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News: Don’t miss these special breakout sessions at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021

August 11, 2021
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Go ahead and add “produce a world-class tech conference” to the long list of items that can complete the expression “It takes a village to…” TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 runs September 21-23, and we’d like to take a moment to give a major shout-out to a vital part of the TechCrunch village — our sponsors. Admin

Admin Tip: Buy your pass to Disrupt before the price goes up on September 20.

TechCrunch sponsors don’t just write a check; they bring their deep knowledge and expertise to the party to help early-stage founders move their business to the next level and beyond. Michael McCarthy, the CEO of Repositax, attended Disrupt 2020 and shared his thoughts on the breakout sessions with us.

“There was always something interesting going on in one of the breakout sessions, and I was impressed by the quality of the people participating. Partners in well-known VC firms spoke, they were accessible, and they shared smart, insightful nuggets. You will not find this level of people accessible and in one place anywhere else.”

We have an impressive slate again this year, and our enormous thanks go out to our TC Disrupt 2021 sponsors: Aerospace Corporation, Cedar, Checkr, Connection, Foxxum, Google Cloud, hu.brussels, Mambu, rlaxx TV, SeedInvest, Sentry Software and Xero.

Let’s take a look at the sponsored breakout sessions scheduled over three days. You’ll find them, along with more than 50 other presentations, in the Disrupt 2021 agenda.

You Complete Me: In the age of the composable ecosystems, we’re all partners now – from frenemies to pure collaborations. So why is now, more than ever, the right time to invite friends and challengers to the table? The truth is we have to build for an unknown future, with a shared strategy and value outcome. Join Elliot Limb, chief customer offer at Mambu, to learn five ways to encourage more symbiotic relationships in the platform economy. Presented by Mambu.

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. Presented by The Aerospace Corporation.

The Connection IT Superhero Awards: Connection and TechCrunch have teamed up to celebrate and recognize IT people who have gone the extra mile with the inaugural Connection IT Superhero Awards. Winners of the five category awards will be announced live, presented by Connection’s Chief Innovation & Growth Officer, Jamal Khan. These awards are about people, not products for the many out there deserving recognition for their daily efforts. We think some well-earned awards are a great place to start. Nominate your IT Superhero here by August 24. Presented by Connection.

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 experts 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.

How Circle’s $4.5B Public Listing will Change Startup Fundraising: Circle acquired SeedInvest in 2019, as a further step toward realizing its vision of a more open, global, connected and inclusive financial system. Fast forward to today, Circle recently announced its plans to become a $4.5B public company, with over $1 billion of fresh capital. In this session, Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO and co-founder, and Ryan Feit, CEO and co-founder of SeedInvest, will break down the evolution of the two companies and how they plan to double down on online fundraising to make it faster and easier for entrepreneurs. Presented by SeedInvest.

Belgian Startup Pitch Competition: Join us for the 7th edition of our Belgian Startup Pitch Competition. We look forward to seeing you there! Presented by hub.brussels.

Illuminating the Next Great Entertainment Frontier — The Connected TV Metaverse: While the proliferation of operating systems and OTT platforms have made TV more convenient and accessible, the magnitude of players in this ecosystem have also made television more complicated to navigate –for programmers, advertisers, and viewers. We all want our programming in each of its various delivery methods, provided in an easy-to-navigate, fast-to-discover, intuitive interface. Join an in-depth conversation with media industry veteran and technology futurists as they identify the outlook of the CTV world. Presented by Foxxum and rlaxx TV.

Achieve Sustainable IT with Prometheus, Grafana and Hardware Sentry: Implementing sustainability initiatives to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the data center is a vital challenge. Join Bertrand Martin, Sentry Software’s co-founder and CEO, as he presents Hardware Sentry Exporter for Prometheus. Measure the power consumption and temperature of more than 250 platforms with this unique pure-software solution. Report CO₂ emissions, electricity usage and costs of applications and services in Grafana. Reduce the carbon footprint of your datacenter with intelligent optimization of ambient temperature. Presented by Sentry Software.

Hacking U.S. Healthcare: How a Simple Platform Can Help Solve Some of America’s Most Complex Healthcare Problems: Few things conjure more negative emotions than navigating medical billing; Americans urgently need solutions that prioritize their needs, decrease costs and elevate the patient journey so they can focus on getting care. Fortunately, digital innovation can provide exceptional patient experiences that remove friction for payers, providers and consumers alike. Hear how digital health unicorn Cedar has engineered a complete consumer-first digital platform that’s revolutionizing the financial experience for the entire healthcare industry. Presented by Cedar.

Powering the Small Business Economy with Cloud Technology: Small business is a critical engine of job creation, economic growth, innovation and a driver in our efforts to recover from a global pandemic. Fifteen years ago, a start-up company from New Zealand called Xero was founded with the purpose of making life better for people in small business and their advisors. Xero achieved this by shifting accounting practices to the cloud and providing an open set of APIs which has enabled more than 1,000 application partners to build affordable tech solutions connected to the Xero platform. Steve Vamos, CEO will discuss how Xero is revolutionizing the way small businesses do business by using cloud and its platform to connect real-time data, with bespoke business solutions that help small business owners be more successful. Steve will speak to a number of key initiatives that will change the game for startups and entrepreneurs who want to innovate and collaborate on the Xero platform, and he will explain how Xero’s vision extends beyond just technology to galvanizing a global community of support and purpose to help small businesses everywhere. Presented by Xero.

Why Employers are Ignoring a Large Candidate Pool that’s Necessary for Growth Today: Hear directly from Checkr CEO, Daniel Yanisse and DDI CEO Aaron Hageman about why this job market is fueling the gig economy growth, how to tap into fair chance hiring and how it will help your employee base. Learn about the benefits of fair chance hiring, its impact on your bottom line and organizations and allies that promote fair chance hiring and why this matters to DEI efforts. Presented by Checkr.

Connection IT Superhero Awards Announcement: Use this link to nominate someone for the Connection IT Superhero Awards. The nomination deadline is August 24. Presented by Connection.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 takes place September 21-23. Do not miss the invaluable information waiting for you in the sponsored breakout sessions — just some of the Disrupt programming designed to help you build a bigger, better and stronger startup. Get your pass today!

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

News: Weedmaps adds in-app cannabis purchasing for iPhone users

August 11, 2021
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Thanks to Apple loosening App Store restrictions, Weedmaps users can now purchase cannabis within the popular app. This means Weedmaps users can browse, select, and purchase cannabis and have it set for pick-up or delivery — all within the app. Previously, users could only locate and browse menus of local retailers thanks in part to

The updated app is now available.

The change comes after Apple opened up the App Store for some cannabis apps. Under the new guidance, licensed cannabis operators fall under the same restrictions (to Apple) as licensed pharmacies allowing apps like Weedmaps, which lists licensed cannabis operators, to offer such services.

“Our ability to enable ordering functionality through our mobile iOS app is a game-changer that will improve accessibility for both our customers and business partners alike,” said Justin Dean, Chief Technology Officer at WM Technology, Inc. “We commend companies like Apple that work with industry leaders to find solutions that drive innovation in our space. It’s encouraging to see policies and attitudes toward cannabis shift in a way that promises remarkable growth, and we look forward to introducing an even simpler way to order cannabis from retailers through our platform.”

Weedmaps sits at a unique position in the marketplace. As one of the leading cannabis apps, it’s already used throughout the country. Unlike competing delivery services, like Eaze, Weedmaps is not facilitating delivery. It’s only providing a platform for licensed delivery dispensaries to list their goods and services.

Under the new App Store restrictions, apps like Weedmaps must limit users to ordering within a geo-restricted area where cannabis sales are legal. This means, if a user living in a place where cannabis sales are illegal, they cannot order from a dispensary in a legal area.

Here’s the previous Apple App Store policy:

“Apps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies), marijuana, or tobacco is not allowed.

Here’s the updated policy as of June 7, with the changes highlighted in bold.

“Apps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies and licensed or otherwise legal cannabis dispensaries), or tobacco is not allowed.”

…

“Apps that provide services in highly-regulated fields (such as banking and financial services, healthcare, gambling, legal cannabis use, and air travel) or that require sensitive user information should be submitted by a legal entity that provides the services, and not by an individual developer. Apps that facilitate the legal sale of cannabis must be geo-restricted to the corresponding legal jurisdiction.”

Apple’s new App Store Guidelines aim to crack down on fraud and scams

News: Joby Aviation makes its public trading debut on the NYSE

August 11, 2021
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Joby Aviation is now public, twelve years after JoeBen Benvirt founded the company at his ranch in the Santa Cruz mountains. The air taxi developer began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday under the ticker symbol “JOBY,” after completing a merger with special purpose acquisition company Reinvent Technology Partners. As of 10:00

As of 10:00 AM ET, the price per share was at $11.01, up 9.8% from its prior-day closing amount.

Joby’s post-transaction valuation now stands at $4.5 billion, the largest in the industry. It also now has the highest cash balance. All told, Joby has around $1.6 billion in total capital to take its air taxi operations to commercialization in 2024. That includes $835 million of private-investment-in-public-equity as well as more than $500 million of capital on the balance sheet.

RTP reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that around 63% of the 69 million ordinary shares were redeemed prior to the public trading debut, giving Joby access to $255 million out of the $690 million of cash held in trust from the blank-check firm.

We have been working for over a decade to get our technology ready for market and are excited to take this moment to celebrate our achievements so far. #nyse #experiencesquare #eVTOL @NYSE pic.twitter.com/XlpxXiA1Pa

— Joby Aviation (@jobyaviation) August 11, 2021

It’s a sizable amount, but creating an entirely new form of transportation is a capital-intensive business. Joby’s executive chairman Paul Sciarra told TechCrunch he thinks $1.6 billion will be enough to prepare the company for launch.

“We think that’s enough to execute on the things that matter over the next few years, and those are […] one, ensuring that we execute on the certification program; two, showing we can demonstrate our ability to repeatedly manufacturing these aircraft in a certifiable way; and then third and finally, the opportunity to lay the groundwork for commercial launch,” Sciarra said.

Joby is developing a five-seat electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, which it unveiled to much anticipation in February. The company, which has backing from Toyota and JetBlue, has released a slew of announcements in recent months as it geared up for the public listing.

“A lot of people talk about us as a secretive company,” Benvirt said in an interview with TechCrunch. “We’re not actually a secretive company, we just choose to do the work and then show our work, rather than talking about it and then doing it.”

The Future of Flight

From $RTP to $JOBY

Joby’s merger with blank-check firm Reinvent, headed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, was announced in February. The transaction includes a few provisions to ensure longer-term collaboration, including a lock-up on founder shares for up to five years, as well as vesting provision with earnout not realized until the price per share reaches $50 – a $30 billion market cap.

SPACs are not a new instrument for going public, but they have gained a widespread presence in the transportation space, particularly amongst eVTOL startups looking to secure amounts of capital. Archer Aviation was the first developer to announce it would merge with a blank-check firm, followed by Joby, Lilium and Vertical Aerospace. But there are signs that the investment bubble may be starting to deflate: late last month, Archer cut its valuation by $1 billion in a “strategic reset” of the transaction terms with Atlas Crest Investment Corp.

Such turbulence is not uncommon in markets populated by pre-revenue companies. But despite now being a public company – and having shareholders to answer to – Sciarra said Joby’s task remains unchanged. “We can’t control the markets,” he said. “[Joby] is a company that’s been executing quietly for a very long time on things that matter. I think it’s going to be incumbent upon us to do the same as we make this transition to a public company: tell folks what we’re going to do, and then go out and do them. That, quarter by quarter, is what builds credibility, what combats skepticism, and what gives investors and frankly, the broader public, confidence that this is a company that means what it says.”

One way to frame the fate of air taxis is whether they will be more like autonomous vehicles or electric vehicles. The AV space circa five years ago was filled with companies setting ambitious expectations about when true self-driving cars would be on the roads, only to have multiple companies collapse or sell under the weight of overshot expectations.

But Sciarra suggested that a better analogy to the eVTOL industry as it currently stands is the early days of electric vehicles. He pointed out that Joby’s aircraft is designed to conform to existing safety and certification standards, with a trained pilot onboard, similar to how helicopters and planes operate today. “We didn’t want to compound the technical risk of developing a new aircraft with the technical and regulatory risk of developing full autonomy from day one.”

“We think about our approach as a little bit more Tesla versus, say, Waymo,” he added.

The air taxi market prepares to take flight

News: When the economic tide goes out, we’ll see which VCs are naked

August 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 week we were back to full strength, with Danny Natasha and Alex joined by Chris to chat through the latest venture capital brouhaha. Namely whether or not venture capital is about to get shaken to its core, or if we’re

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

This week we were back to full strength, with Danny Natasha and Alex joined by Chris to chat through the latest venture capital brouhaha. Namely whether or not venture capital is about to get shaken to its core, or if we’re really parsing some long-term economic trends that will eventually revert.

Here’s a rundown:

Sam Lessin kicked off the Twitter conversation by positing that venture capital as we know it is kaput, with software and later-stage investing possibly seeing the most disruption.
Both Alex and Crunchbase News posted responses to the concept, which could best be summarized as yeah, but.
However, the point that there is a lot of non-venture money flooding into startups is both real and material, and worth chewing on. So, masticate we did, parsing which areas of startup investing might be the most winsome for the VCs we spend so very much time talking to,

The direction and future of the venture capital world has largely been lost amidst a sea of large numbers. New megarounds. New unicorns. That sort of thing. But inside the rising tide of capital available to private companies has been a mix-shift of sorts. The question is where that goes long-term. We tried to posit a few things that could happen next.

Equity is back on Friday!

News: Samsung’s latest Galaxy Z Flip starts at $1,000

August 11, 2021
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The Galaxy Z Flip is probably destined to forever play second fiddle to the Fold. And with its older and larger sibling now ascending to the ranks of “flagship” with a slew of new features like S-Pen functionality, the designation is probably all but inevitable. But for those seriously considering the world of foldables, there’s

But for those seriously considering the world of foldables, there’s something to be said for the clamshell devices. It has always been the more compact and — dare I say — accessible member of the Galaxy Z family. Of course, at $1,380 — well, let’s just say “accessibility” is relative.” At today’s Unpacked event, however, Samsung announced that the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is getting an even larger price drop than the Fold.

At $999.99, again, we’re speaking relatively here. But at the very least, a nearly $400 price drop brings the Flip into the realm of mainstream flagship pricing (the Fold 3, while cheaper than its predecessor, is still $1,799). Add onto that the learnings that come with a third-generation device, and there’s a case to be made that this is Samsung’s (and, probably the industry’s) most mainstream foldable to date. I mean, anything beats the original Razr foldable, right?

Image Credits: Brian Heater

Obviously we’re going to hold out for a review unit until we’re able to say something more definitive on the matter. But while Samsung continues to lead with the Fold, don’t sleep on the alternative. Both devices have (understandably) prioritized durability among their new features. That includes a stronger protective film made of PET plastic, coupled with a reconfiguration of the display panels aimed at reinforcing what has traditionally been the weak link on these products.

Also on board is Samsung’s new proprietary Armor Aluminum for the body, Gorilla Glass Victus for the exterior of the device and IPX8 water resistance. That means the new foldables can withstand significantly more water than their predecessors. The “X” in the rating means it’s not rated against debris, due to the nature of the hinges, but Samsung believes the sweeping mechanism it introduced on previous models can make quick work of particulate matter that could potentially fall behind the screen and damage it in the process of pressing.

Image Credits: Brian Heater

The phone has also gotten a striking redesign. When closed, I’d say it’s a considerably better-looking device than the Fold — not to mention significantly easier to port around in your pocket. The device now comes in Cream, Green, Lavender and Black, coupled with a variety of different grips and straps. If you get it online, you can also choose a Gray, Pink or White version. The internal display is effectively the same as its predecessor at 6.7 inches (2640 x 1080), but the front screen has been further increasing from 1.1 to 1.9 inches — a not insignificant bump when we’re dealing with those sizes.

The cameras remain roughly the same as the Flip 2:

Front: 10MP Selfie. F2.4, Pixel size: 1.22μm, FOV: 80-degree
Rear: 12MP Ultra Wide. F2.2, Pixel size: 1.12μm, FOV: 123-degree
Rear 2: 12MP Wide-angle. Dual Pixel AF, OIS, F1.8 Pixel size: 1.4μm, FOV: 78-degree

Image Credits: Brian Heater

The battery is (understandably) a fair bit smaller than the Fold’s at 3,300mAh, split over two modules (because, folding). It supports fast-wired and wireless charging, as well as Samsung’s Wireless PowerShare for giving some juice back to your other devices. Like the Fold, the new flip is powered by the Snapdragon 888. Here that’s coupled with 8GB of RAM and either 128 or 256GB of storage.

Like the other devices announced today, the Flip is now up for preorder and starts shipping August 26. Preordering will get you a $150 Samsung Credit.

News: Apple drops its lawsuit against maker of iPhone emulation software

August 11, 2021
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Apple has settled its 2019 lawsuit with Corellium, a company that builds virtual iOS devices used by security researchers to find bugs in iPhones and other iOS devices.

Steve Dent
Contributor

Steve Dent is an associate editor at Engadget.

News: VCs unfazed by Chinese regulatory shakeups (so far)

August 11, 2021
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Slightly falling quarterly venture capital totals and a notable decline in unicorn formation does not a startup winter make. So let’s look at what’s happened more recently.

China’s technology scene has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent months. In the wake of the scuttling of Ant Group’s IPO, the Chinese government has gone on a regulatory offensive against a host of technology companies. Edtech got hit. On-demand companies took incoming fire. Ride-hailing? Check. Gaming? You bet.

The result of the government fusillade against some of the best-known companies in China was falling share prices. The damage topped $1 trillion among just public Chinese companies listed abroad.

The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.

Read it every morning on Extra Crunch or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.

What about startups in sectors that were reformed overnight? If their public comps are any indication, even more wealth was deleted in the recent wave of crackdowns.

The Exchange was curious about the impact of the Chinese government’s actions on the venture capital market. The Chinese startup economy has produced a number of world-leading companies. Tencent and Alibaba, yes, and even Baidu have become well-known for a reason. Could regulatory changes shake up the venture model that helped grow the country’s largest tech concerns?

After we checked in on the same question this Monday, SoftBank provided a partial answer, noting yesterday that it is pausing investments in China. The Japanese teleco, conglomerate and investing powerhouse has been deploying capital at a rapid pace in recent weeks. That will slow, at least in China. Here’s the WSJ:

The regulatory initiative in China has become so unpredictable and widespread that SoftBank and its funds are planning to hold off on investing much more there until the risks become clearer, [SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son] said at an earnings press conference in Tokyo.

Is SoftBank early to its decision to shake up its investing strategy, missing Chinese deals for some time? Or is it late? We secured data from PitchBook and Traxcn that paints a somewhat surprising picture of venture capital activity at least thus far in Q3 2021.

But first, a reminder of how well China’s venture capital market was performing as 2020 eased its way into 2021.

Before the shakeup

China had a reasonably good Q2 2021 despite the turmoil.

Sure, funding flowing into Chinese startups was down 18% compared to Q4 2020, per CB Insights, but that quarter had recorded an all-time high of $27.7 billion. With $22.8 billion raised, Q2 2021 still did better than every other quarter since Q2 2016 with the exception of Q2 2018, Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. Indeed, the ecosystem had started to cool down in late 2018 before picking up pace again at the end of 2020.

However, that’s only one way to look at the numbers. If you compare recent Chinese venture results with other regions, it underperformed. During Q2 2021, U.S. funding reached a new high of $70.4 billion, with places like Latin America, Canada and India also establishing new records.

This also means that China lost ground as to its share of global startup dealmaking, and the same goes for unicorn creation. According to Tech Buzz China’s summary of CB Insights data, the U.S. accounted for 132 unicorn births between January 1 and June 16, 2021, compared with just three in China.

Slightly falling quarterly venture capital totals and a notable decline in unicorn formation does not a startup winter make. So let’s look at what’s happened more recently.

So, what about Q3?

The thesis that there would be an instantly obvious slowdown in Chinese venture capital activity is not supported by the data we secured.

News: Watch Samsung introduce its latest foldables live

August 11, 2021
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Samsung is set to introduce a whole bunch of new products, starting today at 7 AM PT/10 AM ET. I wrote a whole bunch of words about what to expect from the company’s latest Unpacked event. It’s a long list and a kind of return to the pre-pandemic days, back before companies started taking liberties

Samsung is set to introduce a whole bunch of new products, starting today at 7 AM PT/10 AM ET. I wrote a whole bunch of words about what to expect from the company’s latest Unpacked event. It’s a long list and a kind of return to the pre-pandemic days, back before companies started taking liberties by holding separate events for all their new products.

You can stream the proceedings here:

Here’s the short bulleted version, based on a deluge of leaks over the past several weeks and months:

Galaxy Z Fold 3
Galaxy Z Flip 3
Galaxy Watch 4
Galaxy Buds 2

Samsung has more or less confirmed the first three already. The company gave some substantial details on its forthcoming foldables. We’ve also heard a good deal about the new smartwatch — from a software standpoint, at least. Both Samsung and Google have been discussing their upcoming joint software platform.

More info on all of the above, soon. And perhaps even a surprise or two? Perhaps. We’ll be following along with the latest.

What to expect from Samsung’s next Unpacked

News: Former Snap employees raise $9M for Trust, emerging from beta to level marketing playing field

August 11, 2021
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Trust wants to give smaller businesses the same advantages that large enterprises have when marketing on digital and social media platforms.

Trust wants to give smaller businesses the same advantages that large enterprises have when marketing on digital and social media platforms. It came out of beta with $9 million in seed funding from Lerer Hippeau, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures and Upper90.

The Los Angeles-based company was started in 2019 by a group of five Snap alums working in various roles within Snap’s revenue product strategy business. They were building tools for businesses to fund success with digital marketing, but kept hearing from customers about the advantage big advertisers had over smaller ones — the ability to receive good payment terms, credit lines, as well as data and advice.

Aiming to flip the script on that, the group created Trust, which is a card and business community to help digital businesses navigate the ever-changing pricing models to market online, receive the same incentives larger advertisers get and make the best decision of where their marketing dollars will reach the furthest.

Trust dashboard

Trust does this in a few ways: Its card, built in partnership with Stripe, enables businesses to increase their buying power by up to 20 times and have 45 days to make payments on their marketing investments, CEO James Borow told TechCrunch. Then as part of its community, companies share knowledge of marketing buys and data insights typically reserved for larger advertisers. Users even receive news via their dashboard around their specific marketing strategy, he added.

“The ad platforms are a wall of gardens, and most people don’t know what is going on inside, so our customers work together to see what is going on,” Borow said.

The growth of e-commerce is pushing more digital marketing investments, providing opportunity for Trust to be a huge business, Borow said. E-commerce sales in the U.S. grew by 39% in the first quarter, while digital advertising spend is forecasted to increase 25% this year to $191 billion. Meanwhile, Google, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter all recently reported rapid growth in their year-over-year advertising revenues, Borow said.

The new funding will go toward increasing the company’s headcount.

“We have active customers on the platform, so we wanted to ramp up hiring as soon as we went into general release,” he added. “We are leaving beta with 25 businesses and a few hundred on our waitlist.”

That list will soon grow. In addition to the funding round, Trust announced a strategic partnership with social shopping e-commerce platform Verishop. The company’s 3,500 merchants will receive priority access to the Trust card and community, Borow said.

Andrea Hippeau, partner at Lerer Hippeau, said she knew Borow from being an investor in his previous advertising company Shift, which was acquired by Brand Networks in 2015.

When Borow contacted Lerer about Trust, Hippeau said this was the kind of offering that would be applicable to the firm’s portfolio, which has many direct-to-consumer brands, and knew marketing was a huge pain point for them.

“Digital marketing is important to all brands, but it is also a black box that you put marketing dollars into, but don’t know what you get,” she said. “We hear this across our portfolio — they spend a lot of money on ad platforms, yet are treated like mom-and-pop companies in terms of credit. When in reality Casper is outspending other companies by five times. Trust understands how important marketing dollars are and gives them terms that are financially better.”

Is the internet advertising economy about to implode?

News: Impossible’s plant-based sausage is coming home

August 11, 2021
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Impossible sent me a tube of its plant-based sausage to try ahead of today’s news. As an aside, the big box with several frozen packs inside was maybe not the most efficient way to send it, but I don’t know, maybe there’s no great way to send frozen foodstuffs. Someone feel free to disrupt that

That said, I’ve got no complaints about the contents. I’ve tossed the sausage (Notsage? Fauxsage?) into a couple of pasta dishes and am currently defrosting what’s left for dinner tonight. As someone who hasn’t eaten pork or beef for probably a decade and a half, I’m probably not the best judge of how close they’ve come to the actual thing, but I dunno, it tasted pretty much what I remember sausage tasting like.

Image Credits: Impossible

The product is Impossible’s follow-up to its popular Burger, introduced earlier at a number of diners across the U.S. It’s also gone on sale at around 200 coffee shops around Hong Kong. Today, the company is announcing retail availability for the product, as it arrives in a number of major supermarket chains. The list includes, Kroger, Ralphs, King Soopers, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Albertsons, Wegmans, Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Giant Martin’s, Giant Food, Sprouts Farmers Market and Heinen’s.

The product is entirely plant-based and contains no cholesterol or trans fats, with nine grams of fat, including four grams of saturated fat per a 56 gram serving. That also includes seven grams of protein and zero grams of pigs. Impossible lists the number of pigs killed for food each year in the U.S., but I’ll save you that and just say…it’s a lot of pigs. Americans eat a lot of pigs.

Image Credits: Impossible

The product also uses 79% less water, 41% less land and emits significantly less greenhouse gas than pork production. I can also attest to the fact that it cooks quite well in a skillet.

Impossible Foods gobbles up another $200 million

Startups making meat alternatives are gaining traction worldwide

Tag Archives: Blog

News: Don’t miss these special breakout sessions at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021

News: Weedmaps adds in-app cannabis purchasing for iPhone users

News: Joby Aviation makes its public trading debut on the NYSE

From $RTP to $JOBY

News: When the economic tide goes out, we’ll see which VCs are naked

News: Samsung’s latest Galaxy Z Flip starts at $1,000

News: Apple drops its lawsuit against maker of iPhone emulation software

News: VCs unfazed by Chinese regulatory shakeups (so far)

Before the shakeup

So, what about Q3?

News: Watch Samsung introduce its latest foldables live

News: Former Snap employees raise $9M for Trust, emerging from beta to level marketing playing field

News: Impossible’s plant-based sausage is coming home

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