As for Corallia, it has started two new clusters, one for start-ups working on technologies related to space, and the other in gaming.
Square, another San Francisco start-up working on mobile payments, offers a free credit card swiping accessory that plugs into a smartphone.
"There is a near infinite variety of ways to say anything in English or in any other language," said Nick Cassimatis, an associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a co-founder of SkyPhrase, a start-up working on similar natural-language search technology.
Last month, Artisan set up a $50 million venture capital fund, called iArtisan, to invest in start-ups working on new-media plumbing like streaming video and digital compression.
In the first quarter of 2007, venture capitalists invested $192 million in start-ups working on infectious-disease technology (a category that includes but is not limited to vaccine development).
Powerset and Hakia are two well-financed start-ups working on natural-language search, where a user types a question instead of keywords.
Venrock, a well-known venture capital firm, is the lead investor in Transonic Combustion, a developmental start-up working on improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine using ultra-high compression and very precise engine timing.
Furthermore, the struggle in the e-reader industry, which is mainly related to the different strategies of traditional publishers and the dependence of e-reader developers, was confirmed in my interview with Alex Henzen, CTO of iRex (an Eindhoven-based start-up working on the developments of full color e-readers).
Lured by the potential profit and chance to upend cancer treatment, venture capitalists have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into start-ups working on liquid biopsies.
Therefore, big pharma is partnering with tech giants and investing in start-ups working on a variety of futuristic health service.
Two of the three principals of the start-up worked on the United account at Fallon before leaving in November.
