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‘Chinese companies lead the way in fintech innovation’

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alipay

China-based investment expert Edward Tse, CEO of Gao Feng, says financial technology companies are thriving in China 

With the Chinese government keen to encourage innovation the fintech revolution is quickly gaining pace. Financial technologies companies backed by Chinese venture capital raised $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2016, according to accounting firm KPMG.

This represented a 49 per cent share of global fintech investment in the period, bigger than that of North America and Europe combined.

Ant Financial Services Group, Alibaba Group Holding’s fintech affiliate, itself raised $4.5 billion in April, making it the largest round of funding for a fintech company in the world.  [Read more…] about ‘Chinese companies lead the way in fintech innovation’

The Toyota Corolla at 50: The best-selling car of all time

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The Toyota Corolla is by far the best-selling model of car ever made, with close to 50 million units sold since its launch in 1966. 

The company commemorated the 50th anniversary last month of “the car for everyone” by producing a video and other content looking back on its success in putting Toyota on the global automaking map.

One notable story told of how one owner has been driving his first-generation Corolla since he bought it in 1969 at the age of 24.  [Read more…] about The Toyota Corolla at 50: The best-selling car of all time

Investing in robotics: Will ‘makers’ make a difference in the established industry?

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macgyver-movie

In this part of our series of articles about investing in robotics and automation, Brian Gahsman, managing partner and chief investment officer at GBSfunds, gives his view of how new inventors can change the market and what his company, Gahsman Branton, is interested in investing in 

Check out realtime stock prices for companies in the robotics, automation and relating computing sectors

Robotics and Automation News: More “maker” and startup companies seem able to produce robotics and automation technology. How will this affect the market? 

Brian Gahsman: We are barely on the cusp of seeing the flood of startups that will enter this space. Now that the technology is at a point of cost effectiveness many who for decades were only hobbyists now have the ability to bring their creations to the market.

As that trend increases so will the rate of M&A activity which we are already seeing with companies like Kuka as well as the recent acquisition of SLM Solutions and Arcam by GE in attempt to corner the market in metal based additive 3D printing.  [Read more…] about Investing in robotics: Will ‘makers’ make a difference in the established industry?

PLM software overview: From car manufacturing to the clothes trade

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Product lifecycle management software, or PLM, is a fancy term referring to computer applications which help organise information relating to researching, designing, developing, manufacturing, distributing and maintaining products a company makes. 

Not all PLM software is the same, of course. Some emphasise the research and development area, while others are more concerned with costs and distribution. But mostly PLM is thought of as an engineering system, and mostly it’s customised for large companies, although it’s moving to the cloud more and becoming accessible to smaller companies.

Essentially, PLM software enables companies to speed up the development of their products at the same time as improving its quality, durability and other important aspects.  [Read more…] about PLM software overview: From car manufacturing to the clothes trade

Lucas presents Comau to France

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comau-lucas-robotics

Robotics and automation distributor Lucas is presenting Comau robots to its French market at an event this week.

Lucas signed a deal with Comau as an official distributor of its robots in France. Lucas, is a long-established French company based in Bazas, and has been active for over 50 years in manufacturing and supplying linear axis and Cartesian robots.

Lucas organized an open house October 12 and 13 in order to present the new partnership with Comau, and a series of products and active robot cells to the market and French media.  [Read more…] about Lucas presents Comau to France

Clearpath Robotics raises $30 million to expand Otto self-driving logistics vehicle technology

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Funding from iNovia Capital, Caterpillar Ventures, GE Ventures and previous investors will expand new Otto Motors division

Clearpath Robotics, a leading provider of self-driving vehicle solutions, announced today the completion of a $30 million investment led by iNovia Capital with participation from Caterpillar Ventures, GE Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, RRE Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

Clearpath will use the funding to grow the company’s industrial division, Otto Motors. Clearpath launched Otto Motors in 2015 to focus on self-driving vehicles for material transport inside manufacturing and warehouse operations.

Matt Rendall, CEO and co-founder of Clearpath, says: “Factories operate like small indoor cities, complete with roads, traffic, intersections and pedestrians.

“Unlike city streets, a factory floor is a controlled environment, which makes it an ideal place to introduce self-driving vehicles at scale. Companies like Google, Tesla and Uber are still testing, whereas our self-driving vehicles are commercially available today.”  [Read more…] about Clearpath Robotics raises $30 million to expand Otto self-driving logistics vehicle technology

Investing in robotics: Established companies or startups?

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midea-kuka
Picture courtesy: Caixin Online

In this part of our series of articles about investing in robotics and automation, Brian Gahsman, managing partner and chief investment officer at GBSfunds, explains what type of robotics and automation enterprises his company, Gahsman Branton, is interested in investing in 

Check out realtime stock prices for companies in the robotics, automation and relating computing sectors

Robotics and Automation News: Are you mainly looking at investing in established companies or startups?

Brian Gahsman: Actually both. There is a great number of publicly traded companies in this space with established earnings and the leaders make a solid foundation of the holdings in my strategy. That being said, even these established companies began as startups in the not so distant past.

I believe that robotics and automation in itself is currently in its infancy stage so maintaining a solid blend of micro-cap, small cap, mid-cap and large cap stocks is the only way to assure my strategy as a whole rides the same wave as the technological evolution that it is based on.  [Read more…] about Investing in robotics: Established companies or startups?

Vacuum cleaning robots invading homes all over the world

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Long-exposure photo showing path taken by Roomba in 45 minutes. Picture: Wikipedia

Other than washing the dishes, vacuuming the house is probably the most boring activity in the world, and probably only a very few sane humans would enjoy the activity. 

But household chores need to be done, and it is this human right to avoid boring tasks which the robots are exploiting to find their way into homes all over the world.

In the future, when we look back at how the robots took over everything, it’s probably not industrial robots which will be blamed – because they’re mostly caged off and controlled inside factories: it’s the vacuuming and other cleaning robots we should be scared of.

They might look innocent – with their rounded edges and small, apparently unintimidating size, maybe even reminiscent of a slow-moving pet cat, only better behaved – but vacuuming robots could be seen as the artificially intelligent machine army’s frontline infantry in the battle for the future of humanity, and they are gaining more and more floorspace every day.  [Read more…] about Vacuum cleaning robots invading homes all over the world

Collaborative robots are driving the global market, says Universal Robots

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Daniel Friis, Universal Robots
Daniel Friis, Universal Robots

The International Federation of Robots, the source of much authoritative research about the industry, has released its latest survey of the global market. 

With such a wide-ranging study, there’s probably something for everyone to highlight which is relevant to them.

For example, from the point of view of Universal Robots, the IFR report’s most interesting and relevant finding is that collaborative robots have been the market driver in recent times.

Given that Universal is a manufacturer of collaborative industrial robots, the fact that they consider that particular aspect of IFR’s study most noteworthy may not be surprising.

Universal recently announced that it has so far sold 10,000 of its collaborative robots worldwide, which probably makes it the world’s largest manufacturer of collaborative robots.  [Read more…] about Collaborative robots are driving the global market, says Universal Robots