Author: azeeadmin

One of Europe’s most popular fitness applications is poised to flourish in the U.S. market with the help of several Los Angeles-based investors.

Freeletics, headquartered in Munich, Germany, is today announcing its first round of private capital after bootstrapping since 2013. The $45 million Series A was co-led by FitLab, Causeway Media Partners and JAZZ Venture Partners, with participation from Courtside Ventures, Elysian Park Ventures and ward.ventures. Sports teams including the San Francisco 49ers and the Boston Celtics also invested, though Freeletics chief executive officer Daniel Sobhani declined to comment on any partnerships that may be in the works between the startup and the athletes.

As you might expect from the name, Freeletics operates its mobile fitness coaching app on a freemium model, with tiered pricing beginning at $11.99 for one month or $74.99 for a year-long membership. The app, which offers fitness content and AI-powered training plans tailored to individual users, initially focused on Germany but has since grown in popularity across Europe and in the U.S.

“We want to be there for people who want a long-term athletic lifestyle,” Sobhani told TechCrunch. “There are hundreds of millions of people who would love to make a change to their health and fitness but only a fraction of those actually make it. Helping people at scale to solve such a common problem is a tremendous benefit for the person but also for society.”

Sobhani says Freeletics now has 31 million users in more than 160 countries and will use its first bit of VC backing to grow its American user base — where it’s been growing 100 percent month-over-month. The company also plans to add a Netflix-style training platform, where “unlimited relevant training plans” will be available to paying users, as well as nutritional guidance to help people stay fit. The startup, however, has no plans to expand into hardware.

“Most of the people out there that want to become fitter or healthier are reverting to choices that have been there for decades, like going to the gym or running but without broader context or understanding,” Sobhani said. “Or they are turning to books or very restrictive diets. Tech solutions are so much better because they can adjust to you; they can make sure what you’re doing is effective.”

 

 

 

One of Europe’s most popular fitness applications is poised to flourish in the U.S. market with the help of several Los Angeles-based investors.

Freeletics, headquartered in Munich, Germany, is today announcing its first round of private capital after bootstrapping since 2013. The $45 million Series A was co-led by FitLab, Causeway Media Partners and JAZZ Venture Partners, with participation from Courtside Ventures, Elysian Park Ventures and ward.ventures. Sports teams including the San Francisco 49ers and the Boston Celtics also invested, though Freeletics chief executive officer Daniel Sobhani declined to comment on any partnerships that may be in the works between the startup and the athletes.

As you might expect from the name, Freeletics operates its mobile fitness coaching app on a freemium model, with tiered pricing beginning at $11.99 for one month or $74.99 for a year-long membership. The app, which offers fitness content and AI-powered training plans tailored to individual users, initially focused on Germany but has since grown in popularity across Europe and in the U.S.

“We want to be there for people who want a long-term athletic lifestyle,” Sobhani told TechCrunch. “There are hundreds of millions of people who would love to make a change to their health and fitness but only a fraction of those actually make it. Helping people at scale to solve such a common problem is a tremendous benefit for the person but also for society.”

Sobhani says Freeletics now has 31 million users in more than 160 countries and will use its first bit of VC backing to grow its American user base — where it’s been growing 100 percent month-over-month. The company also plans to add a Netflix-style training platform, where “unlimited relevant training plans” will be available to paying users, as well as nutritional guidance to help people stay fit. The startup, however, has no plans to expand into hardware.

“Most of the people out there that want to become fitter or healthier are reverting to choices that have been there for decades, like going to the gym or running but without broader context or understanding,” Sobhani said. “Or they are turning to books or very restrictive diets. Tech solutions are so much better because they can adjust to you; they can make sure what you’re doing is effective.”

 

 

 

Iliad, the telecom company behind Free, just unveiled a new Freebox at a press conference in its office. This is somewhat significant news for French startups as French billionaire Xavier Niel is also a startup investor through Kima Ventures, the owner of Station F and the creator of a school called 42.

When Free unveiled the first Freebox back in 2002, it was the first French internet service provider to offer a triple play service with DSL internet, unlimited calls to French landline phones and television for $34 per month (€29.99).

But things have changed drastically since then. OTT services, such as Netflix or Molotov, as well as multimedia players from Apple or running Android are competing directly with those boxes.

Free is now at a turning point. It has been relentlessly losing subscribers for the past year and its shares have been down around 40 percent in just a year.

In other words, Xavier Niel needs this Freebox to be a success to attract new subscribers, increase the average revenue per user and prove that you can compete with traditional telecom companies by leveraging technology.

The result is the Freebox Delta, a compilation of many different technologies into a single offering. It literally looks like a delta and features Devialet speakers, Sigfox connectivity, Amazon Alexa, ZigBee connectivity for connected objects and more.

“All of this would cost thousands of euros but we’re making it accessible,” Niel said.

By choosing a premium positioning, Free needs to prove that it cares about its network. You can now get as much as 10 Gbit/s using a fiber connection and the new Freebox — you’re then restricted to Gigabit Ethernet ports though.

“We think that optical fiber is the technology you need and the technology we need,” Niel said.

But if you live in the countryside, the Freebox now seamlessly aggregates DSL with a 4G LTE connection, which gives us a glimpse at the 5G future around the corner.

From a simple modem to a home hub

The modem part of the package comes with a 1TB hard drive. You can put up to 4 hard drives and use RAID to create a tiny little NAS with your Freebox. It comes with two powerline network adapters that you can plug to your modem using a single USB-C cable — the adapter acts as the power brick.

The set-top box part is a 4K HDR multimedia box with a homemade operating system. More importantly, it is also a Devialet speaker. Devialet has been working on high-end speakers with a simple goal — zero background noise, zero saturation and zero distorsion. Those speakers cost a tiny fortune.

Niel is an investor in the French startup, that’s why it makes sense to integrate Devialet’s algorithms and chipsets into the Freebox. There are 6 speakers and it should replace your TV sound bar quite easily.

You can stream music using WiFi (AirPlay), Bluetooth and Spotify Connect. If you want something else, there are Deezer, Qobuz, YouTube, Dailymotion and Twitch apps as well — but you’ll need to turn on the TV to access those.

The Freebox Delta also acts as a voice assistant. There’s a hardware switch to enable the microphones. You can then use a homemade assistant called “Ok Freebox” to control the device. And you can use Amazon Alexa for more complicated queries.

I wasn’t impressed by the integration of two voice assistants. It’s going to confuse a lot of people who are going to say “Alexa, turn on Arte” instead of “Ok Freebox, turn on Arte”. The TV interface has also been redesigned and now looks a lot like Molotov.

Subscribers get the cheapest Netflix subscription tier for free and can upgrade for an extra €3 or €6 per month. Basic Canal channels are included. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are included through LeKiosk.

Freebox of things

With the new device, Free is betting on connected objects. The Freebox Delta is connected to the Sigfox network and can control ZigBee objects, such as Philips Hue lights and Somfy blinds.

New subscribers get a bunch of sensors to get started. You get a connected camera, a door sensor, a motion detector and a tiny remote. You can buy more accessories in the future. Your Freebox can then alert you if there’s anything wrong in the Freebox app.

More interestingly, the Freebox comes with two remotes — a classic remote and a remote with a touchscreen. The interface of the smart remote changes depending on what you do, which reminds me a lot of Prizm. And it turns out that the team behind Prizm joined the company, according to a source. But they haven’t had time to work much on that yet.

Going premium

Free has suffered a lot from competition. After undercutting everyone, competitors have caught up and now offer similar services for around the same price.

In order to differentiate its offering, Free is going premium.

Orange has always attracted premium subscribers thanks to heavy network investments and premium pricing. Free wants to join Orange on this segment and leave Bouygues Telecom and SFR behind.

Free is also launching a new, cheaper Freebox today, the Freebox One. But it’s clear that the company wants to talk about its flagship offering. It costs €50 per month to subscribe to the top tier, and the company wants you to pay for the device.

Instead of lending you a Freebox Delta, it costs €10 per month over 48 months. You can then keep it forever. Niel hinted at bigger ambitions. Eventually, the company wants to sell the Freebox Delta to consumers in other countries, even if they can’t subscribe to Free.

Overall, the new Freebox feels like a melting pot of technologies (a bowl of Chocapic, as French readers would say). Only Free knows the startup ecosystem so well to put all of those technologies together.

Now, let’s see if Free has what it takes to become a full-fledged consumer electronics company. It’s an ambitious bet.

This holiday season, Facebook is hoping you’ll use a relatively little-known feature to share your gift ideas.

With collections, users can already save Facebook content — whether it’s a post, an ad, a video in Facebook Watch or a listing on the Marketplace. Now the company says that you’ll be able to share these collections with your Facebook friends.

The idea is to turn collections into more of a collaborative tool. To do so, you’ll need to open up a collection and then click the “invite” button. Then you can invite other users to become contributors to that collection.

A Facebook blog post explains how this collaboration might work:

If you and a group of friends are planning a holiday party, one of them can create a collection called “holiday recipes” and share with each person helping to plan. Those invited can add holiday recipes they’ve discovered on Facebook and save in the shared collection. The possibilities extend beyond the holiday season and can be useful for coordinating with friends on things like summer vacation planning, wedding registry ideas, furnishing a new apartment and more.

If you had no idea that this feature existed before now, I’m right there with you. Apparently Facebook has been testing “save” capabilities since 2014, which (quietly) evolved into the collections feature last year.

The company says “millions” of people are already using collections. Now that they’re becoming more of a social tool, it seems that Facebook is ready to do more to promote them.

Wing, the drone delivery X project that “graduated” into full company status under the Alphabet umbrella this past July, is taking flight in Europe. Today, it announced that it will start a new pilot in Finland beginning in the spring of 2019 in Helsinki, delivering goods and packages of up to 1.5 kilograms (about 3.3 pounds) within a distance of up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

Wing is launching a page now to take suggestions of what might be in most demand to deliver by drone.

This will be the first market for Wing in Europe, and its second extended pilot globally: Wing has run four separate trials covering some 55,000 journeys in Australia (and 60,000 overall), carrying things as diverse as medicine and coffee, across a range of environments. As with the Aussie trial, the Finnish service will be free until full commercial launch. It is otherwise run in as market-ready form as possible: people use an app, where they can select items and order their drones.

CEO James Ryan Burgess said in an interview that Wing — and Alphabet — see a clear opportunity to fill a gap when it comes to delivering goods, not just because of the environmental and safety impact of ground-vehicle-based services, but because of the economic angle.

“Today a recipient is charged a delivery fee, but so is the merchant,” he said — which is the typical business model for marketplaces like Amazon’s when it provides services like fulfillment. “Our aim is to provide a service at a cost lower for both. We think single numbers of dollars will be the likely amount an order will cost when it is commercially live.”

Today’s launch is notable because it’s a sign that Wing is slowly getting off the ground (so to speak) — , despite a bumpy start in the US. There, the project forged partnerships early on with key brands like Starbucks and Chipotle, but neither went the distance. The partnership with the coffee giant was put on ice, some allege because there were disagreements about who would own the customer. And while Wing did show off a demonstration with Chipotle in Virginia, it didn’t develop into anything more.

“We are still working in the US, but the regulatory environment is more complicated,” Burgess said. “The Federal Aviation Administration has a tough job to do.”

Finland, in contrast, holds some appeal for Wing.

“Finland is known as a country that is forward-looking, with smarter ways of doing things,” Burgess said, with a number of other advanced drone projects underway. It also happens to be well out of the airspace (and media space) of the UK, where Amazon has been working on trials of its Prime Air drone project.

Going ahead, Burgess declined to sat whether Wing will remain solely financed by Google/Alphabet, or if it might also seek outside investment. “This shows a lot of confidence in to drive forward,” he said of the graduation to subsidiary. “As a separate company we will have to show business viability. And we are excited about the future.”

Lawyers behind a UK class-action style compensation litigation against Google for privacy violations have filed an appeal against a recent High Court ruling blocking the proceeding.

In October Mr Justice Warby ruled the case could not proceed on legal grounds, finding the claimants had not demonstrated a basis for bringing a compensation claim.

The case relates to the so called ‘Safari workaround’ Google used between 2011 and 2012 to override iPhone privacy settings and track users without consent.

The civil legal action — whose claimants refer to themselves as ‘Google You Owe Us’ — was filed last year by one named iPhone user, Richard Lloyd, the former director of consumer group, Which?, seeking to represent millions of UK users whose Safari settings the complaint alleges were similarly ignored by Google, via a representative legal action.

Lawyers for the claimants argued that sensitive personal data such as iPhone users’ political affiliation, sexual orientation, financial situation and more had been gathered by Google and used for targeted advertising without their consent.

Google You Owe Us proposed the sum of £750 per claimant for the company’s improper use of people’s data — which could result in a bill of up to £3BN (based on the suit’s intent to represent ~4.4 million UK iPhone users).

However UK law requires claimants demonstrate they suffered damage as a result of violation of the relevant data protection rules.

And in his October ruling Justice Warby found that the “bare facts pleaded in this case” were not “individualised” — hence he saw no case for damages.

He also ruled against the case proceeding on another legal point, related to defining a class for the case — finding “the essential requirements for a representative action are absent” because he said individuals in the group do not have the “same interest” in the claim.

Lodging its appeal today in the Court of Appeal, Google You Owe us described the High Court judgement as disappointing, and said it highlights the barriers that remain for consumers seeking to use collective actions as a route to redress in England and Wales.

In the US, meanwhile, Google settled with the FTC over a similar cookie tracking issue back in 2012 — agreeing to pay $22.5M in that instance.

Countering Justice Warby’s earlier suggestion that affected class members in the UK case did not care about their data being taken without permission, Google You Owe Us said, on the contrary, affected class members have continued to show their support for the case on Facebook — noting that more than 20,000 have signed up for case updates.

For the appeal, the legal team will argue that the High Court judgment was incorrect in stating the class had not suffered damage within the meaning of the UK’s Data Protection Act, and that the class had not all suffered in the same way as a result of the data breach.

Commenting in a statement, Lloyd said:

Google’s business model is based on using personal data to target adverts to consumers and they must ask permission before using this data. The court accepted that people did not give Google permission to use their data in this case, yet slammed the door shut on holding Google to account.

By appealing this decision, we want to give affected consumers the opportunity to get the compensation they are owed and show that collective actions offer a clear route to justice for data protection claims.

We’ve reached out to Google for comment.

Audi, the Germany luxury automaker under VW Group, said Tuesday it will invest 14 billion euros ($15.95 billion) over the next five years on future transportation technologies such as electric mobility, autonomous driving and digital services.

These investments, made through 2023, will include spending on property, factories and equipment as well as research and development. Audi’s total projected expenditure for the 5-year planning period will be 40 billion euros ($45.6 billion), the company announced Tuesday.

“This planning round bears a clear signature: We are taking a very systematic approach to electric mobility and will be much more focused in future. We are consistently prioritizing our resources for future-oriented products and services that are highly attractive and relevant to the market,” according to Bram Schot, temporary chairman of the Board of Management of Audi.

Audi’s investment announcement Tuesday continues the company’s previously stated plans to develop electric vehicles. Back in 2015, then Audi of America president Scott Keogh said that by 2025 at least one quarter of all Audi cars sold in the U.S. will have a plug.

The company unveiled in September its first all-electric SUV, the e-tron. By 2025, Audi says it will offer 20 electrified models (that includes hybrids). About 10 of those vehicles will have all-electric drive systems. The automaker is also investing in digital services such as “on demand” functions.

At the same time, Audi is pushing forward with the digitalization of its automobiles and plants, and is expanding its business model with new digital services such as “functions on demand.”

​Mixcloud​, the audio streaming platform that is popular for long-form content, such as radio shows and DJ sets, has launched a “fan-to-creator” subscription service in a bid to find new ways of monetizing and ensuring both artists and curators get paid.

Dubbed “​Mixcloud Select,” the new feature lets listeners subscribe to a Select creator’s channel so they can directly support them, and contribute to the licensing cost of the music played in the shows. Subscribers get an enhanced listening experience that includes the ability to download shows to listen offline and view upfront track lists, making it feel a lot more like on-demand and less tied to the legacy of over-the-air radio.

Nico Perez, co-founder of Mixcloud, frames Mixcloud Select as a pioneering move toward building a “fair and sustainable ecosystem” that works for audio creators, artists and listeners. “We want to enable fans to get closer to the culture and communities they care about, while ensuring that everyone involved in the creative process is recognized and rewarded accordingly,” he says in a statement.

That’s very much inline with the conversation Perez and I had back in April when TechCrunch reported on Mixcloud’s first ever funding round (despite being founded ten years ago). At the time the Mixcloud founder hinted at a consumer-facing subscription service, as well as discussing the licensing groundwork the company had laid. It comes as no surprise therefore to see Select launch.

Mixcloud has previously announced direct licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Merlin, Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, ICE (a joint initiative between PRS, GEMA, and STIM) and many others. Related to this, the company has a proprietary content ID system that claims to identify individual tracks and underlying rights holders.

Mixcloud Select initially goes live with 47 creators who have already used the Mixcloud platform to build listener communities, and covers a wide range of genres and scenes. Creators range from international DJs including Afrojack, Nicole Moudaber, Lefto and John Digweed to homegrown Mixcloud stars such as DJ Blighty and Low Light Mixes; independent radio stations Brooklyn Radio, Soho Radio and Red Light Radio; record labels Defected Records and Axtone Records; and curators Clash Magazine and Stamp the Wax.

Channel subscriptions start at ($/£/€) 2.99 per month, with the ability for creators to set a higher price. Subscriptions renew monthly and can be cancelled anytime.

Mixcloud also says it will collaborate with creators to roll out additional new features, such as offering exclusive content and direct messaging with subscribers. All creators can now register their interest in joining Select in the near future.“

Bios, a neural engineering startup originally based out of Cambridge, U.K. and now with an additional newly opened R&D office in Montreal, Canada, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The company is developing a “neural interface” that combines advances in hardware, big data, and machine learning/AI, which it’s hoped can be used to develop new cutting-edge treatments on organs and nerve systems throughout the body.

The round is led by Real Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, and Ariel Poler (founder of the Human Augmentation syndicate on AngelList). Other funds and angel investors participating include Endure Capital, Heuristic Capital Partners, K5 Ventures, and Charles Songhurst (former GM corporate strategy at Microsoft).

The startup and Y Combinator alumnus is also disclosing additional non-dilutive funding in the form of grants and awards from Cisco, MassChallenge UK, and Innovate UK. Michael Baum’s Founder.org was also an early backer.

Formerly known as Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems (CBAS), Bios’ first product is described as akin to a “USB connector for the body” and has been used to develop a Prosthetic Interface Device (PID) that allows amputees to connect a range of prostheses directly to the nervous system. The PID is about to enter clinical trials and enables neural signals sent by a person’s nervous system to be interpreted and in turn control a connected artificial body part.

Bio is co-founded by computational neuroscientist Emil Hewage and bioengineer Oliver Armitage, and in a brief call the pair explained that the R&D involved to develop the PID saw the young company not only make significant breakthroughs in the hardware required, including developing safe and accurate hardware, but also enabled the company to amass a very large neural dataset and further develop its algorithms for future use cases.

More broadly, the challenge in this field is how to collect and process large amounts of neural data and then accurately interpret the neural signals, which Hewage and Armitage say are incredibly noisy, continuously changing and travel throughout the body at incredible speed. In other words, a job best suited to machines underpinned by machine learning/AI.

Further into the future, Bios wants to directly connect to the nervous system via its neural interface and then use AI to “read and write” onto the nervous system to deal with the root cause of various chronic conditions. The detection and potential to “correct” neural signals could mean, for example, the development of an alternative way of treating high blood pressure that doesn’t rely on conventional medicine or can treat drug-resistant hypertension.

The plan is for Bios to develop some products and treatments of its own, but also to partner with various companies and organisations. The premise is that the company can focus on the core interface and related AI, while the eventual applications can be as wide and vertical as advancements and interest allows. Related to this, Bios is advocating and helping to push industry standards and formats for neural data.

On that note, Bios says it will use the funding to double its technical team, and further develop its core neural interface technologies. In addition it plans to expand access for commercial and academic partners through a variety of tools, datasets, and algorithms for “discovering and leveraging biomarkers in neural data”.

A top-level reshuffle is sending shockwaves across one of China’s biggest online video businesses. Yang Weidong has stepped down as the president of Alibaba’s video streaming unit Youku, the ecommerce operator’s digital media and entertainment business group confirmed to TechCrunch on Tuesday.

Yang is understood to be assisting the police with an investigation into “an alleged case of seeking economic benefits,” said a spokesperson for the business group.

Taking over Yang’s helm is Fan Luyuan, chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Pictures, the giant’s film division that scooped up a minority share in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners to set foot in Hollywood. Fan remains in his roles with the film group following the additional appointment.

Yang, who formerly held executive positions at Nokia Greater China and Chinese computer maker Lenovo, joined Youku in 2013. He had since risen through the ranks at the online video service, which Alibaba fully acquired in 2015.

This is not the first time that Youku has grappled with the fallout of executive misconducts. In 2016, Chinese authorities detained the video site’s former vice president Lu Fanxi after a corporate audit revealed “serious suspicions surrounding certain production projects” that Lu oversaw, according to an internal email obtained by multiple Chinese news outlets.

While more details are emerging about Yang’s case, industry veterans suggest that corruption has become an unspoken rule in China’s online video sector, which has seen players race to capture users with topnotch content and talents.

“This can include bribes for actors as well as yin-yang contracts between studios and the actors,” a Shenzhen-based venture capitalist who invests in digital media told TechCrunch, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the topic. Yin-yang contracts refer to those that present one compensation arrangement to tax bureaus while secretly pursuing another more lucrative more.

An ongoing crackdown on this unscrupulous practice is underway in China. In October, regulators fined top-earning actress Fan Bingbing nearly $70 million over tax evasion and warned others in the booming film and television industry to come clean or face similar charges.

Yang’s fall is also hot on the heels of an anti-graft probe at Meituan Dianping. On Monday, the Hong Kong-listed neighborhood services titan announced sacking the director of its food delivery segment–the firm’s main source of revenues–for corruption.

The past few years have seen Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and a host of other tech heavyweights commit to voluntary anti-corruption purge, likely an answer to President Xi Jinping’s call to end cheats across all facets of society.

Soaring content expenses have jacked up losses for Alibaba’s digital media and entertainment arm, which includes Alibaba Pictures, Youku, and Ali Music Group. Operating losses for the division during the third quarter grew to 4.8 billion yuan or $700 million, up 150 million yuan year-over-year.

Baidu’s video unit iQiyi has also shown signs of stress after it announced issuing a sizable convertible note to raise more capital for content investment.

Youku is in a fierce race with iQiyi and Tencent’s video streaming site. All have shelled out big bucks to churn out TV dramas and variety shows. While iQiyi and Tencent claim to have crossed the 80 million subscriber mark, Youku has been keeping mum about its size in recent quarters.