Monthly Archives: November 2020

News: Lego expands its Super Mario world with customization tools, new Mario power-ups, and more characters

• November 17, 2020
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Lego’s partnership with Nintendo delivered a pretty awesome debut earlier this year with the interactive Lego Super Mario Starter Course, and now it’s following that up with additional sets designed to complement the first. These include a new ‘Master Your Adventure Maker Set,’ which adds customization options by tweaking Lego Mario’s response via three new

Lego’s partnership with Nintendo delivered a pretty awesome debut earlier this year with the interactive Lego Super Mario Starter Course, and now it’s following that up with additional sets designed to complement the first. These include a new ‘Master Your Adventure Maker Set,’ which adds customization options by tweaking Lego Mario’s response via three new bricks, and a new way to shuffle the rules for each level. Lego and Nintendo are also releasing additional themed Expansion sets, new power-ups for Mario, and a second series of mystery characters to incorporate into level builds.

Image Credits: Nintendo

The Master Your Adventure Maker Set includes 366 pieces in total, and will retail for $59.99. The Expansion sets include a Chain Chomp jungle-themed playset ($19.99), a Piranha Plan puzzle challenge set ($29.99), and a new Poison-themed biome for Mario to explore featuring Wiggler ($39.99). The two new power-ups for Lego Mario are his Penguin suit, and his Tanooki suit, which retail for $9.99 each respectively.

Each new Series 2 Character Pack retails for $4.99. These come in packaging that doesn’t reveal their contents until opened, adding some degree of chance to which of the new characters you end up with. The Series 2 characters include Huckit Crab, Spiny Cheep Cheep, Ninji, Foo, Parachute Goomba, Fly Guy, Poison Mushroom, Para-Beetle, Thwimp or Bone Goomba.

Image Credits: Nintendo

These will all go on sale starting January 1, both from Lego direct and from its retail partners. That’s just after the holiday rush, which seems like a bit of a miss for what you’d expect would be a popular set of gifts, but Nintendo’s still selling the original starter course and other kits

News: Digital freight forwarder Forto raises another $50M, in round led by Inven Capital

• November 17, 2020
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Forto, a digital freight forwarder which has experienced a boom during the pandemic, has raised another $50 million in funding. This takes its total investment to $73 million after it raised $23m in debt financing from the European Investment Bank this year. It’s now raised $126 million in total, since its launch in 2016. The

Forto, a digital freight forwarder which has experienced a boom during the pandemic, has raised another $50 million in funding. This takes its total investment to $73 million after it raised $23m in debt financing from the European Investment Bank this year. It’s now raised $126 million in total, since its launch in 2016.

The round was led by Inven Capital, a growth fund out of the Czech Republic. Additional investment came from Iris Capital, with strong participation from current investors, including Rider Global, Northzone, Cherry Ventures and the Italian venture fund H14. Additionally, Maersk, the largest ocean carrier in the world, has ‘significantly’ – says the startup – added to its existing investment.

The platform gives customers real-time data and on-time delivery, while typically reducing their administrative supply chain costs by 30%. It also displays an emissions rating for possible transport options, allowing companies to track carbon emissions.

Forto will be using the new funding to accelerate the development of its supply chain management solutions by adding order management and value-added services. It will also be expanding its European and Asian operations following the recent opening of a Singapore office and the extension of its operational presence to 5 offices in Asia.

“In the last few quarters, we have significantly exceeded our growth plans and have increased our volumes by 300% year over year. And this despite challenging trading conditions, which have forced companies to face significant capacity constraints and rate volatility, “ explained Co-Founder Michael Wax, who co-leads the firm alongside Co-Founder Erik Muttersbach and Dr. Michael Ardelt.

Petr Míkovec, CEO at Inven Capital said: ““We strongly believe in Forto’s vision to simplify international carriage of goods and make shipping containers as simple as sending an email. Not only do customers get incredible insights into their supply chain, they can also make smarter, sustainable decisions.”

“Forto has proven to be essential in a sector which is under increasing pressure amidst a global pandemic and is dominated by fragmented, non-digital incumbents,” added Michiel Kotting, Partner at Northzone.

Forto’s supply chain management solutions are now used by over 2,500 customers, including industrial manufacturer Viessmann, consumer goods giant Miele and eCommerce brand Home24. It made the list of the Top 20 Freight Forwarder from Asia to Europe in just under 4 years of existence.

News: Cooper raises $2M to build a professional network centered on introductions

• November 17, 2020
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In a period of social distancing, making new professional connections feels harder than ever. So Amsterdam-based Cooper is building a network that’s all about making and receiving introductions. “Everything that happens in the network is based on on the foundation of introductions,” CEO Robert Gaal told me. “You should never get an unwanted message, and

In a period of social distancing, making new professional connections feels harder than ever. So Amsterdam-based Cooper is building a network that’s all about making and receiving introductions.

“Everything that happens in the network is based on on the foundation of introductions,” CEO Robert Gaal told me. “You should never get an unwanted message, and there’s no such thing as a connection request, because it’s not necessary if you have an introduction.”

The startup is launching internationally today and announcing that it has raised $2 million in seed funding.

Gaal (who co-founded the company with CTO Emiel van Liere) described Cooper as “a private professional network that’s not about how many connections do I have, it’s about bringing the people that you already trust into a circle.”

That’s in contrast with existing professional networking sites, which are most useful as “directories” of online résumés, and usually emphasize the quantity of connections, rather than the quality. (I’ll admit that on LinkedIn, I’m connected to a bunch of people who I barely know at all.)

So Cooper tries to take the opposite approach, limiting users’ connections to people they really know. To do this, it can pull data from a user’s online calendar, and it also provides them with a personal invite code that they can share with their professional contacts.

Image Credits: Cooper

Users then post requests or opportunities, which are viewable by their connections and by friends of friends, who can offer to make useful introductions via email or in Cooper itself.

In fact, Gaal said that during the initial beta test, multiple people have successfully used Cooper to find new jobs — sometimes after pandemic-related layoffs, which they’re comfortable sharing with their inner circle but don’t want to broadcast to the world at large.

“There’s more discovery, more trust and you can reinvent other things on top of that — what the résumé is, what mentorship is — if you get trust right first,” he said.

Of course, simply sharing a calendar invite with someone doesn’t really mean you trust them or know them well. Cooper could eventually start looking at other measures that indicate your “connectivity” with someone, like how often you email with them, Gaal said — but the first step is simply recreating the professional circle in which you feel comfortable saying, “Oh, you’re looking for a job? My friend is hiring.”

Yes, those kinds of conversations are already happening offline, but he noted that most of us can only remember “a handful of people” at once. Cooper is making that “marketplace” much more visible and easy to track.

The startup doesn’t sell ads or user data. Instead, Gaal hopes to make money by charging membership fees for features like customizing your profile or promoting your request more broadly.

The startup’s seed funding was led by Comcast Ventures, with participation from LocalGlobe and 468 Capital.

“At a time when the ability to connect is limited, Cooper is building a professional network fostering meaningful and substantive connections, “said Daniel Gulati, founding partner at Forecast Fund and former managing director at Comcast Ventures, in a statement. “We are excited to support the team on their journey ahead.”

News: Indonesian telecom network Telkomsel invests $150 million in GoJek

• November 17, 2020
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Telkomsel, Indonesia’s biggest telecom network, has invested $150 million in ride-hailing firm GoJek, the two companies said on Tuesday. As part of the “strategic partnership,” the two firms said they will explore a “broad range of collaboration opportunities” to reach millions of Indonesians. Since 2018, GoJek and Telkomsel have maintained a deal to subsidize the

Telkomsel, Indonesia’s biggest telecom network, has invested $150 million in ride-hailing firm GoJek, the two companies said on Tuesday.

As part of the “strategic partnership,” the two firms said they will explore a “broad range of collaboration opportunities” to reach millions of Indonesians. Since 2018, GoJek and Telkomsel have maintained a deal to subsidize the cost of mobile data consumed by the ride-hailing firm’s driver partners.

“This is a great day for Gojek and for Indonesia, as we strengthen our collaboration with Telkomsel, one of Indonesia’s most forward-looking telecommunication companies. By working together, we hope to help Indonesia become a true digital powerhouse in Southeast Asia, and bring the benefits of the digital economy to millions more consumers, driver-partners and small businesses,” Gojek co-chief executive Andre Soelistyo said in a statement.

More to follow…

News: PingCAP, the open-source developer behind TiDB, closes $270 million Series D

• November 17, 2020
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PingCAP, the open-source software developer best known for NewSQL database TiDB, has raised a $270 million Series D. TiDB handles hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP), and is aimed at high-growth companies, including payment and e-commerce services, that need to handle increasingly large amounts of data. The round’s lead investors were GGV Capital, Access Technology

PingCAP, the open-source software developer best known for NewSQL database TiDB, has raised a $270 million Series D. TiDB handles hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP), and is aimed at high-growth companies, including payment and e-commerce services, that need to handle increasingly large amounts of data.

The round’s lead investors were GGV Capital, Access Technology Ventures, Anatole Investment, Jeneration Capital and 5Y Capital (formerly known as Morningside Venture Capital). It also included participation from Coatue, Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund, FutureX Capital, Kunlun Capital, Trustbridge Partners, and returning investors Matrix Partners China and Yunqi Partners.

The funding brings PingCAP’s total raised so far to $341.6 million. Its last round, a Series C of $50 million, was announced back in September 2018.

PingCAP says TiDB has been adopted by about 1,500 companies across the world. Some examples include Square; Japanese mobile payments company PayPay; e-commerce app Shopee; video-sharing platform Dailymotion; and ticketing platfrom BookMyShow. TiDB handles online transactional processing (OLTP) and online analytical processing (OLAP) in the same database, which PingCAP says results in faster real-time analytics than other distributed databases.

In June, PingCAP launched TiDB Cloud, which it describes as fully-managed “TiDB as a Service,” on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. The company plans to add more platforms, and part of the funding will be used to increase TiDB Cloud’s global user base.

News: Digital electricity supplier Tibber closes $65M Series B led by Eight Roads, Balderton

• November 17, 2020
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Tibber, a ‘digital electricity’ supplier which uses AI to switch around power for houses based on their predicted levels of consumption – has closed a $65 million Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures and Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors including San Francisco-based Founders Fund, which invested last year. Alongside equity, Tibber

Tibber, a ‘digital electricity’ supplier which uses AI to switch around power for houses based on their predicted levels of consumption – has closed a $65 million Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures and Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors including San Francisco-based Founders Fund, which invested last year. Alongside equity, Tibber secured working capital funding by Nordea to support the high pace of growth.

You probably have one electricity supplier for your house. But these days the average household could probably buy from several such companies; it just can’t easily access the marketplace of possible suppliers. Wouldn’t it be smarter if you had an AI in your house that could purchase energy from these producers, including those within the local grid, at the best prices and at the best time of day? This is what Tibber does. It also does it to within 3 hours of your predicted usage.

The funding will support further investments into Tibber’s pioneering technology, scaling up the team, and expanding into new markets, the next one being the Netherlands in 2021.

Tibber CEO Edgeir Vårdal Aksnes said in a statement: “For us, this means that we can continue our mission of making energy smarter at an even faster pace. Our app has quickly become popular, and it has contributed to smart and green energy at lower prices. Our idea is to empower consumers to one day become independent from the electric grid and slow-moving monopolies.”

Since Tibber launched in 2016, it has seen organic growth to 100,000 paying households in Norway, Sweden and Germany. The company was founded in 2016 by Norwegian Edgeir Vårdal Aksnes and Swedish Daniel Lindén who were frustrated by the poor customer experience provided by traditional energy companies.

Alston Zecha from Eight Roads Ventures said: “Our team has been following the energy industry for years, and immediately recognized that Tibber is a game-changer. With market-leading technological capabilities, an innovative business model, and extremely positive customer reviews, Tibber delivers green energy at the fairest price.”

James Wise, Partner at Balderton Capital, said: “Changing our behavior, and in particular, the way we consume energy at home is one of the biggest challenges we face in combating climate change. Tibber brings greater transparency to home energy usage while giving users a simple way to switch to renewable energy providers and control their home devices. It’s like a Fitbit for your home, but one which can put it on a healthy energy diet too.”

Tibber replaces traditional utilities with smart technology, supplying its customers with renewable energy at transparent prices. In addition, its app provides real-time analytics into energy usage, and pairs with a variety of smart home devices to reduce electricity consumption at home. Tibber has set a target to reduce the residential electricity consumption for European households by 20%.

News: Sequoia-backed recycling robot maker AMP Robotics gets its largest purchase order

• November 17, 2020
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AMP Robotics, the manufacturer of robotic recycling systems, has received its largest purchase order from the publicly traded North American waste handling company, Waste Connections. The order, for 24 machine learning enabled robotic recycling systems, will be used on container, fiber and residue lines across numerous materials recovery facilities, the company said. The AMP technology

AMP Robotics, the manufacturer of robotic recycling systems, has received its largest purchase order from the publicly traded North American waste handling company, Waste Connections.

The order, for 24 machine learning enabled robotic recycling systems, will be used on container, fiber and residue lines across numerous materials recovery facilities, the company said.

The AMP technology can be used to recover plastics, cardboard, paper, cans, cartons and many other containers and packaging types reclaimed for raw material processing.

The tech can tell the difference between high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate, low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene. The robots can also sort for color, clarity, opacity and shapes like lids, tubs, clamshells, and cups — the robots can even identify the brands on packaging.

So far, AMP’s robots have been deployed in North America, Asia, and Europe with recent installations in Spain, and across the US in California, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

In January, before the pandemic began, AMP Robotics worked with its investor, Sidewalk Labs on a pilot program that would provide residents of a single apartment building representing 250 units in Toronto with detailed information about their recycling habits.

Working with the building and a waste hauler, Sidewalk Labs  would transport the waste to a Canada Fibers material recovery facility where trash will be sorted by both Canada Fibers employees and AMP Robotics. Once the waste is categorized, sorted, and recorded Sidewalk will communicate with residents of the building about how they’re doing in their recycling efforts.

Sidewalk says that the tips will be communicated through email, an online portal, and signage throughout the building every two weeks over a three-month period.

For residents, it was an opportunity to have a better handle on what they can and can’t recycle and Sidewalk Labs is betting that the information will help residents improve their habits. And for folks who don’t want their trash to be monitored and sorted, they could opt out of the program.

Recyclers like Waste Connections should welcome the commercialization of robots tackling industry problems. Their once-stable business has been turned on its head by trade wars and low unemployment. About two years ago, China decided it would no longer serve as the world’s garbage dump and put strict standards in place for the kinds of raw materials it would be willing to receive from other countries. The result has been higher costs at recycling facilities, which actually are now required to sort their garbage more effectively.

At the same time, low unemployment rates are putting the squeeze on labor availability at facilities where humans are basically required to hand-sort garbage into recyclable materials and trash.

AMP Robotics is backed by Sequoia Capital,  BV, Closed Loop Partners, Congruent Ventures  and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, a spin-out from Alphabet that invests in technologies and new infrastructure projects.

News: Huawei sells budget phone unit Honor to government, distribution partners

• November 17, 2020
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After weeks of rumors, Huawei confirmed it is selling its budget phone unit Honor to a consortium of companies, including government-backed firms and Honor’s distribution partners, according to a joint statement released Tuesday morning in a local Shenzhen paper. “This acquisition represents a market-driven investment made to save Honor’s supply chain. It is the best

After weeks of rumors, Huawei confirmed it is selling its budget phone unit Honor to a consortium of companies, including government-backed firms and Honor’s distribution partners, according to a joint statement released Tuesday morning in a local Shenzhen paper.

“This acquisition represents a market-driven investment made to save Honor’s supply chain. It is the best solution to protect the interests of Honor’s consumers, channel sellers, suppliers, partners, and employees,” said the statement signed by the 40 companies.

Huawei lost major chip and software suppliers after the U.S. government slapped trade sanctions on the telecoms equipment and smartphone giant. A spin-out can in theory exempt Honor from the supply chain restrictions that have struck Huawei hard.

In the meantime, no one in the consortium poses an existential threat to Huawei’s market position. That leaves enough leeway for Huawei if it ever wants to buy Honor back from the group of government-backed firms and phone dealers and agents.

The announcement did not put a price tag on the purchase, though Reuters previously reported it could cost 100 billion yuan ($15 billion).

This is an updating story.

News: Daily Crunch: GitHub reinstates YouTube downloading project

• November 16, 2020
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GitHub defies a takedown order, Strava raises a big round and Moderna reports promising COVID-19 vaccine results. This is your Daily Crunch for November 16, 2020. The big story: GitHub reinstates YouTube downloading project Back in October, the Recording Industry Association of America sent a DMCA complaint to GitHub over a project called YouTube-dl, which

GitHub defies a takedown order, Strava raises a big round and Moderna reports promising COVID-19 vaccine results. This is your Daily Crunch for November 16, 2020.

The big story: GitHub reinstates YouTube downloading project

Back in October, the Recording Industry Association of America sent a DMCA complaint to GitHub over a project called YouTube-dl, which allows viewers to download YouTube videos for offline viewing. According to the trade group, YouTube-dl both circumvented DRM and, in its documentation, promoted the piracy of several popular songs.

However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation sent GitHub a letter criticizing the RIAA’s argument and suggesting that, among other things, it mischaracterizes how YouTube-dl’s code actually works.

In response, GitHub has restored the project’s code. It also says it’s rethinking how it will handle takedown notices in the future, with a new $1 million developer defense fund and the response of technical and legal review of any future claims filed under section 1201 of the DMCA.

The tech giants

You can now embed Apple Podcasts on the web — Apple is making it easier to discover and listen to podcasts via the web.

Apple’s IDFA gets targeted in strategic EU privacy complaints — The complaints, lodged with German and Spanish data protection authorities, contend that Apple’s setting of the IDFA breaches regional privacy laws.

Spotify adds a built-in podcast playlist creation tool, ‘Your Episodes’ — The feature lets you bookmark individual episodes from any podcast, which are then added to a new “Your Episodes” playlist.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Strava raises $110M, touts growth rate of 2 million new users per month in 2020 — Strava has 70 million members already according to the company, with presence in 195 countries globally.

Squarespace adds support for memberships and paywalled content — Squarespace’s new Member Areas allow businesses to charge for access to exclusive content.

Computer vision startup Chooch.ai scores $20M Series A — Chooch.ai hopes to help companies adopt computer vision more broadly.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Will edtech empower or erase the need for higher education? — Campuses are closed, sports have been paused and, understandably, students don’t want to pay the same tuition for a fraction of the services.

Three growth tactics that helped us surpass Noom and Weight Watchers — Over the past year, nutrition app Lifesum has acquired users at nearly twice the rate of both Noom and Weight Watchers.

Unpacking the C3.ai IPO filing — C3 is actually in pretty good financial shape, generating both growing recurring software revenues and cash in some quarters.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Moderna reports its COVID-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective in first data from Phase 3 trial — Following fast on the heels of Pfizer’s announcement of its COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, Moderna is also sharing positive results from its Phase 3 trial.

HBO Max arrives on Amazon Fire TV devices — As a part of the new deal, existing HBO subscribers on Amazon will be able to use the HBO Max app at no additional cost.

Original Content podcast: ‘The Vow’ offers a muddled look at the NXIVM cult — It’s a fascinating documentary hampered by some unfortunate storytelling choices.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

News: Equity shot: Airbnb’s IPO is finally here

• November 16, 2020
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today we have an Equity Shot for you about Airbnb’s S-1 filing, as it looks to go public before the year is out. First we get into Airbnb’s macro performance, which shows a stable picture historical revenue growth.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

Today we have an Equity Shot for you about Airbnb’s S-1 filing, as it looks to go public before the year is out.

• First we get into Airbnb’s macro performance, which shows a stable picture historical revenue growth. There is a ton of numbers to get to so get ready for a quick dive into net revenue, gross margins, and losses.
• Then we discuss the dramatic drop in bookings, the promising comeback, and if short-term travel is Airbnb’s future.
• There’s a weird quarter of profitability that you should all know about, and a heads up on what to look for in Q4 numbers.
• Finally, we talk about the bullish and bearish case on Airbnb, which poetically filed the same day that Moderna announced a promising vaccine trial. 

All that, and our trusty other host Danny Crichton was busy filing a post about the winners and losers of the Airbnb IPO. Ownership, you quiet, billionaire beast. There’s more coming from TechCrunch on the company’s IPO, and from the Equity crew on everything else we ferret out on Thursday. Stay tuned!

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PDT and Thursday afternoon as fast as we can get it out, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.