WP Pro Online

There’s a prevailing logic (or you might say hope) in tech that says there is no better time to invent and invest than when the market appears to be in a bad place. With companies like Google and Apple born out of fallow periods, that way of thinking may be understandable — and it is leading to a number of fresh venture funds, pushing capital into the market.

In the latest development, One Peak, a firm out of London that focuses on growth stage rounds in B2B startups across Europe and Israel — is today announcing that it has closed its latest, and biggest-ever fund of $1 billion.

The fund is the third from eight-year-old One Peak. First launched in March of this year, One Peak described the $1 billion ‘hard cap’ as oversubscribed and now the largest focused on B2B software companies in Europe. It plans to use the money to invest between $15 million and $100 million in growth rounds.

One Peak’s portfolio includes the likes of Cymulate, PandaDoc, DataGuard, Paysend, Deepki, Neo4j and Spryker — a list focused on scaling enterprise startups across a range of categories like cybersecurity, e-commerce, and data management and analytics — and the plan is both to continue doubling down on those while also looking for others to join the stable.

David Klein, who co-founded One Peak with Humbert de Liedekerke Beaufort, believes that even with global markets contracting and expected to continue that pattern next year, B2B tech will continue to remain a “recession-proof” category, in his words.

And contrary to its name, One Peak is not alone in that line of thought. Even as we look at how prices for tech stocks are crashing, and anecdotally and verifiably are seeing evidence of investors and startups talking about the lack of activity and pressure on the market, ironically, compared to the rest of the market, investors (and in the case of venture funds, LPs) appear to be putting more of their money into tech, a category they see longer term outperforming the rest of the market.

Beaufort notes that while there is definitely a slowdown in the wider market and the sales cycles in B2B — a category some believe will also be hit, but perhaps in a more delayed way — “Currently we’ve seen no impact on the performance of our companies,” he said.

One Peak’s $1 billion fund III comes amid a number of other VCs raising capital this year both in Europe and further afield. EQT Ventures has closed two different funds in the last couple of months, $2.2 billion for growth-stage investments mostly in Europe and a further $1 billion for early-stage bets. Index Ventures has committed $300 million in the last month specifically to fund new startups in the downturn. Northzone also announced its latest fund, a record $1 billion for the firm, in the last quarter. Atomico is also reportedly raising $1.3 billion in new funds this year, although the close of those has not been confirmed.

Dealroom analysis notes that in all, the first three quarters of 2022 saw VCs in EMEA raise some $24 billion in funds. Meanwhile, PitchBook analysis found that nearly $151 billion was raised by U.S.-based firms in the first three quarters of this year, although it also pointed out that deal-making out of that money was not matching that exuberance.

The message is clear: those looking to make money out of their money may see tech as a relatively safe harbor, but those who hold the purse strings are generally being a lot more cautious how they distribute those funds.

One Peak is following some of that pattern itself.

“We believe multiples are down to 2018 levels,” said Beaufort. Klein added that the highest-growth companies are reasonable investments at 12-13 times the revenue run rate. And he added that the firm recently passed on at least one big deal that’s in the works because the valuation multiple — 20 times the revenue run rate — was just too high.

Still, with a number of B2B startups hatched during more bullish years now looking for their next capital injection, and One Peak’s own portfolio including at least a few startups that haven’t raised in over a year, there appears to be no shortage of targets for aiming its money.

One Peak scales up and closes $1B fund aimed at European and Israeli growth rounds by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Google is introducing a “Continuous Scrolling” feature on the desktop so users don’t have to navigate across pages to find the relevant search results for English-language queries in the U.S., expanding a feature the company has offered on mobile for some time.

Notably, users shouldn’t mistake continuous scrolling for infinite scrolling. With continuous scrolling, users can see up to six pages of search results by scrolling down before they see the “More” button to look for further results. On mobile, Google limits continuous scrolling to four pages of search results in one go.

Google has traditionally had a “paged” approach to search results. That means, up until this point, when users scrolled down the search result page and wanted to see more results, they had to click on the page number at the bottom.

The new feature can also provide more visibility to sites that did not rank high enough to be on the first page. People tend to avoid going to the second page and very few brave souls go to pages afterward — hence the joke: the best place to hide something criminally damaging is page 2 of Google search results.

The change comes at a time when many users complain that Google search results are degrading in quality. In response, Google has made a series of changes, including making search results more visual. In September, it also rolled out a feature that surfaced results from Reddit and Quora under a section called “Discussions and forums”.

While a lot of features have a mobile-first design, Google is also working on enhancing desktop search. The company has been testing widget-styled cards on the home screen to give users access to information like weather and stocks at a glance.

Google introduces “Continuous Scrolling” on desktop for Search by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Meet Cubzh, a new free-to-play video game that is all about user-generated content through a cube system. The company has designed a new platform from scratch and wants to empower creators with the ability to create new objects, build worlds and define games rules thanks to a scripting environment.

This summer, the company raised a $3 million seed round led by New Wave with several angels also participating, such as Docker founder Solomon Hykes and Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia.

“It’s a homemade engine. That’s why we have spent a long time in stealth mode making sure it works,” co-founder and CEO Adrien Duermaël told me.

This C/C++ engine runs on PC, macOS, iOS, Android and web browsers. In other words, if you are reading this post, chances are you have a device that can run Cubzh.

What you will play in Cubzh will depend on other users. Essentially, Cubzh is a gaming platform that can power different gaming experiences — a bit like Roblox.

“Players who can’t write scripts will be able to create objects, draw swords and vehicles. Soon, we will add an animation editor. Those who can code will be able to incorporate those objects in their games,” Duermaël said.

As for game development, Cubzh isn’t using a no-code approach. Everything is currently based on Lua scripting. Cubzh takes care of the basics, such as collisions and multiplayer code. The rest is up to the players’ imagination.

Right now, Cubzh is available as an alpha test. The company is thinking about web3 mechanisms as a monetization route. For instance, Cubzh could take a cut on primary and secondary sales of objects. Content creators would earn royalties on their creations based on usage.

But the company hasn’t launched a marketplace just yet. It doesn’t know if there will be a utility token either. Now that the basic features are here, the company will focus on all these upper layer features.

Eventually, Cubzh hopes that it can create a sort of digital version of Lego. And maybe some Minecraft creators will find Cubzh more interesting and move to this new game platform.

Cubzh wants to build the next-generation Minecraft by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

Amazon is inching closer to launching Prime Gaming, its subscription service that offers free access to a number of titles and which ships bundled with Amazon Prime and Video plans, to its members in India, according to the company’s website.

“With Prime Gaming (included with your Prime membership) unlock instant access to tons of exclusive content for your favorite games and a rotating collection of PC games…each and every month,” the company describes on the site.

A support page on Prime Gaming website also mentions India as an operational market for the service, however users who’re currently attempting to access Prime Gaming are being redirected to a blank page.

After some users spotted and began tweeting references of Prime Gaming’s possible launch in India, Amazon quietly removed some of the references late Monday. [H/T Rishi Alwani.]

Prime Gaming is operational in several markets. The service, a revamped version of Twitch Prime, was originally launched in the US in 2016. It offers users a host several other perks including in-game loot at no additional cost and a range of Twitch-focused features.

The company, which has killed a number of its India businesses in recent weeks, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amazon set to launch Prime Gaming in India by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

Berlin-based Onomotion has come up with a scalable way to do micromobility-powered urban logistics — cargo e-bikes with built-in cover from the elements and attachable containers. Today, Onomotion has a couple hundred vehicles on the road in Germany with logistics partners like UPS, DPD and Hermes. Over the next few years, the company wants to expand to several thousands of vehicles across Europe and North America.

Onomotion just closed its Series A, with €6 million ($6.3 million) in equity and €15 million ($15.7 million) in debt. The equity comes from Proeza Ventures, Zu na mi GmbH, the European Innovation Council and existing investors; and the debt, in the form of a bond, comes from GLS Bank. Onomotion will pay GLS back after seven years, including a yearly interest rate of 5.5%, according to Beres Seelbach, co-founder and CEO. The executive said Onomotion will use the debt to purchase more vehicles so it can scale operations.

The funding comes as more cities and logistics companies move towards finding both more sustainable and efficient solutions for delivering packages in dense urban centers.

“We want to go to international markets in Europe like Paris or Brussels and then to North America, United States and Canada,” Seelbach told TechCrunch. “We want to improve the vehicle, make it even better by adding new features and building new versions, maybe with different modules. And of course, we would also like to invest into the marketing and sales team.”

Onomotion’s vehicle-as-a-service business model involves customers paying a monthly fee for vehicles, containers, chargers, maintenance and servicing. The startup also offers a fleet management program and provides over-the-air software updates so the vehicle mechanics can constantly improve, said Seelbach.

Since the company is largely vertically integrated — Onomotion designs its own vehicles and assembles them in Berlin — Onomotion is able to customize containers for different customer needs. For example, one IT customer uses a container that’s built with specific compartments to hold laptops and other gadgets securely, Seelbach said.

Most of Onomotion’s customers have their own delivery riders, but the startup is slowly growing another business unit that offers a logistics operations team.

“15% to 20% of our turnover this year will come from logistics-as-a-service,” said Seelbach. “Many of our customers have said it’s difficult to find a driver. It’s a big headache to organize the last mile logistics…So for some of our customers, we do everything, from giving them the vehicles to the drivers.”

Seelbach said Onomotion aims to expand that service to cities in Germany outside Berlin and Hamburg, where it’s currently offered.

“We have a pipeline of new customers for this business division,” he said.

Onomotion raises €21 million to expand e-cargo bike urban logistics business by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

The real estate and infrastructure sectors contribute about 40% of global carbon emissions, and part of solving the climate crisis is fixing how those industries work. Accacia gives large property owners a way to track their carbon impact in real-time by integrating with ERPs and property management systems like Yardi. It’s already been deployed to over 20 million square feet of real estate in Asia and announced today $2.5 million in seed funding that will be used to expand across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the United States and Canada.

The funding was led by Accel and B Capital. Participants included Blume Ventures, Good Capital, Zerodha’s Rainmatter Fund, Loyal VC and angel investors.

Founded in 2022 by Annu Talreja, Piyush Chitkara and Jagmohan Garg. Before Accacia, Talreja worked for more than 15 years in real estate, with companies like AECOM and Marriott.

During that time, she saw an evolution in how the industry was affected by climate-related events.

“Climate change-led flash floods, hurricanes and forest fires have impacted property prices globally and rising energy costs have necessitated the use of alternative energy sources,” she told TechCrunch. “Unlike many other sectors, the impact of climate change in real estate is ‘here and now’ and as someone who has worked on building design, construction and investments, the combination of my skill sets allowed me to look at this impact in a holistic way.”

Accacia’s target customers are large real estate owners and asset managers, including REITs, pension and sovereign funds, and developers. Most own and manage real estate AUMs of more than $1 billion. Accacia’s platform can track carbon emissions from all investment asset classes, including commercial, retail, multi-family housing and data centers. It is also used by consulting firms that are serving real estate and infrastructure companies that have set net-zero goals.

Emissions tracked by Accacia include Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchasing generated energy) and Scope 3 (emissions from a company’s value chain) for real estate, including embodied carbon, financed emissions and emissions from business operations.

An example of how Accacia can be used is a commercial real estate fund that has over 10 million square feet of assets. After it deployed Accacia, it was able to cut its direct emissions by 20% within the first six months of using the platform. Another client, a listed hotel company with more than 100 assets, used Accacia to reduce its Scope 3 emissions through the platform’s vendor recommendation engine.

In a statement about the investment, B Capital partner Karan Mohla told TechCrunch, “As an industry, real estate and infrastructure requires a nuanced and focused approach towards climate reporting, adaptation and mitigation. Accacia is taking a leadership role in building a global platform in solving this challenge. A B Capital. we believe in their vision of building a tech-led and scalable SaaS platform to get to net zero targets for real estate owners and asset managers.”

Accacia tackles the real estate industry’s massive carbon emissions problem by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

The Indian arm of SBM Bank, one of the banks that has aggressively worked with fintech startups in the South Asian market, is engaging with investors to raise capital and pitching the vision of becoming one of the top banking-as-a-service providers in the country, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Indian arm is in advanced stages of deliberations to raise between $50 million to $75 million at a pre-money valuation of about $200 million, the source said, requesting anonymity discussing private matters. The round hasn’t closed, so terms of the deal may change, the source said.

The firm sees its deep partnerships with fintech startups such as Bengaluru-headquartered fintechs Razorpay and Slice as a key growth pillar, according to an investor presentation seen by TechCrunch.

SBM Bank India declined to comment.

The bank has actively courted fintech startups as customers, offering them co-branded cards and powering their neobanks, as it sought to differentiate itself from the large competitors that for years avoided engaging with the younger firms.

Banks have long been a favorite investment for retail investors. Value of 100 rupees invested in HDFC and ICICI Bank shares on January 1, 2010 surged to — including with dividends — to over 1,039 and 672 rupees as of late last month, respectively, according to an analysis by Bernstein.

Some venture investors have also shown appetite to invest in banks in recent months – Accel and Quona recently backed Shivalik Small Finance Bank, for instance – but a growing number of other banks including RBL and Federal Bank have employed a similar strategy as SBM and courted many startups in the past two years.

Giant banks including HDFC and ICICI, at the same time, have have also somewhat reversed the course and are now not as hostile to startups anymore.

With the mounting pressure and local FDI rules, its valuation ask may rest on investors being convinced that it’s able to retain its business clients, their continued growth and it deepening its partnership with them to provide additional offerings.

The India arm generated a net revenue of $62.7 million in the financial year ending March this year, according to the presentation.

SBM Bank India, building BaaS platform, seeks funding at $200 million valuation by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch