Apple acquires Hyderabad-based Tuplejump

Apple has acquired a Hyderabad-based machine learning startup Tuplejump to strengthen its expertise in artificial intelligence, reports TechCrunch.

"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." the Cupertino giant told the publication, indicating the deal was likely an acqui-hire.

Tuplejump was founded in 2013 by Rohit Rai, Satyaprakash Buddhavarapu and Deepak Alur and helps companies to store, process and visualise big data. Tuplejump's website has now shut down and founders Rohit Rai and Satyaprakash Buddhavarapu have joined Apple, as indicated by their LinkedIn profiles. Third co-founder Deepak Alur has joined Premji Invest-backed Anaplan as engineering head.

This deal comes a month after Apple acquired another machine learning company Turi. It had also bought deep learning company Perceptio in October last year.

Apple's India foray

In May, Apple CEO Tim Cook had announced plans to setup a "design and development" startup accelerator in Bengaluru, during his first public visit to the country. The company had agreed to lease more than 40,000 square feet of office space in Bengaluru, ET reported in July this year.

Cook also inaugurated the company's first development centre in Hyderabad that is expected to work on Apple Maps, and stated plans to open its own retail outlets in the country, at a time when the Cupertino giant is doubling down on its India business.

In July, Cook said that iPhone sales in India had grown by 51% in the first nine months, despite a global slowdown in its iPhone sales.

Courtesy : Techgig

Apple Acquires Personal Health Data Startup Gliimpse

Apple's ambitions in the health sector continue to expand, with its digital health team making its first known acquisition—personal health data startup Gliimpse, Fast Company has learned.

Silicon Valley-based Gliimpse has built a personal health data platform that enables any American to collect, personalize, and share a picture of their health data. The company was started in 2013 by Anil Sethi and Karthik Hariharan. Sethi is a serial entrepreneur who has spent the past decade working with health startups, after taking his company Sequoia Software public in 2000. He got his start as a systems engineer at Apple in the late 1980s.

The acquisition happened earlier this year, but Apple has been characteristically quiet about it. The company has now confirmed the purchase, saying: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

According to Sethi's LinkedIn page, Gliimpse—like many startups—was born of a personal need. Sethi says that he's followed his sister through her battle with breast cancer and discovered firsthand how challenging it is to acquire and manage your personal health data.

The acquisition will bolster Apple’s efforts in digital health. In recent years, Apple has delved into the sector with a range of services (HealthKit, CareKit, and ResearchKit) that allow patients, clinicians, and researchers to access important health and wellness data via a range of mobile devices. That's in line with Gliimpse's mission of uniting disparate streams of health information.

What stands out about the deal is that Gliimpse is intended for patients with diseases like cancer and diabetes. Apple recently hired a top pediatric endocrinologist who developed a HealthKit app for teens with Type 1 diabetes, signaling an increased interest in applications for chronically ill users.

It's unlikely that this acquisition will bring Apple's health technologies under the purview of federal regulators. CEO Tim Cook recently told Fast Company in an interview that he sees a major business opportunity for the company in the non-regulated side of health care: "So if you don’t care about reimbursement, which we have the privilege of doing, that may even make the smartphone market look small."

It's hard to tell how Apple will use the technology—in previous cases, the technology it has acquired from another company often ends up looking very different when it finally makes it into a product.

So far, the acquisition has not been announced on LinkedIn, or on the company's website.

Courtesy : Fastcompany.com