Bird founder Travis VanderZanden officially leaves the nest

Travis VanderZanden’s slow-motion departure from Bird is now complete. The scooter rental company announced in a late-Friday news dump that the executive has stepped down from his role as chairperson of Bird’s board, “effective immediately.”

Replacing VanderZanden is John Bitove, who played a role in saving Bird’s bacon this past December via its merger with Bird Canada.

VanderZanden had led the micromobility company from its inception as its president and founding CEO, but that all changed last year when Bird’s declining stock price culminated in a delisting warning from the New York Stock Exchange. Soon after, VanderZanden stepped down from his role as president, handing over the title to Bird’s then-chief operating officer Shane Torchiana. Torchiana went on to assume the CEO post as well several months later. At the time, VanderZanden called the reorg a “long-planned transition.”

According to Bird, VanderZanden “decided to step down [from the board] to pursue other ventures.” In a similarly vague yet intriguing statement, VanderZanden added that he intends to return to his “entrepreneurial roots and incubate some new ideas.”

TechCrunch has reached out for more information on the founder’s departure and will update this story when we hear back.

Bird founder Travis VanderZanden officially leaves the nest by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/30/bird-founder-travis-vanderzanden-steps-down-board/

YouTube limits ad blocker usage in new test

YouTube is running a new experiment to limit usage on ad blockers by asking users to turn it off or buy a premium subscription after three videos.

Users on Reddit posted screenshots of the streaming service showing a warning sign to people using an ad-blocking extension on desktop as spotted first by Bleeping Computer. The warning says “Video player will be blocked after 3 videos.” The message below states that “It looks like you maybe using an ad blocker. Video playback will be blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled.”

Image Credits: u/Reddit_n_Me

Another user posted a screenshot after YouTube blocked access to the video. “Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service,” the message reads. Some users have experienced YouTube restricting ad blockers on mobile as well.

Image Credits: Reddit (opens in a new window)

The company told TechCrunch that this warning sign is part of an experiment.

“We’re running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium,” it said in a statement.

Additionally, Google said that if users don’t allow YouTube on the ad blocker, it may disable playback for some time in “extreme cases.”

The company has also conducted some experiments to push people to premium subscriptions in the past. Last year, it briefly ran a test asking users to purchase a paid plan to watch 4K videos. Last September, it even tested showing up to 11 unskippable ads at the start of the video for an uninterrupted experience.

Last year, YouTube said that it has more than 80 million subscribers across Music and Premium offerings.

YouTube limits ad blocker usage in new test by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/30/youtube-limits-ad-blocker-usage-in-new-test/

Fertifa enables companies to offer fertility and reproductive health benefits

The number of workplaces offering fertility and reproductive healthcare benefits are on the rise. Doing so can help companies become more competitive employers and bolster diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, for example by attracting more women and LGBTQ+ people. Based in London, Fertifa wants to enable more companies in Europe to offer reproductive benefits to workers. Its clients already include Lululemon, Meta, Bain Capital and Virgin. Today the startup announced it has raised a £5 million seed round (about $6.3 million USD) led by Notion Capital and Triple Point Ventures.

Other participants included Conviction, Calm/Storm, Tiny.vc, EQT Foundation and angel investors Eamon Jubbawy, Catherine and Jonathan Lenson, Dorothy Chou, Caroline and Mike Hudack and Scott Mackin. Existing investors Passion Capital, Lemonade Stand, SpeedInvest, Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield, Adam Knight and Jeremy Yap also returned for the round.

Fertifa was founded in 2019 by Tony Chen and Nick Kuan, who have since left the company but remain as shareholders. Eileen Burbidge, who led Fertifa’s pre-seed round along with her Passion Capital partner Malin Posern, joined in January 2022 as executive director to lead the startup and take charge of its business development. Fertifa currently has 22 employees.

Burbridge told TechCrunch in an email that she’s committed to Fertifa’s mission because she has been through “many reproductive health journeys,” in different places and stages of her life, while maintaining a career. These include two elective terminations in her 20s in California, two miscarriages in her 30s while living in London, and three rounds of IVF in 2017. She is now perimenopausal and on HRT.

“Although I am an example that it’s possible to do (and to just grin and bear it or carry on), I’m also witness to what a difference it could make for employee wellbeing if individuals had support from their workplaces,” she said. “For example, I imagine how it might have helped me if I’d felt able to perhaps take a day off when I knew I was having a miscarriage at work or to tell someone even as GP of my own venture fund that I was going through IVF and having injections every day.”

Access to reproductive healthcare was another concern. “As someone who grew up in America and now lives in the UK, I’m intensely sensitive to what appears to be a slow erosion or roll back of reproductive health rights (or even simply access to via public healthcare due to strains on the NHS and providers)—and I’m desperately keen to play a part in ensuring that as many people as possible have access to education and information so they may make the best choices for themselves,” Burbridge said.

Services Fertifa help facilitate include fertility preservation like egg, embryo and sperm freezing, fertility planning, IVF, IUI and ICSI treatment cycles, contraception, surrogacy and adoption, as well as care for menopause, endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids, STIs and men’s sexual health. Fertifa says it has increased revenues 10x over the last year, and also saved patients more than £1.5 million through employer-funded allowances. It’s also saved employers about £250,000 in compliance by identifying ineligible claims.

Other providers in the space include Poppy, which focuses on menopause, endometriosis and PCOS education in the United States, and reproductive health benefits platforms Apryl, Maven Clinic and Carrot. Fertifa says its differentiators are the scope of its offering, which includes educational resources that are available to employees through an app, clinical services from an in-house team lead by medical director Dr. Gidon Lieberman, reimbursement administration, prescription writing and fulfillment.

Burbridge added that one of Fertifa’s main “competitors” is inaction on the part of employers. Fertifa combats that by demonstrating the business case for providing reproductive health and wellbeing support. It is also often requested by employees through their networks or executive sponsors. “Another influence is when corporates see their competitors acting and investing in the space—and they realize they compete for talent with those companies, so need to meet the bar,” she added.

Fertifa works with companies of all sizes and monetizes through per employee per month pricing model. It also offers reimbursement administration by charging a 5% fee on transaction volume, with an annual minimum.

Te new funding will allow Fertifa to launch new services like treatment financing and scale up its enterprise sales. Its goal is to become the market leader in the UK within a year, and then the EMEA category leader by the end of 2024.

In a statement about the financing, Notion Capital partner Itxaso del Palacio said, “Although there is 8x more spent on assisted reproductive technology (ART, including IVF, IUI, ICSI, etc) in Europe over the U.S., there are three unicorn companies in the U.S. [Maven Clinic, Progyny and Kindbody] and none in Europe. It’s clear there is a massive opportunity for a team with commitment to better outcomes to make a significant impact. We believe we have found this in Fertifa and are excited to see what can be achieved.”

Fertifa enables companies to offer fertility and reproductive health benefits by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XV97W0d
via IFTTT

Fertifa enables companies to offer fertility and reproductive health benefits

The number of workplaces offering fertility and reproductive healthcare benefits are on the rise. Doing so can help companies become more competitive employers and bolster diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, for example by attracting more women and LGBTQ+ people. Based in London, Fertifa wants to enable more companies in Europe to offer reproductive benefits to workers. Its clients already include Lululemon, Meta, Bain Capital and Virgin. Today the startup announced it has raised a £5 million seed round (about $6.3 million USD) led by Notion Capital and Triple Point Ventures.

Other participants included Conviction, Calm/Storm, Tiny.vc, EQT Foundation and angel investors Eamon Jubbawy, Catherine and Jonathan Lenson, Dorothy Chou, Caroline and Mike Hudack and Scott Mackin. Existing investors Passion Capital, Lemonade Stand, SpeedInvest, Monzo co-founder Tom Blomfield, Adam Knight and Jeremy Yap also returned for the round.

Fertifa was founded in 2019 by Tony Chen and Nick Kuan, who have since left the company but remain as shareholders. Eileen Burbidge, who led Fertifa’s pre-seed round along with her Passion Capital partner Malin Posern, joined in January 2022 as executive director to lead the startup and take charge of its business development. Fertifa currently has 22 employees.

Burbridge told TechCrunch in an email that she’s committed to Fertifa’s mission because she has been through “many reproductive health journeys,” in different places and stages of her life, while maintaining a career. These include two elective terminations in her 20s in California, two miscarriages in her 30s while living in London, and three rounds of IVF in 2017. She is now perimenopausal and on HRT.

“Although I am an example that it’s possible to do (and to just grin and bear it or carry on), I’m also witness to what a difference it could make for employee wellbeing if individuals had support from their workplaces,” she said. “For example, I imagine how it might have helped me if I’d felt able to perhaps take a day off when I knew I was having a miscarriage at work or to tell someone even as GP of my own venture fund that I was going through IVF and having injections every day.”

Access to reproductive healthcare was another concern. “As someone who grew up in America and now lives in the UK, I’m intensely sensitive to what appears to be a slow erosion or roll back of reproductive health rights (or even simply access to via public healthcare due to strains on the NHS and providers)—and I’m desperately keen to play a part in ensuring that as many people as possible have access to education and information so they may make the best choices for themselves,” Burbridge said.

Services Fertifa help facilitate include fertility preservation like egg, embryo and sperm freezing, fertility planning, IVF, IUI and ICSI treatment cycles, contraception, surrogacy and adoption, as well as care for menopause, endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids, STIs and men’s sexual health. Fertifa says it has increased revenues 10x over the last year, and also saved patients more than £1.5 million through employer-funded allowances. It’s also saved employers about £250,000 in compliance by identifying ineligible claims.

Other providers in the space include Poppy, which focuses on menopause, endometriosis and PCOS education in the United States, and reproductive health benefits platforms Apryl, Maven Clinic and Carrot. Fertifa says its differentiators are the scope of its offering, which includes educational resources that are available to employees through an app, clinical services from an in-house team lead by medical director Dr. Gidon Lieberman, reimbursement administration, prescription writing and fulfillment.

Burbridge added that one of Fertifa’s main “competitors” is inaction on the part of employers. Fertifa combats that by demonstrating the business case for providing reproductive health and wellbeing support. It is also often requested by employees through their networks or executive sponsors. “Another influence is when corporates see their competitors acting and investing in the space—and they realize they compete for talent with those companies, so need to meet the bar,” she added.

Fertifa works with companies of all sizes and monetizes through per employee per month pricing model. It also offers reimbursement administration by charging a 5% fee on transaction volume, with an annual minimum.

Te new funding will allow Fertifa to launch new services like treatment financing and scale up its enterprise sales. Its goal is to become the market leader in the UK within a year, and then the EMEA category leader by the end of 2024.

In a statement about the financing, Notion Capital partner Itxaso del Palacio said, “Although there is 8x more spent on assisted reproductive technology (ART, including IVF, IUI, ICSI, etc) in Europe over the U.S., there are three unicorn companies in the U.S. [Maven Clinic, Progyny and Kindbody] and none in Europe. It’s clear there is a massive opportunity for a team with commitment to better outcomes to make a significant impact. We believe we have found this in Fertifa and are excited to see what can be achieved.”

Fertifa enables companies to offer fertility and reproductive health benefits by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/30/fertifa/

Twitters plea against India government dismissed

An Indian court has dismissed Twitter’s lawsuit against the Indian government that sought to challenge New Delhi’s block orders on tweets and accounts.

The Karnataka High Court dismissed the plea, filed last year, and also fined the Elon Musk-owned firm 5 million Indian rupees ($61,000).

“Your client (Twitter) was given notices and your client did not comply. Punishment for non-compliance is 7 years imprisonment and unlimited fine. That also did not deter your client. So you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay… then all of sudden you comply and approach the Court. You are not a farmer but a billon dollar company,” a single judge bench said in scathing verdict Friday.

Twitter filed the plea against the Indian government in Karnataka High Court in Bengaluru last year, before the takeover by Musk, alleging that New Delhi had abused its power by ordering it to arbitrarily and disproportionately remove several tweets from its platform. Additionally, some block orders “pertain to political content that is posted by official handles of political parties,” Twitter said in the lawsuit.

Musk last year cited Twitter’s litigation against the Indian government as one of the many reasons he wanted to get out of the acquisition deal. His lawyers said that the lawsuit put Twitter’s third largest market at “risk.”

Twitter filed the lawsuit following a rough year and a half in India, a period during which it had been asked to take down hundreds of accounts and tweets, many of which critics argued were objectionable only because they denounced the Indian government’s policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Twitter partially complied with the requests but sought to fight many of the orders. Under the amendment to India’s IT rules that went into effect in 2021, Twitter had little to no room left to individually challenge the takedown orders.

All platforms hv to be in compliance with Indian law n @Twitter under @jack repeatedly refused to do so. In response to @GoI_MeitY 's notice for non-compliance they approached Karnataka High Court n judgement

Karnataka High Court has dismissed the petition filed by…

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@Rajeev_GoI) June 30, 2023

Twitter’s plea against India government dismissed by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/toNPbG9
via IFTTT

Twitters plea against India government dismissed

An Indian court has dismissed Twitter’s lawsuit against the Indian government that sought to challenge New Delhi’s block orders on tweets and accounts.

The Karnataka High Court dismissed the plea, filed last year, and also fined the Elon Musk-owned firm 5 million Indian rupees ($61,000).

“Your client (Twitter) was given notices and your client did not comply. Punishment for non-compliance is 7 years imprisonment and unlimited fine. That also did not deter your client. So you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay… then all of sudden you comply and approach the Court. You are not a farmer but a billon dollar company,” a single judge bench said in scathing verdict Friday.

Twitter filed the plea against the Indian government in Karnataka High Court in Bengaluru last year, before the takeover by Musk, alleging that New Delhi had abused its power by ordering it to arbitrarily and disproportionately remove several tweets from its platform. Additionally, some block orders “pertain to political content that is posted by official handles of political parties,” Twitter said in the lawsuit.

Musk last year cited Twitter’s litigation against the Indian government as one of the many reasons he wanted to get out of the acquisition deal. His lawyers said that the lawsuit put Twitter’s third largest market at “risk.”

All platforms hv to be in compliance with Indian law n @Twitter under @jack repeatedly refused to do so. In response to @GoI_MeitY 's notice for non-compliance they approached Karnataka High Court n judgement

Karnataka High Court has dismissed the petition filed by…

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@Rajeev_GoI) June 30, 2023

Twitter’s plea against India government dismissed by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/29/court-dismisses-twitter-plea-against-india-government/

Material Evolution raises $19M to decarbonise the cement industry

In the industrial world, cement is about as omnipresent as materials get. But despite its clear and obvious utility, cement is responsible for some 8% of global CO2 emissions — if it was a country, it would be third biggest emitter globally, by some estimations.

While cement’s ubiquity comes largely down to how easy it is to produce and the relative cost, creating cement is hugely carbon-intensive due to the amount of energy required to make it. And this is something that U.K. startup Material Evolution is seeking to address with a new low-energy manufacturing process that it says requires zero heat.

Founded in 2017, Material Evolution today announced it has raised £15 million ($19 million) in a Series A round of funding to scale production of its low-carbon cement, which it says has a 85% lower carbon-footprint than normal Portland cement.

While Material Evolution is officially incorporated in the U.S., where it initially intended as its first target market, the company operates substantively out of the U.K. where its founders and team of 20 are based, and also where its entire product development takes place.

There are numerous companies out there trying to address cement’s carbon problem, including young upstarts such as Carbon Re and Carbonaide both of which have recently raised venture capital (VC) cash. But Material Evolution points to its own proprietary technology as a key differentiator. Rather than using the energy-hungry kilns that are typical of cement making, the company says it uses an “alkali-fusion” process to produce cement at ambient temperatures, from various “industrial wastes and feedstocks,” circumventing the need for fossil fuels.

When Material Evolution talks about “alkali-fusion,” it’s essentially referring to a process based on similar principles to that of nuclear fusion.

“Fusion technology has been hailed as the way to meet humanity’s energy needs for [the next] millions of years, whilst emitting no carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases,” Material Evolution co-founder and CEO Dr. Elizabeth Gilligan said in statement.

The company says that its material is already been used within industry, enabled in large part by a strategic partnership with materials company Sigmaroc, which is also a strategic investor in Material Evolution’s Series A round.

The company’s Series A was led by Kompas VC, with participation from Norrsken VC, Circle Rock, and SigmaRoc.

Material Evolution raises $19M to decarbonise the cement industry by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

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

Material Evolution raises $19M to decarbonise the cement industry

In the industrial world, cement is about as omnipresent as materials get. But despite its clear and obvious utility, cement is responsible for some 8% of global CO2 emissions — if it was a country, it would be third biggest emitter globally, by some estimations.

While cement’s ubiquity comes largely down to how easy it is to produce and the relative cost, creating cement is hugely carbon-intensive due to the amount of energy required to make it. And this is something that U.K. startup Material Evolution is seeking to address with a new low-energy manufacturing process that it says requires zero heat.

Founded in 2017, Material Evolution today announced it has raised £15 million ($19 million) in a Series A round of funding to scale production of its low-carbon cement, which it says has a 85% lower carbon-footprint than normal Portland cement.

While Material Evolution is officially incorporated in the U.S., where it initially intended as its first target market, the company operates substantively out of the U.K. where its founders and team of 20 are based, and also where its entire product development takes place.

There are numerous companies out there trying to address cement’s carbon problem, including young upstarts such as Carbon Re and Carbonaide both of which have recently raised venture capital (VC) cash. But Material Evolution points to its own proprietary technology as a key differentiator. Rather than using the energy-hungry kilns that are typical of cement making, the company says it uses an “alkali-fusion” process to produce cement at ambient temperatures, from various “industrial wastes and feedstocks,” circumventing the need for fossil fuels.

When Material Evolution talks about “alkali-fusion,” it’s essentially referring to a process based on similar principles to that of nuclear fusion.

“Fusion technology has been hailed as the way to meet humanity’s energy needs for [the next] millions of years, whilst emitting no carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases,” Material Evolution co-founder and CEO Dr. Elizabeth Gilligan said in statement.

The company says that its material is already been used within industry, enabled in large part by a strategic partnership with materials company Sigmaroc, which is also a strategic investor in Material Evolution’s Series A round.

The company’s Series A was led by Kompas VC, with participation from Norrsken VC, Circle Rock, and SigmaRoc.

Material Evolution raises $19M to decarbonise the cement industry by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/29/material-evolution-raises-19m-to-decarbonise-the-cement-industry/

India startup funding slides 68% after Tiger and SoftBank make virtually no deals

Indian startups experienced a significant contraction in funding in the first half of 2023, revealing the knock-on effect of broader public market instability on young ventures in emerging regions.

The first six months of 2023 saw Indian startups raise a mere $5.46 billion, a substantial 68% decline from the $17.1 billion during the same timeframe in 2022, and a drop from $13.4 billion in H1 2021, as per data from market intelligence agency Tracxn shared with TechCrunch.

This year has thus far failed to yield any fresh unicorns in the Indian startup ecosystem, a stark contrast to the 18 new entrants to the billion-dollar club in H1 2022 and 16 minted during the corresponding period the previous year.

The funding drought is permeating startups across different stages. A total of 325 seed funding deals were struck in H1 2023, a dramatic fall from the 936 in the same period in 2022 and 921 in H1 2021, according to Tracxn’s data.

Other early-stage funding rounds, chiefly Series A and Series B, dwindled to 108, compared to 296 and 211 in the equivalent periods in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Late-stage funding also suffered, slumping to 36 deals from 137 and 114 during similar periods the prior years.

The slowdown comes as many late-stage investors, previously prolific backers of Indian startups, have taken a step back. Tiger Global has done just one deal in India this year, according to Tracxn and Crunchbase, whereas SoftBank, which deployed over $3 billion in India in 2021, and Insight Partners that backed several late-stage startups last year and in 2021, wrote virtually no checks.

Instead SoftBank has been bulking up liquidity. For the last several weeks, SoftBank has been selling portion of its Paytm stake each day, according to a market source familiar with the matter. Chief executive Masayoshi Son said at the company’s annual general meeting last week that SoftBank, which has invested just $650 million through its Vision Funds across the globe in the past two reported quarters, plans to go on the “counteroffensive” soon by resuming AI investments.

Tiger Global is highly unlikely to forge investments in new startups in India for a few months, a partner at the firm told a founder recently. Sovereign funds, especially from the Middle East region, have financed the vast majority of late-stage deals in India in recent quarters.

Rahul Chandra, a seasoned investor and co-founder of Arkam Ventures, said he doesn’t anticipate the return of some prolific late-stage investors to their customary investment activity for at least another two years in India.

The lack of participation from late-stage backers and virtually no IPO have also hurt the appetite of many mid-stage investors, who are struggling to devise new underwriting models that reflect the current public market view. Several high-flying Indian startups, including Byju’s, Swiggy and PharmEasy, have experienced a dramatic downward adjustment in their valuations – by a staggering 50% or even more.

Despite this setback, there remains a ray of hope for Indian startups in the form of considerable ‘dry powder’ – untapped capital reserves held by venture capitalists. Almost every active VC firm in India, including the likes of Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed, Accel, Elevation Capital, Matrix India Partners, 3One4 Capital and Blume Ventures, have secured new and larger funds in the past 18 months.

Chandra said that it’s likely that the pace of investments will pick up in the coming months.

“What we are contained by is mostly locally available capital, which I expect will be behaving in a rational manner because there’s no irrational exuberance coming in to drive valuation up. It’ll still mean that people are chasing each other for termsheets for the good founders because the next two years there will be more capital that will get deployed,” he told TechCrunch in an interview.

Indeed, Peak XV, Lightspeed, and Accel have escalated their deal deliberations and are on track to closing nearly 50 early-stage deals since mid-March, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lightspeed says India not for the faint-hearted amid Sequoia split

India startup funding slides 68% after Tiger and SoftBank make virtually no deals by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

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

India startup funding slides 68% after Tiger and SoftBank make virtually no deals

Indian startups experienced a significant contraction in funding in the first half of 2023, revealing the knock-on effect of broader public market instability on young ventures in emerging regions.

The first six months of 2023 saw Indian startups raise a mere $5.46 billion, a substantial 68% decline from the $17.1 billion during the same timeframe in 2022, and a drop from $13.4 billion in H1 2021, as per data from market intelligence agency Tracxn shared with TechCrunch.

This year has thus far failed to yield any fresh unicorns in the Indian startup ecosystem, a stark contrast to the 18 new entrants to the billion-dollar club in H1 2022 and 16 minted during the corresponding period the previous year.

The funding drought is permeating startups across different stages. A total of 325 seed funding deals were struck in H1 2023, a dramatic fall from the 936 in the same period in 2022 and 921 in H1 2021, according to Tracxn’s data.

Other early-stage funding rounds, chiefly Series A and Series B, dwindled to 108, compared to 296 and 211 in the equivalent periods in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Late-stage funding also suffered, slumping to 36 deals from 137 and 114 during similar periods the prior years.

The slowdown comes as many late-stage investors, previously prolific backers of Indian startups, have taken a step back. Tiger Global has done just one deal in India this year, according to Tracxn and Crunchbase, whereas SoftBank, which deployed over $3 billion in India in 2021, and Insight Partners that backed several late-stage startups last year and in 2021, wrote virtually no checks.

Instead SoftBank has been bulking up liquidity. For the last several weeks, SoftBank has been selling portion of its Paytm stake each day, according to a market source familiar with the matter. Chief executive Masayoshi Son said at the company’s annual general meeting last week that SoftBank, which has invested just $650 million through its Vision Funds across the globe in the past two reported quarters, plans to go on the “counteroffensive” soon by resuming AI investments.

Tiger Global is highly unlikely to forge investments in new startups in India for a few months, a partner at the firm told a founder recently. Sovereign funds, especially from the Middle East region, have financed the vast majority of late-stage deals in India in recent quarters.

Rahul Chandra, a seasoned investor and co-founder of Arkam Ventures, said he doesn’t anticipate the return of some prolific late-stage investors to their customary investment activity for at least another two years in India.

The lack of participation from late-stage backers and virtually no IPO have also hurt the appetite of many mid-stage investors, who are struggling to devise new underwriting models that reflect the current public market view. Several high-flying Indian startups, including Byju’s, Swiggy and PharmEasy, have experienced a dramatic downward adjustment in their valuations – by a staggering 50% or even more.

Despite this setback, there remains a ray of hope for Indian startups in the form of considerable ‘dry powder’ – untapped capital reserves held by venture capitalists. Almost every active VC firm in India, including the likes of Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed, Accel, Elevation Capital, Matrix India Partners, 3One4 Capital and Blume Ventures, have secured new and larger funds in the past 18 months.

Chandra said that it’s likely that the pace of investments will pick up in the coming months.

“What we are contained by is mostly locally available capital, which I expect will be behaving in a rational manner because there’s no irrational exuberance coming in to drive valuation up. It’ll still mean that people are chasing each other for termsheets for the good founders because the next two years there will be more capital that will get deployed,” he told TechCrunch in an interview.

Indeed, Peak XV, Lightspeed, and Accel have escalated their deal deliberations and are on track to closing nearly 50 early-stage deals since mid-March, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lightspeed says India not for the faint-hearted amid Sequoia split

India startup funding slides 68% after Tiger and SoftBank make virtually no deals by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/29/india-startup-funding-slides-after-tiger-and-softbank-make-virtually-no-deals/

DoorDash offers delivery workers hourly rate but theres a catch

DoorDash will give delivery workers the option to be paid a guaranteed hourly minimum rate instead of being paid per delivery, the company said Wednesday. The new option, a novelty in the gig worker industry, comes as DoorDash and other app-based gig companies like Lyft and Uber will have to provide New York City delivery workers with a guaranteed minimum wage of $18 per hour.

While DoorDash has positioned this new offering as a way to maintain flexibility while also promoting reliable earnings, the hourly rate isn’t really an hourly rate. It’s based on the time spent on a delivery, “from the moment [a worker accepts] an offer until it’s dropped off — plus 100% of tips,” according to the company.

“We know there are Dashers who prioritize reliability in their earnings, who simply want to get on the road and dash with an exact, upfront idea of how much they’ll earn for the time it takes to complete an order,” reads a blog post from DoorDash. “Earn by Time was developed precisely with those Dashers in mind.”

Labor rights activists and gig workers have historically criticized DoorDash and other companies for only paying workers for time spent on a gig, or “active time,” because that doesn’t account for time spent waiting for an order to come through. The NYC mandate requires companies to pay workers for all of the time they spend connected to the app.

It’s not clear how much DoorDash will offer its Dashers (the term the company uses to describe its delivery workers) as an hourly minimum rate, and the company did not respond in time to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

DoorDash has been testing this hourly pay model in some small to mid-size cities across the U.S. Some gig workers are calling it a “watered down version of Prop 22 with restrictions” and accusing DoorDash of attempting to use the bait of hourly pay to incentivize workers to accept less desirable orders that they’d normally reject for the low base pay.

Proposition 22 was a ballot initiative in California that passed in 2020, and upheld in appeals court in March 2023, and allows companies like DoorDash to continue classifying its workers as independent contractors, rather than employees.

The guaranteed hourly rate will be shown to Dashers at the start of a trip, so they’ll be able to see exactly how much they’ll earn per hour on delivery. DoorDash said it “invested significantly” to create a “rewarding, valuable option for those Dashers who prioritize consistency when dashing.” In other words, Dashers who accept more orders will likely see a higher hourly rate than those who do not. DoorDash, Uber and other gig companies are well known for rewarding workers who accept trips consistently, and they have been accused of punishing workers who don’t.

The traditional option to earn per offer is still available to Dashers, wherein the upfront guaranteed minimum amount that they can expect to earn on that trip will be shown before accepting.

DoorDash didn’t say in which states and markets the “earn by time” offer will be available.

Alongside the hourly wage announcement, DoorDash included the launch of some new features designed to help Dashers maximize their earnings. For example, “dash along the way” allows workers to select where they want to start fulfilling orders — perhaps along their regular commute — so they can receive orders in those locations.

DoorDash also introduced post-checkout tipping, so that customers can add a tip or add to an existing one up to 30 days after a delivery. Usually, customers tip at checkout, but this option gives Dashers the chance to earn a little more for a job well done.

To give Dashers peace of mind, DoorDash also launched a location sharing feature, which lets workers share their location with up to five contacts.

As a final bone thrown to gig workers, DoorDash said it is giving a one-time gift of $10,000 to Dashers who joined the platform in the early years, have completed more than 10,000 deliveries and are still active on the platform today. The company didn’t say how many Dashers that actually amounts to.

Washington Uber and Lyft drivers win paid family and medical leave

DoorDash offers delivery workers hourly rate, but there’s a catch by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UPX2YTv
via IFTTT

DoorDash offers delivery workers hourly rate but theres a catch

DoorDash will give delivery workers the option to be paid a guaranteed hourly minimum rate instead of being paid per delivery, the company said Wednesday. The new option, a novelty in the gig worker industry, comes as DoorDash and other app-based gig companies like Lyft and Uber will have to provide New York City delivery workers with a guaranteed minimum wage of $18 per hour.

While DoorDash has positioned this new offering as a way to maintain flexibility while also promoting reliable earnings, the hourly rate isn’t really an hourly rate. It’s based on the time spent on a delivery, “from the moment [a worker accepts] an offer until it’s dropped off — plus 100% of tips,” according to the company.

“We know there are Dashers who prioritize reliability in their earnings, who simply want to get on the road and dash with an exact, upfront idea of how much they’ll earn for the time it takes to complete an order,” reads a blog post from DoorDash. “Earn by Time was developed precisely with those Dashers in mind.”

Labor rights activists and gig workers have historically criticized DoorDash and other companies for only paying workers for time spent on a gig, or “active time,” because that doesn’t account for time spent waiting for an order to come through. The NYC mandate requires companies to pay workers for all of the time they spend connected to the app.

It’s not clear how much DoorDash will offer its Dashers (the term the company uses to describe its delivery workers) as an hourly minimum rate, and the company did not respond in time to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

DoorDash has been testing this hourly pay model in some small to mid-size cities across the U.S. Some gig workers are calling it a “watered down version of Prop 22 with restrictions” and accusing DoorDash of attempting to use the bait of hourly pay to incentivize workers to accept less desirable orders that they’d normally reject for the low base pay.

Proposition 22 was a ballot initiative in California that passed in 2020, and upheld in appeals court in March 2023, and allows companies like DoorDash to continue classifying its workers as independent contractors, rather than employees.

The guaranteed hourly rate will be shown to Dashers at the start of a trip, so they’ll be able to see exactly how much they’ll earn per hour on delivery. DoorDash said it “invested significantly” to create a “rewarding, valuable option for those Dashers who prioritize consistency when dashing.” In other words, Dashers who accept more orders will likely see a higher hourly rate than those who do not. DoorDash, Uber and other gig companies are well known for rewarding workers who accept trips consistently, and they have been accused of punishing workers who don’t.

The traditional option to earn per offer is still available to Dashers, wherein the upfront guaranteed minimum amount that they can expect to earn on that trip will be shown before accepting.

DoorDash didn’t say in which states and markets the “earn by time” offer will be available.

Alongside the hourly wage announcement, DoorDash included the launch of some new features designed to help Dashers maximize their earnings. For example, “dash along the way” allows workers to select where they want to start fulfilling orders — perhaps along their regular commute — so they can receive orders in those locations.

DoorDash also introduced post-checkout tipping, so that customers can add a tip or add to an existing one up to 30 days after a delivery. Usually, customers tip at checkout, but this option gives Dashers the chance to earn a little more for a job well done.

To give Dashers peace of mind, DoorDash also launched a location sharing feature, which lets workers share their location with up to five contacts.

As a final bone thrown to gig workers, DoorDash said it is giving a one-time gift of $10,000 to Dashers who joined the platform in the early years, have completed more than 10,000 deliveries and are still active on the platform today. The company didn’t say how many Dashers that actually amounts to.

Washington Uber and Lyft drivers win paid family and medical leave

DoorDash offers delivery workers hourly rate, but there’s a catch by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/28/doordash-offers-delivery-workers-hourly-rate-but-theres-a-catch/

Only human creators can win a Grammy but AI isnt totally forbidden

We are only scratching the surface of how artificial intelligence might be used in art, and musicians are already experimenting with the technology. But if their AI-assisted composition is to be eligible for a Grammy, they’ll need to make sure that their contribution is “meaningful,” the rules now state.

An update to the famous awards’ eligibility criteria states that “Only human creators are eligible to be submitted for consideration,” and that “A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any Categories.”

AI is not a kiss of death, though. In a wise and shrewdly open-ended exception to this prohibition, the Grammy authorities allow for any work in which “the human authorship component of the work submitted must be meaningful and more than de minimis.” Furthermore, the authorship must pertain to the category a song is submitted for, e.g. for “songwriting” the AI cannot have written the song.

What does this all mean? Say you used an AI-powered tool to generate a constantly shifting loop of some instruments you played. You layer this in with the drums, recorded instruments, and record the vocals you wrote on top. No problem here! The AI is basically just a tool or effect, like any pedal or filter.

But what if you had the AI generate the lyrics from a prompt, then sing them in the style of David Crosby… Then you have Riffusion put together some beats and instrumentation. Last, layer in some unique generated tones you shifted from Brian Eno’s Reflection.

Now, regardless of the quality of the result (and at a guess… not great) no one would say that you had no creative hand in the resulting track. But were you the songwriter, the vocalist, the composer, or the instrumentalist? Not as those terms are commonly understood or credited. And certainly not according to the folks setting the rules over at the Grammys.

This policy of excluding pure AI works but allowing it to be used as a tool is probably the best way forward for awards like this. We’ve seen already how malicious actors can flood publishers with AI-generated writing, hoping to snatch a paid spot or even just notoriety. Deepfakes and AI-generated video are already starting to creep onto streaming platforms. Music is likewise vulnerable to disruption by those who would abuse AI technology instead of use it creatively.

Generative music, it must be said, is more than simply valid — it’s practically a genre of its own now. And the creation of some of its most iconic works could be described as simplistic (even by their own creators). But it seems unlikely that the Grammys would reject Eno’s Music For Airports if it was submitted today, since it seems clear that there is “meaningful” human authorship involved. But they wouldn’t allow three minutes of randomly selected Generative.fm or Kriller tracks.

The policy is, as I said, wisely open-ended, allowing for the organization to exercise its judgment in what they define as “lacking significance or importance; so minor as to merit disregard.” No doubt this definition will be in flux in years to come as major artists embrace, reject, or grudgingly include AI-powered tools in their creative processes.

From DrakeGPT to Infinite Grimes, AI-generated music strikes a chord

‘Only human creators’ can win a Grammy, but AI isn’t totally forbidden by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/27/only-human-creators-can-win-a-grammy-but-ai-isnt-totally-forbidden/

Only human creators can win a Grammy but AI isnt totally forbidden

We are only scratching the surface of how artificial intelligence might be used in art, and musicians are already experimenting with the technology. But if their AI-assisted composition is to be eligible for a Grammy, they’ll need to make sure that their contribution is “meaningful,” the rules now state.

An update to the famous awards’ eligibility criteria states that “Only human creators are eligible to be submitted for consideration,” and that “A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any Categories.”

AI is not a kiss of death, though. In a wise and shrewdly open-ended exception to this prohibition, the Grammy authorities allow for any work in which “the human authorship component of the work submitted must be meaningful and more than de minimis.” Furthermore, the authorship must pertain to the category a song is submitted for, e.g. for “songwriting” the AI cannot have written the song.

What does this all mean? Say you used an AI-powered tool to generate a constantly shifting loop of some instruments you played. You layer this in with the drums, recorded instruments, and record the vocals you wrote on top. No problem here! The AI is basically just a tool or effect, like any pedal or filter.

But what if you had the AI generate the lyrics from a prompt, then sing them in the style of David Crosby… Then you have Riffusion put together some beats and instrumentation. Last, layer in some unique generated tones you shifted from Brian Eno’s Reflection.

Now, regardless of the quality of the result (and at a guess… not great) no one would say that you had no creative hand in the resulting track. But were you the songwriter, the vocalist, the composer, or the instrumentalist? Not as those terms are commonly understood or credited. And certainly not according to the folks setting the rules over at the Grammys.

This policy of excluding pure AI works but allowing it to be used as a tool is probably the best way forward for awards like this. We’ve seen already how malicious actors can flood publishers with AI-generated writing, hoping to snatch a paid spot or even just notoriety. Deepfakes and AI-generated video are already starting to creep onto streaming platforms. Music is likewise vulnerable to disruption by those who would abuse AI technology instead of use it creatively.

Generative music, it must be said, is more than simply valid — it’s practically a genre of its own now. And the creation of some of its most iconic works could be described as simplistic (even by their own creators). But it seems unlikely that the Grammys would reject Eno’s Music For Airports if it was submitted today, since it seems clear that there is “meaningful” human authorship involved. But they wouldn’t allow three minutes of randomly selected Generative.fm or Kriller tracks.

The policy is, as I said, wisely open-ended, allowing for the organization to exercise its judgment in what they define as “lacking significance or importance; so minor as to merit disregard.” No doubt this definition will be in flux in years to come as major artists embrace, reject, or grudgingly include AI-powered tools in their creative processes.

From DrakeGPT to Infinite Grimes, AI-generated music strikes a chord

‘Only human creators’ can win a Grammy, but AI isn’t totally forbidden by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BmQWf0j
via IFTTT

OpenAIs ChatGPT app can now search the web but only via Bing

ChatGPT on mobile can now surf the web. But only via Bing.

Today, OpenAI announced that subscribers to ChatGPT Plus, the premium version of the company’s AI-powered chatbot, can use a new feature on the ChatGPT app called Browsing to have ChatGPT search Bing for answers to questions.

Browsing can be enabled by heading to the New Features section of the app settings, selecting “GPT-4” in the model switcher and choosing “Browse with Bing” from the drop-down list. Browsing is available on both the iOS and Android ChatGPT apps.

OpenAI says that Browsing is particularly useful for queries relating to current events and other information that “extend[s] beyond [ChatGPT’s] original training data.” When Browsing is disabled, ChatGPT’s knowledge cuts off in 2021.

Browsing — which Microsoft and OpenAI previously announced would arrive sometime this year, first on the web — certainly makes ChatGPT a more useful assistant, particularly for research. Prior to it, asking ChatGPT questions like “Who won the 2023 March Madness women’s tournament?” wouldn’t yield anything particularly useful — or correct.

But limiting ChatGPT’s search capabilities to Bing seems just short of a user-hostile move. The business motivations are obvious — OpenAI has a close partnership with Microsoft, which has invested over $10 billion in the startup — but Bing is far from the end-all be-all of search engines.

Back in 2011, an analysis found that Bing was potentially unfairly serving more Microsoft-related results than Google links. More recently, a Stanford study showed evidence that Bing’s top search results contained an “alarming” amount of disinformation.

Microsoft undoubtedly continues to improve Bing’s algorithms on the backend. But the problem with ChatGPT’s new Browsing feature is, when Bing inevitably slips up, users won’t have any alternatives to choose from.

In other, less controversial ChatGPT app news, tapping on a search result now takes you directly to the respective point in the conversation. That change — along with Browsing — is rolling out this week, OpenAI says.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT app can now search the web — but only via Bing by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/czXl278
via IFTTT

Mercedes brings F1 technology to the AMG S 63 E Performance

“Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” That was the popular marketing adage when motorsports and car sales were intricately intertwined. While a podium finish these days doesn’t necessarily translate into a bump in sales — with many consumers being more focused on fuel economy, looks and comfort — there is still a glimmer of truth to the phrase.

Take the new Mercedes-AMG S 63 E Performance hybrid, for instance. That’s a mouthful of a name to be sure, but Mercedes takes advantage of the battery technology in its podium-winning F1 car driven by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to give us the most powerful S-Class ever. I’m talking 802 horsepower and a whopping 1,055 pound-feet of torque — in a luxury sedan.

The S 63 E Performance is a plug-in hybrid (not a BEV like the Mercedes EQS SUV). But don’t think you’ll get any kind of efficiency out of the powertrain. The 13.1 kWh battery only lasts for about 20 miles of all-electric range). Instead the battery, like that found in the Mercedes F1 car, is designed for maximum performance with high-capacity charging and discharging.

F1 battery technology, explained

Image Credits: Mercedes-Benz

The S 63 E Performance uses the same kind of lithium-ion cells as the race car and every one of the 1,200 cells is cooled individually by 3.7 gallons of a high-tech coolant. It starts in the bottom of the battery and is pumped around each cell to the top with a high-performance electric pump. It then passes through a heat exchanger, on to a low-temperature circuit and then finally to a cooler where the heat is released into the outside air.That results in a battery that remains at a constant 113 degrees Fahrenheit and stays primed for optimum performance, even if ambient temperatures are Montana-in-winter freezing or Death Valley hot.

This isn’t the first time Mercedes has employed this technology; it’s also featured in the rowdy AMG C 63 S E Performance and the AMG GT 63 S E Performance. Though the power delivery is just as quick on these models, the batteries have a capacity of 6.1 kWh and 6.7 kWh respectively.

Image Credits: Emme Hall

The S 63 has a unique operating strategy as well. The car can be driven in all-electric mode, but once the battery dwindles down to 25% or so capacity, it switches to Comfort mode to save a bit of battery should the driver want to spend some electrons carving some back country roads at full-bore. Other PHEVs allow drivers to knock the battery all the way down to nothing if they want. By always keeping some juice in the battery, the car is always primed for performance driving.

Fun times are available in every driving mode, accessed by what the company calls “kick down.” Think of it as a heavy space in the throttle. Everything above that space is easy cruising, but push your foot past and you’re rewarded with all the beans, no matter what drive mode you’re in.

When powering up from home the battery can only accept a charge of 3.6 kW, which is extraordinarily slow. However, the AMG-ified S-Class makes up for it with on-the-go charging. When driving in Sport or Sport+ modes the gas engine can supply 90 kW of power to the battery, and it can even accept surges of up to 140 kW on extremely heavy braking. The S 63 E Performance has four levels of regenerative braking and though it never brings the car to a complete stop, the computer always defaults to regenerative braking and it keeps some regen even during mechanical braking or when drivers hit the limit and move into ABS.

Drive like Lewis

Image credits: Mercedes-Benz

My day with the car starts with a leisurely drive on the Pacific Coast Highway in EV mode, which is accessed at the top end of the throttle.

The result is a sublime ride with smooth gear changes and little to no road and tire noise entering the cabin. Once I get to the hills behind Malibu, I appreciate that the car has saved some go-go beans for me as these canyons are begging to be carved.

I switch to Sport mode, press through the kickdown and I’ve reached 60 miles per hour in less than three and a half seconds. A sharp left hand turn is quickly approaching so I go heavy on the brakes and this 5,000-plus pound vehicle slows admirably with nary a twitch and without losing grip. I can feel the heft in the turns and despite the rear steering, the sensation is one of manhandling a wild stallion around a barrel. Yet somehow it still feels composed and agile. I guess this is what a luxury wild stallion feels like.

Mercedes’ in-car tech

Interior of Mercedes-Benz AMG S 63 E Performance Image credits: Mercedes-Benz

There are pages in the MBUX infotainment system that tell me how much power I’m putting back into the battery with my braking, but my eyes are focused ahead on the next corner. I love how the nine-speed automatic transmission downshifts on braking, always putting me in the correct gear for corner exit, aided by the full force of the electric motor. This gal may be heavy, but she sure is fun.

I love the large 12.8-inch OLED center screen running Mercedes MBUX infotainment system. It defaults to the navigation screen and I can choose to overlay small shortcut icons to most-used features. Mercedes uses an augmented reality system when it comes to navigation, overlaying arrows on a video feed from the forward facing camera. It’s pretty trick.

Of course, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are here if you want to go old school, but the Mercedes nav system is really good.

The 12.3-inch gauge cluster is similarly cool, with nifty 3D effects and plenty of ways to customize the layout. The head-up display can offer up as much information as you could possibly need and then some. I find it to be more distracting than anything else, but other drivers may find it useful.

Not your average hybrid layout

Image Credits: Mercedes-Benz

The hybrid system of the S 63 E Performance is also unique, although it doesn’t come from F1. In many hybrids, power from both the gas-powered engine and the electric motor go through the same transmission. Engineers call this a P2 hybrid. However, as good as the Mercedes transmission is, it’s not strong enough to handle the combined 1,055 pound-feet of torque. Enter the P3 hybrid.

Here the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine under the hood feeds its power into the 9-speed automatic while the electric motor, positioned on the rear axle, has its own 2-speed transmission. Granted, that transmission stays in first gear most of the time, but at just under 90 miles per hour it shifts to second gear to ensure maximum torque all the up to the car’s top speed of 155 miles per hour.

The electric motor can also send variable amounts of power to the front wheels when driving in low-traction situations like rain or snow. Other hybrids, in addition to being of the P2 category, feature a fixed front to rear power distribution ratio. Further, by having the electric motor and transmission on the rear axle, the S 63 E Performance puts more weight on the back of the car for better weight distribution and ultimately, better handling.

S 63 E Performance interior: Best. Pillow. Ever.

Image Credits: Emme Hall

Of course, none of this matters to me when I hand piloting duties over to my drive partner and test out the back seat. This is, after all, an S-Class with all the luxury features therein. With the push of a button the front passenger seat moves far forward and a foot rest extends from the rear seat. The seat back reclines and I can rest my head on the softest, most comforting pillow ever to touch my weary head. If Mercedes made these available for purchase I would gladly fork over plenty of greenbacks to take one of these pillows home. It’s like resting your head on a dozen soft and fluffy kittens– except without smooshing them.

The rear seats, like the front, feature heating and cooling as well as massage. There’s also a cooler in back here to keep beverages nice and frosty as well as a small tablet to control the MBUX infotainment system.

It is from here, lazing in the back seat, that I tell Mercedes’ natural language AI assistance that I’m cold. She complies by turning down the air conditioning. Ask her what she thinks of BMW or Audi and she may offer you a snarky come back. But not too snarky– her programmers are, after all, German.

When I give the car back to Mercedes at the end of the day my tummy is still fluttering with the rush of over 1,000 pound-feet of twist that has pushed me back against the seat all day. It’s not likely I’ll get to experience a car like this any time soon, let alone buy one for myself.

Mercedes has not announced pricing but the standard S 580e plug-in hybrid starts at $120,000 or so and one can easily add $30,000 in options. With all this fancy tech added to the AMG S 63 E Performance, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a starting price of $160,000 or above.

If you’re hoping for a $7,500 federal tax credit to soften the blow, you’re out of luck. Currently only electrified cars that cost less than $55,000 are eligible for that nice little perk. However, you may still find state and local incentives of which to take advantage.

California residents are not eligible to slap the coveted carpool lane sticker on their AMG S 63 E Performance as it doesn’t have enough all-electric range. However, requirements vary by state so again, check your local laws.

Look for it in dealerships at the end of this year.

Mercedes brings F1 technology to the AMG S 63 E Performance by Emme Hall originally published on TechCrunch

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

Despite EV delivery delays Faraday Future raises $90M to stay afloat

Faraday Future has managed to raise $90 million from existing investors to help it get its much-delayed FF 91 luxury electric SUV to production and delivery. Faraday’s investors will also accelerate an existing commitment of $15 million, the EV company said Tuesday.

Faraday is one of a litany of EV SPACs — EV startups that went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company — that has struggled to stay afloat. The company keeps burning through cash and putting its hand out for more, while pushing the delivery date of its vehicles. Against that backdrop, Faraday Future has also been investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, and suffered through one internal drama after another.

Despite repeated production delays and an inability to deliver vehicles into customers’ hands, Faraday in May announced that its luxury EVs would have ChatGPT capabilities, an attempt to jump on the AI bandwagon and attract attention. And perhaps it worked, because the company, which as of April only had $30 million to its name, now has somehow managed to convince investors to give it millions more.

Per an SEC filing, Faraday’s latest funds will be led by private equity firm ATW Partners with participation from Senyun International.

The company, which said in May that it hopes to raise $100 million in debt to support initial deliveries, will continue to seek additional funding sources. Faraday Future had planned to begin deliveries of its FF 91 Futurist at the end of May but needed to secure “substantial additional financing” first. It’s not clear if those deliveries have begun, and Faraday didn’t reply in time to TechCrunch to comment.

Shares popped 5%, or a whole penny, after the news, but have since dropped back down. Faraday’s stock closed at $0.24 on Tuesday.

Faraday’s funding comes as peer EV SPAC Lordstown Motors files for bankruptcy protection and sues its investor and manufacturing partner Foxconn for failing to make good on its investment commitments.

As Lordstown immolates, SPAC deals that didn’t go to zero feel like the exception

Despite EV delivery delays, Faraday Future raises $90M to stay afloat by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zL7BsWu
via IFTTT

Arkam Ventures targets $180 million to tap middle India opportunity with second fund

Arkam Ventures is courting its second fund, aiming for $180 million, nearly doubling the size of its maiden fund, as the Indian venture capital firm gears up to double down on the expanding ‘middle India’ opportunity.

The firm’s partners said in an interview that they are hopeful to retain support from high-profile international institutional investors and family offices for the new fund. Key investors in Arkam’s first fund included British International Investment, SIDBI and Evolvence.

Arkam, whose startup portfolio includes Jar, Smallcase, Kreditbee, and Jai Kisan, seeks to write larger early-stage checks with the new fund to secure bigger stake in emerging companies, said Bala Srinivasa (left in the lead picture), co-founder and managing director of the fund, in a conversation with TechCrunch.

The deliberation on the new fund coincides with a period when VC firms are grappling with closing new funds, and in many instances, reducing the target size due to a slackened economy that has quelled the public markets in the preceding eighteen months.

This scenario contrasts the historical highs during the zenith of 2021 and early 2022 that saw scores of VC firms in India raise record size funds. Rahul Chandra, Arkam’s other co-founder and managing director, indicated that although Arkam could have set a higher target, the firm has remained judicious considering the market conditions and its obligations to its limited partners.

Many firms that accumulated capital at the market’s apex would likely slash their target size by 50% if they were closing funds under the current conditions, he said.

Srinivasa additionally questioned the viability of returning a fund. “If you raise $1 billion, then you have to wonder if you can return 4x of that. It’s an open question,” he said, responding to the availability of potential investment opportunities in India given the current surplus of uninvested capital.

Both Srinivasa and Chandra bring a wealth of experience to the table. Prior to Arkam, Srinivasa held a position at Kalaari Capital and worked at startups, while Chandra has had a varied career including roles at regulatory body SEBI and venture firm Helion.

Arkam’s strategy is centred around the belief that startups are now capable of addressing the needs of India’s wider populace, including families with incomes as low as $3,650 per annum. They hope to achieve this while keeping costs of service and acquisition economical.

Such a bet was deemed untenable in India just a few years ago. However, the emergence and adoption of payments rail UPI, identity platform Aadhaar, and online authentication platform e-KYC have resulted in a more promising landscape.

Srinivasa said that startups betting on this thesis, in the context of India’s ongoing digital transformation, often find themselves in the position of creating new markets, where adjacent established players remain unperturbed for extended periods. He cited KreditBee and Jar, whose consumer bases are predominantly first-time credit users, as evidence of new market creation.

India, like other regions globally, is witnessing a reduction in deal activity as investors become increasingly wary of the market conditions. The absence of cheap global liquidity and “unconcerned” capital is likely to not change for at least two years, said Chandra.

However, with a record amount of dry powder in the hands of many venture capital firms, Chandra concedes that dealmaking could gather momentum sooner than later.

“What we are contained by is mostly locally available capital, which I expect will be behaving in a rational manner because there’s no irrational exuberance coming in to drive valuation up. It’ll still mean that people are chasing each other for termsheets for the good founders because the next two years there will be more capital that will get deployed.”

Arkam Ventures targets $180 million to tap ‘middle India’ opportunity with second fund by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

source https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/26/arkam-ventures-targets-180-million-to-tap-middle-india-opportunity-with-second-fund/

Kindred Ventures foresees a massive explosion of startups courtesy of AI

Last week, we talked with Kindred Ventures, a small, nine-year-old, San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm that, despite investing in a lot of nascent startups — more than 100 to date — takes a generalist approach, investing in AI, climate tech, consumer internet companies, crypto deals, fintech startups, health startups, mobility startups and the outfits developing tools and infrastructure.

It’s a little like trying to boil the ocean. Still, the firm’s two managing directors — Steve Jang and Kanyi Maqubela — have had enough success that Kindred’s investors last year agreed to let them up the ante considerably. After closing a $56 million fund in 2019 and a $101 million fund in 2021, Kindred last year closed a $200 million fund, as well as a $112 million later-stage fund to back growth-stage companies in Kindred’s own portfolio and outside it. The capital more than doubled their assets under management, which is currently around $550 million, including some special purpose vehicles they have assembled along the way.

The appeal is understandable. Though the outfit’s biggest wins to date — Uber, Coinbase, Postmates — have come from an angel fund, Kindred has proven its ability to get into interesting deals. Indeed, among its newer bets is Humane, a buzzy, still-stealth startup founded by former Apple team Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno that received a seed investment from Kindred, which then went on to lead the company’s $100 million Series C round in March.

We talked about a range of things with Jang and Maqubela, and we’ll have a podcast from that chat available soon; in the meantime, excerpted below is part of our discussion that centered on the future of startups, and whether the ongoing advancements in AI will mean more of them, or far fewer.

TechCrunch: Because people are so interested in all things AI right now, can you talk a bit about the companies that you have funded?

Steve Jang: We’ve focused a lot on frontier technology over time, and going after 10- to 20-years-story-arc companies. Humane is one of them. We’ve invested in a company called Hourone AI, which is a video AI company out of Tel Aviv in Israel. We’re early investors in Tonal, which has used a lot of computer vision and machine learning historically and is now upgrading a lot of what it’s doing in that area and bringing forward a lot of AI-related features. We have companies that are in robotics; we have companies in supply chains. They’re all tapping into the opportunity that they’re seeing, with not only generative AI but industrial AI, too.

On the generative AI front, there are these foundation model companies, as well as, right now, many more application layer companies, hardware companies, infrastructure and tooling companies. But over time, it’s still not clear to me whether we’ll have four companies in the world or four bazillion, given how empowering AI appears to be.

Kanyi Maqubela: Oh, gosh, there will be way, way, way more companies. It’s part of the trend of moving up the abstraction layer and allowing more people to become builders. It used to be the case that if [wanted] to build something, you needed to have a certain skill set, which was actually confined to a really reasonably small segment of the population. But that first wave of computing gave everybody superpowers and each subsequent wave since has only given further superpowers. And so what we’re now looking at — and you’re seeing this almost across the stack — is cardiologists that can interface with really complex large, real-time datasets and do really interesting manipulations of them without having to code. You’ve got designers that can design full-stack websites and full-stack platforms and applications on the web without having to code — and that’s just at the level of code. There are so many other ways that intelligence is compounding because of these systems, so I think there’s going to be a massive explosion of new startups that are enabled by the fact that we are now allowing more people to have access to more extremely sophisticated leveraged software tools.

Are you at all worried that this explosion could destroy the venture business? Where is the scale if everyone is capable of running their own company with these tools?

SJ: This question was asked a lot right around the time of AWS and iOS and Android. These three things were all launched [around the same time] and people wondered: does this mean that anyone can start a company? The ability to get started is much easier, which is good for society.

As for investors, the day of having pretty controlled access to startups and this phony network play in your favor — based on pedigree and brand — maybe that game has opened up. What we love about it is that it gets many more entrepreneurs into building their product ideas out, and I think that’s overall great. So I think for the old guard that might be problematic, but for the new guard of investors, whether it’s angel investors, small seed funds or large lead seed funds, this is great.

But if everyone has these super sophisticated new tools, doesn’t everything eventually become commoditized?

KM: We actually had a discussion about something similar last night. I guess the first thing to think about is: there are probably an infinite number of ways to customize information, particularly when it comes to media and content, and that customization actually results in extraordinary consumer surplus and extraordinary power for the end user. The ability to consume highly personalized content, to create highly personalized content, to have that content be flexible — applied across industry, by the way, so in healthcare and care coordination, communication, mental health, friendship, social networking — is really, really powerful.

The other thing that I think is worth noting is we are in a really interesting place right now. Steve mentioned a period of time when this amazing confluence of new platforms all came to market at the same time. Then there was a pretty long period after that, where we were all just sort of enjoying mobile and SaaS. Now, we’re going to need a new way of thinking about how business models get activated, new metrics and new benchmarking, and that’s really exciting, particularly for an early-stage investor who’s focusing on products and the starting point of innovation. But it is going to look different than the last cycle and that’s by design the same way that the mobile and SaaS were very different from the first internet cycle, which looked very different than the cycle before it.

Kindred Ventures foresees a ‘massive explosion of startups’ courtesy of AI by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch

from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/y5lz3ZL
via IFTTT