Month: June 2019

Apple is holding a keynote today on the first day of its developer conference, and the company is expected to talk about a ton of software updates. At 10 AM PT (1 PM in New York, 5 PM in London, 6 PM in Paris), you’ll be able to watch the event as the company is streaming it live.

Rumor has it that the company plans to unveil the next versions of all its operating systems. Get ready for iOS 13 with system-wide dark mode, macOS 10.15, watchOS with some new apps from Apple and more.

The most interesting news of the show should be about a project called Marzipan. Apple plans to bridge the gap between iOS and macOS by letting developers release iOS apps on the Mac. It could change everything for the Mac. Apple could also unveil a new Mac Pro, so this should be interesting as well.

If you have an Apple TV, you can download the Apple Events app in the App Store. It lets you stream today’s event and rewatch old ones. The app icon was updated a few days ago for the event.

And if you don’t have an Apple TV, the company also lets you live-stream the event from the Apple Events section on its website. This video feed now works in all major browsers — Safari, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

So to recap, here’s how you can watch today’s Apple event:

• Your favorite web browser on the Mac or Windows 10.
• An Apple TV with the Apple Events app in the App Store.
• Google Chrome on your Android phone.
• And here’s the link to the live stream.

Of course, you also can read TechCrunch’s live blog if you’re stuck at work and really need our entertaining commentary track to help you get through your day. We have a team in the room.

Apple is holding a keynote today on the first day of its developer conference, and the company is expected to talk about a ton of software updates. At 10 AM PT (1 PM in New York, 6 PM in London, 7 PM in Paris), you’ll be able to watch the event as the company is streaming it live.

Rumor has it that the company plans to unveil the next versions of all its operating systems. Get ready for iOS 13 with system-wide dark mode, macOS 10.15, watchOS with some new apps from Apple and more.

The most interesting news of the show should be about a project called Marzipan. Apple plans to bridge the gap between iOS and macOS by letting developers release iOS apps on the Mac. It could change everything for the Mac. Apple could also unveil a new Mac Pro, so this should be interesting as well.

If you have an Apple TV, you can download the Apple Events app in the App Store. It lets you stream today’s event and rewatch old ones. The app icon was updated a few days ago for the event.

And if you don’t have an Apple TV, the company also lets you live-stream the event from the Apple Events section on its website. This video feed now works in all major browsers — Safari, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

So to recap, here’s how you can watch today’s Apple event:

• Your favorite web browser on the Mac or Windows 10.
• An Apple TV with the Apple Events app in the App Store.
• Google Chrome on your Android phone.
• And here’s the link to the live stream.

Of course, you also can read TechCrunch’s live blog if you’re stuck at work and really need our entertaining commentary track to help you get through your day. We have a team in the room.

As anyone who has ever tried to buy or sell a home knows, the entire process can be the most stressful of one’s life. Traditional real estate agents rarely make the process any less stressful, leaving the industry ripe for disruption by tech companies which can automate many of the existing processes.

Startups like Offerpad in the US have done just this by becoming an on-demand, tech-enabled direct home buyer and seller, and raising as much as $155M in VC to achieve this. The market in Europe is less well developed, which is why it’s clearly interesting that Kodit.io, a Finnish Proptech company that gives homeowners a “stress-free way to quickly sell their homes for a fair price”, has announced the close of a €12M ($13.4M) venture round to fund expansion in Europe.

Investors include New York-based FJ Labs, Austrian Speedinvest and Spanish All Iron Ventures, as well as Norwegian Adevinta (formerly Schibsted Marketplaces) that owns leading marketplaces in 16 different countries. Kodit.io previously raised €2M in seed capital and is planning to use its new funding to strengthen its expansion to new markets.

Kodit.io is a so-called iBuyer that offers home sellers ‘fair cash offers’ for their properties within 24 hours based on market assessments using machine learning. After purchase, Kodit.io renovates the properties to offer home buyers move-in ready and risk-free homes to buy, they say.

The idea is to disrupt the outdated and time consuming process of selling residential real estate on the retail side, while bringing more transparency and liquidity to housing markets on the B2B side.

Kodit.io launched in Madrid two years ago, and is also operating in Tallinn and six cities in Finland. Later this year, the startup expects to expand to Paris, Barcelona and Warsaw.

Hugo Mardomingo, Principal of All Iron Ventures, commented: “The real estate market is undergoing a strong transformation. Kodit.io brings a transparent and disruptive model to the table to eliminate the friction experienced by home buyers and sellers.”

As anyone who has ever tried to buy or sell a home knows, the entire process can be the most stressful of one’s life. Traditional real estate agents rarely make the process any less stressful, leaving the industry ripe for disruption by tech companies which can automate many of the existing processes.

Startups like Offerpad in the US have done just this by becoming an on-demand, tech-enabled direct home buyer and seller, and raising as much as $155M in VC to achieve this. The market in Europe is less well developed, which is why it’s clearly interesting that Kodit.io, a Finnish Proptech company that gives homeowners a “stress-free way to quickly sell their homes for a fair price”, has announced the close of a €12M ($13.4M) venture round to fund expansion in Europe.

Investors include New York-based FJ Labs, Austrian Speedinvest and Spanish All Iron Ventures, as well as Norwegian Adevinta (formerly Schibsted Marketplaces) that owns leading marketplaces in 16 different countries. Kodit.io previously raised €2M in seed capital and is planning to use its new funding to strengthen its expansion to new markets.

Kodit.io is a so-called iBuyer that offers home sellers ‘fair cash offers’ for their properties within 24 hours based on market assessments using machine learning. After purchase, Kodit.io renovates the properties to offer home buyers move-in ready and risk-free homes to buy, they say.

The idea is to disrupt the outdated and time consuming process of selling residential real estate on the retail side, while bringing more transparency and liquidity to housing markets on the B2B side.

Kodit.io launched in Madrid two years ago, and is also operating in Tallinn and six cities in Finland. Later this year, the startup expects to expand to Paris, Barcelona and Warsaw.

Hugo Mardomingo, Principal of All Iron Ventures, commented: “The real estate market is undergoing a strong transformation. Kodit.io brings a transparent and disruptive model to the table to eliminate the friction experienced by home buyers and sellers.”

The value of remittances globally continues to rise, and today a startup that has built a business targeting money transfers into emerging markets has raised a large round of growth funding to capitalize on that. WorldRemit, the London startup that has focused on enabling competitively-priced, quick money transfers from migrant workers and immigrants living in developed countries back home, typically in developing countries, has raised $175 million in a Series D round of funding from TCV, Accel and Leapfrog.

The company has to date focused on providing remittance services to individuals, specifically to help people  living and working abroad to send money to friends and family back home, by way of an app. That business now covers 50 ‘send’ countries and 150 ‘receive’ countries, and some 4 million users, with the US (where it has a license to operate in all states) its biggest ‘send’ market today.

(This is a mixed message of growth, however: the company had 2 million users in 2017, so it’s doubled, but it also projected at that time that it would hit 10 million ‘customers connected to emerging markets’ by 2020 – which implies it thinks another 6 million users will be added in the next six months.)

WorldRemit says that the plan will be to continue growing the company’s business around individual transfers but also expand that also to more payments between small and medium businesses. Indeed, the company still has ‘remit’ in its brand name, but describes itself as a ‘mobile payments company’ in its announcement of the Series D.

The three investors in this round were all previous investors in WorldRemit, which has to date raised around $386 million.

The company is not disclosing its valuation officially, although a well-placed source tells me it is now north of $900 million.

For some context: Sources close to the company told us it was valued at just under $670 million at the end of 2017, when it raised its Series C. In November 2018, PitchBook noted that in an extension of the Series C, its post-money valuation was around $538 million: I’ve been told this is not accurate. “WorldRemit has never had a down round,” the source said.

In the last year, the company has also had a change of leadership. Ismail Ahmed, who co-founded the company with Catherine Wines, stepped down as CEO in September 2018 and a month later was replaced by Breon Corcoran, who had been previously the CEO of Paddy Power Betfair, an online betting company.

At the time, reports said Ahmed stepping down was to help prep for an IPO, although if that was accurate, raising this large round will likely put back the timeline on any listing for a while at least. (Ahmed remains non-executive chairman.)

“For more than eight years our core purpose has been and continues to be to help migrants send money to their families, friends and communities,” Corcoran said in a statement. “Our customers play a key role in the economies where they work and their remittances are important to their home countries. Our mission is to help them transfer money as securely and speedily as possible while reducing the cost to our customers. We will grow our business through differentiation on speed, service, security and value.”

The opportunity for remittances is a big one: the World Bank estimates that annual remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion in 2018, up 9.6 percent and beating 2017’s then-record $483 billion figure. If you add in money sent to to high-income countries, remittances reached $689 billion in 2018, up from $633 billion in 2017, it said.

Although incumbents like Western Union still largely dominate the world of remittances, the rise of online payments and mobile technology (with phones themselves becoming proxies for bank accounts in some developing markets, as in the case of MPesa) has opened up an opportunity for new entrants into the field.

Amazon has recently teamed up with Western Union to help sell items in emerging markets: money that has been sent by transfer can now be used to buy goods. And Facebook, with its continuing interest in trying to do something in payments and remittances (although with very mixed results), is now dabbling in cryptocurrency, which could be another way to enable passing money from one person to another.

That is why, despite any growth hiccups, investors continue to bet big on the space — other big startup winners include Azimo, Remitly and TransferWise — and, specifically here, they continue to invest in WorldRemit so that it can develop its own technology both to compete with these other companies, and to build out its existing business.

“Over the past eight years, Ismail and his founding team have built a fantastic business that offers customers a compelling solution and value proposition,” said TCV General Partner John Doran in a statement. “Since passing the reins to Breon and the new management team last year, the business has continued to build on this platform and accelerated. We believe the opportunity and proposition is larger than ever.”

“Having first partnered with the WorldRemit team in 2014, I have seen the company grow from a London-founded startup to a global business pioneering the future of the remittance market and making international mobile payments more accessible and affordable for millions of individuals and businesses,” said Accel’s Harry Nelis in a statement. “This investment and CEO Breon Corcoran’s experience leading consumer service-oriented, global digital businesses will help fuel the next phase of global growth. We are excited to deepen our relationship with the team and help them fulfil the company’s vast potential.”

Updated with valuation provided by well-placed source.

The value of remittances globally continues to rise, and today a startup that has built a business targeting money transfers into emerging markets has raised a large round of growth funding to capitalize on that. WorldRemit, the London startup that has focused on enabling competitively-priced, quick money transfers from migrant workers and immigrants living in developed countries back home, typically in developing countries, has raised $175 million in a Series D round of funding from TCV, Accel and Leapfrog.

The company has to date focused on providing remittance services to individuals, specifically to help people  living and working abroad to send money to friends and family back home, by way of an app. That business now covers 50 ‘send’ countries and 150 ‘receive’ countries, and some 4 million users, with the US (where it has a license to operate in all states) its biggest ‘send’ market today.

(This is a mixed message of growth, however: the company had 2 million users in 2017, so it’s doubled, but it also projected at that time that it would hit 10 million ‘customers connected to emerging markets’ by 2020 – which implies it thinks another 6 million users will be added in the next six months.)

WorldRemit says that the plan will be to continue growing the company’s business around individual transfers but also expand that also to more payments between small and medium businesses. Indeed, the company still has ‘remit’ in its brand name, but describes itself as a ‘mobile payments company’ in its announcement of the Series D.

The three investors in this round were all previous investors in WorldRemit, which has to date raised around $386 million.

The company is not disclosing its valuation officially, although a well-placed source tells me it is now north of $900 million.

For some context: Sources close to the company told us it was valued at just under $670 million at the end of 2017, when it raised its Series C. In November 2018, PitchBook noted that in an extension of the Series C, its post-money valuation was around $538 million: I’ve been told this is not accurate. “WorldRemit has never had a down round,” the source said.

In the last year, the company has also had a change of leadership. Ismail Ahmed, who co-founded the company with Catherine Wines, stepped down as CEO in September 2018 and a month later was replaced by Breon Corcoran, who had been previously the CEO of Paddy Power Betfair, an online betting company.

At the time, reports said Ahmed stepping down was to help prep for an IPO, although if that was accurate, raising this large round will likely put back the timeline on any listing for a while at least. (Ahmed remains non-executive chairman.)

“For more than eight years our core purpose has been and continues to be to help migrants send money to their families, friends and communities,” Corcoran said in a statement. “Our customers play a key role in the economies where they work and their remittances are important to their home countries. Our mission is to help them transfer money as securely and speedily as possible while reducing the cost to our customers. We will grow our business through differentiation on speed, service, security and value.”

The opportunity for remittances is a big one: the World Bank estimates that annual remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion in 2018, up 9.6 percent and beating 2017’s then-record $483 billion figure. If you add in money sent to to high-income countries, remittances reached $689 billion in 2018, up from $633 billion in 2017, it said.

Although incumbents like Western Union still largely dominate the world of remittances, the rise of online payments and mobile technology (with phones themselves becoming proxies for bank accounts in some developing markets, as in the case of MPesa) has opened up an opportunity for new entrants into the field.

Amazon has recently teamed up with Western Union to help sell items in emerging markets: money that has been sent by transfer can now be used to buy goods. And Facebook, with its continuing interest in trying to do something in payments and remittances (although with very mixed results), is now dabbling in cryptocurrency, which could be another way to enable passing money from one person to another.

That is why, despite any growth hiccups, investors continue to bet big on the space — other big startup winners include Azimo, Remitly and TransferWise — and, specifically here, they continue to invest in WorldRemit so that it can develop its own technology both to compete with these other companies, and to build out its existing business.

“Over the past eight years, Ismail and his founding team have built a fantastic business that offers customers a compelling solution and value proposition,” said TCV General Partner John Doran in a statement. “Since passing the reins to Breon and the new management team last year, the business has continued to build on this platform and accelerated. We believe the opportunity and proposition is larger than ever.”

“Having first partnered with the WorldRemit team in 2014, I have seen the company grow from a London-founded startup to a global business pioneering the future of the remittance market and making international mobile payments more accessible and affordable for millions of individuals and businesses,” said Accel’s Harry Nelis in a statement. “This investment and CEO Breon Corcoran’s experience leading consumer service-oriented, global digital businesses will help fuel the next phase of global growth. We are excited to deepen our relationship with the team and help them fulfil the company’s vast potential.”

Updated with valuation provided by well-placed source.

There’s a widely accepted method to interpret China’s official announcements: the shorter the news, the heavier it is. Today, in one concise sentence, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China’s telecom regulator, announced that it will “soon grant 5G licenses for commercial use.”

That’s according to the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily. TechCrunch reported four months ago that China planned to “fast-track” the commercial use of the next-gen networking technology at a time when Huawei, the champion of the country’s 5G development, faces mounting pressure in the west as the U.S. lobbies its allies not to use Huawei technologies.

The Chinese firm is selling a majority stake of its undersea cable division weeks after the Trump administration blocked it from doing businesses with American companies.

The Chinese firm manages to find allies in other parts of the world. Just last week, it launched a 5G lab in South Korea but decided to keep the event “low-key,” Reuters reported, notably because the Asian country is a security ally of the U.S.

The acceleration of 5G licensing in China will also be a potential boost to the domestic economy, as it will “drum up demand with upgraded technology experiences across devices, automotive and manufacturing leveraging 5G technology,” Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, told TechCrunch in a previous interview.

5G technologies are expected to generate 6.3 trillion yuan ($947 billion) worth of economic output and 8 million jobs for China by 2030, according to a white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

There’s a widely accepted method to interpret China’s official announcements: the shorter the news, the heavier it is. Today, in one concise sentence, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China’s telecom regulator, announced that it will “soon grant 5G licenses for commercial use.”

That’s according to the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily. TechCrunch reported four months ago that China planned to “fast-track” the commercial use of the next-gen networking technology at a time when Huawei, the champion of the country’s 5G development, faces mounting pressure in the west as the U.S. lobbies its allies not to use Huawei technologies.

The Chinese firm is selling a majority stake of its undersea cable division weeks after the Trump administration blocked it from doing businesses with American companies.

The Chinese firm manages to find allies in other parts of the world. Just last week, it launched a 5G lab in South Korea but decided to keep the event “low-key,” Reuters reported, notably because the Asian country is a security ally of the U.S.

The acceleration of 5G licensing in China will also be a potential boost to the domestic economy, as it will “drum up demand with upgraded technology experiences across devices, automotive and manufacturing leveraging 5G technology,” Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, told TechCrunch in a previous interview.

5G technologies are expected to generate 6.3 trillion yuan ($947 billion) worth of economic output and 8 million jobs for China by 2030, according to a white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

A big shout out to all you savvy startuppers — the day you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Yup, registration for Disrupt Berlin 2019 is officially open for business. We’re kicking things off with a super early-bird special, and that means only one thing — serious savings. Buy your passes now, and you can save up to €600. Das ist wunderbar!

Our premier tech conference takes place on 11-12 December, and it draws an international startup community from more than 50 countries. There’s no better place to discuss, learn about and showcase the game-changing technologies that promise to shape the future.

You’ll experience two full days of intense programming. That includes world-class speakers and panelists — founders, investors and icons — who share their experiences, advice and insight. Last year, we had the pleasure of hearing Frank Salzgeber (European Space Agency), Lizzie Chapman (ZestMoney) and Rafal Modrzewski (ICEYE) — just to name a few. We’re building our 2019 roster as we speak, and it will not disappoint!

Don’t you dare miss the Startup Battlefield. A cohort of outstanding early-stage startups competes for glory, the Disrupt Cup and $50,000 in equity-free cash as they launch their companies on a world stage. What’s more, all the competitors receive an abundance of investor and media interest. This event can change the trajectory of your business — as it did for hundreds of other companies, including Vurb, Dropbox, Mint, Yammer and many more.

The Startup Alley expo hall is a networking paradise filled with hundreds of startups showcasing their considerable tech talents. It’s also home to a cadre of outstanding startups — our TC Top Picks. We vet applications and choose up to five startups that represent the best in a range of tech categories. It’s another great way to gain invaluable exposure.

You never know who you’ll meet in the Alley or where that chance connection might lead. Looking for a more efficient way to network? Use CrunchMatch, our free business-matching platform. It lets you find, connect and schedule meetings with people based on mutual criteria, goals and interests.

Psst, we’ll start officially vetting applications for Startup Battlefield and the TC Top Picks program later this summer, but you can get a jump on things by filling out an application at apply.techcrunch.com.

We’ll announce plenty of speakers, workshops, demos, events and other surprises in the weeks ahead. It’s easy to stay informed — just sign up for our mailing list.

Disrupt Berlin 2019 takes place on 11-12 December and registration is open! Get your passes now at the super early-bird price, and you can save up to €600. Das ist wunderbar!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt Berlin 2019? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

A big shout out to all you savvy startuppers — the day you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Yup, registration for Disrupt Berlin 2019 is officially open for business. We’re kicking things off with a super early-bird special, and that means only one thing — serious savings. Buy your passes now, and you can save up to €600. Das ist wunderbar!

Our premier tech conference takes place on 11-12 December, and it draws an international startup community from more than 50 countries. There’s no better place to discuss, learn about and showcase the game-changing technologies that promise to shape the future.

You’ll experience two full days of intense programming. That includes world-class speakers and panelists — founders, investors and icons — who share their experiences, advice and insight. Last year, we had the pleasure of hearing Frank Salzgeber (European Space Agency), Lizzie Chapman (ZestMoney) and Rafal Modrzewski (ICEYE) — just to name a few. We’re building our 2019 roster as we speak, and it will not disappoint!

Don’t you dare miss the Startup Battlefield. A cohort of outstanding early-stage startups competes for glory, the Disrupt Cup and $50,000 in equity-free cash as they launch their companies on a world stage. What’s more, all the competitors receive an abundance of investor and media interest. This event can change the trajectory of your business — as it did for hundreds of other companies, including Vurb, Dropbox, Mint, Yammer and many more.

The Startup Alley expo hall is a networking paradise filled with hundreds of startups showcasing their considerable tech talents. It’s also home to a cadre of outstanding startups — our TC Top Picks. We vet applications and choose up to five startups that represent the best in a range of tech categories. It’s another great way to gain invaluable exposure.

You never know who you’ll meet in the Alley or where that chance connection might lead. Looking for a more efficient way to network? Use CrunchMatch, our free business-matching platform. It lets you find, connect and schedule meetings with people based on mutual criteria, goals and interests.

Psst, we’ll start officially vetting applications for Startup Battlefield and the TC Top Picks program later this summer, but you can get a jump on things by filling out an application at apply.techcrunch.com.

We’ll announce plenty of speakers, workshops, demos, events and other surprises in the weeks ahead. It’s easy to stay informed — just sign up for our mailing list.

Disrupt Berlin 2019 takes place on 11-12 December and registration is open! Get your passes now at the super early-bird price, and you can save up to €600. Das ist wunderbar!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt Berlin 2019? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.