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at LLMs could help with domestic robots, where they could perform specific tasks, especially with an aging population and not enough people to take care of them. However, even that could come with its own set of unique challenges.
"People say, 'Oh, the large language models are gonna make robots be able to do things they couldn't do.' That's not where the problem is. The problem with being able to do stuff is about control theory and all sorts of other hardcore math optimization," he said.
Brooks believes that this could eventually lead to robots with useful language interfaces for people in care situations. "It's not useful in the warehouse to tell an individual robot to go out and get one thing for one order, but it may be useful for eldercare in homes for people to be able to say things to the robots," he said.
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Matrix Rebrands India and China Units for 'Organizational Independence'
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Matrix, a US-headquartered venture capital firm, is rebranding its India and China affiliates, becoming the latest venture firm to distance its international franchises. The firm will retain its name, while Matrix Partners India will rebrand to Z47 and Matrix Partners China will rename itself MPC. Matrix began operating the India affiliated fund in 2006 and the China fund in 2008.
The unexpected rebranding takes effect July 1. Notably, Matrix's announcement referred to its India and China operations as "entities operating under the Matrix name" rather than as its own units.
Matrix Partners India stated that the rebrand will not affect its operational structure, existing funds, or strategy. The new name takes inspiration from India's journey towards becoming a developed country by 2047, it said.
Matrix is undertaking the "renaming and organizational update" to "clarify the local approach each of these teams has taken to operating in each of their geographies since inception and the organizational independence of each team," Matrix Partners said in a post.
The venture firm said each team's leadership has "operated with separate decision-making and separate back offices from inception."
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The move follows Sequoia's splitting of its India and Southeast Asia and China units last year amid geopolitical tension between China and the US.
"The decision to rename is driven by a shared commitment to clarity in the marketplace, responsiveness to regional market dynamics and a continued focus on competing locally, which will benefit each organization's respective portfolio companies, investors, and partners," Matrix said today.
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Amazon Hires Founders Away from AI Startup Adept
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Adept, a startup developing AI-powered "agents" to complete various software-based tasks, has agreed to license its technology to Amazon and the startup's co-founders and portions of its team have joined the ecommerce giant.
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According to reports, Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan will join Amazon, along with Adept co-founders Augustus Odena, Maxwell Nye, Erich Elsen, and Kelsey Szot, and other Adept employees.
Adept isn't closing up shop, however. Zach Brock, head of engineering, is taking over as CEO as Adept refocuses its efforts on "solutions that enable agentic AI."
"[Our products] will continue to be powered by a combination of our existing state-of-the-art in-house [AI] models, agentic data, web interaction software, and custom infrastructure," Adept wrote in a post on its official blog. "Continuing with Adept's initial plan of building both useful general intelligence and an enterprise agent product would've required spending significant attention on fundraising for our foundation models, rather than bringing to life our agent vision."
The deal provides a lifeline for Adept, which has reportedly been in talks with Meta and Microsoft over the past few months about a potential acquisition. Microsoft previously invested in the startup.
As for Amazon, it gets valuable talent — and tech to bolster its generative AI ambitions. Reports indicate that Luan will work under Rohit Prasad, the former Alexa head who's leading a new AGI team focused on building large language models.
"David and his team's expertise in training state-of-the-art multimodal foundational models and building real-world digital agents aligns with our vision to delight consumer and enterprise customers with practical AI solutions," Prasad wrote in a memo to employees. "[The license] will accelerate our roadmap for building digital agents that can automate software workflows."
Adept was founded two years ago with the goal of creating an AI model that can perform actions on any software tool using natural language. At a high level, the vision — a vision now shared by OpenAI, Rabbit, and others — was to create an "AI teammate" of sorts trained to use a wide variety of different software tools and APIs.
Adept managed to win over backers including Nvidia, Atlassian, Workday, and Greylock with its technology, raising over $415 million in capital and reaching a valuation of around $1 billion. But the startup's been plagued with dysfunction. Adept lost two of its co-founders, Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar, early on, and it's struggled to bring any product to market despite months and months of testing.
The market for AI agents is a tad more crowded than it was at Adept's launch. Well-funded startups like Orby, Emergence, and others are vying for a slice of what promises to be a lucrative pie; market research firm Grand View Research estimates that the AI agents segment was worth $4.2 billion in 2022.
But perhaps the Amazon tie-in will get Adept over the finish line. Or — with much of its executive ranks departing — it'll resign Adept to the same fate as Inflection, the AI startup that was effectively gutted, talent-wise, by Microsoft earlier this year. Or regulators increasingly skeptical of these types of AI aqui-hires will step in (if they aren’t rendered toothless by Friday’s Supreme Court decision).
Grab your popcorn and settle in.
rom emails in a user's inbox), meal preferences, and information about local attractions (from Google Search and Maps data), as well as the distances between those attractions, Gemini will generate an itinerary that updates automatically to reflect any changes.
In Gmail, Gemini lives in a side panel that can write emails and summarize message threads. You'll find the same panel in Docs, where it helps you write and refine your content and brainstorm new ideas. Gemini in Slides generates slides and custom images. And Gemini in Google Sheets tracks and organizes data, creating tables and formulas.
Gemini's reach extends to Drive, as well, where it can summarize files and give quick facts about a project. In Meet, meanwhile, Gemini translates captions into additional languages.
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Gemini recently came to Google's Chrome browser in the form of an AI writing tool. You can use it to write something completely new or rewrite existing text; Google says it'll take into account the webpage you're on to make recommendations.
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NASA and Boeing Deny Starliner Crew is 'Stranded': "We're Not in Any Rush to Come Home"
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NASA and Boeing officials have pushed back against recent reports that the two astronauts brought to the International Space Station (ISS) on Starliner are stranded on board. According to the companies, they are using "the luxury of time" to learn as much about the capsule as possible before it returns to Earth.
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The two astronauts will remain on the ISS for a few more weeks while the company and NASA perform more tests from the ground, which means yet another extension to their stay. However, officials declined to provide a new target date for their return.
"I want to make it real clear that we're not in any rush to come home," said Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, during a press conference. "The station is a nice, safe place to stop and take our time to work through the vehicle and make sure we're ready to come home."
In the interim, engineers from Boeing and NASA will head to New Mexico's White Sands Test Facility to conduct a series of remote tests on the spacecraft's thrusters. There are 28 thrusters on Starliner, responsible for making minute changes to the spacecraft's movements in orbit, and they're critical for safe docking and undocking from the ISS. That docking process was halted on approach when five malfunctioned on orbit, but engineers were able to bring four of those thrusters back online, which allowed docking to proceed.
Starliner also experienced several small helium leaks since launch on June 5, but NASA and Boeing officials said that these leaks are not a concern for return. Starliner is not leaking any helium while it's docked to the ISS because they are located in a part of the spacecraft that is closed off. The spacecraft also has ten times the amount of helium it needs to get through undocking and the deorbit burn, Stich said.
The thruster testing is expected to take a couple of weeks, during which time NASA spaceflight veterans Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain on the station. As of today, they've been onboard the ISS for nearly three weeks; the mission was expected to last just a week or so. The landing plan will be determined once the thruster testing is complete, Stich said.
"We're just looking at the timeline to execute that test, and then review the test data," he added. "That's what's really the long pole, I would say, in determining a landing date."
Starliner is designed for up to 210-day missions, but this first crewed demonstration mission was limited to 45 days due to limits of the batteries on the capsule's crew module. However, those batteries are being recharged by the space station, so Stich said the agency is considering extending the maximum length of the stay.
"The risk for the next 45 days is essentially the same as the first 45 days," he said.
While Stich and Mark Nappi, Boeing's program manager of the commercial crew program, said that a root cause of the problems is still not understood, they assured that Starliner is safe to bring astronauts home in case of an emergency. The ISS nearly had one earlier this week, when a defunct Russian Earth observation satellite broke up on orbit. (The cause of the break-up is not clear.) NASA officials instructed the crew to shelter in their respective spacecraft, a standard precaution. While no debris came close to the ISS, in the event of a collision, the astronauts would have used those spacecraft to disembark from the station and return to Earth.
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Who Won the Presidential Debate: X or Threads?
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The recent presidential debate sparked a heated discussion on social media, with users debating which platform, X or Threads, handled the event better. While both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, the debate highlighted some key differences between them.
In terms of user base, X is still the larger social network, with over 600 million monthly active users. Threads, on the other hand, has around 150 million monthly active users, according to its last public earnings announcement. However, some reports suggest that Threads may have surpassed that figure.
Despite the difference in user base, some users felt that Threads provided a more engaging and intelligent discussion during the debate. One user praised Threads, saying it was "very useful" for following the debate, with a timeline full of political discussion and real-time updates. Others appreciated the lack of trolls on the platform, making it a more pleasant experience.
On the other hand, X faced some technical issues during the debate, with some high-profile users, including journalists and political commentators, getting locked out of their accounts. This led to some users switching to Threads, which seemed to handle the traffic better.
One of the key differences between the two platforms is their approach to hashtags. X uses hashtags to help users discover topics, while Threads does not have a traditional hashtag system. Instead, it uses hyperlinks to connect words and phrases, making it harder to discover topics. This can lead to decreased usage and engagement.
Another issue with Threads is its Trending topics feature, which sometimes takes time to surface relevant topics. During the debate, Threads' Trends didn't immediately include a topic focused on the debate as a whole, instead surfacing topics that came up during the debate. This limited its use as a real-time news network.
In conclusion, while both X and Threads have their strengths and weaknesses, the debate highlighted some key differences between the two platforms. Threads provided a more engaging and intelligent discussion, but struggled with discoverability and real-time trending topics. X, on the other hand, faced technical issues and has a more complex hashtag system.
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Kleiner Perkins Announces $2 Billion in Fresh Capital, Defying VC Fundraising Slump
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Many venture capital firms are struggling to attract new capital from their own backers amid a tepid IPO environment. However, established, brand-name firms are still able to raise large funds. Kleiner Perkins, a 52-year-old firm, has just closed on more than $2 billion in fresh capital across two funds, a slight increase from its previous $1.8 billion fundraise in early 2022.
Other prominent firms that have successfully defied the VC fundraising slump this year include Andreessen Horowitz, which secured $7.2 billion for several of its funds, General Catalyst, which is reportedly wrapping up a $6 billion fundraise, and Norwest, which has raised $3 billion in capital.
Kleiner Perkins will continue to invest in enterprise software, consumer, healthcare, fintech, and hardtech startups, as it has for its previous fund. However, the firm is now focusing on making these industries more efficient with the help of AI. The firm has already backed a few buzzy AI-driven startups, including business application search tool Glean and Harvey, an AI assistant for lawyers.
Founded in 1972, Kleiner Perkins was once considered one of the most elite firms in Silicon Valley. It was an early backer of companies like Amazon, Compaq Computer, Genetech, Netscape, and Sun Microsystems. While the firm lost some of its prominence in the last tech boom, it still invested in a slew of eventual winners, including Airbnb, Instacart, Slack, and Robinhood.
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The White House to Host Conference for Social Media Creators
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President Joe Biden's administration is doubling down on its interest in the creator economy. In August, the White House will host the first-ever White House Creator Economy Conference, which will invite a group of influential social media personalities and industry professionals to discuss issues like data privacy, fair pay, AI, and mental health with senior White House officials.
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Christian Tom, the director of the White House Office of Digital Strategy, announced the news onstage at VidCon on Friday. "The inaugural White House Creator Economy Conference will emphasize the administration's commitment to creators, and reinforce the economic and cultural value they represent," Tom said. "The Office of Digital Strategy has made work with digital creators one of our top priorities and we are excited to engage with creators on how these topics impact their lives and how they can help inform policy decisions."
The one-day conference will include mainstage discussions and smaller breakout sessions. Throughout Biden's presidency, the White House has leveraged creators to reach their broad audiences about hot-button issues. In 2021, when coronavirus vaccines began rolling out, Biden's administration worked with influencers to encourage people to get vaccinated. The White House also briefed creators about the war in Ukraine.
These outreach efforts make sense — according to the Pew Research Center, half of U.S. adults at least sometimes get their news on social media. Social media is such a valuable tool for politicians that despite Biden's role in the effort to ban TikTok, his reelection campaign is using the platform to reach voters. So is former president Donald Trump, who is challenging Biden's bid for reelection.
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**All VCs Claim to be Founder Friendly, but Detroit's Ludlow Ventures Takes it to Another Level**
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"If we are not standing up in their wedding, we've failed."
VCs Jonathan Triest and Brett deMarrais attribute their venture firm's 15-year success to their ability to read people and build lasting relationships with founders. This "Midwestern nice" approach may seem old-fashioned, but it has helped Ludlow Ventures thrive in a competitive industry.
Before founding Ludlow, neither Triest nor deMarrais had significant operating or investing experience. Triest was fresh out of school when he started the firm in 2009, and deMarrais joined him three years later after winding down his first job, a wedding videography outfit.
Fast forward to today, and Ludlow has $250 million in assets under management, including a new $50 million fifth fund that recently closed with commitments from notable investors such as billionaire Dan Gilbert and the financial services company Northern Trust.
Triest and deMarrais's people-centric approach has led to successful investments, including a Chrome extension that helped customers score deals. They wrote the first check to entrepreneurs Ryan Hudson and George Ruan, who later founded Honey, a shopping and rewards platform that sold to PayPal for $4 billion in 2020.
"I see my peers 'out diligence' themselves, when in reality you can only look at the people," says Triest. "Our biggest miscalculations have come when we invested in verticals or ideas that we loved but the people were not exceptional."
While many VCs claim to invest in people, Ludlow's approach has been particularly effective. The firm has maintained a strong bond with Hudson, who recently raised a $5 million round for his new startup, with Ludlow writing a $3 million check.
Ludlow's investments are diverse, with no geographic or sector focus. The firm has funded hundreds of startups, including Flex, a flexible payments platform; Density, a workplace analytics company valued at $1 billion; Captions, a video editing app that raised $25 million in Series B funding; Notarize, an online notary network valued at $760 million; Backbone, a startup that turns iPhones into gaming devices; and Copilot Money, a budgeting app that raised $6 million in Series A funding.
Asked about the unifying threads among these companies, Triest again emphasizes the importance of people. "If we are not standing up in their wedding, we've failed," he says.
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Hubspot Investigates Customer Account Hacks
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Marketing and sales software giant Hubspot has announced that it is investigating a cybersecurity incident. The company identified a security incident on June 22 that involved unauthorized access to a limited number of customer accounts.
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According to a spokesperson, the company triggered its incident response procedures and has been contacting impacted customers and taking necessary steps to revoke the unauthorized access and protect their data.
At this point, it is unclear what the extent of the incident is and how many Hubspot customers were affected.
If you have more information about the incident and how it's impacting partner companies, you can contact us securely.
Hubspot is a U.S.-based company that specializes in customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation software, with a market cap of almost $30 billion as of Friday.
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Following Raft of Consumer Complaints, Shein and Temu Face Early EU Scrutiny of DSA Compliance
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Ultra-low-cost e-commerce giants Shein and Temu are facing early scrutiny from the European Union (EU) regarding their compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA). The EU has sent requests for information to both platforms, seeking details on their measures to meet DSA obligations related to notice and action mechanisms, online interface design, protection of minors, transparency of recommender systems, traceability of traders, and compliance by design.
The DSA is the EU's recently rebooted online rulebook, aiming to raise standards on digital services, including marketplaces, to shrink consumer risks in areas like the sale of illegal or dangerous goods. Shein and Temu have been subject to the regime's general rules since mid-February, but were recently designated as very large online platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA, further increasing their regulatory risk.
Consumer protection groups from around the EU had filed complaints against Temu, alleging the platform is rife with manipulative design tricks that pose risks to kids. The complaints also accused Temu of operating opaque recommender systems and failing to ensure the traceability of traders, arguing there's no way for consumers to know if the products it sells meet EU safety standards.
The EU's requests for information draw on concerns set out in the complaints. The regime allows for penalties of up to 6% of global annual turnover for confirmed breaches, so any compliance failures could end up being costly for the e-tailers. Strict enforcement of higher standards on the marketplaces could even force changes to business models that hinge on driving high volumes of sales.
At the very least, the pair's ultra-low-cost, high-volume approach raises question marks about product quality and safety, so EU enforcement in this area looks like an interesting test case for the DSA.
Shein and Temu have until July 12 to provide the requested information. The EU will then assess next steps, which could entail the formal opening of proceedings if it suspects any infringements of the rules.
A Shein spokesperson confirmed it has received the request for information from the EU, saying the company is "working to promptly address it." "We share the EU's goal of ensuring that consumers in the EU can shop online with peace of mind, and we will continue working closely with the EU to ensure our compliance with the Digital Services Act," they added.
A Temu spokesperson also said: "We are cooperating fully with the EU. We'd also like to reiterate that we are fully committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations in the markets where we operate."
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Elevate Your 2025 Fundraising Strategy at Disrupt 2024
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Get ready to unlock the secrets of successful fundraising in the upcoming year at Disrupt 2024. Our featured session, "How to Raise in 2025 if You've Taken a Flat, Down, or Extension Round," is designed to equip startups with the knowledge and strategies needed to navigate the evolving investment landscape. This session will challenge outdated metrics and provide actionable insights into what investors are looking for in 2025.
Attendees will gain invaluable insights from industry leaders who have a proven track record of successful investments and guiding companies to new heights. This session promises to be a game-changer for startups at any stage, offering practical advice on how to secure that crucial Series A funding, even if your journey has faced some bumps along the way. Learn how sector-specific factors, founder profiles, and market momentum can influence your fundraising success in today's dynamic market.
Meet this session's stellar speaker lineup
* Dayna Grayson, Co-founder and General Partner at Construct Capital
* Elliott Robinson, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners
* Nikhil Basu Trivedi, Co-founder and General Partner at Footwork
Each speaker brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to the table, ensuring a well-rounded and deeply informative session.
Dayna Grayson, a pioneer in transforming foundational industries through technology, will discuss her experience in backing innovative companies that revolutionize sectors such as manufacturing and mobility. Her insights from Construct Capital and NEA, where she led investments in companies like Desktop Metal and Tulip, will provide attendees with a clear roadmap on how to stand out to investors focused on industry-changing innovations.
Elliott Robinson, a key figure in cloud software investments at Bessemer Venture Partners, will offer his perspective on the critical factors that drive successful fundraising rounds. With a portfolio that includes major investments in companies like Canva and Forter, Elliott's advice on building market-defining companies and maintaining core values will be invaluable for any startup looking to make a significant impact.
Nikhil Basu Trivedi, with his extensive background in early-stage investing at Footwork and Shasta Ventures, will share his expertise on what it takes to capture investor interest and secure funding in the current climate. His successful investments in companies like Canva, ClassDojo, and Imperfect Foods highlight his keen eye for promising startups and his strategic approach to growth.
Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the best and position your startup for success in 2025. Join us at Disrupt 2024 and discover how to navigate the complexities of fundraising with confidence and clarity. Secure your tickets now and be part of the conversation that could define your company's future.
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Here are the Hottest Product Announcements from Tech Giants in 2024
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Apple Intelligence, a new feature, was the biggest buzz at this show. It combines on-device processing and cloud processing to give many Apple apps features like writing help or image editing. Apple promised its AI will be highly personalized and built with safety at its core. Read more
Apple also revealed how developers will soon be able to bring the Apple Intelligence experience into their software, allowing for things like image generation, or new prompts to Siri. Read more
Apple is also working with OpenAI to allow its device users to access OpenAI with plans to add options to other LLMs in the future. Read more Apple's new Passwords app
The new Passwords app will include new features like a new column on the left that lets you more easily navigate your password collection. For instance, you can view all your passwords or just Wi-Fi passwords (a new addition), passkeys or codes that aren’t related to a website or service. Read more MacOS Sequoia, iOS 18
The latest operating system version is called macOS Sequoia. One of the biggest features is iPhone mirroring which lets you control your iPhone from your Mac. Read more
As for the latest iOS, iOS 18, one big new feature is that users will be able to lock an app when they hand over their phone to do things like show someone a picture or let them play a game. Read more
There were more Apple WWDC announcements as well. Read about the others Apple Let Loose
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The iPad lineup is getting a facelift and one of the most important additions is that it now comes in two sizes, the 11-inch display and a 13-inch display. The cost is $599 for the 11-inch and $799 for the 13-inch. Read more iPad Pro with M4
The iPad Pro is being touted as the thinnest iPad ever. Features include an OLED display in two panels called Tandem OLED. It also has a nanotextured glass option for less glare. And, it features the next generation of Apple silicon called M4, a jump from M2. It also has a 12.9-inch iPad Air and new gestures for the Apple Pencil. In the U.S., the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 for the Wi-Fi model, and $1,199 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299 for the Wi-Fi model, and $1,499 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Read more Inside the M4 chip
The M4 chip is the fourth generation of Apple’s custom SoCs. It features a new display engine, as well as significantly updated CPU and GPU cores. Apple claims that the new CPU is 50% faster than the M2 chips which powered the last generation of iPad Pros, while the GPU will offer a 4x increase in rendering performance. Read more Inside Tandem OLED
Among its many features, the Tandem OLED screen can support an incredible 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness for both SDR and HDR content, and 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness. Read more Apple Pencil Pro
Shocking as it may seem, it’s been nearly a decade since the first Apple Pencil was announced, way back in 2015. The stylus hasn’t seen much in the way of updates since then. The most significant arrived in 2018, bringing magnetic charging to the line. Last year, meanwhile, saw the arrival of a less expensive model with fewer features and USB-C charging. Many of the new features with the Apple Pencil Pro comes from the squeeze. You can take animations, move and rotate the object and even lens blurring. Read more Magic Keyboard
Apple announced a new and improved Magic Keyb[...]
hers do. "I know Ocado well," he said, "our CFO is ex Ocado."
Outside of the Czech Republic, the company, which Čupr describes as "20 years in the making" has operations also in Hungary, Austria, Germany (where it operates as Knuspr, as illustrated above) and Romania, and he said that the businesses in its home market, Hungary and Munich are all now profitable. The company said that revenues have on average been growing 40% post-covid, and it has set itself a target of €1 billion in revenues and positive cash flow by the end of 2024. It does not disclose, however, what its revenues are right now, so we can't say if Rohlik is biting off more than it can chew.
"We first partnered with Rohlik three years ago and have been continuously impressed by the management team's execution and investment into proprietary technology, automation and increasing use of artificial intelligence across its operations," said Tamas Nagy, Director, Co-head of Equity Investments at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in a statement. "We are very proud to support Rohlik's growth and expansion plans in the years to come."
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Rohlik Secures $170M to Expand European Grocery Delivery and License Its Technology
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The salad days of fresh grocery delivery startups are over, but those that have stayed the course and built businesses that are seeing gains are still here and are hungry for more growth. On Friday, one of those survivors, the Czech grocery delivery company Rohlik, announced $170 million in new funding.
Rohlik, which means 'baker' in Czech, has aimed to carve out a differentiated position in the market for itself. Its focus has been around smaller warehouses and linking up ties with local producers and sellers like butchers and fishmongers, rather than reproducing what a large supermarket might sell online (which mirrors what you might find in a physical supermarket). In reference to the Rohlik of its name, it bakes bread at the distribution centers.
"To replace Rohlik you would have to do five different shops," said Tomáš Čupr, the CEO and founder of Rohlik, in an interview. There are some 17,000 SKUs on offer, with delivery slots of 1-2 hours from ordering.
Rohlik said it served 800,000 customers in 2023. Now, the plan will be to use the funding both to expand that model in Europe — with a target of 10 more cities in the next six years.
Alongside that, it wants to accelerate its tech, which includes logistics and analytics software and robotics for sorting and picking — licensing it to other delivery players to build out their own local networks and delivery operations modeled on what Rohlik has built. Čupr said that it would launch its technology platform licensing initiative later this year.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the lead investor in this latest round, with previous backers Sofina, Index Ventures, Quadrille, and TCF Capital also participating, as well as the European Investment Bank (EIB) under its Scale-Up Initiative. The EIB portion is debt, said Čupr, describing it as a "minority" of the full amount.
Čupr declined to give a valuation for the round, but from what we understand it is higher than previous valuations but less than $2 billion. For some context, the last large round of funding that Rohlik raised was in 2022, and that came in at what we now know to be around the $1.3 billion mark pre-money. The amount that Rohlik has now raised in equity and debt is approaching $800 million.
This latest injection is coming at a tough time in the grocery delivery business. The peak of the Covid-19 pandemic saw a couple of years of major attention, funding, and usage of grocery delivery services – which led to hundreds of millions of dollars of funding getting funneled into different permutations of the business model, especially those that looked particularly novel such as "instant" delivery startups. 2021 alone saw nearly $19 billion in investments in grocery delivery startups according to the investment firm AgFunder.
Perhaps inevitably, after the peak came the trough, with a number of startups disappearing, being acquired for pennies on the dollar/pound/euro, lots of layoffs, retrenchments and restructuring.
After years of aggressive funding and growth, Getir is now focusing on his home market of Turkey. GoPuff burned $400 million last year reportedly. And it's not just the most obvious instant players that are buckling. Oda in Norway, a big grocery contender that also raised and acquired aggressively, has been laying off people in waves and also shrinking its geographic footprint.
Even Ocado, seen by many as the gold standard in this world, has been struggling on weaker earnings and partners pausing their Ocado-powered warehouse projects.
In that turbulence, Rohlik is both feeling the pressure but also showing some signs of where it might build defenses as it watches closely what the ot[...]
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MIT Robotics Pioneer Rodney Brooks Thinks People Are Vastly Overestimating Generative AI
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When it comes to robotics and artificial intelligence, Rodney Brooks is a name to be reckoned with. As the Panasonic Professor of Robotics Emeritus at MIT, he has co-founded three key companies, including Rethink Robotics, iRobot, and his current venture, Robust.ai. Brooks also ran the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) for a decade starting in 1997.
Brooks is known for making predictions about the future of AI and keeps a scorecard on his blog to track his accuracy. He believes that people are vastly overestimating the capabilities of generative AI. "I'm not saying LLMs are not important, but we have to be careful with how we evaluate them," he said.
The issue with generative AI, according to Brooks, is that it can perform certain tasks well, but it can't do everything a human can. Humans tend to overestimate its capabilities because they generalize its performance to similar tasks. "When a human sees an AI system perform a task, they immediately generalize it to things that are similar and make an estimate of the competence of the AI system; not just the performance on that, but the competence around that," Brooks explained.
Brooks uses his company, Robust.ai, as an example. Someone suggested using a large language model (LLM) to tell his warehouse robots where to go, but Brooks believes this is not a reasonable use case for generative AI. Instead, it's simpler to connect the robots to a stream of data coming from the warehouse management software.
"When you have 10,000 orders that just came in that you have to ship in two hours, you have to optimize for that. Language is not going to help; it's just going to slow things down," he said. "We have massive data processing and massive AI optimization techniques and planning. And that's how we get the orders completed fast."
Brooks has also learned that you can't try to do too much with robots and AI. You should solve a solvable problem where robots can be integrated easily. "We need to automate in places where things have already been cleaned up. So the example of my company is we're doing pretty well in warehouses, and warehouses are actually pretty constrained," he said.
Brooks' company designed robots for practical purposes related to warehouse operations, rather than building human-looking robots. "So the form factor we use is not humanoids walking around — even though I have built and delivered more humanoids than anyone else. These look like shopping carts," he said. "It's got a handlebar, so if there's a problem with the robot, a person can grab the handlebar and do what they wish with it."
After all these years, Brooks has learned that it's about making the technology accessible and purpose-built. "I always try to make technology easy for people to understand, and therefore we can deploy it at scale, and always look at the business case; the return on investment is also very important."
Even with that, Brooks says we have to accept that there are always going to be hard-to-solve outlier cases when it comes to AI, which could take decades to solve. "Without carefully boxing in how an AI system is deployed, there is always a long tail of special cases that take decades to discover and fix. Paradoxically all those fixes are AI complete themselves."
Brooks also believes that there's a mistaken belief that technology will always grow exponentially, thanks to Moore's Law. He uses the iPod as an example. For a few iterations, it did double in storage size, but it didn't continue on that trajectory. "The models being sold in 2017 actually came with 256GB or 160GB because, as I pointed out, nobody actually needed more than that."
Brooks acknowledges th[...]
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Y Combinator Alum Fluently Raises $2M for AI-Powered English Coach
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There are numerous resources available to learn English, but few cater to near-native speakers looking to improve their fluency. This challenge inspired Stanislav Beliaev and Yurii Rebryk to create Fluently, an AI-powered English coach.
Fluently provides users with feedback and tips on their spoken English, making it similar to ELSA's AI speech tutor and online/offline one-on-one coaching solutions. However, Fluently stands out by building its feedback from listening to real-life calls.
Users can have Fluently record and transcribe their side of calls, such as those made on Zoom for work. Additionally, they can practice with an AI coach, either "Ryan" for daily conversations or "Kyle" for mock interviews.
The duo estimates that there are 84 million non-native employees working in English-speaking environments, presenting a sizable market opportunity. This potential market helped Fluently secure a spot in Y Combinator's winter 2024 batch and attract a $2 million seed round from investors, including Pioneer Fund and SID Venture Partners.
Fluently's tech-focused approach, with three out of four team members being engineers, has garnered attention from VCs. The startup plans to use the funding to grow its team and invest in marketing.
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In its current beta form, Fluently is still in its early stages, but it already offers a sense of what it can achieve. For instance, users can learn how to improve their pronunciation, such as with the word "computer," which can be useful in tech industries.
The startup aims to be a one-stop-shop for better speaking skills, focusing on understandability, including improving pronunciation, grammar, pace, and vocabulary. Rephrasing advice, similar to Grammarly or Ludwig's offerings for writing, could be an additional feature.
Fluently prioritizes user privacy, storing audio locally and encrypting data, with anonymized data sent to third-party providers. The startup is currently available on MacOS, with plans to launch a Chrome extension soon.
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With its AI-powered English coach, Fluently is poised to make a significant impact in the edtech space.
ent and lawmakers do not understand technical matters. And so, looking forward, who defines "artificial intelligence," or "scrape" or "personal information," or "invasive"? Yesterday, it might have been the FCC or FTC, which with their experts in technology, industry, markets, and so on, would have made an informed decision and perhaps even solicited public opinion, as they often do in rulemaking processes. Today, it will be a judge in whatever state an industry decides has the friendliest or most gullible bench.
Читать полностью…
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Forget the Debate, the Supreme Court Just Declared Open Season on Regulators
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As the country reels from a Presidential debate that left no one looking good, the Supreme Court has made a landmark decision that could have far-reaching consequences for the tech industry. By reversing a 40-year-old ruling, the court has opened up regulators to endless interference by industry and the whims of judges.
The Supreme Court announced Friday morning that it had ruled 6-3 to overturn Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, a case from 1984 that established a crucial doctrine in federal regulation. Federal law is often broad and requires interpretation, a task spread among all parties in the legal system. The 1984 Chevron decision established that independent agencies like the EPA, SEC, and FCC also have a say in this. In cases where the law is ambiguous, the courts must defer to these agencies in their capacity as experts in their fields.
For example, who defines whether a plot of land counts as wetlands? It can't be interested parties like heavy industry or nature advocacy groups, since their interpretations will likely be mutually exclusive. And what are the chances that whatever judge gets handed the case has any expertise in the matter? Instead, in such cases, the EPA, staffed with notionally disinterested experts on wetlands, is empowered to settle ambiguities.
This decision has significant implications for the tech industry. Who do you think defines "encryption" in law, or "communications," "search and seizure," or "reasonable expectation of privacy"? The entire concept of net neutrality is perched atop the FCC's interpretation of whether broadband data is an "information service" or a "communications service," the terms written in the act empowering that agency.
If the FCC is not empowered to settle this ambiguity in a very old law that was written well before today's broadband and mobile networks, who is? Whatever court takes the case brought by the telecommunications industry, which hates net neutrality and would prefer an interpretation where the FCC doesn't regulate them at all. And if the industry doesn't like that court's interpretation, it gets a few more shots as the case rises towards the Supreme Court.
As Justice Elena Kagan argued, the court has granted itself "exclusive power over every open issue — no matter how expertise-driven or policy-laden — involving the meaning of regulatory law." In other words, the Supreme Court has assigned itself the powers currently exercised by every regulatory agency in the country.
This decision is consequential for tech because the industry has been facing a wave of regulatory activity led by these agencies, operating in the vacuum of Congressional action. Due to a lack of effective federal laws in tech, agencies have had to step up and offer updated interpretations of the laws on the books.
Tech leaders have loudly and repeatedly asked for federal laws defining and limiting their industries. They know very well that Congress is almost incapable of passing any such laws, partly because tech industry lobbyists quietly fight them in the background whenever one with teeth is proposed.
Let us be optimistic for once and imagine that Congress passes a big law on AI, protecting certain information, requiring certain disclosures, and so on. It's impossible that such a law would contain no ambiguities or purposeful vagueness to allow for the law to apply to as-yet-unknown situations or applications. Thanks to the Supreme Court, those ambiguities will no longer be resolved by experts.
Every law has ambiguities. And at the frontiers of technology, ambiguity is even more common, since there is no preced[...]
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Android's Upcoming 'Collections' Feature Will Drive Users Back to Their Apps
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A new feature called "Collections" is set to launch on Android, allowing users to keep up with their apps from their home screen. The feature was first announced at the Google I/O developer conference, where developers were presented with tools to re-engage users with the apps they already have installed on their devices.
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The feature will automatically organize the best and most relevant content from apps already installed, with a focus on enabling cross-app continuing journeys for nearly every app category. With a tap, users will be able to launch full-screen, immersive experiences that highlight and arrange the most important content from their installed apps.
Thanks to an APK teardown of the Google Play Store software, we now have a better idea of what this surface will look like. The feature introduces a Play-Store-powered widget for the Android home screen that organizes app updates into categories like Watch, Listen, Read, Games, Social, and Shop.
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When users select a given category, they will be shown all the relevant content from their apps in this space, presuming the apps had integrated with the SDK. The company offered a few examples, such as retail apps inviting people to continue their shopping journey by highlighting what they had saved in their cart, while apps like Uber Eats might invite users to place their favorite food order.
The APK teardown revealed that the feature is launching first in the U.S., before rolling out to new markets, and will also be easily accessible by way of a shortcut from the Play Store app itself. That is, when you long press on the Play Store app, there will be a link to access Collections from the pop-up menu that appears.
The feature is expected to launch later this year, with an official announcement expected at the upcoming "Made by Google" event in August.
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DEI? More like 'common decency' — and Silicon Valley is saying 'no thanks'
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The tech industry's allergy to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has reached a new low. Scale AI's Alexandr Wang has decided that DEI is no longer needed, replacing it with his new acronym MEI: merit, excellence, and intelligence. This change is met with enthusiasm from tech giants like Elon Musk, while others are left rolling their eyes in disbelief.
Critics argue that Wang's post oversimplifies complex social dynamics, ignoring systemic barriers and promoting a naive idea of meritocratic purity. Meanwhile, annotators in economically depressed regions toil away for minimal pay. It's ironic that the conversation around "objective" hiring practices is happening in an industry where fairness and inclusion are often disregarded.
Most interesting startup stories from the week
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Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures, shared his concerns about AI's future, regulation woes, and why Europe's tech scene might be lagging behind. His candid chat revealed his thoughts on what keeps him up at night, and it's not his investment portfolio or packed schedule.
A robot with living skin that can stretch and be manipulated has been developed, making it a nightmare come true. Scientists are pushing the boundaries of what's possible, but at what cost?
In a surprising move, Telegram's founder Pavel Durov revealed that the messaging giant operates with just 30 engineers and no dedicated product managers. Security experts are calling this a major red flag for user safety.
Boeing's Starliner capsule finally made it to space, but its return is taking longer than expected. Originally scheduled to return on June 14, the two-person crew will now extend their space vacation until June 26 due to technical issues.
Most interesting fundraises this week
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Volkswagen is investing up to $5 billion in Rivian's software development, starting with an initial $1 billion infusion. This partnership could be a win-win for both companies: Rivian gets the financial boost it needs to move forward, and VW finally has a chance to improve its software skills.
Two 18-year-olds convinced seasoned investors to back their AI-powered API startup with $500,000. Instead of spending their summer break relaxing, they're negotiating with VCs.
Zepto just raised $665 million to ensure you never have to wait more than 10 minutes for your groceries or electronic gadgets. Investors are eager to get in on the action, but is this really the future we want?
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Google Gemini: Everything You Need to Know About the New Generative AI Platform
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Google is making waves with Gemini, its flagship suite of generative AI models, apps, and services. But what exactly is Gemini, and how can you use it?
To make it easier to keep up with the latest Gemini developments, we've put together this handy guide, which we'll keep updated as new Gemini models, features, and news about Google's plans for Gemini are released. What is Gemini?
Gemini is Google's next-gen generative AI model family, developed by Google's AI research labs DeepMind and Google Research. It comes in four flavors:
Gemini Ultra, the most performant Gemini model. Gemini Pro, a lightweight alternative to Ultra. Gemini Flash, a speedier, "distilled" version of Pro. Gemini Nano, two small models — Nano-1 and the more capable Nano-2 — meant to run offline on mobile devices.
All Gemini models were trained to be natively multimodal — in other words, able to work with and analyze more than just text. Google says that they were pre-trained and fine-tuned on a variety of public, proprietary, and licensed audio, images, and videos, a large set of codebases, and text in different languages.
This sets Gemini apart from models such as Google's own LaMDA, which was trained exclusively on text data. LaMDA can't understand or generate anything beyond text (e.g., essays, email drafts), but that isn't necessarily the case with Gemini models.
We'll note here that the ethics and legality of training models on public data, in some cases without the data owners' knowledge or consent, are murky indeed. Proceed with caution, particularly if you're intending on using Gemini commercially. What's the difference between the Gemini apps and Gemini models?
Google didn't make it clear from the outset that Gemini is separate and distinct from the Gemini apps on the web and mobile (formerly Bard).
The Gemini apps are clients that connect to various Gemini models — Gemini Ultra (with Gemini Advanced, see below) and Gemini Pro so far — and layer chatbot-like interfaces on top. Think of them as front ends for Google's generative AI, analogous to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude family of apps.
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Gemini on the web lives here. On Android, the Gemini app replaces the existing Google Assistant app. And on iOS, the Google and Google Search apps serve as that platform's Gemini clients.
Gemini apps can accept images as well as voice commands and text — including files like PDFs and soon videos, either uploaded or imported from Google Drive — and generate images. As you'd expect, conversations with Gemini apps on mobile carry over to Gemini on the web and vice versa if you're signed in to the same account in both places. Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Chrome, dev tools, and more
The Gemini apps aren't the only means of recruiting Gemini models' assistance with tasks. Slowly but surely, Gemini-imbued features are making their way into staple apps and services like Gmail and Google Docs.
To take advantage of most of these, you'll need a premium plan. Technically a part of a larger subscription, the premium plan costs $20 and provides access to Gemini in Google Workspace apps like Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Meet. It also enables what Google calls Gemini Advanced, which brings Gemini Ultra to the Gemini apps plus support for analyzing and answering questions about uploaded files.
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Gemini Advanced users get extras here and there, also, like trip planning in Google Search, which creates custom travel itineraries from prompts. Taking into account things like flight times (f[...]
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Pitch Deck Teardown: MegaMod's $1.9M Seed Deck
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Welcome to our 100th pitch deck teardown! This week, we're analyzing MegaMod's seed-stage pitch deck. MegaMod, a gaming platform, recently raised $1.9 million, bumping its post-money valuation to $27 million. With a mission to revolutionize the game creation process, the company plans to focus on refining its go-to-market strategy and testing its retention and monetization model.
A Bold Ambition
https://ai4chat-files.s3.amazonaws.com/images/8ec44ce5-426d-42ca-a9c6-c3b77219612c.jpg The company believes that 50 million people are eager to create their own games. Image Credits: MegaMod
Generation Z is passionate about gaming, and MegaMod aims to make it easier for them to create their own games. The company's suite of products promises to simplify the game development process, allowing gamers to build their own games.
I appreciate a slide that challenges my assumptions, and this one did just that. Why does making games have to be so hard? Can games built in a day be any good? I'm curious to learn more.
Three Things that MegaMod Could Have Improved
I'm struggling to understand how MegaMod secured funding with this pitch deck. The deck lacks vital information, and what's provided is unclear. I've seen more comprehensive pitch decks from college students.
Based on this deck alone, it's surprising that anyone invested. There must be something else that impressed investors, like the founders' charm or traction not showcased in the deck.
What's Going On with This Product?
https://ai4chat-files.s3.amazonaws.com/images/a7affbb8-4fe2-4eef-8542-21fea3c2f7d1.jpg MegaMod's building a suite of products. Image Credits: MegaMod
Slides 4-8 of MegaMod's pitch deck overwhelm with an overly ambitious product roadmap. Instead of focusing on a single product or a few well-developed offerings, MegaMod has decided to develop multiple products, including a game engine, AI coding tools, a skins editor, a prop editor, an in-game library, and a social platform. It's as if they tried to create everything at once. Startups need focus; spreading themselves thin across many product lines can lead to disaster.
Each product requires dedicated resources, specialized knowledge, and a clear strategy. Instead, MegaMod is trying to juggle all these products at once, which may lead to dropping some – or all – of them. The lack of focus screams hubris more than competence.
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Volkswagen's Silicon Valley Software Hub Already Stacked with Rivian Talent
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Volkswagen Group's struggling software arm, Cariad, has hired at least 23 top employees from Rivian over the past several months, according to a review of LinkedIn data. The hires include Cariad's chief software officer, chief product security officer, two vice presidents, and two principal engineers, all of whom came from senior software roles at Rivian.
The hires pre-date the recently announced $5 billion deal between Volkswagen Group and Rivian, which will allow the German giant to leverage Rivian's software and electrical architecture expertise. The joint venture is still being formed and isn't expected to be formalized until the fourth quarter.
Despite this, the wave of new hires illustrates Volkswagen's desire to tap into software talent, particularly from startups like Rivian. The hires have bolstered Cariad's effort to build up a Silicon Valley outpost in Mountain View called the SDV Hub, which is focused on developing next-generation software architecture known as "software 2.0."
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The SDV hub is led by Sanjay Lal, who was hired in fall 2023 to lead the establishment of the hub. Lal previously led the development of Rivian's infotainment and next-gen middleware across the vehicle and cloud. The focus of the engineers at the SDV hub in California, as well as some German-based workers under Lal, is on the software 2.0 architecture that is supposed to be an operating system designed for all Volkswagen Group brands.
While Cariad has more than 7,000 employees worldwide, its footprint in North America is much smaller. The SDV hub currently has around 230 employees, according to LinkedIn. That means recent Rivian expats now make up around 10% of Cariad's employee base in the region.
These hires come as Cariad is in the middle of restructuring after years of struggles. Created in 2020, Cariad was supposed to speed up development of advanced software and electrical architecture for Volkswagen Group's big push into EVs. As Cariad grew in size, its problems compounded. Its software 1.2 platform, which was being developed for Audi and Porsche cars, was originally scheduled for completion in 2022. The constant delays and other internal problems led to several executive shakeups and is considered one of the reasons Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess was dismissed in 2022.
Cariad, now under the direction of Peter Bosch, has successfully completed the 1.2 software architecture that will be in the upcoming Porsche Macan EV. But it's the 2.0 architecture that is meant to catapult all of the group's brands in the same sphere as Tesla.
Tapping talent from the likes of Rivian bucks how Cariad was building out its North American workforce over the last two years. Prior to the last few months, most Cariad employees in the region came from other places inside the Volkswagen Group, from automotive or software suppliers. Far fewer came from tech companies, like Cariad's director of software engineering, who spent almost a decade at Google.
Volkswagen and Cariad are not the only ones looking to startups like Rivian to build out talent. Ford's own secretive low-cost EV project has been snapping up workers from Rivian, Tesla, Lucid Motors, and even Apple's disbanded Project Titan.
oard, its keyboard accessory for iPad. The Magic Keyboard has been “completely redesigned” to be much thinner and lighter, Apple says, and now includes a function row for quick access to controls like screen brightness. Beyond that, the new Magic Keyboard features aluminum palm rests and a larger trackpad. Plus it’s more responsive, Apple says, with haptic feedback. Read more
There were more Apple Let Loose announcements as well. Read about the others Google I/O
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From generative AI to accessibility, Kyle Wiggers takes you on a journey of all of Google’s AI announcements. Read more Wear OS 5
Google gave a developer preview of the new version of its smartwatch operating system, Wear OS 5.
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Will Robots Ever Have Living, Human Skin?
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Here is the reworded text:
Researchers have made a major breakthrough in creating robots with living, human-like skin. The question on everyone's mind is: can robots ever have skin that is indistinguishable from human skin? While robots have become increasingly advanced, it's still easy to tell them apart from humans. But a recent study from the University of Tokyo and Harvard may have changed that.
The researchers were able to create skin that can be attached to a robotic substrate and manipulated to perform tasks like smiling without tearing or distorting. The results are both fascinating and unsettling. Check out the video to learn more about this incredible innovation.
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Remote Access Giant Suffers Cyberattack by Russian Spies
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A prominent remote access company has confirmed that its corporate network was compromised by government-backed hackers from Russia. The attack, attributed to APT29 (also known as Midnight Blizzard), was detected on June 26 and is believed to have originated from a standard employee account within the company's corporate IT environment.
The company, which provides remote access tools to over 600,000 paying customers, facilitating access to more than 2.5 billion devices worldwide, claims that the attack was contained within its corporate network and did not affect its product environment or customer data. However, the company's spokesperson declined to provide further information on whether any data was accessed or exfiltrated during the attack.
APT29 is a well-known and persistent government-backed hacking group, known for its use of simple yet effective techniques, including password theft, to conduct long-running stealthy espionage campaigns. The group has been linked to several high-profile attacks, including the compromise of Microsoft's corporate network earlier this year.
The attack on the remote access company is the latest in a series of cyberattacks attributed to Russian intelligence agencies. In recent months, Microsoft has struggled to eject the hackers from its systems, calling the campaign a "sustained, significant commitment" of the Russian government's "resources, coordination, and focus."
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The incident highlights the ongoing threat posed by nation-state actors to companies and organizations worldwide. As the attack on the remote access company demonstrates, even seemingly secure networks can be compromised by sophisticated hackers.
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Cold Shipping: The Next Industry to be Disrupted by Batteries
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Hannah Sieber, a seasoned entrepreneur, has a knack for identifying industries that can be transformed by batteries. Her previous startup, EcoFlow, replaced generators with batteries to power homes and RVs. This experience led her to wonder what other industries could be revolutionized by smaller batteries.
Sieber's research into power shutoffs in California, which disproportionately affect low-income communities, sparked an "aha" moment. She realized that battery-powered cooling could make a significant difference in refrigeration, particularly in shipping. This led her to start Artyc, a company that has raised $14 million to develop a battery-powered cold chain solution.
Artyc's flagship product, Medstow Micro, is a small, portable cube that can store up to four vials at a temperature of 3°C (37.4°F) for at least 56 hours. The device is powered by a lithium-ion battery and features a solid-state heat pump, thermometers, accelerometers, and GPS. This innovative solution enables hospitals, clinical trials, and medical laboratories to ship temperature-sensitive specimens safely and efficiently.
Sieber's goal is to expand patient access to clinical trials, which are often limited to large hospitals in metropolitan areas. By making it possible to ship temperature-sensitive specimens over long distances, Artyc's technology can increase diversity in clinical trials, leading to more effective treatments.
The company is planning to launch larger versions of its product, including a 5-liter and 25-liter model, which will target high-value, temperature-sensitive goods like herbs, chocolate, and wine. Sieber envisions a future where Artyc's technology is used in various applications, including mobile refrigeration and blackout-proof storage.
Artyc is also exploring opportunities in global health, where its technology can help ensure the safe transportation of vaccines and other temperature-sensitive medical supplies. While there are challenges to overcome, Sieber is optimistic about the potential of battery-powered cold shipping to transform industries and improve lives.
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Feather Raises €6 Million to Expand Insurance Platform for Expats Across Europe
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Navigating health insurance systems as a foreigner can be a daunting task. German startup Feather aims to simplify this process and has secured €6 million in funding to help some of the 40-plus million expats living and working in Europe.
Although there are existing options for foreign nationals to obtain insurance, they are often fragmented and difficult to navigate. Feather believes it can carve out a niche for itself despite the competition from established players.
The startup's platform provides a recommendation tool to help individuals understand what kind of coverage they might need, starting with health insurance, and also including additional options such as life, pet, automotive, and personal liability insurance.
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Feather's quick assessment tool.Image Credits: Feather
"The funny thing is, everyone who's an expat immediately gets it," said Feather CEO Rob Schumacher. This understanding has helped the startup secure angel investments from founders who have experienced the issue firsthand, such as those from GoCardless, Monzo, and N26.
Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus has also invested in Feather through the VC fund he co-founded, Plural. The startup's lead investor, Keen Venture Partners, approached Feather after recognizing the potential of its platform.
However, fundraising has been a complex process for insurtech startups in the post-2021 landscape, and Schumacher is cautious about making it seem easier than it was. With conversations dragging on, Feather's founders considered pursuing profitability before securing the new funding.
International Expansion
Feather plans to use the new capital to boost its internal expansion. The startup currently serves expats in Germany, France, and Spain, with three more countries set to launch by the end of 2024.
Without additional funding, Schumacher said they would have focused on incremental growth. "That would probably have been a wasted opportunity: The startup says it achieved more in its six months post-launch in Spain than in its first 18 months in Germany."
Despite the international audience it serves, an expansion roadmap wasn't obvious for Feather, whose founders thought they might focus on a broader audience in Germany first. However, they soon realized that the expat niche was particularly interesting for a digital-first offering like theirs.
Compared to the same age cohort of locals, expats are much more likely to prefer not dealing with a broker. Feather's founders, who have experienced the challenges of being an expat firsthand, are aware that the market they are targeting is substantial and growing.
Finding Balance
To its end users, Feather promises a better experience consisting of transparent policies, unbiased recommendations, and simple digital claims processes, all in English. With its new funding, it is also taking a "big bet" on employee benefit insurance that companies hiring lots of expats may want to provide.
While it is as bullish on tech as any insurtech player, Feather is also keen not to badmouth legacy players, which it partners with, and has a couple of senior insurance executives on its cap table. This approach could pay off, or at least help the company avoid the scrutiny new insurtech partnerships are facing.
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