Entrepreneurs are invited to the 455th FREE online 1Mby1M mentoring roundtable on Thursday, September 5, 2019, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/5 p.m. CEST/8:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious...

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Big data platform Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK) recently reported a strong quarter. The highlights of the quarter were the strong momentum in cloud revenue and its $1.05 billion acquisition of cloud...

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Sramana Mitra: You have 100,000 users and 50,000 paying subscribers. What is the size of the IT learner market? What percentage of that is learning on your platform in this mode? Tim Broom: That’s...

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OpenGov, the firm co-founded by Palantir’s Joe Lonsdale that helps government and other civic organizations organise, analyse and present financial and other data using cloud-based architecture, has raised another big round of funding to continue expanding its business. The startup has picked up an additional $51 million in a Series D round led by Weatherford Capital and 8VC (Lonsdale’s investment firm), with participation from existing investor Andreessen Horowitz.

The funding brings the total raised by the company to $140 million, with previous investors in the firm including JC2 Ventures, Emerson Collective, Founders Fund and a number of others. The company is not disclosing its valuation — although we are asking — but for some context, PitchBook noted it was around $190 million in its last disclosed round — although that was in 2017 and has likely increased in the interim, not least because of the startup’s links in high places, and its growth.

On the first of these, the company says that its board of directors includes, in addition to Lonsdale (who is now the chairman of the company); Katherine August-deWilde, Co-Founder and Vice-Chair of First Republic Bank; John Chambers, Founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures and Former Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems; Marc Andreessen, Co-Founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz; and Zac Bookman, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenGov .

And in terms of its growth, OpenGov says today it counts more than 2,000 governments as customers, with recent additions to the list including the State of West Virginia, the State of Oklahoma, the Idaho State Controller’s Office, the City of Minneapolis MN, and Suffolk County NY. For comparison, when we wrote in 2017 about the boost the company had seen since Trump’s election (which has apparently seen a push for more transparency and security of data), the company noted 1,400 government customers.

Government data is generally associated with legacy systems and cripplingly slow bureaucratic processes, and that has spelled opportunity to some startups, who are leveraging the growth of cloud services to present solutions tailored to the needs of civic organizations and the people who work in them, from city planners to finance specialists. In the case of OpenGov, it packages its services in a platform it calls the OpenGov Cloud.

“OpenGov’s mission to power more effective and accountable government is driving innovation and transformation for the public sector at high speed,” said OpenGov CEO Zac Bookman in a statement. “This new investment validates OpenGov’s position as the leader in enterprise cloud solutions for government, and it fuels our ability to build, sell, and deploy new mission-critical technology that is the safe and trusted choice for government executives.”

It’s also, it seems, a trusted choice for government executives who have left public service and moved into investing, leveraging some of the links they still have into those who manage procurement for public services. Weatherford Capital, one of the lead investors, is led in part by managing partner Will Weatherford, who is the former Speaker of the House for the State of Florida.

“OpenGov’s innovative technology, accomplished personnel, market leadership, and mission-first approach precisely address the growing challenges inherent in public administration,” he said in a statement. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to partner with OpenGov to accelerate its growth and continue modernizing how this important sector operates.”

It will be interesting to see how and if the company uses the funding to consolidate in its particular area of enterprise technology. There are other firms like LiveStories that have also been building services to help better present civic data to the public that you could see as complementary to what OpenGov is doing. OpenGov has made acquisitions in the past, such as Ontodia to bring more open-source data and technology into its platform.

Based in London, Tom Hulme is a general partner for GV, the VC firm formerly known as Google Ventures. And Hulme isn’t your average VC, as he likes to focus on hard problems instead of quick wins. He has become an important figure of the European VC landscape, which is why I’m excited to announce he is joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.

GV has had an interesting start in Europe. The firm originally announced a new, separate fund focused on European startups exclusively. A dedicated GV Europe team was supposed to lead the fund.

A few years later, GV switched to a more global and unified strategy. The European team is now part of GV at large. But it doesn’t mean that GV stopped looking at European startups altogether.

Tom Hulme is evidence that GV is still very much active in London, the U.K. and Europe. A couple of years ago, TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden interviewed him. It is a fascinating read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in startup investment.

GV doesn’t want to stop at low-hanging fruit. The firm is looking at startups working around artificial intelligence and deep learning, virtual and augmented reality, the car of the future, life sciences and more.

For instance, Tom Hulme and his team looked at more than 60 companies in Europe and Tel Aviv focused on AI. In other words, if you’re working on something big that requires a lot of capital, chances are you should meet up with GV.

Tom Hulme has invested in SpyBiotech, Lemonade, Currencycloud, Secret Escapes, Genomics Medicine Ireland, Cambridge Epigenetix and many other startups. And I can’t wait to hear what’s going to be his next investment.

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

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

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Tom is a general partner at Google Ventures. Previously, Tom was a design director at IDEO Europe, where he founded OpenIDEO, an open innovation platform that has over 150,000 users from more than 170 countries. Tom also launched OIEngine, an online platform for IDEO clients, including Harvard Business School and the Knight Foundation.

Before IDEO, Tom was managing director of Marcos, a British sports car manufacturer. As a serial entrepreneur, Tom also founded Magnom, a magnetic filter startup. Tom’s filter designs have been widely used in Formula One, Superbikes, JCB loaders, and central heating systems.

Tom has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has been featured in WIRED UK’s Top 100 Digital Power Brokers list every year since the list has been published. He has also been included in the Evening Standard list of London’s 1000 Most Influential People.

Tom earned a first class bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Bristol, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he received the Baker Scholar Award of high distinction. Tom has also received an honorary doctorate from University Arts London.

Monese, the European banking app aimed at customers with a “thin” credit file or those who have moved country, is launching “Monese Savings” in partnership with fintech Raisin.

The new feature sees Monese customers gain access to Raisin’s cross-border deposits marketplace so that they can shop around for a competitive interest rate via the various European banks signed up to Raisin. It will initially be available to Monese personal account customers in the U.K., Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

As an example of what’s on offer, Monese says its U.K. customers can access rates of up to 2.20% AER via Wyelands Bank’s five-year Fixed Term Deposit product. Shorter terms with different rates are available from other Raisin marketplace-supported banks and products.

“With a broad choice of Raisin’s more than 500 competitive, transnational savings products, available from over 80 partner banks located across the entire European Economic Area, Monese users will be able to select their preferred deposit in a new streamlined process,” says Monese.

As Monese Savings gets further developed, the plan, says the London startup, is to offer “seamless” savings account access and management all within the Monese app. This will soon facilitate automated recurring payments to make saving regularly more convenient.

Monese Savings sit alongside “Pots,” Monese’s non-interest bearing savings accounts, which were introduced in May 2019. This is more of a budgeting tool, rather than long-term savings where you’d expect to earn interest.

Notably, Monese is disclosing that it now has more than 1.4 million signups, claiming that customer growth tripled in 2018 and that over 100,000 people are joining Monese every month. Demand for Monese across mainland Europe surpassed that of the U.K. in November 2018, says the fintech, and in March 2019, two-thirds of all sign-ups to Monese were in mainland Europe.

A year ago, Monese raised $60 million in Series B funding. Leading the round was Kinnevik, with participation from PayPal, Augmentum Fintech, International Airlines Group via its loyalty and data business Avios Group Ltd. and Investec’s INVC Fund.

Nigerian freight logistics startup Kobo360 raised a $20 million Series A round led by Goldman Sachs and $10 million in working capital financing from Nigerian commercial banks.

The company — with an Uber-like app that connects truckers and companies to delivery services — will use the funds to upgrade its platform and expand to 10 new countries beyond current operating markets of Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Kenya.

Kobo360 looks to grow beyond its Nigeria roots to become a truly Pan-African company, co-founder Obi Ozor told TechCrunch. He co-founded the venture in 2017 with fellow Nigerian Ife Oyedele II.

Since its launch in Lagos, the startup has continued to boost its product offerings, VC backing and customer base. Kobo360 claims a fleet of more than 10,000 drivers and trucks operating on its app. Top clients include Honeywell, Olam, Unilever, Dangote and DHL.

Kobo360’s latest round is also notable for Goldman Sachs’ involvement. Goldman’s participation tracks a growing list of African venture investments made by the U.S.-based finance firm.

Chinese mobile-phone and device maker Transsion will list in an IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market, Transsion confirmed to TechCrunch.

The company — which has a robust Africa sales network — could raise up to 3 billion yuan (or $426 million).

Transsion’s IPO prospectus is downloadable (in Chinese) and its STAR Market listing application is available on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s website.

STAR is the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s new Nasdaq-style board for tech stocks that went live in July with some 25 companies going public.

Headquartered in Shenzhen — where African e-commerce unicorn Jumia also has a logistics supply-chain facility — Transsion is a top-seller of smartphones in Africa under its Tecno brand.

The company has a manufacturing facility in Ethiopia and recently expanded its presence in India.

Transsion plans to spend the bulk of its STAR Market raise (1.6 billion yuan or $227 million) on building more phone assembly hubs and around 430 million yuan ($62 million) on research and development, including a mobile phone R&D center in Shanghai, a company spokesperson said.

The government of Rwanda will soon issue national policy guidelines to eliminate gas motorcycles in its taxi sector in favor of e-motos, according to a preview of the plan by President Paul Kagame at a public rally.

The director general for the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority, Patrick Nyirishema, confirmed Kagame’s comments were ahead of a national e-mobility plan in the works for the East African nation.

“The president’s announcement is exactly the policy direction we’re in…it’s about converting to electric motos…The policy is prepared, it’s yet to be passed…and is going through the approval process,” Nyirishema told TechCrunch on a call from Kigali.

Motorcycle taxis in Rwanda are a common mode of transit, with estimates of 20 to 30 thousand operating in the capital of Kigali.

Nyirishema explained that converting to e-motorcycles is part of a national strategy to move Rwanda’s entire mobility space to electric. The country will start with public transit operators, such as moto-taxis, and move to buses and automobiles.

Ampersand, a Kigali-based e-moto startup, has already begun to pilot EVs and charging systems in Rwanda and will work with the country’s government on the moto-taxi conversion.

In an Extra Crunch feature, TechCrunch delved into tech talent accelerator Andela — one of the most recognized and well-funded startups operating in Africa.

In a byte, Andela is a Series D-stage startup ― backed by $180 million in VC ― that trains and connects African software developers to global companies for a fee.

CEO Jeremy Johnson dished on the company’s strategy toward profitability and responded to some of the criticism it receives ― namely a claim the startup is creating a second brain-drain when software developers leave Andela and Africa to take positions with global companies.

Today Andela has offices in New York and five African countries: Nigeria,Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Egypt ― which largely align with the continent’s top tech VC markets.

Across this network the company recruits software developers, builds software engineers and deploys teams of software engineers.

Johnson disclosed numbers on Andela’s expected new hires for the year, current developer staff, how many departures the company expects and how many of those will likely leave their home countries ― which actually amounts to a fairly small percentage.

TechCrunch checked in with Nigerian fintech company Interswitch for the latest on its anticipated dual-listing (London and Lagos stock exchanges).

A Bloomberg news story (based on background sourcing) revived speculation the IPO could happen this year for the company — which provides much of Nigeria’s digital banking infrastructure and has expanded its operations presence and payments products across Africa and globally.

Reports that Interswitch could be one of the earliest big tech companies out of Africa to go public trace back to 2016, when CEO and founder Mitchell Elegbe told TechCrunch the company was considering a listing before the end of that year.

Last month, an Interswitch spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny a pending IPO, per a TechCrunch inquiry. So, it’s still tough to say if or when the company could list. But there are still several reasons why the business (and its possible IPO) are worth keeping an eye on, which we detailed in the update story.

One could be an eventual increase in venture funding to African startups, which could come from Interswitch. Another could be an Interswitch IPO adding another benchmark for global investors to gauge Africa’s tech sector beyond Jumia — the e-commerce company that became the first big tech firm operating in Africa to launch on a major exchange, the NYSE, in April.

More Africa-related stories @TechCrunch

African tech around the ‘net

Zao went viral in China this weekend for its realistic face-swapping videos, but after controversy about its user policy, WeChat restricted access to the app on its messaging platform.

Users can still upload to WeChat videos they created with Zao, but if they try to download the app or send an invite link to another WeChat user, a message is displayed that says “this web page has been reported multiple times and contains security risks. To maintain a safe online environment, access to this page has been blocked.”

Developed by a unit of Momo, one of China’s most popular dating apps, Zao creates videos that replace the faces of celebrities in scenes from popular movies, shows and music videos with a selfie uploaded by the user.

The app, currently available only in China, went viral as users shared their videos through WeChat and other social media platforms in China. But concerns about the potential misuse of deepfake technology coupled with a clause (now deleted) in Zao’s terms of use that gave it full ownership and copyright to content uploaded or created on it, in addition to “completely free, irrevocable, perpetual, transferrable, and re-licensable rights,” caused controversy.

In case you haven’t heard, #ZAO is a Chinese app which completely blew up since Friday. Best application of ‘Deepfake’-style AI facial replacement I’ve ever seen.

Here’s an example of me as DiCaprio (generated in under 8 secs from that one photo in the thumbnail) pic.twitter.com/1RpnJJ3wgT

— Allan Xia (@AllanXia) September 1, 2019

By going viral quickly and being very easy to use (Zao’s videos can be generated from a single selfie, though it suggests that users upload photos from several angles for better results), the app has also focused more attention on deepfake technology and how it can potentially be used to spread misinformation or harass people.

Zao was released last Friday and quickly became the top free iOS app in China, according to App Annie. A statement posted on September 1 to Zao’s Weibo account says “we completely understand everybody’s concerns about the privacy issue. We are aware of the issue and we are thinking about how to fix the problems, we need a little time.” Its terms and conditions now say user-generated content will only be used by the company to improve the app and that all deleted content will be removed from its servers.

TechCrunch has contacted Zao for comment.

Fintech startup Revolut has been growing like crazy and now has 6 million customers. The company has to scale its support team accordingly. That’s why Revolut just announced plans to open a customer operations centre in Porto, Portugal.

There are already 70 people working for Revolut in Porto. Eventually, Revolut plans to hire 400 people in the country. They’ll work on customer support, complaints, investigations and compliance.

And Revolut has been quite successful in Portugal so far. There are currently 250,000 Revolut customers in Portugal, and the company is adding 1,000 new customers per day in the country.

It should help when it comes to hiring local talent. The company is also hiring a growth manager, a communication and PR lead and a community manager in Portugal. Ricardo Macieira, the new growth manager, is the former country manager for Airbnb in Portugal. Rebeca Venâncio, the communication and PR lead, has worked for Microsoft in Portugal. And Miguel Costa, the community manager, has worked for Mog and Nomad Tech.

Earlier this summer, Revolut also announced plans to open a tech hub in Berlin. Originally founded in London, Revolut is slowly building multiple offices across the U.K. and Europe in order to attract local talent.

Sramana Mitra: Beam is also a subscription business model? Deepen Parikh: It wasn’t; it was ad-supported. It was very early. It’s different from The Athletic, which was more of subscription model and...

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India’s Oyo said on Monday it has acquired Copenhagen-based data science firm Danamica as the fast-growing lodging startup works to expand its business in Europe.

Neither of the parties disclosed financial terms of the deal, but a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Oyo paid about $10 million to acquire the Danish firm.

Danamica, which was founded in 2016, has built machine learning tools and “business intelligence capabilities” to specialize in dynamic pricing of rental properties. The firm’s algorithm analyzes 144,000 data points every hour and makes 60 million price changes every day with a prediction accuracy of 97% to help hotels boost their revenue, Oyo said. The Indian startup said Danamica would help it scale its technical expertise as it expands its footprint in overseas markets.

Oyo, which is the largest hotel chain in India, is rapidly expanding in other countries. It has already established presence in 80 countries, the six-year old startup said. About half of its 1 million rooms are in China, where it launched last year.

Today’s announcement comes weeks after Oyo said it planned to invest €300 million in its vacation rental business in Europe, and $300 million toward U.S. expansion over the coming years. In May this year, Oyo bought Amsterdam-based holiday rental company Leisure from Axel Springer for $415 million.

In a prepared statement, Maninder Gulati, Global Head of OYO Vacation and Urban Homes and Chief Strategy Officer of OYO Hotels & Homes, said, “We are delighted to announce our acquisition of Danamica, a Europe based, machine learning and business intelligence company specialized in dynamic pricing, that will help us be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiencies and yield for our real estate owners and value for money for our millions of global guests, both everyday travellers and city dwellers, that choose an OYO Vacation Homes as their abode.”

In July this year, Oyo entered co-working spaces market with the launch of Oyo Workspaces. At a media conference in New Delhi, startup executives said they aim to make Oyo Workspaces the largest business in its category in Asia by end of next year. To immediately capture some market share, Oyo said it had acquired Indian co-working spaces startup Innov8. Sources told TechCrunch then that Oyo had paid about $30 million to acquire Innov8.

In the same month, 25-year-old Ritesh Agarwal (pictured above), founder of SoftBank-backed Oyo, invested $2 billion to triple his stake in the company as early investors Lightspeed and Sequoia partly cashed out. The deal pushed Oyo’s valuation to $10 billion.

You’ve worked hard to build your dream to this point, and now it’s time to launch your early-stage startup on a world-class stage and shift your momentum into high gear. If that description fits, we want you to apply to compete in the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2019.

Our early-stage startup pitch competition is the most effective way to place your startup in front of the investors, tech leaders and media outlets that can change the trajectory of your business in the best way possible. Oh, and the winning founders also receive $50,000. Sweet!

What’s more, applying to and participating in Startup Battlefield is absolutely free — no fees, no equity, no nothing.

Applying is easy, but the selection process is extremely competitive. TechCrunch editors with a keen eye for potential will vet every application and then select 15-20 companies to compete. Founders of those startups will receive six rigorous weeks of pitch coaching — you’ll work hard to craft your pitch, prepare your demo and be ready to strut your stuff with confidence.

When the big day finally arrives, each team will have six minutes to pitch to a world-class panel of judges — followed by a six-minute Q&A session. The founders who make it through to the second round will present again to a fresh set of judges. It’s a lather, rinse, repeat scenario.

One startup will emerge victorious, raise the Disrupt Cup and take home the $50,000 prize. The event takes place in front of a huge audience filled with investors, media and tech icons — and we record and live-stream the whole shooting match around the world.

Not only that, all Startup Battlefield competitors get to exhibit in Startup Alley for the entire show. Even if you don’t win the top prize, you still benefit from the exposure. Plus, you’ll join the ranks of the Startup Battlefield alumni community — now there’s an impressive group.

Since 2007, 857 startups have launched their dreams on the Startup Battlefield stage and gone on to collectively raise $8.9 billion while producing 112 exits. This alumni community includes companies like Vurb, Dropbox, Mint, Yammer and many more. You’ll be among their ranks…let the networking begin!

The Startup Battlefield takes place at Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December. You’ve worked hard to build your dream — now take it to the next level. Apply to Startup Battlefield today.

Pro Tip: If you’re not quite ready to compete in the Battlefield, there’s more than one way to receive the VIP treatment at Disrupt. Use the same application and apply for the TC Top Picks program. If you make the cut, you’ll receive a free Startup Alley Exhibitor Package and stand in a bright spotlight of media and investor attention.

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

Online learning has produced some unicorns and a plethora of niche businesses. Tim talks about one that focuses on the IT learner. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself...

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Our super early bird countdown continues startup fans. If you don’t have your pass to Disrupt Berlin 2019 yet, it’s time to mach schnell — make it quick! Buy your pass now before the deadline strikes on 6 September at 11:59 p.m. (CEST), and you’ll save up to €600. Just five days left, friends. What are you waiting for?

You can save even more money with our group discounts. Buy in bulk, bring your whole team and leave no startup entrepreneur behind. You’ll save 20% when you buy five or more Innovator passes at once. Buy two or more Founder or Investor passes at once and enjoy a 10% savings.

We love Disrupt Berlin’s international diversity. More than 3,000 attendees from more than 50 countries gather to learn about and showcase the latest tech innovations and to connect, collaborate and move their business forward. Disrupt is the crossroad of now and future tech.

You’ll hear from an impressive array of tech leaders, makers, founders and investors on a range of hot topics. One example is Nigel Toon, the co-founder and CEO of Graphcore — a company that’s designing its own dedicated AI chipset. The company has raised more than $300 million from top investors, such as Sequoia Capital, BMW, Microsoft and Samsung. Pretty impressive, but even crazier — the tiny startup competes directly with giant chip companies, such as Nvidia, AMD, Intel and Qualcomm. It’s a race to see who can create the most efficient AI chip.

Director Roxanne Varza will be on hand to give us an update on Station F, the world’s biggest campus for startups. Housed in an historic monument (a beautiful building constructed in 1929), Station F is also a high-tech building and a cornerstone of the French tech ecosystem. Companies like Facebook, Naver (Line), Ubisoft, Microsoft and a host of others run incubators out of Station F, and its also home to more than 1,000 startups.

You can’t talk European success stories without talking UiPath. Currently valued at $7 billion, the company’s wild success comes from creating enterprise software that focuses on repetitive tasks and helps customers automate as many actions as possible. We can’t wait to talk with founder and CEO Daniel Dines — who started the company 15 years ago — about his automation journey.

There’s so much more to do at Disrupt Berlin 2019 and you can do it all for a whole lot less if you buy your pass before the super early bird price vanishes in just five days at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) on 6 September. Mach schnell!

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

Urban, the London-headquartered company that lets you book a growing range of “wellness” services on demand — spanning massage, osteopathy, to various beauty treatments — is adding physiotherapy to its roster in a bid to become a “one-stop-shop” for physical wellbeing.

The new pay-as-you-go physiotherapy offering will let you book a HCPC-registered physio via the Urban app or website for treatment in your home. With NHS wait times several weeks if not months for access to physiotherapy, Urban thinks it has spotted a gap in the market for people that need ongoing treatment or a quick appraisal for a recently sustained injury — and are willing to pay “out of pocket” for the privilege.

In a call with Urban founder Jack Tang and the company’s general manager for physical wellbeing, Joe Jarman, the pair explained that the new service aims to provide access to a private physiotherapist with as little as two hours’ notice, available seven days per week. It will initially be available in London, with a focus on central London where demand (and, presumably, ability to pay) is highest, followed by Manchester and Birmingham.

With that said, pricing is competitive with physiotherapy that is typically offered at a private clinic, and compared to arranging a home visit from a private clinic, it is considerably cheaper. That’s because, claims Jarman, Urban is able to cut down on travel time by clustering nearby bookings via its app in order to maximise potential sessions per day, similar to what it does for other existing Urban wellbeing services. Of course, it doesn’t have the same brick ‘n’ mortar overheads, either.

Jarman says that many of Urban’s physiotherapists work in the NHS during the day but are looking to earn additional income in the evenings and at weekends or want to transition into private practice.

Asked if a service like Urban could place more pressure on the NHS by stretching an already scare resource, he says that the sector as a whole is growing. This has seen a 22% increase in the number of physiotherapists since 2015. In addition, Jarman says one in every three GP consultations relates to MSK issues, and early access to an Urban physiotherapist could help lessen this.

Either way, it’s certainly true that at present and within its current funding and organisational structure, the NHS isn’t very well-positioned to provide speedy MSK-related advice or treatment. Physiotherapy is also an obvious extension to Urban’s existing osteopathy and sports massage treatments.

“We see physiotherapy as the final vital piece so that we can offer a complete package to attain good physical health,” adds Jarman in a statement. “If someone has a problem with their body, we make sure they get the right treatment plan – and they get to choose the time and place”.

Meanwhile, Tang says that now Urban has completed its suite for physical wellbeing, the startup’s attention now turns to “doubling down” on its beauty and body confidence category with more news to share “very soon”.

Spotawheel, a startup operating in Greece and Poland with a car dealership model quite similar to Carvana in the U.S., has picked up €5 million in new funding. Backing the online used car dealership is Venture Friends, which led the round, with participation from Velocity Partners and unnamed “strategic” investors.

The investment includes both equity and debt financing, since part of Spotawheel’s business includes purchasing used cars upfront. It brings total raised by the Athens-headquartered startup to €8 million since launching in 2016.

“Used cars is one of the largest markets in value worldwide growing at a 5-7% rate annually, operating still primarily offline in a notoriously non-transparent way,” says Charis Arvanitis, Spotawheel co-founder and CEO.

This sees potential buyers fear buying a “lemon,” coupled with over-complicated processes, hidden-fees, and fragmented supply. The latter is largely a combination of private sellers via classified ads, and traditional offline used car dealerships.

“The lack of centralized control on the industry’s hugely fragmented seller structure, has prevented any meaningful innovation over the past 20 years, when the typical online classified ads emerged,” says Arvanitis. “That problem is even more evident in Europe, where car trade flows between countries make it much harder to control quality and trace cars history”.

To address this, Spotawheel offers an online B2C platform for used cars that Arvanitis says has redesigned the buy-sell process from scratch to create a “frictionless” and trusted buying experience. The idea is to bring e-commerce levels of convenience and protection to purchasing a used car.

“Customers can opt in for a test drive or have the car delivered countrywide under a 7-day return policy, while enjoying up to 5 years of limited warranty, the largest in Europe,” he says. This is underpinned by Spotawheel’s “predictive analytics” covering the condition and expected failures on a per car basis.

In addition, Arvanitis explains Spotawheel’s car sourcing model combines both debt-financed and marketplace practices, allowing the startup to source the best cars from private owners and B2B resellers across Europe. The includes deploying working capital purchasing vehicles upfront or via a commission-basis agreement.

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