Apple Intelligence is now live in public beta. Here’s what it offers and how to enable it.
Apple Intelligence took another major step toward mainstream availability Thursday with the launch of the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 public betas.
Starting Thursday, those who are enrolled in Apple’s public beta program will be able to experience the generative AI-fueled platform the company has been talking up since June.
For the time being, Apple Intelligence is only available in U.S. English. The feature is also indefinitely unavailable in both the EU and the People’s Republic of China, owing to regulatory hurdles. Those in the States can access the feature with the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and any member of the newly unveiled iPhone 16 line.
TechCrunch has been putting the developer beta of iOS 18.1 through its paces as part of our iPhone 16 Pro Max review. There are a handful of standout features, including cross-system writing tools, Clean Up for Photos, and the biggest revamp to Siri since launch.
Writing Tools takes advantage of the kinds of generative AI features familiar to anyone who has played around with ChatGPT and its ilk. Along with proofreading and summarizing, the system will rewrite text in a variety of styles, including professional, concise, and friendly. Over in Mail, users gain a Smart Reply feature, message prioritization, and summaries.
Siri gets a big face-lift, beginning with how the smart assistant is presented onscreen. Gone is the colorful Siri icon in the bottom of the screen, replaced by illuminated borders that won’t obscure text. Siri can also better understand when you trip over your words, and for instances when you can’t speak to the assistant, you can type instead.
The last major Siri feature dropping Thursday is product knowledge, wherein users can ask the assistant how to perform a variety of different on-device tasks, from screen recording to resetting an AirTag. Features like conversational and app context and Visual Intelligence are still on the way.
On the Photos front, the most interesting addition is Clean Up, Apple’s answer to Google Magic Eraser. After circling an object with your finger, the tool goes to work removing it by generating a background over it. Search has been improved within the app to accommodate more natural language queries, and users can now generate Memories via a text prompt.
Users must manually enable the feature by going to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Join the Apple Intelligence waitlist. Joining the public beta programs, meanwhile, is as simple as visiting beta.apple.com.
Additional Apple Intelligence features are set to roll out later this year.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
FTC Says Social Media Platforms Engage in ‘Vast Surveillance’ of Users
Social media platforms are engaging in “vast surveillance” of people online and failing to protect children, according to a new report from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. And if you thought Big Tech was serious about calling for FTC Chair Lina Khan to be fired before, just wait until this report properly trickles through Silicon Valley today.
The FTC issued a warning letter back in late 2020 to nine social media and video streaming services alleging their operations were “dangerously opaque” and said their data collection techniques and algorithms were “shrouded in secrecy.” The companies—Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, X, Snap, ByteDance, Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp—were told the FTC would be investigating their practices and Thursday’s report is the result of those efforts.
The report notes that the amount of data collected by large tech companies is enormous, even using the words “simply staggering,” to describe how both users and non-users alike can be tracked in myriad ways. And that data that’s collected directly by platforms is then combined with data from third-party brokers to compile an even more detailed picture of any given person, according to the FTC.
“They track what we do on and off their platforms, often combining their own information with enormous data sets purchased through the largely unregulated consumer data market. And large firms are increasingly relying on hidden pixels and similar technologies—embedded on other websites—to track our behavior down to each click,” the FTC report reads.
“In fact, the Companies collected so much data that in response to the Commission’s questions, they often could not even identify all the data points they collected or all of the third parties
they shared that data with,” the report continues.
The report also warns that AI is complicating the picture even more, with companies feeding data into their artificial intelligence training without consistent approaches to monitoring or testing standards.
The report lists things the FTC would like policymakers to do, emphasizing that “self-regulation is not the answer,” while also laying out changes the big tech companies are supposed to make. On the policymaker side, the FTC says Congress should pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation to limit surveillance and give consumers rights over their data. The FTC also advocates for new privacy legislation that it says will “fill in the gap in privacy protections” that exist in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, abbreviated as COPPA.
As for the companies, the FTC wants to see these platforms limit data collection and implement “concrete and enforceable data minimization and retention policies.” The FTC also calls on the companies to limit the sharing of data with third parties and to delete consumer data when it’s not needed anymore. The new report also calls on companies to, “not collect sensitive information through privacy-invasive ad tracking technologies,” which include pixel trackers, and give better protections to teens.
But, again, this report is likely to only increase the calls for Khan to be fired, which have grown louder in the business community in recent months.
“The report lays out how social media and video streaming companies harvest an enormous amount of Americans’ personal data and monetize it to the tune of billions of dollars a year,” Lina Khan said in a statement published online.
“While lucrative for the companies, these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identify theft to stalking. Several firms’ failure to adequately protect kids and teens online is especially troubling. The Report’s findings are timely, particularly as state and federal policymakers consider legislation to protect people from abusive data practices.”
Gizmodo reached out to all nine of the tech companies mentioned by name in the new report but only Discord and Google responded immediately while Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, declined to comment.
Google gave Gizmodo a very short statement about the 129-page report, only focusing on rather narrow issues like reselling data and ad personalization for kids.
“Google has the strictest privacy policies in our industry—we never sell people’s personal information and we don’t use sensitive information to serve ads,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said over email. “We prohibit ad personalization for users under 18 and we don’t personalize ads to anyone watching ‘made for kids content’ on YouTube.”
Discord sent a more robust statement and believes its business is very different from the other eight companies mentioned in the report.
“The FTC report’s intent and focus on consumers is an important step. However, the report lumps very different models into one bucket and paints a broad brush, which might confuse consumers and portray some platforms, like Discord, inaccurately,” said Kate Sheerin, Head of US/Canada Public Policy for Discord.
“The report itself says ‘the business model varies little across these nine companies.’ Discord’s business model is very different—we are a real-time communications platform with strong user privacy controls and no feeds for endless scrolling. At the time of the study, Discord did not run a formal digital advertising service, which is a central pillar of the report. We look forward to sharing more about Discord and how we protect our users.”
We’ll update this post if we hear back from any of the other companies referenced in the FTC report we didn’t hear from on Thursday.
A leadership shake-up at Motional, inside the fight over TuSimple’s cash, and Fisker waffles on recall repairs
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!
The latest news cycle is a good reminder that even a grizzled old reporter who thinks she has seen it all can still be surprised — and nothing lasts forever. Intrigued? Read on.
A little bird
Welp, it sure is getting spicy over at TuSimple, according to several little birds.
The company disclosed last month a new business segment focused on — wait for it — AI-generated animation and video gaming. That action, our little bird network told us, has prompted backlash among some shareholders. Now it seems a fight is brewing over roughly $450 million in funds, the bulk of which remains in the United States. And arguments over the company’s mission lie at the center of it.
TechCrunch reporters Rebecca Bellan and Rita Liao chased down the story, and there are quite a few interesting details. For instance, TuSimple was beefing up its autonomous vehicle workforce in China late last year but then changed course in early 2024. Hundreds were laid off, although when asked, CEO Cheng Lu told Rebecca that these folks (about 500) resigned en masse.
Where does TuSimple go from here? There have been threats of lawsuits, although nothing new just yet. While the threats loom in the background, TuSimple is moving forward with development of an animated feature film and video game based on the science-fiction series “The Three-Body Problem.”
This whack-a-doodle pivot had me thinking: Sheesh, maybe I’ve been covering this industry simply too long.
Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected], Sean O’Kane at [email protected] or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected]. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.
Deals!
Deal flow in the transportation industry is a bit light this week. Here are some highlights.
Alaska Airlines completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines. The acquisition is yet another example of consolidation in the airline industry.
AIfleet, a trucking tech startup, raised $16.6 million in a Series B funding round led by Tom Williams at Heron Rock. Notably, Volvo Group VC participated, along with Obvious Ventures, Ibex Investors, Compound, Winthrop Square, and Cooley. The company has raised $50 million to date.
Clean Electric, an Indian battery tech startup, raised $6 million in a funding round co-led by Info Edge Ventures, Pi Ventures, and Kalaari Capital. Lok Capital and other investors also participated.
SiLC received an undisclosed investment from Honda to develop next-generation FMCW lidar solutions for all types of mobility.
ZeroAvia, a startup developing hydrogen-electric (fuel cell-powered) engines for planes, extended its Series C financing round to a total of $150 million, with an investment from Scottish National Investment Bank. The round was co-led by Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, and NEOM Investment Fund, with UK Infrastructure Bank joining as a cornerstone-level investor. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Summa Equity, Alaska Airlines, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, and AP Ventures also participated.
Oxa, a Google-backed startup developing software for autonomous vehicles, acquired industrial logistics company StreetDrone for an undisclosed sum.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Autonomous vehicles
Motional president and CEO Karl Iagnemma — an early pioneer in the AV industry — has stepped down from the top leadership spot. CTO Laura Major is now interim CEO. Whether Major keeps that position is unknown. My inside sources suggest this is very much an evolving situation. Stay tuned.
Waymo and Uber expanded their relationship in a deal that is bigger than some folks might realize. Uber users in Austin and Atlanta will be able to hail Waymo robotaxis through the app in early 2025 as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies. Why so notable? For one, Uber, not Waymo, will be the operator.
Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries
Faraday Future is doling out big raises and bonuses to its CEO and its founder. Remember that this company is barely hanging on and has delivered just 13 cars in its 10-year history.
Fisker, the bankrupt EV startup, is reversing course just a few days after telling owners they would have to pay labor costs for recall repairs.
GM’s electric vehicle customers can now officially access Tesla’s Superchargers, more than a year after the automaker first announced that it would adopt its rival’s charging standard. But what about all the other non-Tesla EVs out there? Stay tuned for a list that we’ll be keeping updated.
Gogoro CEO Horace Luke resigned as an investigation into subsidy fraud continues at the Taiwanese electric scooter manufacturer and battery-swapping company.
Future of flight
U.K. startup Apian, Alphabet’s drone company Wing, and the U.K.’s National Health Service have launched a pilot program that will use drones to fly urgent blood samples between two hospitals in London.
United’s chief customer officer, Linda Jojo, explained to TechCrunch why the airline picked SpaceX’s Starlink to power its free Wi-Fi.
Security
Remember that apparent cyberattack at the Port of Seattle, which also operates the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport? We now have official confirmation that it was targeted by a ransomware attack.
This week’s wheels
This week’s wheels will return next week with insights into the GMC Sierra EV. Future vehicles include the Mazda CX-90 PHEV and e-bikes.
What is “This week’s wheels”? It’s a chance to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
Cruise robotaxis return to the Bay Area nearly one year after pedestrian crash
Cruise is returning to the streets of Sunnyvale and Mountain View for the first time since it paused operations in the Bay Area after a robotaxi struck a pedestrian in October 2023.
The company said Thursday that it will put “several” vehicles driven by humans in the two cities that will initially perform mapping. The company said it hopes to progress to supervised AV testing of up to five robotaxis “later this fall.”
“Resuming testing in the Bay Area is an important step forward as we continue to work closely with California regulators and local stakeholders,” the company said in a post on X. “This will allow our local employees to engage directly with our product as they refine and improve our tech through R&D.”
The decision to bring Cruise’s autonomous Chevy Bolts back to the Bay Area comes just a few months after the company reached a settlement with California’s Public Utilities Commission. As part of that deal, Cruise paid a $112,500 fine for failing to provide full information about the October 2023 crash.
That crash, which involved a Cruise AV hitting and then dragging a pedestrian after she was struck by a human-driven car, kicked off a series of events that ultimately led to a restructuring of the robotaxi company.
Shortly after the crash, Cruise divorced itself from much of its leadership team, including co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt. Parent company General Motors installed new leadership and, this past June, plugged another $850 million into the robotaxi subsidiary. (Cruise also settled with the pedestrian earlier this year.)
Since June, Cruise slowly returned its AVs to the streets of Phoenix and Dallas, and simultaneously scrapped its purpose-built robotaxi, known as the Origin.
Cruise also issued a series of software updates to resolve a recall of its robotaxis, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed a probe into reports of braking problems. In August, Cruise announced that it had signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Uber to bring its robotaxis to the ride-hailing platform in 2025 — joining rival Waymo, which has had its robotaxis available on Uber’s platform since 2023.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
For $5, Photon Library brings back the feel of the old iOS Photos app
A new app is offering an alternative to those who aren’t pleased with the iOS 18 Photos app “upgrade.” Capitalizing on the consumer backlash over Apple’s now one-page, tab-free redesign of its default Photos app, photography app maker LateNiteSoft is introducing a new app called Photon Library. It not only serves as a complement to its other photography apps and photo editing tools, but it also offers the familiar look of the old iOS Photos app found in iOS 17 and earlier.
The company said it was inspired to create an alternative Photos app after seeing how frustrated iOS 18 early adopters were with Apple’s new design.
Since its debut in the iOS 18 betas, iPhone owners have been lamenting the changes coming to the Photos app. Though the redesign offers better customization, many believe the app’s new look takes a step back in terms of usability by cramming everything into one page. Pages on Reddit are filled with user complaints. Reviewers are calling it their biggest gripe with the iOS 18 software update. Meanwhile, several tech sites have begun offering tutorials on how to customize the redesigned app to make it more useful — and more like the older version.
Photon Library offers another alternative. Now, instead of trying to get comfortable with the changes in Photos, Photo Library offers a way for users to simply return to the older-style look and feel of Photos, albeit in an experience built by a third party.
The app brings back a tabbed design and includes other Photos app features like basic photo grids, a list of albums you can scroll through, and quick access to your Favorite photos.
Rather than scrolling down the screen as in iOS 18’s Photos app, the bottom tabs of Photon Library let you quickly access your recent photos, your albums, a calendar view, or your favorites. This is slightly different than the iOS 17 Photos app, which offered tabs for the Library, Albums, “For You,” and Search, but the company thinks its tabs will prove to be even more convenient.
LateNiteSoft product manager Noël Rosenthal notes that the company hopes the resident family tech support person will keep their company’s app in mind when their families upgrade to iOS 18 and then start complaining about “how difficult the new Photos App is to use.”
To make the option to switch apps easier on users, Photon Library won’t include subscriptions. Instead, the app is a paid download for iPhone and iPad, and starts at $4.99 in the U.S. during its introductory period on the App Store.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
Apple’s new macOS Sequoia update is breaking some cybersecurity tools
On Monday, Apple released its latest computer operating system update called macOS 15, or Sequoia. And, somehow, the software update has broken the functionality of several security tools made by CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft, and others, according to posts on social media, as well as messages posted in a Mac-focused Slack channel.
At this point, it’s unclear exactly what is the issue, but appears to affect several products made by companies that provide software for macOS users and enterprises, which has caused frustration among people who work on and with macOS-focused security tools.
“As a developer of macOS security tools, it’s incredibly frustrating to time and time again have to deal with (understandably) upset users (understandably) blaming your tools for breaking their Macs, when in reality it was Apple’s fault all along,” said Patrick Wardle, the founder of Mac and iOS security startup DoubleYou, and a longtime expert on macOS security.
“I get it, that writing bug free software is challenging, but maybe if Apple spent less time and money on marketing, and more time on actually testing their software, we’d all be better off!” Wardle told TechCrunch.
On the day of macOS Sequoia’s release, a CrowdStrike sales engineer said in a Slack room for Mac admins that the company had to delay support for the new version of Mac’s operating system. “I’m very sorry to report that we will not be supporting Sequoia on day 1 in spite of our intention (and previous track record) to support the latest OS within hours of [General Availability],” the engineer said in the message, seen by TechCrunch.
The engineer also said CrowdStrike sent out a “Tech Alert” to customers, adding that “there’s quite a lot going on with the changes in the network stack.”
”We’re also tracking some similar issues with other vendors, and have feedback and a case in to Apple. While we would love for there to be a fast-follow patch that resolves this for us, we’re acting under the assumption there won’t be and we’ll need to fix it in our code with a sensor release,” the sales engineer wrote.
Contact Us
Do you work at a cybersecurity company whose products are affected by the macOS update? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email. You also can contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop.
“Please trust me when I say this was looked at through every angle, to see if there was any way to continue to provide the best protection to our customers on this new OS without having to delay,” the CrowdStrike engineer wrote. “Ultimately it was decided that the best course to protect our Mac fleets is to wait until this is resolved.”
Also, several people on Reddit reported having issues with CrowdStrike’s security product on the new macOS.
CrowdStrike spokesperson Kevin Benacci told TechCrunch on Thursday that the company is “currently waiting for a macOS Sequoia update and will provide official support. We respectfully refer you to Apple for any additional questions.”
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
On Monday, a SentinelOne Support account warned customers in the same Mac-focused Slack channel: “Do not upgrade your endpoints until you have a supported SentinelOne Agent,” citing a series of issues with the new macOS version.
SentinelOne did not respond to a request for comment.
ESET also alerted customers of a network connection issue after upgrading to macOS Sequoia. An ESET representative did not respond to our request for comment.
Other people in the same Slack reported having issues with Microsoft Defender for macOS after the Sequoia update. Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
Security researcher Will Dormann wrote on Mastodon that he was having issues with DNS and running his firewall on his macOS machine. Another security researcher, Wacław Jacek, wrote in a blog post that, “it seems the OS firewall can sometimes start blocking access to web browsing after upgrading to macOS Sequoia,” and shared a potential workaround.
The problems with macOS Sequoia appear to have caused issues with Firefox browser users, too, according to a separate Reddit thread.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
Google rolls out automatic passkey syncing via Password Manager
Passkeys, the digital credentials that let you sign into apps and websites without entering a password, are getting easier to use for Chrome users.
Starting today, you can save passkeys to Google Password Manager, Google’s password manager built into Chrome on Windows, macOS, and Linux, so that your passkeys automatically sync across all your signed-in devices. The Password Manager client on Android can also now automatically sync passkeys, and syncing support for iOS is coming soon. (On ChromeOS, passkey syncing is in beta.)
As an added layer of protection, Google’s adding PINs to Password Manager. When you start using passkeys on a new device, you’ll need to know either your PIN or the screen lock code for your Android device. You can set up a six-digit PIN or opt for a longer alphanumeric PIN.
“These recovery factors will allow you to securely access your saved passkeys and sync new ones across your computers and Android devices,” Chrome product manager Chirag Desai writes in a blog post.
Passkey usage is on the rise. According to the FIDO Alliance, the industry organization that develops authentication standards, 53% of people have enabled passkeys on at least one of their accounts, and passkeys are now supported by 20% of the world’s top 100 websites.
In 2023, Google made passkeys the default sign-in method for all users. More recently, the company brought passkey support to its Advanced Protection Program, a program for people at high risk of targeted attacks, like politicians and candidates, ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
TechCrunch Minute: United will use SpaceX’s Starlink to bring free Wi-Fi to flights
United Airlines announced last week that it came to an agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring the Starlink internet service to its entire fleet. That’s a huge partnership for both parties, and as this rollout takes place, anyone who flies United will be able to access free Wi-Fi on their flight.
Right now, United uses a mix of four different in-flight wi-fi providers, which each have different capabilities and limitations – this inconsistency isn’t ideal for customers, not to mention, it costs $8. Since Starlink’s satellites are closer to aircrafts, they should be able to offer a better user experience.
TechCrunch’s Frederic Lardinois spoke with an executive at United to break down how this deal came together, and we’ve got the details.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
Quilt, Furno Materials, and RA Capital Management share the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Launching a new product is challenging, but doing it in a space dominated by tech giants requires bold innovation, sharp strategy, and the ability to scale quickly. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 — taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30 — brings together three experts who are doing just that, while simultaneously addressing one of the world’s greatest challenges: climate change.
We’re thrilled to welcome Paul Lambert, founder and CEO of Quilt; Gurinder Nagra, CEO of Furno Materials; and Brigid O’Brien, managing partner at RA Capital Management to the Builder’s Stage lineup at Disrupt 2024. They’ll share the strategies that have allowed them to take on the incumbents.
They will also explore how startups can differentiate themselves, turn legacy players’ weaknesses into competitive advantages, and make the bold decisions necessary to scale in industries that haven’t changed in decades. This panel is a must-see for founders, investors, and senior executives looking to understand how to succeed in highly competitive markets.
Meet the speakers
Paul Lambert, Founder and CEO, Quilt
Drawing on his experience building successful companies and having assembled a world-class team from Google, Nest, and Tesla, Paul Lambert is now leading the charge at Quilt in developing a design-forward, smart home climate solution. With thousands of homeowners on the waitlist and $33 million in Series A funding, Quilt is on the verge of revolutionizing a market long dominated by fossil-fuel-based systems by making sustainable home heating more intuitive and efficient.
Gurinder Nagra, CEO, Furno Materials
At Furno Materials, Gurinder Nagra is reimagining cement production — one of the world’s most carbon-heavy industries. Leaning into his extensive scientific education from the University of New South Wales and Stanford University, he’s leveraging novel combustion technologies to create energy-efficient, zero-emission cement plants that are modular and compact, setting a new standard for the future of sustainable infrastructure.
Brigid O’Brien, Managing Partner, RA Capital Management
Brigid O’Brien at RA Capital Management is committed to driving investments in companies focused on planetary health. With extensive experience in decarbonizing operations at BHP, the world’s largest mining company, O’Brien brings unmatched expertise in scaling technologies that address climate challenges. At BHP Ventures, she spearheaded investments in innovative areas such as biomining, green steel, and sustainable resource extraction, positioning her at the forefront of sustainable industrial transformation.
Secure your seat at Disrupt 2024
This panel offers a rare opportunity to learn how to outmaneuver established competitors, scale innovation, and deliver transformative products in legacy industries — all while framing these activities around saving the planet. Secure your seat at Disrupt 2024 today to learn how these visionary leaders are driving the next wave of market disruption.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
Back Market lays out its plan to make refurbished phones go mainstream
Back Market held a press conference on Thursday morning in Paris to talk about upcoming product launches and give an update on the company’s current situation. If you’re not familiar with the French startup it operates a marketplace of refurbished electronics devices — mostly smartphones. It’s attracted a lot of investor cash in recent years but has also been through tougher times.
In 2021, just like many large tech companies, Back Market rode the wave of zero-interest rate policies around the world and raised an enormous amount of money: a $335 million Series D round was followed by another $510 million Series E round mere months later.
After reaching a valuation of $5.7 billion, Back Market realized that the economy was slowing down. It conducted a small round of layoffs in late 2022, telling French newspaper Les Échos it was “the best way to achieve profitability in the coming years”.
Fast forward to Thursday’s press conference and the company was keen to demonstrate its focus is back on product launches and new projects. Back Market said it wants to find new distribution channels and go premium so that more people think about buying a refurbished device instead of a new one.
Finding customers where they are already
Over the past 10 years, Back Market hasn’t just captured a decent chunk of the secondhand electronics market, it has expanded the market for refurbished smartphones. The pitch is simple: a refurbished device is cheaper than a new one and it’s also better for the planet. Moreover, when it comes to smartphones, it has become much harder to define why this year’s model is better than last year’s — so why shell out lots of money buying new to get only an incremental upgrade?
The company doesn’t handle smartphones and other electronic devices directly. Instead, it partners with 1,800 companies that repair and resell old devices. So it’s essentially a specialized services marketplace. Since its inception, it’s sold 30 million refurbished devices to 15 million customers.
Most Back Market customers buy devices on its website or through its mobile app. But the company has recognized it’s sometimes constrained by its partners’ inventory. This is why it wants to expand supply and demand with strategic partnerships.
For instance, it’s partnering with Sony for PlayStation consoles. “A lot of people are coming to Back Market to try and purchase their PlayStation,” said co-founder and CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze. But the issue is that Back Market is constrained when it comes to supplies for this type of device.
While many people think about smartphone trade-ins, most people don’t think about selling their old consoles. “With this partnership with PlayStation by Sony, we are the only partner to trade in every PlayStation within Sony’s website, within the Sony PlayStation store,” he noted.
As a result, people buying a new PlayStation get a discount with trade-ins at checkout and Back Market is no longer out of stock for old PlayStation consoles. This is a good example of what Back Market has in mind for future partnerships.
“This is one of the first [partnerships of this kind] but we really want to bring it everywhere where customers are actually shopping new. We want to get them where they are, in order to get their old tech — in order to serve it to people who want access to refurbished tech,” Hug de Larauze added.
On the smartphone front, trade-ins are already quite popular. However, customers visiting a phone store usually end up buying a new device along with a long-term plan.
Back Market is going to partner with telecom companies so that customers can also get a discount on refurbished devices in exchange for a long-term plan. The first two partners for this are Bouygues Telecom in France and Visible, a subsidiary of Verizon Wireless in the U.S.
A new premium tier with official parts
Quality remains the main concern when it comes to buying refurbished devices. In addition to allowing returns, the company is constantly tracking the rate of faulty devices on its platform and trying to bring that number down. Back Market now has a defective rate of 4%, meaning that one in every 25 phones doesn’t work as expected in one way or another.
When customers buy a smartphone on Back Market, they can choose between a device in “fair”, “good” or “excellent” condition. The company has now rolled out a new top tier — called “premium”.
The main difference between smartphones with no signs of use and premium refurbished devices is that Back Market certifies that premium devices have been repaired with official parts exclusively.
In addition to this new premium tier, Back Market is working on an app update to turn it into a smartphone companion. You can register your smartphone with your Back Market account to receive tips to keep your device in a good shape for longer. They are also working on gamification features, including badges and rewards.
Similarly, Back Market will make it easier to check the value of your current phone. “You open the Back Market app, you shake your phone and you’ll find out,” chief product officer, Amandine Durr, explained. This feature will launch around Black Friday.
Finally, Back Market is going to use generative AI to make it easier to browse the catalog. It can be hard to compare two smartphone models to understand which one is better for you. In a few months, you’ll be able to select two phones and get an AI-generated summary of how the two models compare.
Profitability in Europe this year
When thinking about growth potential, instead of focusing on the smartphone industry, Back Market said it draws inspiration from the car industry.
“Nine people out of 10 are purchasing a pre-owned car today,” said Hug de Larauze. “Everything has been created and lined up for that — the availability of spare parts for everyone, you’re not forced to repair your car where you purchased it.”
Similarly, repairability is changing for smartphones and spare parts, starting with the European Union. By June 2025, manufacturers will be forced to sell their spare parts to people and companies who want to fix devices themselves.
The shift to refurbished devices is also already well underway in Europe. “Back Market, is going to be profitable for the first time in Europe in 2024,” said Hug de Larauze. “This is a big milestone for us because when we created the company and until very recently… we had that label that said: ‘OK, this is an impact company.’ Impact means good feelings, but the money is not there.
“Well it’s not the case, it’s actually making money,” he added. Now, let’s see if Back Market can become the go-to destination for refurbished devices in more countries, starting with the U.S.
Keep reading the article on Tech Crunch
UPchieve, an online tutor app for low-income students, launches a free tool for teachers
UPchieve, the free, 24/7 online tutoring and college counseling app for low-income students, announced Thursday it’s giving teachers in Title 1 middle schools and high schools a new tool to ensure their students get the academic support they need.
The new offering, called “UPchieve for Teachers,” allows teachers to offer 1:1 support to their students. They can invite students to sign up for tutoring, create classes, and monitor students’ platform usage. Previously, students had to sign up for tutoring services themselves, but with this new product, teachers can now recommend students for 1:1 tutoring at no cost. In the coming weeks, they’ll also be able to assign tutoring sessions to entire classes.
UPchieve for Teachers is available to educators working in Title 1 middle schools and high schools. Title 1 is a federal aid program provided to K-12 schools with the highest number of low-income families within school districts. Approximately 43% of public schools qualify for Title I funding, with fewer than 50,000 schools benefiting from the program.
This new offering is expected to help UPchieve expand its user base by reaching students who may not be aware of free services like this or who may not be actively seeking additional assistance.
“The product is going to be really valuable to teachers because it’s going to help them accomplish some of the hardest parts of their job,” founder Aly Murray told TechCrunch. “Students are coming into the class with different gaps in their foundational skills. Teachers have to try to support all of their students, but there’s not enough time to support each student individually, so that’s a natural place where a tutor can help. We’re really excited about launching a product that’s going to give teachers more control.”
UPchieve was founded in 2016, shortly after Murray graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. As a former low-income student herself, she struggled to access academic support services throughout her schooling and wanted to make it easy for other students to be able to get help whenever they needed it, even when working on homework late at night.
“I was raised by a single mom, and as an immigrant to the United States, she often wasn’t able to help me with schoolwork and with my college applications. And so that had a big impact on my life. It made things very difficult, and I found that I often needed help late at night when there was really nowhere I could turn to for support,” Murray said.
UPchieve says it has matched over 190,000 tutoring requests from more than 20,000 students across all 50 states. Its 24/7 online tutoring sessions are conducted in the in-app messenger or via voice chat on the web or mobile app. UPchieve covers over 30 subjects, including math, science, English, history, humanities, and more.
Tutors can volunteer by signing up on the website. Volunteers can even be students themselves; however, they must be in 9th grade or higher. UPchieve currently has around 2,400 tutors active on the platform.
“All of the volunteers on UPchieve go through a background screening, training, and certification process to become a volunteer tutor. Before they’re ever going to work with a student, they have to pass a quiz in every subject that they want to help students with,” Murray explained.
Similar to other edtech companies, the company utilizes OpenAI’s GPT-4o to assist tutors in providing AI-generated feedback and progress reports to students after the sessions are over. In the future, the company also plans to use AI to help tutors create practice problems and offer AI-generated summaries of student sessions through its Teachers product.
“We have no plans to replace our human tutors with AI tutors anytime in the near future,” Murray added.
As a nonprofit organization, UPchieve relies on charitable donations, grants, and paid partnerships with schools, districts, and corporations. Donors include Atlassian, AT&T, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Guggenheim Capital, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, the Skyline Foundation, and Verizon.
UPchieve has partnered with over 50 schools, and each school or organization pays a $10,000 partnership fee per year. The company also graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 batch.
In 2023, UPchieve raised over $4 million through philanthropy and earned revenue from paid partnerships. The company claims its annual recurring revenue (ARR) is currently $840,000, which comes solely from paid partnerships.
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Dcode Capital, Albedo, and Biofire are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
In a world where innovation knows no borders, a new trend is rising in the tech ecosystem: national-interest startups. From aerospace and defense to critical infrastructure, these firms are ensuring that innovation directly supports national growth, security, and prosperity. As we approach an inflection point in Silicon Valley’s evolution, the question arises: Can startups rebuild the foundations of an entire nation?
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is excited to bring together three distinguished leaders who are making waves in the national-interest startup space. Together, they will share their insights on how new technologies can scale rapidly while serving the strategic interests of their home countries.
Meet the speakers
Rebecca Gevalt, Managing Partner, Dcode Capital
Rebecca Gevalt is the managing partner at Dcode Capital, a venture fund that invests in high-growth technology companies that are poised to revolutionize the U.S. government. With her deep background in both the private and public sectors — including over a decade at the CIA — Rebecca is uniquely positioned to navigate the intersection of government and cutting-edge technology. Her expertise lies in scaling commercial technologies into the federal market, a mission that began with her role at Dcode’s accelerator program and now expands to the broader reach of Dcode Capital.
Topher Haddad, Co-Founder and CEO, Albedo
Topher Haddad, co-founder and CEO of Albedo, is pioneering the commercialization of very low Earth orbit (VLEO) imagery, which will allow for unprecedented levels of resolution previously limited to government and defense. His company’s upcoming satellite launch is set to disrupt the commercial Earth observation industry, enabling new applications across sectors like defense, agriculture, and utilities. Haddad’s background as an engineer at Lockheed Martin and his technical expertise in national security space programs make him a leader in the race to leverage space for national-interest applications.
Kai Kloepfer, Founder and CEO, Biofire
Kai Kloepfer, founder and CEO of Biofire, has brought to market the first biometric “smart gun” in the U.S., a feat that many believed impossible. His firearm, equipped with fingerprint and facial recognition, aims to prevent unauthorized access, significantly enhancing safety for users, law enforcement, and even national defense. Kloepfer’s journey from high school inventor to CEO of a venture-backed company speaks to his commitment to innovation in a highly regulated, politically sensitive space.
Join the conversation at Disrupt 2024
Join us on the Builders Stage at Disrupt 2024 and learn how these trailblazers are positioning technology at the heart of American dynamism — morphing entire industries in ways that prioritize national security, infrastructure, and economic growth. Their collective work is not just about disruptive technology; it’s about building the future of a nation.
Secure your spot today to be among 10,000 startup, tech, and VC leaders who’ll be at Disrupt 2024, taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. This is your opportunity to participate in a dynamic discussion panel and experience the startup epicenter of the year. Register for your pass here.
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Announcing our next wave of Startup Battlefield judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
Startup Battlefield 200 is a major highlight at every Disrupt, and we’re thrilled to find out which of the thousands of startup applicants will get the chance to pitch to top-tier VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Join us at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28–30 to witness the epic showdown where every contender is set to make a significant impact.
Get an insider’s view of what the judges look for in a viable company as they provide detailed feedback on their evaluation criteria. Don’t miss the chance to learn from their expert insights and discover the crucial traits that lead to startup success, only at Disrupt 2024.
We’re excited to introduce our next set of investors who will evaluate the startups and dive into each pitch with a thorough and probing Q&A session. Stay tuned for more big names coming your way soon!
Alice Brooks, Partner, Khosla Ventures
Alice is a partner at Khosla Ventures interested in sustainability, food, agriculture, and manufacturing/supply chain. She has worked with multiple startups in robotics, IoT, retail, consumer, and STEM education and has run mechanical, electrical, and app development teams in the U.S. and Asia. She has also established and managed manufacturing operations at factories in China and Taiwan. Prior to KV, Alice was founder and CEO of Roominate, a STEM education company helping girls learn engineering concepts through play.
Mark Crane, Partner, General Catalyst
Mark Crane is a partner at General Catalyst, a venture capital firm that works with seed to endurance-stage founders to help build companies that can withstand the test of time. He focuses on sourcing and investing in later-stage investment opportunities such as AuthZed, Bugcrowd, Resilience, and TravelPerk. Prior to joining General Catalyst, Mark was a vice president at Cove Hill Partners in Massachusetts. Previously, he was a senior associate at JMI Equity and an associate at North Bridge Growth Equity.
Sofia Dolfe, Partner, Index Ventures
Sofia partners with founders who leverage their unique perspective and personal understanding of a problem to create businesses that lead to behavioral shifts, powerful network effects, and the reshaping of entire industries, from grocery and e-commerce, to financial services and healthcare. Sofia is also one of Index Ventures’ gaming leads, working with some of the top gaming companies in Europe, creating the next generation of iconic gaming titles. She spends most of her time in the Nordics but works with entrepreneurs across the continent.
Christine Esserman, Partner, Accel
Christine Esserman joined Accel in 2017 and focuses on software, internet, and mobile technology companies. Since joining Accel, Christine has helped lead Accel’s investments in Blackpoint Cyber, Linear, Merge, ThreeFlow, Bumble, Remote, Dovetail, Ethos, Guru, and Headway. Prior to Accel, Christine worked in product and operations roles at a number of startups. Christine is from the Bay Area and graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in finance and operations.
Haomiao Huang, Founding Partner, Matter Venture Partners
Haomiao from Matter Venture Partners is a robotics researcher turned founder turned investor. He is particularly passionate about companies bringing digital innovation into physical economy businesses, with a focus on sectors like logistics, manufacturing, and transportation and on advanced technologies like robotics and AI. Haomiao spent four years investing in hard tech alongside Wen Hsieh at Kleiner Perkins. Prior to that he founded the smart home security startup Kuna, built self-driving cars at Caltech, and, as part of his PhD research at Stanford, pioneered the aerodynamics and control of multi-rotor UAVs. Kuna was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 14 batch.
Don’t miss it!
The Startup Battlefield winner, who will walk away with a $100,000 equity-free prize, will be announced at Disrupt 2024 — the startup epicenter. Join 10,000 attendees to witness this groundbreaking moment and see the next wave of tech innovation.
Register here and secure your seat to witness this epic startup battle.
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Amazon releases a video generator — but only for ads
Like its rival, Google, Amazon has launched an AI-powered video generator — but it’s only for advertisers at the moment, and somewhat limited in what it can do.
Today at its Accelerate conference, Amazon unveiled Video generator, which turns a product image into a few-seconds-long video clip after several minutes of processing. The company says that Video generator can curate “custom” AI-generated videos that “showcase a product’s features” at no additional cost.
In a statement, Amazon Ads VP Jay Richman said that Video generator, which is currently in beta for select U.S. advertisers, will be fine-tuned over time ahead of a wider release.
“Video generator is another meaningful innovation that leverages generative AI to inspire creativity and deliver more value for both advertisers and shoppers,” Richman said. “We are hard at work delivering generative AI applications that empower advertisers to craft visually stunning, high-performing ads.”
A related new capability announced today, live image, generates short, animated GIFs from a still frame. Also in limited beta, it’s a part of Image generator, Amazon’s AI-powered image generation suite for marketers.
Amazon revealed few technical details about Video generator and live image; it’s not clear, for example, how long and at what maximum resolution generated clips can be. We’ve reached out to the company for more information and will update this post if we hear back.
Amazon’s expansion into generative video comes as others release their own video-generating technologies. AI video startups Runway and Luma released APIs this past week, and Google integrated its flagship video model, Veo, into YouTube Shorts.
As with all generative AI tech, there’s risks to using these tools.
Video-generating models are trained on a vast number of examples of videos to “learn” the patterns in these videos to generate new footage. Some vendors train models on copyrighted videos without obtaining permission from their owners or creators, and, when these models “regurgitate” copyrighted stills, it exposes users to IP lawsuits.
Amazon is one of several generative AI vendors that has said it’ll protect customers accused of violating copyright with media generated by its models, in keeping with its AI indemnification policy. We’ve asked the company if Video generator and live image are covered under that policy.
However the lawsuits pertaining to the legality of training on copyright content shake out, one thing’s becoming clear: Generative AI video tools threaten to upend the film and TV industry as we know it. A 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, a union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, estimates that by 2026, more than 100,000 of U.S. entertainment jobs will be disrupted by generative AI.
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Tidal Metals sees seawater as the solution to a critical mineral shortage
Last year, the U.S. designated magnesium as a critical mineral, one of the “electric 18” that are critical for the energy transition. The metal is used in a range of electronics, and it weighs less than aluminum, making it an attractive alternative for automakers.
But like with so many other minerals, China has grown to dominate the market. It’s not because magnesium is scarce — in fact, it’s the eighth most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust, and it’s the third most abundant dissolved mineral in the world’s oceans. But in the U.S., at least, only one company produces virgin metal, everything else is either imported or recycled from scrap.
“The name of the game really is, can you compete with the 90% production that’s coming out of China today?” said Howard Yuh, co-founder and CEO of Tidal Metals.
Yuh is betting that his startup can. The company, previously known as GreenBlu, had been working on desalination technology when it realized there was more value in the minerals that were left behind.
“At that time, the industry around magnesium was already sort of in shambles in the United States,” he said. Sensing opportunity, in late 2023 the company pivoted to magnesium production and rebranded.
The lightweight metal has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions from transportation if it can be produced with minimal pollution. Motorsports fans will note that magnesium is common in race cars, particularly in the wheels, where every pound lost improves acceleration and handling. In passenger vehicles, broader use of magnesium would improve fuel economy, reducing the carbon footprint of fossil fuel vehicles and extending the range of electric vehicles. Some battery companies have begun to explore using the metal to improve energy density.
Magnesium today is largely produced in two ways: by cooking the mineral dolomite and by evaporating salt water, usually in giant open-air ponds, and processing what remains. The former is widely used in China and dominates production; it’s also incredibly polluting, especially when coal is the heat source.
Tidal Metals follows the latter, the evaporative approach, but it eschews the ponds. In its place, it uses what’s known as a temperature-swing vapor pump. Basically, the company uses a material that readily absorbs moisture to evaporate seawater or brines leftover from desalination. The material is similar to the silica gel packets you find tucked in things made overseas, and it sits inside a box that’s exposed to seawater. When the material becomes saturated, Tidal Metals closes the box and raises the temperature, releasing the water.
Meanwhile, another material-filled box opens to continue evaporating the seawater. Once that box is saturated, Tidal Metals uses heat pumps to move the heat from the first box, which is now drier, to the second, saturated box. Apart from the initial heat needed to warm the first box, Yuh said the process is very efficient. “We’ve basically recycled about 97% of the energy.”
In the end, the startup will have evaporated a metric ton of seawater to produce about 4 kilograms of the magnesium salt.
Once the water is evaporated, some H2O molecules are still bound to the magnesium chloride. Those need to go, too. Yuh wouldn’t disclose details, but he said the company has tweaked an existing process to make it easier.
Tidal Metals is working on a pilot plant that can produce 200 tons per year. Funding for the project comes from a recent $8.5 million seed round led by DCVC with participation from Bidra Innovation Ventures and First Spark Ventures. Once the engineering on that plant is sorted, Yuh said the startup is aiming for a larger-scale facility that can produce 10,000 tons per year, possibly as early as 2026.
Altogether, Tidal Metals’ process promises to be significantly less polluting than what’s done in China, particularly if renewable electricity is used to power the heat pumps. Plus, because the company can use seawater and briny waste from desalination plants, the resource is nearly unlimited, unlike magnesium that comes from mined dolomite.
“The one desalination plant in San Diego pumps in 100 million gallons of seawater a day. That’s enough to supply all of the U.S. with magnesium — 180,000 tons a year,” Yuh said. “Today, it’s all going to waste.”
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Amazon debuts an AI assistant for sellers, Project Amelia
Amazon sellers now have access to an AI assistant designed to help them grow their business by answering questions about their metrics, and later, may be able to help them directly resolve issues that arise. The assistant, code-named Project Amelia and built on AWS’s Amazon Bedrock, will initially be available in beta to U.S. sellers, starting today.
The retail giant says select U.S. sellers will gain access immediately, followed by a broader rollout across the U.S. Later this year, the feature will begin to arrive in more countries and in other languages besides English.
The goal with Project Amelia, explains Amazon, is to offer sellers tools that can them manage and grow their business.
At launch, sellers will be able to retrieve information like sales data and customer traffic information, and be able to ask the assistant questions like “How is my business doing?” In response, the AI will offer a summary of metrics, including recent sales, units sold, and website traffic, and compare those metrics to the same time last year.
Sellers will also be able to ask follow-up questions, like those focused on a single product’s sale, growth, and customer traffic, among other things.
Later, the AI assistant will be able to help resolve issues and aid with other tasks.
For example, Amazon sellers will be able to ask something like “I have 300 units on the way and don’t see that reflected in the report. Can someone look into this?,” and they’ll receive personalized guidance. If needed, they may also be connected with Amazon’s support team to help them investigate the issue further, which makes the assistant sound more like a traditional chatbot, in that case.
Further down the road, Project Amelia will be able to offer sellers “additional help managing the task” or may even “offer to solve the problem on a seller’s behalf,” Amazon says, without providing specifics or a timeframe to launch.
“We are always seeking to equip our selling partners with the most effective tools and capabilities, empowering them to more easily start and grow a successful business,” reads an Amazon blog post, penned by Mary Beth Westmoreland, VP, of Amazon’s Worldwide Selling Partner Experience. “By leveraging the transformative power of generative AI, we are creating and deploying technologies that will improve how sellers can manage and grow their businesses. Innovative solutions like Project Amelia are reducing the time, effort, and resources required from sellers to manage their business, allowing them more time for building great products and delighting customers,” she added.
Amelia’s launch follows the launch of another AI chatbot aimed at consumers, Rufus, which went live in the U.S. this summer. On the consumer side, Amazon is also leveraging AI to help customers find clothes that fit and to enhance product reviews, among other things. For sellers, Amazon had previously introduced generative AI tools to help them create product listings, and for those who advertise on Amazon, tools to generate backgrounds using AI.
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Zeno emerges from stealth to crib Tesla’s master plan for Africa and beyond
When Elon Musk published Tesla’s first “master plan” in 2006, it seemed a bit far-fetched that batteries would end up changing the automotive industry, much less global power production and consumption. Today, as electric vehicles continue to gain market share and massive batteries displace smoke-spewing power plants from the electrical grid, that notion seems less improbable. This year in the U.S. alone, developers are planning to add 15 gigawatts of grid-scale battery capacity.
Yet Michael Spencer thinks that the shift that’s occurring in places like the U.S., Europe, and China is just the beginning. “The Tesla master plan has more legs and more room to run with lower hurdles in emerging markets,” he told TechCrunch.
To prove the point, Spencer, a Tesla alumnus, founded Zeno in 2022. The startup, which until now has operated in stealth, has been methodically exploring how batteries might transform life in emerging markets, beginning in East Africa. The company has attracted considerable talent, including Swaroop Bhushan, who helped design Lucid’s powertrain; Rob Newberry, who helped oversee development of Apple’s AirPort and Apple TV; and others from Gogoro, Tesla and more. Zeno’s first product is a motorbike with a swappable battery.
But in Spencer’s vision, that’s just the start. Swappable batteries won’t just be powering motorbikes in Africa, but other parts of their lives as well.
Motorbike taxis, known as bodaboda, are ubiquitous in East African cities, helping people navigate choking gridlock for far less money than a taxi or personal car. For drivers, though, the costs can be astronomical. Motorbike taxi drivers spend a disproportionate amount of their income on fuel, about 50% compared with a few percent for commuters in California, Spencer points out.
Taking a cue from Taiwanese-startup Gogoro, which helped pioneer the battery swap concept in scooters, entrepreneurs throughout Africa put their own spin on it. The bikes are sold with holes in their chassis where drivers plug in rented batteries. When the packs are near empty, drivers can find a nearby location to exchange it for a fully charged one. As a result, swap stations from startups like Ampersand Solar, Arc Ride, Roam, Spiro, and Zembo have sprouted like grass after a monsoon rain.
Zeno is the latest entrant to the field. The company started by testing around 40 Chinese-made electric motorbikes in various models in Kenya to see how they’d fare. It only took a couple months before the bikes were trashed — they simply weren’t designed for taxi duty on East Africa’s harsh roads — but Spencer said the experience validated his thesis. It also turned up something else.
“There were lots of questions around, like, ‘Why can’t I use this battery for other things?’” Spencer recalled. “We saw some people trying to hack batteries when the power went out, to try to run the lights or to run the flour mill in their shop.”
The Zeno team knew they’d need more durable, heavier bikes that could carry a driver, a passenger or two, and possibly some cargo. It’s working with a manufacturer in India to produce bikes to its specifications, and soon after that model launches, additional manufacturers will release their own two-, three-, and light four-wheel vehicles that will be compatible with the startup’s batteries, Spencer said.
Bigger bikes demand more power, which means they need bigger batteries. Zeno’s lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery packs store 2 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and its motorbike will accept two packs. That will give the bike slightly more range than most taxi drivers need in a day, Spencer said.
The extra capacity “opens up all these other doors.” Spencer and his colleagues started building docks so people could use the motorbike’s spare power to charge phones and run various appliances.
“We prototyped an induction cook stove that ran off of our swappable motorcycle battery and got a pretty cool little microcosm,” Spencer said.
Motorbike taxi drivers could drive home after a day of work, hook their batteries up to the stove to cook dinner and then breakfast the next morning. At that point they would have 10 to 15% charge left, which is enough to drive back to town to swap for a full battery at a self-service station. Every part of the system will have internet connectivity so the company can monitor the batteries, anticipate demand, and facilitate financing. The bikes use a Type 6 connector so that drivers can plug into public chargers during a lunch break, for example, or charge overnight at home if the need arises. The company is also building a charging network that will be available to non-Zeno drivers.
Zeno’s first motorbikes will hit roads in East Africa and India in early 2025. Customers will have to buy or lease the vehicle, which will cost less than a new gasoline-powered model when configured without a battery. The startup will lease the batteries under a subscription model (though people can also buy the battery outright if they choose). Customers can add energy to the subscription bundle or buy it separately on a pay-per-use model. Zeno’s goal is to undercut gas-powered bikes with the upfront cost of a bike and initial battery subscription. And because the power costs of electric motorbikes are about half that of a gas model’s fuel bill, Spencer said the savings improve over time.
Shortly after the bike launches, the company plans to release its home battery dock with an available solar panels, which Spencer hopes will open new markets.
“If you don’t have grid connectivity, you can bring your batteries home from a swap station, and you can use them to power your home. If you want to put solar on your house, that home docking station works as a solar inverter to charge those batteries. So you can be a Zeno battery subscriber for a decade and never swap batteries.”
To fund its launch and expansion, the company recently raised an oversubscribed $9.5 million seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital and Toyota Ventures with participation from 4DX Ventures, Active Impact, Advantedge, MCJ, and RedBlue.
Zeno’s playbook certainly has echoes of Tesla’s, offering customers electrified transportation with a lower cost of ownership. But by focusing on a portable battery, Zeno is selling the ability to use energy whenever, something more akin to how people use fossil fuels today. The motorbike is a central part of the sales pitch, but the battery might be the real selling point.
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Kiwibot acquires an ad startup to turn its delivery robots into mobile billboards
From the standpoint of any advertising executive, Kiwibot has left a lot of money on the table since its robots began making food deliveries on the UC Berkeley campus back in 2017. After all, the semi-autonomous wheeled systems tend to traverse high-traffic areas. In 2024, they can still draw a crowd of curious onlookers. However you ultimately feel about advertising, you can’t deny that there’s ample opportunity in the form of a mobile billboard.
Kiwibot is so convinced of this fact that it plunked down $25 million to purchase Nickelytics. Founded in 2019, the Tampa-based firm specializes in car wrap advertising. It has since branched out into truck advertising, as well as digital ads through displays like the tablets found in the backseat of ride-sharing cars.
In March, the company partnered with Kiwi competitor, Starship, to bring wrapper ads to robots designated for the University of Utah and UCLA. That pilot program launched with the “Love, Your Mind” campaign from Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council.
Clearly Kiwi liked what it saw. The robotics firm is particularly interested in Nickelytics’ data analytics. That, combined with Kiwibot’s route mapping, offers advertisers an opportunity to spread the word in high-traffic spots spread out across more than 20 states.
As part of the deal, Nickelytics CEO Judah Longgrear will join Kiwibot as a co-founder. The ad firm currently has a number of high-profile customers, including AWS, Coinbase, Nationwide, and DirectTV. Those clients, in turn, will have access to more than 500 mobile Kiwibots.
“This acquisition is all about strategically positioning ourselves as a market leader and elevating our offering with Nickelytics added approach,” Kiwibots CEO Felipe Chavez said of the deal. “By integrating our technologies and scaling our operations, we’re laying the groundwork for global expansion and continued innovation that will bring a new edge to advertising.”
Nickelytics, a 2020 Techstars grad, recently made an aquisition of its own, purchasing Miami print shop Signs Printing Solutions.
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Harbor is building a better baby monitor and an army of night nannies
Like most good startup stories, Harbor began life as a product of disappointment. Kevin Lavelle, the co-founder and CEO of innovative clothing company Mizzen and Main, couldn’t find a baby monitor to suit his needs. He and his wife, Jen, had homed in on Nanit, a popular product renowned for its AI smarts and and breathing detection.
“We built Harbor because we were frustrated with products that overpromised and underdelivered when it came to safety and usability,” Lavelle says. In particular, he cites and instance in which Nanit’s app crashed on him. He woke up the next morning the find that the monitor hadn’t done its job overnight.
Lavelle started Harbor in August 2022 with former Stratis Chief Innovation Officer Charlie Hill, who now serves as the new firm’s chief product officer.
The Harbor hardware’s major selling point is that it doesn’t rely on apps or an internet connection, which introduces its own pain points. Instead, the system consists of a 2K camera that produces its own Wi-Fi signal, allowing it to connect directly to the 10-inch tablet it’s bundled with.
The system can also travel with your family, allowing you to set it up without having to connect to unreliable hotel Wi-Fi. Harbor charges an annual fee of $336 for the service.
Harbor recently closed a seed round with a $4 million raise. Combined with a spring fundraising close, the round totals $7 million. The investors are an interesting lot. Trust Ventures led the round, which also featured Tim Ferriss, Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners, a retired tennis player, and the current punter for the New York Jets.
“Having seen so many of my friends struggle with baby monitors and sleep with young kids, I’m excited for true innovation that solves real long-standing pain points,” Ferris says in a release. “There is a large market for a simple, smooth, and — under the hood — sophisticated solution.
The other interesting piece of Harbor’s play is decidedly more tradition. The startup employs remote “night nannies.” The company writes: “Harbor replicates the expertise and all night guidance of in-home night nannies for a fraction of the price. Parents who sign up for this service are taken through a robust onboarding. Each night, parents grant access to their Harbor camera and monitor, ensuring our infant care and sleep experts can let parents rest easy but receive failsafe notifications whenever they are needed.”
The service is optional, but it requires a Harbor membership to use.
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AI notetaker Fathom raises $17M
In many meetings today, it sometimes feels like there are more AI notetaking and transcription bots than people. There are seemingly dozens of options to choose from these days, but one I’ve seen with increasing regularity is Fathom. The company was one of the earlier players when it launched in 2020. Fathom then raised a $4.7 million seed round in early 2022 and, today, the company announced its $17 million Series A round, led by Telescope partners. Notably, $2 million of the $17 million came from Fathom users via crowdfunding on Wefunder.
The company says its revenue increased by 90x and usage by 20x over the last two years. That was likely from a relatively low baseline, but while the company didn’t share exact active user numbers, Fathom, which offers a generous free plan, did say that more than 8,500 companies now use its HubSpot integration.
“We always built Fathom around the expectation that AI would get really good,” the company’s CEO and co-founder Richard White told me. “When we started in 2020, AI wasn’t there yet. But we were like: Hey, we’re going to really focus on the things that we think are hard, which is getting distribution, building a really reliable infrastructure, and an easy-to-use product, with this expectation that when AI gets there, we’ll be able to drop that into this already widely distributed easy-to-use product, and it’ll just make it go from good to great.”
One thing that always made Fathom stand out is that the company relies on its own models — or at least its own fine-tuned versions of open models. Fathom has its own team working and experimenting with models — and as White noted, working with models is very different from typical engineering projects.
“Their output is not a feature, it’s actually spec,” he said about this team. “And it has a failure rate. It’s not like engineering, where you put something on the roadmap, it gets done. It’s like 50% time right now. If it’s not good enough, let’s check back in six months. I think it required rethinking the product development process a little bit.”
Over time, the team added a number of new features, including automatically creating action items and drafts for follow-up emails, as well as the “Ask Fathom” chatbot and more features geared towards teams. Most of these more advanced features are gated behind its paid plans, which start at $19/month on its monthly plans.
While most of the large meeting services are starting to offer their own takes on what Fathom is doing, White doesn’t seem to be too worried about that. “Our vision is that we want to get all of your meetings in one place,” he said. That broader vision, he said, includes becoming the central source of intelligence for a company’s leadership, something that’s hard to do when you only support a single meeting platform.
Part of this vision — and something the new funding round will help Fathom to work on — is to not just help its users with meeting notes and action items, but also with a lot more of the busy work that follows a meeting. It’s starting down this path with its automated action items and follow-up email features, but the idea here is to build more integrations and use AI agents to perform more of these tasks and directly interface with CRM systems, for example.
White also noted that there is a lot of data in meetings that isn’t currently being used and that may provide more ambient intelligence to leadership teams over time. Nobody can sit in on every meeting, after all, but White envisions a more proactive system that can alert decision-makers when a sales team, for example, is confronted with a question that they don’t have a good answer for, or when the name of a competitor suddenly becomes more prevalent in meetings.
I’ve taken Fathom for a spin in a few meetings this week and have generally been impressed by the quality of its transcriptions but especially by its meeting summaries. Where some other tools (looking at you, Otter) seem to try to shoehorn every meeting into a somewhat rigid flow that seems to be mostly geared toward users in sales, Fathom simply presents a useful summary that smartly creates chapters for every meeting.
Below is the summary of my interview with Fathom. The only mistake here is that we did not set up a follow-up meeting.
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