Week In Geek Podcast: We meet our ping-pong robot overlords, and a big shift in venture capital funding

It’s no average week for the tech world — in fact, this week marked the biggest tech event in the U.S., the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

A team of GeekWire reporters has been on the ground in Las Vegas following all the action, and on this episode of the Week In Geek, we check in with reporter Kurt Schlosser, who has been seeking out some of the more fun and cutting-edge technologies at the show.

Kurt’s highlights include facing off against a ping-pong playing robot and taking a virtual ride in a drone-like helicopter that may be the answer to urban gridlock.

Back at the GeekWire studio in Seattle, we check in with some surprising news from the city’s tech scene: Legal services tech startup Avvo announced this week that it will be acquired by WebMD and Martindale-Hubbell owner Internet Brands. It follows the growing trend of tech companies being acquired instead of going public.

And in more tech finance news: Investors poured $84 billion into startups and private companies in 2017, a figure not seen since the height of the dot-com bubble in the 1990s.

GeekWire Co-founder John Cook said there are several factors behind this number. One is that giant tech companies, like Uber and AirBnB, are choosing to stay private and raise funding much longer into their lives. In the ’90s, almost all tech companies the size of Uber would be on the public markets.

Another is that it isn’t just traditional venture capital investors putting money into the economy — hedge funds and other organizations are getting into the game, as well.

Listen to this episode in the player above or subscribe to the GeekWire Podcast in Apple Podcasts, Google Play or your favorite podcast app.