Altria writes down $4.5 billion from its investment in Juul

Altria writes down $4.5 billion from its investment in Juul

NEWS

Facing increasing scrutiny from international and domestic regulators, the Altria Group has decided to write down its investment into the e-cigarette company JUUL by $4.5 billion.

That’s roughly one-third of the $12.8 billion that the tobacco giant had invested into JUUL a little less than one year ago.

Juul Labs gets $12.8 billion investment from Marlboro maker Altria Group

What a difference a year has made.

JUUL, which has become synonymous with the vaping phenomenon that has swept the U.S., was once hailed as being at the forefront of a wave of companies that were making smoking obsolete and nicotine consumption safer for consumers.

Vaporization Startup Pax Labs Introduces Juul, Its Next-Gen E-Cigarette

The company began running into problems as its popularity increased exponentially (in part by allegedly turning to some of the same tactics big tobacco used to target underage consumers).

As the complaints began to roll in, and as JUUL was held responsible for an explosion in the use of tobacco products among underage Americans, the regulatory scrutiny also began to increase.

First the company was compelled to limit its sale of flavored tobacco products. Now it may be forced to pull all of its flavored products outright.

None of the company’s troubles have been helped by the wave of vaping related illnesses that have swept through the U.S. causing several deaths in users across multiple states.

Indeed, a new lawsuit against the company (filed two days ago) alleges that JUUL knowingly sold contaminated pods despite warnings from at least one employee.

As Juul announces mass layoffs, a new lawsuit alleges it shipped a million contaminated pods

First reported by BuzzFeed, the lawsuit was brought by Siddharth Breja, a former senior vice president of global finance at Juul from May 2018 to March 2019.

Breja alleges he was fired for complaining about the charge — a claim that a spokesperson for JUUL called “baseless”.

“[Breja] was terminated in March 2019 because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role,”a spokesperson for JUUL wrote in an email. “The allegations concerning safety issues with Juul products are equally meritless, and we already investigated the underlying manufacturing issue and determined the product met all applicable specifications.”

The write down by Altria follows an announcement from JUUL that it intends to lay off around 500 people — or roughly 10% of its workforce.

Japanese instant-credit provider Paidy raises $143 million from investors including PayPal Ventures

Japanese instant-credit provider Paidy raises $143 million from investors including PayPal Ventures

NEWS

Paidy, a Japanese financial tech startup that provides instant credit to consumers in Japan, announced today that it has raised a total of $143 million in new financing. This includes a $83 million Series C extension from investors including PayPal Ventures and debt financing of $60 million. The funding will be used to advance Paidy’s goals of signing large-scale merchants, offering new financial services and growing its user base to 11 million accounts by the end of 2020.

In addition to PayPal Ventures, investors in the Series C extension also include Soros Capital Management, JS Capital Management and Tybourne Capital Management, along with another undisclosed investor. The debt financing is from Goldman Sachs Japan, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. Earlier this month, Paidy and Goldman Sachs Japan established a warehouse facility valued at $52 million. Paidy also established credit facility worth $8 million with the three banks.

This is the largest investment to date in the Japanese financial tech industry, according to data cited by Paidy and brings the total investment the company has raised so far to $163 million. A representative for the startup says it decided to extend its Series C instead of moving onto a D round to preserve the equity ratio for existing investors and issue the same preferred shares as its previous funding rounds.

Launched in 2014, Paidy was created because many Japanese consumers don’t use credit cards for e-commerce purchases, even though the credit card penetration rate there is relatively high. Instead, many prefer to pay cash on delivery or at convenience stores and other pickup locations. While this makes online shopping easier for consumers, it presents several challenges for sellers, because they need to cover the cost of merchandise that hasn’t been paid for yet or deal with uncompleted deliveries.

Paidy’s solution is to make it possible for people to pay for merchandise online without needing to create an account first or use their credit cards. If a seller offers Paidy as a payment method, customers can check out by entering their mobile phone numbers and email addresses, which are then authenticated with code sent through SMS or voice. Paidy covers the cost of the items and bills customers monthly. Paidy uses proprietary machine learning models to score the creditworthiness of users, and says its service can help reduce incomplete transactions (or items that buyers ultimately don’t pick up and pay for), increase conversion rates, average order values and repeat purchases.

Hackers can steal the contents of Horde webmail inboxes with one click

Hackers can steal the contents of Horde webmail inboxes with one click

NEWS

A security researcher has found several vulnerabilities in the popular open-source Horde web email software that allow hackers to near-invisibly steal the contents of a victim’s inbox.

Horde is one of the most popular free and open-source web email systems available. It’s built and maintained by a core team of developers, with contributions from the wider open-source community. It’s used by universities, libraries, and many web hosting providers as the default email client.

Numan Ozdemir disclosed his vulnerabilities to Horde in May. An attacker can scrape and download a victim’s entire inbox by tricking them into clicking a malicious link in an email.

Once clicked, the inbox is downloaded to the attacker’s server.

But the researcher did not hear back from the Horde community. Security researchers typically give organizations three months to fix flaws before they are publicly disclosed.

NIST, the government department that maintains the national vulnerability database, said this week that the flaws pose a “high” security risk to users.

Ozdemir said some — though not all — of the vulnerabilities were recently fixed in the latest Horde webmail version. But the Horde community has not publicly acknowledged the vulnerability — or that users of earlier versions of the webmail are still vulnerable.

“It is really very easy to steal people’s email,” he told TechCrunch.

His bug report filed with Horde remains open at the time of writing. We emailed Horde several times, but did not hear back.

We found a massive spam operation — and sunk its server

With Garmin Autoland, small planes can land themselves if the pilot becomes incapacitated

With Garmin Autoland, small planes can land themselves if the pilot becomes incapacitated

NEWS

Here’s a horror scenario for you: you’re flying in a small plane and suddenly the single pilot who knows how to fly passes out. In the movies, somebody would probably talk one of the passengers through safely landing the plane. In reality, that’s unlikely. Flying planes is hard.

Now, however, planes outfitted with the Garmin G3000 flight deck, will have the option to include a system that will land the plane in an emergency with just the push of a button.

Autoland combines all of the navigation and communications tech in the plane and combines that with a sophisticated autopilot. Once a passenger activates the autoland feature — or the plane determines that the pilot is incapacitated — the system will look at all the available information about weather, remaining fuel on board and the local terrain to plot a route to the nearest suitable airport. It’ll even alert air traffic control about what’s happening, so they can route other planes around you.

The system also then takes over all of the touchscreens in the plane that are part of the G3000 flight deck and displays a simplified interface that allows the passengers to talk to air traffic control — and very little else.

Taking all of that information into account, the plane then plans the decent, lands the plane and shuts down the engines.

“The vision and development of the world’s first Autoland system for general aviation was a natural progression for Garmin as we looked at our aircraft systems and existing autonomous technologies and recognized it is our responsibility to use these building blocks to deliver a technology that will change lives and revolutionize air travel,” said Phil Straub, Garmin executive vice president and managing director of aviation.

It’s important to note that this is meant to be a system that’s only activated in the case of an emergency. Since it automatically alerts the authorities when somebody presses the button, nobody is going to activate it unless it’s absolutely necessary — and the FAA would surely want to ask you a few questions.

It does show, however, that we’re getting closer to a time where autopilot systems get significantly smarter. The number of variables a system like Autoland has to deal with is relatively small compared to those an autonomous car in a city has to navigate, after all. And autopilot systems for planes have already become quite sophisticated.

The launch partners for Autoland are Piper and Cirrus, who are making it an option in the 2020 models of the Piper M600 turboprop and Cirrus Vision Jet, pending FAA authorization. Those cost a few million dollars, though, so you better save up. Existing planes with the Garmin G3000 cockpit may also be retrofitted with the autoland capability, but that’s up to the manufacturer.

Given how old the general aviation fleet in the U.S. is, you’re not going to see any planes with this feature at your local airport anytime soon, though. Most of those 1970s Cessna 150s for rent at your local FBO don’t even have an autopilot, after all.

Announcing TechCrunch’s new commenting system

Announcing TechCrunch’s new commenting system

NEWS

At the heart of TechCrunch is our community. We want TechCrunch.com to feel like a home base for founders, investors and anyone who comes to us for breaking news and analysis of major tech giants and startups. That includes engaging with our community. We’re excited to introduce TechCrunch readers to our new commenting system, which is powered by Spot.IM.

Some new features you can tap into:

• Real time comments. You’ll be able to see when someone’s in the process of responding to you or typing a new comment.
• GIFs! Drop GIFs and images into the comment box.
• Top commenters.
• Community questions. This feature lets our writers pose questions to you directly on an article. Chime in with your ideas!

As always, bullying has no place on TechCrunch.

This includes but is not limited to harassment based on:

• Race
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Gender identity and expression
• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• Physical appearance
• Body size
• Age
• Religion

If you breach these guidelines, you’ll be banned for life. Use your best judgment and don’t be a jerk.

Publishers must be bold in adopting user-centric models to win the web’s war for attention. Spot.IM founder and CEO Nadav Shoval joined TechCrunch’s Travis Bernard for a discussion on why publishers must be community-centric.

The GoPro MAX is the ultimate pocketable travel vlogging camera

The GoPro MAX is the ultimate pocketable travel vlogging camera

NEWS

GoPro’s first foray into the 360-degree action was the GoPro Fusion, and while it was a strong first offering, the new GoPro MAX ($499) is a very different – and much improved – immersive action camera that has a lot to offer experienced videographers and voices alike. To be sure, the MAX has trade-offs, but taken together, it presents arguably the best overall combination of features and value for travel and adventure vloggers who don’t want to break the bank or haul a huge amount of kit while they get out and explore.

It’s hip to be square

The new GoPro MAX’s form factor is both familiar and different for fans of the company’s Hero line. It’s almost like you stacked two Heros on top of each other, with a square box instead of a small rectangle as a result. The design helps accommodate both the dual optics that GoPro uses to achieve its 360-degree capture, as well as the built-in touchscreen display that can be used as a selfie viewfinder, too, when operating in Hero mode.

The ruggedized case can survive submersion in water up to 16 feet deep, and it’s splash proof as well. There are additional protective lenses for the two dome-shamed cameras in the box, as well, which GoPro advises you use in potentially messy environments to protect the optics. Both front and back sides of the camera also feature grills for microphones, which can capture 360 immersive audio when the camera is operating in 360 mode, or act as truly impressive directional shotgun mics when vlogging or working in Hero mode.

Like the new Hero 8, the MAX has built-in GoPro accessory mounts, that fold out of the body on the bottom. This ensure you won’t have to pack the MAX in an external cage to attach it to the wide range of available GoPro mounts that exist out there, cutting down on bulk and the amount of stuff you need to pack when you take it out on the road.

The rubberized coating ensures you can keep a firm grip on the camera when you’re using it without any accessories, and GoPro’s easy to access and prominently placed external buttons mean that you can control shutter and power while you’re using it in even the messiest circumstances. Removable batteries mean you can charge and keep a few on hand to ensure you don’t miss an opportunity to get some great footage.

360 or not to 360

The MAX is a very capable 360-degree camera, on par with some of the best in the market. It handles stitching automatically, and when paired with the MAX Grip + Tripod, it’ll even get rid of any awkward stitch lines where you’re gripping the camera. Using their software, you can then use the 360 footage to create a lot of compelling effects during edits, including panning and transitioning between views, zooming in and out, and basically pulling off final edits that you wouldn’t even be able to get with a few different cameras and shooters all going at once.

That said, there are some limits to the 360 shooting: You can see where GoPro’s software has stitched together its two wide angle captures to achieve the effect, for instance, even if only slightly. And while the tools that GoPro provides for stringing together edits are surprisingly user-friendly, you will need to spend some time with it in order to make the most of the tools available – novices can easily create somewhat disorienting cuts before they get there bearings.

The beauty of the MAX, however, is that 360 is just one of the capabilities it offers – and in fact, that provides the basis for much more interesting things that most users will get plenty more value out of. Foremost among these is HyperSmooth, which, when combined with MAX’s exclusive horizon levelling feature, makes for some of the smoothest, best quality stabilized video footage you can get with any camera without a gimbal.

By default, horizon levelling on the MAX will work in both landscape and portrait modes, and switch between those orientations when you turn the camera 90 degrees. But if you lock the orientation to landscape, you can rotate the MAX freely and the horizon stays level, with footage staying smooth and stable – to an almost spooky degree.

There can sometimes be a slightly noticeable fuzziness when you pivot from one orientation to the other in captured footage, but it’s barely detectable, and it only happens if you rotate fully 90 degrees. Otherwise, the horizon stays look and footage stays smooth, regardless of how much movement, bounce or jitters you have holding the camera. It’s amazing, and should be experienced in person to truly appreciate how much tech went into this.

The perfect run-and-gun mix

That is one reason that this is the camera you want with you when you’re out and about. But it’s not all the MAX offers in this regard. GoPro has made use of the 360 capture to implement so-called ‘Digital Lenses,’ which change the field of view, and adjust distortion to get at final results that can really change the look and feel of the video you capture. There’s a new ‘Narrow’ mode that’s even more constrained than the typical ‘Linear’ mode GoPro offers, and a new Max SuperView mode that pushes wide beyond previous limits for a really dramatic look.

Because the camera is capturing 360 content at 6K, you don’t get 4K resolution when it’s cropped down to Hero mode. But you do get up to 1440p as well as 1080p options, which are plenty for most vlogging and travel log purposes. This is one area where there’s a compromise to be made in exchange for some of the flexibility and convenience you get from the MAX, but in my opinion it’s a worthwhile trade-off.

As mentioned, you also get a ruggedized camera that can even snorkel with you in the MAX 360, as well as a selfie screen and highly capable microphones built-in (in the video above you’ll notice that there is some deterioration in sound when it detects water). It really seems like GoPro did everything they could to ensure that if you wanted to, you could easily just grab the MAX and get out there, without worrying about packing any accessories beyond maybe their Shorty tripod or that MAX grip I mentioned.

Bottom Line

GoPro’s Fusion was a compelling camera for a specific set of users, but the MAX feels like it might be flipping the script on the whole GoPro lineup. In short, the MAX seems like a great default option for anyone new to action cameras or looking for a comprehensive all-arounder that’s easy to learn, but becomes more powerful in time.

The MAX’s amazing stabilization is also probably better suited to vlogging and social video than it is to the actual action camera set, because it’s so smooth and refined. You can alter to what extent it triggers, of course, but overall MAX just seems like a device that can do magic with its built in software for aspiring content creators who would rather leave the DSLR and the gimbal at one – or who never thought to pick one up in the first place.

How I Podcast: I’m Listening’s Anita Flores

How I Podcast: I’m Listening’s Anita Flores

NEWS

The beauty of podcasting is that anyone can do it. It’s a rare medium that’s nearly as easy to make as it is to consume. And as such, no two people do it exactly the same way. There are a wealth of hardware and software solutions open to potential podcasters, so setups run the gamut from NPR studios to USB Skype rigs.

We’ve asked some of our favorite podcast hosts and producers to highlight their workflows — the equipment and software they use to get the job done. The list so far includes:

Let’s Talk About Cats’ Mary Phillips-Sandy and Lizzie Jacobs
Broken Record’s Justin Richmond
Criminal/This Is Love’s Lauren Spohrer
Jeffrey Cranor of Welcome to Night Vale
Jesse Thorn of Bullseye
Ben Lindbergh of Effectively Wild
My own podcast, RiYL

Some days it can be tough to know what to do with all of those tossed salads and scrambled eggs. Brooklyn-based comedian Anita Flores started a podcast. A Frasier podcast, no less. Each episode of the series examines a piece of everyone’s favorite “Cheers” spin-off with a different guest, including recent appearances by Rachel Bloom and John Hodgman. 

Episodes of I’m Listening: A Frasier Podcast with Anita Flores can be found at purveyors of finer podcasts everywhere. 

I record my podcast at More Banana Productions’ studio in Brooklyn. I’m lucky to call Caitlyn Moldenhauer, creator of More Banana, my producer. She makes sure that everything sounds great. This is Caitlyn’s studio.

It’s a beautiful space that captures the essence of what More Banana is all about: A podcast network with women-led production. Books with female authors scattered about, an RBG candle, art from women comic book artists and designers and a signed Prince poster. The studio is designed to be bright and comfortable, against other recording studios that tend to be dark and dungeonesque. 

In terms of what kind of equipment, we use Rode Microphones and a Rodecaster Pro. We record mainly in Audition with an SD backup, because you always need a backup! Our setup allows for a simple plug and play for up to three microphones and is really simple to master. The studio also teaches women to engineer and edit podcasts, so it’s important that we have a setup that isn’t a barrier to learning as we introduce people to podcasting. 

We have guests that come in to the studio, but a lot of them are in different states. In those cases, we use Google Hangouts or a phone number to speak with guests. We record the Skype feeds often, although when we can we prefer if guests calling in remotely record themselves with a studio, or close to it, microphone setup. For I’m Listening, the guests who call in on Skype often make the episode feel like an actual radio show. It’s an homage to the format of Frasier Crane’s radio show “The Dr. Frasier Crane Show.”  So the sound of a Skype recording fits for that podcast, but not for all of them. We always prefer in-the-room sound instead of over digital.  

Most importantly, we have a studio pet: Caitlyn’s French bulldog, Ella. She welcomes all of our guests at the door, and it absolutely sets the mood pre-recording. I usually don’t tell my guests there’s a dog (unless I know they’re allergic), so it’s always a fun surprise to see their reaction. Nothing like having a cute dog to fill a lull in conversation! It should be a law that all recording studios come with some kind of cuddly pet.

I recently recorded a special episode of “I’m Listening” in my apartment, I can’t reveal too much, but let’s say it involved eating tossed salads and scrambled eggs. The studio equipment that we use out of studio is the same Rode Mics and sound board (the Rode Procaster), which is really portable and works in non-studio spaces for the most part. We always use dynamic microphones because they help in spaces that you can’t always control for background noise, echo, etc. Caitlyn runs the sound board during these recordings to make sure all the audio sounds great. 

Study claims Disney+ already has over a million U.S. subscribers, pre-launch

Study claims Disney+ already has over a million U.S. subscribers, pre-launch

NEWS

Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, doesn’t launch until mid-November, but it may have already signed up over a million customers in the U.S., according to new data from analytics firm Jumpshot, out this week. The firm, which gathers data from a panel of online consumers to gain insights, is not the only one forecasting a promising start for the upcoming streaming service.

In mid-October, analysts at UBS said they polled 1,000 consumers and 86% said they had heard of Disney+. In addition, 44% said they were “likely” to subscribe — a figure that put Disney+ ahead of Disney’s internal forecasts from April of 20 million to 30 million U.S. subscribers by 2024. (Disney also expects 60 to 90 million worldwide subscribers by that time.)

Similar to comScore, Jumpshot uses a panel of 100 million devices to gather its consumer insights. The firm claims to be able to view data about consumer searches, clicks and transactions, including those behind walled gardens, like Amazon, Netflix, Google, and others.

In the case of the Disney+ data, Jumpshot tracked the number of visits to a sign-up page, then how many users followed through to purchase. It uses a statistical calibration from the panel to represent the U.S. internet population at large.

Its data for Disney+ is limited to the U.S. and only includes mobile web and desktop purchases during the pre-sale time frame of August 25 through October 14.

Jumpshot is also among the first to gather insights about the makeup of the early Disney+ subscriber base.

The firm found that 31% of the Disney+ subscribers already stream on at least one existing over-the-top platform, like Amazon, Hulu or Netflix. Of those, 19.4% stream from Amazon Prime, 9.1% stream from Hulu, and 18.5% stream Netflix.

In addition, 12.5% stream on multiple platforms already, which means they’re adding Disney+ to a fuller streaming lineup.

Jumpshot’s data is useful, but can’t yet paint a full picture of Disney+ consumer interest in the U.S. Many U.S. consumers will simply gain access to the new service by way of Verizon, which partnered with Disney to offer a free year to its new and existing 4G LTE and 5G unlimited wireless customers. (Disclosure: TechCrunch’s parent, Verizon Media Service, is owned by Verizon). Others may be waiting to sign up after the service launches, perhaps through a TV platform app, instead of the Disney+ website.

However, Jumpshot data is based on tracking consumer activity, not on polls.

That said,  other studies have also confirmed there’s strong interest in Disney+ — stronger, in fact, than some other soon-to-launch rival streamers. A HarrisX poll, for example, found 21% of U.S. households intend to sign up for Disney’s streaming service, versus just 11% for HBO Max. Hub Entertainment Research’s poll found that 1 in 4 TV U.S. consumers said they’ll sign up for Disney+, versus 6% for Apple TV+.

Meanwhile, a TV Time and UTA IQ study delved into brand awareness, and found Disney+ and Apple TV+ had the highest levels of awareness at 88% and 63%, respectively, among the upcoming services. This was followed by HBO Max (37%) and NBCU’s Peacock (28%).

Notably, Disney+ wasn’t only appealing to families with children, the study also found. Families were no more or less likely to subscribe than those without kids, indicating that Disney is doing well in appealing to adults by way of its franchises, like Star Wars and Marvel.

It still remains to be seen how the streaming wars will pan out when Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Peacock and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi all make their U.S. debuts. Most consumers, after all, have limits on how much they can spend on subscriptions. And TV is only one of many subscriptions we have these days, alongside those for music, news, gaming, and more.

Twitter says government demands for user data continue to rise

Twitter says government demands for user data continue to rise

NEWS

Twitter says the number of government demands for user data are at a record high.

In its latest transparency report covering the six-months between January and June, the social media giant said it received 7,300 demands for user data, up by 6% a year earlier, but that the number of accounts affected are down by 25%.

The company turned over some account data in just under half of all cases.

U.S. government agencies requested the most data from the company during the period, filing 2,120 demands for 4,150 accounts — accounting for about one-third of all demands. Japan was trailing behind with 1,742 demands for 2,445 accounts.

The company also had 33 demands for data on 86 Periscope video-streaming accounts, disclosing some information in 60% of cases.

Twitter also disclosed it was previously served with three so-called national security letters (NSLs), which can compel companies to turn over non-content data at the request of the FBI. These letters are not approved by a judge, and often come with a gag order preventing their disclosure. But since the Freedom Act passed in 2015, companies have been allowed to request the lifting of those gag orders.

The report also said Twitter saw a rise across the board in the amount of private information, sensitive media, hateful content, and abuse, but that it was continuing to take action.

Twitter said it removed 124,339 accounts for impersonation, and 115,861 accounts for promoting terrorism, a decline of 30% on the previous reporting period.

The company also removed 244,188 accounts for violations relating to child sexual exploitation.

Jack Dorsey says Twitter will ban all political ads

Omio buys Rome2Rio to build out its global travel aggregator business

Omio buys Rome2Rio to build out its global travel aggregator business

NEWS

Omio (née GoEuro) has acquired multimodal travel veteran Rome2rio as it works on building out a global travel aggregator business, having taken the decision to zoom out from its home market of Europe earlier this year.

Financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed. But Omio raised a $150M funding round a year ago so it’s presumably splashing a portion of that capital now.

It’s not Omio’s first acquisition (others have included BusRadar for beefing up its bus search capabilities). But it looks to be the first with its eye on a broader global business horizon.

Rome2rio is based in Melbourne, Australia, and offers search tools for travellers covering multiple transportation options all around the world.

Some 10 million locations are covered by its product which serves results for more than 5,000 train, bus, flight, ferry and intra-city public transportation operators.

The 2010 founded startup has some 18 million users per month. It had only raised a very small amount of VC over nearly a decade of operations, per Crunchbase.

Omio says it will maintain Rome2rio as a separate brand, so the company will be operating two travel aggregator brands going forward. The companies will collaborate to “create new and better experiences” for global travellers by combining Rome2rio’s end-to-end journey planning offer with the extensive transport inventory that’s bookable via Omio, it adds.

Commenting in a statement, Naren Shaam, CEO and founder of Omio, said: “We are excited to welcome the Rome2rio team to Omio. They have built a great product with innovative tech and delivered impressive growth. Together, our two brands will reach half a billion users every year and offer access to thousands of transportation operators globally, helping us deliver our vision to solve consumer travel globally.”

“Joining forces with Omio is a natural extension of our existing product experience,” added Dr Michael Cameron, CEO and co-founder of Rome2rio, in another statement. “We have spent almost a decade refining our ability to help users figure out how to get from one corner of the globe to another. Now, with Omio, Rome2rio customers will be able to book tickets with more transport providers than ever before, and receive support throughout their journey.

“Rome2rio and Omio share a vision of creating simple, intuitive multi-modal transport products for our users. As a team, we are excited about the opportunity to work with Omio, integrate our technologies, and leverage each other’s expertise to scale even more quickly.”

Further acquisitions look to be on the cards for Omio, which says it will look to buy its way into new geographies — as well as seeking to grow organically and via partnering with more transport providers.

Currently the 2013-founded travel business has an average of 27 million monthly users. It also says it has 18 million app downloads to date as well as more than 800 partnerships with transportation providers.

The 2020 Ford Shelby Mustang: a savage, daily-driver muscle car

The 2020 Ford Shelby Mustang: a savage, daily-driver muscle car

NEWS

The Shelby GT500 is a beast on the track. It’s not a surprise. After a day driving around Las Vegas, I found something that surprised me: The GT500 is as comfortable on the road as it is on the track.

The Shelby GT500 is an icon of motoring. The name implies a simple formula of stuffing a lot of power into a modest body. I’m pleased to report Ford stuck to the proven method for the 2020 GT500. A 5.2L supercharged engine provides 670 HP in this coupe. It’s the most powerful Ford ever mass-produced. The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is a future classic, and unlike its predecessors, the car is memorable for more than just going fast in a straight line.

The 2013-2014 GT500 was a monster. It was raw and unhinged and had the thumping soul of a muscle car from a bygone era. It was a Mustang in its purest form. Fast down the drag strip and prone to crash when burning out of Cars and Coffee. This time around, Ford created something different. The 2020 GT500 is still packed with power, but refined enough to create a vehicle that’s capable and comfortable.

On the track, The GT500 dives into corners and roars down the straights. On the drag strip, it hits the quarter-mile in under 11 seconds (I did a 10.98). And on the street, it’s comfortable driving between red lights. The GT500 is a car someone could drive daily to and from an office park. I took my tester to Starbucks and through the back streets of Las Vegas. It’s sublime thanks to a brilliant implementation of a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

The DCT manages the communication between the engine and tires. It’s lovely. The dual-clutch transmission is lightning quick, with shifts happening as fast as 80ms. On the track, that’s critical, and on the streets, it makes for easy driving. When cruising from red light to red light, the shifts are refined. They’re quick and light as they translate the engine’s obscene power into mild motoring.

During my short time with the 2020 GT500, I never felt overwhelmed with powered when driving it on city streets. The 2020 GT500 is an exercise in controlled restraint. Somehow this 670 HP Ford can hit 60 mph in 3.3 seconds and can still be easy to putz around town. It’s surprising and a testament to the advances made within Dearborn.

The on-street feel is critical to the success of the latest GT500. Not everyone is looking for a dragster or track superstar. With this performance car, Ford is punching up, appealing to entry-level Porsche and BMW buyers with sticker shock. The GT500 is not apologetic. It’s not trying to be a European sports car, and yet I find it competitive with some of the best from Germany.

Yet don’t sleep on this GT500. When instructed, the 670 HP engine will rip the soul from your body. Drop the pedal to the floor, and it hits 60 mph nearly as fast as Ford’s GT supercar.

[gallery ids="1906453,1906452,1906451,1906450,1906449,1906447"]

The interior is lackluster for the price. When the GT500 is fitted with all the options, it approaches six figures. The performance is worth the sticker price, but the interior is that of a car costing around $30,000. The GT500 comes with upgraded seats, extra gauges, and some materials are improved. In the end, the GT500 lacks the interior refinement of an M3 or AMG C Class, and it will likely cost Ford some sales.

Ford engineers fitted the Shelby GT500 with a powertrain that will devour tracks. The dual-clutch transmission keeps the 670 HP supercharged engine in line. During my time on the track, this DCT performed admirably, gleefully holding shifts until the right moment and rev-matching downshifts while dipping into corners. Sure, a manual transmission would be fun at times, but using this DCT means peak performance is more obtainable.

The 2020 Shelby GT500 attacks corners, unlike any most muscle cars, dipping and diving without a hint of the brakes fading. It grips better than expected, holding the tires on the tarmac even during the most extreme corning. The on-track performance is impressive for any car, let alone a Mustang. The GT500 offers class-leading track performance. A Dodge SRT Hellcat Redeye will be the Mustang to a quarter-mile, but the Mustang will pull ahead at the first corner.

On the drag strip, nearly anyone hit an 11-second quarter mile. During my time at the track, there was a stiff headwind, and it took me four runs down the strip to go from 11.4 seconds to 10.98 seconds. Ford says the car can do it in 10.9, and I see little reason to doubt that time.

Monster burn-outs are a few menu options away. With just a couple button presses, a novice can lock the front wheels, and spin the rears to create a massive plume of burning rubber.

Turn the exhaust to normal or track, and the car screams when the throttle is wide open. The noise is impressive. It’s full range and sounds more supercar than muscle car. I found the exhaust note to be more expansive than just an explosive rumble.

I asked a Ford engineer if the GT500 was louder than the GT350. He laughed before answering with a straight face. “First of all, both are legal,” he said, alluding to the explosive exhaust note. Unlike the GT350, the GT500 has a quiet mode. It’s not as soft as a Camry, but in this mode, the GT500 is less obnoxious, making it easier to drive daily.

It’s hard to imagine where the Mustang goes from here. I spent a day racing the GT500 around desert roads and the Las Vegas Speedway. It’s incredible and exceeded my expectations. The GT500’s power is endless, and the noise is intoxicating. How does Ford improve while maintaining the Shelby cobra heritage? Likewise, will future versions lean on electric motors to squeak even more performance from Ford’s pony car?

Never mind about the future. As it sits right now, the 2020 GT500 is the pinnacle of muscle car performance.

Purists will decry Ford’s use of an automatic transmission in this car, saying the GT500 should have a standard instead. It’s understandable. A manual transmission results in a commanding feeling of control. And for those looking for such experience, the much-less expensive GT350 is worth a look. The GT350 offers much of the usable power of the GT500 in a more traditional package. In the run-up to driving the GT500, I borrowed a 2019 GT350 for a week. It’s a beast, and I loved it. The steering seemed more direct than the GT500, and the manual transmission resulted in the feeling of unhinged power that’s somewhat lacking in the carefully packaged GT500.

Want an over-the-top, muscle car feel? Get the GT350. Want a supercar experience at a pony car price? Get the GT500.

It’s nearly a mischaracterization to call the GT500 a muscle car. The GT350 is a muscle car with its standard transmission and raw 5.2L flat-plane crank engine. The GT500, with its supercharged 670 HP engine and dual-clutch transmission, is something more refined. It’s not a supercar, nor is it a muscle car. It’s just a fantastic sports car living its best life.

It’s undeniable: In 2019, we are living in the twilight of combustion engines. Electric is the future. And in these last days, internal combustion engines are a work of art. Automakers from all parts of the globe are turning out wonderful engines that are breathtaking in their efficiency and performance. The supercharged 5.2L found in the GT500 is a masterpiece.

The Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is the most powerful Mustang to date, and I would venture to say, one of the last without an assist from an electric motor. Enjoy it while it lasts. These sorts of fossil fuel-burning, greenhouse gas-emitting monsters from Detroit are long for this world.

Learn how to scale your startup globally at Disrupt Berlin

Learn how to scale your startup globally at Disrupt Berlin

NEWS

The rise of the internet has given every company the chance to be a global company. But as a founder, growing from your garage to the worldwide markets can be tricky business.

That’s why we’ve assembled a panel of top-tier experts to talk through the peaks and pitfalls of scaling strategies at Disrupt Berlin in December.

I’m very pleased to announce that Holger Seim, founder and CEO of audio startup Blinkist, Karoli Hindriks, founder and CEO of Jobbatical, and prominent Silicon Valley immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn will be joining us at the show, which runs December 11 and December 12.

Holger Seim founded Blinkist in 2012. The learning service condenses the information and knowledge found in nonfiction books and repackages that info into small text or audio packets. The company charges $12.99/month for a subscription, with a steep discount for those who pay annually. Today, Blinkist has customers in more than 150 countries. Seim brings experience from his time at Deutsche Telekom, where he focused on digital growth and partnership initiatives.

Karoli Hindriks, CEO and founder of Jobbatical, brings a wealth of experience on the topic of scaling, not only from growing her own startup’s footprint, but by the very nature of the company itself. Jobbatical offers reliable relocation for folks joining high-growth tech companies, handling the nitty gritty of immigration on behalf of employers, including visa documentation and residence permits. Hindriks, a native of Estonia, also led the launch of seven television channels in Northern Europe, including National Geographic channels and MTV. In short, Hindriks knows how to cross borders, from tech talent to products.

Last, but certainly not least, we’ll have Sophie Alcorn, founding partner of Alcorn Immigration Law, to round out the panel. The firm was one of the fastest-growing immigration law firms in Silicon Valley. Alcorn can help founders understand the complexities of immigration and how they can leverage different immigration options to secure key talent. Alcorn can also inform investors of the things to look out for when ensuring founders can legally build companies in the U.S.

Join us in Berlin at TechCrunch Disrupt to hear more from our experts on how to scale your company globally. Tickets are available right here.

For the first time in two years, the smartphone market shows signs of life

For the first time in two years, the smartphone market shows signs of life

NEWS

All is not lost for smartphone manufacturers. On the heels of two years’ of global stagnation, the category is finally showing some signs of life. Much of the bounce back comes as manufacturers are working to correct for dulled consumer interest.

I wouldn’t put too much weight in the numbers right now, as they’re little more than an uptick. Numbers from Canalys put shipment growth at one percent from Q3 2018 to Q3 2019. In most in cases, that would be a modest gain, at best, but this is notably the first time in two years that the numbers have been heading in the right direction.

Samsung saw the biggest gains — a phenomenon the analyst firm chalks up to a shift in strategy to eat some of its profits. The move has paid off for the quarter, with an 11% growth in device shipments to 78.9 million devices shipped. That gives the company the largest global marketshare at 22.4%.

Huawei, too, saw impressive growth, year-over-year, commanding second place with 66.8 million units shipped. Much of its growth came from China, which has ramped up spending on the company’s products as it has run into regulatory scrutiny overseas. Resumption of sales in some international markets helped juice growth as well. Of the top three, Apple continued to struggle the most, with a 7% loss from 2018.

For now, at least, none of the these numbers qualify as full turn around for a stagnant category, though the upcoming roll out of 5G coverage could help numbers in the right direction in the coming year.

Singapore’s Qoo10 acquires Indian online marketplace ShopClues

Singapore’s Qoo10 acquires Indian online marketplace ShopClues

NEWS

Qoo10, a Singapore-based e-commerce firm has acquired India’s online marketplace ShopClues in an all-stock deal, the two companies said Thursday. The deal, which per a person familiar with the matter valued ShopClues at $100 million, ends years-long struggle at once thriving Indian firm to find a new home. The new deal will see ShopClues merged with eBay-backed Qoo10.

More to follow…

What Berlin’s top VCs want to invest in right now

What Berlin’s top VCs want to invest in right now

NEWS

Berlin rose as one of Europe’s leading startup hubs over the last decade, featuring unicorns N26, Delivery Hero, HelloFresh, and Auto1 Group. Berlin attracts developers from Eastern Europe and elsewhere into an international hub where English is the linga franca among startups and costs are noticeably lower than in London or Paris. Rocket Internet, while criticized for launching copycats of successful US startups has trained a deep bench of young software executives in rapidly scaling companies.

As we gear up for our Disrupt Berlin conference in December, I wanted to get a pulse on the types of startups that top VCs in Berlin’s ecosystem are looking to invest in right now, so I asked eleven of them to share examples of the trends they find most exciting:

• Luis Hanemann, Partner at e.Ventures
• David Rosskamp, Partner at June Fund
• Dr. Fabian Heilemann, Partner at Earlybird
• Simon Schmincke, Partner at Creandum
• Jan Miczaika, Partner at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures
• Pawel Chudzinski, Point Nine Capital
• Ciaran O’Leary, Partner at Blueyard Capital
• Jan Borgstädt, Partner at JOIN Capital
• Christoph Schuh, Partner at Lakestar
• Anton Waitz, Partner at Project A
• Filip Dames, Partner at Cherry Ventures

The range of interests hints at the expanse of Berlin’s startup ecosystem right now, with VCs focused on everything from fintech, agtech, and B2B marketplaces to audio, travel, and transportation.

Here are their responses:

 

Luis Hanemann, Partner at e.Ventures

“We see multiple trends emerging, in the B2C segment we see Audio is booming and is right for disruption. It’s amazing to see the development in the space. Our beloved Berlin-based  portfolio company Blinkist is addressing this topic and we have done a recent investment in Podimo, which is building the Netflix for Podcasts, launching soon in Germany.”

 

David Rosskamp, Partner at June Fund

“We spend a lot of time thinking around large macro themes and investing into them in a structured way. One central field of attention has been the agricultural world, in particular the flow of goods and information. We see a large need, and an equally large economic opportunity in digitizing these flows, in providing transparent access to agricultural supplies and in empowering millions of small-scale farmers. So June has invested in agricultural trading networks from Europe to Africa. It clearly matches our investment thesis: global, network-driven enterprises that the world needs. We have similar investments in healthcare or decentralized networks, to name a few.”

 

Dr. Fabian Heilemann, Partner at Earlybird

“At Earlybird we believe that the first wave of innovation within Logistics, being rather of a transformative nature, e.g. digital freight marketplaces and forwarder models, has reached its peak. We are now particular excited w.r.t the second wave of LogTech innovation, which we expect to have a truly disruptive impact on the industry. It is our conviction that the availability of structured data, but also the increasing maturity of for example distributed ledger technologies, entail the opportunity for digital service providers to expand their technology driven lead over incumbent players. Whereas competitive forces in Logistics today are mainly adhere to scale effects, we think that next generation of logistics companies will leverage technology to drive profitability.”

 

Simon Schmincke, Partner at Creandum

“We continue to see the consumerization of enterprise grade solutions—enabling self-onboarding in a toned-down SME-oriented solution. The FinTech scene here in Berlin is something we continue to be excited about, both for businesses and consumers. Also, anything real estate related immediately grabs our attention—co-living, financing, intelligent design, construction automation. The most important change, however, is that we see entrepreneurs aiming higher and building bigger companies, due, in large part, to the impressive role models the ecosystem has produced in recent years.”

 

Jan Miczaika, Partner at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures

“Over the past 20 years we’ve seen a significant shift in the focus of Berlin-based startups. Originally there was a strong focus on e-commerce and marketplaces. Today this is significantly broader. Berlin is a fintech hotspot, a global proving ground for mobility concepts, the HQ for digital B2C champions and has strong growth in B2B/SaaS. Berlin is also highly relevant for Blockchain, which fits extraordinarily well with the anarchical spirit of the city. As a broad, multi-stage investor we at HV are excited to cover all of the above, trying to find inspirational entrepreneurs with a strong vision for the future. I personally am most interested in companies with a strong data angle, across both B2C and B2B.”

 

Pawel Chudzinski, Partner at Point Nine Capital

“Marketplaces have transformed how consumers access products and services across many categories vs. in B2B this process feels like 10-15 years behind. We see more and more startups pursue marketplace opportunities across various b2b categories and we want to discover them as early as possible. We are industry agnostic, but the industries in which we have been spending most time recently were probably supply chain and logistics, and financial services (incl. crypto). We also expect a rise in sustainability focused startups and we started diving into this space as well – mainly from the SaaS and marketplace angle.”

 

Ciaran O’Leary, Partner at Blueyard Capital

“BlueYard is a thesis driven early stage firm that backs founders with transformative ideas that decentralize markets and empower humanity. Today BlueYard is focused on the reinvention of the internet for permission-less innovation through decentralized web protocols and services that can untangle the server-side monopolies (e.g. p2p protocols and networks), the ability to use nature / biology itself paired with breakthrough engineering and computation to solve humanity’s largest planetary challenges (e.g. synthetic biology, quantum computing), the re-thinking of the knowledge worker stack by liberating users and data from the current tools designed in the 1980s (e.g. alternatives to PowerPoint, Excel, etc) and the separation of state and money through algorithmically transparent and programmable money.”

 

Jan Borgstädt, Partner at JOIN Capital

“We are deeply entrenched in identifying technologies that lay the foundation of our industrial future – or what we call the Neue Industry. I look for companies whose founders have deep technical knowledge to build transformative tools that augment human capabilities in essential processes. Think about the construction industry, and how advanced modeling tools and software can revolutionize the backbone of the way our civilization is built. Or the automation of processes such as circuit mapping and production planning. These are among the trends that excite us right now.”

 

Christoph Schuh, Partner at Lakestar

Berlin is the tech ecosystem where we have done the most investments out of our existing portfolio of more than 50 companies. For example Travel & Mobility is the space where we are very much interested and active. We’ve invested into Berlin-based travel tech companies like GetYourGuide, HomeToGo and Omio and we’re still looking for new stars. At Lakestar, we also like B2B plays where industries are in transformation and tech can enable a new level of efficiency for the ecosystem. So we also invested into the Berlin based logistic player Sennder, the  #1 digital freight forwarder in Europe. Actually, we also look into industry disruption in 3.0/4.0/RPA space and others.”

 

Anton Waitz, Partner at Project A

“At Project A, we think and work in industry deep dives. That means we pick 5-6 industries at the time on which we spend most of our energy and where we do the majority of our investments. It’s interesting to see how recently our deep dives have let us think about some of the most fundamental questions in life: How will we work in 10 years time (Deep Dive: Business Software/Process Automation)? How will we reside (Deep dive: Real Estate)? How will we move us (Mobility) and things (Logistics)? How will we produce (Industry 4.0)? And how will we stay healthy (Digital Health)? I guess it shows how deep digitization has reached the very basics of our life – and how exciting our job actually is!”

 

Filip Dames, Partner at Cherry Ventures

“We believe the next years will show successful companies in industries which have traditionally been very hard to tackle for startups. For example, we’re just at the very beginning of seeing the effects of technology innovation in healthcare or manufacturing, two spaces we actively investing in with Cherry. Data, leveraged through AI or intelligent user interfaces can have a huge impact on solving problems in these industries. In Berlin, we’re excited to see that the city is becoming more and more a home for deep tech companies, attracting technical talent from around the world.”

 

Join TechCrunch in Berlin on December 11-12 for Disrupt Berlin…

Apple Card users can now finance iPhone purchases for 24 months, interest-free

Apple Card users can now finance iPhone purchases for 24 months, interest-free

NEWS

It’s not quite an “Apple Prime” subscription, but it’s compelling. Apple on Wednesday introduced a new program that will allow Apple Card users to finance their iPhone purchases for 24 months, without paying interest. The program aims to appeal to consumers who frequently upgrade their iPhone to the latest model, but often turn to their carrier to finance those purchases.

With the Goldman Sachs Apple Card, those iPhone users will have another option — and one without the associated interest and fees of a traditional credit card purchase, Apple says. In addition, the Apple Card offers 3% back on purchases from Apple, which further sweetens the deal.

The program helps to lay the groundwork for what some believe may eventually become a larger subscription product for Apple, or a so-called “Apple Prime” — a name that references the Amazon Prime membership program that includes a variety of perks alongside its fast, free shipping.

An Apple hardware subscription could see users instead paying for the privilege of using the latest Apple hardware, while also bundling in other services, like AppleCare, similar to its current iPhone Upgrade Program today. But a true “Apple Prime” would include other Apple subscriptions under the same roof, like iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and/or Apple Arcade, in some sort of bundle deal. 

Already, Apple has begun to experiment with subscription bundles. This week, for example, it announced a bundle for students that includes Apple Music and Apple TV+ for the same price as a student Apple Music subscription alone ($5/mo). And in a sense, Apple is already bundling its new Apple TV+ streaming service with its hardware, as it’s giving the service away for free with a new device purchase in its first year.

Apple has been steadily moving towards a more robust iPhone subscription program for some time.

In recent years, it has promoted iPhone trade-ins as something of a no-brainer for bringing down the cost of a new iPhone purchase. At the company’s iPhone 11 event in September, for example, Apple put up a slide that emphasized the new iPhone 11’s low price, when viewed under this model. Instead of a starting price of $699, the iPhone 11 could be as little as $399 — or $17 per month, Apple said — when you traded in your iPhone 8. The iPhone 11 Pro was $25 per month with an X trade-in, and the Pro Max, would be $29 per month with an X trade-in, Apple also said.

These sorts of promotions seem to be working, as more Apple customers are turning to trade-ins than in the past.

“We…continue to see great results from our trade-in program with more than five times the iPhone trade-in volume we had a year ago,” noted Apple CFO Luca Maestri on Apple’s earnings call.

The larger idea is to encourage Apple’s customer base to viewing the iPhone not as a big, expensive one-time purchase, but as just another monthly bill you have to pay. Tack on a few extras, like a warranty and some media and entertainment options, and Apple has the meat for a real iPhone-led subscription — it’s very own “Apple Prime,” so to speak. And thanks to the Goldman Sachs Apple Card, it has a way to incentive users to buy from Apple directly.

 

 

 

Ember’s Mug 2 and Travel Mug 2 extend your coffee temperature sweet spot

Ember’s Mug 2 and Travel Mug 2 extend your coffee temperature sweet spot

NEWS

One of the world’s most static technologies may be the humble mug, but startup Ember decided it was time for a change when they introduced their temperature-controlled smart mug to the market in 2016. Now, the company has launched its Ember Mug 2 – a follow-up that keeps the concept and design intact, but that improves the lineup in some key ways.

There are two separate new second-generation Ember mugs – the Ember Travel Mug, and the Ember Mug designed for home and office use. Both add extended battery life, thanks to swapping its old battery technology with “the most advanced battery technology on the market,” and both gain new redesigned charging coasters, while the Travel Mug 2 gets a new control interface for adjusting the temperature of the beverage within, and it’s a bit lighter while holding the same volume.

Ember Mug 2 (from $99.95)

This sequel to Ember’s home mug comes in black, white and copper versions, as well as in two sizes: 10z and 14oz. Like its predecessor, it features an internal heating element and battery, Bluetooth connectivity for smartphone control from the Ember app, and a durable ceramic coating.

The Ember Mug 2 has a customizable LED that shows you when it’s working, and that you can change to whatever color you wish, which is handy if you have a couple of these in use in one household. It comes in black and white (as well as the pricier copper edition) in order to set your desired temperature, you pair it with an app on your phone (a quick and painless process).

Ember will send you notifications when the liquid within reaches the desired temperature. I’ve long used one of their first generation products, and the one thing I found was that on my three-a-day coffee schedule, sometimes my third cup would end up cold, because the battery, while decent, would run out before my appetite for caffeine did.

Enter the sequel, which offers up to 50 percent better battery life than the original version. It’s hard to quantify, since the speed with which I drink my coffee differs day to day, but I will say that in testing I haven’t seen the low battery warning before I was long done actually drinking coffee for the day. In short, if you make sure to pop the mug back on its charging coaster every evening, you should have plenty of juice for a full day of use the next day without any sense of mug range anxiety.

Ember Travel Mug 2 ($179.95)

The Travel Mug 2 gets a slight redesign as well as battery improvements. Whereas Ember used a physical dial to control temperature adjustments without requiring you to use your phone on the last generation, now there’s a touch sensitive area on the cup just above where the body expands out towards the top. You can slide your fingers around this to increase or decrease the temperature of whatever you have within.

This tweak is likely what allowed Ember to slim down the design while keeping the internal volume (12 oz) the same, so that it’s a bit more lightweight and travel friendly than before (while also offering as much as three hours of battery life). Ember also took the auto sleep and wake features that it introduced with the original Ember ceramic Mug and brought them to the Travel Mug 2, meaning that it’ll turn itself on and off automatically depending on whether it detects liquid inside. or motion from being picked up, to extend battery life even further.

The design of the Ember Travel Mug 2 is top-notch, with a smooth matte surface and hand-friendly design, along with clear, easy to red LED displays that just disappear when not in use. The bottom display shows current temperature, as well as an indicator of remaining battery life, and you can add a custom name to show for avoiding confusion if there are multiple Travel Mugs in use.

Bottom Line

Ember’s follow-up hardware to its initial lineup isn’t a dramatic change – but the collection didn’t need a major overhaul because it gets so many things right. The added battery life in the new generation is great, and the appeal remains the same: If you’re a coffee or tea fanatic and don’t love returning to a lukewarm or cold cup, then this is the stuff for you.

Could you opt for a vacuum-walled mug or travel tumbler? Absolutely, and the Zojirushi line-up of insulated travel mugs will keep liquids hot for days. But Ember’s home mug is without peer for actually keeping things hot in an open-top design, and the Travel Mug’s ability to actually adjust and increase temperature on the fly is also a unique value proposition that can’t be matched by any passive insulation.

Trulia founder Pete Flint backs real estate startup Modus

Trulia founder Pete Flint backs real estate startup Modus

NEWS

The founders of Seattle-based Modus cold emailed Pete Flint, the founder of Trulia and a current managing partner at the venture capital firm NFX, for months to no avail. In a last ditch effort, Alex Day, Jai Sim and Abbas Guvenilir sent one more message to the investor who’s real estate listings tool sold to Zillow in 2014 for $3.5 billion. They were at a coffee shop below his San Francisco office, was he interested in meeting?

Fortunately for them, he was.

Modus co-founders

Modus, a real estate startup focused on title and escrow services, is today announcing a $12.5 million Series A financing co-led by NFX’s Flint and Niki Pezeshki of Felicis Ventures. Liquid 2 ventures and existing backers including Mucker Capital, Hustle Fund, 500 Startups, Rambleside and Cascadia Ventures also participated in the round.

“The first revolution in online real estate was transforming the research experience, the next revolution in the industry is transforming the transaction,” Flint said in a statement.

Modus launched in 2018 with a focus on Washington State real estate opportunities. The startup, led by former employees of a nearly-defunct lunch delivery company Peach, has developed software to help both agents and home buyers navigate the home closing process, which, unlike many other real estate experiences, has yet to receive a boost of innovation from startups building in the sector. That’s why Modus started with an emphasis on escrow services, though the team’s long term vision, they explain, is to power all real estate transactions.

“When you think about communication, you think of Gmail; when you think of traveling, you think of Uber. We want to be synonymous with home closing,” Sim, the company’s executive chairman, tells TechCrunch.

Sim, the former head of marketing at Peach, says Modus has ambitions of becoming a sort of operating system for real estate, or “like what Stripe is for payment processing, we want to become for real estate transactions.”

Since closing its Series A financing in May–the team waited until now to make its financing information public–Modus has increased its headcount to 50 employees across product, engineering and operations. Their goal now is to provide their software to home-buyers in 15 to 20 states over the next two years. To support expansion efforts, Modus plans to raise a Series B in the second or third quarter of next year.

Modus has previously raised $1.8 million in seed funding.

The youngest new partner at the venture firm Felicis Ventures, Niki Pezeshki, on how he wins deals

Crunchbase raises $30M more to double down on its ambition to be a ‘LinkedIn for company data’

Crunchbase raises $30M more to double down on its ambition to be a ‘LinkedIn for company data’

NEWS

The internet and search engines like Google have made the world our oyster when it comes to sourcing information, but when it comes to business, there remains a persistent need for more targeted market intelligence, a way to get reliable data quickly to get on with your work. Today, one of the startups hoping to build a big business around that premise is announcing a round of funding to get there.

Crunchbase — a directory and database of company-related information that originally got its start as a part of TechCrunch before being spun off into a separate business several years ago — has raised $30 million, a Series C that it plans to use to continue expanding its base of paid subscribers and expanding its product to include more predictive, personalised information for its users by way more machine learning and other AI-based technology.

CEO Jager McConnell, who has long viewed Crunchbase as the “LinkedIn for company profiles,” said that of the 55 million people who visit the site each year currently, the company currently has “tens of thousands” of subscribers — subscriptions are priced at $29/user/month varying by size of company contract — which works out to less than 1% of its active users. That’s “growing quickly,” he added, speaking to site’s potential.

Indeed, he noted that since its last round in 2017, when it raised $18 million, Crunchbase has tripled its employees to 120 and has ten times more annual revenue run rate. It’s also more doubled its traffic since being spun out.

This latest round was led by Omers Ventures, the prolific investment arm of the giant Canadian pension fund of the same name (which is, incidentally, also now opening an office in Silicon Valley to get even more active with startups there).

Existing backers Emergence, Mayfield, Cowboy Ventures, and Verizon (which still owns TC) also participated. McConnell said Crunchbase is not disclosing its valuation with this round, but he did note that it was “well within the target range” that the startup had set, that it was an oversubscribed upround, and that it was on the more practical than exuberant side.

“I believe we are seeing too many high valuations with low annual revenue rates, and it’s catching up with people, and we were very focused on not hitting that valuation trap in order to be successful in the future,” he said. “This is a good round but not something insane.” Strong logic I suspect could be supported by Crunchbase data. For some context, Crunchbase had a post-money valuation of $70 million in its previous round in 2017 (having raised $26 million), according to PitchBook — ironically, one of Crunchbase’s big competitors (CB Insights, Owler being others.)

With its start as a side project of TechCrunch, the DNA of Crunchbase has always been in tech companies, and that is still very much the heart of the data that is in the system today. The kind of data you can see there includes basics on when a company was founded, who the founders are, who the current executive leadership is, how much money it has raised and from whom, what has been written about it in the media.

Then, via a number of third-party integrations with companies like Siftery and SimilarWeb, you can also get deeper data around competitors and more (most of which you can only see if you are a paying, not free, user). The company notes that it currently makes 3.9 billion annual updates to its data set — which people upload themselves in the old wiki style, or are manually or automatically uploaded, by way of some 4,000 data partnerships and syndication deals (these include with the likes of Yahoo! Finance, LinkedIn, Business Insider, and Amazon Alexa, which in turn make some 1.6 billion annual calls to the Crunchbase API).

What’s interesting to me is to see which direction Crunchbase will evolve in in the longer term. As the world has continued to grow into the bigger vision of “every company is a tech company, and every problem has a tech solution” it seems that Crunchbase’s own ambitions have also grown. In the company’s blog post and press release announcing the fundraise, it’s notable to me that technology, or any variation of it, isn’t mentioned even once in the text (only exception being the boilerplate description of Omers). That could point to how — as Crunchbase expands its horizons in terms of the kinds of information on businesses it can provide to users — it might see role for itself not unlike that of LinkedIn, spanning across multiple verticals and the communities of people (or in CB’s case, businesses) that have built around them.

“We are thrilled to partner with Jager and the talented leadership team at Crunchbase,” commented Michael Yang, Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, in a statement. “Crunchbase continues to show significant traction as the leader in research, information, and prospecting for private companies – an incredibly large and valuable market to address and service. By utilizing and collecting aggregated data, adding tools and apps, and continuing to customize each user experience, the lead generation and deal value Crunchbase can provide is unprecedented, and we are proud to support this next phase of growth.”