Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Friday, September 17th! What a week, ya’ll. It is now just days before Disrupt, which means the TechCrunch hive is buzzing. I’ll leave it by noting that Reid Hoffman is coming, which is going to be a treat. See you next week! — Alex

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Profits > Ethics: Apple and Google have removed a “tactical voting app created by the organization of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny” from their marketplaces, we reported. TechCrunch notes that “the Russian state [is] amping up the pressure on foreign tech giants ahead of federal elections.” So much for standing up for democracy, or whatever.
• Are software valuations stabilizing? After a simply incredible run, the value of software revenues may have reached a plateau. A very high plateau, mind, but still a resting point. This is not bad news for SaaS companies, which are still valued at historically elevated levels.
• Apple “actively monitoring” legal challenges to Texas abortion law: While some tech companies are making their displeasure at the new Texas reproductive care bill very public, Apple is taking a slightly slower, lower-profile approach to the matter. But it’s still good to see an American tech company nearly take a stand on a moral matter. It’s better than whatever is actually less than that. A little.

Startups/VC

• Journey raises $3M for psychedelic therapy: There’s growing market sentiment that some drugs generally associated with recreational activities could have positive impacts for various mental conditions. Journey wants to explore Ketamine-based treatments for anxiety and depression.
• Aurora Propulsion raises €1.7M for satellite propulsion: How do you make a satellite move a little bit and then stop? It’s not an idle question given how many flying objects there are in orbit today. And with more expected to take flight this year than ever, Aurora wants to help our satellites scoot around and avoid one another.
• Aircover raises $3M more for its sales intelligence tool: Integrating with Zoom to provide real-time insights to sales folks during their calls, Aircover is part of a larger trend of sales tech startups building services for the myriad sales people in the market. Defy Partners led the round, which also saw participation from Firebolt Ventures and others.
• Unicorns are taking so long to go public that their former executives are becoming VCs before they reach liquidity: That’s our key takeaway from the news that Instacart’s chief financial officer Sagar Sanghvi has left the on-demand grocery for Accel.

4 ways to leverage ROAS to triple lead generation

In school, it’s highly unethical to copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. In business, however, it’s encouraged.

Xiaoyun TU, global director of demand generation at Brightpearl, wrote a comprehensive guide that describes how a better understanding of return on advertising spend (ROAS) can triple your company’s lead generation.

“A ‘good’ ROAS score is different for each company and campaign,” she says.

“If your figure isn’t where you’d like it to be, you can leverage ROAS data to create targeted campaigns and personalized experiences.”

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Big Tech Inc.

• Elon praises Chinese automakers: As Beijing looks to consolidate its national EV industry, Tesla’s CEO took to a scripted set of comments to praise his Chinese rivals. If you want to understand how different the business climate is between China and America, contrast the mercurial executive’s message to China, and then read his tweets.
• Here’s a headline for you: “Facebook knows Instagram harms teens. Now, its plan to open the app to kids looks worse than ever.” Preach, Taylor. If you are not caught up on the Facebook beat, read the Wall Street Journal’s latest series of articles. They are more than revelatory.

TechCrunch Experts: Growth Marketing

Image Credits: SEAN GLADWELL (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

With the release of iOS 15 around the corner, we spoke to Movable Ink CEO Vivek Sharma and got his take on what marketers can do to prepare, “Marketers should plan for more DIY metrics as iOS 15 nears.”

TechCrunch wants you to recommend growth marketers who have expertise in SEO, social, content writing and more! If you’re a growth marketer, pass this survey along to your clients; we’d like to hear about why they loved working with you.

Blumberg Capital, founded in 1991 by investor David Blumberg, has just closed its fifth early-stage venture fund with $225 million, a vehicle that Blumberg says was oversubscribed — he planned to raise $200 million — and that has already been used to invest in 16 startups around the world (the firm has small offices in San Francisco, New York, Tel Aviv, and Miami, where Blumberg moved his family last year).

We caught up with him earlier this week to talk shop and he sounded almost ecstatic about the current market, which has evidently been good for returns, with Blumberg Capital’s biggest hits tied to Nutanix (it claims a 68x return), DoubleVerify (a 98x return at IPO in April, the firm says), Katapult (which went public via SPAC in July), Addepar (currently valued above $2 billion) and Braze (it submitted its S-1 in June).

We also talked a bit about his new life in Florida, which he was quick to note is “not a clone of Silicon Valley,” in case we had that idea. Not last, he told us why he thinks we’re in a “golden era of applying intelligence to every business,” from mining to the business of athletic performance.

More from our conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity, follows:

TC: What are you funding right now?

DB: Our last 30 to 40 deals have basically been about big data that’s been analyzed by artificial intelligence of some sort, then riding in a better wrapper of software process automation on rails of internet and mobility. Okay, that’s a lot of buzzwords.

TC: Yes.

DB: What I’m saying is that this ability to take raw information data that’s either been sitting around and not analyzed, or from new sources of data like sensors or social media or many other places, then analyze it and take it to all these businesses that have been there forever, is beginning to [have] incremental [impacts] that may sound small [but add up].

One of our [unannounced] companies applies AI to mining — lithium mining and gold and copper — so miners don’t waste their time before finding the richest vein of deposit. We partner with mining owners and we bring extra data that they don’t have access to — some is proprietary, some is public — and because we’re experts at the AI modeling of it, we can apply it to their geography and geology, and as part of the business model, we take part of the mine in return.

TC: So your fund now owns not just equity but part of a mine?

DB: This is evidently done a lot in what’s called E&P, exploration and production in the oil and gas industry, and we’re just following a time-tested model, where some of the service providers put in value and take out a share. So as we see it, it aligns our interests and the better we do for them, the better they do.

TC: This fund is around the same size of your fourth fund, which closed with $207 million, seemingly by design. How do you think about check sizes in this market?

DB: We write checks of $1 million to $6 million generally. We could go down a little bit for something in a seed where we can’t get more of a slice, but we like to have large ownership up front. We found that to have a fund return at least three x — and our funds seem to be returning much more than that — [we need to be math-minded about things].

We have 36 companies in our portfolio typically, and 20% of them fail, 20% of them are our superstars, and 60% are kind of medium. Of those superstars, six of them have to return $100 million each in a $200 million fund to make it a $600 million return, and to get six companies to [produce a] $100 million [for us] they have to reach a billion dollars in value, where we own 10% at the end.

TC You’re buying 10% and maintaining your pro rata or this is after being diluted over numerous rounds?

DB: It’s more like we want 15% to 20% of a company and it gets [diluted] down to 10%. And it’s been working. Some of our funds are way above that number.

TC: Are all four of your earlier funds in the black?

DB: Yes. I love to say this: We have never, ever lost money for our fund investors.

TC: You were among a handful of VCs who were cited quite a lot last year for hightailing it out of the Bay Area for Miami. One year into the move, how is it going?

DB: It is not a clone of Silicon Valley. They are different and add value each in their own way. But Florida is a great place for our family to be and I find for our business, it’s going to be great as well. I can be on the phone to Israel and New York without any time zone-related problems. Some of our companies are moving here, including one from from Israel recently, one from San Francisco, and one from Texas. A lot of our LPs are moving here or live here already. We can also up and down to South America for distribution deals more easily.

If we need to get to California or New York, airplanes still work, too, so it hasn’t been a negative at all. I’m going to a JPMorgan event tonight for a bunch of tech founders where there should be 150 people.

TC: That sounds great, though did you feel about summer in Miami?

DB: We were in France.

Pictured above, from left to right: Firm founder David Blumberg, managing director Yodfat Harel Buchris, COO Steve Gillan, and managing director Bruce Taragin.

While the technology and business world worked towards the weekend, developer operations (DevOps) firm GitLab filed to go public. Before we get into our time off, we need to pause, digest the company’s S-1 filing, and come to some early conclusions.

GitLab competes with GitHub, which Microsoft purchased for $7.5 billion back in 2018.

The company is notable for its long-held, remote-first stance, and for being more public with its metrics than most unicorns — for some time, GitLab had a November 18, 2020 IPO target in its public plans, to pick an example. We also knew when it crossed the $100 million recurring revenue threshold.

The company’s IPO has therefore been long expected. In its last primary transaction, GitLab raised $286 million at a post-money valuation of $2.75 billion, per Pitchbook data. The same information source also notes that GitLab executed a secondary transaction earlier this year worth $195 million, which gave the company a $6 billion valuation.

Let’s parse GitLab’s growth rate, its final pre-IPO scale, its SaaS metrics, and then ask if we think it can surpass its most recent private-market price. Sound good? Let’s rock.

The GitLab S-1

GitLab intends to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “GTLB.” Its IPO filing lists a placeholder $100 million raise estimate, though that figure will change when the company sets an initial price range for its shares. Its fiscal year ends January 31, meaning that its quarters are offset from traditional calendar periods by a single month.

Let’s start with the big numbers.

In its fiscal year ended January 2020, GitLab posted revenues of $81.2 million, gross profit of $71.9 million, an operating loss of $128.4 million, and a modestly greater net loss of $130.7 million.

And in the year ended January 31, 2021, GitLab’s revenue rose roughly 87% to $152.2 million from a year earlier. The company’s gross profit rose around 86% to $133.7 million, and operating loss widened nearly 67% to $213.9 million. Its net loss totaled $192.2 million.

This paints a picture of a SaaS company growing quickly at scale, with essentially flat gross margins (88%). Growth has not been inexpensive either — GitLab spent more on sales and marketing than it generated in gross profit in the past two fiscal years.

If you really want to video chat tonight with William Hung of retro American Idol fame… got twenty bucks to spare? Yesterday, Cameo launched its Cameo Calls products, which lets fans video chat for up to 15 minutes one-on-one with their favorite influencers and celebrities. The talent sets the duration, time, and price of their call, which Cameo says averages around $31.

To book a call, users can go to Cameo’s website or app to see a schedule of upcoming Cameo Calls that they can buy. These also appear on individual talent’s Cameo pages. When you purchase a Cameo Call, you get a unique ticket code that you enter on the app to join your call.

In June 2020, Cameo enabled users to book Zoom calls with celebrities as lockdown became a global norm, but Cameo phased out that feature in April. Instead, Cameo Calls now offers a native experience in the app, rather than relying on third-party software. The downside for consumers, though, is that this makes it more difficult to invite your favorite reality star to your office’s Zoom happy hour. But on the bright side, the Cameo Calls includes a dedicated photo opp at the end of the call, so you can get your celebrity selfie without dealing with the awkwardness of asking to take a photo.

Experiences like Cameo Calls make sense in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, when celebrity meet-and-greets might not be safe in many places. But Cameo also thinks this product can stand in for a typical meet and greet even in “normal” times. Often, celebrity meet-and-greets require waiting in a long line to only have 5 or 10 seconds of time with the talent. Even though many Cameo Calls sessions are only a few minutes long, you might be able to get a more personal experience than if you were the 100th fan in a long line in person.

“We foresee Cameo Calls replacing meet and greets at music festivals and world tours, fan conventions, sporting events, and more,” said Cameo Co-founder & CEO Steven Galanis.

Cameo says it tested this product with over 3,000 calls — during testing, talent-hosted themed meet-and-greets, coffee chats, private concerts, and tarot card readings. Some performers who tested the feature include James and Oliver Phelps, who played the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter movies, and David Henrie, a former Disney Channel star.

It’s been a heady 12-18 months for Zoom, the decade-old company that experienced monster 2020 growth and more recently, a mega acquisition with the $14.7 billion Five9 deal in July. That addition is part of a broader strategy the company has been undertaking the last couple of years to move beyond its core video conferencing market into adjacencies like phone, meeting management and messaging, among other things. Here’s a closer look at how the plan is unfolding.

As the pandemic took hold in March 2020, everyone from businesses to schools to doctors and and places of worship moved online. As they did, Zoom video conferencing became central to this cultural shift and the revenue began pouring in, ushering in a period of sustained triple-digit growth for the company that only recently abated.

It’s a big day for the Amazon of the decentralized internet — OpenSea now has an app for iOS and Android. For most companies, having a mobile app is a milestone you’d reach before hitting a $1.5 billion valuation. But like any store — whether you’re selling NFT art or not — there’s a hefty price to pay for app store transactions, whether you’re on Android or iOS. That’s possibly why OpenSea’s shiny, new app is only for browsing NFTs, not for buying or selling them. For context, OpenSea saw $3.4 billion in trading volume across two million transactions in August. With Apple and Google taking 30% of in-app transactions, if that volume had been traded on the new app… what’s 30% of $3.4 billion?

Perhaps more of a roadblock, there’s still no way to make in-app payments with crypto. If OpenSea wanted to support buying and selling, it would have to build out its infrastructure for USD payments and push more users toward it. But part of the appeal of OpenSea is that it’s a crypto-native platform, largely reliant on the Ethereum blockchain, which gives people easier access to information about when an NFT was minted, who minted it, how it’s been traded, etc. It could upset the existing ecosystem of users if the startup pushed the platform toward being more dollar-friendly.

On the OpenSea app, users can connect their profile, browse NFTs, favorite NFTs, search and filter NFTs and view collection and item stats. When you view an NFT in the app, a button appears that lets you share the NFT outside of the app. Rarible, another NFT marketplace, released a mobile app about a month ago. Like OpenSea’s app, on the Rarible app, you can only browse NFTs, not buy, sell or trade them.

Image Credits: OpenSea

OpenSea hasn’t yet responded to questions from TechCrunch about the company’s plans for the app, including whether or not users might one day be able to buy and sell NFTs in the app. It wouldn’t be the first time that crypto was exchanged on an app, as even PayPal now lets you pay with crypto. Instead, perhaps the app can offer a way to help new users onboard into the NFT space, giving them an easy, user-friendly way to browse NFT art without knowing anything about wallets or blockchains or apes.

This app was unveiled just days after an OpenSea executive was accused of trading NFTs on insider information. The company announced on its blog Wednesday that the employee has since resigned.

When people are uncertain, they look to others for behavioral guidance. This is called social proof, which is a physiological effect that influences your decisions every day, whether you know it or not.

At Demand Curve and through our agency Bell Curve, we’ve helped over 1,000 startups improve their ability to convert cold traffic into repeat customers. We’ve found that effectively using social proof can lead to up to 400% improvement in conversion.

This post shares exactly how to collect and use social proof to help grow your SaaS, e-commerce, or B2B startup.

How businesses use social proof

Have you ever stopped to check out a restaurant because it had a large line of people out front? That wasn’t by chance.

It’s common for restaurants to limit the size of their reception area. This forces people to wait outside, and the line signals to people walking past that the restaurant is so good it’s worth waiting for.

But for Internet-based businesses, social proof looks a bit different. Instead of people lining up outside your storefront, you’re going to need to create social proof that resonates with your target customers — they’ll be looking for different clues to signal whether doing business with your company is “normal” or “acceptable” behavior.

Social proof for B2B

People love to compare themselves to others, and this is especially true when it comes to the customers of B2B businesses. If your competitor is able to get a contract with a company that you’ve been nurturing for months, you’d be upset (and want to know how they did it).

Therefore, B2B social proof is most effective when you display the logos of companies you do business with. This signals to people checking out your website that other businesses trust you to deliver on your offer. The more noteworthy or respected the logos on your site, the stronger the influence will be.

Social proof for SaaS

Depending on the type of SaaS product or service you’re selling, you’ll either be selling to an individual or to a business. The strategy remains the same, but the channels will vary slightly.

The most effective way to generate social proof for SaaS products is through positive reviews from trusted sources. For consumer SaaS, that will be through influential bloggers and YouTubers speaking highly of your product. For B2B SaaS, it will be through positive ratings on review sites like G2 or Capterra. Proudly display these testimonials on your site.

Social proof for e-commerce brands

E-commerce brands will typically sell directly to an individual through ads, but because anyone can purchase an ad, you’re going to need to signal trust in other ways. The most common way we see e-commerce brands building social proof is by nurturing an organic social media following on Instagram or TikTok.

This signals to new customers that you’ve gotten the seal of approval from others like them. Having an audience also allows you to showcase user-generated content from your existing customers.

How to collect social proof

There are five avenues startups can tap to collect social proof:

1. Product reviews
2. Testimonials
3. Public relations and earned media
4. Influencers
5. Social media and community

Here are a few tactics we’ve used to help startups build social proof.

The final countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 is on, folks and we cannot be more excited to get this party started. In a just a few days — on September 21-23 — we spotlight the people who envision the future and push beyond what exists to create what will be.

It may sound high falutin’, but when you’re talking biotech, synthetic DNA and space entrepreneurs, we can make room for a little poetic license, amirite?

Here’s the deal: TC Disrupt 2021 is packed with experts, events, advice and opportunity. If you want to get amongst it, buy a pass before Monday for less than $100.

You know about the big marquee events, right? Iconic founders on the main stage — like Duo Lingo CEO Luis von Ahn and celebrity-slash-entrepreneur Seth Rogen. Always a huge draw, Startup Battlefield features 20 top early-stage founders pitching their hearts out for $100,000.

All of it’s awesome (not-so-humble brag), but we want to make sure you know about some of the other Disrupt happenings that can help you build your business — and have some fun while you’re at it. Ready? Let’s begin.

Jump start your networking at our 30-minute Meet-and-Greet Sessions on Monday September 21 — the day before Disrupt officially begins. Choose from a series of 10 sessions — 30-minutes long, each with a specific demographic focus — scheduled to take place on our CrunchMatch platform between 12:30 pm – 5:30 pm (PT).

Download your Disrupt Passport card, complete one row of five experiences at Disrupt — meet a sponsor, attend a breakout session, etc. — and submit your card with proof of participation for a chance to win one of three certifiably cool prizes.

Tune in to one of the many Startup Alley Crawls to meet and learn more about the early-stage founders exhibiting in Startup Alley. Each business category gets its own hour-long crawl, and Team TechCrunch will interview select startups in each category live from the main stage.

Go to one (or all) of the many Startup Pitch Feedback Sessions scheduled over the three days of Disrupt. Every Startup Alley exhibitor gets to pitch to a savvy TC staffer. You can learn a lot by watching other founders pitch and hearing experienced advice. You might just walk away with ideas to improve your own elevator pitch. Oh, and check out the presentation called Crafting a Pitch Deck that Can’t Be Ignored for tips on bullet-proofing your pitch deck.

Confused about crypto? Muddled over metaverse? Serious about SPAC? You’ll find sessions addressing all of these deep topics — along with more than 80 other presentations and breakout sessions spanning all tech sectors — in the Disrupt 2021 agenda.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 takes place September 21-23 — mere days away. Buy your pass, explore the events, learn about new trends and technologies and discover opportunities to help you envision and build your future.

Apple is planning to remove developer access to important user data as part of its iOS 15 release on Monday, leaving email marketers in a dilemma about how they will figure out metrics. To find out how the industry is approaching this problem, we spoke with Vivek Sharma, CEO of Movable Ink, a software company that helps marketers act on the data they’re collecting.

This conversation builds on our Extra Crunch post from August exploring how email marketers can prepare for Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection changes.

The game-changer for email marketers with this update is that as an Apple Mail user, you’ll have the option to hide your IP address.

How can marketers pivot their tactics to remain in control of their metrics? Sharma feels we’ll see more focus on downstream metrics rather than the open rate — on clicks, conversions and revenue. “That sounds great and everything, but you have less of that data. But by definition, that funnel kind of narrows; there are fewer people to get to at that point, so it might take you longer to know if something is working or not working for you.”

Help TechCrunch find the best growth marketers for startups.

Provide a recommendation in this quick survey and we’ll share the results with everybody.

Sharma says zero-party data is something that businesses have been focused on. “There are two components: There’s ‘open’ as a metric, and there’s some of the information you’re getting at open time, like the IP address, the time of day, and the inferred weather. Things like the IP address, time of date, etc. are perceived as data leakage. These are just a couple of the data points that marketers will lose access to. Therefore they are using first and zero-party data which they have already been investing in.”

The challenge, according to Sharma, is: How can marketers collect zero-party data in an interesting, visually appealing way, and then personalize its contents for every customer at scale?

One way that Movable Ink has collected zero-party data is displayed below:

Image Credits: Movable Ink

Sharma says, “Everything in here is a polling question: ‘What do you typically shop for?’ ‘What’s your shoe size?’ And they’re giving you loyalty points in return, so there’s an exchange of value happening here. They’re learning about you in a clear way and giving you an easy way to engage with the brand you’re interested in.”

Once you have the data, the question is: How do you use it? Below we see an example from JetBlue.

Image Credits: Movable Ink (opens in a new window)

Sharma outlines three takeaways from iOS 15 for email marketers:

1. Focus on down-funnel metrics like clicks and conversions — that’s what it really comes down to and it’s the truest indicator of engagement.
2. Invest in your zero and first-party data assets. True personalization is what people experience and what they see. You can do that from your zero and first-party assets.
3. Email is a great channel to engage your customers, because it’s a mature one that’s been invested in. Email is an awesome channel for building a one-to-one relationship with your customer, and far more. It has gone through lots of changes over the last 10 or 15 years. The industry will evolve and we’ll find that balance of privacy and personalization.

The next time you get pulled over in Michigan, it could be by a cop in an electric SUV — at least if Ford has anything to say about it. The American automaker is stepping up its Police Interceptor program, which modifies existing models for use by law enforcement, typically with beefed up suspensions, brakes and added horsepower.

The company has pitched the idea to law enforcement agencies in the UK, while the city of Ann Arbor, MI already has two such vehicles on order. On Friday, Ford announced that it, in short order, will deliver one of its Mustang Mach-E Interceptor prototypes — which appears to be based on the Mach-E GT variant — to the Michigan State Police as well, where it will undergo real-world testing to see if the EV can handle the rigors of police work.

Ford hopes to “use the pilot program testing as a benchmark while it continues to explore purpose-built electric police vehicles in the future” as part of its $30 billion multi-year investment in EV technology.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Engadget.

An unusually scripted Elon Musk issued conciliatory and complimentary comments to Chinese automakers during a pre-recorded appearance at China’s World New Energy Vehicle Congress, striking a pose that is worlds away from his commentary style in the United States.

“I have a great deal of respect for the many Chinese automakers for driving these [EV and AV] technologies,” he said, the reflection of a ring light just visible in the window over his left shoulder. The entire tableau was enough to make one suspect that there was a crisis communications expert just out of frame, urging him to continue with his prepared remarks.

Then again, perhaps Musk doesn’t need any external coaxing; China is one of the most lucrative markets for electric vehicles in the entire world, accounting for around one-fifth — or $6.66 billion — of Tesla’s overall sales last year, according to regulatory filings.

While the United States continues to be one of Tesla’s largest markets, the company has aggressively pursued expansion in China, including opening Gigafactory Shanghai in 2019 to manufacture the Model 3 and Model Y. Tesla faces competition from Chinese automakers, including electric car startup Xpeng and the search giant company Baidu.

“My frank observation is that Chinese automobile companies are the most competitive in the world, especially because some are very good at software, and it is software that will most shape the future of the automobile industry, from design to manufacturing and especially autonomous driving,” Musk said in the message.

The company’s entrance into the EV market of the world’s most populous nation was bumpy at first, but Tesla managed to turn it around. Last year, the Tesla Model 3 was the best-selling EV in China. Tesla has also received unprecedented autonomy in the region, especially as it is the only non-Chinese automaker allowed to wholly own its local subsidiary. It’s a fact that Musk has noted in past public appearances.

“I think something that’s really quite noteworthy here is, Tesla’s the only foreign manufacturer to have a hundred percent owned factory in China,” Musk said during the company’s Battery Day event last year. “This is often not well understood or not appreciated, but to have the only hundred percent owned foreign factory in China is a really big deal, and it’s paying huge dividends.”

But it hasn’t all been roses: The company has faced a flurry of negative media from both consumers and regulators this year, beginning in February when Chinese government officials summoned company executives for a meeting over vehicle safety concerns. (To which Tesla said, “We sincerely accepted the guidance of government departments and deeply reflected on shortcomings in our business operations.”)

Then, in April, a woman who said she was a Tesla owner protested the company at the Shanghai auto show in April. Bloomberg reported a few months later that Tesla was attempting to build relationships with Chinese social media influencers and auto-industry publications to combat all the bad PR.

A female Tesla owner climbed on top of a car’s roof at the Tesla booth to protest her car’s brake malfunction at the Shanghai auto show Monday. The booth beefed up its security after the incident. pic.twitter.com/ct7RmF1agM

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 19, 2021

In his pre-recorded remarks, Musk also responded to a question on self-driving vehicles and data security, calling it “not only the responsibility of a single company but also the cornerstone of the whole industry development.” This issue is especially sensitive after news emerged that the Chinese military banned drivers from parking their Tesla’s at its facilities. Last month, China released new regulations aimed at bolstering data security in connected automobiles, Tech Wire Asia reported. Tesla and other automakers, including Ford and BMW, moved to establish local data storage centers in China.

“Tesla will work with national authorities in all countries to ensure data security of intelligent and connected vehicles,” he added.

Gingko Bioworks, a synthetic biology company now valued at around $15 billion, begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange today.

Gingko’s market debut is one of the largest in biotech history. It’s expected to raise about $1.6 billion for the company. It’s also one of the biggest SPAC deals done to date — Gingko is going public through a merger with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp., which was announced in May. 

Shares opened at $11.15 each this morning under the ticker DNA — biotech dieharders will recognize it as the former ticker used by Genentech. 

The exterior of the NYSE is decked out in Gingko décor. The imagery is clearly sporting Jurassic Park themes, as MIT Tech Review’s Antonio Regalado pointed out. It’s probably intentional: Jason Kelly, the CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, has been re-reading “Jurassic Park” this week, he tells TechCrunch. 

The décor also sports a company motto: “Grow everything.”

Ginkgo was founded in 2009, and now bills itself as a synthetic biology platform. That’s essentially premised on the idea that one day, we’ll use cells to “grow everything,” and Gingko’s plan is to be that platform used to do that growing. 

Kelly, who often uses language borrowed from computing to describe his company, likens DNA to code. Gingko, he says, aims to “program cells like you can program computers.” Ultimately, those cells can be used to make stuff: like fragrances, flavors, materials, drugs or food products. 

The biggest lingering question over Gingko, ever since the SPAC deal was announced, has centered on its massively high valuation. When Moderna, now a household name thanks to its COVID-19 vaccines, went public in 2018, the company was valued at $7.5 billion. Gingko’s valuation is double that number. 

“I think that surprises people to be honest,” Kelly says. 

How is Gingko going to make money? 

Ginkgo’s massive valuation seems even starker when you look at its existing revenues. SEC documents show that the company pulled in $77 million in revenue in 2020, which increased to about $88 million in the first six months of 2021 (per an August investor call). The company has also reported losses: including $126.6 million in December 2020 and $119.3 million in 2019. 

Gingko is aiming to increase revenue a significant amount in 2021. SEC documents initially noted that the company aimed to draw about $150 million in revenue in 2021, but the August earning call updated that total for the year to over $175 million. 

Gingko aims to make money in two ways: first it contracts with manufacturers during the research and development phase (i.e. while the company works out how to manufacture a cell that spits out a certain fragrance, bio-based nylon or meatless burger). That process happens in Gingko’s “foundry,” a massive factory for bioengineering projects. 

This source of money is already starting to flow. Gingko reported $59 million in foundry revenue for 2020, and anticipates $100 million in 2021, per the August investor call. 

This revenue, though, isn’t covering the full costs of Gingko’s operations, according to the information shared by the company in SEC documents. It is covering an increasing share, though, and as Gingko scales up its platform, costs will come down. Based on fees alone, Kelly projects Gingko will break even by 2024 or 2025. 

The second type of revenue comes from royalties, milestone payments or, in some cases, equity stakes in the companies that go on to sell products, like fragrances or meatless burgers, made using Gingko’s facilities or know-how. It’s this source of income that will make up the vast majority of the company’s future worth, according to its expectations. 

Once the product is made and marketed by another company, it requires little to no more work on Gingko’s part — all the company does is collect cash. 

The company is often hesitant to incorporate these earnings into projections, because they rely on other companies bringing products to market. That means it’s hard to know for sure when these downstream payments will emerge. “In our models, we are very sensitive that, at the end of the day, they’re not our products. I cannot predict when Roche might bring a drug to market and give me my milestones,” says Kelly. 

Kelly says there’s evidence this model will start to work in the near-term. 

Gingko earned a “bolus” milestone payment of 1.5 million shares of The Cronos Group, a cannabis company, for developing a commercially viable, lab-grown rare cannabinoid called CBG for commercial use (there are seven more in strains development, says Kelly). These milestone payments (in cash or shares) are earned when a company achieves some predetermined goal using Gingko’s platform. 

Gingko has also worked with Aldevron to manufacture an enzyme critical to the production of mRNA vaccines, and plans to collect royalty payments from that relationship — though no foundry fees were collected from this project. 

Finally, Gingko has negotiated an equity stake in Motif Foodworks, a spinout company based on its technology. That company has so far raised about $226 million, and will aim to launch a lab-grown beef product developed at Gingko’s foundry, paying Gingko the aforementioned foundry fees already for this contribution.

“The biggest value driver” of Gingko, according to Kelly

This rich source of cash will depend a lot on the outside contractor’s ability to manufacture and sell products made using Gingko’s platform. This opens the company up to some risk that’s beyond its control. Maybe, for instance, it turns people don’t want bio-manufactured meat as much as many anticipated — that means some types of downstream payments may not materialize. 

Kelly says he’s not particularly worried about this. Even if one particular program fails, he’s planning on having so many programs running that one or two are bound to succeed. 

“I’m just sorta like: some will work, some won’t work. Some will take a year, some will take three years. It doesn’t really matter, as long as everybody is working with us,” he says. “Apple doesn’t stress about what apps are going to be the next big app in the app store,” he continues.  

One key metric to watch for Gingko going forward will be how many new cell programs they’re managing to close. So far, Gingko has added 30 programs this year, says Kelly. Last year, there were 50 programs. 

Remember: Some of the projects are Gingko spinouts, like Motif Foodworks, not customers that come to the platform on their own. And historically, the number of companies Gingko has partnered with has been a point of criticism. Per SEC documents, the majority of revenue came from two large partners in 2020 — though Kelly told Business Insider that this was a pandemic-related downturn. 

The more programs Gingko has, the more it becomes insulated from the success or failure of any one product. Plus it’s a sign that people are at least using the “app store” for biology. 

“The biggest value driver of Gingko is how quickly we add programs,” Kelly says. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will use personal driving data to determine whether owners who have paid for its controversial “Full Self-Driving” software can access the latest beta version that promises more automated driving functions.

Musk tweeted late Thursday night that the FSD Beta v10.0.1 software update, which has already been pushed out to a group of select owners, will become more widely available starting September 24.

Owners who have paid for FSD, which currently costs $10,000, will be offered access to the beta software through a “beta request button.” Drivers who select the beta software will be asked for permission to access their driving behavior using Tesla’s insurance calculator, Musk wrote in a tweet.

“If driving behavior is good for seven days, beta access will be granted,” Musk wrote.

Tesla vehicles come standard with a driver assistance system branded as Autopilot. For an additional $10,000, owners can buy “full self-driving,” or FSD — software that Musk has repeatedly promised will one day deliver full autonomous driving capabilities.

FSD, which has steadily increased in price and has added new functions, has been available as an option for years. However, Tesla vehicles are not self-driving. FSD includes the parking feature Summon as well as Navigate on Autopilot, an active guidance system that navigates a car from a highway on-ramp to off-ramp, including interchanges and making lane changes.

The latest FSD Beta is supposed to automate driving on highways and city streets. However, this is still a Level 2 driver assistance system that requires the driver to pay attention, have their hands on the wheel and take control at all times. Recent videos posted showing owners’ experiences with this beta software provide a mixed picture of its capability. In some videos, the vehicles handle city driving; in many others, drivers are seen taking control due to missed turns, being too close to the curb, failure to creep forward and, in one case, veering off suddenly toward pedestrians.

As we get closer to TechCrunch Disrupt 2021, the list of our special breakout sessions just gets bigger and better. The wide range of tech startups is on full display in these sessions hosted by our partners. What’s more, these smaller, interactive gatherings pack a lot of advice, insight and value — with plenty of time to get answers to your pressing questions.

A note from the home office: Get a free Expo Pass to access all of these session and more for a limited time here.

Here’s the latest round of breakout sessions you can join on September 21-23. Check out the Disrupt 2021 agenda for the exact dates and times and save room in your schedule to expand your mind and your opportunities.

Using Visual Communication to Build Your Startup’s Brand

In today’s increasingly visual world, visual communication is the new currency between brands and their customers. So what are the opportunities startups and their clients can use to enhance brand connection? Join Canva’s Strategic Account Executive, Spencer Llewellyn, to learn how the visual economy has transformed the tech industry and powered the evolution of branding and customer experiences. Presented by Canva.

The $49B Developer Landscape

Over the past 20 years, IT has witnessed a power shift from CIOs to developers. Any developer with an idea has been given empowerment and authority to innovate. This has led to the creation of a 1,000 companies that create products used, influenced or bought by software development teams. In this session, we’ll discuss the 17 landscape segments, the CIO transition from decision maker to governor, and the developer “pay for value” mentality causing the emergence of product-led growth (PLG) businesses. Presented by Dell for Entrepreneurs

The Dark Matter of Workflows: Business Technology’s Big Opportunity

According to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, we’re only familiar with 5 percent of matter and energy in the universe. The rest is dark. The same can be said about the nature of work. Organizations only have visibility into a small percentage of the actual work taking place because the complexities surrounding it have been growing exponentially. With enormous amounts of data, systems, applications, workflows and more floating around, leaders and employees feel the gravitational mass of work in their stress levels, yet there’s no clear unified system of record for it. The most successful startups will be the ones that seek to understand, uncover and harness the dark matter of work now — before they launch into hypergrowth mode. Andrew Filev, founder of a leading collaborative work management platform that went from bootstrapping to billion-dollar acquisition, will discuss how he’s helping startups bring to light the dark matter of work and harness workflows for operational efficiencies. Presented by Wrike.

Thrive with an Untethered Workforce

Shark Tank investor and cybersecurity leader, Robert Herjavec chats with Ben Wright, founder and CEO of Velocity Global, about how to thrive with an untethered workforce. The mindsets of employers and talent has converged to work with anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Choice is paramount: employers engage all types of talent from full-time to project freelancers; people live anywhere, work for anyone, in a work-life balance. When priorities align, the possibilities are endless. Presented by Velocity Global

TTA Taiwan Pavilion Pitch-off Session: Healthcare and Enterprise

Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) champions entrepreneurship and innovation to build a vibrant global startup ecosystem in Taiwan. Twenty out of 40 promising TTA startups will unveil their latest innovation related to Healthcare and Enterprise solutions. Presented by Taiwan Tech Arena.

How to Approach Fundraising from Corporate VCs

Global CVC funding hit an all-time high of $73B in 2020. Corporations are increasingly investing in the startup community and can be a valuable resource beyond capital. But not all corporate VCs are the same. Understanding a corporate investor’s strategy, mandate and processes can improve how startups successfully fundraise from corporate VCs. Intuit Ventures recently invested in Clearco, a $2B+ startup that is disrupting traditional VC with founder-friendly, equity-free capital. Join Shveta Mujumdar (VP of corporate development at Intuit), Andrew D’Souza (co-founder and CEO at Clearco), and Michele Romanow (co-founder and president at Clearco) to learn what corporate VCs look for in an investment and how to best position your company and showcase how you are solving your customers’ biggest problems. Presented by Intuit.

TTA Taiwan Pavilion Pitch-off Session: Smart Tech

Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) champions entrepreneurship and innovation to build a vibrant global startup ecosystem in Taiwan. Twenty out of 40 promising TTA startups will unveil their latest innovation related to Smart Tech. Presented by Taiwan Tech Arena.

The Moore’s law of software – onboarding time

For software companies, onboarding is the single barrier to scaling. For software buyers, the time it takes to adopt products stifles innovation regardless of industry. David Boskovic, CEO and Co-Founder of hyper-growth startup Flatfile, dives into the fundamental economics of data exchange and how it’s the Moore’s law of software. One prediction: Boskovic expects that onboarding time will halve every year, driving exponential growth in software innovation over the next decade. Presented by Flatfile

Electric Generation: The Next Frontier For American Business

This session will explore the ways in which smart electric mobility impacts businesses, and what a transition to electric will look like for commercial fleets. Host Chuck Nice will be joined by TechCrunch panelist Tim Cannis, CEO of Ford Pro, and Sam Abuelsamid, longtime engineer in the automotive industry-turned auto industry journalist. Nitty-gritty car talk will blend with discussion of sustainability and imagery to elaborate on the future of the topic. Presented by Ford

Accelerating your direct-to-consumer business

The direct-to-consumer landscape has radically accelerated over the past few years, becoming an even more critical lever for brands to build relationships with customers than ever before. This is a new era in which brands must understand the shifts in the customer journey to drive transformational business growth to be ready for what’s next. Join Google and Lenovo to understand key strategies to enable business success and delight customers in 2022 and beyond. Presented by Google

Top Japanese Startups pitch their exciting new tech live

Top Japanese Startups pitch their exciting new tech! Come watch the live JETRO pitch session 9/23 at 1PM PST. Learn about the latest advancements from Japan in fields like Environment, Entertainment, Wellness, and Fitness. Companies include AC Biode, AMATELUS, everblue, hemVR, NeuralX, PJP Eye, R’s KOSO, Samaria, SpoLive Interactive, and XPAND. Presented by JETRO

Accelerate your growth using agile market research throughout the product lifecycle

Conducting market research at each stage of your product lifecycle is a critical component to a successful product launch and sustained growth in an increasingly competitive market. While traditional market research can be costly and require a specialized team, agile market research software makes it possible for anyone on your team to get the insights you need fast. Join Momentive.ai to learn how to conduct your own market research to identify what kinds of products and features users value most, get insight into the competitive landscape, and track your brand’s awareness and shifting perceptions over time. Presented by Momentive.ai

How to build a remote-first engineering culture

How do you build culture with globally dispersed engineers? Marcelo Lebre, COO and co-founder of Remote and former VP of Engineering at Unbabel, understands better than anyone the challenges of scaling an international workforce of engineers. In this talk, Marcelo will teach you how to adopt a remote-first mindset and how to scale a distributed team of engineers while retaining your culture. Presented by Remote

Scaling Businesses and Creating Value with the Everywhere Workforce

As startup founders scale their companies, increase velocity and eye potential exits, flexibility in talent that can execute a lean, mean go-to-market strategy is quickly becoming not only a necessity but a differentiator. Join Insight Partners’ Hilary Gosher and Ivanti’s Melissa Puls in conversation with Upwork’s Tim Sanders about how hybrid workforces are the new cloud when it comes to accelerating revenue, value creation and businesses overall. Presented by Upwork

How Netflix Saved Cybersecurity – Roundtable

We’ve all heard that membership has its privileges, right? In fact, the membership Economy has forever changed why and what we buy…until we go to work. For many of us, the tools we buy at work are still tied to old-school ownership models: The millions of dollars we spend on technology solutions and services tied to multiyear licensing agreements effectively hold us hostage regardless of product efficacy. In cybersecurity specifically,, the transactional nature of such purchases has not and cannot keep pace with the growing costs of breaches or the ease with which hacks can be executed. We’ll show how membership–the Netflix model–can successfully replace ownership and usher in a whole new taxonomy of cybersecurity defense. Presented by Cyvatar

CISO2CISO: On the Wrong Side of Disruption – Roundtable

Disruption isn’t always a good thing. Often, we fear it. We resist prioritizing even necessary change out of fear that the disruption it may bring will be more detrimental than beneficial. Are we wrong? Are we right? Cyvatar Co-Founder and ex-global CISO Craig Goodwin and Alteryx CISO Billy Spears debate both possibilities as they look at the ways we prioritize risk and disruption at work. Presented by Cyvatar

Why Can’t We Stop Ransomware? – Roundtable

This will be an open discussion with participation from audience members about the challenges and consequences of our current approaches to defending against ransomware attacks. The reemergence of REvil over the Labor Day weekend and the uptick in ransomware attacks on schools and universities remind us that hacks for ransom are still among the most attractive and lucrative threats around. Our open forum will uncover ways to combat malicious actors better and thwart the successful execution of ransomware. Presented by Cyvatar

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 takes place September 21-23. Don’t miss the big value in our smaller breakout sessions. Grab your free Expo Pass and, tune in and take away insight to help you build a better business.

Hackers associated with the hacktivist collective Anonymous say they have leaked gigabytes of data from Epik, a web host and domain registrar that provides services to far-right sites like Gab, Parler and 8chan, which found refuge in Epik after they were booted from mainstream platforms.

In a statement attached to a torrent file of the dumped data this week, the group said the 180 gigabytes amounts to a “decade’s worth” of company data, including “all that’s needed to trace actual ownership and management” of the company. The group claimed to have customer payment histories, domain purchases and transfers, and passwords, credentials and employee mailboxes. The cache of stolen data also contains files from the company’s internal web servers, and databases that contain customer records for domains that are registered with Epik.

The hackers did not say how they obtained the breached data or when the hack took place, but timestamps on the most recent files suggest the hack likely happened in late February.

Epik initially told reporters it was unaware of a breach, but an email sent out by founder and chief executive Robert Monster on Wednesday alerted users to an “alleged security incident.”

TechCrunch has since learned that Epik was warned of a critical security flaw weeks before its breach.

Security researcher Corben Leo contacted Epik’s chief executive Monster over LinkedIn in January about a security vulnerability on the web host’s website. Leo asked if the company had a bug bounty or a way to report the vulnerability. LinkedIn showed Monster had read the message but did not respond.

Leo told TechCrunch that a library used on Epik’s WHOIS page for generating PDF reports of public domain records had a decade-old vulnerability that allowed anyone to remotely run code directly on the internal server without any authentication, such as a company password.

“You could just paste this [line of code] in there and execute any command on their servers,” Leo told TechCrunch.

Leo ran a proof-of-concept command from the public-facing WHOIS page to ask the server to display its username, which confirmed that code could run on Epik’s internal server, but he did not test to see what access the server had, as doing so would be illegal.

It’s not known if the Anonymous hacktivists used the same vulnerability that Leo discovered. (Part of the stolen cache also includes folders relating to Epik’s WHOIS system, but the hacktivists left no contact information and could not be reached for comment.) But Leo contends that if a hacker exploited the same vulnerability and the server had access to other servers, databases or systems on the network, that access could have allowed access to the kind of data stolen from Epik’s internal network in February.

“I am really guessing that’s how they got owned,” Leo told TechCrunch, who confirmed that the flaw has since been fixed.

Monster confirmed he received Leo’s message on LinkedIn, but did not answer our questions about the breach or say when the vulnerability was patched. “We get bounty hunters pitching their services. I probably just thought it was one of those,” said Monster. “I am not sure if I actioned it. Do you answer all your LinkedIn spams?”

Rolls-Royce, best known in aviation for its jet engines, has taken an all-electric airplane on its maiden voyage. The “Spirit of Innovation” completed a 15 minute flight, marking “the beginning of an intensive flight-testing phase in which we will be collecting valuable performance data on the aircraft’s electrical power and propulsion system,” the company announced.

Rolls Royce said the one-seat airplane has “the most power-dense battery pack every assembled for an aircraft.” The aircraft uses a 6,000 cell battery pack with a three-motor powertrain that currently delivers 400kW (500-plus horsepower), and Rolls-Royce said the aircraft will eventually achieve speeds of over 300 MPH.

The flight comes about a year after the originally scheduled takeoff and about six months after taxi trials. Rolls-Royce is also developing an air taxi with manufacturer Tecnam, with the aim of delivering an “all-electric passenger aircraft for the commuter market,” according to the companies. It has previously teamed with Siemens and Airbus on another e-plane concept.

Aircraft companies have been exploring electric airplanes for a number of years, as air travel and cargo accounts for an increasing amount of greenhouse gases. The World Wildlife Foundation has called it “currently the most carbon intensive activity an individual can make.”

Weight is a much bigger problem for airplanes that it is for cars, however. Ford’s all-electric Lightning pickup weighs 1,800 pounds more than the gas-powered model, and offers a range that’s slightly under half. However, if you added 1,800 pounds to to a Cessna 206 Turbo Stationair, you’d exceed its useful load by 500 pounds before you even loaded passengers (or the pilot) — so it wouldn’t even get off the ground.

The project was half funded by the Aerospace Technology Institute and UK government, with the aim of eventually creating all-electric passenger planes. “This is not only about breaking a world record; the advanced battery and propulsion technology developed for this programme has exciting applications for the Urban Air Mobility market and can help make ‘jet zero’ a reality,” said Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Engadget.

Companies typically have to settle on strategies that align with their customers, employees, investors, and regulators. The more they know about how the other side will decide, the clearer their own strategies become.

If regulators always prefer choice for consumers, then it is easy for a platform to allow multiple payment choices: Shopify allows multiple payment options from its partners, Apple doesn’t.

By regulatory intervention, it will have to now.

Nash equilibrium and Netflix time

Nash equilibrium is a fascinating, post-facto explanation for some of the interesting decisions you will often see in business.

In simple terms, Nash equilibrium states that if you have clarity on the other side’s decision, you can make yours without regret. In other words, there is no incentive to change strategy once each side knows what the optimal position of the other side is, in their combined transaction.

I see this playing out every weekend at home. I don’t mind reading a book alone or watching Netflix with my kid, but when I am available for Netflix and my kid decides to read a book, it is a bummer.

DTCs, DNVBs and game theory

In DTC, how companies decide their omnichannel strategy depends on how well they know what their customers’ choices are and what their ideal strategy will be. In many transactions, constraints are actually good forcing functions — they narrow down choices and help you arrive at an equilibrium faster and cheaper.

The marketing and public-market filing languages make for a fascinating read into the minds of companies.

When Warby Parker filed its IPO prospectus last month, the company referred to its digitally-native status in the past tense. The model was effectively flipped in 2020, as its share of online sales to total sales dropped from 65% to 40%. Meanwhile, its physical store count increased from 126 to 145.

In May 2020, WarnerMedia launched HBO Max into a crowded streaming landscape. In spite of early struggles, the timing couldn’t have been better. When the world was stuck at home, struggling to find new sources of entertainment amid a global pandemic, HBO’s latest attempt at an app-based platform rose in the ranks alongside fellow newly launched service, Disney+.

The platform builds on HBO’s much-loved original prestige programming, while taking advantage of a day and date approach to streaming films, which many studios have opened up to amid worldwide theater shutdowns. In particular, its sister studio Warner Bros. has premiered a number of big-budget films on the service — including “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Space Jam: A New Legacy” — as the pandemic has shown no sign of slowing.

The past year has brought plenty of channels for the service, as well. Not everyone is thrilled about the pandemic trend of bypassing the theater. Sopranos creator David Chase was recently quoted as being “extremely angry” about the HBO Max release of the prequel — news that followed Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney over its own streaming release of “Black Widow.” The company has evolved strategies, removing its offering from Amazon Prime Channels and adding a lower-cost ad-based tier to Max.

WarnerMedia EVP and head of business operations for HBO Max Andy Forssell will be joining us at our virtual TechCrunch Disrupt next week on September 21-23 to discuss the service’s launch during a turbulent time, as well as what the future holds for the app, and video streaming in general. Prior to joining WarnerMedia in 2019, Forssell served as the COO of Otter Media and Fullscreen, Inc. and was the acting CEO and SVP of Hulu.

Disrupt starts next week. Get your ticket now for less than $100 before the price goes up in a few short days.

Back in June, Hyundai completed a deal for controlling interest in Boston Dynamics. The Korean automotive giant no doubt has some grand plans for integrating the Massachusetts-based firm’s technology into a lot of their forward-looking concept mobility vehicles — for now, however, it’s more about putting existing robots to work.

Hyundai today announced the arrival of the drably-named “Factory Safety Service Robot.” It immediately began referring to the unit as “the Robot” for reasons of brevity in the announcement release, and I’m inclined to do the same, because who has the time to type out “Factory Safety Service Robot” a dozen times?

The Robot (see?) is essentially a modded up version of Spot designed for safety inspections at factories. Naturally, Hyundai is starting close to home, rolling out its first pilot at a Seoul plant for subsidiary, Kia.

The Spot, er, Robot, comes equipped for lidar and a thermal camera, which scan the space for high-temperatures, fire hazards and open doors. If it senses something off, it will send an alert through a secure site. It shares images and data in real time, and like Spot, can either operate autonomously or be controlled remotely.

We’re launching a robotics newsletter! Please sign up to get Actuator in your inbox as soon as the first issue hits! For free!

“The Factory Safety Service Robot is the first collaboration project with Boston Dynamics. The Robot will help detect risks and secure people’s safety in industrial sites,” Hyundai’s Dong Jin Hyun said in a release. “We will also continue to create smart services that detect dangers at industrial sites and help support a safe work environment through continuous collaborations with Boston Dynamics.”

Image Credits: Hyundai

On the whole, if you know what Spot can do, you pretty much get the gist with Robot here, albeit with additional mounted sensors. Earlier this week, Boston Dynamics announced additional data collecting features for the robot.

Instacart‘s chief financial officer Sagar Sanghvi has departed from the on-demand grocery delivery company after nearly six years and is returning to his investing roots. Specifically, Sanghvi has joined Accel as a partner focused on global growth-stage consumer and enterprise investments.

Prior to becoming CFO of Instacart, Sanghvi served as the company’s vice president of finance and strategy. Interestingly, when he became CFO of Instacart in 2019, he was succeeding Ravi Gupta, who left the company to join Sequoia Capital as a partner on its growth team.

Sanghvi and Gupta worked together as investors at KKR (after Sanghvi had worked as an analyst for Goldman Sachs), so it is notable they are following similar career paths of first working in finance and then becoming operators before transitioning into VC roles. Both joined Instacart in 2015. And Gupta is the one who introduced Sanghvi to Accel’s Miles Clements years ago.

When Sanghvi joined Instacart, it had approximately 300 employees. By the time he’d left earlier this year, it had more than 1,500.

“I’ve been through quite the roller coaster of ups and downs along the way. It was the classic Silicon Valley journey. During my time there, a few crazy things happened,” he told TechCrunch. “ Amazon bought Whole Foods. We experienced the COVID pandemic and lockdowns, which led to an amazing wave of demand. It was an interesting time to be navigating the company.”

And while Sanghvi says he would definitely rather see a business be smaller “than have COVID happen to the world,” it was a time where he learned a lot in helping grow the company.

One of the things Sanghvi worked on during his time at Instacart was a $200 million venture round in October 2020 that valued the company at $17.7 billion. (Since then it raised another $265 million at a $39 billion valuation.) In fact, during his tenure, the company raised more than $2 billion.

But now, Sanghvi will be the one investing in other companies’ rounds — out of Accel’s Palo Alto office.

While his Instacart experience is clearly relevant to the consumer space, Sanghvi said he’ll be working with not just consumer-focused startups, but also a lot of enterprise solutions.

“One of the things that drew me to Miles and the team was the experience and success Accel as a firm has had investing in all different types of companies within the technology sector and so I’m hoping to diversify my experience,” he told TechCrunch.

Clements praised what he described as Sanghvi’s “humility and versatility.”

“He’s done everything from raising $2 billion of capital to being in the minutiae of evaluating back office automation software. He has led a company that is on its way to being an iconic consumer brand, but he’s also been a media investor at KKR,” Clements said. “He guided Instacart through some massive recent fundraises but only because he has also helped navigate through some previous existential challenges. So he brings a lot of natural empathy to founders and entrepreneurs.”

For his part, Sanghvi is eager to start investing as part of the Accel team.

When deciding to move to the venture world, he said, he was looking for a “very well-known brand” that invested across at all stages. He found that in Accel, he said.

“One of the things that was important to me was to find the type of people who really care about the success of companies, and in every person I met at Accel, I could see they took that responsibility very seriously,” Sanghvi told TechCrunch.

He officially started in his new role last week, so he’s actively scoping out investments as I type.