Category: UNCATEGORIZED

The well-funded Japanese space startup Synspective has tapped launch provider Rocket Lab to take its first Earth observation satellite to orbit. Launch is planned for late 2020, and the company’s StriX–α craft will be the sole payload.

Synspective was founded in 2018 and by mid-2019 had raised about $100 million, making it one of the most successful recent funding stories in the country. It’s going to need all that and more, though, to realize its ambition of a 25-satellite constellation regularly imaging the whole planet.

The number may seem small when compared to Planet and SpaceX, which will require hundreds or thousands of satellites to cover the Earth. That’s because Synspective’s craft are not making visual observations or providing internet access, but imaging the planet’s surface using what’s called synthetic aperture radar.

This difficult technique uses the motion of the satellite to essentially imitate a much larger antenna, letting it produce highly detailed imagery through cloud cover and other interference. It also can cover a much wider area than an optical camera or a radio antenna beaming data to dishes on the surface.

The satellites themselves are about 100 kilograms each and are smaller than existing SAR systems — an advantage that lets Synspective use a smaller launch vehicle like Rocket Lab’s Electron to put its birds in the air.

The launch isn’t scheduled yet, but as the sole customer Synspective will have lots of latitude in choosing the time of launch and target orbit. “We are very pleased to work with Rocket Lab, a pioneer in rocket ventures,” said Synspective founder and CEO Motoyuki Arai in a press release. “We are also grateful for their flexibility in accepting our requests on the satellite’s orbit and launch period.”

At present the plan is only for “late 2020” and to launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, not its brand new one in the States. We’ll know more closer to launch time.

The well-funded Japanese space startup Synspective has tapped launch provider Rocket Lab to take its first Earth observation satellite to orbit. Launch is planned for late 2020, and the company’s StriX–α craft will be the sole payload.

Synspective was founded in 2018 and by mid-2019 had raised about $100 million, making it one of the most successful recent funding stories in the country. It’s going to need all that and more, though, to realize its ambition of a 25-satellite constellation regularly imaging the whole planet.

The number may seem small when compared to Planet and SpaceX, which will require hundreds or thousands of satellites to cover the Earth. That’s because Synspective’s craft are not making visual observations or providing internet access, but imaging the planet’s surface using what’s called synthetic aperture radar.

This difficult technique uses the motion of the satellite to essentially imitate a much larger antenna, letting it produce highly detailed imagery through cloud cover and other interference. It also can cover a much wider area than an optical camera or a radio antenna beaming data to dishes on the surface.

The satellites themselves are about 100 kilograms each and are smaller than existing SAR systems — an advantage that lets Synspective use a smaller launch vehicle like Rocket Lab’s Electron to put its birds in the air.

The launch isn’t scheduled yet, but as the sole customer Synspective will have lots of latitude in choosing the time of launch and target orbit. “We are very pleased to work with Rocket Lab, a pioneer in rocket ventures,” said Synspective founder and CEO Motoyuki Arai in a press release. “We are also grateful for their flexibility in accepting our requests on the satellite’s orbit and launch period.”

At present the plan is only for “late 2020” and to launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, not its brand new one in the States. We’ll know more closer to launch time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge for healthcare workers. Among the major challenges are social distancing issues, which have required novel approaches to diagnosing and treating illness.

For many who have already tested positive, home stays are the best option to avoid an already massively overtaxed hospital system in many areas and to avoid further infecting others. The question, then, is how doctors and nurses can continue to provide treatment remotely with the pronounced limitations of telemedicine.

MIT’s CSAIL this week shed some light on ongoing trials it has been conducting on a new device designed to keep tabs on patients in their home. The opt-in system superficially resembles a Wi-Fi router, mounted to the patient’s wall.

It utilizes wireless signals to detect a wide range of different activities, including patient movements, sleep patterns and even — most crucially — breathing. Emerald is able to distinguish between different people, using artificial intelligence to track movement.

The system is currently being tested at the Heritage Assisted Living facility outside of Boston. “It’s clear that, with these high-risk elderly patients, they would greatly benefit from us being able to passively gather medical data over time when it is not possible to interface with each person directly,” the facility’s mental health chief William McGrory said in a release.

Asked why a wireless system is preferential to a simple wearable, a CSAIL rep told TechCrunch that the nature of the technology is “set it and forget it,” requiring no interaction on the patient’s part after initial set up.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge for healthcare workers. Among the major challenges are social distancing issues, which have required novel approaches to diagnosing and treating illness.

For many who have already tested positive, home stays are the best option to avoid an already massively overtaxed hospital system in many areas and to avoid further infecting others. The question, then, is how doctors and nurses can continue to provide treatment remotely with the pronounced limitations of telemedicine.

MIT’s CSAIL this week shed some light on ongoing trials it has been conducting on a new device designed to keep tabs on patients in their home. The opt-in system superficially resembles a Wi-Fi router, mounted to the patient’s wall.

It utilizes wireless signals to detect a wide range of different activities, including patient movements, sleep patterns and even — most crucially — breathing. Emerald is able to distinguish between different people, using artificial intelligence to track movement.

The system is currently being tested at the Heritage Assisted Living facility outside of Boston. “It’s clear that, with these high-risk elderly patients, they would greatly benefit from us being able to passively gather medical data over time when it is not possible to interface with each person directly,” the facility’s mental health chief William McGrory said in a release.

Asked why a wireless system is preferential to a simple wearable, a CSAIL rep told TechCrunch that the nature of the technology is “set it and forget it,” requiring no interaction on the patient’s part after initial set up.

Labster, a virtual science lab edtech company, today announced that it is partnering with California’s community college network to bring its software to 2.1 million students.

California Community Colleges claims to be the largest system of higher education in the country. The Labster partnership will provide 115 schools with 130 virtual laboratory simulations in biology, chemistry, physics and general sciences.

As COVID-19 has forced schools to shutter, edtech companies have largely responded by offering their software for free or through extended free trials. What’s new and notable about Labster’s partnership today is that it shows the first few signs of how that momentum can lead to a business deal.

Based in Copenhagen, Labster sells virtual STEM labs to institutions. The startup has raised $34.7 million in known venture capital to date, according to Crunchbase data. Labster customers include California State University, Harvard, Gwinnett Technical College, MIT, Trinity College and Stanford.

Lab equipment is expensive, and budget constraints mean that schools struggle to afford the latest technology. So Labster’s value proposition is that it is a cheaper alternative (plus, if students spill a testing vial in a virtual lab, there’s less clean up).

That pitch has slightly changed since COVID-19 forced schools across the world to shut down to limit the spread of the pandemic. Now, it’s pitching itself as the only currently viable alternative to science labs.

For many edtech companies, the surge of remote learning has been a large experiment. Often, edtech companies are giving away their product and technology for free to help as schools scramble to move operations completely digital.

For example, last week self-serve learning platforms Codecademy, Duolingo, Quizlet, Skillshare and Brainly launched a Learn From Home Club for students and teachers. Before that, Wize made its exam content and homework services available for free. And Zoom offered its video-conferencing software for free to K through 12 schools, which had mixed results.

Labster itself gave $5 million in free Labster credits to schools across the country. The list continues.  

Labster’s new deal shows edtech companies can secure new customers right now — without breaking the bank.

Labster CEO and co-founder Michael Bodekaer declined to give specifics on what the deal is worth. He did share that Labster works with schools one by one to understand how much they can, or want to, invest in teacher training and webinar support. He also confirmed that Labster does profit from the deal.

“We want to make sure that we set ourselves up for supporting our partners but still also make sure that Labster as a financial institution can pay our salaries,” Bodekaer said. “But again, heavy discounts that help us cover our costs.”

The long game for Labster, like many edtech companies, is that schools like the platform so much that these short-term stints have a better chance to lead to long-term relationships.

“We’ll be keeping these discounts as long as we possibly can sustain as a company,” he said. “It looks like initially the discount was until August and now we’re extending it until the end of the year. If that continues, we may extend it even further.”

Pricing aside, the real struggle toward implementation for Labster, and honestly any other edtech company focused on remote learning, is the digital divide. Some students do not have access to a computer for video conferencing or even internet connection for assignments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how many households across America lack access to the technology needed for remote learning. In California, Google donated free Chromebooks and 100,000 mobile hotspots to students in need.

Bodekaer said that Labster is currently working on providing its software on mobile, and has worked with Google to make sure its product works on low-end computers like Chromebooks.

“We really want to be hardware agnostic and support any system or any platform that the students already have,” he said. “So that hardware does not become a barrier.”

While today’s partnership brings 2.1 million students access to Labster’s technology, it does not directly account for the percentage of that same group that might not have access to a computer in the first place. The true test, and perhaps success, of edtech will rely on a true hybrid of hardware and software, not one or the other.

As the COVID-19 death toll in the United States continues to climb, American stocks are, in a grim divergence, recovering lost ground.

It isn’t clear precisely why locally-listed equities have risen in recent weeks, let alone today, but let’s go over the day’s results so that we’re all on the same page.

In regular trading today, the Dow Jones Industrial average rose 558.99 points, or 2.39%, while the broader S&P 500 rose 84.83 points, or 3.06%. But it was the tech-heavy Nasdaq that posted the largest rally of the major American indices by gaining 323.32 points or 3.95%. Niching into the tech sector itself, SaaS and cloud companies measured by the Bessemer cloud index rose 49.16 points, or 4.18% on the day.

Returning to the why, here are some hypotheses: CNBC wrote that the markets rallied “on improving virus outlook,” Bloomberg observed that shares rose “after signs virus outbreak is easing,” and CNN Business posited that today’s gains came “amid optimism over better-than-expected trade data from China.” On the same theme, MarketWatch wrote that the markets were up “as states weigh reopening economy,” while Barrons pointed to earnings being “better than expected.”

Reading just the headlines, you might think that things were economically fine in the United States. They aren’t; unemployment is still rising sharply around the country with millions of jobs lost each week, the nation’s food supply is slipping, farmers are dumping food while bread lines surge, and we’re still losing nearly two thousand humans each day in the US to COVID-19.

But that’s the public market. In the private markets, it’s a different tune: every person I talk to concerning the domestic private market is expecting a recession of at least a quarter or two, and most anticipate a “U” shaped recovery instead of a “V” shaped return to form. Hell, you can look at China’s re-opening and see our future; v-shaped our next months will not be.

Which is why we’re bringing you today’s stock market tallies. Things have sharply rebounded, so much so in fact that if you calculate from recent bottoms you could confuse yourself:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average % ∆ from 52 week lows: +31.5%
• S&P 500 % ∆ from 52 week lows: +29.6%
• Nasdaq % ∆ from 52 week lows: +28.4%

Feeling better? I’m not.

The gap between public optimism and private pessimism is the reverse of what we’ve seen before, but it makes about as much sense. There may be a way for both the private market and public market to be right, but I doubt it. Every venture capitalist is talking about B2B companies seeing falling sales and rising churn. And since the stock market last reached record lows, the world has only gotten worse. To see gains, then, in shares as business quality crumbles is odd..

And, finally, if they aren’t then what an economy, right?

Bradley Tusk is relatively unique among investors. Where other VCs shy away from heavily regulated industries and businesses, Tusk leans in.

The Tusk Ventures founder and CEO has investments that include Uber, Bird, Coinbase, Lemonade, FanDuel and Alma Health.

At a time when good governance is front and center, and innovative thinking to evolve the status quo is necessary, we couldn’t be more thrilled to have Tusk join us for a live Q&A session.

In the last decade, public perception of the tech industry has changed dramatically. When Tusk first invested in Uber, the ‘ask for forgiveness, not permission’ era was well underway. Since, tech has slowly been seen as an enemy after an erosion of public trust by big and small firms alike. Has the coronavirus pandemic shifted the tide of public sentiment in favor of tech? This is but one of many questions we’ll ask Tusk.

We’re also excited to hear from Tusk on adaptation strategies for tech startups during this time, how they can catch the ear of government officials and regulators during COVID-19 in a way they couldn’t just a few months ago, and how founders can be better leaders to their companies during a time of crisis.

We’ll also chat specifically about the potential of digitized voting tools and the explosion of telehealth amidst the pandemic.

There will be plenty of time for audience questions, so come prepared!

Hit up this link to drop the Zoom details into your calendar! See you there!

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

“Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.”

“Dear Sophie” columns are accessible for Extra Crunch subscribers; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie:

I’m an E-3 visa holder and I usually go back to Australia to extend my visa.

Given the COVID-19 travel restrictions, how do I extend my immigration status from inside the U.S.?

— Aussie Programmer

Dear Aussie:

Thanks for your question. The extension process from inside the U.S. is similar for you and anyone on a working visa, such as H-1B, H-1B1 (from Chile or Singapore) or TN (from Canada or Mexico). You might be used to traveling back home, or to Canada, to renew your visa. However, there’s another way to do it.

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

“Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.”

“Dear Sophie” columns are accessible for Extra Crunch subscribers; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one or two-year subscription for 50% off.

Dear Sophie:

I’m an E-3 visa holder and I usually go back to Australia to extend my visa.

Given the COVID-19 travel restrictions, how do I extend my immigration status from inside the U.S.?

— Aussie Programmer

Dear Aussie:

Thanks for your question. The extension process from inside the U.S. is similar for you and anyone on a working visa, such as H-1B, H-1B1 (from Chile or Singapore) or TN (from Canada or Mexico). You might be used to traveling back home, or to Canada, to renew your visa. However, there’s another way to do it.

NBCUniversal’s new streaming service Peacock is launching for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers tomorrow, April 15, at no additional cost.

Comcast says the rollout to its platforms begins tomorrow and will complete by month-end.

This lines up with  the schedule that the company announced in January, which pointed to a broader launch on July 15. NBCUniversal says that’s still happening, though the launch will no longer coincide with the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Comcast subscribers will get access to Peacock’s premium tier, which it says will include an on-demand library of more than 15,000 hours of TV and movies, including “30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Yellowstone,” “Law & Order” and its various spinoffs, “Jurassic Park” and “Shrek.” It will also include early access to NBC’s late night shows “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon and “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

When the service launches more broadly in July (which is also when it launches on mobile), there will be a free tier with roughly half as much content. If you pay for Peacock Premium separately, it will cost $4.99 per month with ads, or $9.99 per month without ads.

Like every streaming service, Peacock will eventually feature original programming, including a reboot of “Battlestar Galactica.” The release dates for some of that original programming may be delayed, however, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down productions worldwide. But Peacock Chairman Matt Strauss told reporters today that a few of its series are on track for 2020, including the “Psych” movie, “Brave New World,” and the reboots of “Punky Brewster” and “Saved by the Bell.”

Strauss added that he remains “very optimistic” about Peacock’s prospects, thanks to “a vast library of content that we know is going to resonate.” (Lest this seem like merely putting a brave face on a tough situation, it’s worth noting that Disney+ recently passed more than 50 million subscribers despite — “The Mandalorian” aside — a relatively limited slate of originals.)

“What’s postponed to 2020 will come back to us, even bigger, in 2021 —when Peacock will, arguably, really be hitting its stride,” Strauss said.

Dana Strong, president of consumer services at Comcast Cable, also noted that “viewing on every dimension of our platform is up during this period,” with a year-over-year increase of two hours per day per household, as well as a 50% increase in video-on-demand viewing.

And while Comcast (as NBCUniversal’s parent company) makes sense as the initial cable partner for Peacock, Strauss said, “We see an opportunity to do similar bundling deals with other distributors.”