Sequoia heats up early-stage startup investments in India and Southeast Asia

On a recent winter morning in New Delhi, Rajan Anandan and Pieter Kemps were pacing on the floor of a five-star hotel, quizzing a group of over two dozen young startup founders about their goals. One founder set eyes on getting the most downloads in the mobile gaming category. Another pledged to reach an annual recurring revenue of $100 million in a few years.

“When you think about how big you want to get, don’t think about $100 million or $200 million in revenue,” Anandan told the gathering, now fully silent.

“Doesn’t matter what company you’re building; that’s not thinking big enough at all. There’s no enduring company on the planet that is a $100 million revenue company. An enduring company is one that generates $100 million in free cash flow a week,” he said.

The Sequoia partners spent the next two hours walking founders through over a dozen slides, emphasizing that consistent growth over a long period of time — even if not skyrocketing quarter over quarter — can conjure trillion-dollar companies.

Undergirding their strong conviction is a bet that India and Indonesia and other markets in South Asia will double and triple their GDPs in the next 10 to 15 years, and the public markets and tech companies stand to take a significantly broader role in that surge.

The combined market cap of top-five tech companies in the U.S. is over $7 trillion, contributing to over a quarter of the nation’s GDP. The top five tech firms in China, with a market cap of over $1 trillion, contribute 7% to the nation’s GDP. But top five tech companies in India and Southeast Asia have a market cap of just $140 billion, accounting for only 2% of their GDPs.

The 12 startups gathered in the presentation hall had been hand-picked from about 3,600 applicants for the latest cohort of Sequoia’s four-year-old early-stage-focused Surge program. Surge launches two cohorts every year, featuring between 10 and 20 startups each.

The new cohort features startups operating in a wide-ranging space: Calyx Global is helping businesses choose better carbon credits and reimagining the ratings system; Arintra is an AI-powered autonomous medical coding platform to help U.S. hospitals get paid better and faster by automating their insurance claims submission; Meragi is making it easier for couples to access wedding-related services; Vaaree is a curated marketplace for high-quality home products; AltWorld is building a metaverse gaming platform to help Gen Z gamers create custom 3D worlds; and Bitfrost is building virtual worlds and synthetic datasets that AI teams can use to train their models for applications.

Diri Care offers on-demand, affordable products and services for a range of health and beauty needs; Masterchow wants to help people prepare Asian meals at home; Metastable Materials is attempting to pioneer a low-cost, clean and highly scalable method of recycling lithium-ion batteries; RedBrick AI is a SaaS platform to help companies build medical imaging AI; Requestly wants to help developers and quality-assurance engineers test and debug web applications in real time; and Tentang Anak is building a parenting ecosystem in Indonesia.

The sessions on a Thursday morning, attended by TechCrunch, were among a few dozen that these founders will take part in over the coming months as Sequoia partners walk them through different aspects of building a startup. Workshops will teach founders about how to think about the total addressable market. They will be given guidance on piecing together their tech architecture. Another will help them build mental models for when to switch from chasing growth to improving unit economics. And there is also a session to help founders pencil the vision and tagline for their firms. (In a few words, explain the problem you’re solving and how you’re solving it, and don’t make things sound boring, off-brand or long.)

Sequoia has “codified” its learning from over 50 years to assess the areas where a founder needs help in their journey and the roadblocks they will likely encounter, said Anandan in an interview. The storied firm’s vast resources — there are about 30 people who work diligently with these founders for months, offering them help in scores of areas — set it apart from its rivals in India even in the early-stage of venture. There are very few venture firms operating in India that have such a large team at all, let alone for one of the focus areas.

Sequoia doesn’t have to put in this amount of effort to win early-stage deals: It began investing in India over a decade ago and has minted 38 unicorns (of 102 in total) in the nation and 11 in Southeast Asia. So what’s with the change of heart?

In the past eight years or so, many firms have attempted to tackle the early-stage investments scene in India. Y Combinator gained momentum in the South Asian market after a handful of successful early pickings such as Meesho, Razorpay and Clear, even as its ever-growing casting net in recent years has caught fewer hits. Blume Ventures and Arkam Ventures have earned a reputation for being founder-friendly and have raised larger funds, backing many of the startups that larger funds missed. Tanglin Venture Partners, Antler, and Good Capital have also earned their spots in the market.

“Sequoia was seen as a Series A and B investor back in the day,” said a high-profile investor, who in his previous stint competed with Sequoia. “Seed was not a major focus for them, but they clearly wanted to get in early as deals started to become pricier in the market.” In Anandan, they found someone who had made over 100 investments in India in his personal capacity and had the Google credentials to supercharge their efforts, said another investor.

An angel investor, who also requested anonymity to speak candidly, said Sequoia’s Surge is the Indian and SEA vehicle’s answer to Y Combinator, undercutting the American accelerator in a number of ways.

Since last year, YC has been offering startups $500,000, where $125,000 gets them 7% equity in the startup and the rest is invested on a SAFE note that converts to equity in the startup’s next round. Sequoia, in comparison, is offering up to $3 million.

“Sequoia’s boutique of offerings is also far greater with resources, support and unlike YC, Sequoia is consistent with not picking multiple startups doing the same thing in the same batch, and it’s keeping the cohort size fairly small and diverse. So you’ve a different vibe when you’re picked in Surge vs if YC picks you,” said the investor.

To be sure, even as Surge appears to have a much higher strike rate than YC in India — Surge portfolio firms Doubtnut, Scaler, Khatabook, ShopUp, Bijak, Classplus, Hevo Data, InVideo, Juno, BukuKas, Atlan, LambdaTest, Plum, Absolute, ApnaKlub are among those that have raised multiple rounds — it is yet to mint a unicorn. (The firm said its portfolio startups have raised over $2 billion in follow-on financing rounds.)

But over the years, as many investors have conceded, Surge has outpaced its rivals.

“They have built a great brand. Sequoia and Surge are the first choice for startups to raise capital from. They have high-quality programs, they promise networking with the best of the best and have a huge support team in general,” said the first investor who, like others, requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Anandan — and in fact, many other Sequoia partners over the years — has always discounted the idea that his firm is trying to compete with YC on seed deals. “We have a huge respect for them,” he said in the interview.

Lightspeed and Accel, two venture funds that are closer rivals of Sequoia in India than most others, have also attempted to build their own Surge rivals but have not been able to make similar inroads.

What made Surge get the mileage it has? After several attempts, here’s the best I could get out of Anandan: “You have to have the commitment of very high-caliber resources. We have invested more than most venture firms just through Surge. And execution is the easiest thing to talk about, but the hardest thing to do in life and in business.”

Sequoia heats up early-stage startup investments in India and Southeast Asia by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/31XM7Ux
via IFTTT

Sequoia heats up early-stage startup investments in India and Southeast Asia

On a recent winter morning in New Delhi, Rajan Anandan and Pieter Kemps were pacing on the floor of a five-star hotel, quizzing a group of over two dozen young startup founders about their goals. One founder set eyes on getting the most downloads in the mobile gaming category. Another pledged to reach an annual recurring revenue of $100 million in a few years.

“When you think about how big you want to get, don’t think about $100 million or $200 million in revenue,” Anandan told the gathering, now fully silent.

“Doesn’t matter what company you’re building; that’s not thinking big enough at all. There’s no enduring company on the planet that is a $100 million revenue company. An enduring company is one that generates $100 million in free cash flow a week,” he said.

The Sequoia partners spent the next two hours walking founders through over a dozen slides, emphasizing that consistent growth over a long period of time — even if not skyrocketing quarter over quarter — can conjure trillion-dollar companies.

Undergirding their strong conviction is a bet that India and Indonesia and other markets in South Asia will double and triple their GDPs in the next 10 to 15 years, and the public markets and tech companies stand to take a significantly broader role in that surge.

The combined market cap of top-five tech companies in the U.S. is over $7 trillion, contributing to over a quarter of the nation’s GDP. The top five tech firms in China, with a market cap of over $1 trillion, contribute 7% to the nation’s GDP. But top five tech companies in India and Southeast Asia have a market cap of just $140 billion, accounting for only 2% of their GDPs.

The 12 startups gathered in the presentation hall had been hand-picked from about 3,600 applicants for the latest cohort of Sequoia’s four-year-old early-stage-focused Surge program. Surge launches two cohorts every year, featuring between 10 and 20 startups each.

The new cohort features startups operating in a wide-ranging space: Calyx Global is helping businesses choose better carbon credits and reimagining the ratings system; Arintra is an AI-powered autonomous medical coding platform to help U.S. hospitals get paid better and faster by automating their insurance claims submission; Meragi is making it easier for couples to access wedding-related services; Vaaree is a curated marketplace for high-quality home products; AltWorld is building a metaverse gaming platform to help Gen Z gamers create custom 3D worlds; and Bitfrost is building virtual worlds and synthetic datasets that AI teams can use to train their models for applications.

Diri Care offers on-demand, affordable products and services for a range of health and beauty needs; Masterchow wants to help people prepare Asian meals at home; Metastable Materials is attempting to pioneer a low-cost, clean and highly scalable method of recycling lithium-ion batteries; RedBrick AI is a SaaS platform to help companies build medical imaging AI; Requestly wants to help developers and quality-assurance engineers test and debug web applications in real time; and Tentang Anak is building a parenting ecosystem in Indonesia.

The sessions on a Thursday morning, attended by TechCrunch, were among a few dozen that these founders will take part in over the coming months as Sequoia partners walk them through different aspects of building a startup. Workshops will teach founders about how to think about the total addressable market. They will be given guidance on piecing together their tech architecture. Another will help them build mental models for when to switch from chasing growth to improving unit economics. And there is also a session to help founders pencil the vision and tagline for their firms. (In a few words, explain the problem you’re solving and how you’re solving it, and don’t make things sound boring, off-brand or long.)

Sequoia has “codified” its learning from over 50 years to assess the areas where a founder needs help in their journey and the roadblocks they will likely encounter, said Anandan in an interview. The storied firm’s vast resources — there are about 30 people who work diligently with these founders for months, offering them help in scores of areas — set it apart from its rivals in India even in the early-stage of venture. There are very few venture firms operating in India that have such a large team at all, let alone for one of the focus areas.

Sequoia doesn’t have to put in this amount of effort to win early-stage deals: It began investing in India over a decade ago and has minted 38 unicorns (of 102 in total) in the nation and 11 in Southeast Asia. So what’s with the change of heart?

In the past eight years or so, many firms have attempted to tackle the early-stage investments scene in India. Y Combinator gained momentum in the South Asian market after a handful of successful early pickings such as Meesho, Razorpay and Clear, even as its ever-growing casting net in recent years has caught fewer hits. Blume Ventures and Arkam Ventures have earned a reputation for being founder-friendly and have raised larger funds, backing many of the startups that larger funds missed. Tanglin Venture Partners, Antler, and Good Capital have also earned their spots in the market.

“Sequoia was seen as a Series A and B investor back in the day,” said a high-profile investor, who in his previous stint competed with Sequoia. “Seed was not a major focus for them, but they clearly wanted to get in early as deals started to become pricier in the market.” In Anandan, they found someone who had made over 100 investments in India in his personal capacity and had the Google credentials to supercharge their efforts, said another investor.

An angel investor, who also requested anonymity to speak candidly, said Sequoia’s Surge is the Indian and SEA vehicle’s answer to Y Combinator, undercutting the American accelerator in a number of ways.

Since last year, YC has been offering startups $500,000, where $125,000 gets them 7% equity in the startup and the rest is invested on a SAFE note that converts to equity in the startup’s next round. Sequoia, in comparison, is offering up to $3 million.

“Sequoia’s boutique of offerings is also far greater with resources, support and unlike YC, Sequoia is consistent with not picking multiple startups doing the same thing in the same batch, and it’s keeping the cohort size fairly small and diverse. So you’ve a different vibe when you’re picked in Surge vs if YC picks you,” said the investor.

To be sure, even as Surge appears to have a much higher strike rate than YC in India — Surge portfolio firms Doubtnut, Scaler, Khatabook, ShopUp, Bijak, Classplus, Hevo Data, InVideo, Juno, BukuKas, Atlan, LambdaTest, Plum, Absolute, ApnaKlub are among those that have raised multiple rounds — it is yet to mint a unicorn. (The firm said its portfolio startups have raised over $2 billion in follow-on financing rounds.)

But over the years, as many investors have conceded, Surge has outpaced its rivals.

“They have built a great brand. Sequoia and Surge are the first choice for startups to raise capital from. They have high-quality programs, they promise networking with the best of the best and have a huge support team in general,” said the first investor who, like others, requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Anandan — and in fact, many other Sequoia partners over the years — has always discounted the idea that his firm is trying to compete with YC on seed deals. “We have a huge respect for them,” he said in the interview.

Lightspeed and Accel, two venture funds that are closer rivals of Sequoia in India than most others, have also attempted to build their own Surge rivals but have not been able to make similar inroads.

What made Surge get the mileage it has? After several attempts, here’s the best I could get out of Anandan: “You have to have the commitment of very high-caliber resources. We have invested more than most venture firms just through Surge. And execution is the easiest thing to talk about, but the hardest thing to do in life and in business.”

Sequoia heats up early-stage startup investments in India and Southeast Asia by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/28/sequoia-heats-up-early-stage-startup-investments-in-india-and-southeast-asia/

E-commerce aggregator Una Brands lands $30M just five months after its Series B

Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has raised $30 million in pre-Series C financing just five months after announcing its $30 million Series B funding that was raised in September of last year. 

Northstar Group, a regional private equity firm, is the sole investor in Una Brands’ latest round, which involves a mix of equity and debt, though Una Brands declined to break out how much equity versus debt the newest round involves. It also declined to disclose its valuation when asked.

The company has now raised more than $100 million in total funding since its inception in 2021, and says it will use the new capital to continue developing its platform and buying up more direct-to-consumer brands in categories like home and living, mom and baby, and beauty and personal care. 

Una Brands has differentiated itself as an Asia-focused e-commerce aggregator capable of operating brands across all channels, such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia, compared to some of its peers, which focus on brands that sell on Amazon. 

According to Kevin Boo, the company’s director of corporate development, Una Brands’ key differentiator is its diversification in geography, e-commerce channels and product categories, all of which provide the company a long-term competitive advantage and greater defensibility against any industry headwinds, he said.

Boo added that due to the macroeconomic environment, the company is also focused on profitability, telling TechCrunch that Una Brands was on a $70 million revenue run rate for the latest fiscal year and that it expects to achieve EBITDA profitability this year. (The startup said in September it had annualized revenue of more than $50 million.)

E-commerce aggregator Una Brands gets $30M to acquire more APAC brands

The company, which employs more than 200 people across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, India and China, has acquired over 20 e-commerce brands in Asia. Its flagship brands, Singaporean furniture brands ErgoTune and EverDesk+, are now in Asia and recently expanded into the U.S. The company also has the Australian “unbreakable” drinkware startup Bellaforte in its portfolio. 

In a statement, Una Brands praised its newest investor, saying: “We believe [Northstar’s] deep knowledge of the Southeast Asian markets and strong e-commerce experience will be very valuable to Una Brands as we look to double down our operations across the region.”

Some of Una Brands’ earlier investors include Alpha JWC Ventures, White Star Capital, 468 Capital, 500 Global, Claret Capital Partners, Global Founders Capital and Kingsway Capital.  

What does the future look like for e-commerce aggregators?

E-commerce aggregator Una Brands lands $30M just five months after its Series B  by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/a0l9GfY
via IFTTT

E-commerce aggregator Una Brands lands $30M just five months after its Series B

Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has raised $30 million in pre-Series C financing just five months after announcing its $30 million Series B funding that was raised in September of last year. 

Northstar Group, a regional private equity firm, is the sole investor in Una Brands’ latest round, which involves a mix of equity and debt, though Una Brands declined to break out how much equity versus debt the newest round involves. It also declined to disclose its valuation when asked.

The company has now raised more than $100 million in total funding since its inception in 2021, and says it will use the new capital to continue developing its platform and buying up more direct-to-consumer brands in categories like home and living, mom and baby, and beauty and personal care. 

Una Brands has differentiated itself as an Asia-focused e-commerce aggregator capable of operating brands across all channels, such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia, compared to some of its peers, which focus on brands that sell on Amazon. 

According to Kevin Boo, the company’s director of corporate development, Una Brands’ key differentiator is its diversification in geography, e-commerce channels and product categories, all of which provide the company a long-term competitive advantage and greater defensibility against any industry headwinds, he said.

Boo added that due to the macroeconomic environment, the company is also focused on profitability, telling TechCrunch that Una Brands was on a $70 million revenue run rate for the latest fiscal year and that it expects to achieve EBITDA profitability this year. (The startup said in September it had annualized revenue of more than $50 million.)

E-commerce aggregator Una Brands gets $30M to acquire more APAC brands

The company, which employs more than 200 people across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, India and China, has acquired over 20 e-commerce brands in Asia. Its flagship brands, Singaporean furniture brands ErgoTune and EverDesk+, are now in Asia and recently expanded into the U.S. The company also has the Australian “unbreakable” drinkware startup Bellaforte in its portfolio. 

In a statement, Una Brands praised its newest investor, saying: “We believe [Northstar’s] deep knowledge of the Southeast Asian markets and strong e-commerce experience will be very valuable to Una Brands as we look to double down our operations across the region.”

Some of Una Brands’ earlier investors include Alpha JWC Ventures, White Star Capital, 468 Capital, 500 Global, Claret Capital Partners, Global Founders Capital and Kingsway Capital.  

What does the future look like for e-commerce aggregators?

E-commerce aggregator Una Brands lands $30M just five months after its Series B  by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/28/e-commerce-aggregator-una-brands-lands-30m-just-five-months-after-its-series-b/

Daily Crunch: Remote workspace platform Gable raises $12M Series A

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here.

TikTok just can’t dodge the watchful eyes of the watchmen: Earlier this year, Taylor reported that a string of universities banned TikTok from devices. Last week, Paul reported that the European Commission threw the kibosh on having TikTok on work devices, and today, Amanda reported that Canada followed suit for its government devices. The bans are coming down over concerns that China-based TikTok can be used to spy on its users.

— Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Raise the roof: Continuing to work remotely in 2023 remains a hotly contested issue in today’s workplaces. What if we told you that Gable can give your company better remote working options? Still with us? Okay, Haje writes about how Gable raised $12 million to not only show your remote employees a nearby workplace, but also show them if any of their colleagues are there so they can connect.
• The world in the palm of your hand: Reporting from Mobile World Congress, Brian sat down with OnePlus’ COO Kinder Liu to discuss the company’s first foldable phone.
• Closing the feedback loop: Engaged customers are where your company can get some of its best ideas for new products. Cycle snagged $6 million to help companies collect all of that customer feedback for a more streamlined product management process, Romain writes.

Startups and VC

Bain Capital Ventures is doubling down on what works, literally, Natasha M reports. The venture firm, one of Bain’s 11 financial divisions, has raised $1.9 billion across two funds, one for seed for growth-stage startups that hovers around $1.4 billion, and one for later-stage opportunities that closed around a third of that, at $493 million.

Devin reports that the FTC, fresh off announcing a whole new division taking on “snake oil” in tech, has sent another shot across the bows of the overeager industry with a sassy warning to “keep your AI claims in check.”

And we have five more for you:

• A job well done, Kyle: Bonusly is a startup aiming to help employees get recognized for quality work, and it just told TechCrunch it raised $18.9 million, writes Kyle. He deserves a bonus for an article well written.
• DTCtR: Christine asks, Want to go from direct-to-consumer to retail? This startup has a platform for that.
• Yeah, you can do that: Entitle raises $15 million seed round to modernize permissions management, Frederic reports.
• Who markets the marketeers: Emily Kramer and Kathleen Estreich started a VC firm to scale what “founders are starving for,” Natasha M reports.
• A high-flying startup: Astroscale closes new funding to grow in-orbit servicing and orbital debris cleanup tech, Aria reports.

Active learning is the future of generative AI: Here’s how to leverage it

Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The generative AI models that have made headlines and memes in recent months weren’t cooked up in someone’s garage or basement.

“Only well-funded institutions with access to a massive amount of GPU power are capable of building these models,” says Encord co-founder Eric Landau, who recommends using the iterative process of active learning to “leapfrog the AI production gap and build models capable of running in the wild more quickly.”

In a TC+ post aimed at ML team managers, he shares tactics for leveraging active learning and addresses the perennial buy-versus-build dilemma.

Active learning is the future of generative AI: Here’s how to leverage it

Three more from the TC+ team:

• A show of force: With 5 activists in the mix, Salesforce will report earnings Wednesday, reports Ron.
• Buy now, profit later: How much progress is Klarna making toward profitability? wonders Alex.
• A legal influence: Nicholas Saady explores key legal issues for influencers and brands (and how to deal with them).

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

As you can see from our stories today, Brian has been writing a lot about new phones lately. In this particular article, he spoke with Nothing’s Carl Pei about the company’s expansion strategy and its upcoming Phone (2) and how it will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 series.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is really going all in on this artificial intelligence thing for Bing. Frederic reports that the software giant brings the new Bing to Windows 11 while also launching Phone Link for iOS.

And we have five more for you:

• Give me fiverr: Fiverr now has a white-glove offering to help businesses hire project managers, Kyle writes.
• Give me your best interconnected web: Flipboard now has a Mastodon integration among other Fediverse offerings, Sarah reports.
• Give me a game fix: Lorenzo entered the world of gamers trying to fix a video game “taken over” by hackers, and what results is a delightful read.
• Give me a spot south of the border: Mexico’s president confirms that Tesla’s next factory will be in that country. Kirsten has more.
• Give me a hot minute: Mike writes that 6G is coming, just not yet.

Daily Crunch: Remote workspace platform Gable raises $12M Series A by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Lz54VYu
via IFTTT

Daily Crunch: Remote workspace platform Gable raises $12M Series A

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here.

TikTok just can’t dodge the watchful eyes of the watchmen: Earlier this year, Taylor reported that a string of universities banned TikTok from devices. Last week, Paul reported that the European Commission threw the kibosh on having TikTok on work devices, and today, Amanda reported that Canada followed suit for its government devices. The bans are coming down over concerns that China-based TikTok can be used to spy on its users.

— Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Raise the roof: Continuing to work remotely in 2023 remains a hotly contested issue in today’s workplaces. What if we told you that Gable can give your company better remote working options? Still with us? Okay, Haje writes about how Gable raised $12 million to not only show your remote employees a nearby workplace, but also show them if any of their colleagues are there so they can connect.
• The world in the palm of your hand: Reporting from Mobile World Congress, Brian sat down with OnePlus’ COO Kinder Liu to discuss the company’s first foldable phone.
• Closing the feedback loop: Engaged customers are where your company can get some of its best ideas for new products. Cycle snagged $6 million to help companies collect all of that customer feedback for a more streamlined product management process, Romain writes.

Startups and VC

Bain Capital Ventures is doubling down on what works, literally, Natasha M reports. The venture firm, one of Bain’s 11 financial divisions, has raised $1.9 billion across two funds, one for seed for growth-stage startups that hovers around $1.4 billion, and one for later-stage opportunities that closed around a third of that, at $493 million.

Devin reports that the FTC, fresh off announcing a whole new division taking on “snake oil” in tech, has sent another shot across the bows of the overeager industry with a sassy warning to “keep your AI claims in check.”

And we have five more for you:

• A job well done, Kyle: Bonusly is a startup aiming to help employees get recognized for quality work, and it just told TechCrunch it raised $18.9 million, writes Kyle. He deserves a bonus for an article well written.
• DTCtR: Christine asks, Want to go from direct-to-consumer to retail? This startup has a platform for that.
• Yeah, you can do that: Entitle raises $15 million seed round to modernize permissions management, Frederic reports.
• Who markets the marketeers: Emily Kramer and Kathleen Estreich started a VC firm to scale what “founders are starving for,” Natasha M reports.
• A high-flying startup: Astroscale closes new funding to grow in-orbit servicing and orbital debris cleanup tech, Aria reports.

Active learning is the future of generative AI: Here’s how to leverage it

Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The generative AI models that have made headlines and memes in recent months weren’t cooked up in someone’s garage or basement.

“Only well-funded institutions with access to a massive amount of GPU power are capable of building these models,” says Encord co-founder Eric Landau, who recommends using the iterative process of active learning to “leapfrog the AI production gap and build models capable of running in the wild more quickly.”

In a TC+ post aimed at ML team managers, he shares tactics for leveraging active learning and addresses the perennial buy-versus-build dilemma.

Active learning is the future of generative AI: Here’s how to leverage it

Three more from the TC+ team:

• A show of force: With 5 activists in the mix, Salesforce will report earnings Wednesday, reports Ron.
• Buy now, profit later: How much progress is Klarna making toward profitability? wonders Alex.
• A legal influence: Nicholas Saady explores key legal issues for influencers and brands (and how to deal with them).

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

As you can see from our stories today, Brian has been writing a lot about new phones lately. In this particular article, he spoke with Nothing’s Carl Pei about the company’s expansion strategy and its upcoming Phone (2) and how it will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 series.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is really going all in on this artificial intelligence thing for Bing. Frederic reports that the software giant brings the new Bing to Windows 11 while also launching Phone Link for iOS.

And we have five more for you:

• Give me fiverr: Fiverr now has a white-glove offering to help businesses hire project managers, Kyle writes.
• Give me your best interconnected web: Flipboard now has a Mastodon integration among other Fediverse offerings, Sarah reports.
• Give me a game fix: Lorenzo entered the world of gamers trying to fix a video game “taken over” by hackers, and what results is a delightful read.
• Give me a spot south of the border: Mexico’s president confirms that Tesla’s next factory will be in that country. Kirsten has more.
• Give me a hot minute: Mike writes that 6G is coming, just not yet.

Daily Crunch: Remote workspace platform Gable raises $12M Series A by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/28/daily-crunch-remote-workspace-platform-gable-raises-12m-series-a/

Waymo to test driverless rides with employees in Los Angeles

Waymo will begin testing its autonomous Jaguar I-Paces without a human safety operator in Los Angeles in the next couple of weeks. This is the company’s next step on its path to commercializing robotaxi services in its second California city.

To start, only employees will be able to hail rides in the driverless robotaxis. While Waymo has been mapping several LA neighborhoods, including Downtown, Miracle Mile, Koreatown and Westwood, since 2019, the company will start its rider-only testing in Santa Monica before gradually ramping up. Services will be available “outside of traditional rush hour times,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

The Alphabet-owned self-driving technology company first announced plans to launch a 24/7 robotaxi service in LA back in October. A month later, the California Department of Motor Vehicles granted Waymo a modification to its existing driverless testing permit so it could expand beyond San Francisco and into Los Angeles.

At that time, the DMV also granted Waymo permission to begin charging for services, like delivery, driven fully autonomously in San Francisco. Today, Waymo operates a commercial robotaxi service in the city, but it can only charge passengers for rides when a human safety operator is in the front seat. The company is still awaiting the final permit it needs from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to charge for driverless robotaxi services in San Francisco.

Waymo wouldn’t say when it expects to open driverless rides to members of its Trusted Tester program, members of the public who have signed non-disclosure agreements to participate. To do that, it’ll need to secure yet another permit from the CPUC, the driverless pilot permit.

There are a few more permits to secure before Waymo can begin a proper commercial robotaxi service in LA, which might mean more months of testing and deployment. The company is confident that it’ll be able to achieve faster scale in LA than it has in San Francisco due to Waymo’s “demonstrated drivership and quality of on-road operations,” as well as the capabilities of its fifth-generation Driver.

“Thrilled by the data confirming, once again, how well our ML-based 5th-gen Driver generalizes across cities!” tweeted Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov.

Waymo also recently opened to members of the public fully autonomous rides from downtown Phoenix to the airport. The company has been running a paid robotaxi service in Chandler, just outside of Phoenix, since 2020.

Waymo to test driverless rides with employees in Los Angeles by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/27/waymo-to-test-driverless-rides-with-employees-in-los-angeles/

FTC warns tech: ‘Keep your AI claims in check’

The FTC, fresh off announcing a whole new division taking on “snake oil” in tech, has sent another shot across the bows of the over-eager industry with a sassy warning to “keep your AI claims in check.”

I wrote a little while ago (okay, five years) that “AI Powered” is the meaningless tech equivalent of “all natural,” but it has progressed beyond cheeky. It seems like just about every product out there claims to implement AI in some way or another, yet few go into detail — and fewer still can tell you exactly it works and why.

The FTC doesn’t like it. Whatever someone means when they say “powered by artificial intelligence” or some version thereof, “One thing is for sure: it’s a marketing term,” the agency writes. “And at the FTC, one thing we know about hot marketing terms is that some advertisers won’t be able to stop themselves from overusing and abusing them.”

Everyone is saying AI is reinventing everything, but it’s one thing to do that at a TED talk; it’s quite another to claim it as an official part of your product. And the FTC wants marketers to know that these claims may count as “false or unsubstantiated,” something the agency is very experienced with regulating.

So if your product uses AI or your marketing team claims it does, the FTC asks you to consider:

• Are you exaggerating what your AI product can do? If you’re making science fiction claims that the product can’t back up — like reading emotions, enhancing productivity, or predicting behavior — you may want to tone those down.
• Are you promising that your AI product does something better than a non-AI product? Sure, you can make those weird claims like “4 out of 5 dentists prefer” your AI-powered toothbrush, but you’d better have all 4 of them on the record. Claiming superiority because of your AI needs proof, “and if such proof is impossible to get, then don’t make the claim.”
• Are you aware of the risks? “Reasonably foreseeable risks and impact” sounds a bit hazy, but your lawyers can help you understand why you shouldn’t push the envelope here. If your product doesn’t work if certain people use it because you didn’t even try, or its results are biased because your dataset was poorly constructed… you’re gonna have a bad time. “And you can’t say you’re not responsible because that technology is a ‘black box’ you can’t understand or didn’t know how to test,” the FTC adds. If you don’t understand it and can’t test it, why are you offering it, let alone advertising it?
• Does the product actually use AI at all? As I pointed out long ago, claims that something is “AI-powered” because one engineer used an ML-based tool to optimize a curve or something doesn’t mean your product uses AI, yet plenty seem to think that a drop of AI means the whole bucket is full of it. The FTC thinks otherwise.

“You don’t need a machine to predict what the FTC might do when those claims are unsupported,” it concludes, ominously.

Since the agency already put out some common-sense guidelines for AI claims back in 2021 (there were a lot of “detect and predict COVID” ones then), it directs questions to that document, which includes citations and precedents.

FTC’s new Office of Technology will help mop up tech ‘oozing with snake oil’

FTC warns tech: ‘Keep your AI claims in check’ by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/pVoHfDj
via IFTTT

Chris Rock gears up to talk about “The Slap” in a live performance on Netflix this Saturday

Chris Rock is a widely beloved comic; he’s also a savvy entrepreneur. Though Rock might have talked with media outlets about being assaulted by actor-producer Will Smith last March during the Academy Awards — he could have also chosen to sue Smith — he instead stayed mum, turning “the slap” into material for his first tour in five years.

Now, Rock is taking that material to a much broader audience courtesy of Netflix, which is airing Rock’s newest set live from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore this coming Saturday, March 4, at 10 pm Eastern time.

It’s a big deal for both Rock and Netflix. Netflix, which began experimenting with an ad-supported tier in November and began cracking down on shared password use earlier this month, has a lot riding on the evening, given it will be the first live-streaming event in its 25-year history. (As reported by TC’s Lauren Forristal, Netflix confirmed in May of last year that it would roll out a live-streaming capability that center on unscripted content, competition shows, reality reunion specials, live comedy shows and a future “Netflix is a Joke” festival.)

Little surprise that in addition to Rock, the streaming giant also just announced live pre-and post-shows to bookend his performance. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the plan is to kick off the evening with live commentary from Rock’s comedian friends, including Amy Schumer and Jerry Seinfeld. Later in the evening, Rock’s fellow SNL alums David Spade and Dana Carvey will emcee a post-show — “The Show After the Show” — with guests that include actor and comedian JB Smoove and basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

A new Variety report may also calm the nerves of Rock fans who don’t want to miss a minute of the special. It says Netflix will enable members to rewind and pause, as well as watch the show live. If a subscriber joins late, he or she can also opt to “play from the beginning,” and if there isn’t time to watch it all, the title will remain under the “continue watching” row.

Though the live aspect of the show was agreed upon back in September, “Selective Outrage” represents the second of two comedy specials that Rock committed to create for Netflix in a $40 million deal back in 2016.  (The widely seen first special, “Tamborine,” aired in February 2018.)

As for Rock, a four-time Emmy Award winner (he has received 19 nominations altogether), the show seems likely to cement his status as one of the most beloved comics of his era — not that audiences needed another reason, seemingly.

Indeed, though Rock’s tour was announced almost exactly one month before the Academy Awards show last year, ticket sales shot through the roof in the aftermath of “the slap,” as did their price, as did the number of shows Rock performed. Days after the show, this editor paid a small fortune to see Rock perform in San Francisco on a date that was added after the tour was announced.

During that SF performance, Rock spent less than five minutes of his roughly 90-minute set on what happened with Smith. Though the audience thrilled to hear it, they seemed just as enthralled with Rock’s other material, some of which touched on what his parents endured as young Black Americans in the early 60s, along with Rock’s hilarious observations about raising two very privileged daughters as someone who — to this day, Rock said of himself — still identifies as “poor.”

Whether Rock has expanded on the particular part of the show that audiences most want to see, only his camp will know until Saturday, but if the prospect of addressing that shocking smack in the face drives viewership, all the better for Netflix, which has been on an upswing of late. Last month, it said it added 7.66 million paid subscribers during the fourth quarter of last year, far more than the 4.57 million Wall Street expected.

In the meantime, getting socked has been good for the Chris Rock business. Rock reportedly performed more than 100 shows last year, including in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. According to data submitted to the concert trade publication Pollstar, as first reported in the Wall Street Journal, the shows grossed about $700,000 per night in ticket sales on average.

Chris Rock gears up to talk about “The Slap” in a live performance on Netflix this Saturday by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Q1nj04r
via IFTTT

FTC warns tech: ‘Keep your AI claims in check’

The FTC, fresh off announcing a whole new division taking on “snake oil” in tech, has sent another shot across the bows of the over-eager industry with a sassy warning to “keep your AI claims in check.”

I wrote a little while ago (okay, five years) that “AI Powered” is the meaningless tech equivalent of “all natural,” but it has progressed beyond cheeky. It seems like just about every product out there claims to implement AI in some way or another, yet few go into detail — and fewer still can tell you exactly it works and why.

The FTC doesn’t like it. Whatever someone means when they say “powered by artificial intelligence” or some version thereof, “One thing is for sure: it’s a marketing term,” the agency writes. “And at the FTC, one thing we know about hot marketing terms is that some advertisers won’t be able to stop themselves from overusing and abusing them.”

Everyone is saying AI is reinventing everything, but it’s one thing to do that at a TED talk; it’s quite another to claim it as an official part of your product. And the FTC wants marketers to know that these claims may count as “false or unsubstantiated,” something the agency is very experienced with regulating.

So if your product uses AI or your marketing team claims it does, the FTC asks you to consider:

• Are you exaggerating what your AI product can do? If you’re making science fiction claims that the product can’t back up — like reading emotions, enhancing productivity, or predicting behavior — you may want to tone those down.
• Are you promising that your AI product does something better than a non-AI product? Sure, you can make those weird claims like “4 out of 5 dentists prefer” your AI-powered toothbrush, but you’d better have all 4 of them on the record. Claiming superiority because of your AI needs proof, “and if such proof is impossible to get, then don’t make the claim.”
• Are you aware of the risks? “Reasonably foreseeable risks and impact” sounds a bit hazy, but your lawyers can help you understand why you shouldn’t push the envelope here. If your product doesn’t work if certain people use it because you didn’t even try, or its results are biased because your dataset was poorly constructed… you’re gonna have a bad time. “And you can’t say you’re not responsible because that technology is a ‘black box’ you can’t understand or didn’t know how to test,” the FTC adds. If you don’t understand it and can’t test it, why are you offering it, let alone advertising it?
• Does the product actually use AI at all? As I pointed out long ago, claims that something is “AI-powered” because one engineer used an ML-based tool to optimize a curve or something doesn’t mean your product uses AI, yet plenty seem to think that a drop of AI means the whole bucket is full of it. The FTC thinks otherwise.

“You don’t need a machine to predict what the FTC might do when those claims are unsupported,” it concludes, ominously.

Since the agency already put out some common-sense guidelines for AI claims back in 2021 (there were a lot of “detect and predict COVID” ones then), it directs questions to that document, which includes citations and precedents.

FTC’s new Office of Technology will help mop up tech ‘oozing with snake oil’

FTC warns tech: ‘Keep your AI claims in check’ by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/27/ftc-warns-tech-keep-your-ai-claims-in-check/

Chris Rock gears up to talk about “The Slap” in a live performance on Netflix this Saturday

Chris Rock is a widely beloved comic; he’s also a savvy entrepreneur. Though Rock might have talked with media outlets about being assaulted by actor-producer Will Smith last March during the Academy Awards — he could have also chosen to sue Smith — he instead stayed mum, turning The Slap into material for his first tour in five years.

Now, Rock is taking that material to a much broader audience courtesy of Netflix, which is airing Rock’s newest set live from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore this coming Saturday, March 4, at 10 pm Eastern time.

It’s a big deal for both Rock and Netflix. Netflix, which began experimenting with an ad-supported tier in November and began cracking down on shared password use earlier this month, has a lot riding on the evening, given it will be the first live-streaming event in its 25-year history. (As reported by TC’s Lauren Forristal, Netflix confirmed in May of last year that it would roll out a live-streaming capability that center on unscripted content, competition shows, reality reunion specials, live comedy shows and a future “Netflix is a Joke” festival.)

Little surprise that in addition to Rock, the streaming giant also just announced live pre-and post-shows to bookend his performance. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the plan is to kick off the evening with live commentary from Rock’s comedian friends, including Amy Schumer and Jerry Seinfeld. Later in the evening, Rock’s fellow SNL alums David Spade and Dana Carvey will emcee a post-show — “The Show After the Show” — with guests that include actor and comedian JB Smoove and basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

A new Variety report may also calm the nerves of Rock fans who don’t want to miss a minute of the special. It says Netflix will enable members to rewind and pause, as well as watch the show live. If a subscriber joins late, he or she can also opt to “play from the beginning,” and if there isn’t time to watch it all, the title will remain under the “continue watching” row.

Though the live aspect of the show was agreed upon back in September, “Selective Outrage” represents the second of two comedy specials that Rock committed to create for Netflix in a $40 million deal back in 2016.  (The widely seen first special, “Tamborine,” aired in February 2018.)

As for Rock, a four-time Emmy Award winner (he has received 19 nominations altogether), the show seems likely to cement his status as one of the most beloved comics of his era — not that audiences needed another reason, seemingly.

Indeed, though Rock’s tour was announced almost exactly one month before the Academy Awards show last year, ticket sales shot through the roof in the aftermath of The Slap, as did their price, as did the number of shows Rock performed. Days after the show, this editor paid a small fortune to see Rock perform in San Francisco on a date that was added after the tour was announced.

During that SF performance, Rock spent less than five minutes of his roughly 90-minute set on what happened with Smith. Though the audience thrilled to hear it, they seemed just as enthralled with Rock’s other material, some of which touched on what his parents endured as young Black Americans in the early 60s, along with Rock’s hilarious observations about raising two very privileged daughters as someone who — to this day, Rock said of himself — still identifies as “poor.”

Whether Rock has expanded on the particular part of the show that audiences most want to see, only his camp will know until Saturday, but if the prospect of addressing that shocking smack in the face drives viewership, all the better for Netflix, which has been on an upswing of late. Last month, it said it added 7.66 million paid subscribers during the fourth quarter of last year, far more than the 4.57 million Wall Street expected.

In the meantime, the slap has been good for the Chris Rock business, certainly. Rock reportedly performed more than 100 shows last year, including in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. According to data submitted to the concert trade publication Pollstar, as first reported in the Wall Street Journal, the shows grossed about $700,000 per night in ticket sales on average.

Chris Rock gears up to talk about “The Slap” in a live performance on Netflix this Saturday by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/27/chris-rock-gears-up-to-talk-about-the-slap-in-a-live-performance-on-netflix-this-saturday/

Max Q: It’s the final countdown

Hello and welcome back to Max Q! Today we’re thinking of the four astronauts heading to the International Space Station. See you guys soon!

In this issue:

• Artificial gravity space station startup Vast makes its first acquisition
• Relativity Space sets a launch date
• News from Momentus, United Launch Alliance and more

Vast acquires Launcher in quest to build artificial gravity space stations

Vast Space, a company that emerged from stealth last September with the aim of building artificial gravity space stations in low Earth orbit, has acquired space tug startup Launcher.

The acquisition, a first for Vast, will give the company access to Launcher’s Orbiter space tug and payload platform and its liquid rocket engine, E-2. Under the terms of the deal, Vast will also absorb all of Launcher’s talent, including Launcher founder Max Haot, who will join as president.

The deal could be a big accelerator for Vast; the company’s founder, billionaire crypto pioneer Jed McCaleb, said Vast will use the Orbiter tug to test space station subsystems and components in orbit as soon as June of this year, and then again around October. More generally, McCaleb said that acquisitions are not part of Vast’s larger strategy. “Acquisitions typically go pretty wrong,” he said. “For the most part, the combined team now plus a few more folks, we’ll be able to do quite a bit.”

Vast Space station. Image Credits: Vast Space

Relativity Space sets March launch date for Terran 1

Relativity Space has finally received its launch license from U.S. regulators, clearing the way for the company’s first-ever orbital flight attempt on March 8.

Relativity will be attempting to send its lightweight rocket Terran 1 to orbit for the first time, in a demonstration mission that will not carry any customer payloads. The company is quick to point out that, at 110-feet tall and 85% 3D-printed by mass, Terran 1 is the largest 3D-printed object to attempt orbital flight and the largest 3D-printed object to exist, period. Sending it to space will be no small feat, and indeed, this flight will see Relativity’s 3D-printed architecture and approach put to the test for the first time.

You’ll be able to watch a livestream of the launch on YouTube or via Relativity’s website.

Relativity Space Terran 1. Image Credits: Relativity Space

More news from TC and beyond

• Kreios Space, a startup developing an electric propulsion system for very low Earth orbit, landed a new investment from Swiss investment firm SpaceQuest Ventures. (SpaceQuest)
• Momentus released a slew of news this week: It announced three missions for 2023; a $10 million investment; that it was settling a lawsuit for $8.5 million, of which around $4 million is expected to be paid by insurance; and that its Vigoride-5 spacecraft is in good health. (Momentus/Momentus/Momentus/Momentus)
• Payload’s Mo Islam offered a really smart prediction of SpaceX’s 2023 revenue, adding that he expects a Starlink IPO is likely over the next 18-24 months. (Payload)
• Polaris Dawn, the first private spaceflight mission of billionaire Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program, is now scheduled to launch this summer. (Polaris)
• SpaceX is changing prices for Starlink residential customers, raising prices in some “limited capacity” areas but lowering prices in “excess capacity” areas. (CNBC)
• Terran Orbital scored a $2.4 billion contract to design and build 300 satellites for Rivada Space Networks, which will be paid out via “milestone payments,” according to filings. (SEC)
• Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants to establish a Texas Space Commission, and is requesting $350 million from legislators to fund the commission for two years. It’s unclear how that money will be spent. (Ars Technica)
• Samsung is planning to integrate cell phone-to-satellite tech into its line of “Exynos” modem processors, and presumably to future smartphones. (Samsung)
• United Launch Alliance is targeting May 4 for the debut launch of its Vulcan rocket, CEO Tory Bruno told reporters on a call.

Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend. 

Max Q: It’s the final countdown by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/0oAwKnF
via IFTTT

Max Q: It’s the final countdown

Hello and welcome back to Max Q! Today we’re thinking of the four astronauts heading to the International Space Station. See you guys soon!

In this issue:

• Artificial gravity space station startup Vast makes its first acquisition
• Relativity Space sets a launch date
• News from Momentus, United Launch Alliance and more

Vast acquires Launcher in quest to build artificial gravity space stations

Vast Space, a company that emerged from stealth last September with the aim of building artificial gravity space stations in low Earth orbit, has acquired space tug startup Launcher.

The acquisition, a first for Vast, will give the company access to Launcher’s Orbiter space tug and payload platform and its liquid rocket engine, E-2. Under the terms of the deal, Vast will also absorb all of Launcher’s talent, including Launcher founder Max Haot, who will join as president.

The deal could be a big accelerator for Vast; the company’s founder, billionaire crypto pioneer Jed McCaleb, said Vast will use the Orbiter tug to test space station subsystems and components in orbit as soon as June of this year, and then again around October. More generally, McCaleb said that acquisitions are not part of Vast’s larger strategy. “Acquisitions typically go pretty wrong,” he said. “For the most part, the combined team now plus a few more folks, we’ll be able to do quite a bit.”

Vast Space station. Image Credits: Vast Space

Relativity Space sets March launch date for Terran 1

Relativity Space has finally received its launch license from U.S. regulators, clearing the way for the company’s first-ever orbital flight attempt on March 8.

Relativity will be attempting to send its lightweight rocket Terran 1 to orbit for the first time, in a demonstration mission that will not carry any customer payloads. The company is quick to point out that, at 110-feet tall and 85% 3D-printed by mass, Terran 1 is the largest 3D-printed object to attempt orbital flight and the largest 3D-printed object to exist, period. Sending it to space will be no small feat, and indeed, this flight will see Relativity’s 3D-printed architecture and approach put to the test for the first time.

You’ll be able to watch a livestream of the launch on YouTube or via Relativity’s website.

Relativity Space Terran 1. Image Credits: Relativity Space

More news from TC and beyond

• Kreios Space, a startup developing an electric propulsion system for very low Earth orbit, landed a new investment from Swiss investment firm SpaceQuest Ventures. (SpaceQuest)
• Momentus released a slew of news this week: It announced three missions for 2023; a $10 million investment; that it was settling a lawsuit for $8.5 million, of which around $4 million is expected to be paid by insurance; and that its Vigoride-5 spacecraft is in good health. (Momentus/Momentus/Momentus/Momentus)
• Payload’s Mo Islam offered a really smart prediction of SpaceX’s 2023 revenue, adding that he expects a Starlink IPO is likely over the next 18-24 months. (Payload)
• Polaris Dawn, the first private spaceflight mission of billionaire Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program, is now scheduled to launch this summer. (Polaris)
• SpaceX is changing prices for Starlink residential customers, raising prices in some “limited capacity” areas but lowering prices in “excess capacity” areas. (CNBC)
• Terran Orbital scored a $2.4 billion contract to design and build 300 satellites for Rivada Space Networks, which will be paid out via “milestone payments,” according to filings. (SEC)
• Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants to establish a Texas Space Commission, and is requesting $350 million from legislators to fund the commission for two years. It’s unclear how that money will be spent. (Ars Technica)
• Samsung is planning to integrate cell phone-to-satellite tech into its line of “Exynos” modem processors, and presumably to future smartphones. (Samsung)
• United Launch Alliance is targeting May 4 for the debut launch of its Vulcan rocket, CEO Tory Bruno told reporters on a call.

Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend. 

Max Q: It’s the final countdown by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/27/max-q-its-the-final-countdown/