Yearly Archives: 2021

News: Daily Crunch: Apple, Google bow to Russian pressure

• September 17, 2021
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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Friday, September 17th! What a week, ya’ll. It is now just days before Disrupt, which means the TechCrunch hive is buzzing. I’ll leave it by noting that Reid Hoffman is coming, which is going to be a treat.

Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Friday, September 17th! What a week, ya’ll. It is now just days before Disrupt, which means the TechCrunch hive is buzzing. I’ll leave it by noting that Reid Hoffman is coming, which is going to be a treat. See you next week! — Alex

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Profits > Ethics: Apple and Google have removed a “tactical voting app created by the organization of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny” from their marketplaces, we reported. TechCrunch notes that “the Russian state [is] amping up the pressure on foreign tech giants ahead of federal elections.” So much for standing up for democracy, or whatever.
• Are software valuations stabilizing? After a simply incredible run, the value of software revenues may have reached a plateau. A very high plateau, mind, but still a resting point. This is not bad news for SaaS companies, which are still valued at historically elevated levels.
• Apple “actively monitoring” legal challenges to Texas abortion law: While some tech companies are making their displeasure at the new Texas reproductive care bill very public, Apple is taking a slightly slower, lower-profile approach to the matter. But it’s still good to see an American tech company nearly take a stand on a moral matter. It’s better than whatever is actually less than that. A little.

Startups/VC

• Journey raises $3M for psychedelic therapy: There’s growing market sentiment that some drugs generally associated with recreational activities could have positive impacts for various mental conditions. Journey wants to explore Ketamine-based treatments for anxiety and depression.
• Aurora Propulsion raises €1.7M for satellite propulsion: How do you make a satellite move a little bit and then stop? It’s not an idle question given how many flying objects there are in orbit today. And with more expected to take flight this year than ever, Aurora wants to help our satellites scoot around and avoid one another.
• Aircover raises $3M more for its sales intelligence tool: Integrating with Zoom to provide real-time insights to sales folks during their calls, Aircover is part of a larger trend of sales tech startups building services for the myriad sales people in the market. Defy Partners led the round, which also saw participation from Firebolt Ventures and others.
• Unicorns are taking so long to go public that their former executives are becoming VCs before they reach liquidity: That’s our key takeaway from the news that Instacart’s chief financial officer Sagar Sanghvi has left the on-demand grocery for Accel.

4 ways to leverage ROAS to triple lead generation

In school, it’s highly unethical to copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. In business, however, it’s encouraged.

Xiaoyun TU, global director of demand generation at Brightpearl, wrote a comprehensive guide that describes how a better understanding of return on advertising spend (ROAS) can triple your company’s lead generation.

“A ‘good’ ROAS score is different for each company and campaign,” she says.

“If your figure isn’t where you’d like it to be, you can leverage ROAS data to create targeted campaigns and personalized experiences.”

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

Big Tech Inc.

• Elon praises Chinese automakers: As Beijing looks to consolidate its national EV industry, Tesla’s CEO took to a scripted set of comments to praise his Chinese rivals. If you want to understand how different the business climate is between China and America, contrast the mercurial executive’s message to China, and then read his tweets.
• Here’s a headline for you: “Facebook knows Instagram harms teens. Now, its plan to open the app to kids looks worse than ever.” Preach, Taylor. If you are not caught up on the Facebook beat, read the Wall Street Journal’s latest series of articles. They are more than revelatory.

TechCrunch Experts: Growth Marketing

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

With the release of iOS 15 around the corner, we spoke to Movable Ink CEO Vivek Sharma and got his take on what marketers can do to prepare, “Marketers should plan for more DIY metrics as iOS 15 nears.”

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.

News: Longtime VC, and happy Miami resident, David Blumberg has a new $225 million fund

• September 17, 2021
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Blumberg Capital, founded in 1991 by investor David Blumberg, has just closed its fifth early-stage venture fund with $225 million, a vehicle that Blumberg says was oversubscribed — he planned to raise $200 million — and that has already been used to invest in 16 startups around the world (the firm has small offices in

Blumberg Capital, founded in 1991 by investor David Blumberg, has just closed its fifth early-stage venture fund with $225 million, a vehicle that Blumberg says was oversubscribed — he planned to raise $200 million — and that has already been used to invest in 16 startups around the world (the firm has small offices in San Francisco, New York, Tel Aviv, and Miami, where Blumberg moved his family last year).

We caught up with him earlier this week to talk shop and he sounded almost ecstatic about the current market, which has evidently been good for returns, with Blumberg Capital’s biggest hits tied to Nutanix (it claims a 68x return), DoubleVerify (a 98x return at IPO in April, the firm says), Katapult (which went public via SPAC in July), Addepar (currently valued above $2 billion) and Braze (it submitted its S-1 in June).

We also talked a bit about his new life in Florida, which he was quick to note is “not a clone of Silicon Valley,” in case we had that idea. Not last, he told us why he thinks we’re in a “golden era of applying intelligence to every business,” from mining to the business of athletic performance.

More from our conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity, follows:

TC: What are you funding right now?

DB: Our last 30 to 40 deals have basically been about big data that’s been analyzed by artificial intelligence of some sort, then riding in a better wrapper of software process automation on rails of internet and mobility. Okay, that’s a lot of buzzwords.

TC: Yes.

DB: What I’m saying is that this ability to take raw information data that’s either been sitting around and not analyzed, or from new sources of data like sensors or social media or many other places, then analyze it and take it to all these businesses that have been there forever, is beginning to [have] incremental [impacts] that may sound small [but add up].

One of our [unannounced] companies applies AI to mining — lithium mining and gold and copper — so miners don’t waste their time before finding the richest vein of deposit. We partner with mining owners and we bring extra data that they don’t have access to — some is proprietary, some is public — and because we’re experts at the AI modeling of it, we can apply it to their geography and geology, and as part of the business model, we take part of the mine in return.

TC: So your fund now owns not just equity but part of a mine?

DB: This is evidently done a lot in what’s called E&P, exploration and production in the oil and gas industry, and we’re just following a time-tested model, where some of the service providers put in value and take out a share. So as we see it, it aligns our interests and the better we do for them, the better they do.

TC: This fund is around the same size of your fourth fund, which closed with $207 million, seemingly by design. How do you think about check sizes in this market?

DB: We write checks of $1 million to $6 million generally. We could go down a little bit for something in a seed where we can’t get more of a slice, but we like to have large ownership up front. We found that to have a fund return at least three x — and our funds seem to be returning much more than that — [we need to be math-minded about things].

We have 36 companies in our portfolio typically, and 20% of them fail, 20% of them are our superstars, and 60% are kind of medium. Of those superstars, six of them have to return $100 million each in a $200 million fund to make it a $600 million return, and to get six companies to [produce a] $100 million [for us] they have to reach a billion dollars in value, where we own 10% at the end.

TC You’re buying 10% and maintaining your pro rata or this is after being diluted over numerous rounds?

DB: It’s more like we want 15% to 20% of a company and it gets [diluted] down to 10%. And it’s been working. Some of our funds are way above that number.

TC: Are all four of your earlier funds in the black?

DB: Yes. I love to say this: We have never, ever lost money for our fund investors.

TC: You were among a handful of VCs who were cited quite a lot last year for hightailing it out of the Bay Area for Miami. One year into the move, how is it going?

DB: It is not a clone of Silicon Valley. They are different and add value each in their own way. But Florida is a great place for our family to be and I find for our business, it’s going to be great as well. I can be on the phone to Israel and New York without any time zone-related problems. Some of our companies are moving here, including one from from Israel recently, one from San Francisco, and one from Texas. A lot of our LPs are moving here or live here already. We can also up and down to South America for distribution deals more easily.

If we need to get to California or New York, airplanes still work, too, so it hasn’t been a negative at all. I’m going to a JPMorgan event tonight for a bunch of tech founders where there should be 150 people.

TC: That sounds great, though did you feel about summer in Miami?

DB: We were in France.

Pictured above, from left to right: Firm founder David Blumberg, managing director Yodfat Harel Buchris, COO Steve Gillan, and managing director Bruce Taragin.

News: Inside GitLab’s IPO filing

• September 17, 2021
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While the technology and business world worked towards the weekend, DevOps firm GitLab filed to go public. So we need to pause, digest the company’s S-1 filing, and come to some early conclusions.

While the technology and business world worked towards the weekend, developer operations (DevOps) firm GitLab filed to go public. Before we get into our time off, we need to pause, digest the company’s S-1 filing, and come to some early conclusions.

GitLab competes with GitHub, which Microsoft purchased for $7.5 billion back in 2018.

The company is notable for its long-held, remote-first stance, and for being more public with its metrics than most unicorns — for some time, GitLab had a November 18, 2020 IPO target in its public plans, to pick an example. We also knew when it crossed the $100 million recurring revenue threshold.

The company’s IPO has therefore been long expected. In its last primary transaction, GitLab raised $286 million at a post-money valuation of $2.75 billion, per Pitchbook data. The same information source also notes that GitLab executed a secondary transaction earlier this year worth $195 million, which gave the company a $6 billion valuation.

Let’s parse GitLab’s growth rate, its final pre-IPO scale, its SaaS metrics, and then ask if we think it can surpass its most recent private-market price. Sound good? Let’s rock.

The GitLab S-1

GitLab intends to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “GTLB.” Its IPO filing lists a placeholder $100 million raise estimate, though that figure will change when the company sets an initial price range for its shares. Its fiscal year ends January 31, meaning that its quarters are offset from traditional calendar periods by a single month.

Let’s start with the big numbers.

In its fiscal year ended January 2020, GitLab posted revenues of $81.2 million, gross profit of $71.9 million, an operating loss of $128.4 million, and a modestly greater net loss of $130.7 million.

And in the year ended January 31, 2021, GitLab’s revenue rose roughly 87% to $152.2 million from a year earlier. The company’s gross profit rose around 86% to $133.7 million, and operating loss widened nearly 67% to $213.9 million. Its net loss totaled $192.2 million.

This paints a picture of a SaaS company growing quickly at scale, with essentially flat gross margins (88%). Growth has not been inexpensive either — GitLab spent more on sales and marketing than it generated in gross profit in the past two fiscal years.

News: Cameo launches Cameo Calls, a service for fans to video chat with celebs

• September 17, 2021
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If you really want to video chat tonight with William Hung of retro American Idol fame… got twenty bucks to spare? Yesterday, Cameo launched its Cameo Calls products, which lets fans video chat for up to 15 minutes one-on-one with their favorite influencers and celebrities. The talent sets the duration, time, and price of their

If you really want to video chat tonight with William Hung of retro American Idol fame… got twenty bucks to spare? Yesterday, Cameo launched its Cameo Calls products, which lets fans video chat for up to 15 minutes one-on-one with their favorite influencers and celebrities. The talent sets the duration, time, and price of their call, which Cameo says averages around $31.

To book a call, users can go to Cameo’s website or app to see a schedule of upcoming Cameo Calls that they can buy. These also appear on individual talent’s Cameo pages. When you purchase a Cameo Call, you get a unique ticket code that you enter on the app to join your call.

In June 2020, Cameo enabled users to book Zoom calls with celebrities as lockdown became a global norm, but Cameo phased out that feature in April. Instead, Cameo Calls now offers a native experience in the app, rather than relying on third-party software. The downside for consumers, though, is that this makes it more difficult to invite your favorite reality star to your office’s Zoom happy hour. But on the bright side, the Cameo Calls includes a dedicated photo opp at the end of the call, so you can get your celebrity selfie without dealing with the awkwardness of asking to take a photo.

Experiences like Cameo Calls make sense in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, when celebrity meet-and-greets might not be safe in many places. But Cameo also thinks this product can stand in for a typical meet and greet even in “normal” times. Often, celebrity meet-and-greets require waiting in a long line to only have 5 or 10 seconds of time with the talent. Even though many Cameo Calls sessions are only a few minutes long, you might be able to get a more personal experience than if you were the 100th fan in a long line in person.

“We foresee Cameo Calls replacing meet and greets at music festivals and world tours, fan conventions, sporting events, and more,” said Cameo Co-founder & CEO Steven Galanis.

Cameo says it tested this product with over 3,000 calls — during testing, talent-hosted themed meet-and-greets, coffee chats, private concerts, and tarot card readings. Some performers who tested the feature include James and Oliver Phelps, who played the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter movies, and David Henrie, a former Disney Channel star.

News: Zoom looks beyond video conferencing as triple-digit 2020 growth begins to slow

• September 17, 2021
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The company has been undertaking plans over last couple of years to move beyond its core video conferencing market — here’s how industry experts see this plan working.

It’s been a heady 12-18 months for Zoom, the decade-old company that experienced monster 2020 growth and more recently, a mega acquisition with the $14.7 billion Five9 deal in July. That addition is part of a broader strategy the company has been undertaking the last couple of years to move beyond its core video conferencing market into adjacencies like phone, meeting management and messaging, among other things. Here’s a closer look at how the plan is unfolding.

As the pandemic took hold in March 2020, everyone from businesses to schools to doctors and and places of worship moved online. As they did, Zoom video conferencing became central to this cultural shift and the revenue began pouring in, ushering in a period of sustained triple-digit growth for the company that only recently abated.

News: OpenSea released an app — but it’s for browsing, not buying and selling

• September 17, 2021
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It’s a big day for the Amazon of the decentralized internet — OpenSea now has an app for iOS and Android. For most companies, having a mobile app is a milestone you’d reach before hitting a $1.5 billion valuation. But like any store — whether you’re selling NFT art or not — there’s a hefty

It’s a big day for the Amazon of the decentralized internet — OpenSea now has an app for iOS and Android. For most companies, having a mobile app is a milestone you’d reach before hitting a $1.5 billion valuation. But like any store — whether you’re selling NFT art or not — there’s a hefty price to pay for app store transactions, whether you’re on Android or iOS. That’s possibly why OpenSea’s shiny, new app is only for browsing NFTs, not for buying or selling them. For context, OpenSea saw $3.4 billion in trading volume across two million transactions in August. With Apple and Google taking 30% of in-app transactions, if that volume had been traded on the new app… What’s 30% of $3.4 billion?

Perhaps more of a roadblock, there’s still no way to make in-app payments with crypto. If OpenSea wanted to support buying and selling, it would have to build out its infrastructure for USD payments and push more users towards it. But part of the appeal of OpenSea is that it’s a crypto native platform, largely reliant on the Ethereum blockchain which gives people easier access to information about when an NFT was minted, who minted it, how it’s been traded, etc. It could upset the existing ecosystem of users if the startup pushed the platform towards being more dollar-friendly.

On the OpenSea app, users can connect their profile, browse NFTs, favorite NFTs, search and filter NFTs, and view collection and item stats. When you view an NFT in the app, a button appears that lets you share the NFT outside of the app. Rarible, another NFT marketplace, released a mobile app about a month ago. Like OpenSea’s app, on the Rarible app, you can only browse NFTs, not buy, sell, or trade them.

Image Credits: OpenSea

OpenSea hasn’t yet responded to questions from TechCrunch about the company’s plans for the app, including whether or not users might one day be able to buy and sell NFTs in the app. It wouldn’t be the first time that crypto was exchanged on an app, as even PayPal now lets you pay with crypto. Instead, perhaps the app can offer a way to help new users onboard into the NFT space, giving them an easy, user-friendly way to browse NFT art without knowing anything about wallets or blockchains or apes.

This app was unveiled just days after an OpenSea executive was accused of trading NFTs on insider information. The company announced on its blog Wednesday that the employee has since resigned.

News: Demand Curve: How to get social proof that grows your startup

• September 17, 2021
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When people are uncertain, they look to others for behavioral guidance. This is called social proof, and using it effectively can lead to up to 400% improvement in conversion.

When people are uncertain, they look to others for behavioral guidance. This is called social proof, which is a physiological effect that influences your decisions every day, whether you know it or not.

At Demand Curve and through our agency Bell Curve, we’ve helped over 1,000 startups improve their ability to convert cold traffic into repeat customers. We’ve found that effectively using social proof can lead to up to 400% improvement in conversion.

This post shares exactly how to collect and use social proof to help grow your SaaS, e-commerce, or B2B startup.

How businesses use social proof

Have you ever stopped to check out a restaurant because it had a large line of people out front? That wasn’t by chance.

It’s common for restaurants to limit the size of their reception area. This forces people to wait outside, and the line signals to people walking past that the restaurant is so good it’s worth waiting for.

But for Internet-based businesses, social proof looks a bit different. Instead of people lining up outside your storefront, you’re going to need to create social proof that resonates with your target customers — they’ll be looking for different clues to signal whether doing business with your company is “normal” or “acceptable” behavior.

Social proof for B2B

People love to compare themselves to others, and this is especially true when it comes to the customers of B2B businesses. If your competitor is able to get a contract with a company that you’ve been nurturing for months, you’d be upset (and want to know how they did it).

Therefore, B2B social proof is most effective when you display the logos of companies you do business with. This signals to people checking out your website that other businesses trust you to deliver on your offer. The more noteworthy or respected the logos on your site, the stronger the influence will be.

Social proof for SaaS

Depending on the type of SaaS product or service you’re selling, you’ll either be selling to an individual or to a business. The strategy remains the same, but the channels will vary slightly.

The most effective way to generate social proof for SaaS products is through positive reviews from trusted sources. For consumer SaaS, that will be through influential bloggers and YouTubers speaking highly of your product. For B2B SaaS, it will be through positive ratings on review sites like G2 or Capterra. Proudly display these testimonials on your site.

Social proof for e-commerce brands

E-commerce brands will typically sell directly to an individual through ads, but because anyone can purchase an ad, you’re going to need to signal trust in other ways. The most common way we see e-commerce brands building social proof is by nurturing an organic social media following on Instagram or TikTok.

This signals to new customers that you’ve gotten the seal of approval from others like them. Having an audience also allows you to showcase user-generated content from your existing customers.

How to collect social proof

There are five avenues startups can tap to collect social proof:

1. Product reviews
2. Testimonials
3. Public relations and earned media
4. Influencers
5. Social media and community

Here are a few tactics we’ve used to help startups build social proof.

News: TechCrunch Disrupt kicks off in just a few days

• September 17, 2021
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The final countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 is on, folks and we cannot be more excited to get this party started. In a just a few days — on September 21-23 — we spotlight the people who envision the future and push beyond what exists to create what will be. It may sound high falutin’

The final countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 is on, folks and we cannot be more excited to get this party started. In a just a few days — on September 21-23 — we spotlight the people who envision the future and push beyond what exists to create what will be.

It may sound high falutin’ but when you’re talking biotech, synthetic DNA and space entrepreneurs, we can make room for a little poetic license, amirite?

Here’s the deal: TC Disrupt 2021 is packed with experts, events, advice and opportunity. If you want to get amongst it, buy a pass before Monday for less than $100.

You know about the big marquee events, right? Iconic founders on the main stage — like Duo Lingo CEO Luis von Ahn and celebrity-slash-entrepreneur Seth Rogan. Always a huge draw, Startup Battlefield features 20 top early-stage founders pitching their hearts out for $100,000.

All of it’s awesome (not-so-humble brag), but we want to make sure you know about some of the other Disrupt happenings that can help you build your business — and have some fun while you’re at it. Ready? Let’s begin.

Jump start your networking at our 30-minute Meet-and-Greet Sessions on Monday September 21 — the day before Disrupt officially begins. Choose from a series of 10 sessions — 30-minutes long, each with a specific demographic focus — scheduled to take place on our CrunchMatch platform between 12:30 pm – 5:30 pm (PT).

Download your Disrupt Passport card, complete one row of five experiences at Disrupt — meet a sponsor, attend a breakout session, etc. — and submit your card with proof of participation for a chance to win one of three certifiably cool prizes.

Tune in to one of the many Startup Alley Crawls to meet and learn more about the early-stage founders exhibiting in Startup Alley. Each business category gets its own hour-long crawl, and Team TechCrunch will interview select startups in each category live from the main stage.

Go to one (or all) of the many Startup Pitch Feedback Sessions scheduled over the three days of Disrupt. Every Startup Alley exhibitor gets to pitch to a savvy TC staffer. You can learn a lot by watching other founders pitch and hearing experienced advice. You might just walk away with ideas to improve your own elevator pitch. Oh, and check out the presentation called Crafting a Pitch Deck that Can’t Be Ignored for tips on bullet-proofing your pitch deck.

Confused about crypto? Muddled over metaverse? Serious about SPAC? You’ll find sessions addressing all of these deep topics — along with more than 80 other presentations and breakout sessions spanning all tech sectors — in the Disrupt 2021 agenda.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 takes place September 21-23 — mere days away. Buy your pass, explore the events, learn about new trends and technologies and discover opportunities to help you envision and build your future.

News: Marketers should plan for more DIY metrics as iOS 15 nears

• September 17, 2021
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Apple is planning to remove developer access to key user data as part of its iOS 15 release on Monday. So how are marketers going to figure out growth from here?

Apple is planning to remove developer access to important user data as part of its iOS 15 release on Monday, leaving email marketers in a dilemma about how they will figure out metrics. To find out how the industry is approaching this problem, we spoke with Vivek Sharma, CEO of Movable Ink, a software company that helps marketers act on the data they’re collecting.

This conversation builds on our Extra Crunch post from August exploring how email marketers can prepare for Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection changes.

The game-changer for email marketers with this update is that as an Apple Mail user, you’ll have the option to hide your IP address.

How can marketers pivot their tactics to remain in control of their metrics? Sharma feels we’ll see more focus on downstream metrics rather than the open rate — on clicks, conversions and revenue. “That sounds great and everything, but you have less of that data. But by definition, that funnel kind of narrows; there are fewer people to get to at that point, so it might take you longer to know if something is working or not working for you.”

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Sharma says zero-party data is something that businesses have been focused on. “There are two components: There’s ‘open’ as a metric, and there’s some of the information you’re getting at open time, like the IP address, the time of day, and the inferred weather. Things like the IP address, time of date, etc are perceived as data leakage. These are just a couple of the data points that marketers will lose access to. Therefore they are using first and zero-party data which they have already been investing in.”

The challenge, according to Sharma, is: How can marketers collect zero-party data in an interesting, visually appealing way, and then personalize its contents for every customer at scale?

One way that Movable Ink has collected zero-party data is displayed below:

Image Credits: Movable Ink (opens in a new window)

Sharma says, “Everything in here is a polling question: ‘What do you typically shop for?’ ‘What’s your shoe size?’ And they’re giving you loyalty points in return, so there’s an exchange of value happening here. They’re learning about you in a clear way and giving you an easy way to engage with the brand you’re interested in.”

Once you have the data, the question is: How do you use it? Below we see an example from JetBlue.

Image Credits: Movable Ink (opens in a new window)

Sharma outlines three takeaways from iOS 15 for email marketers:

1. Focus on down-funnel metrics like clicks and conversions — that’s what it really comes down to and it’s the truest indicator of engagement.
2. Invest in your zero and first-party data assets. True personalization is what people experience and what they see. You can do that from your zero and first-party assets.
3. Email is a great channel to engage your customers, because it’s a mature one that’s been invested in. Email is an awesome channel for building a one-to-one relationship with your customer, and far more. It has gone through lots of changes over the last 10 or 15 years. The industry will evolve and we’ll find that balance of privacy and personalization.

News: Michigan State Police to begin testing Ford Mach-E Interceptors

• September 17, 2021
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On Friday, Ford announced that it, in short order, will deliver one of its Mustang Mach-E Interceptor prototypes — which appears to be based on the Mach-E GT variant — to the Michigan State Police.

The next time you get pulled over in Michigan, it could be by a cop in an electric SUV — at least if Ford has anything to say about it. The American automaker is stepping up its Police Interceptor program, which modifies existing models for use by law enforcement, typically with beefed up suspensions, brakes and added horsepower.

The company has pitched the idea to law enforcement agencies in the UK, while the city of Ann Arbor, MI already has two such vehicles on order. On Friday, Ford announced that it, in short order, will deliver one of its Mustang Mach-E Interceptor prototypes — which appears to be based on the Mach-E GT variant — to the Michigan State Police as well, where it will undergo real-world testing to see if the EV can handle the rigors of police work.

Ford hopes to “use the pilot program testing as a benchmark while it continues to explore purpose-built electric police vehicles in the future” as part of its $30 billion multi-year investment in EV technology.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Engadget.