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The Federal Trade Commission this week announced that it has settled lawsuits against Google and iHeartMedia relating to “deceptive endorsements” of the Pixel 4 phone. According to a statement issued by the FTC, nearly 29,000 ads were aired featuring radio personalities.

The suit notes specifically that the promoters in question never used the handset, in spite of claiming to have had experience with the device. Google is said to have paid iHeartMedia – the United States’ largest radio owner – along with 11 other networks in 10 major markets millions to promote the product.

Those endorsements included scripted lines, including “It’s my favorite phone camera out there, especially in low light, thanks to Night Sight Mode,” “I’ve been taking studio-like photos of everything,” and “It’s also great at helping me get stuff done, thanks to the new voice activated Google Assistant that can handle multiple tasks at once.”

“Google and iHeartMedia paid influencers to promote products they never used, showing a blatant disrespect for truth-in-advertising rules,” Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine said in a statement provided by the FTC. “The FTC will not stop working with our partners in the states to crack down on deceptive ads and ensure firms that break the rules pay a price.”

Google and iHeartMedia have agreed to settle the suit to the tune of $9.4 million. The news arrives as federal regulators are taking a closer look at regulation around big tech, including a $400 million Google settlement for data tracking and increased scrutiny over potential monopolistic practices.

“We are pleased to resolve this issue,” Google Spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement offered to TechCrunch. “We take compliance with advertising laws seriously and have processes in place designed to help ensure we follow relevant regulations and industry standards.”

We have reached out to iHeartMedia for addition comment.

Google/iHeartMedia will pay $9.4M to settle FTC charges for ‘deceptive’ Pixel 4 radio ads by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Open-source Twitter alternative Mastodon has seen sizable growth following Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition, topping a new milestone of 1 million monthly active users in just over a week after the deal closed. But one of the many challenges for users coming to Mastodon for the first time is in re-creating their network of friends and followers they had built up over the years on Twitter. A new tool called Movetodon aims to make the transition from Twitter to Mastodon easier by allowing users to easily find and follow their Twitter friends on the open-source social network with minimal work.

There are already a few tools to find Twitter friends on Mastodon, like Debirdify, Twitodon and Fedifinder. However, some current tools ask users to connect their Twitter account, scan their network then export that data into a CSV file for import into Mastodon. This is useful if you want to simply import all your Twitter friends who have Mastodon accounts, but doesn’t allow you to easily curate your network if you’d like a fresh start.

Movetodon’s creator, a German software developer Tibor Martini, says he had used these tools himself and acknowledged they worked for his purposes. But he thought the overall experience was a little lacking.

“For a few days, I used some of the other tools, i.e. Fedifinder and Debirdify, and found them great,” he told TechCrunch, in an email. “They did what was needed — exporting your friends’ accounts from Twitter and importing them to Mastodon. However, the process to do so was not very sophisticated. You had to download a CSV file and import it back into Mastodon,” Martini explained. “Also, some of the tools didn’t have any styling at all so they looked very ‘raw.’ Those aspects made it harder for people who already struggled to find ‘the right’ mastodon instance,” he added.

Martini said he wanted to build a tool that would make it simpler for non-tech-savvy people to find their friends on Mastodon, including if they were accessing the service on mobile.

He started working on the concept for Movetodon at the end of October and then began coding around mid-November.

Though only launched five days ago, Movetodon is already becoming a popular tool for those who are trying to flee Twitter. Martini says his server logs indicate more than 50,000 users have tried Movetodon in just the past week. His post about the service was also reshared on Mastodon nearly 2,000 times and was tweeted about several hundred times.

To take advantage of Movetodon, users have to log in to both apps, Twitter and Mastodon, and authorize Movetodon to get started. The tool then automatically generates a list of friends who are also on Mastodon. In tests, we also found that Movetodon helpfully handled the API limits it encountered by pausing the list generation and displaying a countdown in seconds as to when it would resume.

When the list generation is complete, you’ll be able to follow individual users by clicking a button or you can click to follow them all at once. You can also sort the list by when users joined Mastodon to make the new accounts pop up to the top of the list.

The developer says his tool works by looking at the relevant fields on Twitter where users often share their Mastodon account information — like their bio, user name, location field, URL field, or in their pinned tweet. It then used Regex to extract possible Mastodon handles and URLs. With the Mastodon API, it determines if the handle is actually a Mastodon account, or if it’s something else — like an email address. The tool also fetches a list of all your current friends on Mastodon to show you if you already follow each other or not.

The data Movetodon accesses is never stored on its server, and both app connections ask for limited permissions. For instance, on Twitter, Movetodon can only read information, not post or follow. On Mastodon, Movetodon asks for limited write permissions to allow users can follow other people on the platform.

While Martini’s day job is as a Team Lead for Social Media at the German publisher stern, he says he may continue to develop Movetodon further based on user feedback. For instance, he added the “follow all” button in response to users’ requests. Users are also now asking if they could use the tool to find accounts from their Twitter Lists, as well.

Even if other Twitter alternatives added APIs in the future, Martini doesn’t think he would build tools for them, as he prefers Mastodon. (Movetodon shows he joined the open-source social network 2,245 days ago!)

“Personally, I see some advantages at Mastodon: It already has a great user base, is privacy friendly, and has already years of experience in managing and developing the platform,” he says.

A new tool ‘Movetodon’ makes it easier to find your Twitter friends on Mastodon by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Dropbox has announced plans to bring end-to-end encryption to its business users, and it’s doing so through acquiring “key assets” from Germany-based cloud security company Boxcryptor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dropbox is well-known for its cloud-based file back-up and sharing services, and while it does offer encryption for files moving between its servers and the destination, Dropbox itself has access to the keys and can technically view any content passing through. What Boxcryptor brings to the table is an extra layer of security via so-called “zero knowledge” encryption on the client side, giving the user full control over who is allowed to decrypt their data.

For many people, such as consumers storing family photos or music files, this level of privacy might not be a major priority. But for SMEs and enterprises, end-to-end encryption is a big deal as it ensures that no intermediary can access their confidential documents stored in the cloud — it’s encrypted before it even arrives.

Moving forward, Dropbox said that it plans to bake Boxcryptor’s features natively into Dropbox for business users.

‘Premier partner’

Founded in 2011, Boxcryptor protects companies’ data across numerous cloud services including OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Indeed, Dropbox was already one of Boxcryptor’s “premier partners,” working closely with the cloud giant to ensure its encryption smarts play nicely with Dropbox’s cross-platform file storage.

It’s worth digging a little bit into the specific wording of the deal announced today though. Both companies are careful not to call this an all-out acquisition: Dropbox said that it’s acquiring “key assets,” while Boxcryptor says that Dropbox has acquired its intellectual property, including “key technology assets.”

But for all intents and purposes, this seems like a good old-fashioned acquisition. In a blog post published today, Boxcryptor founders Andrea Pfundmeier and Robert Freudenreich say that their “new mission” will be to embed Boxcryptor’s technology into Dropbox. And after today, nobody will be able to create an account or buy any licenses from Boxcryptor — it’s effectively closing to new customers.

“By providing our technology and deep-expertise to a global tech company like Dropbox, we’ll be able to better scale our security capabilities through Dropbox’s global platform and provide an elevated encryption experience for users,” they wrote. “This will ensure even more people are able to focus on the work that matters, knowing that their content is even more safe and secure.”

But there are reasons why the news as being packaged the way it has. The company is continuing to support existing customers through the duration of their current contracts. Boxcryptor has commitments and contracts in place, and it wants to ensure nothing is lost in translation — it’s stressing that no keys, contracts, or data will be transferred over to Dropbox, and everything will remain where it currently is in its German datacenters.

Dropbox acquires Boxcryptor assets to bring zero-knowledge encryption to file storage by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

We can’t wait to see you all in Los Angeles, California, on December 6 at TC Sessions: Space 2022. That’s coming up fast, but you know what’s coming up even sooner? Your chance to attend for just $199, that’s what. It disappears in just four short days.

Space saver: Buy your pass before December 2 at 11:59 p.m. PST — prices go up to $495 at the stroke of midnight. Why pay more if you don’t have to?

We expect several hundred attendees at this, our third space-focused event. You’ll hear from — and rub elbows with — the most influential space tech founders, investors, scientists, engineers, government officials and military brass.

Here’s just a taste of what’s on tap, and you can find the other interviews, panel discussions and breakout sessions listed in the event agenda.

Space Workforce 2030: Inspiring, Preparing and Employing the Next Generation

The dawning space age offers enormous opportunities to explore new frontiers, grow the economy in orbit and strengthen our security. Making the most of this momentous time calls for an innovative workforce that can leverage diverse experiences and perspectives to solve the hard problems we’ll encounter.

The Space Workforce 2030 pledge is a first-of-its-kind effort launched earlier this year that is bringing together more than 30 of the country’s leading space companies to work collaboratively to increase diversity across our industry to build a vibrant workforce for the future. Steve Isakowitz, president and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, will discuss the work they’re doing to inspire, prepare and employ the next generation of scientists and engineers and how you can play a part in supporting this vital mission.

Backing Big Bets in Uncertain Times: With VC spend cooling in general, and particularly when it comes to space-related startups, what are the current priorities of investors who have backed space startups in the past? If we’re settling in for a relatively long economic downturn, what should startups expect from private space capital looking ahead to 2023? With Jory Bell, general partner, Playground Global; Mark Boggett, co-founder and CEO, Seraphim Space; and Emily Henriksson, principal, Root Ventures.

Plus, you’ll have plenty of time to meet the extraordinary mix of founders, engineers, entrepreneurs, technologists and investors that turn out. Our AI-powered event app will help you quickly find and connect with the right people — you know, the folks who align with your business interests.

TC Sessions: Space 2022 takes place on December 6 in Los Angeles, but you have only four days left until that $199 deal leaves orbit. Buy your pass by December 2 at 11:59 p.m. PST. The price increases to $495 at midnight. Don’t space out on serious savings!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Space? Contact our sponsorship sales team byfilling out this form.

Four more days left to save on tix to TC Sessions: Space by Lauren Simonds originally published on TechCrunch

When I went to book a rental car for Thanksgiving a few months ago, all that Hertz had left at O’Hare International Airport were Teslas. Usually, I end up with something like a Nissan Altima — not an amazing car, but one that gets the job done. Cheaply. But not this time.

Hertz is in the process of adding 100,000 Teslas to its rental fleet, so it was statistically probable that one day I’d end up renting one. I’m certainly in their target demo — all of our cars over the last seven-plus years have had a plug, and while none of them have been Teslas, I am what you might call Tesla-curious. Aside from a test drive of a Model Y a couple of years ago, I’d never driven one for an extended period of time.

What the heck, I thought. Let’s go for it.

Even though I’m far from an EV novice, I still wasn’t sure about renting an EV. I do the vast majority of my charging at home, and I’m familiar enough with my vehicles to know their real-world range and how the weather will affect it. I don’t have that same familiarity with the Model 3, and I wouldn’t have anything more than a 120v outlet at my parents’ house, which is two hours from the airport.

But I’ve got a weak spot for new technology and new ways of experiencing it, especially when it comes to electrification. Here went nothing.

How it went

When we picked up the car at the airport, I was directed to the kiosk, where a nice Hertz rep behind the counter explained that she had to give me a spiel, the same one she gives to all Tesla renters. She asked if I had any questions, and I told her that while I didn’t own a Tesla, I was familiar enough with EVs that I was confident I’d get by.

One difference she pointed out was that in place of the usual offer to pre-pay for a tank of gas, there was an option to place a $35 deposit in case I wasn’t able to return the car more than 70% charged. If I was able to charge it before returning it, the $35 would go back on my credit card. Seemed like a reasonable offer, so I took her up on it.

In our conversation, she mentioned that Hertz’s O’Hare fleet was largely being replaced with Teslas. Ah, so that’s why only Teslas remained.

We found the car, got the kids situated, adjusted the mirrors and steering wheel (no small feat), and headed out. Anyone who’s driven an EV is addicted to instant torque, and the Model 3 has it in spades. The twitchy accelerator pedal reminded me of our old BMW i3 — in a good way — as did the one-pedal driving, which activates regenerative braking when you lift your foot, allowing you to largely ignore the brake pedal. The suspension was tight, but not horribly so. It was certainly far better sorted than the Model Y, which on rough roads felt like it was pummeling my kidneys.

Though the car had enough range to make it to my parents’ house, I wanted to charge on the way to ensure we’d have enough for the return. (120v outlets are excruciatingly slow.) After entering our destination into the nav, we added another stop and searched for “supercharger.” Helpfully, the top hits were Superchargers along our route, starting with the one closest to our destination.

Driving the car was great, but letting it drive itself … not so much.

If EVs can work in rental car fleets, they can work anywhere by Tim De Chant originally published on TechCrunch

When Covid shut down much of the world down in 2020, it ended up wreaking havoc on the supply chain. Suddenly companies built for just-in-time production couldn’t find parts they needed to build their products.

Even as Covid subsided, the supply chain woes continued. Veterans of supply management like the founder of startup Amplio watched, and figured there had to be a better way to guard against these kinds of disruptions in the future using software to find parts wherever they were.

Amplio launched last year with that goal in mind, and today the startup announced a $6 million seed to build a system to help track parts shortages. Trey Closson, CEO and co-founder at Amplio says his company’s goal is to build more resilience into the electronic components supply chain.

“We help our customers understand the components that are at highest risk of leading to material shortages, and then we connect our customers to alternative sources of supply to mitigate those shortages,” Closson told TechCrunch.

He knows what he’s talking about. He spent his entire career in supply chain management, and he’s seen firsthand how disruptions can have a negative impact on a business’s ability to function. He blames “Just-in-time production” techniques for the problems we are seeing today.

“The supply chains have been designed for 30 or 40 years to optimize for cost and for the best case scenario, but the reality is that we don’t live in a world of best case scenarios. We live in a world of constant disruptions,” he said.

“The way that our platform works is that we’re connected to our customers’ systems of record or their ERP solutions, and we take in in their bill of materials and their operational data, and then combine that with external datasets to be able to show the customer their ability to source their particular components over the next six to 18 months,” he said.

What’s more, in cases where the customer isn’t able to source the components, customers can go to the Amplio marketplace to find suppliers or other manufacturers who might have surplus inventory they are trying to sell.

Closson’s most recent job was working at Koch Industries, leading international supply chain for Georgia Pacific, where he was on the front line of the Covid-induced toilet paper shortages. But he decided to focus his startup on electronic components.

“So while supply chain resilience is really critical across the market, we want to focus on the electronics industry, because it has such a tremendous impact on the global economy,” he said. He conceived of and incubated the company as part of a program run by Koch and High Alpha Innovation, the program launched by former Exact Target execs to help startups with enterprise-focused ideas.

The company currently has 6 employees, but plans to expand with the funding (which closed in May). He says as he grows the company, diversity and inclusion is a core building block. “Diversity is one of the core principles for our hiring and in decision making processes. So just from a selfish standpoint, diverse organizations make better decisions and have more creative ideas, and are ultimately more successful,” he said.

Today’s round was led by Construct Capital with participation from Slow Ventures, High Alpha Capital, Flexport Ventures, Alpaca Venture Capital and various industry angels.

Amplio helps companies find components when supply chain breaks down by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

YouTube Music announced today that it’s starting to roll out its personalized end-of-year Recaps to allow users to relive their favorite music moments of 2022. The launch comes ahead of Spotify’s highly-anticipated Wrapped feature, which tends to takes social media by storm every year.

YouTube Music introduced the Recap feature last year to compete with Spotify. The feature lets users see their top artists, songs, music videos, playlists and more. This year, the company says it’s making the experience more immersive.

The 2022 Recaps includes a new “Top Trends” stat that will show you which artists you discovered before others. There’s also a new “Identity” feature that will give you a personalized “music personality” that captures your music vibe based on your listening habits. In addition, the Recaps share the unique-to-YouTube content, such as remixes and live performances, that you loved the most this year.

You can also see shareable cards highlighting your top songs from each season. You can even choose to personalize them by adding your own images directly from Google Photos.

Last year, you could only access your Recap through YouTube Music. This year, the experience is accessible through the main YouTube app. You can access your Recap by heading to the YouTube app on iOS or Android and searching for “2022 Recap.” You will then see your Recap playlist and you can click on the stories banner to view your personalized stories.

Once you see your stats, you can share your 2022 Recap on apps such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook by tapping the arrow at the bottom of each story. A big part of the success behind Spotify Wrapped is the ability to share your stats on social media, so it’s no surprise that Youtube has also made it possible to share your results with others.

YouTube is getting ahead of the game against Spotify, which hasn’t rolled out its Wrapped experience yet. The streaming service sent an email to users last week saying that Wrapped would be coming soon. The launch of YouTube’s Recap experience comes the same day as Apple Music rolled out its revamped Replay feature.

YouTube Music starts rolling out its personalized end-of-year Recaps by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

Apple Music has launched a revamped 2022 Replay experience to let subscribers explore their top songs, artists, albums, genres and more. Although Replay is still only accessible via the web, the redesign brings the annual recap feature closer to the interactive nature of Spotify’s Wrapped experience.

Replay now includes a Stories-like highlight reel that displays your listening activity for the year. Each page includes animated transitions with music playing in the background. You can also see if you are the in the top 100 listeners of a specific artist or genre, which is similar to Spotify’s Wrapped functionality that notifies users if they’re in the top percentage of listeners for a specific artist.

One feature that sets Replay apart from Wrapped is that users can continue checking Replay until December 31 to see if their listening patterns evolve before the start of 2023. Unlike Wrapped, the Replay feature will continue evolving until the end of the year.

Once you see your stats, you can share your 2022 Replay on social media or messaging platforms. A big part of the success behind Spotify Wrapped is the ability to share your stats on social media, so it’s no surprise that Apple has also made it possible to share your results with others.

You can see your Apple Music Replay by visiting replay.music.apple.com and logging in with the same Apple ID you use for Apple Music. From there, you can play highlights or scroll through the page for more detailed insights.

Apple Music’s Replay rollout comes ahead of Spotify’s Wrapped launch. The streaming service sent an email to users last week saying that Wrapped would be coming soon. The launch of Replay comes the same day that YouTube rolled out its Recap feature.

Apple Music launches revamped 2022 Replay experience with new highlight reel by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

Solana-centric crypto wallet Phantom is expanding its support to two other blockchains, Ethereum and Polygon, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.

By adding support for Ethereum and Polygon, Phantom is expanding users’ access from only Solana to all three of the ecosystems, Brandom Millman, CEO and co-founder of Phantom, said to TechCrunch. “We want to bring communities together from across web3 with a safe and easy to use self-custody product that is suitable for mainstream adoption.”

The new Ethereum and Polygon integrations are live in beta mode on Phantom’s browser and iOS and Android applications with an aim for a public launch in the first quarter of 2023, Millman said. This means users can trade, receive and swap tokens in its wallet as well as collect NFTs across all three blockchains.

“We’re graduating from a mono-chain wallet to a multi-chain wallet,” Millman said. “It was always our goal to bring Phantom to a multi-chain world. It was always our understanding that the world was moving to a more multi-chain world so it’s something that is more of a homecoming for us.”

The three co-founders —Millman, Francesco Agosti and Chris Kalani — used to work in the Ethereum ecosystem at 0x, an Ethereum-focused financial protocol, so integrating the blockchain into Phantom’s wallet was “always something we aspired to do,” Millman said.

Phantom currently has over 2.5 million user sessions per day and over 25 million on-chain decentralized application (dApp) transactions per month. In June, it launched an in-wallet token swapper where users could transfer tokens and has completed over $1 billion in swap volume to date, with each transaction costing less than 1 cent in network fees, it said.

In January, Phantom hit a $1.2 billion valuation after closing a $109 million funding round led by Paradigm. Other investors in the crypto wallet include Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital, Solana and Variant.

The crypto world is quickly evolving, Millman noted. “People didn’t really think multi-chain was going to be a thing and Ethereum was seen as the only place for users and developers to interact with the world of web3. But now it’s pretty accepted that the world is moving to a multi-chain world and there’s competitors to Ethereum and Solana coming out.”

While a number of blockchains are competing for market share, Millman doesn’t think the crypto ecosystem will head “toward a world with thousands of chains,” but one with about three to five major blockchains. “We’ll see consolidation around it.”

The Phantom team will work closely with Polygon to build out a wallet compatible with the layer-2 blockchain’s ecosystem, it said. “Working with Phantom will allow us to deliver a feature-rich wallet that’s ready for mainstream consumers to use when interacting with apps powered by Polygon,” Ryan Wyatt, CEO of Polygon Studios, said in a statement.

In the future, Phantom will consider making its crypto wallet native with other blockchains, Millman said. “I think the whole wallet space is going to be growing quite a bit, especially in the wake of some of the failures around centralized systems we’ve seen recently. Non-custodial and self-custodial systems are going to be in the forefront quite a bit.”

The non-custodial wallet also aims to focus on security and protecting users against spam NFTs and phishing attacks through its automated warnings of probable malicious transactions or websites that could compromise individuals’ wallets, assets or permissions.

“We’ve gone to great lengths to improve the experience around ‘transaction preview’ [and] the ability for a user to understand what they are authorizing when interacting with a web3 application,” Millman said. “Our transaction preview technologies have prevented over 20,000 wallets from being drained with over 3,000 unique users saved in the last month alone.”

Phantom has also gone to great lengths to take down fake phishing websites and has helped remove over 2,000 fake websites targeting Solana communities, Millman added.

In the long term, Millman believes Phantom will become the “onboarding point and discovery point for users entering web3,” similar to how Google Chrome is synonymous with the internet or Web 2.0. “That’s our aim with Phantom for Web3: If a user wants to interact with web3, we want their first instinct to be to download our app. That’s our goal and north star.”

Solana-focused crypto wallet Phantom adds Ethereum and Polygon support by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch

Coworking and warehouse space company Saltbox announced today the closing of a $35 million Series B led by Cox Enterprises and Pendulum Holdings. The news comes more than a year after Saltbox closed a $10.6 million Series A, bringing its total funding to $56 million.

As TechCrunch previously reported, Saltbox — which was founded in 2019 by Tyler Scriven, Maxwell Bonnie, and Paul D’Arrigo — is a pioneer of what it calls “co-warehousing.” With more than 10 facilities across the country, it allows small businesses and e-commerce outfits to ship and store goods all in one place. There are no lease requirements, and the company also offers integrated logistics services, like equipment rental.

Scriven, the company’s CEO, told TechCrunch that the company plans to use the extra capital to open at least three more locations, with two of those to open by the end of the year. The new Saltboxes are set to be situated in Miami, Minneapolis, and Phoenix. The company also wants to invest in software to create a more seamless logistics ecosystem.

“We’ve made a lot of progress over our first three years in physical infrastructure and service, and we are now going to increase our focus on software,” Scriven told TechCrunch. “Our goal is to create a frictionless end-to-end logistics ecosystem that is incredibly accessible and approachable to small businesses.”

Saltbox also faces the changing tides of the real estate and e-commerce markets. The former is up, while the latter is seeing a bit of a slowdown. Scriven said both situations helped businesses realize the need for Saltbox as they faced supply chain and logistics quandaries and the financial challenges of keeping a business afloat.

“Our customers made it clear to us that Saltbox was essential,” Scriven said, adding that the company hopes to educate and tap into the rising crop of digital entrepreneurs on the importance of having an ordered flow of logistics.

“One of the principal ways through which we are expanding our brand presence and brand awareness is through filling that knowledge gap,” he said. “Becoming not only an operational vendor and partner to these companies, but also a source of knowledge and inspiration, a source of confidence to approach this critically important aspect of their business.”

Saltbox’s Series B comes at what has been a daunting year for Black founders. TechCrunch previously reported that Black founders raised just 0.43% — or $187 million — of the nearly $43 billion in venture capital allocated this Q3. Scriven and Bonnie, who are Black, represent outliers in a year that saw many VCs retreat to their old networks amid an economic downturn.

Scriven said it took about four months to close this round and said the company heard “far more nos than yesses.” He added, though, that having an established reputation, good product fit, and resilience helped carry them through.

Saltbox already had an established relationship with its investors. Approaching new investors is difficult during challenging economic times, Scriven noted, which is why it was imperative to lean into their existing network.

“I feel very fortunate to not only have gotten this round done but also to have gotten it down with really phenomenal investors that we know well and trusted,” Scriven continued.

Robbie Robinson, the CEO and co-founder of Pendulum Holdings, said that Scriven and the Saltbox team have managed to tap a “strategic and unique opportunity” that sits at the “intersection of community and shared services in warehousing, inventory management, and fulfillment.”

“This is evident in the company’s growth, and its ongoing expansion across geographies speaks to the high demand for this differentiated bundling of services,” Robinson said. “I am excited to join Saltbox’s board of directors and continue Pendulum’s partnership with the team as they establish an infrastructure that supports emerging and fast-growing small to medium businesses that power our economy.”

“With its mission to power the next generation of entrepreneurs to launch, grow, and scale, Saltbox is a great partner to help continue Cox’s mission to contribute to the economic well-being of an increased number of businesses and their employees,” Evelyn Bolden, the senior director of strategy and investments for Cox Enterprises, said. “Saltbox is committed to helping e-commerce owners get the most out of their business in a community-focused workspace.”

Others in the round include Playground Global, Kapor Capital, and Lincoln Properties West.

Scriven said he hopes to stay focused on making the most impact he can. That means the company will double down on its mission to help small businesses adapt to the ever-changing retail economic landscape because, as Scriven puts it, “when small businesses are threatened, the core of our economy is threatened.”

“It’s a basic necessity to ensure that SMBs have access to a highly accessible, highly approachable, human-centric logistics platform that can really meet them where they are and ensure they remain not only competitive but ultimately thrive,” Scriven said. “This is a problem that must be solved, and it is not optional to solve the problem.”

‘Co-warehouse’ company Saltbox closes $35M Series B by Dominic-Madori Davis originally published on TechCrunch