HSBC invests in Singapore’s customer intelligence and risk assessment startup

HSBC Asset Management, the investment arm of Britain’s HSBC Group, has led a seed round of $4 million in Singapore’s customer intelligence and risk assessment startup Bizbaz, the two said Friday.

Founded in June 2019, Bizbaz offers its proprietary customer intelligence and risk management solutions to banks, insurance companies and fintech startups. The startup has attracted nearly 20 people with backgrounds in behavioral science, health tech, AI and data.

“The problem we’re trying to solve is to empower and enable whether they are a financial institution, a fintech company or any kind of a B2C company that’s trying to acquire or onboard new customers,” said Hayk Hakobyan, CEO and co-founder of Bizbaz, in an interview with TechCrunch.

In several Asian countries, as high as 80% of the local population does not have credit bureau data and scores to help banks and companies understand their financial position and efficiently underwrite their lending. Bizbaz is attempting to solve this issue by exploring alternative ways to build credit profile of individuals.

Several firms in Asia are taking a similar approach today, sifting through people’s social media profiles and telco records. Hakobyan said this kind of research requires high accuracy and some industry practices raise privacy concerns.

In contrast, Bizbaz looks at the available data attributes including social media profiles and the apps people have installed — and frequently use — on their smartphones. It can also assess someone’s personality and their ability to bear risk by speaking with them for 45 seconds if they don’t have a smartphone, Hakobyan claimed.

Analyzing individuals’ risk appetite through their multiple digital footprints helps the startup limit the instances of false positives and flag people trying to trick the system.

“Of course, false positives cannot be 0% because theoretically, you cannot eliminate all this kind of cases, but we do as most as can be done technologically to potentially eliminate or diminish the chances of that by very extensively training our data systems before even the test, during the test and by the time they reach the actual deployment,” Hakobyan noted.

Bizbaz has different templates based on countries and industries. It also tailor-made its solutions by incorporating data from its clients to meet their specific demands — rather than using a single offering for all its customers.

The development team at Bizbaz mainly works from Israel, while its data team is in India and its sales, business development and product teams operate from Israel, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.

The investment from HSBC, which doesn’t typically backs early-stage startups, is noteworthy for Bizbaz. Hakobyan said the startup’s suite of solutions — and support from New Jersey-based VC firm SOSV — helped inked the deal.

“In ASEAN, the middle class is expected to more than double between now and 2030, to reach 334 million people. Financial services are likely to expand at the same pace if not faster. Our investment in Bizbaz provides a compelling exposure to this market shift in the region and other developing economies. It will support the development of its technology, which overcomes the major obstacle of on-boarding clients with no previous financial records,” said Remi Bourrette, Head of Venture Investments, HSBC Asset Management, in a prepared statement.

The startup is in talks to potentially deploy its solutions within parts of HSBC in Asia and Europe, Hakobyan said, adding that it would continue to have the autonomy and the ability to bring in other partners as well as customers including new banks and insurance companies.

Bizbaz plans to spend 20–30% of its fresh funding on outreach and marketing as it has so far generated sales through word of mouth and references. The startup also aims to upgrade its Web presence, recruit more data and software developers as well as data and behavioral analysts and spend some resources on product development, Hakobyan told TechCrunch.

Paul Redbourn, a senior advisor at Bizbaz, said the startup organically made a positive month-on-month growth in revenues.

The all-equity round also saw the participation of Southeast Asian venture capital firm Vynn Capital and new angel investors alongside follow-on investments from SOSV and existing angel investors. Before the latest round, Bizbaz raised $300,000 in an angel round.

HSBC invests in Singapore’s customer intelligence and risk assessment startup by Jagmeet Singh originally published on TechCrunch

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Samsung's Expert RAW app gains support for Galaxy S20 Ultra, Note 20 Ultra, Z Fold2

Samsung released a new version of its Expert RAW app, which adds support for three former flagship phones - the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the S20 Ultra and the Z Fold2. If you own one and need a little boost of your photos and videos, head over to the Galaxy App Store to download it. The company warns that quality and processing times may vary as these devices are older and can't match the processing power of the current flagships. Samsung will continue developing new features for the app in the future, but don't expect all of them to be available on older phones. For instance, the...

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TestGrid is a “one-stop shop” for testing apps at scale

Created by developer who needed to test apps at scale, TestGrid is an on-demand platform that lets users run tests on websites and apps across browsers, operating systems. The startup, which is launching today and can be used on premise or in the cloud, alleviates the hassle of finding and scaling physical and cloud infrastructure for testing. Its clients range in size from startups to Fortune 500 companies, and come from a wide variety of sectors, like banking, financial services and insurance, e-commerce, manufacturing, logistics and healthcare. 

TestGrid was created in 2016 as a scriptless automation tool, and then over the next five years its team, led by founder and CEO Harry Rao, fleshed it out with a real device cloud, end-to-end testing platform and test management, to create a “one-stop shop for all testing needs.” It now has over 20,000 on its public cloud, which offers 200 minutes of testing time per month for free, as well as 50 enterprise customers ranging in size from startups to Fortune 500 companies. 

Before founding TestGrid,  Rao said he built many mobile apps and websites for companies, and needed to test them at scale, in an affordable way, across iOS and Android devices, and different browser combinations. 

“We know the solution for this was first step automating the applications and then step two was running it on different form factors,” he said. “We started shopping around and found that even to automate, we needed developers and on top of it we had to integrate a bunch of tools to get the end-to-end software development lifecycle (SDLC) automations we were looking for.”

To solve this problem, TestGrid’s team started with AI-based low-code automation tech. But as they grow, the found that many infrastructure providers were too expensive. As a result, they decided to create an in-house solution and boot strap it. 

TestGrid currently helps developers test things like their user interface on different device and browser combinations, app and website performance metrics like battery drainage, CPU usage, data usage, time for first byte and transaction time to go to the next page, integration testing to see if the UI and API are in sync and security vulnerabilities. 

Rao gave a couple case studies of how TestGrid has helped clients. The first is a gas and electric company that needed to respond to wildfires in California using iPad devices. Real-time data feeds and IoT reporting were important to make sure they were prepared, but their app kept crashing. As a result, they needed to optimize their entire software architecture. TestGrid allowed them to shift their entire testing infrastructure to the cloud, enabling all team members around the world to have access to test devices. They were also able to move all of their Appium Java test cases into a scriptless environment. In addition to testing, the gas and electric company was also able to monitor the performance of its app, saving at least 40% of the testing cost, said Rao.

The second example is a large clothing e-commerce company that was experiencing data logging errors, glitches and slow loading pages on their app, slowing down sales and negatively affecting customer experience. Since they had multiple apps running geo-localized versions around the world, the company had to make sure that their development team could keep track of all feedback and development cycles. To do that, they used TestGrid’s in-sprint automation, which has simple keyword based test-writing environments, intelligent element extraction and auto-healing test cases. As a result, they were able to test their entire app ecosystem and get real-time insights into their performance metrics, with device, network and app logs. 

Rao said TestGrid considers LambdaTest, BrowserStack and Kobiton as competitors. TestGrid differentiates by offering all its testing features—including cross-browser, mobile app, performance, API and security testing under the same umbrella, at less cost. 

“We help users reduce their testing budget by cutting down on different platforms and just subscribing to the TestGrid platform alone and that no other testing platform does,” Rao said. 

TestGrid is currently bootstrapped and EBITDA positive. It plans to add more solutions to its product suite, including database testing, UAT and integrations with SDLC tools. 

What are the new must-hit startup metrics?

TestGrid is a “one-stop shop” for testing apps at scale by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

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Infinix Note 12i 2022 goes official with a 50MP camera and 6.7" AMOLED screen

Infinix launched the Note 12i back in May in Kenya with the Helio G85 SoC and a 90Hz LCD. Today, Infinix introduced the Note 12i 2022, which comes with a different screen, design, and memory options. While the Kenyan Note 12i is built around a 6.82" HD+ 90Hz LCD, the Note 12i 2022 features a 6.7" AMOLED display of FullHD+ resolution. Infinix doesn't mention the refresh rate of Note 12i 2022's screen, so it's safe to assume it is a 60Hz panel. Talking about the memory configuration, the Note 12i comes with 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage, whereas the Note 12i 2022 has two options -...

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Uniswap Labs eyes over $100 million in new funding

Uniswap Labs is in early stages of putting together a new round, according to four sources familiar with the matter, as the parent firm of the popular eponymous decentralized protocol gears up to broaden its offerings.

The startup is engaging with a number of investors including Polychain and one of Singapore’s sovereign funds to raise an equity round of $100 million to $200 million at a valuation of about $1 billion, two of the sources said, who like others requested anonymity sharing private information.

The deliberations of the round haven’t reached final stages, so terms of the deal may change, the sources cautioned. Uniswap Labs declined to comment, whereas Polychain did not return a request for comment Thursday.

The new funding is indicative of Uniswap’s ambitious plans to expand its offerings. The decentralized exchange commands 64% of all DEX volumes, according to DeFi Llama. And the exchange protocol’s token has a market cap of nearly $5 billion despite the market downturn. (During the peak bull cycle last year, Uni’s market cap exceeded $22.5 billion.)

Uniswap Labs, which counts a16z and Paradigm among its existing backers, raised its last funding round — a Series A — in August 2020, according to Web3 Signals.

In recent months, Uniswap Labs has shared plans to add “several new products.” One of the new offerings will allow customers to trade NFTs on Uniswap from a number of marketplaces, Uniswap Labs COO Mary-Catherine Lader told Decrypt.

“Our mission is to unlock universal ownership and exchange,” Lader told TechCrunch in an earlier interview. “If you can embed the ability to swap value and have people join the community and exchange value with your project, or your company or organization — that’s a powerful way to allow more people to engage in this ownership.”

Uniswap Labs eyes over $100 million in new funding by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

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The Google Pixel Watch will cost £339 and €379 for the Wi-Fi model

Yesterday we saw the price of the Pixel 7 and today it's the Google Pixel Watch's turn. Per Roland Quandt, who shared the Pixel 7's European price, Google's first smartwatch will cost £339 in the UK for a Wi-Fi-only model. That would translate to a likely starting price of €379 in Europe and possibly €419 for the LTE model. That's a similar price to the Galaxy Watch5. We've previously reported that the LTE-capable Pixel Watch could cost $399 Stateside. Google will give the full details of the Pixel Watch at its October 6 event next week. The watch will come in three colors - Chalk,...

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Twitter teases edit tweet option ahead of grand unveilng

After years of consumer requests, Twitter is bringing the option to edit tweets. The company plans to launch this feature later this month and it shared a test tweet that has a “Last edited” timestamp. Clicking on the timestamp takes you to the tweet version history which shows you the original tweet and all modifications made. hellothis is a test to make sure the edit button works, we’ll let you know how it goes— Twitter Blue (@TwitterBlue) September 29, 2022 Once the edit tweet feature is ready for consumers it will be exclusive to Twitter Blue – the $4.99 monthly subscription...

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Redmi Pad also coming on October 4

Xiaomi will unveil the 12T series with a 200MP camera on October 4, and today, the company announced it will also introduce a new tablet on the same day, dubbed Redmi Pad. While the 12T series will be unveiled in Munich, Germany, the Redmi Pad will be introduced through an event in India that will begin at noon local time. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 for Entertainment, Gaming, E-learning, and Browsing is here. 🤩The #RedmiPad is launching on the 4th of October, 12 PM!Stay tuned: https://ift.tt/ugfWG6M us in the comments below what you would use the #RedmiPad for! pic.twitter.com/Z5sgR48sZy—...

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GGV Capital latest to back Workstream’s goal of filling software gap for deskless workers

Recruitment and onboarding for deskless and hourly workers has always been a challenge, and one that startups have taken on in recent years. These employees are often always in demand due to traditionally high turnover rates, and yet, many still rely on paperwork and videos.

Desmond Lim, Workstream co-founder and CEO. Image Credits: Workstream

Workstream is one of the startups working on a solution for this problem, in its case, mobile-first hiring and onboarding tools. The company got a boost from investors to the tune of $60 million in Series B extension funding, led by GGV Capital. We’ve profiled Workstream twice in the past two years, when it raised $10 million in 2020 and then again in 2021 for its $48 million Series B.

“The past two years have really shown that there’s a huge gap in software built for this deskless, hourly worker,” Desmond Lim, co-founder and CEO of Workstream, told TechCrunch.” My parents are both hourly workers, and I used to run my own restaurant, so I grew up in that space and saw such a strong need for that.”

As mentioned, many startups are working on solutions to more easily hire deskless, hourly and remote workers. Much of this problem was brought out in the open largely due to COVID, and venture capital investors jumped in to support them.

Just this year, we saw investments into Remofirst, which is tackling international hiring; Connecteam, a company that brings together HR tools; Emi, which developed software to speed up the time it takes to fill dozens of frontline worker positions; Flip, a chat app designed especially for frontline workers; AskNicely, a frontline experience app; and SnapShift, a web solution for restaurant staff management. Add to that Blink, Shiftsmart, When I Work, Fountain and Seasoned, which also grabbed funding in the last year.

Workstream’s text-based recruitment tool gets a $48M bet from BOND and beyond

Lim explained that there are indeed many HR tools out there, but Workstream differentiates itself by designing its software to be a mobile-first tool built for deskless workers rather than employers.

“They really deserve better and to have access to software and tools built for them which is why our software is mobile, texting and built with their needs in mind,” he added.

The new investment gives the company total funding to just over $120 million and a valuation that is “close to half a billion dollars,” Lim said.

Joining GGV Capital in the investment were new and existing investors, including Founders Fund, Coatue, BOND, Basis Set Ventures, CRV, World Innovation Lab and Soma Capital.

Meanwhile, the company is working with more than 170 of the top quick-service restaurant brands, including Burger King, Dairy Queen and Jimmy John’s. Workstream’s revenue grew 10x in the past 18 months as its customer base increased to over 4,000 customers across 25,000 locations from 1,500 customers across 10,000 stores in 2021. At the same time, the company grew its own workforce to 220.

It is also expanding outside of that sector into new verticals and counts companies like Marriott International, Ace Hardware, UPS and European Wax Center as customers.

“There are 2.7 billion deskless workers in the world and 70 million in the U.S.,” Lim said. “We are going to extend beyond restaurants into supermarkets, retail, hotels, auto, healthcare and more. With this funding, we will invest in R&D and hiring to lean back into this strategy and be the first end-to-end software design for the deskless workforce. There are so many more products we can build to serve them.”

The future of remote work is text

GGV Capital latest to back Workstream’s goal of filling software gap for deskless workers by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

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New leak reveals different Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 specs

Back in June, reliable tipster Digital Chat Station claimed that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (SD8550) will come in a 1+2+2+3 CPU configuration, comprising one Cortex-X3, two Cortex-A720, two Cortex-A710, and three Cortex-A510 cores. But new information that's surfaced online reveals different specs. This revelation comes from another reliable tipster Ice universe, who said the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will come with two Cortex-A715 cores instead of Cortex-A720. The Cortex-X3 will have a maximum clock speed of 3.2GHz, whereas the Cortex-A510 will go up to 2GHz. The Cortex-A715 and Cortex-A710 cores...

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Samsung Galaxy Watch3 update brings new watchfaces, better health tracking

Samsung is releasing a major update to its Galaxy Watch3 series. It improves health tracking capabilities and adds some new watchfaces. The watchfaces in question are borrowed from the new Galaxy Watch5 lineup and even though the two series run on different platform (remember that the Watch3 boots Tizen OS), the watchfaces are adapted to Samsung's discontinued OS.a In addition, the Daily Activity indicator syncs data with Galaxy smartphones and a new snoring detection feature has been added. The latter was introduced with the release of Galaxy Watch4 series. It still requires your...

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Meta says ad-free Instagram client The OG App breaks its rules

Last week, a startup called Un1feed launched an Instagram client called The OG App, which promised an ad-free and suggestion-free home feed along with features like creating custom feeds like Twitter lists. The app raked up almost 10,000 downloads in a few days, but Apple removed the app from the App Store for violating its rules earlier this week.

Separately, Un1feed said that Meta disabled all team members’ personal Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Meta didn’t specify if they asked Apple to remove the app from the App Store, but it said that the app breached its rules.

“This app violates our policies and we’re taking all appropriate enforcement actions,”  a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch. The company also pointed to a blog post about clone sites.

In response to The OG App’s removal from the App Store, Un1feed accused Apple of “colluding” with Facebook.

“Everyone knows Instagram sucks. We made it better and got a lot of love from users. But Facebook hates its own users so much, it’s willing to crush an alternative that gives them a clean, ad-free Instagram. Apple is colluding with Facebook to bully two teenagers who made Instagram better,” the startup said in a statement to TechCrunch. We have asked Apple for a comment, and we’ll update the story if we hear back.

The app still remains live on the Google Play Store. So the founders said that Android is “the clear choice for users who want privacy, freedom, and optionality.” The app makers said that they are still working on getting the app re-listed on the App Store. However, that seems unlikely to happen in its current form and after these statements.

After the launch, a few users questioned the app’s login methods which locked some users out of their accounts or showed them a prompt for login from a different location. The OG App explained that reverse engineered the Android API for Instagram to make some parts of the app work. Plus, it was working on a new login experience that solved many issues.

Last night, The OG APP noted that there are several apps on the App Store that replicate the Instagram experience. But some of these desktop apps are likely to be wrappers around Instagram for the web. For now, iPhone users wanting an ad-free Instagram client will have to wait.

Meta says ad-free Instagram client The OG App breaks its rules by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

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Can companies issue stakes in their success without using shares or options? This startup thinks so

So-called ‘stakeholder capitalism’ has not had the most illustrious of histories. Yes, there have been ‘Walmart Associates’ who were able to own stock in the company, or ‘John Lewis Associates’ (in the UK), but it’s hardly made the average person well off. At least they got something? In tech startups, however, tech founders are helped by many people along the way, most of whom will never work for the company but who can have an enormous affect at the early stage. That one intro to an investor, for instance, can be a game-changer. But tech founders have what is known as “founders amnesia” which means that when eventually they get that $20 billion exit, they somehow forget all the people that helped them along the way.

Koos (which, in Estonian, means ‘together’ and ‘alongside’) offers a standardized API allowing companies to offer a form of ‘stake’ in a company’s success, and – breaking news – it doesn’t use blockchain tokens to do it.

Unlike a loyalty program, the Koos ‘equity-like’ platform pays out to stakeholders only when the company meets predefined business goals. Koos claims this means the platform is much more ROI-positive and rewards those who contributed to the company’s success, unlike, say, a simple loyalty scheme for customers.

How it works: a company defines a business goal; sets out when the business goal is met; records meaningful actions via its tokens (not blockchain ones); and pays out via the Koos platform on results.

Founded earlier this year by serial entrepreneur and the former CIO of the Estonian Civil Service, Taavi Kotka, Koos says it can be used by companies to issue ‘stakes’ (but not options or shares) in companies more easily than issuing said options or shares, it claims.

It’s now raised $4 million in seed funding led by relatively new European VC Plural, with participation from investors including LocalGlobe, Tiny.vc and Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First.

This follows an angel pre-seed round of $600,000 from a number of Estonian founders such as Taavet Hinrikus, former CEO of Wise, Sten Tamkivi, co-founder of Teleport, Markus Villig, founder of Bolt, and Kaarel Kotkas, founder and CEO of Verrif.

It will now build out its platform across the UK and Europe, with a legal framework that complies with EU and UK law.

Kotka, who led the Estonian government’s policies around digital democracy and e-government for four years, said in a statement: “We have come up with a digital tool that allows businesses to engage and reward their community, widening the circle of people who have access to equity-like incentives which in turn increases the pool of people who will advocate for the business and want it to succeed.”

The startup says it now has 27 companies running its platform, including start-ups, NGOs, SMEs and larger corporations. Koos makes its money via an onboarding fee, a monthly retainer, and 1% of all rewards (tokens) created by the programmes on the Koos platform. 

For any service consumed on Forus’ platform, 1% will be given as a Koos token to the client, 1% to the service provider and 1% to contributors.

Sten Tamkivi, adviser and Plural Platform co-founder, said in statement: “Plural wants to invest to help create a more equal society. We believe that broader community ownership leads to more meritocratic systems so that wealth can be distributed based on actual contributions. Koos has come up with a way to track the support of all stakeholders in a community or business, without having to give away equity. We anticipate that the platform Koos is building will become an essential building block of many startups, funds and communities including charities and NGOs.”

Can companies issue stakes in their success without using shares or options? This startup thinks so by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch

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Former Revolut employees launch Solvo, an app that simplifies crypto investing

Meet Solvo, a new mobile app that wants to make it easier to invest in cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency-related financial products. The two founders Ayelen Denovitzer and Shailendra Sason met while they were working for Revolut, in the crypto team more specifically.

Earlier this year, Solvo raised a $3.5 million seed round from Index Ventures with CoinFund and FJ Labs also participating. Since then, the company has put together a small team of 10 people and started working on its iOS app.

The main thesis behind Solvo is that cryptocurrencies are still too complex. If you want to buy crypto assets, chances are you don’t know where to start because there are thousands of different tokens. While you may have heard about DeFi (decentralized finance) and the ability to generate yield, accessing those products is even more complicated.

When Solvo releases its app in October, users will be able to buy and sell tokens (obviously). But Solvo has picked 10 cryptocurrencies so that you don’t get lost in an endless list. You can also deposit and withdraw tokens from Solvo.

The startup is also taking advantage of staking or DeFi products that generate yield by contributing to liquidity pools. This way, Solvo customers earn interests when they move their crypto assets to what the company calls ‘Vaults’. For instance, the startup plans to offer Solana and Cardano Vaults.

Hiding the complexity is an interesting strategy as Solvo can take a cut of earnings from Vaults. As long as customers still earn some interests, the product is working as expected.

Finally, Solvo also lets you invest in Bundles. It lets you invest in multiple projects and tokens in a single transaction. Essentially, it works like those popular tokenized baskets, such as the DeFi Pulse Index or the Metaverse Index.

“Investing with Solvo will be simple, easy and understandable – three words not associated with crypto. Solvo is meeting a clear need for investors today, offering products that are focused on high quality assets, that provide diverse exposure and reduced risk as well as an attractive yield. It is for all the investors who want to use crypto to diversify their investments and want an easy way to do that,” co-founder and CEO Ayelen Denovitzer said in a statement.

In many ways, Coinbase originally positioned itself as the easiest way to get started with crypto. But the company has launched many different products over the years, including derivatives and support for 225 cryptocurrencies. Let’s see if Solvo can fill that gap in the market.

Former Revolut employees launch Solvo, an app that simplifies crypto investing by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

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Motorola will launch Moto G72 on October 3

The Moto G72 appeared in renders earlier this week, and now Motorola revealed the launch date will be October 3. Alongside that Moto G72 got a landing page at Flipkart, revealing its key features and design. It will be powered by a Helio G99, coupled with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The OLED screen will have a fingerprint scanner underneath. The 10-bit display itself will support 120Hz refresh rate and 576Hz touch sampling rate. It will have It will come with HDR10 support and 1300 nit maximum brightness. Moto G72 key features The main camera on the back will be joined...

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Apple reportedly readjusts iPhone 14 production targets after slow demand

Apple’s new iPhone 14 lineup isn’t proving to be as popular as the company would have hoped for. So it is readjusting its production targets by cutting down additional orders for the device.

A report from Bloomberg notes that the Cupertino-based tech company produced around 90 million units in the second half of the last year. And while Apple initially asked its manufacturing partners to make 6 million more units for the second half of this year, it has now scaled back to produce devices in line with last year’s levels.

Apple’s iPhone 14 was merely an iterative update over the iPhone 13 while the iPhone 14 Pro received more significant upgrades. So Bloomberg’s report says that the company is seeing high demands for the Pro models, and is making more production capacity available for those higher-end models. Notably, the company’s new device in the lineup, the iPhone 14 Plus will go on sale next month. And we’ll only get to know about sales response for that version a few weeks after general availability.

Last week, ITHome said Apple asked Foxconn to dismantle some of the iPhone 14’s production line due to slow demand, citing people in the know. Earlier this month, analyst Ming Chi-Kuo also said that the tech giant is looking to increase production for Pro models due to their increasing popularity over the regular model.

Apple also began to produce the iPhone 14 in India this week in order to shift some burden of manufacturing from factories in China. This is the first time the company is producing the latest iPhone model locally just weeks after the official launch. For some context, Apple began making iPhone 13 in India just this April.

A recent report published by JP Morgan suggested that Apple is looking to shift 25% of its iPhone production to India by 2025. It also noted that initially Indian factories will produce only iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models, and cover only 5% of the production supply for the company (1 million units per month).

Review of Apple’s iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro: They’re leaning into it

Apple reportedly readjusts iPhone 14 production targets after slow demand by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

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Bloomberg: Apple will not increase iPhone 14 production targets

As it was gearing up to launch the iPhone 14 series Apple thought that it would need to increase production by as much as 6 million units. However, demand did not rise to the expected levels, so Cupertino has told its suppliers to scrap the plans to build more units, according to insiders cited by Bloomberg. This means that the production target is going back to where it was this summer – 90 million units. Note that this is for the whole iPhone 14 family, but it is now clear that the four models are not equal in terms of popularity. The iPhone 14 Pro and especially the 14 Pro Max are...

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Instacart plans to expand its EBT SNAP program and enable TANF payments

Instacart announced today that it will expand its EBT SNAP payments program to all Instacart retail grocery partners by 2030. The company launched EBT SNAP payments in November 2020 and has since expanded the program to include over 60 retailers. The payments program is available in 49 states and will expand to Alaska next year. Instacart offers EBT SNAP acceptance through the Instacart Platform, a suite of enterprise-grade solutions that help enhance and digitize retail experiences.

The company also says it will allow customers to shop on Instacart using their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits next year. TANF is a government cash assistance program that helps low-income families purchase everyday essentials. Instacart says the addition of TANF payments will give customers more ways to pay for household items, such as diapers, which aren’t currently covered by EBT SNAP benefits. 

Instacart made the announcement as part of the launch of “Instacart Health,” which is a new initiative designed to delivery ingredients for healthy living. As part of the initiative, Instacart is launching “Health Tags” to allow customers to view up to 23 item-level tabs when they shop. The tags aim to give shoppers information about things like low-salt or low-sugar products. They can also be used as a guide if you’re on Keto or managing a gluten sensitivity, for example.

The Instacart app will also feature popups to inspire healthy lifestyles. For instance, customers will see a Vegan Favorites pop-up and a Low Sodium Lifestyle pop-up in the coming weeks.

The company is also introducing Care Carts, which give healthcare providers and caregivers the ability to order grocery on behalf of someone else. The new product can be used by caregivers who want to send groceries to a friend or family member from afar. It can also be used by a clinician who wants to deliver groceries for a patient’s prescribed meal plan.

In addition, Instacart is launching Fresh Funds, a new product that allows organizations to give people funds to buy nutritious food from grocery retailers on Instacart. Organizations such as non-profits or health systems can use an Instacart digital stipend to give people easier access to healthy foods. In the coming weeks, Instacart is launching a Fresh Funds pilot with Partnership for a Healthier America to expand its “Good Food for All” nutrition access and incentive program in Indianapolis.

Instacart expands its EBT SNAP payments program to 10 more states

Instacart plans to expand its EBT SNAP program and enable TANF payments by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

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VRAI wants to tackle the energy crisis by bringing VR simulation training to offshore wind sector

Virtual Reality (VR) has struggled to transition too far beyond gaming circles and specific industry use-cases such as medical training, but with the burgeoning metaverse movement championed by tech heavyweights such as Meta, there has been a renewed hope (and hype) around the promise that virtual worlds bring.

Just yesterday, Los Angeles-based AmazeVR announced a $17 million tranche of funding to scale its virtual concert and “music metaverse” platform. And last week we saw the mighty Epic Games invest in U.K. metaverse infrastructure company Hadean, as part of the Fortnite-creator’s broader metaverse expansion plans. Hadean itself is powering simulated environments spanning everything from Minecraft to land warfare, having recently signed a contract with the British Army.

And it’s against that backdrop that six-year-old Irish startup VRAI is setting out to capitalize on the surge in VR interest, raising a fresh tranche of funding to extend its flagship “hazardous environment awareness training” (HEAT) product into more environments — starting with the offshore wind industry.

Founded out of Dublin in 2016, VRAI has built a simulation platform that meshes VR with data capture, analysis, and machine learning (ML) to give customers measurable insights and improve training outcomes. The company already has some notable clients, including British multinational arms and defence contractor BAE Systems, which recently inked a deal with VRAI to deliver military training via VR.

BAE Systems is using VRAI Image Credits: BAE Systems

Warfare aside, it’s becoming clear what benefits VR can bring to hazardous environments which, by their very definition, are dangerous to human life — recreating such scenarios in a virtual space reduces risks and many of the other costs associated with traditional training.

“Traditional training for risky, remote and rare operational environments is expensive, difficult to scale and very difficult to measure in terms of its effectiveness,” VRAI managing director Pat O’Connor told TechCrunch. “Traditional simulators are only available to elite roles, they are not scalable, and are often as expensive as the actual piece of equipment.

Energy crisis

Wind turbines, often based far out at sea, are becoming larger and more complex, raising significant occupational hazards for maintenance and installation workers in the field — be it from extreme weather conditions, falls, drowning, and more. While VR can’t replace the need to be physically present at a site, it can reduce the amount of time required to be out there for training purposes.

With that in mind, VRAI is refocusing its efforts on industries beyond aerospace and defence to target the offshore wind industry — a timely manoeuvre given Europe’s energy predicament, exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine. The U.K. government recently revealed plans to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by raising its offshore wind target by 10 gigawatts (GW) to 50 GW by the end of the decade, and it also pledged to reform planning processes and scythe approval times for new installations.

Other countries are looking to up their offshore wind game too — earlier this week, Portugal raised its debut offshore wind power auction target to 10 GW, having previously set it at 6-8 GW. The broader European Union, meanwhile, claimed around 14.6 GW of offshore wind capacity last year, a figure it says is set to grow 25 times by 2030.

However, any market looking to increase its wind power capacity also has to increase the resources they throw at it, and this includes upskilling the workforce — so VRAI’s entry to the fray could hardly have come at a better time.

“We believe our technology can help scale the offshore wind workforce faster, safer and with more insights,” O’Connor said. “We have initially focussed on industries that have a long tradition of simulation such as aerospace and defence, but our vision is to democratise simulation training by bringing high-end simulation capability — once the sole domain of elite roles such as pilots, surgeons and F1 drivers — to whoever needs it, whenever they need it, wherever they need it.”

Training day

While VRAI is open to working with any industry, it’s looking to address a specific pain point in the renewables space, with some studies suggesting that one of the major stumbling blocks preventing oil workers from transitioning to adjacent industries such as wind, is the cost of training — a cost they often have to absorb themselves. And VRAI goes some way toward addressing this.

“The wind energy industry’s Global Wind Organisation (training standards body) has stated that 500,000 trained technicians are required to meet the surging demand of renewable wind energy globally in the next four years,” O’Connor said. “Current training for this industry is very traditional, and requires people to travel to remote locations to train on physical equipment. At VRAI, we can train those people in VR instead, providing target fidelity simulation ‘at the point of need’.”

What this means is that training comes to the person, rather than the person having to take time out of their existing schedules to travel.

“We believe that industries that have an above-average spend on training, and focus on safety, where the work is risky, remote or rare, will benefit most from this technology,” O’Connor said. “VR simulation has the added benefit of reducing the cost and carbon footprint of traditional training.”

To help extend its reach into the offshore wind industry, VRAI today revealed that it has raised £3 million ($3.2 million) in a round of funding led by Northstar Ventures, a VC firm based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, near VRAI’s U.K. hub in Gateshead.

VRAI counts seven employees in its current Dublin HQ, with its recently launched U.K. subsidiary in England’s north-east serving as home to four full-time employees — with ten more hires in the works in the coming year.

“This investment allows us to help scale the offshore wind workforce, which is critical to society’s plans for transitioning from fossil fuel dependency,” O’Connor said. “Our products will also help to ensure our military personnel have the very best training and insights, at a lower cost and with lower carbon footprint, in the face of increasingly complex operational environments.”

VRAI wants to tackle the energy crisis by bringing VR simulation training to offshore wind sector by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

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Italy’s Satispay raises €320M at a €1B+ valuation with backing from Block, Tencent and more for its indy payment network

More signs that the economy is slowing down in Europe, and that costs are going up, are driving merchants and consumers to look for less expensive ways to carry out their everyday business. Today, a startup out of Italy called Satispay — which operates an independent payment network that bypasses big banks and credit companies and promises lower transactions fees plus other benefits like better budget control to its users — is picking up a massive round of funding on the back of strong demand for its services.

The Milan-based startup — which currently has 3,000,000 consumers and 200,000 merchants among its users — has raised €320 million ($305 million as of today, based on the current uber-strong dollar). CEO and co-founder Alberto Dalmasso confirmed to us that this Series D catapults the company’s valuation to over €1 billion (around $955 million).

The all-equity round has some very interesting investors in it, including some eye-catching strategics. It’s led by Addition, the firm founded by Lee Fixel; with participation also from Greyhound Capital, Coatue, Lightrock, Block Inc. (the U.S. fintech formerly known as Square), China’s Tencent (which owns WePay and much more) and Mediolanum Gestione Fondi SGR. Tencent and Block are among a group that quietly started to back Satispay back in 2021, while Greyhound has been investing in it since 2018.

This latest Series D is a major step up and a mark of Satispay’s ambitions: prior to this it had raised just €130 over three rounds. This latest round ranks as one of the highest-ever rounds for an Italian tech startup.

The funding will be used both to expand Satispay’s product set, as well as for geographic expansion. Satispay got its start in Italy and the country today accounts for the bulk of the company’s business, but the startup’s plans include expanding also into France and Germany, where it has started to build out its operations in recent years.

Satispay is part of larger wave of businesses that have emerged over the last several years with ambitions to build out payments rails that bypass those of larger, older, slower and more costly incumbents — a trend that has exploded with the rise of mobile phones, a much wider ability (and demand) for people and businesses to use digital networks for financial transactions, and frankly an appetite from investors to back disruptive tech that might prove to become the next “killer app.”

The ever-expanding group also includes companies like Dwolla in the U.S. (which Dalmasso says is probably the most similar to Satispay in terms of how it operates); peer-to-peer payment efforts like PayPal’s Venmo and Square’s Cash App; buy-now, pay-later services; and the plethora of blockchain-based efforts to build out new currencies and means of buying and selling; and much more.

Satispay got its start when Dalmasso and his co-founder Dario Brignone (who is the CTO) came together under a common observation: that the world was moving towards using less cash. But at least in Italy in 2012, there was a big gap in the market: a lot of merchants, especially the smaller ones that make up the majority of retailers and others in Italy, were not keen on using card machines because of the high transaction values.

Dalmasso’s metric was a single cup of espresso: it was the most common thing bought at a cafe and each one had to be paid for in cash.

So they set out to see if they could create their own payments network that essentially reduced the friction to pay for that espresso without customers needing to scramble for coins, and without giving merchants a pain point by making it cost them money to sell it by any means other than cash.

The bet was that once you created this, it would be used to pay for other things, and more expensive items, too.

Although the world has moved on a lot since then and contactless payments in many places have taken away the minimum spend limit (and prices have gone up, sadly), Satispay has built in other features that make it unique and has helped it remain popular with users. One of these is that users essentially deposit money into a Satispay account from their existing bank accounts to spend over a period of time, much like a pre-pay account, which helps them control what they spend monthly.

“The goal was not to create a new bank, since we all have bank accounts,” he said. This also means that Satispay still plays nice with banks and others.

There are plans down the road to improve the connections between bank accounts and Satispay so that users have more options of more continuous funding if they do not want to use the pre-pay option. And while there is no kind of credit in the app now, there are obvious synergies between Satispay and buy now. pay later services, so that is another option to explore down the road. Dalmasso confirmed that Satispay is running tests in this area currently.

For now, there are a lot of interesting use-cases where the current pre-pay app is finding a lot of traction. They include helping city governments provide food stamps to users (which are deposited as a sum on Satispay to be used for food purchases); and a surge of use during Covid when people wanted to pay for items remotely or even in person without even tapping phones or taking out cards, using just Satispay’s app on their devices to complete purchases. On average, people are using the app to make between 10 transactions and 18 transactions per month, Dalmasso said.

“Satispay is revolutionizing the mobile payment space in Europe, allowing users to transfer money efficiently and securely, not only in-store and online but with friends and family as well,” said Fixel in a statement. “We look forward to supporting Satispay as it continues to grow its team, expand its customer and merchant bases and accelerate its business to become Europe’s leading payment network.”

 

 

Italy’s Satispay raises €320M at a €1B+ valuation with backing from Block, Tencent and more for its indy payment network by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

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YC-backed fintech Numida raises $12.3M led by Serena Ventures to extend loans to MSMEs beyond Uganda

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Africa make up the bulk — over 90% — of businesses in the continent but are still marginalized in accessing credit from formal institutions because of the nature of their operations; for instance, many often lack the kind of collateral that is acceptable by banks.

To bridge the gap, Uganda-based fintech Numida, has opted to focus its digital lending business on small enterprises as part of its strategy for driving financial inclusion in emerging markets.

Spurred by an increase in demand for its services, Numida is currently eyeing growth opportunities beyond Uganda saying that it has a proven business model that can be adopted across the continent to unlock the potential of MSMEs.

The growth plans come against the backdrop of $12.3 million pre-series A equity-debt funding in a round led by Serena Ventures with participation from Breega, 4Di Capital, Launch Africa, Soma Capital, and Y Combinator, VCs that are all making their first investment in Uganda.

Existing strategic investor MFS Africa also made a follow-on investment, while Lendable Asset Management extended a $5 million debt to the startup.

“I’m most excited about continuing to build and provide financial products for these micro and small business owners who have been forgotten by the traditional financial services industry even though they are hardworking and have viable businesses. There are so many of these businesses across the continent, we really do believe that we’ve proven a model in Uganda that can be Pan-African and unlock the potential of these businesses to growth and achieve great things,” Numida CEO, Mina Shahid, who co-founded the startup in 2017 with Catherine Denis and Ben Best, told TechCrunch.

Numida co-founders (L-R) Catherine Denis, Ben Bes, and Mina Shahid. Image Credit: Numida

Ethical lending

Numida plans to extend loans to an additional 10,000 businesses, to hit its 40,000 target, within the next 18 months, a goal that will be brought closer by its entry into two new African markets (selected from Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, or Kenya).

Businesses on its portfolio receive loans of between $100 to $5,000, an amount that is payable after one month and attracts interest rates of between 10% and 16%.

“We do risk-based pricing but on average, the interest rate is about 11.5%,” Shahid said.

For credit consideration, Numida, which is the first startup in the East African country to get into YC (W22), looks at various aspects of businesses, including the sector and cash flow. Repeat clients in good standing get their loans approved instantly, but new applicants, and repeat businesses seeking larger facilities, must wait for up to 24 hours to have the loans approved.

The startup uses its own credit scoring model, which Shahid says, is built off the loans it has extended to customers and business profiles. He added that they operate differently from most digital lenders who usually scrape data from clients’ phone books and social media accounts as conditions for lending – many of these lenders reach out to the borrowers’ contacts with debt-shaming messaging in cases of default.

“When we started building this business, we saw that a lot of people were getting taken advantage of because they didn’t really understand the user terms because most people don’t actually read these privacy policies or user agreements to understand what they were giving up. And so, we wanted to be very conscious about our approach, and we only ask for information that helps us determine if it is a business and if the person applying for a loan is the owner of the business,” Shahid said.

“The information we use is the one provided by the customer on the app, so we don’t snoop or scrape any data…We have a bunch of historical data that helps determine whether or not the information we’re collecting is relatively in the right ballpark”.

Since raising its seed funding last year, Numida has grown over 7.5 times propelled by the soaring demand for quick loans. The startup has to date issued $20 million in working capital to micro and small businesses, having grown from issuing $250,000 a month to $2 million.

The value of loans is set to grow as the startup continues to receive debt backing from institutions such as Lendable. Shahid said they hope to, in the interim, continue to remodel their products for even more affordability.

“We continue to improve our assessment of risk and our understanding of risk so that we can build a healthy portfolio that can allow us the room to reduce our prices while continuing to provide unsecured working capital loan products to these businesses,” he said.

Ghana’s fintech Fido raises $30M to roll out new products and expand across Africa

Kenyan fintech Pezesha raises $11M backed by Women’s World Banking, Cardano parent IOG

YC-backed fintech Numida raises $12.3M led by Serena Ventures to extend loans to MSMEs beyond Uganda by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

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Roundtable wants to bring AngelList-style syndicates to Europe

Meet Roundtable, a new startup backed by eFounders that wants to bring community-driven angel investments to European startups. The company has built a platform that simplifies the administrative, legal and financial challenges that come with angel investments.

Roundtable could be particularly useful for existing angel investors who want to unlock some additional capital for their portfolio companies. As they are about to invest in a startup, they can create a EU-based special purpose vehicle (SPV) and tell their friends to invest alongside them.

For individuals who aren’t professional investors, it lowers the barrier to entry as they don’t have to deal with a lawyer, an accountant, a banker, etc.

When the lead angel sets up the SPV, they can choose to get some carried interest from other investors in the vehicle — but that’s optional. Down the road, Roundtable can also handle partial exits in case some investors want to get out of a startup while others want to remain shareholders.

“We are launching a solution that meets the demands of non-professional European investors so that they can invest in ‘just a few clicks’ — extreme standardization of SPVs with legal innovations, a platform to communicate with community members and get the best out of everyone when it comes to network and experience,” Roundtable co-founder and CEO Evan Testa said. Roundtable was co-founded by Evan Testa, Julien Fissette and Simon Ternoir.

Right now, Roundtable works in France and Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Since June, the startup has facilitated 40 deals representing nearly €20 million ($20 million at today’s exchange rate). On average, there are 20 investors per investment.

Just like AngelList, Roundtable doesn’t plan to stop there. Once it has polished this experience for one-off deals, the company wants to empower super angel investor who wants to become solo general partner with their own small VC fund.

Due to the legal hurdles that come with angel investment, it’s clear that there’s an opportunity for a local equivalent of AngelList in Europe. It’s going to be interesting to see if the angel investment community embraces a standardized platform like Roundtable in the future.

Roundtable wants to bring AngelList-style syndicates to Europe by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

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Nothing Ear (Stick) approved by FCC, casing image leaks

The upcoming Nothing Ear (Stick) cleared FCC certification and we also got a closer look at the casing design and a few key spec details. The new buds were certified with the B157 model number with the listing revealing a picture of the transparent casing and antennas inside the upcoming earbuds. Nothing Ear (Stick) earbuds casing and antennas Nothing Ear (Stick) will bring dual-mode Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity and each bud is listed with a 36mAh battery capacity while the cylindrical charging case will hold a 350mAh charge and will charge via USB-C. Nothing Ear (Stick) FCC...

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Xiaomi Civi 2 comes with dual front cameras in a centered punch hole

Xiaomi introduced Civi 2 for its Chinese audience today - a new selfie-centric midrange smartphone. The most intriguing bit is the dual selfie camera - it is packed inside a pill-shaped punch hole which is now in the center, imitating Apple’s Dynamic Island. The phone is also the first Xiaomi with front-facing LED flashes to assist the selfie cameras in low-light conditions. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset and has three memory options - 8/128GB, 8/256GB, and 12/256GB. The 6.55" screen has Full HD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and 240 Hz touch sampling rate....

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Tatsumeeko strikes partnership with Immutable X to enhance its gameplay

Tatsumeeko, a role-playing game on Ethereum and Solana created by the team behind Discord chatbot Tatsu.GG, announced today it has struck a partnership with Immutable X (IMX). The partnership’s goal is to enhance Tatsumeeko’s gameplay experience by focusing on trackable ownership and transfer of in-game assets.

Immutable X is a layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution that powers Web3 games. It will facilitate Tatsumeeko’s virtual land sale, called Aethereal Parcels, on October 20. The game’s CEO and creative director David Lim, said the partnership will result in a more secure and streamlined player trading experience with options to hide or display Tatsumeeko’s crypto layers and use credit cards for digital asset purchases.

It will also help differentiate Tatsumeeko from other GameFi projects by focusing on experience instead of enabling play-to-earn mechanisms. Lim said that MMORPG players often purchase in-game assets on “real money trading” websites, where they are vulnerable to scams. In turn, this negatively impacts user experience.

“With IMX as our technical partner for on-chain infrastructure and support, we can make this process transparent and secure by bringing it in-house to provide our players with true digital asset ownership,” Lim added. “This enables trustless transactions and transfers of valuable digital items amongst players for low fees while at the same time contributing back to the game’s ecosystem.”

Tatsumeeko’s role-playing game takes place in a world called Ielia, where players can fight against monsters, build communities and meet other gamers. It is also meant to be an introduction to crypto and NFTs, with NFT projects that integrate directly into Tatsumeeko through its Discord. Last November, the game launched Meekolony Pass, a series of 10,000 genesis NFTs on Solana that give holders benefits, rewards and airdrops for their items in Tatsumeeko.

In a statement, Immutable X co-founder Robbie said “Tatsumeeko is focused on engaging with gamers and active community members where they already are. Tatsumeeko is using blockchain technology creatively to streamline their gameplay and players experience. I’m looking forward to partnering with Tatsumeeko as Immutable X brings the next billion players to Web3.”

Tatsu.gg, the Tatsumeeko team’sfirst project, now has over 62 million users and 1.4 million unique communities in Discord. Tatsumeeko announced in July that it has raised $7.5 million co-led by DeFiance Capital, Delphi Ventures and BITKRAFT Ventures.

Immutable launches $500M fund to boost web3 gaming adoption

Now that the Ethereum Merge is behind us, what’s next?

Tatsumeeko strikes partnership with Immutable X to enhance its gameplay by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

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Xiaomi 12T series tipped to launch on October 4

We’ve seen several spec leaks for the upcoming Xiaomi 12T series and it seems the launch is just around the corner – more specifically on Tuesday, October 4. The launch information is not yet confirmed by Xiaomi though the leak comes from a reliable tipster so we can assume it’s legit. The launch event poster details the event will start at 8PM GMT +8 which converts to 12PM UTC and 5:30PM IST time. Xiaomi 12T series launch event poster The event poster is titled “ Make moments mega” which is a likely nod to the 12T Pro’s rumored 200MP camera sensor – Samsung’s ISOCELL HP1 sensor...

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Ghanaian agtech Farmerline raises $1.5M from Dutch investor Oikocredit

Ghanaian agtech Farmerline has secured $1.5 million equity funding from Dutch impact investor Oikocredit in its second close of the pre-series A round. The new funding brings the total amount raised in the round to $14.4 million, including $6.4 debt funding.

The funding comes at a time when Farmerline, which has operations across Ghana, is setting up shop in Ivory Coast as it continues its expansion across West Africa.

Founded in 2013 by Alloysius Attah and Emmanuel Owusu Addai, Farmerline works through agro-dealers, who are usually the first point of knowledge for farmers, in ensuring access to high-quality supplies, including fertilizer and seeds.

Ghanaian agtech Farmerline to use new funding to strengthen its infrastructure, help farmers create wealth

The partner retailers use the startup’s Mergdata, a proprietary AI technology platform for supply chain intelligence, to digitize the farmers they serve, and to generate the data required to predict the demand of farm supplies and prevent stock-outs. It also uses that data to determine the amount of business expansion credit to give to agro-dealers.

“With the support of Oikocredit alongside our first-round funders, our distribution, logistics and financing services will continue not only in Ghana but also in Ivory Coast where we’ve recently begun the process of expanding our team,” said Attah in a statement.

In a past interview, Attah told TechCrunch that Farmerline is expanding its physical infrastructure like warehouses and distribution networks to make it a marketplace that allows the faster movement of supplies to and from rural areas. The logistics network also supports farmers to quickly access markets for better incomes and to reduce post-harvest losses and waste.

Farmerline said it is planning on strengthening its supply chain for agribusinesses to reduce the cost of farming and increase yield for farmers on the continent through the deployment of AI technology and local infrastructure.

“As fertiliser prices more than quadruple and the conflict in Ukraine compounds global food security challenges, this investment is crucial,” it said.

Farmerline claimed to have so far financed around $18 million worth of inputs and crops through franchise shop alliances with agribusinesses and input dealers.

The startup targets to reach 300,000 farmers in 2022, a nearly 400% increase in growth compared to last year, when it doubled its direct-reach to 79,000 farmers, up from 36,000 in 2020 and 8,000 in 2019.

Oikocredit’s equity officer, Mila Georgieva, said, “The harmful impact of rocketing fertiliser costs on smallholder farmers in Africa is clear. With our investment in Farmerline, we are supporting those most affected by the price volatility. Our investments in the agriculture sector are at the core of Oikocredit’s work as a social impact investor, and we have already identified synergies with other portfolio companies. We are thrilled to support Farmerline Group and smallholder communities across Ghana and Ivory Coast.”

Farmerline’s other equity investors include Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, and Greater Impact Foundation.

Kenyan agtech iProcure raises $10.2M to grow its input supply network

Kenya-based agritech Apollo raises $40 million in Softbank-led round, joined by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, CDC

Ghanaian agtech Farmerline raises $1.5M from Dutch investor Oikocredit by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

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Apple won't be holding an October event for Macs and iPads, analyst says

According to a renowned Apple analyst, Mark Gurman, the company doesn't have enough products to hold a dedicated event in October, so it might have decide to launch them with separate press releases instead. The Cupertino-based firm believes that a couple of press releases spaced apart are more effective than a full blown at this point in time. It's not the first time Apple chooses to do so. Apple has previously unveiled new products with press releases outside of the core iPhone lineup. And there aren't any rumors or teasers coming out of Apple regarding an October event. Gurman...

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EV charging deals keep coming, Ford squeezed by shortages and Kitty Hawk shuts down

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive the full edition of the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. This is a shorter version of The Station newsletter that is emailed to subscribers. Want all the deals, news roundups and commentary? Subscribe for free. 

Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. 

I was out in Denver this past week to check out what Mercedes is working on. Stay tuned on that front. One item on the menu that I can talk about is the Mercedes EQB, an all-electric SUV that should be landing in dealer lots any day now.

Image Credits: Kirsten Korosec

Mercedes might have lagged behind others in the EV department, but it’s keen to catch up. The EQ line, which is its all-electric portfolio, will soon include more than the flagship EQS sedan. By next year, the EQS SUV, EQE sedan and EQB compact SUV will be part of the group.

The pace is quickening and may even include an electric G Wagon by mid-2024.

You can always email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, criticisms, opinions, or tips. You also can send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec

Micromobbin’

Acton, which you may remember purchased docking and charging startup Duckt some months back, has begun rolling out is docking/charging stations across Paris. The 42 multimodal hubs are spread throughout six locations and will let riders of used e-bikes and e-scooters — either shared or personal — park and charge in designated areas. Acton will later install 150 stations in 17 locations across the Rive Gauche district.

Travis VanderZanden lost his post as CEO of Bird just three months after he stepped down as the scooter company’s president. Shane Torchiana, who replaced VanderZanden in June as president, will also now take on the role as CEO. VanderZanden is holding onto the chairman of the board postion. The executive shakeup continues, with Ben Lu, former Archer Aviation CFO, coming on as Bird’s new CFO. Bird’s engineering exec Lance Bradley saw a promotion to chief technology officer. 

Latin America needs a push towards electrification, and Leoparda Electric is here to give it to them. The startup wants to bring Gogoro-like battery swapping for electric motorcycles and seated scooters, first to Brazil, then to the rest of LatAm. 

McKinsey says minimobility — a segment defined by small three- and four-wheeled vehicles that fall somewhere between cars and bikes — is gaining serious traction. I can see why. With speeds that can go up to 56 miles per hour, the ability to carry more than one passenger plus cargo and ostensibly they have a roof so they’re protected from the elements, minimobility vehicles might be the next great thing to get people out of big cars and into a greener, more efficient option.  

Rad Power Bikes is dipping its toes into subscription rentals through a partnership with Cycle, formerly GetHenry. The companies are piloting rentals of cargo bikes RadRunner and RadWagon in Berlin from September 22, with a starting price between €79,90 per month.

Shell wants to look as if it’s committing to greener forms of mobility by exploring options to put its name on e-bikes. 

Want more micromobbin’ news? Subscribe for free to the newsletter and you’ll get a lot more.

Deal of the week

Is it me or is there a lot of activity in the EV charging world? I am seeing both consolidation and EV charging infrastructure, software and servicing startups land venture capital and partnerships. The two deals announced this week speaks to a larger trend worth noting.

ZePlug, a French EV charging services company focused on residential and office buildings, received a $240 million investment from Britain’s Intermediate Capital Group.

A day later, another French startup called Bump announced a multiyear financing partnership with DIF Capital Partners. This $180 million deal is what reporter Romain Dillet described as an “equity and quasi-equity” agreement that will be progressively unlocked from 2022 to 2030.

Numerous other EV charging startups have raised funds in the past few months, including EVCS, Monta and TerraWatt.

On the consolidation front, we have seen Blink Charging acquire SemaConnect in a $200 million cash and common stock transaction and Schneider Electric buy EV Connect. ABB’s e-mobility business, which makes fast electric chargers for cars, buses and trucks, shared plans to spend $750 million on expanding operations, in large part through acquisitions. ABB has already acquired India’s Numocity, China’s Chargedot and InCharge Energy.

Other deals that got my attention this week …

Amprius Technologies, a lithium-ion battery manufacturer that uses a silicon nanowire anode, merged with special purpose acquisition company  Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. It seems investors found their next bet. Shares of Amprius, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “AMPX,” shot up more than 54% to $12.94 over the past week.

General Motors invested through its GM Ventures arm into Lithion Recycling, a Canadian developer of advanced battery recycling technology.

Mullen Automotive is the leading bidder on bankrupt commercial EV maker Electric Last Mile Solutions. Mullen, an EV SPAC that recently acquired the controlling interest of Bollinger Motors, recently received a delisting warning from the Nasdaq exchange.

Seoul Robotics raised $25 million in a Series B round  led by KB Investment. Other investors include Noh and Partners, Future Play, Korean Development Bank, Artesian and Access Ventures.

Want more deals? A whole list of them, including info on Aptiv, TerraWatt and TruckSmarter were in the subscription version this week. Subscribe for free here. 

Notable reads and other tidbits

Autonomous vehicles

Caocao Mobility, a Geely-backed ride-hailing platform, is partnering with Pony.ai and Geely’s Smart Driving Center to build an open commercial operation platform for smart driving that will promote commercial applications for robotaxis. 

Clevon, the autonomous delivery vehicle company that spun out of Estonian xxx Cleveron, opening of its U.S. headquarters in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex at the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone.

ADAS & other in-car tech

Nvidia unveiled Drive Thor, its next-generation automotive-grade chip that the company claims will be able to unify a wide range of in-car technology. Thor, which will go into production in 2025, will replace the now scrapped Drive Atlan program.

Tesla is extending access to its advanced driver assistance system, Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta version 10.69.2.2, to 160,000 owners in the U.S. and Canada.

XPeng launched its anticipated advanced driver assistance system that automates some driving functions in urban environments. Speaking of XPeng, the automaker launched its G9 Flagship SUV, the fourth production vehicle in its lineup that the company claims will set a “new benchmark” for automated driving technology in passenger vehicles.

Electric vehicles, batteries & charging

Ford broke ground at its $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex in Tennessee, the epicenter for its future electric vehicles and a key milestone toward its goal to sell 2 million EVs annually by late 2026.

While Ford celebrates that milestone, it is grappling with supplier shortages. Ford said supplier costs will be $1 billion higher in the third quarter than expected due to rising inflation and persistent supply chain problems. Those shortages have caused a backlog of between 40,000 and 45,000 unfinished vehicles — most of which are high-margin trucks and SUVs. It’s gotten so bad that Ford had to hold back vehicles because it ran out of blue badges.

Hertz plans to order up to 175,000 electric vehicles from GM over the next five years. GM brands Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and even commercial delivery unit BrightDrop will be included in the order. First deliveries of Chevy Bolt EVs and EUVs expected to begin in the first quarter of 2023.

Tesla completed a long-delayed project to expand capacity at Gigafactory Shanghai, where it builds Model Y SUVs and Model 3 sedans for customers in Asia and Europe. The automaker is also ramping up production in Texas.

Other stuff

Hyundai and Kia are being sued in a class action lawsuit for a detect exposed in a TikTok challenge that publicized a technique for stealing certain makes and models of the vehicles.

Kitty Hawk, the electric aviation startup founded and led by the “godfather of self-driving cars” Sebastian Thrun and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, has shut down.

People

Gabe Klein was appointed executive director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, a new organization that will help the U.S. manage and deploy a $7.5 billion EV charging infrastructure network.

Waymo has hired Elisa de Martel as its Chief Financial Officer. De Martel was previously CFO at Carbon. She was also at Apple for 11 years, where she served in a variety of financial roles, including as director of manufacturing finance.

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EV charging deals keep coming, Ford squeezed by shortages and Kitty Hawk shuts down by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

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