Startup Street: Cryptocurrencies Surpass World’s Top Unicorns In Valuation

Mixed-reality startup Magic Leap unveiled its first product after seven years of wait. Paytm launched an incubator for developers and coders to build open-source-based solutions, and the world’s top 20 cryptocurrencies have overtaken the world’s top 20 unicorns by valuation. Here’s what happened this week on Startup Street.

Cryptocurrencies Overtake Startups

Valued at $505 billion, the world’s top 20 cryptocurrencies have overtaken the world’s top 20 billion-dollar startups by valuation—as pointed out in a tweet by Charlie Belillo, director of research at investment adviser Pension Partners.

Bitcoin makes for nearly half the cryptocurrency pool, with a $212.7 billion market cap as of yesterday. In comparison, the top 20 startup unicorns are together valued at $465 billion, with the largest—China’s Ant Financial—at $70 billion.

Cryptocurrencies have had a stellar run this year with bitcoin reaching as high as $19,511 on Dec. 18. While it has since plunged more than 30 percent to about $13,000, the price of a bitcoin is still 1,200 times higher than what it was on Jan. 1, 2017.

The valuation of Uber, the second most valued unicorn, stands at $48 billion as of yesterday after an investor group led by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. bought 18 percent stake.

Google, Alibaba-Backed Magic Leap Unveils First Product

Magic Leap was founded by Rony Abovitz in 2010 but took seven years to reveal its first product.

The mixed reality startup showcased the Magic Leap One, a head-mounted virtual display, and will start shipping the creator edition in 2018, according to its social media channels and website. Unlike most bulky VR headsets available now, the Magic Leap One is a pair of goggles that'd probably make the user look more like the fictional character Riddick.

While the company didn’t disclose the pricing, Bloomberg reported that it will cost around $1,500-2,000, citing people familiar with the company’s plans.

The creator edition will include a pair of the goggles, a wireless remote and a lightpack that processes graphics and powers the googles and “allows our brain to naturally process digital objects the same way we do real-world objects”. That makes it more comfortable to use for long periods of time, it said.

Magic Leap will also open a software development portal for coders and content makers in 2018.

The startup has also been working with the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros to bring mixed reality experiences to music. They too shared a sneak peak of how music feels through the headset

Florida-based Magic Leap has a list of high-profile backers that include Google, Alibaba, Andressen Horowitz, J.P. Morgan and Qualcomm. Google chief Sundar Pichai is part of Magic Leap's board. It was valued at $6 billion, according to a Bloomberg report, in September.

Also Read: Magic Leap Shows Off Long-Awaited Headset With Few Details

Paytm Launches Incubator For Open-Source Projects

Fintech company Paytm launched an incubator for developers and coders to build open-source-based solutions and share them with the global tech community.

The Indian Open Source Project Incubator is aimed at “finding developers who can use technology to design and build world-class solutions”, according to Paytm's blog post on Medium. The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led firm will engage college and university students and encourage them to contribute to the projects.

An open-source software is the one for which the original source code is freely available that anyone can build on, modify and redistribute. The world's most popular mobile operating system, Android, is an open source platform.

The key focus areas would be education, digital lifestyle, financial inclusion and new-age tech like machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality, the statement said.

Paytm will also organise hackathons, bootcamps, meet-ups and monitoring sessions for student developers.