Year: 2021

The Tusk Ventures portfolio is impressive, if not intimidating. It includes Lemonade, FanDuel, Coinbase, Latch, Bird and many, many more. We’re lucky to be joined by Tusk co-founder and general partner Jordan Nof for an upcoming episode of Extra Crunch Live, and even luckier that he’s bringing Wheel co-founder Michelle Davey along with him.

Wheel is an infrastructure company focused on virtual care, and has raised more than $65 million in funding from Lightspeed, CRV and Tusk, of course.

Extra Crunch Live is all about helping founders build better venture-backed businesses. We do this by bringing together investors and the founders they invest in to chat about how they came together, what stood out to them about the other party, and how they work together today. Register here for Extra Crunch Live: Tusk Venture Partners and Wheel!

We also chat about general principles for fundraising, board construction, packaging and pricing, and other tactical advice for founders.

Oh, and if that weren’t enough, Extra Crunch Live also features an audience pitch-off, where folks in attendance can come onto our virtual stage and pitch their products to our guests, who then give their live feedback.

We’re incredibly excited to be joined by two powerhouses such as Nof and Davey, and we sincerely hope you’ll join us to hear what they have to say.

Extra Crunch Live, which goes down every Wednesday at 3pm ET/noon PT, is accessible to anyone and everyone. But only Extra Crunch members can access the content on-demand. And, by the way, the Extra Crunch library is growing every single day. Not a member yet? Subscribe to Extra Crunch here!

The Tusk Ventures + Wheel episode of Extra Crunch Live goes down on Wednesday, July 14 at 3pm ET/noon PT.

Register here!

A regulation underpinning a digital certification system for individuals in the European Union to verify their COVID-19 status via a common credential has gone into application today — on schedule.

From today, almost all EU Member States are now able to issue and verify digital certificates, per the Commission — with only a handful of (mostly) EEA countries still pending a step, according to its website.

A number of countries had started issuing certificates earlier. The regulation also allows for a six week phasing in period.

The Commission said more than 200 million certificates have been generated already.

The “EU Digital COVID Certificate” — which has gone through a few names since the idea was publicly floated back in January — is intended to help facilitate cross-border travel within the bloc by providing standardized and universally accepted certification.

EU citizens still have the right to free movement — even without the certificate — but having the common credential may help facilitate travel around the bloc, such as by exempting holders from needing to undergo COVID-19-related restrictions like quarantine.

Certificates can be issued to people within EU Member States who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus with a verified vaccine; who have previously had the disease (and therefore have antibodies); or to people who have had a recent negative test.

While it’s been called a “digital” certificate, a paper version can also be issued — which similarly contains a scannable QR code (albeit printed) — so there’s no requirement for individuals to have a mobile device to be able to use the certificate to help them travel.

Certificates are also issued free of charge.

The Commission has previously said that no personal data is “exchanged or retained” during the digital certificate verification process. Signature keys for the verification are stored on servers at a national level and only accessed — via a centralized gateway — at the point the certificate is scanned.

The EU rules for the digital certificate stipulate that Member States must refrain from imposing additional travel restrictions on holders — unless such steps are “necessary and proportionate” to safeguard public health.

The regulation is due to expire in a year’s time.

More information about the EU digital COVID certificate system can be found here.

We first covered Traptic back in 2019, when it appeared as a Battlefield finalist on stage at Disrupt SF. Today, the South Bay robotics startup is announcing some major progress. For starters, it began commercial deployment of its strawberry-picking mobile robot early this month.

Traptic tells TechCrunch that Blazer-Wilkinson, a top-five U.S. strawberry producer, began to deploy the technology in June, the system working in tandem with human pickers. That follows a pilot in 2020, when many agriculture companies were seeking assistance amid pandemic-related shortages.

Even prior to COVID-19, labor shortages have resulted in tremendous waste. According to Traptic’s figures, roughly 10% of U.S. strawberries rot in the field, unpicked, resulting in up to $300 million in waste, annually. During the pandemic, there was an even larger crunch, as H-2A workers suffered from restricted travel.

The company’s acceleration comes thanks to an unannounced $8.4 million Series A from Collaborative Fund, Homebrew Ventures and K9 Ventures that arrived in late-2019, before COVID-19 was on the world’s radar. “We used the recent funding to run a successful pilot,” cofounder and CEO Lewis Anderson tells TechCrunch, “design and build our commercial-scale machine, and start our first paid deployment.” The latest round followed an early-stage $3 million raise in 2017 and $400K the year prior.

“As record heat waves force farmworkers indoors and stifle harvests this week, Traptic’s mission has become more timely than ever,” Collaborative Fund’s Craig Shapiro said in comment offered to TechCrunch. “The launch of their robotic strawberry picker in commercial fields is a big step forward for the $10 billion strawberry market, and a peek into the future of agricultural production more broadly. Collaborative is proud to get behind a technology that can heighten crop security while creating safer jobs across the food supply chain, and we’re confident that Traptic is the right team to see that vision through.”

Traptic’s system combines 3D cameras and AI vision with robotic arms capable of plucking the fragile fruit without damaging it. The company currently employees around a dozen people largely in robotics and engineering and is advised by Pieter Abbeel of UC Berkeley and Serge Belongie of Cornell.

Zebra Technologies this morning announced its intention to purchased Bay Area-based warehouse robotics firm, Fetch. The $290 million deal finds the enterprise corporation snapping up 95% of the company, in addition to the 5% it already owns.

The deal comes as interesting in warehouse and fulfillment robotics is continuing to heat up, both in the wake of pandemic-fueled labor shortages and as retails are looking for any potential upper-hand in the battle against Amazon’s dominance. It’s been a huge driver for investments in small and large robotics firms alike, including the recently SPACed Berkshire-Grey.

Zebra, for its part, has been extremely aggressive in the category of late. In addition to launching its own retail robotics like the SmartSight inventory system announced early last year, the company has been investing in Fetch’s direct competitors like Locus, for which it led a $40 million Series D last June.

From the outside, it seems that Zebra is may be looking to consolidate the market around a single unified play. As Locus CEO Rick Faulk told me during another recent round, “We think we can build the most and greatest value by operating independently. There are investors that want to invest in helping everyone that’s not named ‘Amazon’ compete.”

He added, at the time, that the company had no interest in being acquired. I can’t say for certain that Zebra was actively pursuing it, but if today’s news is any indication, it’s clear that the company was looking to jump in with both feet – and Fetch’s diverse, modular offering is a pretty good place to start.

“The acquisition of Fetch Robotics will accelerate our Enterprise Asset Intelligence vision and growth in intelligent industrial automation by embracing new modes of empowering workflows and helping our customers operate more efficiently in increasingly automated, data-powered environments,” Zebra CEO Anders Gustafsson said in a release. “This move will also extend our ongoing commitment to optimize the supply chain from the point of production to the point of consumption. We are excited to welcome the Fetch team to the Zebra family.”

Fetch CEO Melonee Wise adds, “The Fetch team is excited to join Zebra and accelerate the adoption of flexible automation through AMRs and our cloud-based robotics platform. Together we have the right team with the right technology to provide end-to-end solutions that solve real customer problems. By helping customers dynamically optimize and holistically orchestrate their fulfillment, distribution, and manufacturing operations, together we help enable their ability to stay ahead of growing demand, minimize delivery times and address shrinking labor pools.”

We’ve reached out for additional comment. The deal is pending the standard regulatory approval. It’s expected to close in Q3.

For edtech startups, it’s always been easier to go direct-to-consumer than it is to sell into school districts. The latter has stodgy and strict sales cycles, while the former has a bit more flexibility when it comes to opening up that wallet. The pandemic added validation to this dynamic by supercharging consumer companies like Quizlet and Outschool, bringing them into the unicorn club.

Despite this growth, many startups still think that going B2B, directly into schools, will have the biggest impact on students, especially those who may not be able to afford supplemental services out of school. And while it’s the long game, Montreal-based Paper, an educational software provider that powers tutoring services in schools, just gave the sector a massive signal that venture-backed returns and school districts can exist in the same sentence.

Paper announced that it has raised $100 million USD in a Series C round led by IVP. Other investors include Framework Venture Partners, Bullpen Capital, Reach Capital, Birchmere Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, BDC Capital and ETW.

The startup, founded in 2014, sells tutoring software to K-12 schools in the United States and Canada. Its software allows students to request live tutor help on-demand, which can then be delivered in four languages across 200 subject areas. In the last year, Paper has grown from 100 tutors to 1000 tutors.

“School districts are not necessarily comfortable working with a company where these educators who have access to all their children are just contractors popping online and disappearing,” said Paper CEO Philip Cutler. “[Our tutors] are held to all the same professional standards that a classroom teacher would be.” The company has made its tutors part-time workers, to add a layer of incentive and formality to the working relationship and potentially limit attrition.

Cutler also sees Paper as an alternate pathway for teachers looking to make a living outside of traditional school districts.

The flexibility around how that advice looks and arrives is compelling. Paper claims it has 24/7 support, and that a student can request live chat help for five minutes, or for hours depending on the nature of the assignment. Since the company goes in-district, teachers can see where students are struggling most and cater class time to problem areas.

The company embodies a lot of what companies like Quizlet, Course Hero and Brainly have somewhat only recently invested in: the rise of smart, not slow, tutoring sessions. They’re all betting that that modern-day extra help may not look like a Zoom, but instead a live chat with a white board feature tacked on.

The company declined to disclose valuation, but instead pointed to other growth metrics to illustrate its positioning in the market. Paper grew its staff from 30 employees to 130 employees. It has also grown 40x in revenue over the past two years, which Cutler said is mostly fueled by strong renewals and the network effect within school districts.

“You don’t want to be the last district in your community or your area to have it, so we’ve seen a lot of adoption from that perspective,” he said.

Cutler admitted that there hasn’t been too many breakout B2B edtech businesses for the sector, but he thinks Paper’s latest raise – its third in the past 18 months – could be a signal that the entrepreneurial energy of direct-to-consumer might finally be making its way into the hallway.

“I think school districts are more receptive than they’ve ever been to changing and trying new things, and the last month has really shown us that you can actually take risks and you can try different things in school.”

He added: “It’s been lost in education for a while, and I’m proud of what’s happened over the last year.”

Autonomous driving system developer Ghost Locomotion has raised a $100 million Series D funding round, led by Sutter Hill Ventures. Returning investor Founders Fund also participated in the round, along with Coatue. The money will be used toward R&D as the company continues to develop its highway self-driving and crash prevention technology.

Ghost has been working on a universal collision avoidance technology. The system is premised on the idea that an autonomous driving system doesn’t need to recognize and categorize objects prior to avoiding them – a major paradigm shift. Most systems begin by identifying an object and then use image localization to determine its size, distance and other relevant features.

“We skip that step,” Ghost CEO John Hayes told TechCrunch. “We’re going to recognize anything, any mass that appears in the scene, and then we can get a distance and relative velocity to that. We can start making decisions directly off that data before we’ve classified anything.”

Ghost instead tracks the movement of clusters of pixels in a scene. Hayes pointed to instances where an object is misclassified, or objects that the system hasn’t trained on, as possible failure modes and a reason why classification does not need to be a prerequisite for collision avoidance. Much of this comes down to the certainty of the system’s decisions. According to Ghost, an autonomous system that starts from image recognition is one loaded with lots of opportunity for uncertainty – and it argues, less safe actions on the road.

One obvious counter-argument is that objects should be classified because they behave differently – a vehicle acts differently than a pedestrian, so classification is what allows a system to predict their behavior. But Hayes said that one shouldn’t start with classification, but collision avoidance. “And then if you want to make predictions, you can still do classification,” he said.

One benefit of its system, according to Ghost, is that it requires less computational power – an important consideration for vehicle owners, as higher processing demands can translate into less fuel efficiency. It’s also important for battery electric vehicles that have autonomous driving systems, as each watt of computer power demanded by the AV system can cause a reduction in driving range. Tesla, for example, revealed in 2019 that driving range could be reduced by up to 25% when the driver-assist system was enabled.

Ghost has performed most if its tests off-road, by setting up physical obstacles or by using augmented reality up against a real vehicle. It has not yet started testing its collision avoidance system in an urban environment, where decision complexity skyrockets considerably. Nor has it started testing on public highways – that will begin this year, and scale up next year, with a human safety driver behind the wheel, Hayes said.

The company seems to have slightly altered its market roadmap since it last talked to TechCrunch in 2019. Then, Ghost was developing a consumer kit that would give privately owned passenger vehicles autonomous driving capability on highways. It had estimated that it would debut the kit in 2020, for less than Tesla’s Autopilot package (which went for around $7,000 at the time).

The company hasn’t completely closed the door on this model – Hayes said that “we want to get this in front of customers” – but now it’s also talking about working with automakers directly to get its technology stack into vehicles before they’re even sold.

“We’ll find any path to market we can take,” he added. Under the straight-to-consumer model, the company is starting with a limited number of compatible models, and the cars must be relatively new due to the minimum technological requirements of the system.

Along with the funding news, Ghost also said it had brought on Jacqueline Glassman, former Chief Counsel and Acting Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as General Counsel. She joined the company in April and will likely play a key role as Ghost joins other autonomous driving technology developers in the path to commercialization.

Calling all savvy shoppers across the startup stratosphere. We’re about to roll into a long holiday weekend here in the States, and we’re in the mood to celebrate. In true American style, we’re offering a Fourth of July sale on tickets to not one, not two, not three but all FOUR TechCrunch events.

Our four-event sale kicks into gear starting July 1 and runs through July 6 at 11:59 pm (PT). We’re talking two tickets for the price of one on any of these TechCrunch events coming soon to a virtual platform near you.

TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing and Fundraising (July 8-9). This two-day bootcamp designed for early-stage founders, delivers best practices and actionable tips from seasoned founders and subject-matter experts — not to mention community-building through networking. Plus, day two features a pitch-off with 10 early-stage teams pitching to a panel of VC experts. Buy your 2-for-1 TC Early Stage ticket here.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 (September 21-23). The OG of tech conferences, Disrupt spans the entire startup ecosystem. It’s the must-attend tech event for founders, investors, tech media and anyone else who thrills at the thought of tech entrepreneurship. Buy your 2-for-1 TC Disrupt pass here (excludes Startup Alley Exhibitor and Expo Only passes).

TC Sessions: SaaS 2021 (October 27). Let’s face it people, SaaS is where it’s at. You’ll hear from founders who scaled from idea to unicorn, investors looking to cut fat checks and next-gen startups shoving the established boundaries. Learn practical tips for keeping your SaaS data safe and lots more actionable advice. Buy your 2-for-1 TC Sessions: SaaS ticket here (excludes exhibitor tickets).

TC Sessions: Space 2021 (December 14-15). Step aside science fiction — here comes science fact in the form of startups boldly going where no startup has gone before. You’ll hear leading space experts discuss a galaxy of fascinating topics like manned space travel and colonization, revolutionary communications, earth observation data, manufacturing — and even waging war — in space. Buy your 2-for-1 TC Sessions: Space ticket here (excludes exhibitor tickets).

No matter which event — or events — you choose, you’ll come away with invaluable information. That’s not just us tooting our own horn although, what the heck — beep, beep! Rachael Wilcox, a creative producer at Volvo Cars, attended three events in 2020: TC Sessions Robotics/AI, Disrupt and TC Sessions Mobility. Here’s why she keeps coming back for more.

“I attend TechCrunch events because they’re different every time. They’re inspiring every single time. I’m never bored. Ever. I always learn something, whether it’s a new company, a new topic or a deeper exploration of a familiar technology. It’s great. I love stuff like that. “

Jump on this awesome opportunity to score two passes for the price of one on four different TechCrunch events. Remember, the sale begins on July 1 and runs through the end of the day on July 6 at 11:59 pm (PT). And don’t worry, if you don’t know who your lucky 2nd ticket recipient is yet, you can always transfer the ticket to them at a later date.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at any of the events mentioned above? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

TikTok is embracing longer videos. The company announced this morning it will roll out the option to create videos of up to 3 minutes in length after first testing the change with a larger number of creators over the past several months. Previously, TikTok videos could be up to 60 seconds in length, after initially expanding from 15-second clips. This 60-second video format had since been copied by newer TikTok competitors, like Snapchat Spotlight and YouTube Shorts.

According to TikTok, the company decided to expand its max video length based on feedback it heard from its creator community. For some kinds of content, creators wanted more time and flexibility when filming — like when they were filming cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational content, and comedic sketches, for example.

“With longer videos, creators will have the canvas to create new or expanded types of content on TikTok, with the flexibility of a bit more space,” explained TikTok Product Manager Drew Kirchhoff, in the company’s announcement.

Before the expansion to 3 minutes, many creators had worked around TikTok’s limitations by encouraging viewers to “like and follow” them for part 2 (or 3, or 4…) of their video series. That may have worked to gain some additional followers, but it became frustrating to viewers who didn’t want to scroll through the creators’ other videos just to find the rest of the video content they had originally been interested in. It also made it clear how many TikTok creators were having to find a solution to an artificial limitation that didn’t need to exist.

This change to video length could make TikTok even more of a competitor to YouTube, which has been worried enough about TikTok’s growth to launch its own TikTok rival directly in its own app, YouTube Shorts. But TikTok understands its platform advantage isn’t how short the videos are, it’s the combination of features it offers — including its extensive library of special effects, AR tools, music catalog, and the dialog created among creators by way of specialized tools like stitches and duets.

Other rivals are also taking notice of the TikTok threat.

Just yesterday, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said the Facebook-owned app historically associated with photo-sharing would soon begin experimenting with making short, entertaining videos a more central part of the Instagram experience. He promised Instagram would test out with new ways to better embrace video, including “fullscreen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video.”

“Let’s be honest, there’s some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge. YouTube is even bigger,” he noted.

TikTok had first begun tests of 3 minutes videos late last year. The company  says the option to film longer videos will roll out to global users over the weeks ahead. Users will be notified when they receive the update.

TikTok is embracing longer videos. The company announced this morning it will roll out the option to create videos of up to 3 minutes in length after first testing the change with a larger number of creators over the past several months. Previously, TikTok videos could be up to 60 seconds in length, after initially expanding from 15-second clips. This 60-second video format had since been copied by newer TikTok competitors, like Snapchat Spotlight and YouTube Shorts.

According to TikTok, the company decided to expand its max video length based on feedback it heard from its creator community. For some kinds of content, creators wanted more time and flexibility when filming — like when they were filming cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational content, and comedic sketches, for example.

“With longer videos, creators will have the canvas to create new or expanded types of content on TikTok, with the flexibility of a bit more space,” explained TikTok Product Manager Drew Kirchhoff, in the company’s announcement.

Before the expansion to 3 minutes, many creators had worked around TikTok’s limitations by encouraging viewers to “like and follow” them for part 2 (or 3, or 4…) of their video series. That may have worked to gain some additional followers, but it became frustrating to viewers who didn’t want to scroll through the creators’ other videos just to find the rest of the video content they had originally been interested in. It also made it clear how many TikTok creators were having to find a solution to an artificial limitation that didn’t need to exist.

This change to video length could make TikTok even more of a competitor to YouTube, which has been worried enough about TikTok’s growth to launch its own TikTok rival directly in its own app, YouTube Shorts. But TikTok understands its platform advantage isn’t how short the videos are, it’s the combination of features it offers — including its extensive library of special effects, AR tools, music catalog, and the dialog created among creators by way of specialized tools like stitches and duets.

Other rivals are also taking notice of the TikTok threat.

Just yesterday, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said the Facebook-owned app historically associated with photo-sharing would soon begin experimenting with making short, entertaining videos a more central part of the Instagram experience. He promised Instagram would test out with new ways to better embrace video, including “fullscreen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video.”

“Let’s be honest, there’s some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge. YouTube is even bigger,” he noted.

TikTok had first begun tests of 3 minutes videos late last year. The company  says the option to film longer videos will roll out to global users over the weeks ahead. Users will be notified when they receive the update.

Most companies don’t announce their first venture investment after almost 20 years in the business, nor do they announce that round is the equivalent of a good startup’s entire private fundraising history. But Articulate, a SaaS training and development platform, is not your typical company and today it announced a whopping $1.5 billion investment on a $3.75 billion valuation.

You can call it Series A if you must label it, but whatever it is, it’s a hefty investment by any measure. General Atlantic led the round with participation from Blackstone Growth and Iconiq Growth. GA claims it’s one of the largest A rounds ever, and I’m willing to bet it’s right.

CEO Adam Schwartz founded the company with his life savings in 2002 and hasn’t taken a dime of outside investment since. “Our software enables organizations to develop, deliver, and analyze online training that is engaging and [interesting] for enterprises and SMBs,” Schwartz explained.

He says that the company started back in 2002 as a plug-in for PowerPoint. Today it is a software service with the goal of helping enable everyone to deliver training, even if they aren’t a training professional. Articulate actually has two main products, one is a set of tools for companies building training that connects to an enterprise learning management system or LMS. The other is aimed at SMBs or departments in an enterprise.

Its approach seems to be working with the company reporting it has 106,000 customers across 161 countries including every single one of the Fortune 100. Schwartz was loath to share any additional metrics, but did say they hope to use this money to grow 10x over the next several years.

Company president Lucy Suros, who has been with the organization for a decade, says even with this success, they see plenty of opportunity for growth and they felt taking this capital now would really enable them to accelerate.

“We are the most dominant player by far in course offering apps, but when you look at that whole ecosystem and you think about where companies are in transforming from instructor-led training to online training, they’re still really in the early innings so there’s a lot of opportunity,” she said.

Anton Levy, co-president and managing director at General Atlantic, who is leading the investment for the firm, says that this is a “big, bold, incredible business” and that’s why they’re making an investment of this size and scope. “The reason we’re stepping up in such a large way, and what’s such a large check for us, is because of the business they’ve built, the team they’ve built, and frankly the market opportunity that they’re playing in and their ambition,” he said.

Today the company has 300 employees and they have been working as a remote company long before COVID. With the new capital, that number could triple over the next several years. Suros says that when she started at the company, there were 50 employees, mostly male engineers and she went to work to make it a more diverse work environment.

“We’ve put emphasis and a lot of just structural things in place to ensure that we are bringing more [diverse] people to the table, and then supporting folks once they’re here,” she said. With the new capital, the company announced a lot of new benefits and she said those were developed with the idea of helping break down barriers for under-represented groups in their ranks including covering gender transition-related costs.

She says that one of the benefits of becoming more visible as a company is being able to talk about and their human-centered organization framework, the set of principles the company put in place to define its values. “[We think about] how that can impact the employees and drive human flourishing for its own sake, and that also happens to lead to better business outcomes. But we’re really also interested in it from [the standpoint that] we want to be good and do good in the world and promote human flourishing at work,” she said.

The company seems to have been doing just fine up until now, but with this kind of capital, it aims to take the business to another level, while trying to be good corporate citizens as they do that.