Month: August 2021

India’s CRED, which rewards users for paying their credit-card bills on time, is broadening its offerings to help its 7.5 million members gain more from the service.

The Bangalore-based startup said on Thursday that CRED users can now lend to one another at an interest rate of up to 9% annually.

Kunal Shah, founder and chief executive of CRED, said the startup is rolling out this feature, dubbed CRED Mint, initially to some users after testing this internally for months.

“We’re super excited about this because it’s the first time our community members will be able to invest in one another directly. It’s going to focus on high-quality, low-risk, but much better, inflation-beating returns you can get on your money,” he said in an interview with TechCrunch.

CRED members have on average 200,000 Indian rupees ($2,685) sitting in their savings accounts, the startup said. “At up to 9% interest, CRED Mint will help these users India’s most creditworthy individuals to be rewarded for responsible financial behaviour with a smarter way to make idle money work for them. CRED members can apply for early access to Mint.”

Peer-to-peer lending is not a new business idea. Several large and small firms operate in this space, but CRED appears to be uniquely positioned to solve one of the biggest challenges this category faces: defaulters. According to some estimates, more than 20% of individuals taking a loan in a peer-to-peer service don’t pay back.

CRED members have a credit score of 750 or higher, making them the most trustworthy audience to provide financial services. On CRED, a user has to have a credit score of 750 or higher to join the app.

“We do believe that the product-market fit of our offering is very strong. We believe that this could set a new benchmark for what fintechs should be doing,” said Shah. CRED also does lending itself — which is available to limited members — and has disbursed about $269 million to customers in loans,

“Even at the scale of CRED Cash, the default rate has historically been less than 1%. To reduce risk further, the invested money will be routed directly to an escrow account held by CRED’s NBFC partner, Liquiloans, and diversified across 200+ borrowers on average,” the startup said.

For CRED Mint, the startup has partnered with Liquiloans, an RBI-registered P2P NBFC. Shah said CRED will eventually partner with more players. Users can invest between 100,000 Indian rupees ($1,345) to $13,450 in about two minutes, and also request withdrawal at any time with no penalty.

“The withdrawal process is fully online, and the money with interest will be returned to the investor within a working day. As a digital platform, CRED reduces friction, inefficiency, commissions, and overheads to pass on higher earnings for members,” the startup said.

CRED, backed by Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, and Sequoia Capital India and valued at $2.2 billion in April round, has also received inbound requests from internal investors to raise a new round of over $300 million. The proposed terms value CRED at about $4 billion post-money. CRED isn’t currently in advanced stages to close a round. Shah declined to comment on fundraise talks.

If you use AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, your mobile Netflix-watching is about to get a bit more immersive. Yesterday, Netflix confirmed that it has begun rolling out spatial audio support on iPhone and iPad on iOS 14 after the feature was spotted by a Reddit user.

Netflix joins streaming competitors like HBO Max, Disney+, and Peacock in enabling this feature, while other popular apps like Amazon Prime Video and YouTube still don’t have this functionality. Still, Netflix said the rollout won’t be immediate — users who have the update should be able to toggle it on or off in the Control Center.

Recently, Apple has been emphasizing its spatial audio features. The company first announced that it would bring spatial audio to AirPods Pro during the WWDC conference in 2020 — during this year’s conference, Apple added that Apple Music subscribers would gain access to spatial audio and lossless audio streaming at no extra charge. This even supports dynamic head tracking, which adjusts the sound when you move your head.  The Android version of the Apple Music app also supports spatial and lossless audio. In February, Spotify said it would rollout a high-end subscription service, Spotify HiFi, which would enable lossless audio, though there’s been no news since.

Last month, Netflix revealed that it start looking toward mobile gaming in addition to its original movies and television series. The company has already experimented with interactive entertainment with projects like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and its Stranger Things games.

“We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation and unscripted TV,” the company said in its quarterly earnings report.

Spatial audio is popular among video game players — so while this update will enhance the streaming video experience on iPhone and iPad, perhaps we’ll see this feature at play in eventual Netflix mobile games, too.

Eaze this week announced  significant plans to expand into one the U.S.’s largest cannabis delivery services. One of the original on-demand cannabis delivery services, the Bay Area-based company is set to acquire cannabis retailer and cultivator Green Dragon, which operates in the hot markets of Colorado and Florida. Combined with existing operations in California and Michigan, the deal would find Eaze operating in America’s four largest cannabis markets.

Less than two years ago, it was unclear if Eaze would have enough cash to continue operating. According to TechCrunch’s reporting, it was experiencing significant trouble raising funds and went through unannounced layoffs. The company was switching from providing delivery services to operating as a delivery dispensary. Eaze was effectively the Uber of Weed, attempting to become the Amazon of Weed.

Founded in 2014 by Keith McCarty, Eaze has raised over $255 million to date. The company cycled through leadership and has seen three CEOs, with Rogelio Choy leading it since 2019. Former CEO Jim Patterson recently pleaded guilty in a $100 million scheme to deceive banks into processing credit and debit payments in cannabis purchases. The case is similar to one brought against Eaze in 2019, though the company denied involvement and is not a defendant in the case against Patterson. The future was unclear, but now two years later, it’s raising more funds and is on track to become the nation’s largest multi-state cannabis delivery service.

The company switched gears in 2019 and closed a previously-announced Series D financing round of $90 million in August 2020. This year, Eaze is trying to close a $75 million Series E with 80% of the funds already committed. The company expects this round to close in November. Eaze tells TechCrunch that this round will value Eaze at more than $700 million — double its fundraising valuation in 2019. The anticipated funding will be used to drive additional retail expansion.

Eaze Chief Strategy Officer Cory Azzalino justifies the higher valuation as such, “The company is fundamentally different. Even our California operations are significantly larger than they were back in 2019 from a revenue standpoint. But also just in terms of future growth opportunities. There’s a substantial increase in our addressable market. Florida, Michigan and Colorado create some $6 billion worth of incremental market size.”

Eaze is quickly becoming a major national cannabis operator. Earlier in 2021, it announced that its delivery service will be moving into Michigan, the hottest cannabis market in the midwest. If the Green Dragon purchase closes, the company also gains delivery operations in Colorado (now approving cannabis delivery companies) and Florida (a state with a massive medical marijuana market). According to a press release, Green Dragon saw more than one million transactions in 2020, and its Colorado stores grew 39% in 2020. In July, the company turned to Florida, announcing the opening of its first two dispensaries in the state and its intention to secure 20 more locations by the end of 2021.

The timing couldn’t be better for Eaze. In June 2021 Apple changed an App Story policy, allowing licensed cannabis dispensaries to list and sell cannabis products (flower, edibles, and vapes) directly from an iOS app. Eaze jumped, becoming the first retailer to sell weed from an iPhone app. However, purchases are only possible in Eaze’s two markets: California and (soon) Michigan.

“Eaze has achieved exponential growth over the last two years by successfully shifting to vertical operations and continuing to grow our loyal customer base,” said Eaze CEO Rogelio Choy said in a released statement. “Green Dragon’s airtight operations in Colorado and expansion into Florida’s booming market adds key operational capabilities to our national footprint and cements our leadership as California’s largest MSO. Together, we are well-positioned to leverage the market’s explosive growth now and into the future.”

TikTok’s plans to collect biometric identifiers from its users has prompted concern among U.S. lawmakers, who are demanding the company reveal exactly what information it collects and what it plans to do with that data.

In a letter sent earlier this month addressed to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune, (R-SD) say they are “alarmed” by the recent change to TikTok’s privacy policy, which allows the company to “automatically collect biometric data, including certain physical and behavioral characteristics from video content posted by its users.”

TechCrunch first reported details of the new privacy policy back in June, when TikTok said it will seek “required permissions” to collect “faceprints and voiceprints” where required by law, but failed to elaborate on whether it’s considering federal law, states laws, or both (only a handful of U.S. states have biometric privacy laws, including Illinois, Washington, California, Texas and New York).

Klobuchar and Thune’s letter asks TikTok to explicitly explain what constitutes a “faceprint” and “voiceprint”, as well as to explain how this data will be used and how long it will be retained. The senators also quizzed TikTok on whether any data is gathered for users under the age of 18; whether it makes any inferences about its users based on the biometric data it collects; and to provide a list of all third parties that have access to the data.

“The coronavirus pandemic led to an increase in online activity, which has magnified the need to protect consumers’ privacy,” the letter reads. “This is especially true for children and teenagers, who comprise more than 32% of TikTok’s active users and have relied on online applications such as TikTok for entertainment and for interaction with their friends and loved ones.”

TikTok has been given until August 25 to respond to the lawmakers’ questions. A TikTok spokesperson did not immediately comment.

This isn’t the first time TikTok’s excessive data collection plans have come under scrutiny. Earlier this year, the company paid out $92 million to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming it unlawfully collected users’ biometric data and shared it with third parties. This came after the FTC in 2019 slapped TikTok with a $5.7 million fine for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires apps to receive parental permission before collecting a minor’s data.

Every country has its own bundle of laws, rules and regulations, and they change on a regular basis making it an enormous challenge to keep up with it all. That usually requires large staffs filling in spreadsheets and unwieldy processes, but Regology, an early stage startup wants to change that by putting some automation to work on the problem.

Today the company announced an $8 million Series A led by Acme Capital with participation from existing investors Gagarin Capital and Pine Wave Investments.

Company co-founder and CEO Mukund Goenka spent more than 15 years working in the banking industry where he saw first-hand the difficulties in keeping up with regulations and the financial consequences of failing to do so. He formed Regology to provide large global companies with a way to stay on top of these myriad regulations.

Goenka says that his company started by compiling a database of laws. “We have a very large database of laws that is constantly updated, covering geographies from five continents, and a number of countries and jurisdictions. We also cover the lawmaking process of going from bills all the way to laws to regulations and a number of agencies and their regular updates on a daily basis. And it covers a number of industries and topic areas as well,” Goenka explained.

They don’t stop there though. They also give customers a framework for automating compliance wherever they are doing business, and they constantly review the laws and updates to help sure their customers are staying in compliance over time. Their target market is large Fortune 500. companies, and while Goenka couldn’t name specific ones, he did say that it included some of the largest tech companies and biggest banks.

The company launched in 2017 and today has 20 full time employees with plans to at least double that by the end of the year. He says that being diverse is essential in a business that is already looking at the regulatory environment in 25 countries. Understanding how each of these countries works is essential to the business and that requires a diverse workforce to pull off.

Goenka says that the company has been remote from day one, long before COVID. While there is still a small office in Palo Alto, he intends to keep remain mostly remote, even when it’s considered safe to reopen offices.

Bay Area-based Diamond Age this week announced that it has raised $8 million. The seed round is led by Prime Movers Lab and Alpaca VC and features a slew of additional firms, including Dolby Family Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, Towerview Ventures, GFA Venture Partners and Suffolk Construction.

The startup looks to put a slew of key emerging technologies to work in service of building houses with fewer workers in a significantly truncated time frame. Diamond Age claims that when, fully realized, its tech will be able to reduce manual human labor by 55% and shrink the construction time on a single family home from nine months to 30 days. Part of this funding will go toward putting the processes in place to construct a 1,100-square-foot “demonstration house” as proof of concept.

“We need to build high-quality affordable single-family homes for the next generation striving for the American dream,” co-founder and CEO Jack Oslan said in a release, “and the only way we can solve this problem is with automation.”

Specifically, the company relies on robotic and 3D printing solutions. The former involves a set of 26 different robotic arm attachments to assist with the construction. That tech is coupled with a gantry-based 3D printing technology designed to construct interior and exterior walls for the structure.

Specifically, the company is looking to target the housing crunch in its Bay Area backyard. The systems will be available to construction companies through a RaaS (robotics as a service) rental model. Pricing specifics for the system have not been revealed.