Year: 2019

Fyle, a Bangalore-headquartered startup that operates an expense management platform, has extended its previous financing round to add $4.5 million of new investment as it looks to court more clients in overseas markets.

The additional $4.5 million tranche of investment was led by U.S.-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, the startup said. Tiger Global, Freshworks, and Pravega Ventures also participated in the round. The new tranche of investment, dubbed Series A1, means that the three-and-a-half-year old startup has raised $8.7 million as part of its Series A financing round, and $10.5 million to date.

The SaaS startup offers an expense management platform that makes it easier for employees of a firm to report their business expenses. The eponymous service supports a range of popular email providers including G Suite and Office 365, and uses a proprietary technology to scan and fetch details from emails, Yash Madhusudhan, co-founder and CEO of Fyle, demonstrated to TechCrunch last week.

A user, for instance, could open a flight ticket email and click on Fyle’s Chrome extension to fetch all details and report the expense in a single-click in real-time. As part of today’s announcement, Madhusudhan unveiled an integration with WhatsApp . Users will now be able to take pictures of their tickets and other things and forward it to Fyle, which will quickly scan and report expense filings for them.

These integrations come in handy to users. “80%-90% of a user’s spending patterns land on their email and messaging clients. And traditionally it has been a pain point for them to get done with their expense filings. So we built a platform that looks at the challenges faced by them. At the same time, our platform understands frauds and works with a company’s compliances and policies to ensure that the filings are legitimate,” he said.

“Every company today could make use of an intelligent expense platform like Fyle. Major giants already subscribe to ERP services that offer similar capabilities as part of their offerings. But as a company or startup grows beyond 50 to 100 people, it becomes tedious to manage expense filings,” he added.

Fyle maintains a web application and a mobile app, and users are free to use them. But the idea behind all these integrations with popular services is to make it easier than ever for them to report filings. The startup retains its algorithms each month to improve their scanning abilities. “The idea is to extend expense filing to a platform that people already use,” he said.

Until late last year, Fyle was serving customers in India. Earlier this year, it began chasing customers outside the nation. “Our philosophy was if we are able to sell in India remotely and get people to use the product without any training, we can replicate this in any part of the world.

And that bet has worked. It has amassed more than 300 clients, more than 250 of which are from outside of India. Today, the startup says it has customers in 17 nations including the U.S., and the UK.

To accelerate its momentum, the startup is today also launching an enterprise version of Fyle that will serve the needs of major companies. The enterprise version supports a range of additional features such as IP restriction and single sign-in option and other security features.

In the last five months, its revenue has risen by five times, said Madhusudhan, without disclosing the exact figures.

Fyle will use the new capital to develop more product solutions and integrations and expand its footprint in international markets, Madhusudhan said. The startup, which just recently set up its sales and marketing team would also expand the headcount, he said.
Moving forward, Madhusudhan said the startup would explore tie-ups with ERP providers and other ways to extend the reach of Fyle.

In a statement, Ravi Mehta, MD at Steadview Capital, said, “intelligent and automated systems will empower businesses to be more efficient in the coming decade. We are excited to partner with Fyle to transform one of the core business processes of expense management through intelligence and automation.”

What do you do when your current business model is so staggeringly loss-making you’re having to warn investors it may never turn a profit, at the same time as it’s under increasing legal and regulatory attack?

One answer might be to pivot. Uber isn’t doing that, exactly. Not yet anyway. But it has just officially announced the launch of a new app for matching shift workers with shifts, called Uber Works, working in partnership with staffing agencies.

The announcement confirms a report by the Financial Times a year ago, which reported Uber was working on an on-demand staffing business. The company declined to comment at the time.

The tech giant is best know for its ride-hailing platform but has been diversifying its business for some time — getting into food delivery (Uber Eats) and buying into the micromobility trend (with Jump e-bikes and scooters).

Becoming a matchmaker for shift work is the next step on Uber’s quest for sustainability — both of its core business and, well, its reputation for exploiting labor.

In a blog post about the Uber Works launch, which is starting in Chicago but slated to be expanding to more areas “soon”, the company writes that it’s “committed to deliver services that support skill up-leveling and promote work re-entry”, saying it will be partnering with “various organizations that support workers in their employment journey”.

A month ago Uber’s home turf state of California signed into law a gig worker protections bill that squarely targeted at ride-hailing giants.

The new law means gig economy workers who are managed algorithmically via platforms will very likely be entitled to minimum wage, workers’ compensation and other benefits because it requires employers to apply the ABC test in order to classify a worker as an independent contractor — meaning they will need to prove the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity; performs work outside the scope of the entity’s business; and is regularly engaged in work of some independently established trade or other similar business.

The law is due to take effect January 1, 2020. Uber is not going gentle into that goodnight, and has continued to deny it should apply to its business — saying it will do what’s necessary to keep the contractor status.

It is pushing against the tide, though. At home and abroad. In Europe it’s already been forced to offer a number of concessions (such as free insurance and caps on working hours) after a series of legal and regulatory challenges, as well as close political scrutiny of how its business operates — including the pay and conditions it provides workers.

The regulator of Uber’s most important regional city — London — continues to withhold a full licence renewal. Transport for London denied its application to renew its licence in 2017, citing safety concerns and questions over its corporate governance and culture.

Uber’s ride-hailing business remains on a very short leash there, with just a two-month extension granted last month — along with fresh conditions.

Safe to say, the costs of ride-hailing aren’t shrinking.

Uber Works looks like an attempt to find a less bumpy path to profitability — via a matchmaking platform for workers who are employed by staffing agencies, which Uber’s blog post is careful to note “employ, pay and handle worker benefits”. Ergo Uber doesn’t have to.

What it wants to be is a technology provider to staffing agencies, offering a platform that matches agency workers to available shifts — in roles such as prep cook, warehouse worker, commercial cleaner and event staff — while also carrying out time-tracking, tied to a carrot for workers of more “timely” payments.

The platform’s ability to track their work will also clearly be working for agencies, though — with Uber suggesting its “technology-first approach” will lead to a “more efficient marketplace… [b]y providing a reliable pool of vetted and qualified workers”. So that’s code for workers who slack off will be seen by the technology to be slacking — and likely won’t get matched to great shifts if they do.

Here’s how Uber is pitching the play:

Today, millions of Americans use staffing agencies to find work. Yet the status quo is not ideal, for workers or for businesses.

Workers face rigid scheduling and opaque information about where they can pick up shifts and how much they can expect to earn. Businesses struggle to staff up to meet peak demand, and have to grapple with missed shifts and high turnover.

We believe a new, technology-first approach can provide faster and easier means for people to get work, while offering greater insight into the many opportunities for work that are out there—improving the experience for workers and businesses alike.

That’s why over the past year, we’ve studied and built tech solutions that can help positively impact a workers’ shift experience and eliminate bottlenecks to finding work.

There is — it must be said — more than a little irony here. In that lawyers for Uber, the ride-hailing giant, have been repeatedly instructed to argue it’s just a technology platform, not a transportation company. (Two years ago Europe’s CJEU blew that argument out of the water though.)

With Uber Works, Uber is again hoping to cast itself as a technology platform. Though by partnering with staffing agencies it’s hope is there’s less legal risk involved.

Uber says the year-long Uber Works project grew out of its business incubator — tapping into its “marketplace technology and operational know-how to help solve pain points that exist in connecting workers with businesses”, as Uber puts it.

There’s no word on where in the US it might expand Uber Works to next.

The tech giant is certainly entering an already crowded field. There are a large number of shift, temp and blue collar work finder apps targeting a similar fast-paced, high turnover employment need in the the US and Europe — including the likes of Bacon, Catapult, Gig, JobToday, Limber, Rota, Shiftgig, Shiifty, Snag and Syft to name a few.

Google Shopping is getting a redesign with several new features, including options to shop local stores, track prices and even find style inspiration through Google Lens. Already, Google Lens’ smart image recognition technology can help identify objects, translate text, and find similar items. Now, using a photo of an outfit you like — for instance, something you found on Instagram — Google Lens will be able to pull up other “style ideas” from around the web.

These style ideas are focused on showing you how other people are wearing the item in question, not just returning matches of similar items, Google explains.

For example, if you found a skirt on social media, you could take a screenshot then use Lens in Google Photos to see how other people have been photographed wearing that same skirt.

But Lens isn’t limited to photos of new clothes posted online. You can also photograph an item hanging in your own closet, or seen on a store rack, and get suggestions of people wearing similar pieces.

The feature complements Lens’ existing item suggestions for things like home décor and individual items of clothing.

It’s also clearly meant as a challenger to Pinterest, which has been heavily investing in its own image recognition technology. This has allowed it to capture consumers’ interest long before their placing items in their online shopping cart — an existential threat to Google’s business, potentially.

Pinterest users often browse the site for inspiration, whether that’s what to wear or how to wear it, or how to decorate their home, or even where to travel. Later, those interests and desires may translate to clicks and purchases. The challenge for Pinterest is being able to connect the inspirational browsing with the checkout process.

Pinterest’s latest efforts on that front is the launch of its own “shop” tab, designed to showcase products.

Google, meanwhile, is doubling down on Google Shopping.

Its big redesign has now rolled out in the U.S. on both web and mobile, following the merger with Google Express earlier this year, and last month’s final shutdown of the Google Express brand and destination. 

The new version of Google Shopping aims to make itself a one-stop-shop for everything that’s around the web…and not on Amazon.

The updated Google Shopping experience includes a personalized homepage based on your habits and purchases, a price tracker for getting notifications of changes and drops, and the ability to shop from both online and local retailers. (Buying locally means you’ll have the option to go pick it up — great for last-minute gifts.)

Google says you can now shop from over 1,000 stores through Google Shopping and check out using the information saved to your Google account. It also offers a “Google guarantee,” on the items you purchase, which includes customer support and help with things like returns and exchanges.

Google is pitching the new experience as a redesign. And to some extent, it is, thanks to new features like price tracking and universal shopping carts. However, at the root of it, you’ll find it’s still very much the same concept that once was Google Express. That is: it’s an online Google-branded destination where shopping is meant to be as convenient as on Amazon.

But Google Express failed to capture consumers’ attention the first time around because of what Google lacks: a Prime competitor. There is no subscription that promises fast, 2-day (or less) shipping on millions of items, nor the wider perks program that Amazon Prime offers.

That said, it’s smart for Google to capitalize on the shopping search traffic it does have, and make that experience feel more connected and seamless. After all, Amazon doesn’t have everything — especially when it comes to specific fashion brands. That will see users turn to Google to search instead.

Google says the new Google Shopping is live in the U.S. on web and mobile today.

Google Lens is also live in the U.S. only for now.

Here’s a solid shout-out to early-stage startup founders who love the word “free.” You have just two weeks left to apply to be a TC Top Pick and exhibit in Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin 2019 for — you guessed it — free.

Attending Disrupt Berlin as a TC Top Pick is a VIP experience and an incredible opportunity to showcase your business to the startup world’s influential movers and shakers. The Top Picks application window closes on 18 October at 12 p.m. (PT). Don’t wait — apply today.

Here’s how it all works. We accept applications from early-stage startups that fall into one of the following tech categories: AI/Machine Learning, Biotech/Healthtech, Blockchain, Fintech, Mobility, Privacy/Security, Retail/E-commerce, Robotics/IoT/Hardware, CRM/Enterprise and Education.

Our discerning TechCrunch editors will review every qualified application searching for high-potential startups. They’ll choose up to five to represent each category. Each TC Top Pick receives a free Startup Alley Exhibitor Package that includes, among other perks, one day exhibiting in Startup Alley, three Founder passes, access to programming on all stages, the complete attendee list (via TC Events Mobile App) and CrunchMatch — our business networking platform.

As VIPs, Top Picks receive plenty of attention from investors, global press and potential customers. If that’s not enough exposure for you, listen up. A TechCrunch editor will interview every Top Pick startup — live on the Showcase Stage — and we’ll record that interview and promote it across our social media platforms. Talk about a great sales and marketing tool.

Did you know that every startup that exhibits in Startup Alley has a shot at being chosen as a Wild Card? It’s true — even Top Picks. And the startup selected as a Wild Card gets to compete in the Startup Battlefield for the $50,000 prize. Case in point: Legacy, a startup focused on helping men freeze and store their sperm for future use (yes, you read that correctly) exhibited in Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin 2018. Legacy earned the Wild Card slot, and then it won the Startup Battlefield competition. Crazy big dreams do come true.

Disrupt Berlin 2019 takes place on 11-12 December, but you have only two weeks left if you want a chance to exhibit in Startup Alley for free. Don’t wait — apply to be a TC Top Pick before the deadline strikes on 18 October at 12 p.m. (PT). Come and show the world what you’ve got!

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

Notion Capital today announces a new $150M fund in a bid to bolster its claim to being the go-to investor for European B2B tech.

Launched ten years ago after the $700M exit of MessageLabs by co-founders Ben and Jos White, this new fourth fund will continue its previous focus on Series A SaaS and enterprise tech, but will now come with an increased focus on cybersecurity, automation and marketplaces. Notion now has $500M under management and over 50 investments. Its portfolio includes several European unicorns, including Tradeshift, GoCardless Unbabel, Paddle, CurrencyCloud, Duedil, Mews Systems and others.

Commenting, partner Stephen Chandler said: “When we founded Notion in 2009, we felt there was a mouth-watering, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help transform an industry and create a huge amount of value along the way. Having built the largest EU SaaS exit, we firmly believed that SaaS, as a fundamentally better way of delivering software, was going to be transformational and that we had a unique perspective.”

He also said: “Notion is the only post-seed VC in Europe started by B2B founders. That means a culture of entrepreneurial empathy and investigating the whys and hows, instead of just cold KPIs. We ran and built one SaaS company for ten years and have subsequently invested in and worked with 60+ SaaS companies over the next ten.”

In May of this year, Notion launched Included, a VC fellowship program, to increase the number of underrepresented communities within the venture capital industry and the diversity of deal flow.

It has now had more than 1,500 applications for 30 places on the 12-month fellowship which starts this month. Whilst Notion was the pioneer behind this initiative, the program is now widely supported and funded by a wide group of European VCs and other sponsors.

It’s been a strange year for Mithril Capital Management, the venture firm cofounded in 2012 by Peter Thiel and his longtime associate Ajay Royan. Though Mithril enjoyed its biggest exit to date in February, when Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $3.4 billion — plus another potential $2.35 billion in payments  — for the surgical robotics company Auris Robotics, the firm has been characterized in news reports by Recode as in a complete state of disarray and, more recently, for reportedly being investigated by the FBI for financial misconduct.

Mithril is now drawing a line from those stories to former employee Crystal McKellar, who’d joined Mithril from the outset as its general counsel though she also long held the title of managing director.

According to a new legal petition filed in Texas, where Mithril moved its headquarters from San Francisco earlier this year, McKellar has, over many months, staged a multi-pronged campaign to disparage Mithril and Royan specifically in order to attract its investors to a new, separate venture firm that she has founded called Anathem Ventures.

Certainly, the filing makes for strange reading. Among its assertions is that McKellar, who has told friends she was fired from the firm earlier this year, signed a separation agreement with Mithril that included “substantial severance,” a “courtesy title” that it says she asked for, and a consulting agreement. But it goes on to say that “almost immediately after signing them, Ms. McKellar began to materially breach these agreements.” Specifically, it says, she promised not to engage in any business that’s competitive with Mithril, including any business relating to any portfolio investments that Mithril has ever considered, yet she “completed her signature pages, completing her investment” of $50,000 in one of these companies “mere minutes” after emailing Royan to tell him she planned to invest and offering him the right of first refusal.

It also accuses her of accepting consulting fees from Mithril while taking on jobs that put her in direct competition with the firm, including becoming a managing partner at a hedge fund, Signum, as well as launching her own new venture, Anathen Ventures, in July.

And the complaint accuses McKellar of retaining possession for too long of her Mithril-issued mobile phone and laptop, saying it is “taking the appropriate steps to verify the provenance and integrity of its devices, and to protect their contents.”

Still, the document — technically an “application for temporary and permanent injunctive relief” — most surprisingly says McKellar stirred “discord” with Mithril’s relationships with its investors, financial partners, and service providers.

In one instance, Mithril says,  its auditor was sent a letter from a “nameless investor” that “disparaged Mr. Royan and the firm” by “falsely accusing Mr. Royan of ‘lying'” publicly about whether he had ever waived some of the firm’s management fees. It further accuses her of authoring “false letters” to senior executives at a major Mithril company in New England, saying it determined she had authored the letters through “expert forensic analysis.”

Why McKellar was forced out of the firm isn’t clear, though Recode has reported that numerous members of Mithril’s investment staff have been shown the door over the years, and that this downsizing has troubled cofounder, Thiel, who tends to work collaboratively with others and who has engendered loyalty as a result.

Indeed, Royan was previously a managing director at Thiel’s earlier hedge fund, Clarium Capital, as were a handful of early Mithril employees. Today, Mithril is largely run by Royan; his sister Anuja Royan, who is the firm’s CFO; and Paul Leggett, a managing director who handles much of the firm’s day-to-day operations while Royan is seemingly more focused on the bigger picture. The firm has also hired several people since moving to Austin.

Asked for comment on the filing, Royan suggested he will let the document speak for itself.

Meanwhile, reached via email, McKellar writes that she “been served with the suit so I haven’t seen the actual allegations, but those sound pretty loony.”

She added in her statement: “This isn’t about me.  This is about what’s going on at Mithril.  This is about Mithril’s investors, who are families, foundations, and charities that help the most vulnerable Americans, and the pension funds that permit our public servants to retire with dignity. These investors placed their trust and money in promises that were made by Mithril.  I left Mithril earlier this year when it became clear to me that Mithril’s leadership was lying to its investors and that the promises it had made were not going to be kept.”

Pressed for details, McKellar said she couldn’t comment further, though she did note that her role with Signum did not violate her consulting agreement with Mithril, which precluded her from performing “advisory services or other services for, or provide consulting to, any venture capital firm, private equity firm, or any company that invests in, or manages funds that invests in, venture capital or private equity funds …”

In the meantime, it remains unclear what promises to investors have not been kept, outside of the changing composition of the team, particularly as Mithril was relocating to Texas. (We gather that most of the firm’s employees did not want to move, so wound up leaving the firm for other roles after receiving extended severance packages. It is also our impression, having talked with various employees of Mithril over the years, that the firm’s economics greatly favor Royan.)

Though certainly cause for concern, the firm, whose two funds both have 12-year investing horizons, seems to be performing.  A knowledgeable source says Auris’s acquisition could potentially produce a $950 million windfall for Mithril if it hits certain milestones.

Most of that return belongs to the firm’s debut fund, which had closed with $540 million, with a much smaller percentage returned to investors in the second fund, a $740 million vehicle that was closed in early 2017.

Mithril, which is known for making more concentrated bets in fewer companies, owned 15 percent of Auris when it was snapped up. The firm also has sizable stakes in the intelligence software company Palantir; in Adamab, a New Hampshire-based antibody drug discovery shop; and, in a very recent bet, Glance, which is a subsidiary of the Indian mobile ad business firm InMobi and that announced $45 million in funding last month from Mithril.

As for that reported FBI investigation, we haven’t been able to confirm that there’s anything more to it than an open dialogue between the agency and Mithril, which last month told Recode that such inquiries were the result of a “foiled plot by a self-serving ex-employees.”

Today, at least, it’s much clearer who, exactly, Mithril is looking to blame.

We’re guessing there will be much more to this story soon.

It’s been a strange year for Mithril Capital Management, the venture firm cofounded in 2012 by Peter Thiel and his longtime associate Ajay Royan. Though Mithril enjoyed its biggest exit to date in February, when Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $3.4 billion — plus another potential $2.35 billion in payments  — for the surgical robotics company Auris Robotics, the firm has been characterized in news reports by Recode as in a complete state of disarray and, more recently, for reportedly being investigated by the FBI for financial misconduct.

Mithril is now drawing a line from those stories to former employee Crystal McKellar, who’d joined Mithril from the outset as its general counsel though she also long held the title of managing director.

According to a new legal petition filed in Texas, where Mithril moved its headquarters from San Francisco earlier this year, McKellar has, over many months, staged a multi-pronged campaign to disparage Mithril and Royan specifically in order to attract its investors to a new, separate venture firm that she has founded called Anathem Ventures.

Certainly, the filing makes for strange reading. Among its assertions is that McKellar, who has told friends she was fired from the firm earlier this year, signed a separation agreement with Mithril that included “substantial severance,” a “courtesy title” that it says she asked for, and a consulting agreement. But it goes on to say that “almost immediately after signing them, Ms. McKellar began to materially breach these agreements.” Specifically, it says, she promised not to engage in any business that’s competitive with Mithril, including any business relating to any portfolio investments that Mithril has ever considered, yet she “completed her signature pages, completing her investment” of $50,000 in one of these companies “mere minutes” after emailing Royan to tell him she planned to invest and offering him the right of first refusal.

It also accuses her of accepting consulting fees from Mithril while taking on jobs that put her in direct competition with the firm, including becoming a managing partner at a hedge fund, Signum, as well as launching her own new venture, Anathen Ventures, in July.

And the complaint accuses McKellar of retaining possession for too long of her Mithril-issued mobile phone and laptop, saying it is “taking the appropriate steps to verify the provenance and integrity of its devices, and to protect their contents.”

Still, the document — technically an “application for temporary and permanent injunctive relief” — most surprisingly says McKellar stirred “discord” with Mithril’s relationships with its investors, financial partners, and service providers.

In one instance, Mithril says,  its auditor was sent a letter from a “nameless investor” that “disparaged Mr. Royan and the firm” by “falsely accusing Mr. Royan of ‘lying'” publicly about whether he had ever waived some of the firm’s management fees. It further accuses her of authoring “false letters” to senior executives at a major Mithril company in New England, saying it determined she had authored the letters through “expert forensic analysis.”

Why McKellar was forced out of the firm isn’t clear, though Recode has reported that numerous members of Mithril’s investment staff have been shown the door over the years, and that this downsizing has troubled cofounder, Thiel, who tends to work collaboratively with others and who has engendered loyalty as a result.

Indeed, Royan was previously a managing director at Thiel’s earlier hedge fund, Clarium Capital, as were a handful of early Mithril employees. Today, Mithril is largely run by Royan; his sister Anuja Royan, who is the firm’s CFO; and Paul Leggett, a managing director who handles much of the firm’s day-to-day operations while Royan is seemingly more focused on the bigger picture. The firm has also hired several people since moving to Austin.

Asked for comment on the filing, Royan suggested he will let the document speak for itself.

Meanwhile, reached via email, McKellar writes that she “been served with the suit so I haven’t seen the actual allegations, but those sound pretty loony.”

She added in her statement: “This isn’t about me.  This is about what’s going on at Mithril.  This is about Mithril’s investors, who are families, foundations, and charities that help the most vulnerable Americans, and the pension funds that permit our public servants to retire with dignity. These investors placed their trust and money in promises that were made by Mithril.  I left Mithril earlier this year when it became clear to me that Mithril’s leadership was lying to its investors and that the promises it had made were not going to be kept.”

Pressed for details, McKellar said she couldn’t comment further, though she did note that her role with Signum did not violate her consulting agreement with Mithril, which precluded her from performing “advisory services or other services for, or provide consulting to, any venture capital firm, private equity firm, or any company that invests in, or manages funds that invests in, venture capital or private equity funds …”

In the meantime, it remains unclear what promises to investors have not been kept, outside of the changing composition of the team, particularly as Mithril was relocating to Texas. (We gather that most of the firm’s employees did not want to move, so wound up leaving the firm for other roles after receiving extended severance packages. It is also our impression, having talked with various employees of Mithril over the years, that the firm’s economics greatly favor Royan.)

Though certainly cause for concern, the firm, whose two funds both have 12-year investing horizons, seems to be performing.  A knowledgeable source says Auris’s acquisition could potentially produce a $950 million windfall for Mithril if it hits certain milestones.

Most of that return belongs to the firm’s debut fund, which had closed with $540 million, with a much smaller percentage returned to investors in the second fund, a $740 million vehicle that was closed in early 2017.

Mithril, which is known for making more concentrated bets in fewer companies, owned 15 percent of Auris when it was snapped up. The firm also has sizable stakes in the intelligence software company Palantir; in Adamab, a New Hampshire-based antibody drug discovery shop; and, in a very recent bet, Glance, which is a subsidiary of the Indian mobile ad business firm InMobi and that announced $45 million in funding last month from Mithril.

As for that reported FBI investigation, we haven’t been able to confirm that there’s anything more to it than an open dialogue between the agency and Mithril, which last month told Recode that such inquiries were the result of a “foiled plot by a self-serving ex-employees.”

Today, at least, it’s much clearer who, exactly, Mithril is looking to blame.

We’re guessing there will be much more to this story soon.

Two of Africa’s powerhouse tech incubators joined forces in September. Nigerian innovation center and seed-fund CcHub acquired Nairobi based iHub.

The purchase amount was undisclosed, but CcHub will finance the deal out of its real-estate project to build a new 10-story HQ in Lagos, CcHub CEO Bosun Tijani told TechCrunch.

Details are emerging on how the two entities will operate together, but Tijani noted some degree of autonomy. The names — CcHub and iHub — will remain the same. Tijani is now co-CEO of both organizations.

Nekesa Were continues as iHub managing director. And iHub’s existing programs will remain, with CcHub extending to Kenya some of its existing activities in education, healthcare and governance.

CcHub will also use the iHub addition to expand the investment scope of its Growth Capital Fund.

The acquisition brings together two of Africa’s most powerful tech hubs by membership networks, volume of programs, startups incubated, and global visibility. CcHub and iHub visitors and partnerships span Zuckerberg, Mayer, Facebook, Google, and several African governments.

There’ll be a lot to cover on how this merger shapes up. At a high level, for now, the CcHub-iHub union creates a direct innovation link between two of Africa’s most active markets for VC and startup formation — Nigeria and Kenya .

Africa-focused tech talent accelerator Andela  announced cuts of 400 junior engineers across Kenya,  Uganda and Nigeria just as the startup released first-time earnings figures indicating it will surpass $50 million in revenues for 2019.

On the disjointed news, Andela CEO told TechCrunch the layoffs were due to a shift in market demand for the startup’s more senior developers.

Andela’s client base is comprised of more than 200 companies around the world that pay for the African developers Andela selects and trains to work on projects.

The Series D tech-venture is one of Africa’s most visible (by press volume) and best funded ― backed by $181 million in VC from investors that include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Johnson said the layoffs were not due to a lack of demand or financial woes. That’s probably why Andela released first-time figures of a $50 million run-rate for 2019, something of a rarity for a startup to reach in less than five years. That’s even more rare for ventures in Africa. Only one VC-backed digital company has revealed annual revenues between $50 and $100 million. That’s Jumia, the e-commerce startup that listed in an NYSE IPO earlier this year.

The departing Andela software engineers gained severance packages and are receiving placement assistance from partners including incubators CcHub and iHub.

Chinese mobile phone and device maker Transsion listed in an IPO on Shanghai’s new NASDAQ-like STAR Market, a Transsion spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch.

Headquartered in Shenzhen, Transsion is a top seller of smartphones in Africa under its Tecno brand. The company has also started to support venture funding of African startups.

Transsion issued 80 million A shares at an opening price of 35.15 yuan (≈ $5.00) to raise 2.8 billion yuan (or ≈ $394 million).

Transsion plans to spend 1.6 billion yuan (or $227 million) of its STAR Market raise on building more phone assembly hubs, and around 430 million yuan ($62 million) on research and development, including a mobile phone R&D center in Shanghai.

Transsion has a manufacturing facility in Ethiopia and announced plans to build an R&D facility in India.

There are a couple things to watch with Transsion’s IPO. First, the public listing, and accompanying capital could mean more venture funding for African startups.

Transsion-funded Future Hub already teamed up with Kenya’s Wapi Capital in August to source and fund early-stage African fintech startups.

Transsion’s IPO and growing presence in Africa also accompanies TechCrunch coverage over the last year that signals China’s growing digital influence in Africa (see Extra Crunch analysis).

More Africa-related stories @TechCrunch

• DHL expands Africa eShop online retail app to 34 countries
• Nigerian online-only bank startup Kuda raises $1.6M
• SF-based African fintech startup Chipper Cash expands to Nigeria
• MaxAB raises $6M seed round to optimize Egypt’s B2B grocery markets
• Accion Venture Lab launches $23M inclusive fintech startup fund

African tech around the ‘net

• A South African company just created Europe’s biggest consumer tech group
• ABAN, AfriLabs partner to launch African matching fund Catalyst

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two of Africa’s powerhouse tech incubators joined forces in September. Nigerian innovation center and seed-fund CcHub acquired Nairobi based iHub.

The purchase amount was undisclosed, but CcHub will finance the deal out of its real-estate project to build a new 10-story HQ in Lagos, CcHub CEO Bosun Tijani told TechCrunch.

Details are emerging on how the two entities will operate together, but Tijani noted some degree of autonomy. The names — CcHub and iHub — will remain the same. Tijani is now co-CEO of both organizations.

Nekesa Were continues as iHub managing director. And iHub’s existing programs will remain, with CcHub extending to Kenya some of its existing activities in education, healthcare and governance.

CcHub will also use the iHub addition to expand the investment scope of its Growth Capital Fund.

The acquisition brings together two of Africa’s most powerful tech hubs by membership networks, volume of programs, startups incubated, and global visibility. CcHub and iHub visitors and partnerships span Zuckerberg, Mayer, Facebook, Google, and several African governments.

There’ll be a lot to cover on how this merger shapes up. At a high level, for now, the CcHub-iHub union creates a direct innovation link between two of Africa’s most active markets for VC and startup formation — Nigeria and Kenya .

Africa-focused tech talent accelerator Andela  announced cuts of 400 junior engineers across Kenya,  Uganda and Nigeria just as the startup released first-time earnings figures indicating it will surpass $50 million in revenues for 2019.

On the disjointed news, Andela CEO told TechCrunch the layoffs were due to a shift in market demand for the startup’s more senior developers.

Andela’s client base is comprised of more than 200 companies around the world that pay for the African developers Andela selects and trains to work on projects.

The Series D tech-venture is one of Africa’s most visible (by press volume) and best funded ― backed by $181 million in VC from investors that include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Johnson said the layoffs were not due to a lack of demand or financial woes. That’s probably why Andela released first-time figures of a $50 million run-rate for 2019, something of a rarity for a startup to reach in less than five years. That’s even more rare for ventures in Africa. Only one VC-backed digital company has revealed annual revenues between $50 and $100 million. That’s Jumia, the e-commerce startup that listed in an NYSE IPO earlier this year.

The departing Andela software engineers gained severance packages and are receiving placement assistance from partners including incubators CcHub and iHub.

Chinese mobile phone and device maker Transsion listed in an IPO on Shanghai’s new NASDAQ-like STAR Market, a Transsion spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch.

Headquartered in Shenzhen, Transsion is a top seller of smartphones in Africa under its Tecno brand. The company has also started to support venture funding of African startups.

Transsion issued 80 million A shares at an opening price of 35.15 yuan (≈ $5.00) to raise 2.8 billion yuan (or ≈ $394 million).

Transsion plans to spend 1.6 billion yuan (or $227 million) of its STAR Market raise on building more phone assembly hubs, and around 430 million yuan ($62 million) on research and development, including a mobile phone R&D center in Shanghai.

Transsion has a manufacturing facility in Ethiopia and announced plans to build an R&D facility in India.

There are a couple things to watch with Transsion’s IPO. First, the public listing, and accompanying capital could mean more venture funding for African startups.

Transsion-funded Future Hub already teamed up with Kenya’s Wapi Capital in August to source and fund early-stage African fintech startups.

Transsion’s IPO and growing presence in Africa also accompanies TechCrunch coverage over the last year that signals China’s growing digital influence in Africa (see Extra Crunch analysis).

More Africa-related stories @TechCrunch

• DHL expands Africa eShop online retail app to 34 countries
• Nigerian online-only bank startup Kuda raises $1.6M
• SF-based African fintech startup Chipper Cash expands to Nigeria
• MaxAB raises $6M seed round to optimize Egypt’s B2B grocery markets
• Accion Venture Lab launches $23M inclusive fintech startup fund

African tech around the ‘net

• A South African company just created Europe’s biggest consumer tech group
• ABAN, AfriLabs partner to launch African matching fund Catalyst

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halle Tecco is no stranger to conception struggles. The Rock Health founder and former CEO has been public about her journey on social media, including two rounds of IVF, eventually leading to a healthy baby girl. Now, she wants to help others make babies, too.

To get there, Tecco has joined a class of new fertility tech companies that have popped up in the last few years. Taking from her years of experience building Rock Health, she’s now launched a new company called Natalist, which offers conception products “inspired by beauty and backed by science” to help those hoping to get pregnant in the near future.

You can pick and choose various products in Natalist’s pretty packaging or opt for the basic “Get Pregnant” bundle, which includes 7 ovulation and 3 pregnancy tests, a one-month supply of prenatal vitamins and Omega DHA, plus the company’s Conception 101 book.

Of course, that package merely provides the basics for any healthy woman with a regular period and no other fertility issues — and, besides the book, its all something you could find in your local pharmacy. But, as Tecco was quick to point out, not every woman is keen on going into their local CVS, grabbing a pregnancy test and taking it up to the register. In fact, many women Tecco polled before starting her company mentioned the need in the market for discretion. Buying online from a trusted brand would provide them with both privacy and security in the product.

While Natalist’s first offerings are the minimum for anyone trying to make a baby, Tecco has already raised a cool $5 million to build out products addressing more serious fertility concerns like PCOS and endometriosis, which combined affect one out of every five women in their child bearing years and can make it a lot harder to get pregnant or make a pregnancy stick.

“We plan to use the funding to bring new products to market but we wanted to start with products that are sort of tried and true,” Tecco told Techcrunch, further explaining she’d like to see Natalist be more than just physical products and become more of a platform to help women through their pregnancy journey.

“We really want to have a support platform for women who have questions or concerns, really creating a great customer experience and helping them troubleshoot if things aren’t going the way that they want them to and also arm them with information and knowledge around getting pregnant,” Tecco said.

While she doesn’t see herself creating something like the app Glow, which both offers information and data through various stages of pregnancy and a community of women working on becoming pregnant, she does see the value of collaboration with these types of communities on various fertility apps and would like to reach out to those founders to see if there might be something there they can work on in the future as well.

For those interested in checking out Natalist’s products, the “Get Pregnant” bundle starts at $90 for a one time purchase or $75 per month for the subscription plan. You can also add products from the site a la carte, should you want more tests or vitamins than what’s in the one-month package.

And for those of you TechCrunch readers interested in the funding details, Natalist took in seed money from Collaborative Fund, Cowboy Ventures, Fuel Capital, Rock Health and xFund, as well as several well-known angel investors, including Katrina Lake, Julia Cheek, Christine Lemke, John Doerr, Malay Gandhi, David Vivero, and R. Martin Chavez.