Web 2.0: GE’s Jeff Immelt shows off “stethoscope of the 21st century”
Jeff Immelt, the chief executive officer of General Electric, showed off what he called the “stethoscope of the 21st century” at the Web 2.0 Summit today.
He held up a white gadget with a flip-out screen and a control mechanism that looks lot like the old iPod navigation wheel. Immelt said the device could do ultrasound scans on the fly and wirelessly communicate the data as necessary. Doctors can use the devices to immediately see, for… Continue Reading
Fresh from Health 2.0: two dozen of the most innovative new health apps
The Health 2.0 conference is probably the only “2.0″ conference that doesn’t belong to the O’Reilly empire (it was founded by healthcare visionaries Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya in 2007). However, like many of the other “2.0″ conferences, it also has a little identity crisis — exactly what does “Health 2.0″ mean? Well, that’s one of the questions 1000+ healthcare pioneers came together to discuss at this week’s conference in San Francisco.
On a high level,… Continue Reading
Health care: It’s time for technology
This is part of a series of posts about cutting-edge areas of innovation. The series is sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft authors will participate, as will VentureBeat writers and outside experts.
Here’s a sobering thought: I can walk into any local car dealership and buy a $30,000 piece of merchandise, leaving nothing behind but my signature — but if I show up that same day at the hospital, unconscious after a collision in my new car, there’s… Continue Reading
The new healthcare: Smart band aids, digital pills, wrist bands
[The following story, by Dr. Eric Topol of the non-profit West Wireless Health Institute, is part of a series of posts about cutting-edge areas of innovation. The series is sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft authors will participate, as will VentureBeat writers and outside experts.]
In the past decade, we’ve experienced the digitization of our music and our books; the next logical step is to take our health care digital. My friend Don Jones, who leads Qualcomm’s health… Continue Reading
MIT researchers create robotic fish for underwater exploration
Mother Nature’s mechanical and computing techniques are the subject of much admiration among computer researchers. That’s why a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created swimming robotic fish.
The robots can swim through water in a school or otherwise maneuver in places where underwater submarines can’t go. By creating machines that mimic biological functions, the researchers hope to produce robots with fluid movements that are far more nimble than today’s machines.
Mechanical engineers Kamal… Continue Reading
Spotify close to nabbing $50M from Facebook-backer Li Ka-Shing
Updated
Spotify, the streaming music service with more than two million users across Europe, may close a round of investment totaling up to $50 million and valuing the company at $250 million, the Financial Times reported today. The Swedish startup has reportedly piqued the interest of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing’s charitable foundation and London venture capital firm Wellington Partners. (Ka-Shing, pictured left, invested $60 million in Facebook last year.)
Heralded as a potential iTunes killer, the… Continue Reading
How much is Twitter worth? $589 million, says SharesPost report
(Red notes a base-case scenario and blue represents upside.)
Twitter shares might be worth between $19 and $26, giving the company a valuation of up to $589 million, according to NeXt Up! research. The report is part of SharesPost, a private equity market allowing buyers and sellers to exchange shares of pre-IPO companies. NeXt Up! is a research firm co-founded by Michael Moe, a former senior managing director and director of global growth research at Merrill… Continue Reading
Microsoft, Yahoo may finally embrace with search, advertising deal
Update: Such a deal has just been announced.
Yahoo and Microsoft are close to a search and advertising deal that would finally bring them together in a fight against Google’s dominance, according to the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo would use Microsoft’s Bing search engine for its properties and handle sales for some text ads in search results. The deal would deliver the pair 30 percent of the search market against Google’s 65 percent.
For Microsoft, the agreement… Continue Reading
VC investing rebounds in Q2, still at mid-1990s levels
Venture capital investment activity rebounded to $3.7 billion in the second quarter, but the gains are only enough to put the sector on track to match annual levels from more than 12 years ago.
While the change in direction is reassuring, it may be a dead-cat bounce after the first-quarter’s precipitous 40 percent drop in venture capital activity. We argued then that the goldrush era of technology prospecting may be over, as Silicon Valley has to… Continue Reading
StayHealthy launching calorie-tracking devices; iPhone app to follow
Monrovia, Calif.-based StayHealthy wants to put health monitoring devices used widely in research into the hands of mass-market consumers. It has built two devices, a body composition machine retailing at $99.95 and a calorie tracker for $69.95. But it’s also working on phone-based apps to help users monitor their calorie burn rate that should be available later this year.
So obsessive iPhone e-mail checkers may soon be able to apply that tenacity to their calorie count.
“We… Continue Reading
YouMail’s free iPhone app adds to Apple’s voicemail
Apple’s built-in voicemail app gets raves for allowing users to pick and choose messages from a list, like email rather than being forced to listen to them in order like a 1980’s tape-cassette answering machine. But there are extra steps still to be taken to make voicemail as powerful as email.
YouMail’s free iPhone app is, business-wise, a loss leader for the company’s transcription service, a subscription that starts at $3.99 a month. The app ties… Continue Reading
Anti-viral developer Alios raises $8M more for $32M
Alios BioPharma, developer of anti-viral therapies, has tacked $8 million onto its first round of funding, bringing its total to $32 million. The new money came solely from SR One. Based in South San Francisco, the company plans to use the money to push its lead compound past phase-one trials.
Alios brought in the initial $24 million from Novartis Ventures, Novo AS and Roche Venture Fund.
What’s next: A Pandora for fashion?
In recent pieces for VentureBeat, I’ve been proposing ideas for new companies. This next one was proposed by PayPal writer and fashionista April Van Scherpe.
Style is like pornography: you know it when you see it, but few can do it well. It’s a skill of creativity and pattern recognition, knowing the working combinations of color, line, and form. Many of us would like to have it but don’t have the time or inclination and resign… Continue Reading
Sans IPO, Bayhill secures $350M in Genentech licensing deal
Months after giving up on its IPO hopes last year — when the market was especially brutal for lifescience companies — Bayhill Therapeutics has landed a licensing deal worth $25 million in upfront cash and equity with Genentech. It could bring in as much as $325 million more if it hits certain sales and regulatory milestones, joining the ranks of several biotech firms that ditched public offerings for lucrative equity deals, VentureWire reports (citing Elixir… Continue Reading
Quub lets you share status updates from the past, present, and future
A new startup called Quub is taking a less frivolous approach to the status updates popularized by Facebook and Twitter. While Twitter asks users “What are you doing?” the actual messages veer into jokes, complaints, and other random thoughts. Quub, however, really is focused on telling people what you’re doing.
One way the Irvine, Calif., company does this is by dividing the updates into the past and present — and now, the future. Tweets on Twitter… Continue Reading
Limerick BioPharma raises $1.5M to limit drug side effects
Limerick BioPharma, a South San Francisco firm specializing in drugs that curb the side effects of other drugs, has brought in $1.5 million in debt, rights and securities that it plans to use as working capital, according to VentureWire. Formerly called Limerick Neurosciences, the company says its products minimize the toxic impact some drugs can have on organs that they aren’t targeting — making more medications safer for a wider range of people. So far,… Continue Reading
Lead Therapeutics captures $3M for cancer treatments
Lead Therapeutics, developer of medications for cancer and other infectious diseases, has roped $3 million of an expected $7 million round of debt and rights, reports VentureWire. Based in San Bruno, Calif., it previously brought in $17 million in a first round of venture funding in 2007 from Mustang Ventures, Pappas Ventures and ProQuest Investments. The company conducts most of its research and operations in China.
Estech pumps in $8M for heart surgery tools
Endoscopic Technologies, a company known as Estech that makes devices for minimally-invasive heart surgeries, has tacked $8 million onto an open second round of funding, bringing its total to $19.3 million. The new money will be used to boost the San Ramon, Calif. company to profitability, it says.
The extension came from NBGI Ventures, Saints Capital Everest, Telegraph Hill Partners and Waveland Venture Partners. Estech says it hopes to add $3 to $4 million more before… Continue Reading
Apieron inhales funds for asthma monitor
Apieron, maker of a device that monitors asthmatic conditions, has brought in an undisclosed sum in a fourth round of financing from existing investors Alliance Technology Ventures, Canaan Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Onset Ventures. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., the company says its lead product, which measures lung inflammation, has already earned requisite approval. It says the new funds will go toward marketing and further product development.
In 2003, Apieron brought in $4.6 million from… Continue Reading
Index Ventures launches pharma co. as acquisition bait
Index Ventures is partnering with Mountain View, Calif.-based biotech firm Amunix to launch Versartis, a pharmaceutical company that will market diabetes and metabolic disease treatments, reports VentureWire. Each partner owns half of the new company, which also just received $11 million from Index in first-round funding.
The team says it only needs to push one of the drugs through phase one clinical trials to be well-positioned for a lucrative acquisition. While they predict this will take… Continue Reading