Category: TECHNOLOGY
Ericsson Boosted by Demand for 5G Equipment but Warns of Rising Costs
The Swedish telecom-equipment giant said its sales and profit rose in the second quarter as wireless carriers snapped up its 5G gear, but warned of higher costs stemming from geopolitical tensions and inflation. …read more
The Startups Predicting Climate Risk for Bond Investors
High-tech newcomers use satellite imaging, public databases and algorithms to map out threats of natural disasters for specific towns—and even buildings—that back bonds. …read more
Vektor Partners raises new €125M fund to look specifically at sustainable mobility
Some estimates put the future mobility market at $178.7 billion by 2026, up from $78.1 billion two years ago. And there has been $400 billion worth of investments made into the sector over the past decade, with $100 billion invested since 2020.
But most VC funds are not specialists in this area. So a space has opened up to look specifically at electric powertrains, batteries, and wider electric and fuel cell solutions for mobility.
That at least is the thesis behind mobility fund Vektor Partners which has raised a new €125 million fund to address areas like these.
Founded in 2020 as one of the few specialist VCs firms in mobility, Vektor invests in, it says, “deep tech startups employing AI and software that enable scalable and category-defining SaaS/MaaS-based businesses” which move people and goods from A to B more efficiently, in a greener and safer fashion.
Partners include Sebastian Bihari, who previously led automotive technology investment banking; Chris Riley, former startup CFO; Isabel Falkenberg, an ESG expert; and Valentin Menedetter, a former Palantir Technologies and Speedinvest senior executive
Together with Nielsen Ventures Vektor led a $17.5 million Series A funding round into NoTraffic – a platform that employs computer vision, machine learning, and cloud integration to for traffic management.
Other recent investments include German start-up Peregrine Technologies and Israeli technology firm GuardKnox.
Startups race to build a crypto-native, consumer-friendly messaging platform for web3
There’s no shortage of headlines about the onset of “crypto winter.” Amid a growing pile of bankruptcies, one of the buzziest startups in the business, the NFT marketplace OpenSea, announced a major layoff just today.
Behind the scenes, however, plenty of founders and VCs are doubling down on the promise of largely decentralized, blockchain-based outfits, and toward that end, one of the “more interesting parts of crypto right now” is at the “intersection of social messaging and web3,” says renowned entrepreneur and investor Elad Gil. In short, he thinks today’s messaging tools don’t cut it, and that there will be new opportunities for crypto-native startups to get it right.
Gil has already made an early bet, leading a $4 million seed round in Lines, a startup whose three co-founders studied philosophy at Harvard and whose CEO, Sahil Handa, boasts that the nascent company will become “web3’s messaging platform,” even while he and his former classmates are still developing its tech.
That it’s still a work in progress is apparently just fine with Lines’s backers, which also include renowned angel investors Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Gokul Rajaram. What they’re backing is a vision where every web3 native who wants to be is connected in some way to verifiable communications platform.
It matters because there’s a “rapidly increasing number of people using crypto pseudonyms to purchase digital currency, swap NFTs, vote on proposals, and manage treasuries,” explains Handa. “But whenever someone tries to communicate with another person in this network, there’s no way of knowing whether or not they are talking to the right person.”
Lines meanwhile strives to enable users to send messages from wallet to wallet and to join group chats based on token ownership. Indeed, Handa describes a communication layer that’s both ambivalent about underlying blockchains and crypto wallets, and that, as a result, empowers users in a wide variety of ways. They can find the owner of a particular NFT they’d like to buy, say, or discover like-minded individuals based on the tokens they’ve acquired, or reach out to potential new contributors of a DAO (a kind of “group chat with a bank account,” as DAOs have been called).
Certainly, Gil thinks the timing is right for Lines as more people organize and transact as a group online. In earlier days, he notes, “Your bitcoin or crypto asset and mine were identical, so I would have less reason to ping an anonymous user via their wallet. But with DAOs, there is the need to coordinate with various members beyond just using Discord.” With NFTs and other collectibles, he adds, “I may want to be able to ping you to buy or sell or trade, so there are other incentives for a communication layer to be useful.”
The question is whether enough people will agree that Lines is offering the exact right solution. As with every messaging app, its value will largely be determined by how many people use it. And how many people use it will determine if the startup …read more
Hyundai to electrify high-performance N brand
Hyundai said Thursday it will begin building electric vehicles under its high-performance N brand created to compete with luxury sports cars from Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
The automaker said the Ioniq 5 N, high-performance version of its battery-electric SUV, will launch in 2023. Hyundai also premiered Thursday two high-performance concepts — RN22e and N Vision 74 – to test technology for future models. Neither concept is confirmed for production.
Hyundai shared details this week on its upcoming Ioniq 6 battery-electric sedan, which is designed to challenge the Tesla Model 3 for the sales crown. The Ioniq 6 will travel 610 kilometers on a fully charged battery, based on the European WLTP test cycle. That’s about on par with the Model 3’s Long Range version.
The RN22e concept uses the Ioniq 6’s body design as well as its Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) that enables its extended range. The N Vision 74 concept, which draws inspiration from both the Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo and 1974 Hyundai Pony Coupe concept, is a high-performance hydrogen fuel cell hybrid model.
Both are designed to showcase Hyundai’s vision for its future as it attempts to evolve from a budget-friendly mainstream automaker to a top global luxury EV maker. The first two models in the Ioniq brand – the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 – showcase eye-catching silhouettes and sleek, luxurious interiors trimmed with sustainable materials.
The N brand was created in 2016 to establish real performance credentials for Hyundai. The N stands for Germany’s famed racetrack in Nürburgring, where Hyundai’s Technical Center tests its N models. It was an unusual strategy for a mainstream brand to go head-to-head with cars from BMW M, Mercedes AMG, Audi RS and Cadillac V-series, but Hyundai is now making clear its aspirations to go upscale and compete in the luxury segment.
True N cars serve as low-volume halo vehicles. Hyundai declined to say how many Ioniq 5 Ns it will build.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/14/hyundai-to-electrify-high-performance-n-brand/
Cruise robotaxi service under review following anonymous letter
Someone claiming to be a Cruise employee sent an anonymous letter to a California regulatory agency raising concerns that the company is launching its robotaxi service too early. The employee cited the regularity of instances that Cruise robotaxis malfunction in some way and are left stranded on streets, often blocking traffic or emergency vehicles, as one of his main concerns, according to the letter that has been reviewed by TechCrunch.
The letter also claims that employees “generally do not believe we are ready to launch to the public, but there is fear of admitting this because of expectations from leadership and investors.” Cruise has responded to this with results from an April 2022 survey from over 2,000 employees, in which 94% of respondents agreed with the statement: “Safety is a top priority here.”
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which is responsible for issuing driverless car permits in California, said it is looking into the issues raised by the letter. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the CPUC’s intention to investigate the matter.
The CPUC awarded Cruise a driverless deployment permit, which will allow the General Motors-owned company to begin charging fares for autonomous ride-hail services in San Francisco, at the start of June. Cruise began commercial operations close to three weeks ago.
The commission has the authority to suspend or revoke an autonomous vehicle permit at any time if it finds that unsafe behavior becomes evident, according to the CPUC’s resolution to give Cruise the green light.
Cruise says it has a transparent relationship with regulators and that communication between the two is frequent and consistent. The company also said it strictly follows a variety of reporting requirements and provides CPUC with extra information as needed.
The employee’s concerns, which were originally sent to the CPUC in May, come to light just a couple of weeks after more than half a dozen of Cruise’s vehicles stalled on a street in San Francisco for close to two hours, blocking traffic and an intersection. Cruise didn’t say what caused the issue, but the vehicles needed to be recovered through a combination of remote assistance and manual retrieval.
“Currently (as of May 2022) with regularity there are incidents where our San Francisco fleet of vehicles individually or in clusters enter a “VRE” or Vehicle Retrieval Event,” wrote the employee, who describes himself as a father and an employee working on safety critical systems who has been at Cruise for many years.
“When this occurs, a vehicle is stranded, often in lanes where they are blocking traffic and potentially blocking emergency vehicles. Sometimes it is possible to remotely assist the vehicle with safely pulling over, but there have been some cases where fallback systems have also failed and it was not possible to remotely maneuver the vehicle outside of the lanes they were blocking until they were physically towed from their location to a facility.”
The self-identified Cruise employee also shed light on the potentially “chaotic environment” internally at Cruise, specifically …read more
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/14/cruise-robotaxi-under-review-following-anonymous-letter/
NFT brand loyalty platform Hang banks $16M from Paradigm
Crypto startups — fresh off a mind-boggling bull run — are preparing for the next phase of life where the mere mention of “NFT,” “DAO” or “DeFi” may not tempt investors quite as much as before. The breed of crypto startups raising now are looking to double down on scoring more traditional customers rather than building up a self-referential crypto customer base. These startups are being pushed to distill the lessons of the bull run and find truth in the former frothiness.
Web3 startup Hang is one such startup looking to build up a client base of brands and help them leverage NFTs to replace their existing membership and loyalty programs. The startup hopes that by leveraging the blockchain, users will be able to buy into and sell elite membership status, finding the market value for the perks offered by loyalty programs and build a closer relationship with the brands they frequent.
“By leveraging NFTs and the blockchain there are far better ways to solve real problems for brands,” CEO Matt Smolin tells TechCrunch. “We truly see this as a new way to shepherd in a new relationship between consumers and brands.“
Smolin’s startup has just banked $16 million in new Series A funding from crypto venture firm Paradigm. Other investors include Tiger Global, Good Friends, Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, MrBeast’s Night Ventures and Shrug Capital, among others. Some early customers of the brand include Budweiser, Bleacher Report, Pinkberry and music festival group Superfly.
Loyalty programs existed long before blockchains, but Smolin believes that adding a liquid market for the right to enter or exit a brand’s loyalty perks is better for all parties involved. Rather than endow each brand with their own cryptocurrency-backed points, Hang’s effort aims to give users NFTs that they can level up by being a fan. By engaging with the brand, buying stuff or participating in events, users can upgrade the status of their membership NFT, which they could eventually go on to sell to someone else with the perks they receive attached to it.
Smolin references the great lengths users go to at the end of the year to reach the next level of airline status as a way to signify how they price the value of the service; he wonders whether more services could build this relationship and create better membership programs for users. The reality is that most brand loyalty programs aren’t that great and often just offer a way to more directly spam a user through communications. Smolin believes that rising customer acquisition costs are going to push brands to rethink their fundamental approach and might push them toward taking a risk on NFTs.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/14/nft-brand-loyalty-platform-hang-banks-16-million-from-paradigm/
Pitch Deck Teardown: Forethought’s $65M Series C deck
Forethought has been on our radar for a long time — the company won our 2018 Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt, and just a few weeks ago, CEO Deon Nicholas joined Vanessa Larco from NEA on TechCrunch Live to talk about pitching and pitch decks:
Today, it’s my pleasure to tear down the company’s 23-slide deck that helped it raise a $65 million Series C late last year.
Forethought’s mission is to help humans perform better using AI. “One of the things that we’ve focused on is being a human-centered AI platform. And that’s what has really come through … with our mission, and really our mission is to unlock human potential through artificial intelligence,” Nicholas told TechCrunch’s Ron Miller.
We’re looking for more unique pitch decks to tear down, so if you want to submit your own, here’s how you can do that.
Slides in this deck
In the vast majority of cases, this is a slide that makes my eyes glaze over; Forethought’s slide made me do a double take because it is a rare exception to that rule.
- Cover slide
- Founders slide
- TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield slide — (Yes, really!)
- Traction slide (redacted numbers)
- Customer list slide
- “Forbes 2021 next billion-dollar startups” — mystery slide
- “Think about the last time you were on hold” — problem slide
- “The cost of bad customer service” — problem slide
- “Transform customer experiences with human-centered AI” — solution slide
- “Complete platform” — product slide
- “True AI” — product slide
- “Rapid time-to-value” — product slide
- “Secure and trusted” — product slide
- “Intelligent gap detection” — product slide
- “Trusted by the best” — customer breakdown slide
- “Metrics Summary” (redacted) — traction slide
- Customer testimonials slide
- ARR expansion per cohort (redacted) — customer development slide
- “Forethinkers” team slide
- Advisors and investors slide
- “What’s next” (redacted) — road map slide
- “Where we’re going” (redacted) — revenue growth slide
- “Unlock human potential through AI” — mission slide
Three things to love
There’s a lot to love about this deck, and it’s hard to only pick three things. In the past few pitch deck teardowns, I’ve often focused on the beginning of the narrative — the first few slides.
Ending on mission
[Slide 23] Closing slide. Image Credits: Forethought
I’ve argued before how important it is to have a good final slide. To understand why, remember that in a lot of pitching situations, the first and last slides are on the screen for a longer time. The first because you’re faffing about with getting coffee, waiting for people and getting situated. The last because during the Q&A at the end of a pitch, it’s not uncommon to leave the final slide up — at least until you have to move to another slide in the deck to clarify something. To be fair, this was more true when you were pitching in-person than when you’re pitching virtually, but it’s good practice to make every slide do some heavy lifting.
A lot of the time, the final slide is just a repeat of the company’s …read more
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/14/sample-series-c-pitch-deck-forethought/
Sony is launching new loyalty program ‘PlayStation Stars’ to reward gamers
Today, Sony introduced a new loyalty program called PlayStation Stars that will give gamers loyalty points and rewards. The program is free to join and launches later this year, the company announced. PlayStation Stars members can redeem points for PSN wallet funds, the payment method for game purchases and select PlayStation Store items.
With the program, PlayStation also unveiled digital collectibles for loyal members to earn. To answer what everyone is thinking — No, it’s not an NFT.
Grace Chen, vice president, Network Advertising, Loyalty & Licensed Merchandise, writes in a PlayStation blog that they are “digital representations of things that PlayStation fans enjoy, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that tap into Sony’s history of innovation.” PlayStation Stars members can collect tons of collectibles, including ultra-rare ones.
To earn rewards, members must complete tasks or “campaigns” where they can win tournaments and specific trophies. Players can even earn rewards if they are the first player to platinum a blockbuster title in their local time zone. There will also be a monthly check-in campaign that requires you to play any game to receive a reward.
This is PlayStation’s first rewards program, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.
The introduction of PlayStation Stars comes a month after Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription launch. PlayStation Plus members enrolled in the loyalty program automatically earn points for PlayStation Store purchases.
The two announcements reflect the growing effort in the gaming industry to delve deeper into subscription offerings and consumer-facing strategies.
PlayStation hopes by introducing this new program and digital collectibles, gamers will be “excited for the future with PlayStation: commemorating the gaming eras we created together, charting new paths to explore, and bringing players together for global celebrations,” Chen added.
The company said that the program is currently being tested and will continue to evolve over time. Later this year, it will launch in “phased regional rollouts” such as Asia, the Americas, Europe and more.
Top Indian tech advocacy group drops crypto over regulatory uncertainty
The leading influential technology lobby group in India is turning its back on advocating for crypto in a major setback for the local ecosystem in the South Asian nation.
Internet and Mobile Association of India, an 18-year-old lobby group, said Thursday it is dissolving the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council, its four-year endeavor to support and lobby for the nascent technology category.
The association said in a statement that it was forced to take the decision because “a resolution of the regulatory environment for the industry is still very uncertain.”
“The association would like to utilise its limited resources for other emerging digital sectors, which make a more immediate and direct contribution to digital India, notably, deepening financial inclusion and promoting Central Bank issued Digital Currency [CBDC]. Members of the BACC were informed about the decision at a meeting held here today,” it said.
The move is the culmination of years of frustration for the Indian crypto industry, which has felt that the lobby group’s influence and reach have been unable to deliver enough landmark results, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
The IAMAI felt that it was risking its reputation by continuing to push for the adoption and support for crypto, two different people familiar with the matter said.
Regardless, the discontinuation of the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council brings the local industry back to the drawing board at a time when local exchanges and other crypto firms are seeing a sharp decline in trading volume in the wake of India enforcing taxation on the virtual digital assets.
The Indian central bank continues to force the hand of banks from engaging with crypto platforms in India, a move that has made on-ramp a nightmare for the firms, people familiar with the matter said.
Many investors and entrepreneurs in the country have been scrambling for months to find newer, more effective ways including engaging with Niti Aayog, a powerful think tank, to liaison with policymakers, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. Niti Aayog has largely resisted involvement with the crypto industry, sources said.
Indian lawmakers, on their part, have met several industry faces in the past one year, but so far they are of the view that the fast adoption of crypto trading has hurt most consumers and more safeguards should be put in place, the sources said.
In the wake of the uncertainty, the local ecosystem has seen some talent move outside of the country and a growing number of local entrepreneurs build for the foreign markets and avoid serving customers in India, the world’s second-largest internet market.
“Our stated belief as industry has always been to have sustainable dialogue with regulators and stakeholders and address concerns for progressive regulations. As an industry we will continue to positively engage with all stakeholders and continue to build emerging tech including Web 3.0,” said Ashish Singhal, co-founder and chief executive of CoinSwitch Kuber, and Sumit Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of CoinDCX, in a joint statement. The duo served as chair and co-chair of BACC.