Author: azeeadmin

Salt Lake City’s Spiff has announced a $10 million round of funding to expand the sales and marketing efforts for its service that automates commission payments for sales people.

Some of the biggest names in startup tech are using the service to pay their sales force including Brex, Workfront, Algolia, and the publicly traded startup, Qualys.

The idea at Spiff is to create a new software category around sales compensation management and it’s gotten buy-in from investors at Norwest Venture Partners, Next World Ventures and Epic Ventures. Seed investors including Kickstart Album Ventures, Pipeline Capital and Peterson Ventures, returned to invest in the company as well.

“Commissions are a major cause of anxiety for teams who don’t understand or trust their incentive plan and many waste hours every month correcting mistakes or arguing with finance, which hits bottom lines,” said Spiff chief executive, Jeron Paul. “Norwest’s investment will help us automate commission calculations so sales teams have one less thing to worry about in these challenging times.”

Paul, a serial entrepreneur whose most recent business, Capshare, was sold to Solium in 2018, has spent the better part of his professional career developing services businesses for enterprises.

“The world of sales compensation software is long overdue for a revamp,” said Sean Jacobsohn, partner at Norwest Venture Partners, in a statement. “With 85 percent of companies still calculating sales commissions manually in Google Sheets or Excel, I’m excited to partner with Spiff to help transform the way people think about sales compensation and provide  sales teams with a deeper level of  visibility into their commissions.”

For Amazon, it’s never too late to try something in India. The e-commerce giant is exploring ways to further spread its tentacles in the largely offline, technology-free neighborhood stores in one of its key overseas markets.

The American firm’s latest attempt is called “Smart Stores.” For this India-specific program, Amazon is providing physical stores with software to maintain a digital log of the inventory they have in the shop, and supplying them with a QR code.

When consumers walk to the store and scan this QR code with the Amazon app, they see everything the shop has to offer, as well as any discounts and past reviews from customers. They can select the items and pay for it using Amazon Pay. Amazon Pay in India supports a range of payments services including the popular UPI, and debit and credit cards.

Amazon told TechCrunch that it piloted this project two months ago and is formally launching it now after seeing the early feedback. More than 10,000 shops, ranging from mom and pop stores to big retail chains including Big Bazaar, MedPlus and More Supermarkets have deployed the company’s system, it said.

The company said these “digital storefronts” are a win-win for both consumers and shop owners. Consumers do not need to stay inside the store and worry about handling plastic cards or cash — that is, to maintain social distance  — and they will also get rewards for using Amazon Pay.

Customers also get the ability to use Amazon’s Pay Later feature that enables them to pay for their purchases in installments. All of this means that merchants are seeing increased footfalls and improving their sales. Amazon said it is not taking any cut from merchants or customers.

The company has been aggressively engaging with physical stores in India in recent quarters, using their vast presence in the nation to expand its delivery network and warehouses and even just relying on their inventory to drive sales.

The company’s push in the physical retails, which accounts for the vast majority of sales in India, comes as Facebook, Flipkart, Google, and Reliance Jio Platforms, which recently raised $15.2 billion, also race to capture this market. On Thursday, Google said it plans to offer loans to merchants in India by the end of this year.

These mom-and-pop stores offer all kinds of items, are family-run and pay low wages and little to no rent. Since they are ubiquitous — there are more than 30 million neighborhood stores in India, according to industry estimates — no retail giant can offer a faster delivery. And on top of that, their economics are often better than most of their digital counterparts.

“Amazon Pay is already accepted at millions of local shops, we are trying to make customers’ buying experience at local shops even more convenient and safe through Smart Stores. Further, through EMIs, bank offers and rewards, we seek to make these purchases more affordable and rewarding for customers, and help increase sales for merchants.” said Mahendra Nerurkar, chief executive of Amazon Pay, in a statement.

Amazon’s tardy but increasingly growing interest in the Indian physical retails market is not surprising. The company has often taken longer than most firms in India to study the market and then adds its own spin to tackle those challenges. Another recent case in point: Its foray into food delivery market in India.

Despite ubiquitous interest in the physical retails market, one thing that that no company is talking about yet is just how they plan to commercially incentivize these merchants.

The technology solutions built by these companies is unarguably driving sales for them, but a significant number of these small businesses take cash and under report their revenues to pay less tax. That incentive is multifold of any other incentive for many of them. 

Another brick in the wall for vacation rental platforms: Amsterdam is booting Airbnb and other such platforms from three districts in the city’s old center from July 1, further tightening its rules for such services.

In other districts in the famous city of canals, vacation rentals will only be permitted with a permit from next Wednesday, still for a maximum of 30 nights per year.

The latest tightening of the city’s rules on Airbnb and similar platforms comes after a period of consultation with residents and organizations which city authorities say drew 780 responses — a full 75% of which supported banning the platforms from operating in the three central districts.

The three districts where vacation rentals on platforms such as Airbnb are prohibited from next Wednesday are: Burgwallen-Oude Zijde, Burgwallen-Nieuwe Zijde and the Grachtengordel-Zuid.

“This [consultation] indicates that the subject is very much alive among Amsterdammers. What is striking is that no less than 75% are in favor of a ban on holiday rentals in the three districts, said deputy mayor Laurens Ivens in a press release [translated from Dutch using DeepL].

Furthermore, Ivens said the consultation exercise showed some support for a citywide ban on such platforms. However current pan-EU rules — notable the European Services Directive — limit how cities can respond to public sentiment against such services. Hence Amsterdam applying the ban to specific districts where it has been able to confirm tourism leads to major disruption.

The legal cover afforded to vacation platforms operating in the region by the European Services Directive has show itself to be robust to challenge, after Europe’s top court ruled in December that Airbnb is an online intermediation service. A French tourism association had sought to argue the platform should rather be required to comply with real estate regulations.

Ivens said Amsterdam will conduct another tourism review in two years — and may add more districts to the ban list if it finds similar problems have migrated there.

These are by no means the first restrictions the city has put on vacation rental platforms. Back in 2018 it tightened a cap on the number of nights properties can be rented, squeezing it from 60 nights to 30 per year.

Yet despite such restrictions city authorities note tourist rental of homes has experienced “strong growth” in recent years, with 1 in 15 homes in Amsterdam being offered online. It also said that the supply of homes on the various platforms has increased fivefold — amounting to around 25,000 advertisements per month.

Due to this increase, tourist rental has an increasingly negative impact on the quality of life in various Amsterdam neighborhoods, the council writes in a press release.

The permit system which is also being brought in is intended to aid enforcement of tighter rules — with stipulations that a house must be inhabited; and that the maximum of 30 nights per year can only be rented to a maximum of four people. The council has also made it mandatory for those renting homes on vacation rental platforms to report to the municipality every time the house is rented, so will be building up its own dataset on how these platforms are being used.

Additional changes to Amsterdam’s housing regulations also include higher fines for repeat offender landlords, such as if they rent a property without a permit or violate the maximum number of nights for holiday rentals.

The city has also put limits on conversions, stipulating that only properties larger than 100 m2 may be converted into two or more smaller homes — a provision that seems aimed at landlords who try to maximize holiday rental income by turning a single larger property into two or more smaller flats, and thereby reducing suitable housing stock for larger families.

After early skirmishes between cities and vacation rental platforms related to the collection of tourist taxes, access to data remains an ongoing bone of contention — with cities pressing platforms to share data in order that they can enforce tighter regulations. Platforms, meanwhile, have a clear commercial incentive to avoid such transparency.

In 2018, for example, city officials in Amsterdam called for Airbnb to share “specific rental data with authorities — who is renting out for how long, and to how many people”.

We’ve asked Airbnb to confirm what data it shares with the city now.

The European Commission has sought to play a mediating role here, announcing earlier this year it had secured agreement with p2p rental platforms Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor to share limited pan-EU data — and saying it wanted to encourage “balanced” development of the sector while noting concerns that such platforms put unsustainable pressure on local communities.

The initial pan-EU data points the platforms agreed to share are number of nights booked and number of guests, aggregated at the level of “municipalities.” A second phase of the arrangement will see platforms share data on the number of properties rented and the proportion that are full property rentals vs rooms in occupied properties.

However the Commission is also in the process of updating the rules around digital services, via the forthcoming Digital Services Act. So it’s possible it could propose specific data access obligations on vacation rental platforms.

We reached out to the Commission to ask if it’s considering updates in this area and will update this report with any response.

Ten EU cities — including Amsterdam — penned an open letter last year, calling on the Commission to introduce “strong legal obligations for platforms to cooperate with us in registration-schemes and in supplying rental-data per house that is advertised on their platforms”. So the regional pressure for better platform governance is loud and clear.

Another brick in the wall for vacation rental platforms: Amsterdam is booting Airbnb and other such platforms from three districts in the city’s old center from July 1, further tightening its rules for such services.

In other districts in the famous city of canals, vacation rentals will only be permitted with a permit from next Wednesday, still for a maximum of 30 nights per year.

The latest tightening of the city’s rules on Airbnb and similar platforms comes after a period of consultation with residents and organizations which city authorities say drew 780 responses — a full 75% of which supported banning the platforms from operating in the three central districts.

The three districts where vacation rentals on platforms such as Airbnb are prohibited from next Wednesday are: Burgwallen-Oude Zijde, Burgwallen-Nieuwe Zijde and the Grachtengordel-Zuid.

“This [consultation] indicates that the subject is very much alive among Amsterdammers. What is striking is that no less than 75% are in favor of a ban on holiday rentals in the three districts, said deputy mayor Laurens Ivens in a press release [translated from Dutch using DeepL].

Furthermore, Ivens said the consultation exercise showed some support for a citywide ban on such platforms. However current pan-EU rules — notable the European Services Directive — limit how cities can respond to public sentiment against such services. Hence Amsterdam applying the ban to specific districts where it has been able to confirm tourism leads to major disruption.

The legal cover afforded to vacation platforms operating in the region by the European Services Directive has show itself to be robust to challenge, after Europe’s top court ruled in December that Airbnb is an online intermediation service. A French tourism association had sought to argue the platform should rather be required to comply with real estate regulations.

Ivens said Amsterdam will conduct another tourism review in two years — and may add more districts to the ban list if it finds similar problems have migrated there.

These are by no means the first restrictions the city has put on vacation rental platforms. Back in 2018 it tightened a cap on the number of nights properties can be rented, squeezing it from 60 nights to 30 per year.

Yet despite such restrictions city authorities note tourist rental of homes has experienced “strong growth” in recent years, with 1 in 15 homes in Amsterdam being offered online. It also said that the supply of homes on the various platforms has increased fivefold — amounting to around 25,000 advertisements per month.

Due to this increase, tourist rental has an increasingly negative impact on the quality of life in various Amsterdam neighborhoods, the council writes in a press release.

The permit system which is also being brought in is intended to aid enforcement of tighter rules — with stipulations that a house must be inhabited; and that the maximum of 30 nights per year can only be rented to a maximum of four people. The council has also made it mandatory for those renting homes on vacation rental platforms to report to the municipality every time the house is rented, so will be building up its own dataset on how these platforms are being used.

Additional changes to Amsterdam’s housing regulations also include higher fines for repeat offender landlords, such as if they rent a property without a permit or violate the maximum number of nights for holiday rentals.

The city has also put limits on conversions, stipulating that only properties larger than 100 m2 may be converted into two or more smaller homes — a provision that seems aimed at landlords who try to maximize holiday rental income by turning a single larger property into two or more smaller flats, and thereby reducing suitable housing stock for larger families.

After early skirmishes between cities and vacation rental platforms related to the collection of tourist taxes, access to data remains an ongoing bone of contention — with cities pressing platforms to share data in order that they can enforce tighter regulations. Platforms, meanwhile, have a clear commercial incentive to avoid such transparency.

In 2018, for example, city officials in Amsterdam called for Airbnb to share “specific rental data with authorities — who is renting out for how long, and to how many people”.

We’ve asked Airbnb to confirm what data it shares with the city now.

The European Commission has sought to play a mediating role here, announcing earlier this year it had secured agreement with p2p rental platforms Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor to share limited pan-EU data — and saying it wanted to encourage “balanced” development of the sector while noting concerns that such platforms put unsustainable pressure on local communities.

The initial pan-EU data points the platforms agreed to share are number of nights booked and number of guests, aggregated at the level of “municipalities.” A second phase of the arrangement will see platforms share data on the number of properties rented and the proportion that are full property rentals vs rooms in occupied properties.

However the Commission is also in the process of updating the rules around digital services, via the forthcoming Digital Services Act. So it’s possible it could propose specific data access obligations on vacation rental platforms.

We reached out to the Commission to ask if it’s considering updates in this area and will update this report with any response.

Ten EU cities — including Amsterdam — penned an open letter last year, calling on the Commission to introduce “strong legal obligations for platforms to cooperate with us in registration-schemes and in supplying rental-data per house that is advertised on their platforms”. So the regional pressure for better platform governance is loud and clear.

Indian online learning startup Byju’s has nearly doubled its valuation in a year as it adds one more high-profile name to the list of its backers: Bond.

In a statement on Friday, Bangalore-based Byju’s said it had raised an undisclosed amount from the VC fund co-founded by Mary Meeker. The first-female founded VC firm’s check valued the nine-year-old Indian startup at $10.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. This is the first time Bond has backed an Indian startup.

TechCrunch reported early last month that Byju’s was in talks with some investors to raise as much as $400 million at $10 billion valuation. TechCrunch understands that Bond is investing under $100 million in Byju’s. A Byju’s spokesperson declined to comment on the startup’s valuation and size of the investment.

The new capital makes Byju’s the second most valued startup in India, ahead of budget-lodging firm Oyo, which was last valued at $10 billion. Indian financial services giant Paytm was valued at $16 billion late last year when it raised its $1 billion Series G.

“Endorsed by millions of students, Byju’s has emerged as a clear leader in education technology,” said Mary Meeker, General Partner at BOND and author of the widely influential Internet Trends Report. “We are excited to support a visionary like Byju and his team in their quest to continue to innovate and shape the future of education.”

Byju’s prepares students pursuing undergraduate and graduate-level courses, and in recent years it has also expanded its catalog to serve all-school going students. Tutors on Byju’s app tackle complex subjects using real-life objects such as pizza and cake.

Last year, Byju’s acquired U.S.-based Osmo, a startup that develops apps for kids that use offline input, in a deal worth $120 million. Osmo has since expanded to serve pre-schoolers market and this month it told TechCrunch that it had built a video-conferencing service for kids.

The startup said it has amassed more than 57 million registered users, more than 3.5 million of whom are paid subscribers. After New Delhi ordered a nationwide lockdown in late March, which forced all schools to close, Byju’s and scores of online learning platforms including Facebook-backed Unacademy have introduced new classes to students at no charge.

“This crisis has brought online learning to the forefront and has helped parents, teachers and students alike to experience and understand the value of it,” said Raveendran Byju, the co-founder and chief executive of the eponymous startup.

“We have the opportunity to positively influence how teachers teach, students learn and school’s function. The ‘Classrooms of Tomorrow’ will have technology at the core, empowering students to cross over from passive to active learning. The result will be a combination of the best of both online and offline educational offerings.”

Investment by Bond is a “testament to the role that Byju’s is playing in helping students learn better by customizing our platform to their abilities. It also demonstrates the rising global interest in education technology as digital learning becomes increasingly accepted and embraced,” he said.

Friday’s announcement comes months after Tiger Global and General Atlantic invested between $300 million to $350 million into the nine-year-old startup. At the time, Byju’s was valued at $8 billion, up from $5.75 billion in July last year, when it raised $150 million from Qatar Investment Authority and Owl Ventures.

Indian online learning startup Byju’s has nearly doubled its valuation in a year as it adds one more high-profile name to the list of its backers: Bond.

In a statement on Friday, Bangalore-based Byju’s said it had raised an undisclosed amount from the VC fund co-founded by Mary Meeker. The first-female founded VC firm’s check valued the nine-year-old Indian startup at $10.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. This is the first time Bond has backed an Indian startup.

TechCrunch reported early last month that Byju’s was in talks with some investors to raise as much as $400 million at $10 billion valuation. TechCrunch understands that Bond is investing under $100 million in Byju’s. A Byju’s spokesperson declined to comment on the startup’s valuation and size of the investment.

The new capital makes Byju’s the second most valued startup in India, ahead of budget-lodging firm Oyo, which was last valued at $10 billion. Indian financial services giant Paytm was valued at $16 billion late last year when it raised its $1 billion Series G.

“Endorsed by millions of students, Byju’s has emerged as a clear leader in education technology,” said Mary Meeker, General Partner at BOND and author of the widely influential Internet Trends Report. “We are excited to support a visionary like Byju and his team in their quest to continue to innovate and shape the future of education.”

Byju’s prepares students pursuing undergraduate and graduate-level courses, and in recent years it has also expanded its catalog to serve all-school going students. Tutors on Byju’s app tackle complex subjects using real-life objects such as pizza and cake.

Last year, Byju’s acquired U.S.-based Osmo, a startup that develops apps for kids that use offline input, in a deal worth $120 million. Osmo has since expanded to serve pre-schoolers market and this month it told TechCrunch that it had built a video-conferencing service for kids.

The startup said it has amassed more than 57 million registered users, more than 3.5 million of whom are paid subscribers. After New Delhi ordered a nationwide lockdown in late March, which forced all schools to close, Byju’s and scores of online learning platforms including Facebook-backed Unacademy have introduced new classes to students at no charge.

“This crisis has brought online learning to the forefront and has helped parents, teachers and students alike to experience and understand the value of it,” said Raveendran Byju, the co-founder and chief executive of the eponymous startup.

“We have the opportunity to positively influence how teachers teach, students learn and school’s function. The ‘Classrooms of Tomorrow’ will have technology at the core, empowering students to cross over from passive to active learning. The result will be a combination of the best of both online and offline educational offerings.”

Investment by Bond is a “testament to the role that Byju’s is playing in helping students learn better by customizing our platform to their abilities. It also demonstrates the rising global interest in education technology as digital learning becomes increasingly accepted and embraced,” he said.

Friday’s announcement comes months after Tiger Global and General Atlantic invested between $300 million to $350 million into the nine-year-old startup. At the time, Byju’s was valued at $8 billion, up from $5.75 billion in July last year, when it raised $150 million from Qatar Investment Authority and Owl Ventures.

Ford rolled out all the stops Thursday evening for the reveal of its all-new F-150 truck, right down to the splashy videos dominated by electric guitar riffs. Heck, the automaker even cast the sharp-tongued Denis Leary as its MC.

Of course, none of that really matters. It’s all about what Ford has done to improve the most important and profitable vehicle in its lineup. It’s been six years since the last redesign. This all-new F-150 offers kind of performance and abundance options that Ford truck owners have come to expect. Ford is offering 11 different grille options, for instance.

But what stands out this time is the tech as well as a push beyond mild hybrids into the realm of a full hybrid powertrain.

Here’s all the technology in the new F-150, starting with the interior and specifically the infotainment system.

Control center

The base XL version of the truck will come standard with an 8-inch center touchscreen display. However, on higher trims — XLT and above — the F-150 will have a 12-screen that can be split so that users can control multiple functions simultaneously, including navigation, music or truck features.

Connectivity and OTAs

Who cares if the display is big if it doesn’t have the underlying connectivity to support a host of features? The important aspect to note is the F-150 has a new SYNC 4 system and embedded 4G LTE modem, which can provide Wi Fi access for up to 10 devices. SYNC 4, which has twice the computing power or the previous generation, is going to be standard in all models of the F-150 and will feature natural voice control and real-time mapping. The requisite on-demand audio content offered via SiriusXM will also be available.

The system will also wirelessly connect a smartphone to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

The critical new piece here is that system, which was built within Ford instead of outsourced, can support over-the-air software updates. That means the system roll out upgrades to the vehicle such as adding or improving driver assistance features and keeping maps up to date. SYNC 4 will offer third-party apps through its AppLink system, including Waze and a version of Amazon’s Alexa called Ford+Alexa.

Office, bed or dining room?

Ford is clearly aiming for people who spend a lot of time working out of their truck. The new F-150 will come with an optional work surface in the center console area. The surface is designed to be used as a convenient place to sign documents, set up a laptop up to 15-inches in size or park that sandwich. The nifty part is that Ford managed to keep the console shifter. The driver hits the button, it folds into a compartment and makes room for the laptop work area.

Out on the tailgate is another work surface that includes integrated rulers, a mobile device holder, cupholder and pencil holder.

Back inside the cab are the sleeper seats, which got a bit of coverage before the big reveal. These “max recline” seats are available in the higher end models like King Ranch, Platinum and Limited and do as advertised: fold flat to nearly 180 degrees.

Hybrid system

Ford is offering its “PowerBoost” system, which refers to the full hybrid powertrain, on trim levels from the F-150 XL to the Limited. The system combines Ford’s 3.5-liter V6 engine and 10-speed transmission with a 35-kilowatt electric motor. This electric motor will use regenerative braking energy capture to help recharge the 1.5-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, which is located underneath the truck..

Ford said it’s targeting an EPA-estimated range of about 700 miles on a single tank of gas and will deliver at least 12,000 pounds of available maximum towing.

Power

The truck will also offer an onboard generator called Pro Power Onboard. The feature is available with a 2.0-kilowatt output on optional gas engines. The hybrid F-150 will come standard with 2.4 kilowatts of output or an
optional 7.2 kilowatts of output.

Owners can access this power source through outlets located in the cabin as well as up to four 120-volt 20-amp outlets in the cargo. The 7.2 kw power option will include a 240-volt 30-amp outlet. The system will allow for the batteries on tool to charge while the vehicle is moving.

Assistants everywhere

There are so many in here, it’s hard to keep them straight. The driver assistance features are part of Ford’s branded Co-Pilot 360 2.0 system. The important details are that more of these advanced driver assistance features are standard on the base XL trim, including a pre-collision assist with automatic emergency braking and pedestrian detection, rearview camera with dynamic hitch assist and auto high-beam headlamps and auto
on/off headlamps.

Ford has added (checks notes) 10 new driver-assist features. The most notable one is Active Drive Assist, the hands-free driving feature that Ford plans to roll out via software updates to specific vehicles, including the all-electric Mustang Mach-E in the third quarter of 2021.

The hands-free feature will work on about 100,000 miles of pre-mapped, divided highways in the U.S. and Canada. The monitoring system will include an advanced infrared driver-facing camera that will track eye gaze and head position to ensure drivers are paying attention to the road. The DMS will be used in the hands-free mode and when drivers opt for lane-centering mode, which works on any road with lane lines. Drivers who don’t keep their eyes forward will be notified by visual prompts on their instrument cluster.

Then there’s “Intersection Assist,” which detects oncoming traffic while the driver is attempting a left turn, and “Active Park Assist 2.0,” which handles all steering, shifting, braking and accelerator controls during a parallel or perpendicular parking maneuver while the driver holds down a button.

Finally, there is “Trailer Reverse Guidance” and “Pro Trailer Backup Assist.” Neither are new, but they’re important features for users who haul trailers.

Lordstown Motors unveiled Thursday a prototype of its electric future, a pickup truck with four in-wheel hub motors and a few other features all aimed squarely at attracting contractors and other buyers in the commercial market.

The unveiling by this one-year-old Ohio startup didn’t get too deep into the details about the electric pickup truck known as Endurance. There wasn’t any information on the interior, performance or battery. The entire second half of the event took a 90-degree turn away from the truck and centered on its special guest, Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke for 25 minutes about President Trump’s policies on jobs and manufacturing, China and the COVID-19 response.

Before Pence took the stage, some new information was shared, including comments about the hub electric motors and a partnership with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The companies agreed to collaborate on tires and service. Goodyear said it also intends to acquire new Endurance vehicles to integrate into its own servicing fleet.

It also appears that at least the first year of production capacity is spoken for — at least if every customer who pre-ordered the truck follows through and plunks down at least $52,500 to buy one.

Lordstown Motors said a number of potential customers that have sent letters of intent including AutoFlexFleet, Clean Fuels Ohio, Duke Energy, FirstEnergy, GridX, Holman Enterprises and ARI, Summit Petroleum, Turner Mining Group and Valor Holdings as well as several Ohio municipalities.

Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns said Thursday the company already received 20,000 pre-orders for the truck, essentially its entire planned production capacity for the year. The company has said it plans to produce 20,000 electric commercial trucks annually, starting in 2021, at the former GM Assembly Plant in Lordstown, Ohio. The startup, an offshoot of Burns’ other company Workhorse Group, acquired the 6.2 million square-foot factory last year. Workhorse holds a 10% stake in Lordstown Motors.

“As the preorders continue to come in, we are making plans to ramp up production to meet the demand and get the trucks on the road as quickly and as responsibly as possible,” Burns said.

The first trucks will be delivered in late summer 2021, the company said. That’s a short timeline for such a new company. However, Lordstown wasn’t starting at mile zero. Burns said that under its agreement with GM, the factory was left largely intact.

“We didn’t have to build a plant and populate it with robots — we just have to reconfigure this plant and that’s what we’re busy in here doing,” Burns said.

The Endurance will start at $52,500, has an EPA estimated 250 miles of range and four in-hub electric motors, an important functional detail that should deliver different amounts of torque to each wheel as needed. It’s a system that might come in handy while off-roading or navigating a muddy work site. It’s also the truck’s biggest innovation, according to Burns.

“Our battery is, of course very important in a truck this size, but the big innovation is these hub motors,” Burns said during the event. “There are only four moving parts in the drivetrain of this vehicle and those are the four wheels. Just to put that in perspective, modern-day four-wheel drive pickup truck has thousands of moving parts — the pistons, the valves, the crank shaft, the differential, the gears, the driveshaft, the U joints, thousands of moving parts — and every moving part has to be lubricated and every moving part is a decrease in efficiency.”

The 4 hub electric motor system that Lordstown has pursued strips out a lot of the complexity — which help simplify and lower the cost of production — and provides a low center of gravity.

The vehicle also includes a few features designed for contractors, including an onboard power export to let an owner run power tools right from their truck without the need for a portable generator or leaving the truck running.

Lordstown Motors unveiled Thursday a prototype of its electric future, a pickup truck with four in-wheel hub motors and a few other features all aimed squarely at attracting contractors and other buyers in the commercial market.

The unveiling by this one-year-old Ohio startup didn’t get too deep into the details about the electric pickup truck known as Endurance. There wasn’t any information on the interior, performance or battery. The entire second half of the event took a 90-degree turn away from the truck and centered on its special guest, Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke for 25 minutes about President Trump’s policies on jobs and manufacturing, China and the COVID-19 response.

Before Pence took the stage, some new information was shared, including comments about the hub electric motors and a partnership with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The companies agreed to collaborate on tires and service. Goodyear said it also intends to acquire new Endurance vehicles to integrate into its own servicing fleet.

It also appears that at least the first year of production capacity is spoken for — at least if every customer who pre-ordered the truck follows through and plunks down at least $52,500 to buy one.

Lordstown Motors said a number of potential customers that have sent letters of intent including AutoFlexFleet, Clean Fuels Ohio, Duke Energy, FirstEnergy, GridX, Holman Enterprises and ARI, Summit Petroleum, Turner Mining Group and Valor Holdings as well as several Ohio municipalities.

Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns said Thursday the company already received 20,000 pre-orders for the truck, essentially its entire planned production capacity for the year. The company has said it plans to produce 20,000 electric commercial trucks annually, starting in 2021, at the former GM Assembly Plant in Lordstown, Ohio. The startup, an offshoot of Burns’ other company Workhorse Group, acquired the 6.2 million square-foot factory last year. Workhorse holds a 10% stake in Lordstown Motors.

“As the preorders continue to come in, we are making plans to ramp up production to meet the demand and get the trucks on the road as quickly and as responsibly as possible,” Burns said.

The first trucks will be delivered in late summer 2021, the company said. That’s a short timeline for such a new company. However, Lordstown wasn’t starting at mile zero. Burns said that under its agreement with GM, the factory was left largely intact.

“We didn’t have to build a plant and populate it with robots — we just have to reconfigure this plant and that’s what we’re busy in here doing,” Burns said.

The Endurance will start at $52,500, has an EPA estimated 250 miles of range and four in-hub electric motors, an important functional detail that should deliver different amounts of torque to each wheel as needed. It’s a system that might come in handy while off-roading or navigating a muddy work site. It’s also the truck’s biggest innovation, according to Burns.

“Our battery is, of course very important in a truck this size, but the big innovation is these hub motors,” Burns said during the event. “There are only four moving parts in the drivetrain of this vehicle and those are the four wheels. Just to put that in perspective, modern-day four-wheel drive pickup truck has thousands of moving parts — the pistons, the valves, the crank shaft, the differential, the gears, the driveshaft, the U joints, thousands of moving parts — and every moving part has to be lubricated and every moving part is a decrease in efficiency.”

The 4 hub electric motor system that Lordstown has pursued strips out a lot of the complexity — which help simplify and lower the cost of production — and provides a low center of gravity.

The vehicle also includes a few features designed for contractors, including an onboard power export to let an owner run power tools right from their truck without the need for a portable generator or leaving the truck running.

After closing stores across four states, this was no doubt a bit of an inevitable: Following reporting earlier today, Apple has confirmed that it will be shutting down an additional 14 stores in Florida, joining the two it closed last week.

The company sent a statement to TechCrunch that is essentially identical to the one it gave us last week, reading, “Due to current COVID-19 conditions in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas. We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible.”

The move comes as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the southern states. On Wednesday, state officials reported north of 5,000 new infections for the second straight day. In all, Florida has experienced more than 114,000 COVID-19 cases and 3,000 deaths, ranking sixth among all states by number of infections.

As noted last week, Apple had earlier confirmed the possibility of closed locations as soon as it began to reopen select locations in May. The full list of newly closed Florida stores includes:

• The Galleria
• The Falls
• Aventura
• Lincoln Road
• Dadeland
• Brickell City Centre
• Wellington Green
• Boca Raton
• The Gardens Mall
• Millenia
• Florida Mall
• Altamonte
• International Plaza
• Brandon

The Waterside Shops and Coconut Point stores were closed last week. Locations in Arizona and North and South Carolina have also been closed following reopening.