TechCrunch

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• Paranoid and on the move? Arlo Go 2 brings battery power and cell data to the surveillance mix
• Neuro-ID takes in fresh capital to combat fraud from all of our taps, types and swipes
• Kyndryl officially launches as IBM spins out $19B infrastructure services biz
• Why more SaaS companies are shifting to usage-based pricing
• BTS enters NFT market in joint venture with Upbit
• Housing startup QuintoAndar to open first technology hub outside Brazil in Portugal
• Nintendo releases Animal Crossing update a day early
• Cruise launches driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco
• TuSimple aims to test self-driving trucks on public roads without human safety operator by EOY
• Apple’s Federighi rails against app sideloading in single-note keynote
• Fisker is on target to launch the Ocean electric SUV in November 2022
• Daily Crunch: DoorDash releases in-app toolkit to promote driver safety
• Tesla’s latest patch hints at cloud-synced driver profiles
• Twitter expands API with support for posting and deleting tweets, Super Follows and more
• Facebook offers creators custom subscription links to get around Apple’s fees
• Sofar nets a $39M round B to grow its ocean-monitoring autonomous buoy network
• As Allbirds goes public, sustainability is the mantra of the future
• Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss and Volition Capital’s Larry Cheng talk early-stage fundraising on TechCrunch Live
• Dear Sophie: Options for founder moving on from E-2 visa
• Emerge Tools raises $1.7M to help make apps smaller

Paranoid and on the move? Arlo Go 2 brings battery power and cell data to the surveillance mix Posted: 04 Nov 2021 05:01 AM PDT Aimed at construction sites, vacation homes or for other hard-to-reach locations, Arlo‘s new Arlo Go 2 LTE/Wi-Fi Security Camera is at your beck and call to keep an eye out for thieves, sneaks and other scoundrels. The company is also peddling its Arlo Secure subscription service, which gives users access to a rolling 30-day library of cloud recordings, in addition to computer vision analysis of the footage with personalized person, animal, vehicle and package detection. The service also includes an Emergency Response feature, which can dispatch emergency services to the camera’s location at the touch of a button. The cameras are rugged, with a weather-resistant design to withstand the test of the elements, provide secure local storage to microSD cards and have connectivity built in. The cameras can phone home to the company’s servers using your Wi-Fi connection if and when it’s available, or LTE networks as either a primary or fallback option when the Wi-Fi goes down for the seventh time just when the latest episode of your favorite TV show gets good. “Arlo Go 2 builds on the success of its Arlo Go predecessor, serving as the most versatile solution for anyone seeking wire-free security for hard-to-access locations,” said Tejas Shah, senior vice president of Product and Chief Information Officer at Arlo. “Arlo Go 2's ability to operate on either a mobile network or Wi-Fi puts the power in the hands of the user, allowing them to select the best connection for their use case.” Arlo Go 2 is equipped with GPS positioning so you can keep tabs on them — making it easy to locate multiple devices across a larger area, or to go find your camera if bitter irony should strike and the thieves leave your house alone and instead just wander off with the cameras themselves. The cameras also feature two-way comms with speakers and a microphone so you can troll your would-be burglars from a safe distance, and a built-in siren so you can signal to your intruders that they’re being watched. Carrying a $250 price tag, the cameras will be available through Verizon now-ish, with additional carriers becoming available next year.

Neuro-ID takes in fresh capital to combat fraud from all of our taps, types and swipes Posted: 04 Nov 2021 05:00 AM PDT Much of our days are built around digital experiences, and companies are increasingly looking for ways to unlock conversion and optimize fraud screening. Today, a startup that has built a real-time behavioral analytics tool is announcing funding as it sees demand for its services increase. Neuro-ID, an analytics platform capturing real-time customer behavior at scale for digital organizations so that they can see and understand the intent of their digital customer and identify the root cause of customer friction, secured $35 million in Series B funding. The new capital follows $7 million Series A funding raised in December 2020, bringing the company's total funding to $49.5 million since being founded in 2014. Canapi Ventures led the latest round, and was joined by existing investors Fin VC and TTV Capital, which both led the Series A. Neuro-ID is not disclosing its valuation, but CEO Jack Alton said, via email, it is on the back of "strong customer traction." "Neuro-ID is on track to grow three to four times in both revenue and customer base in 2021," he added. "This follows a huge year of expansion for us, during which we also saw three to four times in client and revenue growth as well as a 500% increase in monitored customer journeys." Neuro-ID’s human analytics dashboard. Image Credits: Neuro-ID The company's list of customers includes Intuit, Square, Affirm, OppFi and Elephant Insurance, which are using Neuro-ID proprietary Human Analytics software that translates all of the swipes and taps of user behavior into actionable insights. The behavioral analytics also enables customers to see and use behavioral data to optimize existing AI/ML models. Customers, on average, have been able to increase conversion by 200% and reduce historical fraud rates by 35%, the company said. Alton intends to use the new funding to hire additional engineering talent, accelerate product-led growth and expand globally. In the past year, the company nearly tripled its employee base, which now stands at 60, he said. Walker Forehand, partner at Canapi Ventures, said via email that he considers Neuro-ID to be a one-stop shop for identifying user intent and experience analytics that is differentiating itself from competitors with its unique ability to analyze first-time customers versus others that focus on repeat customer interactions, he added. Delivering seamless customer journeys is a priority for both fintechs and banks, where Forehand said just less than 10% of people complete a digital journey after starting one. Traditional models are also using physical attributes for verification, like address and date of birth, whereas Neuro-ID uses other methods to identify whether a customer is genuine or fraudulent. "This new view of customer behavior at scale opens up the ability to improve conversion to drive more revenue by fast-tracking good customers, become more sophisticated at measuring intent, and improve the design quality of their digital products, all while reducing fraud," Forehand said. "What's most exciting is that Neuro-ID's technology is not only applicable to fintechs and banks, any industry that addresses high-volume digital and automated decisions could become a customer of Neuro-ID." Analytics as a service: Why more enterprises should consider outsourcing

Kyndryl officially launches as IBM spins out $19B infrastructure services biz Posted: 04 Nov 2021 04:00 AM PDT This morning IBM officially spun out its infrastructure services into a new business called Kyndryl, one that, by the way, has revenue of $19 billion out of the gate as a public company. Whatever you think of this move, Kyndryl is a substantial company, yet IBM still saw itself better off without this considerable chunk of business. According to an investor presentation provided by the nascent company, Kyndryl sees itself as a consulting arm for legacy companies to help them make the transition to more modern ways of doing business, a mission that would seem to fit with what IBM has been trying to do in recent years with the company in general. But when Big Blue announced its intentions to spin out this division last year, it was clear that it was looking to move away from legacy business, and it saw infrastructure services as a piece that didn’t fit with CEO Arvind Krishna’s hybrid and AI-focused vision. As I wrote in an analysis of the move when it was announced: You don't need to be a financial genius to see where the company is headed. Krishna clearly saw that it was time to start moving on from the legacy side of IBM's business, even if there would be some short-term pain involved in doing so. So the executive put his resources into (as they say) where the puck is going. Today's news is a continuation of that effort. Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategies believes both companies will ultimately benefit from the separation. “IBM was one of the last companies to spin out its lower-margin, lower innovation services companies. I think IBM will benefit most from [the shift in] focus in that it doesn’t require any more executive time [on this division] and it can now focus on growth areas,” he said. Regarding Kyndryl, he says the newly formed company can begin to pick and choose where it wants to concentrate from a business perspective with more freedom than it could under the IBM umbrella. “Kyndryl can be more successful on its own as it can spend money on R&D like automation that actually benefits [the business]. Mature businesses require a different kind of investment,” he said, and as a separate company it can begin making those kinds of key decisions. Red Hat continues to grow, but IBM’s struggles continue Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research, points out that since Kyndryl starts off with a big head start in the market. “[Spinning out Kyndryl] is a key move for IBM to find growth again and to be more profitable going forward which drives valuation. Kyndryl now has to show it can produce results on its own, and given it has been gifted a number of long-term contracts from IBM, that should not be an issue,” he said. While Kyndryl will be fine for the short term at least based on its existing contracts, it remains to be seen if the company can flourish on its own in the longer term in a changing technology landscape. Regardless, IBM is free to concentrate on its new vision. and while it will probably miss the revenue initially, it should benefit eventually from this arrangement.

Why more SaaS companies are shifting to usage-based pricing Posted: 04 Nov 2021 03:01 AM PDT Is usage-based pricing (UBP) going mainstream? That may be so, if you consider the results of Boston-based VC firm OpenView’s annual Financial and Operating Benchmarks survey. Of the nearly 600 SaaS companies that responded, 45% say they are using this flexible pricing model, up from 34% in 2020. The survey also looks into how companies that adopt flexible pricing models perform compared to their counterparts, and how it impacts them more broadly. And since it doesn’t shy away from mentioning challenges, we felt it would be relevant reading for founders who might still be on the fence. To get a deeper look into the results of the survey, we spoke with OpenView operating partner Kyle Poyar, who has championed usage-based pricing models in the past, and co-authored the firm’s 2021 State of Usage-Based Pricing Report with partner Sanjiv Kalevar. A usage-based pricing is an incredible message that you stand behind your products, and you truly believe your customers are going to be successful. The main insights are below, but before we jump in, here’s a note on definitions: the report’s definition of usage-based pricing adoption includes companies like Twilio, whose pricing is almost entirely pay-as-you-go, as well as those offering subscription tiers based on usage, like Zapier. In other words, the report’s co-authors don’t draw the line at whether or not there’s a subscription element; instead, they consider if pricing is tied to product consumption behavior, as opposed to just seat-based pricing in a landscape where companies also charge based on customer size, functionality, services, or other factors. Why the seats are empty One of the factors driving this shift is that charging for “seats” makes less sense than it used to, according to OpenView. Poyar noted that the value a customer receives rarely ties in directly with how many people log in, especially as more and more startups now offer solutions built around automation, AI or APIs. “In fact,” he said, “it might even be negatively correlated: When AI can automate tasks, the more successful the solution is, the fewer people need to be logging in. So seats are just an outdated way of charging and don’t allow a company to communicate value or invest in features that would add more value.” While Poyar admitted that not every company does this, he pointed out that automation, APIs or AI often play a big role in the success of the companies going public today. This might explain another shift in thinking: Many companies that go public “are calling out usage-based models and making it a focus of their S-1s or of their investor materials,” Poyar said. He added that while “there used to be a fear that investors would penalize them for a usage-based model, because there was a fear that it wasn’t recurring revenue, and it wasn’t predictable. [ … ] Now, a usage-based revenue model is seen as a competitive advantage, and a driver of long-term growth.”

BTS enters NFT market in joint venture with Upbit Posted: 04 Nov 2021 02:07 AM PDT Hybe, the South Korean agency behind K-pop megastars BTS, announced today that it plans to set up a joint venture with Korean crypto exchange Upbit to enter to non-fungible token (NFT) business. Hybe will buy a 2.5% stake in Dunamu, a blockchain-based fintech startup that runs cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, for $423.1 million (500 billion won). At the same time, Dunamu will acquire newly issued Hybe shares, a 5.6% stake, in a Seoul-headquartered music agency for $592.4 million, according to the regulatory filing.   The joint venture company will create NFT photocards that will be traded on Hybe’s global fan-to-artist communication app, Weverse, said CEO of Hybe, Si-Hyuk Bang, and Chairman of Dunamu, Chi-Hyung Song, in a joint statement during the company's briefing on Thursday.  Hybe's BTS NFTs will include moving images, voices of artists and more, Bang explained. On top of that, global fans will be able to exchange their digital photo cards in virtual spaces, Song said. Hybe and its subsidiaries unveiled further plans to extend the BTS brand deeper into the digital sphere. In addition to the NFT JV, there will be a BTS video game, and a ‘webtoon’ business.  Hybe is one of the most successful companies manufacturing pop bands at the moment and they are riding the wave. In the briefing, Lenzo Yoon, CEO of Hybe America, said that Hybe and Universal Music Group are preparing to unveil a global girl group debut, too. Separately, Hybe Japan will announce a boy band in Japan, Hyunrock Han, CEO of Hybe Japan, said. South Korean K-pop giants are bracing for the arrival of NFTs to extend their revenue potential by turning their existing IP into digital assets.   South Korea's four biggest entertainment companies, Hybe, JYP, SM, and YG, have been competing to tap into the new tech. JYP Entertainment partnered with Dunamu to set up a K-pop-based NFT platform in July, while SM announced its launch to build a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform in 2019.  BTS label Big Hit Entertainment inks broad partnership with streaming tech company Kiswe

Housing startup QuintoAndar to open first technology hub outside Brazil in Portugal Posted: 03 Nov 2021 08:00 PM PDT QuintoAndar is taking its first steps out of Brazil to open a technology hub in Lisbon, Portugal aimed at attracting technology talent across the pond. Co-founder and CEO Gabriel Braga made the announcement at Web Summit 2021 going on this week in Lisbon. The new office will serve as its first in Europe and will be operational in March, initially staffing up to 50 by the end of next year. The company touts itself as "the largest housing platform in Latin America," providing selling and rental assistance, and also takes on the risk associated with monthly rental payments. QuintoAndar currently had more than 150,000 properties and $89 billion in assets under management and operates in more than 40 cities across Brazil. The move comes six months after the company raised $300 million in Series E funding that valued the company at $4 billion. In August, investors Tencent and Greenoaks added another $120 million to push valuation to $5.1 billion and over $700 million raised in total, Braga said. He noted that the European region is home to a lot of technology talent, and the tech hub was something that had been in the works for awhile, but was postponed due to the global pandemic. Now that the company has embraced a hybrid work model, it is ready to take the step to expand internationally. In addition to the presence in Portugal, QuintoAndar is also preparing to make a similar move to Mexico next year, Brag said. "The new office is part of our long-term focus of building a world-class tech team and part of the funding will support that continuous investment," he added. "We are based in Brazil, but more and more, we are bringing on people from all over the world to join us. Remote work made it easier in some ways and hard in others, but now we have more people spread out." Brazilian proptech startup QuintoAndar lands $300M at a $4B valuation

Nintendo releases Animal Crossing update a day early Posted: 03 Nov 2021 07:31 PM PDT Grab your Nintendo Switches and start downloading the “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” update, because it's going to be a late night. Nintendo just dropped the update to version 2.0 – a day early. Last month, Nintendo announced the biggest update yet for its biggest Switch game of 2020, which was slated to arrive November 5. As of now, the "Happy Home Paradise" DLC hasn't yet been added to the game, but there's still plenty to do with the free patch. The new features include the Roost cafe, farming and cooking DIY recipes (step aside, “Stardew Valley”), boat rides to rare islands with Kapp’n, gyroid hunting, makeovers and shopping with Harriet on Harv’s island, and more. The update also includes quality-of-life improvements, including extra home storage and storage sheds that you can place around your island, so you don’t have to run to your home every time you want to deposit items. There’s also now more capacity for ramps and bridges on your island, new camera modes (perfect for anyone who got way too into “New Pokémon Snap”), and even a motion-controlled stretching exercise that you can do with your villagers. Version 2.0 of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now available for download on your Nintendo Switch in an unexpected early release! Here's the new title screen showing off that beautiful 2.0 version number we've been waiting over a year for. #ACNH pic.twitter.com/5Rd6gE5Yax — Animal Crossing World (@ACWorldBlog) November 4, 2021 After downloading the update, Isabelle will explain ordinances and boat tours with Kapp’n in her daily update. With the ability to enact island ordinances, players can change what time of day villagers are most active. This can be helpful for gamers whose real-life schedules only allow them to play at certain times, since villagers act differently throughout the day. Unfortunately boat rides with Kapp’n can only be purchased once per day with Nook Miles, so you can’t endlessly cycle through islands like you can when you depart from the airport. But maybe this is Nintendo’s way of encouraging us to play the game in moderation, rather than speeding to 400 hours and burning out within months, never to touch the game again until the next update. ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ will get major updates and ‘Happy Home Paradise’ DLC on November 5 While version 2.0 of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” will be the last major free update to the game, the “Happy Home Paradise” DLC is slated to release on Friday as scheduled. The DLC is priced at $24.99, but it is also included as part of the Nintendo Switch Online+ expansion pack, a new online membership that was teased in September and released last week. The Online+ expansion also includes access to select Nintendo 64 and SEGA games.

Cruise launches driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco Posted: 03 Nov 2021 04:34 PM PDT Employees of Cruise, the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, will be the first to jump inside one of the company’s autonomous vehicles that operate in San Francisco without a human driver in the front seat. Certain members of the public will also be able to ride, but they won’t be charged a fare. Cruise co-founder, CTO and president Kyle Vogt was reportedly the first to ride the driverless AV, and he gushed about it all over Twitter. 1) Monday night was a night I'll never forget. I'm still speechless. I got to take the first ride, by anyone, ever, in a *driverless* robotaxi on the streets of San Francisco. This was officially ride #1 for @Cruise. Full story and vids below.https://t.co/GDjVcvMrvK — Kyle Vogt (@kvogt) November 3, 2021 “Around 11pm Monday night we launched an AV without anyone inside for the first time,” tweeted Vogt. “Until now we’ve been testing with humans in the driver’s or passenger’s seat, so this was a first. It began to roam around the city, waiting for a ride request. At 11:20pm I used the Cruise app and summoned my first ride. After a few minutes, one of the Cruise AVs (named Sourdough) drove up to me and pulled over. Nobody was inside the car. I pressed the ‘start ride’ button and the AV smoothly pulled back into traffic.” Vogt also said he requested five more rides that night. The rides had to be at night because according to the stipulations of Cruise’s “driverless deployment permit” from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the company can only operate driverless between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m and at a max speed of 30 miles per hour. Cruise received the permit in early October, which allows the company to deploy its vehicles without a human onboard, as well as charge fees for delivery services, but crucially not ride-hailing services. Cruise’s first human-less deployment comes about a week after GM CEO Mary Barra said the company is confident that Cruise will begin commercial driverless ride-hailing and delivery operations by next year. Cruise has yet to apply for the final permit it needs, which would be from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), to be able to charge for robotaxi services. Until such time, only Cruise employees and non-paying members of the public will be riding around in Sourdough and other human-less AVs. Cruise told TechCrunch it doesn't break out numbers for how many driverless AVs are permitted, nor does it have any updates on when it expects to apply for its final permit from CPUC. Correction: A previous version of this article stated that employees of Cruise would be able to ride in the driverless AVs. Cruise has just confirmed that certain members of the public will also be allowed to ride, but didn’t specify who would qualify to ride. Cruise has not opened its driverless service to members of the general public yet.

TuSimple aims to test self-driving trucks on public roads without human safety operator by EOY Posted: 03 Nov 2021 04:18 PM PDT Self-driving trucks startup TuSimple signaled it is close to testing its system without a human safety operator on public roads before the end of the year. During the startup’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, TuSimple announced plans to proceed with its driver-out pilot program, which would remove the driver for runs over the 80-mile route between the Phoenix and Tucson areas. “We expect to perform the initial driver runs before year end and to complete the pro pilot program over the coming months,” Cheng Lu, TuSimple’s president and CEO, said during the call. “As a reminder, the driver-out pilot will consist of multiple runs performed over multiple weeks and is a major part of ongoing technology development across many dimensions, including software, hardware and go-to-market. What makes the driver-out pilot program so challenging is that we’re solving for both known and unknown factors that we might encounter on public roads. This includes noncompliant motors, unplanned road construction and changing driving conditions, all of which must be continuously monitored and accounted for in real time.” If TuSimple can begin this program before 2022, it will put the company in one of the leading positions against the competition. Kodiak Robotics, for example, has only begun driver-out testing on closed tracks. Embark is not currently testing on public roads without a human safety driver, but is planning a pilot for 2023 and is targeting commercial driver-out operations by 2024. Waymo Via is currently not testing in “rider only” mode, but is testing with two autonomous specialists in the cab of the vehicle, one in the driver’s seat and the other acting as a software technician. Swedish freight company Einride, which just launched its U.S. operations, has been driverless in Europe for a couple of years now, but will only be operating without a human driver in the U.S. at its partner GE Appliances’ closed campus. “In the coming weeks, we expect to ‘freeze’ our technology development so it can be used in final test runs on open roads with a safety driver and on a test track with no human inside the vehicle,” according to TuSimple’s earnings report. “This test phase will inform and validate our safety case. After we fully complete the safety validation process, our team will then be able to proceed with removing the driver from the vehicle for our 80-mile run on public roads.” In other words, TuSimple thinks its tech is ready to perform fully autonomously, at least on a specific stretch of road, and will spend the next few weeks building out its safety case. The company outlined two primary areas for its driver-out safety case validation: “Systems safety” and “operations safety.” Systems safety validates that the trucks are safe to operate autonomously by helping each aspect of the system to be reliable, fail-safe, sufficient and proven, said Lu. Operations safety “supports each aspect of our driver operations to be prepared and proven by creating safe processes and procedures,” said Lu. “Operation Safety validates that we have monitored and triaged every driving event that we can, assessed the event’s level of safety risk and assigned it for resolution by engineering teams.” Beyond the pilot, TuSimple does face some challenges in the Tier 1 supply chain to moving past the driver-out tests and actually putting more vehicles on the road. In the near term, Lu pointed to supply chain disruptions and labor shortages. In the long term, the challenge TuSimple sees to the scale deployment of autonomous technology is supply chain maturity. “That really revolves around key Tier 1 components like the compute, autonomous Domain Controller (ADC), or redundant actuation, steering and braking,” said Lu. “And so there’s a little chicken-and-egg that happens in this because Tier 1s don’t want to commit to investments without orders, and that’s something that we have identified as one of the risks and so we are taking steps to address that… Over the next coming quarters, you’ll hear more announcements from us in terms of investing more heavily in the supply chain to ensure that we can meet the timeline that we talked about.” In Q3, TuSimple spent $85 million on R&D, which is up $24 million, or around 3x, year-over-year, and a large chunk of that was related to hiring tech talent and additional drivers. Adding more personnel, as well as increasing the commercial utilization of its fleet and autonomous freight network (AFN) partner fleets, is what TuSimple credits as the reason it was able to beat revenue expectations of $1.65 million with a Q3 revenue of $1.8 million. “The ability to recruit new drivers and acquire new trucks for our fleet continues to be our most significant source of headwinds to revenue growth, but we have been able to navigate this environment and are on track to achieve our full year revenue guidance of $5 to $7 million,” according to the earnings report. TuSimple’s net loss per share, at $0.54, was greater than the expected $0.49. However, the startup increased its revenue mile growth by 2.5x from Q3 last year, coming in at around 945,000 miles, which is up from around 379,000, but quarter-over-quarter is a lot less impressive — in the second quarter, TuSimple drove around 880,000 revenue miles, which means there’s only a 7% increase. During the earnings call, TuSimple also said it is mapping new freight lanes with UPS from Arizona, where the company has performed most of its operations, all the way to Florida. The company plans to expand its AFN across the United States by 2024, and recently partnered with freight management company Ryder to help achieve that end. Now, TuSimple is collaborating with UPS Supply Chain Solutions to expand its AFN ahead of schedule to the east coast to reach UPS North America Air Freight (NAAF) terminals in Orlando and Charlotte, where the company has already high-def mapped routes. Since 2019, when TuSimple’s partnership with UPS began, the company has completed 160,000 miles of freight hauls for NAAF and says it saved the company 13% on fuel at speeds between 55 miles and 68 miles per hour. In Q3, when the company expanded its AFN from Dallas to Charlotte, it mapped 1,400 new unique miles, bringing total unique miles mapped to 9,900. TuSimple said it expects map quality to continuously improve due to new mapping tech that is refined for dynamic, low-latency updates, reducing update times from weeks to days and, over the long term, to minutes.

Apple’s Federighi rails against app sideloading in single-note keynote Posted: 03 Nov 2021 03:59 PM PDT Apple’s head of software engineering Craig Federighi took his time onstage at the Web Summit 2021 conference to air a laundry list of grievances against proposed requirements for sideloading apps onto iPhones, describing the practice as “gold rush for the malware industry.” It’s a matter for discussion not simply because there is lively debate on the topic (though there is), but because the EU’s Digital Markets Act, if implemented as currently laid out, could mandate a method of putting apps on iPhones that circumvents Apple’s longstanding App Store and review process. CEO Tim Cook already made the company’s position (hard against this, obviously) known in June, when he said the rule could “destroy the security of the iPhone.” So it’s not a big surprise that Federighi would back up the boss, but dedicating pretty much a full onstage speech to a series of arguably misleading and totally unchallenged assertions offers the viewer light notes of desperation. Apple’s approach of manually reviewing each app and update has its own problems, but for the purposes of preventing malware it’s a pretty good solution — that much is fair to say. But it’s one thing to say your method is better, another entirely to say that other methods should never, ever be allowed. “There’s a clear consensus here, and it’s that sideloading undermines security and puts people’s data at risk,” he said. That may very well be true, but it’s not the only consensus. There’s also something of a consensus among developers and users — to say nothing of antitrust authorities — that Apple has exerted a stranglehold on the iOS app market that long ago became more of a hindrance than an asset to the global market. “Our mission is to provide people with a choice of what we view as the best,” Federighi said, shortly before embarking on a tirade against certain choices. In his view, offering users the choice to sideload apps “would take away consumers’ choice of a more secure platform.” More choice is less choice, got it! He then hurried on to a rather labored metaphor he hoped would resonate with the homeowners in the crowd. Let’s just quote the whole thing here: You made a choice. You wanted to protect your family so you bought a really safe home with a really great security system. And you’re really glad you did. Because since you first moved in the burglars have never been more creative or more plentiful. And in the real world of cybersecurity, this couldn’t be more true. Attackers are virtually dressing up as mailmen building tunnels underground and trying to scale your backyard walls with grappling hooks. In this world, some of your neighbors are suffering repeated break ins, but the home you have has kept you safe. But then, that new law gets passed. And in the noble pursuit of a more optimized package delivery, your town requires everyone to build an always-unlocked side door on the ground floor of their homes. Now some of your neighbors, they love this idea. But you’re not so sure, because you know that once a side door is built, anyone can walk through it. The safe house that you chose now has a fatal flaw in its security system, and burglars are really good at exploiting it. In a nutshell, sideloading is that unlocked side door and requiring it on iPhone would give cybercriminals an easy point of entry into your device. Now, we don’t think anyone wants that, least of all the policy makers intending to give users more choice and more protections. Instead of creating choice it would open up a Pandora’s box of unreviewed malware ridden software and deny everyone the option of iPhone secure approach. This imagery, however vivid, falls somewhat short of the reality. The choice to have and use that door will very much be up to the users, and Apple has a responsibility and opportunity to explain the risks of that choice very clearly. Google hasn’t succeeded in some ways there, Federighi pointed out, but that sounds like something Apple could just improve on. Most users will have no need or desire to sideload apps, and even if they do, the idea is not to create a wild west — which, by the way, most computers have been for a long time — but to create space in the market for competition. Europe lays out its plan to reboot digital rules and tame tech giants If we go back to our “favorite house” as he called it, it’s worth noting that Federighi failed to mention that that big secure front door has a special apple-shaped hole through which only Apple-branded packages can be delivered. This isn’t about just putting another hole in the house, it’s about having literally any alternative to a system — an effective system, but a relic from another age — that has been the only option for a decade and made the already rich company running it one of the richest in history. There was quite a bit of fearmongering and FUD to go along with the half-truths Federighi was peddling onstage. Perhaps not the inspiring speech the audience was expecting from someone so influential in tech. They may only be delaying the inevitable, but clearly Apple will fight tooth and nail for the consumer’s right to choose what Apple has already chosen for them.

Fisker is on target to launch the Ocean electric SUV in November 2022 Posted: 03 Nov 2021 03:47 PM PDT Fisker provided an upbeat forecast on the ramp-up of its electric automaking business during Wednesday’s third-quarter earnings call, highlighting its manufacturing partnership with Foxconn, a battery supply agreement with Chinese battery giant CATL secured and its on-track production for the company's debut Ocean SUV. The company confirmed that it will start production of the Ocean in November 2022, in partnership with automotive contract manufacturer Magna Steyr, and will produce two vehicles a day by the first quarter of next year, CEO Henrik Fisker said during an investor call Wednesday. Deliveries are on track to begin in the U.S. and Europe in late 2022. To meet these deadlines, Fisker is ramping up its pace of spending. While its general and administrative expenses rose a modest few million dollars to $10.3 million in the most recent quarter (up from $7.9 million in the three months concluded June 30, 2021), other expenses rose more rapidly. The critical research and development line item from Fisker — recall that the company is still getting ready to build and sell cars, so it's in R&D mode today — grew by more than 100% from its Q2 2021 tally of $45.3 million to $99.3 million in the most recent quarter. The increase was the result of increasing the company’s workforce, and spending on prototype development, executives said. That incredible bounce to R&D spend helps explain why Fisker added so much cash to its accounts in recent weeks; it needs a boatload of cash to get its vehicles into the market, and into the hands of their eventual drivers. Fisker and CATL The big news is Fisker's battery deal with CATL, for which the Chinese company will supply an initial annual capacity of over 5 gigawatt-hours through 2025, with an option to increase volumes. The Fisker Ocean will launch with two different battery packs, which will go into prototypes next year: the base pack will use a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry that's lower cost, but less energy dense; the second battery, a nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC), will have higher energy density with greater range, but will have a commensurate cost increase to go along with it. "What this allows us to do is get the world's longest range in our segment for an SUV in our price class," Fisker said. More details on the range of the two battery packs will be revealed at the LA Auto Show next week, he added. LFP, an older battery chemistry, has become a popular lower-cost option amongst companies, including Tesla, which said it would use the chemistry in all standard Model 3 vehicles across global markets. "Why would we be ahead of the competition?" he said. "We chose all this technology this year. So when you get a Fisker Ocean 12 months from now, your technology is the newest of the newest. If you buy any other car next year, most likely that technology was chosen three years ago." The company is also in the middle of setting up a Chinese entity to take reservations from customers in that country, though that likely won’t be complete before the beginning of next year, Fisker said. Around 80-85% of Fisker’s current reservations come from the U.S. Earnings results Now, onto the earnings. Obviously, as a pre-revenue company, what matters on Fisker’s earnings is a little different from our usual financial fare. Shares of Fisker are up just over 1% in after-hours trading after the electric vehicle company announced its third-quarter performance. As expected, the company's revenues were more than light, and Fisker lost money. The market had expected Fisker to report a per-share loss of $0.35. The company's $0.37 loss per share was worth some $109.8 million, in net loss terms. Fisker generated a bare $15,000 in revenue during the period, a figure that led to a $1,000 net loss. Fisker was also pipped to detail a recent bond offering that brought its cash supply up to $1.40 billion, a huge fain from its preceding tally of $962 million, a figure shared at the end of its June 30, 2021 quarter. Fisker sold $667.5 million worth of convertible notes yielding 2.5%, helping it sell its coffers ahead of eventual vehicle production. While Fisker remains pre-revenue today, investors expect that to rapidly change. From a faint dusting of top-line in 2021, street analysts anticipate that the company will soar to $264.2 million in revenues during the 2022 period, per Yahoo Finance data. All that cash that Fisker just raised will come in handy when it has to meet those essentially infinitely steeper revenue demands from public-market investors.

Daily Crunch: DoorDash releases in-app toolkit to promote driver safety Posted: 03 Nov 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 November 3, 2021. What a day! Despite the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing a slowdown to its bond-buying program, stocks went up again. It's heads-you-win, tails-you’re-still-in stock market lately. Economy not good enough for tightening? Stocks go up on a comfortable central-banking environment. Economy good enough for tightening? Stocks go up on good economic news. Sure. I suppose it's good news for startups looking to exit. — Alex The TechCrunch Top 3 Female founders see better fundraising numbers in 2021: After a disappointing 2020, startups founded by women are having a much better run this year, data says. TechCrunch dug into the latest information, uncovering the bad, the good and the encouraging. Everyone is going public: Alrighty, let's talk public offerings. Paytm just raised a pre-IPO round worth $1.1 billion ahead of the Indian fintech's inevitable public-market debut. AllBirds priced its IPO-above range and was met with a rave first day's trading. And in Korea, Kakao had a similarly bracing first day's trading. (And don't forget that Backblaze and Expensify are also en route to their IPOs as well.) Meet GitHub's new CEO: As GitHub CEO Nat Friedman heads for the exits to the "Chairman Emeritus" role, the code-management service's chief product officer Thomas Dohmke will take over as its new chief executive later this month. The changes at GitHub come in the wake of competitor GitLab's epic IPO. Startups/VC The Gopuff model goes international: As TechCrunch notes, rapid, on-demand delivery is big business around the world today, and Breadfast wants to own the model in Egypt and across Africa. The company started life as a bread delivery firm but has since branched out. And it just raised $26 million. U.S. bans NSO Group: Software made by NSO group has been used by authoritarian governments to snoop on journalists, dissidents and other folks that the powerful do not like. The U.S. Commerce Department just added NSO to its Entity List, shuttering trade with the firm in the States. Progress. Australia says facial recognition startup broke its laws: Also from the security beat is news from Down Under, namely that Clearview AI "broke national privacy laws when it covertly collected citizens' facial biometrics and incorporated them into its AI-powered identity matching service." Canada has come to a similar conclusion. Radar or lidar? A new funding round for Spartan Radar — coming in rapid succession after a preceding investment — indicates that the market has yet to determine which tech will lead the way for self-driving cars. Ethyca wants to help developers write privacy-forward software: Fresh with new funds, Ethyca is making its Fides set of tooling open source so that "developers can build privacy tools and monitoring mechanisms directly into their codebases." In the wake of the above privacy news, it feels like a pretty good day for consumers. At least directionally, I suppose. Yet more money for e-commerce rollups: The push to consolidate e-commerce brands is a global affair. We've heard about lots of the activity — and resulting mega-rounds — in both North America and Europe. Now Una Brands has raised even more capital for its APAC-focused work of a similar nature. Payhippo raises $3M for small-biz lending in Africa: A few quick notes here. First, African fintech has been on a fundraising tear lately, so we're not surprised to see more activity from the sector. Second, Payhippo's model is focused on SMB lending, which we dig. And, third, Payhippo is a great startup name. To round out our startup coverage today, an essay from Victoria Pettibone, a managing partner at Astia Fund, arguing that "VCs must do a better job of supporting Black women founders." Female founders are making a buzzing, venture-backed comeback We are nowhere near achieving parity or representation when it comes to startup funding, but the gender gap is narrowing, according to PitchBook data. Funding for U.S.-based, female-founded startups nearly doubled in the last year: So far in 2021, women-led companies have closed 2,661 deals worth $40.4 billion. “Thus far in 2021, the backsliding has more than stopped,” report Natasha Mascarenhas and Alex Wilhelm. “Indeed, it has shot the other direction.” Female founders are making a buzzing, venture-backed comeback (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Big Tech Inc. Before we dive into general Big Tech news, please enjoy this dive into the biggest of technology news, namely growth in the cloud. You know, that remote data center where all your software actually runs. Social media disinformation is more than a Facebook affair: After some damning revelations about Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta, Twitter was flooded with messages of … support. Astroturfing is not a new concept, but when laid as clear as it is in this case, it's extra gross. Instagram hearts Twitter: After a long period of time in which Instagram accounts merely posted images of tweets, the Meta property – The Facebook protectorate? The Zuck protectorate? – is bringing back Twitter Card previews. Rejoice, all ye who still use the one-time photo sharing application. Cash App for teens: Kids have it good these days. I had a checkbook in my youth. And after that mostly had to carry cash. Today Square is rolling out support for teens to use Cash App, provided they have parents to watch over their activity. To round out our coverage of big technology firms, news from DoorDash: The U.S. delivery giant has built something it calls "SafeDash," a security toolkit for its delivery denizens. It's a partnership with ADP that may help keep DoorDashers safer than they are on their own. TechCrunch Experts Image Credits: SEAN GLADWELL / Getty Images TechCrunch wants to help startups find the right expert for their needs. To do this, we're building a shortlist of the top growth marketers. We've received great recommendations for growth marketers in the startup industry since we launched our survey. We're excited to read more responses as they come in! Fill out the survey here.

Tesla’s latest patch hints at cloud-synced driver profiles Posted: 03 Nov 2021 02:50 PM PDT Devindra Hardawar Contributor Devindra Hardawar is a Senior Editor at Engadget. More posts by this contributor GM recalls Bolt EVs once again over fire risks Tesla is preparing for a world where your driver profile can follow you across different cars, be it your personal EV or a rental. The car maker has added a Cloud Profiles section in its latest software release, which points to an “Enable Vehicle Sync” option for backing up driver profiles, Tesla Software Updates reports. The news isn’t a huge surprise, as Elon Musk previously said cloud-synced profiles were on the way. For a tech-focused car company like Tesla, giving its customers a simple way to bring their settings to multiple vehicles simply makes sense. That’s particularly true after Hertz announced it would be buying 100,000 Teslas for its rental fleet. Though Musk was quick to point out that order hasn’t been placed yet, it’s not hard to imagine a world where anyone can easily rent a Tesla. They’d be easier to maintain than gas-powered cars, and the Model 3 is already cheaper than many luxury vehicles. And sure, for the truly privileged, cloud profiles could also make it easier to synchronize settings across multiple vehicles. According to Tesla Software Updates, synced settings include your display brightness, Autopilot and navigation options. It’d also be helpful to have your Stopping Mode synchronized, as that seriously changes how Tesla’s braking functions. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Engadget.

Twitter expands API with support for posting and deleting tweets, Super Follows and more Posted: 03 Nov 2021 02:40 PM PDT Twitter has been steadily updating its rebuilt API following its mid-2020 relaunch. Most recently, the company added support for Twitter Spaces to its developer platform. Today, it’s announcing support that will enable developers to build better Twitter bots by launching new end points that allow you to tweet, delete tweets, post polls, use Reply settings and tag people in images. It also now supports Super Follows functionality, so developers can build out solutions to support creators, the company says. While bots that post spam are unwanted, Twitter has made it clear that it sees other bots as being helpful. The company in September introduced a new label that would allow what it calls the “good bots” to properly identify themselves on the platform, for example. At the time, it cited examples of good bots including the public service account @earthquakesSF; a bot offering COVID-19 updates called @vax_progress; a bot that offers an ongoing breakdown of the last 100 bills introduced in Congress, @last100bills; an accessibility-focused bot, @AltTxtReminder; and others that just add value in their own way, like @met_drawings, which shares public domain works from The Met's Drawings and Prints department, or the goofy @EmojiMashupBot, among others. Today, Twitter again touts the @vaxprogress bot and its developer, Brian Moore, who’s also behind bots like @NYTIMESALLCAPS and @chernobylstatus, and who will become an early adopter of the new Twitter API v2 features, he says. While things like polls and image tagging will make tweets more interactive, Twitter’s new “manage tweets” end points will allow for more basic functionality — like posting tweets or deleting tweets for an authenticated account. This could enable more Twitter cleanup solutions, perhaps, like those that remove old tweets on behalf of their users or solutions that post automatic updates, like the above bots, for instance. In addition to supporting features that will allow developers to post tweets and do more in terms of how those tweets operate or what they include, the company is also expanding the new API to support its creator platform, Super Follows. Launched publicly in September, Super Follows allow users to support their favorite creators on the platform by subscribing to their exclusive content, like member-only tweets and newsletters, for instance. Fans may also gain access to private communities, deals, discounts or other membership perks and receive a supporter badge depending on how the creator sets up their Super Follow membership program. With the API changes, Twitter is adding the ability to share tweets to Super Followers via the API, which would allow developers to build out solutions that help creators make money from their Twitter fan base. While today Super Follows is still limited to only a select number of creators, the audience for this functionality isn’t yet large. But Twitter has its eye on the future here, thinking about how third-party apps aimed at creators may need to build in support for sharing content to a wide variety of platforms — Twitter among them. Combined the updates allow developers to build platforms where users are able to take advantage of Twitter-native features directly — like conversation controls, polls, Super Follows and other features — much of which hasn’t been possible before. That could lead to improved third-party Twitter clients, as well. Twitter said much of this new functionality was prioritized for the new API release based on community feedback, and the company asked for the feedback to continue so it can help plan what to build next.

Facebook offers creators custom subscription links to get around Apple’s fees Posted: 03 Nov 2021 02:29 PM PDT The company formerly known as Facebook just announced its plans to sneak around Apple’s infamous platform fees, the latest beat in an ongoing war between major software companies and the creator of iOS. In a Facebook post Wednesday, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg said that the social network would give eligible creators on its platform new custom links that allow them to accept payments directly, circumventing Apple’s controversial 30% cut. “As we build for the metaverse, we’re focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work,” Zuckerberg said. “The 30% fees that Apple takes on transactions make it harder to do that, so we’re updating our Subscriptions product so now creators can earn more.” Creators who run Facebook pages eligible for subscriptions can share the new promo links through text or email, pointing their fans to a payments portal run through its own payment system, Facebook Pay. In the creator post, Facebook also announced a new bonus program that gives creators between $5 and $20 for each new subscriber they sign up until the end of the year, part of the $1 billion creator program the company previously announced. Image Credits: Facebook Facebook’s Patreon-like subscriptions product gives people with popular Facebook pages access to special monetization tools for monthly recurring payments. To sign up, the current eligibility rules require a page owner to have 10,000 followers or more than 250 return viewers plus either 50,000 post engagements or 180,000 minutes watched. Facebook has stated that it won’t be collecting any fees of its own from creator payments through 2023, though given its aggressive move into the space the company surely has plans to cash in on the booming creator economy after giving people a few introductory years rent free. The company even previously planned to extract its own 30% cut of subscriber earnings, though backed away from those plans — for now, at least. Facebook will start taking a cut of fan subscriptions in 2020 Apple has historically extracted a standard 30% fee from all paid apps and in-app payments made through iOS — a toll that generates massive revenue for the company. Late last year Apple threw smaller app makers a bone, lowering the cut to 15% for developers who make under $1 million annually. Apple’s app store fees are a major sore spot for a number of huge software developers. Last year, Fortnite maker Epic Games took the company to court over in-app fees in a flashy campaign that positioned Epic as the little guy going to bat for developers everywhere. Meta, which is worth $923 billion at the time of writing, is positioning itself similarly in the new fight over creator payments that it just picked with Apple. In September, a judge in California’s Epic Games v. Apple case ruled that Apple could no longer block developers from pointing users toward external payment options that circumvent Apple’s substantial fees. That decision opened the door for Facebook’s new workaround. Apple appealed the ruling and requested a stay on the judge’s injunction last month. The new workaround for creator payments isn’t Facebook’s first major clash with Apple, nor is it the first in which Facebook maneuvered to align itself with the everyman. The company was so threatened by new anti-tracking features in iOS 14 designed to bolster user privacy that it took out full-page print ads protesting the changes in every major national newspaper — ostensibly on behalf of the small businesses that would be affected and not its own. Apple prohibited from blocking outside payment in Epic ruling Facebook stock drops after company warns Apple’s privacy changes to have bigger Q3 impact Facebook warns of ‘headwinds’ to its ad business from regulators and Apple

Sofar nets a $39M round B to grow its ocean-monitoring autonomous buoy network Posted: 03 Nov 2021 02:04 PM PDT The ocean is vast and mysterious … but rather less so when you have thousands of little autonomous buoys reporting back interesting info to you every day. That’s just what Sofar Ocean has, and it just raised $39 million to scale up its vision of real-time understanding of the seven seas. The company operates what it calls an “ocean intelligence platform,” essentially a real-time map of various important oceanic metrics like currents, temperature, weather and so on. While some of this information is easy enough to get from satellites or the large network of shipping vessels on the water at any given time, the kind of granularity and ground truth you get from having thousands of dedicated observers riding the waves is pretty clear. If you have data that’s 15 minutes old rather than yesterday’s reading or an estimate by a passing satellite, you can simply make more informed decisions about things like shipping routes, weather predictions (even on land), and of course there are the innumerable scientific applications of such a large amount of data. There are, so far, if you will, some unspecified thousands of “Spotters,” as they call them, out there. “One might argue this number still feels small when you think about the size of the oceans,” said CEO Tim Janssen, but it’s both more than others have accomplished and still not enough. “We've already got all five oceans covered, but now it's time to kick it into even higher gear to improve the density of this distributed platform for the most powerful sensing capability possible. That's why we anticipate rapidly adding many more sensors over the next couple of years to expand the data we collect and get even more accurate ocean insights.” Sofar and DARPA recently announced a hardware standard called Bristlemouth intended to serve as a reference design for people designing their own ocean-going data collection devices. The idea is to make the growing autonomous presence in the water as interoperable as possible to avoid the bother of overlapping yet incompatible networks. Sofar and DARPA look to standardize ocean monitoring gadgets with Bristlemouth The challenges from running a network of thousands of presumably barnacle-encrusted, fish-nibbled, weather-beaten robo-buoys are what you might expect. Janssen said the Spotters require “minimal maintenance,” having been designed to survive the open ocean for long periods of time. “We recently had a Spotter that was covered in ice because of harsh weather conditions and once the ice melted months later, it automatically started sharing data again,” he recalled. If one washes up on shore they help the finder return it to where it needs to be. The devices report not through manual data offloading or mesh networking (though this is an option) but through the Iridium satellite network — though Janssen said the company is “starting to lean into some of the latest technologies, like Swarm, that are revolutionizing the satellite communication space.” (Swarm, as we’ve followed since its early days, is a low-bandwidth satcom network focused on IoT-type applications rather than consumer internet. SpaceX is in the process of acquiring them.) Sofar’s interface for showing currents and other ocean conditions. Image Credits: Sofar The $39 million round was led by Union Square Ventures and the Foundry Group, both of which expressed (in a press release) the clear need for more data in both present enterprises like shipping and future work like studying climate change. “What we're seeing now, especially in light of COP26, is that climate change discussions are finally taking center stage as governments across the globe adjust and plan ahead for more intense hurricanes and storms, rising sea levels and threatened ecosystems like coral reefs,” Janssen explained. “Any clarity that can be provided regarding these changing weather patterns, currents and temperatures, and sensitive marine ecosystems isn't just a win for us or our partners; it's truly a win for each individual on this planet as we all collectively work together to beat the ticking clock.” While governments think about whether they should do anything, of course, shipping and supply chain management companies are willing to pay for Sofar’s data, in the hopes of better routing, which minimizes fuel use and improves logistics generally. “Having access to real-time data is going to help reduce uncertainty across all these industries to be more efficient, make better business decisions, and even save fuel to reduce emissions — all to establish a more sustainable and more prepared planet,” Janssen said.

As Allbirds goes public, sustainability is the mantra of the future Posted: 03 Nov 2021 01:42 PM PDT Ed Cowan Contributor Ed Cowan is an investment team member at TDM Growth Partners, a global investment firm with offices currently in Sydney and New York. Allbirds rings the bell on the Nasdaq  today and has chosen an apt ticker to do it: BIRD. It started with a humble, natural wool (and extremely comfortable) shoe, but Allbirds is not merely an apparel company today. It has now become a materials innovation company disrupting how clothes are made. The company is driving change in the industry through the open sourcing of materials for others to benefit, and in doing so, is becoming the industry’s standard bearer on sustainability practices. The fashion industry alone dumps 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. That equals twice the amount of pollution generated by every car currently in use in America. Most of what we wear on our bodies today is made from plastic. Plastic comes from oil, which comes from fossil fuels. This needs to change. And it will. Allbirds is more than simply clothing their customers. It is enabling people to contribute to the possibility that their children will enjoy the lives that they did and making them feel good about it  —  through comfort, style or performance  —  and in doing so, creating a brand they don't just align with, but love. Allbirds is not alone in this vision or innovation — Tesla's job is far greater than simply getting a driver from one place to another; Impossible Meats' job is more than just feeding a hungry customer. The job for all these businesses is to ensure that the planet we live on not only survives, but thrives in the coming decades, all while giving consumers a choice to participate proactively without compromising quality of lifestyle. Sustainable companies are most likely to lead the next generation While people agree on the importance of becoming sustainable, sustainability practices are likely to take legacy players years to put in place and perfect. The consensus view underestimates and underappreciates just how hard it will be to simply catch up in a race long after it has started. This is a huge opportunity for founders to build a purpose-native company that will have generational impact on the community, for employees and investors alike. The sustainability theme isn’t just restricted to consumer goods, it applies to every business. On any given day, you can find news on the funding of sustainable technology at the small end of towns (every large venture capital firm has at least one alternative meat company in their portfolio) or the ESG responsibility of large corporations. According to The Economist, investors poured more than $500 billion in 2021 into "energy transition" (shorthand for decarbonizing everything from energy and transport to industry and farming), twice as much as they did in 2010. The investment required to decarbonize the planet is estimated to be more than $30 trillion, presenting people with a rare opportunity to invest in companies that will be involved in the race to net-zero carbon emissions. Climate change is the biggest investor tailwind of the century. There is a perception that the current valuations of the likes of Tesla — around 16x EV/NTM revenue — compared to other car manufacturers that trade between 7x-10x earnings, or Beyond Meat, trading at around 10x forward revenue, are extremely lofty. To be invested in these businesses, you need to believe that the shift is not just to “sustainable.” You need to believe that there is a dramatic long-term shift to where the long-term winners are those that can put their sustainable practices at the heart of every decision. If you are starting a company today, it has to be “purpose native.” For these companies, their current adoption and growth rates can, and likely will, continue for far longer than any of their peers have seen because of this advantage. Sustainable-first companies have the greatest chance of becoming the next generation’s winners. Will Allbirds become the next Nike and compound at ~25% for decades? I don't know, but I do know they are much more likely to than any other early-stage challenger. Let's hope the world does not eat itself before sustainability gets its chance to chew on some CO2. TDM Growth Partners are invested in Allbirds.

Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss and Volition Capital’s Larry Cheng talk early-stage fundraising on TechCrunch Live Posted: 03 Nov 2021 01:35 PM PDT Rent the Runway is more than 10 years old now and has raised upwards of $500 million, recently filing to IPO at a valuation north of $1 billion. Jenny Fleiss is a co-founder at Rent the Runway and sits on the board of several notable companies, including Shutterfly, Party City and, of course, Rent the Runway. She’s also a partner at Volition Capital alongside Larry Cheng. On an upcoming episode of TechCrunch Live, Fleiss and Cheng will sit down to discuss the early days of Rent the Runway — how the company successfully fundraised, grew and navigated its way to unicorn status. They’ll also talk through the current early-stage fundraising landscape, which is nearly unrecognizable from the environment Fleiss fundraised in a decade ago. This episode takes place Wednesday, November 10, at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET. Register for free here! TechCrunch Live is all about helping founders build better venture-backed businesses. We do this by sitting down with founders and the investors who finance them to hear how they chose one another, how they tackled challenges and how successful founders quickly grow their businesses. The weekly event series also features the TechCrunch Live pitch-off, which invites founders in the audience to join our virtual stage and pitch their products to the audience and our expert speakers, who give live feedback on the pitches. TechCrunch Live is 100% free to attend, but access to the massive library of on-demand TCL content is reserved exclusively for TechCrunch+ members. The show goes down every Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT. See you there!

Dear Sophie: Options for founder moving on from E-2 visa Posted: 03 Nov 2021 01:06 PM PDT Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards' "Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services." She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley? Dear Sophie: Any suggestions for recruiting international tech talent? ​​Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies. “Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you're in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.” TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off. Dear Sophie, I am a founder of a startup on an E-2 visa. I am in the process of raising funds, which will eventually reduce my ownership of the company and prevent me from meeting the E-2 requirements. What can I consider next that would also allow my spouse to continue working? — Fintech Founder Dear Fintech, Great question! As you know, the E-2 visa for treaty investors, essential employees and spouses requires that at least half of the U.S. business is owned by people or companies from your country of citizenship. (There are more requirements, but those are the basics!). I recently shared updates about some immigration changes on my podcast that affect some of the options that may be open to you, such as the International Entrepreneur Parole program and green cards. For additional options that meet your goals and any timing issues you have, I recommend that you consult an immigration attorney. Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window) Visa alternatives Most founders would initially consider applying for an O-1A for extraordinary ability or an H-1B for specialty occupations, but usually dependent O-3 and H-4 spouses are not immediately eligible to obtain work authorization. Many startup founders, particularly those who have secured funding from investors, qualify for the O-1A, which is one of the quickest work visas to obtain and has some of the most stringent requirements. However, spouses are not eligible to apply for a work permit merely based on O-3 status. Alternatively, if your equity is diluting, you might actually be better poised for an H-1B. This option can be made more predictable through an alternative to the H-1B random lottery in the spring if you pursue a cap-exempt H-1B with a nonprofit or other qualified organization and possible concurrent employment. How does it work? Having one cap-exempt H-1B means you don't have to go through the H-1B lottery process. Next, your startup could concurrently sponsor you for an H-1B, avoiding the lottery process as well. However, your spouse would not be eligible to apply for an H-4 work permit until you reach certain milestones in the green card process. If you're currently in the U.S. in E-2 status, you might consider filing for a Change of Status with USCIS. Premium processing is available for both the O-1A and H-1B petitions. With premium processing, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) guarantees it will expedite its decision within 15 business days. A decision means either approval, a request for more evidence or a denial. Seeking a change of status is not the same as applying through a consulate abroad for a single- or multiple-entry visa in your passport. International Entrepreneur Parole If you established your company within the past 18 months, raised at least $264,147 in funding from a U.S. investor or investors (or $105,659 in government awards or grants) and maintain at least 10% equity in your startup, then you might qualify for International Entrepreneur Parole (IEP). IEP allows you and your family to stay in the U.S. for up to 30 months — and your spouse is eligible to obtain a work permit. I'm celebrating a victory — I recently helped advocate to make IEP better for founders, and as a result, one of the IEP program's largest challenges was recently removed. Although IEP allows for an initial stay in the U.S. of up to 30 months, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers, who have the final say on whether you and your family are granted IEP and for how long when you physically enter the country, were only authorizing entry in 12-month increments. That was putting a burden on families, because it meant you and your family would have to exit and reenter the U.S. again in 12 months. That also meant that an IEP spouse's work permit was only valid for a few months given the backlog in processing applications and the fact that the work permit is only valid for as long as the IEP stay is valid. I'm happy to report that this situation has changed for the better! I'm part of a group that is offering feedback to the government on how to make the IEP program more efficient and effective. We recently received confirmation that CBP now has the capacity to approve an initial stay in the U.S. for the full 30 months (not just 12 months at a time). For more details on how to get IEP, take a look at this previous Dear Sophie column on that topic, or for context, you can listen to my podcast episodes on the “Parole Entry Process.” Green card options Except for perhaps the green card through marriage, green cards take much longer to obtain than a work visa. Most employment-based green cards, such as the EB-1A green card for individuals with extraordinary ability and the EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card for individuals with exceptional ability, take a couple of years or potentially longer if you were born in India or China and you don't have a priority date yet. If you were born in China or India, you face waiting several years for a green card number to become available under the EB-2 NIW category. Processing for the EB-1A is the quickest of the two, particularly since this category is current for all countries according to the November Visa Bulletin. The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) offers another green card option, but it could take up to two years to get a green card if you're selected in the annual DV Program lottery. The registration period for the fiscal year 2023 lottery is currently open through November 9, 2021, at 12:00 p.m. EST. Each year, the U.S. Department of State, which oversees the DV program, reserves 50,000 green cards for individuals born in countries that have low rates of immigration to the United States. The State Department publishes instructions each year, which includes the countries whose natives are eligible to register for the annual diversity lottery. Here is the latest version. Be aware that as of October 1, 2021, all green card candidates must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before their immigration medical examination. One benefit of pursuing a green card is your spouse's work authorization. If you're currently in the U.S. and able to get to the stage of filing an I-485, the adjustment of status application, you and your spouse can also each file a work permit application, which would allow your spouse to work for an employer or be self-employed in the U.S. Many founders on E-2, for example from Europe, choose to self-petition an EB-2 NIW green card and concurrently file adjustment of status applications for the whole family. Wishing you the best on whatever path you choose to take! — Sophie Have a question for Sophie? Ask it here. We reserve the right to edit your submission for clarity and/or space. The information provided in “Dear Sophie” is general information and not legal advice. For more information on the limitations of "Dear Sophie," please view our full disclaimer. You can contact Sophie directly at Alcorn Immigration Law. Sophie's podcast, Immigration Law for Tech Startups, is available on all major platforms. 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Emerge Tools raises $1.7M to help make apps smaller Posted: 03 Nov 2021 12:05 PM PDT Apps tend to get bigger over time. Adding new features means adding more code, more third-party frameworks and more assets like images or videos. Resources like fonts or support documents get duplicated and things slip through the build process without the best optimization or compression. Keeping apps small has upsides for the users and the developers, but it’s not necessarily top-of-mind all of the time. It’s the kind of thing that, depending on the size of a dev team and its priorities, can get forgotten until someone complains. Emerge, a company out of YC’s W21 class, is building tools that help to keep apps small — monitoring changes from build to build and recommending actions that can trim the required storage space. Why keep apps small? There’s a bunch of reasons, as Emerge co-founder Joshua Cohenzadeh points out. Make your iOS app too big, for example, and the App Store will suggest to your users that they wait until they’re on WiFi — an opportunity for them to lose interest all together (in a recent blog post, Uber said that App Store size limitations cost them up to 10% of installs.) If you’re hoping to build a user base worldwide, meanwhile, you’ve got to consider that many potential users might be on slower networks or paying by the megabyte — so every byte counts. Plus, who hasn’t been trying to free up some space on their phone and thought “Wait, why the hell is [app x] taking up 400 MB?” Emerge co-founders Josh Cohenzadeh and Noah Martin have been building things together since they were, quite literally, kids. In high school they built QuickRes, a menu bar tool for quickly changing the screen resolution on a Mac; over the years, they’d build a popular screenshot manager for the Mac, a menu bar widget for controlling a Tesla and a now-retired tool for A/B testing your Tinder photos that Cohenzadeh says got them on the wrong side of a cease-and-desist order. After college and stints at big companies, the two decided to stop making what were arguably side projects (or, as Josh lovingly referred to them, “dinky little apps”) and go full time into building a startup. They set out to apply to Y Combinator, and, while brainstorming ideas, came across research on the great lengths users were going to to transfer data in countries with limited mobile networks. This got them looking into where apps were wasting data … and the deeper they dug, the more they realized that app size was something that many teams — even within many big companies — weren’t consistently focusing on. “If you’re a small company, you don’t have the resources to have your own performance team. You don’t have the resources to do all these crazy optimizations and things like that.” says Josh. “So the foundation of Emerge was just … let’s standardize this.” Emerge provides its insights in a few different ways. It can hook into your team’s GitHub to flag app size changes as comments in each pull request; Emerge’s dashboard, meanwhile, gives you multiple different views into what’s taking up space in your app and suggests ways to slim it down. Emerge’s X-Ray view. Image Credits: Emerge The “X-ray” view gives an at-a-glance overview of how much space is taken up by each framework or asset. If you’re only using a certain framework for one or two rarely used features but it accounts for one-fifth of your app’s size, is it worth it? It’ll also highlight files that managed to sneak into your build multiple times. “It’s shocking how many companies have duplicate files,” says Josh. The “Breakdown” view splits it up by category — how much of your app is the binary itself, how much of it is assets like images or video, etc. Emerge’s Insights view. Image Credits: Emerge An “Insights” tab, meanwhile, offers up the actions that could have the biggest impact on app size — like stripping binary symbols in a Swift binary, using a different image type for a given platform (like HEIC instead of PNG on iOS), or figuring out how to ditch those aforementioned duplicate files. Curious as to what Emerge might find in your app? There’s one catch: Their tools aren’t open to everyone just yet. They’re currently working with each new company individually — because, as Josh tells me, most of the companies they’re working with require strict security reviews and legal agreements before granting tools like this any sort of access. Emerge plans to launch a “full self-service model” for smaller teams soon, he notes. Pricing varies company by company, based on criteria like number of apps, number of builds, team size and which platforms they’re building for. When it launched earlier this year, Emerge focused solely on iOS apps; last month the team added support for Android apps. Emerge recently closed a $1.7 million round — its first so far. Cohenzadeh tells me the round was backed by Haystack, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator, Liquid2 Ventures and a handful of angel investors.

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