Category: UNCATEGORIZED

Calling all code poets. It’s time to strut your stuff at the TC Hackathon at Disrupt Berlin 2019. Are you ready to test your physical, mental and technical limits in this intense, high-pressure code-a-thon for cash, prizes and bragging rights? Then apply to compete right here.

How does the Hackathon work? First of all, it’s free. And we give each participant a free Innovator pass. The Hackathon takes place during the Disrupt conference in a dedicated section of Arena Berlin. We’re limiting participation to 500 participants who will have just 36 hours to form teams, choose one of several sponsored contest hacks and complete their project.

We’ll announce the specific sponsors and challenges in the coming weeks. But you’ll get a good sense of what to expect by looking at the sponsored contests, prizes and winners from the Hackathon at Disrupt SF 2018.

Your skill and talent will be put to good use because, regardless of which hack challenge you select, sponsors are looking for working products that address real-world problems. Do your very best to impress, and you could take home thousands of dollars.

Judges will review the completed projects science-fair style, and they’ll choose 10 teams for the final round on day two. Each (very) tired team gets two minutes to present and pitch their project on the Extra Crunch Stage.

In addition to the cash and prizes from individual sponsors, TechCrunch’s panel of judges will select one team for the best overall hack — and they’ll take home a $5,000 cash prize.

Cash, prizes, bragging rights, free food, drink, caffeine and a free Innovator’s pass — yowza! Need more reasons to apply? Think networking. If you’re this good under pressure, imagine the impression you’ll make on potential partners or employers.

TC Hackathon takes place during Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December. Don’t miss your chance to dazzle us with your physical, mental and technical capabilities — and build something great in the process. Apply to the Hackathon today.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt Berlin 2019? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Despite the inexorable rise of social media influencers, several problems remain when it comes to brands trying to use these stars to push their products. The marketing tools and processes are fragmented (read: chaotic). Attaining some level of authenticity, quality and creativity in influencer-driven campaigns is tough, to say the least. And the whole thing has to look like the influencers are only promoting brands that they truly believe in, whether they are or not.

Perhaps that’s unkind? Some social influencers really do try and ‘curate’ the products they are charing to push. Plenty just do it only for the money, and it shows. The whole thing is largely a shitshow, to use a technical term. Some startups are trying to bring order to this tedious state of affairs.

Influencer, is a social media influencer marketing platform, which has now announced the close of a £3million (± $3.6million) Series A round led by Puma Private Equity.

Its platform claims to simplify the influencer marketing process for both advertisers and creators, giving advertisers access to a network of “macro and micro creators” pre-vetted for authenticity, quality and creativity based on first-party data. This unites “creator discovery, creator relationship management, campaign management and campaign reporting along with actionable insights” they say.

Key competitors include Whalar, Tribe, Takumi, Influential.co and FameBit.

But Influencer says it differentiates from these companies in that it puts a lot of the elements needed onto one platform for self-service and managed campaigns. It also has a white label solution.

Influencer has so far worked with brands including Boohoo, Alibaba, Pepsi, Starbucks, Pantene, Uber Eats, PrettyLittleThing and Apple Music, to get them in front of audiences via social media influencers.

The startup was launched in 2017 by 23 year old Ben Jeffries who leads the company as CEO, and 25 year old YouTuber and creator Caspar Lee.

It’s now brought on Adam Ludwin, co-founder of search intelligence company Captify and growth marketing agency Inflecto Media as Director of the Board.

The company will open its first US office in New York, led by CEO Ben Jeffries, with expansion planned to the West Coast over the next year.

It’s also released a mobile app, which “allows brands and content creators to create meaningful relationships claims Jeffries.

Caspar Lee says: “At Influencer we pride ourselves in being by creators, for creators, with a team who embody this new era of creativity and enjoy unrivaled relationships with the world’s leading creators.”

$1.5 trillion. That’s the amount of outstanding student loan debt held by American citizens according to the New York Fed. It is an astronomical sum, and has led to much hand-wringing about whether there is a coming bubble in U.S. higher education.

What’s even worse than the scale of the debt load though is the fact that for millions of borrowers, they literally don’t have to pay some of those dollars. Thanks to the complexity of the loan system in the U.S., borrowers often qualify for repayment programs that can lead to loan forgiveness, that is, if they can figure out the terms, apply correctly, and actively follow the rules to net the write-off.

Enter Summer. The public benefit corporation is on a mission to act as a “trusted advisor” to student loan borrowers. Through its platform, borrowers can get a full 360-degree view of their current student loan situation, and begin exploring options for how to repay it in the most financially efficient way possible.

The company’s early traction has brought it a new round of venture capital. The company announced this morning that QED Investors, one of the leading early-stage fintech investors out there, led a $10 million series A round in the company. Recent partner addition Matt Burton led the deal, who joined QED about a year ago after selling his lending data startup Orchard to Kabbage.

Co-founder and CEO Will Sealy analogized Summer to how tax accountants help filers handle the complexities of doing their taxes. “We’re trying to create the software that democratizes [student loan] expertise, that gets the expertise into the hands of the end consumer, who might not be able to afford an accountant that doesn’t even unfortunately exist in the student loan space at this current moment,” he said.

He noted that the company is building out support for 120 loan forgiveness programs and their complicated rules, and has its eyes on more than a hundred other student loan proposals that are sitting in state legislatures across the country.

The company was started at Yale by Sealy and co-founders Paul Joo and Vincent Tran, and the trio eventually migrated to New York City while building the team to 13 according to its staffing page. Sealy previously worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in DC in the Office of Students, where he worked on precisely the challenges of getting students better access to quality information around student loan programs.

So far, Summer, which launched in 2017, has helped 10,000 borrowers to date, and “just in this year, we have helped borrowers save $8 million,” Sealy said. “A critical metric is not just how many people we are engaging, but how much money we’re saving them.”

Summer does not charge end users to use its product. Instead, it sells through enterprises and other types of organizations to offer the product as a benefit to employees. Sealy gave the example of medical associations, who could offer Summer to recent medical school graduates, or companies who want to entice recent grads with a simple tool that can improve their financial lives.

Summer currently works retrospectively, in that it targets users who are post-grads. I asked why Summer didn’t focus prospectively on helping borrowers think through their student loan products before they take them on. Sealy replied that “In many ways, it feels like the house is on fire. So before we would ever go about trying to create a better smoke detector and build a new home, we want to save the people who are currently struggling.”

Burton of QED explained his rationale for leading the round. “QED, like the rest of the investors like General Catalyst and Story Ventures, we put a pretty big round into this company on the belief that there’s an urgent problem facing these student loan borrowers and we’re working hard to … scale to meet the needs of tens of millions of student borrowers.” With 10,000 users and $8 million saved, you can start to project out the potential impact Summer could have for many borrowers.

In addition to QED, the round had participation from General Catalyst, Greycroft, NextView Ventures, and Story Ventures.

If you’re a cricket fan, you will be visiting Facebook way more often in the coming months and years. The social juggernaut announced on Thursday it has partnered with the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body of cricket, to secure exclusive digital rights until 2023 to stream global ICC events in the Indian sub-continent.

As part of the four-year deal, financial details of which were not disclosed, Facebook will also show post-match recaps of the matches in the rest of the world.

In a statement, Ajit Mohan, VP and Managing Director Facebook India said, “We are excited to partner with the ICC to bring the most exciting moments in cricket to Facebook Watch and to chart the next stage of technology led transformation in cricket. With Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the ICC has an exceptional opportunity to leverage our family of apps to serve current sports fans as well as bring in an entirely new generation of fans. Every day, people come to our platforms to talk about, and form friendships around, cricket. With this partnership, we will be able to serve these fans with the kind of premium content that can ignite new conversations, new connections and new followership.”

He added, “the future of AR and VR is being charted by Facebook and we are excited about the possibility of bringing the best of our innovations to fans around the world.”

Law firms have to parse thousands of pages a week to figure out if everything makes sense and there’s no anomaly. And Luminance wants to make that work much less tedious by using artificial intelligence to review documents and minutes instead of hours. That’s why I’m excited to announce that Luminance CEO Emily Foges will join us at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.

If you know someone who has ever done an internship for a law firm, they may have told your horrific stories about endless nights working on an important contract.

Instead, Luminance clients can start by uploading a document to the platform. Luminance then tries to understand the contract or legal document. It can pick up the most obvious anomalies and surface important information, which should help you save time.

The goal isn’t necessarily to replace lawyers altogether — you need a human behind the machine to understand what Luminance tells you after all. But it can greatly enhance their productivity.

And it’s been working incredibly well. There are now 150 law firms across 40 countries using the product. Some of them are among the biggest law firms in the world.

Buy your ticket to Disrupt Berlin to listen to this discussion — and many others. The conference will take place December 11-12.

In addition to panels and fireside chats, like this one, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield to compete for the highly coveted Battlefield Cup.

On-demand video streaming giant Netflix, which is increasingly expanding its footprint in developing markets, now has a new competitor in Indonesia: Gojek.

The Indonesian ride-hailing giant on Thursday launched a video streaming service called GoPlay that features exclusive access to “hundreds of movies and TV shows” as well as snackable short clips.

The service, which Gojek began testing with select users in June, focuses on local content, Edy Sulistyo, CEO of GoPlay said. Gojek, which was valued at $9.5 billion in its last financing round, said it has partnered with major local production houses such as Base Entertainment, Kalyana Shira Films, and Wahana Kreator for production of original titles. The firm said it has also tied up with some international studios to source foreign content.

“Despite a rise in demand for local content and a growing number of mobile audiences in Indonesia, access has still been limited especially for consumers living outside of urban areas. With GoPlay, we aim to enable all Indonesian consumers to enjoy high-quality on-demand entertainment at their convenience, while providing a platform for local content producers to showcase their creative work,” said Sulistyo in a statement.

Gojek is offering the video streaming service through two aggressively priced monthly plans: IDR 89,000 ($6.27), which offers access to the full catalog in HD; and IDR 99,000 ($7), which will additionally also provide users with access to GoFood delivery vouchers.

GoPlay will compete with a range of streaming services such as Netflix, iFlix, and Hooq. Netflix last year began testing a low-cost mobile-only plan in some developing markets including Indonesia to boost its presence in those nations. The global giant eventually launched the affordable tier in India earlier this year. A Netflix spokesperson told TechCrunch this week that it currently has no plans to expand the low-cost tier to other markets.

Like many other major firms in Southeast Asia, Gojek is increasingly bulking up its ride-sharing platform to enter additional categories. Today, it offers an online payments service and a gaming platform. The firm began working on its video streaming service last year after it set up an in-house content studio.

Grab, Gojek’s arch rival in Southeast Asian markets, and India’s Ola, have also expanded their offerings in recent years. While Grab, like Gojek, offers everything including a video streaming service, Ola launched a credit card in May.

Grab has a partnership with Hooq for its video streaming service. In the run up to GoPlay’s launch, Hooq CEO Peter Bithos told TechCrunch in an interview that Gojek lacks the reach Hooq maintains in Southeast Asian markets. “Gojek hasn’t been able to get to anything like the scale or reach that we’ve got,” he said.

About 125 million people in Indonesia, or half of the nation’s population, is currently online. Sulistyo said Gojek sees a lot of potential for GoPlay’s growth in the country.

Indonesia has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in Asia in recent years. According to a study conducted by Google and Singapore’s Temasek, Indonesia’s internet economy is estimated to be worth $100 billion by 2025.

Gogoro, the Taiwanese electric vehicle company, revealed its newest vehicle today, a lightweight scooter designed for people who want something smaller than one of the company’s Smartscooter mopeds, but more powerful than an electric bike. Called the Viva, the scooter can run for 85 kilometers on one of Gogoro’s swappable batteries, which are charged at the same stations as its Smartscooters.

Horace Luke, co-founder and CEO of Gogoro, tells TechCruch that the Viva was created as an environmentally-friendly alternative to 50cc to 100cc gas scooters. It will be available starting in October, launching first in Taiwan next year before being released in some international markets.

Made from recyclable scratch-proof solid-core polypropylene and available in five color combinations, the Viva weighs 80 kilograms and has up to 21 liters of storage. It will retail at USD $1,800, with about 100 optional accessories available, including baskets and racks.

As in many other Asian cities, mopeds are popular in Taiwan and serve as the primary vehicle for many drivers, transporting multiple passengers and deliveries. Luke says Gogoro’s scooters now account for 95% of the country’s electric vehicle market share and about 17% of all new vehicles sold in Taiwan, including gas ones.

Viva was created to attract customers who don’t want to deal with the costs, including maintenance visits and parking, of owning a bigger moped.

“The Viva is aimed toward the population going no more than 5 kilometers a day, who don’t want to worry about scratches, cost of ownership, having to take it to the shop for maintenance or parking,” he adds. “We have 17% market share and now the question is how do you get to 25% or 35% market share?”

Like Gogoro’s mopeds, the Viva is also connected to the company’s iQ system, which lets users unlock their vehicles and monitor mileage and maintenance with a smartphone app. With Taiwanese government subsidies for electric vehicles, it will cost NTD $25,980 (about USD $837), making it competitive with the pricing of high-end electric bikes. Gogoro will also offer two years of free maintenance for Vivas sold in Taiwan.

Gogoro has now sold more than 200,000 Smartscooters and is present in international markets including the European Union (through a partnership with scooter-sharing service Coup), South Korea, where it recently launched electric scooters designed for delivery drivers, and Japan. It also runs a mobility platform designed to be a white-label solution for ride-sharing companies.

Research when to sell your shares in a privately held company, and the results may have you laughing — not because they’re funny but they’re because there’s an almost comical amount of information available out there. From blog posts to advertisements to advertorials to calculators, the data is overwhelming to the point of being useless.

It’s a problem that Matt Venables and Tom Hennessy — both former execs at the peer-to-peer payments company Circle —  experienced first-hand across numerous startup jobs. The more they looked to understand what their equity was worth and how to sell it without making a massive financial misstep, the more frustrated they felt.

Enter Vested, their three-month-old, Boston-based startup, one that is already backed already with $1.2 million from UnderscoreVC and Boston Seed Capital, and which — if they’re exceedingly lucky — will become the first stop for many thousands of startup employees who are in the same boat that the two once were.

What these individuals will find, promises Vested: Access to both both secondary outfits that buy stocks and loan providers, but also information around taxes, explained plainly; and competitive data about different industries and other recent stock sale information. More specifically, they both say, Vested will be hosting data that VCs and data analysts use, including public records filings, salary information, and independent appraisals of companies based on their last round of financing, their number of employees, and their valuation growth to produce as close as it can each startup’s fair market valuation.

Hennessey explains the pitch this way: “Matt and I have both some sold shares on the secondary market, and the process was non-transparent and not a fair process. But we realized the problem is much bigger than that — that the bigger issue is really around private equity compensation. The misunderstanding starts from day one. We’d love to capture employees before they ever sign an offer letter, then keep them along the way, so they understand at what points along the way does it make sense to exercise their options and why.”

Ultimately, the goal is guide more employees to exercise responsibly and to convert option holders into shareholders, because the alternative, apparently, is to do nothing at all. Says Venables, “Something like 80 percent of options are ever exercised. It’s abysmally low because people are confused, they wait too long, and [the rising value of their holdings] triggers the [alternative minimum tax]. A lot of people leave their jobs within a couple of years and they just decide it’s not worth the hassle.”

Of course, it’s very early days. Venables and Hennessey say they’ve already spoken to numerous secondary exchanges that want to work with Vested, which will serve as a kind of offer aggregator. To motivate the exchanges to put their best foot forward, Venables adds that, “In time, the most compelling offers will be surfaced first.” The same will go for lenders offering non-recourse loans to employees who want to exercise more options than they can afford at the moment, say the founders.

As for the Vested’s business model, the idea is to receive a finders fee from both the exchanges and the lenders. The company also plans to offer a low-cost subscription product that goes above and beyond what an employee can find by by visiting Vested’s site. One idea is for them to receive push notifications when a buyer expresses interest in their company’s shares but Venables and Hennessey are contemplating a host of other bells and whistles.

Of course, step one is to build up awareness around Vested, and then attract employees in search of better, clearer, more actionable information. In the meantime, the duo may need to watch out for the 600-pound elephant in their space — Carta, which helps private company investors, founders, and employees manage their equity and ownership and that raised a big round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz earlier this year to build out a secondary marketplace. What if Carta tried killing off Vested before it ever has a chance, we asked the founders on a call earlier this week.

Vested instead sees the two as complementary. Says Venables, “Carta is building a structured secondary marketplace, one that’s really [catering to] employers. We’re building Vested 100 percent for employees.”

Pictured above from left to right: Vested cofounders Tom Hennessey and Matt Venables, along with their VP of Design, Nat Tarbox.

As is now typical just ahead of the holidays, Amazon just inundated us with a whole new lineup of hardware devices, including new Echo smart speakers and screens, at its Alexa event today, plus other smart home and connected devices from its brands Ring and eero. There were also a slew of surprises, like Alexa earbuds, glasses, and a smart ring. And oh yeah, a new Alexa-powered oven, too.

New Echos

Headlining the event are Amazon’s latest updates to its Echo line of devices.

Echo Dot with Clock

Not one for overly creative names, Amazon has given its entry-level Echo, the Echo Dot, a nifty upgrade. The new Echo Dot with a Clock now features a digital alarm clock on the front, which can be dimmed if you prefer, at times. This LED display also allows the Dot to show the weather, when asked, or a countdown timer.

The new Dot doesn’t replace the original, however. It’s just a $10 upgrade to $59 if you want the extra feature.

Echo Studio

The Echo the audiophiles have been waiting for. The new Echo Studio is Amazon’s response to Google’s Nest Max and Apple’s HomePod. The $199.99 device supports 3D audio and Dolby Atmos. It has five drivers, including one downward-facing 5.25-inch woofer, a 1-inch, front-firing tweeter and three, 2-inch, mid-range speakers aimed at different directions.

And it has a 24-bit DAC and a power amplifier with 100 kHz of bandwidth for high-res, lossless music playback — you know, like what’s available through the Amazon Music HD service.

Echo Buds

Surprise, Alexa comes to your ear through Amazon’s own $129 wireless earbuds. The Echo Buds include Bose’s Active Noise Reduction Technology and provide hands-free access to Alexa, so you can do things like play music, get directions, order an Uber and more. Later, you’ll also be able to check Whole Foods inventory as you shop, too. (For those who still shop…in an actual store).

The Echo Buds offers 5 hours of music or 4 hours of call time and come with a case that holds up to 3 charges. And with a tap, the Echo Buds can access your phone’s other assistant, like Siri or Google Assistant.

Echo Show 8

The $129 Echo Show 8 is a smaller, 8-inch version of the 10-inch flagship model of the Echo device with a screen. It’s a little bigger than the Echo 5, which is more of an alarm clock alternative, so makes sense for watching videos and placing voice calls…or dropping in on the kids. The device features an HD display and built-in camera shutter.

Echo

The company refreshed its existing Echo speaker with better sound and new colorful fabric covers (Twilight Blue, Charcoal, Heather Grey, and Sandstone), but remains at the same price as before $99. In other words, there’s no need to run out and buy this Echo to replace your old one, but if you were in the market already, the Echo you’ll get is slightly better.

Echo Glow

This fun Alexa accessory is basically a nightlight for the kids that can change color and flash to the music. But at $30, it’s a lot of cash for a little bit of fun. Let’s wait for the inevitable Kids Edition Dot + Glow bundle, shall we?

Echo Flex

You can now bring Echo to the bathroom with the new $25 Echo Flex device. (No really, this is how Amazon had it set up in its demo area.) The Flex plugs into any available outlet and functions as a small smart speaker. There’s no camera (whew) but it can respond to voice commands, like to give you the news and weather while you get ready for work, for example. It can also be upgraded with $14 accessories, including a Smart Night Light or Motion Sensor. The Flex is $25.

Echo Frames & Loop

Amazon introduced its beta, invite-only hardware devices. One is a pair of $179.99 Alexa-enabled glasses that stick 4 micro speakers in the frame for hands-free Alexa.

The other is a $129.99 Alexa-enabled smart ring with 2 microphones that puts Alexa on your finger for quick questions or brief calls.

Other Hardware

New Eero mesh Wi-Fi router

Amazon launched the next generation of its Eero router, which now works better with Alexa. The router lets you do things like shut off or pause the Wi-Fi with voice commands — features that will later come to other routers from TP-Link, Asus, Linsky, and Arris by way of an API.  The router is $99, or available in a three-pack for $249, and is available in the U.S. today and in Europe later this year.

Amazon Smart Oven

What’s an Amazon event without a new Alexa-powered oven, right? This time around, Amazon takes on the June Oven with a $250 combination convection oven, microwave, air fryer, and food warmer. Once paired with Echo, you can ask Alexa to do things like preheat the oven, start or stop the cooking, and more.

 

New Ring Cams

The Ring Stick Up Cam got a price drop to $99 as the Ring Stick Up Cam Elite, $199, launches. Unlike the Stick Up Cam, the new camera will be powered over Ethernet. The Ring Indoor Cam is a wired-only cheaper version of the camera at $60.

More Stuff

Alexa gets Smarter and Weirder

Amazon also took the time to mention a few upgrades to Alexa’s capabilities today.

• This includes a multilingual mode where Alexa will be able to now speak both English and Spanish in the U.S.; French and English in Canada; and Hindi and English in India.
• A new Neural Text to Speech model which will use machine learning to help Alexa be more “expressive.”
• Celebrity voices! Because who doesn’t want Alexa to sound like Samuel L. Jackson? No really. The Jackson voice will be a 99-cent add-on to Echo devices and more celeb additions are in the works.
• Alexa is coming to GM, including 2018 and newer Cadillac, Chevy, Buic and GMC vehicles
• Scan-to-Cook is an upgrade for Echo Show which lets you scan a barcode to have the new Amazon Smart Oven prepare the item correct. The feature works with hundreds of Whole Foods brands, like 365 Everyday Value, plus Gardein, Marie Callender’s and more.
• Certified for Humans is a new program that will highlight easy-to-use smart home products to consumers searching Amazon. Easy is just one requirement, though. The other is “works with Alexa.”
• Alexa Guard gets updated to listen for more than just breaking glass, smoke or carbon monoxide alarms. Now it will listen for human activity too — like if footsteps, talking, coughing, or a door closing, is detected while Guard is in Away mode.
• Alexa replenishment service, launching later this year, will alert you when supplies from smart home devices are low — like batteries that need changing in a smart lock, or an air filter that’s ready for a swap.
• New utterances: You’ll be able to ask Alexa, “tell me what you heard” and “why did you do that?”

Alexa-powered Food Network Kitchen Service

Customers love Alexa in the kitchen for watching recipe videos. So Amazon doubled down on this with its partner, Food Network, to offer both live and on-demand cooking classes for Echo Show users. The service launches in October, and while Alexa is the exclusive voice partner, it will also be offered on phones and tablets. Oh, and Bobby Flay is involved.

 

Amazon Sidewalk

One of the more interesting introductions today was Amazon Sidewalk, Amazon’s low-bandwidth, long-distance wireless protocol designed to connect all of the IoT devices around your home and beyond — including places where Bluetooth or Wi-Fi can’t reach. The network uses the free, over-the-air 900 megahertz spectrum, and could allow for things like an Alexa-connected mailbox or lights for the yard, for example.

Ring Fetch

The first product to take advantage of Amazon Sidewalk was a connected dog tag that will alert you when your pooch exits a geofence you’ve established — like the yard. The Ring Fetch launches next year.

An Indian SaaS startup, which is increasingly courting clients from outside of the country, just raised a significant amount of capital to expand its business.

Hyderabad-based Darwinbox, which operates a cloud-based human resource management platform, said on Thursday it has raised $15 million in a new financing round. The Series B round — which moves the firm’s total raise to $19.7 million — was led by Sequoia India and saw participation from existing investors Lightspeed India Partners, Endiya Partners, and 3one4 Capital.

More than 200 firms including giants such as adtech firm InMobi, fintech startup Paytm, drink conglomerate Bisleri, automobile maker Mahindra, Kotak group, and delivery firms Swiggy and Milkbasket use Darwinbox’s HR platform to serve half a million of their employees in 50 nations, Rohit Chennamaneni, cofounder of Darwinbox, told TechCrunch in an interview.

The startup, which competes with giants such as SAP and Oracle, said its platform enables high level of configurability, ease of use, and understands the needs of modern employees. “The employees today who have grown accustomed to using consumer-focused services such as Uber and Amazon are left disappointed in their experience with their own firm’s HR offerings,” said Gowthami Kanumuru, VP Marketing at Darwinbox, in an interview.

Darwinbox’s HR platform offers a range of features including the ability for firms to offer their employees insurance and early salary as loans. Its platform also features social networks for employees within a company to connect and talk, as well as an AI assistant that allows them to apply for a leave or set up meetings with quick voice commands from their phone.

“The AI system is not just looking for certain keywords. If an employee tells the system he or she is not feeling well today, it automatically applies a leave for them,” she said.

Darwinbox’s platform is built to handle onboarding new employees, keeping a tab on their performance, monitor attrition rate, and maintain an ongoing feedback loop. Or as Kanumuru puts it, the entire “hiring to retiring” cycle.

One of Darwinbox’s clients is L&T, which is tasked with setting up subway in many Indian cities. L&T is using geo-fencing feature of Darwin to log the attendance of employees. “They are not using biometric punch machine that is typically used by other firms. Instead, they just require their 1,200 employees to check-in from the workplace using their phones,” said Kanumuru.

Additionally, Darwinbox is largely focusing on serving companies based in Asia as it believes Western companies’ solutions are not a great fit for people here, said Kanumuru. The startup began courting clients in Southeast Asian markets last year.

“Our growth is a huge validation for our vision,” she said. “Within six months of operations, we had the delivery giant Delhivery with over 23,000 employees use our platform.”

In a statement to TechCrunch, Dev Khare, a partner at Lightspeed Venture, said, “there is a new trend of SaaS companies targeting the India/SE Asia markets. This trend is gathering steam and is disproving the conventional wisdom that Asia-focused SaaS companies cannot get to be big companies. We firmly believe that Asia-focused SaaS companies can get to large impact value and become large and profitable. Darwinbox is one of these companies.”

Darwinbox’s Chennamaneni said the startup will use the fresh capital to expand its footprints in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian markets. Darwinbox will also expand its product offerings to address more of employees’ needs. The startup is also looking to make its platform enable tasks such as booking of flights and hotels.

Chennamaneni, an alum of Google and McKinsey, said Darwinbox aims to double the number of clients it has in the next six to nine months.