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PayPal’s cryptocurrency products are going to expand rapidly in 2021, executives said on the company’s third quarter earnings call Monday.
Read more Bitcoin’s price is trending up after a dip while traders are moving ether off from centralized exchanges.
Read more Companies can now raise more money under three key securities exemptions without having to register with SEC.
Read more In a chaotic year of dueling recriminations and very different visions of the future, the real question of this U.S. presidential election is: Who is better for bitcoin?
Read more Crypto IP “puts us in a good position” for central bank digital currencies, said Mastercard President Miebach.
Read more With one day to go to the election, our thoughts are with those who look forward to talking about something else. Difficult as it might be to imagine, there must be other things to work on. One thing that comes to mind is the impact of the virus on how we manage our days and nights in a digital environment. Mobile devices have already propelled much of the change, but the pandemic has accelerated the move to a hybrid distributed lifestyle.
The election has mandated our attention to the political situation in ways that have expanded early voting and legal efforts to slow it down. Regardless of the outcome, the pressure to adapt to this new collaborative workflow will intensify. People have already seen significant shifts from commuting to time switching in a home context. Podcasting, which had emerged from a hackerish geeky hobby in recent years, has morphed into a more commercial adjunct to mainstream media.
In the process, new formats such as newsletters and live streaming have attracted investment from companies including Spotify and Audible, related technologies like Otter (transcription), Substack, Medium, new bundles of services (Apple One) and cable network disrupters, Digital first publishers like The Recount may have started out as traditional takes on political commentary, but in the windup of the campaign they are reaching audiences via notifications rather than repetitive cable talking heads and panels.
This roll up of breaking notifications and user-controlled editorial access have major implications for the near future post-electuon, however long it takes to plow through legal challenges and the restaffing of whichever government is formed. Also impacted will be Congressional and antitrust attempts to regulate social media, and what I suspect will be a shift to private discussions and trend analysis. The interest groups and market makers that result from this realignment will offer exit strategies for companies like Twitter and YouTube where the risk of being broken up will be mitigated by powerful new business models for content creation and distribution.
By January 20th, a new influencer architecture based on notifications and live streaming will endow the media with tools it needs to lead the transition to safe, secure, hybrid digital/live events. Streaming will give new artists and entrepreneurs a platform to separate influence and impact from lossleader gatherings online, bolstered by association with food and tools delivery winners like Apple and Amazon. A similar synergy between tech companies and media advertising will be overt (Apple + and Prime) as well as implicit (the growth in Amazon search.and Twitch watch parties.)
COVID therapeutics such as Regeneron create a roadmap for these private groups to reorganize as CostCo-like next wave restaurants, entertainment events, and political efforts to consolidate economic power. With a combination of transparency and what could be called reverse boycotts, customers will align with products and companies who promote values-based association with stakeholders acrosss the spectrum.
Central to the relationship is providing ethical access to important data in return for clear guidelines for the use of that data at scale. If this election has been correctly assessed as signaling a massive change in the electorate, the period of deescalation from the pandemic can foster a sense of ownership of that success by the incoming majority. Notification-based entertainers such as Sarah Cooper and more mainstream projects like Matthew McConaughey’s new book, Greenlights, speak initially to the Zoom home/work crowd, and soon to the formation of new studios and networks.
Who really knows how this transformation is playing out given the terrible consequences of Trump’s impact on our country and its standing in the world. But the generation that followed the Greatest Generation is discovering it has more to it than the free love of rock and roll and following our bliss. That same generation ushered in the technology and media revolutions.
Now we’re suffering the backlash of so-called free software where our data is the real product, where Big Brother is extending power by acquihires and preemptive pivots. Yet still our democracy persists. Time to count the vote.
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The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant, Brent Leary, and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Friday, October 30, 2020.
Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor
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Indonesia’s logistics industry is very fragmented, with several large providers operating alongside thousands of smaller companies. This means shippers often have to work with a variety of carriers, driving up costs and making supply chains harder to manage. Logisly, a Jakarta-based startup that describes itself as a “B2B tech-enabled logistics platform,” announced today it has raised $6 million in Series A funding to help streamline logistics in Indonesia. The round was led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.
This brings the total Logisly has raised since it was founded last year to $7 million. Its platform digitizes the process of ordering, managing and tracking trucks. First, it verifies carriers before adding them to Logisly’s platform. Then it connects clients to trucking providers, using an algorithm to aggregate supply and demand. This means companies that need to ship goods can find trucks more quickly, while carriers can reduce the number of unused space on their trucks.
Co-founder and chief executive officer Roolin Njotosetiadi told TechCrunch that about “40% of trucks are utilized in Indonesia, and the rest are either sitting idle or coming back from their hauls empty handed. All of these result in high logistics costs and late deliveries.”
She added that Logisly is “laser focused on having the largest trucking network in Indonesia, providing 100% availability of cost-efficient and reliable trucks.”
Logisly now works with more than 1,000 businesses in Indonesia in sectors like e-commerce, fast-moving consumer goods (FCG), chemicals and construction. This number includes 300 corporate shippers. Logisly’s Series A will be used on growing its network of shippers and transporters (which currently covers 40,000 trucks) and on product development.
The startup’s clients include some of the largest corporate shippers in Indonesia, including Unilever, Haier, Grab, Maersk and JD.ID, the Indonesian subsidiary of JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce companies.
Other venture capital-backed startups that are focused on Indonesia’s logistics industry include Shipper, which focuses on e-commerce; logistics platform Waresix; and Kargo.
Robotics and automation startups have seen a strong uptick in interest over the course of the pandemic. And it’s easy to see which companies have a newfound interest in automating their workforce amid a seemingly endless virus-driven shutdown. But Walmart, which has long promised to take an increasing focus on such technology, has reportedly pulled the plug on one of its highest-profile partnerships.
The mega-retailer has ended a contract with Bossa Nova Robotics, according to new reporting from The Wall Street Journal. Walmart had announced in January that it would bring the Bay Area-based startup’s inventory-scanning robots to an additional 650 locations, bringing the total up to 1,000. The move has resulted in layoffs of around 50% at the Carnegie Mellon spin-off, per the WSJ report. It’s a huge hit at a time when such technologies should be thriving.
Bossa Nova co-founder Sarjoun Skaff didn’t confirm nor deny the WSJ report, instead issuing a no comment. He did, however, weigh in on the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on the company, seeming to confirm that some layoffs had indeed occurred.
“I cannot comment on Walmart, however, the pandemic has forced us to streamline our operations and focus on our core technologies,” Skaff said. “We have made stunning advances in AI and robotics. Our retail AI is the industry’s best and works as well on robots as with fixed cameras, and our hardware, autonomy and operations excelled in more than 500 of the world’s most challenging stores. With the board’s full support, we continue deploying this technology with our partners in retail and in other fields.”
The tumult at Bossa Nova has stretched beyond layoffs. Skaff, who was CTO, took over the CEO spot in October when Stuart Pann left the position after less than nine months. Bossa Nova’s deal with Walmart was a major break for the startup, which began life in 2005 as a robotic toymaker before pivoting into something more serious. The startup’s relationship with Walmart dates back to 2017, when the chain ordered 50 robots. Walmart’s massive order earlier was a major endorsement of Bossa Nova’s technology.
Such a change of heart would no doubt have a profound effect on the company.
Walmart apparently just wasn’t getting enough out of the deal. Bossa Nova’s robots had made their way into around 500 stores by the time the deal ended — around half of the initial proposed number. As COVID-19 has pushed more orders online, Walmart began exploring ways to use human workers to perform inventory while grabbing product for online fulfillment. Walmart’s operations, as well as those at other major retailers, will continue to evolve as brick-and-mortar locations reopen and customers shows signs of interest to return to the in-person shopping experience. The volatility of the pandemic still doesn’t lessen the sting or impact that Walmart’s abrupt reversal will have on Bossa Nova and its hopes for a rebound.
Meanwhile, Walmart’s robotic experiments aren’t over. The company’s Sam’s Club subsidiary recently announced it would bring Tennant’s floor scrubbing robots to all of its 599 stores. Interestingly, the company is also exploring ways for these machines to double up and perform in-store inventory checks; it’s not clear if these will be used only in Sam’s Club locations or extend to Walmart stores as well.
Apple is closing out the year with another big event, Twitter details its plans to fight election-related misinformation and WeWork employees used an embarrassingly insecure printer password. This is your Daily Crunch for November 2, 2020.
The big story: Apple announces its next big event
Yes, almost everyone’s attention is locked onto tomorrow’s U.S. presidential election, but Apple is giving us an excuse to look beyond November 4 — it’s holding another big event, themed “One More Thing,” on November 10 at 10 a.m. Pacific.
What’s the one more thing? Most likely, Apple will unveil the first Macs built with the company’s ARM-based processors and also provide a release date for macOS Big Sur.
The transition to “Apple silicon” was announced earlier this year at WWDC, with Tim Cook describing it as “a historic day for the Mac.” But now we’ll actually get some product details.
The tech giants
Twitter explains how it will handle misleading tweets about the US election results — The platform says it will prioritize labeling tweets about the presidential election and any other “highly contested races” where there may be significant issues with misleading information.
Spotify will now allow artists and labels to promote tracks in your recommendations — Spotify announced today it will begin to test a new service that gives artists more of a say in how their music is discovered on the Spotify platform.
WeWork employees used an alarmingly insecure printer password — The password (“9999”, the same as the user name) was so simple that a customer guessed it.
Startups, funding and venture capital
YC-backed nonprofit VotingWorks wants to rebuild trust in election systems through open source — The startup has twin goals of improving the technology that underpins elections through more affordable and secure voting systems, as well as using modern statistical science to improve the quality and efficiency of voter audits.
Rocket Lab’s next launch will deliver 30 satellites to orbit, and a 3D-printed gnome from Gabe Newell — The gnome is a test of a new manufacturing technique, as well as a philanthropic endeavor from the gaming industry legend.
Email creation startup Stensul raises $16M — With other marketing channels paused or diminished during the pandemic, email has only become more important.
Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch
Pandemic’s impact disproportionately reduced VC funding for female founders — Bias, seed-stage bottlenecks and slow structural change continue to hold women back.
Booming edtech M&A activity brings consolidation to a fragmented sector — Edtech M&A activity is buzzier than usual.
Starling Bank founder Anne Boden says new book ‘isn’t a memoir’ — In “Banking On It,” Boden relates how she came up with the idea to found a challenger bank and the many obstacles she faced along the way.
(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)
Everything else
Raspberry Pi Foundation announces the cute little Raspberry Pi 400 — The Raspberry Pi 400 is a computer integrated in a compact keyboard that costs $70.
Original Content podcast: Bill Murray’s charm can’t hide the sadness of ‘On the Rocks’ — The film reunites Murray with his “Lost in Translation” director Sofia Coppola.
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