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How will EC plans to reboot rules for digital services impact startups?
A framework for ensuring fairness in digital marketplaces and tackling abusive behavior online is brewing in Europe, fed by a smorgasbord of issues and ideas, from online safety and the spread of disinformation, to platform accountability, data portability and the fair functioning of digital markets.
European Commission lawmakers are even turning their eye to labor rights, spurred by regional concern over unfair conditions for platform workers.
On the content side, the core question is how to balance individual freedom of expression online against threats to public discourse, safety and democracy from illegal or junk content that can be deployed cheaply, anonymously and at massive scale to pollute genuine public debate.
The age-old conviction that the cure for bad speech is more speech can stumble in the face of such scale. While illegal or harmful content can be a money spinner, outrage-driven engagement is an economic incentive that often gets overlooked or edited out of this policy debate.
Certainly the platform giants — whose business models depend on background data-mining of internet users in order to program their content-sorting and behavioral ad-targeting (activity that, notably, remains under regulatory scrutiny in relation to EU data protection law) — prefer to frame what’s at stake as a matter of free speech, rather than bad business models.
But with EU lawmakers opening a wide-ranging consultation about the future of digital regulation, there’s a chance for broader perspectives on platform power to shape the next decades online, and much more besides.
In search of cutting-edge standards
For the past two decades, the EU’s legal framework for regulating digital services has been the e-commerce Directive — a cornerstone law that harmonizes basic principles and bakes in liabilities exemptions, greasing the groove of cross-border e-commerce.
In recent years, the Commission has supplemented this by applying pressure on big platforms to self-regulate certain types of content, via a voluntary Code of Conduct on illegal hate speech takedowns — and another on disinformation. However, the codes lack legal bite and lawmakers continue to chastise platforms for not doing enough — nor being transparent enough about what they are doing.
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Prices increase in four days for founder workshops at TC Early Stage
The countdown clock is running, and you have just four days left to score the lowest price on passes to TC Early Stage 2020, which takes place on July 21-22. We’ve packed this two-day virtual event with more than 50 workshops covering essential topics that every early-stage founder needs to master.
Take advantage of the early-bird price before the offer disappears on June 26 at 11:59 p.m. (PDT). Buy your pass today and you’ll save yourself a tidy $50.
The price of admission gives you access to all the interactive breakout sessions, the Main Stage interviews and CrunchMatch, our AI-powered networking platform that eases networking stress and increases your productivity.
Choose from dozens of sessions focused on the issues that keep you up at night. We’re talking to top investors and ecosystem specialists answering your questions on critical topics like constructing a term sheet, how to raise funds, building a tech stack, growth marketing, product management and how to hire.
Here’s just a small sample of the breakout sessions waiting for you at TC Early Stage 2020.
- Why should anyone care? (Making your brand stand out) — Startups often struggle to create a narrative that stands out. As a General Partner at Coatue, former head of Comms at Facebook, and co-founder of the OutCast Agency, Caryn Marooney has seen it all. Come learn the brand and messaging framework that can help your company stand out (while staying true to yourself).
- Think like a PM for VC Pitch Success — Your pitchdeck is not just a reflection of your business, it’s a product unto itself. Your startup’s success, and avoiding the end of your runway, depends on the conversion rate of that product. Hear from Plexo Capital founding partner Lo Toney about how thinking like a PM when crafting your pitch deck can produce outstanding results.
Here’s another reason to act quickly. We’re limiting each session to about 100 people, and seats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Buy your pass and sign-up now to get the sessions you want. The good news: You can drop a session to choose another in case of a schedule conflict. Plus, we’re making videos of all sessions available on-demand exclusively to ticket holders.
TC Early Stage 2020 takes place on July 21-22 and the early-bird clock is in play. You have until June 26 at 11:59 p.m. (PDT) to save on an event designed to help you keep your startup moving forward. What are you waiting for? Buy your pass today.
Is your company interested in sponsoring the TC Early Stage? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Tatch raises $4.25M to build a patch that helps diagnose sleep disorders
Sleep apnea is a huge problem, but is often under-diagnosed because getting a diagnosis often involves getting hooked up to numerous machines and sleeping under the supervision of a doctor. There are at-home solutions, but most are still clunky options with plenty of wires, straps and tubes being used to gather key health markers.
Tatch is a New York startup that’s building a flexible, lightweight patch that can help users gather the data needed to diagnose sleep disorders, including sleep apnea.
Tatch’s team tells TechCrunch that the startup has just closed a $4.25 million round of seed funding led by Spark Capital . Abstract Ventures and Correlation Ventures also participated in the fund. The startup has raised $5.6 million to date. The startup is looking to scale up its engineering and business teams with the new cash, doubling the team overall by year’s end.
Just yesterday, Apple unveiled a sleep tracking application for the Apple Watch. Other consumer electronics like Fitbits and the Oura ring have also long offered sleep analysis. What Tatch is building isn’t meant to help users track their sleep night after night, they’re building a device to help users quickly diagnose their sleep problems and connect them with people who understand the data.
“This is not a sleep tracker that you need to decipher,” CEO Amir Reuveny tells TechCrunch. “We are targeting users at the next step, where you know that something is wrong and now you really want to understand what’s going on.”
Users attach the flexible patch to their torso and wear it through the night. The sensor measures a variety of signals, including respiratory effort, breathing airflow, oxygen levels, body position and more, with the goal of gaining a crystal clear picture of how your body is operating during a bad night of sleep. After a few such nights of gathering data, you’ll be connected with a specialist who can help interpret the data, diagnose your problems and offer users some helpful next steps.
Image Credits: Tatch
The Tatch sensor will be able to diagnose disorders like sleep apnea, as well restless leg syndrome, insomnia and some respiratory illnesses, the startup says. Tatch wants to build a company around sleep health and help ensure that users who get a diagnosis aren’t left searching endlessly for help with their disorder. Reuveny hope the startup will be able to connect users with treatment or facilitate the connection with a sleep specialist who can talk them through improving their sleep.
Tatch isn’t available for sale quite yet, as the company is targeting a commercial rollout in early 2021. The company says they’re in early conversations with the FDA to receive clearance for the device. Right now, they’re gearing up for a pilot program that they’re commencing in the next few months.
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Ampere announces latest chip with a 128-core processor
In the chip game, more is usually better, and to that end, Ampere announced the next chip on its product roadmap today, the Altra Max, a 128-core processor the company says is designed specifically to handle cloud-native, containerized workloads.
What’s more, the company has designed the chip so that it will fit in the same slot as their 80-core product announced last year (and in production now). That means that engineers can use the same slot when designing for the new chip, which saves engineering time and eases production, says Jeff Wittich, VP of products at the company.
Wittich says that his company is working with manufacturers today to make sure they can build for all of the requirements for the more powerful chip. “The reason we’re talking about it now, versus waiting until Q4 when we’ve got samples going out the door is because it’s socket compatible, so the same platforms that the Altra 80 core go into, this 128-core product can go into,” he said.
He says that containerized workloads, video encoding, large scale out databases and machine learning inference will all benefit from having these additional cores.
While he wouldn’t comment on any additional funding, the company has raised $40 million, according to Crunchbase data, and Wittich says they have enough funding to go into high-volume production on their existing products later this year.
Like everyone, the company has faced challenges keeping a consistent supply chain throughout the pandemic, but when it started to hit in Asia at the beginning of this year, the company set a plan in motion to find backup suppliers for the parts they would need should they run into pandemic-related shortages. He says that it took a lot of work, planning and coordination, but they feel confident at this point in being able to deliver their products in spite of the uncertainty that exists.
“Back in January we actually already went through [our list of suppliers], and we diversified our supply chain and made sure that we had options for everything. So we were able to get in front of that before it ever became a problem,” he said.
“We’ve had normal kinds of hiccups here and there that everyone’s had in the supply chain, where things get stuck in shipping and they end up a little bit late, but we’re right on schedule with where we were.”
The company is already planning ahead for its 2022 release, which is in development. “We’ve got a test chip running through five nanometer right now that has the key IP and some of the key features of that product, so that we can start testing those out in silicon pretty soon,” he said.
Finally, the company announced that it’s working with some new partners, including Cloudflare, Packet (which was acquired by Equinix in January), Scaleway and Phoenics Electronics, a division of Avnet. These partnerships provide another way for Ampere to expand its market as it continues to develop.
The company was founded in 2017 by former Intel president Renee James.
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Five days left to save on Early Stage online
Our inaugural TC Early Stage 2020 event takes place July 21-22, and we’re here to remind you to take advantage of early-bird savings while you still can. The price goes up on June 26, and that means you have just five days left to buy your ticket and keep $50 in your wallet.
We created TC Early Stage specifically for founders of early-stage startups — from pre-seed through Series A. Attendees can choose from more than 50 sessions that address vital issues that early founders wrestle with as they get their startups off the ground. Each session includes lively, interactive Q&A.
Experts spanning the startup spectrum will lead sessions on core topics ranging from fundraising, tech stack and growth marketing to term sheet construction, recruitment, product management and PR. You’ve got questions and you’ll get answers at Early Stage — along with actionable tips and advice that you can use to move your startup forward.
Here’s a small sample of the sessions you’ll find at Early Stage 2020 (check out the agenda here):
How to build a tech stack that can go the distance — The beautiful flower of your tech stack starts with a seed and a series of decisions. Which fertilizer will you use? How often should you water it? Where can you give it the right amount of sunlight? Every decision you make about your tech stack affects how it will hold up, and evolve, over time. Hear from HappyFunCorp’s co-founder and CEO Ben Schippers and CTO Jon Evans about how you can avoid regretting those decisions.
How to get your first yes — Fundraising can be a bit like dominoes. Once you get one investor on board, it’s much easier to bring others along for the ride. But getting that first “yes” can be the most difficult part. Hear the dos and don’ts of hyper-early-stage fundraising from Cyan Banister, seed-stage investor and partner at Founders Fund.
Here’s where you really need to pay attention. We’re limiting each session to 100 people, and it’s a first-come, first-serve situation. If you want to be in a session to get your burning questions answered, buy your ticket now to avoid getting shut out. On the upside, we’ll make videos of all the sessions available on demand after the event.
TC Early Stage takes place July 21-22, but your shot at an early-bird savings ends in just five days, on June 26. Buy your ticket, secure your $50 savings and get a leg up on moving your business forward!
Is your company interested in sponsoring TC Early Stage? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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3 questions for Lemonade’s IPO
While we await a fresh IPO filing from heavily backed insurtech startup Lemonade, let’s talk a little more about its public offering.
Since our first dig into its S-1 filing, TechCrunch has spoken to a number of investors and operators in Lemonade’s space to find out if our initial read was off — were we being too generous or too kind to Lemonade after reading its somewhat complex financial results?
The Exchange is a daily look at startups and the private markets for Extra Crunch subscribers; use code EXCHANGE to get full access and take 25% off your subscription.
The short answer is not really, though there are some positive notes and themes worth highlighting. This morning, let’s ask three questions about Lemonade’s IPO filing that will help us understand what’s ahead for the SoftBank-backed unicorn.
Three questions
1. How quickly can Lemonade accelerate its rental insurance graduation rate?
On the theme of things that bode well for Lemonade is its ability to “graduate” customers from low-cost rental insurance to more lucrative products.
In its S-1 filing, Lemonade noted this fact early on. After stating that a “an entry-level $60 a year [rental] policy [corresponds] to $10,000 of possessions,” the company said that as its customers age, they tend to buy more insurance and sometimes swap rental plans for homeowner policies. Moving from the former to the latter is graduating in the company’s parlance.
If many customers moved from rental insurance to homeowner insurance while keeping Lemonade as their provider, the company could do very well, as illustrated by this section of its SEC filing:
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4 enterprise developer trends that will shape 2021
Technology has dramatically changed over the last decade, and so has how we build and deliver enterprise software.
Ten years ago, “modern computing” was to rely on teams of network admins managing data centers, running one application per server, deploying monolithic services, through waterfall, manual releases managed by QA and release managers.
Today, we have multi and hybrid clouds, serverless services, in continuous integration, running infrastructure-as-code.
SaaS has grown from a nascent 2% of the $450B enterprise software market in 2009, to 23% in 2020 and crossed $100B in revenue. PaaS and IaaS revenue represent another $50B in revenue, expecting to double to $100B by 2022.
With 77% of the enterprise software market — over $350B in annual revenue — still on legacy and on-premise systems, modern SaaS, PaaS and IaaS eating at the legacy market alone can grow the market 3x-4x over the next decade.
As the shift to cloud accelerates across the platform and infrastructure layers, here are four trends starting to emerge that will change how we develop and deliver enterprise software for the next decade.
1. The move to “everything as code”
Companies are building more dynamic, multiplatform, complex infrastructures than ever. We see the “-aaS” of the application, data, runtime and virtualization layers. Modern architectures are forcing extensibility to work with any number of mixed and matched services.
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Canva raises $60 million on a $6 billion valuation
Sydney-based Canva, the design platform for non-designers, has today announced the close of a $60 million funding round, bringing its valuation to $6 billion, according to the company.
The startup has raised a total of more than $300 million, including this latest round of financing, from investors like Bond, General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital China, Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures .
Canva COO and co-founder Cliff Obrecht explained that the round was 10x oversubscribed with interest from angels and new VCs, but that the company resisted taking extra capital.
“At our stage, investors are looking to deploy $50 million+ in capital,” said Obrecht. “Even our existing investors were looking to deploy between $50 million and $100 million, but we said ‘Oh, gee, we really don’t want to be diluted that much because we have a lot of conviction in the business and we don’t need that much money.’ ”
He also said the company wanted to remain with existing investors — Blackbird and Sequoia Capital China led this round — because those investors bet on the company when it was in its infancy, founded by three people in an isolated part of the world with no technical chops.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Canva made a commitment to continue paying all of its contracted workers, but froze hiring. The company also made quick moves to shut down the office and move to remote work. However, Canva is one of the few companies that is getting a boost from the world moving to work from home.
The company has seen a 50% uptick in shared designs, and around a 25% increase in designs created each month. Overall, Canva is growing 100% year over year in both revenue and users, with 30 million monthly active users across 190 countries.
Canva was founded in 2012 with the mission of democratizing design tools. While many non-designers can navigate their way around Google Slides or PowerPoint, or maybe even crop an image, going more in-depth on a design project can be daunting, as the suite of tools provided to designers can be incredibly complex.
The company’s tools are meant to simplify the design process for folks who don’t work in the design department, whether it’s the sales team putting together sales materials, marketers working on content or other departments working on internal materials to send to the broader organization. The drag-and-drop interface gives folks a way to create something beautiful and impressive without having to learn Photoshop.
The product started out as a freemium product for individual consumers but eventually started offering enterprise products, as well as a video editing tool that comes complete with video templates, easy-to-use animation tools and a library of stock video, music, etc.
The company has also launched an educational platform called Canva for Education, which integrates with G Suite and Google Classroom to get students started on design early. Canva also offers a developer platform for startups that want to integrate with the company, which currently includes Dropbox, Google Drive, PhotoMosh and Instagram, among others.
Most recently, Canva partnered with FedEx Office to offer easy design-to-print products that let users pick up print designs from one of more than 2,000 locations in the U.S. as the Sydney-based company looks to secure a foothold in this market.
Canva plans on using the funding to grow the company, make a push into collaboration and continue making acquisitions.
On the heels of the funding, Canva is looking to hire — the company currently has 1,000+ employees, of which more than 40% are female. (Canva did not disclose the percentage of its workforce that are non-white.)
Obrecht says that one of the greatest challenges for the company and for leadership personally is the burden of not feeling like they’re doing enough to make the world a better place. He explained that the company has a number of initiatives focused on this core tenet, including free access to the platform for more than 50,000 nonprofit organizations, education initiatives, anti-discrimination policies within its TOS and more.
“But it just never really feels like enough,” said Obrecht. “You see what’s happening and it’s a bit of a shit show and it’s not aspirational at all. It doesn’t look like it’s getting fixed quickly by the adults who are in government. They’re not doing the right thing, and if they’re not, who will? So we really believe we should have a heavy part in trying our best to make sure the shit show doesn’t continue.”
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ServiceNow to acquire Belgian configuration management startup Sweagle
With more companies moving workers home, making sure your systems are up and running has become more important than ever. ServiceNow, which includes in its product catalog an IT Help Desk component, recognizes that help desks have been bombarded during the pandemic. To help stop configuration problems before they start, the company today acquired Sweagle, a configuration management startup based in Belgium.
The companies did not share the purchase price.
ServiceNow gets a couple of boosts in the deal. First of all, it gets the startup’s configuration management products, which it can incorporate into its own catalog, but it also gains the machine learning and DevOps knowledge of the company’s employees. (The company would not share the exact number of employees, but PitchBook pegs it at 15.)
RJ Jainendra, ServiceNow’s vice president and general manager of DevOps and IT Business Management, sees a company that has pioneered the IT configuration management automation space, and brings with it capabilities that can boost ServiceNow’s offerings. “With capabilities for configuration data management from Sweagle, we will empower DevOps teams to deliver application and infrastructure changes more rapidly while reducing risk,” Jainendra said in a statement.
ServiceNow claims that there can be as many as 50,000 different configuration elements in a single enterprise application. Sweagle has designed a configuration data management platform with machine learning underpinnings to help customers simplify and automate that complexity. Configuration errors can cause shutdowns, security issues and other serious problems for companies.
Sweagle was founded in 2017 and raised $4.05 million on a post-valuation of $11.88 million, according to PitchBook data.
The company is part of a growing pattern of early-stage startups being sucked up by larger companies during the pandemic, including VMware acquiring Ocatarine and Atlassian buying Halp in May and NetApp snagging Spot earlier this month.
This is the third acquisition for ServiceNow this year, all involving AI underpinnings. In January it bought Loom Systems and Passsage AI. The deal is expected to close in Q3 this year, according to ServiceNow.
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HashiCorp to offer managed versions of its developer tools starting with Consul
HashiCorp is well known in the developer community for offering a slew of open-source tools to help build and manage modern applications. Today the company announced a new cloud platform and plans to eventually offer managed versions of those tools, starting with Consul, a tool for connecting and securing services across platforms.
HashiCorp CEO Dave McJannet says that the pandemic has accelerated demand for cloud infrastructure, and he sees a growing role for his company in helping to build cloud native applications. The company offers open-source and commercial versions of several popular tools, including Terraform, Consul, Vault and Packer, among others. These can run on premises or in the cloud, but McJannet says customers have been hankering for SaaS versions of these tools.
“Our customers have told us that it’s a huge challenge running a central shared service like Consul. It requires them to keep it up and running, and they have asked for something they can consume from us where we manage it for them,” McJannet told TechCrunch.
The company has been offering a managed version of Terraform for some time, but it has been quietly working on a cloud platform that could allow it to plug in each of the company’s products over time and offer managed services of all the products.
“What we are announcing today is what we call the HashiCorp Cloud Platform, and you can think of it as just a common chassis to allow us to run our products on any cloud. The first of those products that we’re making available is Consul on Amazon,” he said.
By offering the company’s products as a set of cloud services, it will lower the barrier to entry for customers who want to use their tooling, but don’t have the resources to run and manage on their own. That could potentially increase the company revenue over time. As McJannet pointed out, it’s a lot like what MongDB did with its managed Atlas database service, but for a wider set of products.
Last Fall, HashiCorp announced a $175 million investment on an impressive $5 billion valuation. It has 1,000 employees and is continuing to hire as demand for its product continues through the pandemic. McJannet was not discussing specific customer numbers, but said the customer count has doubled over the last year. As it builds out the new cloud services, and introduces more customers to its products, there’s a good chance that number will keep growing.
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