Posted by Roy Glasberg, Head of Launchpad
Launchpad's mission is to accelerate innovation and to help startups build world-class technologies by leveraging the best of Google - its people, network, research, and technology.
In September 2018, the Launchpad team welcomed ten of the world's leading FinTech startups to join their accelerator program, helping them fast-track their application of advanced technology. Today, March 15th, we will see this cohort graduate from the program at the Launchpad team's inaugural event - The Future of Finance - a global discussion on the impact of applied ML/AI on the finance industry. These startups are ensuring that everyone has relevant insights at their fingertips and that all people, no matter where they are, have access to equitable money, banking, loans, and marketplaces.
Tune into the event from wherever you are via the livestream link
The Graduating Class of Launchpad FinTech Accelerator San Francisco'19
Since joining the accelerator, these startups have made great strides and are going from strength to strength. Some recent announcements from this cohort include:
We look forward to following the success of all our participating founders as they continue to make a significant impact on the global economy.
Want to know more about the Launchpad Accelerator? Visit our site, stay updated on developments and future opportunities by subscribing to the Google Developers newsletter and visit The Launchpad Blog.
Posted by Roy Glasberg, Founder of Launchpad Accelerator
For the past six years, Launchpad has connected startups from around the world with the best of Google - its people, network, methodologies, and technologies. We have worked with market leaders in over 40 countries across 6 regional programs (San Francisco, Brazil, Africa, Israel, India, and Tokyo). Launchpad also includes a new program in Mexico announced earlier this year, along with our Indie Games Accelerator and Google.org AI for Social Good Accelerator programs.
We are pleased to announce that the next cohort of startups has been selected for our upcoming programs in Africa, Brazil, and India. We reviewed over 1,000 applications for these programs, and were thoroughly impressed with the quality of startups that indicated their interest. The startups chosen represent those using technology to create a positive impact on key industries in their region and we look forward to supporting them and connecting them with startup ecosystems around the world.
In Africa, we have selected 12 startups from 6 African countries for our 3rd class in this region:
In India, for our 2nd class, we are focused on seed to growth-stage startups that operate across a number of sectors using ML and AI to solve for India-specific problems:
In Brazil, we have chosen startups that are applying ML in interesting ways and are solving for local challenges.
Applications are still open for Launchpad Accelerator Mexico - if you are a LATAM-based startup using technology to solve big challenges for that region, please apply to the program here.
As with all of our previous regional classes, these startups will benefit from customized programs, access to partners and mentors on the ground, and Google's support and dedication to their success.
Stay updated on developments and future opportunities by subscribing to the Google Developers newsletter, as well as The Launchpad Blog.
Posted by Billy Rutledge (Director) and Vikram Tank (Product Mgr), Coral Team
AI can be beneficial for everyone, especially when we all explore, learn, and build together. To that end, Google's been developing tools like TensorFlow and AutoML to ensure that everyone has access to build with AI. Today, we're expanding the ways that people can build out their ideas and products by introducing Coral into public beta.
Coral is a platform for building intelligent devices with local AI.
Coral offers a complete local AI toolkit that makes it easy to grow your ideas from prototype to production. It includes hardware components, software tools, and content that help you create, train and run neural networks (NNs) locally, on your device. Because we focus on accelerating NN's locally, our products offer speedy neural network performance and increased privacy — all in power-efficient packages. To help you bring your ideas to market, Coral components are designed for fast prototyping and easy scaling to production lines.
Our first hardware components feature the new Edge TPU, a small ASIC designed by Google that provides high-performance ML inferencing for low-power devices. For example, it can execute state-of-the-art mobile vision models such as MobileNet V2 at 100+ fps, in a power efficient manner.
Coral Camera Module, Dev Board and USB Accelerator
For new product development, the Coral Dev Board is a fully integrated system designed as a system on module (SoM) attached to a carrier board. The SoM brings the powerful NXP iMX8M SoC together with our Edge TPU coprocessor (as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RAM, and eMMC memory). To make prototyping computer vision applications easier, we also offer a Camera that connects to the Dev Board over a MIPI interface.
To add the Edge TPU to an existing design, the Coral USB Accelerator allows for easy integration into any Linux system (including Raspberry Pi boards) over USB 2.0 and 3.0. PCIe versions are coming soon, and will snap into M.2 or mini-PCIe expansion slots.
When you're ready to scale to production we offer the SOM from the Dev Board and PCIe versions of the Accelerator for volume purchase. To further support your integrations, we'll be releasing the baseboard schematics for those who want to build custom carrier boards.
Our software tools are based around TensorFlow and TensorFlow Lite. TF Lite models must be quantized and then compiled with our toolchain to run directly on the Edge TPU. To help get you started, we're sharing over a dozen pre-trained, pre-compiled models that work with Coral boards out of the box, as well as software tools to let you re-train them.
For those building connected devices with Coral, our products can be used with Google Cloud IoT. Google Cloud IoT combines cloud services with an on-device software stack to allow for managed edge computing with machine learning capabilities.
Coral products are available today, along with product documentation, datasheets and sample code at g.co/coral. We hope you try our products during this public beta, and look forward to sharing more with you at our official launch.
Posted by Adam Seligman, VP, Developer Relations
Last week we announced the new .dev top-level domain (TLD) was open for Early Access registrations. As of today, .dev is available to anyone through your registrar of choice (typically $12-$15 for standard priced domains, varies by registrar).
We envision .dev as a home for developers. From tools to programming languages to blogs, .dev is the best place for all the amazing things that you build. Over the past few months, we've launched, or re-launched, many of our own developer sites on the new domain. Here are some of our favorites:
But we're not done yet! We've got big plans for .dev, and we'd like to invite you to join us. To start, everyone who applied for a ticket to Google I/O 2019 will get a .dev domain at no cost for one year. If you entered the drawing, check your inbox for your redemption code. We'll be moving more of our existing projects and launching some exciting things on .dev in the months to come. We can't wait to see what you build on .dev -- share what you create with #hellodotdev.
Posted by Sami Kizilbash, Developer Relations Program Manager
Last November, Raymond Chan, a data scientist at Chope, attended one of our first ML bootcamps for developers and start-ups in Southeast Asia. Over four days, he gained a deeper understanding of how to use Google Cloud Platform to better structure data from approximately 775,000 records on Chope's real-time restaurant reservation booking platform every day. With this new knowledge, Chope has been able to use that data for more effective and timely decision-making, making it easier for customers to book restaurants.
Last week in Singapore, we opened the Developer Space @ Google Singapore—a space that brings together resources to help Southeast Asian developers, entrepreneurs and community groups grow, plus earn more with their businesses. This is the first physical space dedicated to developers that sits inside a Google office, so developers in Singapore can look forward to benefiting from insights, hands-on mentorship and networking opportunities with various teams working at our Asia Pacific headquarters.
Supporting startups and developers like Raymond, and helping them achieve their full potential is something we're passionate about. In addition to the ML bootcamps which we expect another 800 developers in Singapore to attend by the end of this year, we will run a range of workshops on the latest Google tools and technologies, as well as programs like LeadersLab and Indie Games Accelerator that fuel ecosystem growth. We will also support activities run by community groups like Google Developer Groups, Google Business Groups and Women Techmakers.
With developers and startups from Southeast Asia rapidly driving growth across the region, we can't think of a better place to open this new hub. Come join us throughout the year for an exciting roster of events and meet people who, like Raymond, are looking to build and scale great products. Check out our schedule of events here.
Posted by the Flutter team
The Flutter team is coming to you live this week from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the largest annual gathering of the mobile technology industry. One year ago, we announced the first beta of Flutter at this same event, and since then Flutter has grown faster than we could have imagined. So it seems fitting that we celebrate this anniversary occasion with our first stable update release for Flutter.
Flutter 1.2 is the first feature update for Flutter. We've focused this release on a few major areas:
Having shipped Flutter 1.0, we focused a good deal of energy in the last couple of months on improving our testing and code infrastructure, clearing a backlog of pull requests, and improving performance and quality of the overall framework. We have a comprehensive list of these requests in the Flutter wiki for those who are interested in the specifics. This work also included broader support for new UI languages such as Swahili.
We continue to make improvements to both the Material and Cupertino widget sets, to support more flexible usage of Material and continue to strive towards pixel-perfect fidelity on iOS. The latter work includes support for floating cursor text editing, as well as showing continued attention to minor details (for example, we updated the way the text editing cursor paints on iOS for a faithful representation of the animation and painting order). We added support for a broader set of animation easing functions, inspired by the work of Robert Penner. And we added support for new keyboard events and mouse hover support, in preparation for deeper support for desktop-class operating systems.
The plug-in team has also been busy in Flutter 1.2, with work well underway to support in-app purchases, as well as many bug fixes for video player, webview, and maps. And thanks to a pull request contributed by a developer from Intuit, we now have support for Android App Bundles, a new packaging format that helps in reducing app size and enables new features like dynamic delivery for Android apps.
Lastly, Flutter 1.2 includes the Dart 2.2 SDK, an update that brings significant performance improvements to compiled code along with new language support for initializing sets. For more information on this work, you can read the Dart 2.2 announcement.
(As an aside, some might wonder why this release is numbered 1.2. Our goal is to ship a 1.x release to the 'beta' channel on about a monthly basis, and to release an update approximately every quarter to the 'stable' channel that is ready for production usage. Our 1.1 last month was a beta release, and so 1.2 is therefore our first stable release.)
Mobile developers come from a variety of backgrounds and often prefer different programming tools and editors. Flutter itself supports different tools, including first-class support for Android Studio and Visual Studio Code as well as support for building apps from the command line, so we knew we needed flexibility in how we expose debugging and runtime inspection tools.
Alongside Flutter 1.2, we're delighted to preview a new web-based suite of programming tools to help Flutter developers debug and analyze their apps. These tools are now available for installation alongside the extensions and add-ins for Visual Studio Code and Android Studio, and offer a number of capabilities:
We plan to invest further in this new web-based tooling for both Flutter and Dart developers and, as integration for web-based experiences improves, we plan to build these services directly into tools like Visual Studio Code.
In addition to the engineering work, we took some time after Flutter 1.0 to document our 2019 roadmap, and you'll see that we've got plenty of work ahead of us.
A big focus for 2019 is growing Flutter beyond mobile platforms. At Flutter Live, we announced a project codenamed "Hummingbird", which brings Flutter to the web, and we plan to share a technical preview in the coming months. In addition, we continue to work on bringing Flutter to desktop-class devices; this requires work both at the framework level as described above, as well as the ability to package and deploy applications for operating systems like Windows and Mac, in which we're investing through our Flutter Desktop Embedding project.
This week, we're also excited to launch Flutter Create, a contest that challenges you to build something interesting, inspiring, and beautiful with Flutter using five kilobytes or less of Dart code. 5K isn't a lot -- for a typical MP3 file, it's about a third of a second of music -- but we're betting you can amaze us with what you can achieve in Flutter with such a small amount of code.
The contest runs until April 7th, so you've got a few weeks to build something cool. We have some great prizes, including a fully-loaded iMac Pro developer workstation with a 14-core processor and 128GB of memory that is worth over $10,000! We'll be announcing the winners at Google I/O, where we'll have a number of Flutter talks, codelabs and activities.
Flutter is now one of the top 20 software repos on Github, and the worldwide community grows with every passing month. Between meetups in Chennai, India, articles from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, apps from Copenhagen, Denmark and incubation studios in New York City, USA, it's clear that Flutter continues to become a worldwide phenomenon, thanks to you. You can see Flutter in apps that have hundreds of millions of users, and in apps from entrepreneurs who are bringing their first idea to market. It's exciting to see the range of ideas you have, and we hope that we can help you express them with Flutter.
Attendees of a Flutter deep dive at Technozzare, SRM University.
Finally, we've recently launched a YouTube channel exclusively dedicated to Flutter. Be sure to subscribe at flutter.dev/youtube for shows including the Boring Flutter Development Show, Widget of the Week, and Flutter in Focus. You'll also find a new case study from Dream11, a popular Indian fantasy sports site, as well as other Developer Stories. See you there!
Posted by Brad Abrams, Group Product Manager, Actions on Google
Before we look forward and discuss updates to Actions on Google for 2019, we wanted to recognize our global developer community for your tremendous work in 2018. We saw more than 4 times the number of projects created with Actions on Google this past year. And some of the most popular Action categories include Games and Trivia, Home Control, Music, Actions for Families, and Education – well done!
We hope to carry this enthusiasm forward, and at Mobile World Congress, we're announcing new tools so you can reach and engage with more people around the globe.
The Google Assistant's now available in more than 80 countries in nearly 30 languages, and you've been busy making your Actions accessible in many of those locales.
One of the most exciting things we've seen in the last couple of years is happening in places where the next billion users are coming online for the first time. In these fast-growing countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico, voice is often the primary way users interact with their devices because it's natural, universal, and the most accessible input method for people who are starting to engage with technology for the first time in their lives.
As more countries are coming online, we want to make it so you can reach and engage with these users as they're adopting the Google Assistant into their everyday lives with astonishing ease. There are tens of millions of users on Android Go and KaiOS in over 100 countries.
We'll be making your Actions available to Android Go and KaiOS devices in the next few months, so you should start thinking now about how to build for these platforms and users. Without any additional work required, your Actions will work on both operating systems at launch (unless of course, Action requires a screen with touch input). We'll also be launching a simulator so you can test your Actions to see how they look on entry-level Android Go smartphones and KaiOS feature phones.
A couple of partners have already built Actions with these new audiences in mind. Hello English, for example, created an Action to offer English lessons for users that speak Hindi, to create more opportunities for people through language learning. And Where is My Train? (WIMT) was built for the millions of Indians commuting daily, offering real-time locations and times for trains accessible by voice. Check out our developer docs for KaiOS and Android Go Edition, and start building for the next billion users.
And we're not just focused on a handful of emerging countries. We're always working to enable all of Actions on Google's tools so users can enjoy the best experience possible regardless of the country they live in or the language they speak—our work here never ends! Here's a snapshot of some of the progress we've made this past year:
We've already talked about how busy the development community was this past year, and we've been hard at work to keep up! If you're looking to reach and engage with millions—even billions more users—now's a good time to start thinking about how your Action can make a difference in people's lives around the globe.
Posted by Ilya Gelfenbeyn, Head of the Google Assistant Investments program
Last year, we announced the Google Assistant Investments program with the goal to help pioneering startups bring their ideas to life in the digital assistant ecosystem. Not only have we invested in some really great startups, we've also been working closely with these companies to make their services available to more users.
We're excited to be back to announce five new portfolio companies and catch up on the progress some of them have made this past year. With the next batch of investments, we're helping companies explore how digital assistants can improve the hospitality, insurance, fashion and education industries, and we have something for sports fans too.
First up, AskPorter. This London-based team was founded to make managing spaces simple, providing every property manager and occupant with a digital personal assistant. AskPorter is an AI-powered property management platform with a digital assistant called Porter. Porter assists and takes care of all aspects of property management such as guiding inspections arranging viewings, troubleshooting maintenance issues and chasing payments.
GradeSlam is an on-demand, chat-based, personalized learning and tutoring service available across all subject areas. Sessions are conducted via chat, creating a learning environment that allows students to interact freely and personally with qualified educators. The Montreal-based team is already used by more than 150,000 students, teachers and administrators.
Aiva Health puts smart speakers in hospitals and senior communities to reduce response times and improve satisfaction for patients, seniors, and caregivers alike. Aiva understands patient requests and routes them to the most appropriate caregiver so they can respond instantly via their mobile app. The Aiva platform provides centralized IoT management, powering Smart Hospitals and Smart Communities.
StyleHacks (formerly Maison Me) was founded with a goal of empowering people to take back control of their style and wardrobe. With a conversational interface and personalized AI-powered recommendations, they're helping people live their most stylish lives. The team has already launched the "StyleHacks" Action for phones and Smart Displays in December 2018, helping people decide what to wear by providing personalized recommendations based on the weather and preferences. And in the next few months, StyleHacks will also be able to help you shop for clothes you will actually wear. Just ask StyleHacks what to wear today
StatMuse turns the biggest sports stars into your own personal sports commentator. Powered by the personalities of more than 25 sports superstars including Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice and Scott Van Pelt, fans can get scores, stats and recaps for the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB dating back to 1876. To try it out, just say, "Hey Google, talk to StatMuse."
It's been almost a year since we launched the Investments program and we're happy to see how some of these companies are already using voice to broaden the Google Assistant's capabilities. If you're working on new ways for people to use their voice to get things done, or building new hardware devices for digital assistants, we'd like to hear from you.
Posted by Francisco Solsona, Developer Relations Manager, Google Hispanoamerica
The Latin American startup ecosystem is thriving. Many success stories from the region have served as inspiration for entrepreneurs and investors alike. To build upon this momentum, we believe it is important to continue supporting programs for entrepreneurs that are using technology to solve some of the region's biggest challenges.
That's why we are happy to announce Launchpad Accelerator Mexico, a program focused on helping startups throughout Latin America create attractive, scalable, and impactful products and technologies. This program has existed in different parts of the world such as Israel, Tel Aviv; Nigeria, Lagos; Brazil, São Paulo; and now comes to Mexico City thanks to our partnership with Centraal, a thriving co-working space.
Access to new technologies and technical experts is essential to guarantee startup success. With Google Cloud serving as backbone for today's global startups, Launchpad Accelerator Mexico will help startups overcome technological challenges in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Android, and web solutions.
The inaugural program will last three months and will offer technical support on an initially defined, high impact project. The cohort of entrepreneurs will have access to a group of mentors from Google and other industry experts.
This program is for your startup if:
Registration for the inaugural class is now open and startups can apply using this form. Registration remains open until March 15. The selected startups will be announced on March 21 and will start working with Google on April 29, 2019.
Posted by Ben Fried, VP, CIO, & Chief Domains Enthusiast
Developers, designers, writers and architects: you built the web. You make it possible for the billions of people online today to do what they do. Have you ever tried to register your preferred domain name, only to find out it's not available? Today, Google Registry is announcing .dev, a brand new top-level domain (TLD) that's dedicated to developers and technology. We hope .dev will be a new home for you to build your communities, learn the latest tech and showcase your projects—all with a perfect domain name.
Check out what some companies, both big and small, are doing on .dev:
Like our recent launches for .app and .page, this new domain will be secure by default because it requires HTTPS to connect to all .dev websites. This protects people who visit your site against ad malware and tracking injection by internet service providers, and from spying when using open WiFi networks. With every .dev website that's launched, you help move the web to an HTTPS-everywhere future.
Starting today at 8:00 a.m. PT and through February 28, .dev domains are available to register as part of our Early Access Program, where you can secure your desired domains for an additional fee. The fee decreases according to a daily schedule. Beginning on February 28, .dev domains will be available at a base annual price through your registrar of choice. To find out pricing from our participating partners, visit get.dev.
Google has already started using .dev for some of our own projects, like web.dev and opensource.dev. Visit get.dev to see what companies like Mozilla, Netflix, Glitch, Stripe, JetBrains and more are doing on .dev and get your own domain through one of our registrar partners. We look forward to seeing what you create on .dev!
