#NL16 FemTech sector to be worth $1 trillion by 2027 | Vertex-AI available to everyone | Better.com lays off | Tiki-a short video maker app shuts its business | Bing's chatbot is the new buzz in AI
FemTech sector, a taboo to be worth $1 trillion by 2027:
Femtech is a term that refers to diagnostic tools, products, services, wearables and software that use technology to address women's health issues, including menstrual health, reproductive health, sexual health, maternal health and menopause.
Ida Tin who coined the term “Femtech” wanted to study art at college when she accidentally landed herself a place on a business course – she then became a pioneer of an industry set to be worth more than $1 trillion.
“Not because [investors] don’t want to know and not because they’re purposefully ignorant, but I think it’s an overall societal problem that sort of permeates the investing world.”And while the number of female investors is limited, the gender balance within company teams can also impact how difficult it is to get backing, Valerie Evans, consumer investor at venture capital fund The Craftory
Women make up more than 50% of the global population, which means the target market for products focusing on their health is massive. But just 3.3% of digital health investment in the U.S. went towards women’s health between 2011 and 2020, according to digital consultancy Rock Health.
Google’s Vertex-AI platform is available for public use now:
It provides a comprehensive ecosystem of tools to support model developers in fine-tuning, developing, and managing models in production. Developers can now utilize its features such as PaLM2, the embedding API for text. The public preview of the Codey model which completes our code and suggests the code generation is now available to everyone. The generative AI support on Vertex AI was initially announced in March and has undergone refinement and development through collaboration with trusted testers, Google revealed.
Better.com lays off:
Digital mortgage lender Better.com is exiting the real estate business.
The struggling fintech startup laid off its real estate team on June 7. The company is said to be shifting from an in-house agent model to a partnership agent model. Better Real Estate aimed to be competitive with the likes of Zillow and Redfin, and the company had reportedly followed the same salaried-agent model. In less than a nine-month period, it let go of thousands of workers, and numerous senior executives stepped down.
TechCrunch reached out to Better.com, which declined to comment on the record. It is not clear how many people were impacted.
Tiki-a short video maker app shuts its business:
The Indian TikTok rival has shared official news that it is going to shut its business. Tiki allows users to make short videos or watch streams. It has over 100 million downloads on Play Store and is ranked top 30 grossing apps on the Play Store in India.
“The recent challenges faced by the tech industry have led to the closure of numerous startups,” a post on Tiki’s social media accounts said. “Despite being a small startup operating in Singapore and India, Tiki has always stood for being a place for real talents”, Team Tiki.
Bing’s chatbot now lets you ask questions with your voice on the desktop:
Microsoft is bringing Bing’s voice mode to Edge on desktop. With this latest update, you can now ask Bing’s chatbot questions using your voice — and it will respond in a voice of its own. In recent news, Microsoft conveyed that it will end the support of Cortana on Windows.
Just like the feature on the mobile version of Edge, you can select the microphone button on Bing’s chat box and then ask your question aloud. Microsoft says its chatbot currently supports English, Japanese, French, German, and Mandarin but notes that additional languages are “on the way.”
Quick Reads:
Allen Institute teams up with AWS to build first-ever map of the brain:
Allen x AWS teams up to build “Brain Knowledge Platform”, a map of the human brain. The institute is using single-cell genomics technologies. Researchers measure the genes used by individual brain cells to create a “cell fingerprint,” and cells with similar fingerprints will be grouped into “cell types,” resulting in a high-resolution map of the entire brain.
China’s Nio, an electric car brand is cutting its car prices by ~$4199:
Along with the price cut, the company has decided to end the free battery-swapping service for buyers considering it a loss-making move at the battery-swapping stations. CEO William Li said it will not join the price war since Tesla slashed its car prices in the U.S. this year.
Teaser’s AI dating app turns you into a chatbot:
Teaser AI is a new dating app from the team that made Dispo, a photo-sharing app designed to mimic the spontaneity of disposable cameras. The twist with Teaser is that before you swipe right or left on someone, you can chat with their AI likeness to get a feel for their personality!
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