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Category: TECHNOLOGY
Emitrr raises $4 million to expand its automation offering for local businesses
Large-scale and mid-sized enterprises and businesses are increasingly adopting — and offering — software-as-a-service platforms as they seek to increase their revenue and parlay their growth into greater efficiency. Now a young startup, Emitrr, is aiming to bring the benefits of this model to small and local businesses in the U.S. Emitrr claims to help small businesses by automating tasks such as appointment reminders and review generations. On Tuesday, the startup, led by two Indian co-founders, announced that it raised $4 million in a Pre-Series A round to widen its automation solution in the U.S. market.
Bengaluru-headquartered Chiratae Ventures led Emitrr’s funding round, which also drew participation from Venture Highway, FortyTwo VC and Axilor Ventures.
“We essentially are a business text messaging software and an automation software for local businesses in the U.S.,” said Anmol Oberoi, founder of Emitrr, in an interview with TechCrunch.
Emitrr, founded by Oberoi and his partner Pulkit Gambhir in December 2020, claims that that over 150 local businesses in the U.S. use its platform. These businesses range from single-location healthcare practices to multi-location home service companies. The startup also has some small business clients in Australia and Canada.
Anmol Oberoi (left) and Pulkit Gambhir (right)
The Delaware-based startup is catering to the global markets and has no customers in India, but it employs a team of 25 people — most of whom work remotely from tier-two and tier-three cities — in the South Asian market.
Emitrr works with over a thousand of vertical CRM platforms that local companies often use to solve customer management operations. Oberoi said that Emitrr has so far built seven to eight different automation models that work over the short messaging service (SMS).
Local healthcare centers, dentists and home service providers can use these automation models to send their customers appointment reminders and follow-ups on services for feedback and reviews. Oberoi told TechCrunch that while Emitrr is targeting healthcare and home services heavily, it has started getting customers from real estate, salons, restaurants and other different verticals.
It’s remarkable that Emitrr is using traditional text messages over WhatsApp for its tasks. Oberoi said that people in many markets including the U.S., Australia and Canada still prefer to use SMSs over any third-party offerings, but added that it’s within reach for the startup to quickly adopt WhatsApp or any other instant messaging service onto the platform.
Emitrr brings automation to business communication
“Our platform can be used by any local business in the world,” he said. “We automate the tasks performed by receptionists that sit in the dental office and the front desk executive that sits in the restaurant.”
Since Emitrr sends and receives messages to customers directly from businesses, it often processes sensitive information. Oberoi said that there is system-wide encryption to ensure the security and safety of data the platform processes.
“Both our inbound and outbound text messages are completely …read more
Twitter tests a ‘tweets per month’ counter
Twitter is testing a feature that lets you see how many times a user tweets per month. Reverse engineers spotted this in development about a month ago, but as of this morning, some Twitter users have shared that they have gained access to this feature.
For those of us who already know that we spend way too much time on the app, this feature feels a bit … intimidating. But it could probably be useful as a metric when determining whether to follow someone. If someone tweets thousands of times a month, maybe you don’t want them on your timeline — or if they barely tweet at all, maybe you don’t think it’s worth throwing them a follow.
“This is part of an ongoing experiment in which we want to learn how providing more context about the frequency of an account’s Tweets can help people make more informed decisions about the accounts they choose to engage with,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
Based on past studies, it’s not surprising that the general reaction to this feature among dedicated users is horror at how much we tweet. In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 10% of Twitter users create 80% of the tweets on the platform. The study also showed that the median user on Twitter only posts twice per month. As of last quarter, Twitter has 237.8 million monetizable daily active users.
So, if you feel personally attacked by Twitter’s “tweets per month” test, you may be entitled to compensation. For legal reasons, that was a joke, although we assume Twitter’s lawyers are a bit preoccupied at the moment.
Update, 8/1/22, 6:55 PM ET with comment from Twitter.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/01/twitter-tests-a-tweets-per-month-counter/
Study of Facebook friendships explores how economic mobility works in the US
A large-scale study of Facebook data sheds new light on the ties between Americans — and how those relationships in turn shape economic outcomes.
A research team led by Harvard economist Raj Chetty published the results today across two papers in the journal Nature, exploring how social connections lead to economic opportunity. The researchers examined data from 21 billion friendships on Facebook, collected from 72.2 million U.S.-based Facebook users between age 25 and 44 who listed their zip code.
The first paper looks at those outcomes through the lens of “economic connectedness” — basically how close people from different economic classes are to one another. The researchers found that people with lower incomes were more likely to improve their financial situations over time if they were connected to people with higher incomes.
“The share of high-SES friends among individuals with low SES — which we term economic connectedness — is among the strongest predictors of upward income mobility identified to date,” the researcher writes. “If children with low-SES parents were to grow up in counties with economic connectedness comparable to that of the average child with high-SES parents, their incomes in adulthood would increase by 20% on average.”
Research on income mobility isn’t just for idle academic interest. As the researchers point out, more knowledge about the social ties that bind communities and how those lead to different economic outcomes can inform interventions designed to help elevate low-income communities and provide them with more financial opportunity.
The second paper dives into those connections themselves and how they are formed. The Harvard team found that connections between high- and low-income people were often forged through structured social organizations, like schools and religious groups. Still, the researchers found that even with social exposure to other income levels, people were still more likely to forge social bonds with other people who share their socioeconomic status.
The research is interesting and potentially consequential given the widening wealth gap in the U.S. Upper-income families continue to accumulate wealth at a quickening pace, leaving the have-nots even farther behind. And the top 5% of wealthiest U.S. families are growing their wealth the fastest of all.
“Differences in economic connectedness can explain well-known relationships between upward income mobility and racial segregation, poverty rates, and inequality,” the researchers write.
With the largest user base of any social platform ever created, Facebook offers a wealth of potential data for researchers interested in studying myriad aspects of human behavior and social structures. Historically, Facebook parent company Meta has a somewhat fraught relationship with researchers, particularly those interested in shining a light on how the social network itself shapes society, but there are signs that Meta is warming up to more outside research.
Meta also remains sensitive to potential abuses of the vast trove of personal data it monetizes. The company is still living down a reputation for lax data management in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, even four years later. Still, the …read more
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/01/facebook-meta-economic-mobility-nature-study/
Missfresh Highlights Troubles Facing Chinese Online Grocers
The country’s once hot grocery-delivery sector has cooled after continuous losses, a regulatory clampdown and a slowing economy. …read more
Spotify wants users to pay for separate ‘Play’ and ‘Shuffle’ buttons
Spotify is updating its app to address a long-standing user complaint with music playback — but it’s asking customers to pay for the fix. The company announced today it will introduce, at last, a separate Play Button and a Shuffle Button at the top of albums playlists to make it easier to play the music the way you like. This will replace the combined button available before, which had been inconsistent across platforms and frustrating to use. However, streamers may be disappointed to find out that what should be an app update in favor of better usability is oddly being sold to them as a reason to upgrade to Spotify’s paid tier — the company says the new button is only being offered to Spotify Premium subscribers.
This seems a bizarre choice given that customer complaints had correctly identified an issue with the overall design of the Spotify app’s interface and its user experience. As one review posted last year to Spotify’s Community forums had noted, the button offered was even different across Spotify’s apps. On mobile, playlists had the combined Shuffle/Play button, but on the desktop, the button was just a regular Play Button. This was confusing for users who switched between platforms, the post pointed out. The user suggested Spotify simply offer two separate buttons so people could choose how they wanted to stream music, instead of having to tap into Now Playing screen to enable or disable Shuffle mode.
The post received 647 upvotes and pages of comments from others who agreed. It was not the only complaint of this nature on the forum site. Others posted similar requests for separate Play and Shuffle buttons or even different solutions to the same problem. For example, one person asked Spotify to allow users to configure which button appeared in the app to make it a user’s choice.
Spotify has been working on this problem for awhile. It first introduced the Shuffle/Play icon in 2020 to reduce streaming to just a click, it said, and last year made Play Button the default button on all albums for Spotify Premium users (at Adele’s request, as you may recall). With this upgrade, the Play Button will remain the default, and Shuffle will be a separate option across the mobile Spotify experience.
While arguably a minor change to the app — it’s literally just a button — it’s clearly a feature that was in need of a fix in users’ minds not a premium offering. Other major music streaming apps, like Apple Music and Amazon Music, already include separate Play and Shuffle buttons, for instance.
It’s uncommon for app makers to charge for something like a different button, especially when the reason for the change is because users were unhappy with the app’s functionality and design. One somewhat related example could be Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, which allows users to customize the bottom …read more
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/01/spotify-wants-users-to-pay-for-separate-play-and-shuffle-buttons/
5 tips for scaling your green startup during a funding drought
When it rains, it pours. The dampened outlook for startup funding at the start of 2022 thanks to the pandemic’s lingering uncertainties has only worsened following a global market downturn and the war in Ukraine.
CB Insights forecasts a roughly 20% drop in total VC investments from Q1 to Q2, leaving ambitious young companies scrambling to fight for scraps.
This slump is a particularly unpleasant setback for entrepreneurs hoping to advance climate-focused principles and social change. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for green companies to raise money for large-scale innovative projects, mainly because most investors still associate “having an impact” with high risk.
More than ever, green startups now need to refine their strategies for raising VC money during the scaling stage, especially when they begin assessing their defining values vis-a-vis their finances. Whether it’s dedicated impact funds or value-based venture capital firms, funders tend to back companies that have demonstrated their ability to scale.
Due diligence is not about checking off boxes or completing paperwork; it’s about creating long-lasting value for you, the portfolio company.
Here are five things green founders should remember when seeking VC funding at this moment.
When it becomes repeatable, you can scale it
Remember the point at which you raised your initial funding? You probably presented a minimum viable product and initial consumer research, and were backed for that.
But the investor climate has changed, and now your business must, too. The next phase isn’t about proving your concept or telling your inspiring founder story — it’s about growing your existing business, attracting new customers and customer segments, and entering new geographies.
All the while, you must show potential investors why they should commit their fiercely coveted money to your scaling efforts.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/01/5-tips-for-scaling-your-green-startup-during-a-funding-drought/
Meet the second wave of Disrupt Audience Choice roundtable winners
We asked TechCrunch readers to vote for the roundtable sessions they would most like to see at TC Disrupt on October 18–20 in San Francisco, and startup fans from around the world have spoken.
Roundtables — some of the most popular sessions at TechCrunch Disrupt — are 30-minute expert-led discussions designed for up to 20 attendees who share an interest in a particular subject. The format allows for deeper conversation, questions and answers and time for attendees to connect with and explore collaborative opportunities.
Before we reveal the next five roundtables that received abundant love during our Audience Choice vote-a-thon, here’s a brief reminder from the home office:
Click and save: Buy your pass to Disrupt before prices go up on August 5th 2022, and you can over $1,000.
Ready for an interesting mix of roundtable topics? From solving real-world problems with NFTs, improving AI with better data and disrupting without destroying, to knowing when to launch out of stealth and how to make a graceful, profitable exit — you’ll be hard pressed to pick and choose. What a delightful dilemma.
NFTs for real-world problems
Speaker: Manuela Seve, the CEO of Alphaa.io
NFTs are still associated with digital files, but in reality they can be used to solve problems around authenticity, resale and community engagement across art, fashion and even real estate.
In this roundtable, we’ll chat about real use cases — developed through Alphaa.io — for certifying art and luxury goods. This includes point-of-sale integrations for legacy brands, shifting paper certificates of authenticity to NFTs, building utility and generating resale royalties.
We’ll also look at how, by using NFTs, you can offer exclusive digital environments and products to loyal followers, fund production of physical objects and experiences and create a tool that empowers creators to retain control of their work and fund any project.
Expanding applications of AI across real estate and beyond
Speaker: Sam Stone, the director of product management, pricing and data, at Opendoor
While buying a home is often one of the largest financial decisions one can make, the process went unchanged for decades until Opendoor rebuilt every part of the transactional experience to be digital, on-demand and more accessible.
Pricing systems are core to Opendoor’s DNA. By developing different machine learning model types and leveraging data science, the company provides a high level of accuracy, coverage and functionality.
This roundtable will draw on our AI, machine learning and data science expertise and focus on finding ways to develop a data-first approach to finance, integrate algorithms and humans, and improve AI with better data.
Lessons from disrupting the disruptors
Speaker: Shaival Shah, the co-founder and CEO at Ribbon
Is it possible to disrupt, be profitable and be beneficial for social good? Disruption is a natural outcome of innovation, but it could risk destroying necessary industry ecosystems. With a nuanced approach, founders can create solutions to relieve industry bottlenecks, develop products that solve tomorrow’s challenges and benefit ecosystem growth rather than flipping it on its head.
In essential industries such …read more
Discord says Android users won’t be left hanging anymore
Discord announced new measures to bring its Android app into parity with its iOS counterpart today. The changes will improve the app’s experience for Android, which has historically lagged behind the iPhone version of Discord.
Discord says the app is now “rebuilt from the ground up” using React Native, a developer framework for making apps that work uniformly across platforms. Some of the changes have been rolling out already in recently weeks, but the overhauled version of Discord for Android should be available to all users within the next few weeks.
The chat app is about as cross-platform as they come and the company offers a version of the experience for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux. Discord also recently added a new integration for Xbox Live that lets users forward their chats to their consoles.
The company says that the new development method will allow it to expedite new feature releases and bug fixes, getting those changes to the multi-platform app uniformly and more quickly than before. Prior to the new system, Android users got the short end of the stick, often waiting for features and updates that their iOS counterparts received first.
“React Native allows us to streamline and consolidate our processes, which helps our engineers work more efficiently and push out updates more frequently, especially now that the team won’t be spending as much time maintaining different codebases for different devices,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Concert Bio lands pre-seed round to fix hydroponic farming’s ‘dirty secret’
If the world wants to feed 10 billion people in 2050, it’ll need to find a better way to grow food.
Today, about half the world’s habitable land is devoted to agriculture, yet even that amount can’t provide everyone with the sort of diet enjoyed by people in developed countries. If everyone wanted to eat like Americans, we’d need to farm about 140% of the world’s habitable land.
That’s obviously not possible. The other option is to radically boost the amount of food that each acre of land can produce. While agriculture has made impressive strides over the last several decades, tripling production seems like a stretch. One solution is to skip the soil and grow crops hydroponically in greenhouses.
Hydroponic agriculture has a lot of potential — yields for lettuce, for example, can be 10 times higher than traditional farming — but it’s not without its problems. For one, it requires a lot of energy. But that’s relatively easy to solve compared with the industry’s other challenges.
“It’s a bit of a dirty secret that the industry doesn’t really like to talk about, but they have very bad disease outbreaks,” said Paul Rutten, founder and CEO of Concert Bio, a microbiome company focusing on the space.
If the wrong bacteria or fungi get inside a hydroponic greenhouse, “it’s open season — it will just take over the whole thing,” Rutten said. “It’s one big interconnected water loop, so it doesn’t go badly wrong — it goes catastrophically wrong. Everything will just die, basically.”
Rutten and his colleagues at Concert Bio are developing a system to monitor and eventually tweak the microbial ecosystem that lives within hydroponic systems. The team has landed a $1.7 million oversubscribed pre-seed round led by The Venture Collective with strategic investments from Nucleus Capital, Ponderosa Ventures, TET Ventures, Day One Ventures and Possible Ventures. A handful of angels also contributed.
Public tech’s espresso shot is quite literally the cloud
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
Last week we said that you needed to pay attention to the public markets, and we weren’t kidding. It was a huge week for earnings — with notes from all over, including the ad market and cloud spend. But this week’s Monday show was more than just another entry in the series — it was an experimental live show! Natasha joined Alex for the fun, and this is what they got into:
- Stocks up, crypto mostly flat after a solid week of gains.
- Will Alibaba delist, or not? That question matters more than just what happens to the singular Chinese tech giant. The question really belies a larger query regarding the ability of Chinese tech companies to access foreign markets more generally, places where the capital can flow at a high clip. Given China’s economic woes, cutting off that particular liquidity pipe might be risky.
- From there we went to Clearco layoffs, UiPath buying Re:infer and Oui’s first close of its new fund.
- And then we wrapped with a dive into Big Tech earnings. The key gist? These companies are too big to summarize, and without the cloud they would be struggling.
- Amazon’s shares rise on earnings beat, despite $2 billion loss
- Apple’s services revenue growth slows to $19.6 billion in Q3, reaches 860 million paid subscriptions
- Microsoft misses expectations, points to foreign exchange rates and weakened PC market
- Meta posts its first ever quarterly revenue decline
- And via CNBC, Alphabet misses on earnings and revenue for second quarter
So, what’d you think? Should we go live again? Next time with Equity-themed espresso cups that no one can enjoy other than us? Let us know, and don’t worry, the Equity team is back on Wednesday with a smashing bootstrapping show.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/01/public-tech-earnings-q2-2022-the-cloud-wins/