Year: 2018

TechCrunch is coming to Zug, Switzerland, to discuss all things Blockchain. This is going to be one of the most important events we’ve ever held in Europe and one of the most important ever. You’re not going to want to miss this.

TechCrunch Sessions: Blockchain 2018 features an impressive lineup of fireside chats and panels with icons of the global blockchain and crypto tech scene.

We’re thrilled to bring accomplished founders and chief executives to the stage. Among others, this includes, Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin, IBM/Hyperledger’s Brian Behlendorf, as well as Changpeng Zhao of Binance and Galia Benartzi of Bancor.

Tickets are still available for purchase. We’re thrilled to make it to Zug for this show and hope you can make it.

AGENDA

9:00 AM – 9:05 AM
Opening Remarks

9:05 AM – 9:10 AM
Welcome Remarks: Dolfi Müller (Mayor of Zug)

9:10 AM – 9:30 AM
Coming soon!

9:30 AM – 9:50 AM
Fireside Chat with Brian Behlendorf (Hyperledger)
The Executive Director gives an inside look at the technology powering The Hyperledger Project.

9:50 AM – 10:15 AM
In Conversation with Nicolas Brand (Lakestar) and Colin Hanna (Balderton)
Tokenising VC – the Venture Capitalist’s perspective on Blockchain.

10:15 AM – 10:40 AM
Coming soon!

10:40 AM – 11:10 AM
BREAK

11:10 AM – 11:50 AM
Fireside Chat with Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum Foundation)
A conversation with Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin.

11:50 AM – 12:15 PM
In Conversation with Galia Benartzi (Bancor) and Jun Hasegawa (OmiseGO)
Benartzi and Hasegawa discuss successful ICOs – are they made or born?   

12:15 PM – 12:35 PM
Fireside Chat with Jim Fruchterman (Benetech)
Release the chains! Can Blockchain be a force for social good?

12:35 PM – 1:00 PM
In Conversation with with Patrick Berarducci (The Brooklyn Project), Mona El Isa (Melonport) and Pierre-Edouard Wahl (PwC Switzerland)
The Wild West of regulating crypto.

1:00 PM – 1:15 PM
INNOVATION BREAK

1:15 PM – 2:15 PM
LUNCH

2:15 PM – 2:35 PM
Fireside Chat with Roham Gharegozlou (Axiom Zen)
The CEO of CryptoKitties discusses the story behind its smash success.

2:35 PM – 3:00 PM
In Conversation with Hope Liu (Eximchain) and Gert Sylvest (Tradeshift)
The Co-founders of Eximchain and Tradeshift explore the push from blockchain to the supply chain.

3:00 PM – 3:25 PM
In Conversation with Kris Marszalek (Monaco), Joshua Stein (Harbor) and Hanna Zubko (IntellectEU)
Banking on Blockchain: Can established banks keep up with the new world order?

3:25 PM – 3:45 PM
Fireside Chat with Balaji Srinivasan (Coinbase)
The new CTO of Coinbase and Board Partner of a16z discusses keeping pace with new players.

3:45 PM – 4:25 PM
BREAK

4:25 PM – 4:45 PM
Fireside Chat with Joe Lubin (ConsenSys)
The Founder of ConsenSys shares his story and whether his company can become the Alphabet of Blockchain.

4:45 PM – 5:10 PM
In Conversation with Sam Cassat (ConsenSys), Phil Windley (Sovrin Foundation) and Guy Zyskind (Enigma)
Cassat, Windley and Zyskind explore the emergence of self-sovereign identities.

5:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Fireside Chat with Changpeng Zhao (Binance)
Can exchanges…change?

5:30 PM – 5:50 PM
Fireside Chat with Leanne Kemp (Everledger)
On the blockchain once, on the blockchain forever. Kemp discusses the opportunities and challenges in building Everledger.

5:50 PM – 6:00 PM
WRAP

If you want to keep pace with the rapid advancements taking place in mobility, then pack your bag and head to TC Tel Aviv 2018. Israel’s on the leading edge of this rapidly changing frontier, and we’re going deep for a day-long intensive on June 7. The time for procrastinating is over because you have only 24 hours left to get your tickets at the early bird price of 265 ILS. Get ‘em right here.

We’ve curated an impressive roster of industry leaders to hold forth on mobile technology and all that it entails. Topics like autonomous vehicles, sensors, drones, security and so much more. The speakers who step up on the TechCrunch stage will provide their expert perspective on where mobility tech stands now and where it’s going. You don’t want to miss this one.

Here are just a few of the speakers you’ll hear, but you can find the full conference agenda here.

• Uri Levine, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Waze
• Ariella Grinberg, innovation manager for General Motor’s Advanced Technical Center in Israel
• Ofer Ben Noon, co-founder and CEO of Argus Cyber Security

Don’t miss out on the chance to explore — or exhibit in — Startup Alley. Our exhibition floor will feature more than 200 early-stage startups from just about every vertical. Discover products, platforms and services in cybersecurity, AR/VR, mobility, robotics, fintech, biotech, artificial intelligence, blockchain and more.

A Startup Alley Exhibitor Package costs 1,700 ILS and includes two tickets to TC Tel Aviv, Wi-Fi, signage and a demo table. It’s a great way to get your company in front of tech influencers, investors, potential customers and the media.

TechCrunch Tel Aviv takes place on June 7, 2018 at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, Pavilion 10. You have a mere 24 hours left to secure the best price on this exciting exploration of the mobile tech coming out of Israel. Buy your tickets today.

We’re verrückt aufgeregt — crazy excited — to host Disrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. This marks our sixth visit to this great city, and it’s easy to understand why. Berlin represents the racing heartbeat of Europe’s startup scene, which continues to innovate and evolve at a rapid pace. Our 2-4-1 deal on Innovator passes lets you take it all in for the best price: €695 for two! We’ll release a limited number of passes soon, so sign up for our newsletter, and we’ll let you know when they’re available.

An international hub, Berlin is the perfect place to introduce your early-stage startup to Europe — and the world beyond. Disrupt Berlin draws participants from more than 50 countries, including European Union members, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, India, China and South Korea.

Last year we welcomed a record-breaking 2,600 attendees, and Startup Alley was packed with 416 exhibitors. It ranks as our largest international Disrupt conference, and we expect this year to be even bigger. If you want to get your early-stage startup in front of the top international tech founders, innovators, influencers and investors, come and experience Disrupt Berlin.

And what an experience it is. Along with exploring all the new tech products, services and companies on display in Startup Alley, you’ll get to watch — or maybe even compete in — Startup Battlefield, the most exciting startup pitch competition, bar none. Since the first Battlefield back in 2007, 748 companies have competed and gone on to collectively raise $800 billion in funding — and 100 of them have either gone public or been acquired. At Disrupt Berlin 2017, Lia Diagnostics took Startup Battlefield by storm, winning the Disrupt Cup along with the $50,000 grand prize.

You also can expect to hear awesome speakers representing the best of the startup tech and investor scene. We’re in the process of confirming this year’s roster, but last year’s event included the likes of Gavin Wood of Parity Technologies, Cal Henderson of Slack, Ida Tin of Clue and Frederic Mazzella of BlaBlaCar. Think you know the perfect speaker for this year’s Disrupt? Head on over to our speaker nomination page.

There’s so much more to Disrupt: media exposure, workshops, networking and after parties. An Innovator pass provides access to all that, along with: speakers on the Main Stage, the Next Stage and the Q&A Stage, full viewing of the Disrupt attendee list, the ability to contact attendees using the Disrupt Mobile App and, after the event, access to the Disrupt Berlin event video library.

Disrupt Berlin takes place on November 29-30, 2018 at the Arena Berlin. We’re offering a limited number of two-for-one Innovator passes for €695. They’ll be available soon, but they won’t be available long. Sign up for the newsletter now, and we’ll let you know the minute the passes are available.

Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here.

The success of the autonomous vehicle revolution relies on complicated systems of sophisticated sensors working in harmony to provide the magic of sight to machines.

In Tel Aviv, we’ll hear from experts in the field as they discuss the technological marvels that are the driving force behind the transformation of mobility in the modern world.

Omer David Keilaf, the chief executive of Innoviz, comes to us with some significant recent wins under his company’s belt. The Innoviz LIDAR technology has been selected by BMW to power its Level 3 to Level 5 autonomous vehicle systems.

The company’s solid-state LiDAR sensor, available as a built-in device beginning next year, is much smaller than traditional LIDAR and is stationary.

Before founding Innoviz, Keilaf led the system and product definition efforts at the world’s first handheld molecular sensor for mobile devices with ConsumerPhysics. Previous roles include leading the system architecture and engineering teams at bTendo (acquired by ST Micro) and Anobit (acquired by Apple) .

No less impressive is the work of fellow panelist Rani Wellingstein of Oryx Vision, whose company is developing its own novel LIDAR technology. Oryx’s LiDAR uses antennas in place of photodetectors to retrieve both range and velocity information for the points of light in its high-resolution scans of its surroundings. The company claims that its technology is a million times more sensitive than existing LiDAR systems, and is better able to deal with interference from sunlight, and from other LiDARs in operation on the road.

A serial entrepreneur, Wellingstein’s last company, Intucell, was sold to Cisco for $475 million in 2013. At Cisco, Wellingstein served as the vice president and business unit manager of Cisco’s self optimized networks business unit.

 

Israel is driving autonomous innovation and we’re excited to talk to the folks behind the wheel of the nation’s innovative companies. Join us. You have just 48 hours left to score the early-bird ticket price — 265 ILS. So buy your tickets now.

Didi Chxuing is making big changes to Hitch, its inter-city carpooling service, following the murder of a passenger at the hands of a driver earlier this month.

Last week, Didi — China’s dominant ride-hailing service by some margin — expressed its “deep remorse” for the murder, and suspended Hitch for a week to conduct a review of the service.

Hitch, as the name suggests, is a hitchhiking-style service that groups people who are headed in the same direction together. Unlike Didi’s other services, it isn’t commercial; passengers give the driver their share of fuel and any other costs they want to cover. That makes it affordable and hugely popular, but it has also made the service less professional than Didi’s other modes of transport. Indeed, many in China have claimed the service is ‘sleazy,’ with many comments left about passenger appearances, particularly those who are female.

 

The primary change will see Hitch available limited to daytime when the service resumes, with no new rides able to start between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

In an apparent nod to the unsavory elements, Didi is scrubbing all Hitch driver and passenger reviews and ratings. Personal information for users will no longer be public, and profile photos will be replaced by generic images, Didi said.

Beyond Hitch, Didi is also making changes to its driver authentication program.

That’s down, in a large part, to the fact that the suspect in the murder of the passenger was not a verified Didi driver. He was able to use the app (on more than one occasion) by taking the smartphone belonging to his father, who is a verified Didi driver. Didi’s facial recognition technology, which verifies a driver’s identity before granting them access to the service, failed in this instance — Didi said it was “defective” that day.

Didi is closing down the option for its drivers to use other people’s cars with their permission, and implementing a “zero tolerance policy” on matching cars with their registered owners — a strange loophole that drew concern.

 

The Didi service added an SOS button two years ago, and now it is aiming to refine that further by introducing automatic audio recording which is passed in real-time to a customer support agent once an SOS is activated. The firm said it is also weighing up adding video in the future. Conscious of privacy concerns, the company said the audio would be stored remotely, not on a passenger’s device, and deleted within 72 hours if not needed for longer.

“We understand that not everyone is comfortable with having their trips recorded. Additional user authorization may also be needed if in-vehicle video monitoring were to be introduced in the future,” the company said.

“Nevertheless, this could be a most effective means to enhance safety standards, and to ensure adequate evidence support for potential dispute resolution,” Didi added. “Would this be an acceptable solution in the eyes of our users?”

That’s one of a series of questions put out by Didi, which said it will solicit opinions for potential safety measures. The company said it has booked “proactive consultation sessions with relevant authorities and experts” and it will also put out a call for comment on its social media channels.

Didi is facing pressure from rival Meituan Dianping, which started out in local services but recently introduced ride-sharing services and moved into dockless bikes with the acquisition of Mobike.

This is not the first time that Didi, which became China’s single-largest ride-hailing company when it bought out Uber’s local business in 2016, has dealt with the murder of a customer. Two years ago, a woman in Shenzhen was robbed and murdered by a Didi driver.

French startup Aircall has raised a founding round of $29 million for its cloud based call center solution. Draper Esprit led the round with NextWorld Capital, Balderton Capital and Newfund also participating.

The company has raised $40.5 million in total. Aircall participated in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt SF a few years ago. The company first started at eFounders.

Aircall is following the software-as-a-service playbook. First, you take a boring industry like phone systems for large support and sales teams. Second, you bet everything on software. And third, you keep adding new features and integrations, and chasing new customers.

The company now has two offices in New York and Paris and handles millions of calls every day. With today’s funding round, the company plans to hire more people in both offices.

When you sign up to Aircall, you get virtual phone numbers in one or multiple countries. You can then configure a greeting message, add business hours and handle your call queue.

But the magic happens when you have multiple people handling sales or support calls. When someone calls, it can call multiple people at once or call someone first, then a second person if the first person isn’t available, etc. You get an overview of all your calls so you can assign them, tag them and more.

Aircall doesn’t work in a vacuum. So you can integrate Aircall with CRMs and other solutions like Salesforce, Zendesk and Zoho. The startup also launched a deep integration with Intercom that lets you switch from a text conversation to a phone call from the popup window.

It’s hard to list all the features right here. But chances are that if you’re running a call center, you’ll have everything you need for your team. Aircall currently costs $30 to $50 per user and per month to access all of this.

Google teased a new version of its News app with AI smarts at its I/O event last week, and today that revamped app landed for iOS and Android devices in 127 countries. The redesigned app replaces the previous Google Play Newsstand app.

The idea is to make finding and consuming news easier than ever, whilst providing an experience that’s customized to each reader and supportive of media publications. The AI element is designed to learn from what you read to help serve you a better selection of content over time, while the app is presented with a clear and clean layout.

Opening the app brings up the tailored ‘For You’ tab which acts as a quick briefing, serving up the top five stories “of the moment” and a tailored selection of opinion articles and longer reads below it.

The next section — ‘Headlines’ — dives more deeply into the latest news, covering global, U.S., business, technology, entertainment, sports, science and health segments. Clicking a story pulls up ‘Full Coverage’ mode, which surfaces a range of content around a topic including editorial and opinion pieces, tweets, videos and a timeline of events.

 

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Favorites is a tab that allows customization set by the user — without AI. It works as you’d imagine, letting you mark out preferred topics, news sources and locations to filter your reads. There’s also an option for saved searches and stories which can be quickly summoned.

The final section is ‘Newsstand’ which, as the name suggests aggregates media. Google said last week that it plans to offer over 1,0000 magazine titles you can follow by tapping a star icon or subscribing to. It currently looks a little sparse without specific magazine titles, but we expect that’ll come soon.

As part of that, another feature coming soon is “Subscribe with Google, which lets publications offer subscription-based content. The process of subscribing will use a user’s Google account, and the payment information they already have on file. Then, the paid content becomes available across Google platforms, including Google News, Google Search and publishers’ own websites.

Streaming service Roku got hit with its worst outage to date after a number customers suffered issues watching Netflix, YouTube and other channels for more than five hours.

The issue — which Roku said is now fixed — saw some customers get FBI anti-piracy warnings instead of their chosen programming, as Variety first reported. A Roku spokesperson told TechCrunch that “a small percentage of customers” were affected.

Once it had restored order, Roku claimed the “technical glitch” could be fixed by manually updating players inside the settings menu, while some channels would require users to log in again.

The issue was a pretty major blow to Roku, which analyst reports suggest remains the top streaming service in the U.S. despite competition from the likes of Apple TV, Google Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV.

That said, 2018 hasn’t been stellar so far. The company’s most recent financial report in February didn’t go down well with Roku’s share price tumbling 18 percent based on future revenue projections. The share price dropped 3.5 percent over the past day to $34.08, giving the firm a market cap of around $3.4 billion.

There’s more to come from the company this year. It plans to join many of its rivals in the voice computing space by launching smart speakers, smart soundbars, surround sound and multi-home audio systems that use new Roku Connect software to communicate wirelessly and be controlled by voice. The devices will be developed in conjunction with partners via a new Roku licensing program.

Mercari, the eBay-like service that is Japanese first tech startup unicorn, has filed to go public in an IPO that could raise as much as $1.1 billion.

The company is scheduled to list on the Toyko Stock Exchange’s Mothers Market — a board for high-growth companies — on June 19.

The company reached the symbolic $1 billion valuation mark in 2016 when it raised a $75 million Series D. In doing so it became the first Japanese tech startup to become a pre-IPO unicorn. Earlier this year, that valuation jumped to $2 billion following a $47 million investment.

The five-year-old company operates an online ‘flea market’ that lets consumers sell unwanted goods with a focus on mobile.

Japan is its core market, but the company expanded into the U.S. in 2014 and last year it entered Europe, initially via the UK. It boosted its overseas strategy in June 2017 when it hired former Facebook executive John Lagerling as its first chief business officer to guide its global strategy.

The business passed 100 million downloads worldwide at the end of 2017. Mercari said that over 30 million downloads are in the U.S., with more than 60 million in Japan. Speaking earlier this year, CEO Shintaro Yamada — who sold his previous startup Unoh to gaming firm Zynga in 2010 — said success in the U.S. is essential if Mercari is to become an international player.

Reuters reports that Mercari’s forecasted share price of 2,200-2,700 JPY per share would see the company raise up to 117.6 billion JPY ($1.1 billion) at a total market cap of 365.4 billion JPY, $3.3 billion.

It’s common for Japanese startups to go public, but it traditionally tends to happen much earlier than in the U.S or other parts of the world. That’s often times down to investors — who seek to reduce the risk of their money not returning — and a relative lack of capital for startups, but Mercari has held out longer than most and that might set an example for future companies.

For another thing, the return on investment is impressive for many of Mercari’s backers, according to data from 500 Startups partner Yohei Sawayama — who tweeted out USD estimates for potential returns.

Amazon announced today it will begin offering exclusive discounts to Prime members who shop at Whole Foods — a move that’s been expected since Amazon acquired the grocer last year for $13.7 billion, and more recently shut down Whole Foods’ rewards program and digital coupons. Prime members, starting today, will be able to take 10 percent off Whole Foods’ hundreds of sale items, as well as receive other “weekly deep discounts” on best sellers, Amazon says.

The savings are rolling out initially to the Whole Foods stores in Florida, but will expand to all U.S. Whole Foods Market and Whole Foods Market 365 stores this summer.

Whole Foods currently has over 470 stores in the U.S., Canada and U.K. combined, but the majority – 463 – are in the U.S.

Amazon has made fairly quick work of leveraging its investment in the brick-and-mortar grocery chain. Almost immediately following the acquisition, it began slashing prices in Whole Foods’ stores. And it already offered special coupons to Prime members to help them save more at times — like when it discounted Thanksgiving turkeys, for example.

Today’s news is now formalizing those prior efforts with a standard rewards program where Prime members can expect to take 10 percent off sale items on a consistent basis, in addition to other weekly discounts on select items. These will be labeled in store with yellow “10% off” sale signs, and “Prime Member Deal” signs, respectively.

For example, this week (5/16-5/22), Prime members at supported stores will receive the following savings:

• Sustainably sourced, wild-caught halibut steaks: $9.99/lb., save $10/lb.
• Organic strawberries: 1 lb. for $2.99, save $2
• Cold-brew coffee at Allegro coffee bars: 50 percent off 16 oz.
• KIND granola: 11 oz. bag 2/$6
• 365 Everyday Value sparkling water: 12-pack case buy one, get one free
• Magic Mushroom Powder: 50 percent off

It’s common for grocery stores to offer weekly savings, but in Whole Foods’ case, customers won’t have to sign up for a loyalty card or clip coupons from a circular — they have to join Amazon Prime to enjoy these savings. That could be a lure for Prime members who already shop Whole Foods, but could push price-conscious shoppers further away from the chain, given its existing reputation for high prices.

To take advantage of the new program, Prime members will need the Whole Foods mobile app, where they sign in with their Amazon account and then scan the app’s “Prime Code” barcode at checkout to apply the appropriate discounts. Alternately, they can opt in to use their phone number at checkout, if preferred.

Amazon has also set up a dedicated site for more information about the discount program (amazon.com/primesavings).

These in-store savings are not the only way Amazon has been tying Whole Foods to its larger business.

The companies also launched two-hour delivery from Whole Foods via Amazon’s Prime Now service in 10 cities across the U.S., with more to come this year, Amazon says. Plus, Amazon Prime members get 5 percent back on Whole Foods purchases with the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card, the companies announced earlier this year.

And the stores themselves are serving as the brick-and-mortar presence for Amazon’s online store, with things like Amazon Lockers, support for returns, and the ability to shop Amazon hardware, like Echo speakers and Fire TV.

“This new Prime benefit at Whole Foods Market is a perfect pairing of healthy and delicious food at even more affordable prices,” said Cem Sibay, vice president, Amazon Prime, in a statement about the discount program’s launch. “Our vision is that every day Prime makes your life better, easier and more fun, and shopping at Whole Foods Market with exclusive deals and savings is all of this and more.”