Year: 2019

Building apps and tools on the web shouldn’t just be for the technically inclined. In the early days of the web, it was easy to make your MySpace account, for example, unique to your personal aesthetic. Glitch is doing that for the modern era.

Glitch, formerly known as Fog Greek Software, is an online community where people can upload projects and enable others to remix them. Dash likens coding on Glitch to working together inside Google Docs.

“The biggest thing I see is the creative impulse for recreating the web never went away,” Glitch CEO Anil Dash told TechCrunch. “There was a latent desire, so we didn’t need to do much.”

Glitch started inside Fog Greek Software as Gomix, which similarly aimed to democratize app building. In March 2017, Gomix became Glitch and has since ballooned into a community that has created more than 2.6 million remixed apps. These apps range from tools to tidying up your Twitter timeline to randomizing who is forced to take notes or do other tasks during the meeting to creating animations using CSS, and much more.

This 2.6 million-plus remixed apps milestone is notable, Dash said, because Glitch crossed 1 million apps just one year ago. It shows that “people are building stuff all day, every day.”

Hitting this milestone is partly why Glitch waited to announce its $30 million Series A round from Tiger Global, Dash said. The round — the first-ever institutional investment for the 19-year-old company — closed in November 2018, but Dash said he wanted to be able to show people that the company did what it said it would do: grow the team, which has doubled in size in the last year, and grow the community.

“We wanted to show people that you can judge us by what we did over the last year,” Dash said. “If anything, we have only gotten more outspoken and thoughtful about how we grow.”

As Glitch has grown the team, Dash says the company has been pushing hard to set the bar around diversity and inclusion, as well as tech ethics.

On the D&I side, 47% of the company identifies as cisgender women, 40% identify as cisgender men, 9% identify as non-binary/gender non-conforming/questioning and 4% did not disclose. On the race and ethnicity front, the company is 65% white, 7% Asian, 11% black, 4% Latinx, 11% two or more races and 2% did not disclose. Meanwhile, 29% of the company identifies as queer and 11% of people reported having a disability. These numbers are pretty good.

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“[Diverse representation] is not impossible,” Dash said. “It’s not science fiction. It’s not this thing that exceeds your grasp, and you can do it while going through massive growth in the community and on the team.”

On the ethics side, Dash says the company thinks deeply about privacy and ensuring school kids, for example, never have to log in in order to use it. While Glitch is free to the masses, it does charge companies who are looking to reach developers, like Slack and Google. Google, however, has been under heavy scrutiny as of late for a variety of reasons pertaining to ethics. Dash, himself, has been an outspoken critic of Google.

“We talk about it a lot internally,” Dash said. “On one level, there’s the very pragmatic conversation of how do you be in it but not of it. The filter we’ve used is are we enabling what our community seriously wants to create.”

Glitch specifically works with the team at Google focused on the open web, open frameworks and web standards. But as Glitch moves toward products like Tensor Flow, an open source artificial intelligence library, the company makes sure every example includes education around responsible use of technologies, Dash said. Ultimately, it’s hard to completely discount Google from the experience because of how core its technologies have become.

“You can’t be credibly showing people how to make tools for their work or learning to code and not show them some of Google’s technologies,” Dash said. “For better or worse, that’s the web we live on. I think everyone engages with that on a real authentic level…The hard part is how do you strike the balance of being as ethical as you want to be while still existing in the ecosystem we’re in. We’re going to be a for-profit capitalist company until the revolution comes. But within that framework, can we be something that proves all the things people say about recruiting, business models, diversity — that those constraints they imagine are not true.”

Facebook will take a cut of up to 30% on fan subscriptions, beginning on January 1, 2020.

The social network is revealing its plans as part of a broader slate of monetization-related announcements this week at VidCon. The news confirms a TechCrunch report earlier this year that Facebook would be taking a 30% share of subscription revenue.

Facebook first started rolling out fan subscriptions in early 2018, allowing creators to charge their fans $4.99 per month in exchange for access to exclusive content and a fan badge. During this initial testing period, Facebook didn’t keep any of the subscription revenue for itself, allowing creators to take everything, minus the fee collected by Apple and Google on mobile subscriptions.

Director of Media Monetization Kate Orseth told journalists at a briefing last week that Facebook is committed to allowing creators to keep 70% of subscription revenue (minus “applicable taxes and fees”). So when the mobile platforms collect their 30% fee on first-year subscriptions, Facebook won’t take a cut. Then, as the platforms lower their share to 15% in the second year, Facebook will take the other 15%.

Again, that’s all on mobile, which Orseth said represents the majority of subscriptions thus far. On desktop, Facebook will be able to take the full 30% from the start. (This compares to a 5% subscription fee collected by Patreon, a 30% fee collected by YouTube and a 50% fee collected by Twitch.) And Orseth noted that all of this only applies to new subscribers starting in January — Facebook won’t be taking a revenue share on subscribers who signed up before then.

In addition, Facebook says it’s allowing creators to launch exclusive groups for subscribers. And it’s expanding the Facebook Stars program, the virtual currency that allows users to tip game streamers — it’s now testing the feature with non-gaming video creators. The company says creators should earn 1 cent for each Star a fan sends to them. And yes, Facebook is also taking a cut here, though it says its share decreases as fans buy larger packs of Stars.

Facebook is also making  a number of ad-related announcements. Among them: creators will be able to limit ads on a video to “non-interruptive” formats like pre-roll and image ads, so there are no ad breaks inserted. In addition, they’ll be able to share their audiences with advertisers in the Brand Collabs Manager for ad targeting. And they can start viewing their Instagram data in Facebook’s Creator Studio.

Orseth said the company’s goal is “to create suite of monetization products that can be used individually” or in a bundle. She suggested that while ad breaks work best for creators with a broad audience, subscriptions are better for those with a “hyperloyal audience” and brand collaborations “work well across the board.”

As part of the briefing, Orseth introduced journalists to Mark Ian Hoyle and Roxanne Hoyle, the parents behind the popular LadBaby Facebook Page, where they share videos of their family and children. The Hoyles said that by using the full suite of Facebook monetization tools, they’ve been able to focus on making videos (Mark still works as a freelance graphic designer as well), and to afford trips to make more videos.

Given the broader controversies over who gets to make money on major online platforms, Orseth and the Facebook team were also asked about eligibility for monetization. The company says that each product has its own eligibility requirements, and that for now, humans are reviewing each application to participate in the Brand Collabs Manager and Fan Subscriptions.

Apple just announced a handful of key updates to its most popular Mac devices, timed for back to school purchases. The entry-level MacBook Pro gets the biggest bump from the this update, bringing the TouchBar and TouchID do the low end model for the first time.

The 13-inch system also gets the updated keyboards announced recently, which should reduce some of the widespread issues users have reported with earlier generations, along with 8th gen quad-core Core i5 and i7 processors, which Apple promises will perform up to two times faster than previous models.

Also inside are slightly boosted graphics and the addition of T2 security chip. The display, meanwhile, gets True Tone technology for improved color, while the speakers are getting a bit of a sound boost. The system starts at $1,299, or $1,199, if you’re a qualified student.

The Air’s improvements are a bit less dramatic, including the addition of True Tone tech and the new keyboard. The bigger news on that end is the lower point, starting at $999 for students and  $1,099 for the rest of us. The new models are available today, and for a limited time, the company will also be tossing in a fair pair of Beats Studio wireless headphones for students who pick up a new Air, Pro or iMac.

Unmortgage, the London-based startup that lets you buy as little as 5% of a home and rent the rest, has announced a partnership with Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) to create a new fund to be used to purchase properties offered via the platform.

The AllianzGI-managed fund is targeting a size of £500 million, according to my sources, while I understand that the deal was actually signed mid last year but is only being disclosed today. That’s undoubtedly a clever bit of PR timing as it gives the impression of continued momentum for Unmortgage after founder and CEO Ray Rafiq-Omar departed last month. In other words, Rafiq-Omar was actually the CEO when the AllianzGI deal got across the line.

Founded in 2016, Unmortgage attempts to solve the increasing difficulty first time buyers face trying to get on the housing ladder as rising house prices typically outstrip wages. If people rent, they often cannot save the large deposit required for a mortgage. It is this “vicious circle” that Unmortgage want to break: by helping families that can afford to rent gradually buy a home.

Under the Unmortgage part-own part-rent proposition, renters can purchase as little as 5% of the property they want to live in, without taking out a mortgage, and then rent the rest. Unlike traditional ‘shared ownership’ schemes, the offer isn’t limited to new build properties and tenants can “staircase” (i.e. buy more of the property, thus reduce their rent) whenever they want and by as much or as little as they choose.

Meanwhile, AllianzGI’s fund will enable Unmortgage to purchase its ownership stake of the homes it buys in partnership with renters. In turn, it enables AllianzGI’s institutional investor clients to invest in residential property as an asset class.

Creating products aimed at smaller business users is a promising but challenging category in the area of enterprise software — they make up the vast majority of businesses today, but collectively are a fragmented customer base that is price sensitive and individually represents small ARPU. Today, a company that has found a way to tap the opportunity and capitalise on some of the challenges has raised a significant round of growth funding to tap into the opportunity.

Signpost, which has built a platform that today is used by thousands of local businesses to compete better against bigger companies — by letting them collect their own and subsequently use product reviews, construct and provide offers and manage contact lists of customers — has closed a round of $52 million, money that it will use to expand its technology and customer base.

The funding is described as “late-stage financing” (similar to the round it raised in 2016) and comes from HighBar Partners and BMO Bank of Montreal with previous investors Georgian Partners and Spark Capital also participating. Signpost has been around for about a decade, and its other backers have included OpenView Venture Parnters, Scout Ventures and GV (when it was still Google Ventures and Signpost was focusing on the viral marketing of local deals).

The Google connection is interesting: Signpost has gone through a few different iterations as a business and years ago was described as the “AdSense for local businesses.” It’s raised about $110 million to date, with its most recent funding (in 2016) at around $100 million, according to PitchBook data.

While Signpost is not disclosing valuation, I’m guessing it’s definitely higher than this now, judging by the size of this latest round, and some of the other metrics the company is disclosing: the company cash flow break-even as of early 2019, with 43% year-over-year growth in its core product and less than one percent customer churn. Its also hiring in its three locations, New York (its HQ), Austin, and Denver.

The problem that the company is tackling is one that local, independent and brick-and-mortar stores may know all too well: they have it hard when it comes to marketing.

Traditionally, they have relied on word-of-mouth and (among physical businesses) incidental foot traffic to maintain and grow trade. But in the age of shopping malls, the internet and the economy of scale that comes with it in e-commerce, many of those small businesses have found themselves caught out in figuring out how best to connect with existing customers and reach new ones.

Added to this is the issue of user reviews. These have become an important — some would say essential — cornerstone for how people discover and decide to buy one product or service over another online, in conjunction with other services like Google Maps and Yelp.

Signpost notes stats that say at least 82% of smartphone shoppers conduct ‘near me’ searches and 90% are likely to click on the first set of results, but that those without reviews conversely getting nary a glance or attentive nudge from the ever-powerful search algorithm.

On the other hand, the rise of user reviews has led to a pernicious counter theme: the proliferation of fake reviews and spam. This is something that small businesses struggle to get a handle on, and I’ve seen more than once a business bemoaning the presence of these on Google Maps without knowing how best to try to fix the issue.

This is where a company like Signpost comes in, proving a platform that is easy to use to help those businesses get a grip on providing their own review and feedback tools, and taking charge of other kinds of basic marketing and CRM features, such as mailing lists and creating offers that introduce new customers and reward loyal, repeat ones.

These are all table stakes for bigger businesses, and the idea is that small businesses should have them, too.

“While large corporations have used powerful marketing technology to drive extraordinary growth for years, local businesses — which make up 99.7% of all U.S. businesses and account for nearly half of GDP — have been left behind,” said Stuart Wall, founder and CEO of Signpost, in a statement. “Signpost puts the power of the world’s largest marketing departments in the hands of local business owners and empowers them to instantly capture their customer data, get better online reviews, and win new repeat business automatically and effortlessly.”

And in another feature that helps put small businesses on par with larger rivals, Signpost is also a big data powerhouse.

Signpost says that it has gathered behavioral data from over 70 million US consumers across all its local business customers, which it uses to feed its own algorithms to determine when and where to send personalised messages to a businesses’ contacts to help drum up more sales. Signpost claims that its tools have led to a 34% rise in and revenue lifts of 14%, on average.

Brian Peters, Managing Director at HighBar Partners, is joining Signpost’s Board of Directors with this round.

“HighBar’s investment is a vote of confidence in the right approach to applying technology to level the playing field for local businesses,” he said in a statement. “The turnkey setup and level of automation in Signpost’s platform, as well as their ability to follow through on reviews and engage the modern customer well beyond their first interaction is what really sets them apart.”

“We are excited to be working alongside Signpost – they have created an innovative solution to help small businesses compete and drive revenue growth,” said Devon Dayton, Managing Director, Technology & Innovation Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal, in a statement. “The company has experienced a lot of momentum and we are looking forward to continuing this journey with them through their next phase of growth.”

NiYo Solutions, a Bangalore-based ‘neo-bank’ that helps salaried employees access company benefits and other financial services, has raised $35 million in a new round to expand its business in the nation and explore international markets for some of its products.

The four-year-old startup, which serves small and medium businesses and other salaried employees across India, raised its Series B from Horizons Ventures, Tencent and existing investor JS Capital. It has raised $49.2 million to date, with its $13.2 million Series A closing in January last year.

NiYO Solutions serves as a ‘neo-bank’ that relies on traditional financial institutions (Yes Bank and DCB banks, in its case) and offers additional features such as lending and insurance to customers. Blue collared salaried employees in India continue to struggle to avail many crucial financial services that have been typically reserved for privileged segment by the banks. With Bharat Payroll Solution and other products, NiYO is trying to drive financial inclusion in the country, it said.

The startup also offers a global travel card with no mark up fee. Over 50,000 users have already signed up for the travel card, and NiYO intends to scale that figure to 500,000 by April next year. In an interview with TechCrunch, Vinay Bagri, co-founder and CEO of NiYO, said the startup is exploring bringing the travel card to other markets — though he did not share any names.

He said the startup will also use the fresh capital to build new product offerings and in expansion of its distribution and marketing efforts. It also wants to its customer base from about 1 million currently to grow to 5 million in the next three years. Bagri said NiYO is looking to acquire other startups that are a good fit for its vision.

Neo banks are increasingly becoming popular across the globe as traditional banks show little interest in addressing the needs of niche customer bases. Tide and N26 are showing remarkable growth in European markets, while Azlo, in the U.S., Tyro Payments and Volt Bank in Australia, are also among the top players.

In developing regions such as India, too, this tried and tested idea is increasingly being replicated. Open, another Bangalore-based neo-bank, helps businesses automate their finances. It raised $30 million last month.

What started as an accident has turning into a venture firm with a global reach and backing from a some of the biggest corporations in the automotive and transportation industries.

Maniv Mobility, the Israel-based venture capitalist firm, said Tuesday it has closed a new $100 million fund backed by 12 corporations, including the venture arms of the Aptiv, BMW, Hyundai, Lear Corp, LG Electronics, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Shell and Valeo.

Other investors that joined the round include Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures, the venture arm of the German rail and logistics operator Deutsche Bahn, the Israeli car importer Carasso Motors and numerous individuals, family offices and institutional investors, according to Maniv.

The company officially considers 2016 its launch date. Although founder and managing director Michael Granoff and Maniv partner Olaf Sakkers were making smaller angel investments back in 2015. The VC began raising its first fund, which ended up at $44 million, in 2016. (Granoff will be on stage July 10 in San Jose as part of the TC Sessions: Mobility event)

“We call ourselves an accidental VC,” Sakkers explained to TechCrunch recently. Since the beginning, they have focused on the thesis that there is a significant disruption happening in mobility and working closely with founders helps them develop their technology. “We’ve just realized that running a VC is the most effective way for us to do that,” he added.

Now, Maniv is taking its core beliefs global. The VC’s initially focused on transportation and mobility-related startups in Israel with a few in investments in the U.S. The company’s portfolio includes vehicle security company Owl, peer-to-peer car sharing company Turo, teleoperations startup Phantom Auto, autonomous vehicle-focused chipmaker Hailo, shared electric moped company Revel and in-vehicle software management firm Aurora Labs. It was one of the many VCs that backed Drive.ai, the troubled autonomous vehicle tech startup that was recently acquired (in what has been described as an acqui-hire) by Apple as it prepared to shut down.

The VC has made five investments from the new fund, including Spain-based car subscription startup Bipi and Revel. Three others have not been announced yet, although one is a startup focused on food delivery and another is a digital insurance firm.

Maniv Mobility is focused on just one vertical: mobility. But it’s taking a global investment approach by working with strategic partners in Europe, North America, Israel and in the long term, possibly India and other Asian markets. Those partnerships are central to the firm’s investment strategy and are on clear display in Tel Aviv, a city that has exploded in recent years with startups and a number of automotive venture arms.

“Mobility is a very global game,” Sakkers, told TechCrunch in a recent interview. “That’s something that we want to pursue plus, our network of investors actually want global exposure.”

Quip, maker of electric toothbrushes, is making use of its most recent acquisition to launch a dental insurance alternative to customers in New York City this summer. Called Quip Care, the service operates on the back of Afora, a dental insurance alternative startup Quip acquired last May.

With Quip Care, the goal is to modernize the dental care experience, Quip CEO Simon Enever told TechCrunch.

“People are used to being able to pick up their phone to book, pay for and track every aspect of their daily life,” Enever said. “We believe that seamlessness is something we can bring to dentistry.”

Additionally, the plan is to make prices more transparent so that people know exactly what they’ll pay before the treatment. There are two services as part of this launch: Quipcare and Quipcare+.

Basic Quipcare uses a pay-as-you-go model that enables you to find in-Quip network dentists, see pre-negotiated rates for non-preventative care upfront, pay for the care, accrue reward points and view dental records. Quip says Quipcare patients can expect prices of 30-40% less than the average dental care in their area. Enever said Quipcare can be an option for people without insurance or those with insurance who have already hit their annual maximum.

Quipcare+, on the other hand, is a preventative care plan that costs $25 per month. Quipcare+ includes two preventative check-ups annually as well as x-rays. This plan is more so geared toward people without dental insurance, though, Quipcare+ isn’t necessarily cheaper.

In San Francisco, I pay about $7 per month for dental insurance via my employer. But even if I didn’t go through my insurer, Covered California says I could get a comparable plan with covered preventive check-ups for $16.06 per month. What you’re essentially paying extra for are transparent pricing and the booking platform. Quipcare+ is similar to One Medical in that what you’re mostly paying for is convenience. One Medical is by no means cheaper than having regular insurance but the convenience they offer via app-based, same-day appointments and a plethora of locations can’t be beaten.

Quipcare is rolling out this summer in New York and plans to roll out more broadly next year. Thanks to the Afora acquisition, Quip already has hundreds of providers on board for Quipcare. And before launching Quipcare, Quip already had 40,000 providers on its Dental Connect platform.

“The key here is working with providers who are committed to making the finding, booking, paying experience as good as possible,” Enever said.

Quip began as a subscription-based electric toothbrush service that replaces toothpaste and brush heads, partly because you’re apparently supposed to change your toothbrush every three months. But Enever has said for years that Quip’s mission has always been to provide an end-to-end solution the makes preventative care simpler. Quipcare is just that.

To date, Quip has raised more than $60 million in funding from Sherpa Capital, TriplePoint Capital, NFP Ventures and others.

India ordered an investigation into Google’s alleged abuse of Android’s dominance in the country to hurt local rivals in April. A document made public by the local antitrust watchdog has now further revealed the nature of the allegations and identified the people who filed the complaint.

Umar Javeed, Sukarma Thapar, two associates at Competition Commission of India — and Aaqib Javeed, brother of Umar who interned at the watchdog last year, filed the complaint, the document revealed. The revelation puts an end to months-long interest from industry executives, many of whom wondered if a major corporation was behind it.

The allegations

The case, filed against Google’s global unit and Indian arm on April 16 this year, makes several allegations including the possibility that Google used Android’s dominant position in India to hurt local companies. The accusation is that Google requires handset and tablet vendors to pre-install its own applications or services if they wish to get the full-blown version of Android . Google’s Android mobile operating system powered more than 98% of smartphones that shipped in the country last year, research firm Counterpoint said.

This accusation is partly true, if at all. To be sure, Google does offer a “bare Android” version, which a smartphone vendor could use and then they wouldn’t need to pre-install Google Mobile Services (GMS). Though by doing so, they will also lose access to Google Play Store, which is the largest app store in the Android ecosystem. Additionally, phone vendors do partner with other companies to pre-install their applications. In India itself, most Android phones sold by Amazon India and Flipkart include a suite of their apps preloaded on the them.

“OEMs can offer Android devices without preinstalling any Google apps. If OEMs choose to preinstall Google mobile apps, the MADA (Mobile Application Distribution Agreement) allows OEMs to preinstall a suite of Google mobile apps and services referred to as Google Mobile Services (GMS),” said Google in response.

The second allegation is that Google is bundling its apps and services in a way that they are able to talk to each other. “This conduct illegally prevented the development and market access of rival applications and services in violation of Section 4 read with Section 32 of the Act,” the trio wrote.

This also does not seem accurate. Very much every Android app is capable of talking to one another through APIs. Additionally, defunct software firm Cyanogen partnered with Microsoft to “deeply integrate” Cortana into its Android phones — replacing Google Assistant as the default virtual voice assistant. So it is unclear what advantage Google has here.

Google’s response: “This preinstallation obligation is limited in scope. It was pointed out that preinstalled Google app icons take up very little screen space. OEMs can and do use the remaining space to preinstall and promote both their own, and third-party apps. It was also submitted that the MADA preinstallation conditions are not exclusive. Nor are they exclusionary. The MADA leaves OEMs free to preinstall rival apps and offer them the same or even superior placement.”

The third accusation is that Google prevents smartphone and tablet manufacturers in India from developing and marketing modified and potentially competing versions of Android on other devices.

This is also arguably incorrect. Micromax, which once held tentpole position among smartphone vendors in India, partnered with Cyanogen in their heyday to launch and market Android smartphones running customized operating system. Chinese smartphone vendor OnePlus followed the same path briefly.

Google’s response: “Android users have considerable freedom to customise their phones and to install apps that compete with Google’s. Consumers can quickly and easily move or disable preinstalled apps, including Google’s apps. Disabling an app makes it disappear from the device screen, prevents it from running, and frees up device memory – while still allowing the user to restore the app at a later time or to factory reset the device to its original state.”

Additionally, Google says it requires OEMs to “adhere to, a minimum baseline compatibility standard” for Android called Compatibility Definition Document (COD) to ensure that apps written for Android run on their phones. Otherwise, this risks creating a “threat to the viability and quality of the platform.”

“If companies make changes to the Android source code that create incompatibilities, apps written for Android will not run on these incompatible variants. As a result, fewer developers will write apps for Android, threatening to make Android less attractive to users and, in turn, even fewer developers will support Android,” the company said.

The antitrust is ongoing, but based on an initial probe on the case, CCI has found that Google has “reduced the ability and incentive of device manufacturers to develop and sell devices” running Android forks, the watchdog said. Google’s condition to include “the entire GMS suite” to devices from OEMs that have opted for full-blown version of Android, amounts to “imposition of unfair condition on the device manufacturers,” the watchdog added.

The document also reveals that Google has provided CCI with some additional responses that have been kept confidential. A Google spokesperson declined to comment.

Staffbase, a mobile-first platform that enables employees to communicate, access work-related services and stay updated with company information, has raised $23 million in Series C funding.

The investment is led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors e.ventures, Capnamic Ventures, and Kizoo Technology Capital. It brings total raised by Staffbase to $35 million since it was founded in 2014.

Founded in Chemnitz, Germany, and now with more than 200 employees across 7 locations, including a HQ in New York, Staffbase is an app and platform designed to wean employees off email for a range of communication, information and internal company processes. It initially targeted distributed and mobile workforces but has since broadened out to include desktop support, too.

“Successful companies today understand that their most valuable resource is their employees’ time and motivation,” says Staffbase co-founder and CEO Dr. Martin Böhringer. “Despite this, the experience provided to them when interacting with company news, searching for information in an intranet, or using HR services is often frustrating and disjointed. The experience tends to be even worse for workers without access to company computers or corporate email addresses, which makes up about 70% of the workforce today”.

To remedy this, Böhringer says Staffbase is technology that’s about “putting people first at work”. The platform creates one place for employees to go for access to everything they need to get their jobs done and also find further help when they need it.

“For us, people-first also means communications-first; we believe communications is the heart of employee experience,” he says. “Our solution is first and foremost an employee communication platform, because it’s not fun to work at a place where you don’t know what’s going on”. The platform also integrates with HR platforms and Office 365.

“We’re also big believers in equal access to positive experiences,” adds Böhringer. “Our platform was first developed as a mobile app with non-desk employees in mind, and over time we have taken the user experience we saw working there and applied it to build a sophisticated desktop experience as well. Because we developed mobile first and with normal people in mind, the whole platform is easy to use — end users don’t require any training to get started”.

Teddie Wardi, Managing Director at Insight Partners, says that Staffbase has created a “simple and flexible” mobile front end layer that can be designed around the employee journey. “They discovered that employee communication plays a crucial role for a people-first workplace and belongs at the heart of the employee experience,” he says. “We were particularly impressed with the high customer satisfaction and usage rates that Staffbase achieves with its customers”.

“We have customers located across the globe and in many different industries, but if we had to pick a common adjective it would be people-driven,” adds Böhringer. “Each of our customers has made it a priority to have an engaged workforce that understands the company’s purpose and doesn’t have to struggle to get access to company updates and services. Many of our customers have a large proportion of non-desk workers at distributed locations who would be disconnected without an app. DHL is a great Staffbase customer example. They are rolling out to more than 350,000 employees across hundreds of locations in over 200 countries”.

To that end, Böhringer says that Staffbase disrupts classic top-down intranets, most notably Microsoft SharePoint and the plethora of communications tools that come with Office 365. He argues that these tools are targeted at desktop and knowledge workers and often require training to understand when and where each one should be used.

“Our customers are trying to offer their employees simplicity and coherence; we set ourselves apart in this way and see much better reach and higher levels of engagement because of it,” he says.