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News: Facebook doubles down on business tools with WhatsApp API updates, Login Connect for Messenger and more

• June 2, 2021
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WhatsApp now has more than 2 billion users globally, and by comparison its efforts to cultivate more business usage have been quite modest: just over 175 million people message with WhatsApp Business accounts daily for things like customer support or to discuss products. Today, as part of its F8 event, Facebook is unveiling some updates

WhatsApp now has more than 2 billion users globally, and by comparison its efforts to cultivate more business usage have been quite modest: just over 175 million people message with WhatsApp Business accounts daily for things like customer support or to discuss products. Today, as part of its F8 event, Facebook is unveiling some updates to the WhatsApp API to expand that experience.

The news comes on the heels of Facebook unveiling the general availability of Messenger API for Instagram earlier today, and forms part of a bigger series of announcements aimed at doing business more easily on the platform.

More generally, Facebook and its many apps are at their heart very consumer services — they are used by billions of people to keep in touch with each other, for diversion, and to stay informed about whatever matters to them.

But Facebook the business has been gradually building out a very extensive and lucrative commercial infrastructure around that engaged audience, one that started with advertising but has extended deeper into marketing, customer service, workplace productivity, and shopping.

The F8 conference, hatched originally as a hackathon, had grown into a very big event. This year’s installment is a significantly more toned down affair than in recent years — no big crowds (it’s all virtual), no big product and hardware announcements (it doesn’t appear that there are any… so far), and it feels more like a Zoom conference — and today’s news about business-oriented developer tools not only resets the event back around its original developer focus, but it also bolsters that commercial strategy.

With WhatsApp for Business it appears that one of the sticking points has been time — from setting up WhatsApp for Business in the first place to responding to different kinds of messages. This is what Facebook is now addressing.

First, it’s speeding up the time it takes to set up a WhatsApp business account to five minutes (versus what it described as weeks in the past).

Then, Facebook is making it easier to use the Business account once it is set up. For starters, businesses will be able to respond faster to inbound messages (which previously were “difficult to follow up with customers outside of a 24-hour window”), and they can now send out messages to those who have opted in, for example around stock availability.

Businesses using the tool for customer care, meanwhile, will be given the option to create up to 10 pre-written messages to speed up their responses, and they can also set up reply buttons to provide pre-populated, popular replies from customers.

In addition to the WhatsApp news, Facebook is also adding another tool to Messenger to expand its: Facebook Login Connect.

Essentially, if a business has integrated Facebook Login, it will allow users to log into their app or website using their Facebook credentials, and then carry on a conversation with the company over Messenger.

This is useful not just because it also means that a user can keep track of any conversations from one place, but it gives the company access to the tools that it has built to carry out conversations in Messenger already, whether those are chatbots or links through to other CRM databases. Facebook said that tests of the service indicate that 70% of users opt in to use the Login Connect tool, indicating that they’re willing to use their Facebook credentials in this way.

This is a closed beta now but will be more widely available in coming months, Facebook said.

Finally, Facebook is launching a new feature in its Business Suite — a platform that can be used by businesses to manage activity across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger — that will let developers build “Business Apps.”

These are not apps in the app store sense, but tools made by third parties (developers) to work alongside the Facebook-built Business Suite, further integrating Facebook tools into businesses’ sites and apps, and also bringing more of a businesses’ content — for example items from a catalog — into their Facebook Page, or Instagram account, and so on. The platform already has some 90 developers working on it and it integrates with e-commerce platforms like Bigcommerce, Facebook said.

News: Archer Aviation pushes for dismissal of Wisk trade secret suit

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Archer Aviation hit back against allegations that it misappropriated trade secrets and infringed on patents from electric aircraft rival Wisk Aero, telling a court this week that it designed its Maker aircraft with a third-party eVTOL consultant prior to any former Wisk employees joining the company. Archer said it worked with consultant FlightHouse Engineering at

Archer Aviation hit back against allegations that it misappropriated trade secrets and infringed on patents from electric aircraft rival Wisk Aero, telling a court this week that it designed its Maker aircraft with a third-party eVTOL consultant prior to any former Wisk employees joining the company.

Archer said it worked with consultant FlightHouse Engineering at the end of 2019, when the consultancy firm modeled a 12-rotor fixed wing aircraft, with the front six rotors capable of tilting from a vertical to a horizontal position. This is the design that ultimately became the Maker. By the time the first Wisk employee arrived at Archer, this design had already been modeled, Archer says.

“Despite the breathless innuendo and baseless speculation to which Wisk devotes its entire complaint, Archer’s eVTOL aircraft design is not only the best eVTOL aircraft around, it is entirely Archer’s design,” the answer says.

A Wisk spokesperson told TechCrunch that Archer’s filing changes nothing about the case. It “contains no substantive response to the allegations Archer misappropriated more than 50 specific Wisk trade secrets, which were disclosed in a court filing last month and cover multiple components, systems, and designs for the aircraft,” the spokesperson said. “We believe Archer’s business is built on Wisk’s intellectual property as detailed in our filings, and we look forward to proceeding with our case.”

Wisk filed its lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in April, alleging that Archer perpetrated a “brazen theft” of confidential information and intellectual property. The suit came just two months after Archer announced it would merge with special purpose acquisition company Atlas Crest Investment Corp. in a deal valued at $3.8 billion.

In its filing Tuesday, Archer included counterclaims alleging “tortious interference and unfair competition.” Archer stated that Wisk engaged in a “media campaign” that was timed “to maximize harm to Archer after learning of Archer’s impending financial success.”

In a separate motion to dismiss, Archer also said that Wisk failed to identify any specific trade secrets that it allegedly misappropriated in the April complaint.

Wisk, born of a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk Corp., did include a 72-page trade secret disclosure in a separate injunction filed on May 19. That injunction could potentially bar Archer from using any of the purportedly stolen technology. An Archer spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company will file an opposition to that injunction on June 23, “which will address Wisk’s purported trade secret disclosure statement.”

A major part of Wisk’s suit are allegations that a former Wisk employee, Jing Xue, downloaded thousands of proprietary files from his work computer prior to joining Archer. However, Archer said in the motion to dismiss that Wisk does not allege that the former employee disclosed any such information to Archer. According to Archer, “such allegations do not suffice to show that Archer […] came into possession of the files or learned of the confidential information therein, much less that it did so knowingly, as is required to state a trade secret claim.”

News: Etsy asks, ‘how do you do, fellow kids?’ with $1.6B Depop purchase

• June 2, 2021
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Why is Etsy willing to pay more than 23x Depop’s 2020 revenues? It is buying Gen Z love.

The news this morning that e-commerce marketplace Etsy will buy Depop, a startup that provides a second-hand e-commerce marketplace, for more than $1.6 billion may not have made a large impact on the acquiring company’s share price thus far, but it provides a fascinating look into what brands may be willing to pay for access to the Gen Z market.

First, a few details: Per Etsy, the Depop deal is worth “$1.625 billion consisting primarily of cash, subject to certain adjustments for Depop’s working capital, transaction expenses, cash and indebtedness, and certain deferred and unvested equity for Depop management and employees.” So, $1.625 billion, plus or minus. We’ll use that number this morning.

Because Etsy is a public company and the transaction is material, it provided a good deal of information on the acquisition. The key facts that relate to the scale of Depop’s business are as follows:

• 2020 gross platform spend, revenue: “Depop’s 2020 gross merchandise sales (GMS) and revenue were approximately $650 million and $70 million, respectively, each increasing over 100% year-over-year.”
• Historical gross platform spend trend: “Depop’s GMS grew at a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 80% from 2017-2020.”

At $70 million in 2020 revenue, Depop is being valued at a multiple of 23.2x of the previous year’s top line. That’s rich, but not impossibly high for a company that just had a huge pandemic year. (Though it is somewhat notable that Etsy is valuing Depop as if it was a high-growth SaaS business and not a consumer marketplace.)

The category of e-commerce performed well during the pandemic, implying that Depop’s non-pandemic growth rate would have been lower than what it ultimately recorded. How can we tell? The company’s historical GMS spend figure of “nearly 80%” from 2017 to 2020 is inclusive of the 100%+ GMS growth it recorded last year. We can infer, then, that in 2017, 2018 and 2019, GMS at Depop grew at a slower pace, namely one that is under the 80% mark.

News: Stack Overflow acquired by Prosus for $1.8 Billion

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The legendary Q&A website for programmers (and probably one of the most copy-and-pasted sites on the Internet) Stack Overflow is being acquired. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Prosus (the primary shareholder of Chinese gaming mega co/WeChat developer, Tencent) will acquire Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion. Update: Prosus confirms the $1.8 billion number in a

The legendary Q&A website for programmers (and probably one of the most copy-and-pasted sites on the Internet) Stack Overflow is being acquired. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Prosus (the primary shareholder of Chinese gaming mega co/WeChat developer, Tencent) will acquire Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion.

Update: Prosus confirms the $1.8 billion number in a press release here.

While perhaps not a name everyone recognizes, Prosus — the international assets holding arm of South Africa’s Naspers — is something of a giant. In 2001, parent company Naspers bought a 46.5% stake in Tencent for $32 million dollars. Earlier this year they sold a 2% stake of Tencent for nearly $15 billion.

Stack Overflow co-founders Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky shared the following shortly after the news broke:

Spolsky elaborated in a blog post (aptly titled “Kinda a big announcement”) on his personal site, writing:

Today we’re pleased to announce that Stack Overflow is joining Prosus. Prosus is an investment and holding company, which means that the most important part of this announcement is that Stack Overflow will continue to operate independently, with the exact same team in place that has been operating it, according to the exact same plan and the exact same business practices. Don’t expect to see major changes or awkward “synergies”. The business of Stack Overflow will continue to focus on Reach and Relevance, and Stack Overflow for Teams. The entire company is staying in place: we just have different owners now.

Story developing….

News: Apple’s App Store facilitated $643 billion in commerce, up 24% from last year

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In its antitrust trial with Epic Games, which has just adjourned, Apple argued it doesn’t evaluate its App Store profit and loss as a standalone business. But today, the company put out new figures that indicate it does have a good understanding of the money that flows through its app marketplace, at the very least.

In its antitrust trial with Epic Games, which has just adjourned, Apple argued it doesn’t evaluate its App Store profit and loss as a standalone business. But today, the company put out new figures that indicate it does have a good understanding of the money that flows through its app marketplace, at the very least. The company has now released an updated version of a study performed by the economists at the Analysis Group, which claims the App Store ecosystem facilitated $643 billion in billings and sales in 2020, up 24% from the $519 billion seen the year prior. The new report focuses on the pandemic impacts to apps and the small business developers the App Store serves, among other things.

It also noted that about 90% of the billings and sales facilitated by the App Store actually took place outside its walls, meaning Apple took no commission on those purchases. This is up from the 85% figure reported last year, and is a figure Apple has been using in antitrust battles to paint a picture of an App Store that facilitates a lot commerce where it doesn’t take a commission.

The study then broke down how the different categories of App Store billings and sales were distributed.

Apple takes a commission on the sales of digital goods and services, which were $86 billion in 2020, or 13% of the total. But another $511 billion came from the sale of physical goods and services through apps — think online shopping, food delivery, ride hailing, etc. — or 80% of the total. These aren’t commissioned. And $46 billion came from in-app advertising, or 7% of the total.

The larger point being made with some of these figures is that, while the dollar amount flowing through apps being commissioned is large, it’s much smaller than most of the business being conducted on the App Store.

The report also noted how much of that business originates from China, which accounted for 47% of total global billings and sales ($300B) versus the U.S.’s 27% ($175+B).

Image Credits: TechCrunch

The study additionally dove into how some App Store categories had been heavily impacted by the pandemic — particularly those apps that helped businesses and schools move online, those that offered ways to shop from your phone, or helped consumers stay entertained and healthy, among other things.

This led to an over 40% increase in billings and sales from apps offering digital goods and services, while sales in the travel and ride hailing sectors decreased by 30%. While the latter may gradually return to pre-pandemic levels, some of the acceleration driven by the pandemic in other categories — like online shopping and grocery delivery — could be here to stay.

To break it down further, general retail grew to $383 billion in 2020, up from $268 billion last year. Food delivery and pickup grew from $31 billion in 2019 to $36 billion in 2021. Grocery shopping jumped from $14 billion to $22 billion. But travel fell from $57 billion in 2019 to $38 billion in 2020, and ride hailing dropped from $40 billion to $26 billion. (None of these categories are commissioned.)

The study then continued with a deep dive into how the App Store aided small businesses.

Highlighting how smaller businesses benefit from a tech giant’s ecosystem is a tactic others have taken to, as well, in order shore up support for their own operations, which have similarly been accused of being monopolies in recent months.

Amazon, for example, raves about the small businesses benefitting from its marketplace and its sales event Prime Day, even as it stands accused of leveraging nonpublic data to compete with those same small business sellers. Facebook, meanwhile, pushed the small business impact angle when Apple’s new privacy protections in iOS 14 allowed customers to opt out of being tracked — and therefore out of Facebook’s personalized ads empire.

In Apple’s case, it’s pointing to the fact that the number of small developers worldwide has grown by 40% since 2015. This group now makes up more than 90% of App Store developers. The study defines this group of “small” developers as those with fewer than 1 million downloads and less than $1 million in earnings across all their apps. It also excludes any developers that never saw more than 1,000 downloads in a year between 2015 and 2020, to ensure the data focuses on businesses, not hobbyists. (This is a slightly different definition than Apple uses for its Small Business Program, we should note.)

Among this group, more than 1 in 5 saw at least an increase in downloads of at least 25% annually since their first full year on the App Store. And 1 in 4 who sold digital goods and services saw an earnings increase of at least 25% annually.

The study also connected being on the App Store with growing a business’s revenue, noting that only 23% of large developers (those with more than $1 million in earnings in 2020) had already earned more than $1 million back in 2015. 42% were active on the App Store in 2015 but hadn’t crossed the $1 million threshold, and another 35% were not even on the App Store — an indication their success has been far more recent.

The research additionally identified over 75 businesses in the U.S. and Europe, where iOS was essential to their business, that went public or were acquired since 2011. Their valuation totaled nearly $500 billion.

Finally, the study examined how apps transact outside their home market, as around 40% of all downloads of apps from small developers came from outside their home countries and nearly 80% were operating in multiple storefronts.

Image Credits: Apple WWDC 2021 imagery 

While the antitrust scrutiny may have pushed Apple into to commissioning this type of App Store research last year, it’s interesting to see the company is now updating the data on an annual basis to give the industry a deeper view into the App Store compared with the general developer revenue figure it used to trot out at various events and occasions.

Like last year’s study, the updated research has been released in the days leading up to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. It’s a time of the year when Apple aims to renew its bond with the developer community as it rolls out new software development kits (SDKs), application programming interfaces (API)s, software and other tools — enhancements it wants remid developers are made possible, in part, because of its App Store fees.

Today, Apple notes it has more than 250,000 APIs included in 40 SDKs. At WWDC 2021, it will host hundreds of virtual sessions, 1-on-1 developer labs, and highlight App Store favorites.

“Developers on the App Store prove every day that there is no more innovative, resilient or dynamic marketplace on earth than the app economy,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a statement about the research. “The apps we’ve relied on through the pandemic have been life-changing in so many ways — from groceries delivered to our homes, to teaching tools for parents and educators, to an imaginative and ever-expanding universe of games and entertainment. The result isn’t just incredible apps for users: it’s jobs, it’s opportunity, and it’s untold innovation that will power global economies for many years to come,” he added.

News: Shef raises $20M to expand its homemade meal delivery marketplace

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It’s still a bit of a legal maze, but more cities are coming around to the idea of letting local home chefs bring in more income by selling homecooked meals to those nearby. Shef is a marketplace meant to help these home chefs connect with customers, handle orders, and get the food delivered — and

It’s still a bit of a legal maze, but more cities are coming around to the idea of letting local home chefs bring in more income by selling homecooked meals to those nearby.

Shef is a marketplace meant to help these home chefs connect with customers, handle orders, and get the food delivered — and they’ve just raised $20M to get it done.

The company is announcing its Series A round this morning, led by Andreessen Horowitz and backed by Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, M13, and a bevy of celebrities including Padma Lakshmi, Chef Aarón Sánchez, Katy Perry, Tiffany Haddish, Orlando Bloom, and NBA All-Star Andre Iguodala.

As part of the round, Andreessen Horowitz GP (and former OpenTable CEO) Jeff Jordan will join Shef’s board.

Because of varying local laws, Shef works a bit differently from market to market. In some places, for example, they’re able to tap local delivery networks to get meals the last mile; in others, chefs handle deliveries themselves.

Across all markets, though, the ordering process boils down to: pick a chef, order what you want a few days in advance (everything is done via pre-orders so chefs know exactly what they’ll need each day — it’s not an on-a-whim kind of thing), then heat it up upon arrival.

Image Credits: Shef

But whether or not a service like this is even allowed to exist varies from place to place. Even in California where a relatively new statewide law allows home cooks to sell their goods, the final say (and the details of the implementation) comes down to each county. In many places, “homecooking” still requires getting access to a commercial kitchen.

Shef co-founders Alvin Salehi and Joey Grassia don’t shy away from the legal challenges — in a chat earlier this week, they told me that they expect much of the funds they raised to go toward two things: figuring out how to get services like theirs legalized in more markets (they’ve hired Danielle Merida, former General Counsel for TaskRabbit, to help there), and to onboard chefs as those new markets come online.

The company says they currently have over 12,000 home chefs on their wait list, with that number ballooning as the pandemic shuttered restaurants around the country. Each chef they bring on to the platform goes through a 150-step onboarding process, including a food safety certification exam and food quality assessment.

“We want to be able to expand the services to as many people as possible, because so many people need it,” Salehi tells me. “But it takes resources to be able to do that effectively, and most importantly, to do that safely.”

Shef is currently live in the Bay Area, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and New York, with plans to roll out in new markets… well, as soon as they can.

News: Facebook to launch a ‘Researcher API’ for the academic community

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Facebook said it’s preparing to launch a new application programming interface (API) designed specifically for access by the research community. The API was announced during Facebook’s F8 developer conference today, and is meant to address issues that arose from changes made to Facebook’s platform in 2018 following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. That event forced

Facebook said it’s preparing to launch a new application programming interface (API) designed specifically for access by the research community. The API was announced during Facebook’s F8 developer conference today, and is meant to address issues that arose from changes made to Facebook’s platform in 2018 following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. That event forced the company to re-evaluate the access developers had to its user data.

Over the past three years, Facebook says it has deprecated thousands of APIs to reduce the risk of future data misuse and breaches.

It also renewed its agreements with developers on the platform to ensure they were “committed to the same values as we are,” noted Facebook VP of platform partnerships, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, during the keynote address.

However, Facebook admitted these changes had an impact on the academic research community, which had before been able to more broadly access Facebook data.

To address this, the company announced it’s soon launching a Researcher API, which will allow researchers to again analyze Facebook data with the goal of understanding the social network’s “influence on society,” Papamiltiadis noted.

“We wanted to make sure we got this right, and we were intentional about developing the best products to support researchers, while keeping people’s data safe and secure,” he said.

The Researcher API will offer real-time access to public Pages, Groups, Events and post-level U.S. data in a privacy-protected environment, the exec said. But further details were not offered, including, for example, how researchers would be vetted or whether there would be any fees associated with the data access.

The API will become available to the academic community later this year, Facebook said.

News: Just one more week to go until TC Sessions: Mobility 2021

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Seven days, 168 hours or 10,080 minutes — no matter how you count it, there’s just one week left until the global mobility tech community gathers on June 9 for TC Sessions: Mobility 2021. If you’re one of the brilliant minds focused on changing the future of transportation, grab your pass and join your tribe

Seven days, 168 hours or 10,080 minutes — no matter how you count it, there’s just one week left until the global mobility tech community gathers on June 9 for TC Sessions: Mobility 2021. If you’re one of the brilliant minds focused on changing the future of transportation, grab your pass and join your tribe of revolutionaries.

Whether you’re into AI, AVs, EVs, robotics (not everything’s an acronym around here) or hunting potential unicorns, you’ll gain insight from the leading voices in mobility. We packed the event agenda with an exciting variety of interactive presentations, panel discussions and breakout sessions. Bring your questions and join the conversation.

Here’s a peek at just some of the topics and people you can enjoy.

Supercharging Self-Driving Super Vision: Few startups were as prescient as Scale AI when it came to anticipating the need for massive sets of tagged data for use in AI. Co-founder and CEO Alex Wang also made a great bet on addressing the needs of lidar-sensing companies early on, which has made the company instrumental in deploying AV networks. We’ll hear about what it takes to make sense of sensor data in driverless cars and look at where the industry is headed.

Innovating Future Mobility for Global Scale: Learn how the California Mobility Center’s (CMC) model of bringing its clients’ new technologies to market is new and innovative, going beyond a typical demonstration or pilot program, to the point of product launch and sustaining market viability. Hear from an expert panel about how the CMC’s programming is unique, innovative, and game-changing.

Building an Electric Powerhouse: Rimac Automobili, today known for its electric hypercars and battery and powertrain development, began like so many storied startups do — in a garage. Mate Rimac has taken his company from tiny upstart to a 1,000-person company that has attracted Porsche as an investor and customer. And more is coming. We’ll talk to Mate about building a startup, his views on the EVs, and what is next for the company.

Don’t stress out about missing out — this is a no FOMO situation. Your pass includes live streaming and VOD access. That kind of flexibility lets you attend live and still get some work done at your desk. VOD lets you tap into any of the sessions you miss.

But don’t miss out on the 30 game-changing mobility startups showcasing their tech and talent in the expo area. Visit their virtual booths, ask for a demo, or strike up a collaboration. You’ll also get a chance to see them pitch during the Startup Pitch Feedback Session (listed in the agenda). Those feedback sessions can help you hone your own pitch, so check it out and take notes.

TC Sessions: Mobility 2021 takes place in just one week. Buy your pass today and keep the revolution rolling.

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

News: GitLab acquires UnReview as it looks to bring more ML tools to its platform

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DevOps platform GitLab today announced that it has acquired UnReview, a machine learning-based tool that helps software teams recommend the best reviewers for when developers want to check in their latest code. GitLab, which is looking to bring more of these machine learning capabilities to its platform, will integrate UnReview’s capabilities into its own code

DevOps platform GitLab today announced that it has acquired UnReview, a machine learning-based tool that helps software teams recommend the best reviewers for when developers want to check in their latest code. GitLab, which is looking to bring more of these machine learning capabilities to its platform, will integrate UnReview’s capabilities into its own code review workflow. The two companies did not disclose the price of the acquisition.

“Last year we decided that the future of DevOps includes ML/AI, both within the DevOps lifecycle as well as the growth of adoption of ML/AI with our customers,” David DeSanto, GitLab’s senior director, Product Management – Dev & Sec, told me. He noted that when GitLab recently surveyed its customers, 75% of the teams said they are already using AI/ML. The company started by adding a bot to the platform that can automatically label issues, which then led to the team meeting with UnReview and, finally, acquiring it.

Image Credits: GitLab

“Our primary focus for the second half of this year in bringing on UnReview is to help automate the selection of code reviewers. It’s a very interesting problem to solve, even we at GitLab occasionally end up picking the wrong reviewers based off of what people know,” DeSanto noted.

GitLab launched its original code review components last year. As Wayne Haber, GitLab’s director of Engineering, noted, that was still a very manual process. Even with the new system, teams still retain full control over which reviewers will be assigned to a merge request, but the tool will automatically — and transparently — rank potential reviewers based on who the system believes is best suited to this task.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to share my passion for data science and machine learning with GitLab and its community,” said Alexander Chueshev, UnReview’s founder (and now a senior full stack engineer at GitLab). “I look forward to enhancing the user experience by playing a role in integrating UnReview into the GitLab platform and extending machine learning and artificial intelligence into additional DevOps stages in the future.”

DeSanto noted that GitLab now has quite a bit of experience in acquiring companies and integrating them into its stack. “We’re always looking to acquire strong teams and strong concepts that can help accelerate our roadmap or strategy or help the platform in general,” he said. “And you can see it over the last couple of years of acquisitions. When we were looking at extending what we did in security, we acquired two leaders in the security space to help build that portfolio out. And that’s fully integrated today. […] In the case of this, UnReview is doing something that we thought we may need to do in the future. They had already built it, they were able to show the value of it, and it became a good partnership between the two companies, which then led to this acquisition.”

One interesting wrinkle here is that GitLab offers both a hosted SaaS service and allows users to run their own on-premises systems as well. Running an ML service like UnReview on-premises isn’t necessarily something that most businesses are equipped to do, so at first, UnReview will be integrated with the SaaS service. The team is still looking at how to best bring it to its self-hosted user base, including a hybrid model.

News: Iterative raises $20M for its MLOps platform

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Iterative, an open-source startup that is building an enterprise AI platform to help companies operationalize their models, today announced that it has raised a $20 million Series A round led by 468 Capital and Mesosphere co-founder Florian Leibert. Previous investors True Ventures and Afore Capital also participated in this round, which brings the company’s total funding to

Iterative, an open-source startup that is building an enterprise AI platform to help companies operationalize their models, today announced that it has raised a $20 million Series A round led by 468 Capital and Mesosphere co-founder Florian Leibert. Previous investors True Ventures and Afore Capital also participated in this round, which brings the company’s total funding to $25 million.

The core idea behind Iterative is to provide data scientists and data engineers with a platform that closely resembles a modern GitOps-driven development stack.

After spending time in academia, Iterative co-founder and CEO Dmitry Petrov joined Microsoft as a data scientist on the Bing team in 2013. He noted that the industry has changed quite a bit since then. While early on, the questions were about how to build machine learning models, today the problem is how to build predictable processes around machine learning, especially in large organizations with sizable teams. “How can we make the team productive not the person? This is a new challenge for the entire industry,” he said.

Big companies (like Microsoft) were able to build their own proprietary tooling and processes to build their AI operations, Petrov noted, but that’s not an option for smaller companies.

Currently, Iterative’s stack consists of a couple of different components that sit on top of tools like GitLab and GitHub. These include DVC for running experiments and data and model versioning, CML, the company’s CI/CD platform for machine learning, and the company’s newest product, Studio, its SaaS platform for enabling collaboration between teams. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Iterative essentially provides data scientists who already use GitHub or GitLab to collaborate on their source code with a tool like DVC Studio that extends this to help them collaborate on data and metrics, too.

Image Credits: Iterative

“DVC Studio enables machine learning developers to run hundreds of experiments with full transparency, giving other developers in the organization the ability to collaborate fully in the process,” said Dmitry Petrov, CEO and founder of Iterative. “The funding today will help us bring more innovative products and services into our ecosystem.”

Petrov stressed that he wants to build an ecosystem of tools, not a monolithic platform. When the company closed this current funding round about three months ago, Iterative had about 30 employees, many of which were previously active in the open-source community around its projects. Today, that number is already closer to 60.

“Data, ML and AI are becoming an essential part of the industry and IT infrastructure,” said Leibert, general partner at 468 Capital. “Companies with great open source adoption and bottom-up market strategy, like Iterative, are going to define the standards for AI tools and processes around building ML models.”