Techogun

Monday, June 4, 2018

N26 now has 1 million customers

Techogun June 04, 2018

You don’t sign up to a bank account every day. And yet, German startup N26 has managed to attract 1 million clients across Europe. They generate €1 billion in transaction volume every month ($1.17 billion).

It took N26 only nine months to grow from 500,000 to 1 million. And the company now plans to have 5 million users by 2020.

It’s an aggressive goal, but N26 plans to expand beyond the Eurozone. The company confirms that customers based in the U.K. and the U.S. will be able to create an N26 account in the coming months.

While N26 announced a new metal card at TechCrunch Disrupt in December 2017, the card has only been available to some customers. Everybody will be able to sign up for a metal card within the next few weeks.

Revolut is still slightly ahead of N26, but both companies are growing quite rapidly. N26 currently gets 2,500 new users every day. Back in February, Revolut said it was attracting between 6,000 and 8,000 new users per day. The company now has nearly 2 million users.

Of course, you can’t really compare Revolut with N26 as Revolut isn’t technically a bank account. It’s much easier to sign up to Revolut as you don’t need to initiate a video call to verify your identity.

But it’s clear that both companies are doing incredibly well right now when it comes to growth.

This DIY smart mirror is small, stunning and full of features

Techogun June 04, 2018

Several years ago Google X engineer Max Braun published a medium post on a smart mirror he made and now he’s back with a new version that’s smaller and smarter. This is a smart mirror I can get behind though I still find smart mirrors completely frivolous.

He published his project on Medium where he explains the process and the parts a person would need to build their own. This isn’t a project for everyone, but Max gives enough instructions that most enterprising builders should be able to hack something similar together.

I recently reviewed a smart mirror and found it a bit silly but still useful. Ideally, like in Max’s smart mirrors, the software is passive and always available. Users shouldn’t have to think about interacting with the devices; the right information should be displayed automatically. It’s a balancing act.

At this point, smart mirrors are little more than Android tablets placed behind a two-way mirror. Retail models are expensive to be buy and hardly worth it since a person’s phone or voice assistant can probably provide the same information. After all, how many devices does a person really need to tell them the weather forecast?

Three days left to buy TC Tel Aviv tickets

Techogun June 04, 2018

Three short days — that’s all that stands between you and attending TC Tel Aviv 2018 — our inaugural day-long mobility intensive taking place on June 7. Well, three days and a ticket. You will need one of those. We’ve created a stellar, info-packed agenda that you won’t want to miss, so go and buy your general admission ticket right now.

Why mobility? It’s one of the fastest growing, most disruptive technologies on the planet. Why Tel Aviv? Because Israel’s leading the charge on boundary-pushing mobility and everything that hot topic entails. You’ll hear from some of the people designing and building Israel’s latest mobility technologies — autonomous vehicles, sensors, drones, security and maybe even a flying car or two.

You’ll hear from government officials pushing the edge of alternative transportation and smart mobility, and you’ll hear venture capitalists discussing how mobility startups can scale and navigate international expansion. An entire day focused on mobility tech’s opportunities, challenges and possibilities.

Noted speakers include Uri Levine of Waze, Raj Kapoor of Lyft and Chemi Peres, co-founder and managing general partner of Pitango. You’ll also hear from Anat Lea Bonshtien, chairman and director of Israel’s Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative, Fiona Darmon, COO JVP venture funds, and Natalie Refuah, a partner with the growth capital investment firm Viola Growth.

Don’t miss our exhibit hall — more commonly known as Startup Alley. That’s where you’ll find 100 early-stage startups showcasing their products, platforms and services across the tech spectrum, including cybersecurity, AR/VR, mobility, robotics, fintech, biotech, artificial intelligence, blockchain and more.

There’s still time to join your peers in Startup Alley. A Startup Demo Table Ticket costs 1,700 ILS, and it buys you two attendee tickets, one demo table at the event, a tablecloth, a tabletop sign and the best networking opportunity in Tel Aviv. We only have a few tables available, so click on the ticket link and take your place in Startup Alley.

TechCrunch Tel Aviv takes place on June 7, 2018 at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, Pavilion 10. You have only three days left to score general admission tickets. We’ll see you in Tel Aviv!

TransferWise partners with France’s second largest bank BPCE Groupe

Techogun June 04, 2018

TransferWise might be best known for its international money transfer app, but the European fintech unicorn has always had ambitions of being a broader platform play entirely agnostic of how you access the service. This includes providing banks with access to the TransferWise API to power their own international money transfer features. However, perhaps understandably — given that the company also competes with banks — these partnerships have been small in number.

With that said, today TransferWise is adding what looks like its most significant banking partner to date: BPCE Groupe, France’s second largest bank. The partnership will see TransferWise provide international money transfer services for BPCE Groupe’s 15 million or so customers, which, the company notes, is the first time a major bank in Europe will directly integrate TransferWise’s API into its mobile banking apps.

TransferWise’s existing bank partnerships are with Estonia’s LHV, and German challenger bank N26. It was due to add U.K. challenger bank Starling to the list, but the integration with the bank’s app never materialised and TechCrunch learned last week that the partnership has now dissolved entirely.

Meanwhile, the partnership between Groupe BPCE/Natixis Payments and TransferWise isn’t set to be launched until the beginning of 2019. Once it does launch, the bank’s customers be able to send money outside of the eurozone at TransferWise’s standard fees via the banks’ app.

“Both TransferWise and BPCE are committed to offering the best possible service and the fairest deal to their customers and this collaboration is an important step in making that a reality for everyone,” says TransferWise. “The service will enable BPCE customers to send money to over 60 countries at TransferWise’s usual low fee of 0.5 per cent on most currency routes and at the mid-market exchange rate”.

Adds Kristo Käärmann, co-founder and CEO of TransferWise: “TransferWise has a mission to make money move around the world as fast and as cheaply as email. This partnership is a momentous step on that journey – for the first time a major mainstream bank is offering its customers the chance to benefit from TransferWise’s lightning fast, low cost service. It’s proof that we can scale our technology, which will allow other big institutions to seamlessly integrate with the service”.

On that note, it will be interesting to see how TransferWise continues to walk the tight rope of partnering whilst, in some ways and with increasing feature parity, competing with the same potential partners.

The original target for the company’s consumer and business money transfer app was incumbent banks who typically charge high fees for international money transfers and aren’t always transparent about the way they mark up the underlying exchange rate. And more recently it has launched its “Borderless” account, a multi-currency banking product that includes a debit card and lets you deposit, send and spend money. However, TransferWise co-founder and Chairman Taavet Hinrikus has always insisted that the Borderless account is designed to work as a companion product to your main current account and not a fully fledged bank replacement.

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Microsoft is reportedly acquiring GitHub

Techogun June 03, 2018

New reports out of Redmond this weekend have Microsoft set to purchase the popular coding site GitHub. Bloomberg is citing “people familiar with the matter,” stating that the deal could be announced as early as tomorrow.

The new story follows similar reports late last week of discussions between the two parties. The deal certainly makes sense for Microsoft, as the software giant continues to actively court developers. As for GitHub, the company is said to have been “impressed” by Satya Nadella, who has actively courted coders and coding initiatives since taking the reins at the company, back in 2014.

“The opportunity for developers to have broad impact on all parts of society has never been greater,” Nadella told the crowd at his address during last year’s Build. “But with this opportunity comes enormous responsibility.”

Dramatic, perhaps, but acquiring GitHub would give the company access to some 27 million software developers — though not all of them are thrilled by the idea of GitHub being taken over by Microsoft.

GitHub, meanwhile, has been struggling to replace Chris Wanstrath, nearly a year after he announced plans to step down from his role as CEO. A co-founder of the service, he had returned to the top spot three years prior.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, GitHub was hit with the largest DDoS attack on record — though the site managed to come back online after 10 or so minutes.

Details of the planned deal — and what, precisely, this will mean for GitHub’s loyal community — have yet to be announced. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment.

White Star Capital raises new $180M fund to help startups go international

Techogun June 03, 2018

Global venture capital firm White Star Capital has closed a second fund of $180 million, money it plans to invest in “transatlantic” companies that need help to go international. The VC already has a presence in London, New York, and Montreal, and as part if its new fund is adding Paris and Tokyo to the list.

Oversubscribed from an initial target of $140 million, apparently, White Star says it will invest in around 20 new companies from the new fund, writing opening cheques of between $1 million and $6 million. White Star’s first fund of $70 million closed in 2015 and the VC has backed around 26 startups to date. Notably, the firm has already invested in eight companies from its second fund.

They span Seed to Series B and include fintech and insurtech companies Borrowell (Canada) and Clark (Germany), as well as “disruptive commerce” models Vention (Canada), Meero (France), and Butternut Box (U.K.). The fund has also invested in digital health companies Echo (U.K.) and Dialogue (Canada), as well as data-as-a-service company Unacast (US).

LPs in the new fund include institutional investors such as Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Fonds de solidarité FTQ (FSTQ), the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC), Investissement Quebec, ARKEA Group, Mizuho Securities, Swen Capital Partners, Isomer Capital, Walter Financial, Clerville Investment Management, Temaris Capital, Simone Investments, and Portag3 Ventures. In addition, a number of multinational corporate groups have invested including Veolia, La Capitale, Corporate Groupe ADP, Ubisoft and Unisys Corporation through Canal Ventures.

In a call last week, White Star Capital Managing Partner and co-founder Eric Martineau-Fortin told me the VC will look to focus on three specific areas of investment. They are fintech, “disruptive commerce”, and algorithms and sensors.

Asked if most of the unbundling of various consumer financial services was now “done” and that we are now likely to see a next phase of consolidation, the VC didn’t disagree but pointed me to insurance, which is an industry still very much ripe for the picking. White Star has already made two insurtech investments and I got the impression it isn’t done yet.

The firm is also keeping an eye on how technologies like Blockchain is developing but Martineau-Fortin said he hasn’t been persuaded that the use cases were there quite yet.

More broadly, White Star’s new fund will continue to seek out companies that use data as a competitive advantage and where the fund’s “operational experience and physical presence can help companies scale internationally”.

Meanwhile, to help beef up its own global presence, White Star Capital has recruited Matthieu Lattes, who was previously a VC specialist at Rothschild, as its new Partner in Paris. In addition, Shun Nagao has joined as a Venture Partner in Tokyo, and Lylan Masterman has been promoted to Partner in the VC firm’s office in New York.

Alongside Martineau-Fortin (who tells me he is partly relocating from New York to Paris to lead the firm’s presence in France), the firm’s other personnel are Jean-Francois Marcoux (the former co-founder of mobile game publisher Ludia), and Christian Hernandez Gallardo (a former Facebook executive) who heads up White Star’s London operations.

Adds Martineau-Fortin: “Our growing team has extensive operational experience and we are passionate about supporting ambitious entrepreneurs with truly global ambitions. Internationalisation represents a huge opportunity for many high-growth companies and our global reach means we can support companies looking to scale outside of their home market. We become active partners to all the entrepreneurs we work with and the new fund will enable us to help even more companies realise their potential”.