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UK on-demand food delivery startup Deliveroo has been accused of setting up an inaccessible hardship fund for couriers in the midst of the coronavirus crisis that leaves gig economy workers on its platform unable to access claimed financial support if they become ill or are self isolating.

Gig economy delivery workers are one of the groups who face increased exposure to the coronavirus on account of the work bringing them into contact with many people, even as demand for meal delivery is likely to increase with people being encouraged or required to stay at home.

At the same time gig workers don’t have standard benefits and protections afforded to people who are legally classed as workers — such as sick pay. So, as we reported earlier this week, the coronavirus crisis has shone a lurid spotlight on ‘sharing economy’ business models that offer little or no safety net for platform workers who fall ill or otherwise cannot work.

Some of these companies have responded by announcing support measures for the core workers they define as independent contractors — people who are now on the front line, delivering food to others who may not be able to leave their house and/or may be infected with the highly contagious virus.

In the majority of cases this sums to switching on a contactless delivery option in a bid to reduce human contact between couriers and customers. Although so far it tends to rely on the paying customer being proactive about locating and activating the feature.

A few — including Deliveroo, Glovo and Uber — have also offered some financial support to plug lost earnings for gig workers who can’t work because they’re infected with COVID-19 or have been placed in quarantine.

UK-based Deliveroo was fast out of the gate with an announcement of a “multi-million” pound hardship fund it said it would use to support gig workers who fell ill or needed to go into quarantine — claiming it would pay impacted riders in excess of the equivalent statutory sick pay for 14-days. (Meanwhile UK government support for gig workers needing to self-isolate during the coronavirus crisis has been limited to telling them to claim an unemployment benefit that can take weeks to come through and offers a very low level of earnings compensation; the government has so far rejected calls to extend sick pay to gig workers.)

When we asked about this last week Deliveroo stipulated the fund will only pay impacted riders who are diagnosed with coronavirus or told to isolate themselves by a medical authority.

It’s those conditions that a UK union is objecting to. Today the IWGB, a union that represents gig workers, accused Deliveroo of operating an unworkable fund — saying riders have told it they’re unable to access the claimed support because it requires a doctor’s note. (Including in cases where Deliveroo has deactivated a rider’s account because it suspects they have contracted COVID-19.) 

With many GPs surgeries in the UK switching to telephone-only triage as they scramble to cope with the coronavirus crisis, telling people who are sick with flu-like symptoms not to come to the surgery and instead self isolate to avoid the risk of spreading potential contagion — it’s unclear how couriers would be able to obtain the required documentation to access any financial help from the gig economy giant.

Access to coronavirus testing in the UK is also severely limited at this point of high demand.  

The union also points out that Deliveroo has provided no information on how much the hardship fund will pay out — even in cases where a rider has been able to procure a doctor’s note.

It’s called for Deliveroo to implement full sick pay without preconditions, as well as for a guaranteed floor in earnings for riders (of the living wage plus costs) to protect them through any periods of low demand during the public health crisis, as well as safety equipment (such as hand sanitizer and face masks); regular testing for COVID-19; and enhanced pay for those who do put themselves at risk by continuing to work.

Commenting in a statement, IWGB couriers and logistics branch chair Alex Marshall said: “Once we pull the curtains on Deliveroo’s announcement on assistance for workers that are sick or self-isolating, it is obvious that behind the PR spin it is more of the same old deceitful tactics. Deliveroo and other so-called gig economy employers have to stop blocking their workers’ access to these funds and immediately introduce full contractual sick pay, without pre-conditions. Increasingly, these workers are being expected to play a huge role in feeding people during this time of crisis, so it is time for their employers and the government to give them the basic rights we expect in any decent and just society.”

We reached out to Deliveroo for a response to the criticism of its requirement that riders produce a doctor’s note to access he hardship fund. We also asked whether it has paid anything out so far — and if so how much it’s paying individual riders. At the time of writing the company had not responded to our questions.

Last May the company closed a $575M Series G, with ecommerce giant Amazon leading a funding injection that brought its total investment raised to in excess of $1.5BN.

Honda said Wednesday it will shutter all of its North American factories for six days due to an expected decline in the market related to the economic fallout from the spread of COVID-19, a disease caused by coronavirus.

The stoppage will affect about 27,600 Honda employees in North America, all of whom will continue to be paid, Honda said. Production will be reduced by about 40,000 vehicles during these six days across its 12 plants.

The temporary suspension will begin March 23 with plans to return to production March 31, Honda said in a statement. Honda’s factories as well as its transmission and engine plants that serve the auto plants in Ohio, Indiana, Alabama, Canada and Mexico will be closed.

Honda said it will use this time to continue deep cleaning its production facilities and common areas.

The shut down by Honda marks the first sweeping action by an automaker in the U.S. to close factories. Other automakers like Ford and GM have taken steps to lessen the spread of COVID-19, including staggering shifts and lunches and cleaning and sanitizing areas. However, most factories remain open in spite of a call from the United Auto Workers to close.

This may only be the beginning of factory closures not just at Honda, but throughout the U.S. as local, state and federal authorities make recommendations or issue orders to close non essential businesses.

Honda said it will continue to evaluate conditions and “make additional adjustments as necessary.”

For those who have followed TechCrunch and/or me for a long time, you know that I like to harp on the fact that fewer and fewer startups are filing their Form Ds with the SEC, which discloses information about non-public equity rounds. In fact, the playbook has become so common in Silicon Valley and so widely requested by founders that we actually put together a guide on how to delay your filings on Extra Crunch not so long ago.

This slowdown in funding disclosures has become particularly acute over the past few weeks as the global pandemic around novel coronavirus has continued to expand. Startups are holding off on their funding announcements, worried that their big news is going to get washed away in the flood of coronavirus stories. That’s a legitimate PR strategy, in the sense that you don’t want to announce big stories when other news might draw every reader’s attention.

Let me say it directly though: that’s a dumb strategy. And here’s why.

First and foremost, the single most important signal you can send to your investors, employees, customers, and anyone else involved with your startup right now is that you are 1) open for business, 2) secure financially, and 3) ready to continue to grow (or at least survive) despite the adverse events of the past few weeks.

There is no greater tool you have to make that argument than showing the world that you have capital on the balance sheet.

Earlier this week I wrote about HashiCorp, which offers a suite of cloud infrastructure products. They announced a $175 million growth round at a greater than $5 billion valuation. That’s huge news for any startup — they have reached semi-decacorn status. And yes, there may have been a slight tinge of snark in my tone, mostly about how that valuation is wildly out-of-sync with the public markets today.

But imagine being a customer or employee of HashiCorp right now. You’re worried about your job, or this critical tool that’s running your cloud systems. How do you feel when you hear that the company has adequate funding to help sustain itself during this moment of crisis? A sense of relief, and the desire to move your attention to other companies that may be closer to extinction.

This sort of signal is just as important for growth companies to send out as it is for early-stage startups. Everyone is worried about their jobs and what the looming economic depression is going to mean for them. Showing that you have capital, and even better, perhaps a path to sustainable positive cash flow is going to do a lot to bring cortisol levels down to more manageable levels.

That’s the key reason to post that funding announcement, but there are others. The discussion around the pandemic isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. It’s here to stay, hopefully not permanently, but we don’t even know that yet. There is not going to be some magical opportunity coming up here where there is going to be an open window in the news cycle where you can get a monopoly on people’s attention. And even if there were such a window, there are hundreds of other companies that are going to try to take advantage of that same moment as well.

This morning, with none of the fanfare we have come to expect, Apple introduced new iPad Pros, new Mac Minis, and new MacBook Airs essentially by press release. If even the PR magicians at Apple have decided to just move on with their business and have given up all their alluring presentations and rollouts in favor of text in a document, you can too. Apple’s retail stores are closed everywhere except China. You can’t even go and see the damn products, and yet, they got those announcements out there.

Finally, and this is thinking a bit more selflessly so apologies to some founders who aren’t used to that, but your funding announcement can offer a positive externality in a marketplace that is feverishly waiting to hear upbeat news around venture capital. Yes, most of these fundings were probably concluded well before the outbreak of Covid-19. Who cares? Showing that there is money flowing in the system gives other entrepreneurs and also VC investors the confidence that our capital system is robust and that firms really are open for business.

VCs have said they are open, and I have written that they are with some caveats. But let’s actually see some damn evidence rather than the usual online blandishments.

So if you are waiting on the right window for announcing a previous round, don’t. Get it out there, and send a positive signal to your own employees, customers, other founders, and the world that we are all in this together, and we can get through this crisis.

And then as always, get back to work, because there is a hell of a lot of other stuff to worry about than your PR strategy.

Yelp has canceled its summer internship due to the safety threat from the COVID-19 outbreak.

While health is the priority across the world right now, the move is another blow to the potential prospects of a graduating class entering what looks to be a prolonged economic downturn.

In a statement to TechCrunch, a Yelp spokesperson said:

Yelp is actively monitoring the rapidly evolving situation surrounding the spread of COVID-19. Since the health and safety of our community is a top priority, we are taking a number of precautionary measures. We have encouraged, and in some cases mandated, employees in all of our offices to work from home, cancelled or postponed events, and prohibited international business travel and limited domestic travel to business critical needs. Due to our office closures and the challenges of onboarding interns while our entire workforce is remote, we have put our summer internship program on hold.

Earlier this month, schools across the country shut down and forced students to evacuate and attend classes remotely. Shutdowns have led to a migration home, alternative housing and scrappiness among educators to help students remain on track with curriculum.

Internships are a coveted resume booster and provide experience that students can use for networking and a potential job after graduation. It’s also a way that some companies increase their pipeline into more diverse communities. If tech companies cancel internships broadly, it could have a significant effect on hiring down the road.

Many other startups and larger tech companies have not yet publicly announced any decisions on the future of their internship programs. Others have told students that they are trying out a remote option or are waiting to make a call on whether to cancel or continue. That decision — and broader hiring freezes — will depend on the status of the government’s efforts to stop the COVID-19 outbreak over the coming months.

Uber, for example, said it will continue its program for the more than 400 interns set to join the ride-hailing company’s team. It is also continuing the programs around the world for its current intern group, which is 50 people strong. The company has switched to virtual onboarding and virtual intern events. It also is working on growing its manager and mentor trainings to “include new practices for managing during these challenging times.”

Salesforce said no changes have been made yet to its internship program. I reached out to Google, Facebook, and Lyft to ask them whether they have made any changes to their internship programs as well. I will update this post if I hear back.

If you are an incoming summer intern at a tech company and your internship has been canceled, feel free to contact me at natasha.m@techcrunch.com

Google is expanding the feature set for its Advanced Protection Program, a security offering that helps safeguard Google Accounts of those at risk for targeted attacks — like politicians, journalists, activists, business leaders, and others. The program already provides an increased level of protection for these accounts by limiting access to data, blocking fraudulent account access, supporting the use of physical security keys, and more. Today, Google is adding new malware protections to the program, as well.

For starters, those enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program will have Google Play Protect automatically enabled. This is Google’s built-in malware protection for Android that’s currently used to scan and verify 100 billion apps per day, Google notes. The system uses machine learning to automatically scan users’ device and apps to check for harmful behavior and potential security issues. Now, this will be enabled for Advanced Protection Program members and will not be able to be shut off.

The program will also now limit users’ ability to install apps from outside the Play Store, where apps are now scanned for malware before approval. Those from outside the store can present a greater risk. Google will now prevent the download of non-Play Store apps on any devices enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program, with a few exceptions. Users will be able to install non-Play Store apps through other third-party app stores that may have shipped on your device from the device manufacturer. Others can be installed through the developer tool Android Debug Bridge. However, Google says non-Play Store apps that have already been installed won’t be removed and can continue to be updated.

Google launched its Advanced Protection Program in fall 2017, as an opt-in option for those who believe they’re at increased risk of online attacks. The program focuses on defending against phishing, locking down malicious apps, and fending off hackers. The trade-off is reduced convenience as there are additional steps to take during authentication and more limitations on what can be done. But the result is a safer, and free, way to increase the security of your account and device.

The new added protections will roll out gradually to accounts enrolled in Advanced Program on Android devices, to be later this year be followed by new malware protections for Chrome, Google says. However, G Suite users won’t get these new protections now — instead, they’re offered through endpoint management which helps secure devices belonging to mobile workforces.

You’d be excused for feeling that mid-2019 was in a different decade as far as venture-backed IPOs go.

Last year saw a number of successful flotations of venture-backed technology and technology-enabled companies, and most performed well after they began trading. But despite some early success, a number of the most famous 2019 IPOs have seen their valuations decline rapidly in ensuing quarters.

In some cases, once richly valued public unicorns are off more than twice the market’s recent declines, have given up all their gains earned as public companies, or fallen under their final private market valuations. It’s a stunning reversal for several of the most-lauded companies to come out of the venture capital machine in a decade.

Many companies have been designed to optimize productivity when everybody is in the office. As offices close due to the coronavirus outbreak, many people are experimenting with remote work at scale for the first time.

Employees have to learn what it means to work remotely — but managers also have to learn how to keep their teams on track. That’s why it’s interesting to talk about what it’s like to manage a remote team.

Some companies have chosen to give up on the office and work completely remotely. I interviewed Reedsy’s co-founder and CEO Emmanuel Nataf (pictured above, right) about the company’s current work culture. Reedsy operates a marketplace of professionals in the publishing industries: If you’re a writer, you can find editors, designers, marketing experts and more. And if you’re a freelancer in one of those fields, you can find clients.

The short answer: Managing a remote team takes discipline. The long answer is much more interesting as Reedsy has implemented many different processes to foster information transparency. The interview was translated from French and edited for clarity and brevity.

TechCrunch: What does it mean to have a remote culture?

Emmanuel Nataf: I think our case is quite specific. We’re 30 people and what we do cannot necessarily work for a bigger team. It works for smaller teams but maybe not above 50 people.

Amazon announced this morning it’s making a $1 million donation that will be split among four Washington D.C. region community foundations that are working to support vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 crisis. The groups, ACT for Alexandria, Arlington Community Foundation, Community Foundation for Northern Virginia and the Greater Washington Community Foundation, will each use a portion of the million dollars as flexible funds that will go towards food, housing and shelter, and emergency assistance.

Amazon only months ago received approval for its plans for HQ2 in Arlington County, Virginia, which is why it’s focusing its relief efforts on this area. It has also been preparing for the HQ expansion by hiring hundreds of workers, with the goal of hiring 1,000 by the end of this year and 25,000 by 2030.

The foundations receiving the donations from Amazon will focus on those who are most impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, including hourly workers, the homeless, and the elderly.

In addition, Amazon is providing cash and other support to five food banks in the D.C. area, including Capital Area Food Bank, DC Central Kitchen, Arlington Food Access Center, Martha’s Table, and Central Union Mission. Martha’s Table will also use the donation to provide gift cards, diapers, wipes, baby formula, and cash directly to enrolled families. Central Union Mission will use the funds towards continuing to provide shelter, hot meals, and services to more than 170 people each night. And other groups will use the funds to support pop-up food distribution sites and pay their staff, who are typically volunteers, to ensure the operations may continue.

The donation is one of now several Amazon has made since the COVD-19 health crisis hit. It has also created a $5 million Neighborhood Small Business Relief Fund to help Seattle-area small businesses with the economic hardships they’re facing during the outbreak. And it’s contributed $1 million to a new Seattle Foundation fun for community members affected by COVID-19; it’s subsidized two months of rent on buildings Amazon owns; it announced a $25 million relief fund for its network of independent Amazon Flex drivers; it donated $50,000 worth of supplies to a temporary quarantine housing; and it’s continuing to pay hourly staff in its offices.

Amazon is one of the few businesses that’s growing amid the COVID-19 outbreak, as consumers are staying away from stores and shopping for household necessitates and groceries online. On Monday, Amazon said it would hire 100,000 more workers to help meet this surge in demand.

“The Washington, D.C. area is our new home, and we must rally together to support our neighbors during this difficult time for our region and around the world,” said Jay Carney, Amazon SVP, Global Corporate Affairs, in a statement shared today about the new D.C. area donation. “In addition to making sure our Amazon customers can get the essentials they need, we will support our community partners who are doing life-saving work. Amazon’s $1 million donation to these four community groups will provide fast, flexible support to those who need it most and encourage a wave of additional community donations during this unprecedented time.”

This isn’t the first economic downturn All Raise CEO Pam Kostka has been through. 

“I was here during the dot-com bust and rush, and here during the financial fallout that happened, so we’re a little overdue for some corrective action in the market,” Kostka said. “While I’ve been through boom and bust cycles before, this one is more meaningful because life and death are associated with it.”

All Raise is a nonprofit that focuses on increasing diversity within venture capital, both from a decision-maker and a deal perspective. It recently released its annual report, and we covered how female-founded startups landed more deals than ever before in 2019, per PitchBook data.  

After our piece looking at the numbers came out, however, some readers weighed in that our coverage missed the mark: In the headline, did we focus too much on progress and not enough on what is left to be done?

Because we’re both social distancing, I caught up with Kostka on the phone and got her take on how to report numbers around diversity without glossing over the work that remains to be accomplished. We also discussed how to stay optimistic during a downturn, potential innovation that might come out of COVID-19 and why diversity matters now more than ever.

QuitGenius, the YC-backed startup that uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help folks quit smoking and vaping tobacco products, has today announced the close of am $11 million Series A round.

The new funding was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Startup Health and Triple Point Ventures.

Quit Genius was built by doctors — Yusuf Sherwani (co-founder and CEO), Mazof Ahmed (co-founder and COO), and Sarim Siddiqui (co-founder and head of product) — who met on the first day of medical school. They saw the terrible effects of smoking on patients’ health but didn’t see doctors giving those patients a clear path to quit smoking.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is seen as one of the more effective treatments for breaking addiction, helping patients focus on their thoughts, feelings and behaviors and understanding how one affects the others. The Quit Genius app helps users recognize when a negative thought or feeling pops up, and replace those triggering thoughts and emotions with more positive, healthier thoughts. This is done through various types of content, such as audio sessions, animated videos and interactive exercises.

The company also offers a device that can pair with the app to test users’ breath and help hold them accountable to their goal of quitting.

Quit Genius has already made headway with its smoking and vaping products, and is going to use the funding to expand into other types of addiction, such as alcohol and opioid addiction.

Alongside its consumer-facing product, Quit Genius also offers an enterprise product to businesses who are looking to foster a healthy workforce and also save money on healthcare for employees. Unlike most enterprise wellness programs that charge per person per year (regardless of utilization or engagement), Quit Genius only charges by engagement (employees who use the program) and offers a 25 percent quit rate guarantee.

In other words, if 25 percent of enrolled users don’t achieve their goal of quitting, Quit Genius will partially refund fees. Thus far, the company hasn’t had to do that, reports CEO Sherwani.

Sherwani added that the company has signed up 15 enterprise clients, split between self-insured employers and health plan providers.

Beyond the funding and expansion into other forms of addiction, Quit Genius is also trying to do its own part as the novel Coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe. Noting the high risk status of smokers, Sherwani said that the company will offer its product for free to new sign ups through April so that they can quit smoking immediately.

Founded by doctors, Quit Genius prioritizes efficacy. The company has enlisted independent research studies to show the success rate of its product, the results of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals. According to that research, more than 60K people have quit smoking, with a 53 percent quit rate, which is higher than other quit-smoking techniques.

The startup has raised a total of $13.6 million from investors listed above, as well as Eric Ries, Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures, Venus Williams, and Instacart cofounder Max Mullen.