Tuesday, November 30, 2021

AWS launches Karpenter, an open source autoscaler for Kubernetes clusters

Today at AWS re:Invent, the company’s customer conference taking place in Las Vegas this week, AWS announced a new open source autoscaling tool for Kubernetes clusters called Karpenter.

One of the advantages of cloud computing is the ability to scale automatically to meet your required resource needs —  or at least that’s theory. In reality, admins managing Kubernetes clusters have had to monitor them carefully to make sure that they had the right amount of resources or avoid service breakdowns.

Karpenter is designed to bring that cloud computing ideal into reality. AWS’s Channy Yun writing in a blog post announcing the new tool, described its advantages.

“[Karpenter] helps improve your application availability and cluster efficiency by rapidly launching right-sized compute resources in response to changing application load. Karpenter also provides just-in-time compute resources to meet your application’s needs and will soon automatically optimize a cluster’s compute resource footprint to reduce costs and improve performance,” Yun wrote.

It works by analyzing your Kubernetes workloads to determine what resources you will require by looking at the pods that cannot launch due to a resource limitation. It then sends information to your cloud provider to add or remove compute based on this information.

It’s important to note here that as an open source tool, this is not specifically designed for AWS cloud resources and can be used to send information to any cloud provider about the underlying Kubernetes cluster. Karpenter takes advantage of Helm, the Kubernetes package manager to determine your Kubernetes workloads. It also requires permission to provision compute resources in an automated way.

Karpenter is an open source tool being offered under an Apache 2.0 license and is available today.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3pchjQa

CloudTrucks raised $115M Series B to help truck entrepreneurs manage their business

CloudTrucks wants to use technology to help trucking entrepreneurs operate their business: The California-based startup sells business management software that helps owner-operators manage cash flow and costs, generate revenue, handle insurance, and more, and it just raised a $115 million Series B.

The company will use the funds to increase headcount as it expands its business, which operates in the United States. CloudTrucks is hiring in almost all areas, with a focus on engineers and data scientists to help double down on product, as well as customer service professionals to support truckers on the road. The company also wants to broaden its digital integration with brokers and shippers.

“We cater to owner-operators and truck drivers who have one or more trucks and are managing their business while also doing the job of moving goods from point A to point B,” Tobenna Arodiogbu, co-founder and CEO of CloudTrucks, told TechCrunch. “The job of being a trucking entrepreneur is getting harder and harder. Lots of tools are being built for brokers and shippers, but not nearly enough is being done for the truck driver who’s actually doing the really hard work.”

Freight movement is expected to rise from 17.4 billion tons in 2015 to 25.5 billion tons by 2045, an increase that coincides with a decrease in truck drivers. Since the 1980s, the industry has experienced high turnover rates, in large part due to low wages and the poor health effects associated with the job. Without significant changes to the business model and talent pool, the truck driver shortage is estimated to hit 160,000 drivers by 2028, according to Deloitte.

The autonomous trucking space promises to one day alleviate these labor issues, but that shift will take place over decades and likely include integration between humans handling first- and last-mile deliveries and self-driving systems managing highway transport, according to Deloitte. Waymo Via’s transfer hub model is a perfect example of this.

Despite future projections of a driverless world, Arodiogbu sees a market need now. There are around 350,000 owner-operator truckers in the United States, according to the nonprofit Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, but Arodiogbu reckons the target market is actually as large as a million truck drivers. Owner-operators usually own one truck and either lease onto a carrier or operate under their own authority, but CloudTrucks also targets entrepreneurs who have up to five trucks, as well as truckers who are contractors.

Before founding CloudTrucks, Arodiogbu started Scotty Labs, a startup focused on building remote operations and autonomous driving solutions for the trucking industry, which was later acquired by DoorDash. While running the company, Arodiogbu gained insights into the problems truck drivers had with managing their businesses and why the industry has been attracting fewer drivers, resulting in today’s truck driver shortage. These issues include things like trouble making revenue-generating decisions, the rising costs of insurance and compliance, and how long it takes to get paid.

“It’s not just a job of driving, but it’s everything else that people have to manage,” said Arodiogbu. “An increasing number of truck drivers just don’t want to be company employees anymore, right? They want to take control of their time. They want to determine when they’re home and when they’re on the road. They want to determine when they get to spend time with their families.”

CloudTrucks launched three products over the past year to help solve trucking business challenges. CT Cash helps drivers get paid faster and alleviate cash flow constraints with instant pay and cash card options, as well as cash advances, so drivers don’t have to worry about not having enough funds for fuel or maintenance.

Flex, which is designed for small trucking businesses that are already managing their own insurance and compliance, helps with back office support. This product came from an existing product line called Virtual Carrier, which essentially puts drivers under CloudTrucks’ authority. Included in this is a package deal where CloudTrucks manages everything for the driver, including compliance and insurance.

Included in both Flex and the Virtual Carrier is a “schedule optimizer” feature, which Arodiogbu described as a dispatcher in your pocket. CloudTrucks has the schedule and preferences for every driver in its system, so it’s able to send suggestions for available loads that can help maximize revenue given preferences and the states they’re willing to drive to. Drivers can book those loads within the platform, which helps simplify the whole process.

Then there’s Business Intelligence, a dashboard that gives drivers a breakdown of their performance, personal expenses and revenue.

“You can’t really improve something that you don’t track, so with that in mind, we wanted to have a product that was very simple for a trucking entrepreneur to just look at the CloudTrucks app and, at a glance, see exactly how their business is performing,” said Arodiogbu.

As far as how CloudTrucks’ business is performing, the company said its revenue has increased 9.5x since it raised its $20.5 million Series A in December 2020. The startup also said it’s seen the number of loads completed on its platform grow 8x since last year, but declined to provide a base for either of those increases. Arodiogbu did say that the company completes thousands of loads around the country per month.

CloudTrucks’ Series B was led by Tiger Global with participation from Menlo Ventures, as well as investment from Flexport and angel investors Michael Ovitz and Opendoor CEO Eric Wu, and brought the startup’s total funding amount to $141.6 million.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3xENYBq

Holoride debuts Ride crypto, the currency of its in-car metaverse

Holoride, the Audi-backed startup that’s creating an in-vehicle virtual reality entertainment system designed for passengers, has begun publicly selling its Ride cryptocurrency token.

The launch of the crypto is the latest move by Holoride to build up its extended reality (XR) ecosystem of games and experiences created by a community of developers. Vehicle passengers keen to experience virtual worlds or play games — all of which are in tune with the movement the car they’re riding in — will have to use the Ride utility token to make purchases.

Holoride is aiming to offer its XR system in private vehicles next year, although details of which brands and when it might launch are scant. The company had previously said it would launch in summer 2022, but has since pulled back on specific timing for next year.

“In the last few years, we have created a proprietary tech stack that connects car manufactures and content creators with passengers,” Nils Wollny, CEO and co-founder of Holoride, told TechCrunch. “Enhancing our platform with blockchain technology and launching our own Ride token is the logical next step in order to supercharge our ecosystem and allow for a fair and transparent participation.”

Back in May, Holoride announced it would be integrating Elrond’s blockchain into its tech stack and using NFTs to incentivize developers to create more content on the platform while also attracting passengers who want to personalize their in-car experience. Both the NFTs and Ride are built on Elrond, and both can be used for transactions in Holoride’s ecosystem. The NFT is unique and cannot be replicated, whereas the Ride cyrptocurrency is interchangeable, as with any type of currency.

“We will enable users and content creators to mint unique NFTs based on their experiences in exchange for RIDE tokens,” said Wollny. “The resulting NFTs can then be bought and sold using Ride.”

Incorporating blockchain, NFTs and cryptocurrency into the Holoride platform isn’t just a way to get attention with nebulous buzz words. Holoride is taking a bet on its ability to extend reality from the car seat to the metaverse, where the digital and virtual worlds intertwine with physical and augmented reality.

That bet could pay off. However, Ride can only be used to buy games and entertainment within Holoride and cannot be traded with other currency, which could limit its reach or stunt growth.

A slew of big names have begun announcing metaverse projects, like Facebook which went so far as to rename its parent company Meta, Niantic (the makers of Pokémon Go), Amazon, Roblox, Unity Software and Microsoft. Meanwhile, as the building blocks of the metaverse begin to reach some semblance of maturity, so does the self-driving ride-hailing industry, with companies like Waymo, Cruise, Motional/Lyft and WeRide on the path to commercialization.

Wollny has told TechCrunch that he wants Holoride to be the “transportation company for the metaverse.” Even though Holoride will initially target private vehicles, the end game is to integrate into self-driving vehicles, giving passengers with plenty of down time a way to stay entertained.

Earlier this month, Holoride announced a partnership with NEVS, a Swedish electric car manufacturer, to integrate its tech into the automaker’s PONS mobility system, a self-driving shared mobility concept featuring Sango, a purpose-built AV. Holoride’s tech would continue to be bolstered by software development company Terranet’s VoxelFlow technology, which relies on a combination of vehicle sensors to calculate the distance, direction and speed of an object. This informs Holoride’s platform in real time so that the user experience within the game is matched by the actual movements of the vehicle.

Ride is being sold on Elrond’s Maiar Launchpad (Crypto launchpads provide a way to raise capital for new projects, give investors time to get early and discounted access to token sales and help build a community around a project). Holoride will initially circulate 130 million tokens at $0.04 each, and there is a max supply of 1 billion tokens. 200 million tokens have already been sold at $0.02 via a private sale, which has since concluded, and another 50 million had been sold publicly before the launch of the crypto. In total, this would have brought the company $5 million.

The Holoride team mainly plans to use the proceeds of the Ride tokens for content creation, but will also allocate funds towards development, marketing and legal and security audits. As far as Ride token allocation goes, 25% will be filtered throughout the XR ecosystem Holoride is creating, which includes ecosystem supporters, key partnerships and growth opportunities.

“In particular, developers, content creators, automotive manufacturers, mobility providers, operational supporters or advisors and ambassadors,” said Wollny. 

Another 20% of the total tokens will be allocated to the “community,” which Wollny says is reserved for early contributors from the crypto community, including beta users, technical audits and code reviews. Only 5% goes towards “public sale,” which means Holoride fans, supporters and believers, and the rest goes to selected financial and strategic investors, equity investors, Holoride’s treasury and the Holoride team.

Aside from purchasing experiences and other virtual items associated with them, Wollny said token holders will initially be able to use them towards ecosystem governance, as well as community benefits like subscriptions, upgrades and special events. The tokens will also be used to incentivize users into a “ride to play to earn” cycle where they can earn extra benefits for taking a sustainable ride in an electric car or sharing specific data, for example. In addition, content creators and car manufacturers may receive Ride as partner royalties, says Wollny.

Holoride is only a year or so away from launch, but it’ll need some serious scale to get to the point where such an involved ecosystem makes sense. At the very least, it might serve as a microcosm for how the metaverse will rely on the underlying principles of blockchain technology, like transparency, security, interoperability and participation. Wollny is optimistic that Holoride has the potential to be at the heart of the movement for how the metaverse will be built and how its users will manage their identity or create and capture value.

“Now that everyone is all over the metaverse, cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the puzzle pieces might fit a little better,” said Wollny. “However, many things are still unsolved and the best it yet to come.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3rC6c5Z

Sapphire Ventures secures largest capital raise to date across two new funds

Sapphire Ventures will inject $2 billion of newly raised capital into growth-stage enterprise companies from two new funds, Sapphire Ventures Fund VI and Sapphire Ventures Opportunity Fund III.

The new funding represents the venture capital firm’s largest raise to date, Nino Marakovic, CEO of Sapphire, told TechCrunch, giving it more than $8.8 billion in assets under management with team members across Austin, London, New York, Palo Alto and San Francisco.

In all, Sapphire has brought in $3.7 billion in capital in the last 12 months, which includes a separate $1.7 billion announced in February that will go into enterprise technology companies, Marakovic said.

Nino Marakovic, Sapphire Ventures

Nino Marakovic, CEO of Sapphire Ventures. Image Credits: Sapphire Ventures

“Companies are raising larger rounds and that requires us to write larger checks to lead and be an active participant,” he added. “We pride ourselves on being an active adviser, and that  is our differentiator.”

Marakovic expects both funds to last through the end of 2022. Fund VI will invest in 20 to 30 companies, while the Opportunity Fund targets a smaller number of investments but larger check sizes.

Recently, Sapphire invested in Verbit, PubNub, Yugabyte and Medable.

Sapphire was founded in 1996 and invests at the Series B stage to IPO in the U.S., Europe and Israel. The firm is investing in value-added resources and is expanding in Europe and Israel with plans to open an office in Berlin and Tel Aviv.

It has 40 investment professionals investing in areas including enterprise SaaS, infrastructure software, fintech, healthcare IT and crypto-infrastructure. Notable investments by the firm include DocuSign, LinkedIn, Fitbit, Box, Sumo Logic and 23andMe.

So far in 2021, Sapphire invested $990 billion in capital, up from $970 million in 2020, and added 26 new companies into its portfolio. Among the firm’s 165 portfolio companies, there were over 70 exits, including 30 IPOs and 45 acquisitions.

With the new funds, the firm also announced it rounded out its leadership team, including Cristina Hohlman as CFO, Ellie Javadi as CMO and Kevin Burke as vice president of strategy;

Meanwhile, Marakovic called today’s investment environment one where VC firms have to “adapt and do diligence ahead of the fundraise.”

“It used to be that you met with the company first,” he added. “If you are already domain experts, it is easier because you meet with the founders early on, before they raise, and build a relationship with them so you are ready for when they do raise.”

He expects more investments to go into software and business applications, with fintech and health IT also being “great opportunities,” and blockchain across all of those. Marakovic referred to blockchain as “the fundamental new building block we have high hopes for as we invest against web3.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/31h2gfK

Cycode raises $56M Series B to help secure software supply chains

Cycode, a startup that helps businesses secure their DevOps pipelines and software supply chains, today announced that it has raised a $56 million Series B funding round led by Insight Partners. YL Ventures, which led the company’s seed round, also participated in this round, which brings the total investment into the company to $81 million, including the $20 million Series A round it announced about half a year ago.

The company argues that this is one of the largest funding rounds in the application security space. In part, that’s surely driven by the fact that the company was also able to show its investors some impressive growth numbers, with its ARR increasing 7x in the first three quarters of this year.

Cycode co-founder and CEO Lior Levy noted that the company’s growth is driven by an increased awareness of supply chain attacks and incidents, including the SolarWinds breach, as well as President Biden’s executive order on improving the U.S.’s cybersecurity stance, which specifically calls out supply chain attacks. And while Cycode launched with a focus on securing the source code of a business’ applications, today’s trend toward “infrastructure as code” has allowed it to significantly widen its scope.

“Code has become the engine of the organization,” Levy said. “As it automates the entire software development lifecycle, it really created a need to look at everything from a holistic perspective, which we do.”

Image Credits: Cycode

Levy noted that Cycode’s userbase includes Fortune 100 companies and small startups with fewer than 100 employees. “All of them have one thing in common: they all develop software and they all have software as part of their core, whether it’s being a software-enabled business or as a vendor. But given that everyone does software today, everyone is a potential customer.”

In recent months, Cycode launched its Knowledge Graph, which helps it connect all of a company’s DevOps tools and infrastructure services to build a map of a customer’s potential attack surfaces. Levy noted that this now allows the company to think like an attacker by being able to identify issues across a company’s software pipeline instead of only focusing on individual services.

Image Credits: Cycode

“Simply put, software supply chains are highly vulnerable absent thoughtful security measures,” said Jon Rosenbaum, principal at Insight Partners. “Cycode’s leadership in securing DevOps pipelines meets developers where they are while giving CISO’s peace of mind. There has been a continually increasing demand for Cycode’s solutions, and we’re excited to continue to support the business as it doubles down on R&D and go-to-market efforts into the ScaleUp phase of growth.”

Cycode currently has just under 60 employees, with plans for doubling that by the middle of next year, including an expanded sales and marketing team in the U.S.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3xENSty

Pepper brings in $16M, gets back to its roots of spicing up ordering experience for food distributors

A majority of restaurants and grocery stores still order food from distributors via voicemail and pay with paper checks, without paper trails or the ability to access order history. Pepper wants to change that.

The New York-based company developed an ordering system specifically for food distributors that supports catalogues of over 100,000 items and enables these companies to launch mobile apps and websites so that they can accept orders and payments online. This method, on average, increased revenue for customers by 15%, company CEO Bowie Cheung told TechCrunch.

Cheung co-founded Pepper with Chetan Narain and Ivana Tesanovic in 2019. Cheung and Narain met at UberEats, where they saw technology infiltrate restaurants, yet not so much into the day-to-day workflows of the food distributors that worked with them.

“People care about food waste and sustainability, but it is difficult to envision any operational change when the industry is so fragmented,” Cheung said. “We watched how rapidly technology went from non-existent to prolific in restaurants. There are 25,000 food distributors in the U.S. and almost no technology built for them. That is a hole we can fill.”

In 2020 to address needs during the global pandemic, the company started Pepper Pantry, a consumer-facing portal for customers to place orders directly with food distributors and have them delivered to their homes.

Now today, Pepper announced $16 million in Series A funding to expand what it started two years ago as it aims to work with over 25,000 restaurants and grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Index Ventures led the round and was joined by Greylock Partners, Imaginary Ventures, BoxGroup, Moving Capital and Brett Schulman. The latest round brings the total capital raised to date to $20 million.

“Pepper is pursuing what we think is the next big opportunity in the restaurant industry: enabling restaurants to purchase $200 billion of annual food inventory digitally instead of via phone and email,” said Damir Becirovic, principal at Index Ventures, and Pepper investor, in a written statement. “Pepper has built a great platform that they provide to food distributors, essentially enabling a Shopify-like e-commerce storefront for them.”

The U.S. wholesale food distribution industry has a combined annual revenue of about $991 billion. To meet that demand, Cheung plans to inject the new funding into three areas: onboarding more food distributors in the U.S. and Canada, product development and sales and marketing. He also plans to double the size of Pepper’s 24 employees in the next 12 months.

Pepper prides itself on being low friction for customers to get up and running, in some cases without upfront costs, something Cheung said was not possible with some of Pepper’s competitors.

The company charges on a monthly basis based on the number of active users and can get customers going in about two months compared to hundreds of thousands of dollars in upfront costs and a six- to 12-month timeline from other companies, he added.

He believes that is why Pepper was able to recruit a network, in one year, that represents 20,000 unique buyers that bring in over $1 billion in sales altogether.

“For some supplies, that is enough friction, which is why they haven’t launched digital operations to date,” he added. “We can get our technology up quickly, so we don’t have to charge those fees. We also don’t charge ongoing consulting fees and are building out a library of features so customers can pick and choose what they need.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/31em6sf

Tecno Camon 18T brings Helio G85 and 48MP selfie cam

Tecno’s Camon 18 series keeps expanding and the latest member is the Camon 18T. Following up on the budget-friendly Camon 18i, Tecno’s Camon 18T brings the looks of the more premium Camon 18 models but relies on MediaTek’s less capable Helio G85 chipset. Tecno Camon 18T in Iris Purple, Dusk Gray and Ceramic White You still get a 6.8-inch IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution and a punch-hole cutout for the 48MP selfie cam. There’s also a dual-LED flash system to help out your selfies. Going around the back we find another 48MP sensor alongside a 2MP macro cam and 2MP depth helper....



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/3o5ks4H

AWS launches Data Exchange for APIs to update changing data automatically

Developers often build machine learning models with the help of a third-party data set, which they add to their model, and they’re done. But data isn’t always static. That means building some sort of pipeline to collect the data at regular intervals, creating extra work.

Today at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, the company announced the AWS Data Exchange for APIs, a new tool that updates changing third-party APIs automatically, removing the need for building the updating mechanism.

AWS’s Alex Casalboni writing in a company blog post pointed out that by using an API, data scientists can get an answer to a specific question with changing information like a stock price quickly, eliminating the need for the pipeline. That’s great for a single API, but if you’re using multiple APIs, that creates a new set of problems around communication, authentication and governance related to the APIs.

That’s where AWS Data Exchange for APIs comes in to help solve those issues. “Today, I’m happy to announce the general availability of AWS Data Exchange for APIs, a new capability that lets you find, subscribe to, and use third-party APIs with a consistent access using AWS SDKs, as well as consistent AWS-native authentication and governance,” Casalboni wrote in the blog post.

The key part here is that this is AWS-specific like many tools announced this week. If you are building your application or data model on top of AWS, this tool lets you access AWS software development kits (SDKs) and use AWS authentication and governance tooling to access and update third party APIs in this automated way.

Those third-party data providers get something here too. By listing their APIs in the Data Exchange catalog, more developers can see and use their data sources. “As a data provider, you make your API discoverable by millions of AWS customers by listing it in the AWS Data Exchange catalog using an OpenAPI specification and fronting it with an Amazon API Gateway endpoint,” Casalboni explained.

Third party providers offering data through the data exchange include Variety Business Intelligence, IMDb and Foursquare, among many others. The tool is available for both developers and API providers starting today.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3d5UhVw

ThreeFlow raises $45 million to scale its employee benefits placement software

ThreeFlow, which provides software for insurance brokers selling employee benefits, announced today that it raised $45 million in Series B funding. New investor Accel led the round alongside existing investors Emergence Capital, Equal Ventures, and First Trust Capital Partners.

The Chicago-based company, formerly known as WatchTower, raised $8 million for its Series A round in January 2021. The latest round brings its total venture funding to $53 million since its founding in 2015.

Since the Series A, the company has grown from roughly 20 to 84 employees and hired four new executives to oversee engineering, sales, marketing, and product, CEO Ryan Sachtjen told TechCrunch in an interview. Sachtjen said the company will use the proceeds from its latest round to double its employee base in 2022 across these functions.

“A big part of our plan progression here for next year is making investments on the engineering side so that carrier integrations are more widely adopted,” Sachtjen said. The company will also announce a broader API strategy to strengthen connectivity with insurance carriers next year, which Sachtjen expects to be a major growth driver.

ThreeFlow co-founders Ryan Sachtjen, Richard Perrott, and Shaheeb Roshan. Image Credits: ThreeFlow

ThreeFlow’s product falls within a new category of software that it calls a “benefits placement solution” for insurance brokerages. Brokerages aggregate plans from insurance carriers and sell them to companies. In the past year, ThreeFlow facilitated over $600 million in transactions — double that of the year prior. 

The brokers using ThreeFlow represent 7,600 employers and 40 insurance carriers across 34 US states today, and the company plans to continue its geographic expansion. The company now has over 100 enterprise contracts, up from 28 in January.

While the medical, dental, and vision insurance markets are “very mature,” Sachtjen said, companies are now looking to grow their offerings by adding new plans for employees including fertility, mental health, and financial wellness benefits, presenting new opportunities for ThreeFlow.

Brokers require a high degree of customization in their sales process because of the complexities of designing plans suitable for a variety of clients, a need that Sachtjen said has historically been filled by outdated, highly-manual systems like Microsoft Office. 

ThreeFlow’s solution hinges on three key tenets, per Sachtjen — it is purpose-built for brokers’ specific needs, supports the entire placement process end-to-end, and serves as a true shared system of record between insurance carriers and brokers.

ThreeFlow’s deep relationships with brokers and carriers provide it with a trove of data it plans to leverage.

“We help pull that information together and provide it back to leadership on both the broker and carrier side, to help them make better decisions fundamentally at a leadership level, and to actually help them engage together more effectively between carriers and brokers, because there is a very dependent relationship structure between the two,” Sachtjen said.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3Ea6tjI

Sydney-based quantum sensing startup Q-CTRL raises $25M Series B led by Airbus Ventures

Q-CTRL, a Sydney-based startup that provides quantum control engineering solutions, announced today it has raised a $25 million Series B led by Airbus Ventures with participation from Ridgeline Partners, Main Sequence Ventures, Horizons Ventures, SquarePeg Capital, Sierra Ventures, DCVC, Sequoia Capital China and InQTel. 

The latest funding will support hiring staff and enable new data-as-a-service markets powered by quantum sensing, founder and CEO of Q-CTRL Michael Biercuk said. It also will continue to invest in developing its quantum control for quantum computing and quantum sensing for acceleration, gravity and magnetic fields, Biercuk added. To date, the company has raised more than $43 million (60 million AUD) in total capital. 

“Q-CTRL’s vision has always been to enable all applications of quantum technology. This new fundraising is critical in realizing our mission to deliver real value to the space, defense, and commercial sectors,” said Biercuk. 

Q-CTRL provides infrastructure software that improves quantum computing performance by addressing the most pressing challenge in the field – hardware error and instability, Biercuk told TechCrunch. 

The Series B financing event comes on the heels of major technical and product development recently announced by Q-CTRL. It includes technical demonstrations using core Q-CTRL technology, known as quantum logic gates, to improve the performance of quantum algorithms executed on real quantum computers by 2680%.

The company is also developing space-qualified quantum sensors and exploration technologies for Earth, the Moon and Mars with a consortium of Australian firms led by Fleet Space Technologies. Its quantum sensing clients include Advanced Navigation, the Australian Department of Defense, Air Force Research Lab, and the Australian Space Agency

“The team’s impressive quantum control software suite enables speed and agility at a moment of rapid acceleration for the entire quantum industry,” said Lewis Pinault, Partner of Airbus Ventures based in Tokyo. “We’re particularly excited about Q-CTRL’s widening span of advanced applications and solutions, including lunar development, geospatial intelligence and Earth observation, all increasingly critical in the global effort to address the accelerating planetary system crises we now face.”

Its revenue in FY2020/2021 was up 3X year on year, and the company generated over $9 million in sales and booking for its new quantum sensor business, which only commenced in late 2020, Biercuk said. 

Like most companies, the pandemic caused a substantial pause in growth, which resulted in significant losses in its planned international sales and marketing engagement, Biercuk said. Despite this, the company has grown from about 20 to 60 on its team since January 2020, Biercuk continued. 

He added that the company operates a large team of quantum control specialists with over 30 PhD-level researchers driving its research and product development in quantum computing and quantum sensing.  

The company recently launched Black Opal, an interactive and accessible online learning platform that enables anyone to learn quantum computing. Biercuk said that it surpassed its ten days sales target in 2.5 days. 

In 2017, Q-CTRL was spun off from the University of Sydney, where Biercuk works as a Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology professor. 

Q-CTRL

Professor Michael Biercuk. Photo: Jessica Hromas

Q-CTRL currently operates offices in Sydney and Los Angeles. It will open an office in Berlin with the first employees starting next month, Biercuk noted. 

The quantum computing industry is estimated to be worth more than $850 billion in annual value by 2040, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group. The global quantum sensors market is projected to increase to $299.9 million by 2024 from $161 million in 2019, based on a report by BCC Research.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3xFtybS

Abacum, a SaaS for finance teams, adds $25M in Atomico-led Series A

Abacum, a SaaS maker geared toward upgrading mid-sized companies’ financial planning and analysis tools, has fast-followed the $7 million seed it raised earlier this year (April) with a $25M Series A round. The latest funding brings its total raised to date to $32M.

The Series A is led by European VC Atomico, with participation from Creandum, FJ Labs, S16VC, and other existing investors.

It added that a number of “notable” unicorn founders and executives are also joining this round as angels — including Adyen CFO Ingo Uytdehaage; Infarm CFO Carmine Visconti; JobandTalent co-founders Felipe Navío and Juan Urdiales; and Blockfi founder Zac Prince.

As part of the investment, Atomico principal Terese Hougaard will join its board.

As we reported when we covered Abacum’s seed raise, a core focus for the software is on bringing a collaborative layer to financial planning and analysis — making it easier for financial teams to share data internally with the wider business by automating fiddly, repetitive manual tasks (such as copypasting data between spreadsheets or other manual data transformations that can be prone to human error).

Abacum co-founder and CEO Julio Martínez told TechCrunch the 2019-founded startup now has over 50 customers, spread across five continents.

These include a number of familiar scaleups given the mid-tier focus. (It slates the likes of Spain’s Typeform, Cabify and Ebury among its sign-ups, for example, and while Abacum’s business is based in New York its co-founders are Spanish, and it has an office in Barcelona, so has evidently been leveraging links to the local ecosystem to drive uptake).

Asked about its growth rate this year, Martínez said: “We’ve multiplied 15x our ARR in the last year, and our ARR per client continues to expand as the value they find in the Abacum platform continues to grow.”

“Today, the majority of our customer base is split between North America and Europe. Regarding industries, we’re focused on fast-scaling tech companies. Fintech and SaaS are the most prominent sub-industries we deal with but there is no shortage of Mobility and Martech companies either,” he added.

Per Martínez, Abacum will use the Series A funding — primarily — for product development and growth.

“Our goal in the next months is to continue building more value for our customers in the Abacum platform with more functionality. On the commercial side, we are also growing our offices in the US and LatAm to serve our customers better in those markets,” he said. 

Commenting in a supporting statement, Atomico principal Terese Hougaard added: “Modern finance teams are increasingly called upon as the central source of truth in a company, providing all other teams with the input they need to make key strategic decisions. The uncertainties presented by the pandemic have exacerbated this, with finance teams needing to accurately forecast and scenario plan faster than ever before. Abacum provides the platform strategic finance teams need to do exactly this: Aggregate and combine existing sources of business data, forecast, plan and — crucially — collaborate with all other teams in a company.”



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3rm53yZ

Tecno Camon 18T brings Helio G85 and 48MP slefie cam

Tecno’s Camon 18 series keeps expanding and the latest member is the Camon 18T. Following up on the budget-friendly Camon 18i, Tecno’s Camon 18T brings the looks of the more premium camon phones but relies on MediaTek’s less capable Helio G85 chipset. Tecno Camon 18T in Iris purple, Dusk Gray and Ceramic White You still get a 6.8-inch IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution and a punch-hole cutout for the 48MP selfie cam. There’s also a dual-LED flash system to help out your selfies. Going around the back we find another 48MP sensor alongside a 2MP macro cam and 2MP depth helper. There’s...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/3I4Z9IA

Irish eSports giant’s new startup bets big on rugby in bid for US market share

A fantasy sports exchange founded by Irish betting veteran Paddy Power is bringing NFT-enabled live trading to rugby fans in a bid to expand globally.

American Sports Exchange (ASX Sports), just signed a deal with New Zealand digital media company RugbyPass to use its data to allow fans to participate in ASX’s virtual stock market for rugby games.

ASX Sports launched in May 2021 and took its exchange live on the Apple and Android app stores earlier this month. The exchange lets users buy and sell virtual shares in esports and fantasy players, reflecting their prices in real time based on player performance and fan demand. The virtual rugby games are set to begin on ASX’s exchange in early 2022 ahead of the Six Nations Rugby Championship, Power told TechCrunch in an interview.

RugbyPass reaches an audience of over 10 million viewers, the company says. For ASX Sports, which is explicitly targeting expansion in the United States market, rugby seems like an unexpected pick given its popularity in Europe, Australia, and Asia. 

But the company, which just moved its headquarters to Miami from Dublin, is betting on rugby’s growing traction in the U.S, which has 8.8 million active rugby fans, per sports analytics firm Gemba.

“NFTs are such an exciting buzzword, and the U.S. is kind of where it’s at. It’s the home of next-generation fantasy, which is effectively what we are. That’s why we’re Miami-based now, and that’s kind of opening plenty of opportunities for us,” Power said.

While users of the ASX exchange will be able to buy and hold shares in specific players, the sports teams themselves and their sponsors will be the owners of the NFTs. The intricacies of partnership deals for virtual team ownership on ASX will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis by the teams, Power said. 

Power previously worked in marketing for his father David Power’s company, Paddy Power Betfair, which rebranded as Flutter Entertainment in 2019 and bought a majority stake in FanDuel, the largest player in US sports betting. ASX wants to position itself to partner with leagues like the NFL and NBA, as more U.S. states, particularly large markets like New York, look to legalize sports betting. 

ASX is raising capital rapidly so it can compete for coveted partnerships against incumbents like Disney, Caesars and Fox Sports, as the regulatory landscape opens up. It crowdfunded the equivalent of over $560K in 24 hours ahead of its May launch, using the proceeds to hire a team of about 30 developers. 

The company plans to raise a Series A round early next year and is currently in talks with tier one sports franchises and leagues in the U.S., according to Power. 

ASX hosted its first public game last week, a virtual version of the English Premier League’s Liverpool vs. Arsenal match.

“We got thousands of players — we were delighted with that — and we had really good engagement as well as people trading during play,” Power said.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3o58lok

Xiaomi to launch a 120W charging phone in India next month

Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi today announced the Redmi Note 11T 5G in India, which is a rebranded Redmi Note 11 launched in China last month. The Note 11 series also includes the Note 11 Pro and Note 11 Pro+, with the latter being the fastest charging among the trio as it goes up to 120W. There's no word yet from Xiaomi about the launch of the Note 11 Pro+ in India, but a new media report claims the smartphone could arrive in the Asian country before January, meaning sometime next month. However, like the vanilla Note 11, the Pro+ model is also expected to come with a different moniker - Redmi...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/3o4d1uO

Leak: the Honor 60 Pro will have larger display and a 50MP ultra wide camera

A leak from yesterday detailed the Honor 60 specs, but the Pro variant managed to keep its secretes. Until today that is, as leakster Ishan Agarwal has discovered what the upgrades will be over the vanilla model. The Honor 60 Pro will feature a 50 MP sensor in its ultra wide camera (sensor size unknown). The lens will have an f/2.2 aperture and autofocus, allowing it to shoot macro photography. For comparison, the vanilla model will have an 8 MP sensor. The selfie camera on the front may be another upgrade with a 50 MP sensor (it’s just that the selfie cam on the vanilla phone is...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/3Eaflpx

UK’s antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to sell Giphy

In a significant push against big tech’s ability to maintain market dominance through sheer buying power, the UK’s competition watchdog has ordered Facebook (now Meta) to reverse its acquisition of animated GIF platform, Giphy — confirming the Financial Times‘ earlier reporting.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its phase 2 investigation cemented earlier competition concerns about the impact of Meta owning and operating Giphy.

In a statement, Stuart McIntosh, chair of the independent inquiry group heading the CMA probe, said: “The tie-up between Facebook and Giphy has already removed a potential challenger in the display advertising market. Without action, it will also allow Facebook to increase its significant market power in social media even further, through controlling competitors’ access to Giphy GIFs.”

“By requiring Facebook to sell Giphy, we are protecting millions of social media users and promoting competition and innovation in digital advertising,” he added.

This story is developing… refresh for updates… 

The watchdog’s intervention follows an extended investigation of the acquisition that Facebook announced (and completed) in May 2020, with the CMA taking an initial look in summer 2020 — and dialling up its scrutiny over the following months.

It also, in June 2020, ordered a halt to further integration of Giphy by Facebook while the oversight continued.

In another first last month, the regulator fined Facebook almost $70 million for deliberately withholding information related to ongoing oversight of the acquisition — billing the infringement a “major” breach.

The CMA’s preliminary report on the acquisition, this August, concluded that Facebook’s takeover of Giphy raised a number of competition concerns — including that it would harm competition between social media platforms, given the lack of choice in the supply of animated GIFs.

The regulator’s concern was not only that Facebook might simply deny rivals access to Giphy content for their users to reshare but that the data-mining giant might change the terms of access — and could, for example, require rivals like TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat to provide it with more user data in order to access Giphy GIFs.

The CMA appears to have held to its concern on the risk of competitive harm through data extraction from other services, as well as from other more obvious risks — such as Facebook shutting off rivals’ access to the platform — hence rejecting all the tech giant’s proposed alternative ‘remedies’ to selling the unit as insufficient.

“After consulting with interested businesses and organisations — and assessing alternative solutions (known as ‘remedies’) put forward by Facebook — the CMA has concluded that its competition concerns can only be addressed by Facebook selling Giphy in its entirety to an approved buyer,” the CMA writes in a press release.

In the summer the watchdog had also said it was concerned about the impact on digital ‘display’ advertising — as Giphy had, pre-merger, been offering paid advertising services in the US (and considering expanding to other countries including the UK) with the potential to compete with Facebook’s ad services. An ambition that terminated with Facebook’s takeover.

“The CMA found that Giphy’s advertising services had the potential to compete with Facebook’s own display advertising services. They would have also encouraged greater innovation from others in the market, including social media sites and advertisers. Facebook terminated Giphy’s advertising services at the time of the merger, removing an important source of potential competition. The CMA considers this particularly concerning given that Facebook controls nearly half of the £7 billion display advertising market in the UK,” the regulator writes now.

A summary of the CMA’s final report can be found here.

Meta/Facebook has been contacted for its response to the CMA’s order to undo the Giphy acquisition.

The company responded aggressively to the CMA’s provisional findings this summer — denouncing the analysis and questioning the UK regulator’s jurisdiction over its business.

However concern over so-called ‘killer acquisitions’ — aka the ability of tech giants’ to flex their financial muscle to protect market power by buying budding competition to defuse the risk posed by startups and new services (sometimes literally by closing them down post-purchase) — has been a major topic of concern among industry watchers for years.

The critique centers on how competition regulators have failed to evolve theories of harm to keep pace with digital market dynamics. Failing, for example, to consider how data itself can be used as a tool against competition. Dominant platforms can also easily leverage their market power in one channel to rapidly scale into a new segment, via tactics like self-preferencing. While ‘free’ at the point of use services may still entail significant harms for consumers — such as abuse of their privacy.

In recent years, legislators and regulators have started to respond to such concerns — including by updating rules, such as in Germany which passed an update to its regime to cover digital platforms at the start of this year. (The country now has a number of open procedures against tech giants (including Facebook) to confirm its ability to impose preemptive measures.)

In the US, the Biden administration’s elevation of Lina Khan to chair the FTC, earlier this year, marks key moment of change on US soil — signalling lawmakers’ support for a reformist approach toward regulating tech.

It follows Khan’s landmark paper (on Amazon) which examined how the government’s outdated ways of identifying monopolies have failed to keep up with modern business realities. What was initially dismissed by some — as ‘hipster antitrust’ — is now setting the establishment regulatory agenda. Although Khan still faces huge opposition on home soil from the tech lobby working through channels like the US Chamber of Commerce.

Over in the EU, the Europe Commission has also been working to address the lag between tech and antitrust.

Since December it’s had a draft proposal on the table for a set of ex ante rules to apply to intermediating platform giants (aka, those classified as ‘gatekeepers’ under the Digital Markets Act). Although whether the DMA goes far enough to actually help reboot competition remains to be seen.

The UK, now outside the bloc, has its own update to domestic competition law incoming, also aimed at tackling platform power — with a new regime of bespoke rules for platforms deemed to have ‘strategic market status’.

All this comes too late to undo plenty of baked in tech consolidation, however. But not too late to undo Facebook-Giphy.

Outdated approaches to regulation of digital markets has allowed thousands of tech acquisitions to be waived through over the past decades — including Facebook’s purchase of photo-sharing site Instagram, messaging platform WhatsApp and VR headset maker Oculus, to name three strategic takeovers which span the core social networking arena that Facebook/Meta owns and wants to keep owning for decades to come (in an even more immersive/invasive form; aka “the metaverse”).

Earlier this year, the Commission failed to block Google’s acquisition of health wearable Fitbit — despite a huge outcry from civil society warning out letting the adtech giant gobble up such sensitive data, for example.

More recently the CMA also cleared Facebook’s acquisition of CRM maker Kustomer — again using a fairly narrow assessment of potential competition risks — and entirely ignoring privacy advocates who were raising concerns over what the adtech giant would do with Kustomer users’ data.

The CMA’s decision now to order Facebook to reverse its acquisition of Giphy is a significant development — albeit, it’s still just one decision that hasn’t gone big tech’s way.

Discussing the move in response to questions from TechCrunch, professor Tommaso Valletti, a former chief competition economist within the Commission — who worked under current EVP Margrethe Vestage — described the CMA’s move as a “highly symbolic decision”. But he cautioned against reading too much into one ‘no’.

“I’ve been repeating the figures “1000 and 0”: mergers done by GAFAM and mergers blocked in past 20 years. So having finally a 1 does not change the overall picture but it’s a signal,” he told us.

Earlier this year the Commission made it possible for Member States to refer cases for merger review when they may fall between the cracks of national antitrust policy, with the risk of an innovative tech or business being acquired (on the cheap) by a more established rival in order to kill budding competition.

Valletti also pointed out that Vestager has finally signalled an intention to discuss big tech acquisitions with US lawmakers — which he dubbed “another good sign”, saying the EU “was (and still is) lagging on this”.

Major reworking of how antitrust gets applied in the US will clearly be essential to rein in what remain (mostly) US tech giants — however innovative the actions of individual regulators (such as the CMA) elsewhere.

“As for ‘new’ theories of harm, I think it’s just that the CMA has good economists that are aware of what economics has being saying and finding in the past 10 years: Data are part of the business model, so they must be part of the competitive assessment too,” Valletti added of its decision on Facebook-Giphy. “It’s not ‘just’ a privacy issues dealt by someone else.

“Good economics, openness of mind, and a higher risk appetite by their leadership, means the CMA is trying to move the bar in a typically extremely conservative field with shy regulators. Let’s be hopeful!”

As noted above, the UK is working on a reform of competition law that’s specifically targeted at platform giants — with so called ‘strategic market status’ — who will be regulated under an ex ante require of bespoke rules in the future. Although the necessarily legislation to empower the dedicated Digital Markets Unit that’s been set up to focus on this area is still pending.

Still, the CMA hasn’t been sitting on its hands in the meanwhile, with a number of open investigations into various aspects of big tech’s business and ongoing scrutiny of acquisitions.

The UK’s regulatory regime has a free hand to go its own way on big tech decisions — given the country is not longer a member of the EU. Although UK regulators have said the continue to consult with international counterparts on issues of common concern.

While the bloc is seeking to harmonize digital regulations under the DMA and Digital Services Act, there has been some concern that EU lawmakers’ push to reduce ‘fragmentation’ may end up benefiting tech giants — i.e. if it removes the ability of individual Member States to pass more ambitious legislation.

UK regulators could, therefore, end up addressing shortfalls in the bloc’s one-size-fits-all plan for a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ for platform giants — by applying a more tightly tailored regime to tech giants. Having creative thinking at the CMA therefore looks vital.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3o2N7Yi

LG Energy Solution gets Korea Exchange’s nod for planned IPO

LG Energy Solution, the battery unit wholly owned by LG Chem, received preliminary approval for an initial public offering, the Korea Exchange said in a statement on Tuesday.

LG Energy Solution is reportedly planning to submit its IPO application to Financial Supervisory Service as early as this week, aiming to list at the end of January.

In June, LG Energy suspended its IPO process on the heels of a series of recalls from American automaker General Motors’ Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles due to possible battery cell defects that could increase the risk of fire. 

General Motors has said it would seek reimbursement from LG Chem, GM’s battery cell manufacturing partner, for its estimated $1 billion worth of losses. LG Energy and LG Electronics settled the recall issue by setting $ 1.1 billion (1.4 trillion won) as expenses to pay GM for the Bolt EV recalls.

LG Energy Solution said last month it will resume its planned IPO after reaching an agreement over the recall-related issue with General Motors in September. 

Seoul-based analysts have forecast an IPO size of $8.3billion (10 trillion won) after estimating LG Energy Solution’s valuation at between $50.5 billion (60 trillion won) and $58.9 billion, which would be one of the largest IPO deals in South Korea.

The company spokesperson declined to comment on its IPO detail. 

LG Energy posted $11.2 billion in revenue as of September, based on its financial report.

LG Energy Solution competes with China’s CATL and BYD, Japan-based Panasonic and South Korea’s SK Innovation and Samsung SDI. 

LG Chem has unveiled a plan to invest $5.2 billion through 2025 to ramp up its battery business in the U.S.

LG Chem said last week LG Energy Solution Michigan plans to raise $1.36 billion in funding to establish new EV batteries production facilities in North America. The company will use the proceeds to increase EV batteries and energy storage systems (ESS) production, meeting growing demand.

In October, LG Energy and Stellantis announced a preliminary deal, which still must be approved by the regulators to form a joint venture to produce battery cells and modules in North America, with an annual capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours.

The company also has made a six-year agreement with an Australia-based mining firm for the stable supply of key minerals (cobalt and nickel) used in cathode production. 



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3E7Ii5J

MIUI 13 to come pre-installed on new Redmi K50 series

Xiaomi is expected to launch the MIUI 13 later this year, likely alongside the Xiaomi 12 flagship line. The latest reports are the user interface will also come pre-installed in all Redmi K50 smartphones. Digital Chat Station claimed on Weibo that the Redmi K50 phones with Dimensity 7000 and Dimensity 9000 will be underperforming compared to their siblings powered by new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chips. The Redmi K40 lineup consists of four devices and has three different chipsets. We expect even more diversity with the new lineup - the Redmi K50 (or Redmi K50 SE) will be powered...



from GSMArena.com - Latest articles https://ift.tt/3FZ1WkH

Soveren launches from stealth with $6.5M seed funding to automate GDPR compliance

Soveren, a London-based startup that automates the detection of privacy risks to help organizations comply with GDPR and CCPA, has launched out of stealth with $6.5 million in seed funding.

The company analyzes real-time data flows inside an organizations’ infrastructure to discover personal data and detect privacy risks to make it easier for CTOs and CISOs to recognize and address privacy gaps. Soveren says some 10 million companies globally are at risk of violating GDPR and other regulatory obligations because of their failure to detect and resolve privacy incident.

“Security software successfully addresses security threats, but has a limited impact on addressing privacy challenges,” Peter Fedchenkov, founder and co-CEO of Soveren, tells TechCrunch. “This is because, unlike other confidential data that can be easily isolated, personal data is actually meant to be accessed, used, and shared in day-to-day business operations. We believe that privacy is the new security because it demands the same automated, continuous protection measures.”

Fedchenkov says the idea for Soveren came from his personal experience in the e-commerce sector. “We saw first hand how manual and complex data protection and privacy compliance is today. It takes more time, more money, and more effort than it really should.”

So far, Sovern has so far secured 10 lighthouse customers across software, e-commerce, travel, fintech, and healthcare in North America and Europe.

The firm is now planning to expand globally after securing a $6.5 million seed investment, which was led by Firstminute Capital with participation from Northzone, 11 unicorn founders including Airbnb and Mulesoft, Sir Richard Branson’s family, and a handful of global CEOs including Nikesh Arora, the chairman CEO of Palo Alto Networks.

Fedchenkov says, to begin with, Soveren will use the funds to expand its product team and to invest in sales and marketing. “We haven’t actually done anything on the marketing side yet, so we definitely want to double-down on that,” he tells TechCrunch.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/31dtl3F

Partech raises $750 million growth fund

Paris-based VC firm Partech has announced the closing of the fundraising of its new growth fund. Partech Growth II is the firm’s second growth fund. And the team managed to raise $750 million.

As a reminder, Partech Growth I was a smaller fund with €400 million under management, which represents $460 million at today’s exchange rate. Partech closed Partech Growth I back in 2015.

When it comes to today’s fund, backing comes from 45 institutional investors, such as endowments, foundations, pension funds, life insurers, asset managers and fund-of-funds. Around 40 family offices, entrepreneurs and business angels also participated directly in the new fund.

Partech has already started deploying some of the fund in tech companies. Portfolio companies include Rohlik, a grocery delivery company from Czech Republic (more details in Ingrid Lunden’s article), Skello, a work scheduling software-as-a-service tool (more details in my separate article), Studocu, a note sharing platform for college students (Ingrid also covered it here) and recurring payment platform Billogram (more from Ingrid).

“We’re humbled and grateful for the support of, and commitment from, our global investors. It allows us to continue to deliver meaningful and strategic assistance to the outstanding community of European tech entrepreneurs who decide to welcome us on their journey,” Partech Growth General Partner Omri Benayoun said in a statement.

Partech plans to invest across many different verticals, both enterprise and consumer companies, across multiple industries. The firm plans to invest in 12 to 15 companies with an average check ranging from $22.4 million to $78.4 million (€20 million to €70 million).



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3pfH6qs

Jump brings stability to freelancers by giving French permanent contracts

French startup Jump wants to disrupt the industry of umbrella companies. Those companies provide an alternative to traditional freelancing jobs. They can hire workers on permanent contracts so that they get the stability and the benefits that come with a full-time contract. But workers remain independent — they can work with multiple clients and they negotiate their contracts directly.

What makes Jump different from legacy companies operating in the space is that it’s much cheaper and much more automated than what’s already available. Jump lets you create an account and send your first invoice automatically — you don’t have to talk to anyone at Jump to get started.

Once you sign up, you can start asking your clients to pay Jump instead of paying you directly. At any time, you can see your outstanding invoices and how much money you have on your Jump account.

Jump customers can then create payslips and receive a salary. And because it’s a regular French permanent contract, you are registered with the national healthcare system and you start saving for your retirement. If things are not going well with your client, you can request a rupture conventionnelle and become eligible for unemployment benefits.

The company raised a $4.5 million (€4 million) seed round led by Index Ventures. Kima Ventures and 16 angel investors also participated in the round, such has Nicolas Brusson, Hanno Renner, Laurent Ritter and Thibaud Elziere.

Traditional umbrella companies take a cut of your annual turnover. Pricing varies but it can be 5%, 7% or even sometimes 10%. For instance, Jump’s co-founder and CEO Nicolas Fayon used to work for ITG, which charges 6% to 8% on your revenue. You can also pay ITG an additional 2% to manage expenses and therefore optimize your pay.

Jump currently charges a flat subscription fee of €79 per month (that’s $89). Customers can then access third-party services, such as professional and personal life insurance with Axa, health insurance with Alan, several freelance marketplaces (Malt, Talent.io and LeGratin) and other miscellaneous services (Simbel, Secret or HelloPrêt).

So far, Jump has been working with hundreds of freelancers. They have invoiced €3 million to date. Many freelancers could benefit from such a product, such as developers, real estate agents or drivers. And I believe there’s a big market opportunity for umbrella companies as they could be particularly useful for people working remotely for foreign companies that don’t want to open a subsidiary in France.



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3xBAzu0