Techhub knowledge

Meri Beckwith Contributor Meri Beckwith is an investor at Oxford Capital , a seed and Series A VC in the U.K., where he focuses on digital health, the future of mobility and consumer brands. It would be hard to argue that digital products have a net-positive impact on our health. Most are designed to provide the same dopamine hit as a slot machine. We all know someone who wasted their youth playing games that were designed to be all-consuming, with the World Health Organization recently going so far as to categorize  video game addiction as a mental health disorder. But this habit-forming power of digital products can be used for therapeutic benefit too, often by changing the behavior that causes disease or ill health. This new range of products is being commonly referred to as digital therapeutics . These apps and services offer evidence-based and personalized behavioral therapy, and cater to a broad cross-section of illnesses and conditions — from diabetes to loneliness...

Virtual reality is an isolating experience. You power it up, strap the headset on and just sort of drift off into your own world. But maybe that doesn’t have to be the case. Maybe there’s a way to slip into a virtual world and still interact with your surroundings. Electronauts presents an interesting example. Survios sees the title as a party game — something akin to what Guitar Hero/Rock Band was at the height of their collective powers, when people would set them up in their living room and invite friends over to play. The new title has one decided advantage over those older games, however: It’s impossible to hit a wrong note. That’s kind of the whole point, in fact. Unlike the gamification of Guitar Hero/Rock Band, Electronauts is more experiential, designed to create remixes of songs on the fly. I played a near final version of the title at a private demo in New York the other week, and mostly enjoyed the experience — my own personal hang-ups about doing VR in front of a room f...

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch : Test.ai raises $11M Series A led by Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund, to build a system for app testing that relies on bots   —  For developers, the process of determining whether every new update is going to botch some core functionality can take up a lot of time and resources … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2mVCHcy

Lily Katz / Bloomberg : Cryptocurrency exchange Binance buys Trust Wallet, its first acquisition, for undisclosed amount; the crypto wallet provider launched in Nov., has 10 employees   —  Binance, one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, is embarking on its first acquisition as it seeks to give customers more control over their digital coins. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2At7NBN

For developers, the process of determining whether every new update is going to botch some core functionality can take up a lot of time and resources, and things get far more complicated when you’re managing a multitude apps. Test.ai is building a comprehensive system for app testing that relies on bots, not human labor to see whether an app is ready to start raking in the downloads. The startup has just closed an $11 million Series A round led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture fund. Also participating in the round were e.ventures, Uncork Capital, and Zetta Venture Partners. Test.ai, which was founded in 2015, has raised $17.6 million to date. “Every advancement in training AI systems enables an advancement in user testing, and test.ai is the leader in AI-powered testing technology. We’re excited to help them supercharge their growth as they test every app in the world,” Gradient Ventures founder Anna Patterson said in a statement. “In a couple ye...

Gusto , which sells payroll, benefits and human resources management and monitoring services to small businesses, has raised $140 million in its latest round of funding. The company said it will use the money to add new services to increase payment flexibility for employees. The company launched a new service called Flexible Pay, which gives employees a way to get paid no matter when a company’s pay schedule dictates. It seems sort of like a payday loan where a percentage of the salary is taken by Gusto for providing money upfront. The late-stage round was led by T.Rowe Price Associates portfolio, MSD Capital (the family investment fund for Michael Dell), Dragoneer Investment Group, and Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. Previous investors including General Catalyst, CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins, 137 Ventures, Emergence Capital also participated in the round. The company claims that it processes tens of billions of dollars in payroll and offers a range of benefits including health in...

Nat Levy / GeekWire : Zillow expands its Zillow Rental Manager service by letting US landlords collect applications and rent   —  Zillow Group today debuted new features that let people pay rent and apply for apartments through its website, the latest example of the Seattle tech giant's move to cover a bigger portion of the home rental and sales processes. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2KaHTm8