Tamara, a BNPL platform and shopping giant in Saudi Arabia, achieves $1 billion valuation following $340 million Series C funding round

Posted on December 18, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Tamara, the buy-now-pay-later platform for consumers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council region, has recently completed a C round of funding that raised $340 million. This recent funding brings the company’s valuation to $1 billion, making it the first fintech unicorn startup in the region. SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments led the Series C round, alongside other backers such as Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, and Impulse. This round includes primary capital and some secondary equity transactions, marking one of the largest investments in fintech in the region. Tamara has raised a total of $500 million in equity funding, including secondaries, and over $400 million in debt funding.

Established in 2020, Tamara has quickly gained traction and currently boasts over 10 million users in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait. The platform allows consumers to shop, pay in installments, and make bank transfers, and it has partnered with 30,000 merchants, including popular names like SHEIN, IKEA, Jarir, Noon, eXtra, and Farfetch.

The rise in popularity of buy-now-pay-later services in Saudi Arabia has seen significant growth, driven by the booming e-commerce market. According to a report from last year, the number of registered customers for BNPL services increased from 76,000 in 2020 to 3 million in 2021 and 10 million in 2022. With Saudi Arabia’s huge potential for digital payments, the market is expected to grow significantly in the next few years.

CEO Alsukhan emphasized the importance of building a customer-centric payment solution and the platform’s commitment to Shariah compliance. Tamara prides itself on offering a friendly and transparent service, focusing on avoiding unnecessary fees and helping customers make timely payments by offering risk management tools and options based on their financial capabilities.

Tamara’s long-term vision includes expanding its revenue sources and introducing new products and services beyond buy-now-pay-later. The platform plans to strengthen its integration into the shopping journey, introduce a buyer protection program, and enhance its card functionality for in-store transactions.

The recent funding not only represents a significant milestone for Tamara but also signals the region’s growing potential in the fintech industry. As the first homegrown unicorn in the Gulf, the company’s success reflects the supportive ecosystem, financial backing from local and international investors, and a strategic focus on customer satisfaction and compliance.

Source: techcrunch.com

Ex-Facebook Diversity Manager Admits to Defrauding Company of $4 Million in Kickback Scheme, Say Federal Authorities

Posted on December 17, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

A former diversity program manager at Facebook has admitted to stealing over $4 million from the company through fraudulent business deals in exchange for kickbacks, as per the Justice Department.

Barbara Farlow Smiles, who served as Facebook’s chief strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement, used the stolen funds to support a lavish lifestyle across multiple states, according to prosecutors.

From January 2017 to September 2021, Farlow Smiles oversaw the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program at Facebook and was entrusted with DEI initiatives and operations, as well as engagement programs, as per the Department of Justice.

Authorities disclosed that Farlow Smiles had access to company credit cards and had the authority to approve invoices, and used various individuals, including friends and relatives, to funnel kickbacks to her.

Individuals allegedly recruited by Farlow Smiles to participate in the kickback scheme included former interns, a college tutor, a hairstylist, babysitter, and a nanny, as per authorities.

It remains uncertain if anyone associated with Farlow Smiles has been charged in connection with the incident.

Farlow Smiles also misled Facebook into providing funds to an organization that did not deliver any kickbacks, including payments to an artist and an unnamed preschool.

To avoid scrutiny, Farlow Smiles submitted false expense reports, falsely claiming that individuals had provided marketing or merchandise at Facebook event vendors.

Farlow Smiles “abused her position at Facebook to defraud the company and undermine the importance of its DEI mission,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan after her guilty plea on Tuesday.

“Driven by greed, she orchestrated an elaborate criminal scheme, engaging fraudsters to pay kickbacks in cash, and involving her relatives, friends, and other associates in the crime, all to finance her lavish lifestyle through fraud rather than through hard, honest work,” Buchanan added.

“Farlow Smiles used lies and deception to defraud both vendors and Facebook employees,” said FBI Special Agent Kelly Farley.

The Justice Department commended Mr. Mehta for providing valuable assistance and cooperation during the investigation.

“We are cooperating with law enforcement in the case involving this former program manager and will continue to do so,” Mehta said in a statement.

As part of a two-step fraud scheme, Farlow Smiles used apps such as Venmo and PayPal linked to her company credit card, and submitted false expense reports to cover her tracks.

Most employees were reportedly unaware that the funds were coming from Facebook and returned the funds to Farlow Smiles in cash or through direct deposit. Federal authorities disclosed that the cash was sometimes delivered to Farlow Smiles wrapped in t-shirts and other items.

In the second part of her plan, Farlow Smiles directed Facebook to use businesses owned by friends and then approved “fraudulent and inflated invoices” on behalf of the vendors in exchange for kickbacks.

Farlow Smiles is set to be sentenced on March 19, 2024.

Source: nypost.com

Elon Musk’s request for nearly $900 million in Starlink subsidies denied by FCC

Posted on December 17, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Republican critics were furious after the Federal Communications Commission rejected nearly $900 million in subsidies for Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service, calling it a revenge move by the Biden administration. did.

Musk’s SpaceX was appealing a 2022 FCC move that denied the company access to about $886 million in subsidies as part of a government program to boost rural internet service. .

The five-member FCC, led by Democratic-appointed Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, affirmed the decision on Tuesday, finding that Starlink “has failed to demonstrate that it can deliver its promised services.”

republican party FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr objects. In the decision, Musk claimed that “President Biden has given the green light to federal agencies” after the billionaire bought Twitter for $44 billion last year.

In August, the Department of Justice sued SpaceX, accusing it of discriminating against refugees and asylees in its hiring practices. SpaceX fired back, arguing that the federal government’s lawsuit is unconstitutional.

Kerr said the FCC’s denial of the subsidy “certainly falls within the Biden administration’s pattern of regulatory harassment.”

Another Republican, Nathan Symington, agreed with Kerr and argued that his colleagues at the FCC improperly set SpaceX’s 2025 performance standards three years early.

“What’s the point in having an agreement to build service by 2025 if the FCC can keep it there until 2022 on a whim?” Symington said.

When the FCC initially denied SpaceX’s grant application, Musk’s company had already won approval to provide satellite-based, high-speed broadband Internet service to about 642,000 rural locations in 35 U.S. states. Was. At the time, Rosenworcel expressed concern that Starlink’s internet was not reaching the “promised speeds.”

The agency this week cited some of its concerns over the recent failure of SpaceX’s Starship, which exploded shortly after liftoff last month.

“After a careful legal, technical and policy review, the FCC has determined that this applicant will be eligible for approximately $900 million in Universal Service Funds over approximately 10 years,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. We judged that the burden was not fulfilled.”

Musk personally slammed the FCC’s decision, writing to X that Starlink is “the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale!”

“What actually happened was that the companies that lobbied for this large allocation (not us) thought they were going to win, but instead they lost to Starlink. So now they’re changing the rules so that SpaceX can’t compete,” Musk said.

It makes no sense. Starlink is the only company that is actually solving rural broadband at scale.

They should probably disband the program and return the funds to taxpayers, but not send them to people who aren’t doing their jobs.

What actually happened is that companies…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2023

Musk has frequently clashed with the Biden administration since President Biden took office in 2020. The billionaire called Biden a “wet-sock puppet” and accused the president of disrespecting Tesla despite the company’s leading role in the development of electric cars. The government will support you.

Meanwhile, Musk’s business faces multiple federal investigations, including an ongoing investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into the company’s Autopilot self-driving assist technology.

Tesla on Wednesday announced a major recall of 2 million vehicles over concerns that the vehicles lacked adequate safety features to “prevent driver misuse.”

Source: nypost.com

Tesla Announces Recall of Over 2 Million Cars in the US Due to Autopilot Safety Concerns | Science and Technology Update

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Tesla is recalling more than 2 million vehicles in the United States over concerns about its advanced driver assistance system, Autopilot.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the system’s methods of determining whether drivers are paying attention may be inadequate and could lead to “foreseeable abuse of the system.”

NHTSA is investigating Elon Musk’s Over two years, the company has suffered a series of crashes, some fatal, that occurred while using the Autopilot system.

tesla He said Autopilot’s software system controls “may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse” and could increase the risk of a crash.

Tesla’s Autopilot is intended to allow the car to automatically steer, accelerate, and brake within the line, but while the enhanced Autopilot can assist with lane changes on the highway, self-driving It won’t be.

One of the Autopilot components is Autosteer, which maintains a set speed or following distance and works to keep the vehicle within its lane of travel.

Tesla disagrees with NHTSA’s analysis, but notes that “additional controls and warnings already exist in affected vehicles to further encourage drivers to comply with ongoing driving responsibilities each time Autosteer engages.” “We will deploy an over-the-air software update that incorporates this.” “I’m engaged.”

The update says it includes increased prominence of visual alerts on the user interface, easier activation and deactivation of Autosteer, and additional checks when Autosteer is activated.

Tesla added that the update will eventually result in a driver’s use of Autosteer being suspended if the driver “repeatedly fails to demonstrate continued and sustained driving responsibility while the feature is activated.” .

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The recall applies to models Y, S, 3, and X produced between October 5, 2012 and December 7 of this year.

The update was expected to be sent to some affected vehicles on Tuesday, with the remaining vehicles sent out later.

NHTSA will continue its investigation into Autopilot “to monitor the effectiveness of Tesla’s remedies,” the agency said.

Since 2016, regulators have investigated 35 Tesla crashes in which the vehicles were suspected of being driven on automated systems. At least 17 people were killed in the clashes.

It is unclear whether this recall affects Tesla vehicles in other countries, including the UK.

This is the second time this year Tesla recalls its vehicles In the United States.

Source: news.sky.com

Apple to pay $25 million to resolve Family Sharing lawsuit

Posted on December 15, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Apple agreed to pay $25 million settle a class action lawsuit Family Sharing lets you and up to five family members share access to purchased apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books. The lawsuit, first filed in 2019, alleges that “Apple falsely represented that app subscriptions could be shared using the Family Sharing feature.”

This news was first reported by mcroomers.

In the complaint, Apple denies making any misleading misrepresentations and “denies all allegations of wrongdoing.” “Apple has concluded that continuing to defend this litigation would be burdensome and costly,” the settlement agreement states. Apple enters into this Agreement without any admission of negligence, liability, or wrongdoing of any kind. ”

The tech giant did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Court documents in the lawsuit allege that Apple promoted Family Sharing as an option for apps that didn’t support it.

“The vast majority of Apple Apps, which are increasingly subscription-based, cannot be shared with designated family members,” the court documents say. “Available only to individual users who have downloaded the app and set up a subscription. However, all or nearly all of these apps will have a statement on their landing page that says they support Family Sharing until January 30, 2019. It was included.”

The complaint alleges that Apple knew the subscription-based app didn’t support Family Sharing, but ran ads for Family Sharing anyway. The court documents go on to say, “Millions of consumers downloaded subscription-based apps believing they could be used for Family Sharing, only to find out after payment was made that they were not so much available.” Says.

U.S. residents who signed up for a Family Sharing group with at least one other person and purchased an app subscription from the App Store between June 21, 2015 and January 30, 2019. May be subject to payment. Eligible class members will receive an email this week.

Each member of the class who files a claim is eligible to receive $30, which varies depending on the number of people who file a claim. However, the payments will not exceed $50 per class member, and $10 million of the settlement proceeds will go toward attorney fees.

Eligible class members must submit claims by March 1, 2024. His final approval hearing is scheduled for April 2, 2024.

Source: techcrunch.com

Analyzing Metafuels’ $8 million seed deck for climate technology

Posted on December 15, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Approximately 2% The world’s CO₂ emissions come from pressurized, jet-driven sausages traveling through the air. Earlier this week, he covered Metafuels, a startup that believes it has a solution to reducing aircraft emissions.

I also negotiated with the company’s founders to provide them with pitch materials for their $8 million seed round, allowing me to take a closer look at the materials the company used to raise money.

We’re looking for more unique proposal decks, so if you’d like to submit your own, you can do so in the following ways:

This deck slide

Metafuels was kind enough to share its entire deck with TechCrunch+ for this teardown. There are some minor edits, but the majority of this slide deck remains intact.

cover slide
Market size slide
Product/Technology Slide 3
product manufacturing slides
Unit economics (large scale production numbers)
unique selling point
technology roadmap
Business model slides (production version)
Business model slide (license)
Commercialization slide
Market traction slide
team slide
end slide

3 things to love

If you’ve been reading my Pitch Deck Deconstruction article, even just skimming the list of slides above, you’re probably thinking, “Oh, Haje won’t be happy with this, there’s a ton of information missing!” . And yes, you would definitely be right. However, this is an interesting challenge for deep tech startups. If it takes a long time to get your product to market, by definition you’re missing a lot of things.

Is it a bird? Is it an airplane?No, the market size is skyrocketing

It takes special chutzpah to say “all aviation fuel” is your market, but that’s what Metafuels is doing here.

[Slide 2] Aiming for 70% of the aviation fuel market is quite bold. I like that. Image credits: meta fuel

Currently, the market size for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is quite limited. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), around 300 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel will be produced in 2022, doubling to more than 600 million liters this year. This is equivalent to a drop in the ocean of all the fuel used in the world. Although there was a significant drop during the pandemic; Approximately 360 billion liters of fuel were used by commercial airlines in 2019.

In other words, SAF represents approximately 0.17% of the total aviation fuel consumed.

It is therefore no surprise that Metafuels has decided to start forecasting from 2030. That’s when the company really ramps up production, and that’s when the market is likely to take off. A major enforcement feature is the RefuelEU aviation regulation, which sets targets for blending sustainable fuels with petroleum-compatible fuels.

Metafuels tells its story well. It provides a comprehensive picture of a rapidly growing market, in which the company has established itself as a key player.

From this slide, you can learn how to connect the “why now” part of your story to broader macro changes. If you know which way the wind is blowing, you can set up your company to make the most of it.

Let’s get geeky about technology

When building a deep tech company, the tallest pole in the tent will always be the technology itself.what do you have you Did you notice that no one else has been able to identify it?

[Slide 4] Oh yeah, talk about nerdy stuff, baby. Image credits: meta fuel

Metafuels has discovered one exception to the “investors don’t care about your product” rule. Metafuels is a deep technology company, and its failure or success will be based entirely on its ability to deliver on the technology side. Refreshingly, the three-slide set (slides 3-5) explains the process itself, how it works at scale, and how the company can produce fuel at an affordable price. is.

clear roadmap

[Slide 7] I like the clarity of Metafuels’ plan. Image credits: meta fuel

Make it work, then make it work on a small scale, then scale it to production scale. This is a very obvious route, but it’s rarely explained this clearly. Slide 10 details how the company scaled up from his 50 liters per day to 700 million liters per day. This is a tremendous scale operation.

The main takeaway from this part of the deck is to look to the future and how it can be expanded upon. In particular, having a clear understanding of unit economics (i.e., how the financials of your product change as you start increasing volumes) is often a key part of the story.

Here, Metafuels is talking about producing 1-2 liters per day and scaling it up to 700 million. That’s… a tough job. And while the manufacturing processes and factories to produce that much fuel will be more expensive, the cost per liter will be significantly lower. Metafuels tackles that beautifully with this deck.

In the rest of this teardown, we’ll take a look at three things Metafuels could have improved or done differently, as well as its full pitch deck.

Source: techcrunch.com

Jagat, a location-centric social platform emphasizing in-person connections, crosses 10 million user mark

Posted on December 15, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Jagat, a social network designed to help you get out more with friends instead of mindlessly scrolling on your phone, has over 10 million users worldwide. Launched in March earlier this year, this location-based social network wants to help people focus on real-life connections and make friends.

The app is basically a social map that shows you your friends and nearby activities. Jagat features an interactive map interface that lets you stay in touch with friends and discover new people and activities around you in real time. Jagat is a bit similar to Zenly, the social mapping app owned by Snap that went out of service last year.

The startup is based in Singapore and Indonesia and was founded by Jagat president Barry Beagen and CEO Loy Xing Zhe. The two met in December 2021, when Biegen was advising the Indonesian government on digital economy policy and Zee was working on GameFi products focused on Web3, social, and gaming. Biegen said both he and Zee had the idea of building a social network.

“We had the same vision of taking on big tech and really building something that could take on the world from Southeast Asia,” Begen told TechCrunch. “We were also fed up with mainstream social apps that were becoming more passive, and we were also fed up with mainstream social apps that were becoming more passive, and more spontaneous ways to explore the world and places and meet new friends, such as hiking, local concerts, and friend-picking.” We were both really excited about finding ways to do things differently, whether it was playing a basketball game or just going for a long walk.”

The two decided to build a social network where users could create their own spaces and interact virtually with avatars.

The social map is what you see when you open Jagat and shows you the location of your friends in real time. It’s also where you can track where you’ve been and tap your friends’ avatars to send them messages, stickers, and updates. Jagat sees maps as the primary interface for discovering activities and people around you. See your friends’ status updates in real time and know what they’re up to.

Image credits: Jagat

The startup is currently building features aimed at competing with Facebook Groups by allowing users to organize local events and find people with similar interests. We’re also building the ability to explore beyond your local community by enabling you to discover a global community.

“We want to bring social back to social apps, focusing on social networking rather than media,” Biegen said. “We want to care about people, not posts. We want to be close friends, discover new friends, and connect with people in real life instead of scrolling through for entertainment.” It’s built to help you get more. We’re excited to see that other new social apps are also taking on this challenge. Mainstream social media is no longer about making friends and making connections; is passive consumption of entertainment. That’s why we’re focusing on features that allow users to share real-time, unsophisticated updates in a fun way.”

Biegen said most active users check the app three to four times a day, and most people want to know where their closest friends and loved ones are after school or work. . Instead of sending a text message to see if a friend is nearby and wants to grab dinner, the app lets you see where they are.

Approximately 85% of Jagat users are Gen Z. Since its release, the app has topped the charts in Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Spain, France, and Singapore. Biegen said the app’s appeal is universal and the startup will continue to develop it into the next generation.

The company closed a Series A funding round in October with participation from Southeast Asian investors, but declined to disclose the amount raised.

Looking to the future, Biegen said the startup wants to build “the next generation of default apps.” “We believe social apps should create real, authentic connections and deliver on the promise of connecting people in real life. In the meantime, we’re building new and exciting features and are committed to helping our community We’re focused on continuing to build, and that what we’re building – expanding social experiences on maps – is empowering a new generation of creators and businesses around the world. I believe we can do it.”

Source: techcrunch.com

Playground Global secures $410 million Fund III for early-stage deep tech investments

Posted on December 14, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

playground globalThe renowned early-stage venture capital firm has brought $410 million in capital commitments to Fund III to invest in early-stage deep technology and science companies. With this new fund, Palo Alto-based Playground will have more than $1.2 billion of his assets under management.

Co-founder and general partner Peter Barrett started his career as an engineer (a video game engineer, to be exact) before becoming a venture capitalist.Interesting fact about him — he still codes every day and is touted give Elon Musk his first job.

Barrett is surrounded by similarly tech-loving general partners Jolie Bell, Matt Hershenson, Bruce Leake and Laurie Yolar, all with similar deep scientific and operational backgrounds. I have.

Together, they are attracted to companies creating next-generation technologies across the computing, automation, infrastructure, logistics, decarbonization, and engineered biology industries.

Similar to the $500 million Fund II raised in 2017, Fund III’s capital deployment will focus on seed and Series A companies with initial investments of $1 million to $20 million.

Playground is often an early or first investor, and Barrett told TechCrunch that the company “believes that only a few transformative companies are born every year.” Examples of exits from the company’s portfolio include MosaicML, which was acquired by Databricks in June for $1.3 billion, and the company that will enable Elon Musk to print the Raptor engines to power Starship, which will be announced in 2021. Includes listed Velo3D.

TechCrunch spoke with Barrett via email about how the funding landscape has changed since his last round, the lessons he learned investing in deep tech, and what he looks for in startups.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

TC: Playground last raised funding in 2017. What was the funding environment like this time around?

P.B.: The macro environment is difficult for everyone, but when I meet with investors from around the world, they avoid fads and trends and instead focus on companies and industries where real and lasting value is being created. I said I was trying. A company with excellent durability and defense.

The new fund and the raising of several of our companies have proven that there is never a bad time to invest in great companies, especially in a down market, with investors flocking to quality.

We have received significant support from our existing investors and also used this opportunity to invite new investors. Fund III expanded its LP base to include endowments, foundations, single-family and multi-family offices.

What is unique about what Playground offers to startups?

We are an early stage venture capital firm and have been true partners in our companies since our inception. When you talk to our entrepreneurs, you’ll find that they consider us both investors and co-founders. We have the unique superpower to take on and eliminate technology risks, and can leverage the roadmaps we develop to identify best-in-class emerging technologies.

And because we don’t invest in competing companies, there’s a real sense of camaraderie within our portfolio. We were introduced to several new portfolio companies by the founders of Fund I and Fund II. In addition to our platform services, our 70,000 square foot studio is home to many of our portfolio companies and other non-competitive startups deep in the tech space.

Tell us about the pivot from consumer to deep tech. What led to that decision?

When we founded Playground, our team was assembled with the goal of helping both consumer technology and deep technology companies develop. It was clear early on that our superpowers were not reading the market risk tea leaves and were taking on technological risks. By focusing on deep technology and investing in roadmaps that guide our investment decisions, we have captured an undeserved share of the world’s most innovative companies.

What did you learn from diving into deep technology?

Since we founded Playground, we have invested in deep technology companies. PsiQuantum was one of our first investments. We have learned that everything is impossible until it happens, and that the combination of prudent capital and brilliant, tenacious people can move civilization forward.

What areas of deep tech are you interested in, and which areas do you tend not to invest in?

By taking on chemistry, biology and computing as a first-principle approach, we can invest in breakthrough companies across next-generation computing, AI/automation, infrastructure, artificial biology and decarbonization. .

There is no contradiction between the resulting technology investment and significant returns. We are attracted to companies that can build large technological moats and enter markets where they are clear category leaders. We follow the roadmap and don’t surf the zeitgeist.

What do you look for in a startup?

We look for testable hypotheses that address important problems with a plausible path to success. We are not looking for potential solutions to problems. We look for solutions that bring together the right ideas, the right people at the right time.

How many investments have you made from Fund III so far?

Playground has already made several investments from Fund III including d-Matrix, Ideon Technologies, Amber Bio, Infinimmune and Atomic AI, in addition to other portfolio companies operating in stealth.

We believe that our companies, operating in stealth, are well-positioned to revolutionize green metal production and provide the foundation for the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing.

d-Matrix, whose Series A was led by Playground, secured an oversubscribed Series B round of $110 million announced in September, and has already raised another round. The company is building the next generation of AI hardware through an in-memory computing platform focused on inference in the data center.

Given your past relationship with Elon Musk, what do you think about his stewardship over X, Tesla, etc.?

We all wish Elon would focus more time on electrifying the Earth and sending rockets into space.

Source: techcrunch.com

Kenyan E-commerce Firm Secures $20 Million Investment to Drive Growth, Former Metaswitch CEO John Lazar Joins Copia’s Board

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Kenyan e-commerce and fintech platform for mass market consumers copia global appointed John Lazarthe former CEO of Microsoft subsidiary Metaswitch, has joined the company’s board of directors on the back of $20 million in new funding.

Enza Capital, the pan-African venture capital firm co-founded by Lazar in 2019, is one of the larger participants in the Series C extension round, including global private bank LGT, investment firm Goodwell Investments, Also included is the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). ), German financial services provider DEG, Swiss impact fund Elea, Perivoli Foundation and Sorenson Foundation.

Lazar has extensive experience building and managing businesses. He joined Metaswitch Networks in 1987 as a software engineer and later became Chairman and CEO as the company established its leadership in cloud communications software with investment support from Francisco Partners and Sequoia Capital. I was appointed CEO. Lazar, who resigned from both roles in 2016, four years before Microsoft acquired the company, is also chairman of the UK-based charity Raspberry Pi Foundation, and is an angel investor and investor in the UK and Africa. He is also a mentor to over 40 pre-seed and seed investors. investment.

In a conversation with TechCrunch, Lazar said he has a long-standing professional relationship with the Copia team that has impressed Enza Capital with its fulfillment network over the years and increased digital adoption from consumers. , admitted that this is one of the reasons to support e-commerce in Kenya. Clothes.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), personal consumption in Africa is expected to exceed $2 trillion Over the next three years, the continent’s burgeoning middle class will drive this growth. Copia, which has been around for 10 years, targets rural, middle- and low-income African consumers. These consumers enjoy more choice, price, and access to goods and services compared to urban and high-income consumers who use Western-style or African-focused platforms such as Jumia and Takealot. , faces challenges in terms of reliability. Therefore, although this target market may be difficult to find and its wallet size may be small, Copia is approaching it with a hyper-local strategy, reaching a significant number of approximately 750 million people across Africa. We believe there is an opportunity given the collective purchasing power of

Copia leverages its local agent and logistics network to tap into this market. The company boasts a strong network of over 50,000 agents who are small business owners in towns and villages across Kenya and has served over 2 million consumers. Most of these orders executed through Copia’s distributor network are made offline, with customers ordering household goods, electronics, or food products in person at the distributor’s store, via USSD, or by phone. Ta.

However, driven by falling data costs and increasing smartphone penetration and ownership in Kenya (73% of low- and middle-income Kenyan consumers now own a smartphone, down from 10% a decade ago), A 10-year-old e-commerce company recently ran a campaign to digitize its agent network, increasing app usage from 5% to 80% in one year. Copia said in a statement that digitized agents can double their revenue, and by exploring smartphone financing models, they can focus their subsequent digitization efforts on millions of consumers. This will allow companies like M-KOPA to enter a thriving market.

“I have respected this company for a long time and think the conditions are right. E-commerce companies are facing some difficulties at the moment, but a kind of push towards digitalization is a good thing for us. It feels like a tipping point and just changes the game in unit economics and efficiency,” said Mr Lazar, who was awarded a CBE for services. “So when Tracy called us and told us they had this internal round and wanted to bring on additional partners, we were very excited to participate.”

Copia has recorded 100% annual growth over the past few years, with founder and chairman highlighting scale and rapid expansion as key objectives for profitability. tracy turner explained on the same call with TechCrunch. However, as global capital markets have experienced a downturn and investor focus has shifted from models that rely on scale for profitability, to now emphasize the importance of demonstrating sound unit economics. In response, Copia underwent fundamental changes last year.

The e-commerce company has secured more than $120 million in funding since its inception, including a $50 million Series C round in January, but this year it scaled back its expansion plans and implemented significant layoffs. . At least 700 roles will be eliminated. Reduce number of Kenyan employees by 25% July and Closed Uganda operations Similar to three months ago, this move is in line with broader trends seen across industries this year, with many companies considering reducing labor costs as their first strategy when adopting cost-cutting measures. are doing.

“We recognized in the capital markets environment that we did not want to continue operating in Uganda, which is a great market and opportunity. We did not have the funds to make it profitable, so it made sense to hold off there. Then we looked at our Kenyan operations and realized we needed to streamline there as well,” Turner said. “And the fact that our customers have become digital so rapidly, our current shift to a digital focus means we need to change the way we operate in Kenya. So we did this to focus our business on digital relationships with our customers, which is completely different than it was just a year ago.”

Copia’s shift in focus from simply growing sales to achieving profitability in Kenya has helped it minimize losses since new management took over in Q4 2022. It reflects a strategy similar to Jumia’s approach of slowing growth. Both companies face headwinds that call into question the sustainability of B2C electronic services. Commerce takes place in Africa, albeit with different e-commerce models operating. It is worth noting that B2B e-commerce platforms are also grappling with a series of challenges in the market.

Despite the challenges, executives from both e-commerce companies, which have been in business for 10 years, said in separate conversations with TechCrunch that the companies, which now offer financial services alongside e-commerce, are stable. We have unwavering confidence in our ability to achieve the same profitability. They argue that it is only a matter of time before these challenges are overcome and are optimistic about the future profitability of the business. However, both platforms face distinct goals. While Copia strives to achieve profitability in a single market, Kenya, Jumia has to compete across 11 markets.

But Turner said Copia, which will have annual revenue of more than $60 million by the end of 2023, maintains pan-African ambitions despite its focus on making money in Kenya. Point out. The founder and chairman said that once the e-commerce company achieves profitability in the East African market, it plans to expand to 14 other strategically planned countries. “We are keeping our heads down right now and focusing on Kenya and will not look up until we achieve that milestone. We have done a lot of scouting work and are planning where to go next. However, our international expansion plans will take place once we achieve profitability in Kenya,” she said.

As for John, as he said in the interview, three things remain of paramount importance to him now that he has joined the company’s board of directors. These include leveraging the experience and network of technical operators to support talent, providing sales and revenue generation strategies, and acting as a sounding board. To management.

Source: techcrunch.com

Metafuels invests $8 million in sustainable aviation fuel industry

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

meta fuel aims to change the landscape of sustainable jet fuel and has just received an $8 million suitcase from local ZRH baggage carousel 3. Ah, Zurich. The company is literally turning the skies green with a new fuel called Aerobrew. Sure, it might sound like a French press, or even a boomerang, but the company has a few tricks up its sleeve, and it’s a sustainable aircraft made using renewable electricity. We are creating fuel, or eSAF.

The company is focusing on jet fuel as its main product and has purchased tickets to produce jet fuel that complies with aviation standards. That’s a tall order. Fuels must operate in all kinds of harsh environments. From the freezing cold of the highlands and blues to the sweltering heat of the Houston runways and everything in between.

“From fuel handling on the ground to combustion performance at high altitude, operational safety is paramount,” said Leigh Hackett, co-founder and CCO of Metafuels.

The company aims to produce a viable 100% synthetic jet fuel alternative by 2030, which will seamlessly integrate into existing global renewable energy systems and replace traditional fossil fuel supplies. The company claims to offer energy solutions that operate outside the chain. Competitors in this space include LanzaJet.

The new $8 million investment is a major boost to Metafuels’ ambitious plans. The company sees rising costs of conventional fuels, impending environmental taxes and increased stakeholder pressure for sustainability as factors that will offset ISAF’s initial production costs. This round was led by energy impact partner and contrarian venture.

Metafuels’ eSAF technology uses a process developed to convert green methanol to eSAF, enabling a seamless transition from fossil-based kerosene. Methanol is hydrogen (H₂) and provide sustainable carbon dioxide. green H₂ Can be produced from water electrolysis and CO using renewable electricity₂ In the short term, it can be captured from biological sources such as waste and residues. The long term plan is to start direct air capture, which seems nice and poetic to me. It captures gas, puts it into an airplane, flies it through the air, and puts it back into the air.

It could be an interesting stepping stone before battery- or hydrogen-powered planes really take off — the magic of Metafuels’ Aerobrew is that it can fuel aircraft without modification, the company says.

“Once we get past the building blocks of choosing sustainably sourced carbon and hydrogen, we move on to the relatively simple but breakthrough technology of converting those ingredients into jet fuel.” Metafuels Saurabh Kapoor, CEO and Co-Founder of “And because this is a type of kerosene, we can use the same pipelines, infrastructure, storage, transportation and aircraft.”

Source: techcrunch.com

Aye Finance Receives $37 Million in Funding from UK International Investment

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Aye Finance, an Indian startup that provides a digital lending platform for small businesses, continues to help small businesses grow their businesses and increase incomes for their employees, with $37.18 million in new funding round led by British International Investment was procured.

The Series F round brings Aye’s total funding to nearly $200 million and includes participation from Waterfield Fund of Funds and the startup’s existing investor A91 Partners. In 2020, the startup raised $27.5 million in a Series E funding round led by Alphabet’s CapitalG.

Founded in 2014, I agree — which means “Yes” in English and “Income” in Hindi — is a term used by underserved businesses that find it difficult to secure the necessary working capital from traditional lenders such as banks. We provide business loans in the form of mortgages, temporary security, and term credit to small and medium-sized enterprises. The startup uses a combination of in-house technology and analytics to offer a variety of financial solutions based on a company’s needs.

To date, the 10-year-old company claims to have provided more than $959 million in loans to more than 700,000 unorganized businesses. The company competes with companies such as Capital Float, Lendingkart and Indifi, which are working on providing credit to small and medium-sized enterprises in South Asia.

One of the main reasons why startups like Aye Finance are gaining enough traction in India is the lack of credit for small and medium enterprises.

India has over 63 million MSMEs. To contribute According to government data, it accounts for nearly 30% of gross domestic product, more than 43% of all exports, and employs more than 123 million people. The government considers the importance of these companies to the country’s overall growth and has introduced a number of initiatives to ease credit requirements. However, some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are struggling to find funding to start and sustain their operations because the eligibility requirements for government systems and programs do not match their business model or size, or involve lengthy processes. I still find it difficult to procure. Startups like Aye are capitalizing on that gap by offering credit through their platforms.

“We believe there is tremendous potential in lending to underserved and small businesses, and the new capital is a strong complement to our complex story.” said Sanjay Sharma, co-founder, MD and CEO of Aye Finance, in a prepared statement.

“Aye Finance is on a growth path and we are pleased to partner with BII, which has a deep understanding of India’s financial services sector. It’s proof.”

Headquartered in Gurugram and present in 22 states through 395 offices, the start-up manages assets of over $959 million and generated over $9.59 million after tax in the first six months of FY24. He says it has brought benefits.

“Our investment in Aye Finance confirms our commitment to backing companies with strong philosophies that impact development and fostering financial inclusion for underserved groups in India. The i team stands out for its dedication and experience in delivering scalable technology-enabled financial solutions,” said Gaurav Malhotra, Director, UK International Investment Financial Services.

Source: techcrunch.com

FCC Denies $885 Million in Starlink Grants

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

The F.C.C. Starlink’s $885 million application finally rejected Despite spending public money to expand orbital communications infrastructure that covers parts of rural America, the company said it “has not been able to demonstrate that it can deliver the services it promised.”

As previously reported, the funds in question were part of the Provincial Digital Opportunity Fund. It’s a multibillion-dollar program that subsidizes the deployment of Internet service in areas where private companies have previously found it too expensive or remote. The $885 million was first set aside for Starlink in 2020, in response to the company’s bid to provide how much connectivity to which regions and at what cost.

The FCC explained that this initial application is high-level and short-term, and those who qualify will be subject to close scrutiny. For example, one organization that was allocated more than $1 billion in funding turned out to be a regional effort that was unable to scale as hoped.

In Starlink’s case, last summer’s proposal for satellite internet showed promise, but it turned out to be a “developing technology” that would require users to purchase a $600 dish. Most people wouldn’t pay that much for a year’s internet bill. Therefore, given the target audience of under-resourced people, this should be seriously considered. (In fact, the FCC considered not allowing orbital carriers to apply, but decided to let them compete on their own merits.)

This was in addition to “numerous financial and technical deficiencies” that authorities identified in the proposal and the company’s operations. This is not to say that this is a poorly run company that provides excellent service to some, but for the purpose of this auction and winning bid, there were serious questions:

After reviewing all information submitted by Starlink, the Bureau ultimately determined that Starlink would have a network of the scope, size, and scale necessary to serve 642,925 model locations in 35 states. We concluded that the company had not demonstrated a reasonable ability to meet RDOF’s requirements to deploy. That was the winning bidder.

Starlink called for a review of the decision, arguing among other things that the decision was made on the basis of “inappropriately burdensome criteria,” as is their right in this situation. (Apparently, the relevant parts have been edited in the latest version) order) claimed that although short-term tests showed a drop in speed and other metrics, the company has plans to launch more satellites and will be able to expand its network as claimed. It also relied on the promise of SpaceX’s super-heavy rocket Starship as proof of its claims.

However, the FCC notes that:

At the time of the station’s decision, Starship had not yet been launched.Certainly even today [i.e. over a year later], Starship has not yet been successfully launched. All attempted launches failed. Based on Starlink’s previous claims regarding plans to launch second-generation satellites via Starship and the information available at the time, [Wireline Competition] In making prospective judgments regarding Starlink’s ability to meet its RDOF obligations, the Secretariat necessarily considered the inability to continue to successfully launch Starship rockets.

A footnote notes that it was only after the denial was issued that SpaceX announced it would not use Starship after all for the second generation of Starlink satellites.

Fundamentally, they recognized the benefits of this approach, but were not 100% convinced that this was the best use of the lion’s share of $1 billion. Probably in the next fund.

Two Republican FCC commissioners, Brendan Carr and Nathan Symington, opposed the decision. Simington is probably correct in pointing out that “many RDOF recipients never deployed service at any speed or in any location,” while Starlink had service to 500,000 subscribers at the time of its rejection. many of which were in areas not served by other broadband options. He dismissed the launch issue as a ploy of the agency’s “motivated reasoning.”

Carr calls this politics. “After Elon Musk took over Twitter and used it to express his political and ideological views without filter, President Biden gave federal agencies the green light to pursue him… Elon Musk I became a ‘progressive enemy.’” No. 1. Today’s decision certainly fits the Biden administration’s pattern of regulatory harassment. ”

Of course, Starlink’s denial was made long before its acquisition and subsequent downfall of Elon Musk (what was he doing?), and the FCC is here today to reaffirm its case. It is not a new announcement. That’s quite a factual error.

Both prove that their faith in Starlink may or may not be misplaced. But given that $885 million is at stake, the FCC’s decision to err on the side of caution makes sense if it does so at all. Funds will be donated to other applicants and programs.

Although this money did not actually go to Starlink, the loss of income (or whatever such awards are classified as monetary) is not easy to endure. However, the company probably knows that the appeal of this decision will be difficult and has not counted on this funding for quite some time.

Although the company is not profitable, it recently reached what CEO Elon Musk calls “breakeven cash flow.” True, its revenues have soared (from about $222 million to $1.4 billion), but the significant operational costs of building and launching the satellites needed to serve thousands of new customers It took. The company, which has missed predictions for several years that it would be in the billions of dollars by now, has at least convincingly demonstrated its capabilities both at home and in war.

Maybe they don’t need that $885 million after all. The Pentagon’s money is just as green.

Source: techcrunch.com

True Anomaly secures $100 million in funding for the expansion of space security technology

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

true anomaly has closed $100 million in new funding, a strong signal that the appetite for startups operating at the intersection of space and defense is not slowing down.

The new round was led by Riot Ventures with participation from Eclipse, ACME Capital, Menlo Ventures, Narya, 645 Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Champion Hill Ventures, and FiveNine Ventures. The funds will be used to continue expanding all parts of the business, according to a press release.

True Anomaly aims to fill critical gaps in space situational awareness and defensive operations through software and hardware, including a line of autonomous reconnaissance and tracking spacecraft called Jackals. These vehicles are equipped with an array of sensors and cameras to track, monitor, and collect data on objects in space. On the software side, the company is developing an integrated operating platform called Mosaic that will eventually be able to work in conjunction with the Jackal in orbit.

In a previous interview with TechCrunch, True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers pointed to a significant “information asymmetry” between the United States and its adversaries in space. Jackal, Mosaic, and the company’s other efforts in space domain awareness aim to fill that gap.

Founded in 2022 by a quartet of former Space Force members, the startup is rapidly moving towards this goal. During the company’s first full year of business, he opened his 35,000 square foot facility in Centennial, Colorado and doubled his headcount to more than 100 people.

In September, True Anomaly won a $17.4 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to help warfighters find and track objects in space, characterize those objects, and use artificial intelligence to predict changes in space. The agreement was signed to build a suite of space domain awareness capabilities, including prediction and identification. Object behavior.

The first two Jackal spacecraft are scheduled to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 10 rideshare mission in March. In August, the company received permission from regulators to conduct imaging beyond Earth and demonstrate close space rendezvous operations with two spacecraft. This is such a huge technical challenge that I have no doubt that many people in both Silicon Valley and Washington will be paying close attention to how the demo mission unfolds.

Source: techcrunch.com

$14 million investment to develop long-lasting cement, robotics, and AI technology for small service industry businesses

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Builders, bakers, and body conditioners may not be the first professions that come to mind when you think of how AI is changing the way we work. But today, growing interest in the company is driving healthy funding for startups building AI-powered business tools, especially for small businesses and the thousands of other categories that make up the service industry world. announced a funding round. product.

durable — Vancouver, Canada-based startup builds an AI website creator and a host of other AI-powered tools to help small business owners plan, create, and run business apps more easily — Series A We have raised $14 million which will be used to continue expanding our platform and customer base.

This round is not the largest Series A, but it comes with an interesting list of investors. Spark Capital led the round, along with Torch Capital, Altman Capital (a VC founded and managed by Jack Altman, brother of OpenAI’s Sam Altman), Dash Fund, South Park Commons, Infinity Ventures, Soma Capital ( All previous supporters) are participating. are also participating. The startup has now raised a total of $20 million.

Durable’s AI-powered website builder is aimed at people with a very novice online presence and has already been used to create more than 6 million websites since its launch a year ago. That’s what it means.

“We have a lot of traditional companies that have been around for a long time but don’t have an online presence. They don’t have the software, they don’t have the systems. That’s a big part of our customer base. ,” founder and CEO James Clift said in an interview. “Plumbers, skilled craftsmen, personal trainers. A lot of businesses with one to six people don’t have the time or resources to actually build an online presence or create marketing materials.”

Durable will continue to build on that momentum and leverage advances in the world of AI to build more tools for users.

The end goal, Clift said, is an omniscient assistant that not only answers users’ questions, but also proactively suggests ways to run their business better.

Clift said in an interview that a beta version of its “automated proactive assistant” will be released “soon,” likely within about three months.

Based on the different needs of a user’s specific profile (a baker may not want or need the same information as a body conditioner or a builder), we can train it in areas such as taxes. ” he said. “You press a button and your business runs in the background. He texts you once a day, and you have work booked on your calendar, so all you have to do is show up to work.”

Other tools Durable has built to complement its flagship website builder include a CRM platform, an invoicing service, a blog builder, and a precursor to Proactive Assistant, an AI bot that allows users to ask questions relevant to their business. there is. Her AI assistant uses LLM’s OpenAI, among other things.

The gap in the market that Durable is filling is actually a well-known one in the technology world.

Small businesses and sole proprietors have been an elusive target for startups developing business tools. Despite accounting for more than 99% of his total business in markets like we and EnglandSmall businesses are more complex users to litigate because they spend less individually than larger businesses (making ROI per customer harder for vendors) and are generally a fragmented population when it comes to their technology needs. This is a group of

Of course, none of the above is new information in the world of technology. There are dozens of startups and large tech companies targeting small and medium-sized businesses, especially those in the service industry and building apps to manage everything from teams, accounting, banking, payroll, and more.

Clift said Durable’s unique selling point is that it applies advances in AI to problems to bring small business owners and employees into the modern era.

In his view, AI has a democratizing role. First, SMBs now have access to more affordable tools that were previously out of reach. For example, Durable works to create a logo and branding builder for its users, but if that service were provided by a consultancy, it would have been beyond most customers’ budgets.

Second, the use of AI means that Durable itself can scale out its services more easily, avoiding the problems of selling and distributing services to a fragmented customer base.

“Advances in software will allow us to start delivering a ton of value that even last year would only have been available to enterprise customers,” he said. “We can now provide an even better level of service to independent stores who previously couldn’t afford something like this. It’s a very long tail, but it’s a huge market opportunity. .”

Durable turned to OpenAI after gaining access thanks to Altman Capital, which led Durable’s seed round.

“OpenAi has been a great partner from day one,” Clift said. Given the trajectory of OpenAI, which is reportedly working to close a new funding round with a valuation of more than $80 billion, the startup is probably one to watch as it is a close partner with ties to the CEO. right.

“One of the ideas I’m most interested in right now is how we can leverage AI to help founders build products from scratch that are 10x better than anything that exists today. in a space that helps you do it cheaper, faster and more accurately,” Jack Altman told me. “When I met James, I was not only very impressed with him as a founder, but also excited about the potential of what this product could do for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Since our initial investment. , seeing how well he and the team have done only increases my expectations for what Durable will be like.”

“At Spark, we have always pursued founders who challenge the status quo. James and the Durable team are not only doing this uniquely, but also helping entrepreneurs do the same with a frictionless user experience powered by AI. We are also creating a global platform for ,” said Natalie Sandman, general partner at Spark Capital. statement.

Source: techcrunch.com

2.4 million people play LEGO Fortnite simultaneously, gaining traction

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Those who still think of Fortnite as a colorful, cartoonish battle royale game may be surprised to learn the true scope of Epic’s ambitions.

Fortnite’s large-scale, chaotic fight-to-the-death matches may still command the highest payouts, but Epic continues to steadily expand the scope of its flagship game into more of a game. platform More than just a simple standalone game.Fortnite’s psychedelic live event, monster Ariana Grande concert, and its infinity User-generated sandbox world All were hints about the final destination.

X may never be the be-all and end-all app, but Fortnite is already the be-all and end-all game. And it got even bigger.

Over the last week, Epic has released three new games within the game, starting with survival title Lego Fortnite on Thursday. Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game from the Rock Band development studio, and Rocket Racing, a fast-paced racing game from the makers of Rocket League, soon followed.

While Fortnite’s regular modes like Zero Build and the classic Battle Royale saw decent numbers over the weekend, and people also ventured into the other two new games, Lego Fortnite is on a whole different level. I made my debut.

Epic and Lego’s new Minecraft/Animal Crossing hybrid (more on this later in the review) peaks at 2.45 million concurrent players Immediately after launch. Over the weekend, it consistently hovered around the same high peak, sitting at about 1.1 million players by Monday. This in itself is an epic number that puts many hits on the Steam charts to shame. The live “Big Bang” event that introduced his three new games a little more than a week ago drew 11.6 million concurrent players and featured live Fortnite shows from artists like Marshmello and Travis Scott. Ta.

LEGO Fortnite is just one corner of Epic’s multiverse, but it’s clearly the one that’s getting the most attention right now. Fortnite’s total number of concurrent online players is much higher than that (all of Fortnite’s creative modes, ranked play, battle royale, etc. combined), but this is a completely different genre of family games. It is especially noteworthy that it has generated so much buzz. If LEGO Fortnite can maintain its momentum with a steady drip of engaging content that deepens the game, the free-to-play, multiplayer experience for the whole family may only get better.

Source: techcrunch.com

Helicity Space secures $5 million funding to support fusion propulsion and high-speed deep space travel

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

helicity space has raised $5 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of technology that will ultimately enable fast and efficient travel in deep space.

That technology is nuclear fusion propulsion, which has long been the realm of science fiction. The startup says it has discovered a way to use plasma jets in fusion reactions. The project is the brainchild of Setthivoine You, a plasma physicist and co-founder of Helicity. He and two other co-founders, CEO and former banker Stefan Lintner and former Boeing Rocketdyne executive Marta Calvo, officially founded the business in 2018.

Helicity spent several years in stealth, “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, thinking about what we could do,” Lintner explained in a recent interview. “Fusion is a tainted field and we first needed to be sure we could handle it before raising venture capital capital.”

The Pasadena-based company has successfully raised funding from a prominent group. Airbus Ventures is the venture capital arm of a major European aerospace company. TRE Advisor; Voyager Space Holdings, the company behind the Starlab commercial space station. European space company E2MC Space. Urania Ventures and Geingels.

Lintner said Helicity’s key differentiator is that it focuses squarely on fusion propulsion, rather than fusion for ground-based applications. “Everything we’re doing is moving the spacecraft forward, not generating sustainable grid power,” Eh explained. In some ways, the former problem is easier than the latter. Space is a great vacuum, and that’s exactly the environment that his jet of plasma needs.

“Our concept is first uniquely tailored to be useful in space,” he said. “over time […] Ours may also turn into a nuclear reactor on Earth, but by that time others will have worked it out. That’s not our main goal. ”

The startup’s technology is based on a method called magnetic-magnetic fusion, which compresses a stable plasma jet with a magnetic nozzle. The plasma is heated to hundreds of millions of degrees, causing a fusion reaction that pushes the spacecraft forward.

The startup plans to use the funding to manufacture a proof-of-concept fusion drive that will demonstrate basic technology on a small scale. On a longer-term scale, Helicity aims to fly a complete prototype in space within about 10 years.

Lintner was upfront about the fact that there is still a lot to de-risk and a lot to learn when it comes to the emerging market for Fusion Drive.

“Look, it’s still early days,” he said.
“As economies develop in space, our engines will become increasingly important. The final business model is still a little difficult to predict.”

Source: techcrunch.com

Opal Security secures $22 million in funding to help businesses manage access and identity

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Venture capital investment trends in the cybersecurity market suggest that the sector is in decline, at least in recent months. according to According to Crunchbase, the number of cybersecurity deals fell from 181 in the second quarter to 153 in the third quarter. In a more detailed report, Crunchbase suggests third-quarter cybersecurity venture funding is down 30% year-over-year, with investment in the category likely to fall to its lowest level since 2019.

But some cybersecurity startups are somehow escaping the industry’s downturn. opal security. Today, Opal, a vendor that takes an automated approach to identity access management, announced that it has raised $22 million in a Series B round led by Battery Ventures with participation from Greylock and Box Group.

Raising Opal’s maximum funding to $32 million, the new tranche will go toward doubling Opal’s 30-person team by the end of 2024, expanding its enterprise customer support organization, and ramping up product development, the founder and CEO said. Umaima Khan told TechCrunch in an email interview. He added that product enhancements include a new visualization suite and AI-powered tools designed to remediate identity and access risks.

Khan founded Opal in 2020. Prior to that, he studied cryptography at MIT, worked in defense research and at startups such as Amplitude and Collective Health.

Khan said that during his work in the private and public sectors, where he was responsible for building internal authentication and authorization services, particularly the policy layer, he began to notice common issues around visibility and lack of understanding of user access behavior. I did.

“I’ve seen firsthand how common problems like lack of proper infrastructure and over-access can cause completely avoidable cascading failures,” Khan told TechCrunch in an email interview. . “The reality is that most best-in-class security engineering teams understand this and are building these systems in-house to the best of their ability. However, scaling and maintaining these systems is a significant effort even for large enterprises and impractical for smaller organizations. ”

To address the perceived need for a more scalable access and identity orchestration platform, Khan created a suite that provides enterprises with a unified view and control of employee access to internal tools, apps, platforms, and environments. Founded Opal. Opal allows customers with thousands of employees to create policy workflows to automate access policies and set up approval flows for access requests that cannot be automated.

Opal is not alone in the access management market. In addition to incumbents (such as Okta), vendors such as Veza, SailPoint, Cyber-Ark, and Saviynt also compete. Some have raised large amounts of venture capital. But Khan said that unlike some of its competitors, Opal is building on more analytics and his AI capabilities aimed at preventing identity-based threats, and ultimately more of companies will be attracted to his Opal solution.

“Because we are a data platform, along with log data from specific end systems, we have a detailed ground truth understanding of system policies, users, groups and how policies are used, approved, denied, created and We have both metadata about the changes,” Khan said. “This gives us a unique and rich dataset to provide a baseline on various forms of risk associated with access and to identify potentially anomalous actors and systems… I’ve been thinking a lot about how to build possible datasets. [access management] It is a readable and writeable layer that prioritizes enterprise readiness from an infrastructure and feature perspective. ”

Customers seem to agree. Opal’s annual recurring revenue has quadrupled since the company’s Series A in June 2022 across a customer base of approximately 40 brands, including Databricks, Scale AI, and Figma. However, Khan declined to say whether Opal was profitable.

“Our technology addresses the challenge of scaling access management with limited information in complex enterprise environments, which is a major pain point for technical decision makers across the industry,” said Khan. states. “Large organizations have fragmented data and systems. These organizations increasingly need easy-to-use, scalable data and workflow processes for identity access management. Our platform meets that need. It’s a great fit and gives CISOs and CSOs the tools they need to view and control their systems.”

Asked if he was concerned about challenges in cybersecurity VC funding and the broader startup ecosystem, Khan said requiring companies to more quickly disclose cybersecurity incidents and other related policy announcements. Opal pointed to new rules from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a tailwind for Opal.

“Continued challenging market trends are forcing businesses to be as efficient as possible. Our platform improves the efficiency of security, compliance, and IT teams,” said Khan. . “We’ve also seen a similar shift in the sophistication and scale of cyber breaches as more companies undergo digital transformation in the wake of the pandemic. Our platform is a layer of defense against these breaches, and this bucket is very sticky…This latest round of funding allows us to navigate ongoing market challenges while meaningfully investing in our team and product development.”

Source: techcrunch.com

Stealth Mode Omniful Raises $5.85 million in Funding for Supply Chain and E-commerce Startup

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

A startup that realizes supply chain and e-commerce, omnifulltoday announced a $5.85 million venture led by VentureSouq with participation from 500 Global, DASH Ventures, Jahez Group, SEEDRA Ventures, Bunat Ventures, Hala Ventures, RZM Investments, and several family offices including Al Rasheed, Siraj Holding, Al It emerged from stealth with seed funding. Bawardi, Al Nafea.

The UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)-based startup builds systems for ordering, warehousing, and transportation management to help sellers leverage hyperlocal and omnichannel commerce to efficiently manage orders, allowing you to manage your inventory in real time. It also allows third-party logistics providers (3PLs) to efficiently manage workflows.

Mostafa Abolnasr, co-founder and CEO of Omniful, told TechCrunch that most retail companies are faced with the challenges of coordinating different sales channels, managing inventory flow, inventory accuracy, and picking and fulfillment times. He said the pain points for traders inspired him and Alankrit Nishad. If you have experience in e-commerce, get started. In addition, market research has shown that traditional software does not meet customer needs, is difficult to scale, is expensive, and takes time to implement, Abornsah said.

“We started with a vision to reimagine the technologies used today and in the future to operate supply chains, hyperlocal omnichannel retail, and e-commerce. We basically had to rethink every feature based on first principles and focused absolutely on four pillars: speed, accuracy, scale, and efficiency,” said Abornasr, adding that small sellers He added that he was also keen to reach out to the public.

“We’re looking at it from an impact and issue release perspective.”

Omniful emerges from stealth with a $5.85 million seed to give merchants and third-party logistics providers the tools to scale e-commerce

Omniful provides merchants and third-party logistics providers with solutions that include tools for insight. image credits: Omniful

Large enterprises and small merchants using the technology will be able to leverage a variety of sales channels, reduce labor costs per store, and reduce fulfillment times by up to 40% and 70%, respectively.

Initial customers for Omniful’s globalized products include major retailers and third-party logistics providers in several markets, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Abornasr said the company’s technology can process a minimum of 3 million orders per day per customer, making it suitable for customers seeking growth. This also sets the stage for growth plans that include expanding the customer base in other parts of the world, including Africa and India, where R&D centers are located.

“We believe Omniful has its own wide range of applications and offers a lot of space to run. Here in MENA [Middle East and North Africa], the concept of trading is embedded in our history. There is a well-established tradition of excellent retail franchises in the region and Omniful will strengthen that and give us a competitive edge in an increasingly dynamic environment,” said Tammer Qaddumi, General Partner of VentureSouq. says Mr.

“Omniful is universal, adaptable, and global, and has already found use in several large markets. We truly believe that it is a borderless solution that can also serve as an integrator.”

Source: techcrunch.com

Investment Firm Ballistic Ventures Seeks $300 Million for New Cybersecurity Fund

Posted on November 17, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Ballistic Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in funding and nurturing cybersecurity startups, aims to raise up to $300 million for a new fund, according to a regulatory filing.

The San Francisco-based VC firm on Wednesday It has been submitted Working with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $300 million for second fund – more than a year after launch Initial funds of equal amount In May 2022.

Ballistic spokeswoman Michelle Kincaid declined to comment on the filing when contacted by TechCrunch.

Targeting early-stage cybersecurity and cyber-related startups, ballistic ventures was co-founded by Kleiner Perkins general partner Ted Schlein, with three other general partners: Barmak Meftah, Jake Seid and Roger Thornton, and Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia as a strategic partner. The company also welcomes Derek Smith as strategic advisor and Agnes So as head of finance and operations.

Ballistic has backed more than a dozen startups to date, according to details available on the company’s website. Ballistic says it founded, operates and funds more than 90 cybersecurity companies. Previous investments the company has made include AuthMind, Oligo, and Nudge Security. The company also recently appointed Former U.S. National Cyber Secretary Chris Inglis and former CISA Chief of Staff Kirsten Todd will serve as advisors.

Cybersecurity investments so far this year are well below all-time highs.

Cybersecurity investments to date in 2023 are well below all-time highs. Venture funding to cybersecurity startups around the world fell more than 14% to $2.4 billion in the third quarter of 2023 from $2.8 billion in the same period last year, according to Pitchbook data shared with TechCrunch.

The number of deals completed in the most recent quarter also fell from 248 to 198.

Nevertheless, as the digital economy expands globally, cyber-attacks and online crimes are becoming more prevalent. Investors are also optimistic about the growth of cybersecurity startups and investments driven by significant advances in generative AI and cloud adoption.

Global Cybersecurity VC Funding 2020–23 by PitchBook

Image credits: pitch book data

Source: techcrunch.com

Bluesky, X’s competitor, reaches 2 million users; federation to launch in early next year

Posted on November 16, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Bluesky is a company building a decentralized alternative to Twitter/X. announced It now has 2 million users, an increase of another 1 million since September, despite still being an invite-only app. It also revealed deadlines for other important goals, saying it plans to have a public web interface up and running by the end of this month and start federation by early next year.

The latter is one of the most important differentiators between Bluesky and X, as it allows Bluesky to function as a more open social network. This means it works more like Mastodon, where users can choose which servers to join and move their accounts around freely. This is what Bluesky today claims is “billionaire-proof” and criticizes Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter, now known as X.

“Rather than being bound to the whims and black-box algorithms of private companies, you have the freedom to choose (and exit) at any time.” Explained in company blog post. “And wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there too,” it states.

Similar to Mastodon, a decentralized service, federation allows anyone to run their own service and connect to other services running the same protocol. For Bluesky, this is done like this: AT protocol The company is also developing consumer services and mobile apps in parallel. But his other major decentralized social network, Mastodon, uses an established protocol, his ActivityPub, which has grown significantly in the months since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. It is attracting attention.

Since then, other companies have adopted ActivityPub and Mastodon, including Mozilla, Flipboard, Medium, and Automattic (WordPress.com’s parent company). Unless Bluesky makes the AT protocol and ActivityPub interoperable in some way, there could be challenges regarding Bluesky’s ultimate reach. Bridging Maybe the two of you Technically It’s possible, but it’s more likely to be in the future, not in the near future.

Meanwhile, Bluesky is working to make its services more accessible, including launching a public web interface later this month. This will allow anyone to view his Bluesky posts, even if they don’t have an account. This could make the network more promising in terms of being a true competitor to X in breaking news and conversation, but it could expose Bluesky users’ posts to the outside world in ways they are not ready for. There is also. (This app currently does not have an option to set your profile to “private” like Twitter/X does. some users is not Happy about this. )

Despite its growth, Bluesky’s reluctance to drop its invite-only status and open its network to more users has allowed other competitors of X to gain a foothold. Last month, for example, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram Threads, an alternative to X, had just under 100 million monthly active users. He believes he can reach 1 billion users in the next few years. Threads also plans to interoperate with ActivityPub in the future.

Bluesky’s announcement follows Threads’ rapid release of features to make the app more competitive with X, including a chronological feed, support for displaying likes, search, and (free) Includes an edit button, web version, voting, GIF support, and more. , topic tags, and soon a developer API. Mastodon also took advantage of the opportunity presented by the Twitter acquisition and launched an easier-to-use version of its service in September of this year. However, Mastodon currently has 1.6 million monthly active usersHowever, it is much smaller than a thread.

In addition to today’s news, Mr. Bluesky also provides mobile push notifications, shareable user lists, email verification, advanced feed and thread settings for sorting and filtering posts, a media tab in user profiles, and a user profile for your own users. We also mentioned other recently released features, such as a Likes tab for profiles. , the suggestions below, and various accessibility improvements.

Bluesky started life as a Twitter project under Jack Dorsey, but the company was spun off from Twitter. $13 million How to start research and development. Mr. Dorsey sits on its board of directors. This year, the company raised an $8 million seed round led by Neo to further its development and transformed from a public benefit LLC to a public benefit C Corp.

Source: techcrunch.com

McLaren Healthcare discloses ransomware attack resulting in 2.2 million patient data theft

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Michigan-based McLaren Healthcare has confirmed that the sensitive personal and health information of 2.2 million patients was compromised in a cyberattack earlier this year. Later, a ransomware gang took credit for the cyberattack.

in New Data Breach Notification McLaren said in a filing with the Maine attorney general that hackers breached its systems over a three-week period from July 28 to Aug. 23, before the health care company noticed it a week later on Aug. 31. He said that he had done so.

According to McLaren, the hackers accessed a wealth of medical information, including patients’ names, dates of birth, and social security numbers, as well as invoices, billing and diagnostic information, prescription and drug details, and information about diagnostic results and treatments. It is said that he did. Medicare and Medicaid patient information was also collected.

McLaren is a healthcare provider with 13 hospitals in Michigan and approximately 28,000 employees. McLaren, which touts cost-efficiency efforts on its website, made more than $6 billion in revenue in 2022.

News of the incident broke in October when the Alphv ransomware group (also known as BlackCat) claimed responsibility for the cyberattack, claiming that millions of patients’ personal information was stolen. day to day after a cyber attack Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel warned residents that the breach “could potentially impact a large number of patients.”

TechCrunch has reviewed several screenshots posted by ransomware gangs on dark web leak sites, which show the company’s password manager, internal financial statements, some employee information, and patient-related information such as names, addresses, and phone numbers. Confirmed that it showed access to spreadsheets of personal and health information. , social security number, and diagnostic information.

Alphv/BlackCat claimed in the post that the gang had been in contact with McLaren representatives, but provided no evidence of this.

Contacted via email, McLaren spokesperson David Jones declined to comment beyond the company’s official statement or answer our questions about the incident. A spokesperson declined to say whether the company had received any payment requests or paid the hackers. McLaren’s chief information security officer, George Goble, declined to make him available for an interview.

What McLaren is currently facing is At least 3 class action lawsuits In connection with cyber attacks.

Source: techcrunch.com

Xage Security secures an additional $20 million funding for expanding security platform

Posted on November 2, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

The number of cybersecurity-related financing deals reached its highest point in 2022, but that doesn’t mean the sector is underutilized. According to Statista, in the second quarter of 2023 he had 148 deals, worth a total of $1.6 billion.

And, at least anecdotally, deal flow in the third quarter also looks healthy. Case in point, Xage securitya startup that provides software that prevents network intrusions, today announced that it has raised $20 million in a B2 funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to $80 million.

Piva Capital, March Capital, SCF Partners, Overture Climate Fund, Valor Equity Partners, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Science Applications International Corporation participated in Xage’s B2. Sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the pre-money valuation is about 60% higher than Xage’s pre-money as of January 2022, when the company first closed its Series B.

Geoffrey Mattson, who was appointed CEO of Xage in September, said the proceeds will be used to expand research and development and Xage’s go-to-market operations, with a focus on expanding its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Despite mixed technology economics, cybersecurity attacks against critical infrastructure are on the rise, and Xage sees growing tailwinds and headwinds given the threat environment and customer needs. ,” Mattson told TechCrunch in an email interview. “With more companies operating remotely to reduce costs, it is more important than ever to provide Zero Trust security solutions for critical infrastructure and distributed operations, including operational technology, IT, and cloud environments. Yes, it is a priority.”

Xage was founded in 2016 by Susanto Irwan and Roman Arutyunov after noticing an increase in attacks on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including devices such as surveillance cameras and temperature sensors. (This trend continues, with 41% in his first two months of 2023. Rise Average number of weekly attacks per organization targeting IoT devices compared to 2022. )

With Xage, Irwan and Artyunov can protect IoT devices and operational technology (the hardware and software used to monitor, control, and upgrade industrial systems), whether they are isolated or connected to the cloud. We have started developing a cybersecurity platform that can.

Xage’s core product sits on top of your existing environment, ostensibly without the need for network changes, either on-premises or as part of a software-as-a-service installation. Xage “monitors” device interactions and data movements and changes on a company’s network, discovering policy violations, and enforcing security policies, including invoking multi-factor authentication for system logins from unknown locations. I will do it.

Xage is not alone in the market for platforms that protect IoT and industrial systems. Dragos is probably its biggest competitor, at least on the startup side. But Xage has done well when it comes to customer acquisition, with the U.S. Space Force winning him a $17 million contract and the U.S. Air Force a $743,000 contract.

Xage’s other customers include energy, manufacturing, utilities, and transportation infrastructure operators. Mattsson claims that the startup’s revenue of about 90 employees increased by 420% year-on-year in the first half of 2023, and bookings increased by 560%.

“When the pandemic first broke out, Zarj There was a temporary pause in demand as customers tried to organize their businesses,” Mattson said. “Fortunately, Zarj Companies believe that information and data security is key to business continuity, and they have secured a comfortable runway.

Source: techcrunch.com

Shield AI secures $200 million funding with $2.7 billion valuation to advance military autonomous flight technology expansion

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Shield AI The company has secured $200 million in fresh funding to expand its autonomous flight systems for the U.S. military and its allies.

Established in 2015, the startup currently holds a valuation of $2.7 billion. The latest funding round was led by US Innovation Technology Fund (USIT) with significant participation from Riot Ventures, a previous investor in Shield AI. Other contributors include existing investors Disruptive and Snowpoint, as well as new investor ARK Invest, an investment management company founded by Cathie Wood.

USIT, guided by billionaire Thomas Tull, served as the sole investor in Shield AI’s initial $60 million Series E funding. This substantial Series F round is a testament to the company’s successful track record of fundraising – the Series E raised a total of $225 million, and its Series D ranged between $210 million and $300 million.

It also highlights the capital-intensive nature of defense-focused startups, even for companies like Shield AI that offer more affordable systems compared to their traditional counterparts.

The startup specializes in developing hardware and software to transform drones and aircraft into autonomous systems capable of carrying out missions in conflict zones. The company’s flagship product is Hivemind, an AI pilot software that enables drones and aircraft to operate autonomously without relying on GPS assistance. Shield AI has also introduced a drone swarm feature called V-Bat Teams, which allows a single human operator to command at least four V-Bat drones (developed by Martin UAV, acquired by Shield AI in 2021).

“Our nation faces the challenging reality of having insufficient pilots, and rule-based autonomous solutions are insufficient for the existence of such swarms,” said Ryan Tseng, CEO and co-founder, when announcing V-Bat Teams earlier this month. “Shield AI changes this. For nearly nine years, Shield AI has been building the world’s most advanced AI pilots using a unified AI foundation that is applicable and deployable across all aircraft types, from quadcopters to F-16s. We’ve been steadfastly focused on that.”

The San Diego-based company is also working on integrating Hivemind into unmanned fighter jets and other aircraft. The Shield AI technology stack has garnered significant interest from the Department of Defense due to increasingly sophisticated counter-drone technologies that focus on disrupting drone communications and navigation.

“The battlefield is increasingly dominated by drone warfare, and adversaries are turning the battlefield into a hostile environment by disrupting communications and GPS,” stated Stephen Marcus, co-founder and general partner at Riot Ventures. “We are doing everything we can to address this. Modern Air Forces are operating blindly. Shield’s AI pilots are intelligent and adaptable to their environment, requiring no GPS or communications. Their AI is trainable and adaptable for diverse missions, and they have successfully flown teams of copters, V-BATs, and modern fighter jets. The most comparable technology we have seen thus far is what Tesla is doing with their self-driving stack.”

The new funding arrives amidst a surge in investor support for defense technology startups, driven in part by escalating geopolitical tensions and the U.S. lagging behind its adversaries. Engineers and the Pentagon are keenly aware of the risks at hand. In fact, some Shield AI executives have made noteworthy comparisons: Back in 2021, co-founder Ryan Tseng drew parallels between the Chinese military and Netflix, and the U.S. military and Blockbuster.

Source: techcrunch.com

Gozen Secures $3.3 Million Investment from Happiness Capital, SoSV, and More to Expand Production of Lab-Grown Leather

Posted on October 25, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

Like it or not, the leather industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global waste generation. Current methods being used to meet the increasing demand for leather involve very simple and completely unsustainable solutions. It is simply raising more livestock (this is 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions).

But now there are startups leading the way in developing bio-based alternatives that have properties similar to, or even better than, traditional leather.

Alternative leather startup gelatex To date, we have raised $1.3 million from Estonia. Based in Copenhagen, Beyond leather We produce plant-based, eco-friendly alternatives to animal leather. It has raised 1.2 million euros so far.

Vitro Lab The San Jose-based company has raised $54.4 million and is developing a platform to make leather using stem cell-based technology. Meanwhile, modern meadow is working on lab-grown leather (among other materials) and has raised $183.6 million.

As you can see, there is a lot of interest in this area.

Now, a startup originally from Turkey and now based in San Francisco thinks it has come up with a game-changing product.

Gozen has now raised $3.3 million in a seed funding round led by Happiness Capital (lead investor) with participation from Accelr8, Astor Management, and Valley-based SOSV. The company is currently planning a facility in Turkey with a production capacity of up to 1 million square feet.

The startup’s biomaterial Lunaform is vegan, plastic-free, and produced by microorganisms during the fermentation process. The material is intended for use in the fashion and automotive industries, and the company has patented the technology in Turkey and is applying for patents in other countries.

The material was unveiled at the Balenciaga Summer 24 show during Paris Fashion Week earlier last month.
Gozen said Lunaform is a unique, fully formed material that ultimately provides increased strength and flexibility. (Using multiple layers of plant-based composite leather makes it more susceptible to damage). With customizable thickness and texture, he can be produced in 13 square foot sheets.

Ese Gozen, founder and CEO of GOZEN, told me over the phone: We use a fermentation transplantation system that creates the material in just 10 days. Now that the formulation is solid, it’s time to harvest it. This is microbial cellulose, which is another type of cellulose. ”

She said the resulting material was “very strong and very thin.” The current material is 0.2mm, giving it a unique texture. Contains no plastic or toxic chemicals. ”

He added that he has a startup plan that aims not only for fashion but also for the automobile industry.

Poe Bronson, managing director of SOSV IndieBio, Gozen’s first investor, added in a statement: However, I believed that your approach could outperform other approaches in both performance and economy. ”

No matter what happens, the market is growing.

The global leather products market size is projected It is expected to grow from $468.49 billion in 2023 to $738.61 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 6.7%.

Source: techcrunch.com

Chinese tech giants vie for $340 million investment in rival to OpenAI

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

It is becoming increasingly clear that two parallel AI universes are forming between the United States and China. While the US has produced notable players such as her OpenAI and Anthropic, China has its own emerging candidates. One of these basic model developers, Zhipu AI, announced Today, the company announced that it has raised a total of 2.5 billion yuan ($340 million) so far this year.

Established in 2019, Chipu was Spun out from China’s prestigious Tsinghua University and is led by Tang and Jieprofessor in the university’s Department of Computer Science and Technology.

This announcement came at a sensitive time. This week, the Biden administration imposed additional restrictions on Nvidia AI chip exports to China, further hampering rivals’ ability to train large-scale language models. In anticipation of Washington’s semiconductor ban, China’s deep-pocketed AI companies are stockpiling semiconductors, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on these coveted chips.

To stay in this expensive AI race, Zhipu is keeping itself well-funded by raising money from local investors. The $340 million investment was made from a renminbi-denominated fund, marking a shift from a two-decade trend in which US dollar funds were the preferred funding source until geopolitical tensions created a technology gap.

In August, President Joe Biden signed the agreement. presidential order Excludes U.S. investments in key Chinese technology areas including AI, semiconductors, and quantum computing. Although aimed at curbing China’s military buildup, the order also had a negative impact on China-focused U.S. venture capital, which currently avoids investing in sensitive areas. Some companies, such as Sequoia Capital China and GGV Capital, which were renamed Hongshan, are looking for solutions to continue operating in the market by spinning off their China divisions.

HonShan invested in Zhipu along with other prominent VCs such as Shunwei Capital and Hillhouse Capital, as well as state funds managed by Legend Capital.

The AI startup has also raised funding from an impressive roster of Chinese internet giants, bringing together even its biggest rivals like Alibaba and Tencent, which rarely co-invest. The lineup includes Ant Group, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, Meituan, Kingsoft, TAL Education Group, and Boss Zhipin.

Zhipu recently open sourced a bilingual (Chinese and English) conversational AI model. Chat GLM-6Bhas been trained with 6 billion parameters and claims to be able to: Run inference on a single consumer graphics card. We also have an open source foundational model, GLM-130B, trained with 130 billion parameters.

Source: techcrunch.com

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