Startup Street: One Startup Recognised Every Hour In May

This week on Startup Street, more than one startup was recognised every hour in May and Apple is closing in on a deal with an autonomous vehicle startup, only for its talented engineers. Here’s what went on:

More Than One Startup Recognised Every Hour In May

A total of 814 new ventures received recognition under Startup India initiative in May 2019—or more than one every hours.

These entities are spread across 513 districts of 29 states and six union territories, Ramesh Abhishek, secretary at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, said in a series of tweets on June 4. With this, 18,861 startups have been recognised since the beginning of the initiative.

Startup recognition, however, is just that. It is a formal acknowledgment that the company is part of the ecosystem. While it technically makes the startup eligible to apply for tax breaks, it still has to meet many other criteria.

Here’s what Abhishek tweeted:

Apple To Buy Drive.ai For Autonomous Vehicle Talent

Apple is gearing up to buy autonomous vehicle technology startup Drive.ai in a bid to acquihire or to get more-experienced engineers to the phonemaker, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The size of the deal remains unknown.

Apple will decide which of the startup's staff and engineers it wants to keep, without using any of its intellectual property, the people quoted above said.

“We believe the potential acquisition price would be below their last $200M valuation,” wrote Gene Munster, a veteran Apple analyst at Loup Ventures, in a research note.

Apple has been working on autonomous driving technology for several years. The project has had its ups and downs. The company cut about 200 workers from the initiative recently, but also said it is committed to the area.