FT : Crypto currency offerings spur speculation frenzy

Crypto currency offerings spur speculation frenzy
The latest online investing craze has shades of dotcom exuberance

Most organisations have their share of IT workers who slip under the radar. But what is that quiet tech guy really up to when he should be fixing the server?

He might be pursuing a new career, speculating in crypto currencies. In virtual terms at least, he could soon be earning 20 times his annual salary as he joins the latest online investing craze that has shades of dotcom exuberance.

Using digital money loaned on an online exchange, IT staff at mainly financial services companies are betting on “alt-coins” during working hours.

An investment of just a few thousand dollars a month ago in a newly fashionable currency called Muse is now worth close to $500,000. Last week alone the price rose 278 per cent. At the current trajectory, the IT guy will be a dollar-millionaire by Thursday.

Except these are not real-world dollars. This is virtual money, one of the many variants on bitcoin — the original crypto currency that has been around for more than eight years. But there is a speculative frenzy for a new line of investment in the crypto market through initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Initial coin offerings appeal to people who have a lot less competence to evaluate what they’re investing in
Aping the real-world process of floating a company on a stock market, this crypto version involves a group publishing a business plan — commonly known as a white paper — and then promoting the sale to speculators through internet forums. The ICOs raise money in existing crypto currencies, mostly bitcoin and another popular token called Ether.

Many of the more than 830 so-called alt-coins now on the market are bitcoin copies in their own right, others are simply contracts that sit embedded in other cryptocurrency protocols such as Ethereum — a platform that mimics bitcoin’s blockchain technology but adds a smart contract feature.

The bitcoin copies are mineable — which means the number of coins in circulation expands — whereas the contracts tend to be non-mineable, with a capped number of coins in circulation.


“The ICO appeals to people who have a lot less competence to evaluate what they’re investing in,” said Jorge Stolfi, a computer science professor at the State University of Campinas in Brazil, who made a prominent case to the Securities Exchange Commission about the dangers of bitcoin last year.

The first example of this was the Ethereum platform itself, which launched in 2014 with Ether tokens. It initially raised $18bn at $0.40 per token: the tokens are now valued at $92 apiece.

While close to $400m was raised through ICOs last year — and $1.2bn in total — in recent weeks there has been an explosion of new issues. These include Zrcoin, which claims to base its value on cubic zirconia, and Voise, a “decentralised music platform”.

The total market capitalisation of all alt-coins burst through $50bn last week. Bitcoin itself has almost doubled in price since March, but some alt-coins have jumped four or fivefold in the past week alone.

“The applicable crowd psychology textbook here is Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” said Richard Gerard, author of an upcoming analysis of the industry called Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain.

Whether the faceless IT guy cited above will ever manage to turn his Muse into real-world cash is now a burning question.

In recent weeks crypto traders have been hit by a sudden inability to withdraw dollars after a crackdown by numerous banks previously used to access the real-world payments system. Technical limitations associated with the bitcoin platform have also slowed trade settlements, making the crypto currency unusable for day-to-day transactions.

“It’s a real concern, and we’ve started to use Ether to move money around a lot more now as it will actually be there when you need it,” said one specialist OTC crypto-currency trader.

The delays have had the most impact on bitcoin’s primary use — servicing the dark markets often used by drug dealers. One of them, AlphaBay, recently announced it was accepting Ether.

Locked in the market and stuck with no immediate use for their alt-coins and tokens, many speculators have been happy to chase the ICO fad. This month TokenCard, a company claiming to have a blockchain development called New Alchemy, was able to boast of raising $16m in three minutes.

The prospect of regulatory intervention is not concerning all investors. Many insist they are dealing in a utility, not buying an interest in a company, and so should remain out of regulatory reach.

“It’s very hard to say if they should be regulated or not. It really depends on the nature of the rights and features of the particular token or coin. Or the grants to the holder,” said David Shearer, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright. While some token sales grant rights similar to holding equity in a company, others offer less rights.

An ICO for an artificial-intelligence-powered investment fund called Beth promises holders the right to receive 60 per cent of the venture’s quarterly profits while reinvesting a further 25 per cent in its portfolio.


The phenomenon is reminiscent of the early days of the still-unregulated eurobond markets, which mushroomed in size in the 1960s and 1970s and became an important source of alternative dollar funding for corporations frozen out because of stricter money controls.

In the style of penny stocks, for every successful token issued there are many more that fail. With ICOs, uncertainty over exactly what it is you are buying adds to the risk.

“People are willing to spend on something, but they own nothing. It’s a promise from a development team which may or may not be useful to people in the market” said Arthur Hayes, a trader for crypto-currency derivative exchange BitMex. “I think it’s interesting that people can raise $10m in minutes based on a dream.”

FT : Bitcoin’s surge fuels fears of asset bubble

Bitcoin’s surge fuels fears of asset bubble
Value of unregulated crypto currencies bursts through $50bn


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Sky-high valuations for bitcoin have helped the value of crypto currencies burst through $50bn, raising fears of an asset bubble in the unregulated market.

A growing number of alternative digital currencies — or “alt-coins” — is feeding the speculative frenzy with values in some rocketing as much as 500 per cent in the past week. A sharp spike in the price of bitcoin, which has risen 55 per cent this month and is worth more than gold, pushed it past $1,900 on the Bitfinex exchange on Friday.

The speculation has benefited anonymous payment systems, which are being used by cyber criminals executing widescale attacks such as the “ransomware” hack that spread across the world on Friday.

Aside from bitcoin, there are more than 830 alt-coins ranging from Litecoin, a challenger to bitcoin, to MiketheMug, a coin that promises to make weekly payouts to holders.

An increase in initial coin offerings (ICOs) — unregulated issuances of crypto coins where investors can raise money in bitcoin or other crypto currencies — is fuelling the market and drawing attention from lawyers and financial professionals.

Many fear ICOs, which are trying to market themselves as an alternative to venture capitalists as a way of raising cash for businesses, breach existing securities law.

“An ICO issues crypto tokens rather than stocks and bonds, but that’s irrelevant to the substance of the activity, which is raising capital from the general public,” said Ajit Tripathi, a director in fintech at PwC. “Capital raising activities need to be regulated to protect investors . . . The question is how sophisticated are these investors?”

Regulators, who in many cases are still catching up with how to deal with bitcoin, are only just becoming aware of this spin-off sector.

Japan moved to tighten regulation of bitcoin trading and dealing only last month. The move forced bitcoin exchanges to register with the state and to comply with know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering regulations, adding costs to their business.

Observers say many individuals are trading alt-coins from corporate IT departments, concentrated in the financial sector and falling under the radar of senior executives. Many are sitting on virtual fortunes, but are unable to liquidate their cash as banks clamp down on measures to avoid money laundering.

“Systems are being used here by employees to increase their own individual wealth. In the process, corporate systems are coming into contact with the fringes of the criminal world,” said Brian Lord, former deputy director for intelligence and cyber operations at GCHQ, the UK’s electronic surveillance agency .

Now head of cyber practice at security group PGI, he added that it was likely very few companies had governance in place regarding crypto currency being traded on their systems.

ICOs, or “token sales”, are also starting to attract venture capitalists such as billionaire and early bitcoin supporter Tim Draper, who announced plans to invest in the highly anticipated launch of Tezos this month. The token is expected to garner big support from the sector’s many unregulated exchanges, many of whom have the capacity to make or break a new coin.

“We are just looking at whether they are going to be popular, they are selling you a dream. The dream is either going to happen or not and that’s why they are exciting for people,” said Arthur Hayes, a trader at Bitmex, a crypto derivatives exchange. “That tension is great for an exchange.”

Other traders were more cautious about the market’s potential. “Is it sustainable? Absolutely not,” said one trader at a dealing venue. “But while it’s happening, it’s happening. The biggest risk is that the SEC steps in.”

>>> Atlantia and Abertis look to announce merger deal tomorrow - report (transla

Atlantia and Abertis look to announce merger deal tomorrow - report (translated)

Merger talks between Atlantia [BIT:ATL] and Abertis [BME:ABE] have been continuing over the weekend with a view to closing a deal by this evening and announcing a deal tomorrow 15 May, Italian-language daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported. The report cited rumours noting that the public offer will be 70% cash and 30% shares and is likely to be priced at EUR 16- EUR 17 a share.
Atlantia is taking out financing of EUR 11.5bn to fund the public offer, as previously reported.

>>> GlaxoSmithKline preps shareholders for buyout of 36.5% Novartis stake in GSK

GlaxoSmithKline preps shareholders for buyout of 36.5% Novartis stake in GSK Consumer Healthcare - report

GlaxoSmithKline [LON:GSK] has been preparing its shareholders for a buyout of the 36.5% stake in GSK Consumer Healthcare owned by its Swiss joint venture partner Novartis [VTX:NOVN], The Sunday Times reported.
An option for Novartis to sell its interest in the over-the-counter drug JV back to GSK will come into effect in March next year and major GSK investors say they are being readied to expect such a transaction, for which GSK has set aside GBP 8bn (USD 10bn) in its accounts.
One unidentified GSK shareholder quoted in the piece said the company has always been clear it wants to owns the consumer JV and will make its move at the apposite time.
Recent market chatter has speculated that Novartis may utilise the proceeds to try and merge with UK-based biopharma group AstraZeneca [LON:AZN], the report said.
GSK currently has a market capitalisation of just under GBP 82bn, the item noted.
The original report appeared in The Sunday Times, Business & Money section, page 1

>>> Barrons weekend summary

Barrons weekend summary: positive on ADI, AL 

* Cover story: Europe has seen its share of political and banking crises, but the situation seems to be changing; "Given attractive valuations, diminished political risk, low interest rates, and a pickup in global growth, international markets, and Europe particular, could finally start to outperform." 

* Features: 1) It may be time for investors to buy emerging markets, which are trading at a hefty discount to U.S., European, and Japanese shares; China, South Korea, India, Peru, and Greece are among investors' favored destinations now; 2) A look at the picks and pans of investors who attended the annual Sohn Investment Conference (short: CLB, SPY, FTR, U.K. government bonds; long: HHC, EEM, CTL, DHXM, ISBC, UniCredit, TSLA 2022 convertible bonds, UAL, DXC, FMC, Q); 3) Positive on ADI: Company may lose share in iPhone screen chips, but it's flourishing in chips for autos and other sectors where it has more exposure, and shares could return 20% or more this year; 4) Positive on AL: A long-term travel boom has helped the airplane leasing company, but despite some concerns about its debt as interest rates rise, shares are modestly priced and have 30% upside.

* Tech Trader: Under chief Satya Nadella, MSFT has become a so-called cloud company, but because it combines new and old products on its income statement, cloud-related accounting becomes impenetrable. 

* Trader: Some earnings reports suggest that the U.S. economy may be stronger than it looks; GS's Robert Boroujerdi is screening for stocks where estimates have moved higher but multiples haven't followed, such as CAT, STZ, CNK, and MA; Barron's suggests staying away from RH until the company can prove it has put its problems behind it and can justify its valuation. 

* Interview: Columbia professor Bruce Greenwald has trained a generation of value investors, and talks to Barron's about the flaws in discounted-cash-flow valuations, globalization, and other topics. 

* Profile: Nick Clay, manager of the Dreyfus Global Equity Income fund, prefers stable, cash-rich companies trading at attractive valuations (top 10 holdings: MSFT, RAI, CSCO, PG, PM, DEO, NVS, UL, CA, MRK). 

* Small Caps: Positive on HMHC: Publisher had a hard year in 2016, but after cutting costs and investing in its business, a rebound appears to be under way and shares could start moving up. 

* Follow-Up: Cautious on WFM: Investors who bought shares based on Barron's recommendation last year have seen upside only since Jana Partners took a stake this spring, and that won't likely create much momentum; +/- SNAP: Shares still aren't a bargain even after falling by 17% last week, while cash flow figures overstate the company's financial health by excluding hefty stock-based compensation. 

* European Trader: "France's presidential election reinforced a growing belief that Europe's populist tide has been blocked, but the market's muted performance last week suggests that other issues might still be troubling investors." 

* Asian Trader: Positive on JD: Chinese e-commerce major lags rival BABA, but as everyday people in China become wealthier, they're replacing a wider range of goods, and avoiding Alibaba over concern about counterfeits.

* Emerging Markets: Positive on PBR: "After a solid first-quarter profit, the Brazilian energy giant looks ready to climb by 20% or more," and will sell off assets to ease its debt burden. 

* Commodities: Recent U.S. government projections about corn, which predict a decline in production this coming season, offer another reason for the grain to move higher. 

* Streetwise: The increase in AAPL's market value in 2017 has surpassed the entire market cap of DIS, KO, C, two SLB's, or seven APC's.

>>> Comments from G7 officials - US Treasury Sec Mnuchin: agreed to keep cyberse

Comments from G7 officials 
- US Treasury Sec Mnuchin: agreed to keep cybersecurity on the G7 agenda after Friday attacks 
- Working closely with Congress on tax reform and will try to pass it as quickly as possible
- Told G7 that the US wants fair and balanced trade
- Preliminary talks with Mexico and Canada on NAFTA have been productive

- ECB's Visco (Italy): G7 discussed Friday's cyberattack but do not know who is responsible 
- The economic expansion continues, it is strengthening but is still considered modest and faces various risks
- No one flagged possible tensions in Italy ahead of new elections in 2018; G7 did not discuss the problems of Italian banks

- Italy Fin Min Padoan: G7 did not discuss protectionism, but fragmentation does not help anyone

- German Fin Min Schaeuble: feeling more confident that euro zone members will come up with solution to dispute of reforms and debt by the next Euro Group meeting

ECB’s Weidmann (Germany): The strengthening economic development in the euro zone and the robust outlook make monetary policy normalization conceivable
- The election victory of Macron in France gives a chance that the euro zone economy gets an additional momentum

(TechCrunch) Echodyne’s pocket-sized radar may be the next must-have tech for dr

Echodyne : https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/echodyne#/entity if you want more details about the company capital

Echodyne’s pocket-sized radar may be the next must-have tech for drones (and drone hunters)


Just because we live in an age of many sensors doesn’t mean we always have the right one for the job. One in particular we’ve been lacking is a radar system that can detect obstacles and aircraft hundreds of meters out, yet fit comfortably on a small drone. The laws of physics, it seemed, prevented it — but Echodyne made it work anyway. And it’s ready to put out its first product.
The problem isn’t that the drone in your back yard doesn’t know where a tree is (it does) or that cars can’t tell how far they are from one another (they can). It’s that if you want to fly a few hundred feet up, you start having to worry about helicopters, small planes, and if you get high enough, commercial jets. You need to see hundreds or thousands of feet out to effectively accommodate them (it’s called “detect and avoid”), and at that range no optical, lidar or ultrasonic sensor in the world is reliably effective.

Radar is generally the answer, but there are two issues: first, a decent phased-array radar is going to be pretty big, and second, we’re talking six figures out of the gate. Neither of these are friendly to small drones or small companies.

Echodyne’s radar is a fraction the size and price, but performs many of the same functions — some better than the big boys. How is it possible? By rethinking the entire system using metamaterials.
Making MESA
We won’t get too deep into the technical side of things, but here’s the deal. Phased-array radars use a grid of antennas that, by emitting radio waves in precisely defined patterns, can steer a radar beam in a desired direction. By doing this multiple times per second, you can scan the beam over a whole field of view without ever moving the device itself.
It’s a must-have capability for high-altitude drones, which must scan a large area in front of them for oncoming air traffic — and by must-have, I mean they really must have them. The FAA says so.
The trouble is these devices have proven hard to miniaturize beyond a certain point because of the amount of electronics involved: the antennas must be a certain size to work with a given wavelength, their controllers take up space, there’s processing for received data, and so on.
Echodyne uses what’s called a metamaterial to create that phased array on a much, much smaller scale. Instead of dozens of individual antennas, the device uses a surface with a carefully engineered 3D pattern that allows beams to be propagated in much the same way — but with more precision and lower power.
It sweeps across a maximum of 120 degrees horizontal and 80 degrees vertical (azimuth and elevation, if we’re being aeronautical), a field of view roughly equivalent to a human’s. That isn’t an accident: these systems are meant to be a replacement for the vigilance of a pilot, onboard or remote. An effective replacement for human visual acuity and search capability is a prerequisite for autonomous flight outside the operator’s line of sight.
Inside that window, the “metamaterial electronically scanned array” or MESA can spot a small plane like a Cessna at 2 kilometers out, a quadcopter-size drone at 750 meters, and a bird at 250 meters.
I saw this capability myself out behind Echodyne’s headquarters, where, although one demo drone had been stuck in a tree earlier that week (operator error), another participated in a live demo. Flying out well beyond my own ability to see it, and beyond lidar or optical detection range. But it was clear as day on the radar display: a set of dots blinking their way outwards, with stationary dots indicating trees and other obstacles. (Its angular resolution is about 1×3 degrees.)
Echodyne tested this capability late last year:


Now, it takes the beam about a second to sweep the whole area, but because the beam can be directed at will (no need to turn a dish), if it detects an object, it can dedicate extra resources to tracking it more closely. So it can keep one eye on the sky while another watches a suspicious drone with more frequent pulses. Focusing this way also lets the radar determine velocity, Echodyne claims, down to within 2 meters per second.
It accomplishes all this in a package about the size of a couple iPad Minis, weighing a pound and a half, drawing only 35 watts of power. Systems with comparable capabilities might be ten or twenty times bigger and more power-hungry. The only real catch is that the range is shorter than the larger systems — they might see a plane 12km out. But as Echodyne pointed out to me, quadcopters aren’t flying at 300 knots; it’s more important to locate closer, more active threats and obstacles.
At ten grand, you won’t be buying a MESA to mount to your bike, but if you’re Amazon or Uber or anyone looking into commercial applications for drones, it’s more than a little enticing.
1. Plug in 2. Profit
Beginning to see how this could seriously change the game? Prosumer drones can be given the sensing capability of craft far larger and far more expensive, making them smarter and safer to operate. This kind of boost opens up a whole host of possibilities.
“We’ve had phone calls from every application you can think of,” said CEO Eben Frankenberg. “For the first time, you can get the equivalent of a teeny phased radar, and people are like, ‘oh my god, I can do this now!'”
Smaller drones can see better, bigger craft can pop a few on and see more, and in a whole new industry, counter-drone operations get a cheap, easy-to-deploy detection system.
This last one is particularly promising. “Security has gone from a 2D problem to a 3D problem,” Frankenberg noted. Prisons need to keep drug-carrying drones away from the walls. Private testing facilities have to watch for them on the perimeter. And someone might have said something about a wall.
A phased or moving radar array is clunky and expensive — like 7 figures expensive. A MESA drone-detection setup might cost $20-30,000, weigh a quarter as much, and could run for a week on a car battery. Given the choice, the latter seems a no-brainer. And if you want it to fly, there’s no choice: try lifting a 30-pound phased array with a Phantom.
The origin of the metamaterial radar goes back through Intellectual Ventures, which picked up some promising academic work years ago and incubated it internally. It holds the patents, which Echodyne licensed and engineered for its own purposes. The company raised money from a group of Seattle investors including Bill Gates and Paul Allen during its R&D period, and is continuing to raise on the strength of its first product, for which interest runs high.
MESA still needs to be evaluated by the FCC, and the FAA is still working on the rules that will govern unmanned aircraft outside line of sight. But given the delta in price and performance between these sensors and the incumbents, it seems almost a foregone conclusion that MESA-type sensors (larger, smaller, or otherwise customized) will be all but mandatory for drones and detection stations in the near futu

(TechCrunch) Echodyne’s pocket-sized radar may be the next must-have tech for dr

Echodyne’s pocket-sized radar may be the next must-have tech for drones (and drone hunters)


Just because we live in an age of many sensors doesn’t mean we always have the right one for the job. One in particular we’ve been lacking is a radar system that can detect obstacles and aircraft hundreds of meters out, yet fit comfortably on a small drone. The laws of physics, it seemed, prevented it — but Echodyne made it work anyway. And it’s ready to put out its first product.
The problem isn’t that the drone in your back yard doesn’t know where a tree is (it does) or that cars can’t tell how far they are from one another (they can). It’s that if you want to fly a few hundred feet up, you start having to worry about helicopters, small planes, and if you get high enough, commercial jets. You need to see hundreds or thousands of feet out to effectively accommodate them (it’s called “detect and avoid”), and at that range no optical, lidar or ultrasonic sensor in the world is reliably effective.

Radar is generally the answer, but there are two issues: first, a decent phased-array radar is going to be pretty big, and second, we’re talking six figures out of the gate. Neither of these are friendly to small drones or small companies.

Echodyne’s radar is a fraction the size and price, but performs many of the same functions — some better than the big boys. How is it possible? By rethinking the entire system using metamaterials.
Making MESA
We won’t get too deep into the technical side of things, but here’s the deal. Phased-array radars use a grid of antennas that, by emitting radio waves in precisely defined patterns, can steer a radar beam in a desired direction. By doing this multiple times per second, you can scan the beam over a whole field of view without ever moving the device itself.
It’s a must-have capability for high-altitude drones, which must scan a large area in front of them for oncoming air traffic — and by must-have, I mean they really must have them. The FAA says so.
The trouble is these devices have proven hard to miniaturize beyond a certain point because of the amount of electronics involved: the antennas must be a certain size to work with a given wavelength, their controllers take up space, there’s processing for received data, and so on.
Echodyne uses what’s called a metamaterial to create that phased array on a much, much smaller scale. Instead of dozens of individual antennas, the device uses a surface with a carefully engineered 3D pattern that allows beams to be propagated in much the same way — but with more precision and lower power.
It sweeps across a maximum of 120 degrees horizontal and 80 degrees vertical (azimuth and elevation, if we’re being aeronautical), a field of view roughly equivalent to a human’s. That isn’t an accident: these systems are meant to be a replacement for the vigilance of a pilot, onboard or remote. An effective replacement for human visual acuity and search capability is a prerequisite for autonomous flight outside the operator’s line of sight.
Inside that window, the “metamaterial electronically scanned array” or MESA can spot a small plane like a Cessna at 2 kilometers out, a quadcopter-size drone at 750 meters, and a bird at 250 meters.
I saw this capability myself out behind Echodyne’s headquarters, where, although one demo drone had been stuck in a tree earlier that week (operator error), another participated in a live demo. Flying out well beyond my own ability to see it, and beyond lidar or optical detection range. But it was clear as day on the radar display: a set of dots blinking their way outwards, with stationary dots indicating trees and other obstacles. (Its angular resolution is about 1×3 degrees.)
Echodyne tested this capability late last year:


Now, it takes the beam about a second to sweep the whole area, but because the beam can be directed at will (no need to turn a dish), if it detects an object, it can dedicate extra resources to tracking it more closely. So it can keep one eye on the sky while another watches a suspicious drone with more frequent pulses. Focusing this way also lets the radar determine velocity, Echodyne claims, down to within 2 meters per second.
It accomplishes all this in a package about the size of a couple iPad Minis, weighing a pound and a half, drawing only 35 watts of power. Systems with comparable capabilities might be ten or twenty times bigger and more power-hungry. The only real catch is that the range is shorter than the larger systems — they might see a plane 12km out. But as Echodyne pointed out to me, quadcopters aren’t flying at 300 knots; it’s more important to locate closer, more active threats and obstacles.
At ten grand, you won’t be buying a MESA to mount to your bike, but if you’re Amazon or Uber or anyone looking into commercial applications for drones, it’s more than a little enticing.
1. Plug in 2. Profit
Beginning to see how this could seriously change the game? Prosumer drones can be given the sensing capability of craft far larger and far more expensive, making them smarter and safer to operate. This kind of boost opens up a whole host of possibilities.
“We’ve had phone calls from every application you can think of,” said CEO Eben Frankenberg. “For the first time, you can get the equivalent of a teeny phased radar, and people are like, ‘oh my god, I can do this now!'”
Smaller drones can see better, bigger craft can pop a few on and see more, and in a whole new industry, counter-drone operations get a cheap, easy-to-deploy detection system.
This last one is particularly promising. “Security has gone from a 2D problem to a 3D problem,” Frankenberg noted. Prisons need to keep drug-carrying drones away from the walls. Private testing facilities have to watch for them on the perimeter. And someone might have said something about a wall.
A phased or moving radar array is clunky and expensive — like 7 figures expensive. A MESA drone-detection setup might cost $20-30,000, weigh a quarter as much, and could run for a week on a car battery. Given the choice, the latter seems a no-brainer. And if you want it to fly, there’s no choice: try lifting a 30-pound phased array with a Phantom.
The origin of the metamaterial radar goes back through Intellectual Ventures, which picked up some promising academic work years ago and incubated it internally. It holds the patents, which Echodyne licensed and engineered for its own purposes. The company raised money from a group of Seattle investors including Bill Gates and Paul Allen during its R&D period, and is continuing to raise on the strength of its first product, for which interest runs high.
MESA still needs to be evaluated by the FCC, and the FAA is still working on the rules that will govern unmanned aircraft outside line of sight. But given the delta in price and performance between these sensors and the incumbents, it seems almost a foregone conclusion that MESA-type sensors (larger, smaller, or otherwise customized) will be all but mandatory for drones and detection stations in the near future.