I’ve started describing as “Skyrim minus fantasy” — takes its time before unleashing you on its world, so I’m still unsure what option … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: X.ai’s meeting assistant bot is now available on Slack. Plans to bring the bot that automates meeting scheduling to communication platforms were first shared with VentureBeat last August following the closure of a $10 million funding round. The bot, which can be named … | Continue reading
GUEST: Last month I covered what an eventful year 2017 was for the WebVR industry and also dug deeper in distinguishing between the two types of WebVR browsers, namely “WebVR-ready” versus “VR-first” browsers, that are enabling navigation for the immersive web in their own peculi … | Continue reading
GUEST: You’ve seen them spread throughout the consumer world in the form of Amazon Echo, Google Home, and others. Now, voice-activated digital assistants are coming to your office. The announcement of Alexa for Business late last year and the voice assistant takeover we saw at CE … | Continue reading
eBay has announced a major new hire in its push to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) across its ecommerce platform. The company announced that it has lured Jan Pedersen from Twitter as its new VP and chief scientist for AI, and he will soon lead the company’s strategy across … | Continue reading
VB EVENT: Zendesk VP of public policy and social impact Tiffany Apczynski is one of the speakers at VentureBeat’s inaugural Blueprint conference, taking place on March 5-7 in Reno, Nevada. At Blueprint, speakers including Apczynski will discuss how tech companies can create highe … | Continue reading
For the GamesBeat Decides podcast this week, we kicked off a new monthly segment where we pick the best game of the month. January had some incredible new releases, and hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti talk about the big three during this episode. You can listen to our discus … | Continue reading
Despite serving as Europe’s capital, the Belgian city of Brussels expects to miss the continent’s planned 2020 rollout of 5G due to overly strict radiation rules, according to new reports this week. The reports come months after Europe attempted to position itself as the “global … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Sentiments about cryptocurrencies are as fickle as the price of a token. But everyone can agree on one thing: Cryptocurrency is a hot topic. A year ago, however, before initial coin offerings (ICOs) became a thing, it wasn’t an easy task to draw crowds around crypto st … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: LendingHome – the largest, fastest-growing mortgage marketplace lender – today announced its debut on the Forbes FinTech 50 list, which spotlights "the top companies shaping the future of your money." This is the magazine's ... | Continue reading
Almost five years ago, Kerbal Space Program mod creator Shaun Esau uploaded his own trailer for the space-flight simulator. The video recently hit 1 million views on YouTube, and I still consider it one of the best gaming videos on the internet. Kerbal Space Program is a physics- … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Cytobank and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are collaborating to develop machine learning-based methods for characterizing the morphology of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). These methods could be used... | Continue reading
Global wearables juggernaut Fitbit has announced plans to acquire Twine Health, a health coaching platform aimed at helping employers manage chronic disease in the workforce. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2014, Twine Health is a … | Continue reading
Broadcom has announced that it will seek to elect a majority of just six members to Qualcomm’s board of directors at the latter’s annual shareholder meeting on March 6. This follows Broadcom’s original declaration from early December when it revealed it was looking to replace all … | Continue reading
Mexican indie studio Lienzo is launching its debut title Mulaka on PC and PlayStation 4 on February 27. The adventure game will roll out to Nintendo Switch and Xbox One a few days later on March 1 and March 2 respectively. The studio has also announced that part of the game’s rev … | Continue reading
Sliver.tv has raised $20 million in a public initial coin offering (ICO) for a cryptocurrency that is aimed at improving the bandwidth available for esports streams. Sliver.tv wants to use the untapped bandwidth of computer users when their machines are idle. It will then use tha … | Continue reading
Dungeons & Dragons is coming back to mobile thanks to a new partnership between Wizards of the Coast and Ludia. The two companies announced Warriors of Waterdeep today. It’s a free-to-play turn-based role-playing game coming this spring that uses card packs and centers on the Wat … | Continue reading
The accelerated mobile pages (AMP) project has come a long way since Google first announced the initiative to the world back in 2015. The open source AMP framework, which is designed to enable blazing-fast and efficient mobile web pages, is now used by 31 million domains. Today, … | Continue reading
The tech industry is the most-trusted sector in California, but two-thirds of residents in the Bay Area — home of Silicon Valley — think it has been underregulated, according to a survey by public relations firm Edelman. There’s an apparent paradox between trust in the tech indus … | Continue reading
Ujet today announced a $25 million series B funding round to grow its customer support services for voice or chat support in apps, websites, and phone calls. The money will be used to ramp up research and development around AI services and to open offices in New York City and Mun … | Continue reading
VB LIVE: Health care is being disrupted by innovative tech solutions — but having the right venture capital partner can make or break success. Join this VB Live event to learn how VC partnerships can help you navigate through the regulations and complicated nature of health care, … | Continue reading
Sushee’s grim tactical adventure Fear Effect Sedna is debuting on March 6 for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Square Enix Collective is publishing the title. The sequel to the 1999 Fear Effect raised funds through a Kickstarter campaign in 2016. It features an i … | Continue reading
(Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google this month hired Injong Rhee, who recently resigned as Samsung Electronics Co’s chief technology officer, to lead its Internet of Things business, he said in a LinkedIn post Monday. Google spokeswoman Jane Hynes confirmed to Reuters Rhee’s hiring by … | Continue reading
Ubisoft reported that Assassin’s Creed: Origins gained a following with players during the holiday quarter, pushing the French video game publisher to $889.4 million (€725.0 million) in sales for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31. CEO Yves Guillemot said in an analyst co … | Continue reading
Two million U.S. drivers admitted to nodding off at the wheel of their car in a two-week period back in 2016, according to a report by the National Sleep Foundation. This had led to some high-profile campaigns, including one by the mighty Uber, which has sought to raise awareness … | Continue reading
Broadcom has confirmed reports from last night that it has secured “up to” $100 billion in debt funding to cover its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm. Over the months-long saga, Qualcomm has reject previous takeover offers from the rival chip company, and after Broadcom submitted … | Continue reading
The BBC is already heavily involved with VR, having created and backed several projects from 360 videos to full experiences like Home: A VR Spacewalk. Soon, though, the organization will make its first foray into AR. This morning the BBC announced that it will be launching an AR … | Continue reading
GUEST: Sequoia Capital was the second most active VC in China in Q4 2017. Its local team is well respected and has good insights. Yet, in an op-ed for the Financial Times last month, Sequoia Chairman Mike Moritz surprisingly argued that the Chinese entrepreneurial ethic is outshi … | Continue reading
Nvidia reported better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter that ended on January 31. The company said it’s earning non-GAAP revenues of $1.72 a share on revenues of $2.91 billion. Analysts had expected $1.16 a share on revenue of $2.68 billion. It makes you wonde … | Continue reading
GUEST: For nearly three decades, internet cafés have filled an important niche across the globe. Also known as cybercafés, these establishments have provided online access to travelers, and to persons who do not have internet services at home. Thanks to the astronomical growth of … | Continue reading
Last year, Kela Ivonye relocated from his home base in Louisville, Kentucky to Silicon Valley for an extended period of time to participate in not just one, but two startup accelerator programs. But even though the two-time founder appreciated the funding, mentorship, and partner … | Continue reading
Sega’s action-adventure series Yakuza first launched in 2005, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is the final chapter to protagonist Kiryu Kazuma’s story. His journey has been uniquely Japanese, tackling underground criminal organizations with geopolitical tones, commenting on the wa … | Continue reading
GUEST: The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force in May and will radically change how companies collect, store, manage, and use data. A shockingly high number of businesses are still unaware or simply not ready for GDPR. As a startup investor, you can’t … | Continue reading
GUEST: The decentralized age, enabled by cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, is coming fast. We are witnessing the wholesale reinvention of the world’s financial system. When all is said and done, it is going to be fairer, more democratic, and will empower billions of peo … | Continue reading
When it comes to worldwide revenue in mobile games, Chinese and Japanese companies are starting to dominate the charts, according to measurement firm Sensor Tower. Sony has a big hit on its hands with the role-playing game Fate/Grand Order, which took the top position from Mixi’s … | Continue reading
GUEST: Fran gracefully glides around the grand ballroom, sparkling pink ball gown flowing at her heals and the firm grip of her son’s arm around her waist. They are surrounded by friends and family as they elegantly move around the room in perfect harmony, looking as though they … | Continue reading
GUEST: Today, Danilo Campos is a successful programmer in New York City. He previously served as the technical lead for Github, one of the rising giants in Silicon Valley and currently the largest open source web development platform in the world. His story began in New York City … | Continue reading
Facebook’s VR app Quill is getting a major update with animation tools that can bring hand-made creations to life. Quill was born during the development of Dear Angelica, an immersive story which puts you in a series of 3D scenes sketched in VR by hand. You can move through these … | Continue reading
In recent days, companies like Twitter, Reddit, PornHub, and Discord have taken a stand against deepfakes, videos generated with machine learning to graft the face of one person onto the body of another person. The name and practice were popularized in recent months in subreddit … | Continue reading
On this week’s GamesBeat Decides podcast, host Mike Minotti has returned from vacation to talk about going into VR with his family. Co-host Jeffrey Grubb, meanwhile, plays with his steering wheel for the entire show. The squad gets into a lovely platforming game, the news, and th … | Continue reading
GUEST: Any ordinary startup will need to face the challenge of finding the right combination of both a product-market fit and a business model that gets them to a revenue positive scenario. Naturally, things are much trickier when that startup is operating in an emerging tech lik … | Continue reading
The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea will begin tonight, and by the time they’re done, more than 4 billion people will likely have watch the various athletic events. Alibaba is providing the cloud service and e-commerce for the Olympics, and it is sending several hundr … | Continue reading
Razer is suspending its “Paid to Play” promotion beginning March 1, according to a post on its message boards. As part of this program, Razer rewards its customers with a digital currency called zSilver for launching PC games through the company’s Cortex software. You could then … | Continue reading
Apple’s new $349 smart speaker HomePod officially hit stores today, and you’re probably already aware that the initial reviews have been mixed: Generally positive on the sonic performance, neutral to positive on the industrial design, and disappointed to downright negative on Sir … | Continue reading
VB LIVE: AI is changing the customer service and engagement game, offering up unprecedented ways to connect with customers where and when they need you. Learn how major companies are leveraging AI to serve up hyper-personalized, emotionally resonant experiences when you join this … | Continue reading