Hugo Barra Joins Facebook; Will 'Lead All VR Efforts'

Xiaomi's Global Vice President Hugo Barra, who is leaving the Chinese company to head back to the Silicon Valley, is joining Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg made this announcement via the social network on Wednesday.

Zuckerberg said in his Facebook post said that he is "excited that Hugo Barra is joining Facebook to lead all of our virtual reality efforts, including our Oculus team."

He adds, "Hugo shares my belief that virtual and augmented reality will be the next major computing platform. They'll enable us to experience completely new things and be more creative than ever before. Hugo is going to help build that future, and I'm looking forward to having him on our team."

Hugo Barra, who's globally been the face of Xiaomi ever since he joined the company after leaving Google around three and a half years ago, announced his exit from the company via Facebook earlier this week stating health and other personal reasons.

Before he was the face of Xiaomi, Hugo Barra was the Vice President of Product Development for Android at Google.



Source: Facebook

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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invests in Indian Edutech Startup, Byju's

Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropy arm, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is making an investment in India-based startup Byju's. The education startup offers personalized learning and assessment services to students.

Apart from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, and existing backers Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures, and Times Internet Ltd participated in the $50 million investment round. This marks the first investment from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, formed last year, in the Asian market.

(Also Read: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative makes its first major investment)

Founded in 2011, Byju's provides maths and science learning programs for middle and high school students. In addition, the startup also prepares students for some of the most sought after educational competitive exams in the country such as JEE, CAT, IAS, and GMAT among others. It has raised about $150 million so far.

Byju's offers interactive video lectures and other study materials through its website and apps, giving students the comfort of taking classes from wherever they want and when. It provides many of its services to users for free, but offers additional guidance and feedback to its paid customers. It has over 250,000 annual paid subscribers with over 5.5 million downloads of its app.

"Byju's was started by a teacher and entrepreneur named Byju Raveendran as a way to help students from different backgrounds across India learn in a way that works best for them. The mobile app uses a mix of video lessons and interactive tools to help teach subjects like math and science for a fraction of what other services cost," Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

"I'm optimistic about personalized learning and the difference it can make for students everywhere. That's why it's a major focus of our education efforts, and why we're looking forward to working with companies like BYJU's to get these tools into the hands of more students and teachers around the world," he added.

With the new capital inflow, Byju's plans to take its services to global markets including the United States and United Kingdom, and also introduce subjects beyond science and math. It currently serves students from class 6 to 12, but plans to extend it to class 4 and 5 as well.

As part of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Priscilla and I are investing in an Indian education technology company we're...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, September 8, 2016

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative makes its first major investment

Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg's and his wife Priscilla Chan's philanthropy venture has made its first major investment, leading a funding round in a startup that trains and recruits software developers in Africa.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, created by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, led a $24 million Series B funding in Andela, the startup said on Thursday. Alphabet Inc's GV, previously known as Google Ventures, was also part of the funding round.

Andela selects the top 1 percent of tech talent from Africa, trains them and places them in engineering organizations. The startup, which has nearly 200 engineers currently employed by its Nigeria and Kenya offices, will use the funds to expand to a third African country by the end of 2016.

"We live in a world where talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. Andela's mission is to close that gap," Zuckerberg said in a statement. When the philanthropy initiative was launched in late 2015, Zuckerberg said he would put in 99 percent of his Facebook shares.

The initiative is structured as a limited liability company. This means, unlike a traditional charitable or philanthropic foundation, the venture can make political donations, lobby lawmakers, invest in businesses and recoup any profits from those investments. Zuckerberg has also signed the Giving Pledge, which invites the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes over their lifetime or in their will.

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Facebook says it may open sales office in China

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during a news conference at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California May 26, 2010.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said it may consider opening a sales office in China to provide more support to local advertisers who use the website to reach customers overseas.
While Vaughan Smith, Facebook's vice president of corporate development, told Reuters it was exploring ways to provide even more support locally, he did not comment on how soon it plans to be in China.
Facebook currently has a Hong Kong sales office with a staff of 30 to 40 people who deal with advertisers locally and in mainland China, where its services are blocked. The sales office would, for the first time, put Facebook employees inside mainland China.
Bloomberg on Monday reported that Facebook could open an office in China within a year, citing a person familiar with the matter. (r.reuters.com/vag39v)
The world's largest social networking company is in talks to lease space in the Fortune Financial Center in Beijing's central business district, Bloomberg said.
(Reporting by Mridhula Raghavan in Bangalore and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang and Eric Walsh)