Year: 2018

If there’s one truth that applies to early-stage startup founders, it’s that there never seems to be enough time to get it all done. We feel your struggle. That’s why we’re extending the application deadline to compete in TechCrunch Startup Battlefield MENA 2018 in Beirut, Lebanon on October 3.

We’re looking for the best pre-Series A startups in the Middle East and North Africa, and we’re giving you an extra week to get it together. The new deadline expires on August 6, 2018, at 9 p.m. PST. Don’t waste any time — apply today.

Competing in Startup Battlefield is the best way to launch your startup to the world. Participating startups receive invaluable exposure — to media, to potential investors and to the world-wide TechCrunch audience. We’ve been hosting Battlefields since 2007, and in that time our Battlefield alumni community — more than 750 companies — has collectively raised over $8 billion in funding and produced more than 100 exits. Companies you might recognize include Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, TripIt, Getaround and Cloudflare. This is your chance to join the club.

Here’s what you need to know about competing in Startup Battlefield MENA 2018. First, TechCrunch editors — an experienced and highly discerning lot — review every eligible submission and ultimately choose 15 startups to show their stuff.

The competition begins with three preliminary rounds — five startups per round will each have six minutes to pitch and present their demo. The judges have six minutes following each pitch for a rigorous Q&A — don’t stress: each team of founders receive free pitch coaching from TechCrunch editors. Five startups move on to the finals to pitch a second time in front of a fresh set of judges, and one outstanding startup will be chosen the winner of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield MENA 2018.

In addition to the previously mentioned media and investment exposure, the winning founders receive a US$25,000 no-equity cash prize, plus a trip for two to compete in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2019 (assuming the company still qualifies to compete at the time).

Now, here’s the fine print on eligibility. While we extended the application deadline, these basic requirements still apply to all founders:

• Have an early-stage company in “launch” stage
• Be headquartered in one of these eligible countries: Algeria, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Yemen
• Have a fully working product/beta reasonably close to, or in, production
• Have received limited press or publicity to date
• Have no known intellectual property conflicts
• Apply by August 6, 2018, at 9 p.m. PST

The gift of time is rare indeed, and we hope you take advantage of this extended deadline — August 6, 2018, at 9 p.m. PST. Competing in TechCrunch Startup Battlefield MENA 2018 could very well change your life. Submit your application today.

Mammoth Biosciences, the biotech company that grew out of a close relationship with CRISPR legend Jennifer Doudna, has raised $23 million in a sturdy Series A. Mammoth previously raised $120,000 from NFX and the company continued quietly picking up funding as it built toward its exit from stealth mode in April 2018. Its current round was led by Mayfield with participation from NFX and 8VC.

Mammoth also has some high profile interest from individual investors. Apple’s Tim Cook and Jeff Huber, former CEO of early cancer screening company Grail, also quietly participated in the round for an unspecified amount.

The discovery of CRISPR, by all accounts a transformative scientific and technological breakthrough, is many things to many people, but for Mammoth Biosciences, it’s all about the search functionality.

“CRISPR is biology’s search engine first,” Mammoth co-founder and CEO Trevor Martin told TechCrunch in an interview. That means using a guide RNA to direct a CRISPR protein to search for any specific DNA or RNA sequence. That process provides a world of utility across fields like genotyping, oncology, infectious disease and even agriculture.

Mammoth plans to use the funding to make key hires and flesh out its IP portfolio, but most of the company’s resources will be used toward developing the platform that allows the company’s partners to plug in and search for their own biomarkers. Martin adds that the funding will also allow Mammoth to educate people about how CRISPR can play a powerful role in diagnostics.

Mammoth is led by two Stanford PhDs, Trevor Martin (CEO) and Ashley Tehranchi (CTO), and two Berkeley PhDs, Lucas Harrington and Janice Chen. Jennifer Doudna is also a Mammoth co-founder and chair of the company’s advisory board. Along with its funding news, Mammoth adds protein engineering expert Dave Savage and infectious disease specialist Charles Chui to its scientific advisory board.

Future partnerships are central to Mammoth’s business, and the company aims to make its CRISPR-powered search engine the platform of choice for disease detection. The company is particularly keen on building out partnerships in the pharmaceutical and agricultural world, though also has long term plans to provide affordable point-of-care testing in the developing world.

“Mammoth has developed a transformative platform, able to detect nucleic acid assays on DNA and RNA without an associated device,” Mayfield’s Ursheet Parikh said of the company’s mission. “This has the potential to significantly reduce costs in diagnostics, which is a fundamental driving force in transforming healthcare.”

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange based on volume, has made its first acquisition after it snapped up mobile wallet company Trust Wallet.

The deal is undisclosed, but Binance confirmed to TechCrunch that the compensation is a mixture of cash, Binance stock and a portion of its BNB token. U.S.-based Trust Wallet will remain independent following the deal, but Binance, which is headquartered in Malta these days, will assist running the admin side of the business and in non-technical areas like marketing.

“The Trust Wallet team shares the same values as us and the products are very complementary,” Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao told TechCrunch in an interview. “For users who like to withdraw funds into a wallet now we have a product they can use.

“We plan to keep the app as independent as possible. There will be more features going into it but not so much from a Binance demand perspective. We are like the addition of a godfather for the baby… there’ll be some cooperation,” he added.

Trust Wallet may not be as well known as wallets such as Imtoken, Delta, or Blockfolio, but Zhao called the company a “diamond in the dirt” with “strong technical skills.”

“They haven’t done much marketing which is where we can help. They are strong technically but don’t like doing marketing, HR etc… now merging with us they don’t have to worry about money,” he added.

Money is, indeed, not a huge issue for Binance these days. The company made a profit in the region of $450-$500 million (dependent on token prices) from its first year of operations. That’s according to figures from the company, which uses 20 percent of its quarterly profits to buy back and ‘burn’ its BNB token.

(Left to right) Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Trust Wallet founder Viktor Radchenko

Indeed, Trust Wallet did hold an ICO to raise capital but last month it decided to cancel the sale and return money to its investors.

Trust Wallet founder Viktor Radchenko, who is based in Mountain View, told TechCrunch that the decision was about getting back to developing the app and technology.

“I’m a product person and developer. I spend my time thinking about solving problems for the end-user. I never liked dealing with investors and money people, it is so much hassle,” he said. “Having resources will help us grow quicker and so I can focus on adaption for the users that don’t even have wallets.”

Radchenko said he is now setting his sights on growing the team from five developers right now to 10. The app is currently focused on Ethereum and Ethereum-based tokens, but the plan is to add support for other blockchains including Bitcoin, EOS, NEO.

Trust Wallet will also be one of a number default wallets supported by Binance’s upcoming decentralized exchange, which will remove the shackles of a decentralized exchange and allow users to trade directly with one another. Zhao said the highly-anticipated project is in “active development” although he was hesitant to put a date on when it will be ready.

This Trust Wallet deal is likely the first of many strategic acquisitions for Binance. The company announced plans for a $1 billion fund this summer, and Zhao said that the intention is to make 10-20 investments per year but also augment that with three to four strategic.

“We’re looking for strong tech teams,” he explained. “Acquisition will be a very key component to continuing to grow and contributing to this industry.”

Zhao said that Binance had considered buying companies to accelerate the development of its decentralized exchange, but it wasn’t able to identify the right match.

“Our requirements are very specific, we are looking for speed, there’s no need for fancy smart contracts,” he explained. “We didn’t find the right match for an acquisition [but are] still very open to someone who makes an ultra-fast blockchain.”

Note: The author owns a small amount of cryptocurrency. Enough to gain an understanding, not enough to change a life.

You probably never think about the Google Clock app on your Android phone. And unless you are one of those happy early risers, it’s not exactly an app that brings you joy. But every day, it wakes you right on time, with either some annoying chirps or other sounds that, over time, will stress you out. But stress no more. Google today launched an update to the Clock app that now lets you choose any song or playlist from Spotify to wake you up.

This works for any Android phone running Android 5.0 (Lollipop and up) and you don’t even need a premium Spotify account to use it. Just a free one will do just fine. This new feature will roll out globally over the course of this week. So if everything goes to plan, you’ll be able to wake up to the soothing sounds of your favorite metal band by next Monday, if not before.

Now, you may think that it’s a bit weird that Google is using Spotify here. Doesn’t the company have its own music service? Or maybe even two, in the form of Google Play Music and YouTube Music? And of course, you would be correct, because it’s a bit odd to see that Google is supporting a competitor here. But then, Google’s plans for its music services feel about as coherent as those for its messaging services (remember Allo?).

Poland-based CallPage offers something other customer interaction apps don’t: the ability to call your website visitors as soon as they click on your page. In a world where the difference between a sale and a click past your site onto Facebook, this is a pretty cool little feature.

CallPage began in 2015 when the founders, Ross Knap, Sergey Butko, and Andrew Tkachiv, tried to figure out why website visitors would leave their sites. They started out as a consultancy and the product was born out of some after-hours tinkering by the team. Instead of messaging users, they thought, why not let managers talk to them on the phone?

“Our widget analyzes user behavior on your website,” said CEO Knap. “Then when it sees an interested visitor, it offers him a free callback in 28 seconds. The interested visitor leaves a phone number on your site, our widget calls to the first available manager’s mobile phone and then the next one if no one picks up. After the conversation client will receive an SMS of thanks. It doesn’t require any extra work.”

The team raised a $4.5 million Series A from TDJ Pitango Ventures, Innovation Nest, and Market One Capital. They have 3,000 customers and it makes 280,000 calls monthly. The team started with a $50,000 seed check from an early investor.

Knap and the team have big plans.

“CallPage will continue the realization of our development plan,” said Knap. “The company is going to change into a product more from the perspective of ‘All your company calls in one place.’ The R&D department have already started working on using machine learning and AI which allows analyzing of hundreds of thousands of calls through the CallPage system. Thanks to this, companies will be able to run their communications more effectively.”

You’ll soon be able to get your battery running and head out on the highway on a variety of Harley Davidson EVs.

That according to news the Milwaukee based motorcycle manufacture will offer “an exciting portfolio of two-wheeled electric vehicles” in the near future, including a possible e-scooter and bicycle.

These EVs are an addition to Harley Davidson’s first production LiveWire e-moto— announced earlier this year and set hit showroom floors by August 2019.

So what new tech will Harley add to its predominantly chrome and steel internal combustion stable? “A broader range of electric models that are light, nimble and ready to tackle the urban landscape…available by 2022,” was the description an HD spokesperson gave TechCrunch.

Harley Davidson plans to make five production EVs in total, two by 2022, according to the spokesperson and an interview by Chief Operating Officer Michelle Kumbier.

Harley isn’t ready to “take the full cover off” yet the spokesperson said, but did share some indicative concept photos of one lightweight electric motorcycle, an e-scooter, and an e-bicycle.”

Harley’s EV development started with the 2014 Project LiveWire concept motorcycle, which will become its full-sized electric LiveWire motorcycle by next year.

The electric news came as part of a new growth plan announced by CEO Matthew Levatich to expand HD’s lineup of lighter motorcycles—including several new gas bikes—and push more aggressively into emerging markets such as India and China.

Levatich placed “enabling E.V. technology” squarely in Harley Davidson’s priorities. He said HD looked to “to create new riders” meet them where they are “in the cities” and give them “a cool product…that is much more twist-and-go”—a reference to  electric motorcycles’ no clutch, no gears design that also makes them easier to ride.

Harley’s revised focus comes as prevailing trends have brought financial pains to many big motorcycle makers, including Harley Davidson. Since the recession, America’s motorcycle sector has been in the doldrums. New bike sales have dropped roughly 50 percent since 2008—with sharp declines in ownership by everyone under 40.

As TechCrunch reported in February, and this recent e-moto feature, Harley and the entry of several e-moto startups could shake up the motorcycle industry.

Three e-motorcycle startups—Alta Motors, Energica, and Zero Motorcycles—have revved up promotion, distribution, and sales in the U.S. They are betting on pulling more gas riders to the e-moto experience and attract more young folks and women into buying motorcycles.

E-moto and scooter sales in the U.S.—currently 12.9 percent of the market—are expected to grow to 598K units worth $304 million by 2024, according to Global Market Insights. GMI projects global electric motorcycle and scooter sales to exceed $24 billion by 2024.

On the tech side, two-wheel gas manufacturers have mostly stagnated around EV concepts. None of the big names—Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, BMW, KTM—offer a production electric street motorcycle in the U.S

Competitive pressure from EV upstarts—added to Harley’s EV production commitments—could pressure the likes of Honda, Yamaha, and Ducati to produce electric motorcycles sooner.

A shift in two-wheel preferences could also prompt fresh acquisitions and alliances in the motorcycle world.

Shortly after their LiveWire EV commitment earlier this year, Harley Davidson took an (undisclosed) equity stake in Alta Motors and entered into a co-development partnership.

However things play out, Harley Davidson’s commitment to produce two-wheelers that connect to wall sockets vs. gas pumps—and buzz instead of rumble—signals electricity could upend convention in the motorcycle industry.

In September of 2013, Jason Citron hopped on to the Disrupt Startup Battlefield stage to pitch Fates Forever, a multiplayer online battle arena game for the iPad. Now, five years later, Citron is gearing up to join us once again on the Disrupt stage to discuss the stellar growth of Discord.

Though Fates Forever had all the components to be a great mobile game, users simply never took much interest. The company struggled to monetize, and like any good startup, the team began to reassess its own situation.

The conversation turned to communication, where the space contained a few players with lack-luster products.

“Can we make a 10X project?,” said CMO Eros Resmini, relaying the tale of the company’s pivot to TechCrunch. “Low-friction usage, no renting servers, beautiful design we took from mobile.”

That’s how Discord was born. The platform launched in 2016, and has since grown to 90 million registered users, and has raised nearly $80 million in funding.

Coming from the publishing side, the Discord team had a keen awareness of what gamers want and need: a clean, secure communications platform. Since launch, the team has launched features that let game developers integrate Discord chat into their own games, as well as video-chat and screen-sharing.

But the progress has not been without discord . The company shut down several servers associated with the alt-right for violating the terms of service, bringing Discord to the center of the on-going conversation around censorship and political bias.

That said, Discord has seemed to find its stride, forming partnerships with various esports organizations for verified servers.

There is plenty to discuss with Jason Citron at Disrupt SF, and we hope you’ll join us to check out the conversation live.

The full agenda is here. Passes for the show are available at the early-bird rate until August 1 here.

Renovo is licensing its technology to yet another self-driving startup—this time aiPod—in its bid to sell a platform that will enable companies to deploy commercial fleets of fully automated vehicles.

Fleets of autonomous vehicles that can safely pick up and drop off people and packages will require more than an AI system that can brake, accelerate and steer.

Commercial self-driving fleets will have to complete all sorts of other tasks that human taxi and ride-share drivers handle today, including recognizing when a rider is uncomfortable or notifying passengers when a phone or other items have been left behind. Never mind all the data, cybersecurity, infotainment and other services delivered to passengers that must be managed as well.

In short: the software stack required for a fully automated driving service is complicated. It’s in that chaotic intersection where software startup Renovo sees opportunity.

Renovo isn’t developing the AI (or brain as some refer to it) that allows the autonomous vehicles to to navigate city streets. Instead, Renovo has developed an operating system called AWare OS designed specifically for the commercial deployment of fully automated vehicles.

AWare OS works a lot like how Google’s Android allows app developers to launch services in the smartphone market. It can even be compared, in a way, to Amazon Web Services’ on-demand cloud computing platform. This middleware provides a platform that other companies can use to deploy software. A number of companies, including Inrix, Speak With Me, HD mapping and localization company Civil Maps, and simulation startup Metamoto have already joined Renovo’s ecosystem.

Now Renovo is starting to license its technology to companies that want to deploy autonomous vehicle services.

The latest licensee aiPod, a rather quiet startup, plans to pilot a self-driving vehicle service in London, beginning in early 2019. Renovo’s AWare OS will be integrated into aiPod’s autonomous vehicles.

Self-driving startup Voyage announced in June that it will use Renovo’s AWare OS across its fleet of automated vehicles that are in existing commercial community deployments in The Villages in central Florida and The Villages in San Jose, California.

The message Renovo is trying to deliver: you don’t have to be a vertically integrated company to deploy a self-driving car service.

“Essentially, people who want to deploy fleets of cars on public roads are able to do that now without having to do all of the tech themselves,” Renovo CEO Chris Heiser said in a recent interview. “This isn’t just the domain of Waymo or Cruise.”

Last month, the U.S. government reached a settlement that makes it legal to post plans for 3D printing fire arms.This morning, the President tweeted an objection to the ruling, a day before it’s enacted. “I am looking into 3-D [Printed] Plastic Guns being sold to the public,” Trump wrote. “Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!”

While the law doesn’t officially go into effect until Wednesday, its pending legality has already led around 1,000 users to download plans to print AR-15s, according to CNN,  citing a stat from Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro.

While Trump is just now drawing a rhetorical line in the sand, the debate around the technology has been a hot button topic for years. The legal battle that led to the current legislation dates back to 2013, when Cody Wilson posted plans for a 3D printable plastic handset known as “The Liberator.”

Yesterday, attorneys general from eight states and Washington D.C. filed suit against the Trump administration attempting to bar a Texas-based company called Defense Distributed from publishing its own blueprints for 3D printed firearms.

The suit reads, in part,

3-D printed guns are functional weapons that are often unrecognizable by standard metal detectors because they are made out of materials other than metal (e.g., plastic) and untraceable because they contain no serial numbers. Anyone with access to the [Computer Aided Design] files and a commercially available 3-D printer could readily manufacture, possess, or sell such a weapon—even those persons statutorily ineligible to possess firearms, including violent felons, the mentally ill and persons subject to protection and no-contact orders.

Defense Distributed, naturally, hailed the Trump June ruling. “No prior CNC knowledge or experience is required to manufacture from design files. Legally manufacture unserialized rifles and pistols in the comfort and privacy of home.”

The NRA, for its part, has largely been silent on the matter.