Latest VatorNews stories

• Airbnb's early days living and working in an apartment

  by Bambi Francisco Roizen, May 24, 2018

  As Airbnb's Travel Stories feature gets noticed, here's the founders' early story

  Just like Amazon has become more than just books, Airbnb has become far more than a place to rent your un-utilized sofa or bedroom. It's become a travel conglomerate. It's a place to share your adventures, book your local outings with Airbnb Trips (launched in 2016) and make restaurant reservations and now it's a place where you can share your story, or videos or photos about your vacation with Ai

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• The death of psychotherapy as we know it

  by George Eleftheriou, May 23, 2018

  A manifesto for augmented mental health

  When Haris and I started our startup journey a few years ago, we had both recently struggled with our Mental Health. I was recovering from a depressive burnout after overworking myself, and he was having panic attacks out of the blue. Both of us, decided to start psychotherapy, and quickly realized that psychotherapy -although extremely helpful, and probably the best investment we’ve done in

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• Healthcare artificial intelligence platform OWKIN raises funding from GV

  by Steven Loeb, May 23, 2018

  OWKIN is an AI startup that uses machine learning to augment medical and biology research

  "OWKIN Socrates is innovative because it enables non-data scientists to use machine learning to continue creating monumental advancements in medical research," he said. "Our technology allows researchers to make discoveries by combining multiple data types, from genomics to radiology, and from pathology to clinical data. Our federated learning technology allows researchers from hospitals, academic

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• Iora Health raises $100M to transform the primary care model

  by Steven Loeb, May 21, 2018

  The company currently has practices in seven states and doubled its number of patients last year

  "Iora teams see fewer patients than traditional primary care practices. Our providers have panels that are a third the size of traditional primary care panels. We can do this because of our relationship based care model. By providing high impact, relationship based care, we are able to keep our patients healthier, saving on total medical expenses. This often saves the patient money, as well as the

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• How does Coinbase make money?

  by Steven Loeb, May 18, 2018

  Coinbase charges its users fees for buying and selling cryptocurrencies on the platform

  For example, in Australia and Canada, there is a 3.99 percent fee for those who buy and sell currency using a credit card. In Europe, Singapore and the U.K. the credit card fee is 1.49 percent, though Europeans and those in the U.K. also have the option to use what are known as Instant Buys which "allows customers to make purchases immediately without missing opportunities due to market fluctuation."

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• Interview with Brian Brackeen, founder of face recognition company, Kairos

  A discussion about the data that drives the recognition service, plus a look at privacy concerns

  Both AI and facial recognition are hot topics in the world of tech, with much of that coming from the innovations of companies like Apple and Google that are bringing the technology to scale for a mass ...
  By Josiah Motley
  

• Crypto startup, Compound, gets support from Coinbase Ventures

  The service wants to create a liquid money market for cryptocurrencies

  The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, crypto hedge fund Polychain Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures. In total there were eight investors, including Transmedia Capital, Compound Ventures, and ...
  By Josiah Motley
  

• Future of behavioral and mental health - week 3

  Novartis to push software as a drug; Smartphone use in mental health treatments

  Some time ago, I received a t-shirt as a gift that said: "I'm silently judging you." Now, no one wants to be judged nor do they want to amplify that they're guilty of passing judgment. But I've worn the ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• DigiLens raises $25M, partners with Continental to put augmented reality displays in their cars

  DigiLens creates AR displays for applications that include airplanes and motorcycle helmets

  For all the buzz that augmented and virtual have been getting for the past few years, especially with devices like Google Glass and the Pokemon Go phenomenon creating big headlines, the truth is that both ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Accelerators targeting cannabis companies

  They include The Sira Accelerator, CanopyBoulder, Greenhouse Ventures and Gateway Incubator

  For startups, there are numerous paths for getting their name out there. One way, which Vator has been covering recently, are startup competitions, but another popular method to get a foot in the door, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Q1 earnings: tech stocks see little impact from data usage scandal

  Facebook, Google and Twitter all over performed during the first three months of this year

  Toward the end of the the first quarter of 2018, the tech world was shaken by the Cambridge Analytics scandal, which suddenly shone a harsh light on how major companies like Twitter, Google and, especially, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Corporate Innovator: Shailesh Prakash, Chief Information Officer at the Washington Post

  Since being purchased by Jeff Bezos in 2013, WaPo has made technology a bigger part of its culture

  The internet has been both a blessing and a curse for traditional news outlets: while sites now have unlimited space to fill, and the ability to reach just about everyone on the planet, they have also ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Choosy raises $5.4M to build out its on-demand social shopping platform

  The company owns its entire supply chain, allowing it to manufacture and deliver cheaper and faster

  Social and e-commerce have always seemed like they'd be a match made in heaven. After, that's where people spend so much of their time so what better way to get people to buy stuff than by going where ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Online grocery delivery company Good Eggs raises $50M

  Good Eggs differentiates itself by giving its users produce that is locally sourced and fresh

  The food delivery space has seen a massive shift in the last few years. This was a space that was, at one point, seeing its numbers double year-to-year, but since then it has seen a lot of consolidation ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• The big niche: Start small, think big

  How marketplaces that begin with a narrow focus end up ruling the world

  No matter how powerful, influential, larger-than-life and ubiquitous companies become, many share the same humble origins: they start with an unknown founder and an idea that was often aimed at serving ...
  By Matthew Kropp
  

• Accelerators targeting cleantech companies

  They include Cleantech Open National, Cascadia CleanTech Accelerator and Elemental Excelerator

  For startups, there are numerous paths for getting their name out there. One way, which Vator has been covering recently, are startup competitions, but another popular method to get a foot in the door, ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Avaamo raises $14.2M to expand its conversational AI platform for large enterprises

  Avaamo, which launched last year, has customers in 40 countries around the globe

  When most of us think about artificial intelligence, the first thing that probably comes to mind are the customer service chatbots that we use on Facebook Messenger. While that may be how the average consumer ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Epic acquihires of the last couple years

  Apple, Uber, Airbnb and Snap have all purchased companies largely for their talent

  Investors: DRW Venture Capital, Zillionize Angel, 1776 Ventures, Kima Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, KPCB Edge, Runa Capital, T5 Capital, Canyon Creek Capital, Wei Guo, Y Combinator, Dr. E. Bora Uygun, Right ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Karl Marx and Kanye West on behavioral, mental health

  Behavioral and Mental Health - Week 2: A change of parenting; mental health a taboo topic

  We've all come to know of German philosopher Karl Marx's famous saying about religion. Religion is the "opium of the people." He wasn't exactly incorrect or unsympathetic to religion. He did rightly observe ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• SoundHound takes $100M from strategic investors, including Hyundai, Daimler and Tencent

  With this funding, SoundHound is now valued at $1 billion

  With the rise of chatbots and smart speakers, more and more brands want to incorporate voice-enabled AI into the products. The problem is that they aren't going to take the years of research and development ...
  By Steven Loeb
  
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