Monthly Archives: January 2021

News: Orange spins out Orange Ventures with $430 million allocation

  • January 11, 2021
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Telecom company Orange is making some changes to its venture capital arm. Orange Ventures is becoming a separate legal entity and Orange itself is allocating $430 million (€350 million). With this new corporate structure, Orange could attract third-party investors in its fund. Other telecom companies have made some headlines with their venture funds in the

Telecom company Orange is making some changes to its venture capital arm. Orange Ventures is becoming a separate legal entity and Orange itself is allocating $430 million (€350 million).

With this new corporate structure, Orange could attract third-party investors in its fund. Other telecom companies have made some headlines with their venture funds in the past, such as SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Reliance Jio.

Separating Orange Ventures from Orange is also going to boost confidence when it comes to confidentiality and conflicts of interest between a startup and the telecom company. There’s a more visible firewall between Orange and Orange Ventures.

But if you want to partner with Orange, there are some opportunities on the table — the company says those synergies are “flexible and optional”.

Orange Ventures focuses on investments in companies that operate more or less in the same space as Orange. It includes many verticals, such as connectivity, cybersecurity, fintech and e-health. Previous investments include Monzo, Luko, Raisin, YouVerify and WeaveWorks.

Orange Ventures currently has offices in Paris and Dakar and tends to invest in startups from seed stage up to Series A or B. The firm says it can invest as much as €20 million in a single round. It is screening startups in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the U.S. There are around 20 people working for Orange Ventures.

News: Get live feedback on your pitch deck from big-name VCs on Extra Crunch Live

  • January 11, 2021
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Your startup’s pitch deck could be the difference between getting funded or getting ignored. It’s often the first point of contact between a company and venture investors, but it’s also a bit of a black box. How do these investors consume this content? Are they speed-flipping through the slides or taking their time? Do they

Your startup’s pitch deck could be the difference between getting funded or getting ignored. It’s often the first point of contact between a company and venture investors, but it’s also a bit of a black box.

How do these investors consume this content? Are they speed-flipping through the slides or taking their time? Do they prefer more information on the team or context on the industry? More numbers or more words? How many slides is the right number of slides?

There are too many questions to count, and often very few answers. But we’re popping the lid off of that black box with the Pitch Deck Teardown. We’ve done Pitch Deck Teardowns at events like Disrupt and Early Stage 2020, and this year we’re cranking it up a notch.

As a part of Extra Crunch Live, our weekly event series that connects investors and founders, we’ll be offering EC members the chance to get live feedback on their pitch decks from our guests. You heard that right. Every single week, VCs and big-name tech founders will look through pitch decks from the Extra Crunch community and offer their two cents.

That’s where you come in. We’re asking EC members to submit their pitch decks right here!

Only EC members will have the chance to get their pitch deck looked at, so please use the same email attached to your Extra Crunch account when you submit.

Last week, we shared what you can expect from Extra Crunch Live in 2021. Here’s a refresher:

  • Series A – Learn how others have fundraised! We’ll have a segment dedicated to hearing from founder/investor duos who walk us through the Series A pitch deck that led to investment. 
  • Pitch Deck Teardowns – Extra Crunch members will have the opportunity to submit their pitch deck and get feedback from our guests, which will include VCs and founders (EC members can submit their pitch decks right here!). 
  • Live Pitch-offs – Audience members can raise their hand to practice their elevator pitch in front of the audience and get real-time feedback from VCs.
  • Networking!! – The Extra Crunch membership is a community. ECL will be an opportunity to meet your fellow audience members, even in a virtual environment. Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet your next co-founder or investor! 
  • Consistency – ECL will always be at 12pm PT/3pm ET on Wednesdays. When it comes to your calendar, set it and forget it. 

We’re super excited about ECL in 2021 and can’t wait to get started. More on upcoming speakers very soon!

News: Recycling startup Redwood Materials is now accepting your old smartphones

  • January 11, 2021
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Redwood Materials, the recycling startup founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has quietly opened up its enterprise to everyday consumers and all of the old electronics sitting in their junk drawers. The move expands upon the Carson City, Nevada-based company’s existing and primary strategy to recycle scrap from battery cell production and consumer electronics

Redwood Materials, the recycling startup founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has quietly opened up its enterprise to everyday consumers and all of the old electronics sitting in their junk drawers.

The move expands upon the Carson City, Nevada-based company’s existing and primary strategy to recycle scrap from battery cell production and consumer electronics for corporate customers like Panasonic and Amazon.

The startup has posted a “recycle with us” tab on its website, which states “Have lithium ion batteries or e-waste? We’ll recycle your phones, tablets, power tools and any other device with a lithium-ion battery.” There isn’t anymore information on the website beyond an address, where consumers can send their e-waste, and a “contact us” button.

Straubel told TechCrunch in October that its business model could someday evolve to include consumers because they had received so many inquiries from people. It seems that Redwood has decided to take the leap.

Redwood Materials isn’t setting strict parameters on what consumers can send, a spokesperson said, who confirmed the company is even taking cables. Redwood told TechCrunch it wants to hear from consumers and will determine over time how it might expand the program. For instance, the company said it might formalize the consumer program and add shipping boxes and labels to make the process easier.

For now, Redwood is going to open it up and see what happens.

The majority of lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and other consumer electronics are not recycled and instead either sit forgotten in the owner’s junk drawer or enter the waste stream and end up in a landfill.

Redwood Material is aiming to change that by creating a circular supply chain. Redwood collects scrap from Panasonic’s battery cell production and as well as consumer electronics such as cell phone batteries, laptop computers and power tools from other corporations. The company then processes the discarded goods, extracting materials like cobalt, nickel and lithium that are typically mined, and supplies those back to Panasonic and other customers.

Eventually, Straubel wants Redwood to be part of the end-of-life solution for electric vehicle batteries as well. The CEO has aspirations to set up facilities in strategic regional locations around the world to meet this need. For now, most of the items recycled and processed at Redwood’s two facilities in Carson City are for Panasonic and other unnamed consumer electronics-related companies.

News: Equity Monday: Cryptos fall, the deplatforming rush, and fitness tech stays hot

  • January 11, 2021
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You

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

This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter  href=”https://twitter.com/equitypod”>here and myself here —and don’t forget to check out the extra episode we dropped on Saturday, as there was just too much to talk about last week.

So, what’s on the docket for today? A great host of things:

Closing, I am befuddled by how dissonant the global economy feels, with seemingly two different eras going on at once. It’s not clear if I have finally become the softy I have always threatened to become, or merely that the inequality of outcomes in the 2020-2021 economy are merely as heartbreaking as I imagine them to be.

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

News: At least one of Samsung’s new robots is definitely coming out (hint: it’s the vacuum)

  • January 11, 2021
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For the last couple of years, Samsung’s CES press conferences have featured a parade of futuristic home robots. They’re are smart, dexterous and impressive (and reasonably adorable). But home robots are hard. Like, really, really hard. There’s a reason the robotic vacuum continues to be one real viable home robot nearly 20 years after the

For the last couple of years, Samsung’s CES press conferences have featured a parade of futuristic home robots. They’re are smart, dexterous and impressive (and reasonably adorable). But home robots are hard. Like, really, really hard. There’s a reason the robotic vacuum continues to be one real viable home robot nearly 20 years after the Roomba’s introduction.

It’s the same reason the JetBot 90 AI+ Vacuum seems to be the one really viable bit of home robotics from the event. The company also showed off updates to the Bot Handy it introduced at last year’s show. That, coupled with the new Bot Care, is far more in line with the kind of humanoid designs science fiction has led us believe we’ll be getting in the next few years.

And science fiction seems to still be an operative descriptor here. At last years show, the robots put on a kind of Chuck E. Cheese-style presentation, running through choreographed tasks on stage, with limited human interaction. Understandably – there’s a lot that goes into this sort of thing, and for the moment, the technology feels like proof of concept more than anything.

Image Credits: Samsung

The company mentioned the “not too distant future” in reference to the tech, while the small print at the corner of the screen said “This robot is undergoing research and development, and is not yet for sale.” That seems to be putting it mildly, as the wheeled Bot Care reminds its owner of a meeting and pops up a screen for a conference call.

I don’t think anyone has an illusions that we’ll be seeing any of this tech during the current epidemic, though I suppose there’s an argument to be made that this is the “new normal” the company is prepping us for. The Bot Handy moving dishes from the sink to dishwasher seems roughly as realistic.

Image Credits: Samsung

I’m happy to be wrong, but I don’t think any of us are holding our breath for a viable version of this tech in the near term. We can, however, appreciate the JetBot 90 AI+ Vacuum. That, after all, has a rough date, arriving in the U.S. at some point in the first half of this year.

The robot vacuum features an on-board LiDAR sensor, coupled with an object detection algorithm that helps it build an ideal path around the user’s home. Interestingly, the camera can also be viewed remotely by the user, doubling as a kind of security cam (though Samsung seems to avoid actually using the word) and a pet monitor.

News: Alula, a platform for cancer caregivers, patients and survivors, raises $2.2 million

  • January 11, 2021
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According to the National Cancer Institute, some 1.8 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S. alone. Factor in the friends, family and loved ones of those patients, and the number of people affected by this disease can boggle the mind. Liya Shuster understands this struggle all too well. After her mother

According to the National Cancer Institute, some 1.8 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S. alone. Factor in the friends, family and loved ones of those patients, and the number of people affected by this disease can boggle the mind.

Liya Shuster understands this struggle all too well. After her mother was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, she herself was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, transitioning from caregiver to patient to survivor. Her experience led her to start Alula, a platform for those fighting cancer, that launches officially today.

Alongside its launch, Alula is also announcing that it closed a $2.2 million seed round from BBG Ventures, Metrodora Ventures, Thrive Capital, Village Global, Homebrew, Shrug Capital, Basement Ventures, Company Ventures, K5 Global, K50 Ventures, and several angels.

Despite the sheer number of people affected by cancer and cancer treatment, there aren’t many resources out there to help them understand what to expect.

“A lot of people are researching scattered parts of the internet for various elements of product recommendations, ways to communicate ways to raise money for your treatment, ways to understand how to tell people or to announce to your boss that you have treatment,” said Shuster. “It is not in a singular place, it is not organized in a radically honest way. It’s hard to understand who to trust.”

Alula is a multi-pillared platform that, in the words of Shuster, takes a radically honest approach to preparing its users for everything they’ll go through during their treatment. That includes products they’ll need to deal with the treatment process, communication tools to help coordinate support, and content to encourage and support patients on their journey.

Shuster explained that her oncologists and doctors prepared her for some of the after effects of her treatment, like losing her hair, but couldn’t recommend a good place to purchase a wig, for example. So Alula has built out a marketplace with products that have been recommended by patients, and guided by an advisory board of medical experts. It includes personalized registries and ‘cancer survival kits’ that are categorized by the type of treatment a patient is going through.

Alula also provides communication tools to users. Many people use email to share the news of their cancer diagnosis with their friends and family. It’s often the most difficult email a person has ever had to write, says the company, and Alula guides them through that process with customizable templates. Alula also provides shareable treatment calendars to help coordinate a ride to treatment or organizing people to sit with patients at treatment, etc.

Image Credits: Alula

The truth is that the cancer journey is never really over. There is always something new to be prepared for and understand.

“I am continuously surprised how the after effects persist and are new,” explained Shuster. “I’m currently struggling with medically induced menopause, at the tender age of 32. I just recently got diagnosed with radiation fibrosis in my chest and back, which is the stiffening of my muscles from my radiation, and I am seeing a cardiologist because one of the chemo drugs that I needed was cardiotoxic.”

To address this, the company is also building out a library of content to help patients and caregivers navigate the difficult process. This type of information is usually only found through conversations with other cancer patients during treatment, and Alula is looking to centralize and organize that content for its users.

Right now, the business model is focused on affiliate fees that come from the marketplace, but Shuster explained that Alula is looking to start buying products wholesale that it can retail.

Today, Shuster is not only celebrating the launch of Alula, but of her three-year cancerversary and nearly two years of being in remission.

News: Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now are coming to LG TVs

  • January 11, 2021
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LG spent a good chunk of its CES press conference talking about its lineup of TVs for 2021. You can expect bigger, slimmer and brighter TVs. I’m not going to list the specifications of new models. But there are a few new features that are worth mentioning. LG doesn’t use Android TV for the operating

LG spent a good chunk of its CES press conference talking about its lineup of TVs for 2021. You can expect bigger, slimmer and brighter TVs. I’m not going to list the specifications of new models. But there are a few new features that are worth mentioning.

LG doesn’t use Android TV for the operating system. Instead, the company has its own operating system called webOS. App developers have to release specific versions of their apps for LG’s smart TVs. And the company announced that Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now are coming to LG 2021 TVs.

Google’s cloud gaming service will arrive first in the coming months. It won’t be available everywhere as Stadia is only available in a handful of countries. But if you live in a country where Stadia is available, you will be able to unplug your Chromecast to access Stadia.

Stadia works a bit like a console that runs in the cloud. You can buy games and run them in a data center near you. The video feed is streamed directly to your screen and your gamepad controls are relayed to the server.

As for Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, it is coming later this year. This service is a bit different as you can take advantage of your Steam, Epic Games, GOG or Ubisoft Connect libraries.

Nvidia has favored its own set-top box in the past with a GeForce Now app on the Nvidia Shield TV. Recently, the Android app has been updated with support for more devices, and it looks like it’s expanding beyond Android TV with webOS support.

LG also announced that it is updating webOS with a brand new interface this year. The overlay menu at the bottom of the screen has been replaced with a full screen menu. You’ll be able to find your favorite apps, access live TV and get some content recommendations — and, yes, there will be ads.

If you’re playing games, there will be a new game menu to access the most relevant settings. For instance, you’ll be able to switch from one TV profile to another from that menu depending on the type of games that you’re playing (FPS, racing games, etc.). It sounds pretty useless to me as you mostly want to reduce latency as much as possible with any genre. You’ll also be able to turn on G-Sync and FreeSync if you’re using a compatible device.

When it comes to new OLED TVs, there are the entry-line A1 models with old processors, the C1 models with support for modern game consoles thanks to variable refresh rate, low latency, etc. At the top of the lineup, the G1 models come in three different sizes (77 inches, 65 inches and 55 inches).

Image Credits: LG

News: Microsoft’s latest business-focused Surface is focused on remote work

  • January 11, 2021
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As CES starts in earnest today, I anticipate we’ll be seeing a lot of hardware focused on remote work. PC sales saw a nice spike last year, even as smartphone sales continued to slip. There was a lot of adapting that needed to be done, moving from offices to virtual work places, and now we’re

As CES starts in earnest today, I anticipate we’ll be seeing a lot of hardware focused on remote work. PC sales saw a nice spike last year, even as smartphone sales continued to slip. There was a lot of adapting that needed to be done, moving from offices to virtual work places, and now we’re beginning to see the fruits of that push from hardware makers.

The new Surface Pro 7+ certainly seems to fit the bill. I’m still hesitant to recommend a convertible with a keyboard case as a primary productivity device, but people do seem increasingly willing to move in that direction.

Image Credits: Microsoft

Top line features include optional LTE and faster processing (up to 2.1x per Microsoft’s numbers) via an 11th Gen Intel Core processor. That’s paired with up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. There’s a 1080p front-facing webcam for video conferences and a quartet of mics.

Ports include one full-size USB-A and that pesky Surface connector and, unfortunately, only a single USB-C. Microsoft seems pretty committed to that last bit, to its detriment. The device should get up to 15 hours of battery on a charge — which isn’t exceptional, but isn’t bad either.

It starts at $899 for the Wi-Fi version and $1,149 for LTE. Pre-order starts today and it will ship next week. Speaking of shipping, the already announced Surface Hub 2S 85 whiteboard is finally set to do just that next month in “select markets.”

News: UBTech launches UV light disinfecting robots

  • January 11, 2021
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UBTech is the massively funding Chinese robotics company you’ve (probably) never heard of. If you’re familiar at all with the brand here in the States, it’s likely for its STEM or other robotic toys, including a Star Wars Storm Trooper robot from a few years back (my own first exposure to the company). But with

UBTech is the massively funding Chinese robotics company you’ve (probably) never heard of. If you’re familiar at all with the brand here in the States, it’s likely for its STEM or other robotic toys, including a Star Wars Storm Trooper robot from a few years back (my own first exposure to the company). But with around $940 million in funding, it seems the sky’s the limit, in terms of product expansion.

Among its announcements at CES today is the arrival of line of UV-C disinfecting robots. The need is certainly clear, following the events of the past 12 months. In fact, UBTech isn’t even the first company to introduce a UV robot for the show – that distinction falls to LG, which is set to offer its own solution this year.

And like LG, UBTech has already begun piloting its tech. The State of Delaware’s Department of Education has deployed models in a number of locations. The company is producing a few different models of Adibot – including rolling and stationary versions. They’re available for purchase starting this week, with financing plans starting at $15 a day.

As the company notes, while the need for such functionality has been at top of mind during the COVID-19 pandemic, it certainly doesn’t start or end with that specific virus. Epidemiologists have warned that this particular strain most likely won’t be the last major pandemic of our lifetimes.

News: Moderna is developing three new mRNA-based vaccines for seasonal flu, HIV and Nipah virus

  • January 11, 2021
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Moderna, the biotech company behind one of the two mRNA-based vaccines currently being rolled out globally to stem the tide of COVID-19, has announced that it will purse development programs around three new vaccine candidates in 2021. These include potential vaccines for HIV, seasonal flu and the Nipah virus. Moderna’s development and clinical trial of

Moderna, the biotech company behind one of the two mRNA-based vaccines currently being rolled out globally to stem the tide of COVID-19, has announced that it will purse development programs around three new vaccine candidates in 2021. These include potential vaccines for HIV, seasonal flu and the Nipah virus. Moderna’s development and clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine is among the fastest in history, and thus far its results have been very promising, buoying hopes for the efficacy of other preventative treatments being generated using this technology which is new to human clinical use.

An mRNA vaccine differs from typical, historical vaccines because it involves providing a person with just a set of instructions on how to build specific proteins that will trigger a body’s natural defenses. The mRNA instructions, which are temporary and do not affect a person’s actual DNA, simply prompt the body’s cells to produce proteins that mirror those used by a virus to attach to and infect cells. The independent proteins are then fought off by a person’s natural immune response, which provides a lasting lesson in how to fight off any future proteins that match that profile, including those which help viruses attach to and infect people.

Moderna’s new programs will target not only seasonal flu, but also a combinatory vaccine that could target both the regular flu and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that leads to COVID-19. The HIV candidate, which is developed in collaboration with both the AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is expected to enter into Phase 1 trials this year, as will the flue face. Nipah virus is a highly lethal illness that can cause respiratory and neurological symptoms, and which is particularly a threat in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore.

mRNA-based vaccines have long held potential for future vaccine development, in part because of their flexibility and programmability, and in part because they don’t use any active or dormant virus, which reduces their risks in terms of causing any direct infections up front. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred significant investment and regulatory/health and safety investment into the technology, paving the way for its use in other areas, including these new vaccine candidate trials by Moderna.

  


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