The idea that turned Carmelo Anthony into a venture capitalist came to him during practice with the New York Knicks last season.
The basketball star became interested in the sophisticated sensors that players had recently started wearing to track their performance, said Stuart Goldfarb, a former executive at NBC and Bertelsmann who is a friend of Anthony’s. The devices, made by companies like Catapult Sports of Australia, were not broadly available to consumers.
“We started talking about how sensor-based devices available to consumers were really primitive,” Goldfarb said.
Photo: Reuters
“Sensors were bound to get much better and had the ability to disrupt the whole healthcare system,” he added. “But for them to work well and become adopted, they really had to become lifestyle-type products. We wanted to participate in that.”
The result of that brainstorm was a venture capital partnership between the two that they unveiled on Monday. Their firm, M7 Tech Partners, has a broader mandate than just wearable technology, with plans to invest also in digital media and other consumer technology companies.
The first investment by M7 is in a startup called Hullabalu that makes storytelling apps for children. Goldfarb declined to say how much M7 invested in Hullabalu, but added that Anthony was drawn to the firm because he has a young son.
The partners each bring different strengths to the new firm, Goldfarb said. While Goldfarb has an operational and marketing background, Anthony could theoretically use his celebrity to help promote a startup’s product.
They are using their own money to invest, although Goldfarb declined to say how much. The capital comes equally from the two, he said. They spent the summer looking at “dozens of companies,” and they expect to announce their next investment later this week, he said.
Wearable technology has become a hot topic in Silicon Valley recently, as companies like Samsung and Pebble have released smartwatches. In a statement, Anthony emphasized his interest in the wearable technology sector.
“We are actively looking for ventures with strong leaders creating breakthrough products that resonate with consumers,” Anthony said. “I particularly have my eye on companies that are involved with wearable technology and connected devices — these will be huge areas for the future.”
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS