Technology

Estonian ride-hailing company Taxify will compete with Bird and Lime in Europe with its new brand of e-scooters, called Bolt, launching in Paris on Thursday.

The company has rolled the scooter sharing service into its mobile app, which has attracted 10 million users in 25 countries since it launched in August 2013.

A spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch it plans to release scooters in several other European and Australian cities where their app is already established, but will also launch in new markets where they&ve been unable to offer ride-hailing services because of regulatory roadblocks, including Germany and Spain.

As of now, Taxify has no plans to scoot into the US market.

&One in five Taxify rides are less than 3 km, which is the perfect distance to cover with an electric scooter,&Taxify CEO and co-founder Markus Villig said in a statement. &Itlikely that some of our ride-hailing customers will now opt for scooters for shorter distances, but we&ll also attract a whole new group of customers with different needs. This means we&ll be able to help more people with their daily transportation problems.&

A Bolt scooter ride will cost15 cents a minute, with a minimum fare of €1. Just like other e-scooterstartups, you unlock the GPS tracked scooters by scanning the QR-code on the scooter using the Taxify app. Taxify will collect the scooters in the evenings for recharging.

Lime e-scooters went live in Paris at the end of June. About a month later, Birdfleet did the same, rolling into Paris and Tel Aviv as part of its international launch.GoBee Bike, Obike, Ofo and Mobike— all dockless bike providers— have also launched in Paris. GoBee has since exited after failing to compete with heavyweights like Mobike, which is owned by the multi-billion dollar Chinese company Meituan.

Taxify, for its part, is a favorite among private investors. In May, the company brought in $175 million from Daimler, Didi Chuxing and others. The financing brought the company to the $1 billion valuation mark, where it joined fellow ride-hailing giants Lyft, Uber, Careem and more in the unicorn club.

Whether e-scooters will be as popular in Europe as they&ve been in the US remains to be seen. Itlikely they&ll run into the same regulatory headaches they faced in several US cities as they continueto crop up in new markets.

Taxify, as a European company battling a pair of US-based mobilitystartups, may have the upper hand.

Livongo Health, a consumer digital health company is focused on the treatment of chronic diseases, is integrating its service with Abbott Labs&continuous glucose monitoring system.

Livongo is about empowering people with chronic conditions live better and healthier lives, CEO Glen Tullman said on stage at Disrupt SF. Livongo started with a connected blood glucose monitor that captures data and sends it to the cloud, where it can be processed and analyzed. From here, Livongo delivers real-time insights to customers as well as their physician and even family members.

Livongo started with a product to manage diabetes. And has since added two other devices and services, one focused on diabetes prevention and another on managing hypertension. The company has raised more than $240 million since its founding in 2014.

The deal with Abbott Labs marks a new kind of expansion for Livongo.The collaboration lets Livongo offer Abbottglucose monitoring system (known as theFreeStyle Libre Pro System) to its members with diabetes. Instead of having prick their finger continuously, customers can now put a patch on, which delivers readings whenever they want. Members then receive a visual snapshot of their glucose data to give them a clearer view on their glucose levels as well as patterns. Members will also be able to share that data with their personal physicians.

&Our business is not only about hardware,&Jennifer Schneider, Livongochief medical officer said on stage Wednesday when asked if the relationship with Abbott cannibalizes its existing monitor business. &Itan end-to-end solution to allow and empower people with chronic conditions to live better lives, and that includes a piece of hardware, it includes really the data, the analytics around personalizing the data we get back to affect behavior change, and then services arms as well.&

&So from a philosophy standpoint any device where we easily collect data, thatgreat.&

Origami Labs wants to bring voice assistants right to your ear without requiring you to wear a device like a Bluetooth headset or Apple AirPods. Instead, the startup is using a ring on your finger combined with bone conduction technology to allow you to use your smartphonebuilt-in assistant & whether thatGoogle Assistant or Siri & in an all-new way.

Origami Labs& device is the Orii, a smart ring that works with an app on your phone, allowing you to physically touch your finger to your ear to either speak to or listen to your voice assistant.

This involves the use of bone conduction technology, which allows you to hear sounds through the vibration of bones in your face, bypassing the outer and middle ears to stimulate the inner ear directly.

That means you can use Orii to do things like listen to your text messages, send a WhatsApp message to a friend, take a phone call, get information like the time or weather, use reminders, or anything else that Siri or Google Assistant could do.

The ring alerts you with a vibration, then you listen (or speak to its microphone) by raising your finger to your ear.

The company presented its device on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 today, after winning a &wildcard& spot that allowed it to enter the Startup Battlefield competition.

The Hong Kong-based startup was founded by Marcus Leung-Shea and Kevin Wong in 2015.

Wongfather is visually impaired, which makes using a smartphone more difficult.

&Thatwhere we got started & just to create a device that helps visually impaired people,& Marcus explains. &But through building the product and launching a Kickstarter, it became clear that this screen-free way of interacting with technology is something that actually a lot of people are looking for. It taps into this sense that we&re spending too much time looking at our devices,& he says.

With other Bluetooth devices, like AirPods, therea limit to how long they can be worn comfortably.

Plus, therethe aesthetics to consider & not everyone wants to be seen wearing their AirPods all the time, out of a sense of style. AirPods and other Bluetooth devices in the ear are also often used as a signal others that you don&t want to be bothered.

Meanwhile, using the assistant through the speaker on the phone isn&t very private.

The startup ran crowdfunding campaigns last year to raise its initial seed round. On Kickstarter, the Orii had 4,000 backers & enough to prove thereat least some consumer interest in this kind of product, the founders believe.

The first version of the Orii is shipping to its early backers who paid $99 to $150 for the device. Ita bit large, in comparison to even costume rings, but thata solvable problem at scale. A second version of the device, shipping in Q2 2019, will be about 25 percent to 30 percent smaller, Marcus says. This one will come in different colors and enable new features. The company is also working on Alexa integration.

Orii has generated some interest from businesses and consumers. Specifically, luxury hotels and retailers want to test the product as a team communication system because they don&t want their staff looking at screens, which could come across as rude.

Mobile operators in Hong Kong, where the 14-person team is based, are also interested in selling Orii as a bundle with their phones. But all these discussions are in the early stages, Marcus notes.

Origami Labs is backed by its crowdfunding and seed investment from the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Seed Fund.