PUBLIC HEALTH

Move Fast, Make Things

Ready for some good news? 

When they’re not quarreling over baseball dynasties, Boston and NYC can do great things together. Experts from each city helped build a medical-grade emergency ventilator in a month. 

In Boston

Four weeks ago, the MIT E-Vent project formed to rapidly develop open-source guidelines for an emergency ventilator. Inspired by student-created schematics from a decade ago, engineers at MIT pulled in clinical, mechanical design, electronics, controls, software, and robotics experts. 

The basic idea: Automate manual resuscitator bags—which hospitals have stockpiled in large quantities—using paddles, a motor, and software. The team created open-source guidelines rather than precise designs so anyone building on the E-Vent prototype can recalibrate for local supply chain/sourcing options. 

In New York

Enter Emergency Ventilator Response, a group of entrepreneurs, engineers, and medical experts. Spearheaded by Brooklyn tech hub Newlab, the group began huddling three weeks ago to design, prototype, and test the Spiro Wave, an automated resuscitator inspired by E-Vent. The NYC and MIT teams worked closely together to make the device.

Last Friday, the FDA authorized the Spiro Wave for emergency use. Now, Boyce Technologies, the team’s manufacturer, is building hundreds of units a day in Long Island City. Some local hospitals will get devices this week at little or no cost. 

• Economic Development Corporation initially seeded the operation with $100,000. The city has pledged to buy 3,000 units for nearly $10 million.
• Boyce is aiming to scale to 500/day soon. 

Spiro Waves aren’t ventilator replacements. They’re “bridge” devices that can help patients with breathing. If their condition deteriorates, they’ll still need a standard ventilator. 

But they’re built for the moment. The NYC team says Spiro Waves cost less than $5,000 to produce, while standard ventilators can cost $30,000+ and require thousands of parts. It also takes time for American industrial giants to retool manufacturing lines and ramp up production. 

Even as the worst of the crisis abates in NYC, Spiro Wave could function as a stopgap for hospitals anywhere facing unthinkable situations, like triaging care and rationing ventilators. 

+ FYI: The team is looking for donations and facilities capable of producing the Spiro Wave. It’s also collecting info for hospitals that may need the device. .

EV

Same Trucks, New Energy

“Stop trying to make siloed transportation R&D happen. It’s not going to happen”—Regina George. 

European automakers are taking this practical (and fictional) advice to heart. Yesterday, Volvo and Mercedes parent Daimler announced a joint venture to make hydrogen fuel cell systems for heavy-duty vehicles. Daimler’s truck unit will contribute IP; Volvo will cut a $652 million check for a 50% stake in the venture. 

• Refresher: Fuel cell EVs offer range and quick refuel times. They emit water.

But wait, there’s been more fuel cell financial wizardry. Last month, Phoenix-based Nikola announced plans to go public through a reverse merger with a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company, valuing the EV and fuel cell truck developer at $3.3 billion. 

Anyone else on the hydrogen highway? 

Honda and Toyota sell FCEVs. The latter also plans to build a small hydrogen-powered smart city. In the U.S., FCEVs have first taken off commercially. The country has 23,000+ hydrogen forklifts, including some at Amazon and Walmart facilities. 

Electrified economies will have “significant” fuel cell penetration down the road, Deloitte global auto lead Joe Vitale told me. But conventional wisdom maintains we’re years away from competitively priced, mass production-ready fuel cells.

SPONSORED BY ELECTRIC

Scream Your Final, “Hey Bob, the Wifi’s Out”

If you’re a company of between two and 2000 employees, Electric wants to upgrade your home wifi for free. And then when you’re back in the office, they want to upgrade your IT. 

Electric has a simple proposition for you: Take a short meeting with them about your company’s IT, and they’ll upgrade your home wifi with a blazing-fast router—for free.

Electric is an elite squadron of IT experts who will protect your company from security threats, enable work from home at half the cost, and manage your company’s hardware and software (including the newfound necessity for premium video conferencing tech).

They’re the first IT solution for businesses of all sizes that’s fully secure, real-time, and dependable. And they give away free wifi routers! What’s not to love?!

Schedule your meeting with Electric .

VC

Fundraising Amid COVID-19

This is a new-ish weekly section highlighting startup financing rounds. Let me know what you think. 

Big AI rounds in China: 

• A few weeks ago, MiningLamp Technology announced it raised $300 million. The data analytics startup is often called “China’s Palantir.” 
• On April 2, 4Paradigm said it brought in $230 million at a valuation of $2 billion. The unicorn develops AI industrial applications, a strategic priority for Beijing. The five largest Chinese banks have invested in 4Paradigm.
• One day later, Chinese AI chip maker Intellifusion said it raised $141 million. AI semiconductors are also a strategic focus in China. 
• XiaoduoAI, which develops customer service robots, announced a $28 million Series C a couple weeks ago. 

Helpful right now: Last week, genomics startup 54gene announced a $15 million Series A. The company wants to collect more medical information for the African continent, which is underserved by genetic services. And yesterday, Biobot Analytics, which is tracking COVID-19 via wastewater, announced $6.7 million in funding.  

Closing with a seed round: Amperon, which uses machine learning to predict electricity demand, announced $2 million in funding last Thursday.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: FAMGA accounts for more than 20% of the S&P 500’s market cap, per Bank of America analysts.

Quote: “Providing aggregate data to governments and health officials is one of the most important tools tech companies can provide to help respond to COVID”—Mark Zuckerberg to Axios. 

Something I wish I had done: Fast Company polled 30 experts on how COVID-19 will change tech adoption in work, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. 

SPONSORED BY ELECTRIC

From the people giving you a free wifi router comes a free book. Electric is the team who will take care of your business’s IT, from security threats to hardware and software management to enabling work from home. And their ebook, the “IT Strategy Owner’s Manual,” is the definitive guide to a winning IT support and management strategy. .

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Facebook invested $5.7 billion in Jio, a popular Indian telecom, for a 10% stake. That’s a big beachhead. 
• Alibaba pledged to invest $28 billion in cloud computing infrastructure over the next three years. 
• Snapchat daily active users increased by 11 million in Q1, a 20% annual leap.
• The FAA’s drone registration/authorization systems don’t have adequate security and privacy controls, the agency’s inspector general found.
• Audi released a self-driving dataset with roughly 400,000 images.  
• South Korean regulators OK’d a blood pressure monitoring app for Samsung’s Galaxy Watch. The app will be available in Q3. 

BLACK MIRROR IRL

Sometimes Black Mirror storylines seem like they're unfolding in real life. This week's roundup:

• “Terrorism today—including domestic terrorism—moves at the speed of social media,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told Wired. 
• Inevitable, virus-induced automation could “be a source of unrest for years to come,” Oxford scholar Carl Benedikt Frey writes. 
• By Popular Mechanics’ estimation, the yearlong 737 Max debacle is simply due to “terrible computers.” 

R&D

BARDA, a federal sub-agency, has been in the headlines recently for its role in scaling U.S. testing and vaccine development. Know what the acronym stands for? 

While we’re at it—how about DARPA, ARPA-E, and IARPA? If you go 4/4, you can join me at MBARPA, Morning Brew Accelerated Returns & Performance Analysis. That’s not a hint.

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For VC job hunters: Join 15,000+ VCs (from Sequoia, Greylock, a16z, and more) and job hunters on John Gannon's VC jobs email list. Readers have used his tips and strategies to land jobs at top venture firms. . 

Science fiction to science fact: Fortnite is racing Silicon Valley to build the metaverse...and winning, I believe. Case in point: Travis Scott is dropping a new song in Fortnite. 

For bad memes: Follow me on Twitter.

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R&D ANSWER

BARDA—Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

DARPA—Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

ARPA-E—Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy

IARPA—Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity