Yearly Archives: 2021

News: Check out who’s coming to TC Sessions: SaaS 2021

• September 7, 2021
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On October 27, less than two fast-moving months away, we’re hosting TC Sessions: SaaS 2021, our first event focused exclusively on the software-as-a-service ecosystem. SaaS — the de facto business model for B2B and B2C startups and enterprises alike — shows no sign of slowing down. This is a prime opportunity to hear and learn

On October 27, less than two fast-moving months away, we’re hosting TC Sessions: SaaS 2021, our first event focused exclusively on the software-as-a-service ecosystem. SaaS — the de facto business model for B2B and B2C startups and enterprises alike — shows no sign of slowing down.

This is a prime opportunity to hear and learn from the industry’s major players, thought leaders and, frankly, some of the coolest creators around the globe. It’s more than just listening — it’s engaging with speakers during Q&As and networking with founders, CEOs and investors from major companies.

Pro Ka-ching Tip: Want to save $100 on the price of admission? Yeah, you do. Simply buy an early-bird SaaS pass before the prices go up on October 1 at 11:59 pm (PT).

So, let’s get to it. here are just some of the leading voices and companies coming to TC Sessions: SaaS to share their insight, actionable tips and hard-won advice.

Kathy Baxter is the principal architect for the ethical AI practice at Salesforce. She also has more than 20 years under her belt as a software architect. We’re going to tap into her deep expertise for a panel discussion on AI’s growing role in software today, as well as the implications of using AI in your software service as it becomes a mainstream part of the SaaS development process.

Javier Soltero is the VP and GM in charge of Google Workspace, which has significantly more than 2 billion users. Productivity apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive are a big part of SaaS, and Soltero joins us for an interview about the role Google Workspace plays in the Google cloud strategy.

Jared Spataro is the corporate VP in charge of Microsoft 365 — arguably one of the most successful SaaS products ever. He was part of the great shift from on prem to the cloud, and he’ll join us to talk about how Microsoft made that move and what it’s done for the company.

Casey Aylward, a principal at Costanoa Ventures, concentrates on early-stage enterprise startups. Kobie Fuller, a partner at Upfront Ventures, focuses on SaaS, AR and VR. Sarah Guo, a partner at Greylock, concentrates on AI, cybersecurity, infrastructure and the future of work. This group of prestigious VCs will panel-up to discuss what they look for when they invest in SaaS startups.

Be sure to check out the TC Sessions: SaaS 2021 agenda — we’ll add more exciting panels, interviews, speaker Q&As and breakout sessions over the next few weeks. Register here to receive updates with the latest additions to the day’s events.

TC Sessions: SaaS is a ripe networking opportunity. Consider this list of just some of the major companies that will be in the house. Whether you’re looking for potential customers, investors, partnerships or some other creative collaboration, you’ll have ample time to network with leaders from the foremost SaaS players:

• Adobe
• CBRE
• FedEx
• McKinsey & Company
• Moody’s Analytics
• SAP
• Shell Ventures
• SONY
• Verizon Ventures

TC Sessions: SaaS 2021 takes place on October 27, and this is your chance to learn from and network with the seriously successful movers, shakers and unicorn makers of the SaaS world. Grab your early-bird pass before October 1 at 11:59 pm (PT), and you’ll save $100.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: SaaS 2021? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

News: Jetty raises $23M to help give renters more payment flexibility

• September 7, 2021
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Jetty, a fintech company which aims to give renters flexibility when paying rent, has raised $23 million in a funding round co-led by Citi and Flourish Ventures. The financing brings Jetty’s total raised since its 2016 inception to $78 million. Other investors participating in the latest growth round include Credit Ease and K5. Previous backers

Jetty, a fintech company which aims to give renters flexibility when paying rent, has raised $23 million in a funding round co-led by Citi and Flourish Ventures.

The financing brings Jetty’s total raised since its 2016 inception to $78 million. Other investors participating in the latest growth round include Credit Ease and K5. Previous backers include Farmers Insurance Group, Khosla and Ribbit Capital, among others.

The 100-person New York City-based startup has come up with a way to help renters make rent on time with an offering that resembles the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) model that is increasingly used by consumers at the point of sale, online and in person. 

In a nutshell, renters can pay their rent when it’s due and then have up until the 24th of the month to pay the money back to Jetty — either in a lump sum or via installments. They don’t pay interest charges or late fees, but rather a monthly subscription fee ranging from $15 to $25, depending on the renter’s risk profile. If the renter fails to pay back the money during the agreed upon time, they will not be able to borrow more for the following month.

The monthly fee is “far lower” than any potential late fee if the rent is not paid on time, said co-founder and CEO Mike Rudoy.

“Around 50% of the average renter’s paycheck is going to rent. So this is the largest expense of any renter, on a given month,” he said. “And so you would expect that there would be some type of financial services product that would give them the flexibility that they need to come up with the money on time in such a way that they weren’t penalized.”

The offering is more of a cousin to traditional BNPL, he said, than actual BNPL.

“We will pay the rent on behalf of the renter in full on the first of the month, giving property managers the money they need when they need it,” Rudoy explained. “Renters get 24 days to pay it back on a schedule that suits their needs.”

To launch Jetty Rent, the company partnered with Cortland, a large real estate investment, development and management company, to roll out the offering in beta to residents across a portfolio of properties.

Now, the startup is launching the offering to the public. Jetty Rent is the newest product on the startup’s platform, which also offers “low cost” renters insurance as well as security deposit replacement.

“The mission of the company is to make renting more affordable and flexible,” Rudoy said. “And we are a financial services platform whereby every product that we have launched is meant to both provide value to both property managers as well as renters.”

With the move, Jetty is evolving from being an insurtech to also a lender, said Rudoy. The company is providing the loans through Cross River Bank.

“We are working to bring some additional credit and lending prowess to the business given the fact it has historically been considered an insurtech company,” he told TechCrunch.

The fact that the company offers all three products to property managers gives it a competitive edge, according to Rudoy.

“This makes us different from other financial services companies attacking the same space and problem set,” he told TechCrunch. “We’re the only one that has both a security deposit alternative and flexible rent product under the same roof. It makes the choice to work with us much easier if you’re a property manager, from an integration and onboarding perspective. It means fewer different brands in front of renters as well.”

The renters pay for all the products and the property managers are partners in the distribution of the products.

Currently, the company has agreements with property owners and managers that operate more than 2.2 million rental units across the country. Since starting to build its property partner network in 2017, Jetty has seen 193% average year over year growth in contracted units, according to Alex Vlasto, the company’s VP of marketing. Besides Cortland, it also works with AMLI Residential, for example.

Emmalyn Shaw, managing partner of Flourish Ventures, notes that over 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

“Stable housing is a critical component in helping them achieve financial security,” she said.

Jetty, Shaw added, is the only company “that extends beyond a single solution to embed a rich and differentiated set of financial offerings,” including rental insurance, security deposit alternatives and now rent flexibility. 

“Through its unique consumer insights, differentiated pricing, increased consumer loyalty, Jetty has achieved a significant competitive advantage,” she wrote via email. “Moreover, their consumer reach through top property management entities like Cortland is unparalleled.”

As of late, other startups that have come up with new technology to make the lives of renters easier have also raised money. Sugar, a startup that aims to turn apartment buildings into “interactive communities,” recently closed on $2.5 million in seed funding.  And, RentCheck, a startup that has built out an automated property inspection platform, recently raised $2.6 million in seed money.

News: Emulate Inc closes $82M Series E to fund expansion of “organ-on-a-chip” products

• September 7, 2021
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Emulate Inc., a biotech company focused on developing “organ-on-a-chip” technology, closed an $82 million Series E round on Tuesday. This latest round is intended to formulate a massive investment in a “roadmap” for developing model organ systems created to fit drugmakers’ needs and bring the idea of an organ-on-a-chip into use in the lab.  An

Emulate Inc., a biotech company focused on developing “organ-on-a-chip” technology, closed an $82 million Series E round on Tuesday. This latest round is intended to formulate a massive investment in a “roadmap” for developing model organ systems created to fit drugmakers’ needs and bring the idea of an organ-on-a-chip into use in the lab. 

An organ-on-a-chip is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: it’s a recreation of a human organ (or system of human organs) scaled down into a tiny piece of hardware about the size of a AA battery. That hardware, the so-called “chip,” contains chambers where human cells (like brain cells, the kidney, lung, brain intestine, etc), can be grown. Then the chip can be manipulated to simulate breathing, blood flow through an organ or other mechanical forces that might happen in a human body. 

Ultimately, the chip is supposed to mimic the conditions within a human body, and allow drugmakers to better predict what might happen when a new candidate is introduced. It’s a new model for experiments that could prove critical in the pre-clinical study process. Right now that area of research is dominated by traditional cell- or animal-based models – though Emulate, and other similar companies are hoping to change that paradigm. 

Emulate was founded in 2013 and has, so far, raised about $255 million in funding. This most recent Series E round, led by Northpond Ventures and Perceptive Advisors, is part of Emulate’s plan to invest more heavily in R&D, and create specific organ-on-a-chip applications that they’ve honed in on through conversations with drug companies. So far, Emulate counts 21 major drug companies, including Roche, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences as customers. 

“We researched what pharma is spending their R&D dollars on – particular types of molecules, biologics and so-forth – then we created a roadmap, a series of applications aligned to where big pharma is spending their money” Jim Corbett, the CEO of Emulate tells TechCrunch. 

In January, Emulate announced several new products and services that are part of this roadmap. They include the Emulate brain chip, designed to aid with research into central nervous system disorders (like Alzheimer’s), an immune cell recruitment application that will investigate how the immune system interacts across the lungs, liver, and intestine (using lung-chips, liver-chips, and intestine chips), and a microbiome model integrated into the liver chip. 

Corbett says the company will look to roll out 14 applications over the next two years, seven of which will roll out next year. 

Organs on chips have been around for about a decade. The NIH has launched them into space to study the effects of spaceflight, and has been developing tissue chip testing and validation programs since 2010.

A 2020 review paper in Bioengineering notes the organ-on-a-chip industry was recently valued around $21 million, but could grow to about $220 million by 2025. 

A lot of that growth will depend on the potential for an organ-on-a-chip to disrupt the preclinical side of the drug testing process. And that itself depends a lot on how the FDA views data collected on that platform. 

The specific organ-on-a-chip technology itself doesn’t need to be FDA approved (it’s not a  therapeutic or device), but drug companies will almost certainly seek assurance that the agency is receptive to experiments using organs-on-chips. 

From Corbett’s perspective, he says the FDA has proved “very receptive” to data collected on these platforms. 

There is evidence the company has worked closely with the FDA in the past. In 2020, for instance, Emulate entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), with the FDA. A CRADA agreement allows a non-federal collaborator to provide funding and equipment for a research project conducted at an FDA laboratory. The FDA provides no funding, but does allow for the collaborator to license intellectual property developed during such projects. 

Through this program, Emulate’s lung chips were used in COVID-19 research. The brain chip, liver, and intestine chips were also used for individual research projects. 

FDA collaboration aside there’s also been regulatory movement that could favor companies pursuing organ chips. For instance, the FDA Modernization Act of 2021, introduced in Congress in April, which would allow the FDA to use “alternative testing methods to animal testing” to evaluate safety and efficacy of drugs. The bill specifically includes organs on chips in its definition of a non-clinical test or study.

“If the Modernization Act goes through, it’s clearly spelled out,” says Corbett. 

Still, the field of organ-on-a-chip research is relatively new. Whether or not it will eventually help more drug candidates materialize is still theory. Though, with a new round of funding and a changing regulatory environment, we could have solid answers sooner rather than later. 

News: How engaged are your employees?

• September 7, 2021
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Don’t wait until your best talent walks out the door to ring the alarm. Focusing on employee engagement is the ultimate win-win for employers who can tap into the potential of their human resources.

Managers are occasionally evaluated by their team’s occupational wellness — the sometimes-hazy calculation that rates employees’ professional and personal contentment. What may not be as commonly tested is the connected concept of employee engagement, which measures how committed employees are to helping their company succeed. While 71% of executives cite employee engagement as essential to their success, a mere 15% of U.S. employees consider themselves engaged.

Unfortunately for employers, when we look through either the contentment or engagement lens, we see a workforce in crisis — upward of 70% of U.S. workers are so unhappy in their roles that they are thinking about and/or actively looking for a new job.

What’s behind all this? Developmental stagnation at work and the opportunity for a better role elsewhere, often defined not merely as one with more pay, but as one presenting a pathway toward personal and professional growth and upward mobility.

The pandemic has only exacerbated the dissatisfaction of many employees — at varied levels — who feel stuck in unfulfilling jobs, with little guidance on how to advance or pivot in their careers and achieve the dignity of meaningful, impactful work.

This piece aims to deliver a simple action plan for assessing your employees’ engagement level and taking targeted steps to build the kind of committed and reliable workforce necessary to survive and thrive in today’s marketplace.

Common failures in corporate career development efforts

While researching employee retention when building our startup, we identified a number of common and recurring shortcomings in career-development practices — ones that are likely to be familiar to most Fortune 500 companies, as well as scaling, high-growth startups.

We focused on the activities and strategies companies use to align their skills needs with workers’ capabilities and aspirations — specifically, their approach to advancing staff toward jobs deemed both desirable to employees and essential to employers.

We found significant behavioral-design failure points across three main areas: Their strategic framework for employee engagement and advancement; implementation process and templates; and goal setting and rewards.

To understand the companies’ strategic framework, we examined upskilling and tuition reimbursement policies and spend; individualized employee future-fit assessments; tools for employee career pathway modeling and advancement; and early-in-career and diverse-hire career-progression programs.

For implementation processes and templates, we examined onboarding; employee performance and development cycle; manager feedback; and succession planning.

For goal setting and rewards, we examined manager and VP-level goals and rewards connected directly to their activities and performance in developing and advancing employee careers.

Take this employee development survey

Let’s gauge your company’s employee development and engagement efforts. How many of the following can you answer with a “yes”?

1. Has your company run a process to define skills or talent-gaps across organizations in the past two years?
2. As part of such a process, did your company define a role taxonomy for essential roles?
3. Do you have a process and the tools for mapping existing personnel to that taxonomy, whether from within or outside the relevant organization?
   

   

News: Texas Right to Life website exposed job applicants’ resumes

• September 7, 2021
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Anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life exposed the personal information of hundreds of job applicants after a website bug allowed anyone to access their resumes, which were stored in an unprotected directory on its website. A security researcher told TechCrunch that the group’s main website, built largely in WordPress, was not properly protecting the file

Anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life exposed the personal information of hundreds of job applicants after a website bug allowed anyone to access their resumes, which were stored in an unprotected directory on its website.

A security researcher told TechCrunch that the group’s main website, built largely in WordPress, was not properly protecting the file storage on its website, which it used to store resumes of more than 300 job applicants, as well as other files uploaded to the website. The resumes contained names, phone numbers, addresses, and details of a person’s employment history.

The website bug was fixed over the weekend, a short time after details of the leak were posted on Twitter. The group’s website no longer lists any of the exposed files.

“We are taking action to protect the concerned individuals,” said Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokesperson for Texas Right to Life told TechCrunch, referring to those who “sought and circulated the information.”

When asked, Schwartz would not say if the organization planned on informing those whose personal information was exposed by its security lapse.

Texas Right to Life sparked anger when last week it publicized a “whistleblower” website that encouraged Texas residents to report when someone might be seeking an abortion in violation of the state’s restrictive new abortion law. The law allows anyone to sue someone seeking an abortion, or anyone “aiding and abetting” an abortion after six weeks. That provision has been widely interpreted as targeting doctors who perform these procedures, but also potentially anyone who gets involved, such as contributing money or driving a friend to a clinic.

It didn’t take long for the “whistleblower” website to be flooded with fake tips, memes, and Shrek porn in protest. The site briefly fell offline Thursday, which coincided with an activist releasing an iOS shortcut to help anyone pre-fill the website’s form with fake information.

But by the weekend, GoDaddy, the company hosting the website, told Texas Right to Life that the site violated its terms of service and gave the group 24 hours to find another host. It did — briefly — by way of Epik, a web host that helped other controversial sites like far-right social networks Gab get back online. But that didn’t last long either.

As of Monday, the “whistleblower” website pointed to Texas Right to Life’s main website.

News: Social network Peanut expands to include more women with launch of Peanut Menopause

• September 7, 2021
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Peanut, a social networking app for women, initially found traction connecting women in the earlier stages of their motherhood journey. But over the years, the network expanded to support women through other life stages. Now, that will include menopause, as well — a life stage that will impact nearly half the world’s population at some

Peanut, a social networking app for women, initially found traction connecting women in the earlier stages of their motherhood journey. But over the years, the network expanded to support women through other life stages. Now, that will include menopause, as well — a life stage that will impact nearly half the world’s population at some point, but where opportunities there are few online communities where women can connect and learn.

“We’ve been thinking about this life stage for a long time, in terms of how it is so underserved,” explains Peanut founder and CEO Michelle Kennedy. “By 2025, there are going to be a billion women who are in menopause at that moment…and yet, when you think about what is there and accessible in terms of community, social [networking], and support — there’s literally nothing,” she says.

The company saw the opportunity in this market by observing what women were already discussing on the app, Kennedy says.

Although the app had historically skewed towards younger women just getting started with marriages and family, there were a number of women who had undergone surgical or chemically-induced menopause because of something like breast cancer or some other medical condition. This had put them into early or premature menopause, and they began to discuss how that was impacting their life — particularly as younger parents. There were also women who felt like they may have begun to experience menopause but were having their concerns dismissed by their doctors because they were too young. They wanted to talk about their symptoms with others who were going through the same thing. Others, meanwhile, were older and entering menopause, and were in search of community.

Image Credits: Peanut

To address this market, Peanut is expanding with the launch of Peanut Menopause, a dedicated space in the app where women can meet others who are at a similar life stage — whether that’s other premenopausal, menopausal, or postmenopausal women.

Women can join groups, ask questions, and get advice, or even join live audio conversations hosted by experts, through Peanut’s newer live audio rooms feature, Peanut Pods.  And they can use the app’s matchmaking feature to discover other women who are also in their same demographic, where they can chat using messaging or video.

Kennedy notes that the topic of menopause is something women have historically kept quiet about, often suffering in silence due to the lack of resources available to them when it comes on online networking and support groups.

“Men are never going to build this for us, so we have to build it for ourselves,” she says. “We have to build what we want and what we need.”

Image Credits: Peanut

The expansion may bring a broader group of women to Peanut. Today, the average age of the Peanut user is around 32, but the menopause-focused communities may attract women in the 49-plus age demographic, in addition to those who are going through the experience at a younger age, for other reasons.

Unfortunately for Peanut, not all investors see the opportunity in addressing the needs of menopausal women. In fact, on a recent phone call, Kennedy said one investor seemed dismayed about the expansion, noting they had really loved “the younger age demo.” Kennedy said this comment blew her away.

“They are women who are at a stage in their life where they probably have more disposable income,” she said of the new demographic Peanut is now including. “They are more considered users, in many respects. They’re not as flighty. They don’t have 30 apps on their phone, and the ones they have on their phone they’re really invested in. It’s just astonishing to me that someone in the investment community would make a comment like that,” she adds.

Peanut is not yet monetizing its users and doesn’t intend to do so using ads Instead, the company’s plan is to eventually introduce the freemium model where women will pay to unlock a set of premium features — a model that worked well in the dating app industry, where Kennedy has roots as the former deputy CEO at dating app Badoo and an inaugural board member at Bumble.

The feature is the latest in a long line of expansions over the years — including Q&A forums, Peanut Pages, Peanut Groups, and recently, Peanut Pods — that have helped Peanut evolve into an online community that serves over 2 million users. The Peanut app is available as a free download across both iOS and Android, while a preview of its communities are available on the web.

News: Everything AI and robotics at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021

• September 7, 2021
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AI is everywhere in tech, and you can bet it will be a vital topic at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23. It’s the driving force behind just about everything from rockets, robotics and customer service to deep science and autonomous vehicles. It’s even changing the game for dystopian fiction writers. As always, every Disrupt

AI is everywhere in tech, and you can bet it will be a vital topic at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23. It’s the driving force behind just about everything from rockets, robotics and customer service to deep science and autonomous vehicles. It’s even changing the game for dystopian fiction writers.

As always, every Disrupt features peerless experts and boundary-pushing visionaries and Disrupt 2021 will not disappoint on that or any other score. With more than 80 interviews, panel discussions, events and breakout sessions — and counting — we’re shining a spotlight on sessions related to AI and robotics.

Get amongst it: Buy your pass today, join thousands of attendees from around the world and get ready to learn about the latest in AI, robotics, rockets and so much more.

Here are just some of the AI and robotics presentations we have on tap. You’ll find the specific days and times listed in the Disrupt 2021 agenda.

A Fictional Future Built with Real AI

A leading mind in AI research and investment and a bold new voice in science fiction collaborate in “AI 2041,” a remarkable new collection of stories imagining a future shaped by technology being built today. Hear Kai-Fu Lee, Sinovation Ventures Chairman and CEO, and author Chen Qiufan (AKA Stanley Chan) discuss the tech that inspired their book and the changes they expect over the next two decades.

Drones, Self-driving Cars and Everything in Between

Pete Buttigieg first came on the scene as a small-town mayor in Indiana. He launched onto the national stage as a presidential candidate for the Democratic party in 2020. He now serves as Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration and oversees everything from public transport to autonomous vehicle regulation. Hear Secretary Buttigieg’s take on micromobility, the future of cities, drone delivery, autonomous vehicles and more in this fireside chat.

Crafting a Lunar Trajectory in Newspace

Rocket Lab has upgraded its ambitions from building a global launch empire to designing its own spacecraft and visiting the Moon and beyond. Founder and CEO Peter Beck will speak to the challenges and opportunities lying ahead for his fast-growing space and tech outfit.

Demo Derby: How startups are disrupting the status quo with innovative data analytics, AI and modern app development

Startups need to move quickly and focus limited resources on areas where they can differentiate. In this fast-paced session, learn from startups and Google Cloud experts — like Dave Elliott, developer advocacy Lead, AI — how you can leverage Google technologies to serve customers better and get to market more quickly. In a series of short demos, see how innovative startups and Google experts have used Google compute, storage, networking and AI technologies to ‘disrupt’ the status quo. Presented by Google Cloud.

Humanizing AI: How Brands Are Revolutionizing Customer Experience in an Increasingly Digital World

Empathy deficit is the largest imminent threat to a businesses’ growth, but there’s hope. Humanized AI is allowing brands to create empathetic customer experiences by offering uniquely personal interactions with digital people. But what is empathy, really? And how can it help brands and storytellers better connect with their audiences in a cookie-less world? Soul Machines’ co-founder and CBO Greg Cross explains how embracing AI could be just the competitive advantage that your brand needs. Presented by Soul Machines.

The New Human and Planetary Health Pioneers

Mammoth Biosciences, co-founded by Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna and Trevor Martin, is the industry’s first CRISPR platform company. It has already delivered a breakthrough Covid test and has inked partnerships for novel CRISPR diagnostics, therapeutics and biomanufacturing with leading healthcare companies. NotCo, founded by Matias Muchnick, is combining artificial intelligence and deep science to re-invent the food industry, starting with a milk alternative product with many more to come. Hear about the founder journey from these breakout companies and tips for scaling your business. Presented by Mayfield.

So You Want to Build a Space Business?

The space industry is changing faster than ever, with new technologies and lower launch costs democratizing access to space and driving a new era of innovation. The opportunities to build the next great business are seemingly endless, but space can be a difficult and unforgiving place, especially for those new to the domain. This session will feature practical insights and advice from experienced space leaders for entrepreneurs looking to get their business off the ground.

Korea Pavilion Pitch Session

We present the 13 pioneering Korean companies that will enrich our lives with their innovative edge. The companies specialize in various technologies including Green Tech, AR/VR, 3D Display, AI & Big Data, and Cybersecurity. Don’t miss your chance to catch a glimpse of ingenuity from the technology powerhouse. Presented by KOTRA.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 takes place on September 21-23. Buy your pass today and learn about the latest trends and developments in AI and robotics.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2021? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

News: DigitalOcean enhances serverless capabilities with Nimbella acquisition

• September 7, 2021
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As developers look for ways to simplify how they create software, serverless solutions, which enable them to write code without worrying about the underlying infrastructure required to run their applications, is becoming increasingly popular. DigitalOcean announced today that it is enhancing its existing offering in this area with the acquisition of serverless startup Nimbella. The

As developers look for ways to simplify how they create software, serverless solutions, which enable them to write code without worrying about the underlying infrastructure required to run their applications, is becoming increasingly popular. DigitalOcean announced today that it is enhancing its existing offering in this area with the acquisition of serverless startup Nimbella. The companies did not share the terms of the deal.

With Nimbella, the company is getting a platform for building serverless applications that is built on the open source container orchestration platform, Kubernetes and Apache OpenWhisk, which is itself an open source serverless development platform.

DigitalOcean CEO Yancey Spruill, who took over two years ago, refers to Nimbella’s capabilities as Function as a Service with the goal being to simplify serverless development in an open source context for its target customers.”Serverless kinds of capabilities are taking a whole level of the infrastructure burden away from developers and businesses and we absorb that. We’ll allow our customers to have more configurability around the tools, which just removes burdens for them and allows them to go faster,” he said.

In practical terms, Nimbella CEO Anshu Agarwal says that means they are providing a specific set of tools to build sophisticated serverless applications and connect to other DigitalOcean services. “The capabilities that we will be adding to DigitalOcean portfolio are a fast solution, a function as a service solution that also integrates with the underlying DigitalOcean services [like] managed databases, storage and other services that make it make it easier for a developer to develop full applications, not just addressing events, but doing things which are completely stateless,” Agarwal explained.

Spruill said that this wasn’t the company’s first foray into serverless. That began last year when it offered its initial serverless tooling, but it wanted to build on its current offering and Nimbella fit the bill.

DigitalOcean is a cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service provider, aiming at individual developers, startups and SMBs. While DigitalOcean’s $318 million 2020 revenue was a fraction of the $129 billion cloud market, it is proof that there is still money to be made even with a small slice of that market.

The companies did not discuss the terms of the deal, the number of employees involved or even the title that Agarwal would have when the deal closed, but the plan is to fully integrate Nimbella into the DigitalOcean portfolio and eventually make it a DigitalOcean-branded product some time in the first half of next year.

News: Glovo to double down African investment in the next 12 months but will it stay put?

• September 7, 2021
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Spanish on-demand delivery platform Glovo today announced plans to double its investment in Africa and expand its operations on the continent. The Barcelona-based company has invested up to €25M ($30M) by bringing its food delivery service to six African countries — Morocco, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria. Glovo is available in more than

Spanish on-demand delivery platform Glovo today announced plans to double its investment in Africa and expand its operations on the continent.

The Barcelona-based company has invested up to €25M ($30M) by bringing its food delivery service to six African countries — Morocco, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria.

Glovo is available in more than 40 cities with more than 300,000 users, 8,000 restaurants and 12,000 couriers in these countries. Earlier this year, it launched operations in Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana before expanding to Tema, another Ghanaian city last month.

Over the next 12 months, Glovo says it will invest an additional €50M ($60M) to drive expansion into more cities on the continent and move into new markets like Tunisia, where it plans to launch in Tunis next month.

According to a statement released by the company, the expansion will make Glovo’s services available to 6.5 million people. Co-founder Sacha Michaud believes these markets are currently underserved, and Glovo has found the right opportunity to work with local restaurants, bringing them online to reach new customers in a bid to “make everything, within all towns and cities, available to everyone.”

The attention on Africa follows a series of regional moves Glovo has pulled this year. After its mammoth $528 million Series F raise, it acquired several Delivery Hero’s businesses in Central and Eastern Europe for $208 million.

Now present in 23 countries, Africa represents 30% of the company’s geographical footprint. And the Spanish company plans to be live in 30 countries before the end of next year, a decision in part due to an IPO target in three years.

Glovo says it is a market leader in 80% of the countries where it has operations. The company’s grocery service arm has grown the fastest and revenue has been increasing significantly after a steady rise in orders. To meet the growing needs of customers, Glovo has had to invest heavily in dark stores and launched virtual brands for restaurants in July.

It’s not clear if Glovo will extend these add-on services to Africa where it has its largest market in terms of population size: Nigeria. Yet, the West African nation does not come without its own fair share of troubles like poor logistics infrastructure and an unpredictable regulatory environment.

Despite that, a couple of food delivery platforms like Gokada and Jumia Food, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Jumia have tried to scale, finding varying degrees of success doing so.

While Glovo will have to compete for market share with these players, it is bullish because of its multi-category strategy, for which grocery sales account for half of its business in some African markets.

That said, Glovo’s performance in emerging markets is questionable. Last year, the company pulled out of all the Latin American countries — Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. It sold operations in these markets to Delivery Hero for $272 million.

The company also exited the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt and Turkey) and Uruguay and Puerto Rico in January 2020.

Over the past couple of years, Glovo has said it wanted to achieve profitability in a short amount of time. The delivery space is a thin-margin business and it is thinner in emerging markets. This played a part in why Glovo exited both Middle East and Latin America. The market isn’t any different in Africa, and time will tell if the Spanish delivery will stay put, exit, or close shop.

Whatever the case, Glovo says it is “committed to continuing its policy to hire top local talent” on the continent and plans to double its number of staff and add an extra 200 employees before the end of next year.

“Our expansion in Nigeria, Ghana, and our upcoming launch in Tunisia is something we’ve been looking at for some time now, so it’s great to be able to make it official. There’s been an unprecedented spike in the on-demand delivery business in Africa and the expansion of our services to new countries and cities is both a reflection of that trend and a testament to our commitment to the continent. We’re looking forward to making food, groceries, pharmaceuticals, and retail products available to our new users at the touch of a button,” William Benthall, Glovo’s general manager of sub-Saharan Africa, said in a statement.

News: TikTok and Snap alums launch mayk.it, a social music creation app, with $4M in seed funding

• September 7, 2021
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After living through the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers are re-evaluating their career path. Stefan Heinrich Henriquez, a former Head of Global Marketing at TikTok and Chief Marketing Officer at Cameo, is one of them. “I have been thinking about music since my time at TikTok, and I was really thinking about

After living through the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers are re-evaluating their career path. Stefan Heinrich Henriquez, a former Head of Global Marketing at TikTok and Chief Marketing Officer at Cameo, is one of them.

“I have been thinking about music since my time at TikTok, and I was really thinking about building something on my own, but then it took me another year to finally have the guts to do it,” said Henriquez. “Then when the pandemic started, I think so many people were thinking about like, ‘What am I doing with my life?”

Along with his co-founder Akiva Bamberger, who was a software engineer on Snap’s Spectacles, Henriquez began work on mayk.it last summer. Today, the social music app launches on iOS and announces its $4 million seed round from investors including Greycroft, Chicago Ventures, Slow Ventures, firstminute, Steven Galanis, Randi Zuckerberg, YouTuber Mr. Beasts’ Night media, Spotify’s first CMO Sophia Bendz, Cyan Banister, artist T-Pain and music industry veteran Zach Katz, among others.

Mayk.it wants to help people easily produce, own, and share music that they can create using just their phone. Users can upload their own beat or select an existing beat from another user, then add vocals (voice effects and somewhat corny lyric generators are available if you’re shy), and then add a visual from Giphy. Once you make (or, “mayk”) something, you can post it on the app, where other users can see it via a discovery page, which categorizes music by feeling or theme, rather than genre.

Mayk.it also poses “ideas,” or prompts to spur creativity, like “What is your pet thinking about right now?” or “Make a song about your first crush.” There’s also a Tinder-like tab that lets you swipe left or right on songs — if you really like it, you can leave a comment (called an “encouragement” in an attempt to keep things supportive) or remix it.

Of course, for creators who might want to get a bit more serious about their creations, remixing and collaborating poses a question of ownership — if someone writes a beat and another user sings over it, who owns it? While you can’t monetize music on mayk.it, you have the right to export it and sell it elsewhere. Henriquez said that anyone involved in the creation of an audio clip or song on the app gets an equal cut, so the beat-maker would get 50% of any profit, and the singer would get 50%. Mayk.it doesn’t take a cut.

Right now, the mayk.it doesn’t have in-app purchases, but Henriquez said that down the road, it could be possible to profit from working with brands or establishing an in-app marketplace. For now, mayk.it is focused on using its seed funding to add new features, improve the product and build a tool that inspires creativity — Henriquez added that, as an LGBTQ+ founder, it’s important to him that users can find community on the app through its social features.

“When I worked at YouTube, you really needed to know Adobe Premiere and After Effects,” said Henriquez. “And what I learned since Musical.ly and TikTok is that you could be a video creator or an actor without having to go through all these things. I think Roblox is doing that now with games, and Canva is doing that with design tools.”

Mayk.it wants to be like a Roblox or Canva for music composition and sharing. You can’t currently create something on mayk.it that sounds like it came from an artist who’s mastered Ableton, but something from mayk.it could easily make the rounds on TikTok.

Though mayk.it is now in the App Store, there’s a waitlist to gain access — but you can also test your skills with a “vibe check,” which invites you to make a song and see if existing users will right-swipe you in. Not to brag, but we passed.