Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 14th October 2018
News you can use
Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women – Amazon.com Inc’s machine-learning specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like women. The team had been building computer programs since 2014 to review job applicants’ resumes with the aim of mechanizing the search for top talent, five people familiar with the effort told Reuters. Automation has been key to Amazon’s e-commerce dominance, be it inside warehouses or driving pricing decisions. The company’s experimental hiring tool used artificial intelligence to give job candidates scores ranging from one to five stars – much like shoppers rate products on Amazon, some of the people said.
image from techfunnel.com
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Corporate M&A
Transportation Startup Passport Acquires License Plate Reading Company NuPark – Passport got a big investment last year, and started looking for acquisition opportunities. Passport, a startup that makes software to manage payments and other aspects of parking, transit and tolling, has acquired the license plate reading company NuPark. NuPark is focused on parking specifically, with an emphasis on technology that allows cameras to read license plates, generating data as well as citations for violations. Passport already had a substantial footprint in parking, creating mobile apps for more than 450 customers, mostly in the public sector. Larger cities like Boston and Chicago, as well as smaller municipalities such as Morton, Pa., have Passport apps that allow customers to pay for parking with their cellphones.
Salesforce acquires interactive email startup Rebel – The SaaS software giant Salesforce has acquired an interactive email services startup Rebel. The acquisition of Rebel highlights how Salesforce is trying to provide new ways for marketers to deliver personalized and interactive emails to consumers.
Apple bought a machine learning green screen startup to focus on AR – Apple has quietly bought Spektral, a Danish machine learning startup that specializes in real-time green screen technology. The $30 million deal actually happened last year, but it was reported today by Danish newspaper Børsen. Apple has been focusing more and more on its AR capabilities lately, and this latest acquisition may be meant to boost the iPhone’s AR features for Memoji or FaceTime or as a part of its plans for an augmented reality headset, which Bloomberg reported may be coming in 2020.
Failed Startups
What is the best way to explain a failed startup on your resume or LinkedIn profile? An interesting question on the online Q&A forum Quora has some interesting responses
Bitcoin exchange, Zebpay shuts but promises to keep its wallet functional for users – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had released a statement in April directing all regulated entities, including banks, e-wallets, and payment gateway providers, to stop dealing with individuals and businesses in the partially banned crypto-currencies. Following this, Zebpay had asked its users to withdraw money before the deadline following RBI mandate.
Rethink Robotics, Pioneer of Collaborative Robots, Shuts Down – The premier robotics companies based in New England has shut down, according to reports by The Robot Report and The Boston Globe. Rethink was founded as Heartland Robotics 10 years ago. The startup was focused on developing collaborative factory robots, had raised more than $130 million in venture funding.