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Original author: Antonio Villas-Boas and Christian de Looper

In July, BMW will roll out a sweeping software update that includes digital personalization and on-demand functions.The automaker envisions a future where people will subscribe to existing features on their cars, such as a heated steering wheel or adaptive cruise control.The software will be compatible with BMWs with the automaker's latest Operating System 7, as well as the 2021 BMW 5 Series.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In July, BMW plans to launch a comprehensive software update on compatible cars that includes digital personalization and on-demand functions. 

The way it works, the automaker explained via a press release, is that BMW will provide the car's necessary hardware and software during assembly so that, later on, it can be activated according to the buyer's preference. 

BMW envisions a situation where, for example, if one customer wanted a feature that wasn't requested when they bought the car, it can be added afterward. And if that car came into new ownership with someone else, that new owner could also activate the features that they want. 

2020 BMW Connected Car Beta Days. BMW

CNN better details this subscription service by giving tech features — adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, adaptive suspension — and comfort features — a heated steering wheel — as examples.

"We offer maximum flexibility and peace of mind to our customers when it comes to choosing and using their optional equipment in their BMWs, whether this BMW is new or used," a BMW spokesperson told Techcrunch.

"In the near future, we will not only be able to add more functions here, but we will also be able to add even more flexibility for our customers with temporary bookings so booking of options for three years, for one year, or even shorter periods of time, like a few months," the spokesperson continued.

BMW didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's inquiries of when and in which markets customers can expect these on-demand functions and digital personalization to roll out. 

According to CNN, the company said that hypothetically a first owner could purchase a three-year subscription to heated seats, which is how long that person would expect to keep the car. Then, the next owner could decide for themselves if they wanted to subscribe to the heated seats, too. 

This, of course, requires the car to already have the feature's hardware built-in from the factory, such as the required sensors for adaptive cruise control or the heating elements in a seat or steering wheel. BMW casts the idea in a very favorable light in its press release, stating that it is "strengthening selection and personalization for customers, offering them maximum flexibility."

Yet, this move can also be seen as the start of major automakers' dangerous slide into the territory of microtransactions. Microtransactions, known and hated in the gaming world as in-game purchases, have infuriated players by essentially charging them more money to enjoy a game they already bought.

2020 BMW Connected Car Beta Days. BMW

This BMW could end up being similar. Your car would have all the necessary hardware already included. You would still pay for the gas to haul it all around. But you would also have to pay BMW a subscription fee just for it to turn the features on. What happens if, after a while, the cost of the subscription outpaces the price of the feature itself? 

Then you have to consider what happens in the used-car market. Will the new owner also be on the hook for paying for now-outdated hardware? 

Tesla famously offers over-the-air features, but as Jalopnik reported in February, this isn't always a perfect process from owner to owner. A customer, according to the outlet, bought a used Tesla Model S that was equipped with Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving Capability — features totaling about $8,000 — only to find that both were removed from the car during a software update without his permission. 

2020 BMW Connected Car Beta Days. BMW

This was because, as Tesla customer support told the customer, "Tesla has recently identified instances of customers being incorrectly configured for Autopilot versions that they did not pay for. Since, there was an audit done to correct these instances. Your vehicle is one of the vehicles that was incorrectly configured for Autopilot."

There are, as Jalopnik pointed out, entire forum threads dedicated to this happening to other people.

It does state in its press release that the new 5 Series, as well as every BMW that will be built after July 2020, will be compatible with the upgrade. The cars just need the automaker's latest Operating System 7.

Original author: Kristen Lee

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Original author: Business Insider

A tenant in Atlanta that subleased space at the Salesforce Tower to Knotel late last year is suing the firm for over $150,000 in unpaid rent.The tenant also wants to boot the flexible workspace provider from the nearly 25,000 square foot space.A construction contractor, meanwhile, has placed a lien against the building for almost $80,000 it says it is owed by Knotel for work on the space.The debts are the latest to pile on the company, which is said to owe brokerage firms unpaid commissions and has fallen behind on office rent at other locations.For more stories like this, sign up here for our Wall Street Insider newsletter.

Signs of stress continue to hamper the flexible-workspace firm Knotel.

A company in Atlanta is suing to boot Knotel from an office space at the Salesforce Tower in the city's Buckhead Heights section and recoup over $150,000 in unpaid rent and other expenses.

Separately a contractor that performed construction work on the space has filed a lien against the property, claiming that Knotel owes it nearly $80,000.

Rubicon, a waste-management software firm, sued Knotel in Georgia state court last month, accusing the workspace firm of failing to pay rent for the Salesforce Tower's 18th floor in May or June. Knotel subleased the 24,653 square foot space last December from Rubicon, agreeing to pay $77,318.24 a month for the office, according to the complaint.

Read More: Knotel and insurance startup Rhino didn't disclose its CEOs were brothers when it struck a complex financial deal. Now a key partner could be on the hook as Knotel scrambles to pay bills, slashes staff, and plans to shed portions of its portfolio.

Rubicon claims it is not only owed rent, but a 10% late fee that Knotel agreed to pay in the sublease deal, and that it is entitled to reimbursement for costs it incurs for the litigation, such as attorneys fees. The company is asking the court to remove Knotel "immediately from premises," according to the suit.

A spokesman for Rubicon declined to comment on the case. 

The Warren-Hanks Construction Company, which filed a $77,729 mechanic's lien in March against the building for unpaid work it claims it performed on Knotel's space, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for Knotel didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the situation.

In a letter sent to Rubicon on May 29 by Knotel's chief investment officer, Jonathan Goldberg, that is included as part of the court records related to the case, Knotel indicated that the economic dislocation from the Covid-19 pandemic had prevented it from paying rent for the space and that it would seek "an abatement of all rent due and an extension of time to perform any other obligations under the sublease."

Read More: Leaked Knotel financials reveal that the WeWork rival had huge pre-pandemic losses and now has more unpaid bills than cash. It's a grim sign for the flex-office space.

"The duration of the force majeure event, under the circumstances is not determinable at this time," Goldberg stated in the letter to Rubicon, referring to a legal argument being used in court by a growing group of tenants that seeks to label the virus crisis as an "act of god" that should relieve them from rent and lease obligations. "During the period of the force majeure event, any rental payments under the sublease shall be abated to the extent permitted under the sublease or under any applicable laws or governmental orders."

The pandemic crisis has prompted flexible-workspace clients to withhold rent or vacate spaces, placing a strain on providers such as Knotel and WeWork. It wasn't clear if Knotel had found a user for its space at the Salesforce Tower and whether that party was paying Knotel for the space.

Knotel has faced mounting unpaid bills as its once fast-growing business has struggled. It was recently sued by a landlord in San Francisco who alleges the company failed to pay over $110,000 in rent for space it leased at 972 Mission Street in April and May, along with other charges. A landlord in New York has also sued Knotel, claiming $169,000 in unpaid rent. 

Knotel also owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid commissions to major brokerage firms who helped find takers for its 2.5-million-square-foot portfolio in New York. Recent information for the company uncovered by Business Insider painted a bleak financial picture for the firm.

Knotel lost $49 million in the first quarter of 2020, according to an income statement seen by Business Insider, and its balance sheet listed $110 million of assets versus $238 million of liabilities and a little less than $36 million in the bank at the end of the first quarter. 

Have a tip? Contact Daniel Geiger at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 352-2884, or Twitter DM at @dangeiger79. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Daniel Geiger

Productivity and collaboration apps that enable remote work are seeing huge demand right now and while Microsoft still largely dominates the workplace, there are many newer apps trying to reinvent pieces of the productivity suite. Companies like Notion are rethinking how document sharing and collaboration should work, Airtable is rethinking what spreadsheets are used for, and Front is reimagining how coworkers should use email. Business Insider spoke to venture capitalists and analysts to compile the following list of productivity and collaboration startups that are reinventing the traditional office suite and taking on Microsoft.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Productivity and collaboration apps that enable remote work are seeing huge demand right now, as companies look for ways to keep employees connected and effective while working from home. Tools that were already popular before the pandemic — like Microsoft, Slack, and Zoom — have seen user numbers skyrocket even more dramatically. 

Microsoft in particular has reaped the benefits via its chat and collaboration app Teams, which is bundled in its Office 365 suite along with Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and more. Microsoft Teams' number of daily active users jumped to 75 million in April, with analysts speculating that Teams saw such a large jump in usage because it was the most convenient collaboration platform for many businesses to adopt since they were already paying for Microsoft's suite to use its other tools. 

While Microsoft still largely dominates the workplace, startups are chipping away at different parts of its suite by inventing new types of workplace collaboration and productivity apps to reinvent specific tools that office workers typically use. For example, Notion is rethinking how document sharing and collaboration should work, Airtable is rethinking spreadsheets, and Front is reimagining how coworkers should use email. 

Tools like that are creating new categories "around or adjacent to the traditional office productivity suite," said Rich Wong, a partner at Accel. "These are different forms of collaboration tools that, over time, will change the nature of how people work." 

As the shift to remote work increases the need for better work tools, many of these new productivity and collaboration startups are poised to grow. Business Insider spoke to five venture capitalists and analysts to compile the following list of productivity and collaboration startups that are reinventing the traditional office suite.

Here are the 14 companies that they recommended that are reinventing work (all funding and valuations taken from PitchBook unless otherwise noted): 

Original author: Paayal Zaveri

Investment bank Needham has lowered its Google Q2 revenue estimate to down 7% year-over-year, a downgrade from the 5% they previously predicted."Our sources suggest that international ad revs are down more than in the US," they said.They also believe Amazon presents a "structural" threat to Google's key money-making business right now and is a big reason Google's search ads are losing market share.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google will announced its second-quarter results later this month, and one Wall Street firm has just lowered its expectations.

Needham analysts have lowered their Q2 revenue estimate for the company to a year-over-year drop of 7%, a downgrade from the 5% they had originally projected.

Google's search and advertising business is being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, driven "by material declines in travel, auto, entertainment, media and retail ads – both search and video ads," according to the Needham note shared with Business Insider.

The analyst note follows an earlier report from eMarketer which projected that Google's search revenues would decline in Q2 for the very first time in history. RBC's Mark Mahaney told Business Insider back in March that he predicted the same.

"Our sources suggest that international ad revs are down more than in the US," said Needham analysts in the note, which projects flat revenue for Google's full 2020 year.

Based on eMarketer data, travel made up about 11% of Google's search ad revenue in 2019, representing a big hit to the company's key moneymaking business.

Alongside these losses, the analysts note that "rising unemployment levels and GDP declines" are driving lower consumer spending right now.

And as the COVID-19 pandemic hammers Google hard, Needham's analysts believe Amazon now has the opportunity to benefit.

While Facebook still has a greater share of the digital ad market than Amazon right now, Needham analysts believe that the ongoing Facebook advertising boycott, combined with the loss of small businesses to the pandemic, makes Amazon the bigger problem for Google.

"[Amazon] is the better reason Google-search ads are losing market share, in our view," said the analysts. "[Amazon] represents a structural attack against Google's-search product, not just a COVID-19 related problem, in our view."

To back that up, the analysts cites statistics that 70% of Amazon Prime members begin their searches on Amazon rather than Google, and that Prime members also spend an average of $1,400 a year.

Google is clearly aware of that threat too: just last week, the company announced it would allow merchants to promote their products at the top of Google's search pages for free.

Google is trying to lure more sellers onto its platform and away from Amazon, which has seen a huge boost in online shopping during the pandemic. Financial services firm Cowen predicts Amazon's ad business will make $17.6 billion this year.

Original author: Hugh Langley

There's a debate raging over whether in-game loot boxes encourage kids to gamble.In the UK, the House of Lords this week recommended the legal reclassification of loot boxes in video games as gambling.Loot boxes are a mechanic where a player pays either with in-game currency or real money for a randomized in-game item. These items can sometimes be traded amongst players for real money as well.Experts are divided over whether paying for loot boxes has a causal link to gambling and one told Business Insider it could be "apocalyptically stupid" to regulate loot boxes like gambling without doing more research.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The video game industry might have a fight on its hands as the UK looks poised to reclassify a popular game mechanic as gambling.

On Thursday the House of Lords published a report on the harms of gambling, which found that in the UK there are 55,000 problem gamblers aged between 11 and 15.

Included in the report's findings on problem gambling was the recommendation that so-called "loot boxes" in video games be immediately reclassified by the government to fall under the remit of 2005 Gambling Act.

Loot boxes have become a common feature in games, although they are far from beloved by many gamers.

Exactly how they work varies from game to game, but generally they work like this: you buy a loot box using either in-game currency or real money, and it churns out a randomized reward. These rewards normally give players something superficial, a new item of clothing they can give their game character for example, and don't give them any actual edge over other players in the game.

Loot boxes can be found in mainstream games such as "Fortnite," "Overwatch" and the "FIFA" franchise.

Research from the University of York found in 2019 that 71% of the top games on Steam, a popular platform where people download games, contained loot boxes.

In some games, players are able to trade the rewards they get from loot boxes with each other for real money. Loot boxes and this accompanying practice of trading items are collectively known as "microtransactions." In 2018 a report from analysts at Juniper Research found microtransactions generated $30 billion in sales for gaming firms or apps, and projected that the industry could be worth $50 billion by 2022.

The UK committee that published this week's report took evidence from Dr David Zendle, a lecturer in computer science at the University of York.

Dr Zendle's research has shown there is a correlation between spending money on loot boxes and problem gambling.

In written evidence submitted to the committee, Dr Zendle said spending money on loot boxes could be a "gateway" to gambling.

Correlation versus causation

In his evidence to the committee, Zendle said it may not be that loot boxes are a leading people to gambling, but rather people who enjoy gambling already are more likely to be drawn to loot boxes.

"Problem gambling is characterized by uncontrolled excessive spending on gambling. Loot boxes share many similarities with gambling. It therefore makes sense that this uncontrolled spending may transfer to loot boxes too," he wrote.

For some researchers, the data simply isn't there to justify new laws.

"We're really only in the early phases of gathering scientific research evidence about the nature of loot box effects," Professor Pete Etchells, a psychologist specializing in video games at Bath Spa University, told Business Insider. "What we really need is a clearer and stronger evidence base before legislation is changed,"

"Trying to crack a nut with this sledgehammer"

Professor Andrew Przybylski of the Oxford Internet Institute agreed that more research would need to be done to properly regulate loot boxes, and warned that jumping to regulate loot boxes like gambling is putting the cart before the horse.

"If loot boxes are bad I want to know why they're bad," Przybylski told Business Insider, adding that jumping to regulate loot boxes could distract from meaningful legislation to actually counteract problem gambling.

"I want harmful things in games to be identified and removed. But I just get a sense people are going to pat themselves on the back, say 'job done,' and a decade from now there'll be more than 55,000 problem gamblers between the ages of 11 and 16."

Przybylski also said that blanket regulation of video games with loot box mechanics as gambling would be "apocalyptically stupid," as this would essentially mean slapping an 18+ label on a wide range of games aimed at children, such as "Fortnite" and "FIFA."

He compared the call for immediate regulation with the UK's ill-fated age-verification porn block law, which was proposed in 2017 and was eventually scrapped in 2019 after concerns over whether it could be enforced eventually tanked the project.

"Trying to crack a nut with this sledgehammer [...] five years from now we'll see how stupid it is," he said.

Although the evidence on whether there's a causal link between loot boxes and gambling is equivocal, Dr Zendle told Business Insider that the video game industry brought this on itself.

"Loot boxes have been prevalent for more than half a decade," he said. "Rather than help to discover whether there are potential negative consequences from this widespread in-game feature, industry representatives have instead engaged in what I perceive as a system of obfuscation and non-cooperation."

"Industry actions have muddied the waters to the extent that the specific harms emerging from loot boxes will likely not be known for many years. This leaves regulators and policymakers few options when it comes to protecting the people they are responsible for," he added.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Elon Musk on Saturday denied that the late convicted sex offender and multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein was given a tour of a SpaceX facility. A photo showed Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's alleged co-conspirator who was arrested on Thursday, raising questions about his relationship to Musk. In a statement to Vanity Fair last year, Musk distanced himself from Epstein, who he said was "obviously a creep."  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk refuted rumors Saturday that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein toured his Space X facilities as a photo of Musk and Epstein's alleged co-conspirator — the recently arrested Ghislaine Maxwell — continues to re-circulate on social media.

"To the best our knowledge, he never toured SpaceX," Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, tweeted Saturday. "Don't know where that comes from."

In response to the viral photo, which users have been sending to him on Twitter, the Tesla CEO said he did not know Maxwell and that he attended the party, which was hosted by Vanity Fair in 2014, with his then-wife.

"Real question is why did VF invite her?" Musk tweeted.

"Ghislaine simply inserted herself behind him in a photo he was posing for without his knowledge," a spokesperson told Business Insider about the photo in 2019 prior to its re-circulation as a result of her arrest. Photos of Maxwell and prominent figures — including President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton — have been widely shared amid her arrest.

On Thursday, the US Justice Department announced Maxwell was charged with enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and two counts of perjury. 

As Business Insider previously reported in January, two sources said that Epstein introduced Kimbal Musk — Elon Musk's brother — to a woman in his entourage reportedly in an effort to grow favor with Musk and gain access to his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. 

"It almost seemed a little more transactional. The rumor has always been that Epstein facilitated introductions to beautiful women, looking for deal flow or access to capital," one source familiar with the couple told Business Insider.

According to the report, the efforts were at least somewhat successful as Epstein and "members of his entourage" were granted a private tour of Elon Musk's SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, in 2012, which Musk has now denied. As Business Insider reported, the tour had been organized by Musk's brother and it is unclear whether either Elon or Kimbal Musk were present when it reportedly occurred.

In a statement last year to Vanity Fair, Musk distanced himself from Musk, denying accusations he introduced Epstein to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and said he was at Epstein's Manhattan home for just a half-hour with his ex-wife, actress Talulah Riley. Musk said his ex-wife was interested in Epstein for a "novel she was writing." 

"We did not see anything inappropriate at all, apart from weird art," he said last year. "He tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined."

Read more: 

Nikola's CEO gives the biggest reason why businesses should buy the Nikola Two instead of Tesla's Semi truck

These Yale students built an app that makes it super simple for people to communicate with incarcerated loved ones for free

Rahul Narang's tech fund has gotten top marks for risk-adjusted returns for 2 years running. He's done it in part by focusing on stocks that other investors won't touch.

Why an early exec quit unicorn food delivery startup Deliveroo to launch a food business in the middle of a pandemic

Original author: Connor Perrett

 

Welcome to Wall Street Insider, where we take you behind the scenes of the finance team's biggest scoops and deep dives from the past week. 

If you aren't yet a subscriber to Wall Street Insider, you can sign up here.

Dealmaking activity has fallen off a cliff this year, as executives focus on steering their existing businesses through the havoc caused by the coronavirus crisis instead of seeking out new deals. Data from Refinitiv released this week showed that the drop in activity was more pronounced for bigger M&A transactions, with the overall value of deals worth more than $5 billion down 53% year-on-year.

As Alex Morrell reports, the fading memories of the megadeals of the last few years are hitting boutique banks. Independent investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners was ramping up its footprint after an explosive start in 2016, landing one of the largest mergers in history — AT&T's $100 billion deal for Time Warner. 

But since then, deals have been scarce for Perella's media and telecom team, and the group has been gutted by departures in 2020. Alex dives into how experienced media and telecom bankers have been laid off, quietly asked to leave, or departed for other firms.

Read the full story here: 

Over in the world of real estate, big office deals are stalling as banks grow cautious about extending debt over concerns about the future of the workplace. Dan Geiger reports on how this is especially perilous for real estate investors who have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to enter into contracts for buildings like the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco. 

Despite the uncertainty of when or how people will occupy spaces like they did in the pre-pandemic era, there are real estate players looking far into the future. As Dan reports, a Las Vegas landlord, which owns some of the strip's biggest casino resorts like Caesars Palace, is plotting the city's next mega-project. Recruiting for executives to lead new projects is also picking up, reports Alex Nicoll, who spoke to four recruiters on the roles they're looking to fill.

Keep reading for a look at how private equity and hedge fund firms are ramping up their efforts in impact investing; some due diligence drama between Anthony Scaramucci and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management; and the story behind a JPMorgan trading team's hot streak. 

Have a great holiday weekend, 

Michelle Abrego

(Meredith is on vacation and will be back next week.)

PE goes ESG

The Carlyle Group; JUST Capital; TPG; Impactive Capital; Samantha Lee/Business Insider

The coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing reckoning of racial justice and equity in the workplace have put ESG investing at the forefront of the conversations in the asset management business.

As Casey Sullivan and Bradley Saacks report, some private-equity firms and activist hedge funds are committing resources and capital to ESG and impact investing.

Read the full story here: 

The Mooch vs. Merrill 

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci sent a 6-page, strongly-worded memo to Andy Sieg, the president of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, on Thursday after the company downgraded its flagship fund, Meghan Morris reveals. 

In a leaked memo seen by Business Insider, Scaramucci said Merrill Lynch published an inaccurate due diligence report. He called the firms' relationship "yet another casualty of the pandemic," writing that the report "reflects a breakdown in communication" between the firms – one he didn't think would happen if executives had met in person.

Read the full story here:

Victorious volatility trades

REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Markets have produced bizarre and historic results in the first half of 2020, creating stark swings and diverging fortunes for traders.

As Alex Morrell reports, that's especially true in the world of equity derivatives and the traders that bet on volatility, where some investment funds have flamed out spectacularly while many Wall Street banks have minted hundreds of millions in revenues.

Read the full story here: 

Hackers are targeting private equity firms 

Cyberattacks have been on the rise in 2020 due to the pandemic, with financial services targeted the most.

Private equity, in particular, has been viewed as a viable new opportunity for cybercriminals as they have deep pockets and wire large sums of money, reports Dan DeFrancesco. While bigger PE firms have the resources to dedicate to cybersecurity, the process at small to mid-size shops remains a work in progress.

Read the full story here:

The future of fintech is infrastructure  

Point72 Ventures

As Shannen Balogh reports, fintechs are looking for ways to reimagine and disrupt core banking services that have been long dominated by infrastructure giants like FIS and Fiserv.

"They are all, as it currently stands, very good businesses with large customer bases who trust them, but the fact of the matter is they've fallen behind on technology," Tripp Shriner, partner at Point72 Ventures told Shannen.

Shriner isn't alone in his prediction. Goldman's investment banking head of fintech also says that the next trend to watch in fintech is players that focus on banks' core, often dated, infrastructure. 

Read more:

Business Insider events

Index Ventures; Fast; Samantha Lee/Business Insider

One-click checkout startup Fast raised its $20 million Series A from investors including Index Ventures and buzzy fintech Stripe in May as it looks to take on Apple Pay to solve pain-points around password management and online checkout.

Join Business Insider reporter Shannen Balogh on Tuesday, July 14 at 1:30 p.m ET when she will speak with Domm Holland, Fast's co-founder and CEO, and Jan Hammer, general partner at Index Venture. They'll discuss how Holland came up with the idea for Fast, how to build a pitch deck, and what it takes to win over investors.

You can also join Business Insider on July 8 at 12 p.m. ET for "Planning for the Future in Uncertain Times," a free digital event and part of the Master Your Money series. Presented by Fidelity, it will explore components of a strong financial plan and how to adjust it given recent events. 

Real estate

Careers

Wealth management & fintech

Going public

Original author: Michelle Abrego

Ferrari F8 Spider. Matthew DeBord/Insider

The F8 Spider, like the F8 Tributo, has taken the spectacular twin-turbo V8 from the 488 and via the 488 Pista, jacked the horsepower up to an impressive level. You might think that would make for a more beastly machine than the 488, which produced an already stunning 661 hp.

Ironically, it doesn't. If anything, driving the F8 Spider is a more ... dare I say "mellow" experience than managing the 488 Spider. Mellow is the wrong word, of course. What Ferrari's engineers have done, along with intensifying the power, is to tweak the F8 so that it's aerodynamic stability encourages the driver to dig into the extra oomph. 

It's a neat trick. A reality-distortion field, even. How can the car be smoothing out and settling down, even as I compress the throttle more and more and more and watch the tach move closer to that 8,000 rpm redline? Whistling turbos, screaming exhaust, that sacred wild Ferrari sound, and yet the speed and noise induce a focused trace rather than a fearful desire to rein in the car.

To be honest, in the context of a mid-engine Ferrari, the calm is unsettling, at least initially. One can ruffle it, often considerably, simply by flicking the manettino to the "Race" setting, breaking out the foot of lead, and unleashing hell. But the metaphor of an iceberg occurred to me: I was seeing but a small piece of what the F8 had to offer. I could tell that there was much, much more.

This is the ever-present problem that manifests when 710 horsepower and Ferrari technology take to roads where the posted speed limit is something of an insult to the vehicle. Fortunately, the F8 is a pleasure to cruise in, ramping up and down the torque curve and savoring the visceral thrills of that stonking V8, the blabs and burbles of the exhaust, the whiz of the turbos, the decisive yet never technocratic nature of the transmission when paddle-shifting the gears.

The convertible makes the whole experience all the more satisfying, especially if you have a medium-warm, early summer sunsplashed day and some winding country roads to wend and wind around, finessing the F8's power and engaging the quick yet solid steering, safe in the knowledge that the superb brakes and fat sticky tires will keep you out of trouble.

A few hours of this and I found myself able to — I kid you not — meditate on the machine. "F8... F8... F8," became my mantra. I explored subtle subtexts. Delved into the magical balance of monumental horsepower and punishing torque with beauty and Italian verve. With the wind whipping through my straw hat. 

In the end, the F8 Spider was almost too good for its own good. I expect Ferrari sports cars to be more challenging. I crave it. Even if I can't tap the fully wild, I want that shivering glimpse. This time around, however, I was more soothed than intimidated. This was more a function of the F8 Spider being constrained by normality than any evasion of its nature. And I knew at any time I could throw a switch and summon mad urges.

But for hundreds of miles, in a Ferrari supercar, I was utterly at peace.

Original author: Matthew DeBord

Nikola says its Nikola Two hydrogen-powered semi truck will have 500-750 miles of range, compared to the 300-500 miles Tesla has said its Semi will be able to drive between charges.Battery-powered vehicles require a trade-off between range and storage capacity, Nikola CEO Mark Russell told Business Insider.More range means a bigger battery, and less room for freight.Are you a current or former Nikola employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has mocked the idea that hydrogen fuel cells could serve as a viable alternative to batteries as a power source for electric vehicles. But, according to the electric-vehicle startup Nikola, which, among other products, plans to make semi trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells, its models will have a range advantage over Tesla's freight truck, the Semi, which will run on batteries.

"Diesel's more energy-dense than a battery. Hydrogen's more energy-dense than diesel fuel. So we can get a freight load a long way with just a little bit of hydrogen," Nikola CEO Mark Russell said in an interview with Business Insider.

The Nikola Two semi truck will have 500-750 miles of range, the startup says, compared to the 300-500 miles offered by the Semi. Of course, like the other electric-vehicle startups that have promised head-turning specs, Nikola has not yet delivered any vehicles (it plans to release a battery-powered semi truck next year, with its hydrogen-powered models to follow in 2023), so it remains to be seen whether the production version of the Nikola Two will live up to the expectations the company has set.

But there's a simple reason the Nikola Two will be able to travel farther than the Semi between refuelings, according to Russell. Batteries are heavy and take up space, creating a trade-off between a semi truck's capacity and range. If you want more range, you'll need a bigger battery, which means you won't have as much room to carry freight. Russell gave as an example Anheuser-Busch, which has pre-ordered up to 800 semi trucks from Nikola. Anheuser-Busch transports beer from Los Angeles to Phoenix every day, Russell said, on a route that spans over 400 miles.

"If you tried to do that with batteries — to go 400 miles — then your battery is so big and heavy that you would have to take several pallets of beer, thousands of pounds of beer off of that truck and replace it with extra batteries to get that far," he said.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

One potential issue with hydrogen-powered vehicles, and a possible reason why they're not as popular with consumers as battery-powered vehicles, is that they require new refueling infrastructure; you can't plug in a hydrogen-powered vehicle at your home or business. To address that concern, Nikola is building a network of fueling stations that will begin in California and eventually spread across North America and Europe. The cost of fuel will be included in the lease agreements it signs with customers.

Are you a current or former Nikola employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Original author: Mark Matousek

In March, a startup called Ameelio launched an app that helps people communicate with incarcerated loved ones for free.Usually, phone calls or text messages to incarcerated people can be expensive, and it can be difficult to find the correct address for mailing a letter. Ameelio allows people to locate an address, upload a letter, and send it for free.Ameelio has over 5,200 users and has sent over 21,000 letters so far.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It can be expensive and difficult for family members to maintain contact with incarcerated loved one: About one in three families go into debt to pay for phone calls and visits, research shows. 

Phone calls in prison are often curtailed and can be costly, and while some facilities allow text messaging, the length of messages can be limited and pricey, too. Family members may want to mail a letter, instead, but struggle to find the correct address. 

And now, during the coronavirus pandemic, many prisons have paused visitation.

To make it easier and cheaper for family and friends to connect with their loved ones in prison, two Yale students teamed up to launch an app called Ameelio in March that makes it dead-simple to send physical letters to incarcerated people for free. 

"We wanted to touch on the urgency of the moment," Ameelio co-founder and Yale Law School student Uzoma Orchingwa told Business Insider.

Ameelio allows users to type an incarcerated person's name into its database to automatically pull up the correct address information. Users don't need to worry about getting envelopes and stamps, either: Instead, they can just take a picture of their handwritten letter. Ameelio then works with mail company Lob to convert the picture to a PDF that Lob prints out and sends. The user can then track the letter until it arrives at its destination. The key feature: It's absolutely free for people to use Ameelio to send letters. 

This is especially useful as people may be stuck at home or unable to afford stamps or envelopes during the pandemic, says Emma Gray, head of partnerships and outreach for Ameelio.

"The quarantine is affecting incarcerated men and women themselves," Gray told Business Insider. "They might be solitary. They can't call or contact their loved ones. Their loved ones start worrying."

Ameelio has over 5,200 users and has sent more than 21,000 letters so far. 

How Ameelio began

Orchingwa says that while conducting research on mass incarceration at the University of Cambridge, he found that many people cannot afford to stay in contact with their loved ones who are in prison. 

"I realized that the policy prescriptions we need to change the size of our prison system will take a long time to happen," Orchingwa said. "I was looking for ways to make an impact in the long-term." 

While studying at Yale, Orchingwa cold-emailed his fellow student Gabriel Saruhashi saying that he was looking for a technical cofounder. Saruhashi had spent a summer interning at Facebook as a software engineer where he felt alienated and like his work was not as meaningful as he wanted it to be. The two decided to meet up at a cafe and they "hit it off" right away. They decided to start working together on a nonprofit technology company and chose the name Ameelio because it comes from the word "amelioration," which means, 'to make things better.'

Orchingwa says this cause was meaningful to him both because he has close friends who have been incarcerated and because Black people make up one-third of the prison population in the US. 

Likewise, Saruhashi, who is originally from Brazil, says he was shocked to learn more about the American incarceration system.

"Just talking to Zo, I was outraged by the current status system," Saruhashi told Business Insider.

Ameelio partners with criminal justice organizations to spread the word and make the service free 

To spread the word about the app, the founders joined Facebook groups for people with family members who are incarcerated. Over half of its users come from recommendations from their own friends and families, or even incarcerated people themselves. Other users learned about the app through these Facebook groups.

Right now, the team of about 45 volunteers, including three formerly incarcerated people, are working on building relationships with lawyers and advocacy organizations to spread the word and also raise funds. Lob lowered its fees for the company and Ameelio has received some funding from Mozilla and a Kickstarter campaign, but it's still looking for other organizations to pitch in so that it can continue to provide the service to users for free. 

So far, Ameelio has signed on eight philanthropic partner organizations. Criminal justice organizations have also been reaching out to Ameelio to send out newsletters and introductory letters to incarcerated people. 

In addition, it plans to speak with Connecticut lawmakers who are pushing a bill in Connecticut to make prison phone calls free. 

Read more: Read the letter that more than 1,600 Google employees sent to CEO Sundar Pichai asking the company to stop selling technology to police forces: 'We want Google to take real steps to help dismantle racism.'

While Ameelio started with letters and photos, Orchingwa hopes it can expand to video calling and messaging as well. It plans to run a six-month pilot of its video-conferencing service and has already been talking with five possible partner facilities to provide Ameelio's service free of charge during this pilot.

"We think states are going to be more interested in rolling out virtual communication in prison," Orchingwa said. "We'd love to be able to offer that in the future."

Right now, the main goal is to grow the user base.

"Our users have been reaching out to us and really appreciating the service," Orchingwa said, "Because it allows a different communication tool that is incredibly impactful now that things are incredibly difficult."

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Signal at 646.376.6106, Telegram at @rosaliechan, or Twitter DM at @rosaliechan17. (PR pitches by email only, please.) Other types of secure messaging available upon request.

Original author: Rosalie Chan

Rahul Narang runs one of the best-performing tech funds over the last five years, the Columbia Global Technology Growth Fund.His strategy has been to focus on the two ends of the tech market — the most and least expensive stocks; over time, both have performed better than those in the middle, he told Business Insider.Narang's fund is built around three big components: companies with so-called moats; underappreciated, value stocks; and those that are capitalizing on the big themes in tech.In the value area, he likes several semiconductor stocks, in part because they're likely going to benefit from some of the emerging trends.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In tech investing, many fund managers stay well clear of value stocks.

Rahul Narang likes to buy them up.

Like many tech investors, Narang, who runs the Columbia Global Technology Growth Fund, spends a good deal of time — and dedicates a big portion of his fund's portfolio — to the in-demand stocks, whether the technology giants or the up-and-comers. But unlike many of his peers, Narang also reserves a sizable portion of his fund for some of the cheapest stocks in the technology world.

His reasons are simple. Over the last 40 years, according to Narang's research, the most and least expensive tech stocks have outperformed the vast majority of companies priced in the middle. What's more, the value stocks tend to balance things out during the periods when the market sours on the fastest growers and priciest companies.

Owning those companies "keeps us in the game during those periods of sell-off," Narang told Business Insider in an interview last week.

That strategy is paying off.

The Global Technology Growth fund ranked in the top 20 tech funds for its performance over the last five years, including through the coronavirus dip, according to Morningstar Direct. The fund has also won the Lipper award for its category for the last two years for having the best risk-adjusted returns over the last five years.

Narang looks for companies with moats

Narang's fund has three key components, although one of those pieces kind of blurs into the other two.

The fund invests more than half of its fund's assets — and sometimes as much as 60% or 65% — in companies that have significant so-called moats. These are firms that dominate their sectors, have few competitors, and have the ability to raise prices as needed or desired.

For Narang and this fund, this group includes many of the usual suspects among the big tech companies. The Global Technology Fund's biggest holdings, by far, are its stakes in Microsoft and Apple. It also has sizeable positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, Adobe, Nvidia, and Visa.

When the fund finds moat companies — or those with the potential to develop into them — it holds on to them, Narang said.

The fund's "best ideas" are "our biggest positions, and we've stayed with them over time," he said.

The second big component of the fund's holdings are the value stocks. These are companies that for various reasons trade at low multiples of their earnings or sales. Value stocks tend to get a bad name in tech investing because often the companies with low valuations are those whose best days are past them, firms whose businesses have been disrupted, or whose products have been replaced by a new generation of technology.

He likes value stocks, but not just because they're cheap

Narang is certainly aware and wary of that dynamic. He and his team try to avoid those whose businesses are in decline.

"You don't want to buy stocks just because they're cheap," he said. "That is a fool's errand. You will lose money consistently."

But he still think investors can find gold in the value pile. He and his team look for companies whose potential is being underestimated by the market. Often in such cases the market is missing or undervaluing a fundamental change taking place either at a particular company or a broader industry.

Take Apple.

For years, it was basically a value stock, because investors saw it a hardware maker whose primary industry — smartphones — was starting to decline, Narang said. But the company had some huge and underappreciated strengths — a standout balance sheet with huge amounts of cash, a strong management team, and a moat in the form of large numbers of customers that were essentially locked into its ecosystem of phones, computers, and software.

And, he said, many investors didn't recognize that it was starting to capitalize on that moat to sell a raft of subscription-based services to those same customers to generate something the market highly values — recurring revenue.

When the market finally recognized what Apple was doing, its stock started to grow again, rapidly.

Narang and his team saw similar potential in the makers of computer memory, including Micron and Samsung. Those companies tend to trade at low multiples, in part because instead of offering consistent earnings growth, they go through boom-and-bust cycles.

But a few years ago, Narang and his team recognized the industry was changing, Narang said.

The memory business had consolidated down to three main players and excess capacity — which led to lower prices and profit margins — was been taken out of the system.

They bet that this would allow the remaining players to become much more profitable in the near future and their stocks would grow as a result. Although the memory companies had a rocky year last year, over the longer term that's been a good bet.

With Apple and the memory market, "Our opinion was that the market wasn't giving enough credit for [the] scenarios that were playing out over time," he said.

Narang looks for companies that are capitalizing on themes

The final piece of Narang's strategy is to focus on the big themes in the technology industry and to find the companies that are best at taking advantage of them.

Some of the themes he and his team are focused on are well-established ones, such as the growth of cloud computing, e-commerce, and mobile gaming. Others are emergent, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and 5G wireless networking.

The theme area, though, gets a little squishy, because it blends into the other two parts of the Global Technology Growth Fund's portfolio. Narang and his team look for moat and value stocks that are capitalizing on the important themes. On the moat side, Apple and Amazon are taking advantage of numerous themes.

On the value side of the portfolio, the memory chip makers are poised to capitalize on trends such autonomous vehicles and 5G phones, which will up the demand for memory, Narang said.

The upcoming boom in such devices is going to drive demand for chips, and another of the fund's value plays, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, should benefit, he said. So too should Broadcom, which makes chips that are used in cloud computing data centers and in wireless devices.

"Semiconductors are one way to get thematic exposure at a cheaper valuation," Narang said.

Got a tip about the tech industry or tech investing? Contact Troy Wolverton via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Troy Wolverton

Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the nine most in-demand original TV shows on streaming services in the US.This week includes Netflix's "Dark" and DC Universe's "Harley Quinn."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix's hit sci-fi series "Dark" recently returned with its third and final season and it has shot up through the audience demand ranking this week. 

Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the nine most in-demand TV shows on streaming services in the US.

The data is based on "demand expressions," Parrot Analytics' globally standardized TV-demand measurement unit. Audience demand reflects the desire, engagement, and viewership weighted by importance. The list is ranked by how much more in demand the top series are than the average TV show in the US.

DC Universe's adult animated "Harley Quinn" also saw an impressive rise up the list this week.

Below are this week's nine most popular original shows on Netflix and other streaming services:

Original author: Travis Clark

Japan delayed its Nippon Professional Baseball season because of the coronavirus.After the state of emergency was lifted in the country, games began again on June 19.Without fans in the stadium, one team put Pepper robots in the stands instead. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus has put most public events, including sports and concerts, on hold around the world. As many countries see declining cases and hospitalizations, public life is slowly starting to reopen. In Japan, which has had a low number of cases,  the Nippon Professional Baseball league was allowed to start its delayed season in June. 

Fans aren't allowed to watch games in person until at least July 10, so teams have been putting different symbols in the stands instead. For the SoftBank Hawks, owned by Japanese tech giant SoftBank, Pepper robot seems like the obvious choice. The robots wore team jerseys and looked like cheering fans.

Here's what it looked like. 

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

Original author: Steven Cohen

A former Deliveroo exec has launched a market food hall startup in the middle of COVID-19.Dan Warne was managing director of the unicorn startup until 2019, but has now launched Sessions Market as a community food hall concept to rejuvenate UK towns after the pandemic.Warne says he hopes to bring his experience from Deliveroo, particularly about customer behavior, to the analogue world of food halls.The first venue, Shelter Hall on Brighton seafront, launches July 4.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Saturday, the UK's bars, restaurants, and cinemas will fling their doors open to customers for the first time since a strict lockdown commenced in late March.

Given continued public health concerns around the coronavirus pandemic, it might be unwise to open a new food business right now.

But Dan Warne, a former high-level executive at British unicorn startup Deliveroo, has launched Sessions Market, a series of community-orientated food halls that will try to regenerate the UK's town centers. 

Warne joined delivery startup Deliveroo in 2014 as its twelfth employee, and he left in 2019. His job was to help scale the company, which was then only operating in the central part of London.

Over the five years Warne spent as Deliveroo's managing director, he helped to grow the startup into a tech unicorn worth billions. Deliveroo in 2019 raised $575 million in a funding round led by Amazon, and one source close to the food delivery startup estimates its valuation at more than $3 billion.

"From the moment I joined Deliveroo, I saw that as a stepping stone so ultimately being able to launch my own thing and that's this," said Warne. "There are lots of parallels to Deliveroo ... It's a platform, albeit a physical one, but it's a platform that has to choose the very best restaurants and manage those restaurants in the right way."

Sessions Market's first venue, Brighton's Shelter Hall, is opening on July 4 and will bring together local restaurants to provide an upmarket dining experience.

Sessions will provide all the digital and capital infrastructure in exchange for a commission, so that the restaurants don't have to invest anything upfront. To comply with social distancing measures, customers will be able to order takeaway food from outside via an app, or served at the tables inside by staff. 

Having launched Deliveroo's Editions business — a network of delivery-only kitchens — in 2017, Warne understood the restaurant market and was well-versed in the capital infrastructure investments needed to build venues like Shelter Hall. But, launching a food hall has been a new experience.

Deliveroo's pop-up delivery kitchens, known as Editions. Business Insider/James Cook

"There is an incredible amount to learn in a short period of time ... so we've had to bring in the right experience and the right staff in those areas," said Warne. "On the flip side of that, [coming from a different area], you bring perhaps a different perspective to the industry and you can apply some of the learnings that you get from working in the technology business to a bricks-and-mortar style business."

He hopes to leverage his experience of customer data at Deliveroo, bring a digital twist to the otherwise still-analogue food industry.

"We obsessed about customer data at Deliveroo," said Warne. In the restaurant industry, "of course they're obsessed by the customer, but they don't have the data to really model that customer behavior in quite the same way".

Warne wants to change that.

He hopes to track customers on the platform — from how they were acquired to what, where, and how they consume.

Over time, he believes this will help the startup evolve to reflect what customers want. That's why Warne tells investors he doesn't need to know what a food hall will look like in five years' time — often a question put to founders about their sector by venture capitalists.

"I don't need to know that because I'm going to enable this business with technology that affords me a deep understanding of consumer trends," he said. "I will flex it and move it with those trends in the same way that Netflix will serve the content before you really know that you want it."

He also hopes his experience helping to grow Deliveroo into a unicorn tech platform will help him to scale his new startup. 

"It's harder to figure out precisely how to scale it in the tech kind of way, where you don't need to be finding property," said Warne.

Warne plans to lease the Sessions brand out to third-party venues, in a similar way to successful pop-up gig startup Sofar Sounds. He likened this to Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and restaurants creating virtual restaurant brands that only serve delivery apps.

He said: "If you come up with brands that you want to run virtually across multiple different kitchens across the country, it helps if you can test them in front of a consumer in a live environment, which is something that we have." 

At a time when a lot of the hospitality industry is struggling, Warne hopes a venue that provides the necessary digital infrastructure to comply with social distancing measures and allows restaurants to avoid long-term lease arrangement will have a clear appeal.

"It's a model that's very well conditioned to this environment: it is highly supportive and conducive to helping some of these businesses get back on their feet," said Warne. "If you are concerned about keeping a distance from others, well you can order through our technology outside and just have it come to a window and pick it up and eat it on the beach a long way from anyone else."

Original author: Amy Borrett

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Emily Hein/Business Insider

Although Broadway may be dark at the moment, the smash-hit musical "Hamilton" is now available to watch on Disney Plus. The movie version of the musical, which explores the life of Alexander Hamilton during and beyond the American Revolution, has arrived on Disney's streaming service far earlier than its anticipated October 2021 release date.

The official trailer shows the Broadway production's original cast from 2015 returning to the stage for the movie performance.

The film adaptation intends to provide viewers with a cinematic glimpse into the live theater experience. Disney Plus is already home to similar musical adaptations, including the filmed stage version of "Newsies."

Also now streaming on Disney Plus is "Hamilton In-Depth with Kelley Carter," a companion program that features interviews with director Thomas Kail, composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, and members of the cast. The program is available to stream on TheUndefeated.com as well.

The cinematic rendition of "Hamilton" follows the titular historical figure (played by composer Lin-Manuel Miranda) as he grapples with the impact of the American Revolution, the legacy we leave behind, and those who shaped his life leading up to the infamous duel with Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.). Filmed at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2016, the "Hamilton" film features the original cast of the musical. 

Updated on 07/3/2020 by Kevin Webb and Steven Cohen: We've revised this article to inform you that "Hamilton" is now available to stream on Disney Plus. Added details about Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support for "Hamilton." Also added premiere details for "Hamilton In-Depth with Kelley Carter," along with a link to our full review of Disney Plus.

How do I watch 'Hamilton' on Disney Plus?

Original author: Emily Hein

The market is booming for firms that can help companies safely return employees back to the office. The pandemic is forcing software and automation providers like Salesforce and Siemens to partner in order to provide tools to help companies track daily health statistics, and enable touchless entry, elevator access, and more. Salesforce and Siemens' tool can also help increase worker efficiency and productivity, according to Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA CEO Dave Hopping.  "It's great to talk about safety all the time and all the technology, but there still needs to be a business case associated with it," he told Business Insider.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A massive new market is emerging aimed at getting people back to the physical workplace safely.  

Outside of mitigating the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic by resuming somewhat normal operations, a small segment of workers actually want to return to the office (though the majority prefers to remain remote). But the negative consequences are potentially catastrophic. Texas, for example, opened some office buildings back up in May only to quickly backtrack after coronavirus cases spiked. 

All of that is creating a billion-dollar opportunity for helping firms virus-proof their workplaces, through everything from new products that encourage social distancing to facial scanners that alleviate the need for physical touchpoints. 

The push is resulting in new partnerships between software giants and leading automation providers. SAP and Honeywell, for example, teamed up to help real estate managers oversee activity in their buildings remotely. Siemens and Salesforce are also joining forces to provide companies a host of tools designed to enable a safe return to the physical office. 

The pairing is yet another example of how effective it can be to combine data from sources like building check-ins or conference room reservation systems with back-end software to create a holistic view of the workplace and those in it at any given time. And it can even help increase worker productivity, according to Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA CEO Dave Hopping. 

Dave Hopping is the CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA. Siemens

"It's great to talk about safety all the time and all the technology, but there still needs to be a business case associated with it," he told Business Insider. "If I'm going to put in this technology and these platforms … how is it going to make my employees better utilized and more efficient in the job?" 

Among the suite of offerings from Salesforce and Siemens is a central dashboard to give management updates on important information like when the office was last cleaned and how many active COVID-19 cases there are among the workforce. A shift management tool also makes it easier for customers to stagger employees to reduce the number of people in an office at once, while mobile "boarding passes" allow for touchless entry to the builder and elevator access. 

The firms intend to roll-out the tools in their own offices first to see if they address enough of the concerns they're hearing from both employees and employers. Salesforce will deploy the platform in its San Francisco headquarters, while Siemens will implement it in its Zurich office.     

Mulcahy is chief innovation officer at Salesforce. Salesforce

"It paves the way for a new experience for physical workspaces, not just during COVID but even beyond," said Salesforce Chief Innovation Officer Simon Mulcahy. "It's also then building a smarter, connected workplace for the future." 

The partnership came about organically. 

Siemens was an existing Salesforce customer and it had also been outfitting the company's offices with new automation features. Its Comfy application, for example, utilizes so-called "Internet of Things" sensors to enable office managers to remotely control lighting or temperature.   

And once Salesforce launched Work.com in May, the pairing made sense. The suite of tools, which is designed to help companies bring people back to the physical workspace, includes contact tracing and employee health self-assessments. That, combined with Siemens automation tools, created an ideal offering that can cover many of the concerns the two companies were hearing from customers.  

"Many of our building owners are saying … We need more technology in our buildings. We need more technology to ensure that people are safe and efficient," said Hopping. "We wanted a platform that would connect not only with the leadership … but the individuals that are working in our buildings." 

Mulcahy declined to say whether the partnership with Siemens would expand beyond this initiative, or whether Salesforce planned to invest more heavily in these "return to work" offerings. And Hopping said it was not yet clear whether the automation surge would continue in the long-term. 

"Our customers are definitely asking about more technology today. Without a doubt," he added. "They see less square footage, but a higher density of technology and interface between the people in the building with the building."  

But the immediate focus shows just how much the coronavirus has upended business for top corporations. 

Salesforce, for example, is synonymous with its software that helps sales teams better manage customer relationships. But as the outbreak forces organizations to make potentially sweeping cuts to the budget, some clients are pushing for discounts or delayed payments — though analysts and CEO Marc Benioff still expect Salesforce to emerge largely unscathed. 

For now, Benioff is shifting the firm's near-term focus and making Work.com a priority. He previously told CNBC that the pandemic is a time when "every company needs to reassess its relevance to maintain its market share and innovation." 

As of late last month, 35 states used Work.com to help track individuals stricken with the coronavirus.  

Original author: Joe Williams

AI transport logistics firm CitySwift has raised more than $2 million in a funding round backed by Irelandia Investments and Act Venture Capital. The Irish firm's transport simulation software is already used by some of the UK's biggest transport firms to deal with COVID-19 restrictions. The AI transportation market is projected to be worth more than $3 billion globally by 2023, according to PS Market Research. We got an exclusive look at the pitch deck CitySwift used to bring investors on board. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

CitySwift, the AI data firm that runs simulations of transport networks, has raised more than $2 million in a funding round backed by Irelandia Investments and Act Venture Capital. 

CitySwift's software is already used by some of the UK's biggest public transport companies, including National Express and Go Ahead Group. It uses mobility data to simulate transport schedules on a mass scale. 

In recent months, the Galway-based firm's tech has let companies assess social distancing measures and helped bus companies alter their routes. 

The AI transportation market is projected to be worth more than $3 billion globally by 2023, according to figures compiled by analysts at PS Market Research. 

Brian O'Rourke, CitySwift cofounder and CEO, said the COVID-19 pandemic had shown how important data was for companies, governments, and the public.

"This has been even more evident for public transport companies as they monitored the effects of lockdown restrictions on their networks and model and plan for future scenarios as restrictions have begun to ease.

"The CitySwift platform has been leveraged to enable our clients and their passengers to make informed, data-driven decisions as they navigate the road to recovery in these ever-changing times."

The firm said the newly raised €2 million ($2.25 million) will be used to speed up product development and hire 25 new employees. 

Check out the pitch deck CitySwift used to bring investors on board below: 

Original author: Martin Coulter