22 Mar
UAV, News, Startup

Terra Drone’s Investment in Aloft Technologies Marks Entry into U.S. Market and Accelerates Global UTM Development

Terra Drone Corporation, a leading Japanese provider of drone and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) technology, has recently invested in Aloft Technologies, a U.S. company specializing in UTM development and a leader in drone fleet and airspace management. This investment has made Terra Drone the largest shareholder in Aloft, with Aloft now an affiliate company of Terra Drone. Additionally, Yuki Ueno, Terra Drone’s executive officer responsible for domestic and international Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management (UTM) business, has joined the board of directors at Aloft.

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15 Mar
News, Startup

ShopMy Secures $18.5M Funding to Boost Influencers’ Earnings from Product Promotions

ShopMy, a marketing platform enabling content creators to collaborate with brands and monetize their content, recently announced securing $18.5 million in funding. The investment will be utilized to further expand its network of 40,000 creators, including Alix Earle, a prominent influencer with over 10 million followers on TikTok and Instagram.

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13 Mar
Autonomous Vehicles, News, Startup

Phantom Auto, a Startup Specializing in Remote Driving Technology, is Closing its Doors.

Phantom Auto, a pioneer in remote driving technology, is closing its doors after seven years of operation. The startup, which garnered significant attention in the autonomous vehicle industry, raised a total of $95 million in funding, including a substantial $25 million round in 2023. Despite this, the company was unable to secure additional funding to sustain its operations.

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12 Mar
Artificial Intelligence, News, Startup

French Startup Nijta Aims to Safeguard Voice Privacy in AI Applications

Nijta, a company headquartered in Lille, France, has emerged as a key player in the field of voice anonymization and privacy protection, particularly in the context of stringent data protection laws such as GDPR. Founded by CEO Brij Srivastava, who relocated to France for his PhD at INRIA, Nijta has developed AI-powered speech anonymization technology to assist organizations in complying with privacy regulations.

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07 Mar
Startup, Autonomous Vehicles, News

Saildrone, The First Aluminum Surveyor Autonomous Vessel Makes a Splash for Navy Testing

Saildrone has launched the first of its new generation of Surveyor autonomous vessels, an aluminum version that the Navy is interested in utilizing. However, these vessels are not being armed.

Founder and CEO Richard Jenkins stated that the demand for vessels like Saildrone’s is increasing. He believes that ocean observing will continue to grow in size, complexity, and quality, with aerial, surface, and subsurface technologies all playing a role.

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FlowGpt HomePage
27 Feb
Artificial Intelligence, News, Startup

Meet FlowGPT, the App Store for Generative AI

A few months ago, OpenAI launched the GPT Store, a marketplace where people can create and list AI-powered chatbots customized to perform a number of tasks (e.g., coding, answering trivia questions). The GPT Store is powerful, but using it requires using OpenAI’s models exclusively, which some creators and users are opposed to doing.
In response, startups like FlowGPT are emerging as alternatives. FlowGPT aims to be an “app store” for generative AI models, including Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama 2, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, as well as front-end experiences for those models. Through FlowGPT, users can build their own GenAI-powered apps and make them publicly available, earning tips for their contributions.
Meet the Founders
Co-founded by Jay Dang, a UC Berkeley computer science dropout, and Lifan Wang, a former engineering manager at Amazon, FlowGPT was born out of a desire to create a platform where people could quickly create and share GenAI apps. Dang describes FlowGPT as an “ecosystem” for GenAI-powered apps, providing infrastructure, creator tools, a marketplace, and a community for users and creators. Users get a feed of apps and collections recommended to them based on categories like “Creative,” “Programming,” “Game,” and “Academic,” while creators have options for customizing the behavior and appearance of their apps.
Interaction with GenAI apps on FlowGPT is through a chat window similar to ChatGPT, with options to type prompts, rate apps, share conversations, and tip creators. Each app comes with a description, creation date, usage statistics, and the recommended model to power it.
 
Challenges Ahead
However, FlowGPT heavily relies on ChatGPT, and many apps break when the model is switched from the default. This can be due to the selected model’s capabilities or running up against its filters and safeguards. Some of FlowGPT’s popular apps are jailbreaks designed to circumvent models’ safety measures, potentially causing harm. FlowGPT offers a toggle for “sensitive content” and allows users to report offensive apps, but moderation is a challenge, and the effectiveness of the toggle is questionable.
Despite these challenges, investors like Goodwater see potential in FlowGPT, leading a $10 million “pre-Series A” round. Goodwater partner Coddy Johnson believes FlowGPT is leading the way in GenAI by offering choice, flexibility, and freedom to both users and creators.
 
What’s Next
Dang acknowledges the need for improvement, stating that FlowGPT is committed to ethical practices and public safety. The company is proactively engaging with experts in AI ethics to develop strategies to minimize risks associated with AI deployment.
Currently, FlowGPT is not revenue-generating but is beta-testing apps for Android and iOS, revamping the FlowGPT experience for mobile, working on a revenue-sharing model for app creators, and expanding its team. Dang believes FlowGPT is setting a new standard for immersion in AI-driven environments, offering a world where creativity knows no bounds, and remains committed to cultivating a more open and creator-focused platform.

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08 Feb
Startup, News

Polycam, 3D Scanning App Secured $18 Million Funding Backed by Youtube Co-Founder

Polycam, a cutting-edge app leveraging smartphone sensors to capture detailed 3D scans of objects, has secured significant funding from notable investors, including Adobe and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.
The company recently announced the closure of an $18 million Series A round, led by Left Lane Capital, with contributions from Adobe Ventures, Hurley, and others. Chris Heinrich, co-founder and CEO of Polycam, stated that the capital infusion will bolster the development of new 3D editing and collaboration features, the training of AI models for enhanced rendering of 3D objects, and facilitate expansion into new markets.
What is PolyCam?
Established in early 2021 by Heinrich and Elliott Spelman, both former colleagues at Ubiquity6, a startup specializing in mobile 3D scanning and AR technology, Polycam aims to democratize 3D content creation using technologies like the lidar sensor found in recent iPhone models.
Heinrich emphasized the challenges and opportunities inherent in the 3D modeling space, noting that while the core technology for 3D capture is still evolving, advancements in AI-driven 3D capture, combined with Polycam’s extensive data, are poised to significantly enhance quality and ease-of-use in the coming years, opening up new use cases and driving adoption.
Polycam offers a suite of 3D capture and modeling tools tailored to various use cases. Leveraging the lidar sensor on iPhones, the app can generate 3D scans of users’ surroundings, such as rooms in their homes. Additionally, the “Photo Mode,” available on mobile devices and the web, utilizes photogrammetry to create 3D models of objects by capturing and stitching together images. Polycam also enables the capture of “photo spheres” and 360-degree skybox images using smartphone cameras. Moreover, the app hosts a library of free 3D models shared by the Polycam community for users to incorporate into their projects.
Polycam operates on a subscription model, charging $100 per year for advanced features aimed at professional users.
[caption id="attachment_16884" align="aligncenter" width="400"] 3D-Scanned-Mini-Golf-Polycam-3D-Scanning[/caption]
 
What’s Next
While there are several apps in the market for smartphone-based 3D object capture, Polycam has benefitted from market consolidation in recent years, with major acquisitions such as Niantic acquiring Scaniverse, Discord acquiring Ubiquity6, and Snap purchasing Th3rd.
With nearly 100,000 paying customers and over 10 million downloads of its iPhone and Android apps, Polycam has achieved strong revenue growth and maintained profitability for multiple months in 2023, despite challenging economic conditions.
The decision to raise external capital aims to facilitate more aggressive expansion plans, including the development of new AI-powered capabilities, the introduction of enterprise subscription tiers, and doubling the company’s workforce by 2025.
Furthermore, Polycam is poised to expand its presence to the Vision Pro, Apple’s AR headset, which will become a key focus area for the company in the coming months. Additionally, Polycam is investing in training AI models to enhance the fidelity of its scans by filling in gaps missed during the scanning process, such as capturing the underside of objects like sofas or cars.
Through these strategic initiatives, Polycam aims to solidify its position as a leader in the 3D capture and modeling space while driving innovation and accessibility in content creation technologies.

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