Thursday, July 1, 2021

TechCrunch

TechCrunch

Tiger Global in talks to back Indian fintech Yap

Posted: 01 Jul 2021 02:08 AM PDT

Tiger Global is in advanced stages of talks to back Indian embedded finance startup Yap, according to more than half a dozen people familiar with the matter.

The New York-headquartered firm is in talks to lead a $35 million financing round in Yap — also known as YapPay and M2P — that values the Bangalore-headquartered startup at about $350 million, up from about $67 million in March this year (per data insight platform Tracxn), the people said.

At the current stages of negotiation, Tiger Global plans to invest between $25 million to $30 million in the new round (a Series C), some of the people said. The round hasn’t closed, so the deal size could become larger and other terms too may change, people said.

Yap operates an API infrastructure platform that allows other startups to support and build payments services. Yap, which has raised about $15.9 million to date, counts Better Capital, BeeNext, AngelList, Omidyar Network, 8i among its existing investors.

If the deal materializes, it will be the latest investment from Tiger Global in India, where it has already backed over a dozen startups this year.

Lay of the land for fintech startups in India. Data and image: Bank of America.

Everyone declined to comment.

Instant grocery startup Getir makes its first acquisition to expand into Spain and Italy

Posted: 01 Jul 2021 12:41 AM PDT

Getir, the startup based out of Turkey that has built a $7.5 billion business out a mobile app that lets consumers buy groceries and get them delivered in minutes, has grown its business up to now organically: targeting urban markets across Europe (and soon the U.S.) where it is disrupting the well-stocked cornershop with a service that needs even less effort and time from the average shopper. Now, it’s changing up that strategy with its first acquisition to break into three more countries.

The company is acquiring Blok, another “instant delivery” grocery service based out of Barcelona. Financial of the deal are not being disclosed but from what I understand, Blok (previously called Huvi Technologies) was bootstrapped, fairly new and small (launching only in February 2021), and was already shopping itself around.

Founded by Vishal Verma, Hunab Moreno and Varun Kapoor, Blok is active in Spain and Italy, where its biggest markets were Madrid, Barcelona and Milan. Portugal was on its roadmap pre-Getir, and it will also launch there soon. More than 120 employees will be joining Getir as part of the deal.

Getir has been around since 2015 and is profitable in Turkey on a mix of services that started with its fast delivery but has since expanded to other categories like wider grocery options (GetirMore, with longer delivery turnarounds), restaurant delivery (GetirFood), local business delivery (GetirLocals), and… water delivery (GetirWater).

That’s given Getir momentum it is now using to expand its flagship fast grocery model into other markets like the UK — I see its mopeds around my neighborhood in London all the time — the Netherlands, and Paris and Berlin. The hundreds of millions that it’s raised this year (Getir has raised about $1 billion in total now) will also be used to get the company into the U.S. market, where it will go head to head with homegrown rivals in the same space such as GoPuff.

But while it may be one of the earliest movers and possibly the best capitalised, Getir is by no means the only player of its kind.

The European market is positively flush right now with startups that are building services around the same basic principles of super-fast delivery across an assortment of around 1,500 goods — typically much smaller than what you might find in a grocery store (17,000 is a normal number there), and closer to what you might get in the kind of quick-stop small market that exists throughout urban centers in Europe.

These startups, which include Flink, Gorillas, Glovo, Zapp, Dija, Cajoo, Weezy and many others have collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars — but still less than $2 billion, Getir CEO and co-founder Nazim Salur estimated to me — to scale their operations.

Take up has been fairly enthusiastic, in part fueled by the pandemic and the fact that many people have been living under stay-at-home orders, or simply keen to stay out of public places to minimize Covid-19 spread; but also fueled in part by getting good traction with millennial and other younger consumers, who have really taken to using their mobiles for all practical chores, which get turned into leisure activities when they become apps.

Before Covid, Getir was seeing threefold growth annually, with some years, such as 2017, the company growing fivefold, Salur said. “During Covid we also grew 5x but without it, it would have been 4x. It accelerated our growth but Covid is not the main reason people use us. It’s mainly because we’re a big convenience. It means we can grow. In Turkey, life’s back to normal but every month we still grow.”

Still, is it a big enough market for all these players? We’ve already heard of at least one that is struggling to raise more to compete — capital is key, given the balance of logistics and delivery, dark stores to stock items, having the items themselves to sell, not to mention the heavy competition — and is looking for a buyer as a result.

In that context, it might not be a surprise to hear that Blok hadn’t raised any notable funding itself and while it had built out some technology and a team of people, it was ready to sell up less than six months after launching.

“We are very excited to join hands with the pioneers of ultrafast delivery on our shared goal to lead the on-demand grocery market in Southern Europe,” said Verma from Block, in a statement. “This acquisition allows us to leverage Getir's deep industry know-how, relationships and technology, while combining that with our world class team and execution capabilities to create a formidable leader in this part of the world. We've had a great response from all our launches in Spain and Italy and can’t wait to double down on our efforts alongside Getir.”

But despite this pretty obvious picture of consolidation-in-the-making, Getir isn’t going to get into the business of consolidating all that, though — well, not yet, at least.

“Getir will not become an acquisition company, acquiring one after the other. That’s not the way we operate,” Salur, who co-founded the company with Serkan Borancili and Tuncay Tutek, said in an interview. “But, it's a free market and if there is a good reason, a solid good reason, we might consider it. We won't be going after ten different companies in this world, but if the right opportunity shows itself we'll talk to people.”

Goodbye CVs — As work went remote, companies flocked to a startup dumping CVs for skill tests

Posted: 01 Jul 2021 12:01 AM PDT

As companies scrambled to re-orient themselves last year during the pandemic, one thing was clear: the shift to remote working had come sooner than anyone expected. With this came a fundamental shift in how businesses would have to hire new talent. And the question was, were managers going to laboriously sift through CVs in a crisis situation, or would the need to hit the ground running fast force them towards assessing skills over CVs?

One startup decided to take advantage of the situation.

HR tech startup from The Netherland, TestGorilla, came up with a way of hiring people through short, skills-based tests, which had the added advantage of removing the unconscious bias brought about by snappy CVs which might help a very non-skilled person get ahead, and keep out skilled but less qualified recruits.

The startup says its bet paid off and 9 months later they claim to have garnered over 1,500 corporate clients, including the NHS, Sony, PepsiCo, and Bain & Company.

TestGorilla has now raised $10 million in a Seed funding round, led by SaaS-specialist VC, Notion Capital, Partech, Jeff Weiner´s Next Play Ventures, and Indeed co-founder Paul Forster, Peakon co-founder Phil Chambers, and Justworks co-founder Isaac Oates.

TechCrunch understands that the round was hotly contested, with the round closing in only two weeks after receiving multiple separate offers.

Launched by serial entrepreneur, Wouter Durville, and former Bain & Company Partner, Otto Verhage, TestGorilla remotely assesses cognitive abilities, soft skills, specific job skills, culture fit, motivation, and language proficiency. By replacing CV screening, it also aids the removal of unconscious biases in the hiring process.

Wouter Durville, Co-Founder of TestGorilla told me over a call: "We're removing bias because we’re making hiring very data-driven. Instead of just looking at a CV and looking at the big brands mentioned or the picture version of the person or how connected you are to a person, we are saying, hey, use these tests and test for different things that predict job success like cognitive ability or personality to fit with your culture. Then based on all the data you can automatically sort to see all your candidates, from the best to the worst, then make a decision on who you will invite into your recruiting process."

Jos White, General Partner at Notion Capital said: “This is a big deal! A super competitive round that almost every VC wanted to get into. They are literally upending the hiring process with a platform that is more democratic, more global and ultimately a much better predictor of job success. Companies are in a major war for talent and yet only armed with a penknife. TestGorilla can open up new talent pools, break down barriers and help candidates and companies find each other. We are leading the round but the angel investors are literally a who’s who of HRtech because they know that this company is the future of hiring and addresses so many of the challenges that companies are facing.”

Germany’s icon group VC bets $30M to back startups enabling traditional companies to pivot

Posted: 01 Jul 2021 12:01 AM PDT

Icon group is a new $30M VC fund being launched out of Germany’s iconmobile group, a WPP network agency. This means a reorganization of the company from a full-service innovation agency into also offering VC backing.

iconmobile has garnered a reputation as an innovative technology, design, and sustainability agency, but the turnaround means it will now, instead, back tech startups that enable traditional companies to “reinvent their business models and the way they reach their consumers.”

The icon ventures VC fund will be accompanied by new company arm: ‘icon impact’, the continuation of iconmobile's well-established product and experience innovation arm.

Previous iconmobile properties now fall under the icon ventures umbrella include:

• D[AI]TA, a white label sustainable laundry system that filters microplastic fibers via smart washing machines, reduces chemical contaminants, and uses ‘smart grid' washing to save energy. It also tracks what items have been washed, and worn, and sends that data to retailers.

• banbutsu, that does sustainable last-mile fulfillment

• icon incar a mobility experience company

Thomas Fellger, Founder of icon group said: "Whether it's creating the first connected toothbrush for Oral-B or UX/UI design for the world’s leading automotive brands, icon group works to bring innovation from idea to scale…. Now, with the inclusion of a venture fund, we can create the things we believe in without waiting for permission or additional budget allocations by investing in opportunities where we have deep knowledge and proven impact, something that sets us apart from the big five firms.”

Speaking to me over a call he added: "We are more capable than most companies to convert our knowledge of R&D into a fast business opportunity. For example, we found an infrared sensor, which can be used to measure air quality in Egypt. Because we knew we needed that kind of quality of air data, we were able to create a whole new product. And that’s what we will be good at – connecting the dots of different products services across industries to create for that industry, a new way of looking at their business by changing the business model, or even extending the services which they couldn’t do before."

Rohlik raises $119M at a $1.2B valuation to grow its 2-hour grocery delivery service in Europe

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 09:59 PM PDT

“Instant” grocery delivery has been a big theme among food startups in Europe, where customers can order from a limited assortment of items and get their purchases packed from “dark stores” and delivered in sometimes as little as 10 or 15 minutes. But today a startup that’s built a much bigger proposition — a virtual supermarket of 17,000+ items that it delivers in as little as two hours — is announcing some funding as it expands in Europe.

Rohlik, a Czech startup that has built an online grocery ordering and delivery business selling grocery fare — which it procures itself wholesale, or in partnership with established businesses, combining that with items sourced from local small businesses — has picked up €100 million ($119 million at today's rates). This Series C investment values Rohlik at €1 billion ($1.2 billion).

The round is being led by Index Ventures, which was also part of Rohlik’s $230 million Series B that it raised only three months ago. Previous backers including Partech and Quadrille Capital also participated in this latest round.

The reason for the rapid fundraise is to strike while the iron is hot and put the gas on expansion, said Tomáš Čupr, Rohlik’s founder and CEO.

The Czech startup has already expanded to Hungary and Austria and is planning its first launch in Germany, in Munich, in the coming months. With this extra funding boost, he said that Romania, Italy, France and Spain now on the list as well.

“They were all in the first plan we wanted to present to investors, but we felt we were unproven coming from Eastern Europe,” Čupr said in an interview. “Now we feel like we can unleash what we saw before, which is that with the high penetration of mobile shopping, we have a chance to disrupt groceries in Europe.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a giant impact on how we eat — and one aspect of that has been that many more people started to buy food — ready-made, groceries, and everything in between — online and get it delivered to their homes rather than picking it and paying in person. As established online and offline services buckled under the weight of customer demand, that represented a big opportunity for tech companies building more efficient models to get people the same goods (and sometimes even a more interesting selection, or a more convenient service) to fill the gap.

Rohlik was actually around and growing steadily for six years in its home market of the Czech Republic before raising money — and it’s actually already profitable there — but its star really started to rise with that bigger shift in consumer demand.

Rohlik’s revenues in 2020 passed €300 million, with over 750,000 customers; it’s not yet disclosing any figures for 2021 that would speak to how well its expansion is going, but the funding seems to point to traction. Currently, the average shop is in the range of €60 to €100 per order, with customers typically shopping about once per week, Čupr said.

While Rohlik’s name may change with each new market — in Hungary it’s Kifli.hu, in Austria its Gurkerl.at, and in Germany it will be called Knuspr.de — what is staying consistent is the company’s basic formula, a mix of its own-purchased-in wholesale items, goods from partners like Marks & Spencer, and products sourced from smaller and local businesses, a mix that might be rebalanced or personalized depending on market demand, and potentially pushed out for some interesting economies of scale using Rohlik’s logistics operations to do so.

This is an interesting point. As someone who has lived both in countries like the U.S. where small food businesses like fishmongers are essentially nonexistent, except for in the biggest of metropolises; and in places in Europe, where it’s not uncommon for even the smallest villages to have independent, well-used shops for basics, this is where Rohlik stands out for me, as a rare example of a tech company that is trying to bring more growth to those small businesses rather than providing a service that eventually puts them out of business.

Čupr described a “failing in the online grocery business in the last few years,” where the offerings were essentially just what you got in a basic large supermarket. Rohlik is changing that up by incorporating local enterprises. His example: an independent pasta-making shop in Italy might now be able to, for the first, time, also sell its ravioli and pappardelle to a buyer in Austria or Hungary through Rohlik.

“This has absolutely been the playbook. You will see the same pattern with our assortment,” he said. “Local butchers, bakers, fishmongers and pharmacies, but also M&S clothes, kitchenware. It’s basically our ‘near food’ approach.

“It’s not just a journey to a cornershop that we are trying to cut out,” he continued, in reference to the profusion of fast-delivery startups that have all hit the market. Instead, he referred to another major European shopping practice of saving it all for the weekend. “We want to save your Saturday in a few clicks.”

And given that there are still countries, like France, where online groceries have been quite slow to take off, that speaks of a lot of growth potential. All of this likely resonates strongly with European investors who would likely know those routines as part of their own cultures.

“It’s a combination of three things that got validated here,” said Jan Hammer, a partner at Index who led this deal. “First, it’s the incredible market opportunity, and we're only scratching the service. Then, it’s Rohlik’s formula and business model, a unique combination, and customers love it.”

Whether consumer habits are shifted for good will be something to watch, as will how others in the market respond, particularly more localized players that have carved out their own leadership over years, and in cases where they may have brick-and-mortar as well, generations. That loyalty to traditional businesses is ultimately what Rohlik champions, but also what might most challenge it.

Uber’s first head of data science just raised a new venture fund to back nascent AI startups

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 05:21 PM PDT

Kevin Novak joined Uber as its 21st employee its seventh engineer in 2011, and by 2014, he was the company’s head of data science. He talks proudly of that time, but like all good things, it ran its course and by the end of 2017, having accomplished what he wanted at the company, he left.

At first, he picked up the pace of his angel investing, work he’d already begun focusing on during weekends and evenings, ultimately building a portfolio of more than 50 startups (including the fintech Pipe and the autonomous checkout company Standard Cognition).

He also began advising both startups and venture firms — including Playground Global, Costanoa Ventures, Renegade Partners and Data Collective — and after falling in love with the work, Novak this year decided to launch his own venture outfit in Menlo Park, Ca., called Rackhouse Venture Capital. Indeed, Rackhouse just closed its debut fund with $15 million, anchored by Uber’s first head of engineering, Curtis Chambers; Steve Gilula, a former chairman of Searchlight Pictures, and the fund of funds Cendana Capital. A lot of the VCs Novak knows are also investors in the fund.

We caught up with Novak late last week to chat out that new vehicle. We also talked about this tenure at Uber, where, be warned, he played a major role in creating surge pricing (though he prefers the term “dynamic pricing.”) You can hear that fuller discussion or check out excerpts from it, edited lightly for length and clarity, below.

TC: You were planning to become a nuclear physicist. How did you wind up at Uber?

KN: As an undergrad, I was studying physics, math and computer science, and when I got to grad school, I really wanted to teach. But I also really liked programming and applying physics concepts in the programming space, and the nuke department had the largest allocation of supercomputer time, so that ended up driving a lot of my research  — just the opportunity to play on computers while doing physics. So [I] was studying to become a nuclear physicist was funded very indirectly through the research that eventually became the Higgs boson. As the Higgs got discovered, it was very good for humanity and absolutely horrible for my research budget . . .

A friend of mine heard what I was doing and sort of knew my skill set and said, like, ‘Hey, you should come check out this Uber cab company that it’s like a limo company with an app. There’s a very interesting data problem and a very interesting math problem.’ So I ended up applying [though I committed] the cardinal sin of startup applications and wore a suit and tie to my interview.

TC: You’re from Michigan. I also grew up in the Midwest so appreciate why you might think that people would wear a suit to an interview.

KN: I got off the elevator and the friend who’d encouraged me to apply was like, ‘What are you wearing?!’ But I got asked to join nonetheless as a computational algorithms engineer — a title that predated the data science trend — and I spent the next couple of years living in the engineering and product world, building data features and . . .things like our ETA engine, basically predicting how long it would take an Uber to get to you. One of my very first projects was working on tolls and tunnels because figuring out which tunnel an Uber went through and how to build time and distance was a common failure point. So I spent, like, three days driving the Big Dig in Boston out to Somerville and back to Logan with a bunch of phones, collecting GPS data.

I got to know a lot of very random facts about Uber cities, but my big claim to fame was dynamic pricing. . . and it turned out to be a really successful cornerstone for the strategy of making sure Ubers were available.

TC: How does that go over, when you tell people that you invented surge pricing?

KN: It’s a very quick litmus test to figure out like people’s underlying enthusiasm for behavioral econ and finance. The Wall Street crowd is like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so cool.’ And then a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, thank you, yeah, thank you so much, wonderful, you buy the next round of drinks’ type of thing. . . [Laughs.]

But data also became the incubation space for a lot of the early special projects like Uber pool and a lot of the ideas around, okay, how would you build a dispatching model that enables different people with pooled ride requests? How do you batch them together efficiently in space and time so that we can get the right match rate that [so this] project is profitable? We did a lot of work on the theory behind the hub-and-spoke Uber Eats delivery models and thinking through how we apply our learnings about ride-share to food. So I got the first person perspective on a lot of these products when it was literally three people scribbling on a notepad or riffing on a laptop over lunch, [and which] eventually went on to become these big, nationwide businesses.

TC: You were working on Uber Freight for the last nine months of your career with Uber, so there when this business with Anthony Levandowski was blowing up.

KN: Yeah, it was it was very interesting era for me because more than six years in, [I was already developing the] attitude of ‘I’ve done everything I wanted to do.’ I joined a 20-person company and, at the time, we were closing in on 20,000 people . . .and I kind of missed the small team dynamic and felt like I was hitting a natural stopping point. And then Uber’s 2017 happened and and there was Anthony, there was Susan Fowler, and Travis has this horrific accident in his personal life and his head was clearly not in the game. But I didn’t want to be the guy who was known for bailing in the worst quarter of the company’s history, so I ended up spending the next year basically keeping the band together and trying to figure out what I could do to keep whatever small part of the company I was running intact and motivated and empathetic and good in every sense of the word.

TC: You left at the end of that year and it seems you’ve been very busy since, including, now, launching this new fund with the backing of outsiders. Why call it Rackhouse? You used the brand Jigsaw Venture Capital when you were investing your own money.

KN: Yeah. A year [into angel investing], I had formed an LLC, I was “marking” my portfolio to market, sending quarterly updates to myself and my accountant and my wife. It was one of these exercises that was a carryover from how I was training managers, in that I think you grow most efficiently and successfully if you can develop a few skills at a time. So I was trying to figure out what it would take to run my own back office, even if it was just moving my money from my checking account to my “investing account,” and writing my own portfolio update.

I was really excited about the possibility of launching my first externally facing fund with other people’s money under the Jigsaw banner, too, but there’s actually a fund in the UK [named Jigsaw] and as I started to talk to LPs and was saying ‘Look, I want to do this data fund and I want it to be early stage,’ I’d get calls from them being like, ‘We just saw that Jigsaw did this Series D in Crowdstrike.’ I realized I’d be competing with the other Jigsaw from a mindshare perspective, so figured before things go too big and crazy, I’d create my own distinct brand.

TC: Did you roll any of your angel-backed deals into the new fund? I see Rackhouse has 13 portfolio companies.

KN: There are a few that I’ve agreed to move forward and warehouse for the fund, and we’re just going through the technicalities of doing that right now.

TC: And the focus is on machine learning and AI.

KN: That’s right, and I think there are amazing opportunities outside of the traditional areas of industry focus that, to the extent that you can find like rigorous applications of AI,  are also going to be significantly less competitive. [Deals] that don’t fall in the strike zone of nearly as many [venture] firms is the game I want to be playing. I feel like that that opportunity — regardless of sector, regardless of geography — biases toward domain experts.

TC: I wonder if that also explains the size of your fund — your wanting to stay out of the strike zone of most venture firms.

KN: I want to make sure that I build a fund that enables me to be an active participant in the earliest stages of companies.

Matt Ocko and Zack Bogue [of Data Collective] are good friends of mine — they’re mentors, in fact, and small LPs in the fund and talked with me about how they got started. But now they have a billion-plus [dollars] in assets under management, and he people I [like to back] are two people who are moonlighting and getting ready to take the plunge and [firms the size of Data Collective] have basically priced themselves out of the formation and pre-seed stage, and I like that stage. It’s something where I have a lot of useful experience. I also think it’s the stage where, if you come from a place of domain expertise, you don’t need five quarters of financials to get conviction.

Nodes & Links raises $11M to — maybe — save billions on the big projects the world needs now

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 04:05 PM PDT

Nodes & Links is a scheduling platform for large-scale infrastructure projects which works out when the nuts and bolts for the bridge (for example) should be delivered, and in what order. Unsurprisingly, complex infrastructure projects often get this wrong. The company has now raised an $11 million Series A funding round led by urban sustainability-focused fund 2150, alongside Zigg Capital and Westerly Winds, with participation from existing investors Entrepreneur First, ADV and Seedcamp.

Launched in 2018, the company's Aegis platform is used by Balfour Beatty, Costain and BAM Nuttal, and claims to have delivered millions in cost savings on infrastructure projects, because the building materials and assembly ends up being organized in the right order. Given that most major projects run significantly over time and over budget, scheduling correctly can make a huge difference to costs, as well as the impact on the environment.

The company quotes a survey by Oxford University that found that only 8% of infrastructure projects get delivered on time and on budget.

"Complex projects account for over 4% of the world's GDP, yet only 8% of them complete on budget and on time,” Nodes and Links CEO Greg Lawton said. “This is largely because humans are responsible for all tasks within projects, even the repetitive and complex ones they're unsuited to, instead of the high-value, creative activities people are uniquely qualified for. By expanding our workforce to include machines, better decisions will be made and better projects delivered. We firmly believe that the work we're doing is going to have the same impact as automation did in manufacturing and this new investment will help us accelerate its adoption for the common good."

Nodes & Links competes with large infrastructure software such as Oracle Primavera, as well as plain old Excel spreadsheets, for obvious reasons.

"The world is accelerating its investment into linear infrastructure, much of it with a focus on sustainability and resilience,” Christian Hernandez, Partner at 2150 said. “Time is the biggest lever available to ensure that trillions of dollars of projects starts delivering benefits to our planet and Nodes & Links has proven that they can help large and complex engineering projects deliver on that.”

Investment in construction automation is essential to rebuilding US infrastructure

 

VividQ, which has raised $15M, says it can turn normal screens into holographic displays

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 04:00 PM PDT

VividQ, a UK-based deeptech startup with technology for rendering holograms on legacy screens, has raised $15 million to develop its technology for next-generation digital displays and devices. And it’s already lining up manufacturing partners in the US, China and Japan to do it.

The funding round, a Seed extension round, was led by UTokyo IPC, the venture investment arm for the University of Tokyo. It was joined by Foresight Williams Technology (a joint collaboration between Foresight Group and Williams Advanced Engineering), Japanese Miyako Capital, APEX Ventures in Austria, and the R42 Group VC out of Stanford. Previous investors University of Tokyo Edge Capital, Sure Valley Ventures, and Essex Innovation also participated.

The funding will be used to scale VividQ’s HoloLCD technology, which, claims the company, turns consumer-grade screens into holographic displays.

Founded in 2017, VividQ has already worked with ARM, and other partners, including Compound Photonics, Himax Technologies, and iView Displays.

The startup is aiming its technology at Automotive HUD, head-mounted displays (HMDs), and smart glasses with a Computer-Generated Holography that projects “actual 3D images with true depth of field, making displays more natural and immersive for users." It also says it has discovered a way to turn normal LCD screens into holographic displays.

"Scenes we know from films, from Iron Man to Star Trek, are becoming closer to reality than ever,” Darran Milne, co-founder and CEO of VividQ, said. “At VividQ, we are on a mission to bring holographic displays to the world for the first time. Our solutions help bring innovative display products to the automotive industry, improve AR experiences, and soon will change how we interact with personal devices, such as laptops and mobiles."

VividQ

VividQ

Mikio Kawahara, chief investment officer of UTokyo IPC, said, "The future of display is holography. The demand for improved 3D images in real-world settings is growing across the whole display industry. VividQ’s products will make the future ambitions of many consumer electronics businesses a reality."

Hermann Hauser, APEX Ventures' advisor, and co-founder of Arm added: "Computer-Generated Holography recreates immersive projections that possess the same 3D information as the world around us. VividQ has the potential to change how humans interact with digital information."

Speaking on a call with me, Milne added: "We have put the technology on gaming laptops that can actually take make use of holographic displays on a standard LCD screen. So you know the image is actually extending out of the screen. We don’t use any optical trickery.”

“When we say holograms, what we mean is a hologram is essentially an instruction set that tells light how to behave. We compute that effect algorithmically and then present that to the eye, so it’s indistinguishable from a real object. It’s entirely natural as well. Your brain and your visual system are unable to distinguish it from something real because you’re literally giving your eyes the same information that reality does, so there’s no trickery in the normal sense," he said.

If this works, it could certainly be a transformation, and I can see it being married very well with technology like UltraLeap.

 

Daily Crunch: Insecure server exposes Byju’s students’ names, phone numbers, emails and more

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 03:10 PM PDT

To get a roundup of TechCrunch's biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.

Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for June 30, 2021. It's the last day of the quarter. It's the last day of the first half of the year. It's the halfway mark for your New Year's resolutions. The kickoff of Q3 means that we are heading into yet another earnings season. To close the second quarter, a number of companies went public including Didi and SentinelOne. The TechCrunch take is that we're seeing some interesting pricing differentials between companies from the United States compared to China. — Alex

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Robinhood fined ahead of IPO: While we count down to Robinhood's IPO filing, long expected after a strong first quarter, the company was hit with $70 million in fines and penalties today for what the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) described as "widespread and significant harm suffered by customers."
  • Venture capital drama: TechCrunch's Natasha Mascarenhas scooped that SF-based Hinge Health booted a board member after they invested in what the company considered to be a competitor. The news is notable by itself, but also underscores how founder-friendly the market truly is today; this might not have happened back when venture capitalists held more power.
  • Byju's leaks student data: Today's breach involves a startup called Salesken.ai, an exposed server, and Byju's user data. Byju's is an Indian edtech company, and a very highly valued one at that. Salesken provides what TechCrunch describes as "customer relationship technology," which helps explain why it might have had the other company's data. No excuse, however.

Startups/VC

Let's start our startup coverage today with three space-related stories:

Next up, the creator economy:

But that wasn't all. Here's more from today's critical startup coverage:

  • $5M for a LGBTQ+ neobank: While many neobanks are targeting the population at large, others are taking a more targeted approach. Such is the case with Daylight, which wants to provide banking services to the queer community. It joins startups like Fair and others in taking a slightly more niche approach to the popular fintech model.
  • $250M for drone logistics: Remember that startup that was using drones to deliver medical supplies in Africa? It was called Zipline. And it has since expanded its goals, technology, and, today, capital base.
  • And then there was news from Gusto that the HR-tech unicorn is breaking out pieces of its core technology so that other companies can embed payroll services and the like. While this is cool, what we really want is a Gusto S-1.

Demand Curve: 7 ad types that increase click-through rates

One perennial problem inside startups: Because no one on the founding team has significant marketing experience, growth-related efforts are pro forma and generally unlikely to move the needle.

Everyone wants higher click-through rates, but creating ads that “stand out” is a risky strategy, especially when you don’t know what you’re doing. This guest post by Demand Curve offers seven strategies for boosting CTR that you can clone and deploy today inside your own startup.

Here’s one: If customers are talking about you online, reach out to ask if you can add a screenshot of their reviews to your advertising. Testimonials are a form of social proof that boost conversions, and they’re particularly effective when used in retargeting ads.

Earlier this week, we ran another post about optimizing email marketing for early-stage startups. We’ll have more expert growth advice coming soon, so stay tuned.

Demand Curve: 7 ad types that increase click-through rates

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Big Tech Inc.

From tech's biggest companies, we have three stories for you today. Let's proceed in descending order of market cap, shall we?

  • Amazon doesn't want to be regulated: And it may be worried to boot. That's our takeaway from news that the company is trying to sideline the current FTC chair. Tough, is our first read of the company's complaints and demands.
  • Instagram wants in on paid following: Following in Big Tweet's footsteps, Instagram is "building its own version of Twitter's Super Follow with a feature that would allow online creators to publish ‘exclusive’ content to their Instagram Stories that's only available to their fans." So it would be stuff, only available for fans? How interesting. There's another service that has a similar effort. And Twitter allows for adult content. Instagram does not. Hmm.
  • Twitter makes NFTs, because why not: Want to know when something jumps the shark? When a major social network buys in, right? Major social networks are the boomers of the technology world — extending the analogy, Oracle is a ghost that haunts your attic — meaning that they are inherently uncool. And now Twitter has NFTs. Yay, or something.

TechCrunch Experts: Growth Marketing

Illustration montage based on education and knowledge in blue

Image Credits: SEAN GLADWELL (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

TechCrunch wants you to recommend growth marketers who have expertise in SEO, social, content writing and more! If you're a growth marketer, pass this survey along to your clients; we'd like to hear about why they loved working with you.

If you’re curious about how these surveys are shaping our coverage, check out this interview Miranda Halpern did with Kathleen Estreich and Emily Kramer, co-founders of MKT1, "MKT1: Developer marketing is what startup marketing should look like."

MKT1: Developer marketing is what startup marketing should look like

Lego should snap up this rapid-fire brick-finding iOS app

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 02:12 PM PDT

Lego has worked extremely closely with Apple over the years, experimenting with unreleased iOS tech and demoing it onstage at launch events like WWDC; this has included some pretty heavy tinkering on the augmented reality ARKit platform that they’ve integrated several of their play sets with, adding digital experiences to the physical toys.

But one of the most impressive integrations between iOS tech and physical Lego bricks just popped up on the App Store, and it’s built by a team of fans. The new app Brickit is aiming to one-up what even the Lego Group has created with an app that uses computer-vision tech to quickly make sense of a mountain of bricks.

All users need to do is haphazardly dump Legos into a single layer on the floor. From there the app is able to quickly analyze and identify bricks in the collection and serve up some fun little projects that users have all or most of the bricks they need to build. The most impressive element of the app is its speed — the app is able to make sense of hundreds of bricks in a pile within seconds.

While I unfortunately don’t have access to a pile of Legos at the moment, a TechCrunch colleague demoed the app on iOS and had similarly smooth results to the demo above, with some added loading time in between discovery and when users are able to scroll through suggested projects. While navigating instructions, users are even pointed to the area in the brick pile that a particular needed piece is in.

What the Brickit team has done highlights the power of object recognition in the latest versions of iOS in a way that’s surprisingly useful for this very, very niche use case.

As is, the app is a bit limited by the fact that it’s a third-party design. The App Store’s disclaimer page is quick to specify that this is not an app built by the Lego Group and that its developers are just fans of the product, not employees of the company. Hopefully that’s enough to prevent Lego from overzealously siccing its lawyers on them, but given the app’s impressive use of Apple hardware, it really seems like the company would be better off acquiring the app.

There’s a lot more that Brickit could do with first-party access, mainly in terms of access to integrations with existing libraries of Lego instructions. With Lego’s 2019 acquisition of BrickLink, it’s clear the company has been aiming to capture more of the community fandom around aftermarket creations. Allowing the company to build up a database of the actual bricks that a user has in their possession, thus gaining some insights into the collections of sets that they own, would undoubtedly be valuable data to Lego.

For now the Brickit app is limited to iOS, but the company’s website indicates the team has aims to launch an Android app by the fall.

Summer Sale: Save 10% on Extra Crunch membership

Dispense with the chasm? No way!

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 02:02 PM PDT

Geoffrey Moore Contributor
Known for his seminal book "Crossing the Chasm," Geoffrey Moore is an author, speaker and adviser who splits his consulting time between startup companies in the Wildcat Venture Partners portfolio and established high-tech enterprises — including Salesforce, Microsoft, Autodesk, F5Networks, Gainsight, Google and Splunk.

Jeff Bussgang, a co-founder and general partner at Flybridge Capital, recently wrote an Extra Crunch guest post that argued it is time for a refresh when it comes to the technology adoption life cycle and the chasm. His argument went as follows:

  1. VCs in recent years have drastically underestimated the size of SAMs (serviceable addressable markets) for their startup investments because they were "trained to think only a portion of the SAM is obtainable within any reasonable window of time because of the chasm."
  2. The chasm is no longer the barrier it once was because businesses have finally understood that software is eating the world.
  3. As a result, the early majority has joined up with the innovators and early adopters to create an expanded early market. Effectively, they have defected from the mainstream market to cross the chasm in the other direction, leaving only the late majority and the laggards on the other side.
  4. That is why we now are seeing multiple instances of very large high-growth markets that appear to have no limit to their upside. There is no chasm to cross until much later in the life cycle, and it isn't worth much effort to cross it then.

Now, I agree with Jeff that we are seeing remarkable growth in technology adoption at levels that would have astonished investors from prior decades. In particular, I agree with him when he says:

The pandemic helped accelerate a global appreciation that digital innovation was no longer a luxury but a necessity. As such, companies could no longer wait around for new innovations to cross the chasm. Instead, everyone had to embrace change or be exposed to an existential competitive disadvantage.

But this is crossing the chasm! Pragmatic customers are being forced to adopt because they are under duress. It is not that they buy into the vision of software eating the world. It is because their very own lunches are being eaten. The pandemic created a flotilla of chasm-crossings because it unleashed a very real set of existential threats.

The key here is to understand the difference between two buying decision processes, one governed by visionaries and technology enthusiasts (the early adopters and innovators), the other by pragmatists (the early majority).

The key here is to understand the difference between two buying decision processes, one governed by visionaries and technology enthusiasts (the early adopters and innovators), the other by pragmatists (the early majority). The early group makes their decisions based on their own analyses. They do not look to others for corroborative support. Pragmatists do. Indeed, word-of-mouth endorsements are by far the most impactful input not only about what to buy and when but also from whom.

SpaceX delivers 88 satellites to orbit, lands first stage onshore for first time in 2021

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 12:42 PM PDT

SpaceX launched 85 satellites for external customers, as well as three Starlink satellites, to orbit on Tuesday, marking the second successful launch of the company’s dedicated rideshare missions. While the Transporter-2 mission will deliver fewer objects to space than the first rideshare mission (the Transporter-1 sent up 143 satellites, a new record), it launched more mass to orbit overall.

The Transporter launches are part of the company's rideshare business model. Announced in 2019, these missions split up the rocket's payload capacity among multiple customers, resulting in lower costs for each – many of whom are smaller companies that may find the expenses associated with getting to orbit otherwise impossible to pay. SpaceX still ends up with a full launch and the revenue to operate it.

The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at around 3:31 PM Eastern time. It's the 20th Falcon 9 launch in 2021 and the first launch this year that featured the first stage returning to land onshore, rather than on a drone ship at sea. The first stage booster separated at around 3:34 PM ET and returned to Cape Canaveral and successfully landed around eight minutes after liftoff. This was its eighth flight.

The mission includes nearly 10 customers, some of whom are launch service providers who are themselves organizing customer payloads – like Spaceflight Inc., which is launching 36 small satellites on behalf of 14 customers, as well as its electric propulsion vehicle dubbed Sherpa-LTE. It also includes the first satellite launch for space intelligence company Umbra and Loft Orbital's "rideshare" satellites, YAM-2 and YAM-3, each of which are equipped with five independent sensors for separate customers.

As this was SpaceX's 20th launch this year (and 127th mission to date), it's pretty safe to assume that the company will far surpass last year's record of 26 launches.

This was the second attempt of the Transporter-2 launch, which was originally scheduled for June 29. That launch was halted at T-11 seconds after a rotary aircraft entered the flight zone. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called the regulatory system broken in response.

SpaceX sets new record for most satellites on a single launch with latest Falcon 9 mission

 

BMW i Ventures announces new $300 million fund to invest in sustainable technology

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 12:38 PM PDT

BMW i Ventures, the venture capital arm of BMW Group, has announced a new $300 million fund to further its investment in technologies that make transportation, manufacturing and supply chains more sustainable. 

The firm doesn't operate as a traditional corporate venture capital fund, but rather acts independently from BMW while being fully backed by the German automaker. Its previous €500 million (about $525 million at the time) fund, which was announced when the firm moved to Silicon Valley in 2016, is now at the end of its period for new investments. From now on, new investments will come from Fund II. 

Fund I focused more on autonomous and digital vehicle technology, customer experience and advanced production. For example, autonomous truck company Kodiak Robotics, which last week announced an investment from BMW i Ventures, was a part of this fund. Fund II will further emphasize sustainability and zero emissions in all the sectors that lead up to designing, manufacturing and building a car, rather than specifically investing in core car technology.

"Sustainable supply chain is one of the things we're really interested in right now," Marcus Behrendt, managing partner at BMW i Ventures, told TechCrunch. "BMW Corp has announced that it wants to significantly reduce its carbon footprint, and therefore it's looking at all ways of producing this, not just emission from the vehicles, but also the emissions that are produced when manufacturing and developing the cars."

BMW i Ventures invests in autonomous truck technology company Kodiak Robotics

BMW i Ventures started dipping its toes into such sustainable investments at the end of 2019, investing in Turntide Technologies, a company developing a smart electric motor system, Solid Power, a solid-state battery technology company and Boston Metal, a company looking to decarbonize the metal industry. Its most recent investments, says Behrendt, are indicative of what Fund II will bring. The firm has already made its first investment out of the new fund with U.K.-based Motorway, a used car marketplace. 

"We have two goals right now, so the first is the financial goal and that's our most important driver," Kasper Sage, managing partner at BMW i Ventures, told TechCrunch. "Certain CVCs out there don't really care for the return on investment, they just get to benefit from the business deal that comes with the investment, which could actually hurt the business they're investing in. Our goal is to make the company as successful as we possibly can."

BMW i Ventures' second goal is to provide strategic value back to the "mothership," or BMW Group in Munich. By mainly investing in early-stage companies, the firm has an early market signal that it can convey back to BMW. 

"In some cases it's just making them aware that this new technology exists and might be coming your way," said Sage. "For example, we invested in Lime, so that's micromobility, nothing that will ever make its way into a car. But it is important to understand that this is a part of the future of how people move from A to B."

Behrendt and Sage both said BMW i Ventures has no intentions of acquiring any of its investments, but rather wants to be at the forefront of finding companies with high potential that can work with BMW or the rest of the industry in the future. 

Sage said the firm has had 12 exits so far, plus six public companies at the moment and one that recently filed for a S-1 and will soon be public.

"We don’t need corporate buy-in to make an investment," said Behrendt. "We do consult our engineers for due diligence and we also connect them with other startups. We’re trying to combine the best of both worlds. So we are acting like a financial VC, we’re taking board seats, we’re leading rounds, we can make quick decisions. And on the other hand we’re providing all the connections within our organization to the company."

The startups that BMW i Ventures invests in get the benefit of networking with BMW engineers and employees and learning from a legacy company how the automotive ecosystem works. Behrendt says for a company like Solid Power, where the technology is another four or five years out, there's a strong collaboration between BMW's business unit and the company to help them grow.

"This is a win-win situation," said Behrendt. "We are introducing them and will bring them into the company, they will be talking to the right engineers. There's no guarantee that they will get a contract in, but they will start working together and exploring and getting help and maybe helping out with quick solutions."

Refraction AI’s Matthew Johnson-Roberson on finding the middle path to robotic delivery

 

Women’s social network Peanut launches microfund StartHER to invest in pre-seed stage startups

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 12:31 PM PDT

Peanut, the maker of a social networking app for women, is entering into the investing space with today’s launch of a microfund called StartHER. As the name implies, the new fund will focus on investing in women, as well as other historically excluded founders “of all ages, life stages, ethnicities and sexual orientations,” the company says. In particular, StartHER aims to tackle the difficulties specific groups have in raising their first capital — something typically referred to as the “friends and family round.”

Peanut argues there’s inherent bias in assuming that every startup founder has access to what are, essentially, wealthy friends or family who can spare a little startup capital. These rounds often range in size from $10,000 to as large as $150,000 or more, and can make a difference when it comes to getting a new company off the ground.

“The assumption that founders should have networks able to invest in their businesses creates an unfair starting line for most groups. If we don't remove barriers to that initial funding by providing access to capital, how can we ever hope to see a changing founder profile further through the fundraising funnel?" says Peanut CEO Michelle Kennedy, in a statement about the fund’s launch. “Peanut's StartHER fund opens the door to founders looking for that early funding. It's our opportunity to finally level the playing field. We want to be the family these founders can turn to, opening the door to our professional networks too.”

The lack of access to funds for female founders may have gotten worse during the pandemic. Crunchbase data indicates female-founded startups globally saw a 27% decrease in funding in 2020 as compared to 2019. The pandemic shut down access to in-person networking opportunities and disproportionately impacted the family caretakers who tend to be women, as schools, daycares and other childcare assistance businesses closed their doors. These changes may have contributed to the decline, though it’s hard to pinpoint.

Despite gains, gender diversity in VC funding struggled in 2020

But even outside the pandemic’s impacts, women are underrepresented in venture investing — including on the firm’s side. Only 13% of decision-makers at VC firms are women, which can influence what startups receive funding.

“It's no secret that the venture capital industry is dominated by those with privilege and lucrative connections. As a member of the Female Founders Fund, I'm excited to be a part of StartHER's investment committee to help these entrepreneurs, who have not been adequately recognized, grow their networks in the venture capital community," said Anu Duggal, Founding Partner of Female Founders Fund, who joined SheHER’s investment committee.

StartHER says it’s looking to step in to fill that gap by offering small investments to early-stage, pre-seed businesses focused on making a positive impact on society, healthcare, or the environment. According to its online application, StartHER will write checks of between $25,000 and $50,000 — likely one of the first checks a new startup may receive. The overall fund is $300,000 in size, and will make 3-4 investments in 2021. Peanut will not take an equity stake in the companies it invests in.

“Moving forward, we'll be considering other factors such as deal flow to help inform how we invest and the companies we choose to invest in,” explains Kennedy. We're heavily focused on making the right investments that will have the most impact versus simply making returns. For StartHER, our goal is not to make X number of investments for X returns, but to diversify the VC funnel by serving as an entry point to capital for underrepresented founders,” she says.

Along with Duggal and Kennedy, the investment committee for the fund includes journalist and angel investor Bérénice Magistretti; Chief Business Officer at Conde Nast Britain, Vanessa Kingori MBE; Founder of Shiffon Co. and Startup Girl Foundation, Shilpa Yarlagadda; and author, columnist and Brand Strategist, Elizabeth Uviebinene.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and the committee meets every six months to consider the fund’s applications. Beyond the investment, startups who receive SheHER funds will also be given access and office hours to the networks of the committee members, the website says.

Anu Duggal on COVID-19, promoting diversity and building a fund

 

Volvo Cars sets the tone for its next-gen vehicles with ‘Concept Recharge’ EV

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 12:28 PM PDT

Volvo Cars wants to completely electrify its lineup by 2030 and on Wednesday offered a glimpse into how it plans to get there and what its next generation of vehicles might look like.

But it's not going to do it alone. Although the automaker plans on developing its own in-car operating system and other parts of the car, Volvo Cars detailed how it plans to work with partners like Northvolt, Google and Luminar to build out its future vehicles lineup. It also unveiled the first images of "Concept Recharge," a concept EV that has flat floors, two interior screens and rear “suicide doors” that open from the middle of the vehicle.

Volvo Concept Recharge. Image Credits: Volvo Cars

The Concept Recharge is also outfitted with Luminar sensors, in line with an announcement earlier this month that Volvo Cars' forthcoming flagship electric SUV will be equipped with Luminar's technology stack as standard.

On the battery front, Volvo Cars is working with Swedish battery developer Northvolt on a pack that it says will enable a range of up to around 621 miles — a massive achievement of energy density, should Northvolt pull it off. The two companies are aiming to build a gigafactory in Europe by 2026 in a new 50-50 joint venture, with a potential annual capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours. Volvo Cars will also source 15 GWh of batteries from Northvolt's battery plant in Skellefteå, Sweden from 2024.

Future Volvo Cars vehicles will be capable of bidirectional charging, a capability that can turn the EV into a mobile generator or a mini power plant, offloading excess energy to the electricity grid.

Volvo said its OS, VolvoCars.OS, will act as an "umbrella system" for underlying operating systems, including its infotainment system led by Google and tech from Linux, QNX and AUTOSAR. While the vehicle will contain up to 100 electrical control units, these will run on a core computing system made up of three main computers being developed in partnership with Nvidia.

The automaker also discussed in more detail its plans to equip its flagship electric SUV with Luminar's sensor suite and technology from Volvo's software arm Zenseact. Executives shirked questions asking to specify the level of the autonomous system — referring to the scale developed by the Society of Automobile Engineers to measure the level of autonomy in a driving system — saying that they preferred to discuss the forthcoming AV driving system in terms of supervised or unsupervised. Under those terms, Volvo said the two modes — Cruise and Ride— would require driver supervision and no supervision, respectively. It said it would gradually launch unsupervised functionality at some point in the future.

The forthcoming system will generate tons of driving data from customers, and Volvo doesn't intend on it to go to waste. The automaker said it aims to build a data factory to process information it collects from customers that use its autonomous drive safety features (with their consent). It would use this data to make improvements on the system, which it would push to vehicles via over-the-air updates.

"We need to transform this company from just a premium conventional company. We need to transform it into a leader in the new premium electric segment, which is growing very fast," Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson said. "We need to understand batteries in the same way we understand the combustion engine."

GM’s newest startup aims squarely at the commercial EV market

How to cut through the promotional haze and select a digital building platform

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 12:20 PM PDT

Brian Turner Contributor
Brian Turner, LEED-AP BD&C, leads strategic planning for product development and project work at Buildings IOT. Throughout his career, Brian has provided hands-on expertise to architects, engineers and building owners to design and implement integrated building systems.

Everyone from investors to casual LinkedIn observers has more reasons than ever to look at buildings and wonder what's going on inside. The property industry is known for moving slowly when it comes to adopting new technologies, but novel concepts and products are now entering this market at a dizzying pace.

However, this ever-growing array of smart-building products has made it confusing for professionals who seek to implement digital building platform (DBP) technologies in their spaces, let alone across their entire enterprise. The waters get even murkier when it comes to cloud platforms and their impact on ROI with regard to energy usage and day-to-day operations.

Breaking down technology decisions into bite-sized pieces, starting with fundamental functions, is the most straightforward way to cut through the promotional haze.

Facility managers, energy professionals and building operators are increasingly hit with daily requests to review the latest platform for managing and operating their buildings. Here are a few tips to help decision-makers clear through the marketing fluff and put DBP platforms to the test.

The why, how and what

Breaking down technology decisions into bite-sized pieces, starting with fundamental functions, is the most straightforward way to cut through the promotional haze. Ask two simple questions: Who on your team will use this technology and what problem will it solve for them? Answers to these questions will help you maintain your key objectives, making it easier to narrow down the hundreds of options to a handful.

Another way to prioritize problems and solutions when sourcing smart-building technology is to identify your use cases. If you don’t know why you need a technology platform for your smart building, you’ll find it difficult to tell which option is better. Further, once you have chosen one, you’ll be hard put to determine if it has been successful. We find use cases draw the most direct line from why to how and what.

For example, let's examine the why, how and what questions for a real estate developer planning to construct or modernize a commercial office building:

  • Why will people come? — Our building will be full of amenities and technological touches that will make discerning tenants feel comfortable, safe and part of a warm community of like-minded individuals.
  • How will we do it? — Implement the latest tenant-facing technology offering services and capabilities that are not readily available at home. We will create indoor and outdoor environments that make people feel comfortable and happy.
  • What tools, products and technology will we use?

This last question is often the hardest to answer and is usually left until the last possible moment. For building systems integrators, this is where the real work begins.

Focus on desired outcomes

When various stakeholder groups begin their investigations of the technology, it is crucial to define the outcomes everyone hopes to achieve for each use case. When evaluating specific products, it helps to categorize them at high levels.

Several high-level outcomes, such as digital twin enablement, data normalization and data storage are expected across multiple categories of systems. However, only an enterprise building management system includes the most expected outcomes. Integration platform as a service, bespoke reports and dashboarding, analytics as a service and energy-optimization platforms have various enabled and optional outcomes.

The following table breaks down a list of high-level outcomes and aligns them to a category of smart-building platforms available in the market. Expanded definitions of each item are included at the end of this article.

Look out language teachers, a synthetic human could be about to take your job

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 12:05 PM PDT

Hour One, a startup that allows businesses to create 'photoreal' presenters that can speak pre-set any text or any language in a highly realistic manner, has signed a deal with Berlitz. The language learning giant will use the platform to augment its instructor-led services and grow its online language training programs in a way that would normally be impossible, without hiring thousands of human teachers.

“Berlitz has built our methodology and brand on delivering the best outcomes for students serious about fluency, which requires a very human-centric experience,” Curt Uehlein, Berlitz's CEO, said in a statement. “Our digital experiences had to replicate the classroom experience. Doing that successfully means Berlitz can extend our reach into new markets, and be more accessible to students, removing barriers of location and affordability."

Hour One has been able to almost recreate the in-person instructor experience for Berlitz, with highly-realistic photoreal characters who have (in my opinion) very natural facial expressions and gestures, and – crucially – perfectly synced speech. I've seen the software in operation myself and it is extremely convincing. Instead of course content being created in a studio with a human speaker, it can now be generated using AI. Look out language teachers…

Oren Aharon, CEO, Hour One said: "Where other brands keep innovation at the periphery, Berlitz has fully embraced our technology to scale its business and propel it into the new era."

Originally from Israel and new in New York, Hour One has raised $5 million from Galaxy Interactive, Kindred Ventures and Remagine Ventures.

Slack’s new voice, video tools should fit nicely on Salesforce platform after deal closes

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 12:02 PM PDT

It’s easy to forget, but Salesforce bought Slack at the end of last year for almost $28 billion, a deal that has yet to close. We don’t know exactly when that will happen, but Slack continues to develop its product roadmap adding new functionality, even while waiting to become part of Salesforce eventually.

Just this morning, the company made official some new tools it had been talking about for some time, including a new voice tool called Slack Huddles, which is available starting today, along with video messaging and a directory service called Slack Atlas.

These tools enhance the functionality of the platform in ways that should prove useful as it becomes part of Salesforce whenever that happens. It’s not hard to envision how integrating Huddles or the video tools (or even Slack Atlas for both internal and external company organizational views) could work when integrated into the Salesforce platform.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield says the companies aren’t working together yet because of regulatory limits on communications, but he could definitely see how these tools could work in tandem with Salesforce Service Cloud and Sales Cloud among others and how you can start to merge the data in Salesforce with Slack’s communications capabilities.

“[There’s] this excitement around workflows from the big system of record [in Salesforce] into the communication [in Slack] and having the data show up where the conversations are happening. And I think there’s a lot of potential here for leveraging these indirectly in customer interactions, whether that’s sales, marketing, support or whatever,” he said.

He said that he could also see Salesforce taking advantage of Slack Connect, a capability introduced last year that enables companies to communicate with people outside the company.

“We have all this stuff working inside of Slack Connect, and you get all the same benefits that you would get using Huddles to properly start a conversation, solve some problem or use video as a better way of communicating with [customers],” he said.

Why Sapphire’s Jai Das thinks the Salesforce-Slack deal could succeed

These announcements seem to fall into two main categories: the future of work and in the context of the acquisition. Bret Taylor, Salesforce president and COO certainly seemed to recognize that when discussing the deal with TechCrunch when it was announced back in December. He sees the two companies directly addressing the changing face of work:

"When we say we really want Slack to be this next generation interface for Customer 360, what we mean is we're pulling together all these systems. How do you rally your teams around these systems in this digital work-anywhere world that we're in right now where these teams are distributed and collaboration is more important than ever," Taylor said.

Brent Leary, founder and principal analyst at CRM Essentials says that there is clearly a future of work angle at play as the two companies come together. “I think moves like [today’s Slack announcements] are in response to where things are trending with respect to the future of work as we all find ourselves spending an increasing amount of time in front of webcams and microphones in our home offices meeting and collaborating with others,” he said.

Huddles is an example of how the company is trying to fix that screen fatigue from too many meetings or typing our thoughts. “This kind of ‘audio-first’ capability takes the emphasis off trying to type what we mean in the way we think will get the point across to just being able to say it without the additional effort to make it look right,” he said.

Leary added, “And not only will it allow people to just speak, but also allows us to get a better understanding of the sentiment and emotion that also comes with speaking to people and not having to guess what the intent/emotion is behind the text in a chat.”

As Karissa Bell pointed out on Engadget, Huddles also works like Discord’s chat feature in a business context, which could have great utility for Salesforce tools when it’s integrated with the Salesforce platform

While the regulatory machinations grind on, Slack continues to develop its platform and products. It will of course continue to operate as a stand-lone company, even when the mega deal finally closes, but there will certainly be plenty of cross-platform integrations.

Even if executives can’t discuss what those integrations could look like openly, there has to be a lot of excitement at Salesforce and Slack about the possibilities that these new tools bring to the table — and to the future of work in general — whenever the deal crosses the finish line.

Slack’s new video and voice tools are nod to changing face of work

 

Apple just released the first iOS 15 beta to everyone

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 10:49 AM PDT

This is your opportunity to get a glimpse of the future of iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. Apple just released the first public beta of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8. Those releases are the next major versions of the operating systems for the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Unlike developer betas, everyone can download these betas — you don't need a $99 developer account. But don't forget, it's a beta.

The company still plans to release the final version of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8 this fall. But Apple is going to release betas every few weeks over the summer. It's a good way to fix as many bugs as possible and gather data from a large group of users.

As always, Apple's public betas closely follow the release cycle of developer betas. Apple also released the second developer beta of iOS and iPadOS 15 today. So it sounds like the first public beta is more or less the same build as the second developer build.

But remember, you shouldn't install a beta on your primary iPhone or iPad. The issue is not just bugs — some apps and features won't work at all. In some rare cases, beta software can also brick your device and make it unusable. You may even lose data on iCloud. Proceed with extreme caution.

But if you have an iPad, iPhone or Apple Watch you don't need, here's how to download it. Head over to Apple's beta website from the device you want to use for the beta and download the configuration profile — do that from your iPhone for the watchOS beta. It's a tiny file that tells your device to update to public betas like it's a normal software update.

Once it's installed, reboot your device, then head over to the Settings (or Watch) app. You should see an update. In September, your device should automatically update to the final version of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 or watchOS 8 and you'll be able to delete the configuration profile.

The biggest change of iOS 15 is a new Focus mode. In addition to “Do not disturb,” you can configure various modes — you can choose apps and people you want notifications from and change your focus depending on what you're doing. For instance, you can create a Work mode, a Sleep mode, a Workout mode, etc.

There are many new features across the board, such as a new Weather app, updated maps in Apple Maps, an improved version of FaceTime with SharePlay and more. Safari also has a brand-new look.

Summer Sale: Save 10% on Extra Crunch membership

Apple unveils iOS 15 with new features for FaceTime and better notifications

iPadOS 15 announced at WWDC, features improved multitasking and surprising Swift Playgrounds features

watchOS 8 brings new mindfulness features and respiratory tracking

 

Common Sense Networks launches Sensical, a free, hand-curated streaming service for kids

Posted: 30 Jun 2021 10:24 AM PDT

Common Sense Media has made a name for itself among parents as a useful resource for vetting entertainment and technology in terms of its age-appropriateness. Now, the organization’s for-profit affiliate, Common Sense Networks, is taking inspiration from those kid-friendly recommendations with the launch of a new streaming service called Sensical. The service offers age-appropriate, entertaining, and educational videos for children ages 2 through 10.

At launch, the free, ad-supported service includes over 15,000 hand-curated videos and over 50 topic-based channels for children to explore. And unlike other platforms, like Netflix or YouTube, Sensical doesn’t use algorithms to make content recommendations. Instead, kids are encouraged to follow their own interests and passions across over 50 topic-based channels. This includes things like Adventures, Animals, Arts & Crafts, Music, Science, Sports, Video Games, and other sorts of kid-friendly topics.

Kids can star these channels, or individual videos or series, in order to keep up with their favorite content in a dedicated Favorites section within the app.

They will see a selection of these channels based on their age, but the company is working to expand the channel lineup so there will be even more specific categories in the future. For example, instead of just “sports,” there could be channels like “soccer” or “gymnastics.” Instead of “Arts,” there could be “drawing” or “origami.” Instead of just “science,” it could include channels like “geography” or “robotics,” and so on.

Image Credits: Common Sense Networks

The app also features a Live TV section, which is programmed throughout the day with kid-friendly content, so kids don’t have to browse to find something to quickly watch.

While other streaming services on the market offer kid-friendly content — as that’s a huge selling point for subscribers — it’s not always organized in a way that makes sense. Sometimes, all the content gets lumped into a general “Kids” category where videos for little kids are mixed in with content for older children. Sensical, meanwhile, curates the content recommendations into three different experiences, including preschool (2-4), little kids (5-7), and big kids (8-10).

What the child sees is based on how parents configure their profiles. Plus, parents can use the service’s ParentZone in-app dashboard to set screen-time limits, extend limits as needed, and view daily reports on what the child has watched.

The service’s best feature, however, is that the content is assured to be age-appropriate — even the ads.

This is possible because the curation approach Sensical takes is very different from YouTube Kids. YouTube’s app for kids leans on algorithms to filter out adult content from YouTube’s broader library, but the company doesn’t manually review all the videos it includes. It warns parents that some inappropriate content could slip through. (And it has.)

Common Sense Networks, meanwhile, says dozens of trained child-development experts view, vet and rate “every single frame of video” that goes live on its service using its proprietary IP and patent-pending process. This system involves tagging content with specific child-developmental benefits, too.

Sensical also vets its advertising, which is how the service is supported, with similar direct oversight. Its experts review the sponsor’s content to ensure it’s appropriate for children — an area that’s often overlooked on other services.

Image Credits: Common Sense Networks

To fill its library, Common Sense Networks partnered with dozens of studios and distribution partners, as well as digital-first creators.

Studio and distribution partners include CAKE (Poppy Cat), Cyber Group Studios (Leo The Wildlife Ranger), The Jim Henson Company (The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Jim Henson’s Animal Show with Stinky and Jake), Mattel (Kipper, Pingu, Max Steel), Raydar Media (Five Apples' limited series, Apple Tree House), Superights (Bo Bear, Handico), WildBrain (Teletubbies, Rev & Roll), Xilam Animation (Learn and Play with Paprika, Moka’s Fabulous Adventures), ZDF Enterprises (Lexi & Lottie, School of Roars), Zodiak Kids (Mister Maker, Tee and Mo), ABC Commercial, CBC & Radio-Canada Distribution, Jetpack Distribution, Nelvana, 9 Story Distribution International, Sesame Workshop, Serious Lunch, and Studio 100.

Digital creators, meanwhile, include ABCMouse, Aaron's Animals, Alphabet Rockers, batteryPOP, California Academy of Sciences, GoldieBlox, The Gotham Group's Gotham Reads, Guggenheim Museum, Howdytoons, Kids' Black History, MEL Science + Chemistry, N*Gen, Pinkfong, Penguin Random House's Brightly Storytime, Studio71 (Parry Gripp, Maymo, Hyper Roblox), Tankee, Ubongo Kids, Vooks, Bounce Patrol, Hevesh5, Mother Goose Club, StacyPlays, Super Simple Songs and The Whistle.

The service abides by the U.S. children’s privacy laws (COPPA), and is certified by the kidSAFE Seal Program.

Image Credits: Common Sense Networks

Having briefly toyed around with the mobile app, it appears Sensical works as described. If I had any complaints personally, it would only be that the experience could be dismissed as “baby stuff” by older kids approaching their tween years, due to the cute pictures and youthful iconography used in the app’s design. Kids in older age groups take issue with being treated as if they’re younger — and they take particular notice of anything that does so.

The same complaint goes for the Live TV programming, which was clearly aimed at littler kids when we checked it out, despite testing the app as a child profile whose age was set to “10.”

I also think it would be nice if there were a better way to track Favorite channels and see when they’re updated with new videos, as kids moving to Sensical from YouTube will want to “feel” like they’re still connected to new and fresh content and not a library. But Sensical isn’t YouTube. There’s a trade-off between hand-curation and timeliness, and Sensical is favoring the former.

Sensical had been first introduced this spring during a closed beta, but is now publicly available to stream across web and mobile on iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. This summer, it will expand to more distribution platforms, including VIZIO.

Investors and startups are seeking ways to entertain and protect kids online
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

How Healthy Is This Weight Loss Health Food Writer? You Might Want To Listen To This Old Guy…

I recommend eating the way I do, but very few will do it. Too strict. Probably l...