Category: UNCATEGORIZED

VAST Data, a startup that has come up with a cost-effective way to deliver flash storage, announced a $100 million Series C investment today on a $1.2 billion valuation, both unusually big numbers for an enterprise startup in Series C territory.

Next47, the investment arm of Siemens, led the round with participation from existing investors 83North, Commonfund Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, Goldman Sachs, Greenfield Partners, Mellanox Capital and Norwest Venture Partners. Today’s investment brings the total raised to $180 million.

That’s a lot of cash any time, but especially in the middle of a pandemic. Investors believe that VAST is solving a difficult problem around scaled storage. It’s one where customers tend to deal with petabytes of data and storage price tags beginning at a million dollars, says company founder and CEO Renen Hallak.

As Hallak points out, traditional storage is delivered in tiers with fast, high-cost flash storage at the top of the pyramid all the way down to low-cost archival storage at the bottom. He sees this approach as flawed, especially for modern applications driven by analytics and machine learning that rely on lots of data being at the ready.

VAST built a system they believe addresses these issues around the way storage has traditionally been delivered.”We build a single system. This as fast or faster than your tier one, all-flash system today and as cost effective, or more so, than your lowest tier five hard drives. We do this at scale with the resilience of the entire [traditional storage] pyramid. We make it very, very easy to use, while breaking historical storage trade-offs to enable this next generation of applications,” Hallak told TechCrunch.

The company, which was founded in 2016 and came to market with its first solution in 2018, does this by taking advantage of some modern tools like Intel 3D XPoint technology, a kind of modern non-volatile memory along with consumer-grade QLT flash, NVMe over Fabrics protocol and containerization.

“This new architecture, coupled with a lot of algorithmic work in software and types of metadata structures that we’ve developed on top of it, allows us to break those trade-offs and allows us to make much more efficient use of media, and also allows us to move beyond scalability limits, resiliency limits and problems that other systems have in terms of usability and maintainability,” he said.

They have a large average deal size; as a result, the company can keep its cost of sales and marketing to revenue ratio low. They intend to use the money to grow quickly, which is saying something in the current economic climate.

But Hallak sees vast opportunity for the kinds of companies with large amounts of data who need this kind of solution, and even though the cost is high, he says ultimately switching to VAST should save companies money, something they are always looking to do at this kind of scale, but even more so right now.

You don’t often see a unicorn valuation at Series C, especially right now, but Hallak doesn’t shy away from it at all. “I think it’s an indication of the trust that our investors put in our growth and our success. I think it’s also an indication of our very fast growth in our first year [with a product on the market], and the unprecedented adoption is an indication of the product-market fit that we have, and also of our market efficiency,” he said.

They count The National Institute of Health, General Dynamics and Zebra as customers.

SF-based CRISPR diagnostics startup Mammoth Biosciences has published the first peer-reviewed study that shows validation of using its testing method to detect the presence of COVID-19 in patients. The study, published in Nature, shows performance on par with existing PCR-based molecular tests, the one ones currently authorized for use by the FDA to test for the novel coronavirus.

Mammoth’s DETECTR platform is designed to have advantages over traditional testing methods in a few different ways, including in its reconfigurability to address new viruses, since it uses CRISPR to target specific genetic sequences, and activate a “cleavage” that effectively acts as a signal for the diagnostic equipment to pick up. Basically, in the same way CRISPR allows scientists to target a specific string of DNA for removal or alteration, with scalpel-like precision, Mammoth’s diagnostic allows for programmable, targeted matching with a reference string, leading to confirmation that viral RNA is present in the patient.

The test that Mammoth is developing showed validated use in under two weeks, the researchers claim, since their platform is designed from the ground up for rapid reconfigurability to address new viral threats. The test can deliver results in under 45 minutes, and the results delivery is via what’s called a ‘lateral flow strip,’ which is essentially the same kind of read-out you see with at-home pregnancy tests, making them relatively easy to interpret. DETECTR also doesn’t require a lab setting to delver results, and instead can be conducted with portable heat blocks, combined with commonly available standard reagents.

In the study, which included samples from 36 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections, and 42 patients who had other types of viral respiratory infections, the tests showed 95% positive diagnostic accuracy, and 100% negative efficacy. Samples used were taken from respiratory swabs.

This doesn’t mean this test can roll out to actual sites for use, but it’s a good validation of Mammoth’s model and test design, and could eventually lead to actual deployment of its test in a clinical setting, providing other, larger-scale studies back up the data.

SF-based CRISPR diagnostics startup Mammoth Biosciences has published the first peer-reviewed study that shows validation of using its testing method to detect the presence of COVID-19 in patients. The study, published in Nature, shows performance on par with existing PCR-based molecular tests, the one ones currently authorized for use by the FDA to test for the novel coronavirus.

Mammoth’s DETECTR platform is designed to have advantages over traditional testing methods in a few different ways, including in its reconfigurability to address new viruses, since it uses CRISPR to target specific genetic sequences, and activate a “cleavage” that effectively acts as a signal for the diagnostic equipment to pick up. Basically, in the same way CRISPR allows scientists to target a specific string of DNA for removal or alteration, with scalpel-like precision, Mammoth’s diagnostic allows for programmable, targeted matching with a reference string, leading to confirmation that viral RNA is present in the patient.

The test that Mammoth is developing showed validated use in under two weeks, the researchers claim, since their platform is designed from the ground up for rapid reconfigurability to address new viral threats. The test can deliver results in under 45 minutes, and the results delivery is via what’s called a ‘lateral flow strip,’ which is essentially the same kind of read-out you see with at-home pregnancy tests, making them relatively easy to interpret. DETECTR also doesn’t require a lab setting to delver results, and instead can be conducted with portable heat blocks, combined with commonly available standard reagents.

In the study, which included samples from 36 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections, and 42 patients who had other types of viral respiratory infections, the tests showed 95% positive diagnostic accuracy, and 100% negative efficacy. Samples used were taken from respiratory swabs.

This doesn’t mean this test can roll out to actual sites for use, but it’s a good validation of Mammoth’s model and test design, and could eventually lead to actual deployment of its test in a clinical setting, providing other, larger-scale studies back up the data.

The European Commission has published detailed guidance for Member States on developing coronavirus contacts tracing and warning apps.

The toolbox, which has been developed by the e-Health Network with the support of the Commission, is intended as a practical guide to implementing digital tools for tracking close contacts between device carriers as a proxy for infection risk that seeks to steer Member States in a common, privacy-sensitive direction as they configure their digital responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commenting in a statement, Thierry Breton — the EU commissioner for Internal Market — said: “Contact tracing apps to limit the spread of coronavirus can be useful, especially as part of Member States’ exit strategies. However, strong privacy safeguards are a pre-requisite for the uptake of these apps, and therefore their usefulness. While we should be innovative and make the best use of technology in fighting the pandemic, we will not compromise on our values and privacy requirements.”

“Digital tools will be crucial to protect our citizens as we gradually lift confinement measures,” added Stella Kyriakides, commissioner for health and food safety, in another supporting statement. “Mobile apps can warn us of infection risks and support health authorities with contact tracing, which is essential to break transmission chains. We need to be diligent, creative, and flexible in our approaches to opening up our societies again. We need to continue to flatten the curve – and keep it down. Without safe and compliant digital technologies, our approach will not be efficient.”

The Commission’s top-line “essential requirements” for national contacts tracing apps are that they’re:

• voluntary;
• approved by the national health authority;
• privacy-preserving (“personal data is securely encrypted”); and
• dismantled as soon as no longer needed

In the document the Commission writes that the requirements on how to record contacts and notify individuals are “anchored in accepted epidemiological guidance, and reflect best practice on cybersecurity, and accessibility”.

“They cover how to prevent the appearance of potentially harmful unapproved apps, success criteria and collectively monitoring the effectiveness of the apps, and the outline of a communications strategy to engage with stakeholders and the people affected by these initiatives,” it adds.

Yesterday, setting out a wider roadmap to encourage a co-ordinated lifting of the coronavirus lockdown, the Commission suggested digital tools for contacts tracing will play a key role in easing quarantine measures.

Although today’s toolbox clearly emphasizes the need to use manual contact tracing in parallel with digital contact tracing, with such apps and tools envisaged as a support for health authorities — if widely rolled out — by enabling limited resources to be more focused toward manual contacts tracing.

“Manual contact tracing will continue to play an important role, in particular for those, such as elderly or disabled persons, who could be more vulnerable to infection but less likely to have a mobile phone or have access to these applications,” the Commission writes. “Rolling-out mobile applications on a large-scale will significantly contribute to contact tracing efforts also allowing health authorities to carry manual tracing in a more focussed manner.”

The toolbox also reiterates a clear message from the Commission in recent days that “appropriate safeguards” must be embedded into digital contacts tracing systems. Though it’s less clear whether all Member States are listening to memos about respecting EU rights and freedoms, as they scrambled for tech and data to beat back COVID-19.

“This digital technology, if deployed correctly, could contribute substantively to containing and reversing its spread. Deployed without appropriate safeguards, however, it could have a significant negative effect on privacy and individual rights and freedoms,” the Commission writes, further warning that: “A fragmented and uncoordinated approach to contact tracing apps risks hampering the effectiveness of measures aimed at combating the COVID-19 crisis, whilst also causing adverse effects to the single market and to fundamental rights and freedoms.”

On safeguards the Commission has a clear warning for EU Member States, writing: “Any contact tracing and warning app officially recognised by Member States’ relevant authorities should present all guarantees for respect of fundamental rights, and in particular privacy and data protection, the prevention of surveillance and stigmatization.”

Its list of key safeguards notably includes avoiding the collection of any location data.

“Location data is not necessary nor recommended for the purpose of contact tracing apps, as their goal is not to follow the movements of individuals or to enforce prescriptions,” it says. “Collecting an individual’s movements in the context of contact tracing apps would violate the principle of data minimisation and would create major security and privacy issues.”

The toolbox also emphasizes that such contacts tracing/warning systems be temporary and voluntary in nature — with “automated/gentle self-dismantling, including deletion of all remaining personal data and proximity information, as soon as the crisis is over”.

“Users cannot be directly identified through these data. Only the arbitrary identifiers generated by the app are stored on the server. The advantage is that the data stored in the server can be anonymised by aggregation and further used by public authorities as a source of important aggregated information on the intensity of contacts in the population, on the effectiveness of the app in tracing and alerting contacts and on the aggregated number of people that could potentially develop symptoms,” it writes. 

The European Commission has published detailed guidance for Member States on developing coronavirus contacts tracing and warning apps.

The toolbox, which has been developed by the e-Health Network with the support of the Commission, is intended as a practical guide to implementing digital tools for tracking close contacts between device carriers as a proxy for infection risk that seeks to steer Member States in a common, privacy-sensitive direction as they configure their digital responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commenting in a statement, Thierry Breton — the EU commissioner for Internal Market — said: “Contact tracing apps to limit the spread of coronavirus can be useful, especially as part of Member States’ exit strategies. However, strong privacy safeguards are a pre-requisite for the uptake of these apps, and therefore their usefulness. While we should be innovative and make the best use of technology in fighting the pandemic, we will not compromise on our values and privacy requirements.”

“Digital tools will be crucial to protect our citizens as we gradually lift confinement measures,” added Stella Kyriakides, commissioner for health and food safety, in another supporting statement. “Mobile apps can warn us of infection risks and support health authorities with contact tracing, which is essential to break transmission chains. We need to be diligent, creative, and flexible in our approaches to opening up our societies again. We need to continue to flatten the curve – and keep it down. Without safe and compliant digital technologies, our approach will not be efficient.”

The Commission’s top-line “essential requirements” for national contacts tracing apps are that they’re:

• voluntary;
• approved by the national health authority;
• privacy-preserving (“personal data is securely encrypted”); and
• dismantled as soon as no longer needed

In the document the Commission writes that the requirements on how to record contacts and notify individuals are “anchored in accepted epidemiological guidance, and reflect best practice on cybersecurity, and accessibility”.

“They cover how to prevent the appearance of potentially harmful unapproved apps, success criteria and collectively monitoring the effectiveness of the apps, and the outline of a communications strategy to engage with stakeholders and the people affected by these initiatives,” it adds.

Yesterday, setting out a wider roadmap to encourage a co-ordinated lifting of the coronavirus lockdown, the Commission suggested digital tools for contacts tracing will play a key role in easing quarantine measures.

Although today’s toolbox clearly emphasizes the need to use manual contact tracing in parallel with digital contact tracing, with such apps and tools envisaged as a support for health authorities — if widely rolled out — by enabling limited resources to be more focused toward manual contacts tracing.

“Manual contact tracing will continue to play an important role, in particular for those, such as elderly or disabled persons, who could be more vulnerable to infection but less likely to have a mobile phone or have access to these applications,” the Commission writes. “Rolling-out mobile applications on a large-scale will significantly contribute to contact tracing efforts also allowing health authorities to carry manual tracing in a more focussed manner.”

The toolbox also reiterates a clear message from the Commission in recent days that “appropriate safeguards” must be embedded into digital contacts tracing systems. Though it’s less clear whether all Member States are listening to memos about respecting EU rights and freedoms, as they scrambled for tech and data to beat back COVID-19.

“This digital technology, if deployed correctly, could contribute substantively to containing and reversing its spread. Deployed without appropriate safeguards, however, it could have a significant negative effect on privacy and individual rights and freedoms,” the Commission writes, further warning that: “A fragmented and uncoordinated approach to contact tracing apps risks hampering the effectiveness of measures aimed at combating the COVID-19 crisis, whilst also causing adverse effects to the single market and to fundamental rights and freedoms.”

On safeguards the Commission has a clear warning for EU Member States, writing: “Any contact tracing and warning app officially recognised by Member States’ relevant authorities should present all guarantees for respect of fundamental rights, and in particular privacy and data protection, the prevention of surveillance and stigmatization.”

Its list of key safeguards notably includes avoiding the collection of any location data.

“Location data is not necessary nor recommended for the purpose of contact tracing apps, as their goal is not to follow the movements of individuals or to enforce prescriptions,” it says. “Collecting an individual’s movements in the context of contact tracing apps would violate the principle of data minimisation and would create major security and privacy issues.”

The toolbox also emphasizes that such contacts tracing/warning systems be temporary and voluntary in nature — with “automated/gentle self-dismantling, including deletion of all remaining personal data and proximity information, as soon as the crisis is over”.

“Users cannot be directly identified through these data. Only the arbitrary identifiers generated by the app are stored on the server. The advantage is that the data stored in the server can be anonymised by aggregation and further used by public authorities as a source of important aggregated information on the intensity of contacts in the population, on the effectiveness of the app in tracing and alerting contacts and on the aggregated number of people that could potentially develop symptoms,” it writes. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has spun up a storm of layoffs across all industries in response to a decline in sales and consumerism. In the tech world, layoffs have impacted 24,000 people across all industries, according to one tracker.

As companies of all sizes scramble to stay afloat and extend their runway, one company thinks that sabbaticals could be a potential alternative to the massive layoffs across the Valley.

Learn In, a new venture launched by the co-founders of Degreed, today launched with a $3.5 million seed round from Album, GSV and Firework Ventures. Village Global and angel investor Michael Levinthal also participated in the round.

Learn In is taking sabbaticals, which are traditionally reserved for longer-tenured employees, and making them an option for employers who want to retain employees from all levels, entry to senior.

The business works as both a SaaS platform and a marketplace.

First, Learn In sells companies software that helps them determine whether they can afford a sabbatical per employee.

Learn In’s set up for how it conducts sabbaticals is flexible. For example, some employees can continue to work at their company for part of the week, and spend the other part of the week at a learning bootcamp. Other setups could look like a more traditional sabbatical, where employees can be taken off payroll or receive a partial salary, while remaining on benefits.

Once Learn In secures buy-in from a company, the startup connects employees to educational resources, or online bootcamps. Learn In has partnered with other edtech companies like Podium Education, FlatIron School and Foundry College to bring employees online training programs and traditional degrees so they can upskill.

Learn In charges the employer a SaaS fee, as well as a tuition fee per employee it supports. David Blake, co-founder of Learn In, noted that the bill for one Learn In program is around $7,000. Employers usually cover $5,250 of the Learn In program, so employees must cover around $1,750 out of pocket.

Learn In is launching during a time when companies, from small startups to unicorns, are laying off large percentages of their staff. It’s unclear how many startups are thinking about new benefits during this period of economic stress, or new SaaS platforms to license. Benefits, like the one Learn In is offering, are most likely not top of mind for startups struggling to stay afloat right now and extend their runway.

Blake thinks that Learn In-powered sabbaticals will help a company long-term versus the short-term benefit to the bottom line of layoffs.

He pointed to the price tag of rehiring talent once the economy bounces back, when companies all of a sudden need their talent back.

Talent acquisition and onboarding is expensive, and Learn In estimates that hiring a data scientist can cost above $30,000. Reskilling an internal employee, like an entry-level engineer, to do that same job can save a company 40%, according to Learn In.

Those savings account for the costs of a Learn In bootcamp, recruitment of a replacement for the lower-level employee and offering the internal employee one day off a week for learning purposes.

Blake thinks employee education is becoming an increasingly important benefit as the job market dissolves before us through massive layoffs.

“Would I rather have my company spot me for my $22 haircut on campus,” he said. “Or do I want my company to meaningfully materially invest in my future and my skills.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has spun up a storm of layoffs across all industries in response to a decline in sales and consumerism. In the tech world, layoffs have impacted 24,000 people across all industries, according to one tracker.

As companies of all sizes scramble to stay afloat and extend their runway, one company thinks that sabbaticals could be a potential alternative to the massive layoffs across the Valley.

Learn In, a new venture launched by the co-founders of Degreed, today launched with a $3.5 million seed round from Album, GSV and Firework Ventures. Village Global and angel investor Michael Levinthal also participated in the round.

Learn In is taking sabbaticals, which are traditionally reserved for longer-tenured employees, and making them an option for employers who want to retain employees from all levels, entry to senior.

The business works as both a SaaS platform and a marketplace.

First, Learn In sells companies software that helps them determine whether they can afford a sabbatical per employee.

Learn In’s set up for how it conducts sabbaticals is flexible. For example, some employees can continue to work at their company for part of the week, and spend the other part of the week at a learning bootcamp. Other setups could look like a more traditional sabbatical, where employees can be taken off payroll or receive a partial salary, while remaining on benefits.

Once Learn In secures buy-in from a company, the startup connects employees to educational resources, or online bootcamps. Learn In has partnered with other edtech companies like Podium Education, FlatIron School and Foundry College to bring employees online training programs and traditional degrees so they can upskill.

Learn In charges the employer a SaaS fee, as well as a tuition fee per employee it supports. David Blake, co-founder of Learn In, noted that the bill for one Learn In program is around $7,000. Employers usually cover $5,250 of the Learn In program, so employees must cover around $1,750 out of pocket.

Learn In is launching during a time when companies, from small startups to unicorns, are laying off large percentages of their staff. It’s unclear how many startups are thinking about new benefits during this period of economic stress, or new SaaS platforms to license. Benefits, like the one Learn In is offering, are most likely not top of mind for startups struggling to stay afloat right now and extend their runway.

Blake thinks that Learn In-powered sabbaticals will help a company long-term versus the short-term benefit to the bottom line of layoffs.

He pointed to the price tag of rehiring talent once the economy bounces back, when companies all of a sudden need their talent back.

Talent acquisition and onboarding is expensive, and Learn In estimates that hiring a data scientist can cost above $30,000. Reskilling an internal employee, like an entry-level engineer, to do that same job can save a company 40%, according to Learn In.

Those savings account for the costs of a Learn In bootcamp, recruitment of a replacement for the lower-level employee and offering the internal employee one day off a week for learning purposes.

Blake thinks employee education is becoming an increasingly important benefit as the job market dissolves before us through massive layoffs.

“Would I rather have my company spot me for my $22 haircut on campus,” he said. “Or do I want my company to meaningfully materially invest in my future and my skills.”

Jeff Bezos dropped Amazon’s annual shareholder letter today, as the world struggles through the throes of a global pandemic. Naturally, the company’s response to the on-going COVID-19 crisis took center stage in the open letter, as the virus has impacted the retailer giant at nearly every level.

Among the meatier subjects detailed therein is more information on the Amazon-built testing labs that were announced last week. The executive notes in the letter that the company is considering “regular testing of all Amazonians, including those showing no symptoms.” The letter explains that, obviously, regular testing would be ideal to stop the disease’s spread, as many cases are non-symptomatic.

It’s not entirely clear whether such testing would be mandatory, nor is it entirely clear where mandatory testing of employees showing no symptoms would fall legally. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s recently released ADA guidelines for the COVID outbreak, “During a pandemic, ADA-covered employers may ask such employees if they are experiencing symptoms of the pandemic virus. For COVID-19, these include symptoms such as fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath or sore throat.”

Of course, limited availability of testing has rendered the issue somewhat moot. What Amazon is building, however, is a testing lab designed specifically to test its own employees, in order to prohibit the virus’s spread both within its own ranks and to the outside world. The company, after all, is a kind of retail lifeline for many Americans currently staying at home. Employees in at least 74 warehouse/fulfillment centers have tested positive for the virus, which is capable of living on cardboard for 24 hours and plastics for multiple days. The virus could potentially be transmitted through boxes and other surfaces. 

“We’ve begun the work of building incremental testing capacity,” Bezos writes. “A team of Amazonians—from research scientists and program managers to procurement specialists and software engineers—moved from their normal day jobs onto a dedicated team to work on this initiative. We have begun assembling the equipment we need to build our first lab and hope to start testing small numbers of our frontline employees soon. We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant timeframe, but we think it’s worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn.”

The company has also implemented temperature checks at its building globally, designed to determine employees who might be carrying the virus. Other safeguards include routine sanitization of surfaces, the distribution of masks and mandated social distance.

Earlier this week it came to light that the company had fired two more employees who had been vocally critical of its handling of the crisis, bringing the total up to three, including a Staten Island employee who lost his job last month. The company denied that the firings were connected to their public criticism, instead insisting, “We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies.”

Apple is said to be developing its own competitors to popular over-ear noise-cancelling headphones like those made by Bose and Sony, Bloomberg reports, but with similar technology on board to that used in the AirPod and AirPod Pro lines. These headphones would also include a design with interchangeable parts that would allow some modification with customizable accessories for specific uses like workouts and long-term wear, for instance.

The prototype designs of the new headphones, which are set to potentially be released some time later this year (though timing is clearly up in the air as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and Apple’s general tendency to move things around depending on other factors), are said to feature a “retro look” by Bloomberg, and include oval ear cups which connect directly to thin arms that extend to the headband. The swappable parts include the ear pads and headband cushion, both of which are said to attach to the headphone frame using magnetic connectors.

These will support Siri on board, along with active noise cancellation and touch controls, but most importantly for iOS and Mac users, they’ll also feature the simple connection across multiple devices that are featured on AirPods and some of Apple’s Beats line of headphones.

Apple has already released Beats over- and on-ear headphone models with AirPod-like features, including cross-connectivity, and that feature onboard noise cancellation. The Bloomberg report doesn’t seem to indicate these new models would be Beats-branded, however, and their customization features would also be new in terms of Apple’s available existing options.

Bloomberg also previously reported that Apple was working on a smaller HomePod speaker as part of its forthcoming product lineup, and a new FCC filing made public this week could indicate the impending release of a success to its PowerBeats Pro fully wireless in-ear sport headphones.

Food-related and delivery tech businesses have been seeing a huge wave of customer demand in the last few weeks as people on lockdown turn to them to buy necessary supplies (see also: the big funding round for meal kit delivery service Gousto announced earlier today). But that rising tide has not lifted all boats. Many restaurants have had to shut down, and those trying to stay open have had to reconsider how they run their businesses (and if it’s even worth the effort at all).

And that’s having a subsequent impact in turn on those who supply restaurants, which are also finding out that they need to reconsider and adapt what they do, too. Today, a Berlin-based startup called Choco, which has built ordering software for restaurants and their suppliers, is announcing $30.2 million in fresh funding led by Coatue Management, with participation also from Bessemer Venture Partners, Atlantic Labs, Target Global and Greyhound. The funding puts Choco’s valuation at just under $250 million, Daniel Khachab, Choco’s CEO and founder, said in an interview.

He added that the startup plans to use the funds to continue building out its technology and customer base, as well as to adapt to the current market with more initiatives to help its customers stay in business (more on that below) across the 17 markets where it operates, which include Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, and the United States.

The funding is notable not just because of the big names of the backers. Coatue is a prolific investor that has put money into the the biggest startups of our time, including Uber, Instacart, DoorDash and RebelFoods (and that’s just looking at a small selection of startups adjacent to Choco’s business; the wider list has a lot of breadth). It’s also notable because of the timing.

It was less than six months ago that Choco raised its Series A of $33.5 million, and even though it is only getting officially announced today, Khachab said this round actually “shortly before all this hit,” he said, referring to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“This was an opportunistic raise because we wanted to work with Coatue and Dan Rose,” the former Amazon and Facebook exec who is now chairman of Coatue. “We were able to partner on great terms.” Indeed, the company was valued at just over $100 million in its Series A according to PitchBook data, representing a doubling of its valuation. While it wasn’t strictly needed for the company, “it enables us to expand more geographically, to focus on Europe and the US, and offer more functionality,” he added. “it also means that we have more financial stability in a crisis.”

That crisis has indeed hit the restaurant industry that Choco serves with its food tech hard. While those that were already running strong delivery or takeout businesses are likely forging ahead, others have had to rethink and consider how they could fit their services into that model.

More generally, however, there’s been a large shift in the wider economy: many people are losing their jobs, or are worried about losing them; others are worried about catching the virus. All of this means that while some delivery of food is thriving, there is a counterbalance of belt tightening and considerably less take-out, ready-made food.

In normal times, Choco’s mission was to build a platform that cut down on the time and effort it takes for a restaurant to liaise with suppliers to order food for service. Typically, it’s an area that was ripe for disruption since even these days a lot of kitchens spend hours on the phone with suppliers, or visiting markets, to amass their stocks.

That inefficiency also created a different kind of inefficiency: that of food waste. Khachab said that in the wider global problem of food waste, restaurants are actually much bigger transgressors that individuals. The ordering platform that Choco has built aims to help restaurants better plan what they need, how much of what they need, and when, to narrow that gap.

(The name Choco, in fact, is a reference to the South American rainforest region that is considered a biodiversity hotspot. Khachab said that the company’s mission and subsequent platform were created with the idea of minimising production and preserving places like these.)

All this was, of course, created in “normal” times before the pandemic outbreak threw many of those restaurants and their suppliers’ business models into disarray.

One of Choco’s solutions has been an interesting twist on its business model: it’s recently started to make it possible for the restaurants that normally order supplies to now continue doing so — giving the suppliers business — while also selling on those supplies direct to their customers — thereby continuing to give themselves some income to supplement whatever takeout business they are also running.

“Restaurants and suppliers are in trouble and consumers are in trouble,” Khachab said. “We are doing this to give them some revenue and consumers can get next-day delivery and restaurant-quality ingredients and other food.” Notably, this is also about keeping Choco’s own sales channels from collapsing: all the profits it makes on this are going back to the restaurants themselves.

The plan will be to keep this in place for as long as our lockdowns continue, although if there is a big enough business out of it, Choco might look to see how to continue it.

“For us this is now a response to the current situation,” he said. “But if we see that suppliers and consumers benefit from it we’ll keep it up.”

“I believe every chef is an artist – the kitchen is their studio and the restaurant is their gallery. Choco’s app removes friction for chefs so they can spend more time on their craft and operate their business more efficiently,” said Rose in a statement. “Especially now in the midst of an existential crisis for restaurants around the world, we need Choco more than ever to rethink the global food supply chain and provide new business models for food suppliers and restaurants alike.”