Category: UNCATEGORIZED

In light of climate change and escalating global energy demand, more emphasis is being placed on emerging clean technologies — ranging from renewables and energy storage to nuclear power. Although these technologies have tremendous potential, they require lots of innovation, and innovation needs abundant capital.

The issue: early-stage financing for clean tech hasn’t been plentiful, and it’s stifling the growth of new energy companies. Why is this? In general, clean tech companies lack the startup advantages of agility and flexibility.

“Moving fast” works for products such as consumer mobile apps and SaaS solutions. The clean tech sector, on the other hand, tends to involve highly regulated, capital-intensive, mission-critical infrastructure.

That has hurt both returns and well-intentioned impact. According to Cambridge Associates, venture-backed companies have returned, on average, -15% internal rate of return (IRR) since 2000. Contrast that to venture-backed companies in healthcare, which returned 24% in IRR over the same time period.

Why clean tech lacks funding

While noble in its aims to make the world a better, cleaner, safer, healthier place through technology, clean tech venture capital has suffered simply because clean tech does not fit the traditional venture capital model. Central to the venture capital model is the ability to de-risk new ideas and significantly capitalize the most promising ones, allowing for liquidity via M&A or initial public offering (IPO).

This construct allows for the return of venture capital dollars, plus appreciation that enables VC firms to raise new funds. These capitalization events also allow the venture-backed company to accelerate growth and maximize market impact.

How this construct works is evident when comparing healthcare and clean tech. In healthcare, new innovations are de-risked by VCs. More mature innovations are acquired or reach IPO every year. As a result, the average annual ratio of dollars raised via an exit to VC-invested dollars since 2012 is 1.8. This ratio is only 0.2 for clean tech, an 800-plus percent difference in the wrong direction. This has resulted in poor returns and limited capitalization of clean tech companies.

Enter (or reenter) the SPAC

Given the state of the world’s environment and lack of abundant energy in emerging economies, we need to collectively fix this issue. Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are significantly improving clean tech’s venture capital construct. According to Investopedia:

SPACs are companies with no commercial operations that are formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring an existing company.

Also known as “blank-check companies,” SPACs have been around for decades. In recent years, they’ve become more popular, attracting big-name underwriters and investors and raising a record amount of IPO money in 2019.

In 2020, more than 110 SPACs completed transactions in the U.S., capitalizing these companies with more than $29 billion.

In 2020, SPACs capitalized clean tech companies with almost $4 billion of capital, including Fisker, Lordstown Motors, QuantumScape, Hyliion, XL Fleet and others. This helped push the ratio of funds raised at exit to venture capital invested in 2020 from the previous 0.2 average to a much healthier 0.6, a 200% improvement.

In 2021, we will likely see even further improvement. Why? Because there are 43 active SPACs looking toward or finalizing merger targets with a clean tech focus, potentially providing $12 billion in growth capital. Even if there are no more new SPACs in 2021 and a historically low average of M&As and IPOs, 2021 promises continued improvement for clean tech investment.

Don’t let Nikola tarnish the pack

One of the most high-profile clean tech SPACs was Nikola Corporation. The battery-electric and hydrogen-powered truck maker has attracted much fanfare since going public last June through a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company VectoIQ. The company’s market capitalization soared and things seemed to be going well, but things became controversial later in the year when the company was accused of making false statements about its technology and other things.

Although examples such as Nikola have the potential to tarnish the emergence of SPACs as a way to spur clean tech investing, they shouldn’t. There are plenty of examples of emerging companies that scream quality and integrity. For example, Stem*, a leader in the energy storage optimization space, is now going public, pending SEC approval, via the Star Peak SPAC.

Public markets are receiving the SPAC with enthusiasm. Assuming the merger happens, Stem will be capitalized with greater than $450 million of cash to accelerate growth and drive impact. It’s an illustration of SPACs as a positive venture capital construct that is needed to make clean tech work and become a thriving sector.

As a long-time clean tech venture capitalist myself, it is interesting that public investment via the SPAC may be the correcting element for the clean tech VC construct. For years, I assumed that corporates would step up their M&A activity at premium valuations to solve this issue, but I’ve spent a long time waiting.

Judging by activity, corporates seem content to continue playing the still very important investor/nurturer role, versus the “owning” role. Regardless, capitalizing promising clean tech companies can only mean one thing: clean-tech-related impact is coming like never before as these companies require and use capital to scale.

New and more diverse approaches to finding and funding new, great clean tech companies are sorely needed. SPACs are going to be the tool needed to bring clean tech up to par with sectors such as healthcare. It’s a development that will benefit all of us.

*Stem is a Wind Ventures portfolio company.

You’d be forgiven for being skeptical about the iPhone 12’s stellar performance this past quarter. It’s been a rough couple of years for smartphones — a phenomenon from which not even Apple was immune.

Frankly, after staring down these macro trends over the last couple of years, it seemed like the days of phone-fueled earnings reports were behind the company as its expanding services portfolio started to become its primary financial driver.

I capped off my mobile coverage last year with an article titled, “Not even 5G could rescue smartphone sales in 2020.” Among the figures cited were two year-over-year drops of 20% for the first two quarters, followed by a global decline of 5.7% for Q3. As we noted at the time, a mere 5.7% drop constituted good news in 2020.

The straightforward premise of the piece was that COVID-19 subverted industry expectations that 5G would finally reverse declining smartphone sales, even if only temporarily. That all came with the important caveat that Apple’s numbers would likely have a big impact the following quarter.

Ahead of yesterday’s earnings, Morgan Stanley noted, “In our view, the iPhone 12 has been Apple’s most successful product launch in the last five years.” Such a sentiment may have seemed like hyperbole in the lead-up to the news, but in hindsight, it’s hard to argue, with five years having passed since the launch of the first Apple Watch.

The iPhone X was more of a radical departure for the company, but the 12 is proving to be a massive hit. The recent launch of Apple Silicon Macs juiced sales in that product category rising 21% year over year, but ultimately the company’s computer business is a drop in the bucket compared to phone sales.

With Reddit’s interest in sending some stocks soaring showing no sign of slowing down, the trading app Robinhood started restricting some transactions Thursday morning.

Reddit wasn’t happy — and neither are some lawmakers. The incident apparently struck an unusual bipartisan chord, with Texas Republican Ted Cruz throwing his weight behind progressive Democrats who called out the company.

In a blog post Thursday morning, Robinhood said that it would restrict some transactions “in light of recent volatility” including $AAL, $AMC, $BB, $BBBY, $CTRM, $EXPR, $GME, $KOSS, $NAKD, $NOK, $SNDL, $TR, and $TRVG. Robinhood will still allow anyone invested in those stocks to close their positions, but the move prevents retail investors from throwing their weight behind new stocks en masse.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib called Robinhood’s decision “beyond absurd” and suggested that the House Financial Services Committee hold a hearing on what she deemed “market manipulation” from the personal finance startup.

“They’re blocking the ability to trade to protect Wall St. hedge funds, stealing millions of dollars from their users to protect people who’ve used the stock market as a casino for decades,” Tlaib said.

Her colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a member of that committee — chimed in with support for a hearing on Robinhood, calling the situation an “unacceptable” step to prevent retail investors from trading.

Seeing Cruz and Ocasio-Cortez line up on anything right now is unusual, to put it mildly. Earlier this month, Cruz called his enemy in the House a liar for demanding his resignation after it came to light that the Texas Republican fundraised on false claims that the election was stolen as the attack on the Capitol took place.

Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna also flagged Robinhood’s decision to stop some trades, slamming the startup for freezing out small investors while powerful hedge funds scramble to get control of the situation.

“We’re done letting hedge fund billionaires treat the stock market like their personal playground, then taking their ball home as soon as they lose,” Khanna said Thursday in a call for more regulation, citing the intensifying wealth disparity in the country.

“… This entire episode has demonstrated the power of technology to democratize access to American financial institutions, ultimately giving far more people a say in our economic structures,” Khanna said.

With Reddit’s interest in sending some stocks soaring showing no sign of slowing down, the trading app Robinhood started restricting some transactions Thursday morning.

Reddit wasn’t happy — and neither are some lawmakers. The incident apparently struck an unusual bipartisan chord, with Texas Republican Ted Cruz throwing his weight behind progressive Democrats who called out the company.

In a blog post Thursday morning, Robinhood said that it would restrict some transactions “in light of recent volatility” including $AAL, $AMC, $BB, $BBBY, $CTRM, $EXPR, $GME, $KOSS, $NAKD, $NOK, $SNDL, $TR, and $TRVG. Robinhood will still allow anyone invested in those stocks to close their positions, but the move prevents retail investors from throwing their weight behind new stocks en masse.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib called Robinhood’s decision “beyond absurd” and suggested that the House Financial Services Committee hold a hearing on what she deemed “market manipulation” from the personal finance startup.

“They’re blocking the ability to trade to protect Wall St. hedge funds, stealing millions of dollars from their users to protect people who’ve used the stock market as a casino for decades,” Tlaib said.

Her colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a member of that committee — chimed in with support for a hearing on Robinhood, calling the situation an “unacceptable” step to prevent retail investors from trading.

Seeing Cruz and Ocasio-Cortez line up on anything right now is unusual, to put it mildly. Earlier this month, Cruz called his enemy in the House a liar for demanding his resignation after it came to light that the Texas Republican fundraised on false claims that the election was stolen as the attack on the Capitol took place.

Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna also flagged Robinhood’s decision to stop some trades, slamming the startup for freezing out small investors while powerful hedge funds scramble to get control of the situation.

“We’re done letting hedge fund billionaires treat the stock market like their personal playground, then taking their ball home as soon as they lose,” Khanna said Thursday in a call for more regulation, citing the intensifying wealth disparity in the country.

“… This entire episode has demonstrated the power of technology to democratize access to American financial institutions, ultimately giving far more people a say in our economic structures,” Khanna said.

The newly resurrected Gowalla wants to realize its mobile dreams from the early-aughts in an augmented reality world, and they’ve raised some new funding to make it happen.

The AR startup tells TechCrunch that it has raised $4 million in seed funding co-led by Google’s venture arm GV and Spark Capital. Other investors include Niantic, Upside Partnership, Otherwise Fund, Capital Factory, Form Capital and a host of angels like April Underwood, Leah Culver, Jason Calacanis, John Lilly, Scott Belsky, Dennis Crowley, and Dave and Brit Morin at Offline Ventures.

Gowalla was originally founded back in 2009 as a Foursquare competitor, it gathered some early traction and excitement from investors, raising just over $10 million, before things petered out a couple years later and the team was acquihired by Facebook for $3 million. Co-founder Josh Williams, who has brought back the app with new co-founder Patrick Piemonte, tells TechCrunch he hopes the new iteration can take inspiration from the social side of TikTok and the platform side of Roblox and allow users to “unlock” the world around them in augmented reality.

It’s still pretty unclear what the end game is thought it becomes a bit clearer as the app pushes out its early batch of beta testers — which the startup calls its “Street Team” — to find points of interest for the app. Williams contends there are some elements of the app that share similarities with Foursquare’s early iterations, with users getting credit for data they submit as well as badges for completing certain tasks.

“The questions that we ask ourselves is as stories is to a timeline, what’s the same equivalent to real world space and how do we create a gamified sharing format that has the same ubiquity,” Williams tells TechCrunch.

The Gowalla team doesn’t have any firm dates lined up but hopes to share more about the eventual launch experience in the coming months and open up for beta in early summer.

Cybersecurity startup CybSafe, a ‘behavioral security’ platform, has raised $7.9 million in a Series A funding round led by IQ Capital with participation from Hanover Digital Investments (HDI) GmbH and B8 Ventures. The investment round will be used to focus on expanding its enterprise and mid-market client base. CybSafe is a SaaS product with a per-user-based, subscription licensing model.

As most people in tech know, the big concern with security isn’t so much the system as the people. Indeed, 90% of UK data breaches are generally due to human error, for instance.

CybSafe’s ‘behavior-led’ platform manages these people-related security risks using behavioral science and data analytics by delivering personalized cyber support for users. The company already has 350 clients in 15 countries, including Credit Suisse, Air Canada, HSBC and NHS Trusts.

Launched in 2017, the company was founded by cyber resilience and intelligence expert, Oz Alashe MBE, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army and UK Special Forces who was the first black officer to serve in the Parachute Regiment and UK Special Forces. The team includes former UK Government cybersecurity specialists, behavioral scientists, data scientists, and software engineers.

Business people working on a laptop

Alashe says the platform helps users develop security skills and habits through “accredited microlearning content, adaptive support material, and personalized nudges. The combination of contextualized, just-in-time, and on-demand content ensures people get the help they need. They get it whenever they need it. And they get it in the way that is most likely to help them.” The platform is available in 9 different languages.

CybSafe is delivered via a mobile application or within a browser, showing ‘bite-sized’ guidance, alerts, and notifications.

CybSafe’s competitors include KnowBe4, Wombat Security and Infosec, but Alashe says CybSafe’s strength is that it addresses security awareness for the average person: “Security awareness is dead. It’s ineffective. It’s inefficient. And it’s broken. CybSafe uses behavioral science and data analysis to deliver security behavior interventions that work. It has efficacy rates of over 90% for some behaviors to prove it.”

The team includes Jonathan Webster, CTO who previously worked on Her Majesty’s Government Digital Services; Dr John Blythe, Head of Behavioural Science, and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society.

New numbers from Canalys show a slowing in the major smartphone decline we saw for 2020. The past year was, of course, a major blow to an industry already suffering a slide. Hope that the arrival of 5G would right the ship were dashed by Covid-19.

Things are looking up, fueled in large part by a killer quarter for Apple. The company posted its earnings last night, putting much of its success at the feet of the iPhone 12. In spite (or perhaps because) of pandemic-fueled delays, the handset arrived in a perfect storm – the beginnings of a “supercycle” that see customers upgrading devices in a kind of critical mass.

Numbers are still down for the fourth quarter of 2020 – but they’re down by only 2% per the firm. That’s due in no small part to what amounted to the iPhone’s best quarter, as the company introduced four 5G-sporting handsets. Canalys shows a 4% increase for Apple, as the device arrived to a wider 5G rollout just in time for the holiday season.

The company snagged the global number one spot, with Samsung taking number two in spite of a 12% decline. Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo rounded out the top five, all seeing double digit increases, y-o-y.

Image Credits:

The category is expected to see a rebound this year, after suffering declines due first to supply chain concerns and then larger economic issues, stemming from the pandemic.

“The introduction of COVID-19 vaccines is also boosting business confidence for 2021, allowing them to plan and invest,” analyst Ben Stanton says of the figures. “Going forwards, there will be obvious economic ripple effects as government stimulus fades, and there are ongoing concerns around new virus strains. Overall though, sentiment in the industry is positive, and 2021 will see the smartphone market rebound after a 7% decline in 2020.”

Another report from Canalys notes more positive news for the PC market, showing a 35% y-o-y increase, courtesy of tablet and Chromebook sales.

General Motors has announced plans to be carbon neutral by 2040 — removing emissions from all of its products and global operations or offsetting those emissions through carbon credits or carbon capture within the next two decades.

The company also committed to have a fully electric fleet of vehicles by 2035.

It’s a big step for a company whose products are responsible for a large percentage of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change and comes on the heels of a pledge to launch a massive fleet of new electric vehicles and a $27 billion commitment to electrification late last year.

The auto giant said that it would work with the Environmental Defense Fun on its vision for an all-electric future and will work toward eliminating tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles by 2035.

GM’s also getting into the charging business too. The company said it would work with “governments, partners, and suppliers around the world too build out the necessary charging infrastructure and encourage the use of renewable energy n electric vehicle charging.”

To power the company’s operations, GM said it will use only renewable energy power at its U.S. facilities by 2030 and by 2035 all of its operations worldwide will use renewable power.

These commitments are also going to extend to its supply chain over time as the company works with its suppliers to reduce their emissions, increase transparency and source sustainable materials.

“While electric vehicles do not produce tailpipe emissions, it is critical that the impact associated with production and charging is incorporated in our plans. By working with utility companies to provide access to more renewable energy sources, GM hopes to address the entire production cycle of future EVs, with benefits that will extend far beyond our own vehicles and operations,” the company’s chief executive Mary Barra said in a statement.

This commitment is going to require a massive transformation that encompasses more than GM alone, Barra wrote, because “making the transition to an EV is simply not possible right now – either because the appropriate vehicles do not exist or because access to charging is limited where [people] live and work.”

Storetasker is an online marketplace focused on connecting Shopify merchants with developers and other experts who can help grow their business.

The product is now owned by the startup previously known as Lorem. Co-founder and COO Charlie Fogarty explained that while Lorem originally had a broader mission of connecting small businesses and developers, “We realized that Shopify and e-commerce was by far our best customer segment … so we basically acquired our main competitor, Storetasker, and merged the two business” under the Storetasker name.

The acquisition (which included the Storetasker product and expert network, but not the team) actually took place last year, and Fogarty said, “We’ve spent the last 10 months basically rebuilding the product from the ground up. We’ve taken years of learning and combined it into a rebrand, a new product and a new end-to-end customer experience.”

The core proposition is still the same, however. A Shopify merchant should be able to visit Storetasker, describe their project in simple terms and then within a few hours, Storetasker will match them up with one of the experts in the network, who they can work with directly.

Storetasker has already been used by more than 30,000 brands on Shopify, including Boll & Branch, Chubbies, Aisle, Alpha Industries, Truff Hot Sauce and Branch Furniture. Fogarty said the average project size is just $300 and usually involves adding custom designs and unique features to a Shopify store.

Image Credits: Storetasker

You could use a general marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr to find a freelance developer, but where Storetasker has conducted more than 5,000 interviews to vet its talent and picks the right expert for each customer, Fogarty said that on other platforms, “You have to sift through unvetted talent … The hiring burden is placed on the brand.”

Plus, he noted that brands can use Storetasker for more than development help — they also use it to find experts on conversion and “all the different aspects of e-commerce.”

In addition to the new product, Storetasker is also announcing that it raised $3.2 million in Series A funding last year from Flybridge, Founder Collective, and FJ Labs.

Looking ahead, Fogarty said he sees plenty of room to grow while remaining focused on the Shopify ecosystem. After all, there are more than 1 million stores on the platform, with $200 billion in total sales to date.

The GameStop mania didn’t just drive up the stock price of a declining video game retailer, it’s also sent trading apps and others to the top of the App Store, due to record-breaking downloads. Today, the popular trading app Robinhood has become the No. 1 app overall on the App Store for the first time, followed by No. 2 Reddit, home to the r/wallstreetbets forum which drove the push to buy GameStop.

Neither app had reached as high a chart position before, according to data from Apptopia.

The app store intelligence firm also found that Robinhood had its best day ever in terms of single-day downloads on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 when 120,000 new users downloaded the stocks app for the first time across both iOS and Android. Robinhood also broke records for its highest number of daily active users on mobile at 2.6 million.

Meanwhile, online forum site Reddit broke its download record for its mobile app, with 199,000 single-day downloads on iOS and Android, Apptopia estimates, while also climbing to No. 2 on the Overall Top Charts on the U.S. App Store.

But the frenzy around GameStop and the revenge of the retail trader is boosting other, more traditional trading apps, as well. Apps like TD Ameritrade, Webull, Fidelity, and E*TRADE have benefited from the situation, with record-breaking daily users and higher chart rankings.

All four apps on Wednesday achieved their highest-ever chart position to date on the U.S. App Store, with Webull at No. 45 Overall, followed by TD Ameritrade at No. 53, E*TRADE at No. 113, and Fidelity at No. 178.

Webull also recorded its highest number of daily active users yesterday, with 952,000, while TD Ameritrade saw a record 444,000 daily active users and Fidelity had a record of 429,000 Apptopia found.

Combined, the four apps saw 863,000 total downloads on Wednesday (Webull: 39K; TD Ameritrade: 24K; E*TRADE: 11K; and Fidelity: 12.3K).

It’s unclear how long the trading app mayhem will continue, as Robinhood has already halted the trading of “meme stocks” like GameStop, AMC Entertainment, BlackBerry, and Bed, Bath & Beyond, Koss Corporation, Express, Nokia and Naked Brand.

That hasn’t sat well with Robinhood users, who are now in the processing of assailing the app with 1-star reviews as a result, and encouraging others to the do the same.

Surprisingly, the Square-owned Cash App hadn’t yet gained from the GameStop insanity this week, Apptopia found. But it does appear to now be struggling as the Robinhood crowd began the search for another stock trading tool. This morning, Cash App’s Twitter account bio reads it’s looking into an issue with Cash App that’s “delaying some orders.”