Tag: Tech

Why glass matters in the future?

5G is the buzzword that nearly every industry is talking about. Higher download speed, AR/VR, autonomous driving, industrial IoT – 5G is the future, powering the global economy over $12 trillion by 2035, according to an IHS study.

5G physics

With 5G, we are marching into new radio frequencies, subdivided into Sub-6 (<6 GHz) and mmWave (a wavelength range of 10 mm at 30 GHz decreasing to 1 mm at 300 GHz).

4G radio waves ranging from 700 MHz to about 2.5 GHz range from roughly 40 to 12 cm in length. In contrast, a 5G NR wave at 28 GHz are just 1 cm long. And that’s the lowest end of the mmWave frequencies; 60 GHz signals are just 5 mm in length. [edn.com]

mmWave…

• doesn’t penetrate walls!

This is perhaps the most common issue cited with upcoming 5G networks and it’s true to some extent. Most building materials, such as cement and brick, attenuate and reflect very high-frequency signals with a big enough loss you’re unlikely to receive a very useful signal moving from inside to outside. Even the air produces signal loss, which limits frequencies above 28GHz to about a kilometer anyway. Wood and glass attenuate high-frequency signals to a smaller degree, so you’ll likely still be able to use 5G mmWave next to a window. [androidauthority]

• cant’t get through hands..
• doesn’t work well when it rains..

Corning Gorrilla

https://players.brightcove.net/c54a08de-3d27-4a61-b362-8c3251c67445

Apple included glass back since 2017 models.

Industry Progress

AT&T has introduced its 5G+ service in December 2018 with 12 cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, N.C., San Antonio and Waco, Texas.

And later added 7 cities to that list in April 2019 – Austin, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, with Las Vegas the 20th in June and New York City the 21st in August.

ForwardX is a startup making the world’s first smart luggage that can follow the owner – like autonomous driving.

Besides its 2C products, it is also making smart warehouse robotics.

Funding 

• Seed: December 2016, $1 million 
• Series A: May 2018. $10 million, led by CDH and Eastern Bell Capital 
• Series B: March 2019, RMB 100 million, led by RiverHill Fund 

Market Sizing

• To B: warehouse robotics, global market size $6-10 billion 
• To C: global luggage market $18 billion 

In 2018, the total global revenue of Samsonite amounted to $3.8 billion while Tumi sales is 760 million (20% of global revenue)  

Backgrounds of VC Investors

Eastern Bell Capital, Series A lead

Focus 

• Logistics 
• Supply Chain 
• Retail and Branding 
• Data & AI 

Chairman of IC: Zhiming Mei, co-founder and CEO of GLP, one of the largest logistics real estate companies 

• GLP was spun out of the former Asian business of the world’s biggest industrial real estate operator Prologis, with GIC as the largest shareholder (36.8%), shortly after 2008 financial crisis 
• GLP owns and manages logistics facilities such as warehouses, controlling 55 per cent share of China’s industry of modern logistics facilities 
• Largest customers: Amazon, Best Logistics, JD.com 
• GLP was taken private in 2017 for $11.6 billion, led by Vanke (21.4%), HOPU (21.3%), Hillhouse (21.2%), Management (21.2%), Bank of China Investment (21.2%) 
• GLP delisted in 2018 

• • In the interim, the company entered the European market with its US$2.8-billion deal to acquire the Gazeley platform from Brookfield.  
  • GLP had entered the US market via another entity-level transaction in 2015, acquiring the IndCor business from the Blackstone Group for US$8.1 billion. The investment is in 117 million square feet of logistics space across 36 US markets that is 90 percent leased. The deal sees GLP commit 55 percent of the equity of the investment initially, funded via a combination of cash and a short-term credit facility, with GIC accounting for the other 45 percent.  
  • In Jan 2018, GLP said it had received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to issue up to US$1.8 billion of Belt & Road bonds on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The bonds are used to finance projects related to the One Belt One Road initiative that seeks to connect Asia and Europe over land and sea. Proceeds will be used to repay existing debt related to the financing of GLP’s Gazeley acquisition. 

• In June 2018, it was reported that Blackstone Group LP is buying U.S. industrial warehouse properties from Singapore-based logistics provider GLP for $18.7 billion.
  • Blackstone said the overall transaction totaled 179 million square feet of urban logistics assets, nearly doubling the size of its U.S. industrial footprint. 

RiverHill Fund, Series B lead

One line is probably enough – Founded by Simon Xie, co-founder of Alibaba.

It is easy to see the 2B potential of ForwardX – be ready for its mass robotics in 3-5 years.