Slack and other consumer-grade productivity tools have been taking off in workplaces large and small — and data governance hasn’t caught up.

Whether it’s litigation, compliance with regulations like GDPR or concerns about data breaches, legal teams need to account for new types of employee communication. And that’s hard when work is happening across the latest messaging apps and SaaS products, which make data searchability and accessibility more complex.

Here’s a quick look at the problem, followed by our suggestions for best practices at your company.

Problems

The increasing frequency of reported data breaches and expanding jurisdiction of new privacy laws are prompting conversations about dark data and risks at companies of all sizes, even small startups. Data risk discussions necessarily include the risk of a data breach, as well as preservation of data. Just two weeks ago it was reported that Jared Kushner used WhatsApp for official communications and screenshots of those messages for preservation, which commentators say complies with record keeping laws but raises questions about potential admissibility as evidence.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | How to handle dark data compliance risk at your company

Last week’s Handle video was different than past Boston Dynamics releases. Sure, it showcased the same sort of impressive robotics that have made every video from the company a viral hit, but this one took a very different approach than other recent releases: It put the robot to work.

There were some clear aesthetic differences: the robot appeared a bit larger, and its two arms were swapped out for a single, overhead limb with several suction cups attached. The key differentiator, however, was a relatively mundane setting, in which Handle was moving boxes on and off of pallets and conveyor belts.

Now we’ve got a little more insight into why the company was showcasing its latest creation in a warehouse setting. Today Boston Dynamics announced its first major acquisition: a Bay Area-based startup called Kinema Systems. The company develops 3D imagine solutions for pick-and-place logistics.

The acquisition is telling. Over the last few years, Boston Dynamics was acquired by Alphabet and then sold to SoftBank. Somewhere along the way, it seems clear that the idea of monetization was impressed upon it.

“I think Google planted the seed,” CEO Marc Raibert tells TechCrunch. “And all of the other robotics companies near us were much more focused on applications and product than we were. So we’ve been turning that corner. It’s been a consistent thing. It’s not like we got to SoftBank and they hit us with a hammer and suddenly said, ‘make products.’ They’ve been extremely enthusiastic about our R&D work, too. It feels good to do both.”

Boston Dynamics will take a two-pronged approach, moving forward. The company will continue to push the boundaries of what robotics can do, with products like Atlas, while it looks for real-world applications for other products, including Handle and SpotMini, which it announced last year at TechCrunch’s Robotics event it would begin to commercialize. That product, it seems, is still due out in 2019.

Unlike many other startups in the robotics category, however, Kinema has actually had a product on the market. Kinema describes the Pick as “the world’s first Deep-learning 3D Vision systems for industrial robots.” Notably, the Pick’s suction cup-sporting arm bears more than a passing resemblance to the Handle’s newly redesigned limb.

As part of the deal, the robotic arm is being rebranded as the Boston Dynamics Pick System, as seen in the above video. The company will continue to sell and support the system, meaning that it officially beats the Spot Mini to market at Boston Dynamics’ first commercialized product. The addition of a redesigned Handle appears to find Boston Dynamics looking to build out a logistics ecosystem, something that has the potential to compete with warehouse robotics companies like Fetch or even Amazon Robotics. 

“One of the things that’s exciting about the Kinema acquisition is that they’ve already been in the product environment that’s very specific to warehouses and logistics,” Michael Perry, Boston Dynamics’ VP of Business Development tells TechCrunch. “They’ve already been through the process of figuring out what are some of the site-specific issues we need to incorporate into our design. Everything from comms to perception to safety. All of these different factors are now filtering into the design of the robot.”

Kinema’s technology will be utilized for Handle to start. Raibert notes that the wheeled robot is the closest Boston Dynamics has come thus far to developing a purpose-driven commercial robot from the ground up.

“We did a first design of Handle where we were doing what we always do,” says Raibert. “We were trying out a new form and seeing what we can make it do. We were excited because it was so dynamic. But it was really a no-application-in-mind exploration. But then, after we had it and started to think about it, it clearly dovetailed with some logistics thinking we’d been doing. And we did redesign it after that with logistics in mind.”

Another key thing Kinema brings to the table is location. The company’s Mountain View location will serve as Boston Dynamics’ first West Coast offices. “Through this [acquisition],” Perry adds, “we’ll be establishing our presence in the Bay Area for hiring a wide variety of hardware and software specialists.”

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Boston Dynamics acquires a 3D vision startup in bid to put its robots to work

Perch, a home-buying and selling platform, has raised $220 million in a combination of equity ($20 million) to fund operations and debt ($200 million) to finance home purchasing. The equity investment was led by existing investors FirstMark Capital, with participation from Accomplice and Juxtapose. Perch declined to disclose the debt lender in the deal.

Perch was founded in September of 2017 by Court Cunningham and Phil DeGisi.

The premise of Perch is to focus on the largest segment of home buyers on the market, which Perch calls “dual trackers.” These buyers are also in the process of selling their current home at the same time.

This is a generally difficult and taxing process that forces people to choose between the uncertainty of a huge investment without having sold their current home or moving into a short-term rental indefinitely until they find the right new home. The alternative is to make an offer to purchase the new home contingent upon the sale of their current home, which tends to be an unattractive proposition for sellers, according to Perch.

Perch solves this for clients by making an offer on their homes that is valid for six months, and then helping them find a new home. Perch also conducts the closing on both homes in the same day.

There is a certain amount of risk associated with this business model considering the fluctuation of the housing market, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue for investors of Perch or their competition. Looking at the way it works now, however, it’s hard to imagine that tech won’t have gotten a strong foothold within the real estate industry over the next few decades.

Which explains the huge influx of cash going to companies the industry calls “iBuyers,” such as RedFin, Zillow, Opendoor and OfferPad. Opendoor recently filed to raise $200 million at a $3.7 billion valuation in February, while OfferPad closed a Series C that brings total equity and debt raised to $975 million.

Perch, however, doesn’t consider itself an iBuyer.

“An iBuyer will buy your house for you at a certain price in an easy and convenient transaction,” said co-founder and CEO Court Cunningham, referencing the offerings of Perch’s competition. “It adds a lot of value, but that’s a feature of a complete offering, not the offering in and of itself.”

In short, Perch wants to tie together the three branches of home buying and selling — closing, title and mortgage — for the 60 percent of the market comprised by “dual trackers.”

For now, Perch is squared away on the closing and title portion of the process, offering e-closing and e-notary to let users complete the transaction from the comfort of their own home. The company plans to offer its own mortgage brokerage service to customers at some point this year, and though it’s not on the roadmap anytime soon, Cunningham said he isn’t closed off to the idea of Perch becoming an underwriter somewhere down the line.

Not only will mortgages add a new revenue stream for Perch, but Cunningham sees the convenience of having everything in one place as a huge opportunity for customer acquisition.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Home buying and selling platform Perch raises 0M in debt and equity