The rollout will have a widespread impact on businesses and will affect the number of iOS devices available for personalized advertising.Read More

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Edtech is so widespread, we already need more consumer-friendly nomenclature to describe the products, services and tools it encompasses.

I know someone who reads stories to their grandchildren on two continents via Zoom each weekend. Is that “edtech?”

Similarly, many Netflix subscribers sought out online chess instructors after watching “The Queen’s Gambit,” but I doubt if they all ran searches for “remote learning” first.

Edtech needs to reach beyond underfunded public school systems to become more sustainable, which is why more investors and founders are focusing on lifelong learning.

Besides serving traditional students with field trips and art classes, a maturing sector is now branching out to offer software tutors, cooking classes and singing lessons.

For our latest investor survey, Natasha Mascarenhas polled 13 edtech VCs to learn more about how “employer-led up-skilling and a renewed interest in self-improvement” is expanding the sector’s TAM.

Here’s who she spoke to:

Deborah Quazzo, managing partner, GSV VenturesAshley Bittner, founding partner, Firework Ventures (a future of work fund with portfolio companies LearnIn and TransfrVR)Jomayra Herrera, principal, Cowboy Ventures (a generalist fund with portfolio companies Hone and Guild Education)John Danner, managing partner, Dunce Capital (an edtech and future of work fund with portfolio companies Lambda School and Outschool)Mercedes Bent and Bradley Twohig, partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners (a multistage generalist fund with investments including Forage, Clever and Outschool)Ian Chiu, managing director, Owl Ventures (a large edtech-focused fund backing highly valued companies including Byju’s, Newsela and Masterclass)Jan Lynn-Matern, founder and partner, Emerge Education (a leading edtech seed fund in Europe with portfolio companies like Aula, Unibuddy and BibliU)Benoit Wirz, partner, Brighteye Ventures (an active edtech-focused venture capital fund in Europe that backs YouSchool, Lightneer and Aula)Charles Birnbaum, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners (a generalist fund with portfolio companies including Guild Education and Brightwheel)Daniel Pianko, co-founder and managing director, University Ventures (a higher ed and future of work fund that is backing Imbellus and Admithub)Rebecca Kaden, managing partner, Union Square Ventures (a generalist fund with portfolio companies including TopHat, Quizlet, Duolingo)Andreata Muforo, partner, TLCom Capital (a generalist fund backing uLesson)

Full Extra Crunch articles are only available to members
Use discount code ECFriday to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription

In other news: Extra Crunch Live, a series of interviews with leading investors and entrepreneurs, returns next month with a full slate of guests. This year, we’re adding a new feature: Our guests will analyze pitch decks submitted by members of the audience to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

If you’d like an expert eye on your deck, please sign up for Extra Crunch and join the conversation.

Thanks very much for reading! I hope you have a fantastic weekend — we’ve all earned it.

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

13 investors say lifelong learning is taking edtech mainstream

Rising African venture investment powers fintech, clean tech bets in 2020

After falling into yesterday’s wild news cycle, Alex Wilhelm returned to The Exchange this morning with a close look at venture capital activity across Africa in 2020.

“Comparing aggregate 2020 figures to 2019 results, it appears that last year was a somewhat robust year for African startups, albeit one with fewer large rounds,” he found.

For more context, he interviewed Dario Giuliani, the director of research firm Briter Bridges, which focuses on emerging markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Talent and capital are shifting cybersecurity investors’ focus away from Silicon Valley

New cybersecurity ecosystems are popping up in different parts of the world.

Some of of that growth has been fueled by an exodus from the Bay Area, but many early-stage security startups already have deep roots in East Coast cities like Boston and New York.

In the United Kingdom and Europe, government innovation programs have helped entrepreneurs close higher numbers of Series A and B rounds.

Investor interest and expertise is migrating out of Silicon Valley: This post will help you understand where it’s going.

Will Apple’s spectacular iPhone 12 sales figures boost the smartphone industry in 2021?

Today’s smartphones are unfathomably feature-rich and durable, so it’s logical that sales have slowed.

A phone purchased 18 months ago is probably “good enough” for many consumers, especially in times of economic uncertainty.

Then again, of the record $111.4 billion in revenue Apple earned last quarter, $65.68 billion came from phone sales, largely driven by the release of the iPhone 12.

Even though “Apple’s success this quarter was kind of a perfect storm,” writes Hardware Editor Brian Heater, “it’s safe to project a rebound for the industry at large in 2021.”

The 5 biggest mistakes I made as a first-time startup founder

Finmark co-founder and CEO Rami Essaid wrote a post for Extra Crunch that candidly describes the traps he laid for himself that made him a less-effective entrepreneur.

As someone who’s worked closely with founders at several startups, each of the points he raised resonated deeply with me.

In my experience, many founders have a hard time delegating, which can quickly create cultural and operational problems. Rami’s experience bears this out:

“I became a human GPS: People could follow my directions, but they struggled to find the way themselves. Independent thinking suffered.”

Dear Sophie: How can I sponsor my mom and stepdad for green cards?

Dear Sophie:

I just got my U.S. citizenship! My husband and I want to bring my mom and her husband to the U.S. to help us take care of our preschooler and toddler.

My biological dad passed away several years ago when I was an adult and my mom has since remarried.

Can they get green cards?

— Appreciative in Aptos

Check out the amazing speakers joining us on Extra Crunch Live in February

Next month, Extra Crunch Live returns with a lineup of guests who are extremely well-qualified to discuss early-stage startups.

Each Wednesday at noon PPST/3 p.m. EST, join a conversation with founders and the investors who backed their companies:

February 3:

Gaurav Gupta (Lightspeed Venture Partners) + Raj Dutt (Grafana Labs)

February 10:

Aydin Senkut (Felicis Ventures) + Kevin Busque (Guideline)

February 17:

Steve Loughlin (Accel) + Jason Boehmig (Ironclad)

February 24:

Matt Harris (Bain Capital) + Isaac Oates (Justworks)

Also, we’re adding a new feature to Extra Crunch Live — our guests will offer advice and feedback on pitch decks submitted by Extra Crunch members in the audience!

10 VCs say interactivity, regulation and independent creators will reshape digital media in 2021

Since the pandemic disrupted the social rhythms of work and school, many of us have compensated by changing our relationship to digital media.

For instance, I purchased a new sofa and thicker living room curtains several months ago when I realized we have no idea when movie theaters will reopen.

Last year, podcast sponsors spent almost $800 million to reach listeners, but ad revenue is estimated to surpass $1 billion this year. Clearly, I’m not the only person who used a discount code to buy a new product in 2020.

At this point, I can scarcely keep track of the multiple streaming platforms I’m subscribed to, but a new voice-activated remote control that comes with my basic cable plan makes it easier to browse my options.

Media reporter Anthony Ha spoke to10 VCs who invest in media startups to learn more about where they see digital media heading in the months ahead. For starters, how much longer can we expect traditional advertising models to persist?

And in a world with hundreds of channels, how are creators supposed to compete for our attention? What sort of discovery tools can we expect to help us navigate between a police procedural set in a Scandinavian village and a 90s sitcom reboot?

Here’s who Anthony interviewed:

Daniel Gulati, founding partner, Forecast FundAlex Gurevich, managing director, Javelin Venture PartnersMatthew Hartman, partner, Betaworks VenturesJerry Lu, senior associate, MaveronJana Messerschmidt, partner, Lightspeed Venture PartnersMichael Palank, general partner, MaC Venture Capital (with additional commentary from MaC’s Marlon Nichols)Pär-Jörgen Pärson, general partner, NorthzoneM.G. Siegler, general partner, GVLaurel Touby, managing director, Supernode VenturesHans Tung, managing partner, GGV Capital

Normally, we list each investor’s responses separately, but for this survey, we grouped their responses by question. Some readers say they use our surveys to study up on an individual VC before pitching them, so let us know which format you prefer.

Does a $27 billion or $29 billion valuation make sense for Databricks?

Data analytics platform Databricks is reportedly raising new capital that could value the company between $27 billion and $29 billion.

By the end of Q3 2020, Databricks had surpassed a $350 million run rate — a $150 million YoY increase, reports Alex Wilhelm.

At the time, he described the company as “an obvious IPO candidate” with “broad private-market options.”

Which begs the question: “Can we come up with a set of numbers that help make sense of Databricks at $27 billion?”

End-to-end operators are the next generation of consumer business

Rapid shifts in the way we buy goods and services disrupted old-school marketplaces like local newspapers and the Yellow Pages.

Today, I can use my phone to summon a plumber, a week’s worth of groceries or a ride to a doctor’s office.

End-to-end operators like Netflix, Peloton and Lemonade take a lot of time and energy to reach scale, but “the additional capital required is often outweighed by the value captured from owning the entire experience.”

Unpacking Chamath Palihapitiya’s SPAC deals for Latch and Sunlight Financial

On January 25, Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya tweeted that he was making two blank-check deals.

Enterprise SaaS company Latch makes keyless entry systems; Sunlight Financial helps consumers finance residential solar power installations.

“There are nearly 300 SPACs in the market today looking for deals,” noted Alex Wilhelm, who unpacked both transactions.

“There’s no escaping SPACs for a bit, so if you are tired of watching blind pools rip private companies into the public markets, you are not going to have a very good next few months.”

Fintechs could see $100 billion of liquidity in 2021

On Monday, we published the Matrix Fintech Index, a three-part study that weighs liquidity, public markets and e-commerce trends to create a snapshot of an industry in perpetual flux.

For four years running, the S&P 500 and incumbent financial services companies have been outperformed by companies like Afterpay, Square and Bill.com.

In light of steady VC investment, increasing consumer adoption and a crowded IPO pipeline, “fintech represents one of the most exciting major innovation cycles of this decade.”

Drupal’s journey from dorm-room project to billion-dollar exit

On January 15, 2001, then-college student Dries Buytaert released Drupal 1.0.0, an open-source content-management platform. At the time, about 7% of the world’s population was online.

After raising more than $180 million, Buytaert exited to Vista Equity Partners for $1 billion in 2019.

Enterprise reporter Ron Miller interviewed Buytaert to learn more about his 18-year journey.

“His story is compelling, but it also offers lessons for startup founders who also want to build something big,” says Ron.

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Where can new founders and budding entrepreneurs turn for expert advice to navigate the formative phases of building a startup? Head to TechCrunch Early Stage — a two-day virtual bootcamp that gives early founders (pre-seed through Series A) access to the leading experts across a range of essential entrepreneurial skills.

We’re talking dozens of workshops addressing operations, fundraising, pitch deck pointers, term sheet tips, product-market fit, brand building, growth marketing, recruiting, taming your tech stack and a lot more.

That’s a lot of ground to cover, amirite? That’s exactly why we’re hosting two Early Stage events this year. Each one offers different content, a separate slate of speakers and unique perspectives. Both feature highly interactive Q&As with the experts. Get answers to all your burning questions!

Note: In a hurry? Scroll down to the bottom (or click here) to get the 411 on pass types, early-bird pricing and deadlines.

The first TC-ES, on April 1 & 2, covers topics ranging from fundraising and operations to product lifecycle and recruiting — for starters. The second, on July 8 & 9, spans marketplace positioning, growth marketing, content development and even more on fundraising.

Sure, you can go to a single Early Stage event, but savvy startuppers (that’s you, right?) will sign on for a double dose of knowledge and attend both. That’s not just marketing talk — the benefits are real.

Buy a dual-event pass (for a tidy discount, by the way), and you’ll not only learn more, but you’ll also have more time to absorb and implement critical advice that can lead to your success. Seriously, which topics and tips can you afford to miss? Don’t let the FOMO haunt you.

You’ll also have plenty of opportunity to connect and network with other early founders, later-stage founders and other smart members of the startup — oh, what’s the word? — community. Build your contacts, find indispensable support and mentorship. Remember, we all go further together.

We introduced TC Early Stage last year to rave reviews — like this one from Chloe Leaaetoa, founder of Socicraft:

You learn from industry leaders and seasoned founders — people who’ve already been there and done that. They were genuine and honest about industry expectations. Plus, they shared first-hand accounts, which made them more relatable.

And this one from Ashley Barrington, founder of MarketPearl:

I recommend going to Early Stage. The virtual aspect helps in terms of scheduling, it offers community-building through networking, and it gives early stage founders a framework for navigating the startup ecosystem. This is the stage where founders need more support, especially if they haven’t done this before.

Go all-in and attend TC Early Stage 2021 in April and again in July. Increase your knowledge, sharpen your skills, avoid pitfalls and expand your network. Those are mighty big benefits, and you deserve every one of them.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Early Stage 2021 – Operations & Fundraising? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

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As a 20-year CIO and advisor to multiple startups, I sat on many customer advisory boards (CABs) and saw how they were formed. Some companies have highly functioning CABs, others merely serve as feedback loops. Any startup striving to connect directly with their customers would benefit from establishing one.

Here are some considerations to make certain your customer advisory board is a success.

Why CABs matter

For those unfamiliar, a customer advisory board is a group of customers who come together to share their experiences, insights and advice with an organization. First and foremost, the CAB functions to recognize and include the voice of the customer, an essential part of your company’s journey since customers interact closer than anyone with your product or service.

It’s best to designate early adopters to be on the board — those who took a chance on you and have been on the frontlines as your company evolved — as well as some newer customers.

While establishing this group signals appreciation and respect for your customers, it also provides an opportunity for you to formalize and structure the feedback you are requesting from them. You can seek validation for product ideas or guidance on roadmap development, test out marketing messaging and even tap into market intelligence.

The greatest benefit of a CAB, however, is the creation of champions for your brand. These loyal partners will ultimately offer testimonials, references and referrals. Key to this partnership is a shared sense of playing a small part in building the future of your company.

Assembling your CAB superteam

The best route to assembling your CAB is to start with a very small group and expand slowly. There’s quite a bit of nuance in the selection of who to include. Do you go after the executive who sponsored you, the one who saw a vision and thought your solution would fit?

Perhaps. But that individual may not be using your product every day, be involved deeply in its operational aspects and/or have their finger on the pulse of the end-user’s experience.

In June of 1999, Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins invested $25 million into an early-stage company developing a new search engine called Google, paving the way for a revolution in how knowledge online was organized and shared.

Now, Sequoia Capital is placing another bet on a different kind of search engine, one for physical objects in three dimensions, just as the introduction of three-dimensional sensing technologies on consumer phones are poised to create a revolution in spatial computing.

At least, that’s the bet that Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire is making on the Columbus, Ohio-based startup* Physna.

Maguire and Sequoia are leading a $20 million bet into the company alongside Drive Capital, the Columbus, Ohio-based venture firm founded by two former Sequoia partners, Mark Kvamme and Chris Olsen.

“There’s been this open problem in mathematics, which is how you do three-dimensional search. How do you define a metric that gives you other similar three-dimensional objects. This has a long history in mathematics,” Maguire said. “When I first met [Physna founder] Paul Powers, he had already come up with a wildly novel distance metric to compare different three-dimensional objects. If you have one distance metric, you can find other objects that are a distance away. His thinking underlying that is so unbelievably creative. If I were to put it in the language of modern mathematics… it just involves a lot of really advanced ideas that actually also works.”

Powers’ idea — and Physna’s technology — was a long time coming.

A lawyer by training and an entrepreneur at heart, Powers came to the problem of three-dimensional search through his old day job as an intellectual property lawyer.

Powers chose IP law because he thought it was the most interesting way to operate at the intersection of technology and law — and would provide good grounding for whatever company the serial entrepreneur would eventually launch next. While practicing, Powers hit upon a big problem, while some intellectual property theft around software and services was easy to catch, it was harder to identify when actual products or parts were being stolen as trade secrets. “We were always able to find 2D intellectual property theft,” Powers said, but catching IP theft in three dimensions was elusive.”

From its launch in 2015 through 2019, Powers worked with co-founder and chief technology officer Glenn Warner Jr. on developing the product, which was initially intended to protect product designs from theft. Tragically, just as the company was getting ready to unveil its transformation into the three-dimensional search engine it had become, Warner died.

Powers soldiered on, rebuilding the company and its executive team with the help of Dennis DeMeyere, who joined the company in 2020 after a stint in Google’s office of the chief technology officer and technical director for Google Cloud.

“When I moved, I jumped on a plane with two checked bags and moved into a hotel, until I could rent a fully furnished home,” DeMeyere told Protocol last year.

Other heavy hitters were also drawn to the Cincinnati-based company thanks in no small part to Olsen and Kvamme’s Silicon Valley connections. They include GitHub’s chief technology officer, Jason Warner, who has a seat on the company’s board of directors alongside Drive Capital’s co-founder Kvamme, who serves as the chairman.

In Physna, Kvamme, Maguire and Warner see a combination of GitHub and Google — especially after the launch last year of the company’s consumer-facing site, Thangs.

That site allows users to search for three-dimensional objects by a description or by uploading a model or image. As Mike Murphy at Protocol noted, it’s a bit like Thingiverse, Yeggi or other sites used by 3D-printing hobbyists. What the site can also do is show users the collaborative history of each model and the model’s component parts — if it involves different objects.

Hence the GitHub and Google combination. And users can set up profiles to store their own models or collaborate and comment on public models.

What caught Maguire’s eye about the company was the way users were gravitating to the free site. “There were tens of thousands of people using it every day,” he said. It’s a replica of the way many successful companies try a freemium or professional consumer hybrid approach to selling products. “They have a free version and people are using it all the time and loving it. That is a foundation that they can build from,” said Maguire.

And Maguire thinks that the spatial computing wave is coming sooner than anyone may realize. “The new iPhone has lidar on it… This is the first consumer device that comes shipped with a 3D scanner with lidar and I think three dimensional is about to explode.”

Eventually, Physna could be a technology hub where users can scan three-dimensional objects into their phones and have a representational model for reproduction either as a virtual object or as something that can be converted into a file for 3D printing.

Right now, hundreds of businesses have approached the company with different requests for how to apply its technology, according to Powers.

“One new feature will allow you to take a picture of something and not only show you what that is or where it goes. Even if that is into a part of the assembly. We shatter a vase and with the vase shards we can show you how the pieces fit back together,” Powers said.

Typical contracts for the company’s software range from $25,000 to $50,000 for enterprise customers, but the software that powers Physna’s product is more than just a single application, according to Powers.

“We’re not just a product. We’re a fundamental technology,” said Powers. “There is a gap between the physical and the digital.”

For Sequoia and Drive Capital, Physna’s software is the technology to bridge that gap.

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A gig economy-powered consumer edtech platform is heading to the New York Stock Exchange.

Edtech startup Nerdy, which owns the popular tutoring business Varsity Tutors, is seeking to become a public company through a special purpose acquisition vehicle, otherwise known as a SPAC.

Nerdy will merge with TPG Pace Tech Opportunities (NYSE: PACE), a publicly traded SPAC since 2015. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

The deal will value Nerdy at $1.7 billion. Through the transaction, the business plans to raise up to $750 million in cash, including $150 million in PIPE financing aggregated by Franklin Templeton, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, Koch Industries and Learn Capital.

Nerdy’s flagship business, Varsity Tutors, is a two-sided marketplace that matches tutors to students in large, small or 1:1 group environments. The learning platform covers more than 3,000 subjects. Like other edtech companies, Varsity Tutors uses artificial intelligence and data analytics to better match experts to learners. Additionally, in August, Varsity Tutors launched a homeschooling offering meant to replace traditional school. It onboarded 120 full-time educators, who came from public schools and charter schools, with competitive salaries.

Financial performance

TechCrunch reviewed the Nerdy-SPAC investor presentation, which can be read here.

Nerdy is among consumer edtech businesses that saw rapid growth and opportunity due to the demands of remote learning brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. In the second half of 2020, Nerdy’s annualized revenue surpassed $120 million. In the last quarter of 2020, the company saw its online revenue grow 87%, online paid active learners grow 59% and paid online sessions grow 169%, compared to the same time period last year, the business reports.

Drilling into its realized results instead of its more-favorable annualized performance from its third and fourth quarters of 2020, Nerdy saw estimated revenues of $106 million in the year, up just 16% from its 2019 result.

That growth rate is slower than what it managed in 2019, some 26% growth, and is around half of what it anticipates for 2021, namely 31% growth. But Nerdy has even stronger projections for 2022, a year in which it expects to drive revenues of $198 million, up 43% from its 2021 expectation of $138 million.

Whether the company can hit those goals remains to be seen; SPAC-led debuts allow for the company being taken public in the transaction to forecast more than companies that follow traditional IPO paths are allowed.

The company’s growth also failed to stem its losses. Nerdy is not yet profitable. Its 2020 estimates list an anticipated net loss of $23 million, which is more than it lost in 2019 but less than its 2018 deficit. Based on last year’s growth, Nerdy estimates that its net loss will slim to $8 million in 2021, and will achieve profitability by 2023.

How did Nerdy fail to reduce its losses last year as its revenues expanded? The company’s costs showed modest gains and losses, apart from its sales and marketing line item. That particular realm of expense rose from $38 million in 2019 to an estimated $44 million in 2020.

In contrast, while Nerdy’s net losses were largely static in 2020, its estimated net margin did improve from -24% in 2019 to an estimated -22% in 2020. It has a ways to go to reach the black, though its financials do indicate that the company thinks that net income is only a few years away.

To reach profitability, Nerdy anticipates it will require 2023 revenues of $267 million, growth from 2022 of 35% and gross margins five points stronger than its 67% result it estimated it reached last year.

A closer look at Nerdy’s business brings up a common question amid the SPAC boom: Is the reverse-merger being used to bring companies with lackluster near-term growth stories to the public market that otherwise couldn’t have? So far, a number of edtech startups have taken the SPAC route, including Skillsoft, Meten International and now Nerdy.

After edtech had a strong 2020, sector investors say to expect more exits as startups cross the $100 million ARR mark. Deborah Quazzo, managing partner of GSV, told TechCrunch in December that “what’s happening in edtech is that capital markets are liquidating.” The ability to move fluidly between privately held and publicly held companies is a characteristic of tech sectors with deep capital markets, which is different from edtech’s “old days, where the options to exit were very narrow.”

Physna, a startup developing software that analyzes and digitizes 3D models, has raised $20 million in venture capital.Read More

As a turbulent week in the capital world, we’re taking a look at something a bit slower moving: venture capital trends in Africa during 2020.

The Exchange has long explored quarterly and yearly data regarding the North American, European and Asian venture capital markets, along with data on particular startup categories. From today, we’ll also provide regular examinations of what’s happening in Africa.

As an aside, we’re sorry The Exchange didn’t come out yesterday. The world went mad and we had to tend to breaking news. We’re back! 

To dig into African venture capital results, we’re looking at a report concerning 2020 data from Briter Bridges, a research group that focuses on the continent’s private capital market. The Exchange also interviewed report author and Briter director Dario Giuliani about the collected data.

The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on Extra Crunch, or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.

What emerges is a generally growing venture capital scene, but one that had mixed results in 2020 compared to 2019. However, if we control for an outsized investment or two, things smooth out rather nicely.

Let’s check the top-line figures, get insight from Giuliani concerning where the capital is flowing most rapidly, and wrap with a look at which startup categories are seeing the most investment in Africa today.

Africa’s 2020 venture capital results

During my time at Crunchbase News, I helped lead a team that generated acre-feet of reporting on the global and domestic venture capital markets. It’s difficult work that involves making decisions on what counts, what doesn’t and how to handle rounds that have not been disclosed publicly.

Over time, I’ve also become comfortable with venture data from PitchBook and CB Insights as well, and am now adding the Briter dataset to the trusted cohort.

During my chat with Giuliani, it became clear that his team is doing the hard and valuable work of carefully collating and sorting information. I say all of that simply to let you know that we now have a regular source for trustworthy information (compiled in concert with seventy different investing groups) on Africa that we’ll use regularly to keep tabs on the continent. This is a win.

So, what does the data say? We have to parse it some, as historically Briter has collated megadeals — which it counts as investments of $90 million or more — and M&A in the same bucket. So, tracking just the dollar volume of African deals smaller than $90 million gives us the following set of results:

In recent years we’ve seen a whole bunch of visual/style fashion-focused search engines cropping up, tailored to helping people find the perfect threads to buy online by applying computer vision and other AI technologies to perform smarter-than-keywords visual search which can easily match and surface specific shapes and styles. Startups like Donde Search, Glisten and Stye.ai to name a few.

Early-stage London-based Cadeera, which is in the midst of raising a seed round, wants to apply a similar AI visual search approach, but for interior décor. All through the pandemic it’s been working on a prototype with the aim of making e-commerce discovery of taste-driven items like sofas, armchairs and coffee tables a whole lot more inspirational.

Founder and CEO Sebastian Spiegler, an early (former) SwiftKey employee with a PhD in machine learning and natural language processing, walked TechCrunch through a demo of the current prototype.

The software offers a multi-step UX geared toward first identifying a person’s décor style preferences — which it does by getting them to give a verdict on a number of look-book images of rooms staged in different interior décor styles (via a Tinder-style swipe left or right).

It then uses these taste signals to start suggesting specific items to buy (e.g. armchairs, sofas etc.) that fit the styles they’ve liked. The user can continue to influence selections by asking to see other similar items (“more like this”), or see less similar items to broaden the range of stuff they’re shown — injecting a little serendipity into their search. 

The platform also lets users search by uploading an image — with Cadeera then parsing its database to surface similar-looking items which are available for sale.

It has an AR component on its product map, too — which will eventually also let users visualize a potential purchase in situ in their home. Voice search will also be supported.

“Keyword search is fundamentally broken,” argues Spiegler. “Imagine you’re refurbishing or renovating your home and you say I’m looking for something, I’ve seen it somewhere, I only know when I see it, and I don’t really know what I want yet — so the [challenge we’re addressing is this] whole process of figuring out what you want.” 

“The mission is understanding personal preferences. If you don’t know yourself what you’re looking for we’re basically helping you with visual clues and with personalization and with inspiration pieces — which can be content, images and then at some point community as well — to figure out what you want. And for the retailer it helps them to understand what their clients want.”

“It increases trust, you’re more sure about your purchases, you’re less likely to return something — which is a huge cost to retailers. And, at the same time, you may also buy more because you more easily find things you can buy,” he adds.

E-commerce has had a massive boost from the pandemic, which continues to drive shopping online. But the flip side of that is bricks-and-mortar retailers have been hit hard.

The situation may be especially difficult for furniture retailers that may well have been operating showrooms before COVID-19 — relying upon customers being able to browse in-person to drive discovery and sales — so they are likely to be looking for smart tools that can help them transition to and/or increase online sales.

And sector-specific visual search engines do seem likely to see uplift as part of the wider pandemic-driven e-commerce shift.

“The reason why I want to start with interior design/home décor and furniture is that it’s a clearly underserved market. There’s no-one out there, in my view, that has cracked the way to search and find things more easily,” Spiegler tells TechCrunch. “In fashion there are quite a few companies out there. And I feel like we can master furniture and home décor and then move into other sectors. But for me the opportunity is here.”

“We can take a lot of the ideas from the fashion sector and apply it to furniture,” he adds. “I feel like there’s a huge gap — and no-one has looked at it sufficiently.”

The size of the opportunity Cadeera is targeting is a $10-$20 billion market globally, per Spiegler. 

The startup’s initial business model is B2B — with the plan being to start selling its SaaS to e-commerce retailers to integrate the visual search tools directly into their own websites.

Spiegler says they’re working with a “big” U.K.-based vintage platform — and aiming to get something launched to the market within the next six to nine months with one to two customers. 

They will also — as a next order of business — offer apps for e-commerce platforms such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Shopify to integrate a set of their search tools. (Larger retailers will get more customization of the platform, though.)

On the question of whether Cadeera might develop a B2C offer by launching a direct consumer app itself, Spiegler admits that is an “end goal”.

“This is the million-dollar question — my end-goal, my target is building a consumer app. Building a central place where all your shopping preferences are stored — kind of a mix of Instagram where you see inspiration and Pinterest where you can keep what you looked at and then get relevant recommendations,” he says.

“This is basically the idea of a product search engine we want to build. But what I’m showing you are the steps to get there… and we hopefully end in the place where we have a community, we have a B2C app. But the way I look at it is we start through B2Bb and then at some point switch the direction and open it up by providing a single entry point for the consumer.”

But, for now, the B2B route means Cadeera can work closely with retailers in the meanwhile — increasing its understanding of retail market dynamics and getting access to key data needed to power its platform, such as style look-books and item databases.

“What we end up with is a large inventory data set/database, a design knowledge base and imagery and style meta information. And on top of that we do object detection, object recognition, recommendation, so the whole shebang in AI — for the purpose of personalization, exploration, search and suggestion/recommendation,” he goes on, sketching the various tech components involved.

“On the other side we provide an API so you can integrate into use as well. And if you need we can also provide with a responsive UX/UI.”

“Beyond all of that we are creating an interesting data asset where we understand what the user wants — so we have user profiles, and in the future those user profiles can be cross-platform. So if you purchase something at one e-commerce site or one retailer you can then go to another retailer and we can make relevant recommendations based on what you purchased somewhere else,” he adds. “So your whole purchasing history, your style preferences and interaction data will allow you to get the most relevant recommendations.”

While the usual tech giant suspects still dominate general markets for search (Google) and e-commerce (Amazon), Cadeera isn’t concerned about competition from the biggest global platforms — given they are not focused on tailoring tools for a specific furniture/home décor niche.

He also points out that Amazon continues to do a very poor job on recommendations on its own site, despite having heaps of data.

“I’ve been asking — and I’ve been asked as well — so many times why is Amazon doing such a poor job on recommendations and in search. The true answer is I don’t know! They have probably the best data set… but the recommendations are poor,” he says. “What we’re doing here is trying to reinvent a whole product. Search should work… and the inspiration part, for things that are more opaque, is something important that is missing with anything I’ve seen so far.”

And while Facebook did acquire a home décor-focused visual search service (called GrokStyle) back in 2019, Spiegler suggests it’s most likely to integrate their tech (which included AR for visualization) into its own marketplace — whereas he’s convinced most retailers will want to be able to remain independent of the Facebook walled garden.

“GrokStyle will become part of Facebook marketplace, but if you’re a retailer the big question is how much do you want to integrate into Facebook, how much do you want to be dependent on Facebook? And I think that’s a big question for a lot of retailers. Do you want to be dependent on Google? Do you want to be dependent on Amazon? Do you want to be dependent on Facebook?” he says. “My guess is no. Because you basically want to stay as far away as possible because they’re going to eat up your lunch.”   

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued an official statement on the tumult of the past week in the public stock market. It’s a relatively brief statement and doesn’t mention any of the key players by name (aka GameStop, Reddit, Robinhood and others), but it does acknowledge that “extreme stock price volatility has the potential to expose investors to rapid and severe losses” that could “undermine market confidence,” and basically says the commission is watching closely to ensure that it doesn’t.

The SEC statement does specify that it believes the “core market infrastructure” remains intact despite the heavy trading volumes of the past week, which were prompted primarily by activity organized by retail investors acting in concert through organization on r/WallStreetBets, a subreddit dedicated to day trading. These retail investors resolved to collectively purchase and hold GME stocks (and subsequently, shares in other companies like movie theater chain AMC) in a bid to sweat out hedge funds with significant short positions in the same.

The ensuing high volume of trading activity from individual retail investors led to various actions from platforms that provide free trading to these individuals, including Robinhood, Webull, Public and M1. Robinhood initially cited “protecting” its users as the reason for limits imposed, but later revealed that a lack of funding to cover trade clearances likely caused the temporary measures, since it tapped $500 million to $600 million in credit facility and raised $1 billion in funding overnight.

The SEC’s statement includes a callout that seems specifically directed at entities like Robinhood, and it’s fair to interpret it as a warning:

In addition, we will act to protect retail investors when the facts demonstrate abusive or manipulative trading activity that is prohibited by the federal securities laws. Market participants should be careful to avoid such activity. Likewise, issuers must ensure compliance with the federal securities laws for any contemplated offers or sales of their own securities.

Robinhood has already had run-ins with the financial regulator for unrelated business practices. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both the House and the Senate, as well as NY AG Letitia James have all expressed their intent to review the event and all surrounding activities, which likely involves the role trading platforms like Robinhood played in the week’s events.

After a turbulent week for the stock market and halts to the trading of certain speculative securities including GameStop (GME) and AMC, consumer investing app Robinhood has raised new capital. The new funds total more than $1 billion, with the company telling TechCrunch that they were raised from its existing investor base.

The New York Times reports that the company raised the new equity capital after tapping its credit lines for $500 to $600 million; the company did not answer a question from TechCrunch regarding its credit lines.

The reported drawdown matches reporting from yesterday indicating that Robinhood had accessed nine-figures of capital to ensure it had enough funds on hand to meet regulatory minimums and other requirements related to its users’ trading activity.

Individual retail investors, along with institutional capital, have attacked short positions in some stocks in recent weeks, leading to a tug-of-war between bullish investors and bearish wagers; the resulting tumult led to surging volume for volatile stocks, leading to Robinhood needing more capital to keep its gears turning.

In a post discussing its decision yesterday to restrict trading on select securities, Robinhood wrote that it has “many financial requirements, including SEC net capital obligations and clearinghouse deposits,” adding that “some of these requirements fluctuate based on volatility in the markets and can be substantial in the current environment.”

The unicorn consumer fintech company halted trading in stocks like GameStop that had become the center of the trading storm yesterday, leading to frenetic accusations from incensed users that something nefarious was afoot. Later in the day the clearing house entity powering trading for other consumer trading services also halted service for a similar set of stocks.

Robinhood told users that it would allow trading to begin in some fashion today in shares it had previously restricted.

It does not appear that the current trading scrap will abate soon. Shares of GameStop, the most famous so-called “meme stock” in the current trading war, is up just under 94% this morning in pre-market trading, implying that many investors are willing to continue pushing its value higher in hopes of breaking short bets laid by other investors.

One result of the current climate is a boom in demand for trading apps. Today on the U.S. iOS App Store, Robinhood is ranked first; Webull, a rival service is second; Reddit, a hub for trading gossip mostly via r/WallStreetBets is third; Coinbase a popular crypto trading service is fourth in line. Square’s Cash App, which allows for share purchases is ranked seventh, Fidelity’s iOS app comes in tenth place, and TD Ameritrade is 16th. Finally, E*Trade’s own app is ranked 18th. That’s a good showing for fintech, both startup and incumbent alike.

No one knows what comes next, how the trades play out or if the present-day retail investing surge in stock trading will persist. What does seem clear, however, is that today is going to be very silly.

Sirenum, a platform for remotely managing a shift-based workforce across industries such as railway, aviation, construction and the gig economy, has raised a $2.7 million Series A funding round from new investors, including former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy, alongside the William Currie Group.

Sirenum says its subscription model platform simplifies the process of managing shift workers, including rostering and managing schedules, monitoring and engaging staff, and processing key financial processes, including payroll. Its clients include Randstad, Impellam, Manpower and GI Group, as well as specialist agencies like TES.

The issue with shift workers is that they need to be in the right place at the right time and paid the right amount. Obviously. Sirenum says it allows staff to manage their own time by accepting or rejecting shifts and check their payroll at any time through a mobile app. The platform handles shift management, payroll, compliance and scheduling. The app also tracks the fatigue of workers based on the U.K.’s Health and Safety guidelines, meaning employers can track the wellness of employees and adhere to compliance.

The product came about when Sirenum founder Benjamin Rubin ran a staffing agency in London. He was on honeymoon with his wife when he received a call that one of his employees had been hit by a train.

Thankfully, the employee was fine, but Rubin realized that to avoid being in that same situation again, he needed a tool to be able to manage his staff safely at multiple locations. He developed the Sirenum product as a solution for his agency and in 2012 won the contract to staff the Olympic Stadium. In 2014 Sirenum became a standalone product. It now claims to have nearly 400,000 workers on the platform.

Its competitors include TempBuddy (owned by Bullhorn), Shiftboard and WorkN. Shiftboard has raised $16.9 million to date.

French startup Chefclub announced earlier this week that it has raised a $17 million funding round led by First Bridge Ventures. SEB Alliance, the venture arm of kitchen appliance maker Groupe SEB, Korelya Capital and Algaé Ventures are also participating.

Chefclub has been building a major media brand on social media platforms. It has attracted a huge audience that doesn’t look bad next to well-funded media brands Tastemade and Tasty.

I already covered the company at length, so I encourage you to read my previous profile of the company:

Chefclub is an interesting lesson in sales funnel. It has a huge top of the funnel with 100 million followers on YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok. Overall, they generate more than 1 billion views per month.

The company leverages that audience to create new products. It starts with cooking books, obviously. Chefclub has sold 700,000 books so far. As those books are self-published, the company gets to keep a good chunk of the revenue.

More recently, the startup has launched cooking kits for kids, with colorful measuring cups, cooking accessories and easy-to-understand recipes; 150,000 people have bought a product for children.

Chefclub now wants to display its brands in stores thanks to partnerships. That’s why having Groupe SEB as an investor makes sense. You can imagine co-branded items boosted by promotion on Chefclub’s accounts.

Finally, the startup plans to enter a new market — consumer-packaged goods. That’s the same thinking behind it, except that we’re talking about food. It’s interesting to see that Chefclub doesn’t think online ads represent the future of the company. And it seems like a smart decision during the current economic crisis.