Source: Engadget | You can get around Medium's paywall by clicking on twitter links
Reviews and Gadgets
Customer experience management platform Medallia has filed to raise up to $70 million in Series F funding, according to regulatory documents obtained by the Prime Unicorn Index. The new shares were priced at $15 apiece, valuing the nearly two-decades-old business at $2.4 billion.
Medallia confirmed the funding. A previous version of this report pinpointed Medallia’s valuation at $1.7 billion.
Medallia is expected to finally transition to the public markets in 2019, a year chock-full of high-profile unicorn IPOs. The downsized round, which is less than half of its Series E funding, will likely be Medallia’s final infusion of private investment.
San Mateo-headquartered Medallia, led by newly appointed chief executive officer Leslie Stretch, operates a platform meant to help businesses better provide for their customers. Its core product, the Medallia Experience Cloud, provides employees real-time data on customers collected from online review sites and social media. The service leverages that data to provide insights and tools to improve customer experiences.
Leslie Stretch, president and CEO of Medallia (PRNewsfoto/Medallia)
According to PitchBook, Medallia boasts a particularly clean cap table, especially for a roughly 18-year-old business. It’s backed by four venture capital firms: Sequoia Capital, Saints Capital, TriplePoint Venture Growth and Grotmol Solutions, the latter which invested a small amount of capital in 2010. Medallia has raised a total of $268 million in equity funding, including a $150 million round in 2015 that valued the company at $1.25 billion.
Prior to hiring Stretch to lead the company to IPO, Medallia co-founder Borge Hald ran the company as CEO since its 2001 launch. Hald is now executive chairman and chief strategy officer.
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Sequoia-backed Medallia raises M at a .4B valuation
Reviews and Gadgets
Wirecutter's best deals: The Instant Pot Ultra 6-quart drops to $100
February 28, 2019
Source: Engadget | Wirecutter's best deals: The Instant Pot Ultra 6-quart drops to 0
Source: Engadget | Samsung is giving away a screen protector with the Galaxy S10
Reviews and Gadgets
Toyota experiment uses cameras to create city maps for self-driving cars
February 28, 2019
Source: Engadget | Toyota experiment uses cameras to create city maps for self-driving cars
Source: Engadget | YouTube shuts down comments on videos with young kids
Source: Engadget | The Switch adds another comic book reader in Izneo
Startups
Applications are open for Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019
February 28, 2019Founders. This is your shot. TechCrunch is officially in the hunt for the most disruptive startups for this year’s Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019. Startups can apply here to compete on our world-famous stage for a $100,000 equity-free prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup. With more than 10,000 attendees, hundreds of press outlets and top investors from around the world, your company will launch to the most influential players in tech.
The application. Simple. Fill out your app here. There is no cost to apply or participate. TechCrunch does not take any fees or equity. Early-stage startups from any country and any vertical are eligible. TechCrunch’s editors will review the applications and select the most promising startups to pitch the world’s top VCs on the main stage at Disrupt SF (October 2-4) — set to be the biggest event in TechCrunch’s history.
The training. The Startup Battlefield team will work intensively over many weeks with the Startup Battlefield contestants to hone pitches, sharpen business models and perfect demos.
The conference. At TechCrunch Disrupt SF, Startup Battlefield contestants are welcome at VIP events, backstage and more. The Battlefield startups receive complimentary exhibition space on the show floor for all three days, as well as access to CrunchMatch, TechCrunch’s investor-founder matching system. Battlefield startups also receive complimentary tickets to all future TechCrunch events, access to alumni events and free subscriptions to Extra Crunch.
The competition. The Startup Battlefield contestants, approximately 20 in number, pitch for six minutes each, including a live demo, followed by a six-minute Q&A with our elite judges — investors like Roelof Botha, Jeff Clavier, Cyan Banister, Kirsten Green and Aileen Lee. After the initial round, 4-6 companies will be selected to pitch again on the final day of the conference in front of a new panel of judges. They will choose the winner, who will receive the Disrupt Cup, a check for $100,000 and a post in TechCrunch, as well as the attention of media and investors around the world. All Startup Battlefield sessions are streamed live on TechCrunch to a global audience in the millions.
The Startup Battlefield Alumni Community. Join the ranks of alumni like Vurb, Dropbox, Get Around, Cloudflare, Mint.com and more. Don’t just take our word for it! Our Startup Battlefield Alumni metrics speak for themselves — 857 contestants have raised about $8.8 billion and produced 108 successful exits (IPOs or acquisitions).
So what are you waiting for? Apply now.
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Applications are open for Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2019
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
In an app update released yesterday, all users will need to verify their age, and the under 13-year-olds will then be directed to a separate, more restricted in-app experience that protects their personal information and prevents them from publishing videos to TikTok .
And if you’re confused about Musical.ly versus TikTok: The Federal Trade Commission had begun looking into TikTok back when it was known as Musical.ly, and the ruling itself is a settlement with Musical.ly.
2. How Disney built Star Wars, in real life
Over the course of the past five years, Walt Disney Imagineering has been hard at work making the world of Star Wars a reality on Earth. Matthew Panzarino has all the details, with plenty of tantalizing images.
3. Amazon Prime members can choose a weekly delivery date with launch of ‘Amazon Day’
The option lets shoppers pick a day of the week to take delivery of their recent orders. The boxes will then arrive together on the selected Amazon Day, in fewer boxes.
4. Zūm, a ridesharing service for kids, raises $40M
Zūm is a mobile app that enables parents to schedule rides for their kids from fully vetted drivers. It also partners with school districts to support their transportation needs.
5. Dow Jones’ watchlist of 2.4 million high-risk individuals has leaked
The data, since secured, is the financial giant’s Watchlist database, which companies use as part of their risk and compliance efforts.
6. SoftBank’s Vision Fund invests $1.5B in Chinese second-hand car startup Chehaoduo
The Beijing-based company operates two main sites — peer-to-peer online marketplace Guazi for used vehicles, and Maodou, which retails new sedans through direct sales and financial leasing.
7. Netflix may be losing $192M per month from piracy, cord cutting study claims
As many as one in five people today are mooching off of someone else’s account when streaming video from Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Video, according to a new study from CordCutting.com. Of these, Netflix tends to be pirated for the longest period.
Source: Tech Crunch Mobiles | Daily Crunch: TikTok faces children’s privacy fine
Tech News
Siri gets new airline, food order and dictionary Shortcuts, with more on the way
February 28, 2019Announced at last year’s WWDC, Apple’s been firing up Siri Shortcuts at a fairly steady clip. The company says there are now “thousands” of apps integrating the iOS 12 feature, which bring all sorts of third-party functionality to the smart assistant.
There are five new Shortcuts available starting today. Most notable (depending on where you get your airline miles, I suppose) is probably the one from American Airlines. Saying, “Hey Siri, flight update” will provide you with information on your upcoming travel plans. The response uses location information to determine what to share, including flight status, travel time and the gate from which it will depart.
Caviar has a new Shortcut as well. It lets users check on food status or reorder frequent items, like, say, “order my usual pizza,” for those of us who are perfectly fine with the food related ruts we’ve dug ourselves into. Merriam-Webster, meanwhile, is adding a “word of the day” Shortcut, while Dexcom is bringing glucose monitoring to the smart assistant.
In the next couple of months, Apple will add Shortcuts from Airbnb, Drop, ReSound and coffee-maker Smarter. Those all join recent additions from Waze and Nike Run Club. Apple clearly sees the features as a way to build out Siri’s functionality following increased competition from the likes of Google and Amazon.
The addition of these sorts of features can make for a much richer voice ecosystem, all while leaving third-party developers to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Source: Tech Crunch Mobiles | Siri gets new airline, food order and dictionary Shortcuts, with more on the way