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Author : zebethcontrol

Rising energy costs are making the cloud more expensive • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in cloud, data center, EC Cloud and Enterprise Infrastructure, energy, EnterpriseNo Comments on Rising energy costs are making the cloud more expensive • ZebethMedia

Since winter, around the start of the war in Ukraine, energy costs have risen drastically — particularly in parts of Europe historically dependent on Russian fuel. That’s impacted data centers, which aren’t directly reliant on resources like natural gas but which often draw on power grids and backup generators that generate a portion of their electricity using fossil fuels. According to a July report from power generation supplier Aggreko, data center operators in the U.K. and Ireland have seen their energy bills increase by as much as 50% over the last three years, with the steepest climbs occurring within the last year. Fifty-eight percent of those in the U.K. said that energy bills have had a “significant impact” on their company’s margins. It seems inevitable that the energy premium data center operators are being forced to pay will be passed along to customers. Indeed, it’s already happening. Way back in November 2021, Manchester-based cloud services provider M247 hiked prices a whopping 161%, blaming “unprecedented times in the European energy markets.” Cloud providers OVHcloud, based in France, and Hetzner, based in Germany, both recently announced that they would raise prices by 10% in the coming months to combat soaring energy costs and inflation. In an earnings report, OVHcloud told investors that it expects “electricity costs in 2023 will account for around a mid-to-high-single digit percentage of its revenue, up from mid-single digit in 2022,” Reuters reported. In a conversation with ZebethMedia, Gartner senior director analyst René Buest noted that the era of constantly falling cloud prices has been over for some time. (Google Cloud, for instance, increased the prices of its core services in March independent of rising energy costs.) But she agreed that rising costs — and the associated inflation — have accelerated the upward cloud pricing trend.

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Pinecone vector database can now handle hybrid keyword-semantic search • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Enterprise, keyword search, machine learning, Pinecone, semantic search, vector databaseNo Comments on Pinecone vector database can now handle hybrid keyword-semantic search • ZebethMedia

When Pinecone announced a vector database at the beginning of last year, it was building something that was specifically designed for machine learning and aimed at data scientists. The idea was that you could query this data in a format that machines understand, making it much faster. Originally this involved semantic searches where users could search based on meaning instead of specific words. It turns out, however, that as people put Pinecone to work, there were use cases where specific keywords mattered, and today the company announced that it’s now possible to conduct searches combining both semantic and keyword searches, what company founder and CEO Edo Liberty calls hybrid search. “We’ve conducted a lot of research on this topic and we found that, in fact, hybrid search ends up being better [in many cases]. It’s better in the sense that if you can combine both semantic search, this is the deep NLP encoding of sentences that gets the context and the meaning and so on, but you can also infuse that with specific keywords…the combination of those two ends up being significantly better,” Liberty told ZebethMedia. In fact he says the two complement each other well, especially in cases where industry-specific terms matter. This could be something like a doctor searching for keywords related to a specific disease. In those cases, the medical context may return better results by combining a question and some specific keywords around a given disease. He says that the keywords never take precedence over the semantic question the user is asking, but they provide some extra information to help return more meaningful results. “You might know exactly what you’re looking for, and you might be able to provide extra oomph when you make your semantic search keyword-aware – and that actually helps a lot. So I don’t want to throw away the good parts of keyword search [by relying completely on semantic search]. I don’t want the keywords to be in the driver’s seat, but I don’t to ignore them completely either,” he said. As Liberty told us at the time of the company’s $28 million Series A last year, search has become a big use case for the company: “The predominant use of the vector databases is for search, and search in the broad sense of the word. It’s searching through documents, but you can think about search as information retrieval in general, discovery, recommendation, anomaly detection and so on,” he said at the time. Pinecone launched in 2019 and has raised $38 million, per Crunchbase.

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6 reasons why you shouldn’t join an accelerator • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in accelerators, Column, EC Column, EC venture capital, startup accelerators, Startups, TechStars, VentureNo Comments on 6 reasons why you shouldn’t join an accelerator • ZebethMedia

Saba Karim is director of the startup pipeline at Techstars. As the head of startup pipeline at Techstars, I’ve been getting on calls with founders, attending events, speaking on stages like ZebethMedia’s Disrupt and hosting countless Twitter Spaces. Each time, I’ve been telling founders why they should join an accelerator. Now, I am changing things up and going to lay out six reasons you shouldn’t join an accelerator. If you only need funding You’re better off going to VCs, angel investors, crowdfunding, applying for grants or seeking venture debt. Accelerators usually take more (equity), because they provide more than just money. They give you funding and fundraising opportunities, mentorship and networks, workshops and usually a place to work. If you don’t need any of that, then you don’t need an accelerator. Accelerators are great because they’re a forcing mechanism to reach your most desired outcome by the end of the program, but no one is going to drag you out of bed every morning. Keep in mind that funding will solve your money problems, but it won’t solve everything else. You’ll still need to figure out how to acquire customers, find the best talent, build an incredible product, assemble a great advisory board and get to product-market fit. Do you just need funding? Lucky you. For crowdfunding, you can’t go wrong with Republic or WeFunder. For venture debt options, check out SVB or Mercury, and OpenGrants for, well, grants. To do customer development Customer development, also known as customer discovery or idea validation, is the notion of validating your startup idea. You don’t need an accelerator to tell you to talk to your customers. You should be doing it anyway. Otherwise, why are you building the thing you want to build? Yes, many accelerators accept companies at the idea stage, but it’s usually on the premise that primary or secondary research has been conducted to show you’re building something people have said they would use and/or pay for.

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Topline Pro grabs $5M to help home service businesses scale online • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in bonfire ventures, Commerce, home service business, Nick Ornitz, Startups, Topline ProNo Comments on Topline Pro grabs $5M to help home service businesses scale online • ZebethMedia

Like many “solopreneurs,” home service professionals have to balance doing the work while also managing a business. Topline Pro wants to take some of that burden off the shoulders of professionals so they can concentrate on customers. New York-based Topline Pro, formerly ProPhone, does this by leveraging generative artificial intelligence to provide a way for these businesses to get discovered, build trust among customers and generate repeat customers. The interface creates a custom website with search-engine optimization that can go live the same day. It showcases the professional’s business, including collecting online reviews, scheduling bookings and accepting payments. Meanwhile, the AI generates additional content, including local listings and automating social media content. Nick Ornitz, co-founder and CEO, started the company with Shannon Kay after meeting in business school. Inspiration for Topline Pro came from Ornitz’s siblings who are among the 5 million people running service-based companies, from landscaping to painting to cleaning and general contracting. In talking with them and home improvement retailers that he previously worked with, he and Kay realized just how much these businesses were relying on pen and paper. Topline Pro co-founders Shannon Kay and Nick Ornitz. Image Credits: Topline Pro “When you talk to a homeowner they were disappointed or frustrated by the experience and when you talk to the business owner, they’re trying their best to do the work, but also run the business,” Ornitz told ZebethMedia. “That just seemed like a really big opportunity.” Their initial idea, then called ProPhone, connected plumbers with homeowners over video chat. The co-founders even went through Y Combinator as part of the Winter 2021 batch. However, while accelerating the business, many of ProPhone’s plumber customers were saying that they like the video calls, but needed more jobs and they didn’t know how to grow their business beyond word-of-mouth. That’s when Ornitz and Kay pivoted to Topline Pro. They launched the current subscription product, which starts at $75 per month, in January of 2022. In 10 months, the company has generated more than $25 million in job requests across more than 1,000 monthly subscriber businesses in nearly all 50 states, Ornitz said. Topline is not alone in helping professionals manage their businesses digitally. In fact, this is becoming a hot area for startups to play in and for investors to flock. For example, in July, Finli, which developed a mobile-first payment management system for businesses, raised $6 million. Earlier this year, Zuper, a provider of productivity tools for field service management and customer engagement, raised $13 million. Before that, Fuzey raised $4.5 million in seed funding for its “digital one-stop shop” for small businesses and independent contractors, while Puls Technologies raised $15 million for its mobile app connecting tradespeople with on-demand home repair services. Ornitz says his company is different in a few ways, it is utilizing GPT-3 to automate unlimited multipage websites and administrative tasks. It is also not a marketplace and so its customers are able to be discovered directly by homeowners online so that they can own the relationships without that middle layer. Meanwhile, today Topline Pro announced $5 million in seed funding, led by Bonfire Ventures, and including TMV, BBG Ventures and a group of angel investors, like Squire co-founder Songe LaRon. Plans for the new capital include developing additional applications for the generative AI; for example, applications that help professionals with their SEO, content and blog updates as well as helping pros with their marketing. Ornitz also expects to add to the company’s 12 employees in the areas of engineering, product and customer success. “We want to make sure that the pro is being discovered by as many people as possible,” he added. “Once you’ve found that pro we want to make sure that the homeowner has an easier process to book with them and also pay with them. We know that word of mouth is still the strongest form of marketing, and we want to augment that.”

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Amazon to delist top seller Appario on India marketplace amid regulatory heat • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Amazon, Amazon India, Commerce, Flipkart, WalmartNo Comments on Amazon to delist top seller Appario on India marketplace amid regulatory heat • ZebethMedia

Amazon plans to delist large seller Appario Retail, in which it maintains a stake, from the marketplace, the two said Monday, a year after ending ties for another large seller Cloudtail following allegations from retailers that some sellers received preferential treatment. Amazon and Patni Group-owned Zodiac said in a statement that they have agreed to renew their joint venture, called Frontizo Business Services, but have decided that Appario Retail will “cease to be a seller” on Amazon India within the next 12 months. “The partners will continue to explore new business opportunities, including helping businesses across India to scale up their online presence,” an Amazon spokesperson in India told ZebethMedia in a statement. Amazon did not say why it was delisting Appario, but the move follows a growing scrutiny on its owned sellers. India’s antitrust body launched raids on Appario and Cloudtail earlier this year following accusations of competition law violations, Reuters reported in April. A Reuters investigation last year showed that Amazon had given preferential treatment for years to a small group of sellers on its platform and used them to bypass Indian laws. The outlet’s investigation also showed that Amazon had for years helped these sellers with discounted fees. The investigation found that about 35 of Amazon’s more than 400,000 sellers in India in 2019 accounted for around two-thirds of sales on its India website. Of that figure, two sellers, Cloudtail and Appario, contributed 35% of the platform’s sales. India’s Supreme Court last year ruled that Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart must face antitrust investigations ordered against them in the country. The Indian watchdog — the Competition Commission of India — ordered an investigation into the firms in 2020 for allegedly promoting select sellers (those in which they own a stake) on their e-commerce platforms and using business practices that stifle competition. Long-standing laws in India restrict Amazon and other e-commerce firms from holding inventory or selling items directly to consumers. To bypass this, firms have operated through a maze of joint ventures with local companies that operate as inventory-holding firms. India got around to fixing this loophole in late 2018 in a move that was widely seen as the biggest blowback to the American firm in the country at the time. Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart scrambled to delist hundreds of thousands of items from their stores and made their investments in affiliated firms way more indirect. In a scathing report in August, Indian newspaper The Economic Times found that a group of new sellers run by former executives of Cloudtail and Appario have mushroomed in the country and are listed on the Amazon marketplace. India is a key overseas market for Amazon, which has invested over $6.5 billion in the South Asian market. But it continues to lag its chief rival Flipkart in the country on several metrics and is struggling to make inroads in smaller Indian cities and towns, according to a report by investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein.

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Mobileye cruises into the public market and inside the Argo AI collapse • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in Argo AI, Mobileye, The Station, TransportationNo Comments on Mobileye cruises into the public market and inside the Argo AI collapse • ZebethMedia

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive the full edition of the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. This is a shorter version of The Station newsletter that is emailed to subscribers. Want all the deals, news roundups and commentary? Subscribe for free.  Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.  Welp, that was a week! My head is still spinning over here what with Mobileye going public, Argo shutting down and Elon Musk taking the reins at Twitter. Yes, there’s a transportation angle to Twitter beyond the less-than-happy reaction of Tesla shareholders. (GM temporarily paused paid advertising on Twitter, following Musk’s takeover.) Let’s just jump right in, shall we? Please email me at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, criticisms, opinions or tips. You also can send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec Micromobbin’ The California state legislature recently passed AB 371, the so-called “Kill Bikeshare Bill,” which puts extreme insurance requirements on shared micromobility companies beyond what’s required of private car owners or rental car companies. It makes the companies liable for the behavior of anyone using their service, and will likely lead to many companies pulling out. Citi Bike has a “Bike Angel” program that incentivizes people (with money!) to rebalance e-bike inventories at docking stations across NYC. San Francisco is restricting shared e-scooters from parking in certain tourist zones, specifically a large stretch of the Embarcadero and a popular street in Fisherman’s Wharf. The move comes as the SFMTA is under pressure to issue more hardline enforcement of sidewalk riding. Tesla Cyberquad for Kids, a $1,900 mini ATV made by Radio Flyer, is being recalled due to safety concerns. About 5,000 units have been sold. You’re reading an abbreviated version of micromobbin’. Subscribe for free to the newsletter and you’ll get a lot more. Inside the Argo AI shutdown Image Credits: Argo AI The sudden shuttering of autonomous vehicle company Argo AI was received like a bucket of ice cold water being dumped on one’s head. Sure, the autonomous vehicle industry is still frontier tech that is years, even decades, away from becoming a product used daily by most consumers. Profits, hell even revenue, are distant goals. And yet, Argo’s demise did feel unexpected, largely because it had deep-pocketed backers like Ford and VW ($2 billion in cash and $1.6 billion in value of taking over VW’s Autonomous Intelligent Driving subsidiary), several high-profile partners with active pilot programs, a large workforce of top talent and a presence in multiple cities. The work culture wasn’t toxic, based on accounts from numerous insiders at different levels of the startup. It was a company widely respected and considered one of a handful of companies poised with the talent, backing and tech to actually pull off the commercialization of AVs. So why did Argo die? Did the founders or its backers make some fatal flaw along the way? Or is it a larger systemic problem with the technology itself? As I learn more about this (and I continue to dig), it seems it is a combination of a few factors, including Ford and VW deciding to prioritize near-term profits gleaned from advanced deriver assistance systems over a still-in-the-works technology that neither company had actually figured out a business model for. (or at least one guaranteed to be profitable) Argo apparently was able to find some new backers (Ford said in its earnings call that Argo couldn’t find fresh outside investment.) But finding capital wasn’t the only problem. The terms of any new investor would have to be agreed upon by Ford and VW. I have received varying accounts on the health of that relationship. ZebethMedia editor Darrell Etherington makes the argument that this proves self-driving cars are not coming anytime soon. Cruise co-founder and Kyle Vogt responded with some light trolling on Twitter. Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson also piped up with an AV-industry-is-not-doomed message. “This is not a signal that a future with self-driving technology isn’t real or imminent. In fact, it’s quite the opposite,” he wrote, noting Waymo’s expansion of a robotaxi fleet to LA and Cruise charging for driverless rides in San Francisco. Urmson also provided an update on Aurora’s focus on self-driving trucks. I don’t believe the AV industry is dead. I do see — and have for two years now — consolidation, tightening capital markets and a shift in priorities from automakers, which were once some of the biggest cheerleaders and backers of AVs. That makes a tough rough even bumpier. And for now, that shuts out a lot of startups. It would be a bit simplistic to say “it’s the profits, stupid.” But that’s not entirely isn’t wrong either. What do you, dear reader, think? Deal of the week On the day the Argo AI news dropped, Mobileye made its official debut. The success of the IPO — the third largest this year — was seen by many as a validation of Ford and VW’s decision to shutdown Argo. The takeaway was that advanced driver assistance systems, not AV tech, is the real future (at least in terms of revenue and profits). Mobileye was able to price 41 million shares at $21 and above its initial range, raising $861 million. General Atlantic agreed to buy an additional $100 million of shares in a private placement. Investors seemed ready to pile in and helped shares pop and close nearly 30% above the IPO price. I spoke to Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua on the big day. (Look for a longer piece this week.) A couple of quick takeaways from Dr. Shashua: “Things have changed and became more and more nuanced. You know, five years ago we’d be talking about driving assist and then robotaxis as kind of two separate domains. We gradually built a product portfolio that bridges the spectrum between driving assist and robotaxis.” That

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Bengaluru launches QR train ticketing service on WhatsApp • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in india, Social, WhatsAppNo Comments on Bengaluru launches QR train ticketing service on WhatsApp • ZebethMedia

WhatsApp users in the city of Bengaluru can now use the instant messaging app to purchase train tickets and recharge their travel passes, the Meta-owned platform said Monday in what it described as “the first-ever QR ticketing service” for its app. WhatsApp and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) said they have partnered to launch a WhatsApp chatbot-based QR ticketing service for the city’s rapid transit system named Namma Metro. Available in English and Kannada, the chatbot allows commuters to purchase their single-journey transit tickets, recharge metro travel pass, check updated fare tables and view transit timetable. Commuters need to send ‘Hi’ to the phone number +918105556677 to initiate their interactions with the chatbot. “This is yet another great example of how organizations across sectors, from the largest transportation service to the smallest retail business, can transform their customers’ experience using the WhatsApp Platform,” said Abhijit Bose, Head of WhatsApp India, in a prepared statement. WhatsApp users can make payments for their tickets and recharges using UPI after choosing their travel details on the app. The QR ticket, once generated, can be scanned at the terminal for contactless entry and exit. “It is a proud moment for us as BMRCL becomes the first transit service globally to launch QR ticketing service on WhatsApp,” said A.S. Shankar, Executive Director (O&M), BMRC, in a statement. WhatsApp considers India as its biggest market globally, with more than 400 million users. Earlier this year, the Meta-owned messaging service also got the approval to extend its UPI-powered payments service to 100 million users in the country after a series of delays and setbacks.

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Watch SpaceX launch a Falcon Heavy for the first time in three years • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in falcon heavy, Space, SpaceX, US Space forceNo Comments on Watch SpaceX launch a Falcon Heavy for the first time in three years • ZebethMedia

Thousands are gathering on Florida’s Space Coast to watch SpaceX launch the massive Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time since 2019. SpaceX will attempt to directly inject two U.S. Space Force spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit. The payload includes TETRA-1, a microsatellite developed by Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems, which the company describes as a spacecraft created for “various prototype missions” in an around GEO. The other spacecraft is classified. While the Space Force originally intended to launch the USSF-44 mission in late 2020, it was repeatedly delayed due to payload readiness issues. Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket currently in operation, and it’s only flown three times, the last of which took place in June 2019. Its maiden launch, which carried a Tesla Roadster (and dummy driver) to orbit, is a particularly notable chapter in SpaceX history. The rocket is made up of a trio of Falcon 9 boosters, the very same ones that now launch at least once a week. The whopping 27 Merlin engines together produce around 5 million pounds of thrust. A Falcon 9 second stage and payload fairing is attached to the central booster. This will be the first launch for all three boosters as well as the upper stage and fairing. SpaceX shared a photo last week of the three first stages in the hangar at Kennedy Space Center. Image credits: SpaceX The central booster will be expended, while the two side boosters will land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch is scheduled for no earlier than 9:44 AM EST.

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Invygo raises $10M to make long-term car subscription a breeze • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on Posted in car rental, car subscription, Saudi Arabia, Startups, Transportation, UAENo Comments on Invygo raises $10M to make long-term car subscription a breeze • ZebethMedia

Invygo, a startup operating in UAE and Saudi Arabia, has raised $10 million in its Series A funding led by MEVP as it works to scale its car rental service in the region. The Middle East-based startup, founded by Eslam Ahmed Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo in 2019, has raised $14.3 million to date. Al Rajhi Partners, Arab Bank, Amana Capital and Palm Drive Capital and existing backers Signal Peak Ventures and Knollwood Investment Advisory also participated in the new round. Car subscription offerings Invygo offers three kinds of rental services. The short-term rental allows individuals to rent a car for one, three, six, or nine months. The long-term leasing enables renting of a car for 12, 24 or 36 months. And then there is the subscribe-to-own model — which offers brand-new or semi-used — cars on a 24 or 36-month rental period with a start fee that’s much less than the traditional down payment offered at the dealership, the startup says. Users looking for a short-term rental can go to the website, look at the available cars, and book a rental. On the platform, the company provides car details like model number, year of the make, and kilometers the car has clocked. They can also filter the results by car type, fuel type, transmission type, and color. Image Credits: Invygo Invygo also offers a range of value adds such as doorstep delivery, replacement of car, maintenance, regular insurance, and a round-the-clock helpline. At the end of the leasing period in the subscribe-to-own model, the customer can pay whatever amount is left to own the car — this amount is specified while making the booking — to purchase the vehicle outright. Founders said that it is working with different financial institutions to provide different options like loans to pay off the last bit of the ballooning amount. “We’ve split the full payment of the car into three. Normally, you have a massive downpayment of around 20% and then your monthly installments with no way to get out of that commitment. Our starting fee is around 5% and you have the option to cancel your plan at any time without any penalty,” Ganjoo said in a call with ZebethMedia. Invygo takes a cut from the subscription price, but the company didn’t specify how much. It is not profitable yet, the startup said. Roughly 200 cars are available for subscription in Saudi Arabia and 100 in UAE on the platform on a typical day. The startup works with partners including local car rental services and dealerships to source the cars, it said. Growing subscribe-to-own service Ahmed Hussein said that the Invygo’s focus right now is to grow the subscribe-to-own program that it launched in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. “Currently, subscribe-to-own represents 10% of our overall business. Over time we are aiming to grow it to represent 50% of our business. In Saudi Arabia in particular, we anticipate subscribe-to-own will become 70% of our business there as people want to own an asset and have it in their name, “he said. The most attractive part about the subscribe-to-own plan is that customers are not obliged to pay a balloon payment to own the car, the startup said. They can cancel the plan at any time without any penalty. What’s more, it is creating an alternative credit score for people based on driver behavior and payment patterns. The startup is using this score to provide financing for the remaining payments themselves or through a network of banks. Competition and the road ahead There are a few startups in the region that provide competitive monthly rental options. There is Ekar, which last raised $17.5 in its series B funding in 2019, and Swapp, which has partnered with Uber-owned Careem to offer flexible car rentals on the super app. Invygo believes that its offering is different as they are focusing more on long-term subscriptions and potential ownership of the car. The founders think that their competitors are traditional institutes that provide car financing. “What we do is to provide you financing in a more accessible way without making any commitment,” they said. In the next 12 months, Invygo wants to expand its subscriber base in both markets. It also wants to keep an eye out for expansion in markets like Qatar, Egypt, or Pakistan if it sees a substantial opportunity.

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