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The property industry now requires high quality photographs, floor plans and virtual tours, so the industry for software providers in the space is booming. The whole are was accelerated during the pandemic when many property viewings migrated from physical to virtual, and this trend has continued to tick upwards.

Players in the space include Walnut, Stonly, Capterra… the list goes on. There is also Matterport which does virtual tours, but its clients are photographers.

Back in 2020, another player, Giraffe360 raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by LAUNCHub Ventures and Hoxton Ventures.

It has a robotic camera, combined with a subscription service, which enables real estate agents and brokers to generate high-resolution photos of properties, floor plans and virtual tours. The subscription gains the owner access to the camera, an AI-based image processing software and cloud storage, and other services.

When estate agents use Giraffe360, this essentially removes photographers from the process.

It’s now raised $16 million in new funds led by Founders Fund, the San Francisco-based VC, whose portfolio boasts names such as Airbnb, Spotify and SpaceX.

Existing investors LAUNCHub Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, HCVC (Hardware Club) and Change Ventures also participated.

To date, the company has raised $22m in equity and $9m in venture debt. It was founded in 2016 in Riga, Latvia by two brothers, Mikus Opelts and Madars Opelts, and is headquartered in London, U.K.

The startup is also launching the latest, upgraded version of its camera, branded the Giraffe Go Cam. This is 30% lighter, which charge faster and comes with 500 GB of on-board storage. The camera uses uses a high-specification sensor, LIDAR laser and robotics.

Founders Fund principal Delian Asparouhov said in a statement: “After being involved in a number of PropTech startups such as OpenDoor, we’ve recognised that some of these tech forward companies aren’t having their needs met, which means that the mass market definitely isn’t having their needs met. Giraffe360 was a no-brainer, and is really well suited to meet the needs of the market from both the hardware and software front.”

In conjunction with the latest equity raise, Giraffe360 secured additional $6m in long-term loans from the London-based venture debt provider Columbia Lake Partners.

Giraffe360 CEO, Mikus Opelts, commented: “We are very excited to partner up with Founders Fund. It is one of the strongest brands in the VC industry, with a strong track record of backing category-defining companies. The new Giraffe Go Cam and funding will help guide the transition toward more immersive experiences of properties online, as the world takes on a more remote, online approach to properties.”

As demand for real estate VR booms, Founders Fund leads $16M round into Giraffe360 platform by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch

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Layoffs continue to run through the tech industry, and more specifically the autonomous vehicle sector. The latest company to trim its workforce is Motional, the joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv.

Employees were told of the layoffs Wednesday, according to sources who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak for the company. Motional, which employs more than 1,500 people globally, confirmed the layoffs.

Motional did not confirm the number of employees affected. Sources said dozens of employees were laid off with cuts happening across its operations. Motional has offices in Boston, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, South Korea, Singapore and several cities in California, including Milpitas and Santa Monica.

In related and rosier news, many of the 2,000 employees who were laid off when Argo AI shutdown, have taken jobs at Ford and VW, the two automakers that backed and ultimately pulled support from the autonomous vehicle startup. According to one source, about 550 former Argo AI employees accepted offers to join Ford. Another three dozen took jobs at VW in the United States. VW has also absorbed the Munich-based Argo AI GmbH — an office with more than 200 people, many of whom previously were part of AID — back into the company.

Got a news tip or inside information about a topic we covered? I’d love to hear from you. You can reach at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com to share thoughts, criticisms, opinions or tips. Or you can drop us a note at tips@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps.

Micromobbin’

Bird has been struggling this past year through a flurry of dramas that is too long and complicated to get into right now. But Shane Torchiana, the company’s new CEO and President, thinks Bird still has an opportunity to survive and thrive. In a lengthy interview with Torchiana about Bird’s long-term strategy to become a self-sustaining company — spoiler alert: yes battery swapping will finally be a genuine part of the equation.

Canyon Bicycles, a German bike maker, wants to convert motorists with its cargo bikes and what it says is the cycling equivalent to an SUV. The company aims to double sales of city bikes by 2025.

Over half of surveyed UK residents plan to increase their use of public transport and shared micromobility in 2023, as a direct response to the cost of living crisis, according to a report from Free Now, a European mobility superapp.

Gogoro is piloting its Smartscooters and battery swapping stations in the Philippines starting next year. The company is pursuing a B2B logistics push as its first entry into the market.

Helbiz CEO has been tweeting, with the odd hint that the company is seeking acquisitions, potentially of Bird. With what money? Who knows.

Lyft has pulled its scooters and bikes out of Los Angeles, citing an unregulated environment and lack of long term commitment from municipalities. The company also partnered with battery recycling company Redwood Materials to ensure batteries from its shared fleet don’t end up in landfill.

McLaren subsidiary Lavoie has launched its Series 1 electric scooter. It’s foldable with fat tires and a range of 31 miles.

Spanish e-bike maker Ossby introduced the Curve Electric, a compact foldable e-bike that combines the motor and battery into the rear hub.

Polestar joins the growing list of automakers that are making their own e-bike (We see you Porsche, BMW, Rivian, Jeep, Hummer). The EV company is working with Sweden’s Allebike to produce the bike — the two companies had previously worked together on a non-electric mountain bike.

City news in brief …

Austin is doubling its rebate for people who buy e-bikes starting January 1.

Oregon is also considering an incentive that will give residents up to $1,700 off e-bike purchases.

The Philippines approved the removal of import duties on electric vehicles and their parts for the next five years. That includes electric two-wheelers. Indonesia will subsidize e-motorcycle purchases.

Deals, deals, deals

Aptiv, the automotive supplier, completed its acquisition of an 85% equity stake in Intercable Automotive Solutions from Intercable. The transaction is valued at €595 million and is expected to be accretive to earnings per share starting in 2023.

Carbon Revolution, an Australian company that makes lightweight wheels, will list in the U.S. by combining with Twin Ridge Capital Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company.

CARIAD, the software company of the Volkswagen Group, said it will acquire Paragon’s AI division. The closing of the transaction is still subject to various conditions, in particular the reservation of antitrust approvals, and is expected in spring 2023.

Classified Cycling, the Belgian company developing drivetrain technology for cycling, raised €22 million in a round led by Active Partners.

Dat Bike raised $8 million to put more electric bikes on Vietnam’s roads.

OneRail, the Orlando, Fla.-based last-mile transportation company, raised $33 million in Series B funding round co-led by Piva Capital and Arsenal Growth Equity,

United Airlines made a strategic equity investment in sodium-ion battery maker Natron Energy. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate production at its manufacturing facility in Holland, Michigan, where it will scale operations to begin mass production of UL-listed sodium-ion batteries in 2023.

V7, a startup developing data engines to improve AI for computer vision, raised $33 million in a Series A round co-led by AI-focused Radical Ventures and Temasek. Existing investors Air Street Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners and Partech also participated.

Zapp Electric Vehicles, the UK-based electric motorbike maker, is merging with CIIG Capital Partners II, a blank check company, to become publicly traded on the Nasdaq.

Notable news and other tidbits

Autonomous vehicles

Aurora launched a second route this fall for Uber Freight customers between Fort Worth and El Paso. The AV company is completing one haul a week on this route. It is also using its self-driving trucks (with safety operators behind the wheel) to hauling goods between Dallas and Houston twice a week.

Cruise applied for a permit with the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test its custom-built driverless vehicle called “Origin” on public roads in San Francisco.

Kiwibot is working with Loyola Marymount University on a so-called “high-driving automation campus.” Apparently this isn’t about driving after a bong rip. It’s about Kiwibot’s 25 bots generating multiple paths to reach the pre-established destination and navigating there autonomously.

Pony.ai regained its permit to test AVs on public streets in California.

Car-sharing, ride-hailing and subscriptions

Kyte, the car rental delivery startup, is offering a car subscription service, following what the startup says was a successful subscription pilot with Teslas. The three-, six- and 12-month subscription plans will be available to all 14 markets in which Kyte operates, such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Boston and, most recently, Fort Lauderdale.

Electric vehicles, batteries & charging

GM and partner LG Energy Solution announced plans to spend an another $275 million on their joint venture battery plant in Tennessee to an effort to increase production by more than 40%.

Lordstown Motors starting shipping its all-electric Endurance pickup truckmanufactured by Foxconn.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe talked about shoring up its supply chain, future products and demand at the Redburn CEO conference.

Sibros is partnering with tiny EV maker e.GO to provide connected vehicle data and advanced OTA software management for the automaker’s new e.wave X urban EVs.

TechCrunch+ reporter Tim de Chant writes about his EV car rental experience.

Tesla is offering Model 3 and Model Y buyers in the U.S. a $3,750 credit if they have their vehicle delivered in December 2022. The automaker also delivered he first production versions of its long-delayed electric Semi truck five years after CEO Elon Musk revealed the commercial vehicle. The first Tesla Semi trucks were handed over to Pepsi at an event at the company gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.

Miscellaneous

Apple iPhone users with iOS 16.1 software can now share car keys in their Wallet with non-iPhone users, starting with Google Pixel devices. In the future, that capability will extend to other devices with Android 12+. Keys can be shared via email, text message and WhatsApp.

BMW Group started production of an early-stage hydrogen-powered vehicle based on the X5 crossover.

Honda said it plans to launch a fuel cell electric vehicle in 2024 based on its bestselling CR-V crossover.

People

Faraday Future’s board fired its CEO Carsten Breitfeld, according to aregulatory filingposted Monday after the markets closed. Brietfeld, who was the former co-founder of failed EV startup Byton, took the leadership role at Faraday Future in September 2019.

Harbinger, the Los Angeles-based automotive manufacturer, hired Gilbert Passin as its chief production officer. Passin served as Tesla’s Vice President of Manufacturing, overseeing the launch of Tesla’s Model S program. He also held other VP and GM-level roles with Toyota, Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks, and Renault, and most recently served as CEO and COO of Wrightspeed.

May Mobility appointed industry veteran Kathy Winter as its Chief Operating Officer. Winter most recently was vice president and general manager of Intel’s Autonomous Transportation & Infrastructure division. She also led the Intel’s integration with Mobileye post-acquisition. Prior to Intel, Winter served as vice president for several divisions at Delphi.

Apple expands car key sharing, Bird charts out a strategy and layoffs come for Motional by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

Aigens, a Hong Kong-based startup that provides online ordering and marketing tools for the food and beverage industry, picked up a fresh $14 million Series A funding round led by Ant Group, the fintech behemoth affiliated with Alibaba, the company announced Monday.

The capital infusion from Ant came at a time when the Chinese fintech giant is ramping up its international footprint through a network of allies. Rather than driving adoption for its flagship Alipay mobile wallet, Ant opts for an open ecosystem outside China and has built what is in effect a wallet aggregator called Alipay+.

As of early November, Alipay+ had integrated with 15 payment methods, most of which operate in Southeast Asia, allowing merchants that have integrated with Alipay+ to reach more than one billion users of those partnered payment solutions.

Aside from integrating with third-party wallets, Ant has also forged partnerships with other players working on digitizing the retail space in emerging markets, where it can try repeating its playbook of transforming China into a cashless and touchless society. But instead of targeting end consumers, Ant serves as a fintech infrastructure player for its partners in those markets.

In August 2021, Ant invested $15 million in Singapore’s Chope, a restaurant reservation and ordering startup. Chope is now using Ant’s merchant solution called D-store to beef up the type of digital capabilities it can offer to retail customers in the form of “mini programs”, which are lite apps that run within a “super app”, an idea that was first popularized by WeChat mini apps.

As Chope CEO Arrif Ziaudeen wrote in a LinkedIn post about the partnership with Ant: “[Merchants’] mini-apps can be customized to their look & feel, they can run individual promotions, and get all the user data.”

Arrif continued: “We certainly aren’t the first (or last) to have this dream, but the strategic partnership gives us the same technology that got millions of SMEs in China there, so it’s our job now to help implement it in ways that are suitably localized, with the right partners, here in SEA.”

Ant’s investment in Aigens seems to follow a similar logic. Though Hans Paul, co-founder and CEO of Aigens, didn’t go into much detail about how his company and Ant will work together, he believed that “together [with Ant] we can provide powerful offerings for the restaurant industry.”

Paul added that Ant’s D-Store will be just “one of the offerings” it provides to merchants and “it’s up to what the merchants want in the app.”

The CEO said Aigens has so far served over 4,000 outlets in Asia, including big names like Jollibee Group, Burger King, Starbucks, Shake Shack, Pizza Hut, and hundreds of other retail brands. The journey hasn’t been easy. While China is a highly homogenous society, countries across Southeast Asia vary greatly in their culture and custom, Paul pointed out. The restaurant industry is also very “operational heavy,” so in the early days Aigens focused on chains because they were easier to scale than going after family-run businesses one by one.

Founded in 2012, Aigens now has about 120 employees across the Asia Pacific and plans to spend its fresh funding on market expansion, hiring, and R&D. Other investors in its Series A round included Velocity Ventures, Phillip Private Equity, and Prizm Ventures.

Aigens scales digital menus in Asia with $14M round led by Ant by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch

A Seoul court rejected a request from prosecutors for warrants to detain eight people related to Terraform Labs, including the co-founder of Terraform Labs, Daniel Shin, early investors and former engineers.

It’s difficult to believe they would flee or destroy evidence as Shin and the seven other suspects have been cooperating with the investigation, Yonhap News said, citing the Seoul court. In addition, the suspects also need to be guaranteed their rights to defend themselves against the allegations of capital market rules, which is the core accusation of this case, according to the court, per Yonhap.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office told TechCrunch that it is hard to understand that conclusion as the court knows the seriousness of the allegation and the fact that some of the suspects allegedly made money by selling Luna tokens before the collapse. And yet, the court dismissed the warrants, saying the eight people need to have rights to defend their cases against accusations.

Shin is being charged with taking illegal profits worth about $105 million by selling Luna tokens when it was near its all-time high without disclosing this move to investors. It happened before the collapse of the TerraUSD and Luna earlier this year, contravening the Capital Market Act. Prosecutors also suspect Shin used customer data from his separate fintech startup called Chai to promote Luna, violating the Electric Financial Transaction Act. The other seven people involved in Terraform were also alleged to have similar charges.

Shin has denied the claims of trading Luna at a market high and violating the customers’ data. Terraform was founded in Singapore in 2018 by Do Kwon and Shin. Shin left Terraform in March 2020 to found Chaiand stepped down as CEO of Chai earlier this year.

South Korean prosecutors began the investigation after the crash of the UST-Luna token earlier this year, which wiped out $40 billion in market value. In September, South Korea issued an arrest warrant for another co-founder, Kwon,whose whereabouts are currently unknown, andrequested Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, to issue a red notice for Kwon.

Terraform Labs could not be reached for comment.

Seoul court rejects warrants for former Terraform Labs employees and investors over Luna collapse by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch

French VC firm Partech has closed another seed fund dedicated to early-stage tech startups — the fund is called Partech Entrepreneur IV. This time, Partech has raised €120 million. It represents $124 million at today’s exchange rate.

In 2020, Partech raised $100 million for Partech Entrepreneur III. At the very end of 2016, Partech raised $107 million for its previous seed fund. So Partech will have a bit more money to invest in early-stage startups, but it won’t be a massive difference.

With today’s new fund, the firm plans to invest anything between €300,000 and €3 million. For many startups, this will represent their first VC investment, at the seed stage and sometimes even pre-seed stage. Partech can lead or co-invest in the round.

When it comes to follow-on rounds, a VC firm that chooses to invest once again in a portfolio company used to be an exception. It has become the norm for many VC funds. And Partech is following this trend as it says that it will be able to reinvest until the Series B round.

But Partech Entrepreneur IV remains a dedicated seed fund because Partech thinks seed investments require a dedicated team with some specific skills. “Backing and working with exceptional founders from the very beginning of their journey is the shared passion — and only focus — of our team. It is, in our experience, a unique craft, requiring stage-specific expertise, commitment and mindset,” General Partner Boris Golden said in a statement.

As for verticals and geographies, Partech doesn’t have any specific industry, market or model in mind. It is an opportunistic seed fund mostly focused on Europe, with some investments in the U.S. and Southeast Asia.

“We are convinced that spotting the future leaders of new emerging categories often requires a broad scope, and a genuine open-mindedness towards what the most talented founders come up with,” General Partner Romain Lavault said in a statement.

While Partech doesn’t list all the limited partners in its new seed fund, the firm says that 150 entrepreneurs (current or past) contributed to the new fund. There are other backers as well, such as financial institutions, multinational corporations and family offices.

In the past, Partech has invested in the seed rounds of Alan, Sorare, Jellysmack, Xendit and Merama. And now, Partech has raised enough money to invest in another 50 tech startups.

Partech raises fourth seed fund by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

OneOrder, Egypt’s supply chain solutions provider for restaurants, has raised $3 million seed funding led by Nclude with participation from A15, and Delivery Hero Ventures. The latest funding brings the total funding raised by the startup to $10.5
million, including $6.5 million working capital financing from financial institutions.

Launched in March this year, OneOrder makes it possible for restaurants to order food supplies through its online platform, solving the fragmented supply chain challenges that lead to erratic prices, waste, quality issues, and storage cost.

By using its platform, restaurants no longer have to deal with tens of suppliers, and can order only what they need, for next day delivery, stemming wastage and doing away with the need for warehouses. The platform also ensures operational efficiency and helps restaurants save money by leveraging OneOrder’s economies of scale.

The startup plans to use the funding to scale its operations in Egypt including increasing its warehouse footprint, and to explore growth opportunities within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, and Africa.

“We are exploring Saudi Arabia and expanding south into our continent. I think Africa has a lot of markets that feel the same pain points that Egypt does,” said OneOrder co-founder and CEO, Tamer Amer, who co-founded OneOrder with Karim Maurice (CTO), also founder Cube, an online restaurant-reservation service.

“The solution that we’re providing has shown that this industry is ready for tech solutions…[and] we are working on a more substantial operating system for the restaurants not just the supply chain and inventory management system, rather the full cycle that would turn their operations automatic by using AI and machine learning capabilities to drive the supply chain,” said Amer, a restaurateur for over two decades, initially in the U.S before settling in Egypt from 2008.

Amer, told TechCrunch that the sourcing challenges he experienced operating two restaurants in Egypt — Fuego, a sushi bar, and Longhord Texas Barbeque — inspired the launch of OneOrder, to serve the country’s total addressable market of 400,000 restaurants.

“I had always taken the supply chain in the U.S for-granted; we would order and get the supplies all the time. We didn’t have to worry about shortages or price changes. I realized that Egypt is so underserved and the industry is really doing a lot of things that we shouldn’t be doing,” he said.

“… restaurants should not have a full-time job monitoring the supply chain and procuring products because it takes away focus on the core business, which is serving customers. So that’s where the idea really started,” he said.

OneOrder plans to, through its partners and backed by its extensive data, begin extending working capital financing options to restaurants as a way of helping them scale their operations.

Basil Moftah, the managing partner at Nclude, said: “The product-market fit of the OneOrder solution is very impressive, along with the positive impact it is delivering to all stakeholders in the value chain. Through the use of technology and alternative data, OneOrder’s embedded financing will help underserved clients who are unable to secure traditional financing. This aligns perfectly with our investing philosophy and we are glad to be embarking on this journey with the team.”

With $3M new funding, Egyptian startup OneOrder sets out on growth drive by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch