PrecisionHawk Gains Investments from DOCOMO, Verizon, Intel

PrecisionHawk, a start-up that specializes in data collection via drones, closed $18 million Series C funding round with strategic investments from NTT DOCOMO, Verizon Ventures, Intel Capital, USAA, Yamaha Motors and others. This investment brings PrecisionHawk’s total funding to more than $30 million.

PrecisionHawk said the new funding will be used to expand its terrestrial data analysis platform, DataMapper, which currently ingests data from all drone systems but, in the future, will combine aerial data from satellites and manned aviation so users can manage, analyze and compare all incoming data sources on a single platform.

http://media.precisionhawk.com/topic/series-c/

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NTT Tackles Artificial Spin for Photonic Computation

Researchers at NTT and and Osaka University announced an important step toward photonic computation by developing a large-scale artificial spin network based on photonics technologies. The development targets a fundamental component for the coherent Ising machine (CIM), which utilizes interacting artificial spins realized with optical parametric oscillators (OPO) for computation of combinatorial optimization problems.

The researchers generated more than 10,000 time-multiplexed OPOs using an optical fiber cavity as long as 1 km.

The OPOs can be used as artificial spins for a large-scale CIM to solve combinatorial optimization problems in the real world. The research was published in the UK science journal “Nature Photonics” on April 18, 2006.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2016/1604e/160418a.html

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Peraso Raises $20 Million for WiGig Silicon

Peraso Technologies, a start-up based in Toronto, raised a $20 million funding round, to support its development of 60 GHz chip sets and solutions compliant with the IEEE 802.11ad specification.

Peraso said its WiGig IC solutions, which are now in production, address both next generation WiFi opportunities in the consumer electronics (CE) space, as well as outdoor devices in the 60 GHz wireless infrastructure space.

The round was co-led by IDT and included existing investor Roadmap Capital (Roadmap), with additional financing from iNovia Capital.

“The interest we’re seeing in WiGig is tremendous,” said Ron Glibbery, President and CEO of Peraso. “Multi-Gigabit wireless connectivity is something that more and more CE and wireless infrastructure manufacturers are seeking to incorporate in their products.  Raising this capital allows Peraso to take our sales to the next level. Participation by IDT provides further validation of the market opportunity, and continued participation from Roadmap, as well as iNovia, speaks to the tremendous success the company has demonstrated in getting our first ICs to market.”

http://www.perasotech.com

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