Year: 2019

According to CEO Afif Khoury, we’re in the middle of “the third wave of social” — a shift back to local interactions. And Khoury’s startup Soci (pronounced soh-shee) has raised $12 million in Series C funding to help companies navigate that shift.

Soci works with customers like Ace Hardware and Sport Clips to help them manage the online presence of hundreds or thousands of stores. It allows marketers to post content and share assets across all those pages, respond to reviews and comments, manage ad campaigns, and provide guidance around how to stay on-brand.

It sounds like most of these interactions are happening on Facebook. Khoury told me that Soci integrates with “40 different APIs where businesses are having conversations with their customers,” but he added, “Facebook was and continues to be the most prominent conversation center.”

Khoury and CTO Alo Sarv founded Soci back in 2012. Khoury said they spent the first two years building the product, and have subsequently raised around $30 million in total funding.

“What we weren’t building was a point solution,” he said. “What we were building was a massive platform … It took us 18 months to two years to really build it in the way we thought was going to be meaningful for the marketplace.”

Soci has also incorporated artificial intelligence to power chatbots that Khoury said “take that engagement happening on social and move it downstream to a call or a sale or something relevant to the local business.”

The new round was led by Vertical Venture Partners, with participation from Grayhawk Capital and Ankona Capital. Khoury said the money will allow Soci to continue developing its AI technology and to build out its sales and marketing team.

“Ours is a very consultative sale,” he said. “It’s a complicated world that you’re living in, and we really want to partner and have a local presence with our customers.”

India has proposed groundbreaking new rules that would require companies to garner consent from citizens in the country before collecting and processing their personal data. But at the same time, the new rules also state that companies will have to hand over “non-personal” data of their users to the government, and New Delhi will also hold the power to collect any data of its citizens without consent, thereby bypassing the laws applicable to everyone else, to serve sovereignty and larger public interest.

The new rules, proposed in “Personal Data Protection Bill 2019,” a copy of which leaked on Tuesday, will permit New Delhi to “exempt any agency of government from application of Act in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order.”

If the bill passes, and it is expected to be discussed in the parliament in the coming weeks, select laws drafted more than a decade ago would remain unchanged.

Another proposed rule would permit New Delhi the power to ask any “data fiduciary or data processor” to hand over “anonymized” non-personal data — or “other non-personal data” — for the purpose of better governance.

New Delhi’s new bill — which was passed by the Union Cabinet in India last week, but has yet to be formally shared with the public — could create new challenges for Google, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and other companies that are already facing some regulatory heat in the nation.

India conceptualized this bill two years ago and in the years since, it has undergone significant changes. A draft of the bill, which was formally made public last year, had stated that the Indian government must not have the ability to collect or process personal data of its citizens, unless a lawful procedure was followed.

Ambiguity over who the Indian government considers an “intermediary” or a “social media” platform, or a “social media intermediaries” are yet to be fully resolved, however. In the latest version, the bill appears to not include payment services, internet service providers, search engines, online encyclopedias, email services and online storage services as “social media intermediaries.”

One of the proposed rules, that is directly aimed at Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media company that enables “interaction between two or more users” requires them to give their users an option to verify their identity and then publicly have such status displayed on their profile — similar to the blue tick that Facebook and Twitter reserve for celebrities and other accounts of public interest.

Last week news outlet Reuters reported portions of the bill, citing unnamed sources. The report claimed that India was proposing the voluntary identity-verification requirement to curb the spread of false information.

As social media companies grapple with the spread of false information, that have caused at least 30 deaths in India, the Narendra Modi -led government, a big consumer itself of social media platforms, has sought to take measures to address several issues.

Over the last two years, the Indian government has asked WhatsApp, which has amassed more than 400 million users in India, to “bring traceability” to its platform in a move that would allow the authority to identify the people who are spreading the information.

WhatsApp has insisted that such a move would require breaking encryption, which would compromise the privacy and security that more than a billion people globally enjoy on the platform.

The bill has not specifically cited government’s desires to contain false information for this proposal, however. Instead the bill insists that this would bring more “transparency and accountability.”

Some critics have expressed concerns over the proposed rules. Udbhav Tiwari, a public policy advisor at Mozilla, said New Delhi’s bill would “represent new, significant threats to Indians’ privacy. If Indians are to be truly protected, it is urgent that parliament reviews and addresses these dangerous provisions before they become law.”

The countdown status to Disrupt Berlin 2019 stands at T-minus 24 hours. Yep, the doors to prolific opportunity open tomorrow at Arena Berlin. It’s not too late to join thousands of your startup colleagues, but today’s the last day you can save money on the price of admission.

Our late registration for Disrupt Berlin closes tonight at 11:59 p.m. (CEST). Don’t miss your last chance to save up to €200 over the onsite ticket price. Beat the clock and buy your pass right here, right now.

Let’s highlight just some of the events and happenings that await you at Disrupt Berlin.

Come ready to network and head straight to Startup Alley. The expo hall features hundreds of innovative early-stage companies eager to demo and discuss their products, platforms and services that span the tech spectrum.

It’s also where you’ll find a special cadre of companies — the TC Top Picks. TechCrunch editors hand-picked up to five startups in each of the following categories: AI/Machine Learning, Biotech/Healthtech, Blockchain, Fintech, Mobility, Privacy/Security, Retail/E-commerce, Robotics/IoT/Hardware, and CRM/Enterprise. See why they made the grade.

Want to make the most of your limited time at the show? Use CrunchMatch, our free business-matching platform that makes networking much more efficient. It’s curated and automated, and it connects you to people who align with your business goals.

Bear witness to the Startup Battlefield as founders of early-stage  startups launch on a world stage and vie for the Disrupt Cup, intense media and investor love and a $50,000 cash prize. Who knows? You might see the birth of a future unicorn.

Between all the networking and the Battlefield, be sure to take in the world-class speakers, panel discussions, Q&A Sessions and workshops. As usual, top players, technologists, researchers and investors will share insights on the current and future states of startups. Check out the full Disrupt Berlin agenda here and plan accordingly.

We’re only one day away from Disrupt Berlin, and we can’t wait to meet all of you creative founders, investors, makers and entrepreneurs. Prolific opportunity awaits you. Buy your pass to Disrupt Berlin and save up to €200 before late registration ends tonight at 10 December at 11:59 p.m. (CEST).

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

Earlier this year, Omers Ventures, the venture capital arm of Canadian pension fund Omers, outed a new €300 million fund aimed at European technology startups, having recruited local VCs Harry Briggs, Tara Reeves and Henry Gladwyn.

And now the firm is adding a fourth member in Europe: Jambu Palaniappan (pictured centre), the former head of Uber’s food delivery business in Europe, Middle East and Africa, has joined Omers Ventures as a Managing Partner.

Palaniappan joined Uber in 2012 when it was a 75-person startup focused primarily on the U.S. market. He led the ride sharing behemoth’s expansion throughout the EMEA region and India, before becoming Regional General Manager for Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and Africa. He then went on launch Uber Eats in EMEA.

In other words, Palaniappan brings even more operational experience to Omers’ European VC team, although he isn’t new to the world of venture capital, either. His most recent gig was at London-based venture capital firm Atomico, where he spent 12 months as Executive-in-Residence (news that TechCrunch broke back in July 2018).

Unsurprisingly, Palaniappan has also been an angel investor, and is said to have backed a number of startups in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Meanwhile, the recruitment of Palaniappan marks a decent debut half year for Omers Ventures Europe, seeing the Canadian investor put together a team of faces well-known to the London and broader European tech and startup scene. Briggs’ resume includes stints at BGF Ventures and Balderton, as well as founding and exiting Tonics, a health drinks company. Reeves was at seed firm LocalGlobe and also co-founded Turo, the car-sharing marketplace. And Gladwyn previously managed seed investments for the founders of DeepMind.

The Omers Ventures Europe team have already invested more than €76 million into the European ecosystem. Investments to date include FirstVet, Resi and Quorso.

Heiliger Strohsack — or holy smokes as we say here in the States! We’re just hours away from kicking off Disrupt Berlin 2019 (11-12 December). We have a stellar event planned with an all-star lineup that only TechCrunch can assemble, and we’re expecting our largest number of attendees yet. Seriously, have you read the star-packed agenda?

Of course, with any event of this size we have a few vital logistical items to share so that your Disrupt experience is seamless and productive. Ready? Here’s what you need to know.

Pre-Event Badge Pick Up

Skip the morning rush by picking up your badge early on Tuesday 10 December from 4pm – 7pm at betahaus Kreuzberg. The first 500 people to pick up their badge will receive a pair of TC socks! Have your Universe ticket confirmation email and a government-issued photo ID on you.

Event Registration & Badge Pick Up

Registration opens at 8:30 am Wednesday (8:00am for Startup Alley exhibitors) and 8:00am on Thursday (7:30am for Startup Alley exhibitors). Universe is the official ticketing platform of Disrupt. If you’re signed up for Disrupt, you used Universe. We love them and we think you will, too. If you haven’t purchased your pass, please go do that here.

Please bring your government-issued photo ID each day of the conference.

Lost Badge Fee

Don’t forget your badge every day – there is a €75 reprint fee for lost or misplaced badges.

TechCrunch Events App

The TechCrunch Events app is now available for you to download in the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores.You will also be able to access CrunchMatch through the app.

With the TechCrunch Events app you can:

• View agenda sessions and create your calendar
• Sort by category, view and favorite Startup Alley exhibitors and sponsors
• Get recommendations on sessions, exhibitors and sponsors you should meet
• Message and connect with other opted-in attendees
• Easily find your way around the event with interactive venue maps
• Get access to the CrunchMatch platform to discover and set up meetings with the attendees you most want to meet

How to access the app:

• Download the TechCrunch Event app from the Apple iTunes Store or Google Play Store.
• Once downloaded, select the Disrupt Berlin 2019 event and you’ll be prompted to enter the email address associated with your registration. Your password is the last 6 digits of the number above the QR code on your Universe ticket (case-sensitive). If you do not have access to your Universe ticket, you can select “forgot password” so you can reset your password.

Having problems logging in? Email events@techcrunch.com for assistance.

Women of Disrupt Lunch

All women who are registered for Disrupt Berlin are invited to the Women of Disrupt lunch on Thursday from 12-2pm. Your badge is all you need for entry into the breakfast.

Investor Lunch

Catch-up with colleagues and other Disrupt Berlin investors over a delicious lunch. Exclusively for registered Disrupt Berlin 2019 Investor Pass holders only. Must have investor badge to enter.

11 December, 2019 | 12:00pm – 2:00pm

The Reception Room at Disrupt Berlin

Book a Semi-Private Room at Disrupt

TechCrunch is offering semi-private meeting rooms at €40/55 minutes at Disrupt Berlin. These rooms are great for taking meetings of up to 4 people or catching up on some work. Meeting spaces can only be used by registered Disrupt Berlin ticket holders. Each meeting room comes with a table, 4 chairs, and power. Book your time here.

CrunchMatch

All pass holders attending Disrupt Berlin will receive login instructions to access CrunchMatch via email and you can access it via the TechCrunch Events App – so make sure you download it! CrunchMatch is TechCrunch’s matching service connecting people at the event based on mutual interests. There are already several hundred meetings scheduled and we anticipate holding at least 2500 meetings during Disrupt Berlin.

On-site Nursing Suite

TechCrunch is providing a private nursing room on-site at Disrupt Berlin on the second floor of the conference. Ask for more information at the Help Desk table in the registration area.

Competitions

Disrupt is world-famous for its startup competition, Startup Battlefield. This year there are a few additional opportunities for startups to grab some limelight, with TechCrunch’s Custom Disruptor Award program, where Disrupt partners can select exhibiting startups to highlight and award a prize.

Samsung Innovation Center, Extreme Tech Challenge [XTC]

At the regional competition, 10 startups will be selected to present to leading VCs including Samsung Catalyst Fund, Speedinvest, and Deutsch Telecom on December 11. The top three startups will be recognized on the main stage of the event on December 12 with the Custom Disruptor Award — and receive invitations to the XTC Global Finals at VIVATechnology – Paris in June 2020.

Disrupt would not be able to exist without the help of our sponsors. You can see these breakout sessions at Disrupt Berlin.

11 December | Breakout Room

Opening Remarks by WeChat Developer Challenge

10:00 – 12:50 | See description in agenda

Sponsored by WDC

Build Different With The Other Location Platform

14:00 – 14:50 | See description in agenda

Sponsored by TomTom

Coming Soon!

15:00 – 15:50

Bain & Company

WDC Berlin Top Teams Presentations and Awards

16:00 – 18:00 | See description in agenda

Sponsored by WDC

12 December | Breakout Room

European Innovation Council (EIC) workshop – Funding Breakthrough Innovation from idea to market

11:00 – 12:00 | See description in agenda

Sponsored by European Innovation Council

There you have it — all the info you need to ensure your time at Disrupt Berlin 2019 remains productive and fun. Looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday!

Over the last few years, we’ve seen the rise of FinTech startups like N26 and Monzo to challenge the incumbents with new products like challenger banks. But what if the big banks wanted to compete in that game themselves? This is the aim of FintechOS a Romanian startup that actually aims to help incumbents compete in this brave new, competitive, world.

FintechOS allows banks and insurance companies to act and react faster than the new upstarts on the scene with plug and play products. 

It’s announcing today that it has secured $14 million (£10.7 million) in a Series A investment led by the Digital East Fund of Earlybird Venture Capital and OTB Ventures, with participation from existing investors Gapminder Ventures and Launchub.

The additional capital will be used to continue the growth and expansion across Europe, and to expand into South East Asia and the US.

FintechOS’s technology platform lets traditional banks and insurance companies adapt to rapidly changing customer expectations, and match the speed and flexibility of Fintech startups with personalized products and services, in weeks rather than months or years.

The banks and insurance companies can then launch multi-cloud SaaS deployments, transitioning to the cloud and on-premises deployments, working alongside the existing technology infrastructure. It now has existing partnerships with Microsoft, EY, Deloitte, Publicis Sapient and CapGemini allow deployment in multiple markets.

Started in 2017 by serial entrepreneurs Teodor Blidarus and Sergiu Negut, the company now has customers in more than 20 countries across three continents.

Teo Blidarus, CEO and Co-Founder of FintechOS, commented: “Our disruptive approach is customer, not technology-driven. We created FintechOS to transform the financial industry, empowering banks and insurance companies to act and react faster than fintech startups,
to create a smarter, slicker customer experience.”

Dan Lupu, Partner at Earlybird, said: “FintechOS is a pioneer in a booming market, with a vision to transform the way financial institutions react to market and regulatory changes. We are proud to become part of a journey that will shape the future of financial services.”

Pan-African digital classifieds company Jiji has raised $21 million in Series C and C-1 financing from six investors, led by Knuru Capital.

The Nigeria based venture, co-founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Vladimir Mnogoletniy, has an East to West presence that includes Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.

Buyers and sellers in those markets use Jiji to transact purchases from real estate to car sales.

“We are the largest marketplace in Africa where people can sell pretty much anything…We are like a combination of eBay and Craigslist for Africa,” Mnogoletniy told TechCrunch on a call.

The classifieds site has two million listings on its Africa platforms and hit eight million unique monthly users in 2018, per company stats.

Jiji sees an addressable market of 400 million people across its operating countries, according to Mnogoletniy. The venture bought up one of its competitors in April this year, when it acquired the assets of Naspers owned online marketplace OLX in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Jiji’s top three categories for revenues and listings (in order) are vehicle sales, real estate, and electronics sales (namely mobile phones).

With the recent funding, the company’s total capital raised from 2014 to 2019 comes to $50 million. Knuru Capital CEO Alain Dib confirmed the Abu Dhabi based fund’s lead on Jiji’s most recent round.

Jiji plans to use the latest investment toward initiatives to increase the overall number of buyers, sellers and transactions on its site. The company will also upgrade the platform to create more listings and faster matching in the area of real-estate, according to Mnogoletniy.

For the moment, Jiji doesn’t have plans for country expansion or company purchases. “Maybe at some point we will consider more acquisitions, but for the time being we’d like to focus on those five markets,” Mnogoletniy said — referring to Jiji’s existing African country presence.

To ensure the quality of listings, particularly in real-estate, Jiji employs an automated and manual verification process. “We were able to eliminate a high-percentage of fraud listings and estimate fraud listings at less than 1%,” said Mnogoletniy.

He recognized the challenge of online scams originating in Nigeria. “We take data protection very seriously. We have a data-control officer just to do the data-protection verification.”

With the large consumer base and volume of transactional activity on its platform, Jiji could layer on services, such as finance and payments.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions about adding segments other than our main business. We decided that for the next three to five years, we should be laser focused on our core business — to be the largest marketplace in Africa for buying and selling to over 400 million people,” Mnogoletniy said.

The company faces an improving commercial environment for its goals, with Africa registering some of the fastest growth in the world for smartphone adoption and internet penetration.

Jiji also faces competitors in Africa’s growing online classifieds space.

Pan-African e-commerce company Jumia, which listed in April in an NYSE IPO, operates its Jumia Deals digtial marketplace site in multiple African countries.

Swiss owned Ringier Africa has classified services and business content sites in eight French and English speaking countries. On car sales, Nigerian startup Cars45 has created an online marketplace for pricing, rating, and selling used-autos. 

Adding to the trend of foreign backed ventures entering Africa’s internet business space, Chinese owned Opera launched an online buy/sell site, OList, last month connected its African payment app, OPay.

eBay operates a partnership with MallforAfrica for limited goods sales from Africa to the U.S., but hasn’t gone live yet on the continent.

On outpacing rival in its markets, Jiji’s co-founder Vladimir Mnogoletniy touts the company’s total focus on the classifieds business, market experience, and capital as advantages.

“We’ve spent five years and raised $50 million to build Jiji to where it is today. It would take $50 to $100 million for these others to have a chance at building a similar business,” he said.

Every so often a story comes along which is unremarkable on its face but erupts into wider attention because it seems to represent some larger social fracture zone. …And then there’s the recent story of mismanagement and malfeasance at Away, which has caught the tech world’s attention because it seems a shibboleth for all the industry’s fault lines.

This story is whatever you want it to be. It’s a tale of exploitation of the poor and struggling by executives born rich and privileged; of the unfair, disproportionately harsh and negative scrutiny that women CEOs get; of the inherent cultural toxicity of constant surveillance (Away banned emails and DMs, insisting that all communication took place in public Slack channels); of the need for tech workers fo unionize; of the need for young workers to toughen up and live in the real world, which sometimes has asshole bosses.

Fine, I’ll take a paragraph break, but I’m not done: a tale of how not to apologize (clue: don’t try to exercise draconian control over your employees’ personal social media accounts on the same day you’re publicly apologizing for your previous draconian mistreatment of them); of the sacrifices required to build a startup; of how the real problem boils down to mismanagement and misaligned incentives, and the rest is noise; of how what previous generations considered shitty but acceptable boss behavior is now judged as completely unacceptable toxic abuse.

It is, in short, the perfect Rorschach test for today. Like most Rorschach tests, the panoply of reactions to it is much more interesting than the story itself. This is especially true because of the widespread suspicion that there was a disparity between public responses and private thoughts — that people who didn’t agree that Away’s executives should be lambasted were reluctant to say so. That’s right, it’s also a story about social media, public shaming, cancel culture, and the intolerant left! Seriously, this little morality play has everything.

So, to their eternal credit, the semi-satirical VC Starter Kit account performed a Twitter experiment: “If you’re a VC, founder or journalist, DM me your thoughts on the Away piece and I’ll anonymously post your response here,” and then posted a summary of the responses to (of course!) their Substack.

Interestingly, the results do indeed seem to suggest a far more massive cultural divide than the public responses do. I encourage you to go read them. To my mind, and I concede this is probably pretty idiosyncratic, they ultimately condense down to one of two views: 1. startups are hard, and there are always going to be points where you have to choose between startup success and treating people well, and success comes first; 2. startups are hard, but if you get to the point where you have to choose between startup success and treating people well, you have already royally fucked up, and if you then choose the former, you should be both privately and publicly ashamed of it.

To an extent I think this is generational. It seems that behavior that Gen Xers like myself might stereotypically respond to with “what an asshole, but that’s the way bosses are sometimes, so it goes,” is to Gen Zers “this is completely unacceptable toxic abuse that no one should ever experience.” This is probably almost entirely a good thing. Spreading the notion that it is important to treat other people better than we once did leads a lot more directly to the fabled “better world” than most any of the companies which claim to be doing so.

Granted, on the other hand, if we get to a point where we let the 1% of the most sensitive members of our society, prone to the most negative interpretations of any and all complexity and nuance, dictate what is acceptable, that would be a kind of bizarre form of unacceptable tyranny in and of itself. To be clear I don’t think we’re collectively anywhere remotely near any risk of that; rather, we’re finally beginning to appreciate that “you should be tougher than that” is about as useful to most victims of bullying, misogyny, bigotry, etc. as it is to victims of a stabbing. But it’s important to recognize that the perception of such an endgame, however skewed it is, makes a lot of people uneasy.

Either way, though, I find myself subscribing to theory number two: startups are hard, but if you get to the point where you have to choose between startup success and treating people well, you have already royally fucked up. Just because Steve Jobs was an asshole doesn’t mean that being an asshole is a necessary requirement of CEOdom, much less a sufficient one. If you’ve screwed up to the point that you face that choice, and then go all in on the startup, well, you won’t be the first, or even the millionth … but you may want to take a long hard look at what that word success really means.

Away CEO Steph Korey is stepping down following The Verge’s report of toxic culture at the luggage startup. Taking her spot is Stuart Haselden, the now-former COO at Lululemon, The Wall Street Journal reports. Korey will remain on board as executive chairman.

Following The Verge’s story, which described a workplace where Korey was known for berating employees via Slack, Korey tweeted last week that she was “making things right” at the company.

“I’m not proud of my behavior in those moments, and I’m sincerely sorry for what I said and how I said it,” she tweeted. “It was wrong, plain and simple.”

She added that she had also been working with an executive coach since those incidents the report highlighted. According to the Wall Street Journal, Away had been looking for Korey’s replacement since the spring.

TechCrunch has reached out to Away and will update this story if we hear back.