Category: UNCATEGORIZED

Pokèmon Go creator Niantic has acquired a small SF gaming startup building a league and tournament organization platform to help gamers create their own communities around popular titles.

Mayhem was in Y Combinator’s winter 2018 batch and went onto raise $5.7 million in funding according to Crunchbase. Other backers include Accel, which led the startup’s Series A in 2018, Afore Capital and NextGen Venture Partners.

The startup’s focus has shifted quite a bit since its initial YC debut, when it announced a service called Visor that would analyze video of esports gameplay and coach users on how they could improve their performance. The company has seemed to shift its focus wholly to community tools to help gamers find matches and organize tournaments for games like Overwatch on its platform.

Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed by Niantic .

The “majority” of Mayhem’s team will be joining Niantic with the startup’s CEO Ivan Zhou landing in the company’s Social Platform Product team while the rest of the team joins Platform Engineering.

In a statement, Niantic asserts that the acquisition “reinforces our commitment to real-world social as the centerpiece of our mission.”

Most of Niantic’s acquisitions of late have focused on augmented reality backend technologies so it’s interesting to see them buying tech that focuses on community organization.

Pokèmon Go continues to be Niantic’s cash cow though the company hasn’t seen the same levels of viral success with subsequent releases where organic growth hasn’t been quite as easy to come by. Buying a startup building community tools suggests the company is ready to bring in some outside tech to push their own efforts forward as they strive to create a broader platform for their AR ambitions and more standalone hits of their own.

There’s a decent chance you missed the news back in May — there was, after all, a lot going on at the time. General Electric sold off its more than 100-year-old GE Lighting division to smart home company Savant. Today, the division’s new owner is announcing a key rebranding effort, six months after the initial deal.

Clearly there’s still value in the GE name, even divorced of its original parent company. In its new home, the C by GE line is getting a rebrand, however. Seems totally reasonable — C by GE was never the most straightforward name. Going forward, the line will be rebranded as “Cync” — which, if not better is, at the very least different.

Along with the change in ownership, the name connotes a broadening of scope — that much was probably an inevitability under Savant. GE Lighting is becoming a larger smart home brand in its new home. CES, which kicks off next week, will find the company introducing a new thermostat and a range of outdoor products, including a new smart plug. The brand will also introduce a connected camera and fan speed switch.

The new products will test the value of the GE Lighting brand name, both outside of General Electric and beyond just lighting. The smart home category is already a crowded one (and has been for years), and Savant’s going up against offerings from big names like Amazon’s Ring.

The new Cync app will arrive in March, bringing with it “a more user-friendly and customizable experience that enhances comfort, control and confidence,” according to Savant. More news next week at CES.

In an unexpected turn, the New York Stock Exchange said Monday that it no longer intends to delist China’s three major telecoms operators, a decision that was originally announced on December 31.

The initial action targeted China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom as part of the Trump Administration’s move to bar investment in companies deemed to supply and support China’s military, intelligence and security services.

The current blacklist names 35 companies, including the parent organizations of the three listed telecoms firms as well as Huawei and China’s major chipmaker SMIC.

The reversal was made “in light of further consultation with relevant regulatory authorities,” said the exchange. The companies will continue to be listed and traded on the NYSE while the exchange will continue to evaluate how the executive order applies to them and their listing status, according to the announcement.

The delisting of the three telecoms giants, which have been trading on NYSE for about two decades, was seen by some experts as merely symbolic. The trading volumes of these firms in New York are only a small percentage of their total tradable shares, thus the impact of the potential delisting “would be rather limited on the companies’ growth and general market performance,” said the China Securities Regulatory Commission in a statement issued on Sunday.

“The recent move by some political forces in the U.S. to continuously and groundlessly suppress foreign companies listed on the U.S. markets, even at the cost of undermining its own position in the global capital markets, has demonstrated that U.S. rules and institutions can become arbitrary, reckless and unpredictable,” the Chinese exchange authority said.

“We hope that the U.S. side could show respect for the market and reverence for the rule of law, do more things that can benefit the order of global financial markets, the legitimate rights of investors, and the stability and development of the global economy.”

In recent times, a number of Chinese companies trading in the U.S. have opted for secondary listings in Hong Kong. Alibaba, JD.com and NetEase have debuted in Hong Kong and more tech companies are reportedly weighing their homecoming. Chinese tech bosses are wary of the U.S. government’s potential clampdown, but they also hope to replicate Alibaba’s success in Hong Kong and see funding opportunities in China’s new Nasdaq-style board, which was introduced in 2019 in part to lure its tech darlings home.

In an unexpected turn, the New York Stock Exchange said Monday that it no longer intends to delist China’s three major telecoms operators, a decision that was originally announced on December 31.

The initial action targeted China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom as part of the Trump Administration’s move to bar investment in companies deemed to supply and support China’s military, intelligence and security services.

The current blacklist names 35 companies, including the parent organizations of the three listed telecoms firms as well as Huawei and China’s major chipmaker SMIC.

The reversal was made “in light of further consultation with relevant regulatory authorities,” said the exchange. The companies will continue to be listed and traded on the NYSE while the exchange will continue to evaluate how the executive order applies to them and their listing status, according to the announcement.

The delisting of the three telecoms giants, which have been trading on NYSE for about two decades, was seen by some experts as merely symbolic. The trading volumes of these firms in New York are only a small percentage of their total tradable shares, thus the impact of the potential delisting “would be rather limited on the companies’ growth and general market performance,” said the China Securities Regulatory Commission in a statement issued on Sunday.

“The recent move by some political forces in the U.S. to continuously and groundlessly suppress foreign companies listed on the U.S. markets, even at the cost of undermining its own position in the global capital markets, has demonstrated that U.S. rules and institutions can become arbitrary, reckless and unpredictable,” the Chinese exchange authority said.

“We hope that the U.S. side could show respect for the market and reverence for the rule of law, do more things that can benefit the order of global financial markets, the legitimate rights of investors, and the stability and development of the global economy.”

In recent times, a number of Chinese companies trading in the U.S. have opted for secondary listings in Hong Kong. Alibaba, JD.com and NetEase have debuted in Hong Kong and more tech companies are reportedly weighing their homecoming. Chinese tech bosses are wary of the U.S. government’s potential clampdown, but they also hope to replicate Alibaba’s success in Hong Kong and see funding opportunities in China’s new Nasdaq-style board, which was introduced in 2019 in part to lure its tech darlings home.

Using Xiami was once synonymous with having good music taste in China. The music app, which debuted around 2008 and was acquired by Alibaba in 2013, is discontinuing its streaming service today, Xiami said in a notice to users.

Xiami, which means “smalll shrimp” in Chinese, was once known for its smart discovery, elegant design, social features and support for indie musicians which helped attract a loyal following among China’s artsy, hipster types. The beginning of its decline coincided with the battle for music rights in China. A digital music behemoth was formed in 2016 when Tencent bought a majority stake in China Music Group, which brought to Tencent a reservoir of exclusive music deals. By 2017, Tencent’s music apps controlled as much as 75% of China’s music streaming market.

Xiami, on the other hand, lost large quantities of music rights and consequently users who converted to more resource-rich platforms, albeit grudgingly.

Alibaba did have a shot at online music. In 2015, the e-commerce giant appointed two renowned industry veterans — a songwriter and a music company executive — to steer its newly minted music group. Neither was necessarily seen as having the experience for running an internet music business. Instead of growing Xiami, they poured resources into a platform called Alibaba Planet to build artist-fan relationships. The idea didn’t take off.

In the meantime, newcomers like NetEase Music are holding out in their battle against Tencent’s music empire, of which dominance has endured to this day.

While users will lose access to the app and all their data, Xiami is not totally dead. Its copyrights-focused segment Yin Luo (音螺 or Conch Music) will continue to operate, according to the notice. But the dream of Xiami’s utopian founders, “earn music & money” (hence the app’s original name “EMUMO”), a vision they laid out inside a cafe on a snowy day in Hangzhou, is surely gone.

After a dismal year, the global smartphone market will slowly start recovering in 2021, predicts TrendForce. But Huawei won’t benefit and, in fact, will fall out of the research firm’s list of the world’s top six smartphone makers.

In 2020, global smartphone production dropped 11% year-over-year to 1.25 billion units. This year, TrendForce expects it to increase by 9% to 1.36 million units, as people replace old devices and demand grows in emerging markets. But even that slight recovery is contingent on how the pandemic continues to impact the economy and the global chip shortage that is currently causing production delays across almost the entire electronics industry.

In 2020, the top six smartphone brands in order of production volume were Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo. But this year TrendForce expects Huawei to slip out of that ranking, with the new top-six list comprising of Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo and Transsion.

Those six companies are expected to account for 80% of the global smartphone market in 2021, while Huawei will come in at seventh place.

The main reason for Huawei’s drop is the divestment of its budget smartphone brand, Honor. Huawei confirmed in November that it is selling Honor to a consortium of companies to save the division’s supply chain from the impact of United States government trade restrictions.

The spin-out was meant to shield Honor from the sanctions that have hurt Huawei’s business. But “it remains to be seen whether the ‘new’ Honor can capture consumers’ attention without the support from Huawei. Also, Huawei and the new Honor will be directly competing against each other in the future, especially if the former is somehow freed from the U.S. trade sanctions at a later time,” said TrendForce’s report.

In a previous report published shortly after Honor’s sale was announced, TrendForce predicted that the deal, along with the global chip shortage, meant Huawei would take just 4% of the market in 2021, compared to the 17% it held in 2019, and estimated 14% in 2020. Apple is expected to take away some market share from Huawei’s high-end smartphones, while Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo will also benefit. TrendForce expects the newly spun-out Honor to take 2% market share in 2021.

SVB Financial Group agreed today to buy Boston Private Financial Holdings in Boston for $900 million in cash and stock.

It’s a big deal for SVB, which has earned a reputation over its 37-year history as a bank that’s friendly to startups, as well as venture and private equity investors. Boston Private, founded in 1987, has roughly $16.3 billion in assets under management, compared with SVB Asset Management’s $1.4 billion in related assets.

SVB, which formed its wealth advisory business in 2011, has been pushing more aggressively into wealth management for several years, hiring Yvonne Butler, who’d previously led wealth strategies at Capital One, in the middle of 2018.

Butler has since been adding members to the bank’s wealth management team, telling Business Insider last year of the job that “I see my job primarily as a retention strategy . . .Clients are already here. We’ve helped them grow their fund or business — and I see our role as private bank and wealth advisory as retaining.”

Underscoring SVB’s bid to strengthen its relationship with wealthy individuals who already have business dealings with the bank, Greg Becker, its president and CEO, said today in a release about the tie-up: “Our clients rely on us to help increase the probability of their success — both in their business and personal lives.”

Butler will lead the combined private banking and wealth management business with Anthony DeChellis, who has been the CEO of Boston Private for the last two years. DeChellis joined the outfit after a short stint as president of the crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and before that, as the CEO of Credit Suisse Private Banking (Americas) for more than seven years.

As part of the deal, Boston Private shareholders will receive 0.0228 shares of SVB common stock and $2.10 of cash for each of their shares.

Bank stocks were generally battered in 2020, but as the Boston Globe notes, SVB’s stock is up more than 60% over the past three years because of its focus on the tech world, while Boston Private’s shares have fallen by 45%.

The world’s attention is on Jack Ma’s whereabouts after reports noted the billionaire founder of Alibaba and Ant Group had been absent from public view since late October.

On October 24, Ma delivered fiery remarks against China’s financial system to an audience of high-rank officials. Days later the Chinese authorities abruptly halted Ant’s initial public offering, an act believed to be linked to Ma’s controversial speech. The Chinese government subsequently told the fintech behemoth, which had thrived in a relatively lax regulatory environment, to “rectify” its business according to the law. The future of Ant hangs in the air.

Concurrently, Chinese regulators have launched an unprecedented probe into Alibaba over suspected monopolistic behavior.

Ma is known for his outspoken personality and love for the limelight, so it’s no surprise that his missing from recent events, including the final episode of an African TV program he created, is sparking widespread chatter. From economists to journalists, the Twitter world has tuned in:

“Regarding the Africa’s Business Heroes competition, Mr. Ma had to miss the finale due to a scheduled conflict,” an Alibaba spokesperson said.

While China’s Twitter equivalent Weibo has not blocked searching for “Jack Ma missing,” the posts it surfaced barely have any like or repost. Elsewhere on the Chinese internet, users are speculating inside WeChat groups that Ma was either “made vanished” or has fled the country.

It’s worth noting that Ma has long stepped back from day-to-day operations at Alibaba. In September 2019, he officially handed his helm as the company’s chairman to his successor Daniel Zhang. That said, the billionaire still holds considerable sway over the e-commerce business as a lifetime partner at the so-called Alibaba Partnership, a group comprising senior management ranks who can nominate a majority of the directors to the board.

It’s not unusual to see Chinese tycoons choosing to lie low in tough times. After Richard Liu was accused of rape, the flamboyant founder of JD.com, Alibaba’s archrival, skipped a key political event in China last year. Tencent founder Pony Ma, who already keeps a low profile, has been absent from the public eye for about a year, though the cause is his chronic “back problems,” a source told TechCrunch, and the tech boss has made virtual appearances at events by sending voice messages in the past year.

Steel production accounts for roughly 8 percent of the emissions that contribute to global climate change. It is one of the industries that sits at the foundation of the modern economy and is one of the most resistant to decarbonization.

As nations around the world race to reduce their environmental footprint and embrace more sustainable methods of production, finding a way to remove carbon from the metals business will be one of the most important contributions to that effort.

One startup that’s developing a new technology to address the issue is Boston Metal. Previously backed by the Bill Gates financed Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, the new company has just raised roughly $50 million of an approximately $60 million financing round to expand its operations, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The global steel industry may find approximately 14 percent of its potential value at risk if the business can’t reduce its environmental impact, according to studies cited by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Boston Metal, which previously raised $20 million back in 2019, uses a process called molten oxide electrolysis (“MOE”) to make steel alloys — and eventually emissions-free steel. The first close of the funding actually came in December 2018 — two years before the most recent financing round, according to chief executive Tadeu Carneiro, the company’s chief executive.

Over the years since the company raised its last round, Boston Metal has grown from 8 employees to a staff that now numbers close to 50. The Woburn, Mass.-based company has also been able to continuously operate its three pilot lines producing metal alloys for over a month at a time.

And while the steel program remains the ultimate goal, the company is quickly approaching commercialization with its alloy program, because it isn’t as reliant on traditional infrastructure and sunk costs according to Carneiro.

Boston Metal’s technology radically reimagines an industry whose technology hasn’t changed all that much since the dawn of the Iron Age in 1200 BCE, Carneiro said.

Ultimately the goal is to serve as a technology developer licensing its technology and selling components to steel manufacturers or engineering companies who will ultimate make the steel.

For Boston Metal, the next steps on the product roadmap are clear. The company wil look to have a semi-industrial cell line operating in Woburn, Mass. by the end of 2022, and by 2024 or 2025 hopes to have its first demonstration plant up and running. “At that point we will be able to commercialize the technology,” Carneiro said.

The company’s previous investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Prelude Ventures, and the MIT-backed “hard-tech” investment firm, The Engine. All of them came back to invest in the latest infusion of cash into the company along with Devonshire Investors, the private investment firm affiliated with FMR, the parent company of financial services giant, Fidelity, which co-led the deal alongside Piva Capital and another, undisclosed investor.

As a result of its investment, Shyam Kamadolli will take a seat on the company’s board, according to the filing with the SEC.

MOE takes metals in their raw oxide form and transforms them into molten metal products. Invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and based on research from MIT Professor Donald Sadoway, Boston Metal makes molten oxides that are tailored for a specific feedstock and product. Electrons are used to melt the soup and selectively reduce the target oxide. The purified metal pools at the bottom of a cell and is tapped by drilling into the cell using a process adapted from a blast furnace. The tap hole is plugged and the process then continues.

One of the benefits of the technology, according to the company, is its scalability. As producers need to make more alloys, they can increase production capacity.

“Molten oxide electrolysis is a platform technology that can produce a wide array of metals and alloys, but our first industrial deployments will target the ferroalloys on the path to our ultimate goal of steel,” said Carneiro, the company’s chief executive, in a statement announcing the company’s $20 million financing back in 2019. “Steel is and will remain one of the staples of modern society, but the production of steel today produces over two gigatons of CO₂. The same fundamental method for producing steel has been used for millennia, but Boston Metal is breaking that paradigm by replacing coal with electrons.”

No less a tech luminary than Bill Gates himself underlined the importance of the decarbonization of the metal business.

“Boston Metal is working on a way to make steel using electricity instead of coal, and to make it just as strong and cheap,” Gates wrote in his blog, GatesNotes. Although Gates did have a caveat. “Of course, electrification only helps reduce emissions if it uses clean power, which is another reason why it’s so important to get zero-carbon electricity,” he wrote.