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Landis grabs $40M to turn renters into homeowners • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Cyril Berdugo, Fintech, GV, homeownership, Landis, VentureNo Comments

Uncertainty in the real estate markets and rising interest rates have delivered a blow to people eager to own their own home. But for Landis, it’s confirmation that the company is in the right place at the right time. Cyril Berdugo and Tom Petit founded the company in 2018 to provide a more accessible way for renters to become homeowners through financial education and coaching. The New York–based company’s model is for their client to have a budget and work with real estate agents to find a home within that budget. Landis buys the home in an all-cash offer on behalf of the client, who then rents the home from Landis. During that period of time, the company helps the client reach goals of qualifying for a mortgage to repurchase the home when they are ready, Berdugo told ZebethMedia. “There’s a lot of uncertainty in the real estate markets right now,” he added. “When interest rates go up or down, it greatly impacts the ability for Americans to reach homeownership. We underscore the importance of the stability that lenders provide to our clients. By creating a structure where we set a buyback price, it completely removes the uncertainty.” We previously profiled Landis in July 2021 when it raised $165 million of funding in a mix of equity and debt. At the time, the company was operating in 29 cities in 11 states, and now it is in over 50 markets, the company said. Today, the company announced $40 million in Series B funding, led by GV, which was joined by Sequoia Capital, Jay Z’s Roc Nation fund Arrive, the National Association of Realtors’ Second Century Ventures, Operator Partners, Signia Ventures and Team Builder Ventures. This now gives the company $222 million in total equity and debt funds raised to date. “With the current volatility in the house markets, our clients are looking for the stability that we provide them on their homeowner journey, so we saw an opportunity to raise capital to double down and allocate more funds to coaching clients to reach homeownership,” Berdugo said. Similar to last year, he declined to disclose revenue metrics, but did say the company’s valuation increased with the new round, and its team grew three times while the number of applications into Landis’s program increased by more than seven times since last year. The funding will be used to grow Landis’s two-year coaching program, add new markets and grow its team. The company will take $2 million of the new investment specifically for its coaching program, which provides personalized, one-on-one support to clients so they can meet milestones of improving their credit history and building savings. Once a client meets those goals, they are able to get a mortgage and become the owner of their home. Landis itself makes money when it buys and sells a home and doesn’t charge for the coaching, which is why Berdugo says it is “a big deal that we are investing in financial literacy and knowledge, because there is a massive opportunity for them to reach homeownership.”

Announcing the ZebethMedia Startup Battlefield 20 companies on the Disrupt Stage • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Battlefield, Disrupt, Startup Battlefield, Startup Battlefield 200, Startup Battlefield 2022, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022No Comments

We’re positively thrilled that Startup Battlefield is live and in person at ZebethMedia Disrupt 2022. In a new era of the legendary startup competition, ZebethMedia editorial hand selected 200 startups, out of thousands of applicants, to comprise the Startup Battlefield 200. The top 20 companies will pitch on the Disrupt Stage. Startup Battlefield Finalists are famous for their success. Come watch these companies compete for the Disrupt Cup and $100,000 equity-free grand prize. Disrupt runs Tuesday through Thursday, October 18-20 in San Francisco.. The agenda is packed full of the heavyweights of the industry hashing it out on stage stage with ZebethMedia Editors. Newsmakers, luminaries and founders will take the stage to share insights and breaking news. For 2022, ZebethMedia reworked Startup Battlefield, and we’re thrilled with the response. For the first time, ZebethMedia hosted this curated cohort of founders at ZebethMedia Disrupt, providing special programming and trainings in advance of and during the event. The top companies will follow in the footsteps of Startup Battlefield legends on the Disrupt Stage. With over 900 alumni participating in the program, Startup Battlefield Alumni companies raised over $13B in funding with 124 successful exits (IPOs or acquisitions). Starting today, the top 20 companies will pitch on the Disrupt Stage for six minutes followed by a six minute Q&A with our expert panel of judges. These all-star VCs include folks like Peter A Boyce ll (Stellation Capital), Aileen Lee (Cowboy Ventures), Ulili Onovakpuri (Kapor Capital), Lo Toney (Plexo Capital) and Milo Werner (The Engine) to name just a few. ZebethMedia Disrupt Stage Schedule for Startup Battlefield Tuesday, Oct 18, Disrupt Stage Semi-Finals (Session 1): 10:50 am – 12:00 pm Semi-Finals (Session 2): 2:30 pm – 3:40 pm Wednesday, Oct 19, Disrupt Stage Semi-Finals (Session 3): 10:55 am -12: 00 pm Semi-Finals (Session 4): 2:40 pm – 3:45 pm Thursday, October 20, Disrupt Stage Finals: 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm Winner Announced: 4:10 pm Without further ado, let’s check out the companies and their respective sessions: Advanced Ionics (Session 4): Advanced Ionics has developed a new class of electrolyzer that enables green hydrogen production that’s cost competitive with cheaper fossil-fuel based hydrogen production. Ally Robotics (Session 3): Starting with a low cost, reliable, easy to teach and smart robotic arm, we develop and manufacture robotic systems that are designed to work alongside people. Anthill (Session 1): Anthill, a machine learning-enabled HR service center that builds solutions for the desk-less workforce, formed in 2020 to disrupt the internal communication stumbling blocks most companies experience when providing information to the 80% of global employees who don’t sit at a desk — all through text messaging. AppMap (Session 1): AppMap elevates the developer experience by providing continuous observability mapping and runtime quality feedback in the code editor to improve software performance, stability and security. Betterdata (Session 4): BetterData technology makes data sharing instant for data/AI teams by converting real data into synthetic data that looks, feels and behaves the same. As synthetic data belongs to no real individual, privacy laws do not apply, and it can be shared globally with 100% compliance while also unlocking data licensing/monetization opportunities. Circular Genomics (Session 1): Circular Genomics is a venture-backed startup company developing precision diagnostics utilizing circular RNAs as biomarkers to provide personalized care for patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders. Digest.ai (Session 2): Digest.ai is building an experience around a collaborative knowledge database to accelerate discovery and education. Hormona (Session 2): Hormona is building an end-to-end solution targeting hormonal health with our innovative hormone test that allows women to quantitatively measure their hormone levels from the comfort of the home without the need for a lab. Incooling (Session 3): With a mission to cool down the planet one server at a time, Incooling has adapted the unique properties of phase change cooling and created next-generation 2 phase cooling servers dedicated to achieving the data center industry’s full potential. Intropic Materials (Session 4): Intropic Materials addresses the plastic waste problem, making self-degrading products that can be composted or perfectly recycled. Kayhan Space Corp (Session 4): A coordinated and autonomous satellite collision detection and avoidance solution for satellite operators. Labby (Session 4): Labby is a hardware and optical AI startup born out of MIT, building next-generation mobile sensing technology for the dairy industry to provide fast, accurate and affordable milk-testing solutions and deliver instant results on milk composition and quality information. Minerva Lithium (Session 3): Direct Lithium extraction technology. Mother Honestly (Session 2): Mother Honestly is building a community-powered care infrastructure for employers and employee caregivers to flourish at home and in the workplace. Nat4bio (Session 3): Nat4Bio develops naturally-sourced and clean-labeled coatings that protect fruit and vegetables from spoilage. NxGen Port (Session 1): NXgenPort is addressing an unmet need in cancer care by remotely managing patients between chemotherapy visits with a Digital Health Platform and an implanted Smart Port with intravascular cytometry sensors. Omneky (Session 1): Omneky utilizes state-of-the-art deep learning to personalize experiences across all digital channels. Reverion Gmbh (Session 3): Reverion manufactures highly efficient power plants for carbon negative electricity generation and energy storage. Staax (Session 2): Staax enables peer-to-peer payments via fractional shares of stock, creating transparency and a social network around investing. Swap Robotics (Session 2): One hundred percent electric robots for grass cutting on solar sites (1,000+ acres) and snow plowing on sidewalks.

Indian news outlet Wire to review reporting on Meta • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Facebook, india, meta, SocialNo Comments

Indian news outlet The Wire said on Tuesday it is setting up an internal review to assess the documents, information, source material and people it relied on for critical stories on Meta that claimed the social juggernaut gave governing party BJP’s top digital operative an unchecked ability to remove content from Instagram and a series of follow-up pieces in which it said Meta executives were misleading people. The statement on Tuesday follows one of the security researchers that the Wire portended to rely on – and supposedly cited an email by him to confirm the authenticity of a Meta executive’s email – saying a fake email was used to suggest he had participated. Devesh Kumar, one of the tech reporters of the Wire stories, deactivated his Twitter account earlier Tuesday amid mounting criticism. BIG: It has come to my attention that I’ve been listed as one of the “independent security researchers” who supposedly “verified” the Wire’s report on FB ‘Xcheck’ in India. I would like to confirm that I did NOT DO the DKIM verification for them. pic.twitter.com/5zbsJJNCFk — Ka7an (@Kani5hk) October 18, 2022 (More to follow)

Starboard Value reportedly taking ‘significant’ stake in Salesforce • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in activist investors, CRM, Enterprise, Salesforce, Starboard ValueNo Comments

Activist investor Starboard Value announced this morning that it was taking a “significant stake” in Salesforce, per CNBC. A presentation on Starboard’s website confirmed the firm’s interest in Salesforce, as well as Wix and Splunk. The presentation looks at the company’s financial situation and concludes that it could be giving investors a better return. On the positive side, Starboard likes the company’s refreshed executive team with Bret Taylor as co-CEO. It also likes Salesforce’s ambitious $50 billion revenue target for fiscal year 2026, but Starboard was less pleased with Salesforce’s combined growth and operating margin target of 42%. It claimed that Salesforce’s peers’ average is over 50%, and the implication is that it wants to see Salesforce closer to — or ahead of — its peer group. Further, Starboard sees a company that has much greater scale than peer cloud companies like Workday and ServiceNow, its comparison companies. Starboard claims in the investor presentation that “despite expecting to grow slower than [these] peers, [it] is only targeting operating margins in-line to below its much smaller peers.” “On a growth + margin basis, Salesforce significantly lags these companies and the peer set,” the company wrote in its presentation. It believes that if Salesforce “generates incremental margins that are in-line with peer levels as it grows towards $50 billion in FY2026 revenue, margins would significantly exceed the Investor Day target.” And that would increase free cash flow per share over the next several years as it approaches that $50 billion revenue mark. Salesforce issued a rather staid reaction to the news of Starboard’s move: “We are committed to acting in the best interests of our shareholders and are focused on continuing to execute on our strategy outlined at Dreamforce,” a company spokesperson told me. Salesforce stock is up over 6% in trading this morning on the news. This is a breaking story. We will update the story with additional information as it becomes available.

Apple’s new M2 iPad Pro arrives October 26 • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Hardware, iPad, iPad Pro, m2No Comments

Seems we may not be getting a surprise October Apple event, after all. The company just dropped what will, no doubt, be one of its last major hardware updates for the calendar year. The iPad Pro is getting a spec refresh revolving around an upgrade for the M1 to M2 chip. The new chip sports eight CPU cores, with a performance bump of around 15%, according to Apple. The GPU is 10 cores, with a stated 35% performance boost per the company. Apple is clearly pushing the latest version of the Pro as something more akin to a laptop aimed at creative professionals, pushing enhancements to the sorts of content creation that could be managed by tablets as recently as a few years ago. It notes, The performance of M2 turbocharges even the most demanding workflows, from photographers editing massive photo libraries and designers manipulating complex 3D objects, to healthcare professionals taking advanced imaging and analysis, to gamers enjoying graphics-intensive games. The power of M2 also extends to the new media engine and the image signal processor, which combined with the advanced cameras, enable users to capture ProRes video for the first time and transcode ProRes footage up to 3x faster. This means content creators can capture, edit, and publish cinema-grade video from a single device out in the field. The high-end tablet comes in both 11- and 12.9-inch versions, available with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB of storage, coupled with 16GB of RAM. Both versions will be available in WiFI and 5G options. Connectivity gets a refresh here, with support for WiFi 6E. In terms of the its sustainability push, Apple notes that the Pro features 100% recycled gold for the circuit board, along with recycled aluminum, tin and various rare earth elements. The new iPad Pro arrives alongside a new (2nd gen) Apple Pencil, which can be detected further from the display (12mm), offering up a preview of sketches before committing stylus to tablet. Developing…

Snapcommerce grabs its cape and becomes Super • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Commerce, debit card, Fintech, Hussein Fazal, Snapcommerce, SuperNo Comments

Mobile shopping experience company Snapcommerce is moving from commerce to fintech, unveiling both a new name, Super, and a new credit card product. The company, which raised $85 million last year, describes its SuperCash card as a “first-of-its-kind, debt-protecting card” that provides users with rewards and cash back in a way that enables them to build credit. Here’s how it works: anyone can apply for the card — there are no credit checks or minimum purchases — and it connects to the user’s debit card. So they spend the same way, but instead of not getting any rewards from the debit card, SuperCash users get a whopping 10% cash back on SuperTravel, 5% on SuperShop and 2% everywhere else Mastercard is accepted, Hussein Fazal, Super CEO, told ZebethMedia. When building Snapcommerce, the company noticed that the majority of its customers were paying with a debit card. “It’s because they typically didn’t have access to credit or they were afraid of credit, and in fact, 54% said they wanted access to credit and they couldn’t get it,” Fazal added. “Launching this SuperCash Card makes you think holistically about how all this stuff works together. For every spend decision our customers make, we want them to come to us because it’s a better way to spend because they’re going to save 20% to 30% on hotels and build a credit score while getting 2% cashback.” Radhika Duggal, Super’s chief marketing officer, told ZebethMedia that the decision to change the company’s name to Super was a move to continue to be top-of-mind with customers. “It really delivered on the mission that we’re trying to focus on which is enabling consumers to spend less, save more and build credit to make the most out of their lives,” Duggal said. “‘Super’ was a word that we really gravitated to because it had strength, excitement and positivity associated with it. We want consumers to feel that way and feel good about the decisions that they make.” Fazal explained the strategy for pivoting from a commerce focus to a fintech focus was centered around Super’s customers and understanding how to better serve them. The company relies on a lot of data, and when it was telling them that customers didn’t just want to save more, but needed to save more, he felt Super was in a “unique position to be able to help them do that” by moving closer to the intersection of commerce and fintech and by removing barriers to a better credit score. Meanwhile, Super had been operating with a waitlist, of which Fazal said 10% of its over 7 million customers had signed up, and officially opened up its credit applications today. To date, Super raised over $100 million in venture-backed capital, surpassed $1 billion in sales, saved consumers $145 million, and, based on its last quarter, has over $100 million net revenue annualized business, Fazal said. In the past year, the company also increased its head count from 70 to 200 employees. “Hitting those growth levels has resulted in a lot of inbound interest from investors,” he added. “We have a lot of cash on the balance sheet, so we aren’t aggressively going to try and fundraise, but sort of given all the inbound interest, we probably will close on some funding before the end of the year.”

Advances in fit technology could minimize those onerous online returns • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Bessemer Venture Partners, Commerce, EC Ecommerce and D2C, eCommerce, Kent BennettNo Comments

If you’ve watched even one episode of “Project Runway,” you’ve noted that clothing designers use a “fit model” as the basis for creating their garments. That same method is used by clothing brands all over the world. However, everyone’s body shape is different, and very few of us are built like a fit model, so how the outfit looks on the person modeling the clothes online and how it fits an individual person can also be radically different. Startups and big retailers have jumped in with technology to help brands better manage returns, but they’re also attempting to tackle the root cause — the fit itself. However, Bessemer Venture Partners partner Kent Bennett said not enough attention is being focused on fit technology. “This is an area that people are not covering as closely as they should be,” he told ZebethMedia. “It’s such a huge part of our lives, but one where I think the tech has gotten a little older and dusty, and I do think there’s potential for a revolution here.”

Will Ventures closes second fund with $150M to invest in sports technologies • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Brian Reilly, isaiah kacyvenski, sports technology, Venture, Will VenturesNo Comments

Venture capital funds focusing on niche sectors are “in,” and Will Ventures is here for it. This low-flying, Boston-based venture outfit just tripled the size of its second fund to $150 million thanks to its approach of investing in sports technologies with the help of its community of athlete backers who help promote and grow the portfolio companies. Will Ventures was started in 2019 by former professional football player Isaiah Kacyvenski and Brian Reilly, who has a product management background. They have known each other for over a decade, having previously worked together at the then wearable technology startup MC10. The company went on to raise over $100 million and grow to over 80 employees. “We got to see what it was like firsthand to become entrepreneurs,” Reilly told ZebethMedia. “During that time, we were primarily working in the consumer health or health and wellness verticals, in digital health and consumer technology, launching these wearables that were being used for elite athletes and also chronically ill patients.” Two years ago, they started the sports technology research and advisory firm Sports Division Lab, which Reilly said helped build up their experience in all of those verticals and in sports media and entertainment. In 2020, Will Ventures closed on its Fund I with $55 million that was backed by university endowments, professional sports team owners and entrepreneurs. Now armed with $150 million for Fund II, the firm will continue to invest in seed-stage companies in the consumer, health, sports and entertainment sectors. The limited partners for this fund now also include foundations, dozens of professional athletes and founders from venture capital and private equity firms. “The increase in fund size was to capitalize on all the opportunities we saw in the market, and for us to be able to get more ownership in the companies that we really cared about,” Reilly said. Will Ventures practices the low-volume, high-conviction investment model, he noted. Rather than invest in 50 to 100 companies “for fun,” the firm is “slow and intentional” about constructing a portfolio of 20 to 25 companies so it can “maintain a discipline, patience, research-driven” approach. There are also some new additions to Will Ventures, including a partnership with OneTeam Partners, which manages marketing and licensing rights for over 4,000 professional athletes. Ben Gardner also joined the firm as a partner and head of portfolio success. A former professional football player, he comes from Andreessen Horowitz, where he was a partner on the go-to-market team. So far, the firm has made investments from the second fund in companies such as Ness, which they describe as “AmEx for health and wellness;” Mighty Health, a health and wellness platform for the aging population; The Post, a professional club for current and former athletes; and Street FC, a marketplace for pickup sports. “We did what we said we were going to do with the first fund and put the right processes in place for reliable and reproducible results,” Kacyvenski told ZebethMedia. “We have unbelievable relationships with athletes, with unions in the league, with team owners and with talent agencies. That is one piece of our flywheel that will continue to help with our differentiated value.”

DuckDuckGo’s beta Mac app is open to public with new features • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in DuckDuckGo, mac, online privacy, Privacy, web browserNo Comments

DuckDuckGo’s web browser for Mac is now available as an open beta test, the Internet privacy company announced today. Six months after the web browsing app rolled out as a closed beta, DuckDuckGo added new features to version 0.30, including a “Duck Player” to defend users from targeted ads and cookies when they watch YouTube videos. With the new Duck Player, YouTube will still register views, however, none of the videos will contribute to a user’s YouTube advertising profile, so they don’t see personalized ads. Other new features include pinned tabs, a bookmark bar, the ability to view locally stored browsing history, immediate access to built-in email protection, and password protection from the open-source password manager Bitwarden. The company also revealed an improved Cookie Consent Pop-Up Manager, claiming it can automatically handle cookie pop-ups on “significantly more sites,” DuckDuckGo wrote in its blog. Another upgrade to DuckDuckGo for Mac is that when it blocks ads, the whitespace that’s left behind is now removed. DuckDuckGo aims to be an all-in-one privacy solution that’s easy-to-use for everyday browsing. In June, its mobile app took the No. 2 spot for search engines in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. “Since announcing the waitlist beta in April, we’ve been listening to beta testers’ feedback and making even more improvements to meet your needs,” the company wrote. DuckDuckGo noted that more built-in features would be added over time. DuckDuckGo for Windows is launching a private waitlist beta in the coming months.

How to combine PLG and enterprise sales to improve your funnel • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in Column, EC Column, EC Enterprise Applications, EC How To, Enterprise, enterprise sales, product-led growth, StartupsNo Comments

Kate Ahlering Contributor Kate Ahlering is the chief revenue officer at Calendly, where she leads sales, sales enablement, revenue operations and partnerships functions. Between the changing tides of the economy and digital buying preferences, SaaS companies are under tremendous pressure. Many of these companies understand that 80% of their interactions with buyers occur on digital channels. At the same time, they need to drive profitability to meet investor expectations. The question is: How do they appease customers who want self-service while accelerating profitable growth? While product-led growth (PLG) is a successful strategy, many companies will complement these efforts with sales-led growth (SLG), or an enterprise sales motion, to move upmarket or into a specific customer segment. With the right go-to-market (GTM) architecture in place and effective use of data, companies can make the most of both strategies to accelerate revenue growth. When does it make sense to complement PLG with SLG? Typically, companies follow three patterns when it comes to their GTM approach: It’s important to make sure your pricing and packaging is differentiated between your individual, team and enterprise plans. Product-led: Focusing on the user and their experience with the product as the primary path to revenue. Sales-led: Leveraging traditional marketing and sales methods to reach the buyer or economic decision-maker. This approach may be supported by selected PLG techniques to drive user advocacy. Hybrid: Combining the best of both worlds, with PLG techniques generating awareness and making inroads into prospect accounts, and sales activities driving most of the revenue. With PLG, the product needs to make an impact on the user — and do it quickly. After all, the product is the primary vehicle for user acquisition, retention and expansion. While PLG works best for products with some level of virality, in many cases, you do not have to choose between SLG and PLG. As an example, Calendly’s sales team often talks to customers about how we can help scale the platform to create an even deeper impact within their organizations. We follow a hybrid GTM approach, where PLG provides a critical access point into prospect accounts, and sales drives enterprise expansion and revenue. While PLG feeds the funnel, sales targets end users with influential titles inside the core use case we serve (e.g. VP of sales), where we can drive the most value and business outcomes.

Author : zebethcontrol