Author: azeeadmin

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week we had a full house which was super great. TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos and Sarah Buhr held down the fort in San Francisco along with our guest, Susan Mac Cormac, a partner at Morrison Foerster where she works on some of the most interesting deals in the private capital space. I dialed in from the home office in Providence.

It was good that we had eight hands on deck as there was more than enough news to go around. We started with the recent executive changes at Zoox, an autonomous car company that came up on the show a few weeks back when it raised $500 million.

The firm is now down its CEO after he was ousted after the round. In the founder-friendly era that we find ourselves in at the moment, this is High Drama.

Next up was the #breakingnews concerning Eventbrite, which filed to go public just before we recorded. My initial notes are here, but we’re still far from knowing where the unicorn will price. That means it’s hard to say much today, aside from the fact that the company appears to be in more than rude enough health for a flotation.

And then, the megarounds. There were three:

• Slack is richer and more valuable than ever after raising over $400 million at a valuation of more than $7 billion. The news surprised precisely no one, but it’s again amazing to see how the enterprise chat app and budding productivity platform can raise as much as it wants, whenever it wants. The new round, of course, came after Slack put $250 million in its pockets last year. (Here’s some quick math on its new valuation, just for fun.)
• One Medical picked up $350 million of its own, though the company doesn’t get all the money. It’s $220 million for One Medical itself, and $130 million for extant shareholders in the premium medical service.
• Getaround raised $300 million led by SoftBank (which also invested in Slack, of course). SoftBank’s 2017 and 2018 investment cadence are already the stuff of legend. How the firm will do when returns are tallied isn’t settled, though some early wagers are bearing fruit as we noted on the show. Getaround faces competition from rival peer-to-peer car sharing service Turo, which also raised this year.

All that and we managed 1.7 jokes and 2.3 puns.

We’ll be back in a week, and don’t forget that we are coming to you live at Disrupt in about two week’s time. Stay cool!

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This week we had a full house which was super great. TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos and Sarah Buhr held down the fort in San Francisco along with our guest, Susan Mac Cormac, a partner at Morrison Foerster where she works on some of the most interesting deals in the private capital space. I dialed in from the home office in Providence.

It was good that we had eight hands on deck as there was more than enough news to go around. We started with the recent executive changes at Zoox, an autonomous car company that came up on the show a few weeks back when it raised $500 million.

The firm is now down its CEO after he was ousted after the round. In the founder-friendly era that we find ourselves in at the moment, this is High Drama.

Next up was the #breakingnews concerning Eventbrite, which filed to go public just before we recorded. My initial notes are here, but we’re still far from knowing where the unicorn will price. That means it’s hard to say much today, aside from the fact that the company appears to be in more than rude enough health for a flotation.

And then, the megarounds. There were three:

• Slack is richer and more valuable than ever after raising over $400 million at a valuation of more than $7 billion. The news surprised precisely no one, but it’s again amazing to see how the enterprise chat app and budding productivity platform can raise as much as it wants, whenever it wants. The new round, of course, came after Slack put $250 million in its pockets last year. (Here’s some quick math on its new valuation, just for fun.)
• One Medical picked up $350 million of its own, though the company doesn’t get all the money. It’s $220 million for One Medical itself, and $130 million for extant shareholders in the premium medical service.
• Getaround raised $300 million led by SoftBank (which also invested in Slack, of course). SoftBank’s 2017 and 2018 investment cadence are already the stuff of legend. How the firm will do when returns are tallied isn’t settled, though some early wagers are bearing fruit as we noted on the show. Getaround faces competition from rival peer-to-peer car sharing service Turo, which also raised this year.

All that and we managed 1.7 jokes and 2.3 puns.

We’ll be back in a week, and don’t forget that we are coming to you live at Disrupt in about two week’s time. Stay cool!

A month after announcing its $55 million Series C, Japanese fintech startup Paidy has snagged a strategic investment from payment giant Visa.

Paidy didn’t disclose how much Visa put into its business, which has raised over $80 million to date, but it did say that it will work with the credit card giant to develop “new digital payment experiences” in Japan.

For those in need of a refresher, the Paidy service is aimed at making it easier to shop online in Japan, where credit card penetration is high but many consumers still opt for cash on delivery.

The startup asserts that cash accounts for some 40 percent of the country’s 16.5 trillion yen ($150 billion) annual e-commerce spend because credit card payments are cumbersome and cash is just more simple. It’s certainly true that whipping out your card and keying in digits is a pain, while Japanese systems layer on other security checks that make the process more tedious.

Paidy’s answer is an account tied to a customer’s phone number or email address that sits as a payment option at e-commerce checkouts. Payment itself requires entry of a confirmation code, and that’s it. Added to the simplicity, Paidy also offers various payback options to effectively give users the features of a credit card.

The company claims there are 1.5 million active Paidy accounts and it is aiming to grow that figure to 11 million by 2020. The main rocket for reaching that ambitious target is onboarding large retailers who integrate the service into their online sales process. That’s a tactic that has worked well for Paidy so far, but it’s also clearly an area where Visa’s network can be massively beneficial, especially if they are joint products on offer.

With Paidy operating like a virtual credit card system that rivals plastic cards, Visa has seen enough to warrant coming on board the project, according to Chris Clark, Visa’s Asia Pacific regional president.

“We have been following Paidy’s progress and the enhanced shopping experience they provide at the time of purchase. In Japan there is enormous opportunity to bring consumers more options to pay, whether all at once or in instalments, especially when shopping across multiple channels,” Clark said in a statement.

Paidy counts Itochu Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Eight Roads — the investment arm of Fidelity — SBI Holdings, SBI’s FinTech Business Innovation LPS, Arbor Ventures and SIG Asia as existing investors.

Alibaba’s Lazada is introducing new credit options for SMEs as it aims to boost the number of retailers in Southeast Asia, the region with 650 million consumers.

The firm announced a partnership with Finaxar that will see the fintech offers its services to Lazada sellers in Singapore. There are plans to expand the arrangement to cover other parts of Southeast Asia in the future.

Two-year-old Finaxar offers a range of financial products in Southeast Asia but now it has teamed up with the e-commerce company to provide a credit line option for Lazada sellers, as opposed to more structured financing such as loans. The credit line can last for up to six months, with up to SG$5,000-SG$1 million ($3,650-$730,000) on offer, the companies said.

The service is priced at 0.7-1.5 percent every 30 days and at a rate that is pro-rated. Finaxar said all fees are shown transparently in the service to avoid the unwanted surprise of hidden add-ons.

Finaxar founders Vihang Patel and Sian Tan told TechCrunch that a credit line gives companies the flexibility to dip into additional cash when needed, for example during peak season to buy more product, and also pay parts back when significant payment volumes come in, without the commitment of more formalized lending.

The financial assessment, they explained, comes via a one-click integration with Lazada seller dashboard. When clicked, that sends the merchant to the Finaxar where they are asked to provide information; a credit assessment is delivered in under five minutes.

Patel said Finaxar is currently assessing expansion to two undisclosed markets, which he said would include launches in collaboration with Lazada and potentially as soon as before the end of this year. That’s pretty crucial for the partnership to make an impact for Lazada, since most of its 300,000 retailers are located outside of Singapore.

Alibaba has pumped billions into Lazada since it took a majority investment in 2016. Most recently it injected $2 billion in March in a move which also saw Alibaba install Lucy Peng, one of its original 12 founders and the former Chairwoman of Lazada and ex-executive chairman of Ant Financial, as Lazada CEO.

Lazada is in a dogfight with Shopee, the e-commerce firm of U.S.-listed Sea, to become the dominant e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. Sea recently pumped $500 million of newly-raised capital into Shopee, while this week its latest earnings revealed that the service’s quarterly revenue has grown to $58.8 million. Alibaba doesn’t reveal comparable figures for Lazada.

Lazada’s collaboration with Finaxar comes after Aspire Capital, an SME financing startup founded by an ex-Lazada executive, announced it had raised $9 million.

The Russian weapons manufacturer Kalahsnikov, best known for making the AK-47 machine gun, has unveiled a fleet of electric and hybrid cars, buggies and motorcycles this week — including an electric vehicle that the company says will rival Tesla.

While it’s a noble goal to take competitive aim at the world’s most famous electric vehicle brand, the retro-styled concept car, dubbed the CV-1, bears a closer resemblance to another, more infamous car from the soviet era… the Trabant.

That’s a vehicle, by the way, whose Fahrvergnügen is best illustrated by the Conan O’Brien’s demonstration below.

The CV-1 is based on the retro-IZH-21252 model known as the “Combi” and is a test bed for Kalashnikov’s electric drive train, which the company said was developed in-house. The Combi has a cruising range of 350 kilometers and can go from 0 to 100 kilometers in roughly 6 seconds, so says the company.

Batteries for the new electric vehicle from Kalashnikov have a capacity of 90 kilowatts per hour.

At the same gun show where the new EV was unveiled, Kalashnikov also showed off a hybrid buggy and an electric motorcycle to complete its hattrick.

The four-seat buggy can purportedly achieve speeds of up to 100 kilometers-per-hour and has separate electric engines for its front and rear wheels, along with hydraulic shock absorbers. According to Russian news agency RT, the vehicles are a relatively recent addition to the Russian military’s mobility arsenal.

Kalashnikov may have Tesla in its sights, but the car company likely has more to fear from U.S. regulators than it does from a Russian competitor. At this point, the weapons manufacturer might find more of a market for another machine it debuted at the Russian military trade show — its golden, metal-plated killer robot (!!).

Here’s a selection of images below, courtesy of Kalashnikov, of the new electric vehicle.

[gallery ids="1698553,1698555,1698556,1698557,1698558,1698559,1698554"]

With assistance from Jon Russell

Let’s talk a bit about security.

Most internet users around the world are pretty crap at it, but there are basic tools that companies have, and users can enable, to make their accounts, and lives, a little bit more hacker-proof.

One of these — two-factor authentication — just got a big boost from Epic Games, the maker of what is currently The Most Popular Game In The World: Fortnite.

Epic is already getting a ton of great press for what amounts to very little effort.

The company is giving users a new emote (the victory dance you’ve seen emulated in airports, playgrounds and parks by kids and tweens around the world) to anyone who turns on two-factor authentication. It’s one small (dance) step for Epic, but one giant leap for securing their users’ accounts.

The thing is any big company could do this (looking at you Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet and any other company with a huge user base).

Apparently the perk of not getting hacked isn’t enough for most users, but if you give anyone the equivalent of a free dance, they’ll likely flock to turn on the feature.

It’s not that two-factor authentication is a panacea for all security woes, but it does make life harder for hackers. Two-factor authentication works on codes, basically tokens, that are either sent via text or through an over-the-air authenticator (OTA). Text messaging is a pretty crap way to secure things, because the codes can be intercepted, but OTAs — like Google Authenticator or Authy — are sent via https (pretty much bulletproof, but requiring an app to use).

So using SMS-based two-factor authentication is better than nothing, but it’s not Fort Knox (however, these days, even Fort Knox probably isn’t Fort Knox when it comes to security).

Still, anything that makes things harder for crimes of opportunity can help ease the security burden for companies large and small, and the consumers and customers that love them (or at least are forced to pay and use them).

I’m not sure what form the perk could or should take. Maybe it’s the promise of a free e-book or a free download or an opportunity to have a live chat with the celebrity, influencer or athlete of a user’s choice. Whatever it is, there’re clearly something that businesses could do to encourage greater adoption.

Self-preservation isn’t cutting it. Maybe an emote will do the trick.

Here is a strange little online community to puzzle at. Amazon has developed an unnerving, Stepford-like presence on Twitter in the form of several accounts of definitely real on-the-floor workers who regurgitate talking points and assure the world that all is right in the company’s infamously punishing warehouse jobs.

After Flamboyant Shoes Guy called out the phenomenon, I found 15 accounts (please don’t abuse them — they get enough of that already). All with “Amazon smiles” as their backgrounds and several with animals as profile pictures. All have the same bio structure: “(Job titles) @(warehouse shorthand location). (Duration) Amazonian. (2- or 3-item list of things they like.)” All have “FC Ambassador” in their name. All have links to an Amazon warehouse tour service.

And all ceaselessly communicate upbeat messages about how great it is to work at an Amazon warehouse and assuring everyone that they are not being forced to do this. The messages all seem cut from the same cloth, frequently along the same exact patterns:

The workers say that they don’t receive compensation for being ambassadors; it’s a “totally optional role” they have taken on voluntarily. They also claim to be warehouse employees in the ordinary sense. If so, they’re putting their numbers at risk by taking the time out to bang out long tweets hourly on how great they’re doing.

Their most frequent topics of conversation are how they get bathroom breaks, the pleasant temperature of the warehouses, the excellent benefits and suitable wages, friendly management, and how the job isn’t monotonous or tiring at all. FC Ambassador Carol, for example, is downright elated to be a picker, and is clearly a Bezos admirer.

You can practically hear the smile on her face.

I have a friend who worked as a picker for a while, admittedly some years back. He said it was some of the most mind-numbing yet physically demanding work he’s ever done. I understand that some folks may just be happy to have a job with full pay and benefits — I’d never begrudge anyone that, I’ve sure felt that — but the unanimous and highly specific positivity on display in these ambassador accounts really seems like something else.

It’s no secret, after all, that Amazon has an image problem when it comes to labor. Reports have for years described grueling labor at these “fulfillment centers,” where footsore workers must meet ever-increasing daily goals, their time rigidly structured and room for advancement cramped. Just recently Gizmodo’s Brian Menegus has had a couple great stories on current — not past — labor conditions at the company, and of course there have been dozens of such stories detailing exploitation or generally poor conditions over the last few years. And not just here in the U.S., either.

Certainly Amazon may have improved those conditions. And certainly they would want to get the message out. But these accounts are equally certainly not the grassroots advocacy they seem to be. (There’s already a parody account, naturally, or perhaps one of the ambassadors slipped the leash.)

I’ve asked Amazon for more details on what this program really consists of, and how it comes to pass that warehouse workers are being not paid to monitor Twitter, regularly rebutting critics with clearly canned stats and the kind of forced humor one would imagine they would indulge in if their overalls hid a shock collar. I’ll update this post if I hear back.

Amidst Facebook’s biggest branding crisis, it’s just hired a veteran CMO formerly of Pepsi and Visa to boost the social network’s external image and cross-promote features inside its apps. Antonio Lucio today announced he’ll be leaving his role as HP’s CMO after three years to take that post at Facebook starting September 4th. He’s replacing Gary Briggs, who in January said he’d be stepping down after five years to advise companies and work with the Democrats.

Lucio’s hispanic background and his efforts to champion inclusion will bring needed diversity to Facebook’s management, whose CEO, COO, CFO, CTO and CFO are all white.

Lucio will report to Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and be part of Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’s leadership team.  Facebook confirms he’ll work across the company’s family of apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, which both lack a named CMO. Prior to HP, Lucio was Visa’s chief marketing and communications officer for seven years, and had been at PepsiCo leading innovation and beverage marketing for eight years before that.

“Facebook’s story is at an inflection point. We have never faced bigger challenges, and we have never had more opportunities to have a positive impact on the world — in our families, our friendships, our communities, and our democracy — by improving our products at their core, and then by telling the story outside that we all know to be true inside,” Cox wrote on Facebook. “[Lucio] has been outspoken on the need to build authentic global brands with integrity and from places of principle, and also on the importance of building diverse teams at every level in the organization.”

Lucio is well-versed in the flowery philosophical rhetoric common at Facebook. He describes himself on LinkedIn as someone “who’s mission in life is to build brands that stand the test of time. These brands are anchored in purpose; have a meaningful impact on people’s lives; are built through strong emotional connections; behave with integrity and are constantly reinventing themselves to deliver their purpose.”

Lucio’s public persona sees him frequently retweeting accolades for his female peers. He’s been named the No. 2 most influential CMO by Forbes, and has received awards from PR Week and Women In Marketing for pushing diversity. At HP, he helped launched the #MoreLikeMe campaign to increase the number of women in leadership roles, growing their percentage amongst top HP marketing jobs from 20 percent to 50 percent. He credits this with contributing to a 6 percent year-over-year boost in HP’s brand preference scores. You can see him talk more about the initiative on Cheddar above.

Sandberg writes that “Antonio has a lot of experience leading marketing for major brands like HP and Visa — and he’s been recognized for both his talents and commitment to diversity.” She’ll benefit from the help repairing Facebook’s brand after a string of troubles ranging from Cambridge Analytica to election interference, slowing user growth to worries that too much Facebooking can hurt our well-being. A job listing for the CMO role mentioned candidates would need to be able to “guide a brand’s reputation and experience in crisis management.”

Facebook has recently undertaken a massive apology ad campaign on TV, bus stops and elsewhere, touting that it understands its responsibility to keep elections and users’ data safe. But Lucio will need to translate all of Facebook’s nitty-gritty behind-the-scenes work on these issues into comprehensible messaging that keeps users from straying from the social network.

Meanwhile, he’ll also be in charge of Facebook product marketing. With so many features packed into the app and fighting for attention, Lucio will have to decide what to highlight and how. The question is whether he’ll think more holistically, supporting the natural cannibalization of Facebook by its fresher-faced acquisitions, or put big blue first.

“Purpose and impact have been at the center of every career decision that I have ever made,” Lucio told TechCrunch in a statement. “Facebook is one of the world’s most impactful brands, at a pivotal moment in its history. I am honored to join the team and support its evolution.” Indeed, it’s time for Facebook to evolve, but Lucio will have to prove he can be the wartime leader it needs.

AWS Lightsail, which launched in 2016, is Amazon’s answer to the rise of Digital Ocean, OVH and other affordable virtual private server (VPS) players. Lightsail started as a pretty basic service, but over the course of the last two years, AWS added features like block storage, Windows support and additional regions.

Today, the company announced it is launching two new instance sizes and cutting in half the price of most Linux-based Lightsail instances. Windows instances are also getting cheaper, though the price cut there is closer to 30 percent for most instances.

The only Linux instance that isn’t getting a full 50 percent cut is the $5/month 512 MB instance, which will now cost $3.50. That’s not too bad, either. Depending on your needs, 512 MB can be enough to run a few projects, so if you don’t need a full 1 GB, you can save a few dollars by going with Lightsail over Digital Ocean’s smallest $5/month 1 GB instance. Indeed, it’s probably no surprise that Lightsail’s 1 GB instance now also costs $5/month.

All instance types come with attached SSD storage, SSH access, a static IP address and all of the other features you’d expect from a VPS hosting service.

As usual, Windows instances cost a bit more (those Windows licenses aren’t free, after all) and now start at $8 per month for a 512 MB instances. The more usable 1 GB instance will set you back $12 per month.

As for the new instance sizes, the new 16 GB instance will feature 4 vCPUs, 320 GB of storage and a generous 6 TB of data transfer. The 32 GB instance doubles the vCPU and storage numbers and offers 7 TB of data transfer.

 

AWS Lightsail, which launched in 2016, is Amazon’s answer to the rise of Digital Ocean, OVH and other affordable virtual private server (VPS) players. Lightsail started as a pretty basic service, but over the course of the last two years, AWS added features like block storage, Windows support and additional regions.

Today, the company announced it is launching two new instance sizes and cutting in half the price of most Linux-based Lightsail instances. Windows instances are also getting cheaper, though the price cut there is closer to 30 percent for most instances.

The only Linux instance that isn’t getting a full 50 percent cut is the $5/month 512 MB instance, which will now cost $3.50. That’s not too bad, either. Depending on your needs, 512 MB can be enough to run a few projects, so if you don’t need a full 1 GB, you can save a few dollars by going with Lightsail over Digital Ocean’s smallest $5/month 1 GB instance. Indeed, it’s probably no surprise that Lightsail’s 1 GB instance now also costs $5/month.

All instance types come with attached SSD storage, SSH access, a static IP address and all of the other features you’d expect from a VPS hosting service.

As usual, Windows instances cost a bit more (those Windows licenses aren’t free, after all) and now start at $8 per month for a 512 MB instances. The more usable 1 GB instance will set you back $12 per month.

As for the new instance sizes, the new 16 GB instance will feature 4 vCPUs, 320 GB of storage and a generous 6 TB of data transfer. The 32 GB instance doubles the vCPU and storage numbers and offers 7 TB of data transfer.