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Starship Technologies CEO Lex Bayer on focus and opportunity in autonomous delivery
Starship Technologies is fresh off a recent $40 million funding round, and the robotics startup finds itself in a much-changed market compared to when it got its start in 2014. Founded by software industry veterans, including Skype and Rdio co-founder Janus Friis, Starship’s focus is entirely on building and commercializing fleets of autonomous sidewalk delivery robots.
Starship invented this category when it debuted, but five years later it’s one of a number of companies looking to deploy what essentially amounts to wheeled, self-driven coolers that can carry small packages and everyday freight, including fresh food, to waiting customers. CEO Lex Bayer, a former sales leader from Airbnb, took over the top spot at Starship last year and is eager to focus the company’s efforts in a drive to take full advantage of its technology and experience lead.
The result is transforming what looked, to all external observers, like a long-tail technology play into a thriving commercial enterprise.
“We want to do 100 universities in the next 24 months, and we’ll do about 25 to 50 robots on each campus,” Bayer said in an interview about his company’s plans for the future.
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Deadline alert: Only 4 days to save on passes to Disrupt SF 2019
October is right around the corner, and if you want to get the lowest possible price on your passes to Disrupt San Francisco 2019 you have just four days left to make it so. Depending on which pass you buy, you can save up to $1,300, but only if you buy your Disrupt SF pass before the deadline expires at 11:59 p.m. (PST) on September 6.
Some of the tech and investment industry’s greatest leaders, minds and makers will be on hand to share their work, insight and advice. It’s a great opportunity to learn from the people who’ve paved the way. Three full days of programming across four different stages will keep you engaged and inspired. Here’s just one example to pique your interest, and you can check out the full Disrupt agenda here.
Curious about the future of flight? You won’t want to miss our Main Stage interview with Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Kitty Hawk. Thrun’s bona fides are nothing short of impressive. Through X, the Alphabet’s moonshot factory he founded, he helped take self-driving cars from theory to reality. He’s also co-founder and executive chairman of Udacity, the $1 billion online education startup. His current endeavor involves bringing two aircraft — the one-person Flyer and a two-person autonomous taxi called Cora — to market. We can’t wait to hear his take on the future of flight.
Curious about capital? Then head on over to the Extra Crunch Stage to hear John Geiger (John Geiger Company) and Kathryn Petralia (Kabbage) talk about alternative ways founders can raise cash without talking to investors. Say what?!
Curious about Startup Alley? Get a head start on your networking strategy by perusing our directory of startups exhibiting in Startup Alley. Be sure to stop by and meet our TC Top Picks — these 45 outstanding startups represent the best in their respective tech categories.
And of course, you won’t want to miss the Startup Battlefield. It’s a fast-paced pitch-a-thon featuring the very best early-stage startups. Watch them pitch and demo under pressure to a tough panel of expert tech and VC judges. Who will win the day — and the $100,000 prize?
Disrupt San Francisco 2019 takes place on October 2-4 — just one month away. But the early-bird pricing disappears promptly at 11:59 p.m. (PST) on September 6. Buy your discounted tickets now, save a bundle and we’ll see you in San Francisco.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt San Francisco 2019? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt is coming to Disrupt SF 2019
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perhaps best known for his acting across films like “10 Things I Hate About You,” “500 Days of Summer” and “Snowden.” But times weren’t always peachy for Gordon-Levitt as a creative. After leaving the movie business to go to college, he realized the limits of the industry on his potential as a creative. He decided he wanted to take his creativity into his own hands and launched a message board where he’d post films, songs, etc.
But what started as a side hobby has turned into a production company in its own right, using technology to allow dozens of people to collaborate on a creative project. And, more importantly, it gives each contributor fair credit for their work, paying out individual creatives based on how much of their work was featured in the final product.
Obviously, it goes without saying that we’re thrilled to have Joseph Gordon-Levitt join us at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in October.
Far too rarely do we see creatives supported by the platforms where they post their work. With the current media landscape, and the ever-growing dominance of social media, the relationship between platform and creative is strained at best. And more importantly, it incentivizes all the wrong things.
From an interview in VentureBeat:
If what you’re going for is posting on YouTube, or Instagram, or platforms that monetize through the ad model, where they’re really just going for sheer volume and have the ability to manipulate people through ads, virality is the measure of success. And I think this is exactly at the heart of what’s interesting to me about doing [HitRecord]. I think if that is your measure of success, you’re going to undermine a lot of what’s actually meaningful and joyful about creativity. And I’m actually concerned for the human race’s creative spirit, because so much of our collective creativity is now destined for these platforms that are monetized by this sort of attention economy model. And it twists one’s understanding of one’s own creativity, and what the value of being creative is.
At Disrupt SF, we’ll discuss the growth of the HitRecord platform, plans for that fresh $6.4 million in Series A funding and how founders can seize this moment to provide collaborative tools that align creatives with the platforms they’re using.
Disrupt SF runs October 2 to October 4 at the Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco. Tickets are available here.
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Only 4 days left on super early-bird pricing for Disrupt Berlin 2019
Our countdown to the super early-bird deadline and serious savings continues unabated, people! The best pricing for passes to Disrupt Berlin 2019 ends in four days. When the clock strikes 11:59 p.m. (CEST) on 6 September, your chance to save up to €600 evaporates. Save your euros for another day and buy your pass right now.
We expect more than 3,000 attendees from more than 50 countries, including European Union members, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, India, China and South Korea, to name just a few. If you’re a founder, there’s no better place to introduce your early-stage startup to the European and international startup scene.
If you’re an investor, you’ll find hundreds of dynamic early-stage startups exhibiting a wide range of tech products, services and platforms — not to mention a ton of talent — in Startup Alley. Talk about networking on steroids — and a prime opportunity to add to your portfolio.
Don’t just take our word for it. Vlad Larin, co-founder of Zeroqode found tremendous value in his Disrupt Berlin experience.
“TechCrunch Disrupt was a massively positive experience,” said Larin. “It gave us the chance to show our technology to the world and have meaningful conversations with investors, accelerators, incubators, solo founders and developers.”
And Jana Rosenfelder, co-founder of Actijoy, has attended three — count ’em, three — Disrupt conferences. She’s a true believer in the networking opportunities that await founders and investors alike.
“Every startup should attend TechCrunch Disrupt,” said Rosenfelder. “It’s absolutely worth the money, because you can network and make important connections.”
Rosenfelder exhibited as one of our TC Top Picks at Disrupt SF ’18 and called it a door-opening experience. We’re accepting applications to TC Top Picks at Disrupt Berlin right now. Apply right here for your chance to win a free Startup Alley Exhibitor Package, VIP treatment and tons of investor and media love.
That’s just a small sample of reasons to go to Disrupt Berlin. Don’t forget Startup Battlefield, the TC Hackathon and two full days of incredible speakers — leading founders, tech titans and top investors — boundary-pushers all. We’ll keep you posted on our growing roster in the coming weeks.
Disrupt Berlin 2019 takes place on 11-12 December, and you have just four days left to get super early-bird prices on your passes to this epic conference. The deadline strikes at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) on 6 September. Keep up to €600 in your pocket — buy your pass 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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OpenGov raises $51M to boost its cloud-based IT services for government and civic organizations
OpenGov, the firm co-founded by Palantir’s Joe Lonsdale that helps government and other civic organizations organise, analyse and present financial and other data using cloud-based architecture, has raised another big round of funding to continue expanding its business. The startup has picked up an additional $51 million in a Series D round led by Weatherford Capital and 8VC (Lonsdale’s investment firm), with participation from existing investor Andreessen Horowitz.
The funding brings the total raised by the company to $140 million, with previous investors in the firm including JC2 Ventures, Emerson Collective, Founders Fund and a number of others. The company is not disclosing its valuation — although we are asking — but for some context, PitchBook noted it was around $190 million in its last disclosed round — although that was in 2017 and has likely increased in the interim, not least because of the startup’s links in high places, and its growth.
On the first of these, the company says that its board of directors includes, in addition to Lonsdale (who is now the chairman of the company); Katherine August-deWilde, Co-Founder and Vice-Chair of First Republic Bank; John Chambers, Founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures and Former Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems; Marc Andreessen, Co-Founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz; and Zac Bookman, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenGov .
And in terms of its growth, OpenGov says today it counts more than 2,000 governments as customers, with recent additions to the list including the State of West Virginia, the State of Oklahoma, the Idaho State Controller’s Office, the City of Minneapolis MN, and Suffolk County NY. For comparison, when we wrote in 2017 about the boost the company had seen since Trump’s election (which has apparently seen a push for more transparency and security of data), the company noted 1,400 government customers.
Government data is generally associated with legacy systems and cripplingly slow bureaucratic processes, and that has spelled opportunity to some startups, who are leveraging the growth of cloud services to present solutions tailored to the needs of civic organizations and the people who work in them, from city planners to finance specialists. In the case of OpenGov, it packages its services in a platform it calls the OpenGov Cloud.
“OpenGov’s mission to power more effective and accountable government is driving innovation and transformation for the public sector at high speed,” said OpenGov CEO Zac Bookman in a statement. “This new investment validates OpenGov’s position as the leader in enterprise cloud solutions for government, and it fuels our ability to build, sell, and deploy new mission-critical technology that is the safe and trusted choice for government executives.”
It’s also, it seems, a trusted choice for government executives who have left public service and moved into investing, leveraging some of the links they still have into those who manage procurement for public services. Weatherford Capital, one of the lead investors, is led in part by managing partner Will Weatherford, who is the former Speaker of the House for the State of Florida.
“OpenGov’s innovative technology, accomplished personnel, market leadership, and mission-first approach precisely address the growing challenges inherent in public administration,” he said in a statement. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to partner with OpenGov to accelerate its growth and continue modernizing how this important sector operates.”
It will be interesting to see how and if the company uses the funding to consolidate in its particular area of enterprise technology. There are other firms like LiveStories that have also been building services to help better present civic data to the public that you could see as complementary to what OpenGov is doing. OpenGov has made acquisitions in the past, such as Ontodia to bring more open-source data and technology into its platform.
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Revolut ramps up customer support with plans to hire 400 people in Porto
Fintech startup Revolut has been growing like crazy and now has 6 million customers. The company has to scale its support team accordingly. That’s why Revolut just announced plans to open a customer operations centre in Porto, Portugal.
There are already 70 people working for Revolut in Porto. Eventually, Revolut plans to hire 400 people in the country. They’ll work on customer support, complaints, investigations and compliance.
And Revolut has been quite successful in Portugal so far. There are currently 250,000 Revolut customers in Portugal, and the company is adding 1,000 new customers per day in the country.
It should help when it comes to hiring local talent. The company is also hiring a growth manager, a communication and PR lead and a community manager in Portugal. Ricardo Macieira, the new growth manager, is the former country manager for Airbnb in Portugal. Rebeca Venâncio, the communication and PR lead, has worked for Microsoft in Portugal. And Miguel Costa, the community manager, has worked for Mog and Nomad Tech.
Earlier this summer, Revolut also announced plans to open a tech hub in Berlin. Originally founded in London, Revolut is slowly building multiple offices across the U.K. and Europe in order to attract local talent.
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India’s Oyo acquires Copenhagen-based data science firm Danamica for $10M
India’s Oyo said on Monday it has acquired Copenhagen-based data science firm Danamica as the fast-growing lodging startup works to expand its business in Europe.
Neither of the parties disclosed financial terms of the deal, but a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Oyo paid about $10 million to acquire the Danish firm.
Danamica, which was founded in 2016, has built machine learning tools and “business intelligence capabilities” to specialize in dynamic pricing of rental properties. The firm’s algorithm analyzes 144,000 data points every hour and makes 60 million price changes every day with a prediction accuracy of 97% to help hotels boost their revenue, Oyo said. The Indian startup said Danamica would help it scale its technical expertise as it expands its footprint in overseas markets.
Oyo, which is the largest hotel chain in India, is rapidly expanding in other countries. It has already established presence in 80 countries, the six-year old startup said. About half of its 1 million rooms are in China, where it launched last year.
Today’s announcement comes weeks after Oyo said it planned to invest €300 million in its vacation rental business in Europe, and $300 million toward U.S. expansion over the coming years. In May this year, Oyo bought Amsterdam-based holiday rental company Leisure from Axel Springer for $415 million.
In a prepared statement, Maninder Gulati, Global Head of OYO Vacation and Urban Homes and Chief Strategy Officer of OYO Hotels & Homes, said, “We are delighted to announce our acquisition of Danamica, a Europe based, machine learning and business intelligence company specialized in dynamic pricing, that will help us be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiencies and yield for our real estate owners and value for money for our millions of global guests, both everyday travellers and city dwellers, that choose an OYO Vacation Homes as their abode.”
In July this year, Oyo entered co-working spaces market with the launch of Oyo Workspaces. At a media conference in New Delhi, startup executives said they aim to make Oyo Workspaces the largest business in its category in Asia by end of next year. To immediately capture some market share, Oyo said it had acquired Indian co-working spaces startup Innov8. Sources told TechCrunch then that Oyo had paid about $30 million to acquire Innov8.
In the same month, 25-year-old Ritesh Agarwal (pictured above), founder of SoftBank-backed Oyo, invested $2 billion to triple his stake in the company as early investors Lightspeed and Sequoia partly cashed out. The deal pushed Oyo’s valuation to $10 billion.
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We want you: Apply to Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2019
You’ve worked hard to build your dream to this point, and now it’s time to launch your early-stage startup on a world-class stage and shift your momentum into high gear. If that description fits, we want you to apply to compete in the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2019.
Our early-stage startup pitch competition is the most effective way to place your startup in front of the investors, tech leaders and media outlets that can change the trajectory of your business in the best way possible. Oh, and the winning founders also receive $50,000. Sweet!
What’s more, applying to and participating in Startup Battlefield is absolutely free — no fees, no equity, no nothing.
Applying is easy, but the selection process is extremely competitive. TechCrunch editors with a keen eye for potential will vet every application and then select 15-20 companies to compete. Founders of those startups will receive six rigorous weeks of pitch coaching — you’ll work hard to craft your pitch, prepare your demo and be ready to strut your stuff with confidence.
When the big day finally arrives, each team will have six minutes to pitch to a world-class panel of judges — followed by a six-minute Q&A session. The founders who make it through to the second round will present again to a fresh set of judges. It’s a lather, rinse, repeat scenario.
One startup will emerge victorious, raise the Disrupt Cup and take home the $50,000 prize. The event takes place in front of a huge audience filled with investors, media and tech icons — and we record and live-stream the whole shooting match around the world.
Not only that, all Startup Battlefield competitors get to exhibit in Startup Alley for the entire show. Even if you don’t win the top prize, you still benefit from the exposure. Plus, you’ll join the ranks of the Startup Battlefield alumni community — now there’s an impressive group.
Since 2007, 857 startups have launched their dreams on the Startup Battlefield stage and gone on to collectively raise $8.9 billion while producing 112 exits. This alumni community includes companies like Vurb, Dropbox, Mint, Yammer and many more. You’ll be among their ranks…let the networking begin!
The Startup Battlefield takes place at Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December. You’ve worked hard to build your dream — now take it to the next level. Apply to Startup Battlefield today.
Pro Tip: If you’re not quite ready to compete in the Battlefield, there’s more than one way to receive the VIP treatment at Disrupt. Use the same application and apply for the TC Top Picks program. If you make the cut, you’ll receive a free Startup Alley Exhibitor Package and stand in a bright spotlight of media and investor attention.
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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Only 5 days left for super early bird savings at Disrupt Berlin 2019
Our super early bird countdown continues startup fans. If you don’t have your pass to Disrupt Berlin 2019 yet, it’s time to mach schnell — make it quick! Buy your pass now before the deadline strikes on 6 September at 11:59 p.m. (CEST), and you’ll save up to €600. Just five days left, friends. What are you waiting for?
You can save even more money with our group discounts. Buy in bulk, bring your whole team and leave no startup entrepreneur behind. You’ll save 20% when you buy five or more Innovator passes at once. Buy two or more Founder or Investor passes at once and enjoy a 10% savings.
We love Disrupt Berlin’s international diversity. More than 3,000 attendees from more than 50 countries gather to learn about and showcase the latest tech innovations and to connect, collaborate and move their business forward. Disrupt is the crossroad of now and future tech.
You’ll hear from an impressive array of tech leaders, makers, founders and investors on a range of hot topics. One example is Nigel Toon, the co-founder and CEO of Graphcore — a company that’s designing its own dedicated AI chipset. The company has raised more than $300 million from top investors, such as Sequoia Capital, BMW, Microsoft and Samsung. Pretty impressive, but even crazier — the tiny startup competes directly with giant chip companies, such as Nvidia, AMD, Intel and Qualcomm. It’s a race to see who can create the most efficient AI chip.
Director Roxanne Varza will be on hand to give us an update on Station F, the world’s biggest campus for startups. Housed in an historic monument (a beautiful building constructed in 1929), Station F is also a high-tech building and a cornerstone of the French tech ecosystem. Companies like Facebook, Naver (Line), Ubisoft, Microsoft and a host of others run incubators out of Station F, and its also home to more than 1,000 startups.
You can’t talk European success stories without talking UiPath. Currently valued at $7 billion, the company’s wild success comes from creating enterprise software that focuses on repetitive tasks and helps customers automate as many actions as possible. We can’t wait to talk with founder and CEO Daniel Dines — who started the company 15 years ago — about his automation journey.
There’s so much more to do at Disrupt Berlin 2019 and you can do it all for a whole lot less if you buy your pass before the super early bird price vanishes in just five days at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) on 6 September. Mach schnell!
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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Urban, the on-demand wellness platform, adds physiotherapy to its roster of on-demand services
Urban, the London-headquartered company that lets you book a growing range of “wellness” services on demand — spanning massage, osteopathy, to various beauty treatments — is adding physiotherapy to its roster in a bid to become a “one-stop-shop” for physical wellbeing.
The new pay-as-you-go physiotherapy offering will let you book a HCPC-registered physio via the Urban app or website for treatment in your home. With NHS wait times several weeks if not months for access to physiotherapy, Urban thinks it has spotted a gap in the market for people that need ongoing treatment or a quick appraisal for a recently sustained injury — and are willing to pay “out of pocket” for the privilege.
In a call with Urban founder Jack Tang and the company’s general manager for physical wellbeing, Joe Jarman, the pair explained that the new service aims to provide access to a private physiotherapist with as little as two hours’ notice, available seven days per week. It will initially be available in London, with a focus on central London where demand (and, presumably, ability to pay) is highest, followed by Manchester and Birmingham.
With that said, pricing is competitive with physiotherapy that is typically offered at a private clinic, and compared to arranging a home visit from a private clinic, it is considerably cheaper. That’s because, claims Jarman, Urban is able to cut down on travel time by clustering nearby bookings via its app in order to maximise potential sessions per day, similar to what it does for other existing Urban wellbeing services. Of course, it doesn’t have the same brick ‘n’ mortar overheads, either.
Jarman says that many of Urban’s physiotherapists work in the NHS during the day but are looking to earn additional income in the evenings and at weekends or want to transition into private practice.
Asked if a service like Urban could place more pressure on the NHS by stretching an already scare resource, he says that the sector as a whole is growing. This has seen a 22% increase in the number of physiotherapists since 2015. In addition, Jarman says one in every three GP consultations relates to MSK issues, and early access to an Urban physiotherapist could help lessen this.
Either way, it’s certainly true that at present and within its current funding and organisational structure, the NHS isn’t very well-positioned to provide speedy MSK-related advice or treatment. Physiotherapy is also an obvious extension to Urban’s existing osteopathy and sports massage treatments.
“We see physiotherapy as the final vital piece so that we can offer a complete package to attain good physical health,” adds Jarman in a statement. “If someone has a problem with their body, we make sure they get the right treatment plan – and they get to choose the time and place”.
Meanwhile, Tang says that now Urban has completed its suite for physical wellbeing, the startup’s attention now turns to “doubling down” on its beauty and body confidence category with more news to share “very soon”.
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