TechCrunch |
- Behavioral ad industry gets hard reform deadline after IAB’s TCF found to breach Europe’s GDPR
- Canva acquires Flourish in mission to tell better stories with data
- Colombian e-commerce enablement startup Melonn raises $20M to help SMBs scale in LatAm
- EVs to power Kenya’s bus rapid transit system
- Zero Acre Farms puts microbes (and $37M) to work on a better alternative to vegetable oil
- Marathon Ventures injects more capital into Colombia’s startup ecosystem
- Stoggles thinks protective eyewear can be fashionable, too
- Torii puts your business teams in sync as your tech stack evolves
- SpaceX reveals $500 monthly ‘Premium’ Starlink service with speeds up to 500 Mbps
- Casava gets $4M pre-seed to make insurance affordable and accessible to Nigerians
- Withings buys workout app, 8fit
- GoStudent acquires UK’s Seneca Learning and Spain’s Tus Media Group
- EV SPAC Faraday Future is restructuring leadership following review of inaccurate statements to investors
- Daily Crunch: India announces plans for digital rupee, 30% tax on crypto profits
| Behavioral ad industry gets hard reform deadline after IAB’s TCF found to breach Europe’s GDPR Posted: 02 Feb 2022 06:45 AM PST A piece of compliance theatre that the behavioral ad industry has for years passed off as “a cross-industry best practice standard” — claiming the consent management platform allowed advertisers to keep tracking and surveilling European Internet users without having to worry about pesky EU privacy laws — has today been confirmed to breach the bloc’s rules. The decision puts a ticking time-bomb under the behavioral ad industry’s regional ops — with the IAB Europe having been given just two months to submit an action plan to its Belgian regulator explaining how exactly it will fix the mess it helped create. Polishing the turd in question looks very tricky give the regulatory sanction prohibits behavioral advertisers from using the IAB’s so-called “Transparency and Consent Framework” (TCF) to bypass user consent by claiming legitimate interest as a legal base to track and profile web users. Nor can they rely on the dark pattern of pre-ticked consents. And, well, if Europeans are actually asked to consent to ad stalking they are extremely likely to say no. The ad industry body has been given a hard deadline of six months for bringing the TCF into compliance with EU standards of data protection and privacy, after which a fine of €5,000 per day will be levied if the IAB fails to clean up its own processes — and really, by association, the wider practices the TCF leans into and encourages. The TCF is deployed on websites to justify user data being passed to a string of publisher ‘partners’ to process the information for real-time-bidding (RTB) programmatic ad auctions. So if one piece of this ‘value chain’ has been found not to be operating lawfully it does rather yank on the whole chain. The IAB, meanwhile, has been hit with a fine €250,000 due to the gravity of the violations. While the size of that fine may sound small — under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) it could have faced a maximum penalty of €20M — the regional organization only booked less than €2.5M in revenue in 2020 and the sanctioning regulator notes it took “business volume” into account in deciding how much to sting it. There’s more than a fine too: The IAB has been ordered to delete any illegally gathered data. Although the lack of any controls on how RTB broadcasts and trades Internet users’ personal data means it’s essentially impossible for all this lawlessly gathered tracking intel to be purged by the IAB alone — which exists like a glossy cherry atop a massive layer cake of data brokers and exchanges; a cake of unknown ingredients. Which is essentially the problem. There’s a particular irony here in that the adtech industry has, in recent months, been campaigning against explicit limits on behavioral advertising being written into new EU laws by parliamentarians — as adtech lobby groups like the IAB have argued that the bloc’s current data protection rules are perfectly adequate to regulate their industry. So, er, that sound you can hear is the cheering of all the privacy campaigners who have spent literally years trying to get EU regulators to actually enforce the law against adtech. Finally — finally — enforcement is happening.
While the TCF being confirmed to breach the GDPR is definitely very big news it remains to be seen whether the adtech industry’s response will be to regroup with a fresh wheeze for cynically circumventing people’s privacy — instead of what’s actually needed: Full spectrum reform that meets both the letter and spirit of the law. Despite what the ad lobbyists like to claim, online advertising doesn’t have to be creepy in order to be targeted; other forms of targeted advertising that don’t require individual tracking and profiling are both available and profitable (e.g. contextual ads). Even Google is working on alternatives to individual-level targeting — even if its proposed alternatives aren’t as radical a “privacy” reform as its PR likes to suggest. Clearly, getting adtech to kick its lucrative addition to tracking is proving to be a work of years, plural. But in Europe the operational noose is tightening and the calls for reform are getting harder to ignore. Commenting on the breach finding, one of the original complainants against adtech’s systemic abuse of people’s privacy, Johnny Ryan, a former industry insider who’s now a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, was upbeat — telling TechCrunch: “Today's decision frees hundreds of millions of Europeans from nuisance and misleading consent requests. It should also protect them from illicit surveillance by tech firms.” Multiple GDPR breachesThe Belgian data protection authority (APD) today published its final decision (English translation here) on a long running complaint against the IAB Europe’s TCF — the aforementioned “best practice” “compliance” “standard” — finding, as expected (in fact since 2020), that the IAB’s flagship mechanism for collecting Internet users’ permission to processing their data for behavioral advertising does not do what’s claimed (i.e. “Transparency” and “Consent”) and is in fact operating unlawfully with a murky lack of information and faux (not legally valid) ‘consent’. No one should be surprised by this, of course. It is what a few actual regulators and plenty of experts have been saying for years. The list of breach findings by the APD is almost as long as the list of personal data points its investigation notes can be contained in a RTB “bid request”, as it concludes that the GDPR very clearly applies to this high velocity personal-data-trading system (aka: “RTB operations by means of bid requests inherently entail the processing of personal data”). The APD’s confirmed findings against the IAB and its TCF are the following breaches of the GDPR:
Aka: ‘Siri, show me a system that’s wildly out of control‘. Breaking the findings out into a little more detail, the APD found the IAB wrongly claimed that it could rely on legitimate interest (LI) as a legal basis for processing people’s data under the TCF — a common adtech industry wheeze to try to scissor around the fact the vast majority of people don’t want to be tracked and profiled by online advertisers and deny consent if they are actually and fairly asked (ergo they don’t ask and/or just ignore a denial of consent by claiming they can override it anyway using LI). Thing is, relying on legitimate interests as a legal basis under EU law means you need to carry out an assessment that considers whether the processing is actually necessary — or whether another less intrusive method could be used to achieve the same result. Moreover, you must also perform an LI balancing test which considers whether you are protecting people’s rights and freedoms. And here the APD’s Inspection Service found the IAB Europe “fails to provide evidence that the interests, in particular the fundamental rights and freedoms, of data subjects were adequately considered in the process”. Moreover, any claim of consent obtained via the IAB’s TCF as a legal basis for tracking ads was also found not to be lawful under GDPR — as it is “currently not given in a sufficiently specific, informed and granular manner”. So, er, another massive, massive fail. On transparency, the APD concluded there are a string of violations by the IAB — such as the way information is provided to users of the TCF not meeting the required standard of a “transparent, comprehensible and easily accessible manner”; users not being given “sufficient information about the categories of personal data collected about them”; nor being able to determine in advance the scope and consequences of the processing, as they should be able to if consents were being legally gathered. “The information given to users is too general to reflect the specific processing of each vendor, which also prevents the granularity — and therefore the validity — of the consent received for the processing carried out using the OpenRTB protocol,” the regulator goes on. “Data subjects are unable to determine the scope and consequences of the processing in advance, and therefore do not have sufficient control over the processing of their data to avoid being surprised later by further processing of their personal data.” The APD found the IAB Europe to be a joint data controller for processing related to the TCF — with all the associated legal responsibilities that entails — and in another major associated finding it says the organization does not “sufficiently monitor compliance with the rules it has developed with regard to participating organisations”. This is important because in recent months the IAB has been promoting an ‘audit’ program — which it calls its “vendor compliance program” — under which it claims it will be able to audit companies that use the TCF to ensure they are not breaching GDPR. However, as critics have quickly pointed out, this looks like an attempt to spin up fresh compliance theatre given that the RTB system lacks controls on data-sharing nor is it technically possible to know who exactly is getting people’s information (nor what on earth they might be doing with it) as bid requests are insecurely broadcast across the Internet at high speed and massive volume, countless times per day. The APD’s analysis suggests the regulator has a good grasp of such concerns as it notes that under the current TCF system “adtech vendors receive a consent signal without any technical or organisational measure to ensure that this consent signal is valid or that a vendor has actually received it (rather than generated it)”. “In the absence of systematic and automated monitoring systems of the participating CMPs and adtech vendors by the defendant [i.e. IAB], the integrity of the TC String [i.e. the choices users signalled/selected via the TCF] is not sufficiently ensured, since it is possible for the CMPs to falsify the signal in order to generate an euconsent-v2 cookie and thus reproduce a ‘false consent’ of the users for all purposes and for all types of partners,” it further explains, before adding. “[T]his hypothesis is also specifically foreseen in the terms and conditions of the TCF. “The Litigation Chamber therefore finds that IAB Europe, in its capacity of Managing Organisation, has designed and provides a consent management system, but does not take the necessary steps to ensure the validity, integrity and compliance of users’ preferences and consent.” A research study we reported on last month illustrated exactly this problem of user consent choices being totally ignored by the tracking industry. So this problem the regulator has identified as baked into the TCF, including via the IAB’s hands off approach, looks a lot more like a feature of an intentionally lax system than a theoretically exploitable vulnerability… That’s not all, either. In a further finding, the APD says the TCF breaches the GDPR by failing to allow users to exercise their data subject rights (e.g. the right of access, the right to delete information etc). So that’s another very big deal. The adtech industry loves to talk big about “online choices” — but is evidently rather less fond of providing web users with meaningful controls so they can exercise their actual legal rights. Less big but quite funny: The regulator found the IAB failed to keep a register of processing operations — rejecting its claims otherwise by simply saying that it “cannot follow the defendant’s argument”. Ouch. (On that the industry body had sought to claim an exemption from having to do that as it’s a smaller organization. However the GDPR clearly states that such an exemption does not apply where the processing is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of data subjects; where it is not occasional; or where it includes special category data. So, er… ) Finding yet another violation, the APD says the IAB failed to carry out “a comprehensive data protection impact assessment (DPIA) with regard to the processing of personal data within the TCF” — pointing out the glaringly obvious threats to the rights and freedoms of individuals posed by behavioral advertising which a comprehensive DPIA (i.e. if one had actually been carried out) would have robustly assessed. This chunk of the decision sounds quite dry but it’s perhaps possible to detect the tiniest hint of sarcasm as it writes…
The IAB has also been spanked for not appointing a DPO (data protection officer). “Because of the large-scale, regular and systematic observation of identifiable users that the TCF implies, and in view of the defendant’s role, more specifically of its capacity as Managing Organisation, the Litigation Chamber rules that IAB Europe should have appointed a [DPO],” the regulator notes on that. The IAB Europe has had many months — or really well over a year (at least) — to prepare its response to the ADP’s finding so ofc it’s chock full of spin. The ad industry body is trying really hard to find a silver lining to both it and its TCF being taken to the cleaners. And even includes some magical-thinking — by suggesting the TCF might somehow now form the basis of a “GDPR transnational Code of Conduct”. Dream big guys! Not that the IAB commits to accepting the regulator’s findings. There is no acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Nor indeed any apology to all those Internet users who’s data has been illegally processed and used for goodness knows what… Despite that it’s not clear whether the IAB will try to appeal. (If it’s going to do so it has to file within 30 days.) Here’s the IAB’s statement:
It is correct to say that the APD has called for compliance rather than literally banned use of the TCF. So the IAB has bought itself a few more months’ grace for a law-breaking system. However claiming that the existence of a deadline for compliance is affirmation that the regulator believes compliance will be a doddle looks fanciful. You could simply counter that by asking why then, if that’s the case, the regulator has stipulated a regime of daily fines for ongoing violations thereafter? If it believes it’s so simple why should it think fines may be needed? One thing is amply clear: Much rests on what choices the adtech industry makes next. For its own sake — as much as for anyone else’s — we should all hope they finally learn how to make good ones. The European consumer organization BEUC has also responded to the Belgian DPA’s decision today — dubbing the fine levied on the IAB “paltry” in light of the systemic scale and seriousness of the infringements. In a statement, its deputy DG, Ursula Pachl, added: “Surveillance advertising goes against the very core principles and rights that the GDPR is there to protect. This must be a wakeup call for the whole ad-tech industry, which illegally trades in personal data, to comply with the law, while data protection authorities must take decisive action against entities that continue to breach the General Data Protection Regulation." |
| Canva acquires Flourish in mission to tell better stories with data Posted: 02 Feb 2022 06:29 AM PST Canva on Wednesday said it closed on its acquisition of Flourish, a London-based data visualization startup. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition comes as the visual communications company reached over 75 million monthly active users, up over 30 million in the past 12 months. Flourish, founded in 2016 by Duncan Clark and Robin Houston, provides data visualization tools so that companies, like BBC, Sky, Deloitte and Moody's, can turn data points into easily digestible charts, graphs and visuals. The company, which brings over 800,000 customers into the Canva fold, raised about $1 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase. Cliff Obrecht, co-founder and COO of Canva, told TechCrunch that all of Flourish's 44 employees would be joining the company. Sydney-based Canva was started in 2013 and has raised over $570 million in venture capital funding over the years, most recently a $200 million venture round last September that valued the company at $40 billion. The new acquisition was not part of the venture round dollars — Obrecht said talks with Flourish began prior to the raise. Customers will see products merge within the next month, which will make way for new features around connecting any data source and turning it into rich and engaging visuals. That includes some customer-led requests like taking a spreadsheet and being able to create a dynamic chart by picking templates, Obrecht said. The Flourish acquisition follows two other acquisitions made in 2021, including Kaleido and Smartmockups. Though Canva is cash flow positive, Obrecht said of the most recent capital raise, "it is good to have a 'war chest' to grow through people, product and M&A." "We acquire companies to add to the core Canva experience — data storytelling — which has become a critical part of business communication to convene data in digestible ways," he added. "Canva saw this as paramount and accelerated the deal with Flourish, which democratizes data storytelling, and combined with our visual storytelling, has real synergy." |
| Colombian e-commerce enablement startup Melonn raises $20M to help SMBs scale in LatAm Posted: 02 Feb 2022 06:00 AM PST Melonn, a Colombian startup that provides fulfillment and software services to small and medium-sized e-commerce companies in Latin America, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by QED Investors. The round comes less than a year after Melonn raised a pre-seed round from NFX. Interestingly, according to NFX General Partner Pete Flint, Melonn got its Series A pre-empted by QED "after getting competing offers from other top funds." NFX and existing backers Pear and Mexico-based Wollef (formely known as Jaguar Ventures) doubled down on their investment, which values Melonn “in the neighborhood” of $100 million post-money and brings the Bogota-based startup's total raised to $24 million since its November 2020 inception. Other backers include Global Founders Capital and a number of high-profile angel investors, such as GGV Managing Partner Hans Tung, ALLVP Partner Antonia Rojas and LaHaus founders Jeronimo Uribe and Tomas Uribe, among others. Melonn's founders — CEO Andrés Gomez, CPO Alejandro Celis, COO Andrés Archila, CTO Felipe Jaramillo, director of data science Sebastián Román and Daniel Castrillón, director of software engineering & DevOps — have known each other since they were children or in high school and then took separate paths to work in different fields. They were brought back together by the pandemic to start the e-commerce enablement company. Put simply, Melon is developing tech and fulfillment infrastructure — or the backend — to enable small and medium e-commerce merchants to "easily" sell and grow across multiple channels such as Shopify, Instagram and Amazon, and then deliver almost anywhere in the region. The company has launched five distribution centers in three cities across Colombia and one more in Mexico City, with about 190 employees — including about 90 full-time employees and 100 contractors. Melonn is currently working with more than 300 brands and has fulfilled close to 500,000 items –– "well over" 100,000 of which were fulfilled in December. And in January, fulfillment is up 20% compared to November of 2021. Looking ahead, CEO Gomez projects that it will fulfill close to 6 million items in 2022. It also plans to soon offer embedded finance products. For context, the company's model is similar to that of Deliverr and ShipBob. So, just how does it work? Melonn says its proprietary tech platform guides sellers through "a simple and highly automated" onboarding process, then "seamlessly" connects their different e-commerce channels. Next, sellers ship their inventory to urban fulfillment centers, near their end-consumers. Melonn then takes care of the picking, packing and delivery, so that end-consumers receive their orders on the same or next day, also taking care of returns. Additionally, Melonn works with a range of transportation providers, including incumbents such as FedEx or DHL and last-mile startups, to reduce shipping times and costs. The startup also gives sellers the ability to manage and monitor the process from its platform from wherever they are as well as access data analytics tools in an effort "to make better operational and sales and marketing decisions." CEO Gómez pointed out that Latin America has gone from being a laggard when it comes to e-commerce to being home to the world's fastest-growing e-commerce market, which is estimated at over $100 billion and expected to double by 2025. It's safe to say that over 80% of the market is made up of small and medium businesses and sellers. "E-commerce is growing incredibly fast in the region," he said. "And buyers' expectations have also been growing at the same time. It's a huge market and it's hugely underserved." QED Investors Partner Mike Packer noted that the recent explosion of the market only reinforces the need for Melonn's offering, which "makes scaling easier for its clients, solving very real constraints across channels and fulfillment." "QED is particularly attracted to Melonn because of the tech-forward approach in a world with many complexities across platforms," Packer said. "The beauty of Melonn is the potential to both accelerate a business and integrate into platforms that its clients are already using." In his view, Melonn has a "fresh approach to disrupt e-commerce behind the scenes — everything from SaaS and financing to fulfillment enablement" with a tech platform and growing fulfillment network that "is superior to anything else on the market." The startup plans to use its new capital to grow its tech, product and sales teams as part of its effort to continue to strengthen the platform and develop adjacent products including embedded fintech. The company is also planning to scale up commercial capabilities and increase its network of urban fulfillment centers to be able to offer efficient same/next day fulfillment across more cities in the region. Specifically, Melonn will expand in the regions in which it already operates and likely enter a third country in 2023 — potentially Brazil, where the opportunity is massive, said Gómez. "We also just really want to build out the fulfillment network, and invest a lot on the commercial side, strengthening our sales and marketing teams and account management capabilities," he added. Interestingly, the name Melonn means "friend" in Elvish, the language spoken "The Lord of the Rings." "Some of my co-founders are big fans of The Lord of the Rings," Gómez told TechCrunch. "And we realized it's super aligned with what we want to do, which is be the number one ally of all these small e-commerce businesses so that they become successful, and can compete successfully in this market." |
| EVs to power Kenya’s bus rapid transit system Posted: 02 Feb 2022 05:50 AM PST The uptake of electric vehicles in Kenya currently stands at 5% — a majority of which are private vehicles. But the situation is about to change following an announcement that the new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network in the country's capital, Nairobi, will only be operated by green (electric, hybrid and biodiesel) vehicles. The BRT is a bus-based public transport system that delivers fast, comfortable, and cost-effective services within metropolitan areas. The authority in charge of the establishment and implementation of "a reliable, efficient and sustainable" transport system within the Nairobi metropolis– Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, NAMATA– has, in a notice, invited dealers to present their bids for the sale or lease of electric, hybrid and biodiesel buses to its administration. The leasing options cover three, seven and 12-year periods. The NAMATA is implementing the BRT and other light commuter rail projects to decongest the city, with the BRT network projected for completion by the end of this year. Mass transit vehicles under the BRT project will have dedicated lanes, a right of way that will make them faster than the already-existing fossil-fuel buses. For efficiency of administration, the commuters will also be required to pay using digital prepaid technologies. The BRT was proposed by the NAMATA in a 2019 report as a strategy for easing traffic congestion in Nairobi, where over three million commuters spend an average 57 minutes everyday on short journeys. The unending traffic in Nairobi, the report estimated, costs the country's economy $1 billion a year in lost productivity. Opportunity for EV startups in Kenya There is a possibility that locally-developed electric buses will be among the first to ply the BRT as Opibus and BasiGo – two EV startups in the country – begin tests. Two weeks ago, Opibus launched its first electric bus on Kenya's roads, while BasiGo is set to begin its pilot soon. The high-capacity electric buses by the two companies fit the description of the type of vehicles that the authority wants. Opibus is planning a commercial launch later this year, with plans to expand to other countries in Africa by the end of 2023. Opibus, which has been converting gasoline and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles over the last five years, is now establishing a manufacturing plant for electric buses in Kenya. Brand new 51-seater Opibus buses, with a 120km range, will cost $100,000, while conversions will cost $60,000. BasiGo on the other hand will locally assemble the 25 and 36-seater buses, with a range of 250 kilometers, using parts sourced from China's EV maker BYD Automotive. Overall, electric mobility in Africa is growing but at a much-slower rate compared to the developed world. This is due to several challenges, including weak electricity grids, insufficient charging infrastructure, and a general lack of awareness. The initial cost of buying EVs is also a major deterrent – especially for a market that mainly consumes second-hand cars. However, countries in the region are eager to join the rest of the world in the shift to electric, and Kenya is among those that have committed to transition fully to zero-emission motor vehicles by 2040. On this path, the Kenyan government is set to publish an e-mobility policy by mid this year, which is expected to prepare the environment for the transition through the development of the required infrastructure. |
| Zero Acre Farms puts microbes (and $37M) to work on a better alternative to vegetable oil Posted: 02 Feb 2022 05:02 AM PST Vegetable oils like canola and palm oil have become a major part of our diet, whether we like it or not, and while they’re useful substances, they’re not exactly good for you and are a major cause of deforestation. Zero Acre Farms is a new company aiming to provide a improved alternative, produced by microorganisms and fermentation, and just raised $37M to do it. The use of oils in cooking is not new, but the amounts we’re consuming are. Certainly we have for centuries used oily foods like olives, avocados, and dairy to provide fats and cooking utility. But the innovation of crushing a cup of oil out of a hundred ears of corn, or an equivalent amount of soy, sunflower seeds, etc has changed the equation. Like other processed foods, vegetable oils are useful, portable, and convenient but rarely good for you. It’s not going to hurt you to use a teaspoon to grease a pan or a tablespoon in a cookie recipe, but these oils have become pervasive, amounting to a significant fraction (as much as 1/5) of the calories we eat. Go to your fridge, your snack drawer, or a fast food restaurant and you’ll find vegetable oils everywhere, and not as the last ingredient. What’s mayonnaise made of, anyway? Vegetable oil. What’s that alfredo sauce thickened with? Vegetable oil. What’s that on your fingers after eating a couple potato chips? You guessed it. Not only is it bad for you, but it is made in such large quantities, and using such wasteful processes, that it’s a major cause of deforestation in tropical areas, where soy, palm, and other oil crops grow. And cooking with it can release harmful fumes as well! The point is: vegetable oil isn’t may not be napalm, but is isn’t great, and a healthier and less resource-intensive alternative would be welcome. Zero Acre is working on just that, a brand new oil that’s equally “natural” but healthier and more eco-friendly. It’s done via fermentation, essentially feeding microbes and then harvesting what they put out. “It’s like making beer but instead of producing ethanol, the microbes produce oil and fat — and a lot of it,” said CEO and co-founder Jeff Nobs. “It’s what they like to do, and they’re good at it.” Fermentation is of course a well known and frequently used process across many industries. Microorganisms are like little factories with an input (usually sugars and other basic nutrients) and an output that is determined by either the critter’s natural inclinations or through genetic manipulation. Yeast used in baking, for instance, produces carbon dioxide and ethanol, the former in quantities large enough to puff up the dough. But a genetically modified yeast might produce a more complex biomolecule, like a new drug.  Image Credits: Ashwini Chaudhary In this case the microbes have been selected for their ability to store energy as fats and oils. “It’s what they like to do, and they’re good at it,” Nobbs said. They’re not the first to attempt this. C16 Biosciences (which we noted in Y Combinator’s Summer ’18 batch) is attempting to replicate palm oil via fermentation, and Xylome is trying to find alternatives to current biofuel production techniques. Synthetic biology, as it’s called when microbes are tuned to a specific purpose, is increasingly viable as the biotech infrastructure supporting it advances. In Zero Acre’s case, they’ve tried to to make it easy on themselves to get to market. Going up against Big Corn and Big Palm (for lack of better monikers) is a difficult proposition. Instead, the company is aiming at consumers who try to be ethical purchasers at the grocery store. Organic eggs, fair trade coffee, things like that. The price will be higher, but Nobbs was careful to note that they’re not just leaning on the social good aspect. “We’re not creating a synthetic oil that’s ‘only’ better for the environment,” he said. “It’s a new category of oils and fats, we can make compositions that are more suitable for food and better for people.” But he added that unlike some substitutes, it doesn’t need any recipe modification or the like. “It’s a 1:1 replacement, not like using almond flour instead of wheat flour — you just use it instead of whatever product.” Not only that, but it won’t produce weird fumes at high temperatures (he pointed out that no plant or animal has had reason to evolve biomolecules that survive 500-degree heat), and that the taste is actually cleaner due to not requiring the kind of processing and flavor masking other oils do. But why, if there are so many advantages to such a synthetic, haven’t other companies with more resources attempted this before now? “If you’re a big incumbent, this seems really small,” Nobbs explained. Oils aren’t just at the grocery store — they’re sold by the thousand-gallon tank to fast food chains or producers who need it as a basic ingredient. High-end cooking oil for home use is a rounding error to the biggest sources of oil. Besides, he continued, “Our message is vegetable oil is bad. They can’t say that — they’re not going to shoot themselves in the foot economically like that.” More pertinent to Zero Acre’s approach, there have been some recent advances on the technical side. “There are a bunch of knobs and levers in the fermentation process: what’s the temperature, what’s the pH, how much oxygen are they given, what are they fed… as my co-founder jokes, what kind of music you’re playing in the lab,” Nobbs said. “Little things can have a big effect. We have a whole platform around finding those optimal parameters. There’s still a lot of research to be done, but we’ve had some breakthroughs, and I think we’re working with the world’s best organisms for this.” Due to the relative simplicity of the production process compared with precision fermentation for more exotic molecules, the company has already scaled the manufacturing process to “thousands and thousands of liters,” and plans to make its consumer debut later this year. They weren’t ready to reveal the final branding and packaging — that will be closer to the actual launch. The $37M A round, which will go towards continued research and the rigors of a commercial launch, was led by Lowercarbon Capital and Fifty Years, with participation S2G Ventures, Virgin Group, Collaborative Fund, Robert Downey Jr.'s FootPrint Coalition Ventures, and Chef Dan Barber. |
| Marathon Ventures injects more capital into Colombia’s startup ecosystem Posted: 02 Feb 2022 05:00 AM PST Brazil and Mexico are most known as Latin America's hot startup ecosystems, but other countries, like Colombia, are gaining visibility and interest from investors. One of the investors seeing promise in this country is Marathon Ventures, which closed its first fund of $26 million, touted as one of the country's largest funds to date. Alejandro Echavarria and Leon Papu, both managing partners, co-founded the venture capital firm in 2020 with Pablo Navarro, operating partner, to focus on early-stage, business-to-business startups in emerging markets. Their plan is to fund about 20 companies in fintech, SaaS and marketplaces. Echavarria has a background in finance and construction while Navarro was previously with Amazon. Echavarria says Latin America is traditionally viewed differently by investors. "It's a different paradigm," he added. "Only a few years ago, you would have to be introduced to 100 funds before you could get a term sheet." As angel investors, Echavarria and Papu would often be approached by seed founders seeking introductions to strategics and key hires. This was around 2016, Echavarria said, when there was a recognizable funding gap at the seed stage. After that, they began seeing the first cohorts of startup alumni founding their own businesses. "We thought that would change everything, and with their history, would help global investors warm up to the region," he added. Then the global pandemic hit, and the trio thought there needed to be more concentrated seed investors with the bandwidth and time to support the founders. They started Marathon initially as a company builder in 2020, which is how they ended up investing in Tul, a B2B e-commerce marketplace that optimizes the construction-material supply chain for hardware stores across Latin America. In January, Tul announced a $181 million Series B round at an $800 million valuation. They then pivoted to be a fund, though they continued to leverage their previous knowledge and network. Echavarria says Marathon invests in talent at the earliest stages, even before there is a pitch deck. "One of the biggest pain points, where Pablo is actually an expert, is creating a top-of-the-line team and developing markets," he said. "In fact, 50% of our team is focused on helping scale." In addition to Tul, the fund has invested in eight companies and is already seeing an approximate two-time return over the total fund size to date. Marathon's portfolio includes companies like Estoca, Meru, Neivor, Sprout, Sumer, Welbe and Wonder Brands. In its quest to invest in emerging markets, Marathon will establish an office in Mexico City by the end of the first quarter of 2022. Meanwhile, Colombia is riding some tailwinds that have occurred over the past couple of years in Latin America as investment has poured into the region. Latin America saw $19.5 billion in investments in 2021 — more than triple the amount of prior years — making it the fastest-growing region in the world for VC funding in 2021, according to Crunchbase News. Meanwhile, that trend of record-breaking investments is poised to continue this year, especially with reports that SoftBank will put another $3 billion in the area's startups. Colombia is "punching well above its weight," with much of the capital chasing total addressable markets, Echavarria said. He also believes that Colombian companies are in a good position, and that as more startups build in Brazil and Mexico, they will also be thinking of Colombia as their next market. "We have six years of angel investing, where we have seen the opportunity and the talent," Papu added. "Though Colombia has a smaller talent pool, it is of high quality. We are hyper-focused on talent in general. There is an opportunity to catalyze the whole ecosystem because here we have seen not so much of the skills gap, but experience gap. We are working to pair founders with mentors here and in other geographies. That is a big point for us because we want founders to consider us as a talent investor, not just a seed fund." |
| Stoggles thinks protective eyewear can be fashionable, too Posted: 02 Feb 2022 05:00 AM PST We wear sunglasses to keep the sun out of our eyes, but they have always been a piece of fashion. Stoggles co-founders Max Greenberg and Rahul Khatri think the fashion label should also apply to protective eyewear. Both were working together at another fashion eyewear company when the global pandemic hit. Seeing how saturated the market was, they saw an opportunity to make protective eyewear a similar and sexy space, initially targeting the healthcare industry. Stoggles' glasses combine ANSI-Z87-certified protection with style and comfort, have a prescription lens option and offer blue-light-blocking technology and a proprietary anti-fog coating. "This has been a way more rewarding business because our biggest customer is healthcare professionals," Greenberg told TechCrunch. "And they were going from wearing these really bulky, uncomfortable, ugly, protective glasses to having something that they wanted to show off, wanted to post about on Instagram, share with their friends and talk about how it makes a bigger impact on their daily lives, both functionally and in general happiness and well-being." They kicked off Los Angeles-based Stoggles in August 2020 with a crowdfunding campaign and then launched an e-commerce website in February 2021. From there, Greenberg said the company "saw incredible growth last year," averaging about 30% in revenue growth month over month. The global protective eyewear market is poised to reach $3.1 billion industry by 2026, and even other companies are working to make glasses more hip, though more on the consumer side, including Pair Eyewear, Cheeterz Club and the one that started it all — Warby Parker, which made its public debut via direct listing in September. Despite already being profitable and their line of eyewear hitting it off with the healthcare community, the Stoggles founders decided to go after their first round of venture capital after bootstrapping the company. Greenberg said that due to the company already establishing product-market fit, rather than go with a traditional Series A, they went with a growth round, raising $40 million from The Chernin Group. One of the company's goals is to get into more content and media to raise awareness about Stoggles, and the founders thought The Chernin Group would be a good partner for that, having experience in content and media companies, he added. Luke Beatty, partner at TCG, said in a written statement that not only did Stoggles find and prove out a huge gap in the protective eyewear market, but they filled it — "a feat we found rather impressive for a company of their age," he added. "Max and Rahul have expertly built an exceptional business model and we’re thrilled to be a partner in this next stage of growth." The company will use the new funding to invest in product development to expand its line of goggles and continue offering more products in the healthcare market. It is also poised to go beyond that market into others, like construction, laboratory sciences, home improvement and do-it-yourself, Greenberg said. In addition, Stoggles will be building out its leadership team, looking to add a marketing director. The company has 15 employees and wants to double that by the end of the year. "We really want to build a strong foundation of great, really passionate people that see the mission that we’re after, and want to help us achieve and be a part of it," Greenberg added. "We couldn’t have gotten here without our healthcare customers, so we want to make sure we build an even better product for them, continue to improve, continue to grow the product line and get the word out and make the experience better." |
| Torii puts your business teams in sync as your tech stack evolves Posted: 02 Feb 2022 04:00 AM PST The explosion of software — many companies use at least 100 SaaS applications — has made the world of managing that software more decentralized and more complex than in the past. Enter Torii, a SaaS management tool that brings entire businesses together around the cloud apps they use so they can not only discover all of the apps they have, but automatically take action on those most appropriate for return on investment. We previously checked in on the company last February when it announced a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Wing Venture Capital. Since then, Uri Haramati, Torii's founder and CEO, labeled the past year "an insane year for us," which included over 300% in annual recurring revenue. "We’ve seen huge growth on everything that we’ve done," he added. "It starts from the momentum of the pandemic that led us to this round and the fact that everyone moved to the cloud and adopted more tools, more science and better control." In addition to the revenue boost, the company is working with customers like Instacart, Carrier Corporation, Bumble, Athletic Greens and Palo Alto Networks, and took its team of 15 following the Series A and turned it into 70 people. That's essentially building out its entire go-to-market, marketing and customer success teams, while also rounding out its leadership team, including adding vice presidents of sales and marketing. Today, Torii is back with $50 million in Series B financing, led by Tiger Global Management, to bring its total funding to $65 million. Previous investors joining in again include Wing, Global Founders Capital, Uncork Capital, Entrée Capital and Scopus Ventures. Though Haramati had been planning for the Series B to be a little bit later, the pace with which the evolution of software was moving required the company to keep up. Some of the main problems customers increasingly have are spend and waste: The percentage of waste is increasing because of complexity, and the amount of money spent on software is also increasing as more tools are added. Then you add in security, and now that everything is connected and data flows much easier than before, it creates another layer of problems and pains, he added. Indeed, Torii's found through its own customer data that organizations were adding an average of 19 new cloud applications every month. Of those, 75% were non-sanctioned, not reviewed or may not have been compliant with the company's security policies. Not only that, but an average of 35% of app licenses end up being unused or wasted. "The problems are not far from what they used to be two or three years ago, but they are larger," Haramati added. "You don’t want to be the one who’s blocking everyone. The majority of the workforce uses technology, but we know that 40% of them will leave their job if the technology is substandard." Now armed with the Series B infusion, Haramati plans on putting a majority of the funds to work to build up his team, especially around product engineering, marketing, sales and customer success. He expects to grow to 200 people by the end of 2022. In addition, the company aims to continue leading in the amount of integrations it has — over 130 tools at this point — so that it can connect a customer's entire ecosystem. Meanwhile, Jake Flomenberg, partner at Wing Venture Capital, said the SaaS management space was one he had been thinking about for a long time. He saw companies "solving little pieces of the puzzle," but it wasn't until Flomenberg met Haramati and his team that he saw how thoughtful data collection and analysis of it could be and how thoughtful automation and orchestration could be. "If you’re going to make really important business decisions and start automating and orchestrating things, we don’t want to do that with three-quarters accurate data," he said. "The SaaS implosion is really becoming, let’s call it chaos at this point. People are just doing whatever they want from their homes, and it’s impossible to manage. If the IT person can hit a few green buttons and get onto the more challenging aspects of the job where you can have an even greater impact, this was the direction that Torii is headed in and what excited me to make an investment." |
| SpaceX reveals $500 monthly ‘Premium’ Starlink service with speeds up to 500 Mbps Posted: 02 Feb 2022 03:41 AM PST SpaceX has revealed a new tier for its Starlink satellite internet service with higher performance but pricing that might make your eyes water, The Verge has reported. Called Starlink Premium, it offers speeds between 150 and 500Mbps with 20 to 40 milliseconds of latency, up from 50 to 250Mbps with the same latency. Upload speeds are also up, from 10 to 20Mbps on the standard plan to 20 to 40Mbps on Premium. For a performance boost of roughly double, you’ll pay five times more, however. Starlink Premium will cost $500 a month compared to $99 per month for the standard plan. You’ll also pay $2,500 for the antenna and other hardware, compared to $499 for base plan, and will need to leave a $500 deposit to reserve the Premium dish. SpaceX said the new service will work better in “extreme weather conditions” and customers will get priority 24/7 support. It’s likely to be the only high-speed internet option available in many remote places, where the extra weatherproofing could come in handy. SpaceX announced that Starlink would come out of beta last October, and recently unveiled a new rectangular satellite dish that’s much smaller and thinner than the original round one. The new Premium antenna is apparently larger than that and it supposedly “helps ensure bandwidth for critical operations even during times of peak network usage,” SpaceX said. Starlink has launched over 2,000 satellites as of mid-January, with around 1,500 in operational orbit. The current system is authorized for up to 4,408 satellites, around triple the current number. If you’re interested in the Premium tier, orders are now open with deliveries set to start in Q2 2022. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Engadget. |
| Casava gets $4M pre-seed to make insurance affordable and accessible to Nigerians Posted: 02 Feb 2022 01:04 AM PST African countries are yet to catch up with social security and safety programs commonly used in the West, where the government provides health insurance and unemployment benefits to citizens. The general perception of insurance on the continent has been bland for years, and its penetration rate, except South Africa, is subpar. Per a McKinsey study in 2018, Africa's insurance market stood at a 3% penetration rate; with South Africa excluded, it was 1.12%. Only 1.9% of its adult population had one form of insurance policy in Nigeria as of 2018. Despite the dire situation, many startups are springing up to broaden insurance coverage across the country. In the news today is one such company: Casava. The self-described "Nigeria's first 100% digital insurance company" has raised a $4 million pre-seed round. It's the largest pre-seed for an African insurtech company and second-largest for a Nigerian startup after Nestcoin, whose round was announced a day before. Berlin-based Target Global led the pre-seed round, with foreign VCs and angel investors such as Entrée Capital, Oliver Jung, Tom Blomfield, Ed Robinson and Brandon Krieg participating. The local investors involved are all founders. They include Uche Pedro, Babs Ogundeyi, Musty Mustapha, Shola Akinlade, Olugbenga "GB" Agboola, Honey Ogundeyi, Tosin Eniolorunda and Opeyemi Awoyemi, among others. Bode Pedro is the founder and CEO of Casava. Before starting Casava, Pedro ran VisaCover, an insurance brokerage company, in 2014. The idea for Casava came while VisaCover provided an alternative in the auto insurance market by allowing drivers of Uber, which was one of its partners, to make weekly insurance payments instead of quarterly or yearly payments insurance partners before it operated. "We saw mass adoption and knew the market needed insurance payments to be broken down. But then we noticed that as brokers, we didn't have full control about that process and we weren't giving people the best experience," Pedro told TechCrunch on a call. "We knew if we were going to take insurance to the next level, then maybe we need to control that product and be involved in product end-to-end." After the serial entrepreneur exited the insurance brokerage company in 2016, Pedro brought on Olusegun Makinde, an ex-VP at JP Morgan, as chief operating officer to build Casava in 2019. The team cruised to get a micro-insurance license and launched fully in April 2021 to provide affordable and accessible insurance products to millions of Nigerians. There are further reasons why insurance has failed to scale in Africa's largest technological market. First, traditional insurance companies in Nigeria have built their businesses on mandatory insurance for enterprise customers in oil and gas, energy and property. Their unit economics is suited for large and not small transactions, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this way, insurance products can't get to the mass market. But there's another reason for this low insurance adoption: the preference of instant gratification over long-term benefits. In essence, people prefer to invest in positive rather than adverse outcomes. "When you wake up, you're thinking about the positive things that could happen to you. Like how you save money and get interest, you invest and get returns, you work hard and you make money, or you collect bonuses, right?" the chief executive said. "For insurance, it's about negative outcomes, which Nigerians and human beings, in general, don't like to think about. Even if they think about they clear it in their head. So the key to success in insurance is to hack behaviour with your product. How do you make your product attractive?" he queried.  Image Credits: Casava First, when consumers can subscribe to Casava's insurance products directly via the website, mobile app or WhatsApp, they are given a month-free trial with an option to opt-out should they not like the service. However, should they continue, Pedro said Casava would provide them with value-added services such as executive coaching, telemedicine and job services. The digital insurance platform currently provides cover for health and job loss. Unlike the former, insurance around job loss is relatively uncommon in Nigeria. There's undeniably a market for it: 20% of workers in Nigeria lost their jobs because of the pandemic; however, the country's staggering unemployment rate places so much risk on the insurer. But it seems Casava has found a way to make it work with its Income Protection product. According to the company, subscribers can insure their income from $1 (~₦500) monthly, and get paid monthly for six months if they lose their job, become sick or disabled. "It's been a successful product. We're scaling it well and people are like, 'I didn't even know you could do this.'" We're seeing companies trying to buy for their employees; even lenders are looking to get their borrowers to buy it." Subscribers can also use its Health Insurance product and access more than 1,000 doctors on telemedicine and 900 hospitals across Nigeria. There's also HealthCash, which lets users get reimbursed when they visit the hospital for specific periods, all for ₦250 (~$0.5) – ₦300($0.6) a month. Casava works with reinsurance partners who guarantee a refund when claims are paid as a licensed microinsurance underwriter. That's how it makes revenue asides from profit — off subscription fees. The company says it already has more than 66,000 customers, with $16 million in insurance coverage. Leading insurance startups across Africa rarely converge at a single offering or market. For instance, Kenya's Lami and South Africa's Root provide APIs, health insurance is one of Reliance Health's products, Ctrl is an insurance marketplace. So Casava, in a way, has had to build its playbook from the ground up (at least in Nigeria; Naspers-backed Naked has a similar model in South Africa) around holistic insurance products that resonate with the average Nigerian customer. The funding will support more product launches from life and travel insurance to home and smartphone insurance. "We have delivery, insurance, logistics insurance, I mean, it's fascinating what we're doing and the idea is that it's one subscription with flexible payment options," said the CEO. He added that Casava would also use the investment for customer acquisition, growth and developing its product and technology stack. The insurtech company plans to work with fintech and digital partners to embed insurance products into their offerings. This way, it hopes to gain access to over 500,000 financial service agents to reach millions of uninsured customers nationwide and keep them out of poverty. "I think that if you have millions of people that are insured, you reduce the situation where people go into poverty. If one is crawling out of poverty and something unfortunate happens, which is almost inevitable, they go back into poverty because they were not insured," Pedro stated. Right now, only 2 million people have active policies in Nigeria, and if we do what we're supposed to do, it's going to be something compelling for Nigerians, and hopefully, Africans." |
| Withings buys workout app, 8fit Posted: 02 Feb 2022 12:00 AM PST French health wearables firm Withings today announced that it has acquired 8fit, makers of the workout/meal planning app of the same name. The news comes as hardware makers ranging from Apple and Samsung to Peloton and Mirror are taking an increasingly content-forward approach to the fitness space. Berlin-based 8fit launched in 2014, growing into a full-service offering for fitness that includes everything from workouts like HIIT and boxing to yoga and meditation to recipes. The firm has raised $10 million to date, including a $7 million Series A in 2017. When we last checked in with the company back then, we reported noted they were already generating more than $1 million in monthly revenue, courtesy of subscription plans. The play is a pretty obvious one for Withings, which has been building out a health hardware suite with a range of products from smartwatches to scales to fitness trackers. With 8fit, the company adds an important layer of content to its offerings, while building out an additional revenue stream that exists well beyond the initial hardware purchase. “We now feel it's key to enter the era of the 'product-service-data,' combining personal health data with personalized wellness plans, and further deliver on our mission to empower anyone to be healthier in the long-run," Withings CEO Mathieu Letombe said in a release. "With the acquisition of 8fit, we are well placed to deliver a strategy that combines elegantly designed health devices, enhanced health data and experienced advice that is simple to adopt and designed specifically for our customers." The acquisition will find the company integrating 8fit's offerings into its existing software suite, offering actionable insights based on the wealth of data the company's devices collect. The company said it plans to invest an additional $30 million into building out its connected fitness offerings. "From the services we offer, it's clear that Withings and 8fit are aligned to help users achieve their health goals," said 8fit CEO Lisette Fabian. "We are excited to combine Withings’ expertise in connected health devices that collect accurate, quality data with our fitness and nutrition plans. Together, we will provide our users with a more holistic health offering to help them lead healthier, happier lives." In recent years, fitness wearable makers have been making increased investments in the content space. Apple launched Fitness+ last year, as more users were searching for ways to workout outside of the gym during the pandemic. Google-owned Fitbit has its own $10/month premium service, which combines a deeper look at data with workouts. 8fit’s current offering is a pricey one, at $25 a month or $80 for a full year. Regarding its price point, the company writes:
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| GoStudent acquires UK’s Seneca Learning and Spain’s Tus Media Group Posted: 01 Feb 2022 10:56 PM PST European EdTech unicorn GoStudent GoStudent has acquired the UK's Seneca Learning and the Spain-based Tus Media Group in a move which extends it's reach into areas not previously touched by the Austrian unicorn. Seneca provides Algorithmic learning content while Tus Media is a an open tutoring marketplace. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both acquired companies will continue operating independently under their current leadership teams and with their established brand names. Launched in 2016, Seneca Learning did not previously take on venture capital backing, according to CrunchBase. Tus Media was also privately owned, with unspecified backing from Barcelona-based investor Redarbor. The move comes a month after GoStudent raised €300M in a Series D funding and follows GoStudent's 2021 acquisition of Fox Education, an Austrian all-in-one school communication solution. Seneca Learning is a "freemium" homework and revision platform in the UK with 7 million students on it. Children can choose from KS2, KS3, GCSE & A-Level courses. Felix Ohswald, CEO and Co-Founder of GoStudent, said: "The United Kingdom is one of GoStudent’s core regions, and we aim to become the market leader. We have listened to the needs of our customers, and adding a content platform to our core offering is an important strategic step for us, allowing us to further enrich our learning offerings and diversify our portfolio." Stephen Wilks, Co-Founder and CEO of Seneca Learning, said: "Working with Felix and the GoStudent team will allow us to bring Seneca's free content and personalized learning experience to millions more students in different countries across the world. The team is excited to build on our success in the UK and take our product international to give more children access to an amazing free education." Founded in 2011, Tus Media offers an open marketplace for tutors serving 4 million students, with teachers in Spain, as well as several European and LATAM countries. Albert Clemente, Founder and CEO of Tus Media Group said: “The acquisition by GoStudent gives us the thrust to further scale Tus Media with all its brands to new markets and expand to even bigger regional geographies.” Gregor Müller, COO and Co-Founder of GoStudent, commented: "Albert Clemente is one of the most passionate and dedicated education entrepreneurs we have ever met. Working with him as a partner and learning from each other will allow us to get one step closer to becoming the number 1 global school.” David González Castro, founder and CEO of Redarbor – Tus Media's former investor – commented: “In 2018, we acquired 20 percent and later 30 percent of participation in Tus Media. After the acquisition by GoStudent, we will leave the shareholding. I am very proud of all the success we have achieved in collaboration and value creation with Albert Clemente.” GoStudent now has a roughly €3BN valuation. Founded in Vienna in 2016 by Felix Ohswald (CEO) and Gregor Müller (COO) it provides paid, one-to-one, video-based tuition to primary, secondary, and college-aged students using a membership model. Backed with €590 million in funding, investors include Prosus Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Speaking to me over a call Ohswald added: "Both of these companies are very complementary for GoStudent. Seneca has built a tremendous content company, so they created content customized for the UK school curriculum that 1000s of teachers and then millions of kids use and that is something we don’t have. We have never done content in the past. So they bring this content element that we are missing, and we want to help them scale their business in many more countries, while building some synergies.” He added: “On the side of Tus Media, they created an awesome SEO-driven company. So all the traffic they generate on their marketplace comes via SEO with no marketing spend. That’s something we have not achieved in the past. Together with them we can learn from them and also help them to scale more quickly." |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2022 08:07 PM PST Faraday Future is revamping its board, cutting the pay of two top executives and suspending at least one other, following an internal investigation that determined employees made inaccurate statements to investors and that its “corporate culture failed to sufficiently prioritize compliance,” according to a regulatory filing. Faraday Future, which has had a long string of controversies since its founding in 2014, became a publicly traded company in July 2021 after merging with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. Trouble percolated just months later when a short seller report alleged that Faraday Future had made a number of inaccurate statements. An internal review conducted by special committee of directors and tapped the expertise a forensic accounting firm and independent legal counsel soon followed. The committee found that company employees understated the involvement of founder and former CEO Jia Yueting, who is now chief product officer. The review also determined that the company’s declaration that it had received more than 14,000 reservations for the FF 91 vehicle were potentially misleading because only several hundred of those reservations were paid. The remainder, which totaled 14,000, were unpaid indications of interest. The company’s internal controls over financial accounting and reporting also require an upgrade in personnel and systems, the reviewers found. As a result, Sue Swenson, who was the audit committee chairperson, has been appointed to a new position of executive chairperson. She will have oversight of the senior executive leadership team and will continue to direct additional investigations and remediation. CEO Carsten Breitfeld and Yueting will receive a 25% pay cut and report directly to Swenson. Brian Krolicki will step down from his role as chairman of the board and chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee and become a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees of the Board. Jiawei (Jerry) Wang, the company’s vp of Global Capital Markets, will be suspended without pay until further notice in connection with the matters referenced below, effective immediately and Jarret Johnson, general counsel and secretary, “will be separating from the company, according to a regulatory filing. The special committee also approved strengthening internal controls including hiring a chief compliance officer and hiring of additional financial and accounting support. |
| Daily Crunch: India announces plans for digital rupee, 30% tax on crypto profits Posted: 01 Feb 2022 03:15 PM PST To get a roundup of TechCrunch's biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Tuesday, February 1, 2022! I celebrated the first day of the month by having my internet cut out right as I started to prepare this newsletter for you. Am I panicked at having 1,000 words to produce in the next 38 minutes? Yes! But a lot is going on, so let's get to work. – Alex The TechCrunch Top 3.5
Startups/VCOn the subject of new funds, AirTree has put together $700 million AUD for three investment vehicles, or around $493 million USD. As we wrote in our piece dissecting the news, "money is flowing into Australia and New Zealand's startup ecosystems." Yes, that's true in many places, but you might not have anticipated that the Aussies and Kiwis were so deep in the action. They are! (You may have heard of Atlassian, for example.) Changing gears, our own Ron Miller has a neat piece up on the site reporting that Docker has reached the $50 million ARR mark after retooling its business. Docker had faded somewhat from my brain in the last few years, but that revenue number indicates that we should probably start paying attention once again. There's no better signal of having a product in-market that people need than the fact that they pay you for it. From the cash register:
And a lot more, including a new enterprise browser that just came out of stealth; neat privacy features from Mozilla, which I suppose still counts as a startup; and Natasha Lomas has a great piece digging into the startups working in the carbon credit space and how they may – or may not – manage to clean up a business that is shadier than you'd like it to be. How to build and maintain momentum in your fundraising process Image Credits: ozgurcankaya (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Capturing investors' attention isn't enough when you're raising money — often, you have to convince them your funding process is efficient and that you're talking to other investors. Momentum is key to building this level of interest, writes Nathan Beckord, CEO of Foundersuite.com, and that energy will propel your entire fundraising process. After opening with a "great hack for asking for email introductions," Beckord shares five hustle tips for maintaining and capitalizing on momentum that will maximize investor interest and appeal. (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Big Tech Inc.
TechCrunch Experts Image Credits: SEAN GLADWELL / 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 article on TechCrunch+ from Elise King: "3 experiments for early-stage founders seeking product-market fit." |
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