Browsing Tag: Startups

Challenger bank Chime has reached 5 million customers in the U.S. The San Francisco-based startup is creating an FDIC-insured mobile bank without any physical branch. The company also promises fewer fees.

Back in March, Chime said it had 3 million customers when it announced its $200 million Series D round. So that’s 2 million additional customers in roughly 5 months.

Chime says that it is the fastest growing challenger bank in the world. In other words, the company is throwing shade at European challenger banks, such as Monzo and N26, that have been doing really well too. N26 just entered the U.S. market.

The company is also rolling out a new feature that it has been testing for a while. Chime SpotMe is an alternative to bank overdrafts. It is specifically targeted at people who deposit their paycheck into their Chime account but also live paycheck to paycheck.

Chime users who receive payroll direct deposit of at least $500 per month can sign up to Chime SpotMe. After that, you can keep spending with your debit card even if your balance goes below $0. Your overdraft limit will depend on multiple factors, but some users will be able to overdraw their account by $100.

When you next paycheck arrives, your negative balance is paid back and you don’t pay any overdraft fee. The company says that you also can optionally leave a tip to help other Chime users make ends meet.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Chime now has 5 million customers and introduces overdraft alternative

Clue, an app built on machine learning to track a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle, has been paying close attention lately to those with irregular periods. The Berlin-based company hopes to identify what may be causing those irregular cycles and then calculate a woman’s risk of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) in order to get her the help she needs from a medical provider.

For those who don’t know, PCOS is a sometimes painful disease that can put a woman at risk of infertility, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and endometriosis, among other issues. The most common indicator a woman has PCOS is an unpredictable cycle, showing up whenever it wants and making it difficult to plan around.

Those using the app will be able to get insight on what’s going on and why their period doesn’t always on time by using the newly launched “Irregular Cycles” feature within the app.

A few other apps also have a built-in irregular cycles tracking feature. One (on the nose) app called Period Tracker, which can be found in both the App Store and Google Play, is specifically designed to track irregular cycles. Another app from Planned Parenthood called Spot On is geared more toward teens and is intended to help them track how their period changes over time. But there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of identifying PCOS or gathering data on what may be causing these irregular cycles from these other apps.

According to Clue, its newly released tool uses a combination questionnaire and “dynamic Bayesian network” to come up with the most useful questions and then pinpoint whether users may be able to blame PCOS for their cycle woes.

But not just anyone can access this feature — it’s only for those Clue recognizes as having clinically irregular or unpredictable cycles and are not on birth control. So if you’re just curious but have a predictable as rain period, this is not the feature for you.

Clue already rolled out the feature to a test group of users, with some success. “Of the users that received an assessment of potential PCOS, a significant portion reported visiting a healthcare professional for diagnosis within a month of the assessment,” Clue founder Ida Tin told TechCrunch. “Along with collaborator Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, we plan to dive deeper into the data to see what additional patterns can be uncovered and where we can provide more benefit to our users.”

Often PCOS comes up as a cause of inability to conceive, with the majority (80%, according the the National Institute of Health) of infertility attributed to this disease. But even those with regular cycles aren’t necessarily ovulating (dropping an egg to be fertilized in the womb) each and every month.

Tin hopes the data she and her team gleans from the new in-app feature will help users better predict health issues affecting ovulation and their cycle in general.

“A change, particularly when sudden, in one’s own usual cycle length pattern may be indicative of a health matter deserving of attention,” she told TechCrunch. “For example, if a person typically has cycles 26-32 days in length and suddenly starts having cycles 20-25 days in length, then it is worth seeing a healthcare provider.”

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Period app Clue hopes to find out if you have PCOS

Neura, a startup that helps developers see how users interact with their apps, has raised a Series B of $16 million. The round was led by returning investors Pitango Venture Capital and Liberty Technology Venture. Other participants included Moneta Capital, Amdocs and AXA Ventures.

The San Francisco-headquartered startup’s last round of funding was an $11 million Series A announced in 2016. The new round brings its total funding to $32 million and will be used on hiring, growing its business in the United States and the European Union and launching new products.

Neura currently has more than 30 clients in sectors including travel and hospitality, transportation and ridesharing, health, e-commerce, food delivery and insurance. Its SDK enables developers to analyze data about how users engage with their apps and also how they use their mobile devices.

For example, menstrual cycle tracker MyDays used Neura to analyze how users respond to push notifications. It saw that when the app used notifications sent at set times of the day, more than 30% of their users received them while they were asleep and 25% got them after they had begun their daily routines. MyDays created notifications customized to when its users are most likely to respond to them, helping it increase retention by 32%.

For years, Neura has said it prioritizes protecting the privacy of users, an issue that is now gaining more awareness among consumers thanks to high-profile scandals like Cambridge Analytica-Facebook.

In an email, CEO Amit Hammer said that “focused on customer experiences, rather than advertising, Neura does not collect any personally identifiable information (PII) or user id, and is compliant with the strictest privacy regulations, such as GDPR. Today’s consumers expect relevant and personalized digital experiences without compromising their privacy. We are glad to see more transparency in the mobile ecosystem.”

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Neura, a mobile app engagement analytics startup, raises million Series B

For a seemingly tough pitch, Light has had little trouble getting noticed. The company has run two successful crowdfunding campaigns for a pair of minimalist phones designed to augment or replace the smartphone. Today the startup announced that it will be shipping the second version of the handset, which introduces a handful of features back into the product, like texting.

Ahead of the launch, we spoke to Light’s founders, Kaiwei Tang and Joe Hollier, about funding, feature glut and the future of the handset.

How it all began

Brian Heater: The project essentially started as an in-house at Google, is that correct?

Kaiwei Tang: We met in 2014 in Google’s incubator called 30 Weeks. That’s where we met and started talking about Light Phone eventually.

Joe Hollier: 30 Weeks program was an experiment that came out of the Google creative lab, and their hypothesis was that if given the right resources, guidance, designers might be able to create new creative startups, and that designers should be on the founding table of companies.

So their hypothesis was that we as designers would be able to imagine a new startup in the software application space, and then through designing the end product, which is how the Google creative lab works, we’d be able to inspire the engineers and investors that we would need to make the product a reality.

Brian: What did you see in the market that wasn’t being fulfilled by countless different smartphone companies?

Joe: People were feeling overwhelmed by their smartphone and craving some escape, and we didn’t really see an escape.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Light Phone’s founders discuss life beyond the smartphone

There’s that pesky catch-22 you’ve got to get out of the way when discussing the Light Phone and its successor. There’s an inherent irony to a piece of technology created with the express purpose of weaning us off technology. But it’s 2019, and inherent irony is kind of the name of the game.

Light certainly has its share of supporters. As the company announces that it has both begun shipping the Light Phone II to Indiegogo backers and made the product more directly available through its site at $350 (via pre-order), it’s also revealing its funding for the first time. As of this writing, the company has raised $12.3 million.

The crowdfunding parts we knew about, of course. The original phone raised a solid $400,000 on Kickstarter. The Indiegogo campaign for the second version blew that out of the water at $3.5 million with an emphasis on pre-orders. Turns out VCs are getting in on the action, as well, with $8.4 million raised in seed. Hinge Capital, Bullish, White Bay Group, Able Partners, Product Co-Op and HAX have all chipped in, but the leader is the most interesting of the bunch.

Foxconn is the biggest investor of the bunch. The manufacturing giant, naturally, is also helping the company build the handsets and scale things as Light looks toward retail channels beyond its current online offering.

“They’ve been building smart phones for 20, 30 years,” co-founder Kaiwei Tang told TechCrunch. “When we came to them with the first Light Phone, it was just a simplified, voice-only device. Right after the pitch, I was talking to the sales VP who said, ‘hey Kai, I need Light Phone right now. Smartphone has ruined my life. My kids don’t talk to me.’ ”

A number of other high-profile angel investors were equally taken with the notion of a simplified device that could deliver core functionality while weaning users off of smartphone dependence. John Zimmer (Lyft), Michael Mignano and Nir Zicherman (Anchor), Tim Kendall (Moment) and Scott Belsky (Adobe) have all invested, as well.

Like the original Light Phone, the new version presents a sort of built-in paradox for its creators. If the underlying idea is stripping non-core functionality, isn’t introducing a second version with new features somewhat counter-productive?

The new model will get ridesharing (partner to be announced), music playback (likely via on-board storage for starters), turn-by-turn direction and find my phone features. Among other things, the functionality of those features will be limited by the E Ink display. The phone also finds the company making the jump from 2G to LTE. Users can pop in a SIM from AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile.

“To use an analogy, we’re offering a beautifully designed screwdriver that does one thing well,” says Tang. “Obviously, the Light Phone being an E Ink screen and small size limits it to the users. We don’t encourage people to play videos, or watch video on it. But making a phone call, getting a taxi, listening to music (yes, there’s a headphone jack), recording a voice memo. Maybe down the road they have a calendar reminder, those are the simple tools; it has a clear goal.”

The Light Phone II is probably the least pretty device I’ve reviewed for this site. It’s small, but chunky, like a shrunken e-reader with a screen too small to actually use for e-books. It’s got just enough functionality to (hopefully) free you of your smartphone for hours at a time.

Light says it has sold “tens of thousands” of units. It shipped 15,000 of the first generation and somehow has in the neighborhood of 40,000 reservations it hasn’t filled for the device. The company is looking to push those users toward the Light Phone 2. That device, meanwhile, has around 10,000 pre-orders at present.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Light’s new minimalist phone is available now for 0

What do you get when you mix 500 highly skilled code poets, 36 hours of sleep-deprived coding and an unlimited supply of caffeine? If you guessed the TC Hackathon you are correct! Come and pit your mad programming skills against the best in the world at Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December.

We’re limiting the number of participants to 500, so don’t wait — apply to compete in the TC Hackathon today. It doesn’t cost a thing, and you’ll even get a free Innovator pass to Disrupt Berlin.

The TC Hackathon is a series of sponsored challenges that will test your skills to the max. In addition to sponsor prizes, TechCrunch will award a $5,000 prize to the top overall hack. We’ll announce the specific sponsors, challenges and prizes in the coming weeks, but all of them will be looking for working solutions to real-world problems. You can get a sense of what to expect by looking at the sponsored contests, prizes and winners from the Disrupt SF 2018 Hackathon.

If you’re chosen to compete, you’ll join a team onsite (if you’re not already part of a team), choose which challenge you’ll take on and spend the next 24-ish hours busting your hump to design, code and create something great.

A panel of judges will look at all the completed projects in a science fair-style format and choose 10 teams to move into the final round. On day two, each of those teams will pitch their work in just two minutes on the Extra Crunch Stage.

Sponsors will announce the winners of the individual hacks and award their prizes, and then TechCrunch will select one team to receive $5,000 for the best overall hack.

You’ll be pushed to your limits, both mentally and physically, in that really fun kind of way. Plus, it’s a tremendous opportunity to connect and network with your community. Who knows, you might even find a co-founder for your own startup or meet a potential employer.

The TC Hackathon returns to Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December. Seats are limited, so don’t wait. Come show us and the startup world what you can do. Apply right here, today.

Is your company interested in sponsoring the TC Hackathon? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Time to apply to the TC Hackathon at Disrupt Berlin 2019

Depop started as a simple app to post photos of clothes and post them for sale. But it has become a cultural phenomenon with millions of users, a vibrant community and even some superusers making a living from the platform. That’s why I’m excited to announce that Depop CEO Maria Raga is joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.

Many have tried to merge a social app with a shopping experience, but few have succeeded. Depop is one of them. If you’re an Instagram user, the app looks familiar with its outline icons. But instead of following brands and sometimes buying new items, Depop is all about vintage items, rare sneakers and things you simply can’t find on a regular social network.

Depop users can follow other users, discover items from their favorite brand, get personalized recommendations, and of course buy and sell items. It’s a social experience that works particularly well on mobile and makes shopping more personal.

Selling something on Depop is as easy as posting photos on a social app. You enter a description, a location, a brand and a price and you’re good to go. After that, other users can buy stuff directly from the app. You can then ship your items and get your money on your PayPal account.

And it’s been a massive success. There are currently over 13 million users — the vast majority of them are under the age of 26. The company has handled more than $500 million of gross merchandise value since its launch.

Interestingly, some superusers thrived on the platform. Those users are talented when it comes to spotting and acquiring limited-edition clothes, sneaker drops and other valuable items. They sell them on Depop with some of them generating as much as $100,000 of revenue per year.

Under Maria Raga, Depop has raised over $100 million. Earlier this summer, the company announced a $62 million funding round led by General Atlantic. It’s clear that Depop is now thriving as both a social app and a marketplace. And I can’t wait to hear how Maria Raga did it.

Buy your ticket to Disrupt Berlin to listen to this discussion — and many others. The conference will take place December 11-12.

In addition to panels and fireside chats, like this one, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield to compete for the highly coveted Battlefield Cup.

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Maria Raga is the CEO of Depop. Since being promoted to the position in 2016 from VP of Operations, she has presided over every element of the business from finance and engineering to marketing and product. An open and collaborative CEO, Maria is dedicated to her team, which has grown to 150+ employees in 5 offices worldwide in the last three years alone. Perhaps most importantly, since she took over as CEO, she has raised close to $100M in funding, which has helped to grow and nurture the community on Depop – now 13 million users.

Prior to Depop, Maria held successively roles at Groupon and Privalia. Having graduated from Insead MBA, Maria joined Bain & Company as a consultant.

Born in Valencia, Spain, Maria now resides in London with her husband and 2 children. In her spare time, Maria enjoys connecting with Depop’s entrepreneurial Gen-Z constituency and promoting women in the workplace

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Depop CEO Maria Raga tells us everything about social e-commerce at Disrupt Berlin

Hey European startup fans, Disrupt Berlin 2019 takes place on 11-12 December, but our super early-bird ticket pricing won’t last nearly that long. You have just three days left to save up to €600. Pay close attention to the deadline and buy your Disrupt passes by 11:59 p.m. (CEST) on 6 September.

You’ll save even more money if you act quickly enough and combine the super early bird price with our group discounts. Bring your whole team or gift passes to valued clients — that’ll impress for sure. Here’s what you’ll save by buying in bulk.

• Buy five or more Innovator passes at once and enjoy a 20% discount
• Buy two or more Founder or Investor passes at once and enjoy a 10% savings

Join more than 3,000 attendees and hundreds of exhibitors at Europe’s premier tech conference focused on early-stage startups. Head to Startup Alley, the expo floor and Opportunity Central of Disrupt. Network like there’s no tomorrow, and don’t forget to check out our TC Top Picks while you’re there.

Better yet, why not apply to our TC Top Picks program? TC editors will choose up to five early-stage startups in these categories: AI/Machine Learning, BioTech/HealthTech, Blockchain, FinTech, Mobility, Privacy/Security, Retail/eCommerce, Robotics/IoT/Hardware, SaaS and Social Impact & Education.

If you make the grade, you’ll receive a free Startup Alley Exhibitor Package, VIP treatment at the show, lots of media and investor attention plus a live interview with a TC editor on the Showcase Stage.

If you’re ready to launch your early-stage startup to the world-wide tech community, we want you apply to the Startup Battlefield pitch competition. It’s free and participating can put your startup on the map. Consider our Startup Battlefield alumni community — 857 companies have collectively raised more than $8.9 billion in funding, with 112 successful exits. If you’re selected, you’ll join the ranks of this august group that includes Dropbox, GetAround, SirenCare, Fitbit, Mint, Vurb and more.

Disrupt Berlin always invites the tech and investment world’s top names, minds and makers to share their insight, advice and experiences covering a range of hot-button topics. Here are just a few of the fascinating people who will grace our stages: Maria Raga, the CEO of Depop, Hovhannes Avoyan the founder and CEO of PicsArt, Roxanne Varza, the director of Station F and Tom Hulme, a general partner at GV. That’s only the beginning — we’re adding more people every week, so keep an eye on our growing list of speakers.

Disrupt Berlin 2019 takes place on 11-12 December, but the super early bird ticket pricing disappears in just three days. Buy your passes now before the deadline hits at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) on 6 September.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt Berlin 2019? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Just 3 days left: buy super early bird passes to Disrupt Berlin 2019

Railsbank, the open banking and compliance platform co-founded by CEO Nigel Verdon, who previously founded Currencycloud, has raised $10 million in Series A funding.

The new injection of capital will be used for further expand beyond Europe, including the U.S., Australia and South East Asia. The latter includes a new office in Singapore where a small team has already been assembled.

Backing Railsbank’s Series A is Moneta Capital, which led the round, alongside CreditEase, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Singapore Life. A number of existing investors also participated including Firestartr.

In a call with Verdon, who was talking to TechCrunch from Singapore, he explained that the new office is part of a strategy that will see Railsbank ride the next wave of fintech innovation, which he says is happening in South East Asia and where the playbook from London and New York 2011 is being repeated.

“In 2011, [we] saw the emergence of the finTech 1.0 scene with people like Currencycloud (which I also founded), TransferWise, Betterment, Bank Simple etc,” he tells me.

“This was enabled by the opening up of regulation as the macro trend. We currently see [a] similar regulator macro trend in SE Asia emerging and also the macro trend of tech companies being the distributors of financial products driven by access to cheap smart phones by firms like Xiaomi”.

To that end, Railsbank is positioning itself as a “utility” on which other companies — spanning fintech upstarts, challenger brands, to incumbent banks that want to re-factor their tech — can build and sell various financial services or add fintech features to their products.

“Just like the water company – reliable, safe and works 24×7 and priced at utility pricing,” Verdon says of Railsbank, likening it to what Amazon has done for data centres with AWS. “Railsbank is a utility for the compete financial services backend: platform, connectivity, operations, scheme memberships (e.g. Visa), regulation, and compliance”.

As an example of what the Railsbank platform is capable of, Verdon described how SingLife was able within 2 days to develop a completely working digital banking app with a own debit card and support for bank transfers, including dedicated account numbers and sort codes etc.

This, he tells me, is made possible because the Railsbank platform and API provides all of the tech, compliance and integration “hooks” required to build a full banking experience.

Meanwhile, although the startup continues to count other fintech startups as customers, Verdon says Railsbank is also working with brands offering financial products (e.g. supermarkets, travel, retail) and what he dubs “old fin”: companies looking to replace their own costly tech with a platform solution.

“We are also working with banks to provide a complete utility infrastructure and payments/card/ops rails to reduce their… operational costs,” he tells me.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Railsbank raises M Series A for its open banking and compliance platform

Educational guitar maker Loog returned to Kickstarter this week, some eight years after it first hitting the crowdfunding site. This fourth campaign from the company features a trio of instruments aimed at helping accelerating the learning process.

There are three models, each aimed at a different age group: the Loog Mini (ages 3+), Loog Pro (ages 8+) and Loog Pro VI (ages 12+). The latter of which is the company’s first guitar to sport the standard six strings (versus the three it usually offers).

All have a built-n speaker and amp, reducing the need for additional accessories for a kid’s first instrument. They’re also designed to work with the company’s app, which now utilizes augmented reality (guitAR, if you will), to overlay instructions when using the front facing camera on a mobile device. The are flash cards (for chords), videos and games on-board, as well.

The app also has a song book, featuring a wide variety of popular artists, ranging from The Beatles to Taylor Swift. Kids can slow down and mute tracks to play along karaoke-style, while recording themselves in the process.

Kickstarter prices start at $99 for the Mini, versus $150 at retail. The company keeps going back to the crowdfunding well, but the model has worked pretty well so far. Loog’s started to gain some traction in the music education world and, as evidence by its Kickstarter video, landed in the hands of a couple of actual rockstars in the process.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Loog launches a trio of new educational guitars