Field management software startup Workiz raises $5 million Series A

Workiz, a startup whose software helps field service professionals manage their work, said today it has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The funding was led by Magenta Venture Partners, with participation from returning investor Aleph. The company announced the launch of Workiz Voice, an Amazon Alexa-powered feature that allows the app to be controlled with voice commands, making it safer to use while field service workers driving.

Magenta Venture Partners general partner Ran Levitzky will join Workiz’s board of directors. The Series A brings Workiz’s total funding so far to $7.3 million. The company says it grew 247% last year and CEO Adi Azaria told TechCrunch that the company currently has thousands of customers in the U.S. and Canada. Many are home or equipment maintenance companies, including locksmiths, garage door repair, junk removal, appliance repair and carpet cleaning businesses. The software has also been used by medical transport companies, including Trinity Air Medical, to manage highly-time sensitive delivery of organ donations to their recipients.

Targets SMBs field service businesses with less than 50 employees, but can scale up to organizations with 600 technicans, and franchises, says CEO. Include locksmiths, garage door repair, junk removal, appliance repair and carpet cealning businesses. Also used by international organ donor and medical transport companies, makeup companies, and environmental waste disposal companies. LIke Trinty Air Medical, which uses Workiz to manage organ donations and make sure thye are delivered in time.

Workiz’ new funding is being used on its automation platform for field service workers and Workiz Voice, as well as hiring for its North American team and operations.

Workiz’s founders

The startup was founded in 2015 by a team including Idan Kadosh and Erez Marom, who worked as locksmiths for over 15 years in San Diego, California. They were frustrated by the field service management software options available and relies on pen, paper and Excel spreadsheets to manage their business. They also carried multiple cell phones, since most customer appointments were arranged by phone calls and they could not hide their personal numbers.

Workiz was created to give field service companies a full set of tools, including the ability to monitor interactions between technicians and customers, keep detailed records of client calls and texts, send clients reminders, track advertising spending and effectiveness and process credit card payments.

“At Workiz, we have a vision to transform tradespeople into business professionals, and the Workiz platform is able to successfully do so. While 75% of small businesses close within their first five years of business, businesses who are using Workiz are able to slash that number down to just 20%,” said Azaria.

About 52% of field services companies still rely on pen and paper to manage their businesses, presenting a growth opportunity for Workiz. To get them to switch, Workiz provides free help for onboarding, which can be completed in as little as one or two days. The software syncs with QuickBooks or CSV files.

The startup says Workiz Voice, which enables workers to look up job schedules, sort through leads, communicate with team members or clients and find directions to their next job, is the first feature of its kind on the market. It helps Workiz Voice differentiate from other field service management software like Jobber or HouseCall Pro.

In a press statement, Levitzky said “We are constantly on the lookout for exciting companies transforming industries, and Workiz ticked all of the boxes. The company’s approach levels the playing field so that businesses of all sizes can better secure and manage job opportunities, given the on-demand nature of the field service industry.”

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Github removes Tsunami Democràtic’s APK after a takedown order from Spain

Microsoft-owned Github has removed the APK of an app for organizing political protests in the autonomous community of Catalonia — acting on a takedown request from Spain’s military police (aka the Guardia Civil).

As we reported earlier this month supporters of independence for Catalonia have regrouped under a new banner — calling itself Tsunami Democràtic — with the aim of rebooting the political movement and campaigning for self-determination by mobilizing street protests and peaceful civil disobedience.

The group has also been developing bespoke technology tools to coordinate protest action. It’s one of these tools, the Tsunami Democràtic app, which was being hosted as an APK on Github and has now been taken down.

The app registers supporters of independence by asking them to communicate their availability and resources for taking part in local protest actions across Catalonia. Users are also asked to register for protest actions and check-in when they get there — at which point the app asks them to abide by a promise of non-violence (see point 3 in this sample screengrab):

Users of the app see only upcoming protests relevant to their location and availability — making it different to the one-to-many broadcasts that Tsunami Democràtic also puts out via its channel on the Telegram messaging app.

Essentially, it’s a decentalized tool for mobilizing smaller, localized protest actions vs the largest demos which continue to be organized via Telegram broadcasts (such as a mass blockade of Barcelona airport, earlier this month).

A source with knowledge of Tsunami Democràtic previously told us the sorts of protests intended to be coordinated via the app could include actions such as go-slows to disrupt traffic on local roads and fake shopping sprees in supermarkets, with protestors abandoning carts filled with products in the store.

In a section of Github’s site detailing government takedowns the request from the Spanish state to remove the Tsunami Democràtic app sits alongside folders containing historical takedown requests from China and Russia.

“There is an ongoing investigation being carried out by the National High Court where the movement Tsunami Democràtic has been confirmed as a criminal organization driving people to commit terrorist attacks. Tsunami Democràtic’s main goal is coordinating these riots and terrorist actions by using any possible mean,” Spain’s military police write in the letter sent to Github.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment on Github’s decision to remove the app APK.

In a note about government takedowns on Github’s website it writes:

From time to time, GitHub receives requests from governments to remove content that has been declared unlawful in their local jurisdiction. Although we may not always agree with those laws, we may need to block content if we receive a valid request from a government official so that our users in that jurisdiction may continue to have access to GitHub to collaborate and build software.

“GitHub does not endorse or adopt any assertion contained in the following notices,” it adds in a further caveat on the page.

The trigger for the latest wave of street demonstrations in Catalonia were lengthy jail sentences handed down to a number of Catalan political and cultural leaders by Spain’s Supreme Court earlier this month.

These were people involved in organizing an illegal independence referendum two years ago. The majority of these Catalan leaders were convicted for sedition. None were found guilty of the more serious charge of rebellion — but sentences ran as long as 13 years nonetheless.

This month Spanish judges also reissued a European arrest warrant seeking to extradite the former leader of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, from Brussels to Spain to face trial.  Last year a court in Germany refused his extradition to Spain on charges of rebellion or sedition — only allowing it on lesser grounds of misuse of public funds. A charge which Spain did not pursue.

Puigdemont fled Catalonia in the wake of the failed 2017 independence bid and has remained living in exile in Brussels. He has also since been elected as an MEP but has been unable to take up his seat in the EU parliament after the Spanish state moved to block him from being recognized as a parliamentarian.

Shortly after the latest wave of pro-independence demonstrations took off in Catalonia the Tsunami Democràtic movement’s website was taken offline — also as a result of a takedown request by the Spanish state.

pic.twitter.com/RveFW1YfIu

— Sergio Argüelles (@arguellesergio) October 18, 2019

The website remains offline at the time of writing.

While the Tsunami Democràtic app could be accused of encouraging disruption, the charge of “terrorism” is clearly overblown. Unless your definition of terrorism extends to harnessing the power of peaceful civil resistance to generate momentum for political change. 

And while there has been unrest on the streets of Barcelona and other Catalan towns and cities this month, with fires being lit and projectiles thrown at police, there are conflicting reports about what has triggered these clashes between police and protestors — including criticism of the police response as overly aggressive vs what has been, in the main, large but peaceful crowds of pro-democracy demonstrators.

The police response on the day of the 2017 referendum was also widely condemned as violently disproportionate, with scenes of riot gear clad police officers beating up people as they tried to cast a vote.

Local press in Catalonia has reported the European Commission response to Spain’s takedown of the Tsunami Democràtic website — saying the pan-EU body said Spain has a responsibility to find “the right balance between guaranteeing freedom of expression and upholding public order and ensuring security, as well as protecting [citizens] from illegal content”.

Asked what impact the Github takedown of the Tsunami Democràtic app’s APK will have on the app, a source with knowledge of the movement suggested very little — pointing out that the APK is now being hosted on Telegram.

Similarly, the content that was available on the movement’s website is being posted to its 380,000+ subscribers on Telegram — a messaging platform that’s itself been targeted for blocks by authoritarian states in various locations around the world. (Though not, so far, in Spain.)

Another protest support tool that’s been in the works in Catalonia — a live-map for crowdsourcing information about street protests which looks similar to the HKlive.maps app used by pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong — is still in testing but expected to launch soon, per the source.

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Xiaomi Mi Watch shown on video, will run MIUI for Watch

After yesterday's confirmation that the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Watch which will go official alongside the Mi CC9 Pro/ Mi Note 10 on November 5, we have the first hands-on tour of the smartwatch. After unlocking the device we see a simple 3x3 app grid with square icons and a dark background which hints that MIUI for Watch will support a built-in dark mode just like its smartphone counterpart. We also get to see the digital crown in action which can be used to navigate the interface and also acts as a power button. Oddly enough the user loads up a video on the small watch screen which...

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Prosus Ventures leads $40M investment in Indian logistics startup ElasticRun

Millions of neighborhood stores that dot large and small cities, towns, and villages in India and have proven tough to beat for e-commerce giants and super-chain retailers are at the center of a new play in the country. A score of e-commerce companies, offline retail chains, and fintech startups are now racing to work with these mom and pop stores as they look to tap a massive untapped opportunity.

A Pune-based startup with an idea to build a logistics network using these kirana stores said today it has won the backing of a major international investor. Three-and-a-half-year old ElasticRun said it has raised $40 million in a Series C financing round led by Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures). Existing investors Avataar Ventures and Kalaari Capital also participated in the round.

The startup has raised $55.5 to date, Sandeep Deshmukh, co-founder and CEO of ElasticRun, told TechCrunch in an interview.

Most of these kirana stores each day go through hours of down time — when the footfall is low and the business is slow. ElasticRun works with hundreds of thousands of these stores across 200 Indian cities to have them deliver goods to other kirana stores and consumers.

Supplying goods to these stores are FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) brands that are trying to reach the last mile in the nation. Nearly every top FMCG brand in the country today is a partner of ElasticRun, said Deshmukh.

Deshmukh, co-founder and CEO of ElasticRun, talking about the startup’s business at a recent conference

It’s a win-win scenario for every stakeholder, Deshmukh said. Stores are getting access to more goods than ever, and also getting the opportunity to increase their business in slow hours. And for brands and e-commerce companies, access to such a wide-reaching delivery pool has never been easier, he said.

Since there is a digital log of each transaction, Deshmukh said the startup has a good idea about the financial capacity of these kirana stores. This has enabled it to connect them with relevant financial partners to access working capital, he said.

Deshmukh said the startup will use the fresh capital to on-board more neighborhood stores and deepen its penetration in the country. ElasticRun is also working on new products to expand its offerings for brands and kirana stores and improving its analytics and machine learning algorithms to tackle larger scale.

“By working with the network of small stores across the country, we solve that problem while helping the store owners grow their businesses at the same time. In addition, offering a flexible logistics extension to consumer goods companies to directly reach these small retail shops is a huge advantage over traditional distribution networks,” he said.

In a statement, Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Investments for India, Prosus Ventures, said, “ElasticRun is one of those rare businesses that identified a massive need in the market, matched it with a local solution paired with technology, for the benefit of all parties involved. Consumers get faster deliveries and greater choice of goods, store owners realize increased revenues and touchpoints with their customers, and consumer goods companies get better access and insight into their target audiences.”

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Canalys: Huawei dominates Chinese smartphone market in Q3 2019

The smartphone market in China has improved sequentially, reported Canalys in its quarterly report. Huawei managed to steal market share from all its major competitors, reaching a total of 42%, thanks to an annual shipments growth of 66%. However, the overall scene remained unimpressive, with 97.8 million shipments, 3% down from the 100.6 million for the same period last year. The runner-up for the July-September period of 2019 was vivo with 17.9% market share, followed by fellow BBK brand Oppo with 17.4% of the pie. Xiaomi and Apple completed the Top 5, while other brands saw 31%...

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Apple watchOS 6.1 is here, Watch Series 1 and 2 also invited

Apple released watchOS 6 for Watch Series 3 and 4 back in September, and earlier this month the company rolled out watchOS 6.0.1 with some bug fixes. Now, Apple is seeding watchOS 6.1 for all models of its smartwatch, including Series 1 and 2, which were excluded from the initial rollout. watchOS 6.1 doesn't come with any major new features but brings in some improvements and bug fixes. However, users of Watch Series 1 and 2 should expect a new digital clock as well as new Calculator, Voice Memos, and Audiobooks apps. You can head over here to learn more about watchOS 6. watchOS 6.1...

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Want a free Innovator pass to Disrupt Berlin 2019? Apply to volunteer

If your budget simply can’t manage a line item for a ticket to Disrupt Berlin 2019, we have exciting news for you. Volunteer for our work exchange program, and we’ll give you a free Innovator pass good for both days of the show (11-12 December). We have a limited number of volunteer positions, and applications close Thursday, 31 October.

Don’t wait — apply to our volunteer work exchange and attend Disrupt Berlin for free.

It takes a lot of hands and a lot of work to produce a world-class tech event, and you’ll have a front row seat to how it all gets done. You’ll also be a big part of making Disrupt an outstanding experience for all attendees.

We might ask you to wrangle speakers, register attendees, scan tickets, stuff goodie bags, assist with other marketing activities, direct attendees, place signage or something else entirely. You’ll work hard, but you’ll also have plenty of time to enjoy that Innovator pass access.

Ready for the fine print? Here’s what you need to know. The Disrupt Berlin volunteer dates are 10-12 December. To be considered, all volunteers must

• Be at least 18 years old
• Submit an application by Thursday, October 31
• Attend a mandatory orientation training on Tuesday, 10 December at Arena Berlin
• Be available for a total of 10 hours over the course of all three days Shifts range between 2 to 5 hours and may start as early as 6 a.m. or end as late as 11 p.m.
• Provide your own travel, lodging and meals

We’ll assign volunteer schedules 2-3 weeks before the event, and we’ll notify you — whether we accept your application or not — by Wednesday, 6 November.

We keep dangling the free Innovator pass and for good reason. With it, volunteers have access to the full Disrupt agenda, all stages — including the Startup Battlefield competition — exclusive video content access after the event ends, interactive workshops, more than 400 startups and sponsors in Startup Alley, networking events, the full attendee list via Disrupt Mobile App and CrunchMatch, the attendee networking platform.

As a volunteer at Disrupt Berlin 2019, you’ll see everything that goes into producing a large-scale tech event, meet great people and still have time to explore and network. Applications close on 31 October, so apply to volunteer today!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt Berlin 2019? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

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