Author: azeeadmin

Angela Strange, who joined the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz nearly four years ago and has been quietly working alongside general partner Alex Rampell on a wide variety of fintech deals, has herself been named a general partner.

The promotion is interesting on a few levels, starting with what may be the most obvious development to outsiders: Strange is now the third person who has been named general partner at the nine-year-old outfit over the last three months. Notably, she is the third woman to be named general partner since the firm announced its first female general partner in June.

Andreessen Horowitz now has 13 general partners altogether.

For those wanting to see more diversity at the country’s top venture firms, the firm’s moves are a welcome development. They are also a little surprising, particularly considering how delicate venture partnerships tend to be, and the typical pace of announcing general partners, which is rarely ever monthly, even at the biggest firms in the world. (In fairness, Andreessen Horowitz isn’t exactly known for caring much about tradition.)

Strange is also just the second general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z) who has been promoted from within, preceded only by Connie Chan, whose promotion to general partner we reported last month. Why that matters: a16z has historically had an express policy “not to promote internally,” as explained to us last month by general partner Jeff Jordan, who joined in 2011 after serving for years as the president and CEO of OpenTable. That policy had become antiquated over time, as a16z has grown and the operating functions that support its portfolio companies have matured, he said.

That shift in thinking helped enabled Strange’s quick rise within the firm, where, as Rampell outlined in a call yesterday, she has won both the admiration of her colleagues and established a rapport with many of the firm’s portfolio companies, some of which she has been serving as a board observer. (With her promotion, Strange will now begin taking board seats.)

The firm’s broadening bench of general partners is also presumably tied fundraising. Notably, a16z hasn’t announced a new flagship fund since 2016, and most firms roll out new funds every two to three years, meaning a new fund — or even funds — will be coming in the not-too-distant future.

Consider the firm’s first female general partner, Katie Haun, who spent more than a decade as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, and well as worked as the DOJ’s first-ever coordinator for digital assets.

Haun’s new role with a16z was announced in June when the firm closed its first “crypto” fund, a $300 million vehicle that she is now actively investing alongside general partner Chris Dixon, who joined the firm as its seventh partner back in late 2012.

It isn’t so hard to envision a separate effort similarly spearheaded by Strange and Rampell, particularly in light of a new report in Axios that a16z is moving away from raising enormous flagship funds and instead toward sector-specific funds, including its two bio funds. (Asked yesterday, the firm declined to comment on whether Axios’s report was accurate or if other, targeted funds might be in the works.)

Either way, the fintech portfolio that Rampell and Strange have been piecing together stands out. Among a16z’s many related bets to date are the so-called unicorn companies Robinhood, Stripe, and Transferwise. The firm has also placed numerous bets on startups that seem to be innovating in their respective fields, including Point, a three-year-old startup that lends money to people and receives partial ownership of their homes in return; OpenDoor, a five-year-old service that will make an offer on a homeowner’s house sight unseen; and OpenInvest, a three-year-old asset management startup with a social impact bent.

Strange — a Stanford MBA and serious marathoner who earlier spent four years as a product manager at Google, as well as worked earlier in VC in a more junior role — appears to have more up her sleeve, too.

In conversation yesterday, she told us while the firm remains interested in lending startups (“there are a lot of new creative models that can be applied”) and real estate as an asset class, a growing area of interest for both her and Rampell is so-called insurtech. “It’s very much in its infancy,” said Strange, noting that “one out of 10 companies in the S&P 500 is a insurance company, yet there are no new entrants to that group.”

Thanks to data, that will change soon, in her view. “Data to better underwrite and data to allow you to find and attract customers in a more efficient way . .   .” it’s coming, she suggested. And no matter the fund from which she and Rampell are investing, a16z will have its checkbook ready.

Toward the end of 2017, Instacart penned a partnership with one of the country’s biggest grocery retailers, Kroger. At the time, it was a smaller deal with one of Kroger’s chains called Ralphs.

But today Instacart is expanding its partnership with Kroger, bringing Instacart delivery to 75 additional Kroger markets, growing Instacart’s Kroger footprint by 50 percent nationwide. The expansion will be completed by late October, bringing Instacart delivery to more than 1,600 Kroger stores.

This builds on Instacart’s momentum, following partnership deals with chains like Albertsons, Aldi, Sam’s Club, and Loblaw.

In all, Instacart is now available to 70 percent of all households across the country. Last year, the company announced its goal to reach 80 percent of U.S. households by the end of 2018, and its most recent funding round seems to be propelling the startup to achieve that goal.

In February, Instacart raised $200 million led by Coatue Management, as well as Glade Brook Capital Partners and existing investors. The round valued Instacart at $4.2 billion.

Since Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, Instacart has been put in a challenging position. But, in many ways, that challenge has represented opportunity. The nearly $14 billion acquisition has spurred an even more rapid evolution of the grocery industry, leaving incumbents with a choice: Acquire (or build) your own delivery platform or partner with Instacart to compete with online grocery purchase and delivery from Amazon.

Some retailers, like Target, have chosen to purchase their own platform. But other big players, such as Albertsons and Sam’s Club, seem to have been motivated by the Whole Foods deal to partner up with Instacart.

This has grown Instacart’s marketplace to feature more than 300 different retail partners on the platform, which has in turn helped grow Instacart’s community of shoppers, which has topped 50,000 this year.

As this growth continues, a great deal is dependent on Instacart’s ability to maintain the quality of the product. But the company is also taking steps toward shoring up the platform. Instacart has begun testing a partnership with Postmates to help make deliveries during peak hours in San Francisco.

UK payday loans firm Wonga, whose investors include high profile European VC firms Accel and Balderton, appears to be teetering on the brink of collapse as it’s stopped taking new loans.

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed to TechCrunch it is not accepting new loan applications.

She sent us the below statement which has been posted on Wonga’s mobile website (although it was not visible to us on the desktop site at the time of writing — and it was still possible to attempt to apply for a loan there, though the page subsequently returned a broken link).

Wonga’s statement reads:  “While it continues to assess its options Wonga has decided to stop taking loan applications. If you are an existing customer you can continue to use our services to manage your loan. Click here for more information.”

The spokeswoman declined to comment further on the status of the company but speculation is rising that Wonga is about to fold.

The Guardian reports the company held emergency talks with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority on Wednesday over the impact of its collapse on existing customers.

While the BBC reports that the firm has arranged for Grant Thornton to act as administrators.

Wonga has been in trouble for some years, after regulators clamped down on the payday loans sector.

In 2014 the company agreed with the financial regulator to a £220M write down having lent money to people without properly assessing their ability to pay it back.

It was further censured for sending fake lawyers’ letters to customers in arrears — and had to pay out a further £2.6M in compensation for that.

Wonga has since made an attempt to reinvent itself — with a focus on flexible loan products — but the costs associated with its legacy behavior kept rising.

And earlier this month it emerged that Wonga’s investors had injected $10M into the business to fund rising numbers of compensation claims related to its past conduct.

In recent times the company has also been selling off assets — passing off its German payments business, BillPay, to Klarna last year, for around £60M.

Prior to this month’s $10M investor injection, the 2006 founded firm had raised around £145.5M in VC — from a string of VCs including Accel, Balderton, Oak Investment, Meritech Capital, 83North, Dawn Capital and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures.

It looks very unlikely any of them will be getting their money back.

Chalk up yet another Brexit deficit: Japanese electronics firm Panasonic will be moving its European headquarters from the UK to Amsterdam in October because it’s worried about the tax implications if it stays, the Nikkei Asian Review reports.

The company is concerned it could face tax liabilities if the UK shifts its corporate tax regime as a result of Brexit.

Laurent Abadie, CEO of Panasonic Europe, told the publication Japan could treat the U.K. as a tax haven if the country lowers its corporate rate — as the government has indeed suggested it will to try to make itself a more attractive destination for businesses once it’s outside the European Union’s trading bloc.

In November 2016 the UK Prime Minister announced a review of the country’s corporate tax rate — saying the government could move to substantially cut the rate below the current 20%.

Prior to that, former chancellor George Osborne pledged to cut the rate to below 15%.

At the same time as announcing the rate review, the PM unveiled a package of business-focused measures — intended to try to quell fears around Brexit. Although a rate cut evidently isn’t friendly to every business.

In the case of Panasonic, it’s concerned that if the U.K. gets designated a tax-haven by Japan it could be saddled with back taxes back home. So moving to stay regionally headquartered within the European Union removes that risk.

Abadie also told the Nikkei Asian Review that moving its regional HQ to continental Europe will help it avoid any barriers to the flow of people and goods thrown up by Brexit.

The shape of any deal — or even whether there will be a deal between the UK and the EU, post-Brexit — still remains to be seen just a few months before the UK is scheduled to exit the EU, in March 2019. So businesses are having to make key decisions based on possible or potential outcomes.

Meanwhile the UK’s regulatory influence in the region continues to be diminished…

Garmin continues to go head-to-head with Fitbit with the launch of its latest offering — the vivosmart 4 activity tracker. This sleek new wristband not only tracks steps, activities and gives you the weather but also comes with a blood oxygen sensor and will tell you how much energy you have saved up for your next full throttle burn session.

That new body battery energy calculator estimates the body’s energy reserves to help you figure out when you feel more rundown and why. You simply swipe through the menu on the display to get to your energy levels or a number of other data offerings like steps, heart rate, stress levels and stairs climbed. The blood oxygen sensor will tell you how well oxygen is being pumped from your heart to the farthest regions of your body and can help you figure out if you are getting a good sleep in.

I took the new vivosmart 4 for a spin this week and was not disappointed in the upgrades. First off, this is a very nice looking piece of jewelry. Its slim, fashionable design fits neatly on the wrist and comes in berry with gold bezel, powder grey with rose gold bezel, azure blue with silver bezel, and black with slate bezel. It also feels good to wear. The material is smooth, soft and lightweight, slipping on easily.

The new model comes equipped with a newly redesigned wrist-based heart rate sensor, VO2 max and tracker for various activities like running, strength training and yoga.

One other interesting feature includes stress level measurement tool that will remind you to relax and take a breath throughout your busy work day.

Like its predecessor, the vivosmart 3, the 4 comes with the ability to check the weather, play music, and receive text message updates. It is safe to use under water so it can be worn in the shower or if you want to go for a swim.

The battery life is also strong enough to stay charged for up to a week at a time. Compare that to the Fitbit HR and Charge 2, which last up to five days.

The body energy feature is also a nice touch. The tracker figures out your energy levels using a combination of data including heart rate, sleep, stress levels and activity from the previous few days so it will likely take a while to figure out how much output you’ve got before a workout.

Overall, I’d say it’s a nice watch to hang on your bod. However, there are some drawbacks. The display is hard to work with. I found I had to tap several times, not just twice, as the instructions indicate. It’s also not very intuitive to maneuver and doesn’t pick up immediately that you are trying to swipe through the menu at times. You’ll need to take some time playing around with it to get the hang of it.

This is an activity tracker I would like to recommend for the fitness and life balance oriented individual, except for the difficulty in navigating the screen. That is one area that could be vastly improved by the manufacturer and would put it at the top of my list for trackers instead of somewhere in the middle.

For those interested, the vivosmart 4 will retail for about $130 and can be found online or at a sports gear shop near you.

Facebook moderators temporarily removed a post by the Anne Frank Center which was seeking to raise awareness about the Holocaust, after the company was unable to distinguish between historical genocide and child nudity.

The post included an archive photograph of Jewish children who had been stripped and starved by Nazi Germany.

Between 1941 and 1945 the German state imprisoned and murdered millions of Jews in concentration and death camps — the child Anne Frank, who the Center is named after, being just one of them.

Frank died in 1945, aged 15, after her hiding place in Amsterdam had been uncovered. She was taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where, seven months later, she died of typhus.

In school history class as a teenager I remember being shown similar footage of the emaciated bodies of Jewish people starved and murdered during the Holocaust.

It’s not the kind of imagery you forget. It is terrible. Haunting. It is a shame of history, not pornography.

Facebook moderators apparently cannot tell the difference.

Around six hours after the Center complained on Twitter that the post had been taken down, Facebook reinstated it.

In a tweet replying to the Center’s complaint the company explains its actions, saying “we don’t allow nude images of children”, before ending with an apology for making the wrong decision in this case — owing to the image having “important historical significance”.

It wrote: “We put your post back up and sent you a message on FB. We don’t allow nude images of children on FB, but we know this is an important image of historical significance and we’ve restored it. We’re sorry and thank you for bringing it to our attention.”

If you’re getting an acute sense of deja-vu that’s because Facebook has similarly failed to understand historical context before — when, for example, in 2016 its moderators took down an iconic war photo of a child fleeing a napalm attack in Vietnam in 1972.

The violence had also stripped that child — clothing her with terror.

Again Facebook’s moderators simply couldn’t tell. So they scrubbed historical record from the platform. An outcry was necessary to reinstate it.

Called on that crime against history, Facebook described its moderating decision as a mistake — saying “we intend to do better”.

Two years later there’s no sign it’s living up to that stated intent.

Running the world’s biggest content platform without editorial oversight and with woefully under-resourced moderation is indeed a very hard problem. One that AI cannot hope to solve in any near or short term framework — if ever. Context is king for a reason.

The kicker here is that company founder Mark Zuckerberg continues to choose to provide a platform for Holocaust deniers on Facebook.

He could choose to ban Holocaust denial — which is, after all, an attack on both history and the Jewish people. But he prefers not to. He’s not for banning, unless it’s nudity. (Classic art nudes included, at times.)

And so we arrive at the tragi-ridiculous pass of true historical imagery of the Holocaust being scrubbed from Facebook — while vicious lies about the Holocaust are allowed to stand and swirl and take root via Facebook.

That’s what running a content platform without a moral compass looks like.

We asked Facebook to explain why it took down a post by the Anne Frank Center that was seeking to raise awareness about the Holocaust yet refuses to take down posts by Holocaust deniers who are seeking to undermine historical truth.

A company representative pointed us to its earlier response to the Center — but did not engage with our question.

In what just might be the wildest thing anyone has ever built with Lego, the company behind the bricks has built a full-size, drivable model of the Bugatti Chiron supercar.

Seriously.

Built partly as a passion project amongst Lego’s creative team and partly as a promo to show off at the Italian Grand Prix, the model’s final piece count clocks in at over one million Technic pieces.

(Technic, for the unfamiliar, is Lego’s line of interconnecting rods, gears, axles, motors, and other parts a bit more complex than the bricks and blocks the company is best known for.)

Lego says that all in all, the build process took just shy of 13,500 hours. They started brainstorming back in June of last year, with actual construction beginning in March of 2018.

When LEGO first sent over the video above, my first thought was that there was some CG trickery going on. They responded with a few hundred photos of it being assembled, some of which I’ve embedded below.

[gallery ids="1701418,1701415,1701414,1701417,1701416,1701412,1701413"]

To be clear, it’s not entirely Lego – there are some components that just can’t be replicated in plastic when dealing with something that all together weighs over 1.5 tons. For example, there’s a steel frame (pictured below), a pair of batteries, some 3d printed gears, and the whole thing sits on top of actual Bugatti wheels. (Related fun fact: Lego is technically the world’s biggest producer of tires. Just… you know, tiny ones.)

Wilder yet, this thing moves. It’s not going to keep up with an actual Chiron with its 250+ mph top speeds, obviously – but the company says it got the model up to around 13 miles per hour for the video above, and says that it theoretically tops out at around 19 miles per hour. Not bad for a car made out of toy parts and powered by a bunch of plastic motors.

Speaking of which, this thing has over two thousand Lego Power Function motors in a massive array, giving it a total theoretical horsepower of 5.3. 24 motor “packs”, each made up of 96 individual Lego motors, hook into a steel chain that drives the wheels.

It’s got a bunch of other fun tricks for good measure:

• A detachable steering wheel
• Doors that actually open and close
• A spoiler that lifts and lowers at the push of a button, with a control panel to toggle all the lights and electronics
• A functional speedometer, also built out of Technic pieces

Is it silly? Perhaps. Is it kind of amazing? Absolutely. Alas, for anyone thinking of doing something like this without the practically-unlimited Lego armory this team has access to: at a retail price of around $30 each, the motors alone would cost you over $70,000.

Lego will be showing the model off in person at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

In what just might be the wildest thing anyone has ever built with Lego, the company behind the bricks has built a full-size, drivable model of the Bugatti Chiron supercar.

Seriously.

Built partly as a passion project amongst Lego’s creative team and partly as a promo to show off at the Italian Grand Prix, the model’s final piece count clocks in at over one million Technic pieces.

(Technic, for the unfamiliar, is Lego’s line of interconnecting rods, gears, axles, motors, and other parts a bit more complex than the bricks and blocks the company is best known for.)

Lego says that all in all, the build process took just shy of 13,500 hours. They started brainstorming back in June of last year, with actual construction beginning in March of 2018.

When LEGO first sent over the video above, my first thought was that there was some CG trickery going on. They responded with a few hundred photos of it being assembled, some of which I’ve embedded below.

[gallery ids="1701418,1701415,1701414,1701417,1701416,1701412,1701413"]

To be clear, it’s not entirely Lego – there are some components that just can’t be replicated in plastic when dealing with something that all together weighs over 1.5 tons. For example, there’s a steel frame (pictured below), a pair of batteries, some 3d printed gears, and the whole thing sits on top of actual Bugatti wheels. (Related fun fact: Lego is technically the world’s biggest producer of tires. Just… you know, tiny ones.)

Wilder yet, this thing moves. It’s not going to keep up with an actual Chiron with its 250+ mph top speeds, obviously – but the company says it got the model up to around 13 miles per hour for the video above, and says that it theoretically tops out at around 19 miles per hour. Not bad for a car made out of toy parts and powered by a bunch of plastic motors.

Speaking of which, this thing has over two thousand Lego Power Function motors in a massive array, giving it a total theoretical horsepower of 5.3. 24 motor “packs”, each made up of 96 individual Lego motors, hook into a steel chain that drives the wheels.

It’s got a bunch of other fun tricks for good measure:

• A detachable steering wheel
• Doors that actually open and close
• A spoiler that lifts and lowers at the push of a button, with a control panel to toggle all the lights and electronics
• A functional speedometer, also built out of Technic pieces

Is it silly? Perhaps. Is it kind of amazing? Absolutely. Alas, for anyone thinking of doing something like this without the practically-unlimited Lego armory this team has access to: at a retail price of around $30 each, the motors alone would cost you over $70,000.

Lego will be showing the model off in person at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

What cash-strapped startup founder doesn’t love the word free? Especially when it applies to Startup Alley, the exhibition floor — and very heart and soul — of every TechCrunch Disrupt? Yup, here’s your chance to exhibit in front of Europe’s most influential investors, entrepreneurs and technologists — for free.

We’re searching for the very best early-stage startups to designate as TC Top Picks and exhibit in Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. Apply here before the September 28 deadline. Here’s what you need to know.

We’re very picky when it comes to choosing our Top Picks — go figure. Our editors will closely vet every application and select only the most exceptional founders. Up to five startups will represent each of the following tech categories:

• AI/Machine Learning
• Blockchain
• CRM/Enterprise
• E-commerce
• Education
• Fintech
• Healthtech/Biotech
• Hardware, Robotics, IoT
• Mobility
• Gaming

TechCrunch Top Pick designees receive one Startup Alley Exhibitor Package, which includes a one-day exhibit space, three Disrupt Berlin Founder Passes, access to CrunchMatch (our free investor-to-startup matching platform), access to the Disrupt press list and a chance to be selected as one of the Startup Battlefield Wild Card Companies (wild card winners get to compete in our $50,000 startup-pitch competition).

In addition to media exposure in the form of journalists roaming through the Alley looking for great stories to tell, Top Picks also receive a three-minute interview on the Showcase Stage with a TechCrunch editor, and we promote the heck out of that across our social media platforms. That kind of media exposure lasts long after Disrupt Berlin ends — here’s what Vlad Larin, co-founder of Zeroqode, had to say about his experience:

Startup Alley was a wonderful experience, and the publicity we received from the onstage interview brought a lot of people back to our website. We had a huge spike in traffic, and we’re still feeling the positive business effects of that interview.

Disrupt Berlin 2018 takes place on November 29-30. The connections you make in Startup Alley have the potential to take your business to the next level and beyond. Don’t miss your shot to be a TC Top Pick and exhibit in Startup Alley for free.

Apply now before the Sept. 28 deadline

What cash-strapped startup founder doesn’t love the word free? Especially when it applies to Startup Alley, the exhibition floor — and very heart and soul — of every TechCrunch Disrupt? Yup, here’s your chance to exhibit in front of Europe’s most influential investors, entrepreneurs and technologists — for free.

We’re searching for the very best early-stage startups to designate as TC Top Picks and exhibit in Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin 2018 on November 29-30. Apply here before the September 28 deadline. Here’s what you need to know.

We’re very picky when it comes to choosing our Top Picks — go figure. Our editors will closely vet every application and select only the most exceptional founders. Up to five startups will represent each of the following tech categories:

• AI/Machine Learning
• Blockchain
• CRM/Enterprise
• E-commerce
• Education
• Fintech
• Healthtech/Biotech
• Hardware, Robotics, IoT
• Mobility
• Gaming

TechCrunch Top Pick designees receive one Startup Alley Exhibitor Package, which includes a one-day exhibit space, three Disrupt Berlin Founder Passes, access to CrunchMatch (our free investor-to-startup matching platform), access to the Disrupt press list and a chance to be selected as one of the Startup Battlefield Wild Card Companies (wild card winners get to compete in our $50,000 startup-pitch competition).

In addition to media exposure in the form of journalists roaming through the Alley looking for great stories to tell, Top Picks also receive a three-minute interview on the Showcase Stage with a TechCrunch editor, and we promote the heck out of that across our social media platforms. That kind of media exposure lasts long after Disrupt Berlin ends — here’s what Vlad Larin, co-founder of Zeroqode, had to say about his experience:

Startup Alley was a wonderful experience, and the publicity we received from the onstage interview brought a lot of people back to our website. We had a huge spike in traffic, and we’re still feeling the positive business effects of that interview.

Disrupt Berlin 2018 takes place on November 29-30. The connections you make in Startup Alley have the potential to take your business to the next level and beyond. Don’t miss your shot to be a TC Top Pick and exhibit in Startup Alley for free.

Apply now before the Sept. 28 deadline