Year: 2019

Last year, Amazon introduced Alexa Blueprints, a way for an Alexa device owner to create their own customized voice skills and Alexa responses without needing to know how to code. These skills — like family trivia or tips for your babysitter — could then be published for personal use. Later, Amazon added the ability to share the skills with others by way of a link. Today, Amazon is taking things a step further — you’ll now be able to publish these skills publicly to the U.S. Alexa Skills Store.

Alongside the launch, Amazon is also adding four new blueprints aimed at content creators, bloggers and organizations.

The idea with blueprints is to offer Alexa device owners a simple, online tool for building voice skills using templates you customize and edit to your liking.

Originally designed for use in the home and among families, some of the first “blueprints” included those offering instructions to houseguests and sitters or games and trivia you could play with family and friends, among other things. Others let you create your own stories for Alexa to narrate, or helped you build your own flashcards, quizzes and other educational tools.

Amazon continued to expand the Blueprints service following its April 2018 launch. For example, last summer it rolled out more customizable templates for families and roommates, like the Chore Chart or Roommate templates, for instance.

As of yesterday, there were 50 voice blueprints available across a half dozen categories, including a newer set of special-occasion and greetings skills from Hallmark.

Today, Amazon is launching four more templates.

The most interesting is the Flash Briefing blueprint, which allows any content creator to publish their news and updates to the Alexa Skills Store in the U.S. Their audience can then opt to include the skill in their own daily briefing, alongside the news from larger organizations, like the BBC or NPR, for example.

Another allows bloggers using WordPress to deliver their blogs as audio, by way of Alexa. That’s similar to something Amazon previously offered via its Amazon Polly WordPress plugin, now called the Amazon AI Plugin. The new skill leverages that same plugin to turn the blog’s text to speech, which can then be published as an Alexa skill.

These two new blueprints allow smaller publishers or local news, local weather providers or local sports groups to reach Alexa users, but they may represent a new challenge for Amazon, too.

Because of their ease-of-use, these skills could be co-opted by extremists or conspiracy theorists who don’t have an official path to broadcast their “fake news” otherwise. Amazon will need to be careful in its vetting and approval process.

The other two new blueprints are aimed at organizations — specifically, universities and churches. The University and Spiritual Talks blueprints let anyone make their live and recorded audio content accessible on Alexa devices.

To create these skills, the organization only has to add their audio feed URL, then customize their welcome and exit messages.

In addition to the new blueprints, the current set of templates may be used by a wide range of businesses, brands and individuals, ranging from personal trainers who want to offer their clients personalized routines, to tutors who offer their students flashcards and facts, to authors who want to share their short stories with the world.

Amazon declined to say how many people have used Blueprints to date, but says it’s “excited” about the level of adoption. When asked if people could monetize their blueprints, a rep responded “that’s an interesting idea.” (Which is Amazon PR speak for “yes, but not now.”)

“We’re always thinking about ways to make the experience better for customers,” a company spokesperson said.

Allowing anyone to publish Blueprints to the Skills Store could allow it to quickly grow beyond the 80,000 voice apps it offers today. But it could also fill the store with lower-quality apps, as templated apps aren’t unique in their design, have simple flows and don’t use voice talent or sound effects as part of their experience.

Users can begin publishing Blueprints today from blueprints.amazon.com.

JibJab, one of the first companies that let people insert selfies into videos, gifs, and e-cards, has been acquired by Catapult Capital. The Los Angeles-based private equity firm announced the deal today, but did not disclose financial terms. A portion of financing was provided by investment firm Cloud Capital.

According to Catapult Capital’s site, it focuses on middle-market transactions, targeting internet, consumer, and tech companies that are profitable, or nearing profitability, and past the venture stage. The firm’s investment size is usually $10 million to $100 million and it works with portfolio companies to “develop a China angle,” including new revenue channels. JibJab COO Paul Hanges was promoted to CEO after the acquisition.

Founded in 1999 by brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis after they saw “an animated dancing doodie streaming over a 56K modem,” JibJab’s big break came during the 2004 presidential campaign, when its satirical “This Land” racked up more than 80 million views. Two years later, JibJab launched JokeBox, allowing users to upload their own videos, photos, audios, and text jokes. In 2012, JibJab branched into children’s entertainment with StoryBots, which is now part of independent production company StoryBots Inc and known for the popular Netflix series “Ask the StoryBots.” According to Crunchbase, JibJab raised a total of $17.9 million, including its last round, a $7.5 million Series C announced in 2009.
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JibJab’s current products include an app that (similar to JokeBox) lets users turn selfies into e-cards, music videos, and gifs, but of course it is now one of many apps in a very crowded marketplace, competing to insert your likeness into Bitmojis, Memojis, filters and other content.

Gary Hsueh, founding partner of Catapult Capital, said in a press statement that “JibJab has created a successful business through a combination of product innovation, premium content, and entrepreneurial spirit. With the addition of our product, operational, and distribution resources to support the company’s evolution, we intend to accelerate JibJab’s new growth phase. We look forward to working with Paul, our co-investors, and the JibJab team to continue growing the business and expanding into new markets and formats.”

The 2018 mid-term elections, for the first time in U.S. history, resulted in a Congress that has the look and feel of America…our very diverse America. There are now 102 women serving in Congress and a record number of Members representing all Americans. Our Members now represent the African American, Hispanic, LGBTQ, and interfaith communities.

Thirteen new members are under the age of 35. This evolution of the legislative branch provides an opportunity to represent the best interests of all consumers. In our digital world, what is it that consumers, from each and every community represented by this new diverse Congress, have asked for? Online privacy protections.

As consumers enjoy the benefits of the great range of services that ride on the internet, they have increasingly lost confidence in once trusted companies who, we now know, have offered false promises of protections for their private online information. In 2018, consumers experienced one of the greatest losses of their personal information when Facebook revealed that Cambridge Analytica gathered the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent.

In another significant incident, Marriott had its database hacked and the information about over 500 million individuals was accessed from their guest reservation system. Uniquely personal information including phone numbers, passport numbers and dates of birth could all be accessed from the Marriott database. These are just two examples, with many other incidences of loss of consumers’ personal data over the past several years by companies small and large.

These data breaches all come at a significant cost to consumers and companies. According to an IBM study last year, the average cost of a data breach per comprised record in 2018 was $148. The total cost of a breach that impacts 50 million comprised records (an average size breach) costs a total of over $350 million – and these dollar amounts increase every year.

While the monetary costs of a data breach are significant to business, the real, and perhaps even greater costs, are borne by consumers. The loss of privacy, the potential for identity theft, and the years it takes to repair the damages that result from identity theft are seemingly immeasurable.

Consumers are now very aware that the country lacks a reliable solution to online privacy threats and concerns. It’s time for Congress to pass legislation that will implement a set of national privacy rules, offering consumers strong privacy and data security protections, and data breach notifications. These privacy rules should be uniformly applied to all companies in the online ecosystem.

Consumers cannot distinguish between the companies they engage with in the online world, so neither should the rules. The best arbiter to manage and enforce these national rules is the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has the expertise in consumer protection in privacy and security matters and should continue to build on this role with new and enhanced privacy protections.

While state legislative initiatives are noble efforts to offer privacy protections, this approach is not ideal for consumers, or for the digital economy.

They don’t offer uniform rules and they will protect a microcosm of consumers at best. As Representative Susan DelBene recently stated in reference to states moving forward on privacy legislation, “If we are not careful, we risk creating digital borders… within the (United) States causing massive disruptions in digital supply chains and digital trade…” A patchwork of state laws versus a national law could result in other implications for our digital economy as well. Congress must realize the immediate need of this privacy crisis and act; limited state protections cannot fill this void.

The best, and most long-lasting, resolution for consumers is for Congress to approve bipartisan privacy protections, providing national rules of the road for all companies to adhere to in this digital ecosystem.

With the unprecedented diversity represented by this Congress, we can feel confident that all points of view are being heard. It’s time to renew consumer confidence in our online services and devices. Let’s get it done, Congress. Our online privacy is an important protection that just can’t wait.

Fiverr is acquiring ClearVoice, a company that helps customers like Intuit and Carfax find professionals to write promotional content.

The two companies seem like a natural fit, since they both operate marketplaces for freelancers. Fiverr covers a much broader swath of freelance work, but CEO Micha Kaufman (pictured above) said the marketplace’s professional writing category grew 220 percent between the fourth quarters of 2017 and 2018, and he predicted that the need for content marketing will only increase.

“The types of channels that brands and companies need to be involved in and engaging in conversation with their audience are just growing,” Kaufman said. “I think any brand today that wants to be relevant needs to create a lot of engaging, interesting, creative content in their space, and I think that that creates a high demand for good content writers.”

Kaufman also noted that this is Fiverr’s third acquisition in two years, and he said he’s a “big believer … in the consolidation of vertical businesses into horizontal businesses such as ours — the fact that we cover over 200 categories gives us a tremendous amount of power to serve customers across many different types of needs.”

So what does the acquisition bring to the table that Fiverr wasn’t offering already? Kaufman said the ClearVoice team has “a lot of know how, both in technology side and the actual content side,” which will allow Fiverr to “cater to customers of all sizes and all needs.”

ClearVoice editorial calendar

More specifically, he said most of Fiverr’s content marketing customers are small businesses, while ClearVoice is able to work with large enterprises, especially with its collaboration and workflow tools that allow those enterprises to create content at “high velocity.”

Founded in 2014 by Jay Swansson and Joe Griffin (who still serve as co-CEOs), ClearVoice has raised a total of $3.1 million in funding from investors including PC Ventures, Desert Angels, Peak Ventures and Service Provider Capital, according to Crunchbase.

Fiverr is not disclosing the financial terms of the acquisition. The company says ClearVoice will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary.

“We are thrilled to be joining a company that is changing how people and companies work together in the modern era,” Swansson said in a statement. “This new chapter is a chance for us to use Fiverr’s depth and knowledge to globally scale our business and advance our mission of creating a platform that allows for worldwide creative collaboration.”

Smart mattress company Eight Sleep is announcing its newest product today, The Pod. Co-founder and CEO Matteo Franceschetti described it, succinctly, as “Nest for your bed.”

Eight has been focused on bed temperature for a while, first by offering a smart mattress cover and then a smart mattress that allows owners to adjust the surface temperature and even set different temperatures for different sides of the bed. But The Pod goes even further, with a smart temperature mode that will change bed temperature throughout the night to improve your sleep.

“Our vision is to use technology to personalize the environment while you’re unconscious and asleep,” Franceschetti said. “The biggest factor in the environment in temperature. The reason is … your body temperature changes during the night. If you sleep in an environment with a flat and stable temperature, you’re clearly going to feel hot or cold.”

When it comes to adjusting temperature for better sleep, Franceschetti argued that The Pod will be more effective than a smart thermometer, because it reacts to your behavior and is in direct contact with your body.

So The Pod will cool down so that you can fall asleep more quickly and sleep more soundly. It can also use artificial intelligence and biofeedback sensors to determine the best temperature for you (anywhere from 55 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the night, and adjust accordingly.

And there’s a “thermal alarm,” which will cool the bed in the minutes before you wake up — hopefully, you’ll be ready to wake up when your regular alarm goes off, or you can avoid the alarm in the first place.

The Pod is powered by The Hub, a device attached to the bed that essentially functions as its computer, connecting to WiFi and also storing the water tank that’s used for changing the temperature.

“The most impressive new technologies for improving sleep and enabling sleep research are the instrumented beds being developed by Eight Sleep,” said Craig Heller, a biology professor at Stanford University and a member of the startup’s scientific advisory board, in a statement. “Their goal of modifying thermal environment using in-home data is a huge opportunity to advance sleep science.”

The Pod does offer other features besides temperature adjustment. Like previous Eight Sleep products, it also allows you to track your sleep and vitals over time, then offers sleep coaching tips. It also connects to other smart home products like Amazon Alexa and Philips Hue light bulbs. And the mattress is supposed to be pretty good too, with four layers of adaptive foam.

The Pod is currently available for preorder today, with pricing starting at $1,995 for a full bed and $2,195 for a queen. Eight Sleep says it will start shipping in April.

European Deep-Tech and ‘industrial tech’ start-ups working in the field of industrial applications get a shot in the arm today with the news that btov Partners has closed 80 million Euros in backing for the second closing of its new btov Industrial Technologies Fund. btov Partners is a European venture capital firm with offices in Berlin, Munich, St. Gallen and Luxembourg.
The cash was raised from industry, strategic investors, family offices, foundations, a number of banks, the European Investment Fund – and the management team itself. The fund will aim to invest in European start-ups specifically aimed at industrial applications
Such as AI for industrial process optimisation, so-called Industry 4.0, IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), cyberphysical security, electronics and photonic, power generation and storage, as well as medical and quantum technologies.
DyeMansion, a Munich-based start-up, in which the fund invested in August 2018, specializes in just these kinds of technologies: the post-processing of 3D-printed polymer parts.
Partner Christian Reitberger said: “We usually invest EUR 1-3 million as lead or co-lead investor in Seed, Series A, possibly also Series B rounds and reserve significant further capital for subsequent rounds; we like to understand the underlying IP and favor cross-domain innovations, ie. bringing maturing technologies to new industrial applications – for example the application of new quantum technologies for sensor technology, the use of new computer architectures for hybrid high-performance computing, generative algorithms for design automation or photonic integration for medical technologies.”
The launch of the new btov Industrial Technologies Fund was supported by LfA Förderbank Bayern. Other public investors are NRW.BANK and the European Investment Fund. The fund is supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe.

Payment giant PayPal has closed its office in Malaysia as part of a restructuring of its customer support teams.

The office, located in capital city Kuala Lumpur, was home to a team of customer service agents that catered to PayPal users across Asian region and beyond. Now, its responsibility will be assumed by other offices, which include locations in the Philippines, China and India.

A PayPal spokesperson explained to TechCrunch that the move is aimed at consolidating a range of different employees at PayPal offices to help blend a range of employees under the same roof. The closure of the office doesn’t impact the PayPal service in Malaysia.

PayPal confirmed the office will close this year in a statement. The company emphasized its efforts to transition affected staff into new jobs both inside PayPal and with other companies:

We have made the difficult decision to close PayPal’s Operations Centre in Malaysia by the end of this year. The work currently being delivered at our Operations Centre in Malaysia will gradually move to other locations. This internal reorganization does not affect our customers in Malaysia, who can continue to use our products and services as normal.

We regularly review our global site structure and staffing to ensure the support and services we provide at each site best meet the evolving demands of our customers. Our Operations Centre in Malaysia has done a remarkable job serving our customers since the site opened in 2011. However, this decision was made to align our investment in sites that are better equipped to support the future needs of our customers and our company.

Our priority now is to do everything we can to set up our employees for future success and we are fully committed to helping them as they transition to the next step in their careers. As well as offering comprehensive separation packages, we have built an on-site careers center to promote job opportunities and provide immediate assistance to employees.

PayPal was the first company to pioneer digital payments but it has fallen behind in Asia and other emerging markets as mobile payment players and messaging apps have stepped up.

WeChat, which offers integrated QR code payments, dominates China, while WhatsApp is experimenting with payments in India, its largest market with 200 million active users, in a move that may well expand to other markets including Southeast Asia, where it is widely used. Other challengers with digital payments include Line, which offers payments in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, and Alibaba’s Ant Financial, a major player in China that is making aggressive moves in Korea and Southeast Asia.

News of the Kuala Lumpur office closure was first reported by Malaysian media.

Following the pre-Christmas drone debacle in the UK — which plunged thousands of people into travel misery after repeated drone sightings closed the runway at Gatwick, and later also briefly suspended departures at Heathrow — consumer drone maker DJI has announced it’s upgrading its geofencing system across Europe.

It says its Geospatial Environment Online (GEO) 2.0 system will be rolled out to the 19 European countries that did not already have the GEO system in phases — “starting later this month”.

“GEO 2.0 creates detailed three-dimensional “bow tie” safety zones surrounding runway flight paths and uses complex polygon shapes around other sensitive facilities, rather than just simple circles used in earlier geofencing versions,” it writes.

We’ve asked how long it will take for the update to be fully rolled out across the region.

A further 13 local markets that had the GEO system already will also now get the 2.0 update.

In all, 32 European countries will be covered by GEO 2.0 — which DJI bills as offering “enhance protection of European airports and facilities”.

Here’s how it explains the new geofencing approach in Europe:

GEO 2.0 applies the strictest geofencing restrictions to a 1.2 kilometer (3/4 mile) wide rectangle around each runway and the three-dimensional flight paths at either end, where airplanes ascend and descend. More flexible geofencing restrictions apply to an oval area within 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) of each runway. This bow tie shape opens more areas on the sides of runways to beneficial drone uses, as well as low-altitude areas more than 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the end of a runway, while increasing protection in the locations where traditional aircraft actually fly.

DJI’s new boundary areas around airport runways are based on the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Annex 14 standard for airspace safety near runways. DJI also consulted with aviation organizations on ways to enhance geofencing features near airport facilities. DJI’s categorisation of airports is based on airport types, numbers of passengers, operations and other factors, influencing the sensitivity of the airspace around a given location.

The countries getting GEO for the first time are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.

While those countries set for an upgrade to GEO 2.0 are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

Update: A spokesman confirmed it will be live in all 32 countries later this month. He also confirmed that DJI drones operating in the nineteen European countries that are getting GEO for the first time had no geoblocks at all prior to this roll out.

It’s not clear what took DJI so long to implement stricter and more detailed geofencing — and, well, any geofencing at all in most regional markets — around critical infrastructure sites like airports. We asked and it didn’t respond to the question.

But it has also announced a change of data provider — from California-based AirMap to Altitude Angel — in Europe. So appears to have needed to source better European mapping data. (Although the latter company launched its unmanned traffic management platform back in 2016.)

Altitude Angel, a UK-based startup which was founded in 2014, says its GuardianUTM platform is being used by DJI to extend the functionality of GEO 2.0 so it “more accurately reflects the highest safety risks around particular facilities”.

DJI claims the upgrade not only better reflects actual safety risks around airports but describes it as “more flexible in lower-risk areas” — saying, for example, that it would permit “authorized users to conduct drone activities in locations parallel to runways”. (Albeit UK airports might not be in a huge rush to permit any kind of nearby drone flights given the recent chaos… )

Another difference for the platform flagged by Altitude Angel itself is the claim it better maps other “sensitive facilities” too, such as prisons and nuclear power stations — which it says are represented by “more accurate ‘polygon’ shapes, rather than large, static cylinders”.

“By more accurately mapping the highest risk zones, DJI can improve safety while opening up more of the airspace to drone pilots,” is its claim.

Another change coming via the GEO update is that DJI’s geofencing system will also include Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) imposed during major events or natural disasters.

“The TFRs will be based on authoritative data from Eurocontrol,” it says.

When the drone maker announced the launch of its GEO geofencing system in Europe and North America, back in 2015, its VP of policy and legal affairs wrote: “Our years of actual user experience have shown that in most instances, strict geofencing is the wrong approach for this technology, and instead we are helping operators make informed, accountable decisions.”

As it turned out there’s rather more work to be done to ensure human nature combined with affordable, powerful drone tech doesn’t turn a consumer gadget into a weapon of mass disruption.

Another wrinkle, vis-a-vis geofencing as a mechanism for regulating drone use, is that individual (DJI) drone owners must update their DJIGO 4 flight control app and aircraft firmware for the new geoblocks to apply. So a push button fix for drone misuse this most definitely is not.

Add to that, modded/hacked drones can and do circumvent baked in geoblocks. And of course other drone brands, with different geofencing systems, are available.

Regulators have been caught on the hop around drone safety but aren’t likely to stand still for too much longer.

Last month the UK government announced new powers for police to tackle illegal use of drone technology — including powers to land, seize and search drones.

It also said it would beef up stop-gap flight restriction rules on drones by expanding a 1km flight exclusion zone around airports to circa 5km.

A full drone bill is still pending but the Gatwick drone chaos will have concentrated ministerial minds on the expeditious need to better regulate the tech.

As ever more transactions move on to digital platforms, a startup that is building a swiss army knife of financial services — from payments to currency transfers, ID verifications and card issuing — for companies to use by way of a single API — is announcing funding. Rapyd, a “fintech as a service startup akin to AWS for financial services” according to its CEO, has raised $40 million. The company plans to use the funds to continue to add more financial services to its platform, more staff to build them, and to expand its customer base.

This Series B is notable because it is being co-led by Stripe, the payments giant that is now valued at $22 billion, as well as General Catalyst, one of Stripe’s biggest backers, which has for years also co-invested with it in strategic startups. Others in this round include Target Global (a previous investor) IGNIA and other strategic payments and fintech companies that Rapyd is not disclosing.

It’s not clear if Stripe is investing as a customer, or simply an interested party (as it has in other startups it has backed): Arik Shtilman, the co-founder and CEO of Rapyd, said in an interview that he couldn’t say how and if his company and Stripe were working together. Stripe, as you might know, has made a big move to expand the kinds of services it provides to its customers beyond basic payments, and it has also continued to expand its coverage to more of the world, so there is potential for Rapyd to be involved in a number of areas.

This takes the total raised by the company to $60 million. Shtilman would not comment on the startup’s valuation.

(Notably, his previous company — an Israeli-based cloud services startup called ITNavigator — was sold to Avaya several years ago, reportedly for less than $100 million.)

Rapyd opened for business at the end of 2017 and Shtilman says it is on track to make “tens of millions” in revenues this year.

While it will not disclose any specific names, it currently has around 50 customers in areas like e-commerce and “gig economy”-based businesses (ie Uber-style transport services), as well as other types of companies where financial transactions may not be a company’s core competency, but are central to how it operates.

Like other fintech startups such as Adyen (as well as Stripe, PayPal and others), which aim to simplify complex problems behind easy-to-integrate APIs, Rapyd has built a suite of services — currently numbering five: funds collection, funds payouts, currency transfers, ID verification and card issuing, with the idea that more will be added on soon — that knit together several steps behind the scenes to make the process of offering that service easy for the company, and ultimately easy for the customer to use.

For example, in payments, it works with some 100 banks around the world to enable fund collection and disbursement across a wider geography, and it’s working on extending that to 150. It can handle payments and transfers in 65 currencies and can pay out funds in more than 170 countries. Its commissions on payments are straightforward — 3.5 percent plus 30 cents for funds in; $1.50 plus one percent in cases of currency exchange for funds out — although you have to contact the company for pricing on other services.

But Rapyd’s rapid rise also runs counter to a strong trend that we’ve seen up to now in the growth of fintech. Over the last several years, there have been a plethora of startups that have launched, and thrived, by offering very streamlined products, serving a single or a small handful of related purposes. Rapyd, however, believes that ultimately that isn’t how businesses want to work.

“Simplicity is the name of the game,” Shtilman said. “It doesn’t make sense to connect five to seven different providers into your backend when you can connect just one.”

Indeed, that need will likely also lead to more consolidation in the wider, fragemented fintech market, which will also create more competition for Rapyd. But for now, it’s a compelling enough and fast-enough moving market that there is an opportunity for a startup building this in a clever way to pick up speed — and maybe even a strategic buyer who also needs this exact functionality — quickly.

“Rapyd’s product offering helps merchants, banks, telcos and fintech companies expand the scope of the products they offer, increase the number of customers they reach, and improve the overall customer experience, said Adam Valkin, Partner of General Catalyst, in a statement. “Rapyd does this by helping drive the ubiquity of payment and payout options beyond debit and credit cards, towards cash, bank transfers, instant payments, e-wallets, and mobile money.”

Starling Bank, founded by banking veteran Anne Boden, has raised £75 million in further funding. The new capital breaks down as £60 million in a Series C round led by Merian Global Investors, including Merian Chrysalis, with £15 million in follow-on funding from Starling’s existing backer and major shareholder Harald McPike. It brings total funding to date for the London-based challenger bank to £133 million.

Starling says the new funding will support increased investment in the bank’s financial products in retail and SME banking as well as banking services. This will include ramping up international expansion, starting with Europe. The bank is thought to be applying for an additional banking license in Ireland to ensure those expansion plans aren’t interrupted post-Brexit.

Meanwhile, breaking with tradition, Starling is formally disclosing its latest customer numbers, presumably now that it has hit a respectable number: the challenger bank now has 460,000 personal current accounts and 30,000 SME accounts, and says it expects to hit one million customers by the end of 2019.

To put this into some context, long-term rival Monzo claims around 1.5 million customers and neobank Revolut claims 3.5 million users. Of course, for any current account offering, perhaps a better metric is accounts where a regular salary is paid in. Starling is likely to be punching above its weight here, having launched with a fully fledged current account from the get-go and targeting a slightly broader demographic.

On the SME banking front, a good point of reference is SME banking app Tide, which has been around for significantly longer than Starling’s much more recently launched business account. Last month Tide, which has had growing pains of its own and recruited a new CEO in August, disclosed that it has 60,000 SME customers.

However, the less well-told story of Starling is really its “Banking Services” division, which arguably makes it less reliant on core bank accounts. Along with consumer and small business banking, Starling makes its modern banking and payments infrastructure available to third parties. The banking-as-a-service has 20 institutional clients, including the U.K. government, while its payments volume is said to be “doubling month on month”.

The third aspect of Starling’s business is its marketplace of third-party financial products, which resides inside of the Starling banking app and is supported by its open API. It now has 11 partners, with many more in the pipeline. Notably, however, Boden has previously said the Starling Marketplace aimed to establish 25 marketplace partners by the end of 2018, while the bank’s Chief Platform Officer departed for Barclays in December.

In a statement related to today’s new funding, which TechCrunch reported was in motion last May, Boden talks up Starling Bank’s European expansion: “Building our platform and launching in the U.K. to provide genuine choice to retail, SME and Banking-as-a-Service customers was just the first step. Our ambition is to use our technology to build a next-generation global, digital banking platform, starting with our launch across Europe this year”.

Adds Nick Williamson, Merian Chrysalis co-portfolio manager: “Financial services is a market undergoing considerable change, driven by technology and users’ desire for better and more convenient offerings. The Starling team has developed a highly impressive and efficient platform, which we believe positions it well to continue to take share in core banking markets, as well as the ability to offer innovative new services in the future”.