HARNESS THE STARS? PSEG Long Island is looking to power the Hamptons with a series of small energy points capable of operating with the grid or independently, Capital NY’s David Giambusso reports. The utility hopes to avoid costly investment in transmission lines and new power plants, which it has said aren’t needed on the Island. Well, the rest of the Island.
HEAR ME, SEE ME: Greenlawn’s BAE Systems landed a Pentagon contract to help Navy jets identify themselves to friend and foe. Newsday
SELF DEFENSE: Toronto-based Gata Labs will partner with three Montauk-based taxi companies – Ditch Plains Taxi, Moko Taxi and The End Taxi – to offer an Uber-styled platform that operates on Android and IoS.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
THERMOLIFT, RISING: With a team of ever-heavier hitters, a prototype heading for field tests and a big new equity investment on the way, Stony Brook-based ThermoLift is fired up. Innovate
WEB MASTERS: Zuznow, an Israeli startup that creates apps from just about anything running on the Internet, usually for medium- to large-sized companies, is hiring up for its move into Start-Up NY space at Stony Brook University. Well, as soon as some pesky immigration paperwork gets completed. Innovate
The Long Island Science Hub has amassed $8.4 million to give out as grants to researchers willing to commercialize their discoveries.
The SEC passed new rules that allow telephone carriers to block robocalls and texts, significantly increasing potential for firms like Port Jeff’s Nomorobo. Founder Aaron Foss’ role in the procedings, besides testifying: dropping off 250 pounds of complaint letters from local consumers.
Pall Corp. CEO Lawrence Kingsley will parachute out when his company’s sale to Danaher Corp. closes later this year, taking more than $100M in severance and other bennies. The SEC filing
LaunchPad plans to open a branch at NYIT.
Tech companies are struggling to fill openings requiring experience.
As we learn from Dollar Shave Club, viral marketing can give you a significant boost out of the gates. If you’ve got the goods to back it up.
Henry Schein acquired something again. This time, a Danish animal-health products firm.
The LI Brew Bus has learned a lot in its first few weeks of operation. Like not talking on the job.
Veteran contractor Joe Valenti couldn’t make things work with Quirky, so he’sgoing his own way.
Cablevision upped its downstream speed to 25 Mbps, from 15. No added charge. Multichannel
Arie Kaufman, chief scientist at SBU’s wireless tech center, has received a $1M grant to explore the use of virtual reality in pancreatic cancer research.
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ABOUT OUR SPONSOR: The Long Island Business Development Council has helped build the regional economy for more than 45 years by bringing together government economic development officials, developers, financial experts and others for education, debate and networking. libdc.org
ELSEWHERE
FAMILIAR RING TO IT: A Google startup is pushing to convert more payphone booths in New York City into free WiFi hubs.
SPEC DEVELOPMENT: British eyewear company Adlens created self-adjustable glasses for the developing world, allowing wearers to dial in their ideal magnification without the need for an optometrist. Now the firm is launching the technology everywhere as an alternative to bifocals. The glasses sport two lenses per eye and adjusting roller wheels that allow you to find the focal sweet spot.
Why they’ll take off: They provide four times the focal area of regular progressive lenses.
Why they won’t: The glasses start at $1K per pair.
Also: NYC is partnering with Warby Parker, the online eyeglass platform, to provide about 20,000 free pairs of glasses to students in the city’s 130 underperforming or under-attended community schools, Capital education writer Eliza Shapiro reports.
UBER UNTER FIRE: A proposal by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio to temporarily cap the number of new vehicle-for-hire licenses would “break” ride-hailing app Uber – and that may be the cab union’s intent, an Uber exec charged on Thursday. The proposal would limit new Uber drivers to 201 per year; it plans to add thousands.
LITTLEBIT OF EQUITY: LittleBits Electronics, a maker of modular electronic parts that snap together like Legos, has raised $44.2 million to expand into education and corporate programs, plus a global push. It will also foray into retail through a deal with Barnes & Noble. CNY
MISSED A ROUNDUP? Most are archived here
A MIGHTY WIND. AND SOLAR. Back in 2009, the Energy Information Administration predicted U.S. wind power would grow modestly, reaching 44 gigawatts of generating capacity in 2030, while solar power would grow even slower, to 12 GW. Just six years later, U.S. wind capacity is already at 66 GW, and solar has shot up to 21 GW, Politico’s Michael Grunwald reports.
That’s enough to power 25 million American homes, or more than three times what the EIA expected.
SEED FUNDING: Under increasing pressure from rival streaming music services like Apple Music and Google Play, Spotify has acquired an analytics startup, Seed Scientific, which previously crunched data for Spotify competitor Beats Music, which Apple acquired last year for $3 billion.
WEWORK HARD FOR THE MONEY. NOT: WeWork, the Manhattan-based co-working space, has raised $400M, doubling the startup’s valuation to $10B. Founder Adam Neumann told the WSJ that he wasn’t even looking for capital but eventually caved to repeated requests from investors. The valuation puts the firm on par with some of NYC’s largest real estate portfolios, even though WeWork merely leases space. Bloomberg
A tighter niche: Brooklyn Creative League is expanding after filling up with 200 architects, attorneys, Web developers, writers, photographers and graphic designers, most of whom share one thing: They’re new parents. CNY
DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXT US: NYC healthtech startup Cureatr announced a $13 million raise from a group led by Manhattan’s Deerfield Investments. The company’s software, which allows secure messaging between doctors and staff, has been used by Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. CNY
LOVE ME, TINDER: Barry Diller has set an IPO for the Match Group, a bundle of dating and other services assembled via the acquisition of, among other things, Ticketmaster. Included: Match.com, OKCupid, HowAboutWe and the dating app Tinder.
Strange bedfellows in Diller’s rollup include The Princeton Review and fitness app Daily Burn.
THE INTERNET OF POTENTIAL THINGS: A new report from McKinsey – so it must be true – pegs the future potential of the Internet of Things at $11T, assuming developers figure out what to do with all the data. The study notes, for example, that computing once suffered the so-called productivity paradox, during which greater efficiency showed up everywhere except productivity numbers.
“It will be a challenge for companies to find ways to both organize and take advantage” of all that IoT data, said Michael Chui, one of the report’s authors.
PIT MASTER APPS: GrillTime tells you how long to grill anything, from Boston butt to fruit. Perfect on the Apple Watch. Others we like: Weber Grill, Omaha Steak Time, Pit Pal, BBQ Tank Meter (for people who use, gasp, gas) and Beer Buddy, which does nothing on the grill but helps you better enjoy your brews while the brisket basks.
ATTENTION UNEMPLOYED JOURNALISTS: Google, which did more to kill newspapers than anything besides Craig’s List, is giving back. Launched this week, News Lab is designed to help writers and editors use Google products in their research and reporting. There is a cool news-gathering drone project, however. TC
No surprise that: Dow Jones chief Will Lewis is warning newspapers not to “run like headless chickens” to make deals with companies like Apple, Facebook and Google by putting “our content in their walled gardens.” The Guardian
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Compiled by John Kominicki. Thanks for reading.
